Some tips on adjusting to a new location

I have to first say that my blog is slowly shifting towards new topics. I had originally written this blog with a mathematical focus in mind but as I slowly entered the work force and began professional life, I have seen a lot of value documenting some of my struggles. In fact, because I graduated somewhat sooner than most of my friends, I find myself being somewhat of an expert on the job search, a lot of strategies which I used during my own job search a few months ago. In any case, I hope that I'll be able to more consistently write posts on mathematics that I see in the world but for now, these recent posts are some that I felt like documenting.

Since the move to Edmonton, I have been really homesick. In fact, it even culminated in flying back home one weekend just to see friends and family that I haven't seen in a few weeks. Now that I'm back though, I don't feel as homesick as before and there's really a couple reasons why. This post is going to explore some of those reasons:

1. Coworkers

One source of comaderie I get is from my coworkers. This is an obvious place to create friendships because you see your coworkers every day. In fact, I read that you will like your job more if you make a friend at work. It's not that I need a motivation to like my job more, rather, it is that extra something to make you enjoy going to work and it may even increase your opportunity to do things together after work or on the weekend.

Of course, the big problem with working at the Alberta Law Libraries is every coworker is female and they all have families and established lives. As opposed to a university setting where people are around my age, have similar interests and are at the same place in their lives (just beginning their professional careers and don't have families to go home to), I'm at a place where my coworkers all have families and they really don't have time to 'hang out'. It's something unfortunate that I didn't really think of when taking the job but certainly not a deal breaker; I really would have liked to have coworkers around my age and at the same place in their lives.

Despite all this, my culinary interests and age fit right in with the coworkers I have. I don't think I'm as good as I think I am and I think there is some bias but I do think that all the things I cook taste really good (yes, probably bias). This interest in food has definitely led to some interesting conversations around the office.

I think it's funny that my age fits right into the conversations we have: as I mentioned, most of my coworkers have families and a lot of their children are around my age. Often times, they'll make some statement about the youths of that age and I sit there, almost amused, at the observations they make.

2. Sports

This is a two in one combo - it's a great way of keeping fit and also meeting new people. For example, the University of Alberta has a great selection of sport clubs to be a part of. You really have to dig around for information yourself if you want to find the clubs that you can participate in. Sometimes even after finding all the necessary information, you don't have the right equipment to play with (my racquet is back in Van). I suppose I should have brought it with me or even brought it over the time I went back to Van but I just totally forgot.

I do think however, this is a really good option for the two reasons above - it also helps that there is a University club because it is more than likely that the people playing there will be around your age (though they may not be at the same place in their lives with work).

3. Professional Organizations

During my job search, I talked about how important it was to network with your contacts and find jobs through your network. Not only are a lot of the jobs not usually posted on sites like indeed or simplyhired, but recruiters will often rely on referrals from coworkers or trusted people to hire people for the job.

I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Toastmasters International Organization when I was in Vancouver and when I moved over to Edmonton, I immediately thought of joining a Toastmaster club. Not only would it be a chance to meet some new people, but it would be a good chance to practice my public speaking and leadership skills. Just doing a google search on Toastmasters and Edmonton brought up numerous groups and I, wanting to be more efficient with my time, decided to join one at 7 in the morning before work. Needless to say, the days I go to Toastmasters are very long days. This seemed to be the most successful way of meeting people because the first time I went, I said that I was interested in networking and a fellow Toastmaster invited me out to a networking event on that same day. I was late to the networking event, plus my networking skills aren't that great but I did get to meet a few people there and had some really good conversations.

As an aside, I was also thinking about joining a professional product management organization - I think that that is what I will be doing eventually in the future.

4. Meetup!

I remember after reading through many tech articles, reading about a site called Meetup but I never gave it much thought because I was in Vancouver at the time and had plenty of things to do. One day, a coworker no less, suggested to me that someone she knew who was new to Edmonton had looked online and found a group of other people who were 'New to Edmonton'. It was a good way of meeting others with similar interests (in this case, everyone was new to Edmonton). She sent me a link to the meetup.com site and I checked out all the meetups in Edmonton. Some look quite interesting, in fact, so interesting that I have joined the Chinese and Japanese group. So far, I haven't been to any of these meetups but I know that once I get into these meetups and become a regular member, I will at least have some sort of base that I can connect to.

These are just a few of the strategies you can use to meet new people and to try to establish a new base of friends to hang out with. Between work, Toastmasters, working out several times a week and trying to figure out which meetups to go to, you can tell I've been busy.

Have you moved to somewhere new? How did you cope and adjusted to it? How did you meet new people?

When you're somewhere new, find comfort in the familiar

It's certainly been a while since I last blogged - let me explain why right now.

Back in the middle of April, I had talked about receiving a phone interview with the Government of Alberta for an Emerging Technologies Specialist position. They liked me enough to fly me down for a second interview and I guess the second interview was also really good so they offered me a job working in Edmonton. 

To say that the decision was difficult would be an understatement.

On the one hand, I had been looking for work for 4 months and had not any successful job offers during that time though I did have several phone interviews which did not seem to lead anywhere. The job experience that I would get from this position was very good and may even enable me to gain an incredible job afterwards depending on the opportunities available.

On the other hand, to leave Vancouver to work in Edmonton would force me to uproot my whole established life and routine and plant it down in Edmonton where I had few friends, no family and almost no network of people I could rely on for support. 

I believe that the biggest factor for me for accepting this position was the fact that we were still in the recession and job offers did not come easily during this time. That's not to say that the job was bad, it is actually quite a flexible position with lots of ties into technology; I'm saying that given a job offer in Edmonton and a similar position in Vancouver, I would probably have chosen Vancouver. 

In any case, once I accepted the position, I had a few weeks to tearfully say goodbye to my friends, either through surprise dinners, planned dinners, coffees or lunches. The biggest worry that I had before my move to Edmonton was finding a place to live. Although there were many resources online that I used, it was hard to choose a place until I saw it in person. 

Fast forward a week or two and I have a bachelor apartment about 2 blocks away from where I work downtown. Though not as close to all the amenities as I would like, it certainly wasn't a big downside since the transit system in Edmonton was decent. 

Once I found housing, my concerns transitioned from housing to my daily and weekly routine, after all, I had full-time work now. I was terribly homesick, but I knew that once I got into a routine, my life would finally settle down and I would stop thinking about my home in Vancouver.  

It was during the time that I was trying to figure out my routine, I realized that I reverted back to some of my old routines that I went through before. Like cooking extra food for dinner and packing the extra food for lunch the next day on weekdays. Or watching streams of my favorite shows aired the day before while eating dinner. Or even cooking complete meals in my trustworthy and reliable rice cooker so that I did not have to wait around for food to finish cooking. 

Why did I revert back to these old routines I had gone through before? Why didn't I just create new routines given my new environment and lifestyle? 

I guess it was because I found comfort in the familiarity of the routines.

Not only is it the reason I do those things, it's also probably the reason I order the same items (chirashi, sashimi) at all the Japanese restaurants I go to; it's probably the reason I really just shop for clothing at relatively cheap stores like Esprit and Old Navy; and it's probably the reason I cook the same things every week or so. It's easy. It doesn't require a lot of thought. And it reminds me of how comforting life was in the past.

And because of the routine, things are easy now; things dont require a lot of thought now; and things are fairly comfortable now. 

I also think it may be the reason people order the same things at restaurants or go to the same type of restaurants all the time (or even go to the same restaurant and order the same thing every single time). It's safe. It's (probably) good. And any time they become adventurous and order something else that isn't good, it seems to reinforces the idea of sticking with what is good and familar, rather than trying to be adventurous.

As a final note, I had to purchase some laundry detergent yesterday. I went to Shopper's

 Drug Mart, looked around and finally came to some different laundry detergents. As I always do, I compared the prices (locally on the shelves, and not at different stores) and finally landed on the Gain laundry brand which seemed to be cheap compared to the other detergents. There were 2 brands of Gain laundry detergent and I think if you saw the same thing I did, the choice would have been as obvious for you as it was for me. 

How do you feel? Are there routines that you go through just because you're familiar with them? Are there restaurants that you always go to or food that you always order?