San Fran

Mini Casa Rosa reunion in San Francisco! I was at Stanford for about three weeks of lab work this summer. When I finished up, my friend Nat come to meet up with me and we headed to San Fran for a few days. Chee gave us a great little tour around his project area in downtown in San Francisco. Then we met up with Antoine, Maren and Scott for an afternoon at the Asian Art Museum and a delicious vegan sushi lunch. It was way too brief - way way to brief, but so lovely to see you again. Maren, Scott and I also had a great visit in June in Halifax! They stayed with me for about 10 days (two of which we actually got to hang out, but they were a great two!).















In front of the Asian Art Museum...

getting married

Hi everyone,

You might remember James Taylor (tall skinny guy).

We've finally realized that we can't live without each other and as of August 5th we're engaged to be married. We hope to be married summer 2008 in Toronto. I'll be moving to Toronto next spring/summer and we'll be married soon after. Of course my family is insanely happy (so is his). I'm excited and very happy but kinda torn at the idea of leaving Vancouver. i'm also a bit overwhelmed at how much i have to fit into this last year in Vancouver.

We will be holding a party (probably in May) for all my friends on this side of the country and i hope many of you can make an appearance.

i hope everyone is well.

i thought i'd share,
a big hug to everyone,
stephanie

Back to Vancouver

Well, I spent a very short spring break in Vancouver. And all the usual, but also unusual suspects showed up at a little get together we had at Darren's. One day, one of these Casa Rosa reunions will have everyone there. Missing from the photos: Graeme, Iain and I, but we'll get those them some other time.

Note, there are many Starbucks in Montréal. It is NOT only a Vancouver phenomenon.

Familiar faces in Toronto

It was wonderful to see Steph and Sarah in Toronto just before Christmas. Yay! They both look great - happy and cheerful as always! Also, Darren, thanks for coming down to St. Catharines for a visit after Christmas. Good luck with your job! I arrived in Halifax this week and was taken care of and fed wonderful food by Graeme and Aftab. Graeme, enjoy the rest of your cross-Canada journey. Aftab - see you around town! I'm glad you are here. To all others in the Casa Rosa family - happy new year. I hope 2007 is good to you all.
Love Dawn

Here's Chee!

...dressed for the bitterly cold Montreal winter.
















I miss you Chee. I haven't heard from you in a while - hope all is well!

Dawn

Okay, time to contribute

I'm taking up kind of a big slot here, but who's keeping track? It's been an exciting year and I wanted to share some of it with the Casa Rosa gang, because I got to see many of you this year! The year started off on a high note because I finished my MSc in Kingston. I celebrated by going to Vancouver to see the hooligans shown below...



















Lucifer the Great




















I was lucky to catch Graeme because the night after I arrived, he left for Africa to visit Eric. I also got in a quick hello with Steph at her yummy cafe.

Next month, I took advantage of the fact that I wouldn't be close to Montreal for much longer and visited some Casa Rosa friends there.



















The lovely Sansan




















Our favourite friendly lawyer Sarom...and also Chee Fong. Chee, the pictures of you didn't load so you will feature in the next post :)

Next I moved out of Kingston and went to England for a conference and took advantage of the free ticket to explore the craziness that is Spain at Easter, and also Morocco, France and Italy. The main highlight (besides all the incredible art and architecture) was definitely the food (see below). I also visited the village my mother was born in.















Look at all those olives! Heaven! And so cheap! Tangier, Morocco.



















More of the delicious food I got to eat - this is also taken in Morocco.
















When I got home I moved to Calgary for the summer to work. Lots of opportunities for hiking and climbing in the beautiful Rocky Mountains. In this photo we had just walked into BC from Kananaskis Park in Alberta.
















Sarah and Sarom, this one is for you. This is a photo from my Rotary exchange reunion in Paris in July - time to get yours organized!




















I had a fun visit from Sen in Calgary in which we performed amazing climbing feats - anyone remember/know him from UBC?
















Also, I'm convinced some of you know/remember Nick Manklow (on the right). He attended some Casa Rosa gang parties. He now lives in Calgary and set me up with a great ultimate frisbee team. We had a ridiculous weekend tournament in Regina - who knew it was only a 7hr drive? It rained the entire time, but we had fun.




















At the end of summer I left Calgary (possibly never to return), and went back home for a stretch. Then I went to Bhutan for the first field season for my PhD at Dalhousie. It is an incredible country (aren't all countries in their own way?). This is Taktsang Dzong (monastery/fortress) near Paro, built around a cave in which Guru Rinpoche first camped when he arrived in Bhutan on a flaming, flying tigress.




















Field work was somewhat unpredictable, but what can't be predicted is still expected. Snow kept me out of some areas (never having worked with horses before I didn't think about the fact that when snow covers the grass, horses can't eat it...) but it was still a great trip. I stopped in Thailand for a few weeks on the way home (bringing back some good memories, Julie) and in California for a week (giggling and running down giant desert sand dunes).

Okay, I'm not done! The year is not over. Last week I went to Halifax to find an apartment and get settled (come visit! Come!). I had a lovely breakfast with Aftab during which we discussed all the reasons why Graeme should attend planning school at Dalhousie (Chee, you might disagree). And it's nearly Christmas and Sarah is in Toronto! So hold tight for some pictures of Ms. Bryce and hopefully Ms. McKernan also before the year is out. Happy Christmas/Hanukkah/Holidays to all of you.

Dawn

sorry i missed you all

What i was doing last weekend

It's the Harvest Moon Ball Competition at the Killer Diller Ball in Seattle. i'm the first one in the navy dress with my partner Léo. We placed second, we placed second last year too. The funny thing is that we've also placed second in the Pacific Northwest Lindy Hop Championship for the past two years.

i hope you all had fun, keep me in the loop and i promise i'll see you all sometime.

stephanie

Dinner Party at Graeme's

 

Weekend in Vancouver

From Fraser to Main with heavy luggage...

 

Casa Rosa Reunion

Hey all,
Sunday, November 12th will be the day for a long-awaited Casa Rosa Reunion in Vancouver. Better than your high school reunion, we promise. Wish everyone could be here!
Hugs,
Sarah

here i am

hello all,

i'm currently living in Vancouver working at a bunch of different things. i'm doing arts administration for EDAM dance and arts admin and event planning and teaching and performing for Jungle Swing. i also babysit the little girl who lives upstairs sometimes. that stuff usually keeps me out of trouble.

last summer (and the one before) i was in Sweden at the Herrang dance camp-all swing dancing all the time. last year i worked and danced, this year i worked the whole time. i was information manager. i made sure that everyone knew everything that was going on (it was rather insane). i travel down to Seattle on a semi-regular basis for swing events, and i just returned from a big weekend in Minneapolis. i still go home to Toronto every Christmas, and sometimes during the year for friend's weddings (that makes me feel rather grownup).

i'm living by the Drive with my friend Lucy and her cat Kasir. we moved in a year ago and i still have 3 boxes of things that i have to unpack. i need to get a bookshelf, and one day i will and there will be no boxes on my floor any longer.

that's what's up with truant me.

cheers,
stephanie

old friends

amigos mios!
how's life? i thought i had invited y'all to join when i made this blog a year ago, but i guess i didn't. now you're all invited, and you can invite others to join too. there are entirely too many photos of me here, so please post your own! let us all know what you're up to these days!
miss you all lots.
hugs from brazil,
sarah

dawn and sarah in the yukon, 2003

king's throne mountain, kluane national park, 2003. awww...what a fun day that was! i miss dawn!

Beira Rio youth

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São Francisco River, Minas Gerais

Places in Brazil

View of Edi's apartment in Santo André, São Paulo.















Beira Rio, the neighborhood where I currently live.
(Across the São Francisco River from Três Marias, Minas Gerais.)















São Paulo from the airplane.

new photos from Brazil

Here are a few photos of life in Minas Gerais, Brazil! Will try to post photos here regularly from now on, so keep checking this site...
Sarah

NB: Edi and I don't actually know how to pilot a boat--we are just posing! The other photos are of youth environmental education activities I´ve been involved with.

Here's a memory from a long time ago... Sarah and I in Gaspésie standing on the edge of a cliff...

...and another of Sarah just before she lept off the cliff and started flying around like superwoman. While Sarah will vehemently deny her own superpowers abilities, luckily, I was around to witness this spectacular event... I know the truth Sarah!!!

just checking if any pink people are still reading this...

Santo André, São Paulo (about 15 hours from where I'm currently living...)