I’ve made it! Hello from warmer-than-Canada-land. This may
be a bit longer than normal, as there were a lot of adventures crammed into a
few days. My trip began on the afternoon of Friday the 2nd.
FRIDAY
I spent
the morning finishing all my packing and futzing about, making sure I had
everything. (I do- or at least I think so.) The evening before I had visited my
high school with friends to see opening night of their semi-annual musical
production. Eastwood Collegiate has a special arts program, which sort of makes
us the city’s performing arts high school. The acting and dancing and singing
are always very impressive. I’d always been very involved with those during my
5 years there: first playing in the pit for Guys
and Dolls, then doing sound for Footloose,
and finally stage managing and designing the lighting for Wizard of Oz. I can honestly say I’ve
never been prouder of anything I’ve ever done than Oz. Lets hope I top it someday, and not try and relive my high
school days forever. It was great to see old friends from the Tech
Crew and to see the old building-practically nothing had changed. Catching up
with everyone took me to 11:30pm though, and I had to go home to grab as much
shut-eye as I could.
After spending the morning packing, my parents came home at
noon and drove me down to Buffalo, NY. After stopping at the border to activate
my work visa (complete with irrational fear that I would say something wrong
and be immediately deported), we went to a favourite place of ours for a
lunch/snack. Viola’s Submarines is a wonderful shop in a not-so wonderful
place. It’s directly across eight lanes of traffic from the Military Road
Outlet Mall. The zoning in that area, and a few other spots around the states,
always bugs me for some reason. I don’t like that the traffic lights are
horizontal and black instead of big, vertical, and reflective yellow. I don’t
like how everything is wide and low and sprawling. Although I might imagine
someone who grew up in that area would have complaints about the zoning in
southern Ontario…
Back to the subs.
Viola’s makes one heck of a Steak and Cheese sub. They use freshly baked
Italian rolls, and as soon as you order, they throw several thin steaks on to a
big griddle and finish them off by melting provolone on top. Then they throw it
all in that bun and add lettuce, tomatoes, oil, and a concoction of herbs and
seasoning so secret that if they told me, they’d have to kill me. I think it’s
oregano, basil, and salt. It makes the tomato chunks like bruschetta! Then they
wrap it in plastic, which keeps everything together and hot, and you can eat it
by squeezing the bottom of the plastic and sliding the sub out, not unlike a
tube of toothpaste. We discovered this peculiar method after watching the
natives do it. The sub is really amazing, and is their best seller by a long
shot. I asked them once if people really ordered anything else. “Oh sure,” the
old Italian-American lady behind the counter replied. “Double Steak and Cheese.”
After a wonderful half-sub each, we went to a little go-kart
track down the road. Dad and I raced while mum watched. There were three other
kids on the track, and my father was the most badly behaved of all of us.
Luckily he didn’t bother them, but he spun me out several times and the teen
running the track had to ask him not to intentionally crash into others (me).
All this time-killing was before we checked into our hotel for the evening; we
got a hotel because I would’ve had to leave home at around 3am to make my
flight otherwise, and my mum wanted to have one last nice dinner before I
left. And what a dinner it was! We went
to the Anchor Bar, which is the birthplace
of the chicken wing. I won’t go into much detail here, as there are many other
write-ups elsewhere on the Internet. However, I will add that pretty much anytime
we are in Buffalo, we will make sure to have a dinner there.
After leaving the Anchor, we drove to the hotel and passed
through the area of the city that housed the University at Buffalo. It is an
incredibly grand establishment with big stone buildings. Adjacent to campus were
several fraternity and sorority houses. Mixed in to this student neighbourhood
was a house with a sign that said “Buffalo Breast Exam Clinic.” I wasn’t sure
if that was a legitimate clinic, or just the best frat house decoration in the
world.
SATURDAY
The next morning I was off. Dropped off at the airport at
six in the morning, I got through a surprisingly busy security line in only
about seven minutes. I guess after thirteen years of being thorough, they’ve
gotten around to being fast. I went from Buffalo to New York’s LaGuardia
airport. The approach into LGA is always neat, because in addition to excellent
views of New York City, the runway lines up with the water; looking out the
window as your plane descends, it looks like you’re going to crash into the river,
and then suddenly the runway appears beneath you and you’ve arrived. Waiting
for my connection, I noticed a small brown bag that belonged to a lady siting
across the way from me. Suddenly, the bag jiggled. Not expecting that at all, I
nearly leapt out of my seat. I glanced about the terminal and was relieved to
find that no one saw my momentary freak out. I returned my attention to the
bag, where a small, brown, very ugly face stared back at me through mesh in one
side of the bag. A gate attendant walked by and the bag yapped loudly at him,
and he jumped up just like I had. “Hush, sweetums,” said its owner. Lining up
for the plane, I found myself standing behind that ugly dog in the bag, and
wondered when the last time was that that thing used the bathroom. I figured
that kind of a smell on a plane would probably be worse than the infant
equivalent.
My flights were both pretty good- on the first I sat next to
a girl who went to the University of Vermont, and before we took off, we had a
discussion about Vermont’s many craft beers and ciders. Visiting Vermont in the
winter with my family has definitely spoiled me in the drinks department. On
the second flight, I was surrounded by Quebecers and avoided conversation.
Luckily, we made it to Savannah, GA without any ‘incidents’
and I was soon on the shuttle bus that went to Hilton Head. As we got closer
and the driver asked where I wanted off, I learned that he could only drop off
people at hotels. Problem. I had to go to the office first and get my keys to
the condo. The driver, a grouch of an old man with hearing aids, apologised to
me in a non-apologetic sort of way and said he wasn’t allowed to operate as a
taxicab. There aren’t any hotels near the office, so I eventually was able to
get him to let me off at a gas station a half-kilometre away. Suitcases in
hand, I walked the last 500m to the Shore Base.
I’ll just hit the fast forward button here and say that I got
my keys without incident, filled out all the paperwork, and went to my new
place. I met one of my new roommates, Zach, who is a first year and from
Ontario as well.
As far as employee housing goes, the company rents condos from
the Hilton Head Resort. Resort is a nice (but inaccurate) word. It’s the
‘bargain’ HHI condo complex. For short, it’s H2R. However, it is close to the beach, free of any major
infestations, and security is tight. Sometimes a little too tight, as the
guards get a little caught up in their power. (think Lahey and Randy from the
Trailer Park Boys…)
The room is a much nicer affair that my place last year! To
describe last year’s place, one American roommate used the word “Janky.” I
figured out it meant a sort of cross between sketchy and ramshackle. This one
is significantly less janky and rightly so, as upper years usually get better
rooms.
 |
| My 2014 Pad |
Zach’s parents were in town and drove him down and
graciously offered to drive us to the Wal-Mart to do our first grocery shop.
During the season, I often have to bring back the shopping on my bike. It’s not
very fun, to say the least.
SUNDAY
The next day I went to a bike place on
the island called the Bike Doctor. I had done some research and calling around,
and after weighing some options, I decided to rent a bike this summer. Last
year, I bought an el Cheapo-brand bike
from Wal-Mart and it gave out halfway through August. The bike sucked, too.
$120 doesn’t get you very far, it seems.
This year, I decided on renting a road bike- $400 for the
whole summer. Both the guys in the small shop were very warm and helpful. The
young man at the back took down the one I was interested in and set it all up-
brakes, derailleurs, seat- and he even gave it a nice clean-up! The instant I
took the bike for a once-around-the-block to make sure everything was working,
it was immediately clear that I had made a good choice. It was a joy to ride,
and for the next few days, I found myself wanting to take it out and just ride. It’s safe to say that it’s the
best-looking and lightest bike I’ve
ever owned. It’s maybe eight pounds. I think getting around by bicycle this year will be a lot more enjoyable, not to mention faster!
 |
| My 2014 Ride |
Sunday afternoon saw me at the HHI rec centre, practising
for my timed-swim-hiring-test. All guards have to swim a half-kilometre in
under 10 minutes. I was practising with my colleague from last year, Emily, and
her sister Hana. Just out of school, Emily isn’t eligible for the work visa
this year and won’t be working for Shore; but she drove down with her sister,
who is starting her first year. Hana goes to Queens with Zach, and that’s how he came to be working here! It is mostly
connections here at Shore- there are very few guards who just come to work for
the company out of the blue- almost everyone has a connection somewhere. I had
the daughter of my mum’s colleague as mine.
I made my swim in 9:25 without any extreme exertion, and
felt very proud of myself. Last year, I came down with a really terrible
respiratory virus in the weeks before I left for the South. I wasn’t able to
train, and only just got over the illness enough to barely make the timed
swim. This year, I was able to train in
the pool in Toronto with my wonderful friend Gabby- we sort of kicked each other’s
butts and pushed each other to get an even better workout. (Or at least it was
that way for me… maybe she thinks I slowed her down. Hope not.)
Later that afternoon, itching for another ride on my aluminum steed, I went up to the Westin and visited my fantastic friends from last summer, Brent and his wife Natasha. Two years or so older than me, they moved out here for a great adventure and have been working ever since last June. Some of the other staff comment how their level of love and cuteness can't possibly actually exist, but they are 100% real: great guards, and wonderful people.
Brent invited me, Zach, Hana, and Emily to join him and some
of the other guards that evening for a little dinner at a Mexican place (that I’d
never been) to for a “cinqo-de-mayo-eve” celebration. It was wonderful to see
the two other old friends that joined us! It was like we’d never left each
other for the winter: we just picked up old conversations and made jokes just as
easy as you please.
MONDAY, TUESDAY, AND EVERYTHING ELSE
Monday and Tuesday was my orientation- returning guards have
two days while newbies have three. It was a lot of reviewing procedures,
treatments, ordinances, paperwork, and reviewing information on the climate and
faunae of HHI. Monday also saw the swimming of the hiring test- I did slightly
better than my practise swim! There weren’t any in our orientation session this
week- relatively small at about 4 people- but some folks do it in under eight
minutes. These people are usually competitive swimmers for their colleges, and
are insane to watch. Others do 10 minutes on the dot, but when they come out,
it’s clear that they’ve really exerted themselves. This can be bad in a rescue
scenario, as swimming ends up being half of the rescue, the other half being
care of the victim and, potentially, physically draining CPR.
There are more stories from orientation that I’ll share some
time later when there’s not a whole lot of new material for me to write about. I
had forgotten how absolutely drained
you get after these long days out in the heat, biking everywhere. So, I’ll have
to go now. My first day on the beach is tomorrow, and this will be the first
time I’ve worked on the beach in over eight months. I hope I remember it all. A
friend described orientation as a bunch of “well, duh…” moments, but when you
get on the beach for the first time in a little while, you go “oh, crap!” and
suddenly forget the really obvious things. Hopefully I get right back into the
swing of things.
That’s all for now, folks. I attach, as a post-script, a
picture of myself from tonight. I wonder what I’ll look like in a month’s time?
No comments:
Post a Comment