So I recently moved to Ottawa due to this whole "following-my-career-dreams" thing. I figured better to move to Ottawa and start my life here while waiting on this job, than to start it in Toronto, and then have to move everything here. And while I still badly want that job, I am going insane here! Don't get me wrong, Ottawa is a great place to come to for a weekend in the fall for example. There is a lot of greenery here, many trees and water. It is absolutely gorgeous in fall when the leaves start changing colour. I wish I got more pictures of the trees and the amazing colours but I spent most of my time assembling furniture and unpacking...there's always next year. Another nice weekend here would possibly be in the spring for the tulip festival or something of the sort.
A nice weekend seeing some tulips, enjoying some nice weather, and taking a walk in the market. Other than that, and no offense to the locals, this place has nothing! Maybe if you come from a very small town, you'd be impressed, but when you grew up in Toronto, Ottawa is lacking big time. It is very very small, no subways or streetcars, the shopping is horrible (they don't even have an H&M, can you believe it?!?), and I really miss different neighbourhoods. One thing I loved about Toronto was our China town, Greek town, Korean district, and especially Little Italy. While there are some nice restaurants in the market, overall, the city is lacking in diversity (or rather, while there is some diversity, quantity is important to me). All in all, it's a cute place, but much too small for me.
Maybe I'll post more pictures as time goes by...as soon the weather gets warmer and I start going outside again (it's crazy cold here).
- - - UPDATE - - -
So as most of you know, I was not very fond of Ottawa haha (no sh*t huh?). All I did was bitch and complain about the city a couple months after I got there. For those of you who don't know me personally though, that is actually out of character for me. There are obviously other places I've been to I liked less than others for whatever reason, but I always found a way to enjoy my time there and to appreciate it for what it is so I have some good memories of being there. So what the hell was my deal with Ottawa?? I've asked myself that question many times because I couldn't understand why I hated the place SO darn much.
I actually think it's the only place I've ever been to that I absolutely hated, I mean...I have zero desire to ever go there again. I don't know what it is exactly, but I think it was just the general atmoshpere. I had a nice place, lived in a good location, made friends, did my thing while I was there, and yet, there were so many times where I cried myself to sleep because I wanted to leave so badly. It's also the only place that affected me physically. Right around the 3 month mark, I started having serious issues in relation to female problems (sorry peeps, but it is something I had to deal with there), and my sleep patterns were totally messed up! Until the end of my time there, I literally (and I kid you not), stopped sleeping at night. It was pretty obvious that this was all psychological and even my family doctor suggested that I get out of the city for a while because there wasn't anything physically wrong with me.
So I went to Toronto for a month or so, and two days after I got there, my sleep patterns were back on track as were other things (yay!). And not to mention how happy I felt! I felt so relaxed and so happy, and all those things I found so ugly and wrong with Toronto, I was in love with. Needless to say, I found myself an apartment, went back to Ottawa, found someone to take my lease over, sold my furniture, packed up, and left.
So enough hating on Ottawa, let's move on. It's been a month since I made my way back to Toronto and I couldn't be happier. I'm back around my old friends, a city I don't hate, a new apartment I really like, my health is back to normal, and I sleep like a baby. The only negative thing I guess would be that the Ottawa job was the only thing I ever wanted to do in my life and now I'm back to square one.
Living in Ottawa just isn't worth the job, but I suppose it's better I discovered that earlier on in life. It just sucks to have to go through the whole "What do I want to be when I grow up?" thing again. Oh and since the whole move and furnishing the new place took up quite a bit of money, I guess I better learn to enjoy Toronto a whole lot since it seems that I won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Ah well, you can't
have it all I guess.
Also, just to clarify...I don't
actually care about H&M but I was just shocked that the capital city of Canada doesn't have one and a tiny town in Bosnia of all places does. H&M, much like McDonald's, is something I use for comparison on occasion, and that is all I meant by that.
Well, I already wrote a whole lot more than I normally write so that's that...'tis the story of what was my temporary life in Ottawa.
The End.
