Month: December 2011

So close I can almost taste it! Gimmie the Gingerbread!

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I am all for early signs of Christmas. The stores are decorated, along with the malls, and then there’s the houses too. The cinemas are brining out new Christmas movies and schools choirs are learning their Christmas carols (this I know cause I hear my sister practicing random Christmas jingles around the house).

I know, a lot of people are like “IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS YET!”

But I really don’t mind. 🙂 I’ve always loved the fact that there are so many signs reminding you that Christmas is right around the corner! I think it is the one holiday I really look forward to, because everyone is in such good spirits.

I remember when I was young, my parents and I would walk around malls, and I always knew when Christmas was coming. The decorations are SO pretty! And then there’s also the random guy dressed up as Santa Clause in malls, and that’s fun too. And his elves sprinkled around the mall. Okay, yeah, people dressing up as Santa Clause and elves scare me a little…actually people dressed up as characters scare me. Except for the Disney Princesses at Disneyland!

Every year at Metrotown ❤

I really do not mind the early discounts from shops. I remember working at Stitches around Christmastime and happily helping old ladies choose presents for their granddaughters. It always amused me when they would look at me and proclaim I am shaped like their granddaughter, and promptly usher me to try on a certain jacket/sweater/shirt. It seemed like that they have been looking forward to shopping for their grandkids for the whole year! You should see all the time and effort they put into choosing the perfect gift!

Then there is also the people who rush in, grabbing last minute presents or just wanting to check ‘present buying’ off their list of things to do. And that is fine too. :3 I have often waited so long pondering what to get who I end up becoming one of those frantic gift shoppers.

But as a backtrack, after taking all these business courses, the festive mall environment has dimmed a bit for me. The early decorations are not put up because everyone is excited for Christmas, like myself. Boosting Christmas sales being the main objective here, the stores start their promoting extra early! Ahh, the loss of childhood innocence just keeps getting to me.

However, I want this to be a happy post, so back to the land of sugarplums and happiness! I am seeing loads of Christmas themed food! Here’s some Lindt chocolate that I bought after suffering from mild depression after my Economics Final. The white chocolate ones have tiny snowmen on them!!

Lindt Chocolate Balls :3

I still have yet to have a gingerbread cookie this year! I think out of everyone around me, I am the only one who actually likes gingerbread baked goods. All the more for me!

Then we got a package from our aunt in Hong Kong in the mail! She sent us a bunch of scarves that my sister, mom and I quickly claimed! Yay for overseas relatives!

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Bath and Body Works Candles!

So moving on to harmless weekend shopping? Firstly, this I have been meaning to do for quite a while, I bought Christmas candles from Bath & Body Works! I haveBath and Body Works Candles!wanted to buy their Evergreen candle for a long time, but I did not think I would be able to finish using their 3-wick candles. So I was at Richmond Center the other day when I saw that their smaller candles were buy one get on free!! Christmas savings 🙂

I grabbed a Cranberry Woods for the second one because the tangy, fresh smell of cranberries wakes me up.I also bought earmuffs. Okay, I guess I do not really need earmuffs, but I do live in Vancouver and it gets cold out. Very cold, for those of you who do not know.

And of course, my first picture beside a Christmas tree this year!

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At Richmond Center Mall!

I have my mom’s gift ready and just need to wrap it. I am not going to mention what it is here in case she reads this… I still have no idea what to get my Dad—a dilemma that occurs every year. My sister is also a tough one this because her birthday is always before Christmas, so I have already racked my brains for her and got her things I know she would have wanted… AND! I also have my secret Santa gift to consider, and since I drew a guy, it is going to make everything just that much harder. I never know what to get guys, whether it is for their birthday or Christmas. This paragraph shouts Corporate Santa everywhere. *cough*

But for now, as I go back to studying for my finals exams, let the 24 hour Christmas radio stations accompany me in my task…

 It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!… 

-Karen

Contingent Contemplation: Karen’s Notebook Graveyard

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I recently bought a Moleskine notebook because I’ve been meaning to try them out,  and when I saw them on sale at Chapters, I decided to just get one. I originally wanted to get a Moleskine agenda, so I can finally keep my life in check… but then I realized what happens to all my notebooks/agendas. The end up somewhere I like to call Karen’s Graveyard for Notebooks. Seriously, sooner or later, they end up there.

I guess I am what you would call a pack rat. I usually keep stuff for sentimental reasons such as old ticket stubs, pictures and random assortments of menus, maps, etc. that I have collected (maybe I will share them here with you one day?). Countless times, I have tried to start a diary/journal, but they always end up being left off at some random point of time in the past. I think my best record for a diary was around three years? And throughout those three years, there has been only around twelve entries. A lot of the times, I still bring my journal with me on trips but I never find time to write in them so I usually decide to fill it in when I return home. However, I find that it does not capture what I wanted it to and I often forget mentioning some important points that I would have wanted to remember.

My Notebook Graveyard consists of not only different diaries that I have started, but an assortment of art notebooks, scrapbooks and ones where I just pasted inspirational things I found in magazines that I liked. The list goes on, and you would wonder how I still have the strength and energy to start so many new ones. But, what I’ve realized is that when I flip through them every now and then, it makes me happy to see that I at least took out some time to document certain parts of my life. I enjoy reading my diary and reminiscing back to fun times (and occasionally re-living sad times). It amuses me to see how I reacted or felt about events or things around me, and since time blurs old memories, my scrapbooks and notebooks sharpen them up again.

Some notebooks of mine...

So why all the different notebooks? What usually happens is I fall in love with a notebook, and cannot wait to find some use for it. Then I get tired of it, or it loses its appeal and I move on. Or I get lazy and decide to stop writing in it for a while, but then as time passes, I feel hesitant to rekindle my relationship with that notebook. I end up starting a new notebook, with wild dreams and fierce determination that this will be the one that I will use forever. But I guess you can guess where the story ends.

By now, I am pretty sure I will not be able to faithfully stick to one notebook. My Notebook Graveyard will continue to grow, but now worries, I pay them a visit every once in a while, and even drop off some extra words as my way of saying I still remember them. Plus, I will start new ones, so although it is going to be a pain having to read different ones to refer back to different times, it is a system that still works. I guess.

When I first started this blog, I had the foresight to see where it may be heading. I think for now, my record has been okay. Although there’s only a few posts so far, I actually have had some more saved as drafts on my computer or on wordpress itself. It is just that I sometimes leave them off somewhere and have not finished them yet, but then I realize that they are no longer relevant. It is now winter, and I have written a very long blog post while on my summer roadtrip to California, which I felt was not appropriate to post. The same can be said for several other neglected posts!

So, after recognizing all this through this post, it brings me back to the original problem that led me here in the first place: what should I do with my new notebook? :3 Hehe, yeah I know, we all know where it most probably is going to end up. BUT! I’m still very excited to actually start using it! Got any suggestions anyone? It’s a lined notebook, so definitely for writing? =)

My new notebook :3

Karen

And down the rabbit hole I go…

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To say it’s only been a while is only going to bend the facts to make this whole thing look less bad! But honestly, I could not find time to breathe, much less write… but believe me, there were numerous times when I wanted to blog, but really couldn’t! It felt as though quizzes, homework, midterms, projects, etc. were just lining up in my life, demanded to be tended to one followed by another! I actually had to keep another blog for school, which wasn’t very fun since we had to blog on articles…

Frosh buddies and I on the last day of term =) Me, Benedicta, Amy ❤

Anyways, let me just fill in the blanks. Some of you already know that I started my first year in university…and I guess today marks the first day I’m free from classes! I survived first term! However, this break I’m having right now is supposed to be studying for my finals, and God knows I’m looking forward to those. I decided I’m going to talk about what I learned in university, hoping it will help those of you going into it.

1) No more time!

One of the things I noticed most was the lack of time I was left with. As I said earlier, work just kept coming, and of course, not wanting to fail, I had to tackle them. I found it hard to balance seeing friends with seeing family, while getting my work done! The weekend flies by faster than ever, and it is during weekends when profs assign regular homework, usually due some day next week. So you end up doing homework during the weekends, or studying for some midterm.

2) Midterms
Oh yeah, talking about midterms…they don’t actually occur in the middle of your term. Honestly, I have had three midterms for a class, and averaging on two for most of my other ones. So really, it should be called a biweekly exam or something. =.=

3) Space out your classes!
One of my biggest mistakes was taking 6 courses in one term. I had to take a total of 10 this academic year, and somehow, I scheduled six into my first term at university. Of course, if you’re going into engineering or something, six is perfectly normal. But, when everyone around me was juggling five, I found it super hard to keep all my marks up for the six I was doing! So please, spread out your timetable! You, and your marks, will thank you for it! And also, I didn’t really have breaks between a majority of my classes, and it turns out that certain classes were really far away from each other. Oh well, I got to work out and run to my classes like a madwoman.

4) Your professors

Dear university teachers, 

             I don’t call you “professor” out of respect. I do it because it makes me feel like I’m in Harry Potter.


                                                                         -Sincerely, University Student.
What you will learn real quick is that with 300 students to a class, your professor will not be there to baby you like your teachers did in high school. Didn’t do your homework? They really don’t care. At times, I wondered why I was paying them to only get a hour or so of plain talking, mostly about stuff I can read on my own…but you learn that that’s university. However, having said that, they usually have office hours when you can go visit them—whether they’re there or not is another matter. You really have to learn to fend for yourself and go seek for what other resources there are that can help you. At UBC, there’s free tutors and help, but don’t forget you also have friends who probably understood he material better than you! Oh and there’s TAs, but of course, as Professor Gateman kindly points out, TAs are only students, so teaching-wise, they’re not overly experienced.

5) Friends
You know when you’re feeling down, or just plain bad, and then you really start to see the people around you? I guess it’s not just in university that this happens, but for me, there was a period during my first term when I truly was depressed. There were some people who were there, some who didn’t, even if I really needed it. Of course, I’m not holding it against them or anything, because it is no one’s obligation, but for those who were there, you guys truly made life livable. Looking back, I still remember being depressed, and I hope I don’t go through it again. But again, make friends because then you can have someone to catch you up with stuff you missed in class, teach you material, or just plain be there for you to talk!

6) Commuting…Ohhh TransLink.
I guess commuting wasn’t that bad, especially since I get rides to school in the morning. But, when you really want to return home after a long day, the bus ride seems forever. I takes me around an hour to get home, and since I can’t really read or do anything productive on the bus, I just have to find some way to get through it. I’ve seen lots of people sleeping on the bus, and I have wanted to do it countless times. But I’ve always been too worried about missing my stop, so I end up just staying awake. I recommend you find something you can do on the bus, so that you’re not wasting time. For me, though I can’t read textbooks, I can read novels, or something that I really get into. I usually become so absorbed I don’t even realized I’m on the bus anymore. Then, I got a chance to escape and when I get home, I get down to work. Okay, I am not really that productive…but still, I get home and look back, I realize I did get a bit of time to relax on the bus.
If you want to avoid public transport, or money for gas, live on campus. But for me, it’s not really an option because I’d miss my family too much! And I feel like I’m already spending to little time with them. ☺

As you can see, I didn’t talk about how to study, but I believe that it depends on who you are. I have friends who study on campus, then return home when their work is done. I can only study in my room, which I learned in Psychology is bad. I need to study in a familiar environment or else I end up being low on productivity. But my studying habits have definitely changed from when I was in high school.

One last thing: Would I suggest buying a textbook?

I don’t like carrying my five hundred pound textbooks to school, especially when I’ll probably have to lug them around all day. (Well, I do have a locker, but the lack of breaks makes it impossible for me to retrieve stuff from it.) I really like my textbooks that come with an online version of the text, so I can simply read them on my MacBook. OH! And since we’re talking about MacBooks, it’s true that like 80% of the laptops I’ve seen in school are MacBooks.

Not my school, but you get the idea.

Anyway, back on topic, I like studying off an actual book more than off a screen. But, there are some courses where the textbook really is unnecessary. If you feel like you’ll be studying the book a lot and constantly referring back to it, get it. If not, you can always purchase a cheaper online version of it..or attain in through other means 😉  and then read it on an e-reader.

I hope I’ll be blogging again soon! The holidays are right around the corner, so I’ll have more time!