Welcome to Amsterdam!

Myself, some of our extended family and a few friends were supposed to set off for a Mediterranean adventure on Thursday, May 1, 2014. We were going to be flying to Venice, on Thursday, May 1, 2014, arriving on Friday, May 2, 2014. On Sunday, May 4, 2014, we would be embarking on a cruise with stops in: Bari, Italy, Katakolon, Greece, Santorini, Greece, Piraeus, Greece, Corfu, Greece, Dubrovnik, Croatia.

It is a six-hour time difference and even longer combination of flights! As it happens, we had a bit of a delay to our trip. Italy, Greece and Croatia would have to wait a bit longer for us. We had a serious lack of internet while away, so I will be posting about our experiences over the next week or so.

After myself, mom, Esther, Brian and Betty Jean arrived at the airport in Toronto nice and early, we found out that there was bad weather in New York and they changed our flights . . . to 6:00am the next day!

We weren't having it, so at the last minute, mom and I were sent off to a KLM flight to Venice, connecting through Amsterdam. It all happened so quickly, that we didn't have any time to chat with our other three travel companions and had to simply run off. We now have passport stamps from the Netherlands! I was pretty excited because many of the people I worked with (and will be working with again) are from a Dutch company and I’ll get to tell them about my stop next time I see them.

The food on the KLM flight was awesome and I even had a beer to go along with my dinner. It all came in cute little containers and tasted pretty good! It also seemed like they never stopped dropping by with drinks and snacks (although you could sleep and they would leave you be), which made our unexpected detour much more pleasant. I napped a bit, read a bit, visited mom a few rows up and watched a movie, all in addition to the food.

Finally, after our connection at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, we arrived at the Marco Polo Airport in Venice, Italy! We were hoping that shortly after this we would see our three missing travel companions, but they didn’t seem to be showing up. After some other family members and friends arrived on a flight from Paris, France, where they had already been exploring prior to our cruise, we gave up hope that the others would be arriving today.

Exhausted, we headed into Venice on a vaporetto, a type of waterbus, after a long hike out to the dock in the rain. We rolled our suitcases onto what we thought was the spacious boat and had a seat. I commented how smart it was to be able to roll suitcases on since this was the airport stop. Then, the actual vaporetto showed up . . . and it appeared to be very tiny! We had to lug our suitcases across the gangplank, where they were piled into the top section of the boat, while we crawled down underneath. We watched in sadness during the trip as rain poured down on a few suitcases belonging to members of our group. Hopefully our accommodations would have lots of blankets to warm us up, since our clothes obviously wouldn’t be doing that!

We ended up taking the wrong vaporetto and were a bit far from the apartments we would be staying in. We had to cross the Realto Bridge, which is composed of approximately a million steps, with our giant, soggy suitcases in tow. Luckily, two very nice tourists helped me out because I am just too small to be dragging a bag that large up and down stairs! We finally ended up in our apartments and after trying to get some messages through to our missing travel companions, mom and I passed out for the night in a series of naps. We hoped that this would get us on Italy time for the rest of our trip!

The Parents Visit!

My parents came out to visit me for ten whole days! (Which is why there hasn't been much action on here in a while.) I was a very happy girl to see them! I also ended up with tons of leftover butter chicken, homemade spaghetti sauce and M&M's food, since I was the one that had to work and they got all day off.

If I was to actually do a blog post about their visit, it would probably be the length of a small novel. Remember the Calgary one? That was only two days worth of blogging. Instead, I thought I would just do a photo blog of all the things we did and places we went. You will see a lot of "rainy Vancouver" because it rained probably 80% of the time they were here. Then, as soon as they left, it got super nice again and hasn't rained at all. Whoops.

Around Town

Whistler

Canada Place

Stanley Park

UBC

The Sunshine Coast (Langdale, Gibsons, Gibsons Landing, Camp Byng, Camp Olave and Sechelt)

Lynn Canyon

Steveston Fisherman's Wharf

Flight Path Park

Thanks for visiting! Love you guys!

The Weather

So, it's starting to become Fall, I guess, and that is a very difficult season in Vancouver! Everyday when I leave for work, I usually have my running shoes (steep), a sweatshirt (cold), my shell coat (wet), a scarf (cold), my sunglasses (bright) AND my umbrella (wet). (I know that steep doesn't exactly describe the weather, but you try walking up that hill in other shoes . . . unpleasant.) Anyways, the point is, that is just ridiculous. The best part is, by the end of the day, I maybe need the sunglasses and the shell coat because the rained has ceased, the cold is gone and it's now blinding out . . . and maybe a bit windy. What?!

One of my colleagues sent me this video about becoming a Vancouverite and the weather is absolutely a topic in it!

In other weather news, I made a rainbow for Sparks! After unsucessfully going to two major hardware stores at my train station after work, I took the bus down to the small hardware store near my place. They had EXACTLY three pool noodles. I bought them and waltzed down the hill . . . and everyone probably thought I was a crazy lady carrying around my pool noodles in September.

Fireworks and Fireworks and Fireworks (And Some Other Stuff)

It's been a while! I'll keep this post mostly to pictures, since a lot has happened.

I mentioned last time that I was going to help set-up a food bank in Burnaby with some people from work. It was a pretty fun morning and I think I've had my fill of retail for now. I'll stick to engineering. It turned out that the manager of the store was having his first day of work when we were there, so he was very grateful for the help. We spent the morning cleaning, unpacking items and then stocking the shelves. The manager explained that they call the store a "hand-up", not a "hand-out". The purpose is to make everyday food and groceries more accessible to people without being free. A pretty cool idea!

Saturday night was the first night of the Festival of Light fireworks competition in Vancouver. It's an annual event where countries from around the world compete for the best fireworks show. First off was the UK with a James Bond theme. The boyfriend and I decided to check out the view from Kits Point this time. Even though it wasn't the actual venue, it was packed with people out to see the show.

On Wednesday, the second fireworks show was scheduled. This time, for the full effect, I went all the way down to English Bay. After yoga, I went for a 40-minute walk to the bay since transit was wonky because of how many people were in town for the fireworks. If I thought Kits Point was packed, it was nothing compared to this venue! Luckily, I was by myself, so it was easy to find a spot. This was definitely the best view of all three shows. The fireworks were loud, the music was blaring and the fireworks were exploding right above my head. There was also a bit of the show on the barge, which I couldn't see from the point. Wednesday was Canada's entry by a Calgary group. They did a tribute to the Calgary flood. They were also making hearts with the fireworks, which I liked a lot!

On Saturday, I asked the boyfriend to go with me to try out a fish and chips place that I had heard about down in the Granville Island area. Go Fish! was a cute, little stand that looked out over the water and into downtown. Of course, the friendly neighbourhood crows were there. They're everywhere! Fortunately, they let me eat my meal in peace. It was pretty tasty, I think I'll have to take my parents here when they come visit!

Then, we took a walk through Granville Island, with its markets and waterfront views.

Saturday was the last day of the fireworks competition and Thailand was competing. The boyfriend and I decided to take in the show from Point Grey. We also got a recommendation from the 5-year-old upstairs from the boyfriend about the best place to watch it in the park. It was a little far, but there were a couple of gentleman behind us that had a radio, so we could still hear the music. They also sounded like they were quite the fireworks aficionados because they were giving each other commentary the entire show. We had a pretty good time listening to it! Thailand totally won me over with their happy face fireworks! Unfortunately, I'm not a great photographer and couldn't snap a photo, but it was sweet! Probably for the best because after a few happy faces, they changed to sad faces and no one wants to see that.

I think people at work must think I'm the crazy fireworks lady because I was really excited about all of them. Way more than anyone else.

Somehow, we also totally lucked out with all of this. NO RAIN. I don't even understand it, but in case you hadn't heard, Vancouver broke records for having no rain. There was no rain for the entire month of July. Totally weird.

Finally, yesterday, we went to check out Vancouver pride. We decided to go for the parade, and stopped around the end of the parade route with perfect timing. We saw the groups and floats go by, including a TD float with some very enthusiastic dancers and a hockey float that I thought my parents would like. Nearby, in one of the main intersections in the area, the city had painted a permanent rainbow crosswalk. Very cool! After crossing there, there went to La Belle Patate for poutine. It was delicious and the poutine had squeaky cheese!

It's back to work tomorrow, but I have a super short work week because I'm headed back to Ontario early Friday morning for my cousin's wedding. I'm excited to see my parents and family after so long! I think it will be weird to go to the airport to get on a plane though, instead of for work. I'll also get to see my best friend who I haven't seen since Christmas. Postcards are great, but they don't quite cut it after that long. Yay!

Beaches and Waffles and Postcards

I think that the title of this post sounds pretty hipster. Especially with the postcards part. But, no friends, I am not a hipster (even though my Ray Bans might try and deceive you). However, I am pretty relaxed after my weekend!

After a big, tasty barbecue dinner on Friday night, the boyfriend and I took to Spanish Banks on Saturday, where a group of his friends was getting together for beach volleyball. For those of you who had to endure gym class with me in Grade 9, you'll know that I'm not particularly good with hand-eye coordination. Like, not at all. I probably shouldn't even attempt to play sports involving balls because it just doesn't happen. Not to mention the fact that I burn like a burger that my dad is barbecuing (just kidding, Dad! I know you're just making sure that it's cooked all the way through!), so I had my big baseball hat and sunglasses on. Now I didn't only lack the coordination, but also the visibility. Needless to say, after some fruitless attempts and a very encouraging (but probably frustrating) couple of rounds, I decided to become the protector of the food. We were going to have a big picnic lunch later! Somehow though, I have still been in extreme pain for the last two days . . . I blame all of the running I had to do through the sand to get the balls that I missed.

The tide was also waayyyyyy out on Saturday, you probably had to walk a kilometre to even get to the water! Luckily (or not so luckily) there was also a strong breeze (wind) blowing down the beach, along with probably half the sand that was there.

After enjoying as a spectator for a bit longer, we started up the barbecue and had sausages . . . and vegetables and watermelon and drinks and chips and antojitos and brownies and cookies. So much food!

That evening we also attended a gathering for a birthday, where we enjoyed beverages. Some random, apparently cheap, beverage from Kelowna. It kind of tasted like water when you got to the bottom, which was weird. I also happened to run into my cousin on the way there, which was nice because we hadn't seen each other in a while. Such a coincidence in such a big city! I don't think I've been awake that late since I moved here!

On the way home from the event, we passed a waffle place on the bus and I was determined to try it from that moment on. No surprise then that I ended up there on Sunday morning. I tried out the apple and cheddar waffle. It even came with a cute little salad on the side. Waffle Gone Wild! is my new favourite place! So tasty!

In fun news work, I got a name placard! I guess I'm here long enough to warrant one. Or maybeeee I'll be able to use it next year . . . after I graduate. Hmmmm. You also get to see my desk, with its fun high-visibility vest and hard hat.

Today, when I came home from work, where I spent my day being productive, but also stuck at a desk, I found a lovely surprise in the mail. My bestie had sent me a postcard from her east coast biking trip! I don't even know how she got my address, but it was so exciting! I love mail. I even keep stamps in my purse, so I can send fun things. Like cards. I love sending cards. Postcards are even better though! Thanks girly!

And now here I am. I'm planning on going all Vancouver this week and trying out some yoga (for free of course). Which is great because apparently it's supposed to rain. Yay for Vancouver.

This Week In My Stomach

It turns out that working at the airport doesn't just mean that people from all over the world are travelling through it. It also means that I work with people from all sorts of different places. My manager is from Ireland, along with another engineer in my trailer (obviously different parts though, based on the fact that their accents sound NOTHING alike). The engineer that sits across from me is from New Zealand, along with the contractor I am working with on the drop-belt for the check-in. Some of the other contractors are from the UK and the Netherlands. Of course, there's also people from Ontario. Three of the engineers went to schools near Guelph (and by that, I mean they actually know what Guelph is)! Another one of the contractors is from Niagara Falls. It's really interesting to work with people from all over the place, but that's not the best part. It also means that I get some tasty snacks at work that I normally wouldn't pick up myself. This week has been particularly full of treats: a chocolate bar from the UK, pocky sticks and a cookie that tasted like cotton candy, but was apparently healthy!

I also got yet another free lunch (I think I've literally had a free lunch every week since I started!), but this time it was because of our new president and CEO. He also came around to visit us in the trailers yesterday and my manager decided to tell him how I wrote a letter asking the airport for a job. He also mentioned that they thought my pushiness was why they thought it would be good to hire me. Excellent.

I also got a surprise walking to the train today. I was walking on the sidewalk up to the terminal, huddled under my umbrella because it's been quite the rainy day today when I realized that something was in my path. I managed to snap a picture of this guy before he flew off!

I think it was a heron, but my brother can probably confirm that for me. It turns out that there's even a job for him here at the airport, having taken fishing and wildlife for his college program. The airport has an environmental management program and one of the employee's jobs is to deal with the wildlife around and in the airport. Sometimes, the animals apparently like to set up shop out on the airfield and someone has to make sure they get out of there safely!

P.S. In case you were wondering, I have actually learned to use that logbook that the chocolate bar is sitting on . . . more so than I ever did in my entire engineering education, in fact. It isn't just decorative!

P.P.S. This heron was much nicer than the crows I've been encountering and did NOT try to attack me. I still haven't walked down my street in that direction since the last crow encounter.