Allison's Adventures in the Big Apple: 2013

I went on my very first work trip to the Toronto a couple of weeks ago! It was great and I feel like it was very successful. My coworker and I went in order to train a couple of people in that office on what our processes are like. We made so many powerpoints!

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday afternoon we hopped on a plane. It was pretty small with only 2 seats on each side and it's less than a 2 hour flight. I did learn that when you check "traveling for business" on the customs form, they took us into a separate room and I had to explain what I was doing in Canada, what my business was, etc. The lady was actually pretty nice so it wasn't bad, but it was definitely a new experience! After getting to the hotel late, we just had dinner in the hotel lounge since nothing else was really open.

The hotel itself was also really nice. I had my own room with a king size bed. It was great!

The only weird thing was the art above the bed...

THURSDAY

After a quick complimentary continental breakfast at the hotel we walked over to the office. In hind sight, walking was a terrible idea. It was SO COLD. I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life. Needless to say, after that morning we took taxis instead of walking.

It was a lot of fun meeting everyone in the Toronto office and we were holed up in their conference room for most of the day doing these trainings. For lunch we went over to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) where they have a cafeteria that was quite good. (picture from their website because I forgot to take one)

Afterwards we went out with some coworkers to a couple of different bars. One of them was called Mill St Brewery which is a pretty famous brewery in the distillery district. It was fun and since my coworker had worked their previously, he knew all of the people there and we had amazing service :) There was also some cute Christmas shops open in the area that was neat to look at.

FRIDAY

Friday morning was a similar routine. Breakfast and then into the office for more training! For our mid-morning break we went to this chocolate store called SOMA that was delicious and had the best hot chocolate I think I've ever had.

We also went to a fun lunch where we had Dim Sum and it was delicious! We also took a break to take some fun pictures in the office.

After work I was in for a very fun and full evening. First stop, back at TIFF. We had heard it had a great gift shop so we stopped in. Then it turned out they were doing an exhibit on the director David Cronenberg. I didn't really know who he was, but it was a cool exhibit. I did learn that I never want to see any of his films (they are pretty gory), but he seems like he's one of those directors that has really pushed the envelope on films and has made a lot of leaps in his specific genre. One of his films is called Naked Lunch and apparently involves these strange aliens. They had one set up in the exhibit and you were able to take three pictures and then it would email them to you. So that was fun:

After that was a trip to the top of the CN tower. I had been to the top before, but it's been a long long time so it was fun to see again.

And if that wasn't enough, I was able to see a former coworker of mine who took us around the city.

SATURDAY

All too soon it was time to head home....in a crazy snow storm! Luckily we were able to get out at all, but the flight was delayed for about 2 and a half hours and then once we got to New York we had to circle over LaGuardia for an extra 40min or so while they cleared the runway. I did get to watch The Nanny on the flight which I enjoyed, but the weird thing is that even though it was all in English, the title cards were in French!