First Week in Toronto (What an Uninspiring Title!)

(What's better than writing about your life when you're supposed to be studying for an important exam? Writing on my laptop in my own flat makes me feel very Carrie Bradshaw-y... though I admit I think I'm prettier than SJP, but it's hard not to feel that way.)

You should know I'm currently an exchange student in Toronto, because good friends should know and why do you care about my meaningless ramblings if you aren't a good friend? It's been nine days since my arrival in Canada. The most-asked question for my first 1.285714th week is: How's Canada?

This place is dry. Right now the relative humidity is 67%. I remember it being 5x% this morning, but it certainly felt a lot drier than that. So, to that question I could only answer: Canada is dry.

Sometimes, to spice things up, I add: Drier than my love life.

Konny, also known as Mrs S, or the girl who stayed up till 2 to Skype with me answered: That's really dry!

Wait, isn't my love life non-existent?

I certainly hope starting a post with a glimpse into my love life has captured your attention. One thing I have taken away from English in high school is to capture your audience's attention (the default answer to questions such as "Why did the writer begin the first paragraph with a question?"/"Why are rhetorical questions used?")... Anyway, another adjective to describe Canada is expensive. This is coming from a girl who's lived in Central London. Canada is also interesting and I'm beginning to think I won't want to leave Toronto when my exchange semester is over :(

On the day of my arrival, I wasn't very happy with Toronto. WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY $2 FOR THE LUGGAGE CART? WHY ARE PEOPLE SO RUDE AND CORRECT ME WHEN I SAY UNDERGROUND INSTEAD OF SUBWAY? AND RUBBISH INSTEAD OF GARBAGE? But my sadness went away when I saw my flat! I knew even if I wasn't very happy with things, my beautiful flat would make things alright... Corny? Yes but I'm a home person! All I need is the Internet! My building also happens to be right next to a mall with a massive supermarket and a high-end grocery store and a bookstore!!

I live alone and I'm enjoying the solitude and freedom. Being crazy at home won't get me into trouble with mum. Singing in the shower won't bring in teasing remarks from various family members... Though it seems that my neighbour isn't very impressed with my singing. I was singing Faye out loud a minute ago with the balcony door opened and I heard my neighbour sliding his balony door shut five seconds later. Guess you can't make everyone happy at the same time.

The following is a corner of my timetable, the only accurate bit. I'm having lots of problems with credit transfer and course enrolment.... semi-given up on both really. I have decided to take only two difficult courses for credit transfer. I'm hoping to be enroled successfully in Beginners' French even though I have a background in French (most people in that course do, trust me)... but my excuse is that I have to prep for DELF!

The first few days in Toronto were spent settling things - getting a phone and Internet plan, going to IKEA twice for home stuff and etc. We have also managed to do some touristy things: walking around the U of T St George campus, shopping in the Toronto Eaton Centre, apparently the largest mall in downtown Toronto, eating in St Lawrence Market and getting lost in the Financial District and the Entertainment District. Wish I had done a bit of planning so my mum, who very nicely took a week off to come with me, could enjoy Toronto more before she left... :(

I started doing fun things after settling down. On Friday I went to an Exchange Students' Networking event and met a number of people from around the world! A girl from Geneva and me have made plans to mange ensemble! There I also bumped into a girl who went to my boarding school in the year above. Small world. And how could I not mention this dog I met - Jenny! She's from Brazil and has come to Toronto with her owner!

Went crazy when I saw this baby! Now in the exchange student community I'm probably known as the "crazy girl from Hong Kong who loves dogs", but I don't care~

After the event I explored Toronto a bit and went to this secondhand bookstore called BMV Books. Literally a literary heaven! It's like any normal bookstore but books are much cheaper. I love Chapters / Indigo too but regular priced books here are too expensive for a poor student like yours truly... My dear friend, Laetitia, has commented on the speed / amount I've read since coming here... I'd like to take this opportunity to tell her that there's nothing much to do on the subway other than to read...!

On Saturday, I ran a race, my first race abroad - the Toronto 5K. I hadn't run in almost two months because I was ill and lazy. It was 6 degrees that morning and I was regretting... WHY DID I SIGN UP FOR THE RACE? WHY DID I COME? I walked on the grass for a while before the race and my socks were soaked... the first 1K was great because I was high (runner's high, not drugs) and I was listening to K-Pop. Then the 2nd kilometre sucked because I was freezing... freezing fingers... and my soaked socks made my freezing toes freezed more. Then the rest was history.

Before and after, running for even 30 minutes does crazy things to your face and mentality... which explains why I posed with a banana.

On Sunday (today actually, still 11:58 pm here), Tracy, the girl I mentioned a few posts before, took me to yum cha and showed me around Yorkville! Then we had Chinese food together for dinner. Happy day!

Dim sum was very good here in Toronto. Better than most shops in HK. Another piece of evidence for my "yum cha is better abroad" theory.

Woman at the back, you shocked at my tourist-ness?

More Chinese food for dinner! North American portions of mapo tofu and sweet and sour pork.

Week 1 in Toronto was great! For the coming week, I have made plans to hang out with my new friends. Class timetable would be also confirmed~ I could make more travelling plans then - going to New York City with Victoria and even visiting my primary school best friend in Vancouver? Can't say I'm not excited! Bring it on, Canada!