27-29/4: What I realised when I started to look for Couchsurfing hosts in Vancouver, is that it requires a lot of planning and fixing and scheduling. It’s not as easy as just sending a message to someone, asking if you can crash on their coach for a couple of nights. Especially in Vancouver, the hosts get a lot of requests and you have to really put thought into your request message. Which means that you have to go through the list and find people that you actually really want to meet. And then, even though you’ve written the perfect, personal request, it might not work out anyway. Couchsurfing hosts have busy lives too, as most people do, and might not be able to host for more than a night or maybe not all the nights you requested or maybe not at all. Which is quite obvious, once you think of it, but since the couchsurfing thing was kind of a spur of the moment thing for me, I hadn’t thought at all before I decided that I desperately needed a place to stay in Vancouver.
Well, as I already wrote before I left Time Out Farms, I kind of panicked and wrote long messages to a whole bunch of people and in the end even managed to double-book myself. But it was kind of good, because there were some last minute changes and then I had a backup plan and ended up confirming stays at three hosts in five nights. The first night was spent at Elise’s and Jeremy’s house. The second and third night was spent with Scott.
Scott is a guy from England, but he’s been living and working in Vancouver for one and a half years now. And he really loves it here. We talked alot about that, the difference between England and British Columbia. He said, that if an Englishman and a Canadian were doing the same dead-end job, the Englishman would be bitter and depressed, while the Canadian would still be happy and generally positive about life. I don’t know enough Canadians nor Englishmen, but it sure seems like Canadians are generally happy and good-natured and extremely polite.
And I do understand why one would want to live in Vancouver. You’ll see my pictures and read my descriptions, it is beautiful – but what I learnt from Scott is that demographically, Vancouver is also a city with many immigrants. The Chinese, of course, and other Asians to a large extent keeping to themselves, but also a lot of people from other Western countries. And really, I wouldn’t be surprised. Most of the people I met in Vancouver weren’t actually born there, and atleast half of them weren’t even Canadians. Elise and Jeremy were students from the States, as were many of their friends. There were also a few Turks and a Colombian frequently visiting. Scott had several English friends, and with him I also met a Scottish couple and two Mexicans.
Vancouver is a city of fusion and many of it’s inhabitants live far away from their blood families. We talked about that, Scott and I, that one of the reasons why he actually would like to stay in Vancouver (if he could only manage to get the permanent visa) is because people are so open and avaliable here. Many of them have left everything behind and here, in this new place, they are free to make new connections, create their own families by choice, and not by blood. There is a freedom in that, and I understand why he likes it. I was only here for five days, but even I managed to make friends – and I’m not the quickest person when it comes to social interactions. If I wasn’t so fond of my family and felt that we actually (mostly) have a constructive relationship to one another, me and my parents, aunts, uncles and cousins – if I felt I needed an ocean between me and them, Vancouver is definitely a place I would consider moving to. To a large extent because of the people.
Scott lives in East Vancouver, in an apartment together with a room mate. I slept on the pull-out bed/couch in the combined kitchen and livingroom. The first night, Friday, Scott cooked me a Mexican dinner (because he’s traveled there, and more or less in every other part of the world) with beans, meat and guacamole. On Saturday, Scott invited me to a BBQ at his friends’ house, just like that, and I got to meet lots of great people and a supercute dog. But I also realised how utterly exhausting it is to talk English for an entire day, non stop, and still manage to be interesting and smart and funny in the evening. I probably seemed distracted and a bit slow. But it was okay, everyone were so nice anyway and I had a great time.
On Sunday, after I was done with the Museum of Anthropology, he came out to UBC and took me to Wreck Beach, apparently Vancouver’s best (and nudest) beach. He said that he wanted to give me the whole Vancouver experience, and considering all the sight seeing advise and the discussions and the BBQ, I must say he did an excellent job. I was expecting a couch to sleep on, but I got two days of intense all-included Vancouver experience. I was so lucky. Scott was an amazing host.
Scotts house from the front.
From the back, the house was right next to these two amazing houses. To have the nerve to paint your house in that colour. I love it!
Katja Malmborg 