i landed in vancouver international airport on 2.34 pm. or something around that. daina, eve (a girl who i met on the shuttle bus from ibis hotel) and i got out of a 12-hour plane journey quite worn out. we had to go through the passport control (standard), immigration office (to get a sudy permit) and customs (it was the first time i declared what i had. funny, ain't it?)
having gone through all that terrible beaurocracy process i called bartek (a polish dude studying at sfu who helped us to find a place to stay) who told me to get a taxi and get to masoud's flat. masoud is from iran and also studies at sfu. masoud lives at 12th avenue 1829 east. if that tells you anything. it is a very messy, but quite charming flat. it's got a fire place, many weird posters on the walls (example? pulp fiction, the simpsons, cartoons of bob marley and bruce lee, a mixology periodic table...) and many strange objects thrown here or there, you would think of as garbage.
masoud himself is very helpful and hospitable. even though he didn't know we were coming he welcomed us laughing that he was used to having unexpectable guests all the time. it looks like it, honestly speaking. there's like a massive empty-alcoholbottle exhibition on every single shelf in the living room. he even had bottles of wyborowa and luksusowa. cool.
there are two other guys living in the flat. brant, a canadian dude who is working as a carpenter and pasha. for those couple of nights before i move into the residence hall i stay in pasha's room. he's away with his host family.
i have been here one full day now. i should sum up what's happened so far and what sort of thoughts are going through my head. do i like it? or perhaps i think it's complete crap? well, neither of those yet, really. but have a read through these:
1) the downtown. enormous, overwhelming, impersonal and very north american. i strolled down the main streets of vancouver, checked out the observation deck and had a starbucks coffee (good, but not fantastic. i really don't know what people see in that brand). anyway, from my point of view it was impressive, but not amusing. just different, starange, you know what i mean. those buildings really make you feel so goddamn small and insignificant, as daina smarlty noticed. that is why europe rocks. it's got a charm. and history. nevertheless, i haven't come here for the sake of architecture, have i?
2) the measures. pounds instead of kilograms, farenheits instead of celcius, miles instead of kilometers, ounces or gallons instead of liters and dollars instead of polish złoty. terrible. hopefully i will get used to all that...
3) shopping. i hate shopping, but sometimes i have to do this painful activity. apparently the residence house doesn't provide things like pillows, duvets and linens. weird, but i said "ok, let's go and shop the mentioned". at 'ed's linens' i got a pillow, duvet and towel and at ikea (god bless the swedes!) i bought sheet and linens. wikid, ha? the pain in the neck is my credit card which does not want to work in here. i have to check that with my bank back in poland, so i am not cashless anymore. another annoying thing is the tax. the price you see on the label is not the actual price. i mean, it does contain some sort of tax, but not a province tax. i am not sure about terminology. so to the price you see, you usually have to add around 15%, which isn't nothing. i still hate shopping, though there're so many shops around here.
4) clubbing and nightlife. i am not a club person. fuck no! but masoud invited me and daina to go to a house club. no, masoud doesn't particularly enjoy the house music either. it was just that a friend of his was djing, so he needed to go. out of courtesy. the club was called "lotus" and was terrible musicwise. even though i had couple of shots of vodka and had quite a good mood for a party, i could not stand the beat: bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, tututu, bum, bum, bum... one indeed needs to be on speed to enjoy this sort of 'music'. i also realised that the effect of "lotus" club was much worse than alcohol. in the morning i got sober, but: bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, tututu, bum, bum, bum... still sounded in my head and, what was worse, didn't want to go out. god bless iron maiden.
5) the canadians. half of the canadians i see on the street are chinese, or from the far east. further quater are bums or hindi. the rest are white people. but those are mostly in big, expensive cars. i can't say a bad word about canadians so far. they're so polite, nice and positive somewhat. however, bartek says that this politeness and neatness is very... how did he phrase it? superficial and shallow. well, time will tell if i agree with his statement.
so far so good.
my move-in date to the residence is 29th august, so i still have two days of wandering around the city. i am getting used to it, honestly. i am also getting knowledgeable about vancouver. i know how to travel around, how do the tickets work, where not to go after midnight (yes, even here there are places like that), what's the average price of beer in the pub (~5$) etc. etc. i learn the names of districts, streets, bus-stops. it's fun to get to know a new environment.
