Whew!

It feels like it's only been yesterday since I posted on this blog but look! It's been 16 days! Time flies. I guess that's because in the past 16 days I had a lot of fun so I didn't even feel the time slip away. So today, I'll list 16 things I did in the past 16 days.

1. I met one of my aunts and her husband for the first time.
2. I met a new friend (their friend).
3. I went around Vancouver (Stanley Park, Elizabeth Garden, Boedel Observatory, etc..) with them.
4. I ate crabs!! (yum!)
5. I ate sushi almost everyday at work.
6. I went to Robson street (shopping district) in downtown Vancouver.
7. I ate at a buffet restaurant! (5 rolls of sushi, about 30 pieces of prawns, a serving of noodles, duck, 16 pieces of siomai, a few carrot sticks ang other veggies...)
8. I had a nice walk around downtown.
9. I rode some new bus routes.
10. I went shopping! (spent close to 300 bucks..)
11. I took my first call as a financial service advisor.
12. I processed my first balance transfer for a cardmember for 6,091.00 US$.
13. I met 2 beautiful people at class (sadly we only have them until Friday).
14. I had good sleep everyday.
15. I had my first paycheck too by the way.
16. I'm doing my laundry now.

:p

Living life...

I have been in Vancouver for exactly 4 weeks now. I prepared myself for a lot of shock before I came as I was sure the weather, culture and the way of living here will be very different from what I'm used to.

Living away from your home country is hard. You get very far out of your comfort zones. It's a totally new ballgame as they say. Usually, people work abroad to try and save money so you can go back to your country with an improved life as you have more financial freedom. I am determined not to do this. I see a lot of people who just keep working their butts off earning a lot of money and saving everything. They work 5, maybe 10 or even 20 years and then retire in their home country. Sure they have more money. Are they happy though?

Many people in this situation are not. They regret not having had to spend the time with their families or friends. They regret not having fun and enjoying the fruits of their labor when they can. by the time they had enough money to retire, they're not fit enough anymore to do those things that they dreamed of doing before they started working like there was no tomorrow. Now this is not only true to those working abroad. It rings true to everyone who spend all their time working.

I am determined not to let this happen to me. I think many people from my generation see this also. Money is there to be earned and enjoyed, maybe save some for emergency. It is there to help you enjoy the things life can offer while you can. It is meant to buy you trips, adventure or even simple guilty pleasures. It is a tool and not the goal.

I intend to live life to the fullest. And I will.

A New Home

We have started using our tools on the job. There's about 5 software that we will be using when attending to our customers' needs. They're pretty neat too. A lot has really happened since the days of banking through paper. I now understand more about how a credit card transaction is processed. I now also possess knowledge about a lot of bank jargons and laws. But that's not what I wanted to write on today...

I have here a picture of me and some of my classmates. There's 10 of us, 11 including our trainer (a.k.a. facilitator). Our group is a very diverse one. We're of different colors, races, ages, cultures, religions, and just about anything that you can discriminate on. But at work, we recently had our lesson on fair lending. Everywhere I look in my new environment, I see fairness. At work, in the train or bus, in restaurants... everywhere! It's nice to live in a place like this. I've always dreamed of a place where everybody is treated equally. It looks like I have found a place very close to the one in my dreams. I'm actually starting to love British Columbia, Canada. Beautiful British Columbia.

Of course, there's no place like home. But who said anything about having only one home?

Crabbing..

One thing I have been looking forward to in my stay here in Vancouver is crabbing. I have heard a lot of great things about this pastime in BC and everyone who does this seems to love it! My uncle used to go to the beach a lot to set up his traps. He made his own crab traps you see. And he made a little money out of them too as everyone uses the same style of traps that he used to make. Some people even came to him to buy some of them. He does not do that anymore though.

So this morning, my uncle and I went to Jericho beach. He also let me drive his car so I can adapt to the way of driving here before I take my tests for my BC driver's license. It was early in the morning, pretty cold and not many people were awake so the roads were still pretty empty. Pretty nice start for my Saunday eh?

We got there at around 6:45am so we had about an hour to catch some crabs and go back home because my aunt will be using the car at 8. There was one Asian guy with crab traps setup on the dock too. We brought home only two crabs, even if a lot of crabs were caught in the traps, as there is a regulation on the size of crabs that one can bring home.

I spent the rest of the day eating, watching movies and playing cards. Now I'm alone in my room again and just clicking away on my laptop. Crabbing was the highlight of my day. I'm putting a check on that one on my to-do-in-Vancouver list. What's next?

I predict it will be... clubbing. :p We'll see.

9 days..

This time, 9 days passed before I came back here. Much has happened since, but most of it is just routine.

I started work last Monday and I got to meet new people. There's only 10 of us in the class and we'll be together for 10 weeks. Our first week together was fun since we're just learning new things (like in school) and we even have fun doing some of the activities in training. Each day we learn things about each other and I'm sure by the end of the 10 week training, we'll all be real friends already. Most of them are married and with kids already and are at the age of 35 up. Only four of us are under 28.

I caught a little of the colds virus this week too. Everybody in the house has been a bit sick, but I'm glad I have a tougher immunity system than them. There's no need to worry about me since I'm pretty healthy. I eat right, and I even eat more fruits and vegetables these days.

Today we went to the farm and got some goat meat and pork. Tomorrow I'll be going crabbing with my uncle. I'm excited about this! I'm even having a hard time in getting to sleep. I'm always like this when I'm anticipating something. I can always sleep when we get back. :p