i win.

p.s. i finished my paper at 8:45pm. victory is MINE.

[halfway] [3/6]pgs [1818/3000]wds

so much for only posting if you were good. i'm assuming you are all on your best behaviour this week. i am currently in stauffer - i can't say i've ever posted from here before. interesting. so i've got 3 out of 6 single spaced pages done so far. so far, so fantastic. it's only 4:19pm. stellar. things are looking good. anyways, i don't have anything new to report. besides my paper. so i'm gonna get back to it now...umm...yeah..later.

wolfe island.

saturday was an absoloutely gorgeous day. sarah and i were hanging out, i got the brillant idea to go on the wolfe island ferry since i'd never been in my four years here. so we rounded up some people, invited them along, and here are the pictures.

andrew doesn't look impressed. 

on the way to the island. 

we took refuge from the cold on the way back. 

on the way to wolfe island 

something must've been hilarious. look at his face!  

view from the ferry on the way back 

le stauff.

mmm there's nothin like a late night salad. after spending about ten hours in stauffer, i decided to get outta there and head home. it was a productive day, i will admit, but seriously - that much time in stauffer oughta be outlawed or something...actually, that's a bad idea, cuz then i'd complain that i can't spend enough time there. scratch that. anyways - so i packed a salad to eat while at stauff, but didn't end up eating it, i ate the other food i had tucked away in my bag, so now i am indulging in the goodness of vegetables after which, i will be heading to bed - all the staufferness has made me drowsy. so long for now folks - if you're good, i might post again before the week is out. i've got my eyes on you.

events of the evening.

the geo dinner was tonight. i had a good time. the food was tasty. rosenburg was awkward. really awkward. barry and i chatted it up. he thought i was the other brown girl in geography. i can see how he got confused. seriously. we danced it up. the last two songs of the night were bad. other than that, the dj played some alright tunes. at least he played one of our requested songs. barber and his wife were the stars of the dance floor. this other dude, we'll call him 'saturday night fever' was literally all over the floor. it was kind of bizarre. treitz is like a celebrity - he's so cool! but i didn't go talk to him. i was starstruck. apprently jd was there - didn't see her. she beelined to the exit once the music started to play. mich, bren arden and i busted moves on the dance floor. we stayed till the very end. till there was no more music

bren and i - fave pic of the night #2 

mich and i - fave pic of the night #1 

mm pizza

on saturday night, we had a wallace and gromit and PIZZA night at jas' house. she had the series of shorter episodes, so she brought them up and we watched them after we chatted and made pizzas. they were so yummy - my favourite was topped with roasted garlic, pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, bacon, roasted red peppers and carmelized onions. *drool* it was fantastic. here are some pictures from the night.

adam the pizza assembler, and the rest of us 

look at that pizza - a little oddly shaped, but it tasted like heaven 

rob cookin some onions 

chris the pizza stretcher 

don't eat my cheese jas, don't eat it! 

chris and rob chattin it up 

i dunno what's going on here 

beautiful day, friendly strangers.

okay, so i know this is rare - me, posting two times in a day - but i had to. i chose to work at home today because i can see in the near future that many hours will be spent in stauffer. i decided preventative measures would be best to avoid stauffer overload. so 1pm rolls around and i figure it's a great day out, so i'm gonna go take a walk to tim's to get myself a nice hot beverage (half coffee, half hot chocolate with one serving of cream - fabulous!) i ran into a friend at tim's, and chatted it up for a bit, then got my stuff and began the walk home. on the way, i thought i'd stop in the wolfe island bakery for a savoury treat. i purchased a sausage roll, and proceeded on my way home. but i was stopped in the parking lot of the bakery by a man who was with another elderly gentleman:

parking lot man: excuse me, do you mind if i ask where you are from? where does your family originate? from the west indies?
me: 'yes, we're from the west indies'
PL man: which country?
me: guess!
PL man: trinidad?
me: ding ding ding! <-- (i actually said that.)
PL man: i knew it! i LOVE trinidad!! i have some really good friends who are from there and living there now. we've been friends for over 30 years - i go down to carnival every year! it's great!
me: really? that's awesome! yea, trinidad is an awesome place
elderly man: *smiles* he talks about it all the time
PL man: - continues to rave about trinidad -

the conversation continues like this for a few minutes, then he says:

PL man: oh man, and the KFC down there is AMAZING! the stuff up here is crap in comparison
me: yeah, definitely!!! *wheels in my head turning* wait...i've met you before

- flashback to september -

jasmine and i are sitting in copper penny enjoying lunch, and i'm telling her about my trip to trinidad and barbados in august. i'm telling her about how good KFC is down there *man walks by table, turns and looks at us* 'i'm sorry, but i can't help overhearing, you're talking about trinidad - i love that place! the KFC down there is AMAZING!' i turn to jas and am like "SEE!! it really is good!" then the guy stands there and continues to chat with us for a little bit before heading out.

- back to today -

me: [recounting above incident to the PL man]
PL man: oh YES! hahahaha
me: *chuckle*
elderly gentleman: would you care to join us?
me: [holding my tim's cup of mocha goodness and my sausage roll] aw thanks for the offer, but i've actually gotta go write a paper
PL man: well, it was nice chatting with you. trinidad is great, i love it, i love the people there..!
me: i'm sure i'll see you around again sometime!
PL man: have a good day, bye!
elderly man: bye!
me: later!

PL man was so friendly, as was his elderly counterpart, who i believe is named al. he genuinely loves trinidad - the people, the music, the food, the place. i love when things like this happen! so random, but awesome. i love it because it shows that people are friendly and willing to chat, even if they are complete strangers. there's hope for us yet :)

yo, hashabiah, what's up man?

this morning i decided to read a book in the old testament that i've never read through - i picked nehemiah. so far, the book is quite good, i am enjoying the manner in which it is written, and the excitement in it! it's quite the story, i'd encourage you to check it out. anyways, i was reading a few chapters and i came upon one in which there were listed, a number of people. (the story thus far is about Jews rebuilding their city wall, and this chapter in particular lists off who was helping to build the wall.) so i was reading it, and i realized that these names are so..how do i say it...biblical? old school? and i know you're probably like 'uhh abby - you ARE reading the bible...' but i really like some of these names! here's a sampling of cool biblical names:

Mizpah
Hananiah
Meshezabel
Besodiah
Jeshua
Azariah
Uriah
Azbuk
Hashabiah
Zabbai
Eliashib
Sanballat
Tobiah

can you imagine if your friends had names like these? haha that'd be awesome! meshezabel is one of my favourites. what about zabbai? his friends probably called him zab for short, haha...anyways, that's my short random rant for the day. i need to buckle down and tackle this paper, so i'm gonna make like a tree and leave. later folks.

party pictures

mom sent me the link to see the pictures from dad's birthday shindig, so i thought i'd post some of them to accompany the lengthy post in which i wrote about said event :) good times with the ram fam, we never fail to deliver.

the bro and i...missing jay from the pic tho! 

dad's lovin' it 

enjoying the musical entertainment 

mr. jones livened up the party with great music 

dad joined the entertainment for a few numbers!  

the picture table - memories of 60 years! 

the food was fabulous 

the fam :) surprise, dad! 

salute to asia, a success!

last night, our house was overrun by hungry people eating chinese dumplings. i heard that the preparations started at 5pm - the fillings for the dumplings were cooked and everything was cut, washed and ready to go. by the time i got in, after class, the fillings were almost done and assembly was about to begin. by the time i got out of the shower a little while later, there were about 7 people in our kitchen, 5 assembling dumplings and 2 cooking. we had plates upon plates of uncooked dumplings at the end of all the assembly - it was just a matter of cooking and eating. so that's exactly what we did - cooked and ate. it was an ongoing process with 2 people cooking at all times while others indulged in dumpling goodness. after we had our fill we reclined in the comforts of our living room, and enjoyed impromptu karaoke and chatted the night away. all in all, i'd say the night was successful - congratulations iris for organizing it all, and to everyone else who helped out, THANKS!

dumpling assembly crew 

cooking