(In english again... sorry...)

If you've subscribed on www.thoonsen.com/canada, even without speaking dutch, youprobably noticed that we are having a

BLOODY AWESOME TIME!!!

here in Vancouver! No it hasn't all been smooth, but man, this is one goood city to be in. Why? Well, it's a multitude of things: the people are fantastic! Everyone is super friendly and helpful. It's clean, it's organized, it's pretty, it has lots of different landscapes (beach, park, forrest, downtown, suburbs, mountains, lakes) and all within a very small distance from eachother, loads of nice restaurants, coffeeshops, shopping areas, etc, it's very multicultural which caused a high level of integration and there is something going on all the time so you never have to get bored. Oh, I have to mention all the crazy 2nd hand stores here! Fell in love with a vintage clothes shop where Sjoerd bought me the coolest hat and we browsed ages in a 2nd hand bookshop where we invested in our on-the-road-library. So excited to go to the fleamarket to buy 'uitzet' for our van. :) heehee.

When we first arrived we didn't manage to find a couch on the first night, so we stayed in a hotel. From there on though, we've been couchsurfing all the time and met some really wonderful people! Special thanks to Erin who hosted us for several nights, kinda by mistake. Hooray for flexibility! This network has meant a great deal in our trip, because not only did it provide us with a place to sleep, but we got great tips on things to do/see/eat inthe city.We also spend a really nice night with a bunch of CSers in someones house and we met a diamond of a guy who is helping us find our dream-van to tour the country with. Like i said: go check out the website!!! NOW!!

About the car: we have not yet purchased any, but we made a huge progress. We know all there is to know about the insurances etc and we have a good grasp on what to look for in adds and have also viewed two vansso far with Dan-the-man.Solaterwe found this near-perfect ve-hi-cle (thanks Aoife, I will never be able to say that word normally again...) and made an appointment with theowner to come see it next friday. Then we had to rescedule and when I called him again today, he just bluntly said: 'it's gone. a guy came by and said it was perfect and bought it'.

!!#%#^#&*&*^%^^%#^%#&!!! That's not fair!!!

Anywho: we're looking hard on craigslist and there are plenty of nice vans, so we're not giving up.

The weather has been pretty great and we've seen many cool things. Can't wait to hit the road, so maybe we'll find our home for the next year this week!

Again: thoonsen.com/canada for the latest news and pictures. Dunno when I'll update this again. Love yall! xx

Ps: give me a million dollar now and I will spend it to the last penny in Urban Outfitters... Shopping Frustration Level: High.