Backpack essentials

This is the first time I'm writing something like this... I had thought about making a video instead... buuuuuut my camera is currently packed away, just waiting for anyone in the family to bring it to Canon for cleaning. Anyhow, backpack essentials.

I started carrying around my backpack from class to class in high school, probably midway through grade 9. Between classes, I took out whatever books and binders I didn't need, and threw whatever books and binders I needed for the next class (or the next two classes, if the one after was too far away for me to visit my locker); and carried along whatever else I had lying around in my backpack. Over the years, the amount of stuff that stays in my backpack has increased - but it's not like I'm carrying around six tonnes of necessities. No, I'd hire a butler for that.

1) An extra snack. By the way, this list isn't in order of importance, but you know, food is kind of important. I usually throw a granola bar, or one of those individually wrapped Ms. Field's cookies in my backpack in addition to the other snacks I pack with my lunch. The emergency snack often comes in handy on days where I'm running late and can't grab breakfast before lunch, days where I end up staying out later than normal, or whenever the munchies kick in.

2) A mirror. Actually, this has sorta been weeded out ever since the discovery that my cell phone's screen could act like a mirror; but it wasn't great. Prior to that, I did carry around either a tiny mirror that someone bought me from the dollar store (it broke a week ago, boo - the mirror itself didn't crack, so no seven years of bad luck!), or a tiny eyeshadow compact that had a mirror in it. Having a mirror may seem a little vain, but everyone has their insecurities, and it doesn't hurt to check if you look okay. Just don't do it too often.

3) Bobby pins! I always have at least one bobby pin with me, clamped on my bus pass holder. If bobby pins aren't your thing, then tiny hair clips are a good substitute. I usually walk around with a clip clipped onto the lapel of my cardigans, or on my lanyard with my keys (but beware! They fall easily like that, so I have unfortunately learned). P.S. Paper clips also work as hair clips. I've done it before, but the trend hasn't seem to have caught on, so...

4) An extra pen, pencil, writing utensil. I mean, having one in one of the pockets of your backpack, outside of the ones you keep in your pencil case; so on days when you might forget your pencil case at home, you'll at least have something to take notes with!

5) Tissues. A lot of my lecture halls are extreeeeeeeeemely cold, even in the winter, which is cool (haha) with me, because that'll force my body to undergo more metabolism to produce heat, and hence use up my fat stores. But my nose often ends up a little runny. If you're like me, you don't want to be that person without a tissue who sniffs loudly every few minutes during the lecture to keep your snot from running down your face. Oh! And you could also offer a tissue to any snifflers around you.

6) A pad. Or tampon. Whatever you use. Even if it's not your time of month, keep one in your backpack. You'll thank yourself later when your time of month DOES show up while you're on campus away from any sources of sanitary napkins. It's also nice to have in case another girl is in need. Help a sister out!

7) Chapstick, or lip balm. I have to have my lip balm with me all the time (currently using the green EOS one), because my lips get dry pretty often; and out of habit, I would always lick them, which I have learned is NOT good for the state of hydration of your lips (plus, it hasn't proven to be a turn-on for guys, hmmm)! So. Yeah. Lip balm.

8) Extra change. I usually keep a toonie (that's two dollars for you Americans) and a few quarters in one of the small pockets in my backpack. This is usually for buying snacks from vending machines, on days when I don't have any food on me at all (or after I've eaten all of it - I eat a lot...); but it's also nice for times when I'm paying for something from whatever's in my wallet (which isn't a lot), and then I realize I'm short a few cents. Quarters are especially handy for payphones, in case your phone runs out of battery.

9) Tylenol, or Advil. Nice for days after all-nighters.

So those are my essentials! I also have a few other items that may be more specific for me - oil blotting paper (because my skin is stupidly oily), some Halls (not like I cough all the time, but just in case), and a USB key, for example. Other people might have more items, or fewer items. It just depends on how you are and what you find important. I've listed the things I think are the basic of the basic essentials, so go ahead and add onto the list.

Hopefully this was helpful to someone. Stay in school, don't do drugs,

New Year's Resolutions (but really, they're just reminders)

Since high school, it never feels like a new year starts on January 1st. My "new year" always starts on the first day of school - it makes a lot more sense. I mean, you're going into a new grade; getting a new schedule and homeroom; cracking open the pages of a fresh, blank, new agenda; dumping your things in a new (old) locker (I say old, because my high school was old, and the lockers were not in good shape); donning new clothes; and sometimes, sporting a new haircut. It always feels like I'm getting a fresh start from the previous school year.

I will be returning to my alma mater to do another year of undergrad. I'm calling this my "make it or break it" year because in the year after, I'm aiming to be at a point where I'm confident with my resume and experience to apply to medical schools. And, since I was pretty much living in a cave for the past four years (i.e. not doing anything to really give my credentials a boost), this is the year that I hope I can make up for the past four years of inactivity.

Resolutions and reminders:

• Do NOT be lazy. Speaks for itself.
• Do NOT be afraid - to ask questions or for help, to volunteer, to try new things, etc. This also applies to my, uh, fizzled and lackluster social life.
• Keep fit! For me, it says a lot about a person when he/she is committed to something, and being committed to health and fitness is my goal. Luckily, my housemates are pretty gung ho about waking up at 6 a.m. every morning to hit the gym, so I'll have some friends to help me out.
• Hit the hay before 11 p.m. I made this resolution on January 1st a couple years ago, and kept up with it until summer time (because when it's summer time, sleep schedules do not exist). Eleven p.m. sounds kind of early, but I'm pretty sure "in real life", that's when I'll have to go to sleep in order to wake up and survive the day without being groggy and grumpy.
• Spend less money! A necessary resolution because I am in soooooooo much debt right now.

I'll add to the list as I think of them.

Happy returning to school! And if you aren't going back, have fun in the real world!

Road trip round-up!

Our road trip came to an end early Friday morning as we pulled into our driveway at a little past 5 in the morn. I typed this up the day after I know, when I post it, it'll have that date, but I'm saying now that it wasn't posted for a while because a) I wanted to edit my pictures first before uploading them, but then my computer mouse broke and doing things with a trackpad is tres annoying; b) there were a few other pictures I wanted to take, for example, of my souvenirs, but laziness dropped by for a visit and hasn't left yet; and c) I don't know, I kinda wanted to keep this as a draft until I felt like it was... post-worthy. It's stupidly and poorly written because I didn't want to go into detail in the entire trip because it was LONG; and in a couple of years when I look back at all my posts before deleting this blog (like I did to my old one), I'll be thinking to myself "yo, why wuz i so stoopid" (which is also what I thought to myself as I scrolled through my old blog before taking it off the webs for good).

But anyhow. Take it or leave it.

Here's the tl;dr in advance: I GO ON TRIP. TRIP FUN. SAW THINGS. CANADA GOOD.

________________________________________________________________

EPIPHANIES - things I discovered, learned, or realized:

1. Sitting for a long time actually really hurts your ass. I hadn't believed this before because I thought sitting for three hours was a long time and that didn't hurt. Nope, try six.
2. Mosquitoes and black flies love me. Eleven bites all over.
3. I should really re-learn French because French dudes are handsome (among other reasons).
4. Asians are rare out in the Maritimes and so we often caught people staring at us like we were aliens.
5. Crabs have strong grip. This being said, the hermit crabs we played with attempted to pinch, but they couldn't, so it was cute to watch them scuttle around in our palms.
6. Humpback whales are teases. We went on a whale watch and saw two, and everyone on the ship was waiting for one of them to flip its tail up as it dove to get a "tail" picture... and it never did.
   

   

   They came pretty close to the boat. It was magical.

   
   

   

   Tail!

7.  How lobster is supposed to taste: NOT like the stuff we get here.
   

   

   *Emma Stone eye roll* YUM.

8. Maritime traffic is awesome because there is none. This being said, it felt awfully lonely and kinda scary driving down empty highways at night... Felt like I was in a horror movie.
9. My neck is extremely ticklish and so sleeping with my hair down doesn't work well when I'm in a car because it keeps tickling it.
10. I knew this already, but seeing the Maritimes really confirmed it more: CANADA IS AMAZING!

NUMBERS - or estimates, to highlight the extra random events of our trip:

1. Rocks collected: maybe up to 8 pounds. Our family has a thing for collecting rocks - it stems from my dad. He likes to collect them for our fish tank. We went all-out during a stop at a shore along the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.
   

   

   This was one of the rocks I collected. My sister calls it the "Poo rock"...

2. Times my hair got caught in a hair dryer: 2. Times it was pleasant: 0.
3. Pictures taken: over 3500. The Canon itself took 3457 pictures, but then we also had a second camera that my brother and sister used sometimes, my dad's phone's camera, and my mom's iPad - actually, she probably took more than five hundred snaps herself so I'd be willing to say we took almost up to 4000 pictures in total!
4. Moose seen: 3! All during our hike along the Skyline Trail. The first one was about 10 feet away from us as he was chowing down on plants; the second and third ones were a greater distance away and were both napping at the time we spotted them.
   

   

   Sister took this shot. It's pretty zoomed in, so in reality we were about 10 feet away from it. We named him Jiles, after the butler on the show "Whodunnit".

5. Hours playing Pokemon: 16. Both of my sisters have portable Nintendo devices and were playing their own Pokemon games for the trip. Midway through the trip, I caved and downloaded a version to my laptop to play during car rides.
6. Distance hiked: 7 km (Skyline Trail).
   

   

   Started from the bottom, now we here.

7. Souvenirs purchased for myself: 3. A funny postcard from the Hopewell Rocks, a poster from Cows, and a mug from NEAQ.
   

   

   Best ice cream, and best merch.

   

   If you ever wondered how they got the names of each individual rock...

   
   

   
   

   
   

8. Number of bug bites: 11. Four on my left leg, one on my left wrist, two on my face, two on my right leg, one on my right arm, and one on my right pinky toe.
9. Approximate distance traveled (not including local driving): 5020 km as calculated by Google Maps.
10. Approximate time on the road (not including local driving): 50 hours as calculated by Google Maps.

All in all, it was good fun. But my family won't be ready for another trip for a while... I, on the other hand, am excited about where I could go next!