TORONTO 2011
Il 25 giugno 2011, noi, le sei ragazze Veneziane, siamo partite per un meraviglioso viaggio in parte finanziato dalla Regione Veneto. La destinazione era...Toronto! Accompagnate dalla prof.ssa Milena Lorenzon, non eravamo le sole. Ci siamo aggregate infatti al gruppo "dei Friulani" dell'istituto Le Filandiere di San Vito al Tagliamento, seguito dalle prof.sse Forte e Marzotto.
Il
Il viaggio in aereo è stato lungo ma tranquillo, alcuni hanno dormito, altri letto un libro, altri mangiato, altri ancora ascoltato musica o guardato un film, altri invece hanno preferito fare amicizia con i nuovi compagni d'avventura.
Ed eccoci arrivati a Toronto, accolti in maniera strepitosa da questo bus che eravamo soliti vedere alla tv...
St Michael's College
OUR LIFE IN COLLEGE We were 28 students from Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and this was our college called St. Michael’s. It is a Catholic college. Everything was clean and the college’s works were very nice and always available. We had fun so much there because we stayed in the same building all together. The girls' rooms were on the first floor and the boys' were on the third. In the morning we used to have four hours lessons with Miss Romero and Miss Romano, our teachers. At school we practiced our English, for example we sang songs, talked about our afternoon trips and made skits. Life in the college is the same as Canadian students. Although we only stayed two weeks we ate in the cafeteria with the other students that came from all over the world.
Il 26 giugno, senza aspettare neanche un secondo, siamo subito partiti per un'escursione tanto attesa: Cascate del Niagara!
Però prima colazione da Tim Hortons!
Le tanto attese cascate!
The Niagara Falls are the most powerful waterfalls in North America. These voluminous waterfalls are situated on the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario and forms the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York.
Veneziane at Niagara Falls
I posti visitati
The City Hall of Toronto
The City Hall of Toronto is the home of the city's municipal government and one of its most distinctive landmarks. It was built to replace Old City Hall, which was built in 1899.
THE CN TOWER
The CN Tower Man is proud and he needs to show his greatness to the entire world. In order to amaze people, he builds so big buildings which seem touching the sky. The “Canadian National ”was , at the beginning of 1900 , the biggest railway transport’s agency of Canada. Even if it lost its importance because of the great use of trucks, in the 70s he wanted to show his greatness with the construction of the CN Tower: it is 1,815 feet tall (553 m). A characteristic of this building is also the glass floor, that is able to support 14 hippos and all people that want, can stand there and enjoy the panorama under them. This glass floor is changed once a year and costs about two million dollars. Every year the CN Tower is visited by two million people from all over the world. Another important way is climbing it by foot: every year everyone who wants , can reach the 1776 steps in about 54/60 minutes. The CN Tower is the symbol of Toronto for its power and grandeur.
From the top, by night
Yonge-Dundas Square Yonge-Dundas Square, also simply known as Dundas Square, is a commercial market square in Toronto, at the intersection of Yonge Street and Dundas Street. One of the busiest intersections in Toronto, the square was constructed during a revitalization project. The square was created from the demolition of a block of commercial buildings and opened as a public square in November 2002. The square is used for music concerts, film screenings, and other public events.
The colleges
Toronto has a lot of colleges. One day we went for a walk and visitied them. When we entered there was silence, so we started to be quiet. Colleges in Toronto are catholics and protestants, so they are divided in two parts: we stayed in the catholic one. There was a college with a cloister: it was wonderful, with a lot of plants. The buildings are old and well kept. They also have old libraries for the students to go to study or read a book. The majority of the joungs choose the life of the college, because they can study what they like, make new friends and learn how to live without the presence of the parents. Colleges in Toronto have also their own church, so students in most cases choose to marry there.
Rogers Centre (formerly known as SkyDome) is a multi-purpose stadium in Downtown, situated next to the CN Tower. Opened in 1989, it is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
FOOD Aristotle said :”Food is the best medicine”. We respect this sentence a lot , but food is considered in a different way , depending on the different cultures. In Canada you can see the traditional breakfast, as it is showed in American films: eggs and bacon, sausages, potatoes or typical pancakes and waffles with maple syrup, sometimes there is also fresh fruit. Only few people drink coffee for breakfast because they prefer drinking while walking in the street, maybe a coffee bought at Tim Horton’s or Starbucks coffee. Lunch is frugal, maybe a hot dog bought in a street’s kiosk but obviously people sometimes go to restaurants too. Dinner is the biggest meal and it is often consumed in family. They usually eat chicken or salmon (very popular in Canada) accompanied by rice, often overcooked and without any seasoning. A thing that we don’t like is that Canadian people is used to eat too fast.
On the boat, going to Centre Island
We had a wonderful afternoon at Centre Island, because there was the beach. We played volleyball and had a bath in the lake, and someone of us rent a bike. Centre Island is very big, in fact there are restaurants, cafes and snack bars, tennis courts, and other interesting things.
MUSEUMS
Art gallery of Toronto
Shopping in Toronto
In Toronto there are a lot of places where people can spend time doing shopping. The biggest and most famous mall in Toronto is the Eaton Centre. It has a wide variety of shops. It has three floors and it’s connected with the city’s subway so people don’t need to go outside when it is cold. There is a huge variety of shops inside it so you can find everything you need from the chapest one to the most expancive ones. Seeing that Toronto is a cool city and people in winter don’t want to freeze every time they go shopping there is a underground path with a lot of shops so people don’t need to get cold everytime that they ch’ange shop. There is a place where people can buy souvenrs. St. Lawrence market is one of the biggest markets in Toronto, it is indoor and it has frash products such as: vegetables, fruit, meat, clothes, flowers, and souvenirs shops. This is not only a place where you have to buy things but an interesting placet o visit beocuse, it is completly different from the italian markets!
St. Lawrence Market
At Fort York
Built in 1793, Fort York National Historic Site is the birthplace of urban Toronto. It is best known as the location where the Battle of York came to its violent climax in 1813 during the War of 1812. The Fort served as the city's primary harbour defence between the 1790s and the 1880s, and was the home of a military garrison until the 1930s.
WITH THE RELATIVES
I FANTASTICI 28
Un grazie di cuore a tutti, a partire dalle Regioni Veneto e Frili-Venezia Giulia che ci hanno permesso di vivere un'esperienza indimenticabile come questa. Noi ragazzi abbiamo imparato molto, abbiamo conosciuto una nuova cultura, nuove persone e siamo stati capaci di apprezzare ogni singolo momento di ogni giornata con un pernsiero, principalmente: SONO FORTUNATO AD ESSERE QUI.
Questa esperienza meravigliosa rimarrà sicuramente nei nostri cuori, per sempre. Ci è servita a crescere e a capire quanto sia importante viaggiare e soprattutto quanto sia importante l'AMICIZIA. Tutt'ora noi "Veneziane" ci teniamo in contatto con "i Friulani" e speriamo con tutto il nostro cuore che altri ragazzi possano provare la stessa nostra emozione che abbiamo sentito quando abbiamo abbracciato i nostri parenti.
GRAZIE TORONTO!