Belated blog ~ Amsterdam & Vancouver

hi everyone! it's been a month but i'm back. it's been a crazy month, that's for sure. here's a "brief" update in typical sabrina fashion ;)

March 31 - April 2, 2006: Amsterdam

what can i say, it was a blast. although what sticks out in my mind about that trip is the fact that we almost didn't get there! i know, it seems our luck with trips planned to amsterdam just bites. we had class the friday morning, came home, had lunch, and packed. we had plenty of time to get to the train station, gare du nord, and pick up our tickets before catching the last train out to amsterdam. or so we thought... if i haven't said it before, i'll say it now - you cannot rely on the paris metro system if you're fiezal or myself. it seems to work well for everyone else but for some reason, we're jinxed! we planned out our journey. the metro system has a pretty good website where it'll tell you how long it will take to get places. so, we left our apartment on schedule, with lots of extra time factored in. we took the metro to our first stop, and proceeded to transfer to a different line. that's where the problems started - we got to the junction and no one was moving! so there we were, packed like sardines, trying to figure out what was going on. let me remind you that at the time, the french were protesting (yet again, i know). so we understood from the commotion that the line we needed to take to the train station stopped working. reason? no idea - either a protest OR a suicidal jumper shut it down!?! wtf!!! so we had to backtrack through TONS of people who were equally pissed off, and finally made it up to the open air. again, it seemed like the gods were against us. we tried desperately to find a free taxi, and finally found one, only to be told that he wasn't allowed to take us and that we had to go to the taxi stand! i swear, we'll never understand the french... so we find the taxi stand, but lo and behold, there weren't any taxis! fyi, our train was leaving less than an hour from then, and we thought we were screwed. we didn't know where the heck we were in relation to the train station either, and had totally given up in actually making it. at the same time, jonathan & co were having absolutely no problem on the metro line from their place to the metro. ARGH! finally, a couple of taxi's arrived, but we were third in line. thankfully, we'd struck up a conversation (yes, fiezal was speaking in french) with the lady who was second in line. she was headed to the other station, gare de l'est, which is pretty close to our station. she graciously offered to share the taxi with us. yes, there was hope for us after all! we made it with 15 mins to spare before the train's departure. one "little" problem - we still had to pick up our tickets! the lines at the booths were miles long, but they have these little computer terminals (like at the airports for check-in), but it was WAY confusing and finally jonathan came over to help. we managed to print our tickets and jump on the train with 2 minutes to spare. phew! after that, we set out to make the most of our trip ;) jonathan & co had booked a few weeks before we did, and got a wicked deal at a 4 star radisson. ours was a slightly more expensive 3 star hotel, but still equally convenient and very comfortable. we don't all need bird's eye maple furniture, marble baths, apple shampoo and an underground passage to the hotel like jonathan & co ;) the trip was short and sweet - we arrived friday night at 11pm and left sunday morning at 10am. coffeeshops were fun, shawarma's and waffles were yummy, and the red light district was kinky. eww, the live sex shows they were selling tix for did NOT sound appealing... it was too short a trip to check out the other cool places - van gogh museum, anne frank house, heineken brewery, diamond factories and more.

pretty church in amsterdam

CANUCKS SUCK - NO PLAYOFFS

no need to explain that further.

April 3 - 13, 2006: the torture continues

it's the last week of classes and we have exams soon. on the plus side, i went horse riding and this time the weather was BEAUTIFUL and sunny for once, so we got to ride in the outdoor arena. I-Wen took some pictures and i've attached them below. we get different horses every week but we're pretty familiar with the "good" vs "bad" horses. i got the normally psychotic horse TORNADO who is smaller than all the other horses and who takes out his frustration by biting the other horses and being a general pain the ass by not following any instructions. normally, whoever gets Tornado switches with someone who's not there yet and that person won't know any better. i got there early but didn't want to traumatize anyone else by switching so i kept him. however, that day with me he was great and i had a blast :)

me and tornado

our little horse riding group (yes, that's me at the extreme right on the itty bitty horsie):



core 2 is finally over! exams sucked but they're over now too. off to vancouver!

April 14 to 22, 2006: Vancouver, baby, yeah!

we decided not to chance the metro again and took a cab to the airport. for once there was no traffic so we made it in record time :) flight to london was uneventful. lounge at heathrow was great. fiez especially enjoyed it as he enjoyed glass after glass of champagne in preparation for our long flight. we made it on board during the final boarding call - we stopped at duty free to pick up chocolate for fiez's dad and helen. they had 2 for 1 cadbury milk chocolate that were 1kg per bar!!! then we were grounded for an additional hour or so because some idiot drove into the baggage door and they had to replace it! fiez didn't mind so much cuz the champagne was still flowing ;) flight was pretty good. had an amazing meal then watched dukes of hazzard. i know it's not an oscar flick but i watched it for nostalgia (and cuz johnny knoxville is super hot. ok, i'll admit jessica simposon's hot in that movie too) fiez didn't get to enjoy the flick cuz he was passed out at this point. upon arrival in vancouver we joined the biggest line i've every seen during customs. dinner at my fav chinese place was great and it was awesome to be with family and friends again. after chinese food fiez and i hung checked out the apartment (first time since the flood). what a shock it was to see the floors a different colour! it looks good but just totally unexpected. there was a bunch of stuff in boxes still and the way they rearranged everything was just WRONG! Oof course fiez (thanks to his OCD) ended up changing everything back. thanks, fiez! it’s now back to normal :)

living room post fiezal organization (sling box is hiding)



view from apartment post fiez playing with MY camera



saturday was errands day followed by hockey game that night. canucks vs avs but outcome didn't matter cuz they'd already been eliminated from the playoff race :( still, it was awesome to be back at a game, our first nhl game in 2 years! my sisters came too and decided to alternate sitting with me and fiez. however, while they were sitting with fiez i caught them pigging out (i've attached the pics further down and i know they'll be pissed - lol). canucks actually won, which was nice. too bad there was no shoot out cuz i really wanted to check that out! i was wearing my canucks jersey that my lovely sisters got autographed by the entire team during their LA trip. AND they got us passes to the area where players go through before leaving gm place. it was so cool! we saw and chatted with quite a few canuck players, and saw some avs too - newly acquired jose theodore, patrice briseboise, rob blake. thanks, girls :)

here's fin, our crazy canuck mascot (he's an orca whale but here he's wearing bunny ears cuz it's easter)



alia stuffing her face in the first period, fiez drinking beer



nadine stuffing her face in the second period, fiez still drinking beer



crazy gm place antics to keep crowd occupied during intermission (people wearing inflatable planes and racing accross the ice to win a trip - insane!)



me and the girls with canuck goalie alex auld (so not his fault we didn't make the playoffs)



sunday we took off for bowen island and left on tuesday. it was GORGEOUS and so good to be back! we introduced my sisters to the fine art of wine tasting in the newly finished wine cellar, played some foosball and pool, played with markus and billie’s new baby girl marlee, hung out in the hot tub, watched kayakers go by, and just relaxed in general. i miss it already :(

view from the deck

kayakers going by




i had a check up at london place eye centre where i had laser surgery done 7 years ago. looks like the vision in my right eye is now -1 so i’ll have a touch up done this summer :( then we met up with fiez’s family which was cool since we hadn’t seen them since the beg of november. fiez’s bro farouk is renovating his apt and we checked it out and gave him some hopefully useful advice. it's super cool and i’m sure it’ll be awesome when it’s done. wednesday morning i had a long ass hair appointment with lorna at hatz (she's the BEST). i rushed out of the apartment elevator on p3 and almost ran right into rutuu from the canucks! yes, he lives in our building and he drives a blue lexus suv for those out there who blame him for the canucks' demise. my hair appt lasted FOREVER - seriously, i was there for 4 hours but it was worth it. that night we had dinner with family and nadine was surprised with an early bday cake – she turns 21 on saturday. thursday was shopping at the outlets. we picked up some nice things and best of all, we didn’t have to pay canadian taxes at the border because we’re residents of paris now! friday was crazy busy since it was our last day and we had dinner with friends at urban thai bistro in yaletown (yummy!) and we also popped into the lounge afterglow for a bit. it was super crowded, there was nowhere to sit down so we just grabbed a couple of drinks and left. leading goal scorer anson carter was also there! alas, saturday arrived and we sadly departed from vancouver. we got a nice send off from family and friends. it was a really short trip but it was awesome being home again. sorry we didn’t get to see everyone this time – we’ll definitely catch up in july when we’re back for the summer!

April 23, 2006: back in paris

so tired! so jetlagged! need sleep…

April 24 – 26, 2006: seminar “exploring the future” then Barcelona!

why does our school make these things mandatory? at least this one was not as bad as others in the past (we could surf the net to our hearts content). we had a wicked group of 9 and our topic was exploring the future of louis vuitton and the impact of chinese counterfeit products. first we got lectured and then we had to map out possible future scenarios and then present our “findings”.

yay! seminar's over and tonight we’re off to barcelona to see soraya! can't wait to finally have some nice weather and just RELAX. gotta go pack cuz we’re flying there and tonight we’re going to take a chance with the metro and hope it gets us there on time… more after barcelona!

CANUCKS NEWS FLASH - MARC CRAWFORD FIRED AFTER BEING HEAD COACH OF VANCOUVER CANUCKS FOR 7 YEARS - BEST COACH IN CANUCK HISTORY BUT FAILED TO LEAD CANUCKS TO PLAYOFFS THIS SEASON...

bye, marc! dave nonis better pick up a wicked coach who can whip the boys into shape. i hope it's not pat quinn who just got axed by the leafs. like every canadian fan who does not live in toronto, i HATE the leafs! i remember seeing someone at a canucks game with an awesome t-shirt she designed herself. it said: "my favourite hockey teams are the vancouver canucks and whoever is playing the toronto maple leafs". i totally agree :)

my sisters suck (not really, but i'm jealous once again)

i'm back! i know, it's been a week - i apologize for not being so consistent. ha ha ha, like you guys even care ;) a week has passed and not much has changed. my parents are in beautiful cape town right now, but we're planning our honeymoon there after the mba (it's over in december!!!), so that's NOT what i'm currently bummed about. but seriously, my sisters SUCK. sorry nadine and alia, but you really suck and i'm SUPER jealous :( at the same time, cuz i'm your big sis, i'm happy for you too, AND i feel guilty for being jealous. don't you just love that sibling rivalry...

why do i currently hate my sisters? as most of you can tell (and if you can't, you're just stupid), but i'm a HUGE ASS VANCOUVER CANUCKS FAN. and my awesome dad bought the following at a charity dinner with the canucks, but because i'm stuck in paris - sorry, but because i'm geographically unavailable because i'm in paris - my sisters get to go (let's forget that nadine has to fly from ottawa to vancouver, a 5-6 hour flight, as opposed to a 9-10 hour flight from paris). check this out:

in case you can't read what it says:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
ROAD TRIP WITH THE TEAM
The bearer of this letter is entitled to two (2) tickets to watch the Vancouver Canucks take on the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in Anaheim on Sunday, April 2, 2006 and the Los Angeles Kings in Los Angeles on Monday, April 3, 2006. This offer includes return airfare on the team charter plus accommodation. All meals and additional expenses are the responsibility of the prize holder and guest. The successful bidder and their guest must be 19 years of age or older.

isn't that unbelievable? lucky beyatches. oh yeah, and alia's only 16, but they're letting it slide. have fun, girls! more importantly, MAKE SURE THEY WIN! thank god the canucks have been doing better lately - 3 wins and 1 loss in the last 4 games. more importantly, all the wins were against teams that we're fighting for the last playoff spots. GO CANUCKS GO!

so, in order for me not to get depressed about not being able to fly to LA on the bloody team charter like my sisters, fiez finally caved and we booked a trip to amsterdam this weekend! yay! no, we did not get a friggin refund from the stupid idiots at expedia.fr, but we booked it anyways. and, i stuck to my guns and boycotted expedia and booked the trip on another site. we're going with jonathan, cyril, laura, and jonathan's best friend from cali, holly. i can't wait! and core 2 is finally over - our exams end april 13th and we're in vancouver by april 14th. yay! class is over - gotta go. more later!

i'm so jealous

my parents are in mombasa, kenya right now. that's where my dad was born. that's where my favorite hotel in the whole world is. that's where they're staying right now. it's not fair! why do i have to be stuck in class while they're frolicking in the ocean? well maybe they're not frolicking, but still... the hotel's called The Mombasa Serena Beach Hotel. here's the link and a write up, so now you can all be jealous too...

"The sea at Mombasa is as blue as a cornflower, and, outside the inlet to the harbor, the long breakers of the Indian Ocean draw a thin crooked white line, and give out a low thunder even in the calmest weather. " (Karen Blixen, Out of Africa)

Styled to resemble a 13th century Swahili town complete with winding lanes, carved balconies, fountained courts and bustling market squares, the Serena Beach Hotel provides an oasis of tranquility whilst delivering a unique mix of high-action water sports, sybaritic sun worship, world-class cuisine and vibrant nightlife.

Set back from the powder-white sands and shimmering waters of the Mombasa National Marine Park, the hotel décor blends the time-honored intricacy of Swahili carving with the jeweled glow of Arabian lanterns, the white-gleaming splendor of a Sultan’s palace and the lotus-cool of a Persian water garden. The extensive coconut-palm cooled grounds offer an exotic mix of tropical trees and bright blossoms and centre on an idyllic sky-blue swimming pool with a thatched ‘swim-up’ bar and crystal waters that cascade into the tiled coolness of the market square below.

i'm not able to upload the pictures from here for some reason, so for the best pics, download the pdf brochure.

http://www.serenahotels.com/kenya/mombasa/home.htm

i'm still in ob. this class sucks. but thank you for letting me get not one, but two posts in! i still have another 20 minutes - maybe i'll have time for a third...

YAY! we actually won a game!

omg i'm so happy that the canucks actually beat edmonton! and it wasn't just a sissy win, we OWNED them! we didn't even give them any points by going into overtime or a shootout.

Daniel Sedin scored two goals, including the winner on a first-period power play, as the visiting Vancouver Canucks skated to a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers before a capacity crowd of 16,839 at Rexall Place.

http://sports.sympatico.msn.cbc.ca/Home/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CBC-SPORTS-V2&newsitemid=vancouver-edmonton060321&showbyline=True

seriously though, i'm so happy that i couldn't watch the game live. i would have been a nervous mess! i could have listened to the game on cknw internet radio, but since the game started at 3 am my time, the chances of that happening were slim to none. especially since i had class the next day at 8 am. i was really scared about going online this morning and checking the score. this whole time i've been convincing myself that i don't really care what the canucks do or whether or not they make the playoffs because, hey, it's not like i'm there anyways, so i just tel myself i'm slightly interested, hence mentioning the canucks in my blog. but the whole experience of having the stupid game on my mind as i fell asleep last night and the game results on my mind when i got up, proved to me that i still care. A LOT. i'm scared about how i would have reacted if they had lost the game. i don't even want to go there. let's hope we don't have to go there. GO CANUCKS GO!

i'm actually in class right now while writing this. ob is not a good class at any time of day, let alone at 8 am. when this class first started in january he used to threaten us about using our laptops, saying if our computers were open, they were fair game and that he could come and look at what we were doing at any time. he also started the whole let's take pictures of those who arrive late and put them on my website, but he's given up both because he's happy we actually show up to class. so i just make eye contact with him every few minutes and smile, and he leaves me alone.

i HATE being sick :(

ok, i'm back at the computer, blogging away. if everyone was "dying" to see what i'd write next and what was taking me so long, you can all thank scotty for commenting on fiezal's blog that i should blog "more consistently" - thanks, scott :p i think i've been getting boring anyways so i figure, why bother. i guess it's better than actually studying for my midterm on thursday. anyways, here we go...

March 14, 2006
last tuesday while i was still in bed (and fiezal was at our only class of the day - yes, i know he's a nerd), i get a text message from him asking me if i want to go into paris and watch a matinee. sounds boring, right? WRONG! fiezal never wants to do anything except study, and whenever i mention doing anything that sounds slightly fun, he looks at me as if i'm crazy. then he proceeds to lecture me on how we need to get on with this (this being our mba) so we can go back to vancouver and have fun. and let me tell you, what was so fun about vancouver (with fiezal)? nothing, cuz even in vancouver, he never wants to do anything. lol, just kidding, he's not really that bad. after all, i did marry him...

so anyways, of course i jump at the chance of actually doing something, and as soon as he gets his ass back from class (he said it was worthless anyways) we head into paris on the metro. we get to the movie theater about 10 minutes after the "published start time". what's that you ask? well, you know how normally we go to the movies and they all say they start at a certain time so you rush to get there on time, only to have 20 minutes of previews and advertising before the movie actually starts. but you see, here, in france, people actually value their time, so next to the "published" movie time, it says something like, apres 15 minutes. which means, we still had 5 minutes to spare. being in france, the american movies are usually dubbed over into french. they actually have contracts with french actors who always act out the same american actor. so, whoever has say, george clooney's contract is always the french speaker for all george clooney movies that get dubbed.

sorry, got sidetracked. what i was trying to say is that of course we don't want to watch movies in french, so they have 2 versions: vf (version francais), and vo (version originale). vf means dubbed in french, vo means original version, but with subtitles in french. we always have to do a search to make sure the theater we're going to has the movie in vo.

so we're at the vo screening of "derailed", starring clive owen and jennifer aniston. bad reviews but not bad at all actually. i started feeling really shitty during the movie, but my mood improved at the end. let's just say i enjoyed the ending :)

after the movie, which we watched at a theater in the odeon area (near the latin quarter, i think), we started strolling around. we ended up walking right by "la sorbonne" - apparently it was the first university in the modern world, which at the time, was the current hot spot in paris. of course, there were protests going on. there were students walking into the middle of the streets stopping traffic, there were bums with tents pitched (and really nice tents too) on the street corners, there was a live marching band playing somewhere, and best of all, we saw about 20 french swat team vehicles drive by us with sirens blaring. and that's before the protests even started. needless to say, fiez and i walked away from there as quickly as possible.

on a side note, if you've been watching any form of international news program, you'll know that the protests have gotten much worse. what started out as just students and "young people", ie, under the age of 26, protesting, has now gotten more serious, with just about everyone protesting. there's a new law they're trying to pass, which would allow companies to fire, without any reason, people under the age of 26 if they've been at the company for less than 2 years. does that sound like a cause for riots, north americans? NO! but, in france, it's a MAJOR problem. why? because in france, no one gets fired. if they're not performing, they get moved to a different division. that's because, if god forbid, someone did get fired, 1) the company would have to pay major compensation, which costs more than keeping them on, 2) the union would go nuts, and plan a strike, or 3) major protests conducted by all unions and all workers in france would ensue, which always results inevitably in cars getting burned. if you want more details on how the french and their system really works, i suggest reading stephen clarke's "a year in the merde" first and then "merde actually" second (merde is french for shit, and he means, dog shit).

so after walking away from the riots and around and around in circles (fiez insists he knew where he was going), we end up at "la bonaparte" a famous french cafe, which is next to some other famous french cafes, like "cafe de flore" and "les deux magots". fyi, these are all in the 6th district of paris. here are some pics and details:

"The café Les Deux Magots, possibly the most famous left bank café along with the Café de Flore which is just around the corner on the Boulevard St. Germain. (Hemmingway, Sartre and Simone de Beauvoirall frequented the Deux Magots, whereas Picasso liked the Flore ) You can stare at the trendy artsy-fartsy types and the cell-phone-obsessed businessmen with beautiful (and very bored) girlfriends in the windows, or go in yourself and order a vin blanc or a five-euro coffee. In warm weather, the sidewalk tables are filled, but if you want to see good looking people walking around and funny dogs is various new dog accoutrements, get a table and try to look preoccupied with your own brilliant thoughts. For a less visible, but just as intellectually authentic, stroll down therue Bonaparte and try the Café Bonaparte, also formerly patronized by the artists and poets who are now more likely to be serving in the cafés than frequenting them."

we're supposed to meet ben and kate at the bonaparte, and since we were early (shocking, i know!) we "installed ourselves" as they say in french "installez-vous" and ordered our drinks. fiez ordered a big ass glass of red wine, while i went for the "vin chaud" since it was cold outside, and here it's known as the perfect winter warmer. if you haven't heard of it before, vin chaud's is literally "hot wine", but made with spices and with sugar added. while we're waiting, fiez gets his book out (i've been sworn to secrecy not to tell anyone what he's reading, but if you really want to know, it'll cost you), and i got my beautiful black video ipod out and started watching pirates of the caribbean (thank you, fiezal, for putting it on my ipod). we get our drinks, and unfortunately for me, my vin chaud is not hot, it's barely lukewarm :( so fiez calls the guy over and explains to him, in french, quite impressively i might add, "le vin chaud n'est pas chaud". bravo, fiezal! lol. so they guy laughs, takes it from us, and comes back a minute later with the same glass, same vin chaud, but now it's actually hot courtesy of their microwave. and he brought me some sugar too because they don't sweeten their wine like everyone else - you get to do it yourself! yay!

if you're feeling ambitious, and if you're in possession of a cheese cloth bag, you can make your own vin chaud:

Vin Chaud (Hot Mulled Wine)

2 bottles of red wine
1/2 cup of cassis liqueur
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon

Wrapped into a cheese cloth bag:
2 cinnamon sticks; 6 whole cardamom pods; 6 whole cloves; 6 allspice berries and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg

Garnish: Cinnamon Stick

Preparation
1. Pour the wine, zests, cinnamon sticks and cassis into a saucepan.
2. Add the cheese cloth spice bag and bring the wine just to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes.

To serve: Ladle into cut-glass punch cups and add an additional cinnamon stick as a stirrer.

ben and kate show up soon after, order big ass glasses of white wine, and we hang out for a bit. (fyi, the marching band can still be heard quite clearly in the background). we then get to the main reason we're getting together: to go to restaurant des beaux arts because i've been CRAVING their magret de canard au miel avec tagliatelle. translation: duck with a honey sauce and fresh pasta. YUMMY! about a month or two ago we were at the same restaurant and i ordered the duck, and fiezal the steak. i tried my duck and loved it. fiezal tried my duck and loved it more, so i graciously traded with him. needless to say, the steak wasn't great, so i still deserved my own serving of duck! we finally made it back, and funnily enough, all four of us ordered the duck! i guess no one wanted to be left out ;) after the delicious 3 course meal for 25 euros plus about 2 bottles of wine, we were all yawning at the table. kate had a midterm the next day so we got out of there and went back home. <<>> here's the link to the restaurant:

http://www.restaurantdesbeauxarts.com


and that, my friends, was our latest "night out" in paris.

March 15 - 17, 2006

booooooooooooring. lots of classes to go to, most of them are really boring right now. the only one i find slightly interesting this core is strategic management, where we have a great prof who gives me good grades on my assignments :D the other 4 we're still taking all full of it.

management control: the guy totally bores us to death - 1) we can barely hear him, 2) he doesn't actually cover anything, 3) the entire class consists of our fellow students making stupid presentations that they don't want to be making, so everyone else screws around and tries to discreetly make as much noise as possible by sending text messages to everyone in class so that cell phones are beeping every 2 seconds!

corporate finance: this guy's a joke, seriously. fiezal thinks he drinks before every class. i have absolutely no doubt that he was drinking while making his slides, because, as he told us during our last class, which was the 2nd last class before our midterm, was, and i quote, "if you look at the slides too carefully, you'll get confused. if you don't look at them too closely, you're ok". wtf?!? and then later in class, "i made these new slides because i was going through the old ones and they were completely wrong. so forget about those, and i'm putting the new ones on the website". and even later in class, "what? no! wait, that's wrong too". i can't deal with this guy!

french: we're forced to take french the entire time we're here. my prof's pretty good but it's the timing that totally sucks. can you believe we're stuck in french class every monday and thursday night, from 6pm to 7:30pm? how the heck are you supposed to be able to concentrate on a different language at that hour? and how is that conducive to us studying when we get home? it totally bites, especially if classes started at 8 am that day!

and finally, i saved the best for last, organizational behaviour: our professor for this class apparently had a mental breakdown recently, but he's still good enough to teach us. i'll give him this, he LOVES what he's doing, he really does try, he's just seriously misguided. seriously, you do not motivate people by taking their picture if they walk in late to class (he caught me and fiez, see below), or by forcing them to attend a full day saturday session. saturday = weekend = our free time. not only do we have to attend a saturday session, but you have to do weird things. there were 3 sessions: 1) planning a meal and cooking for your fellow students, 2) creating weird art wtihout any direction and getting critiqued by an artist, 3) tree climbing in the freezing cold.

here's a seriously bad pic (bad hair day hence the hat), entitled "latecomers"

March 18 - 19, 2006

we were lucky to get the tree climbing session (fiez has some pics on his blog), which was actually fun if you ignore the fact that we were freezing our asses off, and the fact that i am now covered in bruises (i have them all over my legs, and i would show you pics if i didn't think that they'd gross you out and give you nightmares). needless to say, every single muscle in our bodies was aching on sunday. so thank you, ob, for 1) using up an entire saturday for your session (couldn't it have been planned on a weekday like our useless seminars?), 2) giving me bruises all over and also eliminating sunday as a possible study day as a result, and last but not least, 3) for making me catch a HORRIBLE cold!!! so now i'm sick, i can't stop sneezing or sniffling or blowing my nose. i have non-stop headaches. i look like rudolph, i'm alternating getting chills and hot flashes, and now my nightmares involve getting suffocated by kleenex. not to mention going to school and studying are both really hard when you feel like shit :( let's just hope i'm not still suffering on thursday when we have our midterm. i was sick during our last exam 2 weeks ago and i went completely blank during the exam. i'm not looking forward to it happening again!

March 20 - 21, 2006

back to the regular school week so it's class as usual. same old, same old so i won't bore you with more details. i'm still sick so we couldn't even go to mosque for our new year (march 21st happy new year! - my daddy's bday too - happy bday, daddy!). i've just finished reading c.s. lewis's the chronicles of narnia - they're awesome at any age! can't wait for the new harry potter book to come out. and the movie. i just read something about daniel radcliffe having his first on-screen kiss (could be real-life kiss, too) in the next movie. go, daniel, go!

back to the stupid vancouver canucks. since the last time i wrote about them, they've gotten WORSE! i didn't think that was possible!!! let's look at their dismal record since i last wrote about them on march 12th:

Mar 13 2006, Mon AWAY vs Stars: 2 - 4 FINAL - LOSS
Mar 14 2006, Tue AWAY vs Predators: 0 - 5 FINAL - LOSS
Mar 17 2006, Fri AWAY vs Blue Jackets 3 - 2 FINAL - WIN - WOW! (vs #26 out of 30 teams)
Mar 19 2006, Sun HOME vs Red Wings 7 - 3 FINAL - LOSS

that makes it 3 losses out of 4 games, with the only win coming against one of the worst teams in the league, and all our losses coming against teams we might possibly play if the first round of the playoffs, IF we make it!

come on, guys, it's do or die! next game is today vs Edmonton, who are also fighting to make the playoffs. we have 3 games in a row against these guys! good news: if we win all 3, our chances of making the playoffs GREATLY IMPROVE. bad news: we've played 5 games against Edmonton this season, and Edmonton's won all 5. let's just keep our fingers crossed and pray...

alright guys, i'm off to bed because we have ob at 8am tomorrow - doesn't that sound great?!?

catch y'all later!

p.s. i hope you enjoyed this, scott. i deserve a comment from you for this!

yummy arepas and more...

bon soir!

here's what i've been up to lately (compared to the last blog, it's NOTHING, but in case you're bored out of your mind and want to see what i've been up to, read on):

March 9, 2006 - a HORRIBLE day for me. first of all, i hadn't been feeling well since the tuesday. i'd been nauseous and dizzy, and felt like sleeping ALL DAY and ALL NIGHT long. and before you geeks out there ask, NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT!!! anyways, so we had an exam that morning - financial markets - and even though i studied a lot (not as much as fiezal studied, granted, but then no one studies as much as fiez, except maybe super nic), i walked out of that exam feeling like sh*t. i was fuzzy throughtout the exam and i can only hope i did ok :( fiez, on the other hand, felt like a million bucks - i'm pretty sure he aced it. oh well, i keep telling myself that while fiez is definitely more booksmart than i am, i've got the advantage with the street smarts. see- this is called HEALTHY competition. who says you're in for trouble if you're a newly married couple taking the exact same courses and having to prove to the world who's smarter? ha ha. so after the exam, i made fiez take me home cuz i was feeling so sick. i went straight to bed and stayed there until about 10 pm.

March 10, 2006 - we had class from 9:40 am to 12:50 pm. it was REALLY boring and having the same boring class for 3 hours is no fun. after class, i'm still feeling really sick and want to go home. but nope, fiez had other ideas. he wanted to go to the mall to buy a new harddrive. i agree, he did need a new one, but the timing sucked. so we get to the mall and we're starving cuz it's 1pm and we haven't eaten all day. the mall's food court is more like a restaurant court. there's a bunch of restaurants and outside each one, they each have their own terasse! we both decide we're in the mood for mexican food, so we walk into "El Rancho". we get seated and the guy says he'll be right back. YEAH RIGHT. so after about 15 minutes of being ignored as others have their orders taken and more people enter the restaurant, get seated, AND order before us, we're ready to leave. at that exact moment, the stupid server comes. so i bitch her out cuz we've been waiting for so long and she's completely ignored us. she kinda apologizes and we're really fed up at this point so we leave. on the plus side, the sandwich stand next door takes about 2 minutes to serve us and ends up being way cheaper. so now we're done eating and go buy the harddrive, which thankfully doesn't take more than 5 minutes. FINALLY, i get home and i'm still feeling really sh*tty so i climb into bed at 2:30 pm and end up staying there until about 10 pm. some friday night that turned out to be.

March 11, 2006 - ha ha ha. lol. rofl. guess what? fiez got a new hair cut today! that's all i can say about it, sorry... phew, i managed to stop laughing. i admit, it was pretty mean of me considering that fiez was right there and not too pleased. oh, by the way, i'm feeling better :) anyways, it's saturday night and we've been invited to monica & carlos' for AREPAS. yum. here's some info about arepas:

Arepas are the most typical food in Venezuela. It is an easy food that you can make in only a few minutes. Arepas are made of corn flour (precooked ). We only have to pour the corn flour with some water and salt, mix it together, and then make the form of the arepa with your hands and cook it. This process takes only 10 to 15 minutes. For that reason, the arepa in Venezuela has become the most popular and traditional food. Also, it is a staple because arepas can be eaten with all Venezuelan dishes. Arepas in Venezuela are like bread in other countries. It is a dish that you can eat anytime, everywhere and with whatever you want. You can find arepas in small restaurants called areperas. If you go to Venezuela, don't miss the opportunity to go there. It is a place where you can eat only arepas, with whatever you want--cheese, jam, meat, chicken, pork, eggs, etc. The most famous is La reina pepiada, an arepa made with chopped meat, avocado and cheese. It is the most traditional arepa.

doesn't that sound good? all of us who went over got to participate in making the arepas. they were AMAZING, especially with the homemade guacamole that karin made. to top it all off, monica had made oreo ice cream FROM SCRATCH. why? i don't know, but it was phenomenal :) thank you, monica and carlos!

for all you vancouverites, if you're hungry and want to try arepas, check out Banano's Cafe in Yaletown, our old 'hood (Address: 1223 Pacific Blvd, Vancouver, Phone: (604) 408-4228, Directions: Located on the west side of Pacific Street, between Drake and Davie in Yaletown). that's where we first tried arepas, and my favourite meal there is called "Pabellon Criollo" for $10.95 which had rice, beans, cooked shredded beef and spicy homemade chili sauce along with arepas and fried plantanes. it's sooooooooooo good!

March 12, 2006 - so it's sunday night and i've just finished a strategy case - yay, it's over! too bad we can't go out or anything cuz fiez is still working on his. so i woke up this morning and the first thing i had to do was go online and see if the canucks won. THEY DIDN'T of course. what the heck is wrong with that team??? we've lost so many games recently and we're not only behind calgary for the northwest division lead, but colorado too! at this point i've given up any expectations on winning the division title and i'm actually quite worried that we're barely gonna make the playoffs if these idiots keep playing with their head up their asses. or, if we do barely squeak by into the playoffs, we'll end up losing in 4 straight. SO WAKE UP, CANUCKS, AND START WINNING SOME GAMES!!!

Sabs in Paris

salut, mes amis!

i know, i know, i've been really bad with email. so, i decided that blogging was the way to go. i know i started my move to paris with email updates, correction, an email update (singular), but alas, i only sent out 1 update cuz school was crazy busy, yada yada yada.

i'll quickly catch you up on what's happened so far:

July 31, 2005 - got married to fiezal. no honeymoon followed...

my bridal party (left to right): nadine (my sis), alia (my sis), afsin, ayeesha, jessica
fiez's groomsmen (left to right): dave, farouk (fiez's bro), scott, adil, faran (my bro)

Aug 27, 2005 - our apartment got flooded and both fiezal and i moved in with my parents - ahh!

Aug 31, 2005 - exactly 1 month after our wedding, fiezal and i arrived into paris with TONS of luggage, hired a not-so-kosher taxi driver to take us to our hotel, and stayed at Sofitel L'Arc de Triomphe for a few days as we apartment hunted

early Sept 2005 - moved into the Holiday Inn on campus (yes, it's actually ON CAMPUS) because we couldn't move into our apartment until Sept 19 cuz the landlords were still around

Sept 12, 2005 - first day of my life as an MBA student at HEC Paris! fyi, still at the holiday inn... just so you know, our schedule at this school has been insane. we have classes at odd hours, with mostly very long days (8 am to 8 pm). the student body made up of international people. most of them are pretty cool but we do have a couple of weirdo's here and there. and the administration - they're HORRIBLE. professors mostly have great cv's but some are boring as hell during the lectures. some are pretty cool. overall, they're ok. the admin still sucks though. they're the only thing keeping me from encouraging all potential MBA students to apply here.

Sept 17, 2005 - bought a french car! it's a 2003 renault (french) megane, a cute little silver 4 door, 5 seater, 6-speed, fastest model available - 120 horsepower. yeah, that's right, 120 horsepower is the fastest model, lol. sorry, fiez.

Sept 19, 2005 - moved into our new place after a horrendous day of classes. it's BEAUTIFUL! we lucked out big time. it's way bigger than our apt in vancouver, which is shocking considering normal paris standards. it's a 4 bdrm duplex with 3 full bathrooms and 3 decks with views of the eiffel tower, les invalides, sacre coeur and la defense. nothing can beat looking at the eiffel tower at 1 am when all you can see are blue/white lights twinkling all over the tower for 10 minutes...

HEC MBA - so we get assigned to groups in core 1 (sept to dec), which are made up of 5 to 6 members, all from different backgrounds, countries, etc. you get assigned to a different group in core 2 (jan to april). in core 1, i was lucky to get a great group, fabiola from peru, akito from japan, dongchul from korea, and talgat from kazakhstan. here's a pic from our dinner together:



Poker party chez moi - fiezal and i had a little get together with a few of our mba friends: nic & noelle (from dubai, nic's in the program and noelle got a job at the school too, funnily enough, nic & noelle got married 2 days before us!); monica & carlos (monica's from venezuela and in the program too, carlos is from spain and work's for "Peugeot", crazily enough, monica & carlos got married 1 day before us!); and jonathan (from san diego, in the program, one of the coolest guys ever). we ordered yummy indian food from a place around the corner, smoked some shisha (jonathan brought it over), and proceeded to play poker with these funky-ass "baby" poker chips (ie, they were plastic and super light - definitely not hardcore!). apparently, monica had never played before (yeah right) but she still managed to clean all of us out. unfortunately for her, we're all cheapos so there was no buy-in so she didn't make any money! sorry, no pics from that night.

Oct 1 - 2, 2005 - Integration weekend #1 - Loire Valley, France - Integration: new HEC MBA students get to meet and hang with each other and "older" HEC MBA students. so we drive to school super early on saturday to get on a massive bus with all the other students and their partners. our bus driver was really nice, but he didn't know where the heck he was going, which is bad. all in all, between saturday and sunday, he must have made about 15 u-turns, and gotten lost a couple of times as well. anyways, everyone's really tired so we all fall asleep on the way there. except for fiezal and nic who are studying, and i of course was reading (a romance novel, what else?). we finally get to the "hotel", which is actually a beautiful chateau. now, the room assignments are totally random, but fiezal and i happen to get 1 of 2 MASSIVE SUITES. our friends who saw it kicked up a fuss with the organizers (everyone paid the same price so we should all get the same type of rooms). unfortunately for them, their 1st room was the size of a closet (our suite's sitting room), AND, the bed wasn't even made. so they got a 2nd room, which was much nicer, but still way smaller than ours. sucks to be them ;) here are a few pics of our amazing suite at the chateau:

main bedroom
sitting room

so we check in, have a 4 course lunch (really good), and proceed to drive to a nearby vineyard. of course, we get lost, make a few u-turns, and we're there. we got to taste about 6 different loire valley red wines, some really good, in this cold, dark, cellar. after that, we head back to the chateau for a 6 course dinner (so so this time). we sat with students who started in january 2005, and they gave us tips about the profs and the classes, and told us about all their issues with the admin. of course they had issues with the admin - they suck! after dinner, anton from siberia (no joke, he really is from siberia, and he's in my core 2 group) plays the piano and sings a few beatle songs. and while others go to their friends rooms and party, fiez and i head back to the room to get a good night's sleep in the beautiful chateau suite we've only got for 1 night. day 2, breakfast at the chateau, followed by check out, and back on the bus to check out another beautiful HUGE chateau. luckily for us, it's the first sunday of the month, and in france, the first sunday of every month means free entry into museums and other similar touristic destinations. i forget the name, but it was amazing. our tour guide was a little plastic box with earphones and could speak 6 different languages, english being my choice ;) after our tour, we had lunch at a cute little bistro, and met our american friend, ben for the first time. accompanying ben was an exchange student from mexico, who pretty much hit on every single guy in the program. she's gone back to mexico now, and i wish her the best :p the bus ride home was more fun than the way over: we "integrated" and played charades - boys vs girls. can't remember who won but it was fun nonetheless.

nic, carlos and monica in the loire valley

noelle in the loire valley

sabrina and fiezal in the loire valley



Oct 5, 2005 - first game of the season for my Vancouver Canucks, the first game since game 7 vs Calgary Flames during 2004 playoffs, the first game since the stupid NHL lockout, and i'm not there!!!! :'( good luck, boys. i miss you so....

www.canucks.com

Expedia.fr episode 1- because fiez and i never got a honeymoon, and because we had a long weekend coming up (Oct 29 - Nov 1), we decided to go to amsterdam for the break. fiezal had never been there, so we booked a trip on expedia.fr - 2 1st class train tickets and 3 nights at a 5 star hotel (the whole trip is 100% refundable...). so a week before our break, i'm on the phone with my dad (love ya, dad!), and fiezal jokingly mentions how much he misses vancouver and how much he wants to go back. so my father says, come next weekend. and here we go - i call expedia.fr to cancel my trip, they say no prob except for a 27 euros cancellation fee and that i have to send the train tickets back to them once i get them in the mail. so, i check out flights to vancouver, get a good deal, and book the flights on expedia.ca. so on Oct 27, fiez and i go to "La Poste", pick up our amsterdam train tickets, put them DIRECTLY into a pre-stamped envelope, and mail them to the address we got from expedia.

Oct 29 - Nov 1, 2005 - we're off to vancouver! my dad thought it would be nice to "surprise" the families. so, only my dad and fiezal's dad knew we were coming (my aunt too), and they staged this dinner on the night we were arriving, with both our immediate and extended families under the guise of looking at wedding pictures. fiezal's grandma's (whom i adore) not fooled however, she's got the feeling something big is happening, so she proceeds to inform everyone something's not right, and that there's big news: sabrina's pregnant! AHHHH! no way! anyways, they've taken over an indian restaurant not far from the airport, and my aunt comes to pick us up and takes us straight to the restaurant. they're all hanging out and checking out pics when we walk in. instant tears for both our mom's, we get mobbed by all our family members, and someone breaks open the champagne. it was so good to see everyone! we enjoyed our weekend in vancouver, spending time with family and friends, watching hockey on tv (yay!), we lost to the avs (booo!), eating our favourite foods (yummy thai and helen's cooking), and driving cars with more than 120 hp (i love you, cayenne turbo!). alas, it was only a weekend but it was good to be home again :)

Expedia. fr episode 2 - NEVER USING EXPEDIA AGAIN! - so we get back and check our bank statements. we've received a refund for the hotel ONLY, and call expedia.fr about the train refund, which is 615 euros! they haven't received the tickets yet, so no refund. this continues, and i call, and i call, and i call, and still no tickets! it's now march 2006, 5 months after i've sent the tickets, and they still don't have them! apparently they can't simply cancel the tickets and see that they haven't been used. because they're paper tickets, they need the actual tickets for the refund. they don't have them (so they say), i don't have them, so we're stuck without a refund, and without train tickets to amsterdam. ugh! never again! and if you ever have to mail anything important in france, send it by registered mail! so now we've started a claim with "La Poste" because we didn't get the tickets sent back to us and expedia apparently didn't get them either, so we're hoping they can track down the tickets or help us out in some way, cuz otherwise, this just sucks. anyways, avoid expedia like the plague, cuz they totally suck and were completely unhelpful :(

Nov 24, 2005 - An American Thanksgiving in Paris – i had class thurs morning, and had nothing else all day but had to stick around until later because fiez still had class and because it was "america week" at school and they'd planned a proper thanksgiving dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes, the works). anyways, so kate (aka red), katy (aka blondie), and myself had plans to buy lots of champagne and drink in the piano bar (leisure area in the residence halls where the students have parties) from 11:30 am until their accounting class (in french) started at 4 pm. fyi, kate, katy and i also refer to ourselves as NEO, short for Neapolitan, like the ice cream with 3 flavors - strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. of course, i'm chocolate. i know, i'm a geek :p back to us drinking all day long - we went to atac, the grocery store in jouy en josas, the dinky little town that happens to house our school, and proceeded to buy them out of one particular brand of champagne (can't remember the name). anyways, i already had red wine for dinner that night but no wine opener, so the 3 of us went up to the cashier with 6 champagne bottles, some plastic champagne flutes and a wine opener. she must have thought we were nuts! and, as we were walking to the cashier, an old french guy went up to kate, who was holding about 3 bottles, and said something to the effect of, "careful, that's strong". no! really??? lol. so we chillax in the piano bar, listening to 80's music and watching the eric prydz "call on me" video. i LOVE that video. if you haven't seen it yet, download it now! so we drink, people come join us, someone plays the piano, we dance to michael jackson, and get totally hammered :) then it's time for kate and katy to head off to their accounting class (once again, it's in french). they somehow convince me (or kate does), that it would be really cool if i sat in on the class. so, i go, and we're totally drunk and we REEK of alcohol, much to the dismay of super nic (that's nic from nic & noelle, he's super, like a superhero, cuz he can do anything, and he's a big nerd - sorry, nic -lol). so we sit down in the back row, and i'm feeling really dizzy. then the prof sees me, walks up to the back row, stops his lecture to the entire class, and asks me in french, "who are you and what are you doing here". so i'm all apologetic and stuff saying, "sorry, i'm from the english section and wanted to see if i could handle taking classes in french". then he's like, "no problem, but you should have told me before class started cuz i though you were a spy". UGH!!! it gets better - kate feels too sick, tells me she's going to the bathroom, leaves all her shit in the class, and NEVER COMES BACK. thanks, kate!!! so i'm sitting there, falling asleep while jonathan keeps kicking me so i stay up. i then proceed to take kate's laptop and surf the net until class is over. hallelujah! at this point, i'm hungover but am still able to enjoy the turkey dinner. as kate and katy decide to continue their drinking at the after party, fiezal and i go home (yes, i know we're an old married couple, thanks). but really, we had a train to catch the next day!

Nov 25 - 27, 2005 - An American Thanksgiving in London - so we get this invite from my parents friends (and our wedding guests) who live in london but used to live in texas. they invite us to their thanksgiving festivities, thurs & fri in london. we couldn't be there for thurs so we missed their turkey dinner, which doesn't matter cuz we had that in paris anyways, but we took the eurostar over on the friday. the friday night event, which we were even mailed an invite for, was a western theme and we were supposed to dress up. um, yeah, sorry, i left my cowboy hat and boots back in vancouver... anyways, my friends from vancouver, soraya and natasha were in london and also going to the party. fyi, their parents are best friends with my parents and they live on the same street in vancouver. natasha works in london and soraya's there studying for her gmat (she got into ESADE MBA, yeah soraya!) and they invited us to stay with them. they've got a super cute apartment in the "french district", just what we needed ;) we head out to the restaurant - these guys have rented out the entire top floor of this restaurant called texas cantina or something, complete with a live country band, a dj to also play indian music, and lots of mexican food. oh yeah, when you walk in, they give you a bandana (red, blue or black), which you HAVE to wear somewhere. so we drink, we dance, we eat, we dance, we drink, and we're exhausted. the next day, we check out some cool london stores (harrrod's, harvey nichols) and fiezal finds some shoes (and you think women are obsessed with shoes). later on, fiez and i go see harry potter (cuz it's in ENGLISH in london and it's not out yet in paris!). it was an awesome movie and we went back to meet soraya and natasha for a delicious thai meal, and later go to a trendy club where we meet up with soraya and natasha's cousin, farzana. i actually already know farzana cuz she used to live in vancouver, and now she's getting her MBA at LBS and is getting married to a guy who got his MBA at Insead. small world! it's super expensive but really cool. and later when we wanted to leave, we couldn't get a ride - trying to find a london taxi at 2 am is not fun - they're actually impossible! i thought we'd be stuck sleeping on the streets that night cuz we had no idea what bus we needed to take so a cab was our only option. alas, we made it back safe and sound, and left early the next day to get back home to paris...


The titty twister - crazy name, i know. ben and kate came up with it. i don't know the real name, but it's just a bar with a live band and some super crazy characters. so we head out there for our good friend oliver's (austrian, NOT german) girlfriend katie's (yes, another one) birthday. we had a good time.

katy, sabrina, and katie dancing to "la bamba" on the chairs at the titty twister

early to mid December 2005 - exams galore, don't talk to me!

December 16, 2005 - fiez and i rush home after our marketing final to pack for our xmas trip with my family to dubai and india. yay! vacation and i get to see my family! our 2 weeks in dubai and india are amazing. lots of travelling, lots of sightseeing, and lots of good, heavy, fried food eaten late at night. if i'm looking chunkier than usual, that's why! we went from dubai to new delhi to agra to new delhi to mumbai. we spent new year's at the taj mahal palace old wing in mumbai (the most AMAZING hotel). we actually even met up with soraya and natasha's parents who happened to be there, and even farzana from LBS was there doing some wedding shopping! here are some pics of us on a desert safari (no animals except for a camel, and sand dunes), at the taj mahal in agra, and on new year's eve:

desert safari in dubai


faran, alia and nadine on desert safari in dubai


dad and daddy's little girls on christmas day in dubai

dad and mom in front of the taj mahal in agra

farzana and sabrina on new year's eve in mumbai




early January 2006 - ugh, back at school :( our break's over, core 2's started, and fiez and i both have new groups. this time, i've still got a cool group, with anton from siberia, arnaud from france, yi-ting from taiwan, and lina from china. no pic's with them yet. new courses, new group, absolutely no motivation.

January 13 - 17, 2006 - Integration weekend #2 - Valmeinier, France - this time, integration is for us (we're now "old" MBA students) with the new january intake. also, this time it's a ski trip, yay! because the schedule's all screwy, the bus was supposed to leave friday night and not arrive until saturday morning. it's an 8 hour drive and we're supposed to sleep on the bus! and, on the way back, we're supposed to leave monday night and arrive back into paris tuesday morning, and once again, sleep on the bus! NOT HAPPENING. so, 8 of us decide to drive there in 2 cars, leave friday afternoon so we can spend the night in a hotel at valmeinier instead of on a loud, cold bus. so, off we go, fiezal, ben, jonathan and myself in our megane, and kate, oliver, and karin (super cool german/ colombian chick) go in katy's car (gray fiat punto). of course, at the first toll booth, our car gets pulled over and fiezal gets a speeding ticket. it was actually pretty funny because jonathan had to go with him as his translator! and, cuz the insurance is under my name, when asked who i was, fiezal pointed at me in the back and said, "ma fille", which means, my daughter! it's "femme, dude, femme!" (wife, i'm his wife, not daughter!). driving there was a blast - jonathan and i listened to 80's and 90's "chick" music from his ipod and discussed banana hammocks, among other things ;) ben also had to make a huge confession to me - for some reason, i'm the mom of the group. i wonder why... we finally arrive into valmeinier after quite a few stops at gas stations, and go to the bar accross the street after we check in. the guys immediately order a "giraffe" of beer (a shitload) while the girls drink red wine. then a 55 year old "local" comes over and starts hitting on EVERYONE, including fiezal. he buys us ANOTHER giraffe of beer and then proceeds to stumble around the bar and break the glass he's using. the bar which is empty except for us, him, his drunk friend, and the bartender. he keeps coming over to us and ends up literally falling on katy, after which point i call the bartender over to take him away. the next morning we head up the mountain to meet the bus, get our rentals, and hit the mountain! it was awesome to be skiing again! fiezal was decked out in brand new Spyder gear, leading everyone to call him Spiderman. i was completely clothed in Rossignol. skiing was fun but the conditions were shitty - all ice and no snow!!! we left monday evening and didn't get home until 2 am. poor fiez got sick (food poisoning), and couldn't drive all the way home, so karin drove a quarter of the way, until we got to school to drop everyone off at their cars. then poor fiez had to "flunch" (that's our word for puke - eww) but we got home safe and sound :)

kumiko, sabrina and akito in valmeinier

katy, fiezal and irana in valmeinier

February 11 - 18, 2006 - so we're doing a lot of travelling lately. this is our winter break and after a week of seminars, 10 of us are off to st anton, austria for a week of skiing! this time, there's lots of snow :) so kate, katy, ben, oliver, katie, jonathan, cyril (jonathan's bf - he's french!), fiez, and myself meet at the airport and catch a flight to zurich. we then take a bus to st anton and meet up with katie's friend, sandra, at our b&b in st anton, HAUS BATTISTI. it's a super cute family run place, practically ski-in, ski-out. schedule for the next 6 days: breakfast, ski, lunch, ski, apres-ski at the krazy kanguruh bar where we drink and dance on tables (girls only), ski in the dark back to haus battisti (really scary, fyi), and dinner in the village. the krazy kanguruh was an AMAZING place - i loved it! they played my fav music (80's and 90's of course!), and we danced on their tables in our ski boots! we even started getting requests from guys to dance on the table to certain songs! so much fun :) we also went sledding one night, which was also super cool. if you ever want to go skiing in europe, st anton is definitely the place to be! here's a pic of us at the krazy kanguruh ( fyi, link to this awesome bar is www.krazykanguruh.com )

sabrina skiing in st anton
fiezal, jonathan, cyril and sabrina at the krazy kanguruh in st anton


the gang at the krazy kanguruh (left to right): oliver, katie, sandra, jonathan, fiezal, ben, cyril, sabrina, kate and katy
jonathan, cyril and sabrina on valentine's day at the krazy kanguruh (you can see the pink hearts on our cheeks - yes, i know, we're weird!)




February 24 - 27, 2006 - after being back at school for ONLY FOUR DAYS, 7 of us head out to turin, italy for the 2006 winter olympics! yay, i finally get to watch hockey!!! katy, jonathan, laura (jonathan's friend who works at the louvre - that's where the mona lisa is, people!), kate, kate's mom (who was visiting from the states), fiezal and myself are going on this trip. 5 of us (all except kate and kate's mom) head to turin on easy jet from paris orly, and take a taxi to our hotel. the cab driver was like, you do know this place is 50 km away from turin, right! WRONG, we did NOT know that! we get there, at this hotel called Stella Bianca, and we feel as if we're in the twilight zone. we cannot stop laughing! we try to get our rooms and end up kicking out a canadian family (sorry!), and we try to ask her how to get to the games, and she's absolutely shocked that we don't have a car. apparently, there are buses that take you into turin from stella bianca, but nothing that comes back after 8 pm (which does not work), and taxis would be insanely expensive. so we cross our fingers and the nice lady who runs the hotel manages to find us a 7 seater renault espace! if this was france or anywhere else, NO CARS would have been available. we totally lucked out, thank god! so we get the car and head into turin. the 5 of us have tickets for both men's ice hockey semi-final games, which we bought mid-January 2006, expecting team canada to be in the top 4. we were wrong :( anyways, we watched sweden vs czech rep and finland vs russia. we wanted sweden and finland to win and they did! i also got to see some of my canuck players (the sedin twins, rutuu, and salo). kate and kate's mom arrived late that night from london, and we'd already pre-warned them about the hotel so i don't think they were that traumatized ;) on saturday, fiez, jonathan and myself decided we had to study for our exam on tuesday, the day after we were getting back from turin (i know, the timing sucked, but this was the olympics!). so we holed up in an italian cafe and studied for about 6 hours. laura checked out the museums, and katy, kate and kate's mom hung out in turin. kate and kate's mom, who didn't have tickets to any event yet, tried to get closing ceremony tix (us 5 already had them), and also and managed to get fiez and i tickets to the gold medal men's ice hockey game the next night, and these tix were previously unavailable and just got released that same night! kate and kate's mom then went to the bronze medal men's ice hockey game (czech rep vs russia - czech's won!), while the rest of us went to a celebrated italian restaurant, Birilli. everyone's food was amazing (we all ordered way too much), but unfortunately, fiez and i both ordered steaks made from argentine beef (it's supposed to be the best beef ever), but the first bite was delicious but the rest of the steak WAY overcooked so we sent them back. oh well, we didn't pay for them and we got free dessert, much to jonathan's delight ;) the meal ended super late and by the time we got back to the car and out of the city and back to the hotel it was already past 2 am. the next day we went into turin and had an awesome lunch at "le vitel etonne" (french name, italian place), which had a really cool wine cellar. fiez and i then rushed to the gold medal game (sweden vs finland - sweden won!) which was super cool. the closing ceremonies were that night and it was a totally incredible night, with a fantastic show featuring an "italian carnivale" theme, a really special ceremony for the vancouver 2010 winter olympics, and breathtaking performances by avril lavigne, andrea bocelli, elisa (italian pop star), and ricky martin!!! once again, we got back really late, and had barely 3 hours of sleep before we had to head to the airport and back to the real world in paris.

February 28, 2005 - management accounting final is OVER. yay!!! the final was a bitch but i don't care as long as i passed...

March 6, 2006 - here we are, monday night after a terribly long day at school (classes from 8 am to 8 pm), and after finally an entire weekend at home in paris. we've been busy studying for our financial markets final on thursday. we have no classes tomorrow, YAY, but we've still got lots of studying to do. as usual, fiezal knows his shit but i don't. either way, he's gonna teach it to me so i'm not so worried.

i'm finally up to date on everything. i'll try to keep you posted more often, now that i have this blog.

looking forward to:
1) end of core 2 on april 13, 2006
2) flying to vancouver on april 14, 2005 for a whole week!

yay, we're coming home! see y'all soon!

au revoir et a bientot. bisous!