Meanwhile, in Canada

Being in San Francisco I escaped the first really cold Canadian weather. While my co-workers were working outside in -30°C, I was on the plane back to Calgary praying for milder weather. Not because I fear working in -30°C (that's been delegated to my parents ;-) I actually hope I'll get to do that, but in due time, after my body's had a chance to adapt to the climate.

Lo and behold, followed 2 weeks of nice almost-warm weather (say, 0-10°C in the sun). Apparently Calgary has this unique climate where Winter is regularly broken by warm sunny periods ("Chinook", a.k.a. warm wind). 

What follows are a few pictures from my last work trip to an oil site near Edmonton. Note how the weather changes on our way back from the site (snow & fog, -10°C, no Chinook) to Calgary (Chinook):

In the absence of new contracts, we've been cleaning tools in the workshop, forever. I'm getting restless...

In other news, on Friday, Benjamin held his 18th-floor-downtown-apartment-warming party, and yesterday I went to a Christmas Buffet with the "Flemish in Calgary".

Also, a month from now, I'll finally break even on this Canadian adventure. (If this seems long, it's because I didn't work in my first 3 months here.)

Also, Sinterklaas (the Belgian Santa Claus) has visited my parents' place in Belgium and left something for me as well. On the phone, my brother Koen was telling me with a triumphant wide grin not to worry about the food spoiling. He has no idea that I'm arranging for a hot shot (*) to fly over the good stuff, MWUHAHAHA!! :D

(*) A hot shot is a fast special delivery driver. As in when one of our pumps failed on a site 1000km up North, and he drove all night to bring us a replacement by next morning. (My hot shot, you guessed it, is one of the Belgians going home for Christmas.)

Thanksgiving in SF

As most of you know, I was invited for Thanksgiving by family in ... San Francisco! It was good to see them back after over 2 years. It was a week of outdoor trips and delicious dining. Once back in Calgary, I had constant cravings for (similarly) tasty food. It's finally over now - after there were no more snacks left in my cupboard!

Guys, thanks for the wonderful time, and see you back soon!

In contrast, Calgary doesn't look very inviting, does it? But guess what happens in the following days...

Winter's here!

I just changed the title from 'Hell breaks loose', which was a little too dramatic. ;-) But hey, I was doing groceries yesterday night, in the snow and the cold, and it was no fun.

Yesterday's warm and sunny weather changed into cold and snow, and it will continue all week, with temperatures around -12°C. So Winter's here, the brown prairies have turned white, and this place will never be the same again...

...at least until April next year. Glad I snatched those hikes last weekend!

It's -10°C tonight, I'm walking to the barber, and the moist, windy cold bites into my face and hands. The snowy city is beautiful, and for reminds me of "Home Alone" (the movie) for some reason. Only christmas music is missing (oh yeah, they had it at Sears yesterday night).

By the way, I live in the dark building on the right of the Calgary Tower (in the picture above).

Grotto Canyon

Today was a leisurely drive with Benjamin, along scenic highway 1A, to Canmore. We hiked through Grotto Canyon, which has a creek inside (frozen!) and ancient Indian drawings (they were small and I have no pictures of them).

This is what this region looks like in November 2010 (in other years, you'd see a lot more white ... snow!).

I was in good company:
Meanwhile the weather has become Summer-like, and we're in the canyon:


PS: also check back to my other November posts, which are either new or updated!

Cory Pass

Before this country gets all white and snowy, I'm not letting any hiking opportunity pass. On Saturday I went to Cory Pass with the Outdoor Club, on Sunday I went with Benjamin to Canmore. This post is about Cory:
Look at the breath of the land here! And realize this can't be caught in a picture. It's like this wherever you look.

On to the pass:

Quite an adventure for me to be high up in the snow! Had to put cleats under my boots to have grip on the snow and ice.

Wabasca

First day on the job with a small company to put anti-leakage around oil installations. We drove the entire day through the brown, brown, brown prairies of Alberta, to Wabasca, a bit southeast of Fort McMurray. We're almost 1000km north of Calgary, and with Winter hour enacted yesterday, we were driving in the dark at 5PM! There's snow, and I saw the contours of the facilities, but it's too dark to see much - we'll have to wait till tomorrow. I'm now in a work camp - pretty cool! Ta ta for now because I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow.

Update: -15°C this morning. Remember, we're far up North. 

The work is hard and dirty, but I love it! I'm really fortunate to work here:

I actually made that last (oops, unshaven!) picture to put on my resume (fake it till you make it!), but then I remembered you can't do that here (no personal info whatsoever because companies don't want to get sued for discrimination). 

By the way, don't expect too many pictures from oil sites like this one. Usually pictures are not allowed. A good thing I was persistent here...

So you all wanted to know what exactly we're doing here? We're building & spraying a surface below the huge oil tank, to catch any oil that may leak from valves...

Below is the camp we live in, 8.5km from the work site. The red building on the left is a noisy electricity generator. You may not say so, but the camp is comfortable and the food is nothing short of amazing - I've been trying out all the different dishes, which prompted my boss to say "okay let's go...well, when 'The Stomach' is ready". I guess that's me :-) 

Nihahi Ridge

Hike with the Outdoor Club. Stunning views that remind me of Yosemite. Too bad we didn't make it to the top. Nevertheless, one of my favorite hikes so far!

That's all from me folks! ;-)

Leonidas - Hike - Apartment

I met a Belgian couple that sells Leonidas chocolates in their shop (currently the only Leonidas shop in Western Canada). Two weeks ago, I helped them sell chocolates at the Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Festival. As a student I used to sell Bamix kitchen mixers on fairs in Belgium, and it was good to be 'back'! (And it showed in the sales figures!).

By the way, Bernard Callebaut's (brother of Barry Callebaut from Wieze, Belgium) has had a chocolate business in Calgary since the 80s, its bankruptcy is the talk of the town.

Some pictures of my last hike. Don't laugh at the shorts! The snow would disappear a bit further, and the weather was very nice.  

(click the panorama to enlarge)

Going hiking again tomorrow, with the Calgary Outdoor Club. Really handy, because they carpool to the mountains, which is great since I don't have a car here. Also, through the Club I'm hoping to meet the people who do this. It looks SO ABSOLUTELY TERRIFIC that I just HAVE to do this. I mean, don't you get goosebumps just looking at this? So I'm looking for people who are experienced at this, and I hope to meet them through the Club.

In other news, I moved downtown and am sharing an apartment with 2 Mexicans. Nice balcony in the sun, and a golden opportunity to become fluent in Spanish. To give you an idea how fabulous my Spanish is: a few years ago at a job interview, the interviewer asked, looking at my resume "¿ah - tambien hablas español?" to which I stumbled several words in Spanish, probably with huge thinking pauses in between every one of them. My performance must have been impressive, as he replied "Nice! Where did you learn Spanish? On your last trip to Spain?" (no, nitwit, I spent 2 friggin years on coursework!!!!)

The above picture is the evening view from our balcony, with the Stampede stadium in the background. The next two are just random shots of Calgary (I've begun to keep a camera in my jacket at all times):

The bread here sucks, so I finally bought a bread maker. A local brand, and the bread comes out amazing (no 'cooked' bread, papa!).

Luis, my Mexican apartment mate just looked over my shoulder, recognized the bread maker in the picture, and is now laughing his butts off, haha!

P.S. if you ever need a blog, the service I'm using (Google) comes highly recommended. It just decided to omit 2 pictures. I'm now uploading them again, and I already know they will appear in the wrong place AND in the wrong order. To rearrange them, I'll have the exquisite pleasure to mess with the HTML code. The minute window I'm typing this displays a generous half-a-picture at a time, or, in other words, from the carrots in the above picture to this very line. It's especially great for people abroad who are bored: putting up a few words & pictures will keep you busy for an hour, if not more! You guessed it: I can't recommend this product highly enough!