Vancouver!
So here I am, all tucked away on the West Coast. I'm staying in a Hostel for a few days with my mother and doing the tourist thing until Tuesday, when I will move into my new place. I found a cosy little house along the Skytrain, only two stops from the downtown, and in it's own neato little shopping area, where I will be living with three other students. We have the entire main floor, our own entrance, spacious kitchen and use of the back deck and a grassy backyard. My room has a big window, providing me with plenty of light and ventilation, and there are two doors outside my room that I am allowed to leave open for ventilation.
Now, you may not realise how important light and ventilation are until you have lived without them for a period of time. My last apartment was a spacious basement apartment, but lacked both of these things. So when it was damp outside, it was clammy and dark inside. When it was dry and hot outside it was...... clammy and dark inside. Laundry hung try dry.... didn't. The mould.... oh god the mould. It was on the -walls-. The helpful letter we left the next tenants gently explained to them not to kill the spiders of centipedes, because they would eat the ants and roaches.
So I am -very- happy about the window.
Vancouver is treating us well. This morning at breakfast we met two talkative european ladies who were in their 80's and still zooming around the world, staying in hostels and touring about! We also saw a wild seal and jellyfish, and starfish! A friendly skunk has also been waddling around here two nights in a row. We watched him from a respectful distance.
Now, you may not realise how important light and ventilation are until you have lived without them for a period of time. My last apartment was a spacious basement apartment, but lacked both of these things. So when it was damp outside, it was clammy and dark inside. When it was dry and hot outside it was...... clammy and dark inside. Laundry hung try dry.... didn't. The mould.... oh god the mould. It was on the -walls-. The helpful letter we left the next tenants gently explained to them not to kill the spiders of centipedes, because they would eat the ants and roaches.
So I am -very- happy about the window.
Vancouver is treating us well. This morning at breakfast we met two talkative european ladies who were in their 80's and still zooming around the world, staying in hostels and touring about! We also saw a wild seal and jellyfish, and starfish! A friendly skunk has also been waddling around here two nights in a row. We watched him from a respectful distance.