So Toronto has annual themed food festivals: Winterlicious and Summerlicious, wherein participating restaurants offer prix fixe menus for lunch and/or dinner. One of my exec teams and I hit up Bannock today, and the food was very good, especially considering the price. Bannock is known for "Canadian comfort food" - I've actually been once before, albeit for their regular menu. On the note of Oliver & Bonacini restaurants, I've also been to Biff's Bistro previously.

The kale caesar salad, with dulse, horseradish and Bannock croutons

The pig + chips, with Ontario pork shoulder, roasted garlic fries and mustard greens kimchi

The cheesy chocolate cannoli, with chocolate peanut sauce, brittle, and Ontario cream cheese

So I've been 21 for over a week now. To be honest, it was about as anti-climatic as 20. Then again, I'm kind of weird about birthdays. I like other people's birthdays, but mine always stresses me out. So day of, I grabbed some takeout on my way home and had a quiet dinner in with the roommates, and they surprised me with cake (and sang and everything, hehe). 1 for #1, obviously ;)
Day after, went to Pan on the Danforth with I, M, A, M & M for dinner. A chunk of the TTC line was out of commission, so M and I actually ended up walking all the way to Greektown, pausing along the way to explore a cemetery. The food was pretty good (also got mussels as an appetizer - was pleasantly surprised by the generous portion. But being too hungry, forgot to grab a photo). Greece is definitely on my To-Go travel list; super excited to try some authentic Greek food!
Had brunch at Sage Cafe the next day with M, J & S. Hadn't seen M in a while. The decor had a cute vibe, and the food was pretty good too (and fairly healthy).
So, I guess I'm officially an adult now? Maybe? I don't know. After a certain point, these labels - "youth", "young adult", "adult" - all seem kind of arbitrary. Human constructs. Numerically, age is linear; each year, you progress one more unit upwards. But more abstractly, age is kind of a fluid concept. There are milestones, landmark events, in a life. These tend to be replicated across the species experience, at different rates, in different ways. At different times.

Birthdays, while a convenient way to measure the anniversary of one's birth, is technically founded on the premise of recurring every 365-day cycle. But that number - 365 - is flawed in and of itself. Rotations and revolutions don't fit into neat and tidy numbers that can be divided evenly. At some point, compensation has to be paid. At some point, time has to be made up, and at some points, time is lost.

To borrow Oscar Wilde's sophisticated articulation: "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." 21 - there's only one. So let's seek that rare thing, find it, catch it, achieve it.

There's something about stressful periods that's just oh-so-conducive to food - both in terms of stress-eating, and stress-cooking. So picking up where we left off: on the 19th, I wrote my second exam in the morning. At night, we headed over to A, D, M, M, and J's apartment for a 'One Last Time' party, since they're moving out at the end of the month :( It was great to see everyone and catch up though!

Saturday was super unproductive, consisting basically of procrastinating, watching movies, and dealing with some administrative EC stuff. (There was an alien movie that I watched like a decade ago that I've been trying to find again for years - after watching it, I'm pretty sure it was Alien: Resurrection. Less scary now that I'm actually within the recommended age range, haha.) And then at 6pm I realized, uh oh, needed to get dressed/presentable and get over to Pickle Barrel for our 6:45pm reservation for our team dinner. (I made the reservation, and yes, sometimes I like to pick less common times, okay.) There ended up being 9 of us, and it was a pretty good time. I got the grilled turkey burger + sweet potato fries; it was good! No photo though.
Sunday morning A, M, S & I went for brunch at Rose & Sons, which was a super adorable venue and boasts "comfort food". S and I were feeling lazy so we decided to bus over instead of walking, but that turned into quite the debacle. First, the bus did not show up. (We were also waiting at two separate bus stops.) So we catch the next one, halfway through the trip, S panics and insists we need to get off the bus, we do so, realize we got off too early, I reacted pretty quickly and suggested we just hop back on, S insists we're only like 3 minutes away from the restaurant anyway. We weren't. It was more like 1.5km away (so about 13 minutes). The food (first photo) was definitely worth it though.

Afterwards, the four of us headed to Ezra's Pound, since it was such a sunny day (and we were all putting off studying). (I've also compiled a massive list of cafes I want to try, so it was nice to check another one off.) We left M at the coffee shop, walked A home, and then S and I spent the rest of the afternoon holed up in the library.
Soon, we were struck with hunger pangs and headed back out in search of more food. We ended up settling for Vietnamese food at Anh Dao. The dish I got (some sort of Bún thịt nướng?) reminded me of this one restaurant we used to go to all the time in high school. Haven't had this kind of food in a while now. Then it was back to the library, and L joined us (and the two of us went on a Timmy's run).
Didn't go out for prepared food today, but I did go grocery shopping - and ended up with 2 bags of Doritos and 4 TV dinners. Which is kind of terrible, because I've had adequate self-control up until this point to not buy any chips this entire school year (minus the 3 bags of Crispers, and the time I had to buy chips for an EC event). But I also bought lots of fish, which is supposed to be good brain food. May be wishful thinking that it'll pay off in time for my next exam... Anyway, collaborated with M on dinner; I made lemon herb salmon steaks. They turned out decently.
Also tried making chili in my rice cooker after dinner tonight; this didn't quite turn out looking like conventional chili. It tastes okay though, and for a first time (free-styling, no recipe), can't complain. So yeah, basically my last couple of days have revolved around food in a major way. But I also dragged myself to the gym tonight, so in the end, it all balances out :)

In hindsight, this past semester has been varied, and not what I expected (but then again, it wasn't like I went into this semester expecting anything in particular). Some things worked out better than expected, others didn't work out at all. There were missed opportunities, and unexpected opportunities. Highs and lows. Positives and negatives. At the end of the day, there's only tomorrow. And that should be sufficient reason to remain optimistic.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

So I got this great idea to try container gardening (since I won't have access to a real garden this summer, which is kind of a bummer). But hey, balcony gardening is the next best thing? Although the wind levels might be too harsh this high up, so they may need to be kept inside after all. These are Burpee bush Blue Lake 274 beans. They've sprouted okay, but it remains to be seen how they'll fare.
Explored Kensington with D last week. Can you believe I'd never actually been? After being in this city for three years now... Anyway, we also wandered down some side street where they had a bunch of park exercise machine things, which were pretty cool (and of course I felt the need to try most of them - what can I say, still a kid at heart!). We also tried churros for the first time - yummy!

There was also a  lot of varied and cool street art; the undersea fisherman above is just one example of tons of really well done artwork.
^ Dessert with M & L last month. We don't get to see each other as often now that we don't live on the same floor any more, so it was nice to go for dinner (Korean food at Ka Chi) and then dessert and board games afterwards. (That was actually a super insane day - had been at a conference since early in the morning, and then after dinner, grabbed some groceries and ran into C on the way home, so she came over with me. Before she left, A came over too, and along with M, the three of us ended up chatting into the wee hours of morning.
Yeah, basically a bunch of random photos from this semester are all getting conglomerated in this post. So back in February, went to an event hosted by Faze magazine with J, where Penguin had some of their Breathless Reads tour authors signing books. We got to meet Beth Revis, and I got my copy of A Million Suns signed (and I already had a signed copy of Across the Universe), which was cool. She's very warm and super nice! (I look a little sloppy/over-excited in the photo, but oh well.)
All of the colourful sticky notes! Prolonged agony for almost two more weeks, but we're getting there. So. Many. More. Readings. Sadly.

Then we did lots of walking around, popped into The National Gallery and looked around quickly, then headed to The British Museum.
It was kind of humbling to see all these amazing relics - so many pieces of legacies of humanity collected in one piece. Due to time constraints we weren't able to explore everything, but we did get to get out the ancient Egyptian and Greek exhibits, and some miscellaneous modern artifacts.
^ Not sure what was happening here, but look at all the police! Very differently uniformed from those in Belgium. Next we headed over to Westminster Abbey, where the Royal Wedding took place in April, 2011.
The architecture in London - in Europe in general, really - is phenomenal! So many photogenic buildings.
After wandering around some more, past New Scotland Yard and through a park, we checked out Buckingham Palace. And seeing as how we were three Canadian expats, we couldn't exactly leave without taking a photo of Canada Gate... (Awkward tourist photobombs continue)
Harrods, a quintessentially British department store, was next on the itinerary. The inside is amazing, definitely very next-level. The chocolate section was insane, the seafood area was really cool, the coffee selection was impressive, and it was just all around awesome. 
I don't actually remember what we had for dinner - probably grabbed something quick from Pret A Manger and booked it over to the Apollo Victoria Theatre for Wicked. First time seeing a West End musical (well, first time in London, period), and wow, what a first! The entire cast was phenomenal, and put on a great show. Rachel Tucker's voice, just wow.

"My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to, your dreams stay big, your worries stay small."

But anyway - this past Sunday (Sept. 23rd) was the annual Word on the Street national book & magazine festival. Went with J, of course - this was our third year going together, so it's become a bit of a tradition now. We started out the packed afternoon at the Giller Prize Stage. The physical layout of the festival was different this year, and we both agreed that it was a little harder to navigate (i.e. booths were more spread out, the main stage was off to the side/end and kind of obscured, instead of central, etc.)
We got to listen to John Ralston Saul speak, which was super cool. He's a very engaging speaker, really witty and slightly sardonic at times, considering the subject matter. Dr. Saul has awesome stage presence - just really exudes intelligence and charisma. An excellent start to the afternoon!
Then we wandered around, picked up some swag, and headed over to hear Adrienne Clarkson, the 26th Governor General of Canada, speak. (How awesome are those metallic silver Oxfords, by the way?) I definitely have a lot of respect for Adrienne Clarkson and her accomplishments, so it was great to have the opportunity to catch her speech. Her wit definitely complements that of her husband. It was also a really engaging and moving speech - almost got teary-eyed at one point!
And immediately afterwards, we ran back over to the Giller tent to catch David Suzuki and Jeff Rubin. The two addresses really played off of each other very well. The place was completely packed, it was pretty insane.
The top image is a linocut printing I did in the tenth grade for art class. David Suzuki! I think the concept we were given was to do the profile of someone we found inspiring. If you haven't tried carving linoleum before, let me tell you - it's not easy material to cut through with precision.
^ He's a very animated speaker. J and I finished the day off with grabbing food and checking out the rest of the booths (couldn't resist buying a couple of books as well. No idea when I'm going to read them though!) All in all, a successful third round of Word on the Street!

So getting to London involved: street car - bus - plane - train - and then I was at Victoria Station, where S came and picked me up. (Originally he'd considered coming to get me from Gatwick - and holding up a sign with my name and then pretend not to recognize me on purpose - but decided that he only values our friendship at £18, so it wasn't worth the train ticket haha.)
So all summer, S has been pulling 'I told you so's all over the place. Before leaving for London, I asked if I should bring shorts to London, and he was all like, "no, it's London, we don't wear shorts here." I arrive, and of course this is the one day when it's boiling hot in London. -_-

We ended up doing a quick walk by some of the major points (Buckingham Palace, a park, the London Eye, Big Ben, etc.) and then booking it over to Piccadilly Circus so I could go buy shorts. Sticky jeans are no fun!
London is just so alive. So many people (and so well-dressed and polite too!), so much activity, so much cool stuff to see. It was actually pretty impressive how far we managed to walk in one day.
British telephone booths! (Although I've seen identical ones in Canada as well.) I don't imagine these see as much use nowadays, what with the prevalence of cell phones and what not. (Or handy, if you're German ;) I went inside one for a photo and it smelled like urine, unfortunately.
We ended up just grabbing dinner at Covent Garden as well. Alas, can't remember the name of the place we ate at. It was pretty good though! (Although I'm not a huge fan of rocket/arugula.)
Trafalgar Square! This would be a place where we would end up many times over the course of the next couple of days.
All in all, the London trip started off with a fully packed, insanely awesome first day!

Went to Holi on Friday - this was my first one, as I hadn't been able to go last year. It was definitely a lot of fun and a great experience. And very colourful, to say the least!
A couple of us are looking into getting an apartment together for next year/this summer. Holy cow, it's actually more of a hassle than I would've thought. So I guess we'll see how that works out. Basically there's just a lot of uncertainty for me right now - not just about living situations, but like... the summer in general, I guess? Feeling pretty apprehensive about this week, really hoping that everything will work out for the best, but really scared that it won't. I don't know - we'll see.

Met up with J, an old family friend, for dinner tonight. It was kind of crazy, because I guess our last significant interaction was about a decade ago, maybe? And now, here we are, living in the same city, (hopefully) more grown up. We ended up going to Chipotle, which I've been meaning to try for the longest time, having heard so much positive feedback about it.

The food was really good, but the company/conversation was even better. It was really nice to chat with someone ~half a decade older - especially someone I admire and look up to. I guess it's just kind of a different outlook on school, traveling and life, coming from someone who's been there, done that. Basically just really good life chats about a wide range of topics, insightful tidbits. And I guess a bit of a throwback to childhood/home. Thanks, J - hadn't realized how much I needed something like that until I got it.

Lots to think about, for sure.