The gift

I've been thinking about buying a gift for my friend and a few days ago I decided to look for the Sin City comic. I know he liked the movie a lot so I think it would be a nice souvenir.
Yesterday, since we were done with the final presentation, Chie and I wanted to kill some time. We went to a comic store at the Korean Town. I liked the entrance of the store because it was very small and needed to be painted; it looked like if it were an illegal shop. We got inside and started to take a look at the comics, there were many, so I asked the cashier if he had the Sin City comic, he said it was upstairs.
There was another guy upstairs, he looked the same way as the first one: crazy hair-crazy clothes :P He was very kind and told where the comic was...
The whole Sin City comic is 7 books, which is too much weight for my luggage, so I decided to buy only one! :( Chie helped me choose one that had many scenes adapted to the movie... I went to the cashier again to pay for the comic and I remembered that 300, a movie that I looooved was also an adaptation from a comic book. The cashier told me 300 comic was right beside the Sin City comic so I came back to have a look at it. I fell immidiatly in love with 300, it was very big, nice colors, and I found out that the star of the movie reeeeaaally looks like the comic!!! as well as the other characters! I was amazed!!
I end up buying it for me and buying nothing for my friend :p For a moment I felt guilty and selfish but it's ok because I just want to know if he prefers to have the 300 comic (he also loved that movie) or only one book from Sin City comic...
I hope to talk to him soon =)

ROOTS in harbourfront

A couple of week ago, when I was writing the first draft of my research paper, I found out that there was going to be a free jazz serenade next sunday, I thought that if I had time I would go to that event...
Sunday came and I was really tired of being in front of the computer writing and studying, so I decided to go out for a couple of hours and relax a bit. I tried to find the place where the jazz serenade was going to be but I couldn't. I was very sad and angry because I'd been here for 2 and a half months then and I realized I didn't know the city yet! I got a bit depressed and felt alone at that time, but I didn't want to come back home yet; I think at that point I was more stressed than when I left home!
I remembered that there were events every weekend in Harbourfront so I decided to go there! When I got to the boulevard there was a guy playing with fire! he put a burning stick all over his body and nothing happenned to his skin and, at the end, he put the stick on his mouth and turned off the fire, very nice!
After the fire guy, I started to walk around and I realized that there were many rastafaris in the place... It made me curious and, few minutes later, I heard that night was called ROOTS and that reggae music was going to be played. At that point I understood the colors of the CN Tower, green, yellow and red: rasta flag. I got very exited because I really like this kind of music. I was alone, though! :( I really missed my friends from Venezuela at that moment because we all enjoy these kind of shows.
Well, a band started to play in the main stage and there was a rasta woman beside me. She was dressed with a long skirt and, a shirt, beautiful sandals, and on her head she had some kind of clothe desiged with the rasta flag covering her dreadlocks... suddenly her friends came and started to say hello to her in rasta way! they screamed "raaaaaaaaaastaaaafaaaaaari" very loud! and she answered the same way, they huged and kissed! nice!... then they started to chat and all what they said ended with the phrase "yeh man" just like reagge sons! :p very funny!
Actually they were talking like they were signing, they all had an accent, from Jamaica maybe, and I could barely understand what they were saying. At one point a guy came and stood behind the rasta girl, they didn't know each other, and appearently that guy touched the girl's bum, she started to yell at him and repeated many times "the f word" :p I thought she was going to hit him, but the guy run out of the place before she could do anything to him; he was very scared haha!!
I stayed there for two hours and then came back home... I think I know a bit more about rastafari people :p

Cirque du Soleil, Saltimbanco!

Last wenesday I went to see a Cirque du Soleil show! I heard about this Cirque about 5 years ago and since then I really wanted to see it. I have some music from its shows and I've watched some presentations on TV also. They have always surprised me with their shows! Cirque du Soleil has very surreal characters, stages, music, and performances!

A friend of mine told me more than a month ago that the Cirque du Soleil was coming to Toronto, I was very exited! however, I forgot about the whole thing until 2 weeks ago and, after inviting Chie, we bought the tickets the following week for the show named Saltimbanco (street artist)

From the beginning of the show everything was beautiful! the colors, the movements of the clows, the hot dog I was eating, and the seats we got were very close to the stage so we could see the artists in detail.

There was a band! they were also clowns! their movements were very funny and they were playing live :)

I did not notice when the first clown came in until he started talking. All clowns spoke in their own language which is not a real one, of course! Nothing there was real! I felt like if I was in a fantastic world... Right after that many other clowns came to the stage, went down stairs picking people from the audience, and then started to make jokes to those people, they were very funny! A female clown, for example, chose a very very very handsome guy from the audience and explained to him (in clown language)that he had to do whatever she was doing; she placed herself in front of him and started to dance. She put one hand on the air and the guy followed her; then, she put her other hand in the air without putting the other one down and the guy followed her again, so they both had their arms up at that point; after that, she went back to the guy very quickly, stood on a bench, and took his shirt of!!! eeeeeverybody in the Canada Centre was laughing!it was very funny! She continued the game and, after a similar dance, she tried to take the guy's pants away but, before she could do it, other clowns came and took her out of the place on their shoulders! :D

My favorite performances were the chinese poles and the flamenco presentation. In the former, the acrobats looked like there was not gravitational force for them anymore. They climbed those cylindrical tubes using only their hands, or one hand and a foot, or only one hand :-O. In the latter, there were a man and a woman dancing flamenco (a Spanish typical dance); each of them had two cords with a ball in one ending which the dancers used to keep the beat and the rythm; they made their own music with the sound of their shoes and cords! very beautiful!

The show lasted 2 hours and a half and, even though it was long, it seemed to me like it was only half-an-hour long!

CARIBANA

Caribana is a Caribbean Festival that took place last weekend in Toronto. It's the largest caribbean festival in North America and I was very exited to go see caribbean people dancing and with their colorful customes!
It was a sunny day. Chie and I got to Ontario Place to see the parade and we sat on the grass, opened Chie's umbrella and protected ourselves from the sun.
What I first noticed was that there were plenty of women and just a few men. It was like a caribbean women festival :p
There were different kinds of music and, even though the rythms were familiar to me, I didn't know the songs...
After a while, Chie and I were surprised to see how all those women danced and were dressed... some of them were very big on those little tiny bikinies :D
When Chie and I felt that our ears were about to exploit, we decided to go. We were not sure where the bus stops were so we asked a police officer; he told us he didn't know and recommended us to follow an old woman he pointed with his finger because she was trying to find one too... we did, and 5 minutes later we found a TTC sign!we felt relieved when we got to the bus stop among all those people!
After Caribana we were very tired and decided to go take a coffe. It was the best coffe I've tried here in Toronto... It is at the Korean Town, I don't know where exactly; I forgot the name of the caffe, as I usually do. We spent a long time there talking. After a while we got hungry and decided to go back home... however, when we were walking to the subway station, we decided to stop in a Korean restaurant to have some food. It was the first time I ate that Korean food and I liked it very much. When I have time I will come back!

P.S. I still have nightmares about almost naked big women at night :-D