What Happened?

So, yeah, I haven't really posted in a while. I blame the strike! Here's what's been going on . . .

The Strike

About three weeks ago, the union at the airport announced that they were planning a labour disruption for Labour Day weekend. As of Thursday night before the long weekend, I was going to be spending 36 hours at work in 12-hour shifts for the long weekend. Yikes! Luckily, they settled and I spent the weekend being as lazy as possible to make up for the fact I ALMOST had to work so much. I was a bit disappointed because I would have had a pretty cool job in operations (temporarily anyway).

Aritzia Warehouse Sale

Instead of making money that weekend, I went and spent some at the Aritzia Warehouse Sale. Aritzia was started in Vancouver, so I felt it was appropriate. Totally worth it too, $50.00 is not an acceptable price for a scarf. $14.99 is (especially when it was originally $50.00).

Boat Cruise

Although it might look like all of the boats were in that last picture, they aren't! Two weeks ago we had a "partnering session" with one of our contractors. When I first received the invitation, I thought I was being invited to a work meeting for four hours on a Thursday night. I was definitely not excited. Then, I learned out what a "partnering session" was. Luckily, I had also just received by brand-spanking-new British Columbia's driver's license. We started out at the River Rock Casino (where I needed my ID), then took a paddlewheeler down the Fraser River (where I also needed my ID).

School

I also started taking a Distance Education course. Yay for Introductory Marketing. I also have a very enthusiastic professor. He responded to one of my emails and every sentence ended in an exclamation mark. He's even more bubbly than me.

Tragically Hip

The boyfriend ended up getting some free tickets from work last Tuesday at the Orpheum Theatre. We went with a few other lucky free ticket receivers from UBC. I didn't really know the Tragically Hip that well, but the lead singer gets a A+ for enthusiasm. He was very entertaining to watch! I also recognized a few songs, so I wasn't totally lost. We were right behind one gentleman that obviously loved them. He was SO EXCITED the entire concert. It was a great time (although Wednesday was a little tough to make it through)!

Lillooet

This past weekend, we went on another "partnering session" with my team from the airport. Seven of us headed up to Lillooet. It was a beautiful drive up and we drove through Hope, Hell's Gate and Jackass Mountain. The roads got a bit sketchy as we got close to Lillooet. In one section, they just keep cutting the mountain back because the road is literally falling off the edge of the cliff. Lillooet also has the Mile 0 marker of British Columbia, everything used to be measured from there! The house we stayed at reminded me of Girl Guide camp because it was a huge empty building (normally there are renters living in it, but they had recently moved out) and we just put our mattresses and sleeping bags down all over the place. We also made a giant screen out of paper and a projector. I spent the weekend watching kung fu movies and I finally stayed awake for Star Trek.

We went exploring the next day by the river that runs through town. It is like the desert out in Lillooet. There was no shade and just this stagnant heat. We skipped rocks, built rock towers and tested out the water temperature.

We also went and saw the "hanging tree" (which was used to hang people until the late 1800s) and the Chinese rock pilings (they were searching for gold). It was so desert-y that there were even tiny cacti growing!

Then, we headed down to the salmon spawning channels. There were fish jumping everywhere! There was also a floatplane docked and a small train going by (I love trains). The colour of the water was incredible!

Our last stop on the nature excursion was Marble Canyon. We met a duck!

By then we'd had enough nature and stopped by the local beer and wine festival. I had an "Old Jalopy" pale ale. It was actually so good! It was some sort of award-winner. I also got to use that ID again! After sweating way too much, we headed back into town for dinner at Dina's Greek restaurant. Yum!

On Sunday, there were some things to do around the house. On the way home, we stopped at Duffy Lake. There was a really cool log jam and more beautiful water. You could also see glaciers.

We also stopped at a few creeks on the way home (and there was more beautiful water).

We also came home though Whistler and Squamish, which I had never seem before. I'll be doing more exploring up that way when my parents are here!

Let's Get Physical

Wow! It's been a busy week since my last post. Including two days in a row (Thursday and Friday) where I was up at 5:00 am to be at work early for meetings. Meetings where we wandered around the baggage system. Yikes! Sounds safe.

Let's rewind a bit. My last post was pretty crow-focused and although I would like to say that's over, unfortunately it's not. In fact, it might have escalated to a full out war now. The giant pool down by the beach near me opened up over the long weekend, so being half fish, I had to go down and check it out! I was starting to think that maybe the crow just didn't have a good fashion sense and that's why it was out to get me, since I was usually in my highly fashionable work clothes. So, I thought I would go for a different look to try and trick it. I headed down to the pool in my sweats on the OTHER SIDE of the street and I was confident that I would be safe. Apparently the crow had other ideas. I don't even know how it recognized me, but it did! Sad face.

Another thing I hadn't counted on was that Vancouver doesn't quite get the temperature fluctuations that Ontario does. It gets cold, but not super cold, and warm, but not super warm. Luckily, this pool was heated to a balmy 77 degrees (25 degrees)! Yeah, it doesn't sound THAT great and I'll admit I was a bit hesitant to get in, but after paying the admission of $5.38, I knew I had to. (That's pretty steep for a swim considering I'm a student!)

Now, in case you can't tell, that's a gigantic freaking pool. 137 metres long to be exact. Normally to swim a kilometre, you would do 40 lengths in a 25 metre pool. Maybe 20 lengths in 50 metre pool. To swim a kilometre here, you do 8 to 9 lengths. I was hurting pretty bad by the last length (and even more the next day). This is going to take some getting used to. The cool thing about this pool is that it is right on the seawall. The kind of cool thing is that it's filled with salty ocean water. By kind of cool, I mean cool to swim in, but not so cool when you go to drink from your water bottle a few hours later and realize that you splashed the rim with salt water in the pool. Gross.

I also got out to do some kayaking down by the Burrard Bridge on Thursday, which was awesome. Only $5.00 for a few hours out in the water with a kayak and lesson included. Thanks MEC! That's the kind of deal I'm looking for as a student! A friend from home and I went to try this out and found out there are also paddle-boarding sessions. I think we'll save that for when it's a bit warmer because I would say it's very likely I'll fall in.

Now for a fun little work story. One of my colleagues asked me to drive him to the SkyTrain station in Richmond and I thought I wasn't going to make it back. You wouldn't think that it would be that hard to do, but for those of you that know me well, directions aren't my strong point. On campus tours, one of my signature lines is "I used the information desk in the UC in first year to find out where my classes were because I'm kind of directionally-challenged, but don't worry, I know campus way better now, so I won't get us lost on the tour!" This does not apply to Richmond. I don't know Richmond. There are 15890778 bridges between the airport and the SkyTrain station! (Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit, but there's a lot.) I literally thought I was going to have to call my manager and ask him to find me and direct me back.  Luckily, after some wrong turns and off ramps, I did make it. The Canada Line tracks are a great way to find the airport BTW.

Finally, I want to thank everyone who donated to my Great Strides page, I met my goal! Luckily, for those of you who haven't had a chance yet, you still can! The boyfriend and I are off to do that this weekend, so feel free to continue emptying your wallets for me! Speaking of him, we also went down to the beach to watch the sunset . . . how dorkily romantic. This weekend I will also be emptying my wallet because this week was my first payday! Shopping? Yes.