Monday, September 03, 2007

Toronto

I have arrived in Toronto. First impressions?

People are very friendly. The lady at Customs talked my ear off. She wanted to know who was starring in our movie, what was it about etc. Same thing with the woman at Immigration. Everyone in my buidling has said hello/good morning and held doors open.

Toronto is clean.

It is also very diverse. Just on the flight up here I felt like I was at the U.N. There are a few French channels TV channels and an Italian (!!) one. I saw a commercial for Wal-Mart which looked just like the U.S. version but it was in Italian. Within a few blocks from my apartment I noticed Thai, Indian, Italian, Mexican and French restaurants and a Irish Pub.

I can walk to things! There are two big supermarkets near me and a drug store, dry cleaners, basically all the services you find a major city and don't need a car to get to. (Toronto is the 5th largest city in the Americas). I get my car tomorrow but will be using it mostly to drive to set. I like that the streets are full with people even during a holiday weekend. It feels like a city here.

My building has a gym and a roof deck.

This photo is misleading. The land you see on the other side of the lake is a little island. Lake Ontario goes on for miles. I will try to get a better shot, when the sun glare isn't so strong.




I thought this sailboat looked very majestic.



The internet in my apartment is not working. Hopefully it will be fixed soon. The living room furniture is unfortunate but the apartment gets a ton of light and I have a balcony. I won't be spending a lot of time on it (I am really high up... and it doesn't look that strong.)

Our UPM (unit production manager) gave me a ride to the prodution office today. I had to check my emails. Our director didn't recognize me at first. Last week I spend 6 hours and $$$ to have my hair done. I had twists put in. I am not used to having this much hair on my head. I was dying in L.A. with the heat wave and just wore it up. I am very happy to have such low maintenance hair for the next couple of months.

I think I will only do this a couple times a year. As I paid my hairdresser I thought, I could have bought a sick pair of shoes. Haha. Good thing I called two different friends. One friend has her hair done at the same salon but her stylist starts at $300! add the cost of hair $140, plus tip, you are looking at $500. Plus she is hard to get an appointment with because she works with a bunch of celebs. My stylist starts at $150, she is a recent college and is opening her own salon already. She is going to focus on natural hair care. She night be a little ahead of the curve. I have seen more naturals in Toronto within the last 24-hours than I have during the last 3 years in Los Angeles. LOL.

Tomorrow I will be on a location scout, then watching some of the actors rehearse. The gym opens at 5:30 a.m. (yes) so I will be able to get a work out in before my pick up. I have got to lose some weight. The last three weeks I went to town on the junk food. I don't have any in my apartment now...and it's going to stay that way. Now if I can only stay away from the crafts services table that would be great.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to Toronto! I've been reading your blog for the past year or so, because I'm also a caribbean ragazza in love with Italy. I'm glad that you have a chance to experience this great city. I had to laugh at the comment about seeing more natural hair in Toronto...next thing you know, you're leaving the city with your hair loc'ed...

Anonymous said...

a gym that opens at 5:30, *sigh*!
ooooh, how i miss REAL gyms )=

Delina said...

Enjoy Toronto!

I wish my building had a gym in it. It would have to be that close for me to ever go to it :)

Have you left your apartment in LA for good?

Anonymous said...

tracey k in ohio: LOL! at the hair thing. It sounds like you have all the amenities that you could possibly need in and around your new place! Isn't it nice being someplace where you can walk & enjoy the sights as opposed to be sealed up in a car? It all sounds very, very exciting & the pix of the lake look nice. Have a great day & a great week (oh, and keep us posted! :-D)

Unknown said...

Ah, this sounds nice, I hope you'll enjoy all of it. I also miss living in a city where you can walk to places!

gibber said...

Toronto sounds wonderific! Have a great time. How's the weather?

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

anon - thank you. I hope I get to see more of the city while I'm here. Thanks for stopping by.

romerican - LOL. I have heard about the Roman gym experience.

delina - No, I will be returning to that dump in two months. :(

tracey K -Thanks, so far so good. I was watching the news this morning and there was a black female reporter with braids! You never see that on a major station in the States. I have to post at some point about the Glamour magazine hair don't controversy.

jess -again you have that view so umm, no pity party from me.

gibber - the weather today is a little cloudy and not too hot. Why are we the only country in the world who doesn't use the metric system? I am guessing it's around 75 F today.

gibber said...

whoa, what's this? "I have to post at some point about the Glamour magazine hair don't controversy."

I wanna know about this!!!

Jen said...

I love Toronto. We live just a few hours away. Canadian cities are just more together than American ones IMHO.

Roam2Rome said...

Yey! Sounds like you're enjoying it :) Isn't it great to step out of the country once in a while and get a different air :) Love it...

Miriam said...

Clean! that was also the first impression I got when I came to Toronto.

What movie are you making? Am I allowed to ask?

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

jen - This week is super hectic but so far Toronto is hella cool.

roam 2 rome - that is so true. change of pace can be a very good thing.

miriam - of course you are allowed to ask but I don't go into details about who/where I work on this blog. Not sure how my boss would feel about me speaking about their work.

Seville said...

Welcome! Toronto is a great city, and I've stayed 20 years so far.

Dropped you a note at Nat Turner's, but forgot to put the date of "Word On The Street", a Fall book fair here... it's on September 30th at Queen's Park.

Good luck with your novel.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

seville - Thank you. The book is on a Sunday so I should be able to check it out.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

that should be "book fair"

Seville said...

Cool that you may have the day off to go, N/CR. They still haven't posted the list of authors who will be reading, but I'm sure you'll find something interesting there.

Also, if you want to see Fall colours later this month, head up to a place called Bellfountain in the Caledon Hills, just northwest of Toronto (about an hour's drive from downtown). The trees are magnificent, and the scenery is spectacular in Caledon.

And I have a small question.... the photo on your profile.... is that Mead's Bay?

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

seville - Thanks for the tip...I will ask one of my co-workers for directions.

Yes that is Meads Bay. It's the view from my mom's family property. How did you know? Have you been to Anguilla?

Seville said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Seville said...

Now, that's cool! Somebody else who knows where Meads Bay is... yes, I spent my honeymoon in Anguilla. We had the entire beach to ourselves because it was September, and we were the only guests at our hotel. Very tranquil.

I'm from another part of the region, so I enjoyed experiencing a new Caribbean island. Took a couple of day trips to St. Martin and hung out in Marigot mainly, because it's so laid-back as compared to P'burg.

If you need help finding things around town, I'm at basseterre1981 at hotmail dot com.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

thanks Seville. I also prefer Marigot to P'burg. Philipsburg is too crowded especially on days the cruise ships are docking.