The pub, North Vancouver... and the begginging of the great job hunt.

The last few days have been cracking. On Monday me JP, Rosie and Chloe (I know, just ignore that post) went to an 'Irish pub' or a pub as we would call them. Its on a street that's a bit like Camden in style, lots of indie music shops and rock clothes shops. We tried a few of the local beers, Chloe got chatted up by by an Australian using the chat up-line "do you know what a cannack is?" turns out its a Canadian person, so Rosie's answer of a angry dolphin confused him a little. I also started to get an insight into just how much homelessness there is in this city. Me and Rosie went outside for a cigarette, and she got speaking to this homeless guy who cleans peoples shoes for a living (see my current facebook profile for pictorial evidence), he was telling us how a lot of them get pretty creative to make money. He used to cut up coke cans so you could put them over the top of a alcoholic drink, and he used to sell these to teenage kids drinking on the beach so the police wouldn't know what they were doing. Another guy was selling Flowers, but a lot of them ask for money in quite a violent way as well, in the upcoming winter Olympics they will be pushed out of the city, the guy we were speaking to didn't know were they would be pushed.
The next day, feeling a bit hungover the group got together for a a sight seeing tour of North Vancouver, I'm usually really against these kind of things as I always think you should try and see what interests you in a city, and not what some guide thinks is important...... but it was a really good tour. Led by the now legendary Erik, the Swiss Canadian who has been around the world 4 times, and must be in his 60's but could be older than that. Some of the mind blowing phrases he came out with:-

• You know a Duck! *Puts his head back* Quaaaack! Quaaaack!
• Beaver Fever!
• The white man was great for the forest.... I'm being sarcastic of course.

We went and looked at some amazing rain forest literally 2 minutes outside of North Vancouver Suburbia. Blue melt water rivers that had cut huge waterfalls through volcanic rock, that you could cross on rickerty suspension bridges, that the local kids love jumping off, even though there is 1 fatality a year, and at least 100 injuries. Then we got the bus back to the port, and crossed into downtown Vancouver on the ferry. Next he showed us China Town, Vancouver's population is 33% Chinese, in fact white Vancouvians only make up 49% of the population. Some of the stuff you could buy was amazing, in our brief tour we saw dried squid, lizard on a stick, and the worlds smallest fish that you could eat by the handful as a light snack.
Next was East Hastings, the poorest neighbourhood in Canada. Its right next to the port, where most of Canada's drugs enter the market, its also an area were a lot of "affordable housing" was built in the 60's. To add to this, in the 80's Vancouver's council decided to close all there homes for the mentally ill, and they all eventually drifted down to East Hastings as well. Now anyone who's been really unlucky in life ends up down there. I was openly offered crack - baring in mind I was dressed in smart job hunting clothes as well -, I accidentally stumbled there as its two block away from the major tourist district. On the tour I saw one guy smacking a french bread stick against a wall until it broke up into small pieces, it was funny, but at the same time you new he must have had some major issues.
And finally today:- The great job hunt begins, I found a Starbucks that was definitely recruiting, and also one bar that sounded Very interested when I handed over my CV, otherwise not much luck, a lot of people will take your CV, but you know you won't here back from them. The application for HMV was down right embarrassing, I said I wanted to work at HMV "to share my love of music with people", then promptly got all of the music questions wrong on attached form. Ahh well... the hunt continues tomorrow!