march madness.

 Something must have been in the air during the 80's, particularly in the summertime, maybe it was love? It's the only explanation I can think of for all the birthday parties this month... already on the 7th alone, the names of 5 birthday babies come to mind (including my homegirl S - sorry I couldn't be there for your big 2-5!).

This month also marked the start of the second semester at school... and I'm not going to lie, but I'm already really behind. It might have something to do with the fact that I spent just as many hours at these soirées as I did at school (ok, I may have also missed a few classes... blame it on the a-a-a-a-a-alcohol especially during the mid-week festivities).

And considering it is March of course, who can forget the be-all, end-all of alcohol-related celebrations, St Patrick's Day! This year, I had the pleasure of attending two (rival, because this is about the 3RD time these lads have had parties on the same day) house parties... good company, good fun, mixed in with  some green-clad gangsters (R - I guess someone had to represent the ghetto that is Rosedale/Summerhill!) 

To add to the frenzy of this month, we cannot forget about the calamity of the March 11th tsunami. My heart deeply goes out to all of those who were struck by the earthquake, to those who lost or are still searching for loved ones in Japan... and to my own loved ones back home, thanks for all of the messages of concern, Beijing hasn't been affected by any radioactive leaks and the whole potassium-iodide-massive-increase-in-salt-sales crisis was just due to a rumour on the internet gone wrong (the man responsible for the post was arrested).  

And now for some of Michelle's most memorable March madness moments...

The host with the most.

905/416 represent.

Lesson here: do not piss off
your Chinese neighbours.

Free beer at Helen's.

Dim sum at 5am.
(photo courtesy of: A.)

Little brother's sweet 23rd...
good times never seem so good.

And now, time to finally hit the books... 

Je t'aime... moi non plus.

I never understood why my first boyfriend had a celebrity crush on Natalie Portman... 10 years later, it's all crystal swan-clear.

Watching this video, an all too-familiar wave of nostalgia overcame me, a series of many since leaving Paris. With scenes of Parc Monceau in the 8e, it reminded me of the charm in the air as you would stroll through the narrow, cobblestone-laden streets. Cafés at every corner? Yes, and I could sit at every one of them for hours and it still wouldn't be enough to take in all of the beauty.  
 

Dior's new Chérie

spring fever.

Spring officially began last Sunday and to mark it, the Beijing government officially turned off all of the central heating, everywhere.

Every year like clockwork, the city officials dutifully flick the switch that is the capital's source of heat. For these 4 months, from November 15 to March 15, can Beijingers actually remove their jackets indoors... for the months leading up to and afterwards, that's another story.

As a result of this rather unexpected change in room temperature, my body hasn't been coping well and somewhere in between home, school and the local restaurants, I definitely caught something that resulted in a sore throat (especially painful when yawning - monday mornings are the worst) and chain sneezing. With the help of (the useless) western medication, hopefully my body can fight off the notorious Beijing bug soon, and *fingers crossed* develop enough resistance to prevent any potential future Chinese hospital visits - something I do not want, EVER, to blog about...   

twenty-four candles.

Enfin...It took months of pondering for just the blog name to describe my current situation and it finally came to me during brunch this morning.

With weeks to go until the BIG "quarter of a century" birthday, my life is still well on the path to self-discovery (in other words, I’m almost 25 and still “lost”). After about a year-and-a-half of living abroad, I'm starting to feel a little homesick. Thankfully there's family close-by to help me cope. And for those not-so close-by, just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about you! I have been wanting to document what was going on in my life for some time now and coming back from vacation all refreshed, I thought, there's no better time than now (let's just hope this doesn't share the same fate as the Paris blog).

One of the topics at the brunch table this fine Sunday was birthdays. Memorable birthdays, champagne birthdays, upcoming birthdays, were all part of the normal discussion. However, one very (nerdy, but) interesting fact stood out from all the jibber-jabber: the perfect number that is twenty-eight. 

“It’s the perfect birthday”, says J. Keep in mind that my cousin J is in the midst of studying for her actuarial sciences exams, she does have numbers on the brain A LOT these days. For those of you who aren't with it when it comes to mathematics lingo, here's a little math lesson for you:

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a "perfect number" is: 

an integer greater than zero, the sum of whose integral factors including 1, but excluding itself, is equal to itself

Examples of perfect numbers:

The factors of 6 are 1, 2, 3 and 6 (1 + 2 + 3 = 6)
 
The factors of 28 are 1, 2, 4, 7, 14 and 28 (1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28)

The factors of 496 are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 31, 62, 124, 248 and 496 (1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 31 + 62 + 124 + 248 = 496) 

After hearing this (and well, knowing that 2-5 is right around the corner), 28 had become the new 25... which means another chance to scratch off all those before-you-reach-25 (or should I say, before-you-reach-28) goals off the bucket list.

Celebrating my 24th with a pique-nique on the Champ de Mars.

And let's face it, reaching my 496^th birthday isn't exactly going to be a cakewalk...