I LEFT MY CAMERA ON A BUS and I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT

Ok, so. No photos today.

I have had a couple of quiet days recently, which I have actually really enjoyed, but today I went to Grouse Mountain with Rob and some other UBC people who've just arrived. I caught a different bus to them and we met at the entrance to the mountain. Rob introduced me to everyone, I said hi and immediately forgot all of their names, and then Rob said '...I probably should have mentioned that we're hiking up there.'

Then I noticed that everyone else was wearing shorts and I was the only one in jeans. I thought briefly I could go and buy a water bottle and just deal with it, but then I remembered that day in year ten when I walked up Rangitoto in jeans, and almost died, and took another look at the mountain and thought 'get fucked.' I decided I'd take the skylift up and fill in an hour and a half or whatever while they all killed themselves walking up. That meant I spent a lot more money than everyone else, but I don't want to talk about that either okay. It's alright. I've saved heaps of money living with my relatives and this is the first actually expensive thing I've done so it's fine.

I watched a couple of cheesey videos about the history of Grouse Mountain and the life of the two orphan grizzly bears who live up there, and by the time I was done with that most of the others had made it up. Rob is a man of few words, and when I asked him how it was he just said 'it was hard.' His face said it all really. When I was going up on the skylift and I saw how it was almost vertical towards the top I knew I'd made the right choice. It was one of those things where you think 'sweet, I can totes do that' and then you think about it for two seconds and realise that after all the working out you haven't been doing in the last month it would probably literally kill you. You guys would understand if you'd been there.

So next we did a chir lift, which was at once fun and a bit terrifying (I always spend half of those things having fun and the other half convinced I'm about to face my death), looked at the grizzly bears and watched the last half of a bird show. We also went to a lumberjack show, which was as my uncle promised 'a hoot'. It involved these two incredibly talented and good-looking guys climbing poles and incredible speeds, chopping wood, throwing axes and finished with a log-running competition (that's when you have to try and stay on the log while it's spinning round and not fall in the water). Both of them got totally soaked, but the guy representing my half of the audience won, and he ran past the front row and gave us all high-fives. I was right at the end so he gave me a hug, and I felt very special and then a bit damp.

That was pretty much it for Grouse Mountain, so we took the skylift back down and caught a bus back. I transferred to another bus before going home, so I'm not sure which one I left my camera on. I tried calling lost property but they're not answering their phone, so I sent an email and now I'm just putting it out of my mind. It does kind of suck of course, but stuff like this happens. I only had a few photos on there that I don't have on my laptop, and I'll be going back to Grouse (hopefully on a day that has a better view) so it's not the end of the world. Electronics are cheap here, so if it doesn't show up (and I'm optimistic that it will, Vancouverites are very good people after all) I can probably replace it for $40 or maybe less. It won't be as good, but honestly my camera has like a million functions and I only understand about two of them. I never use it to do anything except take photos, so I just need a basic model.

I know I could have the reaction of getting upset and angry at myself and whatever but I'm really trying to avoid negative thoughts like that here. It doesn't achieve anything. And anyway I knew and I keep reminding myself that things WILL go wrong. It happens. You get stopped at the border going back into Canada. You leave your camera on a bus. Life goes on.

So sorry if there aren't any photos for a couple of days people :( I'll get it sorted out soon.

Claire

Lynn Canyon

In Vancouver there's this tourist attraction called Capilano Suspension Bridge, which charages people thirty dollars to cross a really long, really high bridge. There's some other stuff offered too, but the bridge is the main attraction, and indeed it does attract hundreds of tourists every year. I myself was playing around with the idea of checking it out, until my family told my it was overpriced and overrated.

Instead, I was pointed to Lynn Canyon, a similar adventure for no cost. It was a single bus ride there and back too, so around midday yesterday I met up with Rob at the quay and we made our way over there. The bus took us very close to the actul park and we only had to walk about ten minutes.

The bridge was pretty high I guess. It didn't seem that high when I looked at it, but when I looked down I did get a bit of a rush. It was very beautiful regardless.

Once you cross the bridge, there's a couple of pathways that lead you downwards into the woods.

That's Rob there.

Eventually there's a lake you come to. It's very secluded, and apart from the dragonflies and bees, there's really not much life down there. I was very conscious of the lack of native bird calls. The woods are much quieter here.

As a free attraction, Lynn Canyon did not disappoint, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who visits Vancouver. At the moment the only real thing Capilano has over it is that Matt Damon was spotted there a few minutes ago (goddamn it).

So today was another kind of quiet day. I went to Costco for the first time in my life and bought a book called The Help, which has recently been made into a movie starring the lovely Emma Stone. I don't know about the movie, I think the trailer makes it look pretty cliched and predictable, but the book got good reviews and I figure if nothing else I can write about it in Craccum. We also went to a gelato place called Le Casa Gelato, which has 218 flavours in store at any one time and over 500 created. Some of the more interesting optionsincluded lavender, garlic, lemon-mint and peanut butter curry.

This was my eventual choice, after many smaples. The top flavour is Chocolate Raspberry Truffle and the bottom is Vanilla Peanut Butter Cups. DECADENT!

 

 

 

 

 

I've also been trying some other stuff not available in NZ. The other day I had some peach and wildberry nerds, which were a bit gross actually. I still ate them, because they were nerds, but I don't think that's going to be a favourite flavour.

 Tomorrow: To UBC!

Stanley Park two days in a row

How's it going everyone? Anyone missing me yet? 

Today was the first day it's rained since I've been here. It was kind of good in a way though, it should stop it being so muggy. Yesterday was forebodingly humid and overcast. I didn't have any plans and got up a bit later than usual, so my uncle took me cycling round Stanley Park.

What a view. It's even better when it's sunny.

Replicas of original totem poles made by various native peoples. They represent family members and legends, not particularly religious beliefs.

This guy/girl (not sure) stacked some good rocks. We think they must have been stuck together somehow though, becuse there was a breeze and they weren't even moving.

I hadn't been cycling in years, and I did struggle with some of the tighter corners. I think it was the handlebars that threw me. Despite that, cycling is one of the most fun ways of exercising, especially if you have a landscape like this to look out on. I recommend it.

Yesterday was also the day Robert Gaston (who was a year above me at OHS) flew in. Even though we were at school together, we didn't actually meet until a mutual friend's 21st a couple months ago. It was loud and hard to hear each other, so today was the first real opportunity for conversation we've ever had. We met up downtown, where he is staying at a youth hostel and where I was sorting out a couple of things (including actually making it inside the consulate, where I was told they couldn't help me and given another phone number to try) and got some smoothies. Then we walked to Stanley Park, which was further than I thought, and hopped on one of the shuttles, which I thought were free. They're actually $10,  but it was probably close to worth it. Maybe if I hadn't already been there a couple of times. The tour guide was sweet though. She kept saying things like 'everything on the island is made of recycle' and making us laugh.

Tomorrow we might check out a suspension bridge in Lynn Valley, weather permitting. Otherwise I kind of feel like seeing a movie.

This is the dog, Sascha, who's not supposed to be in my room. She wouldn't move and I couldn't lift her if I tried, so I gave up in the end.

She did eventually move. I think she just wanted it to be on her own terms.

I went to the STATES and had an IMMIGRATION HICCUP!

I wanted to update on this yesterday really, but I was far too tired by the time we got back, so I just slept it off. The good news is I have skype working now, so y'all should come online now and then so I can actually talk to you. Also, not to beg for comments on this or anything, but they do really brighten my day... :P

So, yesterday was my very first time ever in the United States of America. We drove down to Washington to go shopping for the day. We left very early in the morning, and just as well, because we'd already been in the car about two hours by the time we got to the border. Here are some pictures I took along the way.

This isn't a great shot of it, but there was actually this amazing part where the clouds met with the mountains and you could see through it like thick mist.

Getting through the border was no real hassle. I had to go inside and fill out a quick form basically saying I wasn't a criminal or planning to live and work in the five hours I spent in the states, and they let me through.

We only hit up a couple of malls, but they were, as promised, cheaper. Even with tax. I got a pair of jeans that actually fit and aren't miles too long for me (YAY!) and a red cardigan. I didn't really need anything else. Oh, also, they sell popcorn at Target. Popcorn! And it is good.

So after a few hours of shopping till we were almost dropping we headed home. The drive on the way back didn't take nearly so long, and we figured it'd take no time to get through the border, since we were just going back to where we'd come from.

Wrong.

The guy in the booth was an asshole. He asked to see all our passports (normal) and then he asked what my status in Canada was, a couple of times, and he was like shouting it. So I said I was a student, and he asked what I was studying, and I said various English and History courses (they always ask what courses and I always wonder how that information is uesful) at UBC. He said he needed to see my student visa, and I said I didn't have one of course because I'm from NZ and I'm only here for five months. He said if my study is contributing to any kind of long term program (wtf kind of study would I be doing here that didn't contribute to something?) then I needed a study permit.

So we had to go inside again and I answered a few questions from the woman at the front desk, and she had me sit down and wait while she went to go check with someone else about whether I needed a permit or not. I saw her talking with this other guy and then they both went off somewhere else, so obviously it's not a straightforward yes/no question. They were gone quite a long time. Eventually she came back and told me it's 'a grey area' and recommended that I talk to an NZ Consulate about it.

I found the whole experience unnerving. It's not like I didn't check this stuff out of course, but all the information I had indicated that there was no need for any kind of permit or visa as long as I was staying less than six months. Now it seems that might not be the case. I wanted to get it sorted out as quickly as I could, so I went downtown to find the Consulate this morning, but basically I got very confused and never actually found it. You should know that downtown Vancouver is like one massive K Road: a mixed bag of goods. You see something awesome, then you see something that makes you want to throw up. There's also a lot of homelessness in Vancouver and today was my first real encounter with that. All of the tourism books and websites (and my relatives) say you should just say 'no sorry' and keep walking if anyone asks you for money, and that's what I did, but I didn't feel good about it. The thing is you don't have to worry about homeless people on Queen Street really, because they're all genuine and generally harmless (except possibly the angry rapper, aka scariest busker in NZ), but here, they could be scam artists or drug addicts and the reality of it is that you just can't put yourself at risk while you're alone overseas.

I felt vulnerable for the first time today. I walked up and down that street like half a dozen times looking for the fucking Consulate building and only seeing banks (later I realised I should have looked it up on google maps first) and as the day went on I became increasingly frustrated and nervous. In the first hour there I was like 'FREE PIZZA? AWESOME THRIFT STORES? THIS IS MY KIND OF PLACE!' but then it was more 'this is the hungriest I've ever been in my life and I don't trust any of these shops' and 'why are there so many dogs here?' and by the time a guy in denim shorts rollerbladed past me and said I was a 'tasty little thing' I was ready to GTFO.

And therefore I have not yet resolved my student permit issue. Tomorrow I'm probably going to meet up with some other people from UBC, and on Sunday I might do something with my family, so it'll happen next week sometime. I think you have to plan trips through that part of town rather than just winging it like I did. I'll let you know how I get on.

Day 7: Sorry I haven't updated in a while guys.

I know the only person who's actually upset is my sister, but still. I can do better.

The fact is the last two days haven't been quite so eventful as the first few. I followed through with my plan of having a nice quiet day at home on Monday, and on Tuesday I went shopping at Metrotown which is the hugest freaking mall I've ever been to. It featured a Forever 21, which I have never been into before but have long dreamed of. I spent most of my time in there. Here's what I ended up getting:

This is a skirt

This is not exactly special, but it was super cheap.

And this is a nice dress.

These clothes don't look all that good in the pictures, but they look better on. Trust me.

Today I went out to Chinatown, which is a bus-seabus-skytrain trip, like most things in Vancouver from where I am. None of those aspects of the journey take long on their own, but it can add up to an hour and a quarter of transit, depending on how long you have to wait for things. The sky train is interesting. It smells faintly of urine and the first time I caught it I overheard a guy in a Vancouver Aquarium uniform having a very intense phone conversation with his girlfriend. It has some nice views though:
 

I've got to say, Chinatown didn't quite live up to the reputation the tourism websites gave it. It was described as 'bustling', 'vibrant' and 'entertaining'. Well, it certainly was bustling, but that's about it. It's not one of the nicer areas of Vancouver. I did get a cheap lunch though - bakeries here are much cheaper. I didn't quite trust the Chinese food. It was a hot day after all.

So I was a little underwhelmed by Chinatown. On my way back to the train station, though, I came across this line of people:

I was curious about what they were doing, so I had a closer look at one of the concrete pillars that had a bunch of flowers and stuff around it. It turned out to be a tribute for a former Canuck, Rick Rypien, who died a couple of days ago. I took the time to stop and read some of the messages.

There were flowers, cards, drawings, and some people had even written directly on the concrete. The line turned out to be a card-signing for members of his family. I've never seen that done before.

I found the whole thing very touching, which surprised me for two reasons: I had no idea who Rick Rypien was, and I usually find sports fandom fanatical and kind of silly. It always surprises me that we barely notice half the scientific and academic advances our own people make, but we go crazy for people knocking balls around. But seeing all those people lining up just for the chance to make a positive difference to a grieving family and recording their condolences and rememberances in such a permanent fashion on that pillar made me feel good, and it occurred to me that if I was involved in other aspects of sporting communities (such as the spectating part) there was a possibility that that would feel good too. It also reminded me that this a truly a great city. Even in the not-so-nice parts, you stumble onto something heartfelt. You sneeze in public and a stranger says bless you. I'm very happy and very lucky to be here.

Day 4: It's snowing in Auckland?!

Five days after I leave the country, it snows for the first time in several decades. That's just typical. Nonetheless, I can't say I'm jealous of your weather on the whole - it's beautifully sunny here most of the time, and still cool enough that I'm able to walk around, which is good, because I'm not always so good at catching buses. Case in point: today I ended up walking for about 40 minutes to get home (after being on my feet most of the day). At least I'm getting to know my way around.

Honestly, I don't mind that much. It's so beautiful here that I enjoy pretty much every minute I spend here, even when I'm exhausted like I was today. I went out to Stanley Park, which is so beautiful that I think I'll make a facebook album of all the photos I took. Here's a taster in the meantime.

BAMF Tree: Falls over, continues growing sideways

I also saw my first squirrel. Little nutter ran across the road before I could get a picture, but here he is. Who knew there were black squirrels?

After exploring a bit (just a BIT - it's actually massive) of Stanley Park, I headed into downtown Vancouver, which is way bigger and more exciting than downtown Auckland. I walked along a single street in search of a mall for over an hour, and just when I was on the verge of giving up, it appeared!

It was big I guess, but it seemed like it had been designed to keep people out. Seriously everywhere I turned was another exit. I went into quite a lot of shops, but most of them were the kind where I look at the price on one item and then tiptoe out again, trying not to touch anything on my way out. I also had a BLT sub from... some sub place... for about $4. It was hands-down better than anything I've ever had at Subway. Yum.

I'm very tired after my long day out, so I'm probably going to have a quiet day tomorrow, maybe just go on a little walk or something. It'll probably be uninteresting, so I might not blog on it.

Enjoy your snow people! Take some photos and put them on facebook, and please keep commenting and keeping me updated. If you see me on facebook chat talk to me. I'm working on getting the sound on skype sorted out, and after that we can set up a mass skype session so I can see all your lovely faces.

Night :)
Claire

Day 3: Berry-picking and a HAIRCUT

What's up everyone? I hear it's pretty cold down there.

Not here. It was about 20 degrees today and it's going to be getting even hotter. I felt dehydrated for like the first two days here. Today was the perfect day to go out and do something outdoorsy, which is exactly what I did do. I went berry picking with my family. Here's some photos.

Om nom nom berries.

This is a random picture of dinner from last night. Coconut prawns, dumplings, snap peas, broccoli and chicken. I thought it deserved a mention since it was so good.

More berries

After lunch I went ventured out back onto Lonsdale Avenue (I think I called it Lonsdale Road once, but that was wrong. It's an avenue). The city was in top form today. Really stunning.

Oh and I got my hair cut. It's quite significant, but I struggled to take photos of it. You'll see in the coming weeks in random other photos of me no doubt. It's slightly longer than shoulder length. Yay! A change!

Day 2: SHOPPING

Yesterday my aunt took me and my cousins to Park Royal Mall so that I could finally pick up a sim card and a handbag (so that I wouldn't have to carry round my massive uni backpack every time I wanted to leave the house. The mall was pretty big, as expected, but I didn't really get to see much of it - I'll go back there sometime next week and do a proper shopping trip.

My pretty new bag.

 After the mall we hit up Walmart. It was my first time ever in there, and I was keen to spot some crazies. Unfortunately there weren't any there, or they were having a quiet day. However today I did see a guy who my relatives say only wears jean-shorts and sells stolen goods on the side of the road, so that's almost as good.

Later that night I went out to catch a bus with the intention of going to a night market at Lonsdale Quay, but I must have missed the bus. They're pretty regular here and I thought I was on time, but never mind. I wanted to do something while I was out so I went to the park across the street and messed around on the playground for a bit. I discovered that if you lean right back and look at the ground while you're swinging backwards, and then look up and forward just as you start swinging the other way, you get an incredible rush comparable to the feeling of a rollercoaster. It only lasts a couple of seconds, but it's fucking fantastic.

And that was day two! I'll update on today sometime this evening. Up next: Claire gets a haircut!

Day 1: Going on a WALK

I guess it's too early for any of you to have read the post I put up this morning :( Read and comment people! I want to hear from you.

So I have some more photos to share with you from my adventure yesterday. I left the house around 11.50 and hopped on the bus which goes down Lonsdale Road to the Quay at the end. It's the only bus route I've tried so far. I got off after a couple of minutes and went into the Canada Trust Bank and went about setting up an account. It took about forty minutes to do it but all of the staff were very helpful and friendly. Everyone's like 'welcome to Canada!' I've heard that half a dozen times already :)

After the bank I went walking down the street to find a nice place to sit and eat the lunch my aunt made me. I know it's not particularly spectacular but it was good. Cheese and ham.

This is the park.

These are the delicious nerd-covered jelly beans that I bought for myself. NEW FAVOURITE THING!

 

And this is the change. I don't know what to do with all these pennies.



 

Then I went to the library and set up an account (no time wasted there) and picked up a couple of things at the local drug market (I couldn't bring moisturiser or body wash with me because it was too heavy).

The Canadian bus system is set up so that you buy a ticket, use it and then it stays valid for the next ninety minutes. It's awesome. I got on and off the bus all day. I'll have an unlimited pass when I start uni. Possibly before that, but I have to go in and figure it out. In the meantime the fares seem very reasonable here. So I went down to the Quay and found out about a night market that I'll check out after dinner tonight (I'll probably update briefly on that later) and then I went back up and sort of wandered round looking for a phone place. I don't know these stores, though, and I didn't have any luck. Eventually I sat down at the bus stop and waited for the bus to take me home. While I was there a girl walked past and complimented me on my skirt, and then an elderly lady came and sat next to me and started complaining about how loud and rowdy kids are in public places these days. I agreed. I mentioned that it was similar in New Zealand and she asked me how long I'd been here. I said this is day two, and she said she was so sorry for complaining to me on my second day in the country and she welcomed me to Canada, said my outfit was beautiful and let me go off on my bus.

Here's the skirt that everyone loved if anyone's interested :P


Later last night we went for a walk through a park called Mosquito Creek. There was an awesome scultpure there that I WISH I had taken a photo of, but it's okay, I'll go back there soon. We also went to a salmon farm, which was cooler than it sounds. They set it up so the fish have to jump over a bunch of tiny waterfalls in addition to swimming upstream, so only the very strongest fish make it to the end. They think they're going up there to lay their eggs, but actually they get killed and exported. Nature's exploited prolitariat.

I got a sim card today! You guys can text me if you want :P Although I'm betting it's not cheap.

See you guys later! Love you all!