Translink is the GVR’s transit system. I found it a tad intimidating at first glance since fares are based on date, time, and zone, but a closer look at the system made me realise that it’s not confusing in the least. Moreover, like Ottawa’s OC Transpo, Translink offers an excellent online travel planner which sets out the route to take and the fare needed, making it easy for the first time rider to get around. I decided to try going to work for a week with public transit before deciding if I need to move or not since a booklet of ten fares (five round trips) is cheaper than buying the same number of fares individually.

First step today was to find a fare dealer, which I did without too much trouble since the Translink website provides this information with a link straight to Google Maps.

Next step was to get to the Park ‘n Ride. I was glad to be starting work in the afternoon since this would give me a good idea of whether or not I would be able to find parking at 7:30ish in the morning. There was tons of space at 11:30, so I’m confident there will be parking at rush hour.

The bus driver this morning was rude. I presented my ticket and said it was my first time; so he showed me how to ‘validate’ it. That done, I asked if I needed a transfer and he snottily replied that I was holding it. *rolls eyes*

The bus ride felt very long because it was stop and go the whole way, but took only about 25 minutes. My instructions told me to transfer at ‘Surrey Central Station’ but by the time we got to ‘King George Station’ I’d had enough of the bus and decided to get onto the Skytrain a station early.

The Skytrain is a light rail system that reminds me of the El in Chicago in that you mostly travel several stories above ground, but occasionally descend to street level. I was surprised to learn that these trains do not have operators! The trip to my stop took only about five minutes. Work being in the same building at the station, I could have been at the office within five minutes of arrival, but had left home so early I had forty-five minutes to kill, so I had lunch first. Now that I know I can rely on public transit and that there is flexibility in arrival times (because of traffic, for example), I won’t give myself such a huge window of time. Tomorrow, I’m aiming to take a 7:41 bus in South Surrey to get me to work for 8:20.

So, yes, I got the job. 🙂 I went in this afternoon to sign some papers and was put to work straight away. I’m glad since I was ready to hit the ground running. Some of the job entails basic office clerking duties like doing the mail and answering phones, but most of it seems quite challenging and diverse enough to keep me busy and interested. I’m very optimistic about how this will turn out, but not as naive as I was in October. :\ Another thing for which I’m glad is that the dress code is relaxed, so my every day clothes are perfectly appropriate. It helps that I favour skirts, which look dressier than slacks.

I was so focused on arriving at work on time today that I forgot to plan for my trip home! I made it back to King George Station easily, but lost a lot of time finding my bus stop. It is idiotically situated in that you need to walk a block, cross a busy highway with long lights, then walk back down that same block. Tomorrow, I will try to get home from Surrey Station and see if that’s easier. I made it to the bus stop just in time to see my bus drive away, so I had to wait ten minutes for the next one, which did not go all the way to the Park ‘n Ride. I was frozen solid by then, so I decided to take that bus to another exchange point and from there finally managed to catch the bus that would take me to the Park ‘N Ride. I would have made it home in about an hour and a half had I not stopped for groceries.

Fare tickets work differently if you start on the Skytrain. You need to validate your ticket at a machine (which I almost forgot to do, causing me to miss a train) and then revalidate it on each bus you take after. If you start on a bus, then you just validate your ticket there and hold on to it in case a Translink employee on the Skytrain wants to see it.

My goal is to cut my transit time to an hour door to door, but I think I’m being extremely optimistic and that 1 hour 20 minutes is more realistic. I saw an RV park very close to King George Station and I’m going to check it out this weekend. That said, it’s not exactly in the best part of town and looks run down, seeming like it caters to people who want to park for the very long term. For me to move, I need to find a place that is at least 50$ cheaper per month and which will cut my commute time by at least 15 minutes each way. I strongly doubt that will happen, but I’ll do my due diligence anyway. What irks me is that work is barely 30km away! All told, though, public transit will be significantly cheaper than would be driving and then paying for parking.

I very much like using public transportation if it is convenient. Some cities have better systems than others and some systems are incredibly complex for the uninitiated, but it can often be the best way to bypass traffic and parking issues while offering a glimpse of the city you are visiting. When you’re a solo traveler and always focused on your driving, it’s nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the scenery.

The following is a cautionary tale about over dependence on technology. Let me preface by saying that I have a very good sense of orientation. I consistently got high marks in orientation class (ie. getting dropped out in the middle of the wilderness with a topo map, a compass, and a destination to get to). During my canoeing final exam which involved crossing a lake and reaching a pre-determined location, a sneak storm came up while we were in the middle of the lake. With visibility being nil, I was still able to steer my team to safety. Not only were we the first to get across the lake, we also landed where we were supposed to. So, in short, I can normally get to where I need to go.

I had an interview in New Westminster this morning. How I came by this interview is a worthy sidebar, so let me digress for a moment. Craigslist is used heavily in the Vancouver area, so I posted a brief ‘work wanted’ ad there, giving some qualifications, but no personal information. I got five replies to my ad, four of which were obviously legit and merited my sending a complete resumé. One such response garnered me an interview within ten minutes of my sending my resumé!

The interview was situated in a building that houses a Skytrain terminal, so the obvious thing would have been to take public transportation. But I haven’t used public transit here yet and it seems quite complicated, would have had to count on there being parking at the park ‘n ride, and determined that getting to the nearest park ‘n ride would take nearly as long as just driving to the interview site. I knew that the recent closure of the Pattulo Bridge would mean heavy traffic, so I didn’t trust either my GPS or Google when they told me it would take a half hour to get to the interview site. Moreover, I wanted to listen to President Obama’s inaugural speech, which I could do in the car, so I left home around twenty to nine.

The drive went very smoothly, if slowly in parts, and I got to within five or six blocks of the interview site with a half hour to spare. Which is where everything fell apart. There has apparently been some major roadwork done in that part of New Westminster and Majel wasn’t that up to date. She was unable to get me to the building or even remotely close to it. With ten minutes left before the meeting, I finally ditched her at the top of a San Franciscoian hill and set off on foot, using the Skytrain track in the distance for guidance.

I finally got to within eyesight of the building but I still couldn’t get to it! I conceded defeat and called the interviewer, explaining the situation to her. She laughed and gave me instructions. I arrived at 10:01, a minute late.

Let me add that in a show of exceedingly bad packing on my part, my comfortable interview shoes (read flat soled and roomy) were stowed somewhere in the basement this morning while my non-comfortable (read high heeled and toe pinching) shoes were readily accessible. The hike up and down that dang hill sure didn’t do my knees any good!

But the story doesn’t end there! At the conclusion of the interview I had to find my car (no problem there) and get home. Guess how long it took me to circle my way onto the freeway? 🙂

I’m extremely interested in this position and hope it works out. If that’s the case, my next step will be to determine if I need to move to another RV park. I have one in mind that I think is closer to the Surrey park ‘n ride Skytrain station, so I’m going to go visit it this week. I will also investigate if there is a bus that could take me from this park here to the Skytrain station. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 🙂