The Great Ottawa Bingo Card

Hey team!

Only 3 days left till I leave Ottawa for my pre-Europe New Brunswick visit! Lately, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how wonderful Ottawa is and all of the things I'll miss about it.

Aside from the obvious (friends, job, favourite café, blah, blah, etc. etc.) there's also the fact that, being the nation's capital, Ottawa is chock-full of interesting and entertaining things to see and do. Of course, like most people, it never really occurred to me to be a tourist in my own town. At least, not until about 3 months ago when my move to Scotland transformed from an idea into a sure thing. Suddenly, I realized that there was so much left to do in Ottawa that I had wanted to do, but had just never made a point of actually going out and doing.

Being a person who loves to check things off lists, I decided to organize these activities into the OTTAWA BINGO CARD (patent pending).

Here it is, y'all:

Canadian Mint 10h00-17h00 Res. (613) 993-8990 $6 Weekday $4.50 Weekend	National Gallery 10h00-17h00 Closed Monday $12-Adult $10-Student	Bytown Museum 11h00-16h00 Closed Monday $6.50-Adult $4.50-Student	Aviation Museum 10h00-17h00 Closed Tuesday $13-Adult $10-Student	Science Museum 9h00-17h00 Closed Monday $12-Adult $10-Student	Nature Museum 9h00-17h00 Closed Monday $12-Adult $10-Student
Civilization 9h30-17h00 $13-Adult $10-Student Combo w/ War: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+1 Mus: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+2 Mus $26-Adult; $20 Student Combos good for 2 extra days	War Museum 9h30-17h00 $13-Adult $10-Student Combo w/ Civ: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+1 Mus: $20-Adult; $15-Student Imax+2 Mus $26-Adult; $20 Student Combos good for 2 extra days	Rideau Hall Res.1-866-842-4422 Res. 2 days ahead	Bytowne Theatre $10.00	IMAX 1 Film $11-Adult; $9-Student 2 Films $17-Adult; $14 Student	Mayfair Theatre $10.00
Little Italy Wander for an afternoon	Chinatown Wander for an afternoon	Monopolatte Mon-Thur 12h-2h Fri 12h00-3h00 Sat 11h00-3h00 Sun 11h00-1h00 $5 Cover; No Cover on Mondays	NAC Concerts Live Rush prices Available from 10am the day before the show	Little Theatre Box Office 11h-20h show night 11h-16h dark night Shows start 19h30 Closed Monday Adult-$25 Student-$12	Arts Court Every Day 9h00-23h00 -
Ottawa School of Art Gallery Mon-Thur 9h30-21h Fri+Sat 8h30-16h30 Sun. 12h30-16h30	St. Laurent+Hill Gallery Tues.-Sat. 10h-18h Sun. 12h00-17h00 Closed Monday	Diefenbunker Every Day 11h-16h $14-Adults $10-Students	Supreme Court Mon.-Fri 9h-17h00 Closed Sat & Sun Res. Request form: http://www.scc-csc.gc.ca/vis/tour-visite/request-demande-eng.aspx	Notre Dame Mon.11h30-18h00  Tues.- Sat.10h-18h Sun.8h00-20h30	U Ottawa Drama 20h00 Academic Hall $20-Ad; $10-Student

The dates and times I've included on the card were for the winter season, but a lot of places stay open longer during the summer so keep that in mind when exploring. 

This is just a sample of all that is to be seen and done in O-town, but it's certainly a good start, regardless of whether you're a visitor from away, or simply trying to be a hometown adventurer. 

I haven't quite finished it myself yet (and I almost certainly won't before I leave) but it definitely has gotten me out of my routine of work-home-couch-TV-bedtime. In researching the info for the Bingo Card, I also came across a cool website dedicated to helping people in Ottawa break the lazy+sweatpants routine: http://couchassassin.com/ - worth a look if you're bored!

That's all for now chicas y chicos! Happy exploring!

Only 10 days till Marg and I get on that plane to Spain!

P.S. My favourite Ottawa café is Artissimo at the corner of George and Cumberland.  The café au lait is perfection, the employees are really friendly, the decor is funky and most importantly, it's really close to my apartment. Convenience!

The UK Consulate is a Benevolent God

Praise be unto St. Andrew! After weeks of agonizing waiting, a special little package showed up for me by courier. Inside, as you may have guessed, was my dear, sweet passport. And inside the passport? MY UK VISA!!! I was expecting a stamp, but come on Mickie, we're living in the future, duh. Instead, the visa is actually a sticker with all of the numbers that, when taken together, equal my whole identity. There was also a not-exactly-unflattering picture of my face on the sticker. Imagine! Me! On a sticker! I never thought this day would come! As I'd hoped, I've gotten approval for a full two years in the UK and I'll be allowed to work in almost any field I want (I'm not allowed to be a professional sportsperson. Damn.). The only bummer about the visa is that the new version of the Canadian passport is really nice - on each of the pages, it has a picture of something culturally significant or an important moment in Canadian history. My favourite page shows the painting of the Fathers of Confederation at the conference in Charlottetown. Naturally, my visa sticker ended up on this page, right on top of our first prime minister's face. Oh, Sir John A., what a charming rascal you are!

           John A. MacDizzle in the Middle. In the more recent version of this image, he's been replaced with a sticker of my face. 

In other news, "whilst" (Scots actually use this word - they're waaaay more eloquent than us) I was impatiently awaiting my visa, a couple of other things happened. One of them being that I got older! I have officially levelled up age-wise. Clearly I did not spend much of the past year becoming smarter, because to celebrate my birthday, a friend and I went out to eat. And eat. And eat. Between the two of us, we ate a meal meant for four people. Plus two bellinis each. Plus dessert. By the time we were nearing the end of the meal, we knew that it was going to end badly. But stopping was no longer an option. Needless to say, it was way too much food. I felt insta-sick. The last time I was in that much pain was the day after a pub crawl in Dublin. I ended up hanging out with another friend after the b-day glut. But most of that time was spent lying down. Not moving. Lesson learned? Yes. I hope. And yet, I have quite the tour of key European food zones coming up, so the odds of this painfully-acquired wisdom sticking are not great. I know about your Ham Museum, Madrid. I'm comin' for ya.

For my birthday, I also ebay'd myself a travel bag that I had been coveting for some time. Lululemon's bags are supposed to be for yoga or running or whatever else healthy people decide to do in their spare time. But, they also make for fantastic carry-ons or weekender travel bags because they're very deep, so they can hold a lot. They also look like purses as opposed to duffel bags, so they don't act as yet another glaring badge of tourist-ness. I got a helluva bargain on mine and when it arrived at my house, I spent a good fun twenty minutes or so testing it to see if it could hold a variety of different things from my room. In case you're wondering, a full-sized pillow totally fits.

                                                            Classy bag for a classy broad

As university wraps up for the year and summer jobs are about to begin, moving season is upon us. At the moment, I'm living in my apartment with a couple of my friends who are taking it over since I'm taking off. I still have a week left in Ottawa and I don't want to impose on their space for too long, so I'm going to be shuffling my self around to several of my friends' doorsteps to beg for a warm piece of floor. Except for tomorrow, when my dad will be in town on business. Tomorrow, I get to bask in the luxury of the corporate hotel suite pull-out couch! (Thanks Pa.)

Finalement, today my sister, with whom I will soon be travelling, wrote the last exam of her undergrad. What victory, Marg! Congratulations! Now you're finally allowed to start getting excited for the trip (you have a lot of catching up to do on this front, by the way).

                        The universities may take our money, energy and mental well-being, but they will never take our......

That, my lovelies, is all for now. Only 16 days!!!

Processing... Processing...

It would seem that the hard work is just about done. Yesterday, after collecting every document that has ever passed through my hands and having a bit of a panic over a website payment glitch, I finally, finally had my appointment for my BIOMETRIC SCANNING. Yow, exciting! Acutally, not really as exciting as I had hoped. There were no lasers or cyborgs whatsoever. Just a couple of humourless security guys who scanned me with metal detectors before I was allowed into the office. Apparently the document collection business is fraught with peril as there were two security guards for one 10'x10' office. After getting the ol' metal scan, the fellas checked my bag to see if I had brought in anything dangerous like a cell phone or hair spray. Electronics they did not find. However, I had forgotten that in the front pocket of my bag were around, oh, say 150 little Canadian flag pins that I sometimes give to visitors to Parliament. When this discovery was made, I don't think anyone quite knew what to do. The security guards exchanged a glance that may have meant something like "Should we scan every single one of these pins individually?" or perhaps, "Do you think we should confiscate these evidently dangerous objects?" or maybe even "How's about we arrest this deviant on the spot?" Exactly what thoughts were shared through that gaze I shall never know, but in the end all it amounted to was the senior guy saying "Wull that's a new one," and letting me carry with my appointment. Crisis averted.


                                               
                                                                                                    Oodles of pins


After that point, the appointment went smoothly. Got my picture taken. Signed some papers. Put stuff in envelopes (None of them were licky envelopes though, just the kind that seal with stickers. I like licky envelopes. They're tasty.). I was asked to use a super high-tech method to attach my photos to my application sheets (glue stick). The coolest bit was that I got to have my fingerprints scanned. I figured it was going to be the old-school inky-fingers method, but naw man, there was this neat little beep-boop machine that sort of photocopied my fings with its green flashy light. Cool.

Actually, I lied. The best part of the appointment was dropping my finished, be-enveloped application into the office's courier box. I did it with great pomp and ceremony. The security guys were not as moved by the scene as I think they should have been. But for me it was a big moment. ALL of my personal information is now in New York City for final approval. Funny that all of my info gets to go and hang out there, but I've never been there myself. Bizarre. Anyway, within 11-21 days, I should get back my passport with a nice new stamp in it! Or I'll be categorically rejected. We shall see.

In the meantime, both SWAP and its UK partner Britbound will be sending me their "Okay, time to get rully, rully, rully excited" welcome packs. I suspect it will work.

For now, I'm doing my best to entertain myself in Ottawa so that I don't go crazy while I'm waiting for the adventure to begin. Gotta remember that Ottawa is an awesome city too. And spring is finally starting to show up, so it should be a reasonably pleasant month before my adventure gets underway. Patio season is at our doorstep.

Tonight I'm off to a play: Drama at Inish. It's a little Irish comedy do, and if there are two things I like, it's comedy and the Irish! If there are three things I like, it's comedy, the Irish and some sangria on a sunny patio, but the third will come with time.

44 days till I'm on a plane!!!

And Would Fly 500 Miles and I Would Fly 2500 More...

Rejoice, for yay verily, further progressions have been made!

Visiting my parents in NB last week proved to be quite productive. Not only did I dump a bunch of my junk in their house (muchas gracias, mis padres) but I also took advantage of the opportunity to plan my pre-Scotland travel route. My sister is graduating from university in early May (yay Marg!) so as a celebration, we decided that before I settle in the UK, she and I should bump around Europe for a little bit. Also, in one of those weird coincidences that life tends to provide, the parents are, just by chance, going to be in Ireland at the exact same time as our trip. So, it just makes sense for the four of us to meet up at some point. This being the case, the route of the sister trip has shaped up to be a little strange (but a lot awesome!).

We shall proceed as follows: Barcelona-Madrid-Dublin-Paris-Lisbon-Madrid-Barcelona

The SECOND Barcelona stop is simply a point of transit - from there my sister will return to Canada and I'll be moving on to the UK!!!

So you know, no big deal or anything......
Just kidding, it's gonna be SA-WEET!!!

64 days!

Did you mean: "National Parks in Scotland?"

Walking to work yesterday morning, I thought, “Wow, it’s pretty nice out.” For a winter’s day in Ottawa, that’s a fairly radical statement. After consulting with my colleagues, I came to learn that it was only -15°C. Nice! After a couple of months’ worth of -25°C to -40°C, it looks like spring is finally coming!

That got me thinking about weather in Scotland. I’m aware that certain areas of the country are notorious for high rainfall levels and that, even on days that start off nice, the weather can change quickly and drastically. But I’d never really heard much about what winter is like in Scotland. That made me start to worry. What if Scottish winters are as frigid as they are here? Am I going to be giving up glorious Ottawa summers in favour of middling summer temps in Scotland, while keeping the four months of nostril-freezing that I have to put up with in winter here?

So I did what anyone of my generation does when we encounter the unknown: “I goog’d it.”

My query to Google: “Do I need a parka in Scotland?”

Google’s Reply: “Scottish National Parks”

I’m going to take that as a “No.”

In fact, I could not, no matter how I phrased the question, find any results that contained both the words “parka” and “Scotland.” That, my friends, is quite a relief. A goose-down, fur-collared weight off my shoulders. Any place that does not have “parka” as part of its everyday lexicon is a place that I could get used to.

Just out of curiosity though, I wanted to get a further sense of what winter temperatures are generally like in Scotland. Will I really be able to get by with just a pea coat? Impossible! That’s no winter I’ve ever heard of!

After a fair bit of digging, I finally found this:

“January and February are generally the coldest months in Scotland, with the daytime maximum temperatures with ranges of an average of around 5°C to 7°C.”

“the daytime maximum temperatures with ranges of an average of around 5°C to 7°C"

“average of around 5°C to 7°C"

“5°C to 7°C"

Are you kidding me?! Winter temperatures can be above 0°C?? Are you still legally allowed to call it winter at that point?

F*ck the parka! Pea coat be damned! With those kinds of temps, I’m going to the beach. 

Moo Moo Peekaboo

Hairy Coo, how do you do? I'm looking forward to seeing you! Your country's flag is white and blue. I hope you do not smell like poo.

Where are Zee Documentz?

Stage one of ye olde footworke is complete. Last week I got my visa photos done, made sure all of my support funds are where they're supposed to be and had my app checked over by my SWAP contact. Shocking levels of productivity detected!

My visa documents are now in Toronto being checked over by fresh eyes to make sure I didn't c*ck them up (a British expression - I'm practising!). From there they will be sent back to Ottawa so I can send them to NYC so they can be sent back to Ottawa so I can get a stamp. Bureaucracy!

My visa type is a working holiday, which falls under the category of "Youth Mobility Scheme." One thing I love about the UK is that there are no "plans" - only "schemes." I feel like this suits the underlying subtext of my personality... heh heh heh...

Tonight I'm headed back to Chez Maman et Papa in the Brunz. This is both for the purpose of visiting and to dump a bunch of stuff on them that I don't need to keep in my Ottawa apartment. It turns out that a two-stage international-via-interprovincial move isn't as simple as one might imagine. I really hope that Az gets into Teachers' College so that she can take over my apartment and I won't have to move my furniture. Oh, also it would be a good thing for her too, I suppose. Finding her life's calling and all that. But this is mostly about me.

The next stage of action will involve going into the British High Commission for BIOMETRIC SCANNING. I still don't know exactly what that will involve, but I'm kind of excited to find out...

73 days till I leave the country!