Day Onesies

Its almost 9am on my second day here in Toronto Canada.... everyone is still trying their best to be asleep, especially my cousin in her bed right behind me (she's having to ignore the loud sound my typing too!).

My flight was supposed to leave at 11.55 from Heathrow, and in case you're wondering I checked in and got through security with minimum fuss. Of course the flight didn't leave on time cos they took ages boarding everyone had opened the gate late. And then we were delayed cos some dumbass worker had forgotten to secure something right in the cargo hold, which was only discovered when we approaching the runway, so we had to go ALL the way back to the terminal and wait while they fixed it..... ugh. So we finally flew like an hour late.

I was sat between two smelly men, just my luck. When I sat down in my seat initially, wallahi I just wanted to get back up again and say"I cant do this. No way." But I persevered and got through it. They guy on the right of me was kinda around my age group and I helped him out a couple of times during the flight, he couldn't turn his TV screen on and he kept spilling things and for some reason I was like his mother mopping them up. Anyway, it was only in the last few minutes of the flight before we landed that we actually started talking properly..... weird. And that was only cos I just HAD to share my thoughts with someone, anyone or I'd burst!

I expected the view of Canada to be green forests and beautiful mountains and scenes like those from Last of the Mohicans. Instead as we approached Toronto I saw fields and agriculture and land that stretched as far as the eye can see flat as a pancake. Boring. Toronto from up in the air looked like an anal retentive had designed it. All the blocks were perfect squares and rectangles; not a house or building out of place, all built using rulers and protractors.

When we got off the plane they checked our immigration forms straight away. The first person I saw as I got off the plane was an Asian dude - and it made me crack up! We're everywhere! The next two people I saw were Arab - lol, they're everywhere too! I reckon Muslims just breed so prolifically that soon you won't be able to escape us.

The immigration people working at the airport dress like cops. What I didnt know till my cousin told me later was that they ARE cops! Anyway, the first guy didn't seem to understand I was here for a holiday visiting family or how it was I could travel alone. Anyway, he gave me no problems, alhamdulilah.

Then came the real Immigration queues. All 26 of them. 26 queues and typically I picked the slowest one in the entire universe. Never has a queue moved so slow. I thought I might end up living out the entirety of my life there and die there, thats how slow. I passed the time reading a book, which everyone seemed to find weird. A hijabi reading The Devil Wears Prada -why?!

Finally, Praise be to Allah, my turn came. And boy did I get interrogated! He wanted to know everything. Was I really British? Were my parents British? Where in England did I live? What did I do? How long I had my job for? Did I work for a company? Did I bring any money with me? How much? Was I married? Not only was he asking a whole lot of stupid simplistic questions (through which I was experiencing a kind of living death cos of the eat and exhaustion) but he wsn't very polite or communicative, no smiles, no eye contact. Finally he took a big PINK highlighter (what does that i say about him?!) and put a big cross across my immigration form. I didn't think anything of it. Without telling me anything, he let me go.

It was only when I got to the next security check that I was told I had to go to another immigration area - I guess they thought I was trying to illegally immigrate (?!!!) to Canada! Anyway, had to queue up again. Again lots and lots of daft questions were asked. Basically it was implied that my uncle, whom I wasn't staying with, wasn't my uncle and that maybe I was coming here, not to blow things up, but to hook up and marry some canadian guy so I could become a Canadian. Hello??!? These people had in their hands my BRITISH passport. Why the hell would I want a Canadian one?! Not only is a British pass port the best in the world, but Canada is a commonwealth country - if I want to stay here, I dont need to marry no dude to achieve it!

Anyway, I obviously didn't convince them of that, not that I even tried, so she took my uncles fone number off me and rang him. And asked him the all the same questions!!!

Finally, FINALLY, they let me into baggage claim, I got my bags and practically ran out of the airport. Where my poor cousin had been waiting for me for over an hour - bless her!

Toronto called the Concrete Jungle and its a title its obviously earned. Its a big sprawling city. Here everything is built big and bigger. THe building are huge and not crammed ontop of one another like in London. Its all very spatially built and designed. Everyone here lives in "condos", thats apartments to you and me. But with your rent comes access to a free gym, spa and sauna.... usually a swimming pool too, sometimes a mall!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coffee is cheap here - I discovered that. Going to a cafe, a coffee will cost you at most a pound. Hmmm.... no pound sign on this keyboard.

So yesterday was spent driving around, seeing my family here, which is Mashallah a lot. I finally got to bed around 12 or 1am Toronto time. 5 or 6am London time. Was exhausted!

So today is a birght, OK well cloudy, new day! Places to go, uni's to visit!!!