Miryam’s Blog

Okay, so I know I’m a little early, but it sure looks like Spring here! Well, except for all the branches on the ground. Nasty wind, hurting the poor trees! It sure is fun to walk in though! For all you fantasy readers out there: I felt like Tris, revelling in the wind and the rain! Hehehe…

I just wrote my first ever university exam! It was easy. Hehe. It was a Spanish exam, so I suppose I might have guessed, but some of her tests have been hard! I’m extremely glad to have begun my exams. All that waiting was getting to be a little stressful. I have one tomorrow, that’ll be very easy as well, and then I have one on Monday that will be rather more difficult. Much as I love a good English teacher, they’re exams suck! Tonight, I decided that I was allowed to play hooky, having just finished such a strenuous exam. Besides, I’m only productive at writing in the evenings. I don’t know why, but the later in the day it is, the harder it is for me to study. It’s a little frustrating sometimes.

So, my trips. Oh boy, this is going to take a while. The week after I got back from White Rock was pretty much spent lazing around, hanging with friends when they weren’t studying, and Christmas shopping. On Friday, with a little panic  and a gallant rescue by Sara beforehand, I set off for Port Moody. Much to my surprise, I didn’t have any trouble at all getting to Metrotown, where I was to meet my cousins. Well, no trouble except for being forty minutes late because Translink is stupid!

So, I got to Metrotown, and there were my lovely cousins, Cameron and Katie, waiting for me! For those of you who don’t know, Cameron is 21 and Katie is 18, and they’re my only cousins on my Dad’s side. By the time I got there, it was dinner time, so we went and had sushi in Metrotown, which is the largest mall in BC, according to Katie. We chatted for a while about this and that. Turns out Cameron likes the Gilmore Girls! Then we started playing that game where you have to name something from a specific category for every letter of the alphabet. We did movies, then books, and then we disintegrated part way through authors. In the process, we talked about all sorts of books, and discovered that we like a lot of the same literature. Yay!

I’m back! I had to go to bed, but now I am rested, and done my second exam (Latin, also easy). Two more days until I come home! I’m soooo excited!

Anyways, after dinner we went and took sticker pictures, just because we could and I never had before. It’s a much more complicated process than I realized, especially when the instructions are in Japanese. Cameron was able to read some of it, but not fast enough (it was all on a timer). Then we played a game called bishi-bashi that also had instructions in a foreign language and that we were all terrible at, to varying degrees. We decided that was enough of that, and took the sky train and another bus to get to their house in Port Moody. Aunty Ingrid and Mark were out at a play, so we had the house to ourselves. We set up their little tree with pre-hung lights, and then we sat around chatting for a while. Katie brought down her grad photos, and as I was looking through them, we decided that we looked eerily alike. Cameron and Evan look alike too, but Katie and I seem to have grown together. I actually mistook two pictures of her for me! It was so weird! Naturally, this revelation prompted Cameron to begin asking us all sorts of strange questions, to see how similar our tastes and personalities are. The answer is quite similar, but not enough to make it really creepy.

Eventually we moved upstairs to look at more pictures, and then we got on to talking about the family and, eventually religion. It was fun talking about the family with other people my age. We could all speculate about the elder generations and share stories we had gleaned from relatives. And it’s always fun to talk about religion, as long as nobody is obnoxious about it, or gets offended easily. Which we weren’t and didn’t.

We were interrupted by the arrival of Mark and Aunty Ingrid. So I got to meet Mark, who’s quite delightful. We had tea and cookies, and then we all went to bed, it being after midnight. The next morning Katie and I, who were sleeping in the basement together, slept in late due, in part, to the darkness of the room. When we were up, we all went to White Spot for brunch. The food was good, and the company was wonderful. Naturally, the conversation drifted to books again, and since we were so near Chapters, we couldn’t resist going there. We spent quite a while browsing through the books and pointing out books worth reading to each other. Eventually we made it out, though not without spending any money. As a note for those whom this would interest, it was the same Chapters that we always went to when we visited Grandma in Coquitlam.

When we got back to the house, I packed up and Aunty Ingrid very kindly gave me a ride to the ferry terminal. Cameron came along and I shared with him some of Shane Koyczan’s poetry (most amazing modern poet!). We agreed to swap some writing by email. I was sad to say goodbye when we got to the terminal, but I did enjoy reading all the way back to Victoria.

Sunday and Monday were fairly quiet days, if I remember correctly. I hung out a bit with the group (Andrew, Joyce, Jen, Sara, Joelle, and sometimes Devin), but they all had to study. Oh! On Monday night, I had dinner with Andrew, and then we watched Eating Out so that he wouldn’t fall asleep (don’t ask me!). It was… an interesting movie. Then we went up to see if Jen and Joyce were around, which, of course, they were. So we hung out with them for a while, but Jen had to go to bed (she was leaving for Nelson early the next morning-lucky!). So then Andrew and Joyce came over to my room and we hung out until one. It was very pleasant/fun.

The next morning I got up early (groan!) and went downtown to catch the train to Nanaimo. The train ride was lovely! Part of the track goes right through the rainforest, and it’s just beautiful! And riding a train is so romantic! AND, best of all, I don’t get motion sick on trains!!!!! It’s the only mode of transportation I’ve found that doesn’t! About half an hour after getting on the train Olivia called, and we had a lovely chat. Then I just kind of stared out the window and enjoyed the scenery until we arrived in Nanaimo where Aunty Kate was waiting for me on the platform (tell me that’s not romantic!).

We went straight to Grandma’s and visited with her and Aunty Verla for about an hour. It was a very nice visit. We had tea and talked about this and that. Eventually, Grandma and Aunty Verla had to go for lunch, so we said good bye. Aunty Kate took me back to her place and we had lunch (real food, hooray!). Unfortunately, Aunty June was having troubles with her computer at work, so she wasn’t able to come home, but I enjoyed having some time with just Aunty Kate. She’s so interesting and such a good listener, and so nice! We had a wonderful conversation, and she let me read some of my poetry for her. It was so nice to share it with someone, and especially someone who could talk about poetry with me! At three I had to catch the train back to Victoria, but it was late, so we got a little more time to talk.

I was sorry to go, but I was very happy on the train. I was all excited about poetry from our conversation, and then I read some of Shane Koyczan (I think I’m in love!), which got me even more excited. I ended up writing four poems and some prose on the way home. It was so wonderful!

Andrew phoned me as I was waiting for a bus back to UVic, so when I got home I went and hung out in DT for a while. We watched the Gilmore Girls all together, which made me happy! I’m so addicted! The next two days I pretty much lived in Joyce’s room. We studied together, and when we couldn’t study anymore, we hung out and did fun stuff. Sara joined us for a lot of the time, and Joelle and Andrew were in and out as well. Jen, of course, was already in Nelson. On Thursday Andrew went home, and that night the four of us watched The Company, which is a dance movie. The dance in it was wonderful, but it had no plot at all, just flashes of various dancers’ lives. It was a little frustrating for my inner writer, but I did enjoy it. I slept over that night with Joyce.

The next morning I studied with Claire and Duncan for Latin, then went out for lunch with Candy. We almost froze waiting for the bus after lunch! Why is it always so cold when we go out for lunch? Anyways, we did some Christmas shopping. I so love hanging out with Candy! She’s so fun, and I love being able to speak Spanglish. Eventually I went home and got ready for my first exam.

And that is the last two weeks in a nutshell, folks. I have one more exam (English) and then I come home! Yes, I am obsessive. I don’t imagine I’ll be writing on here much while I’m home, but I’ll be seeing most of you who read this, so that’s alright. For those of you who I won’t be seeing, Merry Christmas, Season’s Greeetings, Happy Yule, and Happy New Year! Take care!

Love you,

Mim

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