The Story Of The Rainbow Fish

Now that most of my midterms are over I don´t have to worry about upcoming exams but instead I can enjoy some of the things that are fun.

Last Friday the Hindu community at York celebrated Diwali. Diwali is known to be the festival of lights and stands for the victory of light over darkness or the good over the evil. Because YorkU is culturally very diverse there were several celebrations going on at once. Since we were really interested in this event we decided to join this get-together. Apparently, we were the only non-Hindu students that took part in this event. Nevertheless, the people welcomed us with open arms. First, we were given a little red bracelet and were told that this would protect us from the evil. Then we were seated on the left side of the room, whereas all the male students were sat on the right side of the room. I have to admit that I felt rather underdressed, because all the girls wore beautiful, festive, and colourful saris. The celebration began with speeches of some of the students talking about their favourite Diwali experiences and what Diwali meant for them. I guess Diwali is similar to Christmas in Christian communities. We then watched videos of Diwali celebrations around the world. I must say that I was rather impressed how much work, decoration and dedication this festival must take. In many countries the celebrations are very special to the people. The festival´s location is draped in colourful cloth, flowers and decorations, there are tons of food and of course millions of little lights. I am sure you can find some videos on youtube, it´s definitely worth watching! Then there was some praying and a priest was giving a speech. I am not a great fan of these spiritual speeches and I was definitely not entirely agreeing with what this guy had to say. Still, there was something he said that I found to be very true and wise. He said that Diwali was the festival of sharing and giving. No matter how much money you have, it will never make you rich. I thought this was such a nice message, a message that I will try to remember! After the festivities we thanked some of the hosts for having us and they told us that they really appreciated our interest and tried to convince us to stay for dinner. There was free Indian food for everyone. Although the food looked fabulous and delicious we had to leave since it was Sam´s birthday today.

Nearly all the internationals of our group went downtown for the night. Although the club we went to was rather crammy and the music not that good we had a great time. 50% of the people in the club were from our group, anyway. The only trouble was getting home. The TTC (Toronto Transit Commissiom) is total rubbish. On weekends there is always maintenance going on, therefore some underground stations are closed and you have to use shuttle buses. Also, the underground closes at a certain time at night. There are night buses running to YorkU but it takes literally hours to get back home. Our only option was to take an Uber home. Unfortunately, we could not get connected to the system so we ended up taking a taxi back home which was incredibly expensive. After all, it was Sam´s birthday and after splitting the cost it was not too bad. But still, getting back home after a night´s out is a nightmare!

It was rainy and miserable outside the next morning. I was not particularly bothered about the weather though as we had planned to go to the Aquarium anyway. Sam, Dan, Alexis, Nadiya, Carly and me met for lunch before catching the bus and underground heading towards Union station. In Mexico people celebrate the festival of the dead. Because there are a lot of Mexican people living in Toronto there was a big do going on at the harbor front. We decided to have a look what it was all about. The museum on the harbor front was decorated nicely with paper garlands and paper flowers. There were many stalls that offered traditional Mexican food, Mexican art and everywhere people sold china skulls which were hand-painted in the most vibrant colours. Traditional Mexican bands performed on the stage and a handful of people were dressed up in traditional clothes and wore colourful make-up. It was a really interesting event!

Next, we walked by the CN Tower to get to Ripley´s Aquarium. To be honest, I am usually not a great fan of zoos and circuses that keep animals locked up. Still, this was a very nice place to go especially in this kind of weather. It was amazing to watch all the different sized fish in enormous big aquariums. Of course, there were a few fun activities, too. I found out that according to my weight and the most recent rates for tuna I am worth just over $1000. Not too bad, right? Also, there was a water fountain with water as cold as arctic water. I carefully stuck a finger into the cold and it was freezing! I would not fancy going for a swim in that kind of water!

We walked past tanks that held small little fish, or creepy grey fish that lived in dark caves and there were even rainbow fish. A tunnel ran through one of the tanks. Massive sharks floated above and big turtles swam by. The most interesting aquarium held fluorescent jellyfish. It was amazing! The room was very dark but these jellyfish seemed to glow in the dark. They floated around gracefully, glowing in beautiful shades of pink and purple. I stood there for a while, watching these amazing creates in awe. You don´t get to see these animals that often! Another big attraction for visitors (and especially kids) was a fish tank that held stingrays of all sizes. I was really saddened when I found out that the stingrays´ poisonous sting had been removed in order for people to stroke them. After all, this was a tourist attraction and not an animal welfare center. Still, we had so much fun!

On our way back home, we stopped off at Spadina. Dan, who is really into comics wanted to go to this big secondhand bookshop. When he said secondhand bookshop I thought of a shop that was a little too small and which only sold classics and novels nobody ever read. I would not have expected that the shop Dan meant was actually a three-story building that sold all the books a normal bookshop would sell. Only, these books were secondhand, in an immaculate condition, and very cheap! I loved it…!

We were really hungry after this excessive book-hunt. Of course, there is nothing better than a real Canadian poutine. Poutine is basically gravy poured over some chips and melted cheese on top. There are several variations where you can get pulled-pork, bacon or Indian curry instead of gravy. This was a great day out!

Thinking about it, the story of the rainbow fish comes into my mind. There is one passage in the story that really reminded me of the things the priest said at Diwali: “The rainbow fish shared his scales left and right. And the more he gave away, the more delighted he became. When the water around him filled with glimmering scales, he at last felt at home among the other fish.” I love that quote because it is so true! The fact that I shared a lovely afternoon with this bunch of kind and funny people makes me feel really delighted and at home. Just like the rainbow fish.