As I said Monday was my last day at the golf club. After 150 hours of work over 2 weeks I was feeling pretty ready to be done for the summer. Still, I did feel a bit sad to leave the poolside, knowing that I won't be spending more than a few hours a week outside during the school year.
On Tuesday I visited my favorite book store, Book Culture, which is conveniently located only several blocks away from me in New York. What I love about this store is it has a huge selection of academic books and books in foreign languages. It is so nice to be able to drop by the book store to pick something up rather than waiting a week for it to arrive from amazon.
As a way to say farewell for now to the city I took a long walk around the West Side. I walked past the Lincoln Center (where the Metropolitan Opera and the NYC Ballet are) and meandered over to Columbus Circle. There is always something going on at Columbus Circle. On Wednesday people were making giant bubbles by dipping strings attached to two long sticks into a soap solution. It seemed to mostly excite the younger viewers of the crowd, but bubbles are mesmerizing to watch at any age.
I decided to splash out and take the luxury way back to Toronto. I flew instead of taking the usual bus trip. Canada has this small airlines called Porter, which I flew up here with. Porter is one of the most relaxing and easy modes of transportation I've ever taken. The flights are short haul, the planes are small, and thus the baggage check, security lines, and waiting areas are all relatively uncrowded and the staff that works for Porter is extremely friendly and helpful. But the real perk of flying Porter is all the freebies. Porter offers complimentary drinks, snacks, and wifi in their waiting area and every flight no matter how short serves a meal with complimentary wine or beer. It was nice to return to Toronto in style.
I walk through Queen's Park almost on a daily basis on my way to various places on campus. The park transforms drastically with the seasons and I thought I would document those changes here. I'll be taking a picture from this perspective each month so you can see the metamorphosis between summer, fall, and winter.
After my grocery shopping trip this week I came across a local university's preparatory performances for one of their hockey games. It's not every grocery trip that you get to see a line of snare drummers dressed in kilts on the way out the door!
One of my favorite things about fall is the great smelling candles I get to burn during this time. My favorites are made by Yankee Candle. They have so many great fall scents it is hard to choose. This fall I purchased "Autumn Leaves," "Pumpkin Pie," "Harvest Welcome," and "Apple Pumpkin." They really make my little apartment feel home-y and festive.
Tomorrow is the first day of classes and although I am neither taking nor teaching classes this semester, this means the start of a busy time. As always I have some start of semester jitters especially since I'm embarking on new territory-- a semester with no classes. My time is all mine to dedicate to research and as nice as that is, it is also a challenge to properly manage the time I have. Here's to a good start to the school year and I'll be writing to you all again next week!
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