Tessa, Luke, and I went out together yesterday (Friday, December 23rd) which would be our last outing together for 2011

We went to two different museum exhibits and went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie that came out recently

The first museum that we went to was to the Fine Arts museum where they were having another Christmas tree exhibition (like the one I went to last year), but they were decorated completely differently from last year~!



( So many decorated Christmas trees~! )

The other exhibit that we went to was the Toys 2 exhibit, which was an exhibit about toys. The theme of the exhibit was there was a cat who was hunting down a mouse. So the idea was you were supposed to follow the cat's paw prints on the ground and find the mouse in each of the exhibits


Picture courtesy of http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca

( Finding a mouse if difficult when you're too tall and old ^^;; )

We went window shopping around Downtown after we finished playing in the toy exhibit and its boutique where we ended up getting ice cream from Laura Secord despite it being winter and relatively cold outside already...



The one that I got was the "Nougatine au pacanes au beurre" which loosely translated to "Buttered pecan nuggets". I had initially wanted the cookie dough ice cream, but Tessa says that I get that one all the time...

We went back to Tessa's house afterwards where she built a castle thingy and Luke gave me a trebuchet to give to my brothers on Christmas day to play with before going to watch the Sherlock Holmes movie...

Before going to the movies, we ended up bringing a whole bunch of plushies with us... It all started when Luke brought one of them, which ended us having: two dogs, two turtles, one beaver, and one polar bear by the end of it... Tessa's dad laughed and said they would charge extra admission for bringing them. I'm only sad that I didn't get to bring my Oshawott plushie or my Kageyama bear with me...

BUT I WILL NEXT TIME WHEN WE GO WATCH A MOVIE~

I went out with Lisa today so that we could attend the Cirque du Soleil: Dralion since they're here in Montreal from December 18th until the 30th

We first went to a bakery that sold marzipan (which is an almond paste) that can be shaped into animals. The one that I got was the last tiger that they had~!

     

I FINALLY FOUND HIM! Each and every single time that I wanted to give change to him, I wasn't able to because I'm either running late for class or I don't have any change on me. Not only that, he ALWAYS moves and is never in one area!!



Later afterwards, we both headed to a Chinese restaurant that Lisa is obsessed about with their dumplings. We shared the sizzling udon noodles together and each ordered a serving of steamed dumplings

     

I must admit that we were both rather disappointed with Dralion since each of the acts were way too long. At the beginning of each performance, we were in awe at the flexibility of the performers as well as the usage of vibrant colors they used in the acts. However it quickly got over-saturated and they overdid the performance, making it overkill which caused both Lisa and I to get bored. There were perhaps two or three acts that we enjoyed, which were at the end of the show

     

It was the skipping rope performance that salvaged the entire show and thankfully it was the last act of the performance, since we highly doubted anything could have topped that magnificent act. You can see it in the trailer (they're in a pyramid formation and they all jump at the same time).

I went to the Biodôme yesterday (November 26th) with my friends as my early birthday outing since it's not feasible to go next weekend due to our hectic upcoming semester deadlines

Every year around my birthday, we usually do something in celebration of it and this year we went to the Biodôme since Tessa has never been and Luke went when he was really young



( Playing Pictureka in the Biodôme )

After touring the Biodôme, we decided to go visit the gift shop that they had



( Raiding the Biodôme Boutique )

After which, we went back to Tessa's house for supper, presents, and cake!



( Birthday Presents and Cards~♥ )

We watched "How to Train your Dragon" again and then played the board game "Shadows over Camelot"



( Attempting to Save Camelot )

It was another awesome year of cake, presents, and getting together with my friends

I went out with both Luke and Tessa to the Botanical Gardens on Monday (October 10th, 2011) which was Thanksgiving Day in Canada and it was the only time when all three of us could meet up...

The main reason that I wanted to go was to see the Botanical Gardens in the fall to see all it's pretty and gorgeous autumn colors



( The Beautiful Colors of Autumn~ )

The other reason why I wanted to go was to attend the Pumpkin Ball which is where a whole bunch of decorated pumpkins would be on display! Like this "Angry Birds: Trick of Tweet" pumpkin that won Tessa and my approval (Luke was at a loss)



( Let's Attend the Pumpkin Ball~ )

Lastly, it was to also attend the Lantern Festival which pays tribute to China’s first Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi and his impressive cavalry. The theme this year is “The First Emperor's Procession”



( The Magic of the Lantern Festival~ )

This stone table set will now hold fond sentimental memories for the three of us *cues Pokemon theme song*

 I went to see Perfect Answer with theproudpenguin  and deadcamsi today

I baked them both melon bread and they seemed to enjoy it

Let me tell those who watched the movie, plan to watch it, or will watch it...

It was not the "Perfect Answer" that I was looking for... But it was amazing nonetheless.

I'm not a Nino fan, but him  in black leather brandishing that long sword... Looking hot as hell...

I met up with theproudpenguin  and deadcamsi  today for the first time~!
 
We met up to watch GANTZ together for the Fantasia film festival to see Nino in all his hotness

I'm happy that we all got along well with each other and had our random moments of weirdness :3

I only found them because I recognized Sandy from her two star tattoos that she got recently ^^;;

There was an awesome relationship, where the two of them would talk in French and I would talk in English XD

We squealed and flailed when we saw the posters for GANTZ, and those two weirdos petted the poster lovingly ^^;;


( Random Weirdness That We Did Today~ )

The three of us are going back tomorrow to watch Perfect Answer together~!

I went to Taylor Swift's concert last Thursday AND IT WAS SO AMAZINGLY PRETTY~!

The amount of screaming that the audience did was deafening~! I'm so happy that I have earplugs

The concert was really aesthetically pleasing and the dresses that Taylor wore were simply amazing~!


( Excuse me while I flail with a whole bunch of photos~ )

Her concert was so fun to watch~! I hope I go to another of her concerts again in the future!

( Downloadable content from the concert )

I absolutely love and adore the Speak Now album as well as her concert tour

Dad and I are going to go attend the premier of Captain America later tonight~ (being released in theatres on Friday)

I won a pair of tickets to the advanced screening and decided to grab my dad since he likes Marvel and because dad never gets to do anything.

That being said, I decided to drag dad to places if I win tickets to places from contests~! *is determined*

Which is probably a relief to my friends since I usually drag them to places when there are events going on ^^;;

We'll be watching it in 3D together at the premier~ I get to go out with dad~! <3

Dad's all excited about going to the premier (though he doesn't show it), you can tell since he's in an elated mood~

I went the the sidewalk sale in Downtown today with dad and Daniel (since Daniel needed to go to the hospital to get some medications since his tests apparently showed some abnormality with his heart )

There was a lot of people! But it's expected since it's Downtown and there's a sidewalk sale where an insane amount of people congregate in order to get bargain deals from the brand name stores like Aldo, Forever 21, Lois Vuitton, and among other places~

This was around 11:30AM, so it's crowded but not THAT crowded yet...



We went down Crescent street where they're currently showing off some ski-dos, dad was particularly fond of this one



There were two guys wearing kilts NOT SKIRTS and were the doormen for the store OGILVY



This is where I'm going for the Just for Laughs galas~ It's still currently under preparations, but I'll be attending the galas for Russell Peters as well as Craig Ferguson~!



Dad and I didn't really get anything from the sidewalk sale. But we both bought a pair of the fitover sunglasses (they're sunglasses that you can wear on top of your prescription glasses). Dad had one, but it broke when it dropped when he recently went fishing, and I just wanted one myself so I wouldn't be blinded in the sunlight I also went and bought the Fantasia Film Festival program guide as well as my GANTZ and GANTZ: Perfect Answer tickets for both of the showings of the movies (so four showings altogether)

ANIME NORTH 2011 IS OVER!!

The convention was fun to attend, but the drive going there and coming back was dreadful~

The amount of construction, pot holes, and crazy sleep deprived drivers on the road is scary...

But look at what I bought!! Here's the hotel bed before I put my purchases and after~


Not ALL the mangas that you see there are for me!! Half of it is actually for my three younger brothers as well as those monkeys that are laying on the pillows. They're basically slingshot monkeys!!

My driving buddy and my two other friends basically cackled as we saw the registration line-up. We all pre-registered, so we didn't have to wait in that crazy long line... Which is the mass of people that you see. We also saw a troll on this hotel room's door XD


Pictures of cosplayers!! I won't post all of them since it would explode all of your internetz

( Cosplay Galore~ )

My Anime North manga list has now been updated with all the additional books that I purchased from the convention! So for those who plan on purchasing me manga books or simply want to know where I stand with my collection. CLICK HERE!

I was, however, devastated to know that TokyoPop's US distributor is out of business... WHAT ABOUT MY MANGAS?! *sobs*

I was at the book store reading the eighth volume of Black Bird, when I stumbled upon this page in the bonus section.



BWAHAHAHAAA~ They're performing their debut single "A.YA.KA.SHI" at N・K Hall with the Juniors! (note the arrow)

I'm sorry that the picture is blurry since I took it with my camera phone ^^;;

The mangaka made an apology to Arashi fans *grins*

The bubble says: WHAAAT?! When did this happen...?

On another note, as I was walking on school grounds today, this completely took me by surprise!

HAHAHAAA... I was too tired from my trip to post anything XD

Since there's a lot of pictures that I took, I'll separate the post into two ^^;;

YAAAY~! The second day in Toronto went off without a hitch! <33

The first photo is something that amused when when I rode the elevator :3 As I said that I would from my last post, I went to the CTV television network building and took a picture of the vehicle that was protruding from out of the building (and the wheel is still spinning).


These were random monuments that we saw when the three of us walked down Queens St W.

( Pictures of monuments as we were walking along )

The first place we headed to was the Toronto Eaton Centre and when we looked at the shopping center map, we discovered that there was a Disney Store!! *big grin* The three of us were spazzing and failing inside of the store!! I took a whole bunch of photos outside and inside of the store!!


( Toronto's Eaton Center - Disney Store )

We wandered some more through the Eaton Center where I took more random pictures and ended up getting food from Cultures and went to gaze at their indoor water fountain that was there!!


Our next destination was the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) which is supposedly Canada's largest museum! We got there using the subway and bought extra of their transportation tokens to keep as souvenirs! I really liked their station which was named "Museum Station" since it was decorated in the style of a museum!! That's a picture of the ROM from the main official entrance.


( Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) - Water exhibit )

The next place we visited was the culture section which ranged from European, Chinese, Greek, Egyptian, and many others~!

( ROM - Cultural exhibit )

After that we visited the biodiversity section which was separated into two main areas of the mammals and the dinosaurs <3

( ROM - Mammal exhibit )

We only got to the ROM at two o'clock in the afternoon and the museum closes at 5:30PM, so the three of us basically zoomed through the ENTIRE museum in three hours (since we wanted to spend at least half an hour at the boutique store that they have there)... And let me tell you, the museum is HUGE!! By the end of it all, Tessa and I were exhausted from all the walking we did and found comfy leather lounge chairs to sit in while Lisa walked around to get gifts for her family...

( Our search for food in an unknown city... )

Okay~ That will be all for the first part of the second day that I was in Toronto XD *off to do part two about the musical~*

OMFG!! ☆*:.｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

I just got the results for my second level in Japanese AND I PASSED THE CLASS!!

*spazzes in the hotel room despite Tessa and Lisa trying to sleep*

WE'RE IN TORONTO!! d(>W<)b

I'm currently in Toronto with Tessa and Lisa to attend the Lion King musical which will be held tomorrow at the Princess of Wales Theatre~

But since I didn't want to drive (and I would be the only driver), we ended up taking the Megabus to get there!! It's a double decker bus equipped with air conditioning, electrical plugs, free Wi-Fi and seatbelts!!

Here's a picture that I took of our bus (it says "TORONTO" but it's been reflected and we're sitting in the first two seats on the right).



What amused Tessa and I greatly was the "in case of emergency call" I mean, when you're in an EMERGENCY?!



( Day 01 in Toronto <3 )

I’m totally spazzed out right now!! d(>W<)b

I went to the Video Games Live (VGL) concert that was held here in Montréal today (Saturday, April 30th, 2011) and it was a freaking amazing experience! I’m more than happy to have attended it!!

I met Tessa at 5:30PM and as we were walking to the metro she kept saying that she knew something that I didn’t know. I asked how her family was and she mentioned that her brother Luke was doing a concert tonight at the Place des Arts that he didn’t know about. Which I thought was weird since the VGL ended at 10:30PM. But maybe he had practice afterwards or it was in another room? She also mentioned that her older brother, Eric, tried to get a ticket to the VGL, but they were all sold out when he checked this morning. This made me feel guilty for not having made reservations for tickets for her two older brothers…

We were going to meet Lisa at 6:30PM at the Berri UQAM metro station. Primarily it was because Lisa and Tessa have never met, so I wanted them to meet each other as well as get to know each other before we go to the Lion King musical which will be held next week~! Secondly it was to show them both were the bus terminal was since we’re taking Megabus to get to Toronto.

After showing them were the bus terminal was, we walked to Place des Arts, which was where the event was. There was some dispute about the direction in which we were headed. Lisa was using her iPhone’s GPS and I was reading the map. Lisa motioned that it was one way, and I disagreed that it was in the other direction. In the end, I won X3

Our seats were located on the balcony level (so we were high up). I didn’t mind that we were high up at all since it was still an amazing experience!! The event was spectacular!! The symphony orchestra was from McGill University (BWAHAHA! MY UNIVERSITY!!). For those of you who are unaware of what Video Games Live is, it’s basically combining video games played by a symphony orchestra. So imagine the Mario theme song played by a live orchestra and on the screen you see the character and there’s also a light show <33



( Awesomeness at its best and I recorded it!! )

Normally, I would friend lock entries if I share a recording of an event that I've attended since they don't want their material being leaked. But VGL supports sharing and distributing in order to gain more advertising through it's people, so click on the LJ cut to download the symphony orchestra concert if you're interested~!

My family and I went to pay our respects to my great grandfather and great grandmother on Saturday to wish me to do well on my upcoming final exams that I'll be having starting tomorrow.

Around the time I'm about to have my final exams, we always visit them to wish me well. But we visit them again in the month of May with flowers and offerings (since in April, the ground is still frozen).

So we had to put the incense in the snow since the ground still had snow and this year, my exams are starting earlier than usual... Usually I start my exams in the THIRD week of April and not in the SECOND week of April. So all the snow would have all melted by then...

But for the first time since I've been going there, we saw raccoons!! BABY RACCOONS!!


There were only three of them, but they kept moving around so I took a lot of pictures of them. Though I'm only posting seven here...

I was able to drag Tessa and Luke with me to attend Le Grands Salons Marions-Nous which is Canada's largest bridal exhibition yesterday on Saturday (January 8th, 2011)

IT WAS SO PRETTY AND THE CAKES THAT WERE PRESENTED WERE GORGEOUS~! I was walking around dragging those two introverts around to see the booths and being uber happy about it by flailing about because of the prettyness ( "Weddings! I love weddings! Drinks all around!" )