another day

things are going pretty well for me here

one of the two places I was hoping to move into fell through, and the other ill be meeting later today to find out whats going on. In the mean time, I going to make some calls and see a few more places to keep my options open.

the organic food fest starts today and should be fun... i'm hoping there will be some free food tasting so I'm going to head down there around lunch time. For the morning I'm going to walk up to the montpellier area (where I want to live) and check out some shop window postings for other places to live.

I saw another great place last night after work, but it wasn't in the most ideal location for proximity to downtown, although the area was quite safe. Ill keep that on the back burner until I hear from the people this afternoon. I'm hoping that things work out because they were my first choice (nice people, really close to shops, and safe neighborhood), but i've got some more good leads just in case.

Yesterday was a fun second day at work. I started my day off with a few intro meetings and then spent the afternoon trying to find a speaker for a group who is coming to th museum in a few weeks... it was a tough job, because they want someone who can talk about the cultural exchange that took place between bristol and the caribbean with specific relation to its affects on the geoprahy (landscape and architecture) of both areas. basically someone who can talk about how the english modified the landscape in the carribean, and then how te wealth brought in from the slave trade affected the development of the city here..... YIKES! anyway, I got a good lead on a prof at the U of Bristol who is focused on landscape history and also cultural reactions to long distance trade routes, so that might take me somewhere on monday. I don't think this is the sort of job Ill be doing a lot, I think its sort of a get go job to keep me busy and see how I do with dealing with a peculiar sort of task.

I'm not feeling too homesick yet, though every now and then it hits me just how far away I am from Canada. Bristol is nice because on the whole it has a similar feel to Toronto (multicutural, mix of people, friendly nature, etc) so it doesn't feel like I am culturally so far away... especially as I am used to hearing the british accents now. Funny though, there are a few things to get use to - for example malls and shops all close arond five or half five here, so its tricky to do errands after work. Coffee shops are the same... most aren't open past six. And then going with that trend, people start lining up to get into clubs and bars as early as seven or eight... Like I said I'm totally used to the accents, though I did go into starbucks (forgive me the other coffee shops were closed and I had 45 minutes to kill before a house visit) and when the girl spoke with a british accent it took me by complete surprise - i think because it was so much like a starbucks in Canada, i forgot where I was.

Every now and then I think of the time difference (its six AM at home right now) or see a world map at the museum and it hits me how far away things are... but it doesn't really bother me too much aside from the occasional butterflies in the stomach. The museum has a big Hudson Bay Company blanket on display in its exhibit on the fur trade and it was a nice comfort to notice that yesterday when I was studying the galleries.

Well, I'm off to take a walk I've been taking lots of photos, so once I get settled I'll post them up here.

- Chris