Oh, my inner tween melts

Thanks to the 501 streetcar and a red light, I got an unobstructed view of the Jonas Brothers making an appearance at Much Music. So many screaming tweens. So many.

Today

After three weeks of getting up early-ish in the morning, I can't quite sleep in anymore. This is not a bad thing.
So, this morning, I had a couple extra hours to get odds and ends done before heading out for the day. I even made myself some breakfast. Oatmeal to be exact. I used to just eat two meals a day back when I slept in all the time. It's probably better for my system to be eating three meals a day again.
Went out for waffles at Starving Artist, this new trendy place in the Bloor/Lansdowne area. I'm not really sure why they decided to wafflise their bacon, but it tasted pretty good. I was expecting that my plate would have baconised waffles and then the normal bacon that comes with my order as well, but it turned out that my bacon was wafflised and I still had waffles with my order. It was a little much, but it was still tasty. Especially when doused with maple syrup.
On the way back home, I stopped off in Chinatown to get some groceries. The Toronto Chinatown Festival was going on, so I thought I'd wander around a little bit before loading up my shopping bag. I was really tempted to try the deep fried ice cream, but I was still full from brunch. Darn my slowing metabolism. I'd never seen it before and it looked kind of cool how they were globbing the crunchy ice cream on the marble slab. Oh, how I wanted to try it. Sigh.
After picking up my groceries, I hopped on the streetcar and somehow missed my stop. It was strange. There's always someone that gets off at my stop so I had just assumed that I would follow the crowd and someone else would ring the bell. By the time I realized that no one had rung the bell, it was too late. Ooops. Oh well, I got to watch a plane landing on the island because of it.
Oh, and I have at least 7 different mosquito bites from last night. Gross.

Found

I'm sure it's been claimed by now, but two weeks ago, on a rainy Saturday night, a fish was found. That's right, a fish. A big fish, in fact. Lying on the side of the road. How did it get there? To whom does it belong? Where was it heading?
I mean seriously, it's a fish. A really big fish. Lying on Front St. West.
You can't tell me that this is normal by any means. I mean, look at the size of it.

AGO

Awhile back, I went to the AGO to check out the Surreal Things exhibition. I remembered this exhibition from the V&A Museum a
previous trip to London. At the time, I decided that I want to take advantage of the free admission to London museums so I didn't pay the admission to see the special exhibition. I was pretty happy to find out it was coming to the city, and included in the admission price.
The big Dali painting blew me away. The weirdness of it, the details, it was crazy. I also liked the jeweled lips and teeth.
We didn't really see too much of the rest of the gallery. We'd all seen it
before and none of us were too eager to stay a full day and overload on art. We did hang out in the beautiful open wooden atrium on the north side of the gallery and walked up the enclosed spiral staircase. It's such a great space and the AGO did such a fantastic job with the renovations. It was definitely worth the two year closure, in my mind. Well done.

Shakespeare in the Park

Last night, I went to Shakespeare in the Park, presented by CanStage. This year, they put on a production of The Tempest, a play that I knew nothing about.
I kind of perused the synopsis, but didn't really seem to take any of it in and put faith in the company's ability to make the plays accessible to people of all ages and people who have no clue how to understand Shakespeare's nonsense. They succeeded once again.
I know that there were a lot of moments that went over my head, but I got the main idea of what was happening and that's all that really matters to me. For the most part, I thought the casting was done quite well. The main characters all had strong actors, but some of the supporting cast seemed a little bit useless.
I always enjoy going to High Park to watch Shakespeare, because it's a nice venue for the show and as I said, a very accessible way to watch something that I really don't have much interest in. I'm trying to expand my horizons, okay? Sure, every year of high school, we studied a work by Shakespeare, but it wasn't until other people in the class or my teacher explained what was going on that I understood what he was talking about.
I also enjoy the fact that it's Pay What You Can experience. Another way to make it accessible. I admit that I don't pay the full suggested amount, but I do pay something each time I go. It can be pricey to see a professional theatre production of any kind, so this is a great idea. It's great to show up early, stake your claim to some grass (it's not assigned seating or anything, just an open grassy amphitheatre) and have a picnic dinner. Last night, there was a lot of take-out cartons, blankets and lawnchairs, as well as swanky basket kits and a communal corkscrew for opening bottles of wine.
It wasn't too busy last night, but I'm willing to bet that's because of the gloomy grey skies that were around all day long. We got a little bit of a shower before the show started, but it cleared up in time for the show.
The one crappy thing about the experience, for me, are the bugs. I did put a little bit of bug repellent on before heading out for the day, but still ended up with one mosquito bite (at least that's all I've discovered so far). How annoying.

Prep, prep, prep

It's been awhile since I taught full day stints. I'm always amazed at the amount of time it takes to prepare lessons. I mean, really prepare lessons. It's exhausting, yet I love it. There's so much room for improvement, but I'm also quite proud with that work that I've created. I don't know how teachers can rest on their laurels. My greatest fear is being caught in front of the class unprepared. I couldn't fall asleep last night. My mind was racing of things that I could do with my students and how I would have the themes being presented flow nicely. I literally had to get up, out of my bed to add to my lesson plans. Multiple times.

Crazy, cool

I think if I were to visit this place as seen here, I would probably be content sitting on the floor and just staring the whole day. I was pretty mesmerized at the Oceanário de Lisboa, so I can just imagine how much more awestruck I'd be.
Amazing.

- via funkaoshi.com

Ooops, but still good!

I got the hankering to make gaspacho. I bought a couple things that I thought would go in the soup, and as it was getting late, I quickly chopped things up an tossed them into a pot. As things were simmering, I decided to take a look on the internet and see what experts put in gaspacho. In everything that I've ever cooked, I never use a recipe. I look at it to know what ingredients to use, but then I experiment with the quantities and just throw it together. I don't think I've ever really made anything that really requires going by the recipe exactly, so it's worked out fine so far, but I'm sure at some point, I'll need to actually read the recipe.
Anyway, so I'm looking online, seeing if the ingredients that I guessed were in the soup were correct or not, and whether there was anything else that I should add. After adjusting my ingredients in the pot a smidge, I continued to read the recipe and every single one that I looked at, I never saw any mention of heat or cooking the ingredients.
Ooops.
I had thought to make a hot chunky soup and then stick it in the fridge to let it cool, but apparently that's not actually what you're supposed to do.
Luckily, my version tastes amazing.

Good start to the day

This morning, I put my sneakers on wand went for a run for the first time since March. I haven't worn sneakers since then. Strange. I wore them almost every day for such a long time and all of sudden, cold turkey. I just had no reason to wear them. Strange.
My string of "free" sneakers is also over. I need new ones, but I'm wondering if I should even get a pair. And if I should invest in nice ones to start the trend over again. We'll see.
Anyway, I ran on the path by the waterfront, and it was a beautiful. One of the reasons I decided to run in the first place was because it was such a nice day outside.
Caribana was getting set up, and since I'm music-less when I run, it was nice to have blaring music to run to. Caribana has such a nice vibe. It was just getting set up, so it wasn't too crazy, but I took advantage of the music and people watched as I jogged by.
There was also a huge crowd of people waiting to get into Ontario Place. That's what happens on a beautiful day.
On the way back, I saw a strapping athletic lad put down his basketball to play ring around the rosy with two small children. It was the sweetest thing.
I didn't make it to the market today, but I don't mind. I've actually got a little bit of a backlog of food in my fridge/freezer so I didn't want to be tempted by the market.
Chatted on the phone with someone whom I miss and went to a condo open house which kind of rejuventated me. It got me thinking, for sure, but I'm still optimistic that everything will work out for the best.
I'm off to the Distillery District to continue this great day. See ya!

How are people this stylish?

I only recognize one of the people in this picture. I don't follow Bryanboy's webpage. I find him a little bit over the top. It's clear that he really enjoys fashion, but I feel like he's trying too hard. Maybe it's just the flamboyance that I'm reading the wrong way.
Still, I think all of the tots are impeccably dressed. How do people so young know how to put themselves together like this?
I'm pretty sure that unless you've got a fashionable relative to look up to, it does take a lot of effort to be an individual. I'm pretty sure that Bryanboy's life revolves around that world. I'm not trying to rag on him, I'm just sayin'.

Finally

So it's sunny today.
We haven't had a stretch of sunny weather for a long, long time. This summer's had the poopie-est weather. Lots of rain. Lots of days wearing jackets and sweaters. Seriously.
I think I'm going to go home and sit on my balcony. I haven't done that in almost a month. That's how bad the weather's been and you know how much I love to sit outside.

Celeb spotting

I'm horrible at spotting celebrities. Well, especially if I don't really follow what they do. Today, I saw a member of the band, Coldplay. I had to google it, and now I know that the person I spotted was Jonny Buckland...I think. See how bad I am?
Anyway, it's not like it's a big deal, but it seemed to be a big deal to the person whom I was talking to. She got all flustered and stuff. I just judged his outfit and admired his accent.

Cold Stone Creamery

I've finally tried it.
I went into one of the three Canadian Tim Hortons locations that was testing out the famed frozen treat and immediately became confused.
So many ice creams, so many toppings, what's a girl to do!
I ended up getting cake batter with Butterfinger.
It was quite tasty, but nothing more than a glorified McFlurry or Blizzard. I do admit that there are more options for flavours (which I do appreciate), but in terms of the result, it's just about the same.
It was a little bit of a novelty watching them make my dessert. Scooping the ice cream with two metal paddles, putting it on the frosty marble slab, adding my portion of Butterfinger candy bar on top, cutting/smushing/mixing the Butterfinger with the ice cream and finally smearing the concoction into the cup.
In an attempt to use up my gift cards from Tim Hortons, I'll probably go back and create some other combinations. I mean, I might as well, since there's nothing else that I would regularly get from the company except for chocolate milk.
In a taste-off with other ice creams (Greg's, Greg's, Greg's!!!), Cold Stone Creamery would not win, but that's not to say that I don't enjoy it.

SYTYCD Season 5 finalists

What is America thinking? I have no idea what they're doing and why they vote the way that they do. I guess the good thing is that it really doesn't matter in the end who wins, because all the right people out there know what's up and will give opportunities to the people who deserve them.

Tainan, Taiwan (May 15th - 20th, 2009)

After Taipei, I took the train south to Tainan. It was nice to see a more rural part of the country and getting to know true Taiwanese culture.
I had a great time going back to my roots, learning more about my family and seeing where my relatives grew up. It was great.

Here we go:

A twist on the famous hot pot. We had the option of seafood (which we all decided to go for), but could have meat options as well. The difference with this restaurant was that they gave you this crazy basket of greens. I believe that they grew them on the roof of the restaurant. It was a very healthy meal. The teas were herbal and stuff, even the other things that you could choose to put in your hot pot were healthy options. I was so full from that night. Wait, I was so full from that whole trip. All I did during the trip was eat. I loved it.








More market goodness. Hopefully this doesn't gross anyone reading this out too much. You can see that they really don't waste any parts of the animal. I wonder which inner bits go first. I would love to take a science class to the market. It reminds me of my experience watching a goat getting slaughtered in Kenya. Seriously - it was quite the learning experience.









I'd talked a little bit about the scooters I'd seen in Taipei and here's more evidence of just how many there are. They're literally invading the space of the road. I can't imagine how two cars going in opposing direction could get through this space. It's was also interesting to see people wearing face masks. I was there around the time of the biggest swine flu hype, so this could be part of the reason why I saw people wearing, by I think that I would have seen face masks even if there was no swine flu. This street also shows just how busy the streets are. Many people were out grocery shopping, the shops were quite narrow and you can see how crowded the signage is and stuff.

I visited a couple schools in Tainan, and they are massive compared to Toronto. The schools have ~1000 students, and this is at an elementary
school. It's just crazy to see the difference, and I kind of wish that I could have seen classes in session. I think I would have really liked to compare it to classes that I know. I did watch school children leave for the day at another school and I was in awe at how orderly and pleasant they were. I got a lot of weird looks. I was obviously a tourist, and most tourists probably don't sit and watch school get let out of the day.








Inside one of the temples was a God for students. You can see the number of students who went to pray for good fortune on their final exams.




Look at these stone tablets. I like how they're on top of turtles.





Some pictures of another temple. I enjoyed visiting temples to look at the architecture, colours and learn a little bit more about the culture.
























While in Tainan, we took a side trip to Alishan. All I knew about this area was that there's mountains and there's a song about the ladies there. I just wanted to see more of the country. I'm glad I went.









I liked walking through the forest. I don't think that I've been hiking since living in Switzerland. What a beautiful part of the country.




Look at this old tree stump. Do you see anything?








How about here?







Wow. So tall. I want to see giant sequoias sometime.







Wasaaaaaabi. I don't know what I thought wasabi was. It's definitely a root. A gross tasting root.



An old train. I kind of wish that I took a ride on it, but walking is much better. It was a good hike and great exercise. I kind of miss hikes in the forest. A chance to be closer to nature, getting your heart pumping and letting your mind go completely blank.





More old trees.








Do you see anything here?





One morning, we woke up super early to see the sun rise over the mountains. It was supposed to be this amazing sight ad after standing in a light rain shower and seeing the sky get lighter and watching the vendors set up their tables to lure in us tourists. Anyway, apparently we didn't get to see the sunrise because there were too many clouds. Boo. I think it's during the fall, but there's something else that I'd love the chance to see. They call it the waves of Alishan and it's the clouds blowing over the tops of the mountains and it literally looks like the rolling sea. We saw a video of it, and it looked uber-cool.



We weren't the only ones hoping to see the sunrise. Oh wait, I did take one of the old trains. We took the train up to the top of the mountain.




The tops of the mountains peeking out from the cloud cover. I like being above the clouds. I like being a cloud. This never happens in Toronto.



My last night in Taiwan, I crossed off yet another thing on my list. I drank bubble tea in Taiwan. Amazing. I mean, it wasn't different tasting than in Toronto, but I wanted to try it from the source. I also had the chance to ride a scooter. We took a little tour of the city. It was so much
fun. I even got the chance to try to drive it myself, and while it was not difficult, I didn't do a very good job of driving. I was going super slow, and luckily on an empty, residential street, yet I almost crashed into a car on a turn. I wasn't quite getting the feeling of steering the thing. Maybe I should re-think the idea of having a Vespa. I think I just wasn't used to the idea of accelerating with the hands. I guess sort of like when you first learn how to drive and you're unsure of how hard to press the
gas and brake pedals. And of course, as you can see here, I went to yet another night market. Can you tell I love them? It's crazy to think that this market is here just just a couple hours once or twice a week and at other times during the day it's a different type of market. And other times? Hmmm, I don't really know. Another type of stall at these markets (along with the food, clothing, knick-knack vendors) was an auction stall. They had tons of different objects up for auction and an auctioneer running the show. Most of these stalls were very empty with the auctioneer needing to take items off the block unsold.

Obviously, my trip to Taiwan was a wonderful experience. I saw a lot of things for the first time and learned a lot about, everything. I know I'm repeating myself, but I can't wait to go back again.

If only...

I feel like my condo search would be so much easier if I won the lottery. Just sayin'.
Le sigh.

Taipei, Taiwan (May 11th - 15th, 2009)

I had a wonderful couple of days in Taipei, exploring a new country. It was a wonderful experience and I can't wait to go back. I had all of these huge expectations about what it would be like to go there for the first time and how I wanted to experience it, and I don't know if it went how I'd planned, but I loved it.
Most of the time in Taiwan was spent with family, spending time with relatives, getting to know them better and see how they live and meet relatives that I never had the chance to meet previously. I was surprised at how comfortable I felt there, even if the culture is very different what I experienced growing up, but I guess that's family for you.
To say that the trip was a life-changing experience makes it sound like it was a super-huge deal and while it definitely had a big impact on my life, as I said, it just felt so comfortable that I don't think a huge definition of what the trip meant to me seems right. It confirmed to me that if able, people should travel and see as much of the world as possible. Be exposed to different experiences, people, cultures, sights, sounds, smells, etc. I also think it's so important for people to learn about their roots. You have the chance to understand your family and even yourself. I can't even put into world how much of an impact this trip made and how much I hope to use this experience in my career and life.

Anyway, onto Taipei:

I had my first teppanyaki experience. It wasn't a very dramatic version, but I did enjoy the banter and watching the action. The food, of course tasted amazing.







I had to go to the Taipei Zoo to see the pandas. I thought that I was being smart by arriving as soon as they opened to beat the
crowds. I think it was actually worse because there was a bottleneck of groups arriving at the same time and everyone rushed to get a timed ticket and the constant stream of people entering the panda area made the experience very rushed and not as enjoyable as I would have
liked. Kids were still in school so I was surrounded by school groups, but it was kind of nice to see them out and about. As I said, the panda exhibit was incredibly busy and we weren't allowed to stand and watch the pandas in action, we had to keep moving along, which was terribly annoying. I'd never experienced anything like that at a zoo before. I like that in one of the pictures, there's a visitor who's dressed up as a panda with a panda hat.
Each toilet had a curious sign, and I just happened to take a picture of this particular one. I only read basic Chinese characters, so I don't know exactly what this sign is saying, but the English is very bizarre. Is it encouraging a bowel movement, telling me I have the option of doing so? What's the deal?


School children everywhere. A little rambunctious in certain exhibits, definitely not using their indoor voices, but in other ways very well behaved. It was a hot, hot, hot day and groups were taking advantage of any shady area that they could find.



I thought that this was kinda interesting. A sign that said how many people were in the zoo area. I'm not really sure how they figured that out though. It wasn't a turnstile situation on the way in, more like an open doorway that groups of people could enter at the same time. Same thing for leaving the zoo. I really don't know how they could have kept track of the number of visitors.

The metro in Taipei was quite nice. It seemed quite orderly with people
waiting in a line in designated areas. Some of the stations looked extremely well-kept and many stations had attendants watching for safety and making sure that people were in the trains before they signaled to close the door. I guess these plastic gates were for additional safety, and not all stations had them.



A couple shots of the National Theatre and Concert Hall. I loved the bright, bold colours and the stereotypical architecture of the building. Beautiful.


The National Theatre and Concert Hall are opposite to each other in a big square and are identical to each other. At the end of the square is the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, which was equally as imposing and magnificent. It's the building you see next.

This is the view from the top of the stairs at the CKS Memorial Hall. You can see the National Theatre on the left and the National Concert Hall on the right.

There are two guards in the CKS Memorial Hall. On the hour, there is a changing of the guards, which is quite the display. In addition to the marching back and forth similar to most of the other changing of the guards that I've seen, there's as also a display with spinning of rifles and tossing
them in the air and neat tricks. It goes on for a pretty good length of time and I would highly recommend going to watch the changing of the guards if you get a chance. This picture also gives you an idea of just how large the statue is in the hall and in this picutre, the guard looks tiny!
I thought the roof of the hall was very beautiful.









This is Taipei 101. A massive shopping mall at the base, office space on certain floors and a change for tourists to ride up to the
top and get a panoramic view of the city below. It was a very hazy day, and I was disappointed that I couldn't see the CKS Memorial Hall and other buildings that I'd
seen earlier walking around the city. You can see the there is a lot of green in the city and surrounding areas and you can compare this to the view from the KL Tower here.
Taipei 101 boasts the speed of its elevator. Someone who cares can tell me if this is fast or not, because it doesn't seem to have much of an effect on me.



I went to visit Chungshan Hall. The smell was quite strong. You know, the rotten egg smell. The hall is built over a volcanic crater and there are hot springs nearby as well. It was neat to see the old pictures of the hall and this
room is where they did lots of votes. Something interesting about the chairs is that the legs can be adjusted for height so that although the ground is slanted, you don't feel like you're going to fall off the chair.



The ceiling of one of the hallways in the hall was painted with bright colours. The designs and colours used reminded me of the Peranakan stuff that I saw in Singapore.


A great view from the top floor of the hall:
Next tourist stop was the National Palace Museum. At all of these tourist stops, they have stamps that you can use as little souvenirs. I don't think that I'd used stamps in a long time. You know, the old-school, ink-pad, stamps. The museum wasn't as large as I was expecting (although it was quite large) and I enjoyed looking around (although much of it wasn't
super interesting to me), but there were a couple stand out artifacts. First, the Jadeite Cabbage with Insects and secondly, the Meat-shaped Stone. Actually, it was the meat-shaped stone which really caught my eye. It just looked so real! I was quite disappointed that there wasn't a copy of the painting: Along the River During the Qingming Festival. It was too much of a tease that they has a digital version of the painting on display telling you a little bit about the painting, but honestly, too much of tease. I wanted to see the real deal!










This is the Grand Hotel. It is quite grand. I was thinking of getting something at their bakery, but I didn't want the burden of carrying it around, so I decided against it. Next time. And I suppose next time, I could also try staying at this hotel and see just how fancy it is.

Another shot of the metro:


Okay, so I do love to eat. And I love dumplings. On a couple recommendations, and even after eating there in Singapore, I sought out a Din Tai Fung. Yum, yum, yum, yum, YUM! Soupy dumplings = tasty!


On the way to my first Taiwanese night market, I snap this shot of a massive intersection. Lots of young people out and about, going to the market and just being social beings. You can also see in this picture that this particular crosswalk is a scramble like we have here in the city at Yonge-Dundas. SCRAMBLE!


It may be touristy, but I had to go to the Shilin night market. It was the most amazing thing and I thoroughly enjoyed the experienced. It's just a huge grid of food vendors. It's neat to see, smell and taste.

I'm proud to say that I tried stinky tofu, and it was quite stinky. I didn't like it one bit. Apparently the fried version that I had is less stinky than the braised version, so I can't even imagine how bag it would be. The smell is absolutely atrocious. The taste was vaguely bearable, although unpleasant, but the smell, oh man.
This is a drink vendor who has bubble tea (brings me back to high-school) and also a drink that I don't know what it's called in English. It looks like jello and is made from rubbing grains in water. I swear, that's what you do. So you basically drink the jello - I guess you have to break up the piece a bit first. It's quite refreshing in the summer and has cooling properties.
This stall had the longest line, by far. It was a big slab of fried chicken. I'm sure that the food was good, but I think a large reason that people liked it was that it was good value for the money. It did look yummy.


The night market doesn't only have food. It's actually a huge area where streets and alleys have stalls set up selling anything and everything. Of course there was the stereotypical replicas and couterfeit as well and more food stalls, restaurant, stalls for clothing and knick-nacks. It was a huge area and I could have walked the market for hours. It would have been a good chance to people watch and even pick up some interesting souvenirs and definitely have a chance to practice my bartering. It was amusing to see
the stalls that would quickly disappear when the cops came around. They literally disappeared into the alleys and they would reappear out of thin air when the coast was clear. I didn't get a picture of it, but in some stalls, there was a set up with very small, one foot by one foot cubicles that vendors could rent out. I guess for someone who doesn't want to pay a lot of rent, it's the best situation, but it was funny to see such a set up - almost like an oversized vending machine.

Another adventure was out to Danshui where they have hot springs. There were hotels with springs in the rooms, public springs set up like public swimming pools and even the chance to wade in the public stream and get nice, smooth, skin. I had









the chance to go to a private spring/bath in a hotel and it was too hot for me! I do enjoy hot showers, but this was too much. I couldn't handle the heat and had to take breaks quite often. I could be a little bit of a prude, but I was a little thrown off by the fact that people bathed naked as well. The bath that I went to in Hungary had the option of bathing suits, and I'd say about half of the patrons were wearing bathing suits, but, anyway, it threw me off. The public bath that we walked by was bathing suit mandatory. Danshui was really popular for the Japanese, so these baths and many of the buildings have a Japanese character to them.

Okay, so scooters are everywhere! One of my first memories from Taiwan was driving to the teppanyaki dinner at night, where the sky is so dark, looking out the car window and seeing an army of scooters. I felt like I was in a sci-fi movie with an army of black-helmeted folk. I'd never seen anything like that before, and I wasn't scared of what I saw, but it had a weird impact.
I went back to the CKS Memorial and happened to catch the tail end of the lowering of the flag for the day. More rifle coolness and super exact marching. The children watching really enjoyed it, and I was intrigued at the number of people carrying Taiwanese flags.

Another night market. The reason I went to this specific night market was because I wanted to eat snake. Apparently they kill a live snake in front of you, rip off the skin - it's a pretty gruesome deal and then you've got your food. I did see tanks of snakes, but no one seemed to be buying









any nor was anyone eating any. I didn't want to be the only one doing it for fear that maybe it wasn't really a popular thing to do or maybe that the snakes weren't very good or something. Anyway, I didn't eat snake. I'm kinda disappointed, but I suppose there's always next time.
All the night markets are closed up during the day and other vendors come in and turn it into a farmer's market, which of course I love. You can see how temporary these stalls are. And of course I liked the dog just hanging out.

Love markets. Love markets. Ginger, ginger, ginger!!!

More jellies, and a narrow alleyway selling anything and everything.

And on that happy note...that's Taipei!