Ice games and little strain

Thankfully life here in BC has become rather stable now. As I sit in my room, I can safely look around it and know that I'm actually in my room and not just a room in an apartment on West 13th. My desk is adorned with things that resemble who I am (mementos from back home, Nintendo DS game covers, books etc). My clothes litter the floor around my bed. There's a hockey poster on the wall. Yep. It's fair to say that life at home has now reached settling point and I can actually call it just that.. Home.

So what's been happening? Last friday night, my housemate invited a bunch of his friends over to our apartment for a housewarming, to celebrate his birthday, to celebrate my arrival (any excuse will do really). Overall it went pretty well. Got to meet a whole bunch of new people (all pretty awesome folk from what I can remember!), find out a bit about Vancouver and the Canadian culture itself and swap tales of back home. The most interesting and fun part for me was playing up to the Aussie stereotype and go back and forth with it ("Crikey!"). It's the sort of thing that after having witness it happen with travellers back home in Australian surroundings, it was interesting to finally be on the other side of it. I absolutely loved it! Of course, when drinking games occur (which a person was surprised to find that we hardly play any back home) then the rest of the evening becomes a haze. Suffice to say, I lost this particular game rather badly (I think it was called 'Ride the Bus' or something). Next thing I know, I'm waking up in my bed and wondering where my pants are.

That saturday morning I was awoken to find my housemate, Ryan, scrambling to get downtown to meet up with a friend (the same one that met up with us at St Patricks Day) for ziplining across Vancouver. As part of the olympic celebrations that took place, one of them was a zipline set up over the city itself. It was free but it had a ridiculous line wait of something like 6 hours. I murmured something along the lines of "I'll be half an hour behind you" and plonked back to sleep. An hour later, a rushed change of clothes and a short bus ride later and I'm downtown trying to figure out where the hell they are. Ryans friend, bless her, had been waiting in line since 9am and with some clever banter with one of the supervisors, got me into where they were waiting in line. About 5 hours later in line (where we complained, bonded and made articulate observations about our surroundings) and we were hooked up in harness gear and climbing to the top of the zipline tower..

Top of the zipline tower

Admittedly, I was pretty freaking nervous going up because heights never fully agreed with me. But after you stop climbing stairs and get up there, then it just becomes rather breathtaking instead as you look out over the CBD. Unfortunately my iPhone was in our friends jacket so I couldn't grab any shots.. But it was awesome!

Zip.

Fly.

BAM - reach the other side.

That was fun.

After a well earned meal at Speakeasy afterwards (where I tried my first Canadian burger, which is actually just a normal burger but with bacon on it according to the menu) we walked around downtown.. 

.. Before making our way to BC Place and GM Place (AKA 'Canada Hockey Place' during the Olympics). BC Place is where the Olympics were held, and my god, the absolute size and scale of the place was purely epic! To know that just a few weeks ago all the stuff I was watching on TV took place at this location was awe-inspiring to me.

Right next door to it was one location I'd been hanging out for desperately..

It was awesome to finally be here. And lucky for us, there was the Detroit Red Wings visiting that night, so I got to see the streets surrounding it littered with blue Vancouver Canucks jerseys and White/Red Red Wings jerseys. The streets had an amazing amount of Canucks paraphernalia surrounding the arena and was overall really cool to see. Before we left I took a moment to think about how just a few weeks ago, Sidney Crosby scored an overtime goal to get Canada the gold medal in mens hockey.. Cool stuff for any hockey fan!

That evening we went to the Media Club to see a band called Postdata, which are the side project of 2 of the members from the band Wintersleep. It was a quaint and tiny venue, capacity about 150 or so max. Awesome intimate gig with some amazing vocals, awesome acoustic and performances by artists that were genuinelly loving what they did. One thing that amazed me about people that go to see live music in Vancouver is when the artist plays everybody shuts up and looks at them. It shows an immense respect for the performer(s) and I was utterly impressed that this was just another facet of Canadian culture itself.

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Afterwards, I got to walk through downtown at midnight (on our way home).. When the city lights up, it doesn't look anything like it does during the day. And unfortunately all my photos came out terrible and unfocused.. But I did manage to get one of Hudson Bay.. It's hard to put into perspective how big the Olympic banners they had were (due to how shit the iPhone camera is).. But hopefully you can get an idea..

The week thus far..

Friday morning.. And it's safe the say that this is probably the most productive week on my entire life. From settling in on Day 1 to a room that had a dismantled desk and a half-made bed.. To now having a complete room, to having a phone sorted (and, consequently, joining the horde of iPhone legion), a laptop and having my room set up just the way I like it.

On Wednesday I had a trapse around our local area. The surrounding scenery behind Vancouver is just absolutely breathtaking. You can see the mountain ranges and the snow villages from just about anywhere. I'm still trying to identify which is which.. But when I see Whistler, I stop and wave at my friends that are currently trapped living there.

Cnr West Broadway and Fir st. Our local Timmys and Gym w/ accompanying backdrop

The nearby streets are immaculately spotless. The architechure of everywhere around here is just so fresh and unique as well, ranging from timeless classic houses/apartment blocks to monstrous glass modern buildings that looked like they were designed by Swedes on acid. The trees and wildlife are cool as well. 

What completely took me by surprise is the presence of cherry blossoms (my favorite tree)..

The weather has been as cold as expected, but not as evil as I was anticipating, which is nice. It's like constantly being in a Sydney winter. It rained the first 2 days, but for the rest of this week the sun has been out. The cold breeze is to be expected, but it ranges from subtle and discreet, to gale-like. Either way - it's not invasive. In my opinion the weather has been perfect - god knows I'm sick to death of humidity and 20+ degrees.

On Wednesday (St Patties day) I took it easy, due to having been on my feet for the past few days and still being completely and utterly jetlagged to death. It was a good opportunity to set up and play with my new iPhone and take in some local TV and dining. TSN (the sports channel) focuses so heavily on hockey that it makes my heart sing.

My housemate, Ryan, and I went to Costco that evening and bought some groceries. I was absolutely gobsmacked to finally find Reeses cereal. It's like eating Reeses candy - but for breakfast! You don't know how badly I'd wanted peanut butter/chocolate-based cereal until now.

Went to a local restaurant/pub and got some typical pub food (Burgers, nachoes etc which heavily outclassed any pub food I've had in Brisbane). Met my first few rounds of locals as well. Everybody is absolutely friendly as hell! It doesn't matter what situation you're in (wether waiting in line at Timmys or sitting next to a stranger at a bar) everybody is smiling and ready for a chat. Suffice to say, the closest thing I've come to a rude person here was somebody trying to get passed me on the escalator.. "scuse!" (I accidentally stood on the left, which is the norm in Australia.. But in Canada, everyone stands on the right).

That night was Saint Patties day, so we gout our Guiness on at the *other* local pub and met up with one of Ryans mates - a girl named Dee. The pub eventually got ridiculously packed while we all sat around the table and discussed cultural differences. I got my linguistics up to speed (IE: Pronouncing 'Quebec' properly) and got a taste of the local dialect. After too many Guinesses and Lucky Charms (don't ask) we stumbled back to our apartment and I got to finally appreciate just how close we live to everything.

Yesterday I got around to finally exploring Downtown Vancouver (where the meat and bones of the city is). And unfortunately, I had left my camera behind. First thing was first, getting my social security number (success) and then hitting up the Winter Olympic megastore. The store was busy as hell and filled with EVERYTHING Olympic-related! Everything that is except for Team Canada hockey jerseys. They had toddler sizes though, so I grabbed one for my little brother ;)

The size of all the buildings, posters and monuments are truly epic in every sense of the word. Buildings were plastered with Godzilla-size pictures of Canadian Olympians and GO CANADA GO logos. It's safe to say that you can't go 3 metres without running into a Canadian flag or Maple Leaf. These people truly are patriotic in every sense of the word, and you know it's not based on xenophobia at all (*cough* CronullaSouthernCross *cough*). Unfortunately the Art Gallery had a huuuge line out the front, all of which should die down when the Olympics are over, so I'll go and fully explore what Downtown has to offer when that happens..

Also passed the 'nightlife' district of Downtown. One place 'Venue' had their upcoming artists for the month and I nearly spat my coffee out when I saw who was playing.. Electric Six next week.. RJD2.. Jamie Cullum.. Tech N9ne.. Rob Zombie.. Hawthorne Heights.. Angels & Airwaves all just to name a few that stuck out in my head.

Last night Ryan took me out to dinner at his familys place at White Rock, which is the lower lands. Not quite Vancouver. I can't describe the area without repeating myself already.. But basically it looks like a residential scenery that you'd find in some US show based in the mountains, or like Northern Exposure (but not quite). I'll get pics.. Suffice to say, his mum, his sister and her boyfriend are all lovely people. His mum served up a delicious homecooked meal of BBQ ribs and various vegetables and breads (yummm). Then we all sat down with a beer in the loungeroom and watched the San Jose Sharks vs Vancouver Canucks NHL game that was occuring. Listening to Ryans mum talk about hockey was like listening to my mum talk about AFL, she knew every player and commented on plays that occured.. It was foreign to me, but OH SO AWESOME!

Today has been a constructive write-off. Having only just acquired my laptop yesterday, I've been spending most of the day setting it up and getting my old data off the portable HDD and uploading photos. It's not even lunchtime yet though, so there'll be some more jobseeking and topping the evening off with holding a mixer at our apartment. This saturday we're heading down to the city and going on a zipline over the city, followed going to a concert that night to see one of Ryans' and his friends favorite local bands and possibly heading to Whistler on sunday for a glimpse of the snow village life!

I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream in my cartigan

Every assumption was correct so far. This city is absolutely blazing with life and has a constant safe yet entertaining atmosphere about it.

Hi, my name is Bede Timms. And I am now officially a faux-Canadian. 

The flight to LAX was brilliant. Not just because V Australia blasted "Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA" twice in the cabin (before and after touching down) but their service decrees that they really are the best airline I've ever been on. The fact I was on premium economy has alot to do with it. When you're trapped in a chair for 12 hours, the least any human deserves is a shitload of leg space. A TV in front of you that gives you any recent movie and TV series and unlimited booze at the snap of a finger. It also helps that flight attendant was an awesome dude who was full of conversation. Everybody loves a bartender who has a chat with them, I enjoy an airbourne bartender who knows you want a Bacardi and coke and has an awesome anecdote and Q&A session to go with it.

I ended up making friends with the girl sitting next to me. A 22 year old who lives out in a hippy commune in North California. A true icon of small country town living with a USA twist. Cool person.

The security at LAX is NOT as daunting as I've been told. 2 checkpoints is not exactly the peak of stress. But sergeant buzzcut who told me I filled out the wrong Visa form was. Not because I had to fill out the same details on a different coloured piece of paper.. But because the 32 people who lined up after me had to be dealt with before I did.

Going to Calgary was a clusterfuck due to how utterly messy LAX terminal 2 is though. Trust me when I say that Australian airports have it easy.. At least it's obvious where you're meant to be going half the time. It was completely overwhelming to be flying over Nevada and was absolutely breathtaking. It's like a big giant scene from Man vs Wild, but being looked at like it's a giant Lego town. That's the best description I can give. I have photos from the plane, but they can't be uploaded until I buy a laptop. The terminal itself was a breath of fresh air compared to LAX though. Customs were friendly (due to them being Canadian.. and OH YES! It's true what they say - Canadians really are the most friendliest people!) and my immigration Visa was approved with only a handful of questions and a flashing of my documents (wink wink nudge nudge). The best part is my 2 years here is now confirmed. I thought I'd have to reapply for my Visa at the end of my first.. But it turns out when they ask you "How long do you want to stay for?" that REALLY IS how long you're going to be there for.

So right about now I'm utterly jet lagged and rather sleep deprived. In total I got about 40 mins nap on the LAX flight, 20 mins on the Calgary flight and 45 mins on the Vancouver flight. But that didn't stop us from finishing up Ryan (my housemates) birthday. We went for a walk downtown and saw a few landmarks, like the Stanley Theatre and the plethora of shops available that are just 3 minutes walk from our apartment. We ended up at the Cactus Club where I was treated to 3 huge TVs playing the current Calgary Flames vs Detroit Red Wings game. Various people cheered around the place when one team or the other would score, but we were too busy eating and drinking to take heavy notice. I'm still overwhelmed by the hockey atmosphere here already. It's so utterly strong. I tried a Canadian burger (AWESOME) and drank some Canadian beer (Udder Ale) and am now enjoying the apartment atmosphere with some homebrew and some TV/games. 

And, oh yes, our apartment is officially FUCKING SWEET! It almost feels like home already.

Pics are coming after I buy my laptop tomorrow and my iPhone, other than that, tomorrows agenda is basically exploring downtown and walking all around the city.