Skating with Strangers

It sounds like a good euphemism, but skating with strangers was the ice-breaker for a meetup group I found online. It could have been a complete disaster and half an hour before I left the house I really didn't want to go, but instead I had a lovely evening with good conversation, outdoor ice skating and Japanese food.

It was fun - I don't think I've been in an engaging, conversational group since I left NZ. Lots of one on one with Peg and a few night socialising in hostels but this was different. Talked about jobs, The Beatles (was Yoko really responsible for the break up?), books... All sorts. They meet every couple weeks. The next one's indoor paintball so I'll steer clear of that. Last time I attempted paintball I hid in the fort for the whole game and let someone else use my gun to win. I think it was sensory overload. I like laser tag but the whole paintball thing turned out to be too much. Anyway, I'll hit up the event after that - some kind of winter solstice festival.

Tomorrow I'm going to a film festival and Tuesday to the movies with a friend then this weekend I head to Hamilton again to see the famn damily... It's a busy week, which is exciting because it feels like I'm actually creating a life here instead of just twiddling my thumbs in a new city for a while.

Job status is still the same. Hunting, knocking, calling, applying... A business journalist job's come up and a "social media journalist" position, but the latter is for a private company so I think they really mean a social media communications officer. Still, I'll go for both and cross my fingers. I hear from a reliable source that the job market is just as tough in NZ so there's no point in going home just yet, right?

No news is still no news

There is a specific stress related to applying for jobs that has nothing to do with the boredom/poverty of unemployment or the fear of rejection. I'm calling it No News Hysteria and symptoms include:

1. Obsessively checking your phone, making sure you have it, that it's on, that it's working and that the volume on the ringer is high enough to hear it.

2. Repeatedly checking emails to see if you've had a reply, even a rejection so there'd be one less job to wonder about, and also referring to the sent emails to see when you sent in your application. "Twelve days. Does that mean I didn't get the job? Or are they just slow?"

3. Running to the phone when it rings, and being more-than-normally annoyed at the fact that it's always someone selling something.

So that's where I'm at. Still applying for jobs, still making contact with editors (which feels more like knocking on walls than knocking on doors right now) and still waiting to hear back about jobs I applied for two weeks ago.

On the upside, I went to the Bata Shoe Museum and out for dinner last night so I believe I can say with confidence that I have made my first friend in Toronto. Tomorrow night I go ice skating with strangers so maybe I'll be able to add to that number.

Life's The Beach

Best. Group. Ever. No really: Black Hippies Toronto. I got an email yesterday...

So Thursday/Friday I sent out more applications and cold-called some newspapers. Despite talking myself up to it (What's the worst that will happen? They say no... So what?) it's hard to cold call the people who will decide whether or not you work in your field of choice again. Unfortunately it's also hard to reach editors of big papers so I left a lot of messages and will have to repeat the whole exercise if they don't get back to me. Then I ate six biscuits, two spoons of peanut butter and an apple so it's hard to know what caused the nausea ;)

Talked to Mum that night -- she's very sensible plus works with crazy people all day so that improved my mood.

Saturday I spent four hours walking through Eastern Toronto, The Beach, Leslieville, Riverside... I took the street car out and planned to get it back, too, but ended up walking all the way home. It was great, another area I could see myself living in. Yeah yeah, job first. Whatever. I stopped for coffee, browsed a couple op shops (thrift stores), saw the river. Ran into the Occupy Toronto crowd marching and yelling on Queen St. It was kind of fun, especially since they were right outside Toronto's city mall. The juxtaposition of consumerism and activism entertained me.

So it's been a lot of "me" time this weekend -- I need to make friends before I get crazy egocentric. Next weekend I have my first meeting of one of the groups I joined so by this time next week I'll be the popular kid again ;)

I also might make it to the Bata Shoe Museum this week with a girl I know, which is only going to taunt me because I'll want to go all Imelda after that and my budget really can't manage three hundred pairs of shoes.

The Twinkie Experience

There are lots of things I hope to achieve in my time in Toronto but I achieved one thing this week: I tried a twinkie.

Twinkies don't exist in New Zealand and having seen Woodie Harrelson battle zombies all in the name of finding a post-apocalypse twinkie I added to my "to do" list. I didn't expect to enjoy it, but I knew it was important to follow through. To be fair to the twinkie, I wouldn't say it was worse than expected. It's essentially too-sweet icing piped into stale sponge, but now I have personal experience with the sickly sweet, slightly dry "delicacy".

I'm in Ottawa this week so the blog title is something of a lie. Other things I have achieved this week: voted in the NZ national election (can I vote "no confidence" instead?), saw bison, ate bison (not a whole one), and watched four hours of a show called Hoarders. One woman had 80 cats. How do you hoard cats? Mum has one cat and it wouldn't stay in a pile if you drugged it.

I've been obsessively clutching my phone all day because the job I went for closed applications on Thursday last week and I'm hoping for the "You got an interview!" call instead of the "Your application was a joke!" silence. So while I tend to be somewhat laissez-faire about having my cell on me, at the moment I keep having to run upstairs to grab it and worry that I'll miss the call in the five minutes I don't have it on me. Ulcer inducing.

Alesandra and Ryan Gosling

 Weird start to my day -- I got two texts and a phone call before 8am to wish Alesandra happy birthday. From different numbers so either Alesandra's been giving out the wrong number, or my number is eerily close to hers. So that was a new way to wake up, which resulted in the sort of broken-sleep confusion where your alarm goes and you pick up your phone and say "Hello?".

Hemingway's (the New Zealand/Australian themed restaurant) was not at all tacky, which was only marginally disappointing :) It was very crowded and had NZ signs around the place but I'm not sure how authentic it was. No NZ beer and only a handful of NZ wines? That doesn't sound like home! So I had an Argentinian red with my fajitas. The menu was full of  traditional New Zealand fare like Thai chicken salad, curried lamb, nachos and jambalaya. For those not familiar with antipodean cuisine, I'm not really being sarcastic. NZ may not have its own homogeneous culinary history but it has embraced the food of every immigrant to arrive. Company was as good as the food, and the three of us saw Ides of March afterwards.

I guess now I understand the plethora of Ryan Gosling memes, but I wasn't as impressed as I expected. As a story of a man losing his idealism it was well presented, and the acting was impeccable, but George Clooney used it a bit too much as a platform for his own political beliefs for me to relax into the story. No new combustion engine cars ten years from now? In America? Whoosh - pulled me right out of the plot. So I'd say rent it. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was fantastic, as always.

Tonight I head to Ottawa to catch up with some friends there - can't wait! Maybe I'll find myself a government job and forget about the whole media shebang. Ha. Unlikely. Besides, Ottawa doesn't have a subway and I would miss that.


Oh, and yesterday I received a "You might be interested email" inviting me to join the Toronto Expressive Dance Group. Can't wait. I hope we get to be butterflies, that was the best part of jazz class.

Routine and exploration

I'm trying something new, starting today. I've moved my computer downstairs so I can't just grab it while I'm still in bed and start browsing job sites/reading news/updating Facebook. The theory is that if I can make myself feel like I'm going to go do my "job" (i.e. job hunting) then I'll be more structured about it and get more done. I can work for a few hours in the morning, then go explore something of the city before returning to do more follow up as necessary.

Yesterday I went on a hunt to fing Crafted by Te Aro, a New Zealand owned cafe where I can order a "long black" and not get confusion in response. I imagine you could also order a flat white and maybe even a fluffy for the kids, but mostly it was just a really nice, relaxed cafe that did indeed feel like it leapt out of Wellington. The coffee was marginally disappointing, mostly because I'd built it up in my mind and expected The Best Coffee on Earth and instead got an okay, leaning towards mediocre, black coffee. Regardless, it was worth the trip to read my paper and people watch.

It's west of downtown so I walked along Queen Street past Little Portugal and up Bathurst through Korea Town and have decided if I ever have a job and therefore could find my own place to live then that's the vicinity I'd want to live it. It doesn't feel as polished as the area I'm in (which I think is a bit posh) but it's full of cafes, vintage stores and boutiques. Definitely keen to return, and might start browsing housing options in the area as motivation! Staying with Faith is really easy, she is relaxed and undemanding, so it would be a bit too easy to just stay here indefinitely.

Tonight I'm going to a New Zealand-themed restaurant with a couple people studying here so I will fill you in next time on just what exactly "NZ themed" means. It's actually New Zealand AND Australian themed, apparently so I suspect there will be a kiwi/kangaroo motif going on and we might even get a really culturally sensitive combination such as Maori chants alternating with didgeridoo music. I an genuinely looking forward to it ;)

There's good stuff too, I promise

Sometimes in the confusion, miscommunication (No Ottawa, not Oshawa!) and red tape I forget that new places are fun so while this entry is partly aimed at showing you all that I don't have to whine every day, it's also going to remain here permanently to remind me that this was a good move to a cool place with great things to see and do.

Last night (Saturday) I got to go to the symphony! I'm staying with Faith, and her son Ira had "somehow acquired" two tickets to Dvořák & Mendelssohn, part of the “casual concerts” series. It was lovely,. Can't say I'm knowledgeable but I always enjoy classical music when I stumble across it. Even recognised part from Fantasia. Thanks Disney. It was lovely to get out and see something of the city at night – something I should do more of.

During daylight hours I've been working my way up St Clair West, the main road near where I'm staying, and stopping at cafes, bakeries and shops along the way. It's basically vital to my existence to find good cafes. I was terrified Starbucks and Second Cup would be my only options and I'd spend my life in Toronto drinking bad tea. Instead last week I found a winner. It's called Noir (but not 50s detective themed – small disappointment) and had a whole wall of choices for tea, and comfy armchairs. I sat reading my book for about half an hour, enjoying the warm and the people watching and the Keemun Panda tea. No pandas harmed in the making of.

Add it to a couple used bookstores and tea shops I found walking home earlier in the week, plus three secondhand stores within blocks of home, and I'll be able to keep up all my habits. (I'm currently reading Trainspotting so tea, used clothes and books sound like really boring habits...)

I've been looking at book clubs and young professional groups too. I was tempted to join some of the weirder ones as blog-fodder so if at some point in the future I start talking about attending a meeting of the “I <3 God, Coffee and Yoga” group (capitalisations theirs, not mine) you'll know I've run out of things to write about.

Selling yourself

Good news! I've found a job I really want. It sounds interesting and challenging, and I know I could do it and do it well. Plus it pays well, is not far from where I'm living and is in communications, so still my area of expertise.

So how do I tell them that in a one page cover letter? Do I give into their jargon of “communication solutions” and “dynamic strategies”, or tell them the advantage I have is that I will speak journo's English, writing press releases someone will actually read? It's a strange business trying to sound qualified but not exaggerated, confident but not cocky.

I have taken advice from former colleagues, parents, friends, and still I dread the no-response, which means “You did not get an interview, you under-qualified hack.” I try not to get my hopes up, then I get my hopes up because disappointment is always better served unexpected. Realistically I know there could be five better qualified, more experienced applicants and I was never really competing, but knowing I could do this job makes me desperate to tell them “I can really do this, just give me a chance!” But which 300 words communicate that clearly?

So I'll tweak my resume, get a few people to read my cover letter (and try to trim the edge of desperation out of it), and hope for the best. I'm still sending stuff to newspapers, but I know how long it can be before gaps get filled in newsrooms.

And much as I truly loved the deadline-driven routine of daily news, metro dailies mean crazy shifts. For a girl trying to build a social life a nine to fiver might be the best option... That said, if Toronto Star or Globe and Mail calls I'm totally available!

The first fortnight

It has been almost two weeks since I arrived in Toronto. I've signed up for countless job sites (Well, six. Six is quite a countable number, really.), walked for hours through the city and successfully signed up for a social insurance number, bank account and library card. Unfortunately, that's the easy stuff.

Week one was supposed to be job hunting madness. I arrived on Sunday, took Monday off (six weeks of travel is fun, but quite tiring) and completed a few key tasks on Tuesday. Unfortunately the best place to job hunt is the internet, which is full of shiny tools of distraction. I looked at dozens of "how to write a cover letter" and "improve your resume" stories, without actually changing my cover letter or resume a great deal. I browsed jobs without applying, saved searches that I haven't repeated and researched local news outlets. A lot of research, which generally meant hours of reading The Toronto Star or The Globe and Mail online, plus all the community papers that arrive here and whatever is available online. It was research, just not productive for job getting.

Add to that three days visiting family in Hamilton (which was great - a reminder of why I moved  here) and you've written off seven full days. So now it's Thursday of week two and I have finally sent out resumes and portfolios to my top pick daily papers. Tomorrow I'll do community papers and next week some comms jobs.

That written off week didn't even cover my red-tape wrestling, which has mostly seen me hog-tied and sent home, occasionally almost in tears.

It's the same old story of the circles of bureaucracy. Kafka could have set his stories in the Ontario Services office as people try to sign up for an OHIP card, or in the Driver's Licensing office where I tried to trade in my New Zealand licence for an Ontario one. It's been written before, endlessly, but how do I get proof of address when everyone who would mail me something requires proof of address?

I'm lucky to be staying with a close family friend, and it's been wonderful to have an oasis to return to, plus a sympathetic ear. I've never been good at being unemployed, I get bored too quickly, so I'm gaining momentum on that front. As for the bureaucrats... they're safe for now. I'll focus on them when I have my energy back from my last encounter.

Introduction to the concept

I can't say exactly what has driven me to start a new blog, but it has something to do with writing and sharing. Having spent the last three years of my life (from university to working) writing everyday it's strange to do nothing but draft cover letters and tweak my CV. I read a lot, but it seems somewhere between liking to write and being paid to do it, crafting sentences and sharing ideas became habit or addiction.

The sharing side is partly driven by having no close friends in the city. Friends and family overseas are supportive and wonderful, but who do I meet for coffee to complain about my day or rave about the new cafe I found? So this may end up being pages of "Today I went to the store..." but I'm aiming to make it more interesting than that!

I'll leave the introduction here and hope I have enough to say to keep this up for a while.