what a lovely week

Well, just to make everyone else even more jealous, it has been above 0 degrees all week and for the most part the avg. has be 7 or 8 degrees. EAT THAT, eat it all with a giant spoon, especially you Akiva.

So just to keep updated with my co-op program situation, i'm all registered now and set up, so now all i have left to do is apply my face off. Apparently the average is applying for about 15-20 jobs before you get one. GREAT. I really really have time for all of that. On top of that none of the jobs listed so far have been IBUS (international business) jobs, but hey-- if i was in accounting or finance i'd be SET.

Well we went out last week for Brandi's 20th birthday! All grown up.. no longer a teenager. We went to Moxie's downtown for a little nosh and some great margaritas:










If you look closely at the pic on the right, the drink-cube box that Brandi just threw is actually in mid air. She swears that she planned it that way.

And now for my artsy picture of the week: Andrea's reflection in the window of the c-train with the SAIT stop in the background. ooooh, aahhhh

Ooh one new thing we've been doing is going skating at the Oval a lot. We went once last semester (which is where these pics are from) and then this semester i just decided it would be a fun thing to do and i guess so did the rest of our group... the other day we had 11 people from Cascade alone going all at the same time. BEAUTIFUL, we were like gangs-on-ice all walking there together and skating around and then walking home. Hah. Anyways it's great excercise and fun and i'm getting better.. plus i haven't fallen once, even when i try to skate backwards!


There's the gang.. don't we look tough? You'd hate to see THAT skating towards you at full speed.. but mainly because most of us have no clue how to stop on skates !!













Me skating backwards and David skating forwards! Do you think our skating reflects our direction in life? i hope not..

Alright i should get to bed. HOWEVER this weekend is going to be fun because i now have no classes on fridays anymore! YAAAY 3 day weekend every weekend. Maybe i'll pick up some knitting again, i've been sorely neglecting it.

Love,
Colleen

what a lovely day

Today at one point when i checked the weather it was 7 degrees above!! EAT THAT everyone who doesn't live in calgary!! It was amazing. It was so nice and sunny and not cold out today that it was absolutely impossible to not be in a great-tacular mood. Normally after a 6:00am fire drill in rez. i would NOT be having a good day, but somehow i did!

One thing that was great about today was that after my business law class i toodled on over to my french class thinking it was going to be horrible. I even bought myself a huge slice of hawaiian pizza with ranch dressing and a diet pepsi from the sweet little cafeteria in the Education building just to make myself happy before french. BUT to my surprise when i got there.. half the students were gone! It was GREAT. Now you have to realize that last semester my french class had 9 students in it, my prof was AMAZING, and they moved us into this little janitor-closet-type room and we sat around a big conference table at comfy chairs. SO this semester when i walked into a class with a prof i didn't know and a full class of over 30 students all crammed into little tiny desks, i was NOT happy. For the first week none of us even got to speak french except if we were asking a question, so that sucked. I was all prepared to just hate this class until today, when it just suddenly turned good. So I sat down with my pizza and pop and had lunch while learning about prepositions. YAY -- lunch and learning ... the classic combo!

Alright so i'm still not completely caught up with all my courses and the massive amounts of reading we have to do, but really.. who reads all the chapters they're sposed to every night anyways? Thats definitely something that is better left to the last week before the midterm. Mhmm, thats my story and i'm sticking to it. What is more important is watching the 2 hour season premiere of American Idol.. oh yeah!! SO classic. The only sad thing is i'm not living at home so i can't watch it every week with my mom like we used to do :(

OH MY GOSH, so the germans, the scots and I went up to Edmonton last Saturday to go to the mall. We went to the University of Alberta for a little bit and i got to see Linday.. so sorry for the no shout out before homie, so here it is -- YO YO WASSUP MY L-DIZZLE in the E-DizTON i MISSIZZLE your NIZZLE and SIZZLE yeaaah. Anyhoo, i didn't take my camera up to Edmonton due to the fact that i got up 5 minutes before we were leaving so i was lucky to even have pants on when i was dragged out the door, but i got a few pics from David and hopefully i'll get some more from Carina or Anna later...

So the 'tourists' decided they wanted to see the Alberta Legislature buildings. Me being super tired and also thinking i was too cool for all of that, decided to stay in the car. Well LOOK what i missed out on. SO choked. This picture is PRIME, especially since it's a bunch of foreigners with a giant Canadian flag. Apparently they just have those blazers there for you to put on and get a picture, how rad is that? Even if David did have to wear a women's jacket, hehe.

And I like to call the next section "why the Germans are so strange":













... yes, that is a belt around Frank's head.

THEN my dearest Lisa came to meet us at West Ed. and her and I shopped for a good 9 hours. I spent $400!!! AAAH, there goes all my christmas money and more. but it was so worth it, spending a whole day with my bestest girl and eating one of those banana chocolate coconut crepes, and eating at Taco Bell (we need a taco bell in OUR mall for god sakes), oh and eating at 'death by chocolate' .. good thing i worked off all that poundage by shopping. I can't wait to go back up there again to visit her and lindsay and maybe stay in rez with them? EEeee!! it'd be great cause i don't have classes on Fridays at all so i could go up thursday night and stay for 3 days! Yaay. It's really sweet having a long weekend EVERY weekend.

CHECK OUT lisa's awesome post about our Edmonton excursion on her blog: http://awakeislove.blogspot.com (or just click on *lisa* on the right hand side of this page)

Ooh and now i have some pictures to show you. Last week we had our Moxie's staff party at Tantra, they had the whole place just for Moxie's staff from all the Moxie's around Calgary. Jeff and Lindsay came and picked me up, and since the theme was "Hollywood Holiday Party" they decided we should dress up.










Jeff was Tom Cruise in Top Gun and Lindsay and I went as Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. However, nobody else was really dressed up like a celebrity, so most people didn't even realize that I was supposed to be anyone, and they thought Lindsay was Paris Hilton. WHATEVER, we had fun :)










Dirty hookers!! .. oh wait.. the SHOT not US!!

Yay we all had so much fun dancing and boozing it up and i got to see Maria and Luke and Erin and all the great people that trained us at southport. Then on the way home we stopped for pizza and Lindsay got in a bit of a catfight with some random guy at the pizza place.. classic! So much fun! Thanks so much to Jeff for picking me up AND waiting for me at the end so he could get me home safe. Good friends, i'm going to miss that place :)

Alright final thoughts..

1) I have like 50 million things to do in the next 2 months to get all set up for co-op, eww
2) I have SO much laundry to take home this weekend !
3) STEF! I hope your allergies are getting better and i can't remember whose turn it is to email, so maybe i'll just take a leap and email you soon :)
4) Carina, Thomas, Frank -- thank you so much for taking me to Edmonton with you. I had a great time with you guys and Anna and David.

Love,
Colleen

to everything.. turn turn turn

Alright, a new season of learning. 2 days into classes and i'm still a mess... well lets clarify that, my room is a mess, i haven't bought any textbooks yet, i don't have many groceries, i'm tired and haven't unpacked much of my stuff. BUT it's a new year and i have many things to look forward to, so i had better get my ass in gear and get organized.

I got into the Co-op program in the Haskayne School of Business at UofC so i'm really stoked about that. What it means for me is that the business career centre will help me with my resume and interview skills and that jazz, then they provide me with a list of companies that have jobs for co-op students that they're affiliated with, i apply for a work term at several of the companies, and then i hopefully find one that i want to work for and that wants me. The first term they suggest is a summer term of 4 months, so that would mean i wouldn't have to work at Moxie's as a summer job!! YAAAY. Then they suggest you find a different company to do an 8 month work term with, that way you can get a taste of a few different things and see what you'd like to do for a career. This means taking a year off of school, so my degree will actually take me 5 years, but i will graduate with a 'co-op' designation. This is SO important to me and something that anyone who knew me last semester should know that i wanted SO much. I feel like i have been working so hard for so long and finally some pieces of my life are falling into place. VERY happy girl right here.

First i should start with some pictures taken before the end of the holidays:
It was Akiva's last 'official' night in Calgary before going back to T.O for school, so we thought we'd have a little night out. We were really bored, as you can see, so we did what any normal kids our age would do...










Retro boogie dance party in the car!! I came up with a little photo-collage to show you just how much fun we had.

Thank the lord for the timer function on my camera. What would i do without it.

Alright, first monday night back in rez.. of course we have to go for wings!! It was a very messy ordeal let me tell you, resulting in me getting honey garlic sauce on my face, in my hair, and on my cell phone... well worth it though, i might add.

If you saw this gang walking down the street you'd be shaking in your boots... okay well maybe not cause of the big grin on Carina's face, but everyone else sure looks scary.










Ooooh they just get scarier and scarier... those aren't chicken bones, they're real human bones.










A picture of my left eye, and 3 guys i don't know. This is why I should stick to taking the pictures guys. It was so nice to see everyone again though.

Well i think i might be going up to Edmonton this weekend with the Germans. YAY that would mean i'd get to hang out with my Lisa ! Other than that i guess i just have to make it through this week and try and get my act together.

Love you all,
Colleen

Disclaimer: some words may be fabricated, though they should be understandable

I don't know how anyone ever wrote with a pencil and paper. I think so fast that i can't even type everything i'm thinking before it slips away.. but a pencil and paper? Someone should do the math, but not me, so i'll just roughly estimate that you're losing 90% of the total thoughts you think and only really recording the remaining 10%. Can you imagine how much important, interesting, or even just humorous ponderage people miss out on when a pencil and paper are the method of recordation? (thats the fabricated word thing coming in)

Speaking of outdated technology, how did anyone ever take pictures with regular film cameras? I really don't think i'd be the person i am today without my digital camera by my side at all times. It allows me to capture things i'd never find if i was using a regular camera and had to worry about using up film, or wasn't able to see exactly how my pictures looked when i took them. When you take zillions of pictures everywhere you go you're bound to get a few good ones for sure. Lets see what i can dig up...

Akiva and I downtown. It was going to be a lovely picture until Akiva turned to tell me there was a lady right behind me trying to get by. I took the picture anyways (take that lady), and it turned out really neat.

While downtown Akiva noticed this big metal door reading "Fire Exit", that is not attached to a building. Click on the picture and then look at it closely, not attached! So, i guess if there's a fire and you need to escape out of the wire-fenced-in area, you'll have to first open the door and then run out. Anyways, makes for a great picture!

This is what happens when you shout "guys look at me" and only one person hears you in time.

Heather looks so serene in this picture, although there is something odd shaped in her mouth. Funny thing is i realized after that there are actually 2 people in this picture named heather (the picture on the shelf behind is Mosley's sister Heather).

This is my brother, my grampa, and I in his hospital room. There is nothing more priceless than a grandfather in a santa hat.. unless its a grandfather in a santa hat singing to jingle bells. When i told my grandma that my grampa sang part of jingle bells with me, she said "I have never heard him sing one word in his life". It was just so special.

Our christmas tree, taken at night in a dark room with no flash. The christmas lights are the only light in this picture, amazing. Also the first time we've had a christmas tree in 4 years.

This is what you would see if you were a bowl of mashed potatoes at christmas dinner.

This is what your mom looks like when she is crying over a christmas gift you make her with a bunch of pictures of you as a baby with her. I found a book called "My Mom is Excellent" and then found pictures from my childhood that went with the story in the book and pasted them in. I even cried when looking through our family photo albums, i love her so much.


And finally.. we thought Lindsay had the same color of hair as her dog. Turns out her hair is a bit darker, but Monty DOES look great with pigtails!

I hope everyone had a great newyears, and check back in a few days for my newyears eve pictures from Beth & Jane's. Plus, if you have any pictures from that night you should definitely send them to me :)

Love,
Colleen