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Greeted by a mouse in my hostel - part 2 - Canada
by Roxanne Levy | Date >
2006-08-08 | Country : Canada | City : Vancouver
| Area : Vancouver |
So, after having left the Vancouver hostel where I was greeted by a mouse on my first night, I then moved to some university accommodation whilst I was looking for somewhere to live. I packed my rucksack and I sware it had got ten times heavier! How could that be as I hadn't added anything to it!! The rucksack was almost as big as me anyway. being 4ft 11 I'm hardly the tallest person in the world! I struggled along the campus which was like a maze, absolutely huge. My back was giving up on me, as was my neck and shoulders... at this rate someone would have to give me a piggy back to my room.. Finally I got to my room which was really a students dorm but they rent the rooms out during the summer. Hopefully my mouse hadn't followed me here. He might have found it funny to just suddenly jump out at me after having hidden in my luggage! I don't think my heart could have coped. So what else have I encountered whilst in Vancouver. Well I have discovered an extremely rare species called a FRIENDLY BUS DRIVER!, well rare for London but over here its a completely different story! At first, I thought I was imagining things, maybe having a dream of some sort and that I would wake up and be back in reality, but no, the bus drivers here are genuinely happy and cheerful and welcome you onto the bus. Not only that, they are more than happy to advise you if you don't know how to get somewhere or just generally chat with you! It's so refreshing as back in London, the bus drivers just grunt at you, if that! Maybe the fact that they are encased behind a plastic barrier doesn't help, but even so, apart from one or two, they are not the friendliest of species. I wonder is it just a summer thing? Maybe the bus drivers here turn into miserable and depressed beings in the winter, but somehow I doubt it. It's not just the bus drivers who are nice. Shop wokers also seem genuinely happy to see you. They don't come across as fake. I'm still taken aback when they ask me how I am or welcome me into the shop, start chatting with me and also say goodbye when I leave. An incident in particular which really sticks in my mind is when in my second week I walked into an aromatherapy shop. The manager started chatting to me. I mentioned that I had just moved here and was job and flat hunting and didn't really know anyone here that well yet. I said I was having a bit of a bad day which was all part of moving to a new country. She then, without hesitation, came and gave me a big hug! That really took me aback as it was just what I needed and exactly what my friends back home would have done. Yet this woman didn't even know me! If I'd said something similar to someone back home in a shop they probably would have looked at me like I was a bit weird or ran away from me! Much of my time here has been spent flat hunting That has been an experience within itself. I have contacted so many people about flatshares, but they are gone as soon as they are advertised or they get so many applicants they can't cope with it. An example of this is when I sent an e mail in response to a flatshare. The guy then wrote back to all 118 of us that he was overwhelmed by all our responses and the only way he would be able to come to a decision was if we wrote more about ourselves or did something to catch his attention! Can you believe that? So now it had become a competition to even come and see the room in his flat! I've never heard anything like it!! Anyway I decided to go along with it, so I wrote a limerick in honour of his apparent popularity! and here it is, it's absolute rubbish but was funny to do!
There once was a guy with a flat
who had a room to rent
he bought a cat
which he fed till fat
and all went to live in a tent
Needless to say I haven't heard from him yet!
Unfortunately I am now having the complete opposite from a woman that I called up last week about a room. I am literally being phone stalked/harassed by her and it's not nice. When I initially called her about the room, she said there were six people living there. So I said, Oh that's too many and said I was no longer interested. But since then, she will not take no for an answer. She is now ringing me almost every day wanting me to come and see the room and constantly asking why won't I share with six people. I've told her every time It's too many people and I like my space and was only looking to share with one other person. But she will not stop calling. She is insistant that I come round! Of course I'm going nowhere near the place. There is clearly something not quite right with her.
A
normal person would understand when you say no and leave you alone. I guess in life you get all kinds of people...
Finding the right person to live with is not easy! One of my former flatmates a few years ago would tell me off for flushing the toilet at night, as if I were committing a crime! All I want is someone who I can relate to and who is easy to live with! it can't be that difficult can it?!
I've certainly had enough of staying in the student accommodation. Especially when I got back yesterday to find that some food stealer had taken my whole loaf of bread. Not just one slice, but the whole thing, which I'd only just bought! It's funny how these things can be so upsetting, after all its only a loaf of bread at the end of the day! its not real and doesn't have feelings! Not only that, another person who ive come to know also had their 2 pints of milk stolen. So we both put up notes on the fridge to the phantom food stealer telling them off. I told them that they had taken all the food I had and that was my dinner, and now I had nothing left all and would go hungry that night!! (I did have some other food, but wasn't going to tell them that..) I was hoping that they had some kind of conscience, but I doubt it.
Dogs, dogs and more dogs! I have never seen so many of them! There has to be more dogs than people! Vancover has to be the dog capital of the world. Everywhere I go and look there is a dog. Every breed ever invented lives here! They even congregate and chill out in the book shop. Dogs even have their very own bakery! People even look like there dogs. Well apart from the big biker types who have the smallest dogs ever which are perfectly preened with not a hair out of place! Do canadians actually have children or just dogs?!
One thing I did expect when I came here was the slight difference in certain expressions or use of language. When I first asked someone where the toilet was, they looked at me like I was speaking another language! Oh you mean the restroom, we don't say toilet, that doesn't sound very nice.. She had a point, but I don't really understand why it's called a restroom as you don't go to the toilet to rest do you?
A mobile phone in the UK is a cell phone here. Also, applying for jobs can be confusing. What's a Swamper, a Barista, Busser, Esthetician.... Even before I apply for a job I have to try and work out what they mean as it isn't always self-explanatory. I'm sure by the time I go home, i'll be talking like a Canadian!
One thing I've become addicted to is the beach, in particular Kitsilano beach, affectionately known as KITS beach. It's so beautiful. I've been spending a lot of time there, walking in the sand or sea and watching the world go by. Someone always says hi or comes and sits next to me on the bench and chats away. Usually that's nice but the other day this guy imposed himself upon me and rambled on and on and on.. despite the fact that I couldn't stop yawning and my eyes were closing. I couldn't help it. he didn't really even give me a chance to answer! He may as well have been conversing with himself! I did my best to appear interested, but when he started to talk for at least 20 minutes about different supermarkets and comparing them, that was it, I couldn't take it any more or my head would have exploded! He then asked me for a beer but I politely declined saying that (my newly invented husband) was waiting for me at home. Imaginary husbands can come in useful at times!
TO BE CONTINUED...
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