Cherry blossoms

Cherry trees blooming in Vancouver. Some days I miss it SO much.

via.

Go Canada! (and doughnuts)

Who doesn't love doughnuts? Especially Canadian ones!

(source)

Last night in Vancouver

It's my last night in Vancouver.  As I sit here at my empty desk, starting at my empty walls and the air mattress on the floor I can't help but feel more than a little sad... I'm happy that I'll be getting to see my mom tomorrow and my family soon and I'm excited to be starting a new chapter in my life, wherever that may lead me.

I was able to pick up my new ipod from the post office today!  I didn't get to play with it for three and a half hours after I picked it up... what I was missing out on!  As unhappy as I've been with Apple recently, I love love love the iPod touch!  I downloaded some free applications beforehand... okay, I admit, I downloaded over 20... but its so nice being able to have them on the ipod and being able to play with them.  I also purchased a couple of games (Scrabble, Monopoly and Pocket God) and a Gratitude journal today.  Pocket God is entertaining for a few minutes, although I'm sure it'll be a nice pick me up from time to time.  The Gratitude journal is great because hopefully it will remind me to think of things I'm thankful for every day, because there are some even in horrible days!  Last Monday (the worst day ever), I can still think of at least 3 (Chili's in Calgary, D and the nice man at the airport parking kiosk).

I also discovered a great new website today, Polyvore, which I'll go into more depth about later (as well as my other new discovery WeHeartIt) since I need to be awake in roughly 5 hours so I can accomplish everything I need to so I can leave on time in the morning.  I always get too excited to sleep before I travel (and quite anxious that I'll oversleep) so I don't forsee myself getting a lot of rest.  Luckily I really don't have a lot of driving to do tomorrow, only 5-6 hours total, but I will probably sleep well tomorrow.  Don't know how often I'll be able to update, but now I have the ipod touch, so anything is possible.

Goodbye Vancouver.  :(

Fog advection

As I was driving home from work today I was completely shocked by the beauty of the North Shore mountains... the same ones I see almost every time I drive north on Main Street.  However, due to the fog that has laid seige to the city the past week or so (see photo above taken yesterday from Grouse Mountain on the North Shore), I had forgotten (how is that possible?) how beautiful that drive is.  I love the mountains surrounding Vancouver... one of the many things I love about this city.

(photo from the Vancouver Sun)

Photo from August... UBC, English Bay, downtown and the north shore

Phase 2

I had to tell my manager today I'll be leaving in a month... it makes me sad to know that my time here is already winding down and will be over soon.  I'm not quite ready to leave this beautiful place and the friends I've made.

I feel sad, but optimistic about the next step of my life as my focus sharpens and I'm able to focus more on where I want to go with it.  Hopefully, that'll be back in Canada soon.

Environment Canada: "No snowman-making weather with this kind of snow."

Today I got stuck in the snow.  Twice.

It all started when I had to be at work at 5:30 am to let in another girl.  Getting out of my apartment parking was fine... while driving I did a little slipping and sliding but luckily the snowplows had made at least 1 round and there weren't many other people around.  The problem was when I had to park.  Vancouver got 26 cm of snow yesterday.  That's over 10 inches... almost a FOOT of snow!  Well I got stuck.  As I ran into the shop, in tears, Ease was already there and helped me shovel and move my car so it wasn't blocking the alley. 

That put me in a terrible mood.

Since it took Ease and I almost 45 mins to get me in a legit position to leave my car, we opened pretty late.  I didn't have to bake as much.  Which meant I got to go home earlier...  when one of the delivery guys showed up he taught me the best way to get my car un-stuck.  Since he grew up in Ontario, I figured he knew what he was talking about.

But, I couldn't get my car out.  Finally, after another 20 mins of shoveling, hot water and manuevering (luckily I wore my rain boots today so my feet weren't soaking like yesterday), I was able to move.  Then I got stuck getting out of the alley.  FINALLY I made it to Main St. (the snow plows had been riding up and down all morning dropping salt) and made it home without further incident.  

I've seen snow, and driven in snow, but never THIS MUCH snow.  To help me make my point of exactly how much snow there is lying around, I bring you Gordon, my foot tall Texas garden gnome.

Here is the snow on my balcony outside my room:

Here is Gordon hanging out in the snow:

Close up:

That, my friends, is Gordon in 9 inches of snow.  On my balcony.  It's not much better outside in the alleys, side streets and the like.  Here are two pictures of it snowing outside my window.  The first is from the first snowfall since I've been here, from last week, and the second is from yesterday.

The first is fairly light, the second is fairly heavy.  Also, yesterday when I came out from work, my car was covered in between 3 and 4 inches of snow.  That was fun getting that off.  Its supposed to be a picture perfect white Christmas here... maybe I will venture out on xmas day and take photos, maybe not.  All I know is that for now my car is NOT leaving its garage!  Even if it takes me 2 hrs to get to work and home this next week.

It snowed up until 9 or so this morning and will start again tomorrow.  People are shovelling sidewalks like crazy, but we're running out of places to put the snow.  Melt please?

Holiday snowstorm

Winter rolls in coast to coast with blustering snow, high winds, severe cold

The Great White North is living up to its name.

Winter debuted Sunday with boisterous displays of heavy snow, powerful winds and numbing cold across the country. Forecasters are predicting Christmas will look much the same.

"I would dare say if you're in a satellite looking down on Canada, it would be white from coast to coast to coast and it would be frozen," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada.

"There's no area that can say that winter hasn't really arrived."

(. . .)

In Vancouver, snow began falling Saturday night and continued into Sunday, with up to 20 cm of snow expected in some areas by day's end.

(. . .)

Those dreaming of a white Christmas will get their wish - mostly.

While Yuletide will likely be a rare postcard perfect in Vancouver - with more snow expected on top of what is already on the ground - forecasters said it was possible that parts of Ontario and the East Coast may get an influx of slightly milder temperatures and even rain.

(story from the Canadian Press, photo from the Vancouver Sun)

6 inches of snow??  This is crazy!  It does NOT do this in BC.  Add on top of that the fact that I have to be at work at 5:30 am tomorrow (as I did today) and am not looking forward to that at all!  Today was rough enough, but tomorrow will only be worse... luckily I am off on Tuesday and close on Wednesday... hopefully the buses will be running by then, and have Christmas day off.  I really am not a fan of this snowstorm.  Hopefully it will come to an end soon.

Fa la la la la

While the Christmas season officially started on Friday in the States post-Thanksgiving... by that standard the holiday season should been in full swing here in the Great White North since Canadian Thanksgiving on Oct 13.  Yes, that's OCTOBER.

Fortunately, those living north of the 49th parallel tend to wait awhile and "Christmas" officially started yesterday.  I am not excited.

What I am excited about, however, is the new Christmas blend we got in at the coffee shop yesterday.  It is definitely my new favorite coffee and I can't wait to take home my first lb. next week!  Since I forsee a lot of alone time the last two weeks of December, a nice cup of Christmas blend should keep my company.  Maybe a good book or two as well?

I wish I had some photos to share of the holiday season gearing up here in the Lower Mainland, but alas, I do not.  However, since Mom will be arriving in about 23 hrs (!) I will be breakng out the camera and shooting some photos.  My dad gave me a tutorial via Skype tonight on camera settings, so hopefully that will help me take some nicer photos than I have been taking in the past!  If I can take nice photos with the point and shoot, I will definitely feel more vindicated in wanting (and eventually obtaining) that digital SLR I've been coveting.

On another note, the work Christmas party is in two weeks on Granville Island!  Went dress shopping Saturday post-poutine (best in Vancouver!) and got great deals at Barefoot Contessa  on Commercial.  I bought a cute, lace on black strapless cocktail dress after trying on at least a dozen!  I had a difficult time picking between it (called the "Natalie Portman" dress) and another, slightly sexier satin sheath dress which had gorgeous details!  I absoultely adored the shop and plan to return again soon next time I need some clothing!

Double B Adventures (Bus and Bed)

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!

The view across English Bay...

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!

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!