it has been over a month since my last post.
i've found an apartment, got a job, made new friends, got accustomed with bus routes, got a second job, quit my first job, found a market close by, got involved with the couchsurfing scene in vancouver, started exploring the city, and lots of other things that go hand in hand with settling into a new environment.
yesterday was sunny. i couldn't remember the last time i had seen the sun here in vancouver. actually i probably could tell by flipping through the photos on my phone. no doubt i capture a picture of that ball of yellow in the sky the last time it appeared. i probably was just as in awe then as i was yesterday.
about a month ago i started my job as an apprentice baker at a small bakery in east vancouver. i live about a 35 minute bus ride from work. so the change in age and race of passengers as my bus rolls through the yuppie area of kits where i live, through to the downtown business centre, past chinatown and until it drops me off just past the church-run homeless shelters and parks lined with tented soup kitchens is like a proper tour through vancouver each morning. asian students, hipster infused white young family types, business men and women, poor asians, homeless of all races, white kids saving money by living in sketchy neighbourhoods, and that is when i get off and walk a block to work.
i liked the bakery. i still do. but at minimum wage i knew it wouldn't be enough to meet my bills and save as much as i wanted to. so i started looking for something part time to work on the side. this is when i found an ad online for a tour guide position with a company called west trek tours. i applied. went for a first interview, got called back for a second and then was offered the job! i was and am still beyond excited for this position. it is a part time position primarily on the weekends. but it just seems like something i should do. i had a gut feeling about it. interacting with travellers, being loud and outgoing, getting to do all these amazing activities and get paid for it. just wild! i knew i couldn't pass it up. so i told the bakery. i knew that this new job wouldn't be able to work with the schedule the bakery wanted me for. so i told them i would go. so this week will be my last at the bakery. my first training weekend with west trek is on easter weekend from friday-monday. i will be going on their 'rockies' tour. which is four days and three nights. so now i am kind of back to square one. because now i have a part time job and i still need another job to make ends meet. so im on the hunt for employment again.
and im not as nervous or as anxious as i was the first time around. i feel like something will work out. i feel good about my decision.
i went to my first couchsurfing meeting about a month ago. vancouver is such a bigger hub for travellers than halifax. at the meeting i met people from about fifteen different countries! and i have been getting requests from travellers who want to stay with patrik and i, so hopefully soon we will host people as well.
if you click the link below it will take you to a video of the tour company i will be working for and depict some of the stuff i will be getting up to over easter weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSqy2Qu20QQ&feature=youtu.be
i've found an apartment, got a job, made new friends, got accustomed with bus routes, got a second job, quit my first job, found a market close by, got involved with the couchsurfing scene in vancouver, started exploring the city, and lots of other things that go hand in hand with settling into a new environment.
yesterday was sunny. i couldn't remember the last time i had seen the sun here in vancouver. actually i probably could tell by flipping through the photos on my phone. no doubt i capture a picture of that ball of yellow in the sky the last time it appeared. i probably was just as in awe then as i was yesterday.
about a month ago i started my job as an apprentice baker at a small bakery in east vancouver. i live about a 35 minute bus ride from work. so the change in age and race of passengers as my bus rolls through the yuppie area of kits where i live, through to the downtown business centre, past chinatown and until it drops me off just past the church-run homeless shelters and parks lined with tented soup kitchens is like a proper tour through vancouver each morning. asian students, hipster infused white young family types, business men and women, poor asians, homeless of all races, white kids saving money by living in sketchy neighbourhoods, and that is when i get off and walk a block to work.
i liked the bakery. i still do. but at minimum wage i knew it wouldn't be enough to meet my bills and save as much as i wanted to. so i started looking for something part time to work on the side. this is when i found an ad online for a tour guide position with a company called west trek tours. i applied. went for a first interview, got called back for a second and then was offered the job! i was and am still beyond excited for this position. it is a part time position primarily on the weekends. but it just seems like something i should do. i had a gut feeling about it. interacting with travellers, being loud and outgoing, getting to do all these amazing activities and get paid for it. just wild! i knew i couldn't pass it up. so i told the bakery. i knew that this new job wouldn't be able to work with the schedule the bakery wanted me for. so i told them i would go. so this week will be my last at the bakery. my first training weekend with west trek is on easter weekend from friday-monday. i will be going on their 'rockies' tour. which is four days and three nights. so now i am kind of back to square one. because now i have a part time job and i still need another job to make ends meet. so im on the hunt for employment again.
and im not as nervous or as anxious as i was the first time around. i feel like something will work out. i feel good about my decision.
i went to my first couchsurfing meeting about a month ago. vancouver is such a bigger hub for travellers than halifax. at the meeting i met people from about fifteen different countries! and i have been getting requests from travellers who want to stay with patrik and i, so hopefully soon we will host people as well.
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| pumpkin sourdough at the bakery |
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| tuesday night stroll along kitsilano beach |
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| homemade pizza and dough from work |
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| keeping in touch [boston-vancouver] |
if you click the link below it will take you to a video of the tour company i will be working for and depict some of the stuff i will be getting up to over easter weekend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSqy2Qu20QQ&feature=youtu.be
Nice! Congrats on the new gig(and the old one--a secret dream of mine is to work at a bakery one day.....the only thing inhibiting that dream = 3am start time.....)
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