Autumn, Where Art Thou?
or, Why I Love Canada.
It is mid-October, which is supposed to be my favorite time of the year. Pumpkins, scarves, funny hats, chilled noses, and time to make warm hearty home food. There is one thing standing in the way of my fully enjoying this season: I live in Texas. It is currently 83° and thanks to the unfriendly 70% humidity it feels like 90°.
On a side note that is, I assure you, completely unrelated, it is currently 40° in Toronto. Did I mention how much I adored Toronto? NO?! Well then, please allow me to gush just a bit…
As a recap, BlueEyes and I decided to make the trek to Canada since he and his brothers were performing at the Toronto Improv Festival. I will regale you with stories of our international adventures later on (as if they’re not already overdue) but for now, just let me tell you about wonderous mythical place and what I loved about it.
The People - I have always heard that southerners are a friendly, trusting people, more pleasant and welcoming than our northern counterparts. I certainly fit that stereotype and having a native New Yorker as one of my closest friends… well, I’ve had no reason to think otherwise and am proud of my Texas roots for this. However, this rule apparently only applies within the US borders.
Canadians are NICE, y’all. Have you ever been offered assistance out of nowhere by a complete stranger? Well I sure have. While standing on a corner debating on whether to head east toward Little Italy or north to Little China for dinner one evening, BlueEyes and I were stopped by a man OFFERING help. In reality we weren’t lost at all - just indecisive - but we must have looked a bit clueless. People handed us their subway maps and were more than happy to give us directions, suggestions, or just talk to us!
The Squirrels - They are jet black. Enough said.
The City - So, Toronto is old. I feel that most big cities have built on top of
themselves, drowning out their history for the corporate hustle and bustle. Not Toronto. This city seems to have embraced theirs, and it almost feels as if its growth spurt halted 30 years ago (not the case – the current population tops 2.5 mil). Just a block east of the busy New-York-like Yonge Dundas Square lies a park, a 19th century greenhouse, a few beautiful churches and a quiet neighborhood of Victorian townhomes. Head north from Queen St West (where we stayed) and you’ll hit the most charming Polish neighborhood with, again, the uniquely decorated Victorian townhomes which with their tiny gated front yards and cozy structure charmed their way into my heart immediately. I think a good portion of the trip was spent imagining myself in one of these bay-and-gable homes, with a studio/library in the basement and my dog lounging on the 2nd storey patio. Future, let’s look into getting us one of those little gems, shall we?
The “Home” Factor - Thankfully BlueEyes and I have similar preferences in travel: to say screw the scheduled sightseeing and just make it an adventure. Thus, we went most everywhere by either foot or trolley which was not only cheap, but allowed us to take in SO MUCH and make the most of this fantastic place.
In the first 48 hours or so, we started noticing trends that made us feel completely at home in this new-found wonderland:
Toronto is clean. Subways, sidewalks, you name it – it was pleasant.
Toronto is safe. Of the hundreds (literally) of bikes we saw locked to porches, in front of buildings, etc – we did not see a single one that had been pieced off or vandalized. C’mon you Austin assholes, shape up.
Machismo is nearly nonexistent. As are sagging and loud cars.
Toronto is polite. I'm not completely sure how to explain this other than with examples. The crosswalk sign at Queens and Roncesvalles advised "Pedestrians, please wait for gap in traffic." A sign on the subway read "If elderly passengers or expectant mothers are standing, you may be asked to give up your seat." It was as if the City of Toronto was gently suggesting to its citizens, "Please, use common sense and be courteous."
Homeless are not scary. As much as I hate to admit it, the homeless here in Austin and even moreso in Dallas and other cities scare the hell out of me. Maybe I have an unfounded prejudice or maybe it's the memory of being chased down Red River by a smelly man calling me terrible names and pulling my hair. Whatever it is, it's a far cry from what the people we saw on the streets of Toronto made me feel. I witnessed them holding doors open, helping strangers, wishing passers by a good day even when charity was refused. Thanks to public-funded healthcare they are in far better shape than the barely-breathing heaps or strung out beings I've been approached by on the drag. It made me more than happy to give a bit of change to the man who, upon us saying no at first, said "Ok, thanks anyway."
Toronto is… safe. Let me reiterate: At any given time of day and on any street, there was inevitably a woman with a child walking without that fear of what-lurks-around-the-corner that we, especially women, are instilled with here. There were open parks FULL of kids and dogs on - I'll swear to this - every other corner. I hate to sound so desirous for a Leave it to Beaver lifestyle but really, when did we lose this US???
The Culture - In truth, there wasn't a distinguishable culture and that's what I loved. While I'm sure it exists there was not an established standard of beauty or sense of "in" vs "out." Here in Austin, a trek near Downtown, the University and anywhere in between (which I absolutely do not condone during a.Rush Week or b.OU Weekend)will offer sights of distinct cliques; in my college days you knew the "it" girls by their cotton shorts, huge sunglasses and perpetually-out-of-season Ugg boots. There was NONE of this in Toronto. The diversity was SO widespread that there was just no room for this type of social segregation. It occurred to me rather late in our stay that I never once felt like I stuck out as a tourist, because one simply cannot stick out in that happy miscellany.
Toronto housed people from every corner of the world and all walks of life. There were neighborhoods centered around every culture you could think of with their own restaurants, markets, hangouts. A walk down Queens Street easily put us in earshot of conversations in a dozen different languages, which made for a beautiful experience for us. I don't mean beautiful in the fabulous foreign vacation-ey sense, but more in the "I'm a human in a great big neat world" beautiful sense.
So thanks, Toronto, for being so lovely and giving me something to aim for.
It is mid-October, which is supposed to be my favorite time of the year. Pumpkins, scarves, funny hats, chilled noses, and time to make warm hearty home food. There is one thing standing in the way of my fully enjoying this season: I live in Texas. It is currently 83° and thanks to the unfriendly 70% humidity it feels like 90°.On a side note that is, I assure you, completely unrelated, it is currently 40° in Toronto. Did I mention how much I adored Toronto? NO?! Well then, please allow me to gush just a bit…
As a recap, BlueEyes and I decided to make the trek to Canada since he and his brothers were performing at the Toronto Improv Festival. I will regale you with stories of our international adventures later on (as if they’re not already overdue) but for now, just let me tell you about wonderous mythical place and what I loved about it.
The People - I have always heard that southerners are a friendly, trusting people, more pleasant and welcoming than our northern counterparts. I certainly fit that stereotype and having a native New Yorker as one of my closest friends… well, I’ve had no reason to think otherwise and am proud of my Texas roots for this. However, this rule apparently only applies within the US borders.
Canadians are NICE, y’all. Have you ever been offered assistance out of nowhere by a complete stranger? Well I sure have. While standing on a corner debating on whether to head east toward Little Italy or north to Little China for dinner one evening, BlueEyes and I were stopped by a man OFFERING help. In reality we weren’t lost at all - just indecisive - but we must have looked a bit clueless. People handed us their subway maps and were more than happy to give us directions, suggestions, or just talk to us!
The Squirrels - They are jet black. Enough said.
The City - So, Toronto is old. I feel that most big cities have built on top of
themselves, drowning out their history for the corporate hustle and bustle. Not Toronto. This city seems to have embraced theirs, and it almost feels as if its growth spurt halted 30 years ago (not the case – the current population tops 2.5 mil). Just a block east of the busy New-York-like Yonge Dundas Square lies a park, a 19th century greenhouse, a few beautiful churches and a quiet neighborhood of Victorian townhomes. Head north from Queen St West (where we stayed) and you’ll hit the most charming Polish neighborhood with, again, the uniquely decorated Victorian townhomes which with their tiny gated front yards and cozy structure charmed their way into my heart immediately. I think a good portion of the trip was spent imagining myself in one of these bay-and-gable homes, with a studio/library in the basement and my dog lounging on the 2nd storey patio. Future, let’s look into getting us one of those little gems, shall we?The “Home” Factor - Thankfully BlueEyes and I have similar preferences in travel: to say screw the scheduled sightseeing and just make it an adventure. Thus, we went most everywhere by either foot or trolley which was not only cheap, but allowed us to take in SO MUCH and make the most of this fantastic place.
In the first 48 hours or so, we started noticing trends that made us feel completely at home in this new-found wonderland:
Toronto is clean. Subways, sidewalks, you name it – it was pleasant.
Toronto is safe. Of the hundreds (literally) of bikes we saw locked to porches, in front of buildings, etc – we did not see a single one that had been pieced off or vandalized. C’mon you Austin assholes, shape up.
Machismo is nearly nonexistent. As are sagging and loud cars.
Toronto is polite. I'm not completely sure how to explain this other than with examples. The crosswalk sign at Queens and Roncesvalles advised "Pedestrians, please wait for gap in traffic." A sign on the subway read "If elderly passengers or expectant mothers are standing, you may be asked to give up your seat." It was as if the City of Toronto was gently suggesting to its citizens, "Please, use common sense and be courteous."
Homeless are not scary. As much as I hate to admit it, the homeless here in Austin and even moreso in Dallas and other cities scare the hell out of me. Maybe I have an unfounded prejudice or maybe it's the memory of being chased down Red River by a smelly man calling me terrible names and pulling my hair. Whatever it is, it's a far cry from what the people we saw on the streets of Toronto made me feel. I witnessed them holding doors open, helping strangers, wishing passers by a good day even when charity was refused. Thanks to public-funded healthcare they are in far better shape than the barely-breathing heaps or strung out beings I've been approached by on the drag. It made me more than happy to give a bit of change to the man who, upon us saying no at first, said "Ok, thanks anyway."
Toronto is… safe. Let me reiterate: At any given time of day and on any street, there was inevitably a woman with a child walking without that fear of what-lurks-around-the-corner that we, especially women, are instilled with here. There were open parks FULL of kids and dogs on - I'll swear to this - every other corner. I hate to sound so desirous for a Leave it to Beaver lifestyle but really, when did we lose this US???
The Culture - In truth, there wasn't a distinguishable culture and that's what I loved. While I'm sure it exists there was not an established standard of beauty or sense of "in" vs "out." Here in Austin, a trek near Downtown, the University and anywhere in between (which I absolutely do not condone during a.Rush Week or b.OU Weekend)will offer sights of distinct cliques; in my college days you knew the "it" girls by their cotton shorts, huge sunglasses and perpetually-out-of-season Ugg boots. There was NONE of this in Toronto. The diversity was SO widespread that there was just no room for this type of social segregation. It occurred to me rather late in our stay that I never once felt like I stuck out as a tourist, because one simply cannot stick out in that happy miscellany.
Toronto housed people from every corner of the world and all walks of life. There were neighborhoods centered around every culture you could think of with their own restaurants, markets, hangouts. A walk down Queens Street easily put us in earshot of conversations in a dozen different languages, which made for a beautiful experience for us. I don't mean beautiful in the fabulous foreign vacation-ey sense, but more in the "I'm a human in a great big neat world" beautiful sense.
So thanks, Toronto, for being so lovely and giving me something to aim for.
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