Hello Blog!!

Long time no see! Nothing much that is interesting happened lately...
I went swimming at the PEC for the first time since I got here. Now I don't want to be deceiving anyone here. I am definitely no hard core swimmer in fact, personally I think I suck at it. Back when I was taking swimming lessons as a kid, I'd always be the one struggling to stay afloat after just 3 laps of endurance and the perpetual cheater when it came time to tread water. I'd always grab onto the wall when the teacher wasn't looking, heehee!! =P Anyway it's been probably about 5 years since I quit swimming lessons and that break really did take its toll. After just one lap of front stroke, I was about ready to pass out. Just great... I'll stick back to squash from now on thank you very much!

I'm a terrible, terrible person...
Poor little defenceless Jackie was sitting in algebra today when the person she feared the most stepped into the room and slipped into the chair beside her. "Hello Grandpa" and that's all it took to tear her calm spirits asunder. Now here was my chance, we had a deal. I was supposed to put an end to all this "grandpa" madness once and for all but...I was speechless. I just couldn't tell him...sorry Jacko...

YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!
I'm so glad that this week is almost over. This week has been all about non-stop work and now with all these labs, assignments and projects out of the way, I just have my calc assignment left to do...not counting all the quizzes, labs and assignments that have to be done for next week. *sigh* but i will NOT think about that just yet.

Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, but sadly I don't think I'll be able to make it back to Toronto for it. I was planning to at first but my brother is in the middle of his exams right now and my going back is probably just going to disturb his studying time. So it looks like I'm going to have to do my own celebrating here in Kingston with my other fob friends. Some of them are going to do hot pot this weekend and asked me to join. I guess I might as well...but then I start wondering...."how many of us actually know how to cook properly??" I guess our stomachs will let us know by the time Sunday rolls around.

Hurray! No more house hunting for me!
This morning I came back from my classes to find a message on my answering machine from the apartment's superintendant letting me know that he finally got my message. Thank goodness...I was worried I left a message at the wrong number or something else unfortunate like that had happened. Needless to say, I'm extremely happy that I've found my apartment and gotten all this madness over with! All that's left now is to sign the lease which I hope is soon but it's so hard getting everyone together when our schedules are so different but I'm sure everything will be smooth sailing from here. =)

*****

Sadly, I guess that someone thought the goodness of today needed to be balanced somehow... Starting this afternoon, I got a serious stomach ache and I still don't know from what. The nurse at the health center told me that she has no idea what it was but that I should be just fine in a couple of days. Darn...that means I'm going to be missing out on carnival food for dinner tomorrow... =*( Despite her uncertain answer to my stomach problems, it's impossible not to believe a VERY thorough check up that I wasn't really expecting. Yikes...I mean I just have a stomach ache...it doesn't sound that serious. So now I know that I don't have a fever, not suffering from appendicitus nor am I pregnant. Wow...that's a lot of info that I didn't ask for. Now, until I feel better, I've been ordered to stick to the BRAT diet, that is Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast which I must say SUCKS especially when the caf doesn't really have too wide of a selection of food. All I had for dinner tonight was two pieces of toast, some tea, sipped a bit of ginger ale and potatos (with no gravy!!! GRR!). Boo...I really need to get better and soon!!

Doing nothing...

Right now, I'm sitting in the computer lab waiting for a TA who isn't going to show up. Or maybe I'm just impatient...afterall he is only 3 minutes late. So...I guess I'll just use this time to blog about...nothing. This week has pretty much been about nothing, I mean to say that I've accomplished almost zero amount of work. That's because I've spent almost all my time watching The O.C. which I have to say is very entertaining indeed. In the short span of just 2 days, I'm already almost more than half way caught up. Currently, I have my computer paused on the 8th episode back at res. OHhhh...now jackie's kicking me out of the lab. Yay...that means I can go finish it!!! BYE!!!

******

yes...of course the O.C. was awesome as usual. Marissa finally dumped that asshole of a boyfriend Luke and now she and Ryan are finally together. *sigh* A few of the other characters are starting to get annoying though, Seth who won't shut up about Summer and particularly Anna. Something about that girl annoys me.

Anyway...today we went to go see 311 Queen St. today, again for me. You might think I'm stupid for posting the exact address of the house I'm interested in but HA! the place has already been reserved for me. So in your face any of you potential backstabbers!! The first two times I saw it, it didn't really appeal that much to me but after looking at a lot of the crap around Kingston, this place is really starting to grow on me. I think I'm pretty much convinced enough to sign the lease but now it's just up to the rest of my housemates. They have a few concerns, mainly the thinness of the walls, the small size of the rooms and a few other things. But I guess they're right...it's too early to settle for just anything. Maybe we'll come across something better. We'll just have to wait and see...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN!!!
WE LOVE YOU!!!

sorry...it's a little too late for that...but only by 10 minutes =(
hope you had a super day! =D

A stab in the back

boo...I don't know whether or not to be angry at her... I thought I could trust her but I guess I was wrong. On one hand I'm severely pissed cuz she's trying to take what is mine but on the other hand, she has the right to since that "thing" isn't officially mine yet. But still...if she had any sense of decency she'd just let it go. I found it first!!

Stinkin' no-good real estate people!!

As planned, my friend Leeann and I went to check out the "perfect apartment" today but what was NOT planned was the stupid property manager deciding not to show up. Granted, I was a little late from rushing there after Chem but I had let her know ahead of time about that. We hung around for a bit to see if she'd eventually show up but no she never did but we were fortunate enough to run into a contractor who was doing some work for the building. Apparently, one of the apartments has been vacant for the past term and with the heat off, one of the pipes burst and soaked everything on one side of the building from top to bottom. Pretty sad for the owners...but this is fabulous news for us potential tenants!! If we do end up living there, we'll be getting a completely renovated apartment for the wicked awesome price of just $265/person/month with everything included!! Ahhh....I'm starting to sound like the voice on an informercial but that's only because I'm very excited about this. The layout of the apartment is not bad...kitchen is a little small but the appliances are all pretty much brand new and the bathrooms are giant which is the best part by far and we have 2 of them! With 6 girls living together, two bathroom at least is a definite must. Anyway, I must say a little more to prove just how irresponsible this real estate person is. By the time, I left at 12:00...oh btw my appointment was at 11:30, she STILL hadn't shown up. OMG...she told me over the phone that she couldn't push my appointment any further back because she had another appointment at 12 to show the same apartment but if that was true then why the hell was she still not there when it was 10 minutes past 12??!? That's just retarded...how do they expect me to do business with them if this is the way they treat their clients?

With hours to spare before our next class, my friend and I decided to check out a few more places before heading back. One of them was the apartment that an upper year I know is currently living in. That one was definitely not as nice but as it turns out, I'm listed as third on the priority list. With 3 apartments available for next year, this means that my group is already guaranteed a place to live. Granted it's not the perfect arrangement but at least now we can have the peace of mind that we won't be living out in the cold. It turns out also that the owner of the building owns a house converted into two apartment units at a very prime location. We have made arrangements to view it on Thursday. The rent is apparently very good on that one as well. I hope it works out!
But as of yet, nothing beats the Daphne Dean houses...

House Hunting: Day 1

Today was really not a very good day to be doing this. At the moment, my fingers are still sufficiently numb that I can't type properly and it has already been at least 15 minutes since I got back to res although it could have been a lot worse had it not been for my new wool gloves. Thanks so much Hong for those!! Without them, I think my fingers would have gotten so badly frostbitten that I would have had to cut them off. ewww....I'm so glad that didn't happen!

So anyway, here is an update on the house situation. Currently, we have a group of 5 asian girls down from the original 6. Terri decided to back out because she thought six people living together was a little much. Terri's a really nice girl so it's quite a shame. =( That leaves us now with Viv, Emily, Chloe, Karen and myself. We're generally a nice group of girls...quiet, not party animals, tidy, hmm...actually I don't know about Bibs...she'll make you stand outside her door for 10 minutes before she'll even let you in so she can tidy up! So basically, you can say that we're a landlord's dream come true. At least that the impression I hope we gave to Daphne Dean today. She's one of those landlords who is notorious throughout the Queen's campus for being very strict with her tenants. Before we were even allowed to step forth inside one of her precious houses, she already laid down all the ground rules. No parties, no pets, no painting of the walls and no more than 4 guests after 9 pm but I'm pretty sure there were many more to that since I could hardly hear anything from the back of the crowd. And how does she know how many people you have in your house after 9?? Easy. She counts the number of shoes at the door when she goes around to do her regular house inspections. Talk about strict!!

But despite all that, her houses were definitely very impressive aside from 2 or 3 that I found not as nice but still decent. The 2 good ones had a good layout, very spacious, cheery bedrooms and large friendly kitchen with living room attached. As I'm getting to see more and more houses, I'm beginning to not mind very much the idea of getting a house instead of an apartment which is what our focus started out on. With so many people living together, an apartment will mostly probably be too small and leave us each with no personal space. AHH...I don't want everyone pissed of all each other only after the first week! Anyway...all we have to do now is go look at these houses a few more times because that is the only way she will even consider taking you in. It isn't until after the second visit that she'll even let you fill in an application! crazy, crazy lady...but nice houses I'll give her that!

One more house to see tonight...probably going to get Jason to tag along to protect us girls so that we won't be wandering the streets just the 5 of us late at night. This house is a little further off from campus than the other ones so I better remember to bundle up tonight and pick up some coffee. Kingston IS damn cold in the winter.

Kingston is damn cold in the winter...

Yes, it really is. I was walking down the street tonight and my boogers froze...

crazy, lazy days...

AhHHHHhHHHhHHhH!!! When is Bibbers (aka Vivian) ever gonna come back?! Believe it or not, I'm actually starting to feel kind of lonely and depressed without her here constantly begging for food. omg...I really must be going insane and if I am, I blame it all on APSC 190 which I still believe is the worst course that I've ever taken and more than likely will ever take but I'll talk about that after I'll finished my first schpiel. Anyway, the main reason we need her back her so desperately is that we really need to start looking for a house soon. I know...we've been discussing this since...well forever...ok I'm lying...since October but now we really need to get serious about it. 5-bedroom apartments are hard to come by in a small city like Kingston and I WILL cry if we do end up living in one of those crappy shacks in the ghetto with (this is for real) PIGEONS nesting in the walls and if you really know me, you'll know how much I hate pigeons. They're dirty, ugly and have those creepy bloodshot eyes that make them look as if they're crazed and want to peck your eyes out. But perhaps the thing that freaks me out the most about pigeons is the way they bobble their heads up and down. HOW ON EARTH DO THEY DO THAT?!?!!? It's like their heads are dislocated and are about to fall off at any second. EEESSH!! Now you see what I don't want some crazy pigeons living in my walls? Anyway...I hope Bibs comes back very soon from her ski trip so that we can finally get cracking on this.

And now I come to the highlight of this week...APSC 190 of course! Wow...this class sure brings back the good old days of kindergarden. Remember how as a kid, you'd fly paper airplanes around the classroom, drive the teacher insane and be really obsessed about stickers? Well believe it or not that is exactly what happened today! But how can you blame us when we're given free all-you-can-write-on post-it notes and to be honest...our playing was actually on topic. We were talking about an article about the 911 tragedy when one guy suddenly got the brilliant idea to make paper airplanes out of his post-its and fly them into the model twin towers which btw were also made of post-its. Then when we got bored of that, we started passing pieces of post-its around the circle which started off as a picture of a man who thanks to me, transformed into a woman. I added pigtails! hehehehehe!!! This and another story which we made in a similar fashion was declared by our TA as the symbol of our class by the end of the day. Ok...are we supposed to feel good about that?? Anyway...that's all there was to this crazy day....ahhh....just 3 more days of this....

Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my blog everyone! I've never done this before and probably would have started if it wasn't for Jackie who was bugging me over the holidays and now with the holidays over and school starting again tomorrow, I'm right in the middle of it all with nothing to do so here I am. This actually isn't a bad idea. At least it'll help me to remember what I'm doing with my time which will come in handy once I'm forced to write that dumb learning skills journal for APSC 190 again at the end of the semester.

For those of you not in the know, APSC 190 is a dumb dumb course that all Queen's engineers must suffer through in place of taking a real English course. Here we do such "fun" things as writing journals about what I've learned in school today, listing out skills that I've learned such as communication (how to talk to people nicely) and teamwork (how to play nice). As torturous as it is, it still beats English for real...ha take that UT engineers!

Anyways that's is all I have to say for now. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!