Romancing a Fish

Found this on a blog at U of T, after a recent TED Talk at Hart House. I don't know much about it, but it sounds incredible.

Advent, Day 19: Transition

Tomorrow I'm off home for the holidays, which is very exciting. I've been having a relaxing few days here, but the way things have been going I'd be very bored if I didn't have something else to look forward to! Not to mention I can't wait to see my family and all my friends back home, bake and eat cookies, decorate the Christmas tree and maybe even the house, drink mulled wine with people, see my cats... oh, so many things!

The past few days, as I mentioned, have been slow indeed. Nicely slow, but I've been doing laundry, cleaning, packing... the stuff I'd rather ignore for a bit longer (always). I've neglected the advent calendar a bit, but not entirely, as you can see from the list of activities below.

[This photo is one I took at the Christmas Market last weekend.]


Day 16: With the purchases I made on Day 15, I made mulled wine and enjoyed a whole bottle (it reduces, not to worry... one bottle makes about 2 mugsfull). While drinking mulled wine, I listened to a whole host of Christmas songs, carols and ballads, and wrote about 15 holiday cards. Sadly, my handwriting was terrible... I blame it on the pen.

Day 17: I enjoyed a good swim with a good friend in the early afternoon, after which we visited a Jewish bakery, got yummy sweets and posted my Christmas cards. Taxes here are awful (13%!!) but since I spent more than $5 (about three times that in fact), my purchases were exempt from said tax, which saved me $2. :P Huzza!

Day 18: Yesterday I spent most of the day doing laundry and cleaning. In a fit of restlessness I decided to do some stretching and exercising, and am paying for yesterday's whimsy with a sore back today. Nothing Christmas-y except the fairy lights.

Day 19: My plan is to do nothing more taxing than listening to some Christmas music under my fairy lights and possibly find a holiday movie online.

Advent, Day 15: Unexpected Delights, Christmas and Otherwise

I had a wonderful day today. I traversed what feels like the entire city, getting on two streetcars and at least four subway trains, probably more. I have a new friend who's from Toronto, and she's been showing me all the neatest places to eat, shop, ice skate, and even get my hair cut!

We started out at Williams Sonoma, where I bought mulling spices. Then we went to La Bamboche, which has incredibly delicious desserts and quiche and coffee. We subway-ed down to Queen St, where we checked out my friend's favorite clothing store (with too many lovely clothes!), and walked around in that area, doing some shopping and browsing. We then headed over to Nathan Phillips Square, where we ice skated outdoors, under Christmas lights and hanging stars and a beautiful cityscape. I'll have to wander back one night and take photos, if I have time. On the way to dinner (a great Punjabi restaurant near Chester station) we stopped by the Bay to window-gaze, because they have such intricate dioramas of Christmas scenes with Santa and elves and 19th century characters. Also the poor little elves slaving away and Mrs. Claus serving her hubby, but who's complaining? Some photos of the windows can be seen here. While we ate, it started snowing, and I walked home in the crunchy, squeaky snow. Which oddly feels like walking on sand...

A very long, very pleasant afternoon and evening, all 'round.

Advent, Day 14 and Katharine Hepburn

Well, I don't have much to report, actually. Concerning getting in the holiday spirit, that is. Every night I turn on my Christmas lights, and every day when I go out I've been walking in snow (Toronto appears to be a good place to be if you want to enjoy a white Christmas). Every now and then I listen to a few Christmas carols and songs... Here's a breakdown:

• Day 11: The Christmas Market (so much fun, but not quite like the ones I went to in Italy), including mulled wine, loose-leaf tea, German sausages, a bells performance, Christmas lights and an enormous Christmas tree with ornaments the size of my head, and little wooden stalls full of treats and holiday decorations. 
• Day 12: Christmas lights and Holiday with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, which takes place over New Year's Eve (highly recommended). Hepburn is one of my favorite actresses (such style, talent and personality!) - here's an image of her in the black skirt and white shirt she wears so elegantly in the film.  
• Day 13: Christmas songs and lights (and Black Swan, which is incredible and very highly recommended, but not holiday-related.
• Day 14: Christmas songs, and I got a Christmas card! I have also resolved to send Christmas cards again this year. 

Well into my second year of my Paperless Advent Calendar of Events, I find I don't miss the paper at all. And I was never one to get advent calendars with chocolate in them (probably the 'rents thought sugar + kids + holiday = craziness and sugar/excitement highs), so I don't miss that either. Really, it's more fun to go and do Christmas-y things, than it is to fold back a small square of paper to reveal a story/picture/chocolate. 

The schedule for Day 15 includes ice skating and shopping for Christmas cards (not Green, I know, but there's no substitute), gifts and mulling spices + ball. 

Memories of Italy: Bolzano, Winter 2005

All this writing of and going to Christmas markets has brought to mind plenty of memories of Italy. I went to two Christmas markets while there, one at the very beginning of the season with my German friend Franzi, in Bologna, and one in the Trentino region of Italy. I took a train with a small bunch of other foreign students to a city called Bolzano, where the smallish Christmas Market is held in a piazza. It had snowed recently, which made it seem even more seasonal.

Somehow, a fellow student I didn't know very well, and I got behind the others, perhaps because we decided to start with some spiced white wine. She was hungry, so we got pretzels, too. We stood and enjoyed those for awhile, and when we wandered deeper into the piazza, stopped at another stall that sold mulled wine (the usual, red kind), to try that too. Then we got to the food stall, which sold polenta (there was this huge vat of the stuff, the woman standing over it and stirring it looked like a domestic, winter witch) and blue cheese, together - as well as German sausages. Yum. She got a sausage, I got the polenta. They spooned so much of it onto my plate, and it and the cheese was so rich, I couldn't finish it. Later we found the rest of our group, who'd seen everything else, the decorations and toys and incense and whatnot, and had stopped to see the musicians.

We ate (and drank) our way through the market. And it was excellent.

Doing some research for ITER today, I came across maps of Italy's regions, which is what brought this on. Here's Bolzano, and just south is the Veneto, which is where I studied and lived for four months. Bolzano is the one with the balloon, and Verona is almost directly south, in the foothills.

I think we went skiing once at Lago di Garda, but that's a story for another day...

Advent, Day 10

Wow. Ten days already! I just handed in my last assignment today! Woot woot!!

So this afternoon, after a nap, I'm going to brave the snow (yes, again) and cold to take a trip downtown to see the designer Christmas tree exhibit on at the Gardiner Museum. Some neat facts about going to the Gardiner, which I learned yesterday:

• It's open until 9pm on Fridays
• Post-secondary students are FREE on Tuesdays with ID
• 30 years of age and under FREE on Fridays after 4pm with ID (this is why we're going today)
• The museum focuses on ceramics, with Italian Renaissance ceramics (for example) and a research library for ceramic studies
• Chef Jamie Kennedy foodstuffs available at the restaurant, on Fridays from 11am - 9pm.
• There's also an exhibit on The Tsar's Cabinet, which looks intriguing and fascinating. Might try to take a peek at that tonight, too. 

Tomorrow, look for me at the Christmas Market in the Distillery district.

Advent: Day 9

Once again, I missed out on a few days. The first involved a poster presentation of a project with Yahoo Pipes - I think my group did well. Both days were also consumed by a final exam and a reluctant essay.

Last night, to avoid a three-day lapse, I watched Charlie Brown's Christmas. Spent a few years not liking it, but this time I really did - Charlie Brown has a great message about Christmas.




Up Ahead: While living in Italy, I had the opportunity to go to a couple of Christmas markets - one with a German flavor, one more Italian. Toronto's first European Christmas Market is happening now in the Distillery District, and I plan on going this weekend. Maybe more than once. I hope they have mulled wine and silly Christmas-themed trinkets to look at, and maybe buy! Click the links to find out more about what I'll be doing while there.


A video about German Christmas markets from the Toronto Market Website:

Here's another Green one!

Noticed this on the Facebook grapevine: stop wasting food.

These days, my fridge is pretty bare. That's a good thing, because I don't eat much compared to the cavernous interior of my fridge. Toronto composts, which is a really good thing - otherwise, I'd feel guiltier than I do, since I'm one of those who has eyes bigger than her stomach. Or so my dad always used to tell me.

Well, the link has some statistics and some ideas to help if you find yourself wasting food. Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Networking Opportunities

The first networking opportunity: Having volunteered at a CRRS (Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies) conference on Book History and Print Culture back in October, I received an invitation to a gratitude reception that took place last week. I went alone, expecting to see a few people I knew, but also  knowing I'd have to make an effort to network and meet new people. I was welcomed by the people I knew, and introduced myself to a woman sitting alone on a couch - we chatted. I learned from one of the women I'd worked with at the conference that there is an opportunity coming up for interdisciplinary work with CRRS, with which I hope to get involved.

The second: A couple of months ago, new to Toronto, I came across the alumni club for my old university, and made up my mind to go to their next event, which was held last night. After much internal deliberation (The semester ends on Friday, and of course I have mountains of work) I decided not to back out in cowardly fashion. I expected a similar experience to the one I'd had earlier this week, but nothing could be further from reality. From the moment we walked in, we were welcomed, our names given, received and remembered, and everyone there made an effort to talk to the new people and find out who we were, etc... in short, they are wonderful people. I made two networking connections in addition to the social connections I hope to keep. I sincerely look forward to their next event, a Burns' Night celebration in January.

Advent: Day 5

I spent too much time being sociable this weekend. Went to a reception and a party on Thursday, and last night immensely enjoyed a wine and cheese with alumni from my undergraduate university in Toronto. This means I got much less work done than I planned, and that I've neglected my Advent Calendar.

Let's see. I spent a few minutes looking at my Christmas lights on the 2nd, listened to White Christmas with Bing Crosby on the 3rd, and failed entirely to do anything Christmas-y yesterday, which was taken up with being a grad student.

Here's the White Christmas version with Rosemary Clooney, who's a favorite of mine.

So I guess today I've watched a snippet of the movie White Christmas.

Advent: Day 1

It's that time of year again, already. The first of December and the beginning of the countdown to Christmas! Last year, I was working, so had "plenty of" time to do exciting holiday things, like go see the Botanical Gardens' holiday show with the trains and the elves and the mountains covered in snow and the trees and whatnot (go, if you're in DC. It's incredible!). This year, since I'm a graduate student, I have less time to think about exciting holiday things and events and such.

So I started off in small scale. Tonight I listened to "Riu riu chiu," which is, from what I understand, a Medieval Christmas carol, and is also a Spanish traditional song. I haven't Wikipedia'd or Googled it yet, so obviously I don't know for sure. The Google link is extra, just another source with similar information to what's on the Wikipedia page. In case you're really curious about the origins of the song.