Memoirs of a Martin: Oh, Canada, eh?

Is Oh, Canada their national anthem? Why does that pop into my head? Not sure, but "Canada, eh" seems to be a favorite amongst all of you. For my title I decided- why choose? So I didn't.

Yes, they really do say "eh". It's funny to be someone from a region known for a word visiting another region known for a word. It's like you instantly bond. The kind HR lady across from our audit headquarters (read: conference room with no windows) here likes to come by often and ask "how are YA'LL doing?" She's pretty adept with the ya'll because it took me a while to realize what she was doing. I just thought she was smiling that broadly because being nice to the auditors is a good deed.

So I successfully made it to Canada. I don't have much in the way of pictures to share, but this weekend we are going to Banff so I'm sure that will change soon. However, for posterity purposes (and so my mother knows I'm still alive) I feel I should post the few pictures I do have, share a few stories and enlighten you all (insert sarcasm tone) with my insightful observations. For everyone who's not my mother, stay tuned for my post-Banff post.

Observations:
- Trees. Canada's Trees > Houston's Trees. My logic here is two fold. First, they have trees that look like Christmas trees everywhere. If I lived here, I would mentally be in Christmas mode ALL. YEAR. ROUND. Secondly, their trees change colors. Our trees could learn a thing or two. Canada gets vibrantly colored leaves to roll around and we get pine cones? I think the winner in that scenario is apparent.
- Thanksgiving. Their's is earlier. Monday to be exact. You know what that means? This chick is getting 2 Thanksgivings in 2010. It's hard to say whether I will remember 2010 as the year I got engaged or the year I gorged on turkey 2 times.
- Roads. Not a fan. Please add more clear signs for those of us driving rental cars. If you could add blinking lights and arrows that spell out "Amy turn here" - that would be a bonus. Also, stop naming everything like I'm on a nature hike. It makes them all sound the same. I'm just trying to get to work in the mornings, not trying to pretend that I live in a game of Oregon Trails. (Fording the river not an option)
- People. The people here are SO NICE. Plus twenty to you parents of Calgary! You have done well.
- Mental Math. I would appreciate a conversion chart in my hotel room for celsius to farenheit. It's very mentally taxing to try and convert the outside temperature to farenheit so I know what to wear for the day. Expecting that I can do this before my morning cup of coffee is just silly. Please go ahead and tack this onto blinking signs for my open letter to the Country of Canada.

I believe that concludes our observations segment. I had more observations than I realized and so I'll only share one story with you all and then get right to the pictures. It's a harrowing tale, really (light sarcasm font). I think I was probably supposed to print a letter from the company before I came to Canada but I was busy the week before my trip and it quite honestly slipped my mind. Fast forward to going through customs. My customs man asked what I was here for and I cheerfully responded "to perform an audit." I find that if you pepper conversation with that term, people generally glaze over and/or are not interested in hearing any more. Wrong answer! I got ushered into the immigration department where I (and my other co worker) were blasted with questions and told that our company is irresponsible and yada yada. Finally we answered enough questions that they realized we were here employed by a US company rather than a Canadian company (which would require a work permit) but for a while I was near tears in the middle of immigration. So I suppose my last observation would be that I would not be upset by being greeted by friendlier customs/immigration officials. Perhaps getting some coffee and biscuits while being given the Spanish Inquisition? (Authors Note: I'm kidding. I understand customs is serious business)

Okay. And now to the pictures.

Obligatory hotel room picture.

I wish I had a cookie and a bottle of water when I came home every night in Houston. (hint, hint) Also, it may not look very special - but that cookie is a bite of HEAVEN. White chocolate with regular chocolate on the inside. It's magical.

Trying unsuccessfully to take pictures of the very distant mountains from our parking lot while my co-workers wait on me in the car. No biggie.

Christmas trees! Also pictured: some kind of factory that routinely produces something very odor-ific. It's across the fence from where we're working.