The Kindness of Strangers (without the insanity)

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  Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Another roller coaster day has been and gone since I last posted, and there’s still plenty left in this one. I’ll start from where I left off, namely – getting in and getting acquainted. After I left the SWAP office yesterday, I went back to the hostel and started re-drafting my resume. Apparently, Canadian employers don’t like reading too much, and don’t much care about your grades. That could make it tough to get a job, especially short term, but hey, I can only try.
 
I was then turfed out of my room while it was cleaned (disinfected, by the looks of the equipment that was being used) and went for a meander around the city. I didn’t take my camera, unfortunately, but ended up at the CN tower… it’s BIG. Not just big but COLLOSSAL. I felt like I was walking towards a painted background when I first began moving towards it – it simply wasn’t getting any closer

The trip's motto

. It was also right next to the baseball stadium, which was shaping up for a game. With nosebleed seats available for only $5 I was tempted, but decided against it. Mostly because it’s just glorified rounders, although I’m sure I’ll end up at one of them at some point.
 
I managed to open a bank account here, too, but only now do I realise that it’s virtually impossible to have my money transferred by wire without incurring ludicrous phone charges for phoning a premium rate number from abroad. I’ll have to figure out an answer soon, or I shall be sans money for a while… and that’s never good.
 
Socially speaking, it was another quiet night. I sat in the bar with Billie, someone I met at SWAP from Argentina (Fabiela) and a German lad (Daniel) that I met while I was there. There were also an Irish couple who appeared having run out of money and traveling home (ominous). They’re a good crowd and all speak cracking English (even the Irish ones) and it was another good night. The conversation turned to the subject of phones, and I mentioned that I needed one, and in an act of unbelievable kindness, the Irish lass gave me hers, as it wouldn’t work in Canada and she was leaving the next day. I spent the next few minutes picking my mouth up off of the floor

My room in the hostel

. I love hostels!
 
Armed with a phone, I realized I had a bit more cash so extended my stay in the hostel until Saturday, thus giving me more time to look for a job, get access to my money and find alternative accommodation. This morning I got up fairly early (again!) and had pancakes with maple syrup (again!!!) before going with Billie for her last coffee before she left back to Switzerland. We also saw the Eaton centre – a MASSIVE mall which seems to have loads of jobs going – here’s hoping anyway. What comes next in the job hunt I don’t know. The Canadian way of doing the resume has made mine look fairly light – only one side and I’m really worried that it won’t actually be enough for anyone to express an interest. A further concern is that if I blitz places with my CV, Canadian phones CHARGE YOU TO RECEIVE CALLS. This makes me very angry indeed. If you have no credit, you can’t be called. This also makes me angry. The only SIM card which offered an alternative required me to pay $35 for it, and then to pay $1 a day to avoid incoming calls. No thank you, says I.
 
The accommodation hunt doesn’t seem to be going so great either. Everyone seemingly either wants a female roommate or someone who’s going to live there for 20,000 years. There is, however, some summer accommodation available from the university until Mid August at a respectable $20 a day, so I shall investigate this avenue ASAP.
 
As expected, I’ve been flip-flopping between loving the city, and wanting to just call it a bad idea and go home. It’s a very daunting task, and I’m only just coming to accept how difficult it’s going to be, especially if I want to travel (which I do) towards the end of it

The first thing I saw when I left the subway

. Bah, says I. I’ve still not actually applied anywhere, but it’s now at the stage that I’m more or less ready to start properly, so that’s something. There are just so many things to think about that I end up wanting not to do so, and to forget about them as long as possible. Not a good idea, but I’m getting there.
 
It’s 31 degrees here, and there’s no cooling breeze. It’s hard to get used to being back somewhere where you have to go indoors to cool down rather than to warm up. Madness. Anyway, this rant is coming to an end and I must start emailing of CVs (sorry, resumes) to people. Apologies if there are any Canadianisms in here, but the dictionary on word is set to Canadian, and I changed as many as I could but some may have slipped under the net.
 
Hope all is well with the world where you all are.
 
James

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A Toronto streetcar	Open Mic night at the bar	Brekkie	Billie from Switzerland
The Toronto street

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