Friday 27 December 2013

Holiday Hike?

I'm used to spending Christmas under a few feet of snow so you can imagine how weird it was for me to be somewhere that there was no snow and it was also green in the middle of winter.  Since my parents have moved they've become super outdoorsy so on Christmas Eve we decided to go on a little hike and I brought my big girl camera with me to snap a few photos.

So mossy and green! Are we sure it's December?



Looks like a jungle or something


I'm getting really artsy now




My mom and my sister

My dad snapping some pictures of his own



Bit of a different Christmas for my famjam this year but still nice and I love an excuse to break out my camera.  Hope you all had lovely holidays too!  (Slightly different kind of post but I wanted an excuse to post some of my pictures.)

Sunday 22 December 2013

Home for the Holidays

Training has been going a bit better lately but since we were reaching the end of another four week build I was looking forward to getting a bit of a break and seeing my parents for more than a few days at a time.  This year is the first Christmas that we're spending at our Parents' new house which is a little different but also meant that we only had about a one hour flight from Calgary to Vancouver instead of the five hour flight to Ottawa.

Thinking that this would be an easy trip we got to the airport early only to find out that our flight had been cancelled for no reason, none that they told us anyways, and so we had to cab all the way back home and then try to travel again the next day (luckily being the emotional wreck that I am I cried so they gave us vouchers for free cab rides).  The next day after being put on standby and delayed we finally got on a plane and made it to the Vancouver airport.

I was expecting rain and warm (compared to Calgary) weather but it actually snowed after we arrived! Although it's mostly gone now since it rained today.

Almost looks like Calgary (although significantly warmer)
We went to the Vancouver Symphony's Christmas concert which was good and also served to remind me that I wasted my musical talent by not doing anything musical since high school.
Sneaky crooked, blurry picture from the balcony

Selfie because I got to try out my new Revlon lip balm stain (in Crush)
(Don't get to wear makeup much when you train six times a week so I had to document the moment)
Even though I'm technically on holiday I still have training to do so of course I had to travel to the Richmond Olympic Oval to get some weights done.  I feel like I'm just travelling from one Olympic Oval to another.

Don't actually get to skate but kind of cool seeing all the banners from the last Olympics when the next ones are just around the corner
Stay tuned for more Christmas-y posts or about how I manage training away from the training centre (because I still don't know how that's going to go) or maybe something completely different, anything could happen.

Monday 9 December 2013

How to Study for Exams


  1. Get out all your books/notes
  2. Do laundry
  3. Go on the internet while you wait for your clothes to wash (hey! that tab of research materials is open that's practically studying right?)
  4. Clean your room, can't study in clutter 
  5. Clean the kitchen ... again, clutter, it's so distracting 
  6. Bake cookies (I suggest regular chocolate chip cookies with half Reese chips that's what I made and I'm OBSESSED)
  7. Open file containing notes on laptop
  8. Watch seven hours of YouTube videos
  9. Try to decide if you have enough time to read that book before the exam or if you should read the sparks notes, do neither, take a shower and actually blow-dry your hair for once instead
  10. OH SHIT THE EXAM'S TOMORROW WTF HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL WEEK STUDY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN IN THE NEXT TWELVE HOURS
Happy Finals Week!
P.S.
Some of my favourite studying songs here
A good Christmas studying playlist here
The cookie recipe I used here (minus walnuts with Reese chips for half the chocolate chips)
Only 15 days until Christmas, we can do this!

Someone sent me this and it seemed appropriate

Thursday 5 December 2013

How to Avoid Freezing to Death

It seems that winter in fully upon us now, there's snow on the ground, the Christmas decorations are up, Christmas songs are playing in all the stores, oh, and it's also REALLY EFFING COLD.  I don't know how it is where you are but where I am we've been having temperatures like -28°C and windchills of like -39°C (I really wish I was joking).  So here is my foolproof way to avoid freezing to death:

  1. Stay inside. Don't even open the curtains just sit on your couch with blankets and hot chocolate and never leave it.  Don't even go outside for food, that's why deliverymen exist.
  2. If you really have to leave the couch to go to school or something (and let's be honest if it's not for an exam is it really worth it?) bundle up and then run directly from the warmth of your house to your car, and I mean RUN, if you don't have time to feel the cold maybe you can pretend that it doesn't exist.
  3. Don't have a car? Layers. Wear two pairs of mitts, wear more than one hat.  Wearing jeans to school? Wear sweatpants over top. Wearing leggings? Add some sweatpants. Already wearing sweatpants? Add more sweatpants. -30 is not the time to be cute and stylish it's all just about surviving.
That's all I've got.  I've been trying my very best to use friends for rides and then just staying at the university all day, it doesn't even matter that I've got hours and hours between classes/training.  If it's cold where you are try not to be outside for very long and cover your pretty faces! Frostbite is real and it hurts.

20 days to Christmas!!

Sunday 1 December 2013

Christmas Decorating! (Part One)

Today's post was supposed to be "November in Pictures" but with competing and school the only pictures I took this month were a selfie and a picture of a box of holiday Rice Krispies.

Since it's December 1st today me and the roomies decorated our condo for the holidays before we all go our separate ways (one of us to FISU games next week, the rest of us home to our families soon after).  It's hard being in Calgary sometimes, being away from family and friends, especially around holidays like Christmas or Thanksgiving so this year our Black Friday shopping consisted of decorations to make our place more home-y.  If you're away from home, stressed about exams, and feeling a little lonely a few little things can make everything better (well almost everything).

We bought a teeny tiny Christmas tree and some cheap ornaments at Target

A short string of lights and some seasonal foliage in a vase, ooh so fancy

Splurging on a nice smelling candle can make even the dingiest dorm room feel warm and cozy (also great when studying)

We also have one fancy wreath from HomeSense because we're classy like that
And with just a few cheap festive things that were (mostly) on sale we were able to Christmas-fy our little town house so obviously we had to have a little holiday photoshoot.

Aw look how much we love each other

Gazing at Herb the lovely picture we were gifted when we moved in

Christmas card worthy
The most adorable picture ever taken, we should probably have this framed