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challenge, to be specific.
This is a bit contest, but really more of a challenge to push your photography boundaries. I'm definitely doing it (now that I found my camera, lol.) and you don't have to be competitive at all! You do, however, have the chance to win some pretty cool stuff if you do (including a print donated by me )
Go check it out here: [link]

In life news, going out to Mission was wonderful. I laughed so much, both just at Beki, Graham and Beki's mother's antics, and also at the play I went to. I have to say, I was really looking forward to it, since I studied The Importance of Being Earnest back in AP Lit last year. Overall it was quite good and just as funny as I thought, but due to the decision to double cast, a lot of the lines were sloppy. I still enjoyed it thoroughly though, and can't wait to go back in May to watch the Shakespeare production, which will be Two Gentlemen of Verona.
And and and... I'm getting a copy of our play from last year! Mebbe I'll post it on youtube for your amusement - the night we filmed was not our best
Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to the island for some family time. Gotta get up bright and early, so I better go finish cleaning and packing.
Happy holidays everyone

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So my back still hurts and there are other things plagueing my mind, but most of my stress is gone! I wrote my last exam today, then hopped a bus and a train out to Mission. Watched a bit of Moonchild, ate some mixed nuts and veggies and then I was there! The place that was my hometown for less than a year, but left an eternal mark on me.
Beki, her mom and Graham (her boyfriend - this is the couple that shows up so often in my photos) came and picked me up, and we just laughed so hard, right from the start. Both Beki and I are feeling a little under the weather - she has chronic stomach problems and my back was really bad, but as soon as I got in that car and we started laughing, it felt like the stress melted away.
I want to write, draw and take lots of photos right away. Problem is, well, it's 2am, my tablet is in Vancouver, and my camera is somewhere.. in my apartment... D: must find before I go on holidays! When I go home I'm doing major cleaning anyway, so hopefully it will show up.
Not much else to say, except hang in there, my fellow Uni students, the end is nigh!
I'mma go to bed soon.

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Okay, long journal was long and needed to GTFO my front page. I'm done 3/5 exams! The last two are just Latin and Mythology, which aren't hard at all (as long as I study)
My anthropology was suuper easy, 4, 2 page essays in 2.5 hours.. I was done in 1.5 and wrote an extra page for each one.
Poli Sci was.. alright. I got super panicky over it, and in the end I think I did pretty decent, and also finished early, about half an hour.
My Literature, which I had to day, was mainly plagued with major laziness on my part. I'm exhausted, and all day long I was just like "euuughh Blue, I don't wanna do this...". I wrote three essays in two hours, and then forced myself to spend 20 minutes proofreading (good thing too, since I caught some stupid errors), but Lit has been so hit and miss for me this semester I can't be sure if I did well.
Anyway, other two should go well. and then it's fuuunnnn! I'm also finishing up my christmas shopping this weekend, now that I've finally figured out what to get everyone.
My birthday is in less than a month! My 18th birthday, at that. Yes, I am doing something special. Only one person knows at the moment, because I'm a little afraid I'll chicken out. I have to ask my parents first. I don't think they'll say no, and if they do I may do it anyways, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Once I ask, I'll post it on here.
*squees and runs around in circles* two more exams and I'm done!
My pain pills for my back make me a little silly at times, hehe.

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where did those months go?
I had my last class of my first semester of university yesterday. It was a bit odd to think of it, really. As my classmate said, it feels like we're going to blink and we'll be graduated. I start my exams next week. I have five in one (seven day) week. It's going to be insane! (My schedule is on my front page, btw) But then I get to go to Mission, visit my friends and old teachers. Then go to my parent's, have christmas, and hopefully to visit my native dad and family. Then back home, and then out to Mission for new years... busy busy holiday, but I'm going to be so happy not having to worry about much.
It's been a rough couple of weeks. My back pain, despite the doctor's pills, has still been troubling me, and at one point I gave up on writing my essays. But I got through it, and my Poli Sci teacher gave me an extension. I got done in time, though it's far short of my quality writing. But, some marks are better than no marks. Had a nice relaxing visit with my Mission friends today, then I'm gonna hit the books tomorrow!

Oh and I wanted to share some quotes so that they'll stay alive in my journal archive. (ack that rhymed)

From my Poli 100 Prof.
What I have Lived For:

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.
I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last--I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

-Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) won the Nobel prize for literature for his History of Western Philosophy and was the co-author of Principia Mathematica.

From my Poli 100 TA:

Here is what I keep reminding myself when I'm writing my assignments, it might work for you too: Nothing has to be perfect-just start and do your best. And in the case of poli 100 essay case, any grade is better than 0. You can do this.

And a really entertaining video we watched in my Anthropology class: [link]

Good luck on your endeavours, my friends.

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Okay, it's been far too long. But I've been busy with essays and tests and midterms and just life in general. I am actually enjoying my classes, they're interesting and most of the teachers make it quite fun.
Technically I'm still busy, but I really needed to take a break, since all the stress finally got to me and I kind of broke down (unfortunately when I was skyping with ~WilsontheElk) proving that I am, in fact, human.
It kind of all started the week of Halloween, when my back, which has been bugging me since the canoe journeys, decided to cause me great pain and dizziness. Went to the hospital, since I was crying so hard I knew I wouldn't be able to do anything. They gave me 6 pain pills and told me to go to Student Health to get physio. Never did. Why? Too busy. *sigh* I've gotten mostly used to the pain now, but it's still bothering me.
As if that wasn't enough, I have at least 2 essays/tests/presentations due every week from now until december, when exams start. and all my exams are in a very short period, with only one or two days in between them.
And although I'm very rarely the "pour out my troubles to my friends" type, I really miss having them. I miss eating lunches in the hallway across from my law classroom with everyone. They helped me, with emotional support if nothing else, while I went through the frustration of trying to get accepted, trying to do scholarships and trying to get funding. They made me laugh with their antics, made everything seem like it was going to be alright. We pulled pranks together, had picnics and did "Grad Camping" in the hall together, all of which was witnessed and okayed by the admins in our school. 0.o
I miss my teachers who would understand when I was going through a rough time, who would sit down and spend an hour or two after school to help people get through exams or to tell them how they could improve.
I miss my best friend, who despite (practically) living in the same city, I almost never see. In fact, I think we saw each other more often in the past. This isn't her fault, of course. She's just as and probably more busy than I am. It's just that I miss being able to sit for hours and watch anime or play video games or randomly wandering around the city together.
I miss my canoe family, who I'm afraid I'll never see again because I was not the nicest person last summer, and I'm not sure I deserve to go on the Journeys anymore, even though I love it.
I even miss my parents, although they pressured me and often didn't understand that exam time = no time for housework.
I miss having time for housework and enjoying cooking.
I know that it's just all the stress, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm really cut out for this.

Sorry for the angst, but I needed to get it out.
I'm going for a walk now. It's quite nice out and hopefully the air will clear my head so I can at least get something done today, even if it's not my essay which is already late >.<

Ps. Thank you Blue, the tea really did help.