It's official. We both have jobs. Karen has decided to take the job offered to her by the place she was temping at. The work involves project management stuff and is for a company that trains people in Microsoft applications  (web management kinda stuff). Thankfully she's getting paid better than when she was working as a temp but it seems like she'll be working quite a bit harder too. 

Tom got the job at the clothes shop however his day starts at 7am and his salary is equivalent to what a 14 year old would get paid working at KFC in Australia. The 40% staff discount does soften the blow a little but that's still pretty freakin early. Thanks so much to all the people who provided references for us.

The other day we walked to the beach which is near the University of British Columbia. We our left our apartment at noon and arrived just as the sun was setting. It was a long walk but a beautiful day with a stop at the cupcake shop on the way. 

And by the way, I got the Nova stuff wrong. Track Team's on from 7-8pm every Saturday. Check www.nova919.com.au under shows if you don't believe me.

We've continued to enjoy catching buses to new places in Vancouver but the enjoyment is probably associated more with the new places than with the bus trips. We checked out a real nice national park with waterfalls and inappropriately dressed Japanese tourists and bear proof bins. It was on the northern shore of the city so we had to catch the sea bus there (although the name (like the 'sky' bus that actually travels underground) was a little misleading since it was actually a boat. I guess sea boat sounds kinda lame.)

We also went to check out the biggest mall here. That was OK. Same-old really- mallrats, the internationally standard, independent-of-the-outside-weather mall climate, mall food, mall shops. One thing that was sweet was that there's a big skatepark right next to it complete with a full pipe. Sick mate!

Karen is currently working as a temp at a web marketing/training group downtown. She's only filling in for a week through the temping place but by 2pm on her first day they had offered her a 3+month job. A relief to have some cash coming in finally especially since Tom just found his dream jacket which just happens to be G-$tar. Tom's still waiting to hear back re his job application but rest assured, referees have been contacted.

Tom's also been working on a lot of music stuff having set up a studio at home. Track Team now has a weekly slot on Nova 919- Saturday 10-11pm (and replayed the following Friday from 7-8pm). Tune in to hear our new stuff. He also found a shop with a DJ setup in it and the manager has said that he should feel free to come in and DJ anytime. 

That's enough otherwise people will get bored and not want to read this anymore. 

Oh, and I've made it so that anyone can comment now- ie you don't have to sign up to leave a comment.

Well it rained for 8 days straight but now we've got sunshine for a week which will be sweet. It's given us a good chance to do some more exploring. We found the worlds best cup cake store much to Karen's delight. Tom bought a MIDI controller so he can DJ at home now. 

And now to the job scene. with all the rain and procrastination getting boring, Tom finally wrote a resume. Today he went in to his dream clothing/shoe/homeware/book store (yes they're all in the one shop), applied and got an interview all in the same day. Karen has been working hard on applications and has an interview with a temping agency tomorrow (although given her little note book of questions, it'll probably be more like Karen interviewing the person from the temping agency).

Fingers crossed...

Well after 63 days of travelling around north America, we have at last found a place to live for the next 5 months. 

It's an apartment in a district just south of the Vancouver CBD. The area is called Soma which is an abbreviated form of South Main. The suburb is called Mount Pleasant and so far it's lived up to it's name. We're on the 5th floor of a building that's less than a year old. The owner moves 'south' every winter so it's kinda like house sitting but a hell of a lot more expensive. Still the price relative to other places is really good and we've got two bedrooms and two bathrooms, washer and dryer, internet, cable- pretty much everything we need and some things we don't. 

We're 2 minutes walk in the rain from the supermarket (Buy-Low- classic) and a whole heap of other shops and restaurants. 15 mins by bus to the city makes this a nice break from the "excuse me sir will you please buy me a hotdog" streets of downtown Vancouver. We're pretty stoked to be here.

Once we sort out paperwork and a bank account and a resume (in Tom's case) we'll be ready to begin working.

We're finally in Vancouver which is a relief. It's a beautiful place with an autumn palette that's redefined our ideas of orange and yellow. There's lots of public parks to walk in and add to that the harbors and mountains and it seems like a very livable city. 

So far it's been pretty sunny but we're bracing ourselves for a long and wet winter. Apparently it's not unusual to have 20 consecutive days of rain. Given this, we've made it a priority to find somewhere to live (other than in a hostel room directly above Vancouver's busiest nightclub). We're pretty keen to be living in the CBD as there's quite a bit of work around but of course CDB+living=$$$. 

As far as work goes, Tom is trying to work out whether he wants to work at American Apparel (cool factor) or Urban Outfitter (for staff discount on clothes and shoes) and Karen is going to a job fair tomorrow armed with an impressive resume not to mention her charm, good looks and make-you-feel-really-comfortable-really-quickly interpersonal skills.

Everything's gonna be fine- it might just take a bit of time.

Again it's been a while between posts. Sorry to any daily-checkers out there. 

This time last week we were in New York where we met up with Brad and Sam from Adelaide. Nice to chill with a few Aussies. We introduced them to our walking based approach to seeing US cities. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (long but worth it), caught the Staten Island Ferry with 1000 other people (out past the Statue of Liberty although we already saw the real one in Las Vegas), we went to the MoMA (good but it'd want to be for US$20), ate a hamburger from a guy on the street (best burger we've ever had), went to Ground Zero (really just a big building site) and we came out $100 better off due to a miscalculation by the ridiculously disorganised hostel we were staying at.

On the Sunday we all headed up to Toronto where Brad's living at the moment (Karen Tom and Sam on a 12 hour train ride, Brad on a plane). Brad's place is pimpin. He showed us all a good time- we even spent Karen's Birthday at a local family's house in the burbs. They layed on an awesome spread and we had cake and pumpkin pie (as it was also Canadian thanksgiving) and sang 'Happy Birthday dear Karen".

Now we're about to fly out to Vancouver to find work and a place to live. Toronto is great but the winter here sounds like it's pretty brutal. 

On Saturday we went to Six Flags which is a massive rollercoaster theme park. It probably had at least a dozen huge rollercoasters. Tom's stomach let him know that five was enough and so he spent the rest of the time people watching. Karen, John and Jenni kept thrill seeking until the sun went down. Goodtimes and bad food (delicious but unhealthy).

Tom skated another awesome US park on Sunday and then it was time to pack before one last dinner and some cocktails with Jenni and John. 

Now we're in New York City. Today, in true Karen and Tom style, we walked from our hostel on West 102nd to Times Square and back again- about 120 blocks all up. A great way to see the city. It's a very vibrant city- safe, friendly, busy and unimaginably big. There's lots of mums and kids, lots of small dogs, lots of fresh food and lots of things to see and do. Karen is excited by the concept of 'suggested donations' as an admission price for museums. Tom is excited about the MoMA.

We like this place a lot.