things that make me happy

Things that make me happy:

-Sun

-Tim Horton's Apple Fritters

-Nestle Drumsticks (chocolate chunk) - this is icecream, like a trumpet really. Soo yum.

-Hot guys in the swimming pool

-Sun

-Colouring in discovery charts and deciding to do WhatEver It Takes (WEIT)

-Stepping outside my comfort zone and contacting a guy who is driving to St John's today

-Going on random road trips with people I hardly know to interesting places

-Being somewhere I can drive for 4 days and still be in the same country! (google says it's only 36 hours, but that's non stop, and not including the ferry I'm assuming) Map here

-Sun

-Mum worrying too much!

Ok, so in case you didn't get the above, I'm off to Newfoundland today. I think. I'm waiting for a phone call to tell me when. Back monday.

p.s. - I didn't mean to be rude below, I just got pissed off at the rude old lady. In fact, at the other pool I go to , there's only 2 lanes, and everyone in the slow lane can swim. It just seems to be this one pool that attracts leisure people that just want to float in the lane swims. Yesterday there was a lady in a pink flowery bikini! Coming to a lane swim. How odd.

Where I come from slow swimming lane means slow SWIMMING

Canada is a continent. New Zealand is an island.

Where I grew up, everyone learned to swim at primary(elementary) school. Often, we weren't great, but that's what we did at school in summer, swam. We had learn to swim classes, then as we got older we had short units where we learnt such water sports as kayaking, played waterpolo, did diving, learnt life saving and generally did stuff in pools. It was part of physical education, the 6 weeks we weren't doing tennis, or gymnastics, or soccer etc.

I suck at swimming. Seriously. I last swam when I was at primary school. In 1995. That was the last time I had to swim in a pool, and apart from a disastrous interview as a lifeguard when I was 19 (they loved me until they saw me swim), I haven't done laps since. My swimming was restricted to jumping waves at the beach (which often involves swimming accidentally) and floating on my back in the sea in summer. The salt makes it easier to float.

This summer, as there is no beach, I decided to go to the local pool. I bought a swimsuit and goggles.

It appears in Canada the slow lane is not for those that swim slowly. I managed to catch up with people when I was doing my slowest backstroke. I ran into people when I used only my arms and no legs. I'm pretty sure my 7 year old sister could swim faster than these people. In fact, my 4 year old brother with floating arm bands on could beat them.

In Canada, the slow swim lane isn't for slow swimmers. It's for people that can't swim. Angry ones too. Old ladies that float along and say in a mean tone of voice when I accidentally bump into them (i was going backwards! I can't see!) and AFTER I apologise, "This is the slow lane you know".

Um yeah. I know. I just thought it was a swimming lane. For those who can actually swim.

I guess I might try the 'medium' lane.

Detroit

Last weekend was a long weekend. Not that I work, but hey. I have friends that do. So, ANYWAY, for the long weekend we decided to rent a car and drive to Detroit. Why Detroit you say? (and believe me, a lot of people did say why. Or - "don't get shot"). Mostly because this cool couple we met a few weeks back live there, plus it's only 5 hours drive.

Detroit was.. insane. It's like dead city. I'm glad I went there, just to see, but seriously I can see why people say Why?! We lasted a day and a half and then went back to Canada for the monday of the long weekend. Windsor just looks so nice and shiny when you look at it from detroit! I have no idea why everyone doesn't just live there. The thing that freaked me out the most was the fact that everywhere you looked there were thousands of parked cars downtown, and no people. It's a downtown of 4 million people, with 6 lane roads through the middle of it. No public ransport, and well lots of roads. Some parts of the downtown area look nice, and then you tun a corner and you are faced with abandoned, vandalised, skyscrapers. It's like, it used to be prosperous once, and then everyone left. Or went underground or something. Odd. Apparently most of the people live and work north of the city, unlike most cities I have ever been in, there is nothing happening in the downtown area.

We went looking for food DOWNTOWN on monday and there would have been more people out in a small town suburb on a sunday. I was so confused... where are the 4 million people who apparently live there? I think it could be an awesome st for an apocolypse movie.

Oh well, now I've been. It was an experience. Although, in favour of Detroit, on Sunday we went to the Eastern arkets and they were way interesting, with lots of cool stuff to buy and awesome live bands jammig in every corner. Pics later.

Jobless

I'm still jobless. I signed up at a temp agency last week, but htey haven't got me any jobs yet. Despite it being a week and a half. Despite her assuring me that I would probably get work soon.

And she doesn't reply to emails either.

So yeah, I have an interview at another place on Tuesday morning. Fingers crossed this will actually get me some work!

Apart from that, I am just chilling at home, enjoying the heat and reading. I wish our place had a balcony.

Weird things in Toronto

Things I have noticed about Toronto and Canada so far:

• The liquor stores close at 9pm. All of them. It's some government thing apparently. Very very odd. You also can't buy alcohol anywhere but at the bottle store.
• St Patrick's station is painted green.
• Last Sunday, on Mother's day, there was a big steel drum band in the park down the road from me. When I walked past, they were playing "Who let the dogs out?". Of all the things.
• There's a million tv channels, but still nothing is on. And they schedule all the good programs at the same time too.
• The weather here is odd. On Tuesday it was about 34. Today (Thursday) it's 11.
• When it rains here, they issue storm warnings. Oh no! Rain! Seriously, the lady on the tv was warning that everyone should go inside AND STAY INSIDE. Right, because the first thing you want to do when it's pouring rain is stand out in it.
• Canadians are really bad at accents. Some people are fine with me, others just look at me like I'm not speaking English (no matter how slow I speak). But yesterday, my interview was with an English woman and she understood me perfectly. She said she has the same problem, she has to speak R e a l l y slooow ly.
• All the streets are North -South or East-West. But when you come out of a subway station and are totally disorientated, there are no signs saying which way is which. Sometimes you come out of a subway station to an underground pathway or a store, and then you are really lost. In that case you have helpful signs that say things like 'homeware' instead of which way to which street.
  
• You have to dial the area code always. Even when it appears to be a local call.
• Even if you have a toll bar and can't actually make a toll call.

Finally, I have gotten used to the cars being on the other side of the road. I look left when crossing. I even remember to make like I'm driving all the time to get in the passenger's seat. However when I am crossing the road and look down at a car (for example if they are stopped at the lights) I always get a shock that there's no driver. And then I realise that they aren't driven by ghosts, just the driver is on the right.

Things

Ok I have been slack in updating. Mainly because I have been doing nothing but reading books. Ahh bliss. If only I could do this always.

Quick update:

Last week I went to a CS brunch. I was a bit nervous, going to brunch with 10 people I didn't know, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a bit of a relief actually, to meet people who are interested in travelling and travellers. Too many people I meet here have the instant response "I wish" when I say I just took off for a year around the world. They wish, but they have no intention of actually ever leaving. I even met a guy who has only left Ontario twice in his life! Come on! It's 2 hours to the border, max!

So yeah, travellers = good. In fact, I am going on a road trip this weekend with one of the CS guys to Detroit. Yay, random road trips!

Other than that, I have done nothing. My money didn't come through for a week, so last week all I did was slowly eat all my money up, watch a lot of tv, and apply for jobs online. I've decided I'd quite like to be a tourist and be available for random road trips, so I am applying for temp jobs. To leave me free to pop to the US when I feel like it, or whatever.

updates

I have moved! I now live downtown (ish) Toronto. I say ish, becauseit's not really, where I live is quite suburban, and on the outskirtsof town. But, it's still considered downtown, because it's on thesubway line. I can be right in the centre of toronto after a 20 minsubway ride, so it's pretty good.

The area I'm living in is way cute. There are plenty of parks, shops, delis, fruit markets and evena huge park!Oh, and they have a kiwi themed bar. Which is so terribly bad it's funny. The place has a tapa menu with a map of NZ as background, but the sign for the pub has a kiwi with a boomerang on it! Sooo bad.Um what else?

I moved in here on Monday, then on tuesday I caught a ride with my friend's parents to Ottawa. I forgot how pretty Ottawa is! The downtown area with the river, and the canal, and the old,castle-like, parliament buildings. Nice. Anyways, from there I left town and went to see my aunt and uncle thatI lived with last time I was in Ottawa (2000). They now live withtheir youngest son, his wife, and their 4 kids! Woah, it was full on in that house. It was good to see them all though.

So I got back here on thursday night and spent all yesterday tripping to Walmart to buy sheets and pillows for my new place. It came furnished, but without bedding!Ummm.. yeah nothing much interesting has happened to me, I'll start looking for a job soon, but I'm having so much fun being on holiday!Plus, I don't have a computer to print off CVs , so I am borrowing the library's computer. But I only get half an hour here a day, so it's all a bit rushed!