What I’ve learned this week

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1) How to play mahjong

2) I cannot eat as much as I think I can

3) Santa Claus is Canadian

4) The idea of watching movies alone

So starting off with number 1, I finally learned how to play mahjong! Okay, so I am not at the level where you can play the version where you tally up the points, and you play certain different combinations, but I learned how to play the regular matching three up one! Honestly, in my 18 years of life, although I have watched my parents and many aunts and uncles around me play mahjong, I have never thought about learning it. However, now that I have, I cannot believe I never did! It is actually very fun, and I feel more connected to my Asian heritage. Okay, maybe not so much the whole connected thing, but it was still fun! Funny (or not so) thing is that we play at the UBC library. I think half the people wanted to kill us at Irving K. Barber and the other half wanted to join us. Okay, before you start tutting at me, you have got to realize that Irving is infamous for being the library you to go when you do not want to study. It is the nosiest library in the whole of UBC. At one point, some random guy came up and asked if he can join us for a round. Of course we agreed, but he had to leave before we finished our own round. 😦 Overall, I would say it felt like I have acquired another life skill.

Mahjong at the library...I won three times in a row!

Now to number 2…it all began (and ended) at Anton’s. So after everyone’s classes ended today, us hungry university kids were starving and William, one of my friends, said he knew a place. We all listened as he described how although it is like $20 a plate, the spaghetti portions were huge and you win a prize if you actually end up finishing it. Being who we were, we were like

It turns out that this place was Anton’s Pasta Bar, on Hastings and between Carleton and Madion. We got there and I was so hungry I declared I could eat half a cow. My friend said she was so hungry she would resort to cannibalism (*cough* Monica). There was a line, as my friend had warned, since it was such a popular joint. After sitting down, we basically took ten minutes before quickly flagging down the waitress so we could order. Looking around the restaurant, I saw everyone asking for a box to take away their leftovers. I was criticizing how people could not even eat one-third of their plate of spaghetti. WEAK! When our food came, we all dug in. Although there was five of us, we ate in silence for 10-15 minutes. That is how hungry and into our food we were. I got the Spinach Fettuccine Alla Fillippo, which was basically a white sauce spaghetti with spinach and chicken. Delicious! Charlie also got a white sauce spaghetti (the Fettuccine Alfredo), while Monica and Kody got the Fettuccine Creola. William was the only one who got something really different, the Tortellini Alla Panna. After a while I realized that this was an endless battle. In the end I think I ate 1/3 of my plate max. Kind of sad when you walked in with such high expectations of yourself. And I wanted the prize too (a pen). Sucked watching some table behind us claim a pen. Anyways, defeat aside, that restaurant was delicious! Probably not the place you would take someone on a date, due to having to pig out and dig through a heaping plate of pasta, but a great place with a cheerful environment for hanging out with friends.

Anton's Past Bar storefront featuring Valentine's Day

Our spaghetti 🙂

A feast! Challenge accepted!

Before challenge...

Challenge failed...though you have got to admit, I did plough through a lot!

And we shamefully walked away with half our plates in these containers...

Point number 3 came up as we were waiting for our takeout boxes at Anton’s. We narrowed down Santa Claus’s nationality as either Russian, American (from USA) or Canadian. We all started arguing our points and the argument went on from there. My friend and I argued that since he wears white and red, is super nice, and our coin (the quarters) has a picture of a caribou, which is the same as a reindeer, Santa Claus is Canadian. No one seemed to have as much evidence as we did so we kind of left that there. 🙂

Lastly, I was having a conversation with my mom the other day, complaining how I do not think I know anyone who would be willing to watch “The Artist” with me, though I desperately want to! All my friends definitely do not seem like the type to be into that type of movie…so I was stuck in a dead end. I jokingly said “I might as well go to the cinemas by myself.” My mom then told me that watching a movie by yourself is a whole new experience. When I thought about it, I realized how true that was. You do not have to censor your feelings and you can fully concentrate on the film! I really am thinking of trying it out one day, just to see how I like it. Who knows? It may even become a thing I do! Honestly, after consideration, I would most probably want to watch those cry-your-eyes-out movies alone because it gets so hard to control your tears when you are into the movie.

So for now, that is what I have learned this week! 🙂 Have a great weekend everyone!

-Karen

Vancouver nights in the fog

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Today was extraordinarily foggy, and I mean seriously foggy. It started off as a beautiful day when I left the house this afternoon, but as the day progressed, you could notice that you could not see very far into the distance. I thought it would be interesting to have some photos taken. However my camera would not capture the fog…unless if someone else was in the picture 🙂 And yes that figure in the pictures is me– I was not stalking someone on the streets so I get get a picture of the foggy surroundings. My sister held the camera. I thought these came out eerie, but peaceful at the same time…

[cue music]  Strangers in the night…. 

Moon vs. street light

On a slightly different topic, there was a little old lady busking for change at the bus stop. Although it was freezing cold tonight, she was there with her mic hooked up onto an amplifier with music playing in the background. She sang songs for everyone waiting for their buses. I thought it was nice and when I went up to her, I realized she was busking for a cause. She was helping raise money for kids in Kenya who had HIV. This whole scene was just so nice and I watched as others also dropped in their coins after mine. What a beautiful way to round off a day. 🙂

Busking for 'change'!

Releasing my inner geek!

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Just kidding, I do not think I am that big a geek. But I have my moments.

Anyway, my friends and I recently ordered a bunch of stuff from thinkgeek.com! I was super excited when the package arrived this morning because I have been wanting to get ahold of my…. LIGHTSABER CHOPSTICKS! I have been wanting these forever (well, a while anyway) but it took me a while to find them. I also got a lightsaber laser pointer, because you never know when that may come in handy.
It annoys me how my friend got a watch on the site for like $15 and my chopsticks were $13. But oh well! I will feel like Jedi while I eat dinner every night! Another complaint? Shipping fees to Canada. It always costs so dang much.

Extreme monkey-powered awesomeness enclosed 🙂

Goodies ^.^

Lightsaber chopsticks!!!!!!

Since we are on the topic, HBO released another Game of Thrones teaser! Cannot wait! My friends and I were thinking of doing a themed night for the premier! 🙂 I am currently on the fourth book and I am so slow… One of my new year’s resolutions was to stop feeling so guilty every time I pick up a novel instead of a textbook, and I have been doing pretty well. But it is still very hard to squeeze out time for reading. 😦 It also does not help that A Feast for Crows lack a lot of the characters I am used to from the previous books. But then again we get to see what is going on in Sunspear!

Moving on to a slightly less cheery note….
So the past few weeks has been pretty good work load wise, but I am NOT looking forward to the next two-three weeks. I am swamped with midterms, term papers and presentations! I found out I will be having my macro economics midterm, Chinese midterm and an in-class english essay all one the same day. Wonderful. But I have to say, this is already significantly better than last term. If only I have the self control and motivation to actually get my butt to work and start doing everything now I know my life will be a lot better off when the time comes. Sadly, I work best under pressure and although I am expecting stress, it just is not close enough yet to kick me into hyper work mode! I got to look into that and find ways to see how I can get over that whole only-working-under-pressure thing.

Ending this post off, has anyone SEEN the weather in Vancouver? It is beautiful! Not too cold, not too hot– in other words, perfect! So excited for spring!

-Karen

I really wish it snowed during Christmas instead..

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So if you are a Vancouverite, you have probably recently had to trudge through the snow like me. I wish it snowed back in December! I wonder if I have actually ever had a white Christmas…for all I know, I may have, but was to young to remember!

When I was younger, I loved the snow! And since coming back to Canada, I have not really seen snow that lasted for what was probably more than one day. For the past two years Vancouver was not high on the snow factor. I heard that the year before I came back, there was a huge snowstorm…kind of wish I was there to see it! But at the same time, the chilling winds that I am experience now is quite enough for me to retract that. It actually makes my eyes tear up from the cold when I walk between classes…it also does not help that my classes are a kilometre away from each other. I am truly amazed when I hitch my morning car rides from my dad and see bikers biking on the highway-like road towards UBC. *applause* Seriously!

So while I was going home yesterday, I was rushing to get back into the warm confines of my room and was walking pretty fast once I got off the bus. However, I saw something in the snow that made me smile: doggie paw prints! I actually gave a chuckle…so then I decided to take out my phone and take a picture of it. It really must have had some effect on me because I took off my mittens and let my hands endure the cold! I really wanted to capture the tracks. So I kept my eyes peeled at I walked the rest of the way home. Then I saw some bird tracks! These were adorable because there were little drag marks! I had no idea why that was so, but my mom told me it was cause the birds were short and their bellies dragged on the grounds as they walked through the snow. I do not know whether I should believe her or not because she tends to make up stuff to sound smart.

Paw prints everywhere 🙂 So cute!

Bird tracks with little drag marks!

I caught other interesting photos on my iPhone the rest of the way and at one point I found some fresh, untouched snow. I couldn’t resist so I left my own prints in the snow and took a picture of that too. Yeah, I know it is horrible to mess up the unmarked snow, especially when it was not yours to walk all over…but I was jealous of birds and dogs preserving their prints in the now! =P Then I came across another patch of clean snow so I wrote my name in it. Big mistake though because my fingers were cold to begin with. Digging them into the snow did not help. My fingers were so cold and went by the time I was done that my iPhone could not sense my fingers on the screen. =.=

My boot prints 🙂

Bad idea...

But anyway, I think it was a nice experience and when I finally got home, it got me thinking. I realized that although at times it may seem like things suck, but there is always something there to lift your mood–as long as you look for it and let it! So get out there and keep looking! Or if you have already found it, then relish in it! 🙂

-Karen

 

 

 

 

Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away! We serve hot Coke.

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I think a good way to get over depression is to laugh about it. Oh the irony. But anyway, I am in no way in actual depression, at least not yet. Last term things were a lot rougher. Anyway, I am a bit worried about where everything is headed. Again, I still do not really know what I want to do in my life future. As I typed that sentence, I realized I do not even know which road I am going to take in the near future… much less my life.

You know how in movies, the main character goes away to a far off country and there she finds herself. She then goes back home a changed person, with dreams, goals and direction. I have been contemplating going away for an exchange (even before getting into UBC I believe), since our faculty offers that option. I have not looked into the details of it, but from what I know, you can continue earning your credits while you are in your country of choice.

When I was still in high school I always wanted to choose Hong Kong as my exchange site because I have wanted to go to university there as well. My family also has an apartment there, so residence is taken care of. I will see all my old friends and family once again and things will be as they were, even if it is just for the duration of the exchange. But now that I feel lost, I feel pretty dumb for wanting to go to Hong Kong. I have already seen most of what Hong Kong has to offer and what I need are new experiences and something to (hopefully) open my eyes to a path I want to take and pursue. But where do I want to go? I am thinking somewhere in Europe, since I have had the least connections there. It will definitely be new, but seems so cliché. Everyone wants to go to Europe (unless if you are in/from Europe). Thinking about wanting to leave and find a dream seems like a thing out of a movie and as most movies are, I fear it is probably easier seen than done.

So how has my term been so far? First of all, I am not getting a gist of what the rest of the term will mostly likely be like just yet because I have only had a week of school. Believe me, it feels like it has been months, but somehow, it has only been a little more than a week. I can already feel the pressure of getting readings done on time. Reading one chapter of psychology takes me at least three hours on a good day. Reading ten chapters of A Storm of Swords (George R.R. Martin) takes a maximum of one hour. Probably less. Story of my life.

Asides from academic side of things, this week I went to the International Business Club: World Cities Night event! As always, it was fun to dress up. There were motivating and informative speeches made by keynote speakers, then some mingling and networking, all done in the quaint little restaurant Salam Bombay. The first speaker talked about the importance of self branding. It served as a really good reminder that whatever you decide to post online stays with you forever. Our speaker even went to quote Google’s CEO, saying that the young will have to change names to escape their cyber past, then moving on to joke that plastic surgery may be necessary with today’s face recognition technology. Scary, but very probable. So remember: whatever you post online can (and will, under certain circumstances) be linked back to you. Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Your achievements may just as well be searched up!

World Cities Night! Have no idea what I was saying here...(credit)

We also got to meet Chris Chong, owner of Vancouver’s very own Butterbooth! It has always been fun, playing around in the photo booth at certain UBC events and what really caught my attention during the speech was how the business has expanded to Hong Kong! Being from Hong Kong, I can imagine all the difficulties that would have occurred with the expansion, and I really wanted to ask Chris more questions…sadly, there was only one of Chris, and loads of inquisitive people! Maybe another time!

The IB club basically took up the whole of Salam Bombay. I have never been to Salam Bombay on Burrard Street, but frequently to Shabusen (for All-you-can-eat sushi!), whose entrance is right across from it. The food was delicious and a new to me and I got a sample a variety of Indian cuisine. Yum! I was pretty full by the end of the night– always a good sign!

Bottomless Indian food! *drools* (credit)

The second weekend of my new term has begun! And you know what weekends mean…time to catch up on readings! The joys of university. 🙂

P.S: Okay, this is pretty random, but because I was really cold today and wanted to warm up, I went to look for something to drink. I really wanted a can of Coke, but it was cold because all our Cokes are in the fridge. So I decided to pour out the Coke into a cup and heated it up in the microwave. After taking it out, I added some lemon juice into it. I just want to say…best idea every for a cold day! It was super fizzy (not sure why though), warm (hot actually) and just nice overall! Hot coke for the win 🙂 Do not judge me.

Photo credits.