Beautiful Victoria

I’ve chosen the greyest, rainiest part of the continent to enjoy for a few days over my March Break: Victoria, B.C.

Well, I’m actually here to visit an old friend who’s living with her boyfriend for a year while he completes his Master’s degree.

I’m also here just for a little retreat and because I’ve never been to Victoria before and always heard how beautiful it is and it’s true, it’s a lovely little city. But it literally has not stopped raining since I arrived four days ago.

The funny thing is people here seem oblivious to it.

While walking home from a hot yoga class with my friend last night – which by the way was terrible and I’ll never do again; the hot part was ridiculous, I hated it and left before the class was even finished – anyway while we were walking home, a pretty good rain set in. It was the kind of rain that people in Toronto would flip open their umbrellas for, run indoors for, but I followed my friend’s lead and she had almost no reaction. We both put up our hoodies, but that was about it. I guess you just have to get used to being wet around here.

I’ve also asked several people – servers, cashiers, another friend – if it’s always like this in Victoria and they’ve all given me vague looks and nodded saying, “Pretty much” as though they’re not really sure what I’m talking about.

Then, just as soon as I thought nobody else was even noticing the rain, the other day when it started coming down a little harder, I popped into a store and everyone was suddenly commenting: “It’s really coming down out there!”, or “Oh no, is it raining out there?”

Um, yeah, it’s raining out there.

Last night while my friend and I were sitting in her apartment, trying to come up with a plan for the next couple of days, she said: “Let’s check the weather forecast for tomorrow, maybe we can go for a bike ride!”

Even before the screen popped up, I knew what it was going to show, but she seemed somehow surprised.

“Oh no, it’s going to rain!” she said, disappointed.