Category: crazy stuff

all the crazy things i do

flight to australia – we come to the land down under (part 1)

so, first of all, i have arrived to australia, safely, soundly, with some issues along the way, but nothing major.

it is amazing how little i have done in terms of physical movement in the past 36 hours, and yet how many things i want to write about and how exhausted i am!

so, in chronological order.

departure from toronto

departing toronto was early, cold, and fast. at the airport gate we had to go straight through to security & customs right after checking in, which imho was total b/s, as this essentially limited goodbye to a few hugs (and kisses) and a wave as you walked in. short goodbyes are good, but come on – checking in early and having breakfast/coffee at the airport was such a nice plan. oleg checked in uneventfully, while i had to repack my extra huge 72 pounds suitcase to be 70 pounds – thankfully, my bags are packed loosely, so i just moved my climbing shoes (2.4lbs) to the duffel bag, and we were off to see the wizard of US customs.

US customs were easy and fast – where are you going? – sydney – blah, you’re boring. security asked us both to take out cameras and swabbed them for explosives.

we came about 40-50 minutes early for the flight, so oleg chilled at the waiting rows (he said he enjoys it – i was too overwhelmed with thoughts to sit still), while i went and bought myself some spoilage – i.e. 2 journals, time and wired. after a quick 12 minute phonecall to tim to see how he’s doing, some snapshots of our plane, i kinda shut down at the waiting rows until we started boarding at sunrise.

flight to chicago i cannot remember almost at all. it was about 1.5 hours long.

chicago airport

upon arrival to chicago, much waiting and walking was done. we changed terminals with their nifty monorail, then had to stand in a line up for JAL counter to get boarding passes (even though we theoretically shouldn’t have needed to do so as we had boarding passes from the woman in toronto. they are all so confused), then insane US security check – shoes off, bags open, etc etc, no camera swab this time, then heading over to the gate where we saw our huge insane Japan Airlines 747 plane. after much much wait, we at row 65 being 2 rows away from last one were boarded and ready to go for the 13 hour flight to tokyo.

flight to tokyo

this by far was the most physically and emotionally trying leg of the trip. first of all, there are only so many things you can do. the economy class in JAL is awesome cause you get your own tv screen and controller, but all the movies you can watch only so many times over. i saw mr and mrs smith another 2 times i think. and rewatched magadascar’s good parts. and saw some other movies. and read my journals, twice. killed the battery on my laptop (if they only gave me an outlet i’d be in heaven). and played out all their cheesy games (tetris, etc). and took photos of the things we were flying over (see alaska photos here). and missed tim. over and over again. and after i did all that there were still 5 hours to spend in the air.
i was really good and didn’t pass out almost at all – maybe a few times, like 3, when my brain would just shut down in the middle of a thought. but all in all, i kept myself up, so that i could fall asleep on sydney’s night time and wake up on sydney morning.
if there was one thing i would do differently, is that i’d buy a sudoku book (my palm is for some reason totally dead – unfortunately i couldn’t get it to work before i left – that’d be another thing i’d change i support), and i’d bring a nice thick book i want to read. there’s enough time for eeeeeeeeverything you want to do, and then some.

arrival to tokyo was welcome and extremely anxiously anticipated.

tokyo

i’ll switch to point form notes because that’s what i feel like doing here.

  • JAL switch from one of their flights to another involves staying in a 100 person line up that goes to security (when all you’ve done was just get off the airplane that came from a 13 hour flight) and then standing in another 130 person line to a mosh-pit infront of the counter and disappears in 50 minutes. if we knew that we’d go and relax first instead of wasting time and nerves standing in the stupid line.
  • a distinctly japanese trend – a lot of couples wear tshirts/sweatshirts with the exact same design on them. imagine a scarfy like theme (paint splatters, weird funky fonts, cool clipart), but on both couples. identical. we’ve counted at least 10, probably more.
  • tokyo had showers (see photos) that positively are now stand as one of most remarkable events of my life. after being treated like total cattle in the flight (in terms of food and such, you know, group herding), in the line ups, and in the transfers, for mere $5 you get a clean personal 2 room shower with amazingly complex toilet, 3 fresh towels, a bunch of supplies, and awesome water in terms of temperature and pressure. i came out feeling like i’m a human being again.
  • i have some japanese coins with holes in them now.
  • i can also tell the difference between mandarin and japanese by ear. i know its not remarkable, but its especially cool when you can tell different words in mandarin.
  • mandarin, japanese and korean writings are remarkably different and can be recognized in an instant
  • spending 3 hours walking around the airport and getting free internet – not wireless, which is paid, but internet from yahoo’s kiosk desktop – while japanese pleasant voices announce stuff on the background all the time, is extremely nice.
  • they totally rip you off for coffee and beer. coffee was $3US, beer was $6US for small.
  • upon boarding the tokyo plane to sydney i fell asleep before we even pulled away from the gate, and slept soundly for 6 hours until breakfast was served.

    • i shall depart to sleep right now (it is 9:30pm sydney time, 5:30am toronto, and i have successfully stayed up until now). the story, picking up in sydney and commenting on my today, shall continue tomorrow morning, with photographs of me at the ocean, and more!

    how i was reduced to a crying happy mess, or the story of how my friends gathered up and shocked me to my core, also known as the day after after my birthday

    birthday present (reverse) birthday present me and my cameras me and my cameras

    p.s. happy new year everyone! i have no doubts that it will be exciting, interesting, and if yours wont, just read my blog. :P i love you all!

    dundunDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!!!!!!!

    freedom (from exams)my exams are DONE.

    i am done my exams

    i am free, free FREE!!!!

    the blue skies of south carolina await me. and then – my birthday (i am beginning to feel more and more like a little kid awaiting presents), and then and then and then new years and then some work and then a haircut and then i’m flying to new zealand and i SWEAR each time i think that this is all true, real and i can finally enjoy it i almost begin to cry.

    and that’s after a *3 hour hot bath with a silly romance novel*.

    i’m gone to the cssu dinner @ mandarin. flight is at 6:25am. WEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

    3 days left

    this is making my brain hurt.

    someone else from my databases class agrees – he posted this sentence as a reply to a question:

    Remember, if there is an FD in F that has elements split across R1 and R2, you will have to add another relation R3 into the decomposition where R3 contains all items referenced by FDs that are in F but not found in F1 or F2.

    i understand what it is saying but i cannot understand how can i understand it.

    see?

    i’m gone. u of t has killed me!

    the quiet before the storm (of assignments)

    photo of garlic, rippedmy life is officially great.

    well, i guess i’ll have to work backwards again, to update you all eagerly awaiting audience on the past 4 days.

    however, it turns out i have another passion in life outside of photography, and fashion.

    it is cooking. yes, i know, you are all shocked. but the more time i’m spending at tim’s, the more i cook, and the more i cook, the better i feel because tim finishes all of it always and asks for seconds. its a good feeling. and i realized i really, really like tastes and food.

    so i added a new category. its called “what olya cooked today“. talk about self centered…

    so, to recap this past week.
    sunday i headed home, in jeans, black shoes, and spent a great day with parents. we ate a fantastic dinner together with tim, of my mom’s roasted duck. unfortunately it was not as juicy as usual, but it was still pretty darn tasty. i also went on a mini photshoot of last fall leaves with mom and shady. here are two pictures that i selected and edited since then: 1 2

    sundried tomatoes, ripped
    monday: headed out bright and “early” at 1 downtown, for tim to study, and for me to try studying. it was midly successful. it was another black simple shirt (long sleeve, slim horizontal neck cut), jeans, black shoes, stuff like that.

    tuesday: classes, classes, classes. jeans, jeans, jeans. honey garlic wings and fries for dinner, and a tiring 3 hour class. then i went home and finished watching sex and the city with mom, ate fantastic mushroom soup with blintzes with meat, curtesy mom. was awesome. fell asleep late (3-4am) after watching “a perfect murder, and loving the haircut of the girl.

    wednesday: woke up at 9am, and headed out by taxi to my hairdresser. sorry, no photos of my hair, but its short, blond and tim called it “elegant”. wednesday evening was spent buying zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, and 3 pomegranets (for $5), the joy of life.

    zucchini 01here in lies my proudest moments of the week. first off, i made some fantastic zucchini (wow that’s tought to spell). heat up some (a lot) oil, add some (like 3 cloves) garlic chopped, and sun dried tomatoes (which i soaked in some wholesome olive oil for 24 hours ahead) chopped to larger pieces than garlic, and heat all of that up to just before garlic browns (at like almost medium heat). quickly peel the zucchini, and shop it into circles, and dip it into the oil, keeping it all at lower heat, for about 10-15 minutes, until the circles become white, and tender.

    it is absolutely delicious.

    oh yeah, and i was dressed super hot the whole day too! soft green skirt, and black top with two zippers, and new haircut, and black boots. i looked positively hot. :D

    but, it gets even better.

    mozzarella gthursday: very, very productive day. went to databases tutorial (not that helpful), met the prof, picked up midterm and assignments (i’m an idiot, but that’s okay, cause my amazing boyfriend doesn’t mind or see it :P ). even got the mark on my midterm raised… but not by enough. i’m 4 marks away from a pass. 4 marks out of 250… *sighs*
    anyway.
    after that, went to the bank and felt positively important as i got to go upstairs behind the locked door and through the hallway next to the open safe. like, lined up, and then the lady at the counter said that it’ll be 10 minutes before someone can talk to me, and when the time came the woman actually like walked around until she found me. so i got my accounts all set up and figured out. they were really impressed by my credit, i think. mwahahaha.
    afterwards, back to kensington market, and picked up a sturdy lock for my bike. w00t.
    and theeeen i bought more zucchini, dill, realized i have not a clue what basil looks like, and couldn’t get that, lemons (mm, pretty), green onions, and 100 grams of FANTASTIC mozarella. ooh so creamy, good tasty, awesome.

    and for my dinner i had more of those zucchinis, but the highlight of this evening was this fantastic connoction:

  • a bit of mozarella topped with
  • dill
  • a sundried tomato lightly warmed up
  • a tiny bit of garlic

    • its like the sandwich without any disgusting bread. bread would so ruin that.

    after all that joy i had a pomegranate and an episode of CSI (season 1, friends and lovers).

    and then there was class, and then there i am at home, and time had just FLOWN since i returned. i still didn’t cook anything, but those zucchinis are mighty tempting to be friend up with some flower into crunchy healthy snacks.

    next week will kill me with assignment and school work.
    same with the week after.
    if only i had work ethic, intead of clothes, food and fun ethic!

    ohmygosh, its saturday? why didn’t anyone tell me!

    so, its saturday… night of all things. (scroll until SKIP HERE if you want the juice)

    lets go retroactively from wednesday.

    i think i wore the green skirt and brown boots and something else fairly boring. i can’t even remember what i did that day!

    then, thursday, was more fun, at least memory wise. it was pub night with the cssu, and my parents went out to a dinner and a concert in the evening, leading to them picking me up from downtown.

    so, thursday i wore my gorgeous orange/brown homemade skirt from india (yess, mom saved me! i have no idea how she remade that skirt – the middle is indian skirt (orange patterns), bottom is a brown velvet trim, and the top is a long waist in the same velvet, brown. very very stylish. ankle length, and awesome deep brown lining too. and the glitzy shoes and … i think brown shirt? yeah, brown shirt, and the light jacket – it was a warm day.

    i believe wednesday we went to sleep fairly late, so i barely made it to the morning tutorial, where 15 minutes before the end the guy went “i’ll go get your midterms” and never returned. so i still haven’t seen the midterm i failed. yeaaah.

    afterwards i was supposed to meet christina, except i never got in touch with her, so at 4 i ended up going to kensington (yess for biking), getting some groceries, coming to tim’s, cooking chicken and rice (it was alright – mushrooms, pepper and chiken and busmati rice, but i gotta be BRAVER with spices and get some onion which would just raise that dish to a whole other level), and then heading to class…

    … which was cancelled. my favourite class! the psychology! damnint! buut its 6pm and its cssu pub night, so i went over to the cssu and headed out to einsteins around 7. ‘t was very nice! we drank, we laughed, we watched leafes lose (again, unsurprisingly), and then i got intouch with my parents and biked over to tim’s, where they picked me up.

    home – watched csi, fell asleep in front of the tv.

    friday.

    woke up lateish, did a bunch of stuff around the house – cleaned up the room all nice, did laundry (yesss, finally!), chatted with mom, returned dvds, replied to some email, did no homework… better than the usual anyway.

    in the evening, picked up a grand plate of sushi (50$ for 80 pieces. pretty sweet) and went over to hesi’s.

    what i wore on friday
    absolute hottness IMHO. black pleated skirt (very sexy, nice material, nice cut, and about knee length, but twirly), black tube top and over it bright pink very low cut top in similarly shimmery/silky material. i felt awesome. and hesi’s fantastic hairbrush fixed my terrible hair for the time being.

    we drank, we danced with tim to tango from mr and mrs smith and it was absolutely AWESOME!!. the whole evening was fantastic.

    until the best part ever. SKIP HERE IF YOU WANT THE JUICE

    tim and i came home around 12:30 am. my dad was still up. so he comes downstairs from the computer, and tim after chatting with him for a while convinces him to go shoot some of my parents tequilla.

    what happens next is that all 3 of us down 1 shot of tequilla, and then tim and my dad (yes. my father. the dad of tim’s girlfriend) proceed to down 2 more tequilla shots each, finishing half a bottle, then both have a shot of inferno vodka, and then both have 2 … yes, TWO, more shots of absolute.

    after the 2 shots i left to the washroom. i return. they both tell me they need 2 more minutes.

    i go away. i come back. they kick me out again. i go hang the dried laundry, make my bed, clean room some more… i come back. they ask for another 2 minutes. i leave again, check email, again, come back and its impossible to separate them. they bonded. on a higher, macho level. i’m pretty sure they were talking about women or something.

    at which point my mom comes down and helps me convince them to go to sleep… so they get up and tim falls down (!!) in front of both my parents (!!) on the floor :P my dad (!!!) helps him up and *carries* (well like tim leaned and dad hauled him over) to my room. my mom helps me prepare water for tomorrow’s morning, and jokes and worries with me about how much they drank and how will they be tomorrow. both of the males at this point are in my room slurring something to eachother. i come in, kick dad out. (which was difficult in itself, i had to use the “this is indecent, get out of my room!” line! hah.) at which point tim and i go outside, and tim falls down. again. outside.

    in parallel, as later told to me by my mom, dad upon entering the bed room says (IN ENGLISH) “good boy.” and *falls asleep*.

    tim passes out on the bed and i drag him under the sheets, and go do some stuff online before turning into bed too.

    next “morning”, they both got up at 3pm, unbelievably hung over.

    tim doesn’t remember anything after inferno.

    dad doesn’t remember anything after tequilla.

    but they both woke up in a great mood, and both are convinced they had a great night (and from what i witnessed, they had a fantastic night).

    saturday.
    after waking up and having breakfast (i cooked some good breakfast!), and lots of coffee, tim and i head downtown with some chairs for his party.

    yesss, we’re drinking.

    more.

    and playing poker, where i miserably lost, and that’s why i’m blogging while nicole, tim and meto are finishing their game, where the chip leader keeps moving from one of them to another, but no one is fully out. i suck at poker! and i hate losing! doesn’t spoil the general goodness of life, but i am a really sore loser. there’s a reason i don’t like competitive sports.

    like, rockclimbing aint competitive. your main competition is the pain in your fingers.

    oh yeah, what am i wearing?i’m wearing my favourite jeans (there’s only one pair i always wear – a little low in the back but longer shirts cover the low cut), black shoes from paris (like sport puma slippers but all black and really cute and sport) and a black top from paris (wow, that’s ironic – shoes i got and shirt mom got) which is sleeveless with a deep V cut, and gathered at the top with this diamod shaped embroidered thingie, and loose bottom. really cute, hot and comfortable. (the shirt. i don’t know about my look).

    and i just downed a jaggerblaster (jagger + redbull). hope this update was satisfactory!

    free fall

    so, i have done my first free fall. it was 5 seconds long, and i have done it perfectly. opened right as i should have, except i didn’t have time to regain balance so i got thrown around quite a bit.

    2 days later and i’m still limping cause all my muscles HURT. but, not only its a good kind of pain, the freefall was so. completely. WORTH IT. YES! I am the champion, and can keep my cool in any situation.

    last week of work. how exciting! this weekend is camping and next week tim comes back.

    the schedule still makes me unhappy. but then 4th year, what am i, afraid of some silly dostoyevskiy class? i just have a bad feeling about it.. and about the 10am classes too. buuuut hey, its study, and relaxation.

    running to meet christian now. what a crazy week!

    middle of august – end of summer comes hither

    Q: How many software engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?
    A: Just one. But the house falls down.

    so, we went out last night. i’m working on about 4.5 hours of sleep… but it was all completely worth it.

    i’m annyoed beyond belief with this blog. i want to make it a dual publishing thing, so that i can blog off-main page persona life updates, and on-main page photographs… but at the moment i can’t seem to be able to do even the simplest things.

    i guess its cause i’m a little spread out over many things lately. which is awesome. cause all the things are nice. people, adventure, climbing, photography, work, camping, drinking, sleeping.

    it is sucky that summer has to end, but it is great for the end of summer means beginning of school year and arrival of certain americans back into canada. on the grand scale of things, i’m entirely overjoyed summer will actually end one day. i just want to get more tanned before it does. :)