Back in Canada!

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Well I've now been in Canada for (eek!) almost 3 and a half months! Which I guess proves the old adage that time does fly when you're having fun!! :-)

Cielle and I flew into New York from Frankfurt and had a really lovely couple of days hanging out and enjoying the atmosphere. We went out on the Staten Island ferry, ate sushi in the sun, visited ground zero and the new building project there, hung out in Central Park people watching, and I managed to catch a Louise Bourgeois retrospective at the Guggenheim and see some of the artworks that we studied in Art History at high school!

A thankfully uneventful Greyhound trip took us up to Montreal - with only a little hassle at the border to get my visa. Both Cielle and I have visited before so it was a nice chill out visit. We utilised the free internet in the library, wandered around the old town and basically enjoyed being back somewhere familiar! I visited the Museum of Fine Arts where there was an exhibition of Yves Saint Laurent designs - it was kind of like the Wearable Arts exhibits at home, except haute couture - but the same ideas of clothing as art, some of the outfits were truly beautiful!

By this stage I had decided to try and settle in Ottawa, I remember liking it the last time I was here - it's a very pretty city - set on the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal running through the centre of town, lots of trees and of course (being the capital) beautiful parliament buildings. We were staying at the Ottawa Backpackers Inn (OBI) which became my home away from home for a month after Cielle left to carry on her adventures and I started looking for work.

It took me about 3 weeks to find a job and I've been lucky enough to stay at the same job for my whole stay. I've been working at an Intellectual Property firm in their mailroom which has been an interesting change (I have been comparing it in my head to Specimen Reception in the lab) but I it's a really great place to work and everyone has been very friendly and kind to me - I think it helps that they think my accent is cute!! :-) At the moment I'm also helping out with "overflow" work, which is neat coz I get to do all sorts of different things around the office - it's keeping me entertained anyhow!

The OBI was a fantastic place to be, there were a fair few number of long term residents who were great and the staff are amazing - I'm still heading back often to catch up with my friends and celebrate holidays with all the other "orphans"! Our Thanksgiving party was great fun - complete with made-from-scratch pumpkin pies and a giant turkey. I moved into an apartment with two roomates at the start of September and that has been great - it's in a really nice neighbourhood, walking distance to work and I was lucky enough to inherit furniture from one of the previous tenants.

It's been really nice to see the seasons changing - we had a fantastic couple of weeks when I first arrived before it started turning autumnal, but we're beginning to get into winter - it was -11 deg C when I walked to work this morning (with a high of -3!), and now with daylight savings it's starting to get dark when I leave work in the evening. We had snow the week of Halloween but then had a warm spell so it all melted. We've had flurries the last couple of days but not enough to settle on the ground so I'm looking forward to it getting heavier - much to the disgust of many of my Canadian friends! :-)

So I hope everyone at home is enjoying Spring, and that everything is going well! I'm starting to plan my trip home at the moment, I've got so many people to see and places to go and January is going to be a rather interesting time to be traveling in Canada!
Take care, luv S

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Photos

Cielle in Time Square
ah, New York, New York :-)

Sunset in NY
We went to an outdoor concert on one of the piers by a singer songwriter (whose name I can't remember) who was pretty funny - "Tom Cruise scares me" was a highlight!

New York skyline
Above the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Resevoir in Central Park

Parliament Hill, Ottawa
complete with military drill

Parliament Hill all lit up
for the sound and light show. A cheesy history of Canada projected onto the Peace Tower... some of the effects were pretty neat actually :-)

The River
5 mins walk from my apartment... there's a park with squirrels and ducks and swings.... ok, yes I am 5 years old and these things make me smile!! :-)

Julie's Farewell Party
on the back porch of the OBI :-)

Karla, Manolo and me
hanging out at the OBI

Pumpkin Pies
me and Karla made these - would've been much easier to buy pie crusts and tinned pumpkin but not so much fun!

My birthday
My roommates Jason and Natalie took me out for wine and cake :-)

Rugged up for the snow!
It was only around for a couple of days but it was neat!! Bring it on!! :-)

Snowy cityscape
Parliament Hill, the canal and Chateau Laurier

My work Halloween Party
That's me as a butterfly...

Tomoko, me and Kyoko
at their leaving party... have fun girls! See you next year!

Comments

[Eleanor]

Cool leaves Sarah and you look real pretty as a butterfly... can you make me pumpkin pie when you get back! Keep warm in your styly white jacket. love Elly:-)

[Caroline]

I love swings too - you're never too old for that. Great pics, glad to see your Halloween costume worked out! Caroline