happy birthday to me... from toronto?!

Uhhh, yes. Because I apparently can't manage to stay still for more than a week, I am now in Toronto. On a whim I booked a plane ticket and flew here... somewhat irresponsible, but definitely fun. I did manage to line up a job interview for when I get back (at a Second Cup! Yay!) so that makes me feel a bit better about hurling myself even further into debt by randomly purchasing plane tickets. I swear, after this trip is over I will stop having fun and concern myself only with finances.

Anyway... today is my birthday! 24 on the 24th, so that makes it like, special or something. I probably won't do anything overly special, because you know, I'm poor, but I am going for dinner with Alex and Kim (who are also letting me stay at their place again, they are awesome) in the evening. They are taking me for poutine, mmm. Unfortunately before all that, I need to go locate and then visit a doctor. Something is wrong with my left ankle... it got a bit sore my last week in India but I kind of disregarded it. It doesn't hurt to walk on or anything, just when you push on it or stretch the muscle behind it. But it's been getting more and more swollen. Which still doesn't hurt, but I realized last night that you almost can't even see my left ankle anymore because the swelling is so much. I showed Alex and Kim and they both insisted I see a doctor. I don't think it's a huge deal, but they were pretty vehement about it, being that I've just come from a foreign country and maybe some kind of giant poisonous creature bit me. That would be... unfortunate, so I am hoping I just sprained something without noticing. 

On a different note, whenever it's my birthday, I get all lame and feel like reflecting on the past year, and then get depressed because I feel like I've accomplished nothing. Which is never really the case. So, for my own reassurance, I have accomplished the following things while being 23: graduated University, had the best summer of my life thus far, successfully ran a 10km race, discovered Bollywood, learned a new alphabet and make decent progress learning Hindi, wrote a 40 page screenplay treatment (even though it won't be used, still an accomplishment for me to have finished), got another tattoo, travelled to Montreal and Toronto (multiple times), New York City, London, Dubai, backpacked Bangladesh and India, met a Nobel Peace Prize winner, met the biggest movie star in India, got to be in 2 major films (I know being an extra is not seriously an accomplishment, but let's pretend), met a million new people, and made a bunch of genuine, really good friends that I will keep for a long time and can't even imagine not knowing. So I would say that 23 was a massive success. Actually, having just written it out, I think this has probably been the best year of my life thus far. Which is good, since the next 3 years at least are going to be devoted to paying off the horrific debts I've built up while having such a good time. 

Enough of that.

Yesterday I went to see Race (the latest Hindi blockbuster, of course) with my friend Shikha. It was complete crap but in the best way possible. Ridiculous plot, pointless action scenes, overly attractive and scantily-clad characters who burst into song and dance every 25-30 minutes, and a ludicrous climax in which the two lead characters decide to settle their differences with a car race. Basically everything you could hope for from Bollywood. (It was, however, a bit short on romance, and a lot short on the usual Indian family values/morals, but hey.) It was also super fun to see Shikha again! :)

On Tuesday, it's my plan to take the overnight bus to Ottawa to visit, so I should be there all Wednesday and Thursday. I want to visit everyone! In only 2 days... ahhhh!! No idea how I'll manage that. Please melt your 15 feet of snow before I get there though, I can't handle that. Euhhh.