It's December in Our Town! (A Reference for Sam)

I just feel like dancing! I finished my last exam for this semester today, and it was surprisngly refreshing, it was such a good exam full of things that I could give gad of examples of! I got an essay back and I got an awesome mark on it when I thought I might only do mediocre-ly! I was coerced into seeing Peggy's Cove and felt the rush as the waves crashed into the rocks while we were standing dangerously too close to the edge! It was such an amazing afternoon and evening, possibly enhanced. I bought a jacket that makes me look like a fuzzy bell! I get to see my family tommorow, and with that comes good food and warm fires!! Warm fires lead to good books!!

At the same time though I am making really good friends and meeting so many people, and feel like I am branching out so much that no matter where I end up, I cant be happy without all of them together.

What do I do?

Anyways, Ill update while Im at home!!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!!
Te amo!

Christmas Time Is Coming (Revised)

Grace was kind enough to let us begin celebrating Christmas on November the 26th (the day after "For The Health Of It" was over). We have been listening (and to a huge extent singing) to Christmas music and eating red and green jellybeans and I even went so far as to buy mistletoe (now all we need is to place a dirty hippie under the mistletoe... or the christmas tree (: ) The dirty hippie that I am referring to needs a brown sweater, poor personal hygiene (sorry Sam, I had to say it!) and long hair, be NDP and to be interested in living in bio-regions and perhpas starting a commune with Megan and I.
Grace being adorable (if you think shes charming here, you should see her in real life!)

Tonight we went over to Zach, Nichelle, Janice and Matt's house to help them decorate the Christmas tree and listen to Christmas music and have awesome wine-punch and rum-egg nog and Matt being a pyro!! It was such a beautiful feeling to be surrounded by such warmth and happy feelings. It just seemed that even though everyone was in the middle of exam time, and needed to be at home writing essays that the good spirit of Christmas togetherness prevailed and we all understood that it was more important to be together (and develop our hearts) instead of being alone and divided.

I might have to explain this one. Emma was definetely trying to make a imprint of her boob in the nail-thinger and couldnt do it alone, so I was just trying to help!! We had to do it so many times to get the right tilt!

On the bottom are Nichelle, Aaron (sp) and Laura and laying upon them is Janice. Janice was so tired after being up since 4:30am but I think didn't want to leave the group atmosphere and take her kitty and rabbit to bed!

It's the first year in a long time that I have felt this Christmas-y. I think that I am so excited for Christmas because I know that by the time Christmas is here, that I will be at home in front of a fire (with a warm book!!) or making gingerbread houses!

Emma and Megan on the way home from NJZM's!

That being said, I definetely appreciate my time in Halifax and have thoroughly enjoyed being able to cultivate such amazing friendships!


We share everything around here, even dirty icicles! (Ok, I have to admit, that I this picture reminds me of the photo of the young girl who is sharing her ice cream with the big brown and black dog, Grace is the pretty girl, and Im trying to steal her cold treat!)
My love and Christmas cheer to all!

things that make me feel ... (not exhaustive)

looking at old pictures of good times - striped shirts -music - warm banana bread - frienship - tea - karate - conversations - roomate bonding - recycling - 'vive la revolution' - leonard cohen - couch surfing - lopsided grins - french braiding - self sufficient bioregions -apple pie - beer at breakfast - boats - spanish - turning the heat on - basketball games - basketball players - reunification - anticipation - crono trigger - kindred spirits - stitch - coming clean - dreams - theories - hot chocolate - caffeine - reactions - fresh - turning off the tv -communist commune - crisp weather - grandma warms - familiar phrases - when songs that used to make me cringe don't anymore - red wine - asparagus - ace ventura - the owl and the pussycat - reading words that I've had read to me before - phone calls - random smiles - helping strangers - wool socks - oatmeal - cats - brick - moberly lake - the rockies - christmas - blankets - halo - gin and tonic - tetris - martin luther king -
wood heat - reading - comfortable sweaters - home - snow - skiing - postcards -

Just because I've Been Thinking About it!

And how could I not?

I just thought that everyone might appreciate this, probably some will more than others (but really, who doesnt appreciate humor, Penny Arcade, Star Wars, pizza bagels, oh yeah romance, love and marriage?!) Is it bad that romance, love and marriage were the last things that I thought of?!)



Im sorry, I have no technical expertise on how to make things bigger!

Just to let you know!

I might be a bit psychic.

Congratulations Karyl and Jenna!!
All the best

And now Karyl, a word from our Norweigan Forefathers!

"Hip hip hoorah, for i dag er det Karyl og Jenna's dag"
[Hip hip hoorah, for ee dog aer de Karyl oh Jenna's dog]
Hip hip hoorah, for today is Karyl and Jenna's day

"Må deres kjaerlighet bli moderne nok til å overleve de skiftende tidene og gammeldags nok til å vare livet ut"
[Mow deres shaer-lee-het blee mood-aerne nok til oh over-laeve de shiftende teedene oh gammel-dags nok til oh va-re leevet oot]
May your love be modern enough to outlive the changing times and old-fashioned enough to last a lifetime

I found them on a Norweigan phrase sight, I thought the first was sort of funny, and the second was romantic and hopeful!
Hip Hip Hooray for lutfisk and jhetost (oh yeah, and congratulations!!)

Marriage

Sorry Vince, I thought this picture was hilarious! In my defense, I was looking for a really nice poem or picture of something to that effect!!

Mostly, I hope that I can stick to the point and just post a little note congratulating Vinny on his engagement to the girl of his dreams!

As I'm sure at least all of us have at least thought, the sponteneity of it all is very romantic. It seems like an insane thing to do, to jet across Canada to see if your love is truly the one for you, but if I can imagine anyone doing that, its Vince. It seems like he was always the one up to coming out to my house for an improv bonding session at 3 in the morning when he worked at 9, or going for a swim in mid-May in the Pouce River!

Vince also seemed likely to be the first married out of this group. Well, either him or Karyl for some reason (Karyl, if youre reading this, you always seemed like the person that shocked me the most, and it would be suitably, pretty shocking...) Anyways... I think Vince has all of those innate characteristics that will allow him to be a very good fiance and husband including kindness, compassion, a good sense of humor and some endearing addictions to internet gaming!

I wish you all the best Vince and Meghan, and am excited to see where this new path takes you!
Cheers!

Geeky Pictures!

I wish that I could remember the themes to all of these photos, I will do my best though!! This one is just a general "Megan fell off the bandwagon" one!



We thought that Emma sort of looked like Quasimodo in this one! Image search him, its striking!
Note how far Emma can stick her finger up her nose! Lots of practice?
What we look like when we are sleeping? Except for me, thats what I look like when I am rocking out with my eyes closed!
Some people "get their eyes from their Mother," some inherit kindness from dear old Mom, but I, I got my greatest skill from her!
Possibly the only nice one that we took!
In my mind, I might not go towards the white light when I die, but instead this picture!
Megan must have said something really geeky!
Pensive to our hidari-kanji-left! (Am I right?)

Wish us luck getting A+'s on the tests that we should be studying for!!
Just as a post note, the other day Greg said that finding a BC girl on the east coast was like finding a hill on the prairie. So, the chances of finding three BC girls on the east coast in the same house would be comparable to finding?? (I cant think of anything funny, can you?)

Montreal

Oui-Allo?

Well, we went to Montreal for the concert last week! Amidst all of the homework and tests and the time that I should have been learning what a reflexive verb is for Spanish!

We had almost 2 days in all on a bus, so that was a bit excessive! And Im still discovering strange pains, busses and bus people are strange.


These are the binoculars that we bought to go and see him! (We were overtired and hungry in a huge "underground city!")

Bon Dylan was fairly amazing. In my mind he is this amazingly passionate man, who would espouse some maxim that would change my life, but instead he just played his music, which was still out of this world! He had beautiful accompaniment!


David "les filles, les filles" Aubut in Old Montreal!

Otherwise we did some pretty sweet touristy things, and some pretty sweet 'locals only' stuff. We ate poutine and Schwartz and made it out for beer and chocolate a couple of times.


Poutine with Marie-Pierre (Say it like a cheesy frenchman, its much prettier!)



Megan and Guy-Jill (The corniest french names combined for the best cat name ever!)

It was such a great time, and I cant ever do great things justice on the blog. Sigh, if only I could write my adventures like Blake!! Now, there is a master and a half!


Becks, as it turns out, you will appreciate this one! This is the wooden tower that he is speaking of!! This was one of the prime tourist stops for us all!
"And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
(Leonard Cohen, Suzanne)

Random Lyrics

And you want to travel with her,
And you want to travel blind,
And you know that you can trust her,
Because she's touched your perfect body
With her mind.
-Leonard Cohen - Suzanne

Richard/Gene Simmons

Well, Halloween is yet again nearly upon us. So, in the spirit of the season, I thought I might post a picture of the 'pumkin' that Zach and I so bravely and artistically carved, so spontaneously! It is Gene/Richard Simmons, so if you will please notice the kiss face, and also the Richard Simmons-esque hair. It was very late at night when we started, and took us until almost 4!



Also, is a picture of Emma all dolled up and ready to go out to the Palace or the Dome. I always forget which one, but one of them is the "Last Chance for Romance," I haven't been there yet, but am told that there is always much groping, so I'm not sure how much longer circumstance can keep me out of there!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Bobby!

You may be wondering why Bob Dylan is headlining for my blog-thing today!

Well, its a bit of a story. These guys (David and David (say it with a Montreal accent for extra effect!)) got in touch with Emma through couchsurfing (an online community that allows people to hook up in different cities, and sleep on their couch). Anyways, so Dave and Dave got into town and immediately we had more in common that anyone had predicted.

Anyway one Split Crow "Power Hour," sheperds pie, and far too much talk of poutine, the boys drop the "Bob Dylan" bomb on us. Bob Dylan is in Montreal on November 8th. So, it was a great conversation piece for a bit, until the longer haired Dave starts trying to convince us to go and see him. He starts out by just "checking" to see if there are anymore tickets, and seeing when the bus would get into Montreal. He gets us to just check our schedules to see if we would be missing any tests. He shows us our seats, he opens the page with the areas to fill in to buy the tickets...

So, spontaneously, we bought tickets.

And now, Im freaking out to do all of my readings before we go to Montreal. The day after we get back, Katie is going to be in town too! And Zach has organized a pub crawl with "V for Vendetta" tshirts!!

Im pretty stoked on the next 2 weeks!

If I Had More Time...

Blake was suggesting that I was missing out on the blogging opportunities of Rocktober. I feel like I don't have time to procrastinate openly but...

If I had more time I would have provide to you the most amazing update in the world! It would tell of real-stories of me having great advenures of crossing the sea in a small boat with only the dean of my program, a francophone water buffalo and a pink parasol. My blog would convey the message of my finally perfected vision and plan for world peace, that is attainable in but a week and a half. If I had more time I could rave to you about meeting rockstars, nobel peace prize winners and old men with blue recycling bags tied to their shopping carts.

Thanksgiving Post

Thanksgiving has come and passed, and historically this has been my first without my family around, if we hadn't had so many people around, I am sure that I would have missed the chaos entirely.

I am thankful for:
- Family
- Friends - new and old



- New Opportunities / Fresh Start
- Being fortunate (I'm not sure if that makes sense in the traditional "thanksgiving" vein, but I am)
- Good food and good company!
We had mass amounts of food, all contributed and thoughtfully prepared by members of the group. Emma went above and beyond by giving massages to the turkey (which was encourage the legs to unfreeze) and Curtis pulled the neck and 'giblets' out. So kudos to both of them. Alex brought a dense cake! Justin brought some salad and buns. Josh brought the wine. Bryna made pies! Zach made (from scratch!) banana bread and a broccoli dish. Grace made "peas and prosciutto" while Megan, Megan, Emma and Curtis worked collectively on preparing the stuffing, turkey, gravy and potatoes!! It was pretty epic!

MASH

Well, Megan, Emma and I just finished playing MASH. Do you guys remember that game? I think that it is generally meant for preteen girls who giggle alot at the thought of marrying that cute guy in their class or the hot movie star. If you dont recall, let me explain.
6 Categories are Chosen
1. Housing (MASH - Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House/Hostel)
2. Boys! Men! (Who eventually you will end up marrying)
3. Job (Anything goes)
4. Pets
5. Kids (number of)
6. Vehicle

So, generally when I was young we would get together and do this, but Emma, Megan and I decided to do them on Emma's 21st birthday eve. So...

Im married to a rat exterminator. This is not a good start. With this rat exterminator I have 5 kids and we live in a beautiful rat infested mansion (because this rat exterminator apparantly brings his rats home to bed). When I am not taking care of my hordes of children, I am driving my ice cream truck to and from work, at a very monotonous job (mind-numbingly boring). After work I go home and walk my banana slug...

Anyways, it was just kind of a random activity, that I thought would be funnier to report about than it was apparantly.
It was my roomates 21st Birthday!! Yeah for junk food!!
Happy Birthday Emma!

Final exciting thing that happened on my weekend:

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/entertainment/060923/e092320.html

Very Briefly

Free. VIP tickets. Rocked Out Hard in Rain. Went to bar looking like drowned rat. Danced. Returned Home to tell of It.

80's Night (Oh What A Night!)

Before leaving, and after Grace teased us all equally!! (Our hair that is!)

So, out of 3 exciting things that have happened to me this week/end, the second one took form of a random idea to go out to the campus bar for the themed "80's night!" So, Emma happens to be the queen of the 80's and even though when she lived in the 80's she wasnt even in school yet, she has the most amazing amout of clothes from that thime that I have ever seen. So, we raided her room (which, by the way had already been raided by the rookies on her team!), and found some sweet gear! Leg warmers, one shouldered t-shirts, head bands, tights and short skirts were being pulled out left and right!


Here we are in the lineup!! Oh My!

So, we get down to the Grawood, where there is a lineup to the end of the Student Union Building, so we wait in line for a long time, until they close the door and the mob mentality promises violence if we stay.


So, we get out of there, and create a sweet 80s bubble, and go downtown to a random bar, and watched a random band (The Novaks) preform.

It was pretty great. We got a huge amount of comments from those Haligonians who may have thought we just enjoyed the extra warmth leg warmers provied!
!
Stay tuned for what happened Saturday Night!! It is by far the best story!

Birthday Fun!

Well, its been a very intersting couple of days.


Grace and I on our way to Supper!! My roomates are all so cute!!

I celebrated my 21st birthday on Wednesday, with everyone here, and it was pretty awesome! A big thanks goes out to Emma, Megan, and Grace! It was incredibly strange to celebrate it without my family and many friends from home. It was a really successful birthday, as I didnt even feel too sick the next day!!


Check it out, Im mime-ing blowing out the candles! (Stupid us being non-smokers) Im also pretending that I am not-on-the-verge-of-tears! (Random long story dealing with friends, awkwardness, and kittens)


We played Cranium, and Megan and I were on fire, with our Dawson Creek ESPN and rolling good-luck catch phrase "Mommy needs a new pair of shoes!"


Zach and Alex showing us up in a pose-off. They were lovely enough to come out to the boonies with us!

Just some pictures, not too much else to say. I'm getting pretty busy with school, so I am off to do some readings after I quit dawdling and making more things for myself to do!

PS- Im pretty happy to report that Blake made it safe and sound to Japan. I am currently out of my mind with worry, because its been a couple of days since I heard from him. Just hoping hes ok!

Charlie

I just thought that I should write a quick little good luck wish to Blake who will be soon jetting even further away from me than I jetted from him... I wish him good luck on his trip and I hope that he doesn't do something stupid like miss his connecting flight like an idiot that I know once did.



I found some nice picture of him (and various other people!) that generally show his personality and the reasons why I can surely say "they don't make them like that anymore!"



Check out his blog-thang at www.bikesandbeans.blogspot.com

And now, the piece de resistance!

Bedroom!

I believe that all people who know me would be thinking a couple of things about me right now after they see these pictures:

1. Man, that room is so Bryna-ish it hurts...
2. It's about time!

And it really is about time. 2 weeks without a bed is truly ridiculous!I am pretty happy with my little room. It finally feels like I moved to Halifax today!!

Hippie!

Well, here is yet another exciting update!! Just when I settled into classes and started to meet people, turns out that I might have to change my schedule altogether. I talked to an academic councillor today, and she said that I might have 2 courses in IDS that I cant take until 2008, and therefore am looking at another whole year of school because of it stupid Dalhousie and its full year courses... But on the upper hand, in one more year I can graduate with an honors degree in my program and another major in Poli Sci, so Im pretty stoked to do that. Also, in other news I have managed to become more of a hippie in the last couple of days, and I shall leave that sentence ambigiously open ended because the final clause is gross.

Megan and I took some lovely pictures on a ramble on pier 21 on the weekend that I thought I might share as I think that they are beautiful. On Saturday we had a very tourist-y day!!



This picture is of an island that the English used to lock Acadians on before the confederation of Canada. Its beautiful now however. After our education upon the oldish history of our country, we checked out the pier where many many imigrants came to Canada. Then we walked through a huge farmer's market in the Alexander Keith's brewery. I believe we are going to do a tour of it a bit later in the year, when the studious student thing wears off.



Megan is enjoying the sun and basking in the nuclear-glow of the Halifax harbor!



Here is me in front of the biggest ship that I have ever seen!! Let me know if all of this constant commentary on my new home gets annoying because I have a feeling that it will!! Im just excited for all of the history here!

First Day of Classes

Well, I made it back alive from my first day of classes. I actually had a class and a tutorial only scheduled for today anyways, but the tutorial was not on due to not actually having that class yet. So it was a quick day, which was just about right to get me back into the swing of things. The class was an arabic language class and I found it fairly interesting. I hope that I stay engaged. On the walk home I stopped at a stationary store and bought some flash cards and felts so that I can hopefully learn the letters in arabic sucessfully.


I dont know what that says, but one day maybe!! I do know that there are no vowels in there though, pure consonants baby!!

In other news, I am enjoying having the internet up and running.

In still more other news, I have internet but still no bed. I am really procrastinating before I run off and get one of those. Im trying to decide whether to get a futon or a read bed... Its a conundrum...

Atlantic Canada

Well, I have made it to Atlantic Canada, which sounds alot nicer than "Northeastern British Columbia" don't you think? Upon arriving to this land of sea creatures and their captors Megan and I decided to visit this unusual cafe/restaurant. The prices were reasonable, the chili was delicious and they had these things called "mochas" which are out of this world.


Just out of boredom and sheer exhaustion we decided to document my first Atlantic Timmy's Experience.

I have noticed some things about here which contrast greatly with home such as; on Sunday any large store is not open, on Labor day it is impossible to find a couple bottles of wine, army / navy men run rampant, and furniture stores are "anywhere close to the sidewalk." Turns out that an Atlantic tradition is when you do not need something anymore, you are to leave it out on the street and hope that someone else will take it away. So, that is exactly what happened.


Yeah for University Students!!

Our flat is upstairs in a classically maritime house. There are four bedrooms, one tiny one and three bigger ones. The bathroom is small and the fan sounds like metal on metal until it gets going.

My roomates are less than stereotypical. There are three of us from BC, Megan (obviously), Emma and myself. Emma is from Nanaimo and on the school Basketball team (go Tigers!!). Emma, Meg and I all graduated in the same year, and are all in the same year of school. We all like red wine. Grace is another story all together. Grace is going into nursing, she is going to turn 19 in a couple of months. She has a sweet disposition. Grace is mainly from Nova Scotia, but has moved occasionally due to her father being in the military.


Emma and Megan chllin' on the Sweet Find of the Century

What else can I say about this new adventure... It was terrible leaving home and everyone there. It was especially hard leaving Blake as it will be a very long time until I get to see him again. On the last couple of days I didnt even mind the bugging that he ineviatably bestowed upon me. It was really hard leaving my family as well, and I think it would have been a bit easier if they werent all so awesome. And, it would have been easier if they had all just left the airport. But no, they had to wait and give me hugs and stand there on the other side of the railing whilst I moved up in line and was so sad.

So far this has been quite the week and Im hoping that today I will find a bed and a blanket so that I can stop sleeping in the living room.