Watch Me Get Beaten Up by a Dog

Today I trimmed Daisy's nails. She absolutely hated it. Lucky for you, Chris was watching on Skype and took pictures as she flailed like I was trying to kill her. Dad and Mom make appearances.

Eventually, we got all of her nails, and we only have to do this again in another month or so. Send help.

Less Than a Week Left

Chris, Monte, and I on a picnic at the Toronto Islands back in October.

It's official, I'm down to my last six days in Canada. I should probably start packing. Chris and I talked yesterday about all the amazing things we've seen and done together since I've been here, and it was great to think of all of our times, from watching Wicked at the Canon Theatre to carrying the heaviest bookshelf in the world across town after buying it from Ikea.

I took a picture as we rode down the escalator while carrying a bookshelf and two doors.

We shared Canadian Thanksgiving with Chris's family at the farm and American Thanksgiving in our apartment, with a chicken I roasted, impossible pumpkin pie, sweet tea, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce from a can like it's supposed to be, and squash soup. All without the aid of any kind of mixer/blender/food processor. Lots of using the potato masher and colanders, though.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on a Saturday, too. Close enough!

We celebrated Christmas together and with Chris's wonderful family. I got all kinds of great presents and had so much good food that I think about that meal to this day. We sang carols and waited for Santa to show up and I ended up reading a book all about Legos with some of the younger members of Chris's family.

Oh, and I got this sweet boxer ornament.

We ate Indian food, ate weekly meals at his family's house, and made lots and lots of tacos with turkey meat. We shared desserts and appetizers, meals and snacks. I packed a LOT of lunches and Chris introduced me to chili fries from Taco Bell. That's right, their Taco Bells have fries. And chili. I don't understand it either, but I'm not complaining.

We shared this slice of brownie cheesecake from Future Bakery.

The weather was totally different. Like I explained to Chris, I know Fahrenheit for warm temperatures, everything from 60 up, and I know Celsius for cold weather, from 10 to -15 (5-50 degrees F). I experienced my first tiny tiny snowfall on Halloween morning on our way to Mass and survived a totally unimpressive snowstorm. I also saw a car lose control on the highway and slow motion slide into the median, leaving me terrified of ever driving anywhere but Florida.

Yes, I'm falling over after drawing a heart in Chris's parents' backyard.

This half a year has been something I wouldn't give up for anything. It's amazing to go to a different country and see just how much culture they can cram into a city. I'm so grateful because six months is a while, sure, but it isn't long at all when you're with a person who calls you the most beautiful girl in the world every single day and who makes you laugh with morning dance parties to terrible pop songs on the radio, and who supports you in your efforts to better yourself. I'm going to miss the heck out of this guy. But we both know it's not the end. I'm happy to go home and be with my people, and Chris and I will go back to talking on Skype and missing each other, only this time we know how great it can be. We don't have to wonder if it's all worth it. It is. Far above the sights and experiences of this city and this country, discovering just how right things are has been the best part of my time here. It's so great that I get to go home and be with my family, back in my hometown, all the while carrying that knowledge with me.

It was nice of them to build this statue when I got here, but why'd they put some dude on top of it?

I'm sad, but I'll be okay. I'm going to miss Monte and Chris, my boys, but it won't be too long before I see Chris again (August?) and it won't be long after that that he's graduated and we can get to the business of living together in MY country. I'm excited to see everyone at home, I've never gone so long without a hug from my parents, and I know they miss me, too. Hailey's probably six feet tall by now, I can't wait to talk to Courtney again, and my Jacksonville friends are amazing.

I'm going home.

Dim Sumday

Sunday was FANTASTIC. I know it's suspicious to see smeone happy the day after the spring Daylight Savings Time changeover, but Chris and I went to Mass together, then to Chinatown to try dim sum, then to the Dragon City mall in Chinatown, then to a bunch of stores down Queen St., then to the Eaton Centre, then home. It was lovely! Wonderful! Spectacular! Okay, okay, I'll post some pictures and a recap.
First of all, Chris and I went to the noon Mass because we weren't sure if the alarm clock we use would automatically switch for daylight savings time (it did) and we didn't want to stress about running late. I don't usually go with Chris to church, but because we wanted to make a day of it, I did. Also since I'm going home soon, I wanted to do this thing together again. The priest who was there for my other Mass at St. Basil's was there again, which was nice. I did the arms crossey thing when people went up for communion, so the priest said some things and touched my head, which I liked a lot more than sitting awkwardly in the pew and waiting by myself. There was more singing and praying, and then it was over.

On our way to Chinatown, we passed Beverly School, and got this cute picture in front of one of their murals. It's the skyline and crazy flowers! I love it.

We walked to Chinatown and to Rol San, a dim sum restaurant that kept popping up when I researched sim sum in Toronto. It was listed by blogTO as one of the top ten dim sum restaurants in the city, and it was mentioned in every Chowhound discussion of Toronto dim sum restaurants. The wait was killer! We hadn't had breakfast and we went to noon Mass, so waiting more than thirty minutes in the chaotic Rol San entryway was a bit frustrating. At last we were seated, and they gave us a paper with, I don't know, forty something choices. We picked six or so and went crazy. The dishes came out every so often, and I've tried to recreate the order in which the plates were delivered.

First we got sticky rice with pork and shrimp filling served in a couple of leaves. Chris donated his shrimp to me.

These pork buns were incredible! The outside was puffy and the inside was so savory and delicious.

Chris wasn't supposed to take the picture yet.

The inside of the pork bun on my plate.

Next we had these killer dumplings in soup.

I ate the heck out of my dumplings and then drank the soup. Heck yes.

Next were these crazy savory pancakes that appear to have been made with rice and spinach and who knows what else. They were delicious.

This is me, loving that pancake.

Next were the rice rolls, which didn't have a ton of flavor, but came with this delicious dip of peanut sauce and some kind of soy sauce mixture.

Next were the fried seafood and mango triangles with mayo. They were so good, and I had them all to myself!

Our table after we finished, including the bones from the ribs I didn't post any pictures for. We had a nice amount of leftovers.

After lunch, we went to a mall. This was one of the stores there. It was tiny but stuffed with things, most of which glittered.

The view from the second floor of the Dragon City Mall, with a street car!

After Chinatown, Chris and I headed to Queen St. West, which has tons of great shops. We went to Lush and got a bath bomb, spent some time in little stores like Clik Clak and Katie and we checked out H&M.

One of the windows to a shop on Queen St.

A drained fountain (they do this in the winter here) and a statue.

Chris and I then walked to the Eaton Centre and got a smoothie at Orange Julius, wandered around, and ended up getting some $20 SIZE TWELVE jeans from Old Navy. Old Navy's kind of notorious for their sizing, being described as everything from "vanity" to "random," but I am happy and you can't make me unhappy I have a pair of size twelve jeans thankyouverymuch.

It was a spectacular day. All kinds of fun, new experiences, a weight loss triumph (necessitated by all my ever-slouching jeans that are too big for me), and food!

Pictures from the ROM, Part Two

These two pictures are of the spectacular ceiling in the old part of the ROM. The colors are even more brilliant in real life, our camera couldn't catch it all.

A lamp from a Victorian room that looks like it's wearing a skirt.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I love this fish. It's one of the two coffins the museum had from Ghana. The other one was in the shape of a Mercedes Benz.

I really like this art from the Gond tribe of central India. The colors and shapes are fantastic!

A lion from the palace of Nebuchadnezzer in Babylon.

Outside of the gift shop, Chris and I sat down for a minute in these snazzy geometric chairs.

Above us swam the ancient turtle.

It was a fantastic trip and I feel like we probably only saw half of what was available to us, nevermind really taking our time with the exhibits. The great thing about the ROM is how if you're a parent, you can come with two or more children with totally different interests and find lots of things for everyone to enjoy.

Our Trip to the ROM

Yesterday, Chris and I met up after his work to go to the ROM, or the Royal Ontario Museum, to enjoy their half priced Friday night program. It's a really neat museum with just about everything inside of it. There were dinosaurs, lots of exhibits with taxidermied animals, collections of art, giant totem poles, a bat cave, recreations of rooms from different time periods, items from tribes of people from Africa to New Zealand to South America, and even more things that we didn't get a chance to see due to time constraints. It was a pretty great trip and filled with way more information and culture than I could absorb in two and a half hours.

After the museum, Chris and I went to Spring Rolls and I had dim sum for the first time! I had siu mai, or shumai, which is a pork and shrimp and wonton wrappers and it's wonderful. Now I want to go to a whole dim sum restaurant before I leave and try a bunch of different kinds, since there are a million in Toronto and one in Jacksonville.

I'm getting hungry, so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures while not trying not to obsess over dim sum.

The museumused to be just one big old building, but in 2002 they added this insane crystal structure to one half. It's strange and exciting, and while some people really hate it, I like it a lot.

I particularly like the parts of the museum where the irregular geometric craziness of the crystal building interacts with the more predictable old building. This used to be the outside, but now it's inside!

We took the stairs from floor to floor, and between each level there is a landing with mini-exhibits. This one showed various birds, finger bowls, and small animal skeletons.

The stairs are known as the J.P. Driscoll Family Stair of Wonders, and were a clever, unexpected touch.

A giant prehistoric turtle floats through space in front of the architectural details of the ROM.

Chris and I agree that this fish is wonderful.

Dinosaur! Crazy windows! ROM!

Hey Mom, it's a sloth! I did a report on sloths in the third grade for Ms. Jobo's class. ^_^

It's official. Underneath their moosey coats, they're just nightmares.

Ancient plant and animal indentations that kind of look like art you'd find at Kirkland's.

The bird section was AWESOME. The birds are all strung from the ceiling and to one another.

Part of the huge generic nature/biodiversity section, which I really enjoyed. Everything was unfortunately behind glass, though, so lots of bad reflections in the pictures from that area.

These owls were hanging above us!

I really liked the freaked out/disapproving face on this fish. Can't get my bangs to do that thing, though.

A huge Japanese spider crab, one of the few animals displayed alone, looking gigantic.

This might be a children's exhibit, but here I am petting a national symbol of Canada. It's so soft!

This narwhal just thinks he's soooo smart. Stop smirking, you fat unicorn.

We enjoyed the touch-screen monitors throughout the museum and on this one watched a puffer fish escape the grasp of an eel by filling up with water.

So many birds!

 

Me and an ocean sunfish, a fish that looks (to me) like a shark that's always mid-turn. But it's not! That's the whole thing, right there. It's so weird looking, and I love it.

Me and Bull, a rhino that used to live at the Toronto Zoo. Chris once saw him pee, back when he was alive.

There are a few more pictures, but I have to run. We're going to Chris's family's house this afternoon for dinner, and I'm not ready at all. More pictures of the cultural parts of the museum to come, though not as many pictures as I would like due to our camera dying. Thanks for checking it out!