Toronto - a.k.a Am I already in China?

Before I dive into my story:
1. I was in Toronto to receive training on culture shock, AIESEC, and other fun stuff to prepare me to go to China this summer. I also met my CEED (cultural Envoy for Exchange Development) partner who will be with me for a week in China :)
2. I flew down on Friday (7:45am mst, landed 3:40pm est), took the "rocket" to Kingston, subway to Osgoode (or something), and walked to Duncan (I had to be at an office by 5pm). I felt like I was on the amazing race :)

The weekend was full of training from CIL. We learned about values of different societies, played games, and talked to representatives from the country we were going to (other students who went to this session are going to Brazil, Ghana, Togo, Cameroon, Pakistan, India, Ecuador, and Jordan). My favourite was when we were split into groups and we had to come up with a jingle or song for a culture shock. Our group had Identity crisis and used Mulan's "reflection" song and acted it out.

So why does Toronto remind me of China? You mean besides the random Chinese words splashed everywhere? While walking to meet one of my friends for dinner, an old Asian lady asks me if I speak Cantonese and starts explaining that she is lost. I cannot help her as I am from Edmonton, but I do my best, thinking slowly and speaking in the little Cantonese that I know. She is going through memory loss and it is obvious she is frustrated. I try telling her not to worry and that it's okay to forget at that age. Eventually an Asian male comes walking down the street. "Yes!" I say to myself, only to discover the he speaks Mandarin. So there I am, translating from Cantonese, to English (in my head because that's the language I think in), and then into Mandarin. Except I forget how to say "address" in Cantonese, that's where I start pointing to a building with the address on it... The guy eventually goes to grab someone who actually speaks Cantonese fluently. When he came back with help I had to leave to meet my friend so I'm not sure if the old lady ever found her way home...

But it is so weird. I was in Toronto to prepare myself to go to China - I didn't think I'd actually be using Mandarin in Toronto... or use the rule that only 7% of the language is verbal. What is even more funny is I think I was going through culture shock in Toronto - that city has huge buildings and there are people EVERYWHERE!

That was my weekend - our flight home was delayed, I slept the whole way "home" - I actually went straight to school from the airport. Funny thing was I brushed my teeth and showered at school. The showering was interesting because I was getting a towel but did not want to pay so I ended up air-drying slash using paper towels - random. I eventually got home to take a nap at 4pm only to wake up and discover it was 10pm. oops. I went back to bed at 2am and woke up at 7am for class - most broken sleep ever! And that brings me to today - writing on my blog so I do not fall into the nap trap again...