Last Saturday, I decided to forgo the downtown celebrity hunt at the TIFF and I went instead to a Celtic Festival at Kew Gardens which is in the Beaches area of Toronto. It was about a 10 minute ride on the streetcar. (The streetcar runs along Queen St, and it is about a 5 minute walk from my house to Queen)
There were little booths selling many things including Irish jewelry, Scottish shortbread, and British candy. I sat and listened to some music by the Scarborough Pipes and Drums, and my far-off Scottish blood was dancing along.
After listening for awhile, I walked through Kew Gardens, which are absolutely beautiful. There were lots of families, people with dogs, homeless people, and even singletons like myself.
I walked down to the shore of the lake (Ontario), and there was a boardwalk with tons of people. It goes quite far, heading west all the way past downtown. I sat for a bit on a bench and watched the sailboats on the water.
I then walked along Queen Street east which is a wonderful little neighbourhood full of little shops and restaurants. I found a beautiful little walkway / parkette called the "Discovery Walks".
It wound its way up into a quite nice area with some beautiful houses. A lot of them were hidden by the trees (like the next picture), but you could still see how incredible they were.
It was a perfect Saturday afternoon and I really enjoyed scratching the surface of the city just a tiny bit more.
This week I am in school and it is definitely an adjustment to get back into a "scholarly" frame of mind. I have been to 2 of my classes so far, and it is hard not to feel overwhelmed when everyone else sounds like they know everything already. Hello! I thought we were here to learn? I think it is that most of the students are much more culturally and globally aware than I am. I will just have to do a lot of reading and research on the topics of the classes and hope that I can provide even a small opinion.
I hope that you all have a great week!
5 comments:
I love your pictures! They are so beautiful. Screw first-week-of-school people. They are always just trying to impress. Like my first Choral Lit. class the other day: the teacher puts up his power point presentation and everyone just starts clicking away a mile a minute on their laptops, typing what's on the slide. And I'm like, you're not even listening to what he's saying! You're just in a hurry to look like you're on top of things. Sorry for the rant about me, me, me. I just wanted to say, I understand what you're saying and it sucks. Fools mock, but they shall mourn...
Jenny, that was the most beautiful walk with you! Thanks for the amazing pictures and commentary. In not quite so forceful terms, I agree with Adam about the first day people. It was my first thought when you were talking about them. Just people feeling nervous and new and trying to act like they're not! I have perfect confidence in your cultural and global awareness. What beautiful, beautiful pictures!!!
I would love to see Toronto, thanks for the sneak peek. All i can say about my University experience was that I sat on the back row and wrote Diana haiku and other assorted poetry through most of the classes. Everyone else couldn't keep their trembling hands out of the air...
"Trembling hands..," I can't stop laughing at the picture in my mind. That's exactly right!!
I'm also new to Canada, and it is a lovely place, as your photos show. I used to live near the Beaches area and there wasn't a better way to start the day than to walk along the lake.
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