Day 6: A lot brighter

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Hey everyone!! This edition should be a lot more upbeat than the last one. I've seen/experienced a couple of the more amazing things in the last couple of days.

Wednesday was not very exciting. I made no attempt to get up early and even finished season 4 of Californication that I started the night before. I ventured up to the most expensive supermarket I've ever seen in my life. It was called Buy-Low and was even recommended by reception at the hostel as a cheap place to go so it was very disappointing. Especially as I came back looking like a drowned rat. I've now learnt that the larger drugs stores are the best place for groceries (except fruit and bread). The rain did end up going away and I went and got my SIN, which is the same as a TFN back home. I printed off some resumes and headed up Granville St, but nobody was hiring. It seems I would have to wait at least a month until they're thinking about hiring.

Later on that night I met a few people that only checked in that day. I met three guys on their way to Whistler. I hit it off well and they invited me to join them at the Burlesque night at the bar directly opposite us. They were ready to go but I stayed back and had some of my vodka as I didn't have any cash. Then something amazing happened. I was in my room meeting my new roommate and got a knock on the door. It was the receptionist and he asked my last name. When I reponded a voice from the hallway said "I have your wallet". He had found it lying on the street (explains why I didn't see it when I walked back there) and had handed it to a security guard. He went back a couple of days later and they still had it. He found me because I still had the receipt from when I checked into the hostel, which had the address. I can't tell you how good it felt that someone would do that for a complete stranger. This is when I got half-pissed (or fully, because the night went very quickly!) ans started posting stuff on facebook about karma. I do, however, genuinely believe that I would do something similar if I was in the same position as that guy (I did get his name but I've forgotten) so maybe it could be something like that. I started telling everyone who would listen about what had just happened. and this is when I started meeting people (finally)! I met a girl from Taiwan named Linda, she is so cute, always laughing. Then a couple of German girls who checked in that night (Kathy and Janina) and Elena, an Italian girl who i had already spoken to a couple of times. I did end up going to the burlesque night but it is a bit blurry. I did try to chat up a couple of the dancers but I woke up at the hostel so i guess it didn't work!!

Thursday I woke up and the sun was out!! Instantly i knew my plan was to go to Stanley Park via the waterfront, where i wanted to get some good photos of the Northshore. Picture this: a body of water with lots of boats, ships and seaplanes, a small city (North Vancouver) on the other side and some snow-capped mountains right behind them. At the Hastings St intersection I was given a copy of the New Testament by a complete stranger. He then prayed for me. Could you imagine what I was thinking about humanity at that point, after what had happened the night before? When I got to Stanley Park I went straight to Vancouver Aquarium. I got to see some Sea Otters, which are really cool with they they swim on their backs and how playful they are. Their coat is incredibly soft and thick as well (apparently they can spend their entire life in the water and their skin will never get wet). I also saw some Belugas, Pacific White-sided Dolphins, jellyfish (good photos of them) and poison frogs. They had an Amazon exhibit which was really good and I got to see Caiman Crocodiles and an Anaconda. When I went to underwater view of the dolphins, I saw one of the most amazing things anyone could ever see: a little kid was playing with a stuffed toy dolphin they had got from the gift shop and, on the other side of the window, one of the actual dolphins was also playing with the stuffed toy! I was mesmerised. It sucked too because that little kid probably won't even remember it in a couple of years and someone like me probably would've cried if it happened to me. Got a few happy snaps there. By the time I was done at the aquarium it was a too late to see the rest of the park so that will have to wait until the next sunny day. The view of the Northshore was even better as the sun I had a quiet night in and got chatting to Kathy and Janina again and they got me to sign up with Couch Surfers. It is a site that mainly hooks you up with people who have a spare bed or couch to sleep on for free. They've been using it across Canada and it also provides other ways to meet people and jobs and what-not.

Friday morning I was chatting with Kathy and Janina over brekky and they invited me to hang with them for the day. It was another dry day and went to Burnaby (5 minutes on the skytrain) and walked around a park. It wasn't much but I did get to see a squirrel for the first time. There were shitloads of them! They're pretty cute and I even got to hand-feed a couple of them but I only got a photo of Kathy doing it. We came back to our station and walked to the Granville Island market. We went via Broadway because I wanted to see what it was all about. Heaps of restaurants and sports/adventure shops is all I can say about it. The markets were in a nice setting by the water and some of the food looked awesome but it was actually pretty expensive. Usually when I think of a market I think of things being cheaper. I only bought lunch there (I got some Polish food called perogies). The Granville Island brewery was also closed for renovation which was a little sucky as well. We definitely put some miles in the legs that day. On the way home we stopped at a bottle shop to get some pre-drinks. Janina got knocked back because her ID looked like it was photocopied. It turns out it is!!! What a pisser. Now I've had my dinner and jst waiting to head out. I think we'll be going to Granville St but we'll see.

Til next time!!!

PS: I forgot to mention n the last blog entry that Ian ended up finding me on facebook. I was stoked!

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Comments

[kathy knee]

Hi
Hi Jason, sounds like your having a great time, doing a bit of sight seeing too and making friends hope you get a bit of work soon, I am enjoying reading your entries. Luv always and take care.