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 :)