Study Abroad Day 31: Vintage paradise and Chinese manners

Hi guys! To be totally honest with you, today I planned to go to Importfest to meet one of my inspirations Justene Jaro (who I have been a fan of since 2008), but the bad weather forecast and going to bed at 5AM were apparently too big of a hurdle for me to overcome. But ahwell, God willing on some other magical day I will maybe meet her and her sister Dawn. Btw, Importfest is like a huge tuned cars show, and yes I was planning to go there only to meet the models, lol. Cars do not interest me one bit, but import models on the other hand. I even got to take a picture with Levy Tran once, although she is not exactly an import model, hehe.

After I was well-rested I decided to get my lazy butt outside to do something productive. Because the weather forecast predicted some rain that afternoon (and I have had bad experiences with rainstorms here), I decided to stay near the dorms. Another stroll around Chinatown it was (because I was still feenin' those BBQ pork buns, hihi) and on the way there I would stop by Kensington Market. It was raining a little bit when I was out (motregen), but luckily I was back at home safely before it started pouring outside.

Kensington Market is not actually a market, at least not in terms of what I am used to. It is basically a collection of small vintage shops and ethnic stores in small streets. I did browse around in two vintage stores, which make Zipper and Laura Dols pale in comparison to. I am glad I did not have a lot of cash to spend on me, although I have never really been vintage shopping (too much to choose from!). One disappointment though was the first store selling vintage fake LVs! Like seriously, lol. They were not even good quality counterfeit, and that for 60 bucks? No thank youuu (not that I would be interested if they were a good copy, I like authentic LVs thank you very much). Btw, the clothes were pretty affordable compared to thrift shopping in NL!

When I took a turn left and found myself in the middle of China town again (on Spadina Ave), I spotted a Chinese shopping mall. I could basically smell Hello Kitty merchandise being sold there from across the street. And whaddya know?

I finally got my hands on the cha siu baos I had been drooling over for the longest time. They costed about 3 bucks for 10 (middle sized). Way too cheap I know. I do not think I will be buying these addictive mofo's again, because I could not stop eating them T^T Btw, I noticed how darn rude those Chinese supermarket employees can be, lol. They do not even look at you when handing you your receipt or say hello, almost resembling lifeless robots (quoting one of my Chinese best friends here FYI, lol).

I ended my evening grubbing on these highly addictive buns.

X

Sefanja Rubina