More of Vancouver

So I was lucky. I am a lucky person.

In my first week here it snowed for 3 days. Three days!! Today I know that was not snow, was more like a hail than real snow. But I was happy, opening my mouth and trying to taste the "snow". Of touching it in that cold day...

Something about the ice that people should know is that when is cold and the water freezes at the sidewalks, it formed what is called black ice. It is difficult to see but is very dangerous, because people can slip on that stuff and hurt themselves. I did, of course. But not in this trip...

But I was saying that I am a lucky person. My homestay, Randy, he loves beer. And always bought some for me. And we watched hockey games on TV. Lisa was so much fun, we used to go to the shopping mall to browse stuff, and she loves to cook. Each night a different meal: seafood barbeque, sushi, tasty stuff. At that point I was hearing about other Brazilian students that weren't so luck, and were having pasta for lunch and pasta for dinner, everyday. No dessert! Ughh!

But by homestays were nice. My English was terrible and sometimes I felt like a bareer between the conversations because I simply couldn't express myself. But I knew that progress was happening.

I made friends with a Brazilian-born-in-China girl, so we went to many places together, all the places that tourists go: Chinatown, the Vancouver Public Library, Lynn's Cannyon, Museum of Antropology and so on. I didn't go to Victoria, though.

Robson St. is an amazing street. Perfect for window watching, or, if you have money, spending it. Billions of Asian tourists taking pictures in front of the shoes stores, people smashing each other to buy maple syrup, dozens of little doors selling crap souvenirs, all with the Canadian flag on it, of course. I myself bought a handfull of this stuff to give to people when I came back to Brazil. Perfect. Made in China, cheap.

I personlly have mixed feelings about Robson St. You can't love it, you can't hate it.

I like Granville St., less touristy (I don't know why because it crosses Robson) but lots of students, coffee shops, junkie CD stores. Near the skytrain station, there is a Tim Horton,s, just off Granville St. The best French Vanilla capuccino ever. Tastes better than in any other TH. Bt Granville St. Leads to Granville Island. The second touristic point more visited in Canada. The first one? I have no idea. Maybe the Niagara Falls, I have no idea. The island is not a real island, first of all. Is a mount of dirt from old factories that were there before, transformed in a fancy and expensive market that sells all kinds of neat stuff. Food, cookies, sushi, flowers, coffee, soap, spices, books, indian food, korean food, chinese food, watches, brooms, and of course, maple syrup.
The island has all kinds of entertainment too: theatres, crafts, pubs, restaurants. An old brewery, the kids market (so cool!), a little lake, kids playground. A must see: the fisher's market, a little hidden store in some of the alleys, and the small foodie cart on the other side of the dock, that sells great oily fish-and-chips. Really tasty, delicious, unforgetable.

I have lots of pictures from Graville Island and the place is well located, everyone can take great pix from there.