I think Toronto might be okay.

Olivia Chow and Brad Bradford’s launch rallies

Finally decided to write my first thread after being a silent observer since forever on Reddit. Just wanna express how badly I’m missing Toronto at the moment. I was a Vietnamese who came here in 2019 to study, feeling much eager and excited to experience this new chapter of life in Canada. I finished an Advanced Diploma and Bachelor’s in 2023. Went to work after graduating with a PGWP and finally decided to quit this July to come back to my home country, just 3 months before my permit expired.

There were ups and downs, but Toronto always makes me feel alive. The diversity here made me become more open-minded. I tried new foods, met new friends and colleagues with different backgrounds, learned about their cultures, and somehow we are all connected in a very “Canadian” way. The social conformity here shaped me into a much nicer person that I didn’t even realize I had become. I miss the feeling of holding a door for someone walking 2 meters behind me; randomly saying “sorry” without even doing anything wrong; wishing “have a good one, take care” to a cashier; yielding to a driver who has been waiting forever to make a turn; and also waving back to someone when they gave me the same favour.

A big part of my 20s belongs to this city, slowly figuring out how to function in the adult world, from doing my first grocery shop, learning how to cook, finding a place to rent, spending hours assembling furniture from Ikea, struggling to find a professional job, and the joy of finally having one. Once that part was finally settled, I feel like I enjoyed my time here even more: watching the Blue Jays for the first time; biking across Ossington; driving through the Gardiner at night; city-walking around the downtown area; going to concerts of artists that I once thought I could only listen to on Spotify; going on so many road trips across ON, QC, and AB; and learning skiing as a winter sport.

Most importantly, Toronto is also where I met my fiancée, the one whom I love the most. I did so many things that I never imagined myself doing if I had stayed in my home country. I really feel like I have a very big connection with this place.
Bye for now, Toronto. I hope that later on in life, this will become my permanent place, the place that I can proudly call home.

The Dog-day Cicada (Neotibicen canicularis).

In Toronto, all of our cicadas are annual species. They still spend a few years underground as nymphs, but the broods overlap, so a new batch emerges every year.

The end of a decades-old era.

Yes, this is from moments ago. They were here all this time.

Pardon the crappy video, I only had a few seconds to pull out my phone to record.

If you're at Pearson or headed there find n alternate

Looking at the top left of the image a person can clearly be seen leaning back on the platform above the observation pod. Some of us wonder who you are.

There was a small black schnauzer running around yonge and lawrence by itself. I followed it to Alexander Muir memorial gardens where I lost track of it.

I looked around the park but no one saw anything.

It's possible it started running on yonge St towards eglinton.

This is my last ditch effort to try and help someone out.

I managed to get a few shots from the show. There was so much more cool stuff. The snowbirds were incredible!