Some people have a view of a wall, I'm at least on the top floor :).
Thursday, 15 September 2016
The View from my Window
Originally I was annoyed that my window faces south as its the least spectacular direction is could face. I do get to see all the way to the US though and on clear days you can see mount Baker in Washington State. Pity about the construction site just below my window by it could be worse.
Some people have a view of a wall, I'm at least on the top floor :).
Some people have a view of a wall, I'm at least on the top floor :).
Tuesday, 13 September 2016
Week 1 in Vancouver
Creative title I know, but its hard to find something to encompass what I've been doing. Most of my days have been pretty packed out.
The first day here I mainly walked around campus and tried to combat the jet lag that many were experiencing. I went to the UBC CFL game but left half way through because I was so tired.
The day after though I wasted no time in getting out to Grouse Mountain, a local summer attraction and winter ski area. There is a huge range of mountains starting in the north shore area of Vancouver and Grouse is just one of many. The hike up was steep and very rough but the views at the top were spectacular.
I've sampled some of the local pubs and bars, although it seems like a lot of the time Canadians try really hard to stop you from spending your money in their establishments. On Labour day nearly everything is closed, on other days they fill up early due to low capacity limits and close early. Lines for everything (drinks, food, tables) are common around the campus at night. You need two pieces of ID for some reason to drink. And don't even think about staying in your room with friends, nearly anything fun you could do is strictly prohibited i.e. no drinking games EVEN WITH WATER.
The food has been okay so far. Everyone is complaining about food costs but they seem to be about on par with Australia. Haven't had any super memorable meals, the Mexican here is nothing to write home about unsurprisingly given the location.
The first day of University was Imagine Day, but as exchange students we just walked around the buildings and had a mandatory insurance policy lecture. There are huge amounts of student clubs here and I looked at some, but much of the evening was consumed going shopping. I went to Ikea as well to buy a small handful of necessities for cheap. Finally got a kettle, I didn't have a tea for nearly a week.
What I've done the most though is riding, so at least I'm getting value from all the money I spent getting my bike over here. The third day I was in Vancouver I was lucky enough to meet a local UBC student who was heading up to Squamish. I'm glad we decided to go there as it is a perfect introduction to the area. The Sea to Sky highway is rightly famed for being a spectacular drive and we had a few showers but it was mostly clear enough to see all the islands and steep coastal mountains. Actually riding in Squamish was incredible. The trail infrastructure (signage, shelters) is leagues ahead of Australia. We rode Half Nelson first and it really is the crown jewel of the area. Big jumps, massive berms, smiles all round. Some of the other trails we rode that day were narrower and rougher and more what I would expect.
After riding Friday at Fromme again, I got up at 6 on Saturday to catch the Epicrides.com bus to Whistler for the weekend, which is sort of why I came here. The bike park is an amazing place to ride, apart from the finger lock, but I also rode Comfortably Numb in the Whistler valley on my hardtail and it was honestly a waste of time. So much suffering for so little reward.
Anywho, positive thoughts; overall the week has been amazing. The only problem is that I feel like I've been through a washing machine. I don't think I've ever tried to cram so much in to such a short period of time. I guess I am sort of in holiday mode rather than temporary resident mode. I look forward to another 15 weeks hopefully filled with fun!
The first day here I mainly walked around campus and tried to combat the jet lag that many were experiencing. I went to the UBC CFL game but left half way through because I was so tired.
The day after though I wasted no time in getting out to Grouse Mountain, a local summer attraction and winter ski area. There is a huge range of mountains starting in the north shore area of Vancouver and Grouse is just one of many. The hike up was steep and very rough but the views at the top were spectacular.
There were some sad looking bears in a bear 'sanctuary' and even some signs warning that there were bears sighted in the area, which I suspect may just be for tourists or liability.
I've sampled some of the local pubs and bars, although it seems like a lot of the time Canadians try really hard to stop you from spending your money in their establishments. On Labour day nearly everything is closed, on other days they fill up early due to low capacity limits and close early. Lines for everything (drinks, food, tables) are common around the campus at night. You need two pieces of ID for some reason to drink. And don't even think about staying in your room with friends, nearly anything fun you could do is strictly prohibited i.e. no drinking games EVEN WITH WATER.
The food has been okay so far. Everyone is complaining about food costs but they seem to be about on par with Australia. Haven't had any super memorable meals, the Mexican here is nothing to write home about unsurprisingly given the location.
The first day of University was Imagine Day, but as exchange students we just walked around the buildings and had a mandatory insurance policy lecture. There are huge amounts of student clubs here and I looked at some, but much of the evening was consumed going shopping. I went to Ikea as well to buy a small handful of necessities for cheap. Finally got a kettle, I didn't have a tea for nearly a week.
What I've done the most though is riding, so at least I'm getting value from all the money I spent getting my bike over here. The third day I was in Vancouver I was lucky enough to meet a local UBC student who was heading up to Squamish. I'm glad we decided to go there as it is a perfect introduction to the area. The Sea to Sky highway is rightly famed for being a spectacular drive and we had a few showers but it was mostly clear enough to see all the islands and steep coastal mountains. Actually riding in Squamish was incredible. The trail infrastructure (signage, shelters) is leagues ahead of Australia. We rode Half Nelson first and it really is the crown jewel of the area. Big jumps, massive berms, smiles all round. Some of the other trails we rode that day were narrower and rougher and more what I would expect.
I rode the North Shore on Thursday (8th of Sep) and it was certainly an experience. I manage to fall off pretty bad. What I will say is that from what I've seen, everything you hear about the North Shore area trails is pretty much true ;). I've been catching the bus to the trails, as here they have bike racks with room for two bikes on every bus, which is pretty cool.
After riding Friday at Fromme again, I got up at 6 on Saturday to catch the Epicrides.com bus to Whistler for the weekend, which is sort of why I came here. The bike park is an amazing place to ride, apart from the finger lock, but I also rode Comfortably Numb in the Whistler valley on my hardtail and it was honestly a waste of time. So much suffering for so little reward.
Anywho, positive thoughts; overall the week has been amazing. The only problem is that I feel like I've been through a washing machine. I don't think I've ever tried to cram so much in to such a short period of time. I guess I am sort of in holiday mode rather than temporary resident mode. I look forward to another 15 weeks hopefully filled with fun!
Monday, 5 September 2016
Real Talk About Travel Fear
 |
| Everything that came with me to Canada |
The purpose of this post is to talk about my feelings as I took off from Adelaide though. I've never travelled extensively on my own and I had some serious anxiety leaving. Thoughts went through my head like "why on earth did I do this" and "oh god this is really happening" and even "the plane is going to crash aaaahhh". This was a really surreal moment for me as I have never been reduced to this level of irrationality before in my life.
Leaving everyone I know is a pretty big deal which I suppose I didn't really think about until I was sitting there with nothing to do for several hours over the Pacific. In some ways I'm glad I pent up that emotion, because I might not have gone on this exchange if I'd thought about it too hard due to my fear. Needless to say, I have a new respect for people who decide to do this for real and immigrate to a foreign country, sometimes having to learn a new language. I miss my parents but being here really is incredible and I'm glad I've taken myself out of my comfort zone.
Wednesday, 31 August 2016
4 Things I Won't Miss About Adelaide
Very shortly I'll be getting on a plane to from Adelaide to Vancouver for a 4 month or so University exchange. I'll be honest, I'm a little apprehensive.
This trip is on a bit of a different league to leaving the house for a week for a trip down to the beach with some friends. I know approximately zero people in Vancouver and I'm a long way from my family if I get into trouble. But none of this is really very interesting to talk about because as scared as I am there are about 1000 other people heading to UBC (University of British Columbia) for exactly the same exchange experience.
I could moan and whine about how I'm worried about making friends, or that I don't know the first thing about tipping, that I don't know how I'll deal with being away from my parents for so long and how only one of my six roommates has bothered to return my emails plus others. I'm not going to though, because there must be hundreds of similar thoughts expressed on blogs like this from around the world and it doesn't really need to be elaborated on any more.
What I can do is look at this positively, and moan and whine about 4 things that I'm not going to have to deal with in Vancouver.
1.
Australian media
Suffice to say that media coverage of anything important is non existent. Now the cynics among anyone who reads this may think something along the lines of "but nothing important happens in Australia". Which is essentially correct, but the least they could do is cover world news with some consistency. Key stories include an ex prime minister sculling a beer at a cricket match. I try not to subject myself to actually watching any of it but every now and then A Current Affair manages to slip something through my defenses.
2.
Heat
I'm sure the rest of the world understands that Australia is hot, but I really am looking forward to missing out on more than half of Adelaide's summer. I prefer cold weather in general (cold for Australia anyway) so how am I supposed to deal with 45+ degrees Celsius days. One week down at the beach it was so hot we couldn't actually go outside and just sat around with minimal clothes on. Other highlights include it being 50 whilst driving in the country and the asphalt melting. Freezing cold will be a nice change once I get to BC.
3.
AFL
Australian Rules Football is the national sport, yet I have never and probably never will have any interest in it. This is all well and good you might think, but AFL is borderline ingrained in the fabric of Australian society. Meeting a stranger is usually followed with determining which team each individual supports. Trying to explain that I have no understanding of this sport is met with blank stares or awkward laughter. At least I'll have the excuse that I'm foreign when it comes to Ice Hockey in Canada.
4.
Magpies
At this point I'll warn you that a lot of this blog will end up being about bicycles, specifically mountain bikes, which I can't seem to stop riding/reading about/talking about/buying and may have greatly informed my decision of choosing UBC as my exchange destination. Unfortunately in Australia we have medium sized birds that have evolved to 'swoop' other animals in nesting season, presumably to scare off predators. Somewhere along the line the birds decided it would be a good idea to swoop humans and cyclists. At best a several hundred gram bird hitting your helmet with its feet is a minor annoyance, but there is just some part of me that cannot help but flinch when I'm just riding along concentrating on the trail ahead and the damn whoosh of air comes up beside me. Its currently nesting season and they piss me off so much I've had to stop riding at my local trail centre. I will most definitely not miss them.
This trip is on a bit of a different league to leaving the house for a week for a trip down to the beach with some friends. I know approximately zero people in Vancouver and I'm a long way from my family if I get into trouble. But none of this is really very interesting to talk about because as scared as I am there are about 1000 other people heading to UBC (University of British Columbia) for exactly the same exchange experience.
I could moan and whine about how I'm worried about making friends, or that I don't know the first thing about tipping, that I don't know how I'll deal with being away from my parents for so long and how only one of my six roommates has bothered to return my emails plus others. I'm not going to though, because there must be hundreds of similar thoughts expressed on blogs like this from around the world and it doesn't really need to be elaborated on any more.
What I can do is look at this positively, and moan and whine about 4 things that I'm not going to have to deal with in Vancouver.
1.
Australian media
Suffice to say that media coverage of anything important is non existent. Now the cynics among anyone who reads this may think something along the lines of "but nothing important happens in Australia". Which is essentially correct, but the least they could do is cover world news with some consistency. Key stories include an ex prime minister sculling a beer at a cricket match. I try not to subject myself to actually watching any of it but every now and then A Current Affair manages to slip something through my defenses.
2.
Heat
I'm sure the rest of the world understands that Australia is hot, but I really am looking forward to missing out on more than half of Adelaide's summer. I prefer cold weather in general (cold for Australia anyway) so how am I supposed to deal with 45+ degrees Celsius days. One week down at the beach it was so hot we couldn't actually go outside and just sat around with minimal clothes on. Other highlights include it being 50 whilst driving in the country and the asphalt melting. Freezing cold will be a nice change once I get to BC.
3.
AFL
Australian Rules Football is the national sport, yet I have never and probably never will have any interest in it. This is all well and good you might think, but AFL is borderline ingrained in the fabric of Australian society. Meeting a stranger is usually followed with determining which team each individual supports. Trying to explain that I have no understanding of this sport is met with blank stares or awkward laughter. At least I'll have the excuse that I'm foreign when it comes to Ice Hockey in Canada.
4.
Magpies
At this point I'll warn you that a lot of this blog will end up being about bicycles, specifically mountain bikes, which I can't seem to stop riding/reading about/talking about/buying and may have greatly informed my decision of choosing UBC as my exchange destination. Unfortunately in Australia we have medium sized birds that have evolved to 'swoop' other animals in nesting season, presumably to scare off predators. Somewhere along the line the birds decided it would be a good idea to swoop humans and cyclists. At best a several hundred gram bird hitting your helmet with its feet is a minor annoyance, but there is just some part of me that cannot help but flinch when I'm just riding along concentrating on the trail ahead and the damn whoosh of air comes up beside me. Its currently nesting season and they piss me off so much I've had to stop riding at my local trail centre. I will most definitely not miss them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)