Living up my last weeks

The past couple of days I have spent my time surrounded by friends, food, booze, toys and a gorgeous view. My roommates and I went up to my cottage and spent our few days off work with loads of water sports and funny events. There was no need for tv or cellphones (besides to take pictures), we just sat and enjoyed the view. With only 6 weeks left in this beautiful country, I'm beginning to realize what I'll be leaving behind. Yes I am beyond excited to explore many other countries and adapt to their culture and all the beautiful things they offer. However, things like friends, my cottage and family are definitely things I will miss. I mean how can I go without this view in the mornings?! 

It was a wonderful couple of days and I am happy that I've been able to spend some time up at this beautiful place while I'm still in the country. I can't believe how fast this trip is approaching. I have no time to see what I need to see, pack and prepare to live out of only a backpack!  I'm definitely going to need some coaching. 

That's all for now.. Sorry for the long gap since my last post. 

Au Pair in the air

hehe my rhyming is amazing I know... but the title comes for a reason. As mentioned in my previous post I am going to be traveling around Europe with a few friends from my high school. Since I am the only one with an Italian citizenship and desire to actually live in Europe for a while, after my four months of travel I am hoping to find a job. With this in mind, I figured the best way to get my grounds, learn the language and adjust to my surroundings would be to au pair.
Unfortunately, so far it has been like a dating site that has gone wrong. I made my profile and sent many host families a message, however, many of them are looking for a minimum stay of A YEAR! Yes, I mean that would be awesome, you basically become one of the family.. but I don't know if I can commit myself to a family for a year based on ... essentially a dating profile haha
With all the basic questions answered (how many kids ..1, 2, 3, do you smoke yes/no, have you had an au pair before yes/no) it has come down to how much information you can slam into one e-mail about yourself and the family you are attempting to live with.
As of right now I have yet to find my perfect match :( unfortunately, the one host family I was really looking forward to hearing about found an au pair before I even got a chance to reply. So ... the hunt continues and hopefully I find my magical family soon... but for now all that I know is that au pair is in the air.

The objective - do not spend!

In light of the fact that I have not posted on here for a while, I thought I would start to use this blog as my public version of my travel journal. A couple months ago, a few of my friends from high school and I booked a flight to Europe! Yay!!

As soon as I saw the message "pack your bags" everything became real! I have been planning this trip since I first walked into University. Having my life planned to a T I knew that the day I graduated I wanted to book a trip to Europe, learn the Italian language and study culinary while I was there. By the time graduation day finally came, I realized that I have no idea what I want to do with my life. With everything in my mind changed, one thing stayed the same, and that was the fact that my butt was going to be in Europe no matter what! 

After booking my flight, all my money and attention was based on what I will need for Europe. Shopping became a game where the objective was to only purchase what could fit in a backpack. Of course with my addiction and the fact that I have like 15 closets.. this simple task became much more complicated. It is now May 27th and I'll be in the air as of August 25th, so from here on out it is SAVE SAVE SAVE.... we'll see how this goes. 

Reading week

My reading week just passed a couple of weeks ago and TBH, I did literally nothing but work my butt off! Even though I was working all week, I did get a couple of days during family day weekend to head up to my cottage (which I haven't been to since September!). I was so happy to finally be going back up and I was bringing my long time friend with me who I haven't seen in forever! As always the weekend was spent drinking, eating, snowboarding, lounging and watching movies.. exactly what I needed.

Christmas Party

Once again my love Alyson and I had a great weekend in Toronto where we went all out. This past weekend we had our Christmas party and decided to rent a hotel, get room service, pop champagne and make a whole weekend out of it! 
I apologize that they're pretty blurry but I took them on my cellphone! Everything was gorgeous and tasted amazing! 

Work Conference Weekend

One of my good friends from school and work had to go to Toronto for a weekend, where we were to attend a work conference and were placed in the intercontinental hotel for the weekend! We had a wonderful time and learned a lot! We also dined our little hearts out of course! 

 Earls most delicious part of their menu. Spinach dip... mmm my mouth is salivating just looking at it. Of course we also had to have a mojito while out to dinner.. my favourite!

 My favourite part of hotel rooms have always and will always be the robes! I always throw them on as soon as I get in and refuse to take them off ahha 

 Every year I fall in love with the Eaton centres over whelmingly huge christmas displays! They are gorgeous 

 OOTN! Leather leggings from Zara and beautiful red pumps from Aldo & Alysons gorgeous Marc by Marc purse. 

Halloweennyy

I must say this year all my roommates hit their costumes out of the park. We all had awesome makeup - each painted on by ourselves.. took forever but turned out awesome. I was a comic pop girl,  my roommate and her boyfriend were the skeleton lady gaga and the guy who actually tattooed himself as a skeleton (fully forget his name whoops) and my two other roommates were skeletons and death! I am absolutely terrified of scary costumes so I can never be one haha but my roommates rocked them well!