Nelson's Incoherency.

Take me back..

2011-07-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

Motivation

2011-06-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Motivation comes in many ways. Recently I have been dedicating my days to studying the MCAT. Scratch that, I've hardly been dedicated. Going out during the playoffs basically meant little to no studying. Any studying done probably got erased by the excitement and events associated with playoff hockey. I realised I was not taking the MCAT as seriously as I should have been. Students, on average, spend about 3 good months studying for this test, I am attempting to do it in about 1.5. I know I am not the smartest academically which means I am at an even greater disadvantage.

In light of recent events at home, I have found a new source of motivation: my family. This is too public of a place to write about everything but going out is now going to take a backseat to everything. I am comfortable knowing while everyone is out partying Friday and Saturday, I will be at home with coffee partying with Organic Chemistry and Physics. My future doesn't necessarily depend on this test, but I am not going to half-ass this exam. For the next 5 weeks I don't see myself going out to the extent I have been in the past year. It's time to smarten up and know my priorities. Family is always going to come first and this is the first time in a long time I have actually accepted this with open arms.

There's no place for me to screw around anymore. It's time to get serious Nelson. I may be the youngest in the family but with the backbone of the household breaking down, someone's gotta make up for it.

I can only hope things will return back to some normalcy by summer's end.

...

2010-12-14T00:06:00.001-08:00

You know it's finals when you gain weight.

My mother called me fat today.

Excellent.

The Red Centre

2010-11-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

I KNOW. 5 months later and I'm FINALLY writing about Uluru. I debated long and hard whether or not to even do it, but instead of 'blogging' about it I've decided to treat this as more of a reflection/journal of my travels in Australia. There hasn't been a day where I didn't think about Australia. It sucks, but it's life.

----------------------------------------------

Wow, to go back all those months it's sort of hard actually.. So ever since I was in grade 4 my teacher had taught me about Uluru (Ayer's Rock is the 'white man' name for it, something I never bothered to adopt since it feels disrespectful) and its iconic symbolism to Australia. For those who don't know what exactly Uluru is it's that big red rock you see in Australia books/postcards/brochures. Money was no longer that big of an issue to me at this point, I was determined to see as much as I could as my time in Australia was drawing to a close.

So I booked a flight with Jess, Xander and Hilary (bro and sis from FL, also living at the Unilodge) for the end of June, right after final exams [funny: it's the end of UBC exams right now..]. It was going to be cold for sure as nighttime temps hovered around freezing. I was just getting used to the low teens that Melbourne was going through too..

We would be there for 5 days. There are only two flights that go in/out of Alice Springs each day. One from Tiger, the other from Qantas. We arrived in the evening and it was pitch black..and chilly. We caught the shuttle bus our hostel provided us with and already, I could feel I was in an entirely different world. Strange, yet exciting. As we got settled in..we decided to see what was going on in the restaurant/pub downstairs. Since it was night, and we were warned to NOT wander the streets then, we planned for a calm night.

Next think you know, jugs were on the table, bottles of wine appeared, and I'll leave it at that.

Next day, we caught up with one of the girls I met on the plane ride over, Steph, as we went into town to explore. It was sort of chilly in the morning but by noon, it got up to about 20ish degrees. Such a nice welcome.. weather in the desert is too weird.

Sightseeing, shopping, and other touristy related activities were completed. We even found a place that sold $6 steak, chips, and a beer to go with it. Can NOT beat that anywhere. Benefits of a small town I suppose. We took a quick pit stop at the bottle shop to pick up some expensive as goon. Classy goon. $15, 2L. Oh boy, Stanley. This is where my eyes truly opened to the very visible disparity that exist in the town.

Many aboriginals of Australia have had a rough past. Similar to Canada and many other countries, when it was first colonized the settlers decided to 'ethnically cleanse the country of any natives for whatever reason they saw fit. The after effects are still seen today as the Aboriginals of Australia are now only in select concentrated areas, Alice Springs (and the Northern Territory) being one of them. Through government handouts, the natives still receive little to no assistance in forms of education or support through their lives. Thus, many fall into the alcoholic world that is so often stereotyped with this group of people. Although not all Aboriginals are like this, the ones we saw around town were just alarming in appearance. They'd sit around the street with a box of wine to themselves and drink themselves till they pass out. The bottle shop even has signs limiting sales of goon to one box/car or group of them in an attempt to control the alcoholism. Sadly, it doesn't really work. Fetal alcohol syndrome is almost a given with many of the kids, some of which I saw first hand. Heart breaking, but also a dark side to Australia. It's not perfect and I can see how it needs to address these serious issues but I digress.. back to the trip.

We went back to our hostel to cook up dinner again, ha. My appetite when travelling more than doubles, it's weird. Pesto pasta with chicken was the meal of choice. Standard backpacker's meal I suppose. I learned from this trip there are meals many backpackers will eat. Pasta, of course, rice, butter chicken (of all things), potatoes, and $10 roast chicken from Woolies..

Anyways. I believe we had a relatively easy night because we had to be up at 6am the next day to start our tour.

So I won't go into too much detail as I feel the pictures alone have enough substance to them. I'll just jot down notes here and there of any significant or interesting events to note.

....okay I'll do that soon. Back to studying.

Still holding on..

2010-09-21T00:19:00.001-07:00

I still can't believe it was just two months ago that I was in Australia. Now, I'm dealing with graduation, courses not working out, stresses at home and ..school..

Okay I'll stop bitching.

I still need to complete my final thoughts and reflections from my Alice Springs and East Coast trips.

I'll get on that soon.

All Islands are Good Islands

2010-07-18T14:02:00.001-07:00

I don't think I've ever gone to an island which I didn't enjoy.. Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Islands, Whitsunday Islands, Australia.. and even Tasmania. Tasmania, according to a friend of mine I met there is, "an island made of inbreds". Many people give Tassie grief because it's sort of like the ugly cousin of Australia. I tried not to let these stereotypes affect my view of Tassie as I had never even considered travelling there until the opportunity arose. Hell, might as well just go to it..and considering I'd be going with 14 others, it had to be fun right?

Day One:
Our trip began at 2:30am as our flight, via Tiger Airways, was at 6am. Tiger is strict on checking in 45 minutes earlier as they will close off all their flights at this point and are rarely accommodating for latecomers.

Flight into Hobart was smooth...until we landed and left the plane. It was FREEZING. I knew it would be cold here, but I was not ready for the frigid blast of winter air on me. Thank god I was camping outside.. We picked up our rental cars and headed into the city for some breakfast. After a brief mix-up, our car (Team Asia) was lost in the parking lot and Mark's car (the Wallabeaters) managed to already hit a fence post not even 5 minutes on the road. Haha, hilarious.

Finally got into town and made a pit stop at Subway. The worker there seemed a bit overwhelmed at so many people invading her store so early but was nice enough to offer us each a free cookie after we asked! Our trip was already starting off on a good note. From there we headed to the Salamanca Market which only ran on Saturdays.

There was a lot of good food, merchandise, and even live performances by street artists there. Here's the hard part about travelling with 15 people, it's impossible to follow a strict timetable as everyone had their own interests. After gathering everyone, we drove off to Freycinet Park, otherwise known as Wineglass Bay. Here's where everyone got separated (as was the norm on this trip). Our car decided to take a small detour into some offroad driving, one car lagged behind, and the other was just too quick for us to follow. We once again bumped into some nice people who gave us their parking pass required to enter the national parks. Australians are just too nice.

Our car saw sunset at some lookout and took various pictures of the natural wonders of Tassie. It was cold, yet calming and serene at the same time. Good people coupled with good talks made for an awesome sunset.

Danny decided to scream like a little girl when he saw wild wallabies, as he's never seen them in real life yet (I don't think). I never thought such a high pitched squeal could come from a man, haha. From there, we drove back into Hobart as we checked into our hostel. It was Michael's birthday so we had a couple of beers ready and planned to eat at a restaurant by the wharf. Following Danny's brilliant idea to bring some travel-beers for the walk there, the police saw us and stopped us. Luuk was the only one who was actually "caught" by the cops for having open liquor as Danny and I stuffed our bottles in bushes. Lucky for us, they let him off with a warning as Taylor (already pretty tipsy) decided to make friends with them. Cops are really friendly in Australia and are NOTHING like the power tripping idiots found in Canada/America. They seriously could be your friend. Taylor even 'pushed' one to demonstrate a point and he just smiled.

Dinner was delicious and well deserved after a long day. We headed back to the hostel and just had fun there. I believe national anthems were sung by the Americans, Canadians and Dutch. I don't think I'll ever get the chance to travel with such a diverse group of people..

Day 2:
Woke up 'early' but the third room decided to have a bit of a sleep in so our day began late again. Today we'd be going to Mountfield where Lake Gordon and Russell Falls were. It was a long drive in, but worth it as the scenery made it worth it. Here was where I had near death experience #1 driving :) I decided to cut in front of the car I was following as it was too slow..little did I know I was going straight onto a truck.

I swear it wasn't THAT close but the people in the car were freaking out. Pfft, they just need to experience a true China man's driving style. Weak.

Got to Russell Falls after a bit of driving.. it wasn't as magnificent as I thought it would be, but still pretty neat.

We drove up some mountain to get to Lake Gordon where there was actually frost! Something I haven't seen since Vancouver..and this was May. Pictorials were taken as we continued on to the dams where we planned to watch sunset. The Wallabeaters once again took off too quickly as they lost us remaining 2 cars. We went to two smaller dams, Scott's Dam and Lake Edgar? to watch sunset. Afterwards, when we compared pictures, the other group's dam was MUCH bigger, but we still had fun. At least the three cars managed to stick together for half the journey today, ha.

Today was also the day where two cars killed a wallaby each. We saw one happen right in front our eyes as we were following car Band of Gold (haha) and one hopped right into their front wheel. But remember people, wallabies and kangaroos are actually considered a pest species in Australia because there's just so many of them. They overgraze the land and damage the ground by travelling/hopping so much. No need to feel guilty for running them over or eating them ;) Kangaroo steaks are delicious, I can attest to that. Plus, it's low in fat and very rich in protein.

At night, some of us decided to go to the casino and attempt to win some money. Most of us (except Paul) managed to come out on top as I made 95? or something to that extent playing blackjack with Min. Team Asian Sensation never loses.

Day 3:
We decided to go to Bruny Island (who knew Tasmania had other islands within it..) to check out some nice lookouts.

Cheese tasting was magnificent as most of us bought some with bread to eat for lunch. Walking up to the lookout to see both sides of the islands (refer to pic) was breath taking. Unfortunately, two of our travelling mates had a flight to catch back to Melbourne, so the trip was cut short on the island. Not to worry though, while waiting for our ferry back the 'toaster' dance broke out as everyone took part in this fad that Rimock and Kim learned in Nzld. Perhaps I'll show it one day in Vancouver.. haha. It's awesome.

We also experienced one of the creepiest things ever. We decided to stop on the side of the road to discuss where to go next and there were sheep in the pastures next to us. Of course, we got out to take pictures of them..next thing you knew, they ALL looked at us, baa-ed in unison and walked towards us. I'm not talking about 20 sheep here, there were at least 150 of them just looking at us and every single one of them just walking towards us. As quickly as they came, they suddenly all ran away. It was definitely creepy as they approached us as I thought they'd attack us like some possessed demonic sheep.

While one car took them to the airport, the rest of us went to Mount Wellington, a mountain located pretty close to Hobart. The drive up was pretty slow as the roads were narrow and little protection against falling off. However, the views were nothing like I've ever seen. We drove into, then above the clouds as we watched sunset from the top of the mountain. The clouds were swirling in and around us as we watched Hobart light up and admired just where the hell we were. I will never forget those views up there. My camera did it no justice as I tried to capture how beautiful it was. We decided to eat some real oven baked pizza for dinner as I scarfed down one with Tanis. Best meal yet, it was so satisfying.

Drinking games followed in the hostel as we played Kings (where I had to put a damn box over my head...) and watched some scary movie to end the night. I passed out for the entire movie with Taylor. So comfortable ;). The final day was quickly approaching as I wasn't ready for it to end so quickly..

Day 4:
Our last day was spent going to Port Arthur, a historical settlement town. The drive in was surreal at one point as the low clouds + water bodies made for an almost psychedelic experience..

We went to choice lookouts including the Tasman Arch as we took many pictures of other random scenic things. Oh right, we also went to some.. beach. I forgot what it was called, but I killed a bird heading out of it. Now all 3 cars have killed some kind of wildlife on this trip. By the end, we realised we've each taken about 200 pictures of rocks, but hey, we have proof we were in Tasmania and that was enough for me to be happy.

Port Arthur was created by ex-convicts or something like that..basically and served as a jail for new convicts. Communities were formed we learned as people were brought here to serve time for the dumbest crimes you could imagine. Bad behaviour would result in inmates going to some dark, windowless, small room for hours as many would go crazy in there. As I went into this room I was creeped out at how DARK it was in there.. I don't think I could handle it. Inmates also had to manually step on a water wheel to keep it moving. Imagine a low intensity stair master workout for 8 hours. If you lagged or stopped, you basically fell to your death. Brutal.

Following the river cruise, we headed back into the city to return the cars and boarded the plane back to Melbourne.

---
This trip was definitely well worth it as I completely underestimated how beautiful and interesting Tassie really is. Many have said it looks like a smaller version of New Zealand which made me sad because I wish I had the time to check out New Zealand during my exchange here. Not to worry though, I'll be back to Australia one day and New Zealand will be conquered as well.

Paradise Found

2010-06-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

The last part of my Easter journey concluded on a sailing boat, Habibi. It's more of a backpacker's/budget boat so it was the cheapest option out there. Despite the fact there were no showers on board and the beds gave me literally 9 inches of breathing room, it was the best 3 days of my life.

The days' events are starting to blur already but for the first time in my life (for a long time anyways) I had absolutely nothing on my mind but..well, nothing. Any stress or troubles I had going on in my life were literally left on land as I took myself out of my always-high stress world and started to truly enjoy Australia for what it has to offer. Our first day consisted of the typical mingling and getting to know you small talk with everyone on board. There was about...25? or so of us. Sandy and I lugged some choice bevvies on board and realized it would be a fun couple of days by the amount others also brought. There were plenty of English folk, an Australian (dating a Canadian), Canadian sisters/cousins, a pair of American doctors, a Spanish/Italian couple who communicate in English..sorta cool actually, and a German.

The Whitsundays are basically a collection of islands off the coast from Airlie Beach and our sailboat went around/past many of these. I forgot to mention the heat was stifling. It was easily in the high 20s-low 30s with incredible humidity. Not showering + lathering on sunscreen was a..grimy experience to say the least. I think it took me a good 15 minutes to actually get the gunk off of me when I finally took a shower.

Anyways, we sailed, we talked, we ate, and of course, we drank. Conversations flowed, drinking games ensued and problems forgotten. For some odd reason, I had a relatively early night as I passed out in my bed before midnight (I think).. but we had the option of sleeping out on deck underneath the stars. The morning was definitely rough as we were awoken by the crack of dawn each day for breakfast. However, there was plenty of dead time to just sit back and sleep. We visited the famous Whitehaven Beach.. Even though there was a lot of debris left behind by the cyclone, it was easy to see why it's ranked as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The sand was remarkably white and the waters crystal clear. By 7am, we were out on the beach exploring and doing typical group photos (pyramid, the steps, making sand genitalia).
Other random memories I suppose from the trip included 3 snorkelling sessions out on the reef again. Since it didn't rain here like it did in Cairns, the sand wasn't as swirled up so everything was bluer and clearer. The fish fauna was definitely different here as there were even these monstrous fish that would let us touch it. I forgot what kind they were called..The last day we had one more snorkelling session and then headed back to Airlie. The after party was great fun even though some had to leave early due to other travel plans, but it was still a night of great memories, many of which I've forgotten or will not divulge publically.

Annnd that was that. Easter. I wish I could take myself back there where I just sat there in complete awe and relaxation.. because life right now is anything but that.
----
The goodbyes have begun and quite frankly, I'm not ready.

A flood and a tipped caravan..

2010-06-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 6, 2010. Yes, I am that behind on my updates.. bah.

Went back to the hostel after our day in the GBR. The rain came back.. as expected. We went to Woolworths (the Australia equivalent of Safeway.. I believe it's owned by the same company) and bought pasta..wait I think I already mentioned that. Okay nvm.
-----
Arrived at hostel, dinnered, and checked the weather for tomorrow. Things weren't looking too great for us as tours were once again flooded out. We would know tomorrow if it would actually run.. The night was weird as I didn't really feel like consuming any beer for fear of deadly morning after-effects (even though I am not usually prone to hangovers) but these brothers from Minnesota were quite the characters. Ended up having a good 'ol fashioned fight over which country is better, USA or Canada. Suffice to say, I lost as other Americans decided to chime in.. S'alright though, met some cool English people who arrived with 16 others. Meanwhile, Taylor and French boy were playing cards. Heh.

Morning came, rain continued..and we were told our tour would run! Even though they warned us the river was probably still too high, but we wouldn't know for sure until we got there. We sprayed on 40% DEET insect repellent. This stuff is literally deadly. It chokes you but definitely helped. Our tour guide was.. I'm going to call him Tom.. and was interesting to say the least. He constantly said "No worries" in the most Australian accent. Hard to describe, but definitely something I took back from the tour as he would say it no matter what happened, good or bad. We went to one of the rainforests and walked through it. Water levels there were extremely high and the rivers looked deadly if you fell in. The currents were extremely fast.

We approached the creek that would determine if we could make it across to Cape Tribulation.. anddd........... no go. Too high. We got out and just stared at our failure. We soon learned our company was actually the only one that departed on this day.. A bit dodgy if you ask me as they probably knew we wouldn't get across and since we chose to go on it anyways, no refund. Ah well.. I guess it's their way of ripping us off and making a nice profit. We were sort of disappointed I guess.. but we did get to go into a wildlife sanctuary where we saw cassowaries, wallabies/kangaroos (I can't tell), birds, CROCODILES (there are no alligators in Australia, remember that), and a Golden Orb Spider which was scary as. Size of my hand.

The crocodiles were definitely scary. 'Tom' threw a rock into the water and the largest one in the sanctuary (I think he said it was 6 metres? long) would attack it as it was hidden beneath all the vegetation in the water. Taylor has a video, hopefully she'll post it. The rain was coming down pretty good on us but by now, I really didn't care. I accepted the fact I'd be wet the entire day. Such is life in Australia.

So, we were disconnected from civilization literally as there was no cell phone reception where we were. We stopped by an ice cream factory and had some decent freshly made cream of the ice. Oh right, there was also no 'electricity' that connected to Cairns. Every place had their own generators and such, sort of alarming as I was not used to this. So we were told instead of the original hostel we were going to be at (where it was between a beach/rainforest type thing..so choked) we'd be at Crocodylus. We had heard about this place from the brothers and they were spot on with their description of it: No locks. Must buy their food. Dingy. Right in the middle of the rainforest. I will say though, in retrospect, this was definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been in. Basically burned an entire day there (1pm onwards..). Happy Hour would start at 7pm.. and we were ALL looking forward to that.

The owners are a couple and they asked if any of us wanted a free dinner in exchange for a shift in the kitchen that night helping out. I jumped at it as did Taylor and we were basically the kitchen bitches for an hour. I washed dishes as they came (we weren't allowed near the food..) and basically washed for an hour. Whatever, I got a huge roast chicken meal out of it and I was satisfied. Nothing compared to what White Spot could be. Happy Hour was much welcomed and our group just chilled with Steve, Tobias, and this guy from LA. Certain people got progressively intoxicated as there was literally nothing else to do there. The lady owner also got crazily drunk.. She was screaming and talking nonsense once it was about 11pm? I don't even remember. We stayed up and talked (I don't remember what anymore) and called it a night when our bodies gave up.

I tried to spot for cane toads (as I want to kill one of those suckers..) but no luck. THe walk back to our cabin was freaky though. Picture a barely lit rocky path in the middle of a rainforest with 256 different noises of the nightlife going off.. I always walked really quickly. The ambiance the noise created was surprisingly manageable.

Woke up to SUNLIGHT. Oh bloody hell, it was sunny. I took pictures of the morning rainforest and it was great. We paid for a transfer to get across the river today (it finally subsided) and proceeded to go zip lining through the jungle! Jungle Surfing was definitely a new experience as we zip lined over the trees and learned about the different vegetation/history of the place. How they managed to build the entire thing was incredible as there is no solid ground/area for machinery. We were with a couple who was on their honeymoon, aw.

After jungle surfing we just walked around Cape Tribulation as we waited for our afternoon pickup from the company. Nothing much to do.. the internet was down everywhere as Sandy and I tried to find a place that had it. Saw a dead cane toad (yes!) and the heat got progressively worse. Finally got picked up, ate crackers/dip for lunch and went back to Crocodylus to get others. We went on a river cruise and spotted some wild crocs, snakes, and random birds. Our guide on the way back was Baz, he had a great sense of humour. Australians I find never run out of things to talk about..and it's all interesting too as they have a different take on life than North Americans.

I fell asleep as the tour went through the luxurious parts of Queensland where a night at some of the resorts could cost you $10 000+. Toook some nice pretty pics (many of which my camera decided to delete on its own..) and went back to Cairns. I decided to go to Airlie Beach (Whitsundays) this night alone as I didn't really want to waste another day in Cairns just doing nothing as the girls had skydiving the next morning.

I sort of wish I stayed in Cairns as a group of Canadians I met on the shuttle to the greyhound station were going out and we hit it off for our love of hockey. Ah well. The bus ride was ... interesting. I purposely sat on the outer seat and made myself as FAT as possible hoping no one would sit next to me. It worked :). I had an entire two seats to myself and the ride became instantly 10x more comfortable. Stopped numerous times during the 11 hour trip at random expensive pit stops. $4 candy bars, drinks, water... $13 sandwiches with bugs lurking around it.. Not the most appetising. Finally got to Airlie by noon and checked into the hostel. It was scorching hot here. Finally. I spent the day just chilling out by the lagoon and worked on my tan. It was great. I needed a day to myself and it was good to just get away from everything for a day.

Hostel room was a bit weird as the people there were all from a sailing trip so everyone sort of knew eachother and they were all going to their respective after-parties. I did meet a Scottish girl there and we went down to the bar later to watch some live music. Again, quiet night as I didn't know any of the people there and I was feeling a little tired.

Tomorrow would be the final adventure of this trip as I would go on a 2day/2night sailing trip! The weather called for perfect conditions so I was ecstatic..

Alright, post too long, continue soon. Need to write about Tasmania after this too..

Update!: Great Barrier Reef

2010-05-11T19:25:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I've been so lazy in updating this thing, but I guess I'll stop being so lackadaisical. Even though it's been over a month since I went on my epic Easter trip, I should write about it. On the plane ride back I had written every little random thing I could possibly think of into my planner. Thank god I did that or else half my irreplaceable memories would have been lost.

Before departure

Right, so landing in Cairns it was raining. It rained for a good four days straight, in hindsight I suppose it wasn't that bad, but during the downpours I certainly felt like shit. Cairns is a city where it's a total Backpacker's city and more of a gateway to all the adventure activities (white water rafting, horseback riding, skydiving etc..) with lots of hostels. We stayed at Calypso, a funky place with cool walls and colours. Luckily we got our own self contained room with a working air conditioner. The humidity was something else. I don't think I've ever experienced such high humidity. For example, I left out a box of Cheerios (best breakfast food ever) and the air con got switched off. Coming back at night the box was pretty much so moist it was no use. Our wet clothes never dried, in fact it felt like they got wetter if we left them out..The ants in the room were also unwelcomed. I unknowingly dropped a couple of Cheerios on the ground and the ants would swarm it and no jokes, the Cheerio would turn black from all the ants on it. Protein anyone?

(as I'm writing this Chicago just took the lead 2-0 over us in Game 6.. ugh. Damn you Bieksa)

Right, so the first day was spent at Woolshed. Next day basically went into town to see what there was to do on a rainy day.. the answer was sadly, nothing. Ate, shopped at the market a bit, went back to the hostel and read/chilled. Found out Sandy's friend decided to go back to Melbourne early because of the weather. Drastic, but something that didn't even cross my mind. Didn't want to go out because of our Great Barrier Reef trip on Monday.

Great Barrier Reef time. My excitement was building from the moment I woke up. We went on a day cruise offered by Ocean Spirit Cruises. It was one of the cheapest options available, but by no means was it a bad boat. For the first time in two days there was SUNSHINE. The marina where we would board was perfect, even at 7:30 in the morning. Warm, not too humid, and the bright sunshine rejuvenated everyone's spirits. Tea/coffee & cookies were served. There was a significant number of Japanese tourists on the boat, I say this because they hoarded like 20 bags of cookies. Asians living up to their stereotypes, I love it, ha.

(f--ing eh, 3-0 now. This hurts)

Since we were all pretty tired from waking up so early, we napped [uncomfortably] as the boat headed towards our first destination, Oyster Reef. During this we got debriefed on how to breathe underwater for our introductory dive and basic skills and things we should do/know. On land, I thought it was all pretty basic.. until I actually got into the water. We were the first group to go on our dive while other people snorkelled first. The tank + weights were surprisingly heavy as we were strapped in. The stinger suits (to protect us from jellyfish stings as it was jellyfish season) were a bit awkward and they charged us $8 for them. Rape. Once we got into the water, we practiced clearing our mask and breathing properly. I was first. For some reason I could not get the hang of it..and I forgot how to clear my mask. Embarrassing because the instructor seemed to be getting annoyed at me. Oh well, she's being paid to deal with idiots like myself.

The sensation of breathing underwater was something new and a bit scary. You had to take deep breaths and only through your mouth obviously. I'm the type of person to usually only rely on the nose to breathe so that was an adjustment.

Once everyone got used to it, we "dove" down about 12 metres? I think it was.. Something pretty shallow. With my trusty underwater digi cam, I went crazy snapping pictures of everything possible. It was pretty neat. We even got to see this huge stingray! The guide said those are rare to see, it was massive. Nemo was found, I think that was everyone's goal. And the rest of the dive went relatively smoothly. It was sometimes hard trying to avoid hitting the corals as we'd sink down due to the tanks + weights. Kicking continuously seemed to help but I was apparently too fat and started to drag the group lower into the coral. :) I don't think I'm capable of diving, ha.

Stingray!

After that, I started to get seasick.. really bad. For some reason the dive made it worse. There were ginger tablets the boat provided to ease/prevent nausea, I took another two (4 total now for the day) in hopes it would chase it away. Lunch was being served too, sadly I was feeling too nauseated to eat much. Shame too, there was a good selection of fresh salads, fruits and meat. The prawns looked disgusting and made me want to vomit some more.

I snorkelled a bit after, fighting through my weak ass self for being prone to sea sickness. Min had it worse though, she was out for a good hour, ha. Snorkelling was a bit cooler because you could sort of go out on your own to the coral and see the marine life in its full glory. A lot of fish were spotted, none of which I could name or recognise, but it was still awesome.

We departed for Upolu Reef after lunch. During this, it was still relatively sunny, although the boat would literally go through rain clouds, then out into clear, sunny skies, then back again.. this went on the entire day. When it was sunny, I ran out on deck trying to soak in some rays. It was glorious.

So, got to Upolu, and just snorkelled for about a good 45 minutes here. I used a noodle because I was too lazy to swim on my own. Swimming felt good though, I sort of miss it after a couple years of not getting into a pool. More of the same thing as before. A lot of pictures, some failed ones, and just some perfect relaxation out in the ocean looking at the corals and unique fish species. Hard to describe, but this was finally a lifelong dream achieved. I let out 'holy shits' and 'wows' subconsciously many times. Everyone needs to experience this especially with the deteriorating conditions the Reef is in now. It won't be around for much longer with current predictions (I'm learning alllll about this in my Ecology class, it's great).

Had cake and a glass of sparkling wine on our way back to Cairns. The rain started to set in halfway and didn't let up as we were going back to dark, grey clouds. Oh well, the sun was good while it lasted. :( Got off at around 5pm and headed to Woolworth's to get some groceries for dinner. Eating out every night eats a hole into your pocket, well mine especially, when you're trying to save. Pasta + soup was on the menu tonight. Cost us a total of $2.60/each? I think. We left a bowl of leftover pasta in the microwave.. I wonder if anyone actually ate it.

Gorgeous eh?

Again, we had an early day the next day as we would attempt to get to Cape Tribulation. The past couple of days all the tour buses couldn't even get up to the Rainforest because of the massive flooding. The only road leading into Cape Tribulation just so happened to be on top of a creek and because of the torrential rain, water levels prevented many cars from getting across. We had our fingers crossed that it would subside enough by tomorrow to let us go..

Funky pool at Calypso

Okay, update #1 done (EFFING HELL. 4-1 NOW. ASJKHAKSJDHAKSJDHASJKLDHALSD :'(...)
Will update again when I'm not as depressed. (OH GREAT. 5-1)

Rain rain go away..

2010-04-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Queensland so far's been a bit of a bust. I'm currently paying $5 for an hour's worth of internet so this is going to be quick.

Arrived last night to pouring rain. Saw a bird protecting two other birds with its wings from the cold?or something underneath this canopy. Arrived at Calypso hostel. It's a neat little place. Hopefully I'll get a chance to take some pictures of it soon.

Happy hour ensued with a buffet BBQ dinner. I was starving, I ate 2 good sized plates of meat, meat and more fries. Screw it, I'm going to come back fat and damn proud of it. Went out after to the downtown core and chilled out at the Woolshed.

Awesome awesome music. Drinks were relatively priced. I had more Bundaburg. NEVER drink that. I repeat, NEVER. Called it an early night, time difference and all.

Woke up today to more pissing rain. Great. It's rained continuously for the past .. 12 hours now. And it's a heavy downpour too. Not that I'm not used to it, just that I'm here on vacation and not being able to do anything and explore the beaches really sucks. I guess I took a gamble coming up here during the rainy season.

So, tomorrow's my diving trip out to the Reef. I will make damn sure that I have fun on the boat there. No way is that going to be ruined for me. Hopefully. This rain really needs to let up.. like now.

Nearly two months in

2010-03-28T05:38:00.000-07:00

As I take a break (at 11:39pm) from researching the teeny bopper culture, while listening to O-town, I'm trying to get into the feel, I felt as if I needed to update this thing. Oh wait, Kiss - Because I'm a Girl is on now. Wow, I love my old music folder. And when I say old, I mean high school..elementary school music, the kind KaZaa and Napster provided, I digress.

Traveling wise during my stay here, it's been at the best, minimal. I've only gone on a day trip to the Great Ocean Road and a weekend at Phillip Island. I wish I could have spent more time doing the GOR but Priscilla and I needed to find a quick trip to go on.

Pictures from that trip are up on Facebook. Hmm, I grabbed the itinerary so bear with me as I try to recall just what the hell happened at each place. Our day began at 6:30am as we woke up dreary eyed on a Monday. I'm desperately trying to remember what we did the Sunday before.. but nothing's coming to mind. We walked down to Federation Square, which in itself deserves at least half a day to explore it and the Southbank area, and waited for our tour bus. We had some random South African guy take us around, his accent was so peculiar.. It was hard to understand him at times, but whatever. I was there for the views.

Bell's Beach was our first stop and then we proceeded to rush off to Torquay (surfing area - going there this Tuesday to surf actually :)), Lorne, Apollo Bay and I believe Port Campbell as well. Of ourse, we went to the Twelve Apostles, but one's fallen and erosion's been their worst enemy as each year the apostles and cliffs are being eaten away. (Eason Chan - Shall We Talk is playing now). Lunch was had somewhere, and once again, we were rushed for time. I barely had time to finish the chicken before we realized we only had 20 minutes left in the town. I ran out to take random snapshots of the beach and whatnot.

The weather was not the greatest as we got rained on at Loch Ard Gorge. Mother hell, it was brutal. One moment there were just a couple of raindrops, then within another minute we were soaked - head to toe. Our tour bus (of 15 people) smelled wonderful. We did manage to see some Koalas during our trip too, but they were really high up in a tree.

Nothing really exciting to say about the trip. It was a nice day trip and I can check off this part of Australia that I've seen. (Why - 98 Degrees is now on.. HAHA).

So, a week later I went to Phillip Island with Taylor, Mark and Fleur (who's Dutch, I don't know why she has a French name :)). We decided to rent a car for this mini adventure. Mark drove most of the time..and actually got caught for speeding, ha. He pulled the tourist card and got off with a warning, lucky guy. He was only going 20 over too, damn cops here need better things to do.On our drive there we saw signs for FREE WINE AND CHEESE TASTINGS. Of course, we went in and true to the signs, free cheese and wine. Taylor enjoys downing her wine in one gulp. Ha.

(Richie Ren is playing, only my Chinese friends will have a clue which retarded song is playing.. something about the girl next door is looking over?)

As we got onto the Island itself, another sign! Free chocolate tastings! Again, we made a quick pit stop there. The rest of the day was spent exploring the island. It took us no more than 20 minutes to go from one end to the other. It really was quite small. We went around to each lookout point our trusty map had marked. The motorcycle grand prix (or something to that extent) was actually taking place that very weekend. Mark was happy to go watch it, I didn't really feel up for it..

Loved these signs.. there were more

So, we checked into our shitastic $40/night rapage of a hostel and prepared to go into town. But not before Fleur made her move on this poor unsuspecting Dutch guy who was working there. I'm telling you, the Dutch just find eachother without even trying. (I had to fast forward Simple Plan, Savage Garden's on now, woo). Walked into town to get some Fish and Chips! Taylor said she overheard them say something was 'wrong' with my order but she didn't think much of it. The fish was great, my stomach paid for it a couple days later as I was bedridden for a good week. But I won't get into those details.

Hmm, Taylor got drunk and yelled at 14 year old girls..while carrying her bottle of wine. The rest of us were sober so walking around with a semi-obnoxious American was slightly embarrassing, but funny as hell. We bought more wine and made plans to go back into the 'city' of Cowes later on to see how their night life would be like.

Look at all them motorcyles.

Big mistake. It was the most awkward and lame night out yet. Old people were in the club and everyone was stuck up, old, stuck up, old and expensive drinks made it not very appealing. Something about seeing 30-40 year old men grinding with large ladies or young partially attractive, probably gold digging women bothers me.

Had an early night I guess as Fleur had to be up early for her surf lessons! Breakfast was included and it was decent. Went to Smith? Beach and dropped off Mark at the motorcross races. Lucky bastard ended up sneaking in for free.. Taylor and I took turns driving around the island just seeing what we could find. I swerved left many times, but I'll get better.

Picked up Fleur, had lunch, laid out at the beach, Fleur reconnected with Dutch guy who she decided to ditch later on, got Mark, and headed home. All in all, a pretty relaxing trip. The views were breathtaking and I wish I could go back (maybe I will..) and just stare out at the ocean again. Problem is, there are snakes there. I fell in love with Australia some more after that weekend.

(Robbie Williams - She's the One.. sweet song)

Okay, break time over. Have to get this essay started tomorrow and completed by Friday. Ecology prac write up is also due on Thursday.. So much work to do before my Easter break. I'll be up in Cairns and then to the Whitsundays. Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation (rainforest), ziplining through the jungle, sailing for two days, and white sandy beaches await me. I'd be more excited about it at this very moment if I didn't have school to stress over. The snorkelling and diving is what's going to make me piss my pants from excitement though. One my life goals is about to be accomplished, huzza. It's going to be so worth the $1500 I'm forking out for it. Hopefully.

And I get to go Australian bird watching this Wednesday, HAHA. That's going to be interesting. (Wave - That's How)

Only in Australia will I type "Miley Cyrus" into Google scholar. Sadly, nothing promising found. Damn.

When in Oz..

2010-03-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

I had told myself I'd keep this blog updated consistently through my stay here. I lied. Not that I don't have the time to, just I think I've ran out of things to say. I guess I could update it daily with what I actually did each day, but that'd be too much of a Dear Diary entry, n'est pas moi.

Just a couple of random things I've noticed here a month and a half into my exchange:

It's very hard driving on the other side of the road especially when the wheel is on the other side too. I kept swerving left, I actually had to use my side mirrors for once
House music is very big here.. I sorta miss the mainstream top 40 stuff
Everyone loves a Canadian
I've spoken more French here than I have in the past 5 years, it all comes back to me with the help of bzzr
I actually say "about" differently
You can definitely burn on an overcast day, they weren't kidding about the nonexistent ozone
Pop here is beyond expensive.. $15 for a 12 pack
Toilet paper is also expensive
Wine is not expensive
No one uses the word "washroom"...
"G'day mate" is not used that commonly actually
Female tactics to get into clubs back home do not work that well here
I hate the bouncers at Billboard, enough said.
Beer is way too expensive here. $8-9/pint at clubs and bars
I'm never going to drink wine again after this
People don't chug, they skull
Vancouver's weather is nothing compared to the crazy shit that can go on here
What you pay for internet access here is a joke. I miss my fast cable..
Melbourne has extremely fit people, moreso than Vancouver it seems
Short shorts are in fact fashionable and widely accepted..even if you're fat and it causes a wedgy, or maybe not.
There are so many smokers here. Women smokers are still a turn off
American Idol is actually shown here, up to date too
I'm surprisingly not homesick at all
I HATE ECOLOGY, EVEN IN AUSTRALIA. HATE HATE HATE.
My goal is to kill a cane toad, it's illegal to NOT kill it if you're in possession of one :) I've learned so much about the Bufo marinus.

I guess I'll be adding more to this list as time goes on. Until then, off to the beach I go before it gets too cold here.

This is one of the reasons why I came to Australia, you just can't see anything like this anywhere else. The picture does it no justice, the colours of the water were simply amazing, it was a breathtaking view, believe me:

Phillip Island

Livers need loving too

2010-02-28T20:15:00.000-08:00

Currently: suffering from bout of food poisoning. Cooking congee. Blog called, update ensues.

I guess I should briefly recap Melbourne Welcome (the orientation 'camp' for incoming international students) since I probably won't remember much of it in the future.

Day 1: Woke up to rainy weather. Esther and I decided to try and wait out the storm.. we were supposed to check in at Newman College between 9-12. A lot of sitting around waiting for the rain to go away, but it didn't. So we went out in the pissing rain sans parapluie (I'm in a Français mood these days, bear with me) and checked in at the College. People here do not call them 'dorms' and instead it's a College. BBQ Lunch was interesting. There seemed to be a huge abundance of Americans, many of which seemed to know eachother. Awkward because little groups formed everywhere, but regardless, met some cool people including a guy from Lithuania.

Met our group that we'd be travelling around with for the next couple of days. Host: Kirsty. Nationality: Scottish. That was a surprise. Let's have an international student lead around more international students. Not that I minded, ha. She was cool, had a lot of energy albeit a bit.. dare I say it, confused? at certain times but in a funny way. (if you're reading this, it's not a bad thing, I swear). Went up to the Eureka Tower, this tall building in Southbank. My fear of heights were sort of conquered. Took me a while to be able to stare down at the view. Stomach was doing 2323 flips/minute. Dinner was the first of three 'formal' ones we'd be having there. I hate dressing up. That's all I have to say about it.

Wine and cheese tasting followed apres dinner. It was supposed to be classy as one would expect. It turned out to be an open bar of wine and beer with hosts running around forcing us to taste cheese. It was here that I met Taylor and Sarah, two friends I've been hanging out with quite a bit since. Effects of alcohol were .. well expected. Went out to another pub afterwards. Drank, talked, walked back, slept.

Day 2: Thankfully brunch was a bit later.. The 'rest' was much needed. We headed off to the Queen Victoria Markets. Didn't really buy anything other than food. I keep telling myself I still have a good 5 months here, I'll have plenty of time to go. Sadly, the weeks are flying by. Went to the zoo afterwards. Saw a variety of animals. Butterfly house was breath taking. Never seen anything quite like it. You go in and there are literally hundreds..thousands of butterflies just flying around. If you're lucky, they'll land on you. So many different colours and varieties. Downside was that it was in a greenhouse type place and considering the weather was in the upper 20s/30s, it was uncomfortable.

Got my first sunburn on my neck. It's still not healed. Met Mark here, Dutch guy. Along with him, T & S we went bothering the animals. Taylor's American, so she enjoys disturbing animals by yelling and clapping loudly at them. I'd attack her if I were one of those animals, like the kangaroos that almost did. Ha.
I'm still Chinese.
Cute eh?

A couple people went off to the St. Kilda Festival (district just south of Melbourne city) but I decided to stay behind for Trivia Night. Our group almost won even though another host, Jack, was giving us not so subtle hints. I hate ties, especially in summer. What else... We went to a bowling place but they were being the biggest pricks and wouldn't let us in unless we showed them our passports. Of course, barely anyone had it as it's just stupid to bring it out at night. Most of the group bailed and went to some expensive bar in Melbourne Central. I met my American drinking buddy here. (I really shouldn't be putting all of this up, whatever) We shared a jug..or two. They don't call them pitchers here. Stubbies, schooners, pints and jugs. I'm still not used to calling it that. And their jugs are way smaller. The cheapest one I've come across was $9.. most are about $11-15. Expensive.

Day 3: SURFING! Woke up at 7am. Suffice to say, I was severely sleep deprived during this whole thing. Barely ate anything. Ocean Grove. Cold, windy, bad sand, lame. Sun finally came out at noon, it made up for the initial 2 hours. Surfing is harder that I imagined. I almost, almost, got up on my feet on it. Our group's instructor was too busy flirting with a certain someone. Damn girls, they get it so easy in life. It was a good experience, and I definitely plan on giving it another go in the near future. I think I'm just too tall and heavy to get up on it. I swear. The board sinks everytime I get my knees on it. The waves were also pretty small, so it was slim pickings all afternoon.

Weather really cleared up nicely later in the day..

Turf (I think) at night. I really don't remember what exactly went on here, not because of intoxication, (I had good control this entire weekend) but because my memory's failing me. Oh wait, I went on a mission. Mission: failed. OH, right, and we went to a park. T, S, M and I met possums and Alanah. Alanah is a psycho. "TEXT ME. CALL ME BACK PLEASE" Freak show. We didn't recycle the bottles though. Whoops.

Day 4: Went on the Yarra Boat Cruise. The Yarra River runs through the city of Melbourne, really nice actually. Was a hot day, got tired. Took many pictures like the tourist I am. No shame at all. Lunch at the Crown Casino Buffet. They were still in the Chinese New Year mode, so there was a fair number of Chinese-inspired dishes. The siu mais were disgusting. Chocolate pudding cake was incredible. Never had anything quite like it. I'm already drooling for it. I also learned from a certain someone people in Australia are like us back home with Sharpies and sleeping individuals after a night out. I had a good laugh. Headed back to the College early (missed the afternoon tours..couldn't be bothered) and tried to just relax and prepare for the last dinner. A formal one complete with a white shirt and black tie.

This was painful to watch. We were at Federation Square waiting around for the cruise in the morning. I was the only loud obnoxious Canadian around I think cheering on Mike Robertson.. I could not believe the American overtook him in the final couple of turns. What the hell. I was so sure he'd win too with his lead.. Doesn't matter though, 14 golds this Olympics, straight into the record books.

Arrived late for the pre-dinner drinks at the pond for other reasons. Dinner was pretty good. I tried so hard not to laugh during Grace. Newman is a Catholic college, sorry, but I'm anything but religious.

Puggs + Bimbos at night. That echo room was neat. Compared the different vegetation BC and Tasmania has with these guys. I think BC wins.

Day 5: Good bye Newman. Packed, ate half a banana and left.

Even though the program cost quite a bit the friends and experiences I had there made up for it. I couldn't imagine how my life in Melbourne would be like without this. Even though one of my main goals was to try and befriend some locals, making new international friends is just as worth it. If anyone is going to go on exchange and such an orientation program exists, I'd highly recommend that they do it..even if it means living like you're in first year again.

This post got long very quick. I'll leave it at here for now. The other events of the week and weeks following are not meant to be publicly talked about at this moment.

After Melbourne Welcome Priscilla came and visited. Elaborate on that another time. I still need to find some way to properly celebrate Canada's gold medal in hockey.. Je veux des Canadiens maintenant s'il vous plaît.

Alas, the fun's started.

2010-02-20T06:14:00.000-08:00

Lack of updates due to lack of sleep, mental brain power, and coherency to make a post.

In fact, sort of tired right now to update with anything substantial. My second week in Melbourne has been unforgettable thus far due to the inclusion of Melbourne Welcome. In order to divulge into the full details of this I'd have to kill this blog. Therefore, the PG version will instead be described.

Met lots of people, learned about the city, partied quite a bit (with wine because I'm classy, cough) and got sunburnt in the process. Worth the $540? Um, yes. I can't imagine how it'd be here if I didn't do this program and met some amazing people..even though most are Americans who think I say "about" differently. Deal with it, Canadians speak proper English.

I'll give a proper update soon enough when things die down. I still need to find professors and advisers on my courses here, problems are arising quickly.. Everything has to be manually done here for Exchange students so it's a bit of a hassle. I'm taking this upper level Ecology course (or trying to) without any real prior knowledge in it. I think I'm way out of my league here. Good thing it's on a pass/fail basis.

Domesticated = Me

2010-02-11T17:04:00.000-08:00

Due to Esther's arm still being in cast, I've taken on the role of homemaker in the apartment.. That means all cooking, cleaning, washing, and grocery shopping is done by yours one and only, me. Not that I mind too much, but one night as I was scrubbing the pan at the sink I felt an odd sense of WTF. It was weird. The situation just became a little bit too..surreal, ha. I'm not meant for this. Once that cast gets off, I am not doing dishes for another month..minimum :)

Anyways.. My first and second weekends here were spent at Box Hill South. Just a couple of snapshots of the area and weird animals you definitely do not see back home.

(side note: I'm really stingy on internet/updates because I'm paying $50 for 3gb of bandwidth over 2 months, it's way too expensive over here)

On Sunday, we went off to the Caribbean Market, why it's called the Caribbean Market when most of the vendors are either Asian or Caucasian is beyond me. There are lots of things to buy here, sort of like the Richmond Night Market. Fresh produce, expired chips, knock offs, souvenirs, etc.. It was in the mid 30s this day though. We left around noon and the place was only getting busier and busier. If you don't go early enough, the produce is all gone.

We headed back to the city for lunch at some upscale-ish cafe. There are many many cafes here in Melbourne. I'll be trying many of them out during my stay here. I mean this literally, there are honestly countless hole in the wall cafes scattered around the downtown core. You go into random alleys that an obese person wouldn't be able to fit in, and you could find the best Moroccan, Chinese, Indian, French etc.. food.

Just a couple of snaps of the city including Chinatown, the area where I'm a block away from.

I like taking pictures from the view we get. I should do a day by day of the same view..the weather here is crazy. But, too lazy :)
Our first cooked dinner. Food bills are going to run me to the ground, I can already tell. At the moment I'm following the Canucks game online. I miss me hockey and Olympics. I don't care how much it costs me internet-wise, I'm going to be streaming the hockey.

Okay, I have Melbourne Welcome, this orientation program for International students, coming up tomorrow till Wednesday. Hopefully I'll meet some more people my age and get myself even more acquainted with Melbourne. School starts on March 1st.. only a couple of weeks left! I'm slowly welcoming the idea of school, it's been a while since I studied or took any notes.

First days

2010-02-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

I'm alive and in one piece. Stepping off the plane in Melbourne I immediately felt the heat. It wasn't overly humid, but definitely a huge change from Vancouver. I was in jeans and a teeshirt.. already I was sweating from just moving my luggage out of the terminal.

Here's the first picture I snapped of Melbourne. Gorgeous eh?

I traveled to a suburb called Box Hill South where it's basically Richmond in a nutshell. Extremely Asian (Chinese) here and .. yea, pretty much all Chinese everywhere. One of Esther's relatives kindly welcomed me into their homes (HUGE HOUSE..) and took me to the mall to shop for some initial necessities. This shopping cart consisted of ~$350 worth of stuff. Things here are not cheap..

The second day we moved into our apartment. APT 1710/39 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia for those who want to mail me anything good :) Apartment size is pretty decent. I will say though.. the area I'm in is extremely Asian as well.. Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Indian cuisines were abundant everywhere. I've had more Asian food these past couple of days than I have in Vancouver. I tried desperately to look for white man food today for lunch. I failed. Apparently, there aren't many in the Downtown core. :'( I want a burger damn it.

Living room+Kitchen

My room

View from our apartment. After the first day, it's been raining *lightly* here. The weather does change constantly throughout the day. It was extremely windy .. The weather was about 20ish degrees today, a nice change. I went out in tees and shorts whereas everyone else was in jackets..

Oyaku Don for dinnarr last night, too lazy to cook just yet.

We went to Sofie's today for dinner. It's like Antons, but the Australian version. Holy hell, their portions were HUGE. A small pasta was more than enough.. I can't imagine how a large pasta would be. The weird thing is, the prices were dirt cheap. $12 for a meal that two can share. We all had the Gelato to share. I'm not sure if this picture does it justice, but it was a good 8 inches high..packed full of chocolate, hazelnut, pistacio, orange, strawberry, chocolate mint and.. something else. $6.50 only... Now this place, I can afford.

Now in Box Hill South again, went around to the surrounding suburbs like Glen Waverley and.. something else I forget. Was a bit awkward to take pictures of people's houses since I didn't know them (they're Esther's relatives'). But all of them are mansions..and under 1 million each. I want I want.

First leg: Brutal-ish

2010-02-03T02:28:00.001-08:00

So I'm currently awaiting my flight to San Francisco.

Check in was brutal. Brutal. Brutal. The initial parts were okay..nothing too bad. Luggage put through, tickets/boarding passes printed. Fine. Then came the first security check point. I've brought along a duffel bag as my carry on and a small little shoulder bag as my second "personal item".. The guy at the security check point looked at my duffel and told me to put it in the cage, ensuring it would fit in there. It sort of didn't, so I tried explaining to him how I've never had trouble with it. He wouldn't take any of it. I was getting a little nervous because I have a lot of important stuff in there. So I flattened it and mushed it and put it in finally, tearing off the sign in the process..shh.

He glares at it, and says it's fine but my shoulder bag HAD to go into my duffel in order for it to go through AND I had to put it in the cage again. I was pissed. There are signs up all around the counter saying we're allowed one carry on bag and one "personal item" such as a laptop bag, purse, stroller..etc. This douche bag at the gate says "you have two BACKPACKS, you can't go through"

This other guy with me was in the same situation, he had a small backpack and a regular sized one, and he wouldn't let him through either. So we started bitching this security guy out, and some other agent comes out. We argue with her, and I'm livid because the guy now says my duffel is going to be too big anyways and I can't go through. So once again, I shove the bag into the damn cage to show them it fits and then he says "but your other backpack isn't in there"..

I proceed to tell him off, "look, we are allowed a purse on the plane. I don't care if you want to call me gay or whatever, go for it. This is my purse and unless you're saying all those signs out there are wrong, I'm taking it on. Now let me through." By now he was going a bit red in the face and threatened to call security. I called him on his bluff, he never did.

The other woman finally lets me through. This entire process took about 30 minutes to deal with. They blamed the Americans in the end, "this is their policy, not ours." Uh, more like, "we are incompetent, illiterate, uninformed, ignorant idiots that don't know how to flipping run a security check point."

Then there was some crazy man in the holding area who had to deal with some medical insurance/visa bill issue last minute with his dad on the phone. The guy was in his 30s.. and kept going, "Daddy, I'm scared. Daddy, tell me you love me. No, you have to say it. Say it again please, I don't want to fly away now."........ HOLY HELL. That was very disturbing. Everyone around me was snickering.. can you blame us? Thankfully there's no cell phone service on the plane because he was on that phone for a good 20 minutes.

Anyways, United flight to Sydney was a pretty tight squeeze.. not the most comfortable. Not gonna lie. Didn't want to take pictures of the food.. it was THAT cramped. Funny though, on both flights (to SF and Sydney) a medical emergency arose.. I wish I had my First Aid certification, then I could put on my light and be like, "yes, I have medical training" :)

Errrrrr... okay. In Melbourne now.. shopped all day for food and necessities with Esther's Aunt and then housing at her cousin's for the time being. Will update tomorrow when I move in to our apartment.

Is it weird that the jet lag hasn't hit me yet?

Au revoir

2010-01-31T11:06:00.000-08:00

It's starting to hit right now that I'm actually going to be gone in about 24 hours. I'm not ready. Nothing's packed..literally, just t-shirts. I have lists made, I have stuff I keep trying to remind myself to bring.. It's all a bit too much. Throw in my mother's nagging and it gets even more chaotic. This excitement is starting to wear off.

Now I just want tomorrow, 4:20pm, to come. I'll be at the airport, with all my bags stuffed full, hopefully under 50 pounds each.. and then it's bye bye rainy Vancouver, hello sunny Melbourne. Many have asked me just why I'm choosing Australia of all places to go on exchange to. My answer is simply, because of grade 4. Those who went to elementary school with me may realise the significance of this year. This country's enthralled me for over 10 years and despite the cost of living being so much more than Vancouver ($1100/month rent!!), I'm going to take it all in. I might be down there for grad school, who knows? The accents are also a bonus.

Thanks guys for showing up, last minute and all. I won't make it all sappy, but it's nice to still see all of us DT kids (most of us anyways..) can have a 2+ hour dinner with no awkwardness. Perhaps in 5 years this won't be the case, but until then, it's always a good feeling to have such a core group of friends there despite all of us being in such different post-secondary paths. Graduation's coming up in a little under a year, but I won't think about that just yet. We'll always have Facebook if I start missing any of you ;) Here's to me hopefully coming back with a faux-Aussie accent.. I'm going to try my best (and most likely fail). Like I've been saying to some people recently: stay safe and don't make babies.

Four days

2010-01-28T14:53:00.000-08:00

Four days, and I'll be gone for a good half of a year.
Four days. Holy shit, I never thought this day would come so fast.

Anxious, nervous, excited, and a little relieved.

Time to pack. So much stuff to find/bring/deal with still. My traveling buddy, Esther, broke her wrist so she's stuck in Singapore. That means I'll be on my own through 3 different airports until Melbourne. I hope nothing goes wrong. I'm also going to bring 2 iPods along.

3 sounds better than 2.

2010-01-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

In under 3 weeks I'll be gone.
In under 2 weeks I'll be gone.

The latter sounds a lot scarier than the former. Meaning, by next Monday I'm going to hope I have most of my things in order. I thought I would have ample time to get everything organized and ready to go. Alas, this is not the case. I'm just starting to make my packing list. I still have a lot of crap to buy (i.e. shampoo, toothpaste, sunscreen); all those everyday things we use is more than double the price down in Australia. Most likely due to their minimum wage being twice as high as ours.. and our dollars are practically at 1:1 right now, not good.

Meanwhile, I'll try my hardest to see a couple of my closer friends before I leave. If I don't get around to you, well...

And will people please stop thinking I'm Mandarin? Once again on the bus I get mistaken for some Chinaman that knows how to converse fluently in Mandarin. I don't even look like I know the language, well I don't think that I do. Even at work I have Cantonese guests who just go up to me and say something like this,

"You! Young man! You understand? Good, I want ........"

Making sales in Cantonese at a White Spot is more difficult than you can imagine (for non-native Chinese person) especially when they ask me what's better about the Monty Mushroom vs the Bacon Cheddar burger and what I would recommend for them to order. Oh, and you should have witnessed my pathetic attempt at trying to say/describe what mayonnaise/relish (OOO sauce) is to them. This has happened to me twice already. The next time I'm going to fake ignorance.

Sorry mom and dad, those years in Chinese school did me no good.

If only I knew more about photography..

Shameless Tourist in my Hometown.

2010-01-03T15:07:00.000-08:00

So far it’s taken me about two days to update my new iPod. I’m too lazy to copy all my old songs from my old iPod to my new one because.. well I’m lazy. Too much work. And I have so much crap on there anyways, I might as well make a new collection. Problem is, I have way too many songs. I’ve been deleting countless old CDs I downloaded. All American Rejects, sorry, I’ve outgrown you. Fall Out Boy, you were High School. Yellowcard, I only like one song from you these days. The Juliana Theory and The Early November, you guys are not mellow enough. The Get Up Kids, I don’t even remember why I have 8 of your songs.. Delete. Delete. Delete.

Back to San Francisco, before I forget all the details.. We went to Alcatraz on Christmas Eve.. I know, weird thing to do. Not going to go into too much detail here. The audio tour was pretty long, but had some insightful monologues and stories the prisoners and prison guards told. The cells were actually really..small, as expected. Going into one, it was smaller than my arm span. How someone could live in there for months on end without any kind of freedom is pretty amazing in itself. The island was really nice. There weren’t many flowers out and blooming, the prisoners used to keep one running and is maintained by volunteers today, but it had an awesome view of San Francisco. No fog, no wind, no clouds.. Okay, I’ll stop

I just realized how hard it is to post crap in here. Damn Blogger.

Amazing view of San Francisco here. This crappy cell phone picture doesn't do it justice.
The view of Alcatraz on the ferry.

After Alcatraz, we continued to Union Square again. It was insane. So many people everywhere doing their last minute Christmas shopping. Canadian Boxing Day sales were put to shame by the regular American sale. Another reason why I like America more, your dollar goes further. Heh. I got a headache though once again from shopping. Stuffy stores and me are not a good combination. As for the attitude of the salespeople in all the stores, it was dismal. None of them looked happy. All of them had a permanent scowl; no greetings, no offers to help you find anything (except in AE), they were robots hired only to fold clothes. Urban Outfitters was a gong show. The sale racks resembled that of a dumpster or yard sale at best. Everything was just thrown in 23891 directions, on the floor, on the racks, on the shelves. No sense of organization, and no one seemed to really care. Can I blame them? No. If I were working there, I’d be in a bitter mood too. I did get mistaken for a worker there, I have no idea how that happened. Just because I was being courteous and folding the the XXL shirt back..

On Christmas, we decided to be tourists and went to take pictures of the GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE. HAHA. It was beautiful. It was embarrassing. It was … well, boring? I guess. I don’t remember much of my childhood, but apparently I used to play at Golden Gate Park a lot when I was a kid. We dropped by Sausalito, a city right off the Bridge when you exit. It reminded me a lot of Steveston. It was so calm and peaceful. Many small cafes and restaurants everywhere. My kind of place when I grow up. I can’t emphasize just how nice their weather is compared to Vancouver’s..

Let's see.. what else was there. We continued to the suburb of Sunset, the area where I grew up. It’s right by the SF Zoo, not that we went in. There’s supposedly a sea lion cave?mountain? there for us to look at. But we got there pretty late. The view out was still nice. Walked around here with my parents, sister, and aunt. I will admit, and don’t expect me to again anytime soon, this trip wasn’t actually all that bad, in terms of spending so much time with my family. Maybe it was because my sister and I actually got our own hotel room.. Freedom from the parents. And my mom’s uncontrollable 120 decibel level snoring.
We walked down to the shore. I was the only one who went into this cave…the women were too scared of ruining their boots.

As for the rest of the trip, the pictures are on my sister’s camera and my defective memory card.. I stopped using my cell phone camera as much. I got lazy. Sacramento was unexpected. A lot of farm land, I thought our friends there lived on one.. Driving in it was all farm road, I saw no signs of ..an urban center. Thankfully, they lived in a neighbourhood similar to one that you’d see in suburbia, dare I say it, Desperate Housewives style. Don’t ask. We watched Avatar in 3D. My eyes watered at the end of it, from dry eyes! It was one of the better movies I’ve seen. High recommended. Maybe not in 3D though.

Spent the final days just visiting family members. Went to the Great Mall. It was huge. There are 5 areas to it. I was at #2 when I realized this. Suffice to say, I didn’t get through it all. Damn it. I was looking to buy cheap tee shirts to Australia. My sister threw a typical fit over the lack of time there, and our family’s tardiness. My dad attempted to shut her up with new Coach bags. I don’t think it worked.

Ate at this ridiculously delicious place called Crepevine. Their portions were more than generous, and service was quick and efficient. There was a lineup out the door from the moment we got there around 11am on a Sunday, till we left (around 12:30). You actually order first while in line, and wait for a table to free up. Once seated, your food arrives. Hybrid of fast food/restaurant service. I won’t go through the menu, you should try it yourself if you ever drop by Burlingame. It’s just outside of SF, our hotel was minutes away from it. I wish I knew about it earlier, I would have eaten there every day instead of the instant noodles. Prices are very fair, only ~$10/meal. And again, the portions are huge.

Finally, on our last day, we had overpriced, not very good dim sum, and then departed for the airport. But we had a 30 minute pit stop at Japantown. I wish we had more time here, it was so unique and cozy. Their mall was just filled with countless Japanese restaurants, supermarkets, stores, boutiques and everything in between. Oh well, next time.

For those of you who can read Chinese, I found this sign hilarious. I didn’t believe my mom when she said such a street existed..until I saw it for myself.
So that concludes my San Francisco (area) trip. It was eventful, fun, nostalgic in every imaginable sense, and brought upon a sense of yearning for something different in my own life. Our family dinner on Christmas was like out of a Chinese TV show (A Kindred Spirit to those who get the reference). 10 people all around a large expandable dinner table, laughing uncontrollably over past memories, current ones, and stories everyone could relate to. I wish my family were always that happy. At home, dinner for me only lasts 5 minutes usually. For special occasions, maybe 15. The laughter and jovial atmosphere severely lacks, and will continue to because that’s how my family operates sometimes..silence. For that one night, my family felt normal.

If anyone actually read to the end, good on you. This is more for personal uses in the future when I come back and smile at these selected memories.

Have a Happy New Year!

Less than a month to go…

America, how I've missed you

2009-12-26T23:44:00.001-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO. Just some bits and pieces from my trip so far. It's been really nice here since day 1. Clear blue sunny skies for four days straight makes me wish I were still living in California. The older I get, the more I'm yearning to become a full fledged American again. It's just something in me that's telling me I'm at "home" here. Not saying I don't like Canada, but it's hard to explain and put into words.

This was a nice surprise. We were conveniently "upgraded" to Economy Plus on our flight there. It's nothing much though, just a bit more leg room. It was the most comfortable flight I've ever taken though. Pity it was only for 2 hours. I could have used it when I was going to China..

Just a few pics as we drove to our hotel. The nice bright shining sun was a definite change from the dreary Vancouver weather..

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza. It's nothing too special. They did a nice job renovating it recently. The rooms come with a nice flat screen.. Unfortunately their hotel is situated right along one of the highways. The cars can really be heard during the day.. I guess it provides some nice 'background' noise at night. Sort of.

Many houses of San Francisco are connected to one another.. Nothing like the separated units we have at home. Chinese families would have fun living in these quarters. My neighbours would enjoy the constant yelling and bitching going on in my family. Privacy is definitely limited here.

We went to visit our cousins at their house. This is their block. It's a nice little place on one of the many hills/plateaus they have in the surrounding areas. Thankfully, there hasn't been much fog so far in the trip. Or wind. SF's known for its foggy days, I can actually see the city this time around.

We went to Downtown San Francisco to take in the Christmas festivities and shopping going on. One word : Amazing. It sort of puts Vancouver's to shame, and I think Vancouver has a pretty vibrant colourful Downtown area. San Francisco's is two times as big and eventful. Macy's was decorated gorgeously, the tree was huge, there was ice skating, and the mood all around was just positive. The view from the top of Macy's was on the Sky Terrace where we waited for an hour and a half at the Cheesecake Factory for a table. It was well worth it I suppose. I've never seen anything quite like it. I would say almost a hundred people in the lobby just waiting and the 5 rotating hosts and hostesses working their asses off trying to seat and put everyone down. Not once did any of them show any signs of frustration. I could learn a thing or two.

--------------
Okay, I'm too tired to continue. Yawn. I've been getting up early each day to get to the gym. If only I could show the same type of commitment at home.. Perhaps it's because of the convenience of the gym. Funny story..well more sad, there was a large young girl yesterday in the gym with me. She was on the treadmill as I was doing my cool down. She went on, started RUNNING at speed 3.0.. (yes, I was being nosy) and then STOPPED after two minutes. TWO MINUTES. She burned 13 calories. She then went to the scale to weigh herself. Unhappy with these results, she proceeded to go to the elliptical where she went on it for five minutes, and burned 29 calories. By now, she was practically dripping in sweat. Poor girl. Her brother then came in to join her. Not any better. He was running at speed 3 as well. Hell, I walk at 4.5..

At least she's trying I suppose. I was stifling my laughter so hard, I had to drink water to prevent myself from sneering. They left after about 10 minutes and 40 calories burnt, at best.

I'm going to blame the dollar menus here at McDicks and Taco Bell for these overweight unfit people. No wonder America has the fattest people around. Makes me feel good about myself, ha!

Hopefully I'll remember what else I did on this trip through my pictures. Yes, they're from my cell phone, I'm not going to bother being all artsy and fancy with my travel journals. As long as I write it down, I'll remember it in the future. Happy Holidays!

Back to the Motherland

2009-12-22T03:03:00.000-08:00

Alright, time for my trip back to the good ol' USA. San Francisco to be exact, my hometown. I haven't been back there in.. six years now? Not even sure anymore. I grew up in a suburb of SF I believe.. Sunset? Who knows, I don't know my geographical locations. All I know was that the last time I was there, I had to visit a lot of relatives and family friends. Of course, it's a given. Being from a Chinese family, even moreso a given. The countless ''Hellos'' and "How are yous'' do get a bit tedious at times.

Nonetheless, I'm excited to go back this year. Why? Because I think I'm actually at the age where I can appreciate San Francisco for more than just the people I know there, but now for the city itself..albeit 4 months from being legal down there. I hope to immerse myself in their renowned Downtown area. Union Square. The cafes. The districts. The people. Then again, there's nothing too much separating SF and Vancouver from what I recall.. the food's great in both cities, some argue better in SF.

I need to go to Alcatraz. I can't believe I haven't been there.. I make for a shitty American.

It's now 3:10am. I haven't slept all day after my Statistics final. We leave in about a half hour to Seattle, it's much cheaper to fly out from there.

Hopefully I'll post anything interesting that pops up during my trip. Maybe I'll encounter my own bus incident.

Schwarma

2009-12-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

I can not for the life of me focus on my studies. Perhaps it's the Christmas music playing in the background, or that my arm is hurting like a mother from the stupid H1N1 shot. I swear, I'm suffering from side effects of that shot. Fatigue. Fatigue. Fatigue. Pain. Fatigue.

Random thoughts/ramblings at the top of my head at the moment, read if you care. I know two of you do :):

Melbourne planning is well underway. Visa? Check. Acceptance? Check. Flights? Nope, I should get on that ASAP.. looking at $1600 round trip.
I leave in about 60 days. Two months to the day.
San Francisco Trip 10.5 hours after my last final on the 21st. I really wanted to buy a new mp3 player..thing this Boxing Day. Online shopping will suffice.
My liver needs recovery, it better regenerate quickly.
I've been working more that I was in first and second year, yet this year has been my toughest yet.
I have 62.5 gigs of TV shows to watch.
Growing apart from people sucks. Inevitable given the circumstances.
White Spot makes me large. Very large.
I better not turn into an alcoholic, I have no shame in admitting this. It's a path I hope I never have to go down, but I know I can find other outlets to calm myself down. No drugs either.
Tiger Woods is despicable yet I feel sorry for him at the same time.
I miss badminton

With that, I'm going to hole up and pray I can actually get some studying done. Number 1, 2 and 3 need to stay off my mind. Only one person may understand what I actually mean by that.

Me time.

2009-11-06T16:50:00.001-08:00

I can't remember the last time I had a day where it was just me, my tv, my food, and my couch. Me time. Everyone once in a while needs a day to themselves. To relax, and not have school, work, or anything else too pertinent on their minds.

My midterms are still looming, just two more left now. I have to do well on both of them, can't underestimate my courses anymore. Aside from work and school, I realize I haven't had the time to really hang out with anyone anymore. I've even shoved badminton off to the side. What used to be a weekly..sometimes biweekly activity I took part in, has now become bimonthly thing..if I'm lucky.

Regardless, tonight I'm going to start catching up on all the shows I've neglected since September. And there are a lot.. The Canucks-Dallas game starts in about 40 minutes. My sushi sits waiting for me.

I need more Fridays like this. Sadly, tomorrow I'll be bringing out the textbooks, starting to slave away once again. Until then, I'm going to enjoy this temporary lapse from school.
---

Focus.

2009-09-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

Argh, the excitement of Melbourne is getting to me. I can't stop thinking about it! It better be everything I'm expecting..and then some. It's just a mere 4.5 months away now.. @$#@^$#!!!!

Okay, back to Biostats and Biochem.

Burn out

2009-09-14T21:21:00.001-07:00

Since I don't really feel like reading any more of Ethel Wilson's Mrs. Golightly and Other Stories I guess I should update this thing. I've been sitting here for the past 7 minutes and some odd seconds trying to think of something worth posting..

I guess I should start with Summer 2009. My family vacation down to Florida seemed so long ago.. yet that was the start of the summer where my legs turned ..many shades darker. I admit it, there was a point in the summer where I was too tanned. It was also the first time where I got sun burnt 4 times. I would post the pictures, but to spare your eyes from my lobster red skin, I won't. The trip up to Whistler to go white water rafting in August was also something I won't forget anytime soon. The fact that 13 of us actually make it up there still surprises me.

Summer also marked my dive into the Genetics component of my university degree. Both courses proved to be highly successful and I came out of both satisfied. The more I look into the courses I will be taking, the more I realize this major is right for me.

Work in the later months drained me of all energy. The final 2.5 weeks of summer had me scrambling around my three jobs along with GALA. PNE certainly brought in a nice paycheque, but also took a toll on my body. I still don't think I have fully recovered. I am in constant fatigue, even on the days I sleep 7 hours. Maybe it's the course load I took..

That's pretty much my summer. School started just last Wednesday..after GALA I might say. The amount of international students and stories I got to hear from so many different individuals solidified my own decision to go to Australia. I know money will be tight, but I am determined to come out of it a changed man.

And so my semester of hell begins. Five lecture courses + 1 lab course = ... well that's still to be decided. Even though I have a month till my first midterm (7 in total), the anxiety of taking it won't go away. I should be used to exam stress by now, being in third year, but I'm not. Unless you've been to university or college, you just don't understand the amount of stress one feels before an exam. When December rolls around I'm sure I'll figure something to describe how the year went. Expletives included.

Exposed

2009-08-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

It's come to my attention that I've been exposed to my family. No worries, a blog's meant to be read by everyone and I have no shame in anything I write on here. At least this will help them get to know me better...
----
Even though Raymond feels like blogs shouldn't be about a person's life and their everyday mundane things (unless they're a hot girl who posts pictures along with it), it got me thinking, what should a blog be about then? Is there any clear definitive rule that governs blogging? I'm not even sure what my own would constitute as. Perhaps more of a random rambling of my life's unexciting events? I don't need to blog to please the masses, I just need an outlet to express my feelings. Frankly, if someone doesn't like what they're reading, well who's telling them to read? GTFO. (ha)

Biology 335 finally ended, final marks were released a couple of days ago and I can say I'm genuinely pleased by what I got. Could have been better (as always) but it was higher than what I expected. Thanks to Derrick, Justin and Wesley for a good two months, wouldn't have been quite as enjoyable without them. Honorary mention to Amanda who according to Justin, "told me off" with no shame.

Death Cab for Cutie concert in July was definitely the highlight of my summer thus far. I can honestly say their encore set list, was the best ever. Just those couple of songs to close out the show truly made their concert #2 on my list only behind Pemberton. Nothing can top Pemberton. "Transatlanticism" blew my mind away. Below is a short clip of "I Will Follow You into the Dark".. Unfortunately I didn't get the entire performance.

August is already here, less than a month left till school starts. The weather's cooled down drastically from the 35 degree heatwave we experienced last month. I miss it actually. Now it's in the low 20's.

Australia. Here's hoping to it curing my quarter life crisis. Six months.

My mom needs help.

2009-07-14T01:22:00.000-07:00

For a good 40 minutes, my dad had to teach my mom how to get to UBC from our house. Then how to get to Granville and 70th from there.

Forty. Minutes. She can't use a map. She needs pictures, and step by step instructions. Literally. Google directions aren't good enough for her.

UGH.

MY FOOD DAMNIT.

2009-07-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

So I made Banana Bread/Cake yesterday. In less than 24 hours this is what's left. It's a 10 inch pan. My family of ate all of this. I had one medium sized piece myself. WHAT THE HELL.

I buy food home, it gets eaten.
I take home food from restaurants, it gets eaten.
I make food, it gets eaten.. no sorry, DEMOLISHED, DEVOURED, GOBBLED by my family. Considering my Grandpa doesn't eat sweets, I can only blame my mother and sister as the main culprits.

Without labels on my food in my house, everyone just steals it. WHAT THE NIPPLE. But if I eat any of their food without asking, I get yelled at. Well maybe one sibling in particular. I hope they all get fat.

Now I have to make more because I love banana bread. =(

Someone, stop me.

2009-06-27T12:17:00.001-07:00

Uh oh, I've started listening to the Black Eyed Peas. "I Gotta' Feeling" has been playing non stop on me iPod. I hope this isn't signs of things to come. I've already gotten into Neyo.. next thing you know I'll start - nevermind.

Wimbledon's been keeping me entertained for this past week, there are plenty of matches to cheer about. Sadly, BIOL 335 starts next week, unless I fail 334, which is a high possibility. The mark's still not out!

Read on CNN that many airlines may start charging a "fat tax" for passengers that require 2 seats. As much as I adore the fat people, I'm not sure where I stand on this. Thankfully, I have not had to experience the horror of having to sit next to someone whose fat would spill onto my side (or take space on my arm rest.. HUGE pet peeve), but I can see how frustrated people can get. It's like on the bus, enough said about that. If you're fat, please sit away from me, I don't need to be squished against the window. Or keep your trunks closed.

Too many choices..!!

2009-06-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

After being officially accepted into UBC's Cell Biology and Genetics program, I finally began working on my course list for next year. Sadly, it turned out to be a nightmare of sorts. With my exchange to Australia coming in the second semester, a lot of the core courses had to be taken in first semester. What used to be a strong desire to achieve a Minor in English Literature, is now completely up in the air.

I still have to talk to Professor Adamson to defer my Physiology course, talk to an Arts advisor on if any of my potential English courses taken in Australia will have credit, and then decide whether or not to take on three Microbiology courses as part of my degree..

Semester 1, Sept - Dec 2009
BIOC 302
BIOL 361
BIOL 300

IHHS 200?
ENGL 348?
ENGL 359?
MICB 306?
MICB 302?

I wonder if UBC puts a cap on how many courses you can take in a semester. I can technically fit all 8 courses into one semester :) ..

Semester 2 - Feb - June 2010 Australia! :D
BIOL 302/303
BIOL 336?
Random English courses..
Random electives..

Too many choices. Thankfully registration doesn't start till July.

It's that time again

2009-06-16T19:18:00.001-07:00

So...what do all these pictures have in common?..

My beloved beef jerkey

On sale, 3/$5.00 at London Drugs. I also have non-salted and honey dijon mustard

Lychee candy from Candyland

I love Dark Chocolate M&M's.

..I tend to eat a lot when I have any kind of final exam to study for.. Since Bio 334 is this Friday, I went and bought all these snacks for my lonesome self when I overslept past my stop today. I need to get some hardcore exercise soon. I can't help it if I'm still a fatty :'(

Oh, I also have a huge bag of chocolate chip cookies, only $2! They're delicious, full of buttery chocolately goodness.

I don't lie about my eating habits to all you doubters out there. Although below shows a typical bowl of rice that I'll eat at dinner time. Actually, this one has a bit more than usual only because there was fish tonight.

Yes, it can fit nicely into my palm, I have a small bowl. Perhaps it's my feeble attempt at trying to control my ballooning weight.

I seriously think I'll be 200 pounds by the end of summer, just don't poke my [developing] beer gut please, it's sensitive. Tear tear, cut cut.

Pot calling the kettle black

2009-06-13T14:33:00.001-07:00

My beloved mother: "Nelson, you got a lot fatter recently."

Oh damn. They all say mothers know best and if my mom thinks I'm fat, then I do believe I am fat. This past week has been pretty uneventful but tiring. Bio334 is ending soon and I'm feeling less and less confident about the final.

I don't like translocation/inversion mutations.

It's almost starting to feel like summer. Almost.

Oh, and the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup. Watched the game in its entirety. I had about 2 heart attacks during the Wings' final couple of pushes. Matt Cooke.. you 'lucky' bastard.

Quote of the Year

2009-06-04T16:49:00.001-07:00

We're outside for our Bio334 tutorial session today, and Justin Yang makes a comment along these lines, "It's normal today that if you take a 360 degree look around, you're bound to see someone on the verge of being obese [if not already obese]"

I looked at him funny, and then proceeded to test his theory a couple of times. I thought I had disproved it once or twice, only for Justin to spot a heavier person within our eyesight. His beady little eyes must have some sensors that are attracted to someone who suffers from overeating. And cankles.

Justin Christopher Yang - Philosopher Extraordinaire, sufferer of Cacomorphobia.

It went flat..

2009-05-31T14:00:00.001-07:00

I think I am single-handedly responsible for flattening all the computer chairs at home over the past 5 or so years. You know the ones, the cushiony, foamy chairs?

We've went through a good ~dozen of them because of me. None of them are comfortable anymore. My ass' imprint is on most of them. I blame studying. Like what I should be doing now instead of typing this and staring out the window at the sunny day while I'm forced to be stuck indoors.

R.I.P.

2009-05-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

Vancouver once again exhibited why I sometimes hate living here. It was drizzling in Coquitlam today in the morning, showering where I was in Vancouver, and raining in other places in the Lower Mainland. I refused to open my umbrella because if there's one thing I hate carrying around at school is a damp umbrella.

The sun comes shining through by midday and I'm glad my decision paid off, although with slightly damp acidic hair.

When I was walking into my house in the late afternoon I saw three similar worms in this situation. Poor guys, Mother Nature obviously did not like you on this day. It's not your little faults you couldn't make it back to the soil in time before Mr. Golden Sun decided to burn your moist body good bye.

I should go back to my BIOL 334 studies. I proclaimed with Derrick we're going to be man whores and "get around" to each of the different tutorials and see which one fits our needs the most. Some start at 1:30 and others at 2:30 depending on the class. Earlier, obviously better since they're 2 hours long. Time is money.

My current tutorial session is home to Keener #1 who wants her tutorials at 1:45pm because of her stomach woes. Boy #1 wants it at 2:30pm because he has a class before it. Therefore, this tutorial will remain at 2:30 according to the T.A.. T03 - You meant well but we just won't work out. I'm afraid I have to move on from you

Disconnected

2009-05-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm in a pretty bad place right now. Or a good place, depending on how you look at it.

After waking up today at 1pm, I spent the day catching up on tv shows that I have neglected for the past couple of months. Everyone knows sometimes you just need a day alone, but right now, I feel like I need a month alone from everyone and everything around me.

I don't feel like talking to anyone anymore. I don't want to leave my house. I don't really want to do .. anything. I need a month off from life.

South Beach Miami sucks with the Parents.

2009-05-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

The title says it all. Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue provided me with a much needed dose of culture and lifestyle that is so different on this side of the continent. Outdoor restaurants, 11am Happy Hours, and the cultural makeup of South Beach left me wishing I were 21 and with friends here.

Goal: Come back here in 2 years, hopefully without a burnt and battered body from the heat and exhaustion.

South Beach, a lot busier than North Beach, which was where my resort was at. Didn't really go on the beach because I was too tired to. Plus, no tanning today because we would be travelling to the airport in the middle of the night.. without showering :\

A lot of shopping can be found on this street, similar to the Robson St. of Vancouver. There was an Urban Outfitters! I should have bought something there, but the family was going in 4 separate directions at this time so I couldn't shop properly. Plus, my luggage could not hold another shirt.

By far, the most interesting street in South Beach. Well Lincoln Road may be more, but still. Parallel to the beach, this street had a lot of restaurants and the people watching done here during my meal was priceless.

I don't know if this picture does it justice, but the meals at this one little cafe/restaurant was HUGE. If you've ever been to Joey's and had their half chicken meal, this one was twice the size. I couldn't finish it :(

Crazy street once it gets dark. Lots of places to drink at. Lots of people to stare at. A lot of high end shopping too. Too pricy for me :( And too tired to even bother going into any stores. There were plenty of Starbucks here too, sorta reminded me of back home. Except 12332% more humid. Yuck.
A very very common scene down Ocean and Lincoln. The outdoor restaurants. Many don't even have an inside seating area and everything is outdoors with maybe ~20 tables at most. During the later afternoon-early evening many restaurants are now offering 50% off their meals and drinks. A real bargain. Can get a nice meal for under $15 USD, unheard of before the recession me thinks..

Sadly, I wasn't legal and drinking with my family is too awkward, so I couldn't really take in this street to its full potential. Hopefully in a couple of years when I come back it'll be better. Hopefully. Their mojitos looked so damn good..

Travelled by car back to Orlando at around 10pm. Ate at IHOP at 2am in the company of kids coming from Prom. Annoying as hell. I forgot how "old" I am now.

Camped at the airport till 7 20am where I boarded my flight to San Fran->Vancouver.

Came back to cloudy skies and then pissed rain on me at night. I hate Vancouver sometimes. After 2 weeks of blue skies and 30 degree weather, rain and greyness do not go well.

Plus, the Canucks lost today. To say the least, I'm bummed. Pissed. Sad. Angry.

And I'm peeling from the burns. Fucking Aloe Vera does not work.

I am a beach bum.

2009-05-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

For the past two days all I've been doing is spending time at the beach. It's accessible from our hotel and since it's still considered low season here in Miami, it's never too packed. I am a beach bum. I lie there from 11 till about 4.

No lunch, just drinks. Maybe a dip into the warm ocean, but that's it. I am a beach bum.

It's relaxing to say the least, even when my right contact slipped out today. Thankfully I had an extra pair. It was all gunky from the sunscreen that I had plastered on my face. I'm trying to tan away my burn. HAHA.

It's working!.. not really. I swear I have allergies to the sun. It doesn't even make sense that I would, but I do. Random lil bumps appear on my skin.. maybe the sun's just boiling my blood and this is what happens.

And so, my vacation is coming to an end quite quickly. I'm sort of sad that I have to get back to reality, I still haven't fully mourned over my poor marks in school. I guess I should only have myself to blame. I spent so much time and effort on Chem (it paid off) but pushed Bio and Math to the side. Math is what killed me the most. And English. Ugh. I don't think I'm going to pursue my English minor anymore. I thought my mark on my final was pretty unjustified. But, such is life. I will take one more English course in third year before I jet off to Australia and if once again my mark is low, I'll curse myself for taking electives that have left my GPA.. well yea.

At least I'm still going to make it into Cell Biology and Genetics. Hopefully.

Happy Hour's starting at the Hotel. I wish I were 21. $3 wine, beers, and maragaritas. They're pretty strict on ID even when you have parents around. Boo.

Sigh sigh. No more nice hotel room to come back to :'(. Now if only the Canucks can win their game tomorrow..

Miami is making me cry.

2009-05-06T20:21:00.001-07:00

GPS works very well..even if it leads you on a highway that costs $15 in toll-fare. Damn American systems, I hate tolls. I hate them a lot. But I guess it's a system that works.. Got into Miami around 6:15. Detoured through Downtown Orlando, nothing there at all. Dead in terms of people, lots of banks..and clubs. Nothing special.

Miami is gorgeous. So many palm trees, sky's a lot bluer, and it's a couple of degrees cooler than Orlando. Staying at the Ocean Point Double Tree Hotel. We originally had a regular two double bed-room. Upon check in, I asked the guy if our room had a good view. His response was very mysterious, "trust me, you'll like your view. I guarantee it.".. Below are some of the pictures. My mouth literally dropped as we went in.
View from our balcony. Beach is only for the surrounding hotels/resorts to use. I hope it wont be too busy tomorrow.
I step foot into this. Ginormous. Gah. Drool.

Master bedroom. Mom + Dad will be in here. Has their own deluxe washroom. With Neutrogena products. Balling hotel..

Kitchen! I will be hitting up Walgreens to make some brekky and lunch. I refuse to pay $14 for a continental breakfast. 99 cents for a dozen eggs! What the hell, cheap as..

Large living room

Sister and I will be in this room. Each room has their own doorway out to the balcony that overlooks the ocean. So fricking sweet.

Suffice to say, we got upgraded. I think I will give that guy a hug on my way out. Or not, he might beat me up. The cookies they gave us were really good too. Oatmeal chocolate chip. mMMm. Anyways, going to go back up to jump around in my bed again. This is by far, the nicest/biggest hotel I've stayed in in my life. Well maybe the Wynn was a bit nicer and more updated, but regardless, this suite is huge. Totally did not expect this. And there are numerous walk in closets. And a washer/dryer in the room that we will be abusing.

Best of all, I get access to Versus, the American channel that will be broadcasting the Canucks game tomorrow. Finally, I get to watch a game! I've been missing them Canucks.

Oh right, had dinner here tonight. Really..really oily sauce for my linguine. But they already remade it once so I didn't want to make them remake it a third time. I work in a kitchen and if someone sent back my meal twice,... I'd be cussing the shit outta them. Heh.

I feel so poor here. Everyone has such nice cars.. everyone.

Bye bye Orlando, Hello Miami.

2009-05-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

I finally slept in! Till 9:15am. I feel so accomplished. Finally, I get to go Miami, the relaxing and de-stressing part of my vacation. Hopefully. The sun will continue to burn away at me but I can only pray that I will have most of my worries at least die down for a little while..

Disney Day 2 was spent at Epcot!You can see that sphere like thing in the distance. It reminds me of Science World.. I'm sure most of you will agree. I kept on referring to it as Science World throughout the day too.. Got a coupla stares by people around me. The exhibits at Epcot were very reminiscent and similar to Science World too though.. I quite enjoyed it. Sadly, no one else appreciated it in my family. I wanted to play this team game where you work together to launch a space ship, seemed so cooL! But no one showed any interest.

This is the line up for taking pictures with Disney characters: Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy. It took us an hour total from beginning to end. There was not a single ride at Universal or Disney that took over an hour on this trip, in terms of waiting. But taking pictures.. Shall refrain from bad words. I'm too embarrassed to show any of myself and the characters.

So, there's this World Showcase type thing at Epcot. There are many "Countries" that surround this lagoon. Some to note, Canada, Norway (hehe), Germany, Italy, France, and even China. Everyone working in those countries were actually from there. PEI boy worked the Canada store. CANUCKS! $113USD. Expensive. Sadly, I felt Canada was heavily shafted. All our place had was a dinky store that had the most stereotypical Canadian items being sold (maple syrup, raccoon hats, hockey jerseys..more maple syrup..) Some Parliamentary thing, and that was it. Other countries had really nice nooks and a collection of stores and whatnot that made it feel like you were really in the streets of say, Germany. Plus, lotsa beer around. Guess Disney didn't like Canada :(

My American heritage, shall leave it at that.

At night they have this fireworks show. Didn't get any pics of that on cell phone. There's also a fountain at Epcot that looks pretty nice at night.

So, Disney came and went pretty quickly. Finally ate a churro. Took me ages to find one.. only in Mexico-land. Mom was like, "why the hell are you eating from Mexico? Swine Flu!!"..

Chinese mothers make no sense.

Miami today. Family is packing away. Lots to carry out. I sure made a mess myself. I think I am also allergic to the sun or something. Little red spots appear in random areas..

No free internet at our new resort :( What the hell is that?! "We offer complimentary wireless internet in our lobby, but there will be a $9.99 charge if you want to use it in your room."... If only I were more computer saavy then I'm sure there's a way to hack into the lobby's wireless internet access. How does that even work.. blocking off room access..?

On a more upsetting note for myself, had a chance to be apart of Shinerama. Sadly, interviews are only being conducted today. Was really hoping I could get that job. I had applied back in late March and since they didn't contact me, I thought I wasn't even shortlisted for an interview. But, yea. Damn trip. Maybe I'll befriend some rich person and they'll offer me a job in Florida.

Heat exhaustion, sucks. Got a minor case of it yesterday. 30 degree heat + humidity = no good for me. But shh, dont' tell my parents. They just thought I was tired.

I'm fat once again! Hooha!

2009-05-04T21:42:00.000-07:00

If anyone knows me well, they'll know that I love to eat. But I also have a terrible habit of saying I'll be full when I have three bites of anything. This trip, has changed me. I don't know if for the better or worse.. I'm thinking the latter. I was really hungry one day after a long day at Universal Studios so our family was eating at the TGIFs across the street from the hotel.. our second time there, in a row. Anyways, they're having this ridiculous cheap deal of $5 menu items and I'm talking regular full sized sandwiches, burgers and salads here. I have no idea how they're even making money considering these items are nearly 50% off from their normal price, some even more!

Anyways, I was hungry so I decided to add a piece of chicken to my chicken burger. Now, chicken breasts in the USA are oddly quite large. Bigger than the ones we use at White Spot.. To say the least, my double double chicken burger came and it was ginormous. This picture doesn't do it justice. The waitress told me everyone in the back was talking about this burger and couldn't believe that someone could finish it. Well guess what you fat Americans, this born and almost bred American finished it.. and even had dessert back at the hotel! HAHA. I'm such a pig. But I seriously ate it all.. no problem WITH the side salad that it came with (no dressing Justin). The busser also noted that he was impressed that I could finish it. And today, I had a smoked turkey leg. Two turkey legs. Doesn't sound impressive? You will soon see.. Shall post pictures of that feat another day. To all you people out there that accuse me of eating too little.. HA! I automatically turn American in more than one way when I'm down here :'(. Get me back to Canada!!!! Anyways..on to today.

Disney World!

Here you can see my loot of Aloe Vera based products that I have been stocking up on during this trip. The burn has finally decreased by one shade of tomato red to light tomato red. Still itches and prickles like crazy when I'm in the sun.. But I'll make due. Spent over $16 USD on these products. If I start peeling tomorrow before Miami.. Let's not talk about that. Just like how I won't be watching the Canucks game tomorrow because I'll be at Epcot during it. No more Nelson-curses. Each time I rush back to the hotel to watch it's during the period where the Hawks score 3 goals. Can't be a coincidence twice now right?..

But yea, today was Disney World. Woke up sorta late.. got there at around 10 30.

Boarded the Monorail (skytrain-esque) thing from the parking lot to Magic Kingdom! I was surrounded by strollers, mommies and daddies and their little kids in outfits/hats. I felt so old once again! Garrrr!. Everyone was so excited and giddy. Me? Annoyed. Heh.

First ride, Splash Mountain. Once again, I was soaked head to toe. There's this one part where the people ahead of you rush down one hill and their residual water can come pouring down on you as you go up the first hill.. if you're unlucky enough. LUCKY ME, I was sitting in the third row, the only row that got this on them. MY GOD. I swear, God wants me to get wet on all the rides possible. Oh well, it helped cool off my sunburnt back. Wet boxers aren't fun to walk around in.

Look at the sea of strollers. There were many more of these types of stroller ''parking lots". I say there are very few young parents, Disney proved me wrong. A lot of young parents. A lot.

Parade!... Nothing too too special Sorry. I'm no longer a kid. These things don't excite me.

Lalalallala... Yeah. Battery died on camera phone.. AND my regular camera. I'm a failure.

Epcot tomorrow! Hopefully more rides..because SPACE MOUNTAIN WAS/IS CLOSED..until Winter 2009. I was so upset! That was the only ride I truly wanted to experience on this trip cuz I chickened out last time around.

Sigh sigh.

Now, off to bed! But must finish my Diet Pepsi first.

Oh, I almost knocked off Winnie the Pooh's head. My bad.

I've walked too many miles.

2009-05-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

So, Universal Studios came and went like that. Too tired to even post any pictures. Some highlights:

Mummy Roller Coaster: SO WORTH IT. Underground pitch black roller coasters = thumbs up. Two thumbs up! Went on it three times. Twice in a row. Each time was just as good. If not, it seemed to get even better...
I've never felt so much like a kid going on the Jimmy Neutron, Shrek 4D, and Simpsons rides. Men In Black was cool too, got to shoot aliens! Some little girl in front of me got a score of 150k on that ride, you get points for hitting your alien target with laser guns. I only got 68k. Everyone else, <21k.>
I'm still mad about that.
And still mad.
Burns hurt.
My sunglasses tan came back..
They ran out of Churros at 5pm. Park closes at 6. I seriously walked for 10 minutes looking for one. Was at one stand, two left. Four people in front of me. Last one taken by the boy in front of me.. Curses!
I will find my Churro tomorrow. Watch me.
Pretty good time there. Interesting to note, LOTS of grad kids have their graduations there. Saw like hundreds of them from one? school. I felt so old. My sister, even older. She's done her undergrad this year, and she's watching little 17/18 year olds go to college.
Half of them are taller, bigger, and older looking than me. I fail.

So, today was our family's "break" day in between Universal and Disneyworld. Our break consisted of a full day's of shopping. Two outlets, 8 hours later, I come back with not too many purchases. I even started buying stuff for the hell of it!..Which brings me to..

My mom. I could write a book on her quirks. She would make a good fobby mother to laugh at in movies. She wants to lose weight, pouts that there's no salad around near the hotel. So we go to the outlet, dad and I get Subway. As we sit down, I look for where she is.. and omfgareyoucrazy?! pops into my head as I see her at..

..a fast food chinese place. HOW WILL THIS WOMAN EVER LOSE WEIGHT?! Not only that, she goes "LET ME WALK FOR ANOTHER HALF HOUR" at our second outlet. GRRRR. Fine. And because of her, I am now the owner of yet another pair of jeans. FRICKING HELL. My damn need to buy something has made me made stupid purchases. Even bought a Lacoste shirt. I am ashamed. I should return all of these purchases. I think my Australia dreams have made me frugal. Too frugal.

Red Lobster for dinner. I should note waiters/waitresses at Orlando restaurants are extremely nice.. To the point where it's like I want to be their friend! They are so easy to talk to, are attentive, and aren't afraid to make a joke. The ones back home aren't all like that. I think I'll be a waiter now. I want to make people have a good day. :)

Disneyworld tomorrow. Sister is overly excited. "I will hunt down every Disney character there is".. Great. Who will be her unwilling accomplice? Me.

At least I'll get some exercise. No more flip flops! Blisters galore from the straps. Back to le Chucks.

Oh, I was Barney-hunting at Universal. I will find that murderous purple dino one day. And sack him. Nightmarish creature.

ITCHY. GRAR.

2009-05-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

My sunburn has mutated into some red.. monster. It has now spread to my chest and back..even the upper arms! Aloe vera better help this. Hopefully, I wont be peeling. I still have Miami to get to!

Today I went to Islands of Adventures, part of the Universal Studios Complex. I took my Gravol so my sister would not bitch the shit out of me like last time when we went Six Flags.. I think I only managed to go on one ride before I felt like my guts were going to explode everywhere. I went on all the rides today!.. Minus 2 because they span. I can not for the life of me take spinny rides. Even in elementary sports days when we did relay events and we had to spin around.. I'd feel nauseous. I'm weak, I know!
Great roller coasters there. I highly recommend Dueling Dragons. Weather was nice too. Below are a select number of pictures taken from my camera phone. Sorry, too lazy to bring my camera in..View from some escalator thing..

My favourite place to go.. HAHA. It's very kid-friendly here. Rides weren't too great.
I got completely soaked, head to toe on this ride. HEAD TO FUCKING TOE + BOXERS + SOCKS + SHOES. The water fall thing you see there, there's like 3-4 of them during the ride. EACH one landed on my sister and I. I got the worst of it because she sometimes grabbed me. We had to pay $5 for this heating room thing to get somewhat dried. Then I proceeded to just sit like a loser in the sun.. It took me a good 3 hours to get somewhat dry. Was it worth it? Hell yes. Haha. I wish PNE had something like this.. Puts the log ride to SHAME.

Umm, so there's apparently some sketchy shops near our hotel. Dad was getting scammed today. I don't mean to sound racist or anything, but both times by people of Spanish, I'm assuming Mexican, descent. Typical? I suppose so. It's come to be expected in places like these, just wish they'd realize not all their hardships in life is everyone else's fault and they do not need to resort to scamming tourists to make a living. Sighs. I wish I were there to scream at them. They thought my dad was Japanese; that's a first.

Going to Universal Studios, the main part of it, tomorrow. Islands of Adventures is mostly full of rides. Black kids make me laugh. They rap, dance, sing, hoot and holler continuously. They also enunciate a lot. REST-TOUR-RUH-AUNT.

I also like them British Folk.. What I don't like, is this:

Really now, socks and sandals in 27 degree weather?.. The shame. Have you no shame?! How did his girlfriend even let him out like that? Mind you, she was pretty damn cute too. I am such a stalker. But I couldn't resist. I should start a site that allows people to post sightings of social/fashion faux-pas.

Time to eat dinner soon. Surprisingly food wasn't too too expensive there today. ~7/meal, no drink, but filled me up pretty nicely. I was expecting $7 hot dogs.

Oh, saw girl with six pack today.

Damn sun.

2009-04-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Already sunburnt.

2009-04-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

I got my first taxi ride from a woman last night. She was Jamaican. Very very short..and rotund. She had to waddle a lot. Checked into the Hotel, and holy shit, I will destroy that man..that checked us in. Just a few points on how we were treated,

No greeting, just stared at us until we said something
No eye contact
Mumbled/talked 2371 words/minute. If I weren't there, I could see my mom taking over an hour to check in. Seriously. He had an East Indian accent, I think I'll thank my job for allowing me to decipher hard-to-understand-phrases.
Gave half ass answers to everything. There were three doors to the right side of the room. I asked him how to get to our suite, he said, "go out the doors through the left".. umm, "Which one?"......He never replied until I practically YELLED it at him.
His name is Stid. Tripadvisor will get a nice review from me completely ripping this guy a new one

Other than that, it was decent. Hotel's showing its age for sure. Not as great as other ones. Location is on the quieter side of things. We're by a lake, so it's not too bad.. Big pool.

There are a lot of big asses here, just saying. The literal ones.

Everyone white here, is British..or of some English descent. I like I like! Sadly, no real eye candy. Perhaps Miami will bring me something better.
------------
Today, just basically hung around the pool, tried to get rid of my glasses tan. I got burnt instead. My chest :'(.. Doesn't hurt yet, I hope it doesn't peel or anything. I think I turned a shade darker! I'm now the colour of the crusts of white toast.

Shall be cheering on the Canucks later tonight via radio:( Grrr! Universal Studios tomorrow, gotta find my meds so I don't puke everywhere. Shut up, I have a weak stomach. A very weak one..I even get scared lookin down the balcony from our room. SO high!

Convo of the day:
Black Girl #1: So where ya'all from from?
Me: Vancouver
BG: Vuncoooivur?
Me: Vancouver.
BG: *blank stare*
Me: Vancouver, Canada.
BG: Oh, Canada!
...her co worker comes along
Black Girl #2 (with gold grills): So, where you from? Like Ch-Ch-China?
Me: (omfg, you have got to be kidding me..) No, Canada.
BG#2: Oh.

I should have went, so where are you from? Kenya? Miss the zebras and giraffes there?

Suckers, I'm in Orlando.

2009-04-29T17:55:00.001-07:00

After last night's frantic packing..till about 2am, I didn't bother sleeping. Parents decided to go to airport 2 hours earlier for a domestic flight. Way too damn early.

Mother had a moment. A moment of her adolescent years where she threw a tantrum because of her headache and ensuing hunger. No, not funny.

Flight to Toronto was alright. Spent the first 1.5 hours watching Bride Wars.. Haha.. Was the most cliché Chick flick ever... EVER. The humour was typical, the storyline predictable as hell, the set up for the ending was so brutally forced I'm surprised this movie even made it to the theatres. Girl ends up marrying guy that appears in like 10 minutes of this shitastic movie after a year of dating and ends up preggos. Beauty, pure beauty. That writer should have been fired, I would have done a better job.

From Toronto to Orlando we went. This time around I almost finished watching Yes Man. Was 11 minutes and 23 seconds from finishing..until they cut it out! Damn! I fell asleep in the first hour. In 36 hours I've only had about 2.5 hours of airplane quality sleep. Surprisingly, did not even need coffee today!

Just finished dinner now. Waiting for dad who's coming in on another flight through Dallas (complicated Air Miles crap...). His flight's delayed for 1.5 hours. What the fuck. I want to go to my hotel and sleep!

I will say, the ethnic make up here is so different from Vancouver. It's come to be expected of course. Shall have fingers crossed for a good hotel room, a basic hit/miss with this hotel we're staying at. Oh, I'm proudly wearing my Canucks shirt. I wish I had a stopover in Calgary.

Okay, another hour to burn. Time to start Oryx and Crake. Woohoo!

Damn, that girl has a huge ass. As wide as the garbage bin..wow.

..Never again

2009-04-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

Going into the Math exam I had an A average.. Coming out, I'll be lucky with a B. My last exam one the worst one by far. At least in Bio I had some confidence with some questions. This exam.. I didn't understand half of what was being asked. It was so not representative of what we were doing all year. It better be fucking scaled because over half the questions had me more than stumped. And I wasn't the only one.

Except, this one douche.

Myself, Sandy, and Henry were talking about it..well, more like bitching about how hard it was, and this one guy 8 paces behind us goes ''I didn't think it was that bad of an exam!"... Fucker.

And now, I must pack. I must say, I'm not that excited..

Nelson est le sad and tired.

2009-04-27T19:23:00.001-07:00

Bloody Ebeneezer!

I did not perform as well as I thought I would do in English.. The one book I did not prepare for at all was Jane Eyre.. and Mrs Dalloway but hellll no was I going to write on that. Four choices in the close reading, I had to choose two to do a close analysis of. Jane Eyre was one of them. Can't do that. Left me with three. A book that I was going to include in my Part II essay was also asked, can't do that one because you can't use part A material for B.. So I was stuck with the 2 remaining poems.

I sat there, I kid you not, for thirty full minutes. It was 4:02 before I finally took off the cap of my pen, wrote my name/etc on the booklet, and started my brainstorming. I basically self taught/made up stuff about one of the poems because I barely studied it considering he spent like 30 minutes on it in class. I hope my wonderful BS holds up..

Suffice to say, I completely ran out of time. I only had time to proofread my first essay/3 and found countless mistakes/errors and made lots of modifications. Got started on my 2nd one to hear, "One minute left!".. There were only like 8 people left in the hall at this time. I fail. I fail. I fail.

Now, I move on to Math. Fucking, math. People were talking about math today in the IKB area as I was waiting to go into the exam room. I did not understand a word they were saying about Orthogonality. I am so screwed.

Five hours to study. I should get off this thing.

GAH;;;

,oh, and my stomach was also growling uncontrollably the entire time. My face turned bright red each time.. ha

I gave in..

2009-04-26T13:20:00.001-07:00

I fail.
Back I go to studying Math and English.. Gahh
----
It's now 9:14pm.
My ears are dying on me, all I hear is the loud Chinese chaotic noise that is typical of my household. It's like they completely ignore me when I tell them I have two exams to study for. They go, "Okay, we'll be quiet."

They'll get back to their conversations, albeit in a hushed whisper.
Next thing you know, in about 2 minutes it's at the same level again.
I tell them once again, they give the same response..and the cycle just continues.

How will I ever study the complexities of Virginia Woolf with this? Urgh.
And I still need to pack and buy stuff for Florida.

So, stressed.

!SHUT UP!