Canada 2003
Monday, April 28, 2003
Well, I just uploaded the new photos and thought that I wanted to point out the following ones:
in the supermarket and a city view. Just look at that last photo! Water, the massive Stanley Park, a City and snow-covered mountains! A R G H ! :)
posted at 22:35
The easy update first: The Canucks won their first game against Minnesota and lost their second one.
Beside that a lot of things happened, especially at work. I guess I won't be able to provide details, but let's just say that I am actually productive and it is *very* great being in the office. :)
Been out with the girls on Saturday. We went to the Roxy. Going out in Canada is a bit different. We met at seven. Went to the club at nine and the club closed at two. And it is not that we went there early. If you arrive after 9.30, you should prepare for *at least* one and a half hour in the queue! Like hello?? It was a cool night and I guess I will go to other clubs downtown again, but then I am more interested in alternative places. I don't line up for anything. :P
I got myself the new Boy Sets Fire CD. My first impression is a really good one! Some sing-along tunes even. It also came with a nice bonus DVD. Price: Euro 12. Sweet. :)
At the moment, I am uploading new photos. Since we had a great sunny day today, I took the chance and went up the Harbour Centre tower to the Lookout. (Even if I work in a basement office in the Harbour Centre, I still can go to the Lookout for free. And it is the tallest building in Vancouver.)
I very much love the mountains in the background. The water in the middle and the shiny city at the front... It makes *such* a difference if it is not raining here. :)
Various other photos include our house and Granville Island. I went there on Saturday afternoon with Chiemi. This so-called island isn't even an island and consists mainly of nice little shops and a market. The day was really nice, too, so we enjoyed the sun for a while.
posted at 22:16
Thursday, April 24, 2003
I just come home from an All Ages Hardcore Show. - It wasn't really good. The bands (three) were lame and not my style of music. Stupid shouter-hardcore and not creative at all.
However, it was cool - fun, actually ;) - to watch the kids floorpunching, windmilling and basically showing off their moves. :P
The location was rather nice, too, and about 50 people showed up.
Nice concert - although the music sucked. ;)
Tomorrow the Canucks start playing their second round in the playoffs. Keep your fingers crossed. :)
posted at 23:24
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
The Vancouver Canucks won against St. Louis today! Yeah! This means that in Best-Of-Seven they lost the first three games and won the last four games. Kinda cool. :-)
I've seen the game with Ute, Doris, Sabine, Tanja, Lena, Melanie - all German students - and Joanne who is Australian. It was fun.
However, the bus ride home was just great! The bus came about 45 min late, but when it finally arrived it was okay. On the next stop some bleeding guy hopped on. It was just wicked. His and his friend's hands were just coverd in blood. They were about 18 / 20 years old and Asian. Japanese actually. Because that was the only thing he repeated again and again "I am Japanese. I am alright. I am not just a small Chinese. I am fucking Japanese." It was so funny. Might sound a bit strange now, but the rear part of the bus was just taking care of this guy. One guy phoned the hospital because in the beginning everybody thought he was stabbed. (He just fell actually.) Another one was just talking to him and figured everything was fine. In the meantime the bus driver pulled over and requested that he is either wrapping his shirt around his hand or leaves the bus - he wasn't bleeding anymore, but looked aweful.
At some other stop three guys got on the bus and had a good time. It was rather cool because everybody felt connected and we all just chatted.
Well, finally the bus was stopped by the police and they asked the bleeding guy to get off. Rather cool that they left asking "Who's number one?" - "Go Canucks Go!" was the answer. :-)
Waiting for a long time, but in the end it was worth it. :-)
posted at 01:30
Monday, April 21, 2003
Yeah, I got Ultima Underworld II to run. :-) If you don't know this game: it is a classic! I played it AGES ago when I was 12 or so. (It was released 1992.) Back then I was never able to finish it. So perhaps I will be better now - if I find the time... Here are some screenshots.
Work starts to get busy and I need to get some things done till Friday, so I better do it now. :P
posted at 20:49
Sunday, April 20, 2003
Tired. So tired. I've been cycling for four hours straight today. And it is always uphill and downhill over here. First I rode down to English Bay, took a quick look at Granville Island and then went all the way via Kitsilano Beach and Jericho Beach to the UBC campus. - That is a long way, esp. if it is so steep that you have to shift to the lowest gear to climb those mountains..
Yesterday, I've been walking through the city and got myself the new Linkin Park CD. It came in a nice box set with a bonus DVD and was just so cheap. :)
Last night, I've been to the DV8 Lounge. Quite a nice place. They serve nice drinks and foods. As they put it "fine tunes and good food". They are a FatZone, btw. So I would be able to use my FatPort account there at 4 am.
Speaking of FatPort: this week is going to be rather busy as Claudia set some deadlines to this Friday. However, I am confident that I will be fine. Just a lot of database stuff lies ahead...
Off to bed now. :-)
posted at 21:32
Saturday, April 19, 2003
So this is the Easter Weekend. Good Friday is a holiday while Easter Monday not. Irgh.
Yesterday (on Good Friday), I went to the North Shore again. Took a bus to Horseshoe Bay and hiked to Whytecliff together with Joanne. It was a nice walk and the sea looks just great with those little islands in front of you. We climbed on top of that Whytecliff rock and enjoyed the sun.
Speaking of sun: the weather was really nice - although it changed every half an hour. I guess I have to get used to it. Be prepared for everything! :)
In the morning it was rainy and only 7 degrees celsius. Later it was sunny and I walked around in t-shirt then it changed again... As Coupland once said: today was one of those days, when it was warm if you were standing in the sunlight, but the moment you left it, you froze. - And he should know as he lives in Vancouver.
On our way back to the City, we stopped at Lighthouse Park and hiked a little more. ;)
You can find the new photos in my Pix Gallery.
posted at 11:04
Wednesday, April 16, 2003
Oh, one thing to add: I saw Hunted last night in the cinema. Please, save your money and don't go. Just not worthwhile.
posted at 17:17
Been to techvibes.com last night. FatPort had a booth there and Sean (our CEO) was invited to speak. It was a interesting and we also got some beers. :-)
I can't believe that next monday (easter monday) is not a holiday over here... However, friday is off, so it is nearly a long weekend. Let's see what happens.
posted at 11:34
Sunday, April 13, 2003
At the moment, I am sitting in a Cafe and upload the new photos. Ya! :-)
A quick summary of what you will see on the photos:
Well, I've been to Stanley Park and across Lions Gate Bridge a couple of days ago. Nice.
On Wednesday, I moved to another place - I took some photos of my new room.
On Saturday I walked through Lynn Canyon with Joanne - an Australian who lives with Tanja. Great scenery!
Today - Sunday - I went to the Vancouver Aquarium with Lena, Tanja, Ute, Doris and Sabine... There's a big German plot going on in Vancouver at the moment. ;-) Although there was no orca in the aquarium anymore, it was a fun day. Especially the Korean food that we had afterwards. Looked *aweful*, but tasted fine - although some might disagree. :-P
posted at 18:37
Friday, April 11, 2003
Everything starts to settle down a bit. I feel comfortable at my new place and work is still great. Although I have to do the storefront - job today. This means that I have to answer the phone and sell our products to people who happen to visit our shop. First it was a bit strange, but now it is okay. Only one technical question so far - and I could redirect that to Ryan.
Tonight I will see Millencolin live at the Croatian Cultural Centre. Chiemi got the tickets and basically told me that I just have to go. ;-) She is an email friend who lives in the suburbs of Vancouver. I never saw her in real-life before.
Last night the Vancouver Canucks lost (again). I always thought that they would be a good hockey team... ;-)
posted at 12:38
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Well, I moved to another place and I am sure that I will stay there at least till June 1st - I have to give a one month notice anyways... ;-)
It is a nice and rather quiet place about 20 min by bus from downtown / work. The bus stops in front of the house and also in front of the Harbour Centre where I work. Convenient.
New photos will follow soon. At the moment, I don't have Internet access at home, so I will do that later. I got wireless access at all FatPort locations - maybe you can see me in a nice cafe later. :-)
posted at 10:42
Monday, April 07, 2003
Today was my first day at FatPort. To make things short: it kicked arse. :-) I really like the office and everybody there. I very much look forward to work for them for the next months.
I will cut this short now as I just learned to I have to move tomorrow to another place. As of now I don't have the confirmation of the new place, so keep your fingers crossed that everything will be fine...
Details on both topics will follow soon.
posted at 21:46
Saturday, April 05, 2003
Just a hint: if you take a look at my Canada photos, you can click on some options at the bottom of the photo. First of all, you can take a look at the properties which gives you information how I took the photo and then you can change to fullsize. This is nice, because this time I don't downsize the photo manually. So you can - if you want to - get the really big original.
posted at 21:30
Sushi was really nice. I went with two German students and an Australian friend of them. Afterwards we had a beer, but I still have to find out about decent public transport: the last SkyTrain leave downtown at one.
Today is actually the first day with - nearly - non-stop rain. However, I heard April is always like this and in a couple of weeks it will get better.
I've been looking for another room today as my current room might be taken from 20th April. I knew that before I arrived, but since I like it now... well, it's not carved into stone yet, so I might just see what happens.
posted at 16:58
Friday, April 04, 2003
Well, I had (have?) some major problems with the server, but I hope it all works again now. Make sure that you hit shift+reload to view the latest update of this blog or the photos.
I found some time to upload new photos. You can find them here. :-)
Tonight I'm out for Sushi.
posted at 19:40
Thursday, April 03, 2003
As promised I've done some tourist stuff today. I walked through the streets and just looked around.
Jayant - a friend from India that I meet in Sydney - should arrive today, so I left him a message in his backpacker's. There I met Simon. He's from Germany, too, and we came with the same flight, but had just talked briefly. So after we chatted for a while, we decided to take a ferry (SeaBus) to NortVan.
So we took the SeaBus and catched a bus to Capilano Suspension Bridge. It's really strange that it only takes about 3o mins and you are damn close to wilderness. Trees about 50 to 60 m high, a river rushing down snow-covered mountains... There was even a snowboarder in full clothes on the bus with us. :-)
I also set up a local mobil phone. I'm not sure what I should say about the service over here... you pay when you sent or *receive* a SMS. Huh? And you even pay when you *get called*. Like, hello? The guy wanted to tell me that this is standard in North America. Irgh.
Another fun note: the weather in Vancouver is as strange as I heard before I left. It was pouring in the morning, waking me up at six. When I left a couple of hours later, it was cloudy and during the day the sun was shining all the time. Really nice.
It's about ten to twelve degree at the moment, and I've seen half a dozen guys in shorts and t-shirt! Freaks. ;-)
That's it for now.
posted at 17:03
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
Today was the day of travel. I got up at six, my father took me to Münster and from there I flew to Frankfurt. This part was easy. Just 45 mins in the air plus loads of security checks.
Frankfurt was big as always and so I happily walked in the wrong direction for a while ;-) Anyways, everything went fine and after ten hours I arrived in Vancouver. - The flight itself was rather mediocre... babies screaming, no personal video screens, booked to the last seat... - but well, it is okay *now*.
Vancouver greeted me with pure sunshine and the massive Rocky Mountains in the background. Yes, it is as impressive as everybody claimed.
I met Harry, my landlord for the first two weeks and he showed me around the house. My room is great: I got a Queen-sized bed, private bathroom, TV, some desks and chairs, DSL for my notebook... The rest of the house is fine, too.
After walking around downtown for a while, I went grocery shopping at Safeway. Oh dear... I know next to zero brands there. Imagine that your memory of a year-long consumer experience is erased... How should I judge? I have to start anew: buying some other product ever week to slowly figure out what I like and what not. - I thought global economy would have been more visible by now. :-P
On Monday I will start work. Till then I play the tourist game. :-)
posted at 20:46
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
In a couple of hours - well, tomorrow morning - I will leave to the airport. And yes, I finally got a little nervous, but I'm also very excited and look forward to what may come.
Stay tuned: great things are ahead. :)
posted at 08:30