Pretty Rain Boots!!

So for like 4 months I have been wanting pretty rainboots, because well, they're pretty and Victoria rains-a lot. I found some really cool ones in Nelson over Christmas, but - they were like $75, and thats a lot of money. Especially when I had bought a pair of boots living on the farm in Creston for 50 cents from the Gleaners. My roommate Gemma had bought me paint for a Christmas present (we did a household secret Santa). So here are my creations... I love them dearly!

TaDa!


Side Shot


Cute Toes


Gosh! The look so cute! I'm so proud of myself for doing something besides jewelry! Oh- and check out the grass! Yes, it is that bright green here already. And snowdrops are out too!

Spring is Here!

Slaughtered

Well yesterday was Debate Day... and ... we died. I'm not surprised, I was trying to argue a side that I didn't agree with, and the guys on the opposite team made some great points (which I'm going to use in my essay.) Oh, and the essay was actually due yesterday, but our lab instructor's letting us hand it in on Tuesday. Yea! So a great start to a school year. right... but I'm not too worried.

It's sooo pretty here today! I woke up (at noon) and the sky is bright blue! Still a bit nippy, but playable outside. I made breakfast for Joel, Gemma and Kevin (roomies) this morning (mmmm, poached eggs, bacon & english muffins) and we sat outside on the deck. I cannot wait for spring to be in full force. Snowdrop are out, and in a few weeks so will daffodils and tulips. Oh how I love Victoria!

So Joel and Kevin just left a bit ago, they're on a mission to find Ninja equipment. They've been on a kick for awhile (basically since we all moved in together) that they were going to become masters. And last night we watched Fearless, and now they're more determined than ever. So I'm going to have two boys in my house, with weapons.... it should be entertaining. I'm not too worried about this either, because this summer they both bought airsoft guns, and there were plenty of battles, but no one was hurt too bad. And it keeps then entertained, and I get to laugh.

Day of Action

Hey! Check out the National Day of Action blog! I've been volunteering (serving soup to starving students) in awareness for this! It's going to be awesome, there are going to be hundreds, if not thousands, of students protesting on the Legislative lawn. I'm so glad I live in Victoria!

Stupid Debate

So, Joel and I have a debate tomorrow in our Resource Management lab. Somehow we have to argue Canada is Doing Enough to Deal with Climate Change. Hmmm, seeing as that we're more than 25% above our targets set in the Kyoto Agreement this is a doozie. (But I guess that doesn't matter since we're not a part of Kyoto anymore, Thanks Stephen Harper! GRRRR!)

Lucky for me, I'm looking into the history of Canadian policy in regards to climate change, this isn't so bad, because there's been a lot of good legislation passed and groups organized around the issue. Unfortunately, it's all about talk and no action, but for the purpose of my debate I'm going to ignore that. Ugh, the other group is going to slaughter us. Joel has to look at Canada compared on an international level... we're pretty much at the bottom for industrialized nations; basically only the US is worse than us. How are we suppose to win a debate when our countries actions suck?! I really feel bad for the other guy in our group. He has to argue that climate change is not affecting/ will not affect natural resources in Canada. Right... about that Pine Beetle infestation and no cold winters...

The worst part about this lab is the other motion, I'm SOOO glad I'm not on that side. They have to argue Are Human Activities Causing Climate Change? How do you even argue the con side? THERE IS NO DEBATE! YES HUMANS ARE CAUSING CLIMATE CHANGE! How can they even expect students to find information on that when there is NONE! So for those of you reading who think that there may still be a debate on the is it, or isn't it? I happily inform you that all scientific evidence backs it up that we have changed the atmosphere. I'm not happy that we have, I'm just happy that all scientists agree that burning millions of years of fossil fuels (full of CO2) has had an impact on the atmosphere.

And to top it all off there's a short paper due along with it. I think it's due next week, but there was no due date on the outline given to us. I really hope it's not due tomorrow, that would really suck. Really Really Suck.

So I love school, honestly. I really enjoy being able to get mad and passionate about a topic. I just wish we didn't have stupid assignments to prove our competency. As far as I'm concerned the instructor who wrote the lab up is incompetent, seeing as that the debate questions are not up for debate. Period.

Joel's Sick :( and Jen feels helpless!

So Joel has been up all night puking... why? I do not know. This is the second time this has happened in the last 3 months. The first time (after our way back from Edmonton) he got really sick for like 24 hours, we figured it was food poisoning from some gross food at the Edmonton Airport (which I didn't eat.) But yesterday we ate the same things, we grabbed panini's from Safeway on route to our 10:00am class, he ate 2, I ate 1. The second one he ate had bacon in it, and that's the only difference. Then I made a cassarole for dinner, and him and I ate it, and Gemma (a roomie) all ate it. I don't get it!

So he's going to miss classes today, and we're meeting with a guy from our Resource Management lab for a debate we have on Thursday. I hope he gets better quick, because we have lots of research to do, and a small (1000 word) essay due on Thursday too!

It's a really good thing we don't have kids (knock on wood) because I have no idea what to do with situations like this. I just peak in on him, and ask if I can get anything for him. What else can I do? I feel bad for the poor guy.

Roomate Hunting

So our house is short a person, there are only 5 of us right now, and we need a sixth person. So I put up and ad on UVic's housing site, for $400, all incl, and that we're looking for a "tidy, fun, chill person".

I've had 8 phone calls so far, its been up for like 30 hours. I guess Victoria's in a bit of a housing shortage, which is good for us. So far 3 people have looked at the place, two are a defanite no.

The girl who came tonight to see the place tells me that she had to leave her last home because the land lord rented it out by the room, and the guy who she lived with turned into a stocker-creapy guy, and she had to go through the police and everything. Very traumatic. At 5:15 we had a guy show up to look at the room and guess what? It was stocker-creapy guy. Needless to say, he left quickly, things were akward, and he isn't renting the room from us.

Whew, it's so much work, but good because our place is nice and clean. It never gets dirty, just untidy, but this is forcing everyone to keep it nice. I like it.

Geography Geek

I am a dork, this is something I've come to embrace in my time at school. I tried to run from it in High School, because well, I wanted to be cool. But not anymore, I just want to enjoy things, and being a dork is one of those ways.

So Joel and I are going to a Geography Conference March 8-11, in Abbotsford with the WDCAG (Western Division of the Canadian Association of Geographers). It's going to have students from around the province presenting their work, and other guest lecturers. We're hoping this will be a good starting point for networking into the geograghy world, and obviously a lot of fun! Check it out here!

Going on trips always involves fundraising, so we're having a bake sale tomorrow. I could have just bought some cookies and called it that, but no, my dorkiness took over. This is what it lead to:

It's a carrot/raisin cake, with cream cheese icing, and yes, I drew all the continents myself! YEA Jen! So I'm hoping that people will donate lots of money for a piece of my cake because they'll see that we're dorks, and dorks should go to conferances. And SOGS is Students of Geography Society.

Life is great.