Sunday, April 29, 2012

Last week in Toronto (a.k.a madness and mayhem)

Hello everyone! I am just posting quickly to let you know I'll be writing my usual entry for the week on Tuesday when I've got hours to kill on the bus to New York. Right now I'm desperately trying to finish all of the things on my mile-long "to do" list before 11 a.m. Tuesday morning when I will be making my departure.

I'll be back once the madness and mayhem has subsided!

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Paper Writing Week

The end-of-semester crunch continued this week as I began writing my final term paper of my graduate career. I have some good news this week: I found the elusive third member of my committee! Now that I have a full committee member I can move forward with writing my dissertation proposal this summer.

Monday: Cheburashka 
Cheburashka is a Russian cartoon character from Soviet Russia. Cheburashka has a bit of a cult following now and you'd be hard pressed to find a Russian who has not seen the cartoons at some point. A student gave me this little stuffed Cheburashka at the end of the semester this year.














Tuesday: Kapow! Red Rocket Coffee
Artwork in Red Rocket Coffee. Red Rocket is another one of Toronto's great independent coffee shops and is conveniently right next door to me. I tend to frequent Red Rocket at the end of the semesters when I'm hard pressed for time and energy.




Wednesday: Working at Second Cup
When I'm lacking motivation I head over to the local Second Cup. Second Cup is a Canadian coffee chain and while their coffee isn't as tasty as Red Rocket's, they have much more space to spread out and get work done.





Thursday: I went to Canada and saw a moose! 
In my almost 3 years here in Canada I have yet to see a moose (probably since I live in the city?), except for this statue, which lives next to the central campus library.















Friday: Latte Art
I see a trend emerging here... It seems I've spent a lot of time in coffee shops this week. Latte art is all the rage now with coffee, but I do have to say Toronto coffee shops have some of the most creative designs I've seen.














Saturday: The Hunger Games movie
I don't often go to the movies, but I'm trying to find some good ways to relax while getting through the last bit of work for the semester. I picked up The Hunger Games book as some light reading and I got hooked right away! After I finished the book I went to see the movie.




Sunday: Disastrous desk
This is basically what my desk looks like when I'm writing papers. It seems my (usually tidy) desk and apartment are never messier than when I'm writing term papers.






That's all for this week. Hopefully next time I write I'll have gotten through most of my work and I'll be going through my last preparations to leave for New York!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Limbo Weeks

Now that classes are over for the semester the next few weeks will feel like limbo: There is very little structure to the days, but still a lot of work to be done before I can go relax in New York for the summer.

Monday: Elevator to the Centre
Monday was the actual last day of classes for me. Many profs like to add classes on to the end of the semester. This year was no exception. The Centre for Comparative Literature is on the 3rd floor of a theatre and to get there we must take a ride in a very slow elevator.














Tuesday: Tulip
Tulips are my favorite spring-time flowers. I got some to cheer up my apartment this week.








Wednesday: Postcards from Rich
Rich has been sending me postcards with pictures of New York on them. I've hung them up over my desk and when I a need a little motivation I look up at them and remember in a couple weeks I'll be in New York!





Thursday: Streetcar
Streetcars are one of the icons of life in Toronto and serve as a main form of public transportation in the downtown area. I love riding the streetcars. I find them to be so quaint and even calming. It is nice to watch the busy city go by as the streetcar glides along its tracks.





Friday: Hart House Theatre "Ushers' Wall" 
In the theatre the ushers have a small kitchen space, which, as you can see, we've taken to decorating. We've pinned up doodles drawn during long, boring shifts, postcards and Valentines, mementos from past productions, and of course we have our "gold star chart." The gold star chart chronicles the "silly, stupid, or amazing" things that ushers have done while working. At the end of the season the usher with the most gold stars "wins" and is rewarded with a fabulous prize (usually a shiny plastic tiara from the dollar store).


Saturday: A loonie and a toonie
Canadian currency does not have bills lower than $5 so coins are used for $2 and below. The coin to the right is a one dollar coin, called a "loonie" because of the loon pictured on the front. The coin to the left is a two dollar coin, called a "toonie" (because it rhymes with "loonie?").  As silly as it sounds, no one in Canada calls these anything but "loonie" and "toonie," not even at the bank.



Sunday: Pusateri's Fruit Market
A local, mostly organic fruit market. I stop by here if I want some fresh and local fruit and I don't have time to go to one of the larger markets in town.






That is it for this week. I'll be back next Sunday!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter! / End of the Semester

Happy Easter everyone! This week was the last week of classes for the University of Toronto. Now I only have a term paper, some marking, and the assembling of my dissertation committee in my way until summer. I can't wait!
                                                                                 
                                                                                 Monday: "Take what you need"
Usually the bulletin boards around campus are full of fliers begging students to come to events or to hire tutoring services. I was intrigued by this little flier that was offering to "give" something rather than taking.




Tuesday: Bookshelf
This is the bookshelf in my room. Unfortunately, it isn't big enough to fit all my books. A good number of them are in a box in my closet. Someday I'm going to need a pretty large bookshelf to hold all these books I'm collecting!














                                                                                             
Wednesday: Last day of teaching
This is a picture of the class room that I taught Russian in this year. I was sad to be finished with teaching for the year, but also glad to be relieved from the constant work of grading homework and lesson planning.





Thursday: Subway sign
All Toronto subway stations have this sign or some equivalent of this sign outside.








Friday: Reading in the Hart House Library
I've found that if I get to the Hart House Library very early (between 8:30-9:00am) when most undergrads are not awake yet, I can snag the great window seat. This Friday I got a window seat and I was treated to the carillon (bell tower) playing next door to me.




Saturday: St. Lawrence Market
This Saturday I rushed through the masses at St. Lawrence Market to get some fresh, local produce and meat for the week. National Geographic just ranked St. Lawrence Market the world's best food market (see article here).





Sunday: Easter Sunday
This morning I went to Quaker meeting. Easter service is the same as all Quaker meetings: peaceful and silent. It was a great way to celebrate the start of a new season!






I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and is enjoying the blossoming of spring as much as I am!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Humdrum week

As you may have noticed I updated the look of the blog. As I am looking towards this summer I am realizing that only spend about 50-60% of my time in Toronto and the rest of my time is spent elsewhere on planet Earth. So I thought it was time to broaden the scope of the blog!

This past week was pretty humdrum after Rich left on Tuesday. Thursday of this upcoming week is the last day of classes for the semester (yes, we end VERY early here at University of Toronto). So that means chaos is about to break loose with final papers, exam marking, and all the great things that go with the end of school.

                                                                                   
Monday: Faculty Club
Monday morning Rich and I attended a friend's dissertation defense. Because defenses are closed in my department we really just waited outside the room while our friend, anxious and exhausted, awaited the verdict of the committee. It was good news for him! He passed his defense and in celebration the committee took him and all of his supporters out to lunch at the faculty club.

Note- I felt it was a bit gauche to take a picture of the faculty club while we were there so I used wikipedia's photo of the faculty club.


Tuesday: Sushi on Bloor and the Distillery District
For Rich's last day in Toronto we went to our favorite sushi restaurant (Sushi on Bloor) and then I took him to the historic Distillery District for a cup of spicy, mayan hot chocolate.





Wednesday: Wellesley Street
Welleslley Street is my home street!








Thursday: Green fruit bowl
This is another one of my favorite items in my apartment. My good friend from high school, TK, sent this to me in college because it exactly matched a fruit bowl from one of my favorite short stories, Amy Bender's "The Bowl."





Friday: Front door
The view every time I walk into my apartment.









Saturday: Cumbrae's Butcher
Cumbrae's is a local butcher in my neighborhood. They have very nice quality meats and prepared foods. I stop by here when I need meat for a recipe because it is easy to buy portions for one (I can't possibly use up an entire family pack of chicken breasts).




Sunday: Term Papers
As I said, it is the end of the semester here and with the end of the semester comes term papers. This year I'm a TA for a literature course and so part of my job is grading term papers. This is the pile of term papers is a good representation of what my weekends will look like in April.




Sorry for the mundane nature of this week's post. Hopefully this upcoming week I'll get out a little more and take some pictures outside of my apartment/neighborhood.

I added a few people to the e-mail notifications list this week. I only post once a week on Sundays, but if you don't want to receive e-mail notifications about my posts just let me know and I'll take you off the list!