Yukon Jay - 小祥

My Zoom Zoom

Earlier this week I bought myself a 1995 Mazda Precidia MX-3. I figured when I move to Prince George it would be nice to have a car to drive around... who knows how reliable their public transit is.

I was looking at the Civics, Corollas and Tercels in the ads, they all had around 180,000 kilometres for the price range I wanted. The MX-3 had only 118,000 km, very low for 1995. Had it inspected... mechanic said it's one of the better cars he's seen... so I bought it. It also has a sunroof, spoiler and immobilizer... all bonuses. :)

Busy: Conference, New Job, Moving and Michelle's Visit

The last 2 weeks has just been insanely busy... still trying to process what has happened.

First... I found out last week that the Canadian Institute of International Affairs have invited me to attend the 2006 Development and Global Youth Symposium on March 8th. They also offered to pay for my registration fee for their National Foreign Policy Conference the following two days. I'm really excited... never expect to be invited considering there were 240 applicants and they only accepted 70. Thanks again to Robert who helped edit my letter!

I mentioned in my last blog I am moving again... well, on Monday the Ministry offered me a position in Prince George doing some fieldwork in the regional office there. Even though it's still with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, I will no longer be working in the BC Geological Survey. My new job at Prince George Regional Office will mostly be fieldwork, doing mines permitting, inspection and assisting Bob, the regional geologist there. I know the staff quite well (probably the only reason why I got this job) and looking forward to this new job. As for accomodation, I will probably end up living in residence at College of New Caledonia. It is cheap and close to the office... there will also be quite a few Chinese & Russian exchange students living there this summer... so it should be quite the experience.

So this job was offered to me on Monday, and on Thursday I received a call from Gartner Lee Ltd., a big environmental-engineering consulting company, offering me a GIS position in Vancouver. I couldn't believe my ears... I met them in January at the Roundup conference and surprisingly they're offering me a job. I turned it down because I had already made commitments, and we had agreed on the possibility of me working for them part-time in September when I return to school. I've always wanted to work for these environmental consulting firms after graduation and I just turned down the perfect opportunity. I was banging my head against the wall when I got off the phone with them.

Michelle was also here for a few days visiting from Denmark... The whole time she was here she couldn't believe how beautiful Vancouver was... the ocean and especially the mountains. I also took her to Nanaimo on the weekend becuase there was a festival Saturday. We met up with Kendra and then drove to Victoria later that day.

On Sunday we had this delicious brunch in downtown Victoria and then spent the afternoon at the BC Royal Museum. Took the 5pm ferry back to Vancouver and she left for Fernie early Monday. She will be there till April with her sister skiing. She is also trying to decide whether to go to acting school in Los Angeles or move to Vancouver. Only time will tell I guess.

Anyways, so lots have happened and still more to come. I gotta finish my report for the Ministry this month before I start doing some traveling in April. I might have to fly to Kamloops for work related conference early April. On Easter weekend I will probably be driving to Prince George (9 hr drive north) and start moving my things. April 23 my cousin is getting married in Taiwan so I'm hoping to take time off from work to attend her wedding. Then on the 30th I'm flying to Prince George where I'll be spending the summer up there.