Six dollar burrito (and first day on the job)

Today was the first day at my new job. As usual, my buddy James took grrreat care of me. I got to meet my new team members, learn about our project, get an ID and even fix a bug!


The campus cafeteria is awesome. The food's good and cheap and I look forward to not packing a lunch without any guilt. James got a salad and some soup for lunch but I'm not as disciplined and I got a delicious Philly steak and french fries (curly ones!)

For supper tonight I went to the six dollar burrito bar (called Chipotle's). Unfortunately I inadvertently customized my burrito to be one with steak, peppers, fried onions, and cheese. I ended up reproducing my lunch but in burrito form. I think I am instinctually attracted to philly steak like substances.

Tomorrow more beef eating, more coding and more loving from your hero and mine, me.

Memorial Day

Today I checked out the facility for my new job and it is sweet, sweet candy. The entire place is pristine yet there's a lot of shrubbery. There's a hugemongous lake, some fields (real and synthetic), courts, a track and even some foresty stuff. We hit up some tennis - no games but some good rallies. It's fairly clear that I'm still learning.

Other stuff to note in the town that rhymes with snortland:

The world's biggest bookstore is also home to the world's most awkward parkade. The ramps between levels were a full 20 degree incline.

The expressways punish motorists who miss their exits. We missed one and had to take a bridge all the way across the big river to the other half of town

War-walking and dog-walking are easily combined for the puppy-loving WiFi addict

100% of Americans sampled agreed that Corner Gas is very Canadian.

Tomorrow is the first day of work - I'm nervous, excited and anxious all rolled into one! I hope I sleep good tonight!

Texas Hold 'em

Today's objective was to meet another coworker, a guy named Andy. And although I shook hands with the guy, I didn't get the chance to really meet him.

To meet Andy, me and three new friends piled into James' car made our way to Soulless Oregon Casino. We arrived at said gambling establishment for the peak church hours and celebrated our faith in the building's poker room. The game was real fun and I survived for a long time on my $50 USD investment. I was in the middle-of-the-pack in our foursome as one of the other guys did twice as well as myself.

By noon the casino had become less rebellious and we returned to Portland. The afternoon was spend eating Felafel (my first time) and shopping for a new mobile phone. I ended up choosing Virgin Mobile's ugliest phone, the absolutely hideous Kyocera K9. If you'd like to make this hideous hunk of plastic and silicon vibrate here in my pocket in Oregon, dial my lucky new number:
(971) C2A2N6T8L5I4V8Ex

The rest of the day was spent hacking and learning up on some cool hacker tools. I'm starting to get the impression that the new job is going to be very challenging and different.

It was a totally kickass day, despite the loss at the casino. I get tomorrow off for US Memorial day, then it's off to the office for the first day of work!

Portland

Under the fog of a Phil's hangover, I woke up, packed, and returned my rental car. Joe met me at Enterprise and drove me to Toronto's Pearson airport - the gateway to a new phase in my life.

I have been quite nervous about US customs because I needed to acquire TN status in order to work in the country. TN is like a work visa, but easier to acquire. My new employer helped me with the paperwork and my application was accepted without problem - oh yeah!

The flight was long - nearly eight hours in the air, interrupted only by a layover in Phonix to grab a Whopper value meal. The highlight of the flight for me was definitely the delicious iced tea - the Phoenix airline served Arizona iced tea.

James was waiting for me when I arrived in Portland. He's taking good care of me while I get acquainted in Oregon. Him and I have lots in common: a Saskatchewan upbringing, a UW education and now a career in Portland. I'm really lucky to have him to show me the ropes!

I got a quick overview of Portland from James on the drive from the airport. The city is very different than my expectations!

The city is built inside a lush green forest. The shrubbery everywhere makes it dramatically different than the sterile metropolises that I'm used to.

There's mountains on the horizon. Apparently one of James' buddies was skiing today, on the 29th of May!

It's only a few hours to the Pacific! I can put my foot in the same water as Jodie, thousands of kilometres away.

James and I decided to play nine holes of golf as our evening entertainment. My golf game was improved but I still have a lot of things to learn. Hopefully when my parents are up next week we'll all get a round in!

Some other random comments:

The units are different. km/h vs. mph, deg. C vs. deg. F, USD vs. CAD, etc. This is a communication barrier!

I did a horrible job of packing

My Ontario buddies showed me off in fine style. More on that later!

James' girlfriend likes listening to System of a Down really loud. Awesome!

It's going to be a lot of work to get settled in my new digs, but I'm psyched!