Summer ☀ Camp

Summer camp will be desperately lonely this year.


          ...Okay, that's an exaggeration. Because that's what I thought last year, yet I made dozens of friends in zero time at all. I'm sure it'll be the same this year...right?


Last summer, I was "forced" to go to summer camp. It was an all-girls camp, no electricity, no flush-able toilets, on an island in cottage country for two weeks.
Best time of my life.

There's something about being sorted into a tent with three random strangers who will be listening to you snore for the next 14 nights that instantly makes you kindred spirits. 

There was M, the perky one who'd been to the camp once or twice before; B, the party girl from the city, and E, the stylish redhead from London, England. In about two days, we were all really close. 
I think it was only the second or third day when the four of us went on a canoe trip. Meaning paddling for hours to an even more remote island with only a sleeping bag, a toothbrush and a barrel of food, accompanied by a grouchy canoe-tripper who thinks he's the God of Building Things out of Driftwood and our wonderful counsellor, F.

By the end of that experience- tiny tents that refused to work without duct tape, toilets in the middle of pitch-black woods, stargazing, skinny-dipping, overly spiced chili courtesy of Monsieur Tripper, lack of toothpaste, fear of bears, sun-tanning, water-purification, campfires and lizards- we were practically best friends. 

Yet, this year, I'm alone once again. E and her fabulously quirky sister K are staying in London, while B, her fantastically fun sister C, and M are "probably not coming". 
Which leaves me, in my last year of camp, feeling even lonelier than I did last year.


But no worries, because I'm sure to have a blast all over again. 

pancakes & syrup,

Gorgeous Quebec ☾ity

Last year, my class went on our long-awaited trip to Quebec City. It is one of my favourite. Places. On. Earth. O_O
This was nearly a whole year ago now, but I recently edited a few of my fave photos, and it made me nostalgic all over again. So, here they are!

a dramatic photo I took on the bus...I remember my friends asking me "Why are you taking a photo of a 

signpost?" But they all know I'm the paparazzo of the group, so they left me alone to my photo frenzy :)

I really like this one. This was our first night in Quebec City; it was rainy, foggy and wet, but we were just having too much fun. There was a fountain nearby that was overflowing, and we walked passed a mime-type guy dressed up as a hanged man. Everyone ran up to him and asked him things like, "Why are you dressed like that?" To which he replied, "I'm dead." "Why are you dead?" "I was hanged." And so on. He was very quiet, and just sort of wandered away. The whole night was very surreal, and what with all the fog and cobblestone streets and running around, it was all one very happy, very damp blur.

The whole trip was actually pretty rainy. I ended up ruining my camera by using it in the rain all the time, which was really stupid of me, so after the trip I had to wait four lonnnggg months before the company sent me a new one. :\

 

here's the gorgeous town square that we went to on the one sunny day. I love this photo; it always reminds me how strangely wonderful it was to be standing in history. Which is perfect for me, because I practically live in the past. :)

A while ago, I saw a photo of the exact same buildings on Google Images. That really ticked me off, but I like to think that my photo's prettier cause of all the colourful flowers! 

my friend V (I call her Pooka), who knows random facts about everything, told me later that 'Bistro' comes from the Russian word for "hurry" or "faster", because when the Russians went through France they sort of raided the cafes, telling them to hurry up (Bistro! Bistro!) with their food.

Ohohoho, and here I thought "Bistro" was such an elegant word! :3

I made Pooka pose for me, cause this alleyway was just to pretty a photo to pass up >.<

I hope she doesn't care that I posted this...

this is Louis some-number-or-other, the "Sun King". Yes, he was quite full of himself -_-

a pretty fountain by the falls (I'm not sure what the waterfall was called...). Everyone got mad at me because I was just standing there obliviously, taking photos of this fountain while unknowingly holding everyone up as well. Ahahaha, typical me.

this was our shopping day, when it was raining again and we just drove the bus around to different shopping districts. I thought this building- like every single other thing in the city- was pretty, so I took a quick snapshot. The bus was moving, so it's quite blurry. But still...I like it :)

So there are some samplings of our wonderful trip. <3

On the very last night, we all boarded a ship with a bunch of other kids and danced the night away. It was absolutely. Glorious. No doubt about it, I am moving to Quebec City some day. Because I felt so at home, and so alive.

*Cue inspiring end-credits music*

... Actually, just listen to the first song on my music playlist (see bottom of page) to feel incredibly uplifted in a very cheesy way. XP  

love love love,

❧Ponyo, Cake and Ice Cream

*sighhhhh.*

It's 6:00 pm and I'm still in my PJ's. Ah, well, at least it's a long weekend...meaning I don't have to do my homework 'till Monday! Hooray :D


It's a lazy, lazy day. Mr. Sun is avoiding me. I think he's mad at me for spending most of yesterday (which was gorgeous) inside. 
I went to a party at my neighbours' last night. It was their oldest son, who just turned eleven. I love them all; they're like family to me. The middle child- he's eight- makes me laugh more than should be healthy! He has a Spanish accent and says & does the funniest things... After the birthday boy cut the cake, the middle brother yelled, "Everybody party!" and popped open a bottle of Coke, which proceeded to overflow. Ah, I love this strange family ^_^
Afterwards, we all curled up and watched Ponyo, the new anime film from Hayao Miyazaki, the master of beautiful storytelling.♥

above: a charming scene from Ponyo!

Their mother, G, who is close enough to me to be my aunt, gave me these wonderfully eccentric bracelets that she knew I would like. They are ultimate Garu:

They're so cuh-yoooot! 

Anyways, I hope you all have a great weekend! Tell me one of your favourite birthday stories! 

kisses & hugs,

✿ Spring is in the Air ✿

...Can you feel it? That anticipation in the air? That, my friends, is MONSIEUR SPRING! Hon, hon, oui oui! :3

I love spring. Lovelovelove it! :D And not just because my birthday's in April, either... exactly a week from today, in fact! Today in health class our teacher let us girls walk around the neighbourhood instead of learning about conflict resolution. An what a gorgeous sight we beheld! The sun was shining (it was that perfect springy temperature), the birds were serenading us...We were like a big group of sisters as we skipped down the street, brought together by the loveliness of spring! We all danced past the Catholic school...all the uniformed kids looked pretty envious of us kids, dressed in whatever the heck we wanted, running loose during school hours.
We walked through the Heritage District of town, filled with those 150-year-old brick houses, and blossoming magnolia trees sending a sweet scent into the breeze. How rejuvenating! It's times like these that I truly love my town.

In music class, we watched School of Rock :) Coolest movie ever; if you haven't seen it, you haven't LIVED. (<----exaggeration) Crowd-surfing like Jack Black does is on my list of things to do before I die. Totally.

Today was Stay Silent for Gay Rights day (I'm not actually sure what it's called). You stay completely silent for the entire day to support gay rights. I'm totally for gay, lesbian, and bisexual rights... but, of course, chatterbox that I am, I couldn't bear to keep quiet for so long. :\  One of my friends did, though, and we drove him crazy for the rest of the day. ("Hey, E, which band is better, Silverstein or McFly? If you don't say anything, it's McFly.") Ohohoho, the times we had.

Leave me a comment about one of your favourite Spring Stories!
Crocuses and Magnolias,

✿Garu

Quote on a Building :)

✮ Welcome ✮

Hey there, Bloggers! Garu, here, nice ta meetcha! For those of you who don't know (aka all of you), this is a continuation of my old blog, which for some reason has disappeared from my account -_- It consisted of basically nothing anyways, so no worries. But if you wanna see it, click here!

So, here we are. It's another one of my hundred blogs. Hopefully, unlike the other 99, this one doesn't get abandoned. So follow me or comment: I need encouragement!

It's spring here in Canada... the blossoms are blossoming, the buds are budding... the birds are waking me up at five am. Ahhh, all is well with the world :3 I love crocus flowers the best. They're so pretty!I'm sitting on my front porch  as we speak, and I smell barbecue! ♥
Whelp, that's about it!

...Love you all, and stay tuned!

Kisses,

✯Garu