Long awaited words from Greg

[yeah, I'm not as much of a writer as certain other writers on this blog. Of course, I'm also not preparing for a lifetime of legalese. :)]

Okay, for those of you who don't frequent the blog or are computer neophytes (you know who you are Dad!), you may not have noticed Taryn turned back the clocks and posted some blog entries IN THE PAST!

It's a little unorthodox, but if you look down you'll see the entries for our trip across Canada. In fact, I'd suggest you start at the August entries (accessible from the "History" links on the bottom right of the page).

Not much of note to talk about at the moment. We're busy with work/school and still couchless. I've been biking to work most of the time a distance of about 9km, which takes me 25 minutes there and 18 minutes back. Halifax is HILLY!

Post-Tropical Storm Ophelia (what an awful title) was a non-event, and ended up traveling inland away from Halifax. The predicted 80-100mm of rain ended up being about 20. Oh well, our stockpile of Kraft Dinner will just have to be eaten I guess. :)

Also, I hear that my brother has just finished his demo reel... I'll put it online and post a link to it soon. It's really awesome! If anyone is needing a computer animator, I've got the guy for you!

Today's Halifact: The maritimes are owned by pretty much 2 families: The Irvings and the McCains. One is into potatoes, and the other is into pretty much everything else. Irving gas stations are EVERYWHERE, but they do have the cleanest and coziest washrooms bar none. I may not buy gas from them, but I've visited my share. :)

Settling in

I'd like to start by announcing that the Halifax Fun Fact will now officially be know as the "Halifact" and will continue to accompany each entry.

Today's "Halifact": Bars here serve similar fare to that found in pubs across the nation. Typical bar snacks are often of the greasy variety and include french fries, onion rings, chicken fingers, etc. Unique to Halifax, however, is the unusual deep-fried Pepperoni. This is basically a big stick of pepperoni, cut into slices, then deep fried. You dip it in mustard. Easterners are so weird, but oh is it good.

So I know we haven't updated in awhile, but I thought I'd let everyone know that we are in Halifax, safe and sound. We completed our cross-country, trailer-towing road trip in exactly 14 days and arrived in Halifax on the evening of August 31. We have now been in our apartment for a week, and so far it is okay. We aren't really all the way unpacked yet, and we don't have a lot of crucial furniture, but otherwise, all is pretty normal. Above is a photo of all of our stuff right after we moved in. That's our living room/dining room. We've made some progress since then, thankfully. We have a big two bedroom apartment in a student ghetto building just off Quinpool Road, which Vancouverites might find similar to Broadway, only about a tenth of the size.

I've started school, although so far I've only been doing orientation activities, such as beer drinking, beer drinking, meeting professors, and beer drinking. Still to come on my busy schedule: a night-time ghost themed walking tour of Halifax, a scavenger hunt, a sports-day style mini-Olympics, a semi-formal Monte Carlo themed dinner dance, sea kayaking, a BBQ, a brewery tour, and a tour of campus and the law building. Oh, and did I mention there will be more beer drinking? They certainly like the stuff out here. There are none of those wimpy martini bars!

I also have some good news for those concerned about Greg's ability to keep purchasing the newest gadgets from MEC: He now is a new employee of Xwave, a consulting company owned by the local phone company, Aliant. We don't know exactly what he'll be working on yet, but he has been to the office, and it looks nice and new and they have a pool table and a keg in the fridge, so really, it can't be bad.

We will try to keep this updated more often. I may put up a summary of our trip across Canada soon, so stay tuned. (By the way, it was awesome.)