My first visit to Vancouver took place in August 2003. I got a summer job with Red Leaf, a Spanish-Canadian company specialized in student exchange programs and I lived during a month with a Filipino host family in Langley, a little town nearby.
I remember different highlights from that trip, such as the visit to Capilano, with its famous hanging bridge and the beautiful scenery:
I remember the visit to Stanley Park, with the picturesque totems and the city skyline in the background:
A nice stroll around Gastown, and a photo next to its famous steam-powered clock, was – of course – also a must.
Finally, among other amazing discoveries, I remember that I ate sushi for the first time in my life, which was such an exotic meal for me at that time that I decided to immortalize the event with a couple of pictures:
Time goes by very quickly. This Monday, I came back to Vancouver, where I will be staying a whole week to attend NIPS, an international conference in Machine Learning.
These photos were taken today, around the conference hotel:
Same city. Same streets. Same camera. Same fingers pushing the same button, although four years have passed. Same me? Maybe yes, maybe not. A couple of days after my return to Spain in 2003, my French adventure began. At that time, the American dream was little more than that: just a dream, and a dream that many would have deemed naïvely optimistic to say the least. And yet, life teaches you that dreams do actually come true. Some of them do. Sometimes. Vancouver yesterday, Vancouver today: it feels weird to bathe twice in the same river. Some will argue that such a thing is impossible, because the water changes all the time. I don’t care too much about the water. The river calls and I am not fearful of change, for change is the essence of dreams. This week, for a change, beautiful British Columbia welcomes me back. More mature, more humble and more, much more aware of myself. Same passion for life? Definitely yes.
I still got the nice postcard you sent me back in 2003 from Vancouver: I see it from where I am now over the shelves of the library.
I do not know why, I was certainly expecting from you a nice post remembering the first time you visited the city. We are back to Heraclitus again: All things flow. Panta Rei. You cannot take a bath twice in the same river (AKA: You cannot visit twice the same city). The river-city is not the same. Maybe you aren't the same as well.
Anyhow I left you with another thought:
I take for sure as well that in many cases: "the water flows, but the river remains the same": there are never changing things?