fromtorontowithlove.blogg.se

Hiya

Just had dinner - broccoli and cauliflower soup with some mushroom and cheese perogies. MHM! Think I ate a little too much though....was sooo hungry. Was off work today so I started my day with a walk before breakfast to get some grocerys. The weather was so beautiful. Met an old friend on my walk along the beach....THE POLE LADY!!!
The pole lady is a very special woman. She always walks along the boardwalk in the mornings with her poles so me and Frida have met her lots of times on our morning runs. One time when I was rollerskiing with Matt we met her and she stopped us. I thought she might just wanna ask something about the rollerskis (because everyone here is always so curious about what rollerskis are), but no, she wasn't intrested in that AT ALL. She were super pissed and told us that we could hurt someone with the poles (because of the pointy tips on our ski poles). She told us to change the tips of the poles to something softer (like hers) because with her logic we could seriously hurt dogs and babies by rollerskiing on the bike path (with our ski poles, of course). 
....We were just looking at her, trying to get what the fuck she was saying. Like, there's no logic in that at all. I can come up with 1000 of thing's that are more dangerous then rollerskiing, especially for dogs and babies. She was crazy. So we just turned around and left. On our way back we met her again and just as we passed her she yelled at us "SOMEONE IS GONNA GET HURT". Haha....it is so ridiculous. So this morning I met her and I just had to take a picture of her so I could tell you all about her.

Gonna skype with this girl for a little while before I make my way to work for another Wednesday at the store. I'm a bit excited about today actually cause a sales rep from Salomon is coming today at 11 am to tell us about all the new awesome ski stuff! WOHOO! I'm going to be very easy to convince...most likely too easy. Luckely Rob and Tommy are there too.

 

Hi there!

It's been a while since last time, so I don't really know what I should start to write about. What have I been up to? Hmm....working, hanging out with friends and training for the most part. Work is great - the new owners are so nice so it's exciting to go to work nowadays. 
Oh, the guy who does most of the bike repairs in the store had an old road bike just standing in his garage, so he tuned it up and gave it to me a week ago. So amazing! It really meant a lot to me. I've been biking around on Maddys heavy mountain bike for half a year and even though I'm very thankful for that there's no comparison to ride a road bike. It goes sooooo much faster, weighs probably less than half as much as her bike so it feels just amazing to ride it. One time when me and Matt were riding our bicycles (I had Maddys heavy bike) and we switched bikes he said something like "I don't ever wanna ride that bike again. Like ever." What a gentleman. However, nowadays with my new bike it's kind of the opposite.

So, I have to figure something out to give to Tommy (the repair guy) to say thanks. I don't think he understands how much it meant for me to get a bike like that. I'm sure some of you thinks about my bike accident when you read this....and yes I do too. In a way I don't wanna bike at all because it is so dangerous in this town (and especially with a fast bike). However, I'm very careful when I bike and I try to always use the safer roads.

It's been a week with the new owners in the store and it feels great. They are super nice and it goes better than I thought it would.

Tonight I'm going to see an Estonian band play downtown with Annaliis, Kadi, Dylan, Julie & Matt. The band is called 'Ewert and the two dragons" - listen to them if you haven't already. They are awesome.

This past weekend I went to Canada's Wonderland with Annaliis, Kadi, Dylan & Julie. It was so much fun. Canada's Wonderland is a huge amusement park a little bit north of Toronto. They had some pretty crazy rides....not even close to comparable with Grona Lund or Liseberg.
Check out this one. According to me it was the best ride of the day. Crazy steep, but super smooth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0ASWKwQwzE

Also, the other day I went to a farmers market where I found chanterelles! (kantareller) Gosh what I have missed being able to eat fresh chanterelles. Pure deliciousness. It was crazy expensive, but I just had to buy some. So a few days ago I made a quiche with the chanterelles together with something similar to the Swedish Vasterbottencheese. It turned out pretty good actually...:)

E

Hi there, sorry for not writing in a while. Don't have an excuse.
The weather is changing here in Toronto. It has been a few days in a row where the temperature has gone down pretty low. This morning I believe it was just a few degrees - suddenly the air feels so pure, clean and fresh. The humidity has kind of disappeared. 

I've had such a nice feeling inside of me the last week or so. I've felt like I'm at home. Every time I go outside and breath the air I feel like I'm back in Orsa or Mora, running at the tracks with my friends at Prastholmens IP.
I think of all those chilly evenings we have spent out there together exercising until it gets too dark and we barely can see each other. I think of how much we always laugh, about all the silly things we chat about and that we always discuss why we don't get to have the spotlights turned on over the whole stadium (when the football players apparently can). I think of when it gets too cold and we have to move into the, oh so well-known "running corridor" at S:t Mikaelsskolan. I think of how the first words from everyones mouth as we enter the "running-corridor" always is "omg I can't breath in here, it's no ventilation at all."

But that time, just before we had to move our training indoors, was amazing. I loved it. Just loved it. The fresh air, the dark evenings....it's something about it. I love to train with a base layer, a buff, my headband, my IFK Mora jacket and tights. Nothing takes that. It's cold enough to make you wanna keep up a good pace and there's no heat to make you exhausted - it's just perfect.

Saknar alla er friidrottare. Hoppas ni tranar pa ute pa Prastis i era tights och understall <3

E

Morning!
Have been sipping my coffee, reading blogs and news on my laptop for almost 2 hours. It's Sunday so in my opinion it's ok. Went to a friends housewarming party yesterday evening with Annaliis and Kadi, so today I'm feeling a bit tired. Gonna make some breakfast soon and get ready for the gym. Yesterday at the gym I realized that I can do the rowing machine even though my heel still hurts - wohooo!

What else? Oh, this past Wednesday I saw a concert with Alt-J! I went with Matt, his friend Harry, his roomie Kate and a friend to Harry. It was great. Their music is probably not the easiest to do justice live, but I thought they did it really well. In the end it started rain like crazy so we all got soaked before we got home, but it was all good - was just happy to get to see them.

Hejhej,

Everyone, be careful out there today cause it's Friday the 13th! Jeeeez. Haven't got hit by any cars so far, but the day isn't over yet. Gonna try to keep a low profile and NOT take any stupied chances...

The last few weeks have been a bit up and down. One of the reasons i've felt a bit down is because I haven't been able to exercise a lot cause of the bike accident. Exercising is for sure a big part of my life and even if I'm not always motivated it is something I need to do for myself to feel good. Even though it has only been 2 weeks it's still affecting my mood in a negative way. However, I have been to the gym a few times to exercise my upper body, but I haven't been able to do anything for my legs. My foot is still not good. I wonder when I'll be able to run again...

This morning I worked my first few hours at the Swedish Bakeshop. It was fun! We made some quiches, soups and sweets. I worked with Anna who owns the Bakeshop and also is Swedish, so I got to speak some Swedish - haven't done that for a while. I'll start work there sometimes during the weekends and when they need extra help.

I feel more and more comfortable with my English nowadays and I feel that I can express myself the way I want to more often, but it's still so nice to be able to speak Swedish from time to time - as today with Anna at the Bakeshop. It's not only the actual languages that are different, it's the way Canadians vs Swedish (and most likely all scandinavian) people speak. For instance how we emphasize certain words and there's so many expressions that arn't even possible to translate. Also, in Sweden, we're not as loud, expressive and convincing as I find Canadians (North americans) are when they talk. I know I'm generalizing, but there's definitily a diffrence. Most people I've met almost over-articulate when they speak - or to me it sounds like that anyways. It's a lot of differences in the way we communicate and I find it quite interesting.

About something else....I'm at the end of season 4 on LOST right now. It's sooo good. Whenever I have some time over I watch it. Don't judge me, I simply can't help it.

Hi there,

It's been three days since I had my bike accident and I feel much better. My foot is still swollen and is starting to shift in the colours of blue, purple and red, but it doesn't hurt as much as before.  

So, this past Saturday I was on my way to work on my bike. There was, as always, a lot of traffic on Queen Street and lots of parked cars on the side of the road. When there's parked cars on the side it's not a lot of space between  the cars, the people biking and the people driving cars or streetcars - with other words it's fucking dangerous, but that's just how it is. 
   I was half-way to work, just outside the fire station, when a car door slams up right in front of me and my bike. I just remember realizing for a quarter of a second that I won't have time to turn. So I fell to the left, into the car lane. Unluckely it comes a car just when I hit the ground and it doesn't have time to stop. When I saw the car coming towards me, I thought it was it, that I was going to die. It's the worst feeling I've ever had in my life. 
 
Next thing I remember is lying on the ground breathing way too fast, hearing people telling me not to move, and that the ambulance is on their way. After a few minutes I try to get up, but my foot hurts so a few firefighters that were just around the corner came and helped me. There were so many lovely people staying around while waiting for the ambulance, just talking to me and telling me everything's gonna be alright. 

   At the hospital they exrayed my foot and luckely it wasn't broken. Such a relief. Would have taken so much time to be able to walk again if it were. While I was waiting to get my foot exrayed the police came and wanted my version of it all. My version agreed with the version he had got from all the witnesess so he told me that the guy who opened the car door would get charged.

After 3 hours at the hospital I was done and they gave me a pair of crutches (couldn't put weight on my foot). Since my shoulder was also hurt it was a bit tricky to walk with them at first. Got persuaded by Matt to take a cab home instead of the streetcar, which probably was a good idea. Would most likely not been able to actually get on the streetcar,

It was such a relief to come home. As I entered the doorway, all my tensions and feelings just released from my body and I cried like a baby on the floor. The family I live with was up in the cottage for the weekend, Frida just got back to Sweden, Matt was working until 10 pm and Kasia just went to the Galapagos Islands, so I felt a bit lonely. Matt came later - felt good not to be all by myself.

So the last few days have been kinda emotional. Skyped with my family and with Frida - I needed that. Felt ready to go back to work this morning, but Beverley sent me home after 4 hours. Was probably a good idea since it's kinda hard on my foot. I decided to try to walk back home with my crutches instead of taking the streetcar. I usually get kinda irritated at people that walk slowly, but this time I was the slow one so I got frustrated and irritated on myself instead. On my way back home I passed by Carloads to buy some avocados, bananas and spinach and there I meet Laura & Robin who also are doing some grocery shopping so I was able to get a ride with them home. Phuuu. It's really tiring to walk with crutches, especially for the arms and my hurting shoulder.

The next part of all this is to figure out everything with the insurance. As soon as I receive all the receipts and documents from the hospital I'll call the guy who got charged's Insurance Company and hopefully it won't be too complicated to get all my expenses covered. The good thing with all this is that I'm at least learning a lot.

In the future, if I by any chance wouldn't remember my time here in Toronto (not very likely but still), I will always be able to look at my body and recall, cause I'm starting to collect a lot of scars.

Hello everyone!

I just realized it's almost September. I can't believe that. Where did August go? It doesn't make any sense to me at all. However, the summer isn't over yet. Today's temperature is probably around 25-30 C and it's suppose to be like that for the next upcoming week. Sweet!

So what's happening here in Toronto? I have signed up for a gym - FINALLY! Came across a gym that's really close to where I live and it was suuuper cheap - $65 for THREE months. Wasn't a fancy place, just the basics - but that's kind of all I need. Free weights, some machines, treadmills and some space for stretching. Went there the first time yesterday morning and it felt great. It was the first time I did squats in a loooong time and holy smokes - my legs are killing me today. That's a wonderful feeling.

What else? Went to a concert a few days ago with Matt. It was a gypsy punk band from the U.S called Gogol Bordello. They were a bit crazy and had soo much energy on the stage, which made them a lot of fun to see. In the end of the concert a few gay guys beside us in the crowd starts dancing like crazy, flirting with Matt and throwing sparkles on him. So when I look at him he is completely covered in sparkles. It was a very funny sight, to say the least. Poor Matt. I'll leave it to that.

Yesterday I got a call from Frida at the store - what a surprise! She was at the airport in Halifax waiting for the flight to Sweden. Was great to hear her voice and to talk about the last week. She had had a wonderful time out east with Annaliis, exploring the nature. Can't wait to see photos from over there! She landed safely in Sweden and I just got a message from her saying "trying to understand why it's so different and weird walking along the streets - then I realize I'm in Sweden". So similar, but yet so different. I mean the pavement is black in Sweden, isn't it, Frida? Haha. 

This Friday, Kasia and Lucas flies to The Galapagos Islands - crazy!! They'll be away for a few weeks and I hope they'll have a wonderful time. Meanwhile, I'll work some extra shifts at Velotique, which is good. Tonight I'm meeting up with Kasia downtown after work to have dinner and catch up before she leaves for her trip :)

Robert & Virginias impressive house in Stirling. Every piece of furniture had been carefully chosen and had it's particular spot in the house.

Hi

How's everyone?
The days pass so fast. Frida and I went to Montreal a week ago and now she's in Halifax (the east coast) travelling around for another week with our friend Annaliis. Then she flies back to Sweden for a while. I came back to Toronto two days ago. Feels good to be back and get into the daily routines again, but very sad to leave Frida. We have done almost everything together for about a year, so no wonder it feels strange to be apart.

The Montreal trip was great. We stayed at a lovely Bed & Breakfast the first 3 nights and explored the area during the days. Montreal has a lot more history than Toronto, which we could tell by the old buldings. It felt almost like being in an European country and it was great to hear people speak French. After the first 3 nights we had to change to another hostel. IT WAS AWFUL. Super dirty, the air was really bad, the toilets were disgusting.....it felt like the place was about to fall apart any second. We didn't wanna spend any time in the hostel more than sleeping so we packed our backpacks with our toothbrushes, clothes, water, food - everything we needed for the days and then we just came back late in the evenings - slept a few hours and went out in the morning.

Oh, forgot one thing. Before we went to Montreal we stopped by Stirling (which is a small town on the way to Montreal) to visit Robert and his wife Virginia - our first contacts in Canada. Frida's father knew Robert before we came to Canada from some Wordloppet ski races in Europe and that is how we came in contact with him. He was the one who made us come in contact with Bev & Saul in the store that I work at, which we're so thankful for. So we went by them before Montreal and stayed over one night in their beautiful and historical house (they are very much into antiques).

Next post I do will be full of pictures from the last week :)

Hi, 

We apologize for not giving the blog any attention at all through this last week.

My foot is much better so I tried to go for a run this morning and it felt ok, which is great. Haven't been able to work out a lot this last week because of my foot. Have done some strength training, but that's kind of it. Instead of working out, we have done a lot of other stuff. This weekend we went to a music festival in downtown Toronto called 'The Grove Festival" and got to see Phoenix, Hot Chip and Girl Talk live. It was great :) However, Icona Pop was supposed to play too (we were very excited to see them since they are Swedish) BUT they cancelled a few days before. Very unfortunate.  

This past Monday was a holiday so Frida and I went to Toronto Island with two friends, Tim and Johannes. We had a great day with picnic, tree climbing, a lot of walking and lots of photos were taken. I'll post some of the pictures in another post.

Yesterday morning I tried stand-up paddle boarding with a friend who has his own paddle board. It was a lot of fun! I was a bit concerned at first because of my foot, but it was no problem standing on the board. The hardest part was the balance, but it was actually a bit easier than I imagined it. Definitely something to do again!

Frida worked late yesterday evening so I had dinner with Matt. Made a modified version of "Flygande Jakob" - coconut milk instead of cream and cashew nuts instead of peanuts. Instead of rice we had boiled cauliflower and spinach. Completely dairy-free - wohoo. It turned out quite good :)

I'm not gonna say too much, but Frida and I are going to travel a bit the up-coming days and the whole next week. We'll tell more about it in another post, when thing's are settled.

Hope you're all good!

E

Hi there,

I think I mentioned in a earlier post that I feel very lucky for all good things happening and for being around so nice people. So, I guess it was my turn to have some bad luck. 

   A few days ago when I was biking to meet up with a friend a car drives just beside me and I can see that he doesn't see me so I turn right against the side walk as much as I can, but he still doesn't see me and turn his car right at me (to park his car or something). BOOOM - I land on the sidewalk. Even though I got hit by the car I was really lucky - just got a scratch on my knee and a sore wrist, but nothing bad. Tur i oturen.

Next thing happened this past Saturday. Frida, Matt, Matt's friend and me went out for a drink. Just before we went back home we danced and jumped around for a bit. A very sharp shoe steps on my foot and I get a pretty deep cut. We did our best to avoid infections (Matt poured vodka on it), which probably helped a lot. Thought I would make it without stiches, but when I was on my way to work the day after it started to bleed again so I felt kind of anxious. In Sweden you know everything's gonna be okay, but it's not the same here with health insurance and all that stuff. Didn't wanna go to the hospital in case I would have to pay a lot for it.

Kasia (studies to be a nurse) lives close to Velotique so I walked to her before work and told her about everything. She looked at the wound, cleaned it and told me it would need stiches or glue, otherwise it would be hard to make it heel. So I had to skip work and Frida followed me to the hospital (wasn't easy to find one that would help us). After waiting for hours we finally got to see a doctor and by that time it had passed too much time for doing stiches, so they glued together the wound instead. It's crazy, I had to pay $500 for seeing the doctor. I hope to get most of it back from my insurance though. Frida was great. She had her day off, but spend all of it with me at the hospital - you're the best, girl. 

The outcome of the last few days:
1. I walk like a retard because of my foot (excuse my language)
2. I'm a lot poorer.

Note to self:
1. It's dangerous to bike in the city (don't trust anyone else, people drive like idiots).  
2. Start wear super big and heavy shoes so that no one can hurt your feet when you're out dancing.

.....BUT really, it could have been so much worse!

E

Here's some pictures from the camping trip.


On the road.

So I thought I'd tell you guys about the camping trip me and Matt did a week ago. We had talked about doing a camping trip for a while, but it was hard to make time for it. I'm not going to say what it took to get some of Matt's shifts covered - Sweden isn't prepared for that. However, in some way, we managed to get the same days off work. 

We didn't have a lot of time to plan the trip before so we ended up planning & packing everything the night before going. Around 2.30 am we finally finished packing and could go to bed for a few hours. We were suppose to pick the car up at 6 am so we only got 2,5 hours sleep. Brutal. It took us about 3 hours to reach our destination - Kawartha Lakes.

The canoeing started well. The sun was shining and we were both very happy to be away from the city for a while. Unlike how it works in Sweden (where you can camp kind of anywhere) we had to go to a particular spot. The "campsite booker" who in our case was Matt didn't bring a map of how to get there. So, we ended up canoeing around the whole lake, turning around, going back a bit, realizing we have to swallow our pride and ask a few people that we met of how to get there, realizing we already passed the place twice without noticing it, turning around and go back again. Finally we found the place where we would carry the canoe for about 200 m to reach the other lake where our camping island was located. We tried to carry the canoe on our heads with all our packing (because that is how real campers to according to Matt). BIG MISTAKE. It wasn't one of does lighter canoes made for being carried, oh no, this one was huge. But Matt wanted to be a real camper, so we tried and in some way the canoe fell over us and we got stuck underneath it and Matt were close to really hurt his neck. At the same time we laughed sooooo hard so we couldn't lift it. Lesson to self (or to Matt) Canoes are dangerous. Let's just hope no one saw us. (The most important part)

 Well, eventually we got the canoe over to the other lake and started canoeing. We still didn't have a map, so we explored every part of the new lake too, until we FINALLY reached our camping site - the furthest one away. It had number 313. I will never forget that number.

At the first glimpse of the island (which we no more call just "the island", but FLY ISLAND, it didn't look too bad. But because of the super early morning, the long canoeing and the fact that we didn't bring enough water containers with us (which was my fault) made us pretty exhausted when reaching Fly Island. With other words, we needed some rest, water and food. Instead, we got a crazy rain storm, deer flies, black flies & mosquitos FROM HELL. The rain was really crazy, but it only lasted for a while. The flies were the worst. The upcoming 24 hours were pretty challenging, to say the least. At one point I said to Matt: "I could kill somebody right now and you're the only one who is here". It kind of describes the whole situation pretty good.

Next morning we packed our stuff and canoed  back to the car. Lifting the canoe back up to the roof was not easy. We were exhausted from the last 24 hours and didn't have a lot of energy left. I'm not gonna go into details, but we were sooo close to drop the canoe on the car and damage it.

We felt like the worst campers ever.

On the way back I got to drive the car for while! It was my first time driving in Canada, which made Matt freak out a few times. Back in Toronto we did the only right thing to do - showered, BBQ some delicious stuff, drank a glass of wine and went to bed.

We slept like babies.

e

God morgon!

Sitting in the kitchen with my morning coffee (and a little bit of coconut milk). Getting ready for my morning workout. Yesterday I unlocked my new phone - wohooo! I kind of couldn't stop playing with the phone for the whole evening....sorry everyone about that. Don't judge me, imagine yourself having a smartphone for the first time ;)

What else? A new week is coming up with long work hours for Frida and the usual for me. We're both very confused about our future and we're talking a lot about all the possibilities ahead of us. Our visas are running out in sept/oct so we have to extend them if we wanna stay here longer to work. Lots of questions, not too many answers, but we'll get there, eventually. I hope.

By the way, I have tried to find cloudberry compote for a while here in Toronto, but without success (hjortronsylt för er svennar), but yesterday me and Frida went to a "Farners market" and we found it! Kind of expensive, but we thought it was worth it. Hot cloudberrys with vanilla ice cream - definitely a taste of home.

 

Hej hallåå

Hur mår ni? Vi har det bra. Värmen är något utöver den svenska sommaren och den gör sig påmind varje gång man öppnar ytterdörren, som en pust med varmluft från en bastu. Phuu. Tröttsamt - man blir liksom mycket segare än vanligt, men efter åskstormen igår så har det kommit in lite svalare luft, vilket gör det lite behagligare.

Mycket har hänt sen sist. Frida har varit i USA och träffat Maja. Vi vill veta mer om det på bloggen! Jag har varit iväg norrut på en oförglömlig campingtripp med Matt, ska berätta mer om det en annan dag. Och visa bilder. Galet nog har jag också numera en ny telefon med en kamera. YES. Är möjligt att jag även kommer kunna börja göra vines. Har ju blivit lite smått besatt av det. Min kompis Christophe som jag lärt känna genom Velotique hade en telefon som han inte längre använde så han gav mig den. En Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc tror jag den heter. Kan fortfarande inte riktigt fatta det. Känner mig som ett barn på julafton. Tacktacktack till honom. Kan inte sluta förundras av människors godhet på den här sidan atlanten. Det är nästan så att jag känner att det snart måste slå tillbaka på mig.

Slänger upp en bild från gymmet igår. Är taget med nya kameran så jag känner att det rättfärdigar att bilden är tagen genom en spegel.