LCBO cashier: "Can we see your ID please?"
19 year old me: "Of course you can, there it is - 19 years old!"
Ok that was a fictional conversation, BUT it has the potential to happen in the near future! Last Tuesday, I celebrated my 19th birthday so happy birthday to me. I want to extend the largest of THANK YOUs to every single person who made my birthday such a great day! And truth be told, I pretty much extended my birthday to a birth week but what are birthdays for? So thank you to everyone who contributed to the great week! I celebrated with my students, with my friends and with my family (quick trip back to Ancaster) and now here I am, back in Lennoxville, waiting to START and finish my exams.
The week got off to a lovely start, as my friend Vicki and I spent Monday afternoon in Sherbrooke together. We went to the Marché à la Gare, which is a little marketplace/park area near the Grand Times Hotel and right on the river. They had a small outdoor skating rink, so Vicki and I went for a skate…well I skated, and Vicki held on to my arm and shuffled around the ice, but skating nonetheless! Following that, we went into the little stores around the park and then for gelato before walking back to the bus station and coming back to school. Vicki came with me while I did my grocery shopping and then we parted ways when I came home to make dinner (spaghetti squares - an Erica Zucker classic), plan my lessons and pack my suitcase.
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| Outdoor skating! Can't wait for more this winter! |
Tuesday I got up bright and early to go to practicum, and awoke to a Justin Bieber and One Direction party themed bedroom door (#1 thank you to housemates)! I went to my school, where I had not planned to tell my students that it was my birthday, but it was one of my students' birthdays as well, so we celebrated together. I hope he didn't mind! They tried to guess my age and I got the full range from 16 to 25. My grade 3/4 class sang Happy Birthday to me in 4 different languages! Since my classes were over, I was able to stay for the entire school day, so I got to eat lunch with my students and go out for recess with them, which was a lot of fun! In the morning, the grade 6s were practicing their songs for the Christmas concert, and they gave me a booklet of the songs so that I could sing right along with them. In the afternoon, we did a sharing circle, where we all shared something from our weekend (I talked about our Christmas party and going skating with one of my students - the others were jealous!) and then we went to gym class. They were playing volleyball and for some reason, all wanted me to be on their team. Clearly, they had never seen me play volleyball! Despite my lacking abilities, which ended up being just fine for the grade 6 level, gym class was a lot of fun! A handful of my students are in a volleyball tournament at Lennoxville Elementary School on Wednesday so I promised that I would go watch. At the end of the day, I was super sad to leave all of my students but I cannot wait to see them in the New Year!
After an amazing day at school, all I wanted to do was take a nap but there is no time for napping on birthdays! When I got home, my housemates had presents for me to unwrap and I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning (thank you to housemates #2)! I may have felt like a little kid since they made me wear a Minnie Mouse party hat while opening presents… but who am I kidding, I loved it! Elizabeth aka Queen of Photoshop made me a card with Justin Bieber and "me" walking hand in hand on the beach which has earned a place on my bedroom wall where it will stay until I get it framed. We then all got ready to go out for dinner in Sherbrooke (housemates + Gaby) but were extremely late leaving so Jocelyn and I literally had to chase the bus to get on! When we got into town, we walked to the creperie that we had planned to go to only to find out that it is closed on Tuesdays! We walked down the road and found a Thai restaurant to try but they couldn't seat us until 8pm. The third time was the charm and we ended up eating at Le Tapageur, a little restaurant beside the movie theatre. It was a great evening and I couldn't have asked for better people to spend my birthday with!
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| Enjoying my birthday drink - the Fashionista! |
Following dinner, I caught a bus into Montreal and then got the midnight bus from Montreal to Toronto. While on the bus, I learned that my old skating coach, Jen and her husband Jay had welcomed their new son Grayson into the world earlier that day, so the lucky guy now gets to share a birthday with me. Congratulations Jen and Jay! I can't wait to meet Grayson! I spent the rest of the night sleeping (and knitting) on the bus, and then on the train and was picked up at the train station by my dad Wednesday morning and home I went. Everyone was at school so it was just my dad and me (and our cleaning lady) until my dad had to go to work and I went to the gym. Following that, I went to visit Bowring, aka the new store where Benix was, which is the store that I will be working at over Christmas. It is a Christmas wonderland inside (see photo below)!! So many sparkles! I picked a good time to go, as my manager was there and my friend from last year and they were both happy to see me, and I them. I picked up my employee package and explored the store. It is a maze in there! There is a lot of stuff that I will have to learn about! I eventually had to remind myself that I had exams to study for and took myself home to study for the rest of the night. However, I did take a break for cake and presents with the fam, and then studied alongside my two favourite study companions, my television with cable and the family pantry, and studied the solar system while eating snacks and watching Christmas at the Rockefeller Centre.
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| Me in Union Station with my favourite British boy band! |
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| Bowring - the supplier of all your Christmas needs! |
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| Birthday celebrations continued! |
Thursday, I got up to study more and then went to see a new physiotherapist. It was a pretty good appointment and I will go see her more when I get back for the holidays. In positive news, she did say that she thinks I will be able to start running again! Yay! I then went to cardio kickboxing at the gym and spent the afternoon studying more. I picked my brother up from school and went to my mom's house to see my mom who had just returned from Hawaii! I was extremely jealous that she had just come back from the beach and the sunshine and that we were ankle deep in snow at school but it was nice to see her, all tanned and glowing. For dinner, we made our annual trip to Swiss Chalet for the festive special, where I ordered my first glass of wine in Ontario. (In case you were wondering, I do not recommend the Swiss Chalet wine). Following dinner, my Thursday night was very much a repeat of my Wednesday night, with me studying to the tune of the Carrie Underwood Sound of Music holiday special.
On Friday, I headed back to Quebec with Terri and Tyler, who were going to visit McGill University. I had planned to study on the drive but ended up knitting most of the way instead. And then tragedy struck! My knitting needle with my hat on it snapped!! And so ended the knitting career of Erica :( well, at least until I get a new knitting needle. Luckily, it broke when we got to our hotel, the Nelligan, which is in Old Montreal. We arrived around 8pm and after dumping our bags in our room, went for dinner at the hotel's restaurant. The dinner was delicious! We had veal, and monkfish, and octopus and fancy pork and wine and yule cake with pistachio ice cream. Needless to say, I went to bed very full and very satisfied but not before putting in another 3 hours of studying. I am slowly dying an astronomy death…
Saturday morning, we went to St-Viateur's Bagel Shop for hot-out-of-the-oven bagels accompanied by David's Tea. The bagels were scooped out of the oven and placed in our bags - so good! I then caught a bus back to Sherbrooke on which, I made a new friend with my seat mate who was a student at l'Université de Sherbrooke. He invited me to come watch his trumpet shows in the New Year. I finally made it back to my house around 1pm, thanks to my friend who picked me up at the bus station after his exam. Upon arrival, I got right back into my typical routine, meaning I dragged myself to the gym and then to the library for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Can I just take my exams already??
Today has been pretty much the same, with studying and exercising and catching up with my housemates. Well, catching up and getting in some quality bonding before we all leave for the holidays. Unfortunately, we are already down one housemate - we miss you Sarah - but we hope that she got home to Vancouver safely! On that note, I am soo jealous of everyone who is already done their exams and even of people who have at least started! I just want to be done! On a side note, a lot of people asked me why I made the trip home over the past week and the truth is, I honestly just needed something to do. I am so glad that I did, despite all the travel because I had a great time. The only downside was that it was a bit of a tease to have just a taste of being home for the holidays with my exams looming ahead.
On that note, I better get back to studying before hitting the hay. Tomorrow, Vicki is taking me on a Dewies date as she has an extra guest pass and we are going to study for astronomy together and then go to a class review session. It is also Bishop's 170th birthday tomorrow and rumour has it that there will be cupcakes at McGreer by 10am! The countdown is on - 5 more days and my holidays begin! But I have a lot to do in the next 5 days - 2 exams, a volleyball tournament, another trip to the Marché with the Outdoor Club, HANNAH'S 20TH BIRTHDAY and a lot of goodbyes! So I wish you all a wonderful week and ask that you keep your fingers crossed for me on Tuesday night and Friday afternoon!
All my love, Erica xoxoxoxo
P.S. Grandma, my David's Tea advent calendar has been a wonderful addition to my December days! Personal favourites so far have been "White Chocolate Frost" and "Stormy Night." Now my biggest problem is fitting the box into my suitcase to take it home for Christmas!
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