I look down on the glittering city and sigh, there are no igloos, no polar bears, no dog sleds,… Toronto looks like just any other large city. There is a highway with traffic slowly moving into downtown, traffic at 6:30 AM.

We land and I note the French signs underneath the English ones. Everything looks American, it’s as if someone took a large American city and threw a bucket of French at it, I find the effect strangely soothing. It’s nice that they have gone through all this trouble to help me improve my French. The border guard asks my purpose in visiting Canada and I want to say “visiting friends eh” instead I say “visiting friends”. I should wait a bit before throwing out the “eh” into general conversation. They might not take so kindly into it and send me to Syria via US or something.

I am groggy as I walk outside and am hit with a blast of arctic wind, there is snow on the ground and for a second I try to remember wth snow is. Then I remember why I left NJ and didn’t really miss it. Snow belongs on a ski resort and when/if you miss it you simply drive there. Snow should not come and visit you, and after waiting for my hotel shuttle for 20 minutes I am certain I am under dressed for the weather. Perhaps I should have bought a parka or brought a few sled dogs to keep me warm. I think that’s what Jack London did when he went to Alaska.

The hotel is nice and generic, even the staff seems generic and built in China. I imagine a giant factory in China pumping out hotel staff and neatly putting them into IKEA boxes, I am sure they have a few spares ones in the back and if the current ones wear out someone will simply put a new one together. A Kelly to replace the Tracy, a Bob to replace the Mike,…

The continental breakfast is also generic, I watch my fellow guests and one new traveler makes the mistake of grabbing the apple. The apple has so much wax on it that you could probably light the stem and use it for a romantic night along with Kelly the generic receptionist. All eyes are on our new traveler as she bites into it. She’s a brave one, realizing that people are looking at her she chews through the mouth full of wax and apple. We stare fascinated at the apple, will she take another bite ? No, now she has joined our ranks, she wraps the apple in a napkin and throws into the trash. It’s as if someone threw a rock in there. I look up just in time to see Tracy make a note on her order pad. 1 new wax apple will be ordered from somewhere in China.

My flight leaves in less than 24 hours, I better not miss it our my boss just might have to open that other package that says Asad2 on it.

Update:  Looks like I won’t be flying out until 10 PM Thursday night, the meeting didn’t go so well so I have to stay and work for a few more days.

Negar (1/11/2007 6:50:00 PM): hey
Asad (1/11/2007 6:50:12 PM): have you had any dreams about cows lately
Negar (1/11/2007 6:50:33 PM): ummm, no. why?
Asad (1/11/2007 6:50:38 PM): no reason
Asad (1/11/2007 6:50:44 PM): except the aliens are coming
Negar (1/11/2007 6:50:52 PM): is this a survey?
Asad (1/11/2007 6:51:00 PM): and they are communicating via subliminal cow messages
Asad (1/11/2007 6:51:04 PM): clearly they are not in texas yet
Asad (1/11/2007 6:51:07 PM): I was just checking
Negar (1/11/2007 6:51:20 PM): ok, i’m lost
Negar (1/11/2007 6:51:27 PM): but then, i was always lost
Negar (1/11/2007 6:51:31 PM): how’s it going?
Negar (1/11/2007 6:51:39 PM): liking the new job?
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:31 PM): yes
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:34 PM): my company was bought out
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:38 PM): so everything is a bit confusing
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:42 PM): but other than that it’s all good
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:47 PM): and don’t worry about the cow aliens
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:50 PM): few people know about them
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:52 PM): but you know what
Asad (1/11/2007 6:52:56 PM): the truth is out there!!!!
Negar (1/11/2007 6:52:57 PM): what?
Negar (1/11/2007 6:52:59 PM): oh
Asad (1/11/2007 6:53:00 PM): queue spooky music
Asad (1/11/2007 6:53:09 PM):

So in case you were wondering what happened to me I started my job and on my second day of work my company was bought out by another bigger company.  To top it off neither my boss nor my boss’s boss were around and since I work in the international group it basically meant that when people broke up into their own groups I was on my own without a laptop, phone or anything but a bunch of office supplies.

Now you might say hey office supplies are great and in fact in Taiwan I never got any and had to buy my own pen/paper/stapler…  but they do not do you a whole lot of good when you are not sure if you have a job or not.  And also I have 48 paper clips, if any of you steal one I will know about it.  Thankfully I have been assured that I have a job and being part of a big company might have a few perks in it after all.

In other news I spent $1500 in IKEA and only after I had put everything together with the help of my family did my boss mention that it might be a good idea for me to live in corporate housing because I will be traveling quiet a bit and so it really wouldn’t make sense for me to shell out $1400 a month for an apartment that I am not going to be in.  And if you think $1400 a month is a lot you have not been looking for apartments in the SF bay area, in San Francisco something similar would have been $1800 or higher and completely out of my range.

I am typing this on MacBook Pro and let me tell you the Macs just rock.  I had forgotten how it felt like to have a computer that just works.  And if you haven’t seen the new Mac iPhone then go check it out right now.  The thing is amazing, iPod, web browser, OS X goodness all built  in.  It’s the type of thing that will get you laid in the bay area.

Of course I will have to switch to a crackberry just because that’s what I will need for work. So in a lot of ways it’s back to the old ways, same dress shirts, expensive phones and khakis but in a big company.  Of course now I get to travel internationally so next week I’ll try to blog from Cabos.
And if any of you guys are in the bay area let me know and we’ll do lunch.  Maybe I’ll even sell you something

I was called out by Shady to reveal 5 things about myself that you guys don’t know.

* I moved back to the US in fact I am back to the bay area.

* I have a new job that I love, it’s a job that I have wanted for 6 years. My new territory is S. America and Canada. Gotta sign up for Spanish classes soon.

* All of my new furniture was bought at IKEA.

* This is the happiest I have been with my life for a very long time.

* I already miss Taiwan more than I have missed any other place I have lived at.

I kept pushing this post back until it was just under an hour before the new year. I don’t know how much blogging I will do in the new year, being happy and blogging frequently seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. I still plan on studying Mandarin but I am pretty excited about learning Spanish as well. 

Before coming back to the states I headed to Palau, and it was the most beautiful vacation I have ever had. I had planned a lot of dives but on my third dive I had trouble equalizing and being stupid I forced until I managed to get down to the bottom. I was uncomfortable the whole dive and in pain when we were coming up. It turned out that I had a bit of a head cold and my left nostril was full of mucus, the pressure pushed it inside of my ear and I blew a whole bunch of small capillaries and my nose was full of blood, I thought I had blown my ear drum. Thankfully everything is back to normal now but I had small amounts of blood for the next few days so I canceled all the diving and instead went snorkeling and sea kayaking. I can’t really say that I missed anything since it was a ton of fun. You can see more pictures and descriptions on Tina‘s blog.

That’s it for this year. Happy new year everyone.