Hey all. Well, I decided that the best way to let you all know what mischief I've been getting up to in Calgary was to create a blog and try to make a post every day of so. This way my friends (and my family) can keep tabs. Also, for those of you who miss my rants, you can come here to get your fix. I promise I'm as outrageous here as I am face to face.

Ok, so this post is going to be long, as I've been in Calgary for quite a while now. I just haven't had time or internet access to start blogging. In any case lets begin. I'll start out with my pre-work activities in this entry, followed by my time at work  in the second entry.

So I flew to Calgary on the night of the 26th of February on Westjet. The flight was short and sweet, and I was met on the other end by a friend of mine (Queen's engineering grad) who took me back to his house in Northern Calgary (stopped off at Denny's for some good eating first). All my stuff was shipped out to Calgary by Greyhound courier express. Kudos to Tom for ferrying me and my stuff to the Greyhound office. Just a FYI, the guys working at the Greyhound office were disturbing.

The very next morning I got up at 7 am and then headed south by bus into Calgary city. Now, I'm from Toronto and I've lived in Vancouver. When I think of city, I think of towering skyscrapers, freeways, etc. Calgary is a city..... for like 7-8 blocks in a straight line. Then it becomes SPRAWL. Sprawl = buildings spread over lots of space. This makes it tricky if you don't have a car.... like me. Oh well. So my purpose in Calgary on the Tuesday was to scope out 3 different aparatments and see what I thought. I was going to move into a furnished apartment (The Birkenshaw) which the company provided for me on the 1st of March, so I wasn't in desperate straights for someplace to live, but I figured better to check out places earlier rather than later.

So the first place I looked at was in the downtown core.  I wait in the lobby for the manager to come give me the tour. While I'm waiting a bunch of hobo-like people come wandering in, one swearing repeatedly in a loud manner. I am not impressed. The manager finally arrives and she takes me to see the room. Before we enter she informs me that the room belonged to a "skip", ie. someone who up and abandoned the place when the rent got increased. I am also told the place will be fully renovated before I move in. This also does not reassure me. Then I see the room.

Now, I don't know about you, but if I was a retail person, I would make sure the room was CLEAN before showing it to ANYONE. This room had boxes of unemptied kitty litter in the corner, up-ended pots of dirt on the floor, and scrapes and holes all over the wall. All for the bargain price of $895 a month. I left. Funnily enough, an agent for that realtor called me up and asked why I didn't take the place. I told her.

Now the second place was far to the south, a 5 min walk from the Chinook centre mall and 15 min walk to my workplace. The area was free of hobos, and had every kind of big box store you can imagine within walking distance. (Staples, Home Depot, ALL the banks, post office, etc). This was the place I had contacted before leaving Vancouver. They didn't have any 1-bedrooms available for March or April, but they informed me that a 2-bedroom was becoming available in mid-March. Because I had a well-paying job and they liked the sound of me over the phone, they had saved this place for me and were giving me first crack at it before posting ads for it in the paper. $1450 a month, and they would let me have cats (a deal breaker so far as I was concerned). In any case, to make a long story short, I saw the place the very next day, thought it was fantastic, and signed the lease. Woot!!!! Its more expensive than I would have liked, but unless I shared with someone, then I would be paying in that ball range (for considerably smaller places) anyways. Also, with only a 15 min walk to work, I cut down on commute aggravations and I don't to pay gas to get to work (not that I own a car anyways).

Now some bragging about the apartment. Its freaking huge. I have a full bathroom, kitchen (with fridge, oven, dishwasher) a living room, dining room, and two bedrooms (both of which are big) and a storage room. I am on the 10th floor in the corner of the building, so I get light from both the north and the east. I have a balcony. The apartment has a gym, laundry, social room (for weddings, events, etc) and a library.

After that, I spent the next few days seeing what Calgary had to offer a tourist. The answer: Not much, unless theres something I don't know. I checked out the China town. Its small.... Very small... But there were some nice buildings
 

The neat part about downtown Calgary is the +15 walkways. All about 15 feet off the ground, these walkways (as shown here) are designed to keep you out of the cold. Pretty cool idea actually.


I didn't get to move into the apartment until March 9th. So until then I was still living at the Birkenshaw apartments. It was a nice place, but it wasn't in the best neighbourhood. One morning I got up to go to work (6 am) and walking out of the apartment I see 2 police cars and an ambulance next door. Walking a little closer I see an additional 2 police cars and a man lying on the front porch. The ambulance guys are getting ready to put him on a stretcher. So being as inquisitive as I am, I asked someone what the heck happened. Apparently there was a stabbing. That made for some interesting conversation at work that day. My mother, who flew into  Calgary a day or so prior to then, got to watch the police at work from the balcony at the Birkenshaw.

In any case, since the 9th my Mom and I have been to Ikea twice to buy furniture, Real Canadian Superstore for kitchen crap and groceries, and Walmart and Home Depot for the rest. While I'm at work, she cleans and puts together furniture. Then I come home and we have dinner. Pretty good deal so far as I'm concerned!! :-) We had to rent a car to go to Ikea and one car rental place I called was exceptionally rude to me when I booked the car. Very abrupt, had an accent so I had trouble understanding him and got irritated when I asked him to repeat things, then he tried to charge me an exhorbant price to rent. So I switched to Budget then I called them back and told them to cancel my reservation.  A different representative asked why I was cancelling the reservation. I told him that their agent had been rude to me and I found a much cheaper deal. It was fun listening to him try to apologize and woo me back, but I wasn't having any of that.

In any case, this blog entry has gone on far too long now. Next post I will talk about what I do at work (the non-confidential information). And, if anyone is interested, I will be playing D&D from now on! I'll be setting up my eye cam on Wednesday night.


Cheers!

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