28. Finally back!

Somewhere between Frankfurt and Vancouver, 03.01.2017.

Happy new year everyone! It has been quite some time since I last wrote an entry for my blog. And I am truly sorry about that. There are some excuses for this fact but none is really convincing so I won’t bother to go into detail why I didn’t write anything in the last weeks.

Anyway, now I have time and I feel like writing something again. In the moment, I am currently sitting in a Boeing 747-400 “Jumbo” and we just flew over the edge of Greenland. Thus, soon we will enter Canadian airspace and fly the last 3636 kilometers to Vancouver. Just about four and a half more hours to go, good news! By the way, this is the first time I am in this type of plane and it is truly huge. The planes that I flew regularly with between Frankfurt and London Heathrow were often a lot smaller. But that was also a much much shorter route.

Our plane after we landed at Vancouver airport.

Before I start explaining what I am planning for the next days and weeks, let me first tell you what I did since I wrote the last blog entry. In the last several weeks, I focused mainly on two things: Firstly, I needed to sell, give away or throw away practically all of the stuff in my apartment and give the latter back to the landlord by end of December. And Secondly, I wanted to see as many of my friends and family as possible to say “Good- Bye” and enjoy some quality time with them. Both endeavors were quite successful.

I managed to return my apartment to my landlord on December 23^rd. Just in time to enjoy Christmas and the last few days in Germany without having to worry about THAT anymore. As of now, the amount of stuff that I kept for myself in Germany is very limited: roughly 12 boxes, unevenly distributed among my mum’s and my dad’s house. It is a little bit shocking that this is everything that is now left after 35 years of life. But I don’t mind about that, really. In the end, it is more often the immaterial things that make us happy. So I don’t really care about leaving everything behind. If I really need anything in Canada that I could not bring with me, I’ll just buy or lend it. All will be fine…

Today’s flight took me right past the city I last lived in: Siegen.

After having visited Berlin in November, I managed to see some more of my friends and family in the past weeks. When thinking about it, I was actually able to see a lot of those people that I really care about. I enjoyed a Cinema- and Party- Weekend with Glenn in Siegen, played a Poker tournament in my Poker club in the very same city, visited a very old friend of mine from my early army days in Koblenz, played three great board game days in varying groups in Siegen, Mannheim and Wesseling, spend New Years Eve with two good friends of mine near Cologne and finally I was also able to meet a former LIDL colleague and friend of mine with his wife on the evening of January 1^st and two friends from my later army days on January 2^nd. That was yesterday evening. A bit stressful, but it was absolutely worth seeing my buddies again. Sad thing one of them could not be there but we will make up for that in June or so. And then, there was a big surprise at the airport for me today. One of my buddies took the train from Cologne to Frankfurt airport to say Good Bye to me personally again and to show the airport to his two little boys that he had with him. So nice of him, I felt a bit humbled by that.

The flight also took me past the towns where some of my family and friends live.

With regard to my family, I spent the last one and a half weeks at my mum’s place and managed to see Adelheid, my dad and my brother after Christmas. Also, my brother and I managed to go to our traditional December- concert. I don’t know exactly for how many years he and I managed to go to a concert in December but it must be at least 4 years in a row. Probably more. Today, my mum and I got up very early and she drove me to the airport so that I didn’t have to take the train. That was very nice of her and I was happy to say Good Bye to her in person at the airport. Then, my plane took off roughly one hour late at 11:20 AM since the flight was hopelessly overbooked and they kept looking for people who wanted to stay in Frankfurt for a day and get a 600 Euro- compensation for that. I could not wait to finally start my trip to Canada so I chose to wait if I could still get a seat on the plane which I finally did. Good thing. So I am now finally on my way, probably starting the biggest adventure of my life. I can’t say I am not excited… 🙂

Rocky Mountains just south of Jasper. What a beauty!

And what are the plans for my first days in Vancouver? Well, everything is pretty much straightforward. Upon arrival, I will get my rental car first and then go straight to the next TELUS- shop to reactivate my Canadian SIM- card. Having a working phone is pretty important I guess. Then I will probably try to fulfill a few bureaucratic tasks in Vancouver: Surely, I need to apply for a Social Insurance Number and to register myself somewhere. I hope the immigration officers at the airport will tell me in detail what to do and where to go. If not, I will find it out another way, I don’t worry about that yet. If I still have time after that, I will try to open a bank account somewhere. That will probably be the biggest challenge. At least if the Canadian procedure is similar to the one in England. I remember having the most trouble with that when I arrived east of London in March last year. God, it is unbelievable that this is already so long ago. I can’t believe it…

Anyway, all the above mentioned stuff will keep me very busy today. And maybe I will have to do some of these things tomorrow if I start getting tired after the flight. Which may happen since I also didn’t sleep very well last night. Once I got all these things boxed off, I will start looking for a car of my own so that I can return my rental car as soon as possible and still stay mobile. Possibly, I will start looking for some kind of Jeep or car that can go off road. I do plan to make some trips to places that are a bit more remote so having a suitable car for that sounds like a good idea. Finally, I already booked a First Aid course in Surrey next week and of course I will attend. In case I will be able to work as a Park Ranger, I need this qualification. And if don’t get a job as a Park Ranger, it is never bad to refresh one’s knowledge what to do in case of emergency. When I was still in the army, we had to do First Aid courses every year and in hindsight I think that was a very good thing to do. Knowing what to do if someone is an emergency can’t be bad, really.

Arrival at Vancouver airport. Quite the queues at the customs booths and the immigration office.

Ah, I think we just touched the “job”- topic. Probably the one topic I discussed the most with many people in the last weeks. It seems like a lot of people are more worried than me if I get a job or what I will do for a living. To be honest, currently I am not worried at all. I already applied for the job as a Park Ranger in Alberta and in Sasketchawan. And when the job openings for Park Rangers in British Columbia are published, I will also apply for one of those jobs. This is currently my plan: To spend a season as a Park Ranger in one of Canada’s beautiful parks. We’ll see if that plan becomes reality or not. If it fails, I can always drive up north into the Yukon and mine gold for a season. Like the crazy guys in the american TV Series “Gold Rush Alaska“. Honestly, I would love to do that. Gotta learn to drive the big machinery first, though. In Germany, this TV Series runs on DMAX at 6:15 PM each evening. Take a look at it, it’s really interesting and entertaining. Anyway, I will keep you updated how my search for a job goes on. And I think I will also write a few things about my future ambitions to do some Marathons here in the next blog entry.

My rental car that I will use until I found and bought my own car. Good to drive, no complaints.

Finally, as usual, I’ll conclude this entry with my music advice. Today’s piece of rock is really solid and straightforward as well as fitting to my current situation. Cheers!

Linkin Park – Don’t stay