I’m not sure which is worse, seeing a female cockroach with an egg sac in my house or any cockroach on my face. I react to cockroaches like some people react to spiders: Overreact. I’m also glad that you moved out the following month.

Everything about cockroaches is bad - sheddings, poop, eggs, everything. Same with rodents! When I see rodent droppings in restaurants and storage sheds, and I always warn the staff to wear a mask and gloves, and to give the poop a good spritz of water before doing a bleach sanitise. Aersolised rodent droppings = hantavirus. I think we’ve had enough of that this year in the news already, let’s not add to it.

Oh, that’s so gross. The building manager should get that looked at because that’s a public health concern to have sewage exposed like that. When it rains, the water will take up the space in the tank, and when there’s no space for the sewage to go, it’ll spill out in to the open and go everywhere.

As for the cockroach on your face, I personally would just leave and never come back (from a professional view, put down all the baits and get pest control if it’s too far gone). Cockroaches do bite, so be careful. If you could tell it was a mother cockroach (do you mean it was big, or it had an egg sac attached to it?), then there’s a bigger problem than just one egg sac. You’re either already or about to be a co-parent to millions of babies.

Just an FYI for anyone else who is currently living in a situation similar. 🪳 ☠️

Good question. I’m not sure about the smell of ants because in public health, we don’t consider them to be a concern because the ones that we find in restaurants and such don’t carry diseases that concern us. (AFAIK, anyway.) They act as indicators that they’ve found unprotected (spilled, spoiled, etc.) food. I haven’t encountered such a huge population of ants that I can smell them, so refer to the other person’s comment.

Cockroach smell: It’s really hard to explain well because it’s so unique. I liken them to the smell of a grease trap (old oil mixed with detergents, spoiled food, sewage-y kind of smell. This does not bother me whatsoever), except with a distinct meaty, animal kind of smell that makes it horrible. It doesn’t smell like spoiled chicken, beef, pork that’s been in the fridge for too long, kind of meat.

The words that come to mind are: Heaving, warmth, animal and spoiled… I can usually sense them when I walk in, but when I can smell them, the place is infested = massive heebie jeebies.

This, and cockroaches are associated with allergies and respiratory issues. I can 100% confirm this because whenever I go in to a restaurant, if I start sneezing, I know they’re there. Then I go looking, and I will find them because I can also smell them. 🤢

Also, I was reading this a few weeks ago: The Cockroach and Allergic Diseases.

Living in Australia, they are unavoidable, so yes, they do come inside the house sometimes. The American and German ones are the ones that reproduce very fast and can take over very quickly.

I have an “anxiety first aid kit” in my bag for exactly this when I can’t get out to greenspace. I have:

• menthol cough lollies (smell, taste, feel)

• headphones (hear), and earplugs (hear, for when I’m overwhelmed and need some quiet)

• hand warmers (feel, one of my first signs is cold/numb fingers)

• a nostalgic menthol rubbing oil that my mum used to use on my neck and chest whenever I was sick as a kid (smell)

• peppermint oil for when I’m nauseous (smell)

• I wear a ring (feel).

If I resort to headphones, I also use the Balance app and pick one for dealing with anxiety. It gives me something to focus on when someone is telling me what to do.

I’ll sometimes boil water and steep a few tea bags in a 1 bottle. Put it in the fridge and have it the next day. There are plenty of types of tea out there, so it’s flavoured water.

I sometimes prefer this to fruits and veg because by the end of the day if I’ve forgotten to eat the fruit and veg, they just go mushy and it gets wasted.

Why not do a basic food safety course? It could help you find a job (a server, anyone even passing food to customers in a container is considered a food handler like a cashier, even a dishwasher because they handle clean dishes that touch people’s food), and it’ll help you keep you from getting sick.

One of my first jobs between school years was as a busser before I worked a summer in a chocolate factory. From there, you talk to people and get their insights from their previous jobs, and you figure out if it’s something you could stay in longer or if it’s just a job to pay the bills.

Not likely, though I have not lived in Vancouver full time for some time (about 8 years), I don’t know what the weather is like day to day. It used to be really predictable, but in the last few years, there’s been wild cold snaps. Generally, the lower mainland is pretty sheltered from the weather in the rest of Canada so unlikely to get stuck. Though if there’s a dusting of snow, the rest of the country makes fun of us because most people don’t know how to drive in it.

Someone mentioned the AHL games. Sorry, that’s what I meant when I said Colosseum games. That’s where they host the AHL games. It’s at the Pacific National Exhibition, which is on the east end of Vancouver. Some great tips from the other commenters. I would vouch for not driving across Canada. I’ve done a part of it for work, and though the Rockies are pretty, I wouldn’t do it in mid/late autumn until summer unless you’re comfortable driving in snow, ice and fog.

The autumn foliage will be more October. I love it because I love the cold. If you’re looking to spend a few coins (especially since your currency trumps ours by a lot), the Rocky Mountaineer might be something to look in to.

Depends on how much you want to spend. Do you want to include pre season games, mid season, or chance the play-offs? Do you want to see the Canucks thrash the Leafs? Pick some games where there’s some big rivalries and you’ll enjoy it. These will help you decide where you want to be when. The entire stadium singing of the national anthem gets me every time.

I’m assuming you’ll do plenty of other things in each of the cities. I’m from the West, so I can guarantee you’ll get rained on (umbrella is a must), but the blue sky days are glorious and you won’t freeze like you would back east. The Canucks play in an enclosed stadium, so you’ll enjoy it, but still bring warm clothes. Unless the roof caves in, they won’t likely cancel games.

You can see if you can catch some local games at the Colosseum, too.

Check the cost of seats. Level 100 vs 300 nosebleeds. They can get pricey.

Happy to suggest all sorts of things to do in Vancouver when you’re ready to plan everything else!

Edit: Spelling is hard.

And to be honest, I would pick September or March. September because you get to see the pretty autumn colours, and March because same thing except Spring. Just be aware that there’s two weeks in March that is spring break for the kiddos and uni students. Might want to plan around it so you can do some touristy things without them being overrun.

Edit again: The excuse is that I’m sick and my brain wires crossing so I’m remembering things in pieces. Anyway, season schedule usually is released mid July, so if you’re waiting for the schedule before booking, then you’ve got only a few months to book for flights before December. Going in March/April gives you more leeway for flights. April also gets in to play off season, but you don’t know out of your three cities if they’ll make the play-offs.

Personally, I keep it until it’s got mould. The days recommended really depends on how many times the fridge is opened and how long the fridge is opened for.

Example: I’ve had a opened tub of hummus in my fridge for 2 months and it’s still been fine. I also eat yogurt way past its best before date, so. Shrug None of it would last a week in a share house.

Depends on the food item, but for tomato/pizza sauce, it’ll be the mould if you haven’t cross contaminated the sauce with something else (ie scoop out sauce with spoon, touch spoon to pizza dough, scoop more sauce with same spoon; or wiping finger along rim, licking off finger, and repeat).

Stock Android on Samsung S23 because it was $400 at the time (JB-Hi-Fi had a steal of a deal), and current phone at the time was dead, so I needed something. Otherwise, I’m not sure where I would have gone, but definitely not Apple. All of my workplaces use iPhones and I hate it.

English and swearing.

Used to be fluent in French, but nobody to talk to to practice so I’ve lost a lot of it. Basic Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, German. Learning Gaeilge.