Ok, so I'm bad at blogging...

Sorry for not having written- I'm not really sure how well this experiment is going to work. Actually I'm not really sorry; this blog is on my terms, so expect irregular updates.

 (-:

Here's a brief update:

I got a Canadian number through Fido! I'm happy except now I can't really call my family- but it's fine, I have skype. 

A friend of mine from my neighborhood at home who goes to Dartmouth is coming to visit on Friday! I still have to figure out exactly what the agenda will be for her stay here, especially since it's getting to be a bit too cold for walking around and enjoying oneself to happen simultaneously. We'll see. 

I went to church last Sunday! I enjoyed it too. I've never really enjoyed church as far as I can remember. I've enjoyed certain aspects- singing, the community, the benefit of listening to people whose general messages I selectively agree with. I think I've reconciled myself to this: I do not plan on ever being confirmed but as long as I'm not confirmed I don't mind going to church. This speaks to something our priest mentioned in his sermon: when you repeat after the priest you are essentially surrendering yourself to some piece of the oldest successful international corporation on Earth. As he said, how do you really know that you're not compromising yourself, that you are actually acquiescing to the "right" thing? Obviously I disagree with his conclusion because I'm still technically a heathen. So... I guess that by remaining unconfirmed I am going to church on my terms. This is perfectly agreeable to me. I do not believe the mythology in the bible (though I don't discount it for its historical merit and it's sometimes relevant applications to today) but I do enjoy some things about church. I enjoy saying "peace be with you" to the people around me, I enjoy hearing some of the things the priest says, I enjoy finding out about community events (next Sunday we have a get together with the Lutherans from the church at Prince Arthur and Jeanne Mance.) So anyway. That's where I am with the Catholic Church. And I'm not sure whether I'm going to start going regularly.

Onto more important things...

As of now I have decided to visit NYSID in February with my dad, apply for the fall without a portfolio and defer for a year if I'm accepted. I realized that every time I go to my poli 212 class (Government and Politics in the Developed World -after WWII) I get a particularly strong desire to transfer. It's sometimes surprising how difficult it is to see a pattern like this in one's own life- but now that I've thought about it, I might really like McGill more if I just were taking classes that interest me. SO: to the end of having a more fulfilling academic experience here I am signed up for three linguistics classes next term. I have to get permission to take one of them but I'm going to talk to the prof and I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to. Additionally I'm taking a biology class -and I know that I have at least a couple of friends in it, specifically the guy I'm hoping to room with next year and his girlfriend. I still have to take German, but I will have a different prof, so hopefully that class will start to feel useful. I still occasionally have a really strong desire to leave after this year in pursuit of a design curriculum, but I ultimately recognize that having a friend one wants to live with, not just perfunctorily but for the fun of it, is probably a pretty rare thing. So New York has to wait another year for me while I make the most of my friendships here. I'm feeling good about this decision for now. Sorry New York.

There are so many movies I want to see! 

In some respects I feel a bit removed from pop culture; during my two years at boarding school I basically stopped watching TV, listening to the radio, seeing magazines in grocery-store check out aisles and (deep breath) I read much less of the newspaper and the news online (all of which is more or less remedied now.) Understand that I still know about current events and American cultural phenomena more than say someone from Mars, but one negative result of living in a bubble is that I don't see/haven't seen very many recent movies. There's plenty of garbage out there, but there are also movies which I deem worthy of an hour or so of my time. It doesn't help that my oldest sister is total movie buff and that all my friends seem to have memorized every line of every film released during their lifetimes.

Ok- I don't mean to sound too dramatic here- it's not as though I'm really insecure about my mental movie cache (or lack thereof.) But what I really want to say is that I have enjoyed watching some movies recently! My friends come from such diverse backgrounds that there isn't the kind of homogenous movie culture I'm used to, which is refreshing. Also, I have found that my taste in movies matches up more with my current group of friends than it has with former friend-groups, and more specifically that my current friends seem more interested in movies of some intellectual value rather than stupid movies catering to a sadly immature crowd. 

SO: In September I saw "Wall-E" and "Stardust." I thought the former was overrated, but I LOVED "Stardust." It might actually be my new favorite movie. We'll see;  I love "Ever After" (which I watched recently as well) but I've seen it so many times that I need to give it a break for awhile. And I've only seen "Stardust" once so I don't know if it will stand the test of multiple viewings- but I have a notion that it will. (-:

 I saw "A Beautiful Mind" for the first time and loved it. I watched it soon after having a lecture about schizophrenia in my Mental Illness and the Brain class; making the plot even more exciting because of its relevance to my homework. Seeing it heightened my appreciation for a generous statement my prof shared with the class on one of the first days of school. She essentially said that people who have mental illnesses should be treated only marginally differently than say people with heart conditions or stomach ulcers. The point being that they are still people and there is no need to avoid someone who is not dangerous (and I fully recognize that some mentally ill people are dangerous.) "A Beautiful Mind" supports my prof's idea since the main character functions reasonably well in society and even achieves great success. Of course the fact that it's a true story makes it a million times better too. And I cried at the end- happy tears.

I also recently saw "Les Choristes"- which I have seen before, but this time there were no English subtitles! I watched it with a friend from France and a friend from Lebanon, both of whom speak fluent French. Since I had seen it before it was not hard to follow the story and I enjoyed what French I understood. Plus my French friend knew all the songs and it was fun hearing her sing along! We are planning to watch "French Kiss" sometime soon since she has never seen it and I think it's très amusant.

I like helping some of my foreign friends with their English. Most of them speak better than some native speakers I know (I'm always so impressed by the ease with which many people for whom English is a second language speak; using colloquialisms etc.) but I like to talk about language anyway! In some context or other a friend of mine heard someone imitating a Brooklyn accent and expressed to me that she didn't believe anyone really spoke that way. I assured her that America is host to more than one mildly amusing  accent and tried demonstrating a few. My success was limited. However- undeterred- I suggested we watch "My Cousin Vinny," as a combination linguistic/comedic experience. I believe we shall watch it this weekend. I can't wait to tell my friends that it's my Grandma's favorite movie (as far as I know.)

Also on the list for this weekend is "Bedknobs and Broomsticks!" (inspired by a friend who shares my adoration for that childhood favorite) and sometime in the future "Amélie" which (true confessions) I have begun twice and never finished. I liked what I saw, but circumstances forced a premature ending both times. Some movies I haven't seen that are on my to-watch-soon list are: "Philadelphia," "The Notebook," "Jesus Club," "What the Bleep  Do We Know?" and "Tell No One," which is French. Of course I'm always open to suggestions!

Okay- if I'm going to watch all these movies I really must get back to work!

#3

I'll try to be less long-winded in the future. Stay tuned for pictures! For now though... I'm off to do some homework.

NYSID

I love Montreal and McGill, however, I am planning to transfer next year to go to design school for a degree in interior design. As of right now, my heart is set on NYSID -The New York School of Interior Design. "Interior Design" strictly speaking is really more like interior architecture, and while the architectural aspect of the career is necessary to pass the NCIDQ (National  Council for Interior Design Qualification (test)) my interests lie more in what is technically interior "decorating." For whatever reason I find that the term "interior decorator" inspires less confidence than "interior designer," and apparently I am not alone in thinking so- so I shall use the latter nomenclature. NYSID is the only school I have found which really caters to my interests; textiles, furniture, lighting, color, space and object placement and history of interior design. Plus it's in NYC baby!

So, in pursuit of my dreams I spontaneously decided to take a trip to New York two weekends ago! On Tuesday of the previous week I was feeling a bit low- most unusual since my quality of life here is quite high. "What am I doing in my life?!?!" I asked myself. I called Sister 2 and left a desperate message, the subject of which was the irrelevance of my current studies to my future life. Something, I determined, had to be done.

I have met some other Choaties here and one, an '06 grad, had invited me to drive down with her for Deerfield Day! Well, on Thursday morning I checked my facebook to discover that she had messaged me with an invitation to go to Wallingford that weekend: "hey! just wanted to let you know that i'm driving to CT this saturday.... in case you want to go visit [Choate]?" she wrote. I checked the texts on my phone because I was fairly certain that this was the very same weekend that a day-student friend of mine studying at Hopkins was going to be home. It was! The proverbial light bulb was beginning to glow... Canadian Thanksgiving was Sunday, so I had Monday off from school... Perhaps I could ride down on Saturday, see Choate people and my friend.... and then visit Parson's -The New School for Design(!) in New York and stay with friends right outside the city if need-be before heading back up to Montreal. I checked amtrak.com and found a return train (my Choate '06 friend was not driving back.) Greyhound.com provided the security of an alternative route home so... "Mom, Dad, may I go to New York for the weekend?" The answer was an affirmative one.

8:00 a.m. Saturday morning I took a seat outside my dorm with my bag on my lap. Choate '06 picked me and a classmate of mine up, we got lost for about 1 1/2 hours trying to get to Vermont, were helped by a number of Quebecers, got coffee, got a speeding ticket, got a little love pat on our front fender from another car, and then sat in line for customs because of our delay in getting on the road. It was an eventful morning. In the afternoon I bought some good bread at the Putney Co-op in Vermont to bring to Mr. Yanelli and, sandwich in hand and gas tank full, I resumed my place in the passenger's seat. I should mention that every second on the road offered a new, postcard-perfect view of Autumn in New England. It was gorgeous and the three of us kept exclaiming about it. At 5:00 p.m. we arrived at 333 Christian Street and I from then on I wouldn't be alone for several more hours. Teachers, last year's freshmen, sophomores and juniors, dogs, faculty children and even this year's freshmen whom I hadn't previously known all kept me busy :-).  I had dinner at Archie Moore's on Main Street with a former freshmen and the Kaprophones leader (my a cappella group!). I spent the night with some friends, staying up until 3:00 a.m. ish, woke up and returned to Choate for more of the same, plus quality time with my friend who was home from Hopkins. I spent that night with Mr. Yanelli, who drove me to the train station for a 7:00 a.m. train to Pelham, NY where another Choate friend on fall break picked me up. I washed up, took a big breath and found myself on another train heading to Grand Central. (By the way I sat down across the aisle from a guy who lives in my dorm at McGill. Small world, eh!) I arrived at 42nd Street around noon, got a tourist's map of the city and started walking towards Parson's; the energy that comes with a life-pivoting experience inspiring every step.

The famed Parson's of, most notably, Project Runway, unfortunately did not live up to my expectations. Primarily aimed at students of fashion, housed in a few ugly buildings and lacking the focus on interior decorating I sought, it just wasn't going to be right for me. I flipped through some of the literature they offered and then continued walking around the city, a little more slowly than before. On the train ride back to Pelham I wondered if I had better just stay at McGill for the requisite four years of undergraduate work that everyone I know does. I was mildly disappointed- but don't get me wrong, I still had high spirits and was grateful form my visit to Greenwich Village; had I not gone I would have applied and possibly gone to Parson's, only to discover later that it is unsuitable for me. 

My humor was soon fully restored: my friends in Pelham are a lively bunch. We enjoyed a delicious and convivial dinner and afterwards watched "The Sting" on tv. I went to bed late that night. I woke up at 5:30, grabbed a train to Grand Central, took a cab to the bus stop (the train was booked. Darn)  where I bought three cheap scarves from a street vendor (Winter in Montreal is fast approaching) and then caught my bus to Montreal. Given that I hadn't slept much the previous three nights I welcomed the ordinarily ungodly 12 hour trip. I pretty much slept the whole way, except for the Albany bus stop (a little sketchy, but according to one sign it had "Restaurant Quality Soup!") At the border I stretched, yawned and opened my eyes again, and then remained awake to watch as we pulled into Montreal.

Interestingly enough, I actually felt a bit homesick for Montreal. I have really great friends here and I like the city itself, though I only know a bit of it. I was genuinely thrilled to get off at the bus stop and set off on foot for my dorm. It was very gratifying to start running into some people I knew as I approached New Rez and when I got to my floor several people I ran into asked about my weekend. I easily fell back into my routine of listening to funny stories, eating in the caf and "studying" after dinner (don't worry- the academic scene is under control, but my friends and I often sit together with our books over a long period of time, 80% of which is spent talking and 20% of which is spent actually working.) It was nice to be home.

In case you're still reading, I'll write this conclusory paragraph. Once I got caught up a bit with my studies (I had to sit for a Linguistics midterm two days after returning) I started searching for design schools in earnest. I narrowed my search to those schools accredited by NCIDQ so as to expedite the process of becoming licensed as a designer. I further narrowed my search to cities I might want to live in (I am fairly confident that city living is for me while I am young,) and voilà- I hit upon The New York School of Interior Design. It has everything I want, it will offer housing starting next year, I don't need a portfolio to apply; the list of good things goes on. Some of the classes assign homework to be done in the awesome museums around New York; ie; the Met and the Frick. There are great contacts in the city and thus good job placement. AND: 30 credits of their four year program are general liberal arts... so hopefully I'll be able to finish in just three additional years if my credits transfer. All this to say that as of right now I plan to apply to NYSID, and though I'm keeping an open mind about applying elsewhere, I really really hope that this dream comes to fruition. I'm confident that it will.

This is for you "Pass the Peace Please"

The first few words of this post must inevitably be awkward; I feel that it is somewhat presumptuous to be writing about myself; even though I consider my life an interesting subject, I can be almost certain that not everyone agrees with me. However I have resolved to at least attempt to maintain this blog knowing that a) those who are not interested may choose to ignore me, b) those who are interested may follow my posts and c) I find much satisfaction in following my sister's blog and consider her regular posts acts of kindness for us her followers; thus I can aspire to emulate her.

Where to start? I expect I shall start with the present and sporadically include stories from the recent past as my personal time allows. So forgive the non-chronological nature of my blog; it suits my style of storytelling, which tends to be relatively disorganized with regard to chronology- at least when I am excited and all the words just stumble, tumble fly out. This is entirely opposite from my father's succinct, and consequently witty manner- so I hope you can handle this Dad.

Wish me luck!