Amsterdamse

I have arrived. Well technically I arrived yesterday. But the first day never counts, since you're half delirious from jet lag and just trying to remember your name is a chore. By the time I arrived in Amsterdam yesterday I had been up for almost 24 hours. I had a few fitful hours of sleep on the plane, but plane sleeping is never that restful and usually just makes you feel worse than you were before. My new landlord/roommate Julijana met me at the airport - meeting someone you've never met before and have no idea what they look like is hard. I ended up calling her cell phone from a payphone, since there was just this constant crowd of people at the arrival area. But we managed to meet up, and went to her apartment in Slotervaart. She owns the apartment, and then rents out rooms to foreign students and the like. She is originally from Eastern Europe - Serbia I think - but has been living in the Netherlands for over 10 years. She works for the railway as a security/ticket officer on the trains, and so the apartment is very conveniently 1 block away from a train station. It's 1 stop away from Schiphol airport, and 2 stops away from Centraal Station. So pretty convenient. But I still plan on getting a bike and just biking to school all year. Aside from the up front cost, I'm convinced it will be cheaper than taking the train all year. It's only E3.30 for a return trip to Centraal Station, but that begins to add up very quickly when you start to do the math. I'll probably just become one of those people who lives at school....

My room is quite nice, with a double bed, closet, dresserish drawer units, and a view of the canal. Oh yeah. The apartment building is built on stilts over the canal, and my room just happens to be over it. Not directly, but just to the one side. But still, nice view of the canal and the nearby traffic circle from my window. I've also decided that I'm going to try and work my way through my Lonely Planet Amsterdam City Guide. When you live somewhere, you often don't ever go to the "touristy" places. I may skip overtly touristy places like Madame Toussaud's, but I think it will be nice to go to a new place once a week, like a field trip every Sunday. We'll see how long I keep it up, but the first two places on my list that I didn't go to in June are the Stedelijk Museum CS and Nemo, which are both right by my school. The Stedelijk CS is actually in the building right beside my school. So what's my excuse! It IS 9 euros, but it has the modern classes by people like Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rodin! I guess at 9 euros for all those dudes it's really a steal. Nemo is the museum of Science and Technology, that also has beach on the roof. And it's just on the other side of a little walking bridge that's about 50 feet from my school. Hopefully I'll become all culture-fied, and classy. There's always hope.

What am I talking about. With me, there's no hope. But I'll have fun anyways :)

w00t

So, not too much exciting has been going on. Becca won the nomination last weekend, so I guess that could be construed as exciting. On Friday I had a hell of a day - Aida, Vanessa, Jennie and I were playing at this West Coast LEAF breakfast downtown at 7 am, so I had to get up at 5:30 and be on the bus at 6:10! Bah! They had this really cool speaker though, who was the legal counsel for Roe v. Wade. She was amazing. We then had to race back to UBC, because we had a Chamber Strings dress rehearsal at 11, and concert at 12. By then, I hadn't really eaten anything, and was severely sleep deprived, so I went to have a quick nap before my piano lesson. And proceeded to sleep for 3 hours. Luckily I woke up in time for our orchestra dress rehearsal at 6:30 - the concert was Saturday night. I'm just impressed we made it through the whole Beethoven 9 without totally falling apart! Sunday I mostly lazed around, went for a run, started my English paper.

Housing and Conference Services are doing unit inspections this week in our rez, and so I volunteered to clean the living room, and the shower, sink, and toilet of my bathroom. Lisa was supposed to clean the kitchen, and Joyce was supposed to clean the floor of the bathroom. Well, I was the only one who cleaned. And they came this morning to inspect. All I can say is that whoever inspected this time was WAY nicer than whoever came last time! Our place is by no means filthy - it's "lived in". It's reasonably tidy, and is messy mostly because we actually cook, and use things in the kitchen and living room. Anyways, by some fluke we actually passed - you can 'fail' the first inspection, and they'll mark down what you need to clean better and come back in a week. If it's still not clean, they clean it and make you pay for it. Last term we 'failed' the first inspection, and used some fancy bargaining skills to get out of paying them! And it was way cleaner!

I just got an email that I got into Banff for Masterclasses and Orchestra, so it would seem my summer plans are beginning to firm up. Tomorrow morning I register for summer session, and so I should probably get on applying for a student loan for that... I'm going to Peter and Mariko's wedding in TO in June, and hopefully staying on for a week or so to hang out and play another Cirrus concert. If Tichelle gets their act together! Ha. Now all I need is to find a job.......

Blah

OK, seriously. I know I don't update this as much as some would like, but I'm totally busy and important! I have spent the entire time since February break working. Like, going to class. Doing homework. (not much) practicing. My friend Becca is running for the federal NDP nomination in Vancouver Quadra, and I've been working on her campaign a bit - the nomination meeting is on Sunday afternoon, so I guess that's exciting. That's about it. I swear. My life is exciting. Last night I went to bed at 10:30 pm. I'm wild and crazy.

Grinding

Back at the grind. School, school, school. Sunday was very exciting, as I spent basically the whole day studying. I had my theory midterm and a quiz in English on Monday morning, and because of my amazing procrastination skills I had to do all the studying on Sunday. For theory, I had to analyze a movement of a Mozart Sonata and then write an essay on it in the midterm. I hate analyzing. It takes me forever. Actually, I just sort of hate theory. Bah to theory.

I finally have all my passport stuff figured out, and after my class I'm going to mail it off to The Man. It's way easier to mail it because the lines at the passport office in Vancouver are so long, people are hiring homeless people to stand in line for them. Seriously. I read an article about in the paper. And since I'm not in any real hurry to get my passport, it just as easy to mail it in. I'm not actually planning on going anywhere, it's just sort of a good thing to have. Just in cases.

I have a research paper due in Poli Sci next week, and so I really have to start doing some readings for that. My skills of procrastination are second to none, and for some reason I have a really hard time working on something until the night before it's due. And while this works for normal assignments, for ones that require research it's not so great. So on that note, I believe I will read some journal articles while my English teacher is standing up at the front babbling about Fifth Business.

Read? Pshaw.

So Reading Week is drawing to a close. It was very exciting. I swear. Monday was my recital - it went well, and relatively uneventful except for dropping my bow in the middle of the 2nd movement of my Shosti. Good times. My mom came out, as did my Uncle Jerry and cousin Bruce. It was nice to see everyone, since I've been living out here since September but actually haven't seen any of my BC-residing relatives.

I meant to do stuff during Reading Week, but ended up not doing as much as I meant to. I was hampered by the fact that while out for my run on Tuesday morning, my keys fell out of my pocket. Luckily by the time I made it back to my rez they had already been picked up and turned in, but unluckily they sent them back through campus mail which takes FOREVER! So I only got them back yesterday. My UPass was on my keychain/lanyard thingie, so it meant I was campus-bound all week. I paid bus fare downtown to go see Music and Lyrics with Jenna on Tuesday, but other than that I stayed close to home. I did a bit of reading for my research paper, and worked a bit on analyzing a Mozart Sonata for my theory midterm on Monday. Exciting.

This weekend is the YND executive retreat, where we're making our evil master plan for the year. This being, I should probably start paying attention to the meeting now - being co-chair and all:)

The Home Stretch

So I'm almost done with this week. It's the home stretch. It doesn't necessarily mean I'll be less busy, but I won't have classes to go to next week. Hooray for Reading Week! The opera finished on Sunday, but we started in this week on rehearsals for our next concert - the 10th Anniversary of the Chan Centre. It's an all Beethoven program, which should be interesting......

Tuesday was not my day. I woke up in the morning, went for a run, ate breakfast, and then went back to bed because I felt so crappy. I meant to practice during that time, but I figured it was probably more useful to me to be feeling OK. Then in the afternoon I dropped my viola during my lesson. Good times. Luckily, even when I have bad luck, I'm still lucky because things always turn out OK. Some people have the worst luck, and when bad things happen it's the worst possible outcome. But my viola's fine. My chin-rest bore the brunt of the fall, and I had to replace it. It was sort of sad, since that chin-rest had been with me for over 10 years, switched from viola to viola. Rest in peace, dear friend.

Another thing I did this week was spend hours riding the bus, and I have come to the conclusion that I hate Translink with the flaming passion of a thousand burning suns. Seriously. It takes forever to get anywhere because of the sketchy system of buses. I spent 3 hours riding the bus on Wednesday just to go pick up my bow from getting a re-hair. It wasted my whole afternoon! Bah!

Yesterday I got a call from the Cecilia Quartet who were in town on their Jeunesses Musicales tour. So I met up with them last night for some grub on Robson, and made plans to meet up with them again this afternoon after I go to see Maher Arar talk about the Arar Inquiry. I'm not quite sure what to expect from this lecture, but it was free and I thought it would be interesting no matter what he was planning on talking about. Tomorrow my mom arrives for my recital, and on Monday the agony will be over and I can stop practicing, and work on all my school work I have been neglecting a bit. Anybody want to write a paper for me?

Can't Talk.....Studying

Here is a letter I sent to the Ubyssey, UBC's student newspaper, that I thought people (cough, mom, cough) would be interested to read:

http://www.ubyssey.bc.ca/2007/02/13/green-leader-and-reality-checks/

I have two midterms on Thursday, and almost broke my viola. Also, am going to see Maher Arar give a talk on Friday. More to come laters.

Surfing

So I'm sitting in BC NDP Provincial Council right now, surfing the internets, and came across these two news stories. The first is amusing, the second is disturbing.

Apparently teenagers still don't understand the concept that once you post something on the internet, anyone can see it. Students at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham Mass. created a Facebook group dedicated to a pro-gay rights teacher at their school. And then proceeded to use it as a forum to bash Republican Senator Scott Brown. Excerpts include, "I hate scott brown" and "scott brown ascends from the underworld". Apparently these were the tame ones. So what does Senator Brown do? He goes to the high school to speak at an assembly and proceeds to read off the more offensive and profane comments, and specifying which students posted them. Seriously. Doesn't he have work to do? And does anybody else find it creepy that there's a rogue Republican Senator trolling Facebook? Didn't they learn their lesson about harassing youth? Anyways, I found it somewhat amusing, because when I created a group to say bad things about people on Facebook, I clicked the box to make it private so that nobody but people I approve could read it. Kids these days are very foolish.

The other story is somewhat more disturbing - an article in the Toronto Star today about poverty in Canada. It has to do with health care, but an area that is often disregarded - dentistry. It's the story of Jason Jones, one of Ontario's many working poor who is not covered for any dental services under OHIP. If he were on social assistance he would get partial coverage, but because he works full-time but doesn't make more than 8 bucks and hour (the minimum wage) and does not have health benefits from work, he has no dental coverage whatsoever. There's not much I can say about this. I know how expensive these types of 'frivolous' services are - I desperately need new glasses but have been putting off going to the optometrist because I can't afford it. And I'm just lucky that I've been blessed with a mixture of good teeth, and my dad's dental coverage. But even with coverage, it's damn expensive to see the dentist for a simple check-up and cleaning, let alone some sort of more complicated procedure. Our country is moving in a dangerous direction in terms of health care and interpretations of the Canada Health Act, and it's quite frankly very disturbing.

Here are the urls to the two stories:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/02/09/senator_repeats_bad_language_written_about_him/
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/180323

WTF!

I read Bourque newswatch to get tomorrow's Canadian news today, and today they linked to an article from the Toronto Star, dated January 30, that made me so mad. This crazy-ass columnist was confused as to why people are caring so much about climate change 'instead' of health care. First of all, people care about both. The point though, is that we won't need health care if our ecosystem collapses. Also, by improving the quality of the air we breathe etc, we would become less of a strain on our healthcare system. Here are some gems from the article that particularly pissed me off:

"Another reason to wonder about our sudden environmental awareness is that, although little attention has been paid to this, global warming will actually benefit Canadians, on balance.

A warmer climate will lengthen our growing season and so expand our agricultural output. It will melt our Arctic ice, creating opportunities for speedier sea travel to Europe and Asia, and make it possible to increase exploitation of our northern resources. It will also reduce our death rate, which always increases during our winters.

Our unearned luck is not yet complete. One of the most feared of the consequences of global warming – a rise in sea levels – will have little effect on us. As a rich country, we are far better situated to cope with climate change's negative effects than is a poor one, like Bangladesh."

Holy shit. Sure, we may not suffer as much as Bangladesh or the Netherlands (whose majority of land is under sea level). But the ice caps melting and sea level rising has bigger and much scarier consequences than just opening the Northwest passage and flooding some countries that we apparently shouldn't care about. The Day After Tomorrow may have been a cheezy movie, but it was based on climate change science. They can't really predict what WILL happen, but that was one example of what COULD happen. And then, Canada would really be screwed.

There is this sort of attitude in Canada that we would be better off if the world heated up a bit, because it's so cold here anyways - so what would a few degrees matter! Uh, well, let's say drought. Massive drought in the prairies. Great Depression-like dustbowl. The Lower Mainland of BC would probably be underwater - including the Greater Vancouver area, which is the third largest city in Canada. And after the drought and flooding, maybe the climate would cool because of a shift in ocean currents. Could happen. And then we'd really be screwed. If we thought it was cold now, we should wait and see what happens if we keep destroying or planet. Next Ice Age, here we come!

Ca-razy

Ok I know, I should update more often. I swear I was busy this week though - yesterday I basically no time to eat between 10 and 7:30. It was rough, man. Anyhoo, YND convention was fun. We had interesting workshops and stuff, and I was acclaimed as the new Co-Chair. The only 'hi-jinks' I suppose would be from Saturday night. We went to a house party, and Alex, Jenna, and I decided to walk there because we're cheap but apparently not lazy. Then when we got there Alex took off to the liquor store and bought Jenna and I this awesome 2-litre plastic pop bottle of orange wine cooler. And we drank it out of the bottle, ghetto style. A small dance party sub-set of the house party got started in the living room, although periodically Jenna and I would go hang out in the bathroom. Not for any reason in particular. Just because it seemed like the thing to do. However, people were very interested in what the hell we were doing in there, so the official story is that we were doing lines of coke off the toilet seat;)

At about 1 am we left the party, but only made it about two blocks before stopping at a 24-hour diner. It was a good idea, since I had skipped supper and was starving. Alex ordered a milkshake, and then got a little crazy trying to get the guy sitting across from us to look at her - mostly by making suggestive motions with the whipped cream on her milkshake. It was hilarious and disturbing at the same time! At the end of convention, I got saddled with a box 'o propaganda, but luckily I got a ride home from the ferry because I have no idea how I would have carried that sucker a) onto the bus, and b) from the bus loop to my place. I did use my new-found power to make other people carry it onto the ferry, but none of them were heading my way.

This week I've been pretty busy, just with school stuff. The opera starts on Thursday, so we've been having these crazy intensive 3 1/2 hour rehearsals. And on a non-schoolwork related note, they've also been filming on campus again. Last night they were filming outside the Chan when I got out of opera, and so I asked someone what they were filming. It's this movie called "Passengers", starring Anne Hathaway. It's about a guy who's in a plane crash, and Anne Hathaway's character is the grief counselor who's helping him come to terms with it, etc. They apparently have the plane crash site set up on the Spanish Banks, and I've been running past all their trucks along Marine Drive all week. It'll be amusing to go see it when it comes out, because they've been filming at quite a few locations on campus this week - they even have their craft services tent set up in the parking lot beside the School of Music!

I'm a Negligent Mother

I know, I don't update very often. I'm a negligent blogger. But I swear I've been very busy, doing not a hell of a lot. The most recent news is from last weekend, right after I posted. My friend Alex from UMP and YND called me up, and we arranged to go to see Dreamgirls on Saturday afternoon. Then we found out our other YND friend Jeff was in town from Victoria for some NDP party, and so we ended up going out for dinner with him and Becca after the movie, and then heading over to this NDP party. It was a birthday party for someone, who I think is the head of the BC NDP. I'm not really sure. But anyways in the course of the night I agreed to run for co-chair of the YND at the convention this weekend. I still claim it's because they promised to make a Facebook group about me, but that's another story. Then, Sam invited me to go see Body Worlds with him, Becca, and Jeff on Sunday morning. It was the last day, and the only tickets he could get were for 8:30 am, which meant that we had to leave UBC on the first bus out that morning - at 6:45 am. It hurt, but it was worth it because Body Worlds was pretty cool. After that we went out for lunch and met up with Erin, another YNDer. And then I somehow became instrumental in nominating Becca to run for NDP candidacy in our federal riding. It was mostly because they wanted her forms in by the end of the day, and I was already with her so all I had to do was go over to her house and sign the forms on my way back to UBC. So that was my exciting weekend, but of course by the time Monday rolled around I was already exhausted. Although I did end up going to sleep at about 8 pm on Sunday.

Anyways, my week was busy but boring. Full of classes, homework, and practicing. Sooooo much fun. And my weekend was pretty low-key, which was nice because I spend the entire day yesterday catching up on all my readings that I've neglected. My only other piece of news I guess is that I ordered a Bam Hi-Tek viola case from Remenyi in Toronto. Why Remenyi? Because they actually had one in stock, and ordering directly from Bam takes about 6 months. So I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival, because my cheap-o Korean case is just about on its last legs. Soooo...that's it. From the looks of it, I'm in for another pretty boring week, and Friday afternoon I head off to Victoria for YND convention. So, that will probably be slightly more eventful and then I can relate the hijinks to you-all.

My Foot's Asleep - It Burns

I realize it's been a while, but I swear I've been busy! I had a pretty low-key birthday – my aunt Margaret and her sister Jennifer took me out for lunch at Mykonos, and then I went out for dinner at E.E. Burrito's with the parentals and Julianne. On the 4th I flew to Victoria for Universities' Model Parliament. I was the Minister of Heritage, and though I didn't have much to do with the actual bills introduced, I did make a ministerial statement where I announced that Canada's new government for the people was going to increase funding and support of the CBC. So, go CBC. It was a good weekend, chalk-full of policy, debate, and karaoke. Good times.

Anyways, I got back to Vancouver on Sunday night, just in time for school on Monday morning. As it turned out, Michelle was back in BC, this time for her grandma's funeral. So after my classes on Monday I met up with her and her mom for some quality hang-out time. Then they dropped me off on Granville so I could go downtown to Long and McQuade to enquire about a viola case. On my way back home I stopped for groceries, which was good because I had no food whatsoever. Before I left in December I cleaned out the fridge so that we wouldn't come home to a nice fridge full of rotten food. So the fridge was nice and empty.

Anyways, it's just been your normal first week of classes. Figuring out where all my classes are, and trying to find my textbooks for cheaper than bookstore prices. I managed it for English, but that's an easy class to find cheap books. Because it's usually quite easy to find a used paperback of whatever you're reading. Poli sci however, I had to pay full bookstore price because you always have to have the most recent, and therefor most expensive version of the book. It makes sense though, because the political landscape is always changing. And stuff. I did make an executive decision not to buy the sight-singing book for the theory class they're making me take – mostly because I don't feel like paying 80 bucks for a sight-singing book I'll only use for one term. It's sight-singing! I'll just sight-sing out of someone else's book. Although, they are doing solfege here, which I am really really bad at. I can sight-sing fine and in tune if it's just la la la, or even note names, but we have to sight-sing in either solfege, or scale degrees! Which is totally bogus! Solfege is just note names in French, so why can't we just sing note names in English. Argh! But I'll survive somehow, I'm sure.

Anyways, I'm just hanging out till I have to go to my piano lesson (fun). Oh yeah, and I've started running. Except for the two mornings I have a 9 am theory lecture, I've been getting up at 7 to go for a run. And aside from general soreness, I feel pretty good! I'm not quite as out of shape as I though I was, though I can in no way be construed as a good runner. I still hate it, but it's the cheapest, most efficient form of exercise. Which is good, because I have to try and save some money. And we all know how much I love saving. Also, I hope all of my family in Saskatchewan is having a nice time. And is not trapped in their cars or in Wal-Mart. I was watching Newsworld this morning as I was stretching after my run, and the temperature (with windchill) today in Regina was going to be -48. Suckers!!!!! It's ONLY -12 in Vancouver!

It's Bird, A Plane, A Bird And A Plane!

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% Spider-Man 70% Supergirl 27% Batman 15% Robin 7% Wonder Woman 7% Green Lantern 0% The Flash 0% Catwoman 0% Hulk 0% Iron Man 0%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz


Your results:
You are Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze 25% Venom 25% The Joker 16% Lex Luthor 15% Dr. Doom 15% Magneto 11% Apocalypse 10% Two-Face 9% Mystique 5% Dark Phoenix 3% Kingpin 2% Green Goblin 1% Juggernaut 1% Riddler 0% Poison Ivy 0% Catwoman 0%

You are cold and you think everyone else should be also, literally.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

Ah, Family...

Well, it's been an exciting family Christmas in Saskatoon. The festivities began on the 23rd with a big party for my cousin Donovan's first wedding anniversary. He got married last Christmas in Mexico, and since basically nobody from our family went they decided to have a big party for us this year in Saskatoon. I had a good time goofing off on the dance floor with my siblings and cousins - especially my cousin Ian who got totally plastered. Unfortunately we were hampered by the worst DJ ever - he didn't even have Thriller!!!! What kind of DJ has no Thriller! But we made the best of the circumstances and danced like complete idiots. Awesome! Afterwards I went out with my sisters and Vashti's boyfriend Chris to the Roxy on Broadway. Vashti force-fed me vodka, which I came to regret the next morning. We didn't stay too long though, because we were all (excepting Anne who was our designated driver) plastered and it was only the first day of Christmas celebrations! The fun part was when I got home and was locked out. I'm just lucky Cayley hadn't completely passed out yet from going out with his friends, and heard me pounding on the door.

Christmas Eve was held at my uncle Mike's farm, as always. Though this year we tried something new with the gift exchange - instead of drawing names and buying for a specific person, we all just brought a sort of generic present and then drew numbers and picked from the pile in order. Cayley and I ended up with matching sets of plates - but they're really nice! My mom foolishly picked the present that I brought, which was basically a smaller version of what I had got her for Xmas. Guess she wasn't as good at snooping under the tree as in previous years. The high point however was my uncle Scott, who got totally shitfaced and made the most hilarious toast to my grandma. She had her surgery for the latest bout of cancer moved up and went under the knife 4 days before Xmas, but she was still partying it up like the rest of us - she attributed it to the painkillers she was on. But anyways, Scott made a ridiculous speech, and then went and passed out somewhere in Mike's house. It was hilarious!

Christmas day was a production, because first we had to wait for Vashti, Anne, and Chris to come over to open presents. Those poor kids had to hit 3 different houses on Xmas day to open presents with their 3 different parents. Suck much! Anyways, I got mostly shirts....but since there was nothing I desperately wanted it was all good. I like shirts, though decidedly not as much as I like pants. I also opened my B-day present from Cayley early, because he's flying to Florida on my birthday. And he kept the chicken gift tradition alive by giving me this hideous chicken hat. Well, it's pretty funny, but I just don't know where I would ever wear it! Then we had to clean like crazy because for some reason the 'rents decided to hold a dinner at our house on Xmas day. So that basically meant that we cleaned while mom freaked out. But the dinner was nice, and fairly non eventful.

Boxing day I went to Preston Crossing with Graeme and Julianne who were hitting up Future Shop for sale printers, and I hit Old Navy to spend the giftcard I got from Julianne for Xmas. Then we went to my aunt Margaret's for dinner, with my fam (minus Vashti and Anne) and my cousin Bob and his wife and two kids. I had a good time playing Yu-gi-oh with Nathan, and got in trouble for being loud and rough-housing. I like little boys better than girls - they're so quantifiable! Besides, I was a tomboy with two older brothers, which basically meant that I played with my John Deere tractor set and not lame-o Barbies. So I find girly little girls somewhat boring.

The five-day holiday extravaganza ended with dinner at my grandparents on the 27th, with the same old Thiesson crowd. By this time though Vashti, Anne, and Chris had all left for New Years @ Tofino, but they were basically the only people absent. The hilarious story from this dinner is that my grandparents planned to have a roast as the main dish, and they plunked it in the stove in the party room of their building and came back an hour later to find out that the stove didn't really work. So we ended up eating the roast last - mmm....dessert roast.... Dinner became this sort of free-for-all and people were eating dessert while some people were still on salad! It was a very Thiesson gathering though. And then I played some sort of card game with my cousins which involved a lot of slapping of people's hands. I forget what they called it....

On the 28th I was so partied out, I didn't leave the house all day. It was awesome. Yesterday I ran errands with my mom downtown, one of which involved me going with her to Lululemon to pick out yoga pants for her. We were joking that she's become sort of like Hugh Grant's character in Two Weeks Notice - she can't make a decision with out me, at least when it comes to clothes. She now just doesn't buy any clothes at all unless I'm with her. But I think this is for the best, as she tends to pick out things at are (how can I say this diplomatically....) ugly. Well, not ugly. But wrong. Things that are wrong.

Today I went to the first live HD broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera. It's this new thing the Met is doing, and we went to our local Galaxy cinemas and watched the Magic Flute live from New York. It was pretty cool - the Magic Flute totally rocks, and it was a really cool production directed by Julie Tamor who did the Lion King on Broadway. The Magic Flute was always my favourite opera as a kid, especially the duet between Papageno and Papagena at the end! It totally rocks! My cousin Alex and aunt Judy also came, and there was actually a really good turnout for Saskatoon! And my mom heard on the news that the Silvercity in Toronto was completely sold out for the opera. I think this is a fantastic new initiative, because what are the chances you'd get to see the Met for 20 bucks, and especially if you live in, say, Saskatoon. It's a shame the CBC has no money to do something like this with the COC - especially for Canadian and/or Canadianish works like the Handmaid's Tale opera. But the CBC doesn't have enough money to HD their own shows, let along broadcast live HD operas. It's a shame though. The Handmaid's Tale was fantastic, but unless you lived in Toronto there was no way you got to see it. They played it on the radio, but trust me it wasn't the same. Anyways, I'm supposed to be going to Econoline Crush at the Roxy on Broadway tomorrow night with Graeme and Julianne, but they're stuck in Regina cause Graeme got really sick, so we'll see. I won't got on my own, because the Roxy is slightly sketchy, and who wants to go see something like that on your own! Lame!

Velvety

So it's been a while I guess. Nothing extremely exciting really happened - Ingunn came to Vancouver and we took the ferry to Victoria and I hung out with her and her mom, and her niece and nephew for a day. Then I wrote my two finals, and I think they went pretty well. But at any rate I'll find that out soon enough.... Yesterday I flew to Toronto to play in Tom's orchestra - huzzah. I had this really weird ticket booked because I had already booked my ticket home, and it was non-refundable , so I was book to Toronto via Edmonton-Saskatoon. But I guess the Edmonton flight was really overbooked, so they just traded my ticket for a direct one! Score! It's so nice to be back in the T-dot, and Casa Zapf-Belanger. It really was my second home when I lived here. And also to be back with my dysfunctional Toronto family. Everybody in Vancouver thinks I'm weird, but among my brethren here - I'm positively normal!!! So to anybody who's in the Toronto area and feels like a concert, come see the Cirrus Ensemble tomorrow night at Walmer Road Baptist Church, 188 Lowther Avenue. I promise good times - especially at the big Caitlin party afterwards. She throws the best parties.

Love, Pain, and the Whole Crazy Thing

Well, since yesterday I had three somewhat exciting and/or interesting pieces of news. Some of you may (or may not) know that this year I am participating in BC's Universities Model Parliament as a member for the NDP. Never in UMP's history has the NDP risen to anything other than official opposition, but this year after a highly complex system of people who registered vs on-campus polling, the NDP has come out victorious!!! We get to be the government, baby! Prepare to have all your tax dollars SPENT!

Secondly, I went to physio today and found out the reason my back hurts is because my hips are out of alignment. My right hip is 1 1/2 inches below my left, and is turned down slightly, causing the bottom of my spine to bend and compress my sciatic nerve. So the physiotherapist did all these exercises to re-align my hips, and got them to within a 1/2 inch of each other. I felt so fantastic after physio, and in so much less pain, but unfortunately it didn't last and I am now sore again. But he gave me some exercises to do until I go back on Friday. C'mon hips, get in gear!

And lastly, I'm going to Toronto!!! It's so exciting!!! Tom and Michelle are organizing this orchestra concert with Tom conducting, and apparently every single violist in town is busy on that day (the 18th). They have Michelle's brother and another girl signed up, but they needed a section leader. And since I was flying home on the 16th anyways, I'm now just going to Toronto on the 16th to hang out at Michelle's for a couple of days and play this concert! Yay! I'm so excited, to see 2/3s of the girls (but I get to see the other 1/3 this weekend), and my whole extended Toronto family! I must admit I've been slightly homesick for Toronto - not that I haven't been having a good time here, but it's always hard to move somewhere that you don't know anybody and to start over completely. I've done it before, but it's always hard. Anyways, I must now go lie in bed and watch Scrubs on my laptop.

It's Official

Yup, it's official. I am now an old lady. My back's still bothering me, so I decided to get it checked up on. And according to the doctor, I have 'acute lumbar strain and sciatica' and she referred me to physio. This sucks man. This is the second time in 2 years that I've been in physio - first for my knees and now for my back. When will the madness end!!!!! I'm now going to lie on the couch and moan.

Out of the Dark, Into the Pain

So, big storm here. Lots of snow. Three days of snow and counting. In fact, it's snowing right now. I always used to laugh at Vancouver because it shuts down every year when it snows. But this stuff is wet, and heavy, and has taken down trees which in turn take down power lines and trolley bus lines. So that is why my power went out at 2am last night. But on the bright side, I finally get to profit from what I used to make fun of, because all classes were cancelled today. And I went out for the morning and came back to find my power back on. So hooray for that. Oh, and they FINALLY lifted the boil water advisory. Not that I was actually boiling my water, but it's always good to not have an advisory in place....

But the bad news is I pulled something in my back this morning. While stepping onto a low-rise wheelchair accessible bus. I don't know how, but I managed to do it, and am now in pain. That and I can't stand upright. I can only stand if I'm bent over, so I'm thinking of investing in a cane. Anyways, I went and saw a doctor, and he prescribed me ibuprofen and robaxacet, and said if in five days it wasn't better to get it checked up on. So we'll see. But in the meantime I plan to drug myself up, and lie on the couch moaning and watching TV. There's Star Trek and CSI on practically ALL DAY! And hey, if it's still bad tomorrow, maybe I can get out of orchestra! Score!

I'm Still Alive

So, apparently the news has been talking a lot about the big storm we had here yesterday. In fact, when I got home from orchestra today I had two worried messages on my phone from my mom. So this is just a little public service announcement to let anybody who cares know that I am in fact still alive. I have power. I was not evacuated. I (sadly) still had school. And I will try not to drink the dirty water....it's just SO TEMPTING!

Ugly Leno

So I was lying in bed, unable to fall asleep, and started thinking about an annoying segment Entertainment Tonight has been running for the last week. So I decided to get out of bed and rant about it. It's called 'Ugly Vanessa', and they dress up MTV hottie Vanessa Minillo in a fat suit, braces, and glasses, and send her out on the streets of New York doing various things and seeing how people react to her. As opposed to when they give her a blond wig, green contacts, and a Gucci wardrobe. There are a few things that piss me off about this. First of all, in making her fat they gave her this enormous prosthetic chin. She looks like an ugly, latin, female Jay Leno. Seriously, just because you're fat, it doesn't mean you have a huge chin! Secondly, they picked a girl who's gotten everywhere she is in her life because of her looks. She was Miss Teen USA, then an MTV VJ and ET correspondent, and all because she's cutesy and hot. So naturally she hates the way she looks, and while she's out as the 'fat' Vanessa she basically transmits how ugly she thinks she is to everyone around her by the way she acts. But at the same time, she tries to be all cutesy, because it works for her when she's skinny and hot. Honey, being cutesy gets you nowhere in life. Unless your skinny and hot.

My other big beef is the things they have her do to test how she's treated differently. First she had to approach people on the street to give them a survey. As the timid, big-chinned girl, New Yorkers just passed her by. As I would have. People laughed at her when she rode the subway, which is admittedly pretty mean, but she looked really ridiculous. She's not used to being that size, so she moved awkwardly like somebody who's used to being much different. And she just sort of stood around awkwardly, in people's way, waiting for them to have a negative reaction to her. If you're standing in the middle of the steps to the subway staring at everyone who passes you, I'm probably going to laugh at you too. Another test was going clubbing. They sent her one night as a hottie, and then next night as a fugly. Well, big surprise the bouncers at NYC's hottest club didn't let in the fugly girl with unwashed hair and horrific clothing. Seriously, they could have at least put some effort into her attire and made her look a lot more presentable. Today they had her go lingerie shopping on Madison Avenue. Dressed in ill-fitting, cheap clothes. And then she wondered why no salespeople would give her the time of day. Those people are trained to smell money, and fugly Vanessa just had the stench of insecurity and cheap clothes coming off her.

My roommate Lisa and I proceeded to have a big discussion about this. More than half of what people perceive you to be is in your attitude. People who are self confident (NOT cocky assholes) and secure in themselves are perceived as 'hotter' than perhaps they actually are. Lisa and I both thought about it, and with both of us the guys we've liked have not been 'hot' in the conventional sense, but we were attracted to their personality and attitude. So there you go Vanessa. If you walk around with the attitude you're awkward and ugly, you will be seen as awkward and ugly. And Entertainment Tonight, next time give that girl some clothes that actually fit! The character on Ugly Betty is a comic stereotype. Not a real phenomenon. Idiots.

It's Really Quite Easy. I Swear.

Well, another exciting installment of My Life. It's been mostly routine, with classes, rehearsals, and lessons. Last weekend was the string fest. Nothing really exciting happened.

Yesterday we had a UBC NDP social, which basically involved about five of us meeting up to eat pizza and watch The End of Suburbia. The DVD had two versions of the film - one rated G and one rated M for Mature. We of course picked the one rated M, and proceeded to discover that the decline in oil is like a clusterfuck in a shit storm. I kid you not, that's what one guy said. I guess that's why it was rated M. After the movie we got sucked into playing MarioKart in the Arts Undergrad Society office, with us all screaming obscenities (like 'clusterfuck!') whenever we screwed up. After that I was really quite tired and so went home and went to bed early. But some asshat decided to set off the fire alarm in my building at 1:30 in the morning, and we had to evacuate the building and wait for the firemen to come and turn it off. So needless to say my night was not as restful as I had hoped it would be.

Today we had our last rehearsal before the orchestra concert tomorrow, and holy shit am I getting really annoyed at this orchestra! It's like a trifecta of badness. The conductor can't conduct (it's really quite easy to count to three, but apparently out of his abilities), the players don't seem to understand dynamics (p means loud, right?!), and NOBODY CAN KEEP TEMPO! Now, it doesn't help that we have a weak conductor, but doesn't everybody realize that if you rush like a mofo, it just makes everything harder to play?! I really just feel sorry for the pianist who's playing Prokofiev 2nd Piano Concerto with us, because the second movement is just him playing straight (and fast) eighth notes, and we keep rushing him. Actually, we just rush him throughout the whole piece. And as a soloist it is the worst feeling - that the orchestra is not following you, but you are having to follow the orchestra. If I had to put money on it, I'd say that tomorrow during the concert we fall apart in the 3rd movement of the Rachmaninov Dances.

Is it bad that I miss the Con?

Tired for no reason

Well, seeing as how I'm bored and trying to waste time, I thought I'd do a little posting. Last weekend was a doozy, let me tell you. I blame Aida. Anyways, on Friday night I dressed up like post-pregnancy Britney Spears (minus the baby, because really when does she ever tote the kid around?), and went out with Vanessa and Aida. We first went over to Totem to meet up with some friends of theirs who are RAs there, and then proceeded to hang around and drink while waiting for people. I don't really know why. All I know is that it resulted in a lot of absurd drunken photos of Vanessa, Aida, me, and their friend Nathalie. After we managed to find everyone we headed over to the SUB to go to the Pit Pub, but in the mad crush of people trying to get in Vanessa and I got separated from everyone else. And then Vanessa got really claustrophobic, so we decided to leave the line and go to McDonald's in the Village instead. So we did, and then I escorted Vanessa back to Gage so she didn't get attacked by anyone, and went home.

The next morning I got up, and met some UBC NDPers at the SUB to head downtown to a peace march. So we marched around downtown, and then I had to duck out of the rally at 2:30 to head back to campus to meet Vanessa and Aida for a gig. We played a wedding reception, but the funniest part was that I was the only one who noticed it was a same-sex marriage. The other three were totally clueless, and only when both the 'best men' started giving speeches did they believe me. AHAHAHA. Anyways, I played violin, which was hilarious, but it was all good. Afterwards, Aida and I quickly changed into our Halloween costumes in Vanessa's car, and then Vanessa dropped Aida, Nathalie, and I off at the Blarney Stone. It's this pub downtown, sort of near the Lower East Side (ooh, scary) that everybody seems to love. I don't know, I wasn't so convinced. Of course, that may have had something to do with having to stand in line for and hour and a half before getting in. I never stood in line that long even in TO! So anyways, drunken debauchery ensued, and I somehow managed to catch the bus back to UBC. I vaguely remember meeting some random guy on the street, and him showing me how to get to Waterfront Station to catch the B-Line (because I had absolutely no idea where I was...).

Sunday morning was not a happy time though. It always seems like such a good idea at the time to mix liquors, but Sunday sucked. Majorly. But I managed to get through it pretty much alive, and am now back at the daily grind. There's this 'String Festival' weekend thingie on this weekend at UBC, so that means that I have two string orchestra concerts - one on Friday at noon, and one Saturday evening. Should be hilarious! I'll probably bring my computer to do some work on my Argument essay for English, seeing as my panel is on Wednesday. Anybody got any gems of wisdom on torture?

Personality? Nah.

So, the other day my roommate and I were sitting around watching TV, and they kept running these ads for eHarmony and how you can get a free personality profile. Well, we were intrigued to find out what we are like, so we decided to get our computers and do it. I'm bored now, so I thought I'd post my profile. I think it's pretty good, but the problem I had with the questions was they asked things like, pick three of these terms that your friends would use to describe you. Well, I don't really know how my friends would describe me, so I had to answer what I thought my friends thought about me. Which is weird. Anyways here it is. I just noticed that it says I'm lucky alot.

In Agreeableness you are best described as:

USUALLY TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF

Words that describe you:

* Perceptive
* Realistic
* Demanding
* Down-to-Earth
* Hardnosed
* Judgmental
* Pragmatic
* Skeptical

A General Description of How You Interact with Others

You are clearly a compassionate person; you believe that you should do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and you know that friends help their friends. But with you compassion is just one side of the coin; the other being a side that also expects others to hold up their end of the bargain. So you help others but it is with the expectation that others don't take advantage of you or try to put one over on you. In short, you expect others to treat you as you treat them.

And for those people who do ask for help when they should have taken responsibility for themselves? This is the time when your more hard-edged side comes out. You are skeptical of people when they expect others to bail them out of trouble; if they got themselves into the bind, they should work their way out of the trouble. If it's an emergency, or if it's a friend who has been there for you when you have had hard times, you are there in a quick minute. But you are a discerning person and to you there is a big difference between an emergency and a self-inflicted wound. You just look at the facts: how the situation developed, how serious the situation, and how they can or cannot get through things on their own. The history you have with the person and with similar situations will inform you whether this is or is not a time for you to get involved.

You also have some limits when it comes to being with people. Sure some people need to be with others all the time and seem to get recharged by helping out most anyone else. But that's not you. You know that you do best if you spend a fair amount of time on your own. Not that you are a loner, just that time spent by yourself is not wasted at all with you. You've come to understand that if you don't take good care of yourself, eventually you'll be not good to anyone, including yourself or others.

So your compassion is tempered by realism. Your sympathy for people in trouble is balanced by a critical evaluation of how they got themselves to the place they are. And you've learned to take good care of yourself, so you have something to give to your friends or others truly in need.

On the Openness Dimension you are:
CONTENT

Words that describe you:

* Sensible
* Realistic
* Conventional
* Sincere
* Simple
* Firm
* Earnest

A General Description of How You Approach New Information and Experiences

You find that you are usually more comfortable with ideas and beliefs that you have held for a long time. These values, which for you are tried-and-true, provide you with practical solutions to life's problems, and with straightforward ways of engaging in intellectual discussions and debates. You've tested these positions over time, you know them well, they work for you, and you trust them. You like the way these solutions provide consistency and value to your life.

You've always been teachable as well. Whether in textbooks or classrooms, or through a wide variety of personal and interpersonal experiences, you've explored and tested the values and ideas you hold dear. Along the way you've grown to recognize ideas and beliefs that fit with your life. When this happens, you open yourself to learning what it is that this can teach you. Most of the time evaluating new information strengthens what you know and trust; the "next new thing" usually proves too shallow or too impractical to dislodge you from what has served you so well.

On Emotional Stability you are:
SOMETIMES STEADY, SOMETIMES RESPONSIVE

Words that describe you:

* Adaptable
* Engaged
* Able to Cope
* Passionate
* Perceptive
* Flexible
* Receptive
* Aware
* Avid



A General Description of Your Reactivity

In some ways, you've got the best of emotional worlds. When emotions rise up from inside you or are brought forth from a conversation by a friend, you know how to engage them. You deal with sadness, fear, joy, anger - whatever comes up - in ways that are perceptive and flexible. You can adapt to whatever level of emotion is appropriate to the moment. At other times, you are able to cope with your emotions in a more reserved manner. Because you are aware of what does and does not make emotional sense in a particular situation, you will decide when it is an appropriate time to express your emotions and when it would be best to keep them to yourself.

All of this gives you a rich emotional life. You are free to express your passions about certain subjects with appropriate people. But you are also emotionally adaptable; if the conversation needs to be more cerebral, you'll keep it "in your head" and talk calmly through whatever issue is on the table. This emotional awareness serves you well. You seldom get in over your head, either by opening up to the wrong person or by triggering in someone else's emotions they may not be able to deal with.

Your approach toward your obligations is:
FOCUSED AND FLEXIBLE

Words that describe you:

* Casual
* Informal
* Compliant
* Reliable
* Organized
* Solid
* Dependable
* Uncommitted
* Genuine



A General Description of How You Interact with Others

When you take on a task at work or at home, you are reliable; you get the job done. In an organized way, you define the goal, lay out a plan, figure how long the task will take, and get to work "solid and dependable you".

But and this is important you're not a slave to the plan. You're committed to it, but not chained to it; the connection is more casual and informal. You know that sometimes "the best laid plans" fall off the tracks; when this happens, you clean up the train wreck and start over, undeterred.

Though not happening often, when plans change, you're okay with it. In fact, sometimes you change the plan. It's too nice of a Saturday to finish organizing the garage. Let's go for a bike ride instead. True, the next rainy Saturday will likely find you back in the garage, but for now the work can wait.

What an interesting combination of qualities in you're organized, but casual; solid, but compliant; and dependable, but informal. At home and at work, people know they can rely on you. You take great satisfaction in knowing that people think of you as disciplined and responsible, but you also know that you have something of a free spirit in you, and when this spirit moves you, off you go, following the impulse of the moment. You are rightly proud of your work ethic, but you also enjoy your willingness to lay the tools down, crank up the music and play like a child.

When it comes to Extraversion you are:
SOMETIMES OUTGOING, SOMETIMES RESERVED

Words that describe you:

* Moderate
* Amiable
* Laid-back
* Temperate
* Relaxed
* Poised
* Civil
* Uncommitted
* Pleasant



A General Description of How You Interact with Others

Lucky you! You enjoy your own company as much as you enjoy the company of others. You are a great conversationalist and thrive in the wonderful kinds of connections you know how to have with your family and friends. You also equally enjoy your own company, whether sitting in a favorite chair with your book and soft music playing or meandering in the woods by yourself. You like coming home to your family or your roommate; but if no one is home, you find quiet, solitary time to be just as pleasurable. What a great combination to enjoy being outgoing and to be just as comfortable being reserved. Lucky you!!

Because you are so amiable and relaxed, you are comfortable with almost any group of family or friends. Whether they are pumped up and lively or calm and subdued, you remain at ease. If someone needs to take over the conversation, you are comfortable taking the lead; you can also lay back and let someone else be in charge. If the conversation gets rowdy, your moderate demeanor will often draw it down to a more temperate level. If someone in the group loses their cool, you will most likely maintain your poise, and if they get nasty you know how to keep a civil tongue.

You may find yourself out of balance on occasion. If you're alone too much, you may need to get in touch with someone. If you spend too much time with your family and friends, you may need to sneak off for a day by yourself, to putter and read and clear your head of the noise of too much conversation. When you're at your best, you live with a rhythm of time with others, time alone, time with others, time alone It's a satisfying, comfortable balance. Lucky you!

Fantastic!

So Fright Night got put off, due to cold and rain. But instead Vanessa and I went out to dinner at White Spot, and then did some hilarious and random grocery shopping at Safeway. Last night I noticed them setting up all these trailers for a movie or tv shoot. This morning my roommate had a midterm at 8:30, and she saw them setting everything up to shoot, so when she got home she looked up on the internet what they were filming. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, baby! Yeah! Unfortunately though, it was too cold and rainy to stalk Chris Evans or Ioan Gruffudd or Jessica Alba. So that's my story for today.

Logos, Pathos, or Ethos

So, I'm currently sitting in English, and since I'm bored I decided to write a post. Don't worry mom - the teacher's just explaining how to make an emotional appeal about baby seals. Anyhoo, my week is starting to look up. Tonight I'm hitting Fright Night down at the Pacific National Exhibition with my stand partner Vanessa and her friends. I don't really know what it involves, but I think there's scary rides and Halloween-type stuff. And on Saturday not only am I going to an anti-war march, but I'm playing a gig with Vanessa. But get this - on the violin. Ahaha! Vanessa's friend Aida is letting me use her spare violin, and I'm going to play 2nd violin. It should be hilarious. That's about it.

Bored now

So, I got some flack from my mother over the weekend for not writing anything recently. It's only because NOTHING'S GOING ON! Seriously, my life is boring. The high point of my week was when I left campus for three hours on Saturday to go down West Broadway to buy rollerblades. And that is the only time I've left campus in the past week. Also, I went to the theatre in the Student Union Building on Saturday night to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. As you can see, Saturday was an exiting, fun-filled day. Last week I wrote my research essay for English, and this weekend I was working on my Poli Sci paper that's due tomorrow. That's really about it. I know, I'm bored just writing about it.

I Forgot

My total reasons for posting was because I discovered that TVSquad.com had hired Wil Wheaton to review old TNG episodes for them. And although he's only done two, they're really frakking hilarious! This is my favourite quote, from the review for The Last Outpost:

Troi suggests they talk with the Ferengi, and Picard is all, "Uh, we just did, stupid! They ignored us." And then Troi is all, "Hey, you're stupid! You should go try again and suck up to them a little bit." Then Picard is all "Hey, Geordi, what do you think?" And Geordi is all, "I'm just gonna shrug because I got all 'woo-eee' about that plan that didn't work." So then Picard is all, "Well, does anyone have any other ideas? Because right now going to suck up to them is about the best you guys have given me." They're all, like, dude, and they leave. So Riker comes up and is all, "Hey, what do you want to do, man?" And Picard goes, "I totally want to surrender, because I'm, like, scared. Will you hold me?" And Riker is all, "Ewww gross!" And then Picard is all, "No, seriously, dude. If the shit gets too heavy, I want you to blow it up." And Riker is all, "Damn, Gina. That is crazy!" And then Picard is all, "True dat, biotch."

Uni-suckity

Well well well.....so in every one of my classes, before they hand back our assignments, they have been giving little pep talks about how university is harder than high school, and we should expect our marks to dip accordingly. And my TA in Poli Sci said that most people in our class should visit the writing centre for help with our essays. Well, I say stick it suckahs! I got my in-class summary back in English. A. I got my midterm back in Poli Sci. 83. And my essay. 95. I sort of feel bad for other people I know who are not doing so well. Anyways, those have been the bright points in my week, seeing as how on Wednesday I caught the sickness that's going around. Today was the worst, as everything was making me sneeze, my nose is totally plugged, and even though I've gotten 9 hours of sleep the last two nights, I'm totally exhausted. But at least it's not whatever they all caught at Mount Allison University. Though, on the bright side, at least they cancelled school for everybody because of it. I have to research and write a paper this weekend, so that's fun. I'm really craving a burger right now, but I'm too tired and lazy to walk the 5 blocks to get it.

Sniff Sniff

So, I finally caught the cold that's going around town. My roommate was sick last week, and a bunch of people in the orchestra are sick too. It started with a sore throat yesterday, and today I woke up with a serious sore throat, and stuffed up sinuses. And I was tired for no reason, probably because I'm sick. But I don't have anything until 2pm tomorrow, so I can sleep in, eat, and practice all in time for class! I got my in-class test from English back today, and I got an A. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I also think that alot of people in my class suck because the teacher said the average mark was around 68, so if I got an A (85-89), that means a whole lotta people sucked big time. I have noticed in all my classes though that quality of writing is a big issue, especially since about half or more of these kids speak English as a second language. Anyways, I get both my paper and midterm back tomorrow in Poli Sci - and mom, I don't care. As long as I pass, I'm happy. Quit pressuring me to get good marks. It doesn't help my stress levels. And besides, I'm not really sure that you have to bug me, because c'mon, when have I ever failed anything? So now I'm going to take my pillow and blankie, and collapse in front of the TV for a while. sniff.

Oh Yeah, Turkey Baster!

So Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I continued my tradition of Zapf family Thanksgivings with dinner at Michelle's aunt's house. And then after dinner, we had a hilarious game of mafia, because their 84 year old neighbour tried to play, but she was so confused by the whole game it ended up forfeit....good times. Our concert on Friday went pretty OK - we managed to make it through West Side Story without totally falling apart, so that was nice. I then went to the bar and drank a pitcher by myself, on an empty stomach. Good times. So it's back to the grind on Tuesday, with my first quartet rehearsal of the year. So tomorrow I should probably look at my music...

OK

So, I've been a little negligent in terms of my blog this last week, but I swear not a lot really happened.. Jack came on Friday, and there was a really great showing of students. I sat around all weekend, and it was quite relaxing. Then on Monday, I hurt my shoulder somehow and was pissed off about that. One of those annoying things where all of a sudden you're like, 'wow. my shoulder really hurts.' But you don't know how you hurt it! Today I had my poli sci midterm, which I was a little worried about but I feel OK about now. I'm pretty sure I passed - and isn't that what matters? Soo...I have no big plans for Thanksgiving. I'll probably just sit around, and maybe if I'm feeling lonely hit up the Rez's Thanksgiving dinner on the weekend. Tomorrow is the UBC Symphony Orchestra concert - it will be interesting to see if we can make it through our pieces without stopping..... Oh dear god.

It's here, I'm on it

It's here. My precious is finally here. In fact, I'm using it right now. In the hallway outside my Poli Sci lecture room. Sweet. So that's my only news, other than we had a strategy session today with the UBC NDP for the Jack Layton event of Friday, but if I told you what we talked about, I'd have to kill you. Mwahahaha.

It's like a drug

I swear, Apple products are like a drug. My laptop's not even here, and I'm already in withdrawl! I need it! Ah! But anyhoo, not too much has happened since I last posted. I volunteered at this NDP meet and greet thing on Saturday night, where I got to meet a bunch of MLAs and tell them what I'm concerned about. It was pretty cool. And the president of the UBC NDP tried to convince me to join the BCYND exec. So that's cool. Oh, and the girls and I finally did our Skypeing. We did a conference call with the four of us - it was 9 pm in Reykjavik, 7 in Cleveland, 6 in TO, and 3 here in Vancouver. We talked for about an hour, and decided we should do this every week. It was especially funny because Catherine's wireless connection she was using sort of crapped in and out, and so for whole portions of the conversation she was about 10 seconds behind the rest of us. So we'd already be onto the next topic of conversation, and then she's say something like, "6 is good!" It was pretty hilarious. So, that's about all for now.

Oh yeah

I forgot when I posted earlier, because I was so excited about my iPod, but I went to a UBC NDP meeting today and found out that Jack is coming to UBC. Next friday. And we're apparently supposed to organize it all. Yay. I've also volunteered at a BC NDP fundraiser thingie on Saturday, where I will apparently get to meet BC NDP MLAs and MPs. And free wine and dessert.

Shiny!

I got my new iPod today! It came from Memphis! Yay! I'm excited! It's so shiny and new!

Memphis?!!!

So, another exciting week in Vancouver. This week it finally got cold and rainy, just like everyone promised it would. I also ordered my MacBook and iPod. See, they had this sweet deal on for students where not only did you get a discount price on a MacBook, but you got a free iPod. Great, right? But the cut-off was Sept. 16, and by the beginning of last week every Apple seller in Vancouver was out of MacBooks. Hah. I had the money just sitting in my account, but my credit card limit wasn't high enough to order it off the internet myself. So I had to call my dad, who was on holidays and fishing up at Emma Lake, to ask if I could charge it on one of his cards and then pay him back. So I ordered on the 14th, and all was good. On the email from Apple they said they ship all their stuff from their warehouse in California, but they're wrong. Or maybe by CA they meant China. See, they shipped my iPod two days ago, from Shanghai. I can look up where it is using my handy little FedEx tracking number they gave me. So it went from Shanghai to Anchorage, and from Anchorage to Memphis. It's now in Memphis, and will hopefully move north sometime. I know I didn't pay the extra ten buck or whatever for fast shipping, but Shanghai-Anchorage-Memphis?! Doesn't that seem like a teensy bit of a roundabout route to get to Vancouver? Oh well, I guess I will leave it up to the infinite wisdom of FedEx. They should ship my computer any day now also, which I can't wait to get. My desktop's all fine and good, but I've been craving my laptop. I could go and write my paper in the study room they have in my rez. That would be cool. Or I could just write it in front of the TV if I felt so inclined. I need mobility!!!!!

Other than that, things are going well on the whole school-side of life. Chamber music is slowly getting organized, as is string orchestra and full orchestra. And I had my first actual lecture in Poli Sci on Thursday! It was very exciting. That's all for now, but you should check out my facebook page I spent and hour and a half making this evening, for lack of any actual homework to do (as opposed to all my roomies). http://ubc.facebook.com/profile.php?id=21011672

Loverly

Well, I got my computer moniter today. It was pretty quick too - I got my student loan money yesterday, paid off my credit card, and ordered my moniter off NCIX.com. And they delivered it this morning to my rez. Sweet ass. So this means that I'll be able to update more now. I'm into the second week of classes, but only the first full week of classes because of Labour Day. Still nothing too crazy, but then again I'm only taking two academic classes, and the rest are performance credits. So not as crazy as my roommates who have lots of reading and homework already. Suckers.

Waiting....

So I haven't been posting because I'm waiting. On the oodles of money I've been promised. I'm sure they'll come soon. But until then I can only use the free computers in the library or Student Union Building. First week was fine, fairly painless, and I'm starting to get to know my way around campus. I had my first lesson today, and we did scales for an hour and a half. I think I fried my brain.

Pukey

So I got up at 5 this morning and headed over to the airport for my flight to Calgary. I think I've been to Alberta more times this summer than in my entire life. It's weird. Anyways, I stupidly took my antibiotics on an empty stomach when I got up this morning, and while I was standing in line at the airport I started feeling kinda pukey. So I forced myself to eat a muffin, because if you don't take those suckers with food bad things happen. So that was exciting, and mom was all worried because here she was sending me to Calgary again sick. Because y'know last time I spent 8 hours on the bus in anaphalactic shock. It was fun; you should all definitely put in on your to-do list. But I digress. Here I am at Vashti's in Calgary, and as soon as she runs some errands we're off to Vancouver. We're getting me settled in tomorrow and Friday, and then Saturday morning the girls (Vashti, Anne, and I) are heading down to Seattle for Bumbershoot, a big music festival. Anne's flying into Vancouver on Friday night, and I think it'll be a nice little trip. The last time I spent time with both my sisters at once was about 8 years ago. So this is long overdue. Plus it really is the best plan when moving to a new city and starting a new school to take off to a different city the weekend before classes start. Isn't that what everyone does?

Snakes........ON A PLANE!

So, I've been to a movie a day this week - Monday was The Devil Wears Prada, Tuesday was A Prairie Home Companion, Wednesday was Talladaga Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Thursday was The Lake House, and yesterday was SNAKES ON A PLANE! The only disapointment of the week was The Lake House, and honestly I expected it to be bad, but not as bad as it was. I honestly thought they would have some sort of logical explanation for everything, but they just sort of pretended that the whole crazy time difference never happened. And that there are no repercussions for bringing back someone from the dead and changing the past. Idiots. The best movie was a toss-up between Talladaga Nights and SoaP. I would recommend that if you're thinking of going to see Snakes, go opening weekend. The crowd last night was so much fun, everybody cheering and laughing their asses off. It was much funnier than anybody expected it to be, even with it gory violence and R rating. Well, R in the US and 18A here.

Iceland Pt. 3 (Finale)

On August 6th we went to Skógasafn, the Skógar Folk Museum. The entire collection was put together by 80-something year old Þórður Tómasson, who began collecting when he was just 14. It's considered one of the best museums in the country, and we met Þórður, who played hymns for us on the old church organ in the church there, and demonstrated how to use a spindle to make wool thread. Then we went to Skógafoss, Skógar's resident waterfall. Legend has it that a settler hid a chest of treasure behind the falls, but no-one has ever been able to find it. We took in one more waterfall (I don't remember the name) before heading home, but this one was cool because there was a path to walk behind the falls.

On August 9th we just rehearsed for our Reykholt concert, and then spent the evening at the Blue Lagoon. It's considered Iceland's most famous tourist attractiong, and is hidden in the middle of a lava field between Keflavík and Grindavík. It owes it's existance to the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant, which is powered by superheated sea water drawn from deep bore holes in the lava. After the steam passes through the turbines, huge condensors convert it back into water, which is pumped directly into the lava field. The minerals in the field naturally filter the water and return it to the sea. But the power plant pumps more water into the lava field than can be filtered underground, and where it pools above ground is the Blue Lagoon. The milky blue water is rich in blue-green algae (cyanobacteria), mineral salts, and fine slica mud that conditions and exfoliate your skin. Just swimming in it is good for your skin, and they also have silica stations where there are buckets of silica mud scraped from the bottom of the lagoon that you put on your face (or anywhere else you want). It sits in the middle of a black lava field, with sheets of steam rising off the blue water – very surreal. They've developed it alot recently, adding a restaurant, gift shop, and spa, but Ingunn says that when she came as a kid all they had was a wooden shack and a hose to wash themselves with.

August 10th was our concert in Reykholt, reknowned as the home of Snorri Sturluson, one of the great saga writers. They have a very interesting display on Snorri and the sagas in the basement of Reykholtskirka. It's also home to Snorralaug (Snorri's pool), a circular, stone-lined pool about 4 metres in diameter, fed by a hot spring. It looks like a little stone jacuzzi and is thought to have been built by Snorri Sturluson. Behing the pool is a passage believed to lead to the cellar where Snorri was murdered in 1241 by Gíssur Þorvaldsson. Our concert in Reykholt went well, and there were even a few random Canadians in the audience – a couple from Vancouver, and an Icelandic-Canadian guy from around Gimli. Today was also the day we found out about the new terrorist bust, and the new restrictions of carry-on. Panic!

Our flight was scheduled for 4:30 pm on the 11th, and Ingunn's mom spent the entire morning on the phone haggling with the airline, and our saviour Gunnar Snorri came through at the 11th hour. He pulled a bunch of strings and got permission for us – which ended up slightly unneeded, but better safe than sorry. After all the worry, and everybody (including the airline) telling us that we weren't allowed carry-on, turns out everyone had carry-on and they were only restricitng liquids and gels. Even in Minneapolis they didn't say boo to me except to remind me not to bring any liquid on. Well, live and learn. And don't believe anything the media or the airline tells you.

Back in Ka-na-ta

Well, I'm back on home turf. It was a surprisingly uneventful flight, other than the zoo checking in at the airport in Keflavik. They were also patting down everyone and looking through people's bags, which took some time going through security, but they weren't actually restricting carry-on (contrary to what we'd been told). I guess it was just UK to US flights, but who was to know! And my transfer in Minneapolis went fine, the airport was actually kind of quiet. Our Icelandair flight got in at about 7, and my Calgary flight left at 9, so I guess the airport wasn't that busy because it was a little lateish.... Anyways, I'm just hanging out in Calgary today, and I head back to Saskatoon tomorrow. I'll work on the bus on a last post about what we did in Iceland - my favourite was the Blue Lagoon. But more about that later.

My firstborn shall be named Gunnar Snorri

And.....a last minute save by Ingunn's cousin Gunnar Snorri. After we got the runaround, Ingunn's mom called him because he's the head of Iceland's foreign service. And he got the Icelandic government, and the US Embassy, and Icelandair on the phone and got us and only us express permission to board the flight to Minneapolis with our instruments. I think we're going to put together a huge care package for Gunnar Snorri, because he is my new hero.

Well Fuck

So thanks to a foiled terrorist plot the day before I'm supposed to fly from Europe to the US, I'm screwed. They're not letting on ANY carry-on luggage - and that means my viola to. So I may be stuck in Iceland for a while, because there is absolutely no way I am sending my expensive instrument in the belly of a plane to be tossed around by ground personnel. As of now, everybody is telling us that there is no way we can get our instruments on, unless we get permission from the US Government. But the US Embassy here says it's up to Icelandair, and that they can't do anything. Fuck.

Iceland Pt. 2

The saga continues....

We left Reykjavik on Friday morning and drove on a big bus across the south to Jökulsárlón, a glacial river lagoon. It’s an offshoot of the giant Vatnajökull glacier that covers a lot of the southeast. It’s a lagoon, attached to the ocean by a small river mouth so that lagoon doesn’t freeze. The lagoon has been growing steadily over the years, due to an increase in glacial melting – about 100 metres breaking off each year. The lagoon has also been used in several films, including two James Bond movies (A View to Kill and Die Another Day) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. For Tomb Raider they painted the amphibious vehicles they take tourists out in to resemble Russian ships, and for Die Another Day they blocked off the lagoon’s entrace to the sea, freezing it over. And then they totalled 5 Aston Martins on the frozen lagoon. After Jökulsárlón we drove back west to our farm/hotel Geirland, just outside of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. This is the farm that Ingunn’s dad Hallgrimur used to work on every summer, so we’re in his home turf.

Kirkjubæjarklaustur is very near the volcano Laki, whose massive eruptions in 1783 lasted for 10 months. Fountains of molten lava shot up around 1000 metres above ground level, and Laki spewed more than 30 billion tonnes of lava and 90 million tonnes of sulphuric acid. The black cloud that followed covered Iceland, killing crops and blocking out the sun, and 20% of Iceland’s population died. As well, the Laki cloud covered Europe causing crop failure, livestock poisoning, and starvation that led to, among other things, the French Revolution. A favourite story around Kirkjubæjarklaustur is that of a church pastor, who gathered his congregation in the church as the lava started to flow towards them, and proceeded to give a very fiery and passionate sermon. The lava miraculously split and went around the church, leaving it intact. The church is still there, surrounded by a lava field, but the only issue we could find with this story is that people can’t survive even just standing next to molten lava. It’s so hot, that even if you’re beside it you’d probably spontaneously combust. We were supposed to hike up into the Laki basin, as it is now dormant, but it was pouring and foggy and so they decided that if we wouldn’t be able to see anything then there was really no point. Icelander’s have lots of stories about religion and natural events, another one being a large eruption in the year 1000, the year that they accepted Christianity. Many saw this as a sign from the pagan gods that Christianity was bogus, but Iceland peacefully converted anyways so that they would be able to trade effectively with the rest of Scandinavia and Europe.

On Saturday we got up and were originally supposed to hike up Laki, but instead went on a hike to the waterfall behind Geirland. All the farms around the south have there own waterfalls, both for a source of fresh water, and before there was a national electrical grid many farms got their power from their own private substation at the base of their waterfall. In fact, one of Hallgrimur’s jobs when he worked here was to hike up to the waterfall and clear all the debris out of the grid under the falls. After that we changed into dryer clothes, as it had been pouring the whole time and we were all soaked. Then we set off to Fjaðrárglijúfur, a peculiar canyon carved by the river Fjarðrá, lined with steep rock walls. Then it was off to Fagrifoss (“beautiful falls”) on the Geirlandsa river just off the Laki road. Today was a day of falls, and after Fagrifoss half of us went swimming at the pool in Kirkjubæjarklaustur while the others went to the famous church that escaped the lava flow.

On our drive on Friday we crossed the Sandur, and stopped in at the Núpsstaður farm. The sandur is a broad desert expanse that lies across the southeastern coast, and is composed of deposits of silt, sand, and gravel carried down by glacial flooding when one of the two volcanoes underneath the Vatnajökull icecap erupts. The sandur is divided into two sections, the most visible being Skeiðarársandur, which stretches for 40 km between icecap and coast. Iceland has a Ring Road, and the very last part of it to be completed was the portion across Skeiðarársandur in 1974. They constructed large gravel dykes to strategically channel floodwaters away from the only road in the area, but it didn’t help much in the glacial flood of 1996. On September 29 a 5.0 earthquake rocked the Vatnajökull icecap, causing the eruption of a 4 km long subsurface fissure known as Gjálp. The next day the eruption burst through the surface, sending a column of steam 10 km into the sky. Meanwhile, the subglacial lake in the Grímsvötn caldera was filling with water from ice melted by the eruption, and on November 5 the ice lifted and the Grímsvötn reservoir drained in a massive flood, releasing up to 3000 billion cubic litres of water within a few hours. The floodwaters, dragging icebergs the size of 3 story buildings along with it, destroyed all the bridges across the sandur. The sandur is understandably unoccupied by anyone, and on the eastern edge we stopped at a small memorial to the 1996 flood, where they had on display some of the twisted metal girders that were a bridge.

The Núpsstaður farm is on the western edge of the sandur, and is set into a cliff side. The small turf roofed church on the farm, dedicated to St. Nicholas, is mentioned in church records as early as 1200. It was restored in 1657 and again in the 1970s by the National Museum, and is one of the last turf churches in Iceland that remains in general use. This farm was also home in the early 1900s to a postman and farmer who was said to be the only person able to cross the sandur in all conditions. Before they built the Ring Road, people would often detour to walk over the glacier, as the sandur is full of quicksand and other traps that claimed many lives. The postman’s 97 year old son still lives at Núpsstaður, and when we stopped by he was just o his way to the little turf church to scrub the floors!!!

On Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and loaded up the bus. We went to two more waterfalls (there sure are a lot of them), and visited the history museum at Skógasafn. We drove by Katla, an active volcano that is expected to erupt any time. There is a funny legend about Katla involving a nun and some magic pants, but I’ll save that for another time. Our bus driver had reported that we were in the area, and if Katla had started rumbling we would have been given a 30 minute warning to get the hell outta there! Now we’re back at Ingunn’s apartment in Reykjavik, and we had a very quiet day today seeing as we were all tired and sore from all the excitement over the weekend. And now I must return to Buffy.

Iceland, Pt. 1

Recap of Iceland so far....

We flew into Keflavik on Saturday the 29th, arriving at 6:30 am. We took a flight that left Minneapolis in the early evening on Friday, and since we were travelling east it "took" all night. Ingunn's dad Hallgrimur met us at the airport with her uncle Stefan to pick us up and take us into Reykjavik. The international airport is 40 km outside Reykjavik in Keflavik, where the US Army base is. They built the army base as a strategic North Atlantic position during WW II, and the US is only pulling out of Iceland now, as they are having to divert their resources towards the Middle East (ie Iraq). They built a base in Iceland because before the jet plane days, they had to stop and refuel in Iceland to make it to Europe. Also, during the Second World War, North America saw Iceland as the last European blockade before Hitler would expand to America - so it was an important asset to protect. So when Icelandair, the national and only airline with landing rights in Iceland, decided to build and international airport, they built it in Keflavik so they could just piggy-back on the runways the army base had already built. The Keflavik airport only does international flights, and Icelandair also has a domestic airport in Reykjavik on the Nes peninsula near the University, that services all of Iceland.

When we flew in Hallgrimur and Stefan took us over to Stefan's house, where his wife had a huge, delicious breakfast waiting for us. And this is when I had my first tast of Skyr, elixer of the gods. It's this yoghurt-like staple of Iceland made from skim milk. Traditionally they left the milk to ferment in a pig's bladder, and there was an enzyme in the bladder that turned the milk into Skyr. They have now of course identified the enzyme, and there are two companies that produce Skyr commercially. And like yoghurt they also make it in many different flavours. But the best way to eat it in my opinion is plain Skyr, with blueberries and a little Ryómi (cream). After breakfast at Stefan's, they took us to our temporary digs that we stayed at until Ingunn's apartment was ready. Michelle and I ended up in an apartment-style University of Iceland residence on Eggertsgata, while Catherine and Ingunn stayed in the guest room of Hallgrimur and Gudrun's friends Hans and Sölvig on Reynemelur. We tried rehearsing but we were too exhausted, so we crashed very early.

On Sunday we got up bright and early for church, because in order to get the church we were playing our concert in for free, we had to play at a service. So we headed over to Neskirka (Nes church) for service. Then we had some major rehearsing to do, as our concert was on Monday night. So we rehearsed our booties off, and played our concert. It went well, and a reviewer from the paper came. We are still eagerly anticipating the review, as it hasn't been published yet. As well, Icelandic Public Radio recorded our concert, I'm not quite sure why. Then on Tuesday there was more rehearsing to be done, and we said goodbye to Eggertsgata and Reynemelur, and moved into Ingunn's apartment on Bógahlid. It's a very nice, big apartment in a three story walk-up. She's close to downtown, and the University, so it's a very nice location.

On Wednesday we got up for our 9 am recording session at Neskirka, recording the Kansas Quartet by Thordur Swinburne for Icelandic Public Radio. It took about 2 hours to record a 20 minute piece, but I think it will turn out OK. Then we went swimming and after that to a big dinner at Hans and Sölvig's. Ingunn's brothers had both flown in that day or the day before - Gunnar with his wife Adrienne, and Benedikt with his wife Lee, daughter Elizabeth, and Lee's parents. Benedikt had gone fishing that afternoon with Stefan, and so we ate the huge catch he brought in - about 8 large cod. If was a fun night, but long and exhausting. Made even more exhausting by the fact that we got up at 6:45 this morning to go swimming.

The pools in Iceland are so cool! They're warm, and either very lightly or not chlorinated at all. They get the water from natural underground springs and every public pool also has 3 hot tubs (hot, hotter, and ow! burning!), and a sauna. In order to not heavily chlorinate, they have very strict rules about showering, with signs in the showers showing you where you have to wash before going in the pool. So we've been going swimming alot, because it's so nice, and even when it's chilly out, the pool is still around 20 degrees.

After swimming we walked back to downtown and met up with people (mostly Ingunn's family) for a noon hour organ recital at Hallgrimskirka. It's this huge church in downtown Reykjavik that was partly designed by Ingunn's grandfather. It's a good orientation landmark because it's about five stories taller than any of the other buildings around it. You can see Hallgrimskirka from anywhere in town, so if you're looking for downtown, you just follow the church! It also has a famous, super good organ, so there's always an organ recital going on. After the recital, the entire family (plus us) headed to the 66 North outlet store to pick up discount fleeces. And now we're just relaxing at Ingunn's apartment, in our new comfy fleeces, before we leave for our trip to the south tomorrow.

So that's all from Iceland for now. It's kinda cold and rainy, and hopefully our entire weekend in the South won't be this bad. It's kind of hard to hike in torrential rain!

I'm Goin' To Iceland

Well, the day has arrived. My car comes in an hour to take me to the airport, and I'm meeting up with the girls in Minneapolis to catch our flight to Keflavik. Woot! I'm so tired and hungry, it's really just unbelievable.

MONEY!!!!

Well, the tour is going well. We currently have $2100 in the quartet bank account, with another $500 confirmed, and more coming in from our Regina concert tonight. And I got some exciting money news for me - UBC gave me full scholarship plus more! I'm very excited, because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to afford it..... When I was accepted by the Faculty of Music, they gave me a $1000 scholarship. And when I was origionally accepted by the school they gave me a $500 scholarship. I applied for more, not thinking I'd really get anything, and yesterday my letter came in the mail saying I had been awarded the $5000 Chancellor's Scholarship, and the $2000 President's Scholarship. And my tuition is only about $5100, so they're just going to cut me a cheque for the rest. Yay! I'm thinking of investing in a laptop, because to keep my scholarships I have to keep a pretty high average, and so I think it might be beneficial for my work to have one. But I'll deal with that when it comes. Maybe I should pay off some of my debt too...... Tomorrow we head back to Calgary, and on Friday it's off to Iceland!

HOT!

Wow, it's hot in Calgary today. It's 11:15 pm and I'm sweating like a pig. Disgusting. Anyways, our tour has basically officially started. We kicked off with a concert at Ingunn's parent's house in Calgary on thursday night, where people were extremely generous and we came away with $815 CND, plus $20 US (we have a stop-over in Minneapolis). We played a concert this afternoon in Sundre AB at the Mountainview Festival's new unfinished concert hall - when it's finished it's going to be pretty sweet. Tomorrow we play at the opening ceremonies of a museum in Markerville, then are on the road for Toon-town. We'll probably get in pretty late, seeing as how I don't think we'll be leaving Markerville before about 4 pm, and it's an approx. 8 hour drive. Yee-haw. And sadly, we have to listen to Ingunn's CD selection, which is odd. I guess she's just older than me though, because alot of her CDs are sort of before my time a little - like by a couple of years, but it's mostly stuff I could care less about, like REM. All their songs sound the same, but in a more depressing way than the way all Britney songs sound the same. But I'm sure we'll survive somehow. Our pieces are going okay, but our intonation is still a little off, due to a number of factors. The biggest being that with the extreme heat, and even high humidity (for the prairies), and the change in humidity for Catherine and Michelle who came directly from humid places (Toronto and California), our instruments don't really stay in tune for the time it takes us to play a whole piece. It's actually super annoying to have to re-tune every couple of minutes. Gah! And it doesn't help that all our locations are churches, not climate-controlled concert halls (which the instruments would react to better). Throughout our concerts the hot locations invariably get hotter, forcing our instruments more and more out of tune. But I'm sure we'll live somehow. Iceland will be nice and cool - I think somewhere around 15 degrees?

Cowtown

I know it's been a while, I'm sorry. My whole stay in Saskatoon was entirely uneventful, except for that I got sick a lot. I got heat stroke one day, and it was not pretty. And then towards the end of my stay I got this really bad fever, and I just thought that I had whatever bug was going around. So I hopped on a bus to Calgary last Friday, and spent 8 1/2 hours popping Tylenol to keep my fever down. The day after I got to Ingunn's, my face and neck swelled up and I got a full body rash. It was very painful, and I also had a dangerously high fever. Turns out I was having an allergic reaction to these antibiotics my doctor had put me on. It was unpleasant, but at least when the doctor asks if I'm allergic to any medicine, I have an answer other than, "I don't think so..." So we've been holed up and rehearsing, but we have to venture out to Canmore today because Catherine's soundpost is fucked up, and Ingunn has an open seam. So we are taking their instruments into Wilder and Davis to get fixed - it's hard to rehearse when nobody can play their instruments. So we have to go do that now.

Daddeeeeeeee

Well, it's been a while since I updated. Mostly because since I've been in Saskatoon I've been sitting around watching movies. The weather has been crap-tastic, overcast and rainy, for almost two weeks. I'm supposed to be doing yard work for my Aunt Margaret, but not much chance of that in this weather. I worked for three days this week at Lorne Calvert's MLA office filling in for the woman who normally works there. I got to deal with lots of annoying people who didn't understand that the provincial and federal governments are different things. Argh. And also people who want you to do things for them, and have you to magically have all the answers for them right then on the phone. So then after they abuse you, and you look into it and find out the answers, they don't say thank you because they're jerks. But it was an interesting learning experience - and I did get to meet most of the Saskatoon MLAs. They all know Cayley because of his position in Regina, and then they started waxing poetic about what a nice young man he is. Right. I could enlighten them on a few things. Anyways, I basically am going to be sitting around for the next week or two till I go to Calgary to rehearse with the quartet, so I most likely won't be updating.

Happy Father's Day!

Back in Black

Well, I'm back in Saskatoon. The recital was Thursday night, and it went good, and then I came back on the bus yesterday. This morning my mom woke me up at 10 and told me that I had to not only pick up my brother Cayley at the bus station at 11, but that he was taking me to the neighbourhood cleanup. So I picked him up, and headed into the 'hood. It's an initiative by the NDP constituency office, because Premier Calvert is our MLA. They told all the home owners, landlords, and tenants that any crap they wanted hauled away (tree branches, old appliances, etc.) to just put them in the alley and we'd come and haul them away. I met Premier Calvert, and Yvonne who I'll be working for at the office in a couple of weeks. However, we really only made an appearance because the whole reason Cayley's in town this week is he has to go to a wedding with his girlfriend Carly. Some friends of hers from the U of S are getting married, and he was her arm candy. Only, he had no idea what time the wedding was. So at about 11:40 he got a call from Carly on his cell saying her hair appointment just finished, and the wedding was at 1, so he had to pick her up from the Midtown Plaza. So we went and picked up Carly, and I dropped them off at her pad, and I returned home. I've just been bumming around this afternoon, unpacking all my boxes so I can organize what I need to take to Vancouver and what I can leave here. Tonight we're going to a Prairie Virtuosi concert - they're a chamber orchestra I used to play in, and they agreed to put inserts for our quartet concert in their programs. Sweet.