Welcome to Ally's lil' corner of the universe (does it even have corners?) where everyone one can live the insanity that is her mind. Originally begun some 20 odd years ago (20?!) as a high school diary, this blog now contains (somewhat irregular) updates on where Ally has been and what she has been up to - often alongside whatever other bizarre musings happen to be meandering by at the time ;).
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
And We're Off!
I guess it's about time for a post eh? lol, that having been said, I think I'm still doing pretty well frequency wise :P.
Updates, updates... nothing too crazy to report since last postage. The World Archaeological Congress was fun - presentation went well, met loads of great people (including some I would have met much earlier had I actually been on campus at all this year *looks shiftily innocent*, as well as experts in the field and, Vince, who I actually met a few years ago when he was in Oxford organising a Haida visit and repatriation!), had an awesome roommate (Yay, Athena!) and had a great time talking archaeology & ethics with museum people, archaeologists and indigenous communities members. Indianapolis is a cute little town (okay so it's technically a city but it's small and adorable so I'm calling it a town *wrinkles nose*. It's sleepy enough that the idea of a Saturday evening out entails driving in circles around the downtown core in old cars :P). Indianapolis is built around the White River. It oddly reminds me of Calgary actually - the centrality of the river, the largely flatness of the city, the 'skywalks' connecting all the buildings and - most wonderfully - the sheer amount of public art prettifying all the street corners :)!. It made me very happy - as did the Eiteljorg (pronounce Idle-georg) Museum. I definitely think the prettiest part of the city though was the canal walk area near the eiteljorg, and my favourite view was that looking along the canals toward the factory that dominates the skyline in one direction - weird I know but it's an oddly charming picture. In addition to getting to chill & go out (I forgot how much archaeologists liked to party :P) with great people, we also got free admission to the Indian Market festival, which was fun to see. And, because I stuck around for an extra morning, I managed to make it out to the Brickyard to check out the Indy 500 Motor Speedway - it's huge, there's even a golf course in the middle of it!!! The museum there is really cool, they have the chassis of all the former winners there so you can see the evolution of the Indy cars :). As it was a sleepy Sunday morning, I and a couple got to not only go on a 20 mile/hr (let me tell you how exciting that speed is, I swear I walk faster :P) ride around the track but, to check out the control tower, private event booth, garages and press room - control room was definitely my fav :). After that it was a hop over to the airport (thank you hotel driver guy from the other hotel who wasn't supposed to drive me anywhere without payment but who, not only picked me up from the Brickyard, but drove me out to the airport for free!! You rock and deserve only good things in your life :)!) and back on over to Toronto - omg, possibly the best discovery of the trip??? How nicely they've done up the Detroit airport! So unexpected! Favourite part was the crazy psychedelic light-and-sound show in the kilometre long tunnel that you have to cross to switch terminals. Sooo Trippy!
Got about 4 days back in Toronto to get in some circus, dance, work and Spanish speech writing before it was off again to Mexico City with Papa for his wedding. It was lovely. The house there is stunning - so awesomely laid out! I also loved the way they did the banquet hall - so colourful!! And the food? To die for! it was soooo yummy. The Tamales, the empenadas, the tortillas, the meat, the chili, the dried mangoes in chili, that cacao-y sauce they put on chicken that I can only remember the name of half the time :) Mmmm soooo good! Esperanza's family are all lovely as well, and it was fun to try and re-learn some Spanish while I was there - thank you so much Ximena for helping sort out that speech & being Papa's official wedding translator - You are so awesome! Also, so happy that all of Esperanza's family can and love to dance :D! Esperanza also took some time away from the preparations to take us out to see Teotihuacan. Soooo happy-making :D! I got to climb the pyramids of the moon and sun and just generally roam around for a morning - unfortunately it started to rain and Papa was getting hungry so I didn't make it over to the temple of the Quetzal, but that can be for next time *grins*. Also, it meant we got to eat in a cave and check out a traditional dancing performance that Ximena recomended :). Definitely a fun trip. I'd love to go back and see Mexico City proper. It just reminded me so much of northern Peru and the (loosely termed) house we lived in there. Weird how I feel so much more at home in those types of places than in hotels or nice houses... lol, probably scared that my natural clumsiness will cause me to break something if I'm in a place that's too nice ;).
After that it was once again back to good old T.O for some time spent enjoying the city and earning some form of income. Managed to finish up the last of my MRP and get moved into my place down on the harbourfront with Ju - we have an outdoor pool! It makes me so happy! and fell into the daily routine of dance-pool-work. Met up with the gifted girls as well as some of the scarborough crew. Saw Captain America which was awesome, went to the midnight opening of HP7.2 post-work with Jon, Emma & Jess - also awesome, so weird to think that an era which has pretty much spanned a good part of my life is over... *semi-sad face*... what else? Mostly I worked and danced a lot :P. I did get out to a few fringe shows this year and they were all awesome! Saw the one Alan was in which was hilarious, went along with Alan to see Through the Tulips which was excellent and managed to get tickets (after lining up an hour early on only the second night) to Kim's Convenience which was absolutely FANTASTIC - just impeccably written, timed and delivered, it was simultaneously incredibly moving while being laugh-out-load, bottom of the belly, gasping for breath funny. Soo good. I don't think I can emphasize how good it was but, basically, if you ever hear that it's being re-staged: Go! Oh, and let me know so that I can get tickets too :).
Saw Dream in High Park's Winter's Tale a few weeks ago while being background support for em during the launching of her non-for-profit Intermission... it was okay, there were good and bad parts. Not bad over all but not excellent either. An absolutely fantastic show was Billy Elliot, which Jess, Spaghetti, Tri, Robert, Nal and I all saw last night. Soo good. A bit slow in the beginning, but boy did it pick up. Something I would definitely go see again :). The kids, especially the little boy and the one that plays Michael, are just phenomenal! The one who played Billy was excellent too - our Billy was more of a dancer than a singer, still excellent though! Many of the girls are also wonderful dancers - they don't necessarily get to show it on stage but the ones I've seen in class have all been really good! It's on for four more weeks and there are loads of discount codes floating about, so for those interested I recommend you go :).
And that brings us up to now! Which leads me back to the title of this blog post - I'm running off again :D! This time to Taiwan for the(ir/ Republic of China's) Centennial Celebrations. It's all very exciting. I get to do a homestay, travel around taiwan, blog about what I see and eat and then meet the President/attend the formal celebrations. Long story as to why and how, I am sure I will get into it at some point but yeah, for now you can follow my trip here (there will be pictures!):
Hope you enjoy, updates will come once I am back. For now, I am off to pack - I leave tomorrow morning so I really need to get on that ;)!
Addendum:
In a brief (long) break from packing Ju and I watched Transformers 2. This reminded me that I also recently saw Transformers 3 - henceforth known as The Film Which Does Not Exist (TFWDNE). What the heck were they thinking??? On what planet would the movie Sam and McKayla break up??? Having just rewatched the second one, I'm pretty sure she loved him for him :P. I realise that they break up in the original cannon, but let's face it, they changed enough for the movies that they didn't need to be worried about that. I might not resent it quite so much if the new female could act, was anywhere near as hot as Megan Fox or had some personality, but she fails in all three points - ugh! She's just such a useless female. And the banter sucked! the whole point of those movies were the explosions, transformations, awesome banter and the hotness of Megan Fox doing traditionally male things - not having a wimpering useless female who does nothing but look spotless. Urgh. She didn't do anything helpful!!! and she was horrible for Sam's character! He's always been pathetic, but now he was both pathetic and pugnacious - it was almost as though with McKayla gone they had to find someone to fill in those shoes. *wrinkles nose in extreme displeasure*. As you can tell this upset me greatly. To the point where her lack of a character ruined the movie to such a degree that not even the ridiculousness of sector 7 guy could dig it out. Hence the fact that it is TFWDNE. okay... I'm done now...
Updates, updates... nothing too crazy to report since last postage. The World Archaeological Congress was fun - presentation went well, met loads of great people (including some I would have met much earlier had I actually been on campus at all this year *looks shiftily innocent*, as well as experts in the field and, Vince, who I actually met a few years ago when he was in Oxford organising a Haida visit and repatriation!), had an awesome roommate (Yay, Athena!) and had a great time talking archaeology & ethics with museum people, archaeologists and indigenous communities members. Indianapolis is a cute little town (okay so it's technically a city but it's small and adorable so I'm calling it a town *wrinkles nose*. It's sleepy enough that the idea of a Saturday evening out entails driving in circles around the downtown core in old cars :P). Indianapolis is built around the White River. It oddly reminds me of Calgary actually - the centrality of the river, the largely flatness of the city, the 'skywalks' connecting all the buildings and - most wonderfully - the sheer amount of public art prettifying all the street corners :)!. It made me very happy - as did the Eiteljorg (pronounce Idle-georg) Museum. I definitely think the prettiest part of the city though was the canal walk area near the eiteljorg, and my favourite view was that looking along the canals toward the factory that dominates the skyline in one direction - weird I know but it's an oddly charming picture. In addition to getting to chill & go out (I forgot how much archaeologists liked to party :P) with great people, we also got free admission to the Indian Market festival, which was fun to see. And, because I stuck around for an extra morning, I managed to make it out to the Brickyard to check out the Indy 500 Motor Speedway - it's huge, there's even a golf course in the middle of it!!! The museum there is really cool, they have the chassis of all the former winners there so you can see the evolution of the Indy cars :). As it was a sleepy Sunday morning, I and a couple got to not only go on a 20 mile/hr (let me tell you how exciting that speed is, I swear I walk faster :P) ride around the track but, to check out the control tower, private event booth, garages and press room - control room was definitely my fav :). After that it was a hop over to the airport (thank you hotel driver guy from the other hotel who wasn't supposed to drive me anywhere without payment but who, not only picked me up from the Brickyard, but drove me out to the airport for free!! You rock and deserve only good things in your life :)!) and back on over to Toronto - omg, possibly the best discovery of the trip??? How nicely they've done up the Detroit airport! So unexpected! Favourite part was the crazy psychedelic light-and-sound show in the kilometre long tunnel that you have to cross to switch terminals. Sooo Trippy!
Got about 4 days back in Toronto to get in some circus, dance, work and Spanish speech writing before it was off again to Mexico City with Papa for his wedding. It was lovely. The house there is stunning - so awesomely laid out! I also loved the way they did the banquet hall - so colourful!! And the food? To die for! it was soooo yummy. The Tamales, the empenadas, the tortillas, the meat, the chili, the dried mangoes in chili, that cacao-y sauce they put on chicken that I can only remember the name of half the time :) Mmmm soooo good! Esperanza's family are all lovely as well, and it was fun to try and re-learn some Spanish while I was there - thank you so much Ximena for helping sort out that speech & being Papa's official wedding translator - You are so awesome! Also, so happy that all of Esperanza's family can and love to dance :D! Esperanza also took some time away from the preparations to take us out to see Teotihuacan. Soooo happy-making :D! I got to climb the pyramids of the moon and sun and just generally roam around for a morning - unfortunately it started to rain and Papa was getting hungry so I didn't make it over to the temple of the Quetzal, but that can be for next time *grins*. Also, it meant we got to eat in a cave and check out a traditional dancing performance that Ximena recomended :). Definitely a fun trip. I'd love to go back and see Mexico City proper. It just reminded me so much of northern Peru and the (loosely termed) house we lived in there. Weird how I feel so much more at home in those types of places than in hotels or nice houses... lol, probably scared that my natural clumsiness will cause me to break something if I'm in a place that's too nice ;).
After that it was once again back to good old T.O for some time spent enjoying the city and earning some form of income. Managed to finish up the last of my MRP and get moved into my place down on the harbourfront with Ju - we have an outdoor pool! It makes me so happy! and fell into the daily routine of dance-pool-work. Met up with the gifted girls as well as some of the scarborough crew. Saw Captain America which was awesome, went to the midnight opening of HP7.2 post-work with Jon, Emma & Jess - also awesome, so weird to think that an era which has pretty much spanned a good part of my life is over... *semi-sad face*... what else? Mostly I worked and danced a lot :P. I did get out to a few fringe shows this year and they were all awesome! Saw the one Alan was in which was hilarious, went along with Alan to see Through the Tulips which was excellent and managed to get tickets (after lining up an hour early on only the second night) to Kim's Convenience which was absolutely FANTASTIC - just impeccably written, timed and delivered, it was simultaneously incredibly moving while being laugh-out-load, bottom of the belly, gasping for breath funny. Soo good. I don't think I can emphasize how good it was but, basically, if you ever hear that it's being re-staged: Go! Oh, and let me know so that I can get tickets too :).
Saw Dream in High Park's Winter's Tale a few weeks ago while being background support for em during the launching of her non-for-profit Intermission... it was okay, there were good and bad parts. Not bad over all but not excellent either. An absolutely fantastic show was Billy Elliot, which Jess, Spaghetti, Tri, Robert, Nal and I all saw last night. Soo good. A bit slow in the beginning, but boy did it pick up. Something I would definitely go see again :). The kids, especially the little boy and the one that plays Michael, are just phenomenal! The one who played Billy was excellent too - our Billy was more of a dancer than a singer, still excellent though! Many of the girls are also wonderful dancers - they don't necessarily get to show it on stage but the ones I've seen in class have all been really good! It's on for four more weeks and there are loads of discount codes floating about, so for those interested I recommend you go :).
And that brings us up to now! Which leads me back to the title of this blog post - I'm running off again :D! This time to Taiwan for the(ir/ Republic of China's) Centennial Celebrations. It's all very exciting. I get to do a homestay, travel around taiwan, blog about what I see and eat and then meet the President/attend the formal celebrations. Long story as to why and how, I am sure I will get into it at some point but yeah, for now you can follow my trip here (there will be pictures!):
Hope you enjoy, updates will come once I am back. For now, I am off to pack - I leave tomorrow morning so I really need to get on that ;)!
Addendum:
In a brief (long) break from packing Ju and I watched Transformers 2. This reminded me that I also recently saw Transformers 3 - henceforth known as The Film Which Does Not Exist (TFWDNE). What the heck were they thinking??? On what planet would the movie Sam and McKayla break up??? Having just rewatched the second one, I'm pretty sure she loved him for him :P. I realise that they break up in the original cannon, but let's face it, they changed enough for the movies that they didn't need to be worried about that. I might not resent it quite so much if the new female could act, was anywhere near as hot as Megan Fox or had some personality, but she fails in all three points - ugh! She's just such a useless female. And the banter sucked! the whole point of those movies were the explosions, transformations, awesome banter and the hotness of Megan Fox doing traditionally male things - not having a wimpering useless female who does nothing but look spotless. Urgh. She didn't do anything helpful!!! and she was horrible for Sam's character! He's always been pathetic, but now he was both pathetic and pugnacious - it was almost as though with McKayla gone they had to find someone to fill in those shoes. *wrinkles nose in extreme displeasure*. As you can tell this upset me greatly. To the point where her lack of a character ruined the movie to such a degree that not even the ridiculousness of sector 7 guy could dig it out. Hence the fact that it is TFWDNE. okay... I'm done now...
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