1. When I was at the University of Toronto, we got most of our essentials from Honest Ed’s, a giant discount store that sold basically everything you could imagine. The nonstick pans probably gave us cancer, but Honest Ed kept his prices at student levels, making it tough to resist.
2. The University of Toronto pops into conversation pretty much every day for me, because as a tour guide, people always want to know how I ended up in France, and U of T is a big part of that conversation.
The Cliff’s Notes version is that I went to prep school in New England, so when it came time to apply to university, I wanted to go to urban schools. I got rejected from my dream school, Columbia, and my best friend was going to U of T, so I ended up there.
The first year, we all lived in residence, and we had a really fun time. Second year we lived off campus, making getting to school very cold. I also lost a lot of the sense of community that residential life had created, and I really realized how big 65,000 students is. Also, I was majoring in Linguistics, and I didn’t want to be a speech therapist.
While I didn’t transfer out right away, I did apply to do a semester abroad in Cannes, and I fell head over heels in love with France. One thing led to another, and I ended up in Paris.
While I only stayed at U of T for three semesters, I have great memories of my time there, and I couldn’t help taking this shot walking past it.
3. Toronto has all the amazing beer, but this one was by far my favorite: Sweet Zombie Jesus. It’s a collaboration between Bar Hop, where I tried it, and Great Lakes.
This is a sweet stout with strong flavors of peanut butter and dark chocolate, at least on the nose. The flavor of the stout isn’t overwhelmingly sweet and is instead more reminiscent of raw cacao. The only issue with it? It’s not bottled, and you can’t get it on tap anywhere but Toronto.
4. Toronto is a true city of neighborhoods, and it feels like at every turn, you encounter something new, from a unique building to a beautiful park.
5. One thing that I noticed about the graffiti in Toronto is that very little of it is simple tags; most of it is really beautiful street art. I’m not sure how the folks who own space in this little house feel about it, but I thought it was kind of funny to see the Monopoly man somewhere you wouldn’t expect to encounter him.