Bits & Pieces

Time flies, it's already 2 months now!
Hope everything will continue as well as now, and even better!
Doing my best to live my life...as much as possible...


Weather Report
First impact is always the weather!

Winter in Canada is harsh! Snow storms, lots of snow, but also lots of sunshine...weird though, as my winter in Brussels was always bleak and gloomy! The lowest temperature experienced so far was -26 degree, plus the wind chill. In fact, this year has the worst winter, with snow accumulation as much as the total of past 2 years.


Snow scenaries from the back of my apartment. Same shot on a snowing evening, and the next day, bright with sunshine, but freezing cold, even colder than the snowing days.

Sometime, walking in the light flurry, listening to my mp3, humming my favourite songs, feeling snow on my face...can be nice, simply nice... :)

Static-tricity
Some day I will die of static overdose and accumulation!
It is so dry here, that I got static shock in almost everything I touched, eg. door knobs, clothes, computers etc.

Cracked hands, chapped lips, breeding nose, and dropping flakes of dead cells everywhere! Other than the hassle of putting on various types of moisturizers, now I must repeat the same 'operation' many times in a day...真麻烦!

Diversity
Overall, Toronto is a very cosmopolitan city. Out of those people I met here, most of them are not natives, either they migrated here since young, or they studied here and stayed on to work for quite many years.

There are many Indians, from India or African countries, or the West Indians. In fact, Brampton is known as the 'brown' city because many Indians reside there. West Indians are those from the Carribeans and neighbouring countries, and not from India itself.

There are also lots of Koreans, who speak good English ;) but not much Japanese though. So I really get nice authentic cheap Korean food here! Also lots of great sushi too, yummy!!!


There are many angmos/blonds, and equally as many asian-looking people as well, at least this is what I observed in the city area. In fact, the Chinese population, especially Hong Kong people reside in the northern part of Toronto, outside the city area, in the Richmond Hill and Markham areas. These are the expensive places...

Friendliness and politeness is a trait carried by everyone here. They speak fast, sometimes with lots of slang too. Similar to us, they tend to end their sentence with 'ay', which is equivalent to our lah, leh, loh. English is their 1st lanaguage and French is 2nd language. With better language skills, they seems to be more confident and forthcoming.

Icons
Did some little tour around the city. Very much like any modern city with high scrapers, but with little architectural history.

The Old City Hall
CN Tower

There are lots of Starbucks, Tim Houtons and many other coffee places. Tim Houtons is the local Canadian baby, with chain outlets all over the country.
My 1st breakfast in the 1st week I arrived here. I thought it's the donut-craze here too, but in fact it is known as the Bagel (just like any bread), it goes best with cream cheese, plus a cup of hot coffee.

Numeric Facts
It's pounds and feets here!
1 pound (lb) = 450g
1 foot (ft) = 0.3m

Tax here is 13%, on top of the retail prices you saw. On top of this 13%, tips is expected in restaurant too. Very expensive!

The PATH is the world’s largest underground shopping complex, connecting Toronto’s downtown core and business district. There are 27 kilometres of stores, food courts and places to hang out. It is also a good hideout during the winter, away from the rain and snow.

In the province of Ontario, the Yonge Street is the longest street (>1.8km) in the world, listed in the Guiness World Records. It is the main street that divides the east and west part of the Toronto city. In fact, it is very easy to get around, streets are parallel to each other, with the street name clearly visible. As compared to Europe, roads are not parallel and GPS will be an essential.