Walking:

• Ok hear me out…I used to have to walk everywhere and got my steps in during my daily routines. But since I don’t live along any Skytrain routes, and busses come around once every hour at night, so I need to drive everywhere and have to make plans to get my steps in.

Traffic/Driving:

• So as stated above…I need to drive everywhere. After being stuck in traffic for 4 years driving to UBC, I had developed a disdain for driving. Currently, since I live south of the George Massey Tunnel, I’m constantly stuck in traffic going Northbound during rush hours. And rush hour means anytime between 2:30pm to 6:30pm Northbound. Normally it would take me 20-30 minutes to drive from home to Bridgeport Station to catch the Skytrain downtown, but during event days like a Canucks playoffs game, the day before a long weekend or random traffic accidents, I’ve been stuck in traffic for 1:45 just waiting to get through the Massey Tunnel!  

Safety:

• When I asked ChatGPT to generate 10 reasons why Vancouver is the best, one of the reasons it produced was “safety”. Now, while i agree 99% of the time, I have been caught in some instances where I didn’t feel that comfortable. For instance, I was sitting in my car at the park’n’ride at Bridgeport Station waiting for someone, a drug addict opened my trunk while I was sitting in my car! When I confronted him, he said he didn’t mean to, even though he had been walking behind every car trying to pop open all the trunks. He put his hands up, one hand holding a lighter and the other, a crack/meth pipe (I can’t differentiate them). After I confronted him, he just wobbled away. Also, maybe because when I grew up they hadn’t invented Social Media yet, but I can’t remember reading about this many shootings or stabbings on the news back then. 

Prices:

• These prices out there are insane! I’m not even talking about comparing the prices from when I used to live here, but to prices currently in other locations around the world. I was messaging with a friend the other day, he was eating at McDonald’s with his daughter. We compared prices for our meals on the McDonald’s app. The conclusion was…a single Quarter Pounder meal in Vancouver costs as much as his and his daughter’s lunch together! And that’s just fast food, other things are equally expensive here!

Late Night:

• The entire definition of “Late Night” is so different from Asia. When I first returned I searched for “Late Night” places that were not bars or clubs, just a place where I can chill with my friends and just catch up. The results were shocking, to say the least. The search results and recommendations came up, “Closes at 8pm, Closes at 9pm, Closes at 11pm”. Being in Asia for so long, I took Late Night for granted, since most people don’t get home until 8pm for dinner, places to chill after dinner were open until 1am or 2am daily, and they would not be hard to find. I remember reading that it’s because in Asia, our homes were smaller than North America so we tend to go out more, but it would just be cool to have a few more non-alcoholic or non-BBT options here.

Job Market:

• Yes the job market is crap worldwide, but a layer of the job market that really pisses me off is the so-called “Canadian Experience” that companies here require. Through some networking and volunteering events, I’ve met immigrants with 8+ years of experience in their home countries or PHD’s in Engineering with 15+ years of experience unable to find jobs in their respective fields because they don’t have “Canadian Experience”. For myself, It took nearly 8 months and 400 applications before landing a job. Thanks to some advice, I had started to look for remote opportunities at American firms and not just local companies before landing my first fully remote job. I don’t understand why “Canadian Experience” matters? In Asia, this isn’t even a talking point when we hire people.