I’ve been in Vancouver for a few days now and since I applied for early arrival the campus has been quiet empty. So far I’m alone at my student apartment and I’ve been spending my time on settling down and make the last changes to this website. The campus is under construction and there are fences and working machines everywhere.
Yesterday I went down to Wreck Beach. It’s a nudist beach, and since I’m not a dedicated sign reader I found that out the hard way wondering why every second person had forgotten their clothes. I wasn’t the only one with pants on so I decided to stay anyway even though it felt a bit uncomfortable at first. The community at the beach reminded me of the Australian chill and relaxed state of mind, and there was a large variation in age and gender among the visitors. Vendors were walking around naked selling ice-cold beer or margaritas while volunteers were picking up the empty beer cans to maintain the reputation of sustainability. It’s a feeling of lawlessness. Not in the criminal and unsecure kind of way, but in the hippie kind of way. All along the shore there were huge logs, escaped from the logging industry and stranded on the beach.
When I later returned to the beach to take some photos of the sunset I met a well-bearded man named Jacob and his companion who were convinced that the Mohawks defeated the Vikings back in the days. They seemed quite happy with life so I didn’t bother to tell them otherwise. I did promise to send them some photos though and not surprisingly he used marleyreggaesunslash@… as e-mail address. When we went our separate ways, as a suspicious European, I went through my pockets to make sure that everything was still there, which it was.
Tomorrow is the day of arrival for most of the students and I’m thrilled to meet my new residents and study mates.
