Varanasi, India: In a few words
Take the ruins of an ancient city like Macchu Pichu or Palenque or even Ankor Wat, have 3 million people from different centuries and their animals live in it, mix in remnants of colonialism, and you have Varanasi.
Toronto – It’s not THAT bad
Well, this is it. Three months gone by in a flash. As a generalization, people from Vancouver like to turn their noses at anything Toronto. Toronto is too hot, cold, smoggy. Toronto thinks it’s the centre of the universe. They don’t have mountains like we do. The criticisms are true, but it’s not all that bad. Here’s a short list of things I like about Toronto (the summers anyway):
1. Cheap produce and food in general. I don’t know what it is but there’s a lot of cheap food to be had in this city. 2 chicken shawarmas for $7.99? Check. Smokies for $3.00? Check. Vietnamese sub for $1.75? Oh yes, check.
2. There’s always something to do for free. In the time that I’ve been here, I’ve checked out the Pride Parade, Caribana, Feast of India, Taste of the Danforth, free concerts at Queen’s Park, Afrofest and other random events in and around the city all for free.
3. Things stay open later. I walked home at 1030pm on a Sunday and there were still tons of people out and about. I biked home around 2am on a Friday and people were on the street like it was 8pm. There are 24h diners and grocery stores, bakeries open til 11pm, people milling around all day and all night long.
4. It’s truly multicultural. Vancouver likes to think of itself as multicultural. But we’re really not in comparison. Sure we have restaurants serving different kinds of foods and fusions, have “multicultural” events, and like to talk about how multicultural we are but we just don’t have the same kind of diversity as Toronto because we simply don’t have as many people.
5. A bicycle is a mode of transportation, not a fashion accessory. Not that a bike can’t be a fashion accessory but in Toronto I feel like there’s no in-crowd, out-crowd associated with cycling. Most people have crappy mountain bikes here, they go at whatever pace, they wear whatever they want, and “coolness” is just not a factor. One complaint – people don’t wear helmets and I don’t know why.
Well, that’s it. Not to say that there’s nothing bad about Toronto. I just thought that I’d defend it a little 
Next stop, Varanasi.
Hot Hot Heat
It’s hot, and these people agree.
On most days an ice cream truck parks right across the street from our building. On those days, there are usually long line ups of men and women reconnecting with their childhoods.
Victoria’s Lochside Regional Trail
** I’m cleaning out my blog and found some unpublished posts. I’m not sure why this one wasn’t published. I’m guessing that I wanted to put more photos up. Will be putting a previously unpublished post once a week until I clean the whole thing out!**
May 19, 2010
Last weekend, M and I decided to go to Victoria on a whim. As neither of us had been to Victoria for quite some time, we were surprised to find out that taking a vehicle would cost $50 EACH WAY plus $14 per person! Not wanting to spend $128 just on transportation we decided to bike to Victoria instead! We took the bus out to the ferry terminal, took the ferry, and from the ferry, biked to Victoria. It took about 3 and a half hours which included a couple of breaks, some detours, and “where are we supposed to go” moments. On the way back, the total time was about 2 hours plus stops for lunch and some picture taking. All in all a good weekend. 
Hindi Lessons
As part of my preparation for India, I, along with my fellow India bound cohorts, started taking Hindi lessons twice a weeks for 2.5 hours each session. My teacher is this funny older Indian man from Bombay (older people tend to use colonial names). He makes silly jokes that are only somewhat funny but he laughs so hard at them that you can’t help but laugh yourself.
People tell me that Hindi is easy to learn, and it is… sort of. Like all other languages, it has a philosophy that says a lot about the culture. According to my Hindi teacher, possession as we know it in English does not exist in Hindi. For example, when you translate the English sentence “I have a banana” in Hindi, it is “Mere pas kela” which roughly means “I am near/with a banana.” Apparently, you never really “own” anything. Everything is with you only for a short period of time.
