Ah, the weekend - Part Deux

Sunday, Sunday!


I was so exhausted from my first week that I actually slept until 10:45am, which, even though I need my sleep, is almost a record for me. I don't think I've yet mentioned the fun that is Toronto traffic. While I know I only had a 3 minute commute in Houston, the traffic here is beyond anything I've ever seen. Imagine this - a busy, crowded intersection on a 4 lane road with about 200 pedestrians and no left turn signals. Car in the left lane tries to turn left but has to wait until the green light turns red due to the lack of turn signals. Car in the right lane tries to turn right but has to wait until the green light turns red due to the pedestrians. So 2 cars get through per light. It's basically gridlock. To loop you back, my exhaustion was because I'm sitting in 2+ hours of traffic a day to go 25 miles total!! Anywho, on to the good stuff...


It was Pride Week in Toronto (http://www.pridetoronto.com/). For those of you not in the know (like me), Toronto hosts the 2nd largest Gay Pride Festival in the world; over one million people attended this year's festivities. I decided before I came that I'm going to go to anything and everything I can and take it all in. So off I went. There is a Whole Foods in Yorkville (the shi-shi area of Toronto) and I had previously tried to get there in my car, but because of the parking situation, I abandoned trip. I planned my route to Whole Foods where I would go up Yonge Street to catch some of the parade. It was really cool - the streets were closed off and all of the major stores were giving out rainbow flags. It was the most calm, organized parade I've ever seen - no one was out of control or acting crazy. There were lots of cool, hip people out along with families, old people, and the like. The parade started with a bang of colored confetti and down came the floats! I'll post some pictures soon. Oh, and I was on TV, too! The local TV station personality was interviewing people waiting for the parade and I happened to be standing right behind them. The camera was literally facing me head on and later that night, I was on CityTV news at 11. At the Pride Parade. Priceless.

Whole Foods was great, but still different from the ones at home. Everything's just a little bit different here, but it still felt like home. It cost me a chunk of change just like home, too.

Took the Subway home with my groceries and smiled at the fantastic weekend I had.

And so ended weekend #1 in Toronto.