Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Maka]

Hey, i know there are a lot of canadians on this board and i was just wondering if somebody could give me some information about vancouver. I'm an irish guy age 24 who has been teaching here in korea for the last year and a half. I am gonna leave korea at the end of my current contract and am looking for a new experience. Vancouver seems like a cool place to live from my limited research on the web .

It has skiing which I love
It is beside the ocean which is great
It has a large multicultural community
It seems cheap relative to european prices.

Feel free to burst my bubble, it seems great on paper but i'm sure it has its drawback like every other city.

Advice please.

[Imrahil]

Feel free to burst my bubble, it seems great on paper but i'm sure it has its drawback like every other city.

Advice please.[/quote]

This should do the trick, someone posted it here on Dave's: http://news.sympatico.msn.ca/How+BC+became+a+world+crime+superpower/Canada/ContentPosting_macleans.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=20080507_26032_26032&feedname=ROGERS-BUSINESS&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True . Sorry about the length, and I forget who found this link to the magazine article. Also, this magazine is a pretty popular one in Canada.

[Temporary]

Don't let that bonehead screw around with your choice.. I doubt that he has ever lived there.. I have its an awsome city. Its highly rated city in Canada. If you can live on Vancouver Island thats even better but its a bit borring.

[tomwaits]

Good call I think. Not sure what you p;an to do---last time I was there some Europeans were working in the hostel I stayed in.

Along with the nature stuff it's great fo live music, theater etc. The USA is also at your doorstep. Seattle a couple of hours and very cheap tickets to Vegas, SF etc. And the beautiful prople and ganja.

(I'll be waiting for a cheque from Vancouver tourism!)

[Imrahil]

[jlb]

Best place I've ever lived, BY FAR!!! The only drawbacks are housing prices (renting/buying) and traffic, although no where near as bad as Korea.

[Vancouver]

high real estate cost
bad but decent (unless you live in the outskirts) public transit (more than just crap compared to Korea's transit)
beach (100 person battle occured on Sunday, but its the first in like ever)
multicultural...yeah, kind of. It's mainly white/chinese/indian/punjabi.

If you do decide to move here, I hope you have money for rent, a good location cause driving is expensive, but so is public transit
Stay away from the Grandville entertainment district. There are cops there every weekend cause its THAT bad there on weekends, and, I hope you don't get shot, but, unless you're a gang member, your chances of getting gunned down are significantly lowered
overall, its a good place. Sure it's only ranked 10 on Canada's best list, but hey, at least it ain't some cowtown like Calgary

[last goodbye]

I'd reccomend Toronto (minus the skiing and mountains)... way more multicultural and fun.... "Vancouver is a setting, not a city..."

If you do go, live in the Eastside... main/broadway is a cool area with cool people, shops and cafes..... commercial is also really cool (south of broadway)... lots of cool people and things to do... multicultural...

I stayed at a cool HI hostel when I first went (on Thurlow st.)... met lots of cool people...

It is a super expensive place and hard to find a good place...downtown is boring, superficial people.... I wouldn't live there again....go east youngman... to Toronto or Montreal....

Something cool in the Cootney mountains and on a lake (10 hrs east of Van) is Nelson... a great hippie town which attracts interesting people...

[uberscheisse]

not a bad place if you have the means to get out on a weekly basis

otherwise, a bermuda triangle of lame.

beautiful environs filled with people who think they were born in manhattan but fail to admit they were born in some wack whitebread suburb.

bad art, bad music. and no venue to show either.

too expensive, yet no reason to live there unless you have a car to go exploring local nature-based sports.

swear to god, if you spend more than a week in the city itself you'll be hauled in on an assault charge, because why would you not want to punch vancouverites? they're nature's punching bag.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Hm. Lot of raggin on the Couv. Most people love it, but a concrete box is a million dollars at least. Best place on Earth if you ask me. Bring lots of Gore Tex. Stay the hell away from the Downtown Eastside.

[Vancouver]

If you plan on living in BC, make sure you have insurance in the states, or just don't get injured, cause healthcare sucks

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Uh huh. Whatever.

[last goodbye]

What could possibly make Vancouver the best place on earth? You have been there right? Been anywhere else?

The downtown eastside is intimidating at first, but it's reality... and the people there go about their business... there are only a few that will mess with you..... It beats downtown, kits, kerrisdale.... uberscheisse hit the nail on the head.... don't move to Van.... visit.... and move on...

[blurgalurgalurga]

I have had plenty of weird or bad experiences there, and met loads of goofs and whatnot, but still my good times in Van vastly outweigh the bad. It's big enough so you can likely find a scene that suits you, pretty much whatever that scene may be.
Sure there's lots to be negative about, but there's lots of positive too; I'd recommend going there with open eyes and an open mind and making of it what you will.
It also may be that the negative focus in some of these people's comments is based on having lived there for a long time and having become genuinly sick of it. And all the above criticisms are quite true, I think; the Downtown East Side is sickly and horrific. The yuppies are loathsome. Raging hordes of coked-up pretentious wadlickers storm the streets, frothing at the nose and making fun of your shoes. The cops beat people up a lot. It's easy to get into fights or raped or jumped. There's loads of poor desperate crack-heads and junkies who will steal anything not krazy-glued into place. It's expensive.
BUT...it's still fun and pretty and close to lots of other good places. Just watch your back a bit, as you would in any city in Canada or the States, and don't take people as seriously as they take themselves, and you'll probably have a great time. And if not...you can leave! Don't become one of the many grumpy people who have become disenchanted with the place, but stay there anyway because they're too baked or lazy to get off their couch and do something different.

[uberscheisse]