ha ha! it's January now!

Fuuuuuck writing this post has been on my to-do list for the past four months, just staring me in the face like my own personal reminder of how good at procrastinating I am.

I've been busy! I swear! For some reason, this is the only thing I've been procrastinating on.  I know when I start writing, it'll take me a while to wrap up. You all know how that goes from reading my other posts, I assume. But still, I don't really have an excuse, I even fixed the walls in my apartment and re-painted a couple times after moving in. This is just the one thing I've put off this long since moving here.

Haha! It's January! 2014! I can't believe I've only been here for four months. On the one hand it feels like forever because of all the stuff I've packed into it. And on the other hand it feels like nothing, because I still feel like a complete newcomer here.

Oooook, quick synopsis time of
1) how I've spent my time from August to now
2) what I'm up to now
3) my feelings about Vancouver

1) After the east coast, wedding in a barn in Albany and hanging out with mah girlz Citlali in New York and Lynashley in Philly, I went back to SF for a week and hung out before moving to Vancouver.

My shit did not show up until two weeks after I moved into my place here, which does not seem like a long time but it's a longer time when you are trying to organize things and you're still sleeping on the loveseat in the living room that isn't actually attached but rather the two parts slowly creep further apart from each other as you sleep.

Moving on - I signed up for a bunch of stuff before I actually moved here so I would get a jump on meeting people and not be so depressed about leaving SF by being busy. So here is what my schedule looked like these past few months:
Monday: ultimate frisbee
Tuesday: Cantonese class
Wednesday: climb top-rope
Thursday: swing dancing class
Friday: boulder
Weekend: whatever, motherfucker!

E.O. came to visit in October for Thanksgiving and we had a great time walking alll over Vancouver and breaking into the UBC botanical garden's treetop walk. Back then it was still mostly sunny with a nip in the air.

In November (I think) it got really cold (-7 Celsius) briefly and I was unhappy. But now it's been around 10 degrees and not even raining, so I'm trying to enjoy it even though I hardly ever see the sun. I just keep reminding myself it's January and this is supposed to be the most depressing month.

At the beginning of December I saw my family in Edmonton for early Christmas, because Marc, Tol, and Craig planned to come visit me over Christmas. Only two of them made it. Apparently Craig did not realize Canada is not YET officially the 51st state and even Americans need a passport to get in. Crrrraig.

Anyway, Marc and Tol and I went up to Whistler for a few days and then spent a few days eating Chinese food in Richmond. We even got together with a friend of ours from SF who was visiting Vancouver for a couple days, and she brought us to a Chinese food court and fed us. Nom nom.

Then I went with the boys back to SF for New Year's because I hate New Year's most of all and I knew I would have fun with them, and I did. I met a bunch of people, ate, drank, saw Craig, and fell asleep playing Settlers of Catan. Great success.

The great part about being in SF was that I was in SF. It was beautiful and sunny and I got to go for a drive and see pretty houses in Pac Heights and see the skyline from the Golden Gate Bridge and walk along the beach at Crissy Field. The bad part about being in SF was that it was only for two days and being there made me want to see my friends really badly. Also, it made me want to move back, but let's forget about that for now.

But it's so close! How could I not just fly there for a weekend sometime! Or maybe every weekend! But a) I have to wait until volunteering on the weekend finishes in March and b) flights are still a minimum of a few hundred bucks, so I can't reeeeally go every weekend. But! I did book one flight in April and one in May to go back and visit my people in SF.

2) So what am I up to now, back in rainy, dark, cold Vancouver? Well, the same stuff as I mentioned before, plus I am volunteering as a ski instructor for disabled kids for nine weeks on Grouse Mountain on Sundays now. Yay! My roommate Tiffany has done it for a couple years and I thought it sounded good. I've only done training so far, but it's just nice to be up on the mountain and out of the city for most of a day. Plus, we get a free lift ticket for the day when we volunteer, and free ski/snowboard lessons. I don't have any experience working with people with disabilities, either, and I just started skiing last year really so I could use experience in that too!

I also want to volunteer with a senior on Saturdays if I can. My Oma lives in Ontario right now and she spends most days on her own, which sucks. I don't even call her that often. It'd be nice if someone would go to visit her and hang out. So I'd like to do that here if I can. Plus, I like old people. And I have that free day to fill up, still. :P

Uhhhhm so yeah. Why am I doing so much stuff, you might ask? Well, I feel like I'm getting old and I still don't know anything about anything. And moving here meant that I was single and friendless, so it was a good time to put all my spare time to good use. I've designated this year as a learning year, so I want to try new things and get better at older things and really try to use my time to accomplish things. And I've done ok so far, which is why this blog post being on my to-do list for so long has really annoyed me.

Moving into a new place always takes a while to settle in, especially if you're working full-time - there just seem to be a million little errands to do. I really like all my activities, but I feel like I haven't explored the city very much. Maybe when it starts getting nicer out, I will make it a goal to get out every weekend and see a new thing in the city. I'd also like to start biking, and that's an awesome way to get to know a new city! (I brought my lovely bike from SF but it's mostly been too cold and/or rainy to go out.)

I also have a long list of books to read and movies and TV to watch. That's a little harder to schedule, and really, it's no fun if you schedule it anyway. So I'm not getting very far on those lists. I'm now trying to read on my lunch hour and on my commute, and because some of my stuff hasn't started yet this year, I've been watching Netflix more at night.

Blah! Blah! Blah!

3) Moving on to my impressions of Vancouver, based on the news:

1) Someone is always lost/getting rescued on the North Shore mountains
2) Someone is probably dying skiing or on a hike
3) A lot about oil pipelines
4) A lot of gang members getting murdered
5) Pedestrians are always getting hit by cars
6) Females are getting sexually assaulted... all the time.

Ok, I wasn't going to go on a tirade about this, but since moving here I have read about a TON of sexual assaults happening. I'm sure it's no worse than any other place, but on the other hand, there was a guy going around grabbing girls on the UBC campus in the fall, about six separate times, and he never got caught.

I was walking on the UBC campus with E.O. when he came to visit and we talked about the dynamic between girls and guys that's like: guys try to break through to talk to the girl, girls have to put up a wall to protect themselves, guys have to try harder to break through. Yes, it sucks. But when you read about all these sexual assaults happening in broad daylight in public places (not that ones at night in non-public places are any more acceptable), that's just what happens. It makes me angry that it has to be that way, but females are still not safe, and we have to be wary of men - all men that we don't know.

The last case I read was of a Japanese exchange student here who was helped by a man in buying her Skytrain ticket. He then grabbed her and sexually assaulted her. I can tell you that if a strange man offered to "help" me with something, I would probably feel uncomfortable and tell him that I was fine. I can also tell you that if I saw a man go over to a girl who didn't know what she was doing (especially someone who didn't speak English as a first language) and try to help her, I would probably keep an eye on the situation just to make sure she was ok. It really makes me angry that that has to be the case, but that is indeed the case. And you all know me, and how many guy friends I have, and how I'm not really a fearful person.

It makes me sad, too, that that girl's experience of Canada is now tainted forever by that man, who, as far as I know, hasn't been found yet. And there are multiple cases of this every day.

As to a slightly different instance where girls feel they have to protect themselves, I direct you to online dating! Here's a good story about a guy who made a profile as a girl to see how it was and ended up feeling pretty shitty about the whole thing.
http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/1uqym6/as_a_guy_i_wanted_to_know_what_it_was_like_to_be/

And on a slightly different note again, I just read this on Jezebel and thought "yup." Talking about how men often take up more physical space than women:

"We can all relate. One of the worst memories I have is riding the subway when I was 15 years old, watching a man across from me spread his legs like an Olympic gymnast and stare directly into my eyes.

For her, this has been the way to take back the power she's lost the countless times she's been in situations where a man has overtaken her physical space. For women, that's a real thing that happens all the time. Like that guy in line at the Target who was moving WAY too close to me today while the checker was ringing me up. I don't know if he's just some impatient asshole who's in a hurry to get home, or if he's some psycho nutjob who is trying to read my address off my I.D. Yeah. Those are things women think about in situations like that."

http://jezebel.com/meet-the-orthodox-woman-behind-move-the-fuck-over-bro-1501688008

Yup.

Moving on...

So, January. Pretty much the worst month, always, in my opinion. Christmas break is over, it's dark, and no matter how much fun you're having in general, it's still dark. There's just not much other than Netflix and popcorn snuggle sessions on your couch to take that pain away.

I realize I didn't really talk about my feelings about Vancouver, so let's just say "I need to get to know it better before passing any judgments."

So... now that I've finished my to-do list for tonight, I think that's just what I'm going to head off to do.

Ta-ta! Come visit! ... Later, when it's sunnier.

Love you! Thanks for reading :)

Cool Y'all

First of all: I totally published this and then the site fucked up and deleted some but not all of this post. So thank you for bearing with me and my/blogger's failures. I'd rather blame it on the site, but, you know.

The facts: I got offered a position with the company I was working freelance for in San Francisco. I accepted it since it offered me monays, a couple benefits, and basically a more stable existence in my native land. Yes, that's right - I'm moving back to Canada. I'm there right now, in fact.

So with the support of my very good friends in San Francisco, whether emotional, logistical or both (thanks E.O., Marc, Tol, Phil and roomie Amy!) I put my shit in a Uhaul Ubox (I'll give their service 2 out of 5 stars, contact me for more details) that is supposed to ship in November, and flew off to Vancouver on Aug. 13, a Tuesday.

That night and the two after it, I stayed with a very nice CouchSurfer in the West End of Vancouver, which is full of beautiful, leafy-treed streets right near the busyness of downtown and beside the water and a beautiful beachside park. I don't have pics b/c I didn't have a camera phone then.

On Wednesday I had four places off Craigslist and Kijiji (Canadian classifieds site) all set up to go and see. I made up my spreadsheets of their advantages and disadvantages and set off to see them. Let me just say that it is crazy how different things can look in real life compared to their photos. To sum up:

Place 1: Lovely but in a not-great area, and the guy wanted me to "pick a day" to do my laundry, in advance, so he could unlock the magic door and let me through, but only on that day, like it was the wardrobe to Narnia or something. Thanks, buuuut....

Place 2: Oh my god. I like the smell of incense, but this was like all-permeating. And granted, for 800 plus utilities you were sharing a house with only two other people. But jesus christ. Also, it was one of those houses where everything looks ratty and dingy, even if it's clean.

Place 3: What the hell? $525 rent, utilities included, beautiful washer and dryer en-suite? What's the catch? Ok, ok, it's the basement, and it's a sleepy residential area, and the ceilings would be kinda low for someone taller than me, and the place is tiny/my room will be tiny, but WHO CARES IT'S 525 DOLLARS A MONTH! And there's a roomie! And she's little and sweet! And she has a car and likes to go snowboarding!

Place 4: Um, ew. I would never live here.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE A WINNER! 3, you may step up to claim your prize.

So ends the one-day saga of my looking for a place (I am the champion of finding places to live in like no time flat, don't jinx it laura!) and so begins the saga of my needing a phone.

Maaaaan oh man. Let me tell you something. When you first get your brand new laptop you're like "wow, it's so light! I could take this anywhere because it weighs no more than a feather!" - and then you actually cart it around on your shoulders for an entire day because you need it to access the Wi-Fi you scrounge from some rando café or a Starbucks (3 times in one day) and you're like Mary Mother of God, if only I had a Smart PhoneTM with, like, DATA so I could google map stuff from ANYWHERE and didn't have to have a 100-pound weight on my back while I walk way more than I'm used to in a city I don't know!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sooo yeah. I did tons of research on phone companies and phones and eventually splurged bigga time on an HTC One cuz, I wanted to. So now I have a pretty phone that I can use to talk to people and stuff. And unlimited texting to the U.S., what what!

So then I was just kinda hanging in Vancouver. Following is a list of my observations:
1. Everyone smiles at the Vancouver airport. I was like, "that's nice, get out of my way, it's hot."
2. When I got here it felt positively tropical compared to the icy scapes of San Francisco. It's the humidity and lack of frigid wind, I think.
3. "Downtown" to me meant either "Toronto skyscraper good-luck-getting-any-food-out-here-chump" downtown or "Market Street dirty homeless" downtown. Downtown Vancouver is actually lovely, with lots of stores, restaurants, wide streets, and happy people.
4. It's really multicultural here, as one would expect. And I think that, like San Francisco, tons of the people my age around here are transplants. However, there are a lot of native English speakers with accents that I am bad at placing. I didn't notice that much in SF.
5. There are freaking palm trees at the beach downtown. I must say I was quite pleased.
6. I saw multiple houses with their front doors wide open. I think people were just trying to enjoy the weather/cool their houses, but I thought it was cute.
7. There are traffic lights that blink green. If pedestrians want to cross the street, the lights turn yellow and red and traffic stops. I don't know why I think that's cute too.
8. Everyone says hello to the bus driver and a lot of people say thank you when they get off, even when they're at the back. I often said hello to MUNI drivers, and I don't think I ever got one back.

I start my job Sept. 23, because I already had all these plans to go travelling and stuff, and they liked me enough to wait until then (from June ish when Dan left the job open for me). So what I am doing is:

Left Vancouver, took a luxurious ferry to Nanaimo, got picked up by Adam and his little brother, drove to Comox, went up in a float plane piloted by Adam.

Staying at Adam's fiancée's mom's house until their wedding. Then going back to Vancouver, flying to Yellowknife to see my parents, stopping in Edmonton to see my brother/his kid, back to Vancouver, over to NYC/Philly/Albany for Dan and Becky's wedding, then back to San Francisco to tie up some loose ends and see my friends again before going back to Vancouver, moving my stuff in and starting work five days later.

Again, thanks for bearing with me!! Peace oot!!!

Love, me

what year is it again?

Jaaaaanuary first. Welcome to 2013. Sounds kind of futuristic, right?

Hi all! I'm still around. In Yellowknife for my annual freeze-yourself visit to my parents'. This Christmas is a little different, since my aunt moved up here last June and my Oma (maternal grandmother) came to visit from Ontario for the holidays. She's turning 91 in a couple days! So there's been more going-out-and-doing-stuff than there usually is, which, coupled with my ever-growing random errand to-do list, means I've hardly gotten any reading or tv-watching done, which is what I always imagine going "home" for two weeks will allow me to do.

Still have a few more days to get some more done. Just finished checking out how long a Canadian can stay in the U.S. for without any kind of work visa - it's looking a little depressing, I mean, technically I can stay for six months, leave, and come back for another six months, but it doesn't look like a sustainable strategy for life. Le sigh. But no shit. Anyway.

Let's think about happier stuff!!! I don't have many pictures with/of my friends, so I'm excited every time one comes along. This is (clockwise from left) me, E.O., Poppe, Jimmy Tam, and Tol in December after the last shift of skating at Union Square. Posie was there too but was taking the picture (thanks Posie!). [I know all these people through ultimate, except for Jimmy Tam, who I met at a Couchsurfing meeting.] I was psyched to get out on skates even if I was a little rusty.

Quick digression in order perhaps? Through ultimate I've met a loooot of people, and a lot of people I like a lot. As always happens when you move to a new place, at first you hang out with some people, then you hang out with others, but I think eventually you settle down somewhat and figure out who you're most comfortable with. I have also involuntarily stopped seeing some people I used to hang out with in August because they're no longer playing ultimate in the league(s) with me, and when you don't see someone twice a week at the usual hangout (the fields, pickup games, the bar I used to go to twice a week after rec league games) and they don't actually live near you in the city, all of a sudden it gets really hard to see them.

For the past few months I've mostly been hanging out with E.O., who was on my first summer ultimate team. He's my best friend in the city, above and beyond. Apart from being everything a good friend should be and a very competent human being, he always knows what's going on in the city, and always wants to check it out. With him I've checked out Fleet Week, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (with his dad), Flugtag, the reindeer at the Cal Academy, Journey to the End of the Night, saw my first falling meteor, and done Thanksgiving in the South Bay with his friends, as well as been his date and/or wife to other dinners and parties. Basically, he's the best. Talked him into playing beach league now, so I get to hear him whine about how cold it is twice a week now, plus whenever else we hang out.

In the summer I played league games Tuesdays and Thursdays and we all went to the bar afterwards. In fall league, though, the weather got suuuuper nice and we started playing Sundays during the day, so no one really wanted to go to the bar afterwards. There was a lot of foot-dragging and stuff when it came time to get off the fields, and we just ended up sitting around on the grass or throwing discs like dinosaurs. I liked it. But some of my friends from summer league didn't want to play on Sundays, so I basically stopped seeing them, sadface. The thing about ultimate is that once you show up (everyone always shows up late), it's really hard to tear yourself away. You play, then you play some more, then people hang out, then you're like "hey, why don't we go get dinner?" -- This is why I tried to stick to the rule of not having work on evenings and weekends, because it totally sucks to be like "that would be cool, but I have to go home and be alone and work."

Anyway here's some of my fall league team after our last game, played on turf in pouring rain (which stopped by the end):

This team is where I met Posie (third girl from the left), who actually lives a block away from me, so we are now the kind of friends who can actually just drop in on each other at 10pm on a weeknight if we want. She's pretty awesome -- speaks French and Spanish and has a shitty road bike and a shitty car that leaks when it rains. So I'm glad she lives near me.

Then fall somehow fell into winter and now technically I'm playing beach league on Sundays, which is even worse in terms of not spending the whole day playing ultimate/hanging out with ulty peeps. Games start at 1pm, and there's music, and you're hanging out on the sand, and then people start playing pick-up after the games, and someone hands you a beer, and all your friends are there, and the only way to drag yourself away is for your friends to be like "let's go bike to dinner!", and that's what you do, and you spent the whole day out. ....That sounds pretty awesome. It is, actually. But then your entire Sunday just disappeared. Mysteriously enough...

I'm also playing organized pick-up on turf on Wednesday nights. People are pretty good there. It's nice to bike to a different part of the city too.

Oh did I mention I finally bought a new bike? "New" is a stretch I guess - it's not even in working order yet. But here it is -

Needs some brakes, for one thing. We'll take care of that soon enough.

Other than my ever-changing ultimate schedule, I try to get to Planet Granite with Marc and Jordan (who I know through Tol, who was on my summer ultimate team) or Jimmy Tam, or Mission Cliffs, if I'm with Phil (E.O.'s roommate), to climb a couple times a week. Things keep happening though, like: I rolled my ankle pretty bad and was off it for about six weeks from Sept-October (I  also think I had a pulled groin from August till December but largely ignored it until it was magically healed after the first day of beach ultimate?), so I didn't climb much in there either, then sometimes schedules clash (and it's hard for me to get to the gym if I don't have a ride), and there's just ALWAYS COOL STUFF TO DO IN THE CITY that E.O. or someone else invites me to, or I'll be tired or whatever and Phil will be like "why don't we just drink tea and watch a movie?" and then I'll do that instead.

But yeah, I guess if I avoid any further sports injuries, don't have work in the evenings, and don't get invited to cooler stuff, I'll be able to climb twice or three times a week. Yeah.... that'd be nice. I started bouldering just before I left for Christmas, and I want to try to go Saturday mornings now. I got new cute purple Evolvs for Christmas! My old second-hand high-tops were losing the rubber on their toes. So, sweet.

So yeah. My life = work, ultimate, climbing, events in the city, hanging out with friends in general. Plus wanting to read, eat, keep my place and clothes clean, and sleep... how do people have time to watch tv and movies? I basically don't unless it's with someone else around. Admittedly, I waste a lot of time on the Internet reading, so I'm going to try to actually schedule time to do that now to make it more efficient.

I'm ambitious on paper with the number of things I want to do, but it sure takes discipline to stick with it. How do people manage?

Anyway, I guess I can't complain. There's just so much to do in the city! I'm lucky enough that the weather lets me play outside all year and that I know such awesome people. Example: I was at home in Yellowknife for a quiet New Year's Eve with my family, but before going to bed, I got to virtually clink glasses with Tol, Marc, and Jordan in SF via gchat call. That was sweet of them. :)

Over this vacation I've also heard from Marco, Haruka (!!), José Luis, Jonathan, Janzen, and Jason. So nice to know what's up with faraway friends.

So, happy 2013 all! If all goes well I'll be hired shortly by a tech company and sponsored to live forever and ever in this great city we call San Francisco. Wish me luck.

xo

L.

WHAZZUP AUGUST

Oh... hey y'all! Here I am, still in San Francisco! Still the most amazing city ever, still never want to leave! Every day I see more awesome things... ok ok get ahold of yourself.

HIIIIII ok I finally have an hour to chill and write something! Because I really wanted to write stuff for a long time! And I have a special feature for you... that could even be interactive. It's called, "Being Canadian in Amurika."

Ok, let's play. So, I've been in the States for two years now. Mostly I go unnoticed, and if someone finds out I'm Canadian (or re-finds out, that happens a lot too), their reaction is usually: "But you don't have an accent!!" And my reaction is usually: "........."

Do Canadians have accents? Can someone help me out on this one? I mean sure, Newfies, Maritimers, Quebeckers, people from Northern Ontario... do people from B.C.? Because most people around here are more familiar with the part of Canada directly north of here. Iiiii dunno. Moving on.

So ok. I say "out" weird. I guess. I can definitely hear it now when I talk to my friends and family from Canada on Skype, so, alright. And some Americans say soda, and jelly instead of jam, or whatever. But what other fun things have I learned living here that I was not aware of previously?

1. They say "real" instead of "really" as an adverb. As in, "I'm just going to tie my shoe real quick and then we can go." This used to bother me. Now I say it. Hum hum....

2. They don't use "aft" as an abbreviation for "afternoon". At first when Dan couldn't believe I said that I thought I was just weird. But then I googled it and apparently it's Canadian. You can get paranoid living out here.

3. I was riding in the car with Emily and mentioned someone was going to make me pasta. She was like "wait... are you saying it wrong or is the person in your story saying it wrong and you're making fun of them?" I was like... "saying what wrong?"

So I say "pass-ta" and she and everyone else around here says "pahs-ta". Oh. Someone else said, "oh yeah, that's a Canadian thing." 

My real question is HOW DID I LIVE HERE FOR TWO YEARS AND NO ONE TOLD ME I WAS SAYING PASTA FUNNY?!

4. Apparently they don't say "brek" or "brekky" for "breakfast" either. I might just be weird on this one though.

5. Another pronunciation giveaway is saying "soe-ree" for "sorry" instead of the American "saw-ree". I didn't notice that one for a while.

6. It's not KD, it's not Kraft Dinner, it's "mac and cheese". Well yeah... or... wait... is it?

It's just funny when someone looks at you and is like "wait... did you just say...?" Anyone else got anything?


Ok so that was "funtimes in Americaland". Now moving on again to San Franciscoland.

So I went to visit Michaela in East Palo Alto (it's a thing, and it's dangerous) not this past weekend but the one before that. FUUUUUUUCK Palo Alto (and the peninsula in general) is HOT. Here in SF we've been getting a ton of sun since I've been here, but it's always nice and fresh and breezy and sometimes goddamn cold and misty. Palo Alto was hot. We wandered around the cute main street and checked out the Stanford University campus. It's gorgeous and green and huge and is so clean and well-planned-out that it seems like an amusement park. They have their own (good) art museum that's FREE, nice.

Stanford Campus.

Took the Caltrain there and back (Ah! Commuter trains, how convenient). Then, on:

Monday - ran with the Hash House Harriers (http://www.sfh3.com/sections/1/pages/2). I went today as well. Basically, you follow a trail marked with chalk and flour for around an hour and then get to a keg at the end. And a ton of chips. The amazing thing about it is they change location every time, and you get to explore different bits of the city. We ran up Mt. Davidson and then through a verrrrrrry well-to-do area last week, and then today we ran through the Presidio park and got incredible views of the Bay, the Bridge, and the ocean. Absolutely.... fabulous. 

View from Mount Davidson! Not my picture. I was running, you remember.

Coastline, we spent some time on a trail along here today. Also not my picture!

So yeah. I will keep up this running shit just to get to see the city.

Tuesday - Went to a San Francisco Giants (baseball) game with Drew and two other girls. We bundled up and ate gourmet leftovers. Drew is moving away... or has already moved away now, so, bye Drew :( Off to Yale with you! Oh, and Giants won against the Mets!

Wednesday - down to the Independent on Divisadero to see a mashup band called the Hood Internet. Went with a bunch of guys from ultimate, got cheap beers at this amazing café called the Beanbag, danced the night away. Did not sleep enough that night.

Thursday - Went to Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences (awesome museum with a living roof, aquarium, four-storey rainforest, Planetarium that I think is better than IMAX), which is when you can only come in if you're over 21 and pay less than half price to get in because you can drink alcohol once you're there! It was pretty packed, they had ping-pong and a DJ as well but I didn't get to stay long. I DID, however, get to see the BABY OSTRICHES which, as Kevin said, were wayyyy cuter than I was even expecting. THEY RUN AROUND AND THEN THEY LAY WITH THEIR NECKS ON THE SAND!!!!!

Friday - had a movie night and ate Indian pizza. (It exists!) Saturday worked, and Sunday hung out in the sunny sunny Mission for Sunday Streets with ultimate peeps, and drank milkshakes that were... THE BOMB. And so ended my crazy week. 

It was so crazy because we had a "by" week with frisbee. Games resume this week. Yeah so, normally what I shoot for is playing ultimate Tues and Thurs nights and Sat mornings, and climb twice a week as well. Work-wise, I try my best NOT to work in the evenings, and preferably not on weekends. But I do the latter sometimes. Sometimes I just need an afternoon off during the week, and that means I have to find other time to work if I want to be financially responsible. 

Haven't been climbing as much as I'd like to because Brian's been so busy with work/car craziness. Hopefully we'll get back in the swing soon. This past week was awesome, but I need my exercise.

And work is going well! I'm definitely getting enough, and I think I've gotten better with managing everything. I usually have work set up for days in advance, so I don't have to stress about missing emails offering me work. I aim to start work at 9 and finish at 5 and have a lunch break, and mostly it works out.

So yeahhhhh! Things are good! I love SF! (Shut up already....) I wish for all of you to come see me! Thanks for reading and/or skimming... :)

DA JUICE

*cue café saxophone soundtrack*

I am loving San Francisco!! Hahaha I feel so unoriginal saying this. On the other hand, aren't you supposed to enjoy the good moments when they come? I am loving being in a city again, meeting new people and hanging out with frisbee peeps, watching the streetcar or whatever the hell they call it go by, reading in the sun in the Golden Gate Park. I like living in my little quiet neighbourhood near the park and everything I need at 9th & Irving, I like being able to bike to both ends of the park where I play frisbee (east end on Saturdays, west end Tuesdays and Thursdays). I like my roommates and my apartment! It's all good.

I've been "working" from home this week since my OPT started. What that has meant is that bleary-eyed at 8am I open my laptop from my bed in case someone emailed me. Because I have learned that if I don't respond in less than two minutes to the email, the job will be given to someone else. That happened on Monday. But I learned! And now I am crazy on top of my email. And I've gotten more jobs. Thank the flying spaghetti monster.

So then, if I do get some work, I, still bleary-eyed, stumble in my pajamas to the table in the kitchen and try to get organized really quickly. I'm not really a fan of this process - I like being able to shower, get dressed (if only in sweatpants) and put my contacts in before starting the day. I've been trying to set a sleep schedule for myself to wake up at 7:30, but I've been having some trouble being tired early enough at night to not want to kill myself waking up at 7:30. I think today I actually woke up before my alarm, and I managed to get up and ready and at the table at 8am to start my workday. Look at me, I am so good. GIVE ME WORK!

I was actually supposed to work a few hours this morning, but apparently the translator never did his/her work and so the file will be ready tomorrow instead. I actually have a full work day tomorrow. So today, I finally made it out of my house and into a café whose tables are almost fully occupied by people with Macs. Well, one guy has an iPad, but I guess that still counts. AREN'T WE COOL?!! Living the life. Is everyone else unemployed(ish) like me?

So the weather has been amazing summery, and everyone likes to warn me that it isn't going to last. Today it's cold - 12 Celsius (55 Fahrenheit - look at me learn!) but I'm not any less happy, it just feels like fall in Canada, which I happen to love! NOTHING WILL STOP MY GOOD MOOD!

Alright, that's enough caps lock for today. I came here for a reason, on to the applications.


BYYYYYYEEEEEE

New start y'all

Whoo! Only like four or five months since my last post! Truth be told there wasn't that much to talk about and it would only have gone like this:

"Oh my god what the hell am I going to do after I graduate ahhhh!!!!!"

Thoughts going in circles. Repeat repeat repeat. So, not a whole lot exciting.

I was pretty sad to leave Israel in January because I knew this semester was going to be horribly stressful. And it was. Not school-wise, even though, yeah yeah, I was supposed to pass all my classes and I was taking ten different subjects sort of and I was in Practicum, which is really time-consuming. I was just friggin' stresssssed about knowing what the hell I was going to do after I graduated.

One the one hand, people were saying - just concentrate on school, you need to pass your exams! On the other, I kept hearing that prep is key to launching your career, you don't want to leave everything to the last minute, etc. etc. Fair enough. Some people were able to juggle those two aspects, others got too focused on one or the other and let the other aspect suffer a bit... I kept swinging from one to the other.

It all started in February with the career fair, resumes, nice suits, blah blah blah. And then it just continued. Constant searching, basically fruitless. The other thing you have to keep in mind is that as a Canadian in Americaland I am subject to immigration and work restrictions just like any other poor slob [foreigner], so I had to apply for a work permit called Optional Practical Training (OPT). And how it works is, I have a year max to work, but only 90 days of unemployment total in that year. So once my OPT starts, I have three months-ish to do jackshit before I get kicked out of the country. To be able to stay for the year, I can freelance, but I need 20 hours of work minimum a week to maintain status. Obviously, I had no idea if that was feasible, but it didn't look like I was going to be getting a steady job.

To sum up, I was kinda jealous of the folks who got to go home to their parents and take their time finding a job. If that was needed.

Like I said, my job search was pretty much fruitless, and I didn't get a job before I graduated. So I just decided to move to San Francisco and start looking for freelance work in anything and everything (OPT only applies to work within my professional field). If I got work, great, and if not, I would have a nice summer (if foggy) in the Bay area. This is my chance to stay for a year in the States, and I figured it was as good a place as any to look for work.

I also wanted to live in San Francisco because:
1) It's a big city with good public transportation
2) It was close to Monterey (could drive with my stuff)
3) I disliked it when I was a tourist

I know that sounds weird. Everyone seems to love San Francisco, but somehow I was really underwhelmed every time I visited. It was cold or something, or I didn't know where I was going. I knew it was supposed to be great and I believed that living there, it would be great.

So, I moved there!

Well, my stuff is there. In the place I'm subletting for the summer. I move myself there on Thursday, June 7! Ben and I drove up with my stuff in a U-Haul from Monterey... thanks Ben! Right now I'm staying with Ben's brother and brother's girlfriend (Dan and Lynashley) in Berkeley, and I have to tell you something.

BERKELEY IS AMAZING. I was all like... Yay big cities, yay noise and tons of people, bring it on. And when I first got to Berkeley (I've been here for about a week) I was thinking ok, this is way too quiet. But then I really started getting into it. I've just been hanging out every day, in quiet North Berkeley, and walking around and seeing the houses and the parks and it's all so leafy and green and all the houses are crazy damn cute with all these out-of-control flowers spilling off their lawns into the streets and it all looks so peaceful and adorable and organic, like everyone teaches their kids not to discriminate and not to eat animals and they just let the plants grow and read books instead and AHHHH IT'S ADORABLE.

Of course it helps that I'm completely on vacation right now, I just chop plants down around the house and eat and go for walks and read, and I get to hang out with Dan because he is also not working right now, so for me this is awesome.

Dan and Lynashley have been the best hosts ever, but all good things must end, and I must move into my (admittedly also quiet) neighbourhood in SF. If you put this into Google Maps you can see where I am living: 12th avenue at Lawton, San Francisco

Apparently the Sunset is notoriously foggy, so, sad face! But on good days you can see the Golden Gate Bridge from this intersection. Google Maps doesn't really do it justice. Golden Gate Bridge, you will be my new CN Tower.

= 

Warming my heart wherever I may be. And honestly... San Francisco is actually really cool. Now that I've driven around instead of being a lame-ass lost tourist, it is amazing. The bridge looks stunning as the sun starts going down. The city looks amazing from across the bay in Oakland. There is a great coastline if you drive west of the Golden Gate Bridge. I live close to Golden Gate Park and am planning on playing in an ultimate frisbee league there. Can't wait to get out and start meeting people...

Which is especially important because! I forgot to mention this but it seems like right now I will be working from home fulltime for a translation company as a badass quality manager. This is a very good development because it will:

- give me money
- give me hours to keep up my immigration status
- be flexible enough to allow me to do interpretation stuff if that comes up
- give me great experience within the translation industry

So yeah. I hope it works out. My plan is to keep looking for interpretation stuff in the Bay area, work on getting court certified for California, etc., while doing this quality assurance stuff. If it works out, I could be staying in the Bay area for a year, not just a summer! :)

And that would be very nice.

For now I'll just be moving myself in, exploring, and setting up shop to start work. My work permit starts on June 18, so I still have a decent amount of time to be on vacation.

I'll tell you more about my roomies and San Francisco in general if it seems pertinent a little later! Till then, sayonara and good night.

DA JUICE

new year, whatever

It's January 1st, national hangover day as far as I can figure, and I'm reaping the rewards of mixing several alcohol varieties last night. Adleen plied us with wine punch and cheese-and-avocado quesadillas, I cried laughing at the Don Cherry piano video, then fell asleep on Janzen's shoulder on the TTC ride home. Now it's rainy and I've been walking around in my wimpy Keds, but it's not that cold, and there's no snow. At my brother's in Guelph it was all wet snow and fog. Right now I"m looking at Jack Layton the female ginger cat sitting in the window watching the raindrops roll down the window and Janzen is trying to nap her hangover away. Had a candy cane latte at Second Cup with Jonathan and also sushi, and I could use a nap too. But somehow I feel like I need to write down what's going on, because I'm starting to lose track of the days. I can't believe how quickly I can forget about school. And I was just starting to get into the whole thing! When I get to Tel Aviv I'll have to force myself to do SOMETHING for school. But I know I"ll want to bike around and work on Hebrew and watch TV. Oh sigh.

So I passed all my exams! Including Simul into Spanish, somehow miraculously, considering Leire gave us some crazy ass-exam that I'm pretty sure got interpreted into pure gibberish by me. I still haven't gotten around to (read: gotten up the nerve to) listen to my recording. Shudder shudder.

With exams done I chilled out for a week and cleaned my whole place for my subletter, then went to San Francisco for a day to see the Nutcracker ballet (awwwesome) and get that bigger-city fix with Dan and Becky. Next day got to Yellowknife and did the Christmas thing there, then the parents and I flew over to Ontario to hang out with my brother in Guelph, and now I'm in Toronto for a few days just to hang out. The weather kind of sucks right now, but hey maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow so I can do some shopping.

Saw my Oma yesterday before getting on the GO to come here, and on the 3rd and 4th I'm supposed to hang out with her again, then the 5th it's off to Tel Aviv already. Lucky me, so much vacation. Poor Perki is being worked like a dog while I kick back, and like I said I should be doing stuff for school, but it is sooo hard to feel motivated when it feels so good to do fun stuff. I still need more break; just thinking about next semester makes me feel tired and overwhelmed. Not to mention everyone keeps asking what I'm going to do after I graduate in May, but I can't blame them. I'm just as curious as them to know what the hell is going to happen to me in the real world. Only time will tell, or something.