Hello again! Can you keep track of where I've been in the world this week? : )

As some of you may remember, I am interning for the IndyFringe theatre festival here this summer.  Last weekend, my coworker Justin and I went on a "work" trip to check out the Toronto Fringe and see how they run things up north.  We drove all the way there from Indiana... so we spent two days on the road and two days in Toronto! haha.  We did have some interesting stops, though, and it was definitely worth it because we totally fell in love with Toronto... I love Butler, but don't be suprised if I transfer to U of Toronto in my final semester and try to become a Canadian ; )

Our first stop was Frankenmuth, MI.  This is a German town in northern Michigan that has been developed into a tourist attraction involving chicken, polka and Christmas (and some kitschy Bavarian buildings.)  It takes me way back to my Michigan childhood - I have fond memories of going on vacation there at age four or five.  My return trip at 20 was slightly different, but of course, we indulged in some of the world famous chicken and ran around taking tourist photos.  It is also home to the World's Largest Christmas store.  They aren't lying; the place is so big, they give you a MAP when you walk in the door!!

The most entertaining part of the Christmas store was definitely the culturally horrendous "international ornament" section.  Most of the European countries were pretty well represented, but guess what my beloved study abroad country was symbolized by?

 Hmmm... must have missed the cowboys and jalapenos in my Spanish education! I guess Spain and "Mexico" are kind of the same thing... No, no they are not, Christmas store. 

After our Christmas in July adventures, we eventually did make it Canada, where we stayed in a backpacker's hostel in downtown Toronto.  It was just like studying abroad and bumming my way around Europe again! I loved it.

We started exploring right away - Toronto has SO many cool neighborhoods.  Here are just a few pictures:

The Old City Hall - beautiful!

The Distillery - historic industrial district now filled with art galleries, boutiques, cafes and a theatre.  Quite adorable.

 We also got to visit the University of Toronto.  I was a little jealous of their ivy/overall Hogwarts vibe.  The best part was accidentally stumbling across the Toronto Pi Phi house, though. Yes, they do have sororities in Canada.

Queen St. - lots of fun shops and, as you can see, interesting street performers! This man stacks rocks. 

Augusta Avenue in Kensington Market - aka my hippie haven.  SO MANY great restaurants; we could barely choose.  There were also lots of independent stores, public art, and environmentalist elements like green roofs, bicycles, and this statement about cars!

We saw even more cool neighborhoods - downtown on Yonge St., Chinatown, Little Italy and the Fringe home base on Bloor St. - and that was only in two days! It was such a blast riding the street cars around and just exploring.  Toronto definitely had a very liveable, cultural, European feel to it and it is one of the most diverse cities in the world.  Also, all the Canadians were out-of-control nice to us! What fabulous people.  I need to live there someday.

So, you may have noticed that I went to Toronto for the Fringe festival, and yet I have no pictures of that. The reason is because when we were at the festival, we were SO busy! Since we were visiting from another Fringe festival, we got VIP passes so we could see any show we wanted to for free!!! AMAZING.  We had to take full advantage of that.

If you are not familiar with the concept of "Fringe," it is a term for a theatre festival that allows total artistic freedom.  The participating groups are chosen by lottery or first-come first and can do whatever they want.  The festival takes care of securing venues, promoting the festival, etc. but the performers keep ALL the money they make, so it is very supportive of independent artists.  It's also low cost at only $10 per ticket.  Because it gives support to smaller companies and younger artists, Fringe festivals tend to attract new works and performers, so we definitely didn't see the same ole thing you could find at any theatre!

We saw six plays in two days!

- Killing Kevin Spacey (two-man comedic play about a man who realizes his life is a mixture of Kevin Spacey characters)

- Quarterlife: The Musical (... a musical.  About quarterlife crises in NYC. Except that the actors were Canadian.  We called them out on their accents!)

- It's Just a Phase (musical comedy about lesbians)

- Dancing in my UnBirthday Suit (dance/physical comedy)

- Head First (aerial dance set to indie rock by an all female troupe!)

- Politically Correct Bedtime Tales (fairy tales sarcastically reworked to invoke PC values - so funny)

All very interesting and entertaining shows!

 Hanging out around the festival was such a blast.  The Toronto Fringe staff were ridiculously nice.  They made us feel like part of the family and gave us great ideas! We also had an awesome time chilling at their headquarters and meeting cool people.  We spent like three hours talking with the producer of Quarterlife and met some of the actors from various shows. I think that is an experience that not every theatre festival can provide!

Overall, it was such a great trip.  We ran all over Toronto, made some great new friends (including our waiter at an Indian Tapas place.  We're bffs.), fell in love with Canada, laughed until we cried, and got mildly interrogated/had our car searched at the border before we could re-enter the United States... apparently wearing matching t-shirts from our edgy festival made us supicious!  Okay, that part wasn't great, but it was funny, and definitely worth it in the end.

There used to be a billboard at the US/Canada border that always cracked me up which refered to Canada as "The World Next Door."  Toronto, at the very least, is a world of its own, and one I couldn't love more.  I can't wait to go back to visit again... and i especially can't wait for us to have our Fringe festival here in Indy!