Vancouver seems quite different from Toronto
Vancouver took some getting used to after spending all of my life in Toronto. Sure it's beautiful here. I'm still in love with the mountains and ocean and all of that. But there are a number of cultural differences as well. In a lot of ways, British Columbia shares more in common with states such as Washington and Califiornia than it does with other Canadian Provinces. It's a west coast thing. (The more time I spend out here, the more I realize that I've always been better suited to west coast culture than that which Ontario has to offer.) On top of the geographically based cultural differences, I've moved into a different demographic of people with whom I work and, to some degree, choose to socialize with. Given these two factors, my experience of... well... what life and people and social activities are like are VERY different here than they were in Toronto. There are advantages and drawbacks to this shift in my life, which I won't get into right now.. I do, however, feel inspired to describe a few of them rather than getting into their significances.
I used to surround myself with people in Toronto and put a high priority on doing what other people were up to or coming up with things for the Toronto furries to do. Basically, I didn't make many solo plans. They were always with at LEAST one other person, if not a larger group. Right from the beginning in Fall of 2004, the people I met in Vancouver didn't seem to mesh with this practice. People here seemed... more independent. People did what they were going to do and occasionally invited others to join them. They didn't call around to see what people were up to or up for and then make plans based on that, they made plans and did them with or without the company of others. That took some getting used to for me.
I expected Vancouver to be like so much of the rest of Canada I'd heard about: Not Toronto and therefore infinitely more friendly. Given the homeless and pan handling problem in Vancouver, I actually found Vancouverites to be LESS approachable and friendly than Torontonians. And fuck, here's another West Coast thing for you: Valley girls! A lot of chicks from Surrey remind me of the steriotypical valley girls in California.
A lot of people in Surrey listen to modern urban music. There are VERY few black people here compared to Toronto. Fuzzybunny, Medowvale got NOTHING on Vancouver, and especially Surrey, when it comes to wiggers.
"Getting it done." I've worked a lot of jobs that had to do with thinking/talking/customer service stuff, but very few where I had to simply... get real shit accomplished. Now that I work in a moving company... I'm smarter than some of these guys where academic shit is concerned, but physical labour/sizing stuff up/etc... I feel like the biggest, clutziest retard sometimes. It's been n amazing experience doing this sort of physical labour for a while now.
Hmmm, there are other major differences but I'm feeling more inspired to watch a movie than type in LJ now so... L8r all!
I used to surround myself with people in Toronto and put a high priority on doing what other people were up to or coming up with things for the Toronto furries to do. Basically, I didn't make many solo plans. They were always with at LEAST one other person, if not a larger group. Right from the beginning in Fall of 2004, the people I met in Vancouver didn't seem to mesh with this practice. People here seemed... more independent. People did what they were going to do and occasionally invited others to join them. They didn't call around to see what people were up to or up for and then make plans based on that, they made plans and did them with or without the company of others. That took some getting used to for me.
I expected Vancouver to be like so much of the rest of Canada I'd heard about: Not Toronto and therefore infinitely more friendly. Given the homeless and pan handling problem in Vancouver, I actually found Vancouverites to be LESS approachable and friendly than Torontonians. And fuck, here's another West Coast thing for you: Valley girls! A lot of chicks from Surrey remind me of the steriotypical valley girls in California.
A lot of people in Surrey listen to modern urban music. There are VERY few black people here compared to Toronto. Fuzzybunny, Medowvale got NOTHING on Vancouver, and especially Surrey, when it comes to wiggers.
"Getting it done." I've worked a lot of jobs that had to do with thinking/talking/customer service stuff, but very few where I had to simply... get real shit accomplished. Now that I work in a moving company... I'm smarter than some of these guys where academic shit is concerned, but physical labour/sizing stuff up/etc... I feel like the biggest, clutziest retard sometimes. It's been n amazing experience doing this sort of physical labour for a while now.
Hmmm, there are other major differences but I'm feeling more inspired to watch a movie than type in LJ now so... L8r all!