Beachfest

I went to Beachfest at Sunnyview Park on the long weekend, on the good advice (and accompanied by!) my good friend, Erin Porter. Not only is it a FREE all day concert, I got to see Chantal Kreviazuk, my Queen's friends Bedouin Soundclash, and my little cousin (who also came) was excited to see Kalan Porter (cause all her girlfriends love him!!) Here are some pics from the fun, free day :)

My update: I am currently jobless....but hoping to do supply work in the Toronto area private schools until I can get on the Eligible to Hire list in the TDSB. Wish me luck. If anyone has connections, pleeeaaase let me know....

ps- If you've never heard Serena Ryder or Suzie McNeil's music (Yes, the girl from Rockstar INXS!) then you have to check them out. Serena is folk-y and Suzie is full on rock chick. (She's in the zebra print dress above.)

I DID it!

I forgot to update that last blog entry....my friend Sarah pointed out to me a few days ago...but yes, I DID finish Shantaram in time! It was a very interesting book, particularly because of all the unknowns it leaves...
- Does he find the girl? Do they continue in their love and stay together?
- How did he write the book as a 'true' story and not get sent back to the maximum security prison he escaped from? Surely they must know it's him, even if he did write under an alias!!
- What does Shantaram/Lin look like? Rumor has it that Johnny Depp is going to be playing Shantaram in the movie version...but I see him as more of an Ethan Hawke..even Matthew McConaughey...I guess someone more blonde! Anyway, if you like long books...read it! Even if you don't like long books and it is the longest book you've attempted (like me!)...read it. It's good. Yup.

Oh, India...

A passage from my new project: Shantaram (finishing the 935 page novel before I leave India...that's about 120 pages a week....I CAN do it!)

'India is about six times the size of France,' he went on, as the glass of alcohol and bowl of curried snacks arrived at our table. 'But it has almost twenty times the popluation. Twenty times! Believe me, if there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded space, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And, as everyone knows, we French are the most civilised people in Europe. Indeed, in the whole world. No, no, without love, India would be impossible.'

page 85

I liked this because it rang so true with me. I sometimes wonder how India even exists with all its craziness and people and wealth and poverty, and damn TRAFFIC!...but it has its own fluidity to it. It's own way of exisiting and surviving that wouldn't work anywhere else in the world but here. And for all its corruption (and I have seen and heard how much there is,) India really does exist on a whole lotta love. Love for its own people, and country. Interesting and frustrating....but who am I to even try and understand it?

Some recent pics....

Hi World,

I am still here. It's just been a rough couple of weeks for me, so I haven't been blogging. Trying really hard to find perspective and clarity and calm and strength and all this crazy stuff. Anyway, I've been having a bit of fun amidst all of that. Here are a few pics to prove it ;)

First one is of me and my kiddies at the Mother's Day party we had on Friday. We made banana bread and some crafts and cards for the Mums and it was lots of fun. And then my class Mum gave ME flowers! Very nice of her....aren't my kids cuties?! One is missing from the pic....back to the States to get their visas....

This next one is a pic of me and John at the wedding reception for one of the bus drivers at the Canadian School. It was very 'Indian' and I am very glad I got to see it. We weren't able to go to the actual wedding (quite far away on a Wednesday night...) so the reception (the night before oddly enough) was as close as I am gonna get to an Indian wedding in India. I guess they're not really like they appear in the Bollywood movies anyway. Darn. I was very excited about the shirt I am wearing though. Bought it that afternoon. Very bright. Very Jessie ;)

I thought these two were two of my best!

Looking up a flower lined street...mountains in the distance...

The typical Greek blue and white, with a dash of bold red!

I know flowers are sort of standard stuff to take pics of on vacation, but I just found some of these exceptionally beautiful!

Me and bubba at Spinaloga- the old army base and also an old leper colony! The other pic is from Knossis, an old recreated Minoan village

Family!

Me and Bubba and Mom at a restaurant. Me and Aunt Jan pose on the rocks below our villa- right on the ocean!

The view from the breakfast place at the resort and the sign for our room- #62 Santorini

Our Greek resort

The view of the main part of the resort 'Porto Elounda' in Crete with the mountains in the background.

Greece pics

The lounge chairs at our villa in Crete and the pretty port view in Elounta (the town where our resort was located). The restaurant we ate at the first night is in the background.

Me and Mom!

Me and Mom at dinner the first night in Crete (notice we don't have tans yet!)

India

Things I will Miss about India......
- cheap travel all over Asia
- reeaaalllly good Indian food....reaallly cheap!
- my stray dogs, Brownsville, Fatty (aka ‘This one’), Trixie (‘The Trixifier’) and Blackie
- wearing super colourful clothes and not being ‘super-Jessie-weird-colouful’ just ‘normal’!! Not that I mind being super Jessie colourful in my own way....it is kinda one of the things that defines my style and I like that! But Indians do colour well- Indians love bright pink, blue, yellow, red....and love wearing it all together even more! Men seem to wear pink shirts more often than, say, white or black!
- year round summer....(most of the time..I mean it gets stinkin hot in March and April!)
- not being freaked out that there are geckos all over my house and yard
- Miss Ashi and all the other wonderful, talented teachers I met here


Things I can’t wait to get away from in India........
- the pollution...from burning garbage, from litter, from public defecation, and mostly from diesel fuel
- the overt staring/ogling/’Eve teasing’ (as it is called here) by men at me, my legs when I run in shorts, and especially the laughing at me when I get angry at them
- Indian television channels that play the same commercials OVER and OVER and OVER again.....2 years running now!
- the dry, dry, bone dry heat from March to May
- the road leading from the highway into the school lot- 1 km of literally the worst potholes in the universe!

Things I can’t wait for in Canada........
- Timmy’s!!
- seeing my friend Jenn’s new baby girl Chloe Aleta Davey (and Jenn and Shawn too!)
- seeing my fam and my doggy Riley
- sleeping in a bed that is not as hard as a rock
- seeing Chloe Aleta Davey....I am already obsessed!
- living and working (I hope) in Toronto and enjoying all TO had to offer

G to G

Gone to Greece everyone...check ya in just over a week. I can't wait to see my Mommy!!

ps- Amazing news- One of my very best friends, Jenn Milligan, gave birth to a healthy baby girl on April 1st, 2007 at 12:15pm. The new human being's name: Chloe Aleta Davey....and lemme tell you- she is GORGEOUS!

Anything can be.

This is something that was on my friend Bri Johnson's blog. I liked it.....