British Columbia (Continued)

Oct 26 (Vancouver) - We woke up bright and early at 6:30 am to get ready for our first day of volunteering. We volunteered at QUEST Food Exchange. It is a food bank (essentially) that has an agreement with grocery stores and restaurants to donate food that they no longer want. They then sell it to the community for very cheap (ie: a loaf of bread is about 20 cents). People can only shop there if they have a referral card from social services but their moto is that they do not reject anyone because they never know the state that people are in. It was definitely a rewarding experience to help out at an organization that stands for such a great cause. We finished up at noon and went to a restaurant called the Warehouse in downtown Vancouver where the WHOLE menue is under $4.99... pretty awesome! After that, we headed to a bar to watch the Leafs game and after a few drinks decided we wanted some sushi. Well, when on a budget it leads you to eat some VERY sketchy things. So we went to the cheapest sushi resturant we could find and it tasted pretty yummy... but no one should ever enter the back of that place. I didn't check out the bathrooms but Eric made the mistake of venturing off in that place... never again! I am happy to say that nether of us got sick. Woo Hoo!

Oct 27 (Vancouver) - We woke up and went to the aquarium. We asked the lady at the front what time the dolphin show was at and she said, "go look at that blue sign up there." So we walked in and looked at the sign. A minute later we looked over at each other and realized that we had managed to get in without paying. Woo hoo. 40 bucks saved! We watched the baluga whale show, the otter show and the shark show (where a woman was dressed up as a pirate and went into the shark tank haha). We then walked around Stanley Park which is really beautiful! After all this activity, we decided we needed to head back to the warehouse for 15 cent wings! That's right! 15 cents a wing!! we got 40 wings for 6 bucks. CRAZINESS! (I don't want to know where that chicken is from but I'm trying not to think about it).

Oct 28 (Vancouver) - We had our 2nd shift at Quest but we were at a different location. The first day we were at the location for mostly families and it was in a better part of town than the 2nd. The shift on this day was in a really rough part of town and it was mainly all homeless people. It was definitely a different vibe than the first. By 9:00, someone had gotten sent home for coming in drunk and most people showed up VERY late for work... not the type of atmosphere I was used to, to say the least. One lady asked Eric the price of the marshmallows. He told her they were 50 cents. Her response was (I'll bet you can't guess this...) "Oh great, I can make great salads with these" ... Salads + Marshmallows?? HUH?? Anywhoo, It was definitely rewarding to see the kinds of people we were helping by being there. AND they let us take home a loaf of bread. Yay for avoiding grocery shopping yet again! We headed to Boston Pizza after that to watch the Leafs game (I have definitely seen more hockey games this trip than I have in my entire life combined). Its funny to watch a game here cuz they start at 4:00 so its literally still bright out by the time they're over.

Oct 29 (Vancouver) - We woke up and went to Granville Island. It is sooo cute! They have the most amazing market that has every type of amazing yummy goodie you can imagine. The fresh fish looked amaaazing. But we were good and just ate a berry (it was the only thing we could convince them to give us for free). It was some kind of crazy sour yellow berry. Not too sure what its called. After the Island we took a nap and got ready to go out for Halloween! (My favorite holiday of the entire year... if you can call it a holiday). I was a loofah and Eric was Pauly D from Jersey Shore. It was quite the night!

Oct 30 (Vancouver) - Most of this day was a write off and spent in bed. But we then got all dressed up again for my most favorite holiday and went to a place called W2 for Halloween. It was sooo much fun and some of the costumes were SOOO funny! People definitely bring out their creative side this time of year (I put up a few pictures in the post below). At the end of the night we walked home. Mark (Eric's brother) kept telling us it was such a far walk. But the cab ride there was only 5 bucks so I was convinced it had to be close. After about 10 minutes of walking and approaching the hotel he admitted that he knew it wasn't far, he just didn't want to walk. I went to bed at about 3:00 am but I was woken up by Eric & Mark with McDonalds (this story is not my proudest moment) I woke up, ate my McDonalds and within about 10 minutes I was back asleep. Oy. I have to say, it was verrryyy yummy. It has been about 5 years since I'v had a McDonalds burger. mmmm.

Oct 31 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! We went out for breakfast to a place with amazing food and their whole MO is that they have bad service. For example, there's a sign in there saying "we will bring you your first cup of coffee. If you want another, find a butler." AKA get it yourself. We then headed back to Mark's hotel and spent the day watching "football" AKA I had my headphones in and was watching the OC on my laptop. We are currently debating what to have for dinner sooooo ... until next time :)