Toronto. Ontario. Canada.08.09.2006
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| As a sports fan, you all know that I am of course over the moon at the prospect of spending in time in Toronto, recently voted 4,442nd best sports city in North America by a respected sporting publication. I am shocked at the current lifeless play and losing streak of the Blue Jays. Shocked. Torontonians are justly proud of the commitment that American athletes make to their city, fighting the culture shock of having no ESPN for a few paltry millions, often staying in the city for one or two days after the season ends, and putting forth extraordinary effort to persuade their agents to engineer a trade. When they are forced to stay, they give it everything they've got, as is evidenced by the examples of Vince Carter, Antonio Davis, Bengie Molina, A.J. Burnett, and a welter of foreign-born hockey players Harold Ballard could never name anyway. At least they've got the Argos. Which puts them ahead of...Ottawa, where the Renegades were run into the ground by thieving Cajun carpetbaggers and the old Rough Rider name is owned by a Chinese businessman from Chicago who wants a million dollars for it. I am not making this up. That's the sports report. It's over now, Marina. You can keep reading. So, four cities into my Canadian tour. I now realise how much maintenance I have been holding off. As in: doctors' appointments, optician appointments, paying those finicky bills which followed me all over Europe... My response of course has been to go to the gym, which solves everything. Yesterday I weighed in at 72.4 kilos, which for those not metrically inclined comes in at a nice round 159 pounds. I'll be fatter when you see me. I guess. I wanted to pay my MC bill at my bank today but it had just been held up. True story. So TD got my money first. Sorry, guys. Wow! So this really is the big city! Hyuk! I am ensconced in the spartan digs of Loretto College, a satellite of St. Michael's, which is a satellite of U of T. St. Mike's now calls itself the "University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto", so I guess Loretto is "Loretto College of the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto". Redundancy is an academic specialty. Any transcript of recent English department meetings at Acadia proves this. Fortunately I'm right downtown, gazing out from my fifth floor cell onto the back of a massive building on Bay Street. Man, students have it all these days. My room has a bed, with drawers tucked underneath it, a desk, a sink, and a closet. The window is especially difficult to jump out of.That would occur, in theory, right after waking up and staring into the wall-length mirror. Each time I enter or leave the building I have to wave my key at Richard, the porter. I'd say "the friendly porter" because he appears kind of friendly, but I think he's anaesthetised and the smile is just frozen there. There are a few people on my floor - boys go left, girls go right, clean up after yourself in the bathroom, please - but no one I've yet seen. Students don't seem to be that active at 7 am. Go figure. There is a dissertation staring me in the face (metaphorically - I'd go insane if it was actually in front of my face) that bears attention. I'm, shall we say, working up to it. It's summer, it's sunny, I'm thinking about my two directing gigs in Europe...get to it, Michael. Thanks for those emails. They're much appreciated. The cheque's in the mail. |
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