Toronto

Toronto has been my most recent permanent home and now, I'm only going to be here for another week. It's the most diverse city in the world where you can find great authentic food of every kind. People who live in Toronto take it for granted. Sure, it's full of suburbs surrounding a downtown core area... sure if you live in the suburbs, you can't get anywhere without a car. It's like that in every city but New York City and Hong Kong! I LIKE Toronto. The downtown is bustling with the suits during the day and at night, it's hustling in the clubs. Queen Street is my favourite. Bloor/Yorkville has its own style and class. Every place has its good and bad... Toronto is flat... so flat and the friggin sales tax comes to a whopping 15%. Sometimes, you can't appreciate Toronto until you've been elsewhere. I never went to Roy Thomson Hall for a TSO concert until I came back from New York. It's amazing how you don't appreciate something until you start to miss it... that's life.

Taken on July 3, 2005: City Hall (view from Nathan Phillips Square)


Taken on July 3, 2005: Toronto skyline at dusk (view from Centre Island)


Taken on April 20, 2005: such a nice atrium at BCE place

Barrie

For Canada Day "weekend", our usual bunch went up to Chris's cottage for a few days of fun, relaxing, and chilling with friends. I love Chris's cottage but now, the development of houses in Barrie is starting to creep in on this space. Sure it's not as far as Andrew's cottage and you can't see the Milky Way at night but it's right on Lake Simcoe and the lake can be pretty cold. I tried wakeboarding for the first time (unsuccessful) and I got to catch the sunrise one morning with Tiffany. Here are my most memorable shots (I also love those playing in water shots that JJ and Phil took!)

Taken on July 1, 2005


Taken on July 2, 2005: sunrise over Lake Simcoe

Down One

My favourite lounge in Toronto. First of all because Bryan works there. Second because we know the owner, Ivan. He's a real cool guy! Third, we like to play pool there in a relaxed atmosphere. Four, Ivan makes a good Cosmo. Five, it's just way groovy in there... the music is awesome! Six, all the colours in there are just too cool to miss!

Taken on June 20, 2005

Boston

For a weekend in June, I had the brilliant plan of visiting Jonathan in Boston for his birthday. Jonathan decides to go home out west for his birthday...
But thanks to AA's amazing deal, I went to Boston anyway so I could visit JJ while he was there. We did our usual touristy thing and we got to see quite a bit too! We ate good seafood, wandered through MIT, Harvard, downtown, Beacon Hill, Boston Common, the Freedom Trail... I even got to see Wilson! We had good and bad weather and I got some really amazing shots.

Taken on June 28, 2005: John Hancock Tower and Trinity Church (I tried to copy the shot of a picture in our room in the Westin)


Taken on June 28, 2005: Washington statue


Taken on June 28, 2005: the ducks in Boston Common


I had a picture with Wilson that I also wanted to post but I've exceeded my upload limit this month on Flickr so check back later for that picture!

Huang Shan

And taking of advantage of the fact that I'm still in Asia, my parents and I took a four day trip to Huang Shan in China. The majority of locals are employed in the tourism industry or in agriculture. You see all sorts of great things like rice fields, water buffalos, old architecture from the Ming dynasty, and factories that produce the world-famous ink used in Chinese paintings. But the thing you go to Huang Shan for are the mountains and the various rock formations. If you're lucky, you might catch the sea of clouds beneath you as you head up the mountain. Unfortunately for us, it was so dry that we missed out on that. No matter, we still got to see the beautiful layering of mountains and pine trees that grow on these mountains exclusively. It's amazing. I bet the winter scenery is just as beautiful but in a different way.

Taken on June 4, 2005


Taken on June 4, 2005: mountain layers


Taken on June 4, 2005: sunset over the mountains


Taken on June 5, 2005: rice fields

Macau

While I was "vacationing" in Hong Kong, my cousin and I took a day trip to Macau. Macau is interesting because it's retained most of its Portuguese influence in the architecture and in the culture. It's not as modern and fast-paced and you basically go to Macau for the casinos. Oh, not to mention the various types of meat jerky and traditional almond cookies and Portuguese tarts.

Taken on May 24, 2005: The Ruins of St Paul


Taken on May 24, 2005: A-Ma Temple


Taken on May 24, 3005: Macau Tower

Hong Kong

So here are some of my "prize" photos that I took in Hong Kong I promised from my previous post...

Taken on June 8, 2005: dusk view of HK from The Peak


Taken on June 11, 2005: day skyline of HK (Central)


Taken on June 11, 2005: night skyline of HK


Taken on June 10, 2005: crowds in front of Sogo in Causeway Bay (definitive HK!)


Taken on May 22, 2005: New Territories (JJ's favourite photo)

Chicago

I spent the fall of 2004 at an internship in Chicago and though I am sad to say that I didn't accumulate as many pictures as I did in New York, I have a large number of photos that depict very interesting architecture. Chicago is a city that is rich in music, arts, sports, and of course, architecture. It's more laid back than New York City but it doesn't have nearly as high a profile, nor as high a standard of living. It's kind of nice there with Lake Michigan and the river running through the city. Who would've thought that I'd end up moving there... I've met some great friends there and I met my favourite person in the world there, JJ. Here is a picture from when I went there on an apartment hunting trip in preparation for the next chapter of my life.

Taken on May 8, 2005: view of the John Hancock Tower and skyline from North Ave beach

Hartford

I went to Hartford (or rather, Simsbury) for an interview mid January. It was cold there and unfortunately for Hartford, its selling point was that it's two hours from New York City and two hours from Boston. Hartford, itself, is basically a small town (I took a 16-seater propeller plane there from Toronto) but it's the home of many insurance companies. It's another one of those cities that you can't survive in without a car. Downtown Hartford looks kind of run-down. Although the interview went well and the job seemed like a good one, I'm too much of a city girl to be starting a life in Hartford. People are extremely nice and one lady even drove me around the city to show me around. The pictures I had ended up mostly blurry and those that weren't blurry weren't that exciting. As a result, the picture here is not that interesting either but the lighting was good. I did have amazing clam chowder at Pettibones Tavern... and I stayed at the Simsbury Inn where I had the luxury of a king-size canopy bed!

Taken on January 16, 2005: canopy bed at Simsbury Inn


Taken on January 17, 2005

Lake Louise

In Johnston Canyon, we saw some wonderful frozen falls. Unfortunately, due to blizzard conditions, it was near impossible to take that perfect picture of Lake Louise - most of it was completely white out.

Taken on January 6, 2005

Calgary

Early January, The Actuarial Students' National Association (ASNA) went to Calgary for the first time to host the annual convention. We didn't spend much time outside but I did get a great shot of the Calgary Tower

Taken on January 7, 2005: The Fairmont Palliser with the Calgary Tower

Los Angeles

During American Thanksgiving of 2004, I took advantage of the long weekend and went to visit my friend Joyce in LA. She's been working there for a while now and Southwest airlines offered a pretty good deal. In three days, Joyce and her boyfriend, Channing, showed me good sight-seeing and good food! From Hollywood to downtown to Santa Monica and all those nearby beaches, it was a great time :) Even Hoi Wah came to visit and I only got to see them for a day! Thanks for the hookah, it was goooooooood.

Taken on November 26, 2004: Santa Monica beach


Taken on November 27, 2004: Hoi and Joyce


Taken on November 28, 2004: view out of Joyce's balcony

Chichen Itza

About a two hour drive out of Cancun's hotel strip, Chichen Itza is home of the Mayan ruins. These temples are called calendar temples because there is a total of 365 steps: 91 steps on each flight, with a total of four flights plus the top level. The stairs face north, south, east, and west and the corners mark the rise and fall of the sun on the spring equinox and the autumnal equinox.
Taken on August 18, 2004: the calendar temple

Cancun

A great trip with friends to Cancun.

Taken on August 21, 2004 looking into the Gulf of Mexico

Waterloo

I spent 32 months in Waterloo and I've collected many pictures of the campus, of various surroundings, of friends, and of parties. Strange how this one appeals to me the most - deeper philosophical meaning anyone?
Taken on June 8, 2004

New York City

I spent summer 2003 (May - August) in New York City. I ended up with my first 2000+ pictures to which I made a few people sit through - thanks for your patience :)
This city is special to me because it marked a turning point in my life - it was the beginning of a lot of welcome change.
To commemorate my incredible time in New York City, I made a photo book. Unfortunately, you will have to ask to see it :)
All that aside, my favourite photo of those 4 months is here: a bird's eye view of a section of New York City from the Empire State building at dusk on May 29, 2003 with my trusty Canon PowerShot S400



I even met some of my closest friends, Jonathan, "the serious one" and Bobby, "the goofy one" (apparently, that appears to be backwards in this photo)

It's all about the passion

I decided to start a photo blog because some photos I am so proud of that I just have to share them specifically. I thought about not doing the back-posting of pictures but I figured I could do one or two of the various places I've visited in separate posts for easy sorting :)

Here, you will not find me ranting and raving. Just photos because you know as they say, a picture says a thousand words.