Parliament / Greektown

Hello, Hello, Here is a little update about what I've been doing this week.

Tuesday our group went on a tour of the Provincial Parliament. It was an exciting time to go because we were able to sit in on the 'Question and Answer' period. This is an hour long event that occurs 4 days a week in which the minority political party is able to voice their concerns and hold the party in power accountable for their governing actions. Its equal parts practical and theatrical. You see the MPPs (kinda like our version of Senators) have full immunity from lawsuit from pretty much anything that happen while they are on the Parliament floor. So the discussion gets Very heated. There is name calling and bickering and many times the questions are really answered at all. It was very entertaining to watch.

After that we were about to take a tour of the Parliament building. This is where I learned that at one point the US had attempted to destroy the building and was successful in burning down half of it. We were also able to meet with the MPP of Natural Resources. This was my favorite part of the day because we were able to chat with her about her duties and obligations to the government and get a real sense of how the governmental system in Canada works. It was our first outing as a group and a very educational one at that. Having been in Toronto for such a short time, I already feel like I've been able to see many facets that the city has to offer. Which leads me to my next adventure...

!!Greektown!!

Thursday night we had dinner as a group (about 25 of us) in Greektown. It was just a short subway ride away and we had a marvelous time. It was my first time on the subway so I was a bit apprehensive of the all situation, however bc of my excellent map reading skills it turns out that i'm kind of a pro at it. Once we arrived at Greektown we ate at a restaurant called the Pantheon. They served us family style and we must have sat there eating, drinking, and chatting for almost 3 hours. Our meal started with wine, humus and veggies, and a greek salad. Followed by a meat tray, seafood tray, rice, steamed vegetables, and potatoes. The meat tray consisted of beef, chicken, lamb chop, sausage, and quail. Where as the seafood tray consisted of shrimp, salmon, a white fish, calamari, and octopus. I tried Everything! and it was all delicious. The restaurant owner came out to say that he enjoyed our company so much that he was going to serve us coffee and dessert on the house. With a group our size we were bound to draw a little bit of attention and i think our good humor was wearing off on the rest of the patrons. It was a wonderful evening with people that I now am starting to see as friends and not simply classmates.