Day 11: Project Critiques and Exploring Queen Street
This morning, despite the usual 7:15 AM alarm clock, I woke up with an extra pep in my step: today would be an excellent day to get to explore some unfamiliar parts of the city. Today was the last major day to work on our Augmented Realities project, to create an AR-based prototype that could benefit the community. Working with Convenience Stories, our assigned task was to create a project that would raise awareness to the importance of convenience and general stores to their local communities.
Before we could get to exploring, however, we went to the Northeastern Toronto campus to provide a check-in with our professors and describe how we would be spending our day. We displayed the map of about twenty-five convenience stores that we would be following down Queen Street, a major city street. We explained that we would take pictures of the stores, current ones and those that have shut down in recent years, and go into open stores to have conversations with store owners and customers.
In our four miles of walking down Queen Street, we had some great interactions with convenience stores: notably with the owner of Family Mart, who described to us her relationships with shoppers and neighbors of the community. However, exploring an unfamiliar part of the city, we couldn’t help taking some detours.
We walked through Graffiti Alley, a short path containing outstanding artwork by the graffiti artists of Toronto. We stopped for lunch at Skyline Restaurant, where we enjoyed delicious grilled cheese, peameal sandwiches, and french fries. We concluded our Queen Street route by stopping by the beach, where we skipped stones, shared laughs, and enjoyed the sights and sounds of the beautiful Lake Ontario. To end our authentic city journey, we took the streetcar back to Jarvis Street, which dropped us off only a few blocks from the dorms.
Tired after a long day of walking, the rest of the day consisted of relaxing, working a little more on the project, and eating delicious Thai food. Despite the amazing city Toronto is, it seems my exploring will have to be put on hold until at least tomorrow…
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