Over a month now in a place where the international airport is just a 3 letter code -- YVR!
Have been used to names to airports such as, Stanfield, Trudeau, Pearson, etc. But in British Columbia, it is only YVR.
Had been under the impression that I was moving to a big city and one that would be technologically advanced than YHZ or should I say Halifax.
Well, it is and it is not. In Vancouver Public Library (VPL), it is still old school. For fiction books they do not use dewey decimal or a good classification system. So if you have to find a book by Wodhouse, you have to go to W and search through all books by reading the author name on the spine of the book (if it is there).While in Halifax, the task was simpler. You went to W and then just followed on to WOD. Also, when you checkout books, here you have to pull out your library card, they do not yet have it on a keychain fob. Also, you are supposed to enter the 4 digit pin for the checkout. But what takes the cake is the method of putting one book at a time under the reader.
Haligonians are able to do this simply by dropping the bunch of books under the reader and they all get scanned and checked out! You go to change your driver's license, again the same thing. There are big line-ups as there is only one person expediting and giving you the number. In Halifax this process is sort of automated. One has to take the number himself/herself choosing one of the options for which you are there. The agent at the window does the other bit and advises you. Moreover, a license is issued immediately, unlike the temporary paper one that is given out at ICBC offices.
It has come as a shock to me that the provincial health care is not free and one has to pay $75 dollars a month to be enrolled. What happens to those like me who don't have a job? I hope I am wrong and hope the provincial health care is free. I know we are close to the US to maybe imitate them and have to pay for the health care, but we do not earn in US dollars. And, why is the Health Card called a Service Card?
One plus side noticed so far is the automated Sky Trains or the public transit trains. They do not have a driver! But there seems to absolutely no planning gone in when they were planned. There are 3 lines, Canada Line, Expo Line and Millenium Line. The funny thing is that they do not cross or overlap each other at all unless in a couple of stations in the town of Burnaby. Canada Line, in fact, has not a single station that one can transfer to another line.
And the cyclists in the city, that would be another post by itself. A spoilt bunch of brother/sisterhood, that neither has to have license nor insurance. But yes they do have separate lanes and traffic lights etc but all of them seem to be exempt from following road rules. You will never find them taking a stop sign, you will always find them zooming and not caring even for pedestrians. Despite marked lanes they would still be riding on sidewalks and not to mention the space they occupy in sky trains. In rush hour, there is no room for people but you will find cyclists in the trains occupying a lot of space and being a general hindrance to other passengers.
More to come about the beauty of the place and the places that I have visited so far.
Have been used to names to airports such as, Stanfield, Trudeau, Pearson, etc. But in British Columbia, it is only YVR.
Had been under the impression that I was moving to a big city and one that would be technologically advanced than YHZ or should I say Halifax.
Well, it is and it is not. In Vancouver Public Library (VPL), it is still old school. For fiction books they do not use dewey decimal or a good classification system. So if you have to find a book by Wodhouse, you have to go to W and search through all books by reading the author name on the spine of the book (if it is there).While in Halifax, the task was simpler. You went to W and then just followed on to WOD. Also, when you checkout books, here you have to pull out your library card, they do not yet have it on a keychain fob. Also, you are supposed to enter the 4 digit pin for the checkout. But what takes the cake is the method of putting one book at a time under the reader.
Haligonians are able to do this simply by dropping the bunch of books under the reader and they all get scanned and checked out! You go to change your driver's license, again the same thing. There are big line-ups as there is only one person expediting and giving you the number. In Halifax this process is sort of automated. One has to take the number himself/herself choosing one of the options for which you are there. The agent at the window does the other bit and advises you. Moreover, a license is issued immediately, unlike the temporary paper one that is given out at ICBC offices.
It has come as a shock to me that the provincial health care is not free and one has to pay $75 dollars a month to be enrolled. What happens to those like me who don't have a job? I hope I am wrong and hope the provincial health care is free. I know we are close to the US to maybe imitate them and have to pay for the health care, but we do not earn in US dollars. And, why is the Health Card called a Service Card?
One plus side noticed so far is the automated Sky Trains or the public transit trains. They do not have a driver! But there seems to absolutely no planning gone in when they were planned. There are 3 lines, Canada Line, Expo Line and Millenium Line. The funny thing is that they do not cross or overlap each other at all unless in a couple of stations in the town of Burnaby. Canada Line, in fact, has not a single station that one can transfer to another line.
And the cyclists in the city, that would be another post by itself. A spoilt bunch of brother/sisterhood, that neither has to have license nor insurance. But yes they do have separate lanes and traffic lights etc but all of them seem to be exempt from following road rules. You will never find them taking a stop sign, you will always find them zooming and not caring even for pedestrians. Despite marked lanes they would still be riding on sidewalks and not to mention the space they occupy in sky trains. In rush hour, there is no room for people but you will find cyclists in the trains occupying a lot of space and being a general hindrance to other passengers.
More to come about the beauty of the place and the places that I have visited so far.
