The Equitable Division of Edible Assets

There are some things you learn while living with people and over the many years of living with my brother I have noticed that I like an equitable division of edible assets. Basically, in terms of food I want my share.

There's a trend in my house that if you don't eat the food there and then, ya get none. One day there could be 6 apple sauces; the next day only 2. Same with granola bars or the quantity of hot chocolate. It bugs me sooo much. So I started taking my share as soon as it gets in the house. Labeling, storing food in my room, etc. It bugs my family, but it's just one of those things. Although my need for edible equality has been somewhat unreasonable at times. For instance, I insisted that my brother and I each get 2 packs of Doritos that my mom had bought, even though we both know that I don't like Doritos. It's been a few months now, and there's still a pack sitting on my shelf, which I selfishly refuse to give to him. It's a matter of lame pride but one day I know they'll be gone. It's a bad habit, but what can I do?

On another topic that deals not with my demands and shortcomings, I helped my friend make Japanese rice balls today and while I was not looking, she created these adorable faces for them!

eeeeeeee!!! soo cute!!!

♥ Turtles

10 Truths About Québec City (According to Me)

I have been living here in Québec City for two and a half weeks now, and during my time here, I have learned/observed a few things which I would like to share with you:

1. The city hates pedestrians.

 

It's deceiving. You don't push it.

 Okay, maybe hate is a strong word. Québec is a beautiful city with lovely people, but when they get behind the wheel of a car, something seems to go off. First, people accelerate when they see you. No joke. I'm talking from experience and with the admission of a real Quebecois guy himself! Secondly, the traffic lights are horrible. The city is stuck between European rules and Canadian ones. In the rest of Canada you can make a right turn on a red light, but in Québec you can't. There are multiple advanced turn signals, randomly changing lights, and the pedestrian crossing signals never change fast enough and when they do change, you don't have enough time to cross. And if you are waiting on the sidewalk for the signal to come on, drivers will get mad at you for not crossing when there is a red light. It's a no-win situation. I have become a professional jaywalker out of pure necessity.

A sampling of the hills

2. Québec is built on hills.

Lots of hills - in Old Québec/Downtown and the Ste Foy region at least (where the university I'm staying at is located). Biking takes a lot of energy because you go up and down and up and down. Walking around Old Québec is a constant series of hills as well as admiring in awe at the talented bus drivers who navigate the roads with intense skill.

3. People are fit.

Probably because of the hills, and an intense love for bikes, rollerblading and running.

4. Malls close ridiculously early.

near the parliament buildings

The university is about a 15-20 min walking distance from 3 malls, all sort of connected. The unfortunate thing is that the malls all close at 6. And this is a common occurrence throughout the province. In Ontario, malls close at 9 or 10 on a weekday and 6 or 7 on the weekends. How are high school students suppose to spend their time? Doing homework? That's nonsense!

5. There is a good transportation system.

Although I am not here for very long (only two and a half more weeks left), I have a bus pass: and it has served me well! The main buses between the campus and downtown comes every 2-5 mins or so. Plus, my pass is cheaper than back home, it's re-loadable, has my picture and an electronic chip that beeps when you get on. Soooo cooool!!!

6. They can sniff out an English speaker from a kilometre away

This happens quite frequently: even though I speak to someone in French, they can tell I am an anglophone, so they immediately switch to English, even if my French is better than their English. It is annoying and a bit insulting because most of the time we understand each other perfectly fine in French.

Recognize it from Catch Me If You Can?

7. There is a lot of history

Compared to Toronto, even Ottawa, the history of the city is really obvious. Recollecting wars, founders, acts and treaties are common occurrences in the downtown area. It was one of the first, if not the first, Canadian city to be founded and with that title comes a long history. It is a nice thing to see though, because in other places, history is not so prominent and remembering the past takes a lot more effort. But then again, the motto of the province is «Je me souviens», which means "I remember".

8. They love maple.

I've fallen in love too.

It's EVERYWHERE. Maple syrup, maple butter, maple sugar, maple candy, maple ice cream, maple fudge, maple donuts, maple tea, maple cotton candy, maple meat rubs, and my guess, even maple poutine.Good thing I adore maple :D

9. Beer = Pride

I am not a beer drinker myself, but la biere quebecoise has been recommended to me numerous amounts of times by various people. Common phrases like, "it's not like other beers you've tasted", or "we have fantastic microbreweries" can be heard all around. A Quebecois guy told me jokingly that (roughly translated) "raising the elbow", referring to lifting a mug of beer, is a popular past time. I guess I'll just have to take their word for it.

10. I love it.

The parliament building of Québec - L'Assemblée Nationale

I would have to say, this is one of my favourite cities that I have ever been too. I admit, I haven't been to the suburbs, but suburbs everywhere usually follow the same cookie cutter template, hence the label of suburbia. But the downtown area is fantastic. It is stunningly beautiful in so many places, the people are really kind, the bus drivers are the nicest I have ever encountered in my life and there is a great vibe overall. I don't know what their winters are like, but most Canadian places are worst than Toronto. Still, it is a great place to be.

♥ Turtles

More info on Québec City and the province of Québec

The city
The province
Wikipedia: Quebec City / The province

Note: This is just my opinion and a bit of generalization. Best way to form your own opinion of a place is to go there yourself. I highly recommend it. Also, all pictures were taken by moi.

Some Birthday Goodies

A few weeks ago, my friends and I had an April Birthday Bash, like one big get-together to celebrate all the April birthdays (6 this year) at one time. My goal was to make a present for each friend, and I did. So here are the pics from that. I am missing photos of two Harry Potter wands that I made because I forgot to take pictures of them before I gave them away. Links to tutorials and such in the captions :)

Crayon monogram for my friend's wall (I evened it out after)

Not made by me, but pretty awesome. Cake in a Jar. Yummm.

Instead of a cake, how bout Cake Pops??

cake, icing and melts with lollipop sticks

For another friend, a bracelet made of safety pins and beads.

A Teesha Moore Scrapbook (I hadn't glued it to the book at this point)

some detail: the whole thing was hand stitched

To go with the bracelet, a necklace made of washers from the hardware store and ribbons

threadless.com (awesome tshirt site)

So very true

A key chain with a bible verse

♥ Turtles

Just Thinking

My room is cold; the result of a windy, Québecois May. I sit on a wobbly, wooden chair, at an old desk, hand on forehead, glasses off. I'm thinking. Just thinking. Above me I can hear the scraping of a chair on a linoleum floor. Outside I hear distant voices from down the hall, speaking a muddle of French and English, as doors open and close. My large window, with a broken screen, overlooks the tail end of a forest, a dumpster, and the road that runs between them.

My hands now cover my face, as my attempts to be pensive are met with lamer attempts to submerse myself in darkness. The clunking of wheels on a cart break my concentration. My mind shifts to thoughts of communal bathroom cleanliness and why keys are so noisy. As these thoughts continue to wander, I catch myself chewing on my tongue, a habit I developped when I am concentraing on something. I stop, because any resembleance to a cow is not something I desire.

So I return to my original thinking, ignoring the occaisonal honking of horns, dropping coins and suspicious vaccuuming. On my wobbly, wooden chair, I rock back and forth, creating a rhythm. I return one hand to my forehead while grabbing a pen with the other. With paper in tow, I continue my thoughts and translate them to writing. I tune out the world and just sit there thinking. 

♥ Turtles

Going in blind...

So it's been a week since my last post but I have a good reason: I am in Quebec City!! I left last Saturday, my birthday, and traveled 10 hours, with 3 hours sleep, from Toronto to Montreal and then on to the capital of Quebec. I'm here for five weeks on a university/Government of Canada program, Explore, to improve my French by being placed in a French environment and taking French courses. I'm at the University of Laval, which is a pretty nice school. Big campus, lots of residences, okay food and great proximity to three malls and a Metro grocery store.

This was a very last minute choice. I had applied in January but was wait listed and since I hadn't heard from them, I figured I had not been accepted. They only called me last Tuesday, and since I wasn't doing anything for the summer, I said yes. Then I rush mailed a bunch of stuff and hopped on a train Saturday morning. It was kind of hectic, but a lot more relaxed now that I'm here. I hadn't received any information about residence or classes so I basically went blindly into a new city. Thanks to a nice taxi driver, a classmate I met in Montreal and the very nice Laval students, things worked out.

My major issue is that I still do not have internet. (I'm posting this from a friend's computer). They have not given me a university card, although everyone else got their's on Monday, and the wireless lady won't give me internet until her computer says I have an active card. Everything, including the library, is closed on the weekends and the past week has been really busy so I just haven't have time to go on. But hopefully, come Monday, everything will be sorted out.

I hope y'all had a great week :)

♥ Turtles

50 Book Challenge (#3)

It's been a while since I've updated this challenge. I had exams, end of the year projects, and papers a few weeks ago so reading wasn't really a priority. A lot of books were over due as well so much of the books on my to read list or ones I had already started, needed to be returned.

Any who, I recently finished about 3 books. Normally I would update my list every five books, but it's been such a long time that I've decided just to post them anyway.

Read/Listened to:

Born Red by Gao Yuan (*****)

Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (audio book) (****)

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (****)

Rosaura a las diez by Marco Denevi (in my Spanish Lit class - very good book) (****)

Paper Towns by John Green (actually went out and bought it after I read it) (**** 1/2)

The Gospel According to Peanuts by Robert L. Short (***1/2)

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (ebook) (***)

Looking For Alaska by John Green (****)

The Associate by John Grisham (***)

Talk Thai: The Adventures of Buddhist Boy by Ira Sukrungruang (***)

Freakin' Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally be better than everyone else by Clinton Kelly (I felt terribly unfabulous after reading this) (***)

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton (*** 1/2)

Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes (*** 1/2) (I saw the Disney movie about a week ago so I already knew what was going to happen)

Reading/Listening to:

Me to We by Craig Kielburger and Mark Kielburger

To Read (in no particular order):

Next by Michael Crichton

Balance of Power by Tom Clancy

The Great Gatsby  by Francis Scott Fitzgerald (ebook)

North of Beautiful By Justina Chen Headley

Beyond the Dream by Shaudin Meglar-Foraster

Airframe by Michael Crichton

13/50

As of May 7th 2011

The Future

Sometimes I wonder what I am going to do with my life. Actually, scratch that. Not sometimes, most of the time. All the time. Everyday. What am I going to do? I don’t contemplate what my purpose is or why I was put on this Earth; philosophical questions make my head hurt. Rather, I think of the future, as I have been doing my whole life. I find I never really live in the moment. I am always looking at the past: what I did wrong; or at the future: what is to come, what I can possibly do, and if there is any chance in hell that my dreams will become a reality. There are days where I just sit on the couch, staring at a black television screen, pondering my days after university is finished. Should I travel? Should I get a degree? Should I take time off and work? Will I even finish? How will I pay for everything? Will I ever find a job? What do I want to do? And will I even be good enough to do it?

I’ve always hated the future, because for almost every scenario that happens, I envisioned it occurring a different way. I always imagine fantastic things, unexpected things, which make life more exciting or interesting. But when the time comes, reality falls short of my silent expectations. Always. And I know why.

I am incredibly unrealistic. I rarely express my desires verbally, for I know the chances and the likelihood of them happening are so remote that anyone who is listening would think me a fool. Yet I hold on deeply to these crazy dreams. The problem is that I never take any measure to at least try and ensure they become reality. I live in a silly, fictional world, where one day, while sitting at home, surfing the net, I’ll receive a call to work a job I would greatly enjoy. In my dreams I never make any effort yet things always happen. That’s not how it works in the real world and that, is a harsh reality. 

- Turtles

Wow. What an Election.

MY GOSH!!! What a day!! 

It was federal election day yesterday in Canada and the results surprised more or less everyone! Honestly, it was intense. There are some major changes in the government and within each party. I know that this is not a political blog but this is such a big deal. I'm watching the CBC News Network and their only two major stories this morning are the aftermath of the election and proving Bin Laden is dead. So here are the results (305 seats in total):

Harper wins majority. So much smiling.

Conservatives: They won. With a MAJORITY!! Never suspected that (I didn't vote for them). For the last seven years, they have had minority governments with frequent elections but they finally managed to pull it off and win 167 seats. So for the next 4 years, Harper is Prime Minister. According to youth sources (i.e. facebook) students are not happy about this at all. Most of the youth I know voted NDP, whereas the Conservatives are more popular with the older crowd. And although they might have won, 5 of their cabinet ministers lost their seats, so there is going to be a major shift in cabinet. The city of Toronto has 34 seats, and about 30 of them are now Tory. There hasn't been a Tory seat in the city since the 80s and with our new mayor being a Tory supporter, I hope good things are to come.

Jack Layton and wife Olivia Chow

New Democrat Party: They are now, for the first time EVER, the official opposition party. Since Canada became a country in 1867, there have been two major parties, Liberal and Conservatives. If one wasn't leading, then they were the opposition. So this NDP shift is huge. They finished with 104 seats, almost triple what they had last time around. Their biggest hurdle now is to make good on their promises. For many of the MPs elected, this is their first time in parliament, so it's a whole new ball game.

Ignatieff's speech

Liberals: This is one of the biggest shockers of the night. For the first time in history, they are the third place party, and a distant third at that. They finished with 34 seats. To top it all off, their very disliked leader, Ignatieff, was not voted in in his own riding. He lost to a conservative. During his speech last night, he said he would stay on until a new leader could be found, but I awoke this morning to a text saying he resigned. Earlier today, he left his position as head of the Liberal party, leaving them to sort things out.

Duceppe announces resignation

Bloc Quebecois: This, is the biggest surprise. Since the federal debates a few weeks ago, the NDP have gained a strong foothold in Quebec, where the Bloc has been ruling for over a decade. Until now. They currently hold 4 seats. My gosh, just 4!!! They held 47 before the election. Like Ignatieff, their leader, Gilles Duceppe, lost his riding and resigned. He had been leading the party since 1997. It has been said that many Bloc supporters have not been pleased that their sovernist goals and conservative values have not been more prominent with Duceppe, saying that he has leaned heavily to the left. But at least they have another four years to completely rebuild and remodel their party. Although because they only have 4 seats, they lost their official party status, and thus much of their funding. 12 seats are needed for that status.

May wins first seat

Green: It has been a great night for them. This environmental party decided that they needed to have their leader in parliament so most of their effort was focused on electing Elizabeth May in her riding of Sanich-Gulf Islands in western B.C. It paid off. The Green party won their very first seat, beating out a long time Tory cabinet minister. Congrats to them :)

I am hearing rumours about a possible Liberal-NDP merger, but I don't know if that's such a good idea. I think the NDP need their chance in parliament as official opposition, to learn the ropes and figure out what they really believe in and how to go about achieving their goals. Also, it is necessary for the Liberals to rebuild and find a new leader for their party.

I really want statistics to be released soon, specifically about demographics. I want to know if there was a higher voter turnout, how much youth voted and who they voted for.

This really is intense. We're going through a political change, we now have some stability and I can't wait to see where we go from here :)

♥ Turtles