Pro & Con List of Moving to Vancouver

It's not "new" that I want to move to Vancouver. But after this past weekend there, I'm really starting to wonder why I (or anyone) would be living anywhere else in Canada. Why would you be throwing your life away someplace else when a city like Vancouver is an option? This is the question that I ask myself.

Of course, I could not just pack up and go unless things were right in my life to do so... But for your reading pleasure, here's my very own PRO and CON list about moving there.

~PROS~

(It's the best city in Canada for the below reasons.)

- After five years, Edmonton has started to feel "small" and extremely familiar to me... I could go for a new adventure.

- I have LOTS of really amazing friends there. (Julia, Krystie, Erin, Krystyn, Aime, Kyrstn, Andrea.)

- Amazing sushi and seafood! I'm TIRED of crappy, frozen, middle-of-Canada sushi and seafood. It's about time that I got to enjoy some QUALITY.

- The most obvious reason, of course: MOUNTAINS & OCEAN. Right now the mountains are a 3 hour drive away... And there sure is NO ocean...

- The weather. People can complain all they like about the rain, but I'd take rain over snow ANY day. BC is like a lush, beautiful, fresh rain forest. They have green grass and leaves on the trees ALL year. There are flowers EVERYWHERE. The summers are GORGEOUS. Right now I'm used to being pounded by foot after foot of snow for six months, and lows of -30. NO THANK YOU. Average Vancouver temperature in January? +3. Look it up.

- I want to learn how to surf. How do you suggest that I do that in Alberta?

- Vancouver is a 1.5 hour drive away from my absolute most favourite place in the world so far, Whistler, BC.

- Speaking of which, snowboarding (which I now love) at the BEST ski resort in North America and maybe even the world is 1.5 hours away.

- Kitsilano is my soulmate of neighbourhoods. Walking around there, I kept asking; "HOW do I not live here???" It's exactly like Whyte Ave, except with an amazing beach attached to it. Much like Whyte, it's just far enough away from downtown to not contain as much riff-raff, yet is still central.

- Van is full of hippies turned yuppies. What better place for me to be the true Urban Hippy that I so crave to be?

- Basically ALL of the Canadian bands that I love are from Vancouver. Now that's a music scene that I could support!

- I LOVE just spending the day laying on the beach, soaking in the sun, and breathing in the salty air... I truly feel deprived of not having that available to me.

- The USA is about half an hour away. That close to a Victoria's Secret?? And Seattle is only two hours away which I've always wanted to visit.

- NO MORE REDNECKS AND HILLBILLIES!!!

- The general laid-back attitude and atmosphere. It's doesn't seem all high-strung at all.

- The MASSIVE film industry. Imagine if I could make a hobby for myself out of doing some extra work here and there? I would LOVE that.

- Everyone is doing it.

~CONS~

(It would be hard to leave for the below reasons.)

- I LOVE how familiar Edmonton is to me. I feel like I know where everything is, and especially where everything that I like is.

- It would be very hard to leave my amazing friends. (Rachelle, Amy, Nicole, Sarah, Laura.)

- Whyte Ave. A neighbourhood that I love and adore. It's a part of who I am.

- I completely LOVE my job at SONiC, and even the thought of ever leaving is terrible to me.

- Right now my family is a 7 hour drive away to Regina. I don't know if I'd ever actually drive 19 hours to get to them...

- The gas is way more expensive there... I guess that actually applies to living costs in general there.

- The idea of "starting from scratch" as far as restaurants go is very intimidating to me and sounds like A LOT of work.

- I love all of the Edmonton summer activities, like the Fringe Festival. I'm sure that Van has these as well, but at the moment they are unfamiliar to me.