Highlights of 2008

I’m glad the year of the Mouse/Rat is over. It was a tough year, but also a very rewarding one, filled with events, color and life. It was definitely a great one for meeting new people and leaving the dead end contacts behind. It was a year of travels, learning, emotional change of scenery, breaking the habits, and finding peace. In short:

Vice internship, movies with Slava, Barbi, snow angel challenge, high tea, cuckoo New York trip, mad revelations and heartbreaks, the legendary night of the Justice show at the Great Hall, indoor pool voleyball in Richmond Hill with a blizzard outside, Montreal for the first time ever, straight to Vancouver, the return of Dimitri, straight A’s that semester, “I love nature” cottage visit, summer internship, more Montreal, Lemeac, Rajni, Ottawa, Rafael Nadal, gourmet adventures with Roberto, Magdalena’s return, dancing late and coming to work early, Osho, red eye to Europe, constantly ringing cell in Berlin, Baltic Sea, goth party in the bunker, wasp attack, Kunstwerke, Michael and Karin’s epic search for a gallery, scootering in Ibiza, flying, getting lost in the hills with fuel running out, Gaudi, Joan Miro, Catalan people, Faulkner’s Light in August, La Tomatina, Valencia’s paellas, the girl from Jupiter, getting lost in Barcelona with a flight to catch, gloomy London and port, vintage stores in Shoreditch, Strategic Planning, yoga, wonderful professors, wonderful people, PalmsOut in October, jerks stealing my possessions, Vosges chocolate in SoHo, Coney Island freak show, Mad Men, calming down, peace of mind, movie night with dear C.L., playing the tambourine till 4am, BBDO, roommate reunion, blizzards in Vancouver, the return of Scotch, securing that opportunity, The Sacred Book of the Werewolf, light at the end of the tunnel, Russian madhouse, caviar and champagne on New Year’s Eve.

Filed under: memories , 2008, barcelona, bbdo, Berlin, career, Europe, friends, fun, fun time, ibiza, improvements, joy, life, London, memories, montreal, plans, review, ryerson, Spain, tomatina, toronto, travels

Flashback alert!

…to the fall 2006 in Toronto, and my first residence on Sherbourne & Wellesley.

If you live or are familiar with Toronto, then you know that that particular area is no good. But I got lucky with the landlord (he would fix the problems right away and gave us discounts on pizza since he owned the Domino’s below us) and a very quiet roommate (I would see her once every two weeks and I would always startle her; we never had any social functions). I found this place a week after I moved to Toronto, and considered it a pretty rad deal.

No matter what it was (and no matter that 9 months later I moved to Kensington), it was my landing point in Toronto, and the start of all my explorations. I used to spend a lot of time there in the early fall of 2006. My Russian folks from the University of Waterloo paid many a visit during their co-ops and party frenzies (have you noticed that I used the word “frenzy” in the last 3 posts?), my mom saw this place when she visited, we could do laundry at home, I hosted a couple of my first ever dinner parties, and even facilitated a number of peculiar memories.

I remember coming home late at night, looking like a tough m*&$@#!er so that nobody would talk to me, watching the trannies and cabbies hang out at the Beaver gas station. The writing material. I would even write, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” and so long and so forth, if Charlie Dickens hadn’t thought of that one first.

Filed under: memories , 2006, apartment, downtown, flat, life, memories, toronto

why hello

Originally uploaded by dreamtiger

this is from such a long time ago! well, well…. 2004. I remember, those were the days. Summer after we graduated from high school, the days before university, texting my boyfriend at the time (finance engineer guy, heh), we just spent the afternoon shooting 35 mm and speculating about the future. The sun shone brightly, the belt felt heavy, we felt the lightness in our stomachs and were so full of optimism… Speaking of, the positivity is even higher now.

Filed under: memories , 2004, changes, friends, fun time, legs, life, memories, photography, photos, self, summer, vancouver

Platja den Bossa

I really like this photo, which I took in Ibiza, on Platja den Bossa. I haven’t even noticed the great composition – look at the man and the woman! And then check out the couple in the distance – their heads are almost on the same level as the couple’s in the foreground. Yeah!

Playa d’en Bossa is the longest beach strip on the island (2 km). It’s full of beach cafes, bars, restaurants that often have famous DJs spin some tunes before performing at major clubs of the island (Space, Amnesia, Pacha, Privilege, Eden, did I forget something?).

We rode our scooter to the beach after spending most of the day in Eivissa town (where we scootered all the way to the top! See other photos), and relaxed. Be warned – numerous umbrellas beach chairs (is that what you call them?) that fill up the area have to be paid for. Watch out for the collector man.

Filed under: simple life, the world eh , 2008, aesthetics, beach, ibiza, life, self, Spain, travels, trip, vacation

Rabindranath Tagore “Stream of Life”

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

PS. Tagore was the first from Asia to win the Nobel prize. There is a song called “Praan” and is sung in Bengali (same poem). Check it out, it’s beautiful.

PPS. My first entry!

Filed under: Quotable , joy, life, poem, poetry, summer, tagore