Right now time seems to be going a little slower than it really is. The month I've spent away from "home home", i.e. Richmond Hill, seems as if it were about twice as long. Again, it's probably due to the amount of stuff I had to take care of just getting to where I am now. Someone has also been doing minor and moderate repairs to my apartment ever since I've moved in (upon my own request)...most of that's done now and I'm much more satisfied...especially the guest bathroom toilet leaking water and thus causing the tank to have to refill ever so slightly every 10 minutes and as a result making noise all the time...quite annoying and now the problem's fixed. Tomorrow however, Sears has to come exchange my mattress because a little while ago I realized they had sent me the wrong one. Luckily they'll do this for free, but I'll have to stay home tomorrow morning to let them in. Sears actually used this computer system to make an automated call to my number to confirm the details and 2-hour window of delivery, which I thought was pretty neat and technologically sophisticated...do we have that back in Canada? Anyway, at least I can plan my day this way.
So this weekend my car became more Texan because having registered my car with the State of Texas, I received new license plates to put onto the car...something that I've never done before because cars in Canada always appear to already have them on and never gets taken off. I did this exchanging of license plates not without a sense of sadness...I feel as if my car and my life are slowly being swallowed up by the enormity that is the United States...American phone, phone number, address, work, health insurance, car insurance, currenty, bank accounts...and now I'm even forced to start using their weird way of spelling things, like "color" instead of "colour" and "neighbor" instead of "neighbour"...and even more nitty gritty things like using mm/dd/yyyy instead of dd/mm/yyyy, the latter of which I had convinced myself was the more systematically logical format to use years ago...and now I have to change cause that's how it's done down here. Thank heaven that science is done in the metric system...that's right, grams, meters and Celcius....not pounds, quarts and Fahrenheit...that would have driven me insane. English and the Metric system are god-sends that have been adopted by the scientific community - that I am thankful for.
A little over a week ago, I may have mentioned that I've finally obtained an American "checking" account (that's right, no more "chequing")...but would you believe it, the same bank that I signed up for that account with denied me a credit card! It's something I took for granted in Canada...having too many of them. I think ever since the recession hit down here, banks have been much more stringent of who they give credit cards out to...finally, I guess and understandably so. But it's just not something I'm used to. Luckily the debit card I got, which they call and "instant debit" card...actually has credit card-like methods of usage on it, such that it's linked with "Visa" and can be used as if it were an actual credit card (you sign for it and can use it online even), but the money is instantly debited from your account rather than have you pay for it at the end of a month's time. So it's basically a debit card...but a little different. There are a lot of American tendencies that I don't quite understand fully. Ah...here's one more...they don't recycle here. OK, technically you do, but there are only 3-4 places in the city you can drop off glass bottles and cardboard etc. off at...and not in very conveneient places. I'm at least used to returning glass beer bottles foa a deposit back, but nope...not here...and they still use plastic bags at the grocery store (though interestingly enough some places ask you each time if you prefer the traditional brown paper bags you see on TV but never in real life). I may try to collect some recyclables in the future, but it's a huge hassle without road-side pick up to recycle...they don't recycle, compost or pick up old furniture. Heck, styrofoam is still a common material at fastfood joints...even in the cafeteria where I work! Wow...there's something I haven't seen in a long time!
The holidays are coming up though...it'll be a nice "recharge" back in familiar territory before the long haul back down in Texas. I'm not sure when I'll be visiting Richmond Hill (or Canada for that matter) in the near future. In April, I have a wedding to go to but that's in Boston...there's a wedding back in Toronto I'd like to attend in the summer, but I have no idea how my work schedule will be...and flights aren't a little more than a few bucks in the bucket.
Speaking of money, this is the first time when my cell phone bill with taxes will come to about $90. The first month was ~$140...Sprint charged me all these fees and some options we didn't agree to...I cancelled them, but that'll only take effect next month...so it'll still be like $100. However, I must say that 4G speeds are really nice and I'm using my phone as a wireless router, i.e. I get high-speed internet access anywhere I take my phone and am using that at home instead of cable internet...so I guess in the end, I'm either saving money or at least getting to use a smartphone instead of a regular phone...and I do enjoy technology...I can finally use FourSquare! Haha...I've also found a way to make free long-distance calls throughout North America using Google Voice (Google Voice and Video in Canada...slightly different). Ironically, when I come visiting to Canada, I can't use this service because it goes through my internet usage (unlimited right now), which will be unacceptably high while roaming in Canada. Ah well, at least I'm making the most of it down here.
Now to enjoy some R&R back up in beautiful Canada...darn, I'll have some winter clothing back...and airlines charge $25/suitcase one way...let's see how well I can pack a carry-on...
