Winter Haven (A Recollection of Events)

I had the pleasure to spend the holidays with my dear Norwegian friend Nizza.

Geez there's nothing that I love more than traveling, unraveling new stuff and chilling out with friends! In effect, I had the privilege to spend the winter holidays with my dear friend Nizza who was sweet enough to fly all the way to New York to meet with me before Christmas. 

Olympic Stadium from the Parc Maisonneuve

As I wrote in my article about our New York escapade, Nizza, K, Michael and I spent a few days in the Big Apple shopping, eating out, drinking and visiting. The same day we left New York City, we drove all the way to Quebec and had the misfortune to get caught speeding on the highway by a sheriff from the New York State. Goddamnit, I was ten minutes from the Canadian border and had to get caught!

I guess Nizza will always remember the first time she saw my house as I almost drove us all the way into it; the streets being super icy and slippery, I couldn't brake and therefore slid towards the house and was stopped only by the garbage bin and the tree in front of my house!!!

SNOW AND ICE!!!

 I know Nizza way too well and was 100% sure she'd love going out on the South shore as its population consists mainly of douchebags and slutty, easy girls who are the Quebeccer-equivalent of Jersey Shore's guidos and guidettes. That first night in the "belle Province", I introduced my Norwegian counterpart to the "bring your own wine" restaurant fashion and stunned her by the latter. She said such a thing could never happen in Norway! We then all headed to the "Commission des Liqueurs" located in the wannabe-cool DIX30 district to celebrate Merry's departure for Nice, where she'll be an exchange student until May-June. 

That night out was incredibly awkward as we were all exhausted, were living our first day or extremely nasty weather and didn't feel like mingling with all them other guests. The barman of the commission was the typical douchebag I wanted Nizza to catch a glimpse of which resulted into a grin as the bastard was unclassy enough to strip down to his underwear on the bar's counter in front of the whole crowd which consisted of 99% straight men and women (the residual 1% being myself, Rodzilla).

I was getting drunk and seized the opportunity to grab that rock-hard ass of his and dared Nizza to do the same. She didn't dare to, unfortunately! That same night, Nizza ate her first poutine which I think didn't bedazzle her as she said it ""taste like something her brother and her could freestyle on at home" lol! I guess it's not impressive anyway so we shouldn't be disappointed by her reaction lol!

Terrine feeding a deer from the inside of her car!

We went out again on the friday night before Christmas but that will lead to another article (wait a bit!). Nizza was horrified to wake up the next day as she had been invited by Terrine to a family party in the not-so-fabulous town of Trois-Rivières. Thereat, she met Terrine's cousin Tristan who unlike the clothing brand of the same name, is not super classy nor businessman-clad. Indeed, that cousin of hers is missing one leg and has his whole body covered with biker-like tattoos and piercings. Nizza said she liked him so I told her she should call for a booty session but it seems like she felt uncomfortable to get stuffed by a one-legged ex-military. I made a mental picture of that and imagined the scene similar to Rose McGowan's character in "Planet Terror" when she's making love with her bf in the movie! 

Cultural Sundays

I've been to several cultural events in the last two weeks and I'm really proud of myself! I mean that's something I always like to do and keep on telling myself to do more often but with school and work, I tend not to have time nor energy to get out of my south shore house and do something on my free days. My free days consist in fact of one day in the week, that is sunday. Like in the Medieval time, sundays are sacred for me as I don't work nor have to attend any class. I am therefore available for any of my friends and can therefore bethink myself, enjoy life, let go of my everyday stress, head to the gym, sleep late and attend cultural events!!!

Just last week, I went to the Botanical Garden of Montreal (jardin botanique) and got to see the "lanternes chinoises" exhibit around the Asian section of the garden. I went there accompanied by Merry, Jizz and Laura at night. The spectacle was truthfully magical and it felt like we had been teleported into a fairytale. There were Chinese lanterns scattered around the main pond of the Asian section of the garden and they were pretty motley as there were regular small lanterns that weren't too far in style from regular Western lanterns but there were also some really impressive and massive lanterns that were basically Chinese warriors, plants, trees, carriages and buildings. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my camera! I couldn't pull an Asian tourist out of myself but did find a few beautiful photographs of these images on the web which I'll post down from here. The lanterns had required a necessary six months of  creation to make them as good-looking as they were and had been hand-crafted by Shanghai artists.

We had purchased a bundle deal and had free access to the Insectarium (like an Aquarium but for insects lol) as well so we paid a visit our insect friends who were trapped in boxes (thank God)! What litteraly scared the shit out of me was when we got to see a friggin' Goliath Birdeater Tarantula; these tarantulas are the world's biggest in terms of both size and weight...! I'm not kidding y'all when I say they can measure up to 60cm of width and weigh almost one pound!!! I'm not scared of lizards, snakes, crocodiles, sharks or scorpions but I get frightened shitless when I see tarantulas. I don't know why they're so scary. Perhaps it's because they're really ugly and disgusting and look like they're gonna jump in yo face and eat you! I know they could never eat us but they look aggressive and mean lol! Jizz seemed even more scared than me which I'm glad of as I would pass for a pussy if there hadn't been someone more scared than me with us lol! I hadn't been to the Insectarium in ages but realized I had been missing on a lot of stuff as it's really entertaining and captivating to know some facts about insects. Some of them are incredibly colorful and beautiful while some others are quite smart at building nests such as termites.

 

 

Laura and I hadn't really spent much time together before that evening but got along fairly well. I like her and still don't understand why Mahmud -remember him?!- doesn't want to admit to her that he's gay. To make a long story short, they're both Lebanese and their families know each other. That being said, Mahmud doesn'want everybody in his family and other Baklavas he knows to get to learn about his homosexuality. I guess he's not going to befriend this gang anymore. I also got to learn he moved out of his parents' and now lives with a friend. I couldn't care less as the dude seems paranoid and crazy. I guess I was out of my mind when I thought of him as a potential date!

Anyways, back to my cultural sundays, I decided that from now on I would always do an interesting and enriching activity on sundays so that I get to learn stuff, enjoy the city of Montreal (in another way than just taking the subway, being harassed by homeless people and going to school), gather with friends and take it easy. Sundays are sacred, Amen on that!

The fucking disgusting Goliath Birdeater Tarantula

Bal en Blanc

Last week I attended the infamous “Bal en Blanc” at Montreal’s Palais des Congrès accompanied by two hot mamas: Jizz and Fabulous Andy.

As part of the celebrations for Easter, the Montrealers (les Montréalais) love to stop by the Palais des Congrès and party all night long while dancing to some international DJs. This HUGE rave party is hosted annually and is always taking place at the Congress Center of Montreal which is rented for the occasion. Each year since 1994, the Bal en Blanc is highly anticipated and some 15,000 attendees purchase tickets ranging between 85$ and up to 150$ to enjoy this night of debauchery. The event features two rooms: the trance room and the main room. This year's edition featured famed Dutch DJ Tiësto, Above and Beyond, Freemasons, Uppercut, Armand van Helden, Yinon Yahel (from Israel) and Markus Schulz among others. It was insane!!!

I've been hearing about how big and crazy the Bal en Blanc is since I'm 18 years old and allowed to drink and go out but have never planned to attend it until this year. It all started when Terrine talked to our friends and me about her desire to buy tickets for it and we all agreed that it would be an awesome idea. Therefore, St-Lawrence, Fabulous Andy, Terrine, Jizz and I all bought tickets for it at a relatively cheap price (90$) back in december. We were all scheduled to meet there until St-Lawrence claimed he didn't wanna go anymore since he had exams during the next week (we all did) and Terrine didn't want to go because she didn't want to end up seeing her ex or other acquaintances from her University (Sherbrooke) as she had skipped her semester because of her depression. I could pretty much understand both of them and their reasons but I was nontheless pretty disappointed by their no-show.

Anyways, that being said, I still managed to have a hell of a good time! I want to reassure you by telling you I supprisingly didn't do any drugs (hurray) and kept myself awake by drinking Red Bull and other energy drinks and shit. I actually think I drank too much of'em because at one point, my heart was beating incredibly fast, I was feeling dizzy and weird and began to be paranoid and freaked because of all the odd-looking people around me. I then told Jizz and Fabulous Andy who both told me I might have had too many Red Bull and that there was a limit not to exceed and that I must have had exceeded it! I didn't take any more Red Bull afterward!!! We arrived there at around half past midnight and stayed until half past five! That's a lot! Fabulous Andy and I remained sober but Jizz popped a pill of speed. She was outstandingly energized and high and was about to dance and pop all night.

Just like the name implies, the Ball is actually intended to have all the attendees dressed in white and also have everybody all coked up by the end of the night! Reinforced by high degree of security and vigilance, we had to pass the security guards and be checked, all of this by taking off our shoes and being searched. It was pretty freaky to say the least, and I really felt like passing through security check at an airport. After I was dancing on the dancefloor and taking notice of all the craziness happening, I was more than happy to know there was plenty of security and resources on hand since I started thinking about how crazy stuff could happen such as a rape, a huge fight, stabbing or any other freaky shit! Lemme tell you that the people who had taken ecstacy weren't so ecstatic to watch; their eyes were popping out, they were cringin' their teeth, looked pale, were shaking and looked weirder than monsters in scary movies lol!

There were plenty of cute and edible brothas over there which included one hot jock from my Marketing class who was there shirtless and who was wearing nothing but pants and suspenders (yum) lol! I also saw another hot dude that I was eyeing up back at Cégep. Oh and as for Tiësto, we were extremely disappointed by his performance; his music was sucky and the room where he played was packed way too much and it was impossible to dance there and have fun. That's why we spent most of our night in the trance room dancing to Cosmic Gate and Sander van Doorn. Oh and I need to tell you there were some scantily clad hunks dancing on a lil' stage wearing nothing but g-strings and their ripped bodies who definitely had some enhancing packs increasing the size of their booties. It's so funny since it would have been obvious even for a blind person standing three kilometers away from them!!! 

We left the "ball" at around 5:30 and went back to the South shore straight to have breakfast at a cheap resto. We were too tired to stay there until 8 am to hear Freemasons! Furthermore, I think the Bal en Blanc is a "must" for young shiznit living in the Montreal area and I'm definitely going back next year!!! Plus the flyers advertising it always feature horny photos of hot guys like Vincent Laroche lol!

Flyer featuring cute winner of Cover Guy, Vincent Laroche

Typical crowd at Bal en Blanc

Tiësto at Bal en Blanc

 

Montreal Fashion Week : Dinh Ba Design

I attended my first Fashion show ever last night during Montreal Fashion Show woo!! I was Fashion Show virgin before that. Of course, I had watched so many ones online that I had a fairly good idea of what it was but still, nothing beats the real thing!

The Dinh Ba Design Fashion Show was held
at the Marché Bonsecours on February 8th,
image provided by Journal 24h

Since I'm always late in the news and always learn that I missed the Fashion Week, I decided not to take any chance and play safe by purchasing a ticket in advance! I'm very proud of myself! For once! 'Cause it's been like 3 years that I want to attend "La Semaine de mode de Montréal" and I always miss it. But once again, I wasn't that much in advance and when I arrived to buy a ticket, my top 4 Runways were already sold out! How sad! I wanted to attend whether Yves Jean Lacasse, Ralph Leroy, Denis Gagnon or Marie Saint Pierre. Since all 4 were sold out, I picked my 5th choice as quick as possible to make sure I wouldn't fall lower than my Top 5 lol! So I ended up with 2 tickets for Dinh Ba Design. By looking at the official website of Montreal's Fashion Week (http://montrealfashionweek.ca/ ), I checked the designers, the schedule for the runways and Dinh Ba Design's website (http://www.dinhbadesign.com/ ).

Dinh Ba himself (provided by
his website)

I felt like Dinh Ba shouldn't be such a bad choice since he's got experience, is authentic and original. I had checked his previous collections and liked it. The designer himself, Dinh Ba, has quite an interesting journey; he was born in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam and then moved to Montreal when he was 8. His mother worked as a seamstress and by assisting his mother, he discovered his passion for clothing and Fashion at an early age. He went on to study at famed Montreal Collège LaSalle at its school of Design and gratuated in 2000. Prior to his graduation, Dinh Ba represented Canada in Paris at the International Young Creators back in 1998.  He's been selling his own creations since 2004 and has launched his own brand during the same year. Since his arrival in the Fashion industry, Dinh Ba has created 14 collections for women and 7 for men. His collections are usually prêt-à-porter, modern with a sense of business elegance.

Ba claimed his inspirations for his latest collection for February 2011 was a warrior, modern woman as portrayed by Angelina Jolie with a touch of glamour and hotness. The show also featured three male models clad with modern "patchoworks", tweed sweathers and Arabic pants. I was a bit disappointed by the colours though; they were very drab (black, grey, cherry red, offwhite and navy blue). The show was quite short (about 20-25 minutes) but run with high professionalism. I suppose some models might have been amateurs but they all worked their magic and impressed me. I LOVED the music! Lolz! The mixing was über-delicious and reminded me of my night out in an underground club in an abandonned public pool in Berlin last summer! I wish someone could send me the tape! What was a bit obnoxious though is I wanted to go along with a friend to the Fashion show but my mom seemed intrigued and curious about attending it and wanted to come with me. I agreed and thought we'd have a good time but she didn't appreciate it at all! She said it was too expensive, complained about the models' skinniness and found the clothes hideous. I promised myself to go back but with someone else than my mom!!! Oh and damn, there was so many hot men out there! I could barely breathe! There was a male model in the audience (haha how hilarious) whom I recognised since he was featured in the ads of notorious Quebec-based male stores Ernest. Lemme tell ya one thang: brotha is fine! Pics of him are posted below the pics of the Fashion show! Enjoy!

This model was so ugly! I couldn't tolerate the bitchy grin she had on her face!
Plus she walked very oddly: he torso and head were leading back way too much lol.

I love me some black models

I kinda like the clothes but I'm not a big fan of the stained fabrics with white
nor the weird-looking boots

One of the three male models of the show : brotha is fine

Left: the "Patchwork", middle: the dislikeable stained fabric, right: much better

--> Oh and here are the pics of the hot male model who was present (he was my present lol) and who posed for the Ernest campaigns:

--> Images for the Dinh Ba Design Fashion Show are courtesy of the "Mode Montréal" Blog (http://www.modemontreal.tv/) and photos of the Ernest male model are from the Boutiques Ernest website (http://www.ernest.ca/)

Snow Snow Snow...

Hey y'all! Hope you'll be reading this post from a Southern haven or country since I'm currently in bloody Montreal where the snow keeps creating traffic jams everywhere! As the American Midwest has been submerged with snow, Québec's got its slice of the pie. Last tuesday there was so much snow it was just incredible. The streets were replete of snow and since I'm driving an automatic Yaris by Toyota, lemme tell ya mein Auto isn't really equipped to cross big banks of snow! I've been stuck in the snow too many times that I couldn't drive more safely! I'm so scared of skidding out on the Highway! 

Even public buses struggle through the snow!

 

Don't expect to hit the Drug store 10 minutes before it closes; it'll take even more time just to clear your car!

Even though we're all trying hard to stay fashionable all the time, it's pretty much impossible to be looking mighty fine when entering the school as your pants are full of calcium, you've got dirty boots, red skin, greasy hair, sunken eyes and you're all sweaty from taking the overly-packed subway!!! Winter is not fashionable, I'm sorry! I know it's Montreal's Fashion Week next week but I'm not feeling anywhere close to a fashionista today lol! Montrealers always feel like celebrating and partying even if we have the harshest climate lol! That's why since 2007, we have the annual "Igloofest" held in Montréal's "Vieux port" (old port of Montreal). I wanted to attend it this year but didn't make it! It was held during the last two weeks. International DJs and musicians are invited to perform during the Igloofest which becomes a sort of cold outdoor fiesta! How cool?!