east -----> west

Letting things be.

2009-12-15T09:20:00.002+02:00

On my way home from the Aquatic Centre, I ran into a couple that had obviously just gotten into some kind of an argument. “You said you’d be better off without me!” accused the suburban blonde guy in his thirties. “I never said anything like that!” the bodacious brunette protested, as she charged at the doors of the Skytrain with her dozen shopping bags flying in all directions.
The guy followed her into the train, got himself caught between closing doors and, after wrestling with them for a moment, squeezed himself onto the train. There was some more huffing and puffing between the two, which in turn gave the two fashionably dressed Japanese exchange students sitting across from me something to chuckle about.
Yet another true Vancouver moment, I thought to myself as I was sipping on my small, bitter, regular Tim Hortons. So many cultures and people meshing and clashing with each other, enacting and viewing the daily tragedies that unravel on the monorail. There’s just no choice but to let them be, whether it’s a young silly couple or an old crazy addict from the Downtown Eastside.
That’s what still continues to captivate me as an expat – these moments of realization that sometimes there are no sides to be taken, because in our multifaceted world there are no sides to begin with. It seems infinitely comforting to realize that you can just let it be, as opposed to taking sides or stepping up in your head to correct someone. People are just so different that most of the time there is simply no way for us to even begin to wrap our heads around why they do the things they do. Again, the words of Huxley ring clear in my head, for “Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies — all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.”

Yup, living abroad. It certainly makes for some neat zen moments on your way home from work.

NY2009!

2009-01-02T08:08:00.003+02:00

This post was written on January 1st and I meant to wrap it up later. So much time has passed since that I gave up on continuing it, but here it is anyway...

It's difficult to believe that we've been in Vancouver for a year already. 2008 proved to be a very refreshing year, full of new faces, places and lots of little "ah!" moments. We celebrated the anniversary of our arrival with a little trip to Mt Seymour, where we took snowboarding lessons and managed to get our muscles properly mangled up.

I'm sitting here in our sweet little apartment, in muscle pain, inspecting the fresh snow that fell on our painfully lengthy way home from the New Year's Eve bash. This quiet moment feels so very much like this entire city: full of amazing possibilities, but little action unless you get up and make your day.

My physical condition is making me acutely aware that there are people who are seriously roughing it out there. The new city council is promising to end homelessness; the critics say that they are just slapping people into human zoos to give the city a cosmetic makeover. I really don't know how that is going to help the young guy standing at the Broadway station McDonald's. On my way to the grocery store, he was smiling and making eye contact with every passer-by, attentively begging for change. By the time that I had made it back from the store, his eyes were glazed over and rolling back in his head, as he had managed to score a hit for the money that the mother of two had given him. There's only so much you can do to combat free will and the personal choices that this guy is making. Objectively speaking, his opiated oblivion may indeed be preferable to the sober facts of his existence, but who is to draw the line and say that enough is enough and his way of coping with issues is not conducive. The city? I guess so.

Living in a big city with as many issues as Vancouver makes you realize how small we really are as humans. Our way of running our sand castles is still quite experimental and based on trial and error. It's fine - it's the best we've been able to come up with, but the real problem is the follow-through. People fail to realize that their happiness is entirely dependent on the choices that they make. Sadly, there is still very little personal accountability and an expectation that the mother system will just magically take care of it all.

26 on the 26th

2008-08-26T08:32:00.004+03:00

It's my birthday! Well, it's not actually my birthday in Canada, but it's already 8:32AM in Estonia where I was born shortly after 8AM, on the 26th of August. This birthday feels like an odd one. First of all, it's on a Tuesday. My only plan for the day is to have lunch with my supervisor and her immediate colleague. Second, I am turning 26. What kind of a number is that?

Google tells me that I'm not the only one feeling this way. 26-year-old Unmarried Cosmo Girl Worries About Becoming a Cougar. Half Of 26-Year-Old's Memories Nintendo-Related. China's richest person is 26-year old woman. 26-year-old girl wants to date 300 guys. Craig David: 'let me be a 26-year-old who’s making music'. A 26-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Tachikawa City, Tokyo. Jason’s 26 Year Old Bjork-Shiley Mechanical Valve Stays Put.

There's a definite melancholy about turning 26. 25 was a milestone and 27 almost seems younger than 26 because of the rock star associations, whereas 26 is somewhere in between, where you are older than a quarter of a century but not quite old enough to despair about your age and worry about the wrinkles. Yet, something seems to be missing.

I went to Amazon to fill that hole by buying books that I would never get around to reading, but even Amazon.com's "Recommended For You" seems more contemplative than usual.

1. Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters: Defending the Earth with Ultraman, Godzilla, and Friends in the Golden Age of Japanese Science Fiction Film
2. Advanced Maya Texturing and Lighting
/--- bunch of other technical books---/
28. Things I have learned in my life so far
189. Just Who Will You Be?: Big Question. Little Book. Answer Within.

I might just have to buy that book.

Vancouver continues to be wonderful and amazing in very many different ways. I love walking around East Vancouver, peeking into people's windows, walking past pubs and coffee shops and grabbing a cup at the Continental. After a couple of violently sweaty weeks, the weather's been toned down and the air is becoming increasingly crisp. It reminds me of going to school in Estonia in September, which was something I had looked for all summer. Fall brings back memories of fresh notebooks, information, belonging and coziness. I can't wait for the rainy season to start so we can fire up our fireplace and cuddle up to watch House.

WALL-E!!!

2008-07-23T19:25:00.003+03:00

I have been re-charged with inspiration, found my muse, rediscovered faith in my profession. I went to see Wall-E! Never in the history of humankind has there been a more touching, motivating, compassion-embarking, thought-provoking piece of art as Pixar's latest masterpiece.

I don't usually lose all sense of time and space when I go see a movie, especially when it's a kids' movie. But Wall-E is something else. The story itself is a masterpiece where every segment ends in zen-like perfection, leaving absolutely no room for analysis or criticism. The scenes are laid out so beautifully that the makers would have achieved their mission even if the characters were 2D stick figures. Needless to say, the immaculately realistic 3D animation takes it completely over the top. The sound effects are equally important - I cannot remember the last time I saw a movie with this little dialogue that was executed this well. You know that you've witnessed pure genius if an hour of robot beeps, purrs, farts, squeals and screams doesn't get annoying.

My brain has been completely devoured by this movie. Wall-E left me a complete and utter sobbing mess, determined to change my career path to get as close to Pixar's immaculate arts and crafts as possible. I'm going to learn 3D animation. I'm going to start drawing again. I will do the best that I can so that I can one day reach the level of dedication, commitment and creativity that has been involved in the making of this beautiful movie.

Phew.

In terms of life in Vancouver, it's been equally wicked, minus the growing homelessness issue and the morning transit commute. The music scene is wonderful and growing, people polite and amazing, my job rather tolerable and weather beautiful. I might tell you more about it next time, when I have re-gained my composure and recovered from the Wall-E high.

Green phlegm and leprous zebras

2008-03-18T06:38:00.003+02:00

Vancouver has been showing its not-so-glamorous side for the past couple of days. The weather this morning at 8am was brutal - rain drizzling off the trees, my usual mellow path slushy and slippery, ice cold greyness creeping its way into my lungs. I am beginning to master the art of dragging my carcass out the door, down the stairs, across the soccer field, onto the Skytrain, off the Skytrain, onto another Skytrain, off the Skytrain, and into the Blenz coffee shop on Burrard street. A small medium roast for 1.73, out the door, to the waterfront, into a giant glass building, into the elevator, arrive at work. That is when I slowly but surely begin to wake up. It feels great to work when it's raining because you can't go running around the parks like a wild child when it's soggy and wet.

I've managed to catch one of the colds that the Vancouverites have been talking about. So much for making fun of them for dissing the weather - now I am hacking up green phlegm myself. Very appropriate for St. Patrick's Day - at least something within my bodily system was green today.

Speaking of missing holidays - something seems to have happened to Easter this year. For some reason, it is happening in March. I thought the Canadians had gone absolutely Easter mad, since my coworkers had started asking me about my Easter plans. This gives April a whole new meaning.

By the way, Vancouver celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a huge parade yesterday. Check out the pictures and read the comments here. Why are lepricons called lepricons? To me that sounds like a leprous zebra.

Hello everybody!

2008-03-14T04:48:00.003+02:00

It's been a while! And, phew, has it been a while!

Vancouver is absolutely amazing. I keep falling for it more and more, despite the fact that Skytrains are always packed and smelly and the streets are dotted with crazy homeless people because the city doesn't know how to deal with them.

So, where were we? You already know that I scored a corporate job. The pace at my work place is about ten times slower than it was in Estonia and I get paid over twice as much. I no longer have to work overtime. I've had a few disagreements with the supervisor because she is not only from a different century, but a different planet. The supervisor's boss told me to keep disagreeing with her, because that is the only way we *might be able to drag the giant slug of a company forward. I spend my days watching and editing movie trailers and crazy multicultural shows, and like to walk down to the waterfront on sunny afternoons. So all is well in that realm.

We spent the past month looking for an apartment, which turned out to be an impossible mission. We went to 23 apartments and picked one that was significantly smaller than the rest and very close to the Skytrain tracks. That might not sound very nice, but there are very many factors that make up for the Skytrain, including but not limited to the cost, the dishwasher, the super cool housemates, the back yard, and the proximity to Trout Lake and Commercial Drive, as well as Vancouver's best beer store selling rare BC microbrews. Most apartments we looked at were either loud, dirty, or simply unsuitable for our purposes. We seem to have chosen to move during the time of a most severe housing crunch.

This city is truly happening! There are regularly 4-5 conflicting events every day of the weekend, and there is always someone calling you up, inviting you for a coffee or a pint. I thought Vancouverites were always minding their own business and never socializing, but it's the exact opposite. People are always hanging out in cute coffee shops, chatting each other up. Random people who pass you by on the street will suddenly jump in your conversation, and walk with you for the rest of the way. And everybody seems to, pardon my French, truly give a shit.

The weather has been absolutely wonderful, compared to what it is like in Estonia. I find it very amusing to hear my coworkers moaning about a few hours of rain here and there.

Speaking of Estonians, I absolutely insist that all of you go see this movie. It's playing at the Cinemark Tinseltown Vancouver March 28, 2008 - April 3, 2008.
The movie has one of the most touching and inspirational trailers and I trust that the rest of the film will follow suit. If you are even remotely interested in Estonia's story, or the concept of freedom, don't pass this one by.

I just realized that I never installed the Flash player on my Mac to view this site - it just works. I love it.

I can't wait to have my American friends visit us in Vancouver (This means you, Dara!). It will be very interesting to see them function in the Canadian context. I've shared many good laughs with an American guy, who is constantly bewildered by the Canadians' niceness. (If you bump into someone at a party, they will apologize profusely, and nobody ever raises their voices.)

The cherry trees are about to bloom. A few trees here and there have already "burst" - probably because someone left their car idling or something:) I can't wait to get out and about with the camera, to shoot the madness once it happens!

New life

2008-02-01T08:07:00.000+02:00

So, loads has happened as usual. My Macbook Pro finally shipped, I got a job and my husband's sister got engaged. Congratulations, Pinz!
The computer is awesome. I love it. The NVIDIA graphics card is putting a totally new twist on even MSN emoticons. The screen is gorgeous and everything runs beautifully, minus the usual rainbow balls of death when there are problems with the net.

I start my new job on Monday. The company is about 50 times larger than the last firm I worked at, so they have great benefits and an awesome coffee machine. However, providing a wealth of perks also seems to be a bit of standard here. At Radical Entertainment, they have free food, cookies, pinball machines and game consoles. From what I hear about EA, their employees basically live there - no need to rent an apartment I guess.

Last week our friend James suggested that we go have dinner at the Culinary Arts school downtown. We showed up 15 minutes in advance because it was supposed to be an extremely popular place, but you know what - it turned out to be a SNOW DAY! There was barely any snow on the ground and it must have been something like minus 1. Wow. Aw. I mean.. Those bastards!

We came home and watched the news about a dozen cars that had rolled over into the ditch, because they didn't have winter tires. You can't help but feel for the poor clueless Pacific people, who are so utterly oblivious of the extreme measures that people regularly take to combat extreme weather situations. A snow day? How about you learn how to drive stick and put on some winter tires? Even better, use public transport! The gov't pays you back 15% on all the expenses on monthly cards!

Ranting on my Mac seems somehow more satisfying than usual. I am considering cutting my fingernails so that I wouldn't scrape the keyboard. For a split second this afternoon, I actually considered spending 3000 dollars on the Final Cut Studio and Adobe Production bundles! I think this computer might actually make me a better person. Thank you, Apple!

America, improved

2008-01-28T21:44:00.001+02:00

We're watching the House of Commons on TV right now and I must say that Canada has the most exciting political institution at work that I have ever witnessed. Live broadcasts from the Estonian Riigikogu are a real bore, with half of the representatives shopping for Armani and the other half arguing about things that don't really matter for the common man. The Canadian House of Commons is better than the Maury Show! Picture a room packed with passionate representatives, screaming questions and concerns to each other in French and English, with cheers and complaints echoing in the background. Everybody is involved, every representative is fully and vocally present, to express the opinion of his/her voters. The topic of the day happens to be Canada's involvement in Afganistan and all of the representatives are accusing the Canadian gov't of misrepresentation. This, of course, provides for good bunch of heated arguments and a fully electrified House of Commons.

I have been fully and thoroughly impressed by Canada. From intelligent self-running Skytrains, to governmental support of green living, to the many initiatives for better health and living, Canada truly is an advanced country. Homer Simpson referred to Canada as America Junior, but I would think of it more as America, improved. Many Canadians would dislike the reference to America, but you cannot deny the massive impact that American politics, economy and entertainment have had and will continue to have on Canada. However, it has been truly refreshing and inspiring to witness Canadians stand up for their global involvement, pulling back from the war and promoting clean, intelligent living. There are many areas of improvement, just like everywhere else, but at least there is an overwhelming sense of hope that each and every individual can truly make a difference. The notion may be cheesy and soapy and American, but it's what makes this country tick. With passion.

Crack and the Olympics

2008-01-22T11:03:00.001+02:00

Today was the first time that I saw someone smoke crack in broad daylight, as people were casually passing by. Kind-of makes you wonder how much they spent on making, say, these three ridiculously cheesy promotional clips for the Olympics, and how many lives could have been changed with this money:

Prettiest man in Estonia

2008-01-22T08:36:00.001+02:00

Now that my husband has left the country, this is who is currently the most attractive male in Estonia:

It's the bisexual backstage dancer for weather girl / pop star NIKI ("Äike, päike!"), of course!
The event would be Manhunt 2007.

Is anyone else bothered by the checkered tights / latex boot /rodent combo or is it just me?:D

Chimo!

2008-01-16T22:11:00.000+02:00

For those of you who haven't seen Douglas Coupland's movie Souvenir of Canada, an Ookpik (sometimes spelled Ukpik - the Inuktitut word for Snowy Owl), could be considered the Canadian mascot. They are often made from wolf fur and other traditional materials.

Also, Chimo. As Tokyo Tintin puts it, "In the 1970s with the Olympics and Expo, draft-dodgers, Trudeau, bilingual cereal boxes and kicking Soviet hockey ass, Canada-mania reached new, dizzying heights. We were hot hot hot, and we needed a word that was cool. A Canadian word. And that word was "chimo." [According to folklore, when two people met on the Arctic tundra, they rubbed their chests in a circular motion and said, "Chimo" , meaning "Are you friendly?" The answer was a repeat of the gesture and the word "Chimo!" ("Yes, I am friendly!)]

Canadians seem to be in a neverending search for their identity. Take Vancouver, for example. Vancouver has been called Vansterdam - due to the city's lax law enforcement of marijuana usage, proliferation of marijuana grow-ops + large drug traffic in the city. Vancouver has been called Hongcouver - as a derogatory recognition to Hong Kong immigration that saw huge spikes in 1980's. Vancouver is also supposedly known as Lotus Land - attributed to Torontonian's view of Vancouver's laid back life style.

And I thought Estonians were overdoing it by looking for a slogan that would surpass the ingenious "Welcome to Estonia!" campaign.

There's a weird mechanical display at the concrete factory on Granville island. Basically, it is one of those fun kinetic installations where metal balls travel through the framework, roll down the paths and get lifed back up by metallic springs, etc. The idea is to provide an entertaining interpretation of how the concrete factory works, while staying as far from truth as possible. To me, this display symbolizes much of what I have witnessed in Vancouver - a recognition of the aesthetically pleasing, environmentally sound and humanly friendly, while voices of protest and images of harsh reality are regularly subdued. Take the guy at the Service Canada office, who was yelling at somebody on the phone - he was instantly silenced by the secretary, since a raise in one's voice could not be tolerated. Or take East Hastings, where junkies and street people pine away while the rich do their Armani shopping five blocks west.

I go through a whole continuum of emotions every time we take the bus through the Downtown East Side. Taking the downtown bus from Mt. Pleasant to downtown Granville is exactly like taking a roller coaster through the house of horrors at the amusement park. The junkies have better things to do with their money than get on the bus, so there's a sick kind of pleasure that can be derived from knowing that you are safe in the clean and happy electrical bus, while the world has come to a horrible zombie movie end outside.

Now, coming from Estonia, it would be easy to say that Canadians are neglectful and not taking care of their real problems, and putting on a happy face while there are serious issues out there. However, living in East Van, I am beginning to realize that some of this ongoing practice of blissful ignorance is not as ignorant as it may seem. It just seems to be a bit of a therapeutic way of approaching the problems that are out there. It is simply easier to tackle serious problems from a happy place instead of a sad place. The majority of people I see on the streets do honestly seem to care about their cohabitants. Many people speak up, whether it's on public television or through the word on the street. There is the kind of Canadian modesty and respect about it, but they still raise a lot of legitimate concerns.

Now whether the government is acting upon it and reorganizes its resources to take care of East Hastings instead of getting ready for the Olympics is a whole other issue.

They're definitely going to have to do something about it, as they can't have the world see the mess. It would simply be too aesthetically unpleasant, too non-Canadian. But what can you even do at this point, considering that there is a whole economy in and of itself in East Hastings - bottle return points, community centers, drug dealers, street peddlers, prostitutes, the full rainbow of all the goods. I hear they might actually have to go as far as making homelessness illegal. Is this even possible?

A United Nations housing specialist who this year blasted Australia for its record on providing housing to that country's poor and aboriginal populations will next turn his attention to Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. Miloon Kothari, the UN's special rapporteur on adequate housing, will tour the stricken neighbourhood during a cross-Canada trip this October.

The Globe and Mail, Friday, August 31st, 2007.

We'll see what happens. Until then, Chimo!

Enchanted Vancouver

2008-01-13T21:19:00.000+02:00

Yesterday we went to the Work Less Party north of East Hastings. I haven't seen this many awesome individuals in the same place since I went to Burning Man. Everybody was dressed up as trolls, elves, wookies, wore facial and body paint. No inhibitions, no issues - everybody was having a wicked time dancing to the super-multicultural lineup, cuddling in the cuddle puddle, hula hooping, and chatting about world issues. What a wonderful party - a true welcome back to the West Coast!

I'm hearing the SkyTrain's distant toot-toot, and it sounds infinitely comforting. The mountains look mysterious this morning, with their tips covered in clouds, revealing nothing about them. Perhaps people are so nice here because they are in constant awe of the nature surrounding them and therefore more aware of the relative insignificance of their day-to-day petty problems.

Something in the air

2008-01-12T06:50:00.000+02:00

I don't even know where to get started with this post. We have done so much since my last update.

Regarding my new Macbook Pro, Apple seems to be stalling until next week, so that they can ship me the Macbook Pro with the new Penryn processor. Well, part of it may have to do with the fact that we freaked out after reading a post on Mac Rumors, called the store, left a message describing the situation and asking for any delay/cancellation options we had (in hopes of delaying the order until Apple started shipping with the new processor, IF that was recommended). That magically resulted in a hold on our order, which we found out later when we called up the store to inquire about the unreturned call. We then looked at all the facts, specs and each other, realized that we could no longer keep sharing only one computer, so we called up the store again, to remove the hold on our order. Besides, we had not intended to put a hold on our order, but simply wanted to chat about the upcoming updates and the potential implications. To be honest, I am still not fully convinced by the 45-nm architecture and the SSE4 instruction set. In the new Penryn T8300 2.4GHz 800MHz the Cache is 3MB instead of 4MB, as in the old T7700 2.4GHz 800MHz MacBook Pro 15"/17". So it actually looks like a bit of a temporary downgrade to me if I were to stick with the 2.4GHz, considering that the developers are only beginning to start creating programs for the new SS4 instruction set...
I also no nothing about computing, so I shouldn't sneer at Apple's newest baby. I am sure that is indeed better to stall, I just want someone to hold my hand and tell me it's worth the wait.

I digress... After we had removed the hold and requested a new delivery estimate, we received an e-mail from the salesperson saying that Apple is doing something interesting. This is what they told me:
"The ETA when ordered was 1-2 weeks. If a new model is due to be released in the very near future, *Apple typically holds orders for the model that is due to be discontinued*, then cancels them once a replacement model is announced (which we then have to resubmit for the equivalent replacement). *Based on the ETA and the timing of the quoting of that ETA, that's usually a hint that the machine will not ship and will be replaced with a new model. "

So yeah. Bring it on, Macworld 2008!!! Something in the air? I hope it's worth the wait.

What have we done besides obsess about news in the Mac realm? Let's see.

We went to about 20 companies to drop off our resumes. We found out that the industry is in a somewhat dire state right now, with the writers' strike and the Canadian dollar kicking butt. I did manage to land an interview, and I did manage to survive it, even though I was the usual anxious, trembling, stuttering mess. It was alright though - I did manage to utter at least a few sentences that made some resemblance of sense. Is there actually anybody out there who has mastered the art of interviewing?

Vancouver truly is the Vansterdam of Northern America. You can smell pot everywhere you go, whether it's on Commercial or between skyscrapers. They have several coffee shops here and supposedly there is even a number you can call to order whatever your heart desires. Like pizza. It definitely gives the otherwise sterile pretty city an interesting vibe.

We had burgers at Vera's Burger Shack, where we inhaled two giant deliciously fresh and yummy burgers. I also had my life's first small KFC taster from the corner store near our home and I am never going back. I liked it so much that it scared me.

We also found our new grocery store - Donald's Market! Packed with piles and piles of fresh greens and fruits, this place is THE haven for anyone seeking to buy organic produce. And I don't even feel cheap for saying this, because this store rocks. Everything in there is chem-free, delicious and droolworthy. An absolute heaven, when you compare it to the Buy-Low or Superstore "organic" sections. Yesterday, we stocked up on Annie's and I loaded up on asparagus, salmon, honeydew melons, spring salad, corn cobs, bananas, cilantro, hippie fairy special salad dressing, non-sugary breakfast crunchies, soy yoghurt, you name it. And the total came to pretty much the same that we paid at other places, except that this time we weren't paying for sugared up cardboard. Yay.

I can't believe that we were even trying to think about convincing ourselves that the two Skytrain stops to Canada's Biggest Superstore weren't a big deal, and we could shop there on a weekly basis, because the deals are all better. Being Virgoes, we were set on exploring all the other options firsthand, before committing to a store to visit on a regular basis. Such a waste of time and brain space. Donald's has all the same stuff for the same price, except several notches up along the quality scale. I'll go to Superstore for tampons maybe.

The customer service rep who managed our bank switch has been tagging after us. He hand wrote a Thank You card and sent it to a mailing address. Today, he called up our landline and wished us a happy weekend. Is this standard procedure for all the new TD customers? Let's hope this customer care stays within reason.

Vancouver buses are neat. The seats are arranged in a manner that allows for maximum communication between the travelers. People regularly jump into each others' conversations, give tips and advice, and are simply there for each other. Today, I watched a middle-aged woman patiently listen to an old man telling her about his new walker and all of its awesome high-tech features. The bus driver actually apologized in front of everybody when she used brakes, and everybody thanked the driver on their way out the bus. Then the sun came out and everybody continued their jolly good days.
I am still getting used to Vancouver the Disneyland. It's just too nice of a place.

Taking care of business

2008-01-04T04:48:00.000+02:00

Boy, what a week.

On Thursday, we bought a pimped out Macbook Pro and opened up several accounts with TD Canada Trust.

I still cannot believe that we simply walked into a Mac store and signed a purchase for a 17-inch 4GB RAM 2.4GhZ Macbook Pro. And now, as usual, I am having second thoughts about it, because I am the most frugal person in the universe.

The bank took the rest of the Thursday, and half of Friday. We had to schedule appointments with TD representatives. We set up the joint checking account, the savings account and the brokerage account. Then went over to Royal Bank and closed the account there, walked back to TD and finished up business there. We then found out that we do not qualify for a secured line of credit using the minimum deposit amount needed to waive our fees on our checking account, so we proceeded to open up savings account to qualify for a secured credit line to start building up our credit.
We spent a total of about 5 hours in the two branches of the bank, which is absolutely insane, considering that in Estonia, you don't need to sign anything to open up a savings or investment account, and a teller took care of all this business in approximately 10 minutes.

Yesterday we went to the sushi place that our friend James recommended (Tanpopo on 1122 Denman), where we consumed about 40 pieces of sashimi alone.

I also managed to snag a few shots from the downtown area while we were running around doing the banking thing. Here they are:

Sushimaa!

2008-01-03T17:37:00.000+02:00

I'm in heaven! We finally managed to combat our severe jet lag to the point where we dragged our sorry carcasses downtown, to the legendary Kisha Poppo! They were nice enough to hook us up with their all you can eat lunch special (10.95), and we literally ate all we could. Their tuna sashimi was absolutely orgasmic, and we spent about 1.5 hours stuffing ourselves COMPLETELY silly with different varieties of sushi, miso soup, tempura, etc etc. And we didn't even make it halfway through all the possibilities on the menu - mostly because due to some mixup the waitress kept bringing us doubles of everything. OH MY!

First things first though.

We visited our friend James and spent all morning drinking chai, watching hockey and playing Guitar Hero. James is better than TV! Actually, most Canadians are better than TV. Mind you, TV also really sucks in Canada.

We actually managed to sleep until 5:30am yesterday, so our sleep schedules are somewhat normalizing. To be honest, I've never been hit by jet lag this badly - the last couple of days have been pure physical hell despite all the joy and excitement of being here. I wonder if it has anything to do with age.
Looking back, we could have helped ourselves out by consuming some melatonin supplements before going to bed, but we're already past the worst part. I'll have to get those for when my parents come visit though.

We spent six hours comparing the perks of two banks, Vancity and TD Canada Trust. Both of us really want to go with Vancity for its environmental orientation and care for the community, but when it comes down to it, it simply has less options for us. For example, Vancity does not offer any short-term high-interest GIC-s that TD Canada Trust does. That, however, is going to make a huge difference for us if we want our savings to grow. We're going to call Vancity one more time today to make absolutely sure that their options are indeed as limited as they said they were. It seems absurd, but given that it's a credit union, it may just not have the same options as a big evil bank.

We also submitted the CareCard application for ourselves. That was relatively painless - faxed it and mailed it. Now we wait for three months until provincial health care kicks in. By then we'll already have found jobs and probably have health care perks through them, so the application itself is somewhat of a waste of time, but it's something that they make you do as soon as you arrive in the province, so now it's done.

So we finally made it downtown! For lunch, we went to the above-mentioned Japanese restaurant on the super-gay Davie street. The downtown is strange - not quite what I imagined. Then again, I didn't imagine much. I was, however, expecting a concrete jungle with loads and loads of preppy people doing their business. Instead, there are a lot of trees and gardens, a delightful mix of the new and the old, and the whole area has a strange vibe to it that I cannot describe as anything else than, just, "Canadian". My brain is desperately trying to draw parallels to cities that I have been to it the past, to form some sort of an emotional reaction to the place. Vancouver is just a huge mishmash of everything though, so my brain just shuts down.

The gay district totally different from, say, the famous gay district Castro in San Francisco - the Vancouver one is way more grungy, with people shouting compliments to each other across the street, and less tourists. (That might have something to do with the season though.)

We got bus passes for a month, which cost us 73 dollars. Single bus passes go for 2.50 beginning January 1st though, so the pass is going to save us quite a bit of money.

Vancouver buses are annoying! Yes, they're electric and super clean and awesome and packed with all sorts of beautiful people from all over the globe, but they stop at every freaking corner! It takes you just as long to walk downtown, as the bus does. On a rainy day, it's quite the alternative though. Plus, on the bus you have the awesome bus driver, who always has something interesting to talk about, while everybody else is nodding.

Alright, time to start the day!

First steps

2008-01-01T11:03:00.000+02:00

This must be the most tame New Year's Eve that I have ever had.
We had grand plans of meeting up with a friend at Yaletown Pub and going to a house party south of us. However, after grocery shopping, yummy dinner and a couple of glasses of the triple fermentated La Fin Du Monde, we were totally annihilated. We passed out at around 7pm, and didn't wake up until 15 minutes before midnight.

We're now sitting around watching Canadian TV and debating whether we should go to the all-night keg party. We had the brilliant idea of cracking a bottle of sparkling wine and seeing how we feel after that, i.e. if we feel drained then it's better not to go out, and if not then we can go out at 4 am. So in essence, we're sabotaging ourselves into not being capable of going, as to avoid dealing with too many new stimuli.

The New Year's in Vancouver was interesting. We dragged ourselves to the living room, in hopes of seeing some fireworks on the skyline. We basically saw nothing - all the fireworks must have been shot to the sea. The TV was going extra nuts though, broadcasting live from some main square/venue with a billion people squealing and screaming like it was the end of the world. An awful emo band was playing to them and a Canadian version of Queen Latifah sang the New Year's Eve song after 2008 arrived.

I could go on and on about how ridiculous and bad American-influenced Canadian television programming is, but I think I'll leave it to some other time when I am more coherent. In short, it's basically like American TV on crack, because you have the same shows as in the States, but they don't really have any famous hosts, and everybody is trying way too hard to be like America. No offense or anything:) - a regular dose of The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park is guaranteed!

We also went grocery shopping on Commercial today. I hate to draw too many parallels because everything in Vancouver is wonderfully unique... But for or those of you who don't know, Commercial Drive is reminiscent of The Haight in San Francisco, but with gorgeous mountains on the background, and a wee bit more clean.

Here's what we bought:

12 brown eggs (freerange): 3.79
A pound of premium butter: 4.99
A pound of broccoli: 63 cents
2 litres of organic milk: 3.29
Loaf of whole wheat bread: 1.29
Yellow onions (1.36 kilos): 1.49
Heinz beans: 1.09
1 kilo of red grapes: 4.90
Four bananas: 64 cents
Potato, bacon and romano cheese dumplings (1 kg): 3.99
Fusilli pasta: 1.19
Double spice chai black tea: 2.99
Basil & tomato pasta sauce(700ml): 3.99
Siracha Chili Sauce (17oz / 482g): 3.29
A pound of cured bacon: 4.99
Lean ground beef (1.1 lbs): 2.75
2 litres of vanilla soy milk: 3.79

Here's a rough estimate of what the same grocery basket would have cost in Estonia ( may be a little biased toward my new wonderful life in Vancouver, so the cents may have been rounded up by a few, but do bear in mind that beginning Jan. 1st there's also a minimum 9% (!) price jump in Estonia). I've marked everything that seemed to be the same price or more expensive with an asterisk.

12 brown eggs: 1.48 - 2.32. Organic / freerange wouldn't be an easy everyday option.
A pound of premium butter: 4.40
2 litres of milk: 2.40, again, organic isn't really an option
*Loaf of whole wheat bread: 1.30
Yellow onions (1.36 kilos): 0.93, but they'd be a lot crappier looking than the beauties we got here.
*Heinz beans: 1.39
1 kilo of red grapes: 4.18-4.93
*Four bananas: 75 cents
*Potato, bacon and romano cheese dumplings (1 kg): 5.21, the packages in Estonia are much smaller and there's only the meat option.
*Fusilli pasta: 1.39
*Double spice chai black tea: 2.99 - not an option in Estonia, but much less favorable Lipton teas go for 1 - 2 dollars a pack.
*Basil & tomato pasta sauce(700ml): 5.11
*Siracha Chili Sauce (17oz / 482g): ? Not sure what it costs in the specialty section at Stockmann, but it's definitely more expensive than 3 dollars and something.
*A pound of cured bacon: 5.30 - 6.79
*Lean ground beef (1.1 lbs): 2.80 for the cheapest Rakvere mixed minced meat stuff, but for the real ground beef you pay more
2 litres of vanilla soy milk: 3.79 - no idea, because we never bought soy milk, because it was too expensive.

So all in all it looks like the cost of groceries here is about the same as in Estonia, + 15-20%. The extra percentage could be outweighed by the bulk purchasing options that are available (i.e. buy a case of Heinz beans for X cents a can, instead of over a dollar). Mind you, even with the extra percentage, you are definitely getting a lot more quality and health. So basically, we're just paying extra for the tax, and getting a lot more goodness. (And way better healthcare.)

Organic food isn't really an everyday option for most Estonians. For example, when buying eggs, your only option is to buy something from Tallegg, a company that is notoriously famous for having all of their birds get sick and gassed. Yet they remain in the market, because there is simply nobody else there to take care of the demand.
Although I have to admit that we barely looked into the options of buying eggs from the nearby market - perhaps it would have been cheaper there? (But then nobody really checks up on what is being sold on the markets in Estonia..)

I am very sure that I am being overly optimistic right now, but what can you do when everybody is so freakishly friendly!?

It's 2.03 a.m. on New Year's Day and I am blogging about the egg business in Estonia vs. Canada. Jet lag rocks.

Oh, and one more awesome thing. It turns out that our best contact / former buddy in Vancouver is living two blocks from us. The synchronicity party has begun.

Vancouver!

2008-01-01T00:36:00.002+02:00

We're finally in Vancouver!

We had a few adrenaline-packed arguments with an uptight security bloke at Heathrow, because he insisted that we check in our carry-on bag that had all of our most valuable fragile items in it. If any of you have ever been to Heathrow, then you know what it means to have only an hour to run from one end of the terminal to the other to catch the plane - it's basically like crossing a small city. It's mind boggling how this insane asylum sustains itself.

8.5 hours of cheesy blockbusters later we finally arrived in Vancouver. Prior to our descent, I was beginning to get really worried that I would just fall flat on my face in front of the immigration officials - the 20hr journey was really catching up with us. However, as soon as I saw the city from the sky, I instantly woke up. This magical city REALLY exists - complete with the fairytalesque mountains, the beautiful hilltops and bridges, and the sparkly downtown! WOW!

The first customs guard we came across was really REALLY nice to us, so it felt like everything was going to be okay, despite the fact that the ground was wobbling and I was seeing little gremlins all over the place. After picking up our luggage, I was directed to line up to speak with an immigration official. The lineup was really the most difficult part of the process - I felt like the ground was banking and I hadn't fastened my seatbelt. At one point we were approached by an uber friendly guy, who showered me with information + two really useful pamphlets containing info on EVERYTHING - from service Canada addresses to info on how to use a computer:) I bet even Canadian citizens aren't this properly equipped for their lives in the country.

Upon exiting the airport, we were greeted by an awesome taxi traffic guy, who hooked us up with a maxi cab in a matter of minutes. Before we knew it, we arrived at our temporary residence in Mt. Pleasant.

We already knew that our landlord was going to be a cool guy, but we didn't know whether he was really real. The man was really understanding of our poor, greasy condition, and provided us with only the bare basics, as to not overload us with information. (Not like everything in the apartment isn't self-explanatory anyway.)

After he left, we did the sketchy thing that we had planned on doing all along - ordered Domino's pizza. We managed to down a few slices and passed out shortly afterwards. We then woke up at 4am, wide awake, and had a few more slices of pizza, and proceeded to fall asleep again. Woke up again at 9am, and went to the Service Canada center, where I was once again greeted by ridiculously friendly people who gave me a social insurance number.

I gotta let Mike on the computer and buy myself my own laptop. We're too hooked to be able to share the same one. I'll write more later.

On our way

2008-01-01T00:36:00.001+02:00

I’m posting this from the Helsinki Vantaa airport, where we arrived after our turbulent 20 minute journey across the Finnish Bay. Every five minutes, there’s a kinky sounding female invitation “You want to have a ride?” coming from the crazy-looking pink toy car hinding behind the Christmas trees. Finnair is the official airline for Santa Claus, so the entire nearly empty waiting area is decorated with Santa sculptures and Christmas trees. In Finnair’s waiting lounge it is Christmas every day.

I hear the people at the money changing booth chatting to each other, and ponder about why Finnish sounds so god damn ugly. It’s barely any different from Estonian, but the pronunciation makes a world of difference. Estonian just sounds better. Finnish English is sexier than Estonian English though – gotta give them that. And why bother with a pretty language anyway – provided that you have the talent and brilliance that the Finns possess. Take the Finnish Complaints Choir for example, the Santa Claus parody by Rare Exports Inc., Lordi, or any of the other awesome things that come from Finland. The finns are awesome.

Leaving the hotel was rather interesting. Uniquestay’s shuttle driver happened to be a guy whose father was a former promoter of nationalism, so he also felt very passionate about politics. My father and he spent the entire ride talking about how things were almost better in the Soviet era, when it comes to social care and education. The conversation quickly digressed to blaming the politicians for everything, and talks about the “Estonian breed”, and how all the good genes have already left the country. Fortunately, we arrived at the airport before they got too depressing.

Final countdown

2007-12-29T23:02:00.000+02:00

I am sitting here at our hotel room, trying to come up with a few more notes to mark our move. It's 11pm at night, and we are once again repacking our bags, because a few more things were left out. Mike's sneakers have to stay behind. So do our sheets. Who needs sheets anyway? We're totally maxing out all of our allowances, and will be showing up at the airport with four more bags than we have arms to carry them - five to be checked in, my carry-on, Mike's carry-on, my camera and Mike's guitar. We've gotten all the airlines to communicate to the airport and to send us several confirmations that all of our baggage can indeed weigh 32 kilos per every item, so the check-in should be smooth, minus the emotional turmoil.

I think i have to climb to bed now, the Uniquestay uber-bed looks too comfy to be true. We are so drained from running around all day that I think we might just skip out on the travel fever part this time.

3...2....1

2007-12-27T00:06:00.001+02:00

The last couple of days have been an emotional roller coaster, with feelings ranging from technology-driven frustrations to massage-induced orgasmic bliss. On Christmas Eve, we formatted my parents' hardrive, reinstalled windows, lost a bunch of data, recovered the files, reinstalled windows, realized that we had installed the wrong version, and then proceeded to reinstall windows one more time. Yeah, I know, perfect timing. Everything worked out though, thanks to our awesomeness and intelligence.

We finished packing today! We also checked in with all the airlines to make sure that there won't be any problems once we get to the airport. It turns out that because we are taking two different airlines, there may be a problem with the weight of our luggage. Both airlines allow a 32 kilo maximum limit, but for some reason, 32 turns into 23 when one uses a combination of flights from both airlines. We could really use the 5 x 9 extra kilos, so we decided to get the airlines to talk to each other and to communicate the whole deal to the dudes at the check-in-counter at the airport. So far, we've managed to get one airline to tag our booking to allow the 32 kg limit, so that the other one can add their confirmation, so that the guy at the check-in counter won't have anything to say. Other than that, the airport is pretty much prepared to have us show up with a bunch of extra stuff, so everything else should go smoothly.

I am blown away by Mike's ability to funnel his stress/adrenaline into researching his gear. I spent my day freaking out while he found peace in drooling over the vintage Allen&Heath Quasi mixer that he's been thinking about getting as soon as he gets off the plane. And yet he managed to get everything done, and kept me sane in the process! Is this like a man/woman thing or am I missing something?

One more day in Kuressaare! Coincidentally, it is also the day of a pretty big "underground" event here in Kuressaare, so we'll get to say bye to all of our hip friends in a cool setting. After that, we're off to one more final night in Tallinn, after which we're only two short and one long plane ride away from our final destination - Vancouver!!!!!

Wow.

Strange daze

2007-12-22T08:49:00.000+02:00

The transitory period between moving out of our apartment and traveling to Canada has been magical, to say the least. We signed up for the ridiculously cheap spa package at the local "sanatorium", and I spent a solid chunk of the time at the water center tripping out on the sun reflecting off the water fountains. The jacuzzi was otherworldly, with the view of the glittering sea in the background. Everything seemed crisp, sharp, and dreamlike. I could literally feel my brain calming down, cortisol levels drop, and all the happy chemicals swirling around in my body. Ahh, the ultimate serotonin-allopregnanolone-oxytocin-etc smoothie.

Our new Canadian landlord sent us pictures of the view from the apartment's balcony. Needless to say, they were absolutely amazing. I can't wait to see them with my own eyes, and post some pictures of them during sunset.

I've had all sorts of weird dreams about different movie characters and newspaper celebrities interacting with me in my dreams. Last night I had to edit a movie for the Vancouver serial killer Robert Pickton. I told my boss not to take the job, but he responded that he's like any other customer and we couldn't possibly say no to him. The story later evolved into Pickton threatening to kill everybody at the studio if we charged him for the audio mastering and special effects.
Talk about work-induced PTSD...

Now officially homeless and unemployed!

2007-12-21T08:26:00.000+02:00

We're finally done with moving from Tallinn to our temporary residence in Kuressaare!
It's 8:30 in the morning and I am sitting here in my parents' house. Everything is dark gray except for the glowing lcd screen, and I have to pinch myself to believe that the worst part of this cross-continental move is already over. Things really sped up in the end and I'm really proud of us for managing everything, so here's a short recap.

Our last workday on Tuesday happened to also be our boss' 40th birthday, so the day was spent drinking copious amounts of wine and doing very little to get any actual work done. We arrived late because we were busy redesigning Mike's demo DVD cover and sending it off to the factory. I had to leave our apartment before Mike, and was greeted by all of my coworkers already in party hats and foggy eyed, jumping on me to hug me. Mind you, Mike and I were far from hug mode that morning, as we had spent the night packing and stressing out. After everything was done, our apartment's door also managed to be slammed shut so that the surrounding plaster cracked from floor to ceiling, and was threatening to fall off and leave an extremely nasty sight. That, of course, added the worry about the damage deposit to the list.

My coping mechanism, naturally, was to dig into the cake and pour myself a glass of wine. And then another one. And then another one. That really worked wonders. I did a few minor final tasks while Mike took care of some additional bidders and his own migration matters. We left work early for the final crunch in the evening, and had our friend George come over and pick up a bunch of crap that we didn't want to throw in the trash. We got to bed at about two or three, but were too pumped with adrenaline to sleep, so we got up uber early to take care of any extra things.

We made the mistake of going in to work after our last day, because we agreed to finishing up our contracts then. That, of course, involved tears and more hugs, and getting presents from the boss. The goodbye was extremely painful and awkward, and I barely managed to catch myself from breaking down and bawling in front of everybody. We basically ran out of there. Being comfortable and close with your coworkers definitely has its pros and cons.

We then ran off to the bank to take care of business, and proceeded to go to another bank branch as the lady at the counter didn't speak much English. There, we were greeted by a happy starry eyed girl who was really excited about our case, and fun to deal with. By the time we left the place, we were 20 minutes from meeting up with our landlord, which was spent taking the bus back, freaking out, passing another package on to a good friend, mopping the floors, and running out the trash. And oh joy, the landlord even gave us our deposit back, despite the crazy crack in the wall. I suspect that it may have had something to do with the fact that we had previously mentioned the tax agency that we were going to contact if she tried to keep our deposit with no reason. Is this blackmail? Or just self-defense? Hmm.

Anyhow, after sorting things out with the landlord, we magically arrived at the bus station ON TIME, lugged our suitcases on the bus, and plopped down in the first available seats. What a RUSH! I think we must have been quite the sight sitting there hyperventilating, expecting something else to happen, some other challenge to pop up. The thought of being DONE took at least 30 minutes to settle in, after which both of us were overcome by a wave of surreal serenity, and proceeded to pass out for the rest of our journey across the mainland.

Moving madness

2007-12-16T15:09:00.000+02:00

We're in the midst of the ultimate moving madness, accompanied by the madness preceding Christmas in all capitalist countries.

We've put most of our furniture up on an auction and got some decent bids on it. Our bed was picked up by a nice young couple and our cubbies went to a very nice fellow, who told us that we were a godsend as he really needed the storage space and couldn't afford to buy new furniture. We're still waiting to hear back from the people who won the auctions for our computer desks, but I have a feeling that those will get picked up soon as well. (Unlike our coat rack that went up to a ridiculous 55 dollars, even though it was originally bought for 20. The guy is simply ignoring my e-mails. Not all Estonians are great bidders.)

My parents helped us move by transporting most of our things to the town of Kuressaare for storage. We sent the last batch of random and unnecessary items off today, so we're left with only our computers, some pieces of furniture, and an inflatable mattress on the floor. The computer speakers are gone as well, so we're left with no means of audible entertainment, or television (as our 20-year old mute tv set is entirely dependent on the broken VCR we rigged up to funnel the audio from our cable connection, and the vcr used to be connected to the speaker system). That's alright though, TV's not that great this season. Of course, I'm only saying this because I want to prove to myself that I can live without all the wonderful and fun seasonal entertainment that's designed to trick you into thinking that all is still well with the world.

So the plan is to work until Tuesday, party it down with the coworkers Tuesday night, and then move to Saaremaa for the holidays on Wednesday.

Our "last Saturday in Tallinn" turned out to be a blast, even though we had to cut it down on the drinking, due to the utterly ingenious 9 a.m. moving date the next morning. It's kind of sad how I don't get to see my best friends until I threaten them that I will be leaving. Great times though, complete with beer, tequila, spicy food, moaning about how we all work too much, agreeing that we will all work less and enjoy life more, dancing to top eighties hits at a raunchy artists' club, dodging old people looking for sex, hugging, and breaking down in tears of sadness and joy. I love my friends.

I should cut this short because I have to play Santa for a while, before Mike gets back from geeking out with one of the Estonian gearslut friends.

Tallinn

2007-12-09T23:14:00.000+02:00

For those of you who want to know more about Tallinn, Estonia, here's an article that my friend Micha wrote a while back:
http://elementmoscow.ru/articles.php?i=166000&s=05-getaways
Enjoy!

The grass is...

2007-12-08T10:04:00.001+02:00

The Old Town of Tallinn is gorgeous before Christmas. On my way to the acupuncture therapist every other day, I wander through the cobblestoned streets, lit with fairytalesque lights. First there's the "Sweet-Lovin' Monk"'s wagon across McDonalds, where a medieval beauty offers me sweet almonds. Up the street, there's the traditional restaurant Olde Hansa, which has set up several stands for chocolate-covered apples, handicraft, and regularly has choirs singing songs in front of it. Then I enter the Christmas market, made up of numerous little huts selling sweaters, wooden spoons and funky hats. In the middle of it all, there's a Christmas tree, more voluptuous than any of the trees in the past. The whole square smells of sweet, spice, and glögg, and is overlooked by the buildings surrounding the main square, Raekoja Plats. There's a stage, where there's regular performances throughout the day, so I often walk past a group of schoolgirls huddled together in skimpy outfits, panicking about getting up on stage next. On my way out of the plats, I get offered sweet almonds by a girl who looks almost identical to the girl at the "Sweet-Lovin' Monk".

Mike took me out to the Chinese restaurant Golden Dragon yesterday. I must say that I was extremely impressed. This was certainly the best Chinese food that I've had in years, complete with a super-friendly waitress, who made us the yummiest orange-blossom tea. Afterwards, we went to the candlelit Weckengang cafe, voted the best cafe in town, where Mike had the world's best mocha.
It's not all about the yummy stuff that can be stuffed in one's face in Estonia. It's just that prior to our departure, I'm really beginning to understand how real and true things are out here.

Why is it that your home starts to seem more beautiful when you open the door to embark on an adventure? You're left standing in the doorway, wondering why you ever wanted to leave, and thinking about everything that you might be missing if you go. The buzz at your favorite pub at 4am in the morning, the chai in the dungeon cafe, the topless drunks at the club, your favorite bartender, the opera singer friend who is always on strike, the bluntness of the people... Am I going to miss the sense of relief when spring finally comes? Is the temperature gonna drop down to -35 this February? Is it going to be too easy where we're headed?

I'm entering the phase where I am beginning to dream about missing the plane. Last night, I had to re-schedule my flight, because I was distracted by Bruce Willis trying to seduce me. The weirdest part is that I don't like Bruce Willis in any sexual manner. Go figure, Freud.

Poke!

2007-12-03T12:02:00.000+02:00

So here's a short recap of the acupuncture experience so far.
The whole reason I went to see a doctor was basically because the GP said that my blood looks like I've either been bleeding out of my anus for a couple of weeks or like I've totally worked myself to pieces and the stress has taken its toll. Since I haven't been slipping in puddles of blood lately, I figured it must be the stress and took her advice on seeing an acupuncture therapist.

The first guy I saw works in the radio building on Gonsiori Street. The guy was old and scruffy, but seemed to know what's up. He sat me down, listened to me moan about my job, took my pulse, and got me to show my tongue. He then told me to lay down and take my socks off, and quickly inserted six needles, two in each wrist and one in each foot. So I laid there for about twenty minutes, staring into the fluorescent light bulbs in the ceiling, listening to the traffic jam outside, and the doctor's wheezing breath while he was reading "Eragon". Interestingly enough, none of it really bothered me, and the longer I laid there, the more relaxed I became. After about 20 minutes, the doc got up, took out the needles, put them in a jar and gave them to me to hang on to. I paid him 200 kroons and stumbled out of the door and made my way home.

Originally, I didn't make much of the first session. "Relaxing," I thought to myself, and decided that I would try to find a doctor with a slightly more professional-looking office. However, on my way home, I was swept over by a wave of semi-psychedelic calmness. It was so soothing that I felt like laying down in the snow. I met up with Mike to go pick up some groceries and felt like I had been injected with a bunch of horse sedatives, to the point of not being able to make a decision on which carton of juice to get. The giggly light feeling lasted all through the evening and into the next day.

On Friday morning, I went to see the president of the Estonian Acupuncture Association for the next session. Again, same deal and same effects (+ traditional Chinese music and needles made out of silver, not copper), but this time the "high" only lasted for about two or three hours. Looking back at it though, my boss may have killed my qi that day. Also, the weekend was spent packing and moving, which is always very fun.

As far as I can tell, acupuncture definitely has its benefits, even if it's only a placebo-run endorphine high following the needle insertion. Highly recommended!

At the Beach

2007-12-02T14:02:00.001+02:00

Walked to the Pirita beach today and took some pix of the birds there.

Panic!

2007-11-28T15:51:00.000+02:00

Yesterday, Tallinn experienced a rush among some of Estonia's Russian-speakers to sell local currency due to rumours of a devaluation. Hoards of Russians were storming the currency exchange booths, changing their kroons into euros. Upon some investigation, it turned out that it was a rumour started by the Notšnoi Dozor - an activist group of some Russophones, who also started the riots back in April. The KAPO (defense police) is currently in the process of pinpointing the person who started the rumour, as it is essentially an outside attack at Estonian economy.

From my perspective, all this incident really proves is how little Russia actually cares about the Russians in Estonia. The message from Kreml is that Estonians are bad and treating Russians poorly (no reference to the billions of integration programs and social support networks of course!), but now they are using the local Russians as pawns to screw with Estonian resources. It's not like the Estonians will be going to the "Dozor"'s website to check the daily polls and rushing to the nearest currency exchange kiosk... At this point, the repeated attempts to affect Estonian politics are just becoming more and more pathetic, creating bad press, and even hurting the Russians who the "Dozor" is set out to save. (So why even bother - do these people really have nothing better to do?)

On a slightly different note, I am going to attempt to relieve some of that nationally borne tension and stress by seeing an acupuncture therapist today. I'll let you know how it goes.

Estonia: the days of cheap thrills are over

2007-11-21T22:50:00.000+02:00

Estonia is quickly shedding its image as a cheap destination.
Read more about it in the Baltic Times.

It's nice that Estonia is getting its "reputation" back in terms of no longer being known for cheap booze and cheap whores. However, it's a little tough to keep up with it when your salary isn't going to change - because your boss is suffering from (a rather justified) paranoia that all of his savings will vanish in the next twelve months.

Perfect time for us to jet really - while the kroon is still interchangeable with other world currencies...

Home sweet home

2007-11-17T00:13:00.000+02:00

Yay! I've got some bad news, some bad news and some good news.
The first bad news is that even though our boss had made the necessary arrangements, we did NOT get into cinema Kosmos to see David Lynch speak (due to the 1000 people who had gotten there before us, d'oh!). Furthermore, we did NOT get our hands on the footage even though we were promised so. They did say that they would digitize the stuff asap, and get it online. According to a person who went, it was mostly "senile gibberish about transcendental meditation" which to me sounds amazingly interesting, so I can't wait to post the link.

The other bad news is that our Estonian landlady has turned out to be the ultimate bi*ch!!! We gave her a 1.5 month notice on leaving the apartment and will be signing an official 1 month notice with her tomorrow. The problem is that the apartment was originally empty and we had to buy all the beautifully color-coded blue and black furniture when we moved in. She now wants to keep some of the furniture, but refuses to pay anything but pennies for it. In addition, she complains about every little pattern in the wallpaper, claiming that it's damage that wasn't there before, in hopes of keeping the damage deposit (which is bullcrap!).
How about the 3 years of on-time payments and the fact that we had to deal with 1. washing up the previous tenants' vomit on the walls 2. putting up curtains 3. fixing the electrical outlets 4. various plumbing emergencies that she never showed up for 5. the COCKROACHES that appear in the summertime and were never taken care of until now.

Regarding the cockroaches btw - our landlady actually claims that the entire housing community is pissed off at us for complaining about the cockroaches, because now everybody has to pay a fee to get them taken care of. Apparently everybody is "talking about us" and thinks that "we should be living in the woods".

We're going to have a meeting with the landlady tomorrow. It's going to be very difficult. She is one of those people who talks and talks and talks and when you try to say something, she just drives over you with a bulldozer. Just looking at her makes me tremble with frustration and anger.

Man, am I looking forward to the Canadian mentality in these matters!
(And yes, I WILL sue her if she keeps our deposit, and report her to the police for the three years+ unpaid taxes that she has kept by coming in and retrieving the money in cash every month.. SO ANNOYING!)

Now to the good news.
We think that we have found an apartment in Vancouver! We spent about a month replying to various Craigslist ads and have finally found one that we think would be good.
(If any of you are ever planning on this btw, be prepared to receive a billion "I am an African king, my wife has the keys" scam replies, and report them to Craigslist immediately. Be sure to create an alternative (mailnull.com -yay!) account for spam protection!)
The apartment is in what they seem to call the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood, north of Broadway and Fraser. It's a very reasonable price for a very reasonable-seeming apartment, owned by a cool-seeming individual, and rather centrally located.
Should be livable and alright for a temporary option.

Yay!

The Russian invasion

2007-11-12T17:40:00.000+02:00

The New York Times released a very matter-of-fact article about Russian-Baltic relations that I thought you should read. The only comment that I would have is that this has been going on for a very long time now, as Russian influences have never really left ( - thanks to the powers in charge, and the Savisaar crew sucking up to Russia.)

Read the article here.

"Russian power is rapidly returning to the Baltics, only this time the weapons are oil and money, not tanks."
Well put. Not really news though.

First snow

2007-11-03T10:32:00.000+02:00

We woke up this morning to the sound of cars sloshing through the shallow river that is our street (due to the dents and canals that have formed on it through decades of neglect and poor drainage). I dragged my sorry carcass to the window expecting to see rain, but there it was - first snow. Yay. Here's the shots from our kitchen window.

BIG fish in a small pond

2007-11-02T19:11:00.001+02:00

Today was a good day. I survived an editing session with an annoying client (not as annoying as she used to be though, she can now actually tell the difference between VHS and FTP!), got loads of Kudo's for being an efficient editor, and found out that none other than DAVID LYNCH is going to be coming to Tallinn. Not only that, but he's going to be giving a lecture on “Film, Creativity and Consciousness” and he is accompanied by the world-renowned quantum physics expert John Hagelin, who is going to be analyzing the concept of creativity from the perspective of contemporary physics. I can't wait!
The cool thing is that Lynch was invited to Estonia by Veiko Õunpuu, an amazing director whose major debut "Sügisball" received an award at the Cannes Film Festival. The guy works two floors down from our office, so if we're lucky we might get on some sort of a list for the event.
Oh, and the Estonian band Bedwetters won the "new sound" award at the MTV European Music Awards. A lot of people complain about them, but I still think they're alright for an emo band consisting of 16-17-year olds. It's the first time for Estonia to have an MTV music award, so I'm very proud of them.

Homelessness in Vancouver...

2007-11-01T18:44:00.000+02:00

I found a few interesting pieces on Youtube, on Vancouver DTES 100 Block E. Hastings.

3, 2, 1, expatriation

2007-10-31T22:37:00.000+02:00

The time has come! The shiny pink seal in my passport says that I am now officially an IMMIGRANT. I was really hoping to get one of those fancy "Welcome to Canada" pamphlets I saw on another blog, but instead I only received a rather poorly designed slip for the Newcomer Information Centre. The Canadian introductory materials are in desperate need of a makeover. How about some fractals and psychedelic spirals on your "Welcome to Canada!" booklet? I went ahead and made sure at least the FennoUgrics are represented because the only white guy in the shot is obviously Slavic. Check out my freaky head shot next to all the other happy immigrants!:)

According to Expatica News 2004, Vancouver is one of the easiest cities in the world for expatriates to live in.
I never realized that I would be what is considered an expatriate. What an ugly word - sounds like an "ex-patriot". If anything I'll be a bigger patriot when I move - we haven't even left and I'm already seeing everything in blue, black and white. And it's all so beautiful and real, so why are we leaving to begin with?
I walk around eavesdropping, hoping to catch people's complaints about Estonia, the low wages, the weather, anything at all. I spend a large portion of my time at work surfing the web, in hopes of finding more evidence that Vancouver is going to be amazing. (Thanks in advance for any links you can send me! o.o )
Getting cold feet sucks.

ex·pa·tri·ate /v. ɛksˈpeɪtriˌeɪt or, especially Brit., -ˈpætri-; adj., n. ɛksˈpeɪtriɪt, -ˌeɪt or, especially Brit., -ˈpætri-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[v. eks-pey-tree-eyt or, especially Brit., -pa-tree-; adj., n. eks-pey-tree-it, -eyt or, especially Brit., -pa-tree-] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, -at·ed, -at·ing, adjective, noun
–verb (used with object)
1. to banish (a person) from his or her native country.
2. to withdraw (oneself) from residence in one's native country.
3. to withdraw (oneself) from allegiance to one's country.
–verb (used without object)
4. to become an expatriate: He expatriated from his homeland.
–adjective
5. expatriated; exiled.
–noun
6. an expatriated person: Many American writers were living as expatriates in Paris.
[Origin: 1760–70; < ML expatriātus (ptp. of expatriāre to banish), equiv. to ex- ex-1 + patri(a) native land + -ātus -ate1]

An ideal day

2007-10-17T15:26:00.001+03:00

Brain food

2007-10-16T16:57:00.000+03:00

Argh! My brain is going to explode!
A coworker of mine sent me this thing today. (Shows how busy with work we all are these days..) I've been staring at it on and off and I can't figure it out. Can somebody just tell me what this means?

Living costs in Vancouver

2007-10-15T15:30:00.000+03:00

It's amazing to what extent the prospect of moving can change one's perspective on life. I've derived a newfound fascination with Estonian weather. It no longer bothers me to watch our street turn into a mucky river on rainy days. I've actually developed a strange sense of compassion for the car drivers who regularly splash me with water as they speed through puddles.

I haven't been procrastinating this much since I was in college. I literally don't give a **** about my current job anymore and it's giving me a sense of freedom of taking things easy and keeping my stomach ulcers at bay. And hey, I can keep track of all my procrastinating endeavors now that I have a blog, which provides me with at least some sense of accomplishment.

Here's the up-to-date housing prices for Vancouver, published by Canada Immigrants, an immigration portal.

I recently came across a forum named Discover Vancouver, featuring an overwhelming number of offensive, racist and just plain stupid posts, such as "Canada sucks" and "Extra Foreskin". Among the spam there seem to be some legitimate posts by residents-to-be, who are generally quickly put down and discouraged from moving to Vancouver because of its high standard of living. What's up with all the hate-mongering? One can only suspect that the people posting are bitter individuals signing in from little hick-villes in the bear's ass, not Vancouver. (At least I'd like to think so!:) )

Anyhow, there was one reasonable post by somebody named nobody, giving an overview of the cost of everyday items.

cable - $30 for basic
Telephone - $30 basic
Internet - $30+
hydro - $30 + - more in the winter
parking - $25+ - some places you need a permit for street parking or parking garage spot
school - public is free but there are a lot of costs - supplies, fees for things etc. a few hundred $$$ a year
medical - i think its $120 or so for a family - per month
gas - $1.10 right now per Litre
transit - $3.75 or so for a 3 zone ticket - $2.25 for a one zone ticket - monthly passes are cheaper
car insurance - $1200 + up - depends on your coverage and driving record

food is fairly cheap - but varies from store to store
4L of milk is anywhere from $3.28 - $4.58

eating out at mcdonalds - $5 - $8 each

eating out at a casual place $8 - $20 each

fancy place $15 +

beer is $20 - $30 for a 12 pack at the liquor store

beer in a club is $3.50 - $8

Vancouver does seem to be expensive, but so was San Francisco. And so is Tallinn, if you're earning average wages.
As far as I can tell from the list, the only things that are definitely cheaper in Estonia are car ownership and beer. (Mind you, beer at a club can go up to the equivalent of $6.)
Medical costs are less if you're working. (I.e. you don't need to pay for the Medicare card.) Cable+internet+phone generally come in a package so you only pay about the equivalent of $30-40 dollars for all. (One thing that the Canadians seriously fail at is cell phone costs - but that's a whole other topic.)
But all in all, things don't seem TOO unreasonable.

I refuse to believe the people bound for Vancouver are doomed. I guess hope dies last, as they say here in Estonia.

The cleaning lady's Volga

2007-10-12T21:27:00.000+03:00

Our cleaning lady is a 74-year old lady, who loves to talk about theater and politics. Most of my coworkers think that she's a little kooky, but I generally try to keep up with her because some of the stuff she says is quite interesting. Yesterday I had a very intense conversation with her, and it got me thinking.

The topic of discussion was about the current state of Estonia and Estonian politics. She embarked on a long, bitter rant, in which she expressed her frustrations about the government in charge and the little money she is seeing despite her lifelong work and efforts. She seemed particularly passionate about the topic of kroon devaluation and inflation and drew parallels to the time when Estonia was switching over from the ruble to the kroon. Apparently, she had saved up a bunch of money, enough to afford a Volga, but then with the coming of the kroon, all of her savings were completely annihilated and she was left virtually broke.

As I asked my parents about the "devaluation", I found out that during the ruble->kroon process, people could only hand in up to 12500 rubles, to get 125 kroons (per person). It didn't matter how much money you had - after the currency exchange, you would only have 125 kroons. And for 125 kroons, you wouldn't be able to buy a Volga.

For those of you who don't know, during the last elections, the corrupt and decaying left-wing Central party was replaced by the ultra-radical, center-right Reform party. Since elections, their activity has been focused on rapid change and growth. Their first controversial move involved removing a Russian war memorial, which sparked deadly street riots in Tallinn.

Here's to give you an idea of what was going on here:

After the removal of the memorial, our prime minister's ratings were at their highest ever. In fact, the majority of Estonians seemed to approve of the Reform party's mission. They even got me - who could resist their promise of lowered taxes, longer parental leaves, higher maternal wages (100% for 1.5 years!)! Well, the retired people could.

Out of all the people here, I feel the most pity for the retired people. It hurts to think about what they are dealing with, and to see 70-80-year old people brooming the streets and doing low-end jobs. The reason for that is that the retired people have nowhere near enough money to pay for quality living and food, so they have to work. And so we have a 74-year old cleaning lady coming in every Tuesday and Thursday so that she can afford a theater visit every now and then. She does not believe that moving the statue was the right thing and wishes that the problem would have been solved more discreetly.

The economic situation in Estonia isn't looking good.
Annual inflation in Estonia reached 5.7 percent in August, with an even loftier rise coming up next year, due to a 23% increase in the cost of electricity. The price of butter recently jumped from 11 kroons to 18 kroons. Why? The local butter producers decided that they weren't making enough profit, pulled their butter products from the market and started exporting it. As consumers freaked out, they immediately brought the product back and gave it a new price tag.

In Estonia, the average retirement pension is 3769 kroons as of June 2007. That is equivalent to 240 euros. Mind you, it's a 20 % increase compared to 2006, but it's still a very small amount of money in a country where you pay over an euro for 200 grams of butter and the cheapest bachelor's apartment rents out for 300 euros.

The average monthly pension in Finland was 1094 euros in 1995. However, anybody who will take a boat from Tallinn to Helsinki will notice that the prices aren't that different. Things might be a little more expensive, but the prices of basic food items are the same. Based on what I hear, Tallinn's real estate prices have caught up as well. So how are Estonian retired people even surviving?

Some of them have subsidized housing, I guess. My parents own their own house and run a family business. The healthy ones work.

But man, this system really sucks! No wonder so many retired people are completely depressed and devastated. If I had my eye on one of those swanky Volgas and all my savings were traded in for 125 miserable kroons (the equivalent of, say, 10 beers or a kilo of meat these days)!!!??? With the current inflation rates, it doesn't look like my future is going to be any brighter either...

I'm glad we have the opportunity to step outside this society for a while, but this whole situation is quite upsetting. How about learning from others, coming to conclusions, caring for anything other than your fancy car sitting in front of the Parliament?

Final steps

2007-10-12T11:23:00.001+03:00

I've thought about sitting down and writing about the Canadian immigration process for months, so here's me getting around to it!

Lucky for us, I am migrating to Canada on the basis of family ties (i.e. my dearest Canadian hubby .miQ), so the painful waiting part of the application process barely took four months for us. A number of people on different forums report that Americans with no family ties have to wait for up to 36 months before they are able to start their new and improved Canadian lives. It really makes you wonder what they could possibly do with the forms and family pictures for three years...

The whole process began in the beginning of May. Back then we were naive and silly, thinking that we would be able to fly through it in a matter of weeks. Looking at the online manuals, we quickly realized that it was not going to be a cheap or quick process. My case was further complicated by the fact that I had spent a significant portion of time studying in the States, which meant that I needed to get FBI clearance from the U.S. before applying for Canadian permanent residence.

Hence, the first step for me was to find out how to acquire the FBI clearance all the way from Tallinn, Estonia. I talked to a polite fellow at the U.S. embassy who didn't sound too interested in Canadian immigration matters, but sort of pointed me in the right direction. It turned out that I have to submit an FBI Identification Record Request, along with my fingerprints and a payment. Lucky for me, I possess an international credit card. Even luckier for me, the Estonian police were extremely helpful in helping me track down the Estonian fingerprinters, even though it was the first time that they had a random civilian take their fingerprints for the purposes of FBI clearance. (Apparently they had done it for a few criminal individuals, but they had always been escorted by U.S. embassy reps, etc.)

The people at the forensic police department were surprisingly understanding and told me to come in so a lab technician could take my prints. So I took the cab to the south end of Tallinn, to the CSI, Tallinn. I was greeted by a fingerprinting specialist, who led me to a classroom filled with student cops and started dabbing my fingers with ink while they continued their lecture on international crime databases. She was very thorough - after we were done with the first sheet, she got me to wash my hands and put on some moisturizer, so that the prints would come out better on the second, extra sheet (just in case). And because they had never offered this kind of service to civilians off the street, the whole process cost me nothing!
On my way back to work, I stopped at the Tallinn Crime Registry, where I dropped off my application for a copy of my Estonian criminal record (or, rather, lack thereof). The lady who greeted me was quite stern, but after looking me up in her system, she seemed to realize that I am not the usual convict and gave me an inkling of a smile.

That is the one thing I love about Estonians. They may look suicidal, but once they smile, it's the most rewarding smile on the planet and the sun comes out from behind the clouds.

The next step was to get all the official paperwork officially translated, notarized, legalized and validated at the Canadian embassy. I tracked down Luisa Tõlkebüroo, who offered the translating and notarizing service as a package, and managed the translation in a week. Cost: about 1500 kroons. We then proceeded to drop the paperwork off at the Estonian Foreign Ministry, where they charged us 5 x 230 kroons for putting their stamp on each paper. Now, that's all fine and dandy, we're talking about a professional translator doing the job and the big important Foreign Ministry giving their stamp of approval for a couple of hundred kroons.
However, we then realized that we ALSO have to get every piece of paper approved at the Canadian Embassy, for 500 kroons a document, so a total of 2500 kroons.

So, let me see if I got this straight. I've already gotten my documents translated by a professional translator and approved by a legal institution. I've passed the airport-grade security checks to score some signatures at the foreign ministry. But now I also have to pay a ton of money to have the Estonians at the Canadian embassy give me one times five more stamps?
If anyone can explain any rationale behind this requirement, I'd be utterly grateful, because to me it seems like one additional way to squeeze the applicant for his/her money.

It must be also said that the Canadian embassy in Tallinn provided us with no actual support whatsoever. They don't even seem to have any actual Canadians working at the embassy! The only response we got from them was "Contact Poland, we have no idea". Now, I do realize that on their website it says that they are only the embassy and they do not deal with immigration matters, but what do they do there then, besides functioning as a postal office (forwarding everything to Poland) and enjoying the prime view?

Having gotten all the paperwork legalized, we then spent hours and hours going over the instruction manuals provided on the CIC website. Since the manuals were partially useless, we then spent a few weeks bugging the Polish Embassy (responsible for visa and immigration matters in Eastern Europe) with all sorts of questions, until they politely told us that we would probably be fine.

I then scheduled a time with the licenced medical practicioner in Tallinn and went in for my medical checkup. I was so nervous that my blood pressure was 130/80, which is pretty high for me, but the doctor said it would be fine. Paid him a 1000 kroons for 10 minutes of his time, Xray, and a few blood tests.

We then FedExed all the paperwork to the Case Processing Center in Mississauga, ON where it arrived on the 19th of June.

In July, we got a letter from the Mississauga office, confirming that Mike's sponsorhip application had been approved, which meant that our grounds for immigration had been officially validated. Yay! The next letter said that our paperwork had been received in Poland for the rest of the processing and that we shouldn't bug the officials until a given date in October. It was quite relief to know that everything had made it across the ocean and back in one piece. (For the FBI paperwork it was the fourth time crossing the ocean!:) )

There was a major setback in August, when we were informed by the Polish office that their designated medical practicioner had failed to provide them with my HIV test results. Upon inquiring about it from the doctor, it turned out that he had simply forgotten to take my blood test for that purpose. The timing of the notice was flawless as well - we got the letter the night before leaving for our anniversary trip to Paris, France, so we got to spend our time in Paris worrying about our application being on hold... *sigh

I can deal with bureaucracy, but I can't deal with human error. This was by far the most frustrating part of the application process - knowing that you had done everything right and somebody else screwed up, postponing your entire life.
Quite the lesson in patience and human compassion. (Especially when I called the doctor and he actually thought I was immigrating to Australia - wow!)

I went in to give blood as soon as I got back from my trip to Paris. In the online instructions for medical practicioners it says that they are required to brief the patient on the meaning and the potential implications of the HIV test. The instructions also say that the patient should come in in person to get the results and be told what the results mean. In Estonia, things seem to be different. I went in, never saw the doctor, paid MORE money, gave blood, and was told that I could call for the results if I wanted. (Quite different from the procedure in the States, where they release no info whatsoever over the phone...)

Anyhow, on the 4th of October we opened our mailbox and found a yellow envelope. Opened it with shaky hands and rushed to the phone to tell my parents the good news. In the letter I was instructed to bring in my passport to the Canadian embassy in Tallinn, so that they can mail it to Poland. It also wished me a "happy and successful future life in Canada". Cute.

I got up early on the morning of October 8th and climbed all the way up to the embassy, just to find out that the Estonians at the Canadian embassy were taking a day off to celebrate Canadian thanksgiving. The English sign on the door said that they would be closed on the 8th, and the French and Estonian notes said that they would be closed on the 3rd. Go figure. (And yeah, I had to climb back up there during my lunch break on the next day.)

So here we are, five months later, about 15000 kroons poorer, excited, scared, happy. I'm supposed to receive my passport with my "stamp of approval" (and the application for my social insurance number) on October 23rd. We even bought one-way plane tickets and will be arriving in Vancouver on December 30th. Pretty cool eh?