explosions

(c) anf... i think?

ready to read more silly details about my torontonian life? here goes...

i left off at a meeting with my boss, at which it was basically decided that what i was doing was right. (that opinion maybe didn't last as long as desired, but the new version of the plan is just as good.)

the end of may brought with it more babysitting, a very pleasant and wine filled dinner with jane (with lots of interesting conversations about marriage and couples and how in order for charles and i to have any future i should send him away for five years), and some salsa dancings on the street. it finished off with the already be-photoed idiotarod, which was horribly fun and rainy, followed by a delicious bbq at quadir's.

the three big things this month have been languages, sports and festival. i discovered, through neesa, the ymca. it offers sooo many different sport classes all at an affordable monthly fee. so this month i've been doing as much swimming and yoga as i can muster up energy for. more than i expected, really, partly due to the very alluring sauna that makes laziness much easier to overcome. the language part is a language exchange between natalia and me - german vs spanish. we've done two lessons each ;)

the big highlight of the month was the luminat'eau festival - lots of concerts, performances, parades, dance lessons and body painters. sooo much fun. we learned to swing (hilarious! chicken peck, mess around, twirl in a circle... my stomach was aching from laughing too much), to tango, to salsa...

neesa and i finally got our act together and did some long-planned biking. all up thompson park (a manmade spit) and all along the beaches. we found the jazz festival, had kentucky fried chicken and then had tea at my "beach house".

the next day i left my beloved "beach house" behind - i now reside near coxwell, thanks to the very generous and gracious jose. thank youuuu! and thank you maria for all your driving :)

after the move neesa and i went all out in terms of biking, and went on a long bike ride through parks and past streams and over hills with about half of iran. we even learned some persian on the way. the bike trip ended at queen's park, where there was a huge drumming festival being held, with amazing crazy different types of drums.

the next week there was more dancing, more sporting and more westerns at work, a short film festival, and then the international cs day which we celebrated at the tequila bookworm with awards and balloons.

the weekend was filled with more luminat'eau and the best face paint i have ever and probably will ever have the chance to wear. the artists even do painting for cirque du soleil! lucky me gets to carry memories of the body paint for months to come, as i now have a tan-too. other than being adorned, we also took part in a bubble battle and watched firedances and went to the bubble party in the evening. sunday we surprised darrel for his birthday and played ultimate frisbee with him, then biked in the rain to the distillery district for more performances and dances and back over to enjoy the rest of luminat'eau at the harbour front centre. they had veggie wraps for a dollar that were deeelicious. in the evening we enjoyed fried bananas with chocolate in china town. sadly the day wasn't long enough to check out "taste of little italy" and watch soccer (to observe fans, not to see soccer)... too much to do in toronto!


(c) some random guy on flickr

last week i had to find a paper to present at journal club (ahh, i had to present!), did more spanish and german and made use of the ymca some more. last weekend we went camping to presqu'ile! (which, for the slow-like-me out there, is french for: almost an island.) the location wasn't all too exciting - it boasts butterflies and a lighthouse - but the company was great. we were 8 people in total and filled our time with summersaults, beaches, food, a hike to the lighthouse, food, butterflies, food and ghost stories. the ghost stories by the two little ones were the best ("once upon a time there was a little girl, her name was mommy. *thinking/dramatic pause* and then there was a monster!").


(c) anf


(c) anf - neesa and i trying to play badminton...

this week will be as busy as always, with more sports and yoga and a fantastic drumming circle last night - a huuge amount of drummers and dancers and hula-hoopers and happy stoned people and a general peaceful ambiance. today i'm off to watch a movie, get a tour of persian food and pomegranates (kayvan and neesa are horrified that i've never eaten them... at least as far as i remember), and then pop with excitement because i leave for cuba on friday.

tomorrow we're having a big big latin movie night with sangria and the "buena vista social club" and then i shall not-so-gently explode with more excitement because of the imminent cuba trip.

cuba means salsa, old cars, beaches, charles, alex, neesa, anf and sm, backpacking, joy and fun and craziness all around. it's going to be fantastic! yay!!


EDIT: except that sm is a deserter and we're going to have to enjoy cuba without her :(