Mon 8th April - Sunday 14th April 2013 'Vancity'

This week was pretty productive. We now have social insurance numbers (like social security or tax file numbers), a working mobile phone, bank accounts, credit card applications submitted, and a nice place to live. We also have a tube of toothpaste that was not designed to but does taste like root beer.

The suburb we've been staying in (Langley), has some nice walking trails, so we walked on them. A group of mallards were having a bachelor party that got broken up when a couple of females arrived. We also saw a couple of Canadian geese! 

Just down the road from Langley we found Fort Langley, which has been called 'the birthplace of British Columbia'. This is because 150 odd years ago the Hudson Bay trading company, a huge fur trade organization, established a trading post (or posts) there, which eventually led to the creation of the colony of British Columbia. The suburb has a very historical feel to it, and unrelatedly many of the the buildings have strings of little lights hanging along their walls. It also has Wendel's book store/cafe, which makes delectable mac 'n cheese, and a 50's style diner that gives you two milkshakes worth of milkshake for the price of one!

Fort Langley

This week also marked our first foray into downtown Vancity (as it's known among the local hip hop community). The town has lots of food trailers which compete for good spots and sell delicious food. We found one called 'Wild-Local-Fresh' which we had previously seen reviewed on the Food network and were excited to pay a visit. Their BC seafood poutine was nice. Poutine, as well as being a fun word to say (to Daniel), is a Canadian dish comprised of fried chips smothered in gravy. 

BC seafood poutine

Vansterdam (so-called because of its relaxed attitude towards recreational drugs) is also known for its seafood, and the guy at Wild-Local-Fresh said all their stuff was caught yesterday. While wandering the city we also saw a man smoking a pipe while reading a book, a guy rollerblading along practicing his hockey moves, and a building that looked like a viking longhouse with steam billowing from the roof (steam seems to come out of a lot of places here). Another thing we liked about Vancouver was that the whole city seems very 'woody'. There are trees everywhere, even in downtown. In spring the cherry blossom trees are especially pretty.

Vancouver Harbour

Cherry Blossom trees in Vancouver

While house hunting we took a detour to Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Burnaby, which sits atop a mountain at the north east corner of the suburb. What's cool about this is that it can be snowing at the top of the mountain, even when it's not in other places. 

Perhaps the best thing to happen this week was that we found a nice, affordable flat to live in. A Muslim man named Ruby, originally from Fiji, and his wife wanted people who aren't going to party, and we told him that we hate parties, so he was happy to have us. We feel we've been very blessed to find a place so quickly and are excited to get moved in. Ruby said he would leave the back driveway gate open for us to move our stuff in and we didn't tell him our suitcases would fit through the side gate fine.

Our food storage. Hopefully we can find room for it in the new place.

At church today we met our new bishop - Bishop Iwaasa, who was previously president of the Japan, Fukuoka mission. He and everyone else in the ward were very welcoming, and people wanted to help us find jobs, get furniture etc. It felt great to come into the chapel and hear familiar hymns playing and feel the same spirit and longing to become better that we feel at church at home. 

Next week: 'The Move in. Brianna Gets a Job. Dan Wanders Aimlessly Around Burnaby.'