Oh, Canada!

So I've been MIA for over a year. What's happened in those past 15 months? I was working on a project in Cleveland, which was a major life change, met some truly amazing people, and raised close to $160,000,000. Yes, one hundred and sixty MILLION dollars. It was tough being so far away from my friends and family, but I think it was the best worst decision I've made.

Which brings us to now. My new assignment is with a client on Prince Edward Island. Yes, Canada. So since I'm here in a foreign land (well, it's really not that foreign, but more on that in a minute), I might as well chronicle my time here. And I really need to keep up with writing, even if it's something as informal as this.

Anyway, I arrived on PEI last Tuesday after a marathon day of traveling. Turns out that PEI is one of those "you can't get there from here" places. Case and point - I flew from Boston to Toronto to Halifax to PEI. I went west to go northeast. Air Canada was pretty sweet, they had in-seat entertainment and ports to charge you iphone/ipad. The in-flight movie was Magic Mike, which actually wasn't terrible! It didn't take itself seriously at all, dare I say, I actually enjoyed it!

There's really not a whole lot on the island in the "off season" but it looks like it's going to be great come the summer. I was also surprised at how "American" it is. I'd been to Montreal once, and everything there is in French. I'd also visited the Canada pavilion at World Showcase at Epcot, so I was expecting lots of plaid, wilderness and Moose. Not so much.

On PEI, there's pretty much everything that is in the States (Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Home Depot), with a few differences, Dunkin Donuts is replaced by Tim Horton's (worry not, I found the one Starbucks on the island, praise Jesus), ESPN and SportsCenter are replaced with TSN and SportsCentre, they use the metric system, they have coins that are worth more than .50, and it costs a fortune to use my phone (I ended up getting a Canadian cell phone - does that make me an expat?!). However, there is free wifi almost everywhere, which is a major plus. Also a major plus? They have ABC, CBS and NBC and they're the Boston affiliates!

I'm pretty excited to spend some time here. I'll be here for the next 3-4 weeks conducting a feasibility study, and then if all goes well, the campaign will start in January and run through early to mid July, 2013.

If you feel like getting in touch with your inner Anne of Green Gables (I swear, that girl is EVERYWHERE on this island), or want some really good mussels, come visit. For those of you that can't, feel free to live vicariously through this blog.

Until next time....