The first stop for Saturday was Seneca College, more precisely their York campus, where the Biotechnology school was having a nice open house day. Not only is this a great, safe way to explore institutions of higher learning, but you also get tours and tons of phat lewt! We went nigh-crazy with joy when we discovered that free highlighters, free LED-whistle-key-chain combos, and free blank CDs were ripe for the picking on tables in the lobby. Not only that, but after a bit of recon we discovered an empty teacher lounge where breakfast goodies were plentiful. Since we had skipped breakfast, we each picked up one Danish pastry - it was way past breakfast time anyway, no one would miss them! - and headed to the cafeteria to feast on the spoils of exploration.

Tux and I explored the place rather thoroughly on our own while Asher and WiZDoM went on a guided tour of the school. We found the exercise room, a few chemistry labs, tons of offices and classrooms, but on the whole not much of interest. Newer buildings are too clean and uncomplicated for fun... The school was actually flanked by two humongous, very tempting construction sites, though. Tux scouted one while I stayed back in order to test the power of our new CB radios. Apparently the place was deserted, but soon we met up with our partners in exploration and decided that we had enough, so we took a bus and headed for downtown. Here are a few pictures from Seneca College (#1 to #4).

It was then that we had our first taste of Toronto subways. Those are quite different from Montreal's in a few ways. First, they do travel above ground at various points, which is a welcome (if disorienting at first!) change. But what really sets the Toronto subway apart is its tunnels. Those are not clean-cut one-way only tunnels we are talking about. Peering out the subway's windows, you can often make out side tunnels, openings, ventilation shafts, and other nooks and crannies that are woefully tempting for the average explorer. We were so impressed we decided to bring back a handful of TTC subway tokens as souvenirs - and because we plan on going back!

The group got off at a station near the University of Toronto, which was the rallying point for the afternoon activities. Chinatown drew us in, and we eventually settled down at a small restaurant's terrace for a quick meal. But all-too quickly four o'clock snuck up on us, and we made our way to meet our destiny…