Armenian Heritage Night – Air Canada Centre – An Unforgettable Evening

On Sunday February 23rd, 2014, Almost 1000 Armenians embarked to The Air Canada Centre in Downtown Toronto for an unforgettable and memorable evening to celebrate Armenian Heritage. This was the 2nd Annual event. The doors opened to Air Canada Centre at 5pm, and everyone started going in. At 5:30Pm The Holy Trinity Armenian Church’s, Sassoun Dance Ensemble performed at Centre court of a traditional Armenian Dance for thousands of people who were non-Armenian and for Armenians. A few minutes before the Game started between Toronto Raptors and Orlando Magic, A lady came and sang the National Anthems for both USA and Canada. The tip off and game started at 6pm and went well into almost 9pm.

The Armenian Students Association, Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Toronto, Sassoun Dance Ensemble, ARS, and other Armenian Organizations came together to plan this incredible night.  Thank you to everyone who assisted in the planning, and organizing with The Air Canada Centre so that we too Can have a Heritage Night. I was counting the days and hours until I went to the game and to the Armenian Night. It was something I had wanted to go to Last year, but was unable to. I was lucky enough to attend this year.

It was an incredible, memorable night that brought Armenians closer together to a huge Venue to enjoy the Basketball Game, to enjoy seeing Armenian Heritage on the bulletins and the Jumbo Tron at the ACC. The energy of the arena and people were felt, the crowd cheered on, everyone was having a great time, and really enjoyed the whole game from beginning to the end. The Raptors were not doing too well in the beginning, but then stepped up to the game after half time. The 4th Quarter got really exciting. It felt great to see Armenian everywhere, Armenian Flags waving in the audience, Hearing Armenians talking in our Language everywhere. It was pretty cool.

The Toronto Raptors won that night 105-90. If the Raptors Score more than 100 points in a game and win, the crowd at the ACC Gets a Free Pizza slice at Pizza Pizza across Toronto and the GTA locations. For those who printed tickets, had to get their tickets stamped by the officials at ACC, but original tickets did not need to. At the end of the night not only did we celebrate the Raptors win, we got a free pizza, and we Armenians had a blast. I cannot wait until I go to next years Armenian Heritage Night. Thank you Air Canada Centre.

 

Grocery Shopping – A Cool Story

The other day, I had gone Grocery Shopping in the meat produce section of the store and all of a sudden I was just talking to myself on cooking and finding new ways to cook chicken with different spices and herbs and sauces, and all of a sudden there were about 3 or 4 people who are women around me wondering what I was saying and they heard me talk to myself, then they started asking me questions, what do you do to cook chicken? What spices do you use? I said I use different spices and mix them together, then make my own sauce with the ingredients I buy. I said I usually cook chicken with a sweet and sour twist to it, and I make sure that I bathe my chicken in a lot of sauce, marinate it and all that. They said oh wow, that is great. They told me you must be an expert cook and you must do all the cooking in the house. I said, yes I do. I love to cook for my family and I enjoy creating new types of recipes and experimenting with flavours, spices, sauces, herbs, and more. We became instant friends and we took each others contact information and now we are in touch and share with each other our recipes, and soon we will be getting together for coffee to discuss our food preparations and more.

It is so amazing how people cross your path and especially from a grocery store, so Thank goodness I was talking to myself. I thought it was strange talking to myself while grocery shopping, but it was really cool to get my thoughts rolling and enjoying my time shopping. I love grocery shopping and I always look at prices and sales from the flyer.  They are very nice ladies and 2 of them were together shopping, the other one was just alone shopping, and we ended up having a 15-20 minute conversation by the meats about food, and everything. They love watching the food channel and they are avid cookers and love baking too. I am so happy to have found them as we share the same interests. You meet people where you least expect it, and its an ideal place to meet in a grocery store. A lot of people have asked me questions at the grocery store, but this one struck out the most. I wasn’t going to go shopping that day, but then I ended up doing so anyway, so I was glad I did.

So excited to get together with them. probably this coming week. lets see. Has it ever happened to you where you meet people in a grocery store or where you least expect it? Did you make friends with them? Do you enjoy meeting new people all the time? I was really happy with meeting them.