What I’ve been up to

You have probably been wondering what I have been up to since I haven’t posted in a while. The answer is, a lot! I have been busy taking two very intensive courses where 4 months of a class is compacted into two months.  Don’t worry, I haven’t pulled my hair out yet. I’ve been managing the courses to the best of my ability and I kind of enjoy having more pressure on getting my work done in a shorter amount of time. Good practice for the real world!

One of my intensive courses is about magazine publishing and we are learning the ins and outs of making a business plan for an upcoming magazine.  My other intensive course is learning how to use the Adobe Creative Suite, more specifically InDesign.  I thought I would share with you my advertisement design that I put together for my first assignment for the InDesign class. I waited until my mark was back to post this and my professors liked it enough so I guess that means I have some creative qualities to design. Check it out at the link below! I made the knitted birds nest with the robin’s eggs myself. I’ll try to post some of my other projects in the next month or so. Have a happy Wednesday!

Create Knits

(P.S. This advertisement is for a fake store, I made it all up!)

Music Monday: The Naked and Famous

The Naked and Famous is an Indie Rock band that i can’t get enough of. Their tantalizing music, ethereal vocals, and eye-capturing videography drive me into a different way of thinking about the world. Like my last Music Monday post on Gotye, The Naked and Famous are his indie neighbours from New Zealand. It seems as though Australia and New Zealand are doing it right when it comes to indie rock! If you like their music and want to see them live they will be at the Commodore Ballroom on April 25th!

Check out “Young Blood” and “Punching in a Dream”:

Music Monday: Indie Rock? Yes! Gotye? Yes, Please!

I absolutely love Indie Rock. And Gotye (pronounced go-tea-yay) does it right. Many of you have probably heard his hit song “Someone That I Used to Know” featuring Kimbra on his new album Making Mirrors. I fell in love with that song and I had to hear more of his mesmerizing instrumental music. His entire album is exceptional and as I wikipedia’d more information on Gotye (isn’t wikipedia wonderful!?), I discovered that Gotye has had two previous albums that I can’t wait to plug into. I also found out that he is a Belgian-Australian where most of his fan base before Making Mirrors came from Australia so give him some love and listen to his new album Making Mirrors!!

Here are a few of my favourite songs by him:

Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks Ski Resort is a wonderful place to go for a couple days away from the busy city of Vancouver.  I recently went to stay in Sun Peaks with a very generous friend who invited a bunch of us to stay at her townhouse.  Sun Peaks is just outside Kamloops, BC and it is about a 4.5 hour drive from Vancouver.  What an amazing trip I had! The sun was shining and the peaks were peaking with snow. Okay, bad play on words but you get the point. It was a fantastic holiday. The little town of Sun Peaks has the famous Nancy Greene hotel and on certain days you can even ski with her! How fun is that! And on top of having a local Olympic celebrity, the town has some cute bars and nice cafe’s that bring a lot of character to the resort. The resort is definitely family oriented. However, us young adults had an amazing time. We went skiing for a full day and if you are a student the day price is slightly cheaper for $75.  It is a fun resort to go to because it consists of three different mountains with slopes that require different levels of experience. However, most of the slopes are perfect for intermediate riders.  It was nice to go to a mountain other than Whistler as I’ve been to Whistler 8 times this season. And to spend time with friends and meet some new ones made it all the better.

My next destination coming up is Seattle! And I’m ready to get my sightseeing on!

Hey, there.

Yeah, I know. I really do. I’ve been missing in action for too long now. Way too long.  I apologize for my lack of attention to my loyal readers.  I do have an excuse though…I have been living life to the fullest! Okay, that may not be the best excuse since I should still try to make time for my blog but I have had a busy couple of months.

In Maui

After returning from my European Adventure, I settled into school.  Living up at SFU for the 3rd year and enjoying it greatly.  I have a fantastic roommate who enjoys having witty conversations with me and has the best sarcastic humour out of anyone I have ever met.  And then there is the school part of being at SFU.  I had a full course load filled with upper level courses, testing my knowledge of whether or not I have criticized the media enough in my past classes.  Turns out one can never criticize the media enough and I’m constantly learning about new ways to break down how communication works in all levels of life.  Even though I had a busy course load, I also found time to get a job. Well, I made time to get a job.  I also got involved with a new club at SFU called the Consulting Club.   I’m excited to say that this semester I will be putting on a fantastic event with a fellow genius (trishsissons.com) through the consulting club.  I will provide more details about the event soon!

A few other fun things that I was doing the past couple of months were focusing on my health a bit more. Tried hot yoga, bought a Whistler Student Ski pass and I have already gone skiing 6 times, and went to a spin class weekly.  Keeping active is something that I think is really important so I always push myself to try new things like indoor rock climbing and slacklining. I was also lucky to go to Maui this Christmas with my amazing family and had a blast.

On the chair lift at Whistler

I hope to write more this semester and to keep everyone entertained!  Look out for some healthy living posts and some interesting stories.

End of one adventure and onto a new one!

Ios, Greece

My adventure through Greece and Italy was so much fun.  I originally had planned to also go to France, Spain, and Portugal but fate had other plans for me and I ended up having to come home earlier than expected. However, traveling through Greece and Italy was plenty of an adventure for me! In Greece we went to Corfu, Athens, Ios, Santorini, and Crete. Every moment I was in Greece I felt on top of the world. What an amazing place! The turquoise sea and white, black, and red sand beaches were breathtaking.  And the partying in Greece wasn’t half bad either! Highlights of Greece definitely had to be in Corfu at the Pink Palace and Ios at Francescos Hostel.

Cinqueterre, Italy

Italy is rich with culture and beautiful just like Greece but we definitely had less beach time and a lot more on the go tourist time. In Italy we went to Rome, Naples, Pompeii, Amalfi Coast, Florence, Cinqueterre, and Genoa. Naples was a note-worthy place as in it felt like we were in the world’s biggest garbage dump. Garbage lining the streets everywhere due to the garbage union workers on strike. So I warn you if you want to see Naples do not stay there but stay in Sorrento or Pompeii!  My best highlight in Italy had to be Cinqueterre, which is comprised of 5 little towns along the Italian Riviera. Cinqueterre is such a wonderful place to visit with the most amazing views. My friends and I honestly had the adventure of a lifetime through Greece and Italy and I’m so happy I had the opportunity to travel through Europe this entire year.

Next adventure is another year at SFU.  I’m sure it will be a good one.

Till next time,

Lola

Goodbye Bath, Hello Adventure!

My experience at the University of Bath has been everything I ever hoped for it to be.  The people I met and the great friendships I’ve made have made this exchange one of the most amazing experiences of my entire life.  Bath, England will always be my second home and I really hope I will be able to come back one day.  There are so many great memories on this exchange that I will cherish forever.

Even though I have to say goodbye to Bath, I get to start my adventure throughout Europe! I’m so excited to travel and see more of Europe.  I have already had the chance to go to many cities in Europe during my exchange but now I will be exploring many countries all at once.  The countries that I am going to with my friend Emily are Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France.  We are going to a new city almost every 3-4 days so it will be a busy 2 and a half months but I can’t wait! I leave today and I won’t be able to blog since I’m not bringing my laptop. (My poor baby!) But I will come back with many stories to tell you.  If you miss me too much and need to see what I’m up to, you can check out my twitter as I will be posting updates once in a while.

Till next time, have a great summer and don’t forget to live life to the fullest!

Edinburgh, Scotland

My 3 day trip to Edinburgh was great.  It was my last getaway trip during my exchange and I had a fantastic time.  Edinburgh is a beautiful city despite its extreme weather conditions.  Since Bath had been so nice, I only brought two sweaters and a scarf for warmth.  I should have known that going up north in the UK would be colder and I completely forgot that the UK loves to be windy!  Even though I was slightly cold on my trip I still enjoyed it very much.  A couple of highlights of my trip were climbing up near Sir Arthur’s Seat, seeing the Edinburgh Castle, eating Haggus, and finding out where J.K. Rowling thought of Harry Potter, which is at the Elephant Cafe.  The entire atmosphere of Edinburgh is great with the old town and the new town minutes away from each other.  I was expecting Edinburgh to be quite big but it was easy to walk around everywhere without taking public transport.

My Haggus dish

One point about Edinburgh that I found very interesting is that there were quite a few women that I noticed to be sporting a fashion unlike anything I had seen before.  It was as if they wanted to look like real live witches.  Edinburgh was once the capital of witch-burning in Europe so there seems to be a connection with that.  Also, with the amount of spiritual stores in Edinburgh, it seems as if these supposed “witches” take their craft quite seriously.

6 day trip to Berlin and Amsterdam!

During my spring break I had a lot of time on my hands.  I only had to study for two exams when I am usually used to 5 so when my friends thought it would be great to go to Berlin and Amsterdam, I was all in.

Berlin

Swimming Hostel Berlin

Before we left on our trip, my friends Kathleen and Natalie decided to double-check the address of the hostels we booked. To our surprise, we booked a boat hostel in Berlin! We had not realized it was a boat hostel until we started reading reviews and it mentioned that “the captain” was great.  We had a double-take at that wording and thought why would someone in the hostel be called a captain?  As we

On our way to the city with coffee in hand!

looked further into the address, we then realized that we were going to be staying on a boat in Berlin.  At first we were skeptical but all the reviews were excellent so we decided to just go for it since we had already booked it anyways.  When we arrived at the Swimming Hostel in Berlin, we were jovially greeted by Captain Thomas who led us to our nice big room with our own bathroom.  The boat was very nicely decorated with a living room and kitchen as well as a great big deck with couches and chairs to lie out in the sun.  It had a hippie vibe to it and I have to say that I was loving the atmosphere.  Captain Thomas cooked amazing breakfasts and dinners, which costed only how much you thought it was worth! He also would take you to the city by driving you on his boat to the nearest metro station.  I know I should be writing more about the actual city of Berlin but Captain Thomas and the Swimming Hostel were the highlight of this trip. If you ever decide to stay in Berlin please check out the Swimming Hostel at hostelbookers.com.

Amsterdam

On the Canal boat cruise!

I previously went to Amsterdam this year with my mom before I went to Bath, UK for my exchange.  I loved it so much in fact that I just had to go back with my friends! You can go back to see my other review of Amsterdam here but I did do some things different on this trip.  One highlight was the NewAmsterdam free walking tour.  It is the same company that I do all my walking tours with and I am never disappointed.  Great entertainment for a 3 hour free walking tour and we also got free cheese out of it as well!  Another thing I did differently was that my friends and I took a canal boat cruise, which was a different way to see Amsterdam and a great one at that! Amsterdam is a magnificent city and I hope to live there someday.

Ibiza, Spain

Ibiza is a very beautiful island in Spain.  Sun, beach, and sangria basically sums up this destination. I did not go during high season which is actually around this time now so the big clubs, which Ibiza is famous for were not open. However, I enjoyed the beach and the sun and all in all, it was a relaxing vacation.  Our hotel was right on the beach so we had a beautiful view of the ocean.  There was a seawall that would take you directly to town. Although Ibiza is very nice, the town was wall-to-wall with hotels. It seems like a great vacation spot but not so much for living there. It would drive me crazy with so many tourists around all the time! However, the Spanish men seem to really like the tourists and try to bother them as much as possible.  I guess it is a way to pass the time on an island where it is catered to tourists and party go-ers!

Ibiza destination tip: If you plan to go to Ibiza with a family definitely go when it isn’t high season but if you are interested in partying you have to go during high season or else there will be no where to go party!