I've Arrived!
Hey everyone,
Well I've now arrived and am settled into my apartment at the University of BC in Vancouver. My 14 hour flight arrived Saturday morning and was pretty bad - crying babies, turbulence, although I sat next to a friendly Canadian traveller who had lots of advice, and gave me the email address of her 21 year old neice who 'likes to party'. Excellent.
The weather here is COLD! It doesn't snow much in Vancouver but they get a frost every night so each morning all the trees and grass is white. The temperature during the day is around 0-5 degrees and the sun comes out so it's not too bad.
My apartment is on the 8th floor, and the University is built on a point of land surrounded by water, with the snow capped mountains of Vancouver Island on the other side, so my view is pretty amazing. Ill take some photos when I can be bothered. I have only met 1 of my other 5 housemates. He is Canadian, from Victoria (the capital city of British Columbia). He's pretty cool - an Arts major who is really into politics, the environment, etc. He used to live in the first & second year dorms last semester, and warned me that there might be a few girls coming in and out here. Well I met the first one yesterday - 6 foot tall, blonde, volleyball player - definitely welcome here.
Two of the other roommatare apparently smoke pot about 6 times a day and our furniture and carpet is covered in these black spots. Don't know what makes them yet but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with weed. There are bits of weed all over one table, and a coffee grinder which apparently they use if they are too lazy to cut up the grass. Apparently everyone in Vancouver smokes pot ('at least 75% of people on campus').
I took the bus downtown on my first day. The city is cleaner than Sydney, the drivers are more curteous, the public transport is faster, cleaner, more frequent and more environmentally friendly (runs on electricity and the whole of BC is powered by hydro). Most stores are cheaper than in Aus, but not by as much as I thought. You have to add 7% GST and 7% PST to everything you buy which means the price tags are all wrong and you end up with thousands of 1c pieces that you dont want.
There are 47 TV channels to choose from, and the apartments guide says "sorry we don’t allow additional channel subscriptions - I'm not quite sure what could me missing?? There are about 4 channels that 24/7 just sell stuff you don't need, and at least 3 channels that seem to only play the Simpsons.
I'm going downtown again today with the other Aussie students here to look for a cell phone, so I better leave it there. Email me with what is going on at home, but please don't mention the weather, beach or anything where warmth is involved!
Will take some photos of campus and update soonish.
Nick
Well I've now arrived and am settled into my apartment at the University of BC in Vancouver. My 14 hour flight arrived Saturday morning and was pretty bad - crying babies, turbulence, although I sat next to a friendly Canadian traveller who had lots of advice, and gave me the email address of her 21 year old neice who 'likes to party'. Excellent.
The weather here is COLD! It doesn't snow much in Vancouver but they get a frost every night so each morning all the trees and grass is white. The temperature during the day is around 0-5 degrees and the sun comes out so it's not too bad.
My apartment is on the 8th floor, and the University is built on a point of land surrounded by water, with the snow capped mountains of Vancouver Island on the other side, so my view is pretty amazing. Ill take some photos when I can be bothered. I have only met 1 of my other 5 housemates. He is Canadian, from Victoria (the capital city of British Columbia). He's pretty cool - an Arts major who is really into politics, the environment, etc. He used to live in the first & second year dorms last semester, and warned me that there might be a few girls coming in and out here. Well I met the first one yesterday - 6 foot tall, blonde, volleyball player - definitely welcome here.
Two of the other roommatare apparently smoke pot about 6 times a day and our furniture and carpet is covered in these black spots. Don't know what makes them yet but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with weed. There are bits of weed all over one table, and a coffee grinder which apparently they use if they are too lazy to cut up the grass. Apparently everyone in Vancouver smokes pot ('at least 75% of people on campus').
I took the bus downtown on my first day. The city is cleaner than Sydney, the drivers are more curteous, the public transport is faster, cleaner, more frequent and more environmentally friendly (runs on electricity and the whole of BC is powered by hydro). Most stores are cheaper than in Aus, but not by as much as I thought. You have to add 7% GST and 7% PST to everything you buy which means the price tags are all wrong and you end up with thousands of 1c pieces that you dont want.
There are 47 TV channels to choose from, and the apartments guide says "sorry we don’t allow additional channel subscriptions - I'm not quite sure what could me missing?? There are about 4 channels that 24/7 just sell stuff you don't need, and at least 3 channels that seem to only play the Simpsons.
I'm going downtown again today with the other Aussie students here to look for a cell phone, so I better leave it there. Email me with what is going on at home, but please don't mention the weather, beach or anything where warmth is involved!
Will take some photos of campus and update soonish.
Nick
posted by Unknown | 3:13 am
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