a long time comin'

so.

here we are. finally doing some updates. it's been a long couple of months since we left the great state of michigan, but the west coast has been treating us well.....for the most part. let's see--i hardly know where to start. well, you might want to brace yourself, cuz this could be quite the update and i'm sure it will be unmatched in the future.

ok, so for the first month after we arrived we were not working. which left us to discover our surroundings a bit. actually, after arriving from seattle we went almost directly to the island (that is vancouver island--the city of victoria, to be more specific--and my (jacqui's) hometown), where we stayed with my dad and spent a lot of time hanging out with my family and some of my friends that are still lingering around these parts. ryan was pleased to get introduced to west coast life in a suitable fashion, seeing over a dozen killer whales (orcas to those from these parts) in less than a month. and, of course, having been quite crestfallen (that one was for you, dave) by our separation from such an awesome community, the company was much appreciated. the time spent with my family, my dad in particular, was such a blessing.

after we left victoria, we returned to vancouver to house-sit for 3 weeks for a woman who works at the senior centre that is in the same building that the theatre ryan and i work for is in (don't worry if that didn't make any sense, it won't be on the quiz). it was relieving to stay there for that length of time since it helped us to feel settled for a bit and allowed us to get to know at least one of the many fascinating village-like neighbourhoods of vancouver. we also had the delightful opportunity to get to know the one and only lulu-fang (lulu being her owner-given name; fang being the nickname she acquired from us because of her two large front fang-teeth). lulu-fang, of course, was the deaf cat for whom we cared and with whom we shared the apartment we were looking after. although, i hesitate to say "shared" as she so often ran the show. anyhow, the 3 weeks brought us to a level of comfort that made us almost feel at home, only for us to be leaving. it's amazing how quickly a place becomes familiar almost to the point of feeling like your own. so we moved from the main st area to an new part of town called shaughnessy and spent a week on the living room floor of mike and rebecca's (my gracious and hospitable brother and sister-in law) 1 bedroom apartment, only to return for a brief and somewhat teasing weekend in our old main st area with the fang-orious lulu.

after our brief return to what we sometimes refer to as "our neighbourhood", we returned, once again to mike and rebecca's. but of course, being the nomads that we seem doomed to be, we didn't stay long. we went back to the island for a weekend and had our intimate but extremely enjoyable bbq/west coast wedding reception, where we were graced with the company of some pretty cool people and enjoyed the fruits of my maid-of-honor's bbqing talent. and then we kept moving, returning to our living-room floor retreat in shaughnessy for a short while and then moving on once again to another house-sitting job, this time in richmond, bc (a suburb just south of vancouver proper), where we are currently residing and enjoying the company of chloe--a cute-in-an-ugly-sort-of-way peeka-shihtza-poo.

nomadic we are--we plan to house-sit again for the next couple days for another couple we met through mike and rebecca's church (now our church, too, i suppose) who live downtown vancouver. and then we'll be house-sitting for that man's parents for 3 weeks in late-september/early-october. at this point ryan and i have considered changing our titles from just plain old apprentices, to nomadic-apprentice-house-sitters extraordinaire. we're unsure as to whether or not it will fit on our fictitious business cards.

so, that's been our geographic changes over the past few months...but there having been many others. we've started at the theatre and while we're not doing now what we will be mostly doing for the rest of our time here, it has been awesome to get to know the people there and to feel a part of something communal again. we've also, as i alluded before, been attending a church in vancouver with my brother and sister-in-law. strangely enough, we're already fairly involved. we've started a bible study with mike and rebecca, the aforementioned house-sitting couple, and another awesome couple. it has been a huge blessing to already have that sort of connection with other christians here, and the bible study has already been fruitful for all of us. and connections from home have been a huge support for us too. we miss everyone in michigan a whole lot and enjoy any contact we get from them. (in other words, if you're one of those lovable americans or canadians that we call friends, we'd love to hear from you).

well, i think that's about as much updating as i can do right now. i think ryan and i are planning yet another movie night in front of the rather large big-screen tv that also inhabits this house. it's hard to say no to such an evening when both the inches of the screen and the number of the movies in the collection outnumber any local friends wemight have! so, cheers to all of you! we miss you!

p.s. if you want to contact us, choose any of the following:
jacquihoke@gmail.com, jacqui@pacifictheatre.org, jacquiandryan@hotmail.com, barrelmonkey@hotmail.com, or ryan@pacifictheatre.org

Posted by Jacqui 8/27/05