One Year
The low sun in the sky, the rainy days, the cooler weather have been a subtle reminder that it was one year ago yesterday that I first set foot in Vancouver. I've spent a lot of time this week thinking about how much has or hasn't changed since then.
There have definitely been some things I've learned about Canada in general, about BC, and about my new city.
For example, it's now clear that the alphabet for the English language actually contains only 25 letters, with a theoretical 26th which remains embroiled in a fierce Kashmir-like border dispute between the vicious Zees and the ruthless Zeds.
I'm forever ruined on any place that sells a sushi dinner for more than $10. I'm eating an $8 tuna and salmon donburi as I write this, as coincidence would have it.
When you think about it a little, it really does make more sense to call it a washroom, rather than a bathroom — unless it's at your house and actually has a bath in it. I have no idea anymore what "restroom" is supposed to mean. Nevertheless, if I ever live among people who call it a "peeroom", they'll still ultimately win this little game.
It's nice to have a healthplan that lets me choose any doctor I want at a net increase in taxes significantly less than what I would have paid for equivalent healthcare in the US. It's sad to listen to so many foolhardy Americans defending a freedom of choice healthcare system which was in truth driven to extinction over a decade ago by insurance companies seeking to slice a profit out of already expensive medical care. Sure the Canadian system has its own problems, but if you want to know what those problems are, ask any Canadian, not an American.
I'm also forever ruined on any place which doesn't offer both ski hills and beaches within a half an hour's drive. In a pinch, I could possibly give up the skiing, but definitely not the waterfront.
Peanut butter on breakfast toast is not that bad an idea. Neither is sour cream on . . . well . . . anything. And salt and vinegar on fries works for me too — I've long since forgotten what the ketchup tastes like.
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and pretty close to true ethnic equal opportunity are nice concepts as well. Americans who are into that kind of thing should give them a try, rather than pretending they already have them.
I'm still no more a hockey fan than I used to be. But I can definitely appreciate the near absence of basketball in the winter. Given the choice of which to watch, I'll take hockey any day.
[I just realized the pictures on the wall of this sushi bar are assembled jigsaw puzzles which have been mounted and framed. Weird. Random observation. Nevermind.]
I'm officially tired of explaining to Vancouverites that not all parts of Texas are warm in the winter. When I visit my hometown for Christmas, and am reminded of late December temperatures which usually average around -2C, can sometimes dip as low as -15C, and can be accompanied by winds up to 50km/h, I'm not exactly regretting that I forgot to bring my shorts. The fleece liner for my winter coat stays in the closet all year long except for 1) going snowboarding at Whistler or 2) visiting my parents for Christmas. [Incidentally, the month by month weather highlights on the linked page bring back all kinds of crazy childhood memories.]
I know it's by no means unique to Vancouver's downtown, but let's hear it for near blanket wifi coverage — if there's no network where you're sitting, walk half a block and you'll find one. While we're at it, let's also give a cheer for a pretty decent bus system, pedestrian friendly drivers (usually), and more coffee and tea shops than you can shake a stick at. Unless you're really efficient at the stick-shaking, I guess.
Living in two currencies can kind of suck at times. Being excluded from about 75% of e-commerce sites sucks, too, and facing $40 international shipping charges from half of those that remain makes me pretty damn frustrated. I now understand why people around here get so excited about amazon.ca. And I'm not even going to get started on reckless postal code validations or required State dropdown boxes on websites which otherwise assert that they support international orders (I'd still love to hear their marketing departments' recurring explanations as to why their monthly total of international orders always equals $0).
Speaking of amazon.ca, I'm still not really sure what the point of google.ca is, aside from the occasional special title art on Canadian holidays. From a searching perspective, I've yet to find a single search which turns up results any different than the main google.com site. Perhaps it's like the idea of supporting the neighborhood grocery rather than the big chain store downtown. I don't know.
All the rest seems just sort of like . . . life. Here. And it's good. I'm sure that for each thing that came to mind there are a hundred things that didn't, but writing about those is what the second year is for, anyway. . . .
There have definitely been some things I've learned about Canada in general, about BC, and about my new city.
For example, it's now clear that the alphabet for the English language actually contains only 25 letters, with a theoretical 26th which remains embroiled in a fierce Kashmir-like border dispute between the vicious Zees and the ruthless Zeds.
I'm forever ruined on any place that sells a sushi dinner for more than $10. I'm eating an $8 tuna and salmon donburi as I write this, as coincidence would have it.
When you think about it a little, it really does make more sense to call it a washroom, rather than a bathroom — unless it's at your house and actually has a bath in it. I have no idea anymore what "restroom" is supposed to mean. Nevertheless, if I ever live among people who call it a "peeroom", they'll still ultimately win this little game.
It's nice to have a healthplan that lets me choose any doctor I want at a net increase in taxes significantly less than what I would have paid for equivalent healthcare in the US. It's sad to listen to so many foolhardy Americans defending a freedom of choice healthcare system which was in truth driven to extinction over a decade ago by insurance companies seeking to slice a profit out of already expensive medical care. Sure the Canadian system has its own problems, but if you want to know what those problems are, ask any Canadian, not an American.
I'm also forever ruined on any place which doesn't offer both ski hills and beaches within a half an hour's drive. In a pinch, I could possibly give up the skiing, but definitely not the waterfront.
Peanut butter on breakfast toast is not that bad an idea. Neither is sour cream on . . . well . . . anything. And salt and vinegar on fries works for me too — I've long since forgotten what the ketchup tastes like.
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and pretty close to true ethnic equal opportunity are nice concepts as well. Americans who are into that kind of thing should give them a try, rather than pretending they already have them.
I'm still no more a hockey fan than I used to be. But I can definitely appreciate the near absence of basketball in the winter. Given the choice of which to watch, I'll take hockey any day.
[I just realized the pictures on the wall of this sushi bar are assembled jigsaw puzzles which have been mounted and framed. Weird. Random observation. Nevermind.]
I'm officially tired of explaining to Vancouverites that not all parts of Texas are warm in the winter. When I visit my hometown for Christmas, and am reminded of late December temperatures which usually average around -2C, can sometimes dip as low as -15C, and can be accompanied by winds up to 50km/h, I'm not exactly regretting that I forgot to bring my shorts. The fleece liner for my winter coat stays in the closet all year long except for 1) going snowboarding at Whistler or 2) visiting my parents for Christmas. [Incidentally, the month by month weather highlights on the linked page bring back all kinds of crazy childhood memories.]
I know it's by no means unique to Vancouver's downtown, but let's hear it for near blanket wifi coverage — if there's no network where you're sitting, walk half a block and you'll find one. While we're at it, let's also give a cheer for a pretty decent bus system, pedestrian friendly drivers (usually), and more coffee and tea shops than you can shake a stick at. Unless you're really efficient at the stick-shaking, I guess.
Living in two currencies can kind of suck at times. Being excluded from about 75% of e-commerce sites sucks, too, and facing $40 international shipping charges from half of those that remain makes me pretty damn frustrated. I now understand why people around here get so excited about amazon.ca. And I'm not even going to get started on reckless postal code validations or required State dropdown boxes on websites which otherwise assert that they support international orders (I'd still love to hear their marketing departments' recurring explanations as to why their monthly total of international orders always equals $0).
Speaking of amazon.ca, I'm still not really sure what the point of google.ca is, aside from the occasional special title art on Canadian holidays. From a searching perspective, I've yet to find a single search which turns up results any different than the main google.com site. Perhaps it's like the idea of supporting the neighborhood grocery rather than the big chain store downtown. I don't know.
All the rest seems just sort of like . . . life. Here. And it's good. I'm sure that for each thing that came to mind there are a hundred things that didn't, but writing about those is what the second year is for, anyway. . . .