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Saturday, November 15, 2008
GREETINGS FROM MAVIS!!! IT'S FREEZING IN TORONTO!!! Here's how I look like when it gets too cold here in Toronto...It's only when you're faced with the howling winds that you fully appreciate the utility of the almighty shawl.  Since I'm waiting for dinnertime, I thought I should really update my forsaken blog on my recent escapades :) Here goes.. --------------------- HALLOWEEN Halloween went past rather quickly... I was actually pretty excited at my first halloween celebration, so I took the bus down to Orfus Road that morning in search of my outfit for the night! I would have loved to dress up as a medieval princess/ firefighter/ policewoman..... but the costumes cost so much and I was on a tight budget! SO, I got myself a wig, and another for Geraldine too! The whole store was packed! They had really really nice acessories, everything from fake blood, face paint, retro specs, handcuffs, glow in the dark crayons, blink blink fake eyelashes...... I almost wanted to dress up as a bottle of salt but it was so bulky! haha! Say hello to Mavis the Afro! A lot of you guys know that I've always wanted to try this look. I realised that it didn't work for me very well cos the wig was so heavy and it made my face look rounder! So, I'm contented with the few hours of being an afro, and no thanks, I'm never going to try this style again!    I look better in the purple wig hor!  The group of us had fun dancing around, and teaching our new friends Mandarin the whole night. So they spent the night saying "ni hao" and 'xie xie ni" to everyone they met! haha! They had this costume competition and everyone rushed to participate. Some costumes were really cool!!!    Loved the raisins!   -------------------- CN TOWER Me and Geraldine went on a weekday afternoon, and we were lucky to find that there was no queue! They had this weird security screening machine that involved having you to walk into this compartment, having the front and back gates close on you, then having air shoot out from both sides of the wall onto your body 3 times, which was more ticklish than anything else..  Taking the great glass elevators up 553 metres to see the city from the Observational Deck was astounding and breathtaking, though it was also a little scary. haha! Vain self-shots...   They also had this glass floor thing that was quite scary, considering I'm always paranoid that structures aren't very safe... But after psycho-ing myself that I won't fall through the glass down 553m, I wobbled onto the glass floor and took A TRUCKLOAD of photos to make my "dangerous stunt" worthwhile.    -------------------- Introducing the mock medieval Casa Loma!
It's this 98-room mansion built for Sir Henry Pellat, a castle in the midst of the city buildings... This happens to be the first stop of our City Pass - a $64 pass that covers admission charges to 6 major attractions in Toronto for a period of 9 days..   We had this audio guide that introduces us to the various rooms in the mansion... Instead of faithfully listening to the descriptions of the historical significance of each room the whole time, I contented myself with loads of phototaking instead. Oops.    Because Halloween was just around the corner, they had decorated the place with jack-o-lanterns, spiders, skeletons....And they had pumpkins in every room and corner too! The corpse bride, frankenstein, pirates and staff in costumes were roaming the castle too :P Even the people who came to visit were dressed up in costumes too!     On another random note, I've been to an American Football game (the Argonauts footall game) in town, at the Rogers Centre. It was really fun seeing huge men pile on/knock down/ attack each other.... But i particularly enjoyed the whole atmosphere, screaming the cheers and singing the team song whenever our team scored. They also had quirky half-time activities like the "Kiss Cam", whereby the cameras will zoom in on random couples in the crowd. So you'll see couples, initially surprised to see themselves on the huge video wall, then realising they had to kiss! haha :)  
12:53 PM
It seems so surreal that instead of busy preparing for impending examinations, I'm sitting here, watching the rainfall, enjoying my days in school as the strike intensifies.. The latest headline of the school paper screams "No Immediate End In Sight", with no plans to resume talks and negotiations, and student told to be prepared for the strike to last for a long while... Coming Monday, there's going to be a rally against the strike- the "anti-strike strike". Goodness, what an exchange experience. I thought a strike would involve angry students holding banners and huge signs hurling verbal abuses or chanting slogans.... It was hence a surprise to note that the strike in school only involved students walking around in a circle with signs or trying to persuade students and vehicles to not enter the school in support of the union. Not handing in assignments will not be penalised and classes are suspended till further notice. Which effectively means I'm free as can be. And my days can get as meaningless as " wake up- think of what to have for lunch- eat lunch- sleep- think of what to have for dinner- eat dinner- sleep"... I'm finalising a few travel plans though. Most of the professors are already touring South America to escape the cold winter in Toronto... I'm feeling pretty blissful here actually.... with all the exchange students wishing the strike will prolong (which means no final exams...).. But then there's still the nagging problem of whether we can map our modules back to those in NUS.. Oh well, the international student office did say they'll ensure the successful completion of our exchange experience... So, meanwhile, I'll still be enjoying the cool weather, falling maple leaves, sipping hot chocolate, and reading story books in the comfort of my room. I should start selling textbooks and packing my lugguages lor. Haha!
12:40 PM
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![If you had only time for one attractions in Toronto, you should really visit the CN Tower (short for Canadian National Tower)... [This sounds suspiciously like a cheesy advertisement]. It's like the city's icon.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-d8Vyp04JwpD9VP4Iy-c3v80HOl6o-bAfAnjgObUxdc4mbkOD43zZ_LJqb5ALofp6oRFd1xtqtDIZL7_aYFR_x1V-XAB0TTk5ihAL10NDEBv8-BjhpxUQux5Pc6SBncdL6Ffpx5FSPhe4/s1600-h/IMG_5149.jpg){kind=link}