Exciting Times!

Whew! I just finished my 3 exams in a row yesterday. It is such a relief. I still have one more exam left, but it's not until next Monday, so I have lots of time to study! I still have to be super effective and productive though, since I still got lots of stuff to do, and I'll be going to Toronto this weekend!
Now that I'm almost out of the woods, I can properly look forward to what is coming up. Here are some things that I am excited about!!!:

1. Seeing Jordan this weekend, and going to his family's holiday party! Yay holiday party and Christmas!
2. Going back to Vancouver to see my family, Toto and my friends :) I miss them!!
3. Christmas. Although my family doesn't really celebrate it, it's still a nice time of year. I hope it snows!
4. Jordan coming to Vancouver! Yay! Jordan will be visiting Vancouver from Jan 9 to 15th! I'll be doing lots of planning during the break to make sure his visit is super exciting and fun and full of fooooooood! :D It's to prime both of us for...
5. ASIA TRIP! We will visiting..
1. Taiwan to see my family! We'll be arriving in Taiwan on Jan 16th, and my dad will be picking us up. He's got accomodations lined up for us, and we'll be relying on him to bring us around and visit my grandma. It definitely will be interesting to visit Taiwan after so many years...
2. Singapore! We're planning a trip to Singapore because we want to travel around Asia more. We were deciding between Bangkok and Singapore, but it seemed easier to book flights in and out of Singapore so we decided on it instead. We'll be spending about 4-5 days there. We still need to look up some attractions and what to do etc there!
3. Hong Kong for SCHOOL! We'll be in Hong Kong for 4 months, doing school at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The campus looks beautiful. And the food sounds amazing (there is a dim sum place right on campus!). We both are going to eat so much lol. And the subway system there is super efficient and cheap, so even though we're not living close to Downtown, we'll still be able to visit lots!

So yeah. I have A LOT to look forward to. I really cannot wait to get out of Waterloo (sorry, Waterloo!) and get onto this adventureeeeee!

Anyways, it's getting late so it's sleep time for me. I should really get back to a normal sleeping schedule now that most of my exams are done....

Goodnight!!

Clear Water Bay

Isn't this beautiful...

sourcehttp://www.ece.ust.hk/~palomar/photos/HKUST_campus/photos_HKUST_campus.html

This is where I will be next term! The HKUST campus is right beside the Clear Water Bay...and look at the view! It's so gorgeous! It beats looking out of the windows at UW campus and seeing a mass of geese poop and gray buildings (no offense UW :P I still love you!).
I am very excited to go. Jordan and I are planning to keep a blog of our adventures for the term! There is not too much going on there right now...just us talking about some of our planning and preparation for our trip :) But soon, it shall be updated with exciting pictures, tales and videos about HONG KONG! WOOO!

My weeks

Whew, it's a while since I've updated this blog!
Life has been busy, crazy, fun, stressful and lacking sleep. I find I'm busier than usual this term, although it is comparable to what I had going on the past Winter term. There are some days where I'm running around campus non-stop for about 8 hours and then I go to the library to study for a few hours. By then, I'm exhausted  and hungry but proud that I had such a productive day :P
Anyways, school is going well, for the most part. I actually just recently found out that I got a horrendous mark for the written part of one of my midterms. I keep thinking about it, and trying to recall the question and thinking "how the heck did I get that mark?". It's been bothering me a lot. I'm going to go see the midterm hopefully tmr or the day after to see what happened. I really hoping some kind of error was made, or that I can get some marks back because I really really believe that I deserve a better mark.
But otherwise, my midterms have gone well. Another round is coming up, so I am currently studying and reviewing lots to make sure I am not ultra stressed out when the time comes.

The term has been interesting so far, because I've never spent a term in Waterloo without Jordan here, ever since we started going out. It's always been me going off somewhere while I leave him here in Loo :(. But thankfully, he is only in Toronto so that means I get to see him on weekends! It's amazing how much I look forward to the weekends. Every week is just so busy and taxing that I just think about how I can relax on the weekend, see Jordan and have fun! I still enjoy my weekdays, but it's just hard getting used to being so busy :0
The dynamics is very different and interesting compared to the past Winter term, because Jordan and I used to see each other everyday and pretty much do everything together, including studying. Now that we don't get to see each other as much, we make the best out of the time we have together! I try my best to get as much work done as I can before we see each other on the weekends, so that I don't have to ditch him too much to do work. And our weekends are usually packed with activities, such as cooking, eating (mmm dim sum!), drinking, strolling in parks, watching movies, partying, seeing friends, going on scavenger hunts and much more! Another reason why I look forward to the weekends so much is that I don't get to do those things during weekdays (well, except eating and cooking and drinking non-alcoholic drinks).
Anyway, speaking of weekend and weekdays, my weekend just turned into a weekday, which means it's past 12am and I should really be getting back to studying and sleeping soon after. So I bid you farewell and I shall post another update/random thought soon!

Comfort Zone

I am definitely stepping out, far out, of my comfort zone right now and it's quite scary :S I decided to run for the a position on the AHSUM executive team. There is another person running for the same position, so that means we will have to do a vote. So basically this requires me to put myself out there, tell people what I stand for and hope they'll vote for me! I made a Facebook pages describing my platform and such, so I hope people will appreciate and listen to what I have to say. However, I feel like this may be a popularity vote and I actually don't know that many AHS people in comparison to my competitor. Oh well, we'll see how it goes.
I am also thinking of doing an announcement in a couple of my classes if I am allowed to. And that is a scary thought because I hate public speaking. So yes, stepping so far out of my comfort zone.
Anyways I gotta go get my laundry and sleep because I am dead tired.

Busy time

Whew, life has been super busy ever since I got back to Loo! Mostly because of O-Week and WCRI CEG duties (Community Engagement Guide). And also, because I want to spend time with Jordan, but had to ditch him for half the time he was here in Loo because of my commitments :( But we have lots of fun weekends planned for the next month (including hang gliding, going to a comedy bar, eating Thai food) and I'm excited! He will be starting his new job tomorrow at Deloitte (well, orientation is tomorrow)!
Anyways, I an currently unpacking and sorting out my stuff so my room is organized and not too messy. Tomorrow for O-Week, we'll be meeting the first years for the first time, which will be exciting! But I shall leave you and head back to unpacking while I still have the energy.
P.S. I found my M&M dispenser and have filled it with peanut M&Ms. Om nom!

My Heart in Two Places

Today is one of my last days in Vancouver before I head off to Toronto/Waterloo for another four months! Like usual, I am mixed with sad and happy emotions at the same time. I am going to miss my family, my doggie, my friends and doing all the fun activities here in Vancouver...but I am excited to see Jordan, my friends at school and also to start school and be ridiculously busy again. Sometime I wish I could just combine both of my lives from Vancouver and Waterloo together, so I can have the best of both. But then I have to remember that firstly, it's not really possible to do it completely, and secondly, I made my decision to move across the country to live on my own. And it does have it's pros of course. And combining them may not result in the best of both worlds...it may just be overwhelming. I just hope that I can have Jordan visit Vancouver sometime soon, because it's important to me, for him to see this side of my life and meet the rest of my family, visit the town in which I grew up and hang out with my friends :)

Anyway, I'll prepare to say goodbye to my family and friends here in Vancouver...but also adding in a 'See you later!' 

Robson Square Shenanigans

This post is a few days late, as the last Robson Square of the summer was last Friday. But I just wanted to reflect on my experience with this Summer's Robson Square, as it was a big part of my summer here in Vancouver!

I wanted to firstly congratulation Mr. Andrew Miller, Sarah Vaughan and the Robson Square Series Committee for such a successful summer. This is a huge project to undertake, and the dedicated team put a lot of their time and effort into putting this on for the public every Friday night in July and August.

Robson this year was amazing! It was great to see many old faces again and to meet a lot of new people from the UBC dance club, or people I've never gotten the chance to meet. There were nights I wish I could have danced more, but I was glad to be helping out as a volunteer (I am an expert on bag-check now :P and also a collection "bunny" haha). I especially enjoyed the performances; it was inspiring to see many couples still dancing after all these years, and also the formation of new partnerships that I feel have a lot of great potential (eg. Kevin and Yukie). And another kudos to Andrew and Andrea, because they are such fantastic dancers. I'm really glad Andrew has finally found someone like her to dance with because I've felt he has been held back by his previous partners (with various reasons) and therefore cannot exceed his potential. From what he's described of her, I feel she has great passion for dance and wants to improve as much as he does. They are such a good match and it was great to watch them dance.

I also really enjoyed our late, late night eats after finishing up at Robson. Late night om nom-ing of congee and prawns and spicy squid and tofu was so good after a hard night of working and dancing :P

On the last night of Robson (last Friday), I brought my sisters camera (mine was not charged) to take lots of pictures with people. Being the busy night it was, and because I wanted to dance a lot, I ended up only taking one. But I'm glad it was this one, because I got a picture with some people I worked in the bag-check booth in :) It was fun (although sometimes frustrating, when the bags were out of order which made them very hard to find).

From left to right: Cindy, me, Michael, Ahmad

There were many, many more volunteers, but like mentioned before, we were pretty busy :S

I know I'll miss our awesome Robson nights and seeing these people every Friday night. But I'll look forward to future shenanigans that we'll have!

Dim sum talk

I was having lunch with Kevin and Yukie yesterday, at this dim-sum place on near Broadway skytrain station. I was very pleasantly surprised and excited at some of the news they brought me regarding their plans for the future. After Kevin is done with school, him and Yukie and thinking of moving. And moving isn't just moving to a different part of town, but actually moving out of the country and perhaps to the US or Europe, where work may be better for them both. I was so happy to hear that they were making plans like this! Not only would they expand their opportunities for work (they both mentioned that work here for both their fields are hard to find), they can also open so many doors for them in their dancing career. I must say, I am pretty envious of that. One of their possible destinations is London, and that would be fantastic for their dancing. Training in Europe is basically a necessary step for any dancer that wants to advance.

One thing that was also surprising was how major these plans are for them as a couple. They have been together for a few years, but to think that they will be moving out on their own into a strange city or even continent is amazing. I can't even imagine doing that right now. They both are older than me and definitely more mature and I feel they will be ready to take this step...but it is still hard to believe. Many of my dance friends are older than me, so it's eye-opening and surprising for me to hear of some of their plans for their future. My future in the next few years are basically school and more school, and if I'm lucky enough, dancing.

Being here in Vancouver has made me realize how much I miss dancing, and has changed my perception for grad school a bit. I'll still be applying to the major schools here and in BC (UT, Queens, McMaster, Western and UBC) but my first choice would be for the schools that are nearer bigger cities, where I can start to dance again. I remember during high school, I wanted to move to Italy after I graduate and focus on my dancing therem but that became unrealistic as it would cost a lot of money, and I would be putting dance before school. But I really want to start dancing again. I know I probably won't be able to for the next couple of years in wWaterloo, but as mentioned before, hopefully I can do it during my couple years of grad school.

Anyways, I wanted to congratulation Kevin and Yukie on their amazing plans for the future. I suppose Vancouver can't keep them here forever, but I believe they will thrive in their career and dance, wherever they go. And hopefully, in a few years, we'll be seeing each other on the dance floor again and maybe they'll be representing the UK :)

Cheers to Kevin and Yukie!

A full song

My guitar-playing goal: the learn to play 'I Will Follow You into the Dark' fully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rePcHxFJIuU&feature=fvsr

It's such a beautiful song. The first time I heard this song was actually a few months, when Jordan played it (even though it's been out for a while). And I really liked it the first time I heard it and now I've been playing it quite a bit on my iPod. I must say it's definitely made it into my top 10 songs, if not the top 5.

Anyways, when I've been playing guitar, I've never really finish learning to play the full song. I usually learn the intro and then hurriedly try to sing along to it. That never works out really well, because I haven't really practiced playing the song enough on the guitar to make it sound nice and smooth. And yet I still add in singing, which makes it worse because I now have 2 things to focus on - picking and singing.

I am going to try to learn this song fully, practice to play it smoothly and then eventually add in singing. The guitar part is beautiful enough for me to enjoy playing the song anyways, without having to add the vocals in. But hopefully I will be able to do it eventually!

Dreams be dreams

Two night ago, I had a dream about a monster apocalypse. I think it stemmed from the music video for the song 'Party Rock' because I watched it that night. The monsters in my dream were not scary (thank goodness), they were actually cartoon-like and just weird. But the dream was still a bit frightful.

Then last night, I had a dream where there was a bomb strapped to me, and it was about to go off in a few minutes. Dream-Mel, who is oh-so-smart, ran to an area where there is a little bit of space and told everyone to clear out (it was a park like area, and I ran to a patch of grass where there was less people). Then, I looked at the bomb on my chest and realized there was 6 seconds left so I closed my eyes (in my dream) and when the bomb was about to go off...I woke up. Really scary :S One funny part was the at the beginning of the dream, the bomb was put onto Jim Sturgess (LOL), who is an English actor. He starred in Across the Universe, 21 and another new movie with Anne Hathway (again, I watched the youtube trailer for the movie, which is probably why he was in my dream). But then I become the bomb-person, which means that I was really Jim Sturgess...that's creepy.

Anyways, I don't believe that dreams really mean anything. I think they're just projections of things we encountered during our day, such as Party Rock vid --> monster apocalypse and Jim Sturgess movie trailer --> Jim sturgess strapped to a bomb, who turned into me. Although I am not quite sure where that bomb part came from...hmm. Maybe it does mean something and that I have a very limited time to live? Oh dear.

Let's dance :)

The sweetest thing ever <3

From the movie 'Up', one of my favourite Pixar films. And yes, I bawled like a baby during the beginning of the movie :P

Oh and here's a link to a video of the sad, sweet part on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GroDErHIM_0

:'0

And here's the cute, happy video of how they met and dreamt on going on adventures and exploring expeditions!! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR8hlvLghrs&feature=related

Headlines

What courageous women - they have my utmost respect. Here is a link to a brief description of the story:

http://news.yahoo.com/lesbian-couple-saved-40-kids-norway-050733662.html

Truthfully, I don't know what I would do if I were in their position - hearing gunshots, screaming and seeing people run towards the water. Of course I would like to think I would go help and do the same thing as these 2 women, but what if I become paralyzed with fear and just stand there, unable to move?

Anyway, one thing about this story that got me thinking was why news articles have to use "lesbian couple" as a title. Well okay, I'm pretty sure why they do it - it's to catch attention. The thing is that this piece of news has not been reported widely and the global press has overlooked this. Obviously, it is because this couple is lesbian. So the smaller news groups tell the story, and then comment on how this has been overlooked. And the placement of "lesbian" in the name helps catch peoples attention, I believe. But must we really label people like that? I mean, you dont see in the headlines "A heterosexual couple saves 40 kids". But I suppose this happens with many minority groups - you would often hear "A black man did * something*" rather than "a white male....", unless the story about the white male has something to do with someone of another race.

But anyways, that was just my random tidbit :P

Groin kicking

I think I am starting to become a fitness nut D:

I used to like to eat a lot (okay, yes I still do) and feel alright if I'm sitting around the whole day. As long as I'm getting things done, I'm good. I guess perhaps that's what school did to me? Or what I become during my school years. But after working out this summer, I feel odd if I don't some kind of workout each day. Well the reason is, for about a month now, I've been doing Krav Maga lessons. Man, they were intense and awesome!

Krav Maga is basically an Isreali style of close combat fighting. It's focused on self-defense and hitting points that hurt your opponent the most. So unless other form of martial arts, it is not as 'arty' but more realistic. It is exactly what I am looking for. And it's wonderful because the Krav lessons I've been to also integrate cardio and endurance in the lesson, so not only am I getting a fantastic workout, I am working on my groin kicks and roundhouse kicks for whichever unfortunate being tries to hurt me. That's right, you better watch out :P

Anyways, the sad thing is that there are not many Krav studios here in Vancouver. And the ones here are superbly expensive. I guess it's not too bad if you get a 12 month membership, but one of the gym's month to month rate is $225. Holy shiat, eh? And it's also super far, so it's cost me a lot of money even if I take the public transit. So I just finished my two week trial and now I have no more Krav left at that gym. My sister and I will be trying out this other Krav place near our home, and we'll see how that goes!

Anyways, after those free lessons, I probably wont be able to do more Krav, but I have a plan. I'd like to say I'm being economical or maybe cheap haha. I'm basically gonna be trying out the 'free lessons and week' that lots of gyms and martial arts facilities offer. There is one here that offers 1 month free! They don't have Krav, but they have kickboxing and that'll still be a good way to work on my punches, jabs and kick while getting a good workout. And when I get back to Loo, I'm planning on going to the Krav lessons there. My summer has been relatively stress-free, but I feel like the stress and pressure from school will be amazingly released when I repeated kick a heavy punch bag :D
I've also been doing so exercises by myself at home. There's this app on my iTouch that basically acts as a 'personal trainer' and gives workouts to do with a variety of exercises (eg lunges, squats, froggy jumps) that are timed. Then you repeat. It's a pretty good app, and the variety of exercises is nice. It's better than running long distances for me :P

One thing though that I should really work on is my DE course. It's my one and only course this summer and I am still slacking :P Vancouver and exercise is distracting me too much. Well better than, Vancouver and TV is distracting me too much, right? :P

I'm exciting to be doing Krav in Loo. I think it'll be a good hobby for me and a good way to exercise, instead of sitting around at home, raging about my many assignments :P

P.S. Watch How I Met Your Mother Season 1, Ep 4 for a little intro to Krav. I laughed quite a bit after watching it, because I now know what Krav is. And while you're watching it, give me 50 squats, 50 push ups, 50 crunches, 2 times ;)

Rawr

Today, I woke up from a bad dream. It made me realize how lucky I am to live in the reality and not in the dream world, where many things don't make sense and the people around me were not acting like their usual lovely selves. Phew.

Flipping forward

What has university done to me?
I am currently reading a book by Jodi Picoult, named House Rules. I used to enjoy her books very much - I feel that she devours deeply into each character while delivering a intense, emotional story. I cried in one of her previous books. However, as I am reading this book, written in the same style, I can't help but flip forward hundreds of pages to see if I can skip forward and get to the exciting parts.
I used to like reading the characters thoughts, their past experiences cause I felt that allowed me to get to know them better. And now, I just keep thinking "I don't have time to read all of this, just get to the good part about the mystery and what happened." The funny thing is that I do have time, but keep telling myself otherwise. I keep thinking that I should read it the whole thing more carefully when I have more time, but when will I have more time than now, when I am out of school for the summer?
In the past year particularly, I have found myself rushing myself more to make sure I get stuff done. I have given myself more pressure to make sure I don't waste time and stay on top of things. It's a good mentality to have during busy times at university, but I feel it does affect me during my free time. I find I walk so fast to get from point A to point B and sometimes I need to slow down and look at the scenery.
Or maybe I am just reading into this too much (pun intended!). Maybe I just need a more exciting book. After all, I did just finish reading a book about a zombie apocalypse. And damn, it was exciting.


P.S. Now I feel that the first line of this blog post is way too dramatic, but I am just going to leave it.


P.P.S. The zombie book did play with me psychologically a bit, because for a fleeting moment, I thought my sister was a zombie. Seriously. She was outside, it was getting dark and she was hunched over and walking slowly towards me, her hair in her face. She wouldn't answer when I called her name but she kept walking towards me. Gah. Turns out she was holding 2 heavy bags (hence being hunched over) and couldn't hear me cause she was on the phone, via her headset, with her boyfriend. Phew.

Study all day

I'm not brilliant, but I work hard. It sometimes takes me a while to get the information into my brain and for my brain to retain it. Sometimes I feel very bitter, because I know people who spend half the time I do studying and get better marks than me. And I do study efficiently (most of the time). But I work hard - and that counts for something, right?

A bit of nostalgia?

Not exactly nostalgia actually...more of just reminiscing. I had lunch with a few of my high school friends (who also go to UW) today and it made me realize something - how fast each of us are growing up. I remember during first year, our conversations were able random things and complaining about UW etc. But today, most of our conversation was about a big change in one of my friend's life, as well as what we plan to do after graduation. And it's slightly scary to think that we're almost done.


I guess this happens when you see friends you havent seen in a while - you catch up, ask them how they've been etc. But it was so interesting to see the dynamics of our conversation, and how it evolved around our plans, goals and aspirations for the future. It was pretty awesome talking about it, and hearing about their detailed planning of the next few years of their life.


But of course, we also talked a bit about the past. We mentioned the few people we knew in our high school who are now pregnant or have a family - which is totally crazy. In high school, our lives were so similar - going to school, hanging out with friends, getting involved in some clubs, go home, do homework etc. But now, everyone's life is so diverse - from having a family to going to the States to study at Yale. Or going on exchange in Australia to starting their own photography company. It's so great to see the many paths that people are taken to develop their own diverse life.


But anyways, it just made me think back to high school years for a bit. Of course, I never want to go back but it's nice to think about it once in a while, you know? Oh my, we had so much less responsibilities then. But also so much less freedom and choice, so there you go :)

Weapons Grade :0

My health 102 professor, Sandra Bullock (yes, that is her name and no, it's not the actress) gave our class an assignment last week that I enjoyed. She decided to veer from her set curriculum and get us students to explore into Canadian politics. It was pretty awesome, because I feel like she is trying to make a difference. Since the class was pretty much all first years, they are mostly likely to be just turning 18 and it would be the first time they can vote! So it was great of her to try to get students to explore, get involved and vote.

We were divided into last names and I became part of the Green Party. Our assignment was to look into their platform and find out their stand on issues such as economics, environment, education, health etc etc etc. And as I was reading the lengthy, yet interesting document set by the Green Party, I had to stop myself from raising my eyebrows and utter "Wtf?"

Quotes from the Green Party's Vision document: http://greenparty.ca/files/attachments/Vision.Green_.2010.E.pdf

"The use of medical isotopes in the diagnosis of cancer helps patients receive the treatment they need more quickly than with the use of other diagnostic tools. Medical isotopes are also used, to a lesser degree, to treat cancer. Canada has, in the past, been responsible for producing 1/3rd of the world's medical isotopes, using the research reactor at Chalk River. The Chalk River nuclear reactor now is 52 years old and has been shut down on numerous occasions since 2007, due to leaks of radioactive water. Currently, it is not operating (wrong, it is in operation: http://www.nrucanada.ca/en/home/default.aspx), and no commitment has been made as to when, if ever, it will resume production. The Green Party remains opposed to the use of nuclear reactors; however we also recognize the benefits that medical isotopes provide to cancer patients.

When it was operating, the Chalk River facility used highly-enriched weapons-grade uranium to generate medical isotopes (wrong. AfECL switched to low-enriched uranium in early 1990s. LEU is not weapons grade, it is only reactor grade). For years, Canada has imported approximately 20 kg of bomb-grade uranium from the U.S. annually, to make isotopes; 97% of it remains unused. These leftovers, which are now in quantities large enough to create several Hiroshima-sized bombs, are stored at commercial sites (oh gosh...). The risk of terrorist activity in order to obtain this radioactive material for the proliferation of nuclear weapons is significant.

International research has demonstrated that isotopes can be produced without a nuclear reactor/reaction. Both particle accelerators and cyclotrons successfully produce medical isotopes; however further assessment is required in order to determine their economic feasibility. Greens will support funding research into these revolutionary alternative technologies (why do we need a revolutionary alternate technology, when the one we have is fine? We don't have the money to do this), the primary goal of which will be to ensure that Canadians have access to a safe and effective source of medical isotopes."

There are many things wrong with this. Firstly, there is false information and the Greens should really get their facts straight before making a statement about it. Secondly, funding going towards particle accelerators and cyclotrons to see if they can produce isotopes...really? We already have a great system in place to produce isotopes. Yes, it has been shut down many times and it needs to be strengthened to ensure consistency, but that doesn't mean we should just shut it down. And just because there may be a "risk of terrorist activity" to obtain the HEU, that doesn't mean we should run scared and stop this technology. Yes, research is great, because it should be focussed on developing the current technology we have, instead of going on a wild tangent and starting a new project all over again. And like the statement said, there is no indicate of it's economic feasibility. I would say that is not economical to do this and that the Green Party are slight crazy in this aspect.

Anyways, there were a few other things in their 'Vision' document that was just far-fetched. A lot of what they say sound great and dandy and all, but if they actually tried to do everything, there will be no money left. They are promising too much. However, like my prof said, they seem to be setting a bar, and making sure that the other parties are focusing on a variety of issues too.

I'm also trying to find out a bit more about the other parties (although the NDP site doesn't really give much information).

The time has come again...

As I was walking up the stairs to my health class in optometry this morning, I saw something scary...it sort of looked like this:

Yes, the geese are starting to become aggressive again!

Well, I guess I didn't notice them much during the last few months was because they were, well, absent. But now that the snow is nearly gone, grass is greener(ish) and the air is warmer, they are back and they are unafraid.

The goose that I saw today didn't actually attack anyone, but he/she did open his/her mouth and bare teeth and stepped quickly towards my health prof. She freaked out a bit, and so did the person behind her, and so did I. thankfully no one got hurt.

This is a bit of a random post, but just wanted to say, be careful out there. Unless you are on wheels, don't anger these animals. They are nesting...

What's your inspiration?

There are many people in my life that I consider as my inspiration. From the time I was cognitively able to understand what was going on in my family until now, my mother has been my inspiration. After coming to university, I've been in contact with a few amazing people and have been inspired by them. One of them is my boyfriend, Jordan.

It's kind of funny, because I've never really told him this. I've told him I have admired him, but admiration and being inspired are different things. I've only recently realized what an inspiration he is to me. Let me try to explain a bit more.

One of the most admirable qualities Jordan has is his aspiration to always try new things. I've never been much of a fan of stepping outside my comfort zone. You can tell that by my eating habits - I am perfectly fine going to a few of the same restaurants and ordering the same things over and over again. It's because I know it tastes good and I will enjoy it. And it's not only prevalent in food, but also from my involvements in school. My mind set has always been - do well in school and only get involved in activities if I have the time. But then, I always somehow convince myself I do not have the time, and in the end, I don't partake in new activities.

Ever since we started to date, I've noticed how many things he was involved in, how often he is out doing something different, from being in a fraternity to helping out with events for Eng Soc, to being an engineering counsillor. It strikes me to see how involved he is, and how he is able to manage his time. I was hardly involved in anything when I met him - I was just merely concentrating on school and doing random things and going forward from there. But since then, I have found myself looking for more opportunities, and getting informed on important issues and matters. And it feels so great!

One of the biggest things this year for me was getting involved in Fashion for Change. I took a risk and stepped out of my comfort zone and applied to be Fundraising and Finance Director back in last summer, and I got the position. It is a huge role and part of the reason why I wanted to do it, was that I also wanted to get involved. I wanted to do something different and work with a team to gain new leadership skills and experience, while helping out the community. Not only did Jordan encourage me to get involved in some activities, he also provided a great example by doing it himself.

Now, I feel much more connected to my campus and student life. Although I do still hesitate and sometimes, try to convince myself out of doing things, I am doing a better job at making my life more diverse, and spending my time on things that benefits my community and me as well. I've also found I have been more involved in getting to know politics, whether it is our FedS government or the upcoming Canadian election. I am still a newbie, and I still need to do research of which party I would like to vote for, but I will be voting this May. I am ashamed to say, I have never voted and I am 21 :( But it's not to late to start right?

There's people you meet that make such a great difference in your life, and J is definitely one of them, in many many ways. If you want to get to know more about him, his Twitter account is jdlui! :P

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to my new blog!
The reason why I am making a new blog is because my other blog was, well, too much like a diary. This blog will be more for my thoughts that I am willing to share with everyone, and get people's comments on it as well. I suppose you can say it is more professional? Or maybe less emotional would be the correct term :P
Hopefully I will find time to regularly blog. I will try to make it happen!