Vancouver, day 8

The internet doesn’t seem to be working – alas! How will I update this and check my email? Le sigh.

I don’t mind, really; I can check email at work on Monday. Maybe then I will have mail…? Getting an email is not quite so exciting as snail mail, but you take what you can get.

Anyway. I slept in today – didn’t get up until nine-fifteen (gasp!) – then went to the nearby UU church. Actually, I’m not sure whether they’re UU or just U (it’s the Vancouver Unitarians), but whatever, the service was good and the people were really nice. For once I wasn’t even terrified by their well-meaning welcomes and smalltalk… I’ve been to my fair share of churches, for various reasons; the thing that throws me off the most (no matter what kind of church) is the inevitable protestation of welcome. I’ll take it as a good sign that it was pretty low-key.

The service itself was quite decent, though that honestly doesn’t say much about the church – UU services can vary like whoa. You can never really tell until you’ve been a few times. There’s a woman who leads all of the songs, too… I am rather undecided about this. On the one hand it sounded much better than a lot of churches I’ve been to (there’s a joke that UUs sing so badly because we’re always looking ahead in the music to see whether or not we agree with the lyrics… it’s true, too. Also, my church in Boston tends to sound like a funeral dirge). She was good. On the other hand, she knew she was good, and not in an altogether flattering way.

Oh well. I guess the music was worth it.

After church I bussed farther into Vancouver to go to my aunt’s for lunch. It was a lot of fun – my aunt, step-uncle, and two step-cousins (never met the cousins before) were there. The step-cousins are kind of awesome; they’re almost thirty but incredibly laid-back and funny and nice. Oh, not that most thirty-year-olds aren’t, just that I would have guessed their ages to be considerably younger.

My aunt and I met up with my other cousin (her son) after lunch and they showed me around part of Kitsilano. It’s a pretty cool area, actually; I’ll definitely have to go back. Tons of used bookstores :) After we parted ways, I stuck my nose into one of the bookstores they’d recommended, one that has new but cheap books. Very helpful, especially given how expensive books are in Canada.

During the bus ride I saw a coffee shop called Death by Chocolate, by the way, and have made a mental note to go there. I can’t remember exactly where it is, but whatever, I’ll find it.

Watched Juno with my flatmates tonight. That was nice, both ‘cause it’s an excellent movie and ‘cause I like social contact.

Up on Monday: work, possibly a field trip to a pub where one of my flatmates is participating in a poetry slam.

Written an hour ago, when my internet was still down. Spent the interim playing the Sims and am now en route to bed.