My first day in Canada started with a good jog. I went to a park close by and run a little bit more than 1km. Starting the day in a healthy way is great, especially if it is not easy. I call it “voluntary hardship”. I stole this sentence from a Youtube video talking about a philosopher from ancient Rome (I guess it was talking about Marco Aurelio, but I am not sure).
I ran pretty easily for a guy who landed not even 24 hours earlier. I felt good and in shape, my running form was okay and I did not felt any kind of fatigue even if I was running at a good pace. I do not know how that happened, it goes against the law of nature of being weaker when stressed. And I sure was stressed a little bit because of the unending odyssey I had the previous day.
I worked out a bit at the kids playing-ground doing pyramids of pull ups, push ups, suit ups and all that kind of bodyweight training.
At one point I noticed a kid practicing football alone. By football I mean what American people would call “soccer”. Since he was alone and I am always eager to meet new people, I asked him if he wanted to play together.
We started chatting after he finished the athletic part of his training. While we were talking we passed the ball and I got to know him. It is true that you get to know someone better when you play with that person rather than when you just talk to each other. I always said games are great!
The guy’s name was Rayn and he told me that he really gets mad when someone calls him “Ryan”. So his name sounds more like the “rain” word.
After a while we said goodbye to each other and promised we will be there on Friday at the same time to play 1 on 1. I jogged back around 10am and took a really cold shower. That is because I did not know how to make it pour warm water. At first, I was like “I use to take a shower this cold back home, so no problem”. Then I convinced myself that cold water is good for your health, especially after training. So I went for a really cold shower.
When I headed out of my room I finally met Amy. She was kind enough to show me the house different spaces and give me directions to the grocery store.
So I grabbed my stuff and my camera to film just to realize that the batteries were not working. All of them were not working but I checked them right before going to the airport and they were okay. But it is fine, can not do anything about that if it is like that.
I went out and headed for the grocery store. At first, I went to Shoppers Drug Market. Apparently people do not go there because it is too expensive and it does not have a lot of products. I bought some of the things I needed, for example pasta, the batteries for the camera and a pack of Doritos. Since my road trip in California with Davide and Beatrice I fell in love with this snack. I think it is my favorite one and I can state without any doubt that I am a loyal Doritos’ costumer. It even had Spiderman on it so I was excited the double.
At the desk I payed and purchased my Presto card. It is a card that you need to get on the public transportation’s vehicle in the Greater Toronto Area. I took out my stack of cash for the first time. It is crazy that at the bank they changed €. 100,00 with just $. 115,00 (Canadian dollars) when the change is something between 1.40 and 1.50.
I overspent what was my budget, but I thought that it would be okay if I stayed frugal for the rest of the trip until my family’s arrival. A lot of the money went on batteries, chargers adapter and way too much food. On the way back I just savored my Dorito’s chips as happy as a little kid is during Christmas.
I came back pretty late and was about to start cooking lunch when Amy told me that she had just prepared a tofu noodle soup that I could had. Since she wanted to share it I accepted as I have been taught not to refuse what people kindly offer you.
I spent an hour checking and making sure of the way to get to Downtown and it actually took me ages to get there. I even risked to miss the bus since the bus stop were moved because of some works in progress and I kind of got lost. Apparently everywhere there is some work in progress in Canada, but I had the luck to meet a really sexy blonde girl, so I guess everything has a positive side to it.
The trip was long and cold because of the a/c. I mean, in Canada is already so cool, why is that a need for an a/c turned on at the coldest level possible? These are some mysteries I would like to solve before I die.
When I finally got to Bloor street looked for Long & McQuade’s shop. I went to the acoustic guitar section and a staff member helped me choose my guitar. The rent came to just twenty dollars for a month and I did not have to pay for the deposit since the accountant who took care of the documents had Italian origins. He told me all about his son being chosen for some important team in Italy and how he could not stay there because of his Canadian nationality. At the beginning he attacked me by talking in Italian at a random moment. I think he did that to check that I was really Italian.
I spent the rest of the afternoon by doing nothing and wandering around Bloor street. I went to Christie Pits Park hoping to find a place to rest but it was already full so I kept wandering. I had a meet up event at 7pm, so I I went to a cafe to spend some time. I even got a macchiato which I never have, but it was just so I could stay inside, sit and relax. I was unlucky because I could stay only ten minutes since it was closing. So at 6pm I just went to the meeting point at Riddle Room, but I got there so early that I just kept walking around Yonge street. At ten to seven I just walked in and met Ryan and Leslie. Soon after me other people kept coming so we started playing.
I enjoyed the night since I love board games, but I do not really remember the people’s names. Maybe if I meet them again I will. Actually I could look their names on the meet up website, but I am too lazy for that.
We played a game called “Humans Escape Aliens in Outer Space”. It was a cool mind game but I really sucked. Then we played “Mysterium” with a guy who really looked like a character from a primevideo series that I watched. I think the guy’s name in the series was Alex and the series “The Startup”. Great one, really. In the end we played a fast game called “Good Cops and Bad Cops”. Me and Jordan kept targeting each other because we knew each other from all the previous game. Funny thing, I was the Spy twice in a row with the card in the same location. So the guy next to me used some “equipment” to watch that exact card twice and we just had to laugh about it.
I was lucky that one of them was from Richmond Hill, so that I could have some company on the way home. We even caught the last Viva Blue line going to Newmarket. The alternative would have taken me 50 stops. Crazy.
Once at home I had enough strength to wash my face and film a recap of the day before going to sleep. The room was amazing, as so was the bed. My sleep was glorious.
Godyl Go! 