British Student .ca

Long before I got to Canada I knew I would want to get a cheap bicycle while I’m here. I’ve been looking on Craig’s List, which is very popular here, but it’s been ttaking a while. You have to search the bicycle board for something resonable annd cheap, look at the photo as this may be all you have, and then contact the seller. You then might never work out a time to meet them, discover the bicycle isn’t suitable (one was far to small for me), or it’s really far away and the seller’s car is at the garage. So you repeat the process from searching the lists again. This gets disheartening, especially when you got your hopes up about a 70s Raleigh bicycle made in Nottingham, UK.

I went along to the student run Bike Kitchen but they had less than 10 bikes for sale, all priced $300 or more. It got to Friday last week and I really wanted to buy a bicycle. I didn’t know what shop to go to but I had seen loads along Broadway on the 99 bus route. My Friday should have finished at 1pm, but I was interviewing students for research until 4pm. Despite the shops probably closing soon I headed for the bus at 4:30pm to at least confirm where the shops were.

First stop was West Point Cycles who were extremley helpful in the 2 minutes I was there. I would highly recommend them even though I didn’t buy a bike there. Apart from new bicycles.accessories they only sell ex-rental which start at $250. They suggested Cheapskates, apparently Vancouver’s best used bike shop, but confirmed with collegues that it had closed down a week ago. The only other option they gave was Craigslist and a shop named Ride It, which everyone knows by the massive “Cheap Student Bikes” sign above the store front. I got on a slow bus to go the 10 blocks to Vine Street. On the bus I met Andy, one of my floor mates, who had also been searching around for a bicycle and was heading to Cheap Student Bikes. This shop, now Vancouver’s only second hand bicycle store, also had friendly and helpful staff. They have a full range of bicycles new and old, from less than $80 to $400 and probably beyond. I left with a nice black Rocky Mountain (Canadian brand) bike for under $200, and Andy and his friends bought a small well made folding bike for someone’s birthday present. The shop gave each of our bikes a 10min check after we bought them, and then it was so dark outside I took my bike back on the bus. On Saturday I went for a cycle and on Sunday, after some annoying fire alarms, finally got to cycle to church. Check the photos for more details.

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Today I had a few hours spare and wanted to do something productive that would also cheer me up.

Ah that pile of remaining cans in the floor lounge. We had improved since Friday when I had to carry 3 bags by myself. Bob’s sister brought loads of his clothes and shoes up at the weekend, some of which were in a tall box. Once it was empty I got in it and had about 10 minutes of fun. I would have kept it for fun and creative nonsense, but it was soon placed in the lounge and used to contain all the recyclable cans and bottles I left behind. Also in the lounge was an upright delivery trolley. The box was light enough to carry but to akward, the trolley made it super fast.

Despite most people being away over the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, the floor had still kept up drinking and the box was overful. This made me remove a bag so I could close the box flaps, and then I wouldn’t be so shunned on the bus. It worked, people were interested in the contents of the box and a few asked questions.

It was good to have bags inside the box so I could pull them out at the return-it centre, and then just tip it over to get the last 3 loose cans out. Whoever put a small bag of very smelly rubbish (containing some valuable cans/bottles) in the box deserves to be beaten to a pulp. It would be great if we could sort cans, alcohol cans, bottles, and glass out as we collect them but I don’t see the guys going that far.

The amount I got? I returned 291 items (only 51 more than last time), and got $19.98. Making a grand total of $36.25. All that just for a couple of trips on the bus, that take about 1 hour including sorting time (10-20 mins).

What to do with the money? Well the only suggestion discussed on the last blog post was by Bill, “Keep the cash, you earnt it!“. For now I’ll just keep the money safe (in the bank) and report back on any increased respect from my floor mates (maybe the recycling will be cleaner and sorted with no bottle tops).

On my floor we decided to collect our beer cans in a big box, to create some big prank like throwing them all at Vanier Place residence, or filling the elevator. Then we learnt how beer cans, soda(pop/fizz) cans, glass and plastic bottles are worth a resonable bit if you return them for recycling. The collection grew, with the aid of all the visitors our famous party floor gets. This was a lot easier work than the homeless people that walk around campus and town, removing bottles/cans from litter bins (most have a large ledge or rack to aid them) and from rubbish bins. We just had to party, let other people party and enjoy the work.

In a month the collection grew to about seven rubbish bags full. The smell was bad, it took up space in the floor lounge, and the cleaners started to get angry. So all we had to do was get about four of us to walk 15 minutes to the BC government liquor store. We discussed what the money could go towards: a new large TV to replace the historic broken CRT one that was lugged up here last year; a present for the residential advisor on our floor who is the best RA in Totem; or something like table football. Whatever we did with the money, we had to get rid of them this weekend, it stank.

I’m going to side-track for a bit. When I was young I was taught a story you may know, it’s called The Little Red Hen and it goes roughly along these lines…

• Hen: Who will help be gather up the cans into double bags (so they don’t leak or rip)?
• Not I said the cat who was busy sleeping. Not I said the mouse who was busy doing homework. Not I said the pig who had, erm, a class to go to.
• Hen: Who will help me carry the cans to the store?
• Not I said the cat. Not I said the mouse. Not I said the pig.
• Hen: Who will help me figure out what everyone agrees to buy so nobody argues the money has been spent unfairly?
• Not I said the cat. Not I said the mouse. Not I said the pig.
• Hen: Who will help me look after the money, spend it, and eat a cake?
• In unison everyone said “I will”.

I don’t remember what the little red hen did with the cake she baked all by her self. I looked up the story on the student’s authoritive source, wikipedia, who gives me an interesting ending. I got $16.27 (about £9.84) for what turned out to be 40 minutes taking 3 bags in the direction I was going anyway. I’m sure I could find something I’d like for that much, for now I will hold onto the money and see what everybody suggests in the comments.

And now, the photos of my exciting day and how to recycle for money in Canada.

12 photos

Yes yes, next post after this one will have photos and be more original, I promise. I just thought you would like the rest of the updates from facebook so your fully up to date on what’s been happening.

• will survive another week without a mobile phone?
• is skyping the stupid bank.
• has sent a postcard to the bank manager.
• s mini mouse has broken, I didnt even get a chance to show SteveC its bright blue light. For some unknown whenever I type an apostrophe or forward slash in the web browser it triggers the search. Im running out of irreplaceable money\beer. Life in amazing Vancouver has now hit a big low, I think its time to resort to emergency plan code named “Tim Horton doughnut” to cheer me up.
  • Tom: Hey – keep your chin up. I know times can get low when you’re abroad – being away from home makes all those little things which normally don’t matter all the harder. But I’m living proof it just takes a few weeks and you’ll start to have an epic time x
  • Gregory: cheers Tom, it’s not really that low and I just went and got some English tea, solves all problems!
• ’s amazing printer fixing skills require me to be fast at running, from guys who want to kiss me with thanks.
• likes Old Dutch Creamy Dill flavoured potato crisps, but has got used to calling such things chips.
  • Steven: as long as you still like tea, your national identity is safe
• knows the party is always on his floor, but it must be hiding from me tonight. Come out, I need a distraction!
  • Bob: i’m coming out!!
  • Gregory: Bob that’s an English term to say your admitting your gay.
  • Taylor: no that works here too
• tastes the chocolate… its edible, but not the same.
• fears asking if they have “Freshers Flu” over here, too much talk about the certaintiy everyone is going to get H1N1!
  • Jo: You’re a brit – you’ve probably already had it!
• is facebooking in a lecture, being an innocent studious fresher has ended again. Well they encoouraged it with their network\power sockets at each chair and wifi point in every lecture hall!