My few weeks at the youth hostel on Jericho Beach have given me many fond memories, and the months after that which I spent living in a shared house on Granville Street provided me with many more. The people I met in those first few months were the ones who accompanied me everywhere I went. We wandered around Downtown, climbed mountains, went to the beach, cycled, and generally absorbed life as a newly landed Vancouverite.
Back in November I moved into an apartment with my close friends Thomas and Sophie. Thomas is from Glasgow, and Sophie from Lutterworth - only 30 minutes from my home village in England. We all met during the summer, when I was working at Business Objects, a Yaletown-based software company. We had since become extremely close and decided that it would be silly not to move in together, considering how well we got on.
We took on 'Bar Handsome' - as it has become known, as a totally bare shell of an apartment, aside from the basic kitchen and laundry facilities, but have since filled the place with all manner of furniture and equipment, both expensive, inexpensive, and things acquired through recycling purposes. Basically we've turned Bar Handsome into a home, and we even have a Russian Blue (meaning he's Grey) kitten - Handsome - to add to the mix. Our place is on Floor Eight of an eight story (plus penthouse) apartment complex. We're fortunate enough to have no less than three balconies, and with the building being the tallest in the neighbourhood, we have a commanding view of the surrounding area.
So, now living in a place I can finally call home, with me now being a single man, and with my work visa due to expire in June, I started to think about what's next. Do I go back to England and get a job? Do I move somewhere else? Do I travel down to South America? Do I join my brother in his cycle ride through Sudan?
There were many options on the table, but in the past few months, I've decided that Vancouver seems the right place for me at this point in time, and moving away from a place I feel at home in does not seem like the right thing to do for now. As I've previously mentioned, Vancouver attracts me in so many ways. The multiculturalism, the geography, the activities on offer, the people. It all adds up, and makes me smile every time I think about the place I currently live.
I have made some amazing friends during my time here, met people from places which before I got here seemed so far away. Where else could I go in the world where my workmates were from Kazakhstan, Canada, Belarus, Dallas, and England? It's a pretty eclectic mix, and isn't something I think I'd find back in my home town. My flatmates have become my family out here. We have fun whatever we do, wherever we are. It doesn't have to cost us anything - and it's great.
So, with this in mind I began to look into the ways of staying in Canada. My current visa is not renewable, so I would need to look into alternatives. Getting married to a Canadian isn't really an option, so my only realistic way of staying is to gain sponsorship through my employer.
As luck would have it, Marc - my boss at Mink, provides sponsorship for Alesia, who is Belarussian, and Ben, who is from the United States. An inquiry to Marc as to whether he'd considering doing the same for me came back positive, and so the wheels were set in motion for me too.
As a result, my British Passport, and associated immigration paperwork is currently at a Canadian Immigration office being processed, and it should, in theory at least, come back to me with a nice, fresh work permit inside, attaching me to Mink Chocolates. I have another roughly six weeks before everything has been funneled through the work permit system, so here's to waiting.
Aside from working on extending my stay in Vancouver, there have been a few other things I've been up to. Firstly, my good friend from England, Jordan, has been out to visit me for a couple of weeks. It had been roughly nine months since I'd seen my friends from home, so it was a great feeling to have one of them out in Canada with me.
Jordan has an interest in snowboarding, but had never been before, so it was a great excuse to take a trip or three up a mountain, strap on a board, and fly back down again. We visited the local mountains; Grouse, and also Cypress. The latter is where Jordan did his first piece of riding on a real mountain, aside from a hill near his house when it spent a week snowing back in England. Fortunately he picked snowboarding up quickly, and so we made the extremely necessary trip up the Sea-to-Sky Highway to the legendary Whistler-Blackcomb.
The day involved leaving the house at 5:30am to catch the Snowbus, but this was a small price to pay for an excellent days riding. Whistler is a two hour bus journey from the city, but is head and shoulders above anything available in the local area. The view from Whistler peak, punctuated by the native Canadian Inukshuk, was awe-inspiring. It was like being on top of the world.
As well as spending time with friends, I've been trying yet more new cuisine. I often sample the delights of the Middle East, with Shawarma and Falafel being a mainstay of my diet. I enjoy many Sushi-based meals, but one evening recently I embarked on a Russian expedition. I have a number of Russian-speaking friends out in Vancouver, and so with many of them being fellow immigrants they enjoy good old fashioned home cooking. In the same way I crave a proper greasy fry-up once in a while, these guys enjoy Borsch, Vodka and Crepes. So that's exactly what we had the other night.
Borsch is an Eastern European soup with the primary ingredient being beetroot, giving it a red sheen. Ours had a whole range of different vegetables included and was frankly delicious. Naturally, being surrounded by Russians, there was a fair amount of Vodka consumption also, and Russian style crepes were there in abundance.
With time ticking away, spring has finally arrived in Vancouver. The clocks have been moved one hour forward, the air temperature is gradually heating up, and cherry blossom is forming on the trees. I for one cannot wait for summer to arrive. I love making the most of the surrounding mountains, but being able to cycle everywhere in the sunshine, wear shorts without drawing looks of amazement, and go to the beach are things I now crave.
Vancouver is a place of endless possibility, particularly in the summer, and with the prospect of a second summer in the city looming, I'm feeling positive about the future. My parents are set to make a second trip to the city to visit me towards the end of May, and I will also be joined by another old friend in the city in a month or two. I think summer 2009 could be fun.
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