News from the chunk of ice

New York, New York

2007-08-06T09:17:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the deathly silence, folks. The truth is, my blog has been going through some growing pains this summer.
The whole purpose of it had been to provide my family with an easy way to see what I was up to when we were scattered all over the world (my parents in Madagascar, my sister in Senegal and Congo, my brother in Saudi). But now that I'm living at home again, and that my sister is back in D.C., I find my self at a bit of a loss of what I should write here (my brother is irrelevant because he never reads this anyway!).
Add to that the fact that my life this summer hasn't been anything to write home about (work, eat, sleep, repeat), and, well, you get a blog that isn't ever updated. I'm sorry.

I did end up going to New York city this weekend, which was wonderfully refreshing. I could really see myself living there at some point in my life. I'll put up some pictures when I get 'em (my camera died, as usual).
Until then, this blog is probably not going to be very exciting until I move out of D.C.. This may happen next year; I have vague plans to move out to South America, but as with everything else in my life at the moment, nothing is set in stone.

Autopsy

2007-07-11T21:53:00.000-04:00

Wow. This may come as no surprise to anyone, but my job has completely monopolized my life. As my mother is fond of saying: T'as plus une vie d'étudiante, hein!, which roughly translated means: "You foolish girl, you're a working woman now. You can't have your cake and eat it too."

Which, naturally, is what I've been trying to do: work during the day, and not necessarily pass out once I come home at night, exhausted. So far I've managed to discover a few nice areas in Washington D.C., but I have to admit that my mother is right; I'm going to have to compromise. I can't do as much as I used to!

I'm going to miss showering!

Just kidding.

Part of the reason I've been so exhausted is because I've been trying to make the most of where I work. I haven't mentioned this before, but I managed to score a summer internship at the National Institutes of Health. Although my job is a standard Lab Bitch position, I've been going early (and leaving late!) trying to absorb every opportunity I can. So far, I've attended a plethora of talks, I've shadowed doctors on rounds, and I've ingratiated myself (or tried to) with the nurses so they'd let me sit through procedures. Recently, I attended an autopsy.

I'm not sure how interesting anyone who isn't medically inclined would find an autopsy description, so I'll gloss over the details. I found that, basically, the entire experience was reminiscent of Body Worlds, just juicier.
The hardest part was before the morticians got started, as there was little way of ignoring the fact that the body laid out before me was a corpse, and not just some extremely graphic learning tool. I was really shocked at how roughly they handled the body, but I suppose that this is their job, after all, and that the corpses don't feel anything. Still...
The man being autopsied was a 48 year old cancer patient. He suffered from multiple myelomas, and it was fascinating to be able to see the lesions first hand, rather than just as a dark blotch on a CT scans.
The mortician did his job very efficiently (apart from when he dropped his glasses in the chest cavity!), but eventually warmed up to me and started explaining what he was doing, and why. He showed me how to remove the spinal cord, how to cut out the intestines, how to check whether or not there are tumors in the lungs (see if they float in water), how to remove the testicles (the hardest part, according to him), and even explained how bodies are embalmed in funeral homes.

It was a very interesting experience, but not necessarily one I'd get up at 5:30 again for!

Don't eat the doughnuts!

2007-06-28T13:15:00.001-04:00

Last week, as my boss John and I were walking past our lunch room, I noticed that lab next to ours must have had a meeting there earlier: delicious doughnut smells wafted out. I peeked in and saw that they'd left several glistening doughnuts. My mouth filled with water.

"Oh wow... they just left doughnuts there..." I murmured, very tempted to pick at the leftovers.

John hears this and stops in his tracks.

"Never eat doughnuts lying around here!" I looked at him with confusion. He went to tell me a (true?) story that happened right here at the NIH.

Apparently a post-doctorate student has worked for years without any recognition. When his supervisor decided to publish his results--without acknowledging him--that was the last straw. The next time his lab had a coffee & doughnuts meeting, he sneaked out and sprinkled the doughnuts with sodium fluoride, a toxic powder which looks very much like sugar. Pretty soon the researchers started suffering from stomach cramps and bouts of vomiting, and where admitted to the hospital.

There wasn't enough evidence to detain the wronged post-doc, but apparently his contract wasn't renewed!

Field trip! Hains Point

2007-06-17T21:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I organized a picnic at this really cool statue called "The Awakening" that I wanted to see before it gets moved (it's been at Hains Point--an peninsula near the monuments which overlooks the Potomac--for 27 years now and has just been sold).

It was your classic good idea, bad idea scenario.
Good idea: organizing a picnic at a wickedly cool statue with friends and coworkers.
Bad idea: realizing that getting there involves an hour and a half walk in the sun. Each way.
Holy sunstroke, batman! I spent the rest of my Saturday night shivering with a migraine, feeling pukey, and cursing my English genes.

The coworkers didn't show (unsurprisingly), but I did end up having a splendid time with friends Emma and Andrew, and Vianney.

Here are a few pictures before I get the rest (most of them were taken with Vianney's camera; I'll add 'em when I get 'em):

On proper concert attire (or: How to be Cool*)

2007-06-13T12:33:00.001-04:00

I explained the Unspoken Rules of Concert Attire to my sister the other day, in anticipation of the Feist concert we will be going to tonight.

Do you also want to maximize your indie cred at the next concert you go to? Here's what you do.

The first rule is to wear a band t-shirt. This boosts your indie cred automatically, because it showcases that:
1) You like music.
2) You like good music (note: the more obscure the band, the better, as demonstrated by the Theory of Hipster Relativity).
3) You like good music enough to support it by buying merchandise--thus providing the artist with revenue, rather than paying off evil music corporations.

However, one thing that you do want to avoid is wearing the artist's t-shirt at their own concert. This is a faux-pas (caveat: if you're wearing a t-shirt which has since been discontinued, you're OK).

If you really want to hit the indie-cool nirvana however, you're going to have to put in a little bit more effort.
The trick is to wear a t-shirt which, to the unknowing observing, appears totally unrelated to the artist in question, but to the knowledgeable indie rock fan, is clearly related.

A good example would be to, say, wear an Alexisonfire t-shirt at a City and Colour concert. There's the link? The front man for City and Colour is also a band member of Alexisonfire.
An even better example would be to wear an Arcade Fire t-shirt to a Final Fantasy concert. Owen Pallet (who is, essentially, Final Fantasy) co-wrote some of the songs on the Arcade Fire album Funeral, and toured with them for a while. By wearing the t-shirt, you're showcasing the fact that you are nerdy enough about your musical tastes to research them: you know who wrote them, who played the songs, who produced them, who toured with whom, and when. Congratulations: you are an indie rock god.

As for me? I will be wearing my Broken Social Scene t-shirt tonight, because Feist contributed to their second album, You Forgot it in People (actually, I'm wearing it because I like it).

*Note: by "How to be Cool", I mean how to be cool in the eyes of a very limited subset of the population. I am by no means suggesting you try these rules in everyday situations. But if you do and they work, please let me know!

Graduation

2007-06-11T09:37:00.000-04:00

Ok, I was going to wait until I got some pictures of the actual event before posting about graduation, but I think it's been long enough already! I'll add photos when (if?) I get them.

Graduation was, surprisingly, really nice.

It rained almost constantly the entire time I was in Montreal, with the exception of May 28th, my graduation. The sun was shinning, the birds were singing, the temperature was just right. All around campus, scores of beaming undergrads were posing in their cap and gowns.

As for me, well, I was nervous!
When I graduated from high school, I forgot to shake our speaker's hand, and instead grabbed my diploma and made a mad dash across the stage. My only thought was to get off the stage as quickly as possible, but I soon realised that I made a faux-pas when I heard the snickers behind me.
So the night before my McGill grad, I tossed and turned. I don't think I got much sleep, but when I did, they were awful nightmares involving DNA gels that wouldn't cast properly (I think we'd already established that I'm a nerd, correct?).

Amazingly, my whole family turned up, on time, at the correct location. Organizing anything with my family is like herding cats, so I really have to hand it to them this time. I donned my gown, my cape, and my cap, and wandered off to join my fellow graduating students. They lined us up according to number (I was #186), according to McGill's long standing tradition of assigning students a number rather than a name. We were told a few encouraging words from the chancellor ("Stay in line! You'll be told where to go!"), and off we went!

The McGill get-up is awful. Our capes were ridiculously impractical, consisting of a hood which strangles you as you wear it, with satin a shade of yellow that looks like the satanic love-child between glow-in-the-dark and snot yellow.

Grad itself was much shorter than anticipated; we marched in to the sound of bag pipes, Daniel Dennett gave us a speech (which was rather dissapointing, actually), and they read off our names at a fair clip (6 seconds a name). We trotted on stage, shook hands with various Important Figures (and, in the case of biology students, got a vigorous hug from our counselor and guru Anne Comeau), threw up our caps and, voila! We were officially overgrads!

Afterwards, we all milled around awkwardly. There was too much confusion to be able to track down friends, but I managed to find a few (and naturally, we posed for pictures). It was really interesting to meet friends' families and think: so that's where they get that from.

In retrospect, I still can't really believe that it happened.

Back in the Distirict

2007-06-06T09:46:00.000-04:00

Augh, I am so sorry I have been neglecting this blog. It's been an action-packed few days!

Because my supervisor granted me some extra time off, I decided to take the bus up to Boston for a few days, then spend a week in Montreal before enduring the grueling 15 hour bus ride back down to D.C.

Surprisingly though, I decided to bus down a day or two two earlier than I had anticipated.

As amazing as Montreal was, I no longer live there. And to be honest, having to drift from couch to couch and eat out all the time weighed down on me. As much as I'd like it to be, Montreal is no longer my home, and I'm going to have to face that fact. It isn't easy.

I still check the weather in Montreal every day (it still sucks). And scan for interesting concerts (of which there are many). And receive news-letters on where the hot spots to swing dance are.

And I certainly still feel far more at home there than I do here. When I walk in the streets of Montreal, people react to me. I can smile at a stranger, and they will smile right back. Or sometimes even start a conversation. I have 'mojo' in Montreal, which is pretty much non existent here. In D.C., people are so engrossed in themselves that they don't even seem to notice people around them. It's easy to feel isolated.

But I've got to start making an effort. I didn't last month, and was miserable. Things are already starting to look up; I'm going to start helping out at this horse farm I used to work at in high school, I've (tentatively) contacted a few acquaintances from high school, and I've even started scanning for interesting concerts here (of which there are few).

Hey, it's a start, right?

Graduation

2007-05-28T07:15:00.000-04:00

Hey, I'm graduating today! I slept horribly last night, so I guess I must be nervous.

It's good to be back in Montreal, and be able to walk to my grocery store. People are so good looking here.

Lab moment

2007-05-18T19:12:00.000-04:00

So I seem to have this habit of having one truly mortifying lab moment in every lab I start working in.

I think this one may take the cake, but I'm going to let you, gentle readers, be the judge of that.

My friend Chris and I have a bit of a bet going on. Each of us claims that the lab we're working in now is messier than the other's. A few days ago, he upped the ante by actually snapping pictures of the mess. Not to be shown up, I naturally grabbed my camera with the intention of proving to him that my lab was, in fact, messier than his lab.

So here I am, surrepticiously snapping photos while my co-worker Jason has stepped out for a few minutes. But I wasn't fast enough-- and he walks in on me taking pictures of the mess! For a second, we both freeze: I look like a 4 year old who's been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and Jason just has this striken look, still clutching the door knob, as though he's contemplating just leaving the lab and pretending this never happened. Then he grins.

Him (with a wicked Australian accent): Ah, so you're taking pictures of the mess, are you?
Me (voice high-pitched with embarassement): Ahahaha! No no of course not! I always take pictures of the labs I work in!
Him: ...Right. 'What a good lab should not look like'.

We had ourselves a good laugh. But since then, I haven't brought my camera to work, and he's started cleaning up.

Here are the pictures.
First, Chris' lab:

I have to admit that he's got a point. It's a total mess.

Now mine:

This is a picture of the fume hood I work in. Everything is meant to be sterile, but as it is, I'm terrifyed of knocking over the precarious tower of nasty looking tubes.

Why so many chairs? There are only two of us in the lab, and Jason has his own office! Maybe it's because the pink chairs are too crusty to actually be used. At this point, Jason walked in before I could take truly incriminating pictures. But note the scary-looking fridge in the back. Good luck finding anything in there!

Cop-out

2007-05-15T18:57:00.000-04:00

Being home is one heck of an adjustment, and how I feel about it seems to shift from day to day. Some days are good, some days are not so good.

Rather than post about it, I'm going to cop-out and post this instead:

It's good to know that someone, out there, has exactly the sense of humour that I do.

On a more positive note...

2007-05-10T22:21:00.000-04:00

After the initial culture shock (people speak loudly here; the pepperoni pizzas look funny; I seem to have skipped Spring entirely), here are a few positive points:

-The weather! I love how warm and humid it is. I guess I ain't notting but a Southern gal.
-Driving. I'd forgotten how nice driving is.
-The lushness. Everywhere I look, it's green.
-The culture. For example, tonight, I just saw the U.S. and British poetry laureats read at the Library of Congress. D.C. can be pretty cool sometimes!

Here's my favourite of the evening:

GOLD
Pale gold of the walls, gold
of the centers of daisies, yellow roses
pressing from a clear bowl. All day
we lay on the bed, my hand
stroking the deep
gold of your thighs and your back.
We slept and woke
entering the golden room together,
lay down in it breathing
quickly, then
slowly again,
caressing and dozing, your hand sleepily
touching my hair now.
We made in those days
tiny identical rooms inside our bodies
which the men who uncover our graves
will find in a thousand years,
shining and whole.

--Donald Hall

Culture Shock

2007-05-06T21:37:00.000-04:00

I left Montreal yesterday at 4:30 yesterday, and arrived in Washington D.C. around 5 today. Granted, we stopped for the night, but man is Canada up North!

Here are a few initial moments of culture shock I've encountered during that period of time:

At the border. I'm driving. The border police man asks us for our passports. We hand them over. He sneeringly tells us that he won't accept passports with covers on them. We remove the covers, and hand him the passports again. Then:
HIM: What's your citizenship, ma'am?
ME (not really thinking, unfortunately): French and American...
HIM (angrily): What is your country of citizenship, ma'am?
ME: Oh! Uh-- I mean, the United States of America. Of course. Haha.

I've never felt less American in my life.

More culture-shock moments to come when my brain is less addled with sleepiness!

Apology

2007-04-27T12:15:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the abscence. It's just that I'm trying to juggle studying for two exams on Monday, and making the most of my last week in Montreal...

Spring, finally

2007-04-20T16:18:00.000-04:00

I hate to be one of those people who blogs about the weather but...
Snowstorm last week, sunburn the next.

My friend and I took his ferret for a "walk" today (it doesn't really know what to do about the harness and just sort of lies there, so I stuffed it into my hood and we both strolled about happily) and I can feel my face burning up already. Ouch!

The atheist's worst nightmare

2007-04-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

Whew! I handed in my massive Evo-devo paper (35 pages about a gene pathway called sonic hedgehog. No, really) on Friday, and had my soul-sucking Abnormal Psychology exam on Monday.
I've been taking the course for a year now (so that's 6 Abnormal exams overall), and I still haven't gotten used to those exams. They are so hard to study for; the professor has a fill in the blank section were anything, anything can be asked for. You aren't safe unless you really know every detail from every lecture slide, and every rant he's ever had. Whew, indeed.
Hopefully, my last 3 exams won't be so stressful!

In the spirit of relaxing, I give you this: a banana. The Atheist's worst nightmare.

If you click the youtube link, the response is also pricless! But by far the best comment I've ever seen regarding this video was my friend Chase's:

Chase Moser
Converted

9:44pm April 13th

I watched your banana video and I am not writing my evo-devo paper because of it.
Evolution is dead to me.

thanks

Argh!

2007-04-15T21:09:00.000-04:00

Final exam in exactly 12 hours + 20 cm of snow predicted for tomorrow morning (currently falling) = Argh! Aaaaaargh!

Snow

2007-04-12T18:05:00.000-04:00

It's snowing again today. And not sissy little flakes either--this is some serious snowfall we're talking about here. I should really be studying right now, but here some quick snapshots.

Some action shots of when it first started falling...

More shots of the falling snow. The flakes are actually thick enough to be captured on camera!

It's really starting to pile up.

I'm not a fan.

C'est fini

2007-04-11T12:50:00.000-04:00

So I just had my last class as an undergraduate student (it was Abnormal Psychology).

As the Québecois say: ...ben là...

En Avril, ne te decouvre pas d'un fil.

2007-04-05T00:52:00.000-04:00

Holy snowstorms, batman! I knew it was a mistake to put away my snow boots. Canada, you wily knave!

In other news, today was the last class of Evo-devo. Disreagarding the inherent weirdness of it being one of my last classes in university, it was arguably one of the best I've had at McGill.
The way it's structured, one student presents a topic for roughly one and a half hours, and the entire class then discusses it for the next hour and a half.

This time, after Marie-Julie wrapped up her (excellent) presentation, she suggested we head over to Thomson House (the graduate club) after class for a beer. Our teachers, Hans and Ehab, started whispering to each other. Then, Hans proposed: "Well, we don't we pre-emptively move the discussion to Thomson House?".
All twenty of us packed our books in the blink of an eye and set off through the snow.

There, to a soundtrack of the Eagles, we pushed tables together, bought pitchers, and discussed gene regulatory networks.
And wouldn't you know it? It was one of the best discussions we've had all year! We actually managed to stay on topic (mostly), and it extended far longer than usual.

Among the great quotes of the afternoon were:
Hans (who was knocking them back): "The whole genome is on fire!"
(later) Hans: "Damn, you're pleiotropic!"
(Context: he said he was hoping we'd remember and use the concepts we'd acquired in Evo-Devo.)
Lastly, we decided as a class to fund further research on Cnidarians in Hawaii. Our rally cry will be: "Screw the whales! Save the jellies!"

...Okay, so maybe you had to be there to find it funny. Or maybe you have to be incredibly nerdy. Probably both!

Il fait beau dans l'métro!, the sequel

2007-04-04T00:42:00.000-04:00

You know... it's been months, and I still get this song stuck in my head every time I take the metro.

I can never win

2007-03-26T23:58:00.000-04:00

So I did a massive spring-cleaning over-haul of the apartment tonight. You name it, I cleaned it: I swept the floors, then mopped them for good measure, bleached the counter tops, scrubbed the sink and wiped the dust off of the cabinets.
Et caetera.

And here I was, feeling quite satisfied with my ability to pretend that I'm a functioning human being, until I open the fridge door. Oops! I forgot to go grocery shopping. I've had to resort to a dinner which has consisted of crackers, cheese, and frozen fruits. Can I never win?

St. Patrick's Day Manhunt

2007-03-18T22:08:00.001-04:00

Oi! So sorry about the delay, I've been a bit lazy/busy lately.
I hope you all had a lovely St. Patrick's day-- mine consisted of a delightfully wholesome evening of fondue and euchre with friends. I couldn't have asked for better.

On Sunday however, things got a little bit more interesting. My friend Heather and I headed down town, among the throngs of people who had amassed there to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade. Although we did stick around to watch it, Heather and I had something entirely different to attend: a manhunt.

Now what is a manhunt, you ask? It's a bit like an urban game of hide and seek, mixed with a dash of tag. Basically, a group of twenty or so individuals meet up at a rendez-vous point. There, the organizers hand out highly visible arm bands, which all of the players are required to wear. The rules are explained and the boundaries delineated (roughly 3x3 blocks). Then, one hunter is designated. His (or her!) role is to stalk the other players and tag them. If you get tagged, you become a hunter as well. But here's the twist: there's no way of distinguishing hunters from huntees!

Let me tell you, this is one tense game. Here I am, prowling through parking lots, sliding down snow drifts, scoping out the drunken revelers suspiciously, when my heart tries to beat out of my chest: in front of me, blocking my way down an alley, is another arm-band wearing player. We eye each other warily as we cross each other. I try to bluff, adding a little swagger to my step, hoping to pass off as a hunter. But no dice; the man starts sprinting, and I'm not fast enough to outrun him.

I can't wait until the next game! I will definetly be practicing my stealth skills in anticipation. Hey, I'm a 007, right?

Yes, endotrophectoderm is a real word.

2007-03-10T15:29:00.000-05:00

I'm having major angst about graduating.

I find myself waking up in the middle of the night, covered in a cold sweat, screaming No! No, I'm too young to graduate!

After three years, my undergraduate career is coming to an end. While it seems unfair and premature to finish after only three years, I also feel as though it's impossible to deny that the show's over. We are all packing up, looking forward to bright and exciting futures, too distracted and troubled to be able to focus on anything concrete like, say, school work.

So. I am going to pretend that I've matured and learned important Life Lessons during my time in Montreal, that I am now a B.Sc. graduate and not completely worthless. I will put my framed diploma on my wall and gaze at it as I try to remember what, exactly, an endotrophectoderm is. I will convince myself that without the vibrant city life-style, without the snails and the fabulous hairdresser, without the witty, intellectual and inspirational friends, I am still Victoria.

How much of your personality is dependent on your surroundings? Will moving back to D.C. induce a regression-- will I mysteriously sprout braces and develop an awkward, adolescent gait?

R.I.P., gentle backpack.

2007-03-08T20:22:00.000-05:00

My darling backpack: you broke on me last Friday, at approximately 5:30 P.M. It is with great sadness that, after a week's worth of struggle, I've finally decided to let you move on to that great backpack place in the sky.

We've had some great times together, you and I. I purchased you back in the 8th grade, and, although you came with a lifetime guarantee, I'm surprised you've lasted this long. You've been a near-constant companion through-out my formative high-school years, and very nearly made it until the end of my university years as well.

You've endured my mistreatment like nothing else could have-- tolerating my knack for over-stuffing you with little more than a groan, allowing yourself to be soiled, kicked around, and generally ill-respected, even eventually substituting as a make-shift pencil case, as I got sick of continually losing mine-- and for that, I am grateful.

You've also been my invaluable travel companion on many, many memorable trips. Light enough to pack within my larger backpack, yet sturdy enough to hold up against the elements, you've always been by my side as I discovered the wonders of Puerto Rico, France, Spain, Madagascar, and Poland, just to name a few.

It may seem callous that I've replaced you so soon, backpack, but please try to understand where I'm coming from. I tried to hang on to the dream, really, I did. But it soon became obvious that pinning you up with safety pins just wasn't going to work out. For either of us: you just looked ridiculous, and had a tendency to pop open at the worst of times (i.e. when I was running to catch the bus), and I just got tired of pricking my fingers and wasting so much time fastening you open and shut. I'm sorry. But know this: just because I've replaced you doesn't mean that I like it. I don't like this new backpack of mine, full of snazzy compartments and clips.Go safely with the knowledge that it won't ever hold the tender place in my heart that I've reserved for you.

Photo caption: my backpack (left) meets true love on Walden Pond, MA. April 2002.

March Madness

2007-03-03T11:56:00.000-05:00

So much to do! So little time!

I have roughly two months left in Montreal. This has thrown me into on hell of a funk, let me tell you. What to do? Who to see? Should I focus on school work? Or disregard it entirely? I'm like a spinning top, trying to make every moment precious. I'm so heartbroken and frightened, yet try to put on a brave face. Everyone else seems to be ok-- I should be ok too.

Just as the ice was melting, Montreal was pelted with snow, snow, and more snow! It's beautiful-- my friends and I dive recklessly into the snow drifts and leave snow angels. We're soggy for the rest of the day, but it's worth it.

Tonight is la Nuit Blanche-- an all night winter festival in Montreal. All of the museums are open and free all night, the Old Port turns into a general party, and free breakfast is distrubted at 4:30. It's going to be brilliant.

Scary Mary Poppins

2007-02-23T13:55:00.000-05:00

This has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. Youtube has sucked away so much of my productivity this week!

A Softer World

2007-02-22T10:56:00.000-05:00

I'm addicted to A Softer World.

(Click on the picture for a legible version.)

Reading Week

2007-02-22T09:59:00.000-05:00

Canadians are too cool for Spring Break: they get reading week instead (I think it's because it'd be preposterous to call mid-February Spring).
Most people take this week off as a great opportunity to follow the birds and fly South. I had rough plans to go to Quebec City, New Orleans, or Washington D.C., yet here I am, still in Montreal.

It's a bit of a ghost-town right now. I love it when the city gets empty-- strange friendships form, as people look for ways to fare off loneliness. We act as surrogate-roommates for each other: spontaneously showing up at each other's doors, clutching a salad, or a batch of cookies, asking only for an evening of company.

It's been relaxing.
Good times have included:
-Snowboarding in the best conditions I've ever seen-- 80 cm's worth of fresh, fresh snow;
-Sharing a box of "Victoria sushi", watching BBC's great Blue Planet series, and imagining what the animals would say if they could talk;
-Attempting to go the Apples in Stereo show, only to find it cancelled due to illness (a.k.a. those silly New Yorkers couldn't face the cold), and retreating back home to bake midnight chocolate-chip cookies;
-Discovering oodles of new places, new music, new study-nooks;
-Race-sliding down Mount Royal, muffled in a thick snowfall...

Happy Valentine's day!

2007-02-14T09:12:00.000-05:00

Or, if you prefer, happy Singles Awareness Day!
My week is comepletly hectic, so I don't have any plans tonight but studying Intergroup Relations.
But thanks to the internet, I can still spread some Valentine love.

Have a nice day, everyone. Here in Montreal, we've been told to expect a snow storm, which is great news because it means that's it's finally warm enough to snow!

Evo-Devo

2007-02-08T08:45:00.000-05:00

Last night, I had a four hour discussion about Modularity, Complextiy, and Evolvability. Why on Earth would anyone go through with this, you ask?

I was preparing my 40% presentation for my Evo-Devo class next week.

Yes ladies and gentlemen, Evo-devo, also known as Developmental Evolution. It is so cool. Basically a spattering of senior undergrads and graduate student meet weekly to read defining papers and discuss the hot topics of the field.

The class is taught by two of my favorite profs, one of whom is featured in this video:

(He used to have long hair, but he shaved it off for our cancer fund raiser)
Hans Larsson: he really does giggle when he gets excited about paleontology.

As enthousiastic as I am about entering medicine, there is something about working in labs/attending seminars that I just thrive on. I love the feeling of being on the cutting edge, of discussing new results and having to interpret them with my peers.

Dear Canada

2007-02-08T08:41:00.000-05:00

Dear Canada,

I'm sorry when I told you that it needed to be colder back in November. You have to know that I didn't mean it.
No really, please don't be like this. I'm sorry if my words hurt you.
It's been between -20 and -40 for weeks now. You've made your point! You win, Canada!

xoxo,
Victoria

January: the recap

2007-02-02T20:01:00.000-05:00

I generally try to avoid posting personal things here, but...

So January's been a bit of a rough month for me. It seems that whether it's been in personal, professional, or academic matters, my ego's taken a bit of a beating.

But whenever I start to feel down on myself, I just look at this picture and giggle:

Nope, I'm not quite there yet. Not even close, actually.
My new month's resultion? February will be better, so help me!

Some music

2007-01-26T12:02:00.000-05:00

In case you were curious, here are some songs I've been listening to alot recently. Thank you, youtube!

The lovely Regina Spektor's Samson:

And Matt Weddle's excellent cover of Outkast's Hey Ya. My friend played this for me satirically once, to hillarious results. If you've heard the original, you may be surprised at how different the two versions sound!

It's -21º today.

2007-01-26T09:26:00.000-05:00

But with the wind chill, it feels like -32º. My first reaction was: I can't wait until I get to go tobogganing tomorrow!

Does this mean that I'm becoming Canadian?

Inner-tube water polo

2007-01-22T20:08:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday, after class, my friend Chase informed me:

"Oh, yeah, I should warn you that you're on my inner-tube water polo team. We have a game this Sunday. 5:30. At the gym. I'll see you there!"

Now, this tibit of information surprised me, for a few reasons:
1) I hadn't signed up to be on Chase's inner-tube water polo team.
2) I hadn't signed up to be on any inner-tube water polo team.
3) I'd never played inner-tube water polo in my life.

For those of you who can't picture it, it looks a-little something like this:

It's pretty much the least dignified sport in the world. I love it.

So on Sunday I found myself a member of the best inner-tube water polo team ever: The Watermonkeys.
The premise of the game is simple; it's basically water polo, with inner-tubes added. You're only allowed to flip a player if he/she is in possession of the ball.
Chase, who is a rather hefty guy, is basically unflippable. If he ever got hold of the ball, he'd basically barrel through the other team's defenses and score. It was beautiful.

It was also great meeting my team members--mostly dentistry students-- and discovering that not all medical students are driven to the point of being creepy. What a relief!

How do satellites orbit?

2007-01-18T16:53:00.000-05:00

Bwah, I'm a bit of a panicked mess this week. Tomorrow in a big day for me-- sort of one of those "define your future" moments, if you will. I have medical school interview, and I'm going to have to trick my interviewers into believing that I am a compassionate, articulate, competent doctor-want-to-be. Ha!

In lieu of a real post, I'll give you this: how satellites orbit.

Do you know?

The are two factors to keeping satellites in the air: gravitational force, and momentum.
So: if you drop an object, it'll fall. That's gravitational force for you.
But if you apply a bit of force before you let go? It'll fall in an arc. That's momentum.
Basically, when we send satellites in orbit, we're applying a ton of force, which makes them fall in an arc. But here's the kicker: we're applying enough force for satellites to fall along the arc of the Earth. So in essence, satellites are continuously falling! They're just moving forward as quickly as they're falling towards the Earth, which allows them to orbit.
Voila! Questions?

A word of clarification

2007-01-12T18:27:00.000-05:00

Ok, I think it's about time I clear something up.
I can understand why there's been confusion--I mean, I blog about bridal showers and wedding planning all the time--but I am not, in fact, getting married.

A word of explanation. I got a mildly panicked phone call from my sister today, asking whether or not I had plans to get married in the immediate future and hadn't told her. Apparantly, someone posted the following comment on her blog:

"Your sister will only have ONE bachelorette party and bridal shower in (hopefully) all her life. You may want to refocus your priorities ESPECIALLY considering you've MONTHS of notice as to the date. Your sister adores you and raves about you all the time. You need to be there for her."

Sorry, anon! Although it's true that I rant and rave about my sister, I can't say that I was planning on getting married anytime soon.

Victoria: still on the market. Get 'em while supplies last!

Canadia-ho!

2007-01-08T17:00:00.000-05:00

So I'm back in Montreal.
And sick. Lovely. This means I have to get up at "crack-of-dawn" 8 A.M. to wait in front of the drop-in clinic before it opens (this is the only way it's actually feasible to see a doctor).
It's been so long since I've actually been sick that I'm a bit confused. I don't have any real symptoms, either, apart from a general sense of malaise, feverish feelings, extreme fatigue, and forgetfulness. Hopefully it's just general burn-out and I will feel better soon.

In other news, I have a job interview coming up in a week (eep!). It should be fun though; they're expecting me to give a 10 minute "how-to" presentation. Past presentations have included "how to interpret the label on a bottle of red wine", "how to find an apartment", and "how parachutes work". It needs to be non-academic, and non physical (such as "how to knit").
I was thinking about "How to ace a job interview in 10 minutes or less", but I think that may be a bit too cheeky.
Any suggestions?

Christmas break: recap

2007-01-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

This break was exactly what I needed: although it was just 9 days, it feels as though it was much longer.
I was able to sleep to my little heart's content, eat like a pig, spend a bit of time with my family and last but not least, reconnect with my home town.
Coming back, after three years, felt like coming home. I realize now how much I've missed it. So: without further ado, Washigton D.C....

First my friend and I hit the Eastern market. We roamed the food stalls, gulped down hot cider, romanced the scary mannequins, and admired the crafts.

Then we picked through the books in the fullest bookstore I've ever seen.

This man was perturbed because I wanted to take a picture of him. But look! He's looking for books! In a bathroom! It's priceless!
I also love that the bathroom is the foreign novels section.

Next: the Phillips Gallery. I was so ashamed that I was raised in D.C. and had never been.

Pretending to be tourists.

Eventually, we made it to the National Gallery of Art...

Now it's back to work; classes start up again tomorrow! I'm excited to be leaving one home to return to another.

Read a book

2006-12-29T20:30:00.000-05:00

I rarely watch movies at home. This is great, because it means I read many books instead. Yesterday, however, I realized why it is that I never watch movies at home. As I described it in an email to a friend...

A scene:
[VICTORIA sees The Constant Gardener is playing on TV, and sits down to watch.]
[FATHER barrels through living room to get to garage, leaving both doors open. Cold air gusts in and opera music can be heard, distinctly, from another room. VICTORIA gets up and closes both doors.]
[BROTHER comes in with laptop and starts playing video game.]
VIC: Will, I'm watching a movie. Can't you put headphones on?
BRO: I don't have any. Can you get me yours?
[VICTORIA stubbornly refuses and tries to listen despite video game noises. MOTHER enters and sets up a table directly in front of the TV.]
MOM: Je te derange, la?
VIC(Fully aware that saying yes would result in helping my mother prepare for a cocktail party later that afternoon): Noooon, pas du tout. Je t'en prie, continue.
[MOTHER looks at the TV and sits down]
MOM: Hein? Qu'est ce qui se passe? C'est qui, elle?
VIC: C'est la femme de l'homme.
MOM: Pourquoi elle fait ca?
[VICTORIA tries to explain an hour's worth of the movie to MOTHER, and fails]
[FATHER barrels through the living room again. VICTORIA gets up to close the doors.]
[Phone rings. And rings. And rings. VICTORIA gets up to answer the telemarketer.]
[VICTORIA sits back down, realizes she has no idea what's going on anymore]
[FATHER barrels through, notices the Constant Gardener is playing]
DAD: Oh! This is a great movie. Has (reveals major plotline) happened yet?
[VICTORIA exit]

Missing Montreal

2006-12-25T19:22:00.000-05:00

A friend of a friend just asked me where a good place to spend New Year's in Montreal would be. Here was my answer:

-Gogo lounge on St. Laurent and Prince-Arthur(ish) is a very trendy lounge. It's got a 21-age limit, so I've never actually been inside (Why the age limit? I couldn't tell you...), but it seems like a very good time, and something a bit different for New Year's.

-Pistol, on St. Laurent and Roy(ish) is another trendy bar. It's James Bond themed, so naturally one of my favorites. It's also quite flashy.
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2004/120904/resto.html

-St Sulpice, on St Denis below Sherbrooke, is a McGill student classic hangout. It's got an amazing terrace, but it's (hopefully) far too cold to be in use. Three floors of fun!
http://english.montrealplus.ca/portal/profile.do?profileID=476249

Most places in that area-- between Roy and Sherbrooke, on St. Laurent, are going to be pretty fun and rowdy, I bet. If you're looking for a quieter, older crowd, with a smokey bar and good beer atmosphere (minus the smoke, thanks the Montreal's smoking ban), I suggest heading uptown, to Mile End (where I live!)

-Bily Kun is a bar beloved by Montreal's hipsters. It's on Mont-Royal, between St. Denis and St. Laurent.
http://www.bilykun.com/
It's a good time-- good beer and good atmosphere (ostrich heads mounted on the walls of a narrow, intimate space). It's always full though, but I guess on Dec. 31st everywhere is going to be full.

-Dieu du Ciel, on Clarke and Laurier, has been my Favorite Bar from the moment I discovered it two years ago.
http://www.dieuduciel.com/
It's a micro-brewery, which is to say that they brew their own delicious beer. They also have killer nachos and great cider. It's got nice copper-topped tables, awesome music (but never too loud), and dimmed lights for your convenience. It used to be very smokey, and I still imagine it as so, but once again the non-smoking ban changed that. A word of caution-- this place is always, always full, so unless you plan on being lucky, I suggest you show up early.

-Casa del Popolo is another hipster joint. It's a great place for concerts, and perhaps they'll have something special going on for New Years. I haven't been keeping up to date.
http://www.casadelpopolo.com/
It's on St. Laurent near Villeneuve.

...so those are a few of my favorite bars. They're quite low-key; if you're interested in places you can dance, there are lots of clubs on St. Laurent (Cafe Campus, Saphir, etc.), or even the Green Room, on St. Laurent and St. Viateur, is a nice mix between dance floor and bar.

Personally? I would chose to spend New Years at Foufounes (http://www.foufounes.qc.ca/)-- a punkish dance club. You're basically guaranteed a good mosh and a good time. It's been a while since I really let loose!

Happy New Year!

Holiday Spirit

2006-12-24T17:33:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!

I'd think of something better, but exams are over and I'm relaxing at home. I can only hope you're having as relaxing a time as I am (which is to say: not all that relaxing-- have you met my family?).

:)

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

In case you're having trouble embracing that good ol' Christmas spirit (yes, yes, I know, I'm not being politically correct), here's a little link that should help.

My particular favorite is this one.

Ho ho ho!

Il fait beau dans l'métro!

2006-12-10T21:25:00.000-05:00

Oh, but how things have changed in Montreal since the 1970s!

Ice storms and fondue

2006-12-06T09:03:00.000-05:00

Well, exam month (December) has started.
The month began well, for what it's worth. My friends hosted an amazing formal Christmas dinner party/pot-luck...

(This picture was taken by my friend Owen)
Don't we just look so handsome?

It was a typical evening: great food (my friend even made a Turkey!), lots of wine (collectively pooled), and lots and lots of guitar playing. The night rapidly detiorated into the lot of us sitting around in formal-wear singing along to old songs.

Then, the weather finally became winter-like (it's been an uncomfortably warm November), and we had a mini ice storm on our hands (these pictures were all taken by Heather):

(Mile-End still has power, but Outremont doesn't. Montreal has some strange power grids...)

Heather picked me that last flower. Isn't it cool?
It's been snowing big fluffly flakes since then-- peeeerfect study weather.

Finally, as a last pre-finals hurrah, I hosted a fondue party at my house. There was: a beer and peppered cheddar fondue, a white wine and emmenthal fondue, and, naturally, a chocolate fondue.

And 007inAfrica: just to prove how much the lamp you gave me for my birthday is appreciated...

:D

Now, in all likelyhood, I won't re-surface until exams are over (December 21st).

Thanksgiving recap

2006-12-06T08:50:00.000-05:00

I know that this is belated, but Thanksgiving was amazing.
There's something lovely (or horrible, depending on your mood, I suppose) about taking the bus. I managed to get a fair amount of work done, but the 8 hour bus ride to Massachusetts did allow me to stare at the road meditatively and, spend some time completly alone, and just think.
Montreal can be exhausting. By the time I left for Thanksgiving, I was suffering from some pretty bad insomnia. There's just too many distractors and stressors... Living in a city may be great, but leaving the city is great too.
Thanksgiving itself was amazing. What a wonderful feeling, to be in a suburban home (something I can't really say I've done in years), surrounded by family, good food, and cheer. I slept like the dead the whole weekend (8 hours a night!), and stocked up on eating. Well, it is winter. A girl's got to get her blubbler somewhere...
I love family. That's certainly what I was thankful for, this year...

Nevertheless, I was ecstatic to return to Montreal. Everytime I come back, I am reminded of the first time I arrived in this city. I was so frightened; the city landscape looked nothing like anything I was used to... Now I delight at the sky scrapers, the old Five Roses Farine factory, the light-up cross on Mount Royal. I love the delapitaded-looking streets of the Plateau, the seediness of Ste. Catherine, the various bridges linking the island to the mainland... Upone my return, I told a friend of mine:
"I don't think anything could spoil my good mood."

Unfortunately, I was wrong. I learned soon after that my darling cocker spaniel, Amadeus, passed away. I had expected to see him back in Washington D.C. over Christmas, but he wasn't able to make it...

Strangers

2006-11-25T09:20:00.000-05:00

It's funny how much easier it is to meet strangers when you're traveling.
In a foreign culture, you're so lost that you' ll connect with anything vaguely familiar--such as another English-speaker. Back home though, it's easy to settle down into a daily pattern. Things stop being new and exciting, you have neither need nor will to share your enthusiasm with your neighbor.

Recently, however, I've been meeting a lot of strange people. It all started last Monday, with Sherry.
Here I was, studying in a coffee shop, like the good student I am. I wasn't what you'd call particularly abordable: totting headphones, I had papers spread all over my table and was frowning down at them with an air of mild disgust. All of a sudden, a whirl of activity and colour bursts into the coffee shop and speeds straight towards me.
Confused, I look up to see a woman wrapped in countless layers of coats and scarfs, clutching an enormous gold bag with sequins and ribbons sewn on haphazardly. Despite the pouring rain, her hair looked windblown, and she peered down at me through green and orange peace-sign-shaped hologram glasses.
"Can I sit here?" She asked.
"...Uh... sure..." I replied, unsure of what else to do. But she had already settled herself comfortably by the time I replied.
Fascinated, I shuffled some papers out of the way and glanced surreptitiously in her direction. She sighed, popped her red coat open (revealing more layers beneath), and glanced outside. Colourful pins were stuck all about her: On her bag, on her coats... Beneath her toque and hair, she was wearing old battered headphones.
"Oh, you're looking at the pins." She said.
"Er, yes, they're very pretty."
"You like them? I made them. I'm an artiste." She deftly unbuttoned one and handed it to me. It consisted of swirls of colourful paint mixed with sparkles. As I was admiring it, she leaned forward and whispered:
"Ten dollars." I looked horrified, and put the pin down onto the table.
"Well, it's pretty, but I really don't think I can justify..."
"Ok five dollars, then." I smiled, embarrassed, and shook my head. She sighed.
"I'm sorry, it's just ...difficult, you know, being a student..."
"Yeah, well it's difficult to be an artist too," she quipped. She turned back to the window.
"I'm waiting for someone," she explained, "that's why I'm here."
I nodded, vainly attempting to read my papers. Time passed. She started to fidget. Finally giving up on my papers, I set them aside and asked her what she was listening to.
She proceeded to cheerfully explain that she was a musician (a woman of many talents!), pulled out a handful of CDs and two battered harmonicas. Then, she ripped her headphones off and snapped them over my own.
"This is my newer stuff," she told me. It consisted of vague guitar strumming and lyrical poetry about war.
"Ah." I said.
"Here," she was rooting around her CDs now, "this stuff, now this stuff is more vintage."
She began to explain to me how she played music with her brother and was waiting for someone to come talk to her about a show. At that very moment, a black sports cars screeched to a halt right outside the coffee shop. Her head snapped up.
"Oh! I have to go!" Quickly, she packed up her scarves, pins, harmonicas, wrapped her coats around her, grabbed her headphones and ran out of the store. I stared, transfixed, as she ran up to the car and knocked on a window. A door opened, and she hurried inside. Then, she turned to me and started waving energetically as the car sped away.

It honestly took me a good ten minutes to recover from that five minutes of conversation.
I must have changed somehow, because since then, three total strangers have asked to sit at my table in coffee shops. None, unfortunately, were nearly as entertaining as Sherry.

Thanksgiving

2006-11-22T22:57:00.000-05:00

Lucky me-- I get two Thanksgivings this year!
I am celebrating American Thanksgiving in Massachussets this year, which requires me to get up at 6 A.M. tomorrow to catch a bus. So obviously I'm updating my blog at 11 P.M. rather than, say, pack.

I'm pretty excited. I'm looking forward to seeing my (distant) family again, sharing stories and good food, and catching up on some much-needed sleep. Hopefully I will be a little less distracted, too. These days, I feel as though I'm suffering from Attention Deffecit Hyperactivity Disorder!

I've had some pretty funny things happen recently, so hopefully I will be have time to post from the States.

For you Americans out there, happy Thanksgiving!

Internet, meet Brenda

2006-11-14T16:48:00.000-05:00

It's been a bit of a rough day (week), so today after my shift at the hospital, all I wanted to do was sit on my couch and play with my giant African snails, Brenda.

Then I realized-- why I've never introduced them to you! What a goof.
So here goes: Internet, meet my giant African snails, Brenda.

Aren't they darling? I started off with 5, but many of my friends have requested one, so now only one of them is technically mine.

Since they were a bit hard to tell apart at first, I named them all Brenda. Now though, I've renamed the largest one Henry Kissinger, the second largest Leonid Brezhnev, the darkest one Percy, and the remaining one stays as Brenda (my friends Robin and Owen adopted the 5th and renamed it a very politically incorrect Charles Taylor).

I've already posted about these kinds of snail before. Well, I loved them so much that I decided to adopt some of my very own!

These snails are illegal in the United States because they'll eat any vegetation in large quantities. Additionaly, they're hermaphrodites and are able to lay thousands of eggs each. Yikes! Talk about an invasive species.

I love them though. They've settled very nicely in my apartment and really add to the decor, I think.

They're pretty much the best pet ever. The can survive weeks without being fed or watered, and obviously don't make much noise. They also give great massages:

Who wouldn't want a giant African snail as a pet?

Some things

2006-11-11T10:18:00.000-05:00

Woah! It's been a while. Mea culpa.

This year's been a whirl of activity (as usual, I suppose). Mostly, I've come to the realization that this is most likely my last year in Montreal. This means, naturally, that I must finally do all those things I've been meaning to do-- check out that activity night on Monday nights, visit the biodome, try out that restaurant I've been eyeing for the past two years.
It's great, only now I am falling even more in love with this city, and the thought of April makes my stomach tie into knots.

Right now, midterm season is wrapping up. What's really been keeping me occupied though are the medical school applications. Essay upon essay describing why I should be accepted, why I would make a good physician, and why I'm ever-so-wonderful. If it wasn't for my sister's constant nagging and inestimable editing help, I would have given up a long time ago. So, thank you 007!

I quit my lab job, which left me floundering for a while-- adjusting to 20 extra hours each week was hard. As of last year, I didn't have any hobbies, books to read, people to call just to kill time. There was simply no time... But now I'm grateful for the extra time to relax. I also volunteer at a local hospital, and have started being trained as a tutor for illeteracy. It's amazing!

I'm trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing with my life in the near future. Right now, the rough plan is to go to Guatemala a month this summer to work in a hospital there and learn spanish (my friends did this last year). Then, Heather and I are trying to figure out where to go travelling-- but seeing as how I no longer have a job, I'm having trouble seeing how that's going to happen. I was also offered a potential job at KAPLAN (the place where I took MCAT classes), so I could always re-live the horror there... but this time, get paid really well to do so. Hmmm.

As for next year... if I get rejected everywhere, I figure I can always bartend in Barcelona. It's an option, right?

You will blog about this

2006-10-18T22:20:00.000-04:00

The title of this post refers to this shirt.

Hahaha, so appearantly my computer had a virus which corrupted 4,088 files.

I honestly just burst out laughing. The technician gave me a sheepish grin and mentioned it was one of the more infected computers he'd seen. In any case, it's clean now, and all of my crucial documents (i.e. my pictures and music) are A-OK. I also always keep my resume and cover letters backed up on a USB key, thank goodness.

However, now my computer has a new problem. The battery, which was fine when I handed in the computer on Thrusday, is now kaput. It's been "charging" for hours now, but remains at a dismal 0%. I have no way of proving that it was fine before I left it at the shop but... it... was. So yeah. I hope they will believe me, and that all of this will get worked out. Somehow I doubt that though.

On a completly unrelated note, I was speaking to my buddy Carlo the other day...
Carlo: You know, I knew you in first year. We were in the same BIOL 200 conference.
Me: Where we really? I don't remember that...
Carlo: Yep. Only I didn't speak to you because I didn't like you very much. You were just so stressed out!

Haha! I'm a bit embarassed that he remembers me from back then actually; I was fresh off of the high school boat and generally flipping out about University. I had no idea how much work was required of me, and naturally went way over board.

It's funny to think how much I've mellowed out over the two and a half years I've been at McGill. Now I'm getting ready for graduation (gotta take those pictures), and don't recognize any of the freshmen on campus. Ah la la, c'est la vie...

Senioritis

2006-10-16T18:45:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't noticed, I am currently suffering from a mean case of senioritis.

I have been working for a long time now, and to be honest, I don't feel like doing much of anything at the moment. I recently had a crunch time consisting of medical school applications, research proposals, work, and school, all at the same time. Now things have settled down a bit; I finished my project and no longer have the lab job (!!), applications are done (for the moment), school is, well, school. I'm finding that now I've undergone the horror that was the MCATs, I just can't bring myself to stress out about school that much anymore... Which isn't implying that I've stopped studying; rather, I know understand how McGill works, and just how much input is required for the output I want.

Speaking of the MCATs, I received my scores on Friday, and they were quite good! Far better than I expected, especially considering how I felt about the test day. And good enough to get me where I need to go (hopefully)!

Having quit my job, I'm not finding myself with alot more time on my hands than I'm accustomed to. I joined the swing troupe, naturally (acrobatics and choreography? I'm so there!). But does anyone have any suggestions of a hobby I could take up?

Oh and I brought my computer in the shop about a window that keeps popping up and was told that it was "heavilly infested", whatever that means. So I've been computer-less since Thrusday, which has been perfect timming considering the slew of essays and applications I have due this week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-10-09T11:00:00.000-04:00

So much turkey, oof.

It's been a fantastic three-day weekend. I love classless-yet-delicious student feasts.

Scary Bacteria

2006-09-19T07:09:00.000-04:00

Last Wednesday, my friend Zachary asked if I could lend him my notes for the classes he'd missed that day. He explained that he had waited all day at the drop-in doctor's clinic at McGill. I promised him that I would, then left for Portugal that night.

Yesterday, Zac shuffled into class and visibly winced as he took his seat. I looked at him, astonished. What had happened?

On Wednesday, he had waited all day at the clinic about a rapibly swelling bump on his elbow. When the doctors saw him, they explained he'd probably cut himself or been bitten by something, and that the wound had consequently gotten infected. They scheduled him for a follow-up appointment the next day (causing him to miss all of his classes again).
On Thursday, he went back in and they perscribed him a whole slew of antibacterial medication. He spent Friday and Saturday taking them, and feeling nauseous.
By Sunday, the swelling had ballooned: it had spread all the way down his forearm, and was halfway up his arm. Panicked, he checked himself to the Emergency Room, where they concluded that he'd been infected by a strain of bacteria that was resistant to anti-bacteria (no, really?).

"We're going to have to drain all of this excess fluid. This might be slightly uncomfortable," a nurse told him.
He grimaced. "Let's be honest now. This is going to hurt alot, isn't it?"
It did.
What hurts him the most now is that instead of having a tiny cut, he has a large gaping hole in his elbow, packed tightly with gauze.

When faced with a story like this, I simply cannot see how people refuse to believe in evolution. Maybe on a large scale, evolution is a concept that is difficult to wrap your head around, but what happened to Zac is a clear sign that bacteria are developping strains that are better are resisting traditional anti-bacterials. It's all very scary.

What is even scarier is some of the research currently being undertaken in the field. Scientists have discovered that some of the best ways to combat bacterial infections is to use molecules that mimick our own immune system.

Let's see here: if these results are commercialized, we would be exposing bacteria to our own defenses, in large quantities, over a long period of time. This means that whatever few bacterial strains that survive our treatments would then, by extention, be able to resist our own defenses as well.

This biological "arms race" has been going on for billions of years. The reason our immune system is so effective (and it really is) is the fact that it is only used when neeeded: so bacteria never get a chance to develop a resistance to it.

I only hope that for once, people will decide to do the right thing and just stop this dangerous line of research.

Still alive!

2006-09-09T10:18:00.000-04:00

Hey! Just a quick post to confirm that I am, in fact, still alive. My life right now is a whirlwind of medical school applications (which, at times, make the MCATs look relaxing), scientific papers, my job, classes, catching up with friends...
School has started up again. This last year, I'm branching out (a bit) and taking non-biology classes. Amazing! I'm actually really excited about all of my classes; I forsee a post about those soon.
I got my wisdom teeth removed last Friday which partly explains why I have been so MIA. The operation went really well--I was hardly swollen, and could walk and talk right after. I'm finding the recovery period slow though... My jaw is still very tender, and eating food takes me alot longer than usual. Not to mention that I am always tired!
I was also offered a free plane ticket to Portugal, of all places! next weekend, so clearly not being busy enough, I accepted. Lisbon, here I come! I'm really excited.

Whine whine whine

2006-08-25T19:53:00.000-04:00

Sweet baby Jesus, I'd forgotten how much I hate applications. I hate them. I hate them alot.

I recently learned that deadlines for applying to several schools I was interested in are around September 15th. Say it with me now: Ahh. Ahhhhh! It seems as though I'm the last one jumping on the application train, too.
Oh God.

Why, why am I always scrambling around to get things done? Why can't I ever do things properly?How on Earth do other people manage to be so on top of things?

Perhaps the worst part of all of this is that the last time I applied to university was a mere two years ago, and I really don't feel as though I've learned anything since then. I still get confused by the whole process, and end up crying with frustration in front of my computer.

On top of it all, I still have to submit a scientific paper to my professor by the end of August (I haven't started), I'm scheduled to get my wisdom teeth removed next Monday (it's my first operation), and I still haven't finalized my September courses. I'm going to take a nap now; maybe when I wake up everything will be okay.

MCATs

2006-08-19T21:05:00.000-04:00

Aaaaand... 10 hours after they began, my MCATs are over.

That was long. And hard. Harder than I expected. But, I am alive (thank you all for your concern, and for putting up with my drama).

Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I have 3 months' worth of summer to catch up in 10 days.

So, about that exam tomorrow...

2006-08-18T22:20:00.000-04:00

Oh God.
I am nervous nervous nervous nervous nervous.

It doesn't help that everyone has been lovely and I know that this is all blown way out of proportion and really not that big of a deal. Right.

Right?

More David-isms

2006-08-17T09:54:00.000-04:00

I just have to post this, because it made me giggle, and also because it's allowing me to procrastinate for a few more minutes.

My friend Dana went to get her hair cut by David. She was, as you can imagine, thrilled, and walked into her appointment clutching a picture of her dream haircut.

That was a mistake.

David took one glance at the picture and shortly announced: "You don't want that haircut."
"O...kay?" Dana replied, confused.
He then proceeded to work on her hair with the same zeal he showed for mine. To top it off, he straightened, gel-ed, and blow-dried the entire thing when he was through with it (something I'd asked him not do do with me). As Dana stared wide-eyed at her new, amazing hair-cut, all she could think was: Oh no! Now old ladies are going to scowl at me from the street!
But rest assured, it really does look great. And, like myself, she loves it now that she's had a little bit of time to get used to the change.

But perhaps my favorite part of the whole exchange was what happened on her way out. David was triumphantly grinning at his creation, when all of a sudden he starts frowning.
"Now, we're really going to have to colour this next, you know."
"C-colour? But! This is my natural hair colour!"
David sighs before retorting with:
"Oh God sweetie, I know."

Recipes

2006-08-16T18:28:00.000-04:00

With the MCATs three days away, it's hard to tell if I'm working hard...

...or hardly working!

Emily gave me candy for my birthday, and I've been munching on them all day. Speaking of which, the birthday was splendid, but that's a post that is going to have to wait until next week.

I actually wanted to share a few tried-and-true recipes today. If exams have taught me anything, it's that eating properly is possibly the most important thing to keep up if you're feeling stressed out. Anytime I give up on cooking and rely on ramen noodles, I know the situation's bad! So here are some quick and easy exam recipes that I've been using recently...

Fajitas!
This one's very easy. All you need is: chicken breast, a tomato, red or orange peppers, onions, mushrooms, salsa, sour cream, lime juice, and whatever else you feel like tossing in.
Slice and dice all of the ingredients (except for the salsa, sour cream, and cheese, which are added as condiments), fry them in a pan with a bit of oil, and wrap everthing in a burrito. Be warned: don't try and wrap them in pita bread, like we did. The results in one messy ...fistful... of food! But oh so yummy.

Gazpacho!
Another easy summer classic: combine one cup of tomato juice, a tomato, half a cucumber, onions, half a clove of garlic, half a green pepper, celery, (and any other vegetable lying around really), a tablespoon of red wine vinegar, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and finally dried estragon and basil. Combine everything together in a blender and purify!
Serve cold with crumbled crackes, diced cucumbers and tomatoes. Mmm.

Zucchini Bread
Ok, I'll admit I stole this recipe from www.allrecipes.com. But it really is amazing-- moist and sweet and really easy to make.

Happy cooking!

Scents

2006-08-13T11:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I was at the grocery store this morning (yes!! I finally went shopping! It was actually rather enjoyable; I have no idea why I put off getting groceries so spectacularly every time... But that isn't the point of this post), when the strangest thing happened.

I could smell my mother.

More specifically, I could smell my mother's perfume, the ever-recognizable Ysatis, by Givenchy. Before I knew it, my knees felt like jell-o, and I was frantically looking around trying to locate the source of the scent. It turned out being a little old lady, and I could help but feel a little dissapointed, even though I knew that my mother was currently halfway across the world.

I never can get over how strongly our sense of smell is tied with our memories and emotions. Which smells mean something to you?

Uh oh

2006-08-11T08:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the silence, guys. The truth is that I get virtually no work done if there's a computer around, so I'm basically trying to keep my distance.
I'm reaching a critical point of laziness. So far, I've run out of...
-Fruits
-Vegetables
-Pasta sauce
-Bread
-Meat
-Shampoo
-Soap
-Toothpaste

...Don't worry, I actually went out and bought soap etc. yesterday (I figure that, yes, I'm french, but I wouldn't want to perpetuate that particular myth). The food situation, on the hand, is worse than ever. I'm running out of milk, too. I think that will be the last straw.
I did cook up some mean chili with whatever I could find lying around the kitchen (canned beans!), but chili is hardly something you crave for in mid-August.

So the MCATs are in 8 days, woo! The thing I've discovered about exams is that there's no point getting a panic attack over them, because in the end, you're either prepared or you aren't. At this point, I'm just taking a bunch of 8-hour mock-tests so that the day of (hopefully!) even if I panick, I'll be able to fill everything out of habit.

47 degrees.

2006-08-02T00:20:00.000-04:00

It's too hot to sleep. Waaah.

Fireworks (part deux)

2006-07-30T10:28:00.000-04:00

All summer long, we've been treated to amazing firework displays every Saturday and Wednesdays. They're launched as part of the International Fireworks Festivals, which is basically a festival where teams representing different countries strut their stuff by creating a fireworks displays that are meant to match a certain piece of music.
Last night was the last set of fireworks, so my lab partners and I decided to hit the town. Let me tell you: watching firworks with a migraine is not cool. But it was definetly worth it--thousands of people showed up for this display, and several streets were closed to accomodate the crowd.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love Montreal. The city seems to be in a constant state of celebration.
Next we walked through the Gay Village, where I naturally went picture-happy...

Le Drugstore. Only in Quebec!

So many rainbows! The entire Village is in preperation for the Outgames, not to mention the Divers-Cite festival that is also coming up soon.

And, of course, la Caleche du Sexe:

You can't spit in Montreal without hitting a strip club of sorts, but I have to say this is the one with the most ridiculous name I've seen.

We then settled on a nice terrase for a few beers.

Dana tells the best stories I've ever heard.

My lab partners are really great. I really managed to luck out on this one; they happen to be some of the finest people I've met at McGill yet, and I have the pleasure of working with them everyday. The fireworks outing tonight was to celebrate the fact that I'd finished my mock MCAT--whew!, and they've promised to take me out after the real MCATs too.

Snails

2006-07-27T15:58:00.000-04:00

Aha! Finally something worthy of a little post.
Last night, I met up with my friend Alex, who wanted to know if I'd be interested in meeting Bob Cuddles and Margaret Fluffy-- his two giant African snails. At the thought of handling two enormous, slimy, hermaphroditic mollusks, I naturally quivered with joy and responded with an enthusiastic yes!

Let me tell you, those snails are awesome. They're pretty much impossible to kill (only need to be misted occasionally, and fed a minimum of once a year), quiet, and fun for the whole family. And they're cute!

Awwww... look at its stalked little eyes. When you poke them they roll back inside its body. Have I mentioned that they're really cool?
Holding them feels amazing. I'm convinced that it must therapeutic. Basically, a giant muscle is crawling up your arm very, very slowly: the snail grips you, and slimes its way forward by generating waves of contraction in its foot.

...Mom, can I have one too?

Notes

2006-07-24T21:19:00.000-04:00

Waugh, I'm still alive, I swear. It's been very, very busy around here.
Some little notes:
-The MCATs are less than a month away. It's crunch time!
-I got to see my family (as well as go to a wedding in France) two weekends ago. It was exhausting, but totally worth it (And it's true--french women know how to dress).
-For the first time in two years, I have a family member living in the same time zone as I do. This is proving dangerous; I'm getting these urges to call every five minutes just because I can, and because it'll cost me less than 2 bucks 50 an hour.
-I've been suffering from very bad migraines more and more frequently. Recently, they've become incapacitating, so I'm going to go visit an optometrist. I may become a four-eyes soon...

Hopefully I'll be able to post about something real soon.

Funky Toque

2006-07-12T21:46:00.000-04:00

I was startled to realize today that I have a hairdresser.

...It all started about a month ago, just after I came home from my amazing trip to Greece and Turkey. I'd been absolutely fed up with my over-grown, thick, damaged hair in Turkey and was just about ready for a drastic change. So jet-lagged, clearly unable to make proper decisions, I stride into a very trendy salon (with great student discounts) called Funky Toque.

I announce triumphantly that I would like a haircut, immediately if possible. This is a big deal. I hardly ever bother getting a proper haircut. I can't stop staring at the woman, who is the very image of trendiness: her hair is short, spiked, and dyed white and blonde. Even her eyebrows match. She is not fascinted by me however, and barely glances over her magazine as she mumbles that David will take me.

That's when I turn around and am faced with David-- who, yes, has great hair-- my fabulous, flamboyantly gay hairdresser.
"Hellooo darling! Come over here and let's discuss where you want to go with your hair for ten minutes."
I stand back, aghast. Discuss? It's hair. I don't know what to do with it!
"Honestly... go wild. You're the one who cuts hair!"
To my horror, I saw his eyes shine with excitement, and I realized it was too late to that it back. Seconds later, I was strapped into his chair, as he brandished a myriad of scissors, razors, spray bottles and gels. Round eyed, I explained that I never cut my hair, let alone brush it.
"Don't worry," he cooed, "this will look even better if you don't brush it."
I just gulp. David takes advantage of this quiet moment to spill out his life story to me. There's never a dull moment in his chair!

"So, I had my heart broken the other day. There's this guy-- perfect, spend the rest of my life with-- kind of guy. I was crazy about him. The only problem is, he's straight."
"Oh no! I hate it when that happens!"
"Yeah..." He heaves a monumental sigh and snips off a dangerously large piece of hair.
"How did you find out?"
"When I kissed him!"

So today, I went back to Funky Toque for a quick bang trim (they're so cheap!). I'm sent off to a hairdresser, who sits me down in his chair. As I'm sitting, I see David, who recgonizes me and says hi. My hairdresser just blanches and says "She's yours?" and sends me off to get my hair cut by him.

Once again I am subjected to the whirlwind that is David. He quickly snips at my bangs, musses up my hair, proceeds to tell me about a great place for first dates, and finishes off with:
"So when school starts you'll come back to get a proper haircut, mmkay?" Before I can respond, he's gone, with a flick of his hand and a "Ciao, bella!".

Weekend

2006-07-03T22:51:00.000-04:00

What a lovely weekend!
On Friday, I met up with one my travel buddies Marco and reminisced "the good ol' days" over a beer (Never mind that the good old days were hardly more than a month ago...).
For some reason, I've been finding it very hard to talk about my trip. So much happened in such a short span of time, there's so much to say that I honestly don't even know how to begin. And when I do, I can't help but feel that I'm boring my friends. I mean, who wants to hear me blather on about backpacking for hours anyway? So I've just been keeping silent, or repeating the same stories over and over again.
But on Friday night, all that changed. It felt so good to be able to speak to someone who'd been through the same trip as I had, who understood the crazy situations I found myself in! What a release. I found myself telling him the story of how I (of course!) forgot my Lonely Planet on the bus, landed alone in an unknown city in Turkey at 5 A.M., and managed to find my way to the hostel, haha.
Then I met up with my friend Jon (astute readers will recognize him as friend-who-helped-me-paint) to celebrate his birthday in style. He's now officially two years older than I am, the geezer.
The next morning, his friend Cat and I had organized a rather hung-over brunch with all his friends at a fantastic brunch place in my neighborhood:

Yummm! But the celebration didn't end there, oh no. We also undertook the task of making our very own, rather terrifying pinata, stuffed with the best of candy, naturally.

Jon gets ready to strike (using a hockey stick, like a good Canadian)...

...and we reap the spoils.

Sadly, I had to spend the rest of the day slavin--I mean, studying for my mock-MCAT exam on Sunday:

Gross.
I did manage to take a break to watch the last 30 minutes of the France-Brazil game.

As you can tell from the zombie-like faces, it was a pretty amazing game. ALLEZ LES BLEUS!
I live on the border of the Greek and Portuguese neighborhoods, so I wasn't sure how people were going to react when France won. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was quite the party!

Alright I think this post is quite long enough. I like pictures, can you tell? More should come soon-- in particular pictures of the jazz festival.

A reply

2006-07-01T17:21:00.000-04:00

My, how civilised! This is why I like living in Canada.

So much to blog about, such as the amazing game between France and Brazil (Oui Barthez, ouiiii!), birthday bashes, et caetera, but all that will have to wait until at least tomorrow.
I have a mock MCAT exam to take o Sunday, from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., which I am not looking forward to in the least.

Rudeness

2006-06-29T23:40:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-29T19:21:00.000-04:00

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!

2006-06-24T10:05:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-17T16:20:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-07T07:24:00.000-04:00

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

2006-06-06T07:22:00.000-04:00

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!

Turkey!

2006-05-18T10:53:00.000-04:00

Merhaba from Turkey! Here I am in Sulçek, after havıng arrıved vıa an overnıght ferry from Greece thıs mornıng. Man, let me tell you, those over nıght ferrıes are anythıng but restful.

Anyway, we are at thıs really great back packıng hub just out of the famous ruıns of Ephesus (by the way, I am havıng a bıt of trouble negocıatıng wıth thıs cyrılıc keyboard, so I am sorry for any mıstakes). Turkey ıs great!!
Such a bıg country, so cheap and ınterestıng so far! We have latched on, as ıs our habıt, to some other travellers goıng ın our dırectıons. Two spanısh guys (Jon and Sebastıan) and one amerıcan (Marc). We are apprecıatıng travellıng wıth guys so far; it's ıncrebıle how much less people stare than when the both of us just travel alone.
I wısh we could stay longer. So far, our plan ıs to vısıt Ephesus and more of Sulçek, then go to Pamukkale for the amazıng pools, then on to Cappadocıa for the underground cıty and faıry chımneys, then Bursa, then Istanbul wıth perhaps a day trıp to the Prıncess ıslands or Edırne. I'm just besıde myself ın excıtement!!! It's promısıng to be spectacular... I wıll post pıctures as soon as I can.

Oh, and to update: after Santorını we went on to Naxos, whıch was just so beautıful and frıendly ın comparıson (and, of course, ın general).

PS: Beat, dıd you post the nude beaches comment? We were ın Mykonos for a day but we just too exhausted to bother bussıng half way accross the ısland to go to any of ıt's "famous"beaches.

Santorini

2006-05-11T06:54:00.000-04:00

This'll be another quickie, as this keyboard is not the best (to say it polietly) and I want to take advantage of the sunshine.

So here I am in beautiful Santorini! We just arrived this morning, but people have already attempted to "roule" us, as the french would say. By comparison, Crete was super relaxed, friendly, and cheap. But I suppose that is to be expected; Santorini is quite the tourist attraction. We're still very excited to go visit the town and hit the beaches! Next is Naxos... ah, I've got to run, our hotel, which should come with free internet, just let me that I'm taking too long.

More updates later?

Athens!

2006-05-07T10:05:00.000-04:00

Just a quick word (7 minutes left).

Here I am in Athens, Greece. It's an amazingly beautiful capital, what with monuments dotting the downtown area, and huge with a population of 5 million! My friend Heather and I have spent the last two days walking our little hearts out, and we are taking an over night ferry to Crete tonight.

We managed to books all of our ferries ahead of time! We even got a (seemingly) good deal on sleeping accomodations on some islands. Too good to be true? Probably. But right now we're pretty darn happy with our situation!

So far the trip has been lovely. Hopefully it'll warm up a little (it was 15 degrees here in Athens, and word at the hostel is that the islands are very windy).
I'll see how often I can update this; otherwise I've been trying to keep a little travel journal up to date.

Off I go

2006-05-04T08:42:00.000-04:00

In twelve hours, I will be on a plane taking off to Athens.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. This past week has been such a rush-- what with catching up on cleaning and sleep, moving various people in and out of their apartments, seeing my non-Montreal friends off to their respective homes for the summer, planning our trip...
My life is chaotic at the moment. My two person apartment, cramped full of three people's furniture, reflects this: our living room looks as though a hostile take-over has occured, with couches piled up haphazardly, bed frames jammed up in corners, a rocking chair balancing delicatly on a set of boxes.
It's been an amazing summer so far--the usual in Montreal, it would seem. Choc-full of surprise birthday parties, BBQs (with the obligatory marshmallow roasting), discovery of new coffee shops which had, until now, been hidden beneath the snow. It's been walks through parks, riotous nights out on the town, evenings of rooftops picking out cloud shapes, catching up with friends unseen for too long.
Last night I went to the Books concert with a bunch of my friends. It was a very interesting show, as most of the music is sound clips and synthetic noises. The band had prepared a series of video clips to be watched at the same time as the music: completly random snipits of family picnics, nature, or simply anything that caught their eye.

Now I'm looking critically over my backpack thinking Now, do I absolutely need soap?, attempting (poorly) to leave as much room as possible for the scores of Turquish Delights I count on bringing back with me.

Freedom!

2006-04-27T09:57:00.000-04:00

Exams are done! I know I always say this, but these were the most brutal so far. These past two days, I've had:

Diversity of Life* at 2 P.M.
Developmental Biology at 9 A.M.
Eukaryotic Cell Biology at 2 P.M.

Let me re-iterate: brutal. I have to admit I'm pretty impressed at the ridiculous amounts of information my brain can retain. For the last exam, I walked into the room convinced I'd forgotten all of the course material, but once I sat down and read the questions, the answers would pop out to me out of nowhere. Nevermind that I've forgotten it all today.

I had this fantasy of spreading my notes all across the living room floor (there were alot of notes), and having my flatmate take a picture of me laughing in glee as I tossed my index cards (there were alot of index cards too) up into the air.

But now that I'm finished I've found all I want to do is clean/do laundry/cook/get ready for my trip. I'm leaving in 8 days! I have so many errands to wrap up before I do! Agh!

*For the reccord: life really is diverse, like woah. That's the last time I take a course at McGill thinking, "Gee, I think I'm up for a challenge."

Eureka!

2006-04-20T09:01:00.000-04:00

I now know what I want to be when I grow up:

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

If you're going to browse through the archives, I'd better warn you that most comics are politically incorrect, and dark humor.

The weather is lovely here, it isn't conducive to studying at all. Everytime I look out of the window, I see people tossing a frisbee around, or basking in the sun.

6 days until summer...

School buses on fire!?

2006-04-18T15:31:00.000-04:00

A friend brought this news article to my attention (EDIT: hopefully it will work now).
Why would I be interested in a news article about burning buses, you ask? Well... because those buses belong(ed) to my dear old high school, that's why.

This is completly crazy. I can't believe this happened; it's a shock enough to think that my high school kept on existing after I graduated (I'm not at all ego-centric, I swear), but this?
Those were the beat up old buses I used to ride to school, and the cranky bus drivers I've known all my life. Nostalgia.

I'm having trouble believing the anti-semitism has escalated so much since I left the States. Either I've forgotten how bad it was after living in happy-go-lucky Canada for two years, or the media is exagerating things and this is just the result of some bored hicks out for an exciting night.

Happy Easter!

2006-04-16T09:48:00.000-04:00

Hi all,

I wish you all a very "Joyeuses Paques!" (or Passover).

Back home, Easter was one of the most important holidays our family celebrated. We'd all gather 'round the table and dig into this amazing lunch, after about 4 hours of dreary church service (I kid, I kid). Sometimes, if you were lucky, the Easter holiday coincided with the famous Washington D.C. cherry blossoms. Inevitably, it would be pouring, but when surrounded by friends and family it hardly seemed to matter.

Today it's raining as well, but unfortunately there's no dreary church service on the menu, or Easter lunch, or friends and family. People who celebrate Easter have left to be with their families, and the rest of us are studying for final exams.

Well, happy Easter anyways. I'll be thinking of you from the depths of some McGill library!

Finals

2006-04-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

Well, it's finals season! This is the first year that all my finals are concentrated at the very end of the exam period rather than at the very beginning. Which has left me a certain amount of time to study. Weird. Up to now I've been in this strange, peaceful state, but I'm sure that by next week I will be flipping out, as usual.
Because it's finals season, this means that the McGill libraries as choc-full of nervous, mumbling, sweaty students. It always amazes me how the libraries are so empty all year, but come April, well hey! McGill has students! It's a miracle!

Because I can't stand to stress, and the noise, in McGill libraries during finals, I've branched out. These past three days I've studied:
-At McGill's other campus, MacDonald, about a half an hour away from the main campus. It's lovely; all green fields, and quaint brick buildings... The buildings are furnished with throw-back furniture from the 60s, and the halls are painted in bright, primary colours. People all seem friendlier, and actually speak to each other on campus! My friend remarked that it was like high school, minus all the hormonal imbalance. Another plus is that most students at McGill aren't even aware that this campus exists.
-At Montreal's new public library. Oh, wow. That library is love! I've always been a library nut, but walking into this one, I felt like I was dreaming. Beaver wrote a fantastic post on this, so I won't even try describing it.
-At my friend's house, in Montreal's suburb Town of Mount-Royal. This one, by far, was weirdest to me. He lives at home, and his house has actual stairs in it, with carpet. He doesn't have to worry about bothering his upstairs neighbor (just his family, haha). And he has a backyard! Who knew!! To be honest, I felt like an intruder, studying in that house. It's been so long since I've seen a real suburb (Madagascar doesn't count), it's almost like I forgot that they existed.

Anyway. Since today is Saturday (and Easter Saturday at that... Happy Easter!) I'm hoping the libraries will be a bit more bearable at McGill today. Have a lovely weekend!

Nap Attack

2006-04-08T20:09:00.000-04:00

Mom, this is why I don't like naps.

So my friend is part of this choir called Simply, Sweetly. I've been to every single one of their concerts for the past two years--and not just because she's my friend, but because they're just that good. For every performance, they glide onstage dressed all in black, and position themselve at various corners of the chapel. It's quite the experience to close your eyes and just let the sound envellop you.

Tonight, this friend of mine was conducting for the first time. This is a big deal, and we were all counting on going to support her. This would be fine and dandy, if, two and a half hours ago, I hadn't decided to lie down to take a little nap. I'll just sleep for an hour, I told myself in classic sleep-deprived stupor. WRONG.
The concert started half an hour ago. And I am at home.

Yeah, another weather post.

2006-04-04T21:37:00.000-04:00

April snow brings May... wait, what?

It's snowing?

Silly Canada. Looks like I spoke too soon!

Spring has sprung!

2006-03-29T15:55:00.000-05:00

Or, as my father would say:

"Spring is sprung, the grass is ris
I wonder where them birdies is!"

It looks as though Spring is well on its way here in Montreal. The weather's a lovely 12 degrees (that's about 53 degrees for all you Americans), the sun is shining, the snow drift are melting...
I love spring. I really do.
I love the first day the soil starts to thaw. I love the smells in the breeze. I love hearing the birds sing. I love lying in the sun and feeling warm.

Appearantly, I'm not the only one, either: Montreal undergoes a metamorphisis every spring.
People walk around aimlessly, smiling beatifically, blinking in the sun. Buildings I'd never looked at twice in January now catch my eye (I'd never noticed those stiars were purple!); Montrealers sashay around, dressed in their best and brightest clothes; others start impromptu frisbee games.

In this spirit of spontaneity, I decided to give my friend Jon a haircut on the steps of the Redpath museum, on the McGill campus. Sadly, I have no skills in hair-cutting whatsoever, and the cut I gave him is reminiscent of Leonard Nimoy's. Woops! Well, at least hair grows back.

I've been in such a lovely mood. This makes me wonder if I'd ever be able to live in Canada permanently. The winter months can get so hard sometimes...

My oocytes! Noooo!

2006-03-24T16:40:00.000-05:00

What a day.

Woke up far too early (could I get more than 6 hours of sleep one night? Please?) to renew my passport.
The American consulate is this imposing 20 story high steel and concrete monolith in the middle of downtown. Their website presents the following caption:

"Note: The following items are prohibited inside the U.S. Embassy/Consulate:

Food & beverages
Backpacks, bags, luggage, large purses, etc.
Weapons or tools of any kind
Electronic or recording equipment of any kind to include laptops, cell phones, tape/CD/MP3 players, pagers, keyless remotes, etc.
Oversized Strollers (I like how strollers and weapons are put on the same level!)

The Consulate does not provide storage facilities for these prohibited items. Please leave these items at home, or store them in your vehicle. "

Mind you, I have no vehicle, which means that my backpack stayed at home. By the time the procedures were over, I'd missed my class anyway.
I should have my passport by next friday, which is fantastic. What is not so fantastic is that now I have to find a way to drive back to the U.S./Canadian border, and get re-issued a student visa. After that's done I need to renew my Canadian Social Insurance Number with my new visa so that I can continue getting paid legally.

Have I mentioned that I hate paperwork??

On another note: I got no results at work today. Which means that my 12 hour shift on Monday was a total waste of time :( I get to start over on Wednesday!

Energizer bunny

2006-03-23T14:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry again about the lack of posts.
I feel as thoughI've hardly had time for basic hygene, let alone blogging (joke, joke).

Recently I've been kept pretty busy. I've started my real project at work, which means I've started my 12-hour shifts. On one hand, it's sickening to be leaving the lab at midnight (especially when I have an early morning class the day after...), but I know it'll all going to my Balkan trip this summer, so it's all good.
I get to be in a dance show program! It's very exciting; it says: "Victoria Bond, tech". Woohoo! Slowly, but surely, I'm infiltrating myself into the drama scene, bwahaha.
It hit me today that not only is it Thursday (already! how does that happen?), but there are only four weeks of classes left.
In fact, one of my exams is next Tuesday. Oh, dear. This year's really been a blur.

I think I might tone it down next year. As lovely as this year was, I did end up burning out a bit too often for my taste. Next year's resolution? Take up swing dancing again. Stop working so hard (sheesh!).

Summer plans

2006-03-23T14:08:00.000-05:00

Utter chaos; that's what my life is like at the moment. I think I'm conditioning my body to survive on copious amounts of coffee and very little sleep. Is good.

My summer is finally getting organized. Ha! My friend Heather and I decided, in a very spur-of-the-moment kind of way, to travel across the Balkans. More specifically: Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. In a month. That's right baby! We're going to be back-packing to the extreme.
Have any of us ever been to any of these countries? No.
Do we speak the language? No.
Do we know what to expect? Not a clue.
Are we excited? Heck yes we are!

We're going to be buying travel books this afternoon and sketch out an itenerary... not to mention read up a little on these places we've decided to visit.
After that, I'll return to my job in Montreal, and preparing to take my MCATs, the exam that may or may not allow me to go to medical school. My stomach tightens omminously at the mere thought of it.
As opposed to last year, this year alot fo my friends are staying in Montreal. I'm super excited; already we've made plans of BBQs on the roof, fireworks, jazz festival...

If this wasn't enough, I'm also thinking about planning a few road trips back to D.C. I haven't been "home" since I moved to Montreal, really, and I'm aching to go back. Even better, maybe I can go with my friends Sam or Nick (people from D.C. that I met in Montreal!) or show my city off to some of my quebecer friends.

Assorted pictures!

2006-03-13T17:52:00.000-05:00

Toboganning!

My cousin Belinda and I.

My friend Heather and I decided to crimp our hair. The 80s liiiiive!

The lull

2006-03-13T09:18:00.000-05:00

So I'm finding myself in the period I like to call "the lull". Basically, that means that the worst of the midterms/assignments are over, and that, apart from a few residual papers, I have a few weeks of quiet-time before finals. Alternatively, you could call this period "the calm before the storm".
My brain's responded by undergoing a complete shut-down. It's been a fantastically relaxing weekend!
My godfather came to visit Canada, and so took us (his wife, his daughter, and myself) to an Ethopian restaurant that I reccomended. Note to self: when reccomending restaurants to polite company, do not chose one where you have to eat with your hands! Apart from the messiness, the restaurant (called le Nil Bleu for you Montrealers) was amazing! The food was super tasty, and they ever have a nice vegetarian section. Everyone eats out of a common dish, and the atmosphere is great.
My cousin Belinda was also in Montreal for a night, and took me out to dinner (I've been eating well!). It was so nice to see her again! How bizarre to think that I might have seen her more this year (twice) than my sister, or father, for example. Belinda's a fashion designer, and was essentially on a world-wide shopping spree to scope out the new trends. She would spend a few days in every major city, shopping for up to 12 hours a day. Isn't that insane?!

Apart from the visits, I've been keeping myself busy from going to a multitude of plays and dance shows, and trying to reconnect with friends. The trouble is, just because I'm in a lull doesn't mean that my friends are! Most of them are still living at the library...
On a final note, spring is the air! It was ten degrees outside all weekend, and despite the fact that it was raining, everyone was out and about, enjoying the nice weather. I'd be lying if I said I didn't wear a skirt. Of course, this being Montreal, it'll likely be minus fifteen in two days, but at least we got to enjoy some hint of spring for a few days.

Visits

2006-03-04T11:45:00.000-05:00

Yikes.
This past week has been insanely busy. It's just been a flurry of exams, papers, things to do for work... And, like the typical college student, I've been surviving mostly on poor nutritional choices and lack of sleep. But now that it's over, I feel great!
This month appears to be the month of unusual visits.
Last week, my godfather's son Adrien came to visit Montreal for the weekend. Being the only person that he (sort of) knew in Montreal, he stayed here. The poor guy-- by the time he arrived, I'd been studying non-stop for a week, hadn't seen anyone, and was essentially a socially inept ball of stress. I was freaking out (with reason) about my week of Hell. So, like the great hostess that I am, we'd have breakfast and dinner together, but during the day he was on his own while I studied at the library. I made him a list of note-worthy places to see, and even an itinerary to follow on the map. He was super independent and didn't seem to mind, which I greatly appreciated!
At night, I'd show him around my favorite places, and make him eat Montreal's delicacies (read: Faramount bagels and Mondo Fritz Poutine! Sadly, we didn't manage to eat smoked meat sandwiches...). Despite the fact that he couldn't have come at a worst time, and that we were essentially strangers, it was a fantastic weekend.
On Saturday night, while we were waiting for the bus to take us home, we heard techno music coming from behind a few buildings. Intrigued, we went to investigate, and found... a ballet of snowmobiles! It was incredible! Three pure-white snowmobiles, driven by three men in white overalls. They pirouetted (in their own way), swirled around, followed one another's lead... It was so bizarre, beautiful and fun, all at the same time. We just stood there, mesmerized, until the encore was over. Only in Montreal...
Next week, my godfather, his wife, and their daughter are going to be spending a few days in Montreal as well. Then, my cousin from New Zealand! I can't wait!

Oh, and work finally seems to be going better. Since I started, it's been like a horrible first-day at work that would never end. But now I've finally gotten the results I need, and, it would seem, the hang of things. Things are looking up!

Reading Week

2006-02-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

Frankly, there isn't much to report.
My life at the moment: wake up, feed and entertain Gerturde, go to work and/or library, study until library closes, go to coffee shop, study until that closes, go home, shower, try to read from my book, fall assleep.
This is as bad as finals!
I don't understand. Lots of lots of people have gone home or gone travelling. How do they do it? I'm studying non-stop and still don't feel even remotely ready for my midterms on Tuesday. And I'm not even talking about the papers I have to write. Why does it take me forever to study? I feel so stupid, I must be doing something wrong... but I honestly don't see how I could cut my work-load.
Hmmm. I'm tired. I wish I didn't have to take my MCATs this summer...

Ski and Gertrude

2006-02-20T20:25:00.000-05:00

Oh dear... the updates seem to be getting more sporadic, don't they? I mean to post, I really do, it just seems like every time I sit down to write, I run out of steam.
This week is reading week! In the States, this is known as Spring Break, but here at McGill they actually expect you to do some studying. And studying I shall! I have two midterms and two papers to prepare, and I am quite seriously terrified.
I started my week off studiously by going... skiing! I told my friend Emily that I hadn't been skiing in Canada yet, and she brought it upon herself to fix this travesty. So: free ride (her grand-mother lives right next to the ski resort, so her mother drove us), free tickets (they apparently go often), alright! All I had to pay was the ski rental for half a day, which was ridiculously affordable.
I hurt in all sorts of places now, but it was worth it.
Another result of reading week is that everyone that I usually hang out with in the neighborhood is gone. Come to think of it, most people in general are gone. Thank goodness I'm bird-sitting Heather's budgee Gertrude, because otherwise I'd find myself getting closely acquainted to Mr. Stove-top and Mrs. Fridge. Oh dear.
So, without further ado, meet Gerturde!

Isn't she a cutie? I think so. Her favorite things include: chirping, playing with her reflection in the mirror, and chewing my hair when it's wet from the shower.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2006-02-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

Or, as I like to call it, Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D.).
I've got to say, Valentine's Day at McGill is always very interesting! There's a flurry of singing Valentines-- students with red lab coats crashing through the class room doors, arms ladden with roses or candy, who burst out into some cheesy song ("L is for the way you Look at me; O is for the Only one I see; V is Very very extraordinary; E is even more than anyone that you adore").
Mostly though, everyone I know, single or not, has been completly preoccupied with midterms. That's right; it's that time of the year again!

I had a bit of a break this weekend though. I went to Valentine's Day themed concert a few blocks away from my house!
I've been itching to write a post about the neighborhood I live in. I will do so... in due time!

Cheez Louise

2006-02-09T22:36:00.000-05:00

I leave the bathroom window open for two hours and the shampoo freezes.

What's a girl to do?

Concussion, part deux

2006-02-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

My friend Nick had a concussion! He hit his head on a bathroom cabinet while reaching for band-aids. Oww.
He lost a bunch of hair and was bleeding; it was a small gash but still pretty deep. His roomates didn't seem to think much of it, but Nick felt dizzy and disoriented and you could tell he didn't feel 100%. He decided he'd better go to a hospital, and I agreed with him. His roomates had a party to go to (actually, we'd all meant to go), and didn't seem to be too worried, so I said I'd accompany Nick to the hospital-- and you could tell he was secretly relieved not to have to go alone. I have to wonder: how on earth could his roomates not go with him? Anyway. We took a cab to good ol' Hotel-Dieu, the hospital where we took Sean (my concussioned friend #1). Ahhh, again. The nurses told us we'd have to wait three or four hours... and it was eleven. Oy.
It's a good thing I came with him, because he didn't speak any french. We ended up in the same waiting room. I was secretly relieved not to go to the party; lately I've been somewhat anti-social. Anyway, we got lucky and someone ended up seeing him at 12! He got one stitch, and the official story is that: he was attacked by a leprachaun with a machete, and also we totally partied it up in the Emergency room.
My roomate also ended up joining us with coffee and cards. I had originally called her so that she wouldn't worry, and she insisted on keeping us company. She had been with me when Sean broke his face, so she knew that waiting all night in a hospital waiting room was no fun at all. We ended up playing hearts, it was actually nice! Hospital visits are all about making the best of what you've got.
Well, Nick should be fine. The hair should grow back, and he'll have a nifty scar to show for it.

So yeah, second Saturday night I spend at Hotel Dieu. What the heck? Do I have some concussion-inducing hormone? In my denfense, Nick hit his head before I got to their place.

France (my lab partner)

2006-02-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

A conversation with France, my very pregnant and very adorable lab partner:

"'Ahhh, j'viens d'entendre une vielle chanson de Radiohead dans la cafeteria... elle a plu a Phillipe"
"Ahhh, I just heard an old Radiohead song in the cafeteria... Phillip liked it."
(France rubs her belly, she's named her child Phillipe)
(sighs)
"Radiohead... je me souviens quand leur album est sortit en '92... je dansais un slow avec un chome... 'ben maintenant j'me souvient plus qui c'etait..."
"Radiohead... I remember when their album was released in '92... I slowed danced with some guy... I can't even remember who it was..."
(France tries to remember)
Moi: "Alors celui-la, il devait etre important!"
Me: "Well, he must have been important!"
(France is feeling nostalgic)
"'92... pfiou! J'avais 22 ans! ... et toi? T'avais quel age?"
"'92... wow! I was 22! What about you? How old were you?"
Moi: "...eeeeuh.... 7 ans??"
Me: "uhhh... 7??"

(France chokes)

She had no idea I was so young. I guess working 15 hours a week in a lab isn't something people my age do much... Also it's unusual for a 19 year old to be so close to graduating! France started uni at 21... haha!
I really like my lab partners. There's Jane and Quin, who mostly speak chinese to each other (but are very nice), Heather (one of my best friends in Montreal), France (who will, sadly, be leaving soon on maternity leave), and Daniel, who is new and doesn't speak much yet. Maybe he just doesn't speak much in general.

It's pretty funny, France is going to deliver her baby in the hospital we work in... in fact, just a few floors away! I can't wait.

A Feist to DIE For

2006-01-30T20:42:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures!

William , or "Big Bill" (aka Dan) and Dorothy, or "Dotty" (aka Eva) . She was the crazy sister and he was her husband.

Chris Lester, the playboy good-for-nothing son (aka Sean), Eleanore the secretary (aka Caroline), Robert, the business associate (aka Robin), and Candy the slu--fashionable next door neighbor (me!).

Candy, her daughter Desiree (aka Katie), and Robert. Candy appears to be accusing Robert of something at this point.

We seem to be missing pictures of Mark Lester, our gracious host! I didn't have my camera that night, so I have to wait for others to upload their pictures...

PS: Please let me know if this makes my blog look funny again...