A year in the life of KarinAlyssa

End of that blog for the moment

2006-12-13T11:01:00.000-05:00

2006 is almost over and it hasn't been successful regarding that blog, I decided to start with a clean plate by registering at LiveJournal and I've already blogged twice. You can read more at
LiveJournal !

Reading more books

2006-05-11T20:19:00.000-04:00

since I have no school, I have been able to read a lot more, so I’m achieving my goal I think !

See more progress on: Read more books

Home sweet home ???

2006-04-18T21:07:00.000-04:00

Thursday night is to be remembered. I had a fab diner with Sophie including fondue and of course, lots of wine ! Then, she made me an awesome pina colada. Some friends came over with jack and coke and finally, we departed for the club where much fun was to be had ! It was a tad weird as it was a party for the college where I studied for the past 2 years, so most people were younger than me... I almost felt ancient especially as I had to "guard" Sophie from making a mistake with a random guy named PF. She had too much to drink and since Bobby, her bf, wasn't there and PF really liked her, you do the math ! Oh well I got to meet another one of her friend, cute guy named Sam and we both looked over her as if she was a young child ! I love her, but sometimes I don't know why she does some of the stuff she does. Then, she invited PF and his friend back to her flat. Sam and I made sure everyone was in their bed before heading back home. Of course, she called the following morning because she felt bad. She wasn't fully sorry or feeling guilty, but she felt bad that she fitted int he stereotype of the drunk girl who acts differently than when she's sober.
I think that talking to Bobby about her awesome night with me and Sam, a friend and never mentioning PF and the other guy made her realize that they have been dating for almost 10 months !

I was working both Saturday and Sunday, but my parents were not and they decided to fully celebrate Easter albeit without chocolate. My aunt Alice came over for the Easter weekend and another aunt Évelyne came over on Saturday to have dinner with my family before going to Mass. On Sunday, there Alice, my two grandmothers, my godfather and his brother, my parents and my siblings all around the big table. Everyone liked my asparagus's and broccoli cream which was the entree, but no one like my wine because my family doesn't drink wine. It was a nice Syrah rosé though.

On Monday, I saw Thank you for Smoking which Xavier, a good friend of mine from high school and it was a really good movie save for the apple pie with American cheese, yuk...

Evidently, no stay at my parents' house doesn't include a fight with them and on Monday evening it happened with the works, I don't care about them, they don't love me, I'll move somewhere else, I won't be allowed to use the car, etc... However, I went to renew my license and shopping for shoes and mailing stuff and my dad just said bye. Obviously, they didn't apologize, but it's almost as if they forgot all about it. I guess it's better because I want to do an amazing trip next summer and living at home during the summer cuts down on expenses a lot !

Transition Dinner

2006-04-13T00:57:00.000-04:00

I woke up today with 2 strangers in my room and no, last night was certainly not fun. Those two were from Housing and were there for the Inspection. Since I slept late, I woke up at 10h30 with a knock and them busting in my room. Wonder what would have happen if I slept in the nude ??? Well, another mystery that won't be solved for now !

Tonight was the transition dinner for the Model UN club where I'll be VP External next year. It was lots of fun getting to know more the current and next executive. Sadly, the current VP External wasn't there, but she promised through someone else that we shall meet just the two of us someday. I can't wait to know exactly what I'm supposed to do as VP External although I have some clue, but some pointers would be great ! I like more than I thought the executive I am part of. One of my closest friends was running for President, but he lost and was really looking forward to work with him as we had had many MSN sessions where we'd talk about how to change the club to improve it. I know that the people I'll be working with are more than what they appear whether it's a nerd, a party girl, a tree-hugger, a general slacker or beau ténébreux which would translate in "dark mysterious gorgeous guy". French is often more appropriate than English...

Tomorrow is a new day, I'm going home for one week. I have already plan a shopping session with Sophie followed by a nice supper at her place and then, we're going out together to this really posh club in Montreal, I can't wait for that !

Final Choir Show

2006-04-12T00:03:00.000-04:00

The day didn't start well. I couldn't sleep last night because I was too pumped for my criminal law final. This is a first for me ! I finally slept at 4h30 only to have to wake up at 7. Strangely, I was still hyper and my morning routine was done super fast which doesn't happen everyday. Obviously, I had to do my final which went better than I expected it to. I remembered all the cases, the stare decisis, etc... There was one tricky question, but I think I answered it correctly. I was a bit sleepy at the end of the exam and low on energy, but I had an apple, so I stayed awake and finished the exam in 2 instead of the 3 allowed hours.

Then, I went to the Languages Department and I will be able to register for one or two German classes next year which is very exciting. I read a bit, but since I was dozing off, I decided to take a nap which was abruptly ended by a fire alarm in my building. So, not only did I have to walk down 14 floors, but I had the pleasure of waking up with the deafening sound of the fire alarm, yay !

I had a cooking frenzy where I mixed green beans, carrots, tomatoes, tofu, onions, lots of garlic, eggs, sweet and sour sauce and mushrooms altogether to create a weird omelette that looked yummy. I haven't eaten it yet, because when I cook I always feel full ! I had promised to make muffins for the final choir, so I did those. They were quite yummy mixing oats, raisins, cinnamon and coffee. They were not as good as Jon's chocolate and raspberry squares, but I'm not competing with him !

The choir show was awesome and there was only a slight glitch for the whole night when we did our Medley because we started to high and the boys couldn't follow the rest of the song ! The first director of choir even directed 2 songs and the current director received a gift from the Choir as she won't direct anymore. It was a wonderful evening and some of the singers did solos or group performances including a Gingerbread Man song, a Backstreet Boys song, one by Jack Johnson and some in French. I heard Claude [Low alto like me] singing Un ange qui passe for the first time and I was really impressed by the song, but also by Claude's singing which was powerful and soft at the same time. I wish I could sing like that... I love my choir and I hope singers will stay on board for a couple more years because I love singing with them !

April !!!

2006-04-11T01:37:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I updated this which is not good. At least, I don't do resolutions because I wouldn't be able to make them work throughout the year :) As for my other goals, I am a lot more in shape because of the gym where I do steps, TBC, aquafit, yogafit, aerobics, cardio-tae and whatever class they have when I have time. I am being lazy though to do weight-lifting, but then I always silly when I do this and I know it ! All those beefy guys are looking at me and thinking She has no clue ! and I hate when that happens, don't you ? I'll try to get my mom to join a gym with me, so it'd be fun to train with her as most of my friends who train reguarlely are health freaks and I doubt I'd be able to follow Sophie when she's running or Mélissa doing the crazy yoga positions. As for my German, it's not that bad because some of my friends at uni keep talking to me in German, but I'm not better than I was after my class.

Strangely school have taken a lot more of time than last semester whether is having 6/7 classes, choir practices twice a week, plus meetings for other stuff like the International Blast, losing too much time on FaceBook, MSN or BookRelay and doing all those Model UNs. This semester I did McGill MUN, Harvard National MUN and Canadian international MUN where I won best Delegate on my committee, so it was a busy semester. Plus, I'm trying to read too which is hard sometimes. I'm putting a list of the books I have to read soon too and I will strike them, so I'll have a sense of progressing through that TBR shelf.

Anyway, the semester is almost done. I'm entering later this morning finals' season for the next 3 weeks and then, I will have successfully done my first year of law school. Then, summer will be here finally to enjoy with all my friends that I miss !

January Blah

2006-01-10T23:53:00.000-05:00

I understand why people have more depressions in January than in other months. The month is just starting and already I want to sleep all day and eat Haagen-Dazs's triple chocolate ice cream which is not good for my body. At least, I'm going to the gym every 3 days or so, so it's okay.

Life here is the same as usual, I go to my classes which seem harder than last semester for the moment. The only excitement was that my teacher for International public law was sacked, so I don't have that class this week. Otherwise, my Civil responsability teacher seems too young to teach and has high expectations from her class. She asked for close to 75 pages [legal size] to be read in 2 days. Can't you guess that I haven't read a single page yet and it's for tomorrow ? Oh well, I'll read some at the gym tomorrow, that way it'll pass faster. I love to do my boring reading when I'm on the treadmill, I seem to finish it more quickly ;) Plus, I'm getting fit at the same time, so it's great !

Frost week has started and the event I was organizing is already over. It was a kind of supermarket sweepstake called Loeb Quest. People had fun and I got to meet all those new international students coming from Norway, Mexico, Belgium, Australia, Netherlands, France, Sweden, ... Of course, there was the odd kid from Saskatchewan or Quebec, but eh, what can you do ? Afterwards, I came back home to watch the debates in French. I had watched parts of it in English last night, but Canada is really in a bad place ! We know that the government will be either conservative or liberal, but I don't want to vote for any of those parties. As I'm from Quebec, I could vote for the Bloc Québécois, but I don't agree with this party's existence. I could always vote NDP or Green as my vote doesn't really count in my riding as the Bloc will pass with 75% of the ballots. As much as I love politics, sometimes I think it's entirely useless especially when I look at politicians. I'd love to represent a riding and to make a difference, but I know I will never do that because of the state in which politics are now.

My reading is not doing good, I'm still reading the same book and I'm not even making a dent in it... Oh well, I better read for my classes for the moment anyway. Now, I need to sleep as I have a class at 8 this morning, did I say that I am not a morning person ? No control whatsoever on my schedule it seems...

School has already started !

2006-01-05T23:42:00.000-05:00

I have already have 2 days of school although my first class of civil responsability was cancelled. Nonetheless, I had the chance to have a class of criminal law, procedural law and international public law. The first one was fun, the professor looks like my librarian when I was younger and she was so nice. The procedural law class seems boring, but the teacher seems interesting enough. As for internation public law, I could have cried when the class ended. This is the class I was the most excited for and it was a huge disappointment. Like almost everyone from my class, I couldn't understand most of what the teacher was saying. He had a weird accent and everytime he mentionned important names, all the class was struggling to guess how it was spelled. Some girl asked him to write the names to the blackboard and we saw how he wrote, we decided it wasn't worth it as we could not read it. This is a new professor at my faculty and he asked for one big paper [about 15 to 20 pages on a specic topic] which is a lot as we're first years and don't even know how to do his mini-mémoire. Afterwards, people tried to switch classes, but it was impossible; the other classes were fulled ! So, we're stucked with him, I hope he'll enunciate more in the next class.

At my residence, we're organising a Frost Week next week. I live in an international residence, so some of the residents are only in Ottawa for one semester. This Frost week is like the Frosh/101 Week that we had in September, but it will be for our residence only. I'm organizing a kind of Supermarket Sweeptstake on Tuesday and a International Pot-Luck for Sunday. I can't wait for that week to unfold. There will also be a Senator's hockey game, a Scavenger's Hunt, a Snow Day including skating on the Canal, making snowmen and snowballs fights, a supper opened to everyone in the rez and more... This is going to be an amazing week. I'm planning to participate in most activities except the Sens' game as I'm not a fan of hockey.

The choir has the first 2006 show on Sunday. Now, I really have to sing more. Since I lost my voice during the holidays, my voice is squeaky at notes I used to reach without troubles, so I'll stretch it. It's already better than 1 week ago, but I'd like it to be better even if Sunday is really close...

As for reading, I just finished Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and I'm shocked. I don't think the book deserved the Pulitzer because Jeffrey Eugenides always get lost somewhere in the plot as if there wasn't one or if I had one, he forgot it for a couple of chapters. Then, he ended up with over 500 pages; most of which should have been edited. If you take alone the story of Calliope or Cal, this is not only disturbing, but really surprising. To see her/his life and to try to put you in the same place is almost impossible. I remember how I was at that age and there is no way I could have accepted something like that if someone albeit over-qualified might have told me on who I truly was. On a entirely different topic, the Dilbert was a hoot like always. I love to read Scott Adam's strips; they are so hilarious.

I even practiced some of my German by going over my notes from my last class and talking aloud in German. I also went to the library to check out some books on german grammar, so I could get better. The only bad thing is that I can't audit a German class as it's impossible to audit a language class. I would gladly add the German class to my schedule, but I can't because I'm a first year in law. I was really frustrated as I could make it to all the classes in one section and that section was not full. They told me I could go to the Goethe Institute which is kinda expensive and far from where I live. I guess I'll take an intensive class during the summer, so I can study in a more advanced class this fall.

New Year !!!

2006-01-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

2006 is already there and I came back to my room in Ottawa. I spent only 2 weeks at home where I work 6 days, held a dinner party at home, went out too much and didn't see my friends as much as I would like. Sometimes, I wish I was studying in Montreal, so I could just call one of them for a coffee in 40 minutes. Now, it's planning at least 2 weeks in advance and missing stuff because I can't come back for an evening. OK, I do it sometimes, but it start to get expensive to take the train that often. My friend's boyfriend plays the sax in a band and has a show on the 8th which I'll miss... We wanted to do another dinner party, but I can't go... Ottawa is only 90 minutes away from Montreal, but sometimes I feel like I am in another country altogether. At least, I broke up with Stéphane just before coming to live in Ottawa, having a long distance relationship would have been quite disastrous... The worst is that I'm thinking of doing my masters somewhere far away like Oxford... They have a great MPhil in International Relations, so that'd be great especially if my friend is doing hers there too in Mathematics. She was accepted as an undergraduate but opted for the MIT instead, but she could do her masters in Oxford and we would be together.

Anyway, I better start worrying about 2006 instead of 2009, right ? I have not made real resolutions, but I have some goals for this year. I decided to have this blog like I used to have in highschool because I have some time on my hands and writing or in that case typing allows me to reflect on my life. Also, I want to get more in shape. Since May, I've lost some weight and have been in a better form, but I want to do real activities like aerobics, Pilates and more yoga. Of course, I want to work on my German, so I can go in Germany and Austria in Summer 2007 and speak it fluently. Plus, I want to write like I used to do in high school. I stopped because I didn't have time which is not the case anymore. I want to write short stories, work on the novel I started and write new songs.

As for books, I'm doing a challenge on BookCrossing.com to read twice 26 new authors both in English and in French in the ABC Challenge 2006. This challenge was done last year by BreakEveryRule and Mostly-Harmless took the idea and proposed it to the French forum. I'm planning to read most of my classics in French and some books in my TBR. I have already read two. I read letter B (Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451) and letter D (Diane Mott Davidson - Dying for Chocolate)

Otherwise, I am reading Excuse while I wag by Scott Adams, a great Dilbert and I'm enjoying it. I read 2 great books during the holidays, both left something in me. It was Balzac and the little chinese seamstress by Dai Sijie and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. The former is during the cultural revolution in China and talks about reeducation and the love the books while the latter is set in Irak and starts just before the soviet invasion of 1979 and finishes around 9-11.

I'm off to bed to enjoy the Dilbert, so Bonne nuit !

A new year

2005-12-18T17:06:00.000-05:00

A new year will begin soon. After almost 3 years of inactivity on the blogsphere, I decided to come back in 2006 as part of my New Year's resolutions. For now, I will have to study for my last final on Family Law.

See ya !