New Start

This semester has been a bit of a new start for me. Last semeseter was not the best time of my life to put it lightly. Not that anything went particularly wrong, I just wasn't happy. This semester is much better. Im going out more, seeing friends more, and even joined dance classes here at Queens. I want to restart writing in my blog because even though I dont have as epic adventures as last year my life can still occassionally be fairly interesting.

Honestly I havent had a good adventure in a while. I want to get lost and find something new. I am actually itching for a good ol' adventure. It has been suggested to take a ferry to Wolf Island, which would definately be interesting as last time I took a ferry was ... interesting, not the most pleasant experience. But going to the Island itself could bring a good adventure.

I hope I keep up with the blog this time because it was such a blessing last year. Here's hoping I stay motivated.

First few weeks in Kingston

Okay, so I kept wanting to do a blog about my first weeks in Kingston but I felt obligated to write about Malta first. Naturally my solution was do do non for quite a while. But today I decided, screw it, I am going to write about what I want and hopefully get back into the swing of the blog since I really do miss it.

Okay I will skim over some of it because of course there is so much. Over the two weeks prior to leaving for Kingston I slowly and casually packed just a little every day. Unfortunately the last day was a bit of a rush, but nothing too bad. On the 401 the 'folks' and I played a good old fashioned game of animal, mineral or vegetable. We stopped in Ajax to visit Kari and her 'folks'. I must say are families are quite sympatico. Our conversations at some point even divided into pairs, fathers talking together, mothers talking together and daughters chatting together. Quite strange. Anywho, we had a ball and hooted and hollered the entire time. We made it to Kingston in fairly good time (sometime in the afternoon). We spent the night in a hotel because we werent moving me in unil the next day.

The next day (September 1st?) We met my landlord Sue at the Kingston Archaeological centre (where she works) and got the keys from her. At the apartment itself Sue gave us a tour and told us about any rules or guidelines of the apartment. She was very nice and quite helpful. I have the room with the double bed and get the sun rise sunlight in my room. I really do love my room and the 'folks' and I started set up right away. It took us a while to get everything up the stairs (we are on the second floor with one neighbour living below). I have a lot of giant art books that I brought since I am an art history major, so getting the boxes of them up to my room was interesting. My dad started right away on setting up my computer (since I have a desk top) and the printer and the wifi. It turns out the wifi doesnt let you skype so later that night we called a company, cogeco, to get me real interweb so I could still chat with the parents online. It also tunred out that my computer didnt really like the wifi anyway and rarely worked properly or at good speed, so good investment.

After trying to set up as many things as I could we headed out to have dinner with an old friend of my moms and his wife and daughter. Quite the interesting night, but we were dead tired by the time we got back to the hotel, of which I stayed at for the night since I was too tiredto have to clear off my bed at the apartment (which was cluttered with my stuff). The next day to that we went back to the apartment and continued unpacking and setting up. I got to meet Melissa my third house mate who is in 4th year education program. We chatted and watched tv and set up my room for the rest of the afternoon. My parents left very late because the wifi ended up not working and they were trying to figure it out for a while. I did get a little sniffly when they first left, but Mel and i ended up having a nice chat and it made me feel better.

So in the middle of the last paragraph I got distracted by laundry, then I decided to make myself a grilled cheese with the bread I made a couple days ago. Naturally it went wrong and one of the slices of bread split and while trying to save it I momentarily touched the pan with one of my fingers. I didnt burn myself badly or anything, but I will warn that it is making typing interesting so if it is kinda weird I apologize, but at least you know now.

Anywho, so it took two and a half days to fully organize my room into the comfy setting it is now. On the Firday (Sept. 4) Mel and I made home made pizzas and watched A Chorus Line. I haven't seen it in a while, but I definately recomend it to any musical lover who has yet to see it. Later that night Mel and I went to take out the garbage and recycling and got to meet our downstairs neighbours. They were really nice and asked what we had been watching since we did have it on kinda loud. The next day Melissa left for home for a few days, meaning I had 3 nights all to myself in the apartment (Kari wasn't there yet). I am not a wimp, but I did have to sleep with the tv in my room on. This is mostly because my closet is seriously creepy at night and I happen to (as silly as it sounds I know) beleive in spirits and ghosts and stuff. I mean some of the stuff you hear cannot be made up andI have been in some seriously creepy buildings. Not that I think I wouldget hurt or anything by a "ghost", but I would rather not wake up in the middle of the night to find a spook sitting at the end of my bed or in the doorway of the closet. Just a small preference of mine.

That weekend I decorated my room, explored campus and Kingston and applied to a few places to work. Not much else happened since everyone i know here seemed to be away or busy, but I did run into a few people which was nice. Melissa came back on the Monday following and Kari moved in on the 8th. She had just as much stuff as me, meaning it was a lot of walking up and down the stairs with heavy boxes again. Luckily a lot of it was food! Which is awsome. Every student loves free food. Her parents took us out for lunch, than dropped us off for our "castle kids" orientation. It was nice to see everyone from the Castle again, but I must say the 2 and a half hour talk we had from various departments seemed to drag on, a lot. We were told some interesting things but not how to do any of it. Anywho, afterward Kari and I went back to the house and made food/hung out and did up her room and such. The next day her mom took us to the LCBO and we got some white wine. I bought this Interesting sounding Ontario wine called Sibling Rivallery, which I found to be quite good. Once Kari said good bye to her parents some time in the afternoon, we made ourselves supper and started into the wine. We ended up having a very fine night, you can especilly tell because we finished off 2 bottles of wine. It was a few weeks ago so I don't exactly remember what we chatted about, but it of course must have been fascinating.

I believe we wandered Kingston and campus and met with some people the rest of the week and into the weekend. On the Friday (Sept. 11) We sat and watched Maury (are YOU the father of my baby!) as well as a baby story (to guess if the baby was going to turn out cute or funny looking) and lastly Say Yes to the Dress. We have become quite obsessed with this show. Its about a fancy store in New York that gives wedding dress fittings and basically the smallest anyone in there spends is $2000, but the average is usually $5000, on one dress. Anywho, the fitters are hilarious and so much fun to watch. After everyshow we would hold our breaths and then scream with joy when another one appeared. This happened every half hour for about 6 hours before we realised it was a marathon on and that the newest episode was yet to come at 9pm. So lets just say we watched between 6 and 8 hours of a show about wedding dresses. Melissa especially found it funny because she left and returned a good three times and every time we were watching the same show.

On the Saturday following (in the early morning) Kari and I decided to go to the Tamming ceremony on campus. This is the final ceremony for first years and the completion of frosh week where all the new students get their tams. Having not been there to do it last year we decided we would join in this time. We met up with three other castle kids and manaed to get in and get a seat. It was one of the most overwhelming experiences I have been through. Mostly because everyone was being lead by the gails (leaders consisting of upper years) in all these different chants and songs, over and over again, all of which we (the castle kids) didn't know. Imagine this great hall filled with over a thousand kids all yelling and chanting together. Pretty crazy stuff. When the actualy celebration began they sang the oil thigh which is the song of queens, it was fun because we could just mumble along to the tune. As well everyone stood up, put their arms around eachother and sawyed as they sang. Oh Queens. The rest of the ceremony wasn't near as interesting as its start mostly because it was geared towards the class of 2013 (we are the class of 2012). The rest of the day we hung out and I met with the cogeco guy to get my interweb installed. Oh I forgot, earlier that week we got our student cards and went to this market on campus showing all these studently things. We ran into a lot of people we know, but I happened t run into Claire and Katy L. from my old dance studio... and at the exact same time! First I saw Claire and we ran and hugged and then I look over and see Katy standing a few feet off in a different direction. We all dropped our mouths open and pointed because who knew we would see each other all at the same time. Katy screamed "my babies!" and gave us a huge group hug and scream squeeling in the way only Katy can. We agreed to do the dance club and then seperated to go our own way.

Thats all for now. I will talk about first week of classes hopefully later today, but if not some time tomorow. Bye bye!

Malta part ONE!

Wow, I can't beleive its been so long since I've blogged. To be honest I kinda missed it. I didnt even do my Malta trip or my return home, or my birthday or my adventures at the cottage and in Waterloo. So much to catch up on. So I think I will start with my Malta trip which occured about two weeks after my Berlin trip. In between I would say I mostly did school work and movie nights. One day we even got to go outside and just lay in the sun. Unfortunately we were chased away by the bugs. Nasty critters they are. Anywho the group on the Malta mission were me (obviously), Kari, Katie, Cameron, Amanda, Heather, Amy and Kurtis.

Hee, silly me just went to check the properties on my photos to see when they were taken so I could remember what times we did things and it said we were in the airport at 6am! When I know we arrived in Malta at night. It took me a good few minutes to realise that my camera's time was forwarded to England time so it is what time it was in Canada when we left! Crazy. So add 5 hours and we were in the airport around 11am? That still doesnt feel right but lets just go with it. So we took a taxi to the airport directly from the castle since it ended up costing less anyway. We went to one of the smaller airports of which I cannot remember the name of now. I dont think we had to wait that long. Long enough for me to go crazy with the picture taking. I remember actually that the sign that tells you what gate to go to wasnt announcing ours and it got up to about 10 minutes before the flight was to take off. Needless to say we were kinda worried but obviously it did come up and we even got pretty nice seats. Ryan Air planes are smaller than the ones you take over seas, only three in a row with two rows and one aisle. I think I napped most of the way to Malta. I don't remember how long it took but I do know that we got there when it was dark out.

When we did finally get through customs and checkout we were expecting a taxi from the hotel to be there to bring us to the hotel. Unfortunately he wasnt there. We had to give them a call and it sounded like the man didnt know we needed a taxi, but then the driver turned up anyway and it was all a bit chaotic for a half hour. Now this taxis was I think the biggest adventure (at least for me) of the whole trip. First of all there were no seat belts. second of all I was sitting in the extra seat at the back, I was next to two of my friends but in the aisle (which happend to be on the side instead of in the middle of the van). The chair was metal and moved with every bump turn. I don't know if it was the design of the van or if the chair was loose, but I was sure that I was going to fly forward two rwos ahead and smash into the driver should he stop suddenly and I not have anough grip on the seat. Of course I was a little scared so my defence mechanism kicked in and I started to laugh and giggle hystarically. My friends kept giving me weird looks like "what are you doing, what is the matter?" It didnt help that most of the roads are twisty and very hilly, so lots of bumps and swoops and turns. It also didnt help that the driver seemed to be a little over eager to get back to the hotel if you know what I mean.

We did make it to the hotel safe and sound, but I booted it out of that vehicle. We checked in and a guide had to take us to our room because it was down a few blocks and up another street in a different building. At first we were a little sketched out, until we saw our room! It was amazing. The boys got a different room in a different building that was only for two people. The girls all decided to share a suite since it was cheaper than some hostels. We were up three or four floors so we weren't sure what we would find. We walked into a full kitchen, not huge but big enough to have a round dining table in the middle of it and a full fridge and stove. To the left was the bathroom and a balcony. Go through a little hall and there was one bedroom off the the left with two beds. Straight ahead was the living room with a fouton, a cot and a good sized tv. To the right of that was another bedroom with another balcony. I stole this room with the bed closest to the balcony because the view was absolutely splendid. Up one way was old buildings and such and the other way was the port with boats and beautiful lights and it basically just made me really happy. We stayed pretty calm until the guide left and then we all burst into girly fits of screaming and jumping around. Once the guys came over and found where we were we all went out in search of a store for food and of course booze.

We found a couple small stores. We bought bread, eggs and other provisions to make our own meals and lunches. Kari and I decided on buying captain Morgan spiced rum this trip. Mixed with coke it tastes like vanilla coke! So it took us a while to decide what we all wanted. But we eventually made a decision and meandered back to the hotel. We stopped to get food at this really cheap take out place. I got amazing pizza! We lowered the fouton into a bed and sat on it or on chairs and chatted/watched Maltese TV. They had Gossip Girl in Italian at one point! So exciting! After food we played some drinking games and ... drank and laughed and even did some dancing. Eventually we made it to bed and slept very comfortably.

I will try and do the rest maybe this afternoon or later today. There is only two days to recap so hopefully I can do them in one shot! Then I can start on my adventures here in Kingston.

Berlin

Hey, I unfortunately am going to have to do Berlin in a hot rush as I have another trip this weekend to sum up! So sorry for the delay! So March 6th you see I woke up at 1:15 already packed and ready to go. I met Katie in the lobby and we walked down to breakfast together. Yes at 1 am. We met the other 7 people that we were going with to Berlin plus the two chaperones (one our German prof the other an administrator). This trip was organised by the school and we just had to pay extra money for it, but it ended up being worth it. We got on the mini-bus at 2am and it drove us to some London airport that I cant remember which one it was. We were very tired. To be honest we kind of sleep walked through the whole going through the airport and getting on the plane and flying to Berlin and stuff. A lot of the time we actually slept. We got there we somehow managed to get the S-Bahn (which is soo confusing by the way) to our hostel and put all our things in our room. Next step was a two hour walking tour of Berlin in german. Quite funny when the guy initially started talking and we had no idea what he was saying. He was English so he dumbed down the German for us. We saw a bunch of stuff, all of which can be seen on my facebook pretty much. After that we went for lunch as a group, I had sausage which was amazing, no lie. Then Katie, Elizabeth L, Tessa and I went to see a small chunk of the wall that was still standing then decided to explore around. Katie and I got seperated from the other two and decided to just wander around looking for bookstores. After looking in a bunch of touristy shops we came upon an old used book store with all these really old amazing books everywhere. I was in the search for the Grim Brothers Tales in German and found a complete collection for not that much. Katy also found a book on German grammer and a short story. Quite pleased with our purchases we made our way to the hostel where we were to meet the rest of the group for dinner. We made our way to a traditional german mealed resaraunt. Our poor guides aparently havea bad sense of direction as they got uite lost on their way there. We eventually got there and settled down for a meal. I got very trigger happy with the camera and just went crazy taking interesting photos. We tried some German beer and I had something interesting for dinner, though I dont remember what. I had some nice chats with my German prof about stuff and we basically all had a good time stuffing ourselves and chatting. Next step was to bed and sleepify anough for the next day.

Ooo, one thing I forgot about that first day was the fact that Katie and I stopped into a bakery and each bought something we thought looked/sounded Germanie. She got this interesting brown bread and I got this unrecognizable mass of something that looked to be labeled something about a muffin with Vanilla or something. Basically it turned out to be this kind of bread with cookie crummbled all overthe top and glued on/smothered in this vanilla sugar icingie coating. Needless to say it was amazing and it ended up lasting me that day and the next whic hI will talk about in this paragraph. So we woke up on March 7th at a relatively decent hour, had the complimentary breakfast and then made our way to the Berlin Wall with the group. I got a lot of great photos and it was really interesting to see all the graffitti and statements on it. Our next stop was checkpoint Charlie. This is a museum dedicated to the division of Germany after the war. Really really interesting. Especially all the ways that people attempted or succeeded in escaping; like tunnels and parts of cars and suitcases and other strange methods. After this Katie, Elizabeth L, BJ and I made our way walking through Tier Garten to the Worlds Largest Sex Museum. Tier Garten was kinda sad since it was kinda gloomy out, but there were still some interesting pieces of art and monuments to check out. Once we actually got in the vicinity of the museum it took a good ten minutes to figure out where it was. I eventually spotted it and we made our way over. It wasnt that much to go through it so we paid went through. It was really interesting actually. A lot of historical erotic art. A lot of it Japanese, but other forms too. There were also Bad News Bears, which are little clay-made bears doing inappropriate things. I have pictures i will put up eventually. I later on bought a couple key-chain versions because the actual ones were really expensive. The one I use for my door key now is the one with a giant..."sandwich" or at lest thats what most people think at first, until they see this little bag of the same greenish substance next to the bear. Anywho, if you found that vague enough lets to the next part of my tale!

Oh and the other bear will have to be a surprise for when I come home. Hee! So after the sex museum Katie and Elizabeth made their way (walking) to the CharlotteSchloss (castle) and BJ and I made our way by S-Bahn back to the hostel to meet people for another traditional German dinner. We got confused on the way back because there is also the U-Bahn which is different but they appear the same on the map given. We did make it back in time thank god and the group made our way to a local dinner place. We had two seperate tables that were near each other, but I ended up talking to BJ, Abigale (German prof) and the other chaperon (sorry I am having a brain fart on his name). I had traditional German meat balls or whatever and it was ok, but not my favourite. I kinda wish I had had the sausage instead. But it was really good conversation about various things. I had awhole pint of some kind of bear as we were brought a bunch of different kinds to try at the beginning of the meal and told to choose one. The place was very crowded after a while and they only had one person working so after a while of waiting we just calcuated how much we owed ourselves and left the money on the table and departed. I fell asleep quite easily that night.

The last day, the 8th, our first stop was the Reichstag. This is the main government building in Berlin. We got a special tour of the place. The guy who gavethe tour had a very dry sense of humour and it was quite funny to listen to and watch him. We got to see a bunch of main rooms including the gathering room thing where they do all their legislature and stuff. Walking through it felt like I was in some sci-fi movie. It was crazyness futuristic. When Katie and i went to the washroom we walked through these halls that were way to big and clear the be real and had these huge doors open automatically for us but in some weird sci-fi kind of way. Anywho, needless to say the whole experience was quite interesting. Next we went up to the roof, which is well known apparently. The Reichstag is the most visited government building in the world, which I could beleive as it is quite marvolous. We again all went to lunch afterwards and had some good food, I had this milkshake like thing that was very good. Next we all made our way to the DDR museum that was all about life in the DDR before the wall came down. It was soo interesting. All the differences and things they had to do and stuff. Quite cool. Katie and I made our way to the German Market after that. We wandered around and looked at lots of art as well as old historic items and tons and tons of books. Lastly we both grabbed a sausage, that was seriously one of the best sausages I have ever had! Our next task was to meet the rest of the gang for our ride home. We made the S-Bahn to the airport and chatted about books the whole way. We easily got through at the airport and had not too long to wait to get on the plane. We all got a bunch of German chocolate, which I later found very good. I bought a giant Kinder Egg surprise! It was amazing! Anywho I got really loopy on the plane and ended up pretty much knocking myself out with two gravol which kept me steadily asleep all the way back to Bader. There was only the task of going through customs, but that wasnt so bad. We met up with a bunch of people coming back from Barcelona including my room mate. When we got back to Bader Hall they had food for us even though it was 2am, it was really nice of them though. Not bad either.

So that was Berlin in a nutshell, or osterich egg. Oh well, I will sum up last weekend too...lots o drinking. Just jokes, only ones night of drinking but it was epic I would say. We (Kari, Cameron, Amanda, Heather and I) stole a short table thing from somewhere and put it in the middle of Kari's room. We set the laptop up on a chair just beside it and all sat around the table mixing and drinking drinks. We spent the rest of the night chatting and drinking and watching James Bond films. I did not go back to my room until 7:30am as my brilliant plan was to sober up before I went to bed and watch skins season three on kari's laptop. Needless to say I spent pretty much the entire next day almost in bed. But I got better and I am here now! So lots of love to all you readers out there and I will try to do this sooner next week!

Almost two weeks?

Oh my GOD! Has it really been almost two weeks since my adventure in Paris? Wow. I will start with the weekend we got back and I will just say not too much happened. I dont even really remember at this point. I think I lazed intensely because I was soo glad to be done almost everything and everyone else still had thing due that week. The week following was a typical school week. I had German movie night and we watched this strange film about couples who were going through ruts basically. It was wierd. Lets see, the weekend after that (this past weekend) was more exciting. I was kinda pissy at first because a bunch of friends of mine were going to Mallorca and I couldnt go because I had a field study that weekend, but it ended up being fun and interesting anyway. On the Friday (when they left) it was really nice and warm - a little windy but after a while I was able to take my jacket off. I went for a four hour walk/exploration. I started by heading towards the village but ended up taking this secret looking path that took me through a forest and then out to a feild. I walked through the field and was going to turn back when I thought I might be on private property but I am glad I kept going because I came accross another path through another forest and I just kept following these random pths until I had no idea where I was but had a faint idea of what direction I was heading in. I eventually came to a village and could not for the life of me figure out what it was. There was a sign that had arrows pointing towards herstmonceaux, bexhill, hastings, eastbourne etc, so I literally had no idea! I took another random path instead of following the sign to herstmonceaux on the main road, but it was going in the generally right direction so I figured I'd get there eventually. I had brought my camera, my mp3player and my tripod, so you can guess I took a lot of pictures. i think it was almost 400. What a beautiful and perfect day though!

That night was speant basically looking through the pictures. Oh I also had a sleepover with my roomie Angie. I came downstairs and we through all our blankets and pillows on the floor and got a bunch of candy and chocolate and watched Gossip Girls on her computer. Eventually we both started falling asleep so we went to bed. The next day Angie left early in the morning to go with Kevin (her boyfriend) to Dover and I went to Brighton. My objective was to buy a bathing suit. I went to Bravissimo (the place I got my bras before) and picked out a bunch of things. It came down to the practical and fully flattering bathing suit that covered everything and held me in and would not come off in the water. The other option was a cute bikini thats green with white pokka dots. It pushes em up and covers everything from my nipples to the outsides of the breasts. Everything on the inside is fair game. Hee. Lets just say I giggled and pointed at myself for a good 5 minutes when I first put it on. It is very mean and possibly a size too small, but I tested it out and I dont fall out of it so in the end I said screw practical I am going to have some fun. Plus its comfortable which is a bonus. I then went and took pictures on the beach and the little docks and caught a ride back to Bader where I hung out with myself for the afternoon.

The next day to that (the Sunday) I woke up bright and sunny for my feild study in London. The ride in was not very consequential. When we got to London Jacinta, Sarah K and I all decided to go to Mme Tusauds. Unfortunately when we made it there it turns out it is around £25 to get in. As poor students we didnt really think it worth it for a bunch of wax figures, though it would have been cool. We instead went to Sherlock Holmes house. It was basically an old historical house with a bunch of stuff about Holmes but it was still really cool. There were salt n pepper shakers as holmes and watson and I was so tempted until I saw the price...£22! HOLY POO! No matter, we had a good time then went to find food. We found a traditional Italian restaurant and settled down for a nice meal. We chatted a bunch about random stuff, a lot of Italy and nationality and stuff. I ordered pizza and got traditional italian pizza and afterwards Gilotto which was amazing! We paid and then made our way to the Natural History Museum.

When we got there we had to wait a good half hour so we had a photoshoot where we just took ridiculously silly pictures of eachother and just acted goofy for a while. We were eventually allowed in and we gots to see the Darwin Exhibit. Pretty interesting. Not much to tell other than it was crowded but we got some really cool information. The next thing to do was to go home to the castle. So we loaded onto the bus and made our way back. I have become really good at falling asleep on the coaches. Just tilting your head to the side and falling asleep. I feel like I could fall asleep anywhere now. Not necessarily a good thing! We had dinner when we got back and then went up to bed. This past week not too much has happened. We got academic advising and I now have an idea of what to do and stuff which makes me feel better about life. Everyone is getting stressed out this week because especially this semester no one is in on weekends so there is very little time really to do stuff and this week everyone is getting things back and with the whole academic advising people are finally starting to realise that they have to do work and get their averages up to get into particular programs. Anywho, I am just goingto go with the flow for now. Off to do work. Hope you enjoyed this installment!

Midterm trip - day four and five

So I am writing this between watching Skins (which is taking a while to load) so if it seems a little choppy I apologize. New season of Skins! Yay! Anywho, I will get to the interesting stuff, like my fourth day (the Thursday) of my midterm break trip. I woke up (as is usually recommended) and got myself all ready to take the coach into London with the rest of the English class. We were to be given a literary tour of Paris that morning by the three english profs. It was quite cold (compared to what it had been the day before) and I got off to a great start when I had my most epic fall of all time. I slipped on a grate (they have it in for me) and went to correct it with the other foot but that one slipped too and I fell on my side. I wasnt injured in any way (its all that milk, I swear) so I just kept going along. We were mostly just walked around Paris a bunch with a couple stops here and there. Some stories about Oscar Wilde and other great literaries. Unfortunately the entire group also had an Art History feild study so we all had to migrate before the tour was over. The profs"luckily the only thing your missing is the Shakespeare & Co." which happens to be a vast Shakespeare store. Thanks guys for saving that for last.

When we got to the Louvre we were told that the tour before us (the art history group before us) was running behind so we would have to wait outside until Daphne (our prof giving the tour) was done and could come out to get us in. This seemed redicuous to most people as it is the Louvre and as much extra time inside as possible would be awsome. So some how someone got us in early giving us about 10 extra minutes to look around. The tour was intersting. We got to see a bunch of the stuff we studied. This includes the Mona Lisa. You have probably heard this before but it is insane trying to get near it. I didnt try. I just wanted to see it, partially so that I could say I've seen it (I mean you cant go to the Louvre without at least glancing at it) and also because it is a famous work of art that deserves a look. I think it is kinda silly that people get sooo worked up over it, I mean right accross from it is the dinner a Cana (I might have the name wrong) and it is huge and beautiful and no one even sees it. It is really sad. It annoys me that people kept telling me not to bother with the Mona Lisa or that it was a disappointment or what ever because it is so small and blahblahblah. I mean it is a huge part of history, it shouldnt be judged based on its size or the amount of attention it receives.

After that we got lead through the outside Gardens to the Place de la concord to meet the busses that were going to take us to Versaille (those that wanted to go). I met Kari walking through the Gardens. I still cant beleive I was only in the Louvre for an hour and a half. The only disappointment for my trip, i would have liked at least another hour or two, I would have done that instead of the literary tour. Anywho,too late now. We stopped for Crepes and I had my first chocolate crepe. It was soo intense!!! Chocolate and crepe everywhere. It was amazing! Anywho we got a good spot on the coach that was to take us to Versaille, so it was a pretty comfy ride. Once we got there we ditched the Art History group (Daphne was going to give a talk in the Gardens because she wasnt allowed to inside) because we only had a couple hours to do the whole thing. Kari, Cameron, Ellie and I all walked around together and let me tell you it was crazy! It was so intense. I mean this thing practically screams excess. Needless to say I loved it and would want to be one of those asswipe aristocrats who lived there. I mean there were entire rooms made of marble or entirely gold leafed or intricately painted. The Gardens were beautiful too, though I would like to go back in spring sometime and see all of the gardens and the little extra things that you have to take trains out to. I loved Marie's room, and I am not a flower person but it was dripping with floral everywhere. It was intense.

Lets see, after that we got the coach back into Paris and back to our hostel. We hung out in our room for about an hour and tried some cheese Katie had gotten that day. At around 7pm a bunch of us got on the coach to go into Paris for our River Saine tour/cruise. I sat with Charlotte and Addy and Charlotte and I chatted about dance and work and teachers and stuff. There was a bit of a hold up on the coach because the SLCs (Student Life Co-ordinators) had gotten word that there was a demonstration going on at the Eiffel tower, right near where we were going to be. We could tell they were freaked out and trying to figure out whether they could actually take us, like whether it would be safe. I dont know if you remember but last year there were some demonstrations in Paris and it got violent and stuff, so it was a tense hour or so when we were being taken in to the city centre. It ended up being ok and aparently the demonstration got taken down really quickly so nothing really happened. Charlotte and I took an enormous amount of pictures while on the cruise and basically just played with our cameras the whole time. Sarah M and Addy were sitting in front of us so we got lots of pictures of them too. After the cruise Amy and I were the only ones that wanted to head back so we made our way back to the hostel. It took us a while to figure out where the station we wanted was, but we got back safe and sound.

The next day (the Friday) I quite comedically woke up in an extraordinarily fowel mood. I peeked out my curtain and Katy looked at me and asked if I was ok because apparently i had the angriest look on my face. I just grumbled and pulled the covers over my head. I appologised to them later, but now that I look back on it it was pretty funny. A bunch of us got some friends to put our bags on the coaches for us as we were heading into Paris early so we could see some things last minute. I headed off on my own for Notre Dame. I found it pretty easily and explored around a bit. I unfortunately didnt have time to go up the tower, but it was still nice to see the place and walk more along the Saine. I also got a cheese crepe. It was death in a wrap basically. The texture was amazing, but not a lot of flavour. I only got a two thirds through it because it was soo cheesey and intense. On the subway I bought some strawberries and when I got to the Place de la Concord I went into a washroom to wash them. So I sat in the park in front of the Louvre and ate strawberries and waited for the time to come that the coaches would be available to get on. I met up with Amy, Katie and Amanda on the busses, luckily we al got seats near the front. It wasnt much of an eventful drive other than they put on some movie adapted by a Steven King novel and Katie refused to tell me the ending!

Our next stop (for all history students) was (sorry I do not remember the name) a German base for experimenting in bambs and rockets and stuff in World War 2. It was build by slaves and is basically this compund made of underground tunnels and stuff. It looks like something from a science fiction film from the outside. It was very strange but very real. Everyone was saying how horrible it was and how bad they felt for the people who were enslaved to build it and stuff, but to be honest by this point I had blockd myself off from the sadness or horror of it all. I mean we had seen soo many bad things that were a part of history and so many "horrors" and stuff and I was not in the mood to be depressed. So I trudged along and tried to learn as much as I could, because at this point I found it hard to be compassionate anymore.

Once back on the coach it was a short ride to the ferry. I hung out mostly with Cameron and Kari while on the boat, we watched it leave the dock from outside, it was very pretty and calming, especially because it was dark by this point. We kept ourselves entertained by looking around the boat and watching the strange refreshments machine do this weird robotic thing to grab and deposit our drinks. It was crazy! The ride wasnt too long thank god and we mostly slept on our way back to the castle. Even though it was really late there was pizza and fruit and juice waiting for us when we got into Bader. I chatted with Angie and Kevin for a bit then passed right out for a nice nights sleep.

Sorry it took so long to get this one out. I will try to stop procrastinating with these!

Midterm trip - day three

So I left off at the pictures on the Saine right? Oh actually I beleive I left off at the cemetary. Basically because we are cheap students (excuse me - inexpensive) we decided we didnt want to pay 2 euro for a map. So instead we would take the picture of the map at the opening and write down the location of all the famous ppl's graves we wanted to see and then go from there. This was a crazy cemetary to wander around in. It looked like those buried had staged a coup and at one point or another had tried to escape. Such phrases as "mmm brains" were frequently to referred to. It was a seriously creepy and haunting cemetary, nice gloomy day too. In other words we had a great time wandering around trying to scare each other and exploring the graves. We were pretty much on a scavenger hunt for famousdead people. Our first stop I beleive was Georges Saurat. I got a picture with the pointalist painter. Or at least his grave. After that we got a little lost trying to find the next grave. I meanwe knew we were but were having a heck of a time finding the grave. After that we took a wrong turn on our way to Jim Morrison and Katie's camera batteries were dying so I took over with my camera.

Jeez Jim Morrison was a bitch to find. He was burried in the middle of a bunch of other graves and beleive me this place was already crowded, but it looked like they squeezed him in between a bunch of other people. They had had to rope it off too because I guess people deface it all the time (with intentions of love). Strange people out there eh? I cant remember every single person we visited but among them was Chopin, Maurat, some other painters and philosephers and so on. Our second last visit was Oscar Wilde. Now his grave was already very advanced for its time, very futuristic, but what else was on the grave was incredible. Hundreds of lipstick kiss marks all over the grave. And not for decoration. Hundreds of people have kissed his grave or left markings. Sooo weird. I got a picture pretending to kiss it but thats as far as I would go. Next we looked for Edith Piaf and Isadorra Duncan who were in the same area. We were looking in the wrong spots or something because it took forever to find Edith and after that we couldnt even find Duncan. She might have been one of hte graves without a name. At this point Libby was very cold and ready to get warm. I had done a magic trick earlier in front of the pyramid at the Louvre. I love being a girl - you see the magic trick was to take off my tights on the spot, they were falling down to no end, but at least I had on leg warmers to keep me warm.

Anywho when we left the cemetary we wandered a little and found a restaurant. There was a menu outside that had a bunch of stuff on it so we went in. Eventually the waiter came over to the table and asked us to order. We asked (actually Kari asked as she was translating for us) to have 5 minutes to decide as well as to wait for orur friend in the washroom. He said thats ok and that he could come back for our friend but we had to order now. Katie and Cameron feeling pressured ordered some kind of french sandwhich and Kari and I said we werent having anything. He didnt seem to understand this and once Kari explained that we didnt want anything he stood there looking at us blankly, then rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders and walked away. We all considered leaving as this was really rude but we didnt want to be rude in return and also we were scared of the backlash should he catch us. When Heather came back and he came back to order she tried ordering at least three things she had seen on the menu outside and non apparently were available. He got annoyed and told her to look at the menu on the wall. Gah, he was a dick basically. She finally got a sandwhich but we all decided no tip. As we were eating we realised why he was especially grouchy. He sat down to his own lunch. GAH, why do people need to eat all the time and get so grouchy when they dont get food? Especially men, I have discovered this over here. Anywho at least the sandwhiches were good apparently. Also there was a poster on the wall saying the Doors wrote and sang Stairway to Heaven which didnt sound right to me. I mean I am not a music person but I have the basics. The rest all laughed because sure enough it was Zepplin's song. Silly French.

We eventually left and made our way for the city centre again. On the way as we were leaving the restaurant we passed over a Marilyn Monroe grate, if you know what I mean. Should you recall I was wearing a dress and no longer wearing tights. Now this wasnt a normal tiny kinda blown up and then in slight embarassment pull the dress down. This was a full sweep lets bloww these girl's skirts as high as they can go. I was not so luckily in the front of the pack of us, but luckily no one was paying attention until I screamed and pranced as far from the grate as I could. I looked behind me at Kariand Cameron, Cameron "I was looking at Kari" and Kari just looking at me with some confusion. Katie and Heather were sqelling with laughter and I joined in because really who else would this happen to? And who else would make such a grande production of it? We visited a perfume museum and smelled all these intersting smells and saw how perfume worked. Right accross from it was the Opera House. We went up it to take a look. There was a red carpet which of course made us all feel extra special. We next made our way to the Louvre area where we were to split up. I made my way to what I thought was the nearest metro (subway) station and found I could not find this station to save my life. I passed over another grate only it wasnt so funny this time because I was by meyself at almost night. I decided to be safe and look for the next station over and luckily found it and got back to the hostel in time.

In time for what do you say? Well to catch the coach bus with the rest of the students who had signed up to go up the Eiffel Tower at night. The reason I went back is because I was kinda nervous to go bymyself since it would be night and I was unfirmiliar with the language and the location and apparently there were always these niceraguan men (sorry about the spelling but sound it out) trying to sell things and they follow you and are very pushy and i decided it would be better if I went with a group. I sat beside Addy and we chatted the whole ride in. Turns out her dad is a photographer so I chatted with her about photography for a bit. We took photos basically the whole time the way up and such. We took the elevator because the stairs were closed at night. The second level was beautiful but we decided to pay a little extra and go to the very top. Its really interesting because all around the observation thing is little flags with main city names underneath showing what is in what direction. Addy and I of course got a picture under Toronto! We met up with Charlotte and Amy and Amanda and the five of us decided to make our way either back or to get food.

We crossed the bridge over the Saine but stopped for pictures with the Eiffel Tower again. Charlotte and I decided to do some dancer poses, one of which ended up being with one leg up on the railing thing. At some point this one french tourist and his friend came by and he decided to stand between us and get a picture with us. His friend seemed to be shyer and was just taking pictures so we said whatever and ok. We got some pictures with them too. At one point he leaned in for a kiss but I dodged it (outside the comfort zone at this point) but Charlotte couldnt avoid it and got a big smooch on the cheek. We departed from them after a bunch of pictures of course giggling intensly at the frenchiness of it all. We then looked for an inexpensive cafe on the Saine, hee, we should have know better. Instead we made our way back to the hostel and Charlotte and I continued on our quest for riches of food while the others made there way back. Literally everything was either closed or closing so our last resort was a pizza place where we found Tom and Chantel (two of our SLCs). The man who we ordered from restored our faith in the goodness of the French. He was very nice and teased us a little but helped us through our dismal French. The pizza was actually amazing! It was extraodrinary pizza for some reason. Charlotte and I took it back to the hostel and chatted while eating it to great content. I went to sleep very satisfied with my day.

Day four and five still to come as well as my past weekend. I cant beleive how much has happened that I need to write down!