Canadiana Backpackers Blog

Actually it’s Sara Arroyo which I am told means “Little River” or some such. In her case it should mean “Beautiful Little River”.

Sara just left us to return to her native Dominican Republic. We really miss this lovely young lady. Sara is not merely physically beautiful, she’s a truly beautiful person. She’s the kind of guest that’s really a pleasure to host.

Sara has a maturity that belies her mere seventeen years. She always had a ready smile for all and malice towards none. And as a result, she was popular with all.

She’s returned home to study Architecture but needed to upgrade her English grammar skills before beginning her studies and that’s what brought her to Toronto. Her University is affiliated with a U.S. institution and some of her essays must be submitted in the English language.

We look forward to seeing some of the buildings that Sara will design in the future. We’ve got money to bet that, like just about everything concerning this young lady, they will be gorgeous!

We get a lot of good, interesting people coming through our hostel in Toronto. We’ve welcomed a whole cross-section of society through our doors, from Medical Doctors to a Maori Chief (seriously).

Allow us to introduce you to Masahito. He visited us from Japan and stayed with us for several months. He quickly became one of the most popular individuals in the hostel. He has a quick wit and a remarkable sense of humour. He has a most pleasant demeanor with a ready smile for all. (It’s a good thing too as he also holds a second degree black belt in Judo!)

Masahito, or Masa or Mas as he was variously known is, in a word, a genius. I realize that word is most often used too liberally; however, in his case, it really does apply.

Don’t believe me? Well try this on for size. Masahito went to the United States some twelve years ago speaking no English whatsoever! (If you exclude the basic “Hello”, “Goodbye”, “Thank You” and “I’m fine”). Armed only with a Japanese-English phrasebook it was a shaky start, you must agree.

Masahoto managed to earn a Master’s degree in History from the University of Colorado. History? is a discipline that (unlike Math or Science) requires a lot of difficult reading and analysis of debatable issues. It was a remarkable achievement.

Alright, perhaps “genius” is too strong a word. But just imagine going to Japan with virtually no knowledge of the spoken language and earning an advanced degree in History when all instruction and reading is in Japanese! Then you can decide for yourself.

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