April Showers...

Wow, so it's been a month since I posted a blog. I daresay I'm becoming a rather lazy blogger. This is not, however, to suggest that I am being lazy in life. Quite the contrary, life has been ridiculously busy/fun/crazy/exhausting as of late. I shall do a brief recap of the past month's main highlights (not including Jen Mac's orange hair, which was certainly a fabulous highlight!)

Florida/NYC Vacation - Yay. Mid-March meant an much needed escape for the island of snow and wind! I headed to Halifax where I spent a couple of very enjoyable days with Sister Sahra and Rowan Thunder. After a fudge-making session gone wrong (i.e. I ate half the pan in a night!), I was off to Orlando for five nights and four full days of wonderful magicalness!

I met Sheena down there and we spent the first two days wandering around, getting splashy at Typhoon Lagoon and fobbing ourselves off as a married couple (to each other) so we could go to a timeshare presentation and then get really cheap tickets to Busch Gardens. We even had wedding rings which, if they were real, would have set us back about $30,000! I'm not sure we fooled anyone with our charade, but it was hilarious! Sheena got really into telling the story, while I just barely managed to stifle my laughter. On a related note - NEVER EVER agree to go on a timeshare presentation, no matter WHAT incentives they offer you. It is the biggest waste of time and they are so aggressive you can bet your bottom dollar they are aggressive.

Jen joined us mid-week and we enjoyed drinks/food at Bahama Breeeze, delicious drinks at Blue Martinis (plus I danced my butt off, which is always fun!), and had a fantabulous time at Busch Gardens. An amusement park, a zoo AND free beer! Could there be anything better in the world? Well, aside from a giant candy factory with free samples... Anyways, we went on a super scary rollercoaster, plus some average-scary rollercoasters, downed a lot of beer and went ot beer school where we learned that pretty much everyone pours beer into a glass the wrong way. You do not tilt the glass and pour into the side. You set the glass down and pour directly into the middle.

NYC was AWESOME! I left FLorida on Friday and headed to the big apple, where I met up with my friend, Kelly, who is goind a RTW trip. The first night we went out for dinner and started chatting with an older couple sitting beside us - they poured us Saki and gave us all sorts of tips on where to go in the city. Then when we left the restaurant, we were greeted by four people our age who ended up taking us to the subway and one of them stayed out and showed us around Greenwich Village. The next day we just soaked up the city - went on the Staten Island ferry, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue, Empire State Building (but not up it!) and tried to do some shopping, but it was madness. I did mange to buy a knock-off Prada purse from a dude selling them on the street - literally. In the evening Danielle arrived from Montreal and us three single gals hit the town in style. We went to a DJ show (Digitalism) then to a random bar called Hi-Fi, where we enjoyed many beverages and the company of some decent blokes. Sunday was kind of a write-off on account of Saturday night. KElly and I eventually made our way to Central Park, then in the evening all three of us went to a comedy show down near Times Square. Monday was more touring - we went to Soho, where we had the BEST rice pudding at a place called Rice to Riches, then we wandered down through Chinatown to the seaport for lunch. Sadly I had to call it a day and get on my bus to the airport. Boooo. I will definitely go back to NYC. I would love to see more of it, and perhaps in a different season.

Grad School

So about a week into March I rec'd word that my application to Queen's Masters in Enviro Studies program had been accepted. Upon returning from my holiday, I decided to accept the offer. So...it looks like I will be moving to Kingston, Ontario in September and calling it home for the next two years. It hasn't really sunk in yet. I am such a commitment phobe and this is a significant commitment of time and place, as well as money. Luckily the financial burden will be significantly reduced by funding offered through the university. Still, time is so precious to me! Anyways - I'm excited about being in academia again, in an arena that I find interesting and important.

Tip to Tip

Last Friday I decided, under the influence of several glasses of wine and a few shots of whiskey, that I would register for the Tip to Tip For Africa event. This is an annual event held on PEI, which requires participants to raise funds and then bike from the Western tip of the Island to the Eastern tip over a four day period. The total trip is about 400 kilometres! I have to pay $ for my accommodations and food, then I have to raise $600 for the Townships Project, which supports South African women entrepreneurs through micro-financing so they can start or expand their business.

An excellent investment of funds in my opinion. As for the question of my survival - we shall see. I have just started training, so it should be quite an interesting five weeks leading up to the actual cycle, which takes place May 16 - May 19. If anyone is interested in learning more about the project and/or sponsoring me check out the website:

http://tiptotipforafrica.wordpress.com

If you want to donate just click on the donate button and use your PayPal account or credit card. be sure to include my name in the NOTES link which will appear when you are reviewing your donation!

On that note I shall end this blog post with a promise to post on a more regular basis in the upcoming weeks, perhaps with some notes re: the progress of my training. As it stands now, I am quite simply SORE all OVER!