Toronto → Windsor
Life has a strange way of working things out. Yesterday's hangover was abysmal, but I still wanted to go out to see D again and dance to Heather, since she is one of my fave DJs and it's been a long time since I heard American style house music.
The weather intervened.
At around 9pm I put on my brand new super fuzzy warm hoodie and walked up to Mother's Dumplings. They're a Toronto Chinatown institution - they make all kinds of different dumplings and other dishes noone bothers with because the dumplings are so good. But the hangover had me craving 葱油饼 (cōng yóu bǐng), which is a mungbean pancake. I remembered that their take on it was a lot thicker than the mainland style, a bit more like how it's made in Taiwan. Lordy, did that hit the spot. I had the pancake, fat and gooey and heavy, and 6 tofu and rice vermicelli dumplings and a small plate of chili spice bean sprouts.
Food aside, let's talk about the walk. It was only about 5 minutes from my hotel, but the temperature was -10 or lower. I regret not buying gloves. The new hoodie is warm, but I forgot that this kind of cold freezes your eyeballs in their sockets and cuts straight through your jeans and turns your hair into icicles.
The other thing it does is cancel flights. So Heather was stuck in Chicago and that was that. I crawled back into bed and set my alarm for 4:30am.
Walking to the train station at 5 in the morning was rough. 20 minutes or so in -15, with wind in my face and a pack on my back. I jammed my hands in my pockets and pulled up my bandana for maximum veganarchist/antifa effect. Canada is fucking cold, eh.
At the station there was a McDonald's coffee shop, so I picked up a bagel and a coffee and danced a little jig waiting for R to email me a ticket. The line at the ticket counter was crazy long considering it was before 6am, and for various reasons I don't want to go into I couldn't book online myself. Oh wait, yeah, it's that "living in North America without a credit card" thing. Fucking, you really are a nonperson here if you don't have credit.
Anywho, I'm on the train traveling to Windsor. The weather there is even more bitterly cold, and the people are disturbingly racist and the public transport situation is embarrassingly bad, but my Canadian bestie lives there and I think we both need some quality hetero lifemate time.
We just pulled into Aldershot, which is some town I don't know where it is that shares its name with my town of birth. The sky is still dark but getting lighter. Outside everything is covered in snow. I want another bagel. Canada is starting to feel a bit like home again.
The weather intervened.
At around 9pm I put on my brand new super fuzzy warm hoodie and walked up to Mother's Dumplings. They're a Toronto Chinatown institution - they make all kinds of different dumplings and other dishes noone bothers with because the dumplings are so good. But the hangover had me craving 葱油饼 (cōng yóu bǐng), which is a mungbean pancake. I remembered that their take on it was a lot thicker than the mainland style, a bit more like how it's made in Taiwan. Lordy, did that hit the spot. I had the pancake, fat and gooey and heavy, and 6 tofu and rice vermicelli dumplings and a small plate of chili spice bean sprouts.
Food aside, let's talk about the walk. It was only about 5 minutes from my hotel, but the temperature was -10 or lower. I regret not buying gloves. The new hoodie is warm, but I forgot that this kind of cold freezes your eyeballs in their sockets and cuts straight through your jeans and turns your hair into icicles.
The other thing it does is cancel flights. So Heather was stuck in Chicago and that was that. I crawled back into bed and set my alarm for 4:30am.
Walking to the train station at 5 in the morning was rough. 20 minutes or so in -15, with wind in my face and a pack on my back. I jammed my hands in my pockets and pulled up my bandana for maximum veganarchist/antifa effect. Canada is fucking cold, eh.
At the station there was a McDonald's coffee shop, so I picked up a bagel and a coffee and danced a little jig waiting for R to email me a ticket. The line at the ticket counter was crazy long considering it was before 6am, and for various reasons I don't want to go into I couldn't book online myself. Oh wait, yeah, it's that "living in North America without a credit card" thing. Fucking, you really are a nonperson here if you don't have credit.
Anywho, I'm on the train traveling to Windsor. The weather there is even more bitterly cold, and the people are disturbingly racist and the public transport situation is embarrassingly bad, but my Canadian bestie lives there and I think we both need some quality hetero lifemate time.
We just pulled into Aldershot, which is some town I don't know where it is that shares its name with my town of birth. The sky is still dark but getting lighter. Outside everything is covered in snow. I want another bagel. Canada is starting to feel a bit like home again.