Today

Today I met someone on the street of Toronto that I knew. I had met them since moving here. Excitement....made me feel like I'm starting to settle in.

Currently my favourite song

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6237585

Blanche Nuit

Toronto was hosting an art crawl called Blanche Nuit. It started at 7:00pm and went until 6:00am. So I decided to invite my mother and sister down for the adventure.

Here's us starting off (we began the day at Kensington Market).

Yes, I get my maturity from my mother....

My sister definently has an intense and creative passion for art (you can see it all in her look).

Jazz was part of the art show. Plus, the dreads are definently a form of art in and of itself.












God sure knows how to make art...especially in the form of my beautiful sister.

And the same can be said about my beautiful mother!

Blanche Nuit Part 2

The two pictures below are probably my favourite part of the art tour. They were thousands of pictures of people; some done by adults and some obviously by kids. It was really fascinating to see how none of them looked alike.











































Just because paper grows on trees does not mean that we should use it carelessly. I liked how this piece of art was speaking a very loud environmental point.




























They colour and cheer of this piece caught my eye. It reminds me of being attached to the vine.

Tired but happy as we ended the day.

My class

I have a dream class this year. They are energetic, excited to learn, mature, and understand my teaching style :). Here are some interesting facts:
-they like reading so much that they often read while walking
-presentations always have a powerpoint accompanied although unrequired
-projects are thoroughly done
-they listen attentively (usually)
-do Sudokus (sp?) for fun during extra time

Prefix Trans means Across

Last night, I decided to make my way downtown to the inner part of Toronto. I wanted to lend my time to an outreach program called Sanctuary. Sanctuary ministers to the homeless in Toronto. What an experience!

The first thing I learned was the difference between transexual and transgender (our tour guide was using real people we met as examples). Transgender is someone who decides to go against the norms our society has dictated as gender. It can range from a tomboy to a transvestite. A transexual is someone who believes they were born the wrong gender, and often will use surgery and hormone replacement to fix their identity issues. This occurred in Cawthraw Park which is the second largest homosexual and transexual population in North America.

Our second stop was to "Boys' Town." This is a place where customers can pick up boys from ages 11 to 30 for a fee. Our tour guide had actually been one of the boys on the street. He was telling us that sometimes customers would just pick up a boy just to chat because they were lonely, other times....that wasn't the case. He himself had been raped as a child and felt power having the choice to give himself instead of being forced. Other boys are there because they themselves are looking for companionship and couldn't find it at home.

In Toronto, my tour guide explained, there are 10, 000 homeless youth (ages 16 to 24). Although, it's said that it's probably 1.5 to 2 times larger. That does not include those younger than 16.

It was a real eye opening and distrubing experience. Our guide was telling us that at shelters and food places it is illegal to help out someone who is younger than 16 (cause apparently it's illegal to be homeless if you are younger than 16). These kids are often forced into prostitution as an only means for survival. I wish those passing laws would get themselves out on the streets and experience the consequences of their decisions.

Sometimes there would be silences in our conversation as the information and facts were absorbed. What words do we have to express?