Reflections on my Big City Visit
I'm 25, so the novelty of going into the big city, Toronto in my case, should have long since worn off. I have made numerous visits, and each time, my sense of geographic familiarity improves. However, there is still a country boy within me that can't help but gawk at the CN Tower and marvel at the numerous technological and architectural wonders in the city. In this particular trip, I made the following reflections:
* I am slowly endearing myself to the city. Until my recent visit to Europe, Toronto was the biggest city I had visited (I've only ever driven through Chicago and Montreal, and while I've visited all of Detroit, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Winnipeg, and Ottawa, while comparable, they are all smaller), so perhaps after seeing London, Zurich and Hamburg, while probably not all are bigger cities, my sense of wonderment has decreased. I took the subway by myself, without having to be told which route would be most efficient. I knew where to look for hotdog vendors. People asked me for directions. It's almost as if people, including me, didn't think I was out of place.
* Some nice people live in the city. I bought a morning paper on Saturday, but I picked it up outside the store, and had to go out of my way to go in and pay for it. If I, an honest and trustworthy country boy, was that close to walking away and not paying, surely city folk would regularly steal papers like this, but the fact that they display them like that must mean that theft isn't a huge problem. Also, I could have walked into the subway/bus station pretty easily without paying, risking a fine of course, but I didn't see any cameras or security guards stopping me. Businesses must be able to, at some level, put some trust in the general populace of Toronto. To top it off, I had my car unlocked in my friends apartment complex parking lot, and it was not stolen or stolen from. I really can no longer say that Toronto is a haven of filth and despair.
* The CN Tower is really big. As mentioned in a previous blog post, I participated again this year in the Canada Life CN Tower Climb for the World Wildlife Fund. My time was 7 seconds slower than last year, thanks mostly to people getting in my way and not moving for me. Looking down at the ground through the glass floor, out over the city from the observation deck, or up to the tower from ground level, it's hard to believe that I actually climbed that high. My muscles aching, my lungs gasping for oxygen, my lips crying for water, and my skin dripping with sweat, I still couldn't believe that I could achieve such a feat in such short time.
* I'm not completely girl crazy. Or at least not as much anymore. On my way up the tower, at various flights, people were stationed, paramedics, WWF volunteers, etc. to support us. As I approached one flight, I looked up to see two girls standing there wearing sashes, indicating that they were beauty queens. I thought to my self, "Why are they here?" My capacity for arousal at that point was pretty low, plus I probably wasn't all that attractive dripping in sweat, so I wouldn't have gotten much of a reception had I tried to stop and talk to them. I walked right by them without even checking them out. To some, that may sound like an infantile achievement. However, when a girl indicates that she is a beauty queen, I am at least allowed, if not invited, to have a good look and judge whether or not I agree with that assessment.
* I'm frighteningly comfortable being a loner. I drove to and from the city, rode the subway all around town, climbed the CN Tower, visited a friend's museum exhibit, and ate lunch, all of them, by myself. I'm not saying that as if it's an achievement. It could mean that I have few to no friends, or that I just make plans on my own. I'm not a highly social person, so I don't always have big events like this join in with others, and I don't feel all that comfortable asking other people to join in on my stuff. Combine that with not having a girlfriend and the gradual geographic diaspora of my larger social base, and I end up doing a lot of stuff, like this, alone. That's life, and it used to bother me, but now, notsomuch.

   [ posted by William @ 2:26 PM ]