thank you, God, for our beautiful Toronto subways!!
Date: August 7th 2003
Feeling...: fresh, after a swim and a shower :)
Listening to: �Predictable� by BranVan3000
Excitement brewing over: Laure�s surprise b-day party!! (oh hell, she never reads this site anyway)
Concerned about: our new CD burner never working�
People/things that made me smile: swimming�although not included in that would be my subsequent dark tan�damn it I�m ALREADY brown!!
New thing(s) I�ve learned:black squirrels aren�t very common at all in British Columbia�figures that all the happy grey ones would prefer the better climate too
Additional witty comments (heh heh heh): So Laure got here on Thursday and we left for New York on Friday, and everything went really, really well. We crossed the border just fine (thankfully they didn�t suspect us of bringing in illegal immigrants from France lol) and I GOT MY MUPPETS DVDS (!!!) � quite possibly the most exciting part of the trip!! Oh man, I�m loving them to death right now, they�re just great. There�s a sketch in which Beaker sings �Feelings� and as most of you already know, Beaker�s entire vocabulary consists of a variation of short and long �meeps��very, very funny.

As for the trip, it was pretty cool to finally see the �center of America�, New York City itself :) We did the whole tourist thing�we saw the Statue of Liberty, went to the top of the Empire State building and took �Tony�s Tour�, an audio tour from the top of the building which was pretty cool cause it gave a bit of history of a lot of other buildings. But probably the most memorable part of the trip was our visit to �ground zero�, the former site of the World Trade Centers. I�m well-aware of the incredible clich� this seems to be, but I�ll never forget the effect it had on me. We were walking down Wall St., approaching the site, and about two blocks away we realized that we recognized the area from what we�d seen on the news when the attacks happened � people running down that same street trying to escape the dust and debris of the buildings collapsing. (Even as I type this I can feel a little lump in my throat). Finally we got near enough to see the gaping hole in the densely-built area, and you could hear the haunting sounds of people singing the �Star-Spangled Banner� nearer to the fence around the area. I knew it would be a moving experience to visit the site but I didn�t anticipate the tears that I couldn�t hold back. I think it�s one of those things you really have to experience for yourself, but the magnitude of it all just doesn�t hit you until you�re standing right there, and then the reality sets in. Before it was just something I was sick of hearing about on the news but I doubt I�ll ever think about it the same way again�

I�ve gotta say that overall, however much I enjoyed my experience with New York, the biggest thing that struck me as we left was how much more I appreciated Toronto. We�re a pretty great city�not that I didn�t think so before but the feeling�s certainly been increased� Toronto has all the comforts and niceties of a big city, while still being small enough to be clean. Dear GOD you cannot fully appreciate our subway system until you�ve been to HELL and back (and by �HELL� I mean the New York system�) The people here are friendlier, and our Chinatown is spotless compared to Canal Street�*shudder* The only thing I envy New York for is Krispy Kreme doughnuts and I think maybe I�m better off without them anyway heh heh heh�