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…

1. Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address):

hey! you’re having wayy too much fun at school, dont you know you’re suppose to hate it?!?! yeahh

2. Posted by Leanne:

that sounds like such a great day! i don’t have the pleasure of knowing someone who can take me into the nooks and cranies of melbourne.. but i always go searching for them i love discovering the secrets of your city.. it makes you love it even more! the gallery exhibitions you went to sound amazing! from the photos of the shop.. i want to go there and buy some of those goodies too! it’s so much more amazing to buy products from independent crafters, there’s a sense of individuality!

3. Posted by Karen:

Seems like an awesome day with the whole class!
I’m an art student and I wished I was there to experience everything.
I especially love the water fountain picture. It made me laugh. 

4. Posted by Bonnie:

YAYY TORONTO. love downtown. its funny beceause i swear i just saw the picture of the gallery (almost the same position) in Elle magazine today :P

totally love those flowers on the wall /bulding ! seems like such an awesome day

i hope i can work in downtown so i will be able to tour around toronto downtown… that’d be amazing.

5. Posted by Jackie:

Wow! It looks like you had a really great day in Toronto! i really envy that you got to go to so many awesome art museums! Seeing all your cool photos has really inspired me to visit my local art museum! That little shop looks really awesome too! Everything looks so cute! Also, that water fountain thing is super-cool! 

6. Posted by Krystal:

That sounded so fun and your food looks so yummy! I love olives! ;D Whoa, those heels are crazy! Death heals, haha. That little art shop looks way cool. The stuff independent artists make are wacky and unique, I like it.

San Francisco also has its own nooks and crannies and I can’t wait to explore them. Even though I was born there and go there often, I haven’t seen everything of San Francisco. I’m pretty sure there’s a lot I’m missing.

Oh, if you went to Cambodia for a vacay, there would be TONS of stuff for you to take pictures of. I just couldn’t take as much because my camera was running out of space. (

7. Posted by notebookdoodles:

you have a lovely blog.
and i love love your emoticons
how did you get it?
it’s awesome  

8. Posted by Meg:

wow, what a cool day!
that photo of food is making me so hungry! Minus the olives - I really don’t like them either.
I love little shops like that! In my city we have a lot of them, they seem to pop up all over England. There is a really cool one near me that is run by a Japanese family. It is super cool
Your lucky to have seen all that cool stuff! My school is far to boring to do anything like that haha

9. Posted by Milan:

Eeep! I am so wanting to go have a day trip to New York City now. It looks like you had such a good time. 

I, too, am not fond of black olives. I learned that early on in my life and I look for every way to avoid them.

That angel ( ) fountain looks so cool! Was that water safe to drink? Hehe, I want to try one of those.

The shoe with the porcupines looked really cool as well…. Wonder if anyone can actually wear that though without hurting themselves.

When you mentioned etsy, I immediately thought of http://regretsy.com/

I love all your smilies. I was so tempted to just use them all!  

PS. My RSS feed is here: http://sectumsempra.org/feed/

10. Posted by Becca:

wuahhh SO COOL! I want the shoes and the hat :P