Extended Minor Qualms

Why the frigggggg am I studying French?! I asked myself this over and over as I sat in class not understanding a word, grinding my teeth, shuffling through papers and feeling very small and overwhelmed. Its such a terrible feeling when not only are you behind on all your work... but honestly, you just don't understand it. Not at all. Not even a little bit! And explanations in french only confuse you further. It is a helpless feeling. BUT I have learned bit by bit that it is not completely hopeless. Although right now I want to rip up everything, stop wearing my retainer as I study because it prevents me from grinding my teeth in frustration, be able express myself in my mother language and not fear going to class. All is not lost, I am listening to 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' from the Remember the Titans soundtrack, so if that doesn't help I really don't know where to turn.

I forgot to wear my retainer in Jamaica and its being a little bitch now. It hurts so bad!

Someday soon I will post Jamaica pictures. Here is a little teaser. Also, it honestly just feels like a dream that I had and not a week spent. It went by so fast and here I am back in the land of falling leaves and impending winter and heaps of schoolwork and bulky scarves... I forget that just a few days ago I was doing this:

The only proof I have is photos and slightly bronzed skin.

I have a cute, slightly drugged looking boyfriend to vent to. He listens to alll ma problems and then hugs me.

Okay. Back to studying 'L'opposition et la concession' for my Advanced French Composition class. Killlll meeeee...

What twenty hours of work looks like.

Why hello there!

This was my first assignment for my painting and drawing class and boy was it a doozie. (The next one is a two-pronged self portrait assignment doomed to fail (My self portraits always do. I'd rather write a paper on the emotional roller coaster of never quite achieving the result your looking for in one. No, I wouldn't. That's a lie.)) Here is a little bit of the process. I was working in the back room of Atangard which meant a friggin' sore back and cold hands, with the upside being frequent input from good ol' Len (Hotel Manager), being able to listen to music as loud as I want and staying set up for a good couple days without being in anyones way. The assignment was to divide a 3' by 3' piece of MDF into 9 squares and paint each group in contrasting values (either dark, light, or only black and white). We had to choose a celebrity and I chose Roald Dahl. Next time though, next time I'll do Quentin Blake (who illustrated most of Roald Dahl's books). The photos are rather dark. I'm sorry. It was rather dark back there.

This last photo is from one of the technical assignments we had to do. It is a copy of one of Albrecht Durer's etchings done with ink pen, presented in an interesting way. Voila!

Now I am going to go watch a movie and eat popcorn with Markie Mark and enjoy the fact that I handed this all in ONE WEEK EARLY. Huzzah!

Stick and Poke, Falling Leaves, and Television Graveyards

Life lately:

1. Our room during the twenty minute span of sunlight it gets per day.

2. Where televisions go to die.

3. Blue tights and orange and yellow leaves.

4. Wearing a dress I forgot I owned.

1. Green nail polish which last exactly 16 hours (Don't take baths or wash dished with nail polish on. It'll kill it preeety quickly)

2. Tiffany studying at school with leaves falling behind her.

3. My first project for Painting & Drawing 1 - its taking many, many hours.

4. Tiff before her exam. Hopeful?

1. Beth says 'Imagine you just saw me wearing this as a necklace?'

We both laugh and take pictures, anything to avoid sorting

through piles of clothes in our room.

2. Tessa getting stick n' poked by Lianne at girls night.

(She got a pair of scissors on one of her fingers.)

3. I put my toast in the toaster and that was how it came out!

I call that magic! Or art. Magical toast art.

4. Sophia Suderman goes platinum blond.

FIN.

Love Interruption.

I am interrupting the somewhat steady flow of journal entries from France to share with everyone the picture taken of Mark and I at the Vancouver Aquarium this past Saturday. We were, in fact, celebrating 1 YEAR of hand holding, ear whispering, laughing, learning, letter writing, picking at each other's skin, flying around the country, and being around one another in general. What better way to do that then to stand in awe in front of a huge jelly fish tank together? Or watch a beluga shake it? The frontal part of his melon head, I mean. There is no better way. No better way ever, so don't even try make suggestions, ok? Since Mark got in for nearly free with his WestJet tags, we opted to splurge for the overpriced photo of us taken in the entry. Please note the invisibility of Mark's jacket. Just one of the many reasons why he is just oh-so-datable. His mustache doesn't hurt either.

(click photo to enlarge, and zoom even further to get a close up of the mustache)

More journal entries to come.

France Journal Part II: For the love of tape.

Hello friends,

Here are some more pages out of THE JOURNAL.

I fell in love with creating little pockets in this journal, its so handy, right? The first thing I bought in France was a roll of tape - I remember asking in a store 'Je cherche pour un roll d'adhesif... pour attacher quelquechose de quelquechose d'autre?' No luck. Eventually I located some, and I felt smug each time I found a new use for it, like I didn't know what I would have done without it. In fact, here is an extract from the written part of my journal where I speak of it:

"I love the tape I bought. A little too much. HAPPY. I use it at every possible moment. My journal was torn a little on the bottom - 'Oh, I know, TAPE!' and I felt so relieved afterwards, like I absolutely don't know what I'd do if I couldn't fix it straight away with my scotch tape. Such smug satisfaction. I'll tape YOU up!'

Didn't think someone could have such strong feelings towards tape? Think AGAIN.

This particular pocket holds an abundance of tickets from the trip. You can see them laid out for you below. Mostly they are tickets for the metro, train, or whatnot, but also from museums, cheese factories, etc. On the right, the receipt from my first cup of espresso, drank in the Gare de Lyon train station while waiting for Beth Ashton to arrive. Later I moved outside under the clock, to wait for her, and read. Unfortunately, it really smelled like urine out there though and I was leery to sit on the ground, although I eventually did because my legs were tired and I sit on the pee steps at Atangard all the time. So no biggie. The picture of Beth is from an underground photo machine that we needed for the metro cards we proudly purchased. I will post them later. ANTICIPATION.

(Don't forget that you can click images to make 'em larger & and you can even zoom in after that. Whoa)

Back! Me. I'm back. On ma blog.

Hello Blog-land! I've decided to announce my return to this place, perhaps to make it a little happier of a space to stumble across on the inter-web. I thought, what better way to do this then to remember and share a little bit from my trip to France this past summer? And then we'll take it from there. We will indeed, TAKE IT FROM THERE.

Here is, in no particular order, a spread from my journal that I kept and wrote in and taped in (my favorite) whilst trouncing about the countryside, sleeping on trains, sleeping in parks, sleeping in cafés, playing crib and seeing beautiful sights. Maybe I will sprinkle in a photo or two as well. YAY.

Without any further adieu, the first couple pages for your viewing pleasure.

dang girl. that's tiny. that's what you're thinking. right?

JUST CLICK THAT! just click it.

On the left is a comprehensive list of 'The Things Camille Hates' (written in French, because I'm awesome) you'll notice that I am number three on this list, but that's just how we joke okay? You shouldn't be worried about it. Also, just in case you didn't know, Camille is who we visited in the south. She is a lovely girl, who evidently, would hate to marry royalty.

On the bottom of that same page is the sketchy calender that I created and we relied on heavily for booking trains, catching planes, etc. Wise. On the right page is segments from the map we used the entire time in Paris to navigate the Metro. Beth and I both grew to love this map, and sometimes there would be subtle tensions between us if someone was controlling the map on a particular day (Note: I may have been the only one feeling this tension. Also, I was the one usually holding the map. So maybe I had separation anxiety. I usually skulked my way into holding it again)

Anyways. School is calling, so I'll end it there!

Until next time.