Now that american thanksgiving is over, it's officially time to get psyched for christmas. When I sat down to make my wish list, I realized that there isn't much that I don't already have. I'm very grateful for that, but just in case you wanted to get me a gift anyway, here's a short list:
1. Moo cow slippers
I had a pair but totally wore them out, I will settle for any of the "fun feet" slippers they sell at the mall (tip: they always go on sale for boxing day)
2. black 180 ear warmers
I found a pair for 20 bucks but decided they were not worth that much, I'd pay max 15
3. black boarding gloves. I wanna learn to snowboard this winter break, hence the gloves and snowpants on the list
4. black or white snowpants
5. hockey skates. keeping with the winter activity theme, hopefully I'll make it to hawrelak park this time
6. belkin case for ipod touch
7. usb power adapter
8. the office season 3
Hope you're all looking forward to christmas as much as I am, although I seriously doubt it!!!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
You may remember a post a few months ago in which I blogged about things I wanted to do before leaving boston and things that I'd already enjoyed. This is basically an update on some things I've managed to cross off the to-do list, and some new things I want to do.
Things I still look forward to doing in Boston:
1. go to a Red Sox game
2. go skating at the "frog pond" at the Boston Commons
3. see the christmas tree lighting (Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.) at the Boston Commons. I went last year and it was just beautiful, it'll have to be a yearly tradition for the few years I'm here.
4. Museum of Fine Arts
5. Celtics game
Things I've done:
1. Museum of Science
2. New England Aquarium - went with Stephen when he came to town, it was pretty cool. bit of a let-down, I thought the cylindrical tank in the middle would be more overwhelming.
3. several Bruins games - hockey hockey hockey, gotta stay true to my Canadian roots.
4. duck tour - I actually went on an abridged version of the duck tour for FREE! there are a few free events in boston now and then, y'know for us poor students.
5. Harvard campus
Things I still look forward to doing in Boston:
1. go to a Red Sox game
2. go skating at the "frog pond" at the Boston Commons
3. see the christmas tree lighting (Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.) at the Boston Commons. I went last year and it was just beautiful, it'll have to be a yearly tradition for the few years I'm here.
4. Museum of Fine Arts
5. Celtics game
Things I've done:
1. Museum of Science
2. New England Aquarium - went with Stephen when he came to town, it was pretty cool. bit of a let-down, I thought the cylindrical tank in the middle would be more overwhelming.
3. several Bruins games - hockey hockey hockey, gotta stay true to my Canadian roots.
4. duck tour - I actually went on an abridged version of the duck tour for FREE! there are a few free events in boston now and then, y'know for us poor students.
5. Harvard campus
Friday, November 16, 2007
38 days until Christmas!!!! Yes, I have officially started my countdown to christmas. I've started with adding a "christmas tree" application onto my facebook page, now I'm writing my first christmas blog of the year. Soon, I'll get started on my wish list.
You should all be aware that I am totally and hopelessly in love with the commercialized Christmas that we experience in today's age. I know there is actually a heated religious few that are quite against what our beloved corporations have turned this sacred holiday into but I am not one of those people. Everyone just seems happier in the days leading up to Christmas, you almost forget about the major pitfalls of society.
It's been said that the hand the major corporations have in this holiday is greater than we realize, going as deep as the invention of santa claus. This beloved symbol of my favourite day in the entire year was used as a major marketing tool in a campaign ad for Coca-Cola. I was a little shocked when Bo told me that Santa had been invented by coca-cola, that his coat was red and white simply because those are the colours of coca-cola; it almost shook the very foundation of the holiday I hold closest to my heart... In a panicked frenzy, I wiki'ed the origins of santa and after a lot of skimming, eyes darting from left to right, thinking SAY IT AIN'T SOOOOOOOO! it is in fact, an urban legend. And just like that, my faith in this material-driven holiday was restored.
As it turns out, the modern day Americanized image of santa was impacted by coca-cola. Prior to the huge ad campaign, santa was portrayed as a jolly robust fellow, however his robe was often different colours (including green as one of the front-runners). A certain greeting card showing him in a red coat put red into the lead and this was further cemented by coca-cola's use of the red and white coat in their ads. So the moral of this story is that even though coca-cola helped solidify a popular colour scheme for santa, this corporation did not invent ol' Saint Nick.
I can deal with that. Christmas spirit unmarred!
You should all be aware that I am totally and hopelessly in love with the commercialized Christmas that we experience in today's age. I know there is actually a heated religious few that are quite against what our beloved corporations have turned this sacred holiday into but I am not one of those people. Everyone just seems happier in the days leading up to Christmas, you almost forget about the major pitfalls of society.
It's been said that the hand the major corporations have in this holiday is greater than we realize, going as deep as the invention of santa claus. This beloved symbol of my favourite day in the entire year was used as a major marketing tool in a campaign ad for Coca-Cola. I was a little shocked when Bo told me that Santa had been invented by coca-cola, that his coat was red and white simply because those are the colours of coca-cola; it almost shook the very foundation of the holiday I hold closest to my heart... In a panicked frenzy, I wiki'ed the origins of santa and after a lot of skimming, eyes darting from left to right, thinking SAY IT AIN'T SOOOOOOOO! it is in fact, an urban legend. And just like that, my faith in this material-driven holiday was restored.
As it turns out, the modern day Americanized image of santa was impacted by coca-cola. Prior to the huge ad campaign, santa was portrayed as a jolly robust fellow, however his robe was often different colours (including green as one of the front-runners). A certain greeting card showing him in a red coat put red into the lead and this was further cemented by coca-cola's use of the red and white coat in their ads. So the moral of this story is that even though coca-cola helped solidify a popular colour scheme for santa, this corporation did not invent ol' Saint Nick.
I can deal with that. Christmas spirit unmarred!
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Hello gentle readers, hope the day is treating you well. I have just awoken from a nap and decided to clear my head by blogging before getting into some boring reading. Since I blogged last, midterms have come to an end and I've just gotten back into town from the American Academy of Optometry's annual conference. Midterms went well enough, I have some work to do if I want to get the marks I intend to by the end of the term but it's nothing too far out of grasp.
A few days after the last exam, I was on my way to tampa FL for the AAO conference. I was reminded of how much I hate packing, especially with the new regulations on what you can bring onto planes. We arrived in tampa wednesday afternoon and were greeted at the airport by our friend, Adam's, parents who retired to a town about 45 minutes from tampa a few years back. (We stayed with them in their beautiful home, equipped with 3 guest bedrooms and a small pool). They brought Adam's car and left in their uncle's truck. Adam took us to a mall near the airport where we killed a couple hours waiting for our other friend's flight to get in. We were all pretty disappointed that rainy weather was welcoming us to tampa. That night we went to a place with a patio to watch the first game of the world series, and were all really bummed that no one else in the bar seemed to be watching the game.... of course, no florida crowd would compare to those in the bars around fenway park in boston but this was a new low.
Thursday we headed to the convention center to check things out, we spent a couple hours going from booth to booth picking up free pens, bags, post its, and other cool swag. I'd have to say the coolest thing I got was a laser pointer which I would later use when presenting our poster. Again, we spent the evening at a sports bar watching the bo sox win the 2nd game of the world series.
Friday - the day of reckoning. We were a bit nervous to present our poster alongside professionals who have been practicing for years, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and I was interviewed for the Primary Care Optometry News. I'm pretty excited to see that article, I want to get a copy for my parents to frame. We went out to a place called Ybor city which is basically this street in tampa with a bunch of bars and clubs. The hilight of the night was this dude who had to be at least 50, he was just bustin a move like no other, winning danceoffs against young G's left and right! Just ridiculous, check facebook for a pic.
This almost made up for the drama of the day which included driving around for literally 3 hours looking for a hotel room because the first room wasn't up to the standards of 2 of our most spoiled group members. But this ended up working out since we found a nice hotel with a pool and jacuzzi that I would later spend saturday morning in. We also ran into some trouble with idiotic, rude bouncers which got called on by drunk Adam with classic lines like "YOU ARE STUPID!" and "YOUR HAIR LOOKS IDIOTIC." In adam's defense, that second bouncer's hair was really really ugly, hahaha.
Saturday, 3 of us left the hotel while the other 3 planned for another night out. We went out for a nice dinner and to another sports bar to watch game 3 of the world series (are you sensing a trend here?) After this win, we were really hoping for the red sox to lose the next game so that we could be in town for the festivities.
We managed to go to the beach sunday morning while the 3 party-ers were recovering from hangovers. It was gorgeous! white sand, blue water, and palm trees (facebook for pics). We picked up the other 3 from the hotel and went to an outlet center to do some shopping. Sunday night, we realized that we would miss all the craziness and rioting as the red sox swept the colorado rockies to win the world series.
That about rounds out my fall vacay. I think it was the perfect amount of time, any longer and we all would've wanted to kill each other. There definitely were some times on that friday during the driving around and figuring out what club to hit that people were wearing on my nerves and I was surprised I was able to keep calm.
Coming back to boston's been a shock because it suddenly got cold in the 6 days we were away and also because I had gotten used to not going to class or doing any reading while on the trip.
Seeing Adam with his parents and cute puppy, Griffin, kind of added to the bit of homesickness I was feeling even before the trip. I am definitely starting to miss home, luckily time seems to be flying by. Turns out we are finishing final exams a day earlier than previously scheduled, this doesn't really help me since I had already booked my flight for the 21st (thinking we would have an exam on the 20th) this is no longer the case so I am anticipating that Dec 20th, I will be running around in boston bummed out knowing that I could've been home a day earlier. I am really hoping that I will be able to get enough of my friends interested to go to NYC for the day, see the big christmas tree and go skating at rockefeller center but that remains to be seen.
In the mean time, I am looking forward to american thanksgiving break, which I will spend in long island NY with my aunt, her husband and my lil cousin Jess. Only 2.5 weeks till another escape from boston. It feels great to get away and clear your head. I'm looking forward to being with family and being spoiled with delicious food.
A few days after the last exam, I was on my way to tampa FL for the AAO conference. I was reminded of how much I hate packing, especially with the new regulations on what you can bring onto planes. We arrived in tampa wednesday afternoon and were greeted at the airport by our friend, Adam's, parents who retired to a town about 45 minutes from tampa a few years back. (We stayed with them in their beautiful home, equipped with 3 guest bedrooms and a small pool). They brought Adam's car and left in their uncle's truck. Adam took us to a mall near the airport where we killed a couple hours waiting for our other friend's flight to get in. We were all pretty disappointed that rainy weather was welcoming us to tampa. That night we went to a place with a patio to watch the first game of the world series, and were all really bummed that no one else in the bar seemed to be watching the game.... of course, no florida crowd would compare to those in the bars around fenway park in boston but this was a new low.
Thursday we headed to the convention center to check things out, we spent a couple hours going from booth to booth picking up free pens, bags, post its, and other cool swag. I'd have to say the coolest thing I got was a laser pointer which I would later use when presenting our poster. Again, we spent the evening at a sports bar watching the bo sox win the 2nd game of the world series.
Friday - the day of reckoning. We were a bit nervous to present our poster alongside professionals who have been practicing for years, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and I was interviewed for the Primary Care Optometry News. I'm pretty excited to see that article, I want to get a copy for my parents to frame. We went out to a place called Ybor city which is basically this street in tampa with a bunch of bars and clubs. The hilight of the night was this dude who had to be at least 50, he was just bustin a move like no other, winning danceoffs against young G's left and right! Just ridiculous, check facebook for a pic.
This almost made up for the drama of the day which included driving around for literally 3 hours looking for a hotel room because the first room wasn't up to the standards of 2 of our most spoiled group members. But this ended up working out since we found a nice hotel with a pool and jacuzzi that I would later spend saturday morning in. We also ran into some trouble with idiotic, rude bouncers which got called on by drunk Adam with classic lines like "YOU ARE STUPID!" and "YOUR HAIR LOOKS IDIOTIC." In adam's defense, that second bouncer's hair was really really ugly, hahaha.
Saturday, 3 of us left the hotel while the other 3 planned for another night out. We went out for a nice dinner and to another sports bar to watch game 3 of the world series (are you sensing a trend here?) After this win, we were really hoping for the red sox to lose the next game so that we could be in town for the festivities.
We managed to go to the beach sunday morning while the 3 party-ers were recovering from hangovers. It was gorgeous! white sand, blue water, and palm trees (facebook for pics). We picked up the other 3 from the hotel and went to an outlet center to do some shopping. Sunday night, we realized that we would miss all the craziness and rioting as the red sox swept the colorado rockies to win the world series.
That about rounds out my fall vacay. I think it was the perfect amount of time, any longer and we all would've wanted to kill each other. There definitely were some times on that friday during the driving around and figuring out what club to hit that people were wearing on my nerves and I was surprised I was able to keep calm.
Coming back to boston's been a shock because it suddenly got cold in the 6 days we were away and also because I had gotten used to not going to class or doing any reading while on the trip.
Seeing Adam with his parents and cute puppy, Griffin, kind of added to the bit of homesickness I was feeling even before the trip. I am definitely starting to miss home, luckily time seems to be flying by. Turns out we are finishing final exams a day earlier than previously scheduled, this doesn't really help me since I had already booked my flight for the 21st (thinking we would have an exam on the 20th) this is no longer the case so I am anticipating that Dec 20th, I will be running around in boston bummed out knowing that I could've been home a day earlier. I am really hoping that I will be able to get enough of my friends interested to go to NYC for the day, see the big christmas tree and go skating at rockefeller center but that remains to be seen.
In the mean time, I am looking forward to american thanksgiving break, which I will spend in long island NY with my aunt, her husband and my lil cousin Jess. Only 2.5 weeks till another escape from boston. It feels great to get away and clear your head. I'm looking forward to being with family and being spoiled with delicious food.
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