A lot has happened over the past couple days, all building up to tomorrow, when we have our last class of our undergraduate degree. On Thursday evening we had our last SSC event, a dinner at Pazzo Pizzeria. We had 21 people show up, which was awesome (and I'm fairly certain our largest event ever). Marissa had made photo booth props for people to take pictures with. Luckily there wasn't many other people in the restaurant, so we were free to be silly and take a bunch of pictures against (fun fact alert) the oldest wall in Stratford. It was nice to have a sit down dinner with people as a bit of a send off.
Friday began on a high note when Mara's mom bought coffee and muffins for the entire class as a celebratory parting gift. For lunch, a lot of the graduating class went to the Parlour Inn for a GBDA send off that the GBDA Society had organized. There was some small lunch items, which enticed most of the people who went. But they also got a handful of professors that we'd had over the years to say a few words. It was kind of sweet to hear what they had to say.
Saturday was the GBDA gala. I'd never been to one before, so I was excited. A bunch of us got ready together at a friend's house. It was at Fed Hall in Waterloo, so we had a shuttle bus to take those of us living in Stratford to main campus. The theme was space/gala-xy. It was a little slow getting started because people showed up fashionably late, but eventually there were lots of people dancing. Unfortunately the DJ was repeating a lot of songs so for those of us that had been there the whole time it was getting repetitive. They had a photo booth with the popular giant letter balloons, which was pretty cool. Overall an enjoyable evening. There wasn't a ton of fourth year students there, ironically it was most of the people living in Stratford. It was also nice to see people all dressed up.
Today was Stratford's Annual Swan Parade, where the city officially welcomes spring by releasing the swans back into the river (they have a shelter that they live in during the winter). Another fun fact: the swans belong to the Queen. It's ridiculous how many people show up for this parade which lasts about 10mins. Last year they had 5000 people show up. I don't know if there was 5000 people there today, but it was certainly up there. There's lot of other things going on as well; there's a kids comedy act, colouring booths, and a long line of food trucks with even longer lines of people waiting to buy food. I spent the duration of the parade in a tree which gave me a much better view of everything than those who were on the ground. They had great weather for it. It's currently 14 degrees out and sunny. They couldn't have asked for anything better. I'm writing this on my rooftop patio, it's so nice out!
You can see pictures on Facebook in the near future.
Showing posts with label uni peeps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uni peeps. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 April 2017
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Give Me A Conversation Starter
I'm in a bit of a mood that I don't know how to describe. It's almost like I'm lonely, despite being around people. And not just being around them; I'm interacting with people. I even went out for coffee with friends today. Part of it probably has to do with the fact that I had pie for lunch (happy pi day). While it felt great at the time, my body was definitely craving some real food by the end of the afternoon. So I decided to make KD. Perhaps not my smartest decision, but we all live with regrets (I did have some spinach salad on the side though).
I think part of it is that how I interact with people has changed a lot over the past 4 years. I was always on the extreme introvert side. I didn't enjoy hanging out with people all the time. I would max out at one social event per week. Over the past 4 years though, I've become more comfortable in who I am and have moved from 'extreme introvert' to 'introvert' (maybe even veering into ambivert...but let's not complicate things). I enjoy hanging out with my friends more often and will even plan things myself (unheard of prior to high school expect for special occasions such as my birthday). Especially after my term abroad, I'm much better at communicating with friends and putting effort in on my end of things.
The point I'm trying to meander to here, is that I always relied on other people to initiate things. And not just for hanging out; I would wait for other people to start conversations. I would wait for other people to message me or reach out to me first. My conversation starting skills are on the lacking side and it is my long-formed habit to wait for other people to start the conversation.
Now, with most people, this is not a problem. People will choose a topic and I'll go along (I'm also a big fan of joining conversations that are already going). The same cannot be said for my roommate. She is also an introvert, and also tends to wait for other people to start conversations. Do you see where this is going? If you didn't know that we were friends and watched us in our apartment, you would think that we were strangers who got along well enough to live together peacefully. When we're at school or out in other places, or there are others around, we talk well enough. But as soon as we're in the apartment, there is hardly any conversation. Obviously, I'm not expecting that we talk all the time. But we hardly have casual conversations about stuff. For all of last term, we wouldn't say anything to each other in the morning as we ate breakfast. Sitting at the same table. Across from each other. That has changed slightly, because I started saying good morning when I emerged from my bedroom. Even then, she'll say it back, and we'll go on without saying anything else. We don't even say anything as we get ready to walk to school. We just watch each other and the clock, getting ready when we know the other is ready to go. It makes me a little sad, especially because in three weeks, I probably won't see her often at all.
And I know that there is an obvious answer to this problem: talk to her. Strike up a conversation. But this is where I'll ask you to recall my earlier point that my conversation starting skills leave something to be desired. Our devices definitely has something to do with it. About 90% of the time, one of us has our headphones in, which naturally prevents conversation. I had hoped that saying 'good morning' would be enough to get a chat going over breakfast, but to no avail. Maybe my goal this week will be to start a real conversation over breakfast. This will also help me in my goal to get out of bed at a decent time, since I've been pushing that to the closest I can get it to 9AM. Wish me luck.
I think part of it is that how I interact with people has changed a lot over the past 4 years. I was always on the extreme introvert side. I didn't enjoy hanging out with people all the time. I would max out at one social event per week. Over the past 4 years though, I've become more comfortable in who I am and have moved from 'extreme introvert' to 'introvert' (maybe even veering into ambivert...but let's not complicate things). I enjoy hanging out with my friends more often and will even plan things myself (unheard of prior to high school expect for special occasions such as my birthday). Especially after my term abroad, I'm much better at communicating with friends and putting effort in on my end of things.
The point I'm trying to meander to here, is that I always relied on other people to initiate things. And not just for hanging out; I would wait for other people to start conversations. I would wait for other people to message me or reach out to me first. My conversation starting skills are on the lacking side and it is my long-formed habit to wait for other people to start the conversation.
Now, with most people, this is not a problem. People will choose a topic and I'll go along (I'm also a big fan of joining conversations that are already going). The same cannot be said for my roommate. She is also an introvert, and also tends to wait for other people to start conversations. Do you see where this is going? If you didn't know that we were friends and watched us in our apartment, you would think that we were strangers who got along well enough to live together peacefully. When we're at school or out in other places, or there are others around, we talk well enough. But as soon as we're in the apartment, there is hardly any conversation. Obviously, I'm not expecting that we talk all the time. But we hardly have casual conversations about stuff. For all of last term, we wouldn't say anything to each other in the morning as we ate breakfast. Sitting at the same table. Across from each other. That has changed slightly, because I started saying good morning when I emerged from my bedroom. Even then, she'll say it back, and we'll go on without saying anything else. We don't even say anything as we get ready to walk to school. We just watch each other and the clock, getting ready when we know the other is ready to go. It makes me a little sad, especially because in three weeks, I probably won't see her often at all.
And I know that there is an obvious answer to this problem: talk to her. Strike up a conversation. But this is where I'll ask you to recall my earlier point that my conversation starting skills leave something to be desired. Our devices definitely has something to do with it. About 90% of the time, one of us has our headphones in, which naturally prevents conversation. I had hoped that saying 'good morning' would be enough to get a chat going over breakfast, but to no avail. Maybe my goal this week will be to start a real conversation over breakfast. This will also help me in my goal to get out of bed at a decent time, since I've been pushing that to the closest I can get it to 9AM. Wish me luck.
Monday, 30 January 2017
The Five Part Journey
I spent the past weekend in Toronto. It was lovely, up until precisely 5:39pm on Sunday evening. But I'll get to that in a bit.
Marissa and I wanted to see the Mystical Landscapes Exhibition at the AGO, so we took a trip to Toronto. I also took the opportunity to visit Emily and Alison. We arrived very late on Friday evening, so much so that we just chatted for a bit before heading to bed. On Saturday, Marissa and I went for brunch with her aunt at FRANK, the restaurant at the AGO. (Emily had brunch with her roommates and friends celebrating a belated birthday). The brunch at the AGO was lovely. I started with a pastry platter, which had two mini croissants with butter and jam and two mini chocolate croissants. For the main course we all had eggs benedict: a croissant with smoked trout, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce with roast potatoes on the side. Marissa's aunt insisted on having dessert, so I had tiramisu gelato with a delicious caramel sauce and 'churro dust'. To top it all off, a lovely cup of tea.
We then met up with the others to see the exhibition. The exhibition had timed entry, so we looked around the rest of the AGO for a little bit before heading to the exhibition. The exhibition was advertised as "Mystical Landscapes: Monet, Van Gogh, and more". I was under the impression that it would be primarily Van Gogh and Monet, with some other artists. To my disappointment, it was the other way around: primarily other artists with a handful of Monets and two Van Goghs. Overall it was still a great exhibition; there were some paintings by Emily Carr and Paul Gauguin, who stayed with Van Gogh at one point. One of my favourite paintings was Crystal Castle in the Sea by Wenzel Hablik.
One of the Van Gogh paintings was Starry Night over the Rhone, which was on load from Musee D'Orsay. Which is where I had seen that painting for the first time. So now I've seen it twice (still just as good the second time around). The Monet paintings were some of his famous Rouen Cathedral paintings, some of which I had also seen before. I enjoyed the exhibition, but had been hoping to see more Van Gogh and Monet. And the audio guide was on the artistic interpretation side of things, whereas I prefer to hear about the facts of the painting.
After we finished the exhibition, we continued to look around the rest of the AGO. It's much bigger than I thought. And as with every gallery, very easy to lose track of where you are. I'm not sure if we actually saw everything or not. We did see most of it though. The last section we walked through was in the basement where they have the miniature boat models. Miniature is a relative term, some of the models were the size of kayaks. But all very impressive; the amount of detail on the models is astounding.
We then went out for dinner where I had chicken wonton nachos (very good) and stopped at Michaels to grab some supplies for a t-shirt making party we are having later this week. Then we headed back to Emily's apartment for a pit stop before Alison, Marissa and I went to see the Toronto Light Festival. It's a collection of light installations in the Distillery District. It was pretty neat and I got some cool pictures of some of them.
On Sunday we slept in and spent the afternoon at a board game cafe. We discovered a game called Codenames, which we all really enjoyed. I'd like to play it again in the future. At 4:30 we decided to head back to Emily's apartment so that Marissa and I could get ready to catch our train.
And this is where the weekend derails (no pun intended).
Our train back to Stratford leaves at 5:40pm. We leave Emily's apartment at 5:20. It's cutting it close, but Google says it's a 15min walk so I'm not too worried. But despite walking quickly the whole way there we arrive at the station at 5:38. Our train isn't listed on any of the screens around the station. Panicking, we ask the info desk where train 87 is leaving from.
Info Desk Attendant: Train 87? I don't know about a train 87! Where does that go??
She was less than helpful and was wasting valuable time. I go to a different desk and ask if they know where train 87 is boarding.
Info Desk Attendant #2: Oh, that's probably left already. *checks with someone on the walkie talkie* Yeah that train just left.
I know you're all thinking we should have given ourselves more time to get to the train station. That's probably true. But I would also like to state that the train left 2mins early. And Union station is a nightmare.
That was the last train to Stratford for the day, so we were not going back to Stratford by train Sunday evening. There were a few options:
1. Stay at Emily's another night and take the Monday morning train to Stratford and be late for class.
2. Somehow get to Waterloo and sleep at Marissa's parent's house and get a ride with a carpool to Stratford Monday morning.
3. Somehow get to Waterloo or London and get our parents to drive us to Stratford.
We decided to try #3 via Waterloo. Marissa called her mom to make sure this was a plan that could happen and we quickly got on the 6:00 GO bus to Mississauga, where we would switch GO buses at Square One and go to Waterloo from there. Neither of us are sure whether our presto cards have enough money on them to pay for the ticket. Mine had just enough; Marissa's did not. We think that we'll have to get off but turns out you can pay with cash (who knew?). I lend Marissa some cash and we're through. We get on the bus, and while still shaken, I'm glad we've figured out a way to get back to Stratford fairly quickly. Although, I had the issue of not having enough money on my presto card to pay for the second bus ticket.
Around 6:45, Marissa is not sure we're on the right bus because she doesn't recognize the route we're on. I check the map on my phone and sure enough, we are nowhere near Square One. We are on the edge of Mississauga and about to go to Milton. I suggest we get off, because Milton definitely is not where we want to be. At this point, we're both tired, cold, and desperately want to get home in one piece.
So I decide to call up Sheila, whom with which I stayed with over the summer. I asked if she would be willing to come pick us up and drive us to Square One, so that we could get on the next bus. Thankfully she wasn't doing anything and was willing to come rescue us. The drive from the edge of Mississauga to Square One was explaining to Sheila the night Marissa and I had had. When we arrive at Square One, we see the bus that we are supposed to be getting on to. Marissa and I decide that instead of rushing and potentially missing it, we'll wait for the next bus which comes in just under an hour. We grab dinner at the nearby Starbucks and buy tickets for the bus at a kiosk there.
Finally the bus arrives and we get on, this time sure that it is the right bus. It take just over an hour to us to get to Waterloo. The bus stops at the university; it was strange being back there. I haven't been there since second year. Entire buildings have gone up in the time I've been gone.
Marissa's mom met us there and drove us to Stratford. I have never before been so glad to see this apartment. I had intended on doing some school work Sunday evening because the train would've arrived in Stratford around 8pm. When we finally pulled up in front of our apartment, it was 10:30. I was going to bed.
That, my friends, was our five part journey. It will surely become something to laugh at in the future, but for now we're simply calling it a comedy of errors.
Marissa and I wanted to see the Mystical Landscapes Exhibition at the AGO, so we took a trip to Toronto. I also took the opportunity to visit Emily and Alison. We arrived very late on Friday evening, so much so that we just chatted for a bit before heading to bed. On Saturday, Marissa and I went for brunch with her aunt at FRANK, the restaurant at the AGO. (Emily had brunch with her roommates and friends celebrating a belated birthday). The brunch at the AGO was lovely. I started with a pastry platter, which had two mini croissants with butter and jam and two mini chocolate croissants. For the main course we all had eggs benedict: a croissant with smoked trout, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce with roast potatoes on the side. Marissa's aunt insisted on having dessert, so I had tiramisu gelato with a delicious caramel sauce and 'churro dust'. To top it all off, a lovely cup of tea.
We then met up with the others to see the exhibition. The exhibition had timed entry, so we looked around the rest of the AGO for a little bit before heading to the exhibition. The exhibition was advertised as "Mystical Landscapes: Monet, Van Gogh, and more". I was under the impression that it would be primarily Van Gogh and Monet, with some other artists. To my disappointment, it was the other way around: primarily other artists with a handful of Monets and two Van Goghs. Overall it was still a great exhibition; there were some paintings by Emily Carr and Paul Gauguin, who stayed with Van Gogh at one point. One of my favourite paintings was Crystal Castle in the Sea by Wenzel Hablik.
After we finished the exhibition, we continued to look around the rest of the AGO. It's much bigger than I thought. And as with every gallery, very easy to lose track of where you are. I'm not sure if we actually saw everything or not. We did see most of it though. The last section we walked through was in the basement where they have the miniature boat models. Miniature is a relative term, some of the models were the size of kayaks. But all very impressive; the amount of detail on the models is astounding.
We then went out for dinner where I had chicken wonton nachos (very good) and stopped at Michaels to grab some supplies for a t-shirt making party we are having later this week. Then we headed back to Emily's apartment for a pit stop before Alison, Marissa and I went to see the Toronto Light Festival. It's a collection of light installations in the Distillery District. It was pretty neat and I got some cool pictures of some of them.
And this is where the weekend derails (no pun intended).
Our train back to Stratford leaves at 5:40pm. We leave Emily's apartment at 5:20. It's cutting it close, but Google says it's a 15min walk so I'm not too worried. But despite walking quickly the whole way there we arrive at the station at 5:38. Our train isn't listed on any of the screens around the station. Panicking, we ask the info desk where train 87 is leaving from.
Info Desk Attendant: Train 87? I don't know about a train 87! Where does that go??
She was less than helpful and was wasting valuable time. I go to a different desk and ask if they know where train 87 is boarding.
Info Desk Attendant #2: Oh, that's probably left already. *checks with someone on the walkie talkie* Yeah that train just left.
I know you're all thinking we should have given ourselves more time to get to the train station. That's probably true. But I would also like to state that the train left 2mins early. And Union station is a nightmare.
That was the last train to Stratford for the day, so we were not going back to Stratford by train Sunday evening. There were a few options:
1. Stay at Emily's another night and take the Monday morning train to Stratford and be late for class.
2. Somehow get to Waterloo and sleep at Marissa's parent's house and get a ride with a carpool to Stratford Monday morning.
3. Somehow get to Waterloo or London and get our parents to drive us to Stratford.
We decided to try #3 via Waterloo. Marissa called her mom to make sure this was a plan that could happen and we quickly got on the 6:00 GO bus to Mississauga, where we would switch GO buses at Square One and go to Waterloo from there. Neither of us are sure whether our presto cards have enough money on them to pay for the ticket. Mine had just enough; Marissa's did not. We think that we'll have to get off but turns out you can pay with cash (who knew?). I lend Marissa some cash and we're through. We get on the bus, and while still shaken, I'm glad we've figured out a way to get back to Stratford fairly quickly. Although, I had the issue of not having enough money on my presto card to pay for the second bus ticket.
Around 6:45, Marissa is not sure we're on the right bus because she doesn't recognize the route we're on. I check the map on my phone and sure enough, we are nowhere near Square One. We are on the edge of Mississauga and about to go to Milton. I suggest we get off, because Milton definitely is not where we want to be. At this point, we're both tired, cold, and desperately want to get home in one piece.
So I decide to call up Sheila, whom with which I stayed with over the summer. I asked if she would be willing to come pick us up and drive us to Square One, so that we could get on the next bus. Thankfully she wasn't doing anything and was willing to come rescue us. The drive from the edge of Mississauga to Square One was explaining to Sheila the night Marissa and I had had. When we arrive at Square One, we see the bus that we are supposed to be getting on to. Marissa and I decide that instead of rushing and potentially missing it, we'll wait for the next bus which comes in just under an hour. We grab dinner at the nearby Starbucks and buy tickets for the bus at a kiosk there.
Finally the bus arrives and we get on, this time sure that it is the right bus. It take just over an hour to us to get to Waterloo. The bus stops at the university; it was strange being back there. I haven't been there since second year. Entire buildings have gone up in the time I've been gone.
Marissa's mom met us there and drove us to Stratford. I have never before been so glad to see this apartment. I had intended on doing some school work Sunday evening because the train would've arrived in Stratford around 8pm. When we finally pulled up in front of our apartment, it was 10:30. I was going to bed.
That, my friends, was our five part journey. It will surely become something to laugh at in the future, but for now we're simply calling it a comedy of errors.
Sunday, 8 January 2017
Fight to Entertain
 |
| good ol' pun to start us off |
This is me eating my words and wishing I had brought my sewing stuff to Stratford. Only a week in and I'm rudely reminded of how boring it can get in Stratford. I have to make a real effort to entertain myself and not just waste my days away on social media. That being said, I did do lots of fun things this week.
It was Marissa's birthday on Friday, so on Thursday we drove to Kitchener to go trampolining. Mara and I had been to this place before, where they have 6 olympic grade trampolines. It was great fun. I almost did a full front flip (I just can't quite stick the landing and end up on my butt). Michelle however did gymnastics when she was younger and so was doing front flips, back flips, you name it. Definitely got my exercise in that day and felt it for the following two days. I'd like to go back at some point and see if I can't finally land a front flip.
Later that day we had our first SSC event of the term at a local pub. Much to our enjoyment, Thursday is now 25cent wing night. I made a slight misjudgement in how hungry I was and ordered 5 wings and a burger. Way too much food. But the wings were great. And I couldn't get over that it cost $1.25 for 5 wings! I'm no wing fanatic but even I know that's got to be a great deal. I might start making regular trips to the pub for 5 wings every Thursday night.
Friday morning started off great listening to Ed Sheeran's two new singles. I've come to realize that I almost always don't like a song when I first hear it if it's a song I'm expecting to like (i.e. from an artist I'm familiar with). So I didn't form any opinions until later. And as expected, I really like both of them. I'm not sure which one I like better; it might have to be Castle On The Hill.
Last night I had some friends over to play Catan (I won). I also made my new meal of the week: spinach salad with dried cranberries, chicken, avocado, and poppyseed dressing. To be honest I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It might just make it on to my rotation of meals. I haven't decided what this week's recipe is going to be; it will depend on when I get to a grocery store next.
Didn't do much today. Watched a sermon from The Meeting House online. I've started doing a daily doodle where I practice my lettering/doodling. It's not much but I'm trying out the concept that doing something everyday will help you get better at it. I'm patiently waiting for 9pm to roll around to watch the next Sherlock episode. I've had to stay off social media since this afternoon to avoid any spoilers, since Britain has already seen it and there are already things being posted about what happens.
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
Am I a Baking Blogger?
Yes, but I don't have a baking blog (officially). I do talk about baking whenever I do it though. And I did lots of baking last month. It was great. I made mini churros, chai-spiced tea cakes, peppermint bark, sugar cookies with royal icing, and the capstone dessert: the gingerbread train. All of you who read this blog have already seen these, but, you have to do it for the blog so here we are.
Christmas was great, if busy. We had 13 people at our house for Christmas dinner! Lots of good gifts, two of which are card games that I really like: Sushi Go and The Struggle for Catan.The other thing I occupied my time with was a t-shirt quilt for a friend, which I got finished in time(!). She really likes it, which I'm glad of.
Having been inspired by finishing that t-shirt quilt, I decided I would start working on my own t-shirt quilt with my Forest Cliff Camp shirts (of which I have many). I started working on it just before New Years Eve, and almost completely finished the top of the quilt before I came back to Stratford yesterday. I've never moved through a quilt so quickly before. The main reason for that is because a lot of supplies I need to make quilts are at the church sewing group, so I was limited to 3hrs of sewing a week. But I recently received a cutting board and ruler which are the big things I needed. So now I can sew to my heart's desire at home! Now the only thing stopping me is not understanding a quilt pattern. Margaret often helps me a lot in guiding me through the steps of making a quilt.
The creativity continues in Stratford with a card for a friend's birthday later this week. We're hoping to go trampolining to celebrate :)
My new year's resolution is to make a new recipe each week. The hope is that I'll become more confident in trying new recipes, increase the number of go-to meals I can make, and learn how to pair foods better. This week is a chicken and spinach salad.
Friday, 16 December 2016
Creative Central
As expected, the Christmas break is flying by. I can't believe it's just a week till Christmas. I, however, am not as stressed about that fact as my parents are. I imagine this weekend will be spent writing cards and delivering presents. I designed and wrote a few Christmas cards myself this year. I've been working on a faux calligraphy, which is featured heavily throughout the cards. The cards are just done with some fine tip markers, as apposed to with crafting supplies, but I really like how they turned out. But since I've been home and have access to my scrapbooking supplies, I've made some other cards that are a little more intricate. I think making cards is going to be my new hobby. Ever since I had my new years resolution to write a letter and deliver it through snail mail every week, I've been a fan of sending snail mail (not every week though). Now I'm just adding making the cards to that. Although stationary areas in stores are still my weak spot.
The other thing I've been occupying my time with is wrapping Christmas gifts. I try and up my game each year. This year every gift has ribbon and a bow. I also try and wrap parts of gifts individually, because why open one gift when you can open 3? I made a gift basket of which I'm very pleased with.
The 2016 gingerbread creation has been designed (here's a sneak peak: it's not a house). I'm going to make it next week, show it off for a couple days to the relatives, and then it can be consumed. I may have designed a bigger creation that I thought, but we'll see how it turns out. It's never exactly the size it's meant to be.
I went through my photos from when I was abroad and have selected a highlight reel to print off and hopefully scrapbook. It still ended up being over 70 photos. But I guess considering I took over 2000, that's not bad.
And in case you hadn't noticed the trend of crafty and creative things, the other project occupying my time is a t-shirt quilt I'm doing for a friend. It's coming along nicely, although there was a bit of a pause while I waited for the last two shirts to arrive. I'm hoping that I can have it finished within the next week. The deadline is unofficially when I go back to Stratford, so that I can give my friend the quilt the next time I see her. If I happen to have time during the craze of the week surrounding Christmas, I'll start working on another quilt that I said I would do for a family friend. Its been about 5 years, so I figured I should probably get going on that. I just wish that I had room to sew at my apartment. I can't wait till I retire and have unlimited time to do crafty things.
The other thing I've been occupying my time with is wrapping Christmas gifts. I try and up my game each year. This year every gift has ribbon and a bow. I also try and wrap parts of gifts individually, because why open one gift when you can open 3? I made a gift basket of which I'm very pleased with.
The 2016 gingerbread creation has been designed (here's a sneak peak: it's not a house). I'm going to make it next week, show it off for a couple days to the relatives, and then it can be consumed. I may have designed a bigger creation that I thought, but we'll see how it turns out. It's never exactly the size it's meant to be.
I went through my photos from when I was abroad and have selected a highlight reel to print off and hopefully scrapbook. It still ended up being over 70 photos. But I guess considering I took over 2000, that's not bad.
And in case you hadn't noticed the trend of crafty and creative things, the other project occupying my time is a t-shirt quilt I'm doing for a friend. It's coming along nicely, although there was a bit of a pause while I waited for the last two shirts to arrive. I'm hoping that I can have it finished within the next week. The deadline is unofficially when I go back to Stratford, so that I can give my friend the quilt the next time I see her. If I happen to have time during the craze of the week surrounding Christmas, I'll start working on another quilt that I said I would do for a family friend. Its been about 5 years, so I figured I should probably get going on that. I just wish that I had room to sew at my apartment. I can't wait till I retire and have unlimited time to do crafty things.
Friday, 2 December 2016
Cooper District
Today GBDA X01 officially ended. After 8 weeks, a group of 20 of us came up with a proposal for the Cooper Site behind the campus. We have a website, video, branding, physical models and blueprints (which I've mentioned before), and perhaps my favourite, a book, to represent what we are now calling the Cooper District. We were assembling the books today. It's a accordion style book, with actual front and back covers. They're obviously handmade, but I think they turned out really well. Each one is just a tad unique, and that goes along well with the branding we came up with - rustic and a bit edgy. I wasn't a part of designing the book, but a couple of pictures I took as well as the blueprints made it into the book. So that's my little claim to fame on that aspect of the project. If I can find the motivation to photograph the book properly, I'd like to add it to my portfolio. I really enjoyed the whole thing and I'm happy to be able to say that this is something I did because I wanted to, not because I needed to for a mark or school. I'm really looking forward to what we do next term.
Speaking of making the book, we were using bone folding tools to crease and fold the pages, and I now want one for myself. It would be really helpful for origami folding.
In other news, last night the SSC had their last event of the term, a holiday dessert potluck. We had 10 people, which was just about perfect for the space (and chairs) we have. There was lots of delicious dessert, one of my favourites being peanut butter and corn flake munchies. They were very good and I ate (too) many. We built the gingerbread house without any structural difficulties and one guest even made a cat out of candy. I ate the chimney today and the gingerbread is rock hard. I'm wondering if this kit might be leftover from last year? Or maybe I'm just so used to the softer homemade ginger bread that this is a rude reminder of what I used to enjoy eating as a child.
Speaking of making the book, we were using bone folding tools to crease and fold the pages, and I now want one for myself. It would be really helpful for origami folding.
In other news, last night the SSC had their last event of the term, a holiday dessert potluck. We had 10 people, which was just about perfect for the space (and chairs) we have. There was lots of delicious dessert, one of my favourites being peanut butter and corn flake munchies. They were very good and I ate (too) many. We built the gingerbread house without any structural difficulties and one guest even made a cat out of candy. I ate the chimney today and the gingerbread is rock hard. I'm wondering if this kit might be leftover from last year? Or maybe I'm just so used to the softer homemade ginger bread that this is a rude reminder of what I used to enjoy eating as a child.
Monday, 28 November 2016
Let it Be Christmas Already
Here I am again, not as stressed as everyone else. I'm just about done my ePortfolio, just waiting to hear back from some people for feedback. You can take a look too if you like: heatherwoo.com.
The SSC will be hosting another potluck on Thursday, this one is a dessert potluck. I'm very much looking forward to it. Unfortunately, two of my closer friends won't be around to come, but we had to go with the date that worked for the most people overall. I bought a gingerbread house for people to decorate, since that was something that people liked last year when it happened on campus (although I died a little inside, since I haven't bought/used a store bought gingerbread house in 4 years). Right now it looks like we're going to have a good turn out. It's a fine line though. Obviously we want as many people to come as possible, but we also don't have a ton of space in our apartment. And we can't really use our 'sunroom' off the back this time because it is not insulated. So we'll see how it goes. Might have to do some rearranging of the furniture.
Thanks to Black Friday and the magic of the internet, I've completed all of my Christmas shopping except for one gift. This is definitely a record for me, having it done so early. My mom messages me on a semi-regular basis saying "Another package arrived today," since I'm having them sent to London. Although I think they've all arrived by now. I am very excited to wrap the gifts. I love gift wrapping. (If you want me to come over and wrap your gifts for you, I'd love to. Seriously).
Not a whole lot else going on. I only have one more week of classes, and then I'm free! I've been making Christmas cards and I have to say I'm quite happy with how they are turning out. I'm really looking forward to being at home over December. I can't wait to do Christmas-y things. I'm also excited to get back into sewing.
I made dinner tonight for Marissa and Michelle. I made dill meatballs, which is one of my favourite meals. I made it for them at some point last year, and they both really enjoyed it as well. So now I try and invite them over to eat with me whenever I have it. Michelle and I played Mario Kart after. It was fun to just hang out with her for a while; she's often very busy and is never around on the weekends.
The SSC will be hosting another potluck on Thursday, this one is a dessert potluck. I'm very much looking forward to it. Unfortunately, two of my closer friends won't be around to come, but we had to go with the date that worked for the most people overall. I bought a gingerbread house for people to decorate, since that was something that people liked last year when it happened on campus (although I died a little inside, since I haven't bought/used a store bought gingerbread house in 4 years). Right now it looks like we're going to have a good turn out. It's a fine line though. Obviously we want as many people to come as possible, but we also don't have a ton of space in our apartment. And we can't really use our 'sunroom' off the back this time because it is not insulated. So we'll see how it goes. Might have to do some rearranging of the furniture.
Thanks to Black Friday and the magic of the internet, I've completed all of my Christmas shopping except for one gift. This is definitely a record for me, having it done so early. My mom messages me on a semi-regular basis saying "Another package arrived today," since I'm having them sent to London. Although I think they've all arrived by now. I am very excited to wrap the gifts. I love gift wrapping. (If you want me to come over and wrap your gifts for you, I'd love to. Seriously).
Not a whole lot else going on. I only have one more week of classes, and then I'm free! I've been making Christmas cards and I have to say I'm quite happy with how they are turning out. I'm really looking forward to being at home over December. I can't wait to do Christmas-y things. I'm also excited to get back into sewing.
I made dinner tonight for Marissa and Michelle. I made dill meatballs, which is one of my favourite meals. I made it for them at some point last year, and they both really enjoyed it as well. So now I try and invite them over to eat with me whenever I have it. Michelle and I played Mario Kart after. It was fun to just hang out with her for a while; she's often very busy and is never around on the weekends.
Friday, 18 November 2016
RedonDONE
I am often significantly less stressed the 48hrs leading up to a due date than my peers. Most of the time, this is because I complete my work before hand and apparently everyone I go to school with is an expert procrastinator. However, I thought this weekend might be different. We're on the third and final iteration of our Redondo prototype project (due on Monday), and my group was struggling to solidify our idea. This meant I couldn't start working on my part of the write up ahead of time. Finally, on Thursday we came to an agreement only because we argued that we literally didn't have anymore time to discuss ideas, and had to start working on the write-up and physical prototype. Filip and I were assigned the physical prototype because we were going to be the only ones in Stratford over the weekend. Filip didn't seem too happy about having the physical prototype, but I would take crafting over writing any day. Over the past two days, it took us 8 hours to complete the prototype out of cardboard, and that was on top of 2 hours the group had spent together building the shell of the Redondo. We went through 3 cans of spray paint trying to make this thing look half decent. But on the plus side, I am now done my contribution to the project, and thus have the weekend to myself. Which is where I started this narrative. Still done my work ahead of time :)
My other task for the weekend is 3D printing a bunch of mini pieces of furniture. This is for the GBDA X project, where we're redesigning the Cooper Site. As a part of the 3D model team, I created a blueprint of the building that will eventually printed at 24"x62". The mini furniture pieces will sit on this blueprint. The group became a bit pressed for time because the book/brand team wants pictures of the miniatures for their book. So we suddenly needed our models finished earlier than anticipated. I took one for the team and offered to print them over the weekend. It will be cutting it close. I started one today (a desk and bed) and it's going to take 9hrs to print. I'm just hoping that everything goes smoothly, because I left after about an hour. I will find out tomorrow, fingers crossed.
Other than hoping the 3D printer doesn't break down from continuous operation over the next 48hrs, I don't have anything going on this weekend. All of the M&Ms are away for the weekend. I made chocolate chip cookies this evening. I used to bake because I wanted baked goods. Now I bake to occupy time, and have the added bonus of getting baked goods out of it. I finished The Crown on Netflix today. I really enjoyed it and hope they continue to make episodes (there's some controversy as to whether there will be another season due to comments from the Royal Family). Might do some reading, since I haven't done that in a while. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the weather is going to be great. Although today it was lovely. I was walking around in a t-shirt.
Monday, 7 November 2016
BFFLAATs Take TO: Take 4
The yearly tradition of me going to visit Emily (and now Alison) in Toronto for a weekend continues. I was able to stay for a little longer this year because I don't have school on Fridays. I arrived Thursday evening and we went to see Mariah Carey perform at the unveiling of The Bay holiday windows. There was a large crowd filling the street and we weren't sure where Mariah would be performing. We did manage to eventually worm our way further into the crowd, but we still couldn't see a stage. Mariah eventually came on stage after the Mayor of Toronto and CEO of Hudson's Bay Company spoke for a few minutes. We couldn't see her at all, but there was a screen that was projecting the whole thing. I did see her at one point when I jumped above the rest of the crowd and I caught a glimpse of her in her predictably red dress. Add Mariah Carey to the list of famous people I've seen with my own eyes.
On Friday we went to Snakes and Lattes Board Game Cafe. It took us a while to walk there, but it was worth it. They have so many different games. We played one called Sushi Go Party, which once we got the hang of it, was a lot of fun. It's a card based game by Gamewright, whose games I've played before and enjoyed. We played a number of games and ended up staying at the cafe for the whole afternoon. We headed home and made dinner (pasta with a rose meat sauce - very delicious) with our friend Justine. It was really good to be able to see her again.
Saturday morning I took on the role of model for Emily's roommate, Nicola. She was doing a photography assignment on lighting and needed a model, so I was assigned to the role. It was a lot of fun, and also something I'm not keen to do again. It feels great to have your photo taken and to have the fancy lights and reflectors, but staying in the same pose for an hour at a time or trying to recreate a pose multiple times get tiring. For one position, I was leaning all of my weight on my crossed leg and I promptly lost all feeling in my lower leg. I could touch my foot and I didn't feel anything. When we were done it took me 5mins to try and get feeling back in my foot again. I can't wait to see the photos though. I'm sure Nicola made me look much better than I usually do.
After the photoshoot was done, we headed to a cafe that made #freakshakes, which are these milkshakes that have entire desserts perched on top of them. I got a surprise version, which came with a chocolate milkshake topped with Nutella, whip cream, a mini cupcake, two powdered donuts and lots of sprinkles. They also offered a version which came with a full size donut and a fudgsicle on top. On the way to the cafe we stopped in this store that has a bunch of random props everywhere, including these absolutely massive picture frames. It was a really neat store to look around in.
For dinner we went to a pub type restaurant across from the movie theatre, where we each got poutine. Alison got a popcorn chicken poutine, Emily got a smoked brisket poutine, and I got the poutine sampler which came with the standard poutine, the popcorn chicken poutine, and a pulled pork poutine. It was delicious.
Of course, the tradition of the visit to Toronto is to see the next Hunger Games movie. Unfortunately those are finished now, so we found another movie with a November premiere date that we all wanted to see. Thus, after we finished dinner we crossed the road to the theatre to see Doctor Strange. It was a really good movie, and pretty different from other Marvel movies. But they still managed to tie it into the MCU. And I'm very happy to hear that Doctor Strange will be making appearances in future Marvel movies.
I had to leave fairly early on Sunday morning to come back to Stratford, so Emily made pancakes for breakfast and I was off. I got a ride with my friend Mara, so the ride was much more enjoyable than riding public transit. I ended up going skating at one of the Stratford arenas in the evening with a couple of guys from GBDA. It cost $5 which might be a bit much for skating, but it was enjoyable. I'm not quite at the level of skating as the guys I was skating with (they both play hockey), so at the beginning we were spread out on the rink. After a while we were starting to tire, so we just started doing laps together and chatting. There were only 6 other people on the ice, so there was lots of space. It was an adults only skate as well, so there wasn't any kids which was nice. It was good exercise. I set a new record on my Misfit (fitness tracker). The way the misfit works is you get points based on how much you move. It's approximately one point for 100 steps, but if you're doing something more intense than walking, you get more points. Unfortunately, I think some things got mixed up with the time change, so things aren't registering correctly. But I reached my daily goal of 600 points with just the skating.
A very busy and enjoyable weekend!
On Friday we went to Snakes and Lattes Board Game Cafe. It took us a while to walk there, but it was worth it. They have so many different games. We played one called Sushi Go Party, which once we got the hang of it, was a lot of fun. It's a card based game by Gamewright, whose games I've played before and enjoyed. We played a number of games and ended up staying at the cafe for the whole afternoon. We headed home and made dinner (pasta with a rose meat sauce - very delicious) with our friend Justine. It was really good to be able to see her again.
Saturday morning I took on the role of model for Emily's roommate, Nicola. She was doing a photography assignment on lighting and needed a model, so I was assigned to the role. It was a lot of fun, and also something I'm not keen to do again. It feels great to have your photo taken and to have the fancy lights and reflectors, but staying in the same pose for an hour at a time or trying to recreate a pose multiple times get tiring. For one position, I was leaning all of my weight on my crossed leg and I promptly lost all feeling in my lower leg. I could touch my foot and I didn't feel anything. When we were done it took me 5mins to try and get feeling back in my foot again. I can't wait to see the photos though. I'm sure Nicola made me look much better than I usually do.
After the photoshoot was done, we headed to a cafe that made #freakshakes, which are these milkshakes that have entire desserts perched on top of them. I got a surprise version, which came with a chocolate milkshake topped with Nutella, whip cream, a mini cupcake, two powdered donuts and lots of sprinkles. They also offered a version which came with a full size donut and a fudgsicle on top. On the way to the cafe we stopped in this store that has a bunch of random props everywhere, including these absolutely massive picture frames. It was a really neat store to look around in.
For dinner we went to a pub type restaurant across from the movie theatre, where we each got poutine. Alison got a popcorn chicken poutine, Emily got a smoked brisket poutine, and I got the poutine sampler which came with the standard poutine, the popcorn chicken poutine, and a pulled pork poutine. It was delicious.
Of course, the tradition of the visit to Toronto is to see the next Hunger Games movie. Unfortunately those are finished now, so we found another movie with a November premiere date that we all wanted to see. Thus, after we finished dinner we crossed the road to the theatre to see Doctor Strange. It was a really good movie, and pretty different from other Marvel movies. But they still managed to tie it into the MCU. And I'm very happy to hear that Doctor Strange will be making appearances in future Marvel movies.
I had to leave fairly early on Sunday morning to come back to Stratford, so Emily made pancakes for breakfast and I was off. I got a ride with my friend Mara, so the ride was much more enjoyable than riding public transit. I ended up going skating at one of the Stratford arenas in the evening with a couple of guys from GBDA. It cost $5 which might be a bit much for skating, but it was enjoyable. I'm not quite at the level of skating as the guys I was skating with (they both play hockey), so at the beginning we were spread out on the rink. After a while we were starting to tire, so we just started doing laps together and chatting. There were only 6 other people on the ice, so there was lots of space. It was an adults only skate as well, so there wasn't any kids which was nice. It was good exercise. I set a new record on my Misfit (fitness tracker). The way the misfit works is you get points based on how much you move. It's approximately one point for 100 steps, but if you're doing something more intense than walking, you get more points. Unfortunately, I think some things got mixed up with the time change, so things aren't registering correctly. But I reached my daily goal of 600 points with just the skating.
A very busy and enjoyable weekend!
Sunday, 23 October 2016
Black Mirror
It has been a very slow, motivation-lacking weekend. Luckily, there wasn't much that I needed to get done. That being said, I'm not a fan of having unproductive days. I like to be able to say that I did something. Hence why I'm blogging.
Everybody has been frantically working on their work term report that is due on Tuesday. I had mine done about 3 weeks ago, so I've been doing my own thing. I actually submitted the report, so I officially don't have to worry about it any more. Did some laundry, went grocery shopping, 3D printed a couple more hexes for Settlers of Catan, baked some snickerdoodle blondie bars. Sill slowly hacking away at the list of things I need to do to my website.
This afternoon I went to the Perth Pop-Up market. It was disappointing. The space was very crowded and it was very dark, both of which made it difficult to see what the vendors were actually selling. I doubt I would have wanted much of it anyways. Since walking around the 'market' only took me about 5mins, I decided to pop into a couple of the stores along Ontario St. Again, didn't really want anything they were selling, but it occupied the time and it was nice to be outside. It actually wasn't that bad out today. This cold weather feels like it's come out of nowhere because we had that one weird patch where it was 25C.
On Friday, 6 new episodes of Black Mirror came out on Netflix. It's a great show. I found out about it a couple years ago from a classmate but never looked into it. It's all about technology in the future, in a grim, sci-fi kind of way. It's not hover-boards and time travel; it's eye contacts that film everything you see and implants in the brain that control digital selves. Each episode is a stand alone story, so you don't have to watch all of them or in any particular order.
It came up again in one of our lectures this term and I decided to watch it. At the time, they only had one episode - a Christmas special - on Netflix. Marissa and I watched that one, and we had our minds blown. It was very well done. I then looked into the actual seasons and was surprised to see that it's like Sherlock: there are only three episodes a season. I watched the first season, and while the stories were good, they didn't compare to the Christmas special we had watched. I have yet to watch season 2. Apparently the show was dropped or put on pause, then Netflix brought it back for a third season with 6 episodes. I was very happy to see that these new episodes are on the same level as the Christmas special. The episodes are about an hour long, give or take 10mins. I highly recommend it. Oh, and it's by the BBC!
Fun fact: it's called Black Mirror because when the screen of our electronic devices are off, they become a black mirror. I thought that was clever :)
QOTD
370. Ever been on a plane?
Yup. Lots, in fact. At least 18 (wow).
Everybody has been frantically working on their work term report that is due on Tuesday. I had mine done about 3 weeks ago, so I've been doing my own thing. I actually submitted the report, so I officially don't have to worry about it any more. Did some laundry, went grocery shopping, 3D printed a couple more hexes for Settlers of Catan, baked some snickerdoodle blondie bars. Sill slowly hacking away at the list of things I need to do to my website.
This afternoon I went to the Perth Pop-Up market. It was disappointing. The space was very crowded and it was very dark, both of which made it difficult to see what the vendors were actually selling. I doubt I would have wanted much of it anyways. Since walking around the 'market' only took me about 5mins, I decided to pop into a couple of the stores along Ontario St. Again, didn't really want anything they were selling, but it occupied the time and it was nice to be outside. It actually wasn't that bad out today. This cold weather feels like it's come out of nowhere because we had that one weird patch where it was 25C.
On Friday, 6 new episodes of Black Mirror came out on Netflix. It's a great show. I found out about it a couple years ago from a classmate but never looked into it. It's all about technology in the future, in a grim, sci-fi kind of way. It's not hover-boards and time travel; it's eye contacts that film everything you see and implants in the brain that control digital selves. Each episode is a stand alone story, so you don't have to watch all of them or in any particular order.
It came up again in one of our lectures this term and I decided to watch it. At the time, they only had one episode - a Christmas special - on Netflix. Marissa and I watched that one, and we had our minds blown. It was very well done. I then looked into the actual seasons and was surprised to see that it's like Sherlock: there are only three episodes a season. I watched the first season, and while the stories were good, they didn't compare to the Christmas special we had watched. I have yet to watch season 2. Apparently the show was dropped or put on pause, then Netflix brought it back for a third season with 6 episodes. I was very happy to see that these new episodes are on the same level as the Christmas special. The episodes are about an hour long, give or take 10mins. I highly recommend it. Oh, and it's by the BBC!
Fun fact: it's called Black Mirror because when the screen of our electronic devices are off, they become a black mirror. I thought that was clever :)
QOTD
370. Ever been on a plane?
Yup. Lots, in fact. At least 18 (wow).
Saturday, 15 October 2016
The SSC
The Stratford Student Community, otherwise known as the SSC, is a club started by my friend Mara and run by Mara, Marissa, and myself. Basically, we plan events for university students living in Stratford since there's no university extra curriculars provided at the Stratford campus (well...there are, but they are few and far between). We do one event a week; things like pub night, potlucks, bowling, movie night, etc. Our events have been fairly successful so far, given the number of students living in Stratford (there can't be more than 40).
We had a Thanksgiving Potluck last week and it was a lot of fun. There was a ton of food and a surprisingly good balance between sweet and savoury things (some students held a potluck last year and apparently it was about 95% dessert). Marissa and I hosted it at our apartment since nobody else volunteered to host. It was a bit squishy, but people really enjoyed it and asked us to do another one in the future. I also really enjoyed hosting. I keep thinking of ways we can have more people over. A handful of us have decided to have dinner together once a week, but just the way things have worked out, it hasn't actually happened yet. But this Monday! It will happen! We're having lasagna :)
Friday, 14 October 2016
Christmas Countdown
In case you don't follow me on other social media, I recently discovered that there are exactly 100 days between my birthday and Christmas. As I have a fondness of counting down the days to Christmas, I was A) happily surprised by the coincidence and B) shocked that it took me 21 years to figure that little connection out. (In case you were wondering, there are 71 days till Christmas.)
I don't have any exams this term, so I'm going to be done school on December 5th. I'll have almost exactly a month off, and I'm quite looking forward to it. I have many plans, most of which involve some form of creativity. I'm hoping to work on two quilts. My friend asked me to make a quilt out of t-shirts she doesn't want to throw out, but doesn't want to wear. The other is a quilt that I've been putting off for about 5 years, for a lady at church. That quilt will be much more time consuming and difficult than the t-shirt quilt (hence why I've been putting it off).
And of course, I'll continue my tradition of making a gingerbread house from scratch. I'm thinking of doing a gingerbread train this year. I feel like there's a lot of potential with things that you can put in the carriages of the train.
Back to reality, I had 6hrs of class today. This was particularly harsh because I usually have Fridays off. The timetable this week was messed up because of two 'reading week days'. I'm not feeling too stressed about schoolwork this term so far. It definitely helps that I'm only taking two courses. One course is worth 4 credits, so I have the workload of 5 courses. But only having to worry about assignments, groups, and due dates for two courses instead of five is making it easier.
I am hoping to get some 3D printing done this weekend. I'm currently printing 3D tiles for the board game Settlers of Catan. I've done one so far and it turned out really well, so I'm hoping to print one for each resource by the end of the term. I'm also tweaking a keychain I made last year. Interestingly enough, a friend asked if I would print some #GBDA keychains for her this weekend - she wants 6! I'm happy to do it, but you can only print one thing at a time and 3D printing is a long process (a Settlers of Catan tile takes ~3hrs). So we'll see how it goes. At least once you've started the printing, you don't have to do anything till it's done. I might be spending a lot of time on campus this weekend. But to be honest, I don't mind it. There's hardly ever anyone there on the weekend, so you basically have the building to yourself. And now that they have massive beanbag chairs, it can even be comfortable :) I'll set my laptop up and watch the last couple episodes of Stranger Things.
Until next time!
369. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Ever since Emily went to New Zealand, I've been wanting to go! So New Zealand. #screwschool
I don't have any exams this term, so I'm going to be done school on December 5th. I'll have almost exactly a month off, and I'm quite looking forward to it. I have many plans, most of which involve some form of creativity. I'm hoping to work on two quilts. My friend asked me to make a quilt out of t-shirts she doesn't want to throw out, but doesn't want to wear. The other is a quilt that I've been putting off for about 5 years, for a lady at church. That quilt will be much more time consuming and difficult than the t-shirt quilt (hence why I've been putting it off).
And of course, I'll continue my tradition of making a gingerbread house from scratch. I'm thinking of doing a gingerbread train this year. I feel like there's a lot of potential with things that you can put in the carriages of the train.
Back to reality, I had 6hrs of class today. This was particularly harsh because I usually have Fridays off. The timetable this week was messed up because of two 'reading week days'. I'm not feeling too stressed about schoolwork this term so far. It definitely helps that I'm only taking two courses. One course is worth 4 credits, so I have the workload of 5 courses. But only having to worry about assignments, groups, and due dates for two courses instead of five is making it easier.
I am hoping to get some 3D printing done this weekend. I'm currently printing 3D tiles for the board game Settlers of Catan. I've done one so far and it turned out really well, so I'm hoping to print one for each resource by the end of the term. I'm also tweaking a keychain I made last year. Interestingly enough, a friend asked if I would print some #GBDA keychains for her this weekend - she wants 6! I'm happy to do it, but you can only print one thing at a time and 3D printing is a long process (a Settlers of Catan tile takes ~3hrs). So we'll see how it goes. At least once you've started the printing, you don't have to do anything till it's done. I might be spending a lot of time on campus this weekend. But to be honest, I don't mind it. There's hardly ever anyone there on the weekend, so you basically have the building to yourself. And now that they have massive beanbag chairs, it can even be comfortable :) I'll set my laptop up and watch the last couple episodes of Stranger Things.
Until next time!
369. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Ever since Emily went to New Zealand, I've been wanting to go! So New Zealand. #screwschool
Tuesday, 17 March 2015
You know I'm bad at communication/ It's the hardest thing for me to do
Title from "The Wire" by HAIM
Today my friend and I were chatting in her car on the way to Stratford and she started talking about friends. She talked about how high school was rough for her, and that she felt like she didn't have a lot of friends. At first, this was shocking to me, because she's the kind of person who, after having one conversation with you, will deem you her friend. But as she continued to talk, I could see that they way she classifies friends varies significantly from the way you or I would. She went on to say that she has best friends, but then the people who most people would consider friends, she considers mere acquaintances. For her, a big part of friendship is seeing the other person, definitely more so than for me. Obviously seeing your friend contributes a lot to your relationship, but it soon became clear to me that she took the amount of time spent together as a direct indication of your friendship. She said that she didn't consider one of the girls in our group of four to be her friend. And not as in "you can't be my friend any more", but rather that she felt their relationship was fading away.
She clearly thinks about relationships and friendships more than I do. It's true that we haven't been able to hang out with our one friend for a while because of a variety reasons, but I wouldn't say our friendship with her is anything less than it was a couple months ago.
She had her birthday the other week, and quite a few people were not able to make it to her party. Some had legitimate reasons, others simply backed out at the last minute. Especially because she likes birthdays so much, this affected her quite a bit. She had hoped that by not putting a lot of effort or thought into planning the party (she simply asked people to hang out at a pub), that she wouldn't be as affected by it, but she was. So clearly this has been on her mind for a while if she was thinking about it before planning her party.
It's times like these that I wish I was more socially attuned to what to do in a situation like this. Obviously she needs comfort and reassurance, but I'm not great at providing that. I don't know how to. I tried, because I felt so sad that she thought I was her only friend. And while I wasn't able to completely reassure her, I think I did help a bit. I told her that we're all friends and that I enjoy hanging out with her. She feels things very deeply, so that meant a lot to her.
I was going to bring it up to the other two friends in our group, that she was feeling a bit down and it would be good if we could hang out all together. But then she said that I wasn't to tell anybody about what she said. While I understand her desire to keep her feelings and thoughts between us, it makes it a lot harder to try and help her. And I'm sorry I've betrayed her by talking about it here (although no one involved in the story knows about this blog), but I felt so helpless knowing this information, so I had to do something with it.
Today my friend and I were chatting in her car on the way to Stratford and she started talking about friends. She talked about how high school was rough for her, and that she felt like she didn't have a lot of friends. At first, this was shocking to me, because she's the kind of person who, after having one conversation with you, will deem you her friend. But as she continued to talk, I could see that they way she classifies friends varies significantly from the way you or I would. She went on to say that she has best friends, but then the people who most people would consider friends, she considers mere acquaintances. For her, a big part of friendship is seeing the other person, definitely more so than for me. Obviously seeing your friend contributes a lot to your relationship, but it soon became clear to me that she took the amount of time spent together as a direct indication of your friendship. She said that she didn't consider one of the girls in our group of four to be her friend. And not as in "you can't be my friend any more", but rather that she felt their relationship was fading away.
She clearly thinks about relationships and friendships more than I do. It's true that we haven't been able to hang out with our one friend for a while because of a variety reasons, but I wouldn't say our friendship with her is anything less than it was a couple months ago.
She had her birthday the other week, and quite a few people were not able to make it to her party. Some had legitimate reasons, others simply backed out at the last minute. Especially because she likes birthdays so much, this affected her quite a bit. She had hoped that by not putting a lot of effort or thought into planning the party (she simply asked people to hang out at a pub), that she wouldn't be as affected by it, but she was. So clearly this has been on her mind for a while if she was thinking about it before planning her party.
It's times like these that I wish I was more socially attuned to what to do in a situation like this. Obviously she needs comfort and reassurance, but I'm not great at providing that. I don't know how to. I tried, because I felt so sad that she thought I was her only friend. And while I wasn't able to completely reassure her, I think I did help a bit. I told her that we're all friends and that I enjoy hanging out with her. She feels things very deeply, so that meant a lot to her.
I was going to bring it up to the other two friends in our group, that she was feeling a bit down and it would be good if we could hang out all together. But then she said that I wasn't to tell anybody about what she said. While I understand her desire to keep her feelings and thoughts between us, it makes it a lot harder to try and help her. And I'm sorry I've betrayed her by talking about it here (although no one involved in the story knows about this blog), but I felt so helpless knowing this information, so I had to do something with it.
Saturday, 3 January 2015
I'm Back
Today was the ideal day to relax and go to bed early and get a good nights sleep. And so obviously I blew it. It's harder and harder to go to bed early, even if I want to. I'm back in Waterloo now, because I have training all day tomorrow for being an International Peer Mentor this semester. It's one of the requirements to get the Global Experience Certificate, which I'm going for. It will be interesting to see how it goes, because I am not the most outgoing person and I've never before attempted to communicate with someone who doesn't know English.
Coming back to Waterloo was easier than I was expecting. I was thinking that I would have to get used to my apartment all over again, but I slipped right back into my routine here, which is nice. I'm the only one back so far. My two friends are supposed to arrive tomorrow. The other two roommates I had last term are on co-op this term so I will be getting two new roommates. Well, one of them didn't find a subletter, so there might only be 4 of us in the apartment for a while. That would be nice, just to not have so many people in such a small space.
Well, here's to hoping this year, and more specifically, this term, goes well!
I'm listening to Songza's Reddit 100 Most Beautiful Songs.
298. Do you want your friends to respond to this?
Getting comments is one of my favourite things.
299. Who is most likely to respond to a text from you?
Definitely not my Dad. Probably my BFFLAAT. Or my mom.
300(!). Who is least likely to respond to a text from you?
Ha! My dad ;)
Coming back to Waterloo was easier than I was expecting. I was thinking that I would have to get used to my apartment all over again, but I slipped right back into my routine here, which is nice. I'm the only one back so far. My two friends are supposed to arrive tomorrow. The other two roommates I had last term are on co-op this term so I will be getting two new roommates. Well, one of them didn't find a subletter, so there might only be 4 of us in the apartment for a while. That would be nice, just to not have so many people in such a small space.
Well, here's to hoping this year, and more specifically, this term, goes well!
I'm listening to Songza's Reddit 100 Most Beautiful Songs.
298. Do you want your friends to respond to this?
Getting comments is one of my favourite things.
299. Who is most likely to respond to a text from you?
Definitely not my Dad. Probably my BFFLAAT. Or my mom.
300(!). Who is least likely to respond to a text from you?
Ha! My dad ;)
Tuesday, 25 November 2014
And She Lives!
33 hours in and...surprisingly, not as dead as I thought I would be. I went to campus at 6:30pm last night to work on my group's documentary which was due today. I did not leave campus until 7am, where my group member drove me home, I changed and grabbed a lunch, then raced to catch the city bus at 7:22, which then took me back to campus to get on the 8 o'clock bus to Stratford. The 3 of us just spent 12 hours together in a concrete-walled computer lab with no cell service. Ladies and gentlemen, my first all-nighter. Let it be made clear that editing with more than one person is hard. Especially when the files are on one device and you have to keep moving them around. This meant that I would do come editing, but then really just spent a lot of time sitting around. But I felt like I couldn't leave because...I don't know. I didn't want to abandon them. And the buses stopped at 12:30, so I was kind of stuck there anyways. I was there for moral support. And to keep them on track. One of my group members lives fairly close to campus, so she went home around 6 to change and eat. We finished editing the video at 6am, which we then had to export. It took half an hour. We then realized that we hadn't saved some of the files, which meant there were big gaps in our video. So we had to re-save the files and export it again. It was saying it would take about an hour to export, which meant finishing at 7:30. So, cutting it pretty close. We couldn't leave the video, because the school computers log you off if it's inactive for awhile. My other group member and I were stuck waiting for our group member to return to finish up with the exporting. She came back at 7, and the two of us went home as well (albeit briefly).
All in all, a wild night. And when you're working wild hours like that, eventually the only way to get through it is to laugh. That point arrived at about 3am. There was a lot of swearing and laughing. This, however, is my favourite moment, partially simply because it was caught on camera:
We all died laughing when my group member revealed that he had caught it on camera. It was a great moment. And it accurately displays how most of the night went: serious hard work interspersed with yelling and dancing. Multiple snapchats were sent that night. When the one group member had gone home, the other group member asked me if I wanted to race him in the wheely chairs. I mentioned that there wasn't a lot of space. He looks as me and says, "No, I mean in the hallway." And I thought, yes. This is going to be so much fun. So we're bouncing off the walls scooting around and racing down the hallway. Then he says, "I wish it was connected, so we could do laps." Luckily, we were in PAS, the most confusing building on campus, so I knew exactly where to go.
It's not clear in this picture, but this staircase is circular. There are staircases heading in every direction. And they're all connected by a hallway at the bottom. And so we started whipping around these stairs in our wheely chairs like there was no tomorrow (which there quite possibly might not have been if we didn't get the doc done). It was a blast. I don't think I've ever had so much fun at 6 in the morning before.
Now while I don't suggest all-nighters, I have to admit that this today was not as bad as I thought it would be. Although I was shaky all day from my food consumption being purely sugar. I got myself an iced capp from Timmies before heading off to Stratford. I got it for the caffeine, but I think it was the sugar more so that got me. I also had a red velvet muffin (which was delicious). I had a sandwich and pudding for lunch. The Stratford campus had gingerbread cookies for us to decorate, so I also ate a cookie. We played a bit of Wii during lunch too, since they had one set up. In reality, not a bad day, given the circumstances. Although I got a headache in the afternoon. Could have been worse, though.
All in all, a wild night. And when you're working wild hours like that, eventually the only way to get through it is to laugh. That point arrived at about 3am. There was a lot of swearing and laughing. This, however, is my favourite moment, partially simply because it was caught on camera:
Now while I don't suggest all-nighters, I have to admit that this today was not as bad as I thought it would be. Although I was shaky all day from my food consumption being purely sugar. I got myself an iced capp from Timmies before heading off to Stratford. I got it for the caffeine, but I think it was the sugar more so that got me. I also had a red velvet muffin (which was delicious). I had a sandwich and pudding for lunch. The Stratford campus had gingerbread cookies for us to decorate, so I also ate a cookie. We played a bit of Wii during lunch too, since they had one set up. In reality, not a bad day, given the circumstances. Although I got a headache in the afternoon. Could have been worse, though.
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
I'm Going Abroad!
I'm going to study abroad! Well, I've applied...to be able to apply to study abroad. I've just submitted my forms to (hopefully!) study at the University of Leeds during 2016. It's pretty exciting. My friend (who has also applied to Leeds) and I were looking at google maps today of Britain and looking up places that we wanted to visit when if we go. So far, I want to go to the Museum of Brands, Packaging & Advertising, The Sherlock Holmes Museum and Madame Tussauds London. :)
Also, check out this cool art installation (by Paul Cummins) at the Tower of London to commemorate fallen soldiers:
Also, check out this cool art installation (by Paul Cummins) at the Tower of London to commemorate fallen soldiers:
"Each of the 888,246 blooms [which are ceramic] represents a British or Colonial military death during the First World War, which began a century ago." Really makes a statement, doesn't it?
Lest we forget.
images taken from here.
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