Other Toronto Adventures

There are a lot of people in my team that bike to work, including one of the higher-ups. So two Fridays ago they organized a bike tour, where those interested would go biking around Toronto. Being the newbie I wondered "we all take the afternoon off and go biking?" - Yup, sure enough. They rented bikes for those of us who don't own one, and we started biking by the waterfront around 2pm. We biked almost 30 kms and for about 2.5 hours! I hadn't biked so much ever I think! It was fun, hanging out with new coworkers and exploring the city on a bike. After, we all went out for happy hour at a local restaurant/brewery in the distillery district. I couldn't too late 'cause I had to come home and meet my friends that were visiting from DC.

Unfortunately, because I went straight from dropping off the bikes to the brewery to meeting my friends for dinner, I didn't get a chance to stretch. And oh boy, what a mistake. My legs started to hurt after dinner, but it got really worse. I tried sleeping through the first time the pain woke me up at 2am, but by the second time at 4am, it was unbearable. Thankfully, my loving husband woke up with me and helped me stretch for almost 45 minutes.

Adding to a workout weekend, since my friends were in town, I went out walking around town most of Saturday and Sunday. I calculated we walked almost 13.5 miles. I think the walking actually helped my sore muscles, but needless to say it was a tiring weekend.

I'm thinking of biking to work these days. Just need to borrow a bike.

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Last Thursday, Tim and I had to drive to Detroit for an interview with the Canadian consulate regarding my PR application. Apparently, we did not show them enough evidence of our married relationship on our application. So we rented a car and drove 4 hours to the border. That was my first time driving through the US border on land.

Waiting for the interview was pretty nerve-racking, 'cause there are these two little rooms, A and B, with doors that have a frosted glass window on the top and a clear glass window at the bottom (so you can only see people's feet). When they called us in, we both went in, met the officer who explained to us the process that she would talk to Tim first, then he would have to open the door, have me come in, we both had to be in the room together, no talking, and then he would leave and I would talk to her. Scary strict. While Tim talked to her, I waited outside. I could see the bottom part of the room, so I could see him gesturing and even slightly getting up from the chair - which I correctly guessed it was him talking to the officer about the photo album we brought. I wasn't as chatty, more nervous than anything. However, it was meant to be like that, where she "has a conversation" with the first spouse, picks out questions from the conversation, and then asks more specific questions to the second spouse.

Long story short, it was a more serious session of the Newlywed Game. We got questions like, how we get to work (Tim walks, I take the subway), what kind of sandwhiches we eat for lunch (Tim eats shwarmas, I eat vietnamese subs), who does the groceries (mainly together, but I go alone sometimes to walk around). Kind of fun, if it wasn't for something important. :) She "found consistentcy and thought we provided her enough information to approve our application". Yipee, eh? I think I'm starting to pick up the outs and abouts!...

We hit really bad weather on the drive back. There was a huge thunderstorm, you couldn't see past 10-15 feet in front. I had never seen lighting so close and so many cars pulling off to the side of the road. We drove very slowly and made it safely home. Scary though.

Endnote: No matter how long ago it was, the mention of "border crossings" reminds me of grad school and one transportation student suggesting "we should go observe border crossings" as a social event.