Vancouver: work and travel

Hi!

I promised an English blog post, so here it is! An update on my Vancouver life. After hanging around the city like a tourist, I tried to settle down and make Vancouver my new home.

Vancouver

I moved in with a family in North Vancouver. I found them on Workaway, a website where you can find hosts who are looking for a helping hand. In exchange for some voluntary work you get board and accommodation.

The family lives in an apartment building near Deep Cove in North Vancouver. They have a 2 month old baby named Isla.

I helped them out with chores, housekeeping, cooking, cleaning etc.

View from outside of the apartment building

When I was not helping at home, I took some time to explore some more or spend my free time in Vancouver. You can probably guess what comes next. Here are some of the highlights:

• When it was Halloween I carved a pumpkin! I think I’ve done it before as a kid, but I never did it properly as they do it here in America. So that was a first. I think I did a pretty solid job.

• I went to Richmond, where they have several Asian shopping malls. An interesting concept! While I was there I visited the Richmond Olympic Oval and saw some ice hockey games.

• I went to the movies. Not really interesting, but it was different from the movies in Belgium or Australia. You don’t have a numbered seat here in Canada. I didn’t like that. I love going to the movies by myself so if I wanted to go get a drink, I left my seat and someone else could take it. They also do games before the movie and you have an endless choice of soft drinks.

• I did a well known hike in Deep Cove, Quarry Rock. It was a beautiful day and I had an amazing view at the top.

• I went to another drag show. Vancouver has lots of drag shows. I really like drag but never saw a show like this one. They had non binary drags, drag things, drag kings and queens. It was amazing. Absolutely loved it.

• I tried to find some locations in Vancouver where they filmed some of my favorite tv shows. So it happened I found Archie Andrew's house (Riverdale).

• I went to Steveston, a small village in Richmond. It’s a really cute village. It’s like you enter a different country. They use the village in the show ‘Once Upon A Time’. I went to a fisher’s market, had fish and chips and went to the Brittania shipyard.

• I had donut’s from the famous ‘Honey’s Doughnuts’ in Deep Cove. Donut’s will never taste the same after this. These donuts are life changing!

Apart from the fun stuff, I tried really hard to find a payed job. I ended up finding a couple of babysit families and a construction job. The babysitting is fun and pays really well ($20/hour = €13/uur). The construction job is hard and pays less ($16/hour = €10/uur). I did 2 days of construction work and had to vacuum a construction site for 8 hours. That’s when I knew why I spend so many hours, days, weeks studying for my OT examens…

Still alive, not really kicking after 8 hours of vacuuming

Vancouver is a difficult city to make friends in. It took me a bit of time to make some friends. Thankfully I did end up meeting some nice people. I also used the site called ‘Meetup’ and went to an Escape Room event. We did one of the Smartypantz escape rooms ‘Dream’scape’. We got out in 35min and had 10 min left on the clock. This was my 4th escape room and I’m still waiting for the room that will keep me locked in!

We are Smartypantz!

Whistler

This weekend I decided to book a last minute trip to Whistler. The mountains just opened a couple of days ago and I wanted to see why everyone was so excited about Whistler. It was really nice to be in the snow and to have a snowboard under my feet again. Although there were not a lot of slopes open yet. The slopes that were open, were super busy which made it sometimes hard to board and do your own thing. I ended up trying to avoid other skiers and snowboarders. The village itself is really cute and nice. It’s small. There was a holiday market on and I enjoyed a hot apple cider, a local maple syrup lolly (basically sugar on a stick) and the carols that the choir was singing.

I slept in a pod hotel. It was the best hostel/hotel I ever stayed in. There are mulitple pods in one room. You have your own pod in the room. Every pod has a double bed, a locker, a light, plugs and USB chargers, a fan,… You get a lot of privacy for only a bit more money than the normal hostel prices. The food was also amazing! Anyone planning on going to Whistler? Definitely stay in this hotel!

Ok, you’re all updated again! I will get back to you soon, probably with a Dutch/English blog :-)

Love,

Joke/Jay