Unfortunately, mentally incapable people are common

That title doesn't have anything to do with this post - it's just a quote from the professor of the class that I'm in right now. Civ Pro has the potential to be interesting. Too bad the professor is (hopefully) a much better litigator than a professor. I am including a picture that will hopefully give you an idea of how my Civ Pro lectures by this prof are structured:

PS - NOT an exaggeration. It's a damn good thing this prof is cute - and he is very cute!
(Edit: finally got the g-damn picture to go in the centre, like I wanted - is anyone else having issues with actually getting their pictures to upload into their text?)

Also, just for an exciting update, I am going to see ELTON JOHN in November!!!! (I thought pink was an appropriate colour to use there). And the coolest part is that I'm going with my sister, mum, and step-dad, for my step-dad's birthday. It's going to be so much fun! I've never gone to a big concert with my parents, and my step-dad really likes Elton John (well, we all do), so it'll be a really good time, I think.


This past weekend I went to my first 'humanistic' service for Rosh Hashanah - very interesting, although since it was at 10:30 am on a Saturday morning, I did have a strong urge to nod off. But it was neat to see how they deal with celebrating that whole holiday, without praying or worshiping or anything. It's really all just about celebrating this Jewish history, and the Jewish people - pretty cool, actually! I can see that that type of thing is something that I would enjoy getting involved with, and I definitely agreed with a lot of the values that were discussed during the service. I did feel bad for Adam - he definitely didn't want to be there, but he was being a good son, so that was nice.

I also had breakfast this past Sunday with my mum, my sister, and my sister's apparent boyfriend - someone who my family has known pretty much since my sister and I were about 4 and 2. Which is weird. Also, I dated him, and he was my first kiss (in gr. 6, though, doesn't really count). There is absolutely no kind of jealousy, I'm just having a serious problem with figuring out how my sister can actually look at him in that kind of way - not as any insult to him, but just because we've known him for so long, and he's just, you know, him. Anyway, breakfast was awkward, and my sister hates it that I think it's so weird. Hopefully everything will work out, cause right now it's just a bad scene.

The good part about the breakfast was seeing my mum and my sister together. The 3 of us got to spend the afternoon together, and we went to the Word on the Street literary festival in Toronto, and it was really nice to get to hang out. My mum's visiting my sister now, and she's coming to my place on Tuesday evening, so it's going to be a good week!! I'm going to get a KITTY, and a keyboard that plays like a piano (finally!), and get to watch Top Model with a bunch of my friends and my mother, which will be interesting and fun!

Anyway, that's really all I have to say at this point, so I'm going to publish this and then do another entry soon about the next part of my trip - although not necessarily right now, but it's coming!

Are we there yet?

I was last speaking about the cute little rest/picnic areas on the island... here's a picture of one, which is also one of my most favourite pictures of our whole trip. I hope that this picture gets across how beautiful the whole island is. And I would definitely recommend looking it up on Wikipedia, to get an idea of the history and stuff - it's pretty cool!

I don't have a picture of the lane of eucalyptus trees, or the swamp, which is too bad because both were beautiful. What I do have is a little picture of part of this cute, tiny little cemetery that was on the island. The littlest cemetery I have ever seen. It was about 10 feet x 20 feet, and very old. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but there is actually a village on the island, and people still live there (although that's the part where tourists aren't allowed to go). So I guess the cemetery is for them - either way, it was adorable. Which may sound like a weird description for a cemetery, but it really did apply. This is one of the crosses in the cemetery - you can tell it's really old! And then there's one more picture of a view from the island, as we were coming back to catch the ferry back to Cannes.

On our way back, while we were waiting for the ferry, Robin and I each got a sandwich, and we were sitting down on a bench by the quay, and these birds kept walking around us and trying to get food. Unfortunately, Robin had to delete the pictures because she was running out of space, but it was really cute. There was one little seagull, he had a lot of character for a little bird - I know, everyone hates seagulls, but he was my little friend, and he kept us entertained while we were waiting.

So then we took the ferry back to Cannes, went to pick up our stuff at the hostel (and it was still all there!), and went off to the train station on our way to Cinque Terre - which ended up being even more beautiful than Cannes! But that is a story for another day...

This is one way to get through Income Tax class...

From now on I'm just going to delve right into the stories about the trip, cause I'm tired of doing intros. So no more niceties.

So my sister and I were walking along the beach on l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite, looking out over the Mediterranean Sea, and all the big, beautiful boats that were parked between the island and Cannes. Here is a picture of me wandering along the beach (my sister took it from far back so that we could get the view in there too):

Look at that boat in the background, isn't it beautiful?!






















So as my sister and I rounded the Northwestern shore, we got an even better view, because now we were looking out over the water, without Cannes right across the bay.

I'm going to include a picture of a map of the island, so that you can get an idea of where we were when different pictures were taken:







The red dot (Northwestern side) is where the ferry from Cannes dropped us off.. Cannes is north of this map. Robin and I starated walking along the white path (and then along the beach) westwards. The next couple pictures are of the very western point of the island.

You can still see the land across the bay a little here, but we were starting to get to see an 'unblocked view'. The shore along here was really beautiful, very rocky with lots of really pretty plants - SO 'naturey' compared to what we'd been used to in Lyon and Cannes. Also, there were lots of ruins here, because a bunch of viewing post type things had been on this point, because it was such a good look-out area.






This was our attempt at getting both of us in a picture, and also getting a view from the island. Didn't really work so much, but I still really like it as a picture of the two of us (even if I am wearing my 'bug glasses'!).

So we kept going along that path, and basically covered all of the white path parts that you can see in the picture above, that are on the western half of the island. The variety of flora on that island was incredible. In one area there was a swamp, (the blue in the middle of the western part), and then just a little more to the east was a whole lane of eucalyptus trees that had been planted there a while ago. On the point on the southern side of the western half, that you can see on the map, was a really nice little lookout point with a bit of a disply of the different types of plants that you could see on the island. There were also a lot of really nice little picnicking and rest areas (which was good because it was uber hot!).

Back and better than ever

Well, here we are, ready to delve into the adventures of l'Île de Sainte-Marguerite . I'm in class - Company Law to be exact - but I have taken all the notes on the stuff that the prof is talking about (aren't I a good student!) so I'm going to do this instead.

So after Robin and I got off the boat, everyone spread out to head off to the areas of the island which we found most interesting. As I mentioned in a previous post, the island and its attractions were really well marked, so it was easy to figure out in which direction Robin and I wanted to go. We decided to walk along the edge of the island, because it was such a beautiful view over the water, as you can see in these pictures:

After a while, we realized that it was silly to be walking along a path when we could be walking right along (or in) the water, so we took off our shoes and waded along the edge of the water. Which was amazing, because the water was nice and cool (but not too cold), and it was just incredible to be wading in the Mediterranean Sea!

Of course, we gave that up fairly quickly when we discovered that the stones on the beach were a little too sharp for walking on, so we put our shoes back on, but still walked along the beach because it was just too pretty not to. Here's a picture of me walking along the beach - Robin took it from fairly back so that we could get the view in, too.

Okay, so I keep running into this problem that I can put a few pictures in a post, and then it's stops putting them in. So my new theory is that only so many pictures are allowed per post. So unfortunately for you all, I'm going to have to split this trip up into even more posts. But I promise there will be pretty pictures to make it worth your while!

We interrupt this program....

Hi all. Okay, everything has finally calmed down and sorted itself out sufficiently for me to continue my tales of the voyage. However, I thought that I should update first, because there have been some interesting things going on with me in the last week or so. So, first, my two roommates moved in this past weekend (of the 1st). They are two of my good friends from first year law. We officially took over the apartment in May, but I was the only one of the three of us living there for the summer (one of my roommates had a really nice subletter, so at least I wasn't living alone all summer) because the other two roomies were in Toronto. But now we're all moved in, and I no longer am living alone, which is nice. And so far it's going pretty well, we're having fun, and our other friends are coming over a lot because that way they're guaranteed to hang with three of us. So it's cool beans. Plus our apartment, if I do say so myself, is awesome. Undergrad friends, you are more than welcome to come visit at anytime! This past week was also the first week of school, starting on Tuesday. I am taking two not-really interesting classes, Civil Procedure and Income Taxation (but they are required), and two interesting classes, Intellectual Property and Company Law. IP is interesting because of the subject matter and because of the prof (who happens to be the prof that I worked for officially this summer, the one who was on sabbatical and who I met on Sept. 1 for the first time in person). Company Law is interesting probably mostly because of the prof, although I can't say for sure because we've really only had one class, and it was just an intro class. But he's hilarious (not intentionally, but because he's just so dry and sarcastic, and very 'unique'), and that makes things interesting, so it's all good. Plus he's like an expert of international renown in the area of Property Law, so that's pretty cool. Income tax, like I said, is not very interesting, but the prof is this kind of dorky guy who thinks it's incredibly interesting, so that should make it somewhat better than it could be otherwise. And the Civ Pro guy is a hot lawyer from Toronto who wears nice suits, so at least there's some eye candy going on! ;)

Most importantly, this week was also the week that applications went in for Toronto OCI's (Off-Campus Interviews). All of the students in Canada, basically, who are in second year law and who are interested in working in Toronto, apply for these second year summer jobs with the law firms in Toronto who are participating. So obviously, only about 25% of second year law students actually get summer law firm jobs, because hello, literally thousands of applications may be received by some firms.

I will be totally okay if I don't get a summer job in general, because I'm very sure that I can just work again for one of the two profs whom I worked for this past summer, which is also really good experience. However, my absolute top choice firm only hires its articling students from its summer students, because it's really small, and it only hires as many summering students as it would want to have articling students, and it makes sure those students are people who they want to become associate lawyers. So I'll be disappointed if I don't get in with them this summer, obviously, because that will mean I will have to wait until I am an associate lawyer, and then pester them with applications until they hire me. Which is fine, I can do that, but it would be way more awesome to get in with them this upcoming summer, because I really, really want to work for them, and they're incredible, and it would be like I had already arrived at where I want to end up! But anyway, we'll see, and everything will work out the way it should, I'm sure. Oh yeah, and about the applications, I stupidly for some reason did not realize that we needed to include copies of our official first-year law transcripts as well as our undergrad transcripts (I don't know why we can't just do print-outs, since they only want copies of the official one anyway, but whatever), so I didn't order them in time. The applications were due to be given to our Career Services Office at noon on Wednesday, and I didn't order my transcript until Tuesday morning, and it takes 2 - 3 days processing, so I had to mail the applications myself. So instead of paying $1/application to the school, I paid ~$7.00/application to the post office. Since there were 14 applications, you do the math of what that stupid mistake cost me! :p But I mailed them off, and they'll be there in time, and it's all good, so it was worth it.

Oh, I guess that the above thing was most important in terms of impacting the rest of my life, but this next topic is most important in terms of awesomeness. I went to see TOM PETTY and the HEARTBREAKERS last night, and it was one of the most amazing concert experiences of my life.
That guy and that band put on an incredible show, let me tell you! He played almost all hits, even though he has a new album out, called "Highway Companion". Which, judging by the few songs that he did play from the album, and the reviews I've heard, is just as amazing as everything else he's ever done!
That's what I really liked about it (well, definitely not all that I liked, but it impressed me), is that he knew enough to know that his new album would sell because he's amazing and has so many fans, so he knew he didn't need to promote it too much, and he knew that his fans would want to hear the classic stuff. So it was just super awesome. I was on the lawn at the Molson Ampitheatre, and there were about 20 of us in the group, and the entire lawn was packed (as were the seats), and everyone stood the whole time, because there was just so much energy! And the whole stadium was singing along to pretty much every song, except his new ones. And at one point, he actually had the audience sing the chorus while he did other kind of background singing. It was the chorus "I'm learning to fly/But I ain't got wings/Coming down/Is the hardest thing". It was SO COOL!!!!! Okay, that sounded really teenagery, but it's hard to describe the feeling of awesomeness in listening to thousands of people sing the same thing and be 'united', I guess, in this feeling of incredibleness and excitement. See? That's cheesy. SO COOL is less cheesy. Although the unitedness is true. Anyway... at the end, it started to absolutely pour rain, and it was lightning, but the vast majority of the people on the lawn stayed right 'til the end, which is a supreme tribute to Tom Petty, I think. We got totally and completely soaked, but it was totally and completely worth it. And it was definitely a misadventure, which of course is the best kind of adventure!

I also got to buy some merchandise on the way in... I bought the shirt on top for my step-dad, since he couldn't go to the concert and he loves Tom Petty, and the shirt on the bottom for me:

























Oh, before the concert, I got to go downtown to visit my sister's place. This is the place that I found for her and her friend, when I spent a half-day in Toronto, going around to different places and calling my sister to tell her about them. She would then call her friend who was in London, England at the time, to tell her about the places. It was a whole big thing. But I found them this 3-bedroom apartment, which is actually the top 2 floors of a house, near College & Bathurst. And it was grimy at the time because it was three guys living there, but my sister's friend's parents repainted, and the girls cleaned it all up (sister and her friend found another person to take the 3rd bedroom), and now it looks really nice. So I'm glad that I got to see it yesterday. After I saw my sister's place, we went and met Ange, and went shopping - yay!! I got a comfy cozy fleece zip-up at Winners, and some socks, and an awesome purse that is Hush Puppies (did you know they made bags? Cause I didn't!) and I think it's absolutely beautiful. I also bought two of those new 'ITEC' bras from La Senza, so we'll see how that works out. Anyway, shopping was fun, and I got to spend a whole day with Ange who I never get to see (although I never get to see any of you anymore, do I?). So that was fun.

Okay, I think that may be everything I need to update about. So next time I'm on I will continue the European trip saga, I promise!