Dear family
and friends,
long time
that I didn’t write here, but for a good reason! A lot of things happened
during the last few months. Let me try to give a little summary.
But first,
a little report from my evening stroll: After having had a great planning skype
with my dear friends who will come on my trip through Canada with me (more
about that later), I looked out of the window today and saw a really weird
light coming in. Somehow, everything looked different, the clouds, trees, and
the grass had other colours than normal. So, I decided to go outside and find
out why. There had been a storm a few hours ago and as the sun was going down
at the time I went outside, behind me there were huge, dark storm clouds, but
in front of me, there was a beautiful sunset with incredible colours! The
clouds were orange, violet, grey, blue, and probably even more colours at the
same time. I just stood there in awe and was indulging in the moment. And, on
top of that, I found the most beautiful tulip tree just around the corner in my
neighborhood! It was stunning, so huge and in full blossom (spring is here, by
the way, did I mention?) that I couldn’t get by without taking pictures. Also,
everything else is blooming at the moment. It is getting warmer, sun is out
more often, and I can even still make use of our terrace in our little garden
behind the house.
Maybe a few more general words
about my work and the people here: I have had an easy time to integrate, as my
colleagues were so warm and welcoming and that hasn’t changed! It will be hard
to leave them again. We are having good times in the lab, the atmosphere is
generally open, supportive, and friendly, and I really appreciate that. It
makes working life and communication easy. Also, the communication with my
Helsinki team has gone surprisingly well. I would have thought that it might be
more difficult with this inconvenient time change between zones.
Also, the
contact to most friends and family has been quite good. It is mostly very late
in Europe when we skype and afternoon here in Canada. I have had several visits
from many, many people, including Antonio, friends from Helsinki, friends from
Germany, and my parents. With my visitors, I *always* went to see the Niagara
Falls, so by now I can’t count anymore how often I have seen them – maybe 6, 7
times?! But I don’t get tired of them. They are so beautiful!!! Also in Toronto
I have established my favorite places, although of course I get to see
something new every time I go there, too. There is good shopping in Toronto,
and I also really like the Distillery District with good craft beer. Shopping
in the outlet malls is even better, because of the prices. You can get real
bargains.
Some other
highlights that I have traveled to and that come to my mind right now, are:
- The city of Montreal with the royal hill, many French-speaking people, and the deliberately leaning tower of Montreal in the Olympic Park
- Maple syrup harvesting season, which was in the end of April. We got to see how it is harvested and produced and even got to try in ourselves – too much sugar in too few hours 😃
- Niagara Falls, did I already mention that they are sooooo beautiful? :)
- Mont Tremblant, an amazing skiing area, which I even got to visit and ski in twice this winter
- Chicago, I really liked the city and the atmosphere, when we spent New Year’s eve there. Awesome harbor area, good and filling pizza, the typical Chicago theater sign, the river, the Sear’s tower.
- Driving along the south shore of Lake Erie with Antonio after New Year’s
- Quebec city, a really European-style city with an old city wall and a castle, stunning views from the riverside and an awesome Bed & Breakfast, plus a cool farmer’s market with fresh products of Quebec farms
- The peninsula of Gaspesie, amazing coastal drive and loads of snow during Easter still! Made our hiking plans a bit difficult :D
- Charlevoix mountain area, on the north shore of St. Lorenz river, where we did a beautiful hike in the snow up to the mountain top and saw a millions of years old meteor crater
- Thousand Islands area on the Ontario lake, reminded me of Finland when driving through there
- Algonquin Provincial Park, pure nature with lake scenery
- Ontario lake in different areas, always looks like the sea, so wide and views without seeing the other side of the lake
Ok, I will
stop now. You can see, I have used my weekends well and have seen a few parts
of the country, and everything I saw until now and with all the people that
were here to visit me, I have always enjoyed the time a lot! Even Hamilton has
its nice areas, if you know where to go, and it gets even better now in the
spring time.
Next time I
will be writing, we will probably already travel around the country. The plan
is to travel from Hamilton/Toronto all the way to Vancouver. Different people
will join me at different times, so that we are up to 7 people traveling
together. I am looking forward so much to this trip! Before that, it means to
move to another room in my house, finish up my work as well as I can before
going to the trip, and still visit New York for a weekend. Because I can. And
it’s so close ;) We should use the time we have while we can. In that sense, I
hope you enjoyed the reading. Leave me comments, if you did, or also, if you
didn’t. Let me know what you like or what you don’t like. Hugs to all!!
