MY LIFE | ConGRADulations

Time sure does fly by.

I remember the days leading up to my big move to Toronto—all the high school goodbyes and the excitement of finally getting out of there (Surrey, no hard feelings). Now, four years later, I officially have a Bachelor of Journalism.

It's been a crazy ride. I've met the most talented people, the most genuine people and the most encouraging people throughout my time at Ryerson. Earlier this month, I had my convocation and it definitely felt strange—welcome to the real world. Me, a university grad. Cool, eh?

My parents came from Vancity to spend the day with me in all my gowning glory. I seriously would not be where I am today if it weren't for the support of my family.

And of course my wonderful friends :)

My parents and I went out for dinner at a restaurant that I've never been to and it is literally two minutes from my campus. I've probably walked by it a million times, but little did I know, that it's such a hidden gem: Barberian's Steakhouse. They have a massive wine cellar that we got a tour of before our meal. It was seriously amazing. They hold private events there and house 20,000 bottles of wine....and that's just their red wines apparently (the whites are in another cellar across the street). So I was definitely impressed.  

 

To top it off, Barberian's even surprised me with a ConGRADulations dessert, which was SO delicious.

After dinner, I went out to celebrate with my fellow j-school grads at the Thompson Hotel's 1812 lounge

Thanks for an amazing four years, Ryerson! It's been real.

- Christina
Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

The Ryersonian RAPS Up + Hump Day Heroes #4

It's been an time at The Ryersonian and it feels weird to say that it's officially over! I spent six weeks as the live managing editor and it was a great experience. I worked with an awesome team and I'm pretty proud of what we were able to produce during our Sonian stint. We became like a little j-school family and we often wore coordinated outfits....

Hump Day Heroes #3: What should I wear on a first date?

This week on Hump Day Heroes, David and I got a question about what a guy should wear on a first date. Here's what we had to say:

PS - in other exciting news, HDH got our first ad in the newspaper!!

Missed an episode? Catch up here>>http://bit.ly/1hVeXun

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

MY LIFE | The Ryersonian & Hump Day Heroes

My final semester as a Ryerson journalism student started off with an internship at ET Canada, which lasted six weeks. Once that ended, I had to head back to campus and fulfill six weeks as a part of the masthead of The Ryersonian, a weekly campus publication. Now in my fourth week, it's been an interesting experience.

My classmates and I make up the entire masthead and we each have specific roles. I landed the position of Live Managing Editor, where I manage the live blogs on the website and manage the social media accounts — right up my alley. So it's been a good time. I also work closely with the online managing editor, as well as the rest of the team.

Be sure to check out www.ryersonian.ca to see what we've been working on.
Also, while you're at it, follow us on Twitter & Instagram: @theryersonian

And we also have quite a bit of creative freedom, which is nice. We're encouraged to pursue projects that we enjoy, which led to the creation of Hump Day Heroes. My friend David and I decided to start up our own dating/love advice web video series. Every Wednesday, we answer a question from a Ryerson student, bringing our own opinions as well as other notable Ryerson voices to answer them.

CollegeFashionista Fall 2013

Wow, I can't believe I've been with CollegeFashionista for a little more than two years now. Being a CF Style Guru has been such an amazing experience. Not only have I gotten to improve my editorial and photography skills, but I've also been able to meet some incredible people along the way.

DANCE | OUCH 2013

Amongst all the craziness of work and school last month, I was also preparing for a dance competition, the Ontario Universities Competition For Hip-Hop. My days were full of training as a new barista at Starbucks, working on a TV documentary and visual merchandising at Club Monaco, while my evenings were spent with my Urban Hip Hop Union dance team on campus at Ryerson. We practiced like crazy and it really helped us bond as a crew, becoming more like a family.

I've been dancing at Ryerson since my first year. It's kind of sad that this will be my last. I've honestly had such an amazing experience meeting and dancing with these incredibly talented and caring people. I've learned a ton.

Anyways, enough of the sappiness. Back to OUCH. Leading up to the big day, we had intense practices and worked hard to get everything ready - from cleaning choreo to deciding on costumes. We came up with some pretty sick costumes if I do say so myself. Black T-shirts with a strip of plaid fabric on the bottom, light jeans, black shoes and a black hat. Simple but effective. I spent a lot of time on those T-shirts haha, my nights looked like this:

EVENT | MYR1AD 2013

A couple weeks ago, I attended the first-ever MYR1AD fashion show and exhibit, presented by Ryerson fashion students. I was covering the event for Faze Magazine and one of my fellow contributors was actually helping to run the show! I was impressed with the final product and the pieces that were showcased. Ryerson has some very talented students, that's for sure!

Here's a screenshot from Faze.ca:

Full article - http://www.faze.ca/categories/style/2013/myr1ad.html

More pics:

MY LIFE | Halloween & More

Welcome to my life.

I'm starting up a new section on my blog featuring the random events that happen in my own life, the life of a twenty-something college girl living in the city. During this past summer in NYC, I documented each week and shared my experiences via photos, but I stopped once I got back to Toronto. But with everything else going on now, I figure why stop? I'm going to be writing about the stuff that goes on in my personal life, so feel free to join in on the fun (or ignore these posts if you'd prefer haha).

To kick things off, I'll start at Halloween. For the past couple years, Pocahontas has been my go-to costume. A friend of mine let me borrow it a while ago and it's kind of just stuck around. -->

But this year, I wanted to give the Disney character a rest and try something else. But as usual, I left it until last minute, which resulted in me rummaging through my entire closet looking for something—anything– that I could possibly pull off as a costume. After nearly giving up, I pulled out the over-sized t-shirt I bought in New York with the MTA subway system on it (for $5, I might add). Wonderful. So this shirt, which was long enough as a dress (perks of being a shortie), was my impromptu Halloween costume. Basically the perfect choice for me since I have an obsession with NYC (a full blog post on its way on that issue).

UHHU Dance Workshop

I've been dancing since grade five and I'm so glad I made the decision to continue even after I moved out to Toronto. During my first year here, I auditioned to be a part of the Urban Hip Hop Union (UHHU) dance team—such a great experience. Since making it onto the team, I've met amazing people and competed with them at the annual Ontario Universities Competition for Hip-Hop (aka O.U.C.H). Now in my last year at Ryerson, this also marks my last year dancing with this incredible team, who has really become like a second family.

Anyways, in addition to competing at O.U.C.H, we also hold events and workshops on campus to bring people together for the love of hip-hip. I got to teach the first dance workshop of the year and I had a blast. Here's the choreography that I taught:

This year's O.U.C.H takes place on November 23rd at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Here's a sneak preview of what we've been working on - meet some of my team:

For more O.U.C.H info, check out www.ouchdance.ca

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

CollegeFashionista x Huffington Post #2

Last semester, I got to write an article for a series of posts in a partnership with CollegeFashionista and The Huffington Post. My task was to put a spotlight on a stylish Ryerson student and showcase the fashion here on campus. I featured Dani Reynolds and the piece turned out really well!

This semester, I was asked to do the same, so I had to find another awesome candidate. And Kate O'Reilly came along. This fourth-year fashion communications student and aspiring stylist was the perfect choice and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Ps, you should defs check out her styling portfolio, she's super talented - she works with a styling agency based in Austria called Making Of.

Here's a glimpse of the article, plus the photos I took:

 Read the full article HERE

Be sure to check out CollegeFashionista for all the latest trends spotted on campus!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

CollegeFashionista Fall 2013

Here's to another fabulous semester with CollegeFashionista! I had the pleasure of reporting from NYC this summer, but now I'm back on campus in Toronto. So I'll be on the hunt this fall to find Ryerson's most stylish :)

Here are some of my posts from the last couple months in NY:

Left: ACCESSORIES REPORT: Black And White Summer

Right: ACCESSORIES REPORT: Two-Tonin'

Left: ACCESSORIES REPORT: Polka-Dot It

Right: ACCESSORIES REPORT: Master of the LBD

Left: ACCESSORIES REPORT: Pretty In White

Right: ACCESSORIES REPORT: Rocking The Black And White

Here's my STYLE GURU BIO that went up last week to kick off the new semester (this was my SIXTH bio with CF, wow time flies!)

Read the rest of the bio HERE

Be sure to find all the latest campus fashion trends at www.collegefashionista.com and check out my WHAT TO WEAR posts coming up every Thursday!

- Christina

Follow my adventures on Twitter: @christinaaa28

CollegeFashionista Summer 2013

I've been contributing to CollegeFashionista as a Style Guru for roughly a year and a half now and I have absolutely loved every minute of it. Being able to showcase student style from my own campus while being a part of a community of fellow style gurus from all over the world has been incredible and I've made so many great friendships. This will be my second summer with CollegeFashionista and I'm super excited to be reporting this year from New York City.

Just as a nice little flashback first though, I thought I'd share some of the stylish students I was able to showcase this past semester:

I'm looking forward to finding more students to feature in the city! Here is my STYLE GURU BIO that was posted this week on CollegeFashionista to kick of the summer:

 Read it HERE.

Thanks for following!

- Christina
@christinaaa28