April was a big month for me, for one reason. I moved finally moved to the city!
After commuting for 19 months (8 months to Humber PR, 11 months to Merkato), paying off my loans and saving up some money, it was time to move. Don’t get me wrong, I quite enjoyed living with my parents as an ‘adult.’ I mean, come on! Groceries alone! To be honest, forget the fact that I love my parents because they are my parents, I love my parents because they are amazing people and I’m really lucky to have a great relationship with them. It’s a pretty special thing.
The 3+ hr a day commute really started taking it’s toll on me so a 30 min walk to work seemed like a better option. The move went very smoothly. We packed up a van the night before and made our way to the city and unpacked in a flash. I’ve got myself a studio apartment right downtown Toronto. I still feel pretty small town, but am embracing being in the core.
I’ll do a post a little later showing my tiny apartment that I’m oh so proud of! 🙂
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Even though I moved to the city in April, I feel like I spent more time with my family than I had in months! They helped me move, came to the city for the Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto‘s Thorrablot, stopped by to drop off things and I went home for Easter. I’m a lucky duck.
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The Icelandic Canadian Club of Toronto hosted it’s annual Thorrablot in April. Last year I made about 200 pönnukökur, and I realized that was a little ambitious. Instead, I said I would make 100, which ended up being more like 160 when everything was said and done. It took some odd amount of hours, and I saw a marked improvement from batch 1. I really should make them more often! They are just so tasty!
The event was a blast. We had live music from Lindy Vopnjfjord and Sigrun Stella. Those two are simply wonderful. My favourite ambassador Þorður Ægir Óskarsson and his wife joined the party. Linda Lundström hosted the live auction fantastically and Viking impersonators from L’anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland also made the trip. – Speaking of Newfoundland, have you seen those tourism commercials? Dang I want to go to there!
The food was delicious! I hadn’t had lamb in a while, Canadians really should start eating more lamb so that I can afford to eat it more regularly!
During the live auction I won an eight week metal and glass course which I’m super excited to get started!
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The end of April marked 12 months with Merkato! Wild how time flies! I’ve been learning a lot in that time and feel like I’m learning even more now! For example, in April, I went out on the road for a TV segment with one of our clients to get me trained and ready to go for future segments. You can read about it on our Merkato blog here.
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A true benefit of living in the city has been the fact that it’s much easier to do things! I can more easily get together with friends after work, meet someone for a drink, go to events and still get a decent sleep! Who would have thunk it?!
After waking up my first morning in the city I was invited to brunch, which ended up being a 10 minute walk from my apartment. I don’t think you know how big a smile that brought to my face!
It’s great to be able to attend events and explore things without having to always be thinking about the train. For months my inner dialogue was constantly “if I don’t catch the next train, that means I won’t get home until X, but if I miss the train after that, that means I won’t get home until X.” If you can’t tell. I’m glad that’s in the past. (and I love my friends! Look how happy we are! I just really wanted to post that photo!)
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Thomas’ friend Acca invited me along to Vintage Crawl Toronto. While I was pooped from a 5am wake up call on account of media tour support training but after a nap and a ‘dirty chai’ I made my way out. Hayley and I met up with Acca and Evania (who happens to be cousin’s with one of my most favourite people in the world Christin! Small world!) at Queen and Spadina and started exploring! There’s something about vintage shopping that I really enjoy! (even though I always pull a muscle trying on vintage dresses, ouch!)
The night was great with searching for goodies, drinking free beverages, seeing each other try on different outfits and of course, getting to know each other better! We made our way to Rock Lobster for a late dinner and chatted up a storm before hitting up one last shop.
Besides the fact that she’s awesome, I’m glad Acca invited me because it meant I had people to encourage me to ‘pull the trigger’ and make some purchases. I went home with these two items! My new leather jacket and this fun skirt! (I’m glad Acca, Evania and Hayley encouraged me, I’ve been wearing this jacket all the time!)
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I decided April was a month for making plans and getting organized! While I’ve still got work on that front you can read a little about the 30 day challenge here and find out about what I’m doing for May!
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May’s shaping up to be a great month already! I’m looking forward to my trips to Winnipeg and Kingston and starting up my metal and glass work course!! Woo!