Six Months On

During this last week Claire and I hit the end of our sixth month here in Vancouver. I would have blogged on the day, but work has been keeping me busy and tired!

The longest time I've spend outside of Ireland apart from this was six weeks in America back in 2008. That was an incredible time, jam packed to bursting point with adventure after adventure, none greater than the start of our adventures into married life together.

Six months is also the longest time between visits home to see my family. When I first moved to Cork I went home every weekend, then every other weekend, then once a month. Soon everything I considered important to me apart from family was in Cork, and I went home only on occasion. But I was never away for a whole six months. I loved getting home to mums cooking, the beautiful views, the smiling faces of old friends. I loved relaxing and doing nothing, chatting to my family and playing with the dogs.

But now I'm on the other side of the planet. I can't grab a train home, or just go for the weekend. And where Cork was filled with all my friends, making trips home less important by virtue of how much it too was my home, Vancouver hasn't hit that point yet. It still feels like Cork did during my first year there. Sure, I have made some friends here and I'm busy from Monday to Friday, this time doing work I love rather than studying. But I still miss what I had.

All that aside, I still don't plan on running home to Ireland any time soon. Vancouver is an incredible place. Over the last few months I've had the chance to sample just a little of what this city and it's neighboring areas have to offer.

I can't get enough of the hiking, walking, and other outdoor activities that I can do from either own front door or after a short hop on the bus. I've worn t-shirts on top of snowy mountains in the middle of June, walked across shaky suspension bridges and around suspended cliffside walkways, I've walked to Downtown from my doorstep, traveled the edge of the local park, and sat out on the grass with 2,000 other people to watch one of my favourite movies played on a huge screen for all to enjoy. 

These first six months have come and gone with surprising speed. I'm looking forward to more time spent exploring Vancouver over the next few months and, with luck, years.