Land Down Under

In November I made the long trip back home to visit family and friends. It was so good to see everyone again and it felt very reassuring to slip back into my 'second life' so easily. I was glad to trade the sub zero temperatures in Toronto for long days of warm sunshine in Perth and I made every effort to consume as many flat whites as humanly possible during my stay.

Reflections on my intercontinental experience:

Five things I didn't realise I missed about Australia:
1. Driving a car along the coastline while listening to Triple J
2. The friendly, easy-going Australian approach to life. Everything is "no worries mate!"
3. Being able to pay with exact change (GST is included in the sale price)
4. Fitting in and not getting curious looks and questions about my accent all the time
5. This sound: http://youtu.be/DJEHmF657uI

Five things I now realise I will miss about Canada:
1. Having four distinct seasons. I'll miss the colour change in Fall and the snow in Winter
2. Living in a big city with a thriving entertainment and cultural scene
3. Being a long-term tourist and exploring new places for the first time
4. Having an abundance of free time in which to do and see new things
5. Shorter flight times to Europe and the US

 

Trick Or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

Ah yes, the time-honoured North-American tradition of buying excessive amounts of fun-sized candy bars, then dressing the kids up in elaborate costumes to go out trick or treating so that they can bring home even more candy from the neighbours. What fun!

Halloween celebrations this year included:

• Carving a pumpkin for our apartment building's Jack o' Lantern competition (second prize, thank you very much!)
  
• Watching some creeeeepy zombies participating in the annual Toronto Zombie Walk. Sadly it rained on their parade, which made for some very soggy undead towards the afternoon.
  
• Going on a haunted walking tour of Toronto. It was interesting to learn a bit more about the history of the area, but all the stories ended in much the same way, e.g. "some say that to this day, you can still hear her footsteps on the staircase.... (long dramatic pause)".
  
• Attending the Church and Wellesley Halloween street party. This is the adult version of Halloween - the costumes are far more outlandish, and trick or treating is replaced by bar-hopping. We saw some truly incredible costumes including my all time favourite, a larger than life cardboard cut-out of Toronto's infamous mayor Rob Ford, complete with human crack pipe and media frenzy. Nothing could be scarier!

Guess who? BOO!

What a night-mayor!

Falling In love With Fall

Ah, Fall. Such a beautiful time of year! Crisp mornings, colourful autumn leaves, cosy knitwear and Pumpkin Spice Lattes - what's not to love?

I was curious about what causes the Fall colour change, so I thought I'd share my internet-based findings with you. As the temperature begins to drop and the days become shorter, chlorophyll production in plants gradually ceases. This means that the green colour usually present in leaves fades away, revealing underlying pigments such as yellow, orange and brown. The red colour that occurs in some trees is caused by a breakdown of sugars.

Fall colours in Ontario are usually at their peak during the first week of October and the best displays occur with a combination of cool nights and sunny days. The Ontario Parks website provides a fantastic colour report of the best times and places for 'Leaf Peeping' (yes, that's a thing).

Well, that's enough education for one day. Here are some pretty pictures!

Nuit Blanche

We stayed up pretty late on Saturday night to explore Nuit Blanche, where the city of Toronto magically transforms into a surreal, all-night, outdoor art exhibition. Several major streets were shut down for the event, making room for scores of people to wander between artworks. Balloons, patchwork quilts, bicycles, plastic bags, socks and chairs were just some of the materials used in the sculptural pieces, which repeatedly brought to mind questions such as "what does it mean?" and "is it art?" We finished the night in the traditional Canadian way by devouring a box of take-away poutine at 2:30am.

 

 

TIFF Time

We saw two movies at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, 'Enemy' starring Jake Gyllenhall and 'Blood Ties' starring Clive Owen, Mila Kunis and Marion Cotillard. Both movies were quite interesting and gave us the opportunity to get a little closer to fame (see below!) Enemy was actually filmed in Toronto so it was cool to recognise some of the scenes and to point out our apartment in the sweeping skyline panorama that played over the closing credits.

TIFF generates a really fun buzz in the city, with red carpets and crowds of excited fans outside every theatre and plenty of rumoured celebrity sightings and A-list after parties. Apparently Jake (we're on a first name basis now) dined at a new restaurant a couple of blocks away from us, and Hugh Jackman had to make a trip to the Australian Consulate to vote in the federal election.

Good Things Grow In Ontario

We've made a few weekend road trips out of the city lately which I've really enjoyed. It's been great to get out and explore Ontario a little more, especially in the Summer. If you're wondering, the title of this post comes from the infuriatingly catchy jingle on the Foodland Canada commercials.

Prince Edward County
Prince Edward County is a lovely little wine region in south-eastern Ontario. We drove along a series of winding roads through the beautiful countryside, stopping at several indulgent pit-stops along the way. We had apple cider at The County Cider Company & Estate, ate wood fired pizza at Norman Hardie Winery and did some wine tasting at Casa Dea Estates.

Gananoque and the Thousand Islands
Heading further east, we stopped at Gananoque (pronounced 'gan-an-nock-way') to take a boat cruise through the Thousand Islands (which inspired the famous creamy salad dressing of the same name). It was amazing to see so many houses dotted throughout the islands and it made me wonder who could possibly live out there in such isolation. Some of the islands were only big enough for a single house, so my guess is that they're the kind of people who don't care much for neighbourly chit-chat.

Stratford, Ontario
Located in Perth county (but still a very long way from home), Stratford is a small town well known for its annual theatre festival. We decided to take in a bit of culture and saw the play 'Blithe Spirit' and the musical 'Tommy'.
I enjoyed walking along the grassy banks of the Avon river, watching graceful white swans skillfully navigate between tourists in paddle boats. Incidentally, Stratford is the hometown of everyone's favourite Canadian teen-pop sensation, Justin Bieber.

Muskoka: Huntsville and Algonquin Provincial Park
We visited Algonquin in the Fall last year, so it was nice to enjoy the sunshine and warmer weather in Summer this time. After a hearty breakfast fit for lumberjacks, we went for a relaxing canoe paddle through one of the park's many lakes. We also took a couple of scenic trail walks through the woods and spotted some maple trees that had started their colour change early. I really love this park, something about it just feels so authentically Canadian to me! Sadly, there were no bear or moose sightings, although I am determined to see at least one of each before we leave the country.

 

  

On Being Australian

I feel that I've assimilated quite well into this country and I'd like to think that I could pass for Canadian in most circumstances, except for one pesky little thing - my accent. Strangely, I often forget that I have an accent, so I'm surprised when I meet someone new and they call me out on it.

Here are a collection of questions and comments that I've received in response to my Aussie twang:

"Oh, I didn't realise you were British"

"There's another girl that works here who's from New Zealand too"

"Oh, you're from Australia? I have a cousin in Sydney!"

"Oh, you're from Australia? I have a friend in Auckland!"

"I love it when you leave me voice messages, your accent is so cute!"

"Do I have an accent?"

"You mean you don't get any snow at all?"

"I wanted to go to Australia, but then I saw 'Survivor: Australia', and I changed my mind"

"Wow, that must have been a long flight over! What is it, like, 10 hours?"

"Do you go walkabout?"

"I'm too scared to go to Australia, you have so many spiders, snakes and sharks!"

"That's so weird that your Christmas is during Summer"

"Australia eh? Shouldn't you be in Whistler?"

Five Things I Will, And Will Not Miss About Toronto

Now that we've been living here for over a year I can't help but reflect on all our experiences and wonder how I will feel this time next year, when we prepare to return home.

Five things I will miss about Toronto:
1. Playing in the snow
2. Living downtown within a 5 minute walk to work/shops/restaurants
3. Buying 3 medium-sized punnets of blueberries for $5.00
4. Having a waitperson take out a calculator to split a restaurant bill 5 ways
5. Daylight that lasts until 9:30pm in Summer

Five things I will not miss about Toronto:
1. Drinking awful coffee
2. Pronouncing my name with an American 'R' sound
3. Being so far away from family and friends
4. Living amongst an entire population suffering Seasonal Affective Disorder in February
5. Orange cheese

The Maple Leaf Forever

This post is a belated celebration of Canada Day (which was, ahem... a couple of weeks ago now!). Canada is quite a patriotic country, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the most prominent symbol of Canadian identity: the maple leaf.

In some ways, the maple leaf is a strange image to adopt, considering that the vast majority of maple trees are only found in the east of the country. That being said, maple trees have played a significant role in Canada's economic development. Canada is the world's largest producer of maple syrup, exporting $145 million of it annually. The timber trade also provided employment to many Canadians throughout the 1800s, which explains how the lumberjack came to be such a popular cultural icon.

The current national flag of Canada was adopted in 1965, replacing the previous version which featured a union jack and shield on a red background. It turned out to be a wise design choice, as today the stylized red maple leaf is instantly recognizable as a symbol of Canada. I've heard many stories of travelers (both Canadian and otherwise) who sew maple leaf patches onto their backpacks to ensure a friendly reception overseas. This iconic flag immediately communicates "I am Canadian" (and therefore, most likely a nice person) but perhaps even more importantly, it says "I am not an American".

The maple leaf is also used liberally in Canadian logos by companies hoping to capitalize on the national pride of their consumers. I suppose the equivalent symbols in Australia are the kangaroo (Qantas), the map of Australia (TipTop bread) or the southern cross (tattooed across the shoulderblades of bogans everywhere). The maple leaf certainly has the monopoly when it comes to national symbolism in Canada. And once you start looking, you begin notice it EVERYWHERE. I saw at least half a dozen walking 2 blocks today. The maple leaf is even added to American logos (e.g. McDonald's, Wendy's, Sears) to distinctly brand them as Canadian versions of the company.

With that, I wish you a very happy (belated) Canada Day!


 

One Year In Canada

This week marked the one year anniversary of our arrival in Canada. To celebrate, I've created a video of all our adventures. Enjoy!

Canadian Vocab Lesson - Part 2

Time for another language lesson! (click here to revisit part 1)

Canadian English is a bit of a compromise between US and UK English. For example, the letter 'z' is pronounced 'zed' in Canada, unlike the US pronunciation 'zee', and spellings often follow the UK English rules (e.g. 'harbour' instead of 'harbor'). This makes Canadian English fairly forgiving to an Aussie, however there are still enough differences to cause misunderstandings.

While Australians are regularly exposed to American words and phrases through television and movies, North Americans are largely unfamiliar with UK English terminologies. This means that I rarely have a problem understanding Canadians, but I receive quizzical expressions when I accidentally say 'chemist' instead of 'drug store' or 'take away' instead of 'take out'. Differences in pronunciation can also result in confusion, so I have become well versed at ordering a 'mocha for Claire' in Canadian.

Words

Canadian	Australian translation
drug store	chemist
tylenol	panadol
grocery store	supermarket
biscuit	a savoury scone
cookie	biscuit
french fries	hot chips
potato chips	chips
ketchup	tomato sauce
lemonade	lemon squash
sprite	lemonade
jello	jelly
jelly	jam without fruit pulp
jam	jam with fruit pulp
take out	take away
trash	rubbish
bin	office filing tray
white trash	bogan
keener	do gooder
faucet	tap
gas station	servo
gas	petrol
hood	bonnet
trunk	boot
truck	ute
parking lot	car park
side walk	foot path
elevator	lift
sweater	jumper
cell phone	mobile
pissed	pissed off
drunk	pissed
play hooky	chuck a sickie
where's waldo	where's wally

Expressions

* "Brutal" - this adjective is used liberally in conversation to describe difficult, annoying or somewhat inconvenient situations (e.g. The traffic was brutal this morning, eh?).

* "Pot luck" - equivalent to Australia's "bring a plate".

Australian expressions that mean absolutely nothing to Canadians (and will result in blank stares):

* File that in the 'too hard basket'
* Arvo (short for afternoon)

Pronunciation

Word	Canadian	Australian
lychee	LIT-CHI	LY-CHI
liquor	LIH-KHOR	LIK-A
thorough	THUH-ROWH	THUR-A
Claire	CLAYR	CLEH
mocha	MOHW-KA	MOK-A

The Darling Buds Of May

Spring seems to make a lot more sense in the northern hemisphere. The recent changes in the weather, temperature, flora and fauna provide a sharp contrast to the bitter winter of just a few months ago. The springtime themes of new life, renewal and awakening are so much more tangible as the trees regain their foliage, the colourful spring blooms appear and the air is filled with the sound of birds sweetly chirping. You can probably guess by now that I'm glad winter is finally over! I've been making the most of spring by spending time outside enjoying the sunshine and practising my photography skills.

Around this time of year, Toronto's High Park is packed with people enjoying the beautiful yet fleeting display of cherry tree blossoms. In 1959, Tokyo donated 2000 cherry trees to Toronto in gratitude for accepting the Japanese people that relocated here after WWII. I found it incredibly peaceful to stroll through the park, watching the delicate cherry blossom petals fall and drift away with each gentle breeze.

I visited Ottawa this week for the annual tulip festival. Continuing the theme of floral displays of appreciation, this festival began with a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs from the Dutch royal family. The flowers were presented to Canada in gratitude for providing safe harbour to the Dutch Princess and her children during the German occupation of the Netherlands in WWII. The tulip festival continues to celebrate this friendship between nations with a display of over 300,000 tulips in more than 60 different varieties. A very beautiful way to say thank you!

Casa Loma gardens, Toronto

 Casa Loma gardens, Toronto

 High Park, Toronto

 High Park, Toronto

High Park, Toronto

 The Rideau Canal, Ottawa
(hard to believe we were ice skating along here in February!)

Tulip festival, Ottawa

 

Tulip festival, Ottawa

Tulip festival, Ottawa

 Tulip festival, Ottawa

 Tulip festival, Ottawa

 Tulip festival, Ottawa

 Tulip festival, Ottawa

 Tulip festival, Ottawa