Saturday, August 22, 2009

I'm back

Normally when I get to Vancouver I hop into a cab and try not to think about the thirty-five dollars or more that I will be handing over. So this time I took the skytrain ($2.50) to Granville and then hopped onto a #4 UBC bus which took me straight to UBC. We stayed in the new housing on Lower Mall and it was great.
Do you know where Korea is on the map? What is the time difference? Yes, I know where Korea is on the map and I had no idea that they were 16 hours ahead of us here in BC. I had never given Korea a second thought unless they were in the news. But I will be thinking and learning about this country more in the next twelve months.


This is the view from the 16th floor of the Korean consulate. We were there less then an hour - two interviews and two visas.
The girls are happy it's all over - a quick call to the travel agent and the plane tickets are done. The bad news - their flight leaves at 6:00 am the next day.
Hot and tired we head back to UBC and the only sane thing to do is to go to the pub and eat and drink. I don't have a flight at 6:00 am so I am the only one to enjoy the Granville Island Pale Ale. The girls enjoy their last meal here in Canada but are anxious to get back to the hotel and finish packing.




"Parting is such sweet sorrow." Who said that? I know I won't be seeing the girls for over a year but I am happy for them, happy that they will be working, experiencing a new country, and will be more appreciative of what they have here.

As the girls fly off to SF, Tokyo, and then Seoul, I am back at Pacific Station having my bags searched and enduring a body scan with a metal detector. This is what you have to put up with just to get on a bus. A bus that overheated on the Coquihalla Highway, stopping three times to let the engine cool down and unhooking the trailer just to make it up the hill. We were almost one hour late but all safe and sound.

1 comment:

Italo said...

CIao Anna I love your posts. Your descriptions. Vancouver, you know, I have there a Finnish aunt, a sweet woman.
So girls will be in Asia for a year! That's a great experience!