The interesting event this month in Toronto was Eurocap. True, Canadians don't know soccer since it is hard to play on snow. Even their narrator on TV is an Englishman. Still, the communities in Toronto represent all European countries. There is a Greektown in Toronto, and the Portuguese even have their own thick yellow pages book. Every time a team won people here were dancing in the streets, driving with flags on their cars and beeping the horns. This is quit unusual in Toronto. Car horns are heard only when the Maple Leafs win in the playoffs (rarely), and only in the main streets to let people sleep. Anyway, the Greeks couldn't celebrate their victory, since immediately after the game heavy rain started.
Hardly noticeable was the federal election. The outcome was that the liberal party lost its absolute majority and now there will be what they call a "minority government" with another left party (there are only four parties and one independent representative in the parliament). How do they manage to keep their parties so united? Well, politicians here are not trying to frame other politicians from their own party. But it wasn't always so quiet here. This month I went to see the Ontario parliament. The guide there said that in its early days politicians were coming with swards to the parliament, and they set a security officer whose job was to protect them from each other. For obvious reasons, this job is still there. Why did I go to the parliament?
Eli and Irit Shechtman, with their three months old baby Roni, were tempted for a deal: I give them a guided tour and they write travel stories to allow me one month vacation. Here is what they say:
I have just returned from our first trip across the Atlantic. This was our first time in the U.S. and Canada, the first time we've been traveling with the baby and many more "first times"... How was it to travel with Roni? After some hesitations we had about this matter, we can definitely say that we don't regret for a minute. The trip was a little slower and easier than the usual, and we had to make some more stops, but it was worthwhile. The trip started in Washington D.C. where I participated at a computer vision conference (CVPR). I must admit I've missed substantial parts of the conference in order to see cities and not to neglect my family. The memorials and monuments are quite impressive. I found the Korean War memorial that contains several statues of enlarged American soldiers to be the most impressive. The "National Mall" park with its fine museums (all are free!) and the relaxing atmosphere was very enjoyable too. After that we visited a very small Amish town in Pennsylvania called "Intercourse". Don't ask for the origin of this name. They have also other unusual names like "Bird-in-hand" and "Ephrata". These people remind me our "Haredim". They are a closed and religious community. They have long beards and usually around 10 children. On the other hand they are HARD WORKING people who live solely on their own money. Since agriculture is not profitable enough in our days, they developed a marketing system to sell everything (food, quilts, crafts...) to everybody (mainly tourists).
Then we had a few days visit at my youth's friend house in Copley (near Akron, Ohio). This was a good opportunity to see how people really live in the suburban areas in the U.S.. The living standard is very high. For a reasonable amount of money, people are buying beautiful houses, in a very quite neighborhoods surrounded by green lawns, trees, forests, and even lakes. On the other hand, there are NO sidewalks in the neighborhood simply because nobody needs them - there is NOBODY outside. I once went jogging around and I saw NOBODY in the whole neighborhood. People are just entering home with their fancy cars and after 20:00 it's like a huge graveyard. The nearest grocery is about 10 minutes driving. In addition, most of our hosts' best friends live in a few hours or days drive, so life is very comfortable in the inside, but a bit "chilly" outside.
After celebrating the 4’th of July at an outdoor classical music concert accompanied by some marvelous fireworks, and visiting the "Rock'n'Roll" museum and a baseball game in Cleveland (a true anthropological experience about the Americans' habits), we headed towards Toronto, stopping at Niagara Falls on the way.
In Toronto we met Ady, whom I know for many years from Weizmann. After visiting the U.S., Toronto seamed to us much more "European" than the major American cities. The people are as polite as the Americans (as opposed to Israelis) but seem less hypocrite and arrogant. The cars are smaller on average and less fancy (many more European brands), and the prices are usually cheaper. An interesting phenomenon was the architectonic new-old integration. In several places (one of them inside a mall!) we saw a modern building encapsulating carefully an old one.
One of the nicest buildings we saw was the "Hillel" Jewish students club. Ady took us to the Wednesday's barbeque on the roof, which is followed by an Israeli "Burekas" movie. At first it was a bit strange to enter a place dedicated for Jews, but after a while it became very heart-warming to see this kind of gathering.
The highlight of the tour for us, except the "high-lights" of the CN tower, was visiting the "Hart-House", an old and impressive building at U of T that serves as a students club. It has everything a student can dream of in his/her leisure time, from a basketball court, through a huge concert hall that reminded us the main hall in "Hogwarts" (Harry Potter), a reading library and many rooms with musical and other lessons. It was exciting to see such a wealth of cultural activities. Ady even invited Irit (a former excellent soprano) to a choir rehearsal but that was already too much for that day.
After visiting Toronto we continued on the road surrounding the great Ontario lake from north. This is a beautiful way to the Thousand Islands, where we took a boat trip around the unusually small islands (sometimes of the size of one house!). From there we continued through the wild Adirondacks park (NY state) to a small town called Lake Placid. This town hosted two winter Olympic games (1932, 1980), and for us (Israelis who are more close to camels than sledges) it was quite interesting to see all those Olympic facilities still in working condition. We ended our trip in New-York. Although we were already quite tired towards this part of the trip, and although none of the subway stations had an elevator or even an escalator (for the stroller), we managed to enjoy this exciting city too. I guess we could travel another month there and still not see everything...
In Toronto we met Ady, whom I know for many years from Weizmann. After visiting the U.S., Toronto seamed to us much more "European" than the major American cities. The people are as polite as the Americans (as opposed to Israelis) but seem less hypocrite and arrogant. The cars are smaller on average and less fancy (many more European brands), and the prices are usually cheaper. An interesting phenomenon was the architectonic new-old integration. In several places (one of them inside a mall!) we saw a modern building encapsulating carefully an old one.
One of the nicest buildings we saw was the "Hillel" Jewish students club. Ady took us to the Wednesday's barbeque on the roof, which is followed by an Israeli "Burekas" movie. At first it was a bit strange to enter a place dedicated for Jews, but after a while it became very heart-warming to see this kind of gathering.
The highlight of the tour for us, except the "high-lights" of the CN tower, was visiting the "Hart-House", an old and impressive building at U of T that serves as a students club. It has everything a student can dream of in his/her leisure time, from a basketball court, through a huge concert hall that reminded us the main hall in "Hogwarts" (Harry Potter), a reading library and many rooms with musical and other lessons. It was exciting to see such a wealth of cultural activities. Ady even invited Irit (a former excellent soprano) to a choir rehearsal but that was already too much for that day.
