Back from a long hiatus

So, its been awhile since i've written here. Its been 4 months since I returned to Canada, to Montreal, and I guess I kinda let things here take over, leading me to neglect certain things.

It's January now. One year ago I was writing this blog in Copenhagen and France. Now, Montreal, starting my last semester at Concordia university. Its a pretty exciting thought actually, to know that this phase in my life will be over in the near future. Exciting and scary, because I don't really know what I'll be doing 5 months from now...

As many of you know, I've applied for a job with the Department of Foreign Affairs. I wrote a series of tests, which I think I've done pretty well on and am now awaiting word from the department as to whether I've made it past the first round.

Although I am really eager and hopeful that this job will come through, I am planning for the eventuality that it doesn't work. I've begun preparing a few applications for grad school, at the University of Ottawa and the University of Waterloo for studies related to International Affairs and Public Policy.

I don't want to give the impression that school and thoughts of my future are the only thing going on in my life (even if they may dominate my thoughts quite often). I am really enjoying my time here in Montreal. I'm living in a huge house with a bunch of really cool roommates. We are very diverse, studying everything from civil engineering to fine arts. We cook, watch movies and play scrabble together quite often. The house is just 10 minutes walk from my campus, so its quite ideal in terms of commuting time. It was really nice to come back to Montreal and have a place like this, with an instant group of friends and life partners.

I'm keeping busy with a bunch of other stuff too. Work part-time, volunteering organizing a sustainable business conference (http://sustainable.concordia.ca/ourinitiatives/sbc/).

I've also been keeping pretty active with winter sports and the gym. Right at the end of last semester, just before heading back to Toronto, my friend Clinton and his girlfriend Amanda came up for a day of snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. It just so happens that this coincided with a huge blizzard that dropped 40cms of snow during the day. I remember at one point, on the very last run of the day, being literally blown uphill by the power of the wind. Scary stuff! but intensely fun... :)

My christmas break was very nice. I hadn't had a lot of time to spend with my family and friends in Toronto after my return to Toronto from Europe, so three weeks in T.O. were definitely nice. My sister Kim is now pregnant, 5 months in, so it was really nice to see how she's doing. She seems to be handling it all pretty well, excited about the arrival of a new baby girl in 4 months. Her boyfriend Paul is also very excited, which assuages my fears of him not being there to help me out. My mom and other sister beth are also doing well.

I spent a lot of time going for dinners/lunches/ etc with friends that I hadn't seen in a long time. Although I spent a whole bunch of money that I didn't really have on all this revelry, it was definitely well worth it.

Anyhow, I feel im rambling, so ill end it here. I hope that I can keep this up in the next few months.