Spring Fling

Okay, so it's not quite spring here in Ottawa, but it is definetly on its way. And, since I spent a couple days in TO last week, where it definetly was springy (in that dirty, muddy, rainy kind of way), and since I have heard that spring has already come else where (you lucky Washingtonians with your 20 degree celcius days), I have decided to announce that "Spring has sprung!".

My spring fling in TO basically consisted of the following things. First, leaving work half way through last Wednesday, meeting YHN to take the train from the 'Wa to Tdot, and then being picked up by a nice bloke who took us for coffee before we met up with the Sony chick for a loverly dinner. We hopped from the coffee shop in little Italy to the restaurant in little Italy to the Mod Club (in little Italy) where we saw the band Of Montreal.They rocked, and I thoroughly enjoyed bopping along to all my favourite songs (and some others I didn't know). Then we went to Sony girl's house and crashed. Ah, sleep!

Slept until almost 11am, and then got up and hung around Queen street shopping, etc. Then we went to this crazy mall out in this no man's land between TO and Markham (okay, really it's Markham, but it's the crazy area on the TO fringe that's all IBM, Sony, and other big comapanies' HQs. It's creepy!). The mall is this Chinese mecca for commercial gaiety. Crazy big, with a main mall filled with little stores and restaurants, and then all of these other strip-mallesque stores and restaurants around it, including another small mall with a more Western layout. Loco! Went on a Jcandy binge, and had some delicious bubble tea at a Tea Shop 186 outlet. Yum!

Since it was late we decided to go to Ktown (back in TO, around Bloor between Bathurst and Christie) for dinner. I directed folks to Se Jong where we did table cooking and scarfed down massive amounts of Bulgogi, complete with lots of side dishes, a couple appetizers, and some Hite to wash it all down with.Great food, great folks, great time. Then, we picked up some Walnut Cake House treats (the bakery 2 doors down from Se Jong), and some coffee, and then we went home to bed. Ah, sleep!

Woke up early the next day. (YAWN!) We all dispersed: some folks went to work, some went shopping, and I went out for thesis related interviews. In the end I only hooked up with one bureaucrat from City Hall (got ditched, etc., by the others - oh, the difficulties!), but she was super cool and I am overjoyed at having spoken to her. [Note: All the politicians, bureaucrats, and activists that have made the time to speak to me so far have been women. Very clearly, in succict terms, this means that women RAWK.] Then YHN and I met up in the Eaton centre and managed to get our bums down to the train station on time and all that.

What a life! How fun! And now I am writing this update at work on a Sunday 'cause that's how the rest of the month will go. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. I am taking 2 weeks off in April. The first week will be spent in DC (5th to 11th) and then the next will be spent in the 'Wa writing my thesis. All this to say, I am sure that updates on this blog will be all helterskelter for the next couple months - please put up with me. You are all most kind.