Home Again :)

Since being back home, I've been doing a lot of thinking about my future in blogging and the future in general and I've come to a bit of a decision. As usual I'm horrible at making decisions but I've come to the conclusion that I like writing a blog so I'll probably start another one about my life at Pace University and Lubin Business School once I get to New York.

Anyways, yesterday I started back my exercising after probably more than a month of being lazy and eating whatever I saw. I found a cardio ballet workout on Youtube which I've never tried before and thought it would be a great idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r45YhhswIdw

It started out pretty ok with a nice warm up since I was already pretty warm. Then it just kept going and to say I'm out of shape is an understatement. The entire video is about half an hour and I got half way through. I already knew cardio isn't my forte but this was kind of embarrassing. The workout is really good though. I can really feel it in my legs and arms from what little I did. The stuff in it is very much like an actual ballet class which is great for me. Today I plan on doing pilates and some other Pinterest stuff from my fitness board.

http://www.pinterest.com/carlacjones/fitness/

As usual I can't seem to do nothing and be satisfied so I downloaded some free lectures from NYU on iTunes on Investment Strategies to keep me busy and my brain on. I haven't started watching them yet but I will probably (hopefully) start tomorrow. I've also been looking for documents and stuff I have to fill out for Pace. 

Unfortunately I missed the Victoria's Secret fashion show last night so hopefully I'll catch the rerun later today. In a way I'm glad I missed it since I put on a couple pounds in Canada and watching that will only make me feel like more of a lardass. From the pictures on Instagram the models are in the best shape so that's my goal look for now. I'm sure once I start exercising it will change to a more realistic look but its go hard or go home! 

Right now I'm listening to the new Little Mix album Salute. 

As usual I'm going to do the whole only listen to this album for the next couple days to see if I get bored of the songs or if they all sound the same. So far the album is pretty good. There are a couple songs that sound alike and even have similar titles; About the boy and Boy. My favorite songs is still Move and I can't seem to get it out of my head and I keep watching the video and live performance over and over again. I also like Salute a lot and a couple others I haven't learnt the name of yet. Its cool and all but it's kind of cutting into my Christmas music time. 

Now that my GMAT studying is finally over, I've been dedicating a little more time to actually paying attention to the world again. I was following the memorial for Nelson Mandela and watching what everyone was saying about Barack Obama taking a selfie with other dignitaries. 

I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about. This was a day to celebrate the life and accomplishments of a great man. It wasn't a formal affair like the funeral will be and had a light atmosphere with dancing and laughing from the South Africans, the ones who should be upset if anyone should be. To me this is just another way for people to pick apart what Obama does and criticize it. Leave the man alone! There are others in the picture who aren't getting the same criticism as he is. 

Anyways, today I will try to catch up on the rest of my tv shows and finally finish reading The Fall of Five. 

I'm actually at the climax of the book so it's perplexing me that I'm not glued to it right now. Instead I've been watching Revenge and The Originals with Claire (my sister). Revenge is getting incredibly good. 

At first I was thinking that Emily's plan was going to go off without a hitch as everything usually does but with Victoria not going to the wedding I have NO IDEA what she's going to do. I am still IN LOVE with her wardrobe on the show as well as Ashley's clothes so I really want to see in detail what her wedding dress looks like.

The Originals as usual is full of surprises. 

Right now I'm a little confused about the relationship between Klaus and Hayley. If the wolf pack Elijah and Rebekah found are descendants from Klaus' father, and are also family to Hayley, does that mean that Hayley and Klaus are related?? Does that mean that their child is a product of incest?? 

Anyways, its about time for my daily dose of playing Halo: Reach before I go do pilates :)

Carla :D

Good News and Bad News

It's been a while but its also been a long week. On the 30th was Independence for Barbados and was also unfortunately the day Paul Walker died.

It was such a shock and took me a while to actually believe it and know it wasn't just a hoax as I was hoping. It's so sad that he had so much more planned for himself and for his charity work. 

Before all of that happened, I finally went to watch Catching Fire last Thursday!

Finally there is a movie that simply follows everything that was in the book. FINALLY!!!! I think all other book-to-movie attempts should do this. It proves that when a film follows the book it can and will be a GREAT movie because DUH the book was great already. Even though I loved the movie I sort of have a love/hate relationship with this series. I love how it was written and the story line it took on but then I hate how it ended. I'm only sort of looking forward to watching Mocking Jay. I have the same relationship with Divergent right now as well. 

Over the weekend we went to a Christmas choral concert for McGill University.

The singing was really good and the church was gorgeous. A couple people Nick knew were singing so we went down to see them during intermission. On the long walk home it started snowing which was really pretty. It was still pretty damn cold but I don't think its possible for anyone to hate snow when it's falling. 

On Wednesday (my last full day in Montreal) we went to a restaurant called Reuben's on St. Catherine for what was supposed to be breakfast which turned into lunch. After the initial disappointment of not getting the yummy eggs and toast everything else we ordered lunch. Of course i got pasta. 

The food was good but I think the service was better. The people were friendly and very quick with delivering the food and drinks. The three cheese bread was especially tasty, maybe even more than the chicken, I can't decide. 

Packing to leave took all of 20 minutes. It's amazing how long it takes to initially pack for a trip but then to pack to come back doesn't take long at all. Since we missed breakfast in the morning, we made breakfast for dinner which made the entire apartment smell like bacon. 

I had one last Tim Hortons before heading off to the airport and then it was bye bye to Montreal :(. Once in Miami it took be like 20 minutes to find the hotel to wait out my 8 hours until my next flight. Those hours were smartly spent eating my favorite meal while travelling, Sbarro and watching The Bling Ring. Right when I thought I'd do some walking around to find something else to eat, I got an email from my contact at Pace University.

I GOT IN!! I GOT INTO PACE UNIVERSITY!!!

Yes the excitement was unreal and I could barely form words for a while. Once I told my family and Nick, I read and re-read the email just to make sure it was real. I'm so unbelievably happy and relieved that finally I got in. Now all I have to do is get all my documents together and hopefully I'll get housing. I also want to get started on some reading so that I'm not completely lost when classes start. Then right after I found out the great news, I found out about Nelson Mandela.

It was still such a shock even though I knew he was really sick. He was such an important person to the world and it's still hard to believe he's actually gone. So there were two shocking pieces of news that day. 

I think flying home was the longest day ever. Going through security I got the "you should model" talk from all of the TSA workers. Then there were 2 gate changes for my flight which meant even more walking. Finally at the right gate, there weren't any nice places to buy food so I bought a croissant from Dunkin Donuts which tasted sooooo bad. Finally on the plane it seemed to take forever to takeoff and I fell asleep and missed it. I never miss take off :(. 

Since being home all I've done is NOTHING AT ALL and it feels soooooo good. My really back to normal life starts on Monday which includes pilates, reading, and tons and tons of halo. 

Now I'm off to unpack and clean up everything I left behind when I left for Montreal. What a busy day ahead of me.........

Carla (future student of Pace University)

Winding Down

IT SNOWED LAST NIGHT!!! All this time I've been in Montreal all I've been waiting for (other than my GMAT test) was snow. The weather predictions said it was going to snow ages ago but it didn't. Then last night right when I had all but given up on the chance of snow, I look outside and there's a white blanket outside. 

Now the last time I saw snow I was like 12 and I thought it was annoying since I couldn't go outside in my tank top and shorts. It was just soooo much effort just to go outside. Now I kind of still feel that way but it's a whole lot more fun to watch Nick experience his first snow.

He really had fun playing in it last night while it was still clean. Right now it's all brown and semi melted so its a big pile of slush outside. I've given up on my quest to buy myself snow boots. I have a pair but they're extremely too big and they're men's boots. They also don't go very high so just above my ankles is gonna get cold. All of these points are why I wanted to get them in the first place but then I thought what if I get into Pace and I find better ones there. Ooooorrrrr what if I don't get into Pace and I have no need for snow boots anymore. I also want to save some money to put back on my bank account. 

So what I have been up to for the past couple days?? Well I am soooo close to finishing Numb3rs but I kind of don't want the series to end even though it's been done for a couple years now.....Anyways, its like a good book you never want to end. I'm so attached to the characters that I don't want them to just disappear. I finished the Hush Hush series by Becca Fitzpatrick which still had a couple good surprises left in it thankfully. It was a good series but sort of left a lot of questions like why all the fallen angel activity only happened in Maine....

Other than that I've been doing my part of worrying about whether or not I'll be accepted into Pace. Even though my 550 is above their minimum requirement there is still the possibility that I won't be accepted. Right now I'm just waiting on my transcripts to be sent to complete my application. It's really nerve wrecking not knowing what you are going to do when everything you've planned on relies on a decision that is completely out of your hands. It makes enjoying the present that much more important but also difficult. I've been trying to come up with a alternate plan which right now would be to work for the rest of the year and reapply to other school for the fall. I really don't want it to come to that but it just might. 

Today I had the slight desire to do pilates. Strange, I know. Inside the apartment is kind of warm and I had a couple hours to kill so the thought did cross my mind for a while. Then I went and ate a cookie. It's dawning on my now that my time here in Montreal is running out. I still want to go ice skating this weekend somehow and we're going to watch Catching Fire on Thursday...which is tomorrow!! :D Hanging out with Nick's friends is a lot of fun. Janet is sort of just like me and watching Nick and Andrew is always interesting. 

It's about that time of the day when Nick is soon home and I have some stuff to do before he gets home, like wash the dishes. I also want to cook something to eat since I haven't had a meal in like a whole 5 hours. (I usually eat every 2 hours) As said before, food here is AWESOME.

Chicken Alfredo Pasta :)

Alfredo Pasta with chopped up sausages

Penne pasta with minced meat

Yea I know it looks like a lot of pasta but I absolutely LOVE pasta. I don't really think I can get tired of it. Tonight I'm thinking Pasta with some sausages since that's the easiest thing to do and all I want to do is stay in bed.

Later :)

Carla

Procrastination is my Middle Name

I've been putting off this post for a while thinking I always had something better to do. This is the one post I was always nervous about when I first decided to do a blog. I always thought "what if my test didn't go as well as I would hope it would?" Luckily it's not one of those posts!

I GOT A 550! :D

It's not the ideal score but I'm hoping it will be enough to get into Pace for the Spring term. The minimum for Pace they said was 520 so I'm hoping its enough. I keep going from being excited to being anxious so many times throughout the day that I really don't know how I really feel about it all. I still have to wait like 2 weeks for them to make a decision but the days are going by soooooo slowly.

To help pass the time I've resurrected my list of tv shows to watch on Netflix. Number one on the agenda is to finally finish Numb3rs. 

I first started watching this with Nick but then by season 3 it was just me. I really don't know why but I tend to like most of these police or military shows like NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, Hawaii Five-0..... yea so I've been putting off finishing it because I liked it so much. I also like the fact that the guy in it is SUPER smart and actually gets to do some cool stuff with his brainiac powers. 

Next on the list is to finish a show called Lie to Me. 

This show is so interesting and kind of practical to everyday life. The lead guy is an expert in telling when someone is lying and knows all the tell tale signs. He's like a human lie detector. This makes the dynamics he has will everyone around him really interesting because sometimes they lie to him and he lets them believe he doesn't know they're lying. 

I've also been finishing up some book series. I am now on the 4th and final book of the Hush Hush Series by Becca Fitzpatrick.

It's a really interesting series that's well thought out. At points it reminded me of Twilight with the way she's so dependent on her boyfriend but I guess that's how anyone would be in such a high stress environment. What was funny was when I was describing it to Nick he said the plot reminded him of The Mortal Instruments with the path of the protagonist Nora. She was born into a world and then taken out of it only to be thrust back into it during a crisis. 

The next book on my list is The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore.

This is a series that I absolutely love! It draws you in and keeps you there until its done with you. There's no escaping it. I also find it interesting that the author found a way to write himself into the story. All of the other books in this series I've loved and was hoping they would continue the movie series but I don't think that's going to happen.

As you know I'm a HUGE fan of the supernatural and vampire books so of course I read the Vampire Academy series and was waiting patiently for the movie. FINALLY a trailer is available which is kind of what I remember from the book. It seems to have kind of a lightness to it which I didn't get from the book but I'll hold my thoughts until I've watched the movie. 

Here's a link the the trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLdfjcmzDAA

Oh I saw that in my sleepy post I did a couple days ago I forgot to put up a picture of my poutine. 

I had it with sausage and onions. Food in Canada is doing me sooooo well :). Yesterday I had 2 footlongs from Subway. I had the chicken and bacon ranch melt which was sooo yummy! In my haste to eat I totally forgot to take a picture.......but Subway has one

Of course this is faaaarrrrr from what mine looked like and I didn't get all the onions, pickles and stuff but it was still quite tasty. As usual Nick questioned how big my stomach actually is since he was full after his meatball marinara at lunch. But how can I turn down food??

Today's plan of action is to watch movies, read, watch tv shows, and eat. I just might go down to the pharmacy and pick up some stuff but that's only if I get bored of all the other stuff. There's no time like the present to get started on my loooong to do list for today :)

See ya!

Carla :)

Only one more day!!!

So it's the day before my test and I can't decide if I'm nervous or in my "I can't do anything more" stage. I still have a practice test to do today using the GMAT Prep software. I did one yesterday and it didn't turn out that great, I got a 520. That's the bottom of the range that Pace accepts but I really wanted to get over 550 on my test which would put me in the 50th percentile for the test so hopefully today's test goes better. I'm just trying not to let the 520 get me down. My math shot back down close to its original spot so I really need to remember everything I studied. 

Last night while trying to cheer myself up I watched Grown Ups 2 (twice actually).

This movie was ridiculously funny and sooooo crazy. What I also like is that you didn't have to watch the first one to understand anything majorly important. These 4 guys are just so funny together. 

I also caught up a little on a couple of my tv shows like Heartland, The Originals, and Revenge. I would have watched TVD but I'm missing an episode before the one I have :(. I only just realized that the AMA's are this weekend!!! AAAAHHHH I need to find a way to watch it online without Nick saying I'm using all his bandwidth before the month is done. It's times like these I miss the internet at home and maybe a tv. I'll figure that out after my test. Tonight all I have to do is pack a bag for tomorrow full of sugary snacks to keep me awake during my test tomorrow and book a taxi. Then to bed I go.

I've officially decided that it's time I start playing my Christmas music! I love my Christmas music collection. I have the classics like Nat King Cole and Dolly Parton but then I have one of my favorite singers Josh Groban and his album Noel, Michael Buble's Christmas album, and I recently got Jackie Evancho's Christmas Album which sounds so angelic. I also have the funny songs like Ludachrismas and the muppets. I think the music more than the movie calmed me down. It also helps that its supposed to snow here soon!! I'm sooooo excited and kind of glad it didn't snow before my test. That would distract me too much.

Anyways, this was just a quick update before I start my next test. I have about half an hour left because I want to do the tests the same time of day I'm doing my exam tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow's update after my test is a happy one *fingers crossed*. 

(nervous) Carla :)

A Packed Few Days!

Today is day 3 in Montreal!! There is soooooo much to catch up on since I've been here. So far it's been 3 pretty good days. When I landed and was going to get a taxi it was about -3 degrees outside and I could see my breath but I couldn't even tell how could it was thanks to my North Face jacket :) The drive to Nick's apartment was about half an hour long in some traffic with a driver that spoke NO ENGLISH! That night all I did was unpack a little ( I mean I just looked for my pajamas) and went to sleep. After those 2 flight (Barbados to Miami, Miami to Montreal) I was rather tired. What was sooo strange was that on the flight to Montreal I actually got tired of sleeping. I woke up on the flight thinking we were almost landing only to find out it was only an hour into the flight!! With my kindle not working :( and nothing else to do I figured I could as well study. I surprised even myself there. Who would of thought I would choose studying over more sleep? Even though there is only an hour in the time difference, I ended up going to sleep before 9 which made me wake up by 5 the next morning but I went back to sleep around 7. All in all my sleeping habits were/are pretty messed up.

Day 1 in Montreal consisted of studying in the morning and then off to Eaton Centre for lunch :). As would any other girl, I spent like 2o minutes simply deciding what to wear. Having to dress in the winter takes so much longer simply because I have more layers to think about! Eventually we left and met up with Nick's friends in his office. I met Andrew who is in the Navy (AWESOME!!) and Janet. They are really nice and easy to talk to. The funniest thing about lunch was watching Nick and Andrew talk. They kind of have a bromance going on which is cool to see. Anyways I had Shawarma!! I kind of wanted to try it because Iron Man/Tony Stark talked about it in the Avengers movie.

All in all it was just ok to me. After eating food at home which is cooked with hardly any salt, the shawarma seemed really salty to me. The humus was good as well the potato and the rice. The annoying part was that I couldn't finish eating all my food :(. After lunch I went back home while Nick went to TA. Once he got home it was time to buy some food! The supermarket and the pharmacy were about a 20 minute walk away. Once again I wasn't cold thanks to my sweaters and my windbreaker (I switched out the Land's End coat for the windbreaker in case it rained). At the pharmacy I picked up a couple girl stuff that Nick didn't have like body wash that I could use!

Yes that means that for the first day I smelled like a guy. At the supermarket I also got some essentials.

There were other snacks that didn't make it to today but they served me well :) Of course I had to get goldfish. I would have gotten Froot Loops but Nick wanted Frosted Flakes.

Day 2 of Montreal consisted of doing a practice test. This would have been the first test I did straight through in a while. For the test before I had to pause it to run errands but this  time I had no distractions. I got a 560!! :D. My verbal improved a bit which is good as well as my math by like 1 though. With this there is still hope of getting into the 600's by the time my test comes around. As it stands now, I've done all of my study sessions so all I have left to do is a review of everything and practice tests. I sort of can't believe I finished all the sessions in time but thankfully I did. Hopefully the Kaplan study guide gives better results than the Manhattan prep did. Last night we also went to watch Gravity.

I didn't really know what to expect since the trailers didn't give away anything. It was actually a really good movie and was the furthest thing from predictable. It had in its humor and seriousness and was overall a pretty well rounded movie. The funny thing is that we only saw about 3 characters in the entire movie. After the movie we went to get poutine. How could I say no to food even if its something I've never really heard of. 

Today we went back to Eaton Centre to look at some snow boots. We found some good ones for both of us in a store called Globo and pretty good prices. 

I still haven't decided if I actually need them since it hasn't started snowing yet but I at least know what I want. For lunch we had food from Thai Express.

The pad thai was edible but it wasn't as good as the one from Lemongrass. It didn't have any vegetables but it was fast food so it was kind of expected. The cool part is that they cook the food right in front of you with the open flame and everything. Somehow my after lunch nap turned into an after lunch sleep. It was probably the best sleep I've gotten since being here but it took up like 2 hours of my study time. Studying my last session was the hardest thing to do. It didn't really help either that it was my least favorite topic integrated reasoning. Of course once Nick hid my phone I finished the session so now tomorrow I get to do some revision and then a practice test. 

Right now all I want I want is to sleep. My brain is incredibly tired and sleeping is so comfortable. Anyways, Nick is cooking some bacon wrapped chicken which is making the apartment smell incredibly good. Tomorrow also seems like a supermarket day as I'm eating everything in sight. It's off to bed for me after this incredibly long post. My three month deadline is starting to come closer and I'm really anxious to see how this is all going to turn out. 

Its off to bed for me now,

Carla....zzzzzzz

Hey There Stranger!

Wow its been a while. For the past week I've been so busy with studying of course but getting ready to travel next week. I've been watching the weather in Montreal like a hawk checking to see what to carry and what I could leave behind. I wasn't studying as quickly or as much as I wanted so I took a break from everything to focus on that. I even kind of stopped watching tv shows! With that I FINALLY finished my quantitative lessons on Kaplan so I'm moving onto verbal strategy and critical thinking today :). I still want to continuously review my math stuff so that I don't forget all the stuff I learned. I have exactly 2 weeks before my test so I've gone into exam mode. 

Back to my packing and stuff. :) I'm a person who loves packing but takes forever because if I could I would carry everything I own everywhere I go. So choosing what to carry and what I would have to do without is kind of difficult so in a way i dislike packing.....but only a little. Right now I'm set on 3 turtleneck sweaters and 2 coats, 1 North Face coat for the snow and another for when its just cold. 

With that decided I feel a bit more comfortable that I won't freeze since I've spent the last year making my wardrobe Caribbean and island friendly. I'm probably gonna have to buy myself a pair of snow boots because right now the only ones I have that won't give me blisters is a pair of men's North Face.....I don't even know why we have them but they'll work until I get my own. 

Yesterday I got the new album from The Wanted! :) I was really excited about hearing their new songs since I absolutely LOVED their last album. I really like it when all the songs on the album are great and not just 2 or 3 that I like. It makes listening to it so much easier since I don't have to continuously skip songs to get to the ones I like. 

Of course I like We Own the Night and Walks Like Rihanna but Love Sewn is nice (listening to it right now) and so is Heartbreak Story. 

I also got the new song by Ed Sheeran for the next Hobbit movie, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. I love the song and the video is nice. The video is basically just the behind the scenes of recording the song and shows Ed playing the guitar and surprisingly the violin as well which I just found out he learned to play in A DAY! That is really talent right there. I've had my guitar for like 2 years now and still haven't learned to play more that the chords which I forget every time I put it down. 

Last week Thursday I went to watch the NIFCA finals and support LWDA (Louise Woodvine Dance Academy). 

Just being at Frank Collymore Hall made me miss dancing so much. It felt weird to be at a dance event and not going backstage or not having to be there 2 hours early for warmup. When I found a seat, I did the usual check my phone and wait for the show to start. A little while after sitting down the 2 screens they had up started to show performances from the past performances since this is the 40th year for NIFCA and all of a sudden I see myself on the screen. I was so shocked I scared the woman next to me who couldn't figure out why I just jumped in my seat.

It's not my best leap but it'll do since its on my bad side. Anyway, the show was really good. The level of dance and the quality was really high which gave for a better show. The music for the first couple dances was a bit low so I felt a bit disjointed from the dances but by the middle of the first half it was a lot better. In total LWDA had 3 pieces in the finals which is a lot since it was practically the same dancers in all of them and some of them were dancing in other pieces in the finals. The dancers really gave their all that night. What topped the cake was the review in the newspaper the next day raving about the LWDA troupe who "set the bar high". 

There was no picture of the 3rd piece :( which was a real crowd favorite. 

That has been my week, pretty boring but still full. I started reading the Hush Hush series which is going well so far. I'm on book 2, Crescendo, right now and its interesting enough. I finally realized what I didn't really like about this series and The Archers of Avalon. The climax and conflict of the series is spread across all of the books whereas in the other books that I've ABSOLUTELY loved had a conflict in each of them that built up to an even BIGGER conflict at the end of the series. Harry Potter did it, The Hunger Games had it in spades, Divergent had it, and so did Lux. Sometimes when a book series doesn't do that I'm halfway inclined not to finish reading the series because they're taking forever to get to the point. It's not that bad in Hush Hush though. The protagonist is older which is more relatable for me. She's still in high school but she's not 14 like in Wings. 

Anyways, studying is calling me to get in a couple more hours today before I go play Halo for the rest of the night :)

Carla :)

Nerves of steel, I think not!

So I know I said before that I was less nervous about taking my GMAT now that its actually booked, that feeling lasted about an hour. Once it actually set in that I'm taking the test again all my nerves and doubts came flooding back. What if I don't do that well again? What if I still don't get into Pace? I always associated doing well on the GMAT with getting into Pace but it dawned on me that even if I get a good score, I still might not get in. There's no real guarantee. With all of this swirling around in my head, of course I was putting off doing my next CAT exam. Especially after falling behind a bit in my studying. I was scared that since my last practice test score went down that it would keep going down and that I booked my test prematurely. I put in some good hours studying and mustered up the courage to take the test and i got a 560! *phew* During the test I was so sure it was going to be horrible score because by the time I got to the verbal section I was starting to get sleepy and hungry since I didn't really eat breakfast. But it turns out my verbal wasn't bad and my math keeps improving so it turned out ok.

In other news, I finished reading Allegiant last night. It only took me a week.... 

I honestly didn't want to finish reading it as with all the other books I read when I know its the last one. With this one it was kind of different. I got a strange feeling from the beginning of the book that it wasn't going to be a happy ending for Tris and Tobias and I was right. I only delayed the crying for a week. I kept hoping that in the next chapter there would be some miracle and everything will be ok but no, it didn't happen. (I'm trying my best not to give away too much of the story). Of course once I finished reading it I immediately called Nick for him to sort of mourn the book with me but all he did was laugh at me which always happens when I get all wrapped up in characters from a book. Its also going to be interesting to see if the movies change the ending or what since I'm guessing contracts were signed about the movies before the final book was released so the actors are only now learning about their characters as well.

On a brighter note, I cooked pad thai for my family on Saturday night.

I am so proud of myself for actually doing it finally. I was saying for weeks, probably months, that I was going to cook it but I never actually got off my lazy butt to do it. It all comes in a box kit so all I had to add was the chicken and vegetables. 

This picture is from the last time Nick and I made it so ignore the expiration date on the box

Its really simple and to me its healthy since its rice noodles and not actually pasta. Everyone loved it and I even shared it with my neighbors and they liked it as well. When I was finished cooking it and started to eat it kind of felt weird that Nick wasn't there to eat it with me :( 

Right now I'm looking into booking my flights with my mum which is exciting somehow. I'm looking to leave in about 2 weeks  which would give me a week up there before my test so I definitely need to focus and get the majority of my studying done while I'm still here. I'm really excited to see snow again and to be in the cold but I'm more excited to see Nick of course but I'm still a bit nervous about my test. I even went google maps to look for the test center building to help calm me down.

I did this as well for my test in New York but only cause we had to know which building to look for. Sometimes I think all this does is make me even more nervous. 

Anyways, I obviously have a lot to do so its time I get to it.

Carla :D

On the Path to Canada! :D

I booked my test!! :D Finally things are moving forward with my GMAT stuff. I booked my test so I can finally book my flight to Canada. I'm just about finished my math studying so I'm also happy about that. I've always been stronger in verbal so working on my math was important. Other than that today was like a hurricane down here. The rain woke me up at like 6:30 this morning with the way it was falling. Then as if on cue it poured at 11am and kept raining for half an hour straight. I spent that time on twitter because there was a guy here cleaning our solar panel and I had to tell him where the cheque was for him, so i waited. 

I started reading Allegiant!! 

I'll try not to give anything away but its reminding me a lot of The Hunger Games. I'm kind of starting not to like Tobias anymore but then I still do and then I start not liking Tris. It depends which chapter I'm on at the time. Obviously I can't read it as fast as I would like since I'm studying but I think I prefer to savor it for as long as possible since this is the last book. 

Today we found out that the Rihanna concert that was supposed to be next week is cancelled/postponed until next year. I don't really mind but I just wanted to go since I missed it last year :(. That and I really wanted a reason to dress up and actually leave the house! I feel like I'm back at school but worse. At a school you actually get to see other people your age and leave the house. Studying at home I barely talk to anyone and I only leave the house to pick up Juline from school and take her to lessons. I think this is why I'm so looking forward to Canada even though there is a possibility I may become an icicle.

Now that I've booked my test I'm sort of less nervous in a way. Part of the anxiety was that my dad would say that I wasn't ready and he wasn't going to let me book it so now that its book its all up to me to prove to him that I am ready (this time). I feel a lot more prepared but I also felt prepared the last time so I really have to make sure I put in the hours even coming up to the test. 

As usual there are movies on my brain. Thor is coming out soon!!

I honestly think casting Chris Hemsworth as Thor was the best decision made in any movie ever! He plays it sooooo well and he's also not hard on the eyes or the ears :) I'm not really particularly that excited about Catching Fire but only because the book was a bit sad and Monckingjay was even worse so I'm not looking forward to crying.

This was one of those stories where I could tell I wasn't really going to like the ending but I still have to read it to see if I could be wrong. Don't get me wrong I absolutely LOVE these books. I just keep imagining myself in the book and if I were Katniss I would curl up in the fetal position and cry sometimes. 

Tv shows wise, I'm becoming more and more disappointed in S.H.I.E.L.D every week. Some of the things are obvious and a bit juvenile but as usual I can't stop watching. I got a 2 week break from Sleepy Hollow so I can decide if I still want to scare myself every week. I just love the characters in this show so much more that S.H.I.E.L.D. so I will probably still be watching in weeks to come. The Originals is getting really good and interesting so that is one that I'm really attached to. Its a bit more adult that TVD and it doesn't have all the love triangles which is a breath of fresh air. There's also been a break from the X Factor but The Voice has taken up that spot a little. I've only really been following Tessanne Chin who is from Jamaica and man can she sing. (I also wanted to see Ed Sheeran mentor with Christina Aguilera) TVD is better than last season now that there is Silas and Stephan lost his memory but I still don't really like Elena with Damon and Elena is also stupid. 

So that has been my week of studying and distractions. Unfortunately no exercising was done this week. It took a lot to get back on the studying train after my mini vacation over the weekend so I promise to start back next week. Hopefully I don't get fat between now and then. *fingers crossed*

Carla :D

Cheers to a Great Weekend!

So over the weekend was my graduation from UWI!! :D In more exciting news.... Nick was here for the weekend!! :D:D:D:D. He came in on Friday afternoon which was right when my mum was leaving for a training course in Belgium so it worked out pretty ok with the pick ups and drop offs. Of course I barely saw home for the rest of the weekend. I spent the rest of Friday at his house and watched Olympus has Fallen. 

Ironically I made my entire family watch White House Down a couple days ago and the movies are SOOOO SIMILAR!! 

In both movies the leak/problem came from within the Secret Service and it was oh soooooo unexpected in both movies. I honestly prefer White House Down simply because it had more humour in it. The fighting scenes in Which House Down also seemed more realistic. One thing Olympus has Fallen had on White House Down is the political backlash of the attack which drew you in a little more and made it more realistic I guess. The acting was also better. Then right after the movie was back to the airport to pick up my dad which made trip number 2 to the airport for me in one day.

Anyways, on Saturday morning was Nick's graduation at 10 (no pictures yet :( so just try to imagine it) and then mine was in the evening so that meant that we each went to 2 graduations. The morning ceremony wasn't bad at all. It was short and sweet and the speeches were sort of interesting. For my graduation, every seat available for the graduates was full. The speeches were boring if not the same from the morning. The only interesting thing was the way the audience reacted to the sight of a very short, tight dress. Naturally I wanted to see what the reaction would be to my dress but I don't remember anything from walking across the platform. 

All in all it was a good day which was made better with dinner at Bubbas for my usual spaghetti and meat sauce but this time there was not milkshake but a fruit punch instead. As usual I didn't finish it but Nick was there to do it :).

On Sunday was a beach day! :) 

Yes Nick's eyes are closed.....

The beach was awesome as usual and there were a bunch of fish swimming around us. After the beach I involuntarily took a nap for a couple hours. And that turned into lets go to dinner at Lemongrass. Of course I couldn't say no to Phad Siew so we went and I fell in love with that dish all over again. 

This is a picture of the first time we got it, the one I got on Sunday was soooo much more food :)

I can't decide if I like Phad Thai or Phad Siew better right now so maayyyybbbbeeeee I have to have it again to make my decision :) Looking back at this picture makes me want to go right back and have some....like now! After dinner I dropped Nick home and went back home. On Monday I wanted nothing more than to sleep in because IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!! Of course my phone kept buzzing and then my dad and sister came in my room to wake me up but I fell right back to sleep :). I was happy that it was my birthday but then a bit sad cause Nick was going back to Canada so I tried not to think about it. Lucky me got breakfast made for me at Nick's house :)

I got french toast with scrambled eggs and sausages :) and it was delicious. Somehow after a lazy morning we were running a bit late with errands when it came time to go to the airport and the goodbyes were rushed. In a way it worked out ok and I wasn't really able to fully think about him leaving again so it was much better than the first time :(. 

Anyways, its a new day and I need to get back to my studying. I'm contemplating leaving out a couple tv shows and stockpiling them to watch on Sunday nights but then I think that takes away from my reading time so I have some things to sort out. I can't decide which book series to start next! I have 3 of them, Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Elemental by Brigid Kemmerer, and Significance by Shelly Crane. I'm leaning towards Hush Hush since I got it first so maybe I'll go with that. I got Allegiant today so I also have that to read! I'm really excited to get started on that one. 

Time to get started on my day!

Carla :)