I'm assuming you've read the post directly below this so you know how difficult it was for me to get to where I am now. I'm writing this in true New York fashion, sitting on the window sill of my room by the fire escape. The only thing missing really, is the cigarette. Too bad I don't smoke. Besides that, I think I've got this New York lifestyle down-pat. It's not so hard.
But seriously though, NYC is pretty massive. The people here are really friendly too, contrary to popular belief.
Since arriving (late, well, not that late, but still, later than I was originally meant to be there) we've just been wandering around. Xmas day was pretty uneventful as well, only got one present - a bar of chocolate from Grenada which I am still yet to open. We also went to an Italian restaurant for a late lunch/ dinner which was pretty cool. It didn't snow either which was sort of disappointing but there was still snow on the ground which I suppose sort of counts... I didn't really feel like xmas though, to be honest. Sure, there were lots of xmas decorations around but I just couldn't get into the spirit. I don't know why, I guess family makes xmas. That's pretty much all I can put it down too. Also, the fact that I didn't need to buy any presents for anyone this year. I hope you'll all forgive me for that, I kinda can't afford it right now.... (see exchange rate below)
We also checked out part of Central Park and Times Square and had a museum day where we visited the Guggenheim and MoMA which were extraordinary. Some of it wasn't really my kind of thing but I mean, you can't be expected to like EVERY piece of artwork, right?
Also, the exchange rate is killing me right now. As of this morning it's 1NZD to 56 US cents so I'm pretty much paying double. For EVERYTHING.
On a brighter note though, my fake ID is working. 3 out of 3 bars and 1 out of 1 nightclubs (which wasn't that great by the way - drinks were super expensive and everyone was super old. I suppose that's what happens when the drinking age is 21 huh? Also, for those of you who think that me having a fake ID (sorry, a souvenir ID) is wrong, I can justify it by saying that the drinking age at 21 is just stupid.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Bloggin at the airport
So, I’m sitting at Toronto airport. Y’know, just chillin as I usually do. I had a flight to New York City this morning. It went well. The flight was delayed three times and then cancelled, after sitting on the plane for about 2 and a half hours. Now I’m sitting at the baggage carousel, waiting for my luggage. Nothing new has come out for about 20 minutes. Best Christmas ever. The next flight out is at 6pm which makes things better though. Hopefully I’ll be on it, luggage and all. This is the first time I’ve had any trouble at the airport and it just happens to be on Christmas Eve; a Christmas present and congratulations on your first Christmas away from home from Toronto. Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Right, so after about two hours of waiting at the luggage claim, my bag finally comes though. It’s covered with wet spots from the rain/snow but I don’t care. I don’t care about any of this shit at this point. By now it’s about 3pm. I’ve been at the airport since 6. Now I have to go in search of a new ticket. Hauling my recently acquired 20kg bag around (cos I can’t afford the $2 for a trolley) I literally walk from one end of the terminal to the other trying to find the ticket counter. I manage to get another ticket for a flight which at 5.15 which isn’t too far away, no guarantees it’ll be taking off though. So now I have my new ticket, I’m back at square one. I need to go back through customs and do all that shit. Again. I got a bit hungry as you can probably imagine and airport food isn’t that cheap. Especially for what you’re getting.
It’s been a long day, and I still haven’t left the country yet! I need a drink. ....Fuck!
Right, so after about two hours of waiting at the luggage claim, my bag finally comes though. It’s covered with wet spots from the rain/snow but I don’t care. I don’t care about any of this shit at this point. By now it’s about 3pm. I’ve been at the airport since 6. Now I have to go in search of a new ticket. Hauling my recently acquired 20kg bag around (cos I can’t afford the $2 for a trolley) I literally walk from one end of the terminal to the other trying to find the ticket counter. I manage to get another ticket for a flight which at 5.15 which isn’t too far away, no guarantees it’ll be taking off though. So now I have my new ticket, I’m back at square one. I need to go back through customs and do all that shit. Again. I got a bit hungry as you can probably imagine and airport food isn’t that cheap. Especially for what you’re getting.
It’s been a long day, and I still haven’t left the country yet! I need a drink. ....Fuck!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Cuba (aka a week without the internet and clocks)
Right, so I got back from the airport today at about 4am and haven't gone to bed. Lovely stuff. I'm just sitting in my room, slowly getting all my shit together for the final days in Toronto. I've got a lot to do in the next few days which, quite frankly, I'm quite annoyed about. Tonight I have a dinner with some relatives in Missisauga and I don't even know whats going on with that... The next night I have a xmas dinner party thing with someone else and the night after that, I'm meant to call home. The following morning is my flight to NYC. I have to do all of that, not to mention saying goodbye to a few more people (which I'm getting better at by the way). I'm also quite annoyed because there are several things stopping me from doing all the stuff I need to get done before the 23rd. I need to plan my east coast trip still, but I'm waiting for someone to call me later on today. I need to do my laundry but everyone is still asleep and I don't have any detergent. I need to send all the stuff I bought from Cuba home, but I don't think the post office is open today and I also need to take care of my contract, which I can't do till tomorrow. Argh.
Anyways, that's enough about that. Cuba. That's where I've been for the last week. I saw a lot of things in that one week. A massive contrast between rich and poor in such close proximity. The aftermath of a revolution. The commercialisation of a country.
Where do I start? A rant about how annoyed I am about people who go to countries and don't even leave their resort? Yeah, lets start there. To be honest, the resort/ hotel that we were staying could be anywhere. Cuba, Fiji, Hawaii, anywhere. But I mean, it's all very well to take a vacation to an exotic place like that but if you don't leave the premises what's the point? I mean, you can say you've BEEN to Cuba, but have you actually SEEN it? What annoyed me the most was in the market in Veradero (tourist capital of Cuba - the highest concentration of hotel/ resorts in the entire country) where a group of teenage girls were looking in the same store as we were and pointed to a picture of Che Guevara and wondered who it was! I mean, it's fine if you don't know exactly what he did but you have to know that name at least, y'know? On a side note, I wonder how Che would feel about having his face plastered on EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING - hats, t-shirts, bags, flags, everything.
I'm not sure how to proceed from here. A day-to-day run down of the entire week? Nah, cos nothing much happened really. Met a few cool people, hung around the resort for a day or so (kind of hypocritical, I know) but we also did a day tour to Habana and we rented scooters and went to see a small town just 15kms away from Veradero called Cardena's. If Veradero is the 'fake' Cuba then Cardenas is what I imagine the 'real' Cuba to be. Apparently a city of about 50 000, Cardenas is run down and poverty stricken. Everything you can imagine, houses falling apart, no doors, people just hanging out in the streets, open sewers. The whole town is more or less in ruins. As if the people were hermit crabs; just trying to make a home where they can. Contrast that to the some 58 resorts in the greater Veradero area and the countless developments happening throughout the peninsula. It makes one wonder where all the money goes, because it definitely doesn't go back to the people.
I really don't know what else to say. I feel that this should be a lot longer considering the magnitude of this trip but I dunno. I guess I'm not really in a blogging mood right now. Consider this a work in progress.
Anyways, that's enough about that. Cuba. That's where I've been for the last week. I saw a lot of things in that one week. A massive contrast between rich and poor in such close proximity. The aftermath of a revolution. The commercialisation of a country.
Where do I start? A rant about how annoyed I am about people who go to countries and don't even leave their resort? Yeah, lets start there. To be honest, the resort/ hotel that we were staying could be anywhere. Cuba, Fiji, Hawaii, anywhere. But I mean, it's all very well to take a vacation to an exotic place like that but if you don't leave the premises what's the point? I mean, you can say you've BEEN to Cuba, but have you actually SEEN it? What annoyed me the most was in the market in Veradero (tourist capital of Cuba - the highest concentration of hotel/ resorts in the entire country) where a group of teenage girls were looking in the same store as we were and pointed to a picture of Che Guevara and wondered who it was! I mean, it's fine if you don't know exactly what he did but you have to know that name at least, y'know? On a side note, I wonder how Che would feel about having his face plastered on EVERYTHING. I mean EVERYTHING - hats, t-shirts, bags, flags, everything.
I'm not sure how to proceed from here. A day-to-day run down of the entire week? Nah, cos nothing much happened really. Met a few cool people, hung around the resort for a day or so (kind of hypocritical, I know) but we also did a day tour to Habana and we rented scooters and went to see a small town just 15kms away from Veradero called Cardena's. If Veradero is the 'fake' Cuba then Cardenas is what I imagine the 'real' Cuba to be. Apparently a city of about 50 000, Cardenas is run down and poverty stricken. Everything you can imagine, houses falling apart, no doors, people just hanging out in the streets, open sewers. The whole town is more or less in ruins. As if the people were hermit crabs; just trying to make a home where they can. Contrast that to the some 58 resorts in the greater Veradero area and the countless developments happening throughout the peninsula. It makes one wonder where all the money goes, because it definitely doesn't go back to the people.
I really don't know what else to say. I feel that this should be a lot longer considering the magnitude of this trip but I dunno. I guess I'm not really in a blogging mood right now. Consider this a work in progress.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
It's all coming to an end. The first four people in our little (or rather, large) exchange family have gone. Two aussie girls and the two English girls have returned to their respective homes and they've left a little void here for the rest of us in Toronto. A couple more have their last night tonight and the large majority of us have our last night in Toronto tomorrow. We're all going our separate ways but we'll always have Toronto. Always.
I may have mentioned it before but a reunion of sorts has been informally organised in Australia for June or July next year which would be amazing!
We've already done the 'you're welcome to come stay with me/ us whenever you're in ________ (insert country name here)' which will be handy in the future ahahahahaha. Of course, I've said the same thing, and I mean it.
I thought I'd be a lot sadder than this right now, but it just feels right. The time has come. It's not goodbye forever though, just indefinitely. The title of this post says it all. You can thank Mr. Churchill for that one. I'm pretty sure I'll see them again. It's not a matter of if, but when. Hopefully in 2010 after I become a fully trained Journalist! That's right! I've been unofficially put into the major that I wanted for my final year of Uni! (Final year?! Oh, god. It feels like I've only just started yesterday!)
I've also layed out a unconfirmed plan for my travels before my flight home which is cool. About time too. I have to book at least some of it by tomorrow before I leave for CUBA! Anyways, here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/5n79gj
Keep in mind that this is just a provisional plan and could change (though most likely, the dates will change, not the places). This seems like quite a lot to fit in to the time that I have left to travel but I think I'm up for the challenge.
That is all.
I may have mentioned it before but a reunion of sorts has been informally organised in Australia for June or July next year which would be amazing!
We've already done the 'you're welcome to come stay with me/ us whenever you're in ________ (insert country name here)' which will be handy in the future ahahahahaha. Of course, I've said the same thing, and I mean it.
I thought I'd be a lot sadder than this right now, but it just feels right. The time has come. It's not goodbye forever though, just indefinitely. The title of this post says it all. You can thank Mr. Churchill for that one. I'm pretty sure I'll see them again. It's not a matter of if, but when. Hopefully in 2010 after I become a fully trained Journalist! That's right! I've been unofficially put into the major that I wanted for my final year of Uni! (Final year?! Oh, god. It feels like I've only just started yesterday!)
I've also layed out a unconfirmed plan for my travels before my flight home which is cool. About time too. I have to book at least some of it by tomorrow before I leave for CUBA! Anyways, here it is:
http://tinyurl.com/5n79gj
Keep in mind that this is just a provisional plan and could change (though most likely, the dates will change, not the places). This seems like quite a lot to fit in to the time that I have left to travel but I think I'm up for the challenge.
That is all.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Hardest Part
I'm depressed.
It's December which means the first wave of people to leave Toronto are leaving next Tuesday. I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again - I want everything to stay this way forever! I can't think of a life that isn't here with all the people I've met and the thought of having to live out of a suitcase (or in my case, backpack) is a thought that I don't much enjoy. I also know that this life and my current lifestyle is unsustainable considering my current financial situation (i.e. super poor with no money coming in and everything going out).
It makes me sadder that with everything ending like it is right now, there are a lot of Goodbye parties and whatnot going on in the next week or so. I've been trying to find time to hang out with specific people (more like, specific person) before I leave but I don't think that it'll happen before I leave for Cuba. The situation is out of my hands as well which I don't much enjoy either.
Also, the majority of my post- uni traveling hasn't been booked yet and I haven't sorted out this contract shit out either. I really can't be bothered doing any of it right now. Especially the latter.
It seems as if there isn't any time left to do anything. Everyone has exams this week and next (I've got one next Tuesday) so its not as if I can go anywhere fun or do anything while that's going on. Did I also mention that I'm running out of money? This whole trip has gone too fast. In no time I'll be back home, missing everyone that I've met here. I know it's going to be weird not seeing them on a daily basis and I mean, there's always Facebook and Skype and whatnot but it just doesn't compare to seeing them in real life. There's been talk of a reunion of sorts in Melbourne in June or July cos some of the guys are coming over which I'm looking forward to as far away as it is.
I guess we'll see on Tuesday if saying goodbye is the hardest part of the whole thing. It's not goodbye forever, I know, but for an indefinite period of time. On the plus side though, I have a reason to go traveling. I've met people from all over the world and made a lot of friends for life. I feel as if I've accomplished more in my few months away than I have in the majority of my 19 years on this planet. Its weird, I've changed and yet I'm still essentially the same, introverted sometimes extroverted person as I was when I started this thing. Sure, some of the things I say may have changed (what's the craic? etc) and my view of the world has changed but I'm still the same immaturely mature person that I've always been. I've also learned a lot about my priorities and what comes first.
I'm not gonna lie to you - I have no idea where I'm going with this. I guess what I'm trying to say, and this is connected to one of my previous posts, is that this trip has kind of been a catalyst for change. The changes that I've undergone here in Canada would have taken me a lot longer to achieve back in New Zealand if they happened at all. I guess it was because I'd voluntarily thrown myself into a completely different environment (well, not completely. If I really wanted that I would have gone to Austria or the like) and was forced to fend for myself. No parents, no help, no nothing. I think that's what I needed. I think that's what everyone needs at some point in their lives (sooner rather than later). I realised how strong I can be - making decisions on my own, living on my own, solving my problems on my own (well, most of them). I also appreciate a lot more what I do have back home - family, friends, a good support system.
Wow. This post did NOT turn out how I pictured it would. I didn't plan on writing most of this but I don't really like to stop myself once I get going. This whole post is kinda all over the place so you'll have to forgive me for that too.
Also, if you wanna hear about some good things, I went to an NBA game AND and Ice Hockey game recently. They were both pretty awesome. The latter because we were sitting right in front on the glass so when the players knocked into it we could feel the whole thing vibrating! It was actually kinda scary. Also, the game went into overtime AND there was a penalty shoot out which was really exciting. The NBA game was also cool. Even though the home team (Toronto Raptors) lost it was awesome cos we got a free slice of pizza if they scored more than 100 points. Which they did! 103 to be exact. I also went to see Chris Cornell live which was absolutely amazing. He played for about 2 and a half hours and I knew probably about 90% of all the songs he played (there were a few Soundgarden ones that I didn't know). I think that's all I've done actually. I've been taking things a bit more slowly because of the money situation mainly, but also because I want to pace myself. I keep forgetting that I still have 3 months of travelling left to do!
It's December which means the first wave of people to leave Toronto are leaving next Tuesday. I've mentioned this before but I'll say it again - I want everything to stay this way forever! I can't think of a life that isn't here with all the people I've met and the thought of having to live out of a suitcase (or in my case, backpack) is a thought that I don't much enjoy. I also know that this life and my current lifestyle is unsustainable considering my current financial situation (i.e. super poor with no money coming in and everything going out).
It makes me sadder that with everything ending like it is right now, there are a lot of Goodbye parties and whatnot going on in the next week or so. I've been trying to find time to hang out with specific people (more like, specific person) before I leave but I don't think that it'll happen before I leave for Cuba. The situation is out of my hands as well which I don't much enjoy either.
Also, the majority of my post- uni traveling hasn't been booked yet and I haven't sorted out this contract shit out either. I really can't be bothered doing any of it right now. Especially the latter.
It seems as if there isn't any time left to do anything. Everyone has exams this week and next (I've got one next Tuesday) so its not as if I can go anywhere fun or do anything while that's going on. Did I also mention that I'm running out of money? This whole trip has gone too fast. In no time I'll be back home, missing everyone that I've met here. I know it's going to be weird not seeing them on a daily basis and I mean, there's always Facebook and Skype and whatnot but it just doesn't compare to seeing them in real life. There's been talk of a reunion of sorts in Melbourne in June or July cos some of the guys are coming over which I'm looking forward to as far away as it is.
I guess we'll see on Tuesday if saying goodbye is the hardest part of the whole thing. It's not goodbye forever, I know, but for an indefinite period of time. On the plus side though, I have a reason to go traveling. I've met people from all over the world and made a lot of friends for life. I feel as if I've accomplished more in my few months away than I have in the majority of my 19 years on this planet. Its weird, I've changed and yet I'm still essentially the same, introverted sometimes extroverted person as I was when I started this thing. Sure, some of the things I say may have changed (what's the craic? etc) and my view of the world has changed but I'm still the same immaturely mature person that I've always been. I've also learned a lot about my priorities and what comes first.
I'm not gonna lie to you - I have no idea where I'm going with this. I guess what I'm trying to say, and this is connected to one of my previous posts, is that this trip has kind of been a catalyst for change. The changes that I've undergone here in Canada would have taken me a lot longer to achieve back in New Zealand if they happened at all. I guess it was because I'd voluntarily thrown myself into a completely different environment (well, not completely. If I really wanted that I would have gone to Austria or the like) and was forced to fend for myself. No parents, no help, no nothing. I think that's what I needed. I think that's what everyone needs at some point in their lives (sooner rather than later). I realised how strong I can be - making decisions on my own, living on my own, solving my problems on my own (well, most of them). I also appreciate a lot more what I do have back home - family, friends, a good support system.
Wow. This post did NOT turn out how I pictured it would. I didn't plan on writing most of this but I don't really like to stop myself once I get going. This whole post is kinda all over the place so you'll have to forgive me for that too.
Also, if you wanna hear about some good things, I went to an NBA game AND and Ice Hockey game recently. They were both pretty awesome. The latter because we were sitting right in front on the glass so when the players knocked into it we could feel the whole thing vibrating! It was actually kinda scary. Also, the game went into overtime AND there was a penalty shoot out which was really exciting. The NBA game was also cool. Even though the home team (Toronto Raptors) lost it was awesome cos we got a free slice of pizza if they scored more than 100 points. Which they did! 103 to be exact. I also went to see Chris Cornell live which was absolutely amazing. He played for about 2 and a half hours and I knew probably about 90% of all the songs he played (there were a few Soundgarden ones that I didn't know). I think that's all I've done actually. I've been taking things a bit more slowly because of the money situation mainly, but also because I want to pace myself. I keep forgetting that I still have 3 months of travelling left to do!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Traveling plans coming together nicely
All of my post-uni traveling has more or less been planned. Well, until the middle of January anyway. First stop is Cuba which should be pretty sweet. That's from the 13th to the 20th of December. Then back to Toronto for a few days to pack up all my stuff (*sniff) (I have a cold). And then off to NYC (from the 23rd to the 2nd of January) but by which means I'm not sure yet. Then hopefully by train back to Toronto where I will be starting my East Coast odyssey with one of the kiwi girl's I've met. I'll be meeting her in either Montreal or Quebec City (this is all by train by the way) where we'll be spending a day or two and then off to Nova Scotia where we will be finding our own way around, mainly because no tours run around that time. Anyways, this tour will cover Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Hopefully too, we can make it far enough up north to see Aurora Borealis which would me super amazing. That should take us to maybe the 10th or so of January? Then I'm planning on going to Washington DC on January 20th to see Obama get sworn into the White House aka to see George Bush get kicked out of it. Accommodation will be pretty hard to find but luckily I know someone who knows someone who lives there so... And then after that I dont know but I have to be in Seattle around the 30th or 31st of January so I can fly cheaply to Anchorage which has been the part of my trip that I've been excited about most! Firstly, cos, c'mon, it's Alaska! Gonn' see me some polar bears! Also, it means that my North American Odyssey will soon be over. Which is both a good and a bad thing. I'll let you know closer to the time.
The first snow
So, it's finally starting to snow properly around here. There's enough snow on the ground to pick up and make snowballs which is totally frickin awesome! We've planned a snowball fight for tomorrow (after my stupid exam) which should be pretty awesome - if a lot of people show up. If not, then it'll just be a showdown between me and this Danish guy. Excellent.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Boston - where everybody knows your name
So this past weekend we kinda decided to spontaneously go away for the weekend. This happened after our PR class on Thursday night so as soon as we got back to the Primrose, instead of going out like regular people, we went back to my room to look for these flights right? The original plan was to fly to NYC but we couldn't find these mythical $79 flights that we'd been hearing about. Possibly cos we were booking last minute or on the wrong website or something? Possibly both. Anyways, we decided to look at other places seeing as we're going to NYC for Xmas and New Years anyways and the further we seemed to go from Toronto the more expensive it was. I mean, it cost like, about a grand to get to like, Chicago and it cost about the same to get from Toronto to Russia or even Greenland. Anyways, we settled on Boston because it wasn't super expensive and Boston Uni was our number 1 choice of exchange university before they dropped out. (To be honest though, I probably couldn't picture myself studying there - too much school spirit shit, and frat houses and sororities and whatever.)
Right, so we were up until like, 3.30 in the morning and still hadn't booked anything and hadn't got confirmation from the guy who's idea this actually was. I didn't get to sleep till about 4.30 though cos I had issues. Don't ask. So on Friday we went ahead and booked our flights to Boston but weren't able to find accommodation so decided to wing it. We actually managed to find a nice place to stay though, it was a little bit out from the CBD but was really nice. Just like your Grandma's place would look like, the lady who ran it was lovely too. We settled on this after being so determined to find something within the city but seriously, Boston seems to only have only like, 5 or 6 hostels in the ENTIRE CITY.
Our first flight was to Detroit, Michigan which left a 6.50 in the morning. My first trip to the US was going well. We spent a few hours at the airport just hangin out. Breakfast was kinda American. The bacon was like, deep fried and crispy. Yum.
I also kinda hate 'hash browns' that are like this. They need to be in rectangular form dammit! Or even triangular! Circular even! Not this shit!
Anyways, the flight to Boston was pretty uneventful (not to mention short!). And, as mentioned before, we went looking for accommodation. We wrote down a few addresses while waiting at the airport in Detroit so had sort of an idea of were to go. Or so I thought. The first place we went was totally in the suburbs and looked kinda dodgy. Sort of like a crack house. A nice crack house though. And that's not even the worst bit. The cab alone from the airport cost us like $40! To get to the middle of suburban Boston! Not a good start. Not a good start at all. Luckily, another cab had just turned the corner. He was a lot more helpful, though he decided to drop us off at a place where we knew had no vacancies, at least for the Saturday night anyways but we thought we'd try our luck. As a last resort we decided we would check out the hotels around the city (which I kinda knew that we couldn't afford anyway). Half of them were fully booked for the Satureday and the other half were waaaay to expensive - almost as much as the flights! In the end we decided to go back to the place outside the city because we didn't want to waste any more of the daylight.
Turned out there wasn't much of the daylight left to waste anyway. It started to get dark around 4.30ish which was weird. Like, as if it were 7 or 8 pm.
This is Boston at 5pm.
Not having had anything to eat since our lovely Detroit breakfast, we decided to grab some lunch/ dinner and apparently there was some good ethnic food around where the hostel was. So we (by we I mean I) decided on Chinese, seeing as I hadn't had any for a while. It was an....interesting experience. We ordered the roast pork fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and broccoli with oyster sauce. The latter was absolutely fine besides the extra large sized pieces. The sweet and sour chicken was cold, 80% batter and had maraschino cherries in it! The rice was also soaked in soy sauce, so much so that it looked like they used brown rice instead of white! It was also served on this weird, silver platter thing. I don't have a photo of it but man, it was weird.
As you can imagine, we got out of there as soon as we could. We headed back into town to check out some of the city. We stumbled upon a massive food market which was in the middle of packing down for the day so they were trying to sell all there stuff for ridiculously cheap prices - (puts on a Bostonian accent) 'boxxa beans fer a buck!' (or something to that effect. I wasn't paying much attention).
We also found Qunicy Market and Faneuil (rhymes with 'manual') Hall which was a massive market with two long buildings filled with shops and one which was just a massive food court which was amazing. There were candy stores, oyster bars, bakeries, and a lot of ethnic and Bostonian foods. Which would have been a lot better than Chinese food. Ha. There was also replica of the bar from 'Cheers' which was pretty awesome. The real one though was only a few blocks away.
So, it was totally wet and kinda raining so we went to see 'The Dark Knight' at Imax which was pretty ridiculous. I mean, I've seen it before but seeing it on Imax was well, ok, it was exactly the same but on a bigger screen. But I think after taking Hollywood and Society and uni and learning about the history of cinema it kinda made me appreciate what like, widescreen and cinerama and stuff like that may have been like. Anyways, that's enough nerding for now. Oh, we also saw the Paramount theatre which first opened in 1932 and had enough seating for about 1700 people and was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking movies. Ok, THAT'S enough nerding.
Right, so after heading back to Grandma's place, we decided to plan our next day. Our only full day in Boston. We picked up a few pamphlets at the airport. One of which was for whale watching - 'whale sightings guaranteed!' it said. Why the hell not? Also, how can you guarantee a whale sighting? - which was at 8.30 and took about 3 hours so we thought we'd go do that and then check out Quincy Market by day cos apparently it was alive and kicking at about 11.30ish. Sounded like a plan. We rock up to the whale watching place at 8.30 am on the dot and ask whether we can still get tickets. (Lady behind glass with microphone) ' ...there is no 8.30 sailing (idiots). It's fall, so the earliest one is at 12.30'. Right. So, plan B. What the hell is plan B? We decided to buy the tickets and grab some breakfast from Quincy Market. We made it back just in time to join a tour of the city, which conveniently took about 2 hours - we'd make it back just in time to board the boat to watch some whales. Guaranteed whales!
The tour was actually pretty awesome. It was one of those hop on, hop off tours but no one in our trolley thing wanted to leave cos our guide was really funny. We learned a lot about the history of the area including Paul Revere, Sam Adams and the start of the American revolution. A lot of which I can't quite recall right now but it all started with the Boston Tea Pahty where John Hancock and Sam Adams dumped an equivalent of $1.2 million dollars of tea into the ocean. Party over. Anyways, they were wanted for high treason by the British. Long story short, Paul Revere, the legend that he is, rode his horse Brown Beauty to where Hancock and Adams were hiding to warn them that the British forces were coming. This was the start of the American Revolution. Ok, there's a LOT more to it than this - something about farmers using nails as bullets and overpowering the British or whatever. We also saw the balcony where the declaration of independence was first read and has been every Independence Day since. I'm pretty sure we saw a lot of other stuff which I don't quite remember (which is totally my fault for leaving this post so late after the fact).
Whales! It took like, about an hour to get to the sactuary and I was standing on the bow of the boat for the whole time, freezing my face off for no reason. The annoying thing was that 2 minutes after I finally caved and went inside the first whale was spotted. It was pretty slow to begin with, only one whale here and there but then it started to pick up with several pairs of mothers and calves and they even breached the water a few times which apparently doesn't happen very often. I took like, more than 100 photos cos I couldn't really tell what I was taking photos of...
WHALE!
Right, so we were up until like, 3.30 in the morning and still hadn't booked anything and hadn't got confirmation from the guy who's idea this actually was. I didn't get to sleep till about 4.30 though cos I had issues. Don't ask. So on Friday we went ahead and booked our flights to Boston but weren't able to find accommodation so decided to wing it. We actually managed to find a nice place to stay though, it was a little bit out from the CBD but was really nice. Just like your Grandma's place would look like, the lady who ran it was lovely too. We settled on this after being so determined to find something within the city but seriously, Boston seems to only have only like, 5 or 6 hostels in the ENTIRE CITY.
Our first flight was to Detroit, Michigan which left a 6.50 in the morning. My first trip to the US was going well. We spent a few hours at the airport just hangin out. Breakfast was kinda American. The bacon was like, deep fried and crispy. Yum.
I also kinda hate 'hash browns' that are like this. They need to be in rectangular form dammit! Or even triangular! Circular even! Not this shit!Anyways, the flight to Boston was pretty uneventful (not to mention short!). And, as mentioned before, we went looking for accommodation. We wrote down a few addresses while waiting at the airport in Detroit so had sort of an idea of were to go. Or so I thought. The first place we went was totally in the suburbs and looked kinda dodgy. Sort of like a crack house. A nice crack house though. And that's not even the worst bit. The cab alone from the airport cost us like $40! To get to the middle of suburban Boston! Not a good start. Not a good start at all. Luckily, another cab had just turned the corner. He was a lot more helpful, though he decided to drop us off at a place where we knew had no vacancies, at least for the Saturday night anyways but we thought we'd try our luck. As a last resort we decided we would check out the hotels around the city (which I kinda knew that we couldn't afford anyway). Half of them were fully booked for the Satureday and the other half were waaaay to expensive - almost as much as the flights! In the end we decided to go back to the place outside the city because we didn't want to waste any more of the daylight.
Turned out there wasn't much of the daylight left to waste anyway. It started to get dark around 4.30ish which was weird. Like, as if it were 7 or 8 pm.
This is Boston at 5pm.Not having had anything to eat since our lovely Detroit breakfast, we decided to grab some lunch/ dinner and apparently there was some good ethnic food around where the hostel was. So we (by we I mean I) decided on Chinese, seeing as I hadn't had any for a while. It was an....interesting experience. We ordered the roast pork fried rice, sweet and sour chicken and broccoli with oyster sauce. The latter was absolutely fine besides the extra large sized pieces. The sweet and sour chicken was cold, 80% batter and had maraschino cherries in it! The rice was also soaked in soy sauce, so much so that it looked like they used brown rice instead of white! It was also served on this weird, silver platter thing. I don't have a photo of it but man, it was weird.
As you can imagine, we got out of there as soon as we could. We headed back into town to check out some of the city. We stumbled upon a massive food market which was in the middle of packing down for the day so they were trying to sell all there stuff for ridiculously cheap prices - (puts on a Bostonian accent) 'boxxa beans fer a buck!' (or something to that effect. I wasn't paying much attention).
We also found Qunicy Market and Faneuil (rhymes with 'manual') Hall which was a massive market with two long buildings filled with shops and one which was just a massive food court which was amazing. There were candy stores, oyster bars, bakeries, and a lot of ethnic and Bostonian foods. Which would have been a lot better than Chinese food. Ha. There was also replica of the bar from 'Cheers' which was pretty awesome. The real one though was only a few blocks away.
So, it was totally wet and kinda raining so we went to see 'The Dark Knight' at Imax which was pretty ridiculous. I mean, I've seen it before but seeing it on Imax was well, ok, it was exactly the same but on a bigger screen. But I think after taking Hollywood and Society and uni and learning about the history of cinema it kinda made me appreciate what like, widescreen and cinerama and stuff like that may have been like. Anyways, that's enough nerding for now. Oh, we also saw the Paramount theatre which first opened in 1932 and had enough seating for about 1700 people and was one of the first movie houses in Boston to play talking movies. Ok, THAT'S enough nerding.
Right, so after heading back to Grandma's place, we decided to plan our next day. Our only full day in Boston. We picked up a few pamphlets at the airport. One of which was for whale watching - 'whale sightings guaranteed!' it said. Why the hell not? Also, how can you guarantee a whale sighting? - which was at 8.30 and took about 3 hours so we thought we'd go do that and then check out Quincy Market by day cos apparently it was alive and kicking at about 11.30ish. Sounded like a plan. We rock up to the whale watching place at 8.30 am on the dot and ask whether we can still get tickets. (Lady behind glass with microphone) ' ...there is no 8.30 sailing (idiots). It's fall, so the earliest one is at 12.30'. Right. So, plan B. What the hell is plan B? We decided to buy the tickets and grab some breakfast from Quincy Market. We made it back just in time to join a tour of the city, which conveniently took about 2 hours - we'd make it back just in time to board the boat to watch some whales. Guaranteed whales!
The tour was actually pretty awesome. It was one of those hop on, hop off tours but no one in our trolley thing wanted to leave cos our guide was really funny. We learned a lot about the history of the area including Paul Revere, Sam Adams and the start of the American revolution. A lot of which I can't quite recall right now but it all started with the Boston Tea Pahty where John Hancock and Sam Adams dumped an equivalent of $1.2 million dollars of tea into the ocean. Party over. Anyways, they were wanted for high treason by the British. Long story short, Paul Revere, the legend that he is, rode his horse Brown Beauty to where Hancock and Adams were hiding to warn them that the British forces were coming. This was the start of the American Revolution. Ok, there's a LOT more to it than this - something about farmers using nails as bullets and overpowering the British or whatever. We also saw the balcony where the declaration of independence was first read and has been every Independence Day since. I'm pretty sure we saw a lot of other stuff which I don't quite remember (which is totally my fault for leaving this post so late after the fact).
Whales! It took like, about an hour to get to the sactuary and I was standing on the bow of the boat for the whole time, freezing my face off for no reason. The annoying thing was that 2 minutes after I finally caved and went inside the first whale was spotted. It was pretty slow to begin with, only one whale here and there but then it started to pick up with several pairs of mothers and calves and they even breached the water a few times which apparently doesn't happen very often. I took like, more than 100 photos cos I couldn't really tell what I was taking photos of...
WHALE!
WHALE SPLASH! aka too slow to get it coming fully out of the water!
This was a total fluke. It's also my favourite shot.
Right, so we got back at about 4ish and the sun was beginning to set on the way back to port. Having not eaten since breakfast we decided to grab some dinner. At about 5pm. Crazy. But anyways, its was super dark and we decided to go to a seafood restaurant seeing as Boston is kinda famous for it? I dunno. Anyways, I had the clam chowder which apparently has been served a seven presidential dinners as well as the tuna and Boston cream pie for dessert. Which, to be honest, tasted kinda like cheesecake. We also managed to get a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (GASP! Underage drinking!) which was nice.
Boston Cream Pie
We called it a night after this I think. Back to Grandma's house we went. And after discovering our flight back was at 4pm instead of 2 we decided that in the morning we'd walk a bit of the Freedom Trail which we missed on the tour (the car went right around it and this part was best seen on foot) head over to Harvard University. So we went to see Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church which was one of the 3 beacon signals which was used to signal Revere to start his ride. From here we made our way to Harvard. Luckily there was like, a tour group close by which we kinda snuck into. I was all like 'sup, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Harvard'. But yeah, the grounds were amazing. The economics building looked kinda like the White House and the dining hall looked amazing too! Did you know, that Harvard University has the largest collection of secular stained glass windows in the world? Wow. Anyways, the dining hall looks a lot like the one from Harry Potter with the long wooden tables and the majestic interiors. The food must be amazing. Better than the Chinese food for sure. Ha. Speaking of Harry Potter, apparently Emma Watson was at Harvard looking at the campus a few weeks before we were there. Woah.
Back to the lovely Prescott International Hotel and Hostel we went. Picked up our stuff and headed off to the airport. We tried to hail a cab from the street which was simple enough, funny this was though was that this particular cab was actually there to pick up his son from school (at 2 o'clock!?) but we got in as well. Funny. Fast forward to airport security (cos lets be honest now, this post is just getting ridiculous. I apologise). I totally had to get pat down by the security guard and I have no idea why. He then proceeded to ask me about how New Zealand is. Ok. Also, what was kinda unfair is that the other person I was with got bumped up to first class cos some guy wanted to sit next to some woman who he hadn't seen in a while. Loser. So I was kinda sad about that but that gave me time to work on my presentation which I had to do on Wednesday. Blah blah blah, fastforward to when we got back to the Primrose. Weekend over.
And thus (kind of) began my American odyssey. Kinda prematurely but whatever.
Right, just one more par. about other stuff. The day after we got back I had to pay for October's rent cos apparently I hadn't. I assumed I had seeing as they hadn't called me about it or anything. I also payed for this month's rent too which made me super poor. Also, I found out that my contract at the Primrose doesn't expire until April which obviously a massive problem. I was kinda freaking out about it for a while just trying to find a way out of it but I may have found someone to sublet my room after I leave. Only thing is, is that I would have to pay some of the rent to make it worth their while. Lame. It's a hotel policy thing about filling vacant rooms first. Don't ask. Also, my camera is pretty much a write off which is also lame.
Oh, wow. I think this is the end! Thanks for sticking with me. This was as much of an effort to write as I'm sure it was to read. Hopefully the photos made it somewhat bearable though.
This was a total fluke. It's also my favourite shot.Right, so we got back at about 4ish and the sun was beginning to set on the way back to port. Having not eaten since breakfast we decided to grab some dinner. At about 5pm. Crazy. But anyways, its was super dark and we decided to go to a seafood restaurant seeing as Boston is kinda famous for it? I dunno. Anyways, I had the clam chowder which apparently has been served a seven presidential dinners as well as the tuna and Boston cream pie for dessert. Which, to be honest, tasted kinda like cheesecake. We also managed to get a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (GASP! Underage drinking!) which was nice.
Boston Cream PieWe called it a night after this I think. Back to Grandma's house we went. And after discovering our flight back was at 4pm instead of 2 we decided that in the morning we'd walk a bit of the Freedom Trail which we missed on the tour (the car went right around it and this part was best seen on foot) head over to Harvard University. So we went to see Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church which was one of the 3 beacon signals which was used to signal Revere to start his ride. From here we made our way to Harvard. Luckily there was like, a tour group close by which we kinda snuck into. I was all like 'sup, yeah, I'm thinking about going to Harvard'. But yeah, the grounds were amazing. The economics building looked kinda like the White House and the dining hall looked amazing too! Did you know, that Harvard University has the largest collection of secular stained glass windows in the world? Wow. Anyways, the dining hall looks a lot like the one from Harry Potter with the long wooden tables and the majestic interiors. The food must be amazing. Better than the Chinese food for sure. Ha. Speaking of Harry Potter, apparently Emma Watson was at Harvard looking at the campus a few weeks before we were there. Woah.
Back to the lovely Prescott International Hotel and Hostel we went. Picked up our stuff and headed off to the airport. We tried to hail a cab from the street which was simple enough, funny this was though was that this particular cab was actually there to pick up his son from school (at 2 o'clock!?) but we got in as well. Funny. Fast forward to airport security (cos lets be honest now, this post is just getting ridiculous. I apologise). I totally had to get pat down by the security guard and I have no idea why. He then proceeded to ask me about how New Zealand is. Ok. Also, what was kinda unfair is that the other person I was with got bumped up to first class cos some guy wanted to sit next to some woman who he hadn't seen in a while. Loser. So I was kinda sad about that but that gave me time to work on my presentation which I had to do on Wednesday. Blah blah blah, fastforward to when we got back to the Primrose. Weekend over.
And thus (kind of) began my American odyssey. Kinda prematurely but whatever.
Right, just one more par. about other stuff. The day after we got back I had to pay for October's rent cos apparently I hadn't. I assumed I had seeing as they hadn't called me about it or anything. I also payed for this month's rent too which made me super poor. Also, I found out that my contract at the Primrose doesn't expire until April which obviously a massive problem. I was kinda freaking out about it for a while just trying to find a way out of it but I may have found someone to sublet my room after I leave. Only thing is, is that I would have to pay some of the rent to make it worth their while. Lame. It's a hotel policy thing about filling vacant rooms first. Don't ask. Also, my camera is pretty much a write off which is also lame.
Oh, wow. I think this is the end! Thanks for sticking with me. This was as much of an effort to write as I'm sure it was to read. Hopefully the photos made it somewhat bearable though.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
November/ Our time is running out
It's November and to quote one of my favourite songs, yes, 'our time is definitely running out'. Not sure if you realise but this means that I only have about a month of uni left before the end of the year (not including exams). I really don't want this to end. I don't want to say goodbye to anyone here. It's weird but I can't imagine life without them now...
It's November which also means I've been here more than 2 months now. It seems an age since I left New Zealand and so much has happened. I was talking to one of my friends the other day and I told her that this was most definitely the best decision I've ever made in my entire life. God, just listen to me, I'm talking as it today were my last day! But seriously though, there's still so much I haven't done - I haven't been to that medieval restaurant (but I'm gonna try and convince one of the guys to have his birthday there ;) ) and I haven't even been up the CN Tower! I haven't seen a baseball game but I totally missed my chance for that I think and I also haven't been to a hockey match, or a basketball game! (None of which I really give a shit about but y'know, you wanna go just to see what it's like right?) ( Like, when am I ever going to come back?) (Soon I hope).
Anyway, that's about enough of that. In other news, I'm going to see Cute with Chris: Live tonight which is very exciting. If you don't know what it is then I suggest you have a look at it (theres a link over there ----> somewhere on the right). It's something you either like or don't though so...
Novemeber comes right after the end of October which, if you didn't know is Halloween time. For those of you who don't know, this was my first, like, proper Halloween so I was totally kinda amped for it. I dressed up as an Eskimo which, to be honest, was kind of a cop out - I just bought a big jacket (which I needed anyway - it's getting fucking cold out. Though today I was outside in t-shirt and jeans but that's neither here nor there.) a fishing rod and a soft toy fish.
Anyway, yeah, so there were pre drinks in my room which was pretty ridiculous. There must have been about 25 people in there and if you've ever been in my room (which I'm sure none of you have) you'll know that it's not really built for that many people. Possibly about 10-12 comfortably. And any more than 4 is considered a 'fire' risk. I'm surprised actually, that the security guys didn't come up and that I didn't get a fine for the noise. But yeah, there was a parade thing on Church st (which is in the so called 'gay district') which was amazing. So many people! Just imagine my room during pre drinks but instead it was a whole street (does this make sense? I would imagine it might not). After that finished though, the whole night kinda lost momentum. There were a few house parties going on apparently but with us being such a big group it was hard to co-ordinate them (like being back in Montreal!) So after a while I just decided to go back to my room and begin the clean up which actually, didn't take that long but I have like, brown marks on my duvet where one of the girls must have rubbed up against it (she painted hereself brown and went as a Rastafarian).
Saturday night was more of the same really, we headed down to Neil Wycik which is the other student residence just down the street for a kegger. And I'll tell you what, that place was WAY too small for something like that. So I decided to leave that early as well. So, overall, an interesting, yet uneventful Halloween. except for when my camera kinda broke. Now I have to go through all this insurance shit. I just want someone to fix my camera guys. Is that too much to ask?
Also, what the hell am I gonna do with this fishing rod and my now?
Oh, it was also daylight savings today which I wouldn't have know if my laptop hadn't changed automatically.
Oh, yeah, and it was also totally snowing the other day. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait for winter!
I think that's all.
It's November which also means I've been here more than 2 months now. It seems an age since I left New Zealand and so much has happened. I was talking to one of my friends the other day and I told her that this was most definitely the best decision I've ever made in my entire life. God, just listen to me, I'm talking as it today were my last day! But seriously though, there's still so much I haven't done - I haven't been to that medieval restaurant (but I'm gonna try and convince one of the guys to have his birthday there ;) ) and I haven't even been up the CN Tower! I haven't seen a baseball game but I totally missed my chance for that I think and I also haven't been to a hockey match, or a basketball game! (None of which I really give a shit about but y'know, you wanna go just to see what it's like right?) ( Like, when am I ever going to come back?) (Soon I hope).
Anyway, that's about enough of that. In other news, I'm going to see Cute with Chris: Live tonight which is very exciting. If you don't know what it is then I suggest you have a look at it (theres a link over there ----> somewhere on the right). It's something you either like or don't though so...
Novemeber comes right after the end of October which, if you didn't know is Halloween time. For those of you who don't know, this was my first, like, proper Halloween so I was totally kinda amped for it. I dressed up as an Eskimo which, to be honest, was kind of a cop out - I just bought a big jacket (which I needed anyway - it's getting fucking cold out. Though today I was outside in t-shirt and jeans but that's neither here nor there.) a fishing rod and a soft toy fish.
Anyway, yeah, so there were pre drinks in my room which was pretty ridiculous. There must have been about 25 people in there and if you've ever been in my room (which I'm sure none of you have) you'll know that it's not really built for that many people. Possibly about 10-12 comfortably. And any more than 4 is considered a 'fire' risk. I'm surprised actually, that the security guys didn't come up and that I didn't get a fine for the noise. But yeah, there was a parade thing on Church st (which is in the so called 'gay district') which was amazing. So many people! Just imagine my room during pre drinks but instead it was a whole street (does this make sense? I would imagine it might not). After that finished though, the whole night kinda lost momentum. There were a few house parties going on apparently but with us being such a big group it was hard to co-ordinate them (like being back in Montreal!) So after a while I just decided to go back to my room and begin the clean up which actually, didn't take that long but I have like, brown marks on my duvet where one of the girls must have rubbed up against it (she painted hereself brown and went as a Rastafarian).
Saturday night was more of the same really, we headed down to Neil Wycik which is the other student residence just down the street for a kegger. And I'll tell you what, that place was WAY too small for something like that. So I decided to leave that early as well. So, overall, an interesting, yet uneventful Halloween. except for when my camera kinda broke. Now I have to go through all this insurance shit. I just want someone to fix my camera guys. Is that too much to ask?
Also, what the hell am I gonna do with this fishing rod and my now?
Oh, it was also daylight savings today which I wouldn't have know if my laptop hadn't changed automatically.
Oh, yeah, and it was also totally snowing the other day. It was absolutely amazing. I can't wait for winter!
I think that's all.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
I can't feel my face
So, yesterday it started to snow a bit. It wasn't really real snow, it pretty much turned into water once it hit the ground but before that, as it made it's descent toward the ground it was totally snow. Luckily I hardly left my room, let alone the hotel. This is kinda scary. Mainly cos apparently it's not supposed to do this for another month or two and I am totally not prepared for it yet. Apparently it was 2 degress but with the wind it was supposed to be like, -4. Crazy. Today was kind of ok though, I was just wearing a t -shirt, jeans and my big ass jacket. The only thing frozen was my face.
"Oh god! I can't feel my ears!"
"Oh god! I can't feel my ears!"
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Last night
Wow, ok, 2 posts in one day. Must be something important right? No, not really.
But if you'll allow me to be serious for a moment. Not that I really need your permission - this is MY blog remember?
Lying in bed at 3 o'clock this morning I realised something. I'm in fucking Canada. I'm half a world away from the place I'm meant to call home and I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about it. I miss the people more than anything but sometimes I don't. I also love Canada but I don't because it's not New Zealand.
I'm not sure how many people read this, 3, maybe 4 people that I know of plus a few others I suppose. It doesn't really matter. But I hope that one person in particular is reading this too. I think you know who you are. You told me that if I left, I'd change. You were right. And for the better I hope. I told myself too that if I left it'd give me a chance to gain some perspective on everything but I haven't been doing that. I've been living day to day not thinking about how this whole experience is affecting me. The full effects of this thing will probably not be known until I get back to New Zealand, if ever.
I realise that I'm only 10 weeks into this thing and there's another 4 months to go but I think it'd be to my detriment if I didn't think about what this whole experience is doing to me. I'm in a transitional period right now and I know that I'm changing but I can't quite put my finger on how or why or even what has changed me. I like to think that I've changed some of the people I've met as well but I guess I'll never really know for sure.
I guess that's it. A weird place to leave things but that's all I've got right now. Before I finish this completely though I'd like to thank you and everyone else who reads or has read this for doing so. I know no one is forcing you to (I hope not anyway) which makes me think or even hope that what I have to say or write means something to you. Also, if the person who I hope is reading this wants to get in contact then you know how.
Cheers.
(The next post will be a lot more uplifting, I promise.)
But if you'll allow me to be serious for a moment. Not that I really need your permission - this is MY blog remember?
Lying in bed at 3 o'clock this morning I realised something. I'm in fucking Canada. I'm half a world away from the place I'm meant to call home and I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about it. I miss the people more than anything but sometimes I don't. I also love Canada but I don't because it's not New Zealand.
I'm not sure how many people read this, 3, maybe 4 people that I know of plus a few others I suppose. It doesn't really matter. But I hope that one person in particular is reading this too. I think you know who you are. You told me that if I left, I'd change. You were right. And for the better I hope. I told myself too that if I left it'd give me a chance to gain some perspective on everything but I haven't been doing that. I've been living day to day not thinking about how this whole experience is affecting me. The full effects of this thing will probably not be known until I get back to New Zealand, if ever.
I realise that I'm only 10 weeks into this thing and there's another 4 months to go but I think it'd be to my detriment if I didn't think about what this whole experience is doing to me. I'm in a transitional period right now and I know that I'm changing but I can't quite put my finger on how or why or even what has changed me. I like to think that I've changed some of the people I've met as well but I guess I'll never really know for sure.
I guess that's it. A weird place to leave things but that's all I've got right now. Before I finish this completely though I'd like to thank you and everyone else who reads or has read this for doing so. I know no one is forcing you to (I hope not anyway) which makes me think or even hope that what I have to say or write means something to you. Also, if the person who I hope is reading this wants to get in contact then you know how.
Cheers.
(The next post will be a lot more uplifting, I promise.)
Alive and kicking (and also cold and have broken shoes.)
Hey guys,
Just thought that I'd post something to prove to you that I'm still alive. The lack of posts hasn't been because I've been too busy like one might logically assume. It's pretty much because nothing has really happened since Montreal. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Y'know.
Probably one of the only two things worth mentioning is Nuit Blanche which was a 12 hour art show all around Toronto. It went from like, 6pm to 6am but seriously, you couldn't see everything in that time even if you tried. There was a lot of shit going down EVERYWHERE. Zombies, rubber ducks in a pond, light shows and a lot of other stuff. I didn't really get to see much though, mostly cos we didn't leave the hotel till like, midnight and we went back at about 2ish cos all the bars were closing (which is kinda stupid if you think about it. C'mon, there were massive crowds of people everywhere! If you were a bar and had the sense to stay open after 2am you would have made a killing. I suppose it would have something to do with liquor licensing laws or whatever but still).
Next would be Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving is about a month before the American one. Take THAT America! I think Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving for the same reason as the Americans do which is weird cos like, I'm pretty sure none of that pilgrim stuff happened in Canada eh? I think it's just an excuse to eat turkey. Anyways, because a lot of people in the Primrose (as well as from other residences) had gone back home for the weekend all the international students who couldn't go home decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to each make a dish and bring it down to the basement level and we would proceed to feast on the carcass of a dead bird among other things. I made the cookies (someone threw out the ones I was saving for my sister which was disappointing. Mostly for her but y'know). It turned out a lot better than I thought it would to be honest, there was a good range of food there. The Danish guys made Danish stuff, the Spanish girls made Spanish stuff and everyone had a good time. I even pitched in for a crate of beer. Needless to say that was drunk pretty quickly. The really funny thing though happened the next day when I realised there was a security camera in the room we were in which caught pretty much everything. We weren't in trouble though which was good. Ming just asked why he wasn't invited.
I think that's pretty much all. Oh, wait, yeah, uni work is kinda starting to pile on right now. It kinda sucks. I didn't come here to study!
It's also steadily getting colder. I also have a feeling my shoes will break in a few days.
Just thought that I'd post something to prove to you that I'm still alive. The lack of posts hasn't been because I've been too busy like one might logically assume. It's pretty much because nothing has really happened since Montreal. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Y'know.
Probably one of the only two things worth mentioning is Nuit Blanche which was a 12 hour art show all around Toronto. It went from like, 6pm to 6am but seriously, you couldn't see everything in that time even if you tried. There was a lot of shit going down EVERYWHERE. Zombies, rubber ducks in a pond, light shows and a lot of other stuff. I didn't really get to see much though, mostly cos we didn't leave the hotel till like, midnight and we went back at about 2ish cos all the bars were closing (which is kinda stupid if you think about it. C'mon, there were massive crowds of people everywhere! If you were a bar and had the sense to stay open after 2am you would have made a killing. I suppose it would have something to do with liquor licensing laws or whatever but still).
Next would be Thanksgiving. Canadian Thanksgiving is about a month before the American one. Take THAT America! I think Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving for the same reason as the Americans do which is weird cos like, I'm pretty sure none of that pilgrim stuff happened in Canada eh? I think it's just an excuse to eat turkey. Anyways, because a lot of people in the Primrose (as well as from other residences) had gone back home for the weekend all the international students who couldn't go home decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to each make a dish and bring it down to the basement level and we would proceed to feast on the carcass of a dead bird among other things. I made the cookies (someone threw out the ones I was saving for my sister which was disappointing. Mostly for her but y'know). It turned out a lot better than I thought it would to be honest, there was a good range of food there. The Danish guys made Danish stuff, the Spanish girls made Spanish stuff and everyone had a good time. I even pitched in for a crate of beer. Needless to say that was drunk pretty quickly. The really funny thing though happened the next day when I realised there was a security camera in the room we were in which caught pretty much everything. We weren't in trouble though which was good. Ming just asked why he wasn't invited.
I think that's pretty much all. Oh, wait, yeah, uni work is kinda starting to pile on right now. It kinda sucks. I didn't come here to study!
It's also steadily getting colder. I also have a feeling my shoes will break in a few days.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Montreal and the cold.
It's fucking cold. Well, no, ok, not really but you can definitely notice a marked drop in temperature from when I first got here. You know how usually it's a pretty gradual decline in temperature as winter looms? Well, this is like, a 5 or 6 degree drop in a day (well, actually, I have no idea but it feels like it). The weird this is too is that it's still sunny.
Gosh this place reminds me of Auckland. Last night on the way to class it pissed down with rain for like, 15 minutes and then stopped and out came the sun. Frickin weird Auckland weather eh? I even had to bust out my big ass jacket which I haven't worn since I left. And it's only going to get colder from here. Eep.
Oh, yes, last night we had a test in my PR class which was multichoice which was pretty awesome. It was on like the first 3 chapters of the book which is fine, I mean, I didn't really study cos I mean, it's a multichoice test. Why don't we have those at AUT?? Anyway, that's not even the ridiculous part - our lecturer knowingly put up like, 80% of all the test questions online as the 'sample' questions! During the test he started calling out the answers to the first page! I would be surprised if anyone failed this paper. Seriously. Like, honestly. We did a presentation last week which was supposed to be 12 minutes long - ours was 5 and a half and we still managed to get a B. Ridiculous. I mean, I'll take it but c'mon, we didn't even do anything!
Ok, moving on to the more exciting portion of this post. Montreal. The whole weekend was pretty amazing but of course, there had to be a few bumps in the road. The first came just as we were leaving. When we hired the cars we asked for a minivan of 8, one of 7 and a car (of 5) - so 20 people altogether but when we picked the cars up they guy said that he couldn't get a minivan of 8! Which obviously meant that we had one less seat. Problem number one. My car had left early cos we had to get to the hostel by 9pm and we were already behind schedule but the rest of the group were contemplating getting two cars instead of the minivan (cos the guy would offer us a 'special' deal) but in the end they decided to just stick with the minivan to avoid all the extra costs and insurance and whatever which is fine. Someone just had to sit on the floor for the trip or like, swap seats with someone along the way. The minivan was pretty spacious anyways. Like, totally awesome with a rear view camera, touch screen radio, dvd player and a port for mp3 players. Too bad I didn't bring mine. It was a frickin Dodge which was awesome. Like, a lot better than I had thought it would be.
Anyways, the actually trip there was pretty uneventful. Traffic jams going out of the city which is kinda understandable with it being a Friday and around 4pm by this time. It also didn't help that we kinda got lost. Well, not really. We just didn't follow the exact directions that I got from the interweb. I'm a terrible map reader ok? In the end we just had to follow the same road until it turned into the 401. No problems there. It was actually pretty funny.
We arrived late to the hostel which was cool cos we called like, 2 hours in advance. Smart eh? Would have been smarter though if we had left on time... we were cutting it a bit close with our leaving time anyways. We planned to leave at around 2 or 2.30 at the absolute latest and it takes around 6 hours to drive there so we couldn't really afford to get lost or take any detours or whatever. I also didn't really count on people being late. I will next time though. (I wonder when that will be...). Anyways, as I was saying, we were late to check in and by the time everyone else arrived it was like, 11.30ish and when they did I tried to get them all organised into their rooms and whatnot which was a lot harder than it should have been. I canceled 2 of the beds that we booked because two of the guys were apparently staying with one of their friends which was fine but I don't think everyone knew that.... Anyways, while we were trying to get everyone's shit together we managed to get a few noise complaints. From the woman in the next room and a few others. Problem #2.
So as soon as everyone was sorted of course we had to go out for a few drinks right? I mean, thats what we came here for. It was raining. Problem #3. Well, not really a problem, just kinda annoying. Anyways, we went to this little bar a few blocks down from our hostel which was kinda nice. Drinks were relatively cheap but then all the Aussies with us and a few others wanted to go to another bar to see the AFL grand final which was cool. I totally went with even though I had no idea what was happening. Not all of us went though which was cool, I mean, chances are with such a big group not everyone wants to do the same thing.
Anyways, we got back to the hostel at like, 3am which is pretty normal for us now but when we got back we were in the middle of 'quiet time' in the hostel. One of the girls who came with us (and one that stayed in the first bar we were at) had thrown up a few times (at the that time I had just thought it was that once) but anyway, we were talking, kinda quietly I thought. But apparently not. the owner of the hostel came storming in and started swearing at us and told us to shut up and threatened to throw us all out and make us pay for the two nights we'd booked for. Massive problem #4. We were the first ones back when this happened so we called the rest (who were for the most part, drunk) and told them to keep it down when they got back (especially since the owner lived on their floor). Of course, some of them wanted to have a 'word' with the owner but I convinced them to leave it till the morning where Martin and I would have a talk to him. We woke up early (didn't want to make another bad impression. Plus we didn't want to waste the only whole day we had), pumped and ready to talk to the guy but he didn't start till about 10am so we ended up wasting like, 2 hours just waiting around. When he finally managed to make it down we apologised and he told us about some more of the stuff that our group had done - mainly throwing up both upstairs and downstairs, and everyone being just generally loud. Anyways, he let us stay for the next night but obviously on the condition that we were more quiet this time. Which at that point of time I was kinda doubting.
Half the group at this point were still in bed sleeping which I thought was a total waste of time, so the rest of us left and went to get some breakfast and decided to head over to Old Montreal which was pretty cool. We took a tour around the old port as well as old Montreal on a horse and buggy which was nice. A few of us also went into the Notre Dame Basilica which blew my mind. It blew my mind so much that I swore. In the Cathedral. Oops. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant where the rest of the group met us (they had just got up I think at at this point, it was like, close to 3pm).
Back at the hostel me and a couple of other guys went to a restaurant across the street for dinner. We had escargot and I tried rabbit as well (in the same meal, but not the same dish.). Both were actually really tasty. I don't think snails have any real flavour though cos all I could really taste was the bacon. It might just be more for texture. I dunno. Anyways, one of the waiters there was to me like 'where are you from?' and of course I'm like 'New Zealand' and then he's like 'I want to put you guys on a guest list for a club in the city.' And I was like 'sweet as bro'. The owner of that restaurant apparently owned this club so we were like 'yeah, ok, we'll come'. And apparently the other half of our group went there for lunch and they were invited too. It's pretty safe to say that some drinking occurred as well as some clubbing. Also, rain. Just to make this post slightly shorter. I'm almost done. Promise.
The Sunday morning we had to check out by 10am which meant that we were all up and awake relatively early. So we all went to go get breakfast - I think the original plan was to go in separate groups to different restaurants just so we didn't have to wait as long for food - but somehow everyone ended up in the same place... For our last day we decided to have a race to the mountain so we could get a better look at the city. The race was actually pretty awesome. At one point we went down the wrong way on a one way street to try and lose the other car who was following us the whole way. They obviously didn't know where they were going but like, at the last second, they got ahead of us and made it up the one lane road to the top of the mountain -which obviously meant that we couldn't pass them. All seemed lost but somehow we still won cos we were the first to park in the designated parking lot finish line. The other minivan never showed. Funny.
A few photos here, a few photos there and then we decided to head back to the hostel to pick up the others who went shopping instead/ to meet up and swap passengers/ for lunch. We were also meant to have a race back to Toronto which we would have won had we not got lost on the outskirts of Toronto. Problem #5. Ironically, we were looking for the fastest way to get back but we ended up getting lost and coming in last. Oh well, live as a team, die as a team eh?
So that weekend was pretty epic. Filled with adventure and mystery. A lot of laughs and (some) drinking. It was also a good way to bond with a few of the people in our group who I hadn't really know before the trip. I'm definitely looking forward to the next roadtrip. New york for thanksgiving anyone?
Gosh this place reminds me of Auckland. Last night on the way to class it pissed down with rain for like, 15 minutes and then stopped and out came the sun. Frickin weird Auckland weather eh? I even had to bust out my big ass jacket which I haven't worn since I left. And it's only going to get colder from here. Eep.
Oh, yes, last night we had a test in my PR class which was multichoice which was pretty awesome. It was on like the first 3 chapters of the book which is fine, I mean, I didn't really study cos I mean, it's a multichoice test. Why don't we have those at AUT?? Anyway, that's not even the ridiculous part - our lecturer knowingly put up like, 80% of all the test questions online as the 'sample' questions! During the test he started calling out the answers to the first page! I would be surprised if anyone failed this paper. Seriously. Like, honestly. We did a presentation last week which was supposed to be 12 minutes long - ours was 5 and a half and we still managed to get a B. Ridiculous. I mean, I'll take it but c'mon, we didn't even do anything!
Ok, moving on to the more exciting portion of this post. Montreal. The whole weekend was pretty amazing but of course, there had to be a few bumps in the road. The first came just as we were leaving. When we hired the cars we asked for a minivan of 8, one of 7 and a car (of 5) - so 20 people altogether but when we picked the cars up they guy said that he couldn't get a minivan of 8! Which obviously meant that we had one less seat. Problem number one. My car had left early cos we had to get to the hostel by 9pm and we were already behind schedule but the rest of the group were contemplating getting two cars instead of the minivan (cos the guy would offer us a 'special' deal) but in the end they decided to just stick with the minivan to avoid all the extra costs and insurance and whatever which is fine. Someone just had to sit on the floor for the trip or like, swap seats with someone along the way. The minivan was pretty spacious anyways. Like, totally awesome with a rear view camera, touch screen radio, dvd player and a port for mp3 players. Too bad I didn't bring mine. It was a frickin Dodge which was awesome. Like, a lot better than I had thought it would be.
Anyways, the actually trip there was pretty uneventful. Traffic jams going out of the city which is kinda understandable with it being a Friday and around 4pm by this time. It also didn't help that we kinda got lost. Well, not really. We just didn't follow the exact directions that I got from the interweb. I'm a terrible map reader ok? In the end we just had to follow the same road until it turned into the 401. No problems there. It was actually pretty funny.
We arrived late to the hostel which was cool cos we called like, 2 hours in advance. Smart eh? Would have been smarter though if we had left on time... we were cutting it a bit close with our leaving time anyways. We planned to leave at around 2 or 2.30 at the absolute latest and it takes around 6 hours to drive there so we couldn't really afford to get lost or take any detours or whatever. I also didn't really count on people being late. I will next time though. (I wonder when that will be...). Anyways, as I was saying, we were late to check in and by the time everyone else arrived it was like, 11.30ish and when they did I tried to get them all organised into their rooms and whatnot which was a lot harder than it should have been. I canceled 2 of the beds that we booked because two of the guys were apparently staying with one of their friends which was fine but I don't think everyone knew that.... Anyways, while we were trying to get everyone's shit together we managed to get a few noise complaints. From the woman in the next room and a few others. Problem #2.
So as soon as everyone was sorted of course we had to go out for a few drinks right? I mean, thats what we came here for. It was raining. Problem #3. Well, not really a problem, just kinda annoying. Anyways, we went to this little bar a few blocks down from our hostel which was kinda nice. Drinks were relatively cheap but then all the Aussies with us and a few others wanted to go to another bar to see the AFL grand final which was cool. I totally went with even though I had no idea what was happening. Not all of us went though which was cool, I mean, chances are with such a big group not everyone wants to do the same thing.
Anyways, we got back to the hostel at like, 3am which is pretty normal for us now but when we got back we were in the middle of 'quiet time' in the hostel. One of the girls who came with us (and one that stayed in the first bar we were at) had thrown up a few times (at the that time I had just thought it was that once) but anyway, we were talking, kinda quietly I thought. But apparently not. the owner of the hostel came storming in and started swearing at us and told us to shut up and threatened to throw us all out and make us pay for the two nights we'd booked for. Massive problem #4. We were the first ones back when this happened so we called the rest (who were for the most part, drunk) and told them to keep it down when they got back (especially since the owner lived on their floor). Of course, some of them wanted to have a 'word' with the owner but I convinced them to leave it till the morning where Martin and I would have a talk to him. We woke up early (didn't want to make another bad impression. Plus we didn't want to waste the only whole day we had), pumped and ready to talk to the guy but he didn't start till about 10am so we ended up wasting like, 2 hours just waiting around. When he finally managed to make it down we apologised and he told us about some more of the stuff that our group had done - mainly throwing up both upstairs and downstairs, and everyone being just generally loud. Anyways, he let us stay for the next night but obviously on the condition that we were more quiet this time. Which at that point of time I was kinda doubting.
Half the group at this point were still in bed sleeping which I thought was a total waste of time, so the rest of us left and went to get some breakfast and decided to head over to Old Montreal which was pretty cool. We took a tour around the old port as well as old Montreal on a horse and buggy which was nice. A few of us also went into the Notre Dame Basilica which blew my mind. It blew my mind so much that I swore. In the Cathedral. Oops. After that we went to a Mexican restaurant where the rest of the group met us (they had just got up I think at at this point, it was like, close to 3pm).
Back at the hostel me and a couple of other guys went to a restaurant across the street for dinner. We had escargot and I tried rabbit as well (in the same meal, but not the same dish.). Both were actually really tasty. I don't think snails have any real flavour though cos all I could really taste was the bacon. It might just be more for texture. I dunno. Anyways, one of the waiters there was to me like 'where are you from?' and of course I'm like 'New Zealand' and then he's like 'I want to put you guys on a guest list for a club in the city.' And I was like 'sweet as bro'. The owner of that restaurant apparently owned this club so we were like 'yeah, ok, we'll come'. And apparently the other half of our group went there for lunch and they were invited too. It's pretty safe to say that some drinking occurred as well as some clubbing. Also, rain. Just to make this post slightly shorter. I'm almost done. Promise.
The Sunday morning we had to check out by 10am which meant that we were all up and awake relatively early. So we all went to go get breakfast - I think the original plan was to go in separate groups to different restaurants just so we didn't have to wait as long for food - but somehow everyone ended up in the same place... For our last day we decided to have a race to the mountain so we could get a better look at the city. The race was actually pretty awesome. At one point we went down the wrong way on a one way street to try and lose the other car who was following us the whole way. They obviously didn't know where they were going but like, at the last second, they got ahead of us and made it up the one lane road to the top of the mountain -which obviously meant that we couldn't pass them. All seemed lost but somehow we still won cos we were the first to park in the designated parking lot finish line. The other minivan never showed. Funny.
A few photos here, a few photos there and then we decided to head back to the hostel to pick up the others who went shopping instead/ to meet up and swap passengers/ for lunch. We were also meant to have a race back to Toronto which we would have won had we not got lost on the outskirts of Toronto. Problem #5. Ironically, we were looking for the fastest way to get back but we ended up getting lost and coming in last. Oh well, live as a team, die as a team eh?
So that weekend was pretty epic. Filled with adventure and mystery. A lot of laughs and (some) drinking. It was also a good way to bond with a few of the people in our group who I hadn't really know before the trip. I'm definitely looking forward to the next roadtrip. New york for thanksgiving anyone?
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A quick update (cos really, nothing ever happens around here, lets be honest.)
Hey team,
Just a quick update about whats been goin on in TO and whatnot. This (hopefully) won't be a novel like all my other posts because honestly, nothing major has happened since the last one.
Lets start with the present day, then we'll move onto the past and then onto the future. Just because I want to.
Righto, well, last night I went with a friend to a live taping of MTV Live which was actually pretty cool. If you know me at all you'll know that last semester at uni I did a paper called Studio Production so of course I was interested in how shows like this were actually done compared to how we were taught in class. Surprisingly, it was very similar. The only difference was that everyone there knew what they were doing and we weren't really in a studio or anything - more like they just set up shop in a night club for the night. That place actually would make an awesome club. Anyways.... uhhh, actually, scrap that, I totally just lost my train of thought. I just got a call about organising accommodation this weekend (more on that later) so I kinda just forgot...what I was gonna...say.
Moving on. We went to see Brooke Fraser play live at the Mod Club last Friday night (cos you gotta support kiwi music right?) which was actually, to be honest was kinda disappointing. I'd never seen her live before but like, she didn't seem to want to be there that night. She also only made a fleeting comment about my flag (which I brought along - I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you?) and she pretty much just played her whole second album in it's entirety which I mean, is cool, I understand that she's trying to promote her 'new' album and whatnot but it would have been nice to hear some of her older stuff.... Anyways, after the gig I wanted her to sign my flag (I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you?) but apparently she left pretty much straight after the gig. And of course everyone we asked omitted this fact (except the one other kiwi guy in the band) so we ended up waiting around for like, 45 minutes for nothing.. The gig also finished just shy of 10pm which was kinda lame, but whatever, I wasn't really expecting an 11pm finish or anything like that. Most of our other friends though, were at another gig (Cut Copy and Presets) which didn't finish till way after ours did. So an early night it was. Which was fine, I mean, I wasn't really up for a big night anyways...
Saturday night we (attempted) to get into a rock club called 'tattoo'. I assume it was called this because of the tattoo parlour inside the club. That kinda fizzled out though, mainly cos we were still in line after midnight.... So I caught a taxi back home (aka the Primrose). Another uneventful night.
See? What did I tell you? Nothing much happens in Toronto. Also, uni work is starting to pile up for a lot of people now too which is understandable. I, for some reason don't seem to have much work to do and I keep getting the feeling that I actually might and don't know it.... You know that feeling right? It's not very nice. Not very reassuring.
And now onto some happier news. I finally have money in my Canadian bank account! Granted, it's only 13 cents but still! I'm happy. It means I'm making progress. On the advice of my wise sister, I set up two paypal accounts so I'm pretty much just paying myself money from my credit card into my Canadian account (which also means I get the true rewards dollars which is a bonus!). Anyways, this way I get to bypass all the security shit from my bank and it'll take almost the same amount of time to do it. Score. Thanks sis!
And now more happy news! We actually managed to get our shit together and this weekend we're headed to Montreal! All 20 of us... Man, I'll tell you what, it's hard organising 20 people but somehow we managed to do it. And, according to my calculations, it'll cost us a lot less than we thought to get there. We're looking at about $88 per person for travel and accommodation which I think is a bargain. But yeah, I don't think we're going out all of this week which is fine. It just means this weekend is gonna be huge. Huge like Canada.
Wow, ok, compared to my other posts, I think this one is a novella. But still, I'm sorry. I just get so carried away. It's one of my many flaws. Deal with it. God knows I do.
Just a quick update about whats been goin on in TO and whatnot. This (hopefully) won't be a novel like all my other posts because honestly, nothing major has happened since the last one.
Lets start with the present day, then we'll move onto the past and then onto the future. Just because I want to.
Righto, well, last night I went with a friend to a live taping of MTV Live which was actually pretty cool. If you know me at all you'll know that last semester at uni I did a paper called Studio Production so of course I was interested in how shows like this were actually done compared to how we were taught in class. Surprisingly, it was very similar. The only difference was that everyone there knew what they were doing and we weren't really in a studio or anything - more like they just set up shop in a night club for the night. That place actually would make an awesome club. Anyways.... uhhh, actually, scrap that, I totally just lost my train of thought. I just got a call about organising accommodation this weekend (more on that later) so I kinda just forgot...what I was gonna...say.
Moving on. We went to see Brooke Fraser play live at the Mod Club last Friday night (cos you gotta support kiwi music right?) which was actually, to be honest was kinda disappointing. I'd never seen her live before but like, she didn't seem to want to be there that night. She also only made a fleeting comment about my flag (which I brought along - I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you?) and she pretty much just played her whole second album in it's entirety which I mean, is cool, I understand that she's trying to promote her 'new' album and whatnot but it would have been nice to hear some of her older stuff.... Anyways, after the gig I wanted her to sign my flag (I mean, c'mon, wouldn't you?) but apparently she left pretty much straight after the gig. And of course everyone we asked omitted this fact (except the one other kiwi guy in the band) so we ended up waiting around for like, 45 minutes for nothing.. The gig also finished just shy of 10pm which was kinda lame, but whatever, I wasn't really expecting an 11pm finish or anything like that. Most of our other friends though, were at another gig (Cut Copy and Presets) which didn't finish till way after ours did. So an early night it was. Which was fine, I mean, I wasn't really up for a big night anyways...
Saturday night we (attempted) to get into a rock club called 'tattoo'. I assume it was called this because of the tattoo parlour inside the club. That kinda fizzled out though, mainly cos we were still in line after midnight.... So I caught a taxi back home (aka the Primrose). Another uneventful night.
See? What did I tell you? Nothing much happens in Toronto. Also, uni work is starting to pile up for a lot of people now too which is understandable. I, for some reason don't seem to have much work to do and I keep getting the feeling that I actually might and don't know it.... You know that feeling right? It's not very nice. Not very reassuring.
And now onto some happier news. I finally have money in my Canadian bank account! Granted, it's only 13 cents but still! I'm happy. It means I'm making progress. On the advice of my wise sister, I set up two paypal accounts so I'm pretty much just paying myself money from my credit card into my Canadian account (which also means I get the true rewards dollars which is a bonus!). Anyways, this way I get to bypass all the security shit from my bank and it'll take almost the same amount of time to do it. Score. Thanks sis!
And now more happy news! We actually managed to get our shit together and this weekend we're headed to Montreal! All 20 of us... Man, I'll tell you what, it's hard organising 20 people but somehow we managed to do it. And, according to my calculations, it'll cost us a lot less than we thought to get there. We're looking at about $88 per person for travel and accommodation which I think is a bargain. But yeah, I don't think we're going out all of this week which is fine. It just means this weekend is gonna be huge. Huge like Canada.
Wow, ok, compared to my other posts, I think this one is a novella. But still, I'm sorry. I just get so carried away. It's one of my many flaws. Deal with it. God knows I do.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Everything is normal. Uh-oh.
Ok, so I'm just hangin in my room right now waiting for the dryer to finish drying my stuff. I'm also waiting for my class to start at 3 (I have 2 back to back 3 hour lectures on Thursdays which really takes a lot out of you. It's probably the worst time to have a class cos I'm always tired and can't seem to learn anything after 5pm).
Anyways, yes, everything seems to be normal to me now. This is my life. It seems all the grandeur of travel and the excitement about being in Toronto has kinda faded. It seems, unspectacular now. Don't get me wrong though, I'm still having an amazing time but I've past the point know where you're all like 'woah, I can't believe I'm in (wherever you are)!' Now I'm all like, 'yeah, I live here, I study here, I party here. This is my home, so what?' I'm not sure how I feel about it though.
I think its part of culture shock though. I didn't really feel a lot of it though because there are so many similarities between here and home but apparently it can manifest itself in a lot of different ways. Before V-fest last weekend I bought myself a New Zealand flag to wear as a cape throughout the festival and a lot of Kiwi's were coming up to me which was cool. I guess they're drawn to it. I suppose I would be too. I've kind of become a bit more patriotic in the past few weeks. Most times when I introduce myself I'll say 'Hi, I'm Simon, I'm from New Zealand' - it's become a habit now which I suppose is a way for me to distinguish myself from everyone else. I also have now put up my NZ flag on my window so that everyone can see it. I dunno, I just bring up New Zealand whenever I can. I'm not sure why. Possibly so I don't get lost in the melting pot that is Canada.
Anyways, at V-fest we met a girl from the North Shore who's doing an exchange from Auckland Uni to a University in Montreal which was pretty cool. We're planning a trip next weekend but we only have space for 14 people. This is mainly because we only have 2 drivers and the biggest vehicles we can get are probably 7 seaters which is fine but we have 17 people on the list to come.... I'm not sure what we're gonna do about that but I'm sure we'll figure something out.... We figured that this would be slightly cheaper than taking a bus or train over (plus its only like, a 5-6 hour drive apparently)also, it would mean that we could go pretty much anywhere on our own which will be awesome. Just need to finalise everything and then we'll be good to go.
That is all.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
First day at school
So, my first day back at uni finally arrived today (after about 76 days of holiday). It felt good to get back to study actually but I'm kinda rusty at it right now I think. Anyways, my first and only class today was News and Current Affairs Theory. It seems like it'll be enjoyable and isn't too far away from what I was studying back home. Everyone kinda knew everyone else though (or at least one other person) and I knew no one. I'm sure most of you know that feeling. If you don't I'm sure you can imagine how it is.
The class itself was what you'd expect from a first class - ground rules, syllabus, introductions etc. That itself isn't new or weird but what is is that the lecture and the tutorial are kind of done one after the other which is why classes are like, 3 hours long or so (with a 10 minute break at the halfway point) so that will take some getting used to.
Also, part of the course is like, a 20 minute presentation about one of the key words or people on this list and we have to pair up and do it in front of the class like, 2 every week or whatever. So as soon as the class ended everyone ran up to the sign-up sheet and I was like 'well, I might as well just hang back and just take whatever is left' but when I got there there was nothing. Not even one space left. So obviously I went and spoke with the lecturer and she said that I could maybe do something about NZ news which could be kinda cool. Maybe comparing it to Canadian news or whatever. I still don't have a partner though which kinda sucks but apparently there's one person who didn't show up today so they might be there next week which is ok I guess. Like, I wouldn't mind doing the presentation on my own (just not a 20 minute one) so that's an option. And besides, if I did my presentation on NZ news like, my most likely Canadian partner would be like 'what the hell eh?' and that would make my job a lot harder.
Anyways, that was day one of uni. Not very exciting and also kinda disappointing (solely because of the reason above). Tonight I'm headed out to see a gig at a bar kinda out west which should be kinda cool. I wear glasses so for me it's cheaper. Who knew there wearing glasses had advantages??
The class itself was what you'd expect from a first class - ground rules, syllabus, introductions etc. That itself isn't new or weird but what is is that the lecture and the tutorial are kind of done one after the other which is why classes are like, 3 hours long or so (with a 10 minute break at the halfway point) so that will take some getting used to.
Also, part of the course is like, a 20 minute presentation about one of the key words or people on this list and we have to pair up and do it in front of the class like, 2 every week or whatever. So as soon as the class ended everyone ran up to the sign-up sheet and I was like 'well, I might as well just hang back and just take whatever is left' but when I got there there was nothing. Not even one space left. So obviously I went and spoke with the lecturer and she said that I could maybe do something about NZ news which could be kinda cool. Maybe comparing it to Canadian news or whatever. I still don't have a partner though which kinda sucks but apparently there's one person who didn't show up today so they might be there next week which is ok I guess. Like, I wouldn't mind doing the presentation on my own (just not a 20 minute one) so that's an option. And besides, if I did my presentation on NZ news like, my most likely Canadian partner would be like 'what the hell eh?' and that would make my job a lot harder.
Anyways, that was day one of uni. Not very exciting and also kinda disappointing (solely because of the reason above). Tonight I'm headed out to see a gig at a bar kinda out west which should be kinda cool. I wear glasses so for me it's cheaper. Who knew there wearing glasses had advantages??
Monday, September 1, 2008
Finally in my own space
Right now I'm sitting in my new room (which is amazing by the way) just waiting for my washing to be done. I'm pretty sure it's gonna take a while but that's cool. Today I'm just chillin which is a nice change. I don't really have a choice though cos today it's labour day in Canada. It's a good opportunity to unpack and get all my stuff sorted though. You have no idea how good it feels to finally just unpack all my things and just stay. Like, this is my home now (for the next few months anyways). So yeah, pretty much all my stuff needs to be washed which is kinda lame, especially since the washing machines here are kinda small and I don't have enough change to do another load.... (well, I do but I need a loonie and 2 quarters cos that's all it'll accept). I also didn't think about money for the dryer....
Anyways, here's a video of my new room. It's pretty sweet except like, my desk is slightly to big so the door of the cupboard in which my fridge/ freezer is concealed doesn't open fully. I had to move the desk across slightly (as much as I could anyway) so now my fridge/ freezer can open properly. It is also lame cos I have to open the fridge and freezer doors like, backwards so I have to lean over the door to get stuff....
Anyways, I thought I'd recap the last 10 days or so since arriving in Toronto (as much as I can remember anyways ahahaha). Ah, right, sorry, just had to check what my last post was about seeing as it's been so long since I did one. Ok, here we go.
So I arrived in Toronto on the train at about 8.30pm which was more or less right on time. I was kinda glad it was after stories I heard about it being as much as 12 hours late. On the very last day actually the manager I guess you'd call her told us that we'd be about 3 hours late because of a backlog in freight trains but apparently the engineers knew nothing about it so everyone was getting kinda antsy about that. It was ok though, it was just a mistake on the part of the dispatcher in Winnipeg.
Uhh, yeah, anyways, after picking up my backpack and meeting my sister at the station we headed down to the ferry to the house where we were staying for a few days. Our sister's friend and her boyfriend kindly let us stay for a few days which was cool. We were staying in the attic which was totally awesome except it creaked whenever we took a step. But this attic was like, the ones in the movies, y'know, like the ones with the pull-down stairs and everything! I was kinda scared going up and down the stairs though, mainly cos they creaked as well when you went up or down them as if they were going to break.
During the stay on the island we could'nt really stay out too late cos the last ferry was at 11.15 so we didn't really do much. We checked out the Buskerfest which was pretty cool. My sister and I also went to a Cirque du Soleil show for free and went backstage which was also amazing. It was the first one I'd been to ever so it was amazing sight to see. Apparently this particular show is one of the oldest running ones (like, 16 years) and now I'm like, super keen to catch another one the next time I can. We managed to score tickets and backstage passes because our cousin works for the show and we all happened to be in the same place at the same time which is kinda cool. Didn't manage to get a photo though which is kinda sad but it's cool I guess.
Oh, yeah, we also went to Niagara Falls which was simply amazing. The Maid of the Mist boat was probably the biggest highlight of the whole thing. The lowlight was most definitely the 'winery tour'. By that they mean a quick 15 miour of a winery's shop with a chance to sample either a small glass of red or white wine and an opportunity to buy wine. Lame. They whole thing was kinda quick though. 5 minutes in one place, 5 minutes in another. "Get on the maid of the mist and then come straight back to the bus - no time for looking in the gift shop. Just get the fuck out of there." (Ok, he didn't say that last bit exactly but y'know, thats what it kinda felt like). But as interesting as the history of the Falls is and how amazing the Falls actually are there are only so many photos you can take of itnute t! I must have taken one from every angle possible. We even decided to up the Skylon Tower which cost us an extra $12 dollars which was fine but like, we couldn't make up our minds about going or not (obviously we did). But working in a place with a tower back home we were all like (or I was anyway) 'You've seen one tower you've seen 'em all'. Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't been up the CN Tower yet (plus apparently it's like, super expensive).
Before and after the Maid of the Mist
My sister and I also went to visit some relatives who live close to Toronto. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but originally I was meant to visit them on my own but I kinda dragged my sister into it as well ahaha. Take that, Lian! Nah, it was pretty cool actually. They were really nice and I finally managed to get rid of that bloody present I brought all the way from NZ. They took us out to dinner at this chinese buffet place which like, seriously kicks Fortuna's ass! Like, 6 rows of food and seats like, 600+ and chinese! We also went back to their place for haircuts which was awesome but we were there till after midnight and I was kinda tired. We had also missed the last bus back so they drove us back to our backpackers.
The next night their daughter and her husband took us out for dinner which was nice. They were supposed to be there the night before but had to take care of some things in their new house or something. Anyways, they were really nice too and were like 'if you ever want to go out or something then just give us a call'.
I think that was pretty much it until "frosh week" (aka O week) where I met a lot of other cool international students from all around the world (well, mostly from around Europe and Australia but y'know). I also managed to get all my uni stuff sorted which is good. After that things just turned into one big, 4 day party. The details of which I will not divulge at this point in time. So yeah, I've made friends already which is really cool. A lot of us are staying at the Primrose too which is REALLY cool. like, for those 4 nights I ended up crashing in my friend's room at the Primrose cos I was still at the backpackers until yesterday morning and it wasn't really worth going all the way to the other side of town to sleep. Also, the room at the Primrose is a LOT better than the backpackers anyways.
So today I'm just hangin in my room, catching up on everything and stuff. Might be going out later to a BBQ then going to see The Dark Knight again which will be cool.
Right, I think my washing is done. I'll catch you guys later
Anyways, here's a video of my new room. It's pretty sweet except like, my desk is slightly to big so the door of the cupboard in which my fridge/ freezer is concealed doesn't open fully. I had to move the desk across slightly (as much as I could anyway) so now my fridge/ freezer can open properly. It is also lame cos I have to open the fridge and freezer doors like, backwards so I have to lean over the door to get stuff....
Anyways, I thought I'd recap the last 10 days or so since arriving in Toronto (as much as I can remember anyways ahahaha). Ah, right, sorry, just had to check what my last post was about seeing as it's been so long since I did one. Ok, here we go.
So I arrived in Toronto on the train at about 8.30pm which was more or less right on time. I was kinda glad it was after stories I heard about it being as much as 12 hours late. On the very last day actually the manager I guess you'd call her told us that we'd be about 3 hours late because of a backlog in freight trains but apparently the engineers knew nothing about it so everyone was getting kinda antsy about that. It was ok though, it was just a mistake on the part of the dispatcher in Winnipeg.
Uhh, yeah, anyways, after picking up my backpack and meeting my sister at the station we headed down to the ferry to the house where we were staying for a few days. Our sister's friend and her boyfriend kindly let us stay for a few days which was cool. We were staying in the attic which was totally awesome except it creaked whenever we took a step. But this attic was like, the ones in the movies, y'know, like the ones with the pull-down stairs and everything! I was kinda scared going up and down the stairs though, mainly cos they creaked as well when you went up or down them as if they were going to break.
During the stay on the island we could'nt really stay out too late cos the last ferry was at 11.15 so we didn't really do much. We checked out the Buskerfest which was pretty cool. My sister and I also went to a Cirque du Soleil show for free and went backstage which was also amazing. It was the first one I'd been to ever so it was amazing sight to see. Apparently this particular show is one of the oldest running ones (like, 16 years) and now I'm like, super keen to catch another one the next time I can. We managed to score tickets and backstage passes because our cousin works for the show and we all happened to be in the same place at the same time which is kinda cool. Didn't manage to get a photo though which is kinda sad but it's cool I guess.
Oh, yeah, we also went to Niagara Falls which was simply amazing. The Maid of the Mist boat was probably the biggest highlight of the whole thing. The lowlight was most definitely the 'winery tour'. By that they mean a quick 15 miour of a winery's shop with a chance to sample either a small glass of red or white wine and an opportunity to buy wine. Lame. They whole thing was kinda quick though. 5 minutes in one place, 5 minutes in another. "Get on the maid of the mist and then come straight back to the bus - no time for looking in the gift shop. Just get the fuck out of there." (Ok, he didn't say that last bit exactly but y'know, thats what it kinda felt like). But as interesting as the history of the Falls is and how amazing the Falls actually are there are only so many photos you can take of itnute t! I must have taken one from every angle possible. We even decided to up the Skylon Tower which cost us an extra $12 dollars which was fine but like, we couldn't make up our minds about going or not (obviously we did). But working in a place with a tower back home we were all like (or I was anyway) 'You've seen one tower you've seen 'em all'. Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't been up the CN Tower yet (plus apparently it's like, super expensive).
Before and after the Maid of the Mist
My sister and I also went to visit some relatives who live close to Toronto. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but originally I was meant to visit them on my own but I kinda dragged my sister into it as well ahaha. Take that, Lian! Nah, it was pretty cool actually. They were really nice and I finally managed to get rid of that bloody present I brought all the way from NZ. They took us out to dinner at this chinese buffet place which like, seriously kicks Fortuna's ass! Like, 6 rows of food and seats like, 600+ and chinese! We also went back to their place for haircuts which was awesome but we were there till after midnight and I was kinda tired. We had also missed the last bus back so they drove us back to our backpackers.
The next night their daughter and her husband took us out for dinner which was nice. They were supposed to be there the night before but had to take care of some things in their new house or something. Anyways, they were really nice too and were like 'if you ever want to go out or something then just give us a call'.
I think that was pretty much it until "frosh week" (aka O week) where I met a lot of other cool international students from all around the world (well, mostly from around Europe and Australia but y'know). I also managed to get all my uni stuff sorted which is good. After that things just turned into one big, 4 day party. The details of which I will not divulge at this point in time. So yeah, I've made friends already which is really cool. A lot of us are staying at the Primrose too which is REALLY cool. like, for those 4 nights I ended up crashing in my friend's room at the Primrose cos I was still at the backpackers until yesterday morning and it wasn't really worth going all the way to the other side of town to sleep. Also, the room at the Primrose is a LOT better than the backpackers anyways.
So today I'm just hangin in my room, catching up on everything and stuff. Might be going out later to a BBQ then going to see The Dark Knight again which will be cool.
Right, I think my washing is done. I'll catch you guys later
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bloggin' on a train
Right, so, seeing as I don’t have internet access like I thought I would on the train from Vancouver to Toronto I’m kinda writing this in Word and then I’m totally gonna CTRL C and then CTRL V this sucker when I get a chance.
I’ve just been asked to changed times AGAIN. I seriously don’t understand this whole time changing thing - mostly cos it can be pretty confusing. Well, its super confusing actually, I have no idea what time it is right now.... That’s probably one of the hardest things to get used to. I suppose though that once I get into Toronto which will, essentially be my new home, I won’t have to change times again until I leave. I just have to make sure I have the right time as soon as I get there (which is about 24 hours from now! Woop woop). Not taking into consideration the delays that will, according to the stories of people who have taken the train, most likely occur. I’ve overheard people say that their train was up to about 12 hours late which is pretty crazy, luckily mine has only been about 1 or maybe 2 hours behind at the most. I mean, they try to make up the time by going faster when they can but it seems like it’s a lot easier to lose time than to gain it back so hopefully I won’t be too late getting into Toronto.... especially considering that my sister is picking me up from the station and the last ferry is at 11.15pm I think.
Anyway, the trip so far has been pretty cool. I’ve now officially been through five Canadian provinces (or states?) I got on in Vancouver which is in British Columbia which was really mountainous and awesome but as we kept going on into Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba (especially Manitoba) it was kinda flatsville. There weren’t any hills let alone mountains. Actually, most of it reminded me of NZ just because most of Manitoba is like, farmland with cows and whatnot. Apparently there are buffalo hangin’ around there but I didn’t see any.... heading into Ontario though there’s a lot of forest and lakes on either side of the train which are equally as beautiful but it gets super annoying cos whenever I want to take a photo of like, the lakes or mountains or whatever, by the time I get my camera out and turned out there are frickin trees blocking the way! If not trees than big ass rocks.
Up until the stop in Winnipeg, the official halfway point, the trip was pretty fun. I met some couple cool people and the train was relatively empty. Although I was made to move from my seat when we first boarded the train to make room for a family of 4 which was a little annoying at first but I ended up spending most of my time in the lounge/ dining car anyway which is where it was at. I think I could actually live in that car. It’s got everything: lounge, kitchen, dining room – you’d just have to replace the seats in the dome up top for beds cos sleeping on the train isn’t too comfortable. I DID however, find a little nook in the lounge car which is sort of hidden away, it’s like, the curved section of the couch which is just by the staircase going up to the dome. The first night actually, I slept in the top of the car in the observation dome. In retrospect that was kind of a bad idea seeing as during the night it turns into a freezer. During the day it’s all well and good but when it gets dark it gets super cold. The air con is on full all day everyday or else the kitchen gets super hot and there only one control panel for the whole car so.....
Umm, yes, I met some cool people on the first leg of the trip but this second leg from Winnipeg has been pretty shit to be honest. Everyone I met got off at Edmonton or Winnipeg and a lot of extra people have come on board since then. There’s also a lot of kids and obviously a lot less space. They had a crew change at Winnipeg as well which was sad. That particular crew in comparison to the one now was a hell of a lot friendlier.
I’ve also been experiencing internet withdrawal. Not as bad as I thought it would be but still, I kinda need to check my emails etc for important stuff like, stuff for uni and from my cousin about plans for Toronto which I’m forced to assume have not changed significantly or at all. I mean, I’m not saying there was any doubt around it just that maybe in the last few days something may have come up or whatever...
About an hour or 2 ago we stopped at Sioux Lookout which is a tiny little station on the lakefront. We had a choice to get out here for a bit while people got off/on and while the train refuelled. I can tell you, it wasn’t the best station to stop at. The platform ended like, 6 carriages or so past the one that I was on and so it mostly looked like we stopped randomly in the middle of nowhere. It seemed just like one of those many tiny towns that you get in the middle of nowheresville. Anyway, it’s starting to get dark now and my new home (aka the lounge car) is not relatively empty. Woot. That means that (assuming there are no major delays) this will be my last night on the train. That’s a comforting thought I suppose considering the conditions I’ve slept in over the last few nights. I’m also looking forward to a shower and not moving so much so fast.
All up though, it’s been a good trip so far. The scenery has been amazing; so many completely different landscapes in one single country. It’s also been really warm which is good. I think I have a tan which is the good news; bad news is that I have major tan lines on my arms now...
*EDIT: ok, so the rest of the trip went pretty well. I spent the last night back in the freezer (aka the dome car) mostly cos there were a lot of people in the lounge car when I wanted to sleep. I got into Toronto on time which was surprising considering the stories I heard.Sunday, August 17, 2008
Sitting in my hotel room
Hey guys,
It's Sunday which officially means I've been in Canada for a week now. That also means that I have a train to catch tonight. Right now I'm just sitting in my hotel room packing all my stuff back up so I can check out. I also have no idea what I'll do today. Just wander around I suppose.
I kinda ran out of things to do yesterday. I was kinda pushed for ideas of what to do so I ended up going back to Stanley Park via the Robson Street public markets which was kinda not what I expected. Nothing like the Lonsdale markets or the Granville Island markets. There just wasn't much there at all....
Anyway, the reason I was going back to Stanley Park was to go to the aquarium. It was pretty sweet. I heard that they had a Beluga whale who had just had a baby so I kinda wanted to see that. There was also and Amazon area which obviously had fish from the Amazon but they also had like, a butterfly house which was cool. It also had a sloth in it! That was pretty awesome. And totally unexpected at an aquarium, well, for me anyway.
Ok, I guess I'll go check out now. I still have no idea what I'm gonna do till I need to catch my train....
It's Sunday which officially means I've been in Canada for a week now. That also means that I have a train to catch tonight. Right now I'm just sitting in my hotel room packing all my stuff back up so I can check out. I also have no idea what I'll do today. Just wander around I suppose.
I kinda ran out of things to do yesterday. I was kinda pushed for ideas of what to do so I ended up going back to Stanley Park via the Robson Street public markets which was kinda not what I expected. Nothing like the Lonsdale markets or the Granville Island markets. There just wasn't much there at all....
Anyway, the reason I was going back to Stanley Park was to go to the aquarium. It was pretty sweet. I heard that they had a Beluga whale who had just had a baby so I kinda wanted to see that. There was also and Amazon area which obviously had fish from the Amazon but they also had like, a butterfly house which was cool. It also had a sloth in it! That was pretty awesome. And totally unexpected at an aquarium, well, for me anyway.
Ok, I guess I'll go check out now. I still have no idea what I'm gonna do till I need to catch my train....
Friday, August 15, 2008
Vancouver - Day 6
I didn't really have a plan for today but there were a few things that I wanted to see and/or do. Tim Horton's was the first. My sister told me to go but the first time I went I kinda freaked out and just left. Well, I didn't really freak out, it was just that I didn't know what to order or do. But anyway, I went in this morning and actually left really happy. I think I'll go back tomorrow.
I also wanted to see the Gastown steam clock which is one of the big attractions in the city. It was pretty impressive. Steam comes out of it the whole time but it makes noises every 15 minutes. I was lucky enough to stumble upon it just a few minutes before it made noises etc.
Chinatown was next on the list. Gastown and Chinatown are pretty close together but I somehow managed to end up walking along the back streets between the two districts. I saw a lot of what you'd expect to see in that kinda area and I was kinda getting freaked out. Anyway, I spent most of the day wandering around Chinatown which appeared to be mostly Chinese grocers, all of which were selling pretty much the same thing and from what I could tell, pretty much the same price. I was totally ready to speak the little Cantonese I knew but everyone was speaking English or looking at me like a tourist... I also went to the Dr Sun Yat-Sen park which was really nice (and free) but I also went to the Garden which actually cost money. The Garden was also nice, albeit but less interesting.
The Vancouver Lookout (which I suppose is Vancouver's answer to the Skytower) was a good way to get my bearings of the city and the way I found the Marine building. The Lookout is cheaper though ($13) but that's like, an all day pass which is a lot more than I can say for my old workplace.
I've also noticed that I've been having to use my map less and less now. Everything is becoming more familiar which is great. Especially considering that I'm leaving in a few days.... but hopefully, I'll be able to map out downtown Toronto in the same amount of time or even less . That'll mean that by the time Uni starts I wont have to waste valuable study time getting lost!
I also wanted to see the Gastown steam clock which is one of the big attractions in the city. It was pretty impressive. Steam comes out of it the whole time but it makes noises every 15 minutes. I was lucky enough to stumble upon it just a few minutes before it made noises etc.
Chinatown was next on the list. Gastown and Chinatown are pretty close together but I somehow managed to end up walking along the back streets between the two districts. I saw a lot of what you'd expect to see in that kinda area and I was kinda getting freaked out. Anyway, I spent most of the day wandering around Chinatown which appeared to be mostly Chinese grocers, all of which were selling pretty much the same thing and from what I could tell, pretty much the same price. I was totally ready to speak the little Cantonese I knew but everyone was speaking English or looking at me like a tourist... I also went to the Dr Sun Yat-Sen park which was really nice (and free) but I also went to the Garden which actually cost money. The Garden was also nice, albeit but less interesting.
The Vancouver Lookout (which I suppose is Vancouver's answer to the Skytower) was a good way to get my bearings of the city and the way I found the Marine building. The Lookout is cheaper though ($13) but that's like, an all day pass which is a lot more than I can say for my old workplace.
I've also noticed that I've been having to use my map less and less now. Everything is becoming more familiar which is great. Especially considering that I'm leaving in a few days.... but hopefully, I'll be able to map out downtown Toronto in the same amount of time or even less . That'll mean that by the time Uni starts I wont have to waste valuable study time getting lost!
Whistler: no clouds, no wind, just sun
Holy crap Whistler was hot! I couldn't tell just how hot is was on the bus there, mostly on account of the air conditioning (if you're thinking that I've been traveling in style, I haven't. I was on a Greyhound bus). Apparently it was about 31 degrees and with hardly any wind and no clouds at all you could feel every degree of it. So much so that I decided to cut my trip short by a few hours (also because there was nothing much to do around there). I mean, the place is beautiful - I would expect nothing less from the primary location for the Winter Olympics but it's not really for me I guess. There's a lot of extreme sports to take part in, plus a lot of fine dining restaurants but that's not really my scene. I suppose I would have also stayed longer though if the weather was cooler, and if you didn't have to pay extra for everything. This is why I really preferred Grouse Mountain. Y'know, besides the altitude sickness.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Things I've noticed about Canada/ Canadians
- They really like their water fountains
- There are Canadian flags EVERYWHERE
- They are, for the most part very active people. Well, people in Vancouver are anyway, I'm not sure about everyone else
- They also seem to like their rock music.
-There are also lots of homeless people
-90% of Vancouver is currently under construction
This has been 'Things I've noticed about Canada/ Canadians
- There are Canadian flags EVERYWHERE
- They are, for the most part very active people. Well, people in Vancouver are anyway, I'm not sure about everyone else
- They also seem to like their rock music.
-There are also lots of homeless people
-90% of Vancouver is currently under construction
This has been 'Things I've noticed about Canada/ Canadians
Vancouver - Day 4
So, to make up for yesterday I went longer, harder and more hardcore today. More photos, more walking, more eating.
I caught the ferry across to Granville Island Markets which was pretty cool. There definitely should be something like that in Auckland (or if there is, someone should tell me about it!) I didn't buy much though, I'm obviously not in the market for buying seafood/ meat/ fruits and veges etc.
After getting back I decided to walk along the sea wall which goes around Stanley Park which I didn't think was that long, like, 3kms or something. I walked for at least 6 before I gave up. I realised about half way that it went ALL around the park which is like, 1000 hectares. I would have gladly walked the whole way but I was afraid it would get dark before I finished.
Yeah, so besides all that walking and picture taking nothing much happened.
Umm, I also just booked a ticket to Whistler in the morning. I actually was planning to go on Friday but by accident somehow managed to book it for 8am Thursday, which right now is about 7 and a half hours away. It's a 2 and 3/4 hour trip each way so I'd better get packing/ sleeping.
Good thing I have nothing planned for the rest of the week....
I caught the ferry across to Granville Island Markets which was pretty cool. There definitely should be something like that in Auckland (or if there is, someone should tell me about it!) I didn't buy much though, I'm obviously not in the market for buying seafood/ meat/ fruits and veges etc.
After getting back I decided to walk along the sea wall which goes around Stanley Park which I didn't think was that long, like, 3kms or something. I walked for at least 6 before I gave up. I realised about half way that it went ALL around the park which is like, 1000 hectares. I would have gladly walked the whole way but I was afraid it would get dark before I finished.
Yeah, so besides all that walking and picture taking nothing much happened.
Umm, I also just booked a ticket to Whistler in the morning. I actually was planning to go on Friday but by accident somehow managed to book it for 8am Thursday, which right now is about 7 and a half hours away. It's a 2 and 3/4 hour trip each way so I'd better get packing/ sleeping.
Good thing I have nothing planned for the rest of the week....
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Vancouver, days 2 and 3
I'm feeling a little sick today so I didn't really go too far from my hotel room. I went to Chinatown again but that's about it. I've got a major headache from yesterday when I went to Grouse Mountain. I thought that was just from the high altitude (11 000 feet) but apparently not. I'm also super tired and have been going to the bathroom A LOT. I'm not sure what's causing/ caused it but I think it may have been the fruit that I bought at Lonsdale Market yesterday but I dunno, it could have been anything I ate yesterday for all I know.
So seeing as I'm not doing anything today I might as well tell you about what happened yesterday. Well, the plan was to go to Grouse Mountain which is one of the locations for the upcoming winter Olympics in 2010. It's also a popular spot during the non-winter months for biking and hiking and just hangin out. I pretty much had a headache the whole time probably because of the high altitude which didn't feel good, I was also moving kinda slow as you can probably imagine. Grouse Mountain was a pretty cool place. I got to see birds of prey and some black bears (there were also timberwolves but I didn't have time to go see them...) but I had SO many problems getting there.
Firstly, I woke up late that morning. That was mainly cos my alarm didn't go off. Anyway, after panicking and rushing to get out the door I kinda decided to walk to Stanley Park which is like, 18 blocks from my hotel. I thought I could get to Grouse Mountain from there but apparently not. Of course I didn't realise this until I got there..... So I kinda wasted a lot of time there. I also kinda got lost on the way which wasted a lot more time but I decided to catch the bus the rest of the way but the bus driver decided not to charge me cos it was pretty close which was nice.
After realising the error of my ways (i.e. I was in the completely wrong place and had spent ages trying to get there) I started to make my way down to the Seabus Terminal. By this time it was getting pretty hot and I'd been walking for ages to get to Stanley Park. I now had to turn back around and follow the waterfront to find the frickin' Seabus Terminal which took longer than expected. Seriously, if you think I'm just being a wuss then look at a map! I walked pretty much from one end of the CBD to the other and back again! I was actually walking so much that I felt like throwing up. I didn't though.
The trip on the Seabus/Ferry was kinda like the ferry you take from Auckland to Devonport. It didn't take that long and the view was pretty good. Before I knew it I was in North Vancouver and was like 'where... the hell... am I?' I honestly had no idea if I was actually in the right place...
Anyways, long story short, I looked around the market; caught a bus *gasp* -didn't pay *double gasp* hung around Grouse Mountain for a few hours then came back the exact same way.
Oh, and before you judge me even more I paid for the bus on the return trip.
So seeing as I'm not doing anything today I might as well tell you about what happened yesterday. Well, the plan was to go to Grouse Mountain which is one of the locations for the upcoming winter Olympics in 2010. It's also a popular spot during the non-winter months for biking and hiking and just hangin out. I pretty much had a headache the whole time probably because of the high altitude which didn't feel good, I was also moving kinda slow as you can probably imagine. Grouse Mountain was a pretty cool place. I got to see birds of prey and some black bears (there were also timberwolves but I didn't have time to go see them...) but I had SO many problems getting there.
Firstly, I woke up late that morning. That was mainly cos my alarm didn't go off. Anyway, after panicking and rushing to get out the door I kinda decided to walk to Stanley Park which is like, 18 blocks from my hotel. I thought I could get to Grouse Mountain from there but apparently not. Of course I didn't realise this until I got there..... So I kinda wasted a lot of time there. I also kinda got lost on the way which wasted a lot more time but I decided to catch the bus the rest of the way but the bus driver decided not to charge me cos it was pretty close which was nice.
After realising the error of my ways (i.e. I was in the completely wrong place and had spent ages trying to get there) I started to make my way down to the Seabus Terminal. By this time it was getting pretty hot and I'd been walking for ages to get to Stanley Park. I now had to turn back around and follow the waterfront to find the frickin' Seabus Terminal which took longer than expected. Seriously, if you think I'm just being a wuss then look at a map! I walked pretty much from one end of the CBD to the other and back again! I was actually walking so much that I felt like throwing up. I didn't though.
The trip on the Seabus/Ferry was kinda like the ferry you take from Auckland to Devonport. It didn't take that long and the view was pretty good. Before I knew it I was in North Vancouver and was like 'where... the hell... am I?' I honestly had no idea if I was actually in the right place...
Anyways, long story short, I looked around the market; caught a bus *gasp* -didn't pay *double gasp* hung around Grouse Mountain for a few hours then came back the exact same way.
Oh, and before you judge me even more I paid for the bus on the return trip.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
This blog actually makes sense now!
I just arrived in Vancouver (and boy was it a long trip)! The flight from Auckland to Sydney went without a hitch. It was a pretty standard flight, nothing particularly exciting but it takes longer than you think. I mean, if you look at the distance between Australia and New Zealand it doesn't look that far but actually, it kinda is.
Anyways, pretty much as soon as I got into Sydney airport and through customs (again) (like, seriously, I just got off a plane, they checked me before I boarded. Where would I get any prohibited items?? Is New Zealand customs not good enough for you??) I had to rush to catch my next flight.
At the start, the flight to Vancouver seemed like it would be cool. Y'know, the seats are fitted out with touch screens and have a lot of movies you can watch, some pretty recent ones too (Iron Man, Prince Caspian, Kung Fu Panda, Batman Begins) and also stuff like, Aladdin too. I was in the middle of like, a three seater which was kinda lame. But like, as the flight wore on I got so annoyed with everything. The flight was long, the food wasn't great, I had no idea what time it was or where we were geographically and when I looked out the window it didn't look like we were going anywhere. It was almost as if we were just sitting in one of those simulation cabins that they use for training or whatnot. So yeah, time seemed to go super slow, like, half as slow as usual. I watched like, 5 movies and some TV shows and I swear, not more than an hour passed after each movie. I was getting really irritable by this stage, like, no one was telling us where we were or how much further we had to go and also, the map on the touch screen didn't even work! Gosh.
The plane itself though is nice enough (unlike Air NZ) but the service on Air NZ is a lot better. I mean, its all very well if you have a nice plane but if you don't have the service/ food to match it doesn't really matter.
So yeah, the taxi ride to the hotel was kinda interesting. I automatically went to get into the left hand side of the car but of course they driver is on that side in Canada. Lol. But yeah, there were a lot of roadworks/ construction going on, especially around the airport. There's a lot of that going on here actually. They're gearing up for the Winter Olympics in 2010 I suppose.
Upon arrival to my hotel I just had a quick check of my email etc and had a shower and then went straight out to explore the city. It reminds me kinda like Auckland and Wellington combined. Most of the streets are in grids so its not too hard to lose yourself. It's kinda like a big small town though. Most of the streets are kinda empty and there aren't many people or cars. Maybe it's just cos it's Sunday or something, I don't know. Most of the people though appear to be tourists which is interesting.
Also, the driving here is kinda crazy. That's what I noticed first. They don't really seem to indicate and like, the buzzer thing which tells people when to cross goes automatically whether or not people are there. Also, people don't seem to jaywalk which I is fine, it's safer anyway, but like, I'm fighting all my urges to do it cos I do it all the time at home. I'm not sure if it's an punishable offence or not. Also, driving on the other side blows my mind. Like, everything I've learned about driving has kinda been tipped upside down. I think now when I get home I'm gonna be super confused (moreso that I was initially).
Yeah, so I went exploring today. I didn't really know what I was doing or where I was going but I thought I'd just hang out for a bit. I planned on planning my week, or at least my first day in Vancouver on the plane but that didn't happened so.... yeah. Oh, and also, time seems to go really slow around here. I don't know why. I went out for what seemed like 4 or 5 hours but like, it had only been about 3. Crazy. The other thing that I noticed, and you might also notice if you check out my photos is that the Canadian flag is everywhere. On buildings, on cars, on backpacks, on boats. I can see one right now from my room. Besides that everything seems pretty normal, like, not really being in a foreign country, more like being in another part of NZ or summin'.
So I think the plan for tonight is go out for some dinner, check out Vancouver at night and then plan the rest of the week, if not then for tomorrow.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I should be packing right now....
But instead I'm writing this post. Don't get me wrong, I've STARTED packing but I have absolutely no idea what to take and I have a feeling the pack that I bought may be slightly too small for all my stuff. Or is it? Maybe I'm just taking too much stuff? Who knows. Not me. I've only done this once before - about four years ago when I went on a school trip to Japan which was only for 2 weeks. This time around I'm going for 6 months so I'm not too sure if I have enough or not cos it seems that I'm taking more or less the same amount of stuff as i did when I went to Japan. Also, I planned on buying stuff in Canada as I need it (i.e. shoes, jackets etc) mainly cos I didn't want to buy it here and then waste the space in my relatively small pack plus the stuff over there would hopefully be better fitted to their environment. This means I would also have to bring back another bag full of stuff. Either that or wear all the excess stuff on the plane back. I also just realised that I don't have room for my toiletries so now I am doubly screwed. I guess it's true what they say about packing stuff. I should probably be more strategic and calculating and not wing it like I normally do things.
Any advice?
Oh, and I'm also leaving in 1 and a half days. Woop woop. I dunno, it's just starting to feel like it's just gonna be a normal day. Therefore I'm not overly excited about it. Well, I AM excited about going overseas and whatnot but I guess it's just the actual day of the leaving doesn't feel too special.
I had my leaving party last night too. It was pretty much awesome and it was good to see all my Uni friends before I leave but there were a few notable absences which kinda made me sad. They were probably the people I would have wanted to see the most before I go (sorry if anyone who was there last night is reading this (does ANYONE read this?? ahahaha)) but I guess that's how things happen right?
Anyway, I suppose I should get back to it. This thing ain't gonna pack itself. As much as I want it to...
Any advice?
Oh, and I'm also leaving in 1 and a half days. Woop woop. I dunno, it's just starting to feel like it's just gonna be a normal day. Therefore I'm not overly excited about it. Well, I AM excited about going overseas and whatnot but I guess it's just the actual day of the leaving doesn't feel too special.
I had my leaving party last night too. It was pretty much awesome and it was good to see all my Uni friends before I leave but there were a few notable absences which kinda made me sad. They were probably the people I would have wanted to see the most before I go (sorry if anyone who was there last night is reading this (does ANYONE read this?? ahahaha)) but I guess that's how things happen right?
Anyway, I suppose I should get back to it. This thing ain't gonna pack itself. As much as I want it to...
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Packing up my worldly belongings
Ok, there's a lot I want to cover this post so lets jump right in shall we?
I've been out all weekend going to parties etc (a 21st on Friday and a leaving party on Saturday followed by dinner with the family on Sunday). They were all actually super fun and it's really the first time in a long time that I could go out on the weekend and not worry about going to work the next day which is nice. Sarah's leaving party was good but I didn't stay too long, on account of my restricted license and that I didn't really know anyone there. It was then that it kinda hit me that though I'm leaving soon she's leaving sooner. She left this afternoon for Denmark but from what she told me on Saturday she has a lot of stops and transfers and whatnot. Luckily for me I only have one. Sarah, if you're reading this, good luck and god speed.
I finally also have a vague plan of what I'm doing in the first 2 weeks of my trip. I'm spending the week in Vancouver doing the touristy things and then going on a train cross country to Toronto where I'll be meeting my sister and possibly my cousin for a bit of a family reunion and then traveling with my sister down to Niagara Falls and possibly going to visit a relative who I still have no idea who it is. We'll then come back up to Toronto cos Orientation week starts on the 25th for the whole week and then the week after I actually start studying. I'll probably be kinda rusty after not having to do it for like, 3 months or so... so yeah, that's the plan as far as I know.
I also bought some travel guides to Toronto and Vancouver which will give me some ideas of what to do with my time so I don't waste any of it. Hopefully they'll be worth the price I paid for it...talk about extortionist prices. Gosh. If anything though they'll probably be a good souvenir of my adventure.
So I started to pack up all my things into boxes yesterday when I realised I didn't have any to put all my stuff in. So off I went to my local stationer looking to buy some boxes in which I could fit all of my worldly possessions. You'd think they'd be pretty inexpensive right? Wrong. Extortionists, the lot of 'em! It also started raining on the way to the car so the ink on my pretty blue boxes started running and I became 'Simon partially blue hand' which didn't make me feel much better, especially after all the money I forked out on those boxes.
So anyway, I get home and make up box number 1 which is right now holding my books/ folders from High School along with a lot of other paper. After filling said box I go to pick it up to move it (as you do) and the bottom totally falls out causing all of my stuff to fall onto the floor. Frickin' boxes. This was the one that bore the brunt of the rain as I was walking to the car so it got super wet, well, not super wet but wetter than the others. The sacrificial box so to speak. I had to go into the garage and find some tape to tape up my box but the stuff that I found didn't really hold it together too well. I was totally over it by then so I just wrote a note on it to anyone who wants to move it when I'm gone. You've officially been warned. So anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that rain (or water in general) is the natural enemy of the cardboard box.
All the other boxes are fine though. They're holding everything that they're supposed to but when I was picking them up I held them by the bottom just in case.
Who knew pretty much everything I own could fit into four boxes?
Below are pictures of how my room is right now. It looks pretty much the same cos most of the stuff that I packed away was hidden in drawers anyway. (click pics to enlarge)
1 - The boxes which hold most of my stuff
2- My noticeboard which has finally been cleared
3 - That's where all my DVD's were
4 - Contained a lot of random stuff. Past exam papers, payslips, work stuff etc.
Oh, and you can also kinda see the 'Mac's Brewery' sign that I stole from work (underneath No. 2). People kept looking at me weirdly when I took it home on the bus.
1 - This is where all my Uni books/ folders were. Also, the drawers underneath the TV have also been cleared out as well as the drawers of the brown desk by the door.
I've also cleared out my t-shirt drawer. There are quite a few which I forgot that I had including 'Without Me It's Just Aweso'. A lot of them are too big for me now so I'm having problems trying to sort out what to do with them. The problem is that I mostly like them i.e. what is on them but probably wouldn't wear them again. I took photo's of all of them so if I end up giving them away or whatever then I have them cataloged and whatnot. I WAS going to take photo's of me wearing them but it would have taken too long, what with the setting up of my tripod/ setting the self timer every time (my camera only gives you a choice of 2 seconds or 10 seconds the latter is too long and 2 seconds isn't long enough). All of them are all crinkly mostly cos they've just been sitting in my drawer for a long, long time. They also kinda smell so I'm gonna wash 'em before I do anything with them. I'll also post photo's somewhere/ sometime. Probably on Facebook.
Oh, yeah, I also traded in my NZD for CAD the other day. The exchange rate isn't ideal but it's not the worst. When I changed it was like 0.7347 CAD to $1 NZD so like, $1 CAD is roughly = to $1.30 NZD.
Right, I think that's all. Thanks for sticking with me throughout the ranting about boxes etc.
6 days left.
I've been out all weekend going to parties etc (a 21st on Friday and a leaving party on Saturday followed by dinner with the family on Sunday). They were all actually super fun and it's really the first time in a long time that I could go out on the weekend and not worry about going to work the next day which is nice. Sarah's leaving party was good but I didn't stay too long, on account of my restricted license and that I didn't really know anyone there. It was then that it kinda hit me that though I'm leaving soon she's leaving sooner. She left this afternoon for Denmark but from what she told me on Saturday she has a lot of stops and transfers and whatnot. Luckily for me I only have one. Sarah, if you're reading this, good luck and god speed.
I finally also have a vague plan of what I'm doing in the first 2 weeks of my trip. I'm spending the week in Vancouver doing the touristy things and then going on a train cross country to Toronto where I'll be meeting my sister and possibly my cousin for a bit of a family reunion and then traveling with my sister down to Niagara Falls and possibly going to visit a relative who I still have no idea who it is. We'll then come back up to Toronto cos Orientation week starts on the 25th for the whole week and then the week after I actually start studying. I'll probably be kinda rusty after not having to do it for like, 3 months or so... so yeah, that's the plan as far as I know.
I also bought some travel guides to Toronto and Vancouver which will give me some ideas of what to do with my time so I don't waste any of it. Hopefully they'll be worth the price I paid for it...talk about extortionist prices. Gosh. If anything though they'll probably be a good souvenir of my adventure.
So I started to pack up all my things into boxes yesterday when I realised I didn't have any to put all my stuff in. So off I went to my local stationer looking to buy some boxes in which I could fit all of my worldly possessions. You'd think they'd be pretty inexpensive right? Wrong. Extortionists, the lot of 'em! It also started raining on the way to the car so the ink on my pretty blue boxes started running and I became 'Simon partially blue hand' which didn't make me feel much better, especially after all the money I forked out on those boxes.
So anyway, I get home and make up box number 1 which is right now holding my books/ folders from High School along with a lot of other paper. After filling said box I go to pick it up to move it (as you do) and the bottom totally falls out causing all of my stuff to fall onto the floor. Frickin' boxes. This was the one that bore the brunt of the rain as I was walking to the car so it got super wet, well, not super wet but wetter than the others. The sacrificial box so to speak. I had to go into the garage and find some tape to tape up my box but the stuff that I found didn't really hold it together too well. I was totally over it by then so I just wrote a note on it to anyone who wants to move it when I'm gone. You've officially been warned. So anyway, I guess the moral of the story is that rain (or water in general) is the natural enemy of the cardboard box.
All the other boxes are fine though. They're holding everything that they're supposed to but when I was picking them up I held them by the bottom just in case.
Who knew pretty much everything I own could fit into four boxes?
Below are pictures of how my room is right now. It looks pretty much the same cos most of the stuff that I packed away was hidden in drawers anyway. (click pics to enlarge)
1 - The boxes which hold most of my stuff
2- My noticeboard which has finally been cleared
3 - That's where all my DVD's were
4 - Contained a lot of random stuff. Past exam papers, payslips, work stuff etc.
Oh, and you can also kinda see the 'Mac's Brewery' sign that I stole from work (underneath No. 2). People kept looking at me weirdly when I took it home on the bus.
1 - This is where all my Uni books/ folders were. Also, the drawers underneath the TV have also been cleared out as well as the drawers of the brown desk by the door.
I've also cleared out my t-shirt drawer. There are quite a few which I forgot that I had including 'Without Me It's Just Aweso'. A lot of them are too big for me now so I'm having problems trying to sort out what to do with them. The problem is that I mostly like them i.e. what is on them but probably wouldn't wear them again. I took photo's of all of them so if I end up giving them away or whatever then I have them cataloged and whatnot. I WAS going to take photo's of me wearing them but it would have taken too long, what with the setting up of my tripod/ setting the self timer every time (my camera only gives you a choice of 2 seconds or 10 seconds the latter is too long and 2 seconds isn't long enough). All of them are all crinkly mostly cos they've just been sitting in my drawer for a long, long time. They also kinda smell so I'm gonna wash 'em before I do anything with them. I'll also post photo's somewhere/ sometime. Probably on Facebook.
Oh, yeah, I also traded in my NZD for CAD the other day. The exchange rate isn't ideal but it's not the worst. When I changed it was like 0.7347 CAD to $1 NZD so like, $1 CAD is roughly = to $1.30 NZD.
Right, I think that's all. Thanks for sticking with me throughout the ranting about boxes etc.
6 days left.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
