Thursday, December 21, 2006

I Heart Toronto! (Part Deux)

What is it about this city? I thought when I left Seoul, that there would be no one to take it's place. Au contraire mon frere!
I'll admit there has been (and still is) transition and the stress that comes with that. However, lately I have been having these little slices of heaven and thought I would compile them for your enjoyment.!

*Having lunch at the True Love Cafe. They have musicians (who I believe play for food) come in and serenade diners. The first guy covered Prince's funky Kiss on electric guitar and vocals. Simply sublime. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Another guy came in and played on the piano, no singing. He began with Quiet Riot's Cum on Feel the Noize followed by Vince Guaraldi's Christmastime is Here from the Charlie Brown Christmas. I hated to leave!

*Taking a walk through Allen Gardens Conservatory. Although it's antique, old, open to the public free and so well done!

*Riding the TTC subway and having the stops being sung to me by the conductor. Love that!

*Seeing the morning sunrise over Lake Ontario from our apartment window.

*walking into the nearest dry cleaners and seeing pictures of Hallasan (on Jeju) and Geumgangsan (in North Korea) (Korean mountains I've been to.)

*reading the Advocate that the neighbourhood public library has a subscription to.

*encountering panhandlers in the Church-Wellesley Village. One offers shoe shines for spare change. Another has his cup on a fishing line and says funny things as we walk by.

*drinking herbal tea and reading the newspaper after working out and showering at the local YMCA.

*using my Korean at the local convience store to ask which phone card is the best for calling South Korea.

*walking past the fabulous homes in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood and dreaming of living there. (never gonna happen but still it's nice to dream!)

*looking through books in This Ain't the Rosedale Library (nearby indie bookstore).

*listening to musicians in the subway stations.

*using my Spanish on the elevator of our apartment building.

*getting a spur of the moment, out-of-the blue invitation yesterday from my friend to join her coworkers in seeing the sold-out performance of the musical Wicked at the fabulous Canon Theatre! (Hooray for the flu that's going around!)

What a great city, eh? But don't take my word on it! Come visit and experience for yourself what this city has to offer!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm there! Well, I will be in a week! I'm so excited for all that Toronto and you have to show us. Thanks for moving to such cool cities. Seoul was amazing! Toronto will have to put on it's finest duds and be on it's best behavior to top the entire S. Korea experience.

Yay me, for having such a cool cousin!

P.S. I had a funny bus driver the other day and it just brightened my day. He had funny comments for each stop and he had the whole bus laughing. Good times!

Anonymous said...

Hey There,

I just love talking a tour of my much loved city through the eyes of someone else. This city has so much to offer - as a walker I have really taken in all it has to offer - side roads and all. Your blog is great - it kind of reminded me of one of my favourite articles in the Toronto Life magazine - where semi celebrities outline what they would do in a day with an unlimited budget - yours was more like the real Torontonian version. Okay I am off - see if I can read another entry before someone needs me at work.