T to the T in 2.5 days

Hello, I'm blogging from Niagra Falls. I flew into Toronto from Phoenix on the Thurs red eye. First to Newark and then to Toronto, arriving at 5am PT on Fri morning.

I proceeded to freshen up and change in the public bathroom and then made my way to downtown Toronto for a job interview with a global engineering firm called Arup Engineering. I had randomly applied for a drafter job on their website and had a phone interview with them late September and they wanted to fly me here for a face to face.

I figured it was a good opportunity to seek a possible new direction, that this company worked on high profile projects and also of course to visit Toronto and Niagra Falls. The interview went well, there were the 3 of them and it sounds like they will be making me a formal offer next week. I have no idea what cost of living is in TO and what the average salary is here for the city, so I sought something higher than what I'm making in Tucson and at the interview, they said that they can probably do better.

I also asked why they would need to search so far and wide when the Toronto area should have a fair size labor pool to draw from. Their response was that not many people like to live in the city, that it's difficult to find drafting skills in the area of engineering I'm in plus the local econonmy is still quite robust.

Anyways, I already know that I will probably not accept the offer if they make me one. I find that I don't like living in Central time zone, that this climate is still too cold for me, I'm not ready for urban living and Toronto is not my kind of a city.

My cousin's brother-in-law lives in Niagra Falls so he has been hosting me since Fri afternoon. It took us almost 2hrs to get from Toronto chinatown area back to his suburb that day. It was brutal. Today, we walked down to the Falls area and I snapped quite a few photos and also got close enough to get sprayed by the mist of the Falls. I've always wanted to see Niagra Falls so i'm glad this was part of the idea of the trip.

In the end, it also confirmed to me that I like living in the SW part of the US for now. It's nice having sunshine warm your skin every day and being close to big urban areas like LA. I also recently renewed my work visa for another 3 years last month so it would be a wasted effort to give it up now. I am thankful that God provided for me in my current workplace and my department is fully busy with a mult-million dollar Streetcar project that is for a 3-5yrs time frame.

Other departments have had to lay off people or cut short their 40hrs work week. It's so difficult seeking God's will when faced with decisions that involve such tangible change. I can only go by faith and pray that by turning down the job, it will not be an act of disobedience.

So, still in Tucson, still hanging around, going to LA quite a bit, and waiting for a relocation opportunity.