Monday it rained in the morning -- not unusual here. Morning seem to be cloudy and it rains at least once a day lately. Fumiko calls it "mountain weather," though it's more likely to be "lake weather." We holed up inside, surfing the Internet as we very often do, on one mission or another. However, there was no Internet! For several hours! We were appalled. This also happened yesterday, so today I called the landlord and explained that we had to have Internet -- virtually all the time -- or we would move. He was duly impressed and promised to take steps.
By late morning, the sun was peeking through, so we dressed warmly (we don't actually have a thermometer and our apartment is so warm we have no idea how to dress for outdoors...) and headed for High Park, two blocks away. Like Central Park, High Park is a mix of manicured and wild. Near where we entered, we found a small pond surrounded by about 30 beautiful black geese who hardly noticed us as we walked by a few feet from them. We headed for the part marked "zoo" on the map, and walked along a road with animal pens on each side -- deer, wild sheep, buffalo, about 15 species in all, and some spectacular peacocks ("peafowl" on the sign). The animals are those which can live outdoors all year round, though there seem to be rough cabins or huts in each enclosure. We climbed up a hill and there is a cafe at the top, with a parking lot and a number of customers. Fumiko had heard on the Japanese grapevine that the food was good here, but the coffee terrible! We didn't take any chances.
We continued on, down another road that led to Colborne Lodge, home of the former owner (named John Howard, just to be confusing), who donated the land as a park to the City of Toronto on his death. The lodge was closed today, but seems to house a small museum. We could see a largeish lake down below, called Grenadier Pond, and beyond that Lake Ontario itself, which stretched to the curved horizon like a calm ocean. We walked down the hill, across an avenue, under a highway overpass, across another road, and found ourselves at the lakeshore (called a "beach" here, and indeed it is sandy). Very nice. I like to be near water. A large bathhouse-looking building was located at that spot, and a walking/cycling path passed by and seemed to go on for quite a distance in both directions. Not many people about on this chilly day.
By now feeling we had had a good outing, we backtracked to the avenue and caught a trolley towards downtown. Fumiko had found an agency that offers counseling to new immigrants and we headed there. It was in a rather posh office and I began to worry that she had misunderstood and would be charged a fee. But no, it really was government-funded and free. I waited outside while Fumiko had her consultation. They recommended that Fumiko take a language assessment test and sign up for a job-finding workshop.
We then went to nearby Queen Street, which has a lot of trendy shops -- lots of furniture stores, for some reason, as well as nightclubs and restaurants. We wandered along it looking in windows, and stopped for french-fried onion rings at a fast-food chain; not as good as New York, says Fumiko.
So wandering, we happened on a The Beer Store! A regular storefront, but when we entered it was very crowded and noisy. After our eyes and ears adjusted a bit, we saw that it was filled with street people who were cashing in beer bottles and cans. The cans/bottles had to be put into plastic bins provided and then placed on a rolling conveyor to the cash register. I think the transfer from bag to bin, and then the conveyor belt, was causing the noise. On the wall was a huge chart of all the brands and sizes and prices that were available -- about a hundred brands, and each had 2-8 prices (6 small cans, 12 large bottles, etc.). It took us a while to digest all this, but eventually we bought a six-pack of Schlitz large cans for $10.80 -- only six because we now had to lug them home on the trolley.
Getting tired, and the usual late-afternoon rain/sleet startiing to fall, we head home by trolley. (Four or five trolley lines ply their way across town from the downtown center to outlying areas both east and west. Trolley #504 goes along King Street from the core right down our shopping street (Roncesvalles), so we use that a lot; it's much closer and more pleasant than the subway.) Arriving at our door, we see a large potted plant covered in cellophane sitting on the floor -- it's a bush of tiny orchids! My daughter Sarai and her husband have sent a welcome gift and were apparently impressed by my report of high heat -- amazing!
The Internet was robust this evening, so we could pursue our various projects. I am researching various printers: inkjet color, multi- or single-function (problem is the inks are so expensive) or laser black-and-white (cheaper ink but less versatile); then how to give access from two computers -- Ethernet to router, or wireless, or just move the USB cable? Very time-consuming to research this, including consulting stores in U.S. that I know, and then discovering stores in Canada, and then checking Craigslist and Kijiji to see what's available on the gray market. I now have a big spreadsheet of the various possibilities, but I'm still far from a conclusion.
I finally type up a list of problems that we want the landlord to see to -- more light in the kitchen, a tub mat to prevent slips, etc., and email it to him. We are also working on a fairly long list of stuff for me to try and bring up from New York: baking pan, a stapler, file folders, small bedside light, etc., etc. It's hard to accept that there are things we need, that we own, but that we can't make use of, just because they happen to be sitting in New York while we are in Toronto! And if we buy new ones here, then someday we'll have two (or five or six, actually, since we have many duplicates in New York).
Tuesday morning we wake up to see a dusting of snow everywhere -- the first we have seen from the start (not counting remnants of that which fell before we arrived). It looks lovely. The Internet is dependable again this morning. I am moving money around on the Internet, hoping to be able to bring back some cash from New York. (It's either expensive or time-consuming or both to transfer money across national borders, I find. I'm still looking for a solution.) But I may have started too late, so I may not be able to assemble the cash in time to withdraw it before I return to Toronto.
Fumiko registers for her language assessment test on Thursday, and for a Job-Finding Workshop that meets for four evenings next week, while I am away. She does all this, by the way, using Skype, an Internet-based phone service that charges a pittance per call. Since there is no landline phone in the apartment, we depend on that -- the cell phone service I have chosen is 30 cents per minute, so I am stingy with it, at least for now. Skype works pretty well (as long as we have Internet!).
After lunch, we head out for a walk, stopping at the library for Fumiko to check out some leisure reading (well, not completely leisure, since the books are in English). Then we decide to go back to the No Frills supermarket, this time starting at our house, to see if we can find a shortcut. We walk through the residential area, admiring the large houses and lawns, and indeed it is only a 20-minute walk (on our first visit, it took about 45 minutes to walk home). Again we while away an hour or so buying a few staple items and investigating their stock. (Lately, shopping seems to be a major activity...) Coming home near dark, the sidewalks have become icy and we pick our way with care.
The evening's highlight is managing to locate Boston Legal on the TV! A number of my favorite shows are either between seasons or not available in Canada (House? Bones? The Closer?). I enjoy BL, even without the privilege of pausing it as I do in New York with my DVR. (I must research that here...)
Wednesday morning the landlord came to address several of the problems on my list, and we received a second desk from the basement for me to use. After rearranging some furniture, now we each have a fairly adequate workspace, and the kitchen table can be reserved for eating. Another walk-and-shop outing, this time on our local shopping street. We found a funky video store with wonderful ice cream cones: they're called "baby size," but it seemed like a normal single-scoop to me, for $1.25! I bought some new (literally) sweatpants at a second-hand clothing store, and we managed to find some laundry detergent powder in a one-month size (as opposed to what looked like a six-month size or a one-wash size).
I did laundry for the first time at the new apartment. This is rather cumbersome, since the washer and dryer are located in the basement, which is reached by going outdoors, around to the side of the building, unlock a door and use all my strength to wrench it open, and go down a rather dicey set of steps. At least three trips are necessary, since it's not a place one wants to spend more than a few minutes, and I made four trips since I wasn't sure how long it would take to dry (1 hour). Well, not ideal but tolerable, and probably a little better than taking the laundry to the shopping street to do it.
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