Random...

Reunion!

2008-02-12T00:01:00.000+01:00

This last weekend I went to Guadalajara to see my old roomies Martha and Mineko. They still live in the same house, so it was like coming home again. With a few noticeable differences. The furniture is different, and Martha replaced me by buying a dog. Flattering, really.

We spent a great weekend catching up, eating too much, gossiping and shopping. It was so nice to see them again, it was like not seeing my sisters for three and a half years. I got to meet their new dudes, see other old friends and realize that time passing doesn't necessarily mean that things change that much.

Carnaval in Veracruz!

2008-02-11T23:33:00.000+01:00

It's no Rio, but Veracruz is one of the best places in Mexico to celebrate Carnaval. Obviously we couldn't miss out on the party, so 7 (six girls and one guy-- lucky bastard!) of us traveled to Veracruz to see how the Veracruzanos got down. Before the festivities started, we attempted to do a bit of sightseeing. Veracruz is a port city, so while there is a boardwalk along the ocean-- it's kind of ugly. Veracruz also is the home of the Mexican Naval Academy (pictured above), so there were a few sailors to be seen that weekend.
The first night we were there, we managed to get into the carnival spirit by purchasing these cheesy masks! We went to see a few performances, and of course-- started to get our drink on. The vibe in the city was pretty amazing, it was ridiculously full and everyone was there to have a good time. The best thing about people in Veracruz is that they love to dance! So, while bands are playing or parades are going on, people are getting their dance on. We partied late into the night/early morning, and woke up ready to do the same thing the next day!

The next evening, before going to see the big Carnaval parade, Katie and I decided to buy the shiniest fabric we could find and make these shirts. To add to the beauty, we also purchased some intensely fake eyelashes that made us look like drag queens. Luis got in on the fun by buying a moustache.

We were obviously looking very good that night, because we even got interviewed by a Mexican television station! The anchorman loved Katie, and she egged him on by blowing him kisses. The parade ended up being pretty awesome, lots of dancers and great floats. It was a VERY Mexican parade- it started 4 hours late. It was worth the wait, as there was entertainment while waiting for the parade. The beer Sol sponsored Carnaval so it had set up all these stages where people were competing in competitions such as dance-offs. The copious amounts of cheap beer made those competitions pretty entertaining.

Luis, Katie and I met up with the others later on (they were too lazy to come to the parade) and ended up going to a cantina where there were lots of old people dancing to salsa and banda until the wee hours of the morning.

The next two days we decided to relax on the beach. The one small problem was that we had no hotel room booked for the last night. That small problem was more like a big problem because there were absolutely no hotel rooms available. Luckily, our friend Chelsea had 2 friends in Veracruz for Carnival and they had a hotel room with 2 double beds and ample floor space. We managed to all sneak in for the night (definitely cozy). However, Chelsea's friends had a flight out at 5 a.m. the next morning and the hotel had no idea we were all crashing in their room. We figured we had at least a few hours grace period before the maids came around to clean, but they came sooner than expected. Around 8 a.m. the maid opened the door, screamed "AY, DIOS!" and slammed the door. A minute later, the phone started ringing and we all realized that our free stay had come to a hasty conclusion. We grabbed all of our stuff and headed out one at a time. Luis tried to convince the maid that the two girls had just found him on the street and brought him back to the hotel, but they weren't really buying it.

Despite the stressful awakening, we spent the rest of the day on the beach relaxing, headed back into town for a romantic seafood dinner (I ate seafood at least 2 times a day the whole time I was in Veracruz....mmm....mariscos) and caught the bus back to Mexico City, arriving 2 hours before class Monday morning!

Groupies

2008-01-28T21:13:00.000+01:00

It's official. My friends and I are now groupies.

Our neighbor, Gonzalo, is a musician who plays in 4 bands. This weekend and last weekend we went to his shows, got to know a bunch of his friends and have basically embraced our lives as groupies. It's pretty awesome, we even got a shout out at the show this weekend-- they thanked their Canadian fans for coming all the way from Canada to watch them. Nice, eh? It's fun walking into places and not having to pay because we're "with the band". ;)

It's a pretty good life- Gonzalo and his friends drive us around, take us fun places, help us improve our Spanish and most importantly- they are really entertaining guys who love to party. My sleeping patterns and my liver are suffering a bit, but it's more than worth the sacrifice.

It's quite a different vibe hanging out with these guys, they are all super creative (mostly musicians) and they have a completely different lifestyle than the grad-school-then-work-for-the-government . I'm pretty sure some of them will end up being semi/famous. A few of their friends already have their own Mexican television show where they play pranks on people. One of the guys on the show is going to be in a Christmas movie sponsored by Warner Brother's where he plays an elf that has been expelled from the North Pole for wanting to commercialize Christmas. Random, but awesome!

Here's a photo of Gonzalo onstage.

The Krazy Kanadian

2008-01-21T20:44:00.001+01:00

I have to admit, this is the story that really made me realize I had to start blogging again so that I could share this story with the world because it's SO RANDOM!

There was a party at my friend Julia's apartment last week because it was her Mexican roommate's birthday. A bunch of us went to hang out (because what's better than a house party on a Thursday night?) and were chatting with her roommate's friends. One of my other friends- Andrea- saw this random girl with 2 braids that looked really familiar. A few hours later, we end up talking to this girl, and it turns out that Andrea and this girl had a class together at McGill. It was so random-- we were at a pretty small house party in Mexico City, where one of our Canadian friends runs into another Canadian that she had a class with Montreal. Yet another example of how freaking small the world is!

Now, this chick was really nice but pretty crazy. Apparently, she works at a bar back in Montreal and always has a lot of energy and is a little loca. She left the party with some Mexican dude (not the one she had come to the party with). We all thought she had just gone to umm..."experience Mexican culture"-- but that wasn't the case. Most of us went home by 5am, but then this Krazy Kanadian shows back up at my friend Julia's house. She doesn't just show up, she shows up HAMMERED and holding one of her braids! According to the girl, she just decided she wanted to shave her head! So she had this random Mexican dude CUT OFF one of her braids and shave HALF of her head. When she shows up to my friend's place she's just running around trying to figure out how to get home- she doesn't have her phone, purse or her friend's address because her friend took her stuff home for her after she left. She wakes up my friend Julia's roommate (please imagine yourself in Julia's roommate's position- it is your birthday, you are very wasted, you have to wake for 8am to go to work and you are woken up by some chick who is half bald and swinging her braid around) and gets her friend's number, but the phone is dead. Oh, and she is also holding a shaving kit that the random Mexican dude lent her.

She ends up just crashing on Julia's couch and comes over to my place in the morning with Julia and Andrea for breakfast. Now, Julia and Andrea didn't really know how to react the night before when this chick showed up (Julia kept trying not to laugh, but couldn't really hold it in), so they just didn't really say much about the whole head shaving this. Well, you know me-- I obviously said something along the lines of "what the HELL were you thinking?". She gave me some bs answer about how she wanted to cut her hair for a while, and she just really felt like doing it that day. Riiiiight. I am interested to know how she is going to explain that situation to a Mexican hairdresser when she shows up to get rid of the other half of her hair.

The photo evidence is above. Unfortunately, a scarf is covering the bald part of her head- but she is holding one braid and the other one is poking out from her scarf.

Baggage, Bronchitis and Boats

2008-01-21T20:36:00.001+01:00

The three B's pretty much sum up my first week and a half here. Both my bags were lost (and one may be lost forever), I've been coughing a lung out because I have bronchitis (welcome to Mexico!) and we had some fun at Xochimilco. Xochimilco is touted as the "Venice of Mexico"-- boats maneuvering around canals. That's about all it has in common with Venice, since it's more like "pimp my boat", it's not really romantic and people of all ages go there to party in the middle of the day. Basically, it's an all-around good time!

Some more pictures can be found here.

The Return

2008-01-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

I know it's been a long time since I've blogged-- and I'm not sure exactly why I've let my blog lie dormant for so long. Actually, that's a lie. It's mostly because I was busy/lazy/talked to a lot of people on a semi-regular basis while I was in Ottawa. Since my last post a lot has happened which I can't really be bothered to recount in detail (a ridiculously fun summer in Ottawa, trip to Colombia, finishing my last classes and defence at NPSIA, too many parties, road trips etc.). So-- I'll just start with the here and now.

The impetus for the renewal of this blog is to chronicle my time the second time around in Mexico. I'm in Mexico City for the next five months, and judging by the events of the last few weeks, it's going to be a crazy ride. I don't want to inundate people with mass emails (although they are so personal and give everyone a warm, fuzzy feeling), so I've decided to just start blogging again so people can check up on me at their leisure. Feel free to comment!

Quebec City

2007-02-21T18:49:00.000+01:00

A few weekends ago some friends and I went to Quebec City for Carnival. Our first mini-road trip together! Quebec City was beautiful, I felt like I was in Europe again.

One of our main goals on this trip was to find Bonhomme. Or just-- a bon homme.

Highlights of the trip:
-Our plastic trumpets. Which, unfortunately, were lost by the end of the night. But were so awesome while we had them.
-The really trippy Carnival parade. Why were there so many balloon animal formations?
-The outdoor dance party. Only in Canada would you have an outdoor dance party in -25.
-Jean playing the piano for us
-Mini-quiches at 3am
-Singing the car. Trying to think what the songs of our lives would be and just after we got lost in Montreal Blue Rodeo said it best. "When we're lost, we are lost together..."
-Jean trying not to lose us in Montreal and stopping every so often and asking his friends: "Where are the 4 anglophones?!"
-A little Quebecois guy telling us our french accents were "special".
-Looking for Bonhomme. Singing the Bonhomme song. "Bonhomme, bonhomme, bonhomme, bonhomme, bonhomme"

Minorities on Ice

2007-02-06T02:27:00.000+01:00

This weekend I took part in a quintessentially Ottawa activity- skating on the canal. The canal runs through town and quite a few people actually skate to work/school when it freezes over in the winter. Some friends and I decided to get out there and skate (my first time in a couple of years). Skating is the one winter activity I can actually sort of do (unlike skiing and snowboarding) so I was in! I did manage to wipe out once while I was trying to talk on my cell phone. I ended up catching my skate in a rut and fully wiping out. As I was attempting to gracefully get up again I heard a lady skate by and say to her friend "Oh, she was on her cell phone". Thanks lady.

As well, my friend Nicole turned and said to me "Aruna, look around, we're the only minorities here, we're surrounded by white people". We then agreed in the future we have to choreograph a "Minorities on Ice" routine. Stay tuned!

A Labour of Love

2007-01-31T17:58:00.000+01:00

It's taken a while, but it's finally off the ground.

Dobre Pivo.

For all those people who are in my heart everytime I have a pivo.

Activate!

2007-01-24T04:50:00.000+01:00

So my friend is at a math party for graduate math students. Yes, apparently math grad students do party. She's not in math, but she decides to go to the party anyway. So, there she is in the middle of a conversation with the PRESIDENT of the math society when all of a sudden he stops talking, sticks his fist out, waits for her to offer up hers as well, and then turns it to the side all the while saying- ACTIVATE! He then proceeds to keep talking as if nothing had stopped their conversation. She was a little perplexed but decided to roll with it. Now we all like to start, end, or punctuate conversations with "Activate" and then just keep going as if nothing is out of the ordinary. This picture is of her "activating" with the president of the Math society. Good, clean fun.

Entertainment

2007-01-14T19:56:00.000+01:00

By now most of you have probably seen THIS. If you haven't, you should.

But have you seen THIS?

I love youtube.

Cowboys and Indians!

2007-01-11T23:26:00.000+01:00

What's the best way to start off the new year? With a grossly politically incorrect party? That's right!! Cowboys, Indians, and Indians (dot or feather).

Here's a shot of some of the brave people that came out to this party. Notice, they are all dressed up. Theme parties are so awesome. Even Skully came out to play!

My friend Jean came all the way from Quebec City JUST for the party. He makes a good horse. I was dressed in a "fusion" costume with elements of cowgirl, Indian with a dot, and Indian with a feather.

Here are some of the ladies with one of the hunkiest men at the party. Nitin is from India/NY and works at IBM. He really loves his mustache, tucking in his shirt, pulling his pants up really high, and greasily side parting his hair.

Great party. Top memories include backing it up on the dance floor, cowboys whining about feeling objectified when we ripped their shirts off, people shooting each other with darts (plastic), arrows, and toy guns, line dancing, singing Bohemian Rhapsody, lassoing each other, dance-offs, and the police stopping by.

Year in Review --

2007-01-09T06:41:00.000+01:00

2006

It was great to spend the holidays at home in Edmonton, fun to see the family and friends since I missed it last year. Basically-- I spent a lot of time visiting with people, eating, sleeping, and shopping. I accomplished all the lofty goals set for the holiday season.

2006 treated me well. Lots of adventures, new experiences, and most of all randomness.

Someone once told me that only boring people get bored. At the time I thought that was a pretty stupid quote because there were a lot of times that I was bored and I didn't really think of myself as a boring person. This quote just popped into my head because I realized that there is not a single moment of 2006 that I can remember being bored. The year was awesome. I traveled to a lot of places, but it was definitely the fact that I had the luck to spend time with amazing people that 2006 was so memorable. Even in the worst of times, the right friends and a sense of humor combined to make everything seem fine (and spawned quite a few memorable stories). Luckily, the fond memories grossly outnumber the not-so-fond ones. I realize that I'm so fortunate to have great friends-- from the kind you see or talk to frequently, to the ones who you see or talk to after years or months only to have the distance of time melt away.

So, thanks to my friends who have totally shaped this past year and supported me through everything. I really appreciate it. (This includes family too!)

2007

I don't know why I had this impression that once I got back to Canada and started going to grad school my life would develop into a monotonous routine that I couldn't wait to escape again. That has completely not been the case-- every week brings something new. Every week I discover something new-- about myself, others, Ottawa, etc.

Goals for 2007--

Vague yet Valuable

In Canadian terminology-- "Just Give'r". I know that sometimes I'm complacent or apathetic or don't try as hard as I can in some facets of my life. I realize that I'm at the point of my life where I should really try harder. This year I'm going to do that.
Be a better person-- I know I should be nicer. I'm going to try.
Indulge whims-- Don't worry about being too cool for school. That's lame.

Specific Stuff

Some of my friends and I are going to run a 10k run in May. This is big news because I am fundamentally opposed to exercise and am very out of shape. But it might be fun. And now that I've committed to it I have to do it. My friend Kari said, "Aruna, don't worry, I used to be 200pounds and now I can run 10km so you'll be fine."

That's it. I don't want to be too over-ambitious.

Just to Keep Things Interesting....

2006-11-22T08:03:00.000+01:00

My friend Jennie decided that her birthday party this weekend should have a "Wild Kingdom Animal Theme". The fact that this theme allowed her and I to re-use an integral part of our Halloween costume (ahem...leopard-print tights) was no small coincidence. Full costumes were not required, but some sort of animal print, animal on shirt, animal anything was appreciated. Surprisingly, some of the boys participated with more more enthusiasm that the girls. One guy had an orangutan mask, another made a jellyfish out of a pink umbrella and streamers, and yet another wore a Miami Dolphins jersey and was-- yes, a dolphin.

In other news, my sister's friends are in town and one has introduced us to what may be the end of productivity and our eventual downfall. Settlers of Catan. A strategic, dorky, awesome board game. We played all day Sunday and I finally won my first game yesterday. Sweet!

Nicaragua!

2006-11-13T03:57:00.000+01:00

Last week I had the chance to do probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. A few weeks ago, my department at university emailed around that the Organization of American States was looking for young Canadians to participate in their first Youth Electoral Observation Mission. The presidential elections in Nicaragua were occurring, and in addition to the observers they were already sending they wanted to have youth participation. I emailed in my application, and I was accepted!

At first thought, it seemed like a pretty awesome all-expenses paid trip to Nicaragua. What it was, was something SO much more than that, and it was definitely NOT a vacation, it was exhausting, but totally worth it.

For those of you who want the short version, here are the main points:

-I met about 40 other youth (mostly Latin American) who were honestly some of the best people I’ve ever met. Super buena gente. Fun, intelligent, articulate, great! Totally open and I never felt bad about the fact I'm not a native Spanish speaker
-I stayed in the fanciest hotel I’ve ever stayed in while traveling in Latin America
-Staying in fancy places apparently does not agree with me (some food issues)
-I had a scorpion in my pants (literally) and was stung twice
-I met the ex-president of Argentina Raul Alfonsin
-I observed electoral activity for like 16 hours in one day (fun!)
-I went to many of the same places I’d already been to in Nicaragua and a random man recognized me in the market
-We found ourselves in the middle of a Sandinista victory rally
-Canadians know how to party, we definitely represented

This experience was really awesome because it related directly to a bunch of stuff I’ve been studying at school- things like democracy in action, role of civil society, and other things that make me sound like a massive dork when I talk about them. It was really interesting to be able to see things in the real world that are related to what I’m studying though. I’ll stop talking about that now.

The schedule for my trip was pretty intensive. Two days were basically spent there and back in transit, one day in training (a reallllly looooong day), one day going to the location where we would be observing the election, election day, return to training, debrief, and trip home! Whew…

I was a bit sick when I was there so all my new friends got to hear my man-voice. I still did sing karaoke on the last night with that awful voice. Awesome!

While in Nicaragua we had our training at a resort near the Laguna de Apoyo which is really beautiful, and fun to swim in because it’s a volcanic crater and sometimes the water is hot in some spots and cold in the others. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to do that much, but I managed to go in once before I left. The Canadians tried to spend some time in the sun while the rest of the delegation was complaining about the 35 degree heat and humidity.

Probably the most entertaining story I have to tell is the scorpion story. It was so weird. Honestly. I actually had a scorpion in my pants. WHILE I WAS WEARING THEM. We were waiting for the cars to come and take us to the place where we would be observing the elections. We were all standing outside when I felt something bite my leg and it really stung! I thought it was just a mosquito or something, and just tried to get over it. A few minutes later the vehicles arrived and I was sitting in the backseat with a Bolivian girl. All of a sudden I felt something again! I figured it was a thorn, or something random and started to shake my pant leg to see what fell out. You know what fell out? A LIVE SCORPION! So I start screaming and freaking out and flick my foot and the scorpion flies over and lands near the Bolivian girl’s foot. She starts screaming too! Luckily, we hadn’t left yet so we opened the doors and got outside and started to jump up and down and scream. All the coordinators run over and completely do not believe us when we tell them, but then they found the scorpion and killed it. Then I was “scorpion girl”. It was funny, a Costa Rican guy assured me that the scorpions in Nicaragua weren’t that poisonous because the REALLY dangerous ones were in Africa. These ones were just kind of annoying.

The scorpion thing actually turned out to be kind of a blessing in disguise because originally I was supposed to go to a rural city but then I ended up staying in Managua because they wanted to keep an eye on me. That meant less time traveling AND I met the ex-president of Argentina because he was at the OAS headquarters in Managua. I even have a picture to prove it! He was a totally cute man, gave me a kiss on the cheek and everything.

Election Day was really interesting. Really tiring, since we I was “observing” from 6:00am to 10:30pm but interesting. I ended up in Ciudad Sandino, which is about 20 minutes outside of Managua. I asked someone before I went if it was big. Yes, it’s big, but it’s not much of a city. It’s pretty rural. I learned a lot about the Nicaraguan electoral process and it really made me think about the Canadian process as well. It was kind of frustrating at times because people wanted us to solve their problems, but we weren’t actually allowed to interfere or do anything.

Something I was so impressed by was the Nicaraguan people. There were people waiting in line for HOURS to vote-- in the sun, rain, everything. They were committed to expressing their political will and it was amazing to see. The voter turnout was honestly so much higher than in Canada. You could tell who had voted because after people vote they apply ink to their right thumb. So everyone was walking around with red thumbs. It was one of those experiences that while you are doing it, the experience is so intense and tiring that you think, “I’ll never do this again” but when it’s over you realize how much you took from it and you totally want to do it all over again.

In terms of touristy stuff, we hit up a few markets (where some guy asked me if I’d been to Nicaragua before because he recognized me), and went to a lookout that’s supposed to be one of the most beautiful views in Nicaragua. Right when we got there it started to rain though. Which was funny because I went there a few years ago when I was backpacking through Central America and the EXACT same thing happened. Just as soon as we got there-- rain and clouds. Oh well. We also went to Granada but were severely behind schedule and ended up spending only about 15 minutes there since there was a massive Sandinista victory rally on.

It was hard to say goodbye to everyone after such an intense bonding experience, but hopefully we'll stay in touch. Thank you msn! All in all, an amazing and motivating experience. And free! Hmm...wonder if I can go to Venezuela?

Notice to Readers

2006-11-13T02:28:00.000+01:00

My mom googled me and found my blog, so entries will probably involve less swearing from now on.

New York, New Yoooooooooooork!

2006-09-22T07:23:00.000+02:00

The song was in my head the entire weekend. It was my first time in NY and being there was weird because everywhere you looked you realized you had seen either the exact same thing or something very similar in a movie, on television, in a photograph. The friends we stayed with (Neil and Noopur) lived just a few blocks from the Seinfeld café (well, from the sign they used for the Seinfeld café at least).

Background:

I went with my sister and another friend. The three of us had been in Spain and Morocco together, so we were used to traveling together. Well, my sister and I are used to each other anyway and our friend was forced to get used to us. Apparently traveling with siblings can be entertaining. When my sister and I talk to each other in “you are a fucking dumbass” voices Leah calls us on it. She’s even named it “sister tone”. It makes us be nicer to each other.

Also we got to meet up with Nitin, a friend from Edmonton who lives a few hours from NYC and Prasanna, another friend from Saskatchewan who is doing his master’s at Colombia. Fun times!

Goal Setting:

My two goals for the trip were:
1. Eat a lot of really good food
2. See the Statue of Liberty

One out of two isn’t that bad. Obviously eating won. We were kind of near the area where you can see the Statue of Liberty I just forgot about it until it was too dark and got too cloudy to see it. Oh well.

Noopur and Neil were perfect hosts and led us on a gastronomical tour of New York. As fellow cheap asses, they had made it their priority to find the best “economically-priced” meals in New York. I think we paid less than $10 each for every meal except for one.

Top New York Meals:

1. Somewhere in Chinatown—we had these things called soup dumplings. I’ve never had one before, but they were damn good. We just ate A LOT of food at this place. And it was cheap. Food for 6 people with everyone absolutely full afterwards was $42. Amazing.
2. Korean BBQ- I had never had Korean BBQ. It’s like my dream. Meat…lots of meat. Delicious meat. Yum.
3. Sushi- I can’t remember where this was either. But if you ordered $14 of sushi or more it was half price. Honestly, we ate like a barrel of sushi. So good.

Entertainment:

--Jazz, Rent, and the Lion King--

On our first night in town we decided to just wander the streets of New York (Greenwich Village I think). We passed a cool jazz café and decided to go in since there was live jazz playing. I’m not really one for jazz normally, but this guy Eli Degibri was amazing (you can listen to streaming music off of his website).

As for Rent and the Lion King, they were both so well done. I had no idea what Rent was even about until I went and I was blown away by the musical talent and emotion in the musical. I guess I didn’t really fully appreciate what experiencing a musical live would be like. I won’t lie, Leah and I held hands and may have even shed a tear at the really emotional parts during Rent. Wonderful. The Lion King had really spectacular costumes and visual effects, and was definitely worth seeing as well.

The best thing about Rent was: raw emotion and musical talent
The best thing about the Lion King was: costumes and black men with nice muscles

Partying Parmar-style:

Noopur and Neil said that even though they had been in New York for a while they didn’t usually go out clubbing. Once that was said we realized we had no choice but to party Parmar. (Parmar is their last name). We decided to make “Parmar” the word of the night…could be used as an adjective, verb, whatever you wanted! We decided to “get our parmar on”, “parmar it up”, sing songs and switch lyrics so they included “parmar” and all sorts of other parmarifffic things. I should probably also mention that during this time we were sipping “road pops” that Neil and Noopur made us to drink on the way to the club since we got out of Rent late and wanted to be a little tipsy before getting to the bar.

Friday night was the night of randomness. We met the most random people. Leah went up and gave some person a high-5, we met a guy named Alejandro who was wearing an Ethiopia shirt (Leah is Ethiopian) and then started to talk to us about his time in India. Weird…

In the line to the club we started to talk to the guy in front of us (Michael). He was wearing a really hideous grad ring and I took a closer look and realized it said “University of Waterloo”. So I said, “Michael, are you CANADIAN?” He was, he bought us drinks and hung out with us that night, and I asked him if that was the first time his Waterloo ring had helped him make friends. He said yes.

Other things from the night:
-Meena and Leah mistaking the place where the dartboards were for a dance floor and being told “you better move or you’re going to be hit with a dart”
-Me chatting with the bathroom attendant in the unisex bathroom (a middle-aged Mexican man from Veracruz) and introducing him to Noopur and Neil. The line was long, so we started to chat and I got pretty much his whole life story!Meena going in later and wondering why this guy was talking to her in Spanish.
-Meena and Leah trying to get us into the club (not verbatim)-
Bouncer: It’s $5 for girls and $10 for guys. But it’s full so I can’t let you in.
[Meena and Leah try to smooth talk for a while]
Bouncer: Fine, $50 for all of you.
Meena: That doesn’t make sense! If there are 4 girls and 1 guy it should be $30.
[Leah elbows Meena]
Meena: Ohhh, I mean uhhh….
[a few seconds later Meena turns to Leah and whispers]
Meena: OH, he wanted us to BRIBE him!
Leah: Yeah dumbass. (she probably didn’t call Meena a dumbass but I would have)

Other:
-Went to Ground Zero
-Went to the MET (it's HUGE!)
-Hung out at South Street Seaport
-Shopping in Chinatown and SOHO

New York Didn’t Want Us to Leave:

For our flight home Sunday we were responsible people and tried to get to the airport 2 hours early for our flights. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. We were waiting for the airport bus which for some reason didn’t come so we hopped in a cab.

Dialogue from a ride with the world’s most aggressive and agitated cab driver:
[drives for like 2 minutes]
Us: There’s quite a bit of traffic
Taxi Driver: I think the road is closed. If the road is closed we can’t go.
Us: Let’s ask that traffic cop.
[Lean out the window and ask, traffic cop says it’s not closed. The traffic cop is wrong because about 2 blocks later they are diverting traffic]
TD: I TOLD YOU WE COULDN’T GO THIS WAY! I TOLD YOU THE ROAD WAS CLOSED. I CAN’T TAKE YOU TO THE AIRPORT!
Us: Isn’t there another way to go?
TD: DO YOU KNOW ANOTHER WAY TO GO? IF YOU KNOW A WAY TELL ME!
Us: Uhhh….we don’t live here…we have no idea how to go but there has to be more than one way to the airport.
TD: I TOLD YOU THERE ISN’T A WAY!
[we kind of look at each other like…what the fuck….]
Us: Well, we have to get to the airport. If you can’t take us we’ll just get another cab.
TD: FINE, BUT THERE’S NO WAY!
Us: Uhhh…ok.

So we had a cab driver with a fatalist attitude. We got out (all the while he was yelling at us and telling us there was NO WAY to get to the airport). We talk to a traffic cop and he says that if we walk two blocks down the street that is blocked off to traffic we can get another cab from there.

At this point we didn’t really know where we were until we saw this sign. There were a lot of people in the streets and it looked like there was a parade going on. We asked someone what was going on and it turns out it was African American Day. Yes, we were wheeling our carry-ons by the Apollo Theater in Harlem surrounded by people and pretty much about to hit the African American Day Parade.

Here’s Leah’s take:
"It was just another random adventure that added to the fun of the trip. My favorite memory was Meena running down 125th street in front of the Apollo loudly commenting that "there are a whole lotta black people coming at us" (which caused many a furrowed eyebrow amongst the black folk in earshot- which was many) and me thinking "we do not have time for Meena to get shot right now". Oh Loose Lips strikes again."

We got another cab and found our way to the airport. We missed our flights, they lost our bags, but we still managed to get home safely (without getting shot) and our bags came yesterday! Oh New York. Always an adventure.

YARRRR Pirate Monkeys!

2006-09-13T20:42:00.000+02:00

Things are settling down in Ottawa (although I still haven't bought a bed!) and this weekend we inaguarated our new apartment with what should be the first of many parties.

The theme: Pirate Monkeys!!

Quite a few people dressed up (mostly as pirates without incorporating anything to do with monkeys), and I was impressed with the enthusiasm. We also passed some time telling each other piratey jokes like:

What's a pirate's favorite appliance?
A toastAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

And my personal favorite:

What's a pirate's best feature?
His BOOTY!

We also gave each other fake tattoos with markers which ended up rubbing off on the walls when people leaned on them. The good news: we are going to paint anyway so it doesn't matter.

I asked someone what they thought of the party. They said, "Overall, great party. Name tags might have been nice since there were so many people I didn't know. And it was great that you didn't get mad when people broke things".

The next morning our house looked like a pirate monkey exploded-- pieces of monkey costume everywhere and assorted pirate paraphernalia all over the place that people left behind. Now I have a few more eyepatches and swords. Yippee!

Here are the piraterrific pictures!

Ottawa

2006-09-06T00:38:00.000+02:00

I've been in Ottawa exactly a week and here's what the schedule's looked like:

Tuesday-Flew in at 5:30pm. Helped Meena's friend Lesley move that night. Just what I loooove to do after flying across Canada! (I like Lesley so it's ok)

Wednesday- My birthday! Unfortunately, I have no friends here (wheee wild birthday!). But my aunt and cousin were around, as well as my sister so that was good.

Thursday-Crazy shopping and cleaning. My sister Meena and I have our own place now, that means buying all the crap to put into it as well as cleaning it. Our building is at least 60 years old and the people that lived here before weren't exactly the cleanest people ever. And they had a cat. My sister is allergic to cats. Eww.

Friday-Moving day! We had to move all the stuff from Meena's old apartment (some furniture, clothes, computer, PLUS many things in storage). We didn't hire movers so it was me, Meena, and one of Meena's friends. Imagine 2 short brown girls trying to lift heavy things and Meena's friend Francis a tall, white (face turns pink when he exerts himself lifting heavy boxes) trying to move all the stuff Meena has accumulated in the last 3 years. Yeah. We did manage to go out this night though, so kudos to us!

Saturday-Picked up some more furniture and stuff (my sister rented a truck for moving, etc), tried to unpack, went to an Orientation thing at campus (basically...go for beer) and my sister threw me a "You have no friends" birthday party. We went for karaoke with her friends. Good times.

Sunday-Unpacked, attempted to do stuff. Can't even remember because I was so exhausted this day.

Monday-Errands, went to a "kick-off party" for grad students. I know you think that grad students can't party. Apparently they can party more than you would have thought. Evidenced by the fact that EVERY night this week is a bar night/drinking night. God. I thought my liver was going to have a break after the Czech Republic.

Tuesday- Official orientation for my program (MA International Affairs). Met lots of nice people. Dealt with stupid administrative paperwork and realized that Carleton University is technologically stuck in the dark ages in many ways. Karaoke tonight as the "get to know people so you aren't a loser" activity. I have yet to pick a song.

Busy, busy but will calm down after the first week I'm sure. This is why I haven't emailed many people back (sorry!) but will be better about that soon!

That is soooo Vancouver...

2006-09-06T00:14:00.000+02:00

After leaving Edmonton, before coming to Ottawa I had a side trip to Vancouver with Medha. It was a good time, lots of girl talk, sightseeing, and eating. I had possibly the best meat ever. If you are ever in Vancouver go to the Memphis Blues BBQ house and get the Memphis feast. It wasn't just a platter of meat...it was a FEAST!

I haven't been to Vancouver for years and it's a beautiful city. There were some notable differences between Vancouver and Edmonton and sometimes (as Albertans) Medha and I would just comment or give each other a look meaning "that is sooo Vancouver".

Examples of things that are very Vancouver:
-Starbucks everywhere. Like across the street from each other.
-People exercising at EVERY hour of the day...early morning, late night daytime...it didn't matter! Practically everyone in the city is a fitness freak. (Kind of weird because even the fit people drink a crapload of Starbucks)
-That leads to the next point: hotter people. Well, it's debatable as to whether or not the people are hotter or just take better care of themselves. Even the old people! All tan and skinny and stuff. I'm dark, but I'm not as skinny as people in Vancouver.
-Lululemon everywhere. Everywhere.
-More expensive than Edmonton..but a lot more restaurant selection I guess it's a tradeoff.

When in Vancouver I also got to meet up with Chris from Prague for dinner, and Albert a trainee that used to work at the bank I worked at in the Czech Republic. It was nice to see everyone and gossip and reminisce about pivo. Dobre, dobre. Unfortunately Erik couldn't make it out because he was sick. Prosim, we told him that pivo would cure his illness. Or maybe he was just scared that I would bring up embarrassing stories about him in the Czech Republic (although he has quite a few on me). Don't worry Erik, Chris regaled the table with a gooood story about you! Oh, Krakow. My friend Jocelyn also made it up to Vancouver so it was great. And it didn't rain while I was there, so it was a nice end to the summer before moving to Ottawa where the hecticness was waiting.

Adios Edmonton!

2006-08-23T23:50:00.000+02:00

It seems like I just got home and I'm leaving again, but it's been a great two weeks! A lot of lazing around and catching up with people I haven't seen in a while. Last Friday I had a bbq at my place so that was good since I got to see a bunch of people. It didn't end up being a WILD party as towards the end I had a bunch of tequila shots (when you open the bottle you have to finish it!) and wanted to have a heart to heart talk with my friend but we both fell asleep. I was wondering why the last party of the night was kind of hazy but then I looked at the pictures and counted how many times I was taking a shot.

I also went to a movie theatre the other day for only the second time in a year to see 'Step Up'. It was like 'Centre Stage' meets 'Save the Last Dance'. Yes, it was as bad as it sounds. The dancing was good...the acting was PAINFUL. Awful, awful movie. My friends and I agreed we should write a screenplay...it would have been much better.

Also found out that one of my friends has rickets. And one of my other friends had a parasite in his eye when he was traveling south-east Asia and now he's partially blind in one eye. Wtf? Random.

People keep asking me if I'm excited to move, nervous, etc etc. I never really know how to answer that question (although I'm guilty of asking it to other people as well). Should I admit that I hardly ever anticipate things much? I mean, I have trouble sleeping the night before sometimes but I'm never really overly optimistic or pessimistic about what is coming next in my life. It's just the next thing I'm doing.

Tomorrow I'm off to Vancouver for a few days with my friend Medha (even going to meet up with some ex-Praha people along the way!) and then to Ottawa. Good news-- my sister found an apartment for us. Bad news-- she expects me to paint it by myself, unpack and arrange furniture, and yes...cook her dinner. I owe her a lot of money so I can't argue. Damn servitude!

I [heart] Technology

2006-08-23T22:31:00.000+02:00

I love technology and I love people that I used to work with. I went out for lunch last week with some of my old colleagues (free lunch AND a beer!!) and I was telling one of them about my stupidity in deleting pictures by accident. One of them is a medical photographer (I used to work in a hospital) and he told me that you can recover a lot of them from your memory because of some computer crap that I didn't know about. Thanks to the wonder of the internet I was able to download the program for free--and it wasn't even an illegal download! I got back probably about 80% of my pictures thanks to the fabulous people at Art Plus. Yay!

Pandora

2006-08-17T18:31:00.000+02:00

Someone told me about this a while ago. It's cool. http://pandora.com/

Fotos de Mexico

2006-08-17T18:22:00.000+02:00

Haz clic aquí

The Craziest Picture I took in Mexico

2006-08-15T01:00:00.000+02:00

(It's not this one) This is in Oaxaca City in the centre on a Sunday night before the start of the Guelaguetza festival the day. There were tons of people, speeches, dancers, parades, and fireworks being set off from the church amongst other places. Mexico doesn't really have fireworks regulations as you know...so sometimes things like this happen:

I think without a doubt this is the craziest picture I took during my trip. Something went wrong with the fireworks and one exploded in the crowd. There were a bunch of people running away from it, and the crowd was a bit subdued, but the party kept going...so hopefully the injuries weren't too serious. I didn't see anything in the news the next day, but this image makes me wonder. Kari and I started off down in the crowd, but retreated to a restaurant with a balcony and a view of the festivities. That was probably a wise decision.