Being the last week of school, I am swamped with work to do. I didn’t get out much this week…

Viewed from my apartment


Oh no!

Can you see the illuminated CN Tower? Find the sign that says “Village of Parkdale”

We are expecting a blizzard tonight, there are warnings all over the place. However, I don’t think it will be significant at all.

Torontonians
What are people busy doing?

Celebrating… at Dundas Square

Working… in the China town

Walking… on a busy road

Rowing… in the peaceful lake

Lets go Raptors

Toronto Raptors is a professional basketball team based in the city and part of the NBA (National Basketball Association) based in USA. The team was established quite recently, in 1995.

I am not someone who follows basketball so I don’t know their current standings and status. However, a friend had extra tickets for this game and I gladly joined him.

Air Canada Centre is a huge stadium and was quite full. I loved watching the entertainment segments during breaks – so much better than watching commercials on TV!

Fallen leaves

End of fall is near and you can see in the pictures that most leaves have now fallen, forming a carpet of dry leaves all over the city. I cut through this park (Northwest corner of Trinity Bellwoods Park) often and I enjoy biking through it. I love the crunchy sound of walking on the foliage on the ground.

A bust of Simón Bolívar, the leader of the Latin American freedom struggle from Spain, decorates this area.

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During summer (picture on google map above), there is a farmers market in this area. Other events are held in the main area of this park, for example the Queen West Art Crawl blogged about previously.

Shorter days, longer nights and lots of sneezing

So, what season is it right now in Toronto?
Autumn? No. Winter? No!! Its the “fall-sick” season. People are taking days off, sitting home and drenching paper tissues (called ‘kleenex’ here, after the popular brand) in slimy body fluids that seem to flow eternally through their nostrils. There are plenty of coughs, sneezes, headache and body pain to go with the kleenex-drenching ritual. Looming over all of us is the risk of H1N1 pandemic, and indeed people are spending hours in queues outside hospitals to get a shot of the experimental H1N1 vaccine (they should rather call it “anti”-H1N1 vaccine, right?). Thankfully I haven’t indulged in this sport yet, (“Touch wood” – you are supposed to say that to ward off bad energy (or something like that)) but I do think that it would be wise to buy some Kleenex stock (pun intended).

Meanwhile I’m photographing the Sun who now wants to hang out in the southern hemisphere (probably because its summer there.)

I often have classes at night, from 19:00 to 22:00. I remember coming home from summer classes in clear day light, but now I have to bike with my lights ON even when I am going to the class. Today, the sun rose at 7:05 and set at 17:05, what a short sun run (and it only gets worse!).

Meanwhile in some good news, Toronto is all set to host the 2015 Pan American games (and that will hopefully connect the airport by a subway line!)

Halloween

Haloween, believed to have originated from the European Pagan festival of the dead, is celebrated every year on October 31, which happened to be a Saturday this year. Maybe that gave an extra punch to the celebrations because I saw people dressed up the previous night and even the previous weekend. The festive mood probably has to do with the fact that the seasons are changing and everyone simply wants an occasion to celebrate.

Here are some pictures (very few are taken by me) from the street parties, prominently in the Church-Wellesley neighborhood where the streets, closed for traffic, were overflowing with people.

Toronto Halloween Pool on Flickr

It was the first Halloween I celebrated, and the first time I got dressed up (note: put your shirt on before painting your face!)

Chad (some freak) and me (butterfly). I had silly wings but they got ruined while cycling.

Fall colours and Canadian Geese at York University

Autumn is at its peak in Toronto and everything is pretty colorful. Last Saturday afternoon, the campus was unusually empty and the central lawn was taken over by geese who were busy having lunch.

I love walking on crunchy leaves that carpet the ground. When there’s wind, these leaves scatter around in circles and loops, flying all over the place, like little kids who just finished school and are running home.

Bathurst Street Bridge

The Bathurst street bridge is a steel truss bridge over the rail tracks south of Front St. The bridge was built in 1903 and was moved to this location in 1916. It is a four-lane bridge, with two lanes for street cars, and a wide pedestrian walkway.

I love such rustic and simple bridges. Especially on days when the light is perfect, shadows are crisp and I am equipped with a camera (this picture was taken during summer).

Google maps now supports ’street view’ in Toronto. You can view actual pictures of the place!

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Fall colors at Frontenac Provincial Park

I spent the last long weekend (it was Thanksgiving in Canada) camping at Frontenac park, about 280km east of Toronto, with the intention of watching autumn colours. Thankfully the timing to watch Fall colors was pretty good although the weather was kind of a letdown, and so was the terrain.

It was quite chilly (about -4ºC last night and +3ºC previous), windy and occasionally there was a shower. Still overall it was very enjoyable… I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

PS: I wasn’t sure if I should include this place in Toronto Tuesday since technically the park is not in the city. But I thought it was okay to expand the boundaries once a while.

Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche (नुई ब्लांश) – meaning ‘White Night’ or ‘All-Nighter’ in French is an annual all-night arts festival that’s held in several cities around the world, Toronto included. This year, it is estimated that close to a million people attended it, including, ofcourse, yours truly. The official website says “From sunset at 6:55 pm on Saturday, October 3, to sunrise on Sunday, October 4, 2009, Toronto’s playful overnight celebration of contemporary art once again takes over the streets for one night only”

Unfortunately I wasn’t suitably equipped with a camera, but no worries, there are others who do a much better job.

by synchros	by tarafillion
by Petecat	by exMOHAX
by arcticlamb	by Miles Storey.
by Jessica C	by Donnay

These are just some of the pictures, very random. Venues in downtown were very crowded, with long lineups to get in and often the art on display made you wonder about the definition of art… Nevertheless it was another excuse to get out and see how lively (and lovely) the city was. I love Toronto.