Almost time to go!

Some of us at the Blarney Stone Saturday night.

It's Sunday night and I'm counting down to my departure for the land of pineapple lumps, jandals and pohutukawa on Wednesday! It feels like the last 7-odd months have gone quickly, but when I look back through pictures it seems a lot has happened since I first arrived and found work and a place to live. I'm going to miss the friends I've made here. I went out for farewell drinks at an Irish bar last night and am just a tad hungover today as we had to mark the occasion with the ingestion of repeat measures of alcohol beverages. I've made friends with people from Australia, Iran, the Czech Republic, Germany, the U.S., and of course a few Canadians! Several people have said they'd like to visit me in NZ which will be awesome!

I've been reflecting on things I've learned while I've been here. Some of the following are specific to Canada, others are more general. Here's a summary:

• Rain is actually quite tolerable when it falls straight down (compared to Windy Welly where it gets blown horizontal and umbrellas are a waste of time).
• It rains a LOT in Vancouver. No one mentioned that before I came over!
• There are lots of weird and wonderful people in this world, and they all take public transit.
• It's hard to find bread at the supermarket that isn't really sweet.
  
• They don't sell custard powder over here! Apparently it's more of an English thing.
• The minimum wage is really low ($8/hour) and temp wages are much lower than in NZ and Australia.
  
• It is possible to copy and paste between spreadsheets in a half-asleep state - you can run on autopilot!
• It is possible to have a "sugar hangover" the day following consumption of copious quantities of chocolate.
• If you're going to take your shoes off on a long-haul flight, ALWAYS put the free airline socks on over your own and no matter what you do, do not look down at the little rim that runs around the edge of the toilet cubicles. 'Specially not later in the flight. Dispose of socks with care at end of flight.
• Zip-loc bags are strangely popular over here. Everyone uses them.
  
• Seafood is not so bad after all, and in fact lobster, crab, and squid are actually pretty good!
• Unless you specify otherwise, hot chocolate is always served with a huge topping of whipped cream ("whip").
• A lot of Canadians are amazed that there is a whole country of ONLY 4 million people, southeast of Australia. One guy made a remark that I shouldn't be too picky about men considering the tiny population in NZ!
  
• Going to an ice hockey game is a lot of fun!
• Sub-zero temperatures are actually quite tolerable when there's no wind! I didn't freeze to death and I actually quite enjoyed the cold weather, though Vancouver doesn't get anywhere near the cold temps experienced in other parts of the country.
  
• Squirrels and raccoons are really cute and will come right up to you, looking for food. But you don't want to let them get too close because they can carry disease.
  
• Paddington Bear was right. Crows are evil.
  

The world has been transformed!

...by a blanket of snow!

When I woke up this morning it was snowing outside! Lost Lagoon was a sea of white, almost totally frozen over. It has continued to snow all day and I just came back from an hour outside, walking round, taking pics and just taking in what it's like to be in falling snow! I don't really have suitable pants for cold weather, so I pulled one pair on over pink pyjama bottoms, added hat, gloves and eskimo jacket, and set off!

This was pretty exciting for this Kiwi girl who has never lived anywhere it snows before!


This is from earlier in the day, when the sky cleared a little. You can see a lot of the lagoon is frozen over.


I really like how the flash lit up the falling snowflakes!




Moi.

SNOW!

There was great excitement at work yesterday due to a forecast for snow in the afternoon. The antipodean contingent on the floor (there are quite a few Aussies) was particularly vocal with regular checks out the kitchen window and updates passed along. We didn't actually see snow yesterday, but look what I woke up to this morning.....




That's snow down to about halfway down the mountains. My apartment is almost exactly in the middle of the first photo, tucked in behind the downtown high-rises, and I look out towards the mountains. It was dark when I got up and I spent some time pottering around getting ready for work before I turned around and looked out the window and my jaw just dropped! It was so amazingly beautiful. I think I actually squealed with excitement like a little kid!

We had a high of 4C yesterday. It is so cold! I have some difficulty crossing the road outside my building when I'm making my way to the bus stop in the mornings, because the intersection is always iced over and I don't really have any suitable shoes! I have slipped, but not slipped over yet!

I'm hoping to go up into the mountains this weekend for some snow play-time! :o)

Return to Kiwi-land?

If you think "dill pickle-flavoured" rice chips sounds kinda wrong, you'd be right. I had to try some yesterday when I saw them in the supermarket and they weren't awful, but they weren't an experience I will repeat in a hurry. That's one thing that is fun about coming to a new place: trying all the new types of food. One thing that has become a favourite is the peanut butter/chocolate candy combination. Reese's peanut butter cups and Reese's Pieces are addictive!

I have just over 3 weeks left here in Canada! It seems a few people didn't realise I would be returning to NZ so soon, so I'll explain. When I booked my ticket to Vancouver, I booked a return flight also, so that I would return in time for the wedding of my friends Rindy and Andrew in Auckland just before Christmas. I am also very excited to be maid of honour for my best friend Mary when she marries fiance Pete in February, so it makes sense to head home for the summer and stay put. I did say to a few people before I left that if I loved it over here and found a great, well-paid job that made it worthwhile to perhaps return for the last couple of months of my visa (which expires in April), I might come back over. However, while I'm glad I came over and have had a great adventure, I am really looking forward to returning to Wellington, catching up with family and friends, and getting stuck into a new chapter of my life. The money that temps get paid in Canada is really just enough to get by and take a few weekend trips - certainly not enough to justify flying back for the last couple of months. And on top of this, I've decided I'm a warm climate girl! It's been fun to experience the fall here and see the snow starting to appear on the mountains, but I'm quite relieved to be leaving ahead of the real chill of winter! It's too cold for me now and it's only November!! I know lots of people are looking forward to the ski/snowboard season, but I'd rather head back to summer sunshine and beaches in NZ!

There are a few things left that I need to do before I leave Canada. One of these that I managed to tick off the list on Friday was to attend a hockey game! It seems Canadians grow up on ice skates and ice hockey is a huge thing here. It's like rugby to New Zealanders. I was extremely lucky to be offered a ticket at the last minute to see the Vancouver Canucks play the Minnesota Wild. My friend got tickets through the place where she is temping - they have club seats that are worth $150 a ticket! The seats were amazing, 8 rows up behind the penalty box, and we could hear the skates carving up the ice and the crash of the players slamming up against the boards. The whole thing was very exciting with lights and music and the crowd really getting into it. The Canucks won 6-2 which the crowd was pretty happy about. My friend B and I had silly grins on our faces the whole time, it was just so much fun! A bonus of having a club seat is that they bring your beer to you in your seat :D

As my departure gets closer, I've been reflecting on things I've learned and things I'll miss. One thing I've picked up on is that there are at least four different ways to pronounce "mmm-hmm" and at least four different corresponding meanings. The first "mmm" part is usually pretty standard, but depending on how high you go with the "hmm" part and how long you stretch it out, it can mean anything from:
'Great! I'm not really listening but I'll pretend I'm agreeing'
to 'Really??'
to 'Ooh I know, isn't that great!'
to 'Oooh, now that's a juicy piece of gossip!'

This is my own observation and when I've tried to discuss it with Canadians, they don't really know what I'm on about, but they do it all the time!

A while back I promised some pics from my trip to Whistler in August and I never got round to it, so here are a couple of my favourites. I've also added some more pics below to my last post about Ottawa and Montreal.


"Going on a bear hunt, going on a bear hunt, we're not scared! We're not scared!"


We got so close to these bears, it was amazing... and probably a bit dangerous.




Some beary tasty shots.


Brekky in Whistler village.


Baby Bear. Gotta watch out for Momma Bear!

Turning into a pumpkin?

Caroline and I with pumpkins at the Byward markets. It was about 4C outside when we set off for our walk!

Bonjour! What's new with me? I had a great week in Ottawa and Montreal recently. I stayed with my friends Paul and Caroline in their new/old "chateau" - they just moved into a 3-storey house with a turret! They were wonderful hosts again (I stayed with them in Toronto 3 years ago) and made me very welcome, as well as taking time out to show me around. I really, really enjoyed seeing the beautiful fall colours in that part of the country. Apparently I missed the peak of the fall colour palette about two weeks prior to my trip, but I was still really taken with what I saw - orange, red, yellow, gold, amber and everything in between! Flying across the prairies was quite something for someone from a much smaller country. I'd never seen so much flat land that seemed to go on forever!

The changing seasons sort of became a theme for my week. Pumpkins (and squash) are in plentiful supply at this time, and there are pumpkins everywhere - carved pumpkins as part of Halloween displays and all kinds of foods made with pumpkin! I love pumpkin and was happy to try as many pumpkin-flavoured things as I could find! We picked up some pumpkins from the farmer's market and I made pumpkin soup and pumpkin and bacon risotto. Caro made some lovely pumpkin muffins (that I now have the recipe for!). We even found some pumpkin beer so had to buy some and try it! Not too bad but you wouldn't want to drink a lot of it. I also saw pumpkin creme brulee but didn't try it. In the interests of research I also tried a pumpkin spice latte this week (not recommended) and I plan to try a pumpkin scone tomorrow.

Ottawa, being Canada's capital, has lots of museums and galleries to check out. Unfortunately I was sick (just a cold, nothing too serious!) while I was away so I didn't see quite as many things as I would have liked to, but I did see the National Gallery, the parliament buildings, the Byward market area, and went to several nice places to eat (Persian, Thai, Mexican). It was also nice just to have some time out to read, sleep in, get better, hang out with Paul and Caro, and eat lots! I don't know who has the biggest sweet tooth but we seemed to have a week of desserts, with the praline butter tart being a highlight.

Because I was a little under the weather I decided to wait till the weekend to go to Montreal with Paul and Caro, instead of going there midweek by myself for a couple of days. I was blessed with great weather most of the week in Ottawa, but sadly it was raining cats and dogs when we were in Montreal! We stayed downtown and walked around Old Montreal the next morning, and found some nice places to eat and keep out of the weather. Another sweet toothed highlight: the chocolate and fresh banana brioche I had for breakfast at a great organic cafe!

Other trip highlights were Paul's guided bicycle tour along the Rideau Canal and the fact that just when it was time to leave and head to the airport, we looked outside and it was snowing! Yes, that's right. it SNOWED! That was pretty cool.

Work update: before leaving for Ottawa, I finished up my four weeks with the Evaluation Studies Unit. The people there were really lovely and took me out for lunch on my last day and gave me a card! It was so sweet and certainly not expected! I enjoyed working there as a research assistant although it was quite high intensity at times. They mostly do curriculum evaluation of the medical degree program, which feeds back to curriculum planners. I also worked on a special project to attempt to determine predictive factors for where graduates end up practising, as there is a big shortage of doctors in rural locations so anything that might help encourage them towards rural practice is of interest.

I checked my email two days before flying back to Vancouver and there was a message asking if they could have me back for another six weeks, right up till when I leave! That's great because it helps with budgeting and planning. I've been back for a week now and they've even made me a door sign with my name and title on it :D I get along well with my boss who is just two years older than me. Like me, she is number 3 out of 4 sisters. and one of her sisters lives in New Zealand (married to a Kiwi) so she has a bit of a Kiwi connection.

I will add more pics from my trip soon!