Hollywood North

Vancouver is often called Hollywood North because they film a lot of movies and TV shows up here. Sometimes just walking down the street you can see trailers and offices because somewhere nearby they're filming. Usually, you don't see too much of what they're filming though. My parents saw something down by Granville Island when they were here, but I had yet to see anything. So, I thought it was really cool when we drove past filming at a nearby coffee shop on my way to work. They were still there on my way home, so I snapped these sketchy photos from across the street.

Since we were also in the spirit at my trailers near Halloween, we made our own "prop", so I could have a cubicle-mate. We named him Steve after the engineer that used to sit across from me and he even has real Steve's likeness (thanks to my artistic skills). Fake Steve is alright, but doesn't bring me snacks like real Steve used to.

Another (unrelated to movies thing) that I was able to do this week was go see David Saint-Jacques speak at UBC. He's part of one of the latest astronaut classes and has quite the resume. The boyfriend thought it was something that I would like and it was great! Right now, David is working for NASA, usually with robotics. Unfortunately, UBC is very far away from the airport (especially on transit), so I was a little late.

Lauren Takes to the Air - Part 2

Warning: This is probably the longest blog post ever. I would suggest getting a going to the bathroom, getting a snack and finding a comfortable seat if you are going to read it. Don't say I didn't warn you. Also, there are cool pictures in the middle of the post, so if you don't want to read it all, at least scroll through and find the pictures!

Here it finally is . . . the trip to Calgary. Yeah, I know, that happened two weeks ago, but my life has been a bit hectic with work for the last two weeks. I think I'll leave that for a separate post because I want this to be all about that time that I went to Calgary to see my best friends!

The Friday that I left, I dragged my suitcase and backpack (which was also filled with work stuff) on my commute because I wanted to go straight to Calgary at work. It was pretty hard to focus that day because I was so excited to see the friends that I hadn't seen in four months! I'm pretty sure I was bouncing in my chair. Finally, 4:30 pm rolled around and one of my wonderful coworkers gave me a lift from the trailers to the terminal, so I didn't have to struggle along with my suitcase down the service road.

Since my flight was kind of at a weird time, my dinner that night consisted of chocolate banana bread from Starbucks, a bag of cashews, an apple and my water bottle (filled up AFTER security). I did have one little slowdown at security though. I had some medication to take with me that needed to stay cold. Instead of making a huge deal out of it by packing it in an unnecessarily large lunch bag, I put an ice pack, the medication and the prescription into a sock. I'm an engineering student, it was efficient. However, the security lady was pretty confused as to what was going on in the sock and made me unpack it, so she could check it out. Cool.

After a 10-minute delay (I think I just have bad luck with flying), we were finally boarded and ready to take off. The trip from Calgary is a brief 58-minute flight. That's pretty much how long it takes me to get to work! I was happy that we were served a snack though! For dessert to my random dinner at the terminal, I had a bag of weird, little chip things. Kind of like someone smushed a bag of Doritos, except they were supposed to be like that. It was awesome to go over the mountains because they are so much bigger than what we have close to Vancouver!

I had chosen to carry on my bag, so that I could get off as fast as possible, since I was losing an hour with the time difference. I was at the back of the plane and the wait was excruciating. I powered through the airport to find my way out (pretty abnormal for me considering how much I love airports), but my best friends were somewhere around here! I finally made it through the doors and Brittany was waiting to meet me! Everyone probably thought we were dating because I ran over and we were hugging and jumping around. She also turned bright red, as usual.

After that, we headed out to the car, which I was told not to make fun of because it was the only rental car available. We got out to the parking lot and Jaime and Angela were squished into the back of a silver Mustang. As I loaded my suitcase into the trunk, it looked like there was probably more room there than in the backseat of the car.

We drove through Calgary and it was very different than many of the other cities I had been to or lived in. There is A LOT of urban sprawl. High-density and medium-density just isn't a thing in Calgary. The houses also just keep going and going. It's also divided into quadrants. And neighbourhoods. Not suburbs (like of Toronto and Vancouver), but small divisions of the quadrants that all have basic services, like banks and grocery stores. It could get pretty confusing if you aren't familiar with it . . . or even if you are! I could feel all of the knowledge from my Society and Space geography class coming back to me as we drove.

We spent about 45 minutes at the house before going to meet up with some other friends. There are a lot of people from Guelph in Calgary. We stopped briefly at one of the residences at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) where we may or may not have snuck in. As soon as we got off the elevator, a friend from Guelph we didn't even know was going to be there, saw us and ran out from a lounge on the floor. Very random! After that stop, we were headed to downtown Calgary. We got to take the train, the CTrain, which I had to clarify was not the "Sea"Train, since we have the SkyTrain in Vancouver. Yes, I know that "sea" would not make any sense in Calgary. Although I am directionally-challenged, it's not that bad! I think an accurate description of how excited I was can be found here. It totally freaked me out though how the train tracks run right across roads and walkways. There are gates telling you to look for trains, but nothing really to stop you from just walking in front of them. Yikes!

After our exciting train ride, we did some walking around. I couldn't tell you where we were or where we went, but I can tell you that I managed to sustain some injuries on the walk. I was excitedly walking and talking to friends and didn't see the leg of the construction sign sticking out in front of me on the sidewalk, right about shin-height. I think a lot of other people saw it coming, but it was too late to warn me. That bruise is still going away, even two weeks later. About 30 seconds that happened, I stepped off a curb and rolled my ankle. On the same leg that had slammed into the construction sign. It was pretty impressive though, I think, because I fell all the way down to my knee and somehow recovered and kept walking.

There were lines all over the place and we ended up at some sort of country bar. We spent our time chatting and playing buck hunter. That experience should be pretty good proof that I am not a hunter. I should never, ever go hunting. My hand-eye coordination is not good, AT ALL. We didn't stay out too late because we had plans to go to Lake Louise for a hike the next day!

We got up bright and early(ish) for Lake Louise the next day. After making some breakfast, we packed up and headed out. Jaime was getting very excited once we started to get close to the mountains. She probably could have set her camera to just take video, considering how often she was sticking her phone between the front seats and taking pictures, haha. We got to the entrance to Banff and didn't even have to wait long to get in. Along the way, we saw a group of cars pulled over to the side of the road. There was a moose taking a bath in one of the rivers! (No, Erin, we didn't want to shoot it.) Also, all of the water we could see was a turquoise colour. It was so pretty! We got caught up in some traffic because a camping trailer, attached to a car, had ended up in a ditch and been blown apart by the impact. It looked like everyone was okay, but they wouldn't be using the trailer ever again.

We thought we would have trouble finding a parking spot (and we were nervous about where to safely leave the Mustang), but we were pretty lucky to see a car pulling out a spot . . . just as we had passed by it. However, I wasn't losing that spot! I jumped out of the car and stood in it until Brittany could back up. Pretty sure everyone else hated us.

After walking down to the lake and lunching on sandwiches that my lovely friends had made the day before, we took the cliche shots in front of Lake Louise. We're just SO HAPPY to see each other. I think we need travelling pants. It's that happy. Then, we ventured towards the trails. We were pretty ambitious when first choosing a trail, but it became pretty clear that my chicken legs weren't going to handle that. Angela took the backpack from me and we ended up going to a look-out, which gave the chance for another photo op and some great views of the area. Eventually, some other friends found us and we ventured a little further, to a steep, rocky area. Jaime found an inukshuk and Brittany kept saying she wanted to see a bear. Um, no thanks. After spending some time up there (and getting rained on), we headed back down to walk around the lake. It was a pretty long walk and we took plenty more pictures. We also saw that a wedding had been taking place recently. That would be a pretty cool location for it!

After tiring ourselves out, we headed back towards Calgary. I definitely fell asleep in the car, only to wake up when we pulled into a McDonald's in Canmore. Yum, fries! We had plans to visit downtown again that night, but considering how exhausted we were, we decided to make a "family" dinner instead and hang out in the hot tub. Worked for me!

On Sunday, we had breakfast and then it was time to take Angela and Jaime to the airport. So sad! We said good-bye and Brittany and I headed back to the house to relax. I wasn't leaving until late that night! Somehow, being in Calgary made my voice come back. (You might remember it was pretty much gone from the Ontario trip.) This was great because Brittany and I could talk! Since we had made so much food that weekend, we decided to go for lunch/dinner after dropping the car off. We found a Montana's and that filled us right up. I had the Chipotle Firecracker Burger, which was really good, except for the fact that I kept ending up with deep-fried jalepenos in my mouth, as much as I tried to remove them from the burger before taking a bite.

Since we didn't have the car anymore, another friend from Guelph was able to drop me off at the airport. I got there right on time, but of course, with my bad luck, the hour flight to Vancouver (okay, actually an hour and seventeen minutes) was an hour delayed! I had some chocolate milk and talked to my parents while waiting and finally got on the flight. I had an emergency exit row seat with lots of leg room and enjoyed more of the chip things.

The boyfriend was waiting for me when I got back (he's the best!) and I went straight home to bed. What a great weekend!

Volunteering and Planespotting

Just like at my last co-op job, the engineers here are also involved in helping the community. My first Friday working at the airport, I was at there bright and early to participate in the "FOD Walk" (FOD = foreign object debris), where we picked up FOD around the airport. Then, we had our own "TOD Walk" (TOD = trailer object debris). Yeah, the acronym doesn't work out quite as well, but I'm over it. Tomorrow morning, a bunch of us are heading out to Burnaby for the morning to help with the set-up of a new food bank. The cool part about this food bank is that the people who coordinate it are trying to make it more dignified for the people who use it. So, really, we're setting up a "grocery store" of sorts. That'll be new for me, since I've never worked in retail! People will be able to come in and pick up what they need from the shelves, just like grocery shopping! I'll get back to you on how it goes!

In other volunteering news, I have a Sparks unit!! I will get to be a Sparks leader for the four months of the Sparks "season" that I'm out here! It turns out that I'll also be the most experienced of the bunch, as they have just had a big turnover in the leaders for the unit. My four years of experience gives me the most seniority (although, my seventeen years also does too, likely). I'm excited to meet the leaders and the girls and have the opportunity to share ideas all the way from Ontario! Now all I need to do is pick up my Guiding shirt and camp hat when I'm home in a few weeks. The only downside to the situation is that the yoga class I have been trying is on the same night. So, I'll be finding a new to go to, if I still like it by then.

On that note, I can walk this week after yoga! My hamstrings seem to have figured themselves out and this week I came out of the class feeling like I had a great workout, instead of a painful stretching session. Although, I have been feeling the burn in my shoulder, arm, leg and hip muscles for these two days. I also love that I can walk to and from the class! (And there's a market that's still open after the class on the walk to I can refuel with a chocolate milk!)

I'm going to finish off this post by saying again how nice my commute is! I've been able to sit at the windows of the SkyTrain a few times this week and I'm pretty sure I looked like a little kid when the planes went over. They're so close!! These pictures don't even do any justice. You can practically see the people in the plane. It's the coolest thing!

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.

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?

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!