That's a Wrap!

Hello everyone and happy sunny Sunday! Well, the sun has actually started to set but it was a beautiful day prior to that. And what made it even more beautiful was the fact that it was my first day of vacation! You heard it hear first folks, I, Erica Zucker, am officially done my third year of university, which means I only have one year left to complete my first undergraduate degree! What a year it has been - this time last year I was beginning to pack my bags to head to Florida, 4 months later I moved to France and then I spent another amazing 4 months in Lennoxville. And in exactly one week I will heading back to Northern Ontario to spend the next 4 months at Camp Wenonah. In case you were wondering, no, I never stop. 

Now, I say that the past 4 months were spent in Lennoxville but the truth of the matter is that this weekend was the first weekend I spent here this month, and the only one. I was home for Easter, then home for the World Synchronized Skating Championships and then head home to Ancaster this coming Wednesday. But the time I have spent here has been fantastic. When I got back from Easter, the first thing I did was go to the sociology department's "Sociological Soirée" as Jocelyn's date (sorry Phil). I was nervous to go at first, since the total people I know in the soc department is approximately 2, but the event was really fun. I loved meeting Jocelyn's department friends, and was able to put faces to the names of the people with whom she works on group projects. Highlights of the event included a cupcake decorating station and a photo booth. Photos to come as soon they are available. 

Wednesday, I had my official last day of classes of third year. In between my morning and night classes, I had my friend Camille over for afternoon tea, mainly so that I could use my fancy teapot. Despite our tri-weekly meetings, it was the first time she actually came all the way here, so it was fun to host her. Later, on my way home from my night class, I passed Hannah on the road, who proceeded to pull over and ask if I wanted to come on a secret mission with her. As any good housemate does, I said yes, hopped in the car and awaited to be given mission details. As we headed towards Little Forks (the student ghetto), I was informed that we were going to pick up an air hockey table that Hannah had purchased approximately half an hour earlier off the furniture swap page. I was a bit nervous as to how we were going to transport it from a fourth story apartment to our house, but it was smaller than I expected and lacked legs, so the transport was relatively easily. You can imagine our other housemates' surprise when we rolled in with Hannah's purchase, but once we had it set up, it provided us with a whole evening's worth of entertainment. Best $10 ever spent (by Hannah). 

Thursday. I tried to get a lot of work done in preparation to leave over the weekend. In the afternoon, I went to a meeting for the outgoing fall semester exchange students to talk to them about the experience and give them some parting advice. I cannot believe that it was already a year ago that I was on the other side of the table, listening to other students talk about exchange. While I tried my best to say something meaningful, every exchange is truly something unique. There will be highs and lows no matter where you go. However, I wish all the outgoing students the best of luck and hope that they have as good as an experience as I did! That night, the Golden Key Chapter Officers had our final meeting of the semester over dinner at Sebby's, the restaurant at the bottom of our road, at which we chose the officers for next year. I am proud to announce that I will be serving as the chapter co-president, alongside my friend Simone, and 3 of our others officers from this past year are returning as well. I am super excited to take on this role, as I got really involved with the chapter this year and am looking forward to making it an even more prominent force on campus in the coming year. Simone and I met earlier this week to start planning for September, and I am confident in the direction we are heading. Sneak peak: from talking to current president Sam, there is a high chance our super successful potluck with Dean Murray will become a chapter tradition. 

Friday, I was up bright and early to board a bus with the Cassiopée synchro teams to head to Hamilton to watch the World Synchronized Skating Championships. We left Sherbrooke at 8am to get to the First Ontario Centre for the opening ceremonies at 5:30. It was a long day on the road and a long day for my French brain, as we watched 4 movies dubbed in French, so I was very happy to arrive at the arena and meet up with Elena. As we are both poor university students, we bought tickets in the nosebleed section but since the event was not sold out, we got upgraded to seats right behind the judge's stand. Thank you First Ontario Centre! Regardless of where we were sitting, the event was great - we watched teams from all over the world, including Mexico, Australia, Japan, Finland and Sweden, perform their short programs. Team Canada 1, who skated to a country song, ended up in first going into night two! To celebrate, Elena and I went for dinner at Kelsey's, a synchro competition tradition. 

Saturday, the long program event started at 1pm, with the lower ranked teams skating first and those in the top positions skating later in the evening. Elena had won tickets from the Hamilton Spectator for the event, so we had seats right in the middle of the huge Canadian fan section, which was doubly fantastic for me because we were right beside the Nexxice section, my former club (also Team Canada 1). During the floods, I was able to catch up with my former teammates, my old coaches and other friends from the skating world. I even got to meet my old teammate Janice's new baby, Hannah Marie. My former coach Jennifer Beauchamp was the athlete ambassador for the event, but I was fortunate enough to run into her during an intermission. She was not impressed to hear that I was joining up with a rival synchro team. Oh, and I had a small Wenonah World run-in, when I ran into my POLARIS director, Laura Faulds and her sister Christy at the rink, as Christy is a former synchro skater as well. The skating itself that day was great, and the competitions as tough; we were all on the edges of our seats after Team Canada skated and we had to wait for 4 other teams to skate to find out who would be crowned the 2014 world champions. Coming down to a difference of 0.69, Team Canada took home the gold, something they have not done since 2009! Additionally, Canada remains the only non-Scandinavian country to win worlds. I have never been prouder to be a Canadian synchronised skater! 

Sunday, I traveled back to Quebec on the team bus and then entered into the longest 30 hours of my life. Monday, I had two French projects due and a music exam and to top it off we did not have internet at home, which made it a little difficult to translate the two WEBSITES for my one French project. I spent Sunday night in Mackinnon with Vicki working on our project, all day Monday on campus working on my projects, stopping only to write my music exam, and then worked in the library until 11:55, when the two French projects were due. Lucky for me, on the bus on Sunday, I had a French teammate read over my paper and then my friend Camille read it over as well, so it was really my translation project I spent all day working on. Funny side story - I went to see my prof during the day to ask some questions about the project, one component of which was writing a bill, or facture for the two businesses we were translating for. I opened my folder to show her my work and the first thing she pointed out was that I had written fracture instead of facture, so she laughed and said it was a good thing I came to see her. Oopss...at least she got to laugh before I submitted it for marking!

Tuesday, I slept. 

Just kidding, I slept in later than usual, but went about the rest of my day as usual, just without having any classes to go to. My brain was in need of a well deserved break. That night, I went over to a friend's apartment for homemade fondue, from the broth to three different sauces! It was unbelievably  delicious!! After I invest in a raclette grill one day, a fondue set will be next on the list. 

I spent the rest of the week studying for my psych exam and working on the blog channel. It is still largely under construction but it coming along nicely. Thursday I went to a synchro practice for a different synchro team but still part of the same club. The club is trying to make an adult 1 team, which is a higher level than the team I tried out for. While the practice was a lot of fun, I was really starting to feel like a part of the other team, and the coach of the adult 2 team is so incredibly nice that now I am extremely conflicted as to which team I want to join. Obviously, there are a lot of factors to be considered, such as the time commitment, practice dates, costs and possibility of carpooling to practices, etc. but it will be a difficult decision nonetheless.  One month back in the synchro world and it's already complicated!! 

Saturday morning I wrote my last exam of third year and was officially finished at noon! To celebrate, I came home and took a three hour nap. Clearly living the young and wild life over here. To counterbalance, I spent the rest of the afternoon looking up fun sangria recipes to try out that night. I will include my adapted recipe below. Hannah and I went over to our friends Gaby, Ellen, Ariane, Sara and Liv's house to celebrate the end of the year and the 2nd birthday of Gaby's cooking blog, Breakfast at Midnight. In celebration, we ate waffles at midnight (get it.). Waffles and sangria - does it get much better? 

So that brings my post and my school year to a wrap! I want to take a moment to thank everyone who  has made this semester so great. Camille, thank you for practicing French with me three times a week. Sarah, thank you for all our coffee dates. Vicki, thanks for always listening to me complain about French and for being my go-to ski buddy. Ladies of delta poop, thanks for being our go-to group of girls to hang out with. Golden Key, thanks for a great semester of academics, service and leadership (and potlucks and always listening to my endless stories). And to Jocelyn, Hannah, Elizabeth and Sarah, thank you for being the best 4 housemates and friends a girl could ask for! I can't wait to spend our final year together! 

Good luck to everyone still finishing their finals! You can make it through the last stretch! Bring on spring 2015!

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo 

Recipes: 

1) Cranberry apple sangria 

-1 Granny Smith apple

-1 red apple 

-1 orange

-1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

-1 bottle dry white wine

-1-2 cups Ocean Spray cranberry juice

-1-2 cups sparkling water

-Optional: rum, vodka or orange liqueur 

Cut up orange and apples and let sit in wine for 2 hours. Add all other ingredients. Stir. If using fresh cranberries, may want to add ice cubes. Pour in fancy glass and enjoy! (responsibly) 

2) Thursday night, I made some delicious quinoa black bean burgers, adapted from two different recipes. Here is what I came up with: 

-1/2 cup uncooked quinoa

-1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

-1 red pepper, chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-2 garlic cloves, minced

-1/2 cup oats

-1 egg 

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Bring 1 cups of water and the quinoa to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, sauté the onion and olive oil in a small sauce pan until tender.
4. Add in the garlic, salt and pepper and cook for just a few more seconds until it’s aromatic. Remove from the heat.
5. Place the onion mixture into the blender, along with half of the black beans, half of the quinoa, oats, the egg and purée.
6. In a large bowl stir the puréed mixture along with the remaining ingredients.
7. Form mixture into patties, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. 
8. Unwrap patties and place on parchment paper on a baking sheet. 
9. Bake for 10-20 minutes. Flip patties and bake for another 10 minutes.
10. Serve on ciabatta buns with desired condiments (lettuce, tomato, cheese, red onion, avocado) and sides of choice (I chose broccoli and sweet potato chips). 

#Published

Good morning everyone! I have officially finished exams and thus, finished my third year of university! A more encompassing post will come in the near future but I wanted to share something with all of you. Back in the fall, I was asked to write an article about going on exchange for the Recruitment Office to be featured in a magazine edited by my friend Ellen Black. Well, the final product was released this week and has been mailed out to over 1000 potential Gaiters! Here's hoping this magazine helps them make the best decision of their life! 

March Madness: BU Edition

Hello everyone - Happy April and Happy Good Friday! Today's post comes to you from every basic white girls favourite place - Starbucks Café. Since we all mourned a little the day the Sherbrooke Starbucks shut down, this therefore means that I am no longer in Lennoxville and have had to get my latte fix elsewhere, which today is taking place at the newest Starbucks in Ancaster (where my sister's best friend is currently working). I originally planned to come here to work, as I have several final projects to finish up before the end of the semester, but my solo study date turned into coffee with my mom, writing one paper and now this! So without further adieu, here is a little update of my "exciting" life. 

It is incredible how fast March went by! I mean, it feels like just yesterday I was home for Reading Week but that was already three weeks ago. And in two weeks from now, I will officially be done third year. I really don't know if I am ready for that yet. And I am definitely not ready to come to terms with the fact that I only have one year left living with my housemates. Speaking of my housemates, the weekend after St. Patrick's Day, we welcomed the St. FX debate team to the newly established Hotel WP for the U4 Up for Debate event. We had three guests, Paul, Ryley and Hannah who stayed with us Friday and Saturday night. Here is a little recap of the weekend:

Volunteering at the Open House with Hannah the Gaiter! 

Gaby achieving her dream of driving the campus golf cart! Thanks for the ride! 

The team arrived Friday night and we all went to a dinner in the Cleghorn room as an opening to the weekend events. Following the dinner, there was the Presidents Debate, in which there were three rounds of debate, one of which featured our principal Michael Goldbloom and CBC report Ian Hanomansing. Ian is a Mount Allison alumni, which is one of the U4 schools, and his son is in first year at BU. The debates were hilarious and a great kick-off to the weekend. Following that, we went to the first annual BU Bowling Open, put on by the Bowling Club. It was a huge success! There were 8 teams of 5 who registered and came out to play. My team was myself, Jocelyn, and three of our guy friends. Unofficially, I named our team "Started from the Bottom" because we were definitely the underdogs going in but ended up placing second, missing first by only 4 points! I think we all had the best bowling rounds of our lives. 

Saturday, our billets had their debate tournament and we met up with them to watch the U4 Symposium, a series of Tedx-inspired talks, featuring professors and students from the U4 universities. The Bishop's prof talked about the new beer brewing lab opening up on campus, which should be opening in the near future. Following the symposium, there was another dinner in the Cleghorn room and this time, each table had to come up with a potential initiative for the U4 league. My table definitely had the best idea, which was that we should set up live streaming for guest lectures that happen on our campuses, such as when Chris Hadfield came. Other suggestions included inter-university exchanges for students and profs, and team-taught online courses. Following dinner, there was an event called Front Page Challenge, modelled after an old tv show. There was a panel of experts who had to guess a series of mystery guests through asking yes or no questions. Mystery guests included Hubert Lacroix (CBC President and Ian Hanomansing's boss) and Leader of the Opposition Thomas Mulcair. Following the event, we took our billets out for the true BU student nightlife experience: we started with a party at our house, drinks at the Lion, a friend's birthday party, a quick stop at Mullies and then dancing at the Gait. The only thing missing was a trip through the McDonalds Drive-Thru! 

Happy 21st Birthday Robert! 

We said goodbye to our billets Sunday morning, after a very difficult time getting out of bed and a Dewies breakfast. Our one billet had bought two large cases of beer, so I offered to carry one to the bus for him. Who do we encounter as we are approaching the bus? None other than our principal, who just looked at me, laughed and asked if we had shown our billets "a good time." Yes, Mr. Goldbloom, we definitely did. After that it was back to bed, a bit of homework and then time for skating!

The following week was Research Week at BU. I had never really participated in it before, but decided to change that this year, as I definitely see myself doing academic research in the future. I took part in the research scavenger hunt: for this, Monday morning I received a list of clues that related to all  different research being done by profs on campus and had until Thursday morning to answer them, for the chance of winning $200. Monday there was an opening reception in the library, and the grand opening of the new BU Repository. Tuesday, I went to a series of flash talks over my lunch break, in which profs who are doing research on education and pedagogy discussed their initiatives. This was probably my favourite activity. One prof talked about a course on disability in society in which students are paired up with a buddy with a disability in order to better understand their lives and experiences. I talked to her later and she gave me permission to take it in the fall! Another prof talked about creating a new course for pre-service elementary teachers that talks about incorporating movement into math education, which sounds really interesting. And another one talked about Universal Design in the university classroom, a way of making classroom learning more interactional. That night, I went to Research Idol, in which students had 5 minutes to discuss their research work. A biology student was the overall winner. Following that, Vicki and I went to Trivia Night for the first time, which was a lot of fun. Our friends Olivia and Rob were hosting and it was BU themed. We played 6 rounds of 10 questions and our team won the "Where was this photo taken?" round. 

Supporting the Grad Appreciation Week memory board at Trivia Night!

Wednesday, there was a student poster competition. My friends Kevin, Elizabeth and Matthew all had posters in the contest, so I stopped by to support them and check out the other posters. That night, I went to the synchro team soirée at coach Julie's house for a group discussion about the dress for next season. We are skating to the soundtrack from the Hunger Games, so spent the night looking at pictures of the different costumes Katniss wears and coming up with a design for the dress. Once we had some ideas, we skyped the dressmaker currently on vacation in Mexico. It looks like the dress will be black, grey, orange and gold, most likely sleeveless, with a Mockingjay pin on the chest. Further details to come. 

Thursday, there was a closing reception for Research Week, at which the winners of the poster competition and scavenger hunt were announced. Sadly, neither I nor Elizabeth won, but the food and wine spread was worth going for, despite the loss. My prof from second year, Dr. Haigh, won the Emerging Scholar Award, awarded to a professor who has been at BU for less than 5 years and is making great research progress. She is on maternity leave this semester, as she just had a baby boy in February, who was in attendance at the ceremony. Congratulations to the winners of all the different honours during Research Week 2015!

Thursday night was games night at 27 William Paige. We played Heads Up, Scattegories, Bananagrams and then returned to Heads Up - a truly wild night chez nous. If you have never played Heads Up, I highly recommend you do, as it has become a favourite for Elizabeth, Hannah and me. We recommend the Adult Supervision and Bad Behaviour decks, though we also recommend not playing them in your living room where your neighbours can see in the window. I went over to a friend's place later that night and we watched Hunger Games 3: Mockingjay - my first time seeing the movie in English!

Friday I left to go to Montreal for the weekend, a trip I had been planning since before reading week. It worked out perfectly that I was going to be able to see both Natasha, my best friend from high school and Anne, my roommate from my summer in Disney. I met up with Natasha upon arrival, and the first thing she recommended we do was go to Starbucks to celebrate the 20th birthday of the frappucino - she knows me so well! After that we went back to her swanky apartment, which is right downtown by the McGill campus. After catching up, we went out to dinner to a Mexican vegetarian restaurant, Lola Rosa. We shared the nachos and each had a hemp burger, which was surprisingly delicious. The restaurant was very small and intimate, and the cutest part was that there were drawers in the table in which previous diners had left little notes. We found a cootie catcher in our table aka a solid ten minutes of entertainment! We of course had to leave our own little note, which we wrote on the back of a package of gum!

After dinner, we went back to Natasha's apartment, where we drank wine and watched Pitch Perfect, and her friend Yasmina came to join us. We then went out on the town, which led to a series of events. We got to the first bar,  but I had forgotten my ID so we had to go back home and get it. Then, when we got back and got to the front of the line, you needed a reservation to get in. The next bar we tried was having a private event and the third one had a $10 cover. We then took a cab to a bar called Baldwin's, where we got a few drinks and socialised for bit. We then went back to the first bar, but reservations were still required so ended up going for $2 chow mien before calling it a night. Going out in Montreal really makes me appreciate Lennoxville, where drinks are no more than $5 and cabs are not required. Nonetheless, it was worth every penny to have a great night with Natasha in the city!

Saturday was a lazy day, and we hung out at Natasha's apartment before my friend Anne came to pick me up. Anne, her dad and I went to Costco (holla free samples) and then to their home, which is in St. Bruno, a suburb of Montreal. Her house was beautiful, and her family was so welcoming - I almost felt like I was back home with my family. She took me for a drive around town and we went to Second Cup for lattés, before heading home to make dinner. After dinner, two of her friends from her Cegep cheerleading team came over for drinks and then we all went downtown to a McGill Faculty of Education fundraiser. One of her sister's friends was our designated driver for the evening, which was a huge help. We went to a bar called Café Campus and had our own private section called Petit Campus for the fundraiser. After some sangria and dancing, we went to La Belle Provence for poutine before heading back to Saint Bruno and heading to bed. 

After a great breakfast with Anne's family Sunday morning, I caught a ride back to school and was home in time to go to the last synchro tryout for the season. At practice, two things happened. One, we had an evaluation, for which the two coaches watched us perform a solo footwork pattern and an exercise in lines and then gave us feedback on our performance. Two, the coach for the intermediate team was there and asked me if I was interested in trying out for the team. Unfortunately, I had to decline as I do not have the time nor the money to commit to competitive skating again, but it was a huge compliment to be asked. Regardless, I am really looking forward to skating with the team next year and cannot wait to be a part of the synchro world again!

Monday, I met up with Camille and went to knitting club, two of my favourite parts of any week. Tuesday, Elizabeth, Jocelyn and I went to a free yoga session in the campus art gallery. It was so relaxing I feel asleep during the final exercise...oops. Wednesday, I went to the final soirée at coach Julie's house, this time to discuss the music. It was a lot of fun to listen to all the different versions of songs from the movies and it was the first time I have ever been able to give an opinion on the music we skate to. The music will be cut and arranged sometime in June and ready to go for the start of the season in August. 

Thursday was the second day of the Sodexo Serve-athon, a campaign put on by the campus food provider to collect for the local food bank. For three cans each, we were able to have breakfast at Dewies. Three Dewies meals in one month - it's like I'm back in first year! Jocelyn and I both took advantage of the newly-added breakfast crepe bar (see pictures below). Delicious! I left for Montreal as soon as my classes finished for the day and got a ride to Ancaster with my friend's dad - so much better than the bus! 

So that sums up the second half of my month of March, which I have to admit was wonderful. April got off to a pretty great start, with my friend Elena winning tickets for us to the World Synchronized Skating Championships in Hamilton next weekend - thank you Hamilton Spectator! I will be traveling with the synchro team on their bus to come home again next weekend to cheer on the two Canadian teams, including some former teammates. My former coach Jennifer Beauchanp-Critchon was named Athlete Ambassador for the competition, so hopefully I will be able to say hello to her in between all of her job demands! I am home for Easter with my family this weekend, home again next weekend for the competition and then finish up exams the following weekend! Before I know it, I will be heading up to Clear Lake for the summer! So much to do, so little time! 

Have a great Easter weekend everyone! And happy first night of Passover! Eat some mini eggs!

All my love, 

Erica xoxoxoxo

PS Happy 19th Birthday to my twin cousins Jaye and Claire! Xx