5 posts tagged “calgary”

I'm in Calgary now, on what's probably my fourth or fifth time here. I usually have stayed at the Westin or Hilton or some place like that. Expedia.com suggested this place, which looked interesting:

Nuvo_hotel

This time I'm basically staying in a (chic) studio apartment, which coincidentally is right across the street from Safeway. (I live right across the street from Safeway.) The rooms are cheap but that's not why I prefer these sorts of places. There's something about hotels which makes them feel intrusive. Maybe it's the placards everywhere or logos or seeing hotel people on the way to your room, or the tissue ribbon around the toilet.

Oh, I got hassled (again) at the Calgary Airport by Canadian Customs and had to go through secondary screening. A group of Mormons were in front of me and I had to wait 45 minutes for my 10 seconds getting a stamp. Hopefully next time I won't have to get screened again.

I brought a number of movies to Calgary to watch, and I barely managed to watch one on Monday (at 11PM), given all the partying I did: Outsourced. A call center manager from Seattle (nice shots of Seattle!) is sent to India to prepare an Indian call center for handling calls for an American kitsch catalog. I thought they tried really hard to get in as many "funny" faux pas moments as possible. It just pains me to see the White Guy screw up over and over again in an Asian country: Couldn't he be bothered to read Lonely Planet India before arriving? (Requisite scene: White Guy tries to use a squat toilet: Hilarity ensues.)

More interesting is how the main character gains an appreciation and understanding of how India, the land of 1 billion, works. Based on my own experience, India (in the movie) reminded me a lot of Thailand in how chaotic it is, but yet there is a working system underneath all that.

Tuesday night, as I implied, was a party night. Post a long day of testing and tweaking, and post yet another restaurant locally renown for its hot waitresses, D.H. was hosting a party for several people in the Calgary office and a few of us traveling in from Seattle, the Bay Area, and Kansas City. D.H. brought out his acoustic guitar and his daughter. He also wanted to hear some of Momoi's music, since I had mentioned this hot springs tour I was on, so I played some, which resulted in mixed responses from the other guests who called it derisively "Pokemon music." Alas, it's an acquired taste.

Mostly I drank wine, but I did try the very Canadian Caeser, a mixed drink made with Clamato and vodka.

I was up until 2AM. My flight was 9:40AM the next day.

I didn't have much time to call Hitomi and I hoped she wasn't mad for that.

I slept a bit on the plane and I later had a nap on the couch. I was returning home early on Wednesday so I could make my Cycle U class. As it turned out, due to "cold weather," Seattle Schools were closed and so was my class. Thus most people were absent, save a few ladies (3), the owner/instructor and myself. I offered to lead the class as the instructor had other things to attend to. I happened to have brought my iPod so I could play my music. I played a mix of Tsugaru Shamisen and Utada Hikaru.

I shouted out "15 seconds to go for spin money" and whatever other ridiculous things Cycle U instructors say. You're doing the routine and can't be wordy, so what is said is to the point. I didn't want to be shouting "Let's go people!!!" but I was volunteering playing the part. In reality, the ladies were happy to have me call out the time remaining, target zone and cadence. I got more comfortable as things went on. They smiled at me! And then we also made some small talk about our plans for next year and this class and what not.

Post class, Hitomi and I had plans for a movie called The Reader. From a review: "It's not every 18-year-old who scores sex scenes with Kate" But in all seriousness: The main character's love interest (Kate) is eventually put on trial in German for locking up 300 Jews in a church during World War II and letting them burn to death when a fire breaks out.

Thursday was Game Night with Ian and Kevin and Stacy was also around. Due to the snow, I couldn't get over to Kevin's place and instead they came to my house. This I decided before I requested permission from Hitomi, and I got on her bad side again. We had pizza, opened a bottle a wine and chatted while Hitomi hid away upstairs. Stacy brought some homemade cookies which I appreciated.

Left frosty Seattle today and ended up in a deep freeze.

I don't think I've been in colder weather before.

I left work at 5PM. The professional services group was off to an evening hockey game. I said goodbye to fellow engineer Scott Ding, who was returning early tomorrow. I showed off my travel bicycle to the instructor, who despite being a 300+ pound man (with 8 children) was interested in bicycling and had several bicycles, mountain and road.

It's hard to say I'm learning a whole lot from the Weblogic class, since I spent more time on researching deployment containers and fixing bugs -- which QA found quite a lot of. Things are starting to gel: I'm fairly certain what direction I want to take my projects at work. It's not certain though, if Autodesk, is a good challenge for myself. Oddly, I like being overwhelmed at times.

I took the Bow River trail east and south. East of the city I passed a number of homeless people loitering on benches and many with heavily laden bicycles parked where they smoked or spoke in packs. The trail curved (without any banking) and went up and down, and numerous walkers or joggers with dogs kept me from getting up to speed like I did the day prior.

Matching my frustrations with snow patches yesterday, today I ended up in mud.  The trail was being worked on, and where the main paved path was, was instead a gravelly section leading above the river bed, up 200 feet or so. In my road bicycle, it was a challenge to keep going. And being clipped in meant I would likely fall over if I had to stop. And if it were my old bicycle I wouldn't care, but here I was trashing (again) my $3000 baby.

I went on, the trail wandered further into a few parks. Crossing a suspension (pedestrian) bridge over the Bow River, I ended up in yet another park, this time through a field where dogs were running all over the place.  The Bow River trail was closed here.  It was closed for vegetation rehabilitation.

I gave up going further and turned around. Just as well, I was hungry at this point. I imagined if this were Thailand I would be only a stone's throw from a snack stand, or if Japan a vending machine. Instead, there were only houses, parks, and industrial sites. A gas pipeline, terminated at (or passing through) a pumping station out-gassed some strong strange organic chemical odors, which did not smell like gasoline or oil. Trains moving around in a rail yard above the trail rattled and banged together. In the distance was a freeway.

The sun was dropped low and was now behind a bank of clouds. I stopped once at a dam on the river, which I suppose was for flood control, but didn't read the signs.  There were many signs, warning of drowning, thin ice, currents, etc.  Often signs on the trail told me to "dismount" to cross empty residential streets with no cars in sight, which I ignored. Signs around every lake also warned of thin ice: My favorite iconography I spotted was of a hand reaching out of a broken sheet of ice.

In Seattle, every few years when it stays cold, you hear of children stepping on thin ice, but I imagine there are more dying in places like Calgary.
 
I was getting closer to downtown: There were more bums than when I left. I guess they were getting ready to camp out along the river. Why not? It was forecast to be above freezing tonight. I got back to the hotel famished, changed out of my sweaty bike clothes and headed out for food.

Oh, Canada!

I bagged and brought my bicycle to Calgary, optimistic that this week would be snow-free. The forecast was for sun and warm conditions.

Alas, I woke up this morning to snow flurries and slush accumulated on the streets on Wednesday.

Calgarians reassured me it would be gone later in the day.  It mostly was, so when I got back from dinner, I headed out. Here is where I went.

The path was mostly dry, wet and snowy in some shady spots. The speed limit was 20km/hr and I probably was over 30km/hr in the dark. I did have my headlight. Eventually the trail petered out in a park that was too snowy and icy for my skinny bike tires.

From north of downtown, from the banks of the Bow River, the skyline of Calgary is quite impressive. There's shards of ice and patches of snow which reflect the yellow and white lights from the buildings.