toronto stories

the big move

Hi all,

I'll be writing about my recent move to Toronto. Please feel free to skip if you don't want the details - most important fact if you didn't know it was that I'm now IN Toronto.

A quick backtrack: my trip to the maritimes was fantastic and quite eventful. Ate lots of seafood (digby scallops in digby, NS, lobster in PEI, malpeque oysters in malpeque bay, cod, cod, cod and clams and mussels in NL and NS and PEI) and saw lots of sights. We drove over 5000 K in 2 weeks so it was pretty damn insane. Saw wild moose, deer, and a hare, eagles, puffins, goats, whales and jellyfish too. Great weather for much of the trip apart from the day when we crossed over the confederation bridge to Anne's land and it was cloudy/rainy. (Yes, I insisted we stop by Anne of Green Gables.) Trip was a bit like out of the movies - will have to show you photos and give you more detail when I get back. (My new camera gave me awesome awesome shots that I was very pleased with and I will perhaps post some here when I have time.)

I love shopping but there really wasn't much to shop in any of the places, where Halifax is the largest it gets and the best you get is the Bay (and the selection there sucked.) PEI, NB and NL don't even have the Bay. I guess most people there wear hand-me-downs? Even at the wedding that we attended, there were guests there who wore *jeans*. Yup. I think we were probably the most dressed up!

Luckily for me, Toronto has AMAZING shopping. I didn't bring much apart from my clothes and really want to keep it to a minimum because my place is so tiny but one just HAS to shop because 1) the weather here requires it (most of my clothes don't keep me cool enough and then in winter, not warm enough) and more importantly 2) the selection is awesome and 3) prices are fairly reasonable because there is so much competition.

I have slowly settled into my place - it required a bit of cleaning with the leftover construction dust/mess. I really didn't do too much because I was exhausted after work and dreaded having to do more work (i.e. unpacking). It was great for me that this weekend is a long one so I spent most of today at home relaxing and cleaning. Usually after work, I walk home and windowshop on the way home, so I get in late and then definitely don't feel like doing any unpacking.

I live right downtown so it's wonderful- if you like that sort of thing. I can really see why they call Vancouver the 'no-fun' city. There are so many things going on here in TO that you could never be lonely or bored. There are just so many more people it really feels like a mini-version of New York. (Really really mini but compared to Vancouver, you can tell.) Bookstores and restaurants open super late, there are 24 hour GROCERY stores and I'm sure the pubs are hopping too. Festivals are happening all the time as well.

I went to the CNE yesterday and saw the snowbirds. Actually, I went to see Cirque's latest show - Corteo which is only performing in Montreal and Toronto before heading to the US. After Cirque, I went to the CNE since it was practically right there. Even the CNE is larger than PNE. The marketplace houses goods from all around the world - it's so big that they label the stalls "products of china" or "products of greece" or "products of egypt". Amazing and one could spend all day there!

Work though is a different story. The mentality of people here is one of intensity. I see lawyers come in and shut their doors and they are in their offices all day long. Lucky for me, I have my own office too though nothing compares to the Vancouver one. From my floor, I have a great view of the CN Tower along with Lake Ontario and the Toronto Islands. Work is much more demanding but partly because I have to learn new things. I think it will take some adjusting - not sure if it's just my firm but I think it may be an overall TO thing.

That's about it from here. Hope you all are doing well and keep me posted! I've already booked my trip back for Xmas too since I have to use up all my holidays - I'll be back Dec. 22nd so hopefully we can all get together before I leave.

posted by toronto girl @ 1:58 AM