My Supercycle 1800

When you come to a country that gives way to pedestrians and bikers, you usually want to make the most of it. Having to put all of my life’s belongings in two suitcases before coming to Toronto, deciding whether to pack by roller blades or not wasn’t really an option as they take so much space. Now if you know me well enough you’ll know that I do not know how to ride a bike.

You’ll be wondering why and I shall answer. While I was growing up, owing and using a bike wasn’t so easy but thankfully, I have a mother who always made sure we got a hang of every activity as soon as we were able to walk on our feet and gave us the option to pick and choose. My mum was great, she taught all three of us how to swim, we were swimming and floating in the deep end by the time we were seven, how to ice-skate and roller blade and the list is endless. However, when you have 3 daughters and live in a place where you would have to drive to the park before riding your bike, let alone having somewhere to store it, loading three bikes wasn’t all that fun but which my mum did regardless and then came the roller blades. Now those were much easier; especially as we started getting older and wanted to get around by ourselves. So we stuck with roller blades. As you recall, I used to drive all the way to Jumiereh beach to roller blade. I wasn’t too worried about not knowing how to ride a bike as I knew when the opportunity comes I will get to it.

So my plan for summer was to buy a bike and learn how to ride it. I spent a lot of time visiting bike shops and asking around until I finally found the perfect one for myself. I saved up a 100dollars and found one fitting that budget perfectly. I got my Supercycle 1800 from Canadian Tire and the reviews on it were great.

The public transit system in Toronto is also very accommodating, in case you need to get around with a bike, all the buses have bike racks and you can get your bike on the subway. It took a WHILE for me to learn how to ride it, until I decided to take it to the park and ride it downhill. I did that several times and without realizing it I was peddling away like a super biker!! I cannot explain the excitement I felt when that happened, I just did not want to get off my bike.

a candid moment :p

Since I learnt how to ride it, I have been using it to get to so many places, I ride it to school, to the station, to the supermarket and so on. And, it is SO quick getting around and so handy. I love my bike, it is like my Pathfinder when I was back home, that used to get me around. The most exciting part is riding it on trails, absolutely beautiful. I also get excited when I see other bikes like mine. When I went in to buy the bike I wanted the blue one, but it was designed for boys and not exactly my size :p This is how excited I get it, I lock it right next to its opposite gender and take a picture! :)

My new home

I did tell you that I found an amazing place to stay off-campus and knowing how anxious you all are to see my place…(I like thinking that you are) here it is.

The white door is the entrance
to my place and the apartment
is right above the basement;
you can see Crystal's room from
this side, my window faces the garage.


Colours are not so coordinated, but will be soon. I love my room; it has LOTS of light opposed to the dorm room. I have attempted to clean my windows to the best of my ability :p

This is my plant in its perfect spot. I love it...it is beautiful and it had pretty purple flowers when I first got it. I guess they will bloom again next summer. It also has unique leaves; they are purple on the back.

Living room

The kitchen is my next favorite thing about the apartment after my room.

To the left is my room, Anne's is right in front and the bathroom is on the right, between the two walls. The door to the right of Anne's room is just storage space, mainly cleaning supplies.

Door to the apartment on the right. Storage/coat hanger closet on the left and Crystal's room in front.

What makes my place even more so great you ask??..There is a park close by, a community centre, my bank, the library, supermarket and Yonge street. It is 15mins walk to the subway station, 20mins by bus to campus (given that the bus is on time) and a 12mins bike ride to campus.

When I first moved in Crystal and Alicia were in the other 2 rooms. Amazing and fun girls. Then Alicia moved out and Anne moved in, and it was the three of us for a while. Currently Crystal moved out and it is Anne and I and we’ll be having Anne’s friend joining us for the month of August. And it is an international home; Alicia is French, Anne is Korean, Crystal is Canadian and our one month roommate is Japanese.

However, I also did promise some people to show them pictures of my Rez room and how their gifts helped make that room of mine a home for 8 months.

The papyrus is from Zol and the stone craving from Malik, they got them on their trip to Egypt summer 2008. The drawing below is by Malik, he drew it for me before I left for Canada. It was difficult finding frames for their actual sizes in Ikea, however these worked out fine, I just made the inner frames.

The placard here is from Malik, from his trip to the U.S., summer 2007 :)

I am planning to hang everything up in my new room, but I'm still trying to decide on where exactly they should go.