Hi, My name is Katie and I just graduated in the Communications and French fields at York University in Toronto, Canada. I was born to Chinese parents, but I was born and raised in Costa Rica. I like rabbits, candies, and the colour purple. People dsecribe me as always-happy, cute (because I am short), very friendly, possitive, smart, and creative. But I like to describe myself as random, original, smiley, and clever.
On Wednesday June 23rd at 1.45pm I was sitting on the couch in the living room watching Food Network Challenge on TV when I felt the couch shaking. No, my phone wasn't vibrating. No, the ladies on the third floor are not stomping again. No, a big truck didn't pass by. I immediately thought: "No way! Earthquakes in Toronto? That's impossible!" My housemate felt it, my friend who lives like two streets away felt it. Then I went on facebook and my homepage was flooded with statuses about the earthquake. Yes, it was the Toronto's 5.0 magnitude earthquake that originated by the border of Quebec and Ontario. Apparently, according to this website (me having studied Geography in high school and I was interested in the cause of this earthquake), it was due to "ancient geologic stresses" from glaciers - kinda like pressing a sponge and the sponge slowly pops up. Another reason was due to "ancient failed rift located in the region" by Ottawa Valley, where the northeast and southwest sides were moving away from each other 150 million years ago and this causes weak zones today that are the cause of little shakes. And since Ontario is quite flat, vibration waves are sent hundreds kilometers away...to the United States.
For a lot of my friends it was their first well-felt earthquake ever in their lives. For me, coming from Costa Rica, it isn't a big deal. It was more of a surprise for me that there were earthquakes in Toronto. (SIDE NOTE: couple years ago when my uncle tried to convince me to stay in Canada, he was telling me that, unlike Costa Rica, Canada never gets any earthquakes....lol riiight!). I told my dad about the earthquake and he answers me "5.5?? that's like nothing. We have those here everyday, several times."
People have theories that it has to do with Quebec trying to separate from the rest of Canada. Others believe that this is the day of doom because we had rainstorms, earthquakes, tornadoes....maybe have something to do with 2012? Oh silly conspiracies.
Now with that earthquake, there's going to be massive amounts of jokes, t-shirts, buttons, comics, videos making fun of it, etc. It's part of pop culture now....at least in Ontario.
To be honest, I was a lot more of a soccer fan in previous years than I have been ever since I came to Canada. But I have always been a World Cup soccer follower, ever since 1998 where France topped Brazil in the final (whaaaat!?) - and the next world cup they got eliminated in the first round (*sigh*).
But anyways, this year's World Cup is nothing like I expected. Of course, one might have an idea of the most popular teams to win the World Cup like Germany or Brazil. My favourites for this year are Spain and Portugal. Spain because I am loyal to their players I have known for a while: Casillas, Fermando Torres, Xavi, and former player Raul Gonzales. And Portugal because of good looking Cristiano Ronaldo :D But I also have other favourites like Argentina, England, and Germany. Jacob is cheering for Germany. I made a list of predictions of who gets classified in the first rounds:
GROUP A South Africa Mexico Uruguay France Qualify: Mexico (A1) and South Africa (A2)
GROUP B Argentina Nigeria Korea Republic Greece Qualify: Argentina (B1) and Nigeria (B2)
GROUP C England USA Algeria Slovenia Qualify: England (C1) and USA (C2)
GROUP D Germany Australia Serbia Ghana Qualify: Germany (D1) and Ghana (D2)
GROUP E Netherlands Denmark Japan Cameroon Qualify: Cameroon (E1) and Netherlands (E2)
GROUP F Italy Paraguay New Zealand Slovakia Qualify: Italy (F1) and Paraguay (F2)
GROUP G Brazil Korea DPR Cote d'Ivoire Portugal Qualify:Portugal (G1) and Brazil (G2)
GROUP H Spain Switzerland Honduras Chile Qualify: Spain (H1) and Chile (H2)
But if there is anything we learned from the first round of matches, is that anything is possible and that you cannot relay on the big names. During the first round: England tied with the United States, Germany lost to Serbia, Italy has been tieing with other countries, Brazil won by slight difference, and Spain lost against Switzerland. Like, what's going on here? Disappointed about my fav teams.
The second round hasn't been as bad as the first round. What has been the most exciting was the game of Portugal versus Korea 7- 0. Holy cow! And I thought the 4 - 0 from Germany versus Australia was impressive.
And what's up with the vuvuzelas? Apparently they have a lot to say in this world cup. Are they really that annoying? Or are they just a justification on the poor play of some teams and they can have something to blame on? From a television point of view, I don't see what the whole deal about vuvuzelas is about. But I guess if I were at the game and there are tons of people blowing on the vuvuzela, I would probably kick every single vuvuzela in the face - if they had one. And apparently is a very african thing the vuvuzela. Hm, maybe find a substitute for it, or I don't really know. But it was funny to read that the selling of earplugs has increased tremendously since the start of the World Cup. Haha. Not surprised.
I am still wondering what would have happened if Costa Rica had made it for the World Cup. I think it will be in the same position as Honduras right now. Hopeless. There's even a commercial about it, putting our country to shame and it's funny for us, because we know we suck.
Argentinian: You have no idea of how excited I am to see my country playing in the world cup. Are you costarican? I feel so sorry for you. I have an advice for you, how bad it's to see other countries playing. It's depressing. Turn off the TV, go to the beach. You are so good at the beach. *sings* Go, go* Voice: the joy that the costarican team didn't give to you, we'll give it to you.
Now I'm just waiting for a country like Switzerland or Paraguay or Slovenia to take the cup home. That'd be a shocker, but a good shocker. But I don't know, still hoping that Spain and Protugal make it till the end. Who's gonna win? I don't know, but I'm excited to find out.
In one of the scenes in Alice in Wonderland, at the Tea Party, the Mad Hatter asks Alice:
Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?
I was doing some research and the most popular best answers were: a) "Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both" b) "They both have feet/legs/stand on something" or what Lewis Caroll wrote addressing to this issue: c) "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!" or a witty answer: d) "Because there is a B in both and an N in neither" or as the Mad Hatter answers later on: e) "I haven't the slightest idea"
When Alice asks the Mad Hatter why they are wasting so much time in riddles with no answers, she is pretty much asking the question to adults; in that, why do adults invest so much time with questions about life that has no answers (like religion).
Sometimes the best response to a question is admitting that you don't know the answer. Not everything has to make sense in this world.
I have decided. I want this performance in my wedding. If guys could organized themselves to perform this to me on my day, I would have the best wedding ever and I can die happily ever after.
*****I take that back. I don't want a wedding dance with lyric that says "Caught in a bad romance". unless they change the "bad" to "good"*******
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