Be the change you wish to see...

Hindi Lesson #3

2007-04-23T19:13:00.000-07:00

Today I sat through my third Hindi lesson (self-taught via a tape). I'm still on conversation one, of 10, and am finding it much harder than I thought! It's not that I thought it would be easy to learn, but rather my lack of fore-thought of what areas I may find difficult has caught me off guard. Part of it, I believe, stems from the fact that I'm a very visual learner - I like having a description of something with a picture or some visual cue to go with it. The tape is great to follow the conversations, but my level of recall is much lower without the usual visual link. A couple observations:

1. Shorter words have been much harder to remember. I only have a vocabulary of about 30 words so far, but most of these are two and three letter words. I find the smaller they are, the harder they are to distinguish them from each other, so I always mix up the meaning of simple words like "se," "hu," "aur," "ap," "hai," "bhi," which are essential to tie sentences together.

2. I'm mixing up my French and Hindi! This is something I NEVER anticipated! I figured the languages were so different that this would not be a problems, but often when the tape prompts me to give the Hindi translation for an English word, I automatically think of the French version instead. It happens the other way around as well - if I hear a Hindi word that also sounds like a word in French, I think of the English translation to the French word. For example, when I hear "mai" I automatically think "but" (a translation of the French "mais"), rather than "I" which is what the actual translation from Hindi to English is.

If I continue on learning through this method, even if I get to a level where I can have a basic conversation, when I actually get to India my understanding will drop a few points because 1. They'll talk faster and likely with a different accent, and 2. I won't have a written text in front of me to follow along and interpret. When I broaden my vocabulary a bit more, I should cut off the use of the written text and rather converse as much as possible in small Hindi phrases to practice my verbal comprehension.

Wow...

2007-03-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

I just read that last post and realized how horrible my sentence structure and grammar was!

First Steps in Prep for India

2007-03-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

Besides the CEED preparation weekend last weekend and a quick chat with the MCVP PD of India, until today I hadn't done too much to prepare for going to India. But today during a study break at Chapters, I bought 3 things in preparation for my envoy - A travel book, a history book, and my new favorite toy - a set of CD's to learn Hindi with! Probably not the smartest move given that I'm writing my MCAT in just over two weeks and the last thing I need is another distraction...but meh! I havn't started reading the books yet, but I quickly popped in the first CD of my hindi lessons. My first lesson was following a conversation between Amit, who had just married Angeli, and Rohan on the plane...to India I assume! What did I learn? Well, Amit is from London and Rohan is from Delhi and both are very tired! Also, my pronounciation is not all that bad! Likely because I speak Singhalese, but maybe it's my sister's influence from listening/watching all those hindi movies and songs too! I'm going to try using all the phrases I know from songs/movies when talking to people. I wonder how people would react if I went up to them and said "Kuch kuch hota hai!" :P

Anyhoo, I'm super excited to immerse myself in learning more about the culture and history after my exam is over! I'm also making Puneet help me learn Hindi - which he doesn't know yet...so I hope he actually does speak Hindi...?!

Mai thaka hu! Good night! (I think that meant "I'm tired"...I'm not really but I figured it would be the most appropriate thing I could coin together for this time of night!)

Time for Change

2007-02-25T13:53:00.000-08:00

I needed a change - the other template was too peachy. The only down side is that now I need to go back an edit my template with all my links again... :(

Vacation!!!

2006-12-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

It feels so good to be home! Just before the plane touched down in Calgary I could see the mountains on the horizon, and the flat flat brown land - such soothing sights!

Yesterday I relaxed for most of the morning, then in the afternoon I went to pick up my sister and go see Scout! He's so adorable - no longer has the satelite dish, and looks back to new, except for a slight limp. A couple weeks back, while I was still in Toronto, I mailed Scout a present, just a little something to let him know I was thinking about him. They saved the present till I came before opening it. When I arrived Brodie took the present and held it up for Scout - he quickly figured out it was for him (I think he smelled the treats!) and when we put it on the floor he started to tear it open. It took 5-10 minutes for Scout to open it, but it was so adorable! The raw hide was the first thing he came across - loved it and wouldn't let it go out of his mouth, and completely forgot about the rest of the present! Then we took it away and made him look at the rest - which was a ball that had holes in it, and a bone that fit right in the ball. So I put the bone in the ball and Scout was rolling behind the ball and trying to maneuver the bone out of the ball for a good 30 minutes or so. Sooo cute!

Pictures to come :)

Winter Cleaning

2006-12-07T20:13:00.000-08:00

What a productive day!

7:30pm: Arrive home with yummy Chinese food - SM and I eat massive amounts of food intended for four people.

8:10pm: SM wakes JN with her piercing wails.

8:30pm: JN exits his room, and dismantling of the dishwasher commences (Toronto Waste Management is expected to arrive tomorrow to pick it up! As a note, Toronto Waste Management requires that the door must be taken off prior to pick up).

8:40pm: We establish that there is no easy way to remove the door of said dishwasher. One must dismantle the ENTIRE dishwasher (ie. the front, the sides, the top, cut the electrical wires, and cut the hose).

8:40pm - 9:10pm: HG and SM watch, and barely help, as JN and his guns dismantles the dishwasher.

9:10pm: HG, SM and JN take the dishwasher and other trash to the curb (ie. This equals, a dishwasher, 4 full garbage cans and 6 additional garbage bags. Yes, we are pigs).

9:30pm: SM, JN and HG begin cleaning...the kitchen, the living room and the hairy hallway.

10:00pm: Just as we are done cleaning, SM begins to clear the top of the fridge, and when JN opens the freezer door, a full box of beer bottles smash to the ground.

10:05pm: We pull out the fridge to clean the spilt beer that has creeped under. What was behind the fridge causes HG to explore into uncontainable laughter.

10:10pm: JN drives to Dominion to pick up a mop, as our dishrags just don't do the job of cleaning up 6 bottles of smashed beer.

11:00pm: JN arrives with a mop, and the cleaning of the kitchen commences again.

11:10pm: The dishwasher, after 6 months, is gone, and we have kitchen table space. The kitchen looks like new!

Thank you Toronto Waste Management for forcing us to invigorate our kitchen!

Back therapy = SM stomping on my back

2006-12-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

A few days a ago the tips of my shoulders started to get really sore, and now its gotten to the point where my whole back is in some pain, with the most knots being in the upper left hand side of my back. I feel like a cripple and I have no idea why. In an attempt to try and take out my knots - Shirley did some back therapy for me. i.e. she stepped on my back trying to take out the knots. It helped a bit - but my left side hurts so much that I swore in pain by her just slightly stepping on it (the same pressure on my right side didn't hurt at all). I'd say we did a good 5-10 minutes with me screaming in pain...from fist stomping, light stepping and hand massaging...it sounds dumb...but it really did hurt! I think it helped abit...??

What happened to reading?

2006-12-03T20:26:00.000-08:00

I used to LOOOVE reading - would start a book and couldn't put it down until I was finished - till 3 or 4 in the morning. Yes, I was (am) a geek - go ahead and judge! Lately, however, I havn't been able to get up the motivation to read as much as I used to. I've had the Fast Food Nation out for about 2 weeks now - and I'm only about 50 pages in. And I've actually WANTED to read this book for some time now. Perhaps it was the onslaught of undesired reading that came for 3 years in University, but still, been about 6 months since I've been in a classroom or read a text book. I need to finish this book before I leave for home on Sunday morning - and this will be the toughest week to come home and read, with NC planning, board prep and X admin (for all those SN packages!) on the horizon. So fellow bloggers: I need your help to hold me to this! Otherwise: SHAME!

And all...that.... JAAAAAAAAZZ!

2006-12-03T19:38:00.000-08:00

Wow! Shirley, Carolyn, Tai and myself went to see Chicago today and it was an incredible show! Our tickets were on the balcony at the side of the theatre - so you had to pop your head out a bit to see the whole stage, but the seats wern't too bad overall. Because of the success of the movie, the show was sold out - but in retrospect I can see why! It was 2.5 hours filled with the most talented acting, singing and dancing I've seen in a long time. I have to say though - if I hadn't watched the movie first I would have probably been confused at the beginning, but the show was similar enough to the movie (or the other way around really!) to know what was going to happen next, but different enough that it was still entertaining and held some element of surprise.

Most shocking scene: Towards the end of the show, at Roxie's trial the cast is singing about how not everything is as it seems - then Billy Flynn pulls a wig off of Miss. Sunshine, and surprise! It turns out that Miss. Sunshine was being played by a man the whole time! This guy switched back and forth from singing like a woman to singing like a man with such ease, it was really quite earie, but impressive!

Favorite parts: Definitely the singing! The tunes are catchy and up beat (even though they're singing about murder...kind of paradoxical), which made it really tempting to join right in! I'm not sure how much they would have appretiated that...I still have the songs stuck in my head. They also had the orchestra right on the stage, and involved them in the acting/lines - refreshing!

Overall, definitely the best theatre show I've been to (although I've only really been to two others - Lord of the Rings, which was so boring I fell asleep, and Medea) but even so...BLAH it was sooo good!

If you're in Toronto and can still find tickets to the show, GO!!!! You won't regret it!

On a side note, if you're wondering whether that's Kevin Richardson in the photo above - it is! He played Billy Flynn the lawyer! It was so wierd - I kept seeing him as the backstreet boy (you know in the Backstreet's back video how he's kind of wearing that kind of outfit?) but he was actually really good in the role!

Yoga kicked my ass

2006-11-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

On the first floor of our office building there's a great yoga studio that specializes in hot yoga. I've been to about 5 hatha/hot hatha/hot power flow classes, and they've been fantastic! A major workout! So today, Shirley and I decided to go to Hot Hatha Level 2. BIG mistake! Holy crap was it hard! It was a 75 min class, and the first 10-15 minutes were a breeze - the same as level 1, so we thought we were doing good. But the good stuff hadn't even started. Soon enough we were doing stretches and holding positions I didn't even know people could do! By about halfway through I was so exhausted I could barely do the basic downward dog. Safe to say that I'll be sticking to level 1 hot hatha for a little while longer...

I am in the top 10.6% richest people in the world

2006-11-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Working for a non-profit, not even finished with school. Woah!

Check out this website courtest of JP: http://www.globalrichlist.com/index.php

Wow...

2006-10-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

Johnny and I went to Eaton Centre yesterday after work because I needed to do some errands - fix my glasses (I've been told putting a bandaid or name tag on your nose because your glasses hurt otherwise when the nose pieces are broken is not very attractive), buy some socks, and buy some gloves. On the walk to Eaton Centre on Queen street, there's this building/outdoor area as well as an older building right by the mall and I've always wondered what they were. So I thought I'd see if Johnny knew. Here's how the conversation went:

Harshitha: Do you know what this big area is?
Johnny: That's City Hall...and that's Old City Hall...
Harshitha: REALLY?!?!?!

Hrm....if that's not a sign I don't know what is... :$

But I have been doing much better at having a life in Toronto - this weekend I went to Kensington and just walked around...its amazing what you notice when you just randomly walk around...bought some fruits...seeing Chicago and going to a TSO show next month (I went on a rampage this weekend looking for shows and events)...Yuk Yuk's next week...might be going to Montreal this weekend...oooh yes, and I finally finished the Alchemist and am starting the Diversity of Life...and I even decided to be a good social citizen and booked an appointment to donate blood! Yes...doing much better!

Random thoughts

2006-10-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

It's 11:30 but only 9:30 in Calgary so I'm not feeling the slightest bit tired...I think its a mix of being jet lagged and suddenly overwhelmingly sad/lonely being back in Toronto...realized that I desperately need to start doing other stuff in Toronto...yoga...going to Tula tomorrow...Toronto Symphony Orchestra...looking at some shows this week...St.Lawrence Market...maybe I'll buy some fruits there this weekend...I want to see some plays/shows...do they have broadway style stuff here?...there has to be a lot of stuff happening through the U of T...see some museums (ROM)...maybe do some hikes/trails..there's lots of green space outside downtown...Bloor/Yorkville...the Annexe...how to make my room more inviting/enjoyable? I have lots of pillows...but I need windows/light...the windows will be hard to do...but light? Its just not a very execution oriented room...if that even makes any sense...infact the whole house is kind of like that...Need to find places to chill/read...inside places since its getting cold out...there's always the starbucks close to home...but need to find THE place...you know? ...hmm...I should just randomly walk around downtown this weekend...into random coffee shops...I should get one of those entertainment books like JK...there's probably lots of ideas there...really need to just randomly walk around TO... *sigh*

Running tally

2006-10-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've decided to keep a running tally of things to bring back to Toronto with me...because every hour there's something else I think of! So here goes the first round:

- First year bio text book
- Animal Physiology text book
- 8 Habits of Highly Effective People
- Diversity of Life
- Lemon and Herb spice concoction
- Salmon
- Sri Lankan fish thing
- Katasambol
- Small red onions
- Beige corduroy jacket
- Purple rain jacket
- Grey sweater
- 4 pairs of my sister's earrings (score!)
- Granola bars
- Hot sauce
- Blue checkered blanket
- Chicken nuggets
- Grill spatula

...that's all for now.

If you're reading this and going..."what the hell..." please don't judge, there's not PST in Alberta!

:)

Where is home?

2006-10-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

I've been finding that since I've been back home in Calgary - I keep referring to Toronto as home! I keep saying things ok "oooh, I have to take that home with me" and "When I go back home..." Eeeek. It's odd because I still consider Calgary home...Freudian slip?

Behind the wheel again!

2006-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

As many of you probably know, I'm back home in Calgary again this week! And what was the first thing I did when I arrived? I drove home from the airport!!! YES! I havn't been behind the wheel of a car since moving to Toronto over 4 months ago, and I've missed it so much! I love driving - especially on the highway or on Crowfoot late at night when no one else is around and you just cruise down the street. Its so relaxing! So yes, I convinced my dad to let me drive on the way home from the airport, and I did the whole shebang - pumped gas, cleaned the windows, everything! It was fabulous!!!

And then, once I got home, I gorged on Sri Lankan food. There is so much food in our freezer, fridge and cupboards! I'm already planning what I'm bringing back...! MUAHAHAHA. I also managed to go shopping on my first day back...in my sister's room! As my team will tell you, I'm an accessories nut! Its my goal to have one accessory for every day of the year, and since I havn't really lived with my sister in over 3 years, the first thing I did was go through all her accessories. She has some really cool stuff from Europe (Europeans are way more into earrings than North Americans are!), and I scored 4 pairs off earrings off of her! MUAHAHA I love it, its like shopping...for FREE!!!

Clean Slate

2006-09-18T19:37:00.000-07:00

It's one of the biggest misconceptions before you join the MC: thinking that since you're now working full time you'll have more time to do stuff.

I sure fell into that trap. Today Mess and I were talking and remembered that when we were in Calgary we thought that we'd have more of a social life in Toronto. I mean, it makes sense right? You're working full time, and only working full time, don't have homework or any other activities outside of classes to worry about, making a salary, living in the heart of downtown Toronto...sure, it makes sense! So needless to say, I had tons of plans for Toronto. The top things on the list were to brush up on my French (I figured this had to be easy since I have two team mates who speak fluent French), cook and live healthy, go to yoga (there's a studio on the first floor of our office), go to all the festivals, take up dance classes again - and enjoy the cute little shops all around town, become a world citizen and start reading again, the list went on and on!

I've lived in Toronto now for 3.5 months. Have I done any of that? Nope. In fact, to this day, I havn't really been to any of the festivals, except some random one on the harbour front, been to one yoga class, read one chapter of The Alchemist, and havn't even cracked open a French book. And the more time that passes, the less you feel like actually doing it - because you think, hmm, my goal was to read two books a month...its been three months and I've read none...so now I have to read 6 books...and then you end up not doing anything cause it seems like so much work.

Why you ask? AIESEC of course. You'd think that working full time and being paid for it would be enough time to get all your stuff done-but there is always more that needs to be done! June flew by because of transition, July flew by because you thought you had the whole summer ahead of you so you might as well just go into the office for one day on the weekend, August flew by because of NPM and IC, and now its mid September. I could work 24/7 and still have work to do. So that's when the excuses roll -well I didn't read this book cause I'm so busy at work, I didn'tgo to yoga cause I'm so busy at work, blah blah blah.

So recently I've come to the realization that life is always busy. You have to suck it up, and make time for all the personal goals and things you want to do. With that realization, this weekend I wiped my slate clean, and took the first step. I got a library card! Finally the picture at the top is starting to mean something! It's my first Toronto Public Library Card - and it was free! With it, I borrowed my first books - a cookbook, a book about Toronto, and a self-teaching French book. I've even opened them up and started to read them. WOOT for first baby steps! I'm still working as much as I did last week, but now at least I'm making time for other stuffs as well. It's a slow progression to a "normal" life, but progression none the less!

This map has to get bigger...

2006-09-18T16:14:00.000-07:00

There's this brilliant website that maps out the countries you've visited and plops them onto a map. So today I did the exercise, and while it looks not so bad because luckily most of the countries I've visited have a fairly large land mass, I realize that 6 is a pitifully smally number. This has to get bigger...!

If you want to try it out yourself, the link is: (http://douweosinga.com/projects/visitedcountries)

International Congress 2006 in Poland

2006-09-17T14:19:00.000-07:00

It’s been about two weeks since I’ve gotten back from IC in Warsaw and I figured I should probably post something about it before I forget everything that happened! Shirley, Carolyn and I left a few days before the conference started to travel around in Poland and then attended the WENA pre-conference for a couple days before IC officially began. All in all, I spent three weeks in Poland! Because I’m feeling lazy, here are some of the main highlights (in bullet format!):

• We had a direct flight from Toronto to Warsaw, which was AWESOME! European airlines are so much better than North American ones – they give you free alcohol if you want it, have food and drinks at the back in between when they go around on carts – give you blankets and pillows (which Air Canada doesn’t do anymore by the way! Sheesh, cheapos), AND they COMBINE the weight of your bags, so your total weight has to be less than the limit, not each separate bag! So awesome!

• We did not have good luck commuting in Poland! We went through it all, from broken luggage, missing trains, not being able to figure out which car on the train we were on, being duped by taxi drivers, dumped in sketch train stations etc… all in a country where very few people speak English! Definitely an always an adventure linked to our commuting, which now may seem funny but trust me, we weren’t laughing then!

• The Alumni Awards ceremony was beautiful! They gave out awards to alumni for their contribution back to AIESEC – as well as to one individual who is not an alumnus but has given a significant amount to the organization! It was one of the most inspiring moments – being able to see how much our alumni have been able to accomplish themselves and continue to believe in and support the organization.

• The powerpoints and videos are beautiful! They have some major cool flash and mac action going, its unbelievable how aesthetically nice the presentations are. I guess the higher you go in AIESEC the better your powerpoint skills become!

• Canada's represented cheer wise! We donated the "we've got spirit" cheer to WENA, and its become the cheer of choice - very catchy and everyone loves it! At the opening ceremonies and plenary, people would run to us and be like "Canada, come on, come on" to start the cheers!

• In one history session - Dey took us through the global change process by talking to every single PAI from 1997 until Brodie! It was a cool concept, but a little hard to follow because it was like listening in on a phone conversation for 2 hours.

• Global village was in central Warsaw and was huge, with all 95 countries represented with a booth and cultural dances/presentations on stage. There was a lot of media coverage for it as well – and they even had ads on the trains, billboards and bus stands. A rep from the Canadian embassy showed up and invited us to the embassy – an offer we took up later in the week, and got to meet the ambassador as well.

• Opening ceremonies - very long but they had dances from every region, so that was tres cool. In general, the events that they held externally were very impressive – with both the quality of the venues and the speakers they had. At point the former President of Poland spoke as well.

• Krakow is beautiful! Karo was right - its way nicer than Warsaw (and yeah yeah, this is because most of Warsaw was destroyed in the war, but still!).

• Auchwitz is about an hour away from Krakow and we joined the Krakow study tour people on the bus down there. It was unreal - standing on the train tracks that were in Schindler's list, around the wire mesh, the tent etc...Ever watched Life is Beautiful? The whole time I was there, I was imgaining the little boy running around hiding in the trash cans. Its ironic because parts of the place is very beautiful, huge green trees, in the middle of nowhere so very peaceful – you can’t believe it had been a death camp just 40 years ago. Unreal.

There are more stories, but I can’t write them all right now. I should have probably blogged every day, like Kyle did, but I’m not that smart :P

Overall, IC was a positive experience. However, I wouldn’t say it was my favorite conference ever. I think I went into IC with the wrong expectations. Those of you who saw me after I went to XPRO in Prague can testify that for me, XPRO was an amazing experience! The conference itself was very challenge, the facilitators were the best I’ve ever seen and truly inspiring, the size was small and intimate with about 150 people, so you get to know individuals much better, and well, it was in Prague! I went into IC expecting it to be exactly like this, walking out of IC feeling the same way I felt walking out of XPRO, but in hindsight, this is was unrealistic. The shear size of IC and the stage at which the organization is currently, in terms of implementing global strategy and so forth, and the overall objective of my attendance makes it a completely different ball game. Not a bad ball game; just a different ball game. One in which the value that I’ve derived from the experience may not have been apparent immediately after, but in reflection days, weeks, and hopefully months later, have become more and more evident.

It’ll be interesting in a year or two to be able to go to IC in Turkey or Brazil to see how the experience changes the second time around, having learned from the first time…

Home sweet home...?

2006-06-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

It's been about a month since I've moved to Toronto (and yes I did manage to fit most of my stuff into two-50 pound suitcases, but they didn't even check the weight at the airport! grrrr...), but its tough to say whether it feels like home or not. I have my room all set up now, which by the way is in the attic and I'm the only one there so its nice and quiet and isolated, and I get the whole top floor to myself! The house is comfortable, and I'm getting used to the city...but I'm not quite sure its home yet...but I'm not quite sure that its not home...its odd, i know.

So since I havn't really kept up with this blog thing I'll start with a few first impressions:

1. Its frickin humid in this city!!! The first week we were here was especially bad, with the temperature above 30 degrees the whole week and humidity so bad they actually had smog and humidity warnings! And this was the week when there were still quite a few people in the house and Jean-Nic, Carolyn and I were sharing a room that didn't have a fan or an air conditioner. It was brutal hell! I miss Calgary's dryness for sure.

2. There's a lot of smells in the city. It comes from the diversity for sure, but during my 15 minute walk to work in the mornings I always pass by at least 20 different and distinct smells, some good and some not so good.

3. Downtown Toronto is a total paradox, with old and new just minutes away, and sometimes even right next to each other. There are times when I feel like I'm in some posh corporate community, and other times when its almost as if civilization has taken a step back. There is definitely a lot of character in that as well.

4. The streets are always busy, which is the complete opposite of Calgary. If you go to downtown Calgary at 6pm, its a ghost town, whereas Toronto usually has a fairly decent sized crowd out at all times.

5. Racoons. What can I say about the raccoons! They're probably the equivalent of rabbits in Calgary, except that they're on average about 3 times bigger and 20 times more annoying, because not only do they eat your plants (as the rabbits do), but they also dig into your garbage unless you bungee cord them shut (and even then they sometimes win!), climbs trees, are not afraid of humans and are super scary. Eeeek. They're worse than deer too...nothing really compares. In fact, if a fight ensued between a grizzly and a raccoon, I think the city raccoons in Toronto would win!

Toronto is definitely more fluid and dynamic than Calgary, keeping in mind that I've switched from sub-urban Calgary to downtown Toronto, which is pretty drastic. The thing I miss the most in Calgary is the open space. There's very little downtown green space that's actually a decent size, and because that's the case, its hard to find quiet "secret" places that no one else goes to as well. Its also annoying that there arn't any big box grocery stores within walking distances...everything that is within walking distance is about 2 to 3 times as expensive as it should be!

In all honesty though, other than those first impressions, I havn't had much of a chance to explore Toronto in between all the transition, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. It doesn't seem that long, but its damn exhausting, especially when you add the hot and humid weather to the equation. And on my days off I've been setting up my room, doing groceries and doing laundry, which pretty much takes the whole day! So hopefully next month I'm hoping to see and do more! Until then...

Do you have any idea how hard it is to move to another city taking only 100 pounds with you?

2006-05-25T18:27:00.000-07:00

I've packed and unpacked and packed and unpacked (while removing things of course) to try and get my luggage to 50 pounds each at least 20 times now.

*grrr*

Feeling Better

2006-05-24T16:31:00.000-07:00

Food Contents for the day:

1 glass of lime juice
10-15 or so crackers
a few spoonfuls of soup
1 boiled egg

Add that to the quarter of an apple I had all day yesterday, and in two days I've eaten less than I normally would in a full meal...and surprisingly I'm not the least bit hungry. Oh stomach bugs...

puke

2006-05-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

You were wrong Andrew, it was the best going away that I WILL remember, as the worst day of my life. Well not the day itself, but definitely the day after. Let me take you through my day:

4:30am: wake up feeling sick as hell, mentally kicking myself for not drinking lots of water before going to bed. So I decide I should drink some water, and being the Bio nerd I am, I need to brush my teeth before I drink water...but that's as far as it goes cause I nearly puke brushing my teeth. So grudingly I go back to bed.

7:00am: I puke. Who knew a stomach could hold so much...and hold so much UNDIGESTED for 8 hours. I feel like I'm going to die and that my lungs and heart are going to burst out of my body. Back to bed.

9:30am: I wake up and puke again. Except not as much this time because most of my stomach is already emptied. I still feel like I'm going to die.

9:30am to 12:30pm: I puke every half hour. Except now there's nothing in my stomach so I'm literally puking out just acid and bile, and I really feel like my lungs/heart/stomach are going to explote. I still feel like I'm going to die. I decide to eat some strawberries and drink some water because by this point I'm super dehydrated and have ZERO energy, can't even hold my head up. I get through half of ONE strawberry, and I puke it out. Sometime in between here I call Eldon to tell Vania to cancel our Peter's milkshake date tonight.

12:30pm: I call my dad because I can not bear the excruitating pain.

1:00pm to 4:00pm: The puking only takes place every hour or so, but still just as painful since there's NOTHING in my stomach, considering I havn't eaten since 11pm the night before, and CAN'T eat anything because I puke it out the second its in my stomach.

4:30pm: The last puke so far. A big puke...even though I have no idea where it comes from. I feel somewhat better after this and go to bed.

6:00pm: I eat a quarter of an apply. It stays down. PROGRESS! But that's as far as I can go because I can tell I'll puke if I eat more.

6:45pm: I am writing this because now I can at least get out of bed (other than to puke), and because now I'm super bored cause I don't have enough energy to really do anything (still running on a quarter of an apple) and my head still hurts, AND I still can't really eat...but PROGRESS, this is good.

So, I'm hoping I'll feel 100% before I have to leave Friday morning. I don't know what's to blame, my aunt's fish earlier in the day, or the UNFORGETABLE night out with Calgary...my bet is on the fish, with heavy aggravation from CG.

*sigh*

Oh, and did I mention that I managed to puke in the sink, toilet, bathtub AND living room. Yes. The worst day of my life. On the bright side it can only get better...*cross fingers*

*sigh*

Another cheque...?

2006-04-19T14:16:00.000-07:00

So today I was watching tv (ok fine, As the World turns...:P) and I saw a preview of the stories they're covering for the evening news, and what's it that I hear, good ol' Ralphy might be doling out another "prosperity" cheque...?!?!?! DARNIT and I'm moving to Toronto in a month!! Grr...ok peeps, I need to figure a way to keep my residence in Alberta...who really needs Ontario health insurance anyways?

BSD is so overrated!

2006-04-13T14:07:00.000-07:00

For all you non-UofCers out there - BSD, or Bermuda Shorts Day, is a big drunken festival held annually on the last day of classes. Going to school on BSD is like watching a circus show for free - you'll find people puking their guts out in garbage cans at 11am in the morning amidst all the others who are well on their way to getting slammed all over campus, beer gardens crowded as hell outside of Mac Hall, and of course, people dressed in spring/summers shorts, t-shirts and dresses even though the weather, in my opinion, is totally not ready for it. Definitely entertaining, but as the title suggests, so overrated! I don't quite understand the logic...Yes, classes are over, but dude, we still have exams! And nursing that hangover the next few days are definitely not getting you ready for them...you just have more stress down the road. Oh what alcohol does to brain cells...

One step closer

2006-04-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

So today I bought my ticket to Toronto! First time I've ever bought a one way ticket...and now its official. On May 26, 2006 I'll be changing my address from Calgary to Toronto. I can't wait to move! Its going to be such an amazing year, can't wait for it to begin. One more week of classes, one more week of exams, a few days off, two weeks in Hamilton for pre-conference, NLDC, and team retreat, two weeks back in Calgary, and then, off to Toronto...for 13 months. Ack! Although, I have to admit, I'm not too fond of Toronto - you can smell the air! That's just wrong! I like Calgary much better, but its the experience...and who knows, maybe TO will grow on me!

Toast to you

2006-03-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a computer lab at school, 45 minutes till class starts, lots of stuff to do as usual, and what am I doing? Starting a blog...

I just came back from EuroXPROS 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic, and to say the least, it was a life changing experience! The sessions, the people, the country, all had a more profound impact on me than any other experience I have had. I look at everything from a different perspective now, and as I was browsing through blog sites of people from the conference and others in AIESEC, I was more inspired by what they had to say and their outlooks on life. Now I have this overwhelming feeling to start a blog - I suppose as another way to connect. We'll see how long the posts last, but for now, I toast you and I'll be seeing you soon!

Be the change you wish to see...

Hindi Lesson #3

Wow...

First Steps in Prep for India

Time for Change

Vacation!!!

Winter Cleaning

Back therapy = SM stomping on my back

What happened to reading?

And all...that.... JAAAAAAAAZZ!

Yoga kicked my ass

I am in the top 10.6% richest people in the world

Wow...

Random thoughts

Running tally

Where is home?

Behind the wheel again!

Clean Slate

This map has to get bigger...

International Congress 2006 in Poland

Home sweet home...?

Do you have any idea how hard it is to move to another city taking only 100 pounds with you?

Feeling Better

*puke*

Another cheque...?

BSD is so overrated!

One step closer

Toast to you

puke