Why not do a basic food safety course? It could help you find a job (a server, anyone even passing food to customers in a container is considered a food handler like a cashier, even a dishwasher because they handle clean dishes that touch people’s food), and it’ll help you keep you from getting sick.

One of my first jobs between school years was as a busser before I worked a summer in a chocolate factory. From there, you talk to people and get their insights from their previous jobs, and you figure out if it’s something you could stay in longer or if it’s just a job to pay the bills.

Not likely, though I have not lived in Vancouver full time for some time (about 8 years), I don’t know what the weather is like day to day. It used to be really predictable, but in the last few years, there’s been wild cold snaps. Generally, the lower mainland is pretty sheltered from the weather in the rest of Canada so unlikely to get stuck. Though if there’s a dusting of snow, the rest of the country makes fun of us because most people don’t know how to drive in it.

Someone mentioned the AHL games. Sorry, that’s what I meant when I said Colosseum games. That’s where they host the AHL games. It’s at the Pacific National Exhibition, which is on the east end of Vancouver. Some great tips from the other commenters. I would vouch for not driving across Canada. I’ve done a part of it for work, and though the Rockies are pretty, I wouldn’t do it in mid/late autumn until summer unless you’re comfortable driving in snow, ice and fog.

The autumn foliage will be more October. I love it because I love the cold. If you’re looking to spend a few coins (especially since your currency trumps ours by a lot), the Rocky Mountaineer might be something to look in to.

Depends on how much you want to spend. Do you want to include pre season games, mid season, or chance the play-offs? Do you want to see the Canucks thrash the Leafs? Pick some games where there’s some big rivalries and you’ll enjoy it. These will help you decide where you want to be when. The entire stadium singing of the national anthem gets me every time.

I’m assuming you’ll do plenty of other things in each of the cities. I’m from the West, so I can guarantee you’ll get rained on (umbrella is a must), but the blue sky days are glorious and you won’t freeze like you would back east. The Canucks play in an enclosed stadium, so you’ll enjoy it, but still bring warm clothes. Unless the roof caves in, they won’t likely cancel games.

You can see if you can catch some local games at the Colosseum, too.

Check the cost of seats. Level 100 vs 300 nosebleeds. They can get pricey.

Happy to suggest all sorts of things to do in Vancouver when you’re ready to plan everything else!

Edit: Spelling is hard.

And to be honest, I would pick September or March. September because you get to see the pretty autumn colours, and March because same thing except Spring. Just be aware that there’s two weeks in March that is spring break for the kiddos and uni students. Might want to plan around it so you can do some touristy things without them being overrun.

Edit again: The excuse is that I’m sick and my brain wires crossing so I’m remembering things in pieces. Anyway, season schedule usually is released mid July, so if you’re waiting for the schedule before booking, then you’ve got only a few months to book for flights before December. Going in March/April gives you more leeway for flights. April also gets in to play off season, but you don’t know out of your three cities if they’ll make the play-offs.

Personally, I keep it until it’s got mould. The days recommended really depends on how many times the fridge is opened and how long the fridge is opened for.

Example: I’ve had a opened tub of hummus in my fridge for 2 months and it’s still been fine. I also eat yogurt way past its best before date, so. Shrug None of it would last a week in a share house.

Depends on the food item, but for tomato/pizza sauce, it’ll be the mould if you haven’t cross contaminated the sauce with something else (ie scoop out sauce with spoon, touch spoon to pizza dough, scoop more sauce with same spoon; or wiping finger along rim, licking off finger, and repeat).

English and swearing.

Used to be fluent in French, but nobody to talk to to practice so I’ve lost a lot of it. Basic Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, German. Learning Gaeilge.

As someone who’s played instruments since an early age, I can say that I’m one of those people who are really shit at chords, so guitar is really hard for me.

I started on clarinet (had lessons), saxophone, flute, and bits of piano and trombone. Once I had the lessons, it made picking up other instruments so much easier. I currently have an Irish flute and whistle and the flute is such a challenge without all of the traditional concert flute buttons.

So like FinjaminPoach, I would also recommend some lessons to start to get the basics (perhaps online videos might suffice, but I’ve never explored those).

Another bit of advice is to practice, practice, practice. And pick up some music you want to work towards playing, not just Mary had a Little Lamb. That’s boring as batshit. There’s all sorts of versions for same songs. There’s easy versions for beginners, and then there’s the harder versions with all of the little pick ups, syncopation, fast parts, etc. that make it sound like the artist’s studio version.

Fumble with the easy one, but it gets easier when you commit the notes/fingering/chords to memory first so you don’t keep having to look at the fingering chart. Once you memorise those, it feels like you’ve broken a barrier when you can get through a song with all its mistakes and your effort sounds even somewhat like a real tune you can recognise. From there, it’s practice.

If you’re just looking for presence/absence of live microbes, just use ATP swabs.

I used to work on a local mountain in Vancouver and I once had someone ask about taking a day trip to Niagara Falls. What.

For English, press 1.

Pour le Français, appuyez sur 2.

Not sure about the Hume since I haven’t driven it in years, but I regularly do the Western Highway, and WOW the fully loaded B-doubles are aggressive af. You could be going 20kmh about the limit and they’re still riding your ass. The only time they slow down is in the towns. There are way too many deaths on that highway.

I have been pretty lucky with the roos not jumping out in front of me, but I’ve had birds and emus. They are not fun.

I’m not so up on what’s new and such, and I’ve really enjoyed a few games I’ve downloaded:

(Obligatory apology for any link or format issues. On mobile and first time posting.)

Scalak. You rotate and move blocks and pieces around to try to match up edges. Hard to explain. Kind of like the baby’s “put the square in the square hole” toy except for adults. It’s got really nice, calming music, so it’s nice to play before bed or offline on the plane.

MultiSudoku. Off-line sudoku that has five sudoku squares (?) attached together.

Word Hero. I love word games and this has been my favourite. It’s basically Boggle and after each game, it ranks the scores from everyone around the world who played the same game as you. Been playing this for years. Unfortunately online only.

Burnable Garbage Day. Earth has completely filled with rubbish, and a cleaning robot has woken up from a deep slumber to find out why the planet has become this way. Originally a Japanese game so the translations are a bit dodgy, but it’s a really fun play. I think it can be played offline. It’s been a while since I’ve played this.

Mahjong 13 Tiles. The only actual mahjong game I could find that isn’t like the old Windows tile matching game. This is the gambling version where there is no money bets, but you can play against bots. It’s been ages since I’ve played this so I can’t remember if it’s online or offline or if you can play against real people.

Dingbats. Guessing famous idioms from drawings. Can be played offline.

Quell Reflect. Moving a bubble around to capture all the gems. The puzzles get harder as you progress. Can be played offline.

Influence. You start with one cell (think Chinese checkers) and you keep spreading your influence to conquer the other players. Can be played off-line.

What the Forecast. Obnoxious, rude weather app.

Whicons. Minimalist white icon pack for Android.

BirdNET. Identifies birds by their call. I’ve used this in Canada and Australia.

Plant Net. Same thing as BirdNET but photos of plants. Also can confirm it works in Canada and Australia.

Edit: Forgot one game, Slitherlink. I set it to easy and listen to podcasts in the background to wind down at the end of the night. Each hexagon (or whichever shape you choose) has a number, and each number represents the max number of sides that can be selected. Eventually the entire board is connected via one line. You’ll have to read the description, it’s the best description I can give, albeit not a very good one.

Edit edit: This is what happens when I haven’t had my coffee yet. Kakuro is another numbers game like sudoku.