It's nutcracker season!

Well, Christmas is a month away and road traffic from Christmas shoppers was friggin' crazy already today. And since the festive season is upon us, it's time to bring out the old nutcracker! I've got two now - the one I bought from Ballet Jorgen and the one I bought in Germany. The German one is my fave. Well, last Christmas I felt more like Giselle than like Clara (from the Nutcracker ballet) but hopefully this year my holiday season will be happier.

My weekend in the T-Dot was great. It was nice to see my cousins again (I hadn't seen Edeline in 9 friggin' years!) and I even met some other relatives for the first time that I had never met before. We spent the weekend stuffing ourselves with dim sum (the Chinese version of brunch), shopping, and of course there was the wedding. Actually, technically Martin and Shun Ping were married last year (had a traditional Chinese ceremony in China) and this year they were renewing their vows in a Presbyterian ceremony. The wedding was very nice and the chapel was beautiful. Then later that evening there was the big-ass Chinese banquet where I ate some exotic foods that I'd never thought of eating before. It was a huge meal (I think it was 6 or 7 courses with an open bar) and it started off with roast pork. Normal enough, except the pig's head was on the plate, snout and all! There were noodles and other normal things, and also shark fin soup (didn't really like it) and road dove. Yes, you read that right - roast dove! In western culture, the dove is a symbol of peace and purity, and it is released when the pope is around. In China, it's dinner. I actually liked the taste of it, I'd eat it again if I had the chance.

When it came time to toss the bouquet, they made an announcement for all the single girls to come to the front. Edeline and I went up and turns out we were the oldest single girls there (all the other single girls in the crowd for the toss were little girls and teenagers). How depressing... Then again, neither of us are unattractive, we're just picky when it comes to men (better single than stuck in a crappy relationship with some loser).

The next day, Edeline and I, and her friend, went shopping on Queen Street in downtown Toronto. I bought lots of stuff, and also met a celebrity! We were at HMV and turns out Ryan Star (from Rockstar Supernova) was about to play some music there. We got some pictures, here's one:



Also, while at HMV, I saw a cd with a picture of a smooth-looking guy in a tux and thought "ooh, he's cute!" I checked out the song list and, based on the pictures and song titles, figured that he was probably an Italian Michael Buble type of singer so I bought the cd, totally on a whim. I had never heard of Patrizio Buanne, ever. Now, he's one of my favorite singers! I LOVE that cd!

Well, enough about Toronto. I saw the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at the Confed Centre recently and LOVED it! They performed "The Messiah" and I liked that the costumes were simple (white shirt and pants) and they didn't do pointe (that made it earthier yet still heavenly). And of course, while the men were dancing (especially the drop-dead gorgeous Jaime Vargas), I was thinking "REAL MEN DANCE!" I also loved the parts when the men were partnering each other. It wasn't "gay" or girlie, the partner work they were doing was very strong and masculine. Yosuke Mino was amazing, and even though he plays the goblin on "The Toy Castle" (children's tv show that uses ballet to tell stories), in "The Messiah" he was more "angel" than "goblin"!

We started pointe in ballet and I love it! Actually, on the first day, I was grimacing in pain because my toes were digging into my shoes but now it's not too bad. Thank God for toe pads and lamb's wool...

The Harry Potter trailer for movie 5 is on Mugglenet - WHOO TAKE YER SHIRT OFF!!!



Teehee, had to! Anyway, I also saw some pictures on Mugglenet of the 5th movie. Bellatrix (Helena Carter) is perfect, but Umbridge isn't ugly enough (in the book she's described as looking like a fat toad!). Luna looks like she could be Draco's little sister, but I haven't seen her act yet.

Pointe discoveries, dancing Phantom, Halloween fun, and off to Toronto I go...

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Toronto till Monday, because my distant cousin is getting married there, and my parents decided to pay for my plane ticket (yay!). It's also going to be a bit of a family reunion since we (my mom and I) are staying with relatives and I haven't seen them in several years.

I'm taping all the episodes of SYTYCD now that they're re-runs on MuchMusic. I LOVE that show... I never get sick of watching it (especially Dmitry's dancing *swoon*).

I'm starting pointe in ballet this month, whoo take yer shirt off!



Teehee, just had to add another pic of my favorite white-hot Russian man! (found the pic on his myspace).

I bought my shoes (Bloch Suprima) and started breaking them in. I accidentally discovered an awesome way to soften the demi-pointe part of the shank - dance salsa in them! I usually dance salsa on a slight demi-pointe, and one day while listening to the awesome song on Alex Da Silva's myspace (one of the choreographers on SYTYCD) I was wearing my pointe shoes and I got up and started shakin' it. Then I was like "frig, this is awesome for breaking in the demi-pointe part!" The dancing itself warms up my feet so that the shoes can mold to them more easily, and dancing on demi softens the shank.

The Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada were in town recently and performed a ballet version of Phantom of the Opera. Like all their shows, it was awesome. Amadeus is still my favorite, but Phantom was still amazing and totally worth seeing. Sergiy Diyanov was the perfect phantom, Kostyantyn Voynov was the perfect Raoul, and Evelina Sushko was the perfect prima donna. Anya Nesvitaylo was great as Christine, but Sushko was more of a show-stopper. The dancing in general was awesome as usual (Diyanov's long legs are MADE for grand jetes!) During the parts where Raoul, the phantom, and the persian were dancing together, they were so amazing that I was thinking "Real men dance!" The story was slightly different than the musical and the music itself was wwwaaaayyyy different than Andrew Lloyd Weber's score for the musical, but that didn't make it any less worth watching.

I dressed as a death eater again for Halloween, except this time I drew a better dark mark on my arm and had a wand (that rosewood wand I got from Alivan's). I gave candy to trick-or-treaters, but for some reason, barely any of them actually said "trick or treat"... Mikey from my dance class (the kid who looks like Luke) came trick-or-treating dressed as a viking. After the trick-or-treating was over, I went to Baba's and it was fun. Ian Toms' band was playing and they rocked. I saw a guy dressed as Harry Potter and got some pictures with him. He and some other people actually thought my dark mark was a real tattoo! They were quite surprised when I told them I just drew it with a marker! Mr. Cranky and his sidekick Coady were there too. As for costumes, there was a guy dressed as Ali G who looked EXACTLY like Ali G, a shirtless superman, a flyswatter and fly, a deer in headlights (carrying a flashlight), some clowns, cavepeople, fairies, devils, pimps, etc.

Anyway, that's it for now...