connecting

i have comfortably figured out the metro, even if there were a few unpleasantries along the learning curve. it's all very simple, and the greatest confusion was caused by the ticket seller we bought two tickets from that charged us for four :/

the women at fido confirmed that my phone was fine, and then left me on hold with customer service because her computer wasn't connecting properly. i must've been on hold for between five or ten minutes before i asked another rep to see if she could help out, and after two or three tries she got through and discovered that the system was already updated with the details i was on hold to provide. another five or ten minutes had passed by then, and *just* as i was hearing that the call was unnecessary the muzak stopped and somebody answered.

a giant "thank you" goes out to all the apple fanatics who overloaded the system in their desperate quest to be of the first to upgrade to an iphone that's only a slight improvement over what they already had.

pg and i proceeded underground, where we struggled to find food. not only is it really complicated if you don't speak french, but it appears that the québécois aren't so big on vegetarian options. *everything* here has to come from an animal, it seems :(

we walked a long way after that, less shopping than locating shops and occasionally surfacing for some cool air and to be rained on.

eventually we returned home, rested, cooked dinner, rested a little more and then went back downtown for a party whose invitations stated 10pm. the place is outside the anglophone safety zone; after discovering that we'd arrived on time and far too early we milled around, enjoying the vibe (and for me, the incredible graffiti) and stopping for heart-stoppingly greasy fries at some dodgy all-night fast food joint; the man was kind enough to speak english when he realized that i was trying out french on him. eating so irresponsibly on the way to a party was fun, a nostalgic trip back to the days of my clubbing youth.

we returned to the club and were treated to a really, really great house set. unfortunately, people only began arriving in significant numbers as the dj's switched and the new guy was just meh.

so we left. we'd had drinks and at least the first set was worthwhile.

the return journey was fairly easy, ticket confusion notwithstanding (the earlier bastard had jipped us, and the next ticket seller hadn't a clue what it was i expected from her) although it was anything but pleasant: the ticket incident was the straw that broke the camel's back (indirectly, the rationale is convoluted but sound), and pg has decided that she is not at all interested in living here.

i'm disappointed, because we've barely been here and i still think this is a fantastic city. but if it is what it is, there's not much to be done but to move on...

now that i have an operational phone i've just realized that i didn't think to call my other relatives when i arrived. not cool. i blame my subconscious refusal to acknowledge landlines as anything but leftovers of a now-irrelevant past.

just like fax machines.

or other people's phones as viable alternatives? i guess i don't have a real excuse after all :(