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Help!!! => HELP => Topic started by: Canuck on January 15, 2009, 10:04:11 AM
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Hello world-wide-information super hiway community,
Im moving to Vancouver in for the 1st of May. I've been looking at Craig's List for apartments and stuff, but i was wondering if anyone on here knew of any good neighbourhoods to live in, like ones that are close to downtown/transit but still affordable-ish.
Thanks in advance...
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`` livin the dream, gunna blow up ``
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I'll do that.
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Thom, don't leave Parkdale! My leg will be better by summer. Vancouver is the LA of Canada!
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Thom, don't leave Parkdale! My leg will be better by summer. Vancouver is the LA of Canada!
I think that makes Vancouver the San Francisco of America...wait, huh?
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No, because people in SF actually come out of the closet.
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My only advice is to not do it.
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Dude, I can't handle snow and cold anymore. I'm gonna try it out for a bit.
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Dude, I can't handle snow and cold anymore. I'm gonna try it out for a bit.
Vancouver isn't cold and snowy? I thought all of Canada was cold and snowy?
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Vancouver winters aren't very fun. 2 degrees, rain, clammy, everything's super gray. There isn't even an indoor park and when there is one, people bitch so much about paying that they can't stay open. If you're moving because of weather, I'd suggest Victoria...or perhaps Costa Rica.
You'll be living in some shitty basement suite...Vancouver's famous for shitty basement suites, every house has one
because even the shittiest of the shit ghetto house goes for 800,000.
Oh yeah, Vancouver's fake as fuck too. People aren't nice, the city has a tense vibe and lots of people take their anger out in weird weird ways.
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Vancouver had nothing to skate with I lived there 5 years ago, Its probably even worse now. Plaza sucks and all the spots are capped, instead of moving to that place just go somewhere warm for a few weeks every winter.
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(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7766/weatherinvancouveryk6.png) (http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weatherinvancouveryk6.png)
(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/weatherinvancouveryk6.png/1/w259.png) (http://g.imageshack.us/img80/weatherinvancouveryk6.png/1/)
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1945/weatherintorontoqk2.png) (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weatherintorontoqk2.png)
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/weatherintorontoqk2.png/1/w265.png) (http://g.imageshack.us/img222/weatherintorontoqk2.png/1/)
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Thom, don't leave Parkdale! My leg will be better by summer. Vancouver is the LA of Canada!
I think that makes Vancouver the San Francisco of America...wait, huh?
Thomas, make a trip out there before you decide to move.
or...come back to St. Catharines and skateboard with me in my warehouse, its warm and dry and I don't let hipsters inside. Phil is moving back here in June too. We'll come up and visit more.
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Damn! Phils moving back!!!
Yo, Chirs, I already got the plane ticket out there man. Im gonna be there for the the summer, then maybe stay for the winter (most likely victoira)... get some sandals & board shorts, go surfing in Tonfino, start smoking mad chronic again, develop out-of-touch liberal opinions, fair-trade coffee, basically what you'd refer to as a pretentious green-yuppie
its looking like more and more like Victoria would be a good place to stay for a year.... cheaper rents and even less rain and more warmth.
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Thomas,
I miss you, and I think you will enjoy yourself alot more in Vic that in Van. I think its sick that you are getting out there, I am only speaking out of hurt.
I'm stoked you are going for it though, you will enjoy yourself. Be sure that when people find out you listen to the smiths, they'll totally be like...I have been listening to them for a longe rperiod of time than you have.
Try and find Sam Devlin while you are out there, I think that would be interesting.
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Thom, don't leave Parkdale! My leg will be better by summer. Vancouver is the LA of Canada!
dont fret i'll be back
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Thom, the reason why Russia produced such strong men as Fedor Emeliankenko and Ivan Drago is because of the winter. The winter makes man strong like bull.
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People move to Vancouver with the intention that, "my town sucks and there are so many redneck dick assholes"
and then they move to Vancouver and then they realize, "wow...there are so many more redneck dick assholes and they're everywhere...and it's way harder now to find good people...and even when I do, they always point out how much cooler they are (see previous msg about Smiths).
Sorry, I hate Vancouver. Doesn't mean you won't have a good time.
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you all raise great points. I am definitely scared shitless by hipster assholes that claim they have been listening to the smiths for longer than I have... but I won't know whats it like till I try it out... and after talking to you guys, sounds like im gonna stay in Victoria instead of Vancouver...
i'll be back in parkdale sooner rather than later
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Good luck Thomas, I am sure you will enjoy yourself. I am obviously jelous, and wish I wasn't a pussy and got myself out of this shitty redneck town full of jock assholes.
we should skate before you go.
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Thomas, when are we going to go party and do coke in the washroom stalls at Circa?
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this weekend! i've never done coke, whats it like?
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I think it feels like you're invisible.
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Move to Vic, skate all winter pretty much. ;D
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about 30-33 months until my destination is vancouver.
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(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a338/boldasalion/blog/Chris_Farley.jpg)
I always imagined it feeling like chris farley
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People move to Vancouver with the intention that, "my town sucks and there are so many redneck dick assholes"
and then they move to Vancouver and then they realize, "wow...there are so many more redneck dick assholes and they're everywhere...and it's way harder now to find good people...and even when I do, they always point out how much cooler they are (see previous msg about Smiths).
Sorry, I hate Vancouver. Doesn't mean you won't have a good time.
Your opinion is so on point, Fuck that place. The land of the lost souls where everybody goes to get fat and work shitty jobs to afford their overpriced rent. But you know it's so much better there because there's an ocean the majority of people that live there never visit more then once a month. How many times have you heard that people are moving to Van to be closer to the ocean? Fuck humidity man, makes you colder in the winter and makes you sweat buckets in the summer, I'm fine with nice dry mountain air, and the oceans way to fucking cold to swim in comfortably anyways, what fun is water without swimming?
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I think I'm gonna re-name this thread to "moving to Victoria"
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Remember that part in Star Wars: Episode 3 where Obi Wan is screaming at a near dead Anakin "YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!!! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DEFEAT THE SITH... NOT JOIN IT!!!"?
That is us, Thom.
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(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/7766/weatherinvancouveryk6.png) (http://img80.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weatherinvancouveryk6.png)
(http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/weatherinvancouveryk6.png/1/w259.png) (http://g.imageshack.us/img80/weatherinvancouveryk6.png/1/)
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1945/weatherintorontoqk2.png) (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weatherintorontoqk2.png)
(http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/weatherintorontoqk2.png/1/w265.png) (http://g.imageshack.us/img222/weatherintorontoqk2.png/1/)
Do fish get thirsty?
hahahahaha.
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Vancouver's the best? Vancouver's the worst? It's what you make of it...I think....For me Vancouver's sick....mind you I've never lived anywhere else....but lots of the points made here are wrong...
I'm not fat....I don't pay rent...my job's shitty but who's isn't? it's alot less humid in the summer here than anywhere else....I have been listening to the smiths longer than you but I don't think it makes me any better.....I got TONS of soul! I got skate buddies too...I make new ones every year....we have an indoor too...
I swear man...you'll never hear me bitch about this place, in fact I'm thankful I live here....the only thing that annoys me is there are alot of complainers but it looks like they got those everywhere....
if you're gonna move here I can give you some pointers....
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Anything would be greatly appreciated.
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suggest going to victoria, vancouver island is the shit, and if u really have the urge to go to the city its only 2 1/2 hours away. Ill warn you though avoid duncan at all costs.
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Ok. Most people have told me to go to Victoria, and I can say that I most likely will cause i gotta lot of homies there. But you never known. Both places sound really nice.
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Ok. Most people have told me to go to Victoria, and I can say that I most likely will cause i gotta lot of homies there. But you never known. Both places sound really nice.
Well if u make ur way to vic city lemme know, we can shred or somethin
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Will do. I hear the VicWest park is super fun.
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Seems like I am going to be spending the next semester at UBC. I started checking out some rooms on craigslist, but I don´t really know what I am looking for..
How much should I expect to pay for a room in an ok neighborhood? Where should I try to get an apartement?
Help me out guys!
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OK, I lived in Vancouver from '97 until '04 and have much to say on the topic. If you do go, let me recommend living close as possible to Commercial & 1st. It's a great neighborhood with lots of open-air produce marts, plenty of cheap groceries, and endless cheap take-out possibilities. I get homesick just thinking about it.
Out of a metropolitan population of over 2 million, the number of snotty hipster assholes is only a few hundred—though I will take this opportunity to mention I've been listening to The Smiths since '89. Which is why, to my ears, they're played the fuck out. Anyway, like everywhere else, there are cool people and total douchebags. During my time there I met plenty of über-friendly, easygoing persons that certainly reinforced the laid-back west coast stereotype. (In my own experience, Canadians are, overall, much snottier than Americans anyway.) I have endless stories about pushing around on my skateboard and making new friends instantly—especially girls.
Nowhere else in Canada can you count on enjoying a few sunny, 9°C January days where you can shred in a T-shirt. Sure there's Victoria, but its sleepy reputation isn't for nothing. When you're bored on a Friday night you can always count on a party on the 800 block of Granville. Vancouver's downtown is one of North America's best (I can say this with authority having visited or lived in nearly every major Can/Am city) and will only get even more live when the Canada Line subway/elevated Granville/Cambie/Richmond/Airport train opens this year.
Vancouver's done a great job with city planning considering what a drab shithole the place was in the 1970s. There are lots of happening storefront-sidewalk districts—Broadway and West 4th in Kitsilano, south Granville, Cambie, Main Street, etc.—which is the best measure, in my opinion of any city's value.
I live in Toronto now. It's a true cultural mosaic but it fails to coalesce into an identifiable civic psyche. There are vestiges of the old, WASPy Toronto, but the new Toronto can be defined more as a pastiche of ethnicities under the umbrella of Canadian neurosis. Toronto fancies itself as Canada's answer to NYC, but it's not even on a par with Chicago. The plain brick architecture—with those hideous 1970s horizontally sliding windows—along the former's commercial streets is crude and cheap compared with the impressive terra cotta, bay windows and intricate cornices of the latter.
In that respect, Chicago and Montréal are more similar. Of the three Canuckistan metropolises, Montréal is without a doubt the most flavorful—and, as an added bonus, enjoys the lowest cost-of-living. The skate scene there is robust, yet still impeded by the same issue that vexes Toronto and, to a lesser extent, Vancouver—winter.
Still, if life on four urethane wheels is your thing then there's nowhere else in Canada to go. The lack of an indoor is more than compensated for by the dry, above-freezing winter days you'll be able to enjoy. You can avoid the basement suite issue by living above a storefront (as I did during my 5 years on Commercial) or living in one of those slick glass hi-rises downtown. Having a roommate might literally mean having a roommate, so you might want to bring a pal and shop around for a bunk bed. Still, you can live off buck-a-slice pizza, cheap falafel, free meals at the Sikh and Buddhist temples, and a love of skateboarding. Wow, the more I think about it, the more I'd like to move back.
My most frank advice, however, is to leave Canada altogether and settle in SF, LA, Chi, or NYC. Any of those is a much better city with greater opportunities than any of the of the three Canuckistan cities I mentioned. Greater income potential, lower overall cost of living (apartments are pricey in SF and NYC but most other things—from mobile phone plans to groceries to designer clothing to electronics to car insurance to transit passes to tacos to falafels—are cheaper) and just greater cities overall: culturally, climatically (except Chicago), architecturally (except LA), culinary, etc., etc. No U.S. visa? No problem! Just marry an American girl.
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Wow, never thought I´d get replies like that. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!
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Toronto isn't the Canadian NYC, everyone knows its Moosejaw.
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Update:
I'm staying in Toronto because its awesome and I love Parkdale.
PS.
Chris let's skate as soon as your hip is feeling better.
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East Coast is DA BEST!
(http://www.alig4real.co.uk/images/main_ali_g_01.jpg)
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in the last year i have lived in victoria, north van, downtown van. im currently writing an essay wired on coffee so im gonna quickly type out my thoughts in fragmented sentences.
victoria is nice, but its slow as shit. i got real bored real fast, if youre from t.o you might hate it - i want to move there when im 65 but i nearly went crazy out there in 8 months. if you want to just pile smoke weed and skate parks victoria is a nice place for you, the town is very stagnant so if you cant handle that dont go. victoria wants you to settle down.
downtown van wasnt bad but it wasnt great, lots of alleys to skate from your apartment to pretty much anywhere and your choice of shitty cheap bars to grab drinks at. easy to find jobs, relatively easy to find a place if youre motivated, impossible to hang onto any kind of money i went broke. also feels very hollow for some reason, didnt like it as a home.
north vancouver is my favorite. really easy fast access to downtown/plaza/everything but you dont have to live in the middle of it. kind of on the side of a mountain, my house feels more like a cabin than a suburb place. north van has tons of great parks and sweet canyons and rivers you can trek through with friends to fish/cliffjump/be summery. waking up with a coffee and a smoke on a patio that looks onto just trees and mountains then stepping out your front door into the city is the best. lonsdale is also a viable living spot, lots of sweet shops a really fun street park and quick hillbomb to the seabus that takes you across the water to downtown. from there you can get to skateplaza via skytrain in under 10 minutes.
my suggestion to you is apartment on lonsdale or basement suite anywhere in north van/lynn valley because i really dont know your financial situation.
upper lonsdale 2 blocks north of the skatepark:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/City_of_North_Vancouver_from_Upper_Lonsdale.JPG)
one of a billion cliff jump/pile areas you can forest walk to in lynn canyon:
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3044/2768365024_b38af74eba_o.jpg)
section of lonsdale skatepark:
(http://www.coastalbc.com/skate/photos2004/40905cen00.jpg)
hope this helps a little!
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figures the day after i post this its a blizzard
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I scoff at your beautiful parks and perfect weather.
This is reason to stay in Parkdale.
(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/2644316687_89088259c6.jpg)
(http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/PSTpr0814-Neighbourhood11.jpg)
(http://torontoist.com/attachments/toronto_vald/2008-01-28-banked-bike.jpg)
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I'm backing Albatross on Lynn Valley--just that one place is a key reason I continue fantasizing about returning to Vancouver. I remember having a picnic with my girlfriend there one summer afternoon and seeing a bear come out of the woods 20 feet behind her back. I calmly said to her, Hey, look behind you--and her gasp was unforgettable. He seemed to be satisfied with our leaves and berries and ended up leaving us and our sandwiches after a few minutes.
East Coast is DA BEST!
Except Toronto isn't on a coast. Halifax is. NYC is. Boston is. Philly is 70 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. But Toronto is a Great Lakes city, which really makes it more midwest than east coast.
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OKAY NERD
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My introduction to Parkdale:
On one of the first nights I moved to the neighbourhood me and my roommate got locked on our roof while drinking. We yelled at a crazy dude to come help us, which he did. After helping us out he asked for some money which we gave him. Then we went back on the roof to finish our beers. We watched the crazy dude by crack or something with the money we gave to him on the corner.
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The hooker that tried to seduce me in the winter got busted on my doorstep last month.
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(http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/PSTpr0814-Neighbourhood11.jpg)
we definitely dont have hover-buses
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I'm backing Albatross on Lynn Valley--just that one place is a key reason I continue fantasizing about returning to Vancouver. I remember having a picnic with my girlfriend there one summer afternoon and seeing a bear come out of the woods 20 feet behind her back. I calmly said to her, Hey, look behind you--and her gasp was unforgettable. He seemed to be satisfied with our leaves and berries and ended up leaving us and our sandwiches after a few minutes.
except Toronto isn't on a East. Halifax is. NYC is. Boston is. Philly is 70 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. But Toronto is a Great Lakes city, which really makes it more midwest than east coast.
This sounds dumb, but when I think of East Coast, I don't think of the Ocean as much as I think of the look and feel of the city.
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Was it the webdreams girl?
I'm backing Albatross on Lynn Valley--just that one place is a key reason I continue fantasizing about returning to Vancouver. I remember having a picnic with my girlfriend there one summer afternoon and seeing a bear come out of the woods 20 feet behind her back. I calmly said to her, Hey, look behind you--and her gasp was unforgettable. He seemed to be satisfied with our leaves and berries and ended up leaving us and our sandwiches after a few minutes.
Except Toronto isn't on a coast. Halifax is. NYC is. Boston is. Philly is 70 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. But Toronto is a Great Lakes city, which really makes it more midwest than east coast.
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This sounds dumb, but when I think of East Coast, I don't think of the Ocean as much as I think of the look and feel of the city.
In what way does Toronto feel like an east coast city? Architecturally it has little in common with NYC, Boston, or Philly. Even Chicago is denser. With all its brick Victorian and Richardsonian Romanesque architecture, and the streetcars, Toronto, like San Francisco, is something of a standalone when it comes to cities.
Outside of the Victorian, pre-1900 core, most of Toronto was built on the cheap. Where commercial streets in, for example, Chicago feature ornate terra cotta buildings often with 270° bay windows, Toronto's are basic brick constructions c.1920 that have been retrofitted with awful 1970s-era windows that only open insofar as a little square slides over horizontally—in contrast to Chicago retrofits, which are usually upright sliding PVCs from the 1990s at least. The funny thing is Chicago's rents are cheaper too. For the price of a basement dump in Toronto that hasn't been upgraded since Thomas Morgan was born, you can get stainless steel appliances and granite countertops in Chicago. Not to mention $5 PBR pitchers vs. $18 Sleeman's in Toronto.
In short, Toronto tries to be Canada's NYC but can't even measure up to Chicago. Vancouver tries to be Canada's answer to LA, but can't even measure up to SF, though it does beat Seattle.
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When I talk about Toronto I'm talking about the core, not the dumb 905. I appreciate your response, but whoever said Toronto was trying to be another city? I don't think I did. Toronto is Toronto... Chicago is Chicago... New York is New York... Edmonton is Calgary... and so on...
we've already gone over the fact that Moosejaw is the Canadian NYC
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(http://www.moosejaw.ca/cityhall/transit/images/MooseJawTransit2006.gif)
i mean, fuck, look at the complexity of that transit system... and the downtown...
(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/75/160452985_4355f5e1da.jpg)
(http://www.hotelsbycity.net/images/travelguides/can/saskatchewan/moose-jaw-big.jpg)
(http://seattlethunderbirds.com.ismmedia.com/ISM3/thumbcache/80ff3460a9db0f31fbaea4d61c7012fd.300.jpg)
Please forgive me Moosejaw, i actually love you. You just have a funny name. Anyone on here from Moosejaw?
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Is it true Al Capone hid out in Moose Jaw for a minute?
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Is it true Al Capone hid out in Moose Jaw for a minute?
They found tunnels that apparently were made to run rum. I worked with a guy from there and he claimed his grandfather was involved with the running of the aforementioned rum. But, i didn't believe him, cause Moosejaw is like 500 kms from the boarder.
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Canada is lame. Go listen to G-Unit while thinking you're gangster as fuck with your ginger ass hair and your glasses while riding circas and plan bs
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Canada is lame. Go listen to G-Unit while thinking you're gangster as fuck with your ginger ass hair and your glasses while riding circas and plan bs
you're one of those fat americans that lives in suburbs, i feel bad for you.
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Canada is lame. Go listen to G-Unit while thinking you're gangster as fuck with your ginger ass hair and your glasses while riding circas and plan bs
you're one of those fat americans that lives in suburbs, i feel bad for you.
I'm Average, healthy weight.
Theres a ghetto in Long Island. Go act hard listening to Lil Wayne and pretending you listen to Wu Tang ginger ass bitch. The only good thing to come out of Canada is Rick Howard and Apples.
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Canada is lame. Go listen to G-Unit while thinking you're gangster as fuck with your ginger ass hair and your glasses while riding circas and plan bs
circa plan b how are you so obsessed with skate products, its a thread about moving.
youre fucked mang.
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Canada is lame. Go listen to G-Unit while thinking you're gangster as fuck with your ginger ass hair and your glasses while riding circas and plan bs
you're one of those fat americans that lives in suburbs, i feel bad for you.
Theres a ghetto in Long Island. Go act hard listening to Lil Wayne and pretending you listen to Wu Tang ginger ass bitch. The only good thing to come out of Canada is Rick Howard and Apples.
when you hit the treadmill i'll check out that ghetto. deal?
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Canada is lame. Go listen to G-Unit while thinking you're gangster as fuck with your ginger ass hair and your glasses while riding circas and plan bs
EDIT: That last reply was a little much, but I don't think you're in a position to be criticizing anyone on this board, let alone an entire country. You've got friend leprosy.
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Anybody lived in Kits? I´ve found a pretty good deal there.
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Canada is a shithole. Everyone looks the same, just watch Degrassi.
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Canada is a shithole. Everyone looks the same, just watch Degrassi.
southpark has a much better representation of what canadians look like.
(http://philzine.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/south-park-canada-on-strike.jpg)
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Exactly! And isn't Canada like 100% white and suburbs?
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America is 80% white and invented the suburbs. Canada is 80% white and copied the suburbs from America. In a lot of ways we are the same, but different too.
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Anybody lived in Kits? I´ve found a pretty good deal there.
Great neighborhood. Restaurants, groceries, pubs all over the place. You can walk anywhere but the transit is bus-only, but a north-south subway stop at Cambie & Broadway will open next year with trains going either downtown or to the airport and everything important inbetween.
Kitsilano is alo filled with hot chicks who do yoga and buy nice purses because they have good jobs. You're close to the great UBC Endowment lands if you want a nature fix, and Wreck Beach is an all-summer party.
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Kitsilano is alo filled with hot chicks who do yoga and buy nice purses because they have good jobs.
This is a very convincing endorsement.
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Anybody lived in Kits? I´ve found a pretty good deal there.
Great neighborhood. Restaurants, groceries, pubs all over the place. You can walk anywhere but the transit is bus-only, but a north-south subway stop at Cambie & Broadway will open next year with trains going either downtown or to the airport and everything important inbetween.
Kitsilano is alo filled with hot chicks who do yoga and buy nice purses because they have good jobs. You're close to the great UBC Endowment lands if you want a nature fix, and Wreck Beach is an all-summer party.
Sounds better than living on campus. Got to love those nice purses.