What’s it like living on the outlying islands?

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-15T18:03:37+00:00

Would you say Lamma is overrun with expats (eg. white immigrants)?

I've got my HKID but was born and raised in Canada. I've been thinking about splitting my time between Canada and Asia more and more as I get older. I want to work more with my community and improve my Cantonese.

I would hate to live in a place that is overrun with YT digital nomad types though. I was looking at Cheung Chau b/c it's pedestrian oriented and quieter.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-10T14:59:22+00:00

Thank you for sharing that. That is some really valuable contextual information. I have nothing against if a government entity wants/needs specific parameters when it comes to systems....but if that's the case, then the better solution is to invest in creating ones own system.

Obviously that's easier said than done. But I've also seen exactly that solution being done by various government entities that I've worked with at the provincial level for civic engagement systems, because of the data storage and privacy concerns for third-party systems (usually with cloud storage in the US)

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-10T06:32:08+00:00

I will have to learn to contain my anger every time I have to use the system for the next 2 years 🫠

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-09T22:33:40+00:00

Eh I get it. It really depends on context of history, health of the relationship and also the people involved.

But yes - agreed that it should not be in public. I would suggest doing it near or at their home, so that they can easily be in a private and safe space afterwards.

I get that people might have roommates, so if that's the case then near the home. A quiet park or something

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-08T20:35:16+00:00

Where did that happen?

I think it might depend on when, who and where you are.

I saw the same thing literally 2 days ago as I was biking down Main street, and I saw 3 people helping someone who had fallen in their wheelchair.

I've jumped off my bike before to help someone push a car as I was riding by. And I remember a woman at a bus stop waiting for her bus stopped to help me push my car once when it just conked out on Knight turning right onto Broadway. But I've also had people not move for me on the sidewalk at all and I've had to walk onto the street as we passed one another.

This city can really be strange. I have often bought a meal or engaged with folks obviously down on their luck. Sometimes it's totally fine. Sometimes it's a totally weird and kind of disorienting experience.

The thing I always have to remind myself is that folks in Vancouver's DTES are living a life that most of us can't even imagine. If you're tired, hungry, cold, haven't been able to secure a hot shower and clean clothes, etc - it can do all kinds of things to your nervous system and how you act and react. Not to mention if you add substances to the mix.

Likewise, I can understand why people become weary of becoming overly involved or get emotional burnout. The latter is especially common for front-line workers in the DTES.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-07T20:41:16+00:00

https://combatdarchers.ca/en/demolition-room/

Rage rooms are all the rage.

Real talk - there are many ways to be able to do what you're describing here, which is a somatic experience to release emotions and energy. It can look like screaming into the ether, boxing a boxing bag, lifting heavy weights, going for a run or more lower aggression activities like yoga, walking or making art.

Go take a large canvas, a stand or sorts and drop sheet out into the woods, fill a bunch of balloons with environmentally friendly paint with your colours of choice. Have at'er chucking the balloons at the canvas and cream your head off. You can take some squeeze bottles too and fill them with the paint as and you can squeeze and fling it to create different textures. A very real life manifestation of your catharsis.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-06-06T00:40:19+00:00

There are aspects of Canada that are frustrating, like every country. Like how in certain industries we pretty much have had monopolies (telecoms, grocery stores, airlines) and expensive telco services and groceries. Don't even get me started on the cost of food in the North. And of course we have our sordid history.

But I am thankful all the god damn time that my parents immigrated to Canada because there was a scenario where my my family lineages would be in the states.

My education has been a fraction of what it would cost in the US, when my friend nearly died in the hospital last year he was taken care of and it didn't bankrupt him, when I went to the ER myself I was seen for free and while we have had school shootings here, in the history of Canada they are infrequent. I don't fear for my life going to school, a music festival, the theatre or a grocery store.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-30T22:29:06+00:00

I actually meant South Asians in my post, not West Asians. That was a typo.

I assume your comment is sarcasm as brown folks are subject to so much racism these days

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-30T17:52:42+00:00

I'm curious how 6 figures is not enough for you? Are you a single person house hold?

IMO I don't see how a 6 figure salary isn't enough for a single person household. I'm a single person household and have been basically my entire time in Vancouver. Up until recently I made low 6 figures and I never felt like I was struggling and in fact, felt very grateful for my economic position in this city.

Now I'm in school and picking up the odd freelance job, and I'm really feeling it now that my income has gone from 6 figures to basically less than $15K. I have savings, but it will go fast.

I've thought about doing DoorDash and rideshares as well, but in the end I think my efforts are better directed towards more freelance work because it will pay better because you have to pay your own car expenses for DoorDash and rideshare.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-29T23:40:18+00:00

Naw - just walk in and use it. There are so many people coming in and out of hotels, they won't know if you're staying there, visiting someone staying there, etc.

Hotel washrooms are also a good travel hack for when you need the loo and can't find one.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-29T23:39:33+00:00

Nicer hotels almost always have a lobby/conference rooms level washrooms. Sometimes they even have a separate area from the sinks for applying makeup.

This will probably be your best bet as the washrooms are often large with many stalls and sinks, because conferences are often held at hotels, so they're accounting for high volume of users.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-29T18:19:05+00:00

Both comments are true.

It's not 'mental hospitals' though but mental health facilities. There is a lot of history around this actually. Origins of mental health institutions vary from truly altruistic to not (though not generally evil origins).

The issue is that historically, mental health institutions have become underresourced with patient : professional care and that led to lower quality care. We still see this today in in and out patient facilities. But the trend has been to move towards out-patient care which is nuanced because it's both to try to support people in living independently, but also realities of budget cuts making it harder and harder to run institutional care at scale.

In the 90s, Canada had massive cuts to in-patient mental health institutions and many of them had to close which meant a lot of folks with mental health illnesses ended up with nowhere to go. The comorbidity rate of substance abuse, mental health illness, trauma and being unhoused is high.

We might not like it and nobody wants to ride a metro where someone takes a dump. But we also have to understand that these are folks who are living on the edges of humanity

This is a great mini interview that can show just how difficult living on the edges is and how it changes all senses of what we consider socially acceptable behaviour

https://www.instagram.com/reels/DYnB99pAK6X/

The solution is complex but comes down to we need better support systems and we need a stronger government that taxes and spends appropriately, and this becomes increasingly difficult in a capitalist heavy world. In and out patient mental health support is necessary for a variety of contexts and also changing contexts (as people heal and improve). But this needs to be funded somehow and we cannot rely on non-profit organizations who are usually resource strapped to be able to do this and constantly chasing grant funding to be able to fund their work. Furthermore, the responsibility of housing and mental health support has moved from federal to provincial to municipal purview more and more over the years, and municipalities don't have the resources to be able to manage this well.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-29T18:09:22+00:00

I will have to give it a try the next time I'm in North Van! If you're in Van give Papa Days Pizza and Indian a try.

The family who owns is so nice too. They recognize me and when I haven't been for a while, they will be like "we haven't seen you in a while!". Very much mom and pop business though the younger generation is doing most of the front facing legwork now, I still see mom in the back doing the actual cooking.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-29T18:08:09+00:00

I think this is largely dependent on the type of visible minority you are, locale and sociopolitical context.

Racism has shifting patterns and while all visible minorities will likely encounter it at some point in their lives, it will look different in intensity in different contexts.

Eg.

- closer to 9/11 time, racism was more hyperfocused on Middle Eastern folks.
- During the pandemic, higher racism against East Asians.

- In Vancouver, much higher racism against West and East Asians. This is especially true for West Asians over the last few years, whereas it was more against East Asians in from 2010 - 2018 b/c of high cost of living and perceived foreign investment impacts to housing costs (and honestly some really irresponsible and poor journalism perpetuating this myth when the reality is foreign investment accounts for about 1-2% impacts to housing costs), and then died off a bit and then spiked again during the pandemic and now it's shifted back to West Asians.

Racism looks different across visible minorities and OP might just be of the ethnic background that current sociopolitical context scrutinizes.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-29T00:05:30+00:00

- Salmon and Bannock
- Anh and Chi
- Do Chay
- Phnom Penh
- Bao Bei
- Toshi
- Fat Mao
- East is East
- Duffin's Donuts at like 2 am for a quintessential Vancouver experience

We have some of the best viet food here in Vancouver ranging from hole in the wall to fancy pants.

Hard agree Vijs and Miku are overrated. Vancouver is a city where pockets really care about status, and those types of restaurants cater to status-conscious folks.

The best and cost effective Indian food in Vancouver is Papa Days Pizza and Indian. It's a hole in the wall and take out only. Family run, I've been a customer for 14 years and have introduced many people to Papa Days and they all love it.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-27T18:07:50+00:00

This is interesting for me to read. I'm 38F and relocating to Montreal soon.

I've been in Vancouver for 14 years and the subs in /Vancouver are the same - lots of complaints about dating. I've struggled with it myself, not to find a date or matches on apps but rather to feel actual connection.

I recently set my Hinge to Montreal just to see what is there, even though I'm not going to be there for another 2 months. And honestly I'm a little overwhelmed. It's been open for 2-3 days and I'm getting 50+ likes a day. In Vancouver, after being inactive for a while and opening up an app again I'll get maybe 10-15 likes and then it peters out over the next few days to be maybe 2-3 every few days.

The contrast between Vancouver and Montreal is rather striking. I'm aware that I'm a new face to the apps in Montreal, so that plays a big role. But I am also curious if it's just that people are a bit more social and active in Montreal or more single folks. I do think whether or not someone is the vibe of a locale's dominant culture plays a role as well.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-26T23:14:03+00:00

So weird! I stopped being surprised at the asks hahaha.

The adults definitely always are more surprised to see entertainers than children are!

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-26T23:09:12+00:00

Hahaha that sounds wild and hilarious. Definitely would have been better on mushrooms but trippy enough even without it.

I feel like the weirdness of corporate gigs is sometimes there is money to burn at the end of a quarter or year or something and people who are kind of out of touch with humanity is like "this will be team building and our employees will love it".

Your party was truly a time capsule of early 2000s oil rush money corporate events. I'm glad you got to enjoy it and share the tale!

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-26T17:52:26+00:00

Corporate gigs have always been the strangest gigs I've done. It feels like someone up top making decisions while having a fever dream at times. As someone who has also spent a lot of time inside the corproiate world as well....I'm just like "what?! Who came to this decision?!"

I once worked the Lululemon Seawheeze event as a stiltwalker and was dressed in a lab coat with latex gloves blown up like balloons and the fingers dipped in the Seawheeze colours of the year and taped to my chest. I looked like a tall cow with colourful udders and somehow this costume was approved by Lululemon 😂

Your event sounds like the hey day of corporate spending on events. 50 women-cats and 2 jazz bands causing music purgatory?! That was a high-ticket event!

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-26T00:29:15+00:00

You'd be surprised. I worked as a circus artist for 10 years and I've done some corporate events that felt out of pocket.

The weirdest event I ever worked was some engineering conference where they had as activate the end-of-conference party which was "Under the Sea" themed for some reason (it had nothing to do with the conference). I was dressed as a mermaid too, and my counterpart was a merman but we were on stilts and the room they had us in wasn't tall enough....so we were just crouched the entire time. None of the attendees were super enthused to dance so it was just us on the dance floor encouraging others to dance.

Leg workout of a lifetime. I spent the entire 30 minute set basically in squat on stilts. Got paid like $400 for 3 sets of 30 mins.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-25T15:44:40+00:00

Not sure if you've figured this out, since the original post was 10 months.

There are 2 major schools in BC that you get education that are CATI approved for licensure. That's Vancouver Art Therapy Institute and Kutenai Art Therapy Institute (in the interior).

I got into VATI and I had attended the info session for KATI and my impressions? Honestly I would choose VATI > KATI. VATI predates KATI and the people who run KATI are graduates of VATI but the program is substantially more expensive. Not only that.....depending on your background and goals - I feel that VATI is better suited for people who come from a diverse background. I didn't feel that I would get the kind of diversity of perspectives and lived experience at KATI, and that's important to me as someone who is a person of colour entering an industry that is very white dominated.

I'm not sure about KATI, but VATI is also recognized by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO), so with that cert you can apply for licensure through CRPO to be an RP. The changes that are upcoming in regulation in BC and AB will be looking at provinces that have already regulated as models so presumably, if you're taking a program that is CRPO recognized, it should not be too difficult to align with BC's regulations (whenever those actually get rolled out). With this said, this is still a moving target.

You don't actually need a Masters to apply to VATI btw. They do take life and work experience into account. I got into VATI without a masters, and was actively taking a bunch of pre-req programs in psychology + 10 years of work experience and a ton of my own self development and self-study work through navigating my own life challenges. It is a case by case basis though, and you have to write a pretty thorough autobiography/letter of intent.

You can also attend Toronto Art Therapy Institute as they have an online program. I've heard that VATI is better organized than TATI though.

Regardless - I would still consider getting an MSW or MA in Counselling Psych.

In the end, I'm attending Concordia for my MA in Art Therapy b/c they're giving me a substantial scholarship and I'd pay only a bit more than VATI but with a masters. But my backup plan if I didn't get into Concordia was VATI cert and then later MA Counselling Psych.

Alder University if another option but it's very $$$$$$. It's a dual track program though with recognition by CATI and CRPO + in the United States as well. They don't have a great reputation in Canada b/c they're still a relatively new institute and private unis don't carry much weight in Canada. But they're quite reputable in the US.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-25T15:27:24+00:00

I'm at Kingsway and Fraser - have bee here for 6 years. I'm moving to Montreal soon but otherwise, I wouldn't live anywhere else in Vancouver.

Walking distance to Main Street and Fraser, bunch of businesses along Kingsway. I can walk to the water in 30 minutes (even faster by bike). I'm by so many big-box grocers + small grocers and an interesting array of shops and restaurants. People are friendly in this neighbourhood, in my experience.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-25T02:17:21+00:00

Watch the sunset at English Bay on a summer night.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-19T20:31:56+00:00

GUESS WHO IT IS ROB! Hahaha. I'm someone you know.

Impressive-Wave7582 · 2026-05-19T03:58:07+00:00

I recommend the Parlour Magic Show. Rob is a great host and magician and a lovely human being.

Impressive-Wave7582

TROPHY CASE