Finally we have arrived in Vancouver after months and months of planning. We left Beijing on Thursday (14th April) at 3.50pm and arrived in Vancouver on the same day at 11.30am. Flying into Vancouver the flight attendant told us that it was 5 degrees in Vancouver (at 11.30am!) lol We got off the plane and wow – it was cold. Managed to get to our Hostel (Same Sun Hostel), which is located on Granville Street, right in the heart of Downtown Vancouver. First thing was first – we were straight to a ski shop to get a jacket each. The clothes we had just didn’t cut it. The bus and train systems in Vancouver are really really good and it is easy to get around.
Friday, our first mission was to get a phone, which ended up being relatively easy. We watched our first Canucks game on Friday night and I started drinking beer, which went down surprisingly well – a little too well. By about 9pm – the game was over (Canucks – Winners) and we went for a walk down Granville Street (this is basically the equivalent of Queen Street Mall to us in Brisbane) and there are heaps of buskers on the street. We were totally blown away by them – our live pub bands are not as good as what we saw. We watched this one guy playing an electric guitar and singing for over half an hour. It was mesmerizing. I cleaned out the change in my wallet for him. Then after we finally left him – there was a whole group of people – singer, drums, guitar and saxophone all on the street and a whole heap of people around them dancing and just enjoying such good music. It was really fun. The way I am describing it doesn’t really seem to give it justice but It is just amazing how good they are and just playing on the street! We met some other people from our hostel and went to a club/pub about 2 doors down from our hostel call The Cellar. All the clubs here have huge lines and a cover charge - $12 each and about 15 minutes later we were in. While we were waiting in line we could hear the music playing in the club and just assumed that it was a DJ playing music – when we got down there we found that it was actually a live band!!! Unbelievable!
So Friday night ended up being a bit of a blow out and we didn’t get back to the hostel and in bed until about 5am but we had a great night and met lots of people. Along with the many buskers there are also lots of homeless people and panhandlers – most of them obvious drug addicts! Always asking for money or food. We made an executive decision that we only give money to buskers – no instrument = no money! It can become hard work though, constantly being asked and it gets worse at night time. They even go in to pizza shops, mcdonalds, burger king etc and go through the bins in there for food. It really isn’t pleasant to see but hey, that’s life huh.
We spent the wrest of the weekend searching online for jobs and somewhere to live. We also found out that we didn’t need to have a permanent address to get our SIN number (Canadian version of a Tax File Number) and bank account so on Monday – we got our SIN and bank account sorted. We had also arranged to look at 2 potential placed for us to live.
First was a place in a high rise building on the 18th floor – it was super fancy and very nice but just didn’t seem like what we wanted. We would have been sharing with just one other guy who apparently works a lot and is never home. Which obviously sounds good but we came here to meet people, interact and have fun. Living in a place where we would basically be by our self all the time just didn’t seem like fun and defeated the purpose of our big adventure.
The next place was a house in Downtown Vancouver – about 2 blocks from our Hostel. Within minutes of being there we knew it was where we wanted to live. It is a 4 story house, with basement, main level, level 2 and then the attic and guess what – the attic is all ours! Lol It is such a cute room. Pretty big, fully furnished with our own TV, bed, dresser etc (all the essentials). In total there is 10 people that live in the house, from New Zealand, UK, Australia and Canadians. It is a house of girls though, there is only 1 other guy living there (so I think he is a bit happy that Craig is moving in). Michelle (the lady who is the main person of the house) is just awesome. She is hilariously funny and made us feel right at home already. She is a small filmmaker and also does some acting. Such important acting that she has most recently been working as an extra in the new Twilight Movie – Breaking Dawn!!!!!! She has just been kicking it around with Robert Pattinson. Ask me if I was jealous and shocked! She couldn’t really tell me anything bar that she was working in scenes from the wedding – OMG! Lol All in all though the house is awesome. Simple rules to follow and otherwise, I think it is going to be an awesome place to live and meet people who are here doing exactly the same thing as us! So the house is a done deal – we move in on Sunday, 1st May and we can’t wait!
We just can’t believe how much we have achieved already – 4 working days in and we have everything sorted except for a job! Which is probably the most important thing but we have had a little success in that department as well. Craig had an interview with IGA today. We are pretty sure that he will get the job but it starts out as night shift from lke 3pm – 12pm which isn’t really the best but at the moment, we don’t really care what it is because the more money coming in, means less money going out. Plus, once we have jobs it takes the pressure off a little and we can maybe find a better one. I had an interview too with a recruitment agency about some admin temping roles. So that is a start too. Fingers crossed that we both get something soon – even if it isn’t the best pay. The first thing we have noticed is that pay is shitty here in vancouver. Minimum wage is depressing to say the least but as long as we can get a job that covers our week to week and maybe a little more - we should be fine!
Hopefully next time we write we will be employed. I don’t have any photos this time – we have been too busy with the important stuff to do much sight seeing but we are planning to get out and about a bit this week hopefully so we will keep you posted J.
Love Mel and Craig
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