Coincidence?? I think not!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening in Toronto. Exploring. By myself. Which at first sounds depressing to some people, but I had a great time. I got used to the transit system, checked out the neighbourhoods around the ICS and around where I'll live, and had a number of interesting experiences.

Highlight of the day: #1
On the subway, two young Arab men noticed that my shirt had the phrase "Ana beheb Masr" (I Love Egypt) written on it in Arabic, and talked to me for a few minutes about my semester in the Middle East. They were so excited!

Highlight of the day: #2
As I wandered out of the U of T campus, I literally bumped into an intreguing sight: a protest march of hundreds of people carrying Lebanese and Palestinian flags, placards, and chanting "Shame, Shame, USA!" and "Israel out of Lebanon!" and other such slogans. As you will remember from highlight #1, I happened to be wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it, so I fit right in! I hung back for a while, just to see what was going on. Then I ventured forward, becoming part of the crowd, listening to firey speeches and angry chanting claiming Israel is an apartheid state and Stephen Harper (Canadian Prime Minister) a war mongerer. I just happened to have my camera with me (I had debated whether or not to take it along, and I was so glad that I did), so I took a few pictures of the march and the protesters with their signs. A communist from the workers party of Canada also approached me and tried to convince me that the proletariat of Israel needs to rise up against the government. While many of the speakers were expressed more extreme views than I would support (like loyal support for H'zbollah and even Iran), the experience was fascinating and eye-opening.

Highlight of the day: #3
My aunt Mary, uncle Earl and cousin Myra hosted me for dinner and dessert at their new house in Toronto. My uncle is a contractor, and they designed and built the house with the environment in mind--it's extremely well insulated to conserve energy, they have radiant floor heating (efficient), it's made of styrofoam bricks (and concrete, don't worry) and there's even an elevator in their three story house! (Ok, so the elevator was not with the environment in mind, but my aunt Mary had polio as a child and has a bit of difficulty getting around as a result of loss of strength in her legs.) Everything is hard wood--floors, cabinets, stairs, ceilings, yumm...I love hard wood. We also sat out on the porch and talked all night, watching their friendly neighbour make a couple of drug deals in front of his house.

Highlight of the day: #4
I'm probably going to live in Mary and Earl's basement apartment this year! I feel so relieved to have that decided. I get along so well with their family, and I am very much looking forward to being so close to family. There's a beautiful bay window, above ground level, in the main kitchen/living area, and while it's quite small (as most basement apartments are), I tend to feel it is cozy. And they'll let me use their laundry machines. (Hooray for free laundry!)

Of course there were more highlights, but why bore you, oh dear friend who took the time to read all this?