Holiday cheer....

So, it is that time of year again. Santa has come and gone, leaving all sorts of wonderful (and useless) gadgets, clothes, toys, for the masses to amuse themselves with. As for me, I got a wonderful comforter which will be useful when the thermostat in my basement apartment in Ottawa begins to dip below the 19 degrees that it normally sits at (that is of course if climate change doesn't smack us as it did this week with record 14 degree temperatures in late December)....I also got a chess board and a set of mixing bowls, both gifts that will keep me occupied indoors when the winter weather sets in for real.

I got myself a few books over the past week, adding to the pile that never seems to shrink. One is an Atlas and the other, The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson is one that I had been hoping to pick up for awhile. Taking advantage of the 40% discount afforded me by boxing day and my irewards card and the return of a calendar that I didn't really need, I only had to shell out 6 bucks for a book that lists for 33! Should I feel bad about this? A recent article found on iht.com raises some interesting issues involving discount books.

Anyhow, I've just started the book. The theme (history of money) is quite apt considering the turmoil the global economy is experiencing due to "creative" debt vehicles.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all! I anticipate 2009 will be an interesting year....

Boo! Halloween makes for scary times....

So, Halloween is fast approaching - scary times! We really are living in scary economic times. I can't help but be shocked by the continued steep declines in the worlds stock markets. What does this all mean for us?

In some ways it presents opportunities I think. Much like in any crisis, there is room for creative responses at the local, national and international level. People who are laid off from work can move to start their own business serving their local communities. Internationally, we will probably see a higher level of regulation over global financial markets. We might even see a move towards more regional integration as smaller countries (think Iceland, and Canada???) realize the benefits of being hitched up in a larger political economic entity.

For Canada, does this mean greater integration with the U.S.? That thought rightly scares a lot of people. What would that mean for our distinct northern, social welfare, etc, culture? Would we still be able to maintain our Canadianess - what ever one defines that to be?

In some ways, regional integration makes a lot of sense. By facilitating trade in geographically close regions, we may avoid the wasteful importation of products from half-way around the world. Take for example an apple. If you are someone living in Ottawa, it makes a lot more sense to import that apple from New York than it does to import it from B.C. even though it is in the same country. Maybe we should break North America into regional conglomerations - East Coast, mid-west, West Coast.....I'm talking nonesense here....

Anyways, I've started investing again in the hopes that I can take advantage of some eventual upturn in the markets. Hopefully they decide to start cooperating!!

Fall Colours, change in the air...

Fall is in full swing, leaves changing colour. Is this not one of the most beautiful times of the year?

I love the fall harvest! I am lucky to have a great farmers market right across the street from me. Today I went and bought a nice Butternut Squash, some onions, apples, cabbage and other delicious fall veggies...I am not trying to strategize some recipes to use it all :)

Bracing for winter? It is definitely on the way. Below zero in the mornings, I am now wearing a toque and mits for my daily bike commute. I am going to have to break out my 'beater' bike and begin getting it ready for winter time. Am I crazy to expect that I will be able to ride throughout the winter? My ride is only about 10 minutes in good times, so that shouldn't be an issue. The worst part will be the logistics of wearing all sorts of winter gear and having to change into my work clothes....a logistical issue really....

Another thing is trying to keep myself socially active once the cold arrives. It will be difficult to motivate myself to leave my place when its freezing cold out....I'll survive though, and maybe even be happy doing it too...

Trois Pistoles

I have spent the past 4 days in the Bas-St Laurent region of Quebec in a town called Trois Pistoles. My friend Andrea was here over the summer doing the summer language program and I decided to come visit for an end of summer vacation....

I was here a few years ago in La Pocatiere for my own french immersion experience and fell in love with the region. The St. Lawrence river is an imposing feature in the landscape and indeed it seems that life here revolves around its rythms. The tide rises and falls - the sun rises and sets....

Throughout my days here I've been pretty active with some bike riding, walking and kayaking. I've also spent some time in the town of Trois Pistoles which has revealed itself as a relaxing and pleasant place to spend one's days...

Big Trip - Big Move

So, the summer has passed quick as usual. I've been kept pretty busy with work and with getting used to life in a new city.

It's definitely had its ups and downs. Moving to a new place is always a difficult experience that brings with it new opportunities for discovery - both of self and of the new physical surroundings.

I've really come to like Ottawa. The city is smaller than any other I've spent significant time in (i.e. Montreal & Toronto). The smaller size is nice - you can get almost anywhere by walk/bike and don't have to deal with huge amounts of traffic. The city is also really green. Parks can be found everywhere - a national park is accessible within a 30 minute bike ride!! The Gatineau hills provide some really good mountain biking and an escape from the urban.

Building relationships here has been a challenge for me. I've made some really good friends nonetheless and look forward to meeting new and interesting people...

Work has been good to me. It challenges me to think and develop new skills and the subject matter is super interesting. In the fall I will begin working with the environmental team and the corporate social responsibility team. It will be a challenge to manage the two, but I am excited about the opportunities for learning that it will provide.

I will be moving into a new place in September - a basement apartment all to myself. It will be the first time that I've lived alone, without roommates. I am excited and somewhat apprehensive. I am looking forward to a place to call my own, but fear the loneliness that comes with that, especially come winter when people are less likely to venture from their homes. I think it'll be okay though :)

That's all for now folks....I'd appreciate some comments just to know that people are reading this!! But if not, thats cool....I write it as much for myself as for others..

Ian

Bye Montreal, Hello Ottawa!

This weekend was the last one that I will spend in Montreal as a resident. My friend Mike and his girlfriend Erin came up to Montreal from Toronto early Saturday morning to help me move my stuff to Ottawa.

Friday was my last night in Montreal was nice. I went with a bunch of friends to an Ethiopean resto and then out to the Plateau for some drinks. As I anticipated my friend Mike's to arrive at 4:30am, so decided to stay out until then...

Saturday we made the move. I don't really have that much stuff, so it wasn't that difficult. We arrived at my new place around 7-8pm and then went out for some dinner. We were all really tired and so came back home pretty early.

After some cheap breakfast on Sunday morning, we went for a walk around town to check out the parliament buildings and other sights. It was really nice to see the city a little. I live so close to everything!!! This is going to be a great summer :)

After Mike and Erin left, I unpacked my stuff and settled into my apartment a bit. I live with two engineering students who will be working in Ottawa over the summer. They seem like pretty nice guys. We went out for breakfast together and have talked about getting out to play sports and stuff which will be really nice.

I start my first day of work tommorow! Its pretty exciting - i don't really know what to expect, but imagine that it will be great. Details to come!

Last Exam tommorow!

I write my last exam of my bachelor degree tommorow morning. How do I feel about this you may ask? Good. I am glad to be finished with my degree at Concordia. I feel that I am ready to move on to something different; something more challenging.

I will have 10 days in Montreal before I move to Ottawa. I am so lucky that my friend Mike and his girlfriend are coming up from T.O. to help me in the move. I can only imagine the difficulties of trying to move by bus or train. Thanks dude! I start at the EDC on May 5th, very soon after I arrive. I am really excited about this. It's going to be nice to get into the working world, to earn some money and do something interesting. I am also looking forward to Ottawa. I plan to buy myself a nice bike and get outside of the city often to do some touring. I have friends in the area, so I will be okay.

I hope to do a lot of outdoor activities this summer. I want to get out camping, kayaking, canoeing, etc, etc. I think Ottawa is a good place to be for all this stuff so I am happy.

I also hope to go to both T.O. and Montreal often during the summer. I have my baby niece in Toronto who I hope to see as much as I can. I also have friends here in Montreal that I want to keep in touch with....This is going to mean lots of Via trips!! Maybe i'll get enough preference points to make a cross-country trip later in the year :)

Wish me luck on my exam tommorow!!!
Ian

I am an Uncle!!

My sister Kim gave birth to a baby girl named Allissa today at around 10am. So I am now officially an uncle :-) I am looking forward to heading back to Toronto to see her...

I also recieved news about an internship in Ottawa over the summer with the EDC (Export Development Canada). It is with the Corporate Outreach Team. The one project that really interests me is the development of a new CSR (corporate social responsibility) mandate for the organization. This means incorporating more environmental and social criteria into EDC's decision-making processes...it means creating a culture of sustainabiltiy and social responsibility. I think this will be really challenging and rewarding!!!

So I am off to Ottawa in 4 weeks. I found myself a sublet in the Ottawa Uni dorm downtown. My apartment will be 2kms from work, so I can walk or bike really easily. It will be my first time living alone which is interesting. I am excited about the prospect, but it will be a big change from the 6 roommates I have now. More privacy, but also less community. I have some friends in Ottawa, and I'm sure i'll meet people through work, so I'll just have to have a lot of dinner parties :) Anyone who wants to come visit is more than welcome!!!

I will be graduating school in 3 weeks, which is maybe even more exciting! It's been nearly 3 years here in Montreal, so it is tough to leave. It is going to be tough leaving friends and a city that I really love. But at the same time, opportunity is calling, so i've gotta move on. I will have a welcoming place to visit whenever I have the chance :)

Change approaching!

The semester is rolling by! We are approaching the 4th week which means that I have about 11 weeks until I graduate! Wow, writing that feels really wierd. Its pretty surreal to imagine the changes that will be taking place in my life after that point.

As I think I mentioned in previous posts, I am thinking of grad school for the coming fall. This would keep me in the academic world and give many more opportunites for interesting experiences. I submitted two of these applications yesterday to U of Ottawa and U of Waterloo (after some hectic days waiting for reference letters to arrive in the mail and then discovering that our service had been stopped due to icy stairs)....anyhow...it feels good to have them sent off. I also recently added a school to my list of desirables - York's Glendon College.

For the longest time I told myself that I didn't want to go back to Toronto, but am now thinking that Glendon is my #1 choice! Being in Toronto would let me be close to my family, especially my sis Kim with her soon to be daughter (my niece!!!!!)..I also feel that there are people in Toronto that I could be happy with as a social network. This is really important for me, and is something that Waterloo and Ottawa don't have.

I still haven't heard anything about the job with Dfait, but am still hopeful that they will get back to me for an interview. I am also looking into internships. I applied for the Ontario Government Internship program and am looking into one with EDC as well.....why all government stuff? I don't know....i'm going to be a pencil pusher!!!! ahhh, my worst dream realized...lol....

I've also been entertaining thoughts of travel in the summer. Specifically I was thinking about going down to South America to learn Spanish and maybe volunteer on a project. This would obviously require some financial resources, so I have to figure that out first....

Some ideas bouncing around.....an exciting time for sure!

Getting Settled into another semester...

So the first week of my winter semester is finished. The first impressions of my courses are really good. Much better than last semester. Whereas last semester I was working on finishing the last of my required commerce courses, stuff like intro to finance, cost accounting, etc, this semester's courses are more up my alley. I am doing a really interesting course entitled "Globalization and Sustainable Development" where we will be exploring all sorts of interesting issues like biotech, peak oil, and new imperialism..
Another course I am doing is International Business Law. This seems really cool too. The teacher has invited a Montreal tech company to be the subject of our main project. Essentially, each group will act as consultants to the firm in their decision to build a new facility abroad. The winning team will be given a prize of some form, making it a competitive endeavour. I got myself into a good group, so hopefully we will win!
My other two courses are also internationally related, if not so interesting. One is a 200-level geography course and the other an international political economy course. I think you can see a general theme in my studies this semester :)
I will also be continuing my work on the Sustainable Business conference. I'm working with a number of the working groups (marketing, getting speakers and logistics). This will allow me to work with a lot of interesting people.
So, good things are going on this semester. I am excited!

Back from a long hiatus

So, its been awhile since i've written here. Its been 4 months since I returned to Canada, to Montreal, and I guess I kinda let things here take over, leading me to neglect certain things.

It's January now. One year ago I was writing this blog in Copenhagen and France. Now, Montreal, starting my last semester at Concordia university. Its a pretty exciting thought actually, to know that this phase in my life will be over in the near future. Exciting and scary, because I don't really know what I'll be doing 5 months from now...

As many of you know, I've applied for a job with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I wrote a series of tests, which I think I've done pretty well on and am now awaiting word from the department as to whether I've made it past the first round.

Although I am really eager and hopeful that this job will come through, I am planning for the eventuality that it doesn't work. I've begun preparing a few applications for grad school, at the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo for studies related to International Affairs and Public Policy.

I don't want to give the impression that school and thoughts of my future are the only thing going on in my life (even if they may dominate my thoughts quite often). I am really enjoying my time here in Montreal. I'm living in a huge house with a bunch of really cool roommates. We are very diverse, studying everything from civil engineering to fine arts. We cook, watch movies and play scrabble together quite often. The house is just 10 minutes walk from my campus, so its quite ideal in terms of commuting time. It was really nice to come back to Montreal and have a place like this, with an instant group of friends and life partners.

I'm keeping busy with a bunch of other stuff too. Work part-time, volunteering organizing a sustainable business conference (http://sustainable.concordia.ca/ourinitiatives/sbc/).

I've also been keeping pretty active with winter sports and the gym. Right at the end of last semester, just before heading back to Toronto, my friend Clinton and his girlfriend Amanda came up for a day of snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. It just so happens that this coincided with a huge blizzard that dropped 40cms of snow during the day. I remember at one point, on the very last run of the day, being literally blown uphill by the power of the wind. Scary stuff! but intensely fun... :)

My christmas break was very nice. I hadn't had a lot of time to spend with my family and friends in Toronto after my return to Toronto from Europe, so three weeks in T.O. were definitely nice. My sister Kim is now pregnant, 5 months in, so it was really nice to see how she's doing. She seems to be handling it all pretty well, excited about the arrival of a new baby girl in 4 months. Her boyfriend Paul is also very excited, which assuages my fears of him not being there to help me out. My mom and other sister beth are also doing well.

I spent a lot of time going for dinners/lunches/ etc with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. Although I spent a whole bunch of money that I didn't really have on all this revelry, it was definitely well worth it.

Anyhow, I feel im rambling, so ill end it here. I hope that I can keep this up in the next few months.