Here comes jet lag

and why looking it up prior to the trip never even crossed my mind, given my decade of training as a research assistant, beats me.

Yesterday was the worst of it all. i barely had 3 hours of sleep, total.

The morning of our arrival (June 14), the people from the office met with us for a half-hour briefing and to give us our per diem, plus the five or so tokens for the public transportation around Toronto. each token costs about three dollars but they were given to us for free. When i received mine, i kept it aside, knowing i'll never have the chance to use it. Having a different "mapping" system, i easily got confuse as the "briefers" started on the routes and schedules of the buses, street cars and subways. The only thing i remember from what they told us is that we should always never forget to get the transfer ticket from the bus driver. i imagined that the token slot is like an ATM where you insert the coin and you get a printed receipt (transfer pass) in return. The transfer pass is valid for at least half a day (i think), on one route, regardless of the mode one takes. one person can take all three different modes and still be charged the same. How the pass becomes null and void (other than its natural expiration), i still have no idea. I never really hoped to try the public transport. I'm too disoriented about easts and wests and norths and souths to even want to understand the routes.

I only had 3 hours of sleep before the briefing and my ass is still sore from the plane ride.

We were told to get everything we need from shoppers drug. it's technically a pharmacy -- on steroids. it's like the Mercury drug and Watsons we find in Iloilo malls except that the technology Shoppers use, from their doors to their cash registers, are definitely of first world origin. Early on (walking our way to Mcdonald's Spadina), my colleague gave us a short tour of the 3 major blocks from our office to the Spadina Avenue, telling us where to the cheap restaurants we could eat in. There was the Hero Sandwiches, Tim Horton's (where i definitely can get breakfast of donuts and coffee for under 6 dollars) and Zupa, which is just at the corner of the block adjacent to our hotel. I was hoping he'd say something about finding a Filipino carinderia but, no.

this is, btw, how my hotel room looks like, 3 days after i've roomed in:

that's the fridge, microwave and coffeemaker at the corner, a large flat screen TV that i barely use and the messy desk. 

and then my messy bed. because i was jet lagged, i slept at the time everyone should be out and refused to be disturbed by the house cleaning. On the second day, the cleaning lady insisted she just make up my bed and clean the toilet, at least, while i rested.  

View from my hotel window. 

We had complimentary breakfast at the hotel morning of June 14. I wolfed down the fresh melons and honey dews, tried the bacon (too salty) and sausage (too chicken doggy) and a large mug of coffee. lots of water.

At the meeting, the briefers asked me if i was tired. I'm not sure what to say because i certainly felt good but i didn't know anything about jet lag so i think i was probably tired but just didn't know it.

The briefing started at 10:30am, and we're 12 hours behind the Philippine time. At home, if i don't get sleepy by 9 pm, i'm still able to stay up till 11 pm. My sleeping patterns though changed in the last nine weeks and i usually nap for an hour when i get home from office, to my kid's disappointment. Technically, i should be very sleepy now.

Our hotel is located in downtown Toronto, about three blocks away form the CN Tower. The briefers suggested that if we still have some energy, we could go see the tower. The temperature on that day was  warm but not humid, maybe somewhere in the 20s, and it's been suggested that it's best to go up on this kind of day. I didn't want to go, frugal that i am (frugal, not stingy), i didn't really feel like spending  my 30-40 dollars on something tourist-y. What i'd prefer to do is walk around downtown to shoot, experiment with public transport, but none in the group apparently wanted that. I guess no tourist in his right mind would do that on his first day in Toronto (esp. when he is just 3 blocks away from the tower) .

The mantra that "we'd probably never have the chance to try it again," always works on everyone. But i've been to too many disappointing places convinced by this mantra. I didn't know why it will not happen again this time; bursting my bubbles. But everyone wanted to go and i felt responsible (although not obliged to) for seeing them through knowing that majority in my group are nearing their ultimate seniority.

this is inside the elevator on the way to the viewing deck. 

Some stadium. (or what i call Guess What Building This Is.)

My colleague also convinced me to join (because for one, he wasn't joining, he was going somewhere else) because it is definite that in an hour everyone would be raring to go back to the hotel and rest. We're still technically on Filipino time and as expected by 2 pm i was already exhausted. I badly wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep. We separated in small groups, those who took the basic and those who went for the sky pod.

I'm cheap. I took the most basic package (27 dollars) because the guy at the ticket counter said the waiting time to the sky pod is at LEAST 30 minutes, and because one of the briefers said that we really don't need to get the whole package because most of it would just go to the museum tour and the meal that comes with it-- which, he said, we don't really need if we're only after the view.

We took the slow walk home in the warm afternoon Toronto sun. It felt like 9am on my skin. Before heading to the hotel we dropped by for a quick lunch at Zupa, talked with the Chinese owner and his Sri Lankan chef/waiter. He's been managing the Zupa for two years ("It's owned by my wife, I'm just his cashier here," he explained and smiled) but the small Mediterranean/Greek restaurant has been around for at least 30 years. Lee, his name, said that it's been passed on to several owners and when the ownership came to him, he never really thought of changing the name or the menu.

"Because people already know what Zupa is. They don' care about who da owner is. Or whoze bahind the cash register."

Interesting guy, the owner. I'm hoping to get his portrait on film before we leave for Niagara.
(I am still embarrassed to take portraits. sigh.)

I took the rest of by pork souvlaki meal back to the hotel and crashed.

The souvlaki that's more than i can eat and a recent favorite "pop".
(I intentionally tried hiding the brand of the "pop" but my lunch mate stopped me before i could shoot, repositioned the can and said "now that's a picture.")

I slept from 3:30pm to 7pm, awakened by the bright evening sun. I though I've slept through the morning but was severely frustrated when i saw the bedside clock. I am still on the same day, and only 3.5 hours have passed. I tried going back to sleep but couldn't. The sun was just too bright. after tossing for half an hour i got out and checked my messages and i got nothing. Eh, people have forgotten i existed. I went to wash my face. My colleague called me up and asked if i was up for a walk to the chinatown, four blocks away from out hotel.

I changed to jeans, my hooded pull over and my hiking shoes. We walked for about an hour looking for an asian grocery store but it's almost dark and most stores were already closed. At 9pm the sun was just setting. People were just coming out to grab some dinner. We passed by a still-open chinese bakery and saw a picture of rice cake. Thinking they might have "puto", we went in to find the staff preparing for closing time. They've ran out of rice cake. and the rice cake is definitely not puto.

It's almost 10 pm for chrissakes. what do we expect?

On our way back, we grabbed some (extra small) coffee (IF YOU'RE THINKING OF SURVIVING THROUGH A JET LAG, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?) at Tim Horton's and went back to the hotel. I left my colleague on the hotel sidewalk to smoke the rest of his cigarette away. In my room, i reheated my souvlaki and forced myself to finish at least the remaining fries. Three days of this kind of food and I'm close to vomiting. I'm dreaming of a bowl of steaming tambo and laswa and rice. and fried aloy.

I'll definitely never survive a year in this city.

Again, if you do want to get over your jet lag why would you eat dinner at 11pm?
Not if you knew.

I was certain that the next day's gonna be hell because sleep never came until 4am and never stayed beyond 8am. The next bad news is that i woke up to see that my body decided to keep on harassing me.


next: riding the streetcar, subway and bus to Markham City, finding Nissin Seafood Noodle at No Frills and dinner of grilled shrimp in a Fil-Canadian house.


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