Road Signs

This Christmas, my husband gave me one of the best GPSes as my Christmas gift. He knew I needed a good GPS so badly.

I lived in Munich for over 10 years. On each road, street, avenue, pathway and etc, you can see the large and eye-catching signs in German easily, which tell you what street you are on and in what direction. The signs are always big enough, so that you can clearly see the words on the sign from at least 20 metres away. Of course, near-sighted people don’t count. The signs are double sided. You can see the street name and street direction on both sides. The words are painted with special materials, so even in the darkest of nights the words on the signs are visible.

When I had a trip in Toronto one year ago, I realized Torontonians seemed to build the road signs not for direction but for fun. They seemed to try to hide road signs to test the strangers’ sight and patience. On the first day in Toronto, looking for the road signs was more or less of a game for me. While my husband was driving, I tried to point out where the sign was. Later, aside from the small size of the road sign, I realized another annoying problem. The sign is single sided. At major intersections, the road sign is always facing the side of the street you are crossing but not on the other side. What’s the problem with this? Oh, my goodness, if you stop just in front of the street at the intersection at a red light, you cannot see any of the roadsigns. You can only see the back of the road signs. The only sign which is facing you is right above your head. You cannot see that from inside your car either.

With regard to Toronto road signs, I am speechless. While our municipal government never has enough money to update our signs, we can upgrade our GPS.

First Winter in Toronto

     Before I came to Toronto, I lived in Vienna. Actually, I loved Vienna. I liked to walk my Tano, my lovely Shiba Inu dog, in the forest in winter. It was sunny, warm and not windy at all. My boyfriend, now my husband, who lived in Toronto at that time, complained me about the freezing winter in Toronto on the phone all the time. In my mind, winter in Toronto was negative 20 something degrees, with a strong north wind blowing everything up in the air, one-metre deep snow piled up everywhere, people wearing clothes so thick that you could not see their faces, and cars crawling on slippery roads. I was afraid of staying in Toronto in winter. Last year, since I landing in Toronto at the end of October, I started to prepare for the winter;  I purchased winter boots, scarf, gloves, leather hat, and all kinds of thick clothes; watched the weather forecast twice everyday; and walked outside as much as I could to adapt my body to Toronto´s cold weather. November, December, January and the middle of February came and went. While I didn’t have a white Christmas, I didn’t encounter an extreme freezing day either, as my husband described. While I am not that scared of the cold anymore, I am a bit disappointed. I really want to see what it is like when the temperature is 20 degree below zero. My husband laughed at me and said, “Maybe you were a human furnace and you brought Vienna’s warm winter into Toronto. Don’t rush, nobody really knows Toronto´s weather. There could be a heavy snowfall even in April. Winter is not over yet.” Maybe he is right. I am not frightened by the Toronto winter. On the contrary, I am looking forward to a freezing winter in front of us. I want to experience it.