Well, I totally ditched the Interac interview, but I did call in to let them know I wasn't coming. The girl said it was a good thing I called in because then I would have been blacklisted. My heart stopped for a good minute, and then I realised that this didn't really matter because I don't intend to go with them at all. I'm pretty confident I can go to Japan with the JET Program. Frankly, at this point I'd be surprised if they rejected me since I'm pretty qualified when it comes to working with kids, not to mention that I'll have two EAS degrees. And if I want to go back to Japan after the JET Program, I can always do what J did and just find a job once I'm there.

I'm kinda blown away by how awesome my friends are. I posted on Facebook that I was single again and a lot of my friends got in touch with me to chat! And it wasn't necessarily the friends I expected. It was people I wasn't super close to, and that I haven't talked to in a while. It really made me happy to hear from them, I'm feeling super loved!

I've been missing French recently (which is really weird, cause I never spoke French in Montreal), so I went to a Swing concert (by myself!). It was super fun, I don't regret going, even if it was slightly awkward at times. Ça m'a changé les idées. On Monday I'm going to a French language exchange, it should do me some good too. And listening to CKOI, my favourite radio station, online is great too, I'm noticing that they play a higher proportion of breakup songs compared to love songs. ^^;

Well, I've been single for five days now, and the sadness has been replaced by a comfortable anger. Oh yes, I'm very bitter, but I know better than to burn my bridges, so for now I'm just simmering in frustration. I'm disappointed more than anything, I put a lot of energy into that relationship. But I'm not the type to cry about it, if he doesn't want to do the long-distance thing, fine. Then he's just not worth it. And in no way do I doubt my ability to find someone new, so for now I just need to get over being angry and enjoy my singleness.

I just wish he had told me earlier, because then I wouldn't have applied to Interac and have been so torn over whether to choose Interac (which would place me in Kyoto) or JET (which would place me inaka but pay well). Now, it's JET all the way! The only problem is that I have that pesky seminar to attend tomorrow for Interac. This requires buying some professional clothing since, being the slacker that I am, the only things I wear are sweaters and jeans. Also, it requires preparing for a video interview in which I have to perform a mock class and introduction. Fun. I don't know if I should just ditch the seminar or make a reasonable attempt to look like an eager, bright eyed recruit. On the one hand, I have tons of school work to catch up on, not to mention tests to correct, a 20 minute presentation, and two 20 page papers to start working on. On the other hand, since I don't want this job anymore, the interview would have no pressure for me, and could serve as a dry-run for the JET interview. The seminar itself might be informative. If it isn't I can always leave.

Overall, this has been a crappy month. Not as crappy as some previous Novembers have been, but crappy enough to make me not want to get out of bed!

I need to read some mindless romance, and I need to read it now.

Writing the JET essay is making me feel all sorts of agonies. How can I really brag about myself properly in 1-2 pages double spaced? And why essay format? Couldn't it just be point form?

Reasons why you should take me:

1. I'm brilliant. See enclosed degrees.
2. I'm good with kids. I haven't killed any. Yet.
3. I like Japan. Japanese food is tasty.
4. I'm a good teacher. See point #2.
5. I'm in good health. See enclosed picture for shiny teeth and a bushy tail.
6. My teachers have no idea how lazy I am. See enclosed recommendation letters.
7. I can speak English. See point #1.
8. I can speak Japanese. Mostly with the help of alcohol.
9. I'm not homicidal. See enclosed criminal background check.
10. Nobody knows I'm a megalomaniac bent on taking over the world. See innocuous application.

The JET application is also a source of frustration separate from the inherently difficult Personal Statement. For example, how on earth do I measure my intercultural experience accurately in hours? Considering that I've never had a French speaking friend, I think it's pretty safe to say that would be 23 years. Or rather 8,688 days. Or since you demand to have that in hours, lets say 208,512 hours.

I need some alcohol. Maybe then I can write BS about myself with a straight face...

Or maybe not.

Ok, I have to confess, I've read Twilight. I've read all of the series, and they live on my bookshelf.

I liked the first book, it reminded me of a rather generic fanfic. Sure, the majority of the fics I've read are written better than that book, but it pandered to the hopeless romantic in me that loves supernatural romance between normal girl and demon boy. Nuff said. The second book, New Moon, was amusing, in a sadistic way. I have no tolerance for angst anymore, so I have to admit I was laughing throughout most of the book. But I liked Jacob. Disregarding the whole Vampire/Werewolf thing, I would pick Jacob over Edward any day. By the third book, Eclipse, I couldn't believe this woman was still writing. If the series had seemed to me like a generic fic at first, it was now starting to look like one of those craptastic fics that you keep reading because it started off ok, so you hope it will be craptastic for a while and then get better. It didn't. By Breaking Dawn my suspicions were confirmed. The whole series had played out like a crappy fic and I had been fooled into thinking the main character wasn't a Mary Sue. My disgust for the last book knows no bounds.

All this to say, I knew the series wasn't any good when I started reading it. It was like a fic, just mindless entertainment. But now there's the movie, and I'm torn about whether to go see it or not. Of course it looks terrible. I'm tempted to go see it just for the giggles that the half-assed special effects are bound to provoke. But I thought that I could get a laugh at the male lead who is bound to be emasculated by Edward's ridiculous lines. The producers foiled me by having Robert Patterson play Edward. ;___; Why Robert? Why? I enjoyed watching you die as Cedric Diggory, I even cried! Why must you ruin that for me by playing Edward? If it had been any other actor I would have been able to sneer at the squealing teeny boppers, and laugh when the movie flops. But now I watch the previews, just for you. I'm even cringe for you when they make you say embarrassing lines, or do ridiculous things. I sympathise with any guy that need to pander to adolescent fantasies by acting out that caricature of a character. But then I remember that you're probably ridiculously well paid. You can take the abuse and screaming fangirls, because now you're rich and you're bound to get richer. And I still owe my firstborn to the Quebec government. ;_____;

And as for Bella, talk about the anti-Buffy. I could probably write a few essays about how Bella re-affirms the damsel in distress stereotype and makes it hard to argue that women don't fantasize about being dominated by men.

I hope to god they don't make a film out of all the books though. If they do, I might start watching Cedric's death and mentally substituting him for another character...

I had the most random panic attack last night when I realised I will never again see those toys from the 80s that my mom gave away. This seemed like a silly thing to lie awake over, but hey, I was a spoiled kid and I had the BEST toys. I kept them in good condition too, all of my Barbies would have been mint if my little sister hadn't undressed them and pulled all their heads off... the little sadist.

For all the flack it gets, the 80s was the best time to be a kid, in my opinion. All the television shows were bright and colourful, nobody cared if your hair looked crazy, and best of all, you weren't trying to be a mini-me. Don't kids these days seem to grow up too fast? I was playing with Barbies until I was at least 10! Shamelessly too!

When I think about how I would look hopefully at the toys whenever my mom brought me to Toys 'R Us and hope that she would telepathically understand how much I wanted that new My Little Pony, it seems a shame that I let her get rid of all that stuff. Especially since so much of it has now become collectible. Even now she wants to downsize our stuffed animal collection, to which my sister and I politely ignore her.

Back then, Saturday mornings were worth getting up early for. I'd go downstairs (after asking my parents for permission, LOL)and watch TV at 6:30am, since Iron Man and the Fantastic Four were on. Then, until the clock hit noon my parents knew better than to try and kick me outside to get some sun!

But the best thing about the 80s were the TV shows created as tie-ins for toys. Remember those?

In English, I used to watch:

-Rainbow Bright (I would have killed for my friend Mindy's Rainbow Bright doll...)
-Jem and the Holograms
-Lady Lovely Locks (it was my favorite to rent from the video store)
-Popples (I think I still own some Popples)
-Carebears (Definitely still have my Carebears!)
-She-Ra
-He-Man
-Moondreamers
-Ghostbusters
-Transformers (So happy when those came out again! One of the guys at work got one! Lol!)
-The Ewoks
-Babar
-The Adventures of the Little Prince (I can't remember if I saw this in French or English)

In French there was a huge selection of Anime, even though I didn't know it at the time!

-Remi (Ie Naki Ko)
-Les Mysterieuse Cites d'Or (Taiyou no ko Esteban)
-Sherlock Holmes (the Miyazaki version with dogs)
-Lady Oscar (Versaille no Bara)
-Sous le Signe des Mousquetaires (Sanjushi)
-Anne: la Maison au Pignon Vert (Akage no Anne)
-Huckleberry Finn in French (which helped when I read the actual novel!)
-Alice au Pays des Merveilles
-Goldorak
-Inspecteur Gadget

The French cartoons were soo good... I wish my friends didn't look at me blankly when I start singing, "Avec nous, venez croiser le fer, les mechants vont mordre la poussiere! Sous le signe des mousquetaires on est tous des freres!" or "Brigant elegant, la canne a la main, demasque par Sherlock Holmes, le plus malin!"

Classic!

Esteban being able to fly in a giant futuristic gold condor? Brilliant. And when Aramis was revealed to be a girl? Genius. And Remi? I cried every. frickin. episode. I still can't believe that the monkey died~! Joli-Coeur was the best! (Even though my favourite was Capi) ^__^ I want those DVDs.

All this to say that I've been on a rampage for the last few days, and I'm trying to buy back my favourite My Little Pony dolls. It's not so easy, they're really overpriced on Ebay.

Wow, long time no update! Summer is over and I didn't even write about it! Grr!

All in all, I really needed this summer to slack off. What an awesome time I had visiting Toronto with H, it was so nice to not go to work. I feel a little guilty for not getting a job, but it was worth it~! I think this will be the last time I'll be able to do something like that. I've recharged my batteries scholastically and I think I'm ready for another school year! (Although I'm already behind... crazy profs assigning boring and convoluted articles.)

I think the highlight of the summer was Josh's cottage. What an awesome guy! We've been classmates for only a year and he invites me and our group of friends to his cottage north of Peterborough! I've known T for how many years now? And only her boyfriends go to her cottage. -_-

Anyways, I really hope our group of friends can fulfill our pact to meet each other there again in 10 years. Even if it was only for 2 nights, I think I'll always look back on that place as a kind of paradise. Driving there was awful, super boring. I wish I hadn't been driving and could have been in the van. It must of been quite the party in that thing. That, and I wish our Korean buddies were more talkative! The scenery was nice, but it got repetitive after a while. And H can't be trusted to keep me awake with his conversational skills. I'll bet he's quiet even with other Japanese!

But once we got there, it was sooo nice! Lakefront property and all! Josh explained that the land belonged to his grandparents, and that it was divided among his grandmother's sisters. The other lots of land looked much more homey, but Josh's cottage had that rustic charm. Plus there were a sh-t load of beds! Hehe... and H and I got the new master bedroom in the addition! Score~!

Later that night we went night swimming (me going first to convince the reluctant Japanese girls!). The water was so refreshing, and the floating dock was a godsend. I still don't like touching seaweed, so I avoided the shore as much as possible. After a while, it was warmer in the water than outside. I think it was that night that Jinu was christened 'Ero-Gappa' and 'Ero Shark'. Lol. After our lovely swim, we went and sat by the neighbor's campfire. I was freezing of course, I wish I didn't have to share the blanket with H! My feet were toasty though, everyone put their bare feet on the fire pit rocks.

And the sky was so clear! Very little light pollution. I could see the milkyway, and a multitude of constellations I can't name. Everyone just leaned back in their chairs and stared at the sky. We started counting shooting stars, every once in a while one would streak across the sky. I stopped looking up after seven of them though, I didn't want to ruin that perfectly lucky number. I can't even remember my wishes, but it doesn't matter, I think that with seven shooting stars in a night, I've stocked up on good luck for the rest of my life!

The next morning we went out to the jumping rocks. I was super impressed by H and Jinu jumping off the highest rock! Once again I had to encourage the girls by jumping first. Lol! I'm convinced the whole 'I'm scared of doing something like that!' is just for show. They just don't want to go first, cause afterwards they were going at it like pros! Climbing up the rock was the scariest part honestly, I have no idea how the boys made it up to the highest perch, it looked as though it was sheer rockface from down bellow! But it was pretty amazing to have these jumping rocks. Apparently they still hadn't found the bottom over there, so no worries about hitting anything like at Wa-Thik-Ane.

After we were brought back, the other family in the cottage furthest from us offered to take us water tubing. Hehe! I managed to stay on even though Wonjoo fell off! (He claims that was my fault, but I prefer to think it was my superior navigational abilities. ^__^ ) Never mind that my doughnut was the more stable one, they were still going really fast trying to shake us off! It was too much fun, one day I'd love to be able to do jumps like Josh does.

We went out for ice cream later and bought wine to thank Josh's relatives, who really made the experience wonderful. What an awesome family.

We swam some more and had another campfire that night. We ate some smores, which was sooo good. Burnt marshmallow is always appreciated! (As long as its not too carbonated.) The girls make me laugh when they mention that smores are 'traditional Canadian' sweets! Hardly! Does Canada even have any traditional sweets other than my beloved sugar pie?

Somewhere in Cat's ideal vision of the future, she lives in a house with a library and a cat, and spends her summers with friends and family at a cottage on a lake! <3

I've fallen off the deep end. I really have. For all my disdain for Louis Vuitton carrying schoolgirls, I've fallen into the same trap.

You see, I've fallen in love with a designer bag. No, not a Louis Vuitton, I still think those bags are rather ugly, and I'm not yet capable of looking past appearances. It's a character flaw I'm not proud of, but so be it. Yes, even the Murakami ones haven't swayed me. Rather, my heart belongs to the Miu Miu coffer bag.

http://www.purseblog.com/handbags/miu-miu-coffer-leather-handbag/

And so that I can live with my ridiculously overpriced bag in designer sin, I've bought a knock off. So what if I'm committing the number one crime against brand-toting elitists? I couldn't care less about the brand name, it's the shape, colour, and function of the bag that I love. *happy sigh* It's soo pretty.

Oscar Wilde (by far the most quotable person ever) says it best with: "I can resist anything but temptation" and "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it".

Yup. Cat and temptation are well acquainted. Consequently, my wallet suffers.

Speaking of things I love, H. and I are doing surprisingly well! I can't get over how easy he is to get along with! The only quirk I can't stand is when he catches me off guard and tickles me. Damn my debilitating and embarrassing weakness. As he's becoming more confident with English I'm discovering he has a great sense of humour. Plus he rarely lapses into self-orientalism, which caters to my EAS sensibilities. He agrees with me that JCSA and other language exchanges are really just white guys trying to pick up Asian girls. He initially wondered why white guys have yellow fever, and actually asked a few why they chase after Japanese girls! (Isn't he great?) Anyways, the answers he got were typical orientalist bull: Asian girls are more quiet, less brash and opinionated than us white girls. H's explanation for that is that they're still learning English, so of course they'll be less talkative and argumentative!

H and I have done a bunch of interesting things together recently, I'm really enjoying it. The highlight will really be the trip we're planning to Cuba, I can't wait! It's too bad he's going back to Japan this summer, but we agreed to hook up again when I go to there next year. The only thing I'm worried about is whether I'll be able to be located near Kyoto. I'd rather not be in a small village, I'm a city rat, not a country one. My time in Saint Jean cured me of any pastoral delusions, thank you very much.

I find myself missing Quebec though. I'm constantly listening to ckoi by internet radio, all their music is so fun and upbeat. Plus their April Fool's jokes were hilarious!

I keep forgetting that not everyone speaks french here! I was whining that I probably wont get a TAship this summer since PhDs get picked first, and my fellow MA reminded me that bilingualism is in demand. Score ten points! And if I can master basic Japanese, that would be even more awesome. I better start looking at jobs soon though!