Author: John Bollwitt

Tonight I’ll be handing out candy to little kids as they come to the door. There’s part of me that wants to yell, “I’m from Iowa. Rawr!! Fear my knowledge of agriculture and strange ways of pronouncing common everyday words!! Grr!!”

There are a lot of people out and about playing dressed up. I think the strangest thing was the city engineer with some sort of hose and mask of some sort stuck in a manhole outside of someone’s house nearby the apartment. I can’t even be sure what it was. There’s bound to be more as I head downtown in a little while.

The time shift is playing games with me as well. It feels so much later than it is, but up here, there is that much less daylight in the day. Being above the 49th parallel, it’s a bit of a different world. It’s almost four in the afternoon, and the sun will be gone in about an hour. On the flip side, the sunlight will stick around till about ten at night come summer. There’s so much give and take to this city. For anything negative, there’s a wealth of positives.

I’ve been realizing how little I understand about the world lately even though I like to consider myself a person who has a fair amount of knowledge about what’s out there. Granted that I didn’t know everything to begin with, but I’ve often considered myself as someone who is fairly educated about the world. The only problem is that the more you learn, the there is that you truly don’t know or understand. At the same time, even if you learn things, there is a vast difference from being able to understand the fact that which you have just absorbed. You can only do that from experience.

Everyday I’m learning something about the world I live in. I’m doing my best to do all I can to better my knowledge about this country. It’s not easy, but I find that if I just keep asking questions, the answer is bound to pop up. You can’t stop there though. You have to keep asking to get other people’s version of the history. With so many sides to a story, how can you be sure that everything you have learned is the truth? It’s amazing how that circle goes. The more I learn, the more I thirst to know more.

Halloween in Vancouver is vastly different from what I have been used to. In fact, outside it sounds like a war zone. Fireworks are going off all over town. Some of the explosions are massive in sound. In fact, I think there are some people waring against each other nearby. You hear the pops, laughter, and then loud voices. All of this is happening just a matter of blocks from downtown. This is where I live. It’s nuts and insanely entertaining all at the same time.

I spent today going around the remainder of the lower mainland that I haven’t seen yet. Rebecca took me to White Rock where you can look across the water and see the states on the other side. It’s the closest I’ve been to the border thus far. The feeling was pretty odd to see Washington state within sight. Somedays I really have to remind myself that I’m in another country even though that border is so close. I still get laughed at for mistaking certain locations, directions, and layouts to the city, but what can I do? I’m not from here. I’m still learning.

I’d like to see any local from around here get dropped into the middle of Iowa. More so, let’s see how they’d do in about two or three months.

I’ve had a lot of time to catch up on the world of podcasting during my downtime here. In a sense, it’s been nice to get a grasp on what’s been going on with the medium since its inception nearly a year ago. It’s interesting to parse through the directories and listen to some of the things out there. So many people who just got the setup to work, was excited enough one day to just do something, and come to the conclusion that now they can do it, but what the hell do they talk about? It’s really not easy. This isn’t about having a niche. It’s just about having something to say. If you don’t have that, you don’t even have anything for anyone to listen to you and decide that you’re not worth their time.

I saw an exhibit of vanity through geekness the other day. A girl walking down the street was checking to see how her hair and make-up looked as she was heading to her destination, but it was the way that she did it that struck me. Her little mp3 player seemed to glitter in the sunlight as she rose it to her face. Thing is, it offered a wonderful reflection for her to inspect herself a little closer. So many companies are trying to sort out how they can integrate cell phones with portable music players and so on. Maybe this is an untouched market.

Right now, I’m on a holding period until I can officially work. Until now, it’s all been more of an unpaid internship type of roll just so I can check out what the company does and how it operates. The wait is killing me though. I’m more than capable of keeping myself entertained in the interim, but not having something to do on a daily basis is torture. It also has something to do with not earning my keep. Not having that day to day responsibility that depends on whatever it is that you are supposed to do in order to keep the ship floating smoothly.

I think the typical person of my age and stature would fill his or her time with mindless self-indulgence in watching movies and sleeping in late. Now I won’t lie and say that I haven’t done these things during this downtime, but it’s happened not very often. When I do, I feel lazy to the extent that I’m letting more than just myself down. There just has to be something that I can be doing or working on in some way shape or form. It’s probably why I have been posting here as much as I have been.

There’s also something to be said about feeding my mind. Making sure that I don’t let myself get rusty and feel comfortable with my current situation. It’ll be a whole new experience making the daily commute to get to work everyday regardless what shape I’m in when that day arrives. I’d just like to be prepared for it as much as humanly possible. More so, I just want to start earning a paycheck.

I watched the Iowa Hawkeye football game over the weekend. It wasn’t as much as the thought of watching the game that truly kept me interested through the whole broadcast. It stunk that they lost, and I was a little upset at the fact, but it quickly faded into the idea that I was hungry and really wanted breakfast. It was my brother who reminded me about the game and made me curious as to if we could watch it while being in Vancouver. Rebecca was just as reminiscent of the shots they showed of the Ped Mall as I was. It was also more apparent to me than ever as to the flatness of where I used to spend everyday going to and from work. At least TV does not do the land any justice. However, it’s also said that the camera can add fifteen pounds to the human body. No wonder so many people in Hollywood are anorexic.

During my downtime in the city, I’ve been doing my best to get back into a good workout routine. This generally means getting back into a good running routine, but that is an excellent way to learn the layout of the neighborhood I’m living in now. This often takes me through Stanley Park. It’s such a great place to tread, but I’m still learning the layout. I added almost an extra mile to a run last week because I found myself somewhere I hadn’t been before but thought I had. Luckily I came out in a place that I knew fairly well, but it could have been much worse. I think I like running while it’s raining more than when it isn’t. There’s not as many people to navigate yet alone the lack of knowledge of where I’m going.

I’m such a tourist.

I can’t handle as much coffee as I might have once been able to. I can recall the late nights in my high school days where we used to have a blast drinking crappy gas station cappuccino just for the sake of the immense rush that would come after sucking down a few cups. At the same time, Dr. Pepper was my buddy. During the study hall hour, I might get a can an a rice krispy bar out of the vending machine. More than likely, that was my lunch for the day. Not the oddly healthy type of person that I find myself today, but my tolerance to caffeine used to be tremendous. I was an addict. It fueled my soul.

Chai tea is my addiction these days. I don’t really mind what major, global chain it comes from. It’s yummy. If I’m not careful, it could rival the “Pepper.” Granted I’ve had my fair share of loves and major cravings that have been shed over the many years, but my enjoyment of coffee is more than likely here to stay. Chai is my treat.

There are so many great looking places to live within the downtown area. Naturally that can be expected, but these locations seem more plentiful than most of the larger cities that I’ve been to. There is such a range of dwellings though. From great looking houses to luxury high rises, everything has it’s particular charm or attraction. From a great wrap around porch to an amazing view looking out to the bay, all of it comes with price.

My first thought looking at these places always goes to, “I wonder how much it costs to heat that place in the winter?” I have to remind myself that the winters here do not get as cold as I have been used to. It can snow here, but that is a rare occurrence. The results of such an event can be disastrous to certain locals who are far from familiar with such conditions. On the other end of the spectrum, it’s rare to find homes with air conditioning. This would be unheard of compared to where I grew up.

Don’t think for a moment that it doesn’t get hot here in the summer. On the flip side, it can get cold here too. It’s just not the sweltering heat and bone chilling temps that I’ve been conditioned to. The humidity exists here on a daily basis, but even that’s different. That’s what happens when you live so close to the ocean.

It’s really important to not forget that this is a major, metropolitan area that I live in now. It’s true to say that walking down any given street in Iowa City wasn’t entirely safe, but there was that feeling that you had more safety there. That’s not to say that I fear for my safety in Vancouver, but I also am not entirely familiar with the “bad parts of town.”

Take yesterday for example. I went running through Stanley Park. For the most part, at least from what I understand, it’s a somewhat safe area as long as you’re not walking around the place after sunset. While on my maiden voyage into the park itself, I couldn’t help but flashback to an episode of Da Vinci’s Inquest that I caught on WGN just before I left the states. It’s a crime drama that takes place entirely in Vancouver. The episode I’m recalling as I head through the woods was about some one that was murdered in the park. What I couldn’t remember was if it was a jogger or not. Between that and the inclines I found myself on, it was hard to think about anything else.

At three in the afternoon, I think I was pretty safe. However, I ran the back portion of Lost Lagoon two days prior, same time of day, rainy, and cool. I don’t think I’ll do that again. Even at that time of day, I got a little freaked out, especially due to the fact that I never passed another walker or runner the whole portion of that route. And since then, I’ve been told that I shouldn’t do that again. I still have a lot to learn about living here.

There is something to be said about the air here. At least to me, it seems very crisp and clear. In fact, it seems so much more clean that I find myself getting tired more easily. It is almost as if the air zaps my energy levels more than what I have often been used to. That is probably to be expected when getting used to a new climate. The walking would have a lot to do with it as well.

Walking to and from in the downtown area brings back a lot of memories of my dorm days of college. In fact, it makes me laugh a little bit as it makes me recall all the people who would complain about walking down the hill, over the river, and back up a hill to get to class everyday. I can’t forget to mention those rainy, snowy, or icy days to go along with the complaining. I was never one to really do such things.

More so, I complained about the people who complained. It would only get worse as the argument changed from walking to lack of parking. Of course, my days in a small town saw me taking a ride over walking to school, and I lived barely a mile away. It wasn’t until college that I found myself walking two miles to get to class in a foot of snow and ice. Now I like walking more than I enjoy a bus or car ride. The rain I can handle.