Canada. Yay.

I'm goin', dammit. I have to go buy my tickets at Amtrak, but I've made my reservation at the Hostels International youth hostel in Toronto. For $28 CDN a night, I can put up with an awful lot, and I've stayed in Canadian hostels before - the ones in British Columbia are very nice indeed. Toronto should be good as well.

Come to think of it, I better phone Amtrak first. Find out what they need me to carry as proof of not being indigent/not planning to stay in Canada. Credit cards, right?

Further yay.

Okay, Amtrak lady didn't seem to think I needed proof of not being indigent, but I'm packin' my credit cards and not letting go of my return ticket unless they slice off my hand to get at it. ANd even then I'm lunging for the ticket, THEN applying direct pressure to the injury.

*ahem* Anyway. Leaving on 10 October, returning on 16 October; Newark to Penn to Niagara to CBN (I think this might be some kind of switchover point within Niagara itself or something, it's a 3-minute difference and they say this place only has ticketing machines, not facilities) to Toronto. Then back again. Need photo ID, birth cert, etc. For once I won't have to call the insurance company and get the Canadian Inter-Provincial Proof of Insurance 'cos I'm not taking a car; I'll be relying on the Canadian mass transit system. Yay.

I'll finally get to see the Bata Shoe Museum, which I meant to visit the first time. I'll get to go all the way up the CN Tower, I missed that due to lack of funds before. I know what's in the 'beef balls' at the scarily authentic dim sum place (my dining companion had been working in the pathology department of the local hospital and couldn't make an ID beyond 'it's not endocrine tissue'; turns out that's what beef looks like when it's in the grinder too long). I'll bring a proper camera and I'll definitely avoid the spawn of globalization - somewhere around here I have a photo of a McDonald's ad from my visit in April, with the slogan 'Resistance Is Futile' on it. Gonna eat local food, dammit. I'll be sharing a room with something like 8 other women, but so what? Did that in Tofino, didn't have problems...

This is gonna be cool. I like Canada. It's a pity I'll be missing one of my karate classes, one Bio-Informatics class and one Mandarin class (the third), but this is probably the best week I can get to travel since I won't be missing my Capstone class thanks to Columbus Day. No time like the present to start using the vacation days I never took.

Today's pulp survival tips are #3. Determine the prevailing mythos of your movie, and make sure at least two people in your party - preferably three - can both speak and read that mythos' language with a high degree of fluency. Also, #4. Try to pick up the language of their neighbours and/or slaves while you're at it. Even if all the cultures involved are currently extinct, it may still be useful.