Who'd ever thought I'd like Toronto?
Ah! Conferences bring me on the road again! This time to present a poster at the Annual Meeting for the Canadian Diabetes Association, that brought me the "center of the universe", good ol' Toronto, Ontario!
After learning to travel with my European experiences (and trying to minimize my boss' budget), I decided to screw the fancy hotels and wing it at a youth hostel. In particular, the Canadiana Backpackers Inn, which got nice reviews on the internet. And, boy, what a good choice that was! It's located in the heart of downtown (you can see the CN tower down the street!) and comprises of renovated Victorian style houses. I got a private room that was more than cute and the bathrooms, yes, were clean! You can click on their link if you ever want to stay there.
One thing fun about this youth hostel is that the staff organizes cheap or free Canadiana events for the tourists passing through the place. The event for the evening was to see a live taping of the Royal Canadian Air Farce, an all-Canadian sit-com that mocks Canadian entertainment shows and politics. So I ditched the conference social (I hear it was terrible anyways) to go. Turns out I lost my group, but I went anyways since you just have to walk in and get a ticket a half-hour before taping. I ended up meeting nice people in line and had a wonderful time!
My first time seeing a live taping for tv! Fantastic! I never saw the episode air on tv so I have no idea if my voice could be picked out from the laughtrack :) The tv cameras were often in the way, so we had to watch most of it on the number of screens hanging around. They had musical entertainment and actor's chatting with the audience between takes. And, yes, they even had that neon sign on the ceiling that flash APPLAUSE!
The CBC building (CBC = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for all you non-Canadians out there!) where the show was being taped was also really cool (see the view looking down from the balcony in the pic)! They had a hall of fame displaying all the Canadian shows that have been involved with CBC over the years. It took me down memory lane, into my childhood through to my adolescence! Ah! The Friendly Giant, Kids in the Hall, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High,...
One evening, I decided to wander a bit up and down the downtown shopping streets when my hunger settled in. I ended up checking out a Korean restaurant (never tried Korean food before! - see the pic) and ordered a combo that comprised of food I had no idea how to eat (what order to eat things, which were condiments and which were appetizers, etc.). Luckily, a "connaisseur" was sitting beside me and offered me some advice. We clicked, seeing that he was originally from Montreal, and finished dining together, chatting about our professions and stuff. Turned out that he works for CBC in the French-speaking department of the Ontario branch as a news investigator of some sorts. He took interest in my work, and before I knew it, I got set up for an interview!
The 7-minute interview was being broadcast across the province the next day, so during the conference I hunted for a radio so I could listen to it live. But radios are so out of the dinosaur ages that I didn't find one in the whole entire hotel and missed the live show. No problem, though, because they were kind enough to send me a digital recording of it! Just click on the doo-hickey above to hear it! Oh, and please excuse my terrible, terrible French! Even after they edited out my hesitations and bad grammar (they really did this!), I am shocked to learn how many times I start my sentences with "mais....". French people don't even say this! Oh well....
Other fun stuff about Toronto? The art! I was walking around earlier in the week and noticed this totally awesome building, which I couldn't resist taking a picture of! This is the Ontario College of Art & Design (of course, eh?). I went to take a closer look and came across the Art Gallery of Ontario next door. There was a big banner strewn across the front saying Andy Warhol, and I just had to go!
So, the day I was leaving Toronto, I went to the Andy Warhol / Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-1964 exhibit at the AGO, which (to my good fortune!) was closing the next day! This was one of the most absolute best art displays I have ever been to! I ended up buying a bunch of AW parafanalia and have his pictures up in my living room now :) Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take photos in the gallery, except for in one room. In this room was a fascinating display of a gazillion self-portraits, painted/sculpted/drawn/narrated by guests of the gallery from all over the world. The wall were covered! Children, old people, artists, non-artists, all kinds of people expressed themselves and put themselves on display! Wow.
Oh, yeah. How did the conference go? Well, I did a poster display and that's usually limited on the excitement level. There were, like, 200 other posters and most of the delegates don't understand our scientific jargon anyways.
So, to my own surprise, I ended up really digging Toronto, the city I never really liked before. Go figure! Unfortunately, after this discovery, I had to cut my stay a bit short and take the early train home. My parents had called to say my poor grandmom was in the hospital! (Don't worry, folks, she's recovered and is as fine and fiesty as ever!)
After learning to travel with my European experiences (and trying to minimize my boss' budget), I decided to screw the fancy hotels and wing it at a youth hostel. In particular, the Canadiana Backpackers Inn, which got nice reviews on the internet. And, boy, what a good choice that was! It's located in the heart of downtown (you can see the CN tower down the street!) and comprises of renovated Victorian style houses. I got a private room that was more than cute and the bathrooms, yes, were clean! You can click on their link if you ever want to stay there.One thing fun about this youth hostel is that the staff organizes cheap or free Canadiana events for the tourists passing through the place. The event for the evening was to see a live taping of the Royal Canadian Air Farce, an all-Canadian sit-com that mocks Canadian entertainment shows and politics. So I ditched the conference social (I hear it was terrible anyways) to go. Turns out I lost my group, but I went anyways since you just have to walk in and get a ticket a half-hour before taping. I ended up meeting nice people in line and had a wonderful time!
My first time seeing a live taping for tv! Fantastic! I never saw the episode air on tv so I have no idea if my voice could be picked out from the laughtrack :) The tv cameras were often in the way, so we had to watch most of it on the number of screens hanging around. They had musical entertainment and actor's chatting with the audience between takes. And, yes, they even had that neon sign on the ceiling that flash APPLAUSE!
The CBC building (CBC = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for all you non-Canadians out there!) where the show was being taped was also really cool (see the view looking down from the balcony in the pic)! They had a hall of fame displaying all the Canadian shows that have been involved with CBC over the years. It took me down memory lane, into my childhood through to my adolescence! Ah! The Friendly Giant, Kids in the Hall, Degrassi Junior High, Degrassi High,...
One evening, I decided to wander a bit up and down the downtown shopping streets when my hunger settled in. I ended up checking out a Korean restaurant (never tried Korean food before! - see the pic) and ordered a combo that comprised of food I had no idea how to eat (what order to eat things, which were condiments and which were appetizers, etc.). Luckily, a "connaisseur" was sitting beside me and offered me some advice. We clicked, seeing that he was originally from Montreal, and finished dining together, chatting about our professions and stuff. Turned out that he works for CBC in the French-speaking department of the Ontario branch as a news investigator of some sorts. He took interest in my work, and before I knew it, I got set up for an interview!| CBC interview - le diabète |
The 7-minute interview was being broadcast across the province the next day, so during the conference I hunted for a radio so I could listen to it live. But radios are so out of the dinosaur ages that I didn't find one in the whole entire hotel and missed the live show. No problem, though, because they were kind enough to send me a digital recording of it! Just click on the doo-hickey above to hear it! Oh, and please excuse my terrible, terrible French! Even after they edited out my hesitations and bad grammar (they really did this!), I am shocked to learn how many times I start my sentences with "mais....". French people don't even say this! Oh well....
Other fun stuff about Toronto? The art! I was walking around earlier in the week and noticed this totally awesome building, which I couldn't resist taking a picture of! This is the Ontario College of Art & Design (of course, eh?). I went to take a closer look and came across the Art Gallery of Ontario next door. There was a big banner strewn across the front saying Andy Warhol, and I just had to go!
So, the day I was leaving Toronto, I went to the Andy Warhol / Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-1964 exhibit at the AGO, which (to my good fortune!) was closing the next day! This was one of the most absolute best art displays I have ever been to! I ended up buying a bunch of AW parafanalia and have his pictures up in my living room now :) Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take photos in the gallery, except for in one room. In this room was a fascinating display of a gazillion self-portraits, painted/sculpted/drawn/narrated by guests of the gallery from all over the world. The wall were covered! Children, old people, artists, non-artists, all kinds of people expressed themselves and put themselves on display! Wow.Oh, yeah. How did the conference go? Well, I did a poster display and that's usually limited on the excitement level. There were, like, 200 other posters and most of the delegates don't understand our scientific jargon anyways.
So, to my own surprise, I ended up really digging Toronto, the city I never really liked before. Go figure! Unfortunately, after this discovery, I had to cut my stay a bit short and take the early train home. My parents had called to say my poor grandmom was in the hospital! (Don't worry, folks, she's recovered and is as fine and fiesty as ever!)
posted by Susan Tam at 10/18/2006
2 Comments:
Awww, the doo-hickey didn't work for me! I wanted to hear your "mais..."
It worked the second time I tried it. Wow, your "mais"s are everywhere. I never noticed your affinity for "mais"s, but now that you've pointed it out, it does seem a bit out of place, hahaha. Good thing most of us don't notice.
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