What I'm looking forward to!

The countdown is most definitely on! One thing that you should know about me is that I love countdowns.  A lot.  I start them months in advance.  I cheer when the days go down by 5's (50, 45, etc...), 10's, weeks, months.  Speaking of countdowns, why haven't I done one for Convocation?! Sweet Jesus what is wrong with me?!  I also love bulleted lists.  So why not combine the two? I'm going to start jotting down things I want to make sure I do/am looking forward to when I'm home, back in the land of the sane.  Or at least, the not as whiny :P

• The Vancouver Aquarium.  Scuba Claus is back by popular demand! That's right, Scuba Claus.  Santa Claus scuba dives in the Georgia Straight exhibit, which is my favourite aquarium exhibit.  There will also be a tree lighting, courtesy of the electric eels.  Score! 
• Drives to see the Chrismas lights.  Someone used to set up a hockey Santa Claus scene on their front yard.  I'm not sure if they still do it, but I do love me some Christmas lights! From the warmth and comfort of an automobile, bien sûr.
• Winter Harp (see picture above). From the website: "Dozens of candles light the stage as musicians in medieval attire play harps, flute, drums, bells and an assortment of rare medieval instruments in an evening of poetry and song."  You had me at harps! And medieval attire.  Because they were awesome.  In a tradition begun four years ago, my oldest pal and I go to some sort of show around Christmas time.  For three years it was the musical Beauty and the Beast.  My pal studied stagecraft in college and I am a musical junkie, plain and simple.  Shoot me up baby!  Tragically the show seems to have stopped touring, so last year we had to come up with a different plan.  Neither of us were (was?) crazy about the Christmasy musical on offer at the theatre that played our previous show, so we just went to a movie that both of us wanted to see.  This year we're back to our former theatre antics.  It's even at the local theatre!
• Baking.  Christmas baking, regular baking, baking! For me Christmas isn't about the presents, or even (entirely) about my favourite Christmas songs (I want a hippopotamus for Christmas and six white boomers, for the record).  It's about the food.  I eat.  A lot.  Constantly, actually.  I'm a snacker. I love appetizers and all food that is bite-sized.  Bonus points of there's an abundance of sugar.  Which is where Christmas comes in.  Munchy food and sweet treats galore!   I even get the pleasure of knowing exactly how much weight I gain over Christmas break, as I have to weigh my luggage before flying home and going back to school.  The old school nurse said I was the only student she'd ever met that lost weight at school and gained it at home.  What can I say, I like to be different? 
• Specifically, I live for Christmas morning brunch.  Words cannot begin to express mon amour for this meal.  I look forward to it all year.  Mmmm wife saver...
• My pets.  Sure the cat hates the world and the dog is not too bright, but they're awesome anyways.
• Rent L'arnacoeur (see previous entry).  I'm not even going to attempt to find it for sale.  However, the local video store does have quite a good selection of foreign films.
• Make Grandma's cinnamon buns.
• Complete French teaching assistant job application.  My friend Scotty (three guesses as to where she's from!) who I met while on exchange in France, is applying for a similar program through the UK government.  How nifty would it be if we both happened to get hired and placed in the same location?
• Visits with: Jamie and Bruce (who apparently moved and live close by now!) - baking and movies etc..., Natasha, Elinor -White Spot and BBC Pride & Prejudice, Ashley, Charlotte & Brook, Chrissy-poutine pizza!, Candace (who will be freshly returned from working at the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland memorial in France!), etc...!!
• Cook dinner! The potential of cooking something and not having to eat it for a week is muchly appealing!

To be added to...

Favourite things à la Oprah (Part 1)

It's that time of year! I am really sad I haven't been able to catch the favourite things episode these last few years, so I came up with the perfect solution this year! I'll do my own favourite things blog entry! In fact, I may do a few :P

Sorry it's so blurry! This is the only shot I could get off the website.  Meet the Lululemon Remix hoodie in torrid/chilli tartan print.  Lululemon pants were actually feature on Oprah's favorite things episode this year! There, solid proof that Lululemon is the best.  Even the Big O's a fan!

Actually, it's L'arnacoeur.  I saw this movie in theatres in France and it is the cutest thing ever.  Alex (Romain Duris-who I will gladly settle for if I can't have Michael Bublé) is hired by family members to break up a woman's unsuitable relationship.  When he gets hired to stop Juliette's wedding (played by that skinny cow who stole Johnny Depp from the world) which is to take place in 10 days time he finds himself mixing business with pleasure.  It will be released on DVD in Canada on December 21st.  I asked at Archambault the last time I was in Montréal : )

Meet Charm, by Kate Spade. I'm like a magpie. I can't get enough of shiny things!  This ties in nicely with our next item:

The perfect little black (bubble) dress by BCBG.

Kitchen Aid stand mixer in Ice.  

Return to Tiffany's

It won't let me copy and paste a picture, so check out the link (Return to Tiffany heart charm and chain).

C'est tout! For now : )

Weekend update-Concerts and Plays and French Toast, Oh My!

Hello lovelies,

I have to say as far as weekends go,this one was pretty darn good.  We started off with a bang, in the form of a free concert Friday night.  After class on Friday I decided to kill time in the library before my doctor's appointment (like...4 hours? haha) rather than face the chilly walk back to rez and all the way across campus back to the doctor's office.  I happened to come across my friend Chris, who asked what I was doing that night.  A Friday night? Me? That would be nothing, I replied.  He had an extra ticket for the Jill Barber/Michael Kaeshammer concert that was being held that night at Centennial.  Oh.  My.  God.  She is the cutest thing ever.  We had amazing seats in the 2nd row, dead center.  Our theatre is a little different than most, in that instead of the first few rows being below they stage they are level, meaning we pretty much had the best seats in the house.  I couldn't resist buying one of her CDs after, especially as she was out in the lobby, mingling with her fans and signing CDs, LPs, etc...I was worried she'd be a little too jazzy for me but for some reason she's not.  I might possibly have been love with her outfit too.  Really wish I'd gotten a picture of it.  She was wearing a crinoline under her dress.  I have a (not) so secret love of crinoline.  I'm not really sure why...paired with shimmer tights (as it always was in my dancing days) it's the itchiest thing on the planet.  I also wore my Tiffany's earrings for the first time <3

This is my favourite song that Jill sang:

Jill Barber-Oh My My

Yesterday my Quebec Culture class (which is making me increasingly suicidal.  Thank-God there's only one more week of classes left!) went to a play in Montreal called, "Thérèse et Pierrette à l'École des Saints-Anges" by Michel Tremblay.  I had to get up at 8 to get ready, and was pretty tired from the night before.  I think the highlight of the day for me was not the play, but this:

"lunch" at one of my favourite Montréal eateries, Juliette & Chocolat.  You're understanding correctly.  It's a chocolate restaurant! I had a strawberry, banana, chocolate crêpe, a fair trade grandmother style (that means it's super thick) milk chocolate hot chocolate, and Cat and I shared a raspberry chocolate mousse.  Yep, that's a lot of chocolate.  Mmmm...

Here are a couple more pictures:

Chocolate raspberry mousse and my crêpe 

Cat and her friend Gérard battle it out over chocolate fondue.

We took the wrong highway heading home, so we ended up going a bit out of our way and having to backtrack.  I took over driving for most of the way home because Cat was getting tired.  Quebec highways are so strange.  You feel like you are driving down some rural country road, but nope that's a highway.  I guess it is preferable if something happens, but the problem with this are that there are obviously no exits, as it really is just a  road, and there are houses up and down both sides.

So what's on for today? The following:

• Wash sheets
• Call Grandma
• Figure out how much tuition will be next semester
• Clean room
• Wash dishes
• Make chocolate banana bread
• Clean bathroom
• Make french toast for breakfast

And with that I'm off like a herd of turtles!

Bisous,

Darcy

These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you

New York, New York.  As with most big cities, I relax considerably once it's my second, third, etc... trip.  Also, once I gave up on the subway and started taking taxis everywhere.  With a group of people it ends up cheaper than taking the subway sometimes.  I dislike the NYC subway greatly.  It is confusing, ugly, and smelly at times.  Anways so to start with the trip up, I high-tailed it from class, to my apartment, to the bus stop on campus to find two classmates there, who said one of the Art History professors was driving into Montreal and had offered us all a ride.  Only downside to this was we got to the Mtl bus station ridiculously early, and had to wait like four hours before we could catch the bus to NYC.  There was an earlier bus but we would have gotten into the city at like 4am.  Nooo thanks.  I think overnight greyhounds have to be the worst things on the planet.  Seriously next time I go to NYC I'm flying, I don't care how much it costs.  We got to the hotel, put out bags up in our prof's room because we couldn't check in yet, and set off.  Friday we went to the MoMa, which was really not my cup of tea.  Contemporary and Modern Art makes my brain hurt.  Kathleen and I spend all of 10 minutes in the MoMA before we escaped to hunt down Central Park.  We walked around there for a bit before heading back to meet back up with the group.    
For dinner the English girls (the French ones split off and did their own thing.  Whatever).  went out to this delicious asian restaurant.  Those sneaky museum girls told them it was my birthday and out came a delicious chocolate cake and ice cream.  Mmm so good! Saturday we did the Museum of Natural History, which we ripped to shreds, and the Guggenheim.  MNA=major disappointment.  Most boring museum ever, not to mention racist and blatantly colonialist at times.  Ew.  We moved on to the Guggenheim, which was spectacular.  The current temporary exhibit is called "Chaos and Classicism" and featured art from Germany, France, and Italy during the interwar period.  Fantastic artwork, and the architecture of the building itself is spectacular.  After we were done there we were let loose.  Kathleen, Alaina, and I had one store on our minds: Tiffany's! We decided it would be easier to take a cab than try and figure out the subway (a correct assumption).  *Sigh*...Tiffany's on 5th Ave really is the most beautiful place ever. They have an engagement FLOOR! I bought a pair of pearl earrings, Alaina bought a charm for the Tiffany's key necklace she already had, and Kathleen bought a necklace that has an outline of a dove.  I <3 my little blue box <3  Met up with Corey at 5th and 50th as he had become separated from Suzanne and Merran on the subway (cursed subway!) and neither of their phones were working! Suuuper.  Anyways eventually we all met up, and took a taxi to the Lion King Theatre.  Corey and Merran were late additions to the party, so they didn't have tickets.  Unfortunately there was only one ticket left, so Corey graciously let Merran have it.  He wandered around Times Square while we were at the show, which was INCREDIBLE.  Literally from the moment the curtain went up I was speechless.  Everything, from the set, to the lighting, to the singing and dancing, was spectacular.  I might have cried a little, during one of the songs they added in for the show ("He lives in you, He lives in me") aaaand during the "Can you feel the love tonight' Pas de Deux between Simba and Nala.  It was pure beauty.  Check the number out here:

"He lives in you, He lives in me" performance

The New Museum was also in there somewhere, and it was...a little strange.  There was a performance piece that none of us really got, and truthfully it made us a little uncomfortable.  Strangeness.  But there was a great view of the city from the 7th floor, and when the elevator doors opened everyone sang happy birthday to me : )

I must remember there was an adorable French patisserie on Lexington.  Note To Self...

Sunday we got up and left for the bus station at 7:30...and didn't get back to Sherbrooke until close to midnight.  The bus driver from NYC to Mtl got lost...for almost 2 hours.  Not impressed.  Anyways, pictures:

Yes, I take pictures of Sephora stores everywhere I go :P

Me, Laura, Noémi, and Alli on the 7th floor of the New Museum

The Guggenheim

Tiffany's = LOVE

Times Square 

Merran and Suzanne in Times Square

Our show!

Suzanne, Merran, and me after seeing the Lion King ON BROADWAY!!!!!

Corey and I after the show

Redpath Museum pictures and new skates

3 exciting things:

1) I got 86% on my 2nd child dev midterm.  That's up by 6% from the last one and 20% from the tests I did with this prof last year.  I've got him figured out now, we we're doing good : )

2) French prof pushed the due date for our scary 10 page paper back a week, which means I don't have to have it done by Thursday morning (it was going to be due in one week and I'm going to NYC from thu-sun.

3) New skates arrived in the mail from Tara today! They are beautiful and fit perfectly! I know my ankles will be a lot happier in these skates than my old ones.  I can't wait to go skating next weekend!

Okay, so here a few pictures from the Redpath Museum on the McGill campus that my museology class went to two weeks ago, and one of my amazing new ice skates : )