Today I took the bus downtown to pick up my SIN number and get a library card. Now the most direct route for me to get downtown from the apartment I now live in, is via Hastings St. On Hastings resides the part of town known as "Skid Row," where the poorest of the poor "live." My mom and I walked down Hastings when we visited in July, but it wasn't anything what it looked like when we drove by today... there were hundreds of homeless people wandering the sidewalks in the small two block area where most of Skid Row is concentrated. But thats not my story, my story today is about what happened before we drove down that part of Hastings. It starts on the bus stop right before those two blocks, when two men separately got on the bus and sat down next to one another. Within minutes of the bus taking off from the stop, the man closest to the window shoved the one in the seat next to him onto the floor and yelling at him. The man on the floor gets up and the man by the window pushes him back down. While this is going on, the bus driver stops the bus, opens the door and yells at the man by the window to get off the bus. He starts making excuses but the bus driver says for him again to get off. People from the back of the bus start shouting at him to get off. Meanwhile, the man on the floor gets up and moves to the seat in front of me. The man by the window finally stands up and starts to leave, but before he gets off he comes over to where the other man is and pulls back his fist as though he were going to punch the guy. I'm sitting there staring in disbelief, thinking I should do something but I was genuinely scared of the large, seeming mentally retarded black man hauling off to punch the poor, also mentally retarded man sitting in front of me. So I did nothing. The guy in the chair blocked the first punch, so the man successfully tried another. I was so stunned, I didn't even know what to do, but the bus driver roared a final "GET OFF" and the man left.
The entire incident reminded me of when I took "Theories of Persuasion" and we studied something about people in large crowds being less likely to take action because they think (hope?) someone else will. I don't know if thats so much the deal, or rather a fear of the large, MR man who could target me next, but I just felt extremely guilty that I didn't just reach a hand out to help block. The blow largely missed the guy, he just had a small red spot on his cheek, and for the rest of his trip he kept apologizing to me, saying he did nothing wrong, he just sat down...
In any case, the bus didn't stop on Skid Row and the trip back was uneventful.
Now I am in my new apartment off Commercial Drive, which I love. The room itself is rather small, but I have two huge mirrors and a huge window which help the room feel bigger. I also have my own balcony and bathroom, which is super fantastic. And Molly has a parking spot (two actually) in the underground parking garage, she is extremely happy down there not having to worry about vandals and thieves. There is also a massive blackberry bush about a block and a half east, a couple days ago I went out and picked 4 cups of blackberries that Claire and I have been eating. They are so amazingly sweet and fresh, I've never had anything like them. There are so many neat shops down Commercial, I found a cute little Italian grocery I love and will frequent more often. I've actually discovered food is much cheaper at these little places than at large chains such as Safeway. Not only cheaper, but much tastier.
I've been watching craigslist for a bed frame for my air mattress, mostly because I can't stand sleeping on the floor, it drives me insane. Since I wasn't able to find anything cheaper than Ikea, I decided to head over there and get one for myself. It's a fantastic beautiful unfinished pine bed--I get a whiff of pine everytime I come into my room now--and it took me roughly 6 hours and 2 stripped screws to assemble, but I got it together. I also got some organizational boxes for my clothes and an on sale artist's dummy for decoration. And since I also went to the art store yesterday for some basic art supplies (so I can get some decoration in my room), the artist's dummy may come in handy for sketching people!
All in all, this has been an extremely interesting week, but I am glad that it is the weekend and I can start Monday on fully focusing on finding a job... I have already pulled a lot of ads from Craigslist I am going to respond to. It should be an interesting week!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Hunting... of apartments, fans and ABMs
The past several days have been mostly uneventful... I checked out a couple of places in Kits. I looked at one upstairs suite with a family and I ended up staying two and a half hours while they canned peaches, read to their kids and gave me a piece of blackberry pie. I really liked the family, but not particularly the house... the bathroom didn't have a shower and there was no parking. Sometimes I wish I hadn't brought my car but mostly I am glad because it really helps me out a lot... like today when I had to go fan hunting.
On Friday I moved from the first UBC dorm into the second, more expensive... the room is hot and I can't get any internet in it--very annoying. But it has two refrigerators in the suite (instead of down the hall) and an in-suite bathroom. Plus they clean every day... however, the hot room has been killing me. I couldn't find a fan in any of the area Safeways, so I had to look up Wal-Mart and Home Depot, none of which were nearby. So I looked up Canadian Tire and there was one just a little farther than I had looked yesterday! So this morning I woke up (really hot, of course) and headed toward 7th and Cambie. Since I have NO cash I had to park under the Save-On Foods across the street instead of at a meter... Although I found out later the Canadian Tire had its own parking above the store. I went in and found some really cheap, crappy fans for $20 and in the demo section I found a really great retro looking oscillating desk fan for $50. I hunted around and found the absolute last one in the store... the box was a little smashed but it hadn't been opened, so I figured I would try it out.
After stowing the box safely away in my car, I headed back out to find an ABM--like I said, I had NO cash... only a couple 5 cent coins--and found a RBC with an ABM! Then I was so happy I stopped at a Starbucks on the way back to my car right next to a Home Depot! The Home Depot is so new it wasn't even on the website yet... but now I know it is there, and I have a fan, so I am happy. I came back to the hot, hot room, opened up the box and realized I actually had to put the fan together myself... and it had screws. Since I'm not quite sure whether I brought my tool kit or not and I certainly didn't want to have to drive back to Canadian Tire/Home Depot and buy one, I figured out that my tweezers fit perfectly and was able to screw the fan together!
Thank goodness for the fan! It is cooling my room off right now while I am sitting out on the patio enjoying this beautiful view over the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island, watching the boats go by... tomorrow I have an appointment with Scotia Bank about setting up a bank account and I think I may head to the beach afterwards and read a book and spend a little time in the sun. I'm supposed to hear from my two favorite places I looked at tomorrow... I have my fingers crossed!
On Friday I moved from the first UBC dorm into the second, more expensive... the room is hot and I can't get any internet in it--very annoying. But it has two refrigerators in the suite (instead of down the hall) and an in-suite bathroom. Plus they clean every day... however, the hot room has been killing me. I couldn't find a fan in any of the area Safeways, so I had to look up Wal-Mart and Home Depot, none of which were nearby. So I looked up Canadian Tire and there was one just a little farther than I had looked yesterday! So this morning I woke up (really hot, of course) and headed toward 7th and Cambie. Since I have NO cash I had to park under the Save-On Foods across the street instead of at a meter... Although I found out later the Canadian Tire had its own parking above the store. I went in and found some really cheap, crappy fans for $20 and in the demo section I found a really great retro looking oscillating desk fan for $50. I hunted around and found the absolute last one in the store... the box was a little smashed but it hadn't been opened, so I figured I would try it out.
After stowing the box safely away in my car, I headed back out to find an ABM--like I said, I had NO cash... only a couple 5 cent coins--and found a RBC with an ABM! Then I was so happy I stopped at a Starbucks on the way back to my car right next to a Home Depot! The Home Depot is so new it wasn't even on the website yet... but now I know it is there, and I have a fan, so I am happy. I came back to the hot, hot room, opened up the box and realized I actually had to put the fan together myself... and it had screws. Since I'm not quite sure whether I brought my tool kit or not and I certainly didn't want to have to drive back to Canadian Tire/Home Depot and buy one, I figured out that my tweezers fit perfectly and was able to screw the fan together!
Thank goodness for the fan! It is cooling my room off right now while I am sitting out on the patio enjoying this beautiful view over the Strait of Georgia and Vancouver Island, watching the boats go by... tomorrow I have an appointment with Scotia Bank about setting up a bank account and I think I may head to the beach afterwards and read a book and spend a little time in the sun. I'm supposed to hear from my two favorite places I looked at tomorrow... I have my fingers crossed!
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
And so it begins...
The idea for the title of this blog came about when, during my drive from Texas to Vancouver, I was arriving into the small city in Washington state where I'd be spending my final night on the road and I realized that Vancouver really was halfway to Alaska for me. The reason for the blog is, as many people know, to chronicle my move into a new city where I have no place to live, no job and no friends from the state I was born in, grew up in, went to school in and where everything in between happened.
Although the title is "Halfway to Alaska," I won't actually be making it there. I do have plans to visit someday--I'd love to take a cruise up and drive back down the Alaskan Highway--but right now I am working on settling in to beautiful British Columbia and making a life for myself here.
Saturday morning at the bright cheery hour of 4 a.m., with my car completely packed, my mom and I took off from grand ol' Lubbock, heading north to Amarillo. I won't bore you with the details, but we spent a grand total of 40 minutes in Oklahoma and had lunch north of Denver... a very late lunch. We counted windmills, got stuck in one-lane-only construction lines and saw a whole bunch of nothing really in the process. Once we hit Wyoming, we decided to go see a dinosaur graveyard about 30 mins or more out of our way, and unfortunately the only thing we found was a long closed down house that once directed you to the dino pits, but we couldn't find any way of getting there. We arrived in Rawlins, Wyoming around 5, got some dinner at Taco John's and I was asleep around 7 p.m.
The next morning we didn't leave until about 5 a.m., driving through a sort of "no man's land" along the continental divide where water doesn't flow any direction and making it all the way to Utah in mid-morning. We stopped for lunch somewhere insignificant in Idaho--which actually was very reminiscent of Texas--making it to Oregon early enough to stop in Baker City at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center for about an hour and a half. The Center was fantastic, located up on a hill, and had actual parts of the Trail you could still see. From there we headed to Kennewick, Washington. We had difficulties finding the hotel and had a late dinner. The next day we didn't head out until about 7 a.m. since we wanted to miss the morning rush hour in Seattle. We stopped at the beautiful little mountain town of Hyak, had lunch in Everett and passed through Seattle and reached the border about 1 p.m. We were detained at the border for about 40 minutes while Border Patrol ran a background check on me and got my work permit in order and before we knew it we were off to Vancouver!
So here I am, sitting in my University of British Columbia hostel-dorm room wondering what I'm going to do for the next several months! First order of business is to find a place to live, so that is what I have been focusing on. I've already checked out a couple of places, one great and one not-so-great, and am looking at another one on Friday in the area I am really interested in living in. In the meantime, I'm hoping for the best!
Although the title is "Halfway to Alaska," I won't actually be making it there. I do have plans to visit someday--I'd love to take a cruise up and drive back down the Alaskan Highway--but right now I am working on settling in to beautiful British Columbia and making a life for myself here.
Saturday morning at the bright cheery hour of 4 a.m., with my car completely packed, my mom and I took off from grand ol' Lubbock, heading north to Amarillo. I won't bore you with the details, but we spent a grand total of 40 minutes in Oklahoma and had lunch north of Denver... a very late lunch. We counted windmills, got stuck in one-lane-only construction lines and saw a whole bunch of nothing really in the process. Once we hit Wyoming, we decided to go see a dinosaur graveyard about 30 mins or more out of our way, and unfortunately the only thing we found was a long closed down house that once directed you to the dino pits, but we couldn't find any way of getting there. We arrived in Rawlins, Wyoming around 5, got some dinner at Taco John's and I was asleep around 7 p.m.
The next morning we didn't leave until about 5 a.m., driving through a sort of "no man's land" along the continental divide where water doesn't flow any direction and making it all the way to Utah in mid-morning. We stopped for lunch somewhere insignificant in Idaho--which actually was very reminiscent of Texas--making it to Oregon early enough to stop in Baker City at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center for about an hour and a half. The Center was fantastic, located up on a hill, and had actual parts of the Trail you could still see. From there we headed to Kennewick, Washington. We had difficulties finding the hotel and had a late dinner. The next day we didn't head out until about 7 a.m. since we wanted to miss the morning rush hour in Seattle. We stopped at the beautiful little mountain town of Hyak, had lunch in Everett and passed through Seattle and reached the border about 1 p.m. We were detained at the border for about 40 minutes while Border Patrol ran a background check on me and got my work permit in order and before we knew it we were off to Vancouver!
So here I am, sitting in my University of British Columbia hostel-dorm room wondering what I'm going to do for the next several months! First order of business is to find a place to live, so that is what I have been focusing on. I've already checked out a couple of places, one great and one not-so-great, and am looking at another one on Friday in the area I am really interested in living in. In the meantime, I'm hoping for the best!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
