Nick Lazzarini is amazing. Simply amazing...

I just finished watching So You Think You Can Dance, and I was absolutely AMAZED at Nick's dancing. My jaw literally dropped when he did those fouettes and pirouettes (for the non-dancers out there, those are turns). And those leaps! Oh. My. Gosh. If this guy does not win the competition, the show is a failure.

I'm always amazed at talented male dancers. Especially ballet, jazz, flamenco, latin, or ballroom dancers. Male hip-hop dancers are common, but it's so rare to see a talented male dancer in other forms of dance. I'm used to seeing girls dance so it's nothing big to me, but when I see a guy dancing extremely well, I'm in awe. Dance is considered a girlie thing in our culture so a lot of guys won't get into it and go for sports instead. Well, I personally think that a real man will not be embarassed to get into dance - it takes a lot of guts to do it in our culture and if a guy is secure enough in his manhood to go for it despite the criticism from close-minded people who think dance is a girlie thing, in my eyes he's a lot more man than any jock. Listen up guys - REAL MEN DANCE!

Anyway, enough about dance... When I was at work today eating lunch, an old friend showed up - George Marshall! He's back from McGill and is working at the same place as me now (though in a different program). I haven't seen him in 3 and a half years! The last time I saw him was when we met up in Montreal before I went off to Sweden in January 2003. And at Mass last Sunday at the Chaplaincy Centre, I saw Natalie Gallant for the first time in 3 and a half years! Now she has a little boy who's a toddler, and he reminds me of Albert - the toddler from my host family in Germany. Such a little cutie - blond hair and blue eyes, and very energetic. Noah (Natalie's son) was wandering around while Father Charlie was saying his homily, but it was so cute that no one was bothered by it. I sang with the music ministry again and hope to continue. I don't think I'll be able to this weekend because my shift at work ends at 8, but any other time that I can, I want to sing at Mass.

Anyway, I should finish telling my WYD adventures... Here's what we did on Friday:

At first we thought we'd have to pick between shopping and going to the chocolate factory, but in the end we got to do both! We started off by shopping, and I bought a funky WYD shirt, a long white gauzy skirt with beads and embroidery on it, and some funky accessories - an ankle bracelet with bells on it, and a beaded purse (Sara-Sour commented on it "That is so Amelie!" and she's right! I love sparkly beaded stuff). I also got souvenirs and a nutcracker. I already have one, but since the nutcracker story originated in Germany, I just had to buy one there! I couldn't find a real one that can crack nuts, so I got a decorative one. When I asked the cashier if I could crack nuts with it, I'm guessing she couldn't understand much English because she shook the box and in broken English said that it wasn't broken. A few of us also went for ice cream and walked around in the WYD excitement.

Later, we went to the chocolate factory. Our tour was scheduled to be in the afternoon but we couldn't do it because that was when we had our Way of the Cross planned, so we went in the morning. The whole place smelled like chocolate so that gave me cravings (hey I'm a girl, what did you expect?!). There were displays on the history of chocolate - it originated with the Aztecs in Central America, and later became popular in Europe. One thing in particular that I remember reading in one of the displays made me laugh - it was about chocolate being an aphrodisiac. A French king (I think it was one of the Louis, but I can't remember which one) had 2 mistresses - one was "cold as a dead duck" and ate chocolate to get herself in the mood. The other one was "insatiable" and fed chocolate to her lovers to get them in the mood... Later, we saw actual chocolate-making machines - one of them was a huge complicated machine and its only purpose was to shape chocolate balls! We also saw some workers pouring chocolate into a mold shaped like the Dom, and I was like "Oompa-loompas!" But we never saw Willy Wonka... I ate a few raw cocoa beans and some samples from the chocolate tree. That tree had a chocolate fountain - the oompa-loompas dipped wafers in them and handed them out to everyone. I loved them so much that I ate 3! I am now convinced that the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden was the cocoa bean... Later, we went to the gift shop and splurged on chocolates. I bought 2 bags of small chocolates, and a little box of gummi bears (I think gummi candies originated in Germany). Then, while we were waiting outside, I started talking to a little old nun from the USA and she asked me if I ever thought of becoming a sister. I myself have thought about it in the past but I don't think it's my vocation. But I told her to pray for a friend of mine who is thinking about it. Later, my group went back to the hostel to drop off our stuff before going for the Way of the Cross.

In case it rained, Naomi lent me a poncho she had and in the end I was very grateful. All morning, the weather was nice and sunny, but soon after we started our WotC, it would start raining off and on, and it would even pour sometimes. It didn't get me down at first though. The readings were great - Father Gerard did an awesome job! And when we sang "Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom" it reminded me of the WotC that my friends and I did as a fundraiser to get there. I'm sure they felt the same too. We walked along the Rhine as we did our pilgrimage, and sometimes the locals would stop and watch us. But not with disdain, they seemed interested in what we were doing. When we arrived in town, the area around the Dom was overcrowded. That, along with the rain, started to wear me down. We had to stand in huge crowds in the rain waiting to get into the Dom and eventually I was so worn out that I just wanted to go in, walk out, and then go back to the hostel to rest. My store of strength and energy was depleted, and the chaperones noticed too. When we walked into the Dom, I felt a little better but still worn out and wanted to leave. The cathedral itself is beautiful with all its carvings, statues, stained glass windows, etc, and we got to see the golden box with the relics. When we approached the adoration chapel, I was still worn out and was expecting to just walk in, walk out, and still be tired. I wondered if the Blessed Sacrament would be exposed, and someone said probably not since there were so many people. But when I went into the chapel, something amazing happened...

The Blessed Sacrament was exposed, and seeing it made me feel calmer. People were kneeling on the floor, worshipping, and I was fortunate enough to get to the kneeler directly in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I was puzzled to not see anyone on it since it was a prime spot, but I don't know, maybe Jesus wanted me to take that spot? I kneeled down and said a prayer. Something I noticed is that every other time before that, kneeling on hard wood made my knees ache and I always had to sit down after a short time because the pain would distract me from my prayers. But this time, I wasn't in pain at all. I could have stayed kneeling there for hours and never feel any soreness. When I finished my prayer, I sat back on my heels, and felt that my strength and energy was being restored. When I had entered the chapel, it was depleted and I thought I couldn't go on any longer, and now I was getting a refill. Some skeptics would probably say "it's just because you got to sit and relax after a long time" but I think that even simple biological reactions like this contain the presence of God. I left the chapel energized and felt I could go on with the rest of the pilgrimage.

When we left the Dom, we saw some people buying and selling the Pope bracelets - the yellow/white ones with John Paul II, Be Not Afraid, and Benedict XVI on them. Then, the rain started again and this time it was pouring hard. We found refuge under a bypass and stayed until the rain stopped. Then, my friends and I, along with Father G and Phyllis decided to go to a nearby restaurant for supper. Funny moment - the waiter, who didn't speak much English, was trying to translate the menu for us, and described something as "garbage salad". We laughed our heads off, and figured he meant GARDEN salad. I ordered ribs and they were delicious. The fries were great too. The waiter tried to push us into getting beer, but because of the no-alcohol rule, we had to decline. But then the waiter brought 2 glasses of "the best beer in Germany" - one for himself and another for Father G. Father G wouldn't drink it, so in the end we made Neal drink it (Don't deny it Neal, I have a picture to prove it!). It was his first time drinking a glass of beer! He didn't finish it though, he only drank 3 quarters, and I finished the last quarter. But I was sipping it like how I normally drink wine, so everyone was like "don't drink it like that, chug it!" and Amy tipped the glass to make me chug it. We had a lot of laughs at that dinner...

Then, we went to a mini-mall where Martina and I bought umbrellas. We didn't know if it would rain the next day for our big pilgrimage to Marienfield, so we wanted to be prepared. I just bought a small cheap umbrella, but Martina got a fancy one with a cool picture of a painting on it. When we went back to the hostel, Father G and Ryan started singing Irish songs and made us all laugh. When we got back to the hostel we got cleaned up and had a group meeting and Joe asked us about times today when we saw God. I talked about my experience in the chapel at the Dom and after the meeting was over, Terry commented that he had noticed that I was exhausted before going it and thought that what I said was beautiful. Joe also said that if anyone wants to go to a Taize prayer service, he can take us there. At first, my head was saying "no don't go, you need to sleep, you have a long day tomorrow" but my heart was saying "go, you'll love it and you won't regret it." In the end, I decided to go, and I'm glad I went.

Joe, a bunch of the chaperones, along with me, Amy, and a few others, went to Taize. We took the subway to get there and it wasn't near as crowded as usual since it was night. We had a lot of laughs on the way over, those chaperones can be the funniest people when they're not trying to keep huge groups together! When we arrived at the little church, there were people outside with candles, singing Taize hymns and our mood got quieter. But quiet in a good way. The service was absolutely breathtaking. I had never heard these hymns in particular before, and I fell in love with them right away. Many of them were in French, and the words were so beautiful that I couldn't help but totally feel them. I am so glad that I went to that service, and the others in my group who went, felt the same way. So, I missed out on a few hours of sleep, that didn't matter to me at all. It was totally worth it.

So You Think You Can Dance - great eye candy for the girls, and great dancing for all

Grrr... Artem got voted off on So You Think You Can Dance. Which is very unfortunate because he's one of my faves. So now we won't be seeing any of his hot dancing anymore. But I did find a video that shows a clip of his solo. He's at the end - the guy with his shirt open doing the fancy footwork, right after the black guy doing the moonwalk. In the partner dances, he's the one doing the chacha with the girl in blue and the foxtrot with the same girl (except she's in a long black dress). But do remember that, to get the full effect of his swoon-enducing solo, you have to watch the whole thing, with the music he used. Plus you have to be female too (sorry guys!). The video clip does not show the whole thing, nor does it use the right music, but that's all I could find!

I find on that show, in general the guys have been more impressive than the girls. Melody's leg thing is getting old, and Kamilah isn't that great. Ashle is good, but sometimes reminds me too much of Britney Spears. Now I'm rooting for Nick. He is amazing, he reminds me of Charlie (Sascha Radetsky) from Center Stage. Jamile is cool, but he's only impressive in hip-hop. He got stuck with ballroom pretty much every week, and while he was a good sport about it and was able to pull it off, he can't compare to the other guys still in the competition. Blake is an awesome dancer too, and when he danced his solo, I was like "Whoo! Take yer shirt off!" when he literally tore his shirt off in the middle of his flip. That was hot, but I was more impressed with his actual dancing - awesome technique.

Anyway, enough about the dance show, most of my week has been a normal regular week. I bought a pair of dance sneakers and they're awesome. I went to Mass at the Chaplaincy Centre and sang with the music ministry. After Mass, Terence and I started playfighting again after I made him jealous by talking about the Italian boys at WYD, and when I tried to choke him from behind, he grabbed my wrists and pulled me onto his shoulder, turned me around to do the fireman's carry, then lifted me up pas-de-deux-style. Terence, you gotta get into dance!

Anyway, that's all for now, I need to go to sleep...

Grrr... Rexy shoulda won...

Well, Melissa O'Neil won Idol. Rex should have won, Melissa is a bore. But some people think the show is fixed - apparently last night during the voting, the phone lines for Rex went down in a lot of places where he has a big fanbase. I was able to vote for him just fine but in the CI forums on their website, a lot of Newfies spoke out about the phone problem and some think that the producers did it on purpose. Well, either way, Rex will always be better than Melissa and will go far in music. Ryan Malcolm was the first Idol and he ended up being nothing more than a one-hit wonder. Sure technique is important, but passion and character are also important to me in a performer and Rex has a lot more passion and character than Melissa.

I also watched So You Think You Can Dance, and the one thing that stands out in my mind about tonight's episode was Artem's solo. He ended up in the bottom 2 (what were the judges thinking? He's amazing!) but when he did his solo to convince voters to keep him in the show, he sizzled on the dance floor like no one else I've ever seen on the show. He better not get voted out because his dance was the performance of the night. Only 45 seconds long, but what a hot 45 seconds it was! When I wasn't practically drooling over him, I was like "Whooo! Take yer shirt off!" He did a sexy number to "Don't phunk with my heart" and I stared at amazement at his amazing footwork and the passion he obviously felt for dance. When he was smooth, he was SMOOOOOOOOTH. And when he was hot, he was HOT HOT HOT! Not only that, but there's just something about a gorgeous guy with a dancer's body in black jazz pants, nice shoes and with his shirt open David Bisbal style... Hoooboy *faints*

Anyway, enough about reality tv. Tap dance class was fun and tomorrow I have my voice lesson. Other than that, I've mostly been working and doing regular stuff. I still have sore legs from dance during the past 2 days. Still trying to figure out what to do after January - stay home with family, friends, Church, dance, music, theatre, and other things I love here, or leave it all behind for a few months to go off to Spain for another big adventure. Anyway, I should go now, I need to sleep.

Sexy Rexy for Idol! And more on WYD...

Just watched Canadian Idol. Here are my thoughts on their final performances and who I thought was best:

Melissa O'Neil - Same ol', same ol'. Good technique and emoting, but she didn't really impress me much. She doesn't really have enough personality, she's like the regular pop girlies we always see. I think personality and natural charisma are important for a performer, and she seems too "manufactured" for me. I love the outfits she wore though, especially that blue corset top.

Rex Goudie - He's my choice for Idol. He nailed every song he sang tonight, and his version of the Idol song was my favorite. I'm not into rock, but I'm into the rock he sings. Good voice and he's got charisma. He's such a stereotypical Canadian guy - wears a ball cap, loves hockey, sings rock music, etc. But he plays that image so well because it's who he is. He's not manufactured, he's being himself and showing us how he sings best. Not to mention there's also a reason why his nickname is Sexy Rexy! But even if he weren't a cutie, I'd still be rooting for him.

Rex Goudie for Idol!

Something else I noticed is that at some camera angles, Rex kinda looks like Dreamboat. Except he's a lot cuter than Dreamboat... I haven't seen DB since July, I saw him at the Festival of Lights but we just looked at each other and kept on walking. That DB was a real charmer. When he attempted to seduce me, he was such a typical dreamboat - held my hand as we were walking, talked about philosophy (he was a philosphy major) and he even carried me over a mud puddle. Swept me off my feet he did, literally! Though he was a good kisser, his little seduction plan didn't work out because I'm not that kind of person, but he still seemed to want to see me again. All my friends warned me about him but I was too crazy about him to take their warnings seriously. In the end, his ex took him back (she had dumped him earlier because he had cheated on her), he broke my heart and it took me a long while to get over it. But I've heard from Neal that for a few months, DB was homeless by his own will and lived in a tent on the Confederation Trail. If I were still crazy about him, I'd be thinking "Wow, such a mysterious guy... I want to be a part of his little mystery world..." But now I'm like "Heh, what a lunatic".

I went to dance class today. Jazz was cool, but the class is very small this year. However, Julia said that some of the people from other classes might join ours so there might be more people coming in the next few weeks. But I also like having a small class - more individual attention to students, and more time dancing since we don't have to wait our turn as long when doing stuff across the floor. I might buy jazz sneakers too since some of the stuff we're learning is very hip-hop-ish. Modern was nice too, though we had class in the crappy studio at the Mack. The rehearsal hall at the Confed Centre is booked for the Anne show for the next few weeks so we're stuck at the one at the Mack - neon lighting, sticky dirty floor, and not much space to move. But we'll be back at the Confed Centre later.

I ran into Father Jim in town, in between my dance classes. He says he went to Holland for a week after WYD. Which makes me think of my Dutch friends and all the good times we had in Sweden. I do want to go to Holland too someday and see them again. I didn't get the chance during WYD because we were so busy all the time and never had time for visiting other people. I didn't even have time to check my e-mail or make phone calls! I wanted to call Tomato and maybe meet up since she lives close to Cologne but I ended up never having the time. There were always huge line-ups for the phone, and I had no time for that. Especially since the only time we had a chance to use the phone was at the hostel in the evenings, and I was busy getting stuff ready for the next day, and then after I was done I was so tired from all the day's excitement that all I could do was crash.

More on WYD!

On Thursday, we woke up earlier because we didn't want to deal with the subway crowds on the way to catechesis. Our strategy worked because we got the first train that arrived after we got to the station, and it wasn't crowded at all. The speaker at catechesis that day was the Archbishop of Halifax. It was cool to have someone close to home. Maria got sick, so Maureen had to take her back to the hostel. Renee was also sick that day. Actually, every single day in our group, at least one person got sick and at least one of those had to go to the hospital. We heard there was a flu going around so we all started to worry and think "who's next?". But luckily, I never got sick (though I did get mild cold symptoms later that evening, it wasn't enough to be considered illness). After catechesis, we went to the RhineEnergie Stadium to view the arrival of the Pope. We were supposed to go see it at the Rhine, because the Pope was arriving on a cruise there, but the chaperones decided we'd go to the stadium to watch it on tv instead. It was disappointing because I wanted to see it at the Rhine but we weren't allowed to leave the group so I went along because I had to. On the way over, the groups got separated because of all the crowds. Me, Tina, and a few others got to the stadium and got our tickets to get in, but we couldn't find anyone. There were lots of people there, but it wasn't totally packed. There were a lot of people in the middle of the stadium running around with their flags, and I wanted to be there running too, but we weren't allowed to leave our section. But later, we saw the rest of our group up in a higher section so we tried to get their attention. When it finally worked, we left, got tickets for that section (tickets were free), then went up to join them. We watched Pope Benny come in on the cruise and it was cool. Another cool thing I noticed was the arc of light on the windows over the stadium. I think it was designed to do that, but I thought it was beautiful. It reminded me of the rainbow we saw at the Mass in the Diocese of Fulda. Ryan was laying across several seats and sleeping. We ended up having to leave early because some people complained that they were tired.

So we went back to the hostel, ate supper, then later I heard there was a dance party going on in the hostel so I decided to check it out. There weren't that many people and I wasn't into the music, but it was cool. There were some guys breakdancing and they were awesome. But I was tired from the long day we had, so I didn't stay too long. Later, I found out that some people in my group had gotten kicked out of the dance by our chaperones because they were the ones who had complained of being tired during the Pope's arrival. The chaperones figured "If you were too tired for the Pope's arrival, you're definitely too tired for the party." In a way, I agree. I myself like partying and dancing, but I'm not going to skip the religious aspect for the parties. We had come for World Youth Day, and the rest is just icing on the cake. At WYD in Rome, I went to dance with the locals out by the pool in the evenings, but I had never skipped the pilgrimage activities during the day. I took the pilgrimage seriously, and allowed myself to enjoy the parties after the day was done. Anyway, I chatted with my roommates and went to bed after leaving the party.

That's it for now, I'll write more later...

More on my World Youth Day adventures...

God bless this guy. People like him give me hope for the world.

Just started Pilates and dance classes today. Pilates was ok, it wasn't really hard-core yet but it should get more challenging later as we learn the techniques and poses. As for dance classes, I had ballet and musical theatre today. The ballet class is huge now, lots of new people, including 2 guys. One of them is Aaron, who was in my jazz class last year, I think he's in high school. The other one is older (at least my age, probably older). Yay for guys in ballet! If only I could get my guyfriends to get into it... (hint hint, guys). The musical theatre class was cool, but really easy. But Julia says it's going to get more challenging. She had to make it easy today because some of the people in it have little or no dance experience. Tomorrow I have jazz and modern, and Wednesday I have tap. Also in October I'm thinking of taking belly dance from Dance Sport Dynamics. The lady from the Book Emporium teaches a few classes and I've wanted to learn belly dance for some time now...

I downloaded Neal's WYD podcast, it's awesome. It's from Wednesday night when a bunch of us went to the Dom after supper and walked around town. Here is what happened on Wednesday at WYD:

We had catechesis in the BayArena in the morning. That day, our group wore our blue t-shirts. After we finally boarded a subway car (many were full), we got to the BayArena and sat in the spectator stands. His Eminence Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from Washington D.C. was doing catechesis and he was awesome. I also learned from a Catholic newspaper that Brother Roger Schutz, the founder of the ecumenical Taize community in France, had been killed the previous night. I hadn't experienced much Taize prayer before World Youth Day, but during my time there I eventually developped a love for it, but that only came later in the week... I met other pilgrims and exchanged more cool stuff with them. Most were from the USA and Canada, but a few also from Britain and even the Middle East (United Arab Emirates). We also had Mass after catechesis, and I noticed that when the priests were coming to our section to give us communion, the bowls they had, had a clear cover on it that kinda reminded me of tupperware containers. I thought it was a little amusing, but quite practical, because we wouldn't want the wind to blow the hosts away... I also checked into the Events guidebook in our pilgrim packs, and there were a few that I wanted to see - dance shows, musicals, etc. My friends decided they wanted to go see Jesus Christ Superstar in Bonn so after leaving the BayArena I decided to go with them.

We walked to some place close to the BayArena and ate lunch at Subway there. Brenda also wanted to bring a few people to Jesus Christ Superstar but my friends and I ended up going on our own. The only problem was, the right bus never came. We waited for a long time, then decided to take the subway instead but it was too late, the show started at 5:00pm and it was almost that time. So we decided to go to the Dom (the Cologne Cathedral) and explore the area instead. Ryan took an awesome picture of my flag flying in the wind with the sun shining through it. I also met other pilgrims and continued exchanging stuff. I was known in my group as someone who loved trading nick-nacks and I remember once a few days earlier, Neal had said "by the end of this week, you are going to get the chalice that the Pope drinks from!". Anyway, we met up an hour later to got back to the hostel for supper, but I didn't feel ready to leave. Being in town among so many other pilgrims was exhilerating for me and I didn't want that to end yet. But my friends wouldn't let me stay in town alone (even if they knew I could handle it) so I ended up having to go back to the hostel for supper. At the hostel, I took a much-needed shower, changed into nicer clothes, and ate supper with my friends. I think we either ate pasta or schnitzel that night, I can't remember... Either way, one night at the hostel we had schnitzel and boiled potatoes, and it was delicious. I loved it so much that I went for seconds on both the schnitzel and potatoes! Anyway, after supper, after I walked out of the cafeteria, I ran into Neal and Rachel and they told me they were going back to town and were waiting for me to come too. So I was happy and jumped at the chance.

I had eaten and taken a shower so I felt much better than I did earlier in the afternoon, so it was great. While we were waiting for the subway, I started tossing my hair around as a joke and making my friends laugh. When we got on the subway, we were surrounded by Spaniard and Latin-Americans from El Salvador who were singing songs and chanting. I chatted with some of them in Spanish. They sang "Sing Alleluia to the Lord" in Spanish (Canta Alleluia al Señor), which I loved because it's one of my favorite religious songs. They also did the famous "Be-nedetto!" chant with the clapping. In previous WYDs, it had been "Giovanni Paolo" (John Paul) instead, now it's Benedetto (Benedict). But they also chanted "Giovanni Paolo", and added "See You in Heaven!" That was beautiful and it made me feel even more energetic. When we left the subway, Neal was podcasting and talked to some random Italian girl who ended up on his podcast.

When we got to the Dom, it was still surrounded by huge crowds, but they didn't bother me. They actually made me feel even more lively and energized, to see so many people there for the same reason - Jesus. We came to worship, just as the Magi did two millenia ago. Martina and I and someone else decided to go shopping, while Neal, Rachel, and Sara-Sour went to an Internet cafe and continued podcasting. While walking around, I chatted with a French guy that Martina found attractive. Later in a souvenir shop I met a guy from Genoa (Italy) who was winking at me while talking. Martina was like "I have to take you out sometime, you're attracting all the guys!" and I said someting like "Hey, we can double-date! You can take the French guy and I'll take the Italian!" We bought a bunch of souvenirs, got ice cream, and walked around town but many shops were closed. We still had a great time though. Later when it was dark and the crowds were thinning out, we went back to the hostel and I felt great because I felt like I didn't miss out on anything that day.

I'll continue on WYD next time...

Rex for Idol!

Grrr... Aaron Walpole got voted out. I wanted Rex and Aaron to be the final 2. Melissa is boring. Next week, I'm rooting for Rex.

I just googled my name for fun and came up with someone's blog that said "Amelie Wong. ew. Don't ruin Sarah McLachlan." From the way this person wrote, I'm guessing it's some teenybopper who kisses her Kalan Porter poster every night. Something I've noticed about the show - sometimes even the best ones mess up on their song. If Rex's second song on the Barenaked Ladies episode had been his audition, they would have shown that in the bloopers and torn it to pieces like they did mine. And Rex turned out to be one of the best on the show. So to anyone who thinks I'm a screw-up because of the one 10-second clip they showed from my entire audition (3 songs) - kiss my ass.

"So You Think You Can Dance" was on after CI, and it was quite interesting. Some of the dancers are amazing - Nick, Artem, Blake. Snow and Ryan are the ones with the most personality and uniqueness. A few weeks ago, Ryan danced salsa and did quite well for someone who has no formal dance training. He's an amazing breakdancer though. Nick reminds me of Charlie from Centre Stage. Jamile ended up stuck with ballroom dance every single time until this week but he managed to pull it off. He's awesome at hip-hop though. One of the pairs did a samba routine that was amazing, but the music sucked. That wasn't samba, that was a rock-samba fusion. I was expecting real samba, not the watered-down crap. I'm not really into the latin-rock fusion music, Shakira is the only one who can pull it off. I prefer real latin music. Though latin-pop fusion can be really good - David Bisbal being the best singer of this music. He only got second place in Spain's Pop Idol show, he should have been the big winner! Well, he's the most successful of all the contestants he competed with, he's famous all over Latin America and won at least one Latin Grammy...

I'm going to be taking voice lessons again this fall! Yay! I've been wanting to get back into it for a while now, and now that I'm out of university I finally have the time for it.

More on WYD:

I think it was on Tuesday night after coming back from the RheinEnergie Stadium that a few of us ended up lost at night in Cologne. Well, we weren't really lost, but it took us forever to get back to the hostel and we had to phone Joe to tell him where we were. It's because first we were hungry but all the restaurants were packed, and second, people were being picky about what to eat. I wanted to eat real food and pointed out a Spanish restaurant right nearby but everyone else wanted fast food so we ended up walking all the way to McDonald's, waiting in a huge lineup, and when we left the place with our take-out bags it was dark out. We took the subway but ended up on the one going in the opposite direction of what we were supposed to take, so we got off at the next station. We met some French guy who had lost his group, and he let us use his cell phone to call Joe. Later, the right subway finally came and sometime during the ride, a few others from our group boarded the train! We were so happy and relieved to see them, but I still felt worried that we might get locked out of the hostel. I can handle being lost in a big city. It's happened to me before and I know what to do. It's getting locked out of the hostel that was worrying me because I didn't want to sleep outside for the night. Later, when we arrived at the hostel, Joe, Father Gerard, and some of the other chaperones were waiting for us and were happy to see us. I mentionned that I had been afraid that we'd get locked out, but Father G said he'd never let that happen to us. What a sweetie, God bless you Father G. We were tired, so we all went right to bed. The next day, we had catechesis, but I'll write more later...

Random tidbits...

Time for my Canadian Idol review! This week, they sang the Barenaked Ladies' songs. Here are my thoughts:

Rex Goudie - He nailed the first song. It was perfect and I totally agree that he would be the perfect Canadian rockstar. Even the ugly shirt and the hat hiding his face didn't put a damper on his performance. In the second one, he looked a lot better (Sexy Rexy needs to get rid of the hat and wear nice clothes more often!) but the singing wasn't as good, and he needs to work on his lower register.

Aaron Walpole - The first song was awesome, as usual. He should definitely be in the top 2. The second performance was a little goofy, but fun. Again, the theatre thing worked well for him.

Melissa O'Neil - The first one didn't impress me much, it was a little boring. But good job on the second one. It was a lot better, but still not enough to win my vote.

Performance of the night - Aaron.
Who should leave - anyone but Aaron.

Anyway, on to my own life...

I registered for dance classes today. I'll be taking 5 - ballet, jazz, modern, tap, and musical theatre dance. In jazz, I skipped a level - instead of going from 4B to 5, I went up to 5B instead, which is cool. NSO is on at UPEI, and I ran into some frosh doing Shinerama. It makes me miss UPEI and NSO but after coming back from Germany I realized it was time to move on. So I won't be taking courses or doing NSO. I have other things in my life that I need to focus on and clinging on to UPEI would prevent me from doing them.

Gas prices are insane now because of the hurricane so we'll have to use the car less often. Last month, a fill-up was around $40 or so, now it's $65. Grrr... But at least it could help in getting people to stop wasting gas and use the car only when necessary.

I went to Indigo recently and found an awesome magazine in their newstand - Catholic Insight. I found it in the reference section, where they have all the lesser-known magazines. Amid all the trash they often have in that section (such as Bitch magazine - a favorite for anti-life femi-nazis), Catholic Insight is a diamond in the rough. That one issue was enough to convince me to subscribe.

Oh, and I ran into Yoga Cutie at Indigo. He works there. At least I think it's him... Curly dark brown hair, nice eyes, cute smile. He said hello, and when I went to the cash to pay for the treasure I found in the newstand, he was standing there talking to the girl at the cash and when he saw I was buying something, he moved aside and jokingly said "I was saving your spot!" with that cute smile of his. Hehehe... so sweet.

Last night I watched my movie on the French tv channel - Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain. Fabulous movie. It should have won the Academy Awards it was nominated for.

I bought crocs a few days ago. They're so comfy that I'm wearing them every day. I also went to the park, and saw some ducks in the pond by the government buildings. It reminded me of the lake full of ducks in Sweden. I also saw some kind of rodent swimming around. Couldn't be a beaver because it was too small and didn't have the big flat tail, so I think it was probably a muskrat.

Ryan's MSN nickname - "NSO 2K5...It's official: Shinerama 2005 - $16,012 and counting!" Yay for NSO and Shinerama!

Anyway, I have to go to sleep now...