well, i’m back again. i’ve eaten about twice the amount i normally do during this past week in Toronto and it was all so good. at this point i’d like to give a hearty bout of thanks to Losir for sharing his home, making the effort to spend time with his little cousin from Chicago, and so much more than i can adequately express. i’d also like to thank Cankles for helping to make me feel right at home as well as renew my love for 蓮霧.

i’m going back for sure.

these are slices of 蓮霧 (bell fruit, wax/rose/java/water apple), one of my very favorite fruits. the last time i had it was in Taipei circa 1997. it’s got a crisp, juicy texture and a very fresh taste with a tinge of sweetness. i looked everywhere for 蓮霧 in Chicago but couldn’t find any. i was told later that it’s near impossible to find outside of Asia so i gave up for good. all hope was abandoned, all was lost.

until today :)

my cousin’s friend was at a local (here in Toronto) Chinese supermarket earlier in the day and reported that she had encountered curious bell-shaped fruit that she didn’t recognize. my ears immediately perked and off we went.

awesome.

most stores in Canada will have a ground floor entrance for the homeless, the unemployed, Chinamen, and other second class citizens.

my cousin Losir was taking me around downtown Toronto earlier today when we both stopped to admire the reflection in a particular shiny building. both of us pulled our cameras out, took a few shots, and started walking away when two security goons suddenly waddled over and demanded that we tell them why we were taking photographs of their precious building. this got me thinking.

     1) why would anyone want to bomb Canada in the first place?

     2) honestly, Chinese terrorists?

     3) what can you really do with photos of a building anyway? edit in an explosion?

so we engaged in hand-to-hand combat and quickly emerged victorious. then rubbed maple syrup in their open wounds.

Canada > USA. it’s as simple as that. yum.

being in Toronto has made me keenly aware of just how poor my Cantonese really is. it seems that almost every Asian person here can jibber jabber flawlessly in it while i’m the verbal equivalent to a fly trapped in a small, mirrored room.

but when i’m alone, i can do anything. sort of.

i stepped onto a plane yesterday afternoon in Chicago and settled into my seat. ten minutes later, we lifted off and i started reading. then the plane suddenly landed in Toronto. honestly, i think i’ve been on longer subway rides. quick flights are obviously not a bad thing, of course. i’d much rather have it be too short than too long.

the majority of my activities here so far have been eating, eating, and more eating. prepare yourselves for a fattier and possibly jollier me upon my return.

off to Toronto for a week.

there’s a creepy statue of a little girl that just went up at a park in my neighborhood. there’s no plaque, no engraving, or anything that indicates who it is or why it’s up there.

if i had to guess, i’d say that it’s a statue of Gretchen McGretchen; one of the first female lizard catchers in Chicago. she bravely entered an occupation dominated by men and a few inquisitive cats and climbed her way to the top with incredible feats of cunning and a few ace lizard lures.

this is only speculation, of course.

i recently watched a weird Japanese film (honestly, do they come any other way?) about a very angry man whose goal was to kill everyone. everyone. past, present, and future. he’s in feudal Japan killing samurai, he’s in the present killing schoolgirls, and i imagine if i had continued watching, i’d see him in the distant future killing bionic ape-men.

i paused it 15 minutes in and jumped ahead to see if things would change. then i stopped it completely.