Work, Fun & Poutine
It's been a few days since my last blog entry so I thought I'd write about everything we've been up over the last week and a bit. The days at work at really starting to blend in to one another for me, I find it mad to think that this is my 4th week there. I'm still finding the early mornings hard going and I have to really drag myself out of bed at 5:30 each day! A lot of family and friends said to me "you'll get used to it" but I'm not sure when that's supposed to start happening, it certainly hasn't yet! I feel a bit more settled there now and comfortable with what I'm doing. The job itself is different to what I've been doing over the last few years and in all honestly it's a bit of a backwards step career-wise, but it's bringing in some money and that's the most important thing. The company is really making moves and the people are really nice and helpful to me so it's good in that respect.
At the beginning of last week we didn't really go out once we got back from work. Then on Thursday Lou met me in downtown Vancouver after work and we went for a nice meal at the Transcontinental restaurant which joins on to Waterfront station (the place I get off for work each day). During the day when she was off from work Lou also went shopping for a few things (such as alternate bedding, kitchen utensils etc) which we'd been putting off from buying until we were more stable money-wise. All the little things are starting to make our apartment feel more homely by the day and it's less sparse now.
On Friday I stayed for a few beers at the office after finishing work. We have our own keg + tap beer combo (which is all free) and also a bubble hockey table which I'm yet to embarrass myself on. I then went for a couple more drinks in a bar close to the station I get on at, and I attempted to leave early after a couple. I made numerous failed attempts to go before eventually getting back home just after 9pm! It was a funny night indeed. I met a lot of new people, at one point I think there were 5 nationalities represented there so it was a real good mix of people.
Friday was also 5 months to the day since we got here, it seems to have gone fast in some respects and slow in others. We feel less like we don't know what's happening around us and feel less 'new' now. We can now relate to a lot of places and things we hear people talking about, it's a good feeling to not feel like an outsider. However, we're still occasionally asked questions like "oh, how long are you here on holiday?" or "So, where's home for your guys?"! I can't fault them though, I'd probably say the same thing to someone with a Canadian accent if I was in the UK.
Lou has been using up some of her annual leave recently as she needs to use it before end of the year (I'm not entitled to any) so she's been booking off weekends which has been great. On Saturday we took it easy and just chilled out and did the things we'd not managed to get around to during the week. In the evening we went to our friends house and watched the Cancucks Vs Oilers game (which we won 7-3!). There were 6 of us there and it was another funny night! We took the wrong bus home though and ended up going on a real long route home which included two bus trips and SkyTrain trip totalling almost 2 hours (normally 25 mins) - we'll know for next time I guess!
On Sunday we nipped into Downtown Vancouver to quickly meet one of our friends and then we had a walk around the Pacific Centre Mall and some of it's shops. The mall was noticeably more busy than when we've been before, people are definitely getting into Christmas mode now. I also got to try Poutine for the first time which is beef gravy on french fries with fresh cheese curds, it's a Canadian favourite! I'd been speaking about it the day before and then when I seen it for sale I had to try it. I really enjoyed it but will not make a habit of eating it, it must be really bad for you!
This week has started off pretty much the same as last and it has been reasonably quiet. Lou is on evenings meaning that by the time I get home she's just left for work but she has Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday off so hopefully we'll get up to something exciting at the weekend.
I'll end this blog post with a bit of randomness - I'm starting to miss a few british foods now and the one that's getting to me right now is Branston pickle! I've heard it can be found here though so I'm going to hunt some down in the expat shops soon. I never thought I'd miss something like that, it's so weird!
Posted from Vancouver, Canada
