Here
we are!! We arrived in our new home at late afternoon on Boxing Day.
The fog was thick and the tarmac was covered in snow. It was snowing
quite heavily as we passed though customs and imigration, picking up our
working visas within about 10 minutes which was very efficient and
easy.
Despite how pretty it is snow is very cold and stings if
you get it in your eyes, as I quickly discovered!! I have also learnt
not to stand under a ledge, as you are likely to have a large quantity
of snow slide off the roof above onto your head! (it didnt happen to me
but I have seen it happen to other people several times! it is actually
quite funny)
The snow is so thick on the ground, about 2 foot in
places, and walking is a slippery, precarious challenge. It is funny to
see so many cars and houses completely snowed in as people have
bunkered down to wait out the storm. Apparently this is a rare sight as
the snow usually falls for a day an then melts quickly; but when we
arrived there had been 7 days of continual snowfall. Floods are
anticipated as it melts over the next few weeks.
We have been
very lucky to find a house within a day of arriving. We put an ad on
the internet a while back looking for a house and we have had several
offers. We are sharing with a great Canadian/Mexican couple and were
able to move straight in which has saved our money from being chewed by
with hotel fees. We will be living in this apartment (close to
downtown) for a few months. The apartment itself is a good size and
quite modern. On the outside it is covered in scaffolding because the
building is undergoing major renovations. When renovations are complete
we will have to move because the rent is going up by a huge amount, but
that is not expected until Feb/March.
So far we have been limited
with our sightseeing because of the weather and have occupied ourself
by shopping for clothes and shoes (we were woefully unprepared for minus
degree weather!). Vancouver is clearly an older city but it has a
great vibe and the people we have met have been helpful and very
friendly. Hopefully we can have a break for a week or two and then we
can get jobs and settle in to our new home :-)
