Canada.... I'm heeerrreee!!!

Yep, you read that right. After all my 'careful' planning, you know, having no job, no place to stay etc I'm finally in Vancouver. After all the years of wanting to get here, here I am.

I've been here a week, and I'm in 2 minds about it. When I first got here, and the first 3 days where I had a friend here with me, I was all smiles, and bouncing with excitement. I'd been dreaming of this day since I was about 13, and realised that people other than movie stars could actually live and work in another country. Most of the time the sun was out, it was still a little chilly, but ok, and I had a new city to explore.

But then Jamie went home. And I moved into the youth hostel instead of our 4 star hotel in Coal Harbour. And the day I moved was overcast. And kinda cold. And it's supposed to be summer. And no one was overly chatty in the hostel. So I was a bit down that day. And the next day. I was telling myself that I'd give myself a month to find work, and if I had nothing I'd go home. I was missing my friends and my family.

I think this was compounded because my parents had been in Europe for the 6 weeks before I flew out, and had only been home for a few days before I left, (they got home Monday afternoon, I flew out Friday morning), so it feels like a lot longer than the 10/11 (depending on the timezone) days since I last saw them.

The rain isn't helping either. I never really got it when people talked about S.A.D. I mean, I got it on an intellectual and psychological level, but until I was in a place where the sun doesn't come out for days at a time, I never really understood it. I get it now. Aussies are lucky. We get so much sun a year. We've come to take it for granted. So I think the overcast weather was throwing a wrench in my mood too.

I know, once I have a job and I'm settled things will be better, but having nothing to do all day every day is a little draining. I know, I know. You're wondering how doing nothing can be draining. Well, you know how having one or 2 days off where you have nothing to do but watch movies, and listen to your music, read, take a bath etc.. those are really good. Really nice. I love those days. Where I can sleep in, lounge around all day in my pj's and do basically nothing. Really I do. But I gave up work the beginning of May, so it's now been about 6 weeks since I've had a real reason to get up of a morning. Not to say that I loved my job, I didn't. I really didn't. But I miss having something to do. I miss knowing that for a certain period of time that day, I would be doing something. I mean, yes, I packed. And repacked. And repacked some more. Much to M's amusement. I couldn't cut my wardrobe down to only 23kg. And when I got to the airport, I had to take some out because it weighed 24.6kg. Argh!

I wish my packing looked like this.

Or this.

But it was exactly like this

And this

And I went out to dinner and lunch a few times. Had friends over for sleepover weekends. And saw movies. And had girly days on my own where I pampered myself. And visited my grandmother. But I got bored. Very quickly. 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but it's worth rehashing. I don't do well with inactivity. At all. Nope. Not one little bit.

Yep, that is me. Exactly. Bouncing around everywhere. My mum still calls me Tigger sometimes because I can't sit still.

So all this inactivity sitting in a Youth Hostel in Vancouver is doing my head in a little bit. I've kinda explored around here. I've done a hop on hop off bus tour, and seen the city. Or at least, Downtown. The city isn't the easiest place to get around if you don't know where you're going, and I'm struggling to make sense of the bus timetable. I'll get it.

Anyway, I haven't just been sitting on my butt. I've been house hunting and job hunting. Exciting. *can you note the sarcasm? And, after looking through 4 places, and applying for what felt like hundreds, I have got one. It's in Kitsilano, a really nice suburb, about 10 minutes from Downtown. Ok, so it's a street out of Kistilano, it's on 17th Ave, and Kits ends in 16th, but what's a street?

I move in on the 1st July. So once I've moved in there I can start to explore that area. I've been looking for fitness places and I've already found a gym and a dance studio I think I'll like. I'll have to go and check them out. Find out how much their prices are.

Once I do that, I'm sure things will settle down again. I think part of it was that I had nothing sorted. I had the youth hostel booked until the 1st July, but nothing after that. I have no job. I had no idea what I was doing. Now that I have somewhere to stay, I feel better.

And the sun is out today.

I'm going to keep looking for the jobs, but I'm thinking of looking for bar work when I move into the house somewhere close to me. And now I have an actual address I can put on my resume, rather than the address of the youth hostel. YAY!!! Maybe that will set me apart from the 100's of others applying for jobs too.

Off to do some more job hunting. Wish me luck. And to file back my fake nails. I didn't have them infilled before I left (I only get them for special occassions) and they're growing out to the point where they annoy me.

Ciao