Video's by David.

Here's another.

Video's by David.

Since I've been here David has been lovely enough (as per usual) to take some video clips of me, and throw together an entertaining video to send home for my family.

Here's one of them!

Alison at Mt. Seymour from David Schuurman on Vimeo.

New Post, New Place!

I suppose the reason for me not posting to this blog for almost a year now, is because of a long list of things; some of them being excitement, anxiety, neglect, procrastination, instability, busyness... But whatever the excuse, I'm back to tell whomever about my trials and tribulations of my younger years, all the while sending my love to friends and family who remain on the East side.

A brief recap of the past 10 months:

While anxiously waiting to finish up working/living in Banff, AB, I excitedly took a few (very) long bus rides to Vancouver, BC, in the month of November, to slowly but surely move all of my belongings to David's place, with the near-future plan of moving there myself come January.

When December rolled around, I said my farewells to the Fairmont and flew home for Christmas, and spent 3 wonderful weeks with my family in Guelph, and a few days with Dad in Syracuse, NY.

Come January 8th, 2009, when I took a one way flight to Vancouver. The first month or so I spent fairly stressed and anxious, trying hard to find a job and a potential place to live. I spent my free time snowboarding at Mt. Seymour with David, where he works in the winter season.

By February I had found a place in North Burnaby, with some friends of David. Soon after I finally found a job, serving at a restaurant in downtown Vancouver.

I quickly settled into my new place, and into my new job, dealing with the fact that I was about 30-40 minutes away from this job. Luckily the Vancouver bus system is excellent, and it was a fairly easy commute.

As I got more comfortable at work, I found that I really enjoyed myself and the people around me. I was fitting in, learning a lot about food and wine, and developing a passion for it like those around me.

Spring in Vancouver was absolutely beautiful; according to locals, I've been very lucky with the way the weather has been on the coast these past few seasons. Not so rainy, mild temperatures and pretty sunny! The summer has been fairly dry, resulting in fires starting around the BC interior unfortunately however.

So recently I've been continuously developing relationships at work, and I've even started doing some office management/accounting type stuff for the restaurant. I'm there 5 out of 7 days a week, and I really enjoy myself. This has probably been the best summer since 2005, when I spent the summer driving wakeboard boats in Muskoka.

Even more recently, I moved out of my place in North Burnaby, into a fantastic, newly reno'd 2 bedroom apartment, much closer to work/downtown. It's not perfect, but it's clean and has no carpets, and is affordable! I am officially a Vancouver resident as of August 1st.

It being a 2 bedroom, I have a lovely girl named Robyn joining me to live there at the end of August, moving here from Barrie, ON, with her boyfriend Brian who will be living with David. Quite the nice set up we'll have I think!

This is also the very first place I've ever moved into that is completely unfurnished, just waiting for someone to give it their own personal touch. I'm very excited about putting some time and money into it and I can't wait to be able to show it to people!

All these pictures are just some favourites of many that I've taken since I arrived here, so I hope you enjoy them, and I promise not to be so neglecting to this blog anymore!