| Europe - May 10th to 16th |
[27 May 2009|12:28pm] |
Ok, going to start with the updates again. It's hard to get the motivation to post or write when I don't have a ton of free time. I just want to lie down and watch tv with the spare time I have. My hand-journal is way behind too, so I'm just going to do one week of updates here and more will follow.
May 10th
Mmm, not bothering with a cut for this, I didn't do much at all today. Most things in France close on Sundays, so I just lounged around in res. Felt pretty darned homesick, watched tv, ate food, read. Not a good day. On a much happier note, classes start tomorrow, which will give me a much needed sense of structure.
( May 11th: First day of classes, caf, shopping )
( May 12th: Culture class, hotel de ville )
( May 13th: Happy Birthday Helen! )
( May 14th: French education system, Place Plume, nightclub )
( May 15th: la foire )
( May 16th: Chinon, chateau, wine tasting, Rabelais' house )
And that's all for now folks! Once I'm more caught up on my personal journal I'll get more entries up here.
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| Erf! |
[18 May 2009|12:20pm] |
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I know, I know, I'm way behind in updating. I've been super busy the last week, and will continue to be super busy until Wednesday, but you can probably expect a good long post on Friday or Saturday once I'm all caught up.
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| May 9th |
[09 May 2009|08:54am] |
I'm proud of myself, I went and socialized with people in the kitchen last night. I was a bit shocked to learn that not one of the 5 french students in the room spoke english. Here they don't learn it past grade 8 ish, for the most part. I know, it's pretty much exactly the way french is back in BC, but it's slightly more shocking since so many things are english. Better for us though, because we get to practice our french without them trying to practice english right back at us.
This morning we woke up early ish and headed out to the larger grocery store at 9. I got the most awesomest brie cheese ever. I got home and put it on fresh baguette and mmmm heaven. The shopping baskets here are very neat. They have the regular handle like we have, but then they also have a handle that comes up out of the basket and wheels so you can pull it around. Note to self to take a picture of that, because it's hard to describe. But anyway, wheeling is easier than carrying.
After that we went back to res, put away our stuff, and starting trying to figure out where to go for the long weekends. It's so much more expensive than I was expecting. We were thinking of doing Barcelona and Marseilles for the two long weekends, but the flights for those weekends jump up to $200 each way. We can, however, fly to London cheaply still, so maybe we'll do that. It's too bad about Barcelona, I was excited for that :(
Next we went downtown. One of the other girls bought a bunch of croissants and sweets to send back home to someone, but then when we got to the post office it turned out that the last delivery for the day was an hour ago, and they don't deliver on sunday. Since the sweets would have gone back in 2 or 3 days, we had to eat them all. I bought a macaron off her. I bit in to it and the only thing I could say was "wow". They're so good. I can't even really describe them, they're just... awesome. Sort of fluffy, with a creamy centre and crunchy edges. Man, I was hoping to lose wait on this trip, but between the fresh bread, millions of cheeses, tens of flavours of macrons I want to try, and who knows how many other undiscovered things... I don't think that's happening!
Next was an opera event. We were supposed to be going to the costume showing for the opera, but it was outside and it rained today, so we skipped that. They were doing final rehearsals though for an opera, and it was free all day. The opera was called "Mireille", it was in french. It wasn't bad, but it was a very slow and sad opera. Not a lot of movement or interaction between characters, just one person at a time singing a slow song in the middle of the stage. We couldn't understand a word they said, but we felt better when we asked the french people behind us if they understood it and they said no.
After that we came back to res, because we were all super sleepy, so here I am!
I was going to get all my pictures posted tonight, but then I got lazy. It takes soo long. But I hardly took any today, so when I come back down here later I'll do more catching up.
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| May 8th |
[08 May 2009|07:08am] |
Ok, I'm trying so bloody hard to find a way to get my pictures online, but it's so hard. I can't believe how awful the internet in the res is :( If I ever manage to get any pictures uploaded, I'll let you know.
It's weird walking down a street where all the buildings are from the middle ages, and the bottom floor is a shoe store or something. It's just so mind boggling to touch structures that are 400 or 500 years old and still look in great condition.
They don't have peanut butter here, gasp! It's all Nutella. Not that I'm complaining, I love nutella, it's just odd. The toilets flush funny too. You press one thing to make them start flushing, but you have to press another thing to make them stop or else they just keep going.
We went inside a chapel yesterday, it was gorgeous. All the stained glass windows have been preserved, and they're phenomenally intricate. The stone on the outside was also so detailed, all the way down to the ground level pillars. I have some pictures of it, can't wait to get them uploaded. Apparently there used to be sculptures of religious idols on the outside, but they were destroyed during the religious wars because people didn't want physical depictions of the divine ones. Also, it was so cold inside. Outside was 29 degrees, but inside I was shivering. No air conditioning, it was just that the 3 or 4 feet of solid stone kept out the heat.
I've been thinking that the restaurants here are quite expensive, but then I remembered that everything is included in the price you see, which is neat. It includes tax and the service charge (tip). So if you order something for 7 euro, that's exactly what you end up paying. That makes it slightly more appealing.
The computers here are stupid slow. The ones they have in res, the 5 of them for the entire res >.<, are 10 years old. They're yellow-grey, don't have USB, and have rollerball mice. I can plug in my laptop if I steal the ethernet cable, but even then I only get 60kb/s max.
So far everyone here has spoken french back to me, which is nice. When Kayleigh was in France (different city though) she said everyone just switched to English when they heard her accent. Some people here don't seem to speak any english. However, I think it's a great experience to be on the other side of the language barrier. For one thing, I don't think I'll ever try to say "hello" in the person's local language if they talk to me in Canada. I always thought that seemed nice, but now that I'm here and people hear we're from Canada and they say "oh, hello! *smile smile*" it's actually a bit weird and awkward. What's kind of cool though is the way our group seems to swap in between french and english, sometimes mid-sentence. Makes me feel special. Yep.
I'm getting over the homesickness a bit, and getting more excited for the things to come.
Oh! Looks like I've finally managed to get some pictures up. They're coming up slowly and I don't have time to put them all up right now, but here's the link to the main gallery http://gallery.marchlight.novylen.net/main.php?g2_itemId=519
I'll put more up whenever I have time. Too lazy to post them here.
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| May 7th |
[07 May 2009|10:13am] |
Everything went fine on my second flight. I even landed 10 minutes early, and my prof came and met me at the arrivals gate and brought me to the hotel.
Pictures will have to come later. My connection here is terrible and I don't have time to upload them
( Dorm room )
( university on strike )
( Tours Downtown )
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| Europe - May 5th |
[05 May 2009|04:31pm] |
Ok, so day one of my trip, not the biggest success.
My flight from Vancouver to Toronto was delayed 2 hours, which made me miss my connecting flight to Paris by mere minutes. Freak out session ensued, including me just missing the tram to my hotel due to incorrect signage and having to stand around for an extra 45 minutes, but it worked out ok in the end. Air Canada paid for a hotel room for me for the night and booked me on the next flight to Paris, 24 hours later. They also gave me 3 meal vouchers, so free food was eaten in the company of very comfy pillows and Angel (the tv series, no I didn't suddenly go religious). Not a bad night overall.
Oh oh, and the new Air Canada planes have televisions in the back of every seat with a selection of movies, tv, and music, which is pretty cool. Kept me entertained for the whole trip.
I'm in the airport now, my flight leaves in an hour and a half. Assuming everything goes well, I'll have met up with the rest of my field school group by 10:30 France time tomorrow morning, and will be on the train to Tours at 1pm.
No pictures to post yet, since I've just been in and around the airport. Hopefully will have something more exciting to say tomorrow.
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[27 Dec 2007|11:12pm] |
The divisors of the number 6086555670238378989670371734243169622657830773351885970528324860512791691264 add to produce a number whose divisors (excluding itself) add to itself.
And knowing is half the battle.
-- Brooklyn's bf.
edit: 12 has the same property.
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| Netblag |
[31 Oct 2007|09:46pm] |
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I'm not sure it would be possible to be happier with my life right now.
I'm doing the SIAT (school of interactive arts and technology) program at the Surrey SFU campus. It has been a lot of fun. I've finally found a program that I can get excited about. I love learning all the little rules about how to make things look even more organized and pretty. Honestly, it's surprising that it took me two years to find this program. Even when I was little, I had a passion for organizing and colour coding. When I was 5 ish, I threw my first and only temper tantrum because my mom told me it was time to go swimming and I wanted to stay and colour code my toys and clothes. And all my friends from high school can remember my obsession with bullets and clean, readable notes. This program is all about making things easy for people to read as well as esthetically pleasing. It makes me happy.
WoW is still going well. I don't play nearly as often as I used to. Maybe 6 hours a week. 5 classes makes it a little hard to have spare time. I'm a raid leader and an officer in our guild though. I have to admit that I'm very proud of how far we've come. Rob and I, and a few of our online friends started this guild, and it's grown quite nicely. It's a lot of fun organising 25 people and giving them instructions. One day, I want to just say "Ok everyone run south... Now run north... ok jump!!" just because it would be funny *nodnod*.
I've gotten back in touch with a few people who I missed. Of course, my schedule leaves barely any time for going out, but talking online is still fun. I'm also starting to make new friends at SFU. Being in small classes where you have to constantly work with other people, and where most of those people are in 2 or 3 classes with you, really helps with the social side of things.
Actually, the best part about the program I'm in, is that these profs are very open to criticism and being challenged, and that's what I like to do best. Already this semester I've gotten a few bonus marks because on quizzes I've written how stupid and outdated some of the theories we've been learning are, and in an email I pretty much told a prof he was being an idiot (though in slightly more diplomatic words). I like being able to express alternate opinions and vent without being reprimanded. Venting is what I do best, along with a strong distrust for anything I am told without sufficient proof to back it up.
And of course a large source of happiness in my life is Rob. I don't think I need to write much about him though; he knows how I feel :) But for those of you who are wondering: yes we're still together, no I'm not pregnant, and no we're not married -.- I'm 19, you silly people.
I've felt significantly more self confident in the last few days, as well. I was feeling very stressed last week, as well as a bit inadequate. I felt my courses weren't going very well and that I was under-performing compared to the other students. I got a bunch of marks back lately though, most of them surprisingly good, and I wrote a nice long angsty journal entry and sorted my confused brain out. I shut down when I don't have time to sit and think. Normally I do that on the skytrain or bus, but for the past few weeks, skytrain time has been last minute photoshop, flash, and textbook-reading time. If I don't have that half hour per day to hash things out, my brain gets full and I get sad. I don't think I'll take 5 courses again next semester, although I haven't quite decided yet. I have to get out of school before I'm 25 or I'll have to start paying tuition, and I still have to finish my minor in French and certificate in Italian, as well as my SIAT major.
Edit: funny thing about the "brain getting full" part, actually. I've recently forgotten how to get on to escalators... Yeah. About a month ago I started having trouble with it. I had to stop and think about putting my foot on at the right time, and a lot of the time I stepped half on the moving part and half on the regular ground, or with only half my foot on a particular step. It led to lots of near-falling accidents. After putting my brain back in order and getting those good marks back, I'm happy to report that I've had no issues with escalators in the last few days. So... who thinks I have cancer? *raises hand*
So yeah, it feels like my life finally has a direction. I'm with good people, getting a fun education, and for the first time in my life I can think of tons of jobs that I would love to do for the rest of my life.
I am a very lucky girl.
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| Le sigh |
[01 Sep 2007|01:44pm] |
I got glasses. Yep :( I'm nearsighted. They're already a pain in the butt and I've not even had them 24 hours. I know I'll get used to them eventually, but I'm not sure they'll ever stop being annoying.
I'm not sure I like seeing the world through glass. Nothing looks the same as it used to, as though I'm looking at a photo or one of those 3D pictures. All I want to do is take them off and see the world the way it really is, because having them on feels fake somehow. Things waver as I turn my head and the glass bends the light, and it feels like I have tunnel vision now, because I can't see beyond the edges of my glasses. Byebye peripheral vision.
I know I'm being a little over dramatic. It's not like my life is ending, and I know I'll be used to them within a month and probably won't even think about it, but everyone knows how I am about eyes. I liked being able to see. I've never been able to hear or smell things very well, and now this.
Oh well.
In other news, I'm going into an arts and technology program at SFU, for media and graphic design. I'm looking forward to it, but 5 courses is going to be tough. I hope I can manage. It'll mean traveling to Surrey a lot, since that's where most of my courses are, but the subject matter is worth it. There's nothing like this at the Burnaby campus.
Um um um, what else?
As for WoW, Rob and I, and some online friends of ours, broke off from our huge guild of stupid annoying people and made our own guild called Good With Ketchup a few months ago. It's been a lot of fun, and I've learned a TON from being an officer about dealing with people and problems, and how to speak up in a group. We steamrolled Kara, and have gotten Gruul down very reliably, but haven't been able to get the people together for SSC or TK enough to make progress there. We're having quite a bit of drama at the moment, and the possibility of losing 9 or 10 of our raiders is pretty upsetting.
If the guild blows up, I'll probably just stop playing. The idea of another expansion is pretty bleh, and the only fun part of the game now is raiding with friends. Without this guild, there's nothing really left for me.
Hm, I'm really bored. I can't wait for school to start up just so I won't be bored, but I know I'll be thinking the opposite once it actually starts :P
Oh oh oh, so apparently this program I'm going into at SFU has an Italy field study. I'm tres excited! I think it's in second or third year, I'm not sure. *can't wait*
Methinks that's all for now. You can tell it's been kind of a crappy week because I'm actually writing here :P WTS drama, WTB better vision.
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[13 Jul 2006|03:19pm] |
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***Warning: This is a WoW post***
Brad, Rob, and I were questing in Arathi Highlands when we saw a Horde character run by with his PvP flag on. We didn't really jump at the opportunity though until a few minutes later, when we realized we could have totally ganked him. So we turned on our PvP flags and kept questing. Not too long after, a couple Horde characters jumped us (they waited until we were done fighting the mob though, which was very nice of them). There was a priest, and I think the other one was a mage or a warloc or something, I don't remember. Anywho, we fought them for a little while, and eventually beat them down. Yay! My heart was racing like crazy, it's pretty scary/exciting. So then we're wandering around the road a bit and Rob gets ahead. He was only 28, whereas Brad and I were 36 and 37. So a 43 shadow priest spots Rob and thinks "easy target". Hell no! He gets Rob down to almost no health. Rob, being a paladin, bubbles and comes running back to Brad and I, where we proceed to gank the poor priest. He got a bit more than he bargained for there. But he just kept coming back! And every time it was him attacking first, so I feel no shame. A random hunter joined us too and helped take him down a couple times. I also got to use my combat rez once to keep our warrior in the battle :D Yay, warrior, paladin, and druid make a kick-ass team!
Oh right, after one of the battles, we decided to do the possy thing. So we all put ourselves on walk and the three of us strutted down the road past Stromguarde. We looked hard-core. That was actually where the hunter saw us and was like "I wish I was that cool". So he joined our party and we ruled Arathi Highlands. Until a ?? level rogue decided to gank and corpse camp us. Personally, I think it was the shadow priest logging on to a different character to get revenge.
Anywho, that's enough WoW talk for now.
***WoW post finished***
Our kittens are going in for shots and check up and such tomorrow. It needs to be done, but I'm not overly excited for the bill for that. Oh well, it couldn't be too bad, and having the kittens around is certainly worth the money. They're so sweet and obnoxiously cute. Except they're hardly kittens anymore. They're getting huge!
I want the next Zelda to come out.
Also, my courses are not working out for the fall semester >.> I can't seem to find a schedule that works. Oh well, I should at least be able to get something, even if it involves French, Italian, and a Linguistics course with no exam (brutally slack semester).
One of my coworkers, Davy, came back from Europe and brought Italy pictures. I had fun looking at them today. There some really funny ones in there of people on the beach. I want to go to Italy so bad! It looks so beautiful.
I'm rambling. I only have 30 minutes left of work. And I really have to pee.... yes I did need to advertise that over the internet, because I'm cool that way ^.^;
Ok time to go.
For anyone still reading this post.... you have no life :D
Who is more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows him?
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[07 Jul 2006|02:19pm] |
My computer had a near death experience today. I plugged in my iPod to try to find a song, and the second the USB connected, the screen went black. No lights. No sound. No happy little buzz or warm breeze from the fan. Nothing. I'm pretty sure my entire life flashed before my eyes in that moment. I proceeded to poke and prod and lean desperately on the power button. Still nothing. I'm dead! I'm ruined! What is life without a laptop to store it on? Frantic calls about my computer's life insurance ensued. Pleas for help from fellow technicians. Then suddenly, like a little beam of light descending from heaven, my battery light comes on. I could almost hear the angel chorus. I start to flip it open and hear the beautiful "I'm on" beep. Hurray!
Life can continue as normal.
Edit: I forgot to mention why my computer died ^.^' Turns out there was a staple right through the cable between mt iPod and laptop. Short circuit. Oops o.O;
I blame Apple
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| Smile |
[21 Jun 2006|11:42am] |
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My prof talking |
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Happy happy happy :D I love life.
Rob is amazing. We have so much fun. We're so similar in so many ways, and he understands me so well; I think we fit really well together. I haven't been this happy in.... well I don't know if I've ever been this happy :) 2 months on sunday.
Yay for random smiling!
I'm having a random craving to play Scrabble.
I have lyrics, just for Jay because she loves my lyrics posts! It's a really nice passage from a song from a musical.
Though it's next to nothing
Look how rich we are
Funny now how Eden doesn't seem so far
Come sit besides me in the dying light
What storms the morning brings, we'll weather all right
Your hand in my hand
And as we sit here, huddled in the gloom
Paradise seems strangely close
Close to home
P.S. I'm level 22. I'm rather miffed that the new patch makes Innervate a trainable spell for all druids at 40 :( Innervate is the big bang of being a resto druid, it's what makes us special. Now everyone is going to go feral and resto druids aren't going to be quite as desperately wanted in raids. How upsetting. Swiftmend blows. It's basically just Nature's Swiftness.
P.S.S.s.s.s I repeated a lot of words in this post o.O; Ugly english! Woot.
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[12 Jun 2006|01:34pm] |
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 insecure |
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I'm having kind of a bad day.
I feel like a let down. Or inadequate. There's so much that I don't know. So much that I'm no good at. The only thing I've ever really excelled in is school. But since coming to university, any previous delusions that I had about my being even slightly more than averagely intelligent have been eliminated. There is so much that I have left to learn.
I really need a hug. Or to be told that I'm not a complete loser.
This is probably just some weird mood swing or something. For the past couple months I've been really happy. Just one of those days I s'pose.
As a sidenote, I started playing WoW. Yeah yeah, hate me and tell me I'm pathetic for it, go ahead. I don't mind, it's fun. And I'm not going to get addicted and forget about all other parts of my life because of it. But for those who are interested, I'm a night elf druid. Level 11 at the moment, and off to do my bear quest. Yay :)
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[24 May 2006|03:11pm] |
Oh yes, on a slightly different note:
Rob, Brad, and I killed the interweb with all our crazy downloading!
And I have a hole in my socks. A big one.
Yes I am somewhat bored, because I am leaving in a few minutes and don't have enough time to start doing anything.
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[24 May 2006|02:57pm] |
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 chipper |
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music |
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clicking keys |
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Yay for life! I likes it :) I don't really have anything in particular to say right now. Oh well ^.^
I saw Over the Hedge the other night. I recommend it. Squirrels=funny every time. You just can't go wrong with them. I want a squirrel.
I'm getting a kitten! I'm so excited. I'm being an uber geek and calling it Firefox. If you don't know why that is geeky, then your browser sucks and that is that. Yes....
Oh! Go to www.firefoxflicks.com/flicks if you are bored. In particular, you must watch this one. They are great. Especially that one. Weeeeeeeeeeeee Enenenenenenen Hapheeeeeew.
Yep.
P.S. Hehe chipper. Good word.
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[01 May 2006|06:10pm] |
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 Extremely hurt |
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I like how I've just been betrayed by the one person I thought I could trust forever. I thought we had been through everything, and that nothing would tear us apart. Apperently that wasn't worth fighting for. Not that it would even be a fight, or even a struggle. I don't understand what's wrong. I twist my brain in every way I can imagine and I can't figure out why this is so bad. So bad that you would give up everything. Every memory. Find one that doesn't attach us in some way. Is that worth losing?
I'm almost moving from sad and confused to angry. Mostly because I have no idea what's going on, and apperently it isn't worth talking about.
Life is going to change a lot for me. I can't even imagine what will happen next, because I can't bring myself to remember what life was like before I met you.
I'm at such a loss. I can't think properly. None of this makes any sense. Please just explain it to me so I understand, because right now I'm about to burst.
Goodbye. I can't believe you're choosing this.
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[25 Apr 2006|07:04pm] |
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music |
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Number One - Bleach |
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I was going to write something, but now I've lost the words. I feel like all my entries are really transparent now. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing ^.^; but I don't know what there is to say. I can say that this summer is going to be tons of fun (yes Helen, I promise it will be). Leanne and Jay must come visit and play Rummoli! And lots of walks.
Really purdy song from the Bleach Soundtrack (I wish I understood the Japanese!!):
Nobody knows who I really am,
I've never felt this empty before.
And if I ever need someone to come along,
Who's gonna comfort me and keep me strong?
We are all rowing the boat of fate
The waves keep on coming and we can't escape
But if we ever get lost on our way
The waves will guide you through another day
Tooku de iki wo shiteru
toumei ni natta mitai
Kurayami ni omoeta kedo
mekakushi sareteta dake
Inori wo sasagete
atarashii hi wo matsu
Azayaka ni hikaru umi
sono hate made ee~
Nobody knows who I really am
Maybe they just don't give a damn
But if I ever need someone to come along
I know you will follow me and keep me strong
Hito no kokoro wa utsuri yuku
nukedashitaku naru
Tsuki wa mata atarashii shuuki
de mune wo tsureteku
And every time I see your face
The oceans lead out to my heart
You make me wanna strain at the oars
And soon I can't see the shore
Oh, I can't see the shore...
When will I see the shore?
I want you to know who I really am
I never thought I'd feel this way toward you
And if you ever need someone to come along
I will follow you and keep you strong
Tabi wa mada tsuzuiteku
odayaka na hi mo
Tsuki wa mata atarashii shuuki
de mune wo terashidasu
Inori wo sasagete
atarashii hi wo matsu
Azayaka ni hikaru umi
sono hate made
And everytime I see your face
The oceans lead out to my heart
You make me wanna strain at the oars
And soon I can't see the shore
Unmei no fune wo kogi
nami wa tsugi kara tsugi e to
Watashi-tachi wo osou kedo
sore mo suteki na tabi ne
Dore mo suteki na tabi ne...
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