Daily Musings

It feels like forever since I’ve written something here. I checked it and it’s been about two weeks.

Last Sunday I came back from a 7-day student exchange trip in a small town in British Columbia. A small town near Vancouver that screams ‘Hello Suburbia’ with all the picturesque connotations that come with it, including nice people, green green grass, and low density sprawl.

I went downtown, which included Robson Street, Stanley Park, Gastown, 4th Avenue, a beach, the Planetarium for a laser show  and of course a very pretty dock. I dipped my toe into the Pacific Ocean, or more like dipped my toe and then decided to stick my whole foot in and then the other foot as well.

And since Vancouver is hosting the Olympics next year I went to Whistler too. I saw those mountains and wished I could ski on them, which would be an impossibility because I didn’t have money, didn’t have gear, didn’t have time and most importantly didn’t, don’t, and probably will never have any real skiing abilities. But that’s okay. I went up the gondola for forty bucks (’Sightseeing Pass’ - who knew?) and snapped photos like a tourist. I snapped photos of all those pretty mountains, and the view, and the village. I probably looked like an idiot, especially to those hot British skiiers I saw, but that’s okay. The pictures I snapped were worth it. I’ll post them up some time.

Of course I also went to Victoria but if you ask me it was an awful lot like a combination of Ottawa, for the old buildings, and Kingston, for the old buildings plus the water. The ferry was nice. Big.

And now I shall talk about the family I stayed with. They were AMAZING. The whole family consisted of the mom, dad, sister, and younger brother. Their family reminded me of those families in family sitcoms on tv, like 7th Heaven. The mom bakes cookies and brown bag lunches. The sister diligently does her homework on the dining room table after dinner. The brother plays his video games quietly/enthusiastically (?). The parents read the paper at night. I know that since they had a guest over (me) that the normal family drama wouldn’t be there, but I didn’t even know such typical-tv-family-ness could even exist. I am still shocked.

So since I came back last Sunday, I’ve been super busy with catching up on school this week. Essays and tests. Projects. Upcoming debates and other events I won’t be prepared for. So much to do, so little time.

Side note: HELLO SUMMER! i.e. ice cream trucks

I’m serious. I come home from school and the the first thing I think about is Criminal Minds. And if I can’t control myself to go after more important priorities, I make my way upstairs to the computer and watch an episode or two of Criminal Minds online. I thank those servers in China for allowing me to stream it for free.

I started this obsession last week. Wednesday. I was bored and decided to watch some television, and what do you know, Criminal Minds is on. It was an old esisode, but I didn’t know that, I loved it. (It had Jason Alexander - that’s the guy that plays “George” in Seinfeld - playing a serial killer with long white hair. How could that not be awesome?) It was only 10pm when the show ended, so I Googled it and found more episodes. And I watched another one. And then I went to sleep.

Every day since that Wednesday, I have watched at least one episode, usually two or three, of Criminal Minds. For a few episodes the only place I could find free streaming was Megavideo, which of course became super annoying because of the 72 minute time limit. Annoying, but good, because sometimes I can’t self-control my addictions with unrealistic television dramas.

This latest obsession to be rather interesting. Firstly, I’ve watched Criminal Minds before and liked it. I just never became addicted. Secondly, this is my first obsession with a crime drama. I’ve always loved (teenage) dramas such as Dawson’s Creek, Gossip Girl, or the OC because of their criving plots. And while I like the CSIs and the Law and Orders, I’ve never went to the point of wanting to watch old episodes online. The new thing here is that I don’t need to watch them in order. I just go to Wikipedia’s List of Episodes and find one that sounds interesting.

For anyone reading that watches Criminal Minds, I love Reid. He’s such a dork.

It’s only been one week since March Break ended and I’m already feeling the boringness of school again. School has never been particularly interesting, but it’s worse than usual right now. My schedule for this semester is not interesting at all.

We’ve been reading Julius Caesar in English. I’ll admit, I like Shakespeare. I have Sonnet 116 memorized. I think that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is amazing. But tragedies aren’t really my thing. We spend all class reading aloud the play. Listening to a bunch of high school students stumbling over old English in not-at-all iambic pentameter for 75 minutes? Drives me crazy.

I’ve noticed lately how little social interaction I have during the day. It concerns me. I rarely talk to people on my way to or back from school, as I take a bus route that only about five other people in the school take. I don’t really talk to people during class, because most of my seating arrangements are around people that don’t talk much (or aren’t willing to talk to me). It’s hard to talk during a lecture anyway. As for lunch and in between classes… I’m not in my best state in a noisy hallway or cafeteria. I eat lunch in a group, but I’ll admit I don’t contribute much to conversations.

However, during the last ten minutes of lunch I hang out under the staircase (where it’s quiet) with this super happy girl I made friends with this year. She is optimistic and cheerful and amazing, though surprisingly dating a guy who I find is to be the completely opposite this. Anyway, I hang out with her and her positive energy keeps me in pretty good spirits for the first ten minutes of math. The boring math lectures sucks up that mood after that though.

I’ve been so tired lately that I haven’t even gone out this entire week, evenings or after school. No movies, coffees, lunch, shopping… I’ve been having difficulty not falling asleep on the bus ride home. All this tiredness and emotionlessness isn’t good. I’m going to Vancouver for a band trip in about three weeks and I am not excited for it at all. I think I should be excited, but I’m not quite sure.

I’ve been telling myself that next week, I’m going to be less anti-social. I don’t want to be the anti-social girl. Once upon a time, they called me the happy, energetic one.

I wish I could write down all the interesting things that my piano teacher says. She’s Russian, and all the time she makes deep statements about life, people, “them,” students, and telemarketers.

During my last lesson, she was telling me how I needed to play this Beethoven song more expressively, and this was a segment of  our conversation.

Piano teacher: What’s the universal emotion?
Me: Love?
Piano teacher: Does everyone feel love? No. But does everyone feel anger? Yes. Everyone has been angry. Everyone knows anger.

Hahaha. I don’t think my piano teacher is a believer in love, because she’s married and on multiple occasions she has said (very seriously), “Annie, never get married.” Sometimes she says this in front of her husband, which I don’t think is the nicest thing to do.

I think I’m writing about other people too much. I just wrote about my french teacher not too long ago.

I was watching flipping through the channels last night and saw the funniest thing with commercials.

I was watching Grey’s Anatomy, even though it was a rerun. I was (and still am) a little sick, so I was too lazy to flip through channels or revert to another show during commercials like I usually do. So I manage to catch an Old Navy commercial.

The commercial featured talking mannequins, which I am still wondering - creative decision or marketing budget cutback? Anyway, the mannequins talked about their figure-flattering jeans, that cost $200 elsewhere, but at Old Navy, they are only $12 for kids and $19 for adults. That’s like 90% off! Ooh la la.

I get bored of the Grey’s rerun after a while, so I flip to CSI. And then comes commercial break. The Old Navy ad again!

And this was the same commercial featuring talking mannequins, wearing the same clothes and having the same lines talking about the same figure-flattering jeans. The jeans cost $200 elsewhere, but at Old Navy, they are only $15 for kids and $28 for adults. That’s like 86% off!

What?

It took me a while before I realized that I was watching Grey’s (and the first Old Navy ad) on an American channel and CSI (and the second ad) on a Canadian channel.