Author: Milan

When you first begin to learn the geography of a place, it exists in your mind in the form of a set of very limited spatial relationships: X is west of Y, following A street will lead you to B, landmark C is to the north of town. The really disconcerting phase is not at the beginning, but at the point where you start to understand how previously seperate connections are actually interlinked. You realize that the passage between places D and E can also be an expedited route between F and G, and that place H (which you had never associated with place I), is actually right beside it.

This is the stage that I have reached for Ottawa, largely on account of a week’s worth of intense apartment hunting. Soon, I will actually have a comprehensive understanding of the spatial geography of the downtown region. That is the point, more or less, when it becomes defensible to think of oneself as a resident.

Ottawa has excellent transit. This fact was well demonstrated this morning, when I learned that a cell phone alarm clock set to 6:40pm will not in fact ring at 6:40am. At 8:07am, I was curiously peering over at the clock from bed. At 9:00am, I was sitting at my desk with a cup of coffee: showered and dressed in appropriate attire. I was lucky with some bus connections but, even so, it was a fairly impressive feat of rapid recovery from an error. Along with the Monday post, this should be pretty good evidence that my mind is utter mush in the very early morning.

In any case, I may have a good flat in an excellent location as of tomorrow evening, though I would not be moving in until the 1st. Once it has something in it beside bare wooden floors, fellow Ottawa residents (Ottawagians?) will be invited for tea.

Today brought more apartment hunting. I saw one place that was nice, but ridiculously far west, overpriced, and noisy. It was west of work, which is itself west of the interesting parts of the city. The second was a furnished bachelor that I didn’t much like the look of; sleeping on a sofa bed for a year is probably not a good idea for those who care about their spines. The third place was a dingy cave of a basement near the University of Ottawa: huge, but dark and poorly maintained. Finally, I had a look at a place on Robert St, in an area called the Golden Triangle. The apartment itself is a somewhat small, somewhat awkwardly shaped, and up two flights of narrow stairs. The location, by contrast, is excellent. It’s a bit far from work, but right beside the canal in an upscale part of town. Elgin Street (an interesting commercial street with restaurants and such) is close at hand. Cycling to work would probably take about forty minutes, and could be done along two really nice bicycle paths.

Today also brought a target of opportunity: somewhere not on the master list I have been carrying around, but advertised in a nice looking window. On the way to the expensive place, I passed a nice looking ground floor apartment on Booth St. It is extremely close to work, though there are noise and security issues involved in being on the first story of a house right beside a major street. I am having a look right after work tomorrow, at which point I think I will decide between the Booth St and Robert St options. Both are available immediately, and I am loathe to lose a third place to a more immediately decisive renter.

It will be good to finally have a semi-permenant base of operations.

Today began with a bit of an adventure. I caught my bus around 7:00am, noting that the last stop (Lebreton) was due south of my work, on the opposite side of the river. It was only as the bus sped past Lebreton that it occurred to me that it might not stop. I was then left two kilometres down a major highway from the only road I knew for sure led to work.

With little choice, I began walking up the highway. Within three minutes, an Ontario police cruiser had pulled over, and the officer had indicated in no uncertain terms that walking along the highway was unacceptable. After explaining my situation, I was told to go north along a dusty gravel path until I found a bridge. Cursing my brand new shoes with each step, I went about half a kilometre up the path and found a rusty railway trestle bridge going across to Gatineau. Since I didn’t want to die under a train before my first day of work, I followed the river east until I found the Portage Bridge.

Despite the ordeal, I was in the security office waiting for my temporary pass fifteen minutes before the earliest suggested time. By the end of the day, I had a working computer, a working phone, lots of newly introduced colleagues, and plenty to read. I still don’t know exactly what I am going to do there, but the atmosphere of the office was very encouraging.

Furthermore, I found a possible apartment. It is on Cooper Street: a small one bedroom for a good price. It even has a private entrance, in the form of a door opening on the side of an unusually nice and well maintained low-rise brick building. The hardwood floors are nice, the maintenance staff seem very helpful, and there is an appealing overhead fan. The only real problem is the kitchen, which is very small and awkwardly shaped. Also, the bedroom is too small for a double bed. If I take it, I will use the living room as a bedroom and the bedroom as an office. Replacing the mid-size fridge with a bar fridge might also make the kitchen more workable. Unless I find somewhere markedly better soon, I may well take this place on a one year lease.

Having now investigated about fifty possible apartments to greater or lesser degrees, I feel like I am on the path to getting established in Ottawa. This is just as well, given that I begin work tomorrow morning. The 8:30am start and the relatively distant location mean a 6:30am wake-up time. Nobody who I know will be surprised to hear that I am unlikely to be thinking as well as I can during the first few hours. Given that they will probably be all about paperwork, getting a security pass, and the like, I doubt it will matter.

If all goes well, I will have moved into a nice new flat by the 1st of August and will be cycling to work on a newly acquired bike. I need to make the most of the summer – before that icy winter rolls in.