This and that

I have been living in Vancouver for 7 weeks now and this city still amazes me, yes I’m in love, with Vancouver. When I was 13 years old, so 14 years ago I was watching this travel show about Vancouver and I decided that I would live there one day. Yep I have always worked hard for what I believed in and made it happen, I am a bit stubborn too.

Why do I think this place is so great, well for starters the outdoors, nature is always close and still we have the comfort of a big city. I love to go outside here, there is so much to explore and so much to do. Last Saturday I went on a hike through Pacific spirit regional parc. Who would ever thought I could do that, but my walking has been pretty good lately so yes also a bit of hiking. Canadians might consider my hike as a kiddy hike but still, I did it. There are more pictures in the album June.

Sunday I went to the beach in Kitsilano with Sherry, I’m slowly exploring all Vancouver beaches.

Yesterday I went on a bike ride from UBC down to Stanley parc and back up to Kits, because I was in kind of a hurry and there was a long climb ahead, I had to go to the dentist, I took the bus back from Kits, you can easily put your bike on the bus because they all have bike racks. The bike ride was great, just soaking in the view being outside and active.

 My route

View from NW marine drive

Just a way of life over here, every time when you go out, there is always somebody running or cycling. I love it, this way of life, people also seem a bit more relax and they are a lot friendlier then back at home, no wonder it feels like everybody is happier here. And that also has its influence on me, I’m way calmer and happier then I have been in a while, a lot has happened, but I found peace in letting go of things I just can’t change, how hard I try.

And today I went to the Greek festival with a group of wonderful friends, we had a good time and some nice Greek food.

And a furry friend ;)

 And yes I’m also working in the lab here is the proof.

Lab work is interesting and exhausting,  sometimes things just don’t work out the way you think they will. About a week ago I worked on an experiment for 9 hours and I got no results, I had to repeat the whole experiment, it sucks but it is all part of the game. So if you ever wonder why cancer research takes so long and is so expensive this is one of the many reasons. Even when we know something is going to work out we still have to repeat all those experiments a lot, multiple things can make them not work. But when you do, and you get some results it is all really rewarding. So one day, hopefully we have new ways to treat cancer, that’s what we in the lab are all working really hard on. And I feel really lucky to be a very small part of it for 6 months, yes you have read that good, my stay in Vancouver will be extended to six months, 4 months is just not enough time to get results. And off course I don’t mind staying longer in this beautiful place J. Follow your heart and be happy, carpe diem.

Seattle, June 8-9

Last weekend I went to Seattle with a group of new friends, we went to celebrate Sandi's birthday. Basically the whole weekend consisted of eating, drinking and having fun together.

the north-west pacific bunch (Vancouver and Portland)

Saturday morning I woke up at 4.11am, my alarm was set for 5am so no point in trying to get back to sleep. With only 5 hours of sleep I was a bit tired....

I took a cab together with Raewyn to pacific central station where we got on the bus to get us to Seattle. First stop US border, so welcoming those Americans -_-. After leaving all my prints a picture and being in what felt like interrogation while a dog sniffed my bag (and me), I turned out to be safe and could proceed. The bus took us to Seattle, when we arrived we went to drop our stuff off at the hostel. The hostel was great, cheap, clean and free breakfast, because our group was so big we could share a room with the 8 of us and no strangers, benefits of the group. We ate donuts, went for tea in McDreamie's coffee bar (other then that it wasn't very Grey's anatomy in Seattle ;) ) and for lunch we chilled in a little parc. This was a pretty interesting parc, a man came by with a bag full of liquor which he sold for 10 dollars a bottle, there was also a brand new mountain bike for 20 dollars available XD

After that we went to a hotel with a cocktail bar on the 5th floor with a nice view. Seattle doesn't have a seawall like Vancouver has. Seattle is Vancouver's twin city, so I have heard, the similarity is there but there are a lot of differences too. We drank cocktails had snacks and enjoyed the sun for a while. 

 Me and Allison

Then we headed to a nice little hidden basement bar, you would order your liquor and taste of choice and the bartender would mix something for you, no mixers just liquor but it was really good. By the time we headed for dinner I was very tired, almost fell asleep a few times. Dinner was great though, a nice hip restaurant called local 360. After dinner most of us were tired so we bought some beer and wine and just went back to the hostel.

Next morning we headed to capitol hill for brunch, the little brunch cafe Americana was awesome, best brunch.

We walked around capitol hill for a while and got Top Pot doughnuts.

Aaron, Alex, Raewyn, Allison and me

Allison, Raewyn and me

After that we went to see the space needle. When we arrived the line was insane (it was a sunny day) and it was a bit overpriced so I didn't go up.

Afterwards we headed to pike place market. I checked out the first starbucks shop, had to get a mug for my collection :) 

We chilled some more had some late lunch. I bought some souvenirs.

And finally we checked the gum wall and added some gum to it, it was pretty disgusting.

Sandi, Raewyn and me

Time flies when you're having fun, it was time to go back to the bus.

I again managed to pass the border, pfieuw ;)

And finally we reached Vancouver again, I was home approximately around 10.45. Time to sleep and start a new week of work.

Everybody thanks for the awesome weekend, I had a blast! For more pictures see the album Seattle, link on top of the page.

One month in Canada

Sorry guys this blog is way overdue.

It already has been a month since I arrived in Canada, can you believe it, time flies!

On my third weekend here I went to Whistler for some sweet ski training with the Whistler mountain ski club, check the ski blog (link on top of the page) for those stories.

The trip to Whistler took me over the beautiful and very scenic sea to the sky highway, highway 99 north. Check the video for a time laps of this drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oid4KZZ_3ns

During my first week here the weather was awesome, sunny and hot. After that the famous Vancouver rain rolled in. Since Sunday the sun is back and so are all the shorts and t-shirts on the street, yes seize the opportunity. I went for a picnic with friends at Jericho beach on Sunday, awesome day for a picnic, I’ll post some pic’s here but there are a lot more, see the tab pictures, I have categorized them by month.

I have also done a tour around the seawall of Stanley parc, on Saturday may 25. I did the 12.6 km in my wheelchair, since I for sure can’t walk that far. It was a nice workout for my triceps. For the pictures see the album of May.

When I went shopping that day I was recognized as Dutch, by the woman behind me in line, by my credit card, seriously…. Later I found out that the Holland America line cruise ship had just arrived, which also explains the boatload of seniors all around town XD.

Lab work has been great, it is very interesting to learn a completely different side of medicine. And I turn out to be a nerd after all ;). I like running the experiments and my first ones turned out good, maybe a bit of beginners luck, but my first western blot was technicaly perfect… too bad the results weren’t what we wanted, but hey that’s what experiments are about. Some pic’s of my first Western, I could explain how it works but then again, why would I that’s way too deep, there are a lot of steps.

For everybody who wants to know more about the research I'm currently a part of, Global news filmed a short item about the project, see the link. It is all very interesting and this video explains it very simple. A new article was just published in Cell. Hopefully if all goes well I will also get the chance to get my name on some articles.

 http://globalnews.ca/video/586876/starving-cancer-cells

That it for now, a very short overview. Next weekend Seattle!