Transit riders in the GTA and those who use GO transit will only pay once when transferring between services, starting Feb. 26
On Feb. 26, the Ontario government’s new One Fare program will come into effect. Under the new program, transit riders of transit agencies in in the GTA will be able to transfer for free between services.
The One Fare program is one of many transit developments the Ontario government is pushing forward as part of the Greater Golden Horseshoe Transportation Plan. The Greater Golden Horseshoe refers to a large and densely populated portion of southern Ontario ranging from Peterborough to the Niagara Region, surrounding Lake Ontario.
The program is currently set to include the Toronto Transit Commission, GO Transit, York Region Transit, Durham Region Transit, Missisauga’s transit system and Brampton Transit.
Free transfers involving local transit agencies will be valid for a period of two hours after the first trip begins. In this case, the second component of the trip becomes free of cost.
Transfers from GO Transit to another participating transit service will be valid for three hours. In this case, only the local transit component of the trip is covered.
Riders transferring between services will automatically receive their discount when they use the same PRESTO, credit or debit card to tap on and off of different services.
The program will see Metrolinx reimburse local transit agencies to account for their lost revenue. According to Associate Minister of Transportation Vijay Thanigasalam, the program will cost the province about $117 million each year.
In light of this cost, the government hopes that the improved service will attract more people to make use of public transit to move across the GTA. Premier Doug Ford also stated at a press conference on Feb. 5 at Downsview Park Go station that the program will save regular transit users as much as $1,600 annually.
Depending on the success of the current program, the government is considering expanding the One-Fare program to include more local transit agencies across the province.
“Our goal is to go to the next phase, to talk to and have dialogue with other municipalities beyond the GTA corridor so that we can bring the one-fare program into other regions,” stated Thanigasalam at the Downsview Park Go station.
Many McMaster University students who commute from participating areas and use local transit services to get to the GO bus will also benefit from the program. According to the most recent numbers from McMaster, there are about 3,000 GO bus rides each week Monday to Thursday and about 4,500 every Friday. Students who commute to a GO Bus stop with a local transit agency in the GTA will save the cost of the local transit component of the trip.
Other developments soon to be under works are the construction of new and expansion of existing subway lines in the GTA. The plan also includes having two-way, all-day GO train service every 15 minutes between major cities in the Greater Golden Horseshoe by 2031.
More information about the One Fare program can be found on Metrolinx’s website.
Long commute times and the constant back and forth make it difficult for commuter students to have the expected university experience
With the academic year in full swing, students have been able to return to in-person classes and gatherings, socialize with friends and faculty and explore the thriving arts and culture scene in Hamilton.
However, for a significant portion of the student body, this is not their university experience.
The lengthy travel from home to campus, and vice versa, often cuts commuter participation short since students are forced to choose between commuting and enjoying university activities.
Commuters miss out on events, in-person lectures, especially if they occur too early or later, and socializing with peers due to the ridiculous transit wait times. Especially during busier periods of the school year, such as the first week of school and midterm season; commuting students find themselves choosing between three options: travelling hours in advance, waiting in enormous public transit lines or attending classes virtually as opposed to in-person, if they have the option.
This unjustifiable dilemma is one commuters face daily and results in them being left out from the university community.
Unreasonable public transit has been a hindrance in campus life for numerous years. Last year, students voiced concerns over the highly long line-ups and the insufficient amount of GO services available to university students. In fact, due to the complete return of in-person activities on campus, students have noticed worsening wait times and have demanded an increase in public transportation to and from McMaster University.
“I am very aware of the time now in the sense that I always have to keep an eye [on] what time it is. What time am I meant to get on the bus? Okay, if I didn’t get on this bus which bus would I get on then?” explained Zoha Irfan, a third-year commuter student.
Irfan also explained that she’s often forced to arrive at the bus stop a minimum of 30 minutes in advance due to the tremendously long bus lines. She explained that the buses are usually 20 minutes late, resulting in a continuously growing line and two missed buses if you are not patiently waiting.
Commuter students are hyperaware of the scheduling times and feel a constant sense of urgency surrounding public transportation. They prioritize commuting over their classes, campus events, networking and socializing with friends, which are all the pieces that make a student’s university experience whole.
Public transit is not the only issue plaguing commuter students; traffic is another massive concern for those students who drive to university. Last year, the Ford government proposed to build Highway 413 to reduce traffic individuals experience throughout the day. Although this seemed like a good idea on paper, research from the University of Bath indicates that building more highways is a short-term fix for commuters due to Canada’s rapidly increasing population.
Some steps have been taken to address the challenges commuter students face in participating in the university community, including the creation of the McMaster's Society of Off-Campus Students.
McMaster SOCS has been around for several decades and aims to bring off-campus students back into the spotlight. The group works to create a supportive community for students sharing similar experiences by hosting events and opportunities that accommodate the average commuter’s schedule.
Although these initiatives within the McMaster community for commuters are a great start, we need to make a greater effort to support these students and create an accommodating, inclusive environment that offers everyone the opportunity to thrive.
Being bilingual can help you in many aspects of life from personal development to job prospects
Multicultural education is essential especially for people who are actively involved in such a diverse region like the Greater Toronto Area. Being aware and respectful of different cultures promotes inclusion and uplifts students of different backgrounds, setting them up for success in their future.
There are several ways to immerse yourself in a culture from reading about it to sampling their tasty specialties. But one unique way to learn is by picking up a new language. I strongly believe that learning a new language should be a task on everyone’s to do list as it bridges gaps between communities and contributes in personal development.
Being able to speak a culture’s tongue helps you communicate with them in a manner that is the most familiar and comfortable for them. Approximately 17.20 per cent of McMaster students have an international student status.
These students experience a huge culture shock upon entering a foreign country and many face language barriers. As a result, they will often seek people of similar backgrounds to them. This can be harmful as it creates a gap within the campus community and does not allow for these students as it stops them from communicating with other cultural groups, or practicing the language native to the country they have come to.
Being able to communicate with these students in their language can help them come out of their bubble gradually. You can help them avoid the culture shock by integrating bits of their culture within the relevant community. In this manner, they will feel more confident and open to the idea of immersing themselves into this new culture.
Furthermore, being bilingual, trilingual or even a polyglot helps tremendously in ones personal life. The common belief is that having more than one language under your belt helps secure better job opportunities. This is true as in an exponentially diverse and inclusive world, employers are keen on their candidates having such a skillset so that they are able to communicate with customers of several backgrounds and with overseas markets.
Before moving on to a completely novel language, you can also expand your fluency in your mother tongue. Approximately 17.6 per cent of Canadians are second generation immigrants. As second generation immigrant myself, I sometimes feel disconnected from my mother tongue as I spend most of my day communicating in English.
As a result, this makes feel disconnected from my culture and I find this concerning because if this is how I feel now, how disconnected will the generations that come after me be?
So in order to keep your mother and father’s culture(s) alive in you and the generations that will come after you, it is important to stay connected to your mother tongue by continually improving your fluency in the language.
It may seem daunting at first trying to learn a new language from scratch. However, once you overcome one barrier it is usually smooth sailing from there as you begin to make connections between the structures of languages and vocabulary, allowing you to learn multiple languages.
Knowing more than one language is a unique skillset that is currently in demand. Not only does it bring together different cultures, but improves the soft skills of a person who pursues it. Being bilingual or beyond will open new doors for you and you will also find that it makes exploring new cities and watching foreign TV shows much more enjoyable.
By Elisa Do, Staff Writer
For many of us, the last few weeks have certainly been a novel experience. The spread of COVID-19 has caused in-person class cancellations and the disruption of our typical day-to-day lives. As with most universities across the globe, McMaster University has moved courses and examinations online. Although the transition is necessary due to the current circumstances, it is also important that we take a closer look at what this change can mean for students and the impact it can create on our learning.
Online courses require students to have access to the Internet in order to complete coursework. However, not every household can afford internet costs, and not everyone lives in areas with access to the Internet. In 2017, only 37 per cent of rural households in Canada had access to internet speeds considered standard for regular Internet usage and approximately only 24 per cent of households in Indigenous communities had access to standard-speed Internet service.
This can prevent students from frequently participating in their online classes; especially for online tests or examinations that require stable and continuous Internet access. Also, classes may require students to tune in to video conferences or watch lectures online, activities which require high speed Internet.
This is compounded by another change that students are currently facing: students no longer have access to public libraries or study spaces that were once available to them. Even if Internet access is a problem at home, libraries used to provide students with the resources to maintain their studies. Without libraries, finding Internet access can become an even greater challenge. With all this in mind, it would be beneficial for instructors to permit greater flexibility within course structures. Depending on the course itself, making alterations such as options to opt out of final exams or to complete presentations via alternative methods like telephone, could provide the necessary support for students during this time.
Also, without public study areas, not only do students lose out on possible resources such as hard copy books or technology, but they are also unable to study in an environment that is not their home. Many students go to libraries in order to be in an environment that encourages focus and motivation. Speaking from my personal experience, I often find it difficult to focus on work-related tasks in places such as my home, which is designed for comfort and relaxation. I realize that when studying at home, it is natural to feel less motivated as the environment also plays a role in conditioning me to be at ease.
Furthermore, many campus resources are only available in person. For example, peer support resources from McMaster Students Union services such as the Student Health Education Centre, the Women and Gender Equity Network or Maccess can only operate in-person. With these services closed and the volunteers at home, students who may wish to access support no longer have that opportunity.
Aside from peer support, many students also visit the Student Wellness Centre to access counselling services. With the current circumstances, students can no longer access counselling in-person, and group programs within the Student Wellness Centre have also been cancelled. Being away from all the mental health support that had previously been offered on campus can negatively affect how students are dealing with their mental health at home.
That is not to say that folks at McMaster are neglecting support options for students. Many educators are working hard to continue course office hours and the Student Wellness Centre is also providing appointments online and by telephone. However, without in-person communication, there is still a barrier to how accessible these services can be. Through social distancing, individuals are forced to take the initiative to reach out to others via virtual options or online messaging. It means that students can miss out on engaging in social interaction if they do not proactively seek out others. And it can also mean that those who may want mental health support don’t know who or where to turn to with these sudden changes.
Because of how novel this experience is for so many of us, it is crucial that we remember it is okay to feel overwhelmed. There is a lot of uncertainty in the world right now, so it is fair that students may also feel uncertain at times. Although I think it is wonderful that many people are encouraging one another to partake in productive activities throughout the day, I think it is also super important that we are reminded to accept that there has been a change. It’s all right for our day-to-day schedules to look different and it is totally fine if everything seems to be going at an unusual pace.
Studying from home poses a variety of barriers and these barriers impact each and every student differently. During these times, it is essential that we are more considerate of how physical distancing can affect our learning. Students should not have to feel guilty about taking time to adjust to these new changes and instructors should also keep in mind that students are most likely in a different headspace as they adjust. As we all work together to continue figuring out how we can make this difficult time a little more easier, let us encourage greater flexibility in students’ learning and do our best to minimize any additional distress being away from campus may cause.
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[pjc_slideshow slide_type="1101-cafebar-and-osten-beerhall"]
1101 Cafébar (1101 Cannon St. E.) is snugly nestled between the neon lights of Shorty’s Pizza and the blue brick exterior of Osten Beerhall. The café feels warm and inviting. On a sunny day, the sun will shine in through the two wide front windows onto the bright white walls as chill music plays softly in the background. The café and hall are owned and run by Dan Hawkins, Marc Dufort and Robert Squire. Squire says that the café is a great place for students, serving as a perfect study spot and a hip hangout location in the evening. Squire says that they encourage visitors to sit and work for as long as they like.
“I mean, there's plenty of people that are here first thing in the morning and are working here for a considerable amount of hours . . . [d]uring the week, it's a good place I would say to sit and study or work,” said Squire.
As I sat in the café, I saw a revolving door of people coming from all walks of life. There was someone typing away at their laptop, two people chatting over tea lattés and scones and a few other folks who stopped by to pick up a coffee on their way to work. Squire says that a diverse mix of people frequent the business.
As I sat in the café, I saw a revolving door of people coming from all walks of life. There was someone typing away at their laptop, two people chatting over tea lattés and scones and a few other folks who stopped by to pick up a coffee on their way to work. Squire says that a diverse mix of people frequent the business.
“I have as many [people] coming from the Dofasco steel factory as I do young urban professionals that have moved from Toronto, that are in design or creative spheres. And that's one thing that I think that makes this place really vibrant is having some semblance of cross-cultural dialogue, not only in who frequents the place, but in the actual DNA of the business,” said Squire.
1101 and Osten Beerhall are two connected businesses, each space having its own unique atmosphere. The two ends of the business work in tandem to ensure that each has the resources that they need to best meet the needs of their customers.
“1101 services coffee and cocktails to Osten, Osten services our lunch program, beer list, wine list, so that technically it's all one business but outwardly facing it's two different spaces and two different vibes in the spaces,” said Squire.
This combination provides a unique opportunity to minimize the food waste for the beer hall. The lunch menu served at 1101 from 11 a.m. onwards comes from Osten’s kitchens, and has several of the same items as the dinner menu served in the beerhall. Things like brisket, sockeye gravlax and hamburgers are all served at both 1101 and Osten. By offering the same items, the two businesses can help minimize their food waste. Less options between the two establishments means they are less likely to be ordering a surplus of supplies for a dish that isn’t as popular, and less likely to end up with food being thrown away.
As the name suggests, Osten Beer Hall serves mostly beer—both local and imported—in addition to wine, cider and mead. They also have a full dinner menu. Osten Beerhall and 1101 may be connected, but each space has a separate, unique vibe. Both are located immediately next to Shorty’s Pizza, so whether you’re in the mood for espresso, hamburgers or pizza, there’s guaranteed to be something for you.
Osten Beerhall and 1101 are close to Ottawa Street, but they’re not quite there. Rather than another stop on a shopping trip, 1101 becomes a destination in itself. Between the food, drinks and atmosphere, it is well worth the extra five minutes that it takes to walk up Cannon from Ottawa.
“[I]t is kind of like a little bit of a destination and a little bit of a trek to get here. But I think the space that we've created here is really welcoming and inviting to all people. And we're excited to share that with people if they want to make the trek to come,” said Squire.
“[I]t is kind of like a little bit of a destination and a little bit of a trek to get here. But I think the space that we've created here is really welcoming and inviting to all people. And we're excited to share that with people if they want to make the trek to come,” said Squire.
Whether you’re looking for a first-date spot, a place to study for a few hours or somewhere to take your friends to dinner, 1101 Cafébar and Osten Beerhall have got you covered. This unique cocktail of coffee and spirits is guaranteed to be your new favourite hangout spot.
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Walking through an art gallery or a museum is mostly a visual experience, whether you're looking at a sculpture, a painting or a photo. This can be exclusionary for people with little to no vision. The Art Gallery of Hamilton is aiming to make art accessible to a larger range of people with their Touch Tours, monthly group tours which take visitors through a sensory exploration of the art on display.
The tours are run by Laurie Kilgour-Walsh, the Senior Manager of Education at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. In 2007, Kilgour-Walsh attended an orientation program at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, a program targeted at new museum and art gallery employees in order to acquaint them with the process of running a large museum. Kilgour-Walsh says that one of the orientation activities inspired her to begin the Touch Tours. A patron of the gallery, who had lost her sight late in life, walked the visitors through the way that she now experiences art.
“[S]he started talking about her interaction with the sculpture, how she sees it and how she encounters all the different facets of the artists making the work, what the work looks like, the personality of the piece, just through the sense of touch,” said Kilgour-Walsh.
“[S]he started talking about her interaction with the sculpture, how she sees it and how she encounters all the different facets of the artists making the work, what the work looks like, the personality of the piece, just through the sense of touch,” said Kilgour-Walsh.
The Touch Tours were specifically created for people with vision loss, but all are welcome to attend. In many ways, the tours enrich the art-viewing experience. Kilgour-Walsh says that the average time that a person spends looking at a piece of art is about 30 seconds. Art viewing is almost entirely sight-based, unless there is an audio component to describe the artwork. The tours slow down that experience, allowing participants to explore the art in new ways.
Over time, the Touch Tours have evolved to include the other senses. For example, during an Emily Carr exhibition, small salt shakers with pine tree and pine essential oil created the smell of the forest to accompany Carr’s work.
“In other cases, when we have our public offering, sometimes people [attend] who are curious, who just want to have a sensory experience are coming and that is actually what we see most often. And so some of that is leading us to think more about tours that engage senses, rather than simply focusing on description . . . forming an image in your mind based on the words and feelings, and engaging hearing and sight and sound,” said Kilgour-Walsh.
The primary art medium that the tours display is sculpture. The benefit of sculpture is that it is, by nature, much more tactile than a painting. Running your hands over a sculpted apple is much easier to understand than a painted one, particularly if you’ve never seen an apple. Many of the sculptures that the tours use are made of bronze, because it is a fairly durable material, meaning that it’s unlikely to break or snap under pressure.
“[W]ith bronze casting, the original work of art is often made in like, clay or wax or some very soft surface, and then cast later. And so feeling this work, you can actually find those spots of the sculpture where you can see how the artists would have used a finger to put in a curve or detail. You can actually follow those movements with your fingers,” said Kilgour-Walsh.
“[W]ith bronze casting, the original work of art is often made in like, clay or wax or some very soft surface, and then cast later. And so feeling this work, you can actually find those spots of the sculpture where you can see how the artists would have used a finger to put in a curve or detail. You can actually follow those movements with your fingers,” said Kilgour-Walsh.
Paintings are trickier to include on the tours, but they're such an integral part of our culture that the AGH has been working hard to include them in the tours. Paintings are much more delicate and easy to tarnish, and they are also fairly flat, with little texture, making them difficult to perceive through touch. The Touch Tours has adapted over time to include paintings. Now, each tour provides a posterboard version of the original painting that visitors can hold in their hands. The posterboard paintings are then covered in different textures of paint to illustrate the different sections, with raised paint being used to outline larger shapes. The participants are then able to experience the painting through touch, feeling their way through the art.
The Touch Tours have also created materials that illustrate what the different aspects of the paintings would feel like. They’ve created small samples of fabric to demonstrate what is being portrayed in the paintings to create a more immersive experience.
“[A] lot of people who come don't know what canvas feels like, so we have blank canvas so you can feel the give of the surface and the texture. If we talk about images where there's a certain kind of fabric — we've had a couple of painting of really beautiful Victorian dresses — we can use something like this where we've got that silk fabric and we've got suede and we've got all of those different things to have a sense of being able to touch the fabric that is being portrayed,” said Kilgour-Walsh.
They also have small samples of different paints, from acrylic to watercolour, in order to give an idea of what the painting itself feels like.
Touch Tours and other accessible options are slowly being integrated into more museums and galleries, like the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada and even the Museum of Modern Art. These improvements not only help people with accessibility needs, but also anyone interested in experiencing art from a fresh perspective.
For anyone interested in exploring the Art Gallery of Hamilton (123 King St. W.), admission is free for McMaster and Mohawk students with a valid student ID.
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It was suddenly the day before April and I found myself broken down and tired. With exams around the corner, my savings trickling to their end and a general lack of motivation, I needed something to look forward to as I transgress the final stretch of the academic year.
I began to imagine myself sipping yerba mate at a café in Buenos Aires, Argentina, strolling through the Jalan Surabaya Flea Market in Jakarta, Indonesia, or even getting lost in the painted alleyways of Chefchaouen, the Blue City of Morocco.
But like many students, the commodity of time and money maintained my imagined travels as pieces of fiction. While I hope to fly away to faraway places in the nearby future, I still needed to find a way to get my fix of wanderlust for the summer.
The answer I was looking for happened to be poster-sized and framed in a GO bus shelter. I’ve passed by the system map and disregarded it several hundred times before realizing all the travel opportunities it presents.
From Hamilton, GO transit lines can take you as far north as Lake Simcoe, west towards the Waterloo region and east to Niagara Falls with dozens of stops in between each direction. Combined with each city’s independent transit systems, bike share programs and widespread Uber availability, the possibilities seemed endless.
I compiled a list of 20 new places I could visit, almost all of them by public transit and made it my goal to explore each one by the end of the summer. The plan was simple, everything beyond determining the route to the destination had to be spontaneous.
This meant I had to rely on my natural instincts and the advice of locals for directions to interesting spots and places to eat. I also had to learn to be comfortable with the idea of sometimes not knowing where I’m going and walking for hours on end.
This was in stark contrast to how I was used to travelling in the past. I’m known for planning out meticulous details in hand-drawn itineraries, complete with time estimates, cost calculations, printed maps and screenshots of Instagram photos.
In desperate need to experience things in a new way, I decided to approach my 20 destinations without building any prior expectations. My list included places like Brampton, Burlington, Cambridge, St. Catharines, Waterloo and Kitchener, which are often overlooked cities for travel and entertainment.
I believed that each place was waiting to reveal its charm to those willing to take the time to build an intimate relationship with their surroundings. No matter where I went, by slowing down and taking in every detail, it became possible to have an immersive and valuable experience.
Travelling with this mindset completely changed my perspective and I learned there is so much more to the towns next door.
Suddenly Cambridge’s graffiti-painted alleyways became more than just a common trait of Ontario cityscapes. I discovered that the freshly-painted murals on walls of business establishments were part of a rare project where dozens of graffiti artists showed off their skills to their community earlier in June.
A long day of walking through Vineland farms and Prudhommes Antique Market in search of sweet peaches and vintage finds ended with crashing at a random café in downtown St. Catharines. I quickly forgot about my aching bones as I lied down on a worn-out couch and listened intently to the atmosphere changing from a quiet coffee shop to a homey concert experience as a band rehearsed next door.
A different couch, this time a little fancier and in a Parisian-inspired macaron shop in Brampton, became the setting of a new found appreciation for a friend. As I stirred sugar into my coffee, I realized that something else was brewing within us, the trip made my friend and I open up our hearts in ways we hadn’t before.
Local travelling forged an opportunity to reconnect with old friends and nature. I hiked the beautiful trails of Don Mills, Milton and Tobermory with friends I hadn’t seen in years. The astonishing clear waters of Georgian Bay and meaningful conversations while driving back from the Bruce Peninsula are memories I hope to never forget.
Sometimes the commute itself was an experience. I was stuck on a bus with a handful of passengers for two hours while returning to Hamilton from Burlington the night of the infamous May wind storm. A man who had just finished a shift at a steel plant became our unofficial tour guide as we drove at a maximum speed of 10 km/hr.
He talked about the history of the buildings around us, shared stories of growing up in Hamilton and working as a rigger on oil platforms and mines between occasional sips from a bottle of Disaronno. He had been working for 22 days straight and the wind storm was testing his patience.
I let a stranger be my guide through Greektown in Toronto. She greeted me with a dried lavender bouquet and basil seeds. We immediately clicked like long-time friends as she walked me around her neighbourhood garden, showed me photographs from her travels and taught me a few tips on how to live in a more ethical and environmentally conscious way.
While in Kitchener I let hunger guide me through downtown, walking briskly from one street to the next, until the irresistible aroma of wood fired pizza stopped me dead in my tracks. I ordered a Quattro Fromaggi and patiently watched as David O’Leary from Bread Heads tossed my pizza into the fire.
Mass consumption of pizza is a hallmark of my university experience, yet somehow I managed to develop a deeper connection to my slice when I learned that Bread Heads was a travelling pizzeria. Bread Heads and I have been travelling all summer long throughout Ontario.
David took the time to sit with me and chat about pizza and life as a Celtic musician. While looking for a wood fired oven for his backyard he came across the idea of a mobile oven and realized it was a brilliant solution to combat drab festival food.
In another sweet shop I met Buba, who kept telling me to dare to dream over and over again as she shared her story with me. Her young family fled Bosnia when the war broke out 25 years ago. She left her aspirations and the little café she owned to start her life over in Canada.
After facing adversity, unpredictable change and constantly putting her children first, she decided to take her own advice and start Lola, a café and chocolate bar in Burlington named after her first grandchild.
Buba thanked me for listening to her story even though I had accidentally trespassed into her closed café. She bid me farewell with another reminder to dare to dream as I made my way to visit her neighbour, Rayhoon Persian Eatery, in the 19th century inspired Village Square.
I felt like a nomad as I peacefully enjoyed chai with a saffron rock candy. My attention would shift back and forth from the book I was reading to the father of the owner and self-proclaimed big boss. I watched on and learned as he taught his restaurant-goers how to traditionally eat their dishes and get the most out of the flavours.
Perhaps it was my travel backpack or the messy journal I was writing in that gave me away as being from out of town, but the big boss refused to let me pay and wished me luck on my journey. I did not anticipate these moments of kindness and wisdom from strangers, but I’m thankful for how they’ve shaped my experience.
I’ve left every destination with a content heart and excitement for the next trip. I’ve lost count of all the clock towers, bridges, historic buildings, museums, farmers’ market and bookstores I’ve visited in every single city, but each time I come across yet another bookstore I’m consumed by the thrill of discovering something new for the first time.
Sometimes I found nothing. I’ve even walked kilometres only to realize I’d hit a dead end. But even those moments were valuable as they presented me with the time for contemplation and reflection while I retraced my steps.
While reflecting on these trips, I learned that we tend take where we live, go to school and work for granted. I was more often than not met with expressions of disbelief when I shared stories of travelling in my friends’ hometowns.
We are surrounded by so many unique and diverse communities yet we rarely recognize them as places worthy of travel and exploration. I didn’t need a plane ticket to sip yerba mate or walk through bustling flea markets and painted alleyways, instead I created my own versions of those experiences by paying more attention to what the cities next door has to offer.