Surprise, we moved to Vancouver. Here are some impressions from our first days. Enjoy.

I am learning so much about the city, life in Canada and since so many of you ask how we are doing and also WHAT we are doing I am happy to share some updates.

I love all beginnings, despite their anxiousness and their uncertainty, which belong to every commencement.

Rilke

Where should we live?

Our biggest question currently. When we came here last year we were pretty sure that we would move to the so called North Shore, the other side of Vancouver towards the mountains. It is beautiful, some streets have walking access to ski lifts, good schools. It is, however, more precipitation and clouds and for sure less vibrant city life. The market here works a bit differently than in Germany. While land matters in Germany, it also matters what kind of a building is on the land. Here not so much. A wide piece of land with a tiny house might cost more than a new duplex just because Vancouver is running out of space and has a housing crisis.

So on the weekends we drive around different neighbourhoods and go to Open Houses. Randomly peaking into peoples’ homes is fun. Observing the real estate agents guiding their clients through houses, though, is like a bad movie. (“Ok, ladies, use your imagination, there is a lot of stuff in the mortgage helper, but once you declutter in your head, so much potential.” :-)) We have come along some stunning streets like the one in the picture lined with old oak trees.

Factors that play quite a big role for us are safety and schools. It seems that being in a district with a good school matters more than in Germany. And if you have not heard about the Vancouver Downtown Eastside, do google it. A couple of blocks of East Hastings Street are home to tent city, home to locally referred to “lost souls”, struggling with drug addiction and homelessness. Covid has only made the situation worse.

Early Bird Life

My main meeting time is between 5.30 – 8.00am. I consider myself very lucky to be able to continue working as a coach from across the globe. While I am an earlybird by nature (yes, Mama & Papa, minus the teenage party years), the new time zone is a huge change for Pouya. His main meeting time used to be 4 – 7pm in Germany, now it is 6-9am. Yet, the wonderful thing is that we now enjoy family life in the evenings. One of the main reasons we moved.

Impressions from our first days