A Photo Voyage Through 2013

Somehow, it really felt like 2013 was a year in which NOTHING happened. And it's true that things were pretty mellow compared to some of the previous years of my life. But yesterday, I was FINALLY taking all of the photos off of my camera (for the first time in nearly a year, since March), and I realized that some pretty cool things actually did happen.

And, since I posted exactly twice during the year, I thought I would take us on a photo journey through the year!

In April, boy's brother and his girlfriend took a little trip to New York, so boy and I headed down with Rieko, and we spent a lovely weekend in New York, hanging out with Josh and Rachel and Alex (and his new boyfriend Taylor).

Since I was sad about missing the cherry blossoms in Japan, Alex brought us to a cherry blossom festival in New Jersey, which was suuuuuuuper fun! It wasn't quite as beautifully amazingly wonderful as cherry blossom season in Japan, but it was still great! :-)

Oh, and I got to hang out with Justin for the first time in AGES, which was amazing!!!!

A few weeks later, boy's parents, along with his mom's friend, came to visit us, and we had a great time, buying tons of new things (that we desparately needed) for the apartment, hiking up the mountain, and hanging out doing fun Montreal things!
They also bought us lots and lots of delicious chocolate, which is the thing that makes me most happy in life!

And now I totally don't remember the order, but this stuff also happened:

We went to the Francofolies and saw Dumas (who played the SAME SONGS that I remember liking 10 years ago) with Les Trois Accords. Soooooo many people were smoking, though, that it was making me sick, and I had to leave, nauseated with a near migraine, after only seeing them.

We went to see amazing art at the Botanical Gardens - there were sooooo many amazing sculptures that it's impossible to pick just one as my favorite.

We also saw beautiful Chinese lights at the Botanical Gardens - I'll definitely be going back this year!

We went to comicon and saw LOTS of amazing costumes! And I was inspired to try to do cosplay, though I haven't yet had the opportunity to follow through with that.

Guy got married in a totally beautiful, totally adorable, totally Guy wedding ceremony! (Annie, the bride, and I somehow managed to get our dresses caught together as I was leaving, and I was totally afraid that they were going to have to cut my dress off to separate us. Annie was not amused. I was dying laughing)

And Pattycakes and I danced like crazy fools! :-)

Rieko and I dressed up and went to Rocky Horror to celebrate Halloween! I tried to dress up as a rainbow, but I feel like I look a bit more like a 70's disco star gone wrong.

It was freezing outside, but we had a great time nonetheless, and I think Rieko enjoyed her first Rocky Horror experience.

We went to le festival Juste Pour Rires and had a great time making our way through this super fun maze!

I volunteered in the yukata booth at the Nihon Matsuri, and I ended up in a yukata that was WAY TOO SHORT for me! Still, I met some really nice people and was luckily in a position in which I didn't have to actually put yukata on people, as I was terrible at it.

I went to see the New Kids on the Block (who were, of course, amazing) on their package tour with Boyz II Men (who are now men, and who were terrible) and 98 Degrees (who, with the exception of Nick Lachey, seem to be losing to age)!!!!

We went back to New York for Rachel and Josh's wedding, which was beautiful and wonderful and perfect and amazing. It took place in a book store, and all of the food was vegan, including the cake!! They were gorgeous, and I can't believe they're married now!

While in New York this time, it was also Alex's birthday, so we had festivities with him. And my Aunt Boogie was in town, so we stayed with her, and she and I went to see Kinky Boots, which was suuuuuuper rad! I brought Aunt Boogie on the subway, and, apparently, it is to this day an experience she talks about - her great subway experience!
We also ate lots of delicious vegan doughnuts!!

We spent the day in Ottawa in the rain.

On the way back from Ottawa (in the rain), we saw a beautiful double rainbow!

We played with a giant Nintendo (and saw really cool art) at La Nuit Blanche (for the record, it was not a white night for me - it was far too cold, so I was at home in bed by 1 at the latest).

We saw lots of people dressed up crazy awesome for the Zombie Walk! Unfortunately, we couldn't participate. But the reason we didn't participate was awesome - we got to go fake crash planes in a flight simulator, which was totally cool. And made me totally sick.

I did karaoke with Rieko!

I got a job teaching math at Vanier (though now it looks like I'm probably moving to John Abbott)

Rieko's sister, Aina, and her mother came into town, and we did lots of hanging out - good times!

I saw my friends Ukrainian dance troupe, which was super cool. Even if I was unable to imagine how they were DANCING dressed as they were when I was dripping sweat just standing there.

I dealt with a LOT more snow than I would have liked.

I got SOAKED in the rain on numerous occasions and was mostly happy about it!

I played lots and lots of games with friends, including Jenga (for the record, I lost miserably. Almost every time).

I did lots of hanging out with Rieko!

I met Andi's turtle and her adopted kitty cats! The turtle was sooooo cute (and also, sadly, traumatized by the kitties).

I also went to San Francisco to hang out with my friend Mikey G! We had an AMAZING time, and he even brought me to do trapeze, which was soooooooo much fun!!!! There's a video somewhere.

I went to visit Krist in Colorado, and we went to see Taylor Swift (as my birthday present!!!!), which was soooooo much fun! We also had a "cleaning out your closet" party and went to a Grease sing-a-long! Yay!!!!

I went to Turks and Caicos with the family, where we stayed in an AMAZING house with an amazing beach and did AMAZING things, including scuba diving! It was my first time ever, and I was pretty scared about it, but it was amazing in the end!

I also spent several weeks over the summer in Louisiana! Satoshi and Chieko came to visit from Japan, and we did LOTS of stuff - we went to the Tabasco factory, we went on a swamp tour, we saw lots of alligators, we played tennis, we went to Natchitoches, and we just had an amazing time!

We also celebrated my birthday while there, and I got lots of super fun presents and had lots of fun pink things!

Satoshi and Chieko also got to go wakeboarding for the first time! So fun!

I also was in Louisiana another time for my grandmother's birthday - sooooo much fun! Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any pictures of that. I'm sure lots of other things also happened, but this is long, so this is where I will end now. I'm tired of writing! Bye bye 2013!!!!

以上です。

Stateside: Louisiana

After Hilton Head, I headed back to Louisiana for a couple days, where I was super psyched to get to hang out with Sarah and Jonathan, two of my closest friends from high school that I hadn't seen in AGES!

Note that I am almost 5 feet 9 inches tall, even though between them I look like a miniature me.


It was SO good to get to hang out with them again, and it made me sad that it's not something that can happen more often. We had a great time. They came out to my dad's house, and we went for a walk in the woods before eating a delicious lentil dinner that Tina prepared for us.
Afterwards, we went out bowling, which none of us had done in ages.


I bowl!



Sarah bowls!

When we first got there, we ran into my cousin Courtney and her two kids Brady and Victoria. I hadn't seen any of them in ages, and it was especially random that we ran into them at the bowling alley since they also hadn't been bowling in ages. It was really cool to see them, though, and to get to spend a bit of time with them, as they ended up bowling in the lane right next to ours.


Brady and Victoria


At one point in time in the night, Jonathan and I decided that everything we said needed to be sung.


Jonathan looking like a super star singer!

We had a great time laughing and singing and bowling.

The next day, I was going to celebrate my birthday with my Mom at the Japanese restaurant in town, and we decided to invite Sarah and Jonathan along. It reminded me of old times, celebrating high school birthdays with the fam and Sarah and Jonathan. It makes me smile just to think about it.


Me looking larger than Sarah and Jonathan this time!

I got some great gifts from Mom and Kristen - some fantastic clothes(including this incredibly awesome dragon shirt) and shoes that I LOVE from Mom, and some fantastic clothes (including an "I love vegan cupcakes" t-shirt) and fun things from Kristen. Afterwards, Kristen, Mom, and I went shopping for jeans, as Mom also wanted to get me some new jeans for my birthday. I found some great ones at American Eagle, and we had super fun shopping.

(here is where I want to put a "thank you mom for a fantastic birthday" picture, but unfortunately, as you can probably tell from these pictures, my camera was having some issues and sort of went out of commission for a little bit. That picture therefore was not taken on my camera. Kristen or Mom, if you have one that you want to send my way, that would be awesome!)

Stateside: Hilton Head Island

NOTE:I somehow took next to no pictures while we were vacationing, so most pictures will, once again, be stolen from Kristen. Unfortunately, I don't have most of the ones that I want, so some pictures will just have to come later.
I for some reason can't remember right now if Hilton Head is in North Carolina or South Carolina. I think south. . .that's annoying. I should be able to remember.

Anyhow, every summer the we take a family vacation with our Dad and Tina, and this summer the destination was Hilton Head, South (?) Carolina. Tina found a great house for us right on the beach. It was amazing, and it sort of looked like the Weasley house from Harry Potter.
(picture of Harry Potter house)
We stayed for about a week, and we had an absolutely FANTASTIC time!!!!
Russell and Miranda drove down from their home in North Carolina the first night. My cousin Blake lives there with his wife,

Cousin Blake with Russell

Peggy, and they run this theatre, so one our first full day there, we went to see "Gutenburg: the Musical!," the play that was going on there at the moment. There were only two actors, but a TON of baseball hats to show what personalities they were being at any given moment.


Russ And Miranda trying on Drunk 1 and Drunk 2 hats



Krist and I sporting some of the other hats

The day after, Russell and Dad went out fishing while the rest of us attempted a new sport that I think was called paddleboarding.


Me and Krist and David paddleboarding

We basically had these big surfboard type boards, and we stood up on them and used paddles to get around. It was really cool and really fun, but being forced to paddle into the wind made it slightly less fun. There were points when the wind was so strong that I just wasn't strong enough, and I had to sit down to paddle. It really was super fun, though.
We just happened to be coming in at the same time as my dad and Russell, and Dad said that he was just amazed by how graceful everyone was looking until he saw me looking awkward and goofy and ridiculous. Yep! That's me for you!

The next day, we all went out on waverunners, and it was ridiculously awesome, even if I didn't get to drive (I forgot to bring my driver's license with me). The not driving was totally okay because I got to ride with Kristen, who was the awesomest driver. I almost think I had more fun than I would have if I had driven because I could close my eyes and therefore not get the full brunt of the water spraying in my eyes. And also, you're always just a little bit more scared about what's happening when you're not driving (and when you have your eyes closed), so I got to feel the thrill of the unexpected. Awesomeness! I had so much fun!
(picture of us all after the waverunning)

Unfortunately, Russell and Miranda had to leave the next morning for working purposes. ::sadness:: After they left, we rented bikes and went for an extraordinarly long and hilariously fun bike ride. I don't think my dad was having all that much fun, though, as he is a triathlete in training for an Iron Man, and I think our pace was just a little bit slow and frustrating for him. It started raining after the bike ride, so we went to see Transformers 2, which I absolutely LOVED, even if I still think I liked the first one a little bit more.

We also went kayaking one day, which was fun although slightly lacking in excitement. Thank goodness, though, that I was once again with Kristen. I am far to weak to attempt to kayak alone, as I discovered last summer in Croatia with Guillaume. We managed to create our own excitement by banging our boats into each other and trying to splash each other. Mega good times were had.


the gang kayaking

Aside from that, Kristen and I took a walk on the beach every morning with one exception. And that exception existed because we along with David went for a bike ride on the beach. Once again, the wind got to me, and I ended up WAY behind Kristen and David and almost didn't make it to the end of our route. I was super impressed with myself that I did, though, even though Krist and David did it so easily.


Me and Krist and the end of the almost impossible for me bike ride.

We also attempted to go shopping twice but failed, as there was really no shopping WHATSOEVER in Hilton Head.

Oh, and we also had the cousin and his wife and friend over for dinner one night, and Tina made cupcakes to celebrate my and Kristen's birthdays. They were so cute!





Thanks Dad and Tina for a wonderful birthday!

And one night we went over to his house to play Guitar Hero.


Us all at a fancy very un-vegan-friendly restaurant on the last night there.

So, all in all, the trip was a great success, and the only things that could have made it more awesome are Donald being there and Russell having gotten to stay the whole time. Alas, these things did not happen. Sadness.