Monday, August 9, 2010

The City

Dear Internet,

As you may or may not know already, I have been living in the city of Toronto (much to my chagrin) this summer due to a work placement here. As you also may or may not have gathered already, I am not, in general, a fan of this city. Although I suppose it would be rude to specifically malign Toronto, as I am not a fan of any city in general. Toronto is simply the first city I've ever lived in for more than a weekend.

There are a few other things contributing to my dislike of Toronto that are not exactly the fault of the city. For instance, I quite dislike my job, but that is a story for another day (more specifically, a day when I am no longer enslaved to this particular company). Also, summer is hot almost no matter where you are, but before this summer I had never really been at so much of the mercy of the summer heat, having been privileged with air-conditioning almost wherever I went for most of my life before this. Unfortunately for the city, many of the unpleasantries of real life that I am experiencing for the first time take place here, leading to my intense dislike of the city, which is (mostly) undeserving of it. I'm sure that, had my first full-time job been situated in any other city, I would dislike that city with the same intensity, or had I actually enjoyed my job, the city wouldn't seem so bad.

Anyways, I digress. My point is that Toronto is dirty, hot, smelly, and just generally gross and it makes me unhappy. I don't understand how so many people can flock to a place that has a consistent odor of car exhaust, garbage, and millions of people hanging in the air and lacking a breeze to blow it away. Not to mention the lack of trees! I'm no tree enthusiast as my boyfriend seems to be (he refuses to join my family for Christmas until we promise not a use a real pine tree, because apparently it is sick and murderous to string a tree's corpse with pretty lights and shiny things and put it proudly on display in our living room), but the lack of trees around the city is just depressing, especially coming from a town where most of the streets seem to cut through thick forests and even the "downtown" area is not lacking so much in greenery. I am lucky enough to be renting a room in house on a street that has real trees, so there's not too much withdrawal there.

Here's hoping I don't go nuts in the next three weeks.

Sincerely,

Caro

4 comments:

Steven Casagrande said...

THOSE POOR TREES

Anonymous said...

Well I guess Steve is never coming down for Christmas then.

-Courtney

Anonymous said...

Ps. We use spruce trees, not pine trees. So Steve, if you not a spruce enthusiast, we'll all be fine!

-Courtney

Anonymous said...

If you think Toronto's air is thick and smelly, go visit Auntie Mel in India. You'll think Toronto smells like a non-slaughtered, pine-tree filled forest! Take note, though, that even the 'slaughtered' trees smell wonderful for the 2 weeks they are in my house. They don't even know they are dead yet - how unthoughtful and callous can it really be, then, to display their beauty in my home?