Roof above your head
My home my castle as we say in Slovak. Searching for accommodation was for me from the beginning something I really wasn’t looking forward to. It is one of those things that brings you no joy, a lot of stress and you have to do it. Well, you don’t have to but you probably get soaked in rain and freeze on a street. So with no other choice I started looking!
Move In, Move Out, Move In
If you have read the previous articles you probably know that I wasn’t really planning a lot in advance. I booked an Airbnb for 6 nights. You wouldn’t believe how fast 6 days can pass. Ok, you probably would, but I was still in a denial of reality mode and with all the errands to make (work permit, social insurance number, bank account, sightseeing, yoga classes, coffees, etc.) the time just flew! So by day 4 I realised I should probably start to think about this too.
I asked my first host if I could stay longer, but all their rooms were already booked out.”But you can sleep on the couch for the weekend.” Great, thanks, at least I will not be homeless.
I took my laptop to a café, ordered a huge North American style coffee, asked for Wi-Fi password, searched for places and booked one of them. Waiting for the booking confirmation,nervously sipping the coffee and WhatsApp calling with home in the meantime. I didn’t want to get into a similar situation again so I booked for a fortnight.
Next day I can move in. Yey!
Yellow suitcase explores the Vancouver’s bus lines system
Check out in the morning, but I had an interview during the day with an employment agency scheduled and check in at the new place was in the late afternoon. Luckily I could leave my stuff with my first host until the afternoon.
It is time to find out how to get to my new place! I check the miraculous public transport app and what on the map looked like quite a short distance during the booking turned into a 45 minute transit with taking 2 buses.
Allow me a little side note here. This is something that still happens to me. I check the map, everything looks so close, then I check the directions and the outcome is usually twice as long as I expected. I don’t know why. One reason might be because I don’t know the area well yet, the whole area is very densely built-up and I like to zoom out to get a better idea of the location of the places.Another thing is, whenever you have to go somewhere which is not connected by the train line but buses, it takes forever (expect more on this in another post).
Full of energy, I set off to my “explore the public transport system the hard way” journey with all the things I own here with me. This is mainly my huge canary bird coloured, i.e. yellow, suitcase (the idea behind getting this unconventional colour comes from my dad who reckoned that no one would want to steal a suitcase of such colour). Vancouver, as any other major city struggles with traffic and I just got into a rush hour. Combine that with traffic lights and bus stops literally at every corner and what you get is a roller coaster ride for free and unwillingly getting intimate with other fellow passengers.
Of course, I missed the bus stop where I had to change, but since (as mentioned above) the bus stops are super frequent, this wasn’t a big deal. I made it to the new apartment. I entered and a strong smell of curry hit my nostrils. I got hungry…
I am given a tour and suddenly I hear my new host saying: here is the fridge and microwave which you can use, but please do not use the stove or oven. Me, jobless at that time and in the most expensive city in Canada stuck in an apartment for 2 weeks without being able to cook. I check the Airbnb posting of this apartment and yes, it is clearly stated there. Yeah, learning by doing, right?
But I have to say, that my host was super nice, invited me for dinner, made me a chai masala tea, gave me some other special dessert made for the Diwali festival.
Sometimes you need a bit of luck
I have read a lot about how difficult it is to find a furnished place to rent in Vancouver and how expensive it might get. And to be cautious when responding to ads on Craigslist as there are a lot of scams apparently. Great information for boosting your motivation.
But I got lucky quite quickly. I’ve found a web page called Easy Roommate where I’ve signed up, posted an ad that I am looking for room and what my maximum budget was and I also added some personal info about myself. Right on the second day I got a message from my current landlady that they are looking for tenants in one room. The house looked amazing, the price was good, close to the trains to get to city centre and most importantly enough space for a yoga mat! She was nice and we ended chatting for about 20 minutes after she showed me the place.
I had another viewing of a cheaper place in Downtown scheduled for the next day, so I decided to give it a shot. The location was great and it was a bit cheaper but that was about it. The place was a mess, it would be a shared room (with bunk beds) plus 2 more other people in the apartment and the woman who showed me the place(maybe a landlady, not sure) was not particularly likable.
The thing was,that it was almost the end of the month. Usually you can move in to the first day of month. I did not want to spend another month in yet another Airbnb who knows where. So I decided not to push my luck here and take previous place.Since then I’ve seen other free room postings and I still think I’ve got a good deal with a good location and connections (yes, after the bus experience I came to conclusion that being close to trains is vital!).
So here I am in my place, writing this article, ready to hop on my yoga mat in the big living room and then I am going to cook dinner 🙂