Life in Calgary

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So we’ve been in Calgary 7 weeks now, and while time has flown, it seems like we’ve been here longer than that. Although we were only supposed to have the house for a month, Simone and I decided after two weeks that we didn’t want to have to look for another place, as this one is perfect for us. The house is great; four bedrooms plus a study, it’s fully furnished with everything we could ever want (including an air hockey table and piano!), it’s close to public transport and our huge backyard backs right onto the river. It’s wonderful! We knew that whatever else we found, it couldn’t compare to this place. So we spoke with the landlord, who agreed to let us find one or two more housemates.

At the start I was convinced that we shouldn’t get an Australian housemate, because we always tend to attract each other and surround ourselves with Australians. Then we met Nathan, a 22 year old from Orange, NSW, and that changed my mind. A week or so later we got Diann, our token Canadian, who had just moved to Calgary from Ontario. We now have a full house!

We came to Calgary at an awesome time, we had Thanksgiving on the 13th, so we had Lisa around and we cooked up a nice turkey and vegies, followed, of course, by a pumpkin pie. I had never had pumpkin pie, but I remember that my dad used to love it when mum would make one. I was convinced that any dessert pie made of a vegetable was bad news, but oh how wrong I was. This pie was delicious. Beyond description, honestly. Wonderful.

At the end of October we also had Halloween. Oh how exciting that was! I had bought myself accessories to transform into a witch, and Simone was gothing up as a vampire. It would be our first real Halloween, and we were beyond excited. People had decorated their front lawns, shops were kitted out, and kids were coming to our door in ridiculously adorable costumes in the search for candy. We had no real plans for the night, but had some people come over for pre-drinks, with the intention of hitting a club or two afterwards. Our night went to plan, pre-drinks were had and we hit a club or two.. Apparently. I, of course, don’t remember much. Ugh. The photos show that I had a good time though, so I’m happy with that. Apparently I was being a bit of a pain in the behind though, telling everyone to leave me where I was and go have a good time (I was vomiting, you see, so was slightly embarrassed!). I spent half the night sitting on the street talking to a guy I’d met a week or two before, saying god knows what. I do remember getting home, though. Simone, a boy dressed as an owl (who has a name, but will forever be referred to as “the owl”) and I tried waving down a taxi for what seemed like hours, before finally getting into what I guess was a private taxi, but could very well have been a random guy in a random car offering to drive us home. We got home, either way.


We’ve been out each and every weekend, so there are a few stories there.. I won’t bore you with them all though, we’d be here forever. There have been boys though. Obviously with aunties and young cousins possibly reading this, I won’t go into too much detail. Let’s just say that our accents mixed with the apparent 2:1 men:women ratio in Calgary (!!), we haven’t been short of attention.

We’ve made some awesome friends here, Lisa was already here which was great, so very good to see her again! We also replied to an ad on Craigslist (I know, I know) for a group of girls who meet for brunch every Sunday. We met for 4 weeks in a row, but it’s kind of fizzling out now and we don’t want to go anymore, but we met Courtney through that. Courtney is yet another Australian who’s been working at a Summer Camp for the past few months, and has moved in with a family near our place to be their nanny. We get along like a house on fire, she’s super bubbly and fun to be around.. Very glad we met her! I've only seen Tom once, for a number of reasons, so it's pretty lucky I wasn't relying on him as my only Calgarian. haha

The job front has not been so successful. I’ve signed up for a few temp agencies, and was determined not to accept anything too junior at the start, opting to be a little pickier and take advantage of Calgary’s job market. This proved to be a bad decision, and led to me being unemployed for the first 2 ½ weeks. I had applied for a customer service supervisor, with an awesome salary and benefits package. When I went in for that interview, the recruiter also recommended that I apply for a job with their company, as a recruiter. This interested me, a role in recruiting would be an awesome in to the HR industry, so I thought I’d go for it! I went in for the interview and nailed it (I’m getting better at them these days) my only reservation, which I made clear in the interview, was the cold-calling, ruthless-selling aspect of the job. Considering this was a large portion of what I would be doing each day, I was not the right applicant for the position. Oh well. I’d rather sleep at night. The interview for the customer service supervisor also went well, but they were afraid that because I was from Australia and had been travelling for the past few months, I would either get homesick or want to go travelling again. Why they bought me in for the interview, when it’s clear from my resume that I am from Australia, I will never know.

So, I have been temping as a receptionist for the past few weeks. My first role was with an investment company for a little over two weeks, and that was awesome. Not a lot to do, just answer the phones and deal with anyone that came to the desk, but I was allowed to surf the interweb, and I made some friends. Both of their names are Sarah/Sara, so that made it easy. Sara actually came out with us on Halloween, and I’m sure I’ll se Sarah again one day soon. I miss that place so much already. The other two jobs I’ve had have been two-day placements (two days a week just doesn’t cut it, I need moolah!) they’ve been really boring too, even less busy than the investment company was. Oh well.
I did meet a guy out on Friday night who promised to call me this week about a job opportunity he might have for me. He called me yesterday and told me that it was an investment/insurance job, and would require a few months of training. I told him of my plans to work on a cruise ship in May, and he told me he’d want more commitment than that. I told him I’d think about it and call him back. I’ve had a think and decided that it would be an awesome opportunity, and a shame to miss. I can do cruise ships anytime, but this would be the change in career that I have been looking for. The guy told me that it is the highest paying industry in Canada, so that’s also quite hard to pass up! I’m going to call him back today and hopefully meet up with him to discuss my options.

It's been snowing, and it's so pretty! The first time it snowed (though it was a pitiful sprinkling of flakes) I screamed and took millions of photos of Simone and I in it. I'm sure Simone thought I was crazy, as she has spent the past year and a half in London, so has seen her fair share of snow. I haven't been to the snow in my adult life, and as far as I can remember, have never acutally seen it snow. It's snowed a few times since then, and I love it! The ohter day I made a snowman, and Simone and I made snow angels, then had a snowball fight. FUn times! The worst part, though, is the fact that it turns to ice once it melts then refreezes. This means it's hell slippery everywhere, so it's hard to walk. I've already fallen over twice. Uh oh, I feel a consussion coming on!

So that’s a quick recap of what’s been going on in the world of Kirsty over the past few weeks, will try and keep more up to date from now on!

Kirsty xx

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