Beauty, attitudes and Vancouver driving tips.

Yesterday was perhaps the most beautiful day that Vancouver has seen since I arrived. Seeing the city on a clear, bright, and sunny day was absolutely breathtaking! I am so excited about living here... I can't wait until summer! I only had to be at work until 2pm yesterday, so after work I decided to go out to Stanley Park. Parts of the seawall are still closed (a huge storm wiped out a ton of trees and caused a big mess in the park back in around Christmas - the cleanup is still in progress) but I walked as much of it as I could and took one of the roads back. I took a lot of pictures. When I get a few minutes I'll post them on my photosite for you guys to see. Amazing!
My job seemed a little less exciting today after I was squirted with crab chowder first thing in the morning and learned that I would, indeed, as I kinda suspected, only be making minimum wage (at least to start off). I had to do a major attitude check this morning because after that my attitude and thoughts got pretty ugly. I started thinking along the lines of "This is ridiculous. I have a Master's degree and I'm getting paid minimum wage to work in a mall serving soup". After a while though, I was reminded that I should be grateful to have a job, and especially that I was able to find one that was full-time. I also realized that even though this job doesn't pay me much, I've had more fun in the last three days serving soup than I had many days at previous jobs. When I started to put things into perspective and decided to make the best of things, the day started to get much better. It really is a fun job, and I'm glad for this time. Even in serving soup, I will do it as unto the Lord.
Yesterday not one, but two of the other places I had applied for called me to offer me interviews. One was the Starbucks close to my house... a job that I would have jumped at one week ago... I have to believe that things don't just happen by accident and that for some reason, although Starbucks had my resume much longer, Soup Etc! called me a week earlier. I think that for now, that is where I need to be, for whatever reasons, yet unknown to me. The opportunity is out there though and the manager at Starbucks told me that I could call her back if at any point in the future I was interested in working there, even if it was just doing part-time shifts... maybe an option to consider down the road.
This weekend I am planning to attend a workshop put on by Jacob's Well, a Christian ministry here in Vancouver that works with the homeless population. The workshop is something they do once every three months for free... and apparently they fill up fast. Deric and Amber work very closely with this ministry, and Deric found out today that they had a group back out at the last minute from the workshop that is scheduled for tomorrow and Saturday, leaving some open spaces. Yeah! So tomorrow night and all day Saturday I'll be there. I'm very excited. It should be a great way for me to get a better idea about the different types of ministries that work in the city and how to get involved.
The search for a roommate is still on, and getting down to the wire. The girl from England, who I was really hoping would live here, decided that she wanted to be in a location closer to the area she is hoping to work in. We've had a couple of other girls check it out since then, but so far nobody who has decided they want to stay.
I'm learning a lot about how to drive in Vancouver (it really is different than any place I have lived before). Here are some things that one would need to know about the traffic rules in Vancouver:
1. Green flashing lights DO NOT mean advanced green (really). They just mean that you have a green light and will for an indefinite amount of time.
2. In many cases, green flashing lights are used at intersections where a smaller side street meets a major road. The people driving on the major road have a green flashing light, while the people on the side street have a stop sign. The green flashing lights in these cases do not change to red on the behalf of cars sitting at the stop sign waiting to turn. No they only turn for pedestrians and bicyclists who press the button (I'm thinking on busy traffic days I should just jump out of my car to push the button... a little like a new and improved "Chinese Fire Drill"). Therefore, flashing green lights are the new pedestrian crosswalk symbol.
3. However, pedestrians pretty much rule the roadways anyway. I mean, I know that they have the right of way everywhere, but here, they take that job seriously. In Vancouver, you CANNOT actually turn right on a green light... unless you are playing the "see how many pedestrians you can hit" game.
4. It's very important to know that red lights DO NOT actually mean stop... they really mean LEFT TURN. So, red lights are the new flashing greens or green arrows.
5. Green arrows DO NOT actually mean advanced green, they actually mean stop.
6. Yellow arrows mean start making left hand turns whenever possible (ie. when oncoming traffic or left hand turners from the other street have finally come to a stop).
7. Red arrows mean FAST, FAST, FAST, GO, GO, GO (similar to red lights). When a red arrow is displayed, it is required that five cars quickly make left turns before the light turns green and oncoming traffic starts moving toward you.
8. Green lights mean wait... wait for those stinkin left hand turners to get out of your way so that you can start moving (hopefully before the light is red again).
So all this to say, I've come to some conclusions about driving here in the city...
a) Everyone who lives here must be colour blind.
b) Driver's ed. programs are failing miserably.
c) Police are too busy to care.
d) It's no wonder everyone uses the buses and sky train!