Ocean & Life
Love the Ocean
Love your Life
Finally Life is opening up like the Ocean
under the open sky
I'm going to find my freedom
And dreams
Bring them into my Life
Enjoy by the Ocean...
Saturday, February 26, 2005 @ 9:26:00 PM
Day 1 - 18th Feb 2005woke up after 2-3hrs of slp by mum's special morning call...pulled my luggage to wait for the bus to Toronto airport..and there i was wif the others, in the late morning at Toronto airport. Getting excited for the trip to Vancouver..But, the flight was delayed for 2 hrs, time spent in the airport was really getting a bit on our nerves. Managed to catch half of "big fish" while waiting though (proudly presented by QL laptop), but but but i dun quite understand wat it was showing...
Finally got on the plane. Got to sit wif a quite good-looking guy, but too bad, no conversation started out haha...Watched another inspirational movie on the plane. In case u dunno, it's Air Canada and not every single passenger has a screen to their own. Nothing like SIA!!!...really inspirational, but i kept forgeting the title!!! When the plane was about to reach Vancouver, look out the windows, can see the Rocky mountains...everywhere ard u are just snow capped mountains...tat's from the top view...and we tot yup tat's it, we would only be able to see the rocky juz like tat...
Touched down on Vancouver airport, grabbed all the brochures tat is needed, took a taxi to the hotel we were goin to live for the next supposedly 3 nights...Barclay hotel, it's located right in downtown and juz beside the shopping street (Robson street)...so everything seems convenient =) Since we were trying to save as much as we could, 2 of us had to stay outside not able to check in, but sneaked in...while waiting, we saw the OK tour agency right beside the hotel. It offered Rocky mountain tour for 4days 3nights. It's actually a korean tour agency, welfare to koreans, but any other ppl oso can go for it. The price for tat tour only cost 229 in total. That's a very good deal!!! So we decided to go for the tour and it would start the next day. Also, most of the 'tourists' would be koreans, we were told tat the tour guide would speak korean, more...since it's a good deal and there would be some english version as well, we took on it.
After settling down in the hotel, went for dinner opposite the hotel, Hon's which actually rep house of noodles, one of the crowded restaurant and later walked ard robson st den made our way to Davie st, known for Gay pubs and all...well we saw the coloured flags there, but could not find a decent gay pub for us to go in and have a look...=(....yah haven get to go any gay pubs anywhere...tat ended the night!
Day 2 - 19th Feb 2005Woke up early to get ready for the 4days tour. Out of the 40+ ppl, only 9 r non-koreans, so ultimately had to listen to Korean more...so naturally tis tot came to my head:"I should hav learn Korean seriously!!!" nvm, I probably would when I go back...
Out of the 9, 4 of us Singaporeans, 1 taiwanese, 1 brazilian and 3 frm Switzerland. Din't really get to know them on the first day.
Our first day was spent traveling up north to Jasper. Basically, the Rocky Mountain in Canada is divided into 4 national parks. One of it is Jasper and the largest one. And there was the #5 highway to lead us there. It's the only highway in Canada tat collects fees (Toll). Was told tat there is 14 lanes there...and when I saw it, I wasn't astonished by the 14 lanes...bcos it's juz 7 narrow lanes on each direction...incomparable to Malaysia's highway lor =p...and in fact the most no of lanes I saw on Canada's highway is a mere 4-5 on each direction and there's even 2 lanes only, which make the roads seem really narrow. I guess not long we started to see mountains ard us. We stopped a few times, either to take photos or toilet breaks. Everywhere we stopped, we would take photos...the mountains are beautiful. We stopped for the highest peak of the Rocky mountain range too, damn I forgot wat name was tat...eh Mt. Robson bah haha...I presumed...shld be correct lah...well y I can't rem correctly is bcos it's almost a week and there r so many mountains tat naturally make u forgetful.For our first lunch, we had jap bento, nice one but din't tell the tour guide tat I couldn't take beef. So I only had all the other side dishes in the bento, leaving out the main course haha...After lunch, carried on up north and we were brought to liquor store...at first I dun understand y...gradually as everynite, we were brought to liquor store, I finally understand...Koreans love to drink...even Korean gers r good drinkers...Ok, put tis aside, we went for dinner opposite the hotel we were goin to live in for the first nite. This place is called Valemount, one of the small towns among the Rocky. We got to live in this hotel tat looked like log cabin...the interior was great. I slept soundly, but not so for the others cos the only kids in tis tour group happened to live beside us and noises could be heard through the wooden planks/logs watever...
We tot as we went northern up, we would be colder, but not so...I could actually stand outside at night to make a phone call home from the public phone booth wif juz a sweater.
Day 3 - 20th Feb 2005Have to wake up early to continue the journey through the Rocky. Even though our breakfast is juz opposite the hotel, we oredi got our cameras ready to click the surroundings…it's juz snow capped mountains surrounding the town...beautiful beautiful!!...
The first stop of the day was the Athabasca waterfall. There's a mount athabasca too and lake too…but the fall is the highlight. I was expecting some huge waterfall (not as huge as Niagara but sth impressive), but it's only abt 3-4 storeys high and rather narrow. The only water flowing tat is visible was the pothole below the fall and not directly under the fall but further out a bit…cos it's frozen!!! So no loud fall sound, but silence of the frozen surfaces haha…but I still enjoyed it though.
We were told of the 5 things to see in the Rocky - Mountains, Lakes, Glaciers, Trees and Wildlife animals such as bears, beavers, cougar etc etc...Well, we have been enticed by the mountains and trees, den we were brought to one of the big glaciers - Columbia glacier! And the icefield too. Er dun ask me wat they actually are, probably u can look up some geo books on it to understand them better. And probably my pics to tell u more...I only noe tat glaciers are those thick ice form on the top of the mountain…I'm proud to say my geo is up to the std of C6 haha even though I have always tot the nature is such a wonderful thing on earth and tat doesn't mean I hav to be good at geo =). The view at the glacier there was spectacular, we had fun with the snow and the scenery and we tried making snow angel!!! Some crazy moments, esp QL who can't help falling into the snow =0 After some traveling on the road, it's dinner time. Everyone except me and LX had Korean BBQ beef. Both of us had BBQ chicken instead =) Yummy!! And we were at Calgary. But we were there on a Sunday night, there's nothing much we could do at downtown I guess, so we forgo the traveling down to downtown. And since we had a really good accommodation at Sheraton (although off downtown of Calgary). The room was big, big till there's need for 2 TV!! We could never stay in tat kind of room while traveling on our own, it's way off our budget!!! Haha…and it's actually opposite the Canada Olympic Park (one of the year winter Olympic held there). Apparently a lot of ppl went skiing there, but not us, we are not good skiers, and to me it would be a waste of money. Anyway, 2010 winter olympic will be held at Whistler, a big popular skiing place near Vancouver, half day drive...Again, went to nearby liquor store. Shared wif others of this 4 bottled Kxxx...I'm getting more n more forgetful...I could only recognize the bottle haha...we drank it only the next nite (and I dun like it at all, sorri RJ, LX, but I tink it sux...maybe I'm starting to hav phobia taste to liquor oredi =p haha)...only QL who bought her own drinks (yah drinks) drank, went a lil crazy in the room wif her beanie and specs. Maybe we had been crazy during the day, and she had to continue the craziness at nite haha...
Day 4 - 21st Feb 2005Leaving calgary, to go Banff. It's actually a 'touristy' place. The first intro I've got to know of Banff as tat...and...it's a STD place…yup u noe wat STD stands for. Yet, we wanted to go there even b4 we knew we would be there haha…we juz wan to see how issit like esp at nite, but too bad we only stopped by during the day. It's a nice town with probably a lot of things to shop along the downtown main st(which is quite small actually), but we spent too much time having lunch @ Tony Roma's liao…no time to shop, but it's ok, cos heard a passerby said to her fren, 'all the prices in Banff r like tat, you could get it cheaper out of Banff'.
Den it's time to take Gondola(sth like cable car) up one of the mountains where we can get good views. We had stipulated time to reach back down at the foot to carry on our tour...but we took some time to cross to another peak which was quite a long way. Afterall, we paid some money to go up, we shld hav more time spent up there and enjoy the view and all...And it's really spectacular...I could juz stand on top of the mountain much more longer!!! Defiantly, we were damn late and found the tour guide, stun face waiting for us at the exit of the gondola. He din't speak a word. He seemed damn pissed off. And kept saying about our lateness causing all the delays in the later part of the tour for the day...No comments!
Next stop, lake louise, supposedly a beautiful lake wif emerald clear water. But it's frozen now, ppl can ice skate there and even walked past the lake. We did walked our way onto the lake instead of ice skating. Exciting to walk on it hehe...it's real solid, so u dun hav to be afraid tat it'll break at all.
Next another lake, emerald lake...frozen as well, we juz went down took a few pics…and a bridge formed by rock...which I couldn't figure out how it's like...even in the photo...forget abt tat...All in all, although we kept seeing mountains throughout the day, I still find them magnificent! We also came upon a mountain tat looked like a ship, to be precious titanic…u shall judge whether it really looks like titanic in my photos haha...
This nite, we had a 10 course? Chinese dinner. Can't rem how many course, but it's all great, better taste than in Kingston. And all the 9 non-koreans sat together. Saw the 2 swiss guys managing the chopsticks, a bit of struggle here and there, but they like the food, they said haha...the other swiss ger hold chopsticks really well. And the brazilian ger esp like the food. Meanwhile, we were the one introducing the dished being put on the dining table haha. Some cultural exchanges...
For the last nite of the tour, the hotel was in a small town again called Golden. Ppl in the past tried to go there for gold blah blah blah, this kind of history is not new...But something new to me is, the first group of ppl settling down in Canada seems to be the native Indians (or the red Indians). Many places in the northern Canada are named in a very Indian way, like kamloop, kelowna, etc. Even Canada actually came from 'kanata' as the Indians replied to tis person who came to where they settled down. It's always interesting to find out sth new abt a place history.
Day 5 - 22nd Feb 2005Woke up earlier than usual, cos the tour guide wanted us to reach back Vancouver as early as we could. Guess tat's wat everybody wanted to. Throughout the journey, we were still surrounded by mountains...but after traveling sometime, less and less of the mountains…we were heading south, leaving the Rocky mountains...and since it's the last day and nothing much except sitting on the coach, the tour guide started the Korean 'tradition' again, somebody to cum out to sing and the rest enjoy the entertainment. This has gone on for the past 3 days of the tour. Lucky me din't hav to do tat for the past 3 days. Unfortunately, I had to on the last day. I was really at lost. Cos I dun listen to English songs...so juz anyhow sing 'the rose'. I'm sure I was singing to the window haha…cos forget lyrics here and there…and overall it sux big time...but it was great for ql, lx & rj =)...Thumbs up for them! But there's prizes for us if we sang. And I got a Canada key chain. YEAH! Sth I'm in need for a long 2 months...cos I din't bring any, so my hall room key, hall main door key and mailbox key finally had a 'home'!!! =)
And thx to QL who helped me wrote the ROCKY poem for the contest, tat I got a consolation prize of a notebook. I really couldn't tink of wat to write, so she wrote the last sentence of the poem starting wif Y - you are very handsome! (meaning the tour guide). Tat's how I got the consolation prize! The tour guide muz be very confused, cos we told him tat it was QL who wrote it, and he hugged her, telling her ' I love you' haha...but it was me who went out to receive the 'honours' and he still thanked me haha.
Finally reached back at Vancouver. Checked in to the hotel (back to Barclay again, cos there's nice ppl at the reception), den out to explore Vancouver! Walked down to take the sky train (juz mrt) to a big shoppin center called metrotown. Definitely not metro selling there haha...juz a name, but all the while we were in another building to shop, but it's alrite, still can shop. I din't buy anything, cos it's not cheap. I juz like to window shop haha. After which, we went back, walked along robson st...tat's a st we muz walked by everyday at Vancouver haha...
Day 6 - 23rd Feb 2005Tried to wake up early to start our further exploration of Vancouver. But ultimately we still erm, a bit late...haha...walked down to the seabus terminal to take seabus across from downtown Vancouver to north Vancouver (crossing the burrard inlet). It's sth like a ferry though, but they cum up wif attractive name rite? Reached Lonsdale quay, had a nice breakfast or rather brunch there..fish n chips, calamari, crepes. Our purpose there was to go Capilano suspension bridge, the place tat excites me most...took the public bus and alighted rite outside the entrance of it. Right inside there's a story-telling section, telling how tis bridge and nature park all came abt. Walked ard and finally saw the bridge and the valley and etc...Disappointment! The suspension bridge isn't as thrilling as it looked on the brochure. I expected the bridge to be very high above the river below, sth tat really will get your nerves. But it's not anything like tat at all, but but standing on the bridge is enjoyable =)...passed the bridge, walked ard the nature walks...had the treetop adventure which isn't really at the tree top but a quarter up from the bottom of the tree…probably felt cheated haha…nevertheless, saw really tall trees...
There's actually a salmon hatchery beside this park and bridge, but due to the season, it's not open now...can't see, oso can't see whale, there's supposedly whale watching activity in vancouver too...
After tat, took taxi back to downtown Vancouver. Went to rent bikes (bicycles in case u misunderstood haha) to cycle ard the biggest park in North America, Stanley Park. It was really an experience to cycle ard the park, but we only managed to cycle the circumference of it, so it's practially cycling along the shoreline...it's totally diff from cycling at east coast or anywhere...u r so close to the sea...and it's really sea, where u can look over to north Vancouver (nice view) and look out to the pacific ocean!!...and u get to go under the Lion gate bridge tat linked Stanley park to north Vancouver. Further on, the beaches came into sight...too bad it's winter now, the beach is more peaceful than any other times I guess...the cycling trip really gives me relaxing and carefree feeling. QL and I always got separated from LX and RJ (they cycled too fast haha), so as the shop is closing soon, me and QL rode our bikes back first. We waited and waited for them 2 to cum back before the shop was goin to close. And they made it...since they were fast...they rode past the way back to the starting point and went even further, almost whole circumference of the downtown oredi!...Power gers!!!
We simply enjoyed the cycling trip a lot =)...den went down to gastown...supposedly the oldest part of the town...well look quite old, but pretty new too...saw the steam clock (functioned by steam!) and its amazing 'music' at every quarter of the time. Too bad I din't video it...otherwise could show u guys...did QL video it?? Can ask her if she had. Den, we juz walked all over to find a place to hav dinner. Reached the entrance of the Chinatown there, but din't go, cos was told it wasn't very safe there...in the end, still back to robson street for dinner. Went to a reasonable jap restaurant...I guess to get the cheapest meal, average would need about C$7-8 or even more...kinda of impossible to get under C$5...even breakfast. The jap food in tat restaurant not bad...long time nvr eat tempura...so it tastes good! With all the climbing and cycling...we were rather tired and called off the day after dinner.
Day 7 - 24th Feb 2005Tried to get ready early again, as in earlier than the previous day to go Granville island. It's not totally an island but a protruding part of Vancouver...it's hard to say out the places as a map over here...probably look at the maps below...
various part of vancouver
downtown
We could actually take a bus to cross the bridge to go there, but we chose to take a ferry, cos we would like to know how issit like. It's a really short distance from the downtown to the Granville island, sth like crossing sg river except it's much wider a bit...and to tink tat we hav walked so much to reach the ferry terminal to take the $2.50 ferry...money not really well-spent...tat's if u rem we were living along robson st...and the ferry terminal is juz opp Granville island...although it seems far...I've always enjoyed walking ard in Vancouver even there's some up and down hills...it felt so much better to be there than in any other city tat I've visited in Canada...probably tat's y so many Asians migrated to there...(I tot mostly r hk ppl but, I heard a lot of Korean here and there…more Korean than hk and Chinese and jap ppl).
Had our breakfast at the Granville island public market. It's those kind of market tat sell fresh food and fruits, and unique stuffs...it's a very clean place though. Since there r a lot of salmons in the rivers of Canada, they r caught live and being sold to us consumers. These r real wild salmons compared to the usual salmons tat we ate rear by farmers. So naturally they cost more but it's really tasty. I rarely eat salmon back in sg, and those tat we hav eaten here in Kingston are not even the least tasty as those. I bought the jerky and a packet of smoked salmon. If the owner nvr gave us the samples to try I doubt I will buy any. Hope there's enuff to let u all try…dun worry they can be preserve w/o refrigerating for months and yrs…=)
There r actually more to shop ard, but we spend a bit too much time at the kids market there...haha...so hav to go back to downtown for other destinations liao. Went for storyeum, acts to tell abt the history of BC, British Columbia, province of Vancouver. Yup there r provinces and territories in Canada, not states...it's the same though. Beautiful British Columbia, this is wat they call it there...u will noe y it's beautiful once u r here…=)...later shop ard again…saw keychains of sth like car plates wif 'beautiful british columbia' written on it and those English/Christian name on...too bad not many of u had those names =) so I can't buy...not even me...I'm starting to regret...cos I find it really nice...hmm...basically I din't buy much things except the wild salmon...but I hav spent a lot, really a lot for this whole trip…
We ended our day wif dinner again, back to Hon's...good meal again =)
Day 8 - 25th Feb 2005
Woke up at 5.30am, got on the booked 6.30am taxi to go to the airport...tis time round, the plane was on time, no delays...no good looking guy sitting beside me =(…slept a while, had 2nd breakfast on the plane, watched “Shall we dance” - Richard Gere is damn charming (finally see it for myself haha), flipped magazine...and soon we touched down on Toronto. Took the cheapest mode of transport (wat else but public bus and subway) to get ourselves to downtown Toronto. RJ and me alighted later than QL n LX, cos they are goin to stay over the weekend at Toronto, the 2 of us goin back to Kingston...I foresee tat I will go Toronto again, so save some money to go back first.
And here I am back in boring Kingston...maybe it isn't boring if I went to explore it further haha...when I hav the time...well, if u tink wat I wrote isn't enuff, probably can check out dinko's, lixuan's, rose's blogs...tat is if they hav updated them...photos shall be up soon =)
Thx for the patience in reading it =)...
Friday, February 18, 2005 @ 3:18:00 AM
well, it's fri oredi...few more days chinese new year is over...all i can say is time passed by really fast...
i've came to the mid term of the whole winter semester...tat means i'm halfway thru the exchange programme oredi...next week is reading week...it's actually of no diff to our 1 week break tat's supposedly meant for catching up with sch work...but the culture is definitely different here.
What we do during one week break?
-> catch up with lects and tuts
-> meet up to discuss projects
-> go back sch for dunno wat reasons
-> and anything tat'll relate to sch work
What they do here during reading week (and we follow suit!)?
-> go TRAVEL!!!
-> go out of the town that you studying in (tat's Kingston for me)
-> go anywhere in Canada
-> go USA...
isn't tat superb??? cmon envy me haha!!!
probably we shld also start tis kind of culture in sg..msia is a great place to go travelling too, at least can drive at more ease than here...haha
I shld be sleeping, and i'm goin to now...can't bear to leave my laptop, my blog and all...so trying to touch it more now haha...Vancouver is waiting for me...Take care guyz!!!
Wednesday, February 16, 2005 @ 10:44:00 PM
I can't believe I actually tried studying the whole of today for this mid-term exam in the night!!!
I woke up at 7 by the alarm which i purposedly set of cos, but seeing the sun hasn't rise, i sneaked back into the comfort of my bed (which might not be clean...later episode). And finally pulled myself up at 8.30am. I tot i could go w/o breakfast but very soon, my stomach was growling for food. So i had to go up to the shared kitchen (not tat my level doesn't have one...i shared food wif ppl and food r up there). Eat cereals wif choc milk (the only milk tat i drink)..it has became quite a common bf for me...Half an hr later, back to mugging....until almost 5pm...of cos in between i had snacks and toilet breaks and surfing net break a little...but most of the time was still spent on studying...The exam was at 7pm...had light dinner at 5.30pm...gradually, frustration started to build up for watever reasons there could be...
got more frustrated by the paper...6 questions, i flipped thru and started working from the first one...damn, wat issit asking...stoned there few min, saw QL oredi pressing the calculator...damn...flipped to 2nd question...another wth...flipped to the 3rd one...wth again...Qn 4, i might as well hand in a blank script!!! by tis time it's oredi more than 50 marks flipped over...finally qn 5 sth familiar and i juz put in watever the notes told me to...same for qn6...and i was only done wif 2 questions wif only abt 40 marks...the rest...gradually fill them up wif rubbish...hopefully my rubbish makes sense to him HAHAHA! But at least, i dun feel so frustrated by the end of the exam...yup sth is still frustrating!!! definitely not another mid-term exam tml...tonight i gotta be sober and wide awake to finish up my accounting II...
well, abt my bed...doctor suspected the bedsheet or my room isn't clean, tat's y pimple-liked dots popped out on me...and tis juz makes me wonder issit due to the assignment tat day where ppl gathered in my room and so unfortunately tat a bag of horsing gears was up on my bed!!! i saw it and was wanting to say sth but i din't...I SHLD HAVE!!! anyway i'll get my room totally clean tml since i wun need to study...I WILL and I HAVE TOO!!! there could be fleas ard....ARGHHHH!!!
Monday, February 14, 2005 @ 6:28:00 PM
I tot I could make full use of today...i did in a different way =)
Well, after the first class, me and LX + shili, sylvia decided to head towards JDUC to buy bus tickets for our reading week (1 week break!!!and no readings of cos haha)...den we finally decided to go kingston centre to buy another bus tickets to toronto(for us) and new york(for the 2 S's)...i noe we bought a lot of tickets, but it's really necessary...and the weather wasn't (and still isn't) tat great...It started to rain, the normal kind of rain we had back in sg with slight chillness. But once we got to Kingston centre, it's raining ice...tat's wat they call Freezing Rain...u can hear the solid ice, which is actually quite tiny so not dangerous, hitting on surfaces sound. Not many people use umbrella either...i dun even see places selling umbrella haha...anyway, we headed the wrong place, and missed the public bus (tat's free for us) to the right place. So had to resort to taxi, but we couldn't flat a taxi, there were almost none on the road...so thru the freezing rain, we had to walk to another side in hope of more taxi visibility. Finally we reached the right place, bought tix we wanted. And it's dunno early or watever, suddenly LX came up wif the idea of eating?..i forgot how it started and we ended up going to one of the few KFC around to get our dinner food since it's near to where we were located then. So, we took the public bus again (cos we had taken it to go kingston centre only to realize it's the wrong place!), less than 5min or so, alighted and walked to KFC across the road. We bought our dinner for 7 ppl there and walked to the unsheltered bus stop, meaning it only has a bus stop sign sticking out of the lamp post...and the freezing rain was still goin on...it seem to be a long trip cos the walking thru the rain and the not-so-welcoming road condition, u would love to have a car man! We thought we would hav to stand in the rain to wait for the bus, ended up was tat, we had to run for the bus cos it's coming...and tis time round, we took a long ride to there...from there (which is practically the highway oredi), to coach canada, to division street, to downtown princess street, to Queen's and finally Goodes Hall, we alighted, walked back to hall. i felt so warm and relieved...haha...relieved of wat i oso dunno...all tat took us from 12pm till 5pm...wow...it's actually fun doin those things if mid-terms r not on their way...=p
the hall actually having some valentine's choc gift for free to give to frenz within the hall...it's over 6pm and the person-in-chrg is Adam...but who the hell is he?? i dunno, and his room no wasn't written down...So, let's give QL,LX & RJ these instead...
and a
for LX as well, since we din't buy the real thing =)
ok and this for my happy folks gang...each one shelf, so dun fight k?!?!
it's kfc dinner later!!!and mugging time!!!
1:08:00 AM
Entry of the day:
TRIBUTE to Miss QL Wong aka dinko
for her utmost service in putting up Journey's "Open Arms" onto this blogsite!*CLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAPCLAP...*and pronoucement of a new life on memoriez_ling blogspot
HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY to all, enjoy it with your lover/soon-to-be-lover and Family, Friends!
Thursday, February 10, 2005 @ 9:09:00 PM
long time no blog and long time din't check out others' blog...it's time to do tat...
eh...muz i trace back to wat i hav left out here...den it seem so long ago lah...so u gotta bear wif it..
28th Jan Fri
Time to get ready for the mystery road trip...And almost all the commerce xchange student went...we took a very unique bus down to the destination...hopefully i'll be able to get picture of it and post it up...it's wat dinko called the magic school bus haha...yup the yellow school bus but its head looks like truck head over here...unique rite?? and the comm member had to pathetically show us the movie "road trip' on the bus when there's a big basket of movies...the title definitely dun sound as it is...it's juz like those american pie...and finally we were out of the highway into OTTAWA...Canada's capital...and the first thing we had to do was, photo scavenger hunt...yah it's a bit waste of time but all the checkpoints are those probably muz go or sth places...at least we got to cross a frozen canal, had beavertails and fun taking pictures...and followed by dinner @ an entertianment restaurant called Honest Lawyer where they set up a mini arcade in it...and the ang mohs were so fascinated by the DDR machine...u shld see them dance haha...den it's casino time...well, i guess i'm too malaysian to want to gamble in there as well...so i played the jackpot. halfway thru realising tat my money would be gone in only a few minutes time, i gave up...den wanted to try blackjack or sth else but the bet is so high lah...i juz can't afford...or rather peer pressure...w/o them maybe i would hav lose some money haha...oh yah, legal age to enter in canada's casinos is only 19...isn't tat cool...i dun see y muz wait till 21 lah...den it's clubbing time again!!!forgot the name, anyway it isn't really a great one...small dance floor, not so good music haha...and the episode of finding a lost ger happened, by then she's found and we were going to head back to Kingston...finally reached hall @ 3-4am...totally ignore abt bathing, i was juz too tired...
29th Jan Sat
slept only @ 4 am, and gotta wake up @ 6+am...i almost overslept...=p...but we had to go to ski!!!and we went to Mont Cascades, somewhere near Ottawa...(u muz be tinking wth i'm travelling back n forth rite...no choice, it's org by diff committee) it wasn't a long way to there, but rather had a long time getting the equipments, putting our stuffs and finally geared on to start skiing...fortunately there's instructor to teach us the basics and it was fun but i guess it'll be more fun when u grasp the skill. Apparently, i had falls most of the time while trying out. Finally, we were told that we could go up the hill (beginners for ur info haha)...and off we went taking the cable car?? watever, u shld noe wat i'm trying to refer to, i couldn't possibly walk up the slope wif my skis on...even getting up and down the cable car also need some skills afterall, i was handicapped wif the skis...den it's time to ski down...the intructor told us to go certain direction where the slope is more gentler...but i juz couldn't ctrl either my legs or my skis lah and i ended up goin towards the steeper (and it's really steep to me as a beginner) slope and not even midway, i tumbled all over...one thing troublesome to ski is, once u fall, u will hav a hard time gettin up. it's either u hav very good waist strength like RJ who amazingly could get up w/o taking off her skis, or yup take off the skis and stand up put it on again with the fear of sliding down the slope....hav i sound adventurous...in fact it was i guess...i wun mind the falling and all...cos i fell really hard as if i was rolling down the slope lor...hence at tat point of time, i wonder should i let my parents go korea next time and ski...juz afraid tat they dun really noe how to handle the fall.....=p...actually there r clothings juz for skiing or snowboarding...of cos i dun hav them so hav to go back wetly....even still wet after reaching back to the hall....and the next day i woke up wif pains all over me!!!and finally i got to watch The Incredibles @ $3 only....tat's even cheaper than watching a movie back in sg...it's showed by one of the school clubs...isn't tat cool?? They actually showed movies, quite recent ones, every sunday in this theatre in the school...hope some nice movie is coming up *grin*
31st Jan Mon - 4th Feb Fri
Throughout the week, I tried hard to study and do the assignments dueing the following week. so i stopped myself from blogging...and the only happening thing of the week haha was my bday...wellwell, somebody juz came over to my room and 'hogged' me dunno for wat purpose tat nite lah...haha...as i was messaging back to reply aunt yap and jea, the surprise came, there was a knock on my door. i tot it was dinko but she wouldn't knock on my door tat way and she would hav come in straight or at least opened the door herself since she had just came in moments ago...but i din't tink tat far, still tinking it was her...and there was a chocolate cake with 3 candles (representing 21 i noe hehe)surrounded by all the Singaporean GERS except jiayi who's so tired and had to rest first, and karen who happily still tink it's only 11pm...and a helpful guy Scott trying to cover the fire/smoke detector...i was surprised by all these and the birthday song and RJ's effort to make me an angel and presents - a clubbing top for the night and a huge Hershey Kisses. Not that i noe u all will forget haha, juz tat, it's grand compared to any birthdays tat i had for the past few years...=)...Nice choc cake,nicer choc,nicest top...i love them all!!!
The next night 10.30pm we were out for clubbing. It's Stages, and definitely tat's the best club around or the best so far we have gone to. Paid the entrance fee at a lower rate haha cos i was given more change. Right after we were settled down with a seat, dinko couldn't wait to let me drink...and it so happened that there were cheap drinks there tat nite...Alcohol to me is not easily differentiated cos i dun drink them often, but i was made to guess wat i've drank. If wrong, another shot more...and i practically made all wrong guesses!!! and i had 6 shots of i forgot straight. From then on, the alcohol has started to attack me...but i still managed to have fun dancing...i couldn't even make out wat ppl were talking to me, maybe partly cos of the music?!? so i actually dunno wat jacky was telling me, all i noe was tat he's offering me a drink wif him lah...i said no but he went on dunno say wat and finally i took it from him and drink another shot down...from then on, i was really in my own world...and finally had the puking feeling, wanted to go to the washroom, but was chased out by the security...how cool is tat man...and i went out and puked and hurt my mouth cos i was so unstable =p...no further description...poor dinko helped me to pizza pizza and wanted me to eat sth or juz take a rest...i was so unconcious tat i juz laid on the table. And i puked again in the restaurant but into the bin...tink i've heard sth from the waiter there, guess i have sort of create some unwanted trouble...and again, dinko had to help me back to the hall w/o her coat on. it did seem cold tat nite though, but she seem to hav no choice...=p...and after getting back to my room, i was insisted to take a bath and i took a really quick one, cos i juz wan to fall flat on anywhere...and i got dinko's slping time off to settle me down and the mess i created in my room, u dun wan to noe abt it...
THX there dinko dearest for giving me an unforgettable bday...
4th Feb Fri - 6th Feb Sun
Time to go Toronto, one of the major cities in Canada. Heard tat there's a lot of chinese there and chinatown there is happening so want to go before chinese new year to get some goodies from there. Ultimately, they dun really sell the usual stuffs we have...maybe cos the majority r hongkong and china ppl and their traditional food and stuffs r different from us. And i dun find the waitresses in the eating places there friendly lah. The right word is hostile. Maybe they hav their reasons behind it, but it juz doesn't leave good impression. Of cos we din't go to chinatown for the 3 days. Did went to a large shopping centre called Eaton Centre where there's really a lot to shop for, it's juz whether u hav the money to do tat...there r not-so-ex stuffs but still it's in Canadian dollars u see...=p and there's a Kensington market where stuffs there r really cheap and hip(tat refers to clothings and accessories haha...). Went clubbing there too and it's a club tat's largest in north america, introduced by a lot of ppl here...it is really big, larger than a big factory...so they hav a lot of different rooms/sections. Juz so happened tat nite tat somebody seems to have book part of it and we tried to enter by the entrance for the guests, cos they asked us 'r u on the guest list?'....and we walked ard to the other side, found another entrance, still not correct, finally the third was the correct one...they even check ur body and bag, by ladies of cos...they actually played house music in the main dance floor which not many of them liked, but dinko seems to like it haha...and so we waited for another room tat plays hip-hop to open for entrance...a long wait, they weren't puctual....throughout the dance, a lot of ppl simply walked through the dance crowd so it's kinda of irritating to us at least...and there were guys who juz like to jump in to dance wif gers...and we hav to be very defensive to ourselves...the music wasn't too good either...everybody including me dun like it there...anyway it's called The Government...wat a name...
Get to eat dim sum one morning and roast duck noodles....yummy...the noodles taste really good, probably better than in hongkong's...or probably it's tat place tat sells the best noodles haha...
Went to watch a play in the theater there as well. seem to be a culture there, a few theatres in the downtown (and mamamia is showing too, but no interest for tat...). so we chose to watch this play called "Take me out"...which is abt atheletic gays...and i did doze off for dunno wat reason lah...maybe musical is my cup of tea rather than play, but nevertheless the plot entices me haha to be les?? nope...juz a wild thought at tat moment...but who noes, someday the world will be taken over wif gays and lesbians marrying each other...And the most obscene part is the play has frontal male nudity and extreme language...hmm...so it's actually more than 1 scene tat has frontal male nudity...and it's not juz 1 male...so yup needless for me to say anymore...i wonder do they take a lot of courage to do tat or it's their regular job scope as a play actor...
Last day in Toronto, i had to stay in the hostel to do a bit of my essay...while the others went to Casa Loma, a castle cum tourist attraction...i shall go there next time...and went shopping, walking ard until time's up to board the coach and go back kingston and i tried to do my essay dueing the next day again, but within min, i juz fell aslp and i tot i could wake up later to do it....but when i woke up i was in kingston oredi! Damn it...but i still managed to finish it up b4 the dueing time =)
7th feb mon - today
it's chinese new year week...pretty quiet down here to compare back at home...but we managed to have a sort of reunion dinner ourselves (the singaporeans + one Spore PR and tat's me haha)in the best chinese restaurant as stated by someone i can't recall...food is a little salty, but i dun mind...and it wasn't really great, cos it's rectangular table and we hav to separate into 2 groups for the food...and sadly, i've tis one person dunno to be consider as considerate or not in tis group....and the one probably who make my precious digi cam screen wif stains on...damn it lah...i'll make sure i keep a good distance from him in the future...*rolling eyeball*...if he sees tis, which i doubt he will, he will probably noe it's him haha...tis is definitely not talking behind ppl's back =p...it's for the public =)
Went clubbing after tat AGAIN...haha...tis time we tried another dance club tat ppl here introduce to us...Elixus...erm is tat how u spell it...watever...as wat RJ said, ppl in tat club r even or rather very rowdy...guys juz wanted to dance wif u from ur back...and luckily i was safe all nite...and we get to sing bday song to Karen at the strike of 12! it's her 21st too! After my incident, nobody dares to make her drink haha...lucky gal...music there sort of sux too, wif ups and downs...dun see the possibility tat we'll go there again.
This week was sort of doing assignment and assignment...although i juz need to pass, it's not a easy job too...the pace of work tat i'm doin now probably is enough in NTU for me to get better grades than pass...maybe it's not really tat hard (but it's definitely hard for derivative securities!!), juz tat they all due abt the same time.
Today is NIAN CHU ER...my aunt tried to call me from perak as well, to wish me happy birthday...so did mum...but eventually it's me who called them cos her line really cannot make it =p....it's my lunar birthday, and it's always at tis time tat they'll celebrate for me back home for years...i shall wait for next yr's then.
Next week is mid-term week and wat does tat mean? It means MID-TERM EXAMS!!! will hav to buck up these few days to get ready for the mid term and probably project stuffs...and i can't wait to have time tis weekend or probably tml to clean up my room a bit, to catch a volleyball match (i only saw the one tat i first came =p), and washed my bedsheet, blanket...and get photos from everyone cos i'm starting to be so lazy to take out my camera...i shall reflect on tat...
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!
Wednesday, February 02, 2005 @ 12:11:00 PM
it's now 4.30am, 3rd Feb 2005 in Singapore/Malaysia...
it's at this point of time, 21 years ago, tat i touched on earth...=)...i miss everyone, esp mum...
yup trying to steal some time off while working on the long essay...
turned back time on 3:30 PM.
Juz came back from classes...
As I walked back, alone, the weather (of only -4degrees.c) was welcoming me to a long stroll that I yearn for...
If not for the assignments that I have to get it done by this week, I would have walk and walk to downtown, admiring all the little things found surrounding me...Damn!
and Thx Diana for being the first to wish me =) cos it's not 3rd here yet haha...
Tuesday, February 01, 2005 @ 10:37:00 PM
it's 1st feb le...
time flies yah?...
gotta keep tis short, cos i've deadlines to meet b4 i go toronto tis weekend...
so update next week le...=)
