I love my clients!!!!

Smiles, tears, hugs, gifts, words of hope and inspiration-When one door closes another one does open, but this door is so difficult to close..thank you to the best clients ever for making my days brighter and my spirit lifted with hope=) My clients are my purpose-my reason for being. They make me so happy with their caring and thankful words.  1 year working with the "severely and persistently mentally ill" and I found human beings.  Human beings with potential.  Human beings with dreams, hopes, aspirations, and strengths.  Often this population and those that are vulnerable and oppressed are just labeled and their potential is underestimated.  I live and work to value these human beings, to advocate for them, and empower them to believe in theirselves.  The progress that has been made group to group and session to session with short term goals has been wonderful.  Having knowledge of a client's life and realistic goals week to week and being involved shows them that you care.  I feel thankful everyday to be living and breathing in my purpose.  From working with the elderly with Altzheimers, children and adolescents in East LA, special needs children and adults, to now working with the severely and persistently mentally ill-my mission continues always having hope and being persistent with a human being utilizing their full potential.  This is what life is all about: Dream, Inspire, Educate, hope, love, and pray!

 

 

 

Toronto

Saturday- We arrived to see a movie being filmed at the Royal Park Hotel-quite fabulous.
The door man was adorable-he had a British accent and kept smiling at me-one of those moments where two souls connect=)
We walked off in the rain, wind, and cold to our hosts house. We made it to his condo directly across from the cn tower. He went off to work while Brazil and I went off into the windy streets with our umbrellas turning in and out we still managed to laugh and take photos. We went to see a brass band at St. Lawrence Centre for the performing arts.  It was a brass band competition with different bands joining together in one place from all over North America. There is a Balkan style, British style, and New orleans style.  There was 28 people playing with instruments ranging from soprano cornet to the flugelhorn-bass trombone, and baritone.  Always beautiful to see people joining together in their passion and creating heart felt sounds. 
We met with the composer who taught us about the history and where they compete.  Smiling inside when standing in front of one who is so proud.

St Lawrence Market- 120 vendors with international cuisine, delicassies- the cheese, nuts, meats, fish, and amazing baked goods definitely caught my eye.  Such amazing history:
In 1803, Governor Peter Hunter issued a proclamation, following recommendations made as early as 1796, that all the land north of Front, west of Jarvis, south of King and east of Church street was to be designated officially as the "Market Block."
It used to be Toronto's city hall and now consists of the north farmers market, south market, St. Lawrence hall, and the market gallery.  The history of the building and area is on a timeline on the walls. It is incredible the changes from the Victorian era to now. 
The Market gallery
The original Council Chamber is the main display area where thematic exhibitions illustrating the cultural, commercial and social development of the city are presented using artifacts, photographs, architectural drawings and maps.
St. Lawrence Market is ranked one of the top 25 markets in the world and I definitely see why-the amazing variety of cheese, the fresh seafood and meats, the bakeries, and french little areas of the market.
It truly is a food paradise- Bon Appetit!
http://www.stlawrencemarket.com/

Brookfield Place

It is a landmark address deeply rooted in the commercial, cultural and social fabric of Toronto. Home to some of the world’s most prestigious financial and legal firms, and the corporate headquarters of many preeminent Canadian corporations, the 2.6 million square foot complex fosters business and commerce of global significance. Brookfield Place also stands as a prized example of Toronto’s cultural development and community spirit. Its public spaces have received international acclaim for their architectural excellence, including the award winning Allen Lambert Galleria, a favourite backdrop for some of North America’s most prominent exhibitions and special events. Visited by millions of people each year, Brookfield Place is also home to the Hockey Hall of Fame and some of Toronto’s most popular dining, shopping and lifestyle destinations.

I just loved the Marchee cafe section with cobblestone floor and adorable food stations with fresh vegetables, roasted chicken, seafood paella, fresh pastas, and salads. A little slice of Paris and adorable!

Art Gallery of ontario

http://www.ago.net/

David Blackwood prints of Newfoundland exhibit
The Inuit Modern Exhibit
Tbe Thompson collection
Henry Moore Sculptures
The Canadian art tour of the Great Seven-incredible landscape painters of the 1920s.
I deeply enjoyed the work of Lawren Harris
Check out the Great Seven here
http://www.groupofsevenart.com/

The architecture of Ago is beautiful. It is seven floors of heaven with a beautiful view of Toronto from the top. Stephanie Chow, a student from the Toronto school of music had a heartfelt piano performance- such incredible talent I felt the performance deeply seep into my spirit and it was wonderful. 
Royal ontario Museum

http://www.rom.on.ca/om.on.ca

Water: The exhibition

Water is essential to life. It connects all living things. It shapes our planet, but is unevenly distributed across it, leaving nearly a billion people without access to clean drinking water. In freshwater and oceanic environments, life is fragile but resilient; these ecosystems can thrive again with some help.

Journey around the world in this ground-breaking exhibition about the power, wonder, and scarcity of water. Essential learning for every Canadian, discover what you and your family can do to help conserve water and protect the future of our blue planet.

Fryderyk Chopin & the Romantic Piano

My favorite exhibit at RoM-it gave a real look into the childhood of Chopin and a timeline of his life.

Sitting Still: Faces of Childhood

An unsentimental look at sentimental portraits from the ROM's 19th century Canadian collection. Look closely at the individual portraits and sense the subtle play between child and artist, parent and child and sisters and brothers. World Culture Galleries
Natural History Galleries
Hands-on Galleries
Exhibition Spaces

Kensington Market

http://www.kensington-market.ca/

Cool vintage shops, graffiti that gives the neighborhood charm and embraces creativity, cute coffee shops, and healthfood stores, interesting people, the Dancing Divas store with amazing lamps, dresses, symbolic home furnishings, a hipster vibe, and great culture. 

Toronto Continued

Places I enjoyed:

The CN Tower

http://www.cntower.ca/


A view at the Skypod from what felt like the Top of the world. The world's tallest free standing structure.  The clouds were beautiful setting  over the city and we enjoyed a fun interactive ride and 3D surfing movie in in Tahiti-random, but topped off our visit quite well=)










The Drake Hotel

Yorkville Art galleries and Kings Street West and Queens Street

Entertainment District

Distillery District-not visited, but recommended

Second City Comedy- pretty funny show eh'!

Being able to travel around the nightlife with a great host made Toronto truly shine.
Thank you to our wonderful host Anis and his awesome friends- Randy and owen!

Spring Break Canada 2011

Two girls, a brazilian and a world citizen travel through Toronto, ottawa, and montreal.
Buses and buses, rain, snow, and sleet, umbrellas flipping inside and out, learning french, staying up late, gossiping about boys, drinking wine, dancing, walking through the beautiful city streets,museums, markets, photo sessions and new encounters with the french natives.  Traveling with backpacks place to place and couchsurfing isn't always easy, but the challenges or new experiences are what make it so entertaining and exciting.  Sometimes things may seem like they fell apart, but maybe they just fell into place. Fate and destiny is always in place and it especially was on this trip. Always learning from the experiences we have and instead of focusing on what went wrong- just surrender and find the beauty in what lies within. 

Toronto was ideal a great host, a city with great energy(reminded us a bit of nyc), great nightlife, cute markets, and the entertainment present(broadway, opera, comedy, classical music etc.) ottawa was a bit challenging, but it was entertaining. Pub Italia, yummy cheese and croissants at the market, and watching the hockey games.  Montreal watching the hockey play offs, admiring the city streets and parks, meeting wonderful french locals, great nightlife, and brunch with our Toronto buddies. 
Even though I believe every city is special in it's own way-my favorite city was Montreal-just adorable.

Let me break down the city sights and special parts in more detail=)

Something in the Air

Spring time is here in NYC and things are blossoming all around-especially love. Meeting so many men and connecting with a few great ones who don't live in NYC it is quite interesting...My romantic side wants to find love, but how far is one suppose to go for love? Are we suppose to go the distance literally or are we just fooling ourselves thinking that love exists when two fools rush on ones travels.  one can choose the path of love or can they? Does absence make the heart grow fonder or is it really just not knowing the reality of what lies ahead? There is still a mystery and a longing between two strangers and that makes things more intriguing.  It is distracting the whole idea of thinking of someone else and caring about their well being. of course it can be quite lovely, but how does one determine if it something real and worth investing. Like a nice brand new laptop or a new home-how does one figure out if men are worthe the investment?

You Got The Love (The XX Remix)

The Checks And Balances

Bringing Out The Best
Checks And Balances
The traits we notice in others, both good and bad, can be opportunities for us to understand ourselves more deeply.

Most of us have probably come across the universal wisdom that the people who irritate us the most are expressing qualities that we ourselves have. This is why family members can be so vexing for so many of us—we see ourselves in them, and vice versa. This isn’t always true, of course, but when it is, it’s a real opportunity for growth if we can acknowledge it, because it is infinitely easier to change ourselves than it is to try to change another person, which is never a good idea. For example, if we have a coworker who engages in some kind of negative behavior, like complaining or trying to control everything, we can look and see if we ourselves carry those traits.

We may have to look to other situations in our lives to see it, because we behave differently in different environments. Perhaps we don’t complain at work, because our coworker overdoes it, but maybe we do it with our friends. Maybe we aren’t controlling at the office, but we’re used to being in control at home, and this is why we feel so irritated not to be in control at work. Even if we look and find that we are not engaging in the same behavior that we see as negative in others, we can still learn from what we are seeing in this person. The truth is, human nature is universal, and we share many of the same tendencies. What we see in others can always help us to understand ourselves more deeply.

Having the ability to see something in another person, and automatically bring this observation back to ourselves, is like having a built-in system of checks and balances that enables us to be continually engaged in self-exploration and behavior change. When we see behavior we don’t like, we can make a concerted effort to weed it out of ourselves, and when we see behavior we do like, we can let it inspire us to engage in imitation. Through this process, we read our environment and let it influence us to bring out the best in ourselves.