First post from Edmonton

Hello all. The date and time is now May 13 2006, Saturday, 11.39 pm This is me writing from my room in St Joseph's College, University of Alberta, Edmonton. Quite a mouthful eh.
Me in the St Joe's room.

But anyways, I am very glad that the traveling has finally come to an end! Was in a journey from Singapore to Taipei, which took about 4 hours. Then a SIX-HOUR long transit there before taking the long connecting flight to Vancouver, which took 10.5 hours. After arriving, we had to stay overnight in the outskirts of Vancouver so that we won't arrive in Edmonton at 1 am in the morning! Haha. This morning's flight took a very short 1 hour and we were promptly greeted by Prof Cox. At least she came with her trusty car and drove all our (heavy) luggage to the residence. I really cannot imagine lugging all those things on my own!
Changi

I had a great time just absorbing everything. Somehow, Canada doesn't amaze me that much, most likely because it is so similar to the US. The same kind of highway advertisements, the same kind of cars/trucks, the same kind of bumpy and holey roads (due to snow and ice) and so on. The trees were lovely, though the flowers are not in full bloom yet since it is still early spring (middle of May already!) The sun rose at an ungodly 5 am and set at 9.45 pm. That's a really long summer day for you. And apparently, in June, the sun starts setting at 11 pm. Gosh. I woke up very early this morning cos the sun shone into the room (probably not due to jet lag I hope). And it felt odd to be drinking hot chocolate with the Prof and her husband at 9.30 pm when all is still rather bright, something like late 6 pm at home.

This morning I took a lone walk to Minoru Park located just right behind the hotel we stayed in. CYYC was still sleeping, nursing her tiredness and jetlag I think. It was a BEAUTIFUL morning. Took some pictures of black bunnies hopping around and ducks frolicking about in the lakes. A squirrel came up to me (just a mere 5 cm away) hoping that I would offer it some food! Haha. The morning air was great and the chilly air froze my nose and ears (which I kinda like. Heh.) Must admit that I am rather underdressed for this climate. Even though it is above 10 degree Celcius, it is still quite cold. Maybe I could invest in a thicker coat to tide me over for the next 5 weeks. Anyways, I loved that morning walk. Saw many joggers and they're really friendly. They'd greet passerby's a good morning and may even add in a little comment or two about how nice the day is. And the most interesting was, out of the 10 joggers I saw, only ONE is Caucasian! Haha. The rest were mainly of Chinese origin. One Chinese guy even told me that the ducks like me cos they came very close to me. Haha.



Was feeling very tired after arriving in Edmonton. We took a short walk to the building opposite to grab a late lunch/early supper. Had teriyaki chicken with rice and mixed vegetable (carrots, broccoli, cabbage) fried ala teppanyaki style. That's the only food store open in the entire buillding, so we didn't really get to choose. Came back to the room for a short nap before meeting Prof Cox for a short drive around Edmonton city and some hot chocolate at Tim Hortons (the Starbucks of Canada). Enjoyed the time out with her and her husband (a civil engineer!) and they offered to pick us up again tomorrow evening for a (ice) hockey game against San Jose. They are really crazy about hockey, these Edmonton people. They have flags and banners and messages all over the city cheering their team on.

I am rather enjoying this new experience. I really can't wait to start work on Monday and learn more about pharmacy practice here. (And prove my dad wrong about retail pharmacist being just a salegirl.)

It's cold in here, since the boiler was turned off (for some odd reason) and the heater doesn't work. I hope the temperature outside will not affect the temperature in my room though.

Till then, the next update. :)