Friday, December 2, 2022- Toronto

 

      Only a few weeks ago, Julie learned that the Ontario Council for Exceptional Children was going to be holding a conference in Toronto.  She has been to other conferences like this, and has come away with renewed excitement and lots of new ideas.  No one from Julie’s school district had gone to an in-person conference like this since before COVID.   She asked the district to cover the cost of registration and they agreed.  Since we were going to be paying for the hotel ourselves, Scott decided it would be fun to take a personal day and tag along.

     After school on Thursday, we picked up Abby from Julie’s folks and took her to Scott’s parents, where she was going to spend two nights. Abby is always “so excited” to she either set of grandparents, and she loved the idea of seeing both sets in one day.  We dropped her off and turned north in order to spend the night in Oakville, Ontario.  Julie really wanted to be at the Marriott in Toronto when the conference opened for registration at 7:30 AM, and doing all of this the night before meant that we could be close to Toronto without having to pay for two expensive nights at the downtown Toronto prices.

     In the morning, the traffic from Oakville into Toronto was not bad.  Even thought it was a Friday and a weekday, it seemed that we beat rush hour coming in to the city.   We parked in the public parking under Younge-Dundas Square, right next to the Eaton Centre and a short walk from both the Marriott, where the conference is, and the Pantages Hotel, where we are staying tonight.  We walked to the conference and got Julie registered, and the Scott went his own way.

     Julie was very excited to be back at a conference like this one.  She was especially looking forward to the vendors tables and was a little disappointed that the conference was much smaller than similar ones she has been to, and there weren't as many exhibitors there.  Still, she had a full day of presentations to see.

     As we predicted, she was one of the few Americans there, and maybe the only one.  She found it interesting to see the cultural differences between the American and the Canadian schools.  She learned, for example, that the phrase "the Boards" in Canadian lingo is the equivalent of saying "school districts."  There is a provincial Ministry of Education, instead of a state Department of Education, and so on.  Perhaps most noticeable, she was struck by the land acknowledgements that started each of the sessions.  They began each one by stating that they are on land that was originally held by the First Nation peoples (whom Americans usually refer to as "Native Americans").  These acknowledgements have become a common practice at Canadian gatherings and Scott has heard them at many of his 1812 events, but it was the first time Julie has really heard them.   She did talk to a lot of other educators as the day went on, including Canadians from as far away as Newfoundland and Labrador.  (She talked to them about Great Big Sea, and they had worked with the singer Sean McCann, who had worked with their schools on programs about his struggle with alcoholism and addiction.) 

     Overall, Julie said that the conference had more professors presenting then others that she has been at, and the presentations tended to be more theoretical as a result.  She prefers hearing from teachers themselves with more practical tips for what she can do in the classroom.  Still, she left the first day feeling excited about a couple of new things.  She liked a new technology of a pen that can help read a test for students, and she is looking into the possibility of getting a few for her school.  Also, she was excited about the idea of partnering with a hospital or a health care facility in our area because they offer so many types of jobs that her transition students could do, from janitorial to food service.

     Meanwhile, Scott was on a long walk.  He went first to Nathan Phillips Square in front of City Hall to get a picture.  He then headed north and got other pictures by the William Lyon McKenzie monument outside of the Ontario provincial capital.  He walked at least 2 km (i.e.,over a mile) and arrived at the Royal Ontario Museum about an hour before it was open to the public, so he had a second breakfast at the McDonald's across the street and passed the time there until he could go in.

      Scott was a little surprised to see that the Native American gallery had been put "on pause."  The sign explained that the ROM was working to find ways to include more of the First Nation's voices in their exhibits there.  Later in the day, he would get the indigenous perspective from an exhibit designed by Cree artist Kent Monkman.  His bright paintings told the dark story of the First Nation's experiences through with a mythological perspective.  It was told through his alter-ego, a supernatural character named "Miss Chief Eagle Testicle" (which is apparently a play on the words "mischief" and "egotistical.")  He showed the mîmîkwîsiwak (or the Little People) weeping over the mistreatment of indigenous children at boarding schools and the ways that Native culture is being brought back after years of being destroyed. Scott did not know what to expect from this artist going in, but the exhibit was both surprisingly engaging and thought provoking.

     Of course, while at the ROM, Scott revisited many of the things he had seen before. He lingered at several of the galleries we had visited before, including the dinosaurs and the Ancient Greeks. The last exhibit he went to was one he paid extra for-- "Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature." It is based on the Harry Potter prequels, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It is told through the words of the movie's main character, Newt Scamander, and includes many of the props from the three movies, including Newt's costume and his magical trunk. The exhibit begins with Scamander's note that many of the magical creatures of the Wizarding World seem to have been known to the Muggle world during the Middle Ages, including dragons, unicorns and mermaids. This section includes a dragon "skull" and a real-life dinosaur that was named after Hogwarts, the egg from the Triwizard Tournament and possible real-life inspirations for the mermaid myths, wands that had "unicorn hair" as their core, and a real-life book of natural history from the 17th century that includes pictures of various types of unicorns. After that part of the gallery, the fantastic beasts of the movies are compared to real-life animals. After seeing an interactive video of a "niffler" in his lair and trying to coax him out with shiny things, a visitor is then shown real animals like penguins that are known to collect things as well. The invisibility power of a "demiguise" is compared to the real-life camouflage of animals like chameleons, octopi and butterflies that look like dead leaves. Projections of the stick-like "bowtruckles" defend their tree from visitors the way that ants work to protect trees from intruders as well. The exhibit ends with a serious note about conservation. Newt Scamander had worked to protect the last breeding pair of "graphorns" and several real-life species that are extremely endangered are discussed. Even dangerous beasts need protection. After this exhibit, Scott went quickly through the Chinese exhibits where the quilin and dragons of the Ming tombs seemed to be a natural extension of the Fantastic Beasts story.

     After three and a half hours at the ROM, Scott had his fill and he started the long walk back to find Julie. He got to the Eaton Centre and had a late lunch of McDonald's poutine. You know you're in Canada when McDonald's serves poutine. Then he went to wait in the lobby of the Marriott for Julie. When Julie arrived, they went to the Pantages Hotel and checked in. It appears that our room can be booked as part of a suite because there is a long hallway in the room that wraps around a second room before you get to the part where our bed and a kitchenette are. Our room is on the 17th floor and is a corner with large windows that extend almost from floor to ceiling on two of the walls. One view looks out over the Eaton Centre.

    About two weeks ago when we booked our room at the Pantages Hotel, Julie noted that the Pantages Theatre was where Phantom of the Opera had played for so long.  We wondered if anything interesting was playing there now.  We learned that the theater is now known as the Ed Mirvish Theatre, and we were excited to see that it was featuring Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  This is a sequel to the Harry Potter movies and was written specifically as a play.   It follows the next generation of children at the Hogwarts school, including Harry's son Albus and Draco's son, Scorpius.  The script was released as a book, and we had both read it, but it was so long ago that we had both forgotten most of it.  We were excited to see the play live, and since it was right next door to our hotel, we couldn't imagine not trying to go to it while we were in town.  We ended up getting "rush seats" which are sold the day before at a much discounted cost.

     Scott and Julie were both pretty exhausted before the play even began, so making it through the 3 hour and 40 minutes of the production was a little bit of an ordeal.   Our seats were quite small and impossible to sit comfortably in, especially for that extended amount of time, but Scott was expecting that and says that's why he's not much of a fan of live theater.  We sat in the mezzanine section so we were a ways back from the performers, and we both complained that it was a little hard to understand what they were saying, especially when they raised their voices about something.

     That being said, we were glad that we went to the show.  Many of the special effects were quite remarkable.  When a trio of students drink "polyjuice portion" to turn into Harry, Ron and Hermione, the actors change right before your eyes, convincingly both disappearing from and reappearing out of the robes they are wearing.  At one point "dementors" fly around the theater and right over the audience.  The wizards often shoot each other with their wands and real fire shoots across the stage.  We're really not sure how that was done safely.  In fact, the fire came in three different colors- reddish orange for most, green for the "unforgivable curses" and even blue for a patronus.  There were a few effects that were pretty lame, though.  The sorting hat, for example, was just a guy in a brown suit.  It seems like they could have done a little more with that.  Still it was quite a stunning performance visually.

     In some ways, the story of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has a lot in common with Avengers: End Game.  Both stories involve time travel as a key part of their plot, and both assume that a viewer has seen all of the stories that have come before.  You wouldn't want this play to be your first exposure to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter because there are so many references and key points that come from the previous stories and movies.  The actors do a pretty good job of representing the movie versions of characters that we recognize, or makes reasonable guesses about what they might look like years later.  Julie had forgotten that the play uses a black actress for Hermione Granger, though.  Since so much effort was made to look and sound like the other movie characters, making her black does stand out as an odd choice.  Scorpius was the biggest addition to the cast of characters and was the most memorable one.

     We ended up leaving the theater with a bottle of butterbeer, and went next door to our hotel, exhausted after such a long day, but happy that we had done it.

Post script:

     On Saturday morning we woke up and went downstairs to Fran's, the cafe next door where we had dinner last night.  We enjoyed a breakfast together there, and then went our separate ways again.  Julie went to the conference, which goes from 8:30 until noon today.  Scott went back up in the hotel room.  He finished the blog for yesterday while looking out the windows at the Eaton Centre.  When he was done, he took our stuff to the car, and went back to the Eaton Centre to stroll around a bit more.

     When he passed the Starbucks in the Eaton Centre, Scott knew what to get Julie, even though he stood in line a while for it.  After he got the pineapple refresher (Trenta, with lemonade, light ice, no pieces), he first walked the length of the Eaton Centre with it, and then crossed to the Marriott to try to find Julie.  When he couldn't find her there, he decided to go to the fall-back position and meet her at the car.  When he was within site of the car in the parking ramp under Younge-Dundas Square and was within sight of the car, he stepped off of a curb that he apparently didn't see and tumbled forward.  He sprained his left wrist pretty badly and ended up stinking of pineapple refresher which ended up all over him.  A few kind people stopped to help him back up to get to his feet.  He only had a few more steps to go to get to the car.  He was embarrassed, in a great deal of pain, and now felt like he might throw up from it all.  When Julie showed up, we headed towards home.  Anna picked up Abby for us from Springville while we took Scott to get x-rayed.   Luckily, it was only a sprain.