REACTIVEradio

The current time and date is 7:23am (local), Thursday, October 19 and I’m currently sitting in Toronto’s massive Pearson International Airport.  I’m sitting right next to the window, and while it’s not raining, mysteriously, everything on the other side of this glass is soaking wet and it has been since we arrived just a little over an hour ago. 

It was a pretty uneventful flight from Calgary to here.  I was sat next to two Chinese girls who didn’t speak a word of English (or so they tried to gesture to me, I think) so I was left to my own devices to keep myself occupied for the three and a half hours that I was aboard the Airbus A319.  I watched most of The Devil Wears Prada, and while I’m not expecting any Oscar nominations to come of it, it was entertaining enough to keep me from thinking about how nervous I am about this whole thing.

Now, don’t get me wrong; as I’ve told pretty much all of you, the nervousness isn’t crippling, I’m still going to Bermuda and going to have the time of my life.  It’s just that for the past 23 years of my life, I’ve always had some kind of family at least in the same city as me.  Not that I don’t consider Matt essentially my brother from another mother, but I’m sure each of you reading this know what I mean.

One other thing is also now making me a little more nervous.  After the slight ticket-not-being-paid-for snafu that happened mere hours ago, and after exchanging every last CAD to USD, I might be facing some interesting issues when I land.  As I’ve told most of you, there is a very large import duty on everything non-essential (i.e. clothing) that is brought into the country.  After doing the math, I will be paying $447USD purely on duty when I land.  I have $571USD.  Where’s the problem you say?  Well, I was only told this morning (Wednesday morning) that because they only got verbal approval of my temporary work permit, I may be charged a fine of $150.  I love the key word in there: “may”.  Sometimes they charge you, and sometimes, they just give a warning.  I’m hoping the fact that I’ve already prepared a list of everything that I’m importing and their associated costs will have them pity me a little bit and let me off with a warning.  I’m just hoping that my good looks, charm and charisma (hah!) will get me just a warning.

The other unfortunate part is that while Calgary (God bless you all) has decided to give their sky-destined travellers free wireless internet anywhere in the airport, Toronto has partnered up with Bell (as if you really needed another reason to hate Bell, sheesh) to offer WiFi service for the low-low price of $21/day.  Fantastic.  So by the time you read this, I will already be in Bermuda, as I’ll have to wait till I land there to post this, plus the post I intend to write on the plane, if my battery gets close to dead.

Anyways, I have about 45 minutes now until boarding time, so I should hit the lavatory, and get myself all prepped for my last flight out of Canada until at least after the new year.  Bon voyage!

I’ve successfully cleared security at the Calgary International Airport, and am currently sitting at gate A11 for the 12:50 flight that will take me a little more than half the way to my final destination. I’ll be landing at Toronto’s Pearson International at just after 6am local time, just in time to see the sun come up. From there, it’s a short two and a half hour pond jump to lovely Hamilton, Bermuda, where if everything goes according to plan, Mr. Baker will be there with the company van to escort me to company apartment in Taget (to drop off my luggage), and then back to Hamilton to meet the ACT crew and see what this whole thing is really about.

I must say, one thing is a bit offsetting and I haven’t even left the airport; when I went to check in my bags, they took the suitcases, screened them and sent them on their way, and then when I went to pay for the overages in baggage fees (both of my suitcases were overweight by about 20 and 45 pounds, and I had an extra piece of luggage: my guitar), they asked how I’d be paying for the flight. Yes, that’s right, they booked the flight but didn’t pay for it. Thank God Mom was there to help me out until I can get that all sorted out. But Christ, that’s not a good omen.

Anyways, to end this part of the journal off, I’ll just say that while I’m really excited to be heading to Bermuda to be able to hang out with Matt again and just be able to go surfing whenever I damn well please, I’m still going to miss everyone so much, I can’t describe it in words.

See you in Toronto!