Woke up and left this morning for my first experience of not only living in Vancouver, but also working. In the time span of just over twenty minutes, only one bus came by, packed to the seams. I had just over thirty-five minutes to get to my first day of work. It would take me about forty-five. This wasn’t good. Already sweating while rushing to meet the second bus that would get me to my final destination, I called to tell them I’d be late. No big deal. The setup for today was downtown, so I’d just meet them there.

I knew ahead of time that I was expecting a fashion show for today’s setup. However, I still wasn’t completely prepared for what was going to happen that day. I meet up with the guys and went straight to hauling in gear. It’s a lot like what I was doing before, just this time there are real trucks that can seriously transport. Granted that I got to knock off after setup and a test run for the day, it was completely exciting. It’s all unpaid experience, but in the end, that’s priceless.

I live in downtown Vancouver. It’s pretty freaking cool.

While walking downtown on my way to meet Rebecca on her lunch break, a businessman came out of this deli type place with the rest of his coworkers. It’s no secret that it rains a lot this time of year. Actually, that it rains a lot between now and six months from now, but when this guy says, “Oh look at the sun!”… You are pretty well aware that rain is a very commonplace, everyday thing that living in Vancouver brings.

That was the one, common response I heard from a lot of people when they were told that I would be moving here. “It rains a lot.” Granted I haven’t had the chance to experience the rain more than it being just barely over a week since I’ve been here, but rain isn’t just what you think. Rain can mean anywhere between a drizzle to a heavy downpour. The beautiful thing is that locals don’t care much about predicting the rain either. Waterproof jackets or umbrellas if you remember or want to, but if it rains, no big deal. That’s just Vancouver.

I have one week down in Vancouver. This is the first that I’ve felt the desire to make note of being here. Main reason being that I came down with strep throat on Thursday of last week. Just short by a few hours of an exact week, my throat hurt so much that I couldn’t swallow. I’ve never experienced pain in my throat on that level before. When you have something going on in your body like that, your body has this natural reaction to want to flush it out. I had this constant fear of having to swallow the saliva my mouth kept creating. It was a hell of a way to start off this adventure.

The good news is that the job starts this week. The call came back on Friday in the midst of feeling completely awful. I wanted to celebrate so badly, but there was nothing I could do. Regardless, everyone is excited on both sides of the table with the whole operation. This will be my first job in the private sector… in a completely different city… in another country.

Felt good enough from my antibiotics yesterday that Rebecca and I walked along the seawall in Stanley Park. Saw three seals cruising along the coastline, most likely feeding. It was enough to make me stop and realize that this isn’t just my new home… this is new.

The one thing that tells me that I’m no longer in Iowa is the air. When you breathe in, it’s clean and crisp. Sometimes you have a faint scent of the sea thrown in. The neighborhood in which I call home right now is surrounded by restaurants, so the odor shifts from country to country as you pass indian to chinese to korean and so on. This is all so new. It’s whole different country. This is Canada.

There was a time span during my high school years that I became slightly obsessed with Canadian forms of entertainment. In fact, I still mutter the occasional “eh” that went outside of just inside jokes with friends because we loved watching Kids in the Hall. Our Lady Peace is on the radio. Hockey is everywhere. If I’m not a Canucks fan within the time span of a few days, then I’ll have to start checking to see if I’m ill.

Things are going really well. There’s still a hell of a paper trail to chase down. If there is anything I understand at this point in my life, it’s that.

I have had a chance to sleep on this entire flight. It didn’t help that they announced the in flight movie of being Batman Begins. I tried to get some rest, but I can’t figure out if it was my coffee this morning or my nerves.

I pulled my laptop out too late. Time for landing. Here we go.

Leaving Iowa behind was probably harder than I ever imagined that it could be. There is something to be said that the fact it was my home up to yesterday. As of this very moment, I’m homeless. There is a place for me to call home once I get to Vancouver, but the fact of the matter is that I have one key on my key chain and that belongs to the house I called home growing up in Monticello; you never know if and when you’ll need something like that, but it’s really good to have.

There’s so many unknowns to sift through once I hit the ground. It makes me default on my time spent reading Krishnamurti and his thoughts on the unknown. How we can never know what the unknown really is, even when we come into contact with it. Anything we see as being the unknown, we expected; therefore, that’s not the unknown. Basically, it’s mind numbing stuff to wrap your head around. Not reading for the faint of heart.

However, this is close to how I’m feeling. I don’t know what I’m getting myself into. Usually when you head into things like this, you have mental imagery that kinda leads to hopes and aspirations of dreams to come true. At this point, my slate is completely blank. I’m getting on that plane tomorrow. I can’t tell you what I expect to happen. I just expect it to be great.