Well, school was cancelled for the little ones today, therefore Brownies is cancelled! I love going to Brownies, but I have to say that this week I am VERY happy that it's cancelled! I'm still sick and I have my Skills Canada Competition tomorrow and Saturday, so I don't mind having tonight off to do my last minute preparations.
Anyway, school was not cancelled for me so here are a few pictures from today!
This is the marble slab that we do chocolate work on. You aren't allowed to let water touch it - water ruins the couverture (ie. chocolate). So, to clean it we use a blowtorch to melt any chocolate on it, then wipe it with a dry cloth. Here one of my classmates was making White/Dark Chocolate Cigars for an order we have to finish. 
This was my practice run for my Mousse Cake for the Skills Canada Competition. It's orange mousse with chocolate sponge cake. I need to tweak some things when I make it in competition, but overall, I accomplished what I thought I could. 
My first attempt at molded chocolates. I will be doing these for the Skills competition this weekend. Few things were weird. You could see the filling and I thought it was b/c my chocolate was too thin, but apparently my chocolate was perfectly thin - it's just that when you coat with white chocolate and fill with a dark filling, it will always show. Not ideal, but I don't really much care at this point. Also, I overfilled them, so I couldn't seal them properly. I ended up painting them shut with a paintbrush and some chocolate.
We use a lot of "non-food" tools. I just mentioned paintbrushes which we use quite a bit. Also, if you noticed in the previous picture of the marble slab, we use a lot of paint scrapers for chocolate. One other thing that we use a lot of is sandpaper. Oh, and our blowtorches of course. :P
Here is a picture of some of what our chocolate group produced in the last couple weeks. I don't know 100% what all is there, but there are:
-Anise Stacks
-Lemon Chocolates
-Vanilla Truffles
-Caramel Truffles
-Hazelnut Milk Chocolates
-and others not pictured here, including a peanut butter one! 
Finished chocolate box! I'm definitely going for simplicity. I don't like having a 5 foot tall chocolate box b/c of embellishments. I might make a couple changes for skills, but overall, this is the plan. 
Skills Competition is in 2 days!! So, the countdown is on. I'm confident about most things - I started a chocolate box today and it went much smoother than expected, so I'm quite pleased about that! I think I'll be practicing my mousse cake tomorrow but beyond that, it's just some organizational stuff I've gotta deal with!
I've been sick since this weekend. Yesterday was the worst day. Today I'm feeling a bit better - 2nd night of 12+ hours of sleep in a row, so I'm getting some energy back. But I still have no voice. Apparently it decided to go on vacation without consulting me first. What an ungrateful voice!
Anyway, I've gotta get my homework done before I run out of energy, so I'm just going to do a quick photo blog here! Mom asked for some outdoor pictures, but I forgot, so I'll get them soon! For now, here's some school pictures.
I finally hit my chocolate rotation. We have to make a chocolate box (ie. Box made of chocolate) for a stamp and also I need to do it for the skills competition. Here is my first attempt today. It went better than expected. Tomorrow I will be doing some detailing on it with white chocolate. 
Here are the first chocolates I've ever made! I'll be making them for the skills competition - in the form on the left. They are Anise Stacks. Anise is black licorice flavour. On the right are truffles I made out of the leftover Anise ganache. 
Flooding! This is for my special occasion cake! Flooding a technique where you pipe a border with thick royal icing then fill it in with runny royal icing, thus "flooding" it. It's horrible and repetitive and I think I've flooded this fairy about 10 times in my attempt to get 1 single good fairy. 
Yup, here are some of the attempts. I'm also flooding a butterfly. 
STAMP! Got my first stamp! About damn time too! This was for the rolls I'm standing by there. Just 44 more to go. Actually, I think I got about 5 more on that rotation, so...40 more to go! 
That's what I did to my Chocolate, Flour, and Starches test today! BAM! Kicked it's butt! If I don't get 100% it will be because some of the questions were worded funny so I might not have given them what they were asking for. I guess at the most 4 questions wrong. At the MOST.
Just cleaning. Taking a quick break. All I have left to do is straighten out my dresser, desk, and night table. And by night table, I mean the top of my rubbermaid container.
Having a roommate means an immediate gross bathroom. I don't know why, but it does. When I have my own bathroom to myself, I always wipe up splashed water and stuff, but roommates never do. So instead of staying clean, the bathroom gets gross. Scrubbed the bejesus out of the bathroom and now it's looking awesome. Let's hope it can last more than 24 hours.
Had Brownies last night. I was talking to one of my girls and said something along the lines of "What would do if a boy kissed you?" and she of course replied with "Ewww" and ran around. But then she sat down and just said, "I'm just not READY yet!" It was the cutest thing ever!
Having a few girls over tonight. Amanda has friends coming in on the bus at midnight and the bus station is just about 2 blocks behind campus where I live. So they're going to come hang out here and play Mario until we have to go meet the bus.
They are very, VERY boring to study. I'm really trying. I have been for at least 3 days. I just keep falling asleep reading my notes.
I have a test on Chocolates and on Flour/Starches. The chocolate part I can at least read through without falling asleep. But I just don't CARE how flour is milled.
That's right. It's my favourite season. Good thing it lasts most of the year!!
For those of you who are winter haters, here is a list of awesome things about winter:
- Snowball Fights
- Tobogganing
- Snow Angels
- Snow Forts!
- Taffy on Snow!! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_taffy)
- Clean, crisp air
- Bright, sunny days after a fresh snowfall
- Snowmen
- Skiing/Snowboarding for those who aren't afraid of heights like me
- Snowfalls
Well, I guess I'm growing up. Slowly. Why am I coming to this revelation? (I totally just tried to spell that relevation...) Well, I am APPALLED at the quality of the produce at the Superstore across the street. And I can't believe the night and day difference between the fruits/veggies there and the ones I can get at the Sobey's down the street. Really, overall, everything is better at Sobeys. You even get Air Miles there! I get nothing at Superstore! Just half hour lineups. I only go there b/c it's closer. But man is it a treat when I take a day to walk home from school and stop at Sobey's along the way.
Of course, I'm only growing up slowly because I still don't bother to look at the prices of food. I just buy what I like.
Anyway, my point is that only adults give a crap about produce. :)
The weather here today is BEAUTIFUL. No idea of the temperature, but it's hovering somewhere around 0C as stuff is melting. I spent half an hour walking home from school and it definitely boosted my mood!
I couldn't tell you how long I've been playing Mario games for, but it's been a LONG time. And in all that time, I have NEVER beat a Mario game. I think the closest I've come is to get to World 8 in Mario 3 for NES, but I've never been able to get through it. Well, today I did it.
I BEAT A MARIO GAME!!
Mario Galaxy to be specific. After all those years, I finally saved that damn Princess!!
A roommate moved in today. :( Damn. Oh well, I got more than a week without one. I have no opinion on this roommate as she's only been here a couple hours. My plan is to mostly avoid her and get through the next 3 months, 2 1/2 weeks. I've got some big stuff coming up, so I'll be spending some extra time at school.
This week I have a presentation. I did project on Scandinavia with a classmate. We did a 26 page report and now we're doing a presentation for it. We'll be doing a demo in the kitchen - probably an Almond Custard - as well as speaking about Scandinavia and handing out some Mead for people to try!
Friday we have a test on Yeast breads - including danishes, croissants, and puff pastry. This bothers me. It bothers me because we covered this information in September, yet they aren't bothering to test us on it until now. It's like they were too lazy or forgot to give us a test earlier, so they're just sticking one in now.
I'm competing in a Skills Competition at the end of the month. It's a two-day event. We have 6 hours each day to make our items and have to have them ready for presentation on Saturday at 7:30pm. We have to make:
- 1 Mousse Cake
- 2 types of chocolates - 12 each
- Chocolate Box (box made of chocolate) - has to be able to hold 6 of each chocolate
- Miniature French Pastries - 2 varieties, 6 each
- Occasion Cake - Buttercream icing, floral decoration, Happy Birthday written
I also have an occasion cake due the first week in February. Whatever design I use for the Skills Competition I'll use for my occasion cake. That way I can do a practice run of it in the next couple weeks AND get my occasion cake assignment out of the way.
Overall, January will be quite busy. And that's fine with me! I want it to go by fast, as it's going to be the worst month. February is a short month as it is, plus we have 2 days off. In March we have a week off, and then April is the last month. So, I figure January will be the worst, so I'm just trying to stay busy.
Apparently the law in PEI is that Sunday shopping is not allowed from Christmas until Victoria Day. Why you ask? I have no idea. I'm assuming b/c their clocks are ticking backwards to the 1980s.
On another note, my watch band broke. This is very uncool.
I discovered a game called Funny Farm over the holidays. It took me and a friend 2 weeks to complete it, but we did solve it! I got one hint near the end, but other than that, we did NOT use a walkthrough.
I am putting out the challenge to anybody who is interested/has the time to SOLVE THIS PUZZLE. I highly suggest you find a friend to do it with - it's extremely hard and having only one brain work on it would be incredibly difficult.
To get further instructions on how to play the game, there is the word "Hints" in tiny lettering in the top right hand corner of the page the game is on which will give you instructions.
Beyond that, here is the link and good luck! Let me know how it's going!
Funny Farm
That's it. The only reason I came back was because I figure I'll regret NOT coming back more than I'll regret coming back. Otherwise I would have flown here, packed up my stuff, and flown back to Western Canada.
So yeah, time to bitch about it, throw it up into words, then move on and stop being miserable.
REZ sucks! I hope my new roomie is good. I haven't been told her name or anything about her...I was promised an e-mail and have not received one. However, there is the name "Melisa" on our door, so I'm assuming I will be getting one named Melisa. She is not here now however.
Anyway...was supposed to fly home on Friday. Flight from Saskatoon to Montreal with a stop in Ottawa where I stayed on the plane. Then a flight from Montreal to Charlottetown. Get to the airport Friday morning - "That flight is cancelled." Turns out that it had mechanical problems in Ottawa the night before, and they couldn't get it out, so there was no plane for us to fly on. So, I told the lady that as long as I got there by Sunday I was good. Well, Sunday was the ONLY day she could get me there in a single day without having to stay overnight somewhere. So, I went for it. Fortunately my parents were already keeping their hotel one extra night b/c they were headed to Lake Lenore (and I tagged along) and didn't want to drive all the way back to Swift Current from Lake Lenore in one day. So, we really only had to extend the hotel one night which my parents awesomely did.
So this morning I wake up, check my flights...first one is ALREADY delayed an hour. Craptastic. My flight path today was Saskatoon-Toronto-Montreal-Charlottetown...changing planes each time. Estimated time of arrival in Toronto - 15 minutes before my plane there leaves for Montreal. Surprise, surprise, I missed my connection. Turns out the first plane was delayed b/c they got in late the night before and there's a mandatory rest period for flight crews, so they couldn't fly the plane until that time had lapsed. Anyway...we were all on and settled on that flight, but it took FOREVER to get the luggage on. Once we got going the TVs were working. I watched Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist...I thought it was good! I also got a free meal - it came with my ticket. Probably b/c my total elapsed time from leaving Saskatoon to arriving in Ctown was 12 hours. This was the first flight where I'd had a female captain...yay!
Once in Toronto, they rebooked us to another Montreal flight - basically one leaves every hour. So, in essence, instead of having a large Montreal layover, I had a large Toronto one. Which was good. The Air Canada terminal of Toronto Pearson is WAY better than the crappy WestJet one. But either of them are better than Montreal...what a DUMP! Clearly run down. I had to go through a tunnel to get to my terminal and it reminded me of the tunnel at the U of S. The flight to Montreal was not full, so I was alone in my aisle...it was the biggest plane I've ever been on. That was a quick flight...50 minutes in the air. It was also my first "Ugh, Canada is French, isn't it?" type experience. :P Just waiting for the plane there was a lot of French being spoken. And it was the first time where everything was said in French then repeated in English instead of the other way around. The flight attendant greeted us with "Hello. Bonsoir." And I think she could tell immediately with people like me who didn't know a lick of French. My clearly English, "Hi."
So, got to Montreal and just asked the person at the desk to help me find my gate since I'd never been in that airport before. She directed me to the tunnel and definitely as I went towards the tunnel the airport got crappier. I had about 50 minutes before my plane was supposed to take off, but of course it was half an hour late. The plane was late getting there, then there was a mixup and they came on and asked on guy to leave and some other guy took his place. Then they came back on and made that guy leave and put the first guy back on the plane!
Anyway...finally got back. There is definitely a crapload of snow. Some of the drifts are taller than me. However, they clear the streets really well here, so that's good. Had to wait for a cab, but got one and shared it with another lady who was waiting - they only had 2 cabs waiting there and probably 20 people wanting cabs.
Got back to rez safe and sound. Rez sucks.
This trip home was in some ways better than the first time I came here and in other ways worse. Better in that I wasn't nearly so depressed to have nobody meet me at the airport...I could have cared less. It was also nice to recognize the city as the cab drove through it. And nice to have a bed with a bedspread to come back to. Worse in that I didn't want to come back. The first thing that greeted me at rez was a poster about mandatory meetings. (I think it was tonight so I missed it, yay!) But it definitely reminded me of how much I hate rez. I'm hungry and nothing is open this time of night and I cleaned out my cupboards before I left b/c I'd be gone for 2 weeks (most normal people do this...). As much as I only have 4 months left and before I had 8, these 4 months seem like they'll be longer...I think b/c I know what I have coming up.
But, I AM excited to see my classmates tomorrow! Definitely missed that bunch! I really hope everybody comes back. A small part of me thinks that everybody will. But perhaps that will be wrong and 1 or 2 will be missing. Anyway, it is now 2:47am and I have class at 8am. I should try and nap perhaps. Night all!
(I have kind of a thing for slippers.)
(And hell yes those are Grumpy Bear PJs...credit goes to Michelle for those!)
I'm still in the west. My flight to Montreal was cancelled which means no going back to PEI today. The only flight I could get that got me there in one day without staying overnight somewhere was on Sunday so I took that one. Classes don't start until Monday anyway, so I won't be missing class - just be missing two boring crappy days in PEI. I get in at midnight on Sunday night which sucks - I'll just be a zombie in class on Monday. Oh well. Not like I haven't done it before.
Anyway...there's my update. Going to go nap on the couch now as I was up at 5:30 for a non-existent flight. :P
Wow, almost a decade into the new millennium. And apparently I can't spell millennium, as I needed the spellcheck to do it right.
I'm really into a game right now - I'll link it once I beat it. I kinda want to beat it before I tell anybody about it. B/c people will probably beat it quicker than me. :( Then I'll feel dumb. But look forward to that! But not too quickly...it's a tough game.
I like the hotel we're in - Country Inn and Suites. The suite we're in is nice and big, they have DVD players in each room with a big TV, books downstairs you can borrow to read, and a computer/printer downstairs which was handy when I needed to print off my boarding passes.
This post is taking forever to write. I'm watching TV - some home renovation show where they teach somebody who messed up a reno how to do it right. So this guy is hard at work while his wife bitches about how much he sucks and stuff. I think she should either shut the hell up or go do the renovation herself. I have no desire to ever do renovations. How tedious.
Anyway, going to stop typing now. Next time I update, I'll be back on the East coast!