Noooo where's the snow. The temperature is definitely low enough but no snow. Only freezing rain.



Anyway, I watched James Bond the Quantam of Solace the day after it opened in Toronto. And Daniel Craig was here to promote it, but I didn't get to see him because I was too busy studying >.<

And movie tickets here are waaaay ex. Singapore's about 3 times cheaper.

Won't spoil the movie for those who want to watch it but haven't. So just go watch and be happy.

There was a Santa Claus Parade outside my window on Sunday, which woke me up from my beauty sleep. The thing about living downtown is that everything happens right outside your window. On Remembrance Day a while back, they almost fired the canons into my window, or at least I think it felt that way. Apparently the Santa Claus Parade has been held annually since 1905 (!). It was snowing during the parade, but it was wet slushy snow, only good for getting people soaked and cold and not much else. It was really heavy though. And the rest of Ontario has been having snowstorms, but Toronto got left out.

After the snow stopped, I slipped outside to see the parade and shoot some pictures of it, and it took me about 30 seconds to get from my room to the edge of the parade. That felt good. And I think it's an ang moh kid thing - but ang moh kids are just inherently cute, and the proportion cute kids is higher.



This boy was on the Sound of Music float, and from the way he carried himself and how comfortable he was with it, I have a nagging suspicion that he is actually a cast member of the musical that's now in Toronto. But I can't confirm that, because there are simply no pictures online.

And yes, that's snow on his hat.

Back to my quest for the perfect GPA. It's exam period, sucks.

The autumn colours have finally appeared in Toronto, despite the extremely wintery temperatures having persisted for quite a while now. In fact, going by the weather report, I'd better enjoy my single digit temperatures while they last. Apparently next week's highest temperatures are in the range of zero.

The colours are really damn awesome. And I get really high jumping in leaves, and yes, I know that that sort of activity is usually reserved for kids below the age of six. Unfortunately, I have never ever been overseas at this time of the year, (blame MOE's holiday timing), and as such have never expeirenced autumn or spring. So it's the first time, and I really like it.

I followed up my Singapore cemetery visits with a visit to a Canadian cemetery. Boy are the two different. The Singapore ones, while incredibly peaceful and rather pretty (by Singapore standards anyway), absolutely pale in comparison to the Canadian ones. Searched up google maps to find the nearest cemetery, and off we went.

Destination was St. James Cemetery, and, we walked the whole way there (and back). It's rather far actually, but public transport costs too much.

Had to walk a big round to find the gate to enter the rather nondescript place, and wow.



Awesome.

After I'd finished admiring the cemetery and the peacefulness of it all, Riverdale Farm was the next stop.

Riverdale Farm, as the name suggests, is a farm. In the middle of the city. It's really quite cool, it's got all the animals and it's free admission for everyone. So there were lots of kids there and everyone was happy because it was a nice and sunny autumn day. (That sounds so storybookish.)

Anyway I tried to avoid taking the usual boring photos of the animals, and opted for something a little different. So below is one of a father and son playing with the autumn leaves.



And then after that headed to Salad King for Thai green curry which absolutely rocked! The place's called Salad King even when it obviously doesn't serve any salads or anything resembling salads. Apparently, the previous shop there was called Salad King and really did sell salads, and when the current shop took over, they just couldn't be bothered to change the sign, so it became known as Salad King. There is this perpetual queue outside, and from what I hear, it doesn't diminish, even when it's snowing. I think the food's good, but not that good.

And in other news, I got back some of my tests/assignments, and at the moment I have a damn high GPA. Hmm. An unbelievable 4.0. But I'm pretty sure that will drop once the rest come back.

I finally gave in to homesickness today. I really want to go back to Singapore, now. Yes Canada's been good to me. There's no reason to dislike it, actually. But I still want Singapore. I knew this would happen sooner or later, but I've been trying to avoid it. Seems that I can't anymore.

I want so bad to hug my mother. I want my bed in my room. I want to see all those people I know back in Singapore. I want to talk to my brother on MSN when he's two metres away from me, not fifteen thousand kilometres away. I want to stick my head out of my study window and see another lousy Singaporean sunset, even though I know they will never compare to the ones here. I even want to feel the hot sticky afternoon, because that means I'm back.


Fly Away

"When will you be home?" she asks
As we watch the planes take off
We both know we have no clear answer to where my dreams may lead
She's watched me as I crawled and stumbled
As a child, she was my world
And now to let me go, I know she bleeds
And yet she says to me

You can fly so high
Keep your gaze upon the sky
I'll be praying every step along the way
Even though it breaks my heart to know we'll be so far apart
I love you too much to make you stay
Baby fly away

-"Fly Away" by Corrinne May

I'm pretty sure my mum cried when she left me in Toronto. I did too, but she didn't see. I think I understand. And the song lyrics put into words exactly what happened, probably way better than I can while I'm in this rather messed up state.

Had my first lesson in university today. Second year Eastern & Central Europe History. It doesn't seem to be particularly hard, but maybe I'm speaking too early. I think I'm the only first year student there, which makes things a bit intimidating.

I also had first year political science today, and I think I am really going to enjoy that. Tomorrow is psychology.

I do like Toronto, and although I'm walking a lot everyday (to give you an idea of the size of my uni's campus, it's served by 5 subway stations on 2 seperate lines, and has dunno how many libraries - something in the region of 30?) and running up and down 4 stories because my room's on the top floor, I still think it's really nice and the weather is just awesome. The flowers are so bright too, but I can see that they're beginning to die, and the trees are beginning to turn to red and yellow. Summer's over! I'm quite happy about it but I think the Canadians aren't.


My residence building in infrared.


I wonder where the bees go in winter.


I think this is slightly depressing, but beautiful at the same time.

Despite having insane amounts of freedom, I'm not even trying to do anything that I didn't do in Singapore. I haven't drunk a drop of alcohol even though I'm of legal age over here and most of the kids here aren't. I know they envy me because I can get alcohol and nicotine anytime I want, but I don't want, and they don't seem to be able to understand that.

And I'm generally just avoiding thinking about how far away Singapore is, how I am absolutely alone in this weird place, and what and who's in Singapore, because if I do then I'll really miss it. I know I will end up thinking about it eventually, but until then, I'll stave it off by just not thinking too hard.