And we’re back in Dublin. Our trip was totally successful. We achieved the two main goals: get the Canadian Citizenship and beat the humans in Las Vegas.
Long trips are always hard to plan and when you think you figured out everything you have to change the plans because, for instance, you cannot find flight tickets three weeks in advance for the planned dates. Because we postponed buying them for three days, we had to fly the last day possible, that is, 30th of June. Basically we had only one day and half for visiting family and friends. Sigh!
My Citizenship ceremony was scheduled on 2nd of July, the day after Canada’s Day. We were worried that I won’t find any store open to take my passport pictures, so we decided that it is better to have them done the day when we arrived in Calgary. That means if you check my new passport photo you’ll see me trying to keep my eyes open. Oh well, I’ve had worse pictures in my documents … Time was very tight. The ceremony was at 1.00 pm and the flight for Vegas was the next day at 7:30 pm. I don’t even have proper photos from the ceremony because we didn’t stay for the reception afterwards. And since we didn’t have enough problems, just before the ceremony I realized I forgot the flight tickets at home, which are essential to get an express passport (in 24 hours). Luckily, the passport office is in the same building that the citizenship ceremony was held, which is close to the central library. We ran to the library to have our flight booking printed and after some complicated procedures that involved also a library card, we did it! It is so strange that the government building doesn’t have any internet for the public, just in case anybody needs to print their e-mail that they forgot at home. ;-)
Back to the passport office, my batteries were already running low. Jet lag and stress made everything look unreal and I wasn’t feeling very smart. For instance, in the rush, I forgot to ask about our situation of having two addresses, one in Canada and one in Ireland. The problems started when the officer said ‘Could you wait, please, while I contact your two references?’ When she came back she was very upset. Se told me that one doesn’t know me and the other one said I live in Ireland. So here it goes, me, trying to explain how people actually don’t know my first name because I use my second one, plus, I’ve just changed my last name by marriage which makes things even more confusing. What was I thinking when I didn’t contact the references first to tell them what to expect? Anyways, we had to think fast about other references but most of them couldn’t be contacted or were in Las Vegas already. The salvation came from Jason. Thank you, Jason. After more than two hours I finally got my receipt saying to come and pick the passport the next day at 2.00 pm. Yay!
I want also to thank Eileen, Darse’s mom, who gives us shelter and support every time we come to Calgary, and especially on that memorable day when I became a Canadian citizen. It was very comforting to have family assisting and not many immigrants have this luxury.
The next day we woke up early (still jet lagged but also excited), we finished our suitcases and solved other pending problems. We decided that it worth a shot to see if the passport was already done, so we headed downtown almost an hour early. The pick-up office was very quiet and cool, a working heaven – not too much work to do, though. I approached the officer telling him, with big innocent eyes, that I have a passport to pick-up at 2.00 but the bus came early so here I am, one hour early. He smiled and said ‘We can’t fight public transportation. I’ll check if it’s here.’ And it was. Hurray! I’ll be able to fly tonight with Darse to Las Vegas!
Las Vegas
At the beginning of the year, I told one of my friends ‘I think the first trip after I have my Canadian citizenship will be to Las Vegas.’ But back then I had no clue that this would actually happen the very next day after I got it.
Long trips are always hard to plan and when you think you figured out everything you have to change the plans because, for instance, you cannot find flight tickets three weeks in advance for the planned dates. Because we postponed buying them for three days, we had to fly the last day possible, that is, 30th of June. Basically we had only one day and half for visiting family and friends. Sigh!
My Citizenship ceremony was scheduled on 2nd of July, the day after Canada’s Day. We were worried that I won’t find any store open to take my passport pictures, so we decided that it is better to have them done the day when we arrived in Calgary. That means if you check my new passport photo you’ll see me trying to keep my eyes open. Oh well, I’ve had worse pictures in my documents … Time was very tight. The ceremony was at 1.00 pm and the flight for Vegas was the next day at 7:30 pm. I don’t even have proper photos from the ceremony because we didn’t stay for the reception afterwards. And since we didn’t have enough problems, just before the ceremony I realized I forgot the flight tickets at home, which are essential to get an express passport (in 24 hours). Luckily, the passport office is in the same building that the citizenship ceremony was held, which is close to the central library. We ran to the library to have our flight booking printed and after some complicated procedures that involved also a library card, we did it! It is so strange that the government building doesn’t have any internet for the public, just in case anybody needs to print their e-mail that they forgot at home. ;-)
Back to the passport office, my batteries were already running low. Jet lag and stress made everything look unreal and I wasn’t feeling very smart. For instance, in the rush, I forgot to ask about our situation of having two addresses, one in Canada and one in Ireland. The problems started when the officer said ‘Could you wait, please, while I contact your two references?’ When she came back she was very upset. Se told me that one doesn’t know me and the other one said I live in Ireland. So here it goes, me, trying to explain how people actually don’t know my first name because I use my second one, plus, I’ve just changed my last name by marriage which makes things even more confusing. What was I thinking when I didn’t contact the references first to tell them what to expect? Anyways, we had to think fast about other references but most of them couldn’t be contacted or were in Las Vegas already. The salvation came from Jason. Thank you, Jason. After more than two hours I finally got my receipt saying to come and pick the passport the next day at 2.00 pm. Yay!
I want also to thank Eileen, Darse’s mom, who gives us shelter and support every time we come to Calgary, and especially on that memorable day when I became a Canadian citizen. It was very comforting to have family assisting and not many immigrants have this luxury.
The next day we woke up early (still jet lagged but also excited), we finished our suitcases and solved other pending problems. We decided that it worth a shot to see if the passport was already done, so we headed downtown almost an hour early. The pick-up office was very quiet and cool, a working heaven – not too much work to do, though. I approached the officer telling him, with big innocent eyes, that I have a passport to pick-up at 2.00 but the bus came early so here I am, one hour early. He smiled and said ‘We can’t fight public transportation. I’ll check if it’s here.’ And it was. Hurray! I’ll be able to fly tonight with Darse to Las Vegas!
Las Vegas
At the beginning of the year, I told one of my friends ‘I think the first trip after I have my Canadian citizenship will be to Las Vegas.’ But back then I had no clue that this would actually happen the very next day after I got it.
The RioAll this tight schedule was due to the second poker man-machine match, which was held in Las Vegas. Interestingly, the match didn’t have as much media attention as the one held last year in Vancouver at the AAAI Conference, even though it had much more relevance than the first one. I leave Darse to write about it. I only tell you in short that the machine won and Darse was right once again, saying that poker bots can become better than all human players. Another point for the humans who invented the machine.
Darse, Matt and PolarisVegas is a strange city. Everything is in excess: distances, size, light, heat, even air conditioning. After seeing the movie ‘21’ I expected Vegas to be a party city but in reality people don’t look very happy. Maybe because they don’t have comfortable shoes, which are mandatory for the big distances, even within the same building. The locals don’t seem happy either because they don’t smile and they rarely joke. I had a feeling of competition and shattered dreams. Who knows, maybe my expectations were to high.
It happens that we were there for the 4th of July and we were invited to Phil Gordon’s party. He lives outside of Las Vegas and we hired a stretch limo to get there because we were too many to fit in a cab. Hiring a limo for the 35 minute trip was not all that expensive and we checked it off our to do list - check. It was a nice party although it wasn’t that easy to start conversations with people. I don’t know if it was a cultural barrier but we couldn’t mingle very much. Except for Darse, of course, who found an acquaintance he’d known for many years on the Internet, Jim Geary, but had never met in person.
It was a warm evening and we sat by the pool sipping our drinks, listening music, and watching others playing some games and the RoShamBo competition. Then we watched the fireworks, which could be seen in all directions. Around eleven Jim and his wife were very nice and drove us at the Rio hotel. The rest of the crew (Aaron and Christine, Diarmuid and Berina) was located at Mandalay Bay so it was easier for them to take a cab.
If you go to Las Vegas in the summer, the best time to go outside is during the night, when the temperature is below 30 degrees Celsius. During the day we were busy with the competition anyway, or at least Darse was. In one of the evenings we went downtown to see the old style casinos and the Fremont Experience. The screen over the street is a clever idea. The first song we saw was ‘American Pie’, which worked really well, but the next one was disappointing. Because of the 4th of July, it was some sort of patriotic music which didn’t fit well with the city of sin and parties. Oh well, at least we had fireworks the day before. Fremont Experience – check.
Downtown pics
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Shark tank with transparent water-slide insideThe next evening we went to celebrate the victory with the CPRG at a fancy restaurant, and then to see ‘O’ at the Bellagio, a Cirque du Soleil show. I enjoyed the artistic show we saw in Edmonton much more, but this one was more circus like. I wonder if all the shows have the same type of music which I, personally, don’t consider very appealing. Anyway, Vegas show – check. Then we had a stroll on the Strip waiting to see the fountains which didn’t show up. Traffic is crazy on the strip and there were many pedestrians, tourists from all over the world. The Strip at night – check.
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Then we had a day off, wandering around the Rio while Darse was talking to Terry about work and poker. Actually we were tired of being in crowds for most of the time and looked for quiet spots. In the evening we bought a bottle of wine and watched the city from our 15th floor hotel room.
The last day, we met with the CPRG people at the Flamingo where, guess what, they have flamingos! They seemed a lot healthier than the ones at WEM. They also had black swans, and huge koi fish, and other critters. From there we left for a walk on the Strip in order to visit fancy casinos and see the lame free show at the Treasure Island. We saw The Venetian, complete with fake cracks and fake cobblestone, The Wynn, which is very stylish, The Mirage, warm and friendly but the zoo was already closed, Caesar’s Palace and the Forum Shops, with it’s magnificent fake Roman streets and fake sky. The fountains looked more realistic, and the aquarium was cool. It was so strange to walk on this Roman street which is actually a consumerist shopping mall – what a contrast! As a general trait, every casino has something specific that you can’t see anywhere else. Vegas by day – check.
At The Flamingo
Big fish 
Darse and birds
Big fish 
Darse and birds
Waterfall 
Swan balletThe Strip by day
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Inside Wynn
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The $5,000 slot machineThe Forum Shops
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Bellagio Garden & Pool
The only thing left on my list unchecked is gambling. We went to Vegas and didn’t gamble! I guess it didn’t come up. [Liar! It came up, and I vetoed it, scribbling it off the list vigorously –drb]
Of course, we couldn’t visit everything but maybe this is the trick, to make people come again. The idea is that there are so many attractions, shows, rides, displays, etc. that you can feel like in a superstore where you have to pick only one mustard and one ketchup from an endless aisle.
That’s all. It was interesting and eye opening. Now we are back to Dublin, back to work.
