Day 2 - Toronto - Saturday

Sunny, hot and somewhat humid, but the air quality seemed to be better than it was the last time I was there when a layer of brown haze was noticeable. We began the morning with breakfast and just working our way into the routine. We played with my Pokemon obsessed cousins. Then my aunt Carol came over and we headed off the Splendid China Mall...for you guess it...Raymond, Bernice, and Linda...at about 11 AM. We took Pricilla with us. We got to the mall and I saw a notice stuck on the door. It translated to "Due to the intense storm in Hong Kong, our special guests will not be able to appear as scheduled, and the autographing session is cancelled until further notice." Feeling a little disappointed, we when to this Shanghai restaurant inside for Dim Sum. We wanted to order the Shrimp Rice Rolls but she couldn't find it on the menu. Because my reading abilities are a bit better than hers, I took a look too but I couldn't find them, so we decided to ask the waiter. Here's the funny part, both Aunt Carol and I have limited communication abilities in Mandarin and the waiter was Mandarin. We used a combination of Cantonese, Mandarin, English and body language to describe it and we got what we wanted! After the meal, we took a quick stroll at the Splendid China Mall but didn't buy anything and then we went to Pacific Mall which is just across the street. Though Splendid was sitting empty, Pacific was crowded and we had a real tough time finding a parking spot. As scheduled, I met my friend Jimmy here at P.M. and we hung out. I bought an official version of the Seventh Day because it was on sale ($15) and then a copy of War of In-Laws 2 ($16), also a few English titles for 4 for $10 (most places were selling them for 5 for $10 but I didn't know at the time) Last year, it was 3 for $10 and 7 for $20. Andrew, Jimmy and I hung out at the mall, had some bubble tea while Aunt Carol brought Pricilla back to Splendid to meet with Aunt Sandy. Since the autograph session was cancelled there was no point in staying at the mall for much longer so Andrew and I soon got a ride to the nearest subway station (Don Mills) from Aunt Sandy and Uncle John and Jimmy went back to his family who were eating out at the time. Andrew and I went downtown Toronto! We took two subways to get to the Dundas station and spent a long time at Eaton's Centre. In comparison to our Portage Place, this mall is bigger and was FULL of people inside. I spent over $120 at the Apple Store, though it was under renovations, it was cool anyways. I bought a MacBook Pro Skin ($50), iPod Touch Skin ($25), and Keyboard Skin ($35). The MacBook Pro Skin is sold out everywhere, I couldn't find it at Best Buy or Future Shop and the Bookstore on Campus is sold out of them too. The iPod Touch skin sells for $35 at Best Buy and Future Shop so Apple was selling them fore quite cheap. The keyboard skin was also $35 at Best Buy was only available in Black, I got it clear at the Apple Store. We went into many other stores too. I saw a pair of shoes at Sketcher's that I liked, but I just bought my shoes less than a year ago and the ones I saw were $105. I tried on this polo at Zara, it was $40, so not that expensive but it looked really nice. It was a clearance item so it was only available in Medium and Large. I tried on the M, and it was small so I tried on the L, and it was still small, it was so tight that I had a hard time to take it off (plus it was hot and I was kind of sweating). However, the tighter fit, did look good thought, it made my body look built, lol, too bad it was too hard to take off. If it shrinks anymore than it will be way too small. If it was $20s then I may have got it but $40 for a shirt that isn't my size isn't worth it. I went to Hollister and I wanted this polo and I was about to make the purchase until I saw the line up. There were like 30 people in line from the back all the way to the front of the store. Then we went to this other store called RW & Co and each bought a polo because they had a deal if you bought two. It worked out to about $30 each. I like it, it isn't too loose but isn't too tight to take off. After shopping at Eaton's Centre, we went over to Dundas Square (across the street) and they had these fountains coming out from the sidewalk and a mini market set up. Then we walked to the old and new City Hall and they had this Cuban fest going on and we each grabbed a pita and enjoyed the festival. People were singing and dancing (cha cha I think). After that, we went to Buskerfest down on St. Lawrence and saw this fire show. We couldn't stay for all of it because it was going to get dark soon and we didn't want to find the subway when it was dark out. The two maps we had were helpful in trip planning but didn't help finding the station entrances downtown. One map had the stations listed and routes but no streets, the other had streets but no stations, just the route traced out. So after looking around and asking several people, we caught the subway and headed home. We got from downtown to the Downview station in about 30 minutes and then we caught the Viva Orange and got to Weston and Hwy 7 a little passed 9. We were home at about 9:20 PM. I thought we were going to be the last ones home but we weren't, my uncle, aunt had taken my cousins out and weren't home yet. We showered and ate and went to bed...End of Day 2...