We arrived on Friday night, after 2 days in Taipei, which was a really interesting experience. Taiwan has such an interesting history, governed in the past by the Dutch, Portugese and now working towards gaining acceptance of their independence from China. I would love to go back and explore the country, which is supposed to be beautiful - showcasing volcanoes, mountains and jungle.
Our visit helped us to acclimatise to the cold as it was about 15 degrees, a nice mid point from the 30 degrees plus we are used to and the 4/5 degrees we were about to experience. A big part of our few days was shopping for warm clothes! The rain is taking a bit of getting used to after having only 12 days when it rained in 5 months!
When we arrived in Vancouver we were greeted by our host for our first week, Dianna. She made a very good first impression of Canadian peeps. She is very accommodating and friendly and we are really enjoying our stay with her. So far Canadians in general are making a great impression. We have had so many people say 'Welcome to Canada'; shop staff who strike up conversation at the till, fellow patrons at a bar who overhear we are new to Vancouver. Literally everyone we have spoken to has been so open and friendly.
We had thought we would head to one of the nearby ski resorts to find work but we have decided to stay in the city. It will be easier for me to find work here and also Martin can play live poker throughout the day here in the city. Which will be great, as it means hopefully we will be working similar schedules, which will be a big improvement to how things were at home.
The city has so much to offer. We haven't had a chance to explore properly yet but downtown has great shopping, loads of bars and restaurants, lots of theatres, 2 stadiums. At the moment the ice hockey season is in full swing and Canadians are BIG on hockey. So we are hoping to get to a Canucks game asap. There is also international womens football taking place. The mountains are only an hours drive from the city, Whistler 2 hours and Vancouver Island a few hours away. Within the city there is also Stanley park and the beach is 10 minutes walk from where we will be living.
We have hit the ground running. So far we have found a place to live. We saw an ad on Craigslist and went to meet the couple. We ended up spending a couple of hours chatting and they offered us the room. They have a beautiful basement flat. They are both artists and have really made the flat their own. We will have a 'suite' of 2 rooms, a bedroom, an office and a huge walk in wardrobe. They also have an art space, which they've said I can use! I'm very excited.
I also have applied for a few jobs and I have some interviews lined up. If I can get the jobs I'm applying for then I think it will really help me career wise.
Last night we went to a Couch Surfer social, which was really good fun. There must have been about 50 people there, all people who were travelling, new to the city or 'ex' travellers who just enjoyed meeting people. Everyone was really open to speaking to new people and it was easy to 'mingle' and chat with different people. We'll definitely go regularly.
So far I have a really good feeling about our move. We left England as there were several things we wanted to change about our lives and so far it seems being in Vancouver will help us to achieve these changes and hopefully lead to a more balanced, active life. Of course at the price of missing our family and friends, so we'll see how it goes.
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