Since my last update, I was so sick, I can’t even tell you. The problem was not so much the being sick itself, since it actually enabled me to do some actual work on images and on the web site design, things which I had been procrastinating about for a while, but the fact that on top of a congested breathing system and a sore throat that made me sound like Master Yoda on a bad hair day, there was choir practice. Alas, people have been gracious and I got away with attending without having to stretch my vocal cords too much.
I was blessed to begin my sore throat and congested-ness endeavour only after having been to Toronto and spoken at Centennial College (York campus). That was one of the most interesting experiences of this year. It all started with my dear friend Roxy, who happens to be studying photo journalism there, once again mentioning me to her class, as usual in way more flattering terms than I am worthy of. This time she did a whole photographic assignment on the topic of me, which intrigued her photography teacher enough to invite me to come and speak before her class. The promise of having an excuse to visit Toronto, drink coffee with my friend, and speaking in front of people about photography (those who know me, know that I enjoy listening to myself speak), was irresistible, so of course I said yes.
The day started like most of my visits to Toronto; with very little sleep (due to a mix between excitement, anticipation, and work done during the night), except this time, sitting on the Greyhound bus made me feel like I was about to enter Silent Hill; the fog was out of this world, at least until we left Kitchener. Once in Toronto it felt like the fog had never been there. Weird.
I was rather excited to witness an arrest being made as soon as Roxy and I entered the subway system. This must be a common experience for Toronto people to witness, but for us people of Kitchener, it is quite the experience, considering that we don’t even have a subway system to begin with…
We spent most of the day in the Greek neighbourhoods close to Pape station (map) where we visited this fantastic bakery, Serano Bakery, where I would have gotten myself into debt eating a little bit of everything if we had not been on our way to a sushi place Roxy wanted to show me. We also walked by this fantastic church, whose name I can not remember, nor the neighbourhood it was in. It was under construction, otherwise I would have tried to get in.
The college itself was very cozy; there was comfortable seating everywhere and as far as I understood it was open conveniently open 24/7 for studying convenience. I came across some interesting models that the students made, I assume for the purpose of later scanning and animating them on a computer; as well as an old door with a quote by Terry Fox on it. I found it amusing that the washroom stall I used had a message written on the wall, and that seemed to continue being the theme of the day, considering that every single washroom I visited (a total of 3 throughout my stay in Toronto) had some interesting message on the wall. The students, as well as Roxy’s teacher, were very welcoming and talkative, which helped a lot. It is not a new thing for me to speak about photography, but usually people don’t ask me to speak about it in the context of my own past and how photography developed (no pun intended) in my own life. It was a bit of a personal experience. I have to say I very much enjoyed it and hope to have the opportunity to do this sort of thing again sometime. My only complaint is that two hours pass way too quickly when you are having fun.
Before I move on and finally let you see the images, I need to mention the subway station that was under construction. It was so beautiful …in an industrial, movie set kind of way, that I regret only having caught so many images of it before my iPhone battery decided to call it a day.
As for today, it was a beautiful snow day in the early morning hours. You might wonder how come I was so far from the comfort of my bed at such time of day. The reason is that, as I recently found out, my church RCF – Romanian Christian Fellowship, started a bible eduction program in collaboration with a Bible College in Romania and are now offering courses. The idea intrigued me and there were really not many reasons in my mind, other than the obvious dislike for the early morning hours, for as to why I would not attend. It was a beautiful experience that I do not regret waking up early for. Actually I didn’t have to wake up early, I had found myself unable to fall asleep during the night, so I ended up working on HTML until I only had 2 hours left of sleep …which I casually napped through.
