It is almost 5 months since I landed in Vancouver and started a new chapter or rather stationed at a new stop for a time. A whirlwind, a blur, a daze, are all words I would use to describe the period which has passed but at the same time it has been full of so much change and new experience! The first thing I will say is that I humbly admit that moving is not easy by any stretch of the imagination. You may wonder dear blog reader why I would feel humbled to admit or to even comment on moving in such a fashion? I suppose I have been known in the past to pass comment that moving is a straight forward task, and this is certainly the case of you are doing the kind of moving I have been used to where either: (a) you have a wonderful parent who takes care of it all (b) you are only going somewhere for a short period of time. However, packing up everything you own (minus a suitcase in the attic of 2 Saint Ignatius Road) and going to a city which is familiar but where everything is brand new in terms of the logistics is really damn hard! On the other hand I must admit it has also been incredibly rewarding at the same time and continues to be as each day passes and the city, its spaces and its people become more familiar to me.
I have a new job, a new home, a new roommate, new furniture, two new offices and a whole bunch of new people in my life. The job which brought me to Vancouver continues to enthrall me everyday and I still feel so privileged to be part of a such a great department - with its own faults of course, and also to be part of an exciting of the an exciting new project that we are developing working with international students. Every week offers something new, and to have the doors of some of my favourite geographers open to me as a colleague still gives me shivers.
As I write this well overdue post I am sitting in 25 degrees heat in sunny Dubai where I have been for almost 2 weeks now. I am here doing preliminary fieldwork for my research project and then staying on for Christmas of course, and this morning I was reflecting on the fact that it is a year ago since I arrived here to spend Christmas with my family. What a year it has been?! I spent last Christmas filling out what seemed like never ending job and postdoc applications, and so my reflection today is one of gratitude and a continued disbelief at my good fortune. I take a moment though to iterate that I dearly miss many of the peeps that were such a large part of my life this time last year in Dublin and got me through some very dark days of not knowing. I may be off on a new adventure, conjuring new countries and facing new challenges but you are in my heart. It's also been a year of wonderful things for many of you dear blog readers with new jobs, new additions to the world and new adventures of your own.
As well as all the moving and logistics involved with that there of course have been some fun times over the past 5 months in Vancouver. There have been many new restaurants to try, parts of the city to explore, the wonders surrounding Vancouver to hike and even to enjoy a prize complements of my new job. We were asked to come up with ideas of how best to recruit international students to UBC, and so over dinner one night Pete and I made a list which won us first prize and dinner at one of Vancouver's best French restaurants! There was little in the way of travel since leaving Ireland (well relative to my usual escapades) but I did manage a weekend in Portland at the end of August and just before coming to Dubai we were at a wedding on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, a new country to add to the list :-) To say the least there has not been a dull moment and I admit I have neglected the blog but a new year looms with new adventures so fear not dear blog readers I promise to continue to keep you entertained.
I wrote at length about my time in Dubai last year around issues of gender and consumerism so I will not insult your intelligence by rehashing them. But needless to say it was certainly a shock to come back here and face these issues once again. It is a city that is intriguing and fascinating and hence my study, but on so many other levels it embodies so many wrongs.
I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year in what ever corner of the world you are. My next post with be about my upcoming jaunt to Sudan, the country of my childhood :-)
I have a new job, a new home, a new roommate, new furniture, two new offices and a whole bunch of new people in my life. The job which brought me to Vancouver continues to enthrall me everyday and I still feel so privileged to be part of a such a great department - with its own faults of course, and also to be part of an exciting of the an exciting new project that we are developing working with international students. Every week offers something new, and to have the doors of some of my favourite geographers open to me as a colleague still gives me shivers.
As I write this well overdue post I am sitting in 25 degrees heat in sunny Dubai where I have been for almost 2 weeks now. I am here doing preliminary fieldwork for my research project and then staying on for Christmas of course, and this morning I was reflecting on the fact that it is a year ago since I arrived here to spend Christmas with my family. What a year it has been?! I spent last Christmas filling out what seemed like never ending job and postdoc applications, and so my reflection today is one of gratitude and a continued disbelief at my good fortune. I take a moment though to iterate that I dearly miss many of the peeps that were such a large part of my life this time last year in Dublin and got me through some very dark days of not knowing. I may be off on a new adventure, conjuring new countries and facing new challenges but you are in my heart. It's also been a year of wonderful things for many of you dear blog readers with new jobs, new additions to the world and new adventures of your own.
As well as all the moving and logistics involved with that there of course have been some fun times over the past 5 months in Vancouver. There have been many new restaurants to try, parts of the city to explore, the wonders surrounding Vancouver to hike and even to enjoy a prize complements of my new job. We were asked to come up with ideas of how best to recruit international students to UBC, and so over dinner one night Pete and I made a list which won us first prize and dinner at one of Vancouver's best French restaurants! There was little in the way of travel since leaving Ireland (well relative to my usual escapades) but I did manage a weekend in Portland at the end of August and just before coming to Dubai we were at a wedding on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico, a new country to add to the list :-) To say the least there has not been a dull moment and I admit I have neglected the blog but a new year looms with new adventures so fear not dear blog readers I promise to continue to keep you entertained.
I wrote at length about my time in Dubai last year around issues of gender and consumerism so I will not insult your intelligence by rehashing them. But needless to say it was certainly a shock to come back here and face these issues once again. It is a city that is intriguing and fascinating and hence my study, but on so many other levels it embodies so many wrongs.
I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year in what ever corner of the world you are. My next post with be about my upcoming jaunt to Sudan, the country of my childhood :-)
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| One of my favourites places in Vancouver on the Burrard Street bridge at sunset. UBC is beyond the top left of the picture out on the Pacific Ocean |
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