The last 2-3 months have been full of surprises in my life, some fun, some not so great. But overall, things are well. Here's a short list: Moving to my new apartment down the street and having to furnish it (I now officially HATE moving) Missing family & friends in Chicago Trying to adjust to Toronto and not succeeding at first Beginning to succeed in adjusting to Toronto Missing my train to Montreal, and having to take a 7hr bus instead to apply for a visiting visa to the US at the Montreal consulate Staying with Bastien C. from American School [View Full Entry]

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I still can't believe that there's a hemp store right on Yonge street. I'm waiting for someone to tell me they sell tea products, or hemp-derived hair products (which do exist), or fashion items representing the smoker culture. But that hasn't happened yet, so I'm still left to believe that they sell mostly hemp products (bongs, etc) and probably some cannabis under the table. They're not shy about advertising either, and their website has listings & videos of all their media appearances. At some point, they made a custom pipe for Busta Rhymes, and have had many celebrity visits over the [View Full Entry]

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My first impressions of the city I’m starting to really like Toronto. It’s not “like Chicago” as a lot of people told me. It’s quite different actually. My Citibank banker said they call it “Mini Manhattan”. That’s TBD. The streets are a mix of North American and European cities. For example, it has just as many one-way streets as Paris. It also has its fair share of small euro-style alleys and roads (e.g. Cumberland St - more on this later). It makes the streets more “intimate”, since you’re not so far fro [View Full Entry]

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Tough times in Toronto - Aug 9-13 I’m now completely in favour of free market economics (notice how my laptop corrects the spelling of favor). This is because I have witnessed how monopolies/oligopolies can squeeze customers, here in Toronto. Anyway, the three most frustrating things about Toronto so far have been: 1. The day I realized that most banks here charge you a monthly fee or transaction fees when you make debit transactions on your chequing account. The only way to waive that is to maintain a minimum balance (between $2K to $5K in most places). Min [View Full Entry]

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I landed in Toronto on Wednesday August 6 at around 9:15am aboard United Airlines flight 1100. I didn’t have much sleep over the past two days and I was very irritable. The flight landed 10 minutes early, probably a first for me. I didn’t bother to question why an international flight from Chicago should take off and/or land on time, while domestic flights are so unreliable. I slept the whole flight and woke up to the sound of a flight attendant saying “please place your seat in the upright position sir”. And I really wanted to reply, “ma’am, does it re [View Full Entry]

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