Ottawa Impressions

On Friday, the Spew family drove west.  Well, not that far.  We were meeting some folks (realtor, Carleton people, school board) and checking out neighborhoods. 

Our impressions thus far:

• ah, the roads are so smooth compared to the WWI battlefields in Quebec and do I love turning right on red!
• The people we met were very friendly and quite helpful.  Lots of clarity on how the school system works.  
• Ottawa is pretty compact--easy to get around and from point A to point B easily.
• Some  very, very big schools.   Apparently a nice change from the very small school Kid Spew goes to now.
• House hunting should be fun.  Some very nice neighborhoods with heaps of shopping nearby.  And the 21st century web-based realty, school locator, school ranking sites make this pretty straightforward.  Plus we have never moved over such a short distance--well, not since grad school from one part of San Diego to another.  Being able to make a day trip is very different from our old modus operandi: fly into strange town, run all over for a few days, buy a house, fly back.  Now, we can take our time.  The hard part will be keeping our house in Montreal uncluttered, clean and neat so that we can sell it.  

Anyhow, we are quite excited about this change, although I feel awkward every time a McGill undergrad brings up the topic.  I will miss them, and the department is going to be under-staffed for the immediate future.