Tuesday 14 September, 2004
City of Glass
The city that Vancouver most closely resembles, if it can be said to resemble any other at all, is Honolulu, which also has a lot of people squished into a small area bordered by mountains, hyperinflated real estate values, a sense of disconnection from the rest of the world and, not least, a racial and ethnic mix of Natives, Europeans and Asians.
My next batch of books on the subject of Canada and Vancouver arrived today from Amazon. I've been leafing through Douglas Coupland's book City of Glass - Douglas Coupland's Vancouver, a book he wrote because he got tired of explaining the in's and out's of Vancouver to people who came to visit him. It's written in a form of ABC book - words in alphabetical order explained with stories and photos describing them, like Dim Sum, Glass and History... or lack of thereof (which I'm at currently). A truly facinating book and I'm thinking about recommending it in turn to all the people who are planning to visit us (and you know who you are!).
Although I'm still going through moments of panic and joy with the thought of moving, it's mostly excitement now. I'm still worrying about the details of moving all our belongings and settling in once we get there, but Dragon keeps telling me it will be ok. I suspect that D/k will be on the subject of Canada quite a lot too, since that is the upmost thought in my mind, pretty much all the time now. We've started sorting out the timetables, but I suspect we'll be there end of October, beginning of November - till then, it's all nerves from here.
Posted by kolibri at 14 September 14:07, 2004My new employers has promised to handle all the practicalities with moving, and I am going to hold them to this. :)
# 2 - Rel Fexive (on September 15, 2004 12:11 AM):
I can't imagine how stressed the two of you (well, Kolibri at least ;)) are about this. I'm sure it'll go okay, though.
That hasn't helped with the nerves at all, has it? :)
# 3 - Marnie (on September 16, 2004 02:12 AM):
Wow... You guys get to switch continents! I would be bouncing off the walls with pure joy!
The sheer stress of it, though... oy! I can only imagine.
I know you're not exactly thrilled with the move, but I must point out how incredibly lucky you both are to have lived in 3 (I think) different countries. I'm so jealous. ;)
I suspect that D/k will be on the subject of Canada quite a lot too
Oh, joy! Canada is my favorite subject, as I'm sure you know. ;)
# 4 - kolibri (on September 16, 2004 08:25 AM):
I am thrilled, and I do think I'm very lucky :)
# 5 - Marnie (on September 16, 2004 05:25 PM):
Yay! Now I have a huge smile. :)
There must be something about the claim that matcha raises you energy levels (in the spirit of learning local customs I'll go with spelling matcha with 't' as that's the one they use here). One of my favourite nap times...
Read more on Trying to explain Vancouver as tracked on February 28, 2005 08:19 AM
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