Making friends and Eco-travel

When I first decided to move to Vancouver many months ago now I was quite understandably excited. A new city, in a new country, on a new continent. A whole clean slate and a whole new adventure.


When I told my friends, work-mates, and any other random people I spoke to that I was going I usually got one of two responses. The first generally went along the lines of "Sounds good, you'll have a great time there." Perfectly normal response really.

The second, however, I found quite amusing.

The conversation would usually go:
Person (with puzzled expression): Have you been to Canada before?
Ben: No never.
Person: So you have family there?
Ben: Nope.
Person: Friends?
Ben: None.
Person: Right. (looking even more puzzled) You're mental.

Most of the time the conversation would end there, or the subject would be changed, but for some reason the people I would have this conversation with were unable to fathom why I'd want to leave dear old England for a new country I'd never even been before and had no links with. For me, I didn't really see the difference between going to Vancouver, or moving away from home to University. It's the same principle - a new setting, a whole group of new people to meet, and a time of complete unknown, with the opportunity to do so much, or so little.


I guess most people would be pretty scared of moving so far away. When at University in England you are never really too far away from home. England is a tiny country, and I've been told that you can fit our Kingdom inside British Columbia four times.

Additionally, when going to University you usually start off in some form of Halls of Residence. Easy enough to meet people then - everyone else is in the same boat, and everyone else is crapping themselves over the fact that they may not meet people, may be lonely, and have a wasted experience. I found the Jericho Beach Hostel to be an experience similar to that. Most people were alone, or in small groups, and everybody was up for talking and making new friends. It was easy, really.


My friendship group here in Vancouver is made up of an interesting bunch of people. Firstly there is Dylan - my weirdly flexible, massive-handed, Sri Lankan/English friend from Wisbech in Cambridgeshire. Next up: Lynda and Andrew - a couple of friendly Aussies who've been travelling the world for a fair amount of time themselves, but have now settled in Vancouver for six months at least. There's Robert, my Dutch mate who has been in Vancouver for almost a month - but has just today left for Tokyo, to continue his round the world expeditions. We've got some Irish friends too - Sabrina, Seun - who is Irish but was born in Nigeria, and their other Irish housemate Emma. There's my flight buddy, Helen, who has recently got her own place to live sorted, and has managed to bag a pretty good job at Westjet in Canada Place. As well as these there are others who have come and gone from the Hostel, a group of locals who Robert and I have played soccer (sorry, I mean football) with every weekend, and my work mates - who do the same supposedly-working-but-actually-sitting-on-facebook job as myself.


I did find the first week in Canada pretty difficult. Looking back on things, staying at UBC was a mistake. The place was nice but there was no opportunity to meet any people - and it cost far too much. Moving to the Hostel was a great move, as all my new friends have been from there, and everyone has been brilliant. We've spent time wandering around Downtown, sitting in Stanley Park or on Jericho Beach, or met up at Lynda's workplace - Mink Chocolate Cafe near Canada Place - to eat and drink unhealthily.

The other day Dylan got himself a mountain bike. He discovered "Our Community Bikes" on Main St in Vancouver - a shop whose organisers recycle bikes that have been damaged, disregarded or are in various states of disrepair. Dylan paid $80 for a bike that looked brand new, aside from it lacking a saddle, and so the other day he came with me to get one of my own. Two hours of toil later and I had a "Nishiki" mountain bike of my own. It cost slightly more, as we had to change wheel-bearings, gear shifters, grease the whole thing up, and stop the saddle from trying to fling me off every time I changed speed, but I'm happy. I'm sure Tom, my brother, would be proud that I've embraced an eco-friendly form of travel. Whilst I nail it around Downtown Vancouver, dodging buses, pedestrians, cars, and going the wrong way down one-way streets, he is planning the next stint of his Ride Earth trip - a cycle ride around the globe.

Now that cheap transport has been sorted out I never need to use the bus again. Granted, I will probably get public transport if I venture out of the city any time soon, but whilst I stay I will be seen on my bike. It's great exercise too.


Next on the agenda is to buy a laptop, pay rent, and find more places to visit. It's going to be fun.

Getting Settled

It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything about my exploits on the other side of the pond, but not being in any particular rush to do anything strenuous today I decided to write about what I've been to up to in the last two weeks.


In the previous edition of this blog I was unemployed, homeless but generally having a good time. Fortunately, the latter part of this hasn't changed, but the other two have.

Since moving from UBC to the Hostel at Jericho Beach my experiences in Canada have changed a lot. UBC was a nice place to stay, but I really had to get out of there. On a positive note I had my own room, washroom shared with only a couple of people, and it was directly next to the bus. It was also an astronomical $354 dollars for a weeks stay, and was dull. Very dull. I barely met anyone whilst staying there, so when my mate Dylan mentioned that the Hostel was located right on the beach, had good links into Downtown, and was only $20/night I was sold. After setting fire to my debit card to pay for my stay at UBC, packing, and getting the hell out of there, Dylan helped me move my stuff to Jericho Beach, and that's where I stayed for the past couple of weeks.


Since then the time has flown by. I've met people from all over the world. Places like Ireland, Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Bolivia, China, Taiwan. Everyone is friendly and is interested in what you are doing in Canada, where you've been before, what you want to do next. Like myself, many people came alone, some are passing through on heroic voyages around the continent by car/van/bicycle, many are here for a year or two to work, and many are just on an extended break over the summer from University or College.

The Hostel, which was formally an Army Barracks, is cheap and cheerful, but it shows. The washrooms leave a lot to be desired, and you only get a small locker to store your stuff in, but it's a great laugh. You meet new people every day, and during the Euro 2008 tournament the Germans who ran the cafeteria set up the television outside with a gazebo, sofa, and fridge stocked with alcohol. The staff are friendly and chatty, there's a huge kitchen for food preparation, and the aformentioned Jericho Beach is only a couple of minutes walk away. Canada Day happened on Tuesday, and the Hostel management organised a big bbq/chill out/beach party-type thing for the day, and we watched the Fireworks over Downtown Vancouver in the evening from the beach.


Shortly after moving to the Hostel my search for employment finally bore fruit. After a gruelling two hour inteview/test session with Kelly Services, an employment agency, I was finally offered a job. As of Monday I have been working on 'Data Entry' for a software company in Downtown Vancouver. Thus far I have sat on a very comfortable chair, moved various reference numbers around various different screens, and consumed various packets of Cuppa Soup Noodles whilst sitting on various pages on the internet. I've also marvelled over, on many occasions, the top floor of the building. In England, an office kitchen - in my experience at least - includes a couple of cupboards, a kettle, and perhaps some slightly mouldy cheese. Try here: A ping pong table, every type of free coffee, tea, hot chocolate you'd ever want, a football table, a big-screen TV with three games consoles, subsidised snack machines (25p for a Twix anyone?), sofas, and an outdoor roof patio with a barbeque. I'm sure I could've done worse.

I start work at 8am - something that I've been finding fairly difficult, after five weeks of getting up whenever I feel I can be arsed, but the pay isn't bad, and the office is relatively relaxed. There has been a lot of training happening this week, so it's been a case of information overload at times, but there is a load of new temps aside from myself, so everyone helps each other out. All in all it will at least allow me to pay the rent at my new place!


Yes, it's true - I have a house. Well, a room, actually, in a shared house. It's not too expensive, and I'm living with a couple of guys from Quebec, a chap from Toronto I've never met as he's always working, and a Tunisian guy called Slim (who wasn't very), who disappeared the other day. The building is huge and upstairs there's a house where the couple who own the place live. My landlord, Frank, is from Hungary and his wife Fadia is Lebanese. They're also incredibly friendly and gave me a lift to do a food shop the day I moved in. Overall I'm pretty pleased, as my room is large, is fully furnished, has a double bed and plenty of storage space, and I can get a bus to Downtown in around 15 minutes.


At the moment I'm living on a bit of a limited budget, but soon enough I'll get paid and be able to visit places on weekends, and save up for when people come over to visit. It's nice to be unpacked now, having been living out of a bag for the best part of a month, and I'm feeling a lot more settled. I've made lots and lots of friends at the Hostel, and a fair few of them are here for a year. After a tough start things are looking up.