9 - in which a panda blogs about Florida, part 1

Heat. Humidity. Palm trees. But before any of that, the most glorious sunset viewed from our tiny plane window. Small planes always give me ear pressure pain, but I managed to pull through this time with only half an hour of distress. The flight from Montréal to Fort Lauderdale is about three and a half hours long, give or take. We arrived at the airport around one and got past security by 2:45. Our flight was set to leave at 3:55 so I decided to grab some lunch. I had been feeling faint all day because all I ate was a tiny chocolate banana muffin in the morning around 8 am and another fruit muffin around noon. So I went to Burger King and got a Whopper Jr combo which helped me not suffer during the long plane ride. I found a station with a plug and I just waited time out as our plane ended up showing up late.

The flight was smooth enough. On the flight, I watched the movie Contagion and I will admit while the subject matter interests me a whole lot, I did not like the film all that much. It was a bit of a failure as far as apocalypse stories go, and there were so many mini-plots that I did not know what to think. The man and his daughter waiting out the insanity and the plague were unrealistic because he only breaks into a neighbour's house once to grab a gun and when they go loot the grocery store they don't pick up anything because they are too scared of getting sick. What the heck did they eat then to survive for so long, I wonder... but it still passed the time, so I won't complain too much.

Upon landing in Florida, there was a bit of stress on all our parts (though I will give credit to Macey for keeping her head, she tends to be the voice of reason when my mom and I get stressed out!) though I only got panicky after mother did. We went to pick up our rental car and it was Kia Soul, bright orange, I like it even if it's gaudy and flashy. On the highway, due to construction and mother not taking out the GPS, we went the wrong way which caused her to panic. Eventually we pulled over and managed to get back on the road and to the condo in Pompano Beach with little difficulty. We stopped off at the dépanneur (or corner store or whatever else you English-speaking people call it XD) to pick up cereal, milk, bread, and other essentials. It was difficult to pick a cereal box because just in that tiny store were cereals that have not been sold in Quebec in YEARS. So I was like a kid at Christmas and finally settled on Apple Jacks, which have recently begun to be sold in Quebec again but are still rare as I have only ever seen them at Wal Mart.

The rest of the evening I got my Wi-Fi connected and chatted to some people via Twitter before going to bed. This condo is rather spacious. When you walk in, there's the living room, dining room, then a balcony and the kitchen next to the dining room. If you were to turn left upon entering, there is a hallway with two bathrooms and two bedrooms - one is the master's bedroom and the other has two double beds, a sink just outside the room, and no door to the room apparently. I suppose privacy isn't an issue for those living here before us? I have no clue.

Well now that this blog post was done I will go grab breakfast and start working as yes I am working during my stay, from 8:30-noon on every weekday. If you follow my instagram you will see that I will be updating with meals and snacks I eat during my stay. :D

Have a good day everyone!!

- Panda

8 - in which a panda attempts revival

It has been a few months since I last wrote anything in this blog but I may as well attempt to keep it alive. It is difficult for me to blog because I don't find my life particularly interesting and even when I do (such as when I was in China) I was very busy and exhausted by our long days that I never had time to write. And when I did, the Wi-Fi was too expensive so I couldn't post them anyway. To top it off, my friends from the ISLP program kept dragging me to the bar to drink so I'd get back to the room around midnight (the rest went out clubbing, but I was a good girl) so forget about blogging! But I never did get to tell my China stories so maybe I will...eventually.

What has been happening with me? Well this semester is progressing incredibly quickly that it is amazing to think I only have two more weeks of school. Then my undergraduate degree is finished and I am off to grad school. Yes I am aware that I did blog about not going to grad school but as it turned out I bit the bullet and applied. I was accepted to one of two schools I applied to, and am still waiting on McGill. For now I won't give any details about what I applied to as that is a huge change from what I was studying currently and deserves its own post. Apart from that, the second big issue in my life is the current student strike. I am not going to go into my opinion because I think most of the people who would read this know already, but basically, the CSU GA was corrupt and a total joke, the strikers are being childish and immature by playing violin and blowing bubbles to interrupt classes, and the soft picket lines are not soft picket at all. If I have to shoulder my way through a picket line there is a problem. I don't care if you guys are striking, they voted soft picket so you must let me through, and furthermore classes are progressing as normal whether you are there or not so it isn't right to manhandle me as I try to get to class.

...I have to write two huge research papers this term, both around 4000-5000 words. For my Canadian law class, I have finally settled to write about women's reformatories/prisons and how the shift from one big woman prison in Kingston to 5 regional prisons has affected the population and the inmates. Furthermore, I wish to examine how the punitive method of detaining women has shifted to rehabilitating and reforming women, even murderers are given a chance to go to school and live in 'house' cells where they have their own keys. It's a bit ridiculous. My second research paper is for my war and memory class and I will be examining the October Crisis in Quebec with the FLQ and the differences in the French and English media. I haven't done much research yet so stay tuned. My last paper is only 6 pages and it is on an undefined topic yet for my religion class so I honestly haven't a clue. All in all the semester ends the 25th April ... if the strike doesn't extend or cancel it. :(

Cheers ~ panda out.