First things first: By popular demand (or rather the complaints of a certain Mr. Parker), the title of this blog has changed to "Cam Does Winnipeg". But I'm still open to even greater, more inspiring names! So let me know your thoughts.
I'm super flattered by 101 page views I've now had. Not sure if that's just one person checking every 5 minutes (Mom?) but still, not too shabby for one fairly boring post.
Also I've always really loved articles and blogs and sites that have tons of words and things as links to other sites, and so despite the fact that I have very little practical use for this tool, THIS IS MY BLOG AND I WILL DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT. So there. Hopefully some will be enjoyable or interesting.
I got into the Peg in the mid-afternoon yesterday, allowing me time to find my way to my apartment (conveniently on one of only 2 bus routes from the airport), unpack, settle in, and go for a little walk around the 'hood.
My apartment and roommate are both delightful and I don't think I could have lucked out any more on either front. The temptation is to spew tons of info on them right away, but I think this post will have enough content without, so I'll try and save some stuff for a boring period. So basically all that I'll say is that my roommate Jen, is a cool cat, who herself owns 3 literal cats. She is a genius in decorating the apartment, which she does with a combination of her own artwork and numerous gems found at antique and thrift shops. Also she makes a mean honey dill sauce.
Jen took me on a little walk around the neighbourhood, both to give me a sense of my way to work, and to show me around the neighbourhood. I live on the edge of a neighbourhood called Wolseley. It's known for being young and kind hippy-esque, which is fine by me! (Except, the next day at work, a coworker informed me that Wolseley is the only neighbourhood in the city that doesn't fog for mosquitoes... are they really that bad here?). We walked to the Manitoba Legislature, which is only a few minutes from my place and which I can't wait to explore, and crossed the Assiniboine River into Osborne Village. Osborne Village is another neighbourhood that's young and cool, and as Jen put it, "more downtown than downtown itself" (the real downtown is known for being kinda terrifying at night and no one likes to go there). It was bustling, with pretty old buildings and tons of little shops. A really cool area I'd like to check out in more depth.
Then today was my first day of work. WOO! Exciting stuff. I walked to work (25ish minutes) which is really nice to be able to do, especially on such a gorgeous day like today. I took the major streets to avoid getting lost on the first day of work, but on my way back, I took a more interesting route and passed these fancy buildings:
Work itself was great. I mean, to be honest, I didn't do a whole lot today. I had to do all sorts of payroll and new hire stuff, and we kinda set up my desk space as we went. We had to call IT like 5 billion times. I actually have a kinda neat place in the office. There wasn't really any cubicle space left for me, so I've been given a sort of makeshift one (near the photocopier - awwww yeeeaah!). But I have an excellent view of a lot of the rest of the office. And one of my "cubicle" walls is a REAL WALL, which I think is a sign of a status in any office setting.
Then there was the accounting bit. So basically, for now, after half a day of training, I understand my job to be such:
1) Compare what you see on paper to what you see on screen.
2) If comparison doesn't match, figure out why and solve discrepancy.
I've a handle of #1 down pat, but #2 is proving to be a little tougher. Of course, that's 80+% of the work, and the whole point of me being here. I'll have to work on that.
But my first impression of accounting (and the reason I'm struggling with #2) is that the terminology is super specific (even though the words are all familiar) with the main purpose of excluding non-accountants like me. I mean, I have this software with all these menus of where to find different info but it throws around words like "inventory" and "receipts" and "payable" and they all seem to mean the same thing to me and I don't know what to click on.
The office atmosphere seems to be great, and I think it can be best summed up with an anecdote. I had just finished using the washroom and was exiting when the door was pulled open in front of me and I was pretend-karate chopped... by the President of the company. Good thing I had just gone to the bathroom, or I would have peed myself, but you gotta appreciate the laid-back, funny, chill attitude of senior management!
After work, I met up with my friend Evelyn who is also spending her summer in Winnipeg. She works LITERALLY 3 minutes from my apartment which is cool and fun, but I'm too tired to talk about that any more.
I know it's early, but so far, I think Winnipeg is winning the war against the nay-sayers. I might be falling in love with this city (but then again, it's early. Maybe it's just lust)...
I'm super flattered by 101 page views I've now had. Not sure if that's just one person checking every 5 minutes (Mom?) but still, not too shabby for one fairly boring post.
Also I've always really loved articles and blogs and sites that have tons of words and things as links to other sites, and so despite the fact that I have very little practical use for this tool, THIS IS MY BLOG AND I WILL DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT. So there. Hopefully some will be enjoyable or interesting.
I got into the Peg in the mid-afternoon yesterday, allowing me time to find my way to my apartment (conveniently on one of only 2 bus routes from the airport), unpack, settle in, and go for a little walk around the 'hood.
My apartment and roommate are both delightful and I don't think I could have lucked out any more on either front. The temptation is to spew tons of info on them right away, but I think this post will have enough content without, so I'll try and save some stuff for a boring period. So basically all that I'll say is that my roommate Jen, is a cool cat, who herself owns 3 literal cats. She is a genius in decorating the apartment, which she does with a combination of her own artwork and numerous gems found at antique and thrift shops. Also she makes a mean honey dill sauce.
Jen took me on a little walk around the neighbourhood, both to give me a sense of my way to work, and to show me around the neighbourhood. I live on the edge of a neighbourhood called Wolseley. It's known for being young and kind hippy-esque, which is fine by me! (Except, the next day at work, a coworker informed me that Wolseley is the only neighbourhood in the city that doesn't fog for mosquitoes... are they really that bad here?). We walked to the Manitoba Legislature, which is only a few minutes from my place and which I can't wait to explore, and crossed the Assiniboine River into Osborne Village. Osborne Village is another neighbourhood that's young and cool, and as Jen put it, "more downtown than downtown itself" (the real downtown is known for being kinda terrifying at night and no one likes to go there). It was bustling, with pretty old buildings and tons of little shops. A really cool area I'd like to check out in more depth.
Then today was my first day of work. WOO! Exciting stuff. I walked to work (25ish minutes) which is really nice to be able to do, especially on such a gorgeous day like today. I took the major streets to avoid getting lost on the first day of work, but on my way back, I took a more interesting route and passed these fancy buildings:
 |
| Aw yeah, cool fancy hotel or something! |
 |
| Politics! Neat! |
Work itself was great. I mean, to be honest, I didn't do a whole lot today. I had to do all sorts of payroll and new hire stuff, and we kinda set up my desk space as we went. We had to call IT like 5 billion times. I actually have a kinda neat place in the office. There wasn't really any cubicle space left for me, so I've been given a sort of makeshift one (near the photocopier - awwww yeeeaah!). But I have an excellent view of a lot of the rest of the office. And one of my "cubicle" walls is a REAL WALL, which I think is a sign of a status in any office setting.
Then there was the accounting bit. So basically, for now, after half a day of training, I understand my job to be such:
1) Compare what you see on paper to what you see on screen.
2) If comparison doesn't match, figure out why and solve discrepancy.
I've a handle of #1 down pat, but #2 is proving to be a little tougher. Of course, that's 80+% of the work, and the whole point of me being here. I'll have to work on that.
But my first impression of accounting (and the reason I'm struggling with #2) is that the terminology is super specific (even though the words are all familiar) with the main purpose of excluding non-accountants like me. I mean, I have this software with all these menus of where to find different info but it throws around words like "inventory" and "receipts" and "payable" and they all seem to mean the same thing to me and I don't know what to click on.
The office atmosphere seems to be great, and I think it can be best summed up with an anecdote. I had just finished using the washroom and was exiting when the door was pulled open in front of me and I was pretend-karate chopped... by the President of the company. Good thing I had just gone to the bathroom, or I would have peed myself, but you gotta appreciate the laid-back, funny, chill attitude of senior management!
After work, I met up with my friend Evelyn who is also spending her summer in Winnipeg. She works LITERALLY 3 minutes from my apartment which is cool and fun, but I'm too tired to talk about that any more.
I know it's early, but so far, I think Winnipeg is winning the war against the nay-sayers. I might be falling in love with this city (but then again, it's early. Maybe it's just lust)...
Ahh, too great! Glad everything's working out so far :)
ReplyDeleteNote on the mosquitoes, I'm no expert (having never been to Winnipeg) but my uncle worked for Manitoba tourism for a while, and he said they are absolutely bonkers. (He had much more to say about them, with much more colourful language...) You never know though!
(http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Manitoba/mosquito_capital_of_canada.htm <-- I'd say trust that, but the links are in Comic Sans and that's all I have to say about that.)