uhohh

i haven't updated in ages, getting lazy... uhohh... but other than that there's no uhohh to be mentioned as life continues to be great. yay for fun.

lets see if i can remember stuff that's happened since the last entry...
end of april we enjoyed a zombie dance by talented semi-dead-person-neesa at the international dance day festivities. shortly afterwards jose helped me in my move to anf's apartment where i now have more space, live far from work, but only a 10min walk from the beaches. beaches! yaaay beaches. if only it was super hot all the time. actually, it was on the weekend, so: if only i was near home some of the time?

zombies

mt.pleasant cemetary

during the move jose managed to infect me with some horrible cold virus and i was out for two days and sick for about two weeks after. but now i'm healthy. (this time really, dan!) and then kate came to visit! yaaay! but right when i was sick... booo. so poor kate had to hang out with sick nadja at home, but we still had fun talking talking talking and watching movies, and went for a walk on my oh-so-close beach. we also visited an aviation museum with cool old planes and then leah came, too! yaaay :). they figured out the metro system within minutes and were amazing at navigating the city while i was at work. in the evenings we met up to explore toronto. they also saved my life one saturday morning at babysitting, where the crazy kids were running around as if on ecstasy.

old planes and old friends

and theeeen dan came! yaay :) so many visitors all at once, twas very fun. the four of us haven't seen each other in about 5 years, so there was a lot of catching up to do. and empanada making. and weeds watching. looots of weeds watching. and chocolate! dan and i were planning to go to an amazing chocolate fountain chocolate chocolate festival, which turned out to be crap. so the next day, since the weather was bad, we stayed at home and had chocolate fondue for lunch and then for desert. soooo good.

once every one was gone my new house was empty, awww. but soon another weekend showed up - toronto circus festival! yaay. there were amazing acrobats, trapeze artists, jugglers, cute kids, water kite making, a toronto island excursion, a night of home-made cocktails (a newly torontonianised couchsurfer used to be a bartender, veeery convenient), and lots more fun stuff. as always, neesa and i managed to fill every day of the week with something... swimming, capoeira... and more but my mind is blanking :)

then this weekend was faaantastic as well! chocolate binge party at maria's, day of doors open toronto (running around from one famous building to the next), sangria party night (soo good homemade! with fresh strawberries, oranges, cherries, apples, pineapple... mmmmmm) at gail's, a nice long morning video chat with charles, and then a full day of street performers and sunshine. twas a good weekend :)

toronto and tiaras

now it's time for more tissue culture and mental preparation for my meeting with my boss this afternoon, to decide what i'm to do over the next few weeks. yay for fun toronto :)

(as usual, one, and that means YOU, must be patient when waiting for photos... - but not anymore!)

niagara pics

are uploaded! (scroll down...)

be patient for the remaining few photos... they're coming. really!

...dun dun dun dun....

...

AND they're there!! uploaded and ready to be gawked at. yay :)

now all thats missing is everything since then... visit by kate and leah and dan. yay again!

kensingtony shoppingness

last week on thursday anf, neesa and i went shopping for a bag and a hat in kensington market, then met more surfers to eat yummy vegetarian food. yay :)

anf's pics

gail's pics

sunny sunny week

lots of new photos! yay :)
here the dialog to them:

(check again later for the rest of the photos - like snakes!)

picking charles up from the airport proved to be quite an ordeal, since canadian customs assumed he was a criminal - they even called me on my mobile to confirm i knew who he was and to ask how long i'd been a citizen. him coming to visit me obviously makes me a potential criminal as well.

early on saturday we headed off to montreal! whee :) loooots of hours of bus riding later we arrived and were met at the station by anf, neesa and a loud trumpet. we made our way to our couchsurfing host's house and then met jose and marie-france to go to a couchsurfing meet up in town, after a fantastic vietnamese dinner (yay for pho!). still being jet lagged, charles was close to collapsing at midnight, so we made our way home.

montreal

neesa's plan had been to get up at 7 on sunday, but somehow we didnt really comply... so we got up later, and went to maria's host's house for a great brunch of crepes and salsa dancings. we wandered the old town and the port area, saw the amazing basilica and said goodbye to the other surfers. charles and i then went to meet his old friend from the south of france to have sushi with him and his girlfriend. deeeeellliiiiiciiooouuuusss! and SO stuffed. we then sat in a bar and listened to a great performance of manouche (gypsy jazz) music. monday morning we went to get fresh baguettes and croissants and then climbed mont royal and went for smoked meat at the famous "schwartz's" before heading back to the bus.

back in toronto we explored china town and beautiful kensington market, hung out in the macintosh store of the eaton centre, tried bubble tea, went by the lab (no mice show, tho...) and had yummy food and personally imported french wine for dinner.

kensington and spadina

wednesday we slept in, had a great brunch on the patio, explored the distillery district (where i discovered that the heavenly chocolate is not macedonian but venezuelan), and then went for an educational and fun lao new years dinner with the csers.

distillery district continued

next on our list was greek town, so after a breakfast of pancakes we went to the athen's cafe and ate more food :). loooots of food, as you can see. after gorging on yummyness we went to the CN tower to meet the others for their WWF charity climb where we had free yogurts and indulged in more trumpet blowing (see anf's photos here). i then took charles to see his first baseball game, yay :) but toronto lost, boo :(

CN tower with the blue jays

9.25 on friday morning our bus departed to niagara. we beawed the falls, ate burgers, then headed to states for more beawing. easy-peesy for me, not so easy for charles (with him being a criminal and all, you know). we fought our way across the border (i'm exaggerating a little) only to fall asleep on the grass in the sun... with the sound of rushing water around us, and a nice cool breeze. that makes it sound worth going to the states for, right? we DID have a look at the falls, and the complex is much more admirable from the US side, but the falls are just much cooler on the canadian side. duh. we also spent some time gawking at casino addicts back in canada, frrrreaks. back in toronto we made yummy pasta and had the second bottle of imported wine.

niagara falls

saturday! we headed off early to toronto island - beaaaautiful weather and sun shinyness and sand and beach and snakes! yay for snakes.

snakes!

then little india for a yummy yummy lunch and lots of saris and bangles and bindis and sugar cane juice and whatnot. quick spurt back to the eaton centre for export-goods and then to marin's for her bday party with games. our present: some cream from little india containing 24k gold and turmeric to make your skin glow.

little india

sunday we were lazy, had a late brunch, laid in the sun, packed and then rushed off to the airport to meet jose, anf and neesa there. we had to see charles off and i was glad to have distraction on the way home, and then a huuuge "chocolate brownie binge" at fran's diner.

yay for a good and happy and sunny sunny week :)

april april

1st of APRIL - lab. dundas square itch... and vietnamese food for dinner. whee :) (see photos!) our boss scared us by claiming (to paraphrase) that "information has been leaked through messenger and communication programs, so the mounties are investigating - but of course no one in our lab uses facebook or anything"... :) april april

dundas square itch

2nd - lab (bit by a mouse! grr... though i guess i woulda done the same...). met for coffee with croydon

3rd - lab. home alone with t.v... had been planning VNese food, but my "date" cancelled

4th - lab. my first ever baseball game! woooo! AND we won. ("we" in this case is the toronto team. duh.)
one week till charles arrives :)

blue jays won!

5th sat - 10am: german class. 4pm: yoga. after: party at darrel's - yay for games!

6th sun - slept looong. wandered baby-china-town. went for big-china-town food for dinner with others.

baby china town

7th - lab - starting a new project to keep my good and busy - western blots! evening: got rich babysitting.

8th - lab. checked out the parliament building: there's the big boss in a huge chair and he's got four little slaves around him to get water and what not. they're kids from school, they get pulled out for about a month and get paid 1o dollars a day. slaves, i tell you!

9th - lab - started western blots, yay :). went to maria's for delicious vegetarian dinner and to do a photo shoot of some very small, pretty and hairy models.

click here for anf's, and there for mine.

kitties

10th - lab. going to a movie tonight, and then going to see how i do at getting to sleep - i may explode due to the amount of adrenalin coursing through my blood... picking charles up from the airport tomorrow :)

we head off to montreal for the weekend with anf, neesa and jose and next week will be spent wandering toronto and hoping it doesnt rain. and going to niagara! yay :)

annotation

this here is an annotation to the photos. for once the tables have turned and photos are being more regularly updated than text. weird.

so... i left off in march, almost a month ago now, right after babysitting or something.
so...

18th - lab. i was planning to look at a room for rent, but it rained and i ate a hot dog instead and went home. not motivated enough to move into an unfurnished room :)

cabbage town and birds and stuff

19th - the machine worked in the lab! and so i did the hypoxia experiment (for the interested: we're looking at whether DNA-PK and ATM in a certain cell line of prostate cancer cells will be inhibited by their respective inhibitors under hypoxic and oxic conditions, with and without irradiation, at three different time points...)
went for dinner with jan and jose in china town

20th - lab. wanted to check out manhunt in the evening, but it sucked and nicole's ear sucked too, so we went to garry's place and watched "being there" and the madonna documentary. loooong night with delicious raw vegan chocolate. mmm

21st good friday - after sleeping a looong time we met up in high park, ate something, had no time to walk around, and then went to watch "the mirror" by a russian director - strange incomprehensible plotless movie. theeen kate called and she's going to come visit!! yay :)

22nd almost easter - hung out with anf and marIE-france in the distillery district - had amaaaazing molten macedonian chocolate with chili and vanilla and cinnamon in it. you can see the pics in my photo album. the little district is extremely unique, with lots of little artist galleries and cafes and a theatre and general prettiness.

distillery district

23rd eeeaaaaster - easter fun and chocolate and games and tacos and chocolate FONDUE at marin's house

more cabbage

24th - lab. a new cinema showed free movies as advertisement, so ramya and i watched "good luck chuck"

25th - lab. more free movies with ramya and safia - "alvin and the chipmunks" and "the martian child"

26th - lab. spanish lesson.

27th - lab. uhooooh, i've lost two fillings now, about time to lose some money and see a dentist. 320dollars later i'm all fixed up again. aaanother free movie (the cinema student house or something show a lot of free movies... muuch better than paying for cinemas) - "stop loss" (depressing movie about the war in iraq)

28th - lab. bad improv at the bad dog theatre. sneaky dee's with music and talking to anf for houuurs.

29th sat - goodbye party for nicole... aww :(

30th sun - jose and i brought nicole to the airport after a delicious goodbye breakfast in greek town - yuuummy baklava thingies and feta and spinach thingies.

31st - lab (including 8a.m. journal club where new papers are critically discussed - amazing to see how a published paper has so many mistakes and discrepancies). yoga at the local community centre, then babysat for anneliese.

vorfreude ist die beste freude

easter fun :)

and an article on the dundas square itch

more will come soon, text and pics! yaaay.