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Inspiration
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School
I always enjoy class trips to downtown Toronto! I don’t really get a chance to explore its little nooks and crannies often—especially now during winter—so I enjoyed yesterday’s outing a lot! Another thing is that it’s usually the fun art teachers that take us to city trips. 
Our first stop was the Toronto Star headquarters. Admittedly, I thought going there would be suuuper boring—I mean really, weren’t we just going to talk to some newspaper writers? WRONG.
I actually left feeling inspired and motivated (definitely not something you would expect to feel when leaving a dull gray building 
) because of all the cool people we spoke to, such as: Steve Russell, the head photographer who told us about his experiences while shooting in places abroad, in dangerous war zones, the Beijing Olympics, etc; a new designer who talked to us mostly about university prep. and even gave us her card 
; and a lady whose job it is to edit photos for print and who gave us some nice Photoshop tips. 
Next up, we went to a place called Richtree Market Restaurants which reminded me a bit of Frankie Tomatto’s because of the little “town” inside of the restaurant. We even got water from a fountain in the “town square”. 
I just dumped a bunch of stuff on my plate pictured above and discovered that I really hate black olives… blech!
After filling our stomachs with some good food, my teacher gave us the option of just going home or tagging along with her to a gallery where her artwork was being shown. 
Of course I chose the latter.
[...]
Let me just say that I loved my teachers work! It was so silly and so very her.
In that same gallery, there was this installation that projected a moving staircase on a white wall. We wondered what the purpose of it was and my teacher suggested that maybe we were supposed to “pretend” go up the stairs like so:
Then we went off to another tiny gallery that focused on more “fashion” pieces:
The spikes at the back of the shoe were porcupine needles 
On our way to the next place, we passed by this white building painted with a bunch of cute flowers on it. This really made my day! 
This shop sold the best stuff! Seriously, I think we were all embarrassing ourselves in that tiny store by freaking out about their products. I really hated myself for not bringing any bills to the trip, so I couldn’t buy anything!! 
We were told that the products were all from independent artists and crafters, so everything in this place reminded me of the fab things one sees at Etsy.
We ended the day with two more gallery visits. One where there where these huge knitted sculptures displayed (plus grass growing on the floor in the basement…) and another where we were able to talk to the actually artist who did some amazing Paris-inspired paintings.
My teacher said she displayed her own work in that same gallery when she was still in university.. coooool!
All in all, I had a GREAT day. I did not expect to see so many marvelous things that afternoon. And of course, we were all pooped! Once I arrived home at around 7 or 8, I fell asleep immediately and never woke up until the next morning—I think that’s the earliest I have ever slept in my life
I wish I could do that everyday…go art gallery hopping in downtown, eat in different cafés and restaurants, buy handmade goods…*sigh* One can dream, one can dream…
(
) fountain looks so cool! Was that water safe to drink? Hehe, I want to try one of those.
