An Annex Girl March 23, 2008

When I leave my house and walk on my street I see old, very unique-looking brick houses on both sides of the street. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that I’m actually downtown. Of course you can hear the sirens of the police cars and ambulances driving up and down Bloor Street, but otherwise it’s very quiet. When you look out the window, you see backyards, trees, and big, black squirrels everywhere.

But when you step out of the house and walk about 200 metres, you’re on Bloor, in the midst of the heart of the Annex, in the middle of everything. Walking up and down the street is an adventure: there are numerous restaurants, mainly Middle-East and Asian food sprinkled on both sides of the street. Then there’s Subway, Second Cup, Starbucks. In between, there are little bakeries, people selling jewelleries and this and that on the street, grocery stores, mini-marts, drug marts, wine and beer stores, pubs and bars. The area is alive from morning to night! In the midst of all this, a huge church prominently guards the area. And lest not forget the record stores, book stores and second-hand shops.

This area has got it all. Can’t believe I actually spent two months living on campus, literally exiled from all of this! I’m happy to call myself an Annex Girl from now on.

On one particular Sunday March 19, 2008

Imagine a beautiful spring day. Birdsing everywhere, sunshine, blue sky. Imagine visiting a host of amazing vintage shops, furniture and jewellery stores, and hopping from one gallery to another. Picture a street as coloured as ever; old houses, smells of delicious food and scented candles, hippies and yuppies, and what have you. Picture Lake Ontario and the sun making it look warmer than it actually is. Feel the flowers and the fruit, the Polish bakeries, the parks and the charming houses in Little Portugal. Then picture a boy and a girl. Some hot chocolate and a long walk in this area, hand in hand. And if that isn’t already good, imagine a small, Italian restaurant. Good wine, candlelight and great pasta.

Sounds like a fairytale. But it wasn’t. Or if it was, I was in it.

Layered in, like spices in a casserole… March 16, 2008

Meeting a famous Canadian First Nations playwright in a coffee shop somewhere in the middle of Toronto sounds pretty far-fetched. But he walked in, 5 minutes late, gave me a big hug and then we started chatting off. Only in Canada.

It is weird, because this whole exchange thing started off with him in the first place. I don’t mean it in a strange, stalking-kind-of-way, but I’m referring to the Conference a bit less than two years ago. That’s where I got the idea to go on exchange from, because of all the mingling with awesome Canadians, among whom was also this playwright. It was pretty cool meeting him here, talking about the Conference back in Helsinki, reminishing on all those great memories from the time.

I did have a reason for meeting him, too. Ever since the Conference, I’ve been into this guy’s work, and decided a while ago that I wanted to do my gradu on his work. So, when my Canadian Arts and Culture -course director handed out an assignment where the point was to research a contemporary Canadian artist or arts institute, I decided to use the opportunity to gather more information on the Anishinabe (Ojibway) playwright.

And who wouldn’t take it as a compliment to talk about oneself and one’s career? Drew Hayden Taylor at least did. And I guess the meeting wasn’t totally in vain. I left with a little notebook full of good information, and an invitation to Curve Lake -reserve to check out Canada’s biggest Native Art Gallery, and to have a cup of coffee at the writer’s mansion in the middle of the reserve. Now, that doesn’t sound bad, does it? Only in Canada, though. Only in Canada.

And what comes to the title of this entry, I have no clue. Go figure. I’m leaving you with something to ponder on.

Moving on March 15, 2008

Today was the day. I finally moved downtown!! Two months at campus left me full of memories, both good and bad, but I was glad to move on. It feels like this was the right thing to do -after all, I did want to be closer to “everything”, and living downtown just makes things easier. And seeing another side of Toronto is also pretty neat. I have only a couple of weeks left of school, so commuting won’t be that big of a problem, either. I should be on campus within an hour or so. Not bad, considering I’m just a walk away from Chinatown, Queen Street, Little Italy, and so on.

The house I live in is nice and comfortable. Not fancy, but it’s good for me. I share the third floor with another Finnish exchange student, which is nice! Our kitchen is small, but much nicer than the one I had before; the washroom is ok, and the balcony soooo cute! Only cons of the place are that there’s no water in the kitchen (there’s a tap and a sink just a few steps away, though), and that we share the shower with everyone in the house. However, I’m not even slightly bugged about these issues, so everything’s more than good. Like my friend said upon his move downtown, “everything is better downtown”. And that’s so true. And I can’t believe I’m paying 200 dollars less than on campus, and the internet is also free…

However, moving itself was pretty stressfull. And I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the amount of stuff I had gathered in just two months! Mom and Dad, you better bring extra suitcases when you come, I’m sending A LOT of stuff back home with you…

Walking down my street tonight, and looking at the CN -tower in all its glamour, was incredible. This is my neighbourhood now. I don’t mind waking up in the middle of all this.

Fever March 11, 2008

I realized the finals are only a few weeks away. Before them, I still have lots to do: 2 research papers, 2 smaller papers, 1 group presentation, 1 group performance, reading documents and little assignments. I guess my Easter will be full of writing and reading and studying.

It’s strange (and sad) how things come to an end so fast. 10 weeks have gone by so incredibly fast, and classes are about to be done. I’m happy I still have almost 4 months left here, but it is crazy that I’ve almost completed all the school-related things I came here for. On the other hand, I’m relieved and glad. A month from now I will be done with everything and can enjoy the rest of my time here doing whatever I want. A quick coffee at Starbucks, a walk downtown in nice spring weather (keeping my thumbs up for this one!!! –we just had a snowstorm last weekend…), lunch with friends, a couple of hours at Chapters, late night dinner with someone special. Ahhhhhh. Looking forward to all of that!

So hopefully I will be able to fight off the “working feverishly” -routine, and change gears into “Mellow Mondays” and “Lazy Tuesdays”. And now that I’ve also fought off an actual fever (was sick for three days -pretty boring when you’re pretty much locked inside of your campus apt and there’s a snowstorm due to which the campus is closed), I should have good chances of not giving myself fever. I’ll leave that to that special someone, i.e.”You give me fever, when you kiss me…”

True Torontonian March 5, 2008

One period of time comes to an end here in Toronto. That is, living on campus!!! I’m moving downtown, YES, DOWNTOWN in a bit more than a week! I found a nice little room at the Annex (Bloor and Brunswick) for far less money that I’m paying right now on campus. Besides the fact that it’s cheaper, I want to live closer to everything. And now that classes are almost done (yeah, so soon!), it’s better relocating downtown, since the campus is bound to die in a month or so anyways. My room is in a three-floor house, and it’s fully furnished. On top of everything, I share the kitchen and the washroom with just one person, and she happens to be a Finn!! And the coolest thing, perhaps, is the balcony we have once summer comes!!

So in case you want to hit me with letters or something, here’s my new address, effective from March 15th onwards:

410 Brunswick Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M5R 2Z4
Canada

So I’m a downtowner (or uptowner, to be exact…) Pretty cool, eh?

It’s on fire March 3, 2008

Apparently, there was a huge fire downtown last week. And I didn’t know. I don’t know where I’ve been, but I was surprised to find out that a huge part of Queen Street West (one of the main streets downtown) was destroyed due to a fire. Back home, I would have known instantly, here I heard about it days after. Maybe it’s the size of the city, or the fact that I don’t read newspapers here, maybe it’s just that things don’t circulate as fast here as back home. I don’t know. But I was certainly shocked to see the pictures of the fire scene, with buildings burning down and firefighters trying to save what was left to save. If you want to see what my city looks like on fire, go check out the link. Although it’s just a fire, some of the pictures somehow reminded me of 9/11.