First & Low

Heylo ladies! Hope all is well with you. I’m kind of bummed to be sitting in on Friday night. I had plans to go to a club downtown but i decided to wait for my friend but it ended up being 11 by the time she was finished. So basically we would get there by 12 and have a hard time getting in because a special dj was mixing tonight. Which led me to have a mini breakdown because I’ve realized over the past two years I have completely shut myself off from most of my friends. I can blame it on many things but I really need to correct this problem because I will just keep on being unhappy. I have no idea what changed to make me so antisocial (strong word cause I still like being social I just need a kick in the but to get out the door). My friends have changed there interests as have I, so maybe we drifted there but they still have the same personalities as before. Sorry for the ramble but no one really gets what I’m going through so I needed to write it down somewhere.

Anyways lets move on to happier & greener news… I made my first GREEN MONSTER!

I was sceptical to try it at first because well i prefer my spinach in the solid form not the drinkable… or so I thought. I mixed to frozen mini blocks (Europe’s Finest frozen spinach) , half a naner, almond milk, vanilla yogurt and a tbsp of chocolate protein powder. I magic bulleted that mixture et voila!

Got GM?

Green Monsters are now a part of my daily life and I love’m. I now add some strawberries in to sweeten it up!
In other news… I bought a Polar hear rate monitor off eBay the other day. I know Garmin is legit but I’m on a budget so polar will have to do.

Is anyone else super stoked that The World Cup has started again… it really makes me miss my soccer playing days. I might have to dig up the ol soccer ball and kick it around. Also props to the Blackhawks for winning the cup – one of the players on the team is from my town so I’m hoping he brings the cup to the local rink so everyone can see it 🙂

Happy Weekend!

For the thrill of it.

SO…. I’m still alive and reading other blogs but I haven’t had enough motivation to write. But honestly, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of your blogs! I’m going to give you all a big overdose of updates in a little sections because… well school is done for the summer so I don’t need to write perfectly 🙂

Life
Well life has been the greatest but it’s pretty chill and relaxing so I can’t complain with that. I have a had a few nights out but nothing to crazy yet. I have a few fun outings planned for this summer; doing the Grouse Grind, going to Kelowna and possibly a few more road/camping trips.

Fitness
I have been running/speed walking (b get’s lazy) quite a lot since school has been done. Retail may be some people’s form of therapy but running is mine. My tan lines are already so bad from running and it’s only May! I ran my first race since I was fourteen in early may. The Vancouver Sun Run 10k! This is such an amazing race – the second largest 10k in the world! 51 000 people ran it this year! BANANAS! I don’t have any pictures from it because they are my dad’s work camera and well I’m to lazy to track that cam down! Quick overview of the race… it was super running weather! The race kicked off at 9am but my coral (green) didn’t start till about 9:20am… I crossed the start line probably 5ish minutes after that. The race was pretty easy except for the ramp onto one of the bridges. I missed one water station which killed me a bit because I had to slow my pace so I could make it to the next one without out stopping or passing out. I sprinted the last 100m and crossed the finish line with a time of 53:29…I was finished 5472 (pace 5.21km/h) (I was in the top 10 percent well… 10.6 percent). My goal was to do it in under an hour so I did that. I am also really proud that I did not stopping running once! I usually stop every 5 minutes when I run but I think the excitement made me run faster plus I didn’t want anyone passing me haha.

The race pack was nothing special but I did pick up a few samples at the race expo and after the race I scored a container of powerade chocolate protein powder!!
 

I also bought myself two items from Lululemon. The capris in the pictures are so so but will be good for running in the fall because the material is thicker but the shorts are AMAZING! They feel like you are wearing nothing and they don’t give you a super wedge when you run either. The cost 54 bucks but I’m considering buying another pair even with my limited budget.

School & Future
Last post I was freaking out because I was going to have to move all the way to Ontario for Nursing school but Lady luck was on my side and I got into a school in Victoria which is in the same province as me and just a 1.5 hour ferry ride away!
I’m so happy to have gotten into this school. I was supposed to get in for September 2011 but I got a spot a year sooner eee! I am so happy I don’t have to move far away from my beloved Vancouver. So now I am trying to find a house/basement suite/apartment for the fall. I finished this past semester with some pretty stellar grades to! I got a A- in Sociology, B in Psychology and a B- in English… Some of you may think this average but school does not come easily to me so I am pretty proud of these grades!

Boys
uhh don’t even ask… serious dry spell going on here. At least the bachelorette is back and now I can drool over those fellas (um roberto, sexy!)

Food
I finally had greek yogurt again! Its a rare commodity here! I went to whole foods after the sun run and bought the miniscule $5.99 container and enjoyed an oversized serving of it, nom nom! I also am in lurv with spaghetti squash this food is seriously so much fun – scraping it away from the sides into a spaghetti mess.

Now I’m off to watch the GaGa episode of Glee!

Happy times during the Olympics (Floor at a medal ceremony)

Accepted.

Sorry I have fallen off the face of the earth since umm February and its almost April yikes! Well a few things have happened since then… Olympics ended, Paralympics happened and ended. Twas’ an amazing experience! I also got accepted to a Nursing program… yeaaa! I got rejected from two but the other day I came home from work to a nice acceptance package to a college in Ontario. The only downside is that it is Ontario… don’t get me wrong I love ontario as much as any other provinces (except for mine heheh) but I am from Vancouver, BC, which is quite a ways from Ontario. So hello huge college debt!

 

A little geography pour vous ^. So problems arise with housing, flights to & from ON. Plus I’m not sure if my college credits I have in BC will transfer to Ontario. BUT I’m still so happy and excited to have gotten accepted 🙂

Now onto a more serious-ish issue…. my weight. I have now added twenty unhealthy pounds to my frame since the end of November. I need to shed at least 15 to be able to fit back into my clothes. I exercise at least 6 days a week but I am eating WAY to much carb sugary food at work and whenever it’s in my house. I hate doing this weight loss thing but I’m to cheap to go out and buy more clothes and I know I feel better about myself when I am at my happy weight. So hopefully by my 20th Birthday on August 28th… I will be back to 127 pounds again 🙂

I probably won’t be blogging much till I’m done this semester of school because I have beaucoup a faire BUT I’m still reading all your blogs, they brighten up my day! CIAO BELLAS!

Q: How do all you college girls cope with the outrageous costs of college?

spirit

Hey all! I hope your enjoying your Monday to the best of your abilities! Because i am. I cranked out a 4.15 mile run despite having a nasty chesty cold. Now I’m enjoying some Olympic coverage. I could be downtown taking in the amazingness live but I have to work today… totally cramping my Olympic style. I still can’t get over that the Olympics are happening in my hometown! How crazy!?! I have two weeks off school for the Olympics yess universities of the lower mainland 🙂 But i have two midterms, two papers and a reading assignment to do plus other class readings… yeah thanks profs!

I’ll recap my Olympic festivities thus far…

On Tuesday last week I saw the Olympic torch run my house… but my camera died just the torch was going past me. Major fail!

Then on Friday i watched half of the Opening Ceremonies at home then I headed downtown to see the torch being lit and to party it up with a million other people.

Honestly Vancouver is even more amazing now. There are  so many shows and things to go see. I saw this crazy show at Robson Square that has people going on zip-lines, fireworks and fire! We managed to find a bar to grab a few drinks and to escape the rain. Then we walked down to the see the torch, which to our dismay was fenced up! Say WHAT? so I did my best to capture a picture through the metal fencing.

I still don’t have any tickets to any events but it is a work in progress! I just have to take out a loan or something… kidding but that is how ridiculously expensive the prices are. $89,500 for four tickets to the Gold medal hockey game… no big deal that’s pocket change right?

I’ll probably go downtown on Thursday and Friday to soak up the Olympics. Seriously it’s like Canada Day on steroids right now! So many breakout of our national anthem.  It’s madness but I love it!  Now I have to put my MSC (marry Sidney Crosby) plan into action… I kidds maybe 🙂

White Rock pier… gorgeous!

doubling up

Hey all! No I haven’t gone into hiding but I am drowning with heaps of homework. Who knew three courses would require so much time!? On the bright side all my studying paid off for psyc I got 82% on my first exam, yeaa! Life is well, pretty darn boring at the moment but I have been getting more running in!

So I have two sets of product reviews for you (four in total).

FIrst off we have the infamous celestial seasonings tea.. I wasn’t quite able to try the christmasy flavas while I was in Europe but I found them on clearance at the grocery store the other week so I scooped two of those babies up

1. Candy cane lane

Not a fan – I usually love mint tea but this one was just not my thang!

2. Gingerbread Spice

I quite liked this one. It tastes pretty much like regular chai tea but a bit more sugary (?).

I was quite bumbed I couldn’t find the sugar cookie one but I did see another flavour I would like to try, vanilla maple (yummz).

Next up we have Wild Garden Hummus Dip.
1. Regular – I liked this one but I think it need a bit more flavour to it imho.

2. Sun-dried tomato – Seriously can’t really tell the difference between the two except this one has a kinda revolting orange colour to it right when you open the container but it was still yummy in my tummy!

I’m going to try the garlic flavour next. Anyone not a fan of garlic?  I LOVE it!

Now onto a completely different topic, running! I started having problems with my knee while I was in Italy and I just kinda sucked it up but my knee was progressively getting worse so I decided to take some action because it was almost getting to painful to take the stairs at school :O

I decided to hook myself with some new runners that help with my over pronation problemo. The solution a ballin’ new pair of ASICS… to bad the price tag wasn’t to ballin.

I also started taking glucosamine tablets to help out my joints since I am secretly eighty years old not nineteen.

If my knee gets better within the next few weeks I may sign up for a half marathon that happens on may 2nd. But I’m still not entirely sure if I want to do it that weekend since I signed up to do a 10km the week after. There is also another half marathon on June 27th which I will probably do.

And lastly, THE OLYMPICS ARE IN 11 DAYS! I’m so excited! Vancouver is going to be nutzo for two weeks straight! A bunch of my friends are going downtown for the opening ceremonies to just soak up all the excitement and also because we are to poor to pay $600 for a ticket (no joke that’s the price tag for one ticket to the opening ceremonies!). I picked up a Canada hoodie and water bottle the other day to show off my Canadian pride 🙂

Now I’m off to ptfo like my baby coop did… once I read some more Hamlet… I hate English lit sometimes! I will try to post more regularly to mes amis!

pressure

Alright, so this post is going to be a tad different than my other posts… tonight I had a pretty awkward experience with my friends. I drove over to my friends house to hang out and i thought they were going to have some drinks or something but no, I show up and they are hot boxing the garage. In defense of my friends they are great people but love to smoke pot. Anyways, my friends know I don’t smoke pot anymore – I did when I was in high school than realized it wasn’t for me and I didn’t gain anything from doing it. So I basically I got there and was like I can’t stay… I can’t go home reeking like weed. They tried to persuade me to stay with there persuasive stoned words but no I left. I feel like I acted kinda irrationally but they know I don’t smoke so why would I want to sit around them breathing in their second hand smoke. I love my friends to bits but they just don’t get it. I have no problem with them smoking –  it’s their life but why should I be left out of the fun social events because of this… Has anyone ever dealt with this situation before?

back in the swing of things

   Allo mes belles! How are you all doing? I’m getting back into my normal life here vcity. School started on Monday and I’m already drowning in heaps of class readings. I’m only taking three classes to! I really need to get serious this semester since I am on academic warning and if I don’t get my gpa WAY up I will be… well lets just hope I don’t have to get to that point. I’m pretty pleased with my schedule for school because it pretty much leaves me the mornings free to go out for a run then do some class work before i head to schizzo. I’m taking English: focusing on male pairs in fiction, Sociology and Psychology.

I’m also back at work now to… I was hoping to get three shifts a week but so far I just have one… on Saturday nights – basically the worst shift of the week but oh well the sched will changed in a few weeks anyways.

The other day i signed myself up for the Vancouver sun run… I believe its the second largest 10km race in North America but i could be wrong. I needed to do this so I have a running goal set in mind. I’m not sure if I am ready to do the BMO half marathon which happens on May 1st again. But who knows I may complete a half marathon somewhere in 2010.

Lets skip back to new years (sorry for the hodge podge post)… My friends and I rented three hotel rooms downtown and got tickets for a nye at a club. Twas’ a fun evening and before the festivities (aka super drinkage) I went shopping and bought myself a dress and these super popular items…

“Wear your heart on your hands” Olympic mittens (and no I don’t have left hands I just wanted to show you the awesomeness on the flip side). Seriously these mitts get sold out everywhere. Fun Fact: The Olympic merchandise peeps estimate that 1 in 4 Canadians will own a pair of these by the time the Olympics come here (just over on month till party time!). Anyways back to an array of nye photos…

Classy hotel room drinking and me resembling Barney (don’t worry I ditched the cardi before leaving)

To many vodka 7’s were consumed that night and I ended up leaving before most of my friend because my shoes were killing my feet to the point where I had to take my shoes off to walk on the street (and we all know how dirty city sidewalks are) so I’m considering this part of my night a big fail.

The other day I finally found myself a can of pumpkin and whipped up the infamous Pumpkin pie cakes…

LOVE – I see this dish repeating many times.

Now I must get back to reading the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad… snooooze! Also I must introduce you to my new love….

 
My blackberry… I literally picked this up the day after I got back from Europe 🙂

I’ll be home for christmas…

Hi everybody!! I’m back in the good ol’ home country now after 3.5 months away! It’s super to be back minus my severe jet lag. My time in London, Paris (LOVE) and Italy was super. I’m so happy to be done au pairing; it was probably the worst & the best thing I have ever done to/for myself. I learned a lot, grew a lot and gained quite a bit of confidence throughout my entire time in Europe.

I ended on a bit of a sour not with the family in England but that’s in the past now. London was pretty super but I wasn’t overly wowed by the city (sorry all you London lovers). I made it to almost all the touristy places and bought loads of Union Jack items and a Harrods pen (only thing I could afford in that mega store).

Trafalgar Square and the studdly lion

Big Ben

I took the eurostar to Paris and pretty much fell in love the city instantly. I was only there for 2.5 days but I managed to get to le sacré coeur, le moulin rouge, the louvre,  jardin des tuileries, notre dame, les champs d’elysées, Les galeries lafayette, the opera, l’arc de triomphe and of course the Eiffel tower. I found the best bread ever… pain aux noix, so good! I am so proud of myself for visiting Paris all by myself and finding my way around the city – such a huge boost of confidence. I’m already planning a trip back there for hmm January… kidding but hopefully within the next two years I will be back in the city of love.

Sacre Coeur... Montmartre was probably one of my favourite parts of paris

View from on top of the Arc de Triomphe

Me and Eiffel 😉 The light show is amazingly gorgeous

After my short time in Paris I went back to italy to stay with my cousin. I went back to visit the au pairs I met before we all parted ways. We made it to Florence for one afternoon. We drove up to Piazza Michelangelo and saw the city of Firenze from afar and it was breathe taking. It snowed while I was in Italy so I made a pretty sad snowmen while I was there to.

view from piazza michelangelo

Finally the day came for me to fly home. I had a good flight home except for a drunken Ukrainian who had to be de-boarded from the plane. I arrived at the Vancouver airport all excited to finally see my family and low and behold they weren’t there!! Yay my brilliant parents thought I was coming in the next day so I had to find 50 cents in my luggage to call them to see where they were. My mom was so upset with herself she started crying… poor mom. But all is well now that I am home. I’ve already got myself used to being home (bought a new blackberry yeaa!) although it was so odd sleeping my bed for the first time in over a hundred days. Now its almost Christmas, my gifts are wrapped and I am waiting for the fun holiday times. Happy holidays to you all and your families!

Almost done

Two days m’dears, till I am done au pairing. I think its totally appropriate for me to jump with joy and do a little dance. Three months of seriously tough mental & physical labour dunzo! But I will be a tad sad to leave this little kiddo… meet oliver and his worn out and scrubbed up nanny.

nanny bri & ollie

Since being in England I have

1. Eaten my weight in chocolate and added on a few pounds of cushion… hopefully it will help keep me warm when i am freezing off my biscuits in a Parisian hostel.

2. Tried Pink Lady Apples for the first time..

new obsession

My new favourite apple – super delish!

3. Been accused of being a criminal by the au pair mom (yeah what a fun conversation that was)
Note: I have no criminal record and only went to the principals office ONCE throughout all of years of school… clearly this women is delusional.

4. Registered for courses at midnight – time change is no bueno! I’m taking a psychology, intro to sociology and an english course (with reading list that makes me want to cry already).

5. Fell in love with Primark and Marks & Spencer

6. Saw the city’s Christmas lights turn on!

christmas lights showcasing my poor photog skills

… the list could go on and on! I’m off to London on the 10th, then paris then italy where my cousin is taking me to Florence! Sadly, i wont be hitting up Rome (gasp!) but thats just another reason to return to Italy.

I probably won’t be posting again until after the 21st which is when I get to my super fab country 🙂 How I miss you Canada. So long for now & Happy holidays!

Absolutely knackered…

Hello blogettes! As you can tell I’m pretty absent from the blog world at the mo since this au pair gig is pretty time consuming and to be frank freaking exhausting! I do however like this family more than my cray cray italian one but I am working quite a bit (more than I am supposed to be working…). 19 days till freedom! I booked all my travels last sunday to. Heres my plan: London for three nights then taking the Euro star down to Paris for three nights as well then jetting back to italy to go to Rome and Florence with my cousin then finally flying home to Vcity on december 21st!

This post is going to be a bit jumbled and possibly hard to read but I’m just trying to fit my past few weeks in 🙂 I LOVE england the people here are very nice and pretty similar to Canadians (probably why I like them). I love british chocolate… i’ve eaten SO much the past few weeks that my jeans are getting a bit tighter… I have to be careful with this because I don’t want to further trigger my binge eating habits again. As of tomorrow I am fixing my eating habits so I don’t continue eating in unhealthy patterns. Now onto exercise… I finally can map my runs again! Hallejuah no more uncharted country roads! I have a pretty decent 3.41 mile run that I do as often as possible. I’m only running like 3 days a week now which blows but I’m running faster. I did 2.9 miles in just under 24 minutes today which is pretty speedy for me (plus it was rainy and night time).

I cooked some cabbage soup last week with the directions of the au pair mom (who is pretty cool might I add) and this week I cooked Ratatouille all by myself 🙂 It turned out pretty fab but I did have any fresh basil which would’ve made it a bit better.

My Rataouille... half eaten with a piece of baguette nom nom!

So far I have been to Nottingham and various places around Leceister… I won’t be getting down to London until I am done au pairing but I’m hoping to get a free day (yeah right) to go to Manchester to visit my cousin.

Here are some pictures I have snapped while here….

Guy Fawkes Night

Bragate Park - Some queenie lived here before getting beheaded.

Nottingham... the canals reminded me of Venice

 

Hope you enjoyed the update. Have a happy thanksgiving to my all my american girls and happy weekend to the rest!