Wow, what a term!

I keep meaning to do a proper update but never seem to get a chance! This term's been really fun, but ridiculously busy (not that I haven't had some time for relaxing - i.e. it's been nothing as bad as second year ;) )... but yeah, I suppose it's rather fitting I haven't updated yet! Nothing terribly exciting has happened, but it's been kind of nice to have only had one class, with interesting readings on change and seminar experts that switched topics every week. Mix that in with some dance, circus and working at Indigo to get my fill of socialness :). Have made some great friends at work as well - good for some Kareoke, Halloween-ness and just general fun around the store. Plus, who doesn't love books? ;). TAing has also been fun (Intro to bio anth&arch out at UTSC this term). A bit tiring though - I have 150 students! (3 tutorials worth) which means I end up spending all day most thursdays out that way - it's kinda nice though, brings back memories. Yes, I do miss scarborough :P and the fall colours of the valleys are always fun to see :). Miss living with em now that she's left me :P, but love living with Devon so that's all good. Only seen a bit of Ju and Jess, the former 'cause we both work all the time (we did get to see HP7.1 though! and then 6 and 5 in reverse order :P), the latter 'cause she took off for India and now Montreal :P. The boys too, I have not nearly seen enough of - Evan understandably as he's at Queens, Langan appears to have been willingly swallowed by law and donning :P. I have however, gotten to hang out Vince and Amy loads lately for skating purposes :D. Funfun! Wish I could do more dancing (naturally) but it's been nice to get to circus too. Hopefully I'll be able to fit some soccer back in next term as well :D. Let's see what else? Got to see Wicked again with Ma, Nal, John and Robert for the latter's bday :). Went with Jess and Devon and Alan to see Rock of Ages which was hilariously awesome!!! Also caught Cirque du Soleil's Banana Shpeel with Jess which was okay but not amazing... Saw Tangled the other day with the girls. very cute - yay Heymian :). Linna's going away party (I miss you!!! Hope you're having fun in Germany) was hilarious and awesome. O'Noir was great. How I loved listening to the boys attempt to eat in the dark *laughs uncontrolably for a bit*. The food was really yummy too! :D. Saw a few other movies too... not very many though! Ballet-wise, Cinderella with Kat was good as always... I did realise though that while I love Kudelka's comedies, it's not just his swan lake that isn't emotive, but a lot of his pieces... not four seasons though, that's gorgeous. Went to see the new mixed program with Em H, Chroma was nice, not amazing though and, sadly the national is not as good as the Bolshoi (naturally ;) ) at Balanchine so the latter's version of Serenade was happily not supplanted in my mind - we shall see for theme and variations later this season though. Emergence however, the new one by crystal pite, was incredible. Canada has produced a lot of great modern/contemporary ballet choreographers lately! and this is from someone who doesn't even like watching modern/contemp that much! But yeah, it was just fantastically amazingly brilliant. I don't think there are enough adjectives to describe it :P. Love it. lol, it's definitely been the little things that have made this term fun :D. Chatting with Jeremy, learning from amazing dancers, not being in the library all the time (though I did enjoy the law library while I was there ;). ) Hmm, I must be getting old. I just checked my calendar to figure out what else I'd done :P. Sara's wedding of course :). Mrs B's book club too. Just generally hanging out. Events at the store. Cake Boss was crazy (well, he wasn't, the event was). Gordon Ramsay was lovely (believe it or not :P). Meeting Kathy Reichs was fun. The Romeo Dalaire/Emmanuel Jal event on eliminating the use of child soldiers was wonderful and awe inspiring, as were the latter's and Ishmael Beah's books. And Margaret Trudeau was great to hear from :). Ooh! and the Terracotta Warrior display at the ROM (which I only just saw this morning) was really nicely presented!! CNTower Stair Climb with Amanda, Zia Diana, Jess (who got the ridiculous time of 18.19), Robert and some of their friends was also great fun. As was beating my previous time at 21.28 - no torn hamstring this year was always good too ;). So yeah, while it's not quite traveling, it's been good. *nods happily* I'm sure there are a great many stories and fun events that I am forgetting to tell you of, but it is bed time now so that I can catch up on sleep lost trying to run around and get everything done this past week. I've been successful though! Cookies are all baked and awaiting tinning/wrapping at Ma's tomorrow, Gifts are all bought and wrapped bar one or two, the house is clean (mostly), I just ate a three-minute cake in a mug, assignments are all marked, papers handed in, tins and wrapping things purchased. Yup *nods happily* all that is left is tinning cookies/laundry tomorrow, meeting up with Em, Ben, Langan, Evan and Alan on monday, working and proctoring an exam (at 8.30am in scarborough - who planned that :P?!) on tuesday, working and meeting up with a briefly returning Wendy and all of the girls on weds, hanging out and going to see 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum' with Em B on thurs, and finally working on friday morning before meeting up with the fam for xmas eve and, of course, xmas day :D. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!! xoxox :D. PS. for all those who get distressed by excess x-mas music and early appearing hair bells ;) Click Here - Merry Christmas :)! 'nightnight and farewell!

Seliger!

Teehee. For all those wondering what Seliger was really like, check out this clip (thanks Haidar!) and this one.

And for anyone missing the morning exercises, here's another ;)
I think that, bar Wavin' Flag and We Will Rock You, that about covers the songs I'm never getting unstuck from my head ;P
Dvai Rossiya!

Creepy Crawlies and a Love of Life

As I gazed into our makeshift fruitfly trap upon arriving home this evening, I realised two very important things:
1) That Bananas are not supposed to move
and
2) That it was probably time for me to update my blog.
What these two things have in common and why squirming formerly-banana-looking-mush should remind me of my blog (perhaps it's the similarity to my thought processes/brain matter?) I genuinely do not know. I do however now know that, in addition to making a cheap and excellent fruitfly trap, sliced banana in a bowl of shallow water covered over with lightly punctured plastic wrap, if not changed frequently enough, presents the perfect breeding ground for maggots. Lots of them.

Needless to say, I haven't touched them yet. I spent some time watching them (I named them all Maggie, em suggested Edward or Bella but I don't think any of them sparkle quite enough. Besides, they all had far too much personality to be named after those two :P) and then decided that, rather than waste it, I should put the time I'm spending patiently waiting for em to come home so we can tackle our new pets together to good use and update my blog (and so, the real link between the two things comes to light ;) ). The only problem being that I have now been tackled by a serious case of the creepy crawlies... as in I can just feel them crawling all over me... all the time... in my hair, down my back, on my nose... ugh, *wrinkles said facial feature and squirms in disgust* and it's not even Halloween yet! so out of season! and so not cool!
But you know what are cool? Snakes at balls, and churches made entirely of bones *grins*, and trips to Europe which are only meant to last a little over three weeks but grow to last three whole months and encompass jaunts over to Israel and Russia *grins even wider*.

Yupyup. Those Definitely count as cool *nods rapidly, maintaining aforementioned wide grin while simultaneously attempting to surreptitiously brush off any lingering feelings of creepy crawliness*

lol, and with that lovely prelude, I shall delve into where I've been keeping myself these past few months and why exactly it is that I love life ('cause it's just awesome, that's why :D).

Let's see, where did I leave off? *quickly checks previous postages* Ah yes, WFR re-cert weekend! Awesomely great and mosquito-bitten as per usual. Gotta love sleeping on the ground, looking at gruesome pictures, cleaning dirt out of chicken-breast wounds and running long simulations involving carrying individuals long distances in makeshift litters (or, alternatively, being strapped to one yourself when you really, really have to pee ;) ) with people you just met :D. So much fun!

After that, it was back to normal life where showers exist and bathing is the norm for a week or so in order to pack and finish up last minute details before running off to europe for a time.
So our trip started with first class flights (why have I never traveled with Papa before? Ah, yes, now I remember, 'cause apart from the comfy chairs, I've rather worryingly discovered that I actually prefer economy class. and backpacking. and roughing it. and.. yeah... How weird is that??? Not saying I'm complaining about having awesome food or being able to afford box seat tickets to things like the Vienna State Opera Ballet (their Coppelia was so good!!!!) and the Budapest Opera (also great!) and Mozart and Vivaldi and various other concerts, 'cause those were amazing and totally worth it. But yeah, apparently I actually prefer my general budget traveler technique *shrugs* who knew?:) ) over to Budapest (with a brief stop in frankfurt) where we spent our time leisurely (for my pace anyway, Papa disagrees ;) ) exploring the city - on foot of course- and eating deliciously yummy food. In addition to dancing to and listening to traditional Hungarian Music (love it), we also got the opportunity to waltz to the Blue Danube while overlooking said river on the terrace of Fisherman's Bastion up on top near Buda Castle one evening which was Am-a-zing *smiles happily* I still say Papa is one of the best Viennese Waltzers out there - not that this makes up in anyway for his snoring which kept me up the whole trip, even when we were in separate rooms :P!!! But yeah, pretty awesome :D. Being in Hungary was made even greater in that it really made me aware of my hungarian roots... boy am I ever hungarian in nature. I mean, I knew I was Italian already, but Italian-Hungarian I definitely am. They're all just so jovial and music/dance-loving and food-loving and open and ... loud? well, maybe not quite to the same degree as the Italians... perhaps hearty is the word I'm looking for... Yup, definitely felt like the other half of me was finally explained :). Can such traits even be passed down genetically??? Papa always acts so white-washed I have no idea how I could have gotten them otherwise! Anyhow, next it was on to Vienna where we got to explore the lovely city, listen to great music, check out the swarovsky store and see amazing Ballet. Of course, no visit of mine to Vienna is complete without a trip to the Schonbrunn Palace. And, so, just as when I was four, I dragged Papa over to see it with me (it's scary how much you can remember from when you are four!) - though this time I didn't make him climb up the hill to the Gloriette with me on his shoulders... I thought I might actually be old enough to do that one on my own by now ;). Ooh! we went to the strudel show while we were there to learn how to make appel strudel and I got to be the assistant (yes, I still get excited about such things :P) and I even got a diploma for my efforts *grins stupidly*. After Vienna, it was off to Prague and it's breathtaking sunsets over the Vltave River. Omg, was Prague ever gorgeous. That is definitely a city I would absolutely love to visit again. Such rich history with stunning architecture and loads going on - friendly and fun loving people too! I just loved all the little winding streets and the gloriously old churches! We were also there during the spring music festival (and all the rain and cold brought on by the ash cloud) so the sounds surrounding us were just incredible - classical organ concerts, string orchestras, marching bands, everything! Hilariously, Papa also ran into one of the smithys/coin makers in the market who remembered him from when he used to work there just after the iron curtain came down. It was great. The guy said, and I quote, "but you had more hair back then" *laughes evily*. If Prague was a hit with me, the town of Kutna Hora and it's ossuary at Sedlec went down even greater *grins*. Can you imagine what a church filled with the bones of over 40,000 people is to an anthropologist??? Heaven, that's what it is :D!!! Sooooo coool!!! The arrangements were just so pretty!!! And there was even a Chandelier (and we all know how much I loved those as a child ;) ) containing every bone in the human body!!! What's not to love??? *sighs happily* Yupyup. Everyone looked at me really strangely when I asked if I could live there. I can't for the life of me fathom why!

NEWS FLASH: We interrupt this riveting post to bring you an all essential creepy-crawly update. Okay, just wandered into the kitchen for some food, and I gotta say, what's in the bowl is now more maggotty than it is banana-y... Oh em, please do come home soon :P.

So, after our trip 'round the former Austro-Hungarian Empire it was time to head back to Jolly old England in order to meet up with Ma and Nal and get this whole graduation thing over with! Omg, is an Oxford graduation ever hilarious! I have never before seen so much bowing, random strolling, unnecessary clothes changing and poorly pronounced latin! I have no idea how Claire, Julia and I managed to remain composed throughout, but let me tell you it was a struggle! and the instructions from the old lady who was Hertford Dean of Degrees (yes, that's right, Oxford Colleges have dean's of degrees) beforehand! lol! It went something like, 'now, the DPhils will... the MSc's... the M...' and on and on, insert something about jumping up and holding her hand like it was the happiest days of our lives and, then, when she finally got to the BA's it sounded something like 'and then, well, you'll no what to do *smile*' No we wont!!! We're the only ones who;ve never had a graduation yet!!! *shakes head* yeah... And then there was our Rad Cam inspired photo shoot afterwards ;) and seeing everyone in the Turf for a final pint (or half pint in some of our cases *points to self*) at that lovely establishment. Yupyup. Papa took off the next day leaving Ma, Nal and I (the latter two of us who had attended the Bollywood themed Ball at the Union the night before my graduation and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves playing with snakes, dancing to bad music, getting hennaed at the last minute, ensuring Nal got her first try of Shisha (you should have seen her face, I don't think I've ever seen such an expression of pure bliss!) and gorging on food) to take in the sunshine and hang around Ox a bit longer. *Sighs happily* I'd forgotten how much I love that city! and in Trinity term too! How did I ever leave??? Out of the Blue was busking (to our everlasting pleasure - love them so much!) and Nal finally got to ride on a punt - Yay! Punting!!!! and yeah, just lying on the lawn and seeing all the pretty buildings... and of course all my friends! But yeah, after a few days the others took off (Ma homewards and Nal off to London to visit Daggs before heading on to Paris, where she stayed extra long too - similarity in travel much? ;) ) and I moved into Jo's abandoned room to live with Tabby and Jess Evans (and, by default Mark!). It was just so great to see everyone again!!! And of course there was Yuka's Ballet Classes! I've missed them so much! And Yuka! It was great to see Tiger and Dragon again as well! They've grown so much!!! and Tiger still has so much energy!!! I got to attend rehearsals and help out with the show again too (my god am I ever terrible at spot lighting *shakes head in dismay*) which was loads of fun :D.

A few days after the others left, I decided to take a spontaneous weekend trip to Amsterdam - such a great choice!!! Amsterdam was awesome!!! I had no idea I was going to love it as much as I did! I stayed in a Christian Youth Hostel (cheapest place I could find) right in the heart of the Red Light District (talk about juxtaposition!), met some great people and just had a genuinely great time! *sighs happily* I returned to much ballet-ness of course and the news that we were going to have an Arch and Anth reunion at Caroline's in London on the coming weekend - soo much fun!!! I've missed you guys sooo much!!! and Caroline's such an awesome chef!!! *hugs all around* but yeah, miss you!!!! Heading in to London meant I also got to see Charlotte - Yay!!!!! and, when I headed back that way later in the week on my way to Isreal (yup, that's right, Israel. At some point in my travels with Papa we discovered that Jessiann would be in Israel at approximately the same time I would still be in Europe and that, if I extended my trip, I could pick up cheap flights and come visit. So naturally, being me, I jumped at the opportunity :D) I got to see all of the Sterland family (including the gorgeous portrait Julia had painted of me - Thank you so much!!!!), watched one of Charlotte's gigs and we girls painted the front door hot pink. It looks amazing *grins* apparently now everyone on the street wants one!

Got a ride to Heathrow (which was great!) late one night, and even managed to sleep a bit on the lovely cold floor before my 6am flight (now, please tell me, why don't they have benches in the check in area at airports?) to Israel. How to describe Israel??? Jess met me at the airport and we took one of the local group taxis back into Jerusalem. It's incredible to watch the landscape change from costal mediterranean to Judean hills and know that on the other side of those is barren desert. Jess and I had such an awesome time. We stayed at the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital where Jess was living and had just the most gorgeous view and great access to hiking trails. My first full day in Jerusalem was, unfortunately, a Saturday. And, uuber religious as it is, nothing in Jerusalem was open. So, naturally, being us, we decided to head over to the Arab village of Abu Gosh, where we spent a thoroughly enjoyable day wandering the town, exploring a French-run 11th century crusaders church (which backed on to a mosque ;) ) and playing in the park/watching the world cup with all the young boys in the village on the big screen TV they'd set up under a tarp next to a drink stand on the top of a mountain. Life doesn't get any better than that :D. Next day it was off to explore Masada and check out the dead sea from the Israeli-side - and this time there was mud to get covered in *grins widely and shakes head* some of the pictures are priceless. mostly it's great for your skin but man does it ever smell of sulfur and it definitely stains your clothes! Given that Jess had appointments, we decided to only do a half day the next day and, so, headed through the security wall to the West Bank in order to make our way to Bethlehem and check out conditions on that side of Palestine (we decided against going into Gaza as the whole blockade ordeal had only just gone down the week before and we weren't too sure how safe it was with tensions running high, though I'm sure now we would've been fine). Palestine was pretty great, though the wall is really daunting. And feels unnecessary. The people were really friendly and I managed to garner my first proposal of this trip (the count eventually reached 7, all arab, naturally. More on that later ;) ). The next day was the day we finally explored old Jerusalem, and it was pretty incredible. Oddly enough for a place so sacred and fought over, to me it didn't really give off that much of a vibe... that being said, there was definitely a vibe down at the wailing wall, and somewhat of one at the Dome of the Rock, which non-Muslims are, unfortunately, no longer allowed to enter given the current situation. Such a shame, I'd've so loved to go in. I love mosques in general and that one is supposed to be breathtaking inside. Old Jerusalem itself is pretty neat. Lain out in quadrants, the armenian and christian quarters are pretty dead, although there is definitely life around the tomb of Jesus and the church of the Holy Sepulcher (which I managed to investigate thoroughly late in the evening once all of the other tourists had left or headed off for dinner). The Jewish quarter too was fairly quiet in the residential areas - or at least I thought so, until later that night I discovered that the walkways in that quarter are really on the rooftops which provide a breathtaking view of the city and are a great place to listen too/watch the sundown call to prayer. In general, it was the Muslim quarter which was liveliest, filled with shops and stalls with yummy food and spices and everything you could want (well, bar pubs showing the football/soccer games, those were in the Christian Quarter ;) ). Through rather entertaining circumstances, I somehow wound up helping one of the store owners (Beduin trader, naturally) close up his shop once Jess had headed off back home. So much fun! He was really intelligent and entertaining and I even got a lovely pair of earrings as thanks in exchange for a kiss (well, several) on the cheek! These exchanges did not, however, result in any proposals... not sure whether this was good or bad thing as there was a high likelihood I may actually have said yes! :P. Once it got truly dark, the old city came alive once more, this time with lights, as my trip just happened to coincide with the light festival, so I spent a great night partying out in the streets with what felt like the entire population of Israel!!! After a nice sleep in the next morning, Jess and I decided to head up north to the Keneret, or sea of Galilea, for some more beach/exploratory time before getting some more of that (plus world cup watching on giant screens along the beach) in Tel Aviv, where we also met up with some of her family (and discovered Jess was allergic to sun. I'm still laughing - in a polite sympathetic way of course ;) ). All in all, it was a pretty awesome trip. We didn't make it to the Red Sea (I miss it!) or the Golan Heights (next time... or maybe from the Syrian/Lebannese side), but it was great all the same!

At some point while I was in Israel, I was given the opportunity to extend my trip once again (which in this case, amounted to suspending my flight home and hoping fervently that there would be seats free when I needed to come back :) ) as I got confirmation that I'd been accepted to attend a government-funded youth forum in Russia... so I decided, what the heck, flights from England to Russia are cheap (less than a quarter of the price from here!) and transport to the forum was free, as was everything while I was there, I wouldn't even have to pay for my visa if I didn't do any touring (I did, so I had to pay)... I was never gonna get a chance like this again, might as well take it!

Best decision I ever made :D. Seliger was incredible!!!!
Picture a camp site in the middle of nowhere (it was 12hrs by bus SE of St Petersburg and 8hrs NE of Moscow) on a peninsula in a region that looks like the Muskokas filled with enough tents to house 3000 to 5000 people and populated with the most awesome group of intelligent, articulate and largely well-built/attractive, 18-35 year olds from all over the world (and I mean all over. take the most obscure countries and they were represented... with the exception, curiously enough, of the United States of America... Canada was represented though! by me and another Canadian - I miss you Kim!!!!) you've ever met, and voila, you have Seliger. It was great. We slept in tents of three, had camp fires of 15-20, showered in the lake, took turns making food (trucks came by every few days to drop off food and supplies), gathering the water, chopping the wood and doing the cleaning (when the Russian participants actually let us rather than insisting we were their guests!), got lectured by experts on a range of topics in the mornings (I was in the global politics section. There was also Art and Design, Environment and Sustainability, Civil Society, Business and Innovation and Mass Media), could attend whatever seminars we wanted/present our own projects in the afternoon (which for me, often involved mediating discussions and learning russian - Ya nemnoga govarit po-russki. Ya Lublu Rossiyu!! and I miss it very much too!), were woken up at 7:30 am by the Russian National anthem blaring through the trees, followed by the most ridiculous selection of 'wake up music' (including, but not limited to, the chip and dale theme song, russian cartoon songs, ghost busters (no joke!) and Queen) prior to 'the morning exercises' which consisted of 25mins of alternating HipHop/Peppy Aerobics for the girls (and any boys who chose to stay) and a 5k run for the boys (and any girls who chose to go). It was hilarious!!! So much fun! and you got to cool off/shower by jumping in the lake afterward!!! and had access to a beach, wind surfing, kayaks, catamarans, a high ropes course, bikes, trampolines, a variety of sports including beach volleyball, dance workshops and soccer/football - we even recreated the world cup!!! I played on the Nigerian team :D. we sadly got knocked out in the quarter finals, but that's not so bad considering there were 46 teams and ours had the handicap of a girl (namely a specific girl <- me, the other girl who was playing was certainly no handicap!). There were also concerts and parties every night (alcohol free due to the nature of the site - boy did I ever feel at home :D - and it certainly did not prevent any hilarity from ensuing!!! loads of ridiculous kissing games and limbo games and jumping over the fire games of the type that usually only result after significant levels of alcohol have been imbibed were played with alarming frequency... and by me as well!) it was amazing :D!!! I made such good friends and I miss you all :'(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *hugs to everyone* None of us ever wanted to leave!!! Sadly, most of those of us from elsewhere missed out on meeting President Medvedev as his visit was delayed due to the spy swapping so he wound up coming the day after we'd left... I'm told, however, that it rained the entire time he was there (we'd had gorgeous weather the whole week) and only cleared up again once he'd left!

But yeah, Russia was unbelievable. I loved it so much! I definitely want to go back at some point. This time to Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostock to visit all my friends in Siberia!!! As mentioned earlier, I went early in order to get some touring done, Flying in to Moscow 7 days before the conference and then jumping over to St. Petersburg and heading in to Seliger from there. Moscow was really neat. I got to see the Red Square (and a military graduation! and a military Parade at the Kremlin for that matter!) and St Basil's and the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and well, everything really. But most importantly, I managed to wrangle tickets to a sold out performance of the Bolshoi. *smiles happily* talk about dreams come true. they were putting on a Balanchine suite (I know!!!! not only was it the Bolshoi, but they were doing my favourite choreographer!!!!!!! soooo sooo sooo happy! I swear I went into shock when I found that scalper and got the tickets. I had despaired of ever getting any since I knew they were sold out before I even left England!) They were incredible. Words can't describe them. I've seen individual dancers that good. but never a whole company *sighs contentedly*. Although I made some great friends in Moscow and had a genuinely good time (and found out I'd been at the same performance and missed meeting up with Kate!) it was St. Petersburg that really caught my heart. The Hermitage was incredible, the city as a whole is architecturally gorgeous. the landscape on the flight over was breathtaking. I saw the bay of finland!. the Peter and Paul fortress, Lenin Square/finland station and the Aurora (the ship that started the October Revolution) are all pretty cool. St. Isaac's is amazing and seeing the Spaz na Krovi church (the church of christ the saviour on spilt blood- think the 'have you heard there's a rumour in st. petersburg' scenery from the Anastasia movie) was a dream come true (despite the fact that my wallet was stolen just outside of there, which sadly meant I never made it to the Peterhoff palace (next time!) or the Kirov (which is okay since they're coming this way :) ) - thank you so much to the staff of the restaurant who gave me enough money to see the church and live off of for the rest of the night!). But you know what was most incredible??? The fact that on my first night there the sun didn't even begin to set until 2am and was right back up at 4! Not quite full white night since St Petersburg is 6 degrees south of the Arctic circle and it was a week or so after the solstice, but there was still midnight sun!!! a sight I never really thought I'd see until I properly got to the arctic. It was amazing!!! a bit maddening, but really really cool!!! It started to get darker earlier on the further we got from the solstice but it was still pretty light even at midnight when we were at the camp. In Saint Petersburg it's also really neat because all the bridges along the river Neva go up at 1:30 to let the big boats through and you can watch them! (they don't go down again until 4am though so you'd best not get stuck on the wrong side of the river!)

After all that lovely adventure in Russia (and an overnight bus ride back in to Moscow) it was back to England for me. Upon landing, I decided to go straight to Cambridge to pick up my suitcase and, more importantly, visit Tabby (and his mom, sister and Erica)! As a bonus, I also got to see Simon :). Cambridge is really nice. I still maintain that it's not as nice as Oxford. Though as Tabby pointed out, there may be sentimental reasons for that ;). After completing my tour of Cambridge (and falling asleep at a dinner party. What?! I hadn't slept in ages at that point ;P) it was back in to London and Charlotte's for me! This time to say a final good bye (and watch the world cup final). We had managed to re-book me a flight home (which would be changed the day of from the icky-late-arriving evening flight which I hate, to the much more convenient mid day flight which I love, so that was Happy!) - good thing too, as by that point I was well and truly out of money!. I stayed a Charlotte's (I miss you!!), got to visit the family once more (which led to a highly entertaining excursion to find suitable wrapping for the portrait. We succeeded and it survived though!!!), attempted to get back in some semblance of dance-shape and had a fortuitous meet up with El, Jess and Caroline in Camden :D. *sighs contentedly* Definitely an amazing trip and a style of travel (the Ah!-I'm-not-sure-what-I'm-doing-next-or-how-I'm-doing-it style) I shall definitely have to repeat in the future ;).

Uhoh: NEW CRITTER UPDATE: Em's not coming home, I'm gonna hafta be a baby-killer all by myself!!!! *sobs* what am I to do???? (deal with it later clearly. I mean, in the immortal words of Scarlet O'Hara "After all, tomorrow is another day")

Yupyup, so since I've been home it's been pretty relaxed, basically just spent time applying for jobs (successful, I now have two), trying to figure out where/how I'm living next year (less successful), reading (always successful ;)), dancing, circus-ing, hanging out with the family and friends, seeing Miss Saigon with Em B (it was good!) and, most recently, going up to the cottage for the long weekend (*sighs happily* I love tubing. And the hilariousness of our family... especially the younger set). And that brings us up to now, when I should really deal with the fly/maggie/banana situation and then head off to bed. The former of which, oddly still hasn't managed to kill off my general love of life ;).
*hugs and love to all - yes, even the maggies*

Weather to Blog, or not to Blog, that is the question

Having contemplated it several times over the past week, I decided that today shall be the day I finally get around to blogging - it just seemed like such a lovely blustery morning to do it (that having been said, morning somehow appears to have escaped me and afternoon is fast approaching). I just love blustery mornings (particularly when I'm all cosy and warm inside) they remind me of fall (which it is quite clearly not at the moment, Oh my gosh, the weather we've been having lately has just been phenomenal, so gorgeous and sunny and summery! Well, apart from the minor blip where it snowed in between two days in their gorgeous teens and the hail storm we got on my birthday (Yay! Hail!). I even have a tan already! And I didn't even try!). The best part of blustery days though, is that they remind me of Winnie the Pooh and the several stories about him which begin that way, and that makes me happy :).

So odd. The amount of time I spend talking of the weather... *shakes head in distress* I noticed this the other day. It's like ever since having spent so long in England, I feel like it's the only appropriate topic of conversation! I've totally forgotten how to converse with people!!! Gah! I used to be so good at drawing people out and asking the right questions and making conversation so that no one ever felt awkward but I've totally forgotten how!!! I'm just too scared to broach any potentially dangerous topics! Why? I don't know. *wrinkles nose* Oh, I'm still perfectly capable of playing a crowd in social situations and mingling quite happily and talking with long established friends is still easy enough - though I do find myself awkwardly looking for topics of conversation more often than I used to... People here are perfectly content to give you their opinion on anything/everything the second you meet them so why I should expect them to be as reticent as the Brits, I have no idea... urgh. So difficult! *shakes head* must work on this. Talking is what I'm good at.. must regain former competence!

*laughs* ah well, what can you do... right! Updates :D! Let's see, where did we leave off... Ah, yes, reading week & the Olympics! After spending some time in the basement with our skeleton - he was an adorable old man who lived for a remarkably long time (I think the documents, once we were finally allowed to see them said 87!) giving the extent of the pathologies on him! His poor collar bone! and sternum! and ribs! and left hip socket! and spine! and elbow! and, omg *shakes head* I do not want to see what my skeleton is going to look like when I'm that old... for that matter, I'm kind of scared to know what it looks like now! - it was time for the Olympics to begin :D! We kicked of the event in proper style with an Olympic openning party at our place during which we somehow managed to fit 20-some-odd people in our teeny-tiny living room -thank you Evan for fixing the tv so we actually got ctv :D! Omg, sooo good! I lovew the olympics soo much!!! and these ones were just so magical despite the tragedy they started off with and the general lack of snow. So many great stories, and wins, and near wins, and performances and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier terrorising tourists and the Brian Williams meat Brian Williams thing. lol! The last few days especially were just incredible! and winning that Hockey Gold (or both of them rather :) ). Well let's just say I still get shivers just thinking about it :). Aghh! most intense game ever... so many near heartattacks there! So great though :). It really was just incredible - even if I did have to suffer through Jess and Em calling me repeatedly from various venues around vancouver to brag ;P - just kidding, I love you guys, really. Oh! and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir's dancing! Incredible!!!! so was Yu-na Kim's. but really Virtue and Moir were just breathtakingly gorgeous *sighs happily* and Moir's antics in general were great "we came in second - no I'm just kinding, we won!" lol. Sooo good! The Olympics just make me so happy! I love them so much :D. Our closing ceremonies on the other hand... lol. I swear the rest of the world was sitting there watching going 'I don't get it...' but I really did like how they had the mime bring up the last arm of the cauldron so Catriona LeMay Doan could finally get to light hers :) - so happy making!
In the midst of all this, it was time to head off skiing with the gifted boys and Wendy (who is leaving for vancouver for ever and ever on wednesday - noooo, Wendy, don't gooo!!!!) up at Blue. Sooo much fun, with lot's of hilarity ensuing :). Honnestly, I think Wendy and I may have been the only people NOT to blow dry our hair *shakes head* plus. trying desparately to lose at poker so I could go to bed and still managing to clean most of them out was pretty fun - as was the rediculousness of watching them get up early in the morning so that they could play computer games :P.

Next it was time for a crazy few weeks involving getting all my work done, presenting at the Medusa series, marking proposals, tests and papers, attending various seminars, going to the movies, hanging out with friends, dancing and playing soccer as per usual, end of term/year parties and just generally having fun :). My 22nd birthday was fairly uneventful (apart from the hail!) as I spent the time writing an 20 page essay, but all in all, it was still pretty good :). I have to say, I really really enjoyed TAing - yes, even the essay marking. In fact, I kinda really enjoyed the essay marking part too :D. And I really hope I get to do it again next year! Anyhow, all I have left now is my MRP/thesis-y thing (which I still haven't settled on - no worries, there's still time ;) ) and one more IR course and then I'm done - YAY!!!!. The best of the seminars was definitely the one organised by the other MAIR students (which took place on a crazy filled weekend which also included protoring an exam and seeing Jane Goodall speak live - she's so very British!!!). The conference was on negotiation in IR and there were some really great speakers - may favourite two of which were Brian Stewart who gave the key note address (I swear nothing major has occured in the last 50 years without his being there!) and Paul Heinbecker, former Canadian ambassador to the UN. Very interesting.

Yup, so, that brings us up to now :). OOh! I also got to re-see Kudelka's Swan Lake with Ma... I think I like it better now that I've gotten over my blind hatred for his choreography... I still say that this one has no emotion though... it's just... beautiful but not heartwrenching in any way really... it's so much less emotive than Bruhn's version. Linna and Ma both agree. The patterning is absolutely Stunning though! Oooh! also saw the mixed program they did in March with Ju... man is 24 preludes by Chopin weird... it was kinda cute in an awkward way though... and a number of them made me laugh. Suite of Dances was adorably good though :). And four Seasons was stunning as always... though I swear they added more intricacy too it and made it even better! Soo ecited for Onegin in June now! they have the pictures from the model sets up in the studios down at walter carson and they look amazing! Just took ma to see GlenGary GlenRoss by Soulpepper as an early morther's day present since I wont be around (aka she blackmailed me into it ;) ) last night and the acting was incredible - so believable! Hmm what else? can't remember if I mentioned it before but Sound of Music with Papa earlier this year was also amazing! there was one scene in which the captain looking bashful did exactly what Langan does when he's nervous - so unnerving!! Speaking of which, Congrats to all the boys for getting their engineering rings!!! and to everyone else who is now officially done their undergrad for that matter!!!! Yay-ness :D! I'm no longer alone!!!! Well... not that I've technically graduated yet, but neither have they ;).

Uhoh! Time to get dressed and head out to Wendy's going away lunch (Noooo!) and then Nal's (and my) belated b-day dinner (Also, why is it now raining? I said lovely blustery day, not rainy day. Ah well, I suppose rain can be good too :P). Then it's off up north to re-cert my wilderness first responder this coming weekend, and then to England (with a minor 3 week stopover in Budapest, Vienna and Prague prior and some sticking around and travelling to as-of-yet unplanned destinations with Charlotte afterwards ;) ) in order to graduate the next :D. Wish me luck and the best of summer to you all!

And...

... I'm now officially old ;).

It's the OLYMPICS!!!!!!

Good luck Canada!!!!! :D.

Oh Deary Me, has it ever been a while ;)!

*shakes head in disbelief* I'm not sure if the above title is a reflection of my all-out and thourough enjoymet of life (and therefore lack of a need to blog about it... - definitely, but I blog anyway ;) ), the absence of any travels lately (and therefore lack of stuff to write about... well more than likely probably) or is a testament to just how busy I've been (and therefore a lack of time to blog about the busy-ness)... lets just go with all three shall we? After all, we all know they're all just excuses so I can feel better about not having blogged in forever :D.

and on that note A Very Happy (slightly belated) 7th (Yikes! - 7th?) Birthday to My Blog!!!!

*shakes head in laughter* Crazy, who would have ever thought that I, who hate writing so much (so much so in fact that it's a struggle to even spell the word correctly :P), would have ended up carrying on a blog for so long?! Then again, as the one dissenting voice in my head has just pointed out, given the frequency with which I actually post, maybe that's not so much of a surprise *wrinkles nose and glares the voice into submission* :P. Granted, I suppose when one considers that I also decided to do my undergrad in a place where I wrote non-stop... well.. yeah... there's just no accounting for me is there? *shakes head*..... hmmm *points to head shaking tendency* I should probably be careful about that... my head's so lose as it is and my brain so disconnected (or maybe it's too connected and that's my problem??? nah... more like there are so many loose ends that jiggling them results in completely unforseen pretty new patterns of thought and that's why no one can follow my thinking :D - it's reasoned and logical, I swear!!!!) that shaking so vigorously could be dangerous... then again, the resulting mess could also be fun :D.

lol, I'm not sure why (given the fact that I'm virtually drowning under the volume of work - Ox has nothing on UofT, I swear! Then again, the voluminous nature of my working and my subsequent drowning under it couldn't possbly be a direct result of the fact that rather than acting like a normal, sane, graduate student and taking only two or three graduate courses, I decided that four plus TAing plus 8-10 hours of dance plus playing pickup soccer in any free time I have plus attending seminars plus agreeing to present a paper at an informal department thing and trying to have a life all at the same time would be much more fun to do - actually, it kinda is :D. I can't really lie, I'm enjoying myself thouroughly!!! So much fun!!! And all my readings are interesting! and my classes are cool... and I'm such a nerd aren't I??? teehee *shakes head* I so wouldn't have it any other way *grins widely*... right, now, where was I??? Oh, yes!) but I feel like I have this lovely glow of love for the world surrounding me right now. Do concussions do that to you??? One of the guys at soccer ran full-on into my forhead when I was trying to block him the other day and I got a big bump *pouts* not that it's noticeable, but it kinda hurts... also, why am I always the only/one of the only girls??? It's co-ed soccer and it ends up being just me and like 30 boys... it does make a nice change from the female-dominance at the studio though! and in anthropology for that matter! *smiles happily and shrugs* ah, who knows, I just feel happy *sends out hugs and love to anyone who might be reading this at the moment whatever that moment may be, regardless of whether or not she herself is still feeling that lovely glow when this gets read.* .. aww heck, why not just send out the love and hugs to everyone and all right now... I really must have hit my head hard musn't I? *shakes head*
... actually... on that note, why do people do or say negative things??? there's so much negativity in the world and it's so just... not happy... ...why???
lol! *points to above* man, I donno what it is, (definitely getting hit in the head) but I sound like a 5-yr-old hippy... it's kinda nice actually :D. You gotta like getting that childish demeanor back :).

Speaking of injuries, I can't believe I managed to tear my hamstring again (for the second time in my life - same side too, only this time higher up, like right where it joins in the bum... and really deep in - also, in the same way as before - doing the splits, only this time I rolled into them wrong after having done them several times already that day *pouts*). That was in September and it's been a long slow healing process getting it back (not that I ever stopped dancing - I mean come on, it's me ;). I was back dancing on it (badly) pretty instantaneously after I did it - I couldn't do very much though) but it's getting there! In fact, I think it may even be a stronger than ever (though the flexibility still isn't quite back yet... I'm still an inch or two off the splits (when extremely warm) and can't support extensions much above 90 - but then, flexibility never really was my strong suit ;) ) thanks to a little physio (and I do mean a little... I think I made it to slightly over 3 appointments in 5 months? :S - they were really good & helpful though!)... but yeah, so that's good news! And I'm really loving the chance to dance with some of the former National Ballet Dancers/teachers - so many of them are such incredible teachers (and dancers - omg, I remember loving watching some of them on stage!) and watching them dance/demonstrate things is incredible!!! That and the level of talent from the people in the advanced classes is insane! Amazing!!!! *shakes head* If a tear wasn't enough, I rolled my foot the other week falling out of a turn (naturally still on the left side... probably admittedly due to the weakness there :P) ... I iced it right away and was good to it though! (and by that I mean I waited a few dozen minutes and warmed it up thouroughly before continuing to dance on it ;) ) but my physio said it might be fractured as well as slightly sprained (I doubt it... I played soccer 3 times and danced 5 times in the 2 weeks in between doing it and seeing her...) so I'm just being a good girl and icing and pretending that's not the case, I honnestly don't think I could survive taking any more time out with injury... school work with no release would drive me crazy!

As to that, being back in T.O has been... good...really. I'm actually kinda really enjoying settling into one place again and having all my connections and seeing all my friends (which I do get to do despite all my work :P). Living with em is really fun too, and it's really nice to be able to go do things over the weekend (not that I often have time to anymore :P) if I really want to. This term has actually been better than last term in that respect (not the weekend one, the one prior). Although I've had much more work (I'm not sure how, really, I had four courses last term too :P) I just seem to be living more somehow, having more energy, getting out more... reading fewer novels (I was doing 3 a week last term!) but that's okay, I'll catch up over the summer :)! lol, maybe it's that I'm actually re-engaging with the world around me (I say that like I stopped... maybe engaging more is a better way of phrasing it), plus getting to run around with boys at soccer has helped with energy levels *grins*, that and I think I just needed a re-adjustment period, both for my brain and socially/toronto-ially... (no, that's not a word, but I know what I mean so ;P)... in some ways last term kept feeling like I was on haitus, waiting to return to Ox in the fall... At any rate, school's been good :D, this term especially. So, yeah, to those who have been asking: I'm definitely glad I'm back :)!

Let's see excitement-wise other than school, what have I been up to??? Not much really... there was cousin Kimmy's wedding in the fall, which was fun 'cause I got to dance with all the older folks who really knew how to twist :D. that and Papa and I got to have fun Vienese waltzing and Tarantella-ing around the floor much to my delight. Why don't they teach boys my age to dance properly??? sooo much fun!!!!!!! plus, they always all end up watching jealously from the sidelines *shakes head* what else???? OOoh yummy pumpkin pies for eating :D (and then pumpkin muffins when em decided to kill our decorative pumpkin so she could get at the seeds ;)), getting out to nuit blanche with Nal and Ju and David, Seeing the latest cirque show - Ovo was so good!!!!, escapades with Jess - seeing multiple movies, getting to see 'my mother's lesbian jewish wiccan wedding' which was hilarious, feeling remarkably like a closet door (you know who you are! ;) ), taking all the cousins on a massive family & friend outing to see New Moon and laughing so hard we drove all the the other girls watching nuts, getting to see Sleeping Beauty with Linna and the New ballet by Azure (which was so good!) with ma, various parties, baking cookies for the Anthro Grad Union Wine and Cheese and actually managing to come up with a delicious recipe capturing the flavour of Christmas (they were orange-and-craisin-and-milkchochip-and-spice(nutmeg/cinnamon/ginger) cookies, they were yummy :D), taking Trina, Jess and Zia Diana flying for the first time which was awesome and volunteer gift wrapping for epilepsy at STC. Oh! And I managed to do the CNTower climb with David and some of his friends back in October for the first time in 3 years (yes, with my torn hamstring :p) . I did it in 23.06 - not my best, but still pretty damn good!!! :D. What else??? OOOoooooh!!!!! I also got to see the Olympic flame when it came through T.O :D!!!!!!!! Sooo awesomely happy!!! that said, we waited outside in the freezing cold for about1.45mins 'cause it was late :P but still sooo coool!!!! So excited for the Olympics in February :D!!!! hmmm I think then it was on to Christmas and seeing the family which was awesome, having a violent bout of food poisoning/stomach flu in between then and New Years, which was not so fun, getting to play football with the boys (and not getting injured this time... though watching ed repeatedly take himself out on the ice was pretty funny ;) - lmao! that and watching Thomas drive onto the ice covered track so he could drift the car around the corners *shakes head* ) seeing all the gifties again at Milani & Thomas' bday... then came Julia's visit and skiing up north :D!!! lol, priceless we figured out that David is essentially another me and Julia another Langan, which was pretty darn priceless (speaking of which, congrats to all the people *coughsLanganCeilidhVincecoughs* who got into Law School!!!) and then showing Julia around T.O before she left (which defeinitely involved Julia using David's free pass, which we got for climbing before 7am because he's insane and made us, to get up the CNTower for free :D) and going to the bata shoe museum and playing around on the cast of Lucy's prints, going on Kat and my's epic-post-x-mas-shopping spree :D, the odd get-together/pub night, getting together a bunch of the gifties for dinner with Mrs.B. which was awesome (even if I had to organise it so I'd be late just so it could fit with everyone else's schedules ;)), then last weekend was Kat's crazy-limmo-involving bday with Sara's uber-good tasting jello-shots with actual fruit in them (Steve take note ;P) and yeah... that brings us up to now :D.

lol... hmm... a now which is conveniently also probably bed time as I get to spend tomorrow trying to profile our skeleton in the basement of the anthro building with Renee :D. See you at the end of this work-filled period. Much love.