I wish...

I wish I had a camera
to look into your eyes
to capture how you shine to me
and your sweet and smiling eyes.

I wish I had a camera
specially for me,
a picture of your heart
like no one else has seen.

There is emptiness in you
in the pictures I have seen,
but my eyes can see in you
what no one else can see.

I wish I had a camera
to capture for the world
what I can feel in your eyes,
your heart, your love and...
...me.

Glen Erin Trail

I know I said I wouldn't come back because I didn't have the time, but I've been receiving such amazing messages that decided to do like so many of you told me, to write at least from time to time. So is probable that I'll be writing a lot more in spanish, but I'll try not to leave this one die!

One of our latest aventures was to go again to Niagara Falls, but this time to try something different! Igor tried the Whirlpool Jet Boats, and he said it as AMAZING, so if you are thinking about doing it and have the money, please do so! It's worth it :)

Another thing that we did, was a whole adventure :) Close to the jet boats, there is a totem park and a liiitle metal staircase, which we decided to take to see where it would take us xD

It's called Glen Erin Trail and it takes you to the rapids, and if you keep and keep walking, to the whirlpool :D

The walk is not easy!!!

But eventually (after 2 hours) it gets a lot easier.

To get a lot worst :S

And after more than 2 hours, get to the whirlpool and more stairs to go up!!!

Is it worth it? Only if you really want an adventure and can handle the bad spots xD

More pictures :)

Good bye

Hi everyone!

I'm sorry to say that I'll be leaving my blog in english. I haven't been writing in my blogs because I don't have enough time in my life right now, and thinking and thinking how not to loose my blogs, the only thing that I can think of is to start writing in just one of them, so this one is done for now :(

I had a great time will all of you, and you are welcome to visit me at my blog in spanish, leave a comment (is ok to write the comments in english ;)), or just drop by!

Thank you!

Ottawa :D

This long weekend we managed to go to a new city: Ottawa!!! We didn't have a lot of time because we drove there Friday and came back Sunday but we tried to see as much as possible :)

The parliament was really beautiful, I didn't expect it to be that big and amazing :D

The Notre-Dame Cathedral was cute from the outside and completely breath taking inside!

The river running between Ottawa and Gatineau...

And the Civilization Museum :D were we had a blast looking for eastern eggs xD

A really beautiful view from every step and a really nice city!

For more than 1.000 pictures (yeah, between Nelly and me managed 1000 pictures!) just go to my picasa :D There a lot of blurry pictures because I didn't delete them before uploading them, sorry ;)
Ottawa
Ottawa2

Taxes time!

Taxes time!!! I kind of like taxes time in Canada because is different to how is done in Venezuela. When we get to this point in Venezuela is when you know how much you'll have to pay the goverment, but here is when you get to know how much the goverment will return to you after all the money you already gave them ^^

You can do your taxes for last year at any point between January and April, but I like March, since is not at the very last moment and because we never do it at the very beginning ;) Is important to keep everything you think it could help you for the tax return, like:
* TTC monthly passes, GO monthly passes and in general any public transportation monthly pass.
* Mortgage receipts.
* Car payment receipts (only if you bought it, no leasing).
* Utilities receipts.
* If you moved that year, the rent of the van/truck.
* And in general keep everything that you think could help, worst case escenario, you wont use it!.

There are a few ways to fill yoour tax return, like using tax softwares, hiring an accountant or going to a place like H&R. This is our second year and we did it again with H&R, where they know exactly what they are doing and almost always will give you your tax return at the moment ;)

Niagara Falls in Winter

I left the blog again for a few days, because I was working the whole weekend, so I didn't have time to write ;)

This is one of the post that I owed you, Niagara Falls in winter!!! So far I've been there in winter, spring and summer. Without autumn I can say that summer is the most special because you can ride the Maid of the Mist, and winter is the most amazing because you can see this!!!





But be carefull and use a LOT of warm layers because it gets 3 times colder near the falls!! :)

World Baseball Classic 2009

Another thing we were really fortunate to witness was the World Baseball Classic 2009 that was held in different parts of the world. It was divided in 4 groups that played in Mexico, Japan, Puerto Rico and Canada.

Our amazing group C was Italy, USA, Canada and Venezuela and they played here in Toronto!! 6 great games we had the opportunity to see in person!! :D


The first day was saturday with 2 games, Canada vs USA at 2pm and Italy vs Venezuela at 8pm. You can see here that the Canada vs USA game was FULL!!


But then Venezuela vs Italy didn't have many people, same as the rest of the games the rest of the week. The next game was on Sunday at 8pm, and then we had the rest of the games monday, tuesday and wednesday after work :$ So we would be running from work, to the baseball game, to take the bus home and sleep to repeat again the next day xD at the end I was just a liiiitle bit tired... umm... I was awfully tired and couldn't keep my eyes open hahaha


We won the first place in group C and now the next games are played in USA. But not only the satisfaction of winning but also the energy of the games was the amazing part. Sharing with other venezuelans at the stadium, singing and chanting, and feeling a very nice part of your country next to you, that was priceless.

Discovering the art of cooking

When I was living in Venezuela, we were 6 people in my house, my mum and dad, Igor and my sisters. All of them cooked, all of them knew how and would storm in the kitchen if you were doing something and start saying what you were doing wrong :p

So I didn't cook, I didn't want to go through all that, so I just did at home coffee, arepas, pasta and rice, that was my whole repertoir when we were talking about food, and when I was alone and had to cook for myself it was pretty much a mess ^-^

So I moved to Canada and had Igor cook all the time, I didn't want to try something and hear him say that it wasn't good or just not eat it. The thing is that I wanted things that he didn't want to do, and that's how I decided to try a few things ;)

I don't have pictures of everything but I first started with a tuna, spinach and mozarella dish that I learned from my parents, and altough Igor doesn't like tuna or spinach, he liked it so much that I can do it at least once a month and he'll eat happily :D

Then I did some potatos similar to french fries but in the oven and with oregano, that I saw on tv, it turned out to be pretty good! Igor loved them!! Next I tried some stuffed mushrooms and it was a nice surprise that it turned out to be so good that now Igor asks for them from time to time :D

As you can see, he is my yummy measure, he is really picky, so if he likes something, it is good!... My next one was thanks to a friend that told me his Risotto recipe while having lunch, and just from hearing it, I could reproduce it and I think is one of my best ones so far :)


A few weeks later I had a potluck lunch at work and had to take something from my country, and we decided that a quesillo would be good! So I went to a friend's house and she taught me how to do it, the result: Amazing!!


And the last one of my tries so far, has to do with me wanting sugar. I'm insulin resistant so I can't eat too much sugar and as you know that is not impossible but you have to be carefull. I wanted carrot muffins but the ones you buy or the ones that the mix is ready, they all come with sugar; so I looked for the recipe in Internet, changed a few things and did them with Splenda, and they turned out yuuuuuummmmyyyy :D

Ice Festival 2009

I've been away from the blogger world for a long time, no reading, no writing, no commenting, but hopefully I'll be coming back in the next few days, I know a lot of you miss me :)

Too many things have happened in the last few weeks, but I should tell you from now that what kept me away from my blog was my job reviews. I know, is not the biggest thing, but I never said it was something too important or huge; the truth is that the reviews had me completely away, I could only think of them, I knew it was going to be good, but my salary raise would be discussed there too, that was what had me worried. The result? I can't tell you yet ^^ Although I had my review, I don't know how many people at my work read my blog ;)

One of the best things we've done this weeks, was on February 21st, since Igor and I were celebrating 7 years together :) (as boyfriends + married) and went to the Ice Festival 2009 :D


You could see a lot of people working on their sculptures from the very beginning, as an giant ice cube, or you could see them with a shape already.


And if you stayed long enough, you could see the result :)


Beside the contestants, there were some pretty amazing ice sculptures that were already done and have no idea who did them!! ^^


And although the cold was a little harsh, it was pretty much a very beautiful experience ;)

Quick post/update

Quick post to let you know that I'm alive and ok and I'm not leaving my blog, but I'm living through a few things in my life that don't leave me time or energies to post, so thank you for being so patient, I promise to be back!

My new budget

After buying a house, moving to Mississauga and leasing a car, my budget has changed just a little bit... Well, a lot! xD So here you go, a budget for 2 with house and car living in Mississauga and working in Toronto :)

House payment -1,600.00
Hydro -150.00
Gas -153.25
Water -50.00
Fido -100.00 (Cellular phones)
Rogers -145.00 (Home phone, Internet and Cable)
Home Insurance -70.20
Life Insurance -46.21
Car Insurance -262.65
Car Leasing -259.18
Food -300.00
TTC -100.00 (Tokens that we use from time to time)
GO/MT Aiglee -200.00 (Go train and Mississauga Transit buses)
GO/MT Igor -150.00 (Go train and Mississauga Transit buses)
Car Gas -100.00
Total $3686

Of course this a 2 salary budget and you can always save not having cable and things like that, but you can have an idea of how much would cost now!

Buying a car

When buying a car, there are a lot of different decisions you need to take care of, like a new car or a used one, leasing or buying, budget, type, company and color and who knows how many more.

For us was pretty easy since we already had a year here and just bought a house, so our credit rating was pretty good. We wanted a new car and I really wanted a Toyota, so we went to Motorway Avenue here in Mississauga, that has all the car companies in the same street! that way is pretty easy to go from one to another one if you want to ask in different places and they compete for you, so you can get better offers ;)

We decided to lease a Toyota Yaris Sedan, which is like a very long rental (5 years in our case) and is more economic than to buy the car; if you do this, you can return the car in 5 years and just get another one! The monthly payments are going to depend in your initial payment and the price of the car.

It took us a grand total of 3 days to say which car we wanted and to have the keys in our hands, so it was pretty easy :D

The big problem now is to get all the snow off it almost every morning ^^

Medical emergency without healthcard

Many wonder if it's worth it to get medical insurance in Canada while you don't have a health card, would I be save? How much would it cost to pay for the emergency?

Well, when my mother in law was here a few weeks ago we went to Barry to do some snow tubbing, but as soon as we arrived she slip in the snow! She was in a LOT of pain so we had to take her to the hospital and get her to the emergency room.

The wait wasn't that long, maybe around an hour, although when you are in pain, I can imagine that it feels eternal. They take care of people in order of how sick you are or arrival, depending of how big the emergency is. The nurse saw her ankle and said she was sure she broke it, so she had to go and see the minor injuries doctor and have some x-rays done.

When the doctor saw her x-rays, he told her that yes, she had broken her ankle in 2 places and that they had to talk about the options... options? in plural? Well, he called a surgeon because she needed a surgery to fix those bones :S

The surgeon told her that having it here would cost around $6.000! Ouch! Since we couldn't pay that kind of money and she had medical insurance back in Venezuela, they put some kind of cast and sent her home. We came back, changed the flight and she is now in Venezuela waiting for her surgery there.

How much was the hospital bill? A little over $700! $100 for the doctor in minor injuries, $150 for the surgeon consult, $30 for the crutches and everything else hospital charges. After this I'm more than sure that people should get medical insurance when they can.

On my way to work

Before moving from Toronto, I used to take the subway to work, a 30 minutes ride at any moment, and almost nothing from the subway station to the office!

Now that I moved to Mississauga, since I work at Downtown Toronto, the story is a little bit different... I have to leave the house around 7:28, when is still a little bit dark ^^


In 10 minutes I arrive at the bus stop, and you can see that there is more light now :) So I'm leaving the house just at the sunrise xD


The bus ride takes around 10 to 13 minutes and leaves me at the Go station, where I have to wait aprox. 5 more minutes for the train to arrive... Both the trains and the buses are really on time!!


The train takes around 35 minutes to get to Union Station in Toronto, which I can use to read or watch anime in my new psp :) ... Once I get to union station, I use the path to walk to work:


It takes me around 10 minutes underground (using the path) and around 5 minutes on the cold to get to work ^^ ... So I'm leaving at 7:28 and arrive at work at 8:55, is a much longer trip but enjoyable! Sorry for the quality of the pictures, it was SOOOO cold that I couldn't take time to really take them hehe. Imagine, it was this cold:

I didn't use any zoom ;)

I'm back

Hi!!! I'm back :) and I'll be trying to write as much as I did before, even if I have to write them beforehand! I'm sorry for not writing in so long but I promise to write more and to answer the comments you have done in previous posts! Thank you so much for the loving words, the christmas cards and all the good wishes!!!

Many things have happened in the last month and I'll be trying to write about all of them in the next few weeks... Our house is looking better and better, we learned how to handle the trash with the restrictions the city has, we bought a car :) Igor's family came to visit, we saw Niagara Falls in winter! We had a trip to the hospital with someone without health card (she is ok), and I haven't told you about my new trip to work and many more things :)

Well, I think is enough for this post, now to write 1 or 2 more posts ;) Thank you for waiting for me!!! And I wish for you to have a very happy new year :D