Whiteboards are remarkable

pun intended.

I saw this quote this morning and it made me think about words and life in general, everything we read is made up of the 26 letters of the alphabet but does that mean that we can’t change, or that everything we do is fixed to what we can do within the limits of words. Although it is vast, the English language is only made up of a limited number of combinations meaning that one day we will run out. Does that mean that life itself is limited or can we actually go beyond the limits of our language to create something wonderful? You often hear it said when an amazing event happens that “words cannot describe” or when something else happens, like a child taking the first steps or saying its first word “you needed to be there”. Does this show that in a way life is limited, and that to an extent we are constrained by the language, or languages that we speak? We all have aims in life, and we all have dreams, and I know I certainly did, but I grew up being told I was one-of-a-kind or a variation on the phrase. Today I often say “I’m special” when explaining the limitations of my dyslexia but everything and everyone is special for some reason whether they see it or not. However if we are constrained by our language and its limited words and the limited number of combinations of letters then how can each person be special or unique? how can dreams become real if limited language means than we cannot dream and then make our dreams come true?

A whiteboard may be remarkable, but if you can only write 26 letters in any combination on it then truly is it remarkable? In short yes because you can start from a clean slate removing traces of the past –  everything is significant, everyone is special, language is limited but life is not. If “words cannot describe” then by remembering everyone and everything is “special” to someone the world could go a lot further than it already has.

Just a thought.

Just a general catch up and getting stuff off my chest.

In a month where a lot has happened it is probably about time I spent some time updating my blog. Since February a few things have definitely have changed – whether for the good or the bad it may take time to show but change is change and we just have get on with it.

For me the biggest change is the break-up of a few of my friends – the hardest of which for me to deal with is that of two of my closest friends, Jon and Rhi. I think there is a general agreement that things had been rocky between them for a while. About 2 months ago they argued and most of my friends thought it was going to be over there and then but somehow they managed to patch things up and get going again. This time it is over for good and while this argument has prove finitive and tense I know there is a light at the end of the tunnel and with the end of the academic year approaching and with the two of them generally going their separate ways over the holidays things cannot remain tense for too long. Jon is heading to Ghana for 2 months, and Rhi is graduating and her future in academic life at Aberystwyth is uncertain I am personally questioning whether this is going to be the natural end for them as a couple anyway. While the break up may be proving hard for me to deal with I know that it is the best for both of them and all I can do is stand in support of them when they need it. The other relationship was about the same length (so about 14-15months) is Poppy and Mike, one that i knew little about but still upsetting to see it end and to see them upset. I will continue to support them all and do whatever I can to help them all.

Well apart from the upsetting this semester hasn’t been bad. Its been a change, and certainly very different but I’ve enjoyed it all the way through. Academically the results so far seem to be what I was hoping for with a mid-strong 2:1 (that’s equivalent to a B in normal grading for those who prefer that). I’ve had a few higher marks come through but average is what counts at this precise moment and hopefully my degree will still end up at the level I want! With my lectures over (more or less) I now only have 3 exams left, and then the nervous wait to find out the results! The end of the year coming to the end we have all also had to chose our modules for next year and of course for me that means I also have to start thinking about the daunting dissertation. Because my strengths are more with essay and report writing rather than exams my modules have been influenced by the way that they are assisted. Now that my choices have been approved I’m currently looking at writing a stack of essays, one dissertation and one exam. That’s some 35,000 words and an exam but the word count doesn’t phase me, time management and planning is key and as one of my friends recently said “you never seem to be working but everything is always done well ahead of time” (thanks Simon it gave me a boost) I’ve got that balance this year, I just hope that I can do the same next year.

Now life isn’t all academic, even though I’m at university, I do have the belief that a 2:1 degree is one where you worked hard and played hard as well rather than all work and no play for a 1st. This semester has had a lot of time spent with friends – whether it be with Michael, Simon and Katy with our Saturday (Doctor Who and general trashy TV night) or Sunday (Top Gear or whatever it was we wanted to watch night) takeaway night, or the occasional night out, cinema trips and days spent outside I’ve certainly spent time with those who are close to my heart.

Michael is obviously the one I’ve spent most time with and we have had a number of days and nights having fun. The best night out for me has to be my anniversary present to him. I bought tickets to a 3 course meal and integrated circus/theatre performance – something which he is very interested in. We were seated on a table of 8 people and we shared a fair few bottles of wine. The food was fantastic, the performances even better and I don’t think we ever stopped smiling and laughing, I was a shame we couldn’t take photographs really because I’m sure they would be great to share with you all but mental images and memories will always stay with me. Needless to say i ended up fairly drunk (ok very drunk) and ended up phoning the only person left in Aberystwyth (Jon Jon) and then ended up going out round the town afterwards – that bit i don’t remember. Recently there have been a few comments on our relationship with people saying we don’t spend time apart etc. and while people are allowed to comment we would like to say that we are extremely happy and enjoy being in each others company and we do have time apart. Our lives are very intertwined just because of the nature of our hobbies etc. we are moving in together in September and both looking forward to it. we both accept what the other wants and needs and we know how best to give that to them. Every relationship is different and i think only those in it know what is actually happening, a lot of ours is certainly not shown in public to the same extent to what it is but we are happy and we know it.

All of the photos (except the first two) are from a WW2 night charity night (for Macmillan cancer) that we attended – it was nothing special but gave us a chance to get some photos as a group looking smart and dressed up!!!

A Month On

So it’s just over a month since I did finally land back in the UK, a full 28 hours later than planned! And around a month since I first set foot back in Aberystwyth. It’s nice being back I have to say – there are things about Canada that I’m missing (the Metro, the weird guy who used to stand at the top of the escalator and pass me the 24 paper and wink at my every morning, the existence of plug sockets at every desk in the library, and Tim Horton’s coffee) but at the same point, being back in a fluent English speaking university with less modules to complete at less exams is very nice. Being in Canada taught me a number of things, one of them definitely being effective time management because I’ve noticed that since being back I’m stupidly on top of my work and a month before my first 2 essays are due in I’ve already got rough outlines and reading lists sorted and I’m actually planning stints in the library this week to get the research done for at least one. I mean look at it this way – I have 3 seminars this week, one online and two face to face by Sunday lunch yesterday I had done all the readings and written responses to the questions – not only that but for the one that I’m team leader for this week I’ve also managed to plan some extra “discussion” questions that one of the articles brought up which I found fairly interesting.

The one major thing I’m missing I have to say is French vanilla Coffee from Tim Horton’s every day – I’m sure Jenny (my slightly mad but loveable flat mate in Canada) will agree that it was one of those luxuries that made any bad day a good day and any good day a better day – the sweet smelling vanilla coffee brought a smile to our faces and at times woke us up just by being able to smell it. I brought loads of the powder back with me, and ordered one lot when I got back but stocks have now gone and for the foreseeable future I won’t be buying any more – sad times. I tried vanilla coffees here both in Costa and the new university Starbucks but nothing quite compares to the sugary goodness.

The major upside of being back is of course the fact that I am, at last, back with Michael and my dysfunctional but loveable group of friends. I knew I’d missed Simon, Jon, Rhi, Linda, Beth, Poppy and a few others but to be back in the same town, same lectures, and to listen to the never ending arguments/disagreements between them and to hear their stories of what they got up to – and of course to meet their new friends/girlfriends has been brilliant. I’m trying to spend as much time with them all as possible because realising that this is Rhi’s last undergraduate semester, and that I will be gone in 18months time is a scary prospect and judging by just how much I have loved university, I don’t want to leave without saying that I did as much as I could possibly do at my time here.

The other thing that happened recently, for me was a fairly big milestone, and that was the fact that last week (15^th feb) me and Michael celebrated the fact that we had been together a year and are now looking forward to moving in together next academic year. For us this is a big step, but we are looking forward to it knowing that we don’t have to be apart for any substantial length of time again, knowing that the 5months in Canada are over and we can, at last, look forward to our future together.

Hope you are all well

Lots of Love

Heather

A little bit of a catch up!

Sorry it’s taken me a long time to get round to updating my blog but as many of you most probably know I have been extremely busy and I have to say that blogging has been the last thing on my mind but I’m now currently sat on a train with nothing else to do so I find myself catching up on everything I’ve been meaning to do for weeks!

Anyway let’s start with the customary pleasantries!!

Happy New Year everyone!

I cannot tell you how much I’m both upset and pleased to be typing those words. 2012 was frankly one fantastic year both in my personal life and for Britain as a whole, but January 2013 can only mean one thing for me and that’s the fact that I have now come to the end of my exchange to McGill University and thus my stay in Montreal, Canada is now over. Although of course I was sad to be leaving the friends I had made over the past 5 months, I couldn’t wait to return to Aberystwyth and get back to Michael, Simon, Jon and Rhi as well as finally get to meet the new additions of the group (Katy and Ann plus a few others). I always enjoy new friendships but meeting these two for the first time felt like coming back home to someone I’d known for years – thanks to Facebook I had managed to kill a good few hours stalking them before returning so I wasn’t completely clueless as to who they were! And I’d like to say a special welcome to the group to Katy especially as I get the impression we may end up spending a lot of time together when the next semester finally starts! And to Ann of course who now acts as my friend who I can use Americanised words and phrases with and she will know exactly what I mean!!!

However before I left Canada I had the joy of reconnecting with my boyfriend of almost a year (although it feels longer) Michael (who will have just taken that sentence in the who will have just taken that sentence the wrong way and along with a few others be rolling on the floor laughing!) Michael came to Montreal on Boxing Day and then we had 2 weeks to spend together finally being tourists! And of course celebrating the New Year together – where better to get you r first ever new year’s kiss in times square in New York. I’d spent all day boxing day sat around like an excited little puppy trying to be calm and trying to sleep so they day would go faster … however after the “I’m at Leeds airport” text at 4:30am and “I’m boarding at Heathrow at 9:30” I failed miserably!!! He got to Montreal eventually – and just in time… just look at the snow of the following morning…!!!

The first day was spent in the old town just generally looking round and being touristy! I haven’t done that all the time I’ve been here so I really enjoyed it – the snow made it so much better and ridiculously good fun! Just being together for the first time in over 4 months was, I have to say was absolutely fantastic. The snow was a record breaking 45cm for Montreal and we can both now say we have now experienced a Canadian winter and Canadian snow.

The second day was spent in the Cote-des-Neiges region and the St. Josephs Oratory which was incredibly pretty – unfortunately the observatory was closed but everything that was open was beautiful. We loved it

On day three I decided to show Michael McGill University/ after all I had been studying there for 4 months! We climbed in the snow piles again in order to take some photos … we also decided to have something to nibble. So we headed to La Banquiste for some of the famous Montreal poutine … he was apparently hungry so he asked me to order him a large – I obliged – and he couldn’t finish it!!! I knew he would struggle after all he is in North America where a small meal would feed a full European family. Anyway we got the left overs in a box and I ate them cold on road the following day!

Day four/five/six was the really the final blow out … the New Year trip to New York!! I’ve been looking forward to this for months so I really didn’t care about the 5am start, and the 12 hour drive and customs trip! Although we spent most of the first day travelling we did get a couple of hours of pounding the streets which we used to buy coffee and head to grand central (well we didn’t intend on going there but we ended up there so we took photos!) which wasn’t apparently busy enough :p the second day allowed us both to indulge our shared passion for politics by getting far too excited about the prospect of being in the UN! The first hour consisted of us just going “Michael guess what” “what” “we’re in the UN!!” and then jumping up and down – think the tour guide guessed pretty quickly we were both over enthusiastic politics students who studied this sort of thing since we knew answers to all her questions! Apparently I now should become a UN tour guide since I know the tour! We got excited by the prospect of posting a postcard from the UN post office, eating in the UN restaurant and buying a UN mug/t-shirt!! So excited that we both sent post cards home – something which I hadn’t done for the whole of my time in Canada. After spending all day in the UN and popping to the empire states building – and standing in front of MacDonald’s to steal free Wi-Fi to find the quickest way to Times Square – we heading to the crowds that were pushing into the centre, not caring whether anyone else was ok just as long as they were at the front. We stood in our times square eating pizza and drinking a couple of hot drinks (before realising we needed a wee and you couldn’t leave your pen) for well over 10hours while we were freezing cold waiting for the New Year’s countdown. I enjoyed it more than Michael did I think, but then for me it was one very very very special night! Unfortunately we then had to head back to the hotel and the following morning head back to Montreal.

Day seven and eight I think can only be described as a days of rest and recuperation. AKA sleep and Michael did some of his essay. Although we did go ice-skating up on the mountain top at beaver lake (which is apparently the most romantic spot that we could have headed to) it was incredibly pretty and really good fun! Preceded by some lovely soup and a panni shared between us. And a couple of superb hot chocolates to keep us warm!

Day nine we decided we wanted to head out and about but also spend a day inside where it was warm … so we headed to the Olympic stadium from the 1976 Olympics and head up the viewing tower and then to the biodome. Fantastic day in all – the tower was a bonus because neither of us knew it was there and the views were brilliant all is it slightly cloudy! The biodome provided plenty of amusement and once again turned up food as we decided to test out their café – very good but the toasted sandwiches could have done with a bit more toasting.

There is a theme to the account of the last couple of days – cheesecake and poutine!!! I don’t really need to say more – it’s imperative you try everything you can, and I can apparently buy jeans a size smaller than when I left the UK so I don’t think it did me any harm. Mind you – we did also head up the mountain so I could try and get a photo of the view which I had been meaning to do for 5 months!

The flights home proved – shall we say interesting! Apparently Montreal wanted to keep me for another 24 hours as it cancelled our flights but eventually we made it home and then headed back to Aberystwyth so that Michael could do his revision and exams and I could attempt to sign the contract for my new flat (which is being done on Thursday). Being back in Aberystwyth only meant one thing, the end to me not drinking and both me and Michael ending up drunk in some pub before I sobered up enough to make sure we got home safely then the following day randomly inviting friends over for games and drinks (PJ party!!!)

Anyway I think that takes you up to just about the current day in my life since I’m now on the train home so I can go and sort out all my stuff ready for moving into my new flat this weekend!

I shall speak to you soon guys! Hopefully I won’t leave it quite as long this time – although my new flat doesn’t have internet so you may have to wait for me to be on campus or at mikes!

xx

Kingston, Toronto and the Niagara Falls!

Now this was one for Mum and Dad, they both told me I had to go to the Niagara falls while I was “in the area”. By in the area, they mean within an 8 hour bus ride along Canadian style roads – which are worse than British ones … which is an achievement. Mind you … Canadians do like to steal anything bad from Britain … bad concrete roads, road works done in the style of “lets patch it up and it will do for another few years when we can just patch over the patch”, place names … Scarborough – why? etc. the list is endless, however blogging about my trip to one of the 7 wonders of the world is not meant to be about Canadians lack of sense! (ill do that later!)

Anyway – $58 for travel and accommodation to Toronto … firstly that’s CHEAP! well Canadian cheep – if this was Britain it would be $58 (well no it would be in ££ not $$) for everyone except children/students/over 60s/unemployed etc. etc. which would probably have meant i would have gone for less that $30! but anyway! Day one was a short stop in Kingston to see the university/cromford wharf (this amused me since i live near that at home) and the local government buildings. Before jumping back on the bus to Toronto. Now i have to say I’m glad we didn’t hang around in Kingston – IT WAS FREEEEEEEEEEZING!! one of the few times I have been properly cold since i got here, which is an achievement since most of the people i know actually bought full winter coats and I’m still wearing the one i always wear!!!

After a lunch stop at a Chinese buffet (not the best in the world but the puddings were nice) we headed to Toronto! the CN tower was huge … very tall and the glass floor vaguely freaky! But the views were frankly stunning!

Then we got a couple of hours free time after seeing the new and old government buildings which we (sadly i know but it was still cold) decided that actually we wanted to go to the Eaton centre and take photos and generally look around. before heading to the “hotel”. I’m using the term hotel loosely, because firstly it was a motel … and the food was questionable, and the heating more like air con making a really loud noise all of the time, and the beds – don’t get me started, but we did get a good pizza deal which kept us fed and happy without us spending more than $10, and we got to watching friends and Tom & Jerry!

Sunday was spent at the Niagara falls – WOW!

I’d heard about it, seen it on nature programmes, read about it, but never really imagined going. The TVs and photos just don’t do it justice, it was just stunning, and we got to see the elusive rainbow of the falls which made the day even more special. the Journey behind the falls fell at just the right time of the day with the sun rising over the falls while we were there … meaning that even my cheap digital camera which gets abuse in the bottom of my bag could take some spectacular shots. I spent the morning with a group of Mexicans that we met – basically because the other 3 i was with didn’t get their backsides into gear quick enough to get to where we were meant to be! they missed out but i certainly wasn’t going to! i paid the money to be there!!!

I put my Union Jack poncho to good use – although they wouldn’t let me go out without the yellow plastic on one as well! but it was worth it!

We also got to go to the Skylon tower to get a birds eye view of the falls and a chance to laugh at the American falls (the left side of the falls) which just weren’t as big or as impressive than the Canadian Horse shoe!

Time for reflection

So now that I’ve been here for a full semester and I’ve finally finished all my exams I think it’s time to reflect on what has been the experience of a lifetime. From day one things have been hard and things have been difficult and I will admit at times I’ve felt like throwing in the towel, but I didn’t. And I’m glad I didn’t and I owe a massive thank you to all of those who have supported me throughout, especially Michael who has put up with me thought out the positive and the negative days providing an endless bed rock for me to lean on when I needed him.

McGill

Let’s start with the main reason for me leaving Britain and travelling to Montreal, Canada; Studying. First impressions of McGill were a little mixed, I didn’t feel at home but I liked the North American style university and the sheer number of classes available (at least triple what we have in Aberystwyth). But then once I got to the classes I realised that working before, so doing the readings etc., wasn’t actually needed because lecturers like to spoon feed the information to you.

My main problem with the way that education is conducted at McGill was through the examinations, you’ve been here for less than 6 weeks – Boom her is an exam worth 25% of your grade!!! This annoyed me and frustrated me because I have never – and probably never will be – good at exams. Although I can follow a course it takes a while for everything to go in and for me to understand it. I didn’t fail any of the ‘midterms’ but to get back a couple of very very low marks does nothing for your confidence when you have no back up support.

Then there were the papers, now this is what I’ve always been good at and it shows. Didn’t get anything lower that 70% with most things being between 80-90% but annoyingly your own work and research is not valued half as much in Canada as we do in Britain so none of them counted a great deal towards my overall grades.

And of course there were the obligatory finals – yet more exams, these ones I felt less frustrated with, I could see the point in testing you on your knowledge at the end of the semester – however, I still had a gripe with these. ID questions. Literally you are given a list of concepts and you have to know the name of the author who you’re read about on the course who wrote it, the definition of it and its significance in relation to the course. Now definitions I can understand, and to an extent the significance – but author?!?! If I needed to know that for some strange bizarre unbeknown reason … Wikipedia would probably know. Failing that Google scholar, I really don’t see the need to fill my brain with 101 political scientists, unless I go on mastermind or pointless, the likelihood of me needing them again – 0!!!

Anyway overall I’m looking at around an overall score of 70% for each class – which is a low-mid 2:1 back home which is ok, I would have liked higher but hopefully I can pick them up next semester when I have slightly more time (because of less classes) and aim to get 1^sts on as many courses as possible – a 1^st overall is still possible (just) but it requires a lot of work. And if there is one thing I can take from my time here; it is that I can easily juggle social life, travelling, working, studying all into my week and still do fairly well. Without the travelling and with an education system I understand and which is tailored to you as much as possible, and allows for dyslexic students to make mistakes, I think I may stand a chance!

Travelling

Travelling wasn’t my reason for coming on exchange, but since I was here and I had the opportunity to, I was certainly going to make the most of it and see as many things as I could – kept telling myself that it may feel like I’m spending a lot of money … but it’s cheaper than paying for transatlantic flights! I think overall on my main trips (including those to come and excluding spending money) I spent about $600 (£375). And that’s 2 New York trips, Boston, Ottawa, Toronto/Niagara falls & Quebec … If I was planning on doing that as a holiday it would have been at least 2 trips, probably more so the savings on flights were certainly worth it and it has made this exchange memorable and fun (and slightly expensive). But then it was a once in a lifetime experience that I will probably never get to do again.

Travelling has been my favourite part of my exchange without a doubt, I’ve met some great people, some of whom I’m hoping to travel and see during my holidays if I get the chance and the money to go. I still have a few places I would like to visit but from Montreal it’s a similar price as going from the UK and I’m running out of time rapidly to go. If I had one bit of advice to give to students on exchange – it’s get out their go on trips and see the world. You may never get to go again and going with a bunch of exchange students just means you go crazy and have so much fun it’s unreal. Who cares if you can’t afford it, I was going to come out of university with a massive debt anyway, may as well add some travelling onto that as well. And still, by the end of the year my exchange shouldn’t have cost me much more than my student loan … Not bad really.

Friends and Family

For me, heading back to the UK is a welcome sight. I never really thought I was a massive friends and family person. But I am, I’ve always enjoyed their company and I love spending time with them, and they are the things that keep me going no matter what. Homesickness, hasn’t been present as such throughout my time here, I can go along all day absolutely fine. Doing whatever I need to do and studying and filling my time. But evenings when the UK is asleep so my phone and Facebook are quiet it kicks in. I’ve shed a fair few tears because I wanted a hug or someone else to sort something out for once but the next morning I’m ok. Michael has been brilliant for this, even when he is really tired if he knows I’m crying he won’t sleep until he has cheered me up, got me on my feet again and sent me a Mikeybear hug on Skype. Thank you.

The 7^th of January is only a few days away and assuming the world doesn’t end tomorrow like the predictions say, I will be getting on that plane, hand in hand with Michael, ready to come back to the UK, to you and all my friends I hope you have a very merry Christmas, and a happy new year.

Its drawing to a close–that’s the coursework done!

Well it feels like I have been here forever, even though I know that I haven’t! believe it or not I’ve not actually been here for more than 4 months yet – week off four months! But now things are starting to come to a close and things are starting to wrap up! Today was one of those momentous days when I handed in my final paper so all my coursework is now complete and I have had marks back for everything except for my two long papers. Overall been ranging from 64% on my lowest to 100% on my highest (53-85 Aber people) so although its a mixed bag of results I’m not going to complain so much because I am finally on the home stretch and I can finally think about having a couple of weeks of fun – one alone then I have the joyous arrival of Michael to look forward to on Boxing day and we can finally end the 4 months and however many days it is since he last held me nice and tight in his arms. Although I’ve given Jenny a few hugs when one of us decides to come over all emotional (like she did today) I’ve not had a hug from anyone and especially I haven’t had a hug from a guy since I hugged dad goodbye at Manchester!

Just thought before I Left I would share a little image of McGill University under the current snowy weather! Would have made a wonderful Christmas card – shame I’ve already sent mine! Hopefully I will finally get a White Christmas!!!

Love you all guys! I’ll do another update soon, Exams finish for me on Monday and then I have plenty of time to blog away at all the things that I haven’t yet got round to doing! Can’t wait to see you all again when I’m back in the UK!

XX

So we’re ready for Christmas at 767!

Ok, so our house number is 767, which decided was cool so that’s now how we describe it! Dinner at 767? yes please! Ok so its random we know, but we like it! Anyway yesterday (so Wednesday the 5th Dec) we decided that it was about time we fulfilled our Christmas desires and got decorating – we also wanted to procrastinate! so we headed down to the market and got a tree, then off to the Canadian equivalent of the pound shop to go and get the decorations … and we STILL managed to spend nearly $70 on everything. And that’s not including the funky slipper boots we bought! i also got round to posting all of my Christmas cards – that alone cost me another $30!!!  anyway … thought you would like to see the Christmassy 767!

Well the tree looks cool! and even if we say so ourselves very tasty thanks to the candy canes and chocolate! HANDS OFF MR LANDLORD THEY ARE OURS!

and another photo … we were playing!

then our kitchen! – we refused to decorate the rest of the flat since this is where we sit!

We also needed substance for our exertion of energy! chocolate sauce with ice-cream! nom nom – we ate the Belgium chocolates before getting back to the flat!

And the girl guide in me came out … i recycled all my birthday cards … to make a paper chain and snowflakes for my room!

 

Now all we need is snow!

xx

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yet another day trip … this time to Boston (Mas)

Ok, so last Interstude trip of the year (so for me the last one ever) and this time we headed over the American boarder to Boston Mas! it was the 1st Dec so firstly we were allowed to feel christmassy …. and then it was also snowing heavily most of the day which is why there aren’t many photos – didn’t want to get my camera wet! Anyway before I fill you in on what I actually did, I saw one or two things which made me laugh which i decided I had to share with the world just because!

Anyways! That’s my slight immaturity/dirty mind shared! Hopefully you laughed as well! There were loads of these and i could have spent a fortune – good job I didn’t bother taking a lot of money with me! It was funny, at one point i think there were about 4 of us laughing!!

Now for the actual day – forgetting me laughing and being immature

Once we had finally left Montreal (because for some reason Gilda – friend – had managed to book, got the confirmation of place and paid etc and she had printed off the email but she wasn’t on the guest list and the bus was full so she couldn’t come, we are trying to sort it out) we had one of those lovely long coach trips which take like 2 hours minimum at customs … think we managed 3 and half hours by the time we got through, but I at least got my green card so I can go to NYC for new year with Michael! Anyway I slept all the way down, got woken up at McDonald for breakfast, which I didn’t have I wasn’t hungry and I couldn’t face fried shit for breakfast! It made me laugh because the one we stopped at was a 24h jobby – which is open on xmas day 24h … seriously do Americans feel the need to have MacDonald’s for xmas dinner as well!!!!!!!

Our first stop was at MIT which is some technology science place! :p twas pretty! We weren’t there for long, because we soon moved to Harvard which is just rich and posh, and Harvardy – show offs anyways we had a tour of the campus, it was nice because it was snowing fairly heavily so everything was turning white it was cold but then it was SNOW!!!!! I wanted to go and make snow angels in the snow … but that’s not harvardy!

We then went off on our own or in groups to go and visit lots of different places: Fenway park (the baseball place) we could have gone up the observatory but it wasn’t worth it because of the weather so I didn’t go up! Then Back Bay, Copely square, the public library, trinity church … which had a lovely little Christmas fare on! Boston common, beacon hill, the state house, Faneuil hall and qunicey market – both of which had food and loads of stalls and it’s a good job I didn’t take much money! Got myself some lovely smelling natural soap, then some Christmas cards and another patch for my camp blanket! (Mum wants me to have all my badges for when I get back so I can add them to my blanket!)

The pictures are both taken on Boston Common! when it was full of snow! it was very pretty! Anyway – need to go and post my Christmas cards now!

xx

“Precision, and order, that’s all that I ask as it’s SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS”

Well – if you haven’t guessed by the title, I WENT TO SEE MARY POPPINS LAST NIGHT!!! ARGH!! Right madness over with NO WAIT IT WAS COOOOOOL SHE FLEW AND EVERYTHING!  Well anyway, me and Gilda (who has never been to a show like this before) decided a few weeks ago that we didn’t care if it was $70 to sit up in the gods … and we mean the gods because the escalators could only take you so far and you had to climb the rest of the way … so we forked out to get the tickets … and I have to say, it wasn’t half bad! The kid in front of us on the climb up the stairs was moaning that his “lungs were tired” … he couldn’t have been more than 7/8 at the most – just sums up how lazy some (nearly all) of these Canadians are! Anyway we got our tickets and our seats (after getting excited by the pretty lights in the foyer and taking photos!) so all we needed now was some music

Gilda got excited by the poster!

Then we figured posing was a good way to kill half an hour after picking the tickets up!

In short, never let us see pretty lights when we have a camera and free time ❤

Anyway once the lights went down and the curtain went up it was really really REALLY cool! All the actors were amazing and I have to say, the kids were ADORABLE! I’m not going to go into extensive detail about what went on because frankly, if you don’t know what happens in Mary Poppins then you never had a childhood at Christmas, and you need to stop reading this and go and watch it on youtube (in fairness you should be doing that anyway!) But I will say, i think the chimney sweep song was probably the best, and one of the sweeps walked round the stage surround, and danced upside down on the roof of the stage!!! It was so so so cool!!

If you haven’t seen it and you can … GO it may be expensive but its supercalifragilisticexpialidocious well worth the money and you get to be a little kid all over again!!!

❤