Grik goes back to Canada eh?

Monday May 19, 2008

Today is a holiday in Canada and tomorrow the start of an 8-day training session for me. Welcome to San Francisco! Well, that's what Vancouver kinda looks like except it drizzles all the time and there are snowy mountains in the background and there is a homeless person every 10 feet. Well, I guess that part is like San Francisco. The main difference is everyone smokes everywhere here. Haha. Nobody smokes in California any more - we all do it in dark corners like the other junkies.

Also, the weather is muggy, I'm not used to it. Not used to the rain either, but it's almost better than that glaring sun that starts this time of year and pounds down on you without a single interruption for 6 months. Almost better, but ask me after a week or so!

I am trying to emulate my normal life as much as possible for these 9 nights, so I went food and wine shopping and will cook my dinner just like I would at home and watch a ballgame or whatever. Maybe not all the time, but I'll give it a go.

No downgrade in lifestyle here kiddies: I'm in a 21st floor 1 bdrm apt. with complete kitchen, balcony, two big plasma TVs, daily maid service, and a complete gym downstairs. Not too shabby. Office is right around the corner, can't beat it. I will take pics and put them in here.

I haven't poked around yet, but I will. The office is right around the corner and so is Robson Street, the main drag with all the shopping and restaurants you could ever want. If you're in Vancouver, this is definitely the place to be.

I have subscribed to mlb.tv for 20 bucks to see if i enjoy watching the games on my PC. Doubt it, but I can watch the Blow Jays quite often.

May 20, 2008

First day at work! It was very exciting, everyone was so nice to me. Wow. My boss was busy when I got there so I went around and introduced myself to the gang.

We had this huge kerfuffle over a possible ONE DAY trip to France. I whined about it, didn't want to create a bad impression, but I thought hmmm, we are setting precedents now, so let's get the rules straight. And here they are for posterity's sake: all trips start and end from Sunnyvale CA - no quick hops to Vancouver and starting from there. Ugh. Each trip to Europe is in economy and 14 hours is too long for this old horse to be sitting around, so each one will be cut off with an overnight on the east coast, then a 7.5 hour shot to Europe. Perfect. Takes 40% of the trip away and 3 time zones. The good news is that my AA miles are all MINE. Yippeee!! The key to the whole shooting match is arriving in the morning on day one in Europe and staying awake the whole day and sleeping at a normal time.

So now it looks like I will be back home a week from Thursday for a week or so, then head off for about 2.5 weeks in Paris. Should be fun and very challenging. I will be resurrecting my French after a bit of a hiatus, but it won't be a problem for very long at all.

All in all a great and busy first day!