Whitewater rafting
Yesterday, I went for my first whitewater rafting trip.Everything was so beautiful but I didn't have my camera with me.
I nearly fell out at one point too but luckily I had my feet firmly wedged in.
It was really fun. We got stuck at some point because of the low water levels but towards the end, we had very nice rapids to go through it was very thrilling.
I got my picture taken without me knowing LOL. The wet suit was so hard to put on, but it was extremely warm. It was about 2 degree celcius out there but I was really cozy warm in the wet suit.
And this picture because our wet suits were so funky.
I really want to do it again. They say the tides are higher in spring, so if they organize another trip in spring, I'd definitely go. It cost us $45 though, for all the equipments and clothes that we rented. Including soup and hotdogs, hot chocolates and granola, etc. The scenery was really beautiful because the trees are all in different colors and we even saw some bald eagles.
Labels: OAC, Pictures, weekend, whitewater rafting
Winter Break
So... today I woke and made an impulsive decision:I'm going all the way to California for Winter vacation.
And not only that! I'm planning to go through Orlandos and Miami in between it all.
It all started with me wanting to go to Washington DC. Afterall, it is the capital and I have not seen it yet. So DC it was.
I was actually thinking of going between my study break, but I found out that that would only be 3 days and not very worth it for me to go all the way down for.
So I planned for it to happen after my examinations. As far as I know, my Japanese finals are on the 10th of December. I don't know when my marketing exam is, so I haven't exactly booked for the coach down to DC just yet. Instead, I started planning from DC downwards since I have more than a month of vacation.
So from DC, I had thoughts of going to Virginia. I ended up scrapping that plan because there wasn't anything I was especially interested in there. Instead, I'm going to take a flight down to Florida, Miami. At first, I wanted to go there solely for the beaches. But then, I realized that Orlando is a theme park wonderland with universal studios and disney world and harry potter wizarding world, etc. So I'm going to stay in Florida for a solid week and a half. It is really expensive though. 4 days tickets for 4 disney parks is $280 and tickets for 3 different universal studios parks is $190. Together with lodging and food, I'm spending more than $1k just in Florida alone. But on the positive note, I'm going to spend christmas in Orlandos.
Then I'm taking a flight up to New Mexico. This was another impulse thing. I was just looking for places between Florida and Las Vegas, and this came in sight. When I searched it up, it seemed to have many natural sites so I decided to pay it a visit.
Then, as mentioned, I would fly up to Vegas. Even though I'm underaged which is really sad since I can't exactly do much in Vegas, I'm going to stay there for 5 days because there are New Year's eves events going on. So I'll be spending New Year in Vegas baby! I even booked tickets to watch Cirque de Soliel on New Year's Eve. I watched it once when I was really young and I loved it so much. Never had the chance to watch it again, so I'm taking this one. I was very lucky to even get tickets because I tried other Cirque de Soliel (the O, and the sensual one) and they were all out of stock for New Year's Eve.
Anyway, I'm going to be experiencing really new things on this trip, and staying in BnBs so hopefully they'll be nice. I'm staying in BnBs because it's not worth it for me to stay anywhere alone.
So, I'm heading towards San Diego after Vegas, for more beaches! Yay! Then going down to Los Angeles and San Francisco before heading back home to Buffalo. I am going to spend so much money on this trip, but I don't really spend much on a daily basis so it's a reward of some sorts *fingers crossed*. Yea, more motivation for me to spend less now. And the thing is I already booked some of the things like Orlando stuff and Vegas tickets, so it's not something I can simply back out of. I'm so hyped for this!
Labels: california, florida, las vegas, los angeles, miami, orlando, san diego, san francisco, travel, washington dc, winter break
Toronto
So last weekend, I (finally) went to Toronto!I think I mentioned this before, but for some reason, I seem to be hanging out around guys so much more than I do with girls. So, for this trip it was 4 guys and me. This wasn't our first attempt at going to Toronto. In fact, this is my third try at going to Toronto. First was before classes even started, when my parents were still here. We ended up staying in Niagara instead of going to Toronto because it was out of the way. Our 2nd attempt was with 3 of the 4 guys I went with this trip. We had plans to go to Toronto, but booked a hostel in Missisauga, thinking that we would enter Toronto the next day. But we ended up sleeping in and touring Missisuaga instead. So this is my third attempt and we learnt our lesson well, booking an apartment in Toronto this time.
It was a fresh sight entering Toronto. It is really city-like and reminds us very much of Singapore. High-raise buildings and tons of street lights. After staying in Buffalo these few months, going into the city was exciting. We left on Friday evening after some good Ice-cream. It's so sad that the ice-cream stores close in winter (i mean, it makes sense, but weird-ol me only likes ice-cream when the weather is cold. I'm not a big fan of ice-cream though, so all is good). This store was closing on Sunday, so we decided to try it out before it did - afterall, we heard good recommendations of the place even though it was so out of the way. We then drove through the Lexington Bridge into Canada!!!
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| Guess who is taking the picture and hiding from the camera again ;) |
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| This was called the Volcano Sundae if I'm not wrong. Not mine though. I only got a small one. |
We went to this place called Spring Rolls. It looked rather expensive, but the price was reasonable for the food and the ambiance of the place. And the best part? Asian food that actually tastes like Asian food.
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| I had Korean Kalbi!! The meat was really tender. |
By the time we were done with dinner, it was close to 11pm. We headed back to the apartment, and Deborah was already there. The 2 of us started studying because I had a Japanese Mid-term and a Finance Quiz the coming Monday. But because we were going to wake up earlier the next morning, we went to bed quite soon after.
As planned, we woke up early in the morning at 7.45am, and left the place at about 8.30am. We headed out and drove around for some breakfast. We ended up at A&W eating breakfast burgers before driving back to the apartment to park the car. We then took the subway downtown to save on parking costs. Subway was really cheap though, especially because there was 6 of us (with Deborah). There were weekend day passes that cost $11, but it allows us to take subways and buses all day for all 6 of us on 1 ticket. So we basically paid less than $2 each for a day's transport. We got off at Union Station if I remember correctly, and after walking for a bit, we came to the CN Tower.
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| *Whispers* it's another changi airport. |
And finally, next to that area was our destination - the Steam Whistle Brewing
If you have not already guessed, it is a beer brewery... And I don't drink. I'm not even legal in Canada. Not that it matters. But since it's a group trip, we went for it. It was $10 for a tour and we get a beer glass with it, together with 1 complimentary shot of beer and 1 more glass of beer (which I took neither so it wasn't exactly very worth it for me, but whatever).
So we had a tour around the brewery, where they basically explain how the beer is made, fermented, bottled, etc.
Yea, totally not my thing but still.
We then took the subway down to St George's station and walked to the Kensington Market. It's basically this ''hipster'' place, where they sell vintage stuff, and funky clothes - or maybe it's just because halloween is coming. There were lots of asian food around too.
I took lots of pictures of the graffiti around because they were all so beautiful.
We ended up eating another burger of the day at burgernator.
It smelt really good and the place was really packed so we decided to give it a try.
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| The kitchen |
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| Milkshakes here are like my necessity. They are so thick and creamy here and just so satisfying. This was a salted caramel milkshake and it was delicious. |
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| I ordered a ''Fully Loaded'', double patties, with egg and I forgot what else. It was huge and i just stuffed my face with it. |
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| We took the tram since the day pass includes a ride on trams as well. |
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| Passed by this beautiful church and couldn't help taking some photos |
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| For some reason, squirrels in Toronto is black? |
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| We barely made it to the St Lawrence Market in time, and some stores were already closed when we were there. Nonetheless, we managed to see some of it. |
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| One of Ethan's random candid pictures. It seems to tell a story for some reason. (Meanwhile, modeling in the middle of the street LOL) |
More walking and some time later, we came to the distillery district.
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| They had the lock thingys here too |
We went to Soma, this (apparently) famous chocolate place and it was like heaven for me (except that everything is so expensive)
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| Me looking like a taitai drinking a cup of spicy mayan hot chocolate. It was delicious and warming! |
We walked back to the subway and took it back to the apartment after that.
Poutine is basically fries with cheese curds and sauce and meat. The sauce is similar to the mash potato sauce. All in all, it grows on me. I didn't really especially like it when I first tried it, but I've grown to like it more now.
3 of the guys wanted to go to bars and pubs etc. but one of them is an early sleeper and not to mention that I'm underaged too (not that it really matters). We were quite high on food at this point but when we drove back, we got so totally lost because we didn't have a GPS. I managed to lead us back to the apartment eventually but by then, it was already about 1am and the high had already dissipated and guess the trio were kinda disappointed. They did go to a pub after that, but according to them, it was just drinks and heart-to-heart talks.
We woke up rather late the next day because we did not set a time to wake up. So we ended up reaching St. Patrick's station at 1pm. We then took the subway to Dundas to meet with one of our Outdoor Recreation Adventure classmate (we were so late, so they ate without us). We had Ramen at this place called Santouka. The queue was really long, but it was cooked by Japanese so it was really authentic. I ordered the tasting platter with Edmund, together with gyozas and hot matcha. It was really delicious. Like I finished 1 small bowl, and half of the big bowl, together with 3 gyozas. Gosh, typing this makes me hungry because it looks so delicious.
We then went back to Ethan Square (near the subway) and each went on our own ways to walk around. I wanted to buy shoes, because I don't have any formal shoes for presentations and such, but didn't find anything I liked. Instead, I bought Canada's famous Maple Cookies (what did you expect? Of course I would buy food - especially snacks)
After that, we actually had plans to go to the premium outlets for some shoppings, but because it was too late, we skipped that and headed back instead. Along the highway, about half an hour away from the border, we stopped at Swiss Chalet for some dinner.
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| I ordered a chicken pot pie, and it was really nice. They were famous for their chicken and ribs |
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| We then dropped by next door at Harvey's for some chocolate milkshake!! |
And that concluded our trip to Toronto.
Finally, I have written a proper blog post after so long. Gosh, I haven't been turning my computer on much because I'm hardly at home. Even now, I'm actually sitting outside the dance studio and typing this while waiting for my class, and my finance project simulation to run (it takes forever). That said, hopefully I'll post sooner next time. Till then, ciaos!
Labels: canada, food, Pictures, toronto, travel, weekend
Obviously in construction at the moment... or maybe forever because I'm lazy like this ;)
Visit Montana, Yellowstone National Park