Tuesday November 20, 12:29 p.m.
Yesterday morning, I went down to my now-former school as if I were going to teach a lesson down there. Got there early. However, it was just to return the school manual....not that I referred to it too much. I just went straight in since there was nobody there and left it at the counter and took off like the ghost I was, since I've been deemed persona non grata.
I ended up just walking up to the St. George campus at University of Toronto. I was pretty much a crap student in the 80s, although I did in fact (barely) graduate, but the campus has been a comfortable refuge for me downtown. I trudged up to Sidney Smith Hall and spent the next 3 hours in the main atrium whilst young folk criss-crossed behind me or lounged about on those comfy armchairs right in the middle. Had plenty of reading material...."The Varsity", "the newspaper" and the hilarious "Toike Oike" along with "The Toronto Sun" and "Metro". During those 3 hours, I didn't feel like a homeless person but I kinda spiritually connected to those laid-off salarymen in Japan who wouldn't tell their families about their unemployment and just secretly spent those 8 hours in parks or coffee shops. It might explain how places like Starbucks and Doutors have exploded in number in the past 15 years.
Got my lunch at one of the veteran trucks in front of Sid Smith. Always nice to get my burger and fries. I think the couple managing the truck was having a bit of a spat though. Afterwards, I walked on down to the Koffler Centre for some browsing, and then crossed the street over to the International Student Centre, one of my old haunts. It's a pity about what's happened to the place. It used to be a nice home-away-from-home to put up one's feet with the various rooms for lounging, but now it looks like all of the rooms have been converted into offices. The one room on the first floor that looked like it could still have people for lounging purposes, the Baldwin Room, was completely deserted, and it was still before 1 p.m. I quickly decided to pass through the ISC and walked to the nearest subway station for home.
Well, with my first source of income gone, what do I have? I still have translation but my boss was none too pleased with my most recent output, so I'm not sure where I stand with him and his company. However, I still have my Skype student at least until the year is up, and another former student has started sending me her essays for proofreading. I still want to get back to writing since I've let that go by the wayside over the past number of months. Nope, not particularly profitable but still alive for now.
