Sunday, 5 June 2016

London


The first place we landed when we flew to Europe was London. It was my first taste of Europe and it was one of the best tastes of Europe I could have had. What a way to begin our trip. We saw all the sights every tourist must see: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Eye and the British Museum. We walked amongst the streets in Britain (which are absolutely amazing) and we went to a good old English pub. The architecture was something I could barely even believe, it all just seamlessly fit together and every building looked like fit together. 

The first day was probably the hardest as we had just been up for about 30 hours trying to fly to London and we arrived at 7am, an hour before we were suppose to arrive. So we almost fell asleep on the tube on our way to our hotel and when we finally got into our room we slept for about two hours and then headed to the British Museum. Now, most museums you can walk around aimlessly and be able to see everything you want to see. The British museum is one where you definitely need a guide or you have studied the map so well you know exactly where you are going. I know we didn't see everything, but what we did see (mostly Egyptian and Greek monuments) were extraordinary. I had never seen pieces so big and historic before in my life and it was amazing to be able to see that part of history that everyone knows about. 

The rest of the day we spent walking around London and then went to the London Eye as we had tickets for that day. The funniest part of that was when we came off the train Big Ben was literally right in front of us. It was perfect considering the next day we were going back down there to see all the places you want to see in London. The London Eye was really cool, especially to see everything. And the picture above is actually taken from the London Eye. 

I think one of the most surreal things for me while we were there was the fact that we were actually in Britain. I had studied Britain for so long in my history courses and just in general and it was fascinating for me to stand on those streets and in front of buildings like the Tower of London that has been so monumental in British and World History. I feel like Britain has been so huge in history as a whole, not just Canadian, and to finally have gone there and see it and experience it was something you cannot really explain to people. 

One day I will go back to London and maybe it won't be for just a visit. 

Friday, 20 May 2016

Eiffel Tower 2016



So during my European adventure we went to see the Eiffel Tower. We had a reservation to go up to the second tier of the Tower to look out at the rest of Paris. When walking up to see this magnificent beast of steel I lost my breath because of it's beauty. You really have no idea how tall something is until you are standing in front of it trying to take a photo or even just trying to take it all in while staring at it.

I am slightly afraid of heights to going up the second tier of this tower was difficult but I was beyond excited that I did it. It is something you go to Paris to do, it is something you should do no matter what. You can never see a city so beautiful better then from the view of the Eiffel Tower. There are really no words to explain how beautiful and incredible this experience was, I hope in some way this video can show a little bit of it.

Enjoy!

Music: Middle by DJ Snake ft. Bipolar Sunshine

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Europe Trip


So tomorrow begins the adventure of travelling Europe for two weeks with my sister and a group of random people from around the world. We are going to England, Amsterdam, Rhine Valley, Munich, Austrian Tyrol, Venice, Rome, Florence, Lucerne and then finally to Paris. I am beyond excited for this trip as it is something I have wanted to do for a very long time, but I am also super nervous. I guess I am one of those people who gets really nervous before a big trip (one across the ocean!), but not really because of the travel. I mean everyone gets nervous flying, even if they say they don't. I think it is more because of the people that are also coming on the trip. You never know who it is going to be, but every review I've read for this trip and other trips has stated they became really good friends with the people on the trip and that makes all the difference. It really helps to know that this is just me overworking myself, but I really cannot help it.

I am just so excited to finally see the places I have studied for years and watched movies and TV shows and documentaries about. It really is something I have always wanted to do and I have actually already started planning my next trip with Contiki (haha). I will hopefully be updating as much as possible as it may be difficult with the amount of travelling and of course being able to connect to wifi.

I think one of the things most people (or maybe just me) is not only going on the trip, but the excitement of coming back and sleeping in your own room and then telling your friends and family all about the trip and what you saw and the interesting people you met. You get to tell them the stories of the people you met and become friends with people from around the world you would have never met otherwise. It's fun being able to relay your experiences with other people and see them relive it with you even if they weren't there to witness it.

More posts to come!!!

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

A Place of Paradise



Treasure Island has been in my family for so long that it is hard to try and gather a memory that does not include the island in some way. My great aunt and great uncle bought the island a long time ago and my grandfather worked on the island as a child. He actually met my grandmother at the island, so it really does have very special meaning to us. I remember going to the island and the beautiful boat ride we would take to get there is one of the best. It's just the anticipation of coming over to the island to see everyone and spend an entire week together.

There is so much to say about this irresistible place that I just don't even have the words to explain it to you. It is the reason I look forward to summer, it is the glue that holds my family together (aside for love of course), and it is the history that continues to grow with every trip back to it.

It is a part of my family and no matter what happens to the island it will continue to be a member of this family.

Monday, 11 April 2016

Water



A compilation of videos I took during the summer of when we were on the boat. I took them using my GoPro Hero 4.

Sunday, 3 April 2016

We're All Mad Here



“Where is the Leaning Tower of Pisa anyway?” I asked. She looked up from the computer, her brows knitted and an incredulous look was on her face.
            “Oh I don’t know, maybe, Pisa?!” Oh, right. I guess that made sense, I can’t believe I didn’t notice that right away.
            “You seriously didn’t know that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is in Pisa?” She retorted with a snort and rolled her eyes before going back to the computer screen.
            I don’t think there has ever been a conversation shared between us that did not involve some level of sarcasm. Most of the time I thought we should have our own reality show. We are pretty damn hilarious.
            I glanced over at her round, porcelain doll face. She was naturally tanned like a surfer though, something she inherited from our mother that I did not. She looked up at me with what I called her “just brown” eyes, to annoy her. But what she called usually striking a dramatic pose, her “copper against honey with flecks of sage that glowed when they were watery and became shades of nature after a storm” eyes. She was pretty creative with her words, as well as in a drawing book.
            She turned the computer screen towards me and said,
            “look at this post on Tumblr”, a sentence we say more often than we should.
            This post was a gifset, the first gif was of two bats who frantically moved their wings and the second, was basically the same except there was a few seconds where it was focused on one of the bat’s stressed faces. My sister animated the captions of the gifs, something not unusual in our house.
            “AHH Walter, get the spider!” She said in a girly voice for the first gif.
            “I am TRYING HELEN.” Was said next in a deeper voice, with exaggeration on the last two words.
            Her loud laugh from her own joke made me burst out laughing too. She shook her head while laughing. This made her waist long brown hair bounce, the light from the lamp changed it from golden to dark chestnut with every shake. My laughs turned into chuckles as I looked back down at my own Tumblr. She thought she was so funny, always laughing at her own jokes but I guess she was pretty hilarious.
            She fixed the beanie on her head and pushed her bangs back under the hat. The navy colour always made her black eyeliner and mascara stand out more than usual. It amazed me how she could change how she looked all the time and it came off like she wore that style of clothes all the time. When we were younger it was always hot pink and sparkles but now it’s a mix of everything. Some days I saw her in plaid button ups and beanies and some days in fancy blouses and leggings; she wore converse and then moccasins. It really was no secret that she has a large closet full of variety. One she had also colour coated.
            Her room was pretty much her personality in a nutshell: crazy. She has her own artwork on one wall, quotes on her ceiling, a brightly coloured comforter, and bright coloured scarves hung on her canopy bed.  
            Immediately when you walked in her room all you saw were boys: boys here, boys there, and boys everywhere. And no, not a variety of boys either. It’s the same British/Irish (she would murder me if I just said British) boy band known as One Direction. Cue hoards of teenage girls screaming. Yes, I live with a mad fangirl. And I know you are probably thinking, “yeah my sister (or brother) is a fan too and it gets wild” but no, you do not even know the half of it. She was absolutely obsessed. Not a crazy fake fan that said they loved the boys but completely butchered their names and information, she was a wrathful, dedicated directioner (the fan clubs name). Unfortunately I was on the receiving end of her antics, although it was pretty entertaining.
            She quoted what they said and tried to imitate their accents but she can only do Niall’s, the Irish one, moderately OK and only with certain phrases. This “phase but not really a phase anymore phase” has been going on since 2010 when they were on the X Factor. Yes for four years and yes I know more about them than I would like to admit. She has all of their songs, even ones not on their albums, on her IPod plus hardcopies. She has t-shirts, drawings, and a Twitter dedicated to them. At their concert she cried and legit bawled when Liam (her favourite) came out on stage. She has a real crazy thing for boy bands and people who are British. Even one wall in her room, that she painted herself, was of the Union Jack and not the Canadian flag. 
            I knew she sounded like a complete whack job now but the way I saw it was that she was very passionate. When she loved something, she invested her whole being into it and even if she didn’t love it she tried her best to do her best, which was something I admired.
            “I WILL FIND HIM!” She suddenly screamed, which made me jump. She said it a few more times before looking at me and smiled, her naturally pale red lips separated and showcased her straight, white teeth. Something the both of us acquired without braces.
            She was saying what Michael Shannon said in Man of Steel when he threatened to find and kill superman on Earth. It was her favourite line and I absolutely could not tell you why. She was a weird one.
            I had always wondered what it was like to be inside her head, I assumed it would be like Alice in Wonderland. Everything made no sense at all but at the same time made perfect sense. I knew I would definitely see bright colours, weird animals, and abstract landscape. Whenever I thought about what went through her mind I instantly regretted it. Knowing it was probably like me being in the maze in the Triwizard Tournament without having my name picked from the Goblet of Fire: dangerous and wrong. She really was mad, “entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.” I can only deduce that her mind was like those two great stories, breathtaking and magical.
            Her projects for school definitely showed that she has a wild imagination. Her one, hypothetical not actually performed, experiment in grade 9 was “The Affect of Crayons On Hamsters”. Yes you guessed it, that would mean that the hamsters would have had to eat crayons.
            I looked back over at her again but she was no longer sitting on the opposite couch as me. I saw her from the corner of my eye coming back from the kitchen.
            “Man I love food,” she said while eating off of a plate covered in cut up cheese and crackers. She was dancing exotically around the TV and I could not help but stare. She stared back at me for a few seconds before breaking out into a creepy grin, one I could only describe as the Grinch’s before he said “I know just what to do” and decided to steal Christmas from the Who’s. I returned the sinister grin for a mere 5 seconds before I dropped it when she lost interest in me for a yogurt commercial on TV.
            She could never stay too focused for too long and if she absolutely had to, like on a test or something in school, then you could guarantee she would not be sitting still. Everyone was born with basic reflexes and I am pretty sure the Megan was born with a few different ones. She shook her leg, tapped her pencil, and cracked her knuckles like it was nobodies business. She only ever realized she did that stuff when someone commented on it or told her to stop.
            My mom walked into the room doing up a bracelet on her wrist.
            “Get ready, we have our friend’s party soon,” she said to us. I looked over at Megan as she looked over at me; a mischievous glint was present in her eyes before we both looked back at our mom.
            “Our friend? Could you be anymore vague? Believe it or not we actually have friends in the plural sense not just one friend.” Megan said with a smile, letting my mom know she was just messing around with her. Of course that didn’t stop our mum from rolling her eyes at her. 
            “Diane, remember? I told you about this last week. No getting out of it.” She replied with finality.
            “Is there going to be lots of people there?” I asked, finding my voice.
            “Yeah, I mean you know we don’t really like people. “Socializing”? This term is not one I enjoy.” Megan added on. I looked over and smirked at her, we were both pretty awkward when it came to social situations and therefore tried to get out of many, if not all, of them. 
            “It is a party you know, meaning yes, there will be people there now go get changed” mom snapped, which made us grin widely before we got off of the couch and went up the stairs to our rooms.
            As we walked up the stairs I could not help but think about what a crazy pair we were. Megan made up a lot of the crazy as well as cockiness and wit.
I would never understand how she could be wild yet a “confident in the closet”. She reminded me of a chameleon; could be absorbed in the surroundings, unique, ever changing, and unpredictable. I am not going to lie; she was a pretty rad sister. 
Her hair flows in soft waves down her back to her waist. It glistens a warm honey brown in the sunlight, yet a dark chestnut in the moonlight. A knitted beanie covers the back of her head most of the time, letting her bangs fall on her forehead. Her face is round, as smooth as a porcelain doll but naturally tanned like a surfer. Her eyebrows are full and brown, perfectly complimenting her eyes. The copper against honey with flecks of sage glow when they are watery, becoming shades of nature after a storm. But when she is happy, her eyes hold a golden gleam. The navy colour of her hat makes the black on her eyelids and lashes more bold. Her nose is round, marked with a freckle on the left nostril. Her lips look like they are constantly covered with a light red lip stain, her bottom lip being larger than the top. Laughter is what I hear often coming from her mouth. Her teeth are straight and white, almost screaming "look at me." The smooth tone of her voice is either joking or being sarcastic and when she is serious it becomes sharp and dangerous. She always has to be in motion; whether it is shaking her leg, constantly touching things, or playing with her fingers. She is always anxious; jumpy, a confident in the closet", modest and shy. Her clothes reflect her ever-changing personality. One day she wears lip gloss, pale pink pants, and a cream blouse, but the next she is wearing dark red lipstick, skinny jeans, a graphic tee, and converse. She is hard to keep up with. What she thinks about, how would I know? Schoo, gossip, friends, One Direction. I imagine it to be something like the characters from Wonderland: she's mad, "entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are." She confuses me at every corner, but she is my sister so I don't care. 

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

Retail



I have worked in retail for the past six years and from this experience I have come to some conclusions:


  1. Everyone should work a retail job in their life: It will make them be a lot more money conscious as well as conscious of how they treat people after leaving this job. 
  2. You lose you faith in humanity so many times: People are stupid, just like beyond dumb and retail makes you realize that much more. 
  3. The customer is never right: Mr. Selfridge, Mr. Wanamaker and Mr. Field had no idea what this really meant. The customer is 99% always wrong and sometimes when they are right it is a major fluke. 
Retail is able to open your eyes to many different things, not only because of the people you meet and the situations you are put in but because of the work you have to do and the shit pay you get. Some places will pay their employees well (like over $12 an hour) and some places will try and cheat you out of your pay because they think they can do that. I have some amazing stories from my six years of experience, and some of them I will share with you. 

The first story is a continuous one it is the dreaded 2 for $5 sign or any 2 for... sign. This is obvious but clearly not to the thousands of customers I have put through. The sign clearly states you can get two cans of soup for $5 and then underneath states 'Or reg. price: $3.29'. But sometimes people come up with one can of soup and are like oh the sign says 2 for $5. My face drops and I look at them losing the last bit of my soul and say you have to buy two to get the deal. It honestly amazes me how idiotic people can be when it is literally laid out right in front of them. It literally states everything on the sign, there is no reason as to why someone should not understand the sign.

Another one is "If it doesn't scan it's free", my god. The last bit of my soul I had left in me has just escaped from that one statement. NO it does not mean it is free, and NO I do not find it funny. This laugh that I am currently laughing is only there because I can do nothing else without being fired. I hear this daily, and most of the time multiple times a day. It honestly surprises me so much how many people actually say it and how many people actually find it funny. Cashiers DO NOT find this funny. In fact, we hate it and if you could just stand at the till and not talk to us that would be great.

The workload of someone who runs a department is startling. I run the fashion department at the store I work at and it is honestly one of the hardest things to do. People who work in offices or in construction or whatever else really have no idea what it is like to run their own department, while also knowing how to use a till, and cleaning up after every single person who walks through the store. I, myself, simultaneously do every single job in the store at the same time, while some people in office buildings can barely do their own job properly. If I don't do my job right things don't run smoothly and customers get angry which makes me pissed off. I do a lot in one day; I have price changes, I have markdowns, I have over 30 boxes of fashion to get out even though are racks are so packed you can't fit anything else, I also have other responsibilities like jumping on the till when it gets busy, letting the cashier go for their breaks, going for my own breaks, doing returns, running to the bank to get money, and the list goes on and on. And people just think I'm standing around waiting to help them. That is definitely not the case.

Anyway, that is my first of I'm sure many rants. Retail rants are endless as people just become dumber and dumber. Good luck out there to anyone in retail and everyone else who isn't, remember a few things: we are the people who stock the shelves for you, clean up after you, and put your items through the till, if you piss us off we can make your life a living hell. And also we are human beings like you and deserve to be respected.