Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: buskers, downtown, harbour, summer, tourists
Downtown comes alive in summer. The sidewalk artist replicates famous paintings in chalk with his upturned hat on the pavement beside him. The piano busker lugs his big pink upright into the downtown core and picks out slightly off-key tunes. The panhandlers return to their old haunts and particular tactics. A crowd of onlookers gathers around the fire-juggler more frequently. The ivy on the stately old hotel in the harbour leafs out and turns the building green. A regatta of sailboats assembles at the point south of the city. The tourists come in droves and choke the harbour and nearby tourist-centric street. The open-air tour buses crawl the city with increasing frequency. The regular city buses crawl with less. The big downtown park with its petting zoo bursts into full bloom.
My favourite thing to do during this time is to join the masses downtown and stroll along the harbour, or along the street of antique dealers. Sit at the window of a coffee shop and people-watch. Meander through book shops, wander around Chinatown. Forget about classes.
A University campus is at its best in the summer. The crowds are gone from the hallways, the computer labs always have plenty of space, the weather is gorgeous, the atmosphere is generally leisurely. You forget what it’s like to shoulder your way through groups of hall-hogs in your rush to get to class.
Living in residence during the summer adds an extra layer to the mix. I’ve only lived in residence for one complete summer, at my previous school. The dorm-dwellers dwindled to just a few handfuls, and the local CFL team infiltrated the building for their summer training session. The rooftop walkways made great biking grounds that summer… so did those long, empty hallways. The wonderful thing about my old campus was that almost all the buildings were linked in a large horseshoe-shaped configuration. Theoretically, you could bike right through the interior of the campus (if you disregarded the “NO BIKES” signs on all entrances).
But even better than going to campus for summer classes is going to campus in the summer and not having the burden of classwork on your mind. Or maybe, disregarding that guilty burden as though it were just another “NO BIKES” sign.
