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