The first 2 weeks have flown past, but my overriding impression of Toronto, is that I absolutely love it here :-) I may think differently after a winter, but for now, its great.
I'm still staying in a rented apartment, about a 3 min walk from work and loving the lack of a commute. I can leave the apartment, get my coffee and be at my desk in less time than it used to take me to walk to Sutton train station in the morning!!
I have found a place to rent in mid-town Toronto on Eglinton and Baysview for those who know Toronto. I don't yet have any photos of the inside, but this is what the outside is like... (and now I need to work out how to load photos!!)
Yesterday, I bought myself a car, which was great fun. I had already worked out that I wanted a Ford Focus and which dealer had good offers, so I trundled out to Missassuga on the Super-Sized trains they have here in Toronto... I have never seen such an enormous train in my life before! They are double story and go on for about 12 or 14 carriages. Inside they are clean, spacious and VERY nice.
After looking at the sedan versus the hatchback cars, I decided on a sedan as the boot was much bigger and the back seat still folds down, which is very handy. I have bought a black 2009 model, so its the new shape and the car has nice low mileage.
I am also the proud holder of a Canadian drivers license. Ontario only swops drivers licenses with about 4 countries in the world, so despite having a UK "driving on the left" license, they recognise it here and I simply swopped it and now have a Canadian one.
I should get my car on Thursday and I can't wait to have some wheels again. There is very little public transport here, so although you can get around by bus, there is a limited service and unless you stay in the centre of Toronto, you need a car. Hopefully next weekend I can go visit Niagra falls :-)
This weekend is a long weekend, and they have a big exhibition at the exhibition centre. I went along yesterday and had a marvelous time there.
I really enjoyed looking at the sand sculpture. They looked amazing - as though the "statues" were carved from rock.
I also had a good laugh, looking at the fruit and vegetable competion tables. I think this must be a North American thing, but they literally had competions for all sorts of fruit and vegetables. I had to control myself not to laugh and to mearly show interest while taking the photos!!
A winning tray of carrots... AND not only did this tray win first prize, they also won some vegetable of the day prize too!
And a winning aubergine...
On Saturday evening, I watched an aerobatic and iceskating show. It was all done to rock music and quite entertaining. The photos didn't come out very well, but this one shows a guy holding his body out sideways - pretty incredible.
Church has also been great. I've been going to St Pauls, which is an anglican church in downtown Toronto. Its a family church with about 150-200 people. They are so friendly and so chatty, I am already starting to feel at home there. The year is much like the UK, so everything starts up again in September and I'll get involved with a small group and other ministry opportunities at the church.
Work is going very well as well. I am privileged to be working with a great bunch of people and I am actually enjoying work very much at the moment as well.
Hey Belinda - sounds like it is all falling into place! Like the car.....
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