After some deliberation, I've decided to keep up this random dialogue, even though I am no longer on the road. I'm not asking anyone to ever read it, but after quite a month that's tested my powers of patience and optimism, I feel that I need a space to organize my thoughts and frustrations. Granted, I'm sure that this reason lines the foundation of the reason that blogs were invented in the first place, but being chronically behind the times and stubbornly on the sidelines of technology, I cannot make any assumptions about the motivations of the bandwagon bloggers but instead have simply arrived at the blog phenomenon by a roundabout, scenic route.
So this past month. What happened? Well let's start with the late acceptance to Humber College in August, which left me with 3 weeks to pack up my life in Ottawa, find a place in T.O. and make it to Wabikon, which anyone at Sunrise will tell you, is not to be missed under any circumstances.
Suffice it to say, all happened in due course, and I moved in to a place on the Danforth the day before I started classes. That day, my computer also decided to throw in the towel. In addition to being in school, I was now of course in need of part time work, which I was under the impression would not be difficult to come by in a city where the first question isn't "Do you speak French?". Sigh. Not the case. How does one search for jobs with no Internet at home, and resumes saved to USB drives in case of a full on computer crash? One stays at school hours after class has ended to use their computers. One also walks to the public library, gets a library card only to find out that many sites are too large for the already saturated server used by the library. Our school site, Blackboard, routinely caused the computers there to lock up, therefore denying me access all weekend to any school updates.
On the computer front, the other time not taken up with job searching and school work, was spent taking up the time of my computer friends, as well as repeated trips to the LCBO for beer with which to thank them with. Also, I tramped College Street one rainy Saturday, utilizing all of the computer shops, only to speak with numerous slimy computer guys trying to sell me dodgy computer parts, or looking at the model and grimly saying "Ohhhh you have that model....". Very reassuring.
Suffice it to say, it was not one of my happiest months, being so out of touch with those I care about, and on top of it all, trying to adjust to life in a new city and having left all of my contacts and extra curricular things behind.
I now have a job - at a candy store, nonetheless! And the computer issues have been solved with the installation of Linux. (After a year of issues with Windows, I'm thinking that Justin Long truly had a point....)
On the other hand, in the same week that my computer got fixed and I found employment, my car went into the shop and I was told she needed a brake job. Awesome.
Anyone want to go out for a pint?
J.
