Guest Blog and Photos by Erin Humphrey
In my twenty-two years of life, I had never before crossed the border of the United States. Going to Canada to study abroad seemed almost silly, but it was my first baby step. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to study architecture through the University of Oregon in Vancouver, British Columbia.
I arrived in the Dream City by train. With my bags packed in my professor’s car, myself and fifteen other students rode our bikes from the station to the downtown hostel where we would be staying for the next three months. This was the best, most beautiful way to arrive in Vancouver. The breeze was blowing over my face, water was ten feet to the left, a towering city ten feet to the right, and blue skies were all that could be seen overhead. We rode along the seawall that runs around the entire city. In Vancouver, pedestrian and bicycle transportation is common so we were sure to stay in our designated bike lane. Only thirty minutes in Vancouver, I knew this was going to be a great adventure.
It was great being able to ride our bikes everywhere we went in the city, but that may be because it was our only means of transportation. We rode everywhere. One weekend, our wheels took us through Stanley Park. The sun was shining and the roads were drying from the light sprinkling from earlier that night. People were everywhere as they are when the sun comes out and the weekend arrives. The park has a rule that you can only ride in one direction around the park, but we were told that people do it anyways. We didn’t think it would be a big deal if we went the other way, but boy do people let you know when you’re going the wrong way. Still, we kept going in search of a large grassy area in the sun to stop, play Frisbee, and relax.
We stayed long enough to watch the sun set. It was breathtaking. The fading sunlight touched the water and islands that surround the park and the towering mountains in the distance. This particular bike ride will always be a fond memory of mine when remembering Vancouver.
Read more stories from study abroad students in our Spring 2010 series, Blogs from Abroad.
Erin Humphrey is a fifth-year architecture major at the University of Oregon. She grew up in Mammoth Lakes, California, a small town located in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Along with fifteen other students, Humphrey studies at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD) on Granville Island in Vancouver, BC. She hopes this experience will guide her to traveling more and expanding her horizons about beautiful architecture, people, and locations around the world.
