The Long Wait

May 2009. So I just arrived in Toronto Ontario. Regardless of all the research I did, I was still a tourist in this new city. So I did what every tourist would do, explore. Ok maybe not really a tourist going on tour busses or checking out museums and the usual tourist spots, I was on a tight budget and this city is the most expensive one in Canada. Good thing I did my research and I knew where the free places were.

So Toronto has a lot of parks and parkettes. I think in the city alone there's over a hundred. Some are just a block big, and some are entire forests. Yes, forests in the city! So I ventured out and explored those forests. One particular trek I did took me 5 hours to complete. I walked from our condo to a forest about 3km away. I knew my maps and I also knew that that forest led to another park though I don't think it was open to the public, but whatever. So through the forest I walked, watching kids play in the facilities, dogs running along the creek and lovers sitting on benches. All I thought of was how great this would all be if my girlfriend was here.

Still she wasn't and yeah I missed her. Anyway, I kept walking, trying to go as far as I can until my feet were sore. I walked through glacial forests, over creeks, up and down ravines. It came to a point where I didn't see any people anymore. I was alone in the woods with only the squirrels and beavers. I kept walking with only the sun as my guiding star, it was afternoon so I knew that if I faced the sun that was west and I was heading east. Finally, after nearly 2 hours of woods, brooks, and fallen trees, I heard dogs splashing in a pool. Sure enough, there were people too. I arrived in Sunnybrook Park, 7 kilometers from the condo.

Sunnybrook Park is nothing special, it's just huge. There's about 20 football fields and ironically, the only players I saw were playing cricket. It has a horse ranch, a botanical garden and more forests. But I didn't go there for any of those, I went simply to kill time, I went to get lost and find something interesting. This was my pathetic attempt to go to the unknown yonder.

After 7km of walking through ravines and forests, my feet were sore, but I had no intention of stopping. I missed walking. Back home I used to walk a lot until I started driving then I got fat. So these long walks through unknown terrain was a welcome treat. Besides, I didn't want to spend money for the bus.

So I walked. Every weekend since I arrived that spring day in late April, I walked through cityscapes, lake shores, forests, parks and streets.

Of course walking can also be boring if you do it too much. On weekdays, I'd go to the library, use the WiFi and look for jobs. I usually had an interview with a job prospect every week. Unfortunately May passed and I was still unemployed.

My bank account was slowly being drained. If you're used to eating fast food in the Philippines, you'd be shocked at the prices of food prices here. Let's just say that a meal you'd get for the price of a 2-pc Chickenjoy meal would only be a hotdog in a bun without a drink. So I ate at home, bought my rice from the grocery $2/kg.

Then I discovered Chinese food at the food court. For $5, I'd get fried rice and spicy chicken, it was good enough considering that that meal was my lunch and dinner at the same time (it was that much). So nearly every day, after I was done surfing in the library, I would head down to the food court and get me some Chinese food.

June 2009. Still unemployed. Walking through parks and going to the library had become routine. I was bored and unable to spend. My aunts were getting restless too. I'd get the occasional nag about not looking for a job, or accused of being lax and taking a vacation. It wasn't my fault that there was a recession. Still I shrugged it all off. I was not in the position to fight back. So I took every punch and turned the other cheek. Sure I felt bad, I wanted to move out. I wanted to move to Alberta where I had one gay friend I knew would take me in. Don't get me wrong, he is really my friend and he was just gay.

June passed, still unemployed. Wanted to give up, wanted to move out, wanted to abort my mission of taking the Canadian dream. I thought of Dina, the rest was easy.