oh, canada...well you guys know the rest...let's get this hockey game started...

Just back from Canada.

Journaling didn’t happen. Sorry. I had a good time though. We tried to do too much, however, and ended up spending too much time in the car. Quick timeline: Boston, MA to Fredericton, NB to Moncton, NB to Halifax, NS to Peggy’s Cove, NS to Lunenburg, NS to Cape Breton, NS and back.

I think Mike will post photos on his blog www.armadilloman.net

Halifax was great. I love Canadian cities. The urban planning has made them so much more livable spaces then their American counterparts. They also feel so much more urban at a much smaller size, for one because of their lack of inner-city highways, but also, in Halifax, because of limited geography. Architecturally, it was not dissimilar to New England cities, but also distictive, I think because of its size. The residential was mostly two-story Victorians, but built close together on small lots close to the street front, a lot like South End in Boston or Queens in New York, but shorter. There were a lot of good examples of residential turned into commercial space too.

Cape Breton was also spectacular, even for a non-nature lover. Imagine Northern Wisconsin, but then set it on the sides of mountains rising dramatically from the sea.



On a completely different note, Jessica finally figured out when she’s graduating. It looks like it will be Dec 06 or May 07. She’s already got a grad program in mind that’s also here in Boston (or Cambridge, rather), which means we’ll probably be here though 2008 or 2009. That’s a long time in one place for me. It also means that I’ve got to choose if I want to do my masters here as well, or wait until she’s done to go to Montreal or Phillie. I guess it will depend a little on the job market when I graduate. One thing is for sure though; I really want to move out of Eastie when we get back from Ho Chi Minh City. I think South End or Fenway would be nice, or maybe even across the river in Cambridge (if the MBTA would get off their asses and get the Urban Ring built it would be much easier.)