it's been really great so far, catching up with luke and csb jeff (california sunshine boy), who i haven't seen in ever so long. also talking to fayewood and karina on the telephone, it makes me sad that i won't be seeing so many people before i leave.

i'm planning on going off to kingston tomorrow to visit tanaka and then saturday off to NYC...and next week we're off to mont tremblant for skiing time, yay! i only hope that this constant migraine will go away, somehow i'm not too optimistic about that.

other then that, "hero" is a great visual movie, very much enjoyed that. and vaughn mills mall is overrated, the only thing i really liked there was the outdoor store, THAT was much more interesting then the rest of the mall...come on, they have an aquarium with rainbow trout and hunting gear, and the like...

oh, and i played the piano at the christmas party at the toronto rehabilitation hospital on tuesday. wow, it was an exhilarating experience, having everyone singing along and just so happy. and i was happy that people were requesting songs that i knew i could play. oh, and the piano was SO WONKY. all the notes were off by a semitone so when i played middle c, it sounded like a b, and b sounded like a and so on....so wrong, but it worked out! ;p

and look, it's snowing outside now...

T-minus 16 hours --- last exam

god, my head is going to explode of soy chai lattes, spastic cerebral palsy, hearing disorders, cleft palate, aphasias and my all time favorite, neurogenic disorders of speech. it's been bad, what with my bouts of dizziness the last couple days, i'm convinced that the perilymph in my cochlea (ie, fluid in my inner ear) is messed up.

true to form, i've been studying like a fiend and i am SOOOO looking forward to tomorrow afternoon. i've already planned what i'm going to be doing after my exam: cleaning my room. yes yes, my room looks like a hurricane AND a tornado has struck...i can't see my bed anymore, i just crawl under something resembling a comforter at night and hope that the clothes and paper on top don't fall off the bed!

it would be nice to see some people before i leave christmas day, but i went to nisha's christmas condowarming party yesterday with shelley and it was a lot more fun then i anticipated. i do believe i have entered the age when my friends are getting married or scoring big shot career jobs or living in fanatastic places.

me? i'm going to be a traveller. ;p

oh how exciting, in exactly 10 days i will be out of this wretched city!!! i had been preparing to write another essay for today's exam (because the exam is 60% of our final grade, and come on, 60%?!?!?) but about 2am this morning i had a relevation, that i didn't HAVE to write the essay, it was only optional to take the stress off of the fact that the exam was 60%. it also helped that i hadn't even begun the essay and i was freaking myself out. so in the end, it all worked out. ;p

so i am now a starbucks dweller, i have spent the last two days studying there (there being the one closest to my house) and i'm pretty sure all the starbucks people know me. i even know which one is the manager, which is pretty crazy. i met this girl, raquel, one day sitting on the couch (which looks suspiciouly like velma) across from me last week. and the crazy story to that is that she knows my friend robin! i pulled the line "do you know..." and she started laughing and then was like "wow yah i know her!" fun fun times.

ok, i'm planning on catching up on some lost sleep now. but my goal is to start hardcore studying for JLS tonight and then review review review, and then kick some booty. (that is the plan, let's see how it goes!)

i am in SUCH A GREAT MOOD RIGHT NOW!!! finished bioethics and for the first time ever, i have a FIVE DAY break before my next exam! (i mean for this semester anyway) so i went out with the bioethic ppl after our exam and we went to o'grady's where there were kids from JLS promoting 'communications awareness week' and we had such a great time! (i am so in love with jon, he's like a cuter version of eminem! hahaha!)

it's been a long couple of weeks, and it feels great being so relaxed (oops, my bad, i had a margarita! hahaha) but now i'm going to go to sleep because it suddenly occured to me that i am EXHAUSTED. i'll have an update when i am more coherent! ;p

A cardiologist died and was given an elaborate funeral. A huge heart
covered in flowers stood behind the casket during the service.
Following the eulogy, the heart opened, and the casket rolled
inside. The heart then closed, sealing the doctor in the beautiful
heart
forever.


At that point, one of the mourners burst into laughter.
When all eyes stared at him, he said, "I'm sorry, I was just thinking
of my own funeral...I'm a gynecologist."

The proctologist fainted.

hahaha, that is SO funny!

no i am not an insomniac...this weekend could not have been any longer then it possibly could be. i just got home from celine's where alicia and jamie are staying over tonight and are still working on our jls project. we better get an A++ on our project, we're killing ourselves to get it done. ellan's mac is nearly dead, as are we...it is currently having a fan blown at it...hahaha.

however, the outcome of all our work looks like it will be breathtaking, so yay for a job well done. but i will go to sleep now before i pass out, plus i have class tomorrow morning so that will be hell in itself. oh the black liner tomorrow...

my apologies. i never intended to go on hiatus. however, this month happens to be the "projects" month, and projects are always MUCH MORE time consuming then writing essays and tests (which are also neverending). plus i'm volunteering at the toronto rehab center, and "out of the cold", as well as the usual teaching piano, so i'm much too exhausted to go online and chat, let alone blog.

my boyfriend is taking up too much time. his name is goldvarb, and he speaks a completely different language then i do, thus it is very difficult to understand him and i have to work on him most 24 hrs/day because he is very needy. if i even try to leave him alone for a day, i run into major problems with him and i cannot afford to make him angry. when i am through with him (because if anyone knows me, they'll know why), i will show you how i did with him.

anyway, a quick highlight of what you've missed:
- grad photos on tuesday, i am officially graduating...very scary!
- interviewed a speech language pathologist and an occupational therapist at west park
- hole-punched my pinky on a three-ring puncher yesterday. hurt like a bitch!
- i have been spending a lot of time at the starbucks at yonge and college, and so shelley and i have named "our" couches 'velma' and 'kelly'. shelley gets a very nice view of the cute 'starbucks boy' from 'kelly', and i get a nice view of the 'tutor boy' from velma...so everyone is happy!

i need to go shopping!!

what a LOOOOOOONG WEEK. it seems never ending...and it's only THURSDAY. it's been quite a blast from the past, starting with monday running in to patrice in the middle of the night on bloor street after class, and then running into karen and andy volpe at bloor station. and then having the most insane msn conversation with patrice and alex g (talk about desensitization guys!)

and then tuesday it was casa loma ghost tours at night with shelley and matt, and then the 4 for all pizza at pizza hut...mmmmh, yummy...pizza and jessie the pirate in the pink shirt! hahahaha!

wednesday was see everyone day at the jcr. shelley, simone and i decided to go eat there for lunch, and so after jacob and i finished some research at the library, we headed over there, and lo and behold! ellan, margarita, and....flo?!?!?! and of course the krispy kreme donuts came in from the graditude campaign, and so i made an appearance at the infamous SMCSU office...props to me for carrying a bunch of fattening donuts!

and of course there is the never ending set of assignments and essays and tests and quizzes going on. because of my crazy fun weekend, i didn't get to really work on my ethics paper until monday so i was quite happy to have finished it for class that day, and then i stayed up to extract and code data for assignment that was due today. it's a fun course, but it's extremely tedious and time consuming. i literally felt my spine beginning to curve! and then there was the "broken speech" play that was going on tonight, and such an adventure to go to the beaches to get the cameras.

and just to relax a bit, went out with shelley to starbucks this evening and the starbucks boy really liked us so he started giving us free sugar food, which i didn't mind but man was the cakes sweet! ;p (i'm sweet!) hahaha. and through the powers that be, i got a ride home from ellan so yay, saved a token! hahahaha!

"the incredibles" come out tomorrow! whoo hoo!

hahaha, so jokes! thanks to karen for sending this to me.

step 1:
go to http://www.google.com.my/language_tools?hl=en
step 2:
enter the following line into the translate textbox:
Aishwarya's mom is nice and cool
step 3:
translate from english to spanish.
step 4:
copy the translated text, and translate it back from spanish to english.

it was unbelievable the amount of unnecessary drama that i went to go to the longest award dinner ever last night. it was 6 hrs, i guess they knew it would be that long, that's why they put it on the evening where we get one more hour. i'm not even sure why they awarded my sister, but whatever.

no sleep from the previous night because of smc's halloween party = one very tired piano teacher.

everyone loved spongebob! *wink wink* hahahaha. (oh, i was NOT spongebob...) when the pictures are developed all will be revealed! hahahaha, oh such good times!

well now the little girl has to make up for all her partying (what partying?!?!? hahaha) back to the grind. one more month to go!!!

happy halloween!

reason #9847559 why commuting sucks...

i had one class today. sociolinguistics from 2-4pm. there was a problem with the subway line, and there was no subway service between finch and eglinton so i had SHUTTLE all the way to eglinton. and then of course at wellesley, they have the FREQUENT SERVICE 94 bus, but OF COURSE there had to be some crazy lazy blaming the driver for driving the goddamn bus and making her bang her leg so she was writing up some sort of accident report. so the bus driver had to kick us off the bus and i had to WALK to class.

it took me TWO HOURS to get to school.


in other news: i am currently procrastinating from studying for my speech disorders test...yet again...

it's scary, but i've been studying for this test since tuesday and i feel like nothing is sinking in. i've gone to all the lectures and review everything while i'm eating, sitting on the bus, drinking (of course non-alcoholic...hahaha), eating, eating...did i mention eating? ...i hate this.

anyway, no more studying...one more review...go to sleep, wake up and go to school EARLY tomorrow. there's NO WAY i'm going to be late for this class!!!

oh oh! scandalous costume!!!!

simone, avril and i went costume shopping today. our theme is slutty-ho disney princesses. i have no back to my top, so it's going to be covered with some tattoos. hahahaha. ;p

so no more junk food for the rest of this week! anyone have a mu shu?

best movie ever! sex and the beauties i haven't laughed so hard in ages. a total ab workout! god it was good!

i pulled a 'girly' today. shelley and i tried to put the pieces of her futon together, and omg it was such an ordeal! we had the most horrible picture telling us how to assemble the pieces, and we think that they didn't give us enough nuts and bolts! either way, i'm never doing this ever again! (hahaha)

ok, i'm tired, this entry is done.

50 things girls wish guys knew

1. Mark anniversaries on a calendar.
2. If you don't act like soap-opera guys, don't expect us to dress
like Victoria Secret models.
3. There is no such thing as too much spooning/cuddling/kissing.
4. This is how we see it . . . Don't call = Don't Care.
5. Which also means that if we don't call, take the hint.
6. We like you to be a little jealous . . . but overly possessive is
not necessary.
7. Foreplay is not an option, it's a prerequisite!
8. We're allowed to be late . . . YOU ARE NOT.
9. Eye contact is key.
10. Don't take longer to get ready than we do.
11. Three words: honesty, honesty, honesty.
12. Do not start with us. You will not win, because we ALWAYS win!
13. Would you like it if a guy treated your sister in a bad way? We
didn't think so.
14. If you ask nicely, we usually answer the same way.
15. We will never have enough clothes or handbags or shoes!
16. We have an excuse to act bitchy at least once a month.
17. We love surprises!
18. Pay attention to the little things we do, because they mean the most.
19. Clean your room.
20. Always brush your teeth before you see us . . . a fresh mouth and
white teeth are a necessity.
21. Even though you are sometimes insensitive and hurt us, we still
love you anyway.
22. Sometimes "NO!" really means "NO!"
23. It takes a special kind of stupid to forget birthdays and anniversaries.
24. We may think you are gay if you wear tighty-whities on a regular basis.
25. Guys who are good cuddlers = guys who know how to satisfy a woman.
26. "Fat Chicks" have feelings too!!
27. Silent treatment, shoulder shrugs, tears, yelling and nasty looks
all add up to . . . YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG!
28. Don't say you love me if you don't mean it.
29. Don't lie to us . . . we will catch you.
30. You have to tell a girl how you feel about her...we make no assumptions.
31. We hate porn.
32. We need food, water, and compliments to survive.
33. We think about you all the time.
34. Being able to make us laugh is so much more important than how
much you can bench-press.
35. Hold our hand.
36. If you think for any reason that we don't like you then we probably don't.
37. Having us over while you are doing something else and/or with your
friends does not count as "quality time".
38. Never comment on how much a girl eats...ever.
39. You just can't force us to like cars or sports (or whatever other
stuff you may be into).
40. We're typically smarter than you...so get over it and stop whining.
41. Walks in the rain, kisses on the forehead, and cooking dinner for
us will get you everywhere.
42. Just because we're in a serious relationship doesn't mean we plan
to marry you someday.
43. Anything you do or say to another girl that you wouldn't want us
to know about is considered cheating.
44. If we can admit that we're wrong, you'd better be able to do the same.
45. Think before you speak...it'll make a world of difference.
46. Make fun of our clothes...prepare to die.
47. Tell us we're beautiful.
48. Don't screw us over...especially if we have an older brother or
protective guy friends...they will hunt you down and kill you.
49. The "little things" in a relationship are really the biggest.
50. When the girls get together, we talk about EVERYTHING. Meaning my
best friends know everything about you.

isn't it funny how so many of those are true?

These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

Q: Are you sexually active?
A: No, I just lie there.

Q: What is your date of birth?
A: July 15th.
Q: What year?
A: Every year.

Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
A: Yes.
Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
A: I forget.
Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten?

Q: How old is your son, the one living with you?
A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
Q: How long has he lived with you?
A: Forty-five years.

Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
Q: And why did that upset you?
A: My name is Susan.

Q: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo or the occult?
A: We both do.
Q: Voodoo?
A: We do.
Q: You do?
A: Yes, Voodoo.

Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
A: Did you actually pass the bar exam?

Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?

Q: Were you present when your picture was taken?

Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
A: Yes.
Q: And what were you doing at that time?

Q: She had three children, right?
A: Yes.
Q: How many were boys?
A: None.
Q: Were there any girls?

Q: How was your first marriage terminated?
A: By death.
Q: And by whose death was it terminated?

Q: Can you describe the individual?
A: He was about medium height and had a beard.
Q: Was this a male, or a female?

Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.

Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
A: Oral.

Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
A: No
Q: Did you check for blood pressure?
A: No.
Q: Did you check for breathing?
A: No.
Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
A: No.
Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

No wonder we don't trust attorneys....

today was the most gorgeous day to go apple picking! went up with matt to pick "cortland" apples...very sweet, and very yum! we picked 2 bags full (i was going for half-full but apparently we had to go for overflowing full...) and then we got to pick a free pumpkin! so we went trippingly around the field looking for a ideal pumpkin for his sisters. found a gorgeous orange one that i named "pummie the pumpkin". hahaha. we also went in the cornfield "maze" which we ALMOST got lost in. ;p the cherry pie that i bought for tonight's dinner at grace and juju's house was good. i got some complaints that it was bitter (?!?!?) but i really enjoyed it.

whatever, i got to take the leftovers home.

I got the sweetest email from my professor in my mailbox today:

Dear All,
First of all, let me wish you a happy thanksgiving day.
Also let me remind you that the first assignment is due on Wednesday October 13th. You can just submit it to me before the end of our class that day.
It's only an excercise on interpreting one or two text. 3 or 4 pages will be enough. You can always download the guidelines from PHL237 website. If you don't have the Source Books at hand, you can always pick up any text from what I have supplied there.
By the way, those who are still in need of the Source Book can find it in East-West Book Store.

Wish my best wishes,

Vincent Shen

handed in my first "big" assignment today. i'm not sure how i'm feeling about it. i mean, i'm really excited about what i've been doing, but to actually put it down into words so that the professor could see what i've been doing and trying to make sure it made any sense....that...and plus of course i had to procrastinate about doing it! ;p

today also happened to be the first day that we had our class in the multimedia lab. and might i add...the program we're working on, goldvarb, it's scary shit. i'm not a numbers girl, and the whole program is based on numbers...yaaaaay? hahaha.

well, it's 4:20pm, and i'm skipping ABT. why? because i was supposed to have my ethics paper finished already...but guess what? yah, ok..i'll leave that part unanswered. i'm just trying to finish it now. it's actually due tomorrow, but i'm going to be a training session all day...something about non-violent patients?!?!? and then guess who's graduating tomorrow evening? yay, for my smart ass sister who's the valedictorian this year. i was listening to her speech yesterday and she thought she was boring me to tears. for the record, i think it's going to be an amazing speech, i just happened to be really really really tired yesterday. it was a fight to not fall asleep in class so i guess reading me a speech at 11:30pm wasn't much of an idea. hahaha.

anyway, the good thing is that if i finish this early enough tonight, i can actually do something that i haven't done in awhile....relax...well, not really...but i can try for a couple of hours anyway!

this is not good. i just stumbled upon some old doodles that i had made with an old "bf" and now i've got old memories of the past coming up. i mean, this just totally sucks because i know the only reason the past is so easily surfacing is because i'm at a standstill right now. the world is still rushing past at an incredible speed but i'm falling behind. not good, not good at all...

so everyone who knew cynthia nixon went out with same-sex people, raise your hands...because i didn't know that...but now that i do...i'm not sure if i'm really surprised about that...

i'm starting to go nuts...i've been looking at intensifiers for the past couple of days in gilmore girl transcripts, and i'm starting to hear and see people who say the words "just, really, totally, so, very, quite, too...." and it's interesting! des would know what i'm talking about. when we did that project last year on quotatives and the "be like"...i started hearing them ALL OVER the place!

what say you if i said australia? i went to the goabroadfair thing at the metro convention centre on friday, and picked up a lot of information and brochures on studying and/or working there. it's an interesting path to go, and i'm toying with the idea...i can't say much about it now because i don't have time to go over everything that i picked up...but at least i have that kind of an option. yipee...i have ideas! ;p

the cold is also slowly going away. i say not fast enough. oh well.

yikes! yikes!

i'm sick.

monday's are brutal. simone and i were like dying on the subway ride home. i was so tired that i went to sleep after i printed off the essay assignment that my prof posted on the web.

except...

my nose was all stuffed up and my throat is KILLING me. and i think henry called last night (i couldn't remember). i don't wanna do work!!!!

i guess i'll just have to watch gilmore girls! ;p (oh right, i have the season one dvd box set now...mwahahahahaha!)

i wanted to blog several times over the course of the week, but alas, my internet was down for a couple of days, and suffice to say, that was quite annoying. so now is the perfect time because (of course) i'm in the middle of PILES of catching up to do. i think it was partly because of the subway fiasco on thursday (some broken switch at eglinton causing me an extra 2 hr headache) and the toga party friday (yeah baby yeah!) AND add procrastination and laziness to the mix.

to all the people that know i'm not a huge "big dog" fan...i can now add to my resume that i've "dog-sat". hahahaha. shelley has taken in carmi's dog, karma...and because karma hasn't fully gotten used to his 'surroundings' (ie, her place) she's afraid of leaving him completely unattended most of the day. this is where i come in...hahahaha...i watched karma for 3 hrs on thursday, and although i was kind of worried about being in the same room with him all by myself, it was a huge success! mainly because i just sat and studied, and he contentedly ate a bone and got a pamper job from me. hahahaha. this kat made friends with a big dog. whoo!

i still haven't gotten that history book from that bookstore. this is causing me undue amounts of stress and headaches. see, i would REALLY love to know what's going on in my chinese philosophy class, but unfortunately i think i'll have to stick with writing down almost every other word the prof says and then try to decipher his notes after class (which for the record i haven't gotten to yet). hahaha. i was supposed to finish most of my homework today, but that doesn't look like it's happening anytime soon.

note to self: no more parties until the smc halloween party...i don't think i can handle anymore activities on my plate....i've got my full course load, piano, the volunteer placement, most likely adrian, AND best buddies going on...oh yeh...my friends. hahahahaha. what friends?!?!?! ;p

why is it that every time i run into my teenybopper frosh kid (whoi have the biggest crush on), i lose all my abilities of speech and acting like i'm 4-5 years older then him? i get all retarded, that's what i do. hahahaha. i told shelley today that i have stop treating him like a materialistic object and start seeing him like the human being that he is. hahahaha...i've got a ways to go with him. :)

another stupid thing i did today: i went to buy my books for chinese philosophy at the east west bookstore at 128 harbord...this bookstore is fairly small and i clearly walked in on some sort of lesson the guy was teaching...and after finalizing that i had the right books, i realized that i didn't bring out either my debit or credit card, and that i didn't have $6 to my name. needless to say, i had to tell him that i'd be back monday...boy that guy won't forget me in a hurry! hahahaha.

okok...i need to get in some study time before i go out tonight...to INSIDE...INteresting...hahahaha, i kill myself sometimes...

congrats to kalan porter, our next canadian idol! hahaha, for the record, i heard him sing for the first time tonight, talk about waiting until the end! ;p

so this has been a jam-packed fun fun week. i totally wasn't expecting to go out tuesday night, but somehow i got conned into going to o'grady's to watch the final hockey game: canucks vs. finns...and of course we rock, so after jacob spends $200 on food and beer for everyone, we hit the streets to yonge and college, go down to dundas where jake and chad jump in the fountain (oh, brandon, adam, greg, matt, simone, shelley, and bhavna were with us) and then we head back up to college for mickey d sundaes before heading home for some much needed sleep!

it was manny's birthday monday (happy belated manny!) and tomorrow (or is it today?) is faye's birthday. tanaka's back so it'll be good times! ames' is getting her wisdom teeth out tomorrow too, so we'll be having lots of ice cream meals too...hahaha. the silly girl's been reading stories about people getting their wisdom teeth out, and is now severely freaked out. hahahaha

i'm happy. mu's in bioethics with me...frasier's in chinese philosophy...aileen's in globalization and underdevelopment...and jenny's in speech disorders and language variation. the last two classes are the best because they're small and intimate, and the profs are genuinely interested in US (not the number) and we get to pick and work on our projects for the rest of the semester. groovy. i secretly love it. hahahahaha.

oh, and one more thing....ABT's BACK!!!!!

A girl asked a guy if he thought she was pretty, he said..."no."

She asked him if he would want to be with her forever....and he said "no."

She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again he replied with a "no."

She had heard enough.

As she walked away, tears streaming down her face the boy grabbed her arm and said....

"You're not pretty you're beautiful.
I dont want to be with you forever. I NEED to be with you forever.
And I wouldnt cry if you walked away...I'd die..."

ever party on a boat cruise during the tailend of a hurricane? well it's tons of fun! we had about 200 people come out and we all danced up a storm for 3 hours. the floor of the boat was literally bouncing up and down and it reminded me of titanic, just before the windows caved in! hahahaha!

suffice to say, it's been quite a trip down drama avenue. i lost my half my voice and now ames says i sound like a really bad sex operator who's been smoking for 55 years. i've had a total of 7 hrs from monday to thursday morning, PLUS during the olympiad tuesday morning, we ALL got SOAKED to the skin and didn't have anything to dry off in so needless to say....GOOD TIMES!

so this is the end of frosh forever...this is it. the last frosh where i handle hassles of no show leaders, of endless registration, of endless bickering and drama and stressed out coordinators and marshals. it's kind of sad, really...i'm already nostalgic but i guess it'll really show next year.

school's begun....yet again. i went to my only class today, and although it's going to be ALOT of WORK...it's something i'm really interested, mainly variation within language. i'm working with professor sali tagliamonte again (i had her for LIN254), and she's pretty awesome with this stuff. the class is also very small so it's very personal and lots of discussions with the group. i love starting new classes...it's when the marks come rolling in that gets me less motivated. hahahaha, oh well, seven more months and i'm out of here!

ever been to a pub at york? well we'll see how this situation goes!

it's been soooooo crazy busy! and i LOVE IT! THIS is the busy i like! i think i need to find a job where i get to organize stuff...anything, events, parties, folders....hahahahah...just not in a basement! hahahah

i love everyone for everything you've done to make this the best birthday ever! i opened my email to the sweetest messages and people were calling me all day as i was helping out with the stuffing of the frosh kits! people went out of their way to come and see me at the madison and i fully appreciate their love!

highlights included:
- shelley (phone) and henry (msn) being the first people to wish me happy birthday at 12am!
- talking to simone on the phone till the wee hours of the morning...
- taking out condoms from the frosh kits...hey kids time for the debauchery to begin...what better way then to get 500 free condoms? hahahaha....oh this can be taken in SO MANY different ways...
- dinner with my parents (we had some GOOD FOOD!)
- shelley and karen called at the same time while we were eating, i had to call shelley back...and faye calls not 2 mins after...hahahaha...all my parents could do was roll their eyes! hahaha
- matt came down with me to st. mikes so we could finish the photocopies of the puzzle scavenger hunt
- ruby (romeila's sister) was at the smc parking booth...congrats to romeila on the birth of her son, ethan (as in ethan hawke!)
- georges, reza, matt and i walked out of the priests' residence doors to find the garden gates locked...the guys hoped the fence and had to do some pretty cool lifting and carrying of me over the fence! hahahaha
- of course i was late getting to the madison, and kept people waiting...but then we took up most of the top patio...good times!
- cha and karina bought me THREE shots...and no one would have them with me!!! so i had to have them all to myself! heeeeee
- tim attempting to have a conversation with my about teaching piano AFTER i had three shots...
- henry and katie did a good job with pretending their present to me was a dildo...hahahah
- al putting ice down my back
- simone, jake, steve, and the boys showing up and immediately getting drunk! hahahaha
- rita, jamie, and aaron couldn't get in at the front, so they had to come in from the basement!
- the piano man sucked ass, but whatever...we had a good round of "bye bye miss american pie" haha
- after having two more shots and chasing them down with a smirnoff twisted ice....I DIDN'T PUKE! yah!

so i think that was the best part of the day. i went out with faye and jamie the next day for bubble tea and now i wish school wasn't starting again! hahaha. of course frosh half-week starts tuesday so busy busy busy!

until today, i never understood why everyone thought being a leader was better then being a marshal. now i know. we had our dsac orientation today, the turnout was amazing, and i was given 10 frosh babies to go over the events with. ten pairs of eyes that were trusting me to help give wonderful tips on how to start out in university. i swear they get younger every year...manny also pointed out that we get older every year! my group was the best! hahaha, i'm not even being biased, we REALLY were the best! we won all our games (except for the tug of war...that's not our fault the rope broke! hahahah!) i think the best part is that i really bonded with my group and i felt like they were mine! hahaha, if i was 5 years younger, i'd totally date a certain person in my group! hahaha, too bad i'm sooooo old! ;p

*sigh*...it's begun, the running and shouting and fun fun fun!

i'm sitting in the backseat of jacob's car at 2am this morning, and alex is sitting next to me:
me: omg!
jake: what? what's wrong?
me: did you know...that if you put your seatbelt on....you stay in your seat!
jake: you're right! you do!
alex: oh man....
hahahahaha

the last couple of days have been so amazing! i'm so happy that i'm on vacation, i really needed this extra time. i haven't felt the feeling of being relaxed and just letting loose in a very long time! yesterday, after attending a shiva for lenny's brother with jacob and simone, we headed over to the fox and the fiddle for drinks and dancing with lucy, cherie, alex, brandon, greg, steve and chad. the atmosphere was so energetic and everyone was having SUCH an amazing time, i'm still feeling the effects this morning (oops, my bad...two smirnoff ice's and i'm soooo done. hahaha) greg was like "CHRISTINA! i haven't seen you since....YESTERDAY!" hahaha, we had gone shopping at yorkdale with chad and simone and then had dinner at the outback steakhouse. i think the last time we had pure jokes was at george bbq back in july...too good!

i've fallen in love with this punk group called "yellowcard". ok, they're not really punk, they're what matt calls "positive punk". what i find really cool about these guys is that they've got a violinist with their drums in electric guitars. it gives it a certain edge, very very cool. i bought their cd, and i'm fully enjoying the sound! i also got the "queen" hits, and we were singing "we are the champions" up yonge street on wednesday...hahaha, it was so funny people were looking at us like we were crazy...and you know what? we are! hahaha.

You tried so hard to be someone
That forgot who you are

You tried to fill some emptiness
Till all you had spilled over

Now everything’s so far away
That you don’t know where are
You are

When all that you wanted
When all that you had don’t seem so much
For you to hold onto
For you to hold onto

For you to belong to

When it’s hard to be yourself
It’s not to be someone else

Still everything’s so far away
That you forget where you are
You are

Jet

soooo.....

exams are done, back from a weekend of shopping in buffalo (guess who i ran into there? my two aunts and alex! weird, eh?), and dsac & frosh stuff is slowly coming together. monica is finally computerizing her system at the studio, you don't understand what a BIG relief that she has finally entered the 21st century! student schedules are underway and it's going to suck big time this year because i have to come in on thursdays now, which means no partying thursday and friday nights!!!

i'm so proud of myself. i put together this little pamphlet guide for commuter students at smc last night, with pictures and all! immanuel helped me with the ideas and avril was thrilled to death when she saw it today. we went shopping at costco for our waffle breakfast, but somehow we managed to get everything EXCEPT the main ingredients (waffle mix, syrup and whipped cream)...hahahaha...i guess everyone will be eating "pretend" waffles...hahahaha. i'm also really psyched about putting together the puzzles for the scavenger hunt. it's so good i wish I was a frosh again! hahahaha.

reading up on some blogs, i'm finding myself yearning to travel to the places catherine's been going to. i'm so jealous that she provided herself the opportunity to go out for 6 months in europe. i want to travel! i want to study in a foreign country, learn another language (or make myself better at one of the ones i know). so many people i know have gone to so many places...france, australia, japan...one day i'll be able to say i went everywhere, but until then...i guess i should save up! i think shelley and i will plan a backpacking trip in europe for sometime soon, maybe next year? how exciting!

i don't miss school itself, but i miss the people that i go to class with, or study with, or hang out with...where is everyone? yech, i'm tired!

i'm only blogging right now because henry was complaining that people don't blog any more...and of course i have to prove him wrong. i just got home...i JUST finished an exam....aw feck, it was LONG...i have another one tomorrow at 2pm...hahahahaha, that's FUNNY because i'm going to be shitting in my pants because i know NOTHING!!!! i've been studying for this one, and now i'm EXHAUSTED. on the bright side, i DID run into a hell of a lot of people after my exam. i returned a 2 week overdue library book to kelly library (thanks jacob!!!) and then i was wondering if i should call al, but then decided against it because i figured it would mean i'd have to stay longer and REALLY (REALLY) i need to study (well, besides this...but whatever) and then as i was walking towards wellesley, i heard this guy talking...and it was AL! he had some friend's over from L.A., and we chatted for a few mins when he mentioned that mu was working at the newsstand next to the starbucks on yonge and wellesley, so i popped by there, said hi and then waited with simone at the station for mu to get off work....and who else showed up?!?!?! yup, that's right, long time no see marko! (wow, i DID see a lot of people tonight :S)

anyway, before i forget...happy birthday ames! we're postponing her birthday dinner until tomorrow because i'm *supposedly* studying right now. hahahaha. okok....freak attack's coming on...gotta study!!!

no complaining henry!

there was no food in the fridge when i left this afternoon, and then when i got home this evening...there was like a food explosion or something. i've been in such a shitty mood today. i feel bad for the people who saw me today, i was soooo not someone you wanted to have a conversation with. jake took the subway with me to school and he was having his own conversation and rambling on and on for about 20 mins...

i went to buy some books at the rcm, and on a whim tried to check out if ed was in. he wasn't. boo. so i went to chapters and bought a book for $2.99 so i could pass the time waiting for my *last* summer class of this year. (ie, procrastination yet again...)

what an unproductive day, and plus i'm tired.

i feel like i've been in a time warp...the days have just flown by and so many things happened. i just want to stay at home and rest!

i've gotten a tan! whooo! i'm so proud to say that i went to wasaga beach on saturday...but the tan wasn't from the beach...hahahaha, that i got from my own private backyard today. wasaga was for 'work' but it didn't work out...oh well! but the worst thing is that we had marshal training yesterday and a marshal/leader meeting today, and they just take the wind out of me. although, i have to say that i got a great kick out of going out to mcdonald's with immanuel, avril and little jenny! we left the meeting today, and randomly saw steph donahue and nicole...so we stopped and started chatting with them, and then suddenly in a span of five mins, there was a whole group of other st. mike's kids and we just congregated on the side of the street and chatting up with everyone...it definitely shows how much we're like a family in our great st. mike's community! it never fails to surprise me how much i love my college (no matter how much i bitch about it)

so after about half an hour, we finally broke away from the crowd and had an amazing time the golden arch place (hahahaha). jacob, steve, and simone met up with us...simone walked in with a happy face steamwhistle cardboard box on her head. (i know, that's our simone!) she was so drunk, and kept trying to wash her feet, and then she pulled out of her bra (it was quite entertaining to see) jacob's house keys...hahahaha.

i'm so happy, shelley's back from france, and i spent the night at her place on thursday. i love how it's so much fun and relaxing to hang out with her, no stress...that's all i really need. i met carmie, and he's the greatest guy in the world, i'm so glad SOMEONE has a great stable relationship...of course, no relationship is complete without a gorgeous dog as well...hahaha.

i can't tell how this summer has been...it's like a messy relationship, i can't stand it...it's not particularly great, but it's not that bad either...grrrr....i'm getting bored and completely wiped out of the constant drama that encircles everyone. i just want to hibernate for a week.

school's done in 2 weeks, and then a short 3 week break...and then straight back into shits and giggles...sigh...

the worst part...i'm craving hashbrowns...but mcdonald's only has them for breakfast...damn.

i just found two more articles on a paper that was due today, i also just had 5 spring rolls, and about 8 handfuls of nuts, washed down with diet cola from costco...am i pregnant?!?!?! i'm a wreak. i think i'm pregnant.

i can't decide what is more exhausting...to go out partying or to study!  after a weekend of late LATE nights and then a test monday, i'm just soooooo tired!  i don't know how you people do it.  i lost half my voice after the evanescence concert, and i have a little teeny cold that i only know i have because i have the sniffles.  juju's account of the concert is pretty accurate, so no elaboration needed there.  

jacob's birthday bash at lucidworld was pretty good.  well, except for the part where the hip hop room was MUCH too small for the amount of people that wanted to dance in there, and it was hot, crowded and LOUD, but it was all for fun's sake.  of course, there was the usual drama before hand, which included simone forgetting her driver's license at home, so we had to go get it, and then she somehow left it in the fridge...(don't ask...it's too much to handle.) as well, tanaks was missing most of the day and we didn't know if we should pick her up or what, but she somehow turned up at my place while we were out getting simone's license, and mom was all freaked out when the doorbell rang because she had just showered and was in her pj's.  (hahaha, i'm sorry, but that was just too funny!)  having the girls there was nice because it's been awhile since we've all been out together...montreal in august will be interesting!  ;p

friday was georges' bbq of steaks and wine (+ beer), and we had such an amazing time there, i don't know why we didn't stay longer!  the house he's staying at is GORGEOUS, with his own plasma tv, a rooftop patio and the whole house to himself!  it was really good seeing the sorbara guys as i hadn't seen them in sooooo long!  lauren and lisa were there too, as well as some of the guys' girlfriends so there was a nice mix of girls and guys.  steve and chad showed up to pick up simone and i, so we could all give jacob (mr. birthday boy) his presents that i so enjoyed shopping for.  shopping is so theraputic for me...especially since i was so excited when i bought the most gorgeous pair of heels at aldo with tanaka...oh my poor bank account...and on borrowed money too!  hahahaha. 

i'm happy to say the weather held out for my outtings so i'm quite content.  my only other goal this summer is to hit up a beach sometime before school begins.  i've been wandering around the house with my bikini top on in hopes that the weather would be nice enough and that we'd have the time to go out...sooon...

cat, you don't even want to know how long and hard i laughed when i got your "long glance", i WILL definitely send you some stupid silly emails (i have a bad habit of forgetting to do that) i hope you're having a great time in spain!  i love reading about your excavation accounts!  ;p  oh, and don't forget to drink for me too!  please, if you have time, send me a hot boy home, k?  mwah!  hahahaha. 

what an exciting and funfilled weekend.  it included a wicked ass bbq with a high patio and st. mike's friends, a night of clubbing at lucidworld with some abbey girls and the jacob crowd, and an evanescence concert with my sister and cousins that just blew me away.  i have a test tomorrow that i should start studying for so i'll probably have more time to spend on more of the highlights afterwards.  there was just an episode that bothered me and i needed to get it off my chest. 
 
perfect by nature
icons of self indulgence
just what we all need
more lies about a world that
 
never was and never will be
have you no shame?
don't you see me?
you know you've got everybody fooled
 
look here she comes now
bow down and stare in wonder
oh how we love you
no flaws when you're pretending
but now i know she
 
never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled
 
without the mask
where will you hide?
can't find yourself
lost in your lies
 
i know the truth now
i know who you are
and i don't love you anymore
 
it never was and never will be
you don't know how you've betrayed me
and somehow you've got everybody fooled
 
it never was and never will be
you're not real and you can't save me
somehow now you're everybody's fool
 
- evanescence
 
this is for you, you know who you are and i hope you get it.  if you don't know who you are or you don't get it, well too bad.  that just means you don't know me and if you think about it...you're not worth my time and effort. 

i went to a rehabilitation orientation at the university center, and i'm looking forward to playing for the geriatric ward. the coordinator was so excited when she found out that i teach piano. hahaha, i'll never get away from playing piano...

hahahahaha...what was i thinking when i said a couple posts back that i'd have so much time on my hands and nothing to do? well, as immanuel said to me today "i'm too busy socializing!" that being said, it's great to see immanuel, i don't see him enough! i love catching up...all i do is chatter away...hahahaha!

it's true, it's so bad, but i'm having friends asking me out to go places but i'm having such a hard time keeping track of what and when, that i've been forced to bust out a mini-calendar to keep me on track (yes, you all know the purple/orange notebook that i use during the year...i was trying to steer clear of THAT! that's heavy duty organizing!) maybe i should just post an online calendar and people can fill in their own time slots! ;p

georges is planning a bbq at the house he's sitting for, and we met up yesterday, and man...i haven't seen that boy in AGES!!!!! since before the end of exams?!?!?! i went to japan, he went to guadeloupe...and now we're BACK! whoo! i forgot how much fun we are when we get together! soooo.....bbq friday!

But you gotta make choices, be wrong or right,
Sometimes you've got to sacrifice the things you like,
But I was born to try

- delta goodrem

i'm so happy that i'm seeing people i haven't seen in such a long time. i find that we're all so busy, that sometimes we lose contact with people by accident...and then it comes to a point when you don't feel right contacting them, so out of the blue...gotta keep the people you love around...and sometimes it involves effort, without trying you'll get nothing...nothing falls in your lap, you've got to try...

there's an angel watching over you...

i can't sleep. i keep thanking god over and over again for having an angel watch out for one of my loved ones. what i would do without her i have no idea. i'm so grateful that the boys were there to keep her company and make sure she was ok, i love those boys. i know, jacob keeps telling me over and over not to kick myself and no one's to blame, freak accidents happen. but somehow i still think over in my head, the many stupid things that lead to this circumstance...definitely gives a different perspective as to how i take this world for granted. i'll cherish my loved ones with a deeper passion and greater respect, and not dwell on the little petty and selfish people who aren't worth a penny for their thoughts.

life goes on, it's how you make the most of it that counts...

guess where i am? that's right...school...well, gerstein to be specific. i really enjoy the libraries (well, the university as a whole) during the summer time because there are WAYYYYYYYY less people (i hate crowds...). yup, i just got another indicator of how u of t wants to screw me over. on the bright side, 9 more half courses and i'm out of here!

i've been rudely jolted out of my summer dream of just relaxing and no worrying. HA. why i even think that could happen is beyond me. i guess it's one of those "you gotta dream" kinda things. anyway, the point is, i was informed quite bluntly that i'm not being serious enough about my projects and that if i don't shape up, i'm going to be a deadweight. #1. it's fucking summertime, and this project is a work in progress STARTING in september but not even due to start until JANUARY. #2. this has me seriously considering if i WANT to stay on this project if i'm going to pushed around and made to feel awful all year round, and #3. i've come to the sad realization that i really don't have the same love and devotion to my college that i once had in my innocent first year, and maybe it IS for the best if i resign now.

this along with another self-discovery: sometimes no matter how hard you try to keep things afloat, sometimes it's best to let things go. i've exhausted myself trying to keep up with my friends and family, and suddenly it's clear that while i can go out of my way to be a good person, friend and daughter, not everyone is on the same level. i can't continue killing myself to make selfish people happy, it's time i put myself first and make ME happy. of course this is going to be difficult, it's hard to put a philosophy into play, but i have good friends and family that are willing to help me in this "change".

on another note: it's interesting how small our world is. steve, simone and i found ourselves shopping at promenade mall yesterday after the movie we wanted to see (the notebook, oh yes, you can laugh at that) was sold out. we walked into jean machine and while simone was trying on some clothes, the salesgirl approached me and asked "so...are you going out with jason?" i stared back at her (like she was crazy) and informed her that no i wasn't dating jason (for the record, i don't know any jason's), and for that matter, i wasn't dating anyone! she apologized and said she asked because i looked familiar. fine, we all had a good laugh and steve and i continued waiting for simone. then the salesgirl came BACK and asked if i was SURE i wasn't dating anyone, and i said i'm pretty sure...and then she came around AGAIN and asked if i wasn't sitting on the lawn the other day. at the last question, i suddenly remembered that yes, i WAS sitting on my neighbor's lawn on monday evening with JACOB, but how the hell she knew that, i had no idea...until she told me that she was the girl sitting in the back seat of greg's car (with greg and terry) when they were passing by! it's funny because i didn't get a good look at her that night so there was no way i could ever had recognized her, and then when simone mentioned that steve was a friend of greg and jacob, she didn't recognize steve and only about AN HOUR later did steve realize who she was.

it's a small world after all...

the weather has been gorgeous and it's making me really excited about hitting up a beach or a cottage up north! i want to suntan! simone and i even bought the cutest bikini's at aqua the other day, so now i need an excuse to wear it! ;p

my computer is being stupid again. it won't let me log into ANYTHING. no hotmail, no utoronto account, no gmail, no blogger...no matter, i have two other computers to mess around with. hahaha. but i know this inconvenience will eventually drive me crazy.

after shopping all friday afternoon (hence the new bikini's!!!!), simone and i accidently mooched a sushi dinner off of patty and her 2 friends that came in from the states! (i say accidentally because we were fully going to pay for the meal but ken and matt decided they would treat us ladies...who's to say no to that? ;p) it was really nice of them as the sushi place we went to wasn't exactly CHEAP, but the food was good, and the guys ordered cold sake wine...oh man, i got sooooo giggly it was so funny!

afterwards, simone came over and we watched a couple of episodes of sex and the city (that's our goal, to watch the whole series this summer..hahaha) before we headed out at 10:30pm to jordon's house party. this is the best part...jordon lives 2 mins away in my neighbourhood, and you can't even imagine how great it is to just walk out of the house and walk to a party. it's a lot different then going to a party downtown toronto where you have factor in the time it takes to go DOWN and back UP and plus the subway and buses...just the biggest headache in the world, which is why i hate going out sometimes!

jordon is one of the nicest people i've ever met. he and his parents are so gracious and they don't even care who comes over (for the record, i met his mother before i met him...long story...involves dragging jacob out to vote with me...). simone and i literally walked up to the house, opened the front door, and walked right in (for all we knew, we could have been in the wrong house!) jordon's mom went out and bought chasers for everyone in hopes that we wouldn't be hungover the next day! right, so who's everyone? well steve took the liberty in inviting us over, as well as some other queen's people, and along with brandon, chad and greg, i met some more of jacob's highschool guys including alex (so cute!), lenny and niv. scary guy mark dropped by as well, and my only regret is that we missed out on seeing the infamous lucy and adam! greg was so nice, he insisted on driving us home (like it's far away or something...) and the rest of the night was devoted to 6 more episodes of season one SC.

i went in for a TB skin test yesterday, and somehow also found myself taking a blood test as well. it was my very first time i've ever done one of those, but it's really not that bad...i know grace HATES needles and all i've heard are stories of people holding to every limb while someone else does the blood test, but really, other then the slightly nausating sound of the squirting blood at the end (haha, sorry if that was gross) i feel that i'll be ok for future blood tests.

ah alright, to end on a non-gross note...today we're all going out to celebrate grandma's 90th birthday, whooo...something to dress up for! hahaha.

happy birthday canada!

what did i do to celebrate my nationality? i browsed through douglas coupland's souvenir of Canada 2 that's sitting ames' desk. wow do i feel canadian... haha.

i'm feeling pretty relaxed now that the field report's done and the bellringer is over (oh but the bellringer was brutal...). went to see the producers with my family last night and then on the subway ride home, we happened to run into aunt gen and uncle ron. interesting conversations arose and ended with an upset sister and me feeling retarded and stupid as usual...not cool.

today i went over to simone's and seeing how it was a GORGEOUS day outside, we walked over to commerce gate (hwy 7 and leslie) to have bubble tea, and of course, seeing as i don't see her enough (haha) we had a great long conversation as per usual and then watched some of mandy moore's cheesy chasing liberty...and when i say cheesy, i MEAN IT.

it's going to be quite interesting to see how i fare the upcoming week as i'll have absolutely nothing to do...and it's been a very long time since i've had THAT kind of feeling...

i really SHOULD start my field report...after all, it's due tomorrow...whatever, i'll get to that after i blog...maybe... ;p

congratulations to flo and alan on a great bbq, although i can't say much about the food, for some odd reason i was particularly full last night *wink* and i don't know how to explain it, but i think flo lost me and matthew for a bit there...where did we go? i say we were in the basement watching the simpsons the whole time, i think flo was just too drunk to see us! *gasp* hahaha. also, i wish i knew the kids were going to be there so that i could bring michelle's yarn ball with me, as well as pictures from japan...i think we still need to meet up to go over the pictures some time!

so let me tell you about the fabulous time i had at the docks on friday...went over to simone's after work and dinner with the folks, and met up with steve, brandon, chad, richard and sajel (birthday girl) at the docks. great music + smirnoff raspberry twist (new favorite drink) + shot of something steve bought = a hell of a good time! at least i can say this time that i really did dance! (flashback to halloween...hahahaha) jacob came by after work to buy sajel a couple more shots and then he was kind of enough to come home with me as the subway stopped running.

dad bought tickets to the terracotta warriors show playing at the elgin theatre and we went to that on tuesday. ames was wondering how good it would be but i think we all throughly enjoyed the show. i think i enjoyed the movement of the long flowing robes that the dancers/actors wore and even though the music was of the traditional chinese kind with drums and strings and even an opera singer, it was really great to hear and see. i definitely recommend people to see it!

travel update:
cat and shelley are leaving wednesday, i think i need to see those girls again before they go!!!!! *tear* and i think i'll be seeing ava sometime this week, as she's off to japan next week! on the bright side, georges should be back tomorrow and i think we're supposed to go out (?!?!) plus faye should be back from france sometime soon...

ok, so it doesn't look like this field report will write itself...too bad.

disclaimer: this is NOT a happy post so i suggest you NOT read on if you're looking for a happy girl.

sometimes i wish i was a robot with no emotions, i think it would definitely make life easier. there's just too much 'drama' in my life right now, and it's speeding like a train wreck towards the limit of some sort of emotional or mental breakdown...i can feel it. i'm starting to drink more, and when i DO drink, i like to drink really fast so that i can feel the effects faster, so that i can laugh, be rambunctious and act like everything is alright.

i'm not really happy anymore, and this is terrible because when people ask me how everything is and how i am, i can't even say a fake 'great!' because i'm feeling THAT bad, that i'll just start babbling about what's wrong at the time, and frankly, i can see the scared expression on their faces, and their concern hurts me because i don't like to burden people with my troubles.

the worst thing is that the type of person that i am, i don't have many REALLY close friends (tons of acquaintences) and even less close girlfriends, but i can only count two that are even remotely close enough to see right now, and only one of them do i see on a regular basis. all the others are abroad, or out of town...and it's scaring me so much how i'm feeling like i'm losing my backbone and strength from them.

summer time is about having fun and this is the prime of my life to be out and about being a sub-adult and growing up. instead, i'm feeling so cloistered and smothered and i'm having difficulty from doing something really drastic. and i'm really afraid that the consequences will NOT be a pretty sight. i'm this close to losing it...i need something to break my fall, but what...i have no clue...

i look back on yesterday's post i'm thinking "wow that was so stupid, posting a blog about how drunk i am" but really, it was so much fun! just for the record, i was SO NOT HUNGOVER this morning (whew!), but i can't speak for either steve or simone, who were popping advils and drinking coffee on the subway! ;p

how stupid could I be
a simpleton could see
that you're no good for me
but you're the only one I see

- sarah mclachlan "stupid"

HA! i am SOOOO WASTED right now....it's great! can you imagine? only 2 raspberry smirnoff twists and a shot of liquid cocaine (it's a drink) and i'm sooooo good to go. jacob and chad got to the bar about half an hour ago and they couldnt stop laughing at how gone i was...and simone and steve were like "rah!"

anyway, i have school tomorrow...goddamn school...

so this week was "abbey" week. had a great dinner at salad king with faye on wednesday, i haven't seen her since new years. also saw our very pregnant friend, romeila (who i haven't seen since she left about 11 months ago to go to ottawa) and now she's back, 8 months pregnant and only married a month ago...i know...crazy! and then tanaks came back from kingston this weekend so we hit up money last night with faye and jamie (who i also haven't seen since god-knows-when). we were supposed to see karina and cha but they ended up going down to see some "northwest" music set thingy that was going on so i guess i'll see them some other time when tanaka comes in again.

awww, i feel so shitty right now. my "friend" decided to show up RIGHT before i went out last night. at that point i realized why i've been so moody lately. it was weird because i had gone out friday night with jacob and ames, and i'd get upset so easily but not really know the real cause of being mad. it just really sucks how hormones can take over your life and blow you away.

whoa what a crazy night. thanks so much to jacob and henry for coming to the rescue. no thanks to my crazy parents who wouldn't stop freaking out. really, how old am i? i think i'll always be 12 with them, and it's getting quite frustrating to open my own wings and fly...that's another rant for another blog...

as human beings, a common requirement is that we all do stupid things, but the best thing that shows up through all the stupidness is you find out who are your friends and who are not. i've had my fair share (tequila rose, girls? *shudder* ;p) and luckily for me, my girls are always with me thinking for me when i cannot.

simone needed me last night, and i was there to help her. mind you, i don't have a car, but that didn't stop me. jacob unfortunately could not be reached earlier, so i had my other friend, henry come to the rescue. sure, it was late at night, and i was ready to hit the sack, but hey, that's what friends do...look out for each other.

the 'episode' had a happy ending, but unfortunately, through it all, my parents had to be asses. i'm not going into the details but all i have to say is i don't agree with their morals and i'm not sure how i feel about being open to them anymore. i only wish they could be more supporting and more helpful, but i guess you can't have everything, eh? all i have to say, is if ANY of my friends ever need my help, they shouldn't worry about being judged or not having me watch their back (well, unless i'm in the same situation).

last night definitely opened up my eyes a little bit more to other people's closed minded views.

ew ew ewww!! (note to self: don't watch movies like 'something's gotta give' or 'calendar girls'...)
watching a movie with keanu reeves kissing diane keaton is just really really gross!

oh i spent too much money at the muhtadi drummer's festival at queen's park today. but it was pure good times as we stayed there from 12 noon to around 7:30pm. yah, there was some really awesome drumming (jamaican, caribbean, and even chinese dragon drumming!) and good food, and at 4pm there was a D-Day celebration on the other side of queen's park where we got to see a glimpse of dalton mcguinty and david miller. there was even a beer tent set up so that we could go and have a bottle of steamwhistle (which i just found out is made in the roundabout by the AC, and that is just really really cool!)

i'm exhausted. must be all that walking...huh...

guess what? tee and i had our frosh coordinator interview today and......we didn't get it. =(

oh well, life is full of shits and giggles, and i guess this is a big piece of poo. on the bright side, i'll be able to go on vacation with parents in august (oh wait...how is that a good things?) BUT it also means i have more time to do...other stuff...

oh whatever. i wish i was still in japan.

i advise anyone with nothing better to do this summer to definitely go and see shrek 2. it had me in stitches the whole entire time! another movie i really want to see is the terminal with tom hanks and catherine zeta jones...she actually looks very pretty with the short hair and bangs.

it's been a weird couple of days. yesterday i had this uncontrollable desire to eat junk food, so i went out with my sister to buy a bag of chips...turns out you can buy one bag of lays for $2 but you can buy 3 bags for only $5...you can guess which deal i went for! but after having nearly an entire bag of chips to myself...i think i've sated THAT craving for awhile...not to mention having a reese's piece's blizzard from dairy queen today (flo, matt and i snuck ours into the theatre, but of course flo decided to leave the theatre again and BROUGHT her snack with her...and got in a fight with the girl about bringing outside food into the theatre...)i think my craving for ice cream has also been fed.

i also went insane with my debit card today. we had a test in class, and afterwards i told my mom it was a nice day and i wanted to walk outside for a bit before i came home...turns out walking outside means walking inside the jacob store at the manulife centre...that place just sucks me in like a vacuum cleaner...i bought the cutest pair of cargo pants...(they roll up at the side!) as well as a new PINK purse, and of course...the staple jacob underwear! they have this new line with really cool, bright colors and a little flower on the left side!

why is it so easy to spend money, yet so difficult to make it? if anyone has an answer to that, i'd love to know!

i hate brinkster because my website is now officially dead.

i am currently too stunned out of my mind to bitch about it, but at the back of my head, i'm thinking it might be alright...i haven't lost any of the pictures, the template's just empty...maybe it's an indication that it's time to move on, time for a change, start something new. i'm thinking i'll stick up some japan scenery especially the gorgeous statutes!

ames' has already offered to design a new webpage for me, afterall, last time she designed an amazing blog page but the url was all messed up so it didn't work out...i have full confidence in her to pull of something spectacular!

anyway, i can't dwell on this right now cuz i'm supposed to be *studying* hahahaha....

guess who's going to the evanescence concert july 18th?!?!?!?! *point fingers at me* i'm so excited! i haven't gone to a concert since coldplay last summer, so this will definitely be a treat! oh, and just on the offside, their new music video, everybody's fool is just amazing...bashing the overly materialistic/capitalistic north american culture...i love their music videos.

i'm definitely tired and moody right now...human beings are such weird creatures, it's hard to figure them out. and you know what? i'm not going to try to because i can barely figure myself out...and until that happens, it looks like everyone else is on their own. don't count on it happening any time soon....

i am soooooo sore from yesterday! (that's right...wink wink! hahaha) nah, i played hockey with the fisherville guys at rockford park (picture little miao playing with 7 other big boys...yeh, i thought so...i can't play hockey!) as soon as i got on the court, jacob decided he wasn't going to look where he was slapsticking the puck, and of course it ended up on me...but the guys are tons of fun, and it does bring back memories of me and the elmsley boys in first year!

i also witnessed the most psycho crazy event today: i randomly ran into my friend, tim, in queen's park (after randomly running into miguel, and cramer at st. mikes) and he was just so stoked about fixing up his bike from spare junk yard parts...and he was telling me about the difference between a spoke and a mag (it's a plastic wheel) and how he was missing a mag for his front tire...yada yada yada...and we were heading over to check out his place where he lives with mike around spadina station when he randomly spied a homeless guy with a wagon...with two wheels...one of them being a mag...and he stopped the homeless dude and asked him if he wouldn't mind exchanging his mag for a spoke...it was so cool! i witnessed this kid take apart, switch, and reassemble his bike wheel and the guy's wagon wheel!

that among other things...i finally met up with tarik and hashim, (this is where i insert that tarik is such a girl! he says he'll be there at 2pm and saunters into starbucks at 4:30pm....rat bastard!...i made him make it up to me by buying me a coffee, and then walking me to the subway station! hahaha!) and of course, they were just complete farts the whole time! it's funny how everytime we're talking, tarik feels the need to inject omar into everything...i'm convinced that he's trying to hook us up! what i don't understand is why he doesn't think i should like hashim! ;p

and the best guy i saw today was mr. joe fazz himself! i think i caught him at a bad moment, as he was trying to bum a ciggie off some lady when i knocked on the glass window next to him and started blowing kisses at him! (priceless!)

oh summer time spells good times!!

i personally am not a huge hockey fan, but i don't have any problems jumping on the bandwagon during the playoffs. last night was no exception. jacob called me out to watch the flames play at o'grady's with his buddies, so i invited brendan out as well and well...we were a great rowdy bunch!

the long and short of it: jacob went upstairs to play pool with cathy and mike, and while he was away, i finished the rest of my ale(some alcoholic cider...sweet and easy to drink) , and steve decides that i HAVE to have a refill (afterall, who nurses ONE drink all night...especially when the guys ordered 2 team pitchers?!?!?) needless to say, i chugged the last part of the glass (to steve and brendan's disbelief) and then when jacob came downstairs, he couldn't believe it either, so of course to prove that i DID, i chugged the rest of HIS glass too.

drunk now, the subway ride home was pure shits and giggles...jacob, steve and i COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING the whole time! the guys decided that the one-sided plexy glass on the subway conductor's door was really a mirror and the conductor REALLY COULDN'T see what they were doing...steve and i broke the seal earlier before we left o'grady's so we were both like "i hafta pee sooooo bad!" by the time we got to bloor, and then jacob decided that he was going to buy chocolate and candy, but he knew that i didn't eat either...so he bought me an apple strudel...a really sweet gesture...except that when you buy one of those at 12am, it's quite STALE...hahahaha, i took a couple of bites before i succumbed to the grossness and jacob ate the rest! at finch station jacob and steve decided to sing happy birthday to me (which they were doing periodically on the subway) from outside of the ladies washroom, and there was another drunk lady in there, and SHE started singing to me too! the guys thought it was me at first, and when they realized that it wasn't...they decided to hide in the guys washroom till i came out!

i was sooooo going to kick jacob's ass if i was hungover this morning...but seeing as i'm good, i'm jetting off to class! whoo! i should do this more often....

well it's been proven...i have delayed reaction.

we went out to dinner and ordered fried eggplant in a hot pot, and when the hot pot came, the waiter was having difficulty opening the lid, so OF COURSE i had to be retarded and think i could give him a hand by holding down the handle so he could pull it of. but OF COURSE the HOT pot is made of IRON and was HOT AS HELL...but OF COURSE there was the DELAYED REACTION and didn't realize how freaking HOT it was UNTIL it was too late.

i now have a circular depression on my thumb and a red ouchy depression on my pointer finger. you'd think i'd have learned from my last burning (last time i burned my pointer finger on the toaster oven...hey...same pointer finger!) but clearly i did not. *sigh* some things you NEVER learn...

well, in lieu of that...i went for a morning jog this morning and had my senses assaulted with nature (this is a GOOD thing). there were pine trees laden with raindrops, they looked like teardrops off weeping lashes...sooooo pretty. and then there was this scallawag squirrel that was sitting comfortably on this tree branch that was extended over the road...i actually almost didn't see it until i was UNDER it. it wasn't scared at all, it could have shat on me for all it cared (thank goodness it didn't)...and the BEST part about my jog was when i rounded a curve, i was confronted with a road that was no longer there. the rains from the weekend had flooded the road completely! i don't think the water was THAT deep that i couldn't run through it, but it was also enough that i'd be splashing through, as well i'd get my feet wet, and that is SUCH a NONO for running...plus because the road had become a lake, there were all these families of geese and their offspring that were just swimming around the little 'lake'.

actually, before i forget...when you run on the road, you have to be SOOOO careful of where you are running, so you don't crunch the snails that are on the warpath! later in the summer, there's always a patch of road that are almost COVERED in snails, there's only a few now...but when i say warpath...i mean that they are OUTTA THEIR SHELL and moving at a pace that you can say they're even moving! i'd hate to accidently step on them...that would totally suck for them! but yeh, anyway, they totally reminded me of this drawing grace once drew...it was something about a warrior snail...i can't really remember but i found it HILARIOUS! grace, you gotta post your warrior snail picture cuz i want to see it again!

oh, and we went to niagara falls today. i've been there a million times, and there's really nothing interesting anymore, perhaps they've added a couple more crazy fun houses and stuff on clifton hill, and maybe they made some of the little sketchy motels into something fancier...but other then the supposed 'drug bust' in the parking lot, there was niagara falls, casino niagara (btw, it was the FIRST time i'd been in a casino...i was carded THREE times today, clifton hills, niagara-on-the-lake....yeh...stuff.

my starbucks tall chai latte with soy cost $6.27. i think i had a heartattack before i recovered...thank goodness dad won money at the slot machines! ;p

oh wow...my computer just died on me.

i was chatting on msn with a couple of ppl...and there was this weird smell, like something was molding or something had died behind my computer....and then it died.

it turned off, and i was like "wtf?!?!?" and tried to turn it on again, but it was officially dead. which sucks ass because dad took this goddamn thing to the shop while i was in japan to clean up the viruses that overtook it....and i bet you they rigged it so that it would explode and i'd have to take it back! *shakes angry fist at dead computer*

so i'm on ames' comp now...thank goodness she's working tonight!

oh, before i forget...today was the first time that i ate in the CN Tower restaurant (the 360). it was really cool to see toronto from up above, cuz it definitely gives it a different perspective to when i'm walking around the city on foot. i just had a blast! and the best part was the fact that it was all free! (ie, i didn't have to pay for it! thanks dad! ;p)

oops...ames' is home now...and i am being kicked OFF the computer...

i'm hungry. interestingly enough, i'm craving turkey...

edit

i lied...i don't like turkey
had little shanghai dumplings instead, there's soup in the dumpling....YUMMY!

Wise men say, only fools rush in.
But I can't help falling in love with you

Shall I stay
Would it be the same
I can't help falling in love with you

As the river flows
Gently to the sea
Darling so we go
Some things were meant to be

Take my hand
Take my whole life too
'Cause I can't help falling in love with you


- cover sung by darren hayes

ames is on a darren hayes kick right now (who by the way, has a great falsetto voice)and i wonder if it's possibly because i bought her that spin cd...i'd like to think so!

i got a gorgeous cream colored sheepskin throw rug for my room, a present from my ah yee...although, according to someone, this makes me a princess...i resent that!

ok, gattaca, here i come

it was bad enought that i had to get up early this morning...it was even worse when i got on the TTC. this morning was a very unpleasant reminder of why i think our TTC is abysmal, disappointing, and an embarrassment of north american transit system...and i guess it doesn't help since i have the japanese transit to compare it to. i got to downsview station at around 7:30am to find that the subway was shut down between downsview and st. clair west station. they were running shuttle buses in between, but not many people knew because the PA system was so faint and tinny. the japanese transit runs to the minute of when it's scheduled, and there are sooooo many subway/train/bus lines, it's just great! ugh...either our transit system needs more money, or a better system because it's just not working!

i just picked up my pictures....just looking at them brought back so many good memories of the days in japan! i miss japan! i'm looking to make a very large scrapbook, it's looking to be the one catherine suggested at lunch today, or my mom found another one at costco...hey cheap goes here! i can't wait to show these to people interested in what i saw...there really aren't any pictures of me in them...i never understood it before (i used to berate joseph about that...) but now i totally understand...why ruin a perfectly beautiful scenery with my face? hahahaha!

anyway, if people believe in the power of prayer, please pray for one of our abbey girls...it was just made known to our little circle of friends today, she has thyroid cancer....please pray...

i just finished watching the last samurai with tom cruise, and let me tell you, i'm not usually a fan of his movies, but this was too amazing! it kept making me cry! (yes, i'm a sucker for movies that make me cry) and it's just sooooo good! i think i'm going to buy the dvd and put that as one of my top ten good movies to watch....along with finding nemo and armaggedon...

last night's party at alan's house was a good party to kick off my coming back to the T dot. it had a lot of people that i knew and it felt so good to be back into the non-asian atmosphere! flo did a kickass job of hostessing the food, before she became...uh...MIA...hahahahahaha! lots of hot guys too...too bad i wasn't...uh...looking...(flo, laugh all you want...)

yes, it's good to be back in toronto, i did miss my bed alot! i do miss my friends and family...but i can't help but start thinking about travelling again...perhaps australia or new zealand next time...or back to japan...i really love that place! and i just got an email from ray today, saying that he's going to nagano to teach english in a farming community in less then a month! i got so excited that i wrote him an email blathering about how great japan is and how people stare and yada yada yada...i hope i didn't scare him...hahahahaha...liz it was great seeing you in japan, and don't worry, i KNEW you had some dust in your eye! ;p

shelley dropped ANT323...damn girl, and here i thought it would be a great class with us never paying attention! i haven't checked any of my class marks yet...i'm still trying to avoid it like the plague...i really really really don't want to be disappointed, especially after i heard that the professor didn't change the weight of the marks...i think after i get the nerve to see my dismal marks, i'm going to be making some sort of complaint to the either the TA or the prof...narsty business....

to end on a positive note: ah yee haley is coming to toronto for wednesday, yes that's right...from AUSTRALIA!!!!! i tried to talk lachlan into coming but he explained to me how it would be wrong for him to be travelling with his parents...hahahahaha. i'm hoping that she'll bring with her tons of pictures of baby krystal! and hopefully by then i'll have my 10 rolls of film developed!!!!

omg...i need to go to the gym...

so i've been too tired to blog the past couple of days. i've been waking up at 6:45am to get to kyoto for 9am to meet up with the kids (cass, chris and michelle) and getting home really late and then going to bed at around 2am...it's like i sleep even less then during the school year! so this is it...tomorrow i'm going home! anyone miss me?

ok, so highlights of the past week...

FRIDAY:
- went to roppongi with the kids at night and then walked to the tokyo tower and took some really cool night pictures (but now that i think about it...i forgot to take the flash off...it might not come out...)

SATURDAY:
- spent the morning in shinjuku shopping in expensive but really pretty stores
- cass called her friend, yasu, who came and met up with us, took us to a ramen restaurant and then took us to harajuku
- harajuku is a kickass place to be...it's where all the teenagers go to shop for stuff (like a kensington market)...aka...you see all the STYLIN' CLOTHING (hahahaha)
- yasu brought his friend, shun and we walked to shibuya for the night life...took sticker pictures...they are HILARIOUS...i'll put it up once i get home...)

SUNDAY:
- went to mount fuji for the day....and saw JACK SHIT....it was raining that day and nothing could be seen!
- BUT...i bought a postcard of how mount fuji would have looked like if it HAD been nice!
- went out for a beer in shinjuku, brought our new friend, bill, with us (i met him on the first day, we were both looking for the hostel and we both couldn't find it for awhile...)

MONDAY:
- while the kids headed straight to kyoto in the morning, i went to see nikko with bill
- saw the most beautiful temples and shrines made for the famous buddhist leyasu

TUESDAY:
- went back to kyoto and spent the day looking at more temples and shrines
- walked the philosophers walk (not the one at u of t) and stumbled upon the quaintest shop where i bought the cutest souvenir...tba...hahahaha
- got tons of mosquito bites (i itch all over!)

WEDNESDAY:
- went back to nara and looked at the kasuga taisha with all these gorgeous lanterns surrounding the shrine...
- saw more deer (nara has tons of deer because in pre-buddhist times they were considered messengers of the gods)
- went and saw the most gorgeous night view of osaka from the umeda sky garden....stunningly breathtaking...(i remembered to take the flash off this time...)

TODAY:
- went to himeji to see the himeji-jo castle (this is the castle that the great anime director, miyazaki, based his movie, spirited away on)
- shopping in the himeji mall! whooo!
- went to visit liz at work...saw her in action!!!!! she's a great teacher!

i will go into more detail when i get home...but i need to watch the last samurai and lost in translation ;p

wow, it's been awhile, eh?

i've been in tokyo drinking and dancing and hitting up the boys....lies....all lies... hahahaha!

i'm too tired to update, but there's alot to say and i'll write it tomorrow...

i saw the most disturbing event this morning with liz as i was leaving sakasegawa....some guy was riding his bicycle and he most have swerved or something and fell of his bike. he hit his head on the concrete and this is where liz and i stumbled upon him. someone had picked up his bike and stood it up so at first i thought that perhaps some weirdo was sleeping on the ground. but then we realized that he was hurt...he was bleeding from the head and i think he was either trying to pick himself up or he was having a seizure...it was horrible. i think someone called the ambulance, but we went into the closest store (a phone store) and asked them to call an ambulance (kyukyusha)...and the worst part was we were making sure the ambulance was coming,?@and just before it came,?@some of the people tried to turn the guy over and that:s the worst possible thing to do...he may have hurt his neck or something,?@and by turning him over he might have his breathing passage blocked....it was the most horrible experience ever...we had to leave because it was so horrible and i felt like puking....even now i can:t really get the image out of my head....

i took the shinkansan to tokyo and had a bit of a hard time finding the guess T hostel....japan doesn:t really have streets...it:s a complex system of numbers the hostel didn:t really have a name out in english...plus people don:t speak english...but i finally found it and met up with christian,cassandra and michelle. we actually just got in...we walked around town and visited roppongi (a mix of yorkville and yonge street) with pimps and prostitutes (in big fluffy coat) harassing us...it was interesting to say the least. we walked to Tokyo tower but didn:t go up because it was closed...and ended up in a park nearby the hostel and just ate and drank some stuff...good times.

anyway, it:s late and it:s been a strange day.

i got lost today...hahaha...well not really, i'm generally pretty good with directions, but since today liz wasn't with me (she had to go to work...her vacation is over! =(...) i kinda forgot what i wanted to see (the golden pavilion) and ended up wandering around to see the kyoto tower and the shosei-en garden (which was soooo peaceful and amazing! i saw a new family of ducks and tons of fish in the pond...aka fish pond...yes i made that name up!)

japan is a very clean city...there is NO garbage littered in the streets anywhere at all, in fact they don't even have many public trash cans, so it's quite amazing that there is no pollution to be seen. i think i'm liking japan alot...how ironic is that? that i can't stand to hang out in asian populated places (ie, the sidney smith hanger, or first markham place, or pacific mall), yet the first place i go out of north america....is japan. hahahahaha. (THANKS LIZ!!!! ;p)

i saw the cutest (kawaii) event take place at a the umekoji park i visited today...there was a dog and his owner sitting close by where i was, and this little kid who looked about 2-3 yrs old with his parents. the kid was sooooo facinated by the dog...and he would point at it and say "whoa whoa"...it was so adorable! it reminded me of when i was little and i used to say that! and then when the dog was leaving, the kid waved at it! and that was my cute for the day (well, that and my cute owls!...but that will be explained another day...hahahaha!)

Back from mount koya!

what a great experience that was...to live a night in a temple and then....getting up for a 6am buddhist prayer feast! ahahaha. liz and i went to osaka for the day and went shopping in a store called "comme ca" which is like a department store with different floors equivalent to "old navy" and "gap"...man we had fun in that store. plus we looked at different cameras for my sister, and we sent her an email with attachments of the pictures, and hopefully AMES will write back...hahahah.

rode on a 2 hr train ride to mount koya and looked at the gorgeous scenery of rural japan (although it was raining all day, but that's ok...rain is fun!) the temple people are gracious and hilarious! i have pictures of the futons we slept on, and the very fluffy comforters that were on top...i mused about whether the staff would notice if i left with one of their comforters...but decided that it would be too noticable, and plus, it's quite large....

we had an incredible amount of vegetarian food for dinner and breakfast (more for dinner) and we chatted for just over 2 hrs...what a great meal! what a great experience!

checked out some temples and gravestones as okunoin-mae and it was really cool with the fog in the morning (well, we were up at 6am, so it didn't make sense to go back to sleep...) then we went back to namba (south part of osaka) and took a train to nara!

nara is a touristy place known for it's run of deer and of course, the big buddha. it totally reminds me of the deer park in marineland, same deal. i spent an exorbitant amount of money on souvenirs in nara...oh man, the stores totally sucked money out of me like there was no tomorrow. yes, we visited some temples like the famous todaiji temple (with the large buddha...there's this pole that has a hole cut in the bottom, the size of the big buddha's nose and little kids like to go through it...liz did it last time and she fit through it....however, this time ....no can do!) we also took a look about turtle lake, which is basically a large lake with tons of turtles in it....this is where i got hit on by this guy while liz was playing with a turtle...hahahaha...he kept asking me if i was japanese and where i was from...it was quite funny!

the best part is that everywhere liz and i go, people always assume that i'm japanese and turn to me when they speak. i always smile, nod and give a blank/surprised stare. liz on the other hand, is my translator and somehow, no one seems to believe that she can speak japanese, and continues speaking to me, even though i CLEARLY cannot understand what they're saying....irritating...but understandable...

anyway, japan is sucking me dry...and it's only been 5 days....i learned a couple new words..."gomenasai" means i'm sorry, "kawai" means cute (remember, everything is cute here...) and "wakannai" means i don't know.

oh yeh, grace i saw those charms you were asking about today...sorry i didn't know earlier, but i hear they're all over the place so yeh i'll look one up...exams are cute! hahaha.

OH SHIT! before i forget....HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMONE! ;p heh heh...i almost forgot, man i'm terrible about birthdays....

also, liz has a blog now. check it out at happyenjoytime oh, and also, the time that appears on the blog is CANADA time, you gotta add 13 hrs to that time. hahaha

the fashion crimes continue...it's all over japan....i guess for liz, she's become desensitized to it all, but i ALWAYS laugh and point out the girls and their funny fashion sense...it's so weird, like liz says, it's like in toronto the people that dress retro or have their own "sense of style" do it to be different...but in japan, they do it to be the same.

went to kobe today and the china town there...it was PACKED full of people. two words i use alot in japanese are "sumimasen" (excuse me) and "arigato" (thank you). people aren't very polite here, they just kind of push me and i turn around and say "sumimasen" like I had pushed them and then they look at me like i'm crazy! hahaha....had kobe beef at this really cute restaurant, Ryu-en, that looked out over the harbor of the 'port of kobe'. we also went to the top of the 'port of kobe tower' (nothing compared to our CN Tower) and did some shopping! there are soooooo many shops that sell 'cute' stuff. cute is the name of the japanese game. everything is cute...from stupid 'hello kitty' toys to the cute sound of the siren on the japanese ambulances.

we went to mount rokko later in the evening because we wanted to see the 'spectacular' city lights from the top...BUT when we got there, we saw nothing but fog and mist because it had begun to rain. it was SOOOO funny, liz and i were like we totally got suckered..hhahahaha, we couldn't stop laughing, i have a couple of pictures of us in the dark with NOTHING behind us...hahahaha...

went searching for okonomiyaki for dinner...didn't really happen because the town of sakasegawa basically shuts down at 8 pm (well except for this really neat shrine right by liz's place) so we rented a really sweet and sad movie called 'my life without me' with sarah polley and scott speedman while eating instant ramen in a bowl...ah you gotta love instant noodles...especially when i spent so much money today... anyway, we're supposed to go running tomorrow morning so sleep is in order.

no grace, haven't visited the pachinko places yet...maybe tomorrow in osaka. ;p

the most memorable thing i've seen today on the subway: a 10 year kid flamboyantly picking his nose like he was digging for gold...haha....

good times in kyoto! went to maruyama park and went to look at the kiyomizudera and chion-in temple (even including a grave yard!) had takoyaki for the first time...what is it? it's octopus balls! hahahaha, it's pieces of octopus cut up and mixed with a batter of ginger and rice and green stuff and heated in a special cooker and it tastes delicious!

the japanese girls have a funny sense of fashion...they like to go 'sight-seeing' in stiletto heels...we're climbing mountains for crying outloud! and anything goes...from wearing fishnet stockings in bright yellow pointy shoes to wearing blue panty hose to right below the knee in open-toed sandals!!!

we went back to osaka and went to an ALL YOU CAN EAT AND DRINK beer garden with some of liz's friends, some sketchy guys, stefan and rob...typical foreigner guys who think they're the shit in japan because all the JAPANESE girls fawn over them...yech...BUT we did have fun drinking chu-hi (equivalent to coolers) and eating japanese food...before heading over to the dotombori district to check out fun games, sketchy-fake souvenir shops and typical pimp daddies trying to make me into a hostess...hahahahaha!!! (j/j! liz wouldn't let me go...how would she explain this to my parents? hahahaha!)

anyway, 2am...time to sleep...the jet lag has begun.