News and Things We've Learned

I haven't written in a while, and I'm not sure where to start. So I think I'll write about lots of little things.

Close Call
I didn't mention this earlier, but Margo booked our flight from London on a budget Canadian airline named Zoom. She booked it many months in advance. Two days after we arrived, the airline was grounded due to unpaid debts, and it seems the airline is no more. That could have been bad.

School
Margo just got a teaching assistant position. She spends one afternoon a week with a graduate school class. Sarah is enjoying her new teacher. She's also making lots of friends. When I pick her up after school I keep hearing kids saying "Bye, Sarah".

Work
I keep having great interviews with really interesting firms but have received no offers nor rejections so far. I've been told that employers here take more time to decide on a candidate. Since I was hired so quickly in London and in the past, I expected the same here. I did visit a Vancouver Java User Group meeting last week and met some other local professionals. It's hard for me to adapt to having so much free time and to not having a work role. I know, it's a nice problem to have.

Housing
We decided to check out some local apartments on Thursday (both close to Sarah's school) and I left phone messages for two ground-floor apartments in houses. We were called back, and each had an open house Friday evening. The first one seemed a pretty good fit, though a bit smaller and darker than we were used to, and with less storage space. The second one we didn't like much. We left applications for both, not even being sure we wanted to really commit. But I spent that night researching others and the more I saw, the more I thought the first house would be a great fit, so I was quite disappointed when we didn't get it (though we were very close to getting it).

It's early for us - we would have been paying dual rent for two months - but once you realise you want something, it's sad to see it go. But we expect there will be some similar opportunities in the coming months. Alternatively, we may secure something in a completely different neighbourhood, which would be harder on Sarah with changing schools, but may have other advantages in terms of transit time and local community.

I'm still struggling with prices. Even renting, we'd be paying at least twice what our Portland mortgage was two years ago. But that's the key, isn't it - a lot has changed in the last two years, and there's not much we can do about it. In another year, Margo will be able to work full time, and we can start looking to buy then; perhaps prices will be even lower at that time.

I still often regret leaving Portland. We had so much: a great neighbourhood of close friends, family nearby, a good job (for me at least), and a relatively cheap, fixed-rate mortgage. But the price of adventure is giving up some security. And besides, we're in a beautiful city with nice people, we're well-educated, and we have a bunch of cash, so things could be worse.

Society
I know we've said it before, but people here are so friendly. It's really welcoming. Sometimes it feels like another planet. We've filled out many a form and visited a few government offices, but each one was modern, efficient, and friendly, a pleasure to work with, really. I've yet to meet someone who I'd consider a real jerk. It was rare in Europe, but even more so here. And unlike the reserved English, here people are more willing to make time for you and be genuinely welcoming.

The City
I've spent lots of bike and bus rides exploring our city. Granted, I've been taking in the most picturesque, touristy places: Gastown, Yaletown, Coal Harbour, Stanley Park, Granville Island, Kitsilano, Commercial Drive, Vancouver Heights. But it all seems so beautiful. I'd be hard-pressed to think of a single building that is truly ugly. There's little litter or graffiti. And almost all the housing I see looks appealing, like some place I'd like to live. I can hardly think of a house or flat I've seen that I couldn't imagine living in (well, except the second one we saw the other night). Though at times it feels like walking through Brigadoon, a landscape I can look at but not touch, prices being what they are (one can easily spent a million for a one-bedroom flat).

The one exception I know of is a stretch of Hastings between Gastown and East Vancouver. I don't know if it has a name, but when my bus travels those few blocks, it looks a bit like a post-apocalyptic film set. Windows are grilled if not boarded up. Litter is everywhere. And ill-dressed people shamble about, chatting, making deals. It's the area where the city's poor have been grouped with cheap hotels and government services. It seems having them in one place lets the rest of the city shine, and I suppose there has to be some place - you can't just ignore people and problems. But I wouldn't walk Sarah through it.

Politics
You might not know it unless you lived in Canada, but there's a lot of election news. Stephen Harper is calling for a federal election soon. There are also BC provincial elections, and Vancouver has a mayoral election. It seems the first few pages of the daily newspapers are given over to such news.

It seems the Conservative party (also known as Tories, as in the UK) has the most popular support at present. Other major parties include the Liberal, New Democratic Party (NDP), and Green parties (again, these are also present in the UK). There's also the Bloc Quebecois. I'm looking forward to learning about all of them. I could hardly begin to think who I'd vote for if I had to, so I'm sort of glad to be absolved of that pressure. (We can vote once we gain citizenship.)

Healthcare
We've learned that healthcare isn't exactly free. Healthcare is administered separately by each province, and households earning above certain threshholds pay regular fees. We expect to pay $108 a month, once we pass the three-month initial period. (We will have private insurance until then.) Also, most non-essential services are not covered. But serious accidents and medical conditions seem to be fully covered, and I think it's great that those who can't pay, don't have to.

Entertainment
Our vacation rental must have some form of cable or satellite TV, as the reception is fine. But the choices seem pretty rubbish compared to what we had in the UK.

The CBC seems to have some great programming. There's only one channel, and it does have adverts. But during the day there's mostly children's programming, some local, some from the UK, Australia, and perhaps America, and all of excellent quality. Evenings feature Canadian and some BBC programmes, though the BBC ones are from a much smaller selection, and are a season late. (Tonight is the Flood miniseries, which aired months ago in England. But it will be nice to get Doctor Who again, albeit late.) There are also Canadian comedy shows we're starting to enjoy.

Another channel we enjoy is the Knowledge Network, which is produced in BC. It features excellent documentaries and children's shows.

We do get some local stations from Seattle and perhaps Bellingham. There's also a country channel and some entertainment channels. I can't remember the rest very well.

But when we look at the newspaper's evening recommendations, they typically seem disappointing. Where are the family movies on Sunday afternoons? Or evenings for that matter? What is the must-see TV? I should be happy that there's less distraction, I guess.

I haven't spent much time getting to know the local radio stations. There are apparently several CBC stations but I only know of one at the bottom of the dial, which seems to be always announced in French. I also found a nice modern rock station out of Victoria.

I've been considering buying a game console, since I have so much extra time and there are some games I've been waiting to play. But that means we'll have to eventually buy a TV, which I'm not sure I want to do yet, and it seems silly to spend so much before I have any income.

And In General
I do worry a lot because our immediate future is quite uncertain. In the coming months, we'll have to choose another place to live, and probably another one a year later, both potentially meaning a change of neighbourhood and school. I expect to be working soon but I worry about not working. And I worry about our standard of living and our ability to retire when wages are a bit lower and housing and consumables are substantially higher. My engineer's brain keeps working on these problems, rotating them and looking for new angles, new information, new solutions. We have some big decisions to make in a fairly short time, and I'm afraid of making bad ones.

I really wish we had good friends here. It would be great to have people to guide us, ask questions of, and socialise with since we spend so much time on our own.

But these things take time. Margo's mantra is, "It'll all be fine", and she does have a good track record, though it's so horribly unscientific. Looking at it differently, we've just sat down to a big buffet, and though we don't know exactly what we will eat and how much it will cost, we do know that it will be tasty and filling, and so we might as well be enjoying it. Two million other people are getting by here, so it shouldn't be too hard for us either.