Merci Beaucoup Montreal~

This past winter break we drove up to beautiful Canada for four days. It was a cold but memorable trip with lots of hot cocoa :)

We rented a cozy airbnb in downtown Montreal that was close to the metro, art museums, and Mont Royal (Montreal's central park). Parking and traveling on the metro in Montreal was super easy.

The first night we tried to eat at Kazu, a Japanese restaurant that was highly recommended on yelp. Unfortunately for us several of their restaurants were closed for over a week for the holidays, Kazu being one of them. We ended up at a newly opened alternative ramen restaurant Ichifuku. We were grateful for the refuge from the cold and the delicious bowls of ramen in front of us.

Day 2: 

We started our day by taking the metro to Marche Jean, a public market in Montreal. There we walked past many fresh vegetables and fruits stands. I have never seen fruits stacked so neatly! We bought two tarts, chocolate and original flavored. They were too sweet for my liking. At another stall we bought an Italian sausage. It was just enough to keep our tummies from complaining of hunger. The next stop was at this cute cafe for some slices of pizza and soup to warm our cold bodies. Then we made our way to Old Montreal - Vieux-Montréal. 

In front of a restaurant in Old Montreal - Vieux-Montréal

Basilique Notre-Dame (Built in 1656, one of Montreal's oldest church)

For dinner, I made reservations for Bouillon Bilk. What an amazing meal we had here!

Top Left: hamachi (yuzu, kosho, grapefruit, fennel, cucumber)

Top Right: fluke (soy, truffle, kohlrabi, apple, almonds, quinoa)

Bottom Left: (Beef ribs special for the night)

Bottom Right: Desserts -- rice pudding (vanilla, pecans, juniper, mandarin, clementine) & chai tea (yogurt, pistachios, cranberries)

Day 3

We started day 3 at Deville Dinerbar, where we finally got to eat some poutine! I also ordered their bad girl pasta (is it called this because it's a whole lot of calories?) Anyhow this was way too much food and we ended up packing our entrees to go. Which we really enjoyed later that day! 

After our hefty meals, we made our way to the top of Mont Royal to the Kondiaronk Lookout for a panoramic view of the city. It had snowed quite a lot the day before so the steps to the lookout was covered with snow. But this did not deter us or the many other tourists/natives from going to the top. There were also many people carrying sleds and skis :) When we got to the lookout, there was a great deal of fog and we could barely see the skyline. We went into the historic chalet to thaw our cold feet, drink some hot cocoa and bought some postcards. 

Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal (The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada)

                     

After visiting their fine arts museum we made our way to Cacao 70, chocolate heaven! Definitely one of my favorite stops in Montreal. Ahhhh. I'm going to try to replicate their chocolate pizza at home!

Chocolate Marshmallow Pizza!

American style hot cocoa, yummy!!

Last Day

One last latte before we go. Hinnawi Bros Bagel & Cafe 

Au revoir Montreal, til next time! Thank you to my wonderful and patient boyfriend for bringing me on this trip! Merci beaucoup!

Do you have any ideas incubating at the moment? :)

Black Eyed Pea concert experience or should we call it the non-experience? :P

Today we braved the heat,
the crowds,
then being drenched by the t-storms,
and more waiting while wet...
finally we were slowly let into the park,
bags were checked,
tickets scanned,
RUNNING towards the stage,
SO CLOSE
public announcement: concert canceled due to forecast of severe storms.

Waaah

Still we made the best of it by indulging our inner fatties -- nom nom sushi, ramen, and waffles with ice cream

I got a "Jennie's Special" :)

Thankful for great friends.

Look at the streets prior to the concert... chaos!

I miss this.

What great satisfaction it gives me to check off my to-do list. Check out this list from my Spring semester. 

Wheee... and now I am deleting the list from my computer. Onto a new list... 

I took this image from this blog all-that-is-interesting.com (the title of the blog explains its contents x) Click on the image to see the details!


Who wants to climb Mt. Everest? I want to make an attempt to!! 


"Also called Mount Chomolungma, Mount Everest is located in Nepal and is the highest elevation in the world. From standard climbing routes that pass through the “death zone” – altitudes higher than 26,246 feet – corpses can be seen in their unaltered positions."


Challenge accepted! 


The only difficult hikes I've been on were when I was abroad, leaving me sore and limping off the bus the next day.

Bush walking in Australia (a very steep climb to the top!)

My classmates and I climbed and slid down Mount Ruapehu. Mt. Ruapehu is the highest point in the North Island of New Zealand at a height of 2797 meters. Mt. Everest is 8,848 meters... 6,000 meters greater than the highest point in NZ. Wowzers!!

   

Positivity

Sing it Selena!!

"Who says you're not star potential,

Who says you're not presidential,

Who says you can't be in movies,

Listen to me, listen to me,

Who says you don't pass the test,

Who says you can't be the best?"

((psst.. guess what? you can be it all))

This week has been the most stress-free week in a long while. I'm feeling apprehensive about next week, when classes start again :(
I get so wrapped up with classes and work that I sometimes forget about the small promises I make to people, like going to yoga with Joy. If it wasn't for facebook keeping all our posts, I wouldn't have remembered :P

So to few more days of 

R - E - L - A - X - I - N - G and allowing for my holey mouth to heal (i.e. wisdom tooth extraction)

The Sakura Trees are BLOSSOMING!

Be soft.
Do not let the world make you hard.
Do not let the pain make you hate.
Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.
Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree,
you still believe it to be a beautiful place.

I loved New Direction's original songs!

So I throw up my fists,

throw a punch in the air

and accept the truth that sometimes life isn't fair.

Yeah, I'll send out a wish.

Yeah I'll send up a prayer and finally someone will see how much I care

Is your heart-garden gratitude full? :)

I went to my favorite cafe today after work to get some work done. While writing my paper, I glanced up and saw this little cute inspiration card on display

I like these words: "heart-garden, gratitude-seeds, glowing" How often do you need to be reminded to be grateful?

I snapped some photos while waiting to pay :)

They always have fresh flowers in the cafe.

I like the latte art~pretty, delicious and creamy. It got cold faster than I was able gulp it down =(

I received my Newsweek today featuring the 8.9 earthquake that hit Japan this past Friday, the 11th. The author wrote about how earthquakes tend to occur in clusters, --

• Pacific earthquake in New Zealand (Feb. 22.)
• 8.8 earthquake in Chile just a year before
• and now the one that just hit Japan

"All three phenomena involved more or less the same family of circum-Pacific fault lines and plate boundaries...Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate-one in the northwest, on Friday;one in the southwest, last month; one in the southeast, last year. That leaves just one corner unaffected-the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault, underpinning the city of San Francisco."
- Simon Winchester

Here's a visual for better understanding

So scary!

Anyhow, looking to see what I can do to help Japan with their recovery from my part of the world...
And I really admire the engineers who are working hard to cool the fuel rods at the nuclear plants. >_<

BEACH is on my mind

As of late.. I cannot stop thinking about the beach. I can't wait to go when it finally gets warm enough.

A while ago, I agreed to model for a friend's clothing website. I probably wasn't the best model for their t-shirts since I am so skinny (the nice way to put it), flat-chested (the mean, albeit honest way to put it)

Here I am

Cute plant, want one by my window sill, to pet every morning

Trash talk

Warning: This post is going to be a long one!

During dinner tonight I caught another interesting, fact full documentary on tv. This time it was about trash, ooh-la-la. I traveled along with Carl Quintanilla as he embarked on a trash-filled adventure around the world in Trash Inc. The Secret Life of Garbage.

As you may know, China's economy is growing extremely fast, about 11.9% in the first quarter from a year earlier (WHOA!). As Chinese citizens become richer, they also start to consume more, and the more they consume the more trash there will be. The landfills in Beijing can only take 70% of the garbage produced (I'm not sure if this is trash produced only in Beijing or throughout China), the rest has to go somewhere right? Anyhow with a little investigation, there were about 461 illegal dumps revealed (bet you there's more!)
And as the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words" photojournalist Wang Jiuliang began documenting all the landfills he was able to find and document a whole bunch of landfills around Beijing.

Here's an image of all the sites he found surrounding the city!

Wang Jiuliang's photo journey on trash Click on this to check out some of his photos! I really admire what he is doing, documenting these landfills to enlighten people about the growing trash problem in China. So many people out there do not realize the consequences of heavy consumerism.

This is so nasty
The streams of garbage will eventually make its way to the oceans...

Click here for more pictures, there's one where this little child's hands are black from.. I am not even sure what... digging through garbage for his family for recyclables?

This documentary also featured businesses that profit from recyclables, yes the waste stream can indeed become a revenue stream. I learned that 10 plastic bottles = 1 lb. of flake = $0.50
This flake can be used to make carpets or clothing and more...

This one waste management company calculated how much their waste collected (per day) sells for === 10 billion dollars!!!

Here's a detailed journey of your plastic bottle, so cool right?
So my friend, put those recyclables in the recycling bin!!!!

This picture makes me feel happy, it's been a long winter.

It can kill you, but it can also save your life

So my mind was blown away tonight when I was watching a PBS special -- Venom: Nature's Killer. There are about 20 million toxins out there being produced by animals in nature. If they strike and their venom is injected into you, you might become paralyzed, scramble your brain signals.. aka you will be in lots of trouble. But at the same time, their venom is a great tool for scientists. The venom can be chemically engineered into drugs, in which doctors will use to treat heart attacks, cancer, diabetes and other illnesses.

Unfortunately, a lot of these animals are going extinct before scientists are able to study what's in them. One scientist said, the only way things will be preserved in nature is if they make money. That being said, these animals are worth lots of money! Though, there are other reasons why they're important/worth preserving besides being able to generate money. Now that's a whole another argument...

I wish I had learned more about this when I was an undergrad, I am so fascinated... These scientists are amazing, so brave when they are handling venomous creatures, I'm not sure if I have it in me to grab a snake like that.

From Animal Planet

CONE SNAIL: This pokey predator makes up for its lack of speed with one of the strangest hunting systems in the sea. Since it's too slow to chase down fish and other prey, the cone snail prefers to paralyze its victims with a poisonous "harpoon." The poison, or venom, is made in a long, tubular duct. The duct has a muscular bulb at one end and empties into the proboscis — a slender, tubular feeding organ. The harpoon — a hollow, spear-like tooth — is made in a cavity called the radular sac. When a tooth is ready, it is transported to the tip of the snail's proboscis and pumped full of venom. The cone snail detects prey with chemoreceptors in its siphon, or breathing organ. When a fish, worm or mollusk wanders too close, the snail extends its long proboscis and fires the venomous, harpoon-like tooth into its prey. The tooth is attached to the snail via a thread or filament, tethering the prey so that it can't swim away. The venom acts quickly, immobilizing the prey in a matter of seconds. Then the thread is retracted and the snail engulfs its meal through an opening at the tip of its proboscis

Fill up that red cup or cups!!

Having been given so many opportunities growing up.. it is only right to give back.
-------------
On another note, some thoughts on education
Do you see things through the whole picture? In my mind, it is usually complicated... Here's an opinion about the No Child Left Behind legislation (effective 2002)
Noguera: ...higher standards and more tests alone will not make low-income urban students any smarter and the schools they attend more successful without substantial investment in the communities in which they live to improve employment opportunities, housing, and health care.

For the goodness of our communities, we must work together, hopefully not for our own prosperity but for the communities'

We'll always make it through
As long as you've got me and I've got you

We will take the world in our stride
Anything can be possible by your side

A message from a 5-year-old

xoxo .i loveyou.i love unicorns.
dddddddddddaaaaaaarrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.dddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrriiiiiiiaaaaa. love daria

31 days of beauty

From the blog:

Griottes, palette culinaire

In lieu of Valentine's Day I baked peanut butter caramel corn with cashews. I was kind of worried, never really baked anything like this before, but it turned out to be a success so I'm happy.

Late in the afternoon yesterday I was in so much agony, stuck in traffic on the highway from work to class. I drank a cup of tea before the drive. I swear, I know from past experiences how quickly tea passes through one's systems, yet I gulped that caffeinated tea down. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to school without a stop to the bathroom. Once I exited I made a left turn into Pathmark. Did you know Pathmark has bathrooms for shoppers? I was so happy when I saw the black and white porcelain toilet.

Once in a while I see an elderly person pushing a cart of soda cans and bottles to recycle. And whenever I do, I feel a pang of sadness. They probably worked hard their entire life.. I wonder at their age, what makes them rummage through garbage cans in cold winter days like today.


>> beautiful voice!!