Stuff Happening

First of all...SNOW DAY! Wow, and there isn't even that much snow. But I didn't complain! I made use of my day!

So anyway, stuff happening lately. Let's see...

Chocolate, Flour, and Starches test! Remember that one? The boring studying? Well, I only got ONE question wrong. How very frustrating. But anyway - I definitely ninja kicked that test! We have one coming up next Friday and I plan on doing the same thing to it!!

Skills competition results! Chef Richard has this weird thing where he won't hand you a sheet of paper to read - a test, judging results - he has to hold it, not let you see it, and read off it what he feels like reading off. Anyway, results are that one of my french pastries was crap, the birthday cake wasn't perfect (duh), and that I did surprisingly well on my chocolates!! Also, he said that I had the cleanest station in the kitchen, which I did. Haha, not to brag. It's just a fact. Some of my classmates are kinda messy. Chef had said that we could spend "a couple minutes" cleaning up after the deadline "if necessary." Which I took to mean exactly that. Try to be cleaned up in time, but if not, it's ok to just be wiping down your table and stuff at 6:02. Well, most of my classmates took it to mean that they could work right until 6pm and then spend 45 minutes cleaning up. Which sucked for me b/c I had to stick around and help them clean. BOO!

Snow day today! It started snowing yesterday, I walked home in it, it wasn't that bad, we ended up with maybe 15-20cm of snow - but they gave us a snow day today! SWEET. So, I used my day to put together and online portfolio that I can use when looking for jobs. I plan on starting to look for jobs this weekend - long weekend. I've got a line on a small contract job in May (thanks Dad!) so I'm working on that as well. :) Things are looking good. Statistics Canada recently released an update saying that regardless of the economic troubles, business for restaurants is climbing, so that's good news for me. I'm in a good industry. Anyway, if you want to check out my portfolio, it can be found at http://www.shannapilon.blogspot.com. If you have any feedback/comments let me know!

I had a request for some pics of what it looks like outside, so here are some I've taken!

Ok, this is my building from the back. The colour is weird...this was in the middle of the storm and taken with my cameraphone, so wonky things were happening.


This is the parking lot at my school. Also near the start of the storm - basically this picture was taken at the start of the walk, and the one above was taken at the end of the walk home. I'm finding walking home and to school to be less and less of a bother. I found that in Saskatoon too. At first when I moved there, having never really walked anywhere before, 20 minutes seemed like so long, then that became just a quick walk. When I came here, 40 minutes seemed so long, and now it seems so short. And if I get cold on the way, I just pop into stores to "shop" with no intention of shopping at all. I wander until I'm warm, then leave and continue on my way.


Picture of a picnic bench in the yard of a building across the street from my school. Kind of gives a better idea of how much snow there is. There's been more snow than this, but it's often above 0 degrees, so lots of the snow has melted/been rained away.


Walking up to my school. They were clearing the streets - pushing the snow into the middle then coming along to get rid of it.