TIFF

Well today begins my journey with the Toronto International Film Festival. It is going to be a very busy summer as I put my head down and work two jobs to help pay for my next trip/ project. It will be my 10th festival (I think, cos they weren't all consecutive).

This year is a little different, as I am working a much longer contract. Apparently I will be working at a tent in Nathan Phillips Square initially. OK, that sounds weird, but I am totally looking forward to working outside and I do love the madness of TIFF and they are a great organization.

I am sure that I will have much more to post about TIFF as summer progresses, but in the meantime today is "Training Day", eat your hear out Denzel!

Inverted traveling

Tonight at work I had two tourists at the bar, both nice young guys from Germany and France. I do not work in a touristy bar, so this was highly unusual. One was heading east to Montreal (the young man from France) with the hopes of immigrating after working for a time, and another was heading to my home province of British Columbia (the German fellow). I am very proud of Toronto and Canada (as we all are when it comes to our place of residence and country of birth), so I wished that I had had some more time to chat with them, especially the German guy as he was going to rent a motorcycle to travel around BC. Having traveled extensively through that part of the world, I know he is going to have a great time.

It was very odd that these two separate people were in front of me because all day I had been thinking about how I am going to share my city as a travel blog. Then it struck me that the whole world is here. More than anything, Toronto is about multiculturalism, the whole world lives here. You can name almost any country on the planet, and somewhere in Toronto you will find an enclave from that country. From Greece to Ghana, large and small, Toronto is representin'.

Actually, I am starting to feel that this blog is going to be a lot of fun. Feel free to share my summer with me and I will share my city with you. First stop, my neighbourhood, The Danforth and Greektown. Will post some pics soon

Fessing Up

Its funny to write about the place where you live. While I am against tribalism and nationalism, I find that this particular topic compromises both of those ideas. Who among us is not proud of where we live?

So here I go. I will use this space to trumpet why I think Toronto is so great and why I love my life in this city. I will share my life with you here. Please join me for the ride.

Toronto

Hard to qualify this as a travel blog as I live in Toronto, but I will be posting pics and stories here about trying to see my home as a tourist.