After the festival, they took us to Mississauga, where we went to Square One (a huge mall!), a Chinese Restaurant for lunch and then a Krispy Kremes franchise! And yeah ok, I didn't know anything about Krispy Kremes before that but after tasting a doughnut FRESH from the conveyor belt, ooooh my God. So GOOD. They even show the whole doughnut-making-process as you can see!

Us with the World's Largest Sap Bucket

Hailin and I with our pancakes smothered in fresh maple syrup. YUMM.

The pancake makers. There was a lil kid too! These guys must have made so much money that day! With crowds and all. And charging people $4 for two pancakes! If only the weather was good. I'd have eaten so much more :D

Went to the Elmira Maple Syrup Festival with Hailin's classmate, Steven and his wife Natasha/Ningyin. Who I later found out was Ningxia's sister! Ningxia my Cedar classmate! The world is so small. I love it. Anyway this place was ultra crowded and temperature was terrible! Sooo cold and not at all spring-ish! But man there was so much food and everyone was having so much fun! Really nice experience. Basically this is when they start getting maple syrup from the trees so they celebrate by making tonnes of pancakes and pouring oh-so-much syrup on them.

Went for a Ganesh-Kumaresh violin concert which was part of the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival. Held in York University in Toronto. And I went with Namratha's parents and her sis but not her! It was real fun :) Kutcheri was excellent! They played really nice songs and RTP was in Naatakurinji! One of my favourite ragams. This photo shows the elder brother Ganesh singing and Kumaresh playing the violin. He has a very nice voice! But most of the time, they play the violin together only.

This time Hailin and I went over to Audrey and Jasleen's house for dinner and dessert. They made dinner and we took dessert. Great fun! Probably our last one together since term's ending next Tuesday! :( :( :( So sad. Anyway that's Audrey, Hailin, me and Jasleen.

Waterloo Park at the start of spring. Can't wait for spring to properly kick in! It's gonna look beautiful.

At Silver Lake, just after grocery shopping (explains the giant bags).

In Waterloo Public Library. YJ and I decided to explore Waterloo on foot since the temperature actually hit 21 deg C! This was on Monday. And today (Thurs), it went negative again. Crazyyy! Anyway I looooved the library :) :)

Another awesome building in UofT. Victoria University?

This is actually a COLLEGE in UofT. One of the campus buildings! Isn't it beautifullll?! If my campus was like this, I won't be concentrating on classes at all, but taking photos 24/7!

Met Pallavi in Toronto for a weekend. We explored Eaton Centre and the area around it. Since the weather was not too bad and manageable, we decided to walk back to her room in University of Toronto. And during our one hour walk back, there was a sudden power outage and there was total chaos on the roads! So fun! :D See how people are walking and cars are going all over the place without the traffic lights working hehehe.

Yanjun had tickets to a music concert by UW's orchestra. We went to Mel's Diner for dinner. I loved the decor. It was like a proper American diner - the waitresses uniforms, the jukebox and the whole layout.

Swetha invited me to go with her family to the Toronto Sai Centre. This was at York University. The Satsang was really enjoyable and the whole thing was so peaceful. That's Swetha preparing the bhajans to be sung. She plays the Harmonium too!

Me with Grand River :D

A wonderful view of Grand River. This is the river after which lots of things in Waterloo are named. Grand River Hospital is the main public hospital here. Grand River Transit is the public bus system. I can't think of anything else right now but I'm sure there must be more! Beautiful no?

I think this guy's the owner of the pub. See how he's dressed in green! Suspenders, tie and a hat to top it off (pun! :D) - the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. Most people were dressed in green with funny little green hats. They represented green leprechauns. Coincidentally, this was the day Ireland thrashed Pakistan! Congrats to Ireland!

The place was completely packed so YJ and I had to stand at the bar and not buy any drinks!

Our landlord took us to a pub at Lancaster (Kitchener) which he frequents. He goes there every Saturday to listen to jazz music and just chill with some of his agemates. Since it was St. Patrick's Day, I was very keen to check out the culture. So I actually went to a pub! Hehehe.

There was a bathtub sitting right in the middle of Conestoga Mall! C. Mall is the biggest mall in Waterloo, and is actually pretty small but YJ and I spent about 6 hours there.

CEDAR PRIDE! :D :D :D Note how all the roads are so wet! It was relatively warm that day - about 4 deg C - so the snow was melting and precipitation came as rain instead of snow.

Inside Kitchener Market. Fresh market which is only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Wide variety of stuff!

A cute lil dressed up dog! These lil cuties and their clothes are very common here! Taken on the way to the market on an early Saturday morning.

Followed by some delicious dessert at William's Coffee Pub. They sell the most divine chocolate desserts.

Chinese New Year hotpot dinner with Namratha and some of her classmates at a Chinese Restaurant. We had this continuously boiling hotpot with two different soups placed in front of us, and we put in the noodles and various vegetables and fake meat (but we only put in one or two coz it looked suspiciously non-veg) and cooked everything together.

Hailin and I devouring the carrot cake which Audrey and Jasleen baked for dessert. YUM!

Audrey, Jasleen, Hailin, Yanjun and me with our food. Kinda like a pot luck dinner! Good fun :)

Another cooking success! :D Baked potatoes with garlic and cheese :D :D

Nammu and I went for lunch at Subway after an arduous lab and before lecture!

Julaina came home to eat something made by YJ. CNY stuff - Tang yang?

There were self-check-out counters. Donald said it was fun and encouraged me to try it too! So I did and it was sooo fun! Though I had to keep getting the cashier's help whenever the machine gave some weird error. But the whole barcode-scanning thing - very cool. Not as simple as you might think!

We went to the Real Canadian Superstore for grocery shopping. This place has EVERYTHING! It's really a superstore! (That's Yanjun saying "superstore!" like Superman!)

Donald taught us ice hockey! It's not as easy as it seems! I kept onnnn hitting the ground instead of the puck. But maybe that's just me and my sad sport skills :P

YJ and I at the toboggan slopes.

Donald with the toboggan - figuring out how to sit on one.

The slopes. I was not exactly in the mood for snow sports (not after my skiing experience!) and I was also not dressed right. So I didn't try it out :(

Indian Restaurant sighting! Should try it out someday. This was taken on our way to the unofficial tobogganing slopes for kids.

Kids learning curling! They basically have to get as close as possible to the black circle's centre. And get the opponent's rocks out of the way.

After lunch on Sunday, Donald (landlord) took us to the nearby Granite Club before we went grocery shopping. This is a place for Curling enthusiasts. Considering I'd only discovered curling last year during the Winter Olympics, I was very keen to see it live!

Spent 3 hours cooking our typical Sunday meal - Vengaya saambhar and potato curry! :D

Earring buddies. We had a 'sleepover' coz it was too late for her to go home after we did our pre-lab. And it was still not fully completed! So we became nutty and took crazy videos and vambu-fied until sleep took over at 2am :) So fun!

Nam, me and Neeru enjoying our home-cooked sumptuous meal :D

Nammu was the first to try it. And she survived! And said it tasted great! WOOT!

The Toad-In-The-Hole (aka Thavalai-in-the-Ottai) all ready to be eaten! :D

Vegetable Toad-In-the-Hole, Pre-baked

I seem to always look sad when I'm in the kitchen :P Cooking with Namratha and Neeraja! (They did most of it of course :P)

So nice to hug!

Nam's creation of an Iyengar Aandiyaar kondai Snow-woman

Making a snowman with Yanjun