Arrival

I'm sitting in a cafe on Queen Street across from the Ferry Building eating my first meal since landing; a chicken, brie, spinach, tomato and cranberry pannini-style sandwich with a yummy latte. It's just after 10am but it feels like well after noon.

I've walked for awhile down Queen street from my hostel to reach ferry terminals, and I've walked a ways in either direction parallel to the water. When I first left the hostel this morning, everything seemed deserted, but it's picked up now.  I suppose it was 7 on a Sunday morning, so only crazy people would be about, but it didn't feel that early to me. I did break my fast at 4am on the plane though...

When I was picked up at the airport by someone from the Uni, I was given a free SIM card with minimal credit to call home, so I've checked in with home and taken out some monies.  As it turns out, tomorrow is a national holiday! So much for getting my bank account and school stuff sorted tomorrow! I'm not sure what the plan is yet, but I need to do some apartment shopping before the week is done.

Not only have I been supremely confused by which way to look first before I j-walk, but you know those intersections near Eau Claire that everyone hates? The pedestrians-cross-every-which-way ones? They are everywhere here! And they are actually pretty awesome (but this is coming from someone who is likely be a perma-pedestrian while she's here...

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After my stint in the cafe where I wrote the above, I spent about 2 hours checking out apartments online and contacting people.  Once those 2 hours were up, I checked into my hostel and moved into my own room (vs. The closet where my stuff was kept when I first arrived)

I spent this afternoon wandering the university which is nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding city, and I happened upon a Chinese Lantern Celebration.  There were multiple lantern displays set up around Albert Park, and all along the nearby street were food and stuffs vendors.  You could get just about anything from foodstuffs to an Angry Birds toque type thing with dangly ear bits. I wandered around briefly then returned to my explorations of the campus. It’s not far from my hostel, maybe 5-10 min. I got groceries on the way home and made pasta. I sat down to eat with a Chinese man who is visiting from Australia where he is finishing up a year on a scholar’s exchange. His English was quite broken, and difficult to understand, but he seemed quite intelligent and friendly.

Another funny thing happened: when I was in the airport in Vancouver waiting to board the flight for NZ I met a guy named Vincent from Ottawa. I asked him to look after my stuff while I sorted by boarding pass , and we didn’t sit near each other on the flight, so one might think that was the end of it, but the funny part is, I’ve run into him three times since!  Once more in the airport, then again on the Queen Street, then I found out he’s here at the same hostel! It’s very random...

I’m off to catch the sunset.

Laura