It’s an uber-small world.

These first months being downtown, I’ve run into a ton of people I never thought I’d see again. Just today I ran into Christine, a girl in my Spanish class last year, and Riaz, who happened to be in front of Skybar as I was walking home. So far the list of random run-ins have included high school folks, university acquaintances, and old coworkers. The weirdest to date was running into my old Winnipeg salsa instructor and his girlfriend on Friday at a dance venue I had gone to on a whim.

Poor birds.

Every other block seems to contain an unfortunate squooshed mass of birdstuff on the road or sidewalk. And I’m not talking about guano. Strangely, I have never seen blood. It’s just an oddly deflated and scrambled version of once was once a bird. I hope that it didn’t hurt, because it sure looks like it did.

Vancouverites can be friendly!

After being inundated by Prairie hospitality for the past 4 years, I thought it settled in my mind that Vancouverites were snobby. Not so, at least not in my neighbourhood. Everyone in the elevator is quick to smile n’ greet; the people at the local grocery are friendly and it’s obvious that they recognize you; and if you have a small pet everyone wants to say hello (not that we have a pet but we have been part of the circle of people admiring other couples’ little dogs…I fight the drop-kicking urge more now). Nothing still compares to the come-to-my-house-and-drink-milk-straight-from-the-carton warmness of Manitoba but I’m starting to relax my views about my hometown’s standoffish culture.