Tag Archives: moving

I’ll Miss You, Vancouver

I will be moving back to Winnipeg at the beginning of June. The thought fills me with many feelings, some good, some bad. So I thought, why not make a list? So here it is: Things I’ll miss about Vancouver, things I won’t, and things I’m looking forward to back home.

Things I’ll Miss About Vancouver:

  • The warm, green winters. Not sure how I’m going to deal when next March Winnipeg is still under snow.
  • The huge amount of small businesses and variety of independently owned restaurants and shops.
  • The cherry blossoms. And rhododendrons. And magnolias.
  • The transit system. People like to complain, but we generally get a lot of bus service for a reasonable price! Winnipeg’s transit system isn’t nearly so nice.
  • The mountains and the ocean.
  • The lack of potholes on the roads.
  • How active everyone seems here.
  • Seeing the skiing trails lit up against the night sky.
  • BURGOO! And Dentry’s. And Grounds for Coffee. (Those cinnamon buns!!)
  • My friends. Although; my friends are all actually moving away from Vancouver this year as well, so it’s not like staying would fix this problem.
  • How well dressed everyone is here!
  • How walkable the city is.
  • How much cheaper the produce is.
  • No mosquitos!

Things I definitely will NOT miss:

  • The rain. I hate rain. So much.
  • How much it costs to live here.
  • The fact that everything I want to go to is so far away. Seriously! It takes so long to go anywhere!
  • Getting passed by the bus.
  • That wet, wet cold.

Things I’m looking forward to back home:

  • Prairie sunsets.
  • Prairie autumns. I haven’t been home in the fall in FOUR YEARS and I am so excited for this September! Fall on the prairies is the best.
  • Snowy Christmas season.
  • Reconnecting with old friends.
  • Having my boyfriend in the same city.
  • Not paying rent and saving money by living with my parents.
  • SUNSHINE!
  • Having a tub-shower (in my apartment they are separate and I don’t like it).
  • Having actual natural light in my bedroom (again, my room here is very dark).
  • Some of my favourite Winnipeg haunts.
  • Being able to take gigs because I’ll have access to a vehicle.

I’m sure there’s more that I can’t think of at the moment, but I think you get the picture; leaving a city and moving back to another is a mixed bag of emotions.

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The Suitcase Battle

I feel like everyone moving into residence this weekend can relate to this: How do I fit my life into a single suitcase? When did I acquire this much stuff? Why do I feel like all of it is necessary to bring with me? For people moving into residence, lots of people drive and have their entire cars to fill (aka jam with as much stuff as possible). For those of us flying into Vancouver, in most cases you only get one checked bag with your ticket price.

So, once I narrow all my possessions down to everything I can cram inside my purple suitcase, the darn thing is over the weight limit. Nooooo. Cue trying to narrow it down some more. Unfortunately, taking out a few pieces of clothing and a cookbook or two isn’t going to take the weight down by fifteen pounds. (Yes, I know.) Then I proceed to try to spread everything out into my carry on as well, but naturally it doesn’t all fit.

Having lost the war with my suitcase, I move on to the next solution: Check a second bag. Yes, it only costs $20 extra, but it will be difficult to carry with my carry-on luggage. (No one is coming to meet me at the airport.) Well, I was probably going to be taking a taxi anyway. Thank goodness I have a wonderful room mate who will help me carry my things into the building.

Even with the problem solved, I am still astounded at how much stuff I have acquired. I’m amazed at how much clothing I have, and how I can’t seem to let myself leave much of it behind. (Though I still don’t have nearly as many shoes as my room mate.) It’s weird, isn’t it? How our lives become an accumulation of possessions? Somehow this suddenly became philosophical.

How about you? Did you have an epic battle with your suitcase/trunk/moving boxes? Let me know in comments :)

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Moving In

Three – the number of hours spent in IKEA.

Two – the number of chairs currently existing in my kitchen so I no longer have to sit on the floor.

One – the number of real beds in my bedroom, meaning I don’t have to sleep on an air mattress anymore!

Yes, that’s right, I’ve finally moved all my stuff into my condo – not to say I’m fully moved in, but all the boxes are safely inside my little bundle of space.  Yesterday was a day so busy and chaotic I didn’t even get to do my daily school countdown post (by the way, there are 6 days left). Today will be a day of do-it-yourself IKEA construction, unpacking boxes, and if I’m lucky, putting the finishing touches on my room.

Okay, let’s be honest. It’s going to be a day of my parents constructing the piecemeal IKEA furniture, me doing a little bit of unpacking, and then running off to practice in the music building, take part in a photo shoot for the new students.ubc.ca, and then later going over to my friend Natasha’s house for an overnight LOST marathon.  I’m sure my parents will be fine without me… probably better off, actually, given my experience with a hammer. (Explanation: none.)  In all seriousness though, I’m extremely lucky to have parents who love me enough to drive my stuff halfway across the country, buy me furniture, move it for me, and then set it up. EXTREMELY EXTREMELY LUCKY.

Moving in so far has been pretty smooth, unless you count the doormat causing the door to not be able to open. But I’m not really counting that.

 

P.S. Yes, I get to be in a photo shoot today! UBC is coming out with a new students website, and of course they need to photos to go with it. I’ve always wondered how you get to be one of those smiling people on the various UBC websites, and now I get to be one of them! EEEEEEE!

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Countdown: 14 days!

Holy banana butts you guys, school starts in exactly two weeks today! I don’t know if you guys are excited as I am, but ooooohhhhh man am I excited.

Yes, I teared up when I had to say goodbye to my boyfriend til Thanksgiving, but now that I’m back on campus I remember exactly how much I love this place.  I can’t believe how much construction there is (it seems like there’s more than last spring, if that’s even possible), but it looks like they left the knoll by the SUB and the beginnings of the New SUB! I’m so excited about that because it’s one of my favourite landmarks at UBC and I thought it would be flattened down by construction. It’s a little hairy cuz it hasn’t been mown in a while, but it’s still the same old knoll :)

I started moving into my new place yesterday, and has it ever been hectic. Cleaning, setting up internet, cleaning, getting things delievered, cleaning, talking to the caretaker, more cleaning. Did I mention cleaning? Also I won’t have any furniture until next Friday, so it’s been fun eating breakfast sitting on the floor against the wall in the kitchen. My mom took a picture, she thought it was so funny. Maybe I’ll upload it later.

I hope you all are as excited as I am! Now, more cleaning!

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