Jun 04 2010 - ship's log 08: 1st week

breakfast - toasted bread with peanut butter and jam + cereals

 
First Friday here, I was very tired and came back straight to homestay from  school. I was worried about find another place to live. I have not found anyone to share a room and until the week after I had had to notice if I would stay one more month at homestay.

I send the e-mails about my doubts to ILAC staff and started to look for ads in Couchsurfing and Craiglist. Then I focused in study and write this journal.

About this first week:
>> new home, new food, new friends - all the changes needs a time to adapt.     The house is good: 3 meals evey day, single room, wireless, laundry machines. The owner, my host mother, is Fillipina, she usually cooks rice, some vegetable and pork meat - with vegetables, or beefs; roasted chicken, or roasted sausage. The most different are the sausages: sweet. But I put pepper, and it becomes ok. The breakfast, is total american, and lunch, sometimes the food that we ate at dinner, others a sandwich. The friends I think is the same that occurs in Brazil, they have cultural diferences, but you will be closer with whom have close ideas with you about freedom.

>> new streets, new city, new languages - Vancouver has a great urban planing. People walks on the streets, specially on sunny days. They are implantig bikeways, the public transportation works very well. The number of foreigners living in Vancouver is quickly perceived - my opinion: 70% foreigners, 30% canadians. It becomes hard to practice english, but that is the way, learn  many Englsih styles, each nacionality is a new English accent - koreans, japaneses, chineses, brazilians, mexicans, saudi arabians, fllipinos, eurepeans, etc.
 
>> realizing a dream???
Nope. I'm trying one more city in this planet, it is a way to get knowledge. I'm using everything that I've learned in my whole life, but now, I have to use it in English. You know, my big idea is a little farm.

http://www.couchsurfing.org/
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.ca/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver