stuff
Tact is for those who haven't mastered the art of sarcasm.
Monday, August 18, 2003 :::
Well, I've reached Edmonton. But damn, has it taken a long time and a lot of fuss and bother!
Let's start from the very beginning (I've heard it's a very good place to start): I finally got to bed at about 2.30am on Thursday, after spending a completely futile hour on hold to Air Canada, trying to work out what the hell was going on. In the end I just gave up, thinking that I would try again in the morning (when I got up at 6.30am!!), but by that time Air Canada's phone system had fallen over, rolled up into a ball and died, and all I, or anyone, could get in the next 2 days was an engaged signal. So in the end, not really knowing what to do, I just simply made the decision to go to the airport anyway, at the time I was going to go before the darkness descended, and see what happened.
So after saying my goodbyes to the Moss family, and then convincing my area coordinator that he really should drive me to the airport in Ottawa (he kept on saying that I should just stay away from the airport), I left Brockville. I'll do another entry sometime on leaving, but right now I want to just record the hell that was trying to fly on Friday.
We finally got to the airport just after 10am (my coordinator took this weird backroute that I swear added 45 minutes to the travelling time) and saw 'the line'. By this point Ottawa airport still hadn't had power restored (it finally came back on at about 1.30) and was running only on emergency power that was operating the computers, but no lights. So let me set the scene for you - it was dark. It was hot (no air conditioning or fans). And it was crammed with people. If you don't know the airport, it's hard to describe how long the line was, but it's probably enough to say that I spent 5 hours in it. Yes, that's right, 5 hours in this bloody line. I swear, sometimes it would take about an hour to just move about 5 metres ahead. Crazy, crazy. Of course, I hadn't had breakfast when I left (it was too early in the morning!) and when I got there no-one was open because, well, it's hard to cook food when you don't have any power! My coordinator gave me two muffins which lasted me a while, and this nice couple in front of me minded my cart a couple of times so I could use the toilets, but let's just say that it wasn't the most comfortable 5 hours of my life.
To their credit, the people at the airport and at Air Canada were trying their best to get things done. Every 15 minutes or so people would come down the line handing out water (on one occasion I got a margarita!) and food for people, and they also had people from the airline around to answer people's questions. Because really, no-one had the faintest idea about what was going on. The real problem was that there were simply not enough staff to deal with everyone - at one point there were only 2 people at the desk to deal with this enormous line of people. The weekend before Air Canada had had serious problems at a couple of airports, Toronto in particular, with coping with increased summer travel - people then were lining up for hours at a time. So if they were having problems then, with full power and a fully operational computer system, imagine how bad it was with no power and a computer system that apparently kept on crashing. And a phone system that was absolutely useless.
I eventually got to talk to someone at the check-in desk at 3.30, 4 and a half hours after my original flight was supposed to leave, and 5 hours after I got to the airport. I was really worried that I wasn't going to get a flight at all - the airline had told people that if your flight had been cancelled and if you didn't have a rescheduled ticket, then it was highly unlikely that they would be able to make another reservation for you at the desk - but the woman who helped me was tops, and straight away got me on a flight to Toronto. I was supposed to fly into Pearson, Toronto's major airport, but flights going there had been continually cancelled all day (Toronto still didn't have complete power, and the computer system at Pearson kept on crashing, or something like that). So instead the woman put me on this flight to the Toronto Island airport. It turned out this airport was this dinky little thing on an island in Lake Ontario, and you had to take a ferry to get into Toronto. But it actually worked out really well - the airport was much closer to downtown, and I ended up not having to pay for the taxi because the nice guy from Prague that I shared it with paid for it. Bonus, I thought!
So after thinking that I was going to get into Toronto at 12.00, I instead got in at 7pm, hungry, exhausted, and generally pissed off. One thing I didn't understand was that the flight I was on was only half full - you'd think with that many people desperate to get to Toronto the thing would be packed. Sure it wasn't flying into Pearson, but there was a free shuttle bus running between each airport, so it wouldn't have really mattered anyway. Weird, weird.
My mood was not improved by my attempt to check-in at my hotel. First the woman at the desk (who I think was as tired and as fed-up as I was: the hotel hadn't had power all night, and only got their reservation system up that morning) tried to charge me $60 more than I had been quoted over the phone, and then informed me that I would have to pay the entire price of the room, plus a $100 deposit, up front because I was paying cash. I was expecting to have to pay the room rate up front, but no-one had ever told me about the deposit, money I definitely didn't have on me! The woman let me pay all but the deposit straightaway, but instead of flopping on my bed and sleeping for the next 20 hours like I was planning, I had to go out in search of a functioning ATM, something that was definitely easier said than done. A lot of places were closed because of the blackout - even though power had been restored to downtown Toronto on Thursday night, the premier of Ontario had told businesses to not open if it was not absolutely necessary. So because of this, the Eaton Centre (this huge shopping mall just across from my hotel) was closed, as were a lot of restaurants and businesses. And ATMs. I finally found one that was working, as well as a package of strawberries from this tiny supermarket for dinner. Only later did I discover the furry mould that was growing on a few of them - obviously they hadn't been refrigerated all that well!
I wanted to go to Toronto for 2 main reasons: to visit the Royal Ontario Museum, and to go up the CN Tower. So on Saturday morning I got up early and went down to breakfast, all ready to have a full day of sightseeing in the biggest city of Toronto, to make up for the half day I lost on Friday. It was raining. Not a good sign. But I was determined to stay positive, and by the time I left the hotel it had stopped and the sun had come out. Well, it's such a nice day, I thought. I'll walk to the ROM. It's not that far. 10 blocks later in high heat and humidity, I reached the museum.
It was closed.
I was pissed off. Really pissed off. I did quite a lot of reading about other museums (and their disaster policies in particular!) while working at the Brockville Museum, and I was desperate to to go the ROM. But apparently it was not to be. So, in an effort to not make the walk all the way their a complete waste of time, I decided to walk a few blocks over to the Bata Shoe Museum. I had read that they had an exhibition on of shoes from famous movies, which I thought sounded pretty interesting.
Of course, it was closed. By this time, I was about to snap. I was hot, I was tired, and I was hungry (walking can really take it out of a girl!). Only one thing saved me from breaking down and screaming at the hell that was Toronto. Because on my useless walk to the Bata Shoe Museum, I passed two girls walking the other way. Who were these girls? I hear you ask. They were.... (drumroll please):
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen, I saw the twins that are currently taking over the world, in the flesh. It was incredible. It was awe-inspiring. It was the definite highlight of my trip.
Which says a lot about the quality of my trip to Toronto.
Anyway, with that little encounter to bouy my spirits, I hailed a taxi and headed back downtown to the CN Tower (I was sick of walking ok!). Only to discover that it wasn't open.
Just kidding.
It was open, but not totally. "On a limited basis to conserve power"
So I did get to go up the CN tower, "the tallest freestanding structure in the world". It was very cool, and the view was pretty incredible. The lift that takes you up is amazingly fast, so fast that your ears actually pop from the sudden change in pressure. Three of the walls are also made of glass, which makes for a pretty breathtaking ride. The lowest viewing level was open, as well as the 'glass floor'. A section of the floor on one of the levels was replaced with glass, meaning that you can look straight down to the ground, 250 odd metres below. Very freaky, but very cool.
The strangest part of the entire experience, however, was the security checkpoint that you go through. At the entrance to the building they have an archway that looks like your typical metal detector, only deeper. I was told to stand inside the arch, and wait. I thought they were just scanning for weapons of mass destruction or those killer nail files that are the cause of so much terrorism these days, when suddenly all these jets of air come shooting out all around me. Apparently they were searching for explosives, but I just think it's a way for the security guards to get a look up girls' skirts... Very strange...
The rest of the day I didn't do much at all. I looked around the Eaton Centre for a few hours (it was almost all open by this point, although a few stores were still closed), then went back to my hotel and blobbed for a while. I was exhausted by this point, and there really wasn't much I could do. I went out to get some dinner at about 8pm, and came back and watched the MTV movie awards and Pride and Prejudice. At the same time. It was an interesting contrast, to say the least. Finally at about 11.30 I started to tackle the mega job that was repacking my suitcases. My hatred of anything to do with packing had resulted in me doing a very bad job of it in Brockville, and the situation needed some serious help. I had also completely emptied my backpack and half of one of my suitcases in the hotel room, so I had a bit of work to do.
I finished at 2.30am. I hadn't planned to go to bed - I had to get up at 4am anyway to check out and catch a shuttle bus to the airport at 4.30, but I was kinda exhausted. So I a total of about an hour's sleep on Saturday night. So it's really a bit of a surprise that I managed at all to check out, get on the shuttle bus, get on another shuttle bus when the one that I was on dumped me outside a different hotel and told me to wait for a different shuttle bus, and then navigate my way to the check-in counter at Pearson airport. Very, very luckily, Air Canada has a dedicated check-in area for flights to Vancouver, and there were heaps of staff there to keep everything moving. In the end I only spent about half an hour in the queue, a pretty amazing difference to what I had experienced in Ottawa! Walking through the airport to my gate, however, it quickly became obvious that there were still huge problems with other Air Canada flights - the lineup that I saw was even longer than the one I had been in in Ottawa. Pretty lucky I was flying to Vancouver!
After that, the day was just a long and boring one of flights, airports, and waiting around. Both of my flights were on time, my luggage wasn't lost, and my aunt and uncle were there to meet me in Edmonton (albeit just a little bit late!). Had an absolutely delicious meal with them and my cousin and his wife, then basically fell into bed and slept for about 9 hours. Being in Edmonton is tops!
So there you go: a detailed (and very long) account of the trials and tribulations of Maddy Cooper in the last 3 days. It has not been fun, and the only good thing I can really say that has come out of it is that now I have a bona fide airport horror story to call my own!!
Thursday, August 14, 2003 ::: And in the darkness bind them...
I'm leaving Brockville tomorrow. Well, I'm supposed to anyway. Just one problem - almost all of southern Canada and the eastern American seaboard is in the dark! We lost our power at 4.15pm, just like everyone else, but got it back at about 10.30. I spent 45 minutes on hold trying to get hold of Air Canada, who very usefully told me that at this moment all flights for tomorrow are running on schedule and that I should get to the airport at the same time. Of course, this is all dependent on whether Ottawa and Toronto get power by then. And right now, it's not looking too good (some people are saying that it's going to be a couple of days before the grid gets back to normal). Seems like I'll be staying in Brockvegas for a few more days.... my host mother has been overjoyed at the news all day - apparently she was not looking forward to letting me go! Something, of course, that you all understand...
Wednesday, August 13, 2003 :::
My legs currently look like they did when I was 8 - covered in bruises and scrapes, from a time when I had even less coordination than I do now and I was struggling to control limbs that had seemed to grow 3 times as long overnight. The various injuries are from when I went swimming in the St Lawrence on Friday - I, not very elegantly at all, clambered up onto this dock at a house where HS3 was babysitting, scraping my knee and bruising both my feet in the process. I was not a happy chappy!
There is also a considerable number of mosquito bites on my legs from my visit to my host father's family's cottage on the weekend. But the visit was definitely worth a few bites (albeit very painful ones - I'm telling you people, genetically modified mosquitoes!). The whole family was there (minus HS1) as well as another branch of the extensive family of my HF, and even though it rained quite a lot (with heaps of thunderstorms - you would've loved it mum), it was a tops weekend.
The next few days look set to be filled with the boring, tedious, rather unhappy job of packing, getting organised, and saying goodbye to everyone. Urgh once again. Bring on Toronto and Edmonton, and let it all be over now...
I hate the tedious, excruciating, boredom of it, the constant struggle to try to cram far more into a small space than it was ever, ever designed to hold. And really, I don't have that much stuff over here (particularly after giving a large amount of money to Canada Post yesterday so that they could have the privilege of delivering a rather large package to Tassie), so I don't quite understand why it's so bloody difficult to fit everything in. Urgh. When I'm rich and famous, I'm soooo hiring someone whose sole purpose will be to pack my suitcase.
And to unpack it when I get home.
Because I hate doing that almost as much as I hate packing.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003 :::
I went to a wedding two weekends ago, and I feel I must record something about it on this blog. Only problem is, I really can't be bothered. So below is a short thing I wrote about it in an email to a couple of people, slightly altered so as to suit my audience... :p
On Saturday I went to a wedding (for a couple I didn't actually meet until after the wedding) with my host family. The wedding was on my host mother's side, a family that is as big (my HM has 8 siblings!) as it is confusing, and well, kind of strange - in the nicest possible way of course (of course, I don't have much to defend regarding my own family!).This wedding was quite an experience, right down to the weird custom of the whole reception tapping on their glasses repeatedly in order to get the bride and groom to kiss each other. This would happen every 5 minutes or so... the most surreal moment of the night has to be the dancing afterwards. The DJ ("hi, I'm DJ Eric, and I'm going to pump this party up!" - DJ Eric was about 50, balding, overweight, and had about 6 beers over the course of the night) picked up the microphone and shouted out "do we have any rednecks in the house?!?" and practically everyone in the room (about 150 people!) stood up and started cheering. He then put on this atrocious country song called "It's alright to be a redneck", to which everyone (excluding my host family thank god) got up and started dancing. Very, very strange...
It was certainly unlike any other wedding I've ever been to in my life, and certainly not one I'm likely to forget, from the matchbook souvenirs for every guest, to the groom being surrounded by all these women and slowly stripped to the strains of "I'm too sexy", to the plastic wedding flowers, to the almost indeciferable accents of the bride's Newfoundland family. Ah, good times, good times...
Yesterday I fulfilled one of my dreams - I visited the Hershey's Chocolate Factory in Smiths Falls, a town of about 9000 people that is about an hour to the north. Unfortunately the factory wasn't running (yesterday was a public holiday) but you could still walk through the viewing area. And of course visit the discount shop, always the best part! I got this whole heap of almond chocolate for something ridiculous like 87 cents - and you get a free big block of chocolate when you walk out the door! My favourite part of the whole visit has to be the parking lot (yes, it's true) where all of the lights are shaped to look like Hershey kisses... Oh, and the all-pervading smell of lovely, beautiful chocoate!!!
Just got home from the museum where I helped out with another education program. This time it was 'Summer games and pastimes', and we made pretzels and tie-dyed pillow cases. Except that neither project really worked out all that well. The pretzels were far too big and tasted kind of strange, but the real disaster was the tie-dying. First one whole batch of dye that we'd made out of onion skins (we were using 'natural' dyes) was accidentally poured down the sink, and then the purple batch, made from cabbage, wasn't nearly strong enough, resulting in pillowcases that were just a little off-white/greyish, with no obvious tie-dye marks. It did not go well, but we had fun.
The highlight of the day though was when we (read: I!) had finished all of the washing up and had gone back upstairs. I thought I was going over to the house of one of the summer students to have pizza muffins and watch Oprah (it's a tradition ok!), but instead i was led outside where the staff of the museum had organised a surprise farewell party for me! It was so sweet - I got some presents and cards and things, and we even had cake. (This was a very tops cake too - cookies and cream, with mini Oreo cookies on top. Yeah baby...) It was so nice, and I got to see Ruth, the education coordinator, who I hadn't seen since school finished (she doesn't work over the summer). I even got balloons with helium in them!
I'm going to miss all the people from the museum. My time there has definitely been a highlight of my stay in Canada, mainly because of the people I met there. They were all incredibly welcoming and friendly, and didn't think it was at all strang that this girl from Australia with no knowledge of Canadian history was working in a Canadian museum where a knowledge of Canadian history was a must! If that makes sense. Anyway, they're all incredible people, and I really hope I can keep in touch with them.
Saturday, August 02, 2003 :::
Well, what's happened since Wednesday... I'm still sick, but not as pathetic and miserable as I was then. Not to say that I'm still not reaping this thing for all that's worth!
Finished the 5th Harry Potter book today - it was so very, very long, but very, very cool. And sad! Poor Harry... I won't say anything else so as not to give any details away for those who haven't read it yet. I resisted the temptation to buy my own copy when it first came out (I wasn't really prepared to add over a kilo to my luggage!) and ended up reading my HS3's copy - she got it for her birthday but hasn't even read book 3 yet, so she let me borrow it for a while.
I also finished a book called The Snow Geese last week, by Joseph Fiennes. My mum gave it to me to read on the plane over here, telling me that it was about Canada. I only got to reading it a few weeks ago, and I have to say I'm rather glad. It's a wonderful book that traces the author's journey as he follows the migration of snow geese from Texas to the far north of Canada. It also talks a lot about homesickness and the desire to go home! A great book to read when you are actually about to go home, but I don't think I would have wanted to have read it on the way here...
Right now I'm talking to my entire family on msn. Ah, the wonders of technology...
