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Published: December 27th 2014
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Having that feeling of leaving the oven on, or not putting out the bin or checking the mail and leaving the fridge open seem to be the thoughts running through my mind as I walk with mum through the airport. A quick check of my luggage proved my greatest fear of having to much gear. That frustration of taking out 3 kilos of gear in front of the Adelaide traveling public added even more to the nerves as I approached the desk and plumped my life on the conveyer belt and saw it drift away, hoping we would be united again in a country 13000 kilometres away and a good 30 to 50 degrees cooler.
Spending the last few moments with mum felt like a timed visitation that just kept getting interrupted. The last quick glance and wave goodbye was hard, holding the emotions in but knowing that the next step was forward to a new life, a new experience and a new adventure.
The plane trip to Auckland went fairly quickly and can thoroughly the movie the Fault in the Stars, a movie about two young cancer patients who fall in love. But what
Christmas Eve
First real experience with snow on the way to Jeff and Jaime's house. I can recommend is getting a window seat when you fly to Auckland. The view from the plane was breathtaking. I even found the 13-hour flight to Vancouver flew by quite quickly but it wasn’t until I had to wait in line to get through customs that my life seemed to stand still. If the 70-minute trudging towards new boarders wasn’t bad enough, the 50 minute wait to get my working visa that took 2 minutes to complete, definitely was. The satisfying taste of a Tim Horton’s Mocha and whipped cream helped eased my pain before the final boarding to my new destination.
It was a relief to finally get to Calgary and to have my entire luggage arrive safe and sound. The irony of the on flight movie of ‘The Holiday’, where two people switch houses in different countries, reminded me of what I was to embark on. I had also had a nice conversation with a lovely elderly lady who was going to introduce me to her daughter and husband as a point of contact to help me settle in. Meeting meal it felt like I was reuniting with a friend I had known forever.
Christmas Eve
With Mel and her friend Jeff We hit it off straight away. She was easy going and conversation flowed from the start, which help to make me feel better about this whole new world that passed through the windows. My first meal was a nice steak at Jack Astor’s bar, a place that caught my attention for more than just the food, hefty prices and large sports screens; not to mention the large bar, mixture of booths bar stools and tables in the dark and barely illuminated light of the room. The waitresses were strolling around with nice smiles . . . and short skirts and tight tops, which helped in my decision that I have found my new local.
Mel’s house is amazing. The walls and carpets on the top floor and basement are white and the floor boards in a lovely comfortable kitchenette and lounge area is comfortable and homely from the start. The strangest thing I have experienced so far was the fact that over hear its expected that you take your shoes off when you enter the house, whether you are a guest or not. I only thought you did that in Japan!!
In the last
Christmas Eve
Cheers to a happy adventure. couple of days I have had the chance to walk around the local area and get to know where the shops and the local Tim Hortan’s are situated. Seems they are everywhere over here. I found a fascination to walk on ice and faint patches of powdered snow as walked along the streets.. Needless to say the zero people that have seen me nearly slip on my arse for simply walking on a normal path were thoroughly amused. I was entranced by an ice rink in a local school where kids where playing ice hockey. I couldn’t help but watch as it sunk in even more I was in a completely different place. I even had a quick walk on there and for some strange reason I was fascinated by it. I also found out it was slippery and probably best I do it with skates next time.
As I said before Mel has been great. She helped me go shopping for a coat and educate me on the best place to buy groceries. We also continued to talk more about our schools and the subtle differences of vocabulary and behavioural characteristics that we had. She also
Snowing Christmas Night
My first ever experience with snow. invited me to her friends house on Christmas Eve.
The next day was my first challenge: Public Transport. Mel had shown me how to get to school the previous day but this was my first test to see if I could venture out and make my way to my future place of work. Another enjoyable walk of stepping in powdered snow and slipping on ice, which will get old sometime in the near future, amused me as I made the 5 minute walk to the train station. For some reason I seemed to make a simple to operate ticket machine more complicated than I needed to be. Firstly I scanned my pay wave card where you scan the metro card and secondly I didn’t select a pay choice and wondered why it wouldn’t take my credit card. Being the intelligent man that I am I soon worked out how to get my ticket and took the two stops to heritage station. After going in the wrong direction, even though I was using a map, I found myself conquering my first quest of making it to work using public transport.
I didn’t wait to long
Christmas Night
Extra proof of the snow. until my second adventure on the train when we went all the way to the end of the line (Tuscany stop) for our Christmas Eve get together with Mel’s friends Jaime and Jeff. From this station you could see Olympic park, an ice slop where the ski jump from the Winter Olympics was performed. Apart from that, the movie set like housing and street set up was covered in snow. It was awesome to see Canada at its winter best. I was instantly made to feel welcome by Jeff and Jaime and their friend Roy and Jamie’s mum. I felt like I had known them for years. I was also warned that my tolerance of alcohol was about to be tested. Along with drinking 4 Heineken’s, 2 glasses of American red wine and a couple of bourbon manhattans, I was treated to escargot, a nice roast and I even out cockles which is something I just don’t do. Not to mention this house was amazing. The view from their balcony looked like something from a ski lodge, well how I would imagine it to be, and the basement was a decked out man cave, with a pool table, an 120
inch movie projector screen, a 10 metre bar. All it needed was a Richmond Tiger wall and it was nearly as perfect as it could be. I was even invited to come back for New Years Eve, which was pretty cool as well. Some of the conversations of possible trips to places like Vegas and maybe even Super Bowl may have been my imagination or the alcohol talking but I enjoyed the night and met some really cool people.
Mel and I spent Xmas together, again cooking me dinner. She has really looked after me very well and I have been amazed how well we have got along. She made it as Christmas like for me as possible, even had a present for me, which was really nice. Been great to meet an awesome new friend and the start of my adventure could not have been any better. It may be late but the white Xmas I was hoping for may have finally arrived, even if its 10pm on a Sunday night.
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