Back to school again. There's something to be said for the comfortable routine of school life. Sitting in the same few seats in my usual row, running downstairs for my daily coffee break knowing that I'll see the same few classmates in line, climbing over the same 3 people when I'm late coming back from coffee break. Studying the heads of the people in front of me when I'm bored in class, noticing who got a haircut over reading break, who is starting to bald, who is sitting with whom, who is flirting with whom, who is falling asleep in lecture and who doesn't even bother to come anymore. Noticing the small variations on this routine, someone coming in slightly late and the small look of annoyance that flits across their face when they realize their usual seat is taken. It's comforting, horribly boring - but comforting.

It's Reading Week! Coming home, I thought the week would be fairly quiet - schoolwork during the day, maybe take my grandma out for lunch, TV and Trudy time at night. After all, one of the gals is in gorgeous CUBA *seething with jealousy* and the other is stuck in Edmonton finishing her last 2 weeks of school ever, so I figured I'd having a pretty relaxing, comfortably dull time at home.

But yesterday, Viv Hon came down to Calgary for an all-too-short 24 hrs. so we got to spend one day stuffing ourselves silly. My culinary itinerary for the day: pre-Viv coffee, Bernard Callebaut tour complete with goodies, sushi, udon, green tea and a really strange deep-fried fish 'Dynamite' Roll, attempts at eating gelato were thwarted by mysteriously boarded up buildings, dinner at funky Stephen Ave. place called Milestones (7 out of 10) because they wouldn't let us in at Earls as we had a 15 yr. old girl with us and apparently there's a new smoking bylaw, 2nd attempt at eating gelato thwarted, tirasimu that came disguised as coffee cake. Will post pictures soon...

That last post was depressing. There are times when I look back on my own posts and can't believe how lame/depressing/not funny I am, but I can't quite bring myself to delete them. They are after all, a reflection of how lame/depressing/not funny I was in the instant I wrote it and I feel a strange loyalty to that.

Some random things:

Seeing as I spend so much time reading the blogs of strangers, I think I'll start linking some of them. If I can't study, no one else can. Plus despite my personal reactions to some of the content, I really admire the writing style of these authors.

I overheard this phrase regarding someone's review of a manuscript: "this writer would benefit from having his 'comma' key removed". It made me question the necessity of all of the commas in this post.

I will find out at 8:30 tomorrow whether or not I'm going to shadow at 9:00. This gives me exactly enough time to change into spiffy clothes, inhale 2 granola bars and a cup of tea (it's almost reading week and we're running out of food and can't bring ourselves to shop for more), put my face on and sprint across the black ice to the hospital.

Valentine's Day by yourself blows...

Climbing. This one picture of me doing physical exercise is supposed to justify the following 3 pictures which all involve eating... 

Mmm...sushi...on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being Towa and 1 being the kind of stuff that I could make for you, this was maybe a 7. Not fantastic, but pretty darn good compared to what I normally eat =) 

The girls at brunch. I would've been in this picture too but I was too busy eating... 

Coffee buddies. I have to say, being able to drink coffee in the comfort of the Banff Springs was a vast improvement over our usual ritual of sprinting through the cold to the hospital entrance, fighting residents/doctors in the Starbucks line, and then sprinting back to class only to find ourselves late as usual and having to climb over 5 ppl to get back into our seats. 

Long time no blog! I have a good excuse this time though as I was in Banff attending FAAMSCAR...The First Annual Alberta Medical Students' Conference Asomething Rsomething...

Oh I give up... and let's face it, it was an excuse to go party in Banff. After 6.5 hours on the bus through truly horrific road conditions with a bus driver who text msged as he drove, we finally made it to the Banff Conference Centre. From there we were fed and sat through the opening speeches and afterwards, while the rest of my roommates went out to party, I got my CSI fix.

Now this conference was supposed to be about student well-being - that intricate balance between studying and family and relationships and leisure time etc. I am happy to say that I definitely took that advice to heart because out of 5 sessions on Saturday, I attended 3. Yups...a good old-fashioned sleep-in during my first session, made it to my 2nd session which was a fairly casual chat by one of the UC profs, ate a hearty lunch, attended another session by one of the UA profs (essentially the same as the first) and then got an introduction to yoga. The last session was definitely my favorite...incredibly relaxing...soothing...if only I hadn't chosen to wear my ultra-tight jeans it would've been perfect.

I then skipped out on my 5th session to check out the climbing facilities and play a little badminton. That night after sushi, I partied with my class for the first time. Yes, I'm a little slow. All these months and this was the first time that I've gone out with my class (with the exception of a few casual dinners) but I had an awesome time! Just a really friendly, fun, just drunk enough that you want to be friends with the whole world, rockin' good time.

Sunday...mmm...Sunday was by far the best. After a good long rest, a few of us went to the Banff Springs Hotel for one of their incredible brunches. Duck, lamb, veal, smoked salmon Eggs Benedict, an unbelievable amount of dessert and fresh strawberries with whipped cream. If this is appealing to any of you, I'm just looking for another excuse to head back =)

Then afterwards I had my very first professional massage and I must say, I'm hooked. Anyone who's stumped about what to get me for birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day/best friend 10 yr. anniversaries =) A massage will always be appreciated...