The Follower
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2010
1
8
25
Trip End
Sep 15, 2010
Where I stayed
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Thursday, August 19, 2010
They get up every couple of hours, rattle enough bags to wake me up, pound around the floor for a while, then go back to bed. >:(
I'm awake since 5am. It's half eleven at night now. An Austrian girl (Marlene) moved into our room in the middle of the night last night, coming from Seattle, so it wasn't just the Koreans, but still.
I eventually got up around eight and had my breakfast and agonised over living environments online for the rest of the morning. It was grey and dull all day, so I had the oul' jeans back on for a change. I eventually persuaded myself to get out of the building, and I followed that lead on V to the CBC building. They were filming inside, so I saw no people, but there were plenty of trucks, which would be pretty exciting back home, so I made a big deal of it, and took some pictures. Hurrah!
Spurred on by this excitement, I went down to where they filmed Fringe last night (dammit dammit dammit, I coulda met famous people!) and took some more pictures, then wandered aimlessly north towards the water. I like this wandering aimlessly. It's a lot more productive than actually trying to find something, because I always stumble upon something I amn't expecting. Like today, I saw the Olympic flame thingamabob. And got a granny to take my picture! An odd sound was echoing off the buildings, so I headed down to the water to see what it could be, and oh my goodness, they have a water plane airport. I watched a few of them take off and land, and realised that I had also discovered Stanley Park, and the trees are about to change colour! Beautiful. Having nothing better to do, I turned and headed south, to the bottom of the Downtown peninsula (I dunno what to call it, do you have any better ideas?). Can ANYONE tell me how to get an apartment either there or up near Stanley park? There are SO. MANY. Howcome I can't have one? It's inexplicable.
I had a meeting with this guy called Oscar, who has a room in a flat on Granville, at 6pm. In my walkabouts today, I've discovered that Granville is the high street/low street (Sears and cigarette shops) and Burrard is where I oughta live (Sheraton and Fringe filming). Anyway, I turned up at the appointed time and phoned and phoned and phoned, and Oscar never answered. I left and went for pizza in a Megbites or something, and went back to the hostel and JUST had my laptop turned on when he called me. So I turned the whole thing off again and headed back out. And no. I will not be taking the tiny room with the mattress on the floor, the glass door, and sharing with five Mexicans.
Back, again, to the hostel, and Marlene was just in trying to sort something or other out at the desk, so we both slumped on the couch for a while in misery, before heading back up to the room. She asked to see pictures of Ireland, which I showed her, and I got shown everything there is to see in Seattle that she took pictures of. It took over an hour. :D She came to Canada in April, and has been working on an Alpaca farm in Kelowna for B&B. You DO meet interesting people in hostels, even if it is grotty.
Now, I am wrecked. I can't look at any more accommodations online, or I'll die, so I don't know what I'll do. I suppose I ought to know where I'll be working before I pick somewhere to live, but I need somewhere to live so I can get work. And I need to know what I want to work at and how to get into it to do any of that, and I have ZERO answers myself, so wow. Dug myself a hole here.
Comments
Why not try and blag yourself some work as a journalist??? Judging by your blogs, it is my honest opinion that you would be very good at it...... I want to go to Canada :( Instead I am moving back to Maynooth for what will hopefully be the final year of the PhD. Our new place is lovely though - none of thus undergrad sqaualor for me anymore :)) Hope all is well lady. When you get a place sorted i may just have to pop over for a visit :)) xxx
@Sonia You're far too nice, you know! Forget Maynooth, come over here now and we'll find a place together! :D Don't Maynooth still have Moodle? I can't believe you're going to be a PhD! I'm so proud of you! Yeah, the undergrad squalor days are gone for me too. That's part of the problem here. :P Which is why you have to come, NOW. :D
I agree with Sonia - the writing you know!
You would make a fun journalist :). Everyone would love your colums :).
As for the apartment question I actually have an answer. Just before Hong Kong was going back to China all the HK families bough apartments in Vancouver. There are entire ghost town areas of high rises that are all sold, and completely empty. HK didn' change as much as people were afraid of, but they keep the apartments just in case. Crazy crazy.