Tag: life

Strawberry Picking– It’s a lot harder than it looks

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Hey there!

Yes, it has been a very long time since I last visited WordPress. It seems like the longer I was away, the more I was hesitant to come back. But then I realized how much I miss this, so here I am again! 🙂

So last week, my friends and I went to Abbotsford to go strawberry picking. I remember hearing stories about when my parents were still dating, they’d go strawberry picking in Toronto. They always said how much fun it was, and how cool it was to pick your own fresh strawberries. My friends and I then decided that since we were not doing much anyway, we will go on a small roadtrip out to Abbotsford and go strawberry picking. We bought a pass for the farm, which included their petting zoo, wagon ride and mazes.

After waking up bright and early (and an hour or so drive), we got to the Maan Farms.

I loved the fact that the first thing I saw was a red barn-like structure that everyone associates with farms. I think I have been to farms before, but that was when I was still in elementary school and we went for pumpkin picking with our class. Anyway, we explored around a bit as we did not want to pick strawberries yet, or else they will just get gross when we leave them for long periods of time in the car. We first went to the playground. They had a wooden slide. Yeah, wooden. At first we were thinking you would have to be crazy to  slide down a wooden slide, but then we saw the burlap potato sacks they left around the base of the slide which you are supposed to sit on while sliding down.

William on the wooden slide!

Afterwards, we decided to look for the mazes. It said on our tickets that we were allowed to use both their mazes. In my head, i was ready for crazy labyrinths of tall green hedges. You can guess I was disappointed when it turns out it was just a ‘rock maze’. What is a rock maze? Well to me, it seems like they just placed rocks on the ground, tracing out a path, ultimately making a ‘maze’. I do not think I have ever been in a satisfying maze. I remember when I was living at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel and they also had a maze behind their hotel. I, again, had my hopes up, seeing the brochure depicting a Mickey Mouse-shaped maze, formed out of green trees/plants of some sort. When my sister and I got there, I realized this maze was made for small children, so the height of the bushes reached my  knees. Fun.

The wagon ride was enjoyable. It was short, consisting of ten minutes or so of driving up to the haystacks on the farm, offering a view of the whole of Abbotsford, as it seems this farm was on some sort of hill. It was a beautiful day of 25 degrees, so the view was spectacular. Not a cloud in the sky, and you could see snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Us on the wagon, after the ride 🙂

Finally, it was time for strawberry picking. I imagined it would be very relaxing, digging for perfect little strawberries, enjoying the nice weather. Boy was I wrong. The first several berries I picked, I was very particular about. They had to be the perfect shape, size and colour. Eventually, after another twenty minutes in the blazing hot sun, I just dumped whatever looked edible into my  basket. Plus, since strawberry plants were so short, you had to bend down or squat down in order to pick them. Believe me, after a while of kneeling and standing up repetitiously, you start seeing dark spots everywhere. Also, finding strawberries were no fun either. Old strawberries were left on the plants to rot, since it will fertilize the soil again. So you end up touching some pretty gross, mouldy strawberries. Some strawberries were so old that if you moved them, you realized they were dust and they kind of just float away as grey ash. That is when I came up with the conclusion that strawberry picking is hard work.

Strawberry patch @ Maan Farms

The strawberries!

After what seemed like forever, we were all done with our baskets and we went back to the car, finally leaving Maan Farms. We went several more places after that, driving across Langley, Surrey, stopping near White Rock to watch the sunset, visiting the Peach Arch just to stand between the Canadian and American border. You can guess that I was exhausted at the end of the day. We ended off our adventure by visiting the Richmond night market. We got there just as all the food was going on sale since they had to close for the day. I did not even know they did that. So we ate a bunch of unhealthy, but delicious and cheap food!

Under the Peach Arch on the Canadian side 🙂

And for the past week, I have had an endless supply of strawberries sitting in my fridge. They were delicious! I guess it is true– if you work for something, the fruits of your labour always tastes better.

Ah, this has been nice. 🙂 I missed this blog! Hopefully, I will see you again soon!

Karen

Various Vancouver food reviews

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Hey everyone 🙂

So I am officially done first year (as in all my final marks are out for my classes at UBC). I probably will sit down properly and write a post about reflections, just so I can look back and remember how/what I felt, as well as it being able to serve the purpose of being a possible reference to future first years!

It saddens me to say “YAY! I am currently on my summer vacation”– yet there’s only two more days left till I have to start school again. Sucks does it not? Oh well, I hope my summer courses go fine and will help lessen my workload next school year!

Moving on to what I have been doing for my week and a half of break.
What I basically did was eat out with different groups of friends, and caught up with them. I thought I was going to get some exercise in this break, but I just ended up eating a lot. Woe is me.

There is not much to do in Vancouver except eat. Even if you happen to have a day of sunshine, there really is not much you can do when you are under 19. I cannot wait to turn 19 and explore whatever parts of Vancouver I previously could not! Sadly, my birthday is in September, so the exploration cannot happen this summer :(. What many of my friends and I usually do is meet up somewhere to eat and chat. Below is my reviews on the various places I chowed at around Vancouver!

 

1. Milestones
This was the first time I have ever been to a Milestones, despite it being a relatively common chain restaurant in Vancouver. The occasion? My friend’s birthday! The staff was tolerant of us moving around their tables, getting it so that the birthday girl could see and interact with everyone. The food was good, not amazing, but still a good meal. Of course, prices are slightly higher at Milestones, as they offer a nice environment for you to enjoy your food. What was pretty cool was that we got a view of the ocean, since we were at the Milestones at English Bay.

I got the Chicken Californian Burger, as well as a Miami Ice for a drink. Burger was good, but too big for me. I ended up not finishing my fries. The drink was gross, mostly because of the mint leaves. I loved the mango ice tea side of it, but the mint leaves eventually became too overpowering. I was pretty jealous of one of my friend’s seafood salad because it looked delicious! There was a variety of seafood scattered on top of the salad, and just looked really yummy.

Overall rating for this place: 3/5
The rating is mostly due to the price, since their quality of food is decent, but again, not amazing. Hey, I am a poor university student. But since it was my friend’s birthday, I will go with the flow 🙂

Chicken Californian Burger with curly fries

Miami Ice…could have done without the mint leaves

 

2. George
This place is a little win bar situated in Yaletown. The Real Housewives of Vancouver had a brief shot of two of the housewives having a drink there. Do not ask me why I watch that show. It makes me want to claw my face out. But again, it is pretty cool to see a show set in the city you live in.

My friend chose this bar as the venue of his small birthday get together. The menu consisted of a very small selection of food. There was two pages of food, each page listing around a dozen dishes or so. This included appetizers, entrees, main courses and desserts combined. Their wine and alcohol list was very extensive, having two menus full of names I have never heard of. I cannot rate their wines/alcohol since I am not legal yet and cannot try anything, so this review will mainly be on their food.

The selection, as I mentioned before, was very narrow. I got their Albacore Tuna Nicoise. I hate beans, so I asked the waitress if they could substitute some leafy greens for me instead, which they promptly did so. I really liked my salad, and I fell in love with the tuna. I have always had a thing for smoked salmon, and the tuna had the same great smoky flavour to it! Yum! I mostly went for the salad because nothing on the menu really appealed to me. I do not think this is a place one would choose to go to for food, but since I am not yet legal, I did not have that great an experience there.

Overall rating: 3/5
I like the ambience of the place, but I may have to return when I am legal so that I can try out their drinks!  I would also prefer to sit outside next time, since they have a nice heated patio!

Their albacore tuna nicoise

 

3. Pho Tan (Kerrisdale)

My mom and I love vietnamese pho, so on one of our walks around Kerrisdale, we decided to go to this place for lunch. It was full when we got there (it was around 1pm), so we had to wait a bit for a table. Luckily, the wait did not take too long and before we knew it, we had our hot bowls of pho. I got beef balls and rare beef, while my mom got beef brisket. I do not think I could ever hated pho, so I quite enjoyed my lunch here. It is relatively cheap (you can choose whether you want a regular or a large bowl of pho and you can even choose to add extra things in it– all priced accordingly of course), and once lunch rush was over, a nice place to just sit and enjoy your lunch. I was really full by the time I left, and I had an overall good time.

Overall rating: 4/5
Not much to justify except that I am biased towards pho! 😛

 

4. Oyster Rawbar
My friend and I decided to satisfy our oyster cravings, and after I did a little researching, we decided to reserve a table at Oyster. This place is easy to miss, as it is hidden inside the old stock exchange building. It is also super small, having only two tables for small groups, one longer table with high stools, and seating in front of their bar. To get a sense of how small this place is, I will quote my friend: “I am pretty sure my room was the same size or even bigger than the restaurant.” And no, she does not live in a gazillion dollar mansion.

What attracted us was their Buck a Shuck deal. We would be able to satisfy our cravings without destroying our wallets! Again, we are poor university students.  We ended up ordering loads of oysters, flagging down the waitress whenever she walked by. They gave us a small tray of condiments and toppings for us to customize our own oysters, and with that we shovelled them down our stomachs. The oysters were a little small, but we both agreed that it was a place we would return to. What you will have to watch out for is the fact that it is a small, yet semi-popular joint. Their small staff can only shuck so many oysters at once. My friend and I would have to wait around 20 minutes for them to serve us our orders. Keep this in mind before you go and as you are ordering.

Overall rating: 4/5
Loved the cosy atmosphere and cheap oysters. Again, they had a more extensive alcohol menu, but I could not sample it. I will most definitely be returning though!

Inside the small little restaurant

I can feel my oyster cravings working up again..

 

5. Toyama
Two friends and I wanted to catch up, so we decided to look for a place where we could sit down, eat and talk. We googled a bunch of places, but in the end we decided to try out this late night all-you-can-eat japanese restaurant. Late night ayce places are common in Vancouver, but since the one at Toyama started at 9pm instead of 9:30, we decided to give this place a try.

We were not expecting quality japanese food– who really does when going to ayce? However, the food was not bad. They had interesting dishes in there, such as Octopus in garlic butter and fish balls on skewers. I really liked their fried salmon belly! They had the usual nigiris and rolls, and barbecued meat. Drinks and sashimi costed extra, as did their ice cream.

One thing I did not like was the fact that despite arriving at 9:15pm, they were ushering us out of the place pretty soon. It was not due to the fact that they lacked seats, but it was obviously because they wanted to get off work. We ended up feeling like they kicked us out in the end.

Overall rating: 3/5
I have had more relaxed ayce experiences, but the food was still decent and they had a wide range of food.

Could not find a non-instagramed picture, so this one is oddly sized…

 

6. Gyudonya
This was not the first time I have been to Gyudonya, but I must say, it was the first time I had such bad service. That aside, this place is still a good place to eat. They have a variety of japanese type toppings they put on rice. It is very similar to Yoshinoya in Hong Kong, where they give you beef on rice. It is a good price for a bowl that will definitely fill you up. You can choose what bowl size you want. However, this is not a place I would recommend if you wanted to sit down with your friends. It is the epitome of fast food, where your food arrives within three minutes of ordering, and everyone sits in slightly uncomfortable stools aimed at getting you out of there once you are done with your food. Also, if you were done shopping, or it was just a rainy day so you are ladened with various bags or coats, it probably would not be the best choice. There really is no place to put your stuff.

Overall rating: 3.5/5
Good and fast food, but not the best place to settle down for a nice meal.

The chicken and beef rice bowl

 

7. Japadog
I had my first Japadog today. Yeah yeah, I know you just gasped if you are a Vancouverite. Instead of going for their other wacky flavours/toppings, I went for their original Terimayo, where a sausage is placed on a toasted bun, topped with teriyaki sauce, japanese mayonnaise and seaweed. I thought it was really good taste-wise, but highly overrated. Maybe it is because I am asian and these sauces are not new to me, but I expected something more. All Vancouverites have tasted Japadogs, and I was told it was one of a kind and super delicious. Guess my hopes were too high?

What is a Japadog? Well, it does not take a genius to realize the word is just a combination of the word “japanese” and “hot dog”. And that is basically what it is– Japanese style hot dogs. They are more expensive than the ones you would find from your regular street vendors, but they have a huge wacky variety of toppings. To name a few, they have kimchi, dried shrimp and noodles (yakisoba). Definitely not your regular hot dog, where the craziest dogs would just be cheesy or spicy in flavour.

Overall rating: 3/5
I hope I will one day pass by again and be able to try out their other hot dogs, but I still feel this place is overrated. However, if you are not asian, it is a must try, and I can understand why it is so attractive 🙂

The Terimayo Japadog, also known as their original one

So that is all folks! After a good several pounds gained, and my wallet significantly lighter, I would say I put my break to semi-good use. My stomach had a good time anyway 🙂

-Karen

To read or not to read?

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The second season of Game of Thrones premiered on Sunday! My friends and I had a little premiere of our own at Monica’s house. At first, we were going to cook food inspired by the books/ TV show, but since it was the last week of university and everyone was super busy and preoccupied, we ended up going to Safeway to choose Game of Thrones-like food. Basically, we bought roasted chicken, loads of bread, bread dip, salad, cheese and sausages. Very Westeros-esque? Well, we tried. Oh and to add to the authenticity, we ate with our hands and dressed up.

Our take on food from Westeros. Thank goodness for Safeway!

I attempted to dress up as Irri...

The first season of Game of Thrones corresponded to the first book in George R.R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. I watched the first season before moving on to reading the books and I did not like that experience. I then read the second book, and am now on the fourth book (which for some reason, I cannot get past. I keep putting it down because I can’t seem to get absorbed into it). After watching the first episode of season 2, I can now safely say I definitely prefer reading the books before watching the TV show.

IT BEGINS!

I think one thing that annoyed me to watching the show first was that it robbed me of my chance to create my own interpretations of the characters and setting. While reading the first book, I already had premade images of who the characters were and where they lived. For the second book, although some characters were in the first book and I did not get to mentally create them myself, there was still lots of new characters and settings. I found it really fun to watch the second season and realize certain scenes were just as I imagined, or even the opposite—they were nowhere near what I had in mind!

Although creating my own characters based on what I read is, in my opinion, one of the most important part of the experience, there was also a negative part to reading the books first. As I was watching the season two premiere, I realized I knew what was going to happen next. It was as if everything was spoiled. I hate knowing how something is going to end before I watch it. But despite this, I still enjoyed reading the books first.

On a similar note, I watched the Hunger Games with a bunch of friends the day after it was released. I have already read the whole series well before the movie was even announced, so I found that I had forgotten a lot of the plot. However, as I sat in the cinemas watching the movie, I found a lot of bits and pieces were coming back. And then I remembered how the series ended and I actually started crying in many of the scenes that reminded me of the ending. People were obviously thinking I was crazy because the scene that was playing was not even sad. But for me, I kept thinking about the ending and thus wept. Story of my life.

My opinion towards the Hunger Games movie is that it was really well made. A lot of movies end up deviating quite a bit from the book and making a lot of changes. I thought this movie stayed well on track and kept changes to a minimum. Along with Holes, I would say the Hunger Games were one of the movies that allowed for a pretty accurate portrayal of the book.

So what is your take on the topic? Book first or movie first?

-Karen

Keep On Trooping!

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Hey y’all!

It has been a while, but I think I finally found time to post! (Well, squeeze time out anyway.) I cannot believe there is only one more week left of my first-year university life! Although I am looking forward to getting a break from school, I realize that the last week of school means projects and essays are now due, not to mention finals are just right around the corner.

Throughout the last week, I really challenged myself to grab at opportunities. Aside from trying to manage my homework (Chinese oral exam script writing, English final essay draft, Political Science final essay just to name a few), I also applied for clubs and positions within Sauder. I spent much of my first year at university trying to find my interest and learning how to handle the university lifestyle. I went in believing I could easily juggle school, my social life and my family life. Then reality punches me in the face and tells me that it is going to be a lot harder than I thought. Needless to say, I spent my first year finding myself and concentrating on school…meaning I was not as involved as I thought I was going to be. I joined two clubs within my commerce faculty, and went to events for both. I really regret not going to any of the big conferences, so that is definitely on my bucket list for next year. But I feel just going to events was not enough. You need to find something you are interested in and then actually get involved.

I spend a good portion of my first term wondering what I was doing in business school. Thankfully, I asked around and explored some of the available majors. I think it is safe to say that marketing is what I want to concentrate on later on. It is not as rigid as accounting or finance, allowing your creativity and personal thoughts to come into play. I look forward to actually taking marketing courses next year, since year one was really a pre-commerce year. You only get a really brief overview of the world of commerce. I cannot wait for next year! Having said that, I am still plenty nervous because we are required to take more (and harder) courses. Oh well, guess only time will tell how well I deal with that.

So back to grabbing opportunities. This Tuesday, I returned home after my classes ended and I received a call later on at night. I swear, my heart stopped and my blood froze when I picked up the call and realized what it was about. Apparently I was scheduled for an interview on that day. Wonderful. I have no idea how that happened, but my name was clearly on the Google Doc. where everyone signed up for an interview slot, but I am 100% sure I did not sign up for my time slot. I was not even aware sign ups were available. Luckily, I asked if there was any way for me to reschedule and they agreed to let me come in the next day at 7 p.m.

I think if this interview was for some other position, I would not have minded as much that I had already left a bad impression on my interviewers. However, I really wanted this position. I was interviewing for the position of editor-in-chief of the Cavalier, Sauder’s very own newspaper. Those of you who know me will know that I love writing. And reading. Within Sauder, this position seemed like the perfect way for me to get involved with something I loved! Sure, my chances were slim, but I still wanted to know that I actually tried. I was disappointed with what had happened, but I knew I still had my chance at my actual interview.

The next school day was the longest one ever. I felt butterflies in my stomach more than once. It honestly felt like it was butterfly migration season, and their final destination was my stomach. I was a bunch of nerves as I headed over to my interview. The interview itself? I stuttered, I stumbled over questions and I think my nervousness showed. I was pretty disappointed because I have been to several interviews for various positions this year and have been rejected in all of them. I was at the low point where I believe I probably would never get a place anywhere. I walked out feeling horrible. I sat at the student lounge for a while with some of friends, just being sad.

What happened next was amazing. Riley, one of my interviewers and the current editor-in-chief of the Cavalier, came out and started talking to some of my friends. I think I was the last interviewee of the day and all the interviewers were finally done with their long day. I was kind of huddled in a corner, too depressed to do anything. However, I did eventually end up walking over to him because I wanted to question why he decided to change the Cavalier so much during his time as editor. He answered me and I was listening, but I guess I was not paying as much attention as I thought I was. I heard one of my friends say “She totally did not hear him” and someone else say “Can’t believe she didn’t catch that…”. This all made me pause and go “Wait, what?” Then Riley goes “Uhh, yeah, so you got the position. Congratulations, you’re the new co-editor in chief of the Cavalier.”

This is kind of embarrassing, but I cried. I was so surprised, and happy and relieved—basically a whole bunch of positive emotions just rushing out. I think that was the happiest I have felt for a very long time. Sure, this will add to my workload next year, since I will be responsible for making sure the monthly issues come out on time, but HECK, it is something I would gladly do!

I think my takeaway from this experience is to never stop trying. Again, I was rejected numerous times throughout the year, but hey, that is how it is with everyone. At times you may end up getting something on your first try, but most of the time, you will have to try again and again. Just do not give up and keep on trooping!

I have my Frosh Leader interview tomorrow and am definitely feeling the nervousness I feel before every interview! At the same time, I am still pretty excited! To end this off, I hope my little story motivated some of you guys and pushes you to go out and try your luck! I am also very glad I got a chance to post again!

Till next time!

-Karen

P.s I think you should all check out the Cavalier. Especially when I start editing 🙂

Spring…you can come whenever you want. No, seriously.

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School has started again and I am amazed at how fast I fall back into schedule. It is as if I never left for reading break at all. I guess good times always pass by a lot faster than you would think. I did do quite a bit during my break though so I am proud of that! 🙂 I usually spend all my holidays sitting in front of the computer/ TV being lazy.

 

Quick summary of my reading break:
18-20th: Started off going to Portland, Oregon and returned early Monday morning, on the 20th.
21st: Went to movies with Monica and Josh on Tuesday (Telus Tuesdays! Half price movie tickets!!) Ended up watching three movies: A Dangerous Method, The Secret World of Arriety, The Artist. We then ate dinner at Martini’s Restaurant on Broadway! Huge portions! Finished off with a trip to Marble Slab! Basically a fat day because we sat around for six hours and then just ate a lot.

23rd: Morning dim sum at Rainflower Restaurant at Richmond. Then Downtown gift shopping with Monica. Then went to Kody’s birthday 🙂 We got him a trollface T-shirt!

AHAHA! This was the fancy schmancy dim sum place. So we took a pic on their crazy sofas.

Fancy chandelier at the dim sum place...Probably one of the fanciest dim sum places I have been with friends.

Monica and I made chocolate dipped strawberries for Kody 🙂

24th: Went to Flo Tea Room with family! Love this place so much because of its chill environment. We can sit there forever, just talking and taking our time. 🙂

25th: Justin’s birthday dinner on Saturday at Red Robins on Broadway. Our side of the table spend quite a lot of our time playing UNO, which I only brought in case we needed entertainment. Turns out we would play it for the majority of our time there.
26th: Frantically finishing off homework and readings assigned because, once again, I left it to last minute.

Oh, and my reading break nails 🙂

Monarch butterfly nails! Crudely done, but it will have to do 🙂

——————————Ignore this part to skip my rant about school——————————

I still have not recovered from my lack of studying and am falling behind in my class readings! What is worse is that I have two term papers coming up. I NEED A TOPIC FOR MY ENGLISH ESSAY! I kind of have one formed, but I do not know how to go about making it into an academic research paper. Although they are both not due for at least another two or so weeks, I am already stressing out from it because of the amount of work involved in both papers.

Coming up, I also have my psychology and macroeconomics midterm exams on the same day. There is just so much to look forward to.
Registration for summer courses are also happening on the 9th and I still have no idea what I want to take. I definitely want to get some compulsory classes out of the way for next September, but taking intense accounting during the summer seems like a sure way for me to fail that class…
—————————————————————–

On another note, I am READY for spring! I was just thinking about that as I was walking to the bus stop on Monday, but this is what I woke up to on Wednesday:

It snowed...

Really? Mother nature gives us snow at the beginning of March, but fails to give us a white Christmas? Hmm… However, I did see small flowers blooming randomly on one of my neighbour’s lawn this week! Not a good picture, but it made me stop and stare because it really was random and unexpected!

I am pretty sick of trudging around in my rain boots and having to layer up because it is freezing outside. I cannot believe I am going to say this, (since I have always hated the heat) but I really would not mind a really sunny day. Not Hong Kong’s humid-hot sunny days, but more like a sunny Californian day where it is still significantly warm. 🙂

Well, to end off this post: spotted at UBC’s CIRS building:

Seriously, do not drink it.

 I read it then doubled back and took a picture because I think I made the You-don’t-say face after reading it, despite being alone in there.
Ohhh life 🙂
Wish me luck for my next few weeks! I know it is going to be a total nightmare! 😦
-Karen