My impression of the city of Fredericton when I first arrived was very positive; when I visited Canada in 2005 I stayed with a friend at Ottawa for just a week. Fredericton is a small city; I had a friend who I knew back in Saudi Arabia who was doing his PhD in Chemical Engineering at University Of New Brunswick.

Fredericton Mall; Fredericton, New Brunswick, see more here.

Settling in with my family was very easy. Moving to Kitchener-Waterloo in September was a different ball game. The cities are much largest compared to Fredericton and I didn't know anybody there. Worse still It wasn't that straight forward to get an apartment and I had to stay in a hotel for a week; overall though the people in Kitchener-Waterloo are as friendly as those in Fredericton.

Visit to Neuchatel in June

I had the opportunity to travel to Neuchatel in Switzerland in June for a workshop on Calcium Aluminate Cement. I met some nice academics and researchers from all Europe, Canada and the US. It was a pleasant experience. I didn't have a lot of time to explore the place though.

The L'Aubier Hotel at Neuchatel, Switzerland