Vancouver is amazing!

Vancouver is an absolutely fantastic city! Even if the internship thing doesn't turn out to be my dream job, I would absolutely love to live here! This city has it all - nature, culture, food, and incredibly friendly people.

This weekend Alicia came to visit me from Hawaii - she's generally following me around the world these days as she's moving to Barcelona in October. The first day, we explored Stanley Park, which was absolutely beautiful. We started off in the forest along what I guess you could call a VERY easy hiking trail and ended up at Beaver Lake:

We kept on in the general direction of the beach and although we got lost a couple of times, we finally did make it there and had a delicious overprice drink and snack at the Teahouse Restaurant.

We then took a VERY long walk along the beach and the Seawall and all the way through Yaletown - I think we walked for a grand total of three hours that day. 

That night, after some failed attempts at hitting up the party scene in this town (I'll be sure to make more) we ended up in an amazing bar called The Pourhouse where we proceeded to spend the next 3 evenings. The bar tenders are super knowledgeable about alcohol and the entire 1920's culture of speak easys and prohibition. I've literally never learned so much in a bar in my entire life.

The next day we went to Granville Island, where I felt like I'd died and gone to heaven. This place has it all - art, music, alcohol, and most importantly - FOOD! We started off by strolling through the market where we were AMAZED by all the different goods and goodies on sale. Then we went to find the last performance of the Jazz Festival that was taking place in the city that week. On the way back to get some food, we checked out all the jewelry makers and stopped by the Granville Brewing Co to do some beer tasting:

We them sampled all the fares of the market - well, not all, but plenty. I clearly bought too much food because as I was sitting and enjoying my dessert - a white chocolate blueberry roll - it fell out of my hand and was DEVOURE by a seagull, despite the fact that the roll was 3 times as wide as this things beak. Definite highlight. We then stumbled upon a random circus act performed on a sail boat by two random French people (its not the best picture):

At the end of the day we came back to the Pourhouse to listen to some live jazz and get some more lessons in  1920's alcohol culture. Apparently there are all kinds of crazy alcohol laws in Vancouver, including not being able to serve people who are standing up. We ended up there the next night too! On Alicia's last night we went out in Kits and found a place that was serving 50 cent chicken wings with some very friendly foresters. Apparently, forrestry is the big industry in this "province". Guess that makes sense! 

Summer Home

This weekend, I moved in to my apartment for the summer! Its pretty bare which makes it somewhat depressing, but I'm sure Ikea will help me make it a little more homey, despite the $100 budget I've set for myself there.

The bedroom: (I ended up moving the bed later, and didn't take another picture. It is now in the corner, which actually leaves a big hole behind the head because the windowsill prevents it from being flush with the wall. But I couldn't handle it where it was - I need to feel the stability of a wall. Plus, there were street lights pouring in through the blinders and it was very creepy - right on my eyes:

The living room: Not much to say about it. Nice couch. No TV. Yawn. I think I'll buy tealights for that weird thing in front of the fireplace: 

The kitchen is miniature and I don't want to depress my mom by even posting it. Basically the way its set up - and this set up is non-negotiable - prevents you from opening up both the fridge and oven all the way. Independently - not at the same time. You simply cannot open them fully - forget about standing in FRONT of it while doing so. It does prevent fridge-grazing, however. 

The bathroom's fine except the hose the hold-in-ur-hand shower is on is such an awkward length I can't help spraying the ENTIRE bathroom with water if I happen to drop it. But that's pretty classic.