mexmas - finito

4:28 a.m. nikki sp
in the airport. waiting to board. supposed to leave in like 40 mins. what's the delay?
a 30 of kahlua is only $13.50 here. i bought one even though i really wanted bailey's original. they only had mint choc and caramel. both of which are delish in their own right but not when mixed with kahlua. so i gotta hit the lcbo when i get back home.
ok boarding now. well preboarding for special assistance and back of plane passengers. i should just pee now.


on plane with bout an hour to go till landing. hope pedro will be able to pick me up as my duty free booze is weighing me down a bit. sitting beside 2 teen boys. i wish i had let them take my seat while i took the spare with no one directly beside me, just like on the way there. it would have been the exact same seat. how to make the most of this day when i get home safely?
i should do laundry and clean up a bit. gotta call a few people - lynn, liz and adrienne.
and esther and dan too. wish i could access internet here and also wish i had my laptop. a week without macbook is a little rough, especially when i am too concerned with the musical. i should try the monologue.
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mexmas - isla des mujeres

4:19 a.m. nikki sp
the year is winding down and so is my vacation. i am at la isla des mujeres and enjoying the last moments of my day trip and time here. found a good piece of art in the market - 2 calendars which is appropriate to have at this point, despite it actually being able ot tell me days and stuff. the catamaran has been pretty enjoyable and it is always in --- ew fuzzy caterpillar landed on leg and stuck but swatted at it with book and crisis averted. was jsut mentioning how interesting it is to eavesdrop.
my first round of convos were from a young group of ladies and their brother. what an interesting dynamic. i feel like my brain is fried with my limited amount of adjectives i have at hand. anyway.
i still kind of wish i was here with cousins and/or friends. second group was twentysomething dudes. here for play. and were it not for this appendage called my mom, i'd be in that boat too. perhaps riding with them. who knows.
i had another make out dream. not last night but the night before. this was not gb or someone i even remotely knew. i believe this was a stranger with whom i enjoyed making out in random locations.
god something needs to happen and fast. it's been more than half a year just barelt. although i've enjoyed some pashes of late. anyway, should prob board now. hasta la vista.
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mexmas day 5

3:47 a.m. nikki sp
day 5 of the trip. time goes by vvery strangely on vacation. lotsa busy busy then lotsa nothing. it's kind of beautiful having spent all day tanning on the beach but have yet acquired appropriate tan. on the body area i have a web of clashing tanlines however that may determine what my nye dress will be.
so many days with mom has given further explanation as to why i am the way i am. if people thought i had poor table manners, they should share a meal with her. having sushi with her the other day has given me inspiration for my misocal. the only problem i'm encountering thus far with that feat is lack of danceable lyrics and storyline.
anyway. had a perfect day yesterday. the selvatica tour on the mayan riviera was awesome. nothing wrong. and it doesn't hurt that the guides were super cute. how i wish i was ziplining with them all them all the time.
and bikeriding and all those adventurous things. they make being active fun. and sexy.
speaking of, there are a couple of brothers (?) at my hotel hat are so fit. i almost wish i was here with bffs or at least my own bf. constant reminders why getting involved has its benefits. not to mention that it would decrease my illegible scrawls as these musings would more than likely be spoken to said bf.
i've had some weird dreams here too. firstly, a couple nights ago i dreamt that i kissed gb and he didn't seem to have any qualms around it. we were gonna catch up once i was done getting my stuff sorted (i was moving or something) but then i woke up. i also noted he was sweaty and freckly. he was extra gingery in my subconscious then i ever really consider. anyway, that's the second of intimate dreams i've had about geebs. the first having been a week or so ago when the ginge had admitted he'd love me but i couldn't reciprocate. i did appreciate the gesture still, but he didn't seem too thrilled. and perhaps felt a little hurt. i dunnno. subconscious gb is even harder to deciper than real life one.
anyway, my second nocturnal vision came to me last night and was almost too realistic to take for granted. a's friend bryan had told me he'd be interested in dating early on but things had gotten n the way (for example other lovers) but he would really like for us to try. being the commitmentphobe that i am, i couldn't give him a straight answer about going steady but i totally kissed him. twice. before consulting with the girls about the rightness of this coupling. they advised that it has to work because he is a good customer at the diner they work at. other friends sold bry's case to me, saying he was outgoing in unison while he sat there and blushed modestly. i'm sure i woke up at asome point and wasn't sure about the validity of my dream. but i resumed sleep and soon enough there was a group hang type thing and he took some time to talk to me about work and my day and he seemed genuinely interested in shit i had to say .i know i got flustered talking to him which i reckon he found endearing. then i was sure that my dream was true and had ached to ask him why things between him and his ex didnt work. never got around to discussing that as i woke up and faced the tough reality that all of it was just a dream. or dreams rather. have NO IDEA why bryan would be seeping into my subconscious. don't think i have given him a second thought since his bbq in the summertime. my radar doesnt tend to include people who are taken. perhaps this is the universe's way of letting us know he is back on the market.
god sometimes i wish i had my friends here to discuss these jungian issues. i broke today and logged onto facebook with my mom's berry. yesterday i had already checked my hotmail and read my facebook messages anyway. i am weak when it comes to staying disconnected. but 3ish days having cut the cord has been a fairly decent stretch by my standards. anyway, i heard back from liz when i left a message for before i left.. i may do sneaks nye with her. i will have to search around as soon as i get back before i commit. anyway too stressful to think about. so i will take a break.
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mexmas: cancun airport

3:23 a.m. nikki sp
i have spent the last 2 hours in the airport. i missed my on-flight meal so i am pretty hangry right now. couple that with the fact that i've had to endure explicit moans and lipsmacking sounds from the couple not 2 feet away at the terminal 2 starbucks. they were old too. i am very hangry.
and keep in mind i began this trek spending 40 mins waiting in -10 degree C temperatures after only 3ish hours of spotty napping.
feliz navidad.
got a call from my mom at the dallas forth worth airport. only 3 more hours of loitering till the actual vacation begins. soon i will make my move outside and feel less confined and congested. when i first got here and used the bathrooms it smelled like excuador. i felt a bit racist thinking that- latin american countries smelling the same toilet-wise. whatever.
they also employes the no-flushing of the toilet paper rule that i also ignored. by accident of course.
i'm really good at loitering. if i dont finish my book by the end of my eait here, i will be a little bit shocked. we have about 2 days of inadventure so i could and was hoping to log in some reading. if i prematurely finish my 2 books, however, that plan will be foiled. a delicate balance of rationing boredom reduction tools.
ok, on hunt for food now.


relocated to the berry hill baya grill. pretty dec place to people watch and secondhand smoke. i'm getting a little dizzy.
i'm taking the easy way out and getting the burger. it seems like the most bang for my buck. or peso.
i have realized how canadian i can be with my penchant for apologizing when it's the other person's fault for walking intome. it happens when you're sleep deprived, hungry and dirty. well the former 2 account for the clumsiness and the latter for thinking you suck and are accountable for everything.
ok my order is taken and i feel a lot better now.
man travelling has een such a breeze or i'm very lucky or i've just learned. customs was a no-brainer. getting through pearson security was not a big deal thought i had random cosmetics scattered throught luggage and not contained in a resealable plastic bag. these airport breezes are delightful. if it weren't for the hordes of americans, i'd feel like i was in mexico and not just cali, por ejemplo. although it is WAY hotter here than cali would be at this season.
i fear people mistake me for a yank. i also feel this restaurant is higher priced to accomodate the fat u.s. wallets that fly into here. i don't suppose my meal is a great precursor to sunbathing confidently, but i'm hangry and with my mother, ergo not looking to be hooking.
i see many couples here though and think it'd be nice to have someone to do it with in an exotic location for a week. i think i hear an aussie. looks like brody jenner.
ok i gotta manage to squeeze 2 more hours of loitering with food factored in. i think it can be done!


so i thought i could stretch out the last quarter or my burger to last 40 minutes. but guess what!?!
it rained.
and i was brilliant enough to take the table on the patio that wasn't covered. brilliant.
so i was able to enjoy almost 40 minutes of mexico sun before this little shower. i sure hope the rain didn't make itself into my drink and i get sick with some sort of hepatitis although i am vaccinated. i'm sure weirder things have happened.
good thing is i only have an hour and a half left. that seems like a far cry from 5 hours. if they gave medals for loitering, i'm sure i'd have a bunch. i reckon my meal will set me back maybe 20 if they do weird taxes or only 15 if they don't. i really like writing with this pen. i ate onions that weren't fully grilled and am starting to feel it. my body chemistry is so odd.
at least my feet are wet cuz i'm in flip flops and rain instead of non waterproof boots in snow.
ps i've relocated inside, i noticed there is a monitor in the resto that shows people arriving. i almost wish i had that channel. it's like an international version of the lobby camera. although i never lived in a building that had that.
a flight from cali came in judging by the dude in the usc shirt. not my mom's flight as her connection was in dallas ft. worth.
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almost caught up!

3:17 a.m. nikki sp
ok, my next entries are from my mexico xmas, transcribed from my red notebook.
i haven't read these since. i may add my input.
i was there with my mom for a week, and boy.. it was kinda hard not being around people my age. family oriented holidays make me antsy...
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it's about time

4:44 a.m. nikki sp
[written may 24, 2009, but placed after my cali 08 trip... as i had written this after i reflected on my cali 08 trip... try to follow]


this entry may be very confusing considering its placement after my cali 08 entry. but this references my cali trip in may 09. i still gotta get through my mexico xmas before i detail this pivotal cali visit. but i may as well get this out there.


having come fresh off my weekend getaway to cali, i am pretty anxious to live a better, brighter lifestyle along the pacific coast. i told myself - yeah, not a big deal. i'll just move there in october and coast.
but i have worked hard to save all my money, i don't necessarily wanna blow it just to be able to live the life of a burnout. i know my mom would help support me but i'd rather not take advantage of that unless i'm feeling like a total bum.

anyway, so here are some thoughts:

- go there as a visitor, live there for a bit and try to get work under the table
- eventually get an internship visa, try to blow my internship away and then hope to get hired
- go to school for graphic design/copy writing or hospitality and tourism managementy things and then see what i can do with that/get my masters in some sort of communications theory program
- move to australia and do my working holiday visa, get some work experience under my belt and enjoy the aussie summer during n.a. winter whilst i figure out my cali plans
- marry an american
- hope that my mom becomes a lawful permanent resident and can file a petition for me to come over
- do a 6 month internship in cebu, hopefully transfer to a u.s. office
- go on a bachelor-type show and win and get married
- see if josh can sponsor me as an employee...

ahh this is getting exhausting to think about right now

ok i just thought of something
- my friend asa worked there last summer for a couple of months. i will talk to her about how she was able to do that and perhaps follow her steps... i like that option.

also in terms of living situation, this is where i would be looking: silver lake, echo park, los feliz, glendale and in surrounding areas.
i would really need to live with at least 2 other roomies, ideally live in a huge house with 4. and i'd need to have some dude roomies to balance it out. and possibly introduce me to some suitors that can help me legally work in the states.

in the meanwhile, there are A LOT of things to figure out.
i HAVE TO learn how to drive. it is imperative to get that under my belt befoer i head to such a auto-centric city.
i would have to get my gre if i want to go to usc. so i would have to book a prep course as well as book and take the actual course.
i have to remember what it was like to live in sydney and scrape by. i will for sure need a good microwave and sandwich toaster.
i will also have to get a car. and see what i can do about a bike situation.
i will need to get an iphone. yep, it's a must. hopefully they will have a sexy new model by then.
also, i gotta cut back on my current expenses. not like i have much that i blow money on regularly. but i gotta be conscious about my habits. i am very fortunate that i dont have to worry about food for the next while cuz of craft and catering. but i am gonna have to remember that once i'm outta my job, it will be something that i need to budget in.


...so much of this will have to be taken care of by mommy at first. i am lucky. i hope i dont break too much bank.
i really gotta get serious about this by august. hopefully have a lot of this figured out in july. i really don't wanna rush it. i really don't wanna burn out. but i feel like that is where i need to be. if only i pursued acting seriously. i could get my agent to take care of my visa... sigh.


i need to talk to my mother about getting back onto her health care plan. scary. well i guess i would still count as an ontario resident until the us gov says otherwise. but when i leave my job, i lose my benefits.

what do i do with all of my furniture??? i would love to take it across the continent. at least my bed, my desk, my wardrobe, my tv/computer. the couch i can do without for the moment. but i love all that other shit. i need to investigate that.
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august 31st-september 1, 2008: la la laaa part

2:16 a.m. nikki sp
lemme try to get into the right mindframe for this. it is so tricky considering i had been to l.a. since...

let's see..

ok, so post the loft party with lotsa pot and weird videos, mikey had a chill sunday.
in attempts to nurse our hangover, we went to korea town and had some k-food. now having been in to korea, you'd think we'd be less ignorant about eating practices.
not so much.

they erve whole fish bone-in, head attached and everything. now this shouldn't be a surprise to me with my savage filipino roots and everything, but it is still very awkward to eat. mikey fared alright with this, but i struggled.

i also struggled at their feeble attempt to serve me 'rice soup'. ie taking the remnants of rice in our stone pot and pouring hot water in it and stirring it. i know asians are resourceful but please. when i order a burger, i don't mix around the lettuce that has spilt out with the rest of the drippy condiments and call it a salad. amirite?!

mikey took me to the americn apparel factory store and i was pretty stoked at all the sexy discounts and samples. it makes it very hard to shop at aa back at home cuz i'm pretty much paying double. it's also pretty cool just seeing the factory that all these clothes come from. i can imagine many parts of asia look like that. like, with the sweat shops and all. although this wasn't quite a sweatshop. despite all the mexicans that were chillin out. im sure they were legitmately employes and all.

also, i love fro yo and wish there was a greater abundance of froyo bars here. it makes total sense. it's healthy. and you get awesome flavours.

for example, at yogurtland you can choose however many flavours you want and whichever toppings you want and it's all $.30 an ounce! brilliant! i can deal with expensive sushi when yogurt comes so cheaply. yeah, i could live on fro yo for every meal of every day.

now later that eve mikey took me to this communist party that his school friends were holding sort of to celebrate labour day. i think they were mixing themes a little bit, but i love theme parties so i wasnt going to argue. after all, red colours a lot of my wardrobe.

now this party felt very american, ironically enough, considering it was supposed to be commie. i think there were a lot of crashers first of all. but it felt like an american party style house party where everyone was having their last big bang before heading back to school and whatever.


naturally, my contribution to this party was punch.

so we got some vodka in there to be thematic and commie.










and then we got the wine in there, for colouring and class







it would've been really irresponsible of us to create a bev without and nutritional value. so of course, we added some sunny d.









this was the result. it tasted as good as it looks. and like communism, it's great in theory. but when executed...


so yeah, this was a pretty good rager but i couldn't help feeling like i was cramping mikey's style. i tried making some of my own friends, and i think i was relatively successful with erin and carlos and robby, but i will always just be juan's (mikey's real name) cousin to them.

overall, good trip. i think it was the first time i tried being a local there. every other time i spent the majority of my days in orange county... and there is no question of living the local lifestyle there because it's suburbia and it's essentially like living in the burbs anywhere. but since i did get to see the lifestlye my cousin lives, it made me feel a little inadequate about my life in toronto. yeah i had it alright, my own apartment in the annex and a pretty good job. but like, it made me feel really average. and really set the ball rolling in terms of me considering a big move to la la land.
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august 27-30th, 2008: la la laaa part 1

9:56 a.m. nikki sp
ok ok. so this is me catching up about my trip to l.a. right before we started shooting the hollywood special episodes for degrassi.

i remember being at odds with this trip because i had just spent some time in ecuador and was really into the whole being a good person thing.
so when i caught up with keya and met her friend sneha, and did some shopping with them in beverly hills... it was tricky having to not blow all my money. and justify spending $50 on lunch at the ivy.

anyway. it started like usual - spending a day or 2 at huntington beach. because why not, it's a good beach. i think i just body boarded all day. blah blah blah. that's not what this blog is about. my daily routine...

let's remember the fun stuff...

so it began when my cousin mikey picked me up. we hung out at huntington for a bit before heading to l.a.

let me discuss my cousin for a little bit and provide somewhat of a background of our family...
a year before, pretty much to the day i discovered my aunt lily and mikey's father hated me. they thought so lowly of me and didn't believe i should hang out with my cousins because my terrible attitude would invariably influence them in the worse way possible.
my uncle was not keen on the fact that i left some booze for my cousin when i was there in 06... when mikey was still not able to drink. he thought i was the one who forced booze on him, when mikey had done far worse. even worse than i. thanks uncle, but your son only has himself to hold accountable for his sins. whatever. every family needs a scapegoat.
also, i discovered that my aunt hated me because i dated. yeah. that's it. she hated that i got involved with guys instead of focusing on my education. uh yeah, i graduated with honours, got 3/4s of my education covered by scholarships. but because i knew 'how to live with boys' (that's the way she chose to call me a slut), none of that mattered; i was a terrible person.
so yeah, i found this out when i got back from australia. august 07. i tried getting in touch with my cousin during that time too, but he never got back so i figured it was his father's influence. blah blah blah, esther and i became better friends after this, much to our relatives' chagrin. it really helped my realize how smart esther was, not even just loyal. i, like the rest of our family, underestimated how independent minded she is. i thought she could be easily swayed by them. but she and i were besties since birth pretty much, and i think she resented the fact that everyone thought she was spineless.

anyway, fastforward to this time, august 08. i brought this whole deal up with mikey and he had no idea. mikey was pretty much living his whole life, but it was great that he took the time to hang out with me.

so yeah, more about him... he studies at this small private architecture school, lives in his own loft in little tokyo. had to get a new car because he had totalled his other one. oh yeah, he is the only other only child in the san pedro family.

so, when we got back to the city, we did a pick up, and smoked on his friend's rooftop. holy shit. i felt very small city all of a sudden. and that these people were too hip. but also, i was struggling with smoking the gourd. i eventually got a good enough hit and tripped out hard and fast. the sun was setting and i felt like it was burning through my soul. i thought i was gonna pass out but was too embarrassed to do that in front of everyone. i was also worried about falling off the edge, even though i was nowhere near it. the rooftop patio was HUGE. and i was also hungry. so once i felt calm enough, i got my cousin to take us to get food. we wanted japanese. bad idea.
i tripped again.
all the foreign script... the cold of the grocery store... the weird food... i had to stop and stare at bread for a bit so i could look normal.
i read that loaf of bread for what felt like a half an hour before my cousin returned for retrieving something and we checked out.
never before had i tripped so hard.

anyway. i wish i remembered better the chronology of things. i think i met up with keya and sneha and we went with mikey to this gallery opening thing. free booze. i love culture.
we didn't quite get what was going on. but it felt like monkeybars suspended from a ceiling. oh art. it was mainly a venue for keya and i to catch up and bond over our judgment of other people and it was nice hearing her and sneha's stories. oh the aussie accent, how i miss it so.

afterward, we returned to the rooftop to smoke some more, get some 2am tacos and we dropped them off. no trips this time. but i did enjoy a story about a squirrel that used to visit that loft. i felt sad when i heard it stopped visiting. i felt everyone did.

ok well i dont remember some of the other details. but im pretty sure that the next day was my day with the girls in beverly hills. so much walking. so much money spent. not by me but yeah.

that night... mikey took me to another party. a lot of smoking... i remember getting asked if i had ever had sex. mikey's friend interjected and told the asker how inappropriate he was being. i personally was not offended, more confused than anything. afterward, we did a mcdonald's run and when i woke up, i noticed the remote was in mikey's mc'd's bag. san pedros are awesome.


our family portrait.

anyway... that's a good way to wrap up this entry. there is more but i guess this is more family oriented. not terribly insightful. but more family-revelatory than anything. whatever. these things aren't really supposed to have a point.

the end/to be continued.
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august 7-20, 2008: on the equator

2:09 a.m. nikki sp
this is gonna be really difficult to replicate the exact feelings and observations of the trip. a trip i went on with work in partnership with free the children.
me and i think 14/15 or 16 other kids. a couple of supervisors. and an mtv crew.

overall it did offer a lot of perspective. it's hard to disclose some of the little stuff cuz i don't think i'm actually allowed to do that according to contract. but these are notes i took for myself as a part of some exercises we did...


AUG 13/08

1) 5 personal goals
- practice spanish/learn new words
- become a more selfless, empathetic person
- be friends with the children and make them smile, give them hope
- appreciate what i have, keep remembering how fortunate i am
- learn about Ecuadorian culture and wholly immerse myself in it

2) What do I hope to gain?
After/from this trip, I'd like to maintain the level of caring and genuine compassion once i get home. I would like to think the best of people and hope that no one would doubt or question my intentions either. I hope I don't forget what I learned while in Ecuador and can share these sentiments with my friends back home who can be a little jaded sometimes.

3) Why are you here?
I am here because I love to travel and I got the chance not only to travel with work, but also use my skills to improve a community in a less fortunate part of the world. I wanted to prove to my friends that I'm not lazy and self-centred and that I am capable of doing something positive.

4) How will this experience change your life?
This is giving me a chance to see people who had less of a chance than I did, yet still being so happy with so little. It will hopefully have me consuming less on the whole and sharing what I already have.



in retrospect... how optimistic and bright eyed was i about this trip??!
very.

i have balanced since then. not so much with the need to prove to people that i'm a good person. but just being a good person.
does that make sense? i dunno, i am tired.


i guess what else i have to say about this trip is... i need to do something like this with a different group of people, not with a camera crew around or anything. i'm sure we got such special treatment and i am grateful... but i would really like to try something else.

what i've repeated to people was that:
this was one of the hardest trips to pack for because of the various climates we experienced in a short period of time.
the kids are beautiful people.
we take for granted such little things like being able to brush our teeth with tap water. and having drinkable tap water in general. same with being able to flush toilet paper without having it cause some plumbing damage.
a little soup goes a loooong way. cheese in soup is DELISH
poor guinea pigs...
OH YEAH - i got altitude sickness when i was over there. totally out for pretty much the whole day. water is supposed to be good. but too much water in a highly acidic stomach + being locked on a bus = gatorade smelling bus with sticky floors.

other highlights -
*hiking the rainforest
*horseback riding in the rainforest
*seeing a lot of cool buildings and churches
*rigo, our awesome bus driver
*being at 0 degrees of the world
*perspective
*achi, the coolest kid EVER. who knew playing with spit, and a tire could be SO MUCH FUN


lowlights-
*not being with friends
*being sick
*...other things/people i'm not at liberty to discuss
*wishing there was more work i could do outside of painting walls and sanding them down...


ok. i dunno. i am over this post. may revisit later. maybe not.
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not enough time

12:14 a.m. nikki sp
i wish i considered re-blogging earlier. i would've been wayyy more productive at work.
well maybe not more productive. but definitely less bored.

my intention with restarting this was to be able to catch up on the backlog of trips. i was pretty successful last night in recalling civic day weekend in montreal. there is still my ecuador trip. and then my short cali getaway. and then my xmas vacay in mejico.
and then i was hoping to start fresh and accurate back in cali where i am headed to tonight.

but i may just have to... maybe catch up tonight? when i am trying to adjust to the time difference. holy fuck, sleep will hate me. no matter how hard i try to love it.

i'll see how far i get post lunch.
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august 4, 2008: le dernier jour

5:05 a.m. nikki sp
this day wasn't terribly important. but i may as well finish off the mini saga.

long story short. or rather short story shorter --

when you need to get shots for travel, do them way ahead of your trip and not 3 days before.
also, eat a lot BEFORE you get shots.
and don't endure a loooong trip home after being shot up.

as much as i love needles (4! one in each limb!!!!!!) it was brutal. i couldn't even enjoy my reuben.
that's a lie, i totally enjoyed it. but not to the fullest.

and yeah, the trip home was brutal. me, es and l-ho. linds does not like driving and not only can esther and i not drive. we can't drive stick. and i wouldn't have been in any shape to drive either. i was sprawled all over that back seat. in a very unsexy way.
like in a date rape target way.
which, i guess, for all those drugs that were running in me, it was pretty accurate.

so yeah, it was a struggle to get home. and then we did. and then i had to work the next day. and then i went to ecuador shortly after.

the end!
of my mtl memoirs.

ecuador shall keep me preocupado for a while.
a bientot/hasta la vista.
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august 3, 2008 à montréal: jour deux - dimanche dommage

4:19 a.m. nikki sp
i'm on a roll. might as well finish this mini getaway. yeah yeah, it's just a city a few hours away from home. but it's culturally different... like they speak a different language.

it does help that i got my facebook albums to help me relive these experiences. otherwise, i would likely have no idea.

alright.

sunday.

it was the day of the pride parade.

but it was also the day we decided to shop along st laurent instead. the pic is totally unnecessary. just trying to buy some time till i remember other shit.


so yeah, a little hungover from the night before.
i can't believe we spent hours on this street. and a couple more looking for bagels. despite having been there a week earlier, es managed to get us lost again in our hunt for the holey bread.
zing.

while we were driving around, we ran into a dude that looked like kimmy gibbler.
of all the people dan decided to hail over, he had to pick the one we were obviously stifling laughs about in the back seat. it was brutal, and it was awesome. now i wish there was a pic to accompany that, but i am sure that would have been really obvi.

wow.

i am so glad i remembered that.

also.

we got are bagels. headed back to dan's where i took a well needed disco nap before...!!!
wait, not the band !!!
but i am excited so i went!!!
because i was excited for.... wait for it!!!
wolf parade.

:)


yeah my pics aren't great for this because i hate takin pics at shows. i prefer to enjoy the experience of being there. instead of planning on what i want to remember from the experience via photograph.

best.
show.
ever.

the venue was perfect. it was also awesome that i scored a free tick for es by being pretty. thanks security guard :)

but yeah, weird that there was a seating section upstairs... i don't get it. but the acoustics were perfect. they are such babes. and there was a babe in the crowd. i was secretly hoping he would mc me on cl. alas, i dunno how widely used craigs is in mtl. and, well, i would've been home by then.

nevertheless.

because it was sunday and a show, that entertainment was done pretty early. round 11ish? 10:30ish? but since we didn't have to get back to work the next day (only that weekend did i realize civic holiday was province specific, not national), we decided to kick it.



so we picked up some tequila beer from the depanneur and drank in the alley way. duh. what else.
luckily we hid our cans in time to evade suspicion from la police.

and moseyed onto the blue dog. ie like strangelove. but smaller. well it wasn;t the same music that they played for dlyf. but what i remember from the interior....
whatev.

this guy was awesome. but everyone else looked uncomf. and i wasn't getting drunk fast enough so i got over it pretty fast. not that many babes as i thought there would be either.
but it is a good thing we left in time. otherwise this would;ve never happened:
note dan in the background chatting with the cops. wearing jeans. who can take that seriously? amirite?!


so he got booked.



did they catch us drinking in public? did it have anything to do with us trying to light a pipe in the parking lot?

non.

dan and his new friends on the street (ie the douche bags posing for the cam) got written up for laughing too loudly.
they were so excited to run into each other, remembering a past comedy show, that they hugged and jumped up and down and laughed.

clearly, reason for charging $144 dollars.
"avait emis un bruit audible à ???? de cris"

i'm really glad their squad is less concerned about their money in their budget for wardrobe and more about these tough issues.
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à montréal - jour un

3:30 a.m. nikki sp
so this feels entirely inorganic. not that my previous entries were particularly insightful, they at least shared that idea of newness... even if i had experienced similar events previously. but i guess i will share what i remember thinking throughout my trip to montreal over the first weekend of august 2008.

(i don't really like looking at the past.
but i'm not into incomplete pictures either... tough call)

alright.

first memory remembered:
driving to montreal over a long weekend in the summer right after work in the height of rush hour is not conducive to arriving early.
unless, we're talking bout like 3am early. cuz that is eventually when we got there. me, l-ho, ramos and es: an illegal immigrant vehicle if i had ever seen one.

speaking of immigrants - arriving chez ramos, being met with the ramos parents.
first question (as is typical of any/all filipino families): did you eat?
no matter what the answer is, the elders will pile on the food.
as delicious as 5 cheese lasagne is, it is painful to eat so late in the eve/early in the morning after already ingesting drive thru food.
ditto for ice cream.
and wings.
needless to say: so. much. food.

this pretty much set the trend for the whole weekend avec la famille ramos.



now what did we do saturday...
wandered around the city. it was franco follies. actually the 3rd time i'd be in mtl over that weekend. i was wiped and could care less about the hoopla.
so we shopped st catherines, chilled at the marina. oh yeah... i was shopping for my pending trip to ecuador.
mtl - good shopping city. but like, not quite practical for the equator. i felt conflicted. cuz i probs could've bought all my 'roughing it' clothes from home. oh well.

witnessed storm clouds gather by the marina. pathetic fallacy? maybe.

enjoyed a well needed nap before indulging in a ramos 'bbq' (read: chicken wings charred in the oven with bbq sauce).
felt sick.
met up with rach!
and celebrated my hiring! and champagne gift from a lookalike (different work related story. may cross over into another blog)

and then headed down to the mcgill campus to hang out with some hipsters and attend a nautical themed party.
before we got there, it was a sinking ship.
we were ready to walk the plank.
man overboard.

but when we arrived... well i can't think of a witty nautical pun right now, but it was awesome. i guess likening it to pirates taking over. yeah that was us. everyone else was very subdued. dan brought magic tricks.
party got a lot better.

i totally stole that pink cup in the bottom right corner. and l-ho and ramos took the dauphin hostage. awesome.



then we ventured on our poutine hunt, inevitably ending up on at la belle provence on st. laurent.
mmmmm. poutine.



followed by more wandering at 3 or 4am till we decided to cab back to little jerusalem/chez ramos.

sleep was good. barring esther's ass in my business. no matter where i was on the bed, her bony posterior was invading. it brought me back to childhood.

(continued in next blog. wow. i can't believe how well i remember this shit. oui, il y a beaucoup que j'ai oublié. par choix, et par accident. but it was like i was just there. holy shit. merde)

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better late than never

2:54 a.m. nikki sp
[originally dated may 12, 2009... but placed before my montreal blogs... which were written in may 09, but dated retroactively. try to keep up]


i am revisiting my blog.

why now?

boredom is a good answer. a few friends recently started blogging. i guess i am jumping back on the bandwagon.

i'm planning to create one about random shit that i have to do to keep me preoccupied at work. but i felt bad neglecting this little baby.

so... might as well catch up on the goings on. i have a little travel adventure coming up. so i better get up to speed on previous adventures. for no reason in particular other than to keep me more preoccupied at work. because even when i was actively blogging during my time abroad. i didn't include every single adventure....

but... i guess i will do separate installations.

...i dunno how i feel about this actually, because i wanted to include montreal. but i never kept a hard copy log about that at the time. whereas in ecuador and mexico, i took notes along the way with the intention to inevitably publish to this baby.

guh. i am not feeling particularly inspired. just wanting to pass time.

let's see how this return goes...
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