Well, I'm a relatively new arrival in St. John's originally from Kitchener, Ontario. I went to the UoW and graduated with my Masters degree in Architecture, and got a job out here on the rock, so here I am! People often ask me why I came out here, and I'm not sure I know the answer, save that I am the type who craves a change of scenery every now and then.

I am an architect by trade and an artist in my spare time. I will find a nice spot on the side of the road with an interesting view and draw what I see, or I'll have a seat in a nice coffee shop and draw the other patrons or whatever seems to be in my head at the time. When I'm engrossed in a drawing, I welcome interruptions from interested people, though so many just look and walk on by for fear of bothering me!

I quite like to cook, and while I would never claim to be a wonder at it I do think that I can make certain dishes fairly well. I recently learned a great lemon meringue pie recipie, and I've had people steal my recipie for foccaccia bread!

I am a dual-national with family ties to Canada and the United Kingdom, but my cultural interest spreads over all the globe. I own a kilt which is from my family's Scottish clan, I spent four months living in Italy and compiled an entire sketchbook of drawings of the Rome and the surrounding cities, and I often immerse myself in Japanese culture through the language (which I know very poorly), movies and anime, and the martial arts.

As an additional, I think the entire first-year class that I TA'd when I was doing my Masters was a little afraid of me. From seeing me practicing Iaido in the school's loft to hearing me describe the content and focus of my masters thesis, I think I may have been a little too much for them to take in. Want to know what my thesis was? You'll have to ask!

I'm not sure I can think of much else to say right now, so I might update this later with some more info. If you find me interesting and live in St. John's, please feel free to drop me a line so we can chat, and maybe hang out at some point.

Also, when I send emails and participate in chats, I do quite like to use complete, grammatically correct sentences whenever I can. I don't know a lot of internet slang, so I find it difficult to 'translate' and 'interpret' the messages of those who use it a lot.

I'll add one more thing to this for now: It should be known that I am a reserved and shy person when it comes to the issue of 'first contact'. What I mean by this is; I will rarely, if ever, be the one to send a message off to a person or walk up to them in public to say 'hi'. This is not because I don't want to talk or anything, it's just that for some reason I can rarely bring myself to do it. Once I start talking with people, all of that reservation tends to go away and I am no longer at all shy.

So, as of June the 28th, 2008, I have been in St. John's for an ENTIRE YEAR! The time has flown in a lot of ways, it doesn't seem like the one-year anniversary should have arrived so quickly. It's amazing that I came here not knowing a single solitary person, and have since made at least a few good friends... many thanks to this very site! All I can hope is that my luck continues, and that I keep on finding interesting, nice and fun new people over PoF.

Something that amuses me..... I like that my choice under "Your Fish Personality" says "No Personality" I don't think it's entirely TRUE, mind you, but it amuses me.
I also don't particularly like that my "Marital Status" says "Not Single/Not Looking" I mean, of COURSE I'm looking. It says so right on my profile, I'm looking for FRIENDS! Geez, PoF...

Well, the first thing to say here, is that the first time I meet someone with whom I have been talking online will not be a 'date'. The way I see it, going into a first meeting with 'date' connotations puts too many expectations on the get-together. It seems to me that if you meet a person for a date, and find that you haven't got the right chemistry, itwould be a lot more difficult to keep up a friendship afterwards since your expectations weren't lived up to. If your first impression was a certain degree of disappointment, would you be able to keep that person in your life? It wouldn't be easy!

On the other hand, if you decide to meet someone for a friendly chat and a coffee and find that you do have a certain chemistry, there's no reason why a platonic meeting can't turn into a date partway through. But if the romantic attraction isn't there, well, you can still actively pursue a friendship. Make sense? It does to me!

Now when these friendly meetings have been set up, the point to me is to get to know the other person, and as such I tend to shy away from such things as watching a movie. I am most likely to bring the other party to a nice coffee or tea shop (or meet them there) so we can settle down in a relaxed, neutral environment for a chat. After that we can maybe go for a walk around a local scenic area, maybe have some dinner if the time is right and we're hungry, walk some more, while talking all the time.

When it comes to dates, I can seem a bit shy as I take a lot of my more 'romantic' cues from the person I'm with. I won't try to hold a hand unless I get the impression that she wants it, I won't give a hello or goodbye hug unless I think it won't make her uncomfortable. But if I get the right cues, I'm not all that hesitant. I do tend to prefer to take things a bit more slowly overall, though, and I have no desire at all for one-night stands.