...And I feel fine

I know I wasn't supposed to blog today, however I now have a few hours of free time, as the ACOBHA office is closed and I cannot clean my room / meet with the lady.

First of all, my International Finance exam this morning was surprisingly easy, and while I have no doubt that I got less than 75%, I am quite happy knowing I didn't fail. I hope. Knock on wood.

Secondly, I am leaving for Paris in about 3 hours. My first time since returning to France. I found out that the transit system is much more efficient than OC Transpo, which makes we happy.

Thirdly, a shout out to Steve, the Gendarme, who arrested me Wednesday night. Reason? I didn't want to go drinking with him and his friends (who were at the pizza party a few minutes earlier). My punishment was that I had to shave off my beard and sideburns, and go drinking Thursday. That was the night before my exam, so while I complied with the prior, I did not go drinkng (*shock*). I'll do that tonight and tomorrow. Might even see Steve. This arrest will be not a blemish on my criminal record, but a sign of good judgement and having way too much fun with these Frenchmen I've met over the last week.

Lastly, a big Thank You to Ilya Bryzgalov, who posted a shutout last night against the Blues. At least someone doesn't want me to be embarassed in my own hockey pool...

Hope you all enjoy this Halloween weekend. I plan on dressing up as a foreign exchange student. Creative, no?

The End of Finance as I know it

Cherished readers,

I have the distinct pleasure of announcing to all of you that my last finance class EVER (well until next September) will be done as of noon this Friday. After which point I will pack and head to Paris. By Sunday, hopefully, I will have forgotten everything I learned in the class, so I can focus on Business Development and Complex Sales. The best part: Only 4 weeks til I go to Spain!

I'm also gong to try to do some Christmas shopping this week. I'd have to get out of my room to do that mind you, and I've been successful at avoiding the outdoors recently. I realize this is very unhealthy, which is why I'm going to go for a walk after dinner tonight.

And now, a tip of my hat to Jon Hamm and Matthew Weiner for keeping me entertained in the last few weeks. Honourable mentions go to Seth McFarlane and Chuck Lorre.
And of course a wag of my finger to the Anaheim Ducks, the only team bad enough to lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Way to help out in the quest for a winless season, guys. Not a team effort.

I hope you all enjoy what's left of the week. I'll be back probably after the weekend, if I can still remember that I have a blog.

Bye for now.

Ch- Ch- Changes

Another week gone by, that much closer to being done my Finance class.
I am looking forward to my presentation Monday, and writing my exam Friday, since that will then mean I get to go on my frist trip since arriving in Reims. I head to Paris Friday night, and will probably wake up not remembering getting on the train. Mike will make sure of that, won't you Mike?

Anyway, there have also been some changes to my trip schedule.

I will no longer be going to Turkey in November, seeing as I need to apply for a visa, which takes a month to get, so I will move that trip to February. Instead, I am trying to head down to Spain for 6 days. I am also in talks with a friend to head down to Lyon around the beginning of December. I will need to do back-to-back-to-back weekends of travelling to accomplish this. Sounds good to me though.

I am almost finished my report for Madame Massé at uOttawa, just need to edit and add the pictures, and it should be good to go. I may consider translating it to French as well. Maybe shortening the part about how I loathe HSBC. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe I'll mention my blog somewhere in the report...self-advertising and such.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy your weekends. I am waiting for dinner to arrive from Paris. November 20th can't come fast enough.

Ciao!

P.S: The Leafs are going to end up 0-7-1 after tonight's game. This will be the new record for worst start by an NHL team (the previous 1-7-0 was held by Washington I believe). Come on boys, 0-81-1 isn't that far off. Don't give up!

Avis de Grève

Good Afternoon.

I would like to inform you all that I, along with the Reims bus system, was on strike from Monday morning at 4h55 until midnight last night. I would have let you know earlier, but that would give away my excuse for not posting anything in the last few days.

I'm not quite sure how to explain this. Apart from being re-united with a musical instrument on Saturday, and playing Soccer on Sunday, nothing has really happened. I am now working on a presentation for Monday which will explore the many international financial aspects of the Yemen LNG project. It has been somewhat interesting, but the fact remains, that professor should not be teaching any class that is already beyond boring.

As I now have more financial freedom, I have been booking trips to various places. I suppose for the sake of letting you know ahead of time, and filling in space here on the blog, I will list the vacations/trips I already have tickets for:

- Paris, Halloween weekend
- Vimy Ridge, Remembrance Day
- Rouen, first weekend in December

I will be looking to add Turkey, Voisins le Bretonneux and Strasbourg to that list shortly. Maybe Spain for the new year, but that's not exactly around the corner.

Hope you all enjoyed the first half of your week.

Guitar Hero

So it's Friday. Another week gone by, another terrible professor, and another glimmer of hope with the weekend. After the most productive Thursday of the year, I had set up an appointment with the Guitar guy at the music store by the train station downtown. Tomorrow, I am going to pick up my new Royson classical guitar. Tell me that's not awesome. I dare you.

The other days this week were pretty standard. Class, lunch, class, watch TV / James Bond, sleep. Today wasn't remarkable either, unfortunately. Except for the fact that I woke up at 8:50, had a 9:15 class, I have a 15-minute walk to the campus, and I still beat the teacher there. At least it's the weekend.

Hope you all have better stories from this week than me. Oh, by the way, did you see how the Sens smoked Tampa? Way to go, guys. Now do that to Washington, or San Jose, or Philly. Then I'll change my mind about the hometown team.

Enjoy your weekends everyone!

Une terre-neuvienne à Reims

Ashley's visit!

After waiting 50 minutes for 3 buses to apparently not come, I got on a different one and made it to La Gare de Reims 1/2 hour late. After finding my guest somewhere in the station, we went back to my apartment for her phone interview with a company that managed to cancel said interview less than 3 hours earlier... So we ate dinner then went to visit downtown Reims (well, Place d'Erlon, where all the bars are). After LBee, we walked back to res (it was too late for a bus at that point) and agreed to not meet up too early the next morning.

Saturday was my first attempt at making pancakes since coming here. It was also my first failure at making pancakes since coming here. I blame the Quebecois pancake mix...

After breakfast, Ashley and I made our way to the Pierre Taittinger Champagne House. We took a tour of the cellars (the staircase is pictured below), and tasted some Champagne. We then walked from the winery back downtown for lunch.

Along the way, we saw the Basilique St-Remi, a few neat stores, and park. Once downtown, we went to the Cathedral, then to a sandwich place, and then shopping along the Tramway. We also took in the Canadian Festival (as if, right?). Below, Ashley poses with your "average Canadian house pet".

That night we took in a Maurice Ravel concert at the Grand Théatre, then went for dinner at Le Continental, at Place d'Erlon (N.B: if any of you who are reading this actually live in Reims, I'd suggest trying the lamb. And the Grand Marnier Crêpes were pretty damn good too).

Sunday was more of a lazy day. Partly because I woke up at 11:30...

After breakfast, we went downtown to have a "pain au chocolat pistache" as recommended by a friend of Ashley's (the patissere in question is Waïda, at Place d'Erlon). We then went back the the apartment so Ashley could pack, and we attempted to catch a bus that would go to the train station (Bezannes Champagne-Ardenne this time). Again, not surprisingly, the bus refused to come (noticing a trend? I guess this is what OC Transpo based its service on). It was close to the train's departure time, so I found a number for a taxi service (thanks Emma!) and called. They refused to send a taxi, because there were none in the area, and we "weren't going to make it anyway". The nice lady added "you should have called earlier." Thanks nice taxi lady. We then took a different bus to get us partway there, and walked the remaining 2 km to the station. Luckily, Ashley was able to switch her ticket for a later one, this one back at Gare de Reims, so we walked back to the bus stop, rode home, and had the student res equivalent of Thanksgiving dinner.

We then took a bus downtown for the last time, and Ashley made her train (2nd time's a charm in Reims I guess).

For more pictures, I'd suggest looking on Facebook. They're a lot easier to upload there, and you'll get all the pictures from both mine and Ashley's cameras.

That's all for now, I'll let you know when something interesting happens in my second course.

And the week winds down

Well it's almost 2 in the morning, technically Monday, and it's been almost a week since I last came on here. I'll use this particular post to talk about Wednesday, Thursday, and most of Friday, and will update you on my weekend when the pictures are ready.

Wednesday there was class, but more importantly, study time. Also, my work partner's girlfriend came to visit from Germany, so I met her, then went off to study.

Thursday, I studied, went to the bank, and studied some more.

Friday morning, I wrote my Export Development exam, and officially finished my first class. The exam went well, though the teacher changed some of the english business terms to French, and vice versa, throwing off some of what I thought I knew prior to that morning. I was glad to finish the class, and then went to lunch with Laszlo and his girlfriend.

After Lunch, I cleaned my apartment, as well as my friends' apartment (they were on a trip and letting me use their room for the weekend). All that in preparation for.... (to be continued)

Of Laundry and Money-Laundering

Good Evening.

The last few days have been somewhat hectic, though equally productive, and so here I am to tell you about the beginning of October.

Sunday was no more remarkable than Saturday. The laundry room remained locked, I continued working on my Export project, and I enjoyed an episode of Mad Men, which I still think is one of the best shows ever made.

Monday saw my second class with prof #2 for Export Development. She has a way of speaking a mile a minute for 3 straight hours, all while managing to say nothing at all. Our exam is Friday.
The laundry room was now open, but there was a line-up of people. I instead opted to go drink my laundry away at the Gin Pamp, then went to see The Informant! (note: that was actually a very good movie)

Today, Tuesday, I had no class. So I went to claim my bank card (shiny!), my new printer (looks like Darth Vader!), and my washing machines. I did 2 loads of laundry. It cost me 9 E. That's about 15$ for those of you keeping track at home. Oh well, I now have clean sheets, a clean towel, and some socks. Plus the other stuff got washed too. So at least there's that.

My focus is now set on my exam Friday, and subsequent cleaning, drinking, more drinking, tour of a Champagne cellar, more drinking, a concert, and, to top it off... on second thought, I'd better stop before someone has something to say about my schedule... (note: if you folks back there in Canada can find "Picon" beer, it's awesome! if not, :P )

Hope you all have a good mid-week.

Revival

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It has been brought to my attention that Ray Emery got a shutout in his NHL season debut for the Flyers. Ottawa fans: Where is your God now? In related news, Ron Hextall now has a sparring partner, and potential close competition for one of the better goalies Philadelphia has seen.

Enough about hockey. I have a complaint.

In 6 attempts over the last 3 days, I have been unable to do my laundry.
Day one, the machine won't take my money.
Day two, the washing machines are undergoing maintenance, and when that's finished, the machine still won't take my money.
Day 3, some idiot locked the door to the laundry room. It has been locked since 11 this morning, and it is now 14h30.

However, one striking positive fact remains. As I was listening to music the other day, one of the greatest performers to ever grace us with his talent and charisma posed this question: "Have you ever seen the rain?" I can very happily answer "Not in Reims." 19 days and counting. :D

To change the subject, Xenia Onotopp is still the best Bond villainess, while Boris is still the most hilarious extra in the villain category. Goldeneye is pure awesome. Don't believe me? Watch it again. On my list tonight: Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough, and Saturday Night Hockey! (on Sunday morning).

Anyway, I'm off to work on a project. I'm still working on getting my pictures down to the right size for upload. By the end of the week, you should see some more posted. Bye for now!

Like Christmas Is About Right

Good Morning!

After going out to LBee (a local bar) last night and consuming a personal record amount of beer (NB: my total alcohol record from a wedding a few years back remains untouched), I woke up this morning after 6 hours of sleep and rushed to get ready to be productive. Somewhere between showering and getting dressed with what few clothes remain (more on this in a second), I made myself the most amazing breakfast yet. 2 eggs, scrambled, with 4 cayenne peppers, 2 Kiri cheese squares, and 1/2 pound of pancetta (like bacon, but better). Holy crap that was tasty.

Anyway, after that breakfast, I went to the ACOBHA (residence) lady with one of my res mates to sort a few things out, and everything was dealt with quite efficiently (though I regret telling the lady that I would be available at 10 am tomorrow to have my shower inspected for something I'm pretty sure has nothing to do with my shower...Hockey starts at 1 am here so, yeah *ahem* hooray for 5 hours of sleep).

I then went to do my laundry. It has been 9 days since the last time, and I am out of socks. So naturally, the machine that normally takes the money is broken. Not the washing machine, but the cash collector (which means every washer and dryer on campus is out of commission). Fun. We'll see how long that lasts.

Also, I received a package in the mail. I was briefly disappointed when it wasn't the printer I ordered on Sunday, however that will be arriving by tomorrow afternoon latest, and what I did receive was actually 10 times better.

My backpack!!!! Not to mention 6 packs of Quaker Peaches & Cream Instant Oatmeal, and a few other essentials. Thanks Mom and Dad!

My lunch today consisted of half a Justin Bridou sausage (considering my breakfast, I don't need much more). This is basically a regular dried, cured sausage, with sliced hazelnuts in it. Each one is about 2 feet long. Suffice it to say, my lunch was nearly as good as my breakfast....

Anyway, this afternoon I'm going back to the bank to make sure everything is ok, maybe walk around downtown a bit, get my phone finally (fingers crossed) then come back here to work on my project for Export Development class. Should be fun.

Hope you all enjoy the last few days of the week.