Ganesh Swami

Woke up relatively early. Shy’s residence is a block away from Queen Street. We took a small walk around downtown Toronto. The atmosphere on Younge Street is similar to Burrad at Waterfront in Vancouver. Folks who do not want to have eye contact. Cold.

Another interesting fact: unlike Vancouver, streets and avenues do not always intersect. The concept of intersecting streets is a little confusing for a Vancouverite.

Our big item on the itinerary for the day was attending a camp site near Toronto. This was about an hour and a half northwest of Toronto near Orangeville. These were people who had received a major scholarship (~ $60,000) at some point in their lives. It’s good to mix with people from other faculties once in a while (broadens your knowledge.) Most of these guys are majors in one of the soft sciences (politics, economics or international development.) We had some very stimulating conversations. Of course, I threw in my two cents about HIV strains, green engineering and other things I wish I knew more about.

Over dinner, I got to talk to some people about my career plans. As you are nearing your graduation, people seem to be keen in asking questions about your future, whether or not they actually care about your answer. I got a few tips which I think I’ll look into more closely.

I had brought my sleeping bag, so we were able to sleep outside for the night (hoping it wouldn’t rain.) Ofcourse, it did rain and we had to move inside. This would be the start of what would be the week of disturbed sleep. It’s probably worth it.

We didn’t have much to do for the day at the camp site. We left.

At Shy’s place, we watched six episodes of 24 one after the other. Wasted.

Later in the day, we registered at the New College residence at the UofT. My first task was to establish rapport with other delegates. Only two delegates were local, the rest were from Queens, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke, Manitoba, Western, UBC, SFU, UVic, Saskatchewan and ofcourse Toronto. I’ve already seen some of the guys at a previous conference at Calgary, but it was good to meet the rest.

Our first outing was to the CN tower in downtown. It was initially built as a communication tower, but later opened up to the public (I think.) I personally think the tower is worth atleast one visit. The pictures I took didn’t come out that well (poor lighting.)

To further localize and prepare ourselves for the big nights to come, we walked all the way to Richmond Street. This was supposed to be one of the most happening places in Toronto. Had dinner and went to bed early.

The travel wasn’t quite as bad as I had expected. Ofcourse, I had absolutely no liquids with me (not even deo-sticks were allowed.) I found it quite amusing to see a lady profusely cussing when she was asked to part with her lipstick. Hey, lipsticks can be expensive.

Shayan was at the airport to pick me up. My body was quite sore from the travel (about three thousand kilometers from Vancouver.) To top it off, WestJet cuts costs by not serving any meals. People can be annoying too. The girl sitting next to me on the flight asked me if I was going to Toronto as well. No shit. I was hungry, angry and tired. To “forget my sorrows,” we went right away to a pub.

We went to what could be called the biggest pub in the world. For the alcoholics amongst us, the Madison Avenue Pub has 150 draft taps. Four bars, three floors and fifteen minutes later we finally found his friends. Random chit-chat, much of which I can’t remember.

We head back to Shy’s place. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. More catching up to do. Finally hit the sacks at 5 in the morning.

A great way to start a vacation.

No better timing.

(image credits Cory Doctorow’s BoingBoing)

I’ve always wanted to visit Eastern Canada. This summer I got an opportunity to do so. I’ve been admitted to a complimentary education course on biodesign at the University of Toronto. It’s a five day course on the topics: Bioethics, Genetics and Biotechnology, Biomimicry, Genetic Circuits and Bioinformatics, and Cybernetics. I haven’t had a chance to go through the course material yet (we’ve already been assigned readings.)

Apart from the course, I’ll get to see folks who have had a positive consequence in my life in some form or other. I’ll be seeing Shayan, Yony and my brother, all of them from a small university near Toronto. I’ll probably also get to see my perima’s mattuponnu’s anna’s … (cousin :P) family.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand, I received a travel advisory from my travel agent politely requesting me not to carry any form of liquid on the plane. This is after the recent terrorist plot. I’ve copied the text verbatim so that you folks can join me in the hilarity:

… Mothers travelling with infants & young children can carry milk in bottles ONLY and NOT milk powder. The mothers MUST be prepared to test drink some milk from the bottles in the presence of security staff to prove that the content in bottles is really milk. … Inconvenience caused to our customers is regretted.

Stay tuned.