That evening, 10D decided to order dinner together from a place at the bottom of our building. We got it delivered up 10 floors. Really.

We planned to go out later on to celebrate Elo’s last night in Toronto, but first, we had a big gathering at the flat to sign each other’s flags and books and just to spend one last crazy night in 10D, I guess. As Elo was the first to leave, the ‘Pitman Girls’, Claire, Emma, Kirsty and Steph, had wanted to decorate the flat in secret to surprise her. That proved more difficult than it should have been. Claire originally planned to pretend to have left her wallet at her flat, and was going to get Elo to go with her, but Gustaf ended up taking Elo to Christian Reese’s flat a few floors below ours to watch the football, much to her annoyance. As soon as she left, we all put up banners, streamers, posters and balloons (knocking over a glass of wine or two in the process) in the 5 or 10 minutes we had while she was gone.

Decorating

SURPRISE!

Drinking, signing flags

At some point, we decided to write on eachother’s arms. With permanent marker.

We had some fun…

Of course, we had to get some photos of 10D together outside the flat. I’m glad we did.


The 10D family

The 10D Girls

I believe we went to Government that night. I have vague memories of Kirsty and I dancing on a very high podium and not being able to get down. I remember leaving with Steph and Lisa in a cab. I don’t remember much else.

The next day we all went to the airport with Elo to catch her flight. I think I made breakfast that morning for everyone. It was a sad day. We all sat and had a coffee together after she checked in, then every single one of us cried as she went through security.

We got the TTC home again, and didn’t really say much. I was up until the early hours that night watching her flight and went to metro at about 2am with Lisa and Tracy to buy banana bread ingredients. It was bizarre.

There were more goodbyes in the days that followed. Emma left on the Tuesday, I think, and Kirsty and Steph got on their coach to Winnipeg. Then it was Claire’s flight to Mexico. Everyday it was someone else’s turn to go.

And then, that Wednesday, my sister and I, and Sanda and her brother and cousin were all packed and ready to head to New York. It was the last time I’d see Gustaf in Canada, as he left the following Sunday, so it was more tears saying goodbye to him, as he and Julea had tickets to see Knaan at some student festival. We went to get 31cent scoops at Baskin Robbins with Lisa then headed to the bus depot and waited for our coach. And so began my 5 weeks of travelling

So I said that Elo lost her phone the night we went to club-I-don’t-remember-the-name-of. She thought she lost it at the club. We called it, and some obnoxious girl answered it and said she was headed to Bathurst, or some other such place quite a way away from downtown. She was in a cab. I asked her to keep the phone with her and we’d call her the next day to arrange to pick it up. Everyone involved was quite wasted by this point.

The next day (the day we went to Montreal), I called the phone again, and this time a guy answered. He told me some address miles out of downtown and then proceeded to give me car directions. Obviously, I don’t drive, but didn’t realise they were car directions until I hung up and look them up online, and noticed he’d given me highways and exits and other such driving related things. So I did some more digging and found the subway route and off we went, with very little time to spare before our 3pm bus to Montreal.

So we got to the station and sat outside for a while waiting for this guy. In fact, first, I had planned for us to take the bus, but after calling the guy again to let him know we were there, he told us to just wait at the station and he’d come and drop the phone to us, which he did. Turned up in this brand new van with a friend of his. Not a bad looking guy. We chatted awkwardly for a few minutes. Turns out he found the phone in a cab, so Elo must have dropped it on the way home.

So we leave, and about 2 minutes later, get a text from this guy asking us out, basically. Only us! Elo also found a text on her phone to some guy in one of her classes which was quite…explicit. Haha.

So…back to the last week. My family arrived Thursday night, and on Friday, my roommates were planning to go to Niagara Falls, since when we went initially back in January it was basically frozen over and not much fun. My family wanted to go too, so that’s what we did.

The Falls in all their glory

My roommates and I, minus Christian, about to go on Maid of the Mist

We got lunch, too. Yes.

And someone spotted this rainbow over the falls as we waited for our bus. Very cool.

The bus back was full, so my family and I got one that took a detour around Mississauga or something, I don’t really remember, other than it was long.

We got back just in time for a BBQ on the rooftop, courtesy of Mr Hinze:

Then that night, we decided to go to Uptowns, a karaoke bar down on Front.

Charlie, the first up, as always!

Then the guys got up and sang “Quit Playing Games with my Heart”. It was pretty amazing viewing.

The Backstreet Boys tribute band, L-R Charlie, Gustaf, Christian H, Christian R, Nick

On the Saturday, I wanted to take Rebecca down to the Distillery District, and Lea joined us. We had fun. Lots of weddings happening, and lots of sunshine.

Rebecca and Lea

The Distillery District

Over the next few days, with the fam doing some of the touristy things I’d managed to get through in my first four months of Torontonian living, I headed to the islands one last time with Lea, hoping to get some nice shots of the skyline from the other side of what I’d seen from my window over the previous four months. And we did.

Off the ferry at Centre Island

Pretty and prettier

Scenery on the islands

We stopped to swing for a while…

Enjoying life

Came across this cat…he was pissed.

And finally, the beautiful skyline of Toronto

And that, folks, is how I spent some of my last days in T-dot.

I don’t recall exactly what we were going to do the Saturday after limo night. I think we planned to go out for our fellow international Daniel’s leaving party, not realising everyone planned to stay at his flat all night and party there. So we spent a bit of time there, then headed back down to 10D for a while, trying to decide where to go and what to do. This included sitting in the hallway eating cake, strawberries and cool whip, and threatening to pluck Gustaf’s stomach hair. Poor guy.

We ended up at Big Slice, our beloved late night pizza joint, then walked through the quad, where Alona stole a bike and rode it around for a bit, and to the RCC, the building where all of my classes were, and played Hide and Seek. It was pretty good.

Sitting in the RCC lobby

Alona and Julea: living proof that Hide and Seek is tiring

The next morning at 10D:

Christian’s note

The view we woke up to

I think these speak for themselves! Christian got up early to go to Niagara Falls with Daniel. In his haste, he tried to move the fish out of the sun in the window, to the table, but hit his leg on the coffee table and sent the fish flying across the room. It’s something I still regret I missed, because the image of him trying desperately to catch the fish and put it into the pitcher makes me laugh just thinking about it. I think the comedy value of seeing that in real life would have been priceless. Poor fish.

I couldn’t tell you what I did the week after that…really. Friday, we all went for a meal at the Ram on the Rye (student pub), then Sanda and I went to a house party I was invited to by a guy in one of my journalism classes. There were kegs. I drank WAY too much beer and we ended up in a cab back downtown with another friend of mine from Ryerson and his guys. Good time, though.

Sanda and I filling up our glasses…

J-F, a friend of mine from uni, me and Sanda

Me and Sanda, J-F and his friends Remy and Hratch

Saturday, we planned a pyjama party at 10D. It didn’t happen. We ended up going out to a club, then attempting to sleep in the hallway at 10D afterwards. The attempt failed miserably, and everyone ended up going home about 4 or 5am, and Elo and I then had to get our mattresses back into our rooms at 5 o’clock in the morning. Good times. There was some drama. Gustaf and Julea stayed home. Elo lost her phone. But it was fun, as always.

Elo, Julea and I hijacked Gustaf’s room and put on his shirts and ties…

Everyone ready to go out. L-R me, Emma, Elo, Julea, Kirsty, Sanda, Lisa & Claire

Charlie still thought it was a Pyjama Party

Claire, Elo and Sanda at the club, shortly after Elo fell off the podium (and the photographer simply kept snapping, rather than trying to catch/help her!)

Sleeping in the hall…it seemed like a good idea at the time

During the day on Saturday I think I just planned to take some photos, and asked Charlie and Lisa if they wanted to join. We had fun walking about town. On the way home someone decided we should bake a cake for our friend (and Lisa’s roommate) Tracy’s birthday and decorate it in kiwis, her favourite fruit. So we did.

Photographer Charlie

Me on Toronto’s “Walk of Fame” thing

Charlie, me and Lisa

Charlie serenading us while we waited for the cake to bake

The masterchefs with the finished product (it actually tasted pretty good despite appearances)

Presenting it to the Birthday Girl

And just for fun, the view from Charlie’s flat on the 21st floor of my building (same view I had, but higher). Pretty cool, eh?

Lisa and Julea admiring the twilight view

The next week was also a bit of a blur. One random memory:

Julea and I made homemade poutine one night from Tater Tots. It was win.

Thursday 22nd, I spent mostly at Kirsty’s, booking our accomodation for our travels, then in the evening, I went to the airport to meet my mum, her fiancé and my sister, who came to stay for 10 days (baaad timing but whatever). They were actually lucky to get here, since exactly a week before they came was the week of the infamous Icelandic volcano that shut down UK airspace; their flight was the first of that particular Air Canada flight to take off since the closure.

That night I left my sister to shake off her jet lag and headed for one last night at Mick E Fynns with the gang. Good last night of laughs and tears, but things got interesting when 10D, minus Julea who was already asleep, got back to Neill Wycik and found some string in the hallway. This is what followed:

Tying string to the handles of the doors on the 10th floor

Where Elo and I spent the night

A video for your viewing pleasure:

Our night in a few minutes

You may remember our French night from a previous month. If not…well, we had a French night. Of course, being a flat of five nationalities, we had to do a night for each represented in 10D.

I thought long and hard about what to make for British night. The truth is that Britain really doesn’t have any kind of unique cuisine. We steal other peoples’ cuisine. That’s what we’re good at. But living in 10D, among other nationalities, it became apparent that dishes I wouldn’t necessarily class as British, but that are very popular here, were actually unheard of in other parts of the world. And one of those was the baked potato.

My masterpiece

So that’s what I made. Baked potatoes with chilli, cheese and sour cream, and strawberries and cream a la Wimbledon for dessert (because, apparently, other countries don’t eat their strawberries with cream, either: who knew?)

Speaking of British, that same week I received a package from my mother for Easter. I expected to find a few chocolate treats. I opened this:

Yes, seriously

Let’s just look at that loot one more time, people:

Chocolate heaven

Mental.

One night that week, J, a friend I met at Late one night, was finally in town visiting his boyfriend, so we met up at a bar on Church Street to see a drag show. I’d rather forget the rest of that night (I woke up the next morning in Elo’s bed, and with Rolos in my coat pocket that I have no recollection of buying), but what I remember was fun.

Me and J

J and Jas

And so I leave you with a post I drafted in mid-April but, for some reason, never posted:

I AM NOT READY TO LEAVE!

That has pretty much been the crux of my thoughts for the last week or two. I have a lot more I want to do. I’m not ready to leave my friends here. I’m not ready to leave my lifestyle here and go back to actually doing stuff.

Last week saw my last classes at Ryerson. I had so much fun in every one of them, and met some great people. I’m sad that I won’t get to go back and finish my degree with them (or can I? I haven’t looked into it…)

OK, so last week. I was pretty exhausted for most of Monday, due to overnight coach journey. Everyone else napped throughout the day. I don’t remember why I didn’t, but the point is that I was tired.

Tuesday…pretty much a deadbeat day, from what I remember of it. I’m actually quite worried that I don’t remember anything about Monday and Tuesday of last week. Oh wait, I went to Shoppers and bought Cheerios on Tuesday. And I met up with Gustav and Elias for coffee for a few hours. It’s all coming back now.

Wednesday was my last radio class. I was a reporter, mostly because I didn’t rush to the sign up sheet to make sure I wasn’t a reporter, so it was my own fault.

Luckily, they took pity on me and pretty much gave me my story on a plate, with a big red bow and everything. Because it was the last show, we were allowed to include a few joke stories, so my reporter piece was about how two of our professors had been nominated to be the next Governor General of Canada. I did a few interviews and got some funny sound bytes. They didn’t work when it came to going live for some reason, but whatever. Later that day, we met up at a bar for goodbye drinks. I was there at 4 and me and another guy stayed until almost 8pm. Lots of fun, but productivity, close to, if not less than zilch.

Thursday was my last TV Production Techniques class. We had to do some thing in front of a green screen that I still don’t fully understand, so I was pleased when I got the job of Teleprompter Person, and my main/only responsibility was to press a button to make the teleprompter go at the right speed. I rocked it. I was sad to leave this class, as the group I worked in for the past semester was pretty incredible.

Friday was my last photojournalism class. Or half of it, since I was tired from said night out {with J, see earlier} on Thursday and didn’t make it until noonish. We watched a film, then said our goodbyes. Our professor, Peter Bregg, had some of our images printed and put on display outside our classroom:

Classroom

Photos

That night, we had booked a limo to take us to Frequency for a fun night of drinking and dancing. It was fun, but I’d kind of had enough by about 1.30am, and decided to go home by myself. Later that night, a friend of mine from one of my classes came by and we sat and talked until about 5.30am. Again, great fun, but I felt it on Saturday.

In front of the limo: Julea, Me, Emma, Kirsty, Steph, Claire and Elodie, Christian in front

Inside: Gustaf, Christian R, Christian H, Julea, me, Elias

The 10D girls at Frequency

I don’t even know where to begin. The month of April, just after we got back from our long weekend in New York, was one of the best months of my life so far, and one of the saddest. It was the month Elo and I went to Montreal, sort of last minute, to see a friend of hers from High School, Dimitri, who now lives there with two flatmates, Geoff and Emiliano:

Dimitri, Elo, me and Geoff at a bar on the first night

Geoff, Emiliano and Dimitri

Montreal is somewhere I wanted to visit before I left Canada, and I’m glad I got the chance to. It’s a fascinating little place. You almost forget you’re in Canada; everyone’s speaking in French, and the buildings, attitude and lifestyle there are so European.

On the first day, after a great Croque Madame brunch with the boys, we did the obligatory climb up Mount Royal.

Elo and I at the top

View over downtown Montreal

Then we headed into town to take in the sights (and do some shopping, of course, on my namesake street, Rue St Catherine…)

Rue Sainte-Catherine

Notre Dame

The waterfront

Did I mention that Elo’s friend Dimitri is a music video director? Yep. He did the video for ‘Colours’ by Calvin Harris, among others (mostly Quebec artists, I think). Anyway, one night we were there he was shooting some of a video for something and we went along, en route to a club/bar later on, and ended up being in the background. I’ve yet to see this video, 2 months later, but whatever, it was fun.

On the set of the video, in a small hotel in Old Montreal

The bar that night was a bit surreal. It was meant to be ladies night, as in, girls get free drinks. Instead, I paid a shitload for two drinks for Elo and I, and Elo got into a fight with the French speaking barmaid who demanded a tip for ignoring us, and charging us extortionate prices for drinks that should have been free. Fun. We were also super tired after walking around all day, so the evening wasn’t great. We did hang out a bit with another friend of Dimitri’s, David.

Geoff, me, Elo, Dimitri and David at the bar

The next morning, Dimitri took us to a breakfast place, L’Avenue, that was apparently renowned for it’s great menu, and it didn’t disappoint. It was pretty amazing.

My breakfast: French Vanilla, fruit kebab, Eggs Benedict and breakfast potatoes

The bathroom in the place was pretty insane, too:

A little bit more shopping…

Elo found her namesake

…and before we knew it, we were back in Toronto.

Which brings us to the last week of 10D…

It began with a long, long line (well, it wasn’t really a line, it curved several times all around the bus terminal, but Canadian’s don’t understand the word ‘queue’ … I digress) to board our 9.30pm Greyhound bus. We got there around 8.20pm, and the line was already half way around the terminal (they filled three or four buses before they got to us, to give you some idea). Charlie, Julea and Andreke had some problems with their tickets and were missing a printout or two, so we were concerned for a while that they may be stuck in Buffalo. Luckily our Buffalo driver took pity and they were able to continue to NYC.

The journey itself was l-o-n-g. We arrived at Buffalo, NY, to go through customs and immigration at the border around midnight. At 2.30am we were still sitting on the bus, in more or less the same spot. We were there just under three and a half hours before we got to get off the bus. I had to pay $6 for my green card, which for some reason turned into $12 when they charged me, but it was 3am and I was not about to argue with scary-American-border-control lady. It means I won’t have to pay it later on, anyway.

I slept a bit, and woke up around 8.30am, I guess, as we were passing through some countryside. It was a nice view. Couldn’t get back to sleep then so I was up as we approached and arrived in New York around 10am (three hours behind schedule). Then we had to sort out Andreke’s return ticket, so that she could get from New York to Buffalo on the way back, which was far more complicated and took way longer than it should have, but eventually we got on the subway and headed to our hostel.

Our hostel

We couldn’t check in until 2pm, and it was only midday, but they let us leave our bags and use the washroom to freshen up a bit after the long journey, then we headed into the city for lunch. Momentarily got lost from eachother, which, considering most of our phones didn’t work in the States, was tricky. Decided to go to Applebee’s.

L-R Christian, Charlie, Gustav, Julea, Elodie and Andreke

I had heard of Applebee’s and was expecting good things. It was just OK, and definitely not worth the money, in my opinion, but c’est la vie. On to Times Square!

Times Square was one of the places, being so iconic, that I expected to recognize immediately, but I actually spent a lot of time looking up and trying to place everything in my mind, from what I’d seen in movies and photographs. It’s strange; I recognized it, of course, things looked familiar, just not as I had pictured in my mind, I guess.

The rest of that day we spent getting lost in American Eagle Outfitters. Oh, my. We were there about an hour and a half, and i visited the changing rooms no less than three times to try on various things. Ended up spending $150 (£100) on two NYC t-shirts, a summer dress, capris, two other tops (same style, different colours) and jeans, which I thought was cheap (actually, most things were pretty cheap, but perhaps the fact that the USA doesn’t tax the hell out of you coloured my opinion somewhat…)

We went back to the hostel to meet up with everyone else and shower/take a nap, then we headed out to find dinner and ended up at “Texas Rotisserie and Grill”, which resembled a kebab shop, but was CHEAP and actually not bad. Although they did have this up on the wall, which wasn’t the most comforting thing to stare at whilst I ate my chicken burrito:

Then we headed back to Times Square to see the night lights.

10D do Times Square

Next stop, M&Ms World. That place was immense. Plan to stop off in Vegas, too.

M&Ms World exterior

Elo and Julea

And then, on to the Hershey’s Store:

$40 of Hershey’s

The next morning, Julea wanted to go to the International House of Pancakes (IHOP). I had heard of it, but apparently it’s mentioned in lots of songs and stuff.

Happy to be there

My breakfast, French Vanilla with cream on top and chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and icing sugar. YUM.

The guys ate steak omelettes. Better them than me (none of them finished…)

First stop of the day, the financial district, and Wall Street (minus the big Star Spangled Banner, which I was gutted about):

Me, Elodie, Christian and Gustav at Wall Street

Made a quick stop at Tiffany’s…!

On to Ground Zero, the World Trade Centre site, which I was warned, and which was, a construction site. I still wanted to go and see it, though. It was pretty awe-inspiring to stand and look up and imagine. I’m glad I saw what is the location of the single most historic event in my lifetime, and the construction of it’s replacement.

Construction work at Ground Zero

Then we walked along the Hudson River to Battery Park to get the ferry across the water to see the Statue of Liberty up close.

View from lower Manhattan to the statue

The queue for the ferry to Ellis Island was at least a mile long. No exaggeration. So we headed to the Staten Island Ferry, which was free. We also got to meet up with Charlie, who woke up that morning with one eye swollen shut. Nice.

Showing my American spirit at the ferry terminal

Lady Liberty

Because of the nature of the ferry (free!), I didn’t get great photos of the statue, but I saw it up close, and was told it’s not worth the time or money to go to the island. Not much to see. So, I’m satisfied.

That afternoon we decided to hang out at Central Park for a while. It was a good idea. It’s a gorgeous, gorgeous park and I can’t wait to spend more time there/see more of it later this month.

Central Park

Hanging out

Just across from the park was the Apple Store, that we had visited the night before to use their facilities. We’d seen people camping out in front, but didn’t realise that it was because the iPad was released on the Saturday in America, so Fox News was there with their cameras. We didn’t go inside, instead we wanted to see FAO Schwarz, the toy store with the big piano.

Elodie and her new friend

I so want one of these dogs. CUTE.

The Big Piano. I’m going back when the kids aren’t hogging it.

The rest of the day was spent walking along 5th Avenue to the Rockerfeller Plaza, and deciding whether or not to go up, and when. We settled on going up later that night to see it at night, which didn’t happen, but I have next time! On the way, we stopped for “The Best Hot Dogs in the City” (so the guy told us…I also saw a sign that said the same thing in several other places. Weird.)

Christian, Charlie, Gustaf and Gustav with their hot dogs

Julea and I got a pretzel.

At the Rockerfeller Plaza

That night was a bit nuts. We went back to the hostel to get ready, then headed to Soho for dinner. Ended up at a weird little burger-type place. Elodie and I got a bottle of wine to share, then she ordered another one when we were about half way through the first. Yeah, you see where this is going. I think I need another post for that night’s antics, so let’s skip to Day 3…

Checked out of our hostel, then dropped off our bags at the Greyhound bag place at the bus terminal. Grabbed a quick coffee and bagel, and a magazine for the trip later (and, if you’re Elodie, NYC shot glasses…)
Then on to the Brooklyn Bridge!

Brooklyn Bridge

10D do Brooklyn Bridge (and no, don’t worry, I’m not pregnant; just fat. I’m working on it …)

That day was mostly about looking around, since it was Easter Sunday and a lot of things were closed.

Chinatown

My street!

These crabs were alive, crawling around. Nice.

Then through to Little Italy, where we got some lunch at Cafe Napoli. The guy recruiting diners at the front made a joke as we walked by that he could get us a lovely table sitting outside (it was at least 25C that day, and boiling hot…I got sunburnt…I digress) and that we should come back and see him, “I’m the guy with the big nose, you can’t miss me!” So, we sat outside, and listened to him make this joke to every group that walked by. It got old fast.

The lunch itself was small and expensive, but very good. All the food in Little Italy smelled divine, though.

Little Italy

Elodie, Christian and Julea at Cafe Napoli

Gustav, Elodie and Christian

Andreke

And then, my batteries promptly died! To summarize, we went and got gelato from a cute little stand, which was amazingly good, then headed to Central Park to chill out for a bit. Elodie and I did some last minute shopping at H&M and Forever 21 before heading back to catch the bus home. The queue was a nightmare, my feet were so tired and we stood for an hour to get on, but the journey itself was much better, I thought. Waking up at 4am to go through immigration the other way was something I could have done without (although this time around it took less than half an hour, if that), and the driver made about 3 more stops than the previous driver did, but we were home half an hour before schedule at 6.30am.

I <3 NY! Can't wait to go back!

I woke up on Friday morning and headed to my Photojournalism class, then went with my Australian classmate Jordan to purchase his new Canon Rebel T1i.

Went back to the flat via the Eaton Centre, Dollarama and Shoppers with Andreke and Julea to get some Easter stuff to send home to the fam, then came back and hung out with Sanda and Elodie drinking wine and some yummy raspberry vodka concoction Sanda made us (with real frozen raspberries!) until it was time to get ready.

That evening was Dutch-Sarah-from-the-nextdoor-flat (to use her full title)’s birthday. She had a party at her flat, 10E. We went for a while, but mostly spent the evening roaming Neill Wycik between floors 10 and 4, wearing 3D glasses and singing “My schnitzel brings all the German’s to the yard (and they’re like…Guten Tag!)”. This was hilariously funny when you’d drunk as much as we had, you understand. I also skyped with Bjorn in Australia at some point during the evening. Lucky him.

Gustav and an extremely attractive and trendy version of me

Sanda and I looking ridiculously fashionable

Gustaf, dressed in a ‘wife beater’ from earlier in the evening, when he and the other guys sat in their underwear and wigs, and played video games. Right…

About 11.30 we headed out to The Wreck Room. I couldn’t tell you where it was, but I do remember that it was a lot of fun. We all danced up on the stage and around a pole. I had several more drinks, despite having no money (although I did try and get $200 from the ATM, which, luckily, didn’t work).

Elodie, Claire, Steph and me

Saturday morning, I woke up slightly confused (after falling asleep on the couch, and slowly making my way to my room at some point in the early hours) and completely hungover. I was the second one up, so early-riser Gustaf and I waited for everyone else to surface then headed to St Lawrence Market, and then to see fellow exchangie Thomas in a play at the student centre.

That night was German Night, where the German guys cooked us a traditional German dinner of schnitzel, German potato salad and some homemade pasta with cheese. It was good. Especially good, since it also happened to be Earth Hour, so we ate it by candlelight. Vielen Danke Daniel, Brent and the Christians!

Another astonishingly attractive photo of me, this time eating schnitzel

Dinner by candlelight

I think we then attempted to watch Ice Age, but were all too tired.

This morning I met up with Kirsty, Steph, Claire, Emma, and two of Steph’s friends from New York for brunch at Daybreak. This time I went for Eggs Benedict, which came with potato rosti and a side of pancakes. It was good. I didn’t eat another meal today, it was so filling.

My exciting news is that I’m almost completely booked for my travelling before I head home! My flight to Calgary to meet with Kirsty, Steph and Claire is booked for the 3rd May, then we’re headed across Canada, to the Alberta Rockies, Banff and Jasper, on to Vancouver, and down the west coast to Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas, including the Grand Canyon! I’ll then make my way to Chicago, hopefully meet up with Melissa, and on to DC, hopefully via Aaron. I am so excited about this trip, I cannot even tell you. It takes the sting out of having to leave Toronto, just slightly.

It was OK. I didn’t actually try, it didn’t look too fun. He seemed to have a good time though, that’s what counts. And I had fun taking pictures and eating fries with gravy and butter tarts with Elodie and Julea.

The girls on the bus on the way there

Team Photo!

I had a pretty quiet week this week. On Wednesday, I was signed up to be a host of our radio show in my Radio News class. I was worried sick about it but it actually turned out to be really fun. Once I get the chance to listen to myself back, when they put it online, I may consider it as a career ambition.

That evening I had planned to cook a “British” dinner for my housemates. I thought long and hard about it, and French Elodie and Canadian Julea both mentioned that they wanted baked potatoes (aka Jacket potatoes), so that’s what I went with, with chilli, cheese and sour cream for the filling. Strawberries and cream ala Wimbledon for dessert. It took a couple of hours, but it was pretty good, if I do say so myself, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Afterwards, we decided to go and kick a ball around in the quad together, then Elodie and I went window shopping at the Eaton for a while.

Thursday, I learned, was Vaffeldagen in Sweden: that is, the day that the virgin Mary found out she was pregnant with Jesus (9 months to the day before Christmas Day). The word for it in Swedish sounds like Vaffeldagen (Waffle Day), and hence, they traditionally eat waffles on that day. That’s a tradition I planned to continue, and since almost every day I pass Wanda’s Waffles on Yonge, which smells DIVINE, Waffle Day seemed like the perfect opportunity to taste test it.

Waffle with cream, strawberries and chocolate sauce

Julea and me (from the most unflattering angle ever, but still)

It was good. Very good. We sat out and ate it in Dundas Square, which was nice, although temperatures here have plummeted from a gorgeous 12 or so degrees to below zero again. Boo.

Oh, the last two weeks. Right.

So the week after we got back from the cottage was pretty much catching up on sleep. It was rough. That’s all I remember. Looking through my photos to jog my memory, I think I missed out quite a bit between the beginning of March and the cottage trip. A quick recap:

As I mentioned a few entries ago, the Wednesday before the cottage trip, we had Nuit Francais. Pictures:

Intense game of Jenga

Mademoiselle Francais preparing the food

That weekend (the weekend before the cottage trip – are you following?) was great. Our trip to the Toronto Islands turned to this, but we didn’t care:

Our view, sitting at a cafe eating lunch by the ice rink in the (rare) Toronto sun

I forget whether we went out that night or not (I’m thinking we did) but we met for brunch on the Sunday morning at Daybreak. It was good. Dangerously good.

Tired but happy

Gustav and I

My meal, the “Junkyard” frittata, complete with toast and pancakes. Yum.

That Monday night, we went to see Alice in Wonderland. After some deliberation, we settled on paying the $17.50 to see it in the IMAX theatre. It was pretty incredible, I have to say. The film itself was great. I especially enjoyed hearing so many British accents, being so far from home. The effect of the glasses made me feel light headed once or twice, but it was a cool experience.

Elodie and I in our glasses

Lea even bought a Mad Hatter hat to wear (l-r Steph, Lea, Julea , Andreke)

On the Wednesday, Gustav and Sanda asked if I wanted to join them at “The Beaches“. It was a nice little place to kill some time. We had OK weather, but I bet it’s beautiful in the summer months.

Elias and Sanda on the pier

Gustav climbed the lifeguard’s chair thing to get some shots. That’s dedicated

Lea, Ina, Elias and Linda (did I mention I was completely outnumbered by Scandinavians?)

Our shadows

Bored yet? No? Good.

I don’t even remember what I did for the rest of the week. If it’s not documented in photos, I don’t remember. So, fast forward to the week just gone.

St Patrick’s Day in particular. The day before, Elodie and I went to Dollarama and bought out most of the remaining St Patrick’s Day loot to decorate ourselves and our flat. Exhibit A:

The flat, post-decoration

Exhibit B:

Accessories fit for a green night on the town

We also woke up to find that someone dyed all our milk green. Weird!

It was another gorgeous day, so Gustaf, Christian and I had lunch on the roof deck here at Neill Wycik. It was my first time up there. The view is pretty cool.

Looking south towards the Financial District/CN Tower

Sunbathing boys

That night is a bit of a blur. We started off at our flat, as we always do, then had to decide where to go. The boys headed out first about 7pm and queued outside a bar for over an hour before deciding to come home. We went to get more alcohol at the LCBO, expecting to stay in, since all the bars were jam-packed (St Patrick’s seems to be bigger over here than in England, which I was not expecting), but somehow ended up walking to a house party about 10 minutes away, at the apartment of another exchange student. Most of my flat went home after 10 minutes, but Kirsty and I stayed with some other exchangies. We drank beer, talked and had fun, then I walked home with Linda and Elias via big slice.

The girls and I before we left

In hindsight, I should have stayed at my flat. A water fight erupted around midnight. There is 12 minutes of video evidence. Such fun.

Gustaf, looking…good

Water fight outtake

The floor was still wet when I woke up the next morning.

Our flat the morning after. There was a cheerio spillage on the floor in the hallway, the spring on our door was broken, and there is green dye on the walls that won’t come off. Yikes.

And then we get to Friday. As in almost a week ago now.
What a day.
Firstly, and most importantly, the 40D I ordered a couple of weeks ago arrived! A 40D, gripped, with a 4GB memory card. It’s gorgeous. Seriously. I think I’m in love.

Friday was also the night of the steamer party at Neill Wycik for St Patrick’s Day. Steamer parties are always fun. Just downstairs, no entry fee, three or four free drinks, good music.

The night went downhill after that, but picked up again when Julea, Gustaf and I decided to go and get shwarma at 4.30 in the morning, and eat it in the quad.

Try and ignore the blur…it was dark.

We then came home, finished some chocolate cake that was on the table, added some people called Fatsug on Facebook (as you do), and fell asleep, upright, on the couch until about 8am.

I was woken up by Elodie, Gustaf and Julea jumping on me at about 11am, in time for the free post-Steamer Party brunch, then Julea, Elodie and I went to St Lawrence Market so I could test out my 40D.

And just a practice one of Gustaf. My roommates are going to be so pissed off with me bugging them for photos by the time we leave.

Maybe at some point this weekend I’ll get a chance to update from life this past week. For now, my fingers are at risk of RSI.

Shopping for the fourteen of us before we arrived. Lots of healthy food, full of nutritional value, as you can clearly see.

What to do first? Jump on the bed, of course…

Elodie and I with our fake birthday cake.

We went out hiking on the Saturday. I had snow boots. Best thing ever.

All of us with our lasagne, salad and way too much garlic bread dinner on the last night…

…before we partied the night away…

With Spice Girls tribute acts…

…some Soulja Boi…

..and some craziness.

Back later with this week’s GREEN antics.