Vancouver, good and bad
Aug. 31st, 2008 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslgood
* the buses really are timely and frequent. More so than in any US city that I'm aware of.
* people I've met on the street tend to be polite, considerate citizens. People in bus stops make a proper line. This is unheard of for me! (even Helsinki was not like that).
* I've had conversations on the bus pretty much every day, and I've met some interesting individuals.
* Vancouver feels like A REAL CITY. It has a lively downtown, and is very cosmopolitan, with people from everywhere. Definitely more so than Seattle or even Boston. No more New York envy for me.
* the nature around here is beautiful. The city has lots of green space. There is a nice beach next to campus (from which I saw mountains with snow). Yet somehow the roads seem to be mercifully flat, mostly.
bad
* It's by far the rainiest place I've lived in the last 15 years (yearly, 1200mm vs Recife's 840mm, Amsterdam's 760mm and London's 580mm; although São Paulo surprisingly beats it with 1450mm). I might need to get a raincoat for my backpack. I saw one such thing on the bus. Fortunately, even the rainy days tend to have some sunshine (so far, anyway).
* UBC makes me feel like I'm at the mercy of the arbitrary whims of a huge impersonal machine.
* I've not yet found a strong geek culture.
* Rent is expensive. Food is expensive. Cell phone plans suck.
* the buses really are timely and frequent. More so than in any US city that I'm aware of.
* people I've met on the street tend to be polite, considerate citizens. People in bus stops make a proper line. This is unheard of for me! (even Helsinki was not like that).
* I've had conversations on the bus pretty much every day, and I've met some interesting individuals.
* Vancouver feels like A REAL CITY. It has a lively downtown, and is very cosmopolitan, with people from everywhere. Definitely more so than Seattle or even Boston. No more New York envy for me.
* the nature around here is beautiful. The city has lots of green space. There is a nice beach next to campus (from which I saw mountains with snow). Yet somehow the roads seem to be mercifully flat, mostly.
bad
* It's by far the rainiest place I've lived in the last 15 years (yearly, 1200mm vs Recife's 840mm, Amsterdam's 760mm and London's 580mm; although São Paulo surprisingly beats it with 1450mm). I might need to get a raincoat for my backpack. I saw one such thing on the bus. Fortunately, even the rainy days tend to have some sunshine (so far, anyway).
* UBC makes me feel like I'm at the mercy of the arbitrary whims of a huge impersonal machine.
* I've not yet found a strong geek culture.
* Rent is expensive. Food is expensive. Cell phone plans suck.