The Vancouver List

I'm sure you're all breathing a sigh of relief now that I'm posting again! Now you know that I was NOT, in fact, pecked to death by crows. You're welcome. However, I have been insanely busy between work and enjoying the wonderful weather we've been having! I thought I would share some of the reasons why I am loving spending my time out here (and the few reasons that I'm not).

Reasons Why I Love Vancouver:

1) The Weather

The weather here is pretty much perfect. It's been around the 20 degree mark since I got here, which means everyday when I get home from work . . . shorts! It's also not that stifling hot that Ontario gets in the summer. 40 degrees with smog in downtown Toronto on the 7th floor with no air-conditioning was NOT a good time. I've heard that they get a lot of rain out here, but that has yet to prove itself true. Especially since Calgary and Toronto have been getting all of that. Apparently there can be earthquakes too, but I guess Ottawa took care of that one earlier this year too.

2) My Security Pass

I definitely feel like I own the place when I'm walking around in my high-visibility vest and security pass. I keep hoping people will come and ask me for help or directions. I'm pretty much crushed on a day that they don't. Let me tell you, it was not an easy process to make it happen either! It took me 6 weeks to get the pass! Now that I do have it, I start preparing myself the stop before I get off at the airport. I put my book and cell phone away and whip out the pass, straighten it out on the lanyard around my neck and then sit up tall, in case anyone wants to know when to get off. To actually use it, pretty much like all of those spy movies. Biometrics are awesome.

3) My Job

My manager told me that he wanted to be the best manager I've ever had and so far, he's doing a pretty good job! His goal is to just expose me to everything he can at the airport, including fire extinguisher training, an architectural tour, design of the baggage system, health and safety (good thing I took that half-credit course . . .), project management, golf tournaments, contractors, bow-tie Wednesday (which I pay tribute to with a headband adorned with a bow), new software, work as a business analyst, the 4:30am clean-up walk, etc. It wouldn't be too bad either if they wanted me to bring all of my knowledge back next year, once I'm done school. Can I make that my sole co-op workterm objective? To be hired back? It's also pretty wicked that I can just see planes taking off and landing while waiting for my train to go home!

4) The Markets

When I first got out here, I was pretty unimpressed with the grocery stores. What is this world without Loblaw stores?? Now I've realized it's because there are way better places to get food at. There are small fruit and vegetable markets at every corner, where you can just buy grape tomatoes in bulk. It was awesome. The other bonus is that it's so cheap! Spending the time to go and pick out your fruit and vegetables like this definitely improves the price. It's also mostly locally grown. I know some of my Guelph friends would love that idea! I usually buy a whole backpack full of fruits and vegetables and it only cost me $8 to $9! You can also go and buy fresh-baked bread and bagels this way and get your meat right from the butcher. I still use the grocery stores for things like milk and cheese (weirdly milk is cheaper out here, but cheese is more expensive than Ontario) and pretzels, but these small markets are the way to go for most things!

5) The Festivals

There is always something happening out here. I've been to a couple of music festivals, including one right down the street from where I live and last week, the boyfriend and I went to the Gastown Grand Prix. People were racing bikes (ridiculously fast) around the streets of Gastown. For safety, all of the turns had hay bales!

6) The Beach

This doesn't require much explanation. Beaches everywhere. That I can swim in (since they're salt water). Also, the seawall. So cool.

7) Transit

Transit here is actually really good. The pass is a bit expensive, but totally worth it considering how much I use it. It's cool that you can get all the way from UBC out to Surrey and down to Richmond and up to the mountains in North Vancouver all on the same transit system. They're also implementing a new fare system soon and will be doing a beta test of it in a few months. The engineer in me was excited (probably too excited) to apply to be a tester. I'll know August 9th!

8) The Buildings

There are cool buildings all over the place! From Canada Place, up at the waterfront, to the amazing airport (not biased at all here). That's only commercial too! Where I live reminds me of Florida, with its beachy houses. The buildings are all so different here too because of the climate. It isn't just row after row of identical bricked houses. There are even the hobbit houses!

9) The People

People just seem happier and nicer out here. Even though its such a big city, it seems a lot smaller. Everyone thanks the bus drivers when they get off the bus, just like in Guelph! They also say hi to you on the street. 

10) The Boyfriend

I guess it's also pretty nice that the boyfriend is out here. He can make the list too!

Reasons Why I Do NOT Love Vancouver:

1) The Crows

I think that I might actually be psychologically traumatized from the times that I've been attacked. Every time I see them while walking around Vancouver, I do a check to see if there are other people near me that can call 911 when I get attacked and end up lying on the ground bleeding. (That might be a bit graphic, but that's exactly what I picture happening when I walk past them. Psychological trauma, I tell you!)

2) Distance

My family is very far away! Personally, I think they should just move out here with me, so they'll be closer. I guess I still have to work on convincing them though.

I had also mentioned that I was going to try a yoga class. Which I did, a week later than I planned because of the bike racing. The (free) yoga class was in a store after they closed. It was pretty cool because they pushed all of the clothing racks and did it right there on the floor. I had bought myself a nice, purple mat to use. The instructor was great and even recognized that I was new! Now for a brief synopsis:

Wednesday.
Go to yoga for the first time in 7 years.
Pull out the purple mat.
Start the class.
Haven't stretched my hamstrings in years.
Think it's going well.
Haven't fallen over yet.
Instructor says we're going to try handstands.
Nope.
That's not going to happen.
Try it anyway.
Thursday.
Can't walk.
Takes twice as long to get anywhere at work.
Friday.
Can't walk even more.
Take 2 buses to work instead of one because it's less walking,
Also can't climb the baggage system.
Saturday.
Go for a swim.
Think it will help the pain.
Feels better in the pool.
Get out of the pool.
Nope.
Not better at all.
Ouch.

Yay! Fireworks!

I really like that these long weekend things happen pretty much every month! When you work a standard Monday-to-Friday-9-to-5 (well, I actually do 8:30 am to 4:30 pm) job, long weekends are the coolest thing ever!

I kept myself busy and spent tons of time outside because we almost had some Ontario-like weather temperature-wise. What I really liked was that this didn't translate to Ontario-like weather humidity-wise. Much easier for a person with cystic fibrosis!

Friday, the boyfriend and I had poutine pizza . . . our new favourite thing that we probably shouldn't have ever consumed more than once. It's actually so good though!

On Saturday, I decided we were definitely going to the beach. If I was home in Ontario I would be, so I was definitely going to be doing it here! Being by the water also made the temperature so much more bearable. There was a strong breeze (which was also good because there was no way I was staying in the water that long!) that kept us cool and we did try the water out once. I was also a big dork and had my hat, sunglasses and layers of sunscreen on. It wasn't fruitless though, I didn't get burnt at all! The boyfriend was not so lucky.

On Sunday, we decided to head over to UBC and wander around. We saw the flagpole plaza. It's such a pretty spot because the campus opens right up to the mountains and it's just like "Bam! Canada!" How appropriate for the Canada Day long weekend! There were also these super cool squishy seat things (also notice how they are white, so the glaring sun doesn't heat them up much and they can be sat on . . . science, friends). We also headed down to the rose garden where I decided to have a photo shoot since I matched the roses so well. I could even kind of smell them (like I'm pretending to do), unusual for me!

Here's the only bad part of the weekend . . . really, the only bad thing since I've been out here. You've probably guessed it . . . the crows. Yes, I am bringing them up again. This time, we were walking through UBC (not anywhere near where I live) and I saw one sitting up on one of the banners around the campus. I am legitimately scared of these things from my past encounters and the boyfriend was making fun of me and saying how it was going to get me. Obviously we didn't think it actually would, but just as we had walked past it (together!) it swooped down behind me and it's wing hit my back! Just like the other time! Except this time, I didn't have a jacket and was wearing a tank top. So, I started to cry. There's pictures. Yep, awesome. I'm convinced it was aiming for me because there's no way that it would have just happen to hit me instead of him! I'm also convinced that it likes my hair. It must be the same colour as some crow predator or something. Or maybe it looks like nest material. I don't know, but I've had just about enough! Fledgling season was supposed to be over! I'm also probably going to be known at work as "Crazy Crow Girl" or something.

On to happier things. Monday. The day I had been waiting for. Fireworks! Now, obviously you can't see fireworks during the day, so we had to do something. We went for a walk in Pacific Spirit Park! Most of it was okay, except for hills. I hate hills. We've also decided that the boyfriend must scare people off because every single person we passed said hello to us, but that never, ever happens when he's alone. It also happened at the grocery store before. Weirdo.

After cooling down from the walk, we headed towards the beach because we had a plan to be able to watch BOTH sets of fireworks . . . and also not get stuck downtown until 3:00 am. From the beach, you could see the high fireworks above the buildings and hear them too. Across the water, in West Vancouver, you could see the whole show because they were out on a barge in the inlet. Good plan too because transit was crazy that day! As we were getting to the beach, the bus stopped to let people off and then made a funny noise and shut down. We figured we might as well walk from where we were since we didn't know what was going on, but just as we stepped out, this river of green slime started pouring out of the bottom of the bus and running along the curb. That couldn't have been healthy. Also, for my environmental engineering friends, you might want to look into how great that is going into the storm sewers.

All in all, a great weekend! Yay! Fireworks!

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.

Great Strides!

I was planning on writing about Great Strides wayyyy earlier this week, but after the long trek out to the event, the walk and the trip back, I kind of lost Sunday. Then it was back to work for a busy week!

We were up nice and early on Sunday to make the almost hour and a half trip out to New Westminster. Getting there involved a bus, a train and THEN a community bus! It was also super dead at the train station early on Sunday and kind of eerie around the whole area. I thought it weird how all of their parkades were right on the water. (You'd think people might want that view for something.)

Eventually we got there and had to play Frogger to get across the street to the park because there wasn't a crosswalk in sight. Luckily, we made it! We found the event and registered, although this year I opted not to put a sticker on myself saying that I was walking for me. We also realized that maybe shorts weren't the best choice of attire because the wait to actually walk wasn't that warm! After a brief welcome, we were all off around 11:15 am. The walk was a 5k, making two loops around the park. If I was in London, where it was flat, this would have been no big deal, but there were plenty of hills on the route that made my sad, little chicken legs very unhappy! My super "supportive" boyfriend also refused to carry me or give me a piggyback the entire time . . . lame. What was even worse was that during the second loop, you could start to smell the barbecue that was being set up for after the completion of the walk!

Unfortunately, we had to wait a bit longer for the barbecue than expected. They were making rather extravagant Philly cheesesteak burgers: a burger patty and cheese slice on garlic buttered bread. It was really tasty, but after an hour of waiting for it, I probably could have eaten two . . . and that's a lot for me! We decided to head out after getting our sandwiches, but not until after I took a picture under the fun balloon arch! Then it was back on the buses. Getting to the train station again, we passed more than ten wedding dress stores on the main street. That kind of seems like overkill!

I want to say thank you once more to everyone who sponsored and supported me for the walk! If you didn't get the chance, guess what? You still can until June 24th!

I'm Here!

Hi Friends!

I have been out here for just over a week now and after some technical difficulties, am now able to make my first post. My new home for the next eight months has a beautiful view of the mountains and is only a block away from the beach. I am a lucky girl!

I have adjusted to the time change better than I was anticipating (and hoping). I thought being on Ontario time still would make it that much easier to get up at 6:00 am for work, but it turns out I don't do well with the mind over matter thing, just seeing 6:00 am, whether EST or PST, on my alarm clock makes me sleepy!

I am missing my car, BMDY, too. I have a new ride now, though, the SkyTrain (and the occasional bus). All of this can be yours for the low, low price of $124 per month.

Since I'm super directionally-challenged, I took a practice run out to the airport (my new place of employment!) last Thursday, before I started. The SkyTrain is much nicer than the subway in Toronto. It's so clean and comfortable and has great views of the mountains, parks and especially the airplanes landing and taking off as you approach the airport!

Something else that I've noticed is that people are SUPER nice out here. Everyone says hello as they walk by. You might think it would be hard to tell since everyone also wears sunglasses, but it's actually not.

In case you were also hesitant about supporting me for the Great Strides Walk out here, rest assured that I am safe and sound and still collecting donations.

Stay tuned for a post about my awesome experience in my new job later this week!