Ottawa: Parliament Hill

I grew up in Toronto; Canada’s biggest city. Unfortunately, my mindset growing up was that the rest of Canada must be boring. This was because I always watched American television and thought the US was much more exciting. I was especially attracted to New York City, and any downtown industrial area. But as I grew up and would visit the US, I started to appreciate Canada more. I guess it took leaving it for a while, for me to appreciate how much I loved it. So for the past few years I decided to enjoy my home more by trying to do as much as I can in it. I began to garden outside, go skating in the winter, visit museums and galleries, and go to farms to buy locally grown and made products.

However the one thing I still never did was travel around the country. I guess it was because of lack of funds, and also I didn’t have any friends I could visit. The only place I did visit when I was younger was Niagara Falls. That place was beautiful, but I would only go for the day and come back. So in my mind I still never really travelled anywhere. But as life goes on and friends move away, I soon started to get friends asking me to visiting them all over the country. I never took them up on their offers because I always felt mentally paralyzed to travel. Then this year my friend asked me again to visit her in Ottawa. I told her I was broke, and she said it didn’t matter because I could crash on her couch. I then started thinking that there really wasn’t any other excuse for me not to go, and so I bought a train ticket to go.

I decided to travel on Via Rail because I felt a train would be faster, and I would get to see more of the country side. I was also hoping to make a video of my train travel experience, from Toronto to Ottawa. Unfortunately when I boarded the train I sat in an aisle seat and was unable to film anything. Luckily that was the only misfortune about my trip because everything else turned out perfect. The weather in Ottawa was nice and sunny, and I didn’t think it was as humid as Toronto. The people are very friendly and easy to talk to, especially since my friend has a dog and got a lot of attention when I walked it. The city is pretty much the same as in Toronto, except the downtown core has a lot less people, and not many tall buildings. The differences of the city can start to be seen as you drive to Parliament Hill and you see the beauty of the rivers and canals. It must be nice to be a local and see that every day.

Besides visiting my friend, I also went to Ottawa to visit Parliament Hill. Again growing up in Toronto I never really cared about Government, but then I took a Canadian politics class at school and I became interested. I liked Parliamentary Government because it seemed so easy to understand (compared to US government) and do things, and because I found previous Prime Minister’s fascinating and admirable. So before I went there I decided to do some research about visiting. I became very excited to learn that tours of Parliament Hill and the Supreme Court are provided free of charge, and that in the summer there is a Changing of the Guard ceremony. Both the tours and the Guard ceremony are amazing to watch, and are very educational.

As if that weren’t enough there are tons of other things to do in the surrounding areas such as visit the museums and galleries, spend a night at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier and enjoy the view, walk around or take a boat ride on the Rideau Canal, or just have a great meal in a trendy area known as ByWard Market. The Market was especially one of my favourites because of the atmosphere; with amazing restaurants, great little boutiques, and a farmer’s market featuring a variety of products. This was a trip I would never forget and I’m sure to make again in the future. I would also encourage every Canadian and tourist to plan a visit to Ottawa as well.

Parliament of Canada:

http://www.parl.gc.ca

Parliament Hill wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centre_Block

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_of_Canada

YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHO29L23lIc

well, i heard so much about london, i decided to check it out

I hope everyone is having a fab start to the New Year. I certainly am. I got news today that I was accepted in a study abroad program, which means that by this time next year I will be living in London. It would be nothing revolutionary if I were to tell you that I have always dreamed of living in London. My infatuation with the country is well-known and longstanding. Even as a little girl, I was quite the Anglophile. Around the age I entered kindergarten, I adopted a terrible Cockney accent that would give Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins a run for his money. My peculiar penchant for British slang terms (chips were now ‘crisps,’ my sweaters were ‘jumpers,’ and I wouldn’t dare calling my mother anything other than ‘mum’) could only be explained by one thing: I was destined to live in England.

To me, London is the Beatles performing atop the roof of Apple Corps. It’s Virginia Woolf holing up with the rest of the Bloomsbury group to discuss the curiosities of human behavior of the day. It’s Jean Shrimpton and David Bailey walking arm-in-arm down Carnaby Street, looking in the boutique windows of Mary Quant and Ossie Clark. It’s been the home and hideaway to Keats and Shelley, Shakespeare and the Sex Pistols. The birthplace of some of the most progressive thinkers in politics and poetry, London is filled with history and yet it is always on the brink of something new.

I have travelled to London twice with my family over the past few years, and though the time we spent there was short, it gave me memories that I still revisit regularly. London was the most wonderful paradox for me - I felt simultaneously that I was such a little part of that living, exciting city, and yet there was a part of me that felt like it was a homecoming. In a way, London has always been my home. I'm excited to be given the chance to live there for six months. I have a chance to be like and live like the British babes I so admire. Sure, the times have a-changed since the days when Julie Christie was the 'Darling' of the town, and Pattie Boyd and Jane Asher hung on the arms of their Beatle boys, but there's such magic in that city that I hope will rub off on me. 
I always knew that I was going to study English, and become a writer of some sort. It was never a question. Some people believe they were born to be doctors or lawyers; it was the fate Brahma wrote on their foreheads upon birth. But I always knew I wanted to be a writer. I have journals upon journals filled with my juvenile short stories, poetry, and lyrics, all ranging from the ages six through sixteen. A Dolly Rocker Girl’s literary canon, of sorts. During high school, perhaps there was a part of me that was caught up with the romanticism of it all, imagining myself as a modern-day Sylvia Plath (minus the part about the oven) or Colette (minus the lesbian tendencies). It seemed like such a gorgeous idea to a bored suburban teenager – I would become an artiste, someone who was far more intellectual and worldly than any of my more plebian classmates. But I’ve grown past the mere idea of pursuing English as a career post-university, I want now to make it a reality. Studying in London will be the most wonderful opportunity for me in working towards my goal. To live in a culture where my favorite books were penned and plays performed, I cannot help but hope to soak up some of the creative energy of my surroundings. London offers itself so much to exploration – not just of its surroundings, but also exploration of your own self. All of the dreams I have for my future are intertwined in one way or another, and all of their roads lead back to the one place where I can grow and become who I want to be: London. 

My girls: Pattie Boyd, Jean Shrimpton, Jane Birkin, Marianne Faithfull, Julie Christie, and Twiggy

Title: from "Cocksucker Blues" (The Rolling Stones)