Relocating (x2)
On Wednesday April 25th, I moved from New Residence Hall in Montreal to a hotel in Vancouver. After a renewal meeting for Loran, and a long flight where I slept with my mouth wide open beside a complete stranger, my mom and I landed in Vancouver. It was during the cab ride to the hotel that our cab driver told us that the place we had planned on staying was in a very unsafe neighbourhood. Upon arrival, we realized that unfortunately he was correct. The first thing I saw was a man with a gapping cut in his forehead yelling at my cab driver who refused him service. This was followed by viewing at least fifteen tents set up on the side of the street which housed several homeless people. It was an extremely eye opening experience. Coming from a very small town, where I had rarely seen homeless people, to Montreal where it was common but people were able to reside in shelters, this was shocking. Since I would be staying in a hotel for a week after my mom left, she decided that we should switch hotels. Luckily, we are fortunate enough to do so, and we moved to another hotel in a safer neighbour hood.
On Thursday, my mom and I decided to be typical Vancouver tourists and visit Stanley Park. We hiked for several hours, and luckily still had time to purchase a bike for my commute to work. The park was really amazing, and we had the perfect weather for the hike. On our war home, another scary experience happened that gave my mom and I a reality check. Just across the road from our newer, safer hotel, we saw a man and a woman taking intense drugs. The woman, who was receiving the needle in her hand, had a lifeless expression on her face. Paired with her extremely frail body, it was a very intense moment. It made my mom and I realized that heavy drugs are a reality for some people. We definitely became very grateful after that.
Continuing with our tourist agenda, on the Friday we went to the Granville Island Market. The market was really cool as there were tons of artisan shops and beautiful views. We had intended to do the Capilano Suspension Bridge on Thursday, but we got swept up in the market and ended up saving it for Saturday. Again, another terrifying experience occurred while at the market. My mom and I had just sat down to enjoy a coffee, when she noticed the woman beside her looking up at the Granville Street Bridge. We both looked up to see a man on the outside of the bridge. At first we did not realize that the man was attempting to commit suicide. I instantly called 911, to find out that several others had already called, and that police were on the way. Later that night, my mom and I ran into a police officer in a store, and she had said that this was not the first time this man had attempted this. It was not until 5:00am the next day, that the situation was handled.
On the Saturday morning, we were struck by the inevitable Vancouver rain! Regardless of the weather, we decided to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, yet another touristy destination. As the park is one of Canada's few rainforests, I think the rain was fitting. We did tree top walks, cliff walks and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. When we got home, completely soaked, we grabbed dinner and decided on an early night in.
This morning my mom left to go back to Ontario, leaving me alone in Vancouver. I spent the day setting up this blog and preparing for work, as I have a lunch meet and greet tomorrow and officially start my job on Tuesday! My few days in Vancouver have been absolutely amazing, and extremely eye opening. As a person who can enjoy the luxuries of tourism, I was able to see some of the great sites of Vancouver, and I definitely fell in love. I also unfortunately saw some of the realities for Vancouver citizens. Being in a place with high levels of substance abuse and homelessness, makes one realize how large of an issue this is in Canada, which is seen as such a safe country.
Although I have experienced some scary situations, I look forward to my time spent here in Vancouver, and cannot wait to start my job!
An eager,
BC
On Thursday, my mom and I decided to be typical Vancouver tourists and visit Stanley Park. We hiked for several hours, and luckily still had time to purchase a bike for my commute to work. The park was really amazing, and we had the perfect weather for the hike. On our war home, another scary experience happened that gave my mom and I a reality check. Just across the road from our newer, safer hotel, we saw a man and a woman taking intense drugs. The woman, who was receiving the needle in her hand, had a lifeless expression on her face. Paired with her extremely frail body, it was a very intense moment. It made my mom and I realized that heavy drugs are a reality for some people. We definitely became very grateful after that.
Continuing with our tourist agenda, on the Friday we went to the Granville Island Market. The market was really cool as there were tons of artisan shops and beautiful views. We had intended to do the Capilano Suspension Bridge on Thursday, but we got swept up in the market and ended up saving it for Saturday. Again, another terrifying experience occurred while at the market. My mom and I had just sat down to enjoy a coffee, when she noticed the woman beside her looking up at the Granville Street Bridge. We both looked up to see a man on the outside of the bridge. At first we did not realize that the man was attempting to commit suicide. I instantly called 911, to find out that several others had already called, and that police were on the way. Later that night, my mom and I ran into a police officer in a store, and she had said that this was not the first time this man had attempted this. It was not until 5:00am the next day, that the situation was handled.
On the Saturday morning, we were struck by the inevitable Vancouver rain! Regardless of the weather, we decided to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, yet another touristy destination. As the park is one of Canada's few rainforests, I think the rain was fitting. We did tree top walks, cliff walks and enjoyed the beautiful outdoors. When we got home, completely soaked, we grabbed dinner and decided on an early night in.
This morning my mom left to go back to Ontario, leaving me alone in Vancouver. I spent the day setting up this blog and preparing for work, as I have a lunch meet and greet tomorrow and officially start my job on Tuesday! My few days in Vancouver have been absolutely amazing, and extremely eye opening. As a person who can enjoy the luxuries of tourism, I was able to see some of the great sites of Vancouver, and I definitely fell in love. I also unfortunately saw some of the realities for Vancouver citizens. Being in a place with high levels of substance abuse and homelessness, makes one realize how large of an issue this is in Canada, which is seen as such a safe country.
Although I have experienced some scary situations, I look forward to my time spent here in Vancouver, and cannot wait to start my job!
An eager,
BC
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