Hello bloggers and bloggites! How are you on this fine day?
I’m here at the CBC studio in Toronto and quite excited to be The Listener Co-Host for this Thursday! My fiancée, Alisha, and I are in Ontario for a long weekend to attend the annual Janes Family Picnic (my fiancee’s first!). We’re also hoping to get a chance to meet up with some of the R3 London crowd while we are in the area! (At The Creekside Strays’ show – link?)
In case you are wondering (probably not), I’m originally from Southern Ontario (Kitchener, Kincardine and Chatham) but I moved to South Dakota when I was 16, where I finished high school and attended college at South Dakota State University! After graduating with a Political Science and Global Studies degree, I headed off to Rwanda to teach high school English. You might notice this, but I bring up my African adventures a lot, like the bus trip from hell, the gorilla smugglers, the 30-hour bus ride to Zanzibar, the awkward massage, making friends with the Libyan Ambassador or being hunted by baboons.
After leaving Rwanda, my life has been much less random and crazy, but still amazing! I moved in with my (now) fiancée in Houston, Texas, where she had been placed as a Teach for America teacher. (And who has become a great fan of all things Canadian and Indie). I was lucky enough to find a great job with an environmental not-for-profit where I not only get to do things like take kids camping, play with bows and arrows and cut down trees, but where I can also listen to CBC Radio 3 at my desk!
I first discovered Radio 3 podcasts while interning in US Senate in 2006 and have been addicted ever since. Grant’s and Craig’s podcasts kept me company on many a long Africa bus ride or cross country flight and I finally became active on the blog in 2010 when I first got my new job. I was able to meet some other R3ers at SXSW this year, and I’ve been showing off my R3 gear every time a Canadian band plays here in Houston (and we’ve had some good ones!)
My fiancée and I are probably not going to stay in Houston forever, but we really don’t know where we’ll move next, although Canada is a definite possibility.
So, the Poll Question is: Where should we end up after Houston? Sell us on why we should move to your hometown, city or province! What does it have to offer and why is it better than everywhere else?