Earthquake, G20, Arrivederci Italia

What a week it has been. We had an earthquake yesterday, which I missed completely while taking a shower. Meg was at work and describes the shaking: she was sitting at her desk when it started, then stood up alarmed, and said the building swayed so much that it knocked her off balance and made her stumble. The company she works for has offices on the 7th floor of the building, and that was high enough to feel the sway during the 15 seconds of this earth-shake of 5.5 on the Richter's scale.

Other than the earthquake, we have G20 meeting in town, which shakes Toronto much more than the quake. The whole downtown area, where the leaders of G20 countries will meet, is transformed into a giant ghetto. The metal fence is built around the perimeter and hundreds of cops are constantly patrolling along the fence. Residents who live in the fenced-off area have to show the special ID and submit to the search every time they want to enter their own building. We are staying well away from the downtown until that circus is over.

Since the last blog post, I changed my mind about the World Cup. There were some pretty good games. The most rewarding part is that France and Italy, the two most arrogant teams, were knocked out from the competition after the round robin stage. I never noticed how many Italians work at my workplace until they all hung their heads today after "Azzuri" deservedly lost to the underdog Slovakia and were sent home. The atmosphere at work was funeral-like, and I'm afraid my wide grin was quite visible in the somber surrounding, but I couldn't help it. Neither could I stop myself declaring "Arrivederci Italia" loudly at the end of the game.