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Published: July 21st 2013
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Greetings from the West coast!! It's been a strange few days, good on the whole but still a little strange.
I got to Vancouver late afternoon on Monday and first impressions of the place (on the trip from the airport to the youth hostel) are that it's a very pretty place. Ringed my mountains to the north and the ocean to the west, you don't have to go very far to get a nice view and there are lots of trees and green spaces around.
The youth hostel I'm staying in is nice and in a good location, very close to the English Bay and Stanley Park and right off of Davie Street which is in the heart of the gay district. Davie Street is pretty much just tiny restaurant after tiny restaurant, punctuated every so often by a coffe shop or a *cough*aldult entertainment shop*cough* but it's a fun place and has some great food.
Tuesday was my orientation session with WorkNHoliday who are the people that act as my support while I'm here. There was a lot of info to take in, but after the session I went to get my Social Insurance number which I
need to be able to work and then I got a bank account setup and also a canadian mobile number.
I will then admit to spending most of Tuesday evening, more than a little freaked out about the enormity of this undertaking. I think it was probably to do with getting all the official stuff setup. Doing that stuff is the first real commitment I've made to staying here and it all seemed very final all of a sudden and so I freaked out a little. But it didn't take me long to get a grip on myself and go back to being a rational human being :-P
Added to the stress of getting all the info and then panicking about all the whatifs (not finding a job, not finding an apartment etc) is that little bit of stress that comes with being in a new place for the first time. And that's not new, it comes anywhere I travel that I've not been before, but it never takes long to settle in.
So Wednesday I set off to do the classic tourist thing - hop on hop off bus tours. I would honestly recommend these to
anyone going into a city for the first time and I've done them in pretty much every place I've travelled before. Quality of the stops depends on the city and what it has to offer but they are usually a reasonable price and give you a good overview of the layout of a place and help get your bearings and most of them have a live commentary thats fun and informative. I did a loop around the city and then transferred to another loop around Stanley park and took a break in the park for lunch before finishing the loop in the aftenoon.
Thursday morning I set out and walked down to English Beach in English Bay (seemed appropriate) and the carried on along the coast up to Stanley Park where I walked the entire length of the seawall. It's a stunning walk to do with lots of little stops along the way and great views. It's a very long walk though :-P
Friday I took it a bit easier to give my poor feet a break and went over to Granville island to have a look around and enquire about some kayaking lessons. I'm hoping to start
a beginners course the first week in August to learn the skills and confidence to be able to go kayaking without being part of a tour group.
After that I started having a look online for apartment/rental listings and went to view my first one that afternoon. It was nice and the girl I'd be sharing with was nice, but it's a bit further out than I was hoping to live. It's not likely I'll get it as I was one of the last to view it but the positive to take from it is that getting to see it involved taking a bus and I managed to get there and back without getting lost!!
Today I went to see another place which was a basement suite, sharing with an english guy. It's a nice place in a pretty quiet neighbourhood and the people that own the house seem lovely, so we'll see what happens with that. There are a couple of other places I've found and am waiting to hear about too so with any luck I'll have a real place to live by August 1st
The guys at WorkNHoliday have told me there is a job fair tomorrow for part time staff at the Rogers Arena so I think I will go check it out. I reckon I could be one of those people that scans your tickets or takes you to your seat :-)
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