I am now a civil servant.
I arrived in Ottawa a bit over a week ago and have been having a good time. I will start from the beginning. Last Saturday, after a night of celebration on Friday, I got a ride with Leo up to Ottawa. Here, I am staying with my mother's friend Henny and her kids. They are old family friends of ours, so it is pretty cool and Heni has been very nice. On Sunday, as kind of a "welcome to the civil service", she invited me for lunch with two of her friends who both work for the federal government. Although the dim sum was nothing like what I had in Toronto, the company was nice and I got a lot out of it.
Sunday night there was a welcome barbeque for incoming AETP participants. It was cool and a way to start to get to know people. Then on Monday our training began. We were in the conference centre on Rideau st. and our trainer, or at least the speaker for our training, Jean Marc, was excelent. In one week, though speeches and power point presentations, I learned so much about government and the civil service that I did not know before. Some of the speakers we had were amazing. One guy from Finance was extremely impressive with his breath and depth of knowledge on international issues. Another guy from HRSDC was similarly impressive on domestic issues, and there were more from several departments. That week aslo gave us a bit of time to gell as a group as we ate our sandwitch lunches and drank our coffee together. On Friday we had a tour of parliament which was pretty cool and fininshed up the orientation course with a warning that we should not become too elitist for being in the program, followed by some tips on how to fit in.
The weekend was cool too. On Saturday, Leo came back to town and we went to see a soccer game. It was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea against Panama. The DPRK dominated the first half and into the second but then ran out of steam. Panama was at no point impressive and the game ended in a nil nil tie. After the game I went back to Heni's house and hung out with Evan's (Heni's son) friends.
Sunday was Canada day, which they take quite seriously here in Ottawa. I went to Ashley's house for a daytime party where we drank sangria and chatted. Everyone was friendly and almost everyone worked for the government. After that we had some poutine for dinner and then walked around downtown and the market. At one point we went to some party on a rooftop which was pretty cool, except I am probably too self conscious to successfully crash parties.
Today, I had my first day of work at the Treasury Board Secretariat. Unfortunately my security paper work had not been done so I was unable to go on the internet or do anything of substance. I did, however, enjoy meeting my coworkers and superiors. After work I met up with the AETP crew for drinks on Spark's street. It was cool to exchange stories of the first day. I hope we continue to hang out as a group.
Tomorrow I can hopefully move into my house. The land lord is still working on a few things, and the place looks great, but I would like to move in sooner rather than later. It will be cool to be so close to work and everything else downtown, but it will be a hassle to furnish the whole place from scratch. It will probably take a few months of discretionary spending, but it should be fun. Good times.
I arrived in Ottawa a bit over a week ago and have been having a good time. I will start from the beginning. Last Saturday, after a night of celebration on Friday, I got a ride with Leo up to Ottawa. Here, I am staying with my mother's friend Henny and her kids. They are old family friends of ours, so it is pretty cool and Heni has been very nice. On Sunday, as kind of a "welcome to the civil service", she invited me for lunch with two of her friends who both work for the federal government. Although the dim sum was nothing like what I had in Toronto, the company was nice and I got a lot out of it.
Sunday night there was a welcome barbeque for incoming AETP participants. It was cool and a way to start to get to know people. Then on Monday our training began. We were in the conference centre on Rideau st. and our trainer, or at least the speaker for our training, Jean Marc, was excelent. In one week, though speeches and power point presentations, I learned so much about government and the civil service that I did not know before. Some of the speakers we had were amazing. One guy from Finance was extremely impressive with his breath and depth of knowledge on international issues. Another guy from HRSDC was similarly impressive on domestic issues, and there were more from several departments. That week aslo gave us a bit of time to gell as a group as we ate our sandwitch lunches and drank our coffee together. On Friday we had a tour of parliament which was pretty cool and fininshed up the orientation course with a warning that we should not become too elitist for being in the program, followed by some tips on how to fit in.
The weekend was cool too. On Saturday, Leo came back to town and we went to see a soccer game. It was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea against Panama. The DPRK dominated the first half and into the second but then ran out of steam. Panama was at no point impressive and the game ended in a nil nil tie. After the game I went back to Heni's house and hung out with Evan's (Heni's son) friends.
Sunday was Canada day, which they take quite seriously here in Ottawa. I went to Ashley's house for a daytime party where we drank sangria and chatted. Everyone was friendly and almost everyone worked for the government. After that we had some poutine for dinner and then walked around downtown and the market. At one point we went to some party on a rooftop which was pretty cool, except I am probably too self conscious to successfully crash parties.
Today, I had my first day of work at the Treasury Board Secretariat. Unfortunately my security paper work had not been done so I was unable to go on the internet or do anything of substance. I did, however, enjoy meeting my coworkers and superiors. After work I met up with the AETP crew for drinks on Spark's street. It was cool to exchange stories of the first day. I hope we continue to hang out as a group.
Tomorrow I can hopefully move into my house. The land lord is still working on a few things, and the place looks great, but I would like to move in sooner rather than later. It will be cool to be so close to work and everything else downtown, but it will be a hassle to furnish the whole place from scratch. It will probably take a few months of discretionary spending, but it should be fun. Good times.
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