Jetlag be gone!!

Dear Lynette,

So we have been in Calgary for 5 days now. It's been pretty hectic with sorting out insurance, banks, meeting work colleagues and learning how to navigate the numbered/directional street names (i.e. 16th NW). Its actually a very logical system but when you have lived your life in countries with street names its a bit of a challenge at first.

James and I are both finding it hard to get over the jetlag. We have done the sensible thing of holding out to go to bed at the Calgarian "bed time" and tried waking up with the rest of the city, but yesterday we had to give in and catch up on some sleep during the day. I think its going to take a little while longer till we have fully adjusted to this time zone. James is off to his first full day of work today (seminars and meetings so we hope he can keep his eyes open!), I start next week so I get some time to relax which is nice.

Accommodation here in Calgary is pretty tight at the moment, especially if you are looking for a fully furnished place. Apparently we are lucky we didn't come in September when uni started as all the accommodation around the uni had been taken by the uni students. We had a look at a "basement suite" which is basically a unit/apartment with all the trimmings located in the basement of a house. They are common in Canada, but reviews have been mixed. If you do decide to get one its recommended that you find one with windows, preferably large ones to let in as much light as possible, and make sure that the door won't be snowed in! The suite we looked at was large with lots of windows and meet all of our requirements but the landlord seemed pretty dodgy (and not in a good way!), so we gave it a miss.

We have been a bit worried about finding some accommodation in our price range that met our requirements and were going to stay on at the uni in their townhouse for an extra month when we came across a lovely wee condo a 20minute bus ride away from the uni that is just fantastic!! Ideally we would have preferred to be on the LRT (light rail train) route which is much more reliable in heavy snow but this place is really nice and there are several bus routes to chose from which should make getting to work in winter ok. We move in on Halloween. (The kitchen is huge and we have an extra bedroom set up for visitors and we are on the bus route to a major mall as well as having a nice community shopping centre near by). James and I are both looking forward to being able to cook for ourselves again!

Anyhows I am going to head off and have look around the area today fingers crossed I don't get too lost!!

Love heaps
Chantelle

P.S. big hugs to Linda and Johnno I am thinking of you.

Second impressions

This will probably be a little repetitive, since it covers most of the same material as my lovely wife, but with my more judgmental take. First, a particular thank you to Dave for his incredibly good advice regarding blogs, which we have promptly ignored, and Emmett and Aimee for showing how a travel blog can be done.

Our first impressions of Calgary are magical: we arrive to clear skies and warm temperatures, go to bed, and wake up to snow. The people are friendly and helpful at all times, nothing is a rush, and everything seems well. Even government officials are efficient, courteous and helpful. The landscape is amazing, and the city is spread out giving it a spacious feel.

After a couple of days however, culture shock, both good and bad arrived. First it is the little things that confuse you like making sure you look the right way before crossing the road. Even walking can be a bit tiring because you naturally drift to the left and have to move out of the way. Sales tax is always additional to the advertised price, making everything six percent more difficult to calculate and twenty percent more frustrating.

The most alien thing so far are Canadian cell phones. Canada is locked in the stone age of cell phones, where man rode dinosaurs while talking on analogue phones. Charging for calls received is standard, most pre pay plans still charge you each day, and plans usually come with additional network access fees (and tax, always tax) over the standard plan cost (and the plan fee gives you basically nothing other than the ability to be charged for receiving calls). In addition, a cell phone number here is a local number, which sounds good, until you realize that leaving the environ of Calgary will make all your calls long distance calls (yes, including the ones you receive).

There are upsides though, such as most things are a little bit cheaper (even factoring in sales tax and conversion rate) or the local mall being the size of a major mall back home. The student union center has a full food court (including fast food and normal restaurants), and just about every service you might need (including a comic store, and a second hand book store, two things very high on my list of needed things at a uni). The Canadians also have somewhat whimsical streak at times, with the dollar being affectionately referred to as the Loonie.

So the preliminary verdict is Canada is a pretty good place to be. This week however brings starting job proper, so we’ll see how things go.

An introduction to Calgary

Dear Lynette,

James and I touched down in Calgary on Wednesday night to be welcomed by some of the friendliest people on Earth. (Over the past few days James and I have found that Calgarians are wonderfully helpful, always smiling and willing to take time out of their day to help two very jet-lagged foreigners).

When we arrived the temperature was 22 degrees and skies, clear with the last of the sun disappearing as we arrived at out accommodation at the University of Calgary (henceforth known as U of C). We awoke on Thursday morning to one of the best sights ever as I pulled back the curtains.............a winter wonderland of snow covered fields and icicles dangling precariously from the edges of the pine trees (or possibly fir trees...I'm not entirely sure)!. It was AWESOME!!! And cold!!!





The campus here is beautiful and expansive. Whilst James is situated on the main campus I am off site at the hospital which would be bad except for the fact that its located directly across the road from the largest Tim Horton's I have seen!! (For non-Canadians - Tim Horton's is like Gloria Jeans, Donut King and Michel's Patisserie combined....on speed!! OMG!!).




Now, I was advised to try out some of the local North American cuisine and thought that the best place to start would be with a slice of pepperoni pizza. Hmmmmmm, what to say, the slices are HUGE (see my gorgeous glasses case for comparison) and it was yummy, a lot thinner and crunchier than the Aussie varieties that I am used to, but yummy non the less! I have also tried a DairyQueen dessert which was entirely delicious!!

Anyhows as I sign off for the evening I am going to leave you with a few observations from our first few days in Canada:

• 1. It always pays to check both ways (twice!) before trying to cross the road in a country that drives on the wrong side of the road!
• Canada has the most archaic cell phone set up in existence (its rated the worst in the developed world), not only do you get charged for outgoing calls and texts....you get charged for the incoming ones too!! WTF???
• Apparently Kiwis, Aussie and the British all sound the same to the rest of the world, not that I can comment, so far I can't tell the Canadian accent from the American!
• They eat some weird stuff here.....poutine (chips smothered in melted cheese and gravy) hmmm
• There is little you can't buy here that isn't pre-prepared including boiled peeled eggs you gotta love it!
  

Love Chantelle