sunday confessions

1) I think Ì'm addicted to blogging. Like seriously. Whenever I don't do it for a few days, I start feeling withdrawal. (I figure this is a healthy enough obsession, so I'm not too worried... but still. I will monitor the progress of the infection closely.)

2) Let's face it, this bathroom stall basically makes me want to go to this university.

3) "Zia is so cool!" said no one ever. Do you ever wish you could just change your personality? Even if it was just for a day? If I could, I'd be so much more confident, so much more calm, think so much less, just be so... different. I like me, but sometimes I just can't stand being in my head.

4) I've been tired for over three weeks now... I'm beginning to become accustomed to the dizzy spells and confusion. (...This is not healthy.)

5) Isn't this the coolest restaurant glass ever?

Plus, the walls were all steampunky. (Another reason I love cities, oh my, décor other than brick walls...)

6)Why are there so many universities I have to love? Right now there are three that I desperately want to attend... and I still have one more to visit. There should be a cloning machine... so that I can go to all of them... but somehow I don't think the world needs any more Zia.

7) I pretend to be so confident about it all, but really I'm so scared... I'm not worried about leaving home, but I'm worried about who I'll be when I get there. I'm so used to being 'the girl who writes' but once I'm in English, I won't be the only one anymore. I won't be the best like I'm so accustomed to. What if I'm just not good enough?

8) This is my current favourite song (so, for a day or two...)

CHILLS.

So yay for angsty, late-night word vomit, right? How are all of you doing?

my first tea review/vlog

Here begins my journey into the world of vlogging and tea reviews! (Okay, you probably got that from the title... still.) A big thank you to Jesse for giving me the idea!

Thoughts:

1) I wanted to cut it but had no video editing software... I apologise for the length and the random moments of confusion.
2) It wouldn't me change the thumbnail. What is up with the picture it chose? I look like a constipated cow or something...
3) There's this huge delay between my voice and my actions... I'm not actually that spastic.
4) Ok, I had more but now I can't remember what they were so never mind.

What did you think of it? Any suggestions or comments?

ALSO: I now reply to comments via email (... usually about three weeks later...) unless you're a non-reply blogger, in which case I will reply on my blog. (Just a little head's up.)

"baby, baby, where'd you put the bagpipes?!"

Did that get your attention? (How could it not?) It certainly captured mine in the middle of the night as it was yelled outside my hotel room. For whatever reason (ok, the reason being that we are frugal, or cheap) we tend to stay in hotels that are just this side of sketchy... not quite in the bad area of town, but definitely in the weird one. (However, I am grateful for this, since it means I have money for tea and university!) Gotta love big cities, right?

The next morning, on we went to the university open house!

Just a little advertising in the Science building. (If you're here from that, let me just say that I am amazed, and welcome! ...confession though, I am most definitely not into science.)

Of course there was a Tim Hortons! (I also managed to get in a visit to Starbucks- is anyone else in love with the Eggnog Latte?- and TWO to David's Tea, my dream place. Expect tea reviews soon!) 

After many tours, we went to the... James Bond exhibit! (I found out that he wore aviator sunglasses in the movies too, just further proof that mine are the coolest things ever.) 

My attempt at 'femme fatale'... might have been a little more successful had I not been wearing a plaid shirt. The exhibit was super cool though, I would definitely recommend it! OMG blinged-out dresses... every single one was dripping in glitter... my sort of clothes for sure.

Of course, they might not quite match my current object of desire...

I want one of these hats so badly, omg. Christmas is coming up, guys! -wink wink nudge nudge- (Because really, who doesn't want to look like their head is being eaten?) 

Who doesn't love random rickshaws? (Alliteration is fun!) Seriously though, this was just sitting in the middle of the street... I have no idea what it was doing there... and it was gone when we walked there in the morning. Maybe the people looking for bagpipes decided to steal it instead?

Sometimes street signs express things that you could never have put into words yourself, but that are oddly appropriate. 

The next day (which I somehow have no photos of, silly me) we toured another university (which was equally wonderful. Why are there so many that I have to love?) and bought... mittens? l,sjdkhgaiwehg it was COLD. Like, my fingers were nearly falling off. 

You can see the faint purple tinge here. (I actually love this photo so much... I may not have been able to find glasses to try on, but at least I had a mask!) 

...and nearly expired from hunger (okay, maybe that was just me. I think I have a problem...)

This is actually my mother's food... by the time she mentioned taking a photo, I had already inhaled more than half of mine. (Shh. It had been a long walk.) (Also, before you think she's a genius, let me just mention that she also talked about the 'warm womblike washroom' at the restaurant for quite a while... yeah...) 

After eating, we waddled (what can I say, the food was REALLY GOOD) over to the museum to go see... DINOSAURS! 

This is an actual dinosaur skull. Doesn't it look like a vaccum cleaner?

I thought my hoodie was quite appropriate! (For once. In what other situation is wearing a giant eel approriate anyway?) 

The one thing that would have made the exhibit better would have been if they had dinosaurs to sit on... I mean really, taking a ride on one of them would have made my day! (If you can have ride-on dinosaurs in playgrounds, why not in museums? I'm positive I wouldn't have been the only one pleased by this... so the remainder might have been under ten, but still.)

I love this city. For a small-town girl like myself, walking down the main street in the middle of the night (ok. So it was like nine. Whatever) filled me with such an energy and a feeling... I can't describe it. Do you city-dwellers know what I mean? (I figure that, for this, I could deal with the noise... let's see if I still feel that way when I have no money left for tea.)

things I realise while packing

So it's Friday (YAY!) and I left school early to pack for another university visit (DOUBLE YES!). Of course, this means a blog post (procrastinating can be fun!) because I have to share all this excitement with y'all! (No, I never say that. I just like writing it and pretending that I do.) 

• I have way too many clothes, and I only wear about ten percent.
• Random dance parties= the best thing everrr.
• OMG I don't work again until Tuesday! that's worth a dance party right there by itself, no music necessary!
• ... I'm kind of a loser.
• And (as I trip over my piles of clothes) I will never be a professional dancer (surprise, I know!). 
• I should probably eat less chocolate, because that little dance session made me feel out of breath... time for a blogilates break! 
• Ok I'm back. Kinda sweaty and cat-furry (read the next point) but not yet dead.
• I love my cats, but sometimes they are a pain. (Aka, Amber is currently rubbing himself all over me and trying to step on my keyboard. Not exactly helpful.)
• Why can't he just help me choose shirts? I'm currently putting in ten for two days... logic= not my forte.
• Or eat my chem book so that I don't have to take it with me? (I mean really, you'd think my teacher would realise that picking a future is more important than doing a lab report right now... ok, not really, but I like the thought.)
• Plus I can't find a pencil or an eraser. Hopefully I don't make any mistakes...

This was my dance party song... trust me, it's contagious.

High Five for Friday, dearest listeners! 

xtremely difficult conundrum

In the comments of a lot of the exercise videos that I watch, people say things like "OMG these videos have changed my life! I have abs now! YAY!" and this makes me feel a little sad... because then I think, "Why is this miraculous transformation not happening to me?!" and then I stop and think again... "Do I want abs, or do I want this fudge-covered apple?"

Yeah. I think you can guess which one inevitably wins. 

Plus, eating it was this whole long setup. The process went as follows. One: attempt to look cute for the camera, and take a small bite.

Two: kinda fail at that, and look like a stoned vampire instead.

Three: go back to my normal slob eating habits and get fudge all over my nose.

And yes, this was my dinner tonight. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE PICTURES. I somehow look slightly cute in these (if slightly vampire-ish)... but that is most certainly not the case. I kept taking extremely large bites (and almost drooling on myself... and I wonder why I am single...)

In case you haven't guessed, I love Halloween. Free chocolate, people! What is there NOT to love? Plus, my costume was pretty epic: I was a time-travelling gangster from the 1920s! (Although somehow I am not in any photos. Disadvantage of being the photographer...) I also looked like a female Josh Ramsey (from Marianas Trench)... that was a pretty felicitous realisation. (Just cause he's awesome.) 

So yes. Right now, I kinda sit around and eat chocolate and that is my life. (Except for when I'm too lazy to go get any more. Then I just sit.) 

Also, this song is lovely... a little note of seriousness.

home sweet home (have I used that before?)

So... I'm home! Well, actually I was home yesterday... but the Van Ride Of Death (yes, captials definitely necessary) murdered my brain cells with a hatchet, so I was unable to do anything other than flop into bed. (Actually, that's a lie. I cleaned my room, because the dust bunnies were beginning to come to life and hop around and I was worried that one might leap right into my nose.)

As for the VROD (that sounds appropriately ominous, doesn't it?)... thank goodness I had my cellphone, because it enabled me to complain appropriately to as many friends as I could about how awful of a time it was. Let's just say it involved mass singing, false British accents, and more air-conditioning than seemed strictly necessary. (Fact: in a van full of girls, there's always someone who's too hot or too cold. There is also, much to our male coach's chagrin, someone who has to pee every five minutes... that was generally me...)

Moving on, though, before I stew too much- better to block it out of my memory altogether. On to happier things... such as, the mad skillz of the girls playing. I was seriously impressed. YOU GO, GIRLS! (So probably none of you will ever read my blog, or know who I am if you do... whatever, just pretend this applies to you, because you're awesome.)

And okay. Admiring the local boys was pretty fun too. (For a town that sketchy, they were quite comely. See how I'm practicing my vocabulary still?) One of the schools we visited to watch a game at (that sentence seems ungrammatical, but it's almost bedtime and changing it seems like too much effort) had the most gorgeous uniforms, though... why is it that we get polo shirts, and they get to look like classy flight attendants? (Life is not fair.)

Best part though? The boys had ties.

LOVE.

This is why it's a good thing that I go to a small school. (Aside from the obvious fact that I wouldn't even be on the basketball team otherwise!) Were I to attend a larger institution (doesn't that sound lovely and prison-like?) I would probably be distracted by the comeliness of the opposite sex and not recieve the stellar scholar results that I do (see, such modesty, too!).

However, our coach (who grew up here) warned us to not even make eye contact with any of the boys... and not to stay out too late at night (in our thrilling expeditions to the grocery store to buy fruit!). I think that speaks volumes for the sketch quotient of the town. (I suppose that's why the girls got to have cute uniforms- have to make up somehow.)

Anyway. I'm home. Sitting in my own bed. Life is good.

How was your weekend?

hotel room blues

The problem with school trips: the conversation always somehow turns to boys, and experience thereof... and since I have nothing to share in that department, I turn into the girl sitting in the corner reading the newspaper. (Not that I dislike the newspaper... but really, there are cooler things to do.)

Still. We have arrived at our destination! Escape from the dreaded van! (Really, 12-seater vans are NOT meant for 12 people. I'm currently as flat as a sardine-flavoured pancake.) I am slightly deafened by the noise of girls singing along to "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together"... Ahhhhh, team bonding. (At least I have hotel Wi-Fi, because it means that I can share all my excitement with you! The joys of modern technology; making it possible for the world to be bored together!)

Also: the hotel has a waffle maker. How cool is that? (I might be sleeping on a freezing cold air mattress, but where there is hot chocolate and waffles, there cannot be too much sorrow.)

 However, I just finished my newspaper...major sadface. Anyone have any exciting hotel room suggestions?