GREAT CHRISTMAS!

I had such a wonderful Christmas! I was really busy, but then again what in my life isn't busy! I went home for Christmas for 13 days and had a great time. I worked a few shifts at the bar and made some (much needed) money. I went to Prince Albert to Brian's parents for Christmas with them on the 21st and then headed to Regina on the 22nd to my Grandpa's with my Mom for Christmas there. Brian's parents came on Christmas day to my Mom's house in Tisdale for Christmas Day and it was awesome! We had so much fun and everyone got along swimmingly. Mom has a basement suite in her house and there is a Phillipino family living there with a 1 1/2 year old who is adorable! They came for Christmas dinner with us as well. We bought him an instrument set and he seemed to like the shakers, drums and whistles we got him. Brian has a niece the same age named Berlyn so it was fun watching her with her presents as well. It is so great having kids around for Christmas:-) Brian bought Berlyn a zebra that she could ride and it was so much fun to watch her. I just got back to Saskatoon today and am happy to spend some time with Brian and have some rest before school starts up again. Brian got tickets to the world Juniors (hockey) through work and we are going to a game on Dec 31st and then we will probably go out after. I have pics (on Brians camera) Note: never did get my camera for Christmas. and I will post them soon! I got great presents, my favorite was a homemade coupon ubook for massages, suppers and guitar lessons from my beau. Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and all the best to you and yours in 2010!!!!!!! Love you!

My Prince Charming

I have long awaited a Prince charming and guess what everyone?????? I FOUND ONE! I don't know what I have done to deserve such great treatment but I sure am enjoying it a lot! Brian delivered a dozen long stemmed red roses to me to the other evening, took very good care of me when I got really sick the other night, bought me a variety of massagers because I have had a sore neck from studying lately. He also has been taking me out for lunches and suppers and hugging me and snuggling with me and smiling at me an awful lot. We even got through Christmas shopping without a single argument...a seriously huge feat in the jam-packed city malls. I AM FEELING LIKE A VERY LUCKY GIRL RIGHT NOW:-) My only hope is that I make him feel as special as he makes me feel...

Cool as a Cucumber

OK I lied... I may be cool as a cucumber but it is not cool as a cucumber at all outside in Saskatchewan:( It has been so nice up until now and I was loving it and then all of a sudden it has dropped to -30 C within the last couple of days. On Sunday my car was frozen solid and would not start so Brian went and bought booster cables and boosted it. Now I have this fear, every time I venture out, that it is not going to start. I woke up at 7am this morning only to find that I did not have any heat turned on in the house. My big plan was to sleep in a bit as today is the only day in a week that I don't write a final exam but alas I am drinking hot tea and am wrapped in a blanket by the heater....go figure! This is a picture of the walkway to the University just so you get an idea(those of you in much warmer climates;) what it is like to live here. Miss you all!
On another note: Have written 2 finals and have 4 more to go then going home(to Tisdale) for 2 weeks!

Hot tub...puhleeez!

My Christmas List:
A house
A hot tub on the deck
A pebble;)
It is funny because I always bug Brian and say "Where's my pebble bitch?"
We heard that penguins find the one that they love and then go find the perfect pebble and present it to their lifelong mate...I always joke about this:) haha
But seriously Brian....I want a hot tub!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
xoxo

GREAT FREAKIN' WEEKEND!

On Friday it was SUNTEP's Christmas Party. We went over to Kate's house at 7pm and played some "Drinking Jenga" which is awesome! It was my first time playing it, I recommend. Then about 2 hours later we made our way to Winston's Pub(known for it's international assortment of beers in downtown Saskatoon). It was a great night with lots of drinking and dancing and even a midnight lunch which I ate lots of(gotta get my money's worth ya know even though I didn't pay anything;) Then the next morning Brian and I left for Calgary(well I wouldn't say morning as we were both feeling the affects of the night before) but we left early afternoon I guess. Brian got Grey Cup tickets from work which were worth about $350 bucks. He won a ticket but I didn't have one. We decided I would still go with him for a getaway weekend and just watch the game from our hotel room. We drove down to Calgary, Alberta(about 6 1/2 hour drive) and then checked into the nicest hotel I have ever been in. They built a new hotel by the airport in Calgary called Acclaim and it was awesome. Modern, great decorations and very comfy. The best part of the hotel was the rooftop hot tubs which were amazing. Since we were so close to the airport we had airplanes flying over us. There was a bit of snow and a bit of cold but the hot tub was great and we went to it 3x in our 2 days there. It was funny because it was set up as a Japanese onsen and had a definite Japanese theme. I loved it. Also free continental breakfast is always nice! The bad part of the trip was me trying to drive from the airport hotel to pick Brian and his friends up at McMahon stadium which was absolutely crazy. It would have been bad enough but I didn't know the city. I have to say I got them off the side of the road and took them downtown for supper and then got us back to the hotel so I was pretty proud of myself. It was definitely stressful though...oh my god! As for the game...:( The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost and it was INCREDIBLY close and I was really into the game and upset at the loss. I was glad I wasn't at the game or I probably would have cried. Oh well, my friend Kelsi told me today that 1500 people were there to greet the Roughriders in Regina and the Montreal Allouettes(who were the Grey Cup winners) only had 100. IT SUCKS TO BE THEM! It was so close it didn't even matter after the fact really... Anyway, it was a wonderful, fun filled weekend and was happy to go out and have so much fun. The ride home was long and full of fog and ice but we made it safely. It was a wonderful time and am so happy with my GREAT boyfriend:) Hope you all are doing good too. PS: I have one more day of school left!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

HAPPY!

Things are looking up for me! I am coming to the end of school and have handed all but one big projects in. I am currently working on writing a children's book for my oracy and literacy class. I have to draw illustrations which is terrible because I am the worst "artist" ever! I have decided to write a book where entire pages are colors such as. "This is blue...the color of the sky! And then fill the entire page with blue paint...see how talented I am??? ;) HAHA Tonight is my Christmas party for school and can't wait to relax, have some drinks and dance the night away. Brian won a ticket to the Grey Cup in Calgary at his work which he is really excited about. I am going with him to Calgary but tickets are running upwards of 600 bucks now and so I will be watching the game from the hotel room but that is perfectly fine with me and I am just looking forward to the road trip and having a little break from life here for a couple of days. I'll post after the weekend and tell you all about it! On another happy note, my friend Kerilee just gave birth to a baby boy named Jayden. Congratulations Loa and Ryan!

Tangled Up In Blue

Life has been hectic lately with my job and with school. It feels like I have been spinning my wheels and getting nowhere fast and that to me is really frustrating. Yesterday, however, I finished the last presentation I have to do this semester and it felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. The next 3 weeks are filled with unit plans due and exams and am looking forward to the end of that. I have been stressed lately as my Mom has not been well, my Grandpa fell on the street yesterday and is in the hospital, I am still dealing with my father's estate and have been trying to get scholarships and money of some sort as I have had no money coming in for the last 3 months which in itself has been quite hellish for me and I am finding it hard to make ends meet right now. I hope things all start to look up for me pretty soon and I am sure they will....they always do and then looking back things don't ever seem as bad as they do at the time. I am still with Brian and he has been great and very supportive and helpful lately which I am really thankful for. He is even teaching himself how to cook and cooking for me! I was able to do a painting seminar with a famous Metis artist named Christie Belcourt 2 days ago. I am not that artistic but can tell you that doing art is very calming and I really enjoyed it...maybe I found a new hobby;)I have Christmas parties coming up so my next post should be a positive one telling you all about all the fun I had;) Hope you are all well xo

SUNTEP Pubcrawl

I have never been on a pubcrawl in my life...all of my years of University and nada. SUNTEP put on a Pubcrawl and the theme was "Anything But Clothes..." a few weeks ago and it was a blast! It all started with a beer night at JAX (well known in Saskatoon as a place to pick up cougars). It started at 6pm and so alas...no cougars:( i hear they usually come out a bit later than that, maybe 8ish??? haha. We went to a total of 4 bars and I was home in bed by 11pm..yes, embarassing I know. I tell you, I definitely am too old to be partying all night, as soon as that bus pulled up to the starting point I was in a cab on my way to bed. We plan to host another this year which i am looking forward to. I am on the SRC this year and we have been super busy planning events. It is nice to be involved and have so many things to do but at the same time I am finding it exhausting. For example, in the next 4 weeks we have a Children's Halloween Party, a Steak Night, Children's Christmas Party, our SUNTEP Christmas shindig, and Louis Riel Day. This is just "on the side" and comes after both school and my new job!

2010...THE YEAR OF THE BRIDESMAID

I am very excited! My two best friends are both getting married next year and both have asked me to be their bridesmaids! Angie is getting married at the beginning of April in Mexico. I am so pumped because I have never been there before. Brian is coming with me and he has been to Mexico many times so I will have my own personal tour guide. We will be spending a week on the beach right before I have to write final exams...NICE! My other BFF Ashley is getting married in Tisdale on August long weekend and I am her bridesmaid as well. She is getting married in the movie theatre which I think is a really cool idea. I always wanted to say(in an eeyore voice of course) "Always a bridesmaid, never a bride".....well now I finally can! ;)

Singers and Supermodels

Brian did a celebrity look a like collage(I suggest you try because it is quite humorous.) Personally, I think he is the spitting image of Seth Rogan and he is told this by many other people as well. The collage, however, shows that he looks like none other than supermodel Christie Brinkley!!!!!!!!!!! When he chose another picture and tried again he looked 90% like Beyonce...wow I must be dating a really good lookin woman...

Poor student and retarded boyfriend????

So Brian's favorite restaurant ever is BONANZA. A place where(until i met him) I had only eaten at once in my life. It is popular for it's salad bar which is what the two of us always get. Normally we get pops...I have Diet Pepsi and he has Dr. Pepper(code for both is DP) so the confusion ensues and different numbers of straws are added to drinks to tell them apart. On this day, however, we both ordered waters as we have been working out and eating healthier. Brian proceeded to tell the young waitress that that would be all and so the poor girl crumpled up the bill, handed us our waters and exclaimed that we did not owe any money and could sit in the restaurant wherever we wanted. We were both kind of flabbergasted... uncertain as to whether she was joking around with us or if she actually thought we just wanted to sit in the restaurant and drink our glasses of water.
The big question though in our heads was "Would someone actually do that and has this happened before?" The normalcy that the girl felt with our "only waters ma'am" was what threw us off the most. All in all, we got our salad bar sans soft drinks;) Delish! Immediately following this dinner outing we went to Indigo(great bookstore) where I ran into one of my professors and his lady friend. This lady friend of his was telling me that i was very poised... this is when Brian shoved an entire ice cream cone(which he had taken from the Bonanza salad bar) into his mouth preventing him from entering into the conversation....

According to Erickson...

As I am back in the full swing of things at University I have been attempting to stuff semi-useless knowledge into my head for the last week. Classes are great and love 90% of them and have been going to the gym too trying to rid myself of the flab that I had planned on getting rid of in the summer but didn't... I am taking Educational Psychology(love it!) and yesterday we were learning about Erickson's theory regarding human beings and their psychological development. Erickson is unlike Freud and as I am not a fan of Freud have decided to buy into his theory of "life stages". It would be boring to go into the stages but what i found humorous and have been thinking about a lot is how I seem to be behind in my life stage progression while, at the same time, light years ahead where I ask the philosophical questions most would only ask themselves on their death bed. Apparently(psychologically) I am living through the 13-18 year old stage as well as the elderly(60 plus) stage simultaneously at my 28 years of age. I will admit I have been called crazy so this really does explain an awful lot...
PS: I find it difficult not to notice the drink in Erickson's hand and the discombobulated look in his eyes;)

Fact: The "G" in "Gnome is Silent

Just wanted to officially announce that Brian and I will be gnomes for Halloween this year. For some reason we find them funny and have been making jokes about them for quite some time now. He even went so far as to buy a 40 dollar book called "Gnomeland" at a store called "Le Gnome". We have learned many facts about these small garden people. They have quite the history! It is actually quite odd the amount of information you can find on the topic of gnomes even in a simple google search. The main thing to know is that gnomes lie, are mischievous and should never, ever be trusted. Next time you come across one of these mythical little men...keep that in mind;)

Taking the Good with the Bad

As it may have seemed like I had fallen off the face of planet earth this last month or so, I will assure you I have not. I have had a mix of good times and bad in the last little while. I attended two weddings at the beginning of August which were great. Amber and Mike were married August 1st in Saskatoon at St. John's Cathedral with festivities that followed at the Radisson. I have to say that it was one of thd fanciest weddings I had ever been to where we ate prime rib and were served individually by waiters wearing white gloves. The second wedding was Brian's friends wedding, Tim and Sarah on August 7th at the Forestry Farm in Saskatoon followed by the Park Town Hotel. Also, very nice wedding and VERY good time.(Picture is of us at Tim's wedding). Actually, Brian caught the garter at Tim's wedding and proceeded to throw it back....yes......and I am not joking about this whatsoever....Anyway, it has been a month and once in awhile I bring this up;) In August I worked a lot at the bar trying to get all my hours in to cover the student grant contract that I had signed. There was one week that I worked close to 60 hours and was exhausted and ready for school to start. It seems odd that someone would be as excited as I for school to start but alas, it was a looooonnnnng 4 months and was thrilled that today was my first day of school( always has been my favorite time of year!). I love the fall and being on campus, today however, you could not for one instance say that it was 'fall". It was the hottest day Saskatoon had seen all summer I am pretty sure at a whopping 39 degrees! i got a sunburn walking from my class to my car. The car was super far away but still...today was all about "insta-tan" for me as I had not really had the chance to be outside all summer. I went golfing a couple of times in August which is great because now I have more to talk with my brother about as he loves that sport and has played for years. On a sadder note...2 days ago my Mom came to the city for an angiogram. They had to put a stent in one of her arteries and one of her other's is 90% clogged so her risk of heart attack and stroke is extremely high. My mother has battled with diabetes for years and it has caused her many other health problems including partial loss of sight due to hemorraging in the eyes. The heart surgery that she had creates a situation where she has to take plavix and aspirin for the rest of her life and she is not supposed to take aspirin because it puts her at high risk for her eyes hemhorrhaging again in the future and losing her sight completely! Pretty horrifying news for someone who will be celebrating her 52nd birthday in a couple of weeks....

"I do not know of any lawful impediment..."

My friend Chantelle got married on July 25th in Tisdale. They exchanged vows at the United Church. The vows consisted of the title of this blog... I find it humorous. Actually I think the bride and groom did as well so immediately following this vow the pastor took it upon himself to say "I know that sounds funny but..."(and went into the history of these words). Apparently the "lawful impediment" spiel is replacing the objection spiel "speak now or forever hold your peace!" That was always my favorite part of the wedding. I always wondered if someone would pipe up and the wait was intense...;) In movies someone would always burst through the door at that very moment right? So anyway, the pastor also had a lot of other rules like no confetti, no picture taking and no cell phones. haha It was a beautiful wedding and Chant looked gorgeous..no surprise there:) I had a great time. Brian came down for it and I got to see friend's that I haven't seen since Erin's wedding last summer. It was really hot on Saturday but the ceremony was actually very short and sweet(guess I am used to Catholic weddings) and we were all in the air conditioned bar about 40 minutes later! My friend Pam has been teaching in Taiwan and flew home so it was really nice to see her and hear all about her new life there. It sounds like many things are very similar to Japan. She teaches the same age groups and class types as I did, there numbers sound the same(she is currently learning their language), and is enjoying meeting other foreigners and the "party life" of living overseas. Don't think karaoke is as big as it is in Japan but still a prominent part of life there. The pictures look beautiful...makes me want to travel again. My other two good friends were two of the bridesmaids and are both expecting! Kerilee is due in the fall and Erin is due in January. I am so excited for them. As they were both "with child" they could not drink but still managed to bust a move. All of us "old people" requested a lot of 90's ditties to dance to after midnight...good times

Our Vacation:)

Well the funnest week ever is over:( Brian and I went to Edmonton and spent the first day at the amusement park. He had never gone on a roller coaster before so that was pretty fun because he was screaming the whole time...not that i can talk because I got scared on the rides on more than one occasion. The thing about both of us is that we do not do well on rides and have weak stomachs so you can imagine what ensued. We would go on a couple of rides and then sit down with our heads down and pound back a ginger ale to settle our stomachs and then keep going. At one point we had to leave the amusement park altogether and sit somewhere quieter where there wasn't so much spinning but we kept going back and trying again. Brian popped some balloons to win me a stuffed animal and talked the girl into giving me a Curious George so I was pretty pumped about that. We stayed at the Fantasyland Hotel and I loved it...we didn't get a theme room because it was 300 dollars and the only ones left were truck theme and old-fashioned theme...boooorrrrriiiinnng;)
We went to the casino that night and I won a little money so all in all it was a great day. The next day I woke up super early like a little kid at Disneyland and was ready to go watersliding. My favorite was the tube slide...the last time we went on it I injured Brian. He flew off his tube and I ran into him with mine repeatedly...good times. We went to this awesome Asian food market and it totally reminded me of Japan and we even saw dried minnows...oishi desu! We went shopping a bit and found a store called "Le Gnome". Now this was an awesome find since gnomes in general has been an ongoing inside joke between me and the boyfriend. Brian asked one of the salespeople if they sold any gnomes or gnome paraphanalia. the lady took him to a section that had 3 things that had to do with gnomes and he said " oh, so it's not just false advertising". then he bought me one of the 3 gnome things which was a book of gnome facts called "Gnomeland". It is pretty hilarious. I will have to post pictures of it:) When we got back to Saskatoon we needed a day to re-cooperate. Brian bought a Wii...also good times, bowling was my favorite. We played tennis, went for walks, mini-golfed, went to batting cages, saw "I love you man" (great movie)on the days that followed. It has now come to an end and I have to go back to Tisdale and work. My mom had my car all week and was driving to the city to pick me up this morning and the motor in my car seized up! Now between the two of us we have zero cars... is it horrible luck or a sign that I am supposed to prolong my vacation??? I am awaiting the arrival of a tow truck carrying my Mom and my car that has seemed to have passed away. fingers crossed that it is fixable and I can make it back home! I will put pictures on soon...I promise

June and July in some sort of Nutshell...

WOW! I can't believe my 4 month summer is over half over. It has all been a whirlwind thus far! I am working at the bar 40 hours a week...finding the hours and the work exhausting lately. On a whim I asked my boss for a whole week off and GOT it:) Brian took the same week off as me and we are now officially on holidays. I went to meet the family and stay with them for a couple of nights and we just got back to Saskatoon last night. It was fun, got to meet his parents, sister, 14 month old niece and his 11 year old dog. The baby (Berlyn) liked me the first day but by the last day she wasn't sure about me. Brian, I and his parents had a long kaiser game where they won and we went golfing with his Dad yesterday. I am not bragging but I have never golfed before and i was pretty amazing and beat my boyfriend;) haha. This morning we are off to West Edmonton Mall to go to the waterpark there...seems crazy to drive for 5 1/2 hours to go watersliding but it will be great I am sure. In other news, my Mom, brother and I just went to Alberta for my Grandpa's memorial service which was on Father's Day. I was driving Mom's car and we had almost arrived when I ran over a muffler laying in the middle of the highway. Very scary, no one was hurt but Mom just found out they are writing her car off and she will have to buy a new one...uncool. Well I better get a move on here...hope all is well and everyone is enjoying their summer.

Not a Big Deal...

While proofreading my boyfriend's resume for him I found myself wondering where in the heck I found such a good catch. I always say he is a "smart ass" but this is not true...he is very smart and talented and I knew some things that he had accomplished but not all until I saw his resume. I was skimming and saw that he had won the Governor General's Award(pretty big deal I would say). I was like " Wow, you won that!?" and he replied "Well yeah, I think all Valedictorian's just get it."
Apparently being Valedictorian and winning the Governor General Award is just not a big deal... what a nut;)

Soup and Sandwiches

So I took myself out for lunch today. The thing about eating in a restaurant alone is that you have no one to look at or talk to and therefore you can "people watch" to a greater extent than can normally be done whilst with a companion. I have few pet peeves but one that drives me crazy is the "scraping of the bowl". I have never in my life seen someone scrape the bowl for the last remnants of soup as I did today. I always bug my Mom because she is famous for that...particularly with her yogurt;) Anyway, for approximately 4 1/2 minutes this lady vigorously scraped her empty soup bowl trying to get more soup when everyone could clearly see there was none left. After the third minute I was ready to go and give her two dollars to buy another bowl so she would stop it. Another thing that happened during lunch was I changed my view on teenagers. Working at the junior high/ high school last year I found myself being perturbed by the younger generation. Today I saw groups of teeny boppers who were extremely polite and donated money to "camp for kids", talked with mentally challenged people, gave up their seats for people older than them and asked me politely if they could borrow the chair from my table and then all thanked me and smiled. WOW! I was quite excited about all of it and was almost contemplating for a moment to teach high school instead of elementary...
All in all, a pretty good lunch I would say:)

Lots of Laughs

I have been really busy working in Tisdale. Last weekend was my 28th birthday and my boyfriend came to Tisdale for the first time and met my Mom and all of my friends that live around there. It turned out well! The bar hosted their annual ball tourney last weekend so it was crazy busy and I worked 55 hours in one week and then worked a bunch of shifts straight right after that so that I could have a couple of days with Brian. As it turns out we ended up going on a little trip to Regina...fun fun fun! He had an appointment and needed a driver so we decided to make a road trip out of it. We stayed at the Hotel Saskatchewan which was super posh and also a little gawdy for my liking. Flowers galore and then when you thought there could be no more flowers there was;) Floral every place you looked...haha. An array of funny things happened while we were there. First we stopped at a liquor store and there was a busker outside of it singing CCR and about 12 other people. It was a little scary and they were yelling something or other about a treaty to us as we left. Then we decided to go to the casino. We called the shuttle and were waiting outside and I got in the wrong vehicle! Oh well, who knows one van from another right? We were playing Roulette and this drunk guy from Somalia came and was calling me "sweetie" and trying to tell everyone how to play and he seemed to think he knew how to beat the game. A lady from Italy was beside us and would bet on everything so that she always won but really would lose much more than she won each time. The Somalian was also trying to give her pointers and saying that Somalians love Italians. She was looking a little perturbed at all this and we didn't stick around to see what happened and moved on. Then after no luck on a couple of slot machines we decided to play Blackjack. Now I hadn't played in a long time so I wanted to watch Brian for awhile before I sat amongst a bunch of professionals;) I actually did pretty well EXCEPT some guy bet on my hand or something(I still don't really know what happened) and put some chips behind mine and then he won and then I got all excited and grabbed all of the chips but they weren't mine. The dealer was like "That's the funniest thing I have seen all night!" and then the guy(whose money I attempted to steal) immediately left our table...haha. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. The next day we went to a Vietnamese restaurant and the lady who was working there said "feel like me know you long time, you have such friendly face!". Brian had an appointment and his hands were numb and not working well because of the anaesthetic so I opened his pop for him. She came over and gave him "the look" and asked how long we had been together and then said that he was one lucky guy because I was so nice and happy. Somehow all of her comments throughout our meal implied that I should kick him to the curb and that he was not a nice happy person. It was really, really funny! Moral of this story...I gave her a huge tip for the compliments and Brian tipped her as well for being such a funny gal:)
Regina is totally bonkers....

Tickled Pink

Everything in my life that I was dreading is finished...final exams, the spring cleaning of my condo, and my brother's move from Alberta. I now have a few days to just relax and do fun stuff before I start work:) This is where I unveil my new boyfriend(drumroll....) named Brian. I made supper for him last night at my place(first time I have had him over!). I showed him my culinary skills...not them at their peak but definitely didn't wreck it;) He just wanted pasta so it is pretty hard to wreck that. Speaking of culinary skills....everyone in Japan thought I sucked during two different occasions 1) When I "manned the grill" and took 5 hours to barbeque stuff and it didn't turn out so well 2) When I attempted to make all of us "foreigners" a traditional Christmas dinner with two toaster ovens and some chickens. OK I am done with my reminiscing ...so yestersday we went for a walk and played in the park and ate ice cream like 5 year olds...good times! I debated going on the spring loaded horse but decided against it since I have been "bucked off" those things on two different continents on previous occasions already. I was hoping he would(so I could laugh at him) but sadly no... We went to play Risk with his friends today. I have not played that game since high school. I seem to remember being really good at it and always winning but today sadly I lost and was taken over. My mission was aborted when they realized what my mission was as I wasn't too secretive about it. oops! Guess I have forgotten how to play but it was fun anyway. Anyway, just want to let everyone know I am doing great and am a little smitten(cho sukoshi) at the moment and happier than I have been in a long time. Hope you are all well! Love you! xoxo

Moving x 4

Craziness and complete bonkerdom! So my brother is moving back to Saskatchewan and in an attempt to be a good sister(not that I am not one already!) I went with my Mom and her boyfriend to help him move. It actually was a really fun trip, we took turns driving and having "nap time" and singing songs as we always do on long road trips. We went to see my Grandma which was awesome since I hadn't seen her in almost a year. My Grandpa just passed away but Grams is doing great...spry as eva! We visited and took her to the casino and ate a bunch of food(always do...she is the stereotypical Ukrainian Baba). Anywho, I worked my butt off (as did everyone) cleaning and packing things yesterday. I left early this morning to come back to Saskatoon(7 hours away) with a car load of Brant's things and have begun my own work that needs to be accomplished. I am moving, have someone moving out and have my landlord's daughter moving in so I came to clean the place thoroughly! I have been scrubbing for over an hour and thought I would take a little break. Other than being busy and running all over the country I am doing and feeling pretty darn chipper! Until next time...Tress

Bookless Bliss

This is me smiling because I am happy!!!!!!!I AM FINISHED SCHOOL! Just wrote my last final...it was a toughie! I have made it through the year and am pretty pumped that it is summer and I have four whole months off from the books:) I am going out tonight to celebrate the great year and my good marks;) Hope all is well with you guys!

The Whirlwind That Is My Life

So my life right now is a bit crazy and it will only get crazier I am sure...
I am done school and have decided to work in Tisdale for the summer. I am writing final exams right now and have been driving back and forth to Tisdale(2 hours away) to work between these exams...it is bonkers! I am trying to juggle working, traveling, social life and exams at the moment and it is wearing me out. Not to mention I have become an avid LARPER in this past few weeks(just kidding). For instance, I worked till 2:30am last night, got up at 8:30am this morning, drove back to Saskatoon and am now leaving to go study at the University with my friend! All in a day's work right? Other than that I am doing fairly well. There will be a lot of moving and stuff next week as my brother is moving back to Saskatchewan and I somehow think I am going to have to help with that and also I may have people moving in and out of the condo I live in at the same time. My friend from Alberta is down right now and so I am going to go visit her tomorrow which I am excited about since I haven't seen her for so long but when the heck am I gonna have time to study????haha
Oh well, I am sure things will begin to settle down soon. Hope all is well with all of you and sorry if you can't get a hold of me...like I said I'm a tad busy for the time being;) xoxo

Happenings at Ye Olde Condo

Life is good but I am perturbed by my surroundings at the moment. I love my condo and it has a beautiful view of the golf course and a large pond. This pond is right outside my place and now that it is spring some "friends" of mine of flown back from the south. It was the geese who arrived a couple of weeks ago. It is mating season and all they all do is fight and/or try to "court" each other. They keep my up late at night and wake me up very early with their incessant honking and carrying on. I have attempted to borrow a gun of sorts from people but no one seems to have one;) The ducks just came a couple days ago and now the geese have others to talk to so it is louder than ever and they splash around day and night trying to maintain their respective turfs. Approximately 5 kids go out to the pond each day and throw rocks at them all and honk at them which has seemed to only create more havoc. Moving to the inside...my Mom brought me a new bed and since I do not have anywhere to put my old one at the moment I have mattresses out on my balcony blocking any light I may have had in here, headboard and endboard lie in my kitchen and pictures, decorations and a huge mirror as well as my roommates storage bins lying all over my house. It looks ridiculous. She is moving out soon and I can put the bed in her old room, etc, etc...Just gotta wait 2 more weeks! They have also been "testing" the fire alarm in the building and it goes off randomly and the shrill alarm plays for up to an hour at a time. Awesome! Soon ye olde condo will be back to normal...hopefully.

Reality Television Heartthrob of the Year!

All who know me know that I love my reality TV shows. The one that I am REALLY into right now is American Idol. I have realized just recently that I have fallen in love with one of the contestants(and yes I am aware that he is gay but that doesn't mean I still can't love him). He is AMAZING, I am not sure what he does but every time he steps on that stage I get goosebumps all over and I am not the type to be a screaming, giggling groupie. I am trying to study but can't seem to stop watching him sing "Ring of Fire" on You Tube repeatedly. I recommend you watch it immediately and then you will know what I am talking about:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-NULFMky4s&NR=1
Even Simon loves him! Oh Adam Lambert...you are so incredibly talented and original, not to mention easy on the eyes. If I was a man I would definitely have a "man crush" on you:)

Seth's New Flick

So we went to "Observe and Report" last night and now I feel that I indeed did observe it and now I am going to report. I have one word for the movie....WEIRD! It was going along just fine, like a regular Seth Rogan movie, when all of a sudden it got absolutely crazy and whacked. He is a mall security guy....well head of mall security to be exact. He is bipolar, falls in love with the cosmetics girl in the mall(Anna Farris), stops taking his pills and proceeds to get really loopy. He and his fellow mall cop(Michael Pena who is absolutely hilarious!!)are beating up kids and cops, shooting up with heroin, snorting cocaine, smoking weed(well no surprise there really).Then Seth starts threatening the cinnamon bun man and getting his own butt whooped by an entire police squad. His rival is Ray Liotta who is a detective and is trying to take over his terrain at the mall when a pervert begins flashing women in the parking lot. In an attempt to get back at Ray and show what he is made of, Seth quits at the mall and tries out for the police force where he does not get accepted because he fails his psychological evaluation. It was all so bizarre that it was hard not to laugh at it. I am more of a fan of "Knocked Up" and "40 Year Old Virgin" still I would have to say. All in all, I love Seth but I can't say I loved this movie nor can I say that I liked the 10 minute scene at the end of the "flasher" running naked through the mall although it was very laughable. The end shocks as Seth blows out the "flashers" brains but then he gets up and is alive. We kept giving each other strange looks and half laughs through the duration. My point...if you want to sit through an hour of asking the person you are with "What the hell is going on here????" then definitely go see it!;) xoxo

Thought of the Day

As I sit here studying and drinking my large double double a thought came to me about my favorite coffee. If you are a Canadian you will most certainly know about Tim Hortons. It is THE place for a cup of joe in our country. The line ups are usually out the door and if you choose drive thru you can expect to wait even longer. The coffee there is highly addictive, no other coffee seems to cut it for me or for most of my friends. It is kind of "the starbucks of saskatchewan";)Anyway, now that you have a little bit of background I want to rant a little. There is an annual contest at Tim's called "Roll Up the Rim"...now I am not angry because of the fact that I have NEVER won anything in all my coffee's there but I am a little perturbed by how the contest is played. You get a paper cup and roll the actual rim up where it says "Please Play Again".(or this is what all of mine say anyway) They give you a coffee in a glass cup and then give you a paper cup so that you can look at the rim and then it is thrown in the garbage. I keep thinking of all the waste that this is creating, millions of cups are not even being used but just tossed after the dreaded "please play again". I realize maybe people find it fun and the highlight of their day to physically roll a rim up on an enormous paper cup but come on....couldn't they just give us a little slip of paper , maybe a scratch and win or even a miniature cup where less paper and cardboard is being used??? I find it strange that in this day and age where everyone is "going green" that Tim's would create all of this waste. McDonalds even makes all of their stuff out of recycled materials and it is well...McDonalds.

Year Ender Bender

Well the year is over and classes were done last Wednesday! I was so excited and hyper last week but now, alas, I am feeling a little sad. This year was so much fun and I met so many awesome people which I won't see now for 4 months. Oh well, I need a break and need to work and make some money for next year! This pic is from our Christmas party, can't seem to get my hands on any from last week's party...oh well. Our year ender bender was on Wednesday. A bunch of us girls went out to the Dakota Dunes Casino to watch our friend sing in the Idol competition complete with American Idol music between singers...haha. It was fun and she did really well. The prize is 10,000 buckeroos so I hope she wins so she can take us all out;) We had our party at Maguires which is an Irish pub in Saskatoon and we rented out the top floor for it, had a DJ and of course a jigging competition. We drank and danced all night...good times! I went home to Mom's for Easter weekend and worked Friday and Saturday night, ate a lot on Sunday and then came back to the city. I gotta buckle down now and study for my finals so I should probably stop writing this blog and go ahead and get on that;) xoxo

"Spring Cleaning"

I don't know whether it is the fact that spring has finally sprung but I am extremely (almost deliriously) happy. My life seems to be in order for once and everything is going swimmingly. It felt like a REALLY rough, long winter filled with hardships but now every day the snow melts a little more and I see more signs of life rather than death. I find it extremely euphoric because the period of trepidation is now over. It feels like I have been hibernating and can finally wake up and "smell the roses" so to speak. This time of year always makes me want to run...not away from people, but just go and see the world because the feeling of being confined has finally dissipated. The cleansing effect that spring seems to have on me is in it's process...the rain will wash away everything that has happened in the past year and allow me to start anew and refreshed. The cool raindrops drip down my skin and leave everything completely scarless yet again. The scars will always remain(I know that) yet I feel I will have another try at least. Let the past stay in the past, let me look forward to the future. My soul, my body and my mind all need a darn good scrubbing... Spring represents new things and rebirth to me and I guess that is why this ecstacy is pouring out of me. Just like the song says "For every season, there is a reason..."

Thoughts on the Inevitable...

It seems as though when one person dies it has a rippling effect. My Dad passed away 9 short months ago and this morning my Grandpa(his father) passed on as well. Death is a funny thing because it is inevitable and it will happen to all of us yet it is a difficult thing to deal with. It brings memories( and emotions that we carry along with those memories)to the forefront. I think of death as not being the end of life but the end of any sort of pain and suffering they were enduring. Everyone believes something different based on their individual spirituality. Some believe in heaven and hell, some believe in reincarnations, some believe they are still here or alive in spirit but their physical being no longer exists and some people believe they are just gone...asleep forever. Whatever the case is, they are no longer a part of our world and our daily lives but their memories live on in each of us that knew them. Death causes us to celebrate someone's life here on this earth and remember the things that they had done. Inevitable tragedy brings great strength to anyone who endures it...death is the perfect example of this. It is easier to cope when someone has lived a full life. My Dad died at only 52 years of age and it came quickly and as quite a shock, yet my Grandpa had lived a full life and had slowly been declining. This made me realize that depending on age and cause, death can have a very different impact on those left to mourn. The sun has set for the last time on the life of someone I loved but I will always remember the days when the sun was shining.
I don't make a habit out of quoting the bible but this Ecclesiastes quote epitomizes the point I am trying to make, there truly is a time for everything(good or bad):

"For everything there is a season,
And a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to tear, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate,
A time for war, and a time for peace."

AURORA BOREALIS

YESTERDAY WAS(cue in drumroll)...... EARTH DAY! Everyone was to shut all of their lights off from 8:30pm-9:30pm to make a statement about energy conservation. Cities all over the globe took part, including my city of Saskatoon! I have just begun to realize how lucky I am to live in Canada. Canada is one of the most beautiful, least polluted places on the planet. There are moments of true natural beauty here in front of my very eyes. Saskatchewan is famous for it's Northern Lights(aka: Aurora Borealis). One of the most fascinating places to view the Northern Lights in Canada is along the shores of Hudson Bay in Manitoba ... polar bear country! The other prairie provinces of Canada(where I am living right now) are also excellent for viewing the Northern Lights as there are wide open spaces and very few towns meaning plenty of darkness to enjoy the spectacular sight. The hours around midnight are the most rewarding to watch "Nature's Fireworks". I thought I would show some of you living in other parts of the world what it looks like:) Let's keep our planet beautiful and try to take care of it. HAPPY EARTH DAY!

The Infamous Fork

I thought that the infamous fork in the road( that we all come to at some point in our lives) was divided into two. There are said to be two different paths and one has to decide to take one or the other. It is pretty black and white... choose A or B, left or right. The standard fork in North America has 5 prongs. I have come to the North American fork in the road where there are 5 different decisions I could make and all could inevitably change my life. I have never been one for making decisions. I ponder too much and think too much, and in the end, usually stay where I am and never fully make a decision one way or the other. Maybe this is because I am a Gemini? I have two personalities and my rational, intelligent person often disagrees with my "fly by the seat of my pants", heavily emotional person. Who really knows why I am the way that I am....I know I don't. So I won't get into the logistics of these private decisions but they are very hard ones to make. I hope I can get enough enlightenment to make the right decision and then enough courage to follow through with it. It is scary to think that I am in charge of my own destiny and whatever decisions I make are ones that I will have to live with forever. I wish there were less options because then I could just do eeny meeny miney mo;)

MY PROMISE TO MYSELF

I promise to...

Marry my soul mate
See the Great Wall of China
Adopt a baby from China
Own a home
Return to Japan
See the Eiffel Tower
Go to Shakespeare's home
Go para-sailing
Learn another language
Have babies
Be healthy
Donate my organs
Donate my time for a good cause
Get 2 (or 3) University degrees
Write a book
Take lots of pictures
Have a spa day
Drink wine and espresso in Italy
Go scuba diving in Australia
Have a job that I LOVE
Inspire someone
Live every single day like it is my last...

Death by School

Homework is literally killing me...I swear! haha
Having almost completed my first year of school I am feeling overwhelmed and, in general, very tired. I forgot that the end of the year means tons of work. Every day I seem to have hours of homework to do... not to mention meetings and other engagements. I am on student council for next year which I am happy about but I will have a course load of 13 classes(I just found this out today!) I guess I should count myself lucky right now because next year will undoubtedly be MUCH worse in terms of workload. It seems odd because the work is not the same as what I had to do for my first degree yet it seems that everything expected in Education takes a lot of planning and is therefore quite tedious and time consuming. I am looking forward to the last day of school which is April 8th and then I am looking forward to my last final exam on April 25th. I am moving back to Tisdale for the summer to work and hopefully(fingers crossed) save a ton of money for next year. I am not used to living on a "student's salary" ;) Wish me luck on my exams and papers, hopefully it will all be smooth sailing...

A Heartfelt Shout Out!

PUGS SCHMUGS
Just want to send one heartfelt shout out to Miss Jody for the lovely display of pugs on her blog put there especially for my viewing pleasure! Just in case people don't know, I have a problem with these creatures. The main problem is that their eyes do not look directly at you. There is always one eye that is somehow looking in the wrong direction. Also, they look to me as if their faces have been pressed in and I always feel bad and want to pop it back out for them;) I am loving this ongoing joke though and always smile when I get a google-eyed pug postcard from my friends over in Japan. Thanks You Two!(I am sure Juan had something to do with all this as well) xoxo

My Slate

We are all born completely and totally innocent. We are truly clean slates, untouched by any type of emotion or hardship. I have been thinking about what life does to us...how each thing we do from the moment we are born, or each thing that is done to us, shapes us into who we are. Some people blossom into beautiful, intelligent people and others don't . Is this because they inherently were born to not succeed in life? Are people born with a certain kind of temperament that is unchangeable? I do not have answers to these questions but it often seems this way. Scientologists believe that we choose our own parents even before conception. There is also a belief that through reincarnations we hold karmic relations with certain people(our parents) and choose to be born to them for one reason or another. I am not sure that these ideologies sit well with me. I do not think that anyone would choose to be born into some of the abusive, impoverished conditions that they are in if it was their choice. Karma is something which I do believe in however. I think we all attract certain things or people (good or bad) to ourselves through our thoughts and actions. We should live our lives in such a way that every action tells others what type of person we are and know that whether it is now or down the road, those actions will come back to us and therefore live our lives accordingly. I have been having very strong memories lately, they are not brought on by anything in particular but I seem to be reminiscing about my life in general. They could be memories from last year, memories from my time in Japan, or memories from when I was 4 years old but I have come to realize they have all shaped me into the person that I am right now at this very moment. Are people born depressed or shy or is that something that developed because of defining moments of their life that turned out negatively? Are people happy and successful because they were always told by their parents that they could achieve anything? Experiences we have throughout our lifetime change the structure of our personality for better or worse. I think that although our slates have been written on, and for me at 28 years old, there is A LOT of writing but I believe no matter what we can make a choice. We can choose to wallow in past mistakes or move forward with our lives and change our perception about ourselves and the world around us. I want to live a life of complete freedom and joy and try to have life experiences that will make me feel these things . My new creed is "Dance like no one is watching, love like you'll never be hurt,sing like no one is listening,and live like it's heaven on earth."
If the whole world could do that what a place it would be...

Winter Blues

It is March 8th and it is cold. The wind blows, we have blizzards and all you see everyday is white snow all around you. I am getting really sick of this. I was quite happy and optimistic until the last couple days. Now I am just thinking " Come on, Enough Already!" Living in Saskatchewan, Canada we live through about 7 months of cold, snow filled days. There are about 2 1/2 months of nice, warm weather and the other 2 1/2 months are all about slush, mud, rain and all the leaves dying or budding on the trees. Although I have lived here almost my entire life I cannot help but wonder who would choose to live through this. Yes it is beautiful in the summer(all 2 1/2 months of it) but the rest of the year it sucks! I am so used to plugging in my car, having to let it warm up for 20 mins before I can drive it, shoveling snow, brushing snow off my car 3 times per day, taking heavy winter clothes on and off every time I go in and out and lastly just basically freezing my bum off. Frankly, it really chaps my ass (metaphorically and literally). I talk to friends in other countries where it is 10 degrees celsius while I am sitting here in -35 degrees celsius and am insanely jealous. It doesn't really seem fair. I will continue to wait patiently until spring has sprung. Hope all who are living elsewhere are enjoying your lovely weather;) xoxo

A Serious Contemplation...

Love is a funny thing...
I don't think you can help who you are in love with. No one can. It is something that is either there or it is not. Other factors don't seem to take precedent over this feeling and the heart usually wins over the head. I have been asking both married women and women who have been divorced what love is and what makes a marriage work. All have said "You just know." The divorced people say that they knew in their heart that it was not right and would not work before they even walked down the aisle. I wondered if they thought that in retrospect but after accidently saying that out loud they answered that you know in your heart if it is wrong or right at the time. The ones that are married say that it is incredibly hard and it takes a lot of effort to keep a marriage alive and well. You need to have the love but there are so many other factors to take into consideration. I think in this day in age where divorce is so prevalent it makes it hard to make decisions about marriage. People seem to wait longer and longer to tie the knot and are far more contemplative about their potential mate thinking of all possible factors and making list upon list of positive and negative attributes. (Maybe this is just me??)
A common thing for people to do in modern times like these is select their dates on the internet. You get a list of their basic traits which include height, eye and hair color and even religion. You see if they have been married before or have had children with anyone else. Is this how you should meet someone? Is it possible that fate is a myth and a computer can play cupid?!?!? Fearful of making a mistake, I tend to overanalyze things and feel that I can not just listen to my heart but think down the road to the hardships that may or may not occur. I have talked with single people, people in relationships(both long and short term) and people that are married. Every person has a different story, different set of obstacles and different views on love and how relationships should be run. A friend of mine told me that an old lady she worked with(who had been married almost 70 years) told her that the secret to a long marriage is strength. Each person individually has to be strong enough to carry the other through the times when they fall out of love. This is reminiscent of "Footsteps" where the man thinks that he has been abandoned and God tells him that the times he saw one set of footprints in the sand was not because he was left alone...they were the times when he carried him. One person must always have enough love for both of them or it will not work.Each will undoubtedly fall in and out of love with the other throughout a lifetime together. I have concluded that there is no right thing to do and no cut and dry answers when it comes to love which poses a problem for me as I do not like to take risks. I want to be assured that everything will be perfect... but life is not perfect nor are relationships. Is love enough to make things work? Does the heart dictate a smooth marriage? In order to love someone completely you have to be able to forgive, compromise, compliment, apologize and above all respect that person for who they are and what they stand for. In addition to love...acceptance, respect and understanding are the key attributes.True love will encompass all of these things. Are we ever assured that we will not encounter problems of such magnitude that it forces us to give up on that person? My conclusion is there will never be that assurance but love does conquer all and it is the strongest of any human emotion. Love is all you have in life. Everyone inherently wants to love and to be loved. I am finally putting caution to the wind and shutting off my analytical side and will begin to finally succumb to this idea. If not I will surely end up alone with my bottle of wine sitting on my afghan covered couch surrounded by cats like Bridget Jones(in the first movie of course ;)

Barren of Solace

I write a lot and I have started a number of novels over past couple of years. Here are a couple of excerpts from the one I am working on right now entitled "Pieces"

We all wear our grief as a badge for everyone to see, it shows others that we loved and did it well. There is always that picture on the wall of what you think your life is like but undoubtedly it falls off at some point and is smashed. All you can do is stare at all of the broken pieces and know that you will never be able to glue all of those tiny slivers back together.


I found out today that one song played on the radio can evoke an emotion so strong it takes you in an instant roller coaster ride breaking your heart all over again and leaving you breathless, heart racing. I never want to hear it again...

Comments, criticisms, questions greatly appreciated...

KETSUEKI-GATA

I have been more and more interested in the Japanese belief that specific blood types have specific personality traits. This is similar to the western world belief in astrology and is referred to as ketsueki-gata. In 1900, Karl Landsteiner of Austria found that there were three major blood types(A, B and O). Judging people based on at blood types was used by German Nazis in order to further ideas of supremacy over different races. It is believed that blood type is based on ethnicity or at least the likelihood of certain blood types are. For example, Japanese most commonly are Type B while Taiwanese are more likely to be O. As a political scheme at the turn of the century the government spoke about intermarrying Japanese with Tawainese to create less people with Type O blood. People with Type O blood are considered to be rebellious, open to revolt, and in general, people who behave cruelly. I guess that is why when my friend Daichi asked my blood type and I said O- he had little to say except " Oh really! (cue long awkward pause...) In Canada, I am bothered daily with phone calls asking me for my blood. Only 7% of the world's population has O- blood type and because it is a universal donor type they want it. I feel a sense of prestige and importance when at the Canadian Blue Cross society having the blood type that I do. I mean I could save anybody with any blood type. I mean I know "blood is in you to give" but I am not sure I have enough in my body to keep these people satisfied! I don't know if I should stay in Canada and deal with the daily phone calls begging me for my blood or if I should return to Japan where I will be watched carefully in case I am going to do some sort of evil deeds which will undoubtedly not be my fault as they are
genetically determined by my blood type...Think that is what my students thought??

Guess I was just born like this;) Awwwwww!

Your Birthday Predicts You're Nurturing

Ever since you were born, you've loved being a caretaker. Whether you're caring for people or animals, you love making others feel good. You don't stress or worry much in your life. You think it's important not to sweat the small stuff. You have a soft spot in your heart for children and pets. You are drawn to anyone in need.

Red River Roots

We left on Sunday Feb 8th at 10am and had a loooonnnnggg bus ride! We watched Murray's movie pick on the way there called "Carlito's Way". I wouldn't recommend it. I brought "The Office" and was able to sneak in a couple of episodes on the way up. Everyone seemed to have no trouble sleeping and I did not sleep at all so by time we made it there I was exhausted and ready for bed. Day One was a day for archival research and my roommate and I had a rocky start to the week. Marcy and I were a whole 8 minutes late and so everyone had left us except Murray who waited to walk with us. It was very slippery out and we were kind of sliding along behind him and due to some miscommunication we went to walk through the mall to get their instead of follow him. Marc fell in a puddle and had a soaking wet bum and we got lost 3 times trying to get out of the mall and make our way to the archives. Long story short, we found it and lasted a couple of hours there before returning to the hotel for an afternoon of Dr. Phil and Oprah. We had a guest speaker and dinner that night at the hotel by Dr. Frank Tough and it was short and sweet which was nice. Day Two consisted of going to the Metis Resource Center to do more geneological research. It was time consuming and we barely made it back to the hotel for a presentation by Maria Campbell(one of my role models). It was interesting as we were shown historical fashions and had to each pick an article of clothing and explain it to everyone. All of us girls went out to karaoke where we sang and danced for hours...good times! Wednesday was my favorite day as we went to see Louis Riel's grave, went to the St. Boniface Museum which was awesome, they had Riel's original coffin there and we saw two Riel statues. We also went to The Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature which was one of the largest museums I have ever been to. The museum had a little theatre in it where you could watch old movies and I don't know if it was because I was overtired or what but those old comedies are a hoot! That night we all were treated to dinner at the Olive Garden! Day Four consisted of a sleep in and a guest speaker in the afternoon. I was ready to go home and we made it back swiftly and safely on Friday.It was a wonderful opportunity and I enjoyed the trip and the company! It was eye opening to go to a place where my ancestors had been and learn about the things they lived through and how hard they fought for our people. I came back with a sense of pride and I am thankful for that...

Shenanigans in Winnipeg

Here are some pictures of my friends/ fellow Sunteppers on our Winnipeg 2009 trip...Enjoy!

Winnipeg Trip 2009

I went east of Saskatchewan for the first time ever and loved it! Honestly, Manitoba is Saskatchewan's twin sister but I still got to go see something a little bit different so I was happy. To my surprise I really liked Winnipeg and found it to be quite beautiful(even in the winter). While we were there it rained alot and was cold and so it lead to ICY streets and roads. They closed down the highway and a couple of my friends fell on the icy streets. Surprisingly I did not fall but I won't speak too soon;) The sidewalks were equivalent to skating rinks and although I can skate I sure didn't have any with me! We did some school work and had a lot of fun and the people that I went with were great! The SUNTEP program that I am in is a program for Metis students and it is absolutely wonderful. I have learned so much about myself and my culture in the last few months. The purpose of the trip was to do genealogical research at the archives in Manitoba and at the Metis resource centre. We also had time for karoake, museums, seeing The Forks and Riel's grave, long walks around town, shopping, dinners, and drinking! There was only 6 of us from my class that went and we had a great time. Marcy, Cara, Claire, Sarah, Sam and I and the rest were in 2nd year of studies. We all had a great time together though. I belted out a ditty( or five) one of the nights at the hotel and was missing Japan quite a bit.Karoake seems to do that to me;) I will write more and put up a slideshow soon with trip highlights! kawin'a ki'we'ta'n

The Samurai! Hai!

I had a real treat tonight! My boss's from Tisdale, Ronnie and Gene, took me out to a FANTASTIC Japanese dinner which was absolutely amazing! I have been there once before about 5 years ago but after having lived in Japan( and having a real taste of Japanese food )I have to say I REALLY appreciated it this time. I had bay scallops and steak along with lots of veggies, sticky rice and miso soup and quite a few spicy caesars;) We had a great waiter in the lounge that turned out to be from Archerwill area and although our chef wasn't a talkative chap he did make a steaming volcano on the grill out of onions so I was more than happy;) We sat with some girls from Regina who were my age and in Saskatoon for night on the town. I had a great visit with Ronnie and Gene accompanied by great food, great drinks and of course, a great atmosphere! Gene had a Geisha drink which was made of Triple Sec, Sake, Pineapple Juice and Grenadine...what a punch that had! WOW! Anyway, it was a wonderful experience and if anyone is ever in Saskatoon and loves Japanese food you should definitely go there. Thank you Ronnie and Gene for taking me there, it was awesome!
KOMPEI AND ARRIGATO GOZAIMUSU!
I am off to Winnipeg early in the morning so I will post when I get back from my trip....SAYONARA MINA-SAN!