I left my last job, where I had been very happy, in a hurry after things turned sour with one of the people there. It's kind of a long story, but I got caught in the crossfire of a nasty personality clash between two of the VPs - one of them being the wife of the President and CEO! It had nothing to do with me and they had no complaints about me, but I was put in an uncomfortable position with people trying to use me as a pawn in their power play, and I said 'No thanks, I'm outta here!'. It was kind of complicated and it would take me too long to type it all out, but my temp agency was very supportive and agreed it was best for me to get out of there, and they refused to send any of their temps in to replace me! It was really interesting watching the dynamics of the different personalities in that company, from my semi-neutral outsider position on the front desk, and I could feel something brewing the day that the incident happened. I even emailed someone earlier that day saying I was predicting something was going to blow up, but I never thought I would be in the middle of it! Anyway, it's quite refreshing to move to a new placement, as the last place was the only job I'd had since coming to Vancouver.
Unfortunately I was out of work for a week while my temp agency tried to find something new for me, and I got annoyed with them and decided to join up with three other agencies as well. One of the new ones hooked me up with the job I'm in now. It was originally meant to go for just two weeks but now they're saying four at least, so that's good!
My first two days in the new job were not much fun as I was doing some really boring stuff with Excel, but I'm now doing some work for a really great boss, involving survey analysis and commentary. I'm having to brush up my skills in a statistical package that I had to learn at university, but hadn't touched since! This job pays a little better, but I now have to travel by bus to get to work, so it works out about the same.
So I finally found an apartment to move to, after about 8 weeks of looking! I found this place online, and it worked out really well because I'm subletting it fully furnished from a med student around the same age as me, who is on a placement in another city for 3 months. We sort of connected after our first phonecall and she decided she liked the sound of me, and didn't even show the place to anyone else! (I think it helped that she has been to NZ and liked it there!) I fell in love with the building as she showed me around. It's 26 stories and was built in the 60s, so it's very funky and retro! It has been very well cared for and has many of the original occupants still living here. It's a strict building - no parties, no guests in the pool etc - but I figured I could live with their rules if it meant I could live in a building like this! My studio (open plan lounge, dining and bedroom) has a balcony and views over Stanley Park. I can watch swans gliding around in the early morning mist on Lost Lagoon, and watch the sunset from my bed in the evening. I just love being able to put my music on and do whatever I want, when I want - it is so good to be out of the other place as I wasn't very happy there! I do not miss my roommate one little bit! Umm, I don't think I shared the link to this blog with her!??
I had a week between apartments, where I dossed on the lounge floor of my Aussie friends, who kindly put up with a Kiwi behind their couch for a week! I had a mattress on the floor and was very comfortable, but didn't get a lot of sleep as they have both early risers and night owls in that house! It was fun though, and they share cooking which is something I've missed. I took a turn one night and my Thai green curry got good ratings :-)
Here's a pic of my balcony and view:
You can see the lagoon, some of the trees in Stanley Park, and the hills of North Van in the distance.
And here's a pic of the swans (the white dots in the middle) on the lagoon in the early morning - not very clear but gives you an idea!
I still need to add pics from Seattle and Whistler... hopefully soon!
Keep cool till after school!
