Rouyn

Man it's been a long time.

It's almost sad that the last time I've written was when I saw the worst movie of 2014. The should totally not have been worth writing about cuz eh? Writing a review, even bad, is still publicity. Might entice people to actually go watch it to defy my warnings.

Did you go see it after reading that entry?

Yes?

Yah. Sorry man gotta believe me next time.

A lot has been going on lately. And then not that much. 

I have been busier and still had managed to blog about randies (randomness + goodies) meanwhile. But this time I just feel crazy tired by so much stuff.

By the way. The Pope is in Korea. Hi Pope :)

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So I went to Canada for a trip that lasted as long as hi I'm there. Bye see you next time.

I did get to get a glimpse of lots of people I hadn't met in a long time and saw my new born niece ♥ and my 5 years old princess when I visited my brother at the summer house they rented.

Me in my amazing backyard, chilling with a cucumber that my mom grew. And no it was not meant to sound dirty. :) I just love the food my parents grow in their gardens.

So on the 8th of September last year, I became a good friend's baby's godmother <3 and it was the first time I got to see her. It was brief but they had dressed her up in the Hanbok I sent her as a baby shower gift. She is sooooooo cute! But she is not going to be a girly girl if I'm ever right about gut feelings. She will be driving a F1 car. I have rarely seen a baby enjoy speedy baby cart racing and being turned upside down as she did. Doesn't she look like she's 2 years old? She's only 10 months old. I was so surprised when I saw her.

I mean it was not hard to be flabbergasted by the size of her after seeing my brother's 2nd daughter (guess who is the fairy godmother?) who was only 14 days out.

My flight took some 30 hours back and forth, plus 12 hours ride back and forth by car to my hometown. Thats more or less 45 hours if I include the flights layovers and delays.  So two full days of transportation.  And 4 days home. Not much. But enough for lots of hugs and love.

The only positive point about such a short trip is that I got to enjoy only the best of everything, and didn't do it long enough so I'd be unwilling to come back to work in Korea. My best friend came back from Montreal with me so I got to spend a lot of time with her. I had missed her a lot.

Me, rocking up the Nexen jersey in a French-Speaking 45,000 inhabitant town in Quebec.

Since it was not my first time in Asia, when I came to Korea I was not expecting such a big culture shock, and I was right. However, I was really surprised by the amount of small coffee shops, all looking tiny and neat, with each their own cuteness to them. 

All with free wifi.

I love Korea.

I was thinking how boring it would be when I'd get back to Quebec eventually, and get to have to restrict myself to a single coffee shop per town I visited...

But then again, life is never so stable as to never change, so back in Quebec for my quick vacation, we went through a city called Mont-Laurier, that is a city that basically lives off people taking the high way between region towns like mine and the metropolis, as it is situated right by it, and there it was, a coffee shop. A flower by the trash. A coffee shop by a dirty noisy highway. 

And not just a coffee shop. 

A nice one, that can probably make Korean coffee shops jealous. Wooden structures everywhere, coffee roasting machines in sight, chocolate covered coffee bean jars. And to add to the special, a place where you can paint on ceramic wares and figurines. In Korea, it'd be the perfect spot for couples to make couple samezies of cups and the like, in Quebec, I think it's more of a family thing. 

Still.

I was positively surprised. I should not look down on Quebec. It can do nice things out of nowhere :)

Over 7K!

Thank you~~~! I just realized I have over 7K views! Makes me feel so mean to have neglected my blog for so long. I suppose I have been busy, but then I don't know, sometimes you just don't endup writing for so long and you just loose the habit. I actually took many pictures in order to write some post, and they just never ended up being posted at all. 

Fall season! Halloween already over, now Christmas coming soon. Work is keeping me busy, bf is keeping me busy and enjoying nice coffee/restaurant/drinking time with the Bordeleau sister keeps me happy. Time is getting colder though so I bought quite a lot of new outfits and coats. I'll try to upload pictures of my new friends here whenever I take my lazy ass near my computer.

Bought this awesome strawberry cup and plate for $1 at La Ressourcerie Bernard-Hamel
Love them, those times you walk in there and you find an unexpected treasure.

I went to Montreal for Halloween, as planned a few months ago, and ended up staying much longer than I planned. See, I actually have a defect in my auditory nerve, on the left ear, resulting in my hearing being much much hindered (put both of your finger on your ears, press hard, then have someone talk to you: that's about what I can hear from my left hear). So yes, I went from a doctor to another, doing test, getting samples and they still can't find the problem. At this point, sadly, I think it can't be helped: at least we still might find a way to make sure my other ear doesn't get the same, and prevent the right one to get worse.

In my trip to Montreal I got to go shopping <3, eat delicious food, try the new Karaoke bar La bouche (not so new I know, but I still hadn't gotten to go up to now so whatever). I'll try to upload pictures, but basically I bought shoes and pants: yes pants. Up to last winter I had only one pair of white jeans. I never wear pants. MC got me to like pants when she made me try hers: I then realized that you can look very nice in pants, provided that they are skinny enough and fit you well.

Halloween Clubbing with Lala and Melissa <3

Few pictures of awesome shoes: Red ones from Semy, a store on St-Hubert, selling imported shoes from Italy, all of awesome quality and fit for a wedding ($350),  Shiny ones from Boulet, still on St-Hubert, where all the shoes are $30, and at the back of the store they own awesome quality Cowboy boots - around $250 - in amazing colors and all in really good quality leather. I will go buy a pair next time I go: this time I had no more room in my bag. The beige ones were around $40, bought also on St-Hubert, I cannot remember the name, but St-Hubert has tons of shoe stores, just walking around, one is bound to find awesomeness: just need to keep the eyes open.

Went by Holt & Renfrew to buy new concealer at Bobbi Brown and ended up buying a case of brushes! My very first case ($125). I really love to use different brushes to put on make up, not only because the result is much nicer, but also because the feel of the brushes on the skin is really nice. much nicer anyways than cheap pharmacy brushes.

New nails~~~ I sort of stopped doing my own nails for a while, since working as a waitress sort of makes me worry that my polish will chip and fall in the food of the customers. Instead I decided to try the Vietnamese store in my hometown that do UVGel nails, for a result that holds much longer. 

When I got those done, bf said they looked like I had my nails dirty. Mean mean bf. The second one, MC qualifies it as a "Care Bear" nail polish. Oh well, can't please everybody.

When I went to Japan I bought a make your own bead accessories thingy to see if I liked to do it. The result was okay, and I bought more on Internet, through a Japanese friend (they only ship in Japan). Last week I finished this awesome bear in dress, and now I feel so awesome I feel like no beads pattern is too difficult for me muhahahaha.

The fact that you can do those in parts, and that you see the result quite fast makes it funnier to make that, say for example cross-stitches, of which I haven't kept doing since I moved from Montreal. Mean mean mean me. 

Gave this one to darling Rock-See for her BD a few days ago <3

My parents went to Cuba for a Velo trip, lucky ones, so we went cooking at my place (no fear of disturbing anyone) and in the end bf never even let my touch the pans: I just ate. What can I do, he is Mr. picky and can back it up by being an excellent cook.

Random Picture of me because, why not?

Crazy end of Summer Weekend

I haven't really gone clubbing/drinking for real lately, if I compare to my university years. I went a bit in Montreal last July, but I cannot say I really enjoy it as much, at least when it comes to dancing. I feel like my weekends of partying every Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays are quite far indeed. The memory of showering at 5AM from a sweaty dancing night out... hmm... yup, very far indeed. I know going out is like many habits, when you stop for a long time, you need to fall back in again to like it once more, but it takes the energy and will to actually fall back in. And I feel so lazy. Every time I go out, I have an awesome time, but every time, I need to push myself to actually get out of my comfort zone: lazying out at home. 

Last week end I went out with a girl from my job, the awesome MC <3 we went to the O'toole night club and finished the evening at Morasse with a well deserved snack at 4AM. We went out with friends from China I introduced to MC and had a crazy drinking night: damn me for forgetting Chinese people usually are good at most drinking games. Those who aren't are either too young, or lying about being bad. Really. 

The only thing missing from the night out was my best friend Lala: MC does not like to go dancing. Lala, MC and I would make a lovely threesome of awesome party time IMO. In any case, fun fun times, worth taking the bother to get out of my comfort zone.

That evening, at the restaurant, I had burnt my arm with the coffee heater:
so the mark on my arm is noteven because of my scarring (which is on
 the other hand) which is quite frustrating... I am not supposed to have a
 scar on that arm, damn it.... stupid clumsy me. 

4AM at Morasse Poutine... so many people this is intense.
Morasse is really THE place for after party munchies

Next morning I wake MC up, and we got eat at Ya Yuan, chinese buffet place near the O'toole, on our way to get MC's car back (we obviously did not drive back home, aren't we awesomely responsible people?)

So another once in an eternity: after clubbing, buying something I haven't bought and worn in ages. Pants. Yes, I now officially have a second pair of pants. I never realized how never wearing pants make people go insane with bewilderment when I actually wear them. I don't feel comfy in pants, so some 3 years must have past since I actually bought a pair of jeans. I owned one pair, a white one, and now I have a salmon one. Needed a colorful pair, since I have too many white shirts I cannot wear with white pants. Being white is enough, no need to look dead with too much of that color...

I have no merit for the shoes. They're MC's, and they're awesome.
I want them, but for now, I just borrow 'em

Crazy movie night yesterday, with $20 worth of candies. Great times are those you spend with friends, with an overly intense amount of sweet stuff. While life betrays you often, sweets never do. 

Belly Dance

As a kid, my parents tried to get my interested in a lot of different extra-curricular activities (not sure you call them that, but whatever) such as sport, music and dance classes. Sadly, while I liked them, I never really striked a passion for any. I wanted to be really good right here right now, and I did not want to start with the basic: I neither had the patience to go slowly, neither the self esteem to see myself doing bad in all of those. 

This is obviously not me. Found the image on google :)

Last year I looked for something fun to do with my mother, sister (my brother's wife <3) and her mother and we thought of belly dancing: there is nothing more random than belly dancing, and we thought that the four of us would have fun doing it, being a dance mainly of muscle control rather than rapidity and performance - at least at the start. In the end, my sister got busy with school and wanted to do something more cardio, and her mother had a knee problem that did not mix up well with belly dancing. So thus, my mother and I continued, the both of us enjoying this mother daughter quality time, without much stress. 

The classes stopped during summer so we haven't practiced for a few months, but it started once more and I had my first class tonight at 6. I love those classes. I hope I can find a belly dancing class in Korea, though I don't know about that... while there might be classes in Seoul, I think I'll just end up comparing myself to those skinny korean girls and feel fat XD oh well, I'll see what happens there, no need to worry about that.

내 세상...

These are the landscapes I see everyday in nice weather when I walk to my workplace. I don't think I envy others for what they have, at least on this point. You see, my hometown has 45K inhabitants, so it is not such a small town, but we have a big lake right in the middle. Originally, Rouyn and Noranda were two different 'town', the high town, with all immigrant workers all getting high salaries from the copper mining industry (Noranda) the whole place was pretty much owned by te mining company; and you had the low town (Rouyn), where people just built their houses as they pleases, all over the place, people with no direct link to the mining company. This explains why the streets are so clean-cut in Noranda and quite randomly built in Rouyn. Both towns were separated by the Osisko Lake (meaning muskrat in Algonquin language). Later on, the two towns were united and Rouyn-Noranda was born, still physically separated by the lake. I grew up in the Rouyn part of the town, and the restaurant I work at is in Noranda, so I walk by the promenade beside the lake everyday to go work. It is quite peaceful to have a lake right in the middle of a town.

 The 5 tower fountain, also beside the lake on my way to work, was built for the first Canadian Olympics by the town, at night it lits with color-changing lights, since Rouyn-Noranda's 75th anniversary, so day or night, it is a nice place to hang out at. 

Rouyn-Noranda's hospital is also by the lake, and they have a big parc for long term patients and family to go chill at. I think the location was well thought.

Saucier, Nothomb

I finished two books in the last weeks. Neither of them were long to read, I just picked them up and read them both in a couple of hours, sitting in my backyard, in the last of the warm summer days we had. It feels surreal how cold it is right now, when I think of the heat of the last weeks. This is Abitibi for you: you can never plan temperature in advance and changes of temperature, made in super short lenght of time, happen randomly and drastically.

So I give you "Il pleuvait des oiseaux" (lit. it was raining birds) by Jacqueline Saucier.

The story follows the lives of elderly people who decided to start their lives anew in the forest, with the fewest of modern facilities, and living up their old age considering Death a creepy friend of theirs. Comes along an elderly angel of a lady, whom they called Marie-Desneige, that changes their little daily routine. Marie-Desneige was brought to them about at the same time as a photographer came into their lives to take pictures of the survivors of the Great Fires that had had killed the people of many villages in Canada more than a couple decades ago. 

Mrs. Saucier's writing is slow paced, making it easy to slide in the story and you come to the end of it fairly quickly. After reading it, I stayed in a strange feeling of awe a trace of melancholy fading slowly away...

It is one of those books that makes you both at peace of mind and lost in thoughts at the same time. It brought me tears to the eyes, but not so much tears of sadness as tears of relief. You follow all those people "shedding layers of their own skin, their lives, until only what really matters remains" as would say my sister. Not so much a sad story, but the story of making peace with everything that was, and is no more.

"Tuer le père"(lit. Kill the father) by Amélie Nothomb is a completely different kind of read. The story is the story of three people: a couple and a boy, who evolve in the wicked environment of Burning Man in the states with the odd art that magic is. Two magicians, a master, a pupil. Two different background and two different perspectives on what things really are, the book has this quality to it that makes everything flow and seem peaceful, while the story, if one actually think much into it, is intense and almost creepy. Mrs. Nothomb has this talent, as I saw in Stupeur et Tremblement for example, of telling really twisted stories and making them seem light and happy. The end was a surprise, and I found myself dumbfounded: do I like the story, or not?

What I like about her writing, is that it is clever enough not to be boring, but simple and clear enough, so you can stop reading for a long time, then start again and know exactly where you left, and remember everything that matters to keep reading. 

Flowery Red

I just realized that Summer is already coming to its end... the summer really went by quite fast, I don't even feel like I had a summer at all. Isn't it crazy? The other day I went to see my baby strawberry plants and was super happy that some flowers were blooming, even so late in the summer, but I got a bit worried. I asked my mom: Do you think there is something wrong with my plant? The leaves are turning a bit red. She obviously went on, laughing on the corner of her mouth, Well, we are in September afterall, what is weird about red leaves?

So here I find myself, stupidly wonderning where my summer went.

Were are a couple of flowers from our backyard, that still bloom beautifully even so late in the season. How I love the magic of flowery gardens.

Beads Beads Beads...

Since the beginning of the summer I haven't really taken time for myself, time to actually do things. I always loved making things, decorating them, cleaning things around me to make them prettier, added new things to decorate my room/bedroom and the like. 

Since the beginning of the summer I basically went to Montreal to see people I had missed for so long since I left it, and got to know better some people around me in my hometown. Among those, 4 nice girls that I met through Fura of which two came to work at my restaurant - see how I write 'my' restaurant... wow, so full of myself, pardon me, 'where I work' might be a bit better? Anyways, while I think meeting people is awesome, I also love to have time to myself, and have the feeling I actually accomplish something. This is probably why I always sucked at learning piano and other instruments: while getting better is amazing and you get to play awesome songs, there is no physical concrete proof of it. Making things, you end up accumulating and piling them (then another part of the fun is to put them in order so that it's not too messy all around, but let's not go there) so you see what you did. You have a tangible proof of the time you spent. In the same way, reading a book also does that, because you end up accumulating new books and put them nicely in shelves all around the place (on the same lead, re-reading a book then, is again 'unproductive', but I love to reread books I like, I know I will not be disappointed).

Anyways, I decided to get myself back to making things... in the last 2 days I finished a book, cleaned up stuff and finally pushed myself to try to make a bead purse charm accessory of which I bought the material last March, when I was in Japan. Thing is that I actually have been fascinated for quite a long time by people who can make animals, accessories and cute flowers and the like using only beard and fishing thread. You can see those mainly in Asia, or if you go to any China/Koreatown. So there. I just bought a very cute rabbit beads phone charm and remembered I had my little set to make my very own. I figured that if I get good enough I might actually try to do other stuff, but those things, if you don't push yourself, you never start, because there is always a "I'll do it later". 

So here is my very first bead accessory, made with all my heart. Well. It is a thing to see that your ability doing something is improving; another to see the improvement on the very thing you are making... Like the very first pair of mitten you make, when you compare the first to the second hand...

So here, I sort of screw up the right part, there is a thing that is not well attached, and I just realized it when I was almost done. I gave up redoing the whole thing. That was a bit too much, even for the sake of careful art accessory making, and my OCD need for perfection. I am looking into getting another of those beads sets right now, will upload the website if I ever find something worth it.