179 days in Toronto

I’ve been back in the Netherlands for 3 days now, so this will be my last update on my life in Toronto!
After the last update, I have unfortunately been spending at least one day every weekend at work, however I also still had fun. On November 19, Floor and I namely went to a Raptors basketball game. This game was in the Air Canada Centre which is this huge stadium used for basketball and ice hockey games as well as concerts. How they keep the ice there while also having concerts and basketball around the same time is still a secret to me. A basketball game in Canada is not just the game. Before and during breaks in the game, dancers, cheerleaders, mascots and a DJ will enter the field and entertain the audience. This was something I only knew from American movies and it was a lot of fun to watch! The game was also very good and the Raptors won with a 100 points which meant everyone in the audience would get a free pizza slice from Pizza Pizza.

The weekend after was a little crazy, both in a good and bad way. On Friday, I went to Floor’s goodbye party because she would fly back to the Netherlands. Of course, we ended up in our almost standard bar Fynn’s Temple Bar where the bartenders are starting to recognize us. The next morning I went to SickKids to work on my report. After working for about 10 mins, my laptop decided to crash. I first thought, it had something to do with the battery but in the shop they told me the laptop was broken and fixing would be just as expensive as buying a new one. Luckily, they could still transfer all my data and I didn’t lose anything, however I did have to buy a new laptop. Since I couldn’t work that day anymore, I went to a Christmas market and had some beers with Brian and Jing (who was visiting from Kingston). In the evening, we, as lab, organized a baby shower for Javier and Kitty from the lab. We bought a lot of diapers and they seemed very happy with it! So, even though my laptop broke down I still had a great day. Fortunately, I could pick up my new laptop right away on Saturday evening, so I could start working again on Sunday.

The weekends after I worked on my report because I was still doing quite some experiments and needed extra time to write. I did, on those weekends, still visit the Poop Café with the girls from Girl Gone International (a meet-up group), which was a nice idea but the food was actually not that great. Next to that, I went for drinks with the guys from Mundo Lingo around Ossington, the hipster area/place where tourists don’t go, which was a fun night as well! Also, I saw Sinterklaas who visited the Distillery District on December 5. This was organized by the Dutch Association so they actually also had pepernoten and everything.
After I finished my report on December 10, I have been relaxing because the weeks before were pretty stressful. I’m still doing some experiments in the lab for the project and I had to prepare a final presentation. Other than that, I am working short days (or at least, ‘normal’ 9 to 5) and enjoying my last weeks here. The lab is already in Christmas mood as well because we did a Christmas dinner on December 14 with the labs of Amira and her husband. This was at an Ethiopian restaurant and the food was really good. Last weekend, I also had two Secret Santa/Holiday Parties, one with the Girl Gone International group and one with the Mundo Lingo people. Both were great nights and this was actually the first weekend since I started here that I did not have to go to the lab!!

And now it is time to go home! My time in Toronto was quite a change from my comfortable life in Utrecht where I was always busy. That is why I was scared to end up alone and not find any friends before I moved. Yes, it was sometimes hard to meet new people and keep in touch with them and yes, some weekends I was alone and bored. However, I have met many amazing people thanks to a very friendly and social group of co-workers, great housemates and meet-up groups like Girl Gone International and Mundo Lingo. This, together with the multiculturality and the many events going on all the time, are the parts of Toronto I will definitely miss! The part I will not miss is the project I was working on. I realized that this type of research is too fundamental for me and I want to do something that is more applied. At least this was important to realize for my future career and I will for sure go in a different direction than this type of research. I also learned that it is better sometimes to have a less busy life than I had in Utrecht. In the beginning, I very much missed being busy and wanted to plan something every night. After a while I realized it is better to relax a little more sometimes. My stress level has very much decreased during my time here. I never slept and watched as much Netflix as I did in the past 6 months here. This is something I will definitely try to keep going when I will move back to Utrecht!