Dear All,
Well it's been about 3 weeks since i wrote an update so i will have to try and think hard about what i have done since the first week as everything is becoming a blur....since there has been alot of drinking, recovering from a cold and then working a few days. After the first week i went into Detox for about....2 whole days then into it all again. I think this is when we ran into Australia Day at the Hostel and the party went for 2 days as we listened to the triple J top 100 countdown on the 24th here and then when it was the 25th we did it all again. The Hostel had meat pies and VB and everyone put on any aussie gear that they had and we all drank down at the bar. After Australia day i came down with a cold and was not drinking very much or doing anything but sleeping and recovering for a day. Just about everyone else was sick too. I was nursing everyone else then i got it myself. The hostel has had heaps of really cool people come through. Hostel life is great but the down side is that you meet really great people and then they have to leave. It was sad when one of the staff members had been kicked out for not paying their rent. It was obviously a good reason to kick this person out but as it was someone that i talked to all the time then i felt a sense of loss when that person was not there anymore. On top of that there are a few people that have been staying here for a while and then they leave to go to the mountains or get apartments and you walk around the hostel thinking that things don't feel the same after they have left. It feels weird when you make friends and then they leave. So most of the time i have been really social, which is quite unusual for me these days, and sometimes things are quiet and i don't do much. There was one night when i planned for 4 of us to go for dinner together and there ended being 9 people. It all started when i had a French roommmate for 6 days, called Stephanie (she was so nice) and there were 2 girls in another room who we got to know so we decided to go downstairs to the bar. On the way i got talking to a girl in the toilet and invited her to go and then i got talking to a guy in the lounge room and invited him to come along and then some others that i already knew joined in and then i ran into a guy that i knew met in Hawaii in the bar in Vancouver and so then 4 became 9 and man i didn't know what to do. I can't talk to that many people at once, but we ended up going out and drinking together which was cool. This is what travelling is about, meeting lots of people. I have been lucky and got some temp work for about 3 weeks with a company called The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. I have been there since Wednesday last week. The work is quite boring but it's work so i don't mind. This weekend just gone myself and another girl from the Hostel ended up going to Seattle for the weekend with 4 guys that we met at the hostel. They were going to watch the superbowl and so we decided to tag along. We were just down at the bar drinking with them when the topic came up and suddenly we were planning to go with them. We all went down there on Saturday and it was cheaper to split the cost of a hotel room than stay at a hostel, so that we did. There was 6 of us so 2 rooms of people and lots of alcohol. We drank at the hotel and then went out to a bar on the saturday night which was a good night. 3 of us went back early and then got some sleep so that we could do a few things the next day. We went to see the music museum that they have, which has big tributes to bands that have come out of Seattle such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix etc... I quite enjoyed the music museum. There were original outfits from Kiss, elvis and heaps of musicians so it was cool to stand so close to the outfits they used to wear. The weekend was going well up until this point. The 3 of us that went sight seeing (the other 3 slept in and then went straight to the bar where we were going to watch the game) went to a mall to have lunch and we all got something different and sat down and ate it and all of us agreed it was the worst food we had had. It was awful. So we ate what we could and then went to meet the others at Jillians Sports Bar to watch the Suprebowl. We were so hoping that Seattle would win to be there in the atmosphere to celebrate, but not to be. The bar that we went to was huge!!! There were tv screen literally wall to wall so you could watch the game no matter where you were standing. The atmosphere was great while Seattle were winning but once they started to lose the place felt really dead and people started going home. We were hanging around with a heap of people, our own group and then others started to join in. There were these 2 American guys who kept talking to us and they bought Georgia (the other girl that was there) a drink. She didn't buy them one in return and one of them started to get really pissed off. He came up to her and said could she buy him a beer as he had bought her one and she just told him to go away. His mate kept telling him to let it go. So we went on to watch the superbowl for the next couple of hours and they also bought me a drink, but didn't ask for one in return but then got pissed off when i wouldn't talk to them all the time. We didn't ask them for drinks they just kind of bought them. After the game had finished our group had split, our boys were do drunk and had found American girls to talk to so they were nowhere to be seen. The two guys came and spoke to us and one of them got nasty and started calling Georgia a bitch and then she put her hand up and told him to f*&^ off and so he punched her in the jaw. I was so angry. And of course as usual there was no security anywhere to be seen. I went to get security but by the time i found someone he had split and so there was nothing that could be done about it. I couldn't believe it. So from when we had the bad food to the end of the game it all went down hill. After this i had to wait until 12.45 am to get the bus back to Vancouver, driving back at 4.45am, went to bed and then got up and went to work the next day. So with meeting people at the hostel and then meeting people through other people i have had some experiences and i have only been here for a month. As for facts about Vancouver: there are beggers all throughout downtown where i live and they are really friendly. They all ask for a quarter and when you say no they thank you and bid you a good day. They don't continue to hassle you for any money they leave you alone once you say no. Food is expensive. A block of cheese is between $6 and $10 and chicken is usually between about the same. Downtown is dirty and there is chewy all over the pavement. I can't believe how much Canadian's spit and of course it continues to rain almost everyday. I don't go anywhere now without the umbrella. I take the bus to work everyday, because i just work over the bridge and it's too wet to be bothered walking. The buses are electric and they look easy to drive. I reckon i could because all they have to do is put their foot on the pedal and go. Anyway i have used my lunch break now so i had better go. I hope that you are all well. One of these days i will figure out how to put my photo's on the web so that everyone can see. They are mostly of people but there are some view shots.
Take care all
Shelley
xxxxxx
