My Suitemates

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Koji is from Japan, majors in computer science, and is 25 years old.

Donald is from California, majors in the classics, is 27 years old, and will be leaving our suite by next week.

Mustafa, my roommate, is from Michigan, majors in Near and Middle Eastern civilizations, and is 27 years old.

Except for Donald, all of us are first-year PhD students at the University of Toronto, and new Graduate House residents.

Paraisong Parisukat (Square Paradise)

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It isn't quite square or paradise, but it might as well be =)

Graduate House (GH) is where I live. I cross the street to work out and swim at the Athletic Centre (AC). Robarts Library, where I've been spending a lot of time, is the main library. The Faculty of Information Studies (FIS) is where I'm doing my PhD.

None of the buildings are particularly attractive. In fact, despite winning architectural awards, GH and Robarts have been nominated as the ugliest buildings in Toronto. And while I agree that they are pretty ugly, it must be said that I'll be spending more time inside the buildings. My roommate Mustafa says that our room reminds him of a jail cell... but it's a very comfortable one =)

So it's probably appropriate that Paraisong Parisukat was, in fact, a movie about a woman who worked in a shoe store. It wasn't quite paradise, but it was comfortable...

Graduate House Photos

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The photos above were taken at my new mailing address:

Graduate House 408C1
60 Harbord Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 3L1

I share the 3-bedroom suite with three other people, one of whom is my roommate. All of us are PhD students, but in different fields.

Tita Gee gave me the bigas, asin at poon (literally, rice, salt and god) because it's supposed to be a Filipino custom... one that she found out about when she got to Canada. Bringing these items first into a new residence is supposed to be good luck.

The living room is rather sparse. The only veteran tenant said that hardly anybody uses it. But the sofa seems rather comfy, so I'll probably do some reading there.

The kitchen seems to be quite complete with oven, microwave, and refrigerator. Tita Gee gave me a rice cooker and grill, but I still need to get my own plates and utensils. I suppose I could borrow from the others, but I think I'd like to wash my own stuff and know that what I'm using is really clean... if you know what I mean =)

There are two bathrooms, but my roommate and I are using the one without the bathtub. I don't think I'm going to have a problem with him because one of the first things he did was wash the shower curtain. And we cleaned out the stuff left by the previous occupants together.

The place reminds me of a hotel, especially the keycards for the doors, but there are some unpainted walls. Architectural license, I'm told. Whatever =)

The sheets in my room were provided by Tita Ying, who also gave me some towels, toiletries and laundry detergent. I've agreed to share the shelves in the cabinet with my roommate. He's much taller, so I'll take the three shelves at the bottom.

The "GH goodies" on the bed were in the bag I found in my room: Lipton chicken noodle, Lubegel, Trusted condoms, Mentos, Cadbury, Student Services ballpen and Old Spice Red Zone. Guess what I'm going to open first? =)

Graduate House

Tita Gee and Tito Bill helped me move in today. Pictures will follow.

In the meantime, check out the website of Graduate House.

This is my first post from my home for at least the next eight months.