The Past Week

I've kind of been slacking on the blogging the past week, so here's the recap.

Friday

A few friends and the boyfriend and I headed to Gastown on Friday night for the "Make Music" festival. It's pretty much an event open to anyone who wants to sign up. We got there at the wrong time though, apparently, because as we walked from tent to tent each performer finished a song and then packed up. Luckily, on the way back, the performers decided to do more than one song. We heard a drum circle, rapping, folk, DJing, contemporary, jazz and more! Gastown was also a really cool neighbourhood . . . although I don't know if I would want to go down Blood Alley. We also saw the famous clock (which I failed to get a picture of). It even had a souvenir shop at one point, but it looked like it had closed down.

Sunday

My boyfriend was running a half marathon, so I got up early to go and meet him at the finish line. The half marathon also happened to go down the street below me, on the way from UBC to Stanley Park, so I was able to watch the runners as I walked to the bus and then got to follow beside them as we crossed the bridge. At the bus stop I got off at there was a community garden. I thought it was so cool that it was just there, in the middle of downtown Vancouver. Finally, I made it down to the park, where I encountered these laughing statues, perfect for me since I love to laugh! Called A-mazing Laughter, by Yue Minjun, they were designed for the Olympics in 2010 and were supposed to be temporary, but the owner of Lululemon liked them so much, that he contributed to the cost of keeping them there permanently. As for the race, unfortunately, I left the finish line before my boyfriend crossed it because I thought he had passed without me noticing. Next time we need to coordinate what each other is wearing before we go, so we know what to look for!

Tuesday

I was "voluntold" (my manager's new favourite word) that I would be working at the company golf tournament, which is run for airport employees and contractors every year and coordinated by the director of engineering. I had a "Lauren Conrad" moment because it seemed like such an intern thing to do. (It also meant that I thought about The Hills and have started watching season one again, oops.) I started with unloading all of the door prizes from the van, later helped organize and label all of the prizes and finally, ended up tallying gold scores until halfway through dinner. However, I was wearing awesome floral pants that I was complimented on multiple times, so that was certainly a plus. I didn't make it home until 9:00 pm and was up bright and early for work the next day.

Friday

Yes, I know, it isn't Friday yet. I do know what's going to happen though. I was supposed to get a half day off because of the working late on Tuesday, but a check-in conveyor I'm working on needs to be up an running for the long weekend. Of course, the project is behind schedule, so I need to be there all day tomorrow in case "unforeseen events" occur. Lucky me! The good news: if you happen to be at the airport and flying domestic, you might be able to use my lovely new conveyor. Yay.

Fortunately, this weekend is a long one. I'm excited to see fireworks and do some exploring . . . as well as relaxing. I'm actually really excited for fireworks because they didn't have any here for the May long weekend. Apparently, that's not a thing out here, like it is back in Ontario.

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.

The Space Centre!

Yesterday was the best day EVER. I went to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre and heard a lecture about robots!

Dr. Elizabeth Croft from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of British Columbia gave a lecture on human-robot interaction as part of a Women in Science initiative. It's almost like the event was made for me!

Not only was it really cool to hear about the kinds of things she was working on, but some of it is actually kind of relevant to my upcoming 41X project.

A few of the highlights:

• People understand the rules for sharing a space (i.e. what to do when both reaching into a bowl of popcorn) and how people have trouble responding to this when it happens with a robot. However, when robots are programmed to show hesitation, like people do, the people respond better to them. This personifies the robot and makes people want to work with them, like they would a person.
• A strong form of communication is gesturing and it can transcend language (or be useful in noisy industrial areas . . . or even underwater!). Her research has shown that if robots gesture properly, people can completely understand what the robot is asking them to do.
• Human balance is based on "sensors" and "actuators": vision, the vestibular system and proprioception, and muscles. The combination of all of these sensors allows us to balance and correct ourselves because it acts like a feedback system.

Before the lecture, I also got to check out a bit of the museum, from the Russian space shuttle look-alike  to the astronauts hanging from the roof.

This is my new favourite place!

Richmond

I pretty much had one goal this past weekend (yes, I'm going to write about my weekend today because work gets so crazy that I never have time to do it on the actual weekend) . . . get a hurricane potato! I'll save you the suspense. I was successful in doing this, but since the boyfriend and I had to wait all day for the night market to start, we also did some adventuring around Richmond on Saturday.

First off, we decided to try and find the Ikea. Mostly because Ikea stores are really cool and sell really cool things. This one wins though because it was on Sweden Way. One thing that didn't make it out to Vancouver with me was all my little containers that I pack my massive lunches in. I've been using plastic bags and feeling terrible about it, so it seemed like a good idea to grab some. Actually, we decided to grab two sets, one for each of us. Oops. We didn't really think about the fact that we would have to carry them around for the rest of the day . . . at least they were empty? Also, we unfortunately didn't get to have any Ikea meatballs because the employees were on strike and the restaurant was closed. Sad!

Then, we went down to the mall in Richmond. It was just like home! Not that it isn't fun to pretend to be all classy and shop on West 4th or Broadway or Robson Street or at Pacific Center, but I still like normal malls.

Finally it was time for the night market! The only thing I remember about the last time I went (many, many years ago) was that I bought socks. Lots and lots of cheap socks. There's also three night markets to choose from (all of which I assume sell cheap socks and hurricane potatoes). Since we were in Richmond, that narrowed it down to two to choose from. Since we're cheap, we chose to go to the free one, which was actually pretty close to the Ikea. It was the opening ceremonies for the International Summer Night Market, so when we arrived, there was a big stage set up with VIPs on it and a whole, roasted pig and a ton of cupcakes. After the introductions were done and the food was moved, dancers came up to do a lion dance. About halfway through, we saw a man walk up carrying a head of iceberg lettuce hanging off the end of a stick. I thought this was pretty funny and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen with it. A little while later, he handed off the stick to one of the VIPs, who went up and teased the lions (dancers, not real lions) with it. I thought that would be the end of it, but one of the five lions grabbed at it and then started ripping apart the lettuce and spewing it into the audience. It was AWESOME. We also saw these hilarious balloons with legs. They were excellent.

After this, it was finally time for the hurricane potatoes! I'll let the picture below show you how I felt about them. It's pretty much the BEST WAY EVER to eat a potato. Even the ketchup was tastier than normal!

After our long day out in Richmond on Saturday, we decided to take it easy on Sunday. We took a walk around the neighbourhood to pick up some slushies (mmmmm!) and I didn't even complain about my sad little legs . . . on the way there at least. I also tried to take some pictures of flowers that were clearly trying to evade my camera. And we saw a hobbit house! This is number two that we've managed to find. There's only three in the city, so we're close to a bingo.

Definitely a fun weekend. I'll be working hard until the next one!

He Was Wrong!

A few exciting things happened today!

First, my boss was wrong. He told me that I would be stuck in the trailers for my entire co-op work term, but I found out today that I'm getting a second desk in the terminal later this week. I have been assigned to a new, huge controls project and will be working in the terminal for it several days a week. I'm pretty excited! I also think I probably have an overly inflated ego now because of the fact that I'm going to have two desks . . . oops!

Second, it's been beautiful out the last few days. So nice today that I decided that I would go put the giant hills I normally complain about to good use. I ran up them a bunch of times and walked down them inbetween for a rest. Then I went down to the beach/park and did some jumping jacks and crunches. The weather must have inspired me! Good news though friends, I have also been making sure to eat lots, so I think I've actually been putting on weight. I feel jigglier! This suspicion will be confirmed at my doctor's appointment next week.

Third, when I was at the park, I heard the ice cream truck that I thought I heard a few days ago. It really does exist! It also plays animal noises instead of music, which pretty much makes it the best ice cream truck EVER.

Fourth, my lovely best friend made it to Newfoundland to start her bike trip. Really weird to think that we went from seeing each other for ten hours a week at synchronized swimming practices to now being literally as far apart as we possibly can be in Canada. She's in the furthest east time zone and I'm in the furthest west.

Fifth, I have been slowly putting together a list of people that remind me of other people at work. Some of you might have noticed, like me, that when you move to a new city, you think you see people that you know because you're used to seeing them. Then, you realize that it can't be them because you're IN A DIFFERENT CITY. One of the maintenance guys at work sounds exactly like Brent Butt in Corner Gas (Canadian TV, so awesome). If you closed your eyes and listened to him talk, you would swear it was Brent Butt. One of the consultants sounds exactly like a lovely gentleman from my design group last semester. He talks the same and best of all, laughs the same. Like just this hilarious kind of giggle thing. Finally, there is the document coordinator, she reminds me of my cousin's girlfriend. Not only do they look and sound very similar, but they are also both interior designers by trade!

I didn't think I was going to have any pictures for this post, but them I remembered that I had a picture of a cruise ship heading out to sea, which I took from the top of the hill on my street! Also, a picture of two police officers on four-wheelers . . . I guess that's how they patrol the beach?

Deep Cove

I never really thought I would literally climb a mountain, but that's exactly what I did yesterday! Although I do enjoy spending time outside, hiking up a mountain was never really on my list of outdoor activities. Now, this might be due to the lack of mountains back at home, but it also might be because I typically stick to swimming and beaching, with the odd attempt at a run.

I went with a few friends from school that are also working out here and we took the Baden Powell trail in Deep Cove, which was exciting for the 17 years of Girl Guide in me! After wandering around the nearby park for a few minutes, the climb started off going straight up. Not even joking, so many stairs and then no stairs, just walking up . . . a mountain . . . I was definitely the straggler of the group. Luckily, the others were quite considerate of my lack of leg strength and made sure I didn't get too far behind. We passed lots of little waterfalls along the way and what we thought was a waterfall, until we saw the sign that said it was actually treated sewage outflow.

 We also saw some really gross-looking, giant slugs on the way. There might have also been some screaming (not from me!) when someone almost stepped on one. Ew. Our first goal was to find the look-out point. It turned out that it was about 2.5k along the trail. Of course, I wanted a sporty-looking shot, along the lines of, "Bam! I tackled you mountain!" I think it worked out quite well! We could also see all of the little kayaks floating around the bay down below and even all the way to downtown Vancouver!

We hiked a bit further up until we decided that we might as well turn around because this trail was NOT looping back around any time soon and headed to the park once we got down for some snacks. From the park, you could see the look-out that we climbed up to and all of the little people up on it. We also wandered around the "downtown" and into a cool, little craft and gift shop. Before we headed back to the car, we came across some funny signs that the parks department had put up near the park.

This was quite the adventurous day for me and I think I am going to not enjoy moving for the rest of today . . . maybe the beach is in order?!

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!

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.

Arch-Nemesis

To give you an idea of kind of what my week has been like, this afternoon I came home from work to see a gentleman in a kilt walking up my front steps. Yeah, weird.

Back to the beginning though! This week I developed an irrational fear . . . of crows.

Tuesday morning. I was walking down my street, headed for the bus stop. All of the sudden something blows by my head. A crow. I was kind of freaked out, but I just figured it was a one-time thing. It was kind of dark and rainy, maybe it didn't see me. I didn't even mention it in Tuesday's post because I wasn't really worried. Wednesday morning. Walking to the bus stop again and in the EXACT same spot, a crow swoops down behind me . . . but this time, it's wing actually hits me in the head! Now I'm really freaking out. So much so that I actually suggest to my brother that he might want to come out here and visit and bring one of his hunting guns with him. At this point I started to develop a theory that the crow liked my hair and wanted to use it for a nest. I was seriously giving it the benefit of the doubt that it just figured my hair was some sort of natural nest material. Thursday morning. It was raining pretty good today, so I had my hood up and my umbrella out. I didn't see the crow. Friday morning. Thinking I had solved the problem with my hood on Thursday, I approached the tree to see the crow glaring down at me. Taking defensive measures, I put my hood up and figured I would be in the clear. Nope. I was wrong. I walk by the tree and suddenly the crow flies into my lower back, bounces off my elbow and keeps going. I pretty much lost it at this point. I ran down the end of the street and vowed not to walk on that side again.

Then, after I calmed down, I became a little more level-headed. Try doing a Google search for crows attacking people. It's an actual thing. Apparently, in the Northwest (where I am living now) from May to mid-June is fledge season, when all of the baby crows are learning to fly. The crow parents get super protective during this time to protect the babies and will actually attack people. Ahhhh! I took a picture of the crow's lookout and camp from the other side of the street . . . where I will be walking from now until mid-June!

Now for a couple of random observations:

1) It's really weird that there isn't any bagged milk out here. You have to buy it in jugs and then unlike pretty much every other type of container, you can't even return the jugs for a deposit. You just have put giant 4L jugs into the recycling. I can return an orange juice container, but not a milk jug? Weird.

2) There is very little President's Choice out here, but an insane amount of Safeways. Also, this weird brand called Western Family.

3) The automated voice on the SkyTrain that announces stations seems to actually sound relieved when we get to the final stop, YVR. Obviously I can't do inflection and tone on here, but it's really weird!

4) Two days this week I have seen a girl at the SkyTrain station where I get off the bus with a canoe paddle. She's all dressed up in business clothes, but randomly carrying this paddle.

Now just before I tell you about the gentleman in the kilt, I wanted to share my purchases from the little stores that I stopped at on the way home tonight. It's going to be a tasty dinner! I bought an in-store made chicken Kiev breast, then went to the market next store and picked up some corn-on-the-cob, potatoes, a pepper and some feta cheese.

So, the man in the kilt. I saw him walk down my front steps as I was taking a picture of the crow's tree, figuring I just saw wrong and he was actually coming from somewhere else. Then, we ended up crossing the street at the same time and he headed right back up the stairs to my place and around the side. I caught a glimpse of the back of his t-shirt as he rounded the corner. Apparently, the company the cleans the windows of my building is Men in Kilts Window Cleaning. Excellent.

And on that note, I'll leave you with some pictures I took of the sky and the ground. I love the leaves drawn right into the sidewalk! And remember, I am doing the Great Strides Walk next weekend and I am still collecting donations!

The Job

As promised, I am going to share a bit about my new job in this post! I am a co-op student at the airport out here and assisting with work on the baggage system.

As everyone probably knows now, airport security is pretty intense. Luckily, my experience in pharmaceuticals has prepared me for this. I am also developing a new vocabulary. Currently it includes a lot of:

- terminal
- airside
- out-of-gauge
- access
- restricted
- section drawing
- elevation
- inbound
- outbound
- transfer
- domestic
- international

And pretty much any three-letter combination of A-Z you can imagine in acronyms. I literally have an acronym dictionary printed out and pinned to my desk bulletin board (luckily I found this on the internal website).

I have also been able to spend time down in the baggage system and out on the tarmac. One of my colleagues had the best description of what the baggage system looks like: the mine levels in old school Donkey Kong. Out on the tarmac, I walked next to huge planes and even completed some training out at the fire station!

Even though this all sounds quite glamourous, my office definitely isn't. It's in a trailer. Yep, a trailer. The area looks like a little town of portables like we used to have in elementary and high school. Even though the terminal area is beautiful, I was told when I first started not to get used to it because that's not where I would be spending most of my time. The cool part about the trailers? They are just outside of the restricted area fence. This means that planes are literally driving right by. So cool! Here's some pictures of my walk from the SkyTrain to the trailers.

The only scary realization I had about this fence came today. We have company cars that can be used to go to different areas of the airport if needed. I only started driving them today and it just so happened that the way I backed out meant that I had to drive in the one-lane-wide space between the trailers and the fence. Having not driven in two weeks and driving a car I wasn't used to, I was paranoid that I was going to run into the trailers on one side and wreck half the offices or the fence on the other side and breach the restricted area. Ahh!

Well, this has been about long enough for now, but to leave you feeling jealous, here are some pictures of the beach I can go relax on after a tough day of being paranoid about running into fences.

Also, don't forget to sponsor me for the Great Strides Walk I'm doing out here on May 26th!

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!