Toronto Tourism
In November 2018, I had the pleasure of taking around my Australian case competition buddies around Toronto (aka, home!). It's not often that I get to see Toronto through a tourist's eyes, so I tried to show them all that Canada has to offer. Unfortunately, they just missed the fall colours (which I fully got to appreciate @ Rock Dunder in Kingston for hoco), so I had to figure out a way to make Toronto fun as the weather began to precipitously drop.
Unfortunate thing #2: I happened to be stuck on a hectic due diligence (in Australia!!) that made it challenging to help them get situated. They had trouble renting a car with their international licenses, but eventually made it out to see Niagara Falls (without much help from me). Side note: that DD remains one of the most challenging ones I've ever been on from a WLB standpoint. I had to work a weekend! And we had a steerco meeting at 1:30am, live in the office!! The principal quit as soon as the case ended!
Curlz for the gurlz?
The next day, I perpetuated false advertising by taking Jono and Wenbo to St. George's Golf and Country Club for a curling lesson. I had never gone curling before; BCG just happened to be running an event that weekend. It was supposedly an annual tradition, but hasn't happened again since.
That afternoon, we joined up with Leanne (who I'd also met in New York!) and Ellia, who was on exchange at Western Ivey. It was the first day of the Toronto Christmas Market, which I still find novel and fun (unlike Steph, who's had one too many A/B tests there). As Australians, all of them enjoyed the festive spirit (rather than summer vibes they're used to in November/December). The Toronto Christmas Market doesn't hold a candle to European ones, but it still had cute lights, space heaters, and turkey drumsticks (for Leanne) to enjoy.
Afterwards, I intended to take them to Nathan Phillips Square for the Cavalcade of Lights tree lighting ceremony and fireworks show. In a hilarious twist of fate, they got sidetracked by... the "Suits building" and missed the show! To be clear, the "Suits building" is a corporate office. It's the KPMG office, in fact. And we only stood in the lobby. But I was the guide here, not the tourist, so they called the shots.
That evening, we headed back to the crew's Airbnb for a quick pre. We considered heading to Rebel, but somehow ended up at Easy instead. We can now officially say that Easy on the Fifth attracts young early 20s Asians all over the world. I guess it's our destiny?
Toronto vs. Sydney
The next day, we walked around Chinatown in the morning before heading for dim sum at Rosewood. Dim sum in downtown Toronto pales in comparison to dim sum in the suburbs, but we made do with it. Interestingly, these friends could not get over how much Toronto felt like Sydney. I have yet to visit Australia to confirm.
Toronto is very much a walking and neighbourhood-based city, so we spent the rest of the day visiting Kensington Market and FiDi (tbh my stomping grounds; I don't know much about Toronto beyond the small box from Spadina to Dundas to Yonge). We capped off the evening with karaoke at 8090 karaoke bar. Great vibes all around!
My Australian visitors only had a weekend in the city. Toronto is best shown off in the summer, but I'm glad I was able to scrape together some festive activities to occupy them (and quell their cravings for decent Asian food, which seems to be much scarcer in tier 2 cities across the US). It's crazy to think I haven't seen any of these people since that time, but at least the Internet makes occasional updates possible!