Looking Up

So things have improved slightly since my last post.

My roommate is still one of the messiest people I have ever encountered in my life and that will be an ongoing battle, but I'll survive. (Unless I get ill because she leaves raw meat out on the counter for days).

My shower has been fixed and it makes a world of a difference. The shower wasn't draining properly so all my showers were a race against potentially flooding the bathroom, which meant either getting out with shampoo still in my hair or turning the water off for 5 minutes while you stood there freezing waiting for the water to drain slightly so that you could finish showering. This being resolved has been a massive improvement.

I also have started to make friends. There is one girl in my program named Grace who also lives in my building and she is very nice. Last night she came over for a few hours and we studied together. My roommate doesn't make great company, so it's nice to have someone around.

I am however very stressed. There is so much homework and readings and I'm constantly busy with school. This week I had 4 assignments due, plus tons of readings. It's interesting stuff, but it's just so much work.

I'm still kind of homesick, but things are getting better and I don't want to drop out and run back to Winnipeg immediately.

Vancouver

Greetings from Vancouver! I have moved in to my room and things are interesting to say the least.

I am living in Downtown Vancouver so I am far away from a typical University campus and instead surrounded by drunk/high people who like to scream through the night. If you travel a few blocks east of where I live you are faced with the homeless population of Vancouver just lining the streets. It's incredibly sad and adds to the feeling that danger surrounds me. I don't feel safe being outside once the sun starts to set.

I have a room mate who seems very nice. Her English isn't great so we haven't had many conversations and when we have spoken it's been quick and with few words.
We do seem to have very different ideas of what is an acceptable cleanliness standard. She is very messy. Today I washed the floors 3 times, first with the mop, then with a sponge on my hands and knees, and then again with the mop. The floors were disgusting and sticky. This is also after I had already cleaned the floors when I was moving in just a little over a week ago.

I am enjoying my classes and my classmates all seem to be really nice and I've started to kind of make friends, so that's awesome.

One thing that I was unprepared for was the level of homesickness that I am experiencing. I've gotten very busy with classes already, but even with homework to distract me I still really miss home. It doesn't help that I don't get to go home very often. I'll be home for Christmas and reading week (probably), but after reading week I'm not sure if I'll be able to come home until September, which is a really long time.

Time zones make me feel very isolated also. It's only 2 hours difference, but those 2 hours feel significant when I start to feel homesick just before bed and I can't text anyone from home because they're already all in bed. It makes me feel like I'm alone in this city.

Things will certainly take some getting used to.