Study Abroad Day 5: No one celebrates Keti Koti here

Hi everyone! Join me today for my first Canadian national holiday celebration! Although I had no clue of what to expect, I did forecast to be slightly hammered by the end of the evening. Just my luck the celebration would take place one day before classes started! But then again, I was not going to pass up this opportunity of getting my groove on just because of class! I would probably not be the only tired student the next day, right? Enjoy reading!

For most people with a Surinamese background the 1st of July is an important date. This year it was even more special than every other year, because it was the celebration of 150 years of abolition of slavery in Suriname. For this celebration, called Keti Koti, yearly hundreds of people get together at the Oosterpark in Amsterdam, where festivities take place including dance, music, and lots of food. For me personally it is a great opportunity to meet up with family and acquaintances, and obviously foodie as I am, to stuff myself with delicious food.

I was so excited about this years celebration that I even wrote my BA thesis in spirit of it (Subject: Surinamese freedom fighters in WWII). Little did I know back when I wrote it that I would not even be in the Netherlands to celebrate it. Instead I was here in Canada. But, luckily Canadians had a national holiday to celebrate on their own. What a coincidence, hehe! I was super excited for Canada Day, as I expected it to be similar to our Queensday/Kingsday in the Netherlands.

I met up with one of my fellow students, really without a plan, and we decided to head towards the centre. While walking we did not spot a lot of Canada Day spirit, but we thought it was just because of the time. We saw some minor action going on at Queen's Park (a mini carnival) and decided to keep on walking towards Eaton Square. Unfortunately, there was not much going on there. We decided to have Korean for lunch and to head south.

Because I was so impressed with the engagement of Torontonians during Gay Pride, I expected everyone to be dressed in red and white, and wave around with Canadian flags (like Dutchies wear orange on Queensday). But no... We literally walked across Downtown in search of some partay, but in the end we just did some major walking and sightseeing. Like I mentioned previously, there was nothing fancy going on at Eaton Square (some folk dancing and food stands), a little bit of music going at the waterfront (but people sat down during the concert instead of dancing), and lastly nothing on campus (that we knew of at least).

Our last hopes were with the fireworks at 11PM, for which we had to take the subway a long way to the north. We barely made it on time, but when we finally got there we were a bit shocked. Not because we were impressed with the fireworks unfortunately. It was hardly a show.

Maybe it was because everyone was beat down from Gay Pride celebrations the week before, maybe I looked in the wrong places for some fun, or maybe this is really how Canada Day is celebrated every year in Toronto. Either way, I was a bit disappointed, but not regretful of having been here that day. Although I was beat down when I arrived home around 12AM, I had a lovely time strolling around and taking pictures of the CN Tower everywhere (it has so much presence, it just peeks out of nowhere from every angle). Next year I will (probably) be at the Oosterpark again though!

Tomorrow my classes finally start!

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Sefanja Rubina