They say that Vancouver inhabitants are the chillest people in Canada. I can attest to the verity of that. It’s been 6 weeks since I took a taxi into Van from the YV airport and I have witnessed nothing but serious chill.
My cab driver was listening to the radio as he cruised me to Dotty’s downtown pad where I would be crashing for my first week. We heard traffic updates and then local news. “A cougar was spotted in Stanley Park earlier this evening so if you’re planning to take a stroll through the area, be on lookout,” announced the deep radio voice.
“What??” I shouted in panic.
“Huh?” asked the driver. “What’s wrong?”
Oh. Okay, cougars in the middle of the city is not a big deal in Vancouver. Apparently. I can be cool with this. If I’m going to fit in, I need to do what the natives do.
“Nothing. I just thought I forgot something on the plane. I’m not worried about the cougars.” Yeah right.
But The Chill didn’t stop there.
On Thursday, Dotty invited me to a sushi dinner at her friend and neighbour’s place. She was going to buy the ingredients while I was at rehearsal and we would meet at Walt’s apartment around 6pm. I didn’t realize that she had a key and neither Walt nor his boyfriend, Stan, would be home.
“Are you sure I can be here, cooking with their appliances, when they’re not even home?”
“Of course!” Dotty brushed off the question. “Don’t be silly.”
Me? Silly? Never.
We were midway through making sushi rice when Stan strode into the kitchen.
“I’m gonna have a shower and then I’ll be out to help. Or not. I don’t like sushi,” he informed Dotty and me. “Hey there,” he threw over his shoulder to me as he walked into the bathroom.
He couldn’t have been more chill to find a complete stranger stirring rice in his kitchen. It was no different when Walt came home.
“Oh, sushi! Yum! What can I do to help?” Walt asked when he saw me and Dotty. He introduced himself to me and then started preparing the crab.
“Have you been to that sushi place on Davie?” Walt asked me.
“Which one?”
“I think it’s called Tan Po Po.”
“Oooo… tan that popo,” I replied without thinking.
“Ha!” Walt laughed. Phewf. “You’re funny. I like you.” Then he looked at Dotty. “You were right; she is cool.”
And with that, I was no longer a stranger cooking sushi in his kitchen. What a relief!
So far, I was loving Vancouver. These are my people. Fun, laid-back, sushi-lovers. Dotty didn’t mind that I was sleeping on her bedroom floor, the taxi driver was totally unphased by wild cougars in the city, and the couple downstairs were happy to find me making sushi in their kitchen. I was home.
Rehearsals, however, were not chill. We had one week to remount a 30-minute piece called “Red Nocturnal”. By the second day, both of my big toenails were blue and I had lost a kilo of water. My hip injury wasn’t doing too well either.
Just before leaving Montreal, I found out that there was a hole in the cartilage of my hip. Apparently my femur had rubbed right through. But I’m in Vancouver so I can’t complain. Gotta be chill.
No one even freaked out about the naked yoga class that practised in the studio before our rehearsal. Skyclad yoga, it was called.
“What does that mean, skyclad?” I asked Kam one day after seeing the name on the schedule for the fifth morning in a row.
“Let’s just say that if you see a black curly hair on the studio floor, pick it up with a kleenex.”
I didn’t really understand until I entered the studio once the yoga class ended. The scent of sweaty male parts clung to the hairs in my nostrils. Heavy and thick. Ylech.
Ever since, I have been very careful which surfaces I touched.
Maybe I’m not yet as chill as the native Vans, but I’m on my way. Let’s wait to test it though. I would probably freak my pants if I saw a wild cougar in the park.
List of #’s:
Hours of rehearsal during first week: approx 40
Blue toenails: 2 and counting
New blisters: 4
Places to live after first week: 0. I can’t crash on Dotty’s floor forever.
Em, don’t worry about the cougars -the giant slugs usually scare them away.
I feel better already!