Chapel Hill and Wilmington, NC

So the rest of North Carolina went well. After Asheville, we went further instate to this town called Chapel Hill. Smack dab in the middle of the state, it was far away from mountains or any body of water so the weather was hawt and humid. We stayed with this really cool chick, Danielle. First night she invited us to join her and her friends for a vegetarian potluck. The food was delicious. Ever since meeting Divya (who's a vegetarian herself) I've learned to have a greater appreciation for not just vegetables- I always loved veggies- but also veg food such as tofu. And after spending nearly a whole month with her I've tried things I never thought I'd try, such as tofurky, boca burgers, and veg bologna. I know, my father the carnivore would be disappointed in me. But I have to say, I've grown to like these meat alternatives. Shhh don't tell my family. Right, back to my story.

Then that night at Chapel Hill, Div and I went out with a guy named JD who we'd met at the potluck. He took us to a few venues and we heard a few bands amidst trying new wines and beers. For such a small place, Chapel Hill definitely is a hopping place in terms of music. Feist is stopping there on her tour so the place must be cool. The next day Div and I hopped on her dad's benz (I know, we were poor students traveling on a low budget, on a not so low budget car) to a city called Wilmington. Wilmington is by the Atlantic ocean. And one of the reasons Div and I picked this place is because we wanted to spend some time at the beach, and also Div wanted to introduce me to the Atlantic ocean, which I'd never set foot in before. So to the beach we went, and Div has a great photo of me holding my skirt and clenching my teeth as the cold Atlantic water is washing over my feet. We stayed there with this guy name Bobby. We had a great time with him. The word "groovy" was part of his daily vocabulary so I was a big fan of him. He took us to this cute little sushi place that had Japanese anime artwork all over the walls. With sushi he made us try plum wine. A-amazing.

Then we went to a bar and tried some awesome martinis. Mine wasn't so awesome. It was called "Choco cherry cheesecake." How could you go wrong?? You can, then it's mostly cherry based. And then we ended off the night by going to a gay bar and watching a drag show, and then dancing the night away. The next day we drove back to Maryland (to her parent's place) and that's where I've been since. I fly back home tomorrow and get back to "real life." It's been an awesome month. A great break from home, school etc. But I'm ready to head back and do all the things I have to do. Find a second job, start my summer course, and look forward to summer in general. I shall upload some photos on here in a few days. Until then, toodle doo!

North Carolina: Asheville

So Div's family and I have helped her move all her stuff from her college town to her family's home in Maryland. It was a long wonderful drive. Div and I were in one car with her two year old nephew, Alex. He's adorable. I often want to squish him. We came back to Maryland and Div and I hung around for around 5 days. She took me into DC and showed me the White House, US house of Treasury and other important government building s and crap. It was weird to actually stand in front of buildings that I see in the news all the time. We also went to the Museum of Natural History which was fascinating. I am a geek, I am well aware. Alex's 2nd birthday party and Divya's graduation party was this past Saturday which was filled with food, a sponge bob pinata, a moon bounce and a BBQ.

Anyway, so yesterday Div and I left for the long anticipated road trip to North Carolina. We arrived at NC yesterday. We're starting on the west side of the state and working our way to the east. So right now we're staying in the amazing little town called Asheville. If you ever get the chance to come here, do! It's filled with Art Deco and Victorian architecture. The downtown area has heaps of boutiques, trendy shops, "ethnic" (there's that word again) restaurants, music shops, and artist guilds everywhere. The bohemian lifestyle definitely attracts a person such as me. Much like the neighbourhood I lived in last year in Sydney. Anyway, we're staying with a couple here, Laura and Lindsey and their hospitality has been amazing. They let us tag along with them yesterday with all their friends to cheap martini night, and then told us how to drive to the Pisgah National Forest before we went to bed. So today Div and I got up and headed to the national forest and went on a grueling 14 km hike. We climbed one of the Appalachian Mountains and the view on top was breathtaking. On the way back we stopped at a natural water slide. It's a 60 feet slanted rock that has water rushing down it into a big pool. The water melts from the tops of the mountains so it's freezing! We slid down and when I fell into the pool the rush of cold water woke up every cell on my body. I should upload those photos and put them on here soon. Anyway, tonight we're going out with them again. To- I can't tell you. It's PG 15 so I can't be writing about it here in case you're below that age. Ha. Anyway, tomorrow we're headed to another city in North Carolina called Chapel Hill. I'll keep you updated. Lots of love.

Highlights from my trip so far (part II)

My cousin and I pretending to be hobos in the streets of Queens, NYC



Cedar Point (Ohio). Apparently one of the greatest amusement parks around.



1950s style diners rock my world. Even if they're of the "chain restaurant" type. The red leather booths, oldschool jukeboxes, to the photos up on the walls...



Divya's grad dinner/dance. She wore my clothes and I wore hers. Black and white we were.

Highlights from my trip so far (part I)

The midwest- in a town of 8000

So I left NYC on Sunday for Ohio. I left 10 in the morning on a greyhound and after severel pickup and drop offs (at Syracuse, Buffalo etc) I arrived in Cleveland, Ohio at 10:30 pm. It was a long arse day on the bus. But, I made a new friend so it wasn't a complete waste of time. His name is Ramiz and he was returning to Chicago from Syracuse. He works in construction and moved to Chicago 4 years ago from Bosnia. We sat beside each other from the busride from Buffalo to Cleveland and bonded over topics such as soccer, relationships, the military...you know, the usual. When he heard that I was meeting up with my girlfriend Divya in Ohio and would be travelling with her in June he gave me his business card and told me that I should drag Div along with me to Chicago and we could crash at his and he'd love to show us around. So since Divya has picked me up from Cleveland and brought me to the small town of Oberlin, Ohio at her college campus, I've-

- Explored the town with her, and have gotten an extensive tour of her college campus
- Been accompanying her to 'senior week' events such as 90s themed dance parties, stand up comedy nights, etc
- Watched Spider-man 3 for 3 bucks at the local theatre with Divya and laughed our arses off. We have since decided that an emo superhero is what's been missing in our lives
- Went out to dinner at the local chinese/japanese restaurant. Being from Vancouver, I have high expectations when it comes to sushi. I was a bit hesitant to try sushi in a state that DOESN't border an ocean, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food.
- Have been working daily with Div to plan our roadtrip to North Carolina in June. So far, so good.
- Am getting Divya mentally prepared for graduation -which is in a few days- and am looking forward to seeing all her family again. They are driving up here from DC this Saturday.

The weather has gotten really hot these past few days. It's been 31 degrees during the day! That's Vancouver at its highest during the summer! Divya lives in a co-op housing and her room is on the very top floor so all the heat rises to that level at night and since she leaves for DC every year around this time she never got a fan or an AC. We've been sleeping semi naked and flopping around like fish on dry land trying to find a non sweating position on our mattresses. Anyway, that's all for now. I will upload some photos and post them on here very very soon. Ciao for now!

The city girl meets her challenge: a city just too damn "large" to keep up with

So I arrived in NY on Monday and have been scoping out the scene here since. I'm staying at my aunt's. She and the fam have moved houses since I've last been in this city. Now they live in a nice rich neighbourhood between Brooklyn and Queens. It's funny, their house falls under Brooklyn but the neighbouring 5 houses fall under Queens.

It's been awesome being able to explore NYC on my own. I love wandering around in foreign cities not knowing where the heck I'm going. But I must say/brag, I'm very good with public transportation. Maybe it's from the years of commuting around Vancity due to the lack of my drivers license but I'm just awesome at figuring out public transporation in new cities. My aunt was well impressed with my ability to just pick up a map and trodd all over town on the subway and bus and not get lost. Even in a city as overwhelming as New York. So far in the big apple I've:

-Pranced around the greater Times Square area numerous times

-Tried to get a ticket to my favourite musical ever, Wicked, and failed. And cried. No I didn't cry but I spent the rest of the day at the Museum of the City of New York and looked at the history of Broadway shows instead. And the history of jewish immigrants in NYC as well as the history of every other thing related to this city.

-Visited a childhood friend of mine, Popy,(who just had a baby girl, Shiloh) and spent the whole day with them. We hadn't seen each other in 5 years so there was a lot of catching up to do. She showed me some interesting parts of town like the rich jewish neighberhoods, Jackson Heights, and Jamaica Ave (where we got manicures and pedicures done for 12 bucks!) I also met her husband Jose and helped him put together an Ikea table only to realize it was too big for their living room.

-Hung out with my aunt, uncle and my cousins and have fallen in love with their dog. He's a Yorkshire Terrier and his name in Pluto. He has ditched the rest of the family and sleeps on my bed with me and follows me everywhere. He probably weighs less than 5 pounds and I often have the urge to squish him to death he's so cute.

-Been analyzing the subculture that is the "subway lifestyle." Hiphop artists breaking out and doing their thang on the train, on the platform of the stations, hearing accents from all over the place and being surrounded by people of every age, class, and race imaginable.

-Tomorrow I will be meeting up with my mom's ex-classmate's son, John. Or just simply family friends. When I was last in NY him and I were both in high school so it'll be interesting to catch up and see how he's been. Apparently he works at a law firm in Empire State Building and that's where he's taking me so...you know, just another typical day in Zen's life. NOT.

That's all for now. I'll be leaving this overpopulated all important city on Sunday for Ohio. It's a 13 hour bus ride from here to Cleveland. Mmmmm. I cannot wait. Until then,

xoxoxoxox

Just a little down south

I'd originally opened this blog for my exchange trip to Australia and thought I wasn't going to use it once I'd return to Canada. And since I've come back, I've only written one post so it has pretty much been left to sit and twiddle its cyber thumbs.

However, after 5 months in Canada my heart grew restless and off I went to travel around again. Ok, I won't pretend I'm in a distant, exotic (as much as I hate using that word) country. I'm in the U S of freakin A. The land of one dollar notes, iced tea with syrup only upon request, and less tax. The lack of tax rocks. So I figured maybe I'll only write on my blog when I'm traveling...? Ha. I won't be writing on this thing much during the next year. But here goes-

Since I've left Vancouver on Friday morning I've:

- Been on a bus with a driver who'd never taken this trip before, got lost, forgot to shut the luggage cabinet shut and almost lost some of our luggage

- Checked into the awesomest hostel ever in Seattle, checked out the Seattle Art Museum, and ran into a club for catholic navy men called "The Catholic Seamen's Club." The smile that was brought to my face...I took a photo. I shall upload it soon.

- On the way to the airport, sitting on the bus, chatted with two guys, one of whom kept on commenting on how small and cute my feet were...and then insisted on seeing my toes...I told him for olfactory reasons I probably should refrain...and I did.

- Flew for 3 hours to Chicago, ate at a McDonald's at the airport because that's how desperate and time restrained I was, before boarding a plane to Washington, DC

- Arrived in DC confuzzled by the time zone switch and flustered by the Alaska Airlines' lack of information about my luggage. I did however get picked up by Divya's bro and was brought to Divya's parents' house in Maryland. And I also got all my luggage.

I've been staying here in Maryland with Div's family since yesterday. She's still writing her exams at her school in Ohio. But it's been really fun hanging out with her family and getting to know them. This morning I went to a Methodist church with Div's mom. The suburban Maryland Methodist church and sleep deprived Zenith got along well enough. There were a few moments where church was like "word" and I was like "meh I'm tired" but all in all it was a fun time. Tomorrow I'm catching a train to DC and then a bus for 5 hours to NY. The weather is getting nicer by the day. I'm looking forward to whipping out the skirts and the shorts! Anyway, enough rambling for now. I will write again in a few days. Toodle doo.

-Z-

The long and overdue update

Ok so I guess I should write a blog entry...it's been two and a half months! Yeesh. So during the past 2.5 months I've-

- Switched continents: southern hemisphere to northern hemisphere, hot to cold, kangaroos to moose, and everything else that comes with it
- Lost two umbrellas in the Vancouver rain
- Spent Christmas and New Years with family and friends
- Started uni and have since skipped classes occasionally...like the badass I am
- Got a job (something that didn't quite happen in Australia) at a place where I have to wear a tie! A tie!!
- Started saying "eh" again
- Stopped saying "loo", "mate", "reckon", and "Oh no, your dingo ate my kebab"

Other things have happened as well. But those were the important ones I had to get out there...on le internet.

Living out of a bag

Here you go Nelster. A new post. I've been travelling up the east coast of this country for about a week now. I took a plane from Sydney and landed in Byron Bay. A surfers and pothead's paradise. I wish I could put up photos here but it's too complicated since I'm in an internet cafe at the moment. I'll wait till I get back to Sydney. From there I went on a day trip to a small town called Nimbin. I've heard a lot about Nimbin from a friend of mine, Jesse. He grew up there. It's more extreme than Byron Bay with it's drug culture. Most people go there to buy really good weed for dirt cheap. I didn't really go there for that at all. I don't do drugs.

Say no to drugs.

But I just went there to see what it was all about. And I actually really liked it. A very relaxed little town (of 500 people!) and it's not all touristy like Byron. It hasn't sold itself out to tourism. Nimbin in a place with a lot of culture. From there I took the Oz Experience bus to Surfers Paradise. I'm doing my travel with a company called "Oz Experience." I didn't really like Surfers. I stayed there for only an hour before I decided I was going to just continue onto the next destination. Surfers Paradise is basically a place to just party. It has a few nice beaches but when I went all the grade 12 kids had just graduated and had gone there for a week of partying. The whole fiasco is called "schoolies" in Australia. So it was like spring break in Floria. I didn't really want to be surrounded by 18 year old drunken hooligans. So I jumped on the Oz Ex bus and on the way we stopped to do a bit of 'Zorbing.' Zorbing was invented in New Zealand, as are all outdoor extreme sports. Basically there's a big see through ball with a little see through ball inside it. You put in a few buckets of water in the little ball. You jump in with a friend or two. Then the little ball is put inside the big ball and THEN someone comes up and pushes you and your friends (you're all inside the balls)...down a hill. It's great fun.

After zorbing we hopped on the bus and headed for Brisbane. We had crossed the border of the state of New South Wales and had entered the state of Queensland. The first night I stayed at a backpackers hostel and went out partying with the locals. The huge cricket series (called The Ashes) where Australia plays England every year was taking place in Brisbane so I was surrounded by drunken english guys that night. They were pretty upset because Australia was fully kicking their ass in cricket. The next morning Rita Ringma came and picked me up and I spent the next four days at her house. She had her guest room all ready for me and lunch cooked and ready on the table. It was so nice to sleep on a good bed, eat healthy homemade meals, and NOT use public bathrooms and showers. Backpacking is fun and all but it gets to be a bit much at times. Charles was in the Philippines teaching so I didn't get to see him. But I hung out with Rita's daughter Marina, her husband, Zelman, and their adorable three chilren, Patrick, Lachlan, and Bronte. Again really cute photos that I will have to show you all later. I went to The Australia Zoo (Steve Irwin's Zoo) when I was in Brisbane. That was amazing. A really hot day though. Easily 36-38 degrees. Zelman dropped me off in front of the Oz Ex bus this past Tuesday morning and off I went for my next destination.

We were heading for a small town called Noosa. Rita told me a lot about this place. It's her and Charles' favorite place to go and relax. On the way here we climbed "The Wild Horse Mountain." Now don't be fooled British Columbians. It was not a mountain but a hill. It's called that because wild horses used to roam the area. When we got to the very top we had a beautiful view of the Glass House Mountains. Our tour guide/driver told us the Aboriginal story behind how the mountians came to be. Then we got back onto the bus and drove up to Noosa. I've been in Noosa for two days now. It is absolutely beautiful here. Rita was right. Very very relaxed small town. I'm staying in a backpackers hostel called "Koala backpackers." Cheesy name I know. But it's a great hostel. Cheap good dinners and drink specials, a nice pool, good central location, and the staff are super friendly. And I found out why. Because 80% of them are Canadians. They are all Canadians who are working here temporarily while travelling around the southern hemisphere. I met a guy here from Yukon! YUKON! There are only 20000 of them and I meet one in Noosa, Australia...go figure. Ya so they organize fun games and have live bands or good DJs at night. Backpackers from other hostels come to ours to hang out in the evenings. I've just been relaxing here. Though today I went on a gruelling 8 km hike at the Noosa National Park at noon in the crazy heat. It was an amazing experience though. I really wish I could put up a few photos here. Oh well. I'll just have to wait until I get back to Sydney. Tomorrow I leave Noosa and head for Hervey Bay and Rainbow Beach. In Rainbow beach the sand in multicolored, as one would gather from its name. Well I think I've blabbed on for long enough. I should sign off of this internet cafe computer and go find myself some dinner. This one was for you Chanelle! You better have read the whole darn thing!

Ciao for now!

Goodbye dear uni

You are so pretty amidst the spring blossoms...

You have scary psychology buildings that don't quite fit among the other gothic castle-like buildings.

You have Australia's oldest running theatre company. Oh the countless hours that have been spent there rehearsing, dancing, watching others rehearsing, and watching the shows put on after the hours of rehearsing.

Like I said before, you have über gothic architecture. Look at those gargoyles leaning out of those towers!

You have overpriced uni clothing. Which I will buy because I want to strut a "Sydney Uni" hoodie around my hometown and act all pompous like Sydney uni students do here...

Last production in the land down under

You probably remember from a blog post way back in August that I've been part of a musical called "Honk!" Ze story of le ugly duckling. Je played mother duck. Well after a month and a half of intense rehearsals we put on the production last weekend. It went marvellously. From the hundreds of photos everyone took (no joke), I narrowed it down to five that I wanted to post up here. Mainly because each post only allows five photos to be put up.

This first one is from rehearsals. It's near the end of the play where I've been searching for my son, referred to as just "Ugly", for almost a year. We all get caught in a blizzard. At the end of which I find Ugly burried underneath a pile of snow, frozen to death. Or at least I THINK he's frozen to death. Sorry for ruining the story for those of you who didn't know it. I'm was trying to cry here. Is it convincing? I thought I did a damn good job. My flatmate Tomo came to watch my performance. I made him cry! Boo. Yaa.

After the show. The actors are rushing back to the dressing room to get changed so that they can run into the lobby and bask in their glory while everyone tells them how good they were in the show.

Our director and musical director giving us notes (what we did well and what could be improved upon) after the first performance on Friday night.

I was trying to get a photo of me and my husband (Drake the papa duck). But my son decided to jump into the photo. Kinda looks like they're fighting over me. They probably weren't...I'm just full of it.

Me and my baby, Ugly.

It's getting hot in herre

It is only spring and the weather forecast website says that the "fire danger" in the greater Sydney region is "high." Today the temperature outside is 38 and inside my room I just watched it go from 29 to 31.5 degrees. I whipped out my super duper fan and tucked away my mini heater. My feet are sweating. How I'm going to travel up north next month, I do not know.


Courtesy of Aussie cartoonist John Ditchburn.

Vet students sure know how to live it up

This weekend I went camping with around 300 students from the veterinary science program at my uni. Nadia's in the vet program so she invited me along to their annual camping trip. Getting there was an adventure all on its own. We had to drive form Sydney to Camden while completing a photo scavenger hunt. We pulled up to the uni that morning at 9, dressed up in a common theme as well has having our car and truck decked out. You see, each group was also competing for the "best dressed" prize. Our theme was "cows." We painted our two cars black and white, and strapped a paper maché horn, utter, and tail onto one of the cars.

As you can probably guess, we got a few stares from padestrians while driving around town completing the scanvenger hunt. We wore matching white tank tops. On the back of the tops we spray painted (in black) the words "team moo" and in the front we got individual names. Nadia and I got "moo eh" since we were the token Canadians on the team. By the time we got to Camden it was midday and boiling hot. Here we are, half the team trying to put the tents up while the other half scrubbing the black paint off the vehicles.


The games they had prepared for us...man. Here's are two teams playing egg netball. Netball is an aussie sport. It is basically basketball without the dribbling and without the backboard. Here we are playing not with basketballs, but eggs. A few cracked.

There is no proper name for this. Two people on a log trying to knock each other out with those long foamy thingies. That's as good as my explanation is going to get. The theme of the weekend, picked by the graduating fourth year students, was "lube." So they incorporated lube into everything. This log here has been slathered with lube. There was also lube wrestling earlier in the afternoon. Vet students are on crack.

A game of volleyball in a pool of mud.

Vet students are so odd! But I love them anyway. This is a guy with a drench gun. A drench gun is what vets use to vaccinate large animals because using syringes just isn't effective. So vets use this squirt gun attached to a bag filled with the vaccination. They just squirt the vaccination into cows' and horses' mouths. Except during this weekend the drench gun was used to squirt alcoholic beverages into students' mouths. Stop stressing guys. I only took two shots. I had planned to actually enjoy my weekend and remember things.

Oh spring break, you left us too soon

Tomorrow is the last day of spring break. No more breaks until...well until this semester is over. Eeek! But it's been a blast. Last weekend I hopped on a greyhound and went to Canberra (the capital of Australia) and spent the weekend with my friend Kimberley. I met Kimberley in Vancouver three summers ago when she flew over to volunteer as an intern at one of the Urban Promise summer day camps. On Saturday night we went out for dinner to celebrate Kim's birthday. She turned 22. During dinner Kim and I realized that I had spent her birthday with her three years ago. If you had told me then that I'd be spending her birthday with her again in three years in Australia, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

Sunday she took me to this flower festival. It has huge. People from all over Australia were there just for this event. It was pretty cool. They (the festival organizers?) looked into various flower festivals that take place around the world. Then they brought those flowers to Canberra and represented all the countries in this enormous national park. You'd take a map from the guides and walk around different sections of the park, each of which represented a country, and ooo and ahhh over the flowers. It was beautiful. There were also little markets, street performers, and art exhibitions. I had an amazing time, though the weather sucked a bit. I, being the forgetful person I am, left my camera in Sydney. So I had to buy a 10 shots disposable camera for 12 bucks. Yes, can you say rip off? I haven't developed those photos yet. When I develop them, find a scanner and scan them, they will be up here. Don't hold your breath. But I found Canada among the countries at the festival! There was a sea of red Canadian tulips there. Apparently every spring they appear everywhere in Ottawa.

After I came back from Canberra I basically partied with Nadia. Every night this past week. Except Tuesday night. That'd be five nights. A self-centered week indeeed. Oh but I did volunteer as an usher last weekend at the National Youth Shakespeare Company's production of Titus Andronicus. But other than that it was all partying. So I definitely need to take a break from that scene and concentrate on uni for this last month. If you catch me partying please drag me back home.

So I'm sorry for the lack of photos. I went out this past week with a bunch of German and American backpackers. And being the tourists they are, they snapped away all night. I need to get those photos off of them as well. So until then, this photo will have to suffice. It really says nothing about my spring break. I just want a photo up here with this post. I was yapping away on the phone and checking my email the other day when my friend found my camera and decided to waste two minutes of his life.

Look closely at my phone. Is that a...yes it is. Yes I did put a "Canada Kicks Ass" sticker on the back of my mobile. The sticker > courtesy of Nadia Vanderkuip's going away care package.


Canada kicks so much ass.

We bring the Caribbean to us. Because we're too poor and lazy to go there.

This happened a while back. September 8th I believe. My girlfriend Nadia (the très cool Torontonian) is obsessed with raggae/soca/dancehall music. So everytime there's a raggae party anywhere in town -which doesn't happen often- she will drag my butt over there. I've never really listened to raggae much but I gotta say, these dance parties rock. hard.

We were browsing through their website and came across photos of that night.


It's like we're ACTUALLY there. In the Caribbean...just dancing away...

Taking a break to pose for the photographer. Way to know where the party's at Nadia. AND way to party with a sprained wrist.

Spring is in the fairy floss

Walking through uni with flowy summer dress.Walking past the uni art festival's free sausage sizzle. Picking up sausage, one sliced bread, and tomah-to sauce from the chill English chef on campus. Temperature: 24 °C. Polishing off the free lunch under a tree. Up again. Walking past more...is that a free fairly floss stand? Fairy floss in hand. Taking sunnies out of bag and putting them on. Smile. You should be on kodak camera.

Zenith does not take these uni days for granted.

Translation for the homies back home:

Uni: University
Fairy Floss: Cotton Candy
Sausage sizzle: The act of barbequing sausages...?
Sliced Bread: We know this one guys. The aussies just prefer to wrap a single slice of bread around their sausages instead of using a bun
Tomah-to Sauce: Ketchup
Sunnies: Shades

I love a sunburned country

“I love a sunburned country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror,
The sunburned land for me.”

-A poem about Ozland by some Oz bloke

Zenith just got off the boat dressed in a multi-colored sarong with a Scarlet Macaw on her shoulder

Seriously, if I get called "exotic looking" one more time I'm going to punch someone in the face. Or get slightly irritated and do nothing about it. As I do.

Random person at pub: You have this exotic look about you. Where are you from?
Me: Canada...?

ex·ot·ic (g-ztk)
adj.
- From another part of the world; foreign
- Intriguingly unusual or different; excitingly strange

My conclusion: I am from "another" part of the world, where exactly I'm not sure and I am excitingly strange. I'm going to, as I usually do, take it as a compliment and be content. Well no, except for this one time-

Random person at uni: Ya I love your exotic look.
Me: Right thanks. So what does that mean? What constitutes as "exotic"?
Random person at uni: Um...not white?

Final conclusion: I am from "another" part of the world. I am excitingly strange because I am from another part of the world. Most importantly I am not white. So am I excitingly strange because I am not white? Before I draw any drastic conclusions I will find another one of them "exotic people lovers" and grill them with more seemingly important questions about...well really...skin color...

Zenith will keep you updated.

:S

Ya not too proud to be a Canadian at the moment.

Springtime? Intoxicating scent of exotic foliage? No!

Why is the weather being so freakin ridiculous? First it's spring and 25 degrees by midday and now it's 13 degrees with thunderstorms up the wazoo.

I haven't seen thunderstorms like these since I used to live in Bangladesh. When it rains here, it pours. Yes, quite unlike Vancouver. When you feel a raindrop on you (in Vancouver), you have a good five minutes to get inside a building. Here, you have about 5 seconds. I kid you not. It starts to pour faster than you can say "What the-" But again, unlike Vancouver, the rain here will stop in 5-10 minutes. But man, does it rain hard. Last night the thunderstorm was pretty scary. And all day today it has been über windy. 46 km/hour windy to be exact. Several times today I was certain that the wind was going to pick me right off the ground and throw me at oncoming traffic/pedestrians/wildlife...

Zenith hates season changes.