Happy Natal Day!

Hello everyone. I'm sorry but its one of those times when I'm just having to much fun to take the time to write about it on my blog. I've finished one class, and the next one hasn't really got going yet; and it's a long weekend. So happy Natal Day to you all (what is that, anyway?) and I'll post pictures on Tuesday. (P.S. Kathy, I know you need to know how to get to the airport, I'll call you -it's easier than emailing)

Dum-de-do

Hello - nothing new. I'm finished organizing the powerpoint for our group presentation for the last day of Human Rights class tommorrow. I think it's quite a good powerpoint, although I still vividly remember being docked points in my freshman public speaking class for having too much going on visually in my "Fairtrade Coffee" powerpoint. But really, you can't have too many pictures of African genocide or United Nations peacekeepers can you? (Our presentation is entitled: "Sovereignty versus the responsibility to protect).

I started my next summer class last night, but for a few reasons I am throughly unimpressed and am partially considering dropping it (depending on the financial benefits!) We'll see.

It's genetics

Alright, here's the thing. I finished that take-home essay, but am currently focused entirely on getting ready for a group presentation on Friday. I voluteered to coordinate the powerpoint. Silly me. Anyway, so I'm way behind in emails and intelligent blog posts, but it'll just have to wait.

So, in the mean time, two very interesting tidbits of information for you:

1. The cleanest stall in any washroom is the one closest to the door. It's been scientifically proven that if there is a row of three toliets, most people coming in the door will go to the middle. It's true, Ive been testing it out.

2. You know how Kathy, Dad, and I all sneeze when we walk out of a building into the sun. That's called the Photic Sneeze Reflex (PSR), and it affects 10% of the population, to varying degrees. (We have the classic case.) "One theory holds that a person's wires get crossed, and sometimes impulses on the optic nerves triggerd by the light source hop to the cranial nerves that control sneezing." (Real Simple Magazine) Oh, and it's in your genetics, so that's why Kathy, Dad and I have it, but Mom doesn't.

For the visual learners...

This is the Parrsboro wharf when the tide is in.



This is when the tide is out. Notice the difference.
(Thanks to Aunt Dorie for the "in" shot!)

My room

So cute, eh? I've always been a fan of dorm rooms, so I'm quite comfortable. Compared to my last dorm room in Meadows at Huntington, this is a jail cell! Which got me to thinking, out of everyone I know, I think I would be the most contented to live in jail. Weird thought, huh?

So the only thing you don't see is a small wardrobe and sink in the right hand corner. And that clothes rack is really three times what is shown, mammoth is not an exagerration! It fit all of my clothes from two load of laundry. Lovely. Finally, good news- paper's done, I'm quite happy with it. However, I have the same kind of nervous feeling I had when I turned in my first paper freshman year; I did my best but I have no idea how it will stack up and what grade I'll get. Here's hoping the grading isn't too different from Huntington.

Halifax houses

By the university, all the houses seem to look like this. Old, but well kept up, with the loveliest selection of paint jobs. For those of you who have seen my bookcase, all my houses look a lot like all of the ones here.

A little too bright for my taste

This house is right across the street from my new favorite coffeeshop. I give them bonus points for being distintive, it certainly stands out from all the blue, green, and burgandy houses.

Pretty Bank

This is a Bank of Nova Scotia, in an old round brick building with a cupola on top. Pretty, eh?

Hard Work

No pictures today, I've been very good at working steadily on my papers. Now I'm at the library to print off all ten pages. You might say, Good Job Carole!, but no, the paper is only supposed to be 5 - 7 pages, so I still have a lot of cutting and proofreading to do. I'm on schedule though. The whole intensive course thing isn't that bad, even if I had this take-home for two weeks, I would have probably still done it the weekend before, right? (=

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

This is my favorite picture I took today. I have no idea what kind of flower it is, and whether its supposed to look like that, or if it's dead. I don't care - it's beautiful!

A Morning Stroll

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed. ~Walt Whitman

So, technically I probably should have spent the entire day strapped down to my desk working on the take home essay that's due Monday. But I'm glad I didn't! I woke up, took my backpack, and headed down to Keith's Brewery for the Saturday morning Farmer's Market. To get there, I walked through a huge old graveyard, and then the Halifax Public Gardens. That's a rather mundane name for such a place of beauty - the guide book says that it's the best example of a Victorian garden in Canada. I wandered slowly around, trying not to disturb the sleeping ducks. And I couldn't help but take a bunch of pictures; it was morning, but overcast and rainy, so the light was nice. I did eventually get to the Market, which was huge and overwhelming, so I forgot to take a picture. I had a relaxing lunch and a quick stop at Roots which secured me a great pair of jeans and khakis for deep discount. Lovely Saturday. Can I just say again how much I like it here! Sorry, Kathy, but last night I got to see "What Not to Wear" and tonight is "Monarch of the Glen." (=

Bread feeds the body, indeed, but flowers feed also the soul. ~The Koran

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into. ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!

I will touch a hundred flowers

And not pick one.

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Afternoon on a Hill"

Sweet

So, I've been getting emails from Kathy, and I think she's reached the end of her cultural sensitivity. Something about the six month point, but she's started to be tempted to hit Taiwanese women over the head with her umbrella (only if provoked). I'm just glad I'm here, everyone is SO polite. I'll be 10 steps behind someone, and they will wait, holding the door open for me to go through. And it's not just one well-mannered person, it's happened three times today!

And last night, I went for a swim after class, then to the library for 2 hours of research before it closed at 9. Then I walked to the Oxford Theatre, which is a movie theatre that was built in 1937. I went to see the last night of Ladies in Lavender, which was recommended by multiple family members. It was a lovely film, on it's own merit, but made even better by the fancy old theatre, and the fact that Freddie Jones was in it. Freddie Jones lived in Charlbury, the villiage we lived in near Oxford. We would pass his old house every day we walked in to classes. And for the Valentine's Day party, he came in his cordorys and turtleneck to read poems to us. His performance was incredible, I remember his deep rolling voice vividly. So I so enjoyed seeing him play the crazy old fisherman in the movie.

PIckle Barrell

This was only 10 days ago, although it seems like so much longer. I was only in Toronto for about a day and a half, but I got the two most important things done - meeting up with Michelle (you saw the picture with the two of us and Chairman the cat), and meeting up with Heidi. Heidi was my Oxford roommate, fellow member of the made-up Beta Phi Gamma sorority, and travelling companion to Venice. We had a wonderful time in Spring of 2004, and I was so excited that she could drive up to Toronto so we could visit. We caught up over breakfast at the Pickle Barrell, and then went on an H&M shopping spree (Heidi loves to shop too). We talked all about her upcoming wedding, (Congrats!) and made elaborate schemes to travel Asia together (it could happen!)

Reading in the Dining Room

Mom wanted Grammie to be able to read my novel, so I brought my one and only printed copy back from Taiwan. It needed to escape the humidity anyway, or the paper cover wouldn't have made it. So, Grammie sat down and started reading. She didn't tell me what she thought of it, but she read the whole thing in two days, I think!

Different Shades!

This picture makes me smile. It's my mom and aunt heading out of Grammie's driveway to walk down the street to the Mapleton United Church. Don't they look like sisters? That will be Kathy and I some day. We were all headed out to the Strawberry Supper.

Party in the Basement

I'm trying not to overlap too much with the photos that are on the Gilroy family site, but I just think this one tells a good story. This is the basement of the church, were the church members hold their famous Strawberry Supper. We were not disappointed. The food was all homemade (including the bread, which I ate at least 4 pieces of!) The dinner choices were baked beans or chop suey (I still don't understand where that name came from), and of course it was finished off with fresh strawberrys on a homemade biscuit with real whipped cream. Yum! Is your mouth watering?