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This sometimes weighs on my mind. By the time my father was my age, he had already escaped life in the old East Bloc, and tried his luck in three countries on two continents before arriving in Canada. In contrast, your description of the TTC bus from home to classroom describes my 20's experience as I frankly didn't have the resources to consider school outside of Toronto.

Toronto is home to me and I am well-traveled, but I do wonder if I should make good use of my EU passport for a few years. It's difficult to balance those yearnings with my desire to establish myself career-wise.
My second passport is not longer EU, sigh. But I plan to do extended stays in the English countryside once I retire, I’m 49 so I suppose that may 15 years or so.
 
The only other entitlement I have in the world is the Hong Kong permanent residency acquired via my dad. But that's an even more expensive place to live. So guess I'm stuck here lol.
 
Plus the weather is rather miserable to boot.

Being born and raised in Ontario, I can't imagine living anywhere that doesn't have distinct seasons. I never was a winter sports person (outside of hockey) but felt the season refreshing; although, admittedly, as I get older it is less enjoyable. I never felt winter in Toronto was 'fun'. Even in years gone by when it regularly received more snow, it all eventually turns into what our daughter calls 'snirt'.

A few years back a retired friend moved to the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia. He uses his snowblower an average of twice a year. I would move their in a heartbeat if it wasn't so far from The Kid and possibly future grandkid or two.
 
The only other entitlement I have in the world is the Hong Kong permanent residency acquired via my dad. But that's an even more expensive place to live. So guess I'm stuck here lol.

Be careful if you visit - Chinese law does not recognize dual citizenship - if you haven't renounced it, you are considered a Chinese citizen.

AoD
 
Being born and raised in Ontario, I can't imagine living anywhere that doesn't have distinct seasons. I never was a winter sports person (outside of hockey) but felt the season refreshing; although, admittedly, as I get older it is less enjoyable. I never felt winter in Toronto was 'fun'. Even in years gone by when it regularly received more snow, it all eventually turns into what our daughter calls 'snirt'.
Do we really have 4 seasons here though? This year it felt like winter until late April with some frosts still in May, then a rapid change to summer.

In northern and central Europe, March means Spring, flowers and tree buds with +12 C temperatures.
 
Do we really have 4 seasons here though? This year it felt like winter until late April with some frosts still in May, then a rapid change to summer.

In northern and central Europe, March means Spring, flowers and tree buds with +12 C temperatures.

Precisely - you get a far better distribution of the 4 seasons in Europe than here.
 
Do we really have 4 seasons here though? This year it felt like winter until late April with some frosts still in May, then a rapid change to summer.

In northern and central Europe, March means Spring, flowers and tree buds with +12 C temperatures.

I can't compare to Europe but I think a lot depends on the location, as well as the particular year. Spring and autumn are transitional seasons in terms of weather patterns, so you can get temperatures in the high teens/low 20s with still a foot of snow on the ground. To me, its starts to feel like autumn in late August, even if the daytime temps are still high; shorter days cooler nights (no bugs!). I've taken bike trips in September where it was glorious mid-20s one day and wake up to wet snow and +3 the next.

Patterns are changing, no doubt, and I think Toronto's 'heat island' effect can impact that. As a kid, I recall enough snow to build forts and the question of a 'white Christmas' never came up.
 
This thread has certainly wandered!

On the above.........we have had shorter transitions than usual, particularly in the GTA the last 2-3 years.

That, I think, is anomalous.

The urban heat island effect does affect Toronto weather such that we get warmer sooner than many other places in Ontario.

It isn't a dramatic difference in day time temps, when one compares to areas say 1/2 way to Barrie. Maybe 1-2.5 degrees C

But there is a more marked difference in night-time temps as dark pavement radiates heat at night, as do many building materials.

The difference at night is up to 4 degrees C.

That matters not just at night, but in the early morning temperatures as well.

You also get some other incidental effects which change your perception of season length.

For instance, trees will change colours more readily when day and nightime temperatures diverge more.

So when nighttime temps stay high later into the season, you tend to get late fall colours. Because the leaf is only sustained overall by daylight levels, the period of colour change is shorter with the warmth created by the Urban Heat Island, as the leaf's die-off date is largely unchanged.

This reinforces a perception of a shorter fall season.

At the same time, it makes for a hotter, less bearable summer at peak; with lesser but tangible effect of a warmer winter, also muting the perception of seasonal-shift.

In Europe there is wide variably in seasonal perception from North to South.

Like here, there is also a variation between larger cities vs smaller towns surrounded by farms or wild areas.

Southern Italy doesn't get much of a winter; while Norway's summers are rather short.
 
Don't forget that thanks to the urban heat island, downtown Toronto has a different Köppen classification than suburban Toronto.
 
Damn youth living with their parents.

There's this girl I rather fancy and we get along rather well but I'm hesitant because she's 30 and lives with her parents still and is a server. The lack of ambition is off-putting. Servers are fine people but I mean like...is that it?

On the flip side.....I'd never have to go visit as she'd always be here. 😆
 
Damn youth living with their parents.

There's this girl I rather fancy and we get along rather well but I'm hesitant because she's 30 and lives with her parents still and is a server. The lack of ambition is off-putting. Servers are fine people but I mean like...is that it?

On the flip side.....I'd never have to go visit as she'd always be here. 😆

Is she saving for something at least?
 
Is she saving for something at least?

I hope so. I'm in the same boat. I work as a concierge while I work to save money to buy a house.

Real estate is expensive in Toronto and I know people who make good money that still need roommates.
 
My mom dad and I live in a 3500 sq foot house.

Dad and brother bought it in 1999 for 250k.

Was 11 of us in the house so buying that big made sense then.
Brother and his family moved out.
Grandparents passed.
Sister is married off.

So I was thinking of just living with my parents after marriage as the both of us cant afford even a small house.
😅
 
It's likely been mentioned here before but multi-generational living has a large cultural component, but I imagine the GTA economics have caused others to adopt it where they otherwise would not have. I simply couldn't imagine it, but the careers of both myself and brother took us physically away. It might be one thing to have separate contained living spaces under one roof; having multiple family units milling about in the same space I imagine must take a lot of compromise and ground rules.

After the crapshow in LTC facilities during COVID, we may see greater emphasis on elders staying with their kids longer.
 

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