5 days in Ontario

After my little border situation I spent 4 1/2 days in Toronto, or more precisely on a former farm about 100km west of Toronto. Even though I had really planned to spend some quality time relaxing and just chilling the productive part of my mind quickly took control so I actually got quite a number of things done. Nevertheless I still managed to at least spend most of my Thursday just sitting in the sun, alternating between reading, internet surfing and sleeping. I also accompanied A.H.'s mother on a tour through the sprawling city of Fergus to get somewhat of an impression of life in the area.

proof that we're in the heart of Mennonite country

On Friday A.H. and I officially decided to go for a productive day so we went to the University of Waterloo where we had access to the facilities and especially the internet. I got quite a bit of work done, especially in terms of catching up with my e-mail. It's really quite insane how many messages start piling up these days when I'm not online for 48h.

pretending to work on my XO in the summer sun

On Saturday we drove to Toronto where we spent most the day walking through the city. I had really had no idea just how big (>2 million inhabitants) and interesting the city was. Even though the weather would have been perfect and probably offered a great view across Lake Ontario we decided not skip going up the CN Tower since the queue was simply too long. Instead we explored Chinatown and Queen Street. I certainly didn't know that Toronto's Chinatown was that huge, for some reason I only think of New York and San Francisco when I hear the term "Chinatown". Of course having been to both China and Taiwan the place didn't impress me as much compared to the first time when I set foot in New York's Chinatown back in 2000. However the street signs, the people, the shops all brought back vivid memories to previous days spent in Asia.

When it comes to the above mentioned Queen Street I have to say that it's not often that you come across an area that embodies the concept of 'hip' as well as that street does. Don't get me wrong, places such as Soho and Greenwich Village in New York obviously ooze hip every step of the way, however I would argue there the hipness is already too institutionalized. Queen Street on the other hand is still full of the tiny niche stores that really make an area exciting.


We spent most of our day walking along that street and I certainly enjoyed every minute of it. Especially Queen Street East between Leslie Street and Broadview Avenue was amazing since it had a very different vibe going than Queen Street West. The east side is full of (wannabe) posh and a few really cool restaurants and bars while the west side is really more about galleries and shops offering everything from clothes to vinyl. Again, the west side seemed so lively and experimental whereas the east side was certainly nice but already on the border of being too hip. Overall I was certainly impressed by Toronto and I have to say that I really liked the city!

Sunday was mostly spent being productive, again with catching up on e-mails that had piled up on Saturday and also on arranging some things when it comes to documentation for the upcoming OLPC G1G1 2008. In the evening we spontaneously decided to watch Wall-E in the cinema. I hope to have a more detailed review up soon but let me tell you that I really liked the movie quite a lot.

Monday morning went by quickly as I had to do some re-packing in order to meet WestJet's carry-on and checked baggage requirements but ultimately I got done with time to spare. One thing I noticed in the hours leading up to my jolly-arrival in Vancouver is that I'm still very much thrilled about traveling. I certainly consider this excitement a good sign and there's few things in live that make me as happy as knowing that I'm back on-the-road and on my way to explore more previously undiscovered places.

Vancouver treating me well...

I arrived in Vancouver last evening after a comfortable flight with WestJet. I was quite impressed with the amount of leg-room, plus the plane was only 2/3 booked so there was lots of extra space. The only thing that sucked was not getting any food on the 5h flight so I had to survive on the tiny amount of salty and sweet stuff that we were given, plus the remains of a sandwich I got in Toronto.

Since I really wasn't in the mood to watch satellite TV I decided to get some work done. As to be expected the battery on my regular laptop ran out after about 1 1/2 hours so I switched over to using my XO. With its small size, excellent screen and long battery-life it's really the perfect laptop for flights. After some writing of blog-posts and articles I watched an episode of Entourage which really got me hooked even though it's admittedly somewhat of a stupid show.

XO'ing at 39137 feet altitude

The approach into Vancouver was just gorgeous and even though I often tend to sleep through the last half hour of a flight this time I was glued to the window. What a great view!

free WestJet advertising included

Upon my arrival I was immediately spoiled after being picked up with a cabrio and treated to Asian dinner (excellent salmon Sashimi) and beers (discussions about all things mobile included).

And after a good night's sleep on a comfy couch I today woke up to this view:

such a view might almost convert me into a morning person

I don't think that life really gets any better than this! :-)

Austrian coaltion falls apart

I normally try to stay clear of talking about politics on this blog even though some of my entries are definitely set in a political context.

Regardless of that I do have to say that I wasn't really surprised this morning when I checked the Web sites of Austrian newspapers to find that the current coalition had falled apart and we're very likely to have new elections come September. Obviously I haven't followed the politics back home too closely over the past 3 months but I did notice that there seemed to be no progress whatsoever on any of the important issues at hand. Plus this coalition never really clicked anyway, from day one back in January 2007 up to the very end the whole thing very much felt like a forced marriage.

Now obvious question is: what's next? The likely answer is: Not much.

We're going to see a similar campaign as in the past elections in autumn 2006. Some faces might have changed but overall it's still the same party-politics like 10 years ago. The opposition parties will as always try to make some noise and they will likely fail to achieve anything. The one and only thing that I'm as always afraid of is that (one of) the Austrian right-wing parties could again end up in government. Overall it's different elections, same s***.

It's hard not to be frustrated with politics in this kind of messed up situation and as ever so often I'm coming close to ignoring the whole damn thing in order to focus on other things that matter.

Almost busted by Canadian border cuties

One would think that crossing the border from the United States to Canada is the most trivial of exercises. Especially if you're an Austrian citizen in possession of a United States A-2 visa (which you receive when "traveling to the United States on behalf of your national government to engage solely in official activities for that government") who had previously crossed Peruvian, Bolivian, Chinese, Mongolian and Russian (among others) borders without any issues. Think again, because on Wednesday I spent almost 2 hours considering the fact that I would

(a) be escorted to the nearest airport and put into the next plane going to Austria
or
(b) have to spend the next weeks living on the bridge close to the Niagara Falls which marks the border between the USA and Canada with neither country allowing me in -- but what a fantastic view (as my travel companion A.H. puts it;-)

Luckily neither of these things really happened however I do have to admit that I was a bit nervous and above mentioned possibilities did cross my mind.

What happened was that when approaching the border I wasn't sure whether the US or Canadian border officers would take care of my I-94 arrival/departure record since normally this is handled at the airport and it was my first time crossing a US border on land. So we stopped at the US Customs and Border Protection office to ask about that. After waiting inside the office for 10min without anyone being at the front desk I decided to try my luck with one of the officers on the parking lot outside. Especially since sitting in there made me slightly nervous as various people who had been pulled out of cars or trains (with one guy speaking on his cell-phone and saying "something came up in the computer about a thing I did back in '72"). The US CBP officers were friendly and explained to me that the Canadians would take care of my record once I entered the country. So we happily got back into our car, paid our $3.5 bridge-toll and approached the Canadian border through no-man's land.

Arriving on the other side the Canadian border officer looked at our passports and started his routine of asking us questions about our purpose visit, our destination, duration of stay, travel plans, etc. Asked about my plans I explained to that I was visiting A.H.'s parents close to Toronto before moving over to see some friends in Vancouver and then going back into the United States before returning to Austria. He was obviously concerned when he heard the word "moving", especially when followed by me saying that "yes, I do have all my belongings with me in those two suitcases". A word and a sentence so innocent in my head but probably setting off the alarm in the officer's head. We were kindly asked to pull over for a more detailed examination.

We had previously talked about border crossings and A.H. told me to prepare myself for some serious beauties in uniforms. But I certainly wasn't prepared for that. Seriously, I'm not really into someone going through my car, backpack and suitcase and asking me questions about my belongs, but man, she was cute. And so was her partner. The first question I had to answer was obviously what the hell my OLPC XO-laptop was? (I should start counting how often I've been asked that.) Then, when opening my suitcase the little box of impeachmints that I had bought back in DC fell out and I earned an odd look from our officers. Funnily enough I had bought those mints together with an "I love my country. It's the government I'm afraid of." t-shirt, so go figure...

Anyway, after the examination we were sent into the office to what I expected would be the routine of showing them our slip of paper and then being allowed to drive on. Of course that didn't happen. I was told that considering that my US visa was to expire on that day Canada couldn't be sure that I would be able to leave the country again and obviously they didn't want me stuck there. I explained them that I would re-enter the US under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) which allows citizens of 20-some countries to enter the United States for up to 90 days when traveling for tourism or business. However the Canadian Border Protection officer (yes, she was also good-looking) asked for us to return to the US border-station and obtain a guarantee (in the form of a filled out I-94 form) that I would be able to re-enter the United States.

So we went back across the bridge to the US CBP station where our passports (even A.'s, although he really didn't have anything to do with the whole thing except for travelling with me) were taken at the entry booth and we were sent inside the office to await our fate. So while we were reading magazines from 2005/2006 (saw an interesting article about thefacebook.com) I was slowly starting to sketch out my alternatives. Even though my visa was technically expiring that day my A2 status allowed me 30 extra days to leave the US without committing a visa-overstay. Thankfully no living on the bridge!

After some 15 minutes the US officer called our names and handed us the passports, basically asking why we had bothered to stop by. We once again explained my situation and the Canadian demand for a visa-guarantee. He promptly replied that there's no such thing as a guarantee for being allowed to enter the country unless you're a US citizen. A. had the smart idea of asking the officer to call his Canadian counterpart to explain this to them since they obviously didn't understand the situation. Additionally I managed to convince him to give me an I-94 form even though they're normally only handed out upon entering the United States.

After another $3.5 toll, another drive across the bridge, another set of explanations at the Canadian border booth we were back in the border office, this time talking to another officer. I was much relieved when she told me that our dear friend M., the US border officer, had in fact called her to explain the situation. Plus me being able to show a completed I-94, even though it was in fact totally useless, seemed to satisfy her. After some more waiting she called me over again to say that yes, I would in fact be allowed into Canada. When walking out the door I realized that she hadn't removed the previous I-94 slip from my passport. This could have caused some serious issues when re-entering the US since I officially wouldn't have left the country and then things could have gotten really complicated.

As you can imagine I was much relieved when finally driving away from the border station and repeatedly looking at my Canadian visa which, as it turns out, now lasts until January 1, 2009.

The absurdity of the situation is still beyond me. Had I entered Canada via any other way, nobody would have bothered to even ask me about my travel plans yet alone ask for proof that I could enter whatever place I would be travelling to afterwards. Seriously, I don't see the connection. Even assuming that the United States wouldn't let me into the country, the only difference that it would make to Canada is that I would leave the country flying out to Europe instead of heading to the United States. So what's the point of even considering my status upon entering the United States? Also, and this is what's really bothering me, when someone like me - European, well educated, fluent in English, having a diplomatic visa in his passport and being lucky enough to deal with a great US CBP officer - has these kinds of issues entering the country, how difficult must it be for everyone else?

In the end it's really as they say: Never judge a country by its border protection staff. Even when they're Canadian cuties.

Decisions, decisions, decisions

Damn, sometimes life can be really tough. I'm currently staying at casa de H. about 100km from Toronto where we arrived on Wednesday evening. Tomorrow evening I'm flying to Vancouver to meet my friends Igor, John (both Handi Mobility) and Mike (from SilentPCReview) after not seeing them for what sometimes seems like eternity but really did go by in no-time. So that's the fun part, the difficult part is trying to decide what to do next.

My general itinerary calls for me to go to San Francisco, Boston, New York and back to DC from where I'll be flying home to Europe on August 1. However the question is how much time I want to spend in each of those places plus whether I should stop anywhere else on my way. Both Seattle and Portland are options, not necessarily because I originally wanted to visit those places but rather due to A.H. suggesting that they're actually quite nice cities (and going there by bus and taking a domestic flight to SFO would also be cheaper). Plus both of these cities have (or at least had back in Q1 / 2008) local OLPC user-groups which I would like to visit if they're still around. Anyway, everything is still up in the air so I still haven't booked any transportation out of Vancouver. I'm probably going to wait 48 hours until Tuesday noon to see what kind of feedback I get from the various people I've contacted and then decide what to do.

Ah, life really is full of hard decisions, right?

James Bond - Quantum Of Solace

Looking pretty good if you ask me.

Latest "bridges" articles online

Back at the beginning of May I posted about my interview with Whozat? co-founder Alex Bäcker which appeared in bridges, the quarterly online-publication by the Office of Science & Technology. Yesterday, which was my last day of my internship there, we still worked a lot to finish the June edition which went live earlier today.

This time 'round I contributed two articles:

One Laptop per Child - from a Vision to a Global Effort (also available as a podcast)

Since its kick-off in 2005, Nicholas Negroponte's brainchild "One Laptop per Child" has come a long way - and into the classrooms of developing countries, from Kathmandu in Nepal to the Peruvian Andes.

Introducing Harald Kling – Collaboration Across the Big Pond

The Erwin-Schroedinger fellow spends a 16-month research stay at the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources at the University of Arizona, working on flood prediction and the impact of land use on water resources models.

I really enjoyed the process of writing these articles. Especially when finalizing the texts the feedback and input I got from other team-members and external contractors such as our copy-editor was invaluable and excelled me to produce what I consider some of my best writing to date.