Day 10, Sept 29th

Ok, so this morning was my interview morning for the call centre job. The interview was at 10.40 so I set my alarm for 8 to give me enough time to make it in time as it was pretty far from the hostel. Pretty good plan eh? Well the first thing I remember that mornin was waking up at 10 and screaming out FUCK! I was super late so didn't have any time for a shower or breakfast. I did threat myself to a teeth brushing though. Threw on a shirt and headed straight out to catch the subway. That took a good 30 min and then I had to catch a bus too. I met this girl on the bus who was going to the interview as well. Tania, from Toronto. She was soo nice too. I love how there's no barrier between races over here. You don't really have groups of Asians/blacks/whoever. Everyone just hangs with everyone. She helped me find my way, which was great as I was late enough as it was. So I ended up getting to the interview a good hour late, but they were doing a load of interviews so it didn't matter.

So they sent myself and Tania in to do a quick computer test while we waited for our interviews. It was all pretty easy and myself and Tania were just copying off each other anyway so we flew through it. Then we were called into the interview separately. I was still pretty drunk at this stage which turned out to be great for me as I was talking shit for about 15 min. He made me make up a sales pitch off the cuff n' everything which was hilarious. The call centre was a charity organisation and seemed to be about as good a call centre as you're gonna get. By the end of the interview the guy told me that he wasn't supposed to say if I got the job, but told me I had it. I was pretty happy with that but realised that I wouldn't make any decisions till I had the games interview on Monday. Tania asked me to wait for her when I was done so when she was done she helped me get back home again. Glad I met her.

After the interview I went back to the hostel to hang out with Fiona before she got on her flight. I was falling asleep though so went to bed for an hour first. Getting up after that hour was tough but I had to say goodbye to Fiona and wanted to help her carry her bags to the bus stop. So we said our goodbyes but will keep in touch.

After a bit of a rest I met up with Glen and his buddy Jamie (Scotland). Two sound blokes. I went up to the house they're gonna be moving into shortly where another Irish girl had just moved in and her key wouldn't open her door. We tried everything and rang the landlord but he was absolutely no help. We ended up kicking the door in and breaking the lock which was a great start for her. We did a make shift job on the door that'll keep her safe for now. Headed to see Jackass 2 then with the lads. Never laughed so much in the cinema. Was crying for an hour and a half. It's also the sickest movie ever. And like Yorkies, not for girls.

For the rest of the night we took it easy. No drink at all, which was a first since getting here. Needed a break, big time. It was the first day of the Aussie Football league so there was a bunch of aussies in the hostel to watch the game. Good atmosphere. I had to hit the bed for 2 though as I was shattered.

The Aussie invasion.

First day I got to do some laundry. They sure do like their hockey over here.

Day 9, Sept 28th

I'm sitting at my laptop right now trying to remember what I did on this day. I write these blogs the day after and can't for the life of me remember what I spent the day doing. All the days are running into one and i'm finding very hard to keep track of the days.

I did ring about a games job with a big company (Capcom) in the hope to hurry them up a bit as if I got the job i'd have to move to a smaller town called Burlington, 35 miles from Toronto. Not sure if this is actually a wise decision but I guess i'll just play it by ear. It could be a good career move for me, but that wasn't really what I had intended. Oh well. I got an interview for myself on Monday so will see how it goes.

During the evening myself and Fiona decided to go to a comedy gig down the road. Turned out to be great. It was one man show of a guy who did all the voices from the tv show Family Guy. So it was basically like watching an hour long show. At the start it was a bit weird hearing all the voices without seeing the characters, but 5 minutes in you'd just automatically visualise all the characters. Great stuff.

That night was the first night out for the swappers. We had a floor reserved in a pub called the Madison, but most people met up in the Hostel first. Met a few more Irish folk. Another girl from Cork too (Tara). I think i've met more people from Cork then anywhere else. Can't get away from them. Had good craic in the pub but I left around midnight to go back to the hostel as it was Fiona's last night. The hostel was really jumpin again so we had a great night. All the swappers came back to the hostel too afterwards and we had a right wild one. Started hanging out with a sound bloke from Tyrone too (Glen). He ended up coming back to the hostel with a plastic sword, so I got a pool cue and we spent half the night hacking the shit out eachother. Another normal night in the hostel then.

No idea what time I ended up going to bed but it wasn't before 4. Prob not the best idea since I had an interview at 10.40 the following morning so had to be up nice and early. Tune in same time tomorrow to see how that went...

Gillian, moi, Martin, Des, Tara and John. The Irish gang at the swappers night.

Cat joins us for the party. She works for Swap and has been extremely helpful with everything.

Sally, my team mate, saves my ass. She's very good at pool, which was great as I was seeing 2 of every ball at this stage.

Tara (from Cork) does a bit of posing.

Bye bye Fiona.

Day 8th, Sept 27th

Another big job searching day for me today. Got up nice and early again as there was a job fair in town that I wanted to go to. I went over around 11 with Caroline, nice French girl from the hostel. It was being held in a massive conference hall and had about 100 exhibitors so there was a lot of walking around for the day. Most of the stands were of no use to me but there were a few good recruitment agencies that were helpful and set up an interview for me in a call centre for Friday. After a few hours of walking around the hall and queing for hours I was shattered so headed back to the hostel to relax.

It was the last night for a few people tonight so you know what that means. Boooooooze. It was Tacs last night so it was our mission to get him hammered. Turns out he had the same plan. Lots of drinking, pooling and jenga......ing. We managed to really bring out the party animal in Tac and turned him for the most restrained guy ever to a dance machine. I also had to bring him to the infamous $1 hotdogs. We partied till 4 or 5 then I had to hit the sack Tac decided to just stay up all night and get the bus first thing in the morn. Another one bits the dust.

Max goes wild on his last night

Fiona "shakey hands" Wheatley

The living dance machine

Homeboys

Day 7, Sept 26th

Up nice and early today for my interview. Interview was at 10 so got up at 8ish. That's a good 4 hours sleep I got for myself. Plenty. Wanted to go a bit early today as I needed to get the subway which I hadn't used yet. Turns out its super easy. There's only 2 main routes which bring you around the whole city so its hard to get the wrong one. Had the interview which went fine, even though I didn't really like the guy doing the interviews. Money's crap and I still need to get a few docs sorted for them so i'll def keep looking for other jobs.

After the interview I went back to the hostel for a nap for a couple of hours. When I arose I started looking online again for more work. Applied to quite a few more recruitment agencies. Over here you're supposed to upload your resume and then ring them a few days later to kick them into gear.

Spent the rest of the evening in the hostel chatting away to anyone and everyone. Met a new room mate of mine too. Tac from Japan. Cool guy. Used be a professional snow boarder back in Japan and New Zealand. He's a car designer for Toyota back in Japan now. Had a few drinks over games of pool with himself and Fiona. We also met this crazy old fella who spent the night telling Irish "jokes". He wanted us to come up north to work on his farm. Fat chance of that. He prob has a few dead bodies buried out the back. Things are finally starting to quieten down a bit so made it to bed for 3, which was nice for a change.

The CN Tower with the Sky Dome

Fiona with Tac and Old Crazy Joe

They've loadsa squirrel's over here. One snuck into the hostel and caused a bit of chaos. Funny.

Day 6, Sept 25th

Ok, finally a day of relative peace. I even almost made it through the day without getting drunk, almost. I was so close. I was trying to stay sober as I'd an interview first thing the following morn. So I spent most of the day in the hostel, taking it easy, looking online for jobs. No interesting pics so from today. Tried to go to the Imax with Fiona but we picked the one day it wasn't showing as it takes a whole day to change the film. We just went to the normal cinema instead. Very nice.

I have set up a page on my own site for some higher quality images, as this blog keeps the images at a small size. I've just thrown up a few which you can access here. http://boriordan.googlepages.com/home I've put up a vid from the baseball too.

Also another thing that's quite handy on this blog site is the option for ye to add comments to any of my posts. Down at the end of each post you'll see the word "comments". Click on this to add a little message.

Day 5, Sept 24th

Just when I thought I couldn't have any more fun, Sunday topped it all. It was Jan's last day in Canada so he wanted to go out in style. Got up around midday which was still pretty early as we went to bed so late the night before. Had a nice old school Irish breakfast with Jan while the Toronto marathon was on. We went back to the hostel to collect Fiona and then went on to Rogers stadium which is the local baseball stadium. Go Blue Jays. It was the last game of the season so we wanted to go while we had the chance. Blue Jays were playing the Boston Red Sox. Thought they were supposed to be good but the Blue Jays hammered them. Its not the most exciting sport but the atmosphere really makes it. Had a great laugh.
Straight after the game we went across the road to a local brewery. Steam Whistle. Its a Canadian beer that was only established in 2000 but has proven extremely popular. We only went cause we heard you get free samples before and after the tour. As it was a Sunday the tours were limited, but we still went for our free samples. We ended up in the middle of a tour by a mistake so we decided to go with it as we didn't have to pay. It was only about 20 min and we got more free samples afterwards. They wouldn't serve anymore after 6 so we tried to pour our own but ended up getting kicked out which was a bit harsh. We went to the closest bar then for some food and more booze. We went back to the hostel then for around 8 where we wanted to send Jan off in style so ended up drinking all night. We had an absolutely amazing laugh all night. Lots of dancing, piano playing, pool, piggy back racing and just general messing about. Jan left us around 4 as he had to be up for 8 to catch his bus. I stayed up till 6ish doing a bit of blogging and emailing. Couldn't get over how much fun the last few days were. Just when I thought I was having the best time ever, along came the next day which was even crazier.

Blue Jays v Red Sox

Who's the scary fella?

Free Booze

Toronto's great public transport

After 12 pints everyone can play the piano

Dirty Dancing eat your heart out.

Bye Bye Jan

Day 4 Sept 23rd

Got up at 9 again as it's impossible to sleep any more in the hostel. Spent the whole day walking around handing out resunés, won't find out if I had any success till next week though. Spent most of the day in Eaton mall, which is pretty amazing. Absolutely massive. Handed in the resumé to loads of places so hopefully will hear back from one of them. While I was looking for places to hand in the reumés I happened to walk across a movie shoot. I was talking to one of the employees who was extremely helpful about work.and mentioned that the movie was called Jumper and Samuel L Jackson was in it but wasn't sure if he was filming today. 30 seconds later Sam Jackson walked right past me as if we just past on the street. I just struggled for my camera and by the time i found it he had gotten into his car and was ready to shoot off. He really didn't look like he was in the form for any fans.
Afterwards I went to Eaton mall and handed out loads of reumés. After that I went back to the hostel and hung out with Fiona and Jan. 2 of the nicest people i've ever met. We ended up drinking all night on the cheap and then headed to a club that was supposed to be €15 in but we managed to sneak in for free. Club was ok, we danced our asses off and left after a short while. After lots of drinking we went back to the hostel where we got lots of free drink from the locals. Jan told us about his time in the army when he was a tank driver which seemed a bit crazy. We danced and partied until we couldn't any more.
All together it turned out to be one of the best days i've ever had. Really started to appreciate the whole hostel atmosphere. I wrote this after a good 10 pints so not sure it makes any sense but still one of the biggest laughs i've ever had.

Sam the man
Eaton mall, 4 floors of shops
Party city

Jan(German) and Fiona(Welch), 2 of the nicest people i've ever met. We clicked straight away. Don't know what i'll do when they leave. Feel like i've known them forever.

Day 3 Sept 22nd

Got up nice and early again around 9 to avail of my free pancakes. Yummy. Got straight to work sorting out my resumé. Redid the lot, then headed over to the Swap offices to get Cat to check it out for me. She changed a few things, so now I was all set. Started looking online for jobs. Most ones I saw, I had to apply to a recruitment agency so I just ended up uploading my resumé to those sites instead of applying for individual jobs. I also printed out a load of resumés for me to hand out to shops tomorrow. This took up half the day and I was pretty tired so went back to the Hostel for a lie down. Ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours. Sleep patterns are really all over the place at the mo. By the time I woke up I had missed a text from Melissa who wanted to meet up for drinks. By time I got back to her it was too late so I went down to the bar to have a drink so I'd be able to sleep that night. Met up with John, one of the Irish lads I met. Later we were chatting to 2 Toronto gals who where good fun. Stephanie and ...... someone. Stephanie was still in college studying fashion and she had been on tv that mornin for being in the final of a competition to design a dress out of toilet paper. She emailed me the pic, very impressive. Had a great night with a great bunch of people again from all over the place. Met more Irish again too and a nice Welsh girl (Fiona). Didn't get to bed till 3 again.

Toilet paper dress, all the fashion these days

Saw this today, might come in handy if I have too much to drink some night.

Day 2 Sept 21st

I had set the alarm for 9.45 this morn as I had to get up and make it over to the orientation for 11 and I wasn't sure where to go. Left the hostel and followed the map. Pretty straight forward but it was still quite a walk, especially with my ruck sack. I made it over to the Swap offices and was told to wait with the rest of the “swappers” till they were ready. I recognized a couple who were on my flight the night before so I went over to chat to them. Gillian and John from Limerick. Both very nice. We were brought to a bank then to have our orientation. This was quite helpful and they gave us a pack with maps n'stuff. When that was over they recommended we opened a bank account so I went and did that straight away. The guy who signed me up was a Chinese guy about 50. He was hilarious and really nice guy. Told me his life story. Afterwards I wanted to get a Canadian number so I had a contact number for my resumé. After a few problems getting it sorted I was all set. It was late enough at this stage and I still had nowhere to stay so I went to the Global Village Backpackers which was close to the Swap offices. I booked myself in for 5 nights. Its an even cooler place then the last hostel I was in. Apparently its quite the party place, not really what I had intended, but when in Rome... That evening I met 3 more Irish folk I had seen at the orientation earlier. Paul from Kilkenny (21). Melissa from Sligo and Martin from Dublin. All seem really nice again and all were staying in the same hostel except for Melissa. That night was a real party night in the hostel so we had great craic. Went to bed around 2 so was shattered again. My hostel room

View from my room, say hello to the CN Tower

Party time

Day 1 Sept 20th

Arrived in Toronto airport around 9pm local time. Took a bit of time to get through customs and whatnot but no real problems. Got the bus then into the city, close enough to my hostel. The bus driver was my first contact with Canadians and gave me an early sign of how friendly they are. Really nice guy who was chatting away. The bus took about 40 min to get into the city centre. Couldn't see an awful lot on the way as it was very dark. Once I got off the bus it took me a bit of time to find my bearings and figure out the street signs and traffic lights, they're a bit different to back home. So I found the hostel reasonably easily and they had a bed reserved for me. The hostel was kinda cool as soon as I walked in. People playing pool, fusball, giant chess and other games. I went straight up to my room to drop off my bag. There were a few people asleep already so there was plenty of sneaking around. I dropped off my bag and went back to the lift to go downstairs where I met a nice swiss chick who asked me to go for a drink with a bunch of them. I was kinda hesitant as I was wrecked but decided, what the fup, its what i'm here for, I may aswell. Went out with 2 swiss girls (Sandra and Choreen), a Mexican guy (Alberto) who gave me contact details to come visit him in Mexico, an Australian (Matt), a Chile girl (can't remember her name) and a Canadian (Matt). Ended up having a great time with them. Was prob lucky I was so tired or would have been out all night. Went home by myself at around 1.30. Was awake almost 24 hours at that stage so I conked. Great first day, even if it was only a few hours.