Oh, the delicious food I have been eating as of late!

The best things I have had at the Food and Wine Festival so far is a toss-up between Germany's apple strudel, Poland's nut bar and Canada's maple fudge. Yup, those are all desserts. However, the "mains" are pretty good too, with the exception of the weird sausage thing in Germany which I didn't really care for.

Things have been busy, busy, BUSY as of late! Lots of work and lots of stuff going on. I finished a 45ish-hour week today which isn't too bad, especially since three of my shifts were only six-hours long. Tomorrow I start a 60-hour week with the highlight being a 11.15 - 0.30 shift.

I'm in a good mood right now as I just came home from my roommate's birthday party and got to practice my realllllly rusty French! I think I get along somewhat decently, I'm just pretty bad with verb tenses. I was also practicing with one of my Quebec coworkers a couple of days ago. I find her much easier to understand than the French, but I think it's because Quebec's prononciation has become anglicized over the years, much how our Canadian English has evolved versus British English. Anyway, back to the point.... It was slightly intimidating going to a party with primarly French people. Not that they are scary whatsoever, but because they know each other and I feel kind of rude speaking English when they are speaking French. At first I was rather quiet and wished I had dragged someone along with me as suggested by my roommate. She then asked if I would mind going back to our flat and fetching the birthday cake (which I did :) ). When I got back I decided I was being retarded and tried to strike up a conversation. Flashback to an article I read long ago about being social and mingling. There are always a couple of questions, slightly modified depending on the situation, that can fly at any party. Most people at a party know the host, or know someone who knows the host (i.e., it's your date's friend). Commons style, the question can be, "Do you know who lives here?" if you do not have a clue whose place you are visiting or "How do you know [insert host name]?" So cheers to that article I read long ago! I picked someone who looked like she didn't know too many people as well, et voila, I now have some more people to hang out with!! Her English was quite good so I spoke English with her mostly. A guy showed up whose English was more than adequate but I felt trying to speak in English would be polite and kind of fun! Nine-hundred million grammatical errors later I am now home and in a good mood. This is what I like about the Commons - meeting people from all over. It's soooo easy to hang out with just the Canucks and it sometimes takes some effort to meet the other internationals. Don't get me wrong, the Canadians are great, but you tend to get curious about all those people speaking other languages :) And really, where else do you get the opportunity to do this?! So I'm very glad I went to Smiley's birthday party despite my initial feelings of awkwardness. But sometimes you just need to suck it up and take reign of the situation at hand. Even if you feel like everyone else knows everyone else, chances are there is a least one other person who is a bit lost as well! :) Moral of the story: going to a party because you know one person and like cake isn't a bad thing! Besides, by the end of it I didn't even have any cake (probably a good thing).

La fin. A demain!

PS: sorry for lack of emails as of late.... My internet connection has been a bitch to contend with as of late but it seems to have straightened out now. So expect replies soon! And to my parents, I may talk to you again someday, but at the moment our time difference is an issue. I get home from work after you go to bed and then stay up waaaaaay late. Bienvenue aux Commons!