Rudeness

Argh. This evening I was supposed to meet up with some friends to check out Montreal's famous jazz festival (tonight is the first night).
I was running comfortably late as usual, but when I went out to find my bike-for-the-summer (I'm borrowing my friend Heather's), I bumped into a rather substantial problem.

Someone had locked their bike through mine, onto the fence. What?! How rude is that?
Long story short, I was more than a little late, missed my friends, and ended up watching the show alone (it was still very good, though). Grr! If I were spiteful, I'd call up some of my more... "ressourceful" friends and get them to cut the bike's lock off. But for now, I left the owner a little note:







(Note: my nice blue bike, trapped by the shitty red bike.)
If it's still blocking my bike when I leave for work tomorrow (at 8 A.M.), I don't know what I'll do!

Barbie Girl

Scene from last night:
My lab partner Dana is on her way out. I'm still at the microscope, doing what I do--and will be there for at least another hour. I ask Dana to pop in a CD of music from my collection before she goes (otherwise the lab gets really quiet and creepy when I'm alone).
Dana: "Which one?"
Me: "Oh, anything that'll keep me awake."
Dana: "Oookay, if you say so."
She then choses my Part Mix #3 CD, compiled by yours truly. It's the worst cheese pop you can imagine. Some of the tracks are, I kid you not, Dragostai Din tei (Numa numa), You spin me Right Round by Dead or Alive, You're so Vain by Carly Simon, Mmm bop by the Hansons, Miles away by the Yeah yeah yeah, and Toxic by Britney Spears. Yes I know it is tasteless and that is why I love it.
So anyway, here I am happily singing along to Aqua's Barbie Girl, when --to my horror-- I hear the lab door open behind me. I turn around to see my stoic lab partner James standing at the door, looking vaguely frightened.
"I--oh god I though I was alone!", I stammer, starting to reach for the music in a mortified panick.
"No... I was in the microscope room..."
He then begins to sing along to Barbie Girl. He knew all of the words.

Up to no good!

Woah woah woah. These past two weeks have been insane!

Work has absolutely taken over my life. It's this really great lab job-- lovely co-workers, really interesting project that's all mine, and I get to chose my hours. The down side? I get to chose my own hours! My family is dangerously workoholic as a rule, but this is just getting ridiculous. I haven't been home before 8 P.M. at all this week, and most times I'm staying until midnight. It's so pathetic!

While all of this is going on, I'm also following my MCAT classes three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. They've told us that they fully expect us to study 40 hours a week. Hmm... yes, I can see there's going to be a problem!

However, I did take the afternoon off yesterday (Happy St. Jean-Batiste day!) to paint my living room. It looks like a war scene at the moment, as we've shuffled around all of the furniture, but here are some pictures:

The war zone! I've chosen to paint only two walls, for "effect". I still have lots of paint left, so if looks terrible, I can always finish the job.

I managed to sucker my friend Jon into helping me paint. Good times!

We also went to Parc Jean-Drapeau last weekend, which is an island near Montreal. Picnics are fun!

Naturally, we froliced in the fountains, entirely unfazed by the fact that we were the only people there over 7.

Oh, and the new tea shop is actually less of a tea shop nowadays as a cool bar/cafe. It's also a hostel. They've combined all of these old apartments and really revamped the rooms. I wish they had more pictures of them; they're really gorgeous. Large couches, brightly coloured window frames...

Pictures

Wow, I have been really bad, haven't I?
Well I've started my job at the lab again in earnest--it's so fascinating, I get my own project. However, I also get to chose my own hours, which in my case (total work-aholic), can be a pretty bad thing.
I've also taking my MCAT (the medical school exam) classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, with plenty of practice problems, reading, and tests in between. I'm really glad I'm taking the classes though; I don't think that I would be able to pass without them.

But hmmyeah. That means we've got a very busy Victoria on our hands. In the past few days I've watched Ten things I hate about you and discovered an awesome new tea shop, but apart from that I've been lying low. After my month of mayhem, it's rather nice to stay in, be alone, and have a schedule. Call me crazy.

I've put up my pictures from Greece here, and the ones from Turkey here.

MCATs

I'm now officially registered for the August 19th, 2006 MCATs.

I will be 20 years old and 5 days.

Guuuuulp!

I'm back baby

Well folks,

Here I am back in Montreal. Just like that. I've got to say it's really strange being back here, like nothing at all happened.
I hadn't landed ten minutes when my cell phone buzzes: it's a woman from my MCAT (the exam I must pass to get into medical school) courses reminding me that my first class is this Saturday; I should bring pencils as we will be subjected to an exam. Huuuh! Talk about snapping back into reality.
This morning I woke up at 4 A.M. in the throes of a panic attack: work, school, apartment, etc. You name it, I worried about it! So, around 6, I gave up, got up, and started reorganizing the kitchen. My new flatmate, Sean, is going to be seriously freaked out when he gets up, I bet!

I feel as though my life's a total mess at the moment; I think it's just the shock of going for the travelling life--no responsibilities-- back to my quasi-adult life in Montreal. I'm half way into cleaning my room now, and as soon as it's a decent hour I will call my landlord. Then, I will stop by my job, and possibly buy paint for my living room on the way.

I kept a journal every day during my month in Greece and Turkey. I was rereading it yesterday, but I think the whole trip is too fresh for me to write about it just yet. I will upload my pictures and then we'll see!