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!'
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
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!
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).
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!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, August 21, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, August 19, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
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
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Headlines
What courageous women - they have my utmost respect. Here is a link to a brief description of the story:
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
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