My Trip to Toronto

I left London all by myself for 2 days. No parents, and I made it. I came back home, alive and well. This was one of my first tastes of independence. This was step one of my adult life, and although there was a couple of bumps along the way, I think I made it out alright.

Here are just a few of the memorable moments from my trip, the ones that I find most enjoyable.

I am notorious in my house for getting my boot laces stuck. Often, someone else must undo them for me as they get much too difficult for me. The morning we left for Toronto I put on my boots, but far too tight. Before I even got on the bus my foot was hurting from the boot. I tried for the next two hours to remove it, to no avail. Even my roommate of the trip tried helping me out, but it was no use. My boots were stuck. I was forced to cut the laces off using my sole razor of the trip. I sliced open the laces and ruined my razor. My foot was swollen and still hurt for hours afterward. it wasn't the best way to start the trip.

Everything in Toronto is big. They do not "do" small. The Eaten Centre was ridiculously large, and had numerous stores. Within the 4 floors of the building, were MULTIPLE locations of Kernels (2), McDonald's (2), Starbucks (2), Manchu Wok (2), New York Fries (2) and then 2, or 3 Tim Horton's. Banana Republic and Abercrombie were split amongst genders and age groups, so they had multiples as well. The stores that only had one location were big. Sport Chek had 5 levels, one less than the ROOTS store. For some reason these stores were massive, and confusing.

The Bay itself was this MASSIVE building, towering at 11 floors. The first 7 floors were bigger than both floors at the Bay in White Oaks COMBINED. One floor of the store was just carpets. It was big and daunting, and I am a little embarassed to admit, I got lost for about 30 minutes inside of it.

The hotel room was extremely cold, I could not figure out why. I put the heater on, even up to full blast, almost constatntly but the room still had a chill. It was not until the next morning that I, frozen solid, realized that the window had been opened the entire time. That was very embarassing for me as well.

At the Raptor's game, Toronto was winning 97-95 with 1.7 seconds left. Guess who got the last 2 points? The other team, forcing the game into overtime. In the OT, Memphis absolutely dominated, and Toronto lost. All hell broke loose. Before the game even officially ended, people were leaving the building in droves. Before the game was over, about 60% of the stadium had left. People were booing, and small children were being sacrificed. It was definitely not a pretty site.

Even though there were some bumps, there was one major plus. I saw the Ted Rogers School of Management, a university I have been accepted to. I discovered its location (In the heart of the city and the Eaton Centre) and I realized that I could move to Toronto. I could do it, I could survive on my own. Whether it was blending in as a local, walking and finding my way around, or even dodging the crazy traffic, I realized that I might have just been visiting my home for the next 4 years.

And you know what, I liked it.