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Location: Leuven, Belgium

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Three days in Toronto

Three days in Toronto

It took me three days to pick up writing here again for a wide variety of reasons, the main one being that the internet connection I have in my room is very slow and actually completely illegal. As this is highly unlikely to be fixed over the weekend, I just start writing this post on my laptop and put it online at the library this weekend.

So, what are my impressions of my first three days here? I think it’s best to more or less tell you what I have been doing here.
I arrived on Wednesday. It took Bram and me 2 airplanes and a taxi to get here, which – considering the amount of luggage we had – went surprisingly well. When I opened my second suitcase I saw a major shampoo explosion had occurred, but other than that it went just fine. I do have to admit that I was completely exhausted when I arrived at Neill-Wycik and my first impression of the room wasn’t too great. It looked not as clean as I had expected (to put it euphemistically), but at that time I was just interested in a bed! The first night was not as smooth as usually, which I think is somewhat normal.

The next morning things looked a bit better: broad daylight made everything look a bit cleaner and nicer. I started cleaning the room and I can assure you that at this time, it is spick and span. Later on, Bram also helped me move my bed and desk, which makes the room look twice its size. I decorated it a bit with cards you all sent me and it actually turned out very cheerful.
After that, Bram and I just went to U of T campus, which covers pretty much three quarters of downtown Toronto, to arrange our student card, health insurance and we also got enrolled at the ISXO office, which is the international student office (extremely efficient and immensely friendly, which actually goes for all Canadians). Distances are somewhat different from those in Leuven. However, a 30 to 40 minute’s commute is not exceptional at all. A lot of people don’t even live in Downtown Toronto, so they spend about an hour to get to school. It takes me approximately 25 minutes to get to my lecture halls and to Campus in general. We also visited the local ‘Acco’ Store, which was an experience in itself. This book store is h-u-g-e and even has a post office located in the middle of it. There are three floors, but I think there might be even more, because I don’t think we managed to ‘visit’ the whole shop. In the evening we had a pasta meal at my place and I just arranged matters a bit in my room and went to bed. I slept reasonably well with a coat, a cardigan and a towel as a pillow.

On Friday I started my day going to Dominon’s, which is the local ‘Delhaize’ or ‘GB’ with the one difference that it’s opened 24/7. And actually the lady at the checkout counter just made my day. Here’s our little conversation: (picture a middle-aged woman, red/bordeau/brown hair, matching colour nail polish, a haircut that made it look as if there was about a whole spray can of hair product in it, and a one-cm layer of make-up, imagine the strongest American accent you can think of and keep a typical American film in mind)
She: How are we doing today?
Me: Fine, thanks and you?
She: Oh, I’m just finnnnnnnnnnnnne (sounding very nasal)!
Here’s your stuff, and that’s a total of $12,45 for you to pay me
(I pay)
She: And you have a great day, missy!
I thought I got lost in a scene for a cheap American film. I just couldn’t help smiling! As funny as it was, that woman probably illustrates well how friendly Canadians are. They always try to help you, whether it is giving directions or helping you find something in one of their oversized shops. They seem pretty preoccupied at first, but as far as I can tell up until now, they are very open, helpful and friendly.
At 10, I met Sarah, a girl that lives in Toronto and whom I have been e-mailing with. She took me to Harbourfront and showed me the main streets of Downtown Toronto. We had a great chat and I saw some pretty sights. Harbourfront is the spot in the south of Toronto near Lake Ontario. You have a very nice view of Toronto Island, which you can visit by Ferry. There are some nice boats and the atmosphere is very nice. I also took a picture of the CN tower and the Toronto skyline.
In the afternoon, we had an exchange student orientation day, where we got some pretty interesting information about student life and life in Canada in general. There are a lot of Australian and English exchange student and La Sorbonne in Paris seems to have shipped a whole box of people here, probably to improve on their English skills…
After that, Bram and I had to buy a pillow and some kitchen supplies, which we bought at … ‘Honest Ed’s’. Again, some explanation is due. (For me, going to that shop was the absolute highlight of the day!). Some of the slogans are (and by the way, Canadians use slogans for EVERYTHING! Today, we had ‘Beef Beyond Belief’) ‘Come in and get lost’, ‘Ed is not a midwife but he sure delivers babies of bargains’.’Honest Ed’s’ is a shop with flickering lights as signs, which is specialised in… bargains! And I mean real bargains, you can find nearly anything there: pots, pans, clothes, clothe hangers, pillows, blankets, food, shoe polish, shampoo, paper ware, … for a real cheap price. I bought a pillow (thank you Ed, I was in desperate need of a good pillow!), a cloth for the bathroom and some clothe hangers. When leaving the checkout counter, a new slogan said: ‘Wasn’t this fun?!’ Slogan on the plastic bag: ‘There is only one Honest Ed’s in the world! Aren’t you glad it’s here in Toronto!’ It hardly gets any more ‘American’!
After our ‘fun at Ed’s’ we came to Neill-Wycik to have dinner together. We first had to do the shopping though, so we went to the mall (huge again, an absolute maze which covers a whole block in Downtown Toronto) and arranged our phone-card aswell.
We had rice, tomatoes and courgette and Beef Beyond Belief, which all turned out to be very OK!
And now, I am typing this! I see it’s getting quite late, so I’ll make an end to this first real Canadian post and put it online by the end of the weekend. I think I’ll go and try Ed’s pillow now!

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