First post of 2014. Feels like it should be something deep, or thoughtful, or aspirational. But I got nothing. I didn't even come up with a list of New Year's Resolutions this time around. Which is okay. It's going to be a phenomenal year regardless of whether or not I scribble down a series of random thoughts now that I probably won't even remember by December. But that's enough cliché ruminating on start-of-the-year stuff.
Twenty-first of January, three weeks in, a little over three months of undergrad left. A lot of things are beyond my control at the moment, a lot of waiting left to do.

The top photo is of my sister's hamster Coco, whom she spent months saving up for, and then purchased on her birthday. Sadly, Coco passed away last week.  

^ Found the best white hot chocolate, guys. aroma expresso bar - check them out! (If anyone has any recommendations for fantastic hot chocolate/expresso/winter drinks, I'm open to suggestions.) Met up with A here - it was the first time I'd seen him in months, so it was great catching up. We also ran into C (who lived across the hall from me in residence during my second year and her fourth year) there, which was a pleasant surprise.
^ Word on the Street, back in September. J and I had gone together the previous three years, but unfortunately we didn't manage to meet up this time around for round four.
Indian food! With M's LMP people.
Sushi! With M & S.
Diner food! With M, S & S.

Normally, I actually like cooking - it's a doubly beneficial activity in that the act itself is de-stressing, and as an output, you get yummy food. But this semester, I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've cooked in the last three and half months. It's pretty sad. Looking forward to heading home for the winter holidays and having some awesome home-cooked meals.

(And now that I'm technically done for the term - today, while procrastinating, I made the following: chili, a lemon meringue pie, ribs, pork chop (just one!), and long beans. Yay!)

When you've gone so far down a path already, that the only way is forward

Maybe a bit of both. First official day of summer, finished my final exam of third year at 10pm last night. Hasn't fully sunk in yet that it's over.

The summer stretches before me like a gaping abyss, waiting to gulp me down whole. I have no idea what tomorrow will bring.  
Got cheese sticks at the Duke with M, C and S last night, the first (and only?) real warm Spring night. Today summer dawned, covering everything in a still blanket of hot air. Alumni Dinner at the Faculty Club tonight, definitely gained some interesting insight and heard some wise words. Strolling along at a leisurely pace with H and L afterwards, we realized that the cherry blossoms were already in bloom and stopped for some photos. Excitement can be contagious.

But reality can also be draining.

There's something about stressful periods that's just oh-so-conducive to food - both in terms of stress-eating, and stress-cooking. So picking up where we left off: on the 19th, I wrote my second exam in the morning. At night, we headed over to A, D, M, M, and J's apartment for a 'One Last Time' party, since they're moving out at the end of the month :( It was great to see everyone and catch up though!

Saturday was super unproductive, consisting basically of procrastinating, watching movies, and dealing with some administrative EC stuff. (There was an alien movie that I watched like a decade ago that I've been trying to find again for years - after watching it, I'm pretty sure it was Alien: Resurrection. Less scary now that I'm actually within the recommended age range, haha.) And then at 6pm I realized, uh oh, needed to get dressed/presentable and get over to Pickle Barrel for our 6:45pm reservation for our team dinner. (I made the reservation, and yes, sometimes I like to pick less common times, okay.) There ended up being 9 of us, and it was a pretty good time. I got the grilled turkey burger + sweet potato fries; it was good! No photo though.
Sunday morning A, M, S & I went for brunch at Rose & Sons, which was a super adorable venue and boasts "comfort food". S and I were feeling lazy so we decided to bus over instead of walking, but that turned into quite the debacle. First, the bus did not show up. (We were also waiting at two separate bus stops.) So we catch the next one, halfway through the trip, S panics and insists we need to get off the bus, we do so, realize we got off too early, I reacted pretty quickly and suggested we just hop back on, S insists we're only like 3 minutes away from the restaurant anyway. We weren't. It was more like 1.5km away (so about 13 minutes). The food (first photo) was definitely worth it though.

Afterwards, the four of us headed to Ezra's Pound, since it was such a sunny day (and we were all putting off studying). (I've also compiled a massive list of cafes I want to try, so it was nice to check another one off.) We left M at the coffee shop, walked A home, and then S and I spent the rest of the afternoon holed up in the library.
Soon, we were struck with hunger pangs and headed back out in search of more food. We ended up settling for Vietnamese food at Anh Dao. The dish I got (some sort of Bún thịt nướng?) reminded me of this one restaurant we used to go to all the time in high school. Haven't had this kind of food in a while now. Then it was back to the library, and L joined us (and the two of us went on a Timmy's run).
Didn't go out for prepared food today, but I did go grocery shopping - and ended up with 2 bags of Doritos and 4 TV dinners. Which is kind of terrible, because I've had adequate self-control up until this point to not buy any chips this entire school year (minus the 3 bags of Crispers, and the time I had to buy chips for an EC event). But I also bought lots of fish, which is supposed to be good brain food. May be wishful thinking that it'll pay off in time for my next exam... Anyway, collaborated with M on dinner; I made lemon herb salmon steaks. They turned out decently.
Also tried making chili in my rice cooker after dinner tonight; this didn't quite turn out looking like conventional chili. It tastes okay though, and for a first time (free-styling, no recipe), can't complain. So yeah, basically my last couple of days have revolved around food in a major way. But I also dragged myself to the gym tonight, so in the end, it all balances out :)

In hindsight, this past semester has been varied, and not what I expected (but then again, it wasn't like I went into this semester expecting anything in particular). Some things worked out better than expected, others didn't work out at all. There were missed opportunities, and unexpected opportunities. Highs and lows. Positives and negatives. At the end of the day, there's only tomorrow. And that should be sufficient reason to remain optimistic.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring...

So I got this great idea to try container gardening (since I won't have access to a real garden this summer, which is kind of a bummer). But hey, balcony gardening is the next best thing? Although the wind levels might be too harsh this high up, so they may need to be kept inside after all. These are Burpee bush Blue Lake 274 beans. They've sprouted okay, but it remains to be seen how they'll fare.
Explored Kensington with D last week. Can you believe I'd never actually been? After being in this city for three years now... Anyway, we also wandered down some side street where they had a bunch of park exercise machine things, which were pretty cool (and of course I felt the need to try most of them - what can I say, still a kid at heart!). We also tried churros for the first time - yummy!

There was also a  lot of varied and cool street art; the undersea fisherman above is just one example of tons of really well done artwork.
^ Dessert with M & L last month. We don't get to see each other as often now that we don't live on the same floor any more, so it was nice to go for dinner (Korean food at Ka Chi) and then dessert and board games afterwards. (That was actually a super insane day - had been at a conference since early in the morning, and then after dinner, grabbed some groceries and ran into C on the way home, so she came over with me. Before she left, A came over too, and along with M, the three of us ended up chatting into the wee hours of morning.
Yeah, basically a bunch of random photos from this semester are all getting conglomerated in this post. So back in February, went to an event hosted by Faze magazine with J, where Penguin had some of their Breathless Reads tour authors signing books. We got to meet Beth Revis, and I got my copy of A Million Suns signed (and I already had a signed copy of Across the Universe), which was cool. She's very warm and super nice! (I look a little sloppy/over-excited in the photo, but oh well.)
All of the colourful sticky notes! Prolonged agony for almost two more weeks, but we're getting there. So. Many. More. Readings. Sadly.

March seems to be a good moth for big news. It's hard to believe that it was this month, a year ago, that Eurotrip 2012 really became a feasible option.

Received some fantastic news today that has left me feeling incredibly happy and kind of validated. While it's not quite the same tier as finding out that I'd be heading to Germany for the summer, it's still really awesome. (And besides, March is still young, there's time yet for more to come!) (Ironically, the 27th has significance in this instance too.)

It's been a weird couple of weeks. A number of people I've been having some difficulty getting a clear read on, myself included. But if today's been any indication, hopefully things will start looking up.

For now though, blissful sleep. After all, tomorrow's going to be another massive day.

A Mediterranean burger I had recently. Haven't properly cooked in ages...

On the one hand, I finish everything school work-wise the first week of December. On the other hand, literally everything is crammed within the next week and it's just too much/not physically possible to get it all done in time/+ all those extra-curricular commitments/just cannot deal.

Too little sleep is also resulting in rapid fluctuations in terms of energy levels, mood, hunger, and just about everything else. Deprived to the point of falling asleep in class, yet I can't seem to sleep at night. Alternately super excited [about lots of things] and questioning everything. Pretty much live at the library these days. At the end of the day, just have to remember that it's all #firstworldproblems.

These choco max brownie bars are basically keeping me going. One more week.

Also - this. (Thought Catalog - Girls Have the Right to Own Themselves)

Also, also - saw Faber Drive perform live last weekend with J - got to touch Faber's hand and snagged Krikit's bass pick. Photos/video to come!

But anyway - this past Sunday (Sept. 23rd) was the annual Word on the Street national book & magazine festival. Went with J, of course - this was our third year going together, so it's become a bit of a tradition now. We started out the packed afternoon at the Giller Prize Stage. The physical layout of the festival was different this year, and we both agreed that it was a little harder to navigate (i.e. booths were more spread out, the main stage was off to the side/end and kind of obscured, instead of central, etc.)
We got to listen to John Ralston Saul speak, which was super cool. He's a very engaging speaker, really witty and slightly sardonic at times, considering the subject matter. Dr. Saul has awesome stage presence - just really exudes intelligence and charisma. An excellent start to the afternoon!
Then we wandered around, picked up some swag, and headed over to hear Adrienne Clarkson, the 26th Governor General of Canada, speak. (How awesome are those metallic silver Oxfords, by the way?) I definitely have a lot of respect for Adrienne Clarkson and her accomplishments, so it was great to have the opportunity to catch her speech. Her wit definitely complements that of her husband. It was also a really engaging and moving speech - almost got teary-eyed at one point!
And immediately afterwards, we ran back over to the Giller tent to catch David Suzuki and Jeff Rubin. The two addresses really played off of each other very well. The place was completely packed, it was pretty insane.
The top image is a linocut printing I did in the tenth grade for art class. David Suzuki! I think the concept we were given was to do the profile of someone we found inspiring. If you haven't tried carving linoleum before, let me tell you - it's not easy material to cut through with precision.
^ He's a very animated speaker. J and I finished the day off with grabbing food and checking out the rest of the booths (couldn't resist buying a couple of books as well. No idea when I'm going to read them though!) All in all, a successful third round of Word on the Street!

Poached Shrimp Cocktail

SOMA Artisanal Ice Cream / Sorbet

Gin & Tonic (with Biff's house tonic)

It's been an absolutely insane last couple of days (well, these past few weeks/this entire year, really). Yesterday was the last day of classes, as well as the day of my third final exam. Two more to go. Crazy to think that second year has flown by so quickly - it feels like Frosh Week was maybe only a month ago. But here we are, back at this time of year again.

Quad Party last night, and we actually made it there this year, whoop whoop! So bittersweet. Song that finished it off was Journey's Don't Stop Believing - the best way to end the night. DJs for the night were Kashtin, @KASELmusic and Cal of Salacious Sound - some pretty epic beats were played.

Life chats with some of the best for a while afterwards, then roomies trial run with M until about 4am. Grabbed a late brunch with Y & her friend, so basically running on very little sleep right now. No time to nap though - dinner + The Hunger Games movie tonight. Pretty excited to see how it turned out, especially since I've been hearing a lot of great things about the film adaptation.

I first read The Hunger Games in April of 2009 (before all the hype and everything). It's a little bit mind-blowing that it's been 3 full years since then. Where did the time go? Why...

"I will break these chains that bind me. Happiness will find me, leave the past behind me. A whole new world is waiting; it's mine for the taking. I know I can make it - today my life begins. "

Two days, ten pages. Oh baby - let's dance.

Edit (Sun., March 25th, 1:00pm): Make that one day, ten pages. fml. Forget waltzing, let's tango.

Crazy to think that it's already February. It feels like January flashed by in a whirlwind of classes (enrolled + audited), meetings, readings and chilling. Which is good and bad - good in that a lot happened, a lot got done - but bad in that a lot of stuff I'd hoped to get done didn't.

Finally made it out to the gym tonight; it wasn't a crazy workout by any means (pretty lax, if anything), but it felt really good to be back and moving.

There's just been a lot to think about, decisions to be made, futures to be contemplated. And not enough time to do all of it in. Wow, this post is pretty much incoherent and pointless, but hey, it's been a number of consecutive long weeks and it's 2:36 in the morning and could really use a rest this weekend - but it'll be go, go, go! Which is probably for the best anyway.

A number of ...interesting incidents happened this week. Today. Tonight. And something odd happened tonight too, and now I'm left feeling apprehensive about tomorrow (i.e. today).

Sleep time for me now though. Night!