Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Toronto

Ok, I know I haven't written in ages. I'm not a big fan of computer screens. So I left this on Decmber 15 ...



and arrived into this - the worst blizzard that Toronto has had in ages.



Pretty much every flight except for mine was cancelled. Hannah Mc braved the weather and came to the airport. I stayed in her residence for the week, and had such a blast. My favourite thing about Toronto was the people. Hannah lent me her friends for the week, and we just kind of did life together. It was the last week for heaps of the students on exchange so there was heaps of hanging out and late nights, with the occasional spell of sleep. I managed a quick catch up with Toby, and I also saw lots of the family: Harin Mama and Shiranee Aunty and Jehan, Hiran and Dharshika; Raju Mama/Uncle Frank (who by the way is THE man - check out http://www.lankalibrary.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1817) and Chandra Aunty. She had all these photos of my family that I hadn't seen before:

My Ammamma is on the far right

Ratnesar clan - my Appamma is to the left

My second favourite bit about Toronto was the snow. Saying that it was soooooooooooooooooo cool, does not describe just how cool it was.


Then the last day I was there me and Becky saw Hannah off at the airport. When we got back, me, Becky and Mike started talking and when I looked at the clock it was 5am and I had to leave at 7, so we just stayed up. There is a point to this story... at 6:30 I decided that I better go have a shower and finish my packing etc. and as I was standing outside waiting for the lift, this girl came with all her bags. We got talking and it turned out that she (her name is Katherine) was catching the same train as me down to NY - we ended up sharing a cab and the 13 hour journey together. I'm telling you coz I thought it was crazily random that that happened. Something else that is crazy - border security. Just across the border they stop the train, lock all the toilets and you can't leave your seats. Then these armed officers board and individually question each person. The whole process takes a couple of hours (or in our case 3), and if you don't answer satisfactorily then they make you leave the train with all your stuff. If you're still waiting to be questioned, even if everything is legit, you start feeling pretty intimidated after you see all these people being marched off the train. And if you need to use the bathroom, too bad. It's pretty terrible (though Stephen has even worse stories). Makes you feel real welcome.

At least I had family to meet me in NY, and they really were welcoming - but more about that to come :-)

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