Walking with [Undue] Confidence

It was a little bit colder today so I decided to stroll to work. I use the term "colder" quite generously, I mean it was windy and 20 degrees by 7am. It took about 10 minutes longer than the usual "walk to bus stop-wait for bus-ride bus-walk from bus stop to work" method that I've been employing since my arrival.

At the office things continued to improve. While I'm not yet a master of my trade I've improved leaps and bounds since a week ago when I first started. I still have a long way to go though and the only way I'll get there is by continuing to push harder everyday. My buddy Zig Ziglar says "The first step to getting great, is getting started." Amen.

Work went a little bit longer than usual, throwing off my schedule in the process. As a result I would have had to wait longer for a bus. It didn't occur to me that walking to work was easy because all of the streets converge towards the city centre. Conversely, the roads out of the city centre are analogous to arteries leading away from the heart, slowly bifurcating and channeling their contents to farther and farther extremes. One wrong turn early on is very difficult to recover from, as I learned. The city isn't big but the skyline away from the city centre is monotonous at best. The hundreds of tower block housing units make the interconnecting residential streets labyrinthical in nature, if I may be so bold. The buildings are packed tight and stretch upwards allowing you to see only what is directly in front and directly behind. This fact alone postponed my arrival home by a significant amount of time.

I ended stumbling upon a Slovak flee market. I was certainly the only one with an iPod. It was weird and had a higher percentage of gypsies than other areas of town. Things were closing up for the day but suffice it to say that there was an impressive array of sub-par merchandise being offered for the price of "cheap as shit."

Today I also learned that their are "convenience" stores located in most of the Panelaks (tower block housing units). And I have been walking to the gas station like a sucker. In reality though, the only thing that these stores sell is wine. I don't know if it's convenient or another testament to the lack of public health protocol.

The Champions League final is tonight, if football is your thing. I'm not that much of a soccer fan myself, but it's an opportunity to go out with people from work and be in-the-know tomorrow when everyone will undoubtedly talk about it. If it weren't for the consistent ache in my right knee that comes with rising humidity (46%, still nothing like Ottawa) I would think it was football anticipation and excitement that made me feel a little sticky (cute, I know).