The longest night of my life!!!

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So, where did I leave off last time??? That's right, I was packing my things up to go to my hostel.

The next morning, I checked out of my nice hotel, left my bags there for the day and went for a wonder around the city. I have been told by Troy to stay away from Hastings and Maine Rds if I want to live, lol. I did honestly take the warning seriously, so you could understand that I was quite shocked when I found myself accidently on these roads on my walk. I wanted to go to Gastown, but took the wrong road. So when I saw these ferel looking skanks walking the street and drunks being kicked out of pubs, I looked at the street sign and realised where I was, freaked out and got the hell out of there. Sorry Troy, I did listen, honest.

After that encounter, I finally got myself on the right track and found Gastown, the oldest part of Vancouver. I slowly walked back towards the middle of town looking and shopping. I bought myself a charm of a maple leaf for my charm bracelet and a few more souviners, had lunch at a pub which was painted and furnished in black, the only light was the daylight coming through the window, made me really tired sitting there and I must admit, the food really wasn't that great. I tried another Canadian beer with lunch, Granville Island Honey Ale, the first couple of mouthfuls tasted like I was actually drinking honey, by the end of the glass, the taste had lost the taste a bit, but I didn't really enjoy that either.

I thought I'd better find where my hostel was, so I headed in the direction of it. My first impression on walking into the lobby was, 'this doesn't look too bad.' I checked in, then headed back to the hotel which was about a kilometer away and got my stuff, after 2 taxi's having a fight over who was in the line first, I finally piled everything in and headed back to the hostel. Mmm, no lift, shit! I had to throw my big bag on my back, my backpack on my front and then drag my suitcase up the 20 or so stairs, I finally found my room, dumped my stuff and tood a look around my new room. 2 bunk beds, 4 lockers and a window. How depressing! I locked my laptop in my locker along with my passport and went to have a look around the hostel. I found the bathroom at the far end of the coridoor, and the common room which had a pool table, fuseball table, a few vending machines, 4 computers, 3 phones, a TV room and a kitchen. I called Mum to say hello, jumped on the net for half an hour then went to check if I had any room mates yet. No one had arrived still. I went downstairs to the Beaver, thats the bar in the hostel, ordered some dinner and a heineken and joined a girl who was sitting by herself. She was from Switzerland and had been working in Whistler for the last 6 months. We talked for about an hour until she went back upstairs. Again, I went up to see if I had any room mates, still no one. I was beginning to think I had the room to myself. I went back downstairs and sat at the bar watching the (ice) hockey and ordered a beaver beer. My verdict? Out of the 4 beers I've tried here, that had to be the best so far.

After half an hour, I had finished my beer and realised there were a bunch of people checking in, after a coupleof minutes I made my way up to my room to see who my roomy's were. Three Germans. Now I have nothing against Germans, but when you are the only one in the room who doesn't speak the language, makes things a wee bit hard. Anyway, one of the spoke pretty good english and we got to talking a little bit and one of the other girls joined on for bits and peices but the other one refused to speak english. I found out that there was a big group of them that were on a program and were doing the orientation with me the next day. We all went for a walk and ended up down at the harbour. Vanouver were playing hockey and it was on the bigscreen, there were alot of people standing around watching it and I didn't realised until they scored that there were people in cars on he side of the road watching cos they all beeped there horns and cheered. The girls were feeling tired as they had just flown in so we headed back to the hostel, I was feeling quite tired myself and found myself going to bed when they all went, the bed, not sure you could actually call it that. as soon as you laid on it, you could feel lumps and it would mould around you body, was so not comfortable. And I was not at all happy though when I could hear them talking amongst themselves at 4am this morning. After a while, they went back to sleep, but only for an hour and half or so, I was awake and up at 630am, cos all I could hear were all of them getting dressed and talking. I have never felt lonely when I was surrounded by people. But when they all just talk between themselves and don't speak english, not good.

So this morning, I met Connie from TamInternational, the partner to CCUSA. It was good to have someone to actually talk english to. She took us all to parts of the city, to the office where she works, pointed out different banks and the different perks to each one, then to get our social security numbers. We then had a 3 hour break to have lunch and work out mobile phones and whatever else. I ended up checking into my next hotel and working out wireless for my laptop. I think it's all sorted. At 1530, we meet back up in a classroom and went through a booklet on Canada, how to find a job, how to find an apartment, where the best area is to live, blah, blah, blah. I don't have to worry about that for at least 6 months.

Afterwards, I went to collect my collection of bags from the hostel and went my hotel. How nice to have a room to myself again and a proper bed. Anyone would think I'm being stuck up, but I just love my comfort. I had dinner at the Sharks Club downstairs and watched a bit of the hockey. That brings you up to speed with where I'm at, at the moment. Until next time xxx

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Photos

Steam Clock
Steam Clock in Gastown

The Winter Olympic Cauldron
This will be its new home

The Dancing Bear
A radio was having a promotion of some kind and this bear was dancing around the street, so cute

Police Bike
They have Harley's as Police Bikes here

Comments

[deleted_148441]

STACY! OMG! I can't believe you ended up on those streets. I hope you got out of there okay!!