May began with the Hot Docs documentary film festival, which I enjoyed very much. Documentary film-makers from all over the world submit their films to play before the public but also industry execs in the hope of getting picked up for wider release. This year I saw a wide range of films from one about being a single woman 'Lovable' to one about Donald Trump's golf course on the coast of Scotland, 'You've Been Trumped'. Then there was there one about the racist British National Party, 'Battle for Barking' and the gender reassignment of Chastity Bono in 'Becoming Chaz'. However, my favourite was 'Being Elmo' about the puppeteer behind Elmo from Sesame Street - it was a delightful film about a fascinating journey and it, quite simply, made you smile!A week later I also saw Leonard Bernstein's 'Candide' as part of the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Toronto is not short on film festivals. There are 55 annually.
In May, I started a new course. I'm studying Web Marketing part-time in the evenings at the University of Toronto and am finding it very interesting so far, in a nerdy kind of way. I'm now tweeting more and have launched my first Google ads campaign at work. It's also feeding in to the website re-development work I'm currently involved in so most of the things I'm learning about are being applied.
Towards the end of May, a couple of friends and I decided to take advantage of the Victoria Day long weekend and head south across the border. We embarked on a rather epic 12 hour Megabus trip to Washington DC, although the way back was longer at 15 hours due to border delays. At $80 round-trip we didn't complain too much though! We also managed to get a great deal on the very conveniently-located JW Marriott hotel and then spent three gloriously sunny and hot days exploring the US capital.
Our first, and indeed final, stop of the weekend was a hangout of many a politico, the Old Ebbitt Grill, where apparently President Obama sometimes sneaks in via the kitchens. It was certainly packed and served fare that satisfied us let alone global leaders. They were too busy hanging out on the lawn of The White House next door, and although we missed the press call, we did see Prime Minister Netanyahu's motorcade being swept under shielding marquees outside the Israeli embassy. I'm sure I also saw Marine One fly overhead to pick up the O'bamas (sic) as they embarked on their tour of Ireland. Unfortunately, Michelle wasn't to be seen tending her vegetable patch but we were impressed by her bee hives.Our weekend was packed full of museum visits as Washington really does have a wonderful collection, many of which are free. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History was our first stop and I particularly enjoyed seeing the First Ladies' dresses, Dorothy's Red Slippers, Jacko's Hat and, of course, an original Kermit the Frog! We also enjoyed a delicious and interesting Native American meal at the Mitsitam Cafe in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. My favourite museum we visited, however, was the Newseum and we spent a good few hours here looking at all the fascinating exhibits on the Berlin Wall, photojournalism, Hurricane Katrina, 9/11 and historic front pages.
On the Saturday, Giulia, Darlene and myself indulged ourselves by having a delicious chocolate-themed brunch at Coco Sala - it really was a chocolate lover's delight! We felt obliged to walk off our excesses though and took a couple of excellent walking tours - one around the Washington monuments at night and another around the rather lovely Georgetown area, where we saw the homes of such notables as the Kennedy's and the cookery writer, Julia Childs. All in all, we had a super time and, yet again, the US cities have scored highly with me!
The week before last I had another trip. This time for work. I attended the NAFSA conference for international educators in Vancouver. It was a huge conference of 10,000 people from all over the world. The exhibition hall alone took me two days to walk round. Many universities from all over the world have stands and it's basically an opportunity for them to meet their partners and potential partners. I was kept busy with meetings, seminars and various evening receptions to attend. The conference was held at the new Vancouver Convention Centre, which was built for the Winter Olympics last year. It's a huge eco-friendly building with a green roof and I was very impressed by its design.
Vancouver was heaving with both conference attendees and ice hockey fans. For those of you who may not know the significance of the Stanley Cup play-offs that were taking place between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins that week, it's kind of like the World Cup is to the rest of the world, except for ice hockey. When the Canucks won the second match of the series, I thought I'd go deaf with the noise that erupted!
Mind you, I'd rather that than something worse as I so nearly encountered on my arrival in the city. As I came out of a subway station, I saw that the area was cordoned off by police and there were crowds of people looking towards a gentleman who appeared to be waving a long stick close to an abandoned bus. It turns out this was a sword and just as I turned the corner, he came running in my direction shouting "I hate you all!" The next thing I knew, I heard gun shots. I just turned and ran into the nearest building. I was quite shocked by how many people ran towards the shooting with their smartphones taking pictures! Gradually, I think people realized the seriousness and also started to retreat. A few moments later, we heard the police had got the chap. They'd tried to shoot him with rubber bullets and taser him but both methods had failed. As I emerged from the building I just saw about 20 police officers on top of him. I'm thankful no-one was hurt but it did make the evening news. A bit of a shocker all round but the Vancouver police did an excellent job.My fright did not affect the rest of the week and I was staying on the North Vancover shore so travelled by sea bus to work everyday - it was a lovely way to commute. Vancouver is famous for its tendency to be grey and rainy but, luckily, only a couple of days were like that as the city is in a very beautiful setting. I stayed an extra day after the conference finished and had a super time sightseeing in the sunshine. I managed to see Stanley Park, the Vancouver Aquarium and its amazing beluga whales, Klahowya Village, Granville Island market, the Capilano Suspension Bridge and cliff walk plus the stunningly beautiful view from Grouse Mountain, where the grizzly bears were snoozing and the kids were still snowboarding...in June.
Summer is now here and we hit 40 degrees with humidity one day in Toronto last week. There've been a lot of storms and a few tornadoes have touched down north and west of the city but, thankfully, nothing like the devastation this season has wreaked south of the border. The view of lightening hitting the CN Tower has been quite a spectacular sight though. Life continues to be action-packed and exciting here in North America!
