Time is of the essence.

by Cold Mailman

Subway Memory.

When I was in kindergarden, my mom and I often visited my grandparents by taking Seoul subway line 3. As a child, I was fascinated by every aspects of the extraordinary urban infrastructure; underground tunnels that are connected like a giant spiderweb, trains with metallic gloss making screeching metallic sound, diverse of passengers from a homeless to a white-collar commuters, etc.

One of my most cherished childhood memories is, standing on the platform while holding my mom's hand and waiving at the train that is slowly heading into the darkness. Best part of it was, of course seeing a train conductors who waved me back.

It's been a decade and many things have changed.

There are now 15 subway lines in the Seoul Metropolitan area, but I am no longer a constant passenger.

Instead, I've been riding the New York City's MTA and Philadelphia's PATCO in the past month.

From this month, I'm becoming much familiar with the names of Toronto's TTC stations.

Go Global Expo.

Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre

Passage.

Tonight is the very last night of being a 17 year old boy.

At the moment, I am very overwhelmed with excitement to think about the years that are about to come.

Although I've gone through some uneasy time during the grade 12, I hope to make the best out of the upcoming years.

I hope my time at the University of Toronto nurture both of my knowledge and critical thinking, and open my visions to global perspectives; something more than just a degree and experience farther than conventional concept of education. I hope to take leadership roles in different organizations and leave positive influence on the communities in Toronto, my new home away from home away from home. Last but not least, I want to keep searching for my true self and interests to reach the point that I know myself as much as possible.

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I want to thank my mom and dad, who are on the other side of planet, for all the opportunities they've given me.

John Street Roundhouse.

There is a small park infront of the CN Tower and Rogers Centre called 'John Street Roundhouse'. In the past, It has been used as a storage and repair facility for the trains coming from the Union Station, and now, the building is currently being used by the 'Steam Whistle Brewing' and the furniture franchise 'Leon'.

I think this park has greater potential to become an open space landmark of Toronto.

Toronto International Film Festival.

North America's most major and most prestigious film festival, 

and the most widely attended worldwide.

I watched an independent film called 'Hanaan', and the experience was quiet refreshing.

Every film is unique on their way and each really do represents the vision and ideas of the director. 

City of Toronto.

This is more than just a city that wants to be New York

Frosh Year - Fall Semester.

EESA01H3 Introduction to Environmental Science

EESA05H3 Environmental Hazards

GGRA02H3 The Geography of Global Processes

PHYA10H3 Introduction to Physics IA

MATA30H3 Calculus I

Courses were selected based on the two possible paths for the next year.

1. U of T Scarborough, Double major on B.A Physical and Human Geography and B.Sc Statistics

2. U of T St.George, major on B.Sc Physical and Environmental Geography and minor on GIS

First week in the University.

Just some scribbling of thoughts.

- It's a bit of pain to watch those cars passing by when you are carrying bags full of groceries in both hands and back.

- My campus is located in the Greater Toronto Area called Scarborough. The campus is surrounded by large forests and quiet suburban neighbours. It's a perfect environment to be fully focused on academics.... :)

- I am already seeing many colleagues who are start taking the 'freedom' for granted. However, by all means, I am not going to be one of them. I want to be different than the others (in a good way).

- I miss Ottawa a lot; those highway 417 signs, public buses with red maple leafs, government workers with dog tags, friendly smiles of people, buildings with the government signs, construction on Bank Street, joggers by the canal, and tourists taking pictures of the Parliament hills, etc.

- Ottawa might be the political capital of Canada, but Toronto is definitely the cultural and economic capital. The city has a lot to offer. I just have to ride TTC and grab it.

- I'm thinking of going to the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend and volunteer for the Environmental Film Festival (Theme: Landscape) in the October. Events in Toronto are in different scale than those in Ottawa.

- Text books cost fortune, but no one questions why (!)

- I started cooking for myself. It's only a matter of time to get better on it.

- 'Internationally- minded person', that's who I want to be.

- Internet speed is horrible.

#HappeningNow.

- Due to an error on my DSLR memory card, all the photos that I took in the past two weeks were gone. However, I'll be recovering those photos once I buy a card reader p. There are approximately 1k photos taken in the past weeks and I haven't got a chance to upload the finest on this blog.

- As you can see from the photos (which were taken by phone), I have well arrived at my residence in the University of Toronto at Scarborough! I'm still working on unpacking and organizing those luggages, and it will be done sometimes over the weekend haha.

- There are several items being shipped from Amazon.ca at the same time. It's just a perfect source for college essentials.

- I'm getting used to the fact that I'm living in Toronto and having a phone number that starts with 647. My experience here will be definitely different than one from Ottawa, but I hope to make the best out of it. 

All You Need is Love.

from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania