meet charlie

 

isn't he the cutest!?

 Meet Mel's dog Charlie. This little guy likes to wake me up in the morning, cuddle on melissa's bed, and play with his many dog toys. Today was a packed day. Actually, this week has been crazy. I have officially been moved out for 4 days. Moving out was definitely hard. The feeling of knowing I'll probably never go back. Of leaving "home base" for the first time and venturing out and depending on myself, along with a whole new list of responsibilities is overwhelming to the MAX. Moving into Melissa's place has been a really good transition. A really cute house (will post pics soon) with a basement suit that we just have to do a few things with this weekend to get it all ready for me to move down to. For now, I'm staying upstairs in the guest bedroom. Settling in has been pretty good so far - figured out bus systems, alarm clocks, and emotions. Having a roomie has been so fun! Our schedules are pretty different, but we see each other in the mornings usually, in the evenings too. Tonight I attempted to make dinner for when mel came come. Chicken pesto ravioli with homemade alfredo sauce. The pasta worked out, but I clearly lack some common cooking skills when it comes to sauces and it turned out, essentially, in a goopy, cheesy, white mess. Bless melissa, she still ate it, and loved it - and off to G4G we went. Today was an early morning bio lab. I will have to get used to waking up at 6am and have

ing 8 hour school days. A mini-sleep in the lecture hour of bio and a coke zero at 3 helped me make it till the end of the day. Thank God the bus runs right from the school ten minutes after my last class and i was home at 4:20ish.. Took this little monkey for our first walk! It's so fun living with a dog, especially one thats small and cute! We had some fun bonding time today, hope you enjoy these little excerpts from our walk! (PS. just bought this new camera, and really impressed with the picture quality! Love having a camera again and taking fun little pictures:) )

Love,

Karoline

a start

Hello,

This will mark the official first post of my blog. I thought a lot about what would be a start, a beginning to series of many posts.. I was expecting something thought-out, meaningful, poetic maybe..but, in light of "recent events", I think it would be appropriate to mention the Olympics. I have recently been watching some live footage of the games and read up on a few articles. There's really so much surrounding them I want to comment on a lot but won't go into too much detail. Firstly, watching live footage and listening to interviews of Canadians evokes a proud little spirit in me. Hm, I guess I am proud to be a Canadian, and more so a native of Vancouver, or the surrounding area. To have millions of people from around the world travelling here to be a part of something huge - it brings a spirit of unity. Also there is an expected 3 billion people that will be watching the games - that is crazy! Imagine that many people, plus the millions that will be IN Vancouver and taking part brought together for a bigger reason than the games, something bigger than anything else in this entire world. Just to think that the Olympics have this much influence is crazy.. I was recently in Kitsilano, Vancouver visiting my sisters and brother in law and on one day Melissa took me downtown to show me the activities, scenes and feel of the 'olympic downtown vancouver'. There was lots of people, tourists, and fun artsy stuff displayed - also construction on minor projects was STILL underway! Looking at some of CTV's live footage today I saw lots of the same sights, and the area around the countdown that mel and I checked out, now full packed with hundreds of people, press, and this big wooden sort of hut, shelter which only 3 days ago was unfinished, is, well, finished :) Very neat to see lots of attractions that I've seen so many times being broadcasted on national television! Also, some news is bringing light to the protesters of the games, the anti-olympics. Its interesting to hear their opinions - the arguement is mostly that the government should be and could be spending our billions of tax dollars of providing public housing in downtown, and providing better services in vancouver, since many have been cut these last couple years. One interviewee mentioned that the HIV rate in Vancouver is actually equal to that of Botswana Africa - and Vancouver is home to the highest child poverty rate. Its hard to pick a side really. The Olympics have a huge history, and bring the best athletes from all over the world together. However there are bigger issues that need to be solved, but do we put a hold on world entertainment for these? Just earlier today a "luger" was killed in training. He was going "too fast" and coming around the corner on the last 200 m of the track when he got flung off. At about noon today  Nodar Kumaritashvili was pronounced dead from his injuries. I can't imagine being the family of Nodar, some being in Canada and some not, finding out that their loved one who has trained for years for this event, just died only hours away from the competition while training. The luge track built in Vancouver is said to be the fastest track in the world. I'm assuming the architects knew this when they were building it, and then I question why? Just watched a clip from the recent press conference regarding this accident, and people are saying that the cause of this accident was mostly due to the fast track - and the angle of that particular corner. They mentioned that another olympian the previous day had also had a crash on that same corner but her injuries weren't severe because she was going much slower. I wonder how all the lugers representing all the countries feel going into the competition tomorrow - I would think I would back out - I wouldn't want to go fast enough or take the risk of death - but then I probably wouldn't win due to a slow time. Then again, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for most people. But enough banter! The ceremonies start in 2 hours and fifiteen minutes. Go Canada! So, not quite the nature that I thought it would be, but you have a little insight to my olypmic-scope :) This concludes my first post!

Love,

Karoline