Snow Day
"Welcome to Canada", my housemate exclaimed yesterday morn as I emerged from my room. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the backyard was blanketed in a thick covering of snow. It's been snowing consistently for two days now and it's very cold and blustery outside. It's probably around -10 out there on this Sunday morning. It was interesting coming home last night from a party because somehow the moonlight reflecting off the snow makes the sky seem somewhat bright.
I'm settling in well to the group house. There are four of us - two guys and two girls. There's a musician, a draftsperson/yoga enthusiast, a bar worker from the USA and me, the lonesome traveller. It's such a lo-fi house with no TV, no microwave, acoustic guitars laying around and plenty of books. We seem to get along pretty well and the house is large enough for us all to be doing our own thing. We're eating well. There's no junk food in sight. It's a welcome respite from the dodgy Greyhound Bus diet I was on (I'll never forget how rotten I felt standing in line next to my sorry looking bus driver, at a roadhouse in Northern Indiana, USA, 'round 4:00am one morning, eyes glazed, staring at the menu.) My housemate made me his patented 'Best Thing in the World' this morning: eggs poached in his mom's special homemade tomato sauce.
I've accepted a job canvasing for one of the major charities. Its frontline work, approaching people in the streets with a clipboard, asking them to donate to a plan. I think i'm constitutionally incapable of sitting in an office 9-5 right now so this job is probably what I should be doing. I'll develop oral communcation skills that's for sure. It'll be good to actually live by my ideals for a change and actively participate in something instead of moaning in the abstract about the ills of the world. The lady who hired me was impressed with my resume and said I've got a good chance of moving up the organisation into some sort of coordinator or team leader role quite quickly if I apply myself. There are offices all over Canada so it could work perfectly for me because I'd like to head back east and perhaps settle in Toronto and pursue further study.
I kinda like the idea of 'fighting' for something. Being part of a team, in the trenches so to speak. I know there are all sorts of issues about how much of this raised money actually gets to the people who need it, but I'm not going to think too much about that and just do what I have to do. With the booming Alberta economy, surely the masses have piles of disposable income and can be gently convinced to divert some of it to foreign aid.
I'm also chatting to a fellow Aussie about doing some construction work (inside I hope!). Like most construction companies, his employer is desperate for people and I'm keen to learn some practical skills.
I'm really looking forward to earning an income again, no matter how modest it will be in the short term. I've got a third option for work. I'm tagging along with my housemate tonight as he sells subscriptions to the local newspaper door-to-door. I will try the job because I imagine it will be similar to the canvasing job I'll be doing for the charity. I'm going to have to develop these hassling people skills whether I like it or not. My housemate loves the job because he only works 3hrs per day and makes a surprising a amount of money and has the rest of the day to work on his music.
I really hope I can handle this sort of canvasing work. The extroversion required will be draining.
MG
I'm settling in well to the group house. There are four of us - two guys and two girls. There's a musician, a draftsperson/yoga enthusiast, a bar worker from the USA and me, the lonesome traveller. It's such a lo-fi house with no TV, no microwave, acoustic guitars laying around and plenty of books. We seem to get along pretty well and the house is large enough for us all to be doing our own thing. We're eating well. There's no junk food in sight. It's a welcome respite from the dodgy Greyhound Bus diet I was on (I'll never forget how rotten I felt standing in line next to my sorry looking bus driver, at a roadhouse in Northern Indiana, USA, 'round 4:00am one morning, eyes glazed, staring at the menu.) My housemate made me his patented 'Best Thing in the World' this morning: eggs poached in his mom's special homemade tomato sauce.
I've accepted a job canvasing for one of the major charities. Its frontline work, approaching people in the streets with a clipboard, asking them to donate to a plan. I think i'm constitutionally incapable of sitting in an office 9-5 right now so this job is probably what I should be doing. I'll develop oral communcation skills that's for sure. It'll be good to actually live by my ideals for a change and actively participate in something instead of moaning in the abstract about the ills of the world. The lady who hired me was impressed with my resume and said I've got a good chance of moving up the organisation into some sort of coordinator or team leader role quite quickly if I apply myself. There are offices all over Canada so it could work perfectly for me because I'd like to head back east and perhaps settle in Toronto and pursue further study.
I kinda like the idea of 'fighting' for something. Being part of a team, in the trenches so to speak. I know there are all sorts of issues about how much of this raised money actually gets to the people who need it, but I'm not going to think too much about that and just do what I have to do. With the booming Alberta economy, surely the masses have piles of disposable income and can be gently convinced to divert some of it to foreign aid.
I'm also chatting to a fellow Aussie about doing some construction work (inside I hope!). Like most construction companies, his employer is desperate for people and I'm keen to learn some practical skills.
I'm really looking forward to earning an income again, no matter how modest it will be in the short term. I've got a third option for work. I'm tagging along with my housemate tonight as he sells subscriptions to the local newspaper door-to-door. I will try the job because I imagine it will be similar to the canvasing job I'll be doing for the charity. I'm going to have to develop these hassling people skills whether I like it or not. My housemate loves the job because he only works 3hrs per day and makes a surprising a amount of money and has the rest of the day to work on his music.
I really hope I can handle this sort of canvasing work. The extroversion required will be draining.
MG
posted by Matt G at 10:45 AM
1 Comments:
Hey dude,
Sounds like your living like a true Canadian. Awesome! Lucky you. I love Canadians!
I've found myself a job in the NSW Dept of Health and it sucks! Its only for money which is terrible, coz I just don't work that way. I need a certain level of mental engagement and ideally a big dose of spiritual enlightenment to be fulfilled in a job. Doing good, not pushing papers.
So glad you are not in an office environment.
I wish we could have those chats about the underlying philosophies of the public service and why it is so intensely flawed..
Wishing you all the best.
Katarina
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