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During study week, the Trinity College Dramatic Society (TCDS) put on production of William Shakespeare’s Henry V for its annual Shakespeare in the Quad event. Many playgoers from within the walls of Trinity and beyond came to watch. More photos after the jump.
Here begins the first entry of perhaps several on my trip to Taiwan. After 24 hours of airplanes and airports I have found myself cranky (to put it mildly) and exhausted after not being able to sleep on teh plane, since either my arm or leg would go dead. I also haven’t had a decent meal for the last day (everyone knows that airplane food sucks), although I did enjoy my stopovers in Chicago and Tokyo.
Now that I’m finally here I have a few ideas for blog entries, but seeing that I have photos for this current post, this little article will be about… Taiwanese markets. If you have been to Taiwan or are planning to go, a trip is not complete without browsing their various markets. Many of them can be found in little alleyways or wide open streets. Some are only worth going to at night – and are famous for being night markets – since some vendors won’t open their stalls until the evening. What can you find at these markets you ask? Well… Continue reading “Trip to Taiwan blog – Part I: Taiwanese Markets”
I was watching an interview of Gene Simmons with Jian Ghomeshi on Q just the other day and his comment about Canadians being too nice prompted me to really examine ourselves. I do think Canadians are too nice. I use myself as an example. Just recently I’ve been trying to take the word “sorry” out of my vocabulary and I have to say, old habits die hard. Not only do I use it when I actually am sorry but it somehow creeps into everything I say, like: “Sorry, what?” or if I bump into an inanimate object I’ll say it as well. It’s pathetic, I don’t need to be sorry. It’s demoralizing and redundant. Each time you say it, not only does it lower your self-confidence but you lose your credibility also.
I’ll tell you why I’m not sorry anymore. Canada is great. The people are great. We need to be more aggressive and stick together. I say we stop caring about what others think and just focus on ourselves. I say we do something drastic and let the world know what we’re really made of. I say we invade Montana. Who cares if the States will just squish us like road kill? Heck Montana can probably take us.
The point is, the rest of the world looks down on us sometimes because we don’t take a stand for ourselves. Why is it that hockey players can get into a fight for no reason on the ice but off the ice, everything is just so damn civil again? I say forget about holding that door for the old lady, she can open it herself. Okay nevermind, that’s just mean.
Yup, it’s that time again. Tomorrow, April 22, is Earth Day. It’s the day when we take stock of the dusty environmentalist resolutions we made last year and, shaking them off, dutifully recycle them for the coming one and make new promises: how we WILL use reusable bags and cups, we WILL use public transit, we WILL turn off the lights, we WILL use cold water to do our laundry. Or, going with the Earth Day Network version, how we will help create a billion acts of green, how we will make the no coal call, how we will help bring healthy food to our schools, and how we will promote environmentally aware attitudes on campus. Hopefully, it’s also the day when we get to pat ourselves on the back for the goals we did accomplish.
Either way, whether they’re rewards or reminders, there are a few events around Toronto celebrating Earth Day 2009. Tomorrow seems to be a day for corporate promotions: Starbucks lovers can bring their travel mugs to any participating Starbucks to be filled with free coffee, and Brita is giving away free water filters at Young Dundas Square (and you thought Christmas was commercialized!). Meanwhile, the city’s celebrations are happening this weekend. There’s the 20-Minute Toronto Makeover, where you are asked to contribute 20 minutes of your time to clean up your neighbourhood. More exciting is the Green Living Show at the Direct Energy Centre at the Ex, featuring green products (including new prototypes and designs), advice for an earth-friendly lifestyle, film screenings, speakers, entertainers, and more. It also features the 5 km Earth Run-Walk, benefiting ACER, The David Suzuki Foundation, and Evergreen. If you want to contribute but don’t feel up to doing the run, you can also always support these foundations’ teams.
What: Green Living Show
When: Fri., April 24, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Sat., April 25, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Sun., April 26, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
Where: Direct Energy Center, Exhibition Place
Cost: $10.50 (online and mobile), $12 (at the door). Special prices for passes for multiple days. See their website for details.
What: 5km Earth Run-Walk
When: Sun., April 26, 8:00 AM (Registration), 9:00 AM (Run)
Where: Direct Energy Center, Exhibition Place
Additional info: please register if you would like to run.
What: 20-Minute Toronto Makeover
When: Fri., April 24, 2:00PM-2:20PM
Where: Anywhere you want!
Image from here.
The past few days have been absolutely beautiful – the perfect weather, in fact, to explore the city. That is, if you know where to go. We all know about the ROM and Ontario Place, but Toronto’s real beauty lies in its colourful neighbourhoods. There’s nothing quite like picking a street, and wandering around to see what you’ll find. To help you decide where to go, I’ll be posting a series of articles on the best places to wander and explore in Toronto, starting with The Distillery District.
This is absolutely my favourite place to be in Toronto. A set of renovated and refurbished distillery buildings, this pedestrian area is beautiful and charming, and worth seeing if only for its wonderful architecture (think Cannery Row North). The majority of the space is taken up with art galleries, artsy shops, restaurants, and cafes. Its incredible atmosphere, mixing the old, the cultured and the new, makes it a place that can’t be missed, whether you’re new to Toronto or have been here for your entire life. Continue reading “Wandering Toronto: The Distillery”
Mayor David Miller and the Earth Hour Panda preparing to flip the switch to turn off the lights in the Downtown core
On March 28, between 8:30 and 9:30pm, Toronto’s energy usage sunk by approximately 15%. No, this was not the work of yet another blizzard. This was Earth Hour, when people around the world turned off their lights for an hour to raise awareness about environmental issues. Here’s how Toronto celebrated. Continue reading “Earth Hour 2009”
Easter/Passover/insert a spring-ish religious or non-religious festival here in Toronto usually means the coming of spring. Yes, the vernal equinox happened slightly more than two weeks ago, but you never know with Canadian weather – the snow earlier this week is just proof of that. However, as my mum likes to say, “When the Easter weekend passes, most of the flowers start to come out.” Ok mom, I’ll take your word for that.
Anyways, the inspiration for this article came from a dear friend, editor and fellow blogUT blogger who once exclaimed, “Wow! You know the names of the flowers in your garden!?” Why yes, Julia, I do. I’m not a flower fanatic, but I do love flowers and I happen to know the names of most of the flowers that decide to bloom sporadically in my yards. However, this article is not about the flowers in my garden but the some of the ones you’ll see around the neighbourhood in the upcoming days or weeks. So if you ever take a walk around the neighbourhood, impress your friends (or editors) with all these random facts on spring flowers! (Or simply add all of this to your repository of completely useless information, also known as ROCUI.)
Continue reading “Spring Blooms”