"form keele"

ok... so there i am waiting for the bus to arrive when i realize i've been waiting a very long time. i live within walking distance to the station - but sometimes i like to play the fates and just see if i get a bus. it was one of those mornings.

after i first got there i sensed someone behind me and it was a man also waiting for the bus, but standing several feet away from the stop. whatever. then as i waited and waited and waited, i looked back at the man and said, "i guess we're stuck here now... it's too late to walk." meaning, if i started walking (as i often do) 2 or 3 busses will whiz mightily past me. the guy walked closer and agreed that "we prisoner now".

taking a second look at him, i realized that he was hunched up in his windbreaker like he was freezing to death. he tells me he's from mexico city and that this is very cold for him. it really wasn't all that bad out there today. more of what i'd call a lovely typical october day. (i love the autumn... but i think anyone reading this rambling entries may have picked up on that by now).

turns out he's here studying english and french and he wants to end up going to university here. he is staying the winter. i told him he needed to buy warmer clothes - because this isn't cold at all. i told him the secret to surviving an ontario winter - many many many layers and that he needed to buy wool. then the poor puppy says someone told him he could buy gloves at the sears in yorkdale mall. what the fuck? why is some moron sending him all the way out to yorkdale (from bloor and keele) to get bluddy gloves? urgh.

i test the waters and say, "you must have a lot of people telling you where to get things." and he responds that he lives alone and actually doesn't know many people and that it's hard for him to get the things he needs. i told him he just needed to start talking to people and they'd be happy to help. then he tells me the one thing that just dissolves my defenses, "i try but people often don't have time." for me, that's just awful. as a transplant to toronto, i do know what it's like to feel like the city couldn't give a flying fuck about you (now, that's an interesting visual). for many years after i first moved here i would look up at the looming and somewhat mocking cn tower and feel like it was laughing at me, "go back home you little alberta farm gurl. you don't belong."

and at least i had the ability to blend in quite easily... i am a white canadian-born female. no discrimination to deal with there. even though toronto is easily the MOST racially and culturally diverse city i've ever been in (and i actually have travelled a little but, so i do know what i'm talking about) it is still different for people who are not born here. i am guessing. an example today was heartbreaking. my new mexican buddy and i are getting off the bus at the station (he moved aside to allow me to go first... his madre taught him manners we just don't see in canada) and he said, "many thanks for the ride" to the driver. the driver didn't even look over. so i say, "thank you." and the driver responded to me. now, was it just the fact that the driver didn't hear the spanish accented english, or was it that two people in a row said something or was it the fact that i had no accent.... who knows.... but i didn't feel great about it.

long story short, i ended up giving mr. mexico (his name is actually antonio) my email address and said if he had questions about stuff in the city to feel free to ask me and i'd help if i could. he then asked me about "niagra falls lake". heehee. i told him he meant, "niagara-on-the-lake". i have never been there myself, but told him that it was supposed to be very beautiful with a lot of bed and breakfast type places to stay in and that it's in the middle of ontario's wine growing area. antonio was shocked i'd never been there - told him i had no car, and he seemed to understand. then a good ole toronto boy (so stereotypical that he was wearing a leaf's jersey AND cap) piped in and started talking about niagra-on-the-lake and how to search for it online.

my stop rolled up, i felt my work there was done and i said bye-bye to antonio. a few hours later when i get home i see an email from him with the subject line "form keele". the email was sent not more than 1 hour after we met. he wanted to make sure he had the right email address.... i hope i haven't gotten myself a puppy dog....

[music | rob zombie, "living dead girl"]