Holidays with family and friends

Actually this Christmas holidays I spent completely the opposite, in the mountains for 3 days of endless fresh snow and 30+ random people. I don't care too much about any holidays but as a week in the mountains it was beautiful. At work we are having a week off because of the network operators don't want to mingle anything with network hardware during holidays = higher cell usage. Since I started working almost immediately upon arriving in Vancouver not working for couple of days is a nice treat, to take a breath, sort thing about driving licence, diploma recognition, IETLS test, medical insurance, immigration stuff, changing companies / careers...

Few more days and holidays are over and of course I didn't do any of the mentioned above. Only thing I'm really committed to is planning where to go next weekends. And yea, Mario made zeljanicu (burek from zelje, zelje = spinach in Bosnian, Bosnians are grumpy when saying burek from zelje so I'll be politically correct and say it pita from zelje), I was also really committed to ate it all. Unfortunately for Mario, cover picture will be mountains, but zeljanica will be 2nd to the top, promise!

Trail to Elfin Lakes, BC

Beginners tips from the beginner vol.1

Today I threw away my first Canadian toothbrush. Such a fulfilling moment! So glad to be #alive #nofilter #besties #forever21 #behappy #notwrittingnewposts #hippiehashtagbullshit. It takes few hours to write something meaningful and especially to correct all the gramar mistakes (see what I did there?!? #grammarjew) and I'm short on time and as always, lazy. If you're an outdoor person and love food, saying that you're bored in Vancouver is a crime against humanity. Add a usually 9+ working hours a day and you get the idea. 

Dad, you're going to google translate this so tell mom to send more woven socks from zavicaj, old ones are dying. Also, she needs to get rid of flying sooner or later. :D

Vancouver Downtown

First month in Canada

I don't like stress. Skype has much less lag than Whatsapp/Viber for long distance IP talks. That's about it for this post. And yes, Vancouver police cars are so cool! 

I need to suck up to them, because they were nice to me and my buddy Captain Morgan. They gave us just a warning ticket (230$ fine otherwise) for carrying an open bottle of alcohol.

Officers play ARMA III inside while on duty!

To hell and back, rainy edition

In the last episode our two main characters were on a way to wake up and decide what hike should they do following day. Decision was a hard to make, tears were shed, lot of beautiful trails, snow was already 20+ cm deep and our heroes were on a edge of breaking down. More after this messages from our sponsors.

Lake Minnewanka, Banff, AB

Canada, a country where being polite is normal

Eagle has landed, I repeat, Eagle has landed... 

I landed in a Calgary International Airport on a late night of October 7th. It was a pretty long trip. First bus from Split to Zagreb and then flight Zagreb - Munich -  Halifax - Calgary. All in all trip lasted for about 32 hours with layovers. Of course you can arrive for a lot less (for example, Split-London-Calgary) time but it costs more. This way I saved a few bucks that I can now recklessly spend in the Banff National Park on eating out, renting a car and driving around. 

Back at home there was a lot of saying goodbyes, some tears and in general people where more nervous than me. I had a feeling like I'm packing for a usual week in a mountains. Some family/friends announced that they'll be coming as soon as I settle down, especially if I end up in Vancouver. Some of them are waiting for me to pave the road so they can also try they luck in Canada. I promised to my parents to buy them tickets for flying over after a couple of months but mom refused. She is very afraid of flying (for that matter driving through tunnels also). Only option remaining then is buying some boat so she can row to Canada.

First sight of Canadian soil

Job interviews, rebooking and resignation

As day of my flight (October 30th) was getting closer I decided to concentrate on searching of suitable companies around AB and BC, sending resumes and filling out Indeed.ca, LinkedIn and Monster.ca profiles. Last week I sent a dozen of resumes, some for electrical engineer jobs some for rope access jobs.

It resulted with a few declines and luckily with three interview requests. Two of them are for high rise windows cleaning and third is for telecommunications tower climbing. One in Calgary and other two in Vancouver. I hope they will be kind enough to let me do the first round of interviews via Skype. If not, than field trip to Vancouver it is.

Tower climbing
Photo: internet

Expectations, plans and the absence of the above

It's not easy to make plans and have expectations when all you have done is sitting in the comfort of your chair, reading things online and imagining how things could turn out. At least it's not easy if you want them to become reality. But however unlikely they are, man has to have them. He needs to have something to strive to.

There is a famous movie based on almost as famous book based on a real life events. Name of the movie is Into the Wild, same as a name of the book written by Jon Krakauer. Inspiration for both is a true wanderer named Christopher McCandless aka. Alexander Supertramp as he called himself. 

Last photo of Christopher McCandless, Alaska
Photo: Internet

Why...?

That is one of the hardest thing to ask a man on his way to nowhere. How to put such a mix of feelings in a bunch of words?! How to explain to someone that you want to leave a stable job in your field of studies, your many friends, family, outdoor hobbies, everything you have been building (or was built for you)  for 28 years? How to explain that to yourself? Especially when you're moving to Calgary, Alberta, CA to start from the scratch in the middle of the biggest crisis Alberta has seen in decades? Not to mention that immigration laws have become significantly tighter in a past couple of years.

And yes, how to explain to somebody that you are leaving this beautiful country behind?

Velebit mountain, Croatia 
Photo: F. Kozemelj