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!

Yup, it was a pretty Amazing Race!

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…considering how we won!

Hey there!

Yeah I know, “Karen?! Racing? Physical activity? What?!” But it was seriously very fun!

On Monday, my friend Josh organized an Amazing Race around Vancouver for a group of our friends! I must say, it was very successful, seeing as how 7 teams competed against one another!

~The Amazing Race~

Teams were as follows:

– Paul and Jody, “the White Boys” (blue)
– Connie and Karen, “thebomb.com” (purple)
– Wendell and Kody, “ex-convicts” (red)
– Chris T and Vanessa, “The Amazing Face” (yellow)
– Kevin and Mimi (silver)
– Michael and Jason, “PMS: Perpetual Motion Squad” (white)
– David and Eric, “Men’s Generation” (black + white)

thebomb.com!

So Connie and I were Thebomb.com! A.k.a. the purple team! I did expect quite a bit of physical activity, but I did not expect my muscles to be this sore the day after! It hurts to move and the fact that I’m leaving on Friday and thus am doing a lot of preparations these few days (for university!) does not really help the problem!

Anyway, it was a wonderful day and here is a quick summary of it before I forget the details myself! The race took us around the City of Vancouver, truly tested our sense of direction around the city and put Vancouver’s public transit to the test! We were also not allowed to use our smart phones and search stuff up on the internet.

Don’t be jealous of my microsoft paint skills

Meet-up for the event started at 9:30 a.m, but Josh actually expected people to be late, so the actual starting time was at 10. Everyone gathered at the bottom of Queen Elizabeth Park and after reading our information packages, we were soon ready to start. By the way, besides the challenges themselves, we were also given a list of photos that we could take during the race that will help our final score Yay for scavenger hunts!

The first challenge was to fill out a sheet, ranking activities from the least amount of people performing a certain activity from another. It took a while for Connie and I to finish and after doing so, we were directed to go up QE Park towards the water fountain at the top! Honestly, running up the hill to the top made me feel like dying seeing as how I barely did any exercise for quite a while now! Several groups were in front of us, namely yellow, red and white (I think) and at the top, William was waiting for us with a Detour sheet. We had a choice of taking a picture with a McDonald’s employee, going into a store and asking for condoms or going to the liquor store and finding out where a wine (Oyster Bay Pinot Noir, I believe) was made! We opted to do the McDonald’s one and a lady hesitantly came over and took a photo with us.

After obtaining the photo, we ran towards the Sir Charles Tupper Secondary (our school! Or rather, former school) oval, where Monica was waiting for us to give us the next challenge. It was to find a penny hidden somewhere in the oval. Honestly, this was the most time consuming and my least favourite part of the race! It almost took us an hour or so to find the penny as only one team member was allowed to do the searching (Roadblock!)! However, we were the third group to find our penny and we had to solve a coded message, telling us where the next checkpoint was. This involved the periodic table, which was provided to us somewhere within our package, which led us to the Science World gazebo!

We took the bus down to Science World near Main and Terminal and we found the gazebo. We soon realized that the challenge was to eat one of the items that was laid out for us. Among the selection, there were salsa packets, a can of Vienna sausages, a mango, caramel rice cakes, a package of instant noodles, an apple and a can of sprite. The last two were taken by the two teams that were ahead of us and so we chose to eat the rice cakes. We managed to get it all down after much choking and gasping for air, and then was told that the next stop was a pit stop at Vancouver City Center, the Canada line station! When we got there, we had our times recorded. We were 14 minutes behind the first group that arrived (white team). When all the teams arrived (after almost an hour, probably due to the penny challenge), we headed off to Pacific Center’s food court for lunch!

Oddly enough, after we all sat down with our food, we realized that each team got the same food within their groups! Connie and I had sandwiches, Michael and Jason had New York Fries, Wendell and Kody had hot dogs, Chris and Vanessa has chinese food, Mimi and Kevin had home packed lunches, David and Eric did not eat and I think we saw Jody and Paul at another table both holding Orange Julius cups. Sorry for listing that out, but it was so peculiar that I wanted it recorded somewhere! =)

We were then released in the order we came in, but instead of making the last team wait and hour or so after the first group left, we were released in intervals of 2 minutes in the same order. Connie and I were the third team off and we were given another Detour sheet. We had the choice of either going to the Apple store and taking a picture of ourselves on Photo Booth and then sending it to Josh, or go to H&M and try on clothing. We chose the Apple store one and we were quickly done. Josh told us our next stop was at the Vancouver Central Library. We ran there to see William already instructing Kody and Michael what to do. Apparently, we had to look for a book on Vancouver’s history and then go photocopy a page from it and take it back to him. Only one member was allowed to do this, as it was a Roadblock. I ran into the library, inquiring where the history books were. After finding out they were on the 6th floor, I had to find a photocopier. Kody could not find one for a while so in the end, Michael and I exited the library before he did.

On Photo Booth!

William then told us our next stop was Scotiabank Theater. Connie and I originally wanted to bus there, but we realized how close it was and thus we just ran/walked there. Michael and Jason (white team) got there before us and we all had to do a fill-in-the-blank sheet on either Natalie Portman or Mila Kunis. Connie was really good at the Natalie Portman trivia questions but we could not finish all the blanks. So we ran into the theater where we met Geoffrey, a Natalie Portman expert or something! He helped us with the rest of the questions. After completing the sheet, the letters came together and pointed us towards the Vancouver Art Gallery. Oh and before I forget to mention, we have been taking loads of photos during the way.

At the Art Gallery, despite taking off before the white team, they caught up and we were given the challenge of playing charades. Connie acted out a series of well performed actions and within a minute or so, I guessed “Obama” and we were clear! We then had to head towards Robson Square to find William. However, this is where a problem took place. We got there before William and thus we had to wait for him to arrive. We used the time to take some photos to add to our points. When he finally got there, he gave us a sheet of paper. On it was a word written in Russian (oh Josh…) and we had to find out what it meant. Connie and I ran upstairs to the Art Gallery information desk and luckily enough, we found an employee there who knew Russian! The other groups, as we were told, all ended up getting stuck at this point. It took about half an hour before William practically gave them the answer and they had to dart off all at once.

After realizing the word was “watermelon” in Russian, William directed us back to Josh at the Art Gallery. We had to down a can of soda water each. Originally, he was going to make us take a shot of Vodka, but that was illegal. It tasted disgusting. But after we were done, we were told to go to the Olympic Cauldron. We took the Skytrain to Waterfront station and we ran towards the symbolic pillars left behind by the Vancouver Olympics! We found ourselves once again ahead of the leaders. Monica arrived in place of William, telling Connie and I we had to find out who built and how much the Gastown Steam Clock weighed. Because she was not supposed to be the person giving us the clue, she failed to give us all the info we needed as she did not have all of it. So we ended up messing up this challenge, but was given an okay in the end because it was not ultimately our fault.

Our next stop was at Vancouver City Hall. We Skytrained there, soon to find Chris and Vanessa (yellow team) hot on our heels. Here we had to answer questions. Each question wrong meant we had to just sit and wait for 2 minutes. We had to wait a total of 6 minutes before we could head off to our final destination. The yellow team had to wait one minute or so more than us. Ultimately, we ended up taking the same Skytrain to the finish line! Talk about dramatic! So as the doors opened at Waterfront once again, Connie and I raced to get out of the station before Chris and Vanessa. Honestly, they were really fast, both being athletes and whatnot. Connie and I? Not so much (though I suck way more than Connie when it comes to physical stuff).

Despite getting to the location of the finish line, we were not told where it actually was. After a good 10-15 minutes of blindly looking around for Josh, we ran out of places to look. We both decided to run to the roof, only to find that we were the third/fourth (cannot remember which one) team there. The Yellow Team ran there before us and I think the Silver team got there before us. The Red team was also there but they were given a penalty of an hour due to accidentally skipping a challenge.  However, we were allowed to take 6 minutes off our total time due to the mishap at the Olympic Cauldron. But there was still the points that came from the photos. Thus, we had to wait til everyone arrived.

The results came and if this is not climatic, I do not know what is. The names were read out one by one, from bottom to first place. Connie and I expected probably somewhere in the top three (fingers crossed!). When the third name came and it was not us, we were sure we were number two. But unexpectedly, we won! WE WON!! The difference between second and first places was only a minute! The prize was originally $100 (which came from the $10 entrance fee we had to pay to play) split between the winners, but we ended up splitting it a different way so that second and third place would also get a prize, with some money left over overall for a pizza party or something on a later date!

So there was the amazing day, where I realized I knew a lot more about and around Vancouver than I though, how Connie and I make a great team, how wonderful Josh was at planning stuff, how competitive I was and what great citizens Vancouverites were considering how we had so much help along the way!

Oh and I tried raw beef sashimi at night at all-you-can eat. =) Another story for another time.

mmmmmmmmm…

Thanks for reading and if you actually read the whole thing, you have made my day!

Karen