So tired...

I am glad that it is finally Tuesday as this is the light at the end of my tunnel. Unfortunately it is raining outside, the canal is no longer open, we still have a smog advisory in effect, and I am so tired. I think that I have presented something in every class that i have had this week (so 3), BUT I only have one class left for this week, one next week, before I go to the Mayan Riviera! yahoo! After class on Monday I will be taking the bus to get the airport, and then Geoff and I will be boarding a plane (with all of the other people coming from Ottawa) to Cancun before we get transferred to the Cocacabana Resort where we will be staying until Feb 21st! I'm also very excited because I get to see Rachel and Shanna who I haven't seen in a while, so that should be quite fun.

I am also very happy that it is Tuesday because it means that tomorrow is Chinese New Year. It is the year of the Rooster/Chicken (depending on who you ask), so it is Francis' year. Geoff and I will be going to my parents' house for dinner (since we are busy with Ultimate tomorrow) tonight so i am also very happy about that because this means that I don't have to cook :).

Although I am very happy with these things, I also know that I am quite busy and will continue to do so until the end of the semester. In my Sport Marketing class, our big project is about brand recognition and the attributes of the Gee Gees from the athletes' perspective. Since we want to survey the athletes before the enter into the championship phase, we are running out of time. I am also writing a research paper on the Political Economy of University Sport which I am doing a lot of research on. I also have to find an Internship for the summer. Each student in my program (there are only 12 of us) has to find an internship, and I am having a little bit of trouble trying to nail down what I want to do. I am divided between the Olympic Movement and Grassroots sport as I am interested in both (yet so different). I really have to figure things out soon...I have been really putting this off.

I think that I will be quite happy when the semester finishes on April 7th, but for the next week, I am going to hope that time stands still while I am on the beach. 7 Sleeps left until I am on the beach!

What breed of puppy are you?

So I seem to procrastinating more than I should, but my excuse right now is that I'm sick with a cold. Anywho, while surfing, I found this interesting quiz on blogthings about what breed of puppy you would be. There are a few questions to answer, and then out pops an answer. I think that my answer is pretty interesting considering the sport that I enjoy to play....and I know now why I am so drawn to Ultimate :)

You Are a Golden Retriever Puppy

Tolerant, fun-loving, and patient. You are eager to please - and attached to your frisbee.

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Skating on the Canal

Today was one of the nicest days of winter so far. It wasn't too cold, yet not too warm that the Canal was cold. The high temperature was -6 C, which brought tons of people out onto the Canal. Geofford, Keating, and I started out at the Somerset entrance and we were going to meet Brash and Vero at 5th Avenue where she was going to rent some skates. Unfortunately Keating's skates were too small, and he had just recently gotten stepped on at soccer, so his feet weren't feeling 100% so he turned back around Pretoria Bridge, so only Geoff and I met Brash and Vero at 5th Avenue. When we got there, we found out that there are is only a limited selection of skates, and Vero's size was one of the more popular ones, so only Geoff, Brash and I set out, but before we could get too far, Vero called to let us know that she was able to get a pair of skates in her size. yay! It's a wonder what we would have done before the advent of cell phones.

Geofford and I at the 5th Avenue rest area

The surface of the canal by this time had gotten slightly snow covered due to all the people skating on it, we were thinking it would be great to have zambonis on the ice during the day just so that the ice surface could get nice and smooth for the people skating later in the day. I guess we will just have to get to the canal earlier in the morning to get that freshly flooded ice. We skated to the Bronson St. bridge/Dow's Lake where we got some beavertails and hot chocolate/apple cider.

The sunset at Dow's Lake while we were skating on the canal.

Books

I seem to be addicted to books, and fortunately for my schoolwork, I only have a limited number of non-school books at my disposal. The rest of my "leisure" books are back at my parent's place, which is really fortunate. If all of my books were at my disposal, I don't think that I would get anything done.

I'm not sure how many people actually read my blog, but I'm going to start recommended books that I think are really good, and I'm going to start with a book that I actually read last semester for an assignment and I have just re-read because well I ran out of other books to read.

This book is called "A Test of Will" and it is an auto-biographic look of Warren Macdonald's extraordinary story of survival. This book tells the inspiring story of Warren's journey to reclaim his life after a tragic accident while climbing Mount Bowen on Hinchinbrook Island, off the east coast of Australia. I really enjoyed this book as it made me take a step back and realize that you can't take anything/one in your life for granted and that we should really treasure all of the special gifts in your life because you never know what is going to happen. I own a copy of the book, and have registered it on BookCrossing so that when I lend out the book, people will hopefully post up what they thought about the book, just so I can see how it affects other people.

I'm not sure if I have ever told anyone about BookCrossing, but it is a pretty cool website that allows you to track your books if you ever let them go into the wild. I think that it is a very interesting concept because it allows you to share your books with other people (if you want to) or release your book out into the wild by leaving it anywhere for someone to pick up. I've decided that I'm going to release some books when I go on vacation just to see where they end up. (hopefully they won't end up in the trash).

Anywho, 17 days left before we go to Mexico! I can't wait...it's way too cold in Ottawa right now, but it's great for winterlude because that means the canal will be nice and frozen, hopefully the temperature rises though, so people aren't too scared away by the cold.

Fun with Pictures

So school has started again, and along with school comes the many assignments. This semster I am taking courses in Political Economy of Sport, Marketing of Sport, Sport in Canadian Life, and a seminar in Professional Environment (aka how to make presentations). There is a lot of reading to do for these courses, and fortunately most of it is semi-interesting as it usually somehow relates back to sport, which is good. But this completely brings me off topic. Of course since I am now supposed to be getting back into studying/reading, Geoff introduces me to a fun computer program that allows me to share pictures as well as upload them to my blog. The program is called Hello and there is another program called Picasa which allows you to organize your photos. I just got them yesterday so I really haven't had a chance to play too much, but they look like fun!

Below is an example of some of the playing that I have been doing. I took some pictures of Geoff and his cat Cawaja over the holidays. She was being really cute that day. Here is one of the pictures:



Geoff and Cawaja

Anywho, I should get back to studying, but now there might be more pictures on my site, so that should be fun. Also, I am starting the countdown on my trip to Mexico for Rachel's Wedding....24 days left before we leave. yay!