Travelling and Mi: Snow!

Last week's monday was the first week that the new developer started. A cool young chinese guy, who came to support the JMIR team. I do not have to work with him, but it is cool to have a new colleague. =)

Christmas is definitely a big thing in Canada and people put a lot of time in decorating everything, buying gifts and celebrating the holidays! Both the new guy and I were therefor lucky, because we got to meet a lot more people from the department than just the JMIR team, since we had a christmas holiday party. The theme of the party was "A night at the grammys" (it should have been a lunch at the grammys since it started at noon) and a lot of people were dressed up in suits and nice dresses. Instead of the regular catering (something went wrong with the order) everybody brought their own (homemade or purchased food) and we had a great lunch while watching at the self-made "grammy-worth" movies. After the lunch and the grammy-awards we played several games as teams competing against others. The party was traditionally ended with a gift exchange (with stealing), that however took a little bit too long and was not so much fun, since the group was too big...

The next day (friday) we went out for lunch with a couple of people of the JMIR team. Unfortunately not everybody was able to come along, however the food was good! We ate at a Chinese restaurant close to work. Unfortunately I don't have pictures, but you can check it out on my foodmap, it is called "Hong Shing".

That weekend Toronto and the rest of Southern Ontario was hit by a snow storm, changing the whole city in winter wonderland! Road conditions became poor. However it was beautiful outside and I actually enjoyed it all as did some of the Canadians, who immediately went Hockeying (Ice Hockey!) and drifting (see vid). Unfortunately the snow snow is almost gone again.... but I might actually still have a chance for a white Christmas, because we are expecting snow again this weekend! (Which is actually rare in TO for this time of the year, as I am told.)

Although I don't mind the cold (you get used to it.. ) and I am packed in my clothes (my nice famous Canada scarf and black Northface jacket) the cold still got to me since I have pharyngitis, but that could also be due to a lack of vitamins and eating too much pizza etc. :-p

Oh and for the AMC peeps: AMC is not as bad as it seems like, the hospitals in TO could look even more dreadful, although the Wilson Center is supposed to be something big.. But I haven't checked it out yet.