totoro-n-to part ii

well, we're on the train back, 3G service is terrible and our train car's wifi is even less reliable, so here i am on a six+ hour trip with my netbook rendered inferior to my kindle and typing this on my phone. joy. at least i'm finally getting around to this post :P

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tuesday (16th):

i definitely didn't sleep enough after lockout. i woke up tired. i walked to the metro in 5º weather. the thought for the morning was inspired by the guy in front of me on the way there: "it's five degrees in the morning, dude, pull your pants up." how can that not be cold?!

i was sans caffeine for the rides to the presentation area, which rendered me practically incoherent, and even the biting wind in my eyes only woke me up while it lasted. having finally remembered to bring my ipod to drown out the egoli tones of the metro, i was disappointed to discover that its battery was drained :(

i would spend most of my day with heavy eyelids, pouring over the documentation for the systems as they exist in an alternate dimension with my technical bosses kid sniffling chunks of snot not three feet away and every now and again surprising himself with a gurgling cough.

two of the french-only speakers surprised me: the first because he's actually possessed of fluent english that he acquired while working in botswana, the second because i managed to communicate with his franglais as he's been employed in south america for half of his career. the second was the IT guy, who also surprised me when he informed me that my office laptop is a touchscreen.

lunch in the cafeteria wasn't quite as expected; i had to choose between beef, cheese or both if i wanted to eat something, and the hamburger and fries turned out to be the most vegan-friendly item on the menu.

*sigh*
it'll be packed lunches for me, it seems.

the other side of lunch was the french immersion thing. i can understand bits of what goes on, and sometimes even get the gist of a conversation, but i've got a ways to go before i don't feel excluded :(

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the material i read through was interesting and accessible (for me, at least), and at the end of the day i had my first sit-down with both bosses. this turned out to be the *real* interview, the critical one in which the technical boss has to decide if he can work with me.

it appears that he feels he can. my impressions and suggestions were met with enthusiasm, which is precisely not what i was expecting after my chat with the dev head on the same subject.

we closed the day on that excited note that i've almost come to expect from dealing with these people. even the long ride to the station was enjoyable and interesting (a coworker took my advice and watched invader zim in the backseat) and i even had company on the metro.

from the station i pretty much made it home on autopilot, which i take as a good sign. i was suffering a post-radiation headache, but a quick dinner and excited review of the day later, pg and i were on our way downtown to the metropolis to hear alanis morissette playing what is practically a home crowd.

we stopped for an energy drink - the cans here are enormous compared to what i'm used to from israel - and slipped inside with a flash of our qr codes.

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alanis was absolutely enchanting; she's as magnificent as she was fifteen years ago. she sang all our favourites, some slightly enhanced and her timing just different enough to be fresh. she finished off with thank u: i'd been kinda waiting for that. i was totally high on life by the last few songs.

it was like the last twelve years flashed before my eyes, and then i was standing at the open train door as the indian countryside sped by, and then i was in the metropolis listening to a favourite singer after being accepted into the fold of a company that's going to take me into the next big stage of my life.

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the only thing that could have ruined the evening were two israeli whoo-girls who perched next to us and were demonstrating how much fun they were having and making it difficult for us to hear the stage. we moved back twenty feet and found ourselves buffered by civilized people, and then everything was fine.

after the show pg spotted a pizza place so we had to stop. i had to taste, and i am happy to report that it was great pizza: worth the bite.

we went home, i scribbled notes for the day, took a shower and put my exhaustion to bed.

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wednesday (17th):

we woke up late, and i spent my morning catching up with the online world (an impossible task) and discovering reggie watts along the way. he provided good background for the long and laborious task of translating a lecturer's bio from pdf to joomla.

pg and i took a long walk to snowdon, and a shorter one around the area we're interested in living in. we saw five apartments, four decent and two a bit over-the-top, and were forced to communicate with a number of people who speak no english or, which was easier, via proxies. we have at least one option which we're hoping will still be available this week.

we tried to see if it's close enough to the mountain to walk there, but it's not. at least we made a satisfying liquorice run, discovering that finnish liquorice is really, really good.

we attempted coat shopping again, failing for the second time, then returned home with sore legs and too tired to do anything as taxing as standing upright.

alarms were ringing when we entered the house, and the boiler room voodoo we performed would have to wait for ten minutes flat on the couch - which would make all the difference - it eventually worked, whatever it was we did.

the world's longest buzz-cut came next, with us unable to figure out how the beard trimmer worked until it was too late and i'd ended up with a big beard and shaven head. total fail. with hairs everywhere.