It was a cloudy morning as I made my way by foot to RIM-7 to participate in the orientation.  It was a full day indoctrination.  There were about 45 initiates today, and the facilitator said that such numbers had become the norm.

It was a diverse group, with people starting in all areas from finance, to customer service, to manufacturing, to product development.  Members hailed from the United States, France, the UK and various corners of Canada. 

Rhonda, the facilitator did an excellent job of making the flood of information entertaining.  Topics covered benefits, safety, ergonomics, harassment, security, and the company history.  It is freely acknowledged the BlackBerry (correct corporate spelling) has a bit of a cult following.  The clip that they showed that caught my eye was the BlackBerry Helmet, as modeled by Rick Mercer http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport/videos/blackberry.wvx

After the orientation session, I was met by Farzaneh, my manager.  She’s great, and I think we’ll have a good time collaborating.  I was shown around the building, and introduced to people of importance.  She was very apologetic that my BlackBerry, laptop and desktop computer was not ready.  Apparently the IT desk was not used to processing new hires with less than a week of lead time. 

Tuesday saw me in the thick of things.  Jennifer, the project coordinator for the group brought me my badge of honour, a BlackBerry Perl.  Nice looking device.  After two days I’m still getting used to all the different options.  Seems like I’m connected to everything all the time now.  When I asked Jennifer how to turn it off, she laughed at my naivety, and said that no one ever turns them off!

Wednesday was a series of meetings, two of which were technical, and I got the chance to see what the antenna group is working on, and how it relates to my job.  I then met the VP of Technology, Mark Pecen.  He’s both brilliant, and a people person.  He has loads of experience in industry and research.  His philosophy as a manager is one of service and to make sure that his people have all the resources they need to do their job.  Our one hour meeting helped perk me up after the waves of information that were crashing around me the past three days.

I have used my mobile phone a couple of times to make calls, and I find that I talk much louder.  I think this is because of the perception that there is no microphone directly infront of my mouth, like in a classic phone receiver.  I thought that mobile users spoke loud because the were showboating.  I think it has more to do with ergonomics of the handsets.

Waterloo is not an easy place to get around.  The streets don't run in a nice grid fashion like in Vancouver.  King St (the main drag) runs N-S in Waterloo, and E-W in Kitchener.  University also changes direction, as does Philips St. and Weber street (pronounced Weeber by the locals), to name a few.  Trying to find a short-cut going through the residental streets is pretty much a lost cause.  This is a maze of twisting roads and dead ends. 

So this ends the scheduled blogging for paulinwaterloo.  I wanted to get all of the mundane repetitive information out to as many of you in cyberspace as possible.  Looking forward to more personal correspondence with you in the future.  My citizen address is pushbikepaul@gmail.com.

Cheers,

Paul.

Friday, with my Grandpa's minivan loaded up, my mom and I headed off to Waterloo.  It was a very active day, picking out a bed, and some of the essentials at the dollar store.  I got the royal treatment from mom, with a promise that the family will be up to visit in a couple of weeks to see how I've settled in.

Saturday I set out to explore the city, VISA card in hand.  First stop was McPhal's bike shop to replace my helmet, and buy a lock.  My Santa Clause style bike bags were a magnet for Donald, who I found checking them out as I was returning from a purchase. 

Donald is an touring cyclist, and we exchanged stories in the swealtering heat.  Turns out that he’s an instructor at the University of Waterloo in civil engineering.  This is great, as I am very interested in some university involvement, as much as my job will allow.  I also received an invitation to dinner that evening with him and a buddy coming in from Ottawa. 

This friendly trend continued through out the day, when asking for directions, dealing with sales people and talking to folks about my bike.  Usually one has to resort to walking a puppy to get this level of interest from strangers.

Ken was the second biker of interest that I hooked up with.  He’s an avid mountain biker and grandfather.  Ken speaks with enthusiasm, and many gestures between puffs on his cigarette.  He is definitely a non-conformist, and has a good sense of humour and a big heart.  Much of his spare time is spent volunteering for ‘Recycle cycles’.    This is an arm of an outreach community project called ‘The Working Centre (http://www.theworkingcentre.org/).  Seems like a place that I would like to spend some of my free time.

Dinner with Donald and Greg was at a Tapas Restaurant of very high caliber, upon Donald’s invitation.  Greg worked for Research in Motion for the past 7 years, and only recently moved to Ottawa to start work in a start-up related to bio-technology.  I felt right at home in their company.

Work eve on Sunday was spent unpacking.  Found a nearby church (St. Michael’s) which is practically on the Waterloo campus.  I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.  I had forgotten the joys of southern Ontario weather.  The weekend was hot and the humidity increased.  The rising air caused the wind to pick up, and one could almost see the clouds materialize in the sky.  The thunderstorms are preceded by a humid almost musty smell and the rain comes soon after in heavy drops.  The amazing thing is that the storm is usually quite localized.  One could be pelted by rain for several minutes, and then travel half a kilometer to find the roads as dry as a bone. 

Where I lived in Germany was also like this, and I have many fond memories of racing the storm clouds on my weekend rides, trying to beat the rain.

I also met the folks that I’m sharing my residence with.  Sudeep (?) and his wife Johdi (?) are a couple from Nepal who have rented out the basement of the house.  I was able to surprise them with a few Nepali phrases that I picked up in Darjeeling.  Sudeep is completing his Master’s degree in civil engineering.  His wife is working for a software company in the area. 

Peter is completing his undergrad in a computer science related field.  He’s a quite friendly type, that is pretty busy with course work. 

Richard is starting a second career as a library scientist.  He’s completing his master’s in this field.  It’s quite a career change from the approximately 20 years experience in marketing in the gas BBQ industry. 

Included are also a couple of pictures of my ‘deluxe’ room, and the house.  I’m really excited about the shed where I can do bike repairs, it’s a dream come true.  The kitchen still needs some gadgets, but the basics are there.  If you’re coming for dinner though, you might want to bring you own plate.

My office in RIM 4                                                    The shed!

Back yard of 91 McDougall                                                Front yard of 91 McDougal

The closet / guest room.  Mom said it is every girl's dream to have a storage space this large!

Today I departed from Vancouver, and was given the royal treatment by Jan and Anika with a drive to the airport with my very stack of baggage.   It was great to waive bye to someone at the airport!

The flight was rather routine and touchdown was on time.  My parents were there to pick me up at the airport and we had a good hour or so to catch up as we slogged through rush hour traffic on the 401. 

Wednesday, I went to Waterloo for a city tour organized by Research in Motion.  My guide was Warren, a retired high school geography teacher, who has 60 years of experience in Kitchener-Waterloo (the two towns are practically one, though many emphasize the difference for reasons soon to be described). 

Warren has the skill of making one feel instantly at ease.  The first priority was to orient me on the different areas to live in Kitchener-Waterloo.  Waterloo is the home to two universities (University of Waterloo, and Wilfred Laurier University).  Research in Motion is a major employer, and many tech companies have been attracted to the area.  In contrast, Kitchener is more of a blue collar town, and some areas are known to have social problems, crime and drugs.  Warren's tour definitely showed me some great neighborhoods in both towns.  Old narrow brick homes, on tree lined streets, lots of parks and a good number of bike paths.  The down town of Kitchener and the Waterloo Uptown are both designed for the pedestrian.  Lots of small local and specialty shops.  Some really great ethnic food and a good smattering of German culture (the original group of immigrants to settle in the region).  There is a bit of a social divide between the two towns, which I found quite surprising as an outsider.  In many ways I found it similar to how the Vancouver east side is perceived by the western and downtown communities.  I'll have to explore this more ...

The outskirts of the town is ringed with box stores and strip malls.  New housing developments lack the charm of the old downtown. 

Warren also described some of the events in the town.  There is a Jazz festival, a busker festival, an Octoberfest, the Stratford festival is just around the corner.  Lots to choose from!  There are also lots of people who are active in cycling.  Warren volunteers at the hospital here, and mentioned that 40,000 people in the area are without a family doctor.  The place is crying for physicians.  He also mentioned that a new pharmacy department associated with one of the universities will open in 2008, as well as a department associated with the medical school at McMaster for the training of doctors.  Lots of opportunities for health professionals!  (End of commercial)

There is a large Mennonite community just north of Waterloo.  These folks live pretty close to the land, and in tight-knit communities.  Many of them still drive a horse and cart, and the Home Depot have in the north of the city had a stable for their horses.  A major attraction of Waterloo is St. Jacob's market, where the Mennonites sell their foods and handiwork.  I’ve yet to go, but it is a very unique influence on the entire city. 

On our drive around the city, we also looked in on a 'deluxe student room' in a shared house, about 2km from my future office.  Donna, the landlady was desperate to rent, and offered a bargain basement price.  As it turns out, her offer was the best one that I saw during my house hunting, and this is my present home.

After meeting Manfred the owner of St. Moritz Bakery, and a small lunch, I bid farewell to Warren.  My next appointment was with Wanda, a friend's mom who sells real-estate for Remax in the Waterloo area.  It was great to have her specialized opinion on places to live.  The pickings at the end of the month were pretty slim though, and I decided to spend the summer to find a long term place to rent.  Wanda is very happy living in Waterloo, and her enthusiasm was infectious.  Secretly she hopes that my moving here and advocacy for the wonders of Waterloo will lure her son back to town.  Did you catch that Tom?

After paying first and last month's rent do Donna, I made my way, quite content back to Pickering.