over a year. so many changes i won't even bother to qualify them here.
i was looking over my older posts, many of them at a point in reference to toronto: would i like it here? will it ever become familiar, become home?
yes. yes it has. and yes. yes i do.
over the past year i've started to uncover my own toronto, as opposed to the one that i saw through someone else's (most often a toronto native's) eye. i've learned that my favourite toronto is west queen west early sunday morning, around 10 am - when everyone is still tucked into their homes recovering from last night's revelry, and the street is like a ghost town. i love picking up a coffee and walking down the street towards work.
i've learned to love my own secret places, where my own secret stories have unfolded. the european section of the rom. craftburger. quad spin. levack block. buying flowers on west queen west. little india. queen's park. the beacher cafe. leslieville. prague - the european deli.
prague feels like home to me. not like, actual czech republic home, because i never lived there... but weirdo immigrantchild ottawa home to me. it's cucumber salad. it's knedlo (dumplings) and zelo (cabbage) that my mom still makes. no matter how many times she entreats me to learn, it's comforting to know that in case i do not, there's a place where i can still eat like home. it's picking up a food product where i know what it inside the packaging, but not know how to read the label. it's the colours, sounds, and tastes of growing up. it's this new bizarro hybrid of feeling stuck in the middle of being a grown up and a kid.
