I love Canada.  How could you not love a country that infuses its currency with the aroma of maple syrup?  It’s true.  It smells like pancakes and syrup,


The people here are generally very polite and kind to one another.  I saw a Chinese merchant whose cart full of berries tipped over spilling his berries into the street.  Two older anglo women ran over and began helping him pick up his merchandise.   In most cities I’ve lived in, folks would have just walked around him and minded their own business.  Not in Toronto.  i’ve seen teenage boys jump up to give their seats to expecting mothers and senior citizens  on the subway.  Two twenty-something young professional women ran over to an elderly lady who was trying to get on a bus with her groceries.  They grabbed her bags, helped her into the bus, situated her and her groceries, then walked off the bus and resumed walking down the street as if nothing had happened.  It’s so nice to see people support one another  no matter their age, race, or ethnic background.

There are dozens of neighborhood festivals in the city every weekend in the summer. 

Today I wandered down Bloor Street for the BloorCourt Festival.  There were artists, musicians, circus acts for the kids, and an albino snake for the adult kids like me.

But for the rain, I also planned to check out the Cider Festival with over 100 homemade ciders, the Afro-Carib Festival with reggae music and Jamaican food, the Pan American Festival with South American and Central American music and food, and  the Tamil Festival.  There’s always something  fun going on in Toronto.