U of T Time

I had time to kill in between Fringe shows today and played tourist beginning with a stop at the ROM to check out the visiting Ancient Peru Unearthed: Golden Treasures of a Lost Civilization exhibition and spent the 30 minutes I had left before picking up the ticket to my last show by wandering along Philosopher's Walk through the U of T campus.

I went to school in Waterloo where the campuses lack the history and character of the buildings here and there's a tiny part of me that wishes I'd stayed in town for school if only because of the U of T campus, which has stood in for many an American university in movie and television production filmed here.

The sundial above is on King's College Circle, and below is Trinity College, the Anglican college founded in 1851 that counts among its graduates writer Malcolm Gladwell, filmmaker Atom Egoyan, businessman Ted Rogers, former Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, and Canada's ambassador to Washington, Michael Wilson.

Below is Soldiers' Tower, built in 1923-4 and located at the western end of Hart House.

Carved in stone on the Memorial Screen are the ranks, names and units of the 624 members of the U of T who gave their lives while on active service in WWI, along with In Flanders Fields (below) the poem written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae in 1915 which continues to symbolize the sacrifices of those who fought in WWI.

The two walls of the archway record the service of the 557 men and women lost in WWII:

Below is Convocation Hall, which was built 100 years ago and plays host to the university's annual graduation ceremonies - hence the name.

And last but not least, Robartes Library, where I spent much of my non-working and sleeping hours for all of May and the first half of June in 2003 studying for my 2-day CMA Entrance Examination. I'd heard that it was designed to resemble a turkey but I could never see it until this evening, on my walk back to St. George subway station after my last show. I was waiting for the light to change so I could continue northward when I looked up and it just clicked: I've been blind to it all this time because I've always approached it from the wrong direction!

So tell me, d'you see the turkey too?