A weekend visit from Rich

Rich is visiting right now so I am a bit busy right now. We're having a great time enjoying Toronto!

Monday: Cabbage soup and whole wheat bread
It may not be the most glamorous meal, but cabbage soup can be really tasty on a cold winter night or even on a chilly spring evening. The whole wheat bread is my first attempt at making whole wheat bread at home. It turned out pretty tasty.

Tuesday: Film set in the park
These orange cones pop up all over town and once you see one, it is a sure sign somewhere around the corner filming for a movie or a t.v. show is going on. Toronto is a big film town (cf. Toronto International Film Festival) and it is also a cheaper location to film than L.A. or other large cities in the U.S. Tuesday morning I passed the film set in the park and of course the large cones surrounding the equipment trucks down the block.

Wednesday: Spring Awakening 
Continuing the theme of spring, I went to see a friend's production of the musical Spring Awakening. It is always nice to catch a bit of theatre, especially when a friend is involved in the production.

Thursday: Stacks in Robarts
Robarts is the main library here in Toronto (click here to read my post about University of Toronto libraries). This is a picture of the shelf I visit the most. It contains most of the books on Daniil Kharms, one of the authors I'm writing my dissertation on.

Friday: Daffodils!
On Friday my friend and neighbor surprised me with a potted daffodil plant. It is sitting on my windowsill at the moment and blooming abundantly!

Saturday: Rich Arrives
To get to and from the local airport here in Toronto you have to take a ferry between the airport, which is on an island, and mainland Toronto. If you look closely at the left hand top window you can see Rich  waving at me as he arrives!

Sunday: Maple Syrup Farms
Yesterday Rich and I rented a zip car and got out of town for a while. We went to a maple syrup farm and sampled the local fare. Quite tasty! The picture to the left is of a modern maple tree tap. All the tapped trees are connected by these purple tubes. The tubes run downhill into the "sugar shack" where the syrup is heated and purified.













I'll leave it at that for now! Next week I'll post more pictures of the adventures Rich and I have over the next couple of days.

Spring is in the Air!

Spring is in the air in Toronto! We've had unseasonably warm weather between 16 and 21C (60-70F). I am extremely thankful for this nice weather. It is a reminder that summer will be here soon and hopefully a little bit of a break.

Monday: Swimming
I am trying to get my swimming in during the mornings now so I don't get caught up during the day and miss getting to the pool. This picture is of my pull buoy, paddles, and water bottle, all essential pieces of swim equipment.

Tuesday: Hart House from Queens Park
This is a view of one of my favorite places, Hart House from the adjacent Queen's Park. Most week days I walk through Queen's Park to get to the library or to work. It is a quaint little park right in the center of UofT's campus.

Wednesday: Course Reader 
On Wednesdays I have class in the mornings. The photo to the left is a photo of the course reader for the class. It covers most of the articles that we read for the course this year but doesn't include the dozen or so books that we read in addition. We are almost through it all!

Thursday: Tea Cookies
One of my many TA duties this year is acting as "hostess" to the weekly Russian Language Table at the department. In essence this means I am the official "snack-getter." I never thought such a thing would be on my list of jobs as a TA, but there are definitely worse jobs!

Friday: Spring Flowers
These little flowers are the first to pop out this spring! I was so excited to see them!

Saturday: St.Patrick's day
Saturday I spent with my friends from work at the theatre. It was our friend's birthday as well as St. Patrick's day. (Notice I'm wearing the requisite green.) Toronto really gets into St.Patrick's day. There were celebrations happening all week!

Sunday: Star Lantern
I didn't take any excursions this weekend. I've been trying to rest and prepare for yet another crazy week ahead. So, I thought I'd show you just a little bit in my apartment. This lantern is hanging in my apartment and it is one of my favorite things. I bought it at a market in downtown Portland a couple years ago and it has been hanging here ever since.



I hope everyone has a great week! I'm looking forward to next weekend when Rich will come to visit and we have some adventures planned!

A hectic week

Well this week was a hectic week! I spent the week trying to find someone to sub-let my apartment for the summer and helping out at my department's annual conference. On top of my regular course work and LOTS of marking (grading) for the classes I teach/TA for, it was crazy. However, I got through it and I'm taking Sunday as a real day of rest before it all starts up again tomorrow.



                                                                                   Monday: Pizza Pizza 

One of the Canadian pizza places here in Toronto. Notice how they sneak the maple leaf into their logo!

Tuesday: Cafe De Flore
Some of my friends and I have been going to 5-dollar movies on Tuesday night. This week we saw Cafe de Flore,  a romantic movie with a surrealist spin. It was a really thought-provoking and visually engaging movie.

Wednesday: Tim Horton's Coffee
For those of you acquainted with the cult of Dunkin' Donuts on the East Coast, Tim Horton's is the analogous coffee/doughnut place here in Canada. Every spring they have a "Rrroll up the Rim" giveaway. Once you finish your coffee, you roll up the rim of the cup to see if you've won one of the prizes!

Thursday: CN Tower from the library
I popped into the library at Hart House (where I work) to get some reading done. The library has a great view of the iconic CN tower, especially at night when it is lit up.

Friday: Welcome table at the Comparative Literature Conference
This week at the conference I helped man the welcome/registration table and I moderated a panel titled "Ambiguous Absences."

Saturday: Closing Night of Night of the Iguana
Saturday night was the last night for Night of the Iguana at the Hart House Theatre. Always on closing night there is a cast party, to which the cast, crew, and front of house staff (that's me!) are invited. The picture to the left is of one of the other ushers, Amartya and our House Manager, Chris at the party.

Sunday: Kensington Market 
Today I went to a local market to buy fruit and other groceries for the week. Kensington Market is a very colorful place especially on nice weekends like this one. There are all sorts of interesting buskers (street performers) out like the gentleman in the picture. It is definitely a great atmosphere to do your grocery shopping in!


That's all for now. I hope you all have a great week and I'll be back next Sunday!

A picture is worth a thousand words

Hello everyone! I know it has been a while again since I've posted. I've been trying to think of ways to make consistent posting a little easier for me. Since I have to spend so much time writing for school it is really difficult to sit down on a regular basis and write here too especially after a long week. I was thinking and thinking and thinking and I simply could not figure out how to fix the problem. But then I had a EUREKA! moment... Recently I was inspired by some friends' "Photo-a-Day" project I saw on Facebook and it occurred to me this could be the answer! I decided to start my own "Photo-a-Day" project. The way the "Photo-a-Day" project works is each day I take a photo of anything I want. Then at the end of each week I'll be posting 7 photos here, one for each day. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The way I figure it, 7 pictures will be worth 7 thousand words and make up for the lack of writing!

Starting this project this week has been really fun for me. It has inspired me to get out and go places a bit more. It is also nice to document some of the little parts of Toronto that I see every day. I am by no means a photographer, but it is also great for me to work with my camera a bit and learn to use it a little better in the process. I hope you enjoy this new format!

Monday: Ballet slippers 

I have ballet class every Monday. It is one of my favorite parts of the week!

Tuesday: Bulldog Latte and blueberry scone

Toronto has a great coffee house culture and amazing indie coffee shops sprinkled all over the city. This is one of my favorites, Bulldog Espresso Bar!

Wednesday: Morning snow

Although March is the first month of spring, we're still getting regular flurries here. No snow on the ground though.

Thursday: Ho's Team Barber

This may seem random, but Ho's Team is a barber shop in my neighborhood that has 3 locations within the span of two blocks (why? I don't know). Rich and I always laugh at the slogan on the sign: "Specializing in barber hairstylist."

Friday: The Night of the Iguana opening night

Friday night I had work at the theatre. It was opening night for Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana. It is really good and I can't wait to see it again!

Saturday: Grocery shopping at No Frills

Saturday I braved the crowds at my local, cheap grocery store, No Frills. Because they have such good sales, No Frills is only a little better than Target on Black Friday. People just go crazy over toilet paper on super sale!

Sunday: Public sculpture

This is in a secret place that I'm taking Rich to when he comes to visit at the end of the month. I don't want to give away what it is so you'll have to wait too! Need less to say, it is a very cool part of Toronto that I've been meaning to check out since I got here.

Well that is all for now. I hope you enjoyed this "new and improved" format and I'll be back at the end of next week!

Just a note: If you click on any of the pictures you can view them in a larger format in a slideshow!