Getting Settled

August 1 - 5, 2016

Another Monday and it’s back to work. The weather is apparently unusually good (hot and sunny just like summer should be) so I’m enjoying my daily walks to and from the office. So far, I am using one of two routes and as long as I stick to them I haven’t gotten lost so far!

Still figuring out my duties and waiting for my trade colleagues to return from holidays/arrive at post so in my “spare” time I am dusting off my Russian books and working on my Russian. I was too stressed the last couple of months that I was in Ottawa to really focus on learning what is truly a very complex language. My goal is to be able to carry on a simple conversation and be able to carry on my day-to-day life as much as possible in Russian. Once I have completed my review, I will hire a tutor to help me improve …

Banking internationally can be fun! I found out that some credit card companies (at least two of mine!) still require travel notifications (for Russia at least). Of course, you only figure that out when your card gets rejected and if you are lucky, you either have some cash or can try another card. 

So far no big deal other than the need to spend time on the phone chatting with people in Canada who have pulled the graveyard shift (there is a seven hour time difference so an evening call is early morning in eastern Canada). Also decided just for fun to switch my bank account to one that doesn’t have ATM charges outside of Canada and the US so more financial fun there but now I am all set up (I hope).

Some of the highlights of the week were:

Tuesday morning, I received my Metro card! Metro is the Russian equivalent of Costco but a bit off the beaten track. One of my colleagues, who also lives downstairs in my apartment building, does early morning runs every second weekend to the Metro. I am hoping Jack is going shopping weekend so I can stock up on a few things. Yippee, my luck is holding. He and Craig are heading to the Metro on Saturday and I’m welcome to ride along. Now what do I need/want?

Wednesday morning, I received notification that my air shipment was at a warehouse in Moscow and could be delivered as early as Friday morning. Oh happy day, some of my stuff has arrived! Friday will surely feel a bit like Christmas because I am not 100% sure what ended up in the boxes. On the home front (Ottawa that is!), the construction project on the foundation of my house has started. The first phase is excavation in the driveway, followed by starting to shore up the wall/house so they can remove part of the basement wall and replace it. That was a nasty surprise for me when I was getting ready to put the house on the market in June. Oh well, all things being equal, that process will take 2-3 weeks and then there is the cleaning, staging and other preparations for listing. Hoping to have the house on the market sometime the week after Labour Day. If anyone is in the market for a cute 3 BR house in beautiful Overbrook, let me know.

Thursday afternoon, Dan and I were still waiting for news that the incoming mail had been sorted and was ready for pick up. Feels a bit like when the coveted care packages and cards would arrive from home when we were at summer camp/university. Sadly, this week was the once a year that for some reason there was no white bag shipment. Hopefully next week things will be back to normal as I have been told by friends and family that they have sent me mail and patience is one of the many virtues that I do not possess. This week, not a biggie as I already had a plethora of presents arriving tomorrow.

Friday morning, I was up and at ‘em early all showered and ready for the movers who arrived promptly at 9:00 am. I was invited to watch them open the wooden shipping crate that my boxes had been loaded into for the journey. Assume they want me to know if anything is damaged it happened en route and wasn’t caused by the local folks. With the use of pry bars, hammers and brute strength the two movers soon enough had "Fort Knox" opened revealing the eight boxes of my treasures. The boxes were delivered and the movers left a bit disappointed that I only wanted them to open the boxes not unpack them. They likely wanted to see what the crazy Canadian lady had thought important enough to have delivered first! 

As the contents of each box were revealed, I was awestruck by the range of things that I considered “necessities”. I had brought everything from new 800 count Egyptian cotton sheets to my steel-toed work boots. I am sure the movers would have been dumbfounded but I was excited about my choices for the most part and busied myself with getting things sorted and put away. 

Some of the "Highlights"

No time to tarry and enjoy the pops of colour from my new tablecloth and throw blankets or figure out what to do with the framed photos I had decided would make me feel more at home as I had a meeting with the Ambassador. The Ambassador likes to greet all new Canada-Based Staff (aka CBS) so off to the Embassy I went so he could find out what I was all about and welcome me to the Mission. It was an interesting hour and I left with some projects for the short and medium term to get things rolling. 

 

I was meeting Alexandra at the Canada Club for the weekly Happy Hour at 5:00.  There was a good turnout of new staff and seasoned veterans and the two hours flew by. My neighbour Craig was bartending and invited all the folks left at 7:00 pm back to his place for pizza and cards. The dozen or so of us made our way back to the SQ using Craig’s shortcut which I will try to replicate on my own next week (we’ll see how that goes). 

His wife Kerri welcomed the crew and set us up with drinks as we waited for the pizzas to arrive. After our feast of pizza, chicken tenders, chicken wings and a variety of salads, the table was cleaned off and it was time for cards. I do love playing cards no matter what the game. Luckily, it was a game that I had played when I lived on PEI many years ago – Wizard – which is a bit like Screw your Neighbour but is played with a special deck that includes wild cards. After being reminded of the rules, we played two games and I was lucky enough to win one!

Another great week and I have some fun stuff planned for the weekend so life is good!