This yr passes by so quickly, what's next?

Summer holidays officically start... looks like it'll be a busy summer for me :P
Hmm, doing a very different role for next school yr... not sure what to expect... definitely a huge learning curve... but maybe it will fit me better than the last position, who knows...

Canada Day Long Weekend Activities

Here are some ideas:

-Ribfest
-TD Toronto Jazz Festival
-CHIN Picnic @ CNE
-Toronto Island Music & Arts Festival
-Pride Parade
-Midsummer Night's Dream @ High Park
-Cavalia's Odysseo

Canada Day Fireworks
Amesbury Park – 9:45 p.m.
Ashbridges Bay – 10 p.m.
Canada’s Wonderland - 10 p.m.
Centennial Park (Ribfest) – 10 p.m.
Downsview Park - dusk
Mel Lastman Square – 10:15 p.m.
Mississauga Celebration Square – 10:15 p.m.
Port Credit Memorial Park - 10:15 p.m.
Powerade Centre – 10 p.m.
Stan Wadlow Park – 10:30 p.m.

Based on experience from previous years, I'd have to say the highlight would be the fireworks at night. And celebrations and fireworks are happening in many towns outside of Toronto as well. The best place to view fireworks in my opinion is where you can see the fireworks near a body of water (i.e. the lake) so there are no obstruction and you can see the reflection.  

Hope you will all enjoy the long weekend, I know I will :)

Luminato: The Festival of Creativity

The Encampment

1000 Tastes of Toronto

Carretilla Initiative

June 8-17, 2012
http://www.luminato.com/ 


This is my second time volunteering at this festival, but definitely not my second time enjoying the events that are offered by this festival. Most events are free and accessible by public transportation. The unique aspect about Luminato is that it offers activities in a wide range of topics, from visual arts, to dance, to music, to theatre, to magic, to food, to fashion, to literature etc. 


Last time I was just an ambassador while this year I took on a new role and was one of the Volunteer Team Leader. It was an interesting and rewarding experience because I got to manage adults (normally I'd be managing kids only!!!). This motivates me to look into this field and I'm looking to possibly enroll in a volunteers management course to expand my skills.

Ok, let's go back and talk about this year's festival. I think the 1000 Tastes of Toronto turned out pretty well. I think the distillery district was a great venue to host the event and there were a lot of variety in food choices and the price was reasonable ($5 per dish). The Carretilla Initiative was pretty cool idea as well: real-time cooking on wheels with the participants and then eating the meal together. The Encampment at Fort York is an educational project depicting memories/impact of the war of 1812. Each installation within the 200 tents are different. Personally I think the exhibit can be more meaningful if they have a sound installation within each tent explaining briefly the story behind each one.

Others such as the magic shows look interesting (e.g. blind magician, magic in the dark etc.) but each ticket costs $35 :( (only 1 of the 3 show is free). There are plenty of free concerts on weeknights or weekend nights, depending whether you like those musicians or not. The art installation is pretty limited this year... there is one in the ROM that I want to check out, called Beethoven 1-32, which uses visual arts to represent music... a very innovative idea... so looking at the painting = listening to the actual music! Should evoke the same emotions...


Have a great weekend everyone... the weather is gonna be awesome for outdoor activities!

Spelunking @ Warsaw Caves

A few weeks ago I went spelunking (aka caving) with my friends at Warsaw Caves, which are located near Peterborough (about 2 hrs drive NE of Toronto). The area has multiple caves to explore, and some caves are even connected to each other. It sounded very interesting until I looked at some reviews of the site and they made it sounds like a really hardcore sport! "Clothes may get dirty, torn... you may get bruises from crawling and climbing... there's no 'walk-in' caves..." So taken their advice, I got myself prepared with headlamp (bought from dollar store), gloves, long sleeves unwanted clothing, bug spray, running shoes... the only thing I didn't bring was the helmet.

Anyways, the caving part turned out to be ok (once you get the guts to go in as some opening are quite narrow and steep). The headlight was useful because it really was dark inside, and gloves were essential as well because your hands would be grabbing rocks around you for support to go up/down. Thin long sleeves clothing was a smart idea to stay away from dirtying/scratching your arms and from the mosquitoes... which turned out to be more of a problem than the caving itself (bug spray is a must!). We went near the end of May but probably it'd be nicer to cave at end of April/beginning of May or in autumn so that the weather would be cooler and less mosquitoes around. But once you got inside the caves, it's quite cool down there. Also try not to go after a rainy day because the rocks can be slippery to climb.

But caving was definitely an interesting experience! The caves were actually bigger than I thought (originally I thought you'd have to duck and crawl a lot inside and maybe bending arms and legs to fit inside). This closed caving was different than open caving at Greig's caves at Bruce Peninsula or Scenic caves at Collingwood. Too bad we didn't stick around to see the "kettles". Will definitely go caving again in the future!

nothing goes right

Haven't written a personal post in a longggg time...
doesn't mean that everything is :)
in fact... the same thing is still :(