[10] Chapter 10: Langara Estates

July 20, 2024 - 08:21

VANCOUVER, CANADA

	When I exited the airport, I breathed in the new Vancouver air. It smelled.. like a whole lot of nothing. It was also cloudy, so I brought out my umbrella. I needed to wait for a distant friend named Melissa Birchwood around here.. and there is her car - a beige first-generation Toyota Sienna that Melissa named "Spirit of the Sea-To-Sky." She - referring to the Spirit of the Sea-To-Sky - is a beautiful machine, with a sleek front and DOORS THAT SLIDE!! Isn't that neat?

	Melissa drove me around Vancouver, showing me around downtown, showing me how to use the Compass card - and of course helping me buy one, and demonstrating to me how to use the "SkyTrain" - the metro of the Greater Vancouver area. I walked into the front train car, and the first thing I said is "Hey Melissa, where is the driver's cab?" She said "Oh, it's a driverless system. It's been driverless since it opened in 1985." That's pretty neat - how tonnes of effort went into this system and no one even thinks of it.

     Then, we stopped at Melissa's rowhouse, where I'd stay for a few days while I get everything sorted out. It was along Cambie Street, right across the street from the 49th Avenue Canada Line station. She told me that I "might want to hold off on going outside tonight. It's going to be quite stormy - meteorologists are saying that a 'bomb cyclone' will hit Vancouver tonight. But don't worry, it's only a cyclone by name. It's just a fast-developing, strong, storm, that's all!"

     "Oh. Well then." I unpacked with care whatever I brought here.. and took a well-deserved nap.

July 20, 2024 - 11:42

     A few hours later.. I woke up to the sound of passing vehicles, the same no matter where you went. Sometimes there was a difference in the sounds; the sporadic putt-putt of nine-horsepower tricycles in the rural Philippines, the crossplane engines in the many semi trucks hauling cargo to and fro, and of course, the din of a busy urban highway jam-packed with commuters, emergency vehicles, and cargo alike. Melissa was already cooking lunch for the two of us - how nice of her. She told me she was cooking fried rice with egg and a meat that was totally foreign to me called "char siu."

July 20, 2024 - 12:10

     I just ate lunch, and oh WOW, that was nice. The char siu, which I soon learned to be Cantonese barbequed pork, added a hint of salt-spice to the dish. I'm certainly going to expand my palate from measly European dishes!

July 20, 2024 - 14:52

	Nothing really happened today - I was still acclimatizing myself to Vancouver & exploring local places, like Tisdall Park and the public library. I also hear there's a mall about to open where there's an enormous amount of construction a little north of where we are. Although, I was wondering why Melissa was wearing a hooded sweater - which I learned was called a "hoodie" - inside, so I asked. She said that it's quite comfortable, so I tried it. She was right - I felt rather cold in my T-shirt!

[Flesh out what happened between 14:52 and 19:20.]

July 20, 2024 - 15:30

	We went to a few malls! There's not one, not two, but five malls accessible from only the Canada Line as of right now - and even a bustling street with many shops - named Broadway. It's the "high street" of Vancouver. Amazing thing is - the SkyTrain system, from the airport to Waterfront to Richmond - to even as far as Port Coquitlam! - can run without delays most of the time. I especially like the first-generation cars, they make a nice noise.

July 20, 2024 - 17:24

	We went to a movie theatre near Marine Drive station, at Marine Gateway. It's not really a mall, but I included it in the five-mall count of the Canada Line, because it's a walkable "street" with lots of shops, a strip mall, or second High Street, almost.. There's a residential complex there, too!
	
July 20, 2024 - approximately 19:48

	The power just went out.. it's scary trying to navigate new surroundings - hell, even a new country - like this. I'm writing this by the light of a torch, but I don't think the batteries of this word processor will last much longer..
	
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