Jef! Picture post!

Dear Jef,

Here's my kwento about the embassy trip.

My passport is expiring soon diba, which meant that I had to make a trip into Toronto to go to the embassy to have it renewed. After much research and note-taking, I decided that today would be the day for such a trip. (It was better than yesterday. There was a huge snow storm, but that's another blog post.) So, I took pictures para you get to see what kalokohan I was doing. Hehe! Click on them nalang if you want a better view.

It's my first time riding the subway on my own, so Raoul dropped me off at the McCowan station in Scarborough (that's about 30 minutes away from the house) so that I can get on the subway.

Here's the route I took:


That's about 30-45 minutes (not counting the minutes spent going the wrong way to the next train)

After that, there's the walk to the embassy building:


Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take pictures on the subway, because I was afraid of how people will react if they see me taking pictures. Baka kala nila paparazzi or whatever. Haha!

So at the Eglinton stop, I get off and walk the four blocks to the building.


And I eventually find the building:


See the snow? Thankfully it had stopped, but the temperature was -25 degrees or something like that.

I soon get to the embassy:


I miss seeing signs in Filipino:


Tapos, so I go inside and give my passport and the other requirements, no? Then the lady tells me na masyadong madilim daw yung passport pictures ko. Wah! Bad trip! She told me to go across the street kasi may convenience store daw dun so that I can redo my pictures. So off I go. Ang sungit pa ng guy who took my pictures. It cost pa $11.99. Ang mahal! Shet! Tapos when he gave them to me, ang pangit pangit ko sa picture! ARGHHHH!!! Take note ha, I fixed my hair, I put on make-up pa (lip gloss lang, pero my cheeks were red from the cold, so pwede na rin). PERO ANG PANGIT NG LABAS!

Instead of looking like this (cute cute ko noh?):


My pictures ended up looking like something like this:


I swear, galit sa mundo ata yung may-ari ng convenience store na yon. Leche! He doesn't know how to take pictures! I should have done it myself! WAAAAH!

But I had no choice, sabagay, passport lang naman. Who's gonna look at that naman diba? Sana wala *crosses fingers*

Extra kwento:

Diba I have this habit of taking pictures of myself in different mirrors? Here's another one:

The embassy washroom:


Where I discovered a wondrous thing:


Autosoap. As in it's like the faucet that automatically turns on when you put your hands under it. Soap version. Wala lang. Ignorante ko ba? Haha! I've never seen anything like it kasi eh. Ganon ba katamad mga tao? Pati pagpindot ng sabon, ginawang automatic na? ~ohohohohoho~

Anyway...

After the embassy, I decided to take my time and enjoy Toronto. It was my first time alone in the city after all. I wanted to see the sights, the culture, the style, so...


I went to the mall. :P


The Toronto Eaton Center. According to their website, it's the #1 tourist attraction here daw.


I went straight to:


to check out if they had stuff on clearance that the Ajax store didn't have. Grabe, ang linis ng store nila! It's so bright and shiny. Yung samin, mukhang warehouse compared sa kanila. Shet.

I went to other places too:

Browns: where I found Ugg boots. Which I really like, but they're too expensive.

Hay...$150-$225 or something like that.

Anyway...

I went in here


to see if there's any kikay stuff I wanted. It's kinda like Beauty Bar. But I know that I always have to drag you into Beauty Bar, so I'll spare you this time.

I found this store a bit weird:


Because at first I thought it was closed. It wasn't though. The inside was just lit in a way that not the whole store has lights. Basta, I found it weird. It reminded me of a museum. A creepy one. Therefore I didn't go in nalang.


Another store with dramatic lighting.

I also didn't go into this store


because ang mahal ng stuff nila. $128+ for jeans! (Gads, nasanay na ata ako sa presyong Old Navy. Hehe!) Teka, now lang I noticed yung guy sa picture. Naka pose! "I'm sooo hottt."

After walking around some, I saw something familiar:


They didn't have anything good though.

I also tried to avoid stores like this:


kasi nagugutom na ako.

This was my lunch:


The usual! Quarter Pounder w/ cheese (or as it says: Quart de Livre) Haha! So french fries are just fries then? :P

During lunch, I was starting to get a bit depressed na. Mainly because I was missing you, tapos I actually found the mall boring. Kasi wala akong mabili na matino. I was wishing nga there was National para I can just buy notebook and ballpen. Hee!

I went in here though:

Apple stoooooore! I checked out the cutie new shuffles, and the red nano. I kinda like it.


I didn't stay long at the Apple store because na-depress ako bigla. Nahiya ako kasi dala ko si Tiny. Tapos phased out na pala siya. Hehe!

So to cheer myself up, I went here:


Nice timing nga kasi the video wall in the store was showing Sleeping Beauty. Happy again!

Okay, so technically, I got to the mall at 11 in the morning. It was now mga 2 p.m. na which means, ang tagal ko pala naglakad lakad. The mall isn't that big. I just kept going back and forth in between stores. I went outside also because I saw another store across the mall that looked interesting.

Speaking of...

Keens! You have to be proud of me. As in grabe yung self-control ko! I went into this one store, tapos I saw Havs sa floor! As in Havs with a design that I've never seen ha! Shet! In my size pa! Tapos it was on sale! Okay fine...it used to be $24, now it's $16. Which makes it about 800 pesos or something, so wala rin... (rambling...I know, I know)

But! Hindi ko binili! I didn't even try it on! Woohoo!

Then I went to this other store, meron din silang Havs! Hindi ko rin binili kasi hindi ko naman kailangan (naks). I'd be nuts to buy flipflops here. -25 degrees na nga eh. Amf.

Back to the kwento...ang haba noh?

Raoul texted me mga 2:30 p.m. and tells me to meet him nalang at Scarborough Town Center, para sabay nalang kami pauwi. Game naman ako. Another mall! Hehe!

So I go back on the subway, baliktad lang yung route ko.

I saw this sign and wondered lang what it meant:


When I got to the town center, I went straight to...where else?



They also didn't have anything good sa clearance. Pero malinis din ang store nila. Shet talaga ang olats ng store namin.


Set up para sa Chinese New Year program nila sa mall. It just reminded me of the stuff they do sa SM.

I did get to go around a bit, finally bought something, then had to wait outside for Raoul.


Malameeeeg!

Ang another wala lang picture:


Tired feet, in the shoes you gave me! (Promise, sulit na sulit yung shoes na yan. Hehe)

Finally, I get home. Diba I said that I finally bought something for myself? Here it is:


$9.92 clogs. From Wal-Mart. Natatawa lang ako kasi I was all over the place, but ended up buying from Wal-Mart. Hay nako. :P

I'm supposed to go back next week to get my new passport. Marah says na I have to go back to Eaton because there's a jacket that she wants from H&M. Shopping uli! Hehe!