My Idea of a Good Winterfest

On Thursday, our school basically had a day off for Winterfest, a.k.a. Winter Activity Day. Everyone signed up for an activity before the winter break, and I, being the very spirited believer in things like this, chose to head towards the library. Yup. Totally winter themed. But it turned out to be completely worth the $0 charge, plus bus tickets. Sure, some of you Garneau-ers might have gone SKIING or BOWLING, but you had to pay. And I, being the very frugal type, saved a couple of bucks that I could spend on something else. Don't ask what. Besides, it was raining that day, so I got to laugh at you skiers.

At first, I thought we were all going to some local crappy place to do work. Fine by me. I'll just do my English and maybe math, and then I won't have any homework for the rest of the long weekend. But I learned that the library wasn't going to be a local one. Or a crappy one. It was to be the Toronto Reference Library. First of all, I love taking the subway, so I enjoyed the trip there and back. Second of all, I love exploring the downtown area, and because I arrived before the library was even open, I had a bit of time to wander the streets. Which was fun.

I'd never been to the reference library before, and from the outside, it didn't look like anything special. As a matter of fact, it was under renovation, so I couldn't even see the main entrance.



The TRL before renovation.







The TRL as it will look after renovation.



The inside was absolutely amazing. 38 691 square metres of bookshelves, study spaces, computers...

There were five floors including a basement, and I was glad I arrived so early, because I had time to explore.



With six floors open to the public, the library definitely needs elevators. And they give a great view, too!



The library is already really pretty, but after renovations, it'll have a contemporary touch, too.

I went absolutely beserk when I found out that they had a sheet music section, and you could TAKE OUT THE SCORES. About six huge bookshelves were dedicated solely for a variety of instruments, ensembles, and genres, and if I had had the time, I would have flipped through them all. They even had two piano rooms which you could sign up to use on the spot.

A huge attraction of the TRL is the Arthur Conan Doyle room, which is a complete reconstruction of Sherlock Holmes's study on 221B Baker street, and includes all of his works and spin-offs. Selectively open during the hours of 2-4pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, we were lucky that our group received 'VIP' access before it was open. I took a few pictures, so I'll post photos later.

Another unique area is the Toronto Star Newspaper Room, which receives newspapers from all around the world. They have a giant archive of microfilm, which are rolls of pages of the newspapers, and they require a microfilm reader like this one:

Of course, in today's society, we have digital scanners for microfilm that project onto a computer screen, and have a much more friendly user interface. But the library provides both, in case you feel old fashioned. I really want to spend a week just living in there and reading as much as possible.

Anyways, our group decided to split up at this point because half of the people really wanted to stay at the TRL, but the teachers had a visit to a neighbouring library in mind. So I went with the teachers to Yorkville Library, and the contrast in size and mood was huge.



Yorkville Library is on the right. The tower belongs to the neighbouring fire hall.



This library is a lot more old fashioned. Remember those old, one roomed school houses people grew up with? Of course you don't. Anyways, the inside of Yorkville is a lot like that. We didn't spend much time in here, and all I did was read a few kids' books.

Next, we went for lunch at this pizza place, Mamma's Pizza, which is, in my opinion, much better than your average Pizza Pizza chain. All of their pizzas have a very thin crust, but their diameter is huge. At first, they look quite empty because of this, but once you start eating, you realize that there's the same amount of food as in a slice you'd get anywhere else. And because they're thin crust, the flavour of the toppings (generously heaped on) really comes out. And for me, it was free because the teachers paid it all, despite the fact that we ordered individual slices.

At this point, I wanted to go back to the TRL, but one of the teachers insisted that we should visit this wind-up toy store near by. Again, I really didn't want to go, but I'm so glad I did.

Kidding Awound is a small store located at Bay and Cumberland. Like most of the other tiny units downtown, it isn't very remarkable in the crowd of shops, especially since it's in the shadow of a huge office building. But it sells a bunch of novelty items. And everyone loves novelty stuff, no matter how useless it is. For example, gun and UFO shaped ice cube trays (you have to read all the puns in the description to really appreciate them). There's even a coffee bean shaped one which you're supposed to freeze coffee in, so that your iced coffee doesn't get diluted.

Interesting to note is that toy stores downtown cater to their well to their target audience: adults. Games like "Pin the Macho on the Man" litter the shelves, along with some milder laughs, like this mood flip book which you're supposed to put on your office table to alert others as to how you're feeling. The explanations and definitions they provide are quite humorous. One of my favourite items was this pin with a picture of Sarah Palin smiling widely. To her right was a caption that read "Thinking gives you wrinkles!" There was just something priceless about her expression and the exact word choice in that "quote" that qualified her as the dumbest blonde in the world. Regardless of her actual hair colour.

By now I'd seen about a hundred different items that I wanted, but when I noticed the next one, all other thoughts left my mind. On the lower shelf in the back of the store was a Rubik's Cube Pepper Mill! It looked exactly like a real Rubik's Cube, and all you had to do was twist the top layer, and a hole at the bottom would grind pepper. You could even pick whether you wanted it fine or coarse. Beside it was a salt mill version, and I was extremely tempted to buy them. Until I saw the price. $16.99 each. Ouch. At least I know what I'm getting half the people at school for their birthdays.

By now, it was nearing two o'clock, and so we had to leave. But I will definitely revisit the neighbourhood of Yorkville again. While carrying $33.98, of course.