Trip and pics

So, I am back from my 5 day trip to Toronto (for the CLA).
Details:

Friday:

After a rather uneventful trip, as you can see in the picture,

Émile, Gus, Guillaume and me arrived at Toronto in the evening. Raph met us at the station and afterwards we headed for the Duke of York where we had a late dinner... It was then that we decided (since none of us was presenting on Saturday) to rent a car (many thanks to our driver Guillaume) to go to Niagara Falls.

At around midnight I got to the youth hostel. Not a very bad place; the only problem: I forgot to bring flip-flops and the shower is located at the other side of the corridor where my room is...

Saturday:

Apologies to everyone for standing them up for about an hour. (I had this "brilliant" idea to go to YU and register early in the morning)

So, we left Toronto at around 2 p.m and after a short stop at a winery

and a slight delay as "Celine" had to pass bellow the bridge..

we got to our final destination, the falls. One word: AMAZING:

As you can see, we had lots of fun, especially when we decided to go into that little boat you see above....

in the mist...

For a complete list of pictures (with better quality and size) click here

Our short trip to Niagara Falls ended with dinner at a restaurant "downtown" and a small tour around the area. I even won some presents in the arcade.....

Finally, we returned to Toronto at around 1.30 am.

Sunday

Well, it was about time to get to YU. There, we met up with Jen and Naoko , while Raph and Émile gave their talks. Later that evening, we attended the general reception (the food could be better) and then we headed downtown. Being curious and needful of some help from the "big guy upostairs", I ended up attending a late mass with Raph. Overall, there are many similarities between the Orthodox and the Roman-Catholic ritual. After the service, we caught up with Jen, Naoko and Émile and at around midnight we called the night off...

- I just realized that though I have cable tv in my room, there is no remote!!!

Monday

TTC went on strike; the city is paralysed, it's hot and humid and... I am giving a talk!!!!

After a very expensive taxi ride to YU, I caught up with Jen, Gustavo and Naoko. I had brought my laptop with me, so I spent a lot of time refining my handout just before my talk. However, I believe it went O.K. I even got PA to admit that I presented a good argument against an alternative proposal he had in mind.....

Later on, Jen , Naoko and me went to the CLA reception and at around 7 pm we decided to return downtown. We had heard that the strike was over, little did we know though that not everything was working. So, we got the bus to Downsview subway only to find out that it was still closed!!.
After 2-2.5 hours of travelling by bus, on foot and by subway (the stations that were operational, that is) we got to the Duke of York for dinner (me; I hadn't had anything all day) and drinks (the girls). We called the night off at around 10.30 and we said goodbye since the girls would leave the next day.

-That room in the hostel is damn hot!!

Tuesday

Since I did not manage to meet up with Raph and Émile, I decided to tour a bit the city. So, I headed for the Greektown just to see what is all about. It was funny to see the names of the streets written in Greek.....









Wednesday

Checked out, got the train back to Montreal. It is raining!!!

Oh well..., at least I had a good time....

Evaluation and other news...

I got the evaluation report for this year from the department. Overall, they seem to be satisfied with my progress so far, but the more interesting (and harder) part of the program is to follow so I'll keep my fingers crossed. The only dark spot: one "reason for concern" for my performance as a TA. No surprises there!I knew that all these bad and rude comments I got would eventually come back to haunt me....

In other news, I finally (better late than never) got accommodation arrangements for my short stay in Toronto at the end of the month. It's a downtown youth hostel but,considering my budget limitations (where is that tax refund?), it's the best possible solution. I just hope everything will turn out O.K.. I guess I should not make a big deal out of it, but it's just that my 4 years of staying in a dormitory with a whole bunch of problems (power/water shortages, leaking ceilings, lack of hygiene) made me a bit eerie of this type of places.

Anyway, I think it's time to see how I can change a bit my presentation, so it will not be exactly the same as for MOT.

Done!

I 've just e-mailed a long due term paper. I can now breathe more freely.Now, I still have some grading to do and apparently there is my presentation later this month, but at least I can get some time off.

In other news, I have completed on online census questionaire for Statistics Canada. Since I have no dependants (good for them), it took me about 4 minutes. Interesting details:

Question: "Please enter your date of birth:

Answer (it' s not a big secret anyway): "30-10-1978"

Click on "submit"

Next page shows up: "On May 16, 2006 you were 27 years old"

Comment: Thank you for reminding that to me... :(

At least they will go nuts when they see my answer in the following question:

"What is the language that this person first learnt at home or childhood and still understands?"

No comments there, really :)