Oh man! I have been lazy with writing lately. Where was I? It was Tuesday last week, and I had a meeting coming up with a potential employer. Well, that didn't work out, and I kind of didn't want the job either, since it would have required me to buy a Mac, and that would have eaten half of my wage.
Speaking of wages - they suck here! I have an appointment coming up for a job starting soon, but it only pays 10,50 an hour - which for full time adds up to only about 1500 dollars per month! How is one supposed to live on that? It's serious crap, my friends. Who would work for only 1000 euros per month in Finland?
So the Vancouver Marathon came and went, and I worked three days at the Urban Lifestyle Expo leading up to the actual event. It was fun but hard work, as I spent about 25 hours kneeling, standing up, walking around, and weighing people. I worked as a promoter for a scale that measures body composition, and basically punched in people's age and height in the scale and then read them their results and explained what the numbers meant. I almost lost my voice and nearly fainted from dehydration, not to mention the pain in my knees, but yeah, it was fun, and I made some money!
It's nice to have Chris home again. We go for lots of walks all over the place - one of them a rather epic walk to UBC two days ago on Sunday. We started out by taking a bus down to Broadway, and then set off without direction, walking for about three hours (?), mostly uphill, in the heat (the hottest day yet, and we both had jackets on). We passed by about four different beaches and beautiful areas with beautiful views, before finally reaching Chris' old university. It reminded me a bit of Stillwater actually. It's strange how most universities are built kind of the same.
So at UBC we had sushi (yum yum) and then randomly walked to a concert hall where Joe Jackson, a guy Chris wanted to see, was playing. We just kind of happened to get there, and Chris decided that he'd get tickets if they were under 50 bucks each, and if the concert hadn't started yet. And of course, as we got there, we could hear the first notes of the concert, and the tickets were 47 dollars, so we went!
Hey guess what! I got my permanent resident card in the mail today! Finally! I can leave the country and come back! Legally! And finally take my driver's exam. I will do that tomorrow. Woo. The card is pretty cool, it has tons of maple leaves on it. Of course. I will show it to you when I see you!
Here are some pictures - from start til end:
-BC Place - the end of the Marathon!
-View from a hill at UBC. I was pretty dehydrated at this point. :)
-Bum on the beach. Contrasts nicely with the sunset and the lovers (although you can't see the sunset in the picture cause the sky is overexposed...
- The sunset!
What a weekend! It's been about 25+ degrees and sunny for two days, but now the rain is back. Chris and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Saturday and went for a walk around the seawall (Stanley Park), and even though it was a bit hazy and even slightly cloudy I managed to get a pretty severe sunburn on my shoulders. Apparently I should be a little more careful with the sun here on these southern latitude.
Aaand yesterday I managed to smash one of our windows. That's right, glass flying all over the place, and a big gaping hole where our protection from the elements used to be. It was fine yesterday when we were keeping the windows open anyway, but today is cold and rainy, and the draft is making my feet cold.
