About half a year since my last post. Time flies.

Finance was a good placement and a good place to work. I enjoyed the subject matter of my position and the role of a Finance analyst. Above all, I think I enjoyed being in a department of economists, among whom I had many friends. Now that I am almost done the program and I am starting to look for a job, Finance is certainly high on my list.

I went to South Africa over the holidays. My father has some work there, and my mother was down there with him at the time, so I thought I might as well go enjoy some summer in the middle of the Ottawa winter. Cape Town - the city where my dad is staying - is absolutely beautiful. After arriving we went back to the apartment they were living in, which was right on the Atlantic Ocean with a view of several ships moored off shore and a large public swimming pool on the beach. The rest of the city is built in between the ocean, a set of mountains, and a bay which makes for beautiful views. It is also the only city I have been in that has wineries in the city and several wine regions (Stellenbosh, Franchoek, Robertson, Paarl) in the immediate surrounding area.

The time spent in South Africa was both interesting and enjoyable. I was surprised by how smoothly a vacation with my parents could be. It had been a while since I had traveled with them, and I was worried that I would be stuck in a small car with them for hours as they fought about stuff. Thankfully, the road trip was quite manageable, especially since we had regular stops for really wonderful meals paired with excellent wine (actually, the meals themselves might not have always been so good, but the wine certainly was...). |We made the trip from Cape Town, along the Garden Route to Port Elizabeth, then up to a game reserve near Grahmstown, then on to East London and up to a township near Stutterheim in the Eastern Cape and then back to Cape Town. I took lots of pictures and put most of them up on facebook...

Upon my return, I started a new job with the Privy Council Office. PCO is the centre of government, and my secretariat could be considered the centre of the centre. The cool thing is that all Cabinet and Deputy Ministerial meetings are managed by my secretariat. It is a very interesting and informative view on government and the decision making process. My job its self is somewhat less interesting. It consists largely of putting together scenario notes out of information I chase around. Again, however, it is very cool to see the information and cool to see how the process works.

PCO has a reputation throughout government as being the site of long hours and intense days.
At first I didn't feel that this was so, and was a bit concerned that I was not getting the true experience. It didn't take long for it all to catch up to me. A few long, very busy days later and I now understand what it means to be hectic. It can be a lot like putting together a big call for briefs at DFAIT, but on a weekly, rather than semi-annual basis. Today, I left at 8pm. Tomorrow will likely be similar.

The coolest thing about the job is definitely the proximity to the centre. Last week, as sort of a birthday gift (more on the birthday below) I got to take notes at a Cabinet meeting. All I will say about that is that Harper knows how to chair a meeting well. I also got to hold the Olympic Torch last week because one of the Deputy Ministers brought it in to present it to other Deputy Ministers at their weekly breakfast. It is things like that which make getting to work at 7am on a Wednesday worthwhile.

With my time in the program coming to an end, I am looking for a new job. Maybe moving around so effortlessly over the last two years has made me somewhat complacent, but I am still rather short on leads. Today, I went to DFAIT for a series of talks (making up for the lost time was part of the reason I stayed at work so late) and gave my card out to a few people, but given the restrictive FS preference system in that department, I am not optimistic about my chances there... Finance is perhaps more promising as a department of economists and one in which I have quite a number of friends and associates. I suppose that would depend on being able to work on an interesting file... Maybe I'll end up somewhere completely different.

I moved since my last post. I am now living in Chinatown, about four blocks west of where I used to be. On the one hand, I am much closer to dim sum and pho than I was before, but on the other hand, I am farther from work and the homes of almost all of my friends. This being Ottawa, it is not a problem at all if I am able to ride my bike, but during the long cold winter that is just now over, my location was drawback. The positives of this house are many. It is larger, it has a wonderful kitchen and dining room, I only have one roommate, and it is less expensive to heat. The house is also a good space for large parties... or at least a space that my roommate and I are happy to throw large parties in.

On the general social front, Ottawa continues to shrink for me. Part of it must be shifting jobs so often, and part of it must be my string of roommates. Now, it is hard to go to hartmans or goodlife without running into people I know. Truth be told, I quite enjoy this and will occasionally go to the gym when bored and in need of human interaction.

The Dinner Club is still going strong. Despite only having two founding members, and being down to five members in total, we still manage to get together for a tasty and interesting dinner almost every Sunday night. Last night, Nelson made steak wrapped in bacon with asparagus... mmm... The conversation at the dinners has also not changed that much. We still often revert to the "big three" and heated discussions and bets are still quite common. Despite repeated starts, we have still not managed to complete and ratify our constitution, although that may stem from a lack of desire to compromise on paper on some fundamental issues that we are quite happy to live with in practice.

Living in Ottawa no longer seems to be in doubt. I am more accepting of its many obvious shortcomings as a city in exchange for interesting work and my interactions with those who are also here for interesting work. When I do go elsewhere and am confronted by Ottawa's relative lack of urban amenities it is somewhat jarring, but I find myself defending my home (and adopted home) town. In the end, it is the meaningful work and still exciting career prospects that make me happy to live here. Also, a deepening recession makes moving elsewhere seem ever more precarious.

My birthday was last week. I turned 26. As has been the case with my last few birthdays (although perhaps less for this one), I don't really feel as if I am getting older. I am generally surrounded by people older than me, and don't often have meaningful contact with those younger than me. Ottawa (or at least the Ottawa I live in) is the type of city that people generally move to after finishing a graduate degree. That puts most people at about 25 on arrival. This makes me continue to feel young, even though I know that Marc from the not so distant past would have looked upon the current Marc as getting older...

The birthday its self was actually quite nice. I went out for dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. Ashley had prepared me a sign that said 生日快乐 which I found very sweet. Most of my better friends in Ottawa were also there, which is really what makes a nice birthday. It is actually quite striking how many old friends from Vancouver have made it out here... sometimes I think that there are more here than there are left in Vancouver...

I have been reminded to continue posting by an anonymous reader, so I will. Much has happened since my last post...

In my work life, there were interesting times. I was able to convince my program, my DFAIT manager and my Finance manager to let me stay on at DFAIT for an extra month in order to prepare for and attend the ASEAN Regional Forum and Post-Ministerial Conference in Singapore. Even after the work I had put in for the other ASEAN meeting I attended in may, I was surprised at the amount of work involved in preparing for this meeting. On the one hand, it was a bit of a pain to get home after dark in June, but on the other hand, I must say that there is something gratifying about having enough time-sensitive work to keep me busy for ten to twelve hours per day. Unfortunately, I am now a few months removed from the situation so I can not provide deeper insights.

The trip to Singapore its self was very enjoyable. It had been about two years since I had been there and I guess it hadn't changed too much. Singapore was my home for a year when I was there on exchange, which was when I started this blog. I had lots of good times there and the place holds many good memories. Luckily, I also still had a few friends there - Chris and Caryn - and a Singaporean friend from undergrad - Sam - was living there too. Before and between the actual meetings work, I was happy to get to see them and to see the life they are leading as young adults. Chris, in particular, was interesting to see because he is also a public servant. I found it interesting that he was working on public consultations, even though he is not actually a Singaporean citizen. I am not sure that this would be the same in Canada.

Many of my favorite places in Singapore are still there. The Esplanade, new Asia bar, lao pa sat, the quiet walks in Chinatown, PGP, were all pretty much as they were. Going to PGP brought back strong feelings. I was half expecting to see Anna, Vincent, Willi, etc... in the air con canteen or just waiting on the steps to go on a trip somewhere. There were, of course, new exchange students there populating the residence along with the Singaporeans and foreign students as usual. All was physically the same, but the place was different. On a less nostalgic note, the food was amazing and I ate pretty much everything that I had wanted to eat... mmm... laksa, char kuay tiao, hor fun, murtubak, nasi lemak, nasi goreng, carrot cake....

The happy coincidence of my trip was that Noah moved to Singapore while I was there. He has decided to do a Master`s at NUS and, as their semester start`s early, we had a few days of overlap. He was excited to be there, but still very much in the state of transition. We had a good time going around the city, seeing the sights and eating the food.

Upon my return, I started a new position at the Department of Finance in the labour markets group. I have been enjoying this job quite a bit. I had the good fortune to move into this group just after the immigration analyst had retired and her file was vacant. Having studied immigration in school, and having taken a keen interest in the subject in general, it has been hugely gratifying to be involved in the policy process (MCs, etc..) for immigration. The working environment at Finance is also a plus. The department is populated by smart people who are quite reasonable with work. Now that the election season is over, things are picking up...

On the domestic front, Kate moved out at the beginning of August and Egor moved to Toronto at the beginning of September. They were replaced by Ashley and Don. Egor, in particular, has been missed around the house and at dinner. Ashley, of course is always fun to be around. In late August, we had a fun `goodbye Egor, hello Ashley` party. Also on the domestic front, it appears that the end of an era is upon me. The landlord has put the house up for sale and I will move out at the beginning of December. The circumstances around the house sale have been less than ideal, but then now is also a less than ideal time to sell a house... I will be moving in with a friend of a friend a few blocks away and life will go on.

The weather is getting colder. This bothers me mostly in that I can no longer comfortably spend time outside going for walks or riding my bike. Biking has become a bigger part of my life in recent months, I spent many a pleasant afternoon in the fall biking around the city or up and down the canal or river. Brian even dragged me up to Gatineau a few weeks ago... which convinced me I need a new bike.

The financial crisis has cemented my confidence in having made the right career choice. What job is more secure than the government? At the same time, I realise that perhaps this is just self-re enforcing - I think I made the right choice because I am seeing fewer opportunities to change my mind and move out of Ottawa... Perhaps it is the distance, but Asia is seeming ever more remote in my mind. Even though I make some effort to maintain my Chinese, my language skills are visibly slipping and my connection to the region is weakening as my experience there becomes dated. Making a `Hong Kong or bust` type move just seem rash to me right now. Why would I want to give up what I have here?

Weather notwithstanding, Ottawa continues to be pleasant. It is truly like a small town. One of my simple pleasures is to go for a walk on a sunny weekend and run into people I know out on the street. In centretown, it is unavoidable. Of course, this also points to the deliberately geographical limited life many of my friends and I lead. There are very few reasons for me to go anywhere I can not walk within 25 minutes, and most of my friends live within this radius of my home.

Ottawa social circles are also quite interlinked and permeable. It is a common occurrence to meet people at parties and discover unexpected connections. Naturally, this has a lot to do with the circles in which I travel - government economists and policy analysts, mostly - but also it has to do with the limited number of government feeder schools (Queen`s, Dal, U Manitoba, Carleton, etc..) and government departments. As I have often said, at some point this village lifestyle might be constraining, but at the moment I like it.

Life in Ottawa continues to treat me well. I think my lack of major bouts of loneliness and existential angst has kept me from posting more often. In the time since my last post, spring has come. I think I have appreciated it a bit more after a real winter... Actually, to mark the occasion, I had a party in early April. The party was good, although not quite on the same level as the Chinese New Year party a few months before.

My spring life in Ottawa is not much different from my winter life, only minus the snowboarding, and plus the ability to spend time outside. The Economists: Dining and Social Club continues to go strong, the barbeque has been getting lots of use, the bike is out, and I have been drinking beer on patios. Actually, it has been a good spring.

Work has been quite interesting lately. In the middle of May, I went to Vietnam for a meeting with ASEAN. It was a lot of work to prepare for everything, and it was a fair amount of work on the ground in Ho Chi Minh city, but it was a very interesting experience. Most of all, I was surprised by how much of the meeting was scripted. In the weeks leading up to the meeting, I had gathered briefs and talking points from other divisions in the department and put them together for my DG. In the end, there was one single document which contained pretty much everything my DG had to say in the meeting. From the way that everything proceeded, I had the feeling that our counterparts were similarly prepared. I suppose this makes sense in that it makes everything run more smoothly, but it was a bit surprising none the less.

I stayed on in Vietnam for a few more days to do a bit of travel. It has been a long time since I had really traveled. Two years since I had been to Asia, and almost as long since I had been to a new city. The experience reminded me that I love exploring. I got lots of pleasure by just walking around the crowded streets of Ho Chi Minh city, getting lost and getting myself found again.

The city its self is quite exciting. It is very much Asia, with the people, shops, humidity, scooters, etc... I was also surprised at the extent to which it did not seem communist. There were very few (I only found two) communist style apartment blocks, and no grand communist style boulevards. Somewhat like other cities in Asia, the city's scale was based on the shop house, but since land was expensive and the economy was developing, the former shop houses were transformed into very narrow five to eight story buildings. There was even very little in the way of large condo or office developments.


The other striking feature of the city is the scooters. The streets are chock full of them, everyone seems to ride one. In fact, one of the easiest ways to spot a tourist in the central areas of the city is to look on the sidewalks, as the locals are almost invariable in the streets on their scooters. Interestingly, while the abundance of scooters makes for slow traffic, as they are so maneuverable, the traffic never actually stops. This is an important distinction from other traffic-filled Asian cities.

While in Vietnam, I also managed to go to a nearby beach called Mui Ne. It was very beautiful, and although it was more developed than I was expecting, it was still quite reasonably priced. The beach there also reminded me of all of the other beaches I had been to in SE Asia - Koh Samui, Tioman, Bintan, Pengor, Rai Lay, etc... I became nostalgic for those days... especially because I was there alone... After an early and lonely night, I woke up to find that there was a large group of young European expats who were doing internships in Ho Chi Minh city staying at the same bungalow place as me. From there on, my beach time became more interesting with beach volley ball and playing boules with some French people. The whole thing really brought me back to my Singapore exchange, only now I was just a tourist, looking from the outside in... I wonder if I will ever get to be an expat... How is it that I am already so nostalgic for days gone by?...

It has been a shamefully long time since my last post. I will try to briefly update my life so that I can continue documenting it in the future.

The fall was good. All I will say about it is that Brian got me to start biking, and I had a brief but fun relationship.

In December, my Zaida passed away. He was 96 years old and had lived a good life. I went back to Vancouver for a few weeks for the funeral, shiva, and to spend time with my family.

On my way back to Ottawa, I stopped in San Francisco to visit my friend Vincent. I had a very good time with him, and also got to see my friend Di who was starting at Berkley. San Francisco is a great city.

The trip back:

I was supposed to leave San Francisco on Sunday morning on United Airlines and change planes in Chicago to arrive in Ottawa on Sunday evening. When I got to the airport, after waiting in line for 45 minutes, I discovered that my flight into Chicago had been canceled. Since it was a computer which let me know this, I was unable to obtain any more information without lining up again. After another long wait, I found out that I was bumped to a red-eye that evening. I spent the day in San Francisco and then caught my red-eye into Chicago, arriving at about 5 am. After giving up trying to sleep on the seats, and hearing that the flight was going to be delayed, I went to the duty free shop to pick up some scotch. At 9am, we finally boarded. Before we left the gate, the pilot made an announcement that there was bad fog in Ottawa and we might not be able to land, he offered for us to get of the plane now if we didn't want to take the risk of landing in a back-up airport like Burlington, Vermont or Syracuse, NY. I decided to stay on the plane and soon we were in the air, flying to Ottawa. After about an hour and a half, the pilot got on the PA and said that he was in touch with the ground and that we would not be able to land in Ottawa. He said that rather than going to a back-up airport, we would go back to Chicago where there were more options.

In Chicago, I got in a long line to talk to an unhelpful agent. She put me on stand-by for a flight that afternoon. After waiting through some delays, I finally heard my name called and was given a boarding pass. Five minutes later, the flight was canceled... so I got into an even longer line to talk to an equally unhelpful agent. She said that there were no flights in that night, and that Montreal and Toronto were also not options at that point. I was given a seat on a flight the next morning and a voucher for a discount at an airport hotel.

At the hotel, I needed to check my email to get my boss' number to tell her that I would not be in to work on Tuesday as we had agreed. After opening my inbox on the crappy "internet on TV" deal that I bought, I noticed that there was an email from the girl I had been seeing... breaking up with me. While a breakup was not entirely unexpected, an email breakup did come as a surprise, but this is a public blog and I will not go into any more details.

The next morning, I made my way to the airport to catch the 8:37 flight to Ottawa. Since I had bought a bottle of scotch the day before, I needed to check it in before I could board, so I put it into my satchel. At the gate, I saw many of the same people from the day before. After a few minutes, there was an announcement that the flight was delayed. After a few more minutes, the flight was canceled. I ran to the customer service counter and waited in another long line. When I finally talked to an agent, she said she could put me on standby for the next morning or give me a ticket for the next afternoon. I asked about Toronto or Montreal and she was thankfully able to put me onto an American Airlines flight to Toronto leaving at about noon. When I asked about my checked bags, she said that usually, if there is more that two hours (which there was) it should not be a problem.

After a delay and a short flight, I got into Toronto. Of course, my bags were not there... I shared a cab to Union Station with some other travelers in similar situations and we caught a train to Ottawa. I arrived home at about 11 on Tuesday night - more than two days late. My bags arrived on Sunday.

The next day I started working at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. I am in the Bilateral Relations Bureau, Southeast Asia and Pacific division, Association of Southeast Asian Nations desk.

DFAIT has been a mixed experience. On the one hand, it is populated by people who are very engaged in their jobs, who dress well, and who are knowledgeable about the world. On the other hand, the scope for analysis and creativity is limited. Like the Treasury Board, everything must move up the line of approvals before it can get done, although I suppose this is the nature of a bureaucracy. That said, I am very pleased with my file, and my work is often very interesting.

I have been snowboarding a lot. In the fall, Ashley, Brian, Shelford, and I got cheap season's passes to camp Fortune, a ski hill about 20 minutes from my house. Although Brian had never snowboarded before this season, he has really taken to it and now snowboards about 3-4 times per week. Since he has his own car, it has also been great for me because I get rides up all the time an have been averaging at least two times per week this season. The best part is that snowboarding is fun again. It was expensive in Vancouver, and most of my friends did not snowboard so I didn't go much. Without the practice, I didn't enjoy it as much as I do now that I am back in the swing of things. Snowboarding is probably one of the only things that has kept me going through this cold and snowy winter. That said, I am still looking forward to spring.

That is the general update. I will start posting in more detail soon as I will be posting more often.

I had a party last night.

It was a good party. It seems I over thought it, as I tend to do. It was a housewarming party, at least ostensibly, because the third roommate has finally moved in. Really, it was a party because I like having parties.


Throughout most of the party I was buzzing around the house preparing rumtastic mango smoothies and ensuring that everyone was well fed. I had a huge amount of cheese, some artichoke dip and, at the end, dim sum. Amanda, a coworker of mine, also brought a very tasty bunt (sp?) cake which she gave out to everyone.

I think the party had the following good points:
- good turnout
- people liked the food and mango smoothies
- Ottawa social events tend to be good because we all have things in common
- the back deck was a big hit

The party also had the following bad points:
- insufficient alcohol. It is not that I did not have enough, but people brought less alcohol than I expected and I was only giving out the smoothies. I should have set out the bar, or something like punch that people could just drink as they wanted.
- no music. This was also serious. Music can set the mood and the tone. There can be a "song of the party", but as I have no sound system, this could not happen. Next time I will be prepared.

I suppose there were other good and bad points that I did not pick up on, but I think they were the key ones that were within my control. One thing I did not expect was that because the weather was so hot, about half the party was on the back deck the entire time. The preparation work that I had done for the living and dining rooms were for nothing. Having people outside also concentrated the overflow into the kitchen, which became the nexus of everything. Of course, it was a bit of a freak accident that the weather peaked to 30 degrees yesterday. If I have more parties, the outside weather will probably not be as pleasant, and they will be internally focused parties.

On a different level, this party did not get roommate buy in. It is probably because I know more people in this city than my roommates, but everyone that was invited, was invited by me. That seemed to make them feel detached from the whole thing, and both of them ended up going to bed early. While it is possible that the situation remedies its self as my roommates find people they would like to invite to these events, I think this might mean that my future parties will happen when my roommates leave town to see their girlfriends.

So moving back to the last month...

I went to Montreal a few weeks ago. The trip was both to see Greg and because I wanted to get out of Ottawa and see Montreal. I had a great time. The first night, Greg and I went to a great French restaurant on Mont Royal. It had been so long since I had eaten a nice restaurant meal (since the time with Sarah in January, I think). The food was very tasty and the wine was good too. I also really appreciated the pace of the whole thing which gave us a chance to catch up. The whole thing lifted my spirits and started me out with a very positive impression of the city (perhaps more positive than it had been before). The rest of the weekend consisted mostly of me and Greg walking around parts of Montreal with which I was unfamiliar.

On the Saturday night I had dinner with my friend Di. I went to Queen's with Di and now he is in Montreal doing more studies with his girlfriend. As always, he had some fascinating stories to tell about people and places that I barely knew about.

After dinner, I went to the plateau to meet up with Jesse for a drink. We had a good time and caught up on our news, but it seems that we may have grown a bit apart in the last few years. I wish him well, but after about an hour and a half we had little to talk about. Maybe next time will be better...

The next weekend I went back to Vancouver for my cousin's bat mitzvah. It was very nice to be back in "my" city and to see my extended family. My grandfather is quite old, but still in very good spirits, especially when such events are happening. Apart from the family engagements, I spent most of the weekend giving tours of the city with my sister. It was a great time. We both have great and complimentary knowledge of the city. I can tell she learned a lot from her job directing the census collection in the downtown east side (although that is not really my thing...).

While I was in Vancouver I got to see Noah's new office, which was very nice, and had dinner with some of the old UBC econ gang. It seemed like half of the dinner consisted of them trying to convince me to move back to Vancouver and me trying to convince them to work for the federal government. I don't think either side got very far (although Sarah will probably continue to apply to some federal jobs).

The work situation throughout this time had been slow. The woman, who is soon to be my official boss, who gives me work to do went on vacation for about a month and left me with a few files, but no direction. At first it was ok. I would read the files and write down what I thought about them, but it quickly became clear that I did not have any framework with which to evaluate the documents. I had nothing upon which to base my comments. At this point, I was constantly pestering my Executive Director for direction, which he did not have much time to give. After about a week and a half I had reached a wall with my work, and did not have any more work forthcoming. My job satisfaction fell off a cliff... Thankfully, the woman (who is soon to be officially pronounced as the Principle Analyst) returned from her holidays and gave me direction on the files. I discovered how much I was able to do with them, and have been taking some pleasure in that. Her positive feedback has also been a boon to my workplace morale. I am now far more optimistic going into the fall.

We'll see...

Finally done my paper!

On Friday night I got an email from my supervisor saying that my paper was certainly ready for submission. This is a big relief to me as it is something that has been hanging over my head for a while. At the same time, I am somewhat embarrassed that it has taken me this long; when I arrived in Ottawa I was pretty much already done. With that gone, I need to find something else to which to devote my energies, preferably something intellectual.

Work is improving. Last week, two people left for vacation giving me more things to do. I am still not sure how to handle all the files on my desk, but that beats the alternative of having nothing on my desk. Next week will be my first week with the new boss. He seems like a good guy who really knows his stuff. I am a bit sad that my old boss is leaving because she was fun and would let me practice my French with her, but I am probably better off with the new guy.

On the social front, I am still spending a lot of time with the UBC folks. This is nice because they are old friends and I don't need to put in more energy getting to know them. Unfortunately, this is balanced by a near collapse of the AETP social circuit. The weekly meet-ups seem to be all but over. It has been a while since we have had a "regular" 5 a 7. Maybe next week. Lunches have been a bit better and there is a group of us to lunch together a few times a week.

Weekends for me seem to be about reading and walking. As these are two of my favorite activities, this kind of weekend gives me great pleasure. Spending Saturday morning in bed reading the Financial Times, the Economist or Le Monde Diplomatique until I get too hungry to stay in bed any longer is my idea of a great start to the weekend. If this can be followed by a long walk in the afternoon, it is surely a good day. I am bothered a bit by the solitary nature of the routine, especially if I am walking alone, but I suppose that this is life in a new city. What worries me is that maybe I am wasting my weekend time. In the weeks that I have been in Ottawa I have not once left the city, not once played any sports, not once gone dancing, and rarely done anything exciting. For the sake of my long term sanity, I should probably try to diversify my activities.

Sometimes the pace of Ottawa leaves a bit to be desired. Maybe it is because I am young, but I think I would be happier with some big, urgent, and all encompassing projects at work to the regular slog of 9-5. At the very least, I would like to try it to know whether it does indeed suit me. To continue my venting, it might be nice if I put some of the things I have learned in school to use. Why do they seek out those with Master's degrees in economics if they have no use for actual economists? Why did I put so much effort into learning Chinese if it is no more than a parlor trick that I can use to superficially impress people? Why must I spend time in my cubicle waiting for work to come to me? I hope these issues are not as bad at my next placement. Maybe I am just impatient...

Since I started working, the days and weeks have started to blur together. One good thing about being in school is that you have an acute feeling of the passage of time. There are due dates and exams and school breaks. Big dates stick in your mind and you are constantly calculating the time until they arrive. Even relatively mundane days have more meaning because of their proximity.

In student life, every day is given more meaning still by the choices made. If I chose to go to class so I will make the most of it. If I chose to sleep in so I will enjoy it while I can and then make up for it later. As long as I am on top of things and know what I am doing, both of these are valid choices for my day. Working is much more mechanical. I wake up, get ready for my day, walk to work, do my work and then go home. The existence of the heavy external structure narrows my choices and reduces me from being a person to being a worker. As a worker, I am stripped of my agency, I merely fulfill the role expected of me.

The friendly but cold nature of the bureaucracy gives me the cold comfort of knowing that those around me wish me well in general terms, but do not care much either way about me. As part of my acculturation to the bureaucracy, I am beginning to feel the same way towards my colleagues.

The focus on 'work life balance' presents work and life as a dichotomy, a trade-off between mutually exclusive claims on my time and effort. In such a context, why should anyone do anything other than maximize 'life' subject to satisfying a minimum 'work' constraint? Wouldn't work be better if it could be appreciated as the big part of life that it is? Why don't we look at work as something that gives a sense of mission, a set of goals, a place in the greater scheme of the organisation an society a opposed to a sacrifice of time that we reluctantly impose upon our lives for the sake of the other 128 hours in the week? Would this not be healthier than all this empty talk of a 'work life balance'?

Of course, in the final analysis, this job is still much better than any other job I have ever had. I suppose much of my frustration has to do with not having proper expectations going in and not having a clear sense of purpose now that I am there.

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。。。