A week on Un-Cruise: Pacific Northwest

Mum is here! It is wonderful to have Mum back in Vancouver.

She arrived 3 weeks ago and albeit very jet lagged arrived in one piece. Her arrival wasn't totally smooth as when I went to meet her at my place, we thought we had got all the bags out of the taxi...then just as the taxi took off she said "I don't have all my bags!" So there I am, running after the taxi, yelling "wait! wait!" Luckily he heard me and pulled over. We searched through the cab and nothing was there. Turns out I was carrying the bag the whole time!!!

I took a week off work (which was lovely) to do a cruise in the Pacific North West. The cruise started in Seattle so we thought instead of taking a bus or plane, we would take the train instead. We had heard the views on the way were really lovely and it's absolutely true! The train goes right along the coast line. We arrived safely in Seattle, checked into our hotel and then wandered around the city.

I don't know how to sum up the week except to say it was awesome!!! There were about 35 passengers and 28 crew so we got to know everyone on the ship. We were the only Aussies...everyone else was American! Also I was the youngest passenger but a lot of the crew were around my age. We met some lovely people and now have contacts in California, Oregon, Texas and South Carolina.

Highlights of the trip:

• Seeing orcas! I have seen oracs in the wild before but that was on the BC ferry to Victoria and they were miles away. During the trip we saw them at 3 different times. It was breathtaking. We saw one of them spyhop! That was absolutely amazing. Luckily one of the keen photographers caught it on camera.

• Hiking! I didn't realise this trip would be so active and did not pack entirely appropriately. However, I ended up doing 4 hikes all of varying lengths. It was great as generally the same people went on the hikes so we got to know each other really well.
• Snorkelling! Yes, I went snorkelling. The water temperature would have been about 10 degrees C. We donned thick wetsuits, hoods, boots and gloves. Getting in the water was a shock to the system as the water fills your wetsuit but then it warms to your body temperature keeping you warm (ish). We spent about 45 minutes in the water. It was really murky but we saw these cool little see through jelly fish called ghost jellyfish, lots of crabs, spiky sea cucumbers and star fish. Great experience. Definitely keen to get my dry suit training for scuba diving as it's so different to tropical snorkelling/diving.
• Food! The food was amazing. We had a 3 course dinner every night, buffet breakfast and either a buffet or packed lunch if we had day activities. Every meal was delicious and we also got to know the waitstaff really well. It was great as we also sat with different people every night.
• Kayaking! I think I've been kayaking once before. So Mum and I decided to try kayaking 101. We were quite ok at it and there weren't too many arguments. It was a really nice kayak with pedals to steer the direction of the boat. After about an hour long lesson/getting used to it, Mum and I went kayaking another 2 or 3 times and really enjoyed it!
• Weather! We were prepared for cold wet weather, but it was sunny and hot for the whole week. Amazing!

I would definitely recommend Un-Cruise. Although more expensive than other cruises we really enjoyed the smaller group aspect of it and getting to know everyone. We're going on another one in November for Mum's birthday to Hawaii. Can't wait!

Spring has officially sprung!

No wonder it's called beautiful BC. The flowers are blooming, the birds are singing and the weather is warming up! It's so nice to go out in the sun in one layer...finally! Summer is coming!!!

Work has been super busy though but the fact that daylight savings has kicked in means that the days are getting longer with the sun setting at 8pm so it's not so bad finishing at 5 when there's still 3 hours of daylight left.

Easter was quiet for me. Damien and I are still going out but he has been sent to Edmonton for work for about 6 weeks. That sucks, so I didn't have huge plans. Did some spring cleaning, saw a couple of movies, went to the Cat Cafe, and hung out with friends.

This past weekend was great though, I get this message on Friday night from Damien with a photo of chocolate and wine asking if I wanted them. Of course I said yes but it would be impossible (as he was in Edmonton...). But then he says to go check the front door. Yeah right I thought, I'm not falling for that. Next minute I get a photo sent to me of my front door...um what? So I went down and he was there, with the chocolate/wine delivery. So that was a really sweet surprise. It was so good to see him and spend most of the weekend together.

On Saturday it was the first hike of the season where 4 of my friends and I hiked the Stawamus Chief.  There are 3 summits with gorgeous views over the valley. I have done it previously but only 2 of the summits. We hired a car and I drove (and we survived!). It's only about 45 minutes north of Vancouver near the town of Squamish. We decided to hike all 3 summits which was tough but so rewarding. It took us about 6.5 hours total but we also took the time at each summit to chill out and take in the view.

From left to right: Samadhi, Anish, Helena, me and Olga at the top of the first peak.

Next week Mum arrives! I cannot wait. I'm really looking forward to it as it will be exactly 6 months since I've last seen her. We have lots of exciting things planned but that'll be for the next update!

So much for Christmas/New Year Part 2...

Hello! I had every intention of writing a long blog post about the rest of my Christmas/New Year break but all of a sudden it's 2 months later...oops! So slack...actually no I take that back. BUSY!!

In short, New Year's Eve was one of the best I've had. It was at my friend Adam and Ali's apartment where we hung out and cooked this massive 8kg turkey with all the trimmings. Followed by an awesome party and a huge hangover to go with it.

So much has happened in the past 2 months:

• I have a new position. Still working for UBC and still working for the Faculty of Medicine but now I am looking after the tutors instead of the lectures. This involves making sure they get paid, they have their materials for the upcoming week, collating students marks etc etc. It also means my hours have changed, I now work from 7.30am to 3.30pm which will be awesome come summer when it's sunny till 10pm! Almost another whole day to be had!!
• I learned to ice skate! Kinda. I never was good at rollerblading and a few friends went to Robson Square one night which is a free rink. If you don't have your own skates it's only about $5 to hire and you can skate for as long as you want. Started to get the hang of it after a while and lots of fun.
• Spent lots of time with friend with birthday parties, farewell parties and games nights.
• Went to Australia Day at Moose's Down Under which was so much fun. I met a guy from Brisbane who I'm now seeing! What are the chances??
• Went snowboarding a couple more times and I've now progressed to the green runs and have started to be able to turn.
• My friend Jess and I hired a car on the Family Day long weekend and we ended up being really nerdy and finding all the X Files locations. We also went to the Bates Motel which is filmed here too. Side note: There's also an old mental institution that is used for lots of movie/tv/advertisement shoots and it is so creepy. Terrible atrocities happened and you can definitely feel it in the atmosphere there.
• I drove a car! While it's not a big deal at home, I was nervous about doing it here as I have never driven on the opposite side of the road. While it's weird, it's good to know that I can do it because Mum is coming in April and we'll hire a car.
• Spring is here already. While snow is still being dumped on the local mountains and up in Whistler, the cherry blossoms and daffodils have already started blooming.

That's it in a nutshell! I promise to try and update a bit more regularly, but work especially has been busy as I've been trying to learn my new role, which I've only been in for a couple of weeks as well as teach the person that's doing my old role...plus now she's on leave this week so I'm doing both roles and it's a little exhausting and overwhelming.

Until the next update...hopefully not in 2 months...talk soon!

Christmas/New Year Break Pt 1.

Happy New Year!

2 weeks since the last blog, either I’m getting slack or there’s too much going on!  I’ll go with the latter ;)

Since the last blog we’ve had Christmas, New Year’s and 10 glorious days off work. Now it’s back to the daily grind. Need to start planning more fun!

The days off were such a blur. A lot and also not much happened! Some days were pretty lazy and others were full on.

Christmas Day was the quietest Christmas Day ever. It was nice to have such a low key Christmas for a change, although this is my 3rd Christmas away from home and I think it gets a little bit harder every year.

Both my good friend Jess and I realized we didn’t have plans during the day, so we thought we’d better do something rather than sit at home by ourselves! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned Jess yet, but she is also from Brisbane. We met over here though, as we have a mutual friend, however I think I met her at an X Files fundraiser screening a few years ago. But that’s another story for another time. :) We bond over the X Files and our love of going to the movies. We usually try to go to the movies once a week and occasionally we’ll have a road trip away. Anyway, Christmas Day did not feel like Christmas Day. We met up in downtown Vancouver, found a pub and had a “traditional” lunch of turkey sandwich (Jess) and Hawaiian pizza (me). Although it was no prawns, cold salads or bbq it was so lovely to have Christmas with a fellow Aussie. We also went to the movies (shock horror!) and saw Sisters. I highly recommend it if you want a good couple of hours of laughter. That night I went over to my Brazilian friend Marisa’s place for drinks and games with other friends. It was such a fun way to end Christmas day.

It was an early start on Boxing Day as it was time to finally learn how to snowboard! The amazing thing about Vancouver is that there are mountains close enough to access by public transport. Me and 3 other, Omar, Ahmed and Anish are all amateur (aka never been before) snowboarders. We were all keen to learn and found that Mount Seymour had the cheapest lesson, lift, rental deal. So we went there.

We had booked in for a 10.30 lesson. However none of us have a car so had to slum it on public transport! 2 hours later we were finally there. Thank god we took the 10.30 lesson as we had to leave downtown at 7.30 anyway and would not have made the 9.30 one. Anyway, after signing our lives away and getting fitted for gear we found where we were supposed to meet. There were 2 Canadian girls as well as a Californian man also in our class. We had the funniest instructor - a hippie English guy, with long blonde hair, 2 plaits in his beard and a tie-dyed headband. His jokes were so dry which made the lesson fun.

The whole 2 hours were spent on the bunny slope first learning how to go backwards without falling and then forwards. By the end of the lesson, I could finally get down the hill going forwards without falling over…too much!  I have no idea how many times I fell, but it was a lot! I think pretty much every time I went down that damned hill. After lunch, we all decided that we just wanted to practice going forwards and backwards the rest of the afternoon…down the bunny slope and that’s exactly what we did!

By the end of the day, I could kind of master going forwards and actually change direction a little bit. Going backwards…I still struggled with and fell over every time. By the end of the day I found it so exhausting trying to use my whole body weight to stand up. Need to work on that leg strength. We kept going though but we all had enough by 6.30. Not bad for a first day! Definitely keen to try it again (sooner rather than later) and perhaps do another class, to learn a few more skills and maybe progress to a green run!

After falling on my ass so many times I found it really hard to sleep (even though I was exhausted) as my tailbone was SO SORE! It actually still is and there are still many bruises on my legs. But it was worth it!

There’s a lot more to cover so I’ll write a separate entry when I have more time. :)

To be continued…

It really doesn't feel like Christmas.

I cannot believe it's Christmas this week. It doesn't feel like it, but maybe that's because I don't have plans and am more looking forward to the New Year's celebrations we have organised, which will be a combined Christmas/New Year thing.

But I must backtrack a week. Last weekend I went to San Francisco to see my Aunty Gail and family friend Lee. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw them, it's probably been a good 4-5 months!! At first I wasn't so sure on the decision to go down, with this new job, but then thought, "screw it!". They're so close and I couldn't really pass up the opportunity to visit while they were on this side of the world.

So after a late night flight on the Friday I was back in San Fran. The last time I was there was in 2007 (!!!) and prior to that it would have been about 1995 or 1996. It seems to be a visit of every 10 years!! It is such a cool city and the people are so friendly. They rented an apartment near the Palace of Fine Arts and it was so nice being in a residential area, rather than the downtown or touristy area. The first day was a really nice day, we went to their local bakery for a decent coffee then walked to get a cable car. We stopped off at the Fairmont then looked at a church nearby. Following that we headed to downtown San Fran and watched the ice skaters, a very cool acapella group and tried to see how many people were dressed up in crazy Santa costumes because it happened to be Santacon that day. (where people just bar hop dressed as Santa.) We then headed back to their favourite French cafe that had the most delicious food and chai lattes. We ate there both days.

As the weather on the Sunday was predicted to be raining (great, I left Vancouver to go to SUNNY California) we decided to go for a walk down towards the Golden Gate Bridge. It was a lovely arvo and a beautiful sunset. Also there were surfers under the bridge!! Crazy! The following day was Gail's birthday so we went to our usual places and did a bit of shopping on another local street. Unfortunately it was a short day for me as I had to leave for the airport around 2.45pm. But stupid me, did not check the flights as my flight was delayed for 2 hours (!!) so I hung out at the airport when I could have had more time with them. Oh well. It was so good to see them and have that little piece of home over here. I guess it's hard at this time of year when you can't be with your family for the holidays.

Oh and in other news Miley Cyrus was on my flight to Vancouver!!! I tried to take a sneaky photo but it was so blurry. I could not make a living as a papparazzi!

Not a lot else happening, just going out really and hanging out with friends. Like I said, I think I won't be doing a lot for Christmas. I have 10 days off (yippee!) so will be chilling out. There is a plan to learn to ski, so hoping that'll happen next week. Might hit the Boxing Day sales and then before we know it 2016 will be here! Crazy!

I've only just realised that I haven't been home for Christmas for a few years so really missing the hot Aussie Christmas this year.

No doubt there'll be another update before the end of the year, so until then, Merry Christmas!

Homesickness and hockey.

The last couple of days I've really missed home. It’s such a strange feeling. It started a bit on the weekend when I didn’t feel like going out and doing anything.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being here but right now I’m really missing the familiarity of home and my friends and family. I guess perhaps it’s because I’ve been away for 2 months already and it’s been go, go, go since I left and I haven’t really had a chance to slow down. I don’t know it’s hard to explain! But in saying that it was about 2 months in when I was away previously that I felt homesick.

This visit to San Francisco this weekend couldn’t come at a better time. Right now I need to see someone from home and I’m glad I’m catching up with my family. Just need a bit of a recharge I think. Maybe it’s also because it’s so close to Christmas too.

In other news, my friend Jess and I went to the ice hockey and saw the Vancouver Canucks play the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. Jess scored free tickets through work! Apparently there’s a fierce rivalry that dates back to 2011 when there were riots after the hockey final and Boston beat Vancouver. Anyway, all I can say is thank goodness we didn’t pay for tickets, as the Bruins defeated the Canucks in a pretty big way…. 4-0. We ended up leaving before it finished to beat the crowds. We had no idea about the rules…just that they needed to get the puck into the net.

We were excited though as within the first minute there was a fight which led to a penalty for each team. Also later in the game one of the Canucks hit a Bruins player in the balls with his stick! (and it was his hockey stick for all you dirty minded people.) Unfortunately, we missed seeing this as I think this happened after we left. I read that the player was fined $5000 but he said he would do it again! Haha!

Sorry Jess, I’m throwing you under the bus (again!). As we have no idea about rules etc when the Bruins scored their first goal, Jess said “That was a good try”. Hahahaha! We both cracked it! It’s hockey Jess, not rugby league!! We’re really not sports watching people!!

I think if the Canucks played better it might have been more enjoyable. They’re good anyway, Jess and I don’t skate (I don’t know about Jess but I’ve never ice skated before!) so we were impressed with their skating skills and the way they control the puck. But because they had no chance of a comeback there was no point in seeing the rest of the game. It was a good night!

December...where is the year going?

The weeks are just flying by!

I’m going to try and write about my weekends/weeks regularly as the weekends have been so much fun lately and I feel it’s important to record them. :)

Anyway, as of last Friday night/Saturday morning I had absolutely no plans on the weekend. Except to go out on Saturday night. So I thought I would be good and go to the gym. A couple of the girls that I see regularly at the gym said they go on Saturday mornings because one of the really good instructors, Mariette, takes both the Pump and Attack classes. (I never miss Mariette’s Tuesday night Attack classes if I can’t help it).

I get to the class and just before it starts, the same 2 girls invite me to go to brunch afterwards. Sweet! That is just what I need, especially after 2 hours of exercise! (1 hour weights and 1 hour cardio and 845 calories burned!). We went to this awesome little café on Hemlock and 7^th called Slickity Jim’s. If you’re in Vancouver, go now! The brunch is amazing!

By the time we left there I had got a text from my friend Olivier to say that he and some others were going to Granville Island and would I like to meet up! Couldn’t say no. After a quick shower and change I was out the door again. I love my area as I’m within walking distance of Granville Island…but on the way I walked down the shopping precinct of Granville St (only 10 min walk from my place) and did a spot of “Black Friday” shopping. Bought a couple of awesome jumpers from Roots. Thank you Canada for adopting the Black Friday sales.

Anyway, new clothes in hand, I met up with the guys at Granville. We wandered around a bit and looked at the shops and bought some food for dinner – tuna steaks and salad. Olivier had this awesome recipe from his hometown – Montreal. It was delicious. Oh I can’t forget the oysters we had for an entrée (or as they call it here an appetizer) . Fancy!

Side note for the Aussies if you haven’t been to the States/Canada before: entrée = appetizer, main = entrée and dessert = dessert. The entrée thing still confuses me. I don’t understand why the main meal is called an entrée…anyway!!

We had a great night, awesome dinner and thanks to Adam and Ali, I learned how to play Cribbage. It took a while but got the hang of it in the end! Dinner was amazing and the company was good too. After getting home, it was 10pm and I was still planning on going out to meet some other friends! Although Nanna Nicole was starting to rear her ugly head, I sucked it up and went out. Had an awesome night just catching up and hanging out. Next minute it’s 3am and the bar is turning on the lights, a signal to kick us out. We had some sustenance (ie kebabs) and all headed home around 4am. Thank goodness there are night busses that go near my place although I still had to walk 10 minutes to get home and the temperatures would have easily been below 0!

After a nice sleep in till about 11am, it took a while to get up and get going. It’s not the hangover that affects me it’s the lack of sleep! (Actually I didn’t really have a hangover! Woot!) I had made plans to meet up with my previous landlords, Sue and Jeff for coffee. I lived in their basement for pretty much the whole time I was in Vancouver last time so it was great to catch up again. They still had a bag of my old clothes that were supposed to go to charity that they gave back to me. It was like an early Christmas! (although some clothes will still be going to charity!!).

I then met up with my friend Jess to go to the movies, we saw “Secret in their Eyes”. It was ok. It had Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman and the actor from “12 years a slave”. I wouldn’t rush out to see it.

Nek minute. Weekend is over. How does that happen???

But…that’s not the only excitement that happened this week. A group of 12 of us booked to see the Cirque du Soleil show that’s currently in town, called Kooza. It was fantastic. Some of the acts had us all on the edge of our seat. It was a brilliant night. I’ve been lucky enough to see 5 Cirque shows now and each one is so different. You can’t compare them!

Phew. What a week. Who knows what this weekend will bring? Wait, plans have already started to be made! Catching up for sushi with friends tomorrow night and Jess scored free tickets from her work to the Canucks game on Saturday night. Should be a ball as we have no idea what the rules are!!

Next weekend I’m off to San Fran to catch up with my Aunty Gail and family friend Rosalie. They got an awesome flight deal from Aus and are there for 3 weeks! Too bad I can’t take any more time off work but I can’t wait to see them as I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye before I left.  Then it’s one weekend then Christmas. CRAZY!!!