I've been in Canada for a week now and if I didn't write down what I've been up to from time to time, I'd probably have forgotten half of it by now. It's incredible here, different, fascinating, breathtaking. After I landed in Vancouver on 8.8.2012 (the view from the plane over Greenland was gigantic!!!), I spent the first two days in the hostel. You get to know nice and not so nice people, I walked around the city with a group of Germans, otherwise the friendliness of the Canadians amazed me every day anew, they carry your heavy luggage, hold the door open, give you tips, a railroad official advises you to take the black train ("If they ask you, act as if you have completely no idea what they are talking about...") and you hear everywhere: WELCOME TO CANADA. And if you don't thank the driver when you get off the bus, he's almost offended. We Germans can learn a thing or two from that. Two days later, Jan and I picked Tobias up from the airport (hardly any jet lag - the night shift was a good thing ;) ). We spent the following days living in Burnaby, a district of Vancouver. Vancouver is so huge, if you don't just look at downtown. Despite the incredibly fast Skytrain, it takes hours to get from one end of the city to the other. But now to the couchsurfer. He really is worth talking about. In his mid-40s, weight training every day in the gym of the high-rise building (luckily we only live on the ninth of 24 floors), favorite hobby fishing, hates fish. Sounds strange? Oh yes! But we can live here in our own room and use everything, totally brilliant. In addition to exploring the city (the individual neighborhoods here are so different, I've already fallen in love with the artsy Granville Island district), we've done a lot with Tobias' old school friends in this first week, whether it's home parties, eating sushi or, like today, swimming in an ice-cold mountain river on the edge of Vancouver or jumping off the cliffs. The landscape here is stunning and stands in stark contrast to the city center, which is packed with skyscrapers and a lot of beggars. With a few other Germans who are also here on the Work & Travel program, we went kayaking (also in the Vancouver area), which was the first time I really realized where I was and what I was doing. And even though I miss a lot, being here is wonderful. Apart from the incredible politeness of the Canadians, the constant smell of weed is also striking. It's unbelievable, whether you're in the heart of the city, in the supermarket, in Stanley Park, at the open-air film nights or in the underground parking garage of your apartment building, there's always the smell of weed everywhere. But I haven't yet been able to find out whether this is related to the friendliness of the people ;-) One more thing: (I'm sorry that this is all so disorganized, I just keep thinking of things I want to say...) Canada is mega expensive. The water from the tap tastes disgusting, if you buy any, you become poor. No wonder the city is getting bigger and bigger on the outskirts, you can't afford to live in the center. The first week is over and even though I've already seen so much and walked my feet off, I can't shake the feeling that I don't even know the city yet. There are too many things to do in Vancouver alone to be able to do them all in six months. But tomorrow I'm off on the road in the car that Tobias and I took over from Austrian backpackers today. The car is great, hopefully it will drive just as well for the next few weeks. :) I'll let you hear from me and hopefully I won't be eaten by a bear ;-)