New Year's Resolutions

Here we go...

1) Do 6 laps on lane 8 on the track in 15 minutes. I've slowly slowed down over the course of the last three months, which is sad because I'd built up to 6 laps in 16 minutes or so... :( I don't like winter. It is not a good season to be out in the weather.

2) Drink two extra glasses of water than I usually would.

3) Get to bed at 11:30pm. No more 1am homework parties.

4) Get into UBC! Wheeee

5) Bake some of this stuff:
Lemon Olive Oil Cake
Ice Cream Scones
Sweet Potato Bundt Cake
Chocolate Puddle Cookies
Oven-Baked Fries
Lemon Meringue Pie
Chocolate Silk Pie
Blueberry Pie
Carrot Cake

...bake my sister some birthday cupcakes. And cake pops. She likes the pretty stuff.

6) 1 book/month. Start with Wuthering Heights.

7) Practice speaking French because God knows I've forgotten half the language. Maybe I should sign up for Explore again this year...

8) Get my driver's license. Immediately.

9) Start swimming again.

10) Check out some new restaurants. Stop going to Earls and Hmart and Whole Foods to 'eat out'.

Stuff I Did Over Winter Break

1) Baked:
Chewy Chocolate Cookies
Brownies (my friends' favourite)
Clementine Cake! Yummy.

2) Created my first cookie recipe! Cheerio Raisin Bites

3) Finished a couple books

4) Received about a ton of presents. BAKING EQUIPMENT! YIPPEE! I predict many a baking storm coming our way.

5) Went out to eat. A lot. And had so much cake. Urgh...

6) Jump-roped 3000 times in half an hour and near about killed myself the next day at taekwondo class. Did this thing twice and have plans to go out and do it again TODAY. Ow.

7) Turned 18. Omgosh old.

8) Cleaned my desk. It promptly went back to its original state after about a day.

9) Watched probably more than half of the 85 episodes of Family Outing*. Worked out my ab muscles a lot by laughing, chuckling, chortling, and choking.
* Korean TV show

10) Tried to do physics and math. Failed this.

11) Went boxing day shopping and wanted to jump off the escalator. Wouldn't have hurt myself anyway, there were just too many people crawling. all. over. the. mall.
No more of that, I say.

12) Bought some new clothes and shoes. Hate shopping now with a passion.

Quite an eventful two weeks. Most restful I've had in a few years, anyway.
Looking forward to the new year! Yay!

The Thirteenth Tale- Book Review (brief)

I always get annoyed with this kind of book. The kind that start out slow, then suddenly accelerate, and run along quite smoothly for a a while, and then crash and smoulder at the end. Yeah. I didn't even read the last couple of chapters because I was so disappointed. The middle of it was good because there was a lot of mystery and creepy stuff going on. I liked the stories of the past MUCH better than the seemingly whiny voice of Margaret, the girl who sets out to write the biography of a famous dying writer. Really? It just seems too unlikely that a writer as renowned as Vida Winter (fictional character in the book...) would choose a complete stranger to write down her life story. Oh well. Anyway, I liked it when Vida was the one talking, because Margaret just constantly whines about her dead twin. Which sounds bad, but she just goes on and on about it. That's all she cares about, apparently, apart from books. And I wouldn't mind that that much either, except then she goes and SEES her sister's ghost. It was just...too, well, unbelieveable. I'm usually a fan of ghost stories, but here, the ghost story seems forced, and an afterthought. Or maybe I just don't get the 'gothic' genre. Which is what this book is, from what I hear.
I would give this 2.5 out of 5, based solely on its ability to pull me in during Vida Winter's parts. Otherwise, I wouldn't like it at all.
Now, onto bigger and better books!

BBC Book List

I absolutely love book lists. I love that I can go down the list and check off the ones I've read and highlight the one's that pique my interest. But it also makes me feel lazy...I mean, how many years have I used the excuse of 'no time' as a measly excuse for not reading? I guess since whenever I started to be overwhelmed by the amount of studying I had to do. I've noticed that I only ever read books during the summer now, and even then, I tend to be impatient and flip to the back before I get through the first three chapters. BAD HABITS DIE HARD. I'm too impatient with books. I haven't read an entire book through from cover to cover since a very long time ago.

Acting happy and cheerful when really you're just plain FURIOUS inside is the worst kind of feeling in the world. It's a mixture of anger, pettiness, helplessness, and guilt. I'm angry at whatever made me mad in the first place, but also at myself for not being able to either let go of it or find a solution. I feel petty and feel like picking on everything about everyone, and don't feel like doing any favours for anyone. I feel helpless because I know there's a limit to all this, and that sooner or later I ought to stop being angry, but mostly because there's that steel cage of "happy girl" that I can't seem to bust out of. And then there's the guilt; the guilt that comes from letting out a bit of the monster seething underneath the surface to those closest to me; they usually get the brunt of my anger.
And then there are the days when those kind of people are the ones making you feel like a disaster zone inside, and those are the days that everything is intensified.
Today is just one of those days.
Stupid.

More Peanut Butter Cookies...

I definitely wasn't as much of a fan of these cookies as the other ones...these were just too brittle and hard to be classified as good PB cookies. To me, a good PB cookie is soft but a little crunchy from the tiny sugar crystals, and is chock-full of creamy peanut-buttery goodness. My sis described this texture as "suffocating" but I say PSHHH that's what peanut butter's supposed to be like! Well, I'm someone who eats a spoonful of PB in the morning with my banana, so I guess if you don't like PB and its natural texture too much then you won't really like these cookies. I don't know. All I know is that these are PB cookies that TASTE PB.

Oh. Wait a minute. I thought I was still talking about the cookies I posted about earlier today. Whoops!
These cookies here were alright, but rather dry for my taste. I also didn't have any crunchy PB on hand, so that may have made a big difference in the texture of the cookie. The PB I used was also organic and had no sugar added (only thing in there was peanuts!), so if you use some other brand the cookies will probably turn out sweeter.

Erm. I'm not sure which pictures are which...before or after baking?? These didn't really turn brown at all for me.

Peanut Butter Cookies From here

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 egg
½ cup uncooked oats1 tbsp vanilla extract
All you have to do is mix everything together and then spoon them on the cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Except...I decided to just squish the dough up into dense little balls. And I wanted to make them into peanut butter blossom-style cookies. But no one told me that you had to wait until AFTER the cookies were baked and hot to push a chocolate chip into them! So I did this before, when the dough was cold, and I was very puzzled as to why the cookies all crumbled into a big mess as soon as I pushed down on them. Fun stuff. Next time, I might do this with another recipe, preferable one that doesn't use oats since I think that made the dough even crumblier.

Peanut Butter Cookies- Flourless and EASY AS HECK

Alright. These cookies are IT. They have a nice sugary crunch, are soft and creamy like actual PB, and only require 3 ingredients, which makes them sooo easy to mix up and pop into the oven. Took me less than half an hour to have them baking and making the house all lovely-smelling. I love PB cookies...I've gotta figure out how to make a good PB-chocolate cookie soon because I loooove Reese's pieces. Favourite chocolate bar ever. Mmmm.

Here are some pictures:

A Day Like This...

a day like this calls for cookies and and greek yogurt with tons and tons of ooey-gooey honey. greek yogurt is my substitute for ice cream. i figure, if i'm eating something to feel good, why the heck would i eat something that feels good at the moment but horrible after the last smooth, cold, creamy spoonful makes it down my throat? i can get all that from yogurt.
and today? yeah. i need some of that today. something to help me forget what's going on around me, something to help me figure out how to feel. properly. because right now everything's a muddle. a big, huge mess.
not good.
hopefully that half-container of greek yogurt'll help some.

there remains a single-digit number of days...

Am I happy? Yeah, I think so. It's not so much that I don't like it here. I do. There is so much stuff to see and learn and buy (I'm practically a shopaholic now...can't stop buying stuff!). The weather's nice and summery on the most part, Vieux Quebec is amazing, and I've figured out how to use a map and actually get to the places I want. It's just that it just isn't the same without the people and places I love, and 5 weeks of feeling like you're missing out on things at home is just too long. From the first time I heard about this program, I wished it was 3 weeks long instead of 5. Three weeks out of a summer doesn't seem like much, but add two more and...well, it seems a thousand times longer.
I think I sound so spoiled right now. Most kids would be stoked to spend 5 weeks away from parents and stuff like that. Yeah. I thought it'd be so awesome. But you know what? After a couple weeks, all you really want to do is go home, smell some good home-made food, read your favourite book, lie down in your own bed, turn out the light, and sleep for however long you want. And when you wake up, it won't be to a song that makes you cry (only way I can get up and going because it jolts me out of sleep), it won't be at 7-freaking AM on a summer day, you won't have to clean your room before going out the door, you won't have to constantly gasp and check if you have your keys with you, you won't have to wait in line for ages for breakfast while other little brats cut the line...no. You won't have to do that because you're home and it's your place, where you can do whatever the heck you want and you won't get a billet blanc. Those are bad things...get two and you either write an essay in French or go to detention where you get to do pages and pages of French worksheets in complete silence. Or you're grounded. One of those things.
Okay I gotta write more later because the library's closing even though it says they close at 7, not 6:30. I guess these people want to go home too.

Quebec: Half-way

Helloooo blog long time no see! Bonjour from Quebec City.
Everything`s going awesome here. This is probably the first time I`ve had a computer all to myself since 16 days ago. My French vocabulary has been increasing...I think. Well, at least I can talk a bit now instead of just saying «oui» or «non». Oh cool, this keyboard has the French version of quotation marks! Yeah..it took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to type @ on this thing. Turns out you have to press ctrl then alt then the 2. Weird.
Although this program is fun and all (we really don`t have much free time...only the weekends and that only means Friday night and Saturday), I`m really starting to miss home. I miss baking A LOT. Darn. All my plans to start baking some stuff from this cookbook I bought are probably gonna go to waste since I`m going to be really busy in August as well. OH wow this computer doesn`t say 1:00 p.m. but 13:00. Cool.
Oh yes. Home. I miss the ocean. Sooo much. I miss sailing and kayaking and having bbqs on the beach and digging for clams. I miss the cool sea breeze. It`s freaking humid all the time here. Even when it rains. And when it rains it`s always a thunderstorm. With raindrops the size of grapes. It`s cool, but really annoying when it`s a Friday night and you`re trying to get out of the dorms and into the actual city.
I think I miss home so much because I`ve never been away from home for more than 13 days. That`s how long my France trip a few years back lasted. So by the 14th day here, I was positively dying. I thought I had to go see the counsellor here, it was that bad. But then it stopped. Today, really. The aching feeling went away. Maybe it`s because I went out on the balcony and jump-roped 2000 times yesterday. I guess it was just stress.
No. No, I don`t think so. Because when my alarm rings in the morning (I set it to a song I really like and that reminds me of home in so many ways), I'm jolted awake. And then I feel like I`m gonna cry, and that really hurts when you`ve just woken up from a really deep sleep (I have no dreams here. I just pass out at midnight, then shock myself awake at 6:30, then go back to sleep till my alarm. The 6:30 thing is because I was late my second day here...got to class an hour late, but it was no biggie really.)
I miss my usual summer activities...which mostly consist of:
-watching tons of kdramas. For entire days sometimes.
-eating ice cream and watermelon and making smoothies at home
-running and swimming and playing badminton with my sis
-going to Costco and Ikea. It`s fun. Really. Especially Costco with its free food.
-writing stuff
-READINGGGG. Well, really, I miss going into the air-conditioned library, staying for an hour to choose and read parts of books, then checking out something like 7 books at the same time.
But I`m getting some of that here too. Finished two books! Read one on the bus to Montreal. It was pretty awesome. Agatha Christie. Some of her books suck, but I liked this one. I got it along with three other books at a thrift store here. All for $0.25. Yeahhhhhh :) I love thrift stores.
-doing math. I can`t believe it. I MISS MATH!
-daycamps! I miss kids.
-shopping without having to carry around everything I buy. Or worrying that something will melt. Because it will.
-GETTING NEW MUSIC. Good grief, I`m dying here with stale music. I mean, it`s still good. But better stuff is getting shoved under my face and I really want to download it but I can`t because I don`t have iTunes or a laptop of my own where I can turn it on. Oh yes, I miss listening to music through actual speakers and not just earphones. Because you can`t really dance to that. Nope. I need speakers.
-And lastly...hanging out with my friends. Or rather (since I don`t do that much regularly anyway), just knowing that I can call them up and meet then anytime. That they`re just around the corner. Unless they`ve gone off on their own traveling adventure, of course.

Oh mannn I miss summer at home. I find that I can't wait till the day I can pack away everything in my room and shut my suitcases for good. Oh SHOOT there's inspection de chambres today. Which means monitors come in and check your room to make sure it`s clean. Oh yeah. They`re also doing bedbug checks today because apparently the 3rd and 4th floors have the little disgusting critters. Oh god. Please not the fifth floor!