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[NON BLOG] Urban Living, Part 1
Jul. 1st, 2004 12:04 amI went down to my new address in Little Portugal today, expecting to pick up my materials. As it turned out, after a phone call to the movers after a half-hour of waiting, their truck had a breakdown on the way to Windsor, and I can instead expect delivery at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, at the minimum. Ah well. At least I was able to walk up to the Royal Bank on Ossington and College to pick up the cheques that I needed to postdate for rent purposes.
I really like my neighbourhood. As one would expect, given its sobriquet, it's quite heavily Portuguese. A majority of the vehicles are sporting the Portuguese flag, naturally enough given recent sporting glories. Walking up Ossington, though, and on adjoining portions of Queen Street West, you see a very notable Vietnamese presence. There is, also, I think, a secondary presence of nationalities associated with either of the two visible population groups (Brazilians, Cambodians). The Portuguese/Vietnamese juxtaposition had me think of counterfactual historical scenarios which could have allowed for a much closer collaboration between the two populations. Perhaps a precocious Portuguese attempt to Catholicize the inhabitants of the Mekong delta? But then, in the Portuguese empire's 16th century heyday in Asia, the Mekong delta was still Khmer.
I'd a drink at nearby the Drake Hotel before taking the streetcar west to Ossington station. It was excessively crowded, to the point that some people couldn't disembark in time before the streetcar moved on to its next stop. It was very interesting to see a collaboration at work, as streetcar passengers worked together to confound the driver/system's evil plans.
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that, when driving east into Toronto on the QEW with J. on my return from upstate New York two months ago, I felt like I was coming home. The chance and ability to assimilate is good.
I really like my neighbourhood. As one would expect, given its sobriquet, it's quite heavily Portuguese. A majority of the vehicles are sporting the Portuguese flag, naturally enough given recent sporting glories. Walking up Ossington, though, and on adjoining portions of Queen Street West, you see a very notable Vietnamese presence. There is, also, I think, a secondary presence of nationalities associated with either of the two visible population groups (Brazilians, Cambodians). The Portuguese/Vietnamese juxtaposition had me think of counterfactual historical scenarios which could have allowed for a much closer collaboration between the two populations. Perhaps a precocious Portuguese attempt to Catholicize the inhabitants of the Mekong delta? But then, in the Portuguese empire's 16th century heyday in Asia, the Mekong delta was still Khmer.
I'd a drink at nearby the Drake Hotel before taking the streetcar west to Ossington station. It was excessively crowded, to the point that some people couldn't disembark in time before the streetcar moved on to its next stop. It was very interesting to see a collaboration at work, as streetcar passengers worked together to confound the driver/system's evil plans.
I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that, when driving east into Toronto on the QEW with J. on my return from upstate New York two months ago, I felt like I was coming home. The chance and ability to assimilate is good.
