On Wednesday I took a picture of the concrete slabs. I had to keep stopping mid-picture, because people kept walking by, and I didn`t want anyone knowing what I was doing, since it is a SECRET investigation. They would have gotten suspicious seeing me standing there trying to photograph the phenomenon, I`m sure, and reported it to their authorities. I know this site is being watched; otherwise, why would it have a fence surrounding it!

Yesterday Lacy told me about another phenomenon: that of the Canadians`apparent animosity towards the United States. There are, of course, different ways of saying things in the English language depending on which country you go to. Well, the other day one of her friends was talking to her, telling her how long he has been studying French. "Since grade 8," he said, "which would be 8TH GRADE, to you, but WE don`t say it like THAT." Lacy said that she was very confused: grade 8? That works the same as 8th grade. Apparently they don`t know that. Another example: she and a partner, while researching a project on the internet, found an article talking about Canada`s recent victories at the Olympics in hockey. The article stated:"Canada wins the gold in the Olympics, beating the Czechs. Canada also be the U.S. 5-2." "Uh, whats the point of that last little bit, it doesn`t seem to belong there?" she wondered out loud. Her friend answered something like,"Cause its a big deal. We beat the U.S.!"
Okay........

Emperor`s New Groove quote of the day:
"The peasant! At the diner!..........he didn`t pay his check............................."--Kronk

Well, I have decided to try and just type correctly, cause it takes some time to edit. Anyways, I saw another mind-boggling object on this campus. It`s a bunch of concrete slabs, all lined up in orderly fashion, lying on the grass outside of one of the classroom buildings. There is a make-shift fence surrounding these blocks. I am going to take a picture today and investigate. I need to get to the bottom of this mystery. It is now my goal to answer my questions: "What are these blocks for? For what purpose were they put there? Why is there a fence surrounding them, and why, more importantly, are they arranged in such a manner? Is there some sort of message being communicated, and to whom is it being communicated?" So many questions, yet so few answers. Don`t worry, I will be careful. Its gonna take some sneakin' around....I will keep you updated on my investigations.

Emperor`s New Groove dialogue of the day:
Kronk-"Mission accomplished."
Angel-"You`re not just gonna let him die like that are you?"
*Poof!*
Kronk-"My shoulder angel!"
Devil-"Don`t listen that guy..." *Poof!* "...he`s tryin' to lead you down the path of righteousness. I`M gonna lead you down the path that ROCKS!"

hee hee hee.

Hello my lovely little munchkins. In case you haven`t noticed, the postings are all messy and then, miraculously, the next day they are nice and polilshed! That`s cause I edit them folks. Yep, that`s right, strange as it sounds.

Yeah, I don`t know what I`m talkin about. I do know that I am homesick. Very much.

I have forgotten several homework things in class lately and I sit there and I don`t know what to say because I have to say it in French and the teacher and all the students are looking at me, trying to understand, and I`m like, "Je.....ne.....sais....pas!" (translation: "I don`t know!") But you gotta make it flow....its gotta be like "Jehne sais-pah!" Yeah, like that. Soft "g". Good. Good job. Ha, one of our sentences today in my phonetics class was "Non, non, et non!" Try to guess what that means.

You know, today I am recalling one of my good friend`s home made movies..."Somethings in the Air." I seem to do that whenever I say, "Yup, that`s right folks." Those of you who know this incredible movie know the friend I`m talking about. Mandy Moo! You all should see that movie sometime. It's going to New Line Cinema in 2005, I think.

Guess what? I have another random 'memoire.' It goes a little somethin' like this....

When I reached the seventh grade and started the swim team, I realized that the hair on my legs was getting kind of noticeable. The other girls my age were starting to shave, so one day I asked my mom if I could shave, ya know, if she could teach me. Um.....she freaked out!!! She started yelling at me and told me I didn`t need to, and she stormed outside with me to ask my father if this would be okay. My dad`s response? "Yeah, sure, hun, why don`t you teach her?" (This was after my mom said with much anger in her voice,"Nicholette thinks she needs to shave her legs. What do you think about that!?") So she showed me. I`ve been shaving ever since.

Okay, I cracked myself up with that but I don`t know how funny the rest of you will find it.

Emperor`s New Groove quote of the day:
"If you would have just taken me through the forest in the first place we all could have been spared your little KISS OF LIFE...."-Kuzco, while drying off after a trip through a "Raging river of death!"

Hello! I don`t have much to talk about today (since it has only been about 18 hours since I was last in the lab and posted) but I think I have a new section I would like to add besides the Emperor`s New Groove quote of the day and your french lessons. It is called, "Odd memories." Why? Because (as Joe Zickafoose himself has noted) for some reason, the shower is the place to recall those weird remembrances you would otherwise never recall. For Joe, its things that made you angry years ago, and you feel like it just happened. For me, although it includes those types of memories sometimes, most of the time it is just random stuff. Yesterday, I remembered this:

When I was in second grade I was one of the best spellers in my class (a position held in high regard back in elementary school; alas, now, not so much) and one day we were going over words we had just learned how to spell. We stumbled upon "vegetable" and when my teacher asked me how I remembered how to spell it, I said something like,"Its easy! You just take 'vege' (yeah, yeah, i didn`t know how to spell 'veggie') and 'table' and put them together!" "Good job Nicholette!" ??????? yeah, weird. This actually happened. More to come soon.......

Andy, if you ever read this, you have good taste in music. You too Phil. Introduce me to more stuff when I get back!

Emperor`s New Groove quote of le jour:
"Are you kiddin' me-this is hand-carved mahoghany!" -Kronk, when Izma tells him to break the door down
(yeah I don`t know how to spell "mahoghany" either, I don`t think. Give me a break! It was in second grade that I spelled good!)

Hello everybody!!! Can you believe I got to enter the lab during the weekend without the card!? (We have to usually buy this ten dollar card to enter the lab). Well, I did!!! Here`s a couple funny tidbits about the university here (or perhaps just Canada in general...)
There are lots of groundhogs here. They are like the squirrels at SMS. There is a little family of four that lives outside this window on my way to one of five different wings of my pavillon (residence hall building). They get fed by students every day. I walk by and they`re feasting on loaves of bread, cabbage, carrots; you name it. I stare in shock and wonder at the pieces of food dribbling from their rodent mouths....I`M hungry!!! I`M the one who needs food!!! Why are these people doing this! They are ruining the little groundhog`s natural environment or habits or whatever you wanna call it! Its just wrong. I have decided to take a nice photograph of the ADORABLE little groundhogs to show all my pals when I return from this strange country....

You know vending machines? Okay, well, that`s good. That`s a good basis for my next story. Alright, so there`s this vending machine in my dorm for ice cream thing-a-ma-jiggers. I went to it the other day and put in my money, pressed the buttons for my order, and voila!! This light turns on and you can see a mini freezer (similar to the ones you set on the floor in your garage) open up and a suction rod floats over to the section with your selection (like one of those toy claw machines at walmart), sinks down, the vacuum cleaner turns on and sucks up your food and then moves back to the front to drop it down on a nice, fuzzy pad at the bottom. But don`t get me wrong. This machine looks like something they would have come up with in the 50s. Its like, a makeshift vending machine. I swear someone put it together in their garage! Anyways, when that light came on and I got to see the dazzling way the vacuum transported my sweet, I laughed out loud.

I bought the Jimmy Eat World cd today and am loving it, of course. I have wanted it for a while but didn`t know if I wanted to spend my money on that and not somethin' else. Well, it was worth it. I`ve been wanting these tunes. Unfortunately there was no section with Christian, anglophone music, or else I would have searched for a Waterdeep cd. I also have been recently playing the guitar 'till my fingers feel like the little callouses that have formed are going to pop and blood is gonna spurt everywhere. Boy, did I just have a lot of trouble trying to type "everywhere"! Anyways, cool huh! (not that I can`t type, but that my fingers are gonna bleed).

God has been being good to me the past couple days, lettin' me know that I have people that love me. I got into it with my mom (about my relationship with God, as is the usual topic that ruins us) the other night and I hung up on her this time instead of her hangin' up on me. Nice. I felt worthless most of the night, cause I just know how wrong that was.

Okay, my Emperor`s New Groove quote of the day:
"My face! My beautiful face!!! waaa haa haa, llaaaama face!!"

your french lesson for today?
uriner-to urinate
as in...."Votre chien viens d'uriner sur mon sac-a-dos!!!"
"Your dog just urinated on my back pack!!!"
Au revoir, folks