Winter Getaway 2008 - Toronto
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- Created on Wednesday, 21 May 2008 00:00
Prague, Czech Republic to Toronto, Canada via London
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
I was up before dawn, I had to get to the airport to get the first flight out of Prague, I flew to London to make my connecting flight, and I had to travel from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1. By now I hate London Heathrow, making connections in this airport is a real pain in the ass. The flight went very smoothly, I sat next to a girl, but she was not interested in talking, she quickly took out her iPod and put on the ear buds. I ended up in the airport for about 4 hours, before I boarded my plane, I made a few phone calls before I left, then I made my connection. I sat next to a Woman from Turkey, she is living in Toronto, Canada now, but went back to Istanbul, she was a very pleasant person to talk to.
The flight went very well, I had no problems during the flight, I arrived in Toronto during the late afternoon, but I had to go through several layers of customs officials before I picked up my luggage. Each time I got asked my name, my entire travel itinerary, I had to give them my home address, and where I am staying at in Toronto, how long am I going to be there, and where I was traveling from. But I did get through the customs station with no problems; eventually I was able to meet my Uncle and his wife at the Arrivals terminal.
By the time we had dinner, and we arrived home, it was already after 20,00; Penny was waiting for everyone to arrive home. I unpacked and then called it a day.
Toronto, Canada
Friday, January 11th, 2008
My first full day in Toronto was pleasant, I did sleep very well, but like my stay in Stockholm, at around 19,00 to 20,00 I would doze off and/or get sleepy for 1 hour or so, then I am fine. I am guessing that for my stay in the Eastern USA, I am hitting the 15,00 slum that I normally hit during the course of the day. When I arrived, all of the snow was gone, it had rained the day before, washing away the snow, now it is just cold and over cast. Hey, it is great weather for Penny to run around outside, I did notice that she is putting on a lot of weight, during the winter months, the dog stays inside a lot. I found out during the course of the day Penny is much more vocal and needy, so insecure and in need of validation and acknowledgment.
After breakfast, I went through my luggage, brought out the thank you gifts that I bought for Uncle Chiu and Auntie Amy; I bought them some Chocolates and Coffee. Later we went out to have lunch with one of their friends, at a Chinese restaurant. Eastern Toronto has a huge Chinese community; there are lots of Chinese businesses and restaurants all over that part of town. We went to the T and T supermarket, it is a giant Chinese market in that part of town, and ran some errands while we were in that part of town. After that, we spent the evening chatting about all of the goings on in the family, my mom’s divorce and other family related stuff.
Scarborough Bluff, Toronto, Canada
Saturday, January 12th, 2008
Da Bin Lo, Bluffers Park, and a Drive through Parts of Toronto.
Today we drove through parts of south-eastern Toronto to visit Scarborough Bluff and Bluffers Park, The significance of this is that Toronto's coast is mostly flat and this is one of the few high spots in the city. We drove through several different suburbs of Toronto, what I learned is that the city is laid out on a modified Old Roman City plan, a number of the main streets are laid out in grid pattern and run through out the city, the next day we will drive out to the countryside, Uncle Chiu and Aunt Amy pointed out that a number of towns that we drove through have the same name. That's because it's the same street that started out from Toronto.
Later we all traveled to the Asian Super Market and bought some food for Da Bin Lo or Asian Hot Pot for dinner later that evening, Bosco Sung, his Girl Friend and a few others came over and we all ate hot pot together. It was good seeing him and the others again. Penny watched us all eat dinner together.
Today, I found out that Aunt Jolane died in Munich, she had not been well for 2 ½ months, and was in and out of the hospital. My original plan was to come and visit her before she passed on, which is why I planned this trip to Prague in the winter. But this did not happen, I had heard that Aunt Jolane was not well for a while, she had been in and out of the hospital for quite some time; Ilona and Petra had done their best to take care of her, but I guess it was her time.
Ontario Country Side, Canada
Sunday, January 13th, 2008
Uncle Chiu and Auntie Amy took me up to Elora and a nice drive through the Canadian Countryside, I learned Uncle Chiu use to work in this area. Penny had gas from eating food from Mc Donald’s. I was hoping to get a cheaper direct flight to San Diego, but no luck, I am trying to avoid changing planes in the USA. Personally I don't get to see this kind of landscape to often, I heard that the Amish have many communities catered about this part of Canada, many Amish men were hired in the construction industry for their wood working skills. What surprised me more than anything else was how little snow had fallen when I was there, if felt more like autumn than winter. But the skies were grey and the weather was cold.
I guess that if there is a symbol of small town Canada this is it, when you get off of the highways and drive on the roads through all of these communities, you see lots of small communities dotting the landscape. I really enjoyed the drive, you don't normally see this kind of thing in San Diego. The other thing that factored into the trip was the wind, it was cold and windy that day, I guess my sick luck points ran out at this moment.
Toronto, Canada
Monday, January 14th, 2008
I am officially sick, it's probably the weather from the other day. I went to the Toronto Science museum in western Toronto, Uncle Chiu took me out to this part of the city to drive around check out the Museum there. If you have been to the Exploritorium in San Francisco, or other Science Museums then you get the idea, this was one of the spots where Uncle Chiu took Uncle Cheun to visit, I rememember the photos that Uncle Cheun took. Once we finished looking around we both had some pizza at the Museum Cafeteria, and drove around Toronto some more.
If there is one thing that I noticed is that how much Toronto is like Los Angeles, the city is very spread out; but it is also like Chicago, the downtown area sits on the waterfront and radiates outward from the city center. There are now lots of different ethnic groups there, when I first visited the city when I was a boy, I remember there were some Chinese and small number of Ethnic groups but mostly Canadians and Italians. Now the city is very diverse ethically, and it's population is much bigger as well.
Toronto, Canada
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
It Snowed, and it continued to snow into March. Took it easy today, Apple released the MacBook air, and the Mortgage Crisis hit UBS, Citigroup, Berr Sterns, Merrell Lynch, and other big bank stocks.
I had a long discussion with Auntie Amy about the whole banking crisis, I was not sure where thing were going to go, but I did not realize that things would get this bad. The economy and the banking system went from bad to worse, and the layoffs continued to mount.
But I am happy to finally see some snow fall on the ground, I was really surprised that it took so long for the snow to fall onto the ground.
Toronto, Canada
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Today, I flew home to San Diego, I was able to fend off the coming troubles at work and at home for a scant few weeks, but life moves on and so do I...