Vancouver is the same country, but still feels like visiting elsewhere

I think this was my favourite pic from the trip

So I did this for my FL trip and thought I’d do it here too.  I haven’t even left the country but there are little things that stick out as different between Vancouver and Toronto:

You should be able to see tracks!

• Trains track that go up and down hills!   Lol I accidentally had a front-row seat to this as I ended up in the front car w a giant window, and it was the slowest roller-coaster ever.   Very disconcerting.  Train tracks in TO are flat ;-P
• There is no HST here.  For those not in the loop – that means for some things (incl fast food which is pretty much all I bought) there is only 5% tax on stuff rather than 15%.  
• Conversely, there is a 25c charge for disposable cups.   Environmentally I love this – but ONLY if they also allow you to bring your own (some do for sure, others it seems not so much) 
• The women’s washroom has free sanitary products (this might only be in the office).  It’s a small thing, but an important one. 
• Office work time is unofficially shorter.   People are not in as early in the am and they leave earlier in the afternoon.  I’m willing to say while this probably isn’t everywhere, it’s likely most places as the businesses that support said office workers are also open comparatively shorter timeframes.  About an hour on either side I’d say.   Work/life balance for the win.
• Escalators (at least in the building where my hotel was) slow down when not to use.  This is surprisingly disconcerting the first couple times. 
• The hotel elevator requires a room badge to operate.  I haven’t seen that before other than office buildings outside of working hours.  No idea if this is a Van normal or just that hotel.
• So many stores had the clothing sizes they sell listed outside the store; sometimes it was all of them, but at least one didn't have any small enough to fit me.  Eventually clued in that the stores are all custom clothing so that impacts what sizes they have available.
• Flashing green traffic lights are NOT an advance green!  lol it'd be a not-fun experience to discover that as a driver and not a pedestrian.  They do admittedly flash at a different rate than in Ontario but BOTH lanes have it at the same time.  So if you assume you have left-turn right of way, you will probably have significant issues :(. 
• There are crosswalks, downtown, painted on the road, without lights, not at intersections, that cars actually respect.   This really freaked me out.
• The architecture is gorgeous - much more glass-based and curvy than in Toronto.   Takes away the box-city feel.  
• I could not live in a climate without sun.  Either all darkness or all cloudy would completely do me in.  
• Significantly more healthy-type people here and infrastructure to support them.  The cycling lanes were amazing.   And tons of people jogging at all times.   This may be partially to do with the lack of significant winter, but TO doesn't even begin to come close.

This just shows the pedestrian side,
but the bikes have equal quality and size on the other side of the trees

TIL: Work Travel Edition

The view from the Vancouver office is lovely...

So I recently went on my first ever business trip out to Vancouver for a few days.  I haven't been there before and definitely had no time for touristing :(.   But my social media was all over telling me the cool things I *should* be doing there if I were not working ;-P

...but some of the interior decor is... moderately terrifying ;)

Anyways, I will preface this with once upon a time I used to travel, while not as often as I’d like, often enough that it was pretty standard. However, I haven’t been anywhere since Feb of 2020 right before the world shut down.

• Travel pillows now come w a flat side. Finally. Win!   Actually the best pillow ever.
• When going through security and they tell you to take your laptop out; they consider iPads a laptop.
• Full body security scanners do not like the random extra metal button sewn inside your blouse.
• Instead of checking your bag at the edge of the conveyer belt, they now pull it off to another area. This is actually super efficient and a huge improvement *except* I didn’t know about that! So while I’m in full body scanner the bucket w my purse and phone vanished. You cannot see what’s in the “to be searched” area. Slightly terrifying. As I gathered the 2 of 3 bins (one for luggage, one for laptop, one for purse) to come through, no sign of purse. Finally asked lady supervising there and she says “you have to go find it over there” and waved vaguely. Fortunately when I got “over there” I figured out what was going on which staved off the heart attack a bit. Figured I wouldn’t start *really* worrying till everyone before me had been through. Fortunately they were pretty close to in order - only one who arrived after me was seen before me and it was only by a few seconds. The woman checking it told me it was the iPad that triggered it, hence the earlier TIL.
• Overall the whole security process is SO much more efficient than it used to be.
• * Chairs in the random main shopping area = super comfy. Chairs in the waiting area? Not so much. Choose your time killing location wisely.
• I still love people watching and writing while I have nothing else I have to be doing. 
• Work travel must be scheduled through the online booking system. Says seats can be prebooked but you have to add a comment request in the booking. Done. Only response I get it “comments not fulfilled”. *sigh*.
• You *can*, in-fact, still travel domestically without a passport. lol, why did I learn this? Because said online booking system has our HR info prepopulated. This info is uneditable. Says “must match passport “. Mine does not. Nobody knows how to address this. Workaround is that EAs can override. I am not important enough to have an EA ;)
• My tiny wallet that I use instead of a purse is not big enough to have to save receipts for everything lol. 

*Soooo as to why killing time was so important???  Well this is at least in-part because the definition of rush hour has changed since the before times... Join me for some basic math…

My flight is at 10. It’s domestic and I have no luggage to check. Big bold letters about airport delays, be here at least 2h early. Okay that’s 8.

I’m leaving from my parents’ place since they live much closer to the airport. It’s a 20 min drive without traffic or an hour + in rush hour. Hmmm need to be there at 8, an hour before is 7. That’s about the start of rush hour, so me being never late bumps that back to 6:30.

All good. But remember 6:30 is no longer rush hour lol. I was in, upgraded flight, through security and had breakfast all by 7:15 ;). So I settled into the surprisingly comfy non-waiting seats and hung out for a bit.