Movember

I don't like facial hair. Its november first as I feel the crisp chill of a November day against my clean shaven face at 8:30 in the morning. Its a beautiful fall day- and so it begins a one month moustache growing fiasco for prostate cancer awareness. And I will admit im kinda curious what the end result is going to be. There was this other ginger in my philosophy class- who was like the young dumbledoor ginger edition- so all in all im decently frightened. But, Ive made a promise and I won't be quitting no matter what. As a commerce student im generally pretty clean cut and well my general grooming habits are conservative and boring. So I'm excited to develop an edgy look- that kinda beard that girls like Ke$ha like.

I am pretty happy that my efforts are going towards a good cause. As I'm young and don't have to worry about health issues its great to promote being conscious about ones health. On a more serious note some of my closest friends have been challenged by health problems in the past years. As a student I was very used to shock and awe style presentations on the dangers of driving cars, having sex, and of course bad music. I think this type of creating awareness is very important and meaningful as we take on this challenge together (with our bros beside us and our wingwoman to support us). As one cohort with one goal we look forward to having fun together.

Halloween!

Halloween was an epic three days of mayhem for Rob and I. With Movember looming in the immediate horizon, we were excited to make it a Halloween to remember. Day one included dying our hair black, lathering excessive ammounts of fake tan on our pasty-selves to get that perfect guido look. The product: a couple of badass wolf-pack wanna-be's who mainly got mistaken for Jersey Shore characters because our lack of clothing. It was pretty epic as Karim sparkled with delight as he stepped into his role as Edward Cullen. We didn't have a Bella to fight over, but we met many cute girls anyways. After a great night of running around campus we hit the showers to clean ourselves up and take off our plaid shirts for good.

Day two, Saturday, included having a party at our cluster house, getting our Native Warrior groove on, and busting out our latest party cd's. By Native Warrior Groove, it was really just an excuse to continue our lack of clothes theme that was taking hold of the weekend. Rob and I sketched in some fierce war paint and practiced our first nations dance as we got ready. Meara and Kevin had a great time getting to know each other ;) Claire Nicole and David showed up later... And Karim Rob and I partyed it up in the living room dance floor. Great times and many awesome visits from old friends. As students we know how to study hard and be serious, but also how to have a good time and not forget to be playful and silly.

I have been to many BCom social and networking events and always enjoy a wine and cheese. And after two days of rich Italian and suave Chilean spirit, we decided to take it down a notch with our final costume. Neither of us are med students but we had fun dressing up as House and Wilson.  Rob and I often joke about ourselves as if we are Holmes and Watson. Quick shout out to Jen as Cuddy lol. We decided to be Doctors, borrowing Jen's Lab coat and suiting up for the Trick or Treat Commerce students party at Boutique night club. Unfortunate ammounts of rain, and cold couldn't dampen our excitement as we waited in line, checking out everything from Ali-G to Elvis.

A clean shaven face is so enjoyable in the morning. I walked to class on a brisk autumn day. Ready to sign up for a 30 day moustache growing contest for prostate cancer awareness. I savored the last moments of it, as the lipscarf growing begins.

Autumn Aurora

Bronze
As students we are always looking for a good deal-Rob and I went out last night after a successful shopping trip to Wally World (Walmart) for Haloween costumes. After much hunting and gathering we came home with many delish groceries and the essentials for being the wolf pack from Twillight. Fake tan, black hair spray, etc. We already had black shorts and planned to carry around some random T-shirt to take off repeatedly. -all we need to do now is get jacked in the next week and we'll be all good. We figured most people will mistake us for the guys from jersey shore at which point we'll have a chorus of ITS T-SHIRT TIME!! oh and Karim is going to be Edward Cullen. Come at me Bro!

Rouge
OFFICE Ho's and CEO's was the theme. So we combed our hair and put on some snazzy business attire and walked out of our cluster unit feeling like P Diddy. We met up with Jessica and friends at Boutique night club and started the night off with energy drinks at each bar... Then with enough energy to rival powerthirst we hit the dancefloor, having a blast. Several of the BCom students were there living it up and other UVic students in their appropriate office attire, ;) The BCom teachers dont know whats in store for them if tonight was any indication of how good looking the BCom group is. So we stayed till the last song, danced all night long and walked out feeling like sunshine as it began to rain.

Auburn
We caught a taxi after a few minutes of wind and rainstorm... which was refreshing to say the least. Wearing a vest made me feel like Jane from the Menatlist and kept me mostly dry. Fall is such a great season, the colours resonate with me from golden yellow leaves to grey fashionable coats. People ride bicylces to class, and walk crisply through a quieter world. And now with monday morning approaching I awaken from a trance of a weekend ready to do a multitude of chores in no time flat. :) So far Im loving all my classes and wake up excited everyday.

Rain Rain go away

Saturday was the last night of fireworks for 2010- the finale! Anyways I got up at 6:45 to get into town to get to work on painting Victoria Drive with Amber, Granny, and my Dad. We brezed into town with minimal traffic in about 40 mins. Loaded up our rollers with summer yellow and went to work splashing it on the already light yellow, box shaped end house (my dad owns 7 in a row each currently painted a different shade of the rainbow) So splish splash 3 hours later we were nearly done by which point I was off to meet up with Aki Nair" DJ extrordinaire- who I went to school with at Meadowridge and UVic.

Waving my family good bye, I hoped on the skytrain to Oakridge. With an hour or so to chill I contemplated seeing a movie at the empire theatres there but decided against it with the expectation of being at Kits Beach by 2:30pm. So i wandered around Oakridge mall checking out this and that- enjoying some personal freedom. I later met up with Akilesh and got a couple tickets because I really love electro and also want to support him despite not knowing who im going to go with yet. So he rolled up in the white beamer and handed me the merchandise, while I less prepared looked for some cash.  We quickly parted ways and I walked by to the sky train ready for some summer sun.

At Kits, Meg, Shelby, and Katie chill on the sand playing cards while Heather and I go swimming. We hopped through the waves as they come at us-slowly making our way out into the water. I'm reminded of the love affair with water song as I chill out in the calming waves. We now get to the epic detour of the day as we decide to walk back to english bay from Kits beach to save bus fare. It was actually very enjoyable as we passed the planetarium, bard on the beach, went down some pointless and scary hobo esque hideout trails, and walked over the bridge, played i spy etc. before getting to the other side. So we then found an awesome spot thanks to Heather, and set up camp. We rest for a moment after this jouney now pretty hungry before going to find some food in groups. Heather, Shelby and I wander past Uncle Fati's and the marble slab before finding some great smelling donair wraps- The chicken schawarma was delicious and spicy. We mozy on back to the beach to let Meg and Katie go for something.

Then the unexpected happens- first it starts sprinkling, the occasional raindrop and we think its probably nothing. Then it mother nature turns up the dial and all of a sudden it turns into a thundering down pour. Everybody on the beach lets out a unanimous groan of excitement and disapointment.  Big fat rain drops come raining down and we grab out beach towels and pull them over us like tents. I look at the sea of people down the beach all doing the same. Some people had umbrellas and rain coats- I guess we should have checked the weather network. So we make a dash for the streets grabbing our moist baggage. Meg and I try walking together under the same towel to avoid the rain. We had to make a pit stop at the Starbucks bathroom- and all the girls standing in the line for the bathroom were getting wet as the line up streched out into the street. I sat down with some white chocolate mocha goodness feeling very Parisian on the outside patio - happy to be sitting down. And after some rest we made our way home to Maple Ridge.

Victoria Vacation

Victoria is one of my favorite places. UVic has become my home for 8 months of the year and I love it there. There are so many upbeat, creative and inspiring west coast people that make it what it is. "It has such a sense of community" an old lady once told me while I was chatting with her on the bus- its not the bustling, exciting Vancouver where people drive too fast. In fact I think many people think of Victoria as a retirement haven and I don't always look both ways before crossing the road - yeah Ring Road is a one way street. And its also a beautiful tourist attraction, which adds a nice mixture of interesting, cultured foriegners. I love exchange students so much. I was seeing this beautiful french girl for a while back in first year at the beggining of spring. Anyways I just love nature, learning, yoga, seafood, smoothies, bunnies, and people from Vancouver Island.

My trip there last weekend was to visit some of my friends. It was great seeing Alice and Beth who let me stay with them on their super enjoyable comfy green couch. And we had lots of fun together- because both of them are from Calgary and I had planned to go to the stampede but hurt my foot sooo we had a Coastal Cowboys Party to make up for this homesickness. And we went all out on decorations (but decided in the end that hay bails would be really messy) and dressed up, made pancakes, listend to country all day, made red-neck name tags, played pin the tail on the bucking bronco with much spinning (so much spinning that people fell over) etc. And yes it was epic and yes it was awesome seeing everyone.

The next day I went to see Benny and his Bandies. Who are all super Rad! We went and chilled at Ben's apartment near where Marco used to live (adjacent to Alzu's 24/7 restaurant). We shared crazy stories and played with his two adorable cats - the kitten reminded me so much of when my cats were kittens and the cuteness nearly killed me. Anyways it was great to reunite with a fellow smearcat- and hope to see his band play in the near future.

I saw Lewis, Alex and Steven on my way to UVic on my final day there.  Thats part of what great about University once you've been there a while you become a regular where you can always find good friends. UVic would be listed as my natural habitat should I be found in a science book. That reminds me how much I want to get a long board. I ended up having tea with my friend Jeri who I usually end up seeing at the end of term. She told me about how shes moving to Australia and how I am going into third year. I like how she keeps a fresh perspective on my life- I really want to travel aswell and am planning on going on an exchange in fourth year to Sweden which will be awesome. Anyways it was really nice catching up how things are going.

Cluster is looking great and it looks like Rob and I will be living together No news on who the other two will be. For now I have to get through a real estate exam and get back in shape for the summer.

The Luck of the Irish

A few days ago after going to see the epic 'Get him to the Greek' movie at Silvercity Mission - shout out to the Tim Hortons there- I, my sister, Carolyn and Sweeney headed home in great spirits, jazzed on free pop corn and coke, speeding past 3 cops sans ticket, blasting the chunes it was like a Chamillionaire music video. So its all good and well and we go to Sweeney's first to drop him off, I get out of the back to let him out and say bye. He says catch you later, I reply Ok and Carolyn's black sedan-Voldemort" starts to go--> trying to scare Sweeney. But, only my left foot was back inside the car--> my right foot gets caught under the back wheel and draggs along the pavement until I can pull it free a few yards later. Ouch, my dock martin's took the blunt of the road rash, and my sock was in shredds, and my foot had a considerable hole in it (so much so that you could see my foot muscles. Carolyn drove me to the hostpital and I got some X-rays done, and luckily it was only sprained and no broken bones :) #lucky

So after a few days of hopping around like a kangaroo I decided it was a good idea to go to my friend's (Jill Vassallo) 20th Birthday at the Blarney Stone in Gastown. So I dressed up in some light white linnen pants, flippy floppies, and a summer plaid shirt. I was feeling groovy as I kicked down the gastown cobble stones looking for fun on a beautiful summer night. I got there and quickly got throught the line-up meeting Jill's Brother and friends there. Jill was looking great, wearing a green dress and tiara, and she came out to greet us with a big hug. I didn't want to carry the present I brought her around with me and knew she wouldn't want to either so I coat checked it, later giving the slip to the best friend Tasia. It was great seeing all that group of friends again, especially Jill who has such a big heart. Shes such an inspiration to be the best I can at everything I do. To smile at anything and always be laughing!

I think eveyone had a great night- I certainly did hearing all the old Irish music that warms my heart~   I ended up running into a class mate, Andrew, of Commerce 100 with some of his friends and Joel from Sanderson who I often saw around the concrete jungle. For now I have to let my foot heal up good and get to sleep zzzz....

Everybody raise your glass

Everybody was looking super fly at the formal grad dinner- bright dresses and flashy suits. It was turning out to be a pretty nice day as my family got dressed up to see Amber graduate. The afternoon sun was still bright as we drove out to Brock House- a nice character house that had been converted into a venue for events because of its great view out over the ocean. I always enjoy speeches by Mr. Burke for his witty puns and accessible deep meaning, G-Money for his great humour and Wells for his english dry humour- although his needed a little editing. Anyways the food was scrumptious, like super delish- I made several of those Italian hand kiss thingers -Magnifico!

So there are now tons of great photos that were taken looking out over the ocean. I admit to 'creeping' a couple albums- and am somewhat glad that I havent seen any of the ones of Aftergrad. Im sure the Harmatny's put on another beautifully decorated, and super fantastic event. Were there models-Im guessing so. I remember the final party as a class at our Aftergrad- So many good memories of everybody highlighted by that night. Its one of those epic things you heard about in the grades leading up to Grad year. Its extra special knowing this is the last time life will be this way It finally hits you that "We've finished High School, High School is done!" --> in further verses substitue highschool with drunk party members and add fist pumping for a whopping good time

Moving on! As I was leaving my buddy Hasan told me about a plan to go crash Eric Chan's 20th Birthday. Plans like these cannot be left alone especially when they party was at The Foggy Dew- Burnaby's favorite Irish Pub. Being somewhat Irish I was less than impressed by the top 40 and country music spattering having been to some really Irish pubs in my time. So Jessica Chai and I rode together and we followed the driving skills of Gary and co pilot Hasan- We were all super excited and having a great time finding our way there. We arrived to the warm welcome of hugs from many other Meadowridge Alumni- I dont think Alumni needs to be capitalized but I choose to capitalize words I like. We partyed it up catching up on old times and dancing the night away. We later went our seperate ways vowing meet again maybe for some tandem biking in Stanley park :)

Kobe im out

Forever Young

It was a great feeling seeing my sister up on the Gur-aduation stage this past Friday. I was so proud of her, and it also brought back all those memories of the end of Meadowridge life. Yeah Life, I was there for 13 years. As I looked out over the front field from the balcony with my tea and fruit platter samplings, I saw the junior school kids tearing around the school yard, a new teacher I didn't recognize laughing with some other students, and girls eating their lunch on the park benches. It was such a radiant summer day, and everyone was soaking it in. I remembered the people I was with when I was running around the school yard, playing soccer on the front field or walking the loop from the reception to the back of the school. It was such a nostalgic moment, it was soo good I leaned on the railing being anti-social for 5 minutes drinking in my tea and memories.

The last weeks of school for me were so relaxed. I wasn't worried about exams, and my marks were the best of my entire school career. I spent lunch times and philosophy classes enjoying the company of great friends I was about to leave for an exciting new future- knowing life would never be the same. I expect most of this years graduates are also very much enjoying their graduation, it was certianly so for the short time that I mingled with my sister's friends, their parents and some of my old teachers. Good luck with Provincials, exams, essays and all the other stress of one's final days. And as Mr. Burke's convocation speech described, what the future will hold is still like steamy fog on the mirror, and whatever path you may take I know you are going to blossom out into the world exploring yourself and what you want to do with your life more specifically. Good luck, as my grandfather told me, "you're becoming more like yourself everyday".

One final shout out to Amber, congrats and I love you, to Jason for a great Valedictorian speech which truly suited the spirit of that class, and to Carla and Mr. Noble for a beautiful and touching rendition of Forever Young. As an Alumni I still feel young seeing the excited faces of the grad class of 2010.