these are not my walls

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.