Great Toronto Area

A lot of people ask me about the different neighborhoods and their characteristics, but they are so many that it would take ages to do, so I'm giving you an idea of how everything is divided.

The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is composed of 5 municipalities that you can see here:

Each city in those municipalities have its own characteristics and charisma and is up to each person to find which is the right city for them.

More specific the city of Toronto is divided in 6 big areas you can see here:

And each of those areas is divided in a lot of different neighborhoods ^^

In the Toronto Life web page, you can choose an area and a neighborhood to read its characteristics and reviews ;)

Have fun!

Supermarkets

It's time to go to the supermarket, so many choices, so little time... In Toronto we have Rabbas, Sobeys, No Frills, Loblaws and Dominion among others. Rabbas, Sobeys and Dominion are for the most part open 24 hours a day and no frills is the less expensive one of all, which one to use?

A lot of people choose to do their shopping in the less expensive one; a few more choose to go from supermarket to supermarket buying different things in different places, like going to Sobeys for the best fruits, no frills for the rest, and every kind of combination you can think of.

In our case we go to Dominion all the time, and now we are trying to buy shampoo, soap and that kind of things in Shoppers (24 hours Pharmacy), why Dominion? Because is SO close, that's another way of seeing it right? ;)

For your budget, we spend for both of us, around $200 a month. I just heard about $600 a month for 2 adults and 2 adolescents, and in general it depends of the supermarket and what kind of thinks you like to eat :)

And for more specific prices, here you have a flyer for the dominion, or choose any store to see Loblaws flyer, and same with No Frills!

Enjoy :)

Movie theaters

One of our favourite hobbies is going to the movies, so we try to go every friday! Sometimes we can't manage, or we don't have any movie we'd like to see, but more often than no, you'll find us friday's nights at the movie theater.

There are economic movie theaters and some that are more expensive but in general, you can expect to pay around $11.95 general, and $14.95 for Imax. We pay that in the Cineplex movie theaters, and we really really like them. We have one in the concourse level and we go to another one close to Queen street which has an Imax.

In the food department you can expect to pay around $10 for a food combo (popcorns, nachos, hot dog, etc), and you can find other types of food inside, like eating burger king while watching your movie ;)

Whatever movie theater you choose, try to see if it has special promotions like the cineplex theaters that have the scene card I talked in a past post. That one will give you a free movie every 10 movies, and 10% off in food inside the movie theater :)

My family was here

As everyone know, my family was here for 15 days, they left on the 20th. I really can't post pictures about it, because I don't want to expose their pictures without their permission and I don't have them ^^ But, for family and friends that want to see them, just let me know! I'll give you the link with a few of them, 3 DVDs of pictures is just too much xD

We did so many things:
- Tim Hortons
- Kensington Market
- Harbourfront
- Toronto Island
- CN Tower
- Wonderland
- Queen street
- Little Italy
- Greektown
- Little Brasil (with a Brasil festival included ;))
- Niagara Falls
- Beisbol game at the Rogers Centre
- The Beaches
- Eaton Centre and York Mills
- My office
- Just walking around the city
- Meeting our friends
- Eating japanese, italian, greek, hot dogs, etc. at home and the street

I miss them, that's impossible not to do, but I know I'll be fine, I know I can do it. I love my new city too much, and my friends... well, they are my new family and I love them!

Besides the memories, my family left me with something else, 6 suitcases of things we left in Venezuela :)

We had to buy 2 new bookcases in Ikea:

And we have back our beautiful wedding album:


With every passing moment, our house is becoming more and more, our home.

YMCA schedule

For those of you interested in more free workshops with the YMCA, I got the new schedules :)

There were so many classes and so little time that I looked for a better option and found what I was looking for, the online schedules :D

Enjoy!: YMCA

Family life

How do kids and adolescents take it when you take them out of their life and into a new country? A new life?

Kids and adolescents adapt a lot faster than adults, there is no doubt about that, but do they miss something? Most of them miss and need their family... What can you do about it, when your kid is looking for a new grandma or granddad , a new aunt or uncle, and doesn't find it?

Is incredible how your relantionship with other families helps a lot in these cases, since your new friends will be their new family. I found in my new life an adoptive nephew!

This is a drawing he did one day we went out together:

(On the bottom from left to right you have him, his mum and his dad. On the top from right to left you have Igor and me, and we just told him to draw his family!)

A few days ago his beautiful mother, Nelly, told me that Xavi calls me aunt Aiglee, and I went WOW! incredible, I love it, I'm happy of being his aunt Aiglee. Yesterday, we were in his house for the first time and I was distracted doing something when that beautiful boy comes close to me and tells me "auntie, auntie" and I go "yes?" and he says "I love you so much!". I can't start to describe how my heart felt at that moment :) And when we were leaving their house he tells me "I'm going to miss you all day tomorrow and all night!" Ohhh, God, I love my new adoptive nephew!.

Adolescents are not that different. The day before yesterday I met the kids of other friends and she tells me "we are like family now, right?", again, oh my God! so lovely! "Of course, we are family now!".

Please, when you immigrate, choose your friends carefully, since they will be your kids's new family! I'm happy with my friends, and feel honored of them becoming my kids's new second family.