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Another month has literally flown past me in a blur of work, rain (thanks Vancouver) and of course fun with my fellow expats. As I have mentioned before, my brain sometimes likes to think way too much, and this month was no different. Primarily, I need to stop judging my expat experience with others. Yes, I am not visiting a different city outside of Vancouver every month. Yes, I still have A LOT of places I want to see before I head home. But I think I am forgetting the most important aspect: I have made a life for myself here in Vancouver. I have an amazing bunch of friends I catch up to each weekend, for brunch, city exploration or drinks. So although my main goal is to see as much as I can of Canada and the United States before I leave, I have to trust it will happen. Once I am finished living the life out of Vancouver, I will take off on the trip of a lifetime in the fall. After saying that, this is how I lived the life out of Vancouver in March.
The Highlights
My former boss on the food truck invited me to a burlesque show. Her troupe, The Van Dolls, were performing the night before the Oscars, based on scenes from Oscar-winning movies. It was my first burlesque show, and it was actually a great night out. There were popcorn and drinks, comedic hosts, and movie trailers prior to each excellent performance.
The next day I was able to cross one thing off my list of goals for the year. I bought my first DSLR camera: the Nikon D3200. When I purchased the camera I also got the opportunity to sign up for a free introduction course, which I am going to mid-April. I am truly excited to take my photography to the next level. Here is a sample photo from last weekend, when the sun came out of hiding.
The following weekend we headed to our pub, Moose’s Down Under, to watch the first round of our favourite Australian sport, rugby league. The owner played both our teams’ games back-to-back, which was fantastic. We are thinking of trying to do it at least once a month as it was such a good night out.
Next was St Patrick’s Day. We braved the rain to head downtown the day before to watch the parade, which only went for 45 minutes and was very multicultural. Think Irish dancers then Australian footy players then Chinese performers and you are close. We went for brunch afterwards at our new favourite spot, The Red Wagon. So scrumptious. Seeing as it was St Pat’s the next day we wandered down to Commercial Drive and popped into Bier Craft for a beer for the boy and cider for the girls.
Last weekend involved maybe more brunch: seriously the best meal of the day. We went to Bon’s Off Broadway. which has $2.95 all-day breakfast. And it isn’t small. Oh no, for 3 bucks you get am amazing portion of bacon, eggs and toast. The diner has this crazy decor inside, but the food was perfect for a rainy Saturday morning – I will definitely go back.
I’m not gonna lie, the next day we did brunch again. Too many places in this city do brunch till 2 or all day and we can’t resist. This time we went to The Whip on Main Street. Then we caught up with a fellow Aussie to wander through the Portobello Markets (if I had the money I would have bought lots of pretty things) before having a drink or two at Tap and Barrel on the waterfront. It turned into a lovely evening with my favourite people.
To wrap up March I helped fellow expat Ryan celebrate his birthday in style at The Union, before a drink at St Augustine’s. It has been a fun month and April is going to be even better, with a Three Amigos trip to Portland over the Easter break. I am also finishing at Starbucks next month to focus on working at Aussie Pie Guy instead. I am hoping spring will be in bloom when I write to you at the end of April also. Please?
Until then, make sure you follow along with me in Portland and Vancouver on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
