I guess I should fill you in with part two of last weekend, but first... here is the amazing necklace that my Aunt Carole knit and sent to me! Actually, there were originally two necklaces with other types of beads included, but I loved the knit ones so much, I combined them all for a colourful and funky necklace. As Michelle warned me, though, they do get a bit scratchy after the first few hours of wearing! But they first time I wore it, the woman in the elevator couldn't stop complementing it! Do you like the picture? I think it looks like something on
Etsy (not that I ever spend hours looking through jewelry on there or anything).
So the reason I had such a great weekend was that I had tickets, and I love tickets. Friday night I went to see Les Ballets Jazz
de Montreal perform one of the most beautiful nights of modern dance I've seen in a long while. There were two pieces choreographed by an
Edmontonian, Azure Barton, and I found (what I assume to be) Canadian characteristics of contemporary dance to be colourful, joyful and full of
rhythm and musicality.
Saturday night I had tickets for a concert by Hannah
Georgas and Jeremy Fisher. I had just been looking around for tickets for events on campus, and the concert came up. The tickets were only $15, so (although I'd never heard of either artist) I listened to some of the songs online, decided I would most likely enjoy both of their music styles, and decided to go. On a whim I mentioned it to my friend Amy, and she wanted to come, and then Jun overheard and she decided to come too! And it was much more fun going together because it was such a great concert, it was nice to have people to enjoy it with. It was small, and very independent-Canadian-artist-y which I loved. I feel like I'm just beginning to discover Canadian music. Any recommendations?
Despite the grimness of being a student in Edmonton in the winter, I am so happy to be living Canadian life again. There is a world of difference between living as a Canadian overseas and living as a Canadian in Canada. One reason I really wanted to come back to do my masters was to be a "real" Canadian again. And once in a while I stop and appreciate my lifestyle. I feel especially Canadian when I read
Macleans (which I subscribed to in my quest for
Canadianness). Or when I ride the bus and the bus driver is SO friendly to everyone. Or when I drink an extra large coffee at Tim
Hortons on an almost daily basis (cause it's so cheap, I can afford it). The only thing I haven't gotten used to is the
Edmontonian accent... it kind of scares me.
As for my latest project, I sent it to Carole in the mail. She has a mini computer that she lugs to and from school everyday, so I made it a cheerful cable knit cover. Cute, eh? I also sent her more IKEA stuffed mice for Charlie, and she's promised to put up a picture of him and his prize possessions. Supposedly he likes the white one best- she's done a scientific study.
Well, I'm surviving the cold, still enjoying most of my classes, and managing with the workload. I had my first really late night working until 3am on Thursday- 12 hours straight of reading pronunciation articles and writing pedagogical implications. I was really proud that I finished and it was fairly good quality. And, believe it or not, I didn't put it off until the last minute, I started two weeks ago, and had been working on it whenever I had a spare moment. But I have been engulfed with TA work (30 hours last week, 30 hours this week!) and my research class which has an incredible workload. Anyway, after the next few days of marking midterms, I have reading week (just in time). It corresponds with Alberta's "Family Day" Holiday, which was instituted to help depressed people through the miserableness of winter. I feel that! Anyway, as to the title of my blog post, I feel the need to proclaim my love of Tim Hortons' low fat cranberry muffins. I always scoffed at low fat muffins in the past (why bother if they taste like cardboard), but now that I've tried them, I can't go back. I always get a low fat cranberry muffin when I need something sweet and it's so much healthier than my previous favourite, the sour cream glazed donut. And, lest you think the cranberry would make it tart, the reason I love it is because it's so sweet and reminds me exactly of vanilla flavoured cakes from my easy bake oven in childhood (seriously!)
He/she doesn't have a name yet, but it's lovely to pet for stress relief (not to the point where you'd doubt my mental stability, of course!) Submissions for names will be accepted in the blog comments. I wish, of course, that I could have a real cat; maybe one of these...
I guess I should fill you in with part two of last weekend, but first... here is the amazing necklace that my Aunt Carole knit and sent to me! Actually, there were originally two necklaces with other types of beads included, but I loved the knit ones so much, I combined them all for a colourful and funky necklace. As Michelle warned me, though, they do get a bit scratchy after the first few hours of wearing! But they first time I wore it, the woman in the elevator couldn't stop complementing it! Do you like the picture? I think it looks like something on Etsy (not that I ever spend hours looking through jewelry on there or anything).
