01/26/08: To New York and back

Here I am on the train back to Toronto, having spent five days (six nights) in my own bed in New York City. It was a bit odd to return to New York -- it felt more like four or six weeks since we left than the actual two. Everything in the apartment was pretty much the same, only neater. We had left it neat and our tenant is a meticulous person. In these two weeks, winter arrived in New York. Everyone on the subway was covered from head to toe, men wearing those hats with earflaps, and women in mukluk-type boots.

Well, to backtrack to last Sunday morning. I got the 8:30 a.m. train out of Toronto. Not very crowded, everybody got two seats to spread out in. No Quiet Car on this train, despite their announcement. Turns out a lot of "standard" stuff doesn't apply to these cross-border trains, like checking baggage. But, every seat (every!) has at least one electric plug. So I could use my computer to my heart's content (and no restrictions during takeoff like the airplane). It was a pleasant enough ride, until we got to the border at Niagara Falls, N.Y. about 11 a.m. There, a crowd of U.S. customs officers streamed onto the train, for all the world like storm troopers. The uniforms seemed to be modeled on the Germans in WWII, and they had a dog!! It took about 45 minutes for them to do their thing. First interviewing every passenger and examining their passport ("Where are you going? Why? Where have you come from? Why? What is your business?" etc., etc. in creepy detail). Then, they had us bring all our bags to our seat (from the large-luggage area at the end of the car, if necessary, or down from the overhead bins, and we were herded into a neighboring car, leaving our luggage for them to paw through. Which they apparently did, since on returning to my seat about 15 minutes later, I found my book-box unstrapped, though it was empty. Then they took a few people off the train ("Bring all your possessions!"), including a Chinese woman sitting across the aisle from me. Spooky. About half an hour later, she returned, smiling, so I guess nothing sinister happened, but the prelude was scary enough for me. Altogether, the whole experience made me vow never again to complain about the security procedures at the airport!

The rest of the journey (another 9 hours) was uneventful, except that the toilets got full and I had to go to the next car to pee. We passed over the Niagara River gorge, which was pretty spectacular, even though I couldn't see any Falls, but the rest of the scenery was mostly snowy fields, and sunshine. I had plenty of food and a book and Sudoku and my computer, so I had no trouble amusing myself, and even felt good about being denied fast-moving electronics for a day (TV and Internet). Oh, and I had some nice music on my computer and a headset, so all in all, the 13-hour trip was actually quite painless. We arrived in Penn Station at 9:30, about 15 minutes ahead of schedule, and I was home by 10 p.m. (Light luggage, mostly empty containers for the return trip, so I just took the subway.)

I was keyed up, so I opened a lot of mail (two weeks' mail turns out to fill a plastic milk crate, nearly all junk), chatted with Kristin and watched some junk TV with her. Plugged in my computer, checked my email, etc., went to bed about 1 a.m. For the next five days, I did a lot of paper work -- my mom's affairs and mine. Made phone calls to 800 numbers, caught up on filing, like that. Another time-consuming activity was assembling all the "mother ship" items, deciding how much I could take and strategizing on how to pack them. I also went to physical therapy (for my ankle) three times and did exercises at home, took two runs, attended a friend's book party, and square-danced one evening. Not a bad trip. At square dancing, people seemed much more pleased to see me than usual -- their eyes sparkled when they asked about Toronto. I guess the sort of big change that we are doing is more purely exciting in the abstract than in the actuality. Not that it isn't exciting for us, but it's also a lot of other emotions.

Still another concern was how I would return to Toronto -- train or airplane. I checked possible air routes and fares, including the possibility of using frequent flyer miles. The airlines allow two checked items and one carry-on suitcase, but the train just the two. I checked whether Greyhound or Amtrak would be willing to transport extra luggage -- answer is no! I also worked out a tentative schedule for these return trips -- four weeks in Toronto, then one week in New York. I factored in the requirement that for health coverage in Canada, I cannot be out of Canada for more than 30 days in the first six months, so I scheduled five trips of 6 days each. Then I tried pricing trips in advance. After an unreasonable amount of research and thought, I decided to return by train, and probably to do future trips by train. The downside is: creepy customs experience, less baggage allowed, takes a lot of time. The upside is: much cheaper ($160 round trip vs. the very cheapest air I could get for $266, and that only on sale, otherwise $350 and up), don't have to schedule far in advance, can use the time to keep my email under control, read books, etc., and getting to and from the train station is much easier/cheaper than to the airport(s). So I booked a return ticket with Amtrak over the phone ($5 more than from the Canadian ViaRail -- next time I'll buy a round trip in Toronto!).

While I was in New York, Fumiko and I talked twice a day by Skype-phone (free between members), if not more. We have been together so much in the past few months that it was odd to be apart, and we both missed each other. According to her report, there was colder weather and more snow in Toronto. She enjoyed, and profited from, the job-finding workshop that she attended. Four nights, 16 hours -- and she tells me that the instructor will go on mentoring each person in the class from now on. The instructor's office is in the same building where Fumiko will be taking ESL classes starting on Monday.

All in all, my days in New York weren't jam-packed. I had plenty of time to watch TV, mostly programs that my DVR had recorded in my absence. And I made a point of being "visible" in my building, saying hello and making eye contact with any building staff I ran into. On my next trip, in late February, I plan to do income tax for myself and for my mother, so that should keep me busy. And the trip after that, in late March, will be for getting a dental implant (I had the extraction in December, and one has to wait three months for the root to heal), using my U.S. dental insurance to advantage. I could also use the extra time to continue winnowing down my possessions. Having made some tentative inquiries about international moving, it seems not only expensive but very aggravating, so less rather than more would be good. It seems that it might easy for us to just drive across the border in a van or truck with our stuff in it and show our immigration inventory list, now officially stamped, whereas to consign stuff to a big moving company is more complicated. I'll have to investigate this further.

The last couple of days of this trip, I worried a lot about how, or whether, to bring everything on our "wish list," and Fumiko kept asking for a little this and a little that as the week progressed -- while she also said, don't endanger your health! I packed the book-box (a very strong thing I acquired years ago when I was going back and forth to Japan a lot, designed to hold just 50 pounds of heavy stuff) tightly, and then stuffed my carry-on-size suitcase to the gills; each was exactly 50 pounds, by the bathroom scale. But there were still things left over. So, I bit the bullet and put more stuff in the large duffel bag and then inserted the suitcase into the duffel bag also! It was not quite stretched to its full length of three feet, so I thought I could just about manage the two of them on my luggage cart, total 100 pounds. Then my laptop and a couple of books went into my backpack (very heavy). My plot was to manage to bring the refrigerator containers ("Tupperware") that Fumiko wanted by packing my food into them and carrying them in a paper shopping bag. I thought that probably the train officials wouldn't question me about that. But then, there were still a lot of little things that popped up at the last minute (always are, right?), so I found an expandable cloth bag from Japan and put them all in that. At the end, I had two "official" items, plus a backpack, plus two "extra" hand items. And that handled absolutely everything!

It worked! I managed to stagger down to the street with it all and hail a cab, and then some enterprising guy lurking outside Penn Station got the two big ones down the stairs for me. (Can you believe that there was an up escalator, but only stairs (two flights!) from Eighth Avenue to the main floor at Penn Station??) Actually, the guy was kind of old and I wasn't sure he could actually make it down those stairs with the second 50-lb. load. He did, but just as he landed, a youth who was helping another woman fell down three or four steps and started bleeding on the floor right in front of us! We started to get help, but he recovered and dashed off, leaving a small pool of blood. My helper seemed reluctant to take me further, so I guess that they are not allowed in the station itself, just from the street to the station, in the absence of any official redcaps to do this job. Again, doesn't seem like a good arrangement to me. From my sample of two, these guys working for tips are not really up to it.

Anyway, again I managed to get my stuff the short distance to the ticket window, and then to the gate without help. When the train was announced I hailed a redcap, who had no trouble in installing me in the proper car. In fact, it turns out that if you're with a redcap, the official at the top of the escalator who is checking everyone's ticket just waves you through, bypassing a fairly long line!

Sitting on the train, listening to the Mamas and the Papas, gazing out on the sunlit Hudson River, I'm eager to get to Toronto -- home is where Fumiko is!

Later: We crossed the border into Canada about 4:30 p.m., but the Canadian Customs were much nicer. They didn't open anything (though they did ask a lot of questions). I had to justify having two residences, and then I pulled out my inventory sheet and they initialed everything I had marked as coming in today. I felt a little stupid for listing (and then marking) some pretty valueless items, so I won't bother with that next time, just appliances and things. But it was quite a painless, even pleasant, process today.