Wednesday 25 November 2015

Settling in.

Far out. 3 weeks since the last blog post. Sorry! Been busy working and socialising.


Still have remnants of my cold. This cough is sticking around but that hasn’t stopped me from going to the gym, hiking and catching up with friends. I have only had one quiet weekend at home so far, so that was nice. Although in saying that, I did do the Grouse Grind that weekend and I’m so glad I did as it has since closed. The weather has been quite nice, very cold and it’s supposed to get colder this weekend!

The weekend that just went I did 2 hikes, one to Crystal Falls in Coquitlam and the other to Norvan Falls in North Vancouver. Both were fun!

The hike to Crystal Falls wasn’t that hard (it was only about a 6km return trip), however we made it hard by climbing up the hills near the waterfall. Almost reminded me of the Grouse Grind! It was a great day, we even saw deer! Excitement plus. We finished the day by chilling out in the pool and hot tub. To me it’s so weird swimming in winter but I guess that’s because our pool back home is outside and we only go in when it’s hot.

The next day, the same group of us (minus one who had to work) went to Norvan Falls in North Vancouver. We did this one in such good time considering the signs said it would take 6 hours as it was a 14km return hike. We did it in about 3.5 hours including having time to stop at the waterfall. We were taking advantage while it’s sunny. It’s pretty cold though!

Both these hikes were very beautiful and different from each other.  I love that you can just drive half an hour and go for a hike with such beautiful scenery. I think I would hike every weekend if I could!
On Saturday night I caught up with my friends Rangolie and Rolie. I have known them for about 14 years now. It’s absolutely crazy that we have managed to stay in touch and see each other, despite the distances. May as well tell you the story of how we met.

Way back when, in 2001, Mum and I were heading to Vietnam for a holiday and we had a stopover in Bangkok. We chose these rows of seats to sit and wait and this Indian family, Mum, Dad and twin girls sat opposite us. We started chatting to them and it turned out the girls were around my age!  They were heading to India for the first time since they moved to Canada. I don’t know how long our stopover was but talking to them made it go so quickly. We even have a photo of our first meeting (it’s somewhere back at home and it’s never seeing the light of day!) and we kept in touch ever since. We’ve written letters, emails, had MSN chats etc etc. When I came to Vancouver in 2007 for a week we caught up and then when I moved here in 2013 we caught up off and on during the time I lived here. It’s so lovely having friends that no matter the distance or how long it has been since you’ve seen them that nothing changes. I’m so lucky to count both Rolie and Rangolie as these types of friends. I really hope we can catch up more this time around.  

After a very full on weekend, I caught up with my other friend Alice who wanted to see the new James Bond movie. Why not? So I went along. It was great! Very action packed and enjoyable.
Last night (Tuesday) I was invited to go see the final instalment of The Hunger Games. Not one to miss out on an opportunity to catch up with friends I accepted…even though I had never seen any of the movies before! Honestly, I really didn’t think they would be that good, however with the knowledge that I would probably go to the movies, my task on Monday was to completely catch up! Luckily I live really close to work and I usually go home at lunch, so in my lunch break I started the first movie. Then I also happened to finish work early so went straight home and finished the marathon. More than 6 hours of Hunger Games later I was caught up! I’m so glad I saw them before seeing the final movie as I would not have had a clue. I do recommend the series. I should probably read the books now!

Oh, speaking of wildlife (not really) on my way downtown last night I saw 2 raccoons! I was really worried they were going to get hit by a car as they kept going on to the road, but I didn’t know how to approach them to get them away from the road or even if you should? Apparently they have rabies? Snakes, spiders, lizard, toads, I know how to deal with but raccoons? No. I walked past them and they darted into the bushes. Thank god. I really hope when I walk back down the same street tonight that I don’t see dead raccoons on the road. They’re pretty cute with their little eye masks.

Animal count so far this trip: squirrels – tick, skunk – tick, deer – tick, raccoons – tick. Need to see a few more scarier ones…like moose and bears. Maybe in the summer.

Not a lot else to update, who knows what this weekend will bring, but I know that it’ll be bloody cold!

Friday 6 November 2015

(almost) 3 weeks in.

Cannot believe I've been here for 3 weeks already. So much has happened!

I have survived my first week of work (yay!) but I have also had a cold for the whole week too (boo!).

Basically my job is a program assistant for the second year medical students. So this involves program coordination including generating the student timetables, obtaining learning materials from the lecturers, posting it online, organising the print of materials and more. It's a bit hard to explain. It doesn't sound like much but it's a lot of planning ahead and being organised! I can tell you I have been busy every day!!

Hopefully the next week will be better as I start to settle in more. I'm so glad I moved after I found the job because (no joke) it is literally a 3-4 minute walk to work. If I get another job down the track I won't know what to do with myself in terms of commuting! It's brilliant as I've been able to come home during my break some days and I'm able to get chores done! Like today I totally got all my washing done so I don't have to do it on the weekend!! (Really exciting adult stuff!)

In between, I've been going out some nights - to the gym and out with friends - but then realised if I want to get better that I should stay home. So last night and tonight are quiet nights at home...although in saying that I have now fixed my room to a state where it's liveable!

I did a lot of cleaning and sorting tonight, but now things have a place! I just need to buy a couple more things (like a set of drawers) and I'm set. Feels so good and smells good too. (It was a bit musty before.)

Anyway, now I can sleep in tomorrow, try and get my voice back (it's nice and husky) get these drawers and get ready to party with my friends tomorrow night! Life is pretty good right now!