Alright!

So, how is everyone doing? blogger primetime once again (èÈ:.É,"¨^çÇ-=/1#6&*()aA,a˙˙æ) à minuit! For those of you who are wondering what in the world that weird combination of symbols is between the brackets, that my friends, was an attempt to find the letter "A" avec un accent grave on a french keyboard. yaaaay! Learn something new everyday!

Previously on Apt. 14:
We arrived home. The apartment became clean again ^0^
I fed the cats too much food, now they are losing weight.
The sink got plugged!!! GAH! On the bright side, we make very tasty soup. Mmmmmm.
So far we've made 2 huge batches, lasted us a week each. Can't get enough of Chicken Minestrone...

also something is going on with this wall 0_o
but I won't tell you what... *smile*

Recently I discovered two dining treasures (...or should I say ....pleasures?):

L'Avenue...
Review!:

Food: The portions are generous and the prices amiable. They have anything from Kobe beef to Salmon salads... the desserts were so enticing but I had to save my stomach for the Chocolatier.

Service: Smiling waiters and waitresses that aren't bad looking at all ;) HAhah ok, uh, that may be personal preference. The menus are funky and reminiscent of 80s comic strips with speech bubbles and everything although they are only in French, no prob, this is Montreal!

Ambience: WoooOOOoo, dark, surreal, retro. With spherical lamps protruding from the walls, multicoloured wall panels and a modern tree display among others, this place is pretty chill, not to mention it has one of the funkiest washrooms I have ever used... niccce. I didn't take too many pictures, I'll just take you there so you can experience it for yourself~ (with me of course! hahah an excuse to eat there again perhaps?)

In general I give it a thumbs up! Although the music is on the loud side (it's electronica) if you go in expecting a vibrant atmosphere it'll be a blast. ^o^

and the Chocolatier Suite 88~


(Although we have yet to try Juliette et Chocolat, they were renovating when we attempted to go there last weekend, so we came here. Splendiferous! The hot chocolate was so rich I couldn't finish it all in one go, so I brought it home and popped it into the fridge. The next day I discovered that it had turned into mousse! Goodness gracious me...it was tasty)


Just on the side, before I leave you
I have recently been walking around my apartment singing songs. . .

and I found this nifty short on Youtube. Here's a little Ewan McGregor for you.. . (disclaimer: I warn you this is not happy shiny...)



wow... that totally helps you sleep at night eh? I hope I didn't add any unnecessary trauma into your daily web-surfing activities!! Gomenasai!

Also, this Saturday, there will be the first K(iki) + K(eum-yeo) potluck of glorious 2008! Those wonderful potlucks where close to 5 dozen university students showcase their culinary talents to please the palates of their peers. You can be sure that I will be hounding the table dining on these irresistible delectables and chatting the night away. Unfortunately Iris cannot make it to this potluck I'll save you some food!!! I promise!!!

At this point I'm going to bed...mmm my warm duvet.
Cheers

Heather

Madness!!

Wahaha, due to my extreme procrastination. here is a post I found in my computer from weeks ago. I have since found my laundry card and refilled it to the maximum.



November something, 2007:



So here I am, listening to a tape cassette of Radiohead. Did I say tape cassette? Yes. Yes, I did indeed. this is a result of our "resourcefulness", in other words, lifting things from the laundry room, well, not lifting, it's not stealing if no one wants it. haha among other things, we also found a tennis racquet and I was half-tempted to take a pair of plates with instructions on how to eat a lobster on it. Apparently you have to eat the green lobster liver, "it's the best part"

so so far, we've given the kitties a bath,


Anyways, why am I so inclined to post today?!?! well a few frustrating things
as many of you may be aware, I have lost my cellphone, boohoo... what good times we had, me and my Samsung D600... well I used this phone for a while:

MORE LIKE ONE DAY
and then the charger BROKE.. . . don't you think they should be able to withstand being pulled out of the outlet maybe at least ONCE???????

oh lordy...

so a week or so ago I discovered that the laundry card-refill machine didn't work, (it's a debit machine basically) so I was left to hand-wash anything I wanted to wear. yaaay clothes the old fashioned labour drip-dry-wait-for-eight-hours-to-get-clean-clothes-that-aren't-softened-by-bouce way!!!! this sounds pessimistic, but really, tide smells good!

and THEN


I hear the laundry machines are working again. but, lo and behold, where the @#$% is my debit card?? I look and search and comb the place. My conclusion is that I lost it on the way back home when I had it in my pants pocket on October 29th.... so I go get it replaced.


and. . . TADAAAA my old card suddenly appears out of nowhere...actually, I found it in the zip pocket of my vest....which is where I left it when I wanted to go do laundry and re-fill the card.

so yes


on the bright side, a few weeks ago, we made cheesecake! yum yum :)

delish. and we all took turns beating the heck out of the egg whites, so now I may be a tad bit stronger....but not by that much.

Also, Andy came to visit this past weekend. I kind of left them (Iris + Andy) for the weekend because I was scrambling to finish a paper. We went out to Reubens! and I had a turkey cheese melt..mmmm...I'm sure she can relate the rest of the weekend to you, I spent the days mostly at home or at the library.

anywaysssss

that's pretty much it

now if only I could find my laundry card. . . . .



P.s. and now by popular demand instead of a stick man you know what peter looks like! well actually, he said he'd rather have a picture for all to see than be represented by a stickman. peter: "why is my head so grossly out of proportion!?!?"aww, isn't the little baby cute?

end of November post.
and now it's December!!!
we're still finding someone to take care of our (cute, adorable, docile, domestic, caring, lovely) kittens. (can you tell I'm not trying to sell the cats to you at all!?) and they can't give you the rabies cause we just got them vaccinated!!!...um...actually you can....because the rabies vaccine isn't needed for indoor cats...but that means, you actually have to be infected with the rabies before you can transmit it to them so that you can catch it from them. so yea, you can't.


more to come...later or sooner, or later

by the way, I had a weird dream last night about goblins, a locker room, a giant and Allen. SO RANDOM.

my initiation..?

it seems as though it is time for me to finally post something of this blog as i too live in this apartment. however at this late hour i really should be taking my shower and heading for bed.. what are distractions for? i admit that my blogs will not be as visually.. STIMULATING but i will try my very best to decorate it with fantastical vocabulary! (and exclaimation marks ^-^) it's been about 1.5 months since moving in, and we've certainly come a long way to making it a home.. we've become very religious about IKEA, although we devoted quite a bit of our attention to PROVIGO as well. we've both also become ridiculously concerned with the money we spend as our september bills were skY high!

anyway, i still don't know if i want to include my parents in the know that we are now housing 2 four-legged creatures which happen to be very ~cute~ and curious and playful! obviously i will receive a "WHAT?" and then a sigh and perhaps a short "you do whatever you want".. very loving and understanding parents, no? maybe i'm being a little harsh but i'm expecting the worst =)

ALAS! midterm season is here. and... it will not go away because it will simply blend its way into finals! and seeing how my last exam is happening on the last day of exams, i will be experiencing the montreal cold a little longer.. JOY!




anyways, the shower awaits.. and so does my 8:30 class.
tata for now!

Charlie + Tofu

Hello,
May I introduce Charlie (white socks) and Tofu (the fatter one, although you can't really tell in these photos.) They were given to us by Susan, a girl who found the mother near her apartment one day. The mother seems to be an abandoned house cat.

When they first arrived 2 Sundays ago, they seemed a little jaded and shy, so after a few attempts to hold their attention for more than 30 seconds we let them be. 30 minutes later, they were nowhere to be seen. Keumyeo (since she was visiting at the time) and I were baffled. Had they been, perhaps, unwittingly flushed down the toilet? No. eventually after searching high and low, we found them in Iris's bra box.
Oh my gosh is this Keumyeo playing with cats?!?! actually she confessed to me that she actually likes cats, but she still despises squirrels and pigeons.
We have a speculation that Charlie is a girl and that Tofu is a boy, which is problematic seeing as they could potentially make beautiful kitten offspring......talk about incest.

anyways I guess I'll give you guys a quick run-down of the going-ons in apt. 14 since.....I can't remember when.
I sporadically took pictures throughout the week(s) bear with me.

Thanksgiving weekend was long and potentially productive. Ahem...well actually I suppose I didn't do to badly.
on Saturday the weather was a little rainy. I went to a wonderful little brunch organized by Shu-wai at the 'Cafe Della Posta' up on Du Parc street. Here are some photos I took with my cell phone:
Shu-Wai is on the left, and Wei-Ju is on the right, wooo Wei-ju finally has a cell phone! now we can find her without having to stalk her from outside the lobby of her apartment!


Wei-Ju, Sophie and I. Saki and Sophie.

Memorable conversation of the morning courtesy of Shu-Wai:

Saki was talking about how she got into a club for free. Seeing that Saki had a stamp on her hand, Shuwai asked:

"So, you didn't pay but they still have to chop you?"

". . . uh. . . . "

". . . . . . yea. . . you know, chop?" *makes a hand-stamp motion*

hahha good times.
here is the bread pudding that comes with every meal.
Here are the crepes that I ate. Simply scrumptious. Well worth the $ and the ambiance. On our way back to Shu-wai's house we visited a bagel shop well known for it's delicious traditionally made bagels. I managed to snap a blurry photo as I was being swept out the door by my friends
"you guys! you look like tourists!" Afterwards we chilled at Shu-Wai's place, and met one of her roommates (I'm sorry! I can't remember your name!!! you're really nice though!). Her apartment is very nice with one side that has a brick wall interior, very loft-style, very Montreal.

By this time, I was late for a photo-shoot appointment. But seeing as the weather was less than welcoming I ended up receiving a major and much-needed Calculus review courtesy of Peter. Thank you! (but I don't have a photo, much to his chagrin)

so here is a makeshift picture:

Also, on Sunday, Andy came to visit us! He loved the cats.
Andy also loved the food.Speaking of food. Here is a brief portfolio of our combined cooking skills. Delectable no? hahha parents I hope you are proud :D

On the Sunday we went to a restaurant called Firegrill.
It was quite filling. The steak and ribs were excellent. Iris and I had salmon... it was a little dry. But no worries! there was MOUSSE! upon which I think I may have gorged just a little.


besides that, once the long weekend was over, it was back to STUDYING. and more studying and attempts to study. This week I received a letter from my dear dear friend Robin. Thank you!!! I miss yoooooou! I hope you are doing well at UNBC. I'm not sure if she even knows about this blog...hmmm... anyways.
anyways here is a random photo of Kyan posing with a stuffed gorilla.
This is the day that we went to the career fair. I got to talk to a lot of employers. interesting, intimidating, educational.

this weekend was Michelle Kwok's Birthday as well as Kang-hyuk's birthday (Keumyeo's boyfriend) it was interesting. Kang-hyuk got cake in his face. and Michelle brought us to a very nice Tapas bar, we didn't have any alcohol but the tapas were actually quite impressive! I may have pictures later.
I have midterms every friday for the next three consecutive weeks so I probably won't be posting at all. except for today. Charlie is climbing all over my foot again. Perhaps Iris will post?
anyways gotta run!

cheers
Grae V

October! and thanksgiving...yes very original

"Can you see her dressed in gold? ..."

So it's the fourth of October. We've each had a midterm apiece and the loooong weekend is fast approaching. In fact, it feels as if the weekend is here already! But at any rate I have no idea what I'm doing posting about nothing this late on a Thursday night. or rather...this early on a Friday morning.

How 'bout a little update about my day?
I'm happy because I just bought soft red boxing gloves ^w^ rejoice!
What for? For this: http://www.savatekickboxing.ca/
Alas and alack, my reaction time needs a bit of elbow grease, but no worries, I'm allowed to be slow, I'm a beginner! And that will be my defense until I become a supa-kick-boxer!..........shall I tone down the geekiness knob? I think so.

a little bit about thanksgiving?
I'm not so sure... no turkey for us this year. But we will be trying out the recently opened restaurant 'FIREGRILL' right here on Stanley. Isn't that exciting!? It looks very expensive. Will post a review here later, that should be worth talking about.

and to spice this up a little, feast your eyes on these cute little o-bento (お弁当 a meal usually packed in a lacquered box or simply, a 'lunch box'. These are typically made for children and very often aesthetically appealing to entice them to eat eat eat and grow grow grow.）

the middle picture was yesterday's lunch (October 4th)

Mmmm mmm, the wholesome goodness of motherly love! The creator of these delicious little pictorials makes a new and tasty o-bento every day for her children. Makes me hungry! Specifically for sticky rice though....mmmm...sticky rice....

anyways, check it out!

http://www.e-obento.com/mainichi-Frame-set.htm

yes.
so ta-ta
my hair is dry now
I'm going to bed!
I can't remember who drew this.....but I like it....if you find out, give him/her credit.

GV

touching YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUU

"I believe in a thing called loooooove Ohoh waaaoh..."

Here I will document the going ons of Apartment 14 and hopefully increase my WPM to 7o.

It's been 1 month since Iris and I arrived here in Montreal early early in the morning.
I have permission to post Iris' photo here:
I took this from her Facebook. I had a feeling we would get along.

I have to pay the rent tomorrow. We have blinds in every room except for our bedrooms.
A far cry from the meagre little rooms of Upper Rez. We now live in a spacious, sunny 4 1/2 (translates into a 2 bedroom for people outside of Quebec)

This is Iris. Is she happy because she gets to eat? or is it because of the COUCH? well...actually we named the couch "Bugly" for "butt-ugly" so the root of her delight probably isn't the couch.

oh yes...and that table's name is Bobo. It's very sturdy.

Here you can see: My single room in rez vs. My bedroom now. NICE eh?



So far the weather here in Montreal has been mercifully warm, humid and even hot at times. I have thus far, learned to make soya chicken, fry veggies and buy bao zi from China town.

Breakfast on Saturday was this amalgamation of healthy anti-oxidant filled veggies and flavoury goodness......... mmmm bacon.

So far, we've studied hard and sometimes (most of the time) hardly studied, made friends, ate pizza and washed our feet together:
makes for some good times.
:D

Next week we have the much anticipated (read as dreaded) MIDTERMS
will this Blogger be lucky enough to survive them ALIVE?
I don't know.

I hope you enjoyed my midnight procrastination post.
until next time
GV