Thursday, October 7, 2004

a sunny sort of normal day

After my English class was cancelled (again due to the professor's baby being born, I guess it's taking a while) I took the bus downtown. (We have a bus pass that comes with our Student ID; the fee is part of our student union fees, it's quite a good deal--80$ for a whole year's unlimited bus use within the city). Down on The Plat (the flat part of the city by the river, where the downtown core is), mist was thick, and the bus descended through the UNB campus to the river, to the mist. None of the places I wanted to be were open yet, so I wandered over the highway to the river. I've lived here a little over a month and haven't yet been down to the river. I sat and watched the river slowly flowing, dark and smelling faintly of swamp, while blue-white mist wisps faded upwards, the sun heating them. Time passed, cars hummed over the bridge to my far left. Birds flew along the bank. The sun rose a little higher.

I wandered around downtown doing free things: walking, getting a library card, asking an optomotrist to do a tune-up on my glasses, purchasing some random school supplies from a dollar store. Then, took the bus back up the hill to home. I love Fredericton busses already; they seem from another era. An older woman bantered with the bus driver all the way along the sunny, tree-lined streets, talked of going to the 'big city of Toronto', and 'where did the time go?' When an older man got off he actually said 'thank you gov'ner, see you again'. I took it all in with a smile.

There is much work to do, but I know I can do it. This afternoon I will study Latin and read some Political Science. Life is indeed good, though the past few days have been up-and-down. It's the sad and lonely bits that make the happy and loved bits that much better. And the Thanksgiving weekend is coming up, I am truly looking forward to that. I won't be going home to Cape Breton; instead, I will eat dinner at Janice's house with 7 others, and my job is to provide the dessert. I've also got lots of work to do, so I've taken Funny Face and Streetcar Named Desire out from the library to break things up a bit.

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