these are not my walls

Cynthia came to visit me this weekend, because she loves me more than all the rest of you (except you, Mom!) She drove her brand-spankin'-new Yaris up from Toronto, against the advice of her parents and her boss. Seems they were all worried about her being a woman alone driving north.

People, I joke about Sudbury, but for god's sake, it is a CITY. A mere FOUR HOURS drive north of Toronto. It is not some sort of hick booneyville where Deliverance folk are waiting in the hills to violate you. It is seriously hilarious listening to people here talk about 'down south', and people in Toronto talk about 'up north'. I swear, the divide between north and south Ontario is worse than the divide between Toronto and the rest of the country, if only because they are so goddamned close to each other and can't seem to realise it!

I told Cynthia to stop in at the Timmy's at the bottom of my hill, rather than trying to explain how to get around the blind curve and up the Hill of Death to my apartment, and I would meet here there. Unfortunately, she got freaked out because there was a whole bunch of people hanging around Timmy's. Doing nothing. And she couldn't figure out why.

So she feared violence was about to erupt, because that was the only reason she could think of why these people were all...just...THERE.

Seriously, people? Be aware that in non-major metropolises (metropolisii? metropoles?), 'hanging out' is a perfectly acceptable and indeed common passtime. Sometimes interspersed with driving up and down the main drag. There is just nothing else to do.

We spent the weekend driving around a bit, eating, drinking, and getting massages. I am in love with her car and want one of my very own now. :)

Also, this weekend, my furniture arrived! No longer am I sitting on the floor and hurting my back! I am sleeping through the night on an actual bed! It's enough to make you cry, I tell you...although the table and chairs set that I got, the only one in the place when I went in, is WAY too huge for my apartment. Good thing I only have it for a month...

Today at the bank I saw one of the tellers showing an older gentleman how to use the ATM. It was very sweet.

I got stopped by a train TWICE today.

First time was on my way to work, at about quarter after 8 this morning. I was stuck for more than 5 minutes, along with an EXTREMELY antsy young man who I can only assume was meeting his dealer for a long overdue hit on the other side of the tracks.

Then I got stuck AGAIN on my way home from work. About 12 1/2 hours later. Carrying work home in my backpack. That's still not done. At 11:12 p.m.

Ugh.

On the plus side, I'm supposed to get paid for the first time tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Today, people, is a milestone: I walked up the hill to my apartment without stopping. Not even once. Now, granted, I was walking slowly and swearing, but still! All the way up! Woohoo!

Yesterday I went for a walk down the one remaining street from the intersection at the bottom of my hill: Paris Street. Shortly after leaving the intersection behind me I crossed over a bridge (over a railroad, not water) into a much nicer part of town. I'm guessing that has to be the right side of the tracks?

There's also a big park further down Paris Street. And a hilarious bike path that's approximately 200 m long. Have a fun bike ride! :)

I found a natural foods store that a) has everything under the sun I haven't been able to find in the regular grocery stores (except steel cut oats. Seriously, they have like every other product put out by Bob's Red Mill EXCEPT the steel cut oats...), b) has a peanut butter machine (almost made me homesick for Ina's in Regina!) and c) perhaps most importantly, they had a frozen yoghurt machine! The kind where you put a block of frozen yoghurt and some frozen fruit in, and then the drill-thing gets pressed down into it! I had a raspberry-mango frozen yoghurt - SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!

I took some pictures while I was out walking yesterday, I'll upload them later.

I haven't taken a bus tour of the city yet, Erica. On the weekends, everything closes at, like, 4 p.m. so by the time I get out and about I pretty much have to run errands until things close, and then it's late enough that I don't want to spend a few hours bussing around. My new plan is to find the Sudbury Tourism Office (C'mon, they MUST have one!) and plan bus trips to things. We'll see how that goes...

Here's a reason why I sometimes feel like I'm in a foreign land (besides all the invitations to go hunting):

Last night at dinner I was asking people if they knew where the Starbucks was in town, and someone asked me, "Oh, do you like espresso drinks?" - like it was some kind of oddity.

Which reminded me of an email conversation I had with my boss - in which I was explaining how vitally important it was for me to leave work early and pick up my boxes at the post office because my espresso maker was in one of those boxes - and she said she sympathised, because she was in Europe over the summer and developed a taste for espresso.

People, she had to go to *Europe* to develop a taste for espresso. And she lives in Toronto!

Yeah, I've definitely left the west coast.

I am a super awesome detective.

I found an article that was in a book knowing only the gender of the author (of the article, not the book), one of the words in the title of the book, and a case that was mentioned in the article.

Oh, yeah.

Tonight I went out for dinner with the other articling students in Sudbury plus a couple of junior lawyers. It was fun - the people at my end of the table seemed cool, and two of them got stuck in waaaay worse apartments than mine. :) They also all have cars and were offering me rides around Sudbury - including to Costco to pick up cheap furniture, which might mean I might not have to wait for an IKEA delivery! Woohoo! :)

I got a tape at choir tonight, with my part of the audition song on it. A tape. That I am supposed to listen to repeatedly to learn my part. Which is all well and good in theory, but...uh...I didn't bring my 12-year-old stereo system with me to Sudbury.

I don't *have* a tape player.

I have asked everyone at work - including the court reporters! - and none of them have anything.

I checked at the library, where they advertise that they have audiovisual stuff to rent, but no tape players.

The only ones I can find in stores are, like, $65 and up, which seems ridiculous considering all I really need to do is play the damn tape ONCE so I can record it onto my computer.

So, my slightly illegal plan is to buy one, play the tape once, and return it. :S

In other news, a very nice woman at choir offered to give me a ride home tonight. The choir practices in a building that is basically right behind my work, so normally I walk no problem, but hey, why turn down a ride up The Hill, right? Well, we get to the intersection at the bottom of The Hill, and she decides she's not comfortable making the left-hand turn onto my street (it's a horribly stupid blind left turn, I really can't blame her), so she let's me out.

So, basically, I got a ride right down a completely flat street, right up to the bottom of The Hill. Uh...thanks?

Well! It's been a week! And it's not like I have so many other things taking up my time...

I have some pictures for you, showing you my delightful environs here in Sudbury.

First, here is what my apartment building looks like:



I'm on the second floor in the middle part. That's an old fridge on our porch. Hawtt!

Now, as you can see to a certain extent, I do indeed live on a hill. Let me just show you the delightful trip I get to make home:



This is the start of the hill, on Elm Street. Notice my oddly-shaped sillhouette. I'm going to assume I was wearing a skirt the day I took those pictures, because I honestly do have legs.



This is the start of Pearl Street, having just turned left at the top of the hill in the last picture.



This is seeing around part of the turn. There is a bit of overlap in hill between this picture and the last one, but not much.



And this is the last bit of hill. Except the part where I drag my weary, panting ass into my front door and remember, joy of joys, that I have to climb a flight of stairs to get to my apartment. It just adds that little bit of insult to injury, you know?

If you would like to see more of the area around where I live, including the Mysterious Furniture Store With No Entrance and delightful Hnatyshyn Park, you can see them here.

So, when I get home in the evening, I don't really like to go out again unless I really have to. Or am completely stir-crazy, which happens as well. I don't really know where to go in the evenings, and there are many people in the downtown area that I don't want to pass the time with, so I mostly just walk down the hill and then walk up again. I am developing thighs of steel, but I'm bored a lot.

I have done important getting-to-know-my-new-community things since last we spoke. (In addition to unpacking my boxes, btw, and if anyone's as concerned as I was: the espresso machine made it just fine!) I went and sang with these people, which was fun and I plan to go back. There's an audition in the sixth week of your attendance, so I figure I'll at least get 6 weeks of entertainment out of it.

I also found the library and got myself a library card, though they didn't want to give me one. I brought my rental agreement for proof of address, and the librarian hassled me. Weird. She was concerned that my address wasn't on my driver's licence. Um, even if I intended to change my licence - which I don't, what would be the point - I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the new one for, like, 4 to 6 weeks. And in the meantime I'm giving you a LEGAL DOCUMENT that proves where I live, lady! In the end I prevailed. They have a huge local history section that I think I'll check out, since I know NOTHING about the area. In case that hasn't become clear yet. :) The main branch is less than 10 minutes walk from work, so it's a good lunchtime destination.

Twice last week I made it to the Y. In the morning. Before work. It was dark out when I got up. I watched the sun rise as I walked to the Y. Blech. However, there are very few people there, and the changeroom has private showers, so it's all good. The first time I got a shower that barely trickled, but the second time I got a good shower. I think I'll try them all and make a comparison chart.

On Saturday I went for a little exploratory walk up Notre Dame Avenue, which is a right turn at the bottom of my hill. I found lots of depressing second-hand stores, a Staples, a couple furniture stores, and a big bingo hall. I'm contemplating trying the bingo. It seems like a small town thing to do. Not that Sudbury's really a small town, but I'm so stuck in downtown, which is tiny, that it feels like a small town. I think next weekend I'm going take a few buses, see where they go and see some of the city.

Today I'm doing laundry and making food for the upcoming week. It's all very domestic.