August 28, 2008

My butt looks great in these jeans

I love my Silvers. Anyway, that’s not really what I’m going to write about. Wait I forgot what I was going to write about. Its worth it to spend money on jeans, b/c if you’re like me you wear them until they die a slow, horrible, holey death. I may have a bit of a g’donk g’donk, doesn’t mean it can’t look good.

Classes start next week, which is pretty crazy since I’m still not done the work I was supposed to finish this summer. Some of it is done, so I’m not a total slacker.

My new favourite Montréal coffee place is Java U. I didn’t go to it much last year b/c I thought that a place with such a corny name couldn’t be that good. But now I have seen the light, also there’s one close to me in my new neighbourhood. Their coffee is really good, and their lattes are incredible. Much better than Café Depot, even better than Second Cup and Starbucks. I think there will be many an article read at Java U this year.

Party at my house this Saturday. If you live in Montréal you should totally come.

Ok, I forgot everything interesting I could have possibly written.

Europe Pictures


Florence: Accademia, home of the original David. So David here, carved my Michelangelo, is a solid slab of concrete that Mr. Sculptor man found in a church yard or something like that. He's like 12 feet tall or more. I had half a mind to post the PG picture of him I have (waist up), but I'm sure you're art appreciating people. It really is a masterpiece. I couldn't stop staring at it.


Monaco: Left to right its Christian, Meghan, Roz and Ryan. I, of course, am taking the picture. This is just outside the huge, expensive, fancy casino.


Salzburg: This is at the monk brewery, Augustiner, which is supposed to be the best beer in Austria. This shot if of Roz's mug to show that she drank a full half pint! I had to drink 2 pints because Meghan was feeling sick, and isn't that much of a beer person anyway so I drank mine and hers.

Paris: As mentioned in the previous post, these are the pictures of us outside Notre Dame. Fig 1, self portrait. I think its a hilarious photo, all our faces are doing different things.

Fig 2, a nice picture taken by a nice boy.

August 16, 2008

Where have all the cute boys gone? Long time passing…

I suggest you don't miss the Radiohead post, below.

As promised, here’s some discussion of my time in Europe. I’ve lived in several different places across Canada, each place begging the questions, “Where are all the cute boys?” They seem to be nowhere. They weren’t in Vancouver, they’re all nerds in Toronto, they’re definitely not in Ottawa. This mystery continues from sea to shining sea, and maybe I’ve missed the cute boy deposits in North America, but I don’t think so. Now, I have my answer, and an answer for you, single ladies o the new world, they are in Europe. They’re much cheekier there too.

It all begins in Italy. My friends were convinced that I was getting hit on the most in Rome, I’m not sure what trip they were on. The only incidence I remember pertaining to such a ridiculous conclusion was a waiter calling me “bella” or something generic like that, which absolutely doesn’t count since he was clearly just trying to get us to spend money at the restaurant. I don’t remember what else went on there. In Florence one of my friends got a “Hey, baby face!” which is clearly hilarious, and also a “Ask for me, get a free drink.” We don’t know where we were supposed to ask for “me”, though. Florence also had cute gelato guy, really adorable, and gave us bonus dollops of gelato of a random flavour. Moving up from boys to men, the proprietor/waiter dude at the fancy restaurant we went to for a multi-course lunch was quite saucy and flirty. He asked us about Canada, made these little faces at us, made us giggle sickeningly. Not that we’re complaining.

In Venice there were these 2 Argentinean guys who were eating at the table next to ours, and were obviously drunk. They asked me what nationality of guy was my favourite, I said I didn’t have one, but I was tempted to say “definitely not Argentinean.” Then one of the dudes started talking in a southern American accent and said he could be anyone. So I piped up and said, “Hey, can you be Canadian?” To which I got the reply, “I can if you marry me!” Yeah, real winners there.

Then Germany. In Munich me, my two friends, plus an extra (German) friend had all gotten ice cream and were sitting under a monument infront of city hall (big square, Glockenspiel, etc.). First of all, this random guy asked if we could take a picture of him and the fancy city hall building, which I did b/c it’s the give and take code among tourists, you see. Then he came back over for like half a second, snapped a picture of the 4 of us, smiled, waved, and ran off. Weird, but harmless. Then, all of a sudden, we found ourselves surrounded by crowd of guys standing around us, asking us why we were sitting on the ground. I don’t see why it was so confusing for them, we needed a place to sit and enjoy our ice cream, the ground was basically the only option since there were no free range chairs around for us. One of the guys was Canadian, with whom we had a pleasant and civil conversation. This dude from Saxony (I really think he was part vampire from Transylvania) kept asking us to go with their group to a beer hole (I think that’s what they’re called) and tried to be “charming” – shoot and a miss. And there was this other loud, random guy who came over every 10 minutes or so and said “Hello, get up, please, and follow me!” We ignored him.

In Paris there were more random acts of flirting in the streets. These things are odd for a North American, the forwardness, the interaction with people passing on the sidewalk… we just don’t do it up like Europeans do. Guy on the street made this really long kissing noise at one of my friends. Oooh, but we did meet a really nice guy at Notre Dame (I think he was American, North American at any rate). He saw us trying to take a picture of ourselves with the church, at which we were unsuccessful, resulting in a hilarious self-photo, and offered to take one for us. We took one for him in return. He said the photographic technique of the one we took was better, but that the one of us was prettier, I think b/c of the subject matter. So he managed to flatter us doubly, and of course we liked him. There were many others, but I can’t remember the anecdotes right now. Meghan has all these things catalogued. There were a lot of up-downs received by my two hott friends.

This brings me back to my encounters with flirtatious males in my own country. You see, I don’t get this kind of attention from guys my age, or ones that might be cute or friendly, or anything not creepy. No no no, I always get the weird, creepy old guys making inappropriate comments in my direction. Like the guy who followed me down Yonge street for like 6 blocks and only started talking to me after about 3 blocks. No, sir, I will not tell you where I’m going or where I live. I’ve seen the last 3 minutes of Care Bears and I know a little better than that! And just yesterday, I’m riding my bike to Canadian Tire and this cab driver, waiting at a light beside me starts yelling, “Sophie! Sophie!” as if it were my name. I ignore him, so he changes it up to “Isabelle!” Who just tries random names? Then it was “Ma belle!” and I covertly shake my head, and he says, “Ok bye!” a few times, until finally the light changes and I gun it out of there. Reminds me of going out clubbing in T dot for one of my friends birthday, and who tries to pick me up? It’s the 45 year old man who just walked in and decides to tell me “You’re absolutely gorgeous.”

These are just a few of the wonderful moments I have collected. And no, I do not feel flattered by these ones, where creepy old guys find me approachable enough to violate my personal space. I’m not sure what it says about me that I don’t get friendly comments from guys my own age, but I shouldn’t say that b/c the random lines by weirdos in the street is not every girls favourite thing, even if dude is age appropriate.

Anyway, I should move to Europe. Do me a solid for vanity.

August 14, 2008

I love Rope-iohead.

It was a week ago, and I'm very slow on the uptake, but the Radiohead concert was superbly amazing. Really. There wasn't a lot of band/audience interaction, like "Hello Montreal!" type chatter, but what can you say. We love Thom Yorke because he's just plain weird. This was my absolute favourite song of the night, the sound at the concert was ethereal, I felt like I could listen to the sound of it for decades.

Reckoner


It was raining like a mofo when we got to Parc Jean Drapeau, we were soaked, the grounds were really muddy. However, I am a supreme genius, lord over all the intellectuals, and actually brought a garbage bag which allowed me and my friends to sit down. Even miserable rain couldn't ruin a Radiohead concert, it would have to be a hurricane to make me leave.

In Montreal they have these firework competitions, which begin at about 10pm and go until 10:30. It also happens to be the case that the site of the fireworks and that of the concert are right next to each other. So, Faust Arp is a soft, beautiful song off in Rainbows...



Thom Yorke cracks up part way into it b/c of the fireworks, made some comment during the night that fireworks are most appropriate at the end of something. It was a nice moment.

Anyway, I was caked with mud for about 37 hours after that, totally worth it. I wish I went to more concerts, and I guess I could go to smaller more local ones. But there's something about those big events with the really intricate light shows that gives you this feeling you can't get when its just the music that's preforming. I've never seen Ropeiohead before, and I will see them every chance I get after this. I'm not that far behind, I do have all their albums.

August 01, 2008

Remember the memories

Now that I have about 1000 new photos, I was tempted to scroll through some of the other pics that made it on to this computer. I feel like I've posted these particular pictures before, but I can't confirm that. Anyway, its probably my favourite series of photos of all time.





Oh, LR. I love you guys so much. This is an effective shout out.

Maybe some of you are wondering, "Hey? Didn't chick just go away on a huge trip for which she only posted like 2 times?" Maybe not, maybe you're wondering, "Do they still make those spicy Cheetos?" Either way, I think I'll try and do some posts about Europe, trying to remember all the crazy antics that went on in certain places. I can't really tell you about the whole trip all at once since we went to so many places.