Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Oot 'n' aboot in Hamilton
Having escaped the drizzle of England a few days previously, I woke up on Monday morning to torrential rain that was to last all day. Oh well.
Even through the rain, Hamilton looks a lot better in the daylight so I felt a lot more optimistic, although the day itself wasn't much to speak of because I spent most of it sorting Joe's sales stuff out. With no job until I get my permanent resident's visa, though, this made me feel quite useful and meant I escaped the rain.
So I chose to explore today (Tuesday) instead. Joe dropped me off in the middle of town and I started wandering. Everything is new and pretty different, although at varying levels of interest. With snow everywhere and a slight hokiness to the town, I felt like I was wandering through the set of Northern Exposure.
One of the first shops I encountered was (wait for it) a gun shop! Unfortunately you couldn't see any actual guns in the window (boring) but there were some great gun lobby signs. One of them had a picture of Hitler doing the Nazi salute, with a caption underneath that read "Raise your hand if you support gun control". You can tell we're close to America!!!
That's about as far as I've got, although I'll probably check out a Tim Horton's soon. Tim Horton's is the new Church of Canada. It's a coffee/snack shop and every Canadian goes there at least once a day. In fact, it won't be long before Canadians are born with a protrusion of their right arm shaped like a Timmy's coffee cup, because that's the way most adults here wander around. There's a shop, like, every 100 metres (no, really!) and as an ice hockey player who helped kids and died tragically young, who also provides coffee to all, Tim Horton is now a national hero.
Having said that, it's time to do the Canadian thing and go get my daily fix : )
Even through the rain, Hamilton looks a lot better in the daylight so I felt a lot more optimistic, although the day itself wasn't much to speak of because I spent most of it sorting Joe's sales stuff out. With no job until I get my permanent resident's visa, though, this made me feel quite useful and meant I escaped the rain.
So I chose to explore today (Tuesday) instead. Joe dropped me off in the middle of town and I started wandering. Everything is new and pretty different, although at varying levels of interest. With snow everywhere and a slight hokiness to the town, I felt like I was wandering through the set of Northern Exposure.
One of the first shops I encountered was (wait for it) a gun shop! Unfortunately you couldn't see any actual guns in the window (boring) but there were some great gun lobby signs. One of them had a picture of Hitler doing the Nazi salute, with a caption underneath that read "Raise your hand if you support gun control". You can tell we're close to America!!!
That's about as far as I've got, although I'll probably check out a Tim Horton's soon. Tim Horton's is the new Church of Canada. It's a coffee/snack shop and every Canadian goes there at least once a day. In fact, it won't be long before Canadians are born with a protrusion of their right arm shaped like a Timmy's coffee cup, because that's the way most adults here wander around. There's a shop, like, every 100 metres (no, really!) and as an ice hockey player who helped kids and died tragically young, who also provides coffee to all, Tim Horton is now a national hero.
Having said that, it's time to do the Canadian thing and go get my daily fix : )
