Return of the prodigal package

I got it! I got my passport back. The package arrived yesterday already. Happy days. Now everything is set.

Also, all hotels are booked at this stage. So I have to print off the booking confirmations and then the stay for my first couple of weeks are already sorted.

I guess, I can finally call a few property management companies to see what they need from me as a potential tenant. And then I will have to get myself into the job hunting game.
Exciting times ahead, but I'm delighted to have my visa sorted this far.

Photo above: I took the photo above on my last ski trip in the US. I thought with all the snow, it might be fitting. It's a little on the ironc side, since it happens to snow in Ireland today, whilst Canada apparently experiences a rather nice day...

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Black Friday

I've tried so far to keep tech out of my blog. Despite all of my previous effort, I decided to break with tradition for this entry. Recently, I bought a MacBook Air which is slick, stylish, lightweight, surprisingly fast and definitely on the pricey side. Actually since it matters for this entry, I have to be a little more precise. I bought the laptop mid November. My old one is almost utterly useless since it gets hot as hell when you 'sleep' deprive it for more than 10 min. As I tend to do, I payed up at once and forgot about the expense almost just as quick. Now, for the next part I have to explain something that not everyone may be aware of. Thanksgiving is a much bigger holiday here in North America than it was in Europe. There is turkey dinner and pumpkin carving and costumes and other traditions that Europeans just don't do, even though at least Germany has the holiday ("Erntedankfest") as well. The date when this happens is a different one for the...

French Canada

After the first night sleep, the first day was mainly retracing steps of my previous visits in Montreal. As it so happened, there was actually a parade on for the winter Olympia teams this very day. BTW, for all those who didn't watch any of the last games, Canada is crazy about winter sports... and excels in it too. So there were a lot of heroes to be cheered for and the streets were packed. Having had a wonderful day in Montreal, my trip brought me to Trois-Rivieres on Saturday. In this the (very small) city I did my internship in 2005. So it had been a while since I was there last. And I was quite happy to see that so many things were pretty much as I remembered. The main reason to come to this 150,000 francophone citizen strong town was to meet with two of my colleagues/friends from my already mentioned internship. We enjoyed Moroccan food and caught up on ... well, just sooooo many things. Now I'm already looking forward to meeting you guys again. And I promise we can ma...

The last leg, or is it?

Due to a volcano in Island I had a couple of very exciting days. At this stage I'm hopeful that I will be on a flight to Canada on Thursday. However, anything is still quite possible. Currently, no flights are allowed in the Irish airspace; much like the rest of Europe. But that might change on Tuesday or Wednesday. If that's the case, maybe I can be on my flight Thursday as planned. I would not want to complain though, since I know other travelers have way more serious issues due to being stranded without visa, medicine or money. For myself the clouds of ash are more or less "just" an inconvenience. If my flight on Thursday does not take off, I will have to cancel or rebook my hotels, my health insurance, my car rental and obviously my flight. I suppose I will also have to let everyone I'm planning to meet during my first week know as well. Anyway, there is little I can do now but wait once more. By the way, the photo shows locally produced ash. Long liv...

To Canada and beyond

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