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Downtown Toronto

I will always remember the first time I came to Toronto.

It was in 2002, after our crazy long trip from Mexico to Brazil. I had never been to North America before and I wanted to see Canada, so I flew back to Toronto with Feng. It was February and I didn’t have any warm clothes after a few months in Latin America. The only jacket I had was a thin leather jacket I had bought in Argentina during the Peso crisis. Feng had warned me: it was going to be cold.

We flew from Rio de Janeiro to Houston, and then from Houston to Toronto. I stood in the airport’s arrival lounge for a few minutes mustering the courage to step out. It didn’t look that cold.

I walked outside and started to cough. The air was so dry and the wind was so cold it felt as though I had walked right into a giant freezer. My skin was burning and I couldn’t keep my hands out of my pockets for more than two seconds. We took the subway and walked to an hostel. Later that night, we had a North American style meal in a small dinner. It smelled of wood and coffee. I loved it.

We walked around in the Eaton Center, had a coffee at Starbucks, spotted fun graffitis and observed people. A few days later, we had taken the Greyhound to Ottawa.

Every time I go to Toronto, it reminds me of my first time in Canada. Back then, I had no clue I would eventually immigrate there, and then become Canadian. Funny how life turns out sometimes.

The Eaton Center
The Eaton Center
Shopping Around Boxing Day
Bay Street
Bay Street
Bay Street
The CN Tower
Building Buildings...
Canadian Multiculturalism: French and Chinese Restaurants
Underground Passages
The Crashed Car
Mailboxes With Postal Codes
Mailboxes With Postal Codes
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Zhu

French woman in English Canada.

Exploring the world with my camera since 1999, translating sentences for a living, writing stories that may or may not get attention.

Firm believer that nobody is normal... and it’s better this way.

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