Honest, What Another Drip, Um, Trip!

As the heavens opened for us, so did the west of Yonge and some of its famed neighbourhoods and landmarks.



Things started a little late due to "mechanical problems" on the Finch subway line south of Lawrence, but all of us from MicroSkills' 200 and 250 Consumer's Road Language Centres (LINC Levels 4 - 7) found our way to Honest Ed's, ready for a walking tour of the Annex and Koreatown.

Led by who else but our Dauntless Donald, we learnt about trees, architecture, conservation, immigration, and the mafia.

The mafia? Yes, the shoe-tossing kind that Maryam noticed.



The multiplied varieties of maple, the importance of maintaining a visual connection with the past, the low-rise architecture, and the waves of immigrants--from Hungary and then South Korea--these were some of the lessons shared.

Participants also got a first-hand introduction to the weather in Canada and how to bundle up.



Some who were on an earlier field trip posed in front of the lunch place from the previous trip.

Donald led us all the way down Bloor Street to Christie Subway Station and the park there. We then turned around and shivered our way back east through the cold drizzle.

But not before we stopped outside a Korean walnut cake shop and sampled their goodies.



And then it was back to what might be Toronto's most famous discount store. Three or four floors of kitsch and merchandise awaited, mingled with corny sayings and black-and-white photos of famous and forgotten shoppers.

Evidence of drug gangs?