Maria: Island Ex-Pat

- Pho, vermicelli and spring rolls
- nice campus
- starbucks, in the fall: Pumpkin Spice Latte.
- Ricki's in the mall
- my genres in the online environment class
- 2 Korean restaurants in walking distance
- my theory class
- awesome boyfriend who's coming to visit this weekend
- thumbtacks and the back of my desk accomodating them (see picture).

we walked all over waterloo today. or, well, what felt like all of waterloo, which wasn't that much of it it turns out. It's a relatively small city, and I kinda like it.

Happy here. :-)

There's a person upstairs practicing flute, and she's (or, he's) really good. They practiced yesterday for over an hour -- playing scales and chromatics and arpegios (sp?) -- for at least half an hour. Man. I never practiced that much. That's probably why I was never very good at clarinet.

I was thinking yesterday as I was lying down and listening to them practice that I should pick up an instrument at somepoint. Yeah, after I learn German and Korean and speak modern Icelandic, and make that quilt I meant to make, and solve world hunger. hehe.

Dad dropped off the blanket to Moira and Chris the other day. Sorry guys, that I couldn't go to the shower or drop it off in person. It just was one thing after another and it just got left until the end. Moira likes it so I'm happy. No worries. :-)

Hey guys - I hope that you're September has started out well.

Things are going well here. Friday I flew in to Toronto and took a shuttle to my cousin Ryan's place. He and his girlfriend, and dog Bru, and bunnies Blossom and Soot, were wonderful hosts. They had another visitor that night too, a little dog named Mavis whom Bru is enamored with. It was great to get to know Ryan and Shauna and we had a lot of fun. They made me some delicious supper with wine (a few before we went anywhere), we went out for gelato, went to a pub in Kitchener, and then turned in. Bru woke me up the next morning with border collie kisses and then chased Mavis around.

I brought my two bags to residence, got my keys, unpacked, met my roommate and her parents, and settled in as much as I could. Mike visited, and it was really good to see him. I went to the church here on campus, and it seems a little too flaky for me -- so I'm going to find another one.

I'm not going to say I can't wait for classes to start, because I can wait. I want to relax as much as I can before I need to start working and teaching again. I miss school -- but not so much that I want to start right away. I've already met my advisor, and I know that I have to get my grant proposals in very soon for revision. I need to make some changes to my SSHRC proposal because I would really like to get one next year. Money is going to be tight, and if I'm thinking about visiting Mike's family, I have to scrounge and scrimp as much as possible this year.

Anyway - I just wanted to make a little update before I go snooze again.