Two months!

Last week made two months that we arrived in Montreal. 

Lots of updates since the last post. 

We moved to the new house on July 1st. The neighborhood is really nice and the house is very good. 

We went to Ikea one day before, bought a sofa bed. It almost didn’t fit in the car we rented!


We were lucky and got a bigger car than the one we rented, so we managed to barely fit the sofa in the car. 

On july 2nd we went back to Ikea to buy a bed, night drawers and a 8 drawer chest. This time everything fit. We spent the rest of the day assembling everything. It was fun! But it was a lot of work. 

The Phd is going well. Lots of new stuff to learn. My French is getting better too. I try to study a little everyday. But it’s really hard to understand the accent québécois. All the audio from the study is from France, so I need to listen something from here to get used to the accent. 

See you soon!

1 Month (and a few days)

And time goes fast! It’s been a little more than 1 month since we arrived. The majority of the time I’m at UQAM, doing the PhD. We spent our time knowing the city and going to furniture and home equipment stores.
We made a list of the things that we want to buy, so as soon as we move to the new house, we’ll go and buy then. It’s been fun! But sometimes a little stressful.

Spring is over. The seasons DO change here. And fast! What I’m hearing the most is the phrase “Enjoy the Summer!”, and sometimes I get a little afraid of the winter. It was funny when they made an alert because of the heat because the temperature almost reached 32 degrees!

Just 6 days for the moving day. We are eager to move to the new house. Almost everything is already set up, internet, water and electricity.

See you soon,
Caio

Two weeks in Montreal

It’s been two weeks! Time goes fast. The first week was intense. On the second day I went to UQAM to know the research group and my supervisor. On the third, fourth and fifth day there was the annual meeting of our research network. And between all this we were searching for a house to stay at least until July 1st. 

We rented the first one that we visited and was available for the day we needed. Not the wisest choice, but we didn’t want to stay in an hotel any longer. At least it’s just for 49 days. 

We spent the weekend and next week looking for a better house to move on July 1st, the “moving day” in Montreal. 

Fist we walked the neighborhoods looking for the ones that we liked. Then we visited 14 places, and finally were able to find a place that we both liked, with an affordable price. We signed the contract the next day after seeing the house. 

Now we can relax and begin the search for home furniture. 

We didn’t spent our days just looking for houses. The first weekend we climbed the mont Royal (very beautiful views of the city) and this last Sunday was the “free annual museum day”, so we visited the biosphere (not very good for adults. Good for children) and the museum of beaux arts (this one was very good). 

In Montreal

We arrived safe and sound in Montreal. 🙂

The immigration was really simple and the only part that took time was the queue. We spent almost 1 hour at the line. Lots of flights arriving at the same time. 

A friend of ours was at the airport waiting for us, and he drove us for our temporary house, that we rented at the last minute in Airbnb! 

The first day at UQAM was nice. I met with my advisor and everyone from the research group. I was just a little scared with the language. I definitely need to improve my French as soon as possible. 

We spent the last few days looking for a permanent house. The neighborhood that we are in now is nice, but we found so many better places. We fell in love with the Jean-Talon and Atwater market. We will go to a new place this Friday, near the Atwater market. Then we’ll look for a new place to move after July 1st. 

These last few days were really nice. Just the weather that was a little crazy. There were snows at Monday!! 2 degree temperature, feels like -2. 

In Chicago

So, we are in Chicago now, at my sister in law house. The flight was anwful. The food was horrible and I barely slept. But, after The landing, everything went smoothly. No queues at the immigration and bags readily available. The most troublesome part was getting the train with three 32kg bags plus 2 handbags. 

Today we visited the terracota exhibition at the Field Museum, and now we will finish the bags so we can get ready for the big day tomorrow!

Visa delay and travel day

This week was a little stressful. Lots of things to do, travel preparations and the wait for the final steps of the visa process. 

That deserves a special paragraph. The visa office gave five working days for the final phase. And then we bought the airplanes tickets for two days after the date they gave us. Guess what, we should have waited a little more. Usually they send the passport home via post. But we had to go to the office to retrieve the passport before they sent it via post. Luckyly we were able to get the passport and we didn’t need to change our plane tickets!

After that we booked a nice apartment on Airbnb for 5 days. In these five days we’ll search for a provisory place until July first, when we want to move to a definitive place. 

And now we’re on our way to the airport. I think that we managed to put everything in the bags. Three big bags plus 2 small ones.

The first step of the travel will be in Chicago, where we’ll stay for two days in my sister in law place before going to Montreal. 

We already sent 4 other bags to her house! We’ll rearrange then there, and take 4 bags to Montreal. After we have a proper place we’ll come back and take the rest. 🙂

And the Visa is ready!

After a few hiccups, the visa is finally done!

I received the message that is was done last Tuesday. Wednesday morning I was at the door of the Canadian office to get the visa in my passport.

Now I need to continue my search for a good apartment in Montreal, finish the last things related to my work here in Brazil and make the last preparations for the move!

Cheers,
Caio

Surprise!

After one year and a half without posting anything, now it’s time to write again.

A lot of things happened since the last post. I finished my masters, found a job, moved to another city. 

And why start blogging again? Well, the surprise is that I’ll begin my PhD shortly! And because of that I’ll move to Montreal, Canada. And even the blog title fits to my soon to be new city. 

Although there won’t field work, I’ll keep updating here things related to my PhD and my move to Montreal. But who knows? Part of my study will be using field data from glaciers, maybe some field work can show up. 

The bureaucracy about the Canadian visa is daunting. So many forms to fill. Yesterday the CAQ finally arrived and I submited the Canadian visa 15 minutes later! Everything was ready, I was just waiting for the CAQ. 

Sadly the CAQ took way longer then expected. The site said 20 working days, but it actually took almost 30 working days for it to complete. Now I need to wait for the visa. I hope that it gets done faster! Almost everything is ready for the big move. 

My PhD will be about “Glacier-climate/hydrology interactions in current and future climates over western Canada” and I’m really excited about it. 

As soon as I start developing the project I’ll keep posting new info about it.

Travessia Punta Arenas – Antártica e EACF. Crossing: Punta Arenas – Antarctica and EACF

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Ficamos dois dias em Punta Arenas. A previsão de travessia era para o dia 5 de novembro, no segundo voo. O primeiro voo foi reservado para algumas autoridades que vieram fazer turismo na Antartica. Aproveitamos o dia a mais na cidade para fazer algumas compras, comer bem e experimentar as cervejas locais!

Felizmente a travessia ocorreu sem maiores problemas. O tempo estava bom! O nosso bolso agradece, pois o Chile é bem caro.
O Avião arremeteu uma vez, me deixando um pouco apreensivo, devido ao histórico de problemas que ocorrem quando estou na Antártica. O Hércules (como o avião é chamado) estava mais cheio que o normal, pois colocaram poltronas normais de avião, que ocupam muito espaço e cabem poucas pessoas.
IMG_2126

Nessa época do ano é bem bonito vir a Antártica, pois ainda tem muita neve. Nos meses de verão, uma boa parte do gelo dá lugar a uma paisagem um tanto desolada, com muita lama e pedras bem escuras.

Esperamos uns 45min na praia, que aproveitamos para tirar fotos de pinguins. Em seguida embarcamos no Maximiano e felizmente desembarcamos na EACF no mesmo dia! Nunca tinha feito isso, sempre tinha ficado pelo menos uma noite no navio. As 21h desembarcamos na praia. Nesse momento eu cometi um erro grave, reservado somente a marinheiros de primeira viagem: Esqueci de passar protetor solar! Nos 15 minutos de sol das 21h, fiquei com o rosto todo vermelho. O vermelhão só diminiu depois de dois dias.

O nosso material de pesquisa ainda não chegou, então não temos muito o que fazer. Estamos fazendo manutenção nos instrumentos que estão na torre. A previsão é que os materiais que enviamos cheguem por aqui dia 9. Eles já deveriam ter chegado, mas problemas de mal tempo fez com que o Ary Rongel atrasasse a chegada na base e com isso todo o cronograma foi por água (ou seria neve?) abaixo.
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Agora um fato tragicômico:
Um grupo de pesquisadores de primeira viagem foi informado pela sua coordenadora, que já tinha mais de 5 viagens antárticas, que não precisavam colocar as botas antárticas na viagem de Hercules, pois ao pousarem na base chilena eles pegariam as andainas e ai colocariam as botas. Resultado: Ficaram quase 1 hora de tenis simples e meia fina no meio da neve.

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We stayed two days in Punta Arenas. We’re schedule do fly on November 5th, on the second flight. The first flight was reserved for the “authorities” that go to the base for a short visit or tourism. We spent the day shopping, eating and tasting the local beer!

Happily the flight was without trouble. The weather was good and we landed safely. That was good, because Chile is a expensive country and our pockets aren’t that deep.
The plane tried to land once, didn’t make it but the second time it landed. This worried me a little, because of my historic of problems that happens when I’m in Antarctica. The Hercules (how the airplane is called) was more full then usual, because they put normal seats for the high profile people, and they occupy a lot of space and fits less people.

This time of the year King George Island is very beautiful, because is full os snow. In the years of summer, the ice melts and the landscape turn a little desolate, with a lot of mud and black rock.

We waited 45min on the beach, we’re used the time to took photos from the penguins and the landscape. Then we boarded the Maximiano and landed on EACF on the same day! That was very good, because we always stayed at least one night at the ship, without a place to sleep properly. The landed on EACF at 21h. At this moment I did a serious rookie mistake: I forgot to use sunscreen. I stayed in the sun for 15 minutes and my face got totally burned.

As our research material isn’t here, we don’t have much to do. We’re doing maintenance on the sensors on the tower. Our research material should arrive on November 9th. They were supposed to be here last week, but problems with the weather delayed that.

E começa a viagem!! And so it begins!

E chegou o dia da viagem. Minha quarta viagem Antártica! A principal diferença dessa viagem é que não vamos de avião da FAB até Punta Arenas. Estamos indo de avião comercial.
Durante a manhã terminei a mala. Ficou bem pesada, pois tive que colocar diversas coisas relativas aos trabalhos que vou fazer na Antártica.
A mala de mão também ficou pesadíssima, pois vamos ter que levar um datalogger novo. Ele é bem sensível, então vou levá-lo na mala de mão.
Felizmente não tivemos problemas ao passar pela segurança, no Brasil e no Chile. Eles reclamaram um pouco do datalogger, mas deixaram ele passar. Tínhamos receio que não deixassem ele ir na mala de mão.
Chegamos bem em Punta Arenas, apesar de estarmos extremamente cansados.
Punta Arenas

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And so it begins! My 4th Antarctic trip. The main difference about this one is that I won’t go the usual way, with the plane from the FAB (Brazilian Air Force) since Brazil. We will go in a commercial flight until Punta Arenas, then we’ll take the FAB airplane.
I finished packing in the morning, both bags are very heavy due various things related to the work that I’ll do in Antarctic, plus due to a last minute emergency we’re taking a new datalogger.
Airport security from Chile and Brazil didn’t made a fuss about the datalogger, so I managed to take it safely in my handbag.
We arrived safely in Punta Arenas, at 7am, extremely tired.