Life of a Blogger: Where you live

In the words of Jessi from Novel Heartbeat:

It’s a weekly feature. Each week I will choose a subject and talk about that subject in my life. The topics will be non-bookish so that you can get to know me on a more personal level! I definitely encourage you guys to participate, too. I want this to be meme style with a linky for you to add your posts to. I want to know more about you guys as well!

My face says it all

As some of you may know by now, I moved to Canada about 5 years ago. I live in the province of Quebec in the city of Montreal.  I generally love living here, except for winter, I just don't get used to it.

Me one of the first times I skated

But even I have to admit that it is not the end of the world, and to try to keep up the morale we try to keep active, for instance I really enjoy ice skating, although sometimes the cold makes it impossible to stay outside long (at least for me).

The Olympic Stadium

At the entry of the Botanical Garden

Off course winter isn't here all year long, and that's when you can really enjoy the city. It has a beautiful architecture. One structure you might recognize if the Olympic Stadium from and one of the places that I always try to show to people visiting me (when possible) is the botanical garden, because it is so pretty! I am sure it is not an unique event here, but at a certain time of the year you can even see the butterfly exposition. Basically all year long you will find an event, is a very lively city. You will find a lot of music events (Jazz festivals, Classical music to name a few), the Rogers cup  and the F1 for those into sports...oh and off course the Montreal Circus Festival, since Cirque du Soleil is based here.

But I think my favorite part of the city is the amount of parks it has. So much green! It makes me so happy and in summer we always end up in the park, taking the sun, reading and just relaxing.

People will sun bathe in the parks, although sometimes they make a fake beach downtown. But if you have an awesome park nearby, why not, right?

If not in the garden you will probably find me on our terrace, or in our garden. Last year we had a bunch of raspberries and strawberries. As you can see, when the sun is here you take every second you have under it. 

You probably also know this, but Québec is a francophone province, and so the city of Montreal is also francophone. But on of the things that I amazes me the most is the amount of languages I can hear just going to work. Some I manage to recognize, but it is always fun to see how many cultures are at the same place at once.

That's my brief intro on Montreal; honestly is a city that is better lived than described ;)

Life of a Blogger: Concerts

In the words of Jessi from Novel Heartbeat:

It’s a weekly feature. Each week I will choose a subject and talk about that subject in my life. The topics will be non-bookish so that you can get to know me on a more personal level! I definitely encourage you guys to participate, too. I want this to be meme style with a linky for you to add your posts to. I want to know more about you guys as well!

This week's subject is concerts; I have an issue with concerts you see, I love music, I love live music...I hate crowds. I am very uncomfortable when everybody is pretty much over me, and since I am quite small I can easily get smashed by the crowd.

But sometimes you have to just breath deeply and get to see your favorite artists, right? Luckily, being able to hold A's hand all the way has always helped. Here are some pictures of the concerts we've been to. Our first concert together was Silversun Pickups, but we've been to concerts by Zero 7, Muse and Misteur Valaire (local, from Quebec, you should really check them out ;)

Lately we have stuck to a bit more classical music, going to a couple of Operas (so far our favorite being Rusalka) and several violin concerts, since I used to play it. No pictures of those though :$.

What about you? what is your favorite concert that you have been too?

Life of a Blogger: Halloween

In the words of Jessi from Novel Heartbeat:

It’s a weekly feature. Each week I will choose a subject and talk about that subject in my life. The topics will be non-bookish so that you can get to know me on a more personal level! I definitely encourage you guys to participate, too. I want this to be meme style with a linky for you to add your posts to. I want to know more about you guys as well!

Today's topic is Halloween. I cannot show you my costume yet, since my party is on Saturday and I've managed to keep it a surprise from my friends. But let me present to you this year pumpkin!

In previous years our themes have varied quite a bit, but let me show you some of them: 

This is A as Tintin, my best friend (C) as a Zombie; her bf as a Ghostbuster and me as Minnie

A as Link and me as Kurumu Kurono

Hoppi wearing a bow tie, since he has Tuxedo coloring

And C's cat Pita as a bat!

This year we will be giving candy on Friday, there is a lot of kids in the neighborhood and it is quite fun. And then the party and that's pretty much it. Halloween is more C's holiday, she goes all out!!

What about you? what are you doing for Halloween?

Life of a Blogger: Origin of your name

In the words of Jessi from Novel Heartbeat:

It’s a weekly feature. Each week I will choose a subject and talk about that subject in my life. The topics will be non-bookish so that you can get to know me on a more personal level! I definitely encourage you guys to participate, too. I want this to be meme style with a linky for you to add your posts to. I want to know more about you guys as well!

What is the origin of my name? Carolina is the feminine version of Carlos (Carolus in Latin or just Charles) and it is supposed to have its origins with Charlemagne. I've been told is supposed to be the name of very organized people (true in my case, not so much my best friend whose name is also Carolina :P) but also very strong headed or stubborn...which is also true in my case.

As for how I was named Carolina, is a very short story: my aunt, who also happens to be my godmother, started calling my mom's belly Carolina the moment she knew my mom was pregnant. She didn't know if I was going to be a girl, she just decided the baby's name was Carolina. And my mom liked it and here we are.

So what's your name's origin?

Life of a Blogger: Scents

Here is a thing about me: I have quite a strong sense of smell which can be both a blessing and often a curse. I can be overwhelmed easily by strong scents and then I get migraines. There are however, particular scents I really do enjoy. Case in point, freshly ground coffee. It makes me happy. In perfumes I can't deal with sweet smells, I am more of a citrus, very fresh scents, right now the one I have is Cool Water by Davidoff. 

In smells that I really don't like we: TEMED...this is a product we use at the lab to polymerize gels...but it smells like concentrated rotten fish guys. Is disgusting!

What about you? what is your favorite scent?

Life of a Blogger: Clothing

Jessi, from Novel Heartbeat has this feature since a while ago, and I've been meaning to join and then I forget and...anyway, you get my point. This week however, I remembered! So here I am, to talk to you about: Clothing. 

 For a long time, mostly when I went to University in Colombia, I did not wear that much dresses or skirts. Not because I didn't like them, but because sadly, dressing too much like a girl over there can get you the wrong kind of attention. But then I moved to Canada and since I've been feeling more and more comfortable with my body, well, I've been wearing dresses a bit more. Here you can see one of my latest favorites, the dress I used to one of my friend's wedding.

 

Now, another thing I avoided before were heels. It is important to let you know that when I am at the lab, wearing heels is not a great idea. I have my best friend who does it, and she rocks it, but since a lot of the time I have to run around, I stick to comfy shoes. However, when I go with heels...well, I go high! This ones here I believe are above 4 inches, but I love them.

A lot of my very girly stuff comes from ModCloth like the green dress with the Owl or the navy blue shirt. They have a very nice selection in sizes and so far I have not been disapointed with the quality. They all have a retro feel, which I really like, and I think it suits me :).

Off course living here in Canada, wearing a skirt is not a year thing, because, well, winter. And once again, at the lab I am supposed to wear pants if I am doing an experiment (even though you have to wear a lab coat, you want to have extra protection) so I only wear dresses/skirts to lab when I now I won't be putting myself in danger. So I do wear jeans quite often, but lately I've tried to pair them not only with T-shirts, but a bit more blouses or, in this case, a long sweater dress. 

Also it is very important to protect yourself from the weather, so coats! This one here was a gift from my mother-in-law. It works during spring and autumn only, but boy do I use it. 

Last but not least, I love tights! Well, I love socks in general, but tights I can only wear for a very short period of time during spring and then in autumn. I like them because they can add a lot of color to a simple outfit and the designs can be very amusing indeed.

There you have it!, I hope it wasn't too boring for my first entry for this feature, I will do my best to keep with it:)