first 24 hours in vancouver

jojo:
what do i like?
-asian food.  the familiarity of restaurants
-my computer.  no longer must i work off of one 13″ screen; this isn’t the 80s anymore.
-not having to pay for bathrooms and water.  i probably spent the equivalent of an overseas flight on water alone.
-no more math in my head for exchange rates.  wooooohoo!

what do i dislike?
-asian drivers.  we’re everywhere you don’t want to be.
-computer problems.  the more we have, the more things there are to fix.  talk about an industry that will never die.
-welcome to vancouver, where the weather is awesome unless it’s raining.  which feels like all the time

what do i like/dislike about the new accomodations?
-can’t find my clothes.  threw out and packed up everything when we moved into my parents’ house that i have no idea what i have.  life was so much simpler living out of a suitcase.
-half the furniture in the house has been disposed of for the upcoming move so furnishing wise, it feels about the same as some of our airbnbs

biggest adjustments from the previous stop?
-new underwear.  i feel like such a princess.

what was our first meal?
-taiwanese feast: popcorn chicken, meat sauce & mustard greens on rice, fried tofu and green onion pancakes i.e. everything of brown colour

overall impressions?
i wasn’t particularly excited to come home before going to south america but now that i’m here, i’m loving being able to sprawl out.  missed it more than i thought.

haha:
what do i like?

Delicious home cooked meals. Having more than 3 outfits and 2 pairs of shoes. Being able to tap and pay with my credit card everywhere. Not having to pay for water in restaurants.

what do i dislike?

Paying sales tax on all my purchases. Having to tip in restaurants, the norm now is 15-20%. Traffic seems to be worse and there is more people on transit, makes me wonder if there has been population growth since I left 8 months ago or if it’s always been like that. Getting used to seeing people wearing yoga pants as casual wear, this does not happen in Europe or Asia.

what do i like/dislike about the new accomodations?

Love being in my own bed, heaven. Love giant washer and dryer that washed and dried all of our travel clothes in 1.5 hours. Getting used to living in Steveston, I manage to forget which bus stop to get off and ended up having to take another bus to get home.

biggest adjustments from the previous stop?

I thought I could live without a phone plan for the month we are in Vancouver but it was too hard to communicate by wifi alone. I ended up reactivating my phone plan as it would’ve been just as expensive to buy a Sim card. I miss cheap European Sim cards.

what was our first meal?

Taiwanese food at Delicious One. My favourite dish there is the spicy vermicelli, so good on white rice. Joe’s parents got us a tiramusu cake asian style, really light and not too sweet.

overall impressions?

It’s nice to be home and catching up with friends and family. Even though we have one month downtime, I feel that it will go by very quickly. I still feel as if we are on our travels, especially when I see something very West Coast/Vancouver that I want to take a picture of or write about.