This upcoming Saturday at 8pm, I will be turning off all the lights in my home. Will you?
Whether you live in one of the aforementioned designated cities or not, it's crucial to remember that you are as well a citizen of the world, don't depend on others to do this for you... as someone once said, "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Much to my disdain, another snowstorm has bestowed itself upon Toronto. I know I should be approaching this with appreciation, but after having enough snow to last 10 years (in Toronto at least!) the peace between me and the weather is starting to thin out. I was hoping to bust out my sandals and flipflops in a few days!
To make things better (or worse) I've been listening to this wonderful song called "La Madrague" which brings my bitter mind to beaches and warm sand...
Something about the title had freaked me out the first time I heard it. This short story written by Margaret Atwood voiced what I had been trying to subdue for the longest time.
I've always thought of the nature, woods and outdoors as beautiful, vast and wild. Every experience I've had outdoors was amazing; I've seen and heard things I'd seen on TV and more; it was like being in the TV and pictures instead of watching it. I soaked up every aspect of the wilderness I encountered: how so much of the paths we took and the scenes we'd seen were already tampered with, how tourist-like much of it was and how it was all set up... but what did I expect?
Always, always would I look beyond. Beyond the mountains, beyond the treetops and at the horizon... and it just never ends. Yes, going outdoors and experiencing the nature is great, but have you ever thought of how freaky it is? You're up somewhere that will take 3 days to get back to civilization from... and what if you get lost?
Of course, that's always the main issue of all trips; getting hurt or lost. But if you truly truly think of it, nature really doesn't care. Nature is scary; it doesn't care about us.
I wanted to refer to classical Canadian landscape paintings. The ones by the Group of 7 and the like. You usually see them on postcards or paintings on cheap hotel walls - I used to think they're ugly. After having read "Death by Landscape", I think I've discovered what the artists were trying to depict from those paintings.
Never will you see animals or humans in the paintings. They're vague, ambiguous, and to me - grotesque. There's never a focus point, it's like the image was a frozen moment of movement, though they're always of landscapes. Of inhabitable areas, where landscape overcomes everything. And if you think of Canadian wilderness in that sense, that really is how it is. I've finally discovered why I always feel overwhelmed when outside surrounded by the wilderness; Its vastness might just take me over. It's scary.
In Toronto last year there was a girl that went camping with her friends up north. They decided to go jogging one morning, she for some reason stayed behind a bit... and disappeared. This was in a very isolated, desolate area... where you just might be surrendered to the ruthlessness of Mother Nature... that girl was never found... no traces of anything...
Being as inexperienced as I am of Toronto, I still do have places that I love eating at! Yes, my list is a bit mainstream, but honestly, I don't know what I'd do without these fab places. They're always places I'd have lunch dates at or places I'd go on a beautiful day. They're def. good enough for vistors and peoples on a strict budget (ie STUDENTS!). Holla if you likes!
10. Babur - Right before Duncan St. on Queen, after the Chum building Great $8 Indian lunch buffet!!! Heavy, yes, but that's what you get for having those random Indian cravings. Ahhhhh...
9. Margarita's Fiesta Room - Baldwin Street Teehee, another downtown favourite! This little street off Chinatown was maaaaaade for those mid-twenties wonderfuls looking for a good dinner and a good time to chill out with colleagues and friends. Margarita's is kinda pricey... like I said, good for those with full-time jobs, but it's ok; 2 people can share 2 appetizers and 1 margarita that's HUUUUGE and they'll be happy. Makes ME happy anyway.
8. Burrito Boyz - across Peter St? $7 for an incredibly HUGE, statisfying face-stuffing burrito!! Soooo good... honestly 1/2 of the best places for Burritos!!! I would be surprised if any member of the MC hasn't memorized the entire menu yet ;)
7. Eat My Martini - somewhere on College (Little Italy!!) Goddam, I'm such a sucker for alcohol, I should have a list of my fave bars and clubs! Eat My Martini's located in pretty Little Italy, avg $5 a martini which is okay, 'cause I'm not exactly sure where to find another Heavenly Kiss or Mars Bars Wonder martini anywhere else!! ALL their drinks are good I tell ya, all!! Then you can have a night stroll through Little Italy, how wonderful!
PS: There's this one waiter that I keep getting, keep forgetting his name but damn is he good! Look for a gay bald super happy man and you're good for the rest of the night!
6. Sauté - St. Andrew Station, the PATH Right in front of one of the Teriyaki locations I work at, I drool all through lunchtime rush while collecting cash. For all you Italian food lovers out there (hay hay!) you'd love this place; a whole pasta meal, along with a garden/cesar salad and garlic bread for no more than $7 before tax. What makes this place sooooo freaking good is that even though the owner's an Asian guy, he went all the way to Italy to train and make up his own sauces... which explains why Sauté's line-ups are double Teriyaki's at any time of the day!
5. Destiny - Steeles & Kennedy (across from Pacific Mall) If you're into the Asian-ness, oh gods is this place awesome! Guilty pleasure for sure (since I usually stay away from anything Asian); this Asianized restaurant is full of youngn's drinking bubbletea and playing cards 'til after 12 at night, it's always crowded when I go, and it's such a happy, busy atmosphere. Rockin on Asian pop, it's pretty cool and fun with anyone you go with! Bubbletea + westernized asian food (normal asian food on nice plates with WHITE prices) in a very asian area uptown. Wootang.
I usually come here after a day of asian-ness in P-mall. Haha :)
4. Falafel Okay, so I've forgotten the name of this place 'cause it's pretty sketch - but it's right by Ryerson on Dundas and booooy is this place the yums! Okay right-in-downtown kinda price, ($6-7) but omg, they're soo good...
3. Red Room - College & Spadina... Chinatown! I was soooo in heart with this place last summer!! Extremely original little restaurant. A bit dark in the eve. (never been there in the day) but wherever you sit you're bound to be sitting in a chair that no one else is in (ok maybe a couple others). Surrounded by statues of Buddhas, random bookshelves, antiques of stuff while eating your italian/vietnamese/greek/whatever else meal, you'll fo SHO enjoy the hour of hippyness you stay for. Even better, a plate won't be more than $7 before taxes if you're not trying to get fat or broke. I usually leave the place having paid $6 with tax and tips included :)
2. Bubbletea House? - Chinatown Love this place! Probably the cheapest, but most satisfying cup of bubbletea you can get (that ain't sketch, yo!)
They are awesome; $3.50 for a regular cup of bubbletea, using real frozen fruits blended with ice - so it's a slushie bubbletea, but it's the SAME price as their regular powder-based ones. Amazingly, this place has NO TAX, BABY! WOOTYAH!
Can't resist grabbing a healthy drink there in the afternoon and walking over to the AGO/OCAD campus to study. Wonderful! (in the summer)
PS: since it *does* look sketch compared to 168 across the street, I might've forgotten the store name. Bah! Who cares!
1. Mariko - Yonge St. (just after HMV on Yonge and Dundas, but before 168) Well whaddya know? Ironically the best place of all is an Asian place (damn my frugality).
Mariko serves Jap stuffs. Lunch comes in a bento box complete with salad+jap vinigrette, 3 pieces of california rolls, soba/deep-friend tofu, your choice of meat/salmon/tempura, and rice. You also get a complimentary miso soup PLUS a scoop of ice cream afterwards and delicious tasting Toronto tap water (only by request) - all for the amazing price of $5.85. HELL TO THE YAH! That's before taxes, but baby if you can find me a place that makes your buck bang any harder than this then give me a holla, yo!
PS: If you order it as take-out, you get 20% off PLUS you don't pay tips AND you get the complimentary soup and ice-cream. As Juan used to say... HOLY MOTHER B!!!
Never have my short term plans been so undetermined.
Ever since University started, it wasn't about continuing my ideal plans I had prepared for myself, but it was about choosing from the plethora of opportunities I had in front of me. Last summer probably one of the most challenging summers I had experienced (albeit one of the most amazing ones as well!). It's true that the most unexpected routes one takes are the most meaningful ones.
March has been such an uncertain month. Now that another summer is just around the corner, I can't stand how unclear everything is. I had my Virgo-perfect plans set and everything since last year, but the beginning of 2008 had me re-evaluating decisions until last week... it's true that I'm an incredibly indecisive individual (anyone that actually knows me will second that) but I guess it's just 'cause I want everything to be perfect...
With applications due right left and center, my indecisiveness has heightened to an incredulous level and the stress has left me pooped (not to mention final papers and midterms are all due this month!). But from last night on, it will all be waiting game 'til the 28th (countdown 'til clarity and surety, baby!). Time to put my patience to the test...
Lingo of affection and the artificiality of personalities have heightened to a whole new level.
In many ways I have always detested the lack of care of those who throw away meanings of significant and prestigious words - the ones only to be used with care and calculation. Perhaps it arises from the conservative, unaffectionate childhood I had, perhaps it comes from my formal personality. Perhaps it comes from my sensitivity to words and literature. Nonetheless, I have in a way submitted to it; the use of prestigious conscious words that use to have places, times and right moments to appear now come to use a little more easily.
At one point I had become one of them as a result of extreme frustration and excess care for these words; it was kind of like being an extremist and then being totally indifferent to the affair in question. I experienced a good period of affectionate loose lips... it's subtly dangerous, believe it or not. Going from never speaking the words (only at the right time, right place) to throwing them around like they meant nothing; it hurt! It hurt.
Thus, they're now used in conservative moderation. Dem werds. That friendship road had been quite rocky for the past few years, unexpected winding paths, potholes galore of course, although it looks like those damn potholes are finally getting filled, and newfound funding will provide for a smoother, swifter, more stable ride. Those words, like funding resources, shall act as variable costs; utilized when required, though if not, those cars will be content swerving 'round dem potholes anyway.
Being potentially the hugest Harry Potter fan I've ever known, I don't think anyone quite understands this means to me. The last and final book of the series (which I will only speak about with appointment) will be in 2 films. Harry Potter fans have been dreaming hoping and yearning for this day since the beginning, and it's finally happening at the end.
David Yates is directing the both of them though. Ahem.
I had the chance to go away for reading week this year. While almost everyone I knew that went away flew down to Cuba, the Bahamas, or anywhere to escape the city's coldest winter in years, I decided to go to Calgary, where winters are even colder than Toronto's by many degrees.
Fortunately I went at the perfect time; I was greeted by a Chinook that lasted the entire time I was there! Boy do I miss walking around in flats.
I found the city in general very much like Vancouver; chillax, hilly (I thought it'd be flat like Edmonton), and of higher quality of living, for some reason. Perhaps it was the people, perhaps it was the scenery; though I did not see much poverty or sketchy-ness... one time we drove by an apparent sketchy pizza parlor that would have been just any in Toronto...
Perhaps it was the amazing tour guides that I had; I got to see nearly every main mall and tourist attraction there is... though reluctant to go up the Calgary Tower as I've already been up the CN...
Calgary is definitely somewhere I'd like to go to visit once in a while; not busy enough to work in, though access to nature is too easily found to see one of the most beautiful scenes for Canada. Too few buildings to feel being in a metropolitan city, though people are nice enough to not steal shovels from others' driveways... I love and hate everything that it's opposite to Toronto... how odd... it reminds me so much of my city, yet everything's different... I'm kind of Torn between the similarities and contrasts between the two... haha...
Anyway, my favourite part of the entire trip, I must admit, was going to Banff and Lake Louise. It was everything I expected and more; it was amazing to see mountains in person... they were so overwhelming - maybe even scary at first, though they gave me a sense of stability and sureness; for some reason I was never afraid while walking back on one when we took a random route after walking across Lake Louise. After last year's Bruce Peninsula adventure, my longing for nature and travel had heightened. My sensitivity to every aspect of the outdoors' has increased; trees jump out at me, grass tickle and play around my feet, the brilliance of stars make me yearn for what, I know not... but it hasn't ceased to amaze me how much more one's eyes can feel, ears can taste, and one's body can sense when clarity and appreciation have left them awash with gratitude...
And of course, my reason for going in the first place was fulfilled; I saw the people I needed to see, rekindled my dearest friendships perhaps, and bonded with some of the most awesome people from the West I knew. Thanks to everyone to made my $539 plane ticket worth it - I'll see y'all soon!
PS - some of you Asian peeps might recognize my blog title from a Chinese drama =p
