Vancouver part 1

It does not look like this anymore but this is the pic that stayed in my mind!

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command!.........

I could not think of a better way to start this blog!

I was asked by one of my very lovely sisters to share my experience with Canada the first time I moved there.

The first time I went to Vancouver was with my dad Summer of 1992, to be honest I didn't even know the place existed as such aside from knowing where it was on the map, back then it had no bearing on me whatsoever.

Every year my dad and I took holidays somewhere, it would usually be after July because as an accountant he was required at his firm to sign all the tax documents for the annual closure for his clients.  We would always go to Orlando, at least once a year usually around Christmas, (my Dad and I) our favourite place, we would be there for at least a week and then we would have a longer holiday for Summer. My dad loved going to Spain but since we had been way too many times and done the entire tour around Europe ordeal, I personally was fed up with it, so I asked my dad to find another spot for holidays.
 I do not recall who it was but it was suggested to take a cruise to Alaska, at the time Vancouver was the port to take the 10 day cruise to Alaska with Royal Caribbean which was also recommended as it was our first cruise ever and did not have much knowledge of the other companies aside from Princess cruises that was known to have only elderly on board and also being very expensive. Our holiday was planned around the cruise itinerary yet since we both wanted to spend a few days in SFO we took a JAL direct flight into Vancouver spent 15 days there including the 10 days in the cruise plus 4 days in SFO on our way back!

When I think of that trip, the first thing that comes to mind is food, then the actual city that I fell in love with in every thinkable way you can imagine and then being very cold in the middle of Summer, watching big blocks of ice floating around the ship now and then, massive blue glaciers and what I never expected to find, because inside my head certain dots were not joined (at that time) by the fact that a long time ago the Bering straight was frozen allowing people to travel either way and obviously bringing their culture and way of building their houses and structures which left some towns in Alaska looking very Russian, very nice looking buildings, colourful and smooth.
Sitka and Ketchikan are among the few ports of call we touched... some towns were only open during the Summer as nothing would be able to reach them during the Winter, the sea would freeze; that for me was hard to believe. The towns became ghost towns during Winter, even the people had to leave due to the lack of resources.

After our fab time in the cruise and all the amazing food, the midnight buffet that my Dad never missed whilst I was in me own private balcony (a few doors from our room) watching movies in the cinema wearing my pj's, and my very fuffly/hairy "big foot" slippers! Lovely memories of that trip come to mind just by writing this.
I remember that the last night we spent on the ship was a little....mmm hectic!?!, what seemed like a very stable structure that hardly moved, was actually moving sideways more than the usual, so it was hard to actually have a proper........ anything, never mind sleeping!. The next time I was on a cruise I was of drinking age so I do not remember if it was the booze or the actual boat moving!!!!
---says she holding a glass of red hahahahaha!

Oh well, finally we made it back home, ooops I mean back to Vancouver....
We stayed in a hotel in downtown, close to Robson St. and what before was PanPacific Mall or something like that, now known as Eaton center; I loved the fact that one could actually go shopping underground! YAY!!
So, we did all, the shopping, the sightseeing, took the city tour during the day and night which was nice too, went to Granville Island, took a little ferry to cross from downtown to the market, a bigger ferry to Vancouver Island, stayed at the Empress in Victoria which was quite spectacular, visited Butchard Gardens and even got the t-shirt EHHH! and seriously, I did get a t-shirt saying EHHHHH!!! plain white with EHHHHHH! in red!

As always my dad was cautious about us traveling somewhere for the first time, he bought a package that included the tours to everywhere, and because Vancouver was not that popular (amongst the Spanish Speakers), the company we hired only had one tour guide/bus driver that spoke Spanish, so we ended up with the same guy for every single bit of the trips we took!

He was Mexican and because we were very little people on the bus (that looked more like a mini van) we got to spend a lot of hours talking to the guy, even going for lunch and dinners with him, he told my dad that he also worked for a few schools in Vancouver by placing Mexican students in ESL (English as a second Language) Schools just in case he was interested.

.............................

After long talks with this Mexican tour guide, I was able to convince my dad to actually ask him for more information regarding the schools that he mentioned. Back then the "thing" we used for communicating that was considered top edge technology was the fax, so this guy told my dad that he would gather the information and send it via fax to our house.

We left Vancouver to continue our holidays in San Francisco, which I really liked. Loved China town and all the diversity that the city holds within, of what I thought a very compact area, yet when you are young you tend to see in different scale so maybe if I go now I am sure it is massive!
I loved the structure of the city perse, the Golden bridge its just fascinating, the way the city went up and down, people using the trams seemed like it belonged to Disney, at least for me, and having the water nearby certainly gave it a big plus.
The food, the boat rides, the museums, the parks, the tall buildings, makes SFO a very cool city yet I never consider it a city I could live in, BUT Vancouver was still in my head and heart!!  I could actually see myself taking walks around Kitselano along the beaches and pretty stores. Driving around Stanley park and having lunch in Graville Island. Vancouver was just becoming a fantasy that I was convinced to make it happen sooner or later! Yet I knew I still had to go back home and finish one more year of high school before actually having to go abroad.....

Yes, abroad....!!! my dad had the idea of sending me to Switzerland to a boarding school ran by nuns that was suggested by the head master in my school (another nun), according to her I needed to learn more discipline. What was a load of BS!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Ohhhh that was a brilliant idea..... my dad thought and me of course did NOT! I could not see myself living in Switzerland, somewhere where I did not speak the language (hardly spoke English, not that I didn't understand it but I refuse to speak it, too many people made fun of me in school when a tried so I gave up) far away and a boarding school with NUNS!!!!!!!!! 

Are you f......ing kidding me??!?!?!?!?!?!

No way, so Vancouver, was my escape and what a beautiful escape!!!!! 

After we came home, I plagued my dad to contact the guy and ask him for information ... until I finally gave up and sent him a fax myself (tough to learn at that age that if you wanted something to happen, you actually need to make it happen yourself) without telling my dad! So, by the end of September I had everything I needed and gave  my dad the information to look at. The only thing I needed was for him to make an appointment with the Canadian Embassy so we could find out what else did I need for a student visa, I even remember I had to miss school that day, I was thrilled not to go, I really never liked going to that school, I felt like I just did not belong and more even after my mom passed, all looked at me as a "poor little girl without a mom" if it was not like that, it surely felt like it.

We finally had the appointment, the lady at the embassy was very nice and explained everything that we needed to do and the time we had to actually meet all the requirements.
That day, we came home and after lunch we sat down and talked about that other option, (in my head, Vancouver was my only option) in my dad's head he had three options.....
Option 1.- Switzerland, Option 2.- Vancouver, and option 3.- changing schools because I had told him that I wanted to attend another school that was also University and it was closer to home and the bonus, it did not have nuns either!!!. That third option actually became non existent as my dad hated the school I asked to be moved to,  he said that all the students would gather inside a camper van in the parking lot and do drugs! (now I understand his fears but back then I knew I was never going to be big on drugs, maybe booze or smoking but never drugs)

So, after arguing and trying to make my point, my dad said, he had to look at numbers and he would let me know! Surprise, surprise... an accountant looking at numbers! LOL

Luckily for me ... the Canadian Dollar was cheap, like two pesos for one dollar... so that was an advantage for my dad's pocket!

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