Well it's Monday and I'm back on campus, almost one week from when I last wrote and it's amazing the number of things I have to report on in the past seven days! Tuesday was fairly non-eventful, but as of Wednesday it was all go go go again…

Wednesday - I spent the morning studying in Burnaby park with Jess. The weather's so beautiful at the moment it'd be a crime not to be outside so we hauled all our books down the mountain path and sat in the sun. That afternoon, after our adolescent development lecture, a bunch of us girls bolted down the mountain, determined not to miss out on getting into the Mountain Shadow pub this week! As Murphy's Law would have it, we got there and it was pretty well deserted. But we settled in with a glass of wine, had a chat, and in an hour or so there was a long line outside the door and the place was packed! I was a little confused at first cause I'd heard rumours of an AMAZING dance floor…so I had high expectations. But there didn't actually seem to be any room for a dance floor…turns out people just cram into the gap between the chairs and tables downstairs and make room for a dance floor! Haha good times…at about 1am the pub closed up and I wandered back up to the bus stop before heading home and falling fast asleep =D

Thursday - Woke up feeling a little bit regretful…just a little. I blame the cheap wine! Haha But it was another beautiful day so I dragged myself outside and attempted to do a little study. It was a fairly moderate attempt and ended up totally engrossed in this book I've started reading (The Memory Keeper's Daughter). At 11 I met up with Leah and we went over to Convocation Mall to the clubs day to sign up for the Ski and Snowboard club and found out about getting cheap season passes - ee! We also joined the European Social club…despite not being European. We are however very social and I feel this will make up for that! Haha Then at 1230 we went to the university theatre because every Thursday they put on a free performance of student work or something going on around town. We watched a modern dance piece from the Fringe Festival that was amazing - so awesome to be able to do this kind of thing for free! That evening I went to the uni pub with Jess & Erica, and managed to stomach a beer. Ok two haha It was really nice to just sit and have a chat with the girls…and Erica's boyfriend. I felt a little sorry for him actually because we were definitely maxing out on girl talk and at one point Jess commented that he was very quiet and I said I was pretty sure it was cause he couldn't get a word in! lol By 10 my eyelids were starting to droop and I still had a long journey to make down town so I headed down to the bus stop and set off for down town…

Friday - After finally getting a good, long, comfortable, quiet night's sleep, I woke up with ambitions of being very productive and getting lots of study done. It was another beautiful day so I spent most of my time reading out in Jan-Louise's garden. JL had been on night shift so she got in early that morning and slept until the early afternoon. After that we sat and had a cup of tea and a long chat in the garden before she headed off up the road to the bank. She returned an hour later having never made it to the bank, but with bags full of cheese, wine and fruit - a much better use of one's time than going to the bank if you ask me! Haha So we settled in for the evening with some beautiful British Columbian cheeses, grapes from the Okanagan Valley, and a nice Rose. Pure bliss =D. Then…it got better! I know right, is it even possible?? At about 10:30, Roman (who owns the house and lives there with family, Jan-Louise lives in the basement apartment down below) came down with cupcakes!! They'd been celebrating their youngest daughter's birthday and saved two delicious cupcakes for us.

Saturday - I woke up early and headed up to university to meet the European crew (Veronique, Helle, Monica, and Jessica) for our foray into true North American sports - the football game. We caught public transport down town to BC stadium with a bunch of other students all sporting red and white clothing, flags and face paint (even some creative body painting…). It was totally entertaining to watch about 100 footballers - I kid you not, there were about 100 players in one team alone…I think it has something to do with the injury rate… - running about on the field in their very VERY American football outfits. All us girls were very disappointed though that there was not a traditional cheerleader in sight! Just a few boys from uni running about in kilts with swords and shields…very unimpressed! And then the game started…and stopped a few seconds later. Then started. Then stopped. Then started…you get the idea! They'd basically set up in formation, run at each other, all crumple in a pile of wrestling, blow then whistle, and start all over again.You should have heard us clueless girls trying to work out what was going on and what the point of it all was! Haha I couldn't even participate in the oo-number-14-is-cute conversation, because I'd forgotten my glasses and couldn't even tell where the ball was half the time! Lol

So by half time, Jessica and I are looking at each other thinking we'd had about enough and we decided to head off for a wander around town. We walked through Yale Town, which has a lot of really beautiful shops - very expensive though. Then we found our way to the holy grail of Sushi. Eight large pieces of and California Roll sushi for under $3!! I know where I'll be eating in a few months when my funds start to dwindle…After that we continued on and walked across Granville Bridge down to Granville Island where the Fringe Festival is currently being held. We wandered around the shops and stopped for a coffee at the Sandbar. Later on we met up with the other girls and started walking back over to the stadium. They were going to another game that evening so we went out separate ways and I walked round the entire harbour, which was amazing. It was the perfect day for it =)

Sunday - I spent a little time wandering through JL's neighbourhood, up to Main Street and Cambie as well. The I once again retired to the garden with giant Cognitive Neuroscience text book for some enthralling readings on the workings of the brain. It was made infinitely more enjoyable by the setting. The next door neighbour's cat came for a visit for a while and I must digress for a moment to tell you about this cat - Pumpkin. Or pumpy. More like plumpy. Lol She is honestly the fattest cat I have ever seen and her tummy drags across the doorstep when she comes over to visit us at JL's haha When I first arrived she didn't like me much but now she's come to be quite good company when I'm studying out in the garden. It was early to bed with my book that night and JL and I had a quick cup of tea after she got in from work.

So there you have it, just your typical, lovely, extended weekend in Vancouver! I'm back at uni today and just got out of my cognitive neuroscience lecture after only an hour, so I think I shall go lie in the sun now…the weather forecast says we have until Wednesday. Then the rain begins. I'm soaking up every single ray of sunshine while I can! =)

LIVxo