eu vou falar do musica.

some musical links for you:

White Lies - Love Lockdown
Some of you don't like Kanye West. Whatever. Here's a rocked-up cover of Love Lockdown by White Lies. (I, personally, am not a huge fan of this track, but it's interesting. So listen to it.)

Ladyhawke vs. The Killers - Ladykillers
RAFAY, THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.

The Reborn Identity - You can't curry love
Even more interesting than the Love Lockdown cover. YOU ALL NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS.
This track consists of:
The Supremes - You Can’t Hurry Love
Pairon Mein Bandhan Hai (from the movie, Mohabbatein)
2Pac - Dear Mama
ALL TOGETHER. uh yeah. FML. SO CATCHY, YET SO STRANGE.

Matt and Kim - Daylight
This is for Sasha because I think she will like it.



Man, who is John Sakamoto, and why does he have the COOLEST column in the Toronto Star? The anti-hit list is the only reason I open the newspaper on Saturday mornings.
Someone find him. I need to be his friend.

Que coisa de mierda.

I need to start scrapbooking my 6 month ordeal in foreign language territory.

But, I have yet to take out the bulging ziploc bag full of receipts, ticket stubs, beer bottle labels/caps, polaroids, feathers and newspaper clippings from my backpack that has been chilling in the same corner of my room as it has for the last month, where I dumped it when I first got home all those weeks ago.



On a related note, Ayman had kept pretty much every bottle cap from every bottle of beer we had ever opened the entire time we were in Manoel Viana, and when he took out this HUGE plastic bag FULL of caps for distribution when we were at Camp Boscoe, we all got hit with a face full of a... yeasty... smell when the bag was opened. I hope this does not happen to me.



ANYWAYS.

Here is the line up for Coachella - a music festival I will probably just have to resign myself to dreaming about going to ... unless someone amazing comes along and offers me a road trip and wristbands....

Seriously? Each day guarantees a dance party and a good time. If you're too lazy to read I WILL SUM IT UP FOR YOU.

Day 1: Girl Talk, Crystal Castles, the Presets, Los Campesinos!, Steve Aoki (and Leonard Cohen and Morrissey, not the dance party type, but legends in their own right.. and Paul McCartney, I guess)

Day 2: FLEET FOXES, Hercules and Love Affair, Surkin, Glass Candy, Billy Talent (just kidding)

Day 3: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lupe Fiasco, Peter Bjorn and John, PUBLIC ENEMY, ahhh Paolo Nutini (sorry), the Kills, Sebastien Tellier, Late of the Pier, Junior Boys

dream big.

a travel journalist.

upside(s):
- i will get paid to travel
- my travel will be paid for
- people will pay to hear about my opinion about things !!!
- i can learn things (about culture, languages, food etc)


downside(s):
- i will forever be writing about being off the beaten path, living in shacks and getting malaria.
- development rhetoric will always creep into my writing, and instead of telling you how amazing this 5 star hotel/resort/spa is, i'll probably end up telling you how it doesn't stimulate the economy and how this is the fault of capitalism and neoliberal economics, and that everyone around me are undeserving bourgeoisie
- everyone will know that i am a closet socialist/commie
- i have really bad grammar skills. i am QUEEN of comma splices - which, if you read my blog, you can probably attest to


but its sooooooo perfecttttt

OH HAI

UM, WES ANDERSON, LOU DOILLON, AND... IS THAT YOU LEELEE SOBIESKI?

source: the cobrasnake

Oh, Canada.

Google never ceases to amaze me.

http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=mittens&geo=CA&cmpt=q

Okay, so Prince Edward Island ranks the highest in regional interest on mittens.
Fine.

Hipsters?
1. British Columbia (wait, really?)
2. Ontario
3. Alberta (really?)
4. Quebec
and apparently no one in any other province has any sort of interest in this.

Emo?
1. Northwest Territories. (haha, what?)
2. Newfoundland
3. Manitoba
(top searches being for "emo hair")

Porn?
1. Nunavut (not surprising)
2. Yukon + Ontario tied at 66%
Related: http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=child%20porn&geo=CA&cmpt=q
lolololadhjfsdf
do not bring up your children there.

Canada's kind of small and boring.

Apparently Idaho is #1 for Shakespeare .. and Guidos.
and Alabama and Mississippi are tied for "Obama Antichrist"
HAVE FUN.

Dans Paris

Also:

and Romain Duris is in it.

Yeah.

back-to-work legislation for York

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090122/090122_trainsbackup/20090124/?hub=CP24Home"

reading the comments make me angry, then anxious, then worried, then angry again.

i still haven't decided if i want to take the year off or not.. but now, it's looking like a good idea.

the thing is... i applied for an internship at the Inter-American Development Bank for the summer... and one of the stipulations is that I have to be enrolled in a post-secondary institution and be planning to return the year after.
but if i do continue with the winter semester, it'll probably run into the summer, and jeopardize my application anyways.

um, life.

also the yorku community on.. livejournal (don't judge me) is full of all sorts of lols about the strike, people's opinions, and frustrations over the lingering smell of thai food and hummus left over outside the president's office as a result of a 3 week sit-in, amongst other things.

http://community.livejournal.com/yorku/

we'll reach the hills by dawn

(an image taken from the bus on the way to Manoel Viana from Porto Alegre)

I just read an installment about the adventures of an aquaintance who hitch-hiked his way back to Ontario with a friend after going to visit a member of his Canada World Youth group in BC.

It definitely makes me excited for the reunion I'm going to have with my group in 3 months time.

But it also has me thinking. Why am I still here?

I'm young and I'm free.

I have a newly awakened spirit of adventure.

I don't have any responsibilities of any kind - no job, no school (though not by choice)

My family isn't the kind to hold me back, now...

What am I still doing here?

I might not have money... but I have a $50 credit with Via Rail to go as far as it can take me...

...should I do it?

Can I do it?

Will you come with me?

l'hiver.

This morning, I threw open my curtains and let the sun shine into my room. I dressed weather-inappropriately and curled up in a pool of sunshine on my bed like my cat did in Brazil. I dreamt about summer and spring-like temperatures and soaked up my daily dose of vitamin D.

I'm tired of being cold all the time.

I'm tired of putting on layer upon layer of clothing before going out to brave the weather.

I love you Canada. I love Tim Hortons, I love ice skating and maple syrup and Quebec, but your winters are really really trying.

Maybe it's the fact that I've already had to deal with 6 months of winter. (Yeah, winter in Brazil counts as winter. It was DARK by 4:30, and I could see my breath in the shower.)

But if Spring doesn't come soon.. I don't know how I'm going to deal.

polaroid it.

Bitches.

For those of you who are going to miss out on celebrating my birthday tomrw night, this is exactly what you're missing out on.

Only it'll be dark, I'll probably have a beer in my hand and it will be to music and therefore soooooooo much better.

Yeah, that's right.

Born to gaze into night skies..

My life will never ever be complete until I can call this my home.

Ever.

Seriously.

wait, PAUSE.

WTF, Blake Lively?

What did they do to your face?

Birthdays.

I hate them.
But it's a damn good excuse to get dressed up, get sloshed and dance.

Major Turnoffs..

There was a discussion somewhere about the one thing that completely turns you off from a person - major dealbreakers in personality or otherwise - and someone answered with this:

"The first that comes to mind is complete apathy and a self-centered attitude. Just PLEASE be passionate about SOMETHING, and please let that something not be yourself. Have an open mind and an educated worldview."

And I honestly could not have put it into better words myself. For me this applies to everyone, including friends/aquaintances.
Having a passion makes you a more interesting person. But even better than being passionate is being educated and being able to see both sides to any argument - being able to understand that although your passion may be your passion, it may not be for others and not completely shutting them down or out because they don't agree with your all of your views. Anyone like that is worth talking to.

Seriously...

all men should look like this more often.


(photo via the sartorialist)

Happy 2009!

(fine, sasha FIERCE. this is a better picture anyways.)

Everyone knows that the new year officially starts on Jan 2.
January 1st is usually reserved for 1) sleeping off the revelry of the night/morning before, 2) dealing with a massive hang over, 3) sobering up, or 4) cleaning up all the barf from the bathroom floor/toilet/sink/bath tub.
So here's to ringing in the new year with new people, plenty of booze, interesting characters, and (apparently) lines of... white... stuff at 7 in the morning.

2008 was an amazing year. I did so many great things, met so many great people, and learned so much.. it's going to be hard up for 2009 to beat it. But maybe with my newly acquired skills, it will.
It's hard to say goodbye to the past year, it's helped me grow in ways I probably haven't even figured out yet, but it's time to build on past experiences and do what I need to do.
I've never really been so ... lost ... in life, as I have been the last week or two (omg, it's only been a week and a bit? It feels so much longer...) so this year I pledge to get my life back on track. Find a job as soon as possible, make decisions about the rest of the academic year, all the while not compromising my principles and ideals, and put the experience of the last 6 months to good use.
I want to continue with my languages - work on my Portuguese and on my French writing skills.
I'm also going to take inventory. Find those who have been there for me, and those who haven't, and... phase them out. Sorry, but I have incredibly low tolerance for drama and childish grudges at this point, and don't really plan on entertaining dead friendships for much longer.
I want to thank those who have been there for me in the last week, those who have listened to my stories, asked questions, and helped take my mind off of how strange it is to be at home.. and sort of helped my reintegration back into my life again.
Thank you to all my CWYers who helped make 2008 unforgettable, and to Marylene, whose life-advice I will try to apply to my everyday. I'm sure we'll all be reunited soon. (3 months!)
I'm going into 2009 with a vengeance. (A happy focused vengeance.. not a scary, angry one...) My life has changed, I have changed, so what better than a change of year to cement new friendships, and apply new lessons learned?
Here's to an amazing 2008, and to a better, shinier 2009!