Nicole’s Blog

Vancouver has gone mad. Or more accurately… the people in Vancouver have gone bat shit crazy. I’ve never seen so many people on the streets celebrating just being here and being Canadian. It actually really cool to be in the midst of all this positive patriotism. Not arrogant patriotism like a certain neighbour of ours but happy, supportive feelings of being lucky to be a citizen of this amazing place where we live. I have some photos of all the madness to include in this post too.

One thing I wanted to give my opinion on is the claim that the Canadians hogged all the practice time at the new facilities before the Olympics started. Well, dur… so would every other SOB country that hosts an Olympic games. Of course we would get more time at the facilities that WE built and WE paid for. For the Sliding Centre in Whistler, that’s where the Canadian National Championships were held. Duh…. Stephen Colbert in particular said that it was unCanadian… Well at least we know that a Canadian wouldn’t complain about something so stupid. What are we supposed to do? Give the other countries more time on our own facilities than we get. Not Fucking Likely. Especially since these same countries wouldn’t even think twice about giving their athletes the most time to practice on a new Olympic facility.  I guess I should take heart in the fact that Canadians are seen to be so giving, polite and generous that everyone assumed that we would just roll over and let anyone and everyone come to play at our playground sacrificing our own development.

One of the many great things about the Olympics is that I’ve never gotten around the city in my car so quickly in all the time I’ve lived in the lower mainland. I don’t have any fancy Olympic pass but everyone was scared into taking transit and so while most people in the commute are breathing into a stranger’s armpit on the skytrain or the #9 bus I’m speeding down 1st avenue to work in my lovely warm car. Astonishingly tonight I went to the “International Village” to run an errand and I thought that I would never get parking at the mall due to the fact that it is 2 blocks away from GM Place where there were 3 major hockey games going on all this afternoon and evening. I went into the parkade and I found a spot (one of many) right next to the elevator. Score!

Can we host the Olympics every year????

One dark spot is last week when I was rushing on foot to GM Place to get to the Finland(!) v. Belarus game I was nearly issued a one way ticket to the other side by a black SUV with Finnish flags all over it. What? I was almost flattened by a fellow Finn. WTF?

 

I went to see the torch relay today. The torch came within 2 blocks of our place and so I bundled up and walked to the corner of 5th Ave and Rupert. There weren’t any protesters there at that point. The course got detoured due to protesters earlier in the day. I don’t understand why the protesters choose to disrupt the relay when there are a ton of kids waiting to see it and get excited about the Olympics. Anyways. I then walked to Thunderbird Elementary School and saw the Mayor talk to the kids and then the torch continued on its way. The kids then were treated to a circus act that did a fire juggling performance in honour of the torch. I took some photos obviously and here they are for you to enjoy.

 

So I had my first shift up at Whistler Athlete Village and it was a four hour training session. I made my way up there and when we arrived early they were a little surprised and so we had a quick tour, lunch then did a bit of shopping at the village store. Paul, another chaperone, got the cutest little toque for his as yet unborn son that won’t fit into it for at least a few years. We did some more training, got some more equipment  and then we had an hour and a half to kill before the bus took us back to Vancouver. Three of the chaperones went around to find the “moose” at the Canadian Athletes residence. Sure enough we found a big white moose! Along with beer chairs and hockey nets for street hockey. A truly Canadian dormitory! I caught the bus at 1850 and was back in Burnaby by close to 9. Full day but a good one!

 

Yay!!!! We have a place to live! And they know that we have dogs! Yahoo! I’m so happy! Al did an amazing job of finding us the perfect place. A few blocks to the beach. Ten minute walk to transit. A/C, 2 bedrooms, laundry in suite, secure parking for our motorcycles. Yes! Al’s been working so hard to secure an apartment with all of our specifications. Now he can start to focus on the job search. I’ll post when I can.

Hey all,

I was downtown today and the excitement is palpable. I saw a lot of different groups downtown. I think that the Sochi team from the next winter olympics were all over town. Today I saw a whole bunch of people with hundreds of pins on their clothes. I forgot to take my camera today but I’ll make sure that I have it with me for the next few weeks. I think that the pictures are going to be great. I’m super excited!

Stay tuned!

The weather is bad in the Northeast US but really? You gotta watch it to believe it. Let’s all take some ativan (wonderdrug of the universe) and just stay inside with some hot cocoa and everything will be all right.

That is all, good night.

After I came home from Sayulita, I washed my clothes and within 28 hours I was back at the airport for our flight to Melbourne. Al desperately wanted to miss the Olympics so I agreed to go for a week to get him into the country and then come back for 31 days in order to volunteer with the Olympics and finish up some final things here in Vancouver. So Al and I had a whirlwind week of job interviews for me, apartment hunting for us both and general getting to know the area.

We found a short term furnished rental prior to arriving in Melbourne and so all we had to do was pick up the keys to our place and go there once we arrived. We were both dead tired after almost 36 hours of waking. I barely slept on the flights. Al actually doesn’t remember much of what happened from our stopover in Adelaide to the morning after our arrival. We were the walking dead at that point. We showered, went out for food and then fell into bed. The next day we went downtown to secure a mobile phone and an internet stick. The apartment is a few km south of the central business district in St Kilda and is very eclectic and easy going. Really close to the beach, shops, bars and restaurants. We had originally decided to rent a house about 15-20 km from the city centre but when we went out there on Sunday afternoon to check out neighbourhoods we decided that we liked St Kilda so much that we would change our goal to rent an apartment in St Kilda. That was a big decision for us and I think that it is a good one. We are planning to live life without a car and so being in the heart of a busy community is essential. We thought that even in the further out communities things would be walkable but they really aren’t. Commuting would not be really pleasant. A friend of Al’s who lives in Melbourne said that we would hate the “burbs” without a car and he was right. I had two job interviews on Wednesday and got an application package all filled out for a nursing agency. I think the interviews went well and they asked for my references at both in order to check them. Keep your fingers crossed!

We went to see an apartment that was close to the hospital I want to work at but is far from the beach and shopping so we decided not to apply for it. The apartment rental market is tough for renters as there is a really low vacancy rate in the city. You have to do so much prep work for each apartment viewing and basically be prepared to apply to live there when you see it. There is no luxury of thinking about it. You have your application, references, and bank statements all ready to hand in before you have even seen the place in person and then once you see it at the fixed inspection time you give in your application package. Al has spent hours prepping letters and applications for the few places that he has gone to look at. I think we nixed one really sweet apartment due to price which was in our range on the internet but was actually 130 more per month. Sneaky bastards. I think that they want  you to go there and fall in love then when you love it you will pay more to rent it. I was pretty exhausted by Thursday and so we took it easy from apartment hunting and went for a nice walk and took a tourist bus on a tour around the city. The tour confirmed for me that I definitely want to live in St. Kilda, it is so funky and alive. I did still get a lot of disapproving(?) looks at my tattoos though. I was pretty surprised as I thought that most Aussies are pretty tolerant of body mods. I think that the amount of tattoos is less though, particularly for women. Oh well, I’m not going to stop getting tattooed because of some stares, I will have to be a bit more conservative at work though. The people I work with have known me for so long that I don’t think that they even think of the tattoos anymore. I will just have to build respect by working hard and keeping the tattoos to a minimum until people get to know me. I didn’t take many photos but Al has taken a lot and they can be seen at his blog http://oz.algauthier.com/

3 girlfriends and I went to Sayulita, Mexico for 10 days. Erica, 30, SWF CCU nurse. Lalena, 3?, MWF, Cath lab nurse and Natsu 26 SWF in a committed relationship, CCU nurse. We rented a casa right on the beach. Sayulita is a surf based village about 40 mins north-west of Puerto Vallarta. Lots of dirt roads with cobbled streets in the town itself. Mostly American and Canadian snowbirds and surfers go there. The casa that we stayed in was about a 10-15 walk to the village square. The square has a cobbled street that encircles it and then it is pretty much dirt roads out from the one street. We spent our days hanging on the beach (shade for me), getting our asses handed to us in the ocean waves, eating, drinking and shopping. The first day we arrived and were picked up by a car service and our driver had beers and water for us in the SUV. We stopped at the MEGA grocery store for food supplies and made our way to our casa, Casa Palmar. We walked to town and had dinner at Sayulita Fish Taco. Once back at the casa, a couple of us were tired. Erica and I went down to the water with a couple of drinks and was called over by a party of young Mexicans from Guadalajara who were in town for the weekend to celebrate a birthday. A few of them had been to Canada and so we were welcome to dance and drink with them. We had a lot of fun! Unfortunately the loud music and the party sounds that continued long after E and I went to bed kept Natsu awake. She wasn’t pleased. The next day was spent at the beach and after dinner we went out to Buddha Mar a bar in town. We got a rockstar reception because all of the mexicans recognized us as we walked in and cheered, then everybody else started cheering as well. It was a very fun night. Everybody had a fair number of margaritas including Natsu.

The next few days followed a pattern of getting up, having brunch, sitting on the beach, making dinner, reading, and napping.

The next Friday we all went out again for dinner and had these massive margaritas at dinner. We were tipsy after only one. They were only the small size too. The large margarita was like a fucking fish bowl. We again went to Buddha Mar and had a great time dancing and meeting people. The next day we were all hung over but we continued with our plan to go to Bucerias for the saturday market. I think I got food poisoning at the restaurant there and I ended up puking in an alleyway. Major low point for the trip for me. I’m sure it wasn’t all the food but I don’t think I was that sick from the alcohol. We had a low key day and I spent the rest of the day in bed. Sunday was low key as we were due to leave on Monday. The girls were flying out on Monday but my flight didn’t go until Tuesday evening. I got a ride with them to the airport and then went into old Puerto Vallarta in the romantic zone where I had booked a dorm bed at the HI Puerto Vallarta.

I dumped my stuff and went walking around PV. Got a few young mexican guys walking up to me and trying to start a chat for not so honourable intentions. They were too chatty and stood too close. So I ended up just walking up to strangers and talking to them like long lost friends. They were a bit shocked at first but when I said “Please just go with it” they were more than happy to help me lose my “admirers”. I had dinner at a cafe and ran into a former nurse from St. Pauls who was in town with friends. Apparently the “romantic zone” in PV is equivalent to the west end. It’s the heart of the gaybourhood. Was very nice to be around the gays, it felt like home.

Chatted with 4 aussie boys that were celebrating Australia day by playing beer pong and listening to Triple J’s top 100 songs of the year over internet radio. After that we went out and visited a few clubs. They were 21 and 22 and were on the hunt for cougars looking for vacation sex. We went to one bar that had a lot of cougar aged women but most were accompanied by their husbands, no luck. We went to a second bar where there were lots of young women, I tried to help them hook some young ladies but alas they struck out. I met lots of great Canadians who live in PV for a few months out of the year. Very cool life! Summers in Canada, winter in PV.

Singeltons: take note… I’m a great wing girl. I got these guys introduced to all sorts of young women but then when they took over they bombed. The next day I had breakfast, checked out but hung out at the hostel until lunch time. I went for lunch and met Kenny from Oklahoma City in town for “Beef Dip”. We sat together and talked about the Olympics and Obama and socialized health care. Meeting Kenny answered a few questions about why I was seeing so many “bear” gay men in town. Apparently “beef dip” is an annual event for bears and those who love them. Good to know. It made for a fun atmosphere, that’s for sure. I made my way to the airport for my flight and Al picked me up. A wonderful reunion as I missed him dearly. We rushed home to wash my laundry and pack for the next days flight to Melbourne.

Hey wait a second…. that could just work. no food in fridge. no food to eat.

Weight watcher puppy

So, we went on a bunch of holidays this summer…

Cochrane AB

Nelson BC

Whitehorse YT

Pics will be forthcoming.

Stay tuned.