Seawall!

Alrighty, it's a little late, but I am not in the complete state of mind where I would like to go to bed, even though I should be.
I really love these statues(?)- random bits of artwork. They are double sided, so both sides are pretty fun. They are all over downtown. Also, I have seen a few whales as well, but strangely, they don't appeal to me as much as the birds. I'll throw a picture in here and there. I have a few of them.

I took a walk today- it was an unexpected walk, but I very much enjoyed it. It was along the seawall near Granville Island.

Now, I'm not one hundred percent sure on what Granville Island is yet. It looked very intriguing, very expensive, and very... playground-ish (?) But I was really only looking at it from the entrance. I will find out more later.

The Seawall, however, is self-explanatory. It's a paved surface that is build along the sea. Thus being a wall... near the sea- get the picture? Haha. I very much would like a bicycle so that I could bike the seawall. It looks like it would be a great time, but alas, the bike has not happened yet. I'm working on it though. (If I do get the job I am going for Monday, I can bike to work along the seawall... awwwesooome!) I took a few pictures along the way. Mostly of flowers because they were beautiful and then some of the geese. You'll see.

So this is the harbour. The boats are lovely and so is Vancouver's skyline. It's built a little differently than Montreal. Definite HIGH rises, and a lot of glass. I think that the architecture out here is very modern, in terms of their fancy buildings. A lot of natural light gets into the homes, and I think that is pretty cool.

So here are some of the flowers I saw on my excursion today. There's a wonderfully gigantic poppy. I really liked the flaming orange of it. It was beautiful. The center of the flower was big and bulbous-y too. It was pretty neat.

Poppies are a little generic I guess. They are everywhere. But these ones were so terribly appealing in the wonderful sunshine of the afternoon. Really, really, really gorgeous flowers. I wanted to take them home. :)

These next flowers, I feel that I find them all over the place. I just haven't named them yet! I saw them in both pretty pink and rockin' red. Everything looked so pretty in the afternoon sun. Really. I know I've already said this, but there is just something about the sunlight, and beautiful summery days that make me really happy. I mean, you can't be upset on a warm sunny day. It's just miserable!

















Lastly, the geese. Now, I assume that you can tell I have a fondness for birds. I was about 2 feet away from this one goose standing on the pier. He was really pretty. I wanted to just pick him up and take him home. Clearly, I would not do this. I value my eyes, and any other limb or organ that can be pulverized via pecking, so I merely got as close as I could. I guess he was a little used to the public. The seawall is very highly trafficked and people run and bike with their dogs. They passed right by this guy and he didn't flinch.



Up next, and last picture (it's time for bed), is the goose family. It was very enlightening watching these birds in the water. One of the parents would signal and all the goslings would dive and swim under water. I really tried to get a picture, but when I realized what was happening they all came back to the surface. It was neat! I caught a video... I'll post it on my next blog.

Anyway... I was very impressed by the learning of the birds!

A little ways away from me, to my left, in the green patch in the sun were plenty more geese. Some were sleeping all huddled up against themselves, others were grazing. There were plenty of goslings at various stages of development. It was really cool. I know I sound like a child repeating the words cool and neat and impressive over and over again, but really I don't know how else to describe it!

I really liked the seawall. I hope to get a bike and do it for real. This was I guess the southern half, it took us from the Telus World of Science building to Kitsilano - very trendy part of town. $$$. I saw lots of SWWWWEEEEEEEET cars there. The seawall also goes along to Stanley Park, and I'd love to bike that one day. It would be fantastic. I need to look for that bike!!!!!

Good night for now...

Okie Dokes!

So I am settling in. I haven't really unpacked much, or put much into my closet yet. I am a little apprehensive about doing this because there are two hardcore bikes in the closet and I don't want my pretty clean clothing to accidentally touch some dirty chain. Also, I have no real furniture other than what was left for me by Carolyn and John (Jamie's cousin and her fiancé), which I am more than thankful for because I showed up affording nothing much but my food and rent.

Wonderful!

I have made some friends, so my time gets booked up a little quicker and I am not as alone as I was forseeing. I think I have figured out that I like people. As much as I have always thought myself more of an anti-social being, when faced with this crisis of being alone for however long Jamie was gone, I quickly opted to make friends. It's just happier that way. I'm happier that way.

I love my neighborhood to absolute bits. It's got such a good vibe that I wouldn't want to live anywhere else right now. From my place, I walk down about half a block to Commercial Drive and there are tons of awesome shops, cafes and pubs or bars... and if I look to the north, I see a mountain range. This mountain range comes fully equiped with lights for night skiing. Awww yeah! I can't wait to be tearing up the mountains out here. They are just so much bigger than those in and around Montreal. I love it. No matter where I am in Vancouver, as long as I can get a clear view to the north all I see are mountains. It makes going outside even better.

Other than the wonderful things that I have seen and friends I have made, I am still in search of that ever evasive job. I wonder how long it will take. I have four placement agencies looking for me, as well as my applying to jobs on the internet. I do think I have found the one I want, and I am going to work my damnedest to get it. It will let me write and edit, and I'll also get to help administrate an office of structural engineers. Which is cool. They worked on a building for the 2010 Olympics and I read up on it... it's a pretty great building. It uses dead pine beetle wood which is pretty awesome in my books because most of British Columbia's forest has been devastated by the pine beetle and the wood is rendered useless if it's not used within a certain time frame. I'm glad to see that this is putting it to good use. If you are so incline to see the building in questions, click here: Richmond Olympic Oval. It's the arena where the speed skating, I believe, will be taking place. Either way, it's pretty neat.

I know my way around a little better now. I also had a chance to eat some restaurant food out here. As in... sushi. It's WAAAYYY better than that crap they serve back home! Haha. It tastes way fresher.

So here are some more pictures... enjoy.

Rounded Faces.

So... What have we here? I don't know!
These are some random spheres I came across the other day while strolling through Vancouver. If I am not mistaken, they were outside their Arena for the Canucks. GM Place? I am not sure. The strange thing about the, what I found really creepy were the faces. I don't know how clearly you can see the faces on the metalic plates, but they were so... weird looking. Even upside-down.
See, this picture here you can't even see the face because it's downward facing. So terribly creepy! At least to me. Yet at the same time, they were kind of cool. I appreciated the strangeness of these sphere with their melancholic faces.

Okay, so maybe this guy isn't so melancholic. Still he's scary looking. Like he's upset at me. Why can't Vancouver have cool statues outside their arena like we do back home? You know, the greatest hockey players of all time? Oh, that's right, those players are from Montreal... Suck that Vancouver. Haha. I kid. I will inevitably follow hockey here with as much ferocity as I did back home. This translates to: When my team is doing good, I'll watch the game with people I know. Insofar, I don't know anyone, so no hockey.

So minus the bird splatter, this is right-side up for this face. See? Weird no? I've said that fairly often here. It's just... well they are weird damnit! Haha.

So, this one is short... and again awkwardly formatted with pictures and text. I am just too impatient to organize them all at once. I should get going. I made plans to go try my hand at volleyball tonight in my neighborhood. It could be fun. I could meet people. Also, it could be miserable! I don't remember playing volleyball much after high school!

Wish me luck!

Where I live...

Okay, so here you have it! My place.
Please don't mind the emptiness I have no furniture than what you see and currently cannot afford them.
So a tour of sorts... Here's the kitchen.

That door is our main entrance. It leads to the backyard. I did take some pictures of that, and will post them. As you can see... ample counter space. It's loads bigger than that last kitchen I had. We don't have any real shelving units or cupboards, but the drawers are pretty big and I assume that's where my dishes will stay. But that's no mind.

The stove is gas, which I find is pretty awesome. I've never had a gas stove before. Apparently the broiler doesn't work too well, but I don't typically broil anything.


Next up. is the living room. I am not going to show you what it looks like at "floor level" because there is, as I have stated, no furniture; only the rat's nest of pillows and blankets that I use to sit on in the corner in front of the TV below the window.

The windows to the sides let in tons of light, so even for a basement apartment I get a fair bit of light. The middle window is kind of cool. It's stained glass- or colored glass to say the least. Adds a little color to the room.

Eventually Jamie and I will take the futon that is currently being used as my bed and make it a couch. It's fairly good as a bed, but a real mattress would be nice. It is kind of a small room. The closet is probably going to be permanently used as a "sports" locker. I figure that Jamie's bikes and our snowboarding equipment can be stored there. As for regular closet space- well, that's probably going to be accomplished through more dressers and a closet that we can buy at Ikea. Who knows.

Currently the walls are barren, but in time there will be more life to the walls. Oh, like the curtains on the door?

I find it's strange to have a door with a window on a bedroom, but I guess that it adds for more light. There is a small window in the bedroom, but I'm not planning on keeping that window opened. It faces the neighbor's house- a passage between the two houses and that might be slightly creepy.

Finally, the bathroom. Nothing very spectacular. Shower only, there's a mirror on the wall you can't see.


So there you go, my apartment!




Voila, the backyard. I have to say, I hate the formatting that this stupid blog site is giving me! This is what it looks like outside. I do have more pictures of flowers, but really it's all just green. There are lots of tulips currently and forget-me-nots. Actually, the forget-me-nots are seemingly all over the place in the neighborhood.



There you have it.

I can't fit anymore pictures on this!

Little bit of this and that.

I guess these pictures like to load themselves backwards! Definitely not the order I was hoping for but I can't be bothered to re-arrange them now.

These ocean shots are from Canada Place in Vancouver. You can walk down Burrard St and end up on this plaza that overlooks the ocean and the Coast Mountains. I think, though I am not 100% sure, that the greenspaces off to the side are Stanley Park. I'm pretty sure it is. Perhaps when I have a chance, or get to know the place a little better I will go take a look. Need to do some research first. How to get there, what I'll find there... you know, the basic.


This picture of the bus, well, it's a bus. Jamie likes them because unlike Montreal's transit system they are electric. There are cables all over the place which the busses are connected to and that's how they run. It's pretty neat. Haven't been on one yet. I'm trying my hand (or feet) at walking around. Maybe next week if all goes well with the job hunting, I will need to get on a bus.

Now these wonderful pictures below are still from the drive out. The one on the left is some mountains, I don't know which, out side of Golden, where Jamie and I stayed our final night.
It was pretty amazing to drive through the rockies on our way to Golden. I will admit that I was a little tired, and I fell asleep for some of the journey through Kicking Horse Pass, but it was also dark and I hardly saw anything. Only little bits here and there at the end of the drive. It was nice. I will have to do it again.
Just for a little geographical pinpointing, Golden is about three hours west of Calgary. It's a pretty little town on the highway 1. I'd go ahead and say it's a ski town, but it's also an extreme summer sport town. People skydive, whitewater raft, maybe even base jump from the mountain tops. It's pretty cool. Maybe I'll sky dive one day. Oh, and paragliding. That is also a summer sport in the area- also something I'd shit my pants while trying. Not to say I wouldn't try it just because the thought terrifies me. But... you do need a fair amount of $$$$ to do these things. I'll stick to what I know and can afford for now.


Lastly, there is this bicycle. I just thought it was cool. Someone in the café decked it out with faux-fur. Looks like Elmo as a bike. Haha.

Home away from Home

Aren't these pretty?? Yes, yes they are. These are the wonderful flowers that line my street. Actually, they line my neighborhood! Wonderful pink blossoms on all the trees in the area. It makes everything very picturesque. I like that. My landlord said that they were either plum or cherry trees. I don't know which, but I guess I will find out when the season rolls around.


This here, is my place. Of course I live in the basement and you can't see that from the front. We have backyard entrance. Uli, the landlady, has a fabulous garden. I haven't taken any pictures of it, maybe if it's nice tomorrow.

See yasss later!

Cruising down the Open Road

On our first day's drive, leaving from Ottawa, Jamie and I made it passed Sault Ste. Marie. Which is roughly about 8 hours from Ottawa. We usually stop here, however this time, since we'd taken off in relatively good time, we decided to keep going for another few hours. So we drove to Wawa. We forgot to fill up on gas in Sault Ste. Marie, so we had half a tank and several hundred kilometres left- recipe for disaster! We were about 79 kilometres from Wawa when on an uphill, we saw the first sign of the gas light go on. It's a pretty hilly stretch of highway and we were starting to worry as to if we would make it to Wawa on what was left of our gas tank.
Luckily, we made it to a motel just outside of town. We had 7 kilometres or so left to Wawa or the nearest gas station. We weren't sure that the car would start when we got to it in the morning. But as luck would have it, it did.

We started out our second day on a good note. The car started and before we ran out of gas we found a gas station, filled up and hit the open road.

I guess that the picture isn't very clear as to what exactly is going on, but it was the best I could get. We saw several animals on and around the highway. In this picture, there is a moose on the road. We were rather far, and as we got closer it decided to run away. I tried to get a better picture of it, but it didn't turn out.

The second day's drive is always the nicest. We get to see Lake Superior most of the way as the highway winds around it. Here is a view through the window- I know, they are not the best pictures, being through the window and all, but it's all I could do.

The next series of pictures I took were in the prairies. Now, they aren't the most interesting. Prairies are flat and relatively boring to look at, Jamie hates driving them as they are pretty lame to drive. I'm trying to get these sideby side but I don't know how, nor do I have the patience to tinker with it.

So as you can see the prairies are pretty flat. Beautiful endless skies. Great for sunsets and spotting rain in the distance. I couldn't tell you the exact locations of where these pictures were taken, everything looks pretty much the same!

Saskatchewan is pretty flat- but less flat than Manitoba. And once Alberta comes around there is alittle more of the rolling hill scenery. Lots of cows too. Mostly they are black... which I assume means they are angus... Gotta love Alberta beef!

Other than that, ther's nothing to see! Haha.

With the endless skies, there are beautiful sunsets- as I already said. I managed to get some pretty awesome pictures of a sunset. Just the one. It's all the same sky.


Here you have my drive. Or at least what I documented of it.

I drove a little bit, in Saskatchewan. It was REALLY windy. So much so that letting go of the wheel meant the car wanted to veer off the road! Crazy! We passed warning signs that said WIND GUSTS... I never thought the wind would be that strong!