Spanish Bank, Jericho Beach and my first misadventure in Vancouver!!

ENGLISH

(Italian is like always right below!)

Mission accomplished! Another point of my list has been done.. Spanish Bank and Jericho Beach...

After a couple of free days when I practically did nothing, today I moved again! After a quite long transit (thanks to Translink everything is really easily reachable) I went to the most popular Vancouver beach.. it wasn’t so crowded, probably because of the Canada Day tomorrow that let a lot of Canadians have a long weekend. It’s the first beach where I see a nice coloured water.. was really cool.. I don’t know anyway when here it’s the right moment to bath and swim but surely it isn’t now.. the water temperature was just 16° C... and the air one just 20°.. yes..this is Vancouver summer.. I haven’t seen yet the thermometer going up 25° and it’s almost july.. for me it’s great, I surely not miss the torrid Italian summer.. right here u don’t need air conditioning, it’s really unnecessary.. u have even to wear a light sweater to go around, in the shades isn’t so warm!!

Jericho beach is a really nice spot, like always here in Vancouver surrounded by a green park with a lot of benches and a seawall, perfect to ride a bike or just jogging...

This morning instead I suddenly woke up..because of a nightmare.. I just dreamt that I was already back in Italy..and oh my God.. it was really shocking LOL! (I know that I'll have to go back but it's too early now..) And always this morning.. oh crap.. my first big misadventure in 3 months! Like every time when I pay a visit to the No Frills, I end up to buy too much stuff since the convenient prices .. today I was really overloaded and holy Jesus, I broke like a couple of bags while I was in the bus! Shit, I started to lose my goods!!! Shit..if only was close like the Hiperdino back in Las Palmas!! Luighi!!! The Canadians are pretty cool by the way, I asked for a couple of plastic bags and I got them.. but I was really overloaded!! I had to leave a couple of stuff on the bus! Pretty embarrassing! I just said to the driver: “Hey man.. I’m fucked up..I can’t bring all this stuff back home..do you mind if I leave smth over here?” and he said, “No problem, just leave the good stuff!”.. the problem is that basically my diet is frozen stuff!! :-D So I just left a couple of thing, 16 $ not a big deal! But a good lesson learned! No overloading next time!!

Tomorrow like told at the beginning is the Canada Day, pretty much the same of the Independence Day back in USA! The Canada Day is Canada birthday.. 142 this year.. pretty old guys! Canada was born on 1867!

C ya guys!

Stay tuned!

ITALIAN

Missione compiuta! Un altro punto della mia lista realizzato.. Spanish Bank e Jericho Beach ..

Dopo un paio di giorni liberi nei quail non é che abbia combinato granché, oggi era tempo d’agire! Dopo un viaggio lunghetto by bus (grazie a Translink che collega perfettamente tutta Metro Vancouver) ho fatto visita alla spiaggia più popolare di Vancouver.. non era molto affollata, probabilmente a causa dell’imminente Canada Day che consente a molti canadesi di avere un weekend lungo.. E’ la prima spiaggia contornata da un oceano dai colori decenti .. really cool.. non ho comunque idea di quando sia il periodo ideale per entrare in acqua da queste parti visto che oggi, 30 giugno, la temperatura dell’oceano era 16° mentre quella dell’aria era 20°! Eh si, questa è l’estate a Vancouver…non ho ancora visto il termometro salire sopra i 25° ed è ormai quasi luglio! Certamente non mi manca la torrida estate del Nord Italia.. qui non c’e certamente bisogno d’aria condizionata .. si deve persino indossare una felpa leggera per andarsene in giro, all’ombra non è cosi caldo!!

Cmq Jericho Beach è un posto carino, come sempre qui a Vancouver circondato da un parco verde con tanto di panchine e passeggiata a fianco dell’oceano, perfetta per andarci in bici o a fare jogging..

Questa mattina invece mi sono svegliato all’improvviso a causa di un incubo.. ho sognato che ero già tornato in Italia e.. oh my God.. è stato piuttosto scioccante!! E questa mattina.. la prima disavventura in quasi 3 mesi canadesi! Come quasi tutte le volte che faccio una visitina al mio discount di fiducia No Frills, ho finito per comprare troppa roba dati i prezzi concorrenziali.. oggi ero davvero troppo carico e mentre ero sul filobus sulla via di casa.. damn! Un paio di borse della spesa rotta.. e il panico! Ho iniziato a perdere parte della spesa LOL! Se solo fosse vicino come l’Hiperdino a Las Palmas! Luighi!!!!! I canadesi sono gentili comunque, si sono prodigati a darmi una mano, dandomi un paio di sacchetti di plastica ma ero davvero sovraccarico!! Ho dovuto lasciare qlcs sul filobus ! LOL! Abbastanza imbarazzante! Faccio all’autista: “Hey man.. I’m fucked up..I can’t bring all this stuff back home..do you mind if I leave smth over here?” e lui mi fa , “No problem, just leave the good stuff!”..il problema è che la mia dieta si basa prevalentemente su cose surgelate..perciò..LOL! Ho lasciato un paio di cose, non un grande problem, circa 16 $, 10 € ! Un’importante lezione imparata comunque.. no sovraccarichi la prossima volta!!!!

Domani, come detto inizialmente è il Canada Day, qualcosa di molto simile all’Independece Day giù negli States.. ! E’ il compleanno del Canada.. 142 anni quest’anno..abbastanza vecchiotti ragazzi!! Il Canada è nato nel 1867…

C ya guys!

Stay tuned!

So..what're the differences between Canada & Italy?

English ONLY... Italian folks: it's easy to understand :-)

So, today that the weather is pretty crappy (cloudy and always ready to rain with just 15°) and it’s not so inspiring to go somewhere, I decided to complete my update with all the differences that I was able to notice in two months and half between Canada (specifically British Columbia) and Italy (Northern Italy and specifically my town). Of course I’ll forget someone of them but isn’t so easy remember all of them!!

1. Smoking: It’s FORBIDDEN everywhere. In all the public places, in front of the buildings for 6 meters in both directions, it’s FORBIDDEN show the cigarettes in the shops and the packets have shocking images on them! For me it’s wonderful that is forbidden everywhere and other than this, it seems that almost no one over here smokes. In Italy is forbidden but in a different way; it's not for example in front of the buildings... Packets of cigarettes are freely displayed on racks inside shops and on them there are not shocking images, only written advices.

2. Prices: It's ABSURD that the taxes are not included in the displayed prices. This is ridiculous! I understand that every province and territory has a different tax system but is unbelievable that I never know the final price when I buy something and I always think that they’re trying to ripping me off!

3. Supermarkets: a lot of really small places. A lot of small groceries stores like 7th Eleven (the same pretty much of the Kiwi Mart in The Simpsons), thing that doesn’t exist in Italy. At least in my town all the old small grocery stores closes in the mid 90s after the supermarkets invasion.

4. Price and size of products: Bottled water costs less than soft drinks! You can’t find bottles smaller than 2 litres and chips packages smaller than 200 grams!

5. Clothes: They don't care so much about their outfits and they don't have a good taste, at least most of them (Personal opionion). We certainly dress better in Italy. About the girls: is possible see a lot with really short miniskirts (is nice for me LOL) high heels and platform shoes (that’s great too LOL!!) hironically a lot of them is really uncomfortable to walk with.. often someone of them looks almost naked. In Italy it doesn’t happen so usually for different reasons: fear of rapes and catholic education.

6. Starbucks: the most horrible place ever seen. I don’t drink coffee but I tried this one once. I’ll never do that again! It’s.. oh my God..it's just NOT COFFEE! And then..what the fuck is a FRAPPUCCINO??What the fuck is that?? And smth other like coffee with ice is so weird LOL.. And most of all, people strolling around with these plastic glasses or canteens (they call them travel mugs but are canteens!) full of hot coffee when outside is 25°, well.. are simply ridiculous! Ok, here it’s normal but in Italy it will NEVER happen! LUCKILY! Then, their policy: 4 Starbucks on one street! For what fucking reason u need 4 of them on every corner?

7. Mobile Phones: seems that everyone has an Iphone or a Blackberry, they’re so widespread!
I really have seen just a few Nokia. Probably this depends from the fact that 99% of Canadians have a contract (1,2,3 years) with a phone provider. In Italy as we know this is really rare. Everyone has just a prepaid sim card. Here the opposite.

8. Postmen: they walk and they even wear shorts. I’ve not direct experiences with Canada Post until now so I can just tell what I saw. In Italy u can see them with a moped or a bicycle and never with shorts, here besides the trail trucks and the lorries they just walk.

9. Dogs: if they “shit” somewhere the owner picks up what is left and throws it away otherwise u could be fined for 2000 $. In Italy, I’ve seen that I think twice in my whole life.

10. Parking Meters: in Italy u put the coins in and u get a receipt with the time left. Here instead u park aside them and on a screen appears the time left.

11. Fines: Traffic police patrols the streets and carrying a PDA and a printer to print out the fine. In Italy they still do that with paper. When they have to tow a car they really do, I’ve seen that at home a couple of times. Here u don’t see cars parked almost one over the other, something that u can see back in Italy.

12. Constructions sites: everyone wears an helmet and a security vest. There are signs that don’t leave nothing to the imagination: No boots, no hardhat, no orientation.. NO WORK! I think that I don’t have to tell how is the situation back home! Beside this, girls work in constructions sites. It doesn’t happen in Italy like I already said.

13. Cyclists: 95% of them wears an helmet. Besides some amateur runner no one does that in Italy.

14. Buses and public transports: everyone pays the ticket. I don’t know if that happens cause practically u are forced to since u have to get in the bus by the front door and show your subscription or validate your ticket in front of the driver. At home..well.. I think 80 % get a ride without pay! The bus drivers are more like clowns :-D : they often interact with the passengers “ Hey Folks..how’re u? Look what we have here today..” and stuff like that!

15. Streets: here everything is with blocks. U don’t tell your address.. u just tell, let’s say: Homer with Robson that means the intersection between two different streets. Every block look the same. U can feel that these cities have been planned. In Italy they grew along centuries.

16. Houses: they cost a lot less than Italy but they’re wood made. In Italy is all concrete and bricks.

17. Alcohol: you can’t buy boozes in supermarkets but only in dedicated stores. Kind of absurd.

18. Subway (Skytrain): is automatic, no driver. In Milan and Rome still human manned but in Turin is automatic

19. Recycling: you get paid if you bring back to some dedicated place, cans and plastic bottles. In this way they give a work to the homeless people. In Italy nothing like that happens. No one gets paid.

20. Cars: the only European brands u see around are: BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Mini and Mercedes. Nothing else. It's plenty of Japanese and Korean cars beside obvioulsy American Brands (Pontiac, Ford, GMC)

This is what I noticed until now. A lot of them I just remember by myself, someone other, thanks Wiebke..I copied them from your blog :-D! I’ll surely see someone else in the next months!
C ya
Stay tuned!

Commercial Drive = Little Italy? Well man.. not in 2009!!

ENGLISH

Well..the title says everything I guess…

No beach today but a visit to Commercial Drive... after little more than 1 month from Victoria Drive I went to Commercial or better to the DRIVE how is called over here.. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Drive)

I already knew that the Italian presence have been overwhelmed in the last years but well, call this street Little Italy nowadays is just bullshit. There’s nothing Italian left beside a couple of supermarket that sell Italian original food, an hairdresser and a couple of cafes and restaurant. That’s it! In front of some cafe u can hear some conversation in Italian (to be exact south Italian dialects) between some old men but nothing else.

To tell the truth I didn’t like the zone: pretty dirty, a lot of not so cool faces and a lot of homeless people.. There is a strong presence of black Canadians (Jamaican and Ethiopian roots), Portuguese and of course Asians but this is obvious in Vancouver...

Probably was pretty different visit it last Sunday when there was a Street Festival and all the zone was closed to traffic.. (I saw a couple of photos from Wiebke's blog and looked cool..but I was working :-)

But well..another thing from my list done :-)

I found out that there will be a soccer match at the beginning of July, exactly the 4^th with Zidane over here at the BC Stadium.. well, it could be cool go there... I just have to find out the tickets price!!

Yesterday at work I even spoken portoguese.. well..not exactly.. if they don't speak fast I understand Brazilian.. but this girl..my God..she spoke just portoguese.. little Italian and Spanish... and with a mix of 4 languages (English,Spanish, Italian and Portoguese itself) I was able to help her!! Wow.. :-D

A couple of student from Quebec came into too... my God.. their accent is so heavily accented!! It's really hard understand them.. it's amazing that there.. a Canadian province.. a lot of people not speak english..or they barely speak...

By the way, there're really a lot of Brazilian over here.. I think that in the language schools they are one of the most numerous group..of course behind Chinese and Japanese..

C ya...

ITALIAN

Well.. credo che il titolo dica tutto...

Nessuna spiaggia oggi ma una visita a Commercial Drive.. dopo circa un mese dalla mia visita a Victoria Drive sono andato a vedere com’è the Drive come chiamano qui questa strada (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_Drive)

Sapevo già che la presenza italiana era stata soverchiata negli ultimi anni ma chiamare oggi questa strada Little Italy.. bè è una cavolata! Non c’è davvero nulla d’italiano a parte un paio di supermercati che vendono cibo d’importazione italiana, un parrucchiere e un paio di bar e ristoranti. E’ tutto! Davanti a qualche bar si può sentire qualche dialetto meridionale tra alcuni anziani ma nient’altro.

A dire la verità la zona non mi è davvero piaciuta: abbastanza lasciata andare, facce non proprio raccomandabili in giro e un bel po’ di barboni… C’è una forte presenza di afrocanadesi (origini giamaicane ed etiopi), portoghesi e naturalmente asiatici ma questo è ovvio a Vancouver..

Ma comunque.. un’altra cosa della mia lista portata a termine :-)

Ho scoperto che il 4 luglio c’è una partita di calcio con Zidane e qualche altra vecchia gloria proprio qui al BC Stadium.. bè non sarebbe male andarci.. devo solo capire quanto costa un biglietto!!

Ieri in negozio mi è perfino capitato di parlare Portoghese.. bè non esattamente.. :-D semplicemente se non parlano troppo velocemente riesco a capire i brasiliani..ma la ragazza di ieri parlava veramente solo portoghese..ma alla fine con un mix di Italiano,Inglese, Spagnolo e Portoghese sono riuscito a darle una mano.. Wow.. LOL!

Ci sono veramente tanti brasiliani qui intorno.. credo che nelle scuole di lingue siano uno dei gruppi più numerosi, ovviamente dietro a cinesi e giapponesi..

Anche un paio di studenti del Quebec sono entrati in negozio.. my God.. il loro inglese è così accentato che è veramente difficile seguirli a volte.. ed è incredibile pensare che nello stesso Quebec, provincia Canadese, la maggioranza parli solo francese senza sapere una parola d'inglese oppure conoscendolo giusto superficialmente..

C ya...

A damn virus fucked up my day..so just the City Hall and a Korean supermarket :-D !!

ENGLISH

(Italian is below)

A goddamn virus fucked up my day today. Woke up and there was this damn Trojan showing up stupid icons and windows! It gave me really hard time man.. it was fuckin hijacking my internet connection and it was impossible download a cure.. it took time but I got rid of it! And talking about time, it took really a couple of hours so my plans for today have been completely fucked up.. I wanted to check Jericho beach but since it isn’t so close I postponed it. I went instead to see one of the Vancouver landmark, the City Hall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_City_Hall)... Well, nothing particularly interesting if I’ve to say the truth, it’s a modern building with a statue of captain Vancouver pointing the way just at the entrance and two huge flags just aside to remember the Olympic Games next year but was one of the thing that I had to do...one of the things in my list (LOL..like Jacob's lists in LOST!!). Yep, I made a list with all the things that I wanna see and do here and around Vancouver; it isn’t a long list but there are a couple of points that I’ve absolutely do! Just close to the City Hall a station of the new Canada Line, the third Skytrain line in construction right now and scheduled to open next fall for the Labour Day that here contrary to Europe is on the first Monday of September.

About yesterday, I was working like I wrote the day before but it was really fast; for most of the day we were just me and Julia and I’ve to tell that when I work with her it goes always faster, I really like her :-) .

I like everyone that works with me but maybe since Julia is pretty much my same age, we have more interests in common; she likes travel too and she would like see Europe and Italy too :-) . I’ve noticed one thing over here: for us livin’ in Europe is really a lot easier travel around; thanks to Ryanair, Easyjet, Tuifly, Vueling or whatever we can fly for 10\15 € or even 1 EuroCENT (Bruxelles and London = Total 4 CENT!.. free to not believe :-D) all around the European Union. Here instead you can’t find low cost companies, they just don’t exist and since Canada is huge, it’s impossible even for the Canadians themselves travel all around their own country and of course it’s a lot harder for them come to Europe. So under this point of view, we are lucky for our location.

I spent the rest of the day around here, I stopped by to the Pacific Centre to buy a couple of things. Price of clothes like I already told, brand clothes too, are ridiculous. Something that in Italy we pay 85 €, here it costs 20 €!

This evening, I stopped by to H-Mart (http://www.hmart.com/) a Korean Supermarket over here in Robson Street. Julia suggested me it.. and oh my God.. they have some strange thing at all :-) A lot of instant soups..a lot of meat and seafoods!! They even have frozen oysters..unfortunately I am unable to cook them..I've to google how to do that.. the weirdest thing I saw are the Seaweed snacks..really weird... they have very cheap already ready meals..... I'll go again there I think... it's different but surely better than the chinese supermarket I saw sometime ago :-)

And so for the first time in my life, I ate Korean today, exactly this: Tteokbokki :-) funny name.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tteokbokki it was good...and really cheap, just 3.19 $ but so spicy!!!! My eyes are still sweating!!

My next free day will be Thursday when I think that I’ll finally check Jericho Beach.

C ya

ITALIAN

Un maledetto virus ha mandato all’aria la mia giornata oggi. Mi sono svegliato con un trojan che dirottava la mia connessione internet impedendomi di scaricare un programma per eliminarlo e che faceva apparire icone e finestre completamente impazzite.C’e davvero voluto del tempo per liberarmene e parecchio, cosicché non sono potuto andare a dare un’occhiata a Jerico Beach che era ciò che avrei voluto fare oggi. Sono così andato a vedermi il municipio di Vancouver (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_City_Hall) , nulla di speciale a dire la verità, solo un edificio d’architettura moderna con una statua del capitano Vancouver giusto di fronte all’entrata e due enormi bandiere a lato per ricordare i prossimi Giochi Olimpici però era una cosa che dovevo fare, una cosa nella mia lista (ahaha..proprio come nelle liste di LOST :-D). Sì, mi son fatto una lista delle cose che voglio fare e vedere qui e intorno a Vancouver, non è lunghissima ma ci sono un paio di cose che voglio assolutamente fare.

Riguardo a ieri come avevo già detto ero di turno in negozio ma la giornata è passata abbastanza velocemente: per buona parte della giornata lavoravamo solo io e Julia e quando lavoro con lei è sempre abbastanza veloce.

Vado d’accordo con tutti i miei colleghi ma visto che Julia ha praticamente la mia stessa età è sicuramente più facile trovare argomenti in comune; anche a lei piace viaggiare e vorrebbe visitare l’Europa e l’Italia. Ho constatato una cosa qui: per noi che viviamo in Europa è davvero facile viaggiare su e giù per il nostro continente spendendo cifre irrisorie come 10\15 € oppure 1 cent come ho fatto per ben due volte (vero Front e Pighy?) grazie a Ryanair, Easyjet, Tuifly o whatever. Qui invece praticamente non esistono compagnie low cost, c’e un duopolio di Air Canada e Westjet e per i canadesi visto che il Canada è enorme è difficilissimo per loro vedere tutta la loro stessa nazione per non parlare poi del visitare l’Europa. Perciò sotto questo punto di vista, la nostra location ci rende sicuramente fortunati!

Il resto della giornata l’ho passato gironzolando qui intorno fermandomi a comprare un paio di cose al Pacific Centre. E’ incredibile vedere i prezzi dei vestiti.. ridicoli!! Cose che in Italia si pagano 85 € qui, identiche, costano 20€!

Questa sera mi sono fermato da H-Mart (http://www.hmart.com/), un supermarcato coreano qui in Robson Street che Julia m'ha consigliato..eh.. oh my God.. hanno davver alcune cose strane tra le quali centinaia di diversi tipi di noodles e zuppe instantanee.. diversi tipi di carne e tonnellate di pesce e frutti di mare.. la cosa più strana che ho visto sono gli snack fatti di alghe...hanno cose già pronte abbastanza economiche e non troppo strane..ci ritornerò.. è sicuramente meglio del supermarcato cinese che ho visto qualche tempo fa!!

E così per la prima volta nella mia vita stasera ho mangiato Koreana.. esattamente questa cosa: Tteokbokki :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tteokbokki funny name.. Non era male.. e al costo di solo 3.19 dollari.. poco piu di 2 euro! Però dannatamente piccante!! I miei occhi stanno sudando ancora!!

Il mio prossimo giorno libero sarà giovedì e spero di dare un’occhiata a Jericho Beach!

C ya