Getting settled in...
Almost three weeks ago, I moved into my new house with my roommate Evan. It is a nice, 100 year old, semi detached brick house in centretown, about four blocks from work and convenient to pretty much everything. Life here has been quite good. I am able to go shopping at both the regular supermarket and the smaller markets in Chinatown for my fruits and vegetables. Also, I am able to walk to pretty much anything I want. That said, I am still without driver's license and I don't have any plans on getting a bus pass either.
My room is the big one, for which I pay a premium. It is worth it. Apart from being larger, and facing the street, it has its own balcony. One of my little pleasures has been to sit on the balcony and read the newspaper while watching the world go by below. The street its self does not have much car traffic, but a fair amount of foot traffic, so the activity is quite pleasant.
The house is now semi furnished. I went to IKEA two weeks ago and bought a sofa, a bed, a coffee table and a dresser, along with some miscellaneous items. These purchases match well with the table and chairs that my roommate brought, to the point where this place is really feeling like home. Still missing, however, is my roommate's sofa and a proper dining room table.
Last week, I had my first opportunity to take advantage of my house by having people over. As usual, I did a bit too much preparation, but I think the effect was quite good. Despite having a lack of comfortable seating, my guests, mostly from AETP as well as Milan and Tom, seemed to have a good time. Hopefully, it will be the first of many.
Milan, my friend from UBC, moved to Ottawa recently. He got a job working for Environment Canada on the climate change file. From the way he describes it, he is the personal adviser to some higher ups, helping them formulate policy options in that field. So far, he seems to be enjoying the job, and living in Ottawa. This weekend, he will be moving into my area. Having more friends around is a very good thing, especially since for the moment, I do not have very many.
This week, my other friend who I also know from UBC arrived as well. I also made a point to be there when he arrived to welcome him to the city. I think he appreciated that. Mike is a lawyer and he will be clerking at the federal court of appeals. I have only seen him once so far, the night he arrived, but hopefully the old UBC crew can start to have a regular 5 a 7 at some point. Who knows, maybe more people will move here.
Work has been ok. I am starting to settle in and feel more comfortable with my coworkers, which is key. At the same time, I guess I am getting a better idea of what is done there. Unfortunately, thus far I have not had enough work. The situation is that I am surrounded by people who are responsible for specific portfolios of agencies. I, as an AETP placement, do not have my own department (let alone portfolio of departments) so my work flow is at the mercy of my colleagues, only one of whom has given me anything of any substance to do. Everyone says that the situation will change when the Treasury Board starts meeting in September, and I am looking forward to that so that I can see what the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) does in normal times.
The AETP crew seems to be holding together quite well. Despite us not actually working together, we still have been managing to meet more or less as a group a minimum of once a week. They are really a good group of people, most of whom I think I can really be friends with.
Still with AETP, I have volunteered to be one of the AETP holiday party organisers. Despite the protests of others (including those who may be working with me in this endeavor) , as a non Christian, I will not call it a Christmas party. The responsibility I chose was that of finding AETP alumni to sell tickets to their cohort mates on our behalf. Should this approach succeed, the party should have a good turnout with AETP alumni as they will be going to see their cohort mates, rather than simply to support our cohort. The idea is that if people are approached by those that they know, they will be more likely to want to attend than if they are approached by young kids. Of course, this is predicated on me being able to find these "champions".
My MA paper drags on. I think I may be done with the text, but I have been unable to edit the tables. The problem is that I used office 2007 to make them, but now I only have access to office 2003. This means that I can see and print the tables in their current form, but I can not edit their contents. Since table labeling is one of the main problems that my adviser pointed out to me when we last met (over a month ago now...) I should probably have this resolved before I send him another draft. If anyone reading this has excel 2007 and wants to help my by accepting my files and re-saving them in 2003 format, it would be greatly appreciated.
Next month I will be going back to Vancouver for a weekend. My cousin will be having her Bat Mitzvah and I, of course, should attend. I am looking forward to going back again, but I am not sure what I will be able to do in the four days I will be there, especially with the added complications of family commitments.
我还没有找到汉语家教。 Ottawa好像没有呢么多中国人，而且中央政府内面的中国人特别少。到现在我还没有遇到一个要跟我讲中文的人。。。
我爱咖啡。。。 今天早上我没有喝咖啡。我想知道我到底需要不需要咖啡。答案就很明显：咖啡因越多我工作的越好。。。
这个星期我发现英国的金融时报有中文版。虽然大部分的内容都是从英文翻译过来的，他们还是有一些关中国事情的中文本言文件。 我也发现他们用的语言也不太复杂，我差不多都能看懂。
今天就是星期五晚上，我应该出去。。。
Almost three weeks ago, I moved into my new house with my roommate Evan. It is a nice, 100 year old, semi detached brick house in centretown, about four blocks from work and convenient to pretty much everything. Life here has been quite good. I am able to go shopping at both the regular supermarket and the smaller markets in Chinatown for my fruits and vegetables. Also, I am able to walk to pretty much anything I want. That said, I am still without driver's license and I don't have any plans on getting a bus pass either.
My room is the big one, for which I pay a premium. It is worth it. Apart from being larger, and facing the street, it has its own balcony. One of my little pleasures has been to sit on the balcony and read the newspaper while watching the world go by below. The street its self does not have much car traffic, but a fair amount of foot traffic, so the activity is quite pleasant.
The house is now semi furnished. I went to IKEA two weeks ago and bought a sofa, a bed, a coffee table and a dresser, along with some miscellaneous items. These purchases match well with the table and chairs that my roommate brought, to the point where this place is really feeling like home. Still missing, however, is my roommate's sofa and a proper dining room table.
Last week, I had my first opportunity to take advantage of my house by having people over. As usual, I did a bit too much preparation, but I think the effect was quite good. Despite having a lack of comfortable seating, my guests, mostly from AETP as well as Milan and Tom, seemed to have a good time. Hopefully, it will be the first of many.
Milan, my friend from UBC, moved to Ottawa recently. He got a job working for Environment Canada on the climate change file. From the way he describes it, he is the personal adviser to some higher ups, helping them formulate policy options in that field. So far, he seems to be enjoying the job, and living in Ottawa. This weekend, he will be moving into my area. Having more friends around is a very good thing, especially since for the moment, I do not have very many.
This week, my other friend who I also know from UBC arrived as well. I also made a point to be there when he arrived to welcome him to the city. I think he appreciated that. Mike is a lawyer and he will be clerking at the federal court of appeals. I have only seen him once so far, the night he arrived, but hopefully the old UBC crew can start to have a regular 5 a 7 at some point. Who knows, maybe more people will move here.
Work has been ok. I am starting to settle in and feel more comfortable with my coworkers, which is key. At the same time, I guess I am getting a better idea of what is done there. Unfortunately, thus far I have not had enough work. The situation is that I am surrounded by people who are responsible for specific portfolios of agencies. I, as an AETP placement, do not have my own department (let alone portfolio of departments) so my work flow is at the mercy of my colleagues, only one of whom has given me anything of any substance to do. Everyone says that the situation will change when the Treasury Board starts meeting in September, and I am looking forward to that so that I can see what the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) does in normal times.
The AETP crew seems to be holding together quite well. Despite us not actually working together, we still have been managing to meet more or less as a group a minimum of once a week. They are really a good group of people, most of whom I think I can really be friends with.
Still with AETP, I have volunteered to be one of the AETP holiday party organisers. Despite the protests of others (including those who may be working with me in this endeavor) , as a non Christian, I will not call it a Christmas party. The responsibility I chose was that of finding AETP alumni to sell tickets to their cohort mates on our behalf. Should this approach succeed, the party should have a good turnout with AETP alumni as they will be going to see their cohort mates, rather than simply to support our cohort. The idea is that if people are approached by those that they know, they will be more likely to want to attend than if they are approached by young kids. Of course, this is predicated on me being able to find these "champions".
My MA paper drags on. I think I may be done with the text, but I have been unable to edit the tables. The problem is that I used office 2007 to make them, but now I only have access to office 2003. This means that I can see and print the tables in their current form, but I can not edit their contents. Since table labeling is one of the main problems that my adviser pointed out to me when we last met (over a month ago now...) I should probably have this resolved before I send him another draft. If anyone reading this has excel 2007 and wants to help my by accepting my files and re-saving them in 2003 format, it would be greatly appreciated.
Next month I will be going back to Vancouver for a weekend. My cousin will be having her Bat Mitzvah and I, of course, should attend. I am looking forward to going back again, but I am not sure what I will be able to do in the four days I will be there, especially with the added complications of family commitments.
我还没有找到汉语家教。 Ottawa好像没有呢么多中国人，而且中央政府内面的中国人特别少。到现在我还没有遇到一个要跟我讲中文的人。。。
我爱咖啡。。。 今天早上我没有喝咖啡。我想知道我到底需要不需要咖啡。答案就很明显：咖啡因越多我工作的越好。。。
这个星期我发现英国的金融时报有中文版。虽然大部分的内容都是从英文翻译过来的，他们还是有一些关中国事情的中文本言文件。 我也发现他们用的语言也不太复杂，我差不多都能看懂。
今天就是星期五晚上，我应该出去。。。
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