I look like a guy who looks like the guy from TOP GUN!

Hello everyone,

As I came into work Monday morning and opened my e-mail, I noticed the subject line of one of my e-mails from my colleague Nuno was: Jason/Dragonfly. Since this e-mail was sent to a mailing list, and there is another Jason in the office, AND that Opera is releasing a product caled Dragonfly soon, I figured that this would not concern me for a few reasons.

1. I'm not working on the Dragonfly project
2. The other Jason in the office is a lawyer, so people tend to want to talk to him more then me.
3. People around here usually call me dude, you, or stupid Canadian, instead of Jason.
4. Who the HELL is Nuno?

So here is what I saw when I opened the e-mail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXeiusUdc3k

Apparently Nuno thought that this Tom Cruise impersonator looks like me! ME! Well, he wasn't the only one. A few people around the office actually thought it was me in the video :eek:

Although it isn't me, we do have a few things in common as I do fly and eat planets :yes:

I'll let you be the judge.

Other then that, nothing really exciting has been happening , haha. Just working hard and looking forward to my summer vacation :)

Have a good week, miss you all. 

Jason

Back to Oslo...

Well, it's been a real long time since I've posted something on here and since then I've been back home to Ottawa. Before starting my new contract with Opera I had to take a break, so this was the perfect opportunity to go back home and catch up with family and friends for 3 1/2 weeks!

The trip was really amazing. Lots of cold, snow, great food and parties. It felt like I never left which, I guess , is a good thing. It was great to catch up with friends that haven't really changed. Sure most of them have either moved out, bought their own place or got engaged but for the most part everyone was the same.

Now it's back to reality. After a 14 hour journey, I arrived back here in Oslo. My flights were all real smooth and it felt like spring as I landed in Oslo. The weather has been no less then -5 compared to Ottawa's -20. I've slowly settled back in to my routine of going to work, going to the gym and all that good stuff. I'm really looking forward to an extra year here in Oslo as it will give me one more year of precious work experience and more chances to travel :)

All is good on my end so hopefully everything is well with everyone.

I leave you with pictures of a snowboarding competition I attended here at Holmenkollen in Oslo with my friend and colleague Espen. It was a really cool time. These guys are insane !!

Take care,

Jason

Paris, Gothenburg Sweden, and Bergen Norway

Hey everyone,

Well it's been a long time since I've wrote so here goes.

In July, my parents came to visit me and it was a great treat from home. It had been almost 6 months since I have since them (in person). They came just in time for Canada Day so it was great to celebrate with them with a BBQ in Vigeland Park here in Oslo. They also came right after that great Senators playoff run so they brought me a nice Eastern Conference Champions T-shirts :) With them enjoying Oslo for the first week of their stay I was working but I then got a week holiday so I can travel with them to Paris and Gothenburg, Sweden.

Paris:

My mom always wanted to go to Paris so it was great to be able to go with her and my dad. We visited the Eiffel Tower, the Chateau de Versaille, Le Louvre and all the other typical tourist stops in Paris. The city is truly beautiful and VERY busy compared to Oslo. It's a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. It was also nice to eat terrific food!

Gothenburg, Sweden:

I was really looking forward to this trip as I had never been to Sweden and it was a chance to visit my favorite Senator player, Daniel Alfredsson's home town. This city was very similar to Oslo and my parents and I took a boat tour of the city. Too bad it started pouring rain 10 seconds after we started the tour. NO REFUNDS . Sweet. Anyway, we had a great time getting to Gothenburg by train which is a 4 hour ride.

I had a great time with my parents as we had many laughs and great memories.

Bergen, Norway:

Well I attended an AIESEC conference last weekend that was held in Bergen Norway. As a intern myself and other interns from around the world got the chance to visit the city. We first went to Bryggen which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Bryggen is a series of very old traditional Norwegian houses that have now been turned into shops and restaurants. We then took a funicular to the top of a hill to have a view of the entire city. The next day the interns went to visit the RosenKrantz tower which is one of Norway's oldest structures. Bergen is a little smaller then Oslo, but it is a great town to visit for a weekend. I find more beautiful then Oslo.

Three great trips in one on this post. I can't wait for the next one. I am going to the World Junior Championships in the Czech Republic between Xmas and New Years. I hope to catch Canada vs Sweden on December 29th . Look for me on TSN haha.

I have posted pictures of all 3 cities in my albums and Facebook.

Take care everyone!

Jason

Fjords and Football (soccer)

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well back home! Sorry for not posting anything for awhile. I am having internet connection problems at home and I have to do everything internet related from work (after I actually finish work of course ;) ) The last few weeks have been really cool because I got to experience few firsts in my life. In late August I went on my first Norwegian fjord tour and last weekend I went to my first ever soccer game.

Geiranger Fjord Tour

With summer coming to an end, I thought it would be a great time to experience one of Norway’s most famous attractions, the fjords. There are many fjords to choose from but I chose to see the Geiranger fjord, which, I was told, was one of the most beautiful in Norway. I made the trip with Ruben, a Dutch friend who is also on an internship in Oslo. We were the only ones who could make it that particular weekend.

Geiranger is about a 7 hour train ride Northwest from Oslo, but the town is so remote that we had to switch trains once, and then we had to take a bus into the valley where Geiranger is located. On the train/bus ride to Geiranger, you get to see some beautiful scenery along the way and it is definitely worth the trip. Once in Geiranger, the views are amazing. Beautiful mountains look like they have risen from the river. The crystal clear water is a beautiful tiel green color that I have only seen in southern beaches. Once there we took an 1 ½ hour fjord tour that explained the history and the reason why this fjord was named a World heritage site by UNESCO. Along the tour we say farms that were abandoned due to the danger of avalanches, many waterfalls and crevices in the mountains. It’s impossible to explain the beauty of the nature, that seems to be untouched in centuries, so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

First Soccer game

The last time I was in Europe for my exchange in Amsterdam I didn’t get to see a soccer match. This time around I promised myself to go. Luckily enough my ex-roomate, Bjorn, asked me to go see a Norwegian soccer league match that saw Vålerenga vs. Start. Vålerenga is one of Oslo’s 2 teams that actually share a stadium! Start is a team from Kristiansand. The stadium was about ¾ full (roughly 12 000 people) because Bjorn told me that these teams were at the bottom of the standings. Now I’ve been to hockey games in Ottawa and Montreal with over 20 000 fans, but even with ¾ of the open stadium full, the fans were crazier and louder then any hockey game I’ve ever been to. They actually had chants going the ENTIRE match. The game was pretty exciting with Vålerenga winning 3-2. There were 2 penalty kicks in the match, one for each team, and it was much more exciting than watching soccer on TV. The game made me miss going to Sens games, and I can’t wait to go to one once I get back. All the normal trash talking from the fans was present but only in Norwegian. Bjorn gladly translated for me. OH! I almost forgot to mention that beer wasn’t even sold at the stadium!! WHAT THE HELL? It was still a good time though.

Take care everyone,

Jason

(Pictures will be uploaded soon)

Kuala Lumpur

After a crazy bus ride, Erik and I finally reached our final destination of this trip: Kuala Lumpur. We checked into our hostel around 9pm and then when walking around town. While walking, we saw something that Seinfeld fans will appreciate. We saw a Kenny Roger’s Rosters restaurant 5 minutes away from our hostel. Of course during our stay we ate a meal there at it was delicious. We then headed back to the hostel for some beers.

The next day we ventured to the Petronas Twin Towers, which are the tallest twin towers in the world right now. We could not go up the towers because they only let 1200 people up due to security concerns. We then headed to Chinatown for some bargain shopping. All the shops seemed to be selling the same clothes and souvenirs. Some vendors even sold movies that were currently in theatres for about 5$. I needed short so I bargained to buy 2 pairs of billabongs for 10$ each, not bad at all. We then headed to the KL Tower, which is one of the tallest buildings in the world, but the tallest tower worldwide is still the CN Tower in Toronto. For some reason I felt some national pride ☺. That night we went to party in a part of the town called Bangsar which is full of bars and restaurants. There we met and partied with 2 Malays and 2 girls from Uzbekistan that were studying in KL.

The next day we visited Lake gardens, which is a beautiful park in the middle of the city. In the park we came across a group of Chinese school children. Their tour guide asked us where we were from and he translated to the kids that we were from Canada. The kids waived and enthusiastically said hello to us in English. They also looked surprised that 2 white guys from a distant country were in their part of the world. I was also very surprised that they knew what Canada was. After that, we took a cab to the airport (took 1 hour!!!) and flew back to Bangkok. After spending one more day in Bangkok with Erik, I then flew back to Oslo. My trip to South-East Asia was a great one and I’m glad I was lucky enough to experience countries and cultures that I thought I would never experience. I am hoping I get another chance to visit that part of the world.

Take care,

Jason

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia - 2007

Hi everyone

After a few beautiful, relaxing days in the Perhentian Islands, Erik and I headed to the Cameron Highlands. After leaving the chalets, we boarded a boat taxi to the mainland and then took a minibus from there. On the bus, we met Helen and Melanie, two very friendly South African girls who now work as physiotherapists in London. The 6 hour drive to the Highlands seemed very short as we chatted with them the whole trip. Once there we checked in to the Cameron Inn, drank beer and relaxed for the rest of the night.

The following morning Erik and I took a trekking tour around the highlands with a tour guide that asked us to call him “Money” since is real name was too hard to pronounce. Money is 52 years old and lived his whole life in the Cameron Highlands. He’s worked several jobs all over the area and was very knowledgeable. He took us to a local tea plantation and explained how the workers pick the tea leaves. The many plantations in the area are a key source for the local economy. Money then took us trekking through the jungle where he showed us some very cool plants and we even got to climb a tree vine that looked like a gym rope. This guy knew every plants name and he had the sense of smell like a dog. He would just smell an area of the jungle and would find a particular plant that he wanted to show us. He then brought us to a strawberry farm (also a source of the local economy) where we had sundays and local jam. Our last stop on the tour was a butterfly farm where we got a chance to see thousands of butterflies, snakes, turtles, scorpions and a variety of weird insects. We then headed to back to the hostel and just relaxed and chatted the rest of the night with our new South African friends.

The next day we just relaxed and walked around to explore the town. Afterwards, we then took a bus to our next destination: Kuala Lumpur. The bus driver was a crazy person that was screaming and honking at everyone on the road. Also the road was on the edge of a cliff and not very straight. The driver was taking the corners pretty damn fast so sleeping on the way to KL was out of the question.

I’ll talk about KL in the next post.

Take care,

Jason

Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

After checking out of our hostel in Singapore, Erik and I took a bus to cross the border into Malaysia. Before crossing the border, we had to get out of the bus and go through customs. We came out of customs and noticed the bus is not there anymore. We searched for it for a while but I guess the bus decided to leave without us. Luckily the Malaysian border wasn’t very far so we decided to walk to Johore, the town at the border. Once there, we took a taxi to the local bus station. We had decided to go to the Perhentian Islands but getting there was going to be a problem. The Perhentian islands are two islands off the coast of northern Malaysia and we were in the south. All busses heading there were sold out and there seemed to be no organization in the bus system. So 3 busses, one taxi, a boat taxi and 20 hours later, we finally arrived on the beautiful islands. We didn’t reserve ahead of time so we were a little lucky that there was a spot at the Moshin Chalets. The room that we got was very basic with two beds, toilet, shower and an air fan. After all that traveling we spent the rest of the day on the beach relaxing. The sand was like white powder and the water was crystal clear and very warm. The beach was great although the temperature must have reached 45 degrees Celsius.



The next day we went snorkeling around the islands. Our guide took us to a very cool spot around one of the islands where we got to see sea turtles, clown fish and even small sharks. Although they were small sharks, the guide did say that the day before his friend did get injured from a shark bite so I was a little freaked out haha. During the lunch break, we ate at a little beach side restaurant where local goats would come up to our table to get some food. After a full day of snorkeling my back was completely burnt but I really enjoyed the experience. That night at diner, one of the owners of the chalets asked if Erik and I had any experience catching snakes. Erik and I said “no” and we were a bit confused as to why he would ask us such a question. He informed us that there was a 12 foot python in his room. I thought he was joking but he actually showed us a picture of the snake. Not being a big fan of snakes I was again freaked out. We checked out the next morning to head to our next destination. While getting ready to leave, I was brushing my teeth and spotted a huge cockroach that must have been 4 inches long behind the sink. I was so tired that I really didn’t mind it being there and I think it would have taken a baseball bat to kill the thing.

The Perhentian Islands was one of the highlights of my South East Asia trip and I hope I get a chance to visit similar areas of the world in the future.

Take care,

Jason