Oh, It's A Swell Time..

Tonight was the night. Of the Secret Santa and potluck. I contributed with my baked sweet potato fries, which was the only thing I could offer. We started with present openings, but I had to run back to my apartment in two 10-minute intervals because I had two pans of sweet potatoes baking at different times =.=lll So, I missed the latter portion of the present opening, so when I got back, it was all done =(
It was partly due to fact that when I went back the second time, Mich and Kir and a guy I didn't know was standing in the hallway, and I was in such a mad rush I must've looked half-crazy. Anyways, of course with my plate of hot potato fries in my hands, I couldn't just go past them without offering some! They liked it a lot, and Kir attempted to kidnap the plate. I was pleased. Haha. AND the guy I didn't know and I, we looked at each other, thinking, "Do I know you?" I asked him which floor, where he lived. He pointed. It was the apartment door to the right of mine. And where did I live? I point to my door a little of the left behind me. Err. Rob is his name.

So I finally meet one of "true" neighbours on the same side of the hallway!! Seriously, I never saw anyone go in or out of the apartments on either side of ours. It's a bit creepy, actually. But I found out that at least one dweller is human, so it's all okay XD

When I made it back, all the presents were opened except the one I had to give to him! Haha I hid it under the table, so no one knew there was one left! (You must be confused; some of the people were away, or were missed in the communication that Secret Santa was changed to today instead of Wednesday, so not everyone gave or received a gift today). I came back to the potluck and my sweet potato fries were attacked! I got compliments! *blushes* It's nothing at all though, it's almost insultingly easy to make; I shall make some for you guys when I get back?
Anyways, my Secret Santa was a successful! He liked it a lot, so yay!!

The guy Mar, from Mauritius, he brought chicken curry and this interesting coconut dessert, both of which he made himself, emphasizing the Mauritian tradition of the dishes. Haha, told you he was Mauritius crazy =D
The curry was so gooood and there was fried rice, naan (love!), a different kind of curry/stir-fry, my sweet potato fries... Mmmmmm.

After that, I went back down to my apartment, and Rah's like, Oh I'm going to introduce you to someone... and whaddya know? Tonight, I met my "true" fellow neighbours from both sides of my apartment for the first time! After 3 months! Wow. There're three girls living on the left apartment, and four guys on the right. So I met Rob from the right, and Nau from the left. She just returned from Khushali, an Ismaili (I think) celebration. So as Rah and Nau explained to me, it's a celebration of their religious leader, on his birthday- which is December 13th. Rah celebrated by going out to this amazing (apparently best in Mtl) ice cream place at Jean-Talon. I was in a dilemma, but in the end I didn't go because I was just too tired and had too much work to do (study math). There're other times... but it sounded absolutely amazing. There was masala chai flavour! Wth...! Now I'm drooling ><

Okay, so all three of us go down to meet Har, one of the guys in our Secret Santa group, who wasn't present at the potluck/exchange because he was at Harvard visiting a friend for a few days. We end up in front of his door, and Any ended up with us as well. Ooooh and hahaha he reaches into his backpack and gives in two bars of Ghirardelli chocolates!! My Secret Santa revealed, yups yups!
(See. I got chocolate after all. From Cambridge. XP I so do like things from other places)
They're rectangular bars, one of Milk Chocolate (my fav kind!!) and one w/ peanut butter in it. Yum! So we're still all standing in the first floor hallway and someone walk by. I almost let her go down the hall but I realized it was Far! And she didn't say hello, so I was like "Far___! What are you doing?" That got her attention haha. She said she was going down to get Sprite from the vending machine.

Oh no. It's happened. It was all because of her. She said something that just switched something on in my brain and from that point on, after she said that word, I had an extreme craving for Sprite. This Sprite craving led us all down to the hall (Any, Har, Rah, Nau, Far, and me). From that point on, there was proof that something out there did not want to make it easy to satisfy my Sprite craving. First, the machine beeped red and all three rows of Sprite buttons signaled "Choose another selection". Second, settling for second best, we pressed for Coke, and got the same reply. With the banging on the buttons, a Diet Coke rolled out. Which I refused to touch. Aspartame!!! And anyways, remember SPRITE CRAVING??

Since Far is the one who got us all into this, because she had to say Sprite! and I had to get this Sprite craving, which in turn led us all outside in our snow gear with the destination of the corner store which Any suggested, being closest.
The corner store was closed. Again, I had the feeling that something out there really has something against me. I felt like a (wo)man in the desert searching for water, and anything else would not do. McDonald's was closed. G-spot was closed. Damn.
And then we found a place that was still open at 11-something pm! We all went in and we all had Sprite (haha finally!!) and poutine.. It was good.

We went back to the courtyard of our rez, and a snowfight was going on between groups of people! So we get inevitably drawn in, and although I didn't have gloves and it was cold, I totally got some great hits! I got revenge on Hus for hitting defenseless observers Nau and Far (who bonded... 'cause one could speak Urdu and one could understand a bit of it? Yay- glad I intro'd someone to someone today too).
Oh, and I found out the Nau, my neighbour, is from Edmonton. It's apparently SO COLD there right now.

All in all, a fun wacky exhilarating night! (I still can't believe Rah had to introduce me to my own NEIGHBOUR! Well.. he practically knows at least one person behind every door at the Chocolate Rez, I have no idea how.....)