151. Guilin | Evening Stroll

Another quick Guilin post! On one night we went for a walk through this street which was pretty much tourist central. It was quite late but the street was still packed and really busy. All the shops were souvenir shops, bars/clubs or restaurants. There were a lot of backpackers..so much fun. It was probably my second most memorable moment of Guilin (first being the day we visited those rice terraces) I really liked the atmosphere here.

150. Toronto | G20 Protests

As most of you probably know, riots and violent protests broke out in Toronto today. The crazy anarchists went around smashing windows of banks and stores as well as setting police cars on fire. This burning police car was just steps from my building! (on the corner of Bay and King) When I saw it on the news on tv I actually got scared. Some people in my building actually went to see it but I stayed in..saw the smoke from my windows..well I was also busy watching the World Cup to go check it out anyway.

I did go outside in the evening. There were tons of riot police surrounding my building. I took a lot of pictures on my camera, but right now I'm too lazy to upload them all so here are some I found on various news websites:


This was also on my street








I predicted this kind of thing would happen so that's why I wasn't one of the many people complaining about the money spent on security. It could've gotten so much worse - I've seen/read about what happens at riots in other parts of the world (like France) where they set fire to everything and overturn cars on the streets, etc. Apparently it'll be worse here tomorrow..hopefully the police will just gas everyone before they do anymore damage.

Sources for the photos used in this post: Toronto Star & The Globe and Mail

149. Toronto | G20 Summit

There's so much I need to blog about but I don't even know where to start..this week has been quite interesting to say the least. So much stuff going on with the G20 (starting tomorrow), the World Cup, & yesterday we even had an earthquake here in Toronto!!

So the earthquake..I was just sitting in my room, reading about the G20 when suddenly I felt the building shaking. It felt exactly like turbulance on a plane. I had no idea what it was at first..with the G20 and all I even thought my building got bombed on the lower floors. & I thought it was gonna topple over any second!! I've never experienced anything so scary before..then it was all over the news and Twitter - apparently a 5.5 magnitude earthquake =\ If it was a bigger one I'd probably be dead/under a mountain of cement right now. It's pretty much impossible to escape from a high-rise building..next time if anything like this happens I'm gonna attempt to make a parachute from my bedsheets and jump out the window hahah. Then in the evening there were tornados in other parts of Ontario (which destroyed quite a lot)....not sure what was going on with the weather yesterday. OH and I actually got an email from CNN asking me if I could give them my "personal account" of the earthquake which was pretty cool lol (they found me from my Twitter).

After the earthquake, I went over to Irish Embassy with a guy from my building to watch the Germany/Ghana match. I'm also really happy about Netherlands and Japan today, which are my other top teams. Japan had such amazing goals, and I love Keisuke Honda!! I really have a thing for Japanese guys with dyed hair.


Here are the fences of the G20 summit. There's hordes of cops everywhere in the area! When I walked past here that day there were at least 75 cops all standing there on the corner..it was kind of intimidating walking by them, as they all stared. To be honest I don't mind the police or the fences at all. I kind of like the extra security. It's cool to experience something like this..I live right on the border of the fenced in zone.




I think everyone should stop complaining about the $1 billion spent on security/the G20 in general. All the world leaders are here in one place so it makes sense. It's always better to be over-prepared. If everything goes smoothly then it means that enough was spent on security..but if something does happen then people will probably complain about not enough security. People will always find something to complain about. Inevitably there will be TONS of protestors, and they're not here for peaceful protesting. I imagine them vandalizing buildings, smashing windows, fires, etc..so it's better to have security to prevent as much of it as they can. I really hope the protestors won't make a huge mess of the city by the end..I'll keep you updated.

148. Guilin | New West Street International Hotel

New West Street International Hotel
Jing Feng Road
541900
Yangshuo, Guilin
Guangxi, China
E: nwshotel@163.com
T: 773-8888881

This was one of the hotels we stayed at in Guilin/Yangshuo. It was called New West Street International Hotel - very very new 5-star hotel but cheap prices. Beautiful lobby and room. They have wonderful amenities including a badminton court, outdoor swimming pool, great fitness center..
Unfortunately I cannot provide a more extensive review as I didn't even think about reviewing this hotel during my stay there.





I love when hotels have these light controls beside the bed! So convenient.

147. World Cup 2010

I LOVE this song/video!! & I love the World Cup. I've been trying to watch every single match of it live. I even woke up at 7am this morning to catch Netherlands vs Denmark. My top two teams this time are Germany and Netherlands. I love France too but I honestly don't think they'll get too far, unfortunately. I really miss Zidane too so it's not the same..lol. Now Thierry Henry is my favourite player on the France team.

I've loved soccer/football for as long as I can remember..my dad loves it too so maybe that's how I got into it - we used to watch the games all the time at home. As for how Henry became my favourite player: it took place in summer 2005 when I was in Scandinavia..more specifically, on an overnight cruise ship from Denmark to Sweden. It involves a football team of Swedish boys and one in particular wearing a Henry jersey. The rest is a story for another time..I'll never forget that night on the cruise heheh. (That's also how my love for Swedish boys started)

Also got these cute limited edition world cup bottles!

146. Bymark

One of my finished Moleskine drawings..one of my favourites!





See this from my window everyday. I want a boat..


Bymark for drinks with my friend + THE MOST DELICIOUS FRIES


Another Moleskine drawing

145. the gossip tonight will be tomorrow's headline

Today was one of those nice and relaxing summer days (well I guess every day is like this for me lol). I spent the day in Yorkville.
First I met up with my sister on her lunch break at a little restaurant inside one of those small houses behind Yorkville Ave.


Then I went to the ROM, which was the main reason why I went to Yorkville today. In a few weeks they have the terra cotta warriors exhibit here. Today they had a special presentation which was members-only & since I'm a member/barely use my membership, and I love the terra cotta warriors, I thought I would go.
Here's the theatre where they showed the presentation. A little too eager, I was literally the first one here and sat by myself for a good 20min or more.

I don't think a lot of people know about the terra cotta warriors (well at least not a lot of people I know know about them..) but personally I think it's one of the most amazing archaeological discoveries. Only about 1% of the entire tomb has been excavated so far, so I'm really interested to find out what else they will find in the future. I've never visited Xi'an/the tombs but my dad went there a bit over a year ago. I actually posted a few of his pictures and talked about it briefly in this post if you're interested. I want to go there next time I'm in China!!


After the presentation I went to L'Espresso by Bar Mercurio. They have such a nice garden patio (pretty big too!) and there were a lot of people there. I'm not sure how to categorize this place. It's like an espresso bar/cafe/restaurant.
Sat here for awhile with my fruit tisane tea doodling away..typical summer pasttime!


This would be Vertical, where I went recently with a couple friends. I really love their patio! This place is located literally a 2min walk from my building so it's quite convenient.


Some of my magazines and coffeetable books collection!