You Make Me…

Happy 1 Month Anniversary, Shing Yee!

It has been short, more so because I’m so far away from you. I cannot agree more with those that says that you are a nice girl and it is my good fortune to have you.

我会守候这个不变的诺言，不管世界吧你我分隔多远。

May our feelings for each other never change!

There are times I ask myself what am I doing here, instead of being by your side. However, it also occurs to me that with this period of separation, it might actually make the bond between us stronger? I don’t know what the future holds for us. All I know is I want to cherish you at this present moment, and do everything to make this special relationship between us last for as long as possible! 3 more months before I can hug you in my arms again! I miss you <3

]]> http://gyllenlee.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/1-month-anniversary/feed/ 0 Gyllen You make me whole! http://gyllenlee.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/the-day-when-everything-breaks-down/ http://gyllenlee.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/the-day-when-everything-breaks-down/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:40:53 +0000 Gyllen Lee http://gyllenlee.wordpress.com/?p=184 ]]> 24th September 2008

GREAT! First, I cannot log onto MSN in Bronfman Library? WHYYYY??? MSN is like super impt to me la!

Second, I tried to put in my SingTel SIM card, and guess wat, CANNOT USE, keep asking me if I want to switch on phone without SIM. Guess all the time the card spent in my wallet with the coins grinding on it caused it to seek early retirement. But at least be responsible leh! Let me transfer the contacts out first la! Haiz! I always thought I have a bigger chance of losing phone than spoiling card, so I put all my contacts into the card! Now, it means I lose all my contacts, great. That SIM card is so impt la! It’s like my lifeline leh! If I run out of value in my FIDO, or if it costs too much to use it when I’m not in Toronto, how to contact Yee Dear Dear!

Sian! And all this have to happen on my most sian day, Wednesday. I hate Wednesdays! Especially this one! 25September 2008! Ni Gei Wo Ji Zhu!

Celebrated Chia Ying’s bday at 425. It’s supposed to be a surprise party. Ada got her to go out shopping. While Daniel and Clara decorated the place with balloons and a banner. After class, me, gun woo, tim, jeff, jason, daniel went back early, ordered pizza and played card games to entertain ourselves. Then the most impt person of the day arrive and we closed the lights and hid, waiting to give her a surprise when she switch on the lights. Alas, when he is shifting himself, jeff accidentally kicked the oven! So there goes our surprise. haha. Actually she heard other noises already…. After tt it’s pizza galore, ordered a lot, ate a lot. Then we played Mafia again, and they say I always got this suspicious look! And I realised I really cannot see through people if they are lying or not…

19th September 2008

Yuks Yuks Comedy Club. We are here for 4 months. Ample time to explore the place? However, there is this mentality that there will always be other places, or we might not have time for this later on. So what often transpire is that we try to cram all the events together! Anything we think of doing, we want to do it within the week or the next! Anyways, we got the tickets, we got the time, Daniel’s frens visiting from Montreal, so Yuks Yuks we went. I saw stand up comedians on you tube before. People like Russell Peters of the ‘be a man, do the right thing’ fame. This is the first time I will see them live. Was looking forward to it. It was quite funny at the start. A few crude jokes, funny ones. Then slowly through the 1 and a half hour show, I realize they like to say those crude jokes about male and female genitalia, sex and stuff like tt, won’t go into it. Generally, it was still funny, although I think some of the group will never visit the place ever again. After the show, we went to a bar and grill place. Ordered a pretty delicious, but as usual, overly sweet, apple pie. Niagara tml, decided to go back earlier.

20th September 2008

Niagara Falls! Heard alot about it. Studied the formation of water falls during secondary geography classes. Seen one in thailand? can’t remember. But this is the first real big one I am going to see. Really tired in the morning since we slept really late the night before. Drank the arbitrage tea (cos s,m,l all cost 1.39 CAD! weird right?) and had a light breakfast while waiting. Took the magic school bus there. Slept like 80% of the journey. Stopped by a winery before we head for the falls. Tried 3 wines, a white, a red and a desert wine that is only produced in 5 countries in the world! Reason being that producing this wine requires a warm summer and an extremely cold winter, with days as cold as -10 degrees consistently. The wine is made from frozen grapes wor. The white wine taste good, the red a little strange, the desert wine was super good! Nearly bought it, regret not doing so. Wonder if I can get it from the airport on my way back to Singapore. The Falls very impressive indeed! The straighter US side and the Canada side which is curved. I think the pictures are worth more than my thousand words. haha. Took the Maid of the Mist ride and got to go nearer to the falls. The US side was more photogenic, I feel, haha. The canadian side is more powerful. The boat went really close to it, and fully justify why we need to be given the raincoats. Still managed to take some pictures of the fall and the rainbows formed. Actually, it’s not that great la. It feels like pouring water from a pail onto ants, only this time round the ants are us. And we are quite lucky, the boat after us never set off, supposedly someone fell into the water somewhere and thus the maid of the mist service got to be stopped. And basically, that’s the best part of the place. The rest are very touristy and cost a bomb. Ate lunch at hard rock cafe and they served the food very slowly. Prices are also very steep over there. the buildings were interesting though, ended up walking around and taking pictures of them instead. Slept again on the bus back. Bumpy ride though. and we are taking the bus agn to Montreal! Dear god.

21st September 2008

Bata Shoe Museum

The original plan was to stay at home to complete my assignment. Obviously didn’t, ended up in the Bata Shoe Museum instead. And no, it is not a museum that details the revolution of Bata shoes. thank goodness. It’s actually a museum set up by the guy who founded Bata? His surname is Bata I think. whatever, that’s not important. What’s important is that the museum actually stores quite an impressive collection of shoes from around the world, from the really old days until what you see now. I think I got like 60% of all the exhibits in my camera now, haha! The jin lians looks pretty, and it is really hard to imagine how a grown woman feet can fit into those shoes, must less walk around in them. there are some pretty funky shoes as well. Oh, and they have a pair of signatured tennis shoes from Roger Federer! Not that I am a fan of him, but at least I know who he is. Pretty awesome place to spend a few hours in, in my opinion. After tt we went to Little Italy, bypassing Korean Town in the process. Past by this field where we saw people playing soccer on one side, and some kind of a dog owner’s gathering on the other side. Saw many dogs, big and small, tame and agressive, cute and menacing. Wandered around the place, nothing much to see and do, a lot of places to sit down and eat though, so that’s what we did. Ate dinner at this place called sth-Diplomatica. Prices was ok, food was ok, and basically that’s about it. XD

23 September 2008

Before I realise, the sem is progressing, time is passing, plans are materialising and work is piling ):

The current look of things is quite worrying, yet also exciting. So contradictory! And this is why:

Montreal 26-28

New York 30sept – 4oct (tentatively) hmmm, maybe I shd persuade them to go in december and stay longer.

Acct Assignment 2oct

Personal finance midterm 8oct

Calgary 9-12 oct (air fare is 360.5)

Strategic management assignment 14oct

derivatives assignment 16 oct

derivatives midterm 16 oct

acct in class case 22 oct

Information systems midterm 22 oct

…. and this is if I didn’t miss out anything.

wat to do, try to finish wat I can lor… and hope everything is going to turn out fine!

(Yee Dear Dear! Talking to you on msn always bring a smile to my face lo, let me forget all the work momentarily. haha. See you online!)

UBC boat cruise. The walk to the pier is torturous, the number of people they allowed on the boat is crushing, paying 20 dollars for it and not getting any free food for that sucks! not a very organised event, but nonetheless, it’s the first time I went on a party on a boat. Canadians are really crazy party go-ers! Got to know the guys from HKU finally. And got to interact with some of the exchange students like Gun Woo, Tim, Geoffrey more now. It might just be the start of something special.

14th September 2008

Wonderland. The weather forecast warned that there is 88% chance of precipitation, yet we still went on with it anyhow. 5 Singaporeans and 1 Azabajianian(?) betting their fun against mother nature.

Welcome!

I think we won, cos it only started raining after we went through like 10 rides. Maybe becos of the forecast, the queues are relatively short. Tim said that the exchange students who came before us only managed 3 rides for the whole day. I have never taken a rollercoaster ride in my whole life. I cried after taking one of the rides in the amusement park in Hong Kong Ocean Park, when i was young. So you have to understand my apprehension. I think I act the part of someone who is not daunted pretty well, no one see thru my foil. SO, first ride, flight deck, the start was pretty sick, free-fall feeling, cannot even scream, haha. Nonetheless, I actually enjoyed it la, and actually wanted to try more. So more and more sick rides followed…. Psyclone, Sledge Hammer…. then the omg of the amusement park, Behemoth. The ascent to the stop before the roller coaster comes down is really intimidating, the swoosh down is exhilarating, the rest of the ride just as amazing, it made me feel proud I went thru it. then Backlot Stunt Coaster (the start was a surprise, sudden pick up of speed), Mighty Canadian Minebuster (the jerkiest ride I have even taken in my whole life, no doubt).

After a not too satisfying lunch, we went on, picking up bobby junior on the way, to Thunder Run (not thrilling after wat we went through), Shockwave which was surprisingly good, The Bat (after this one i felt a bit giddy, too many rides le), still I went on to conquer Dragon Fire after skipping Drop Zone (looks freaking scary!) Clara is super brave lor, daredevil girl! They went back for Behemoth again, I called it a day though.

15th September 2008

Mid Autumn Celebration. We got mooncakes from Chinatown the other day. We got pizza we didn’t finish for lunch. We got 2 smaller ones courtesy of Gun Woo. We got soup cooked by CY. And we got pasta. Plus we also have Ice Red Tea from Gun Woo. PLUS Lays Chips. A lot of food indeed! Learned and taught card games as well. I think I have a talent for this type of thing, haha, as I picked up the popular Korean game GoStop pretty fast. It’s fun! Then we played mahjong using cards, asshole dai di, and even Mafia. Wonderful gathering at 425 on such a traditional Chinese Festival in a foreign land half a globe away from home. Interesting combination eh?

Second week of school’s almost over, guess it’s time to give a brief summary of the opinions and feeling for each class I am in. Let’s start:

1. ACTG2020, replacement for AA202.

Hmm, well well, I ended up missing the first lesson because I overslept. Great. Thought there is another class at 11.30 but ended up, I made another mistake. So screw it. Good news is the content is exactly like AA102, haha, which i have already took last sem. So I am seeing a lot of familiar content. There is case analysis though, which is something new. Guess I will need to go to the next one to find out how it is really going to be like. Heard the lecturer is a nice woman, we shall see.

Passibility: 4/5 (High)

Resources: Borrowed txt bk. Case bk still lacking.

2. Strategic Management

The lecturer is a Honkie, speaks with an accent that makes some of his pronounciation really funny, like teaching porn (point), zero-sum will (view), etc. Nonetheless, he’s quite a funny fellow, credit for his confidence. Framework looks simple enough. Take home message is just 3 words: analysis, decision, action. Hmm, project group not ironed out, but I think that shouldn’t be a problem. 2/3 of exam paper will be multiple choices, however there is also case analysis. Hope I can get a good group for the project!

Passiblity: 3.5/5 (Moderately High)

Resources: Borrowed txt bk, although the case book is going to be bundled with the new txt bk, so if I dun buy the text bk, I got no case bk! Haiz, see if I can get it photocopied.

3. Personal Finance. Second lesson already, still boring as hell. However, the lesson is going into unchartered territory, family worth, family law and stuff… Oh no, need to read up le… At least, I think the project group should be quite zai, if the 2 guys dun pang seh us.

Passibility: 2.5/5 (Better do something about it NOW!)

Resources: Ee Shin’s txt bk!

4. Information Systems

Same material as AB103, familiar content. However, there are tasks to perform each week, like changing an entry in wikipedia, using many eyes to visualize data (next week’s task). Plus there is a discussion question or something each class. Haven’t spoken up, got a feeling the teacher is taking notice of me already. Shit. Trying to form a group of 5 with 2 girls on exchange from France, this guy in a suit and another guy who is going to NUS for exchange next sem or next next sem. The project is actually going to be setting up a business on Second Life kinda stuff, sounds quite cool. If I’m not wrong, there’s a mid term but no finals, so group work for the win!

Passibility: 4/5 (High)

Resources: Book on reserve in library. Photocopy ba.

5. Options, Futures and Derivatives.

I think the way the lecturer explains the material and also the material provided itself makes this quite a useful course. The first lesson already cleared some of my doubts abt futures and forwards. Sounds like an interesting course in that it is not dealing with traditional vehicles like stocks, bonds, funds. Trying to get permission to get into the class, and from the situation now (I spoke to the teacher about it, she seems ok with letting me in), there shouldn’t be any problems. Project group shd be fun, gun woo, his roomie, jeff, dan, and me tentatively. Project is to trade derivatives and come out with a portfolio. Quite heavy on mid term and exams, no class part marks. Work harder shd be no problem.

Passibility: 3/5 (Moderately High)

Resources: Ee Shin got the text book too! haha. KOP!

So that’s abt it, hopefully can pass, learn and have lotsa fun all at the same time!

(Yee! I miss you la! *Hug*)

Went to get Yorksdale again for the second time in a row to try to finally get winter clothes. Sears normally have sales on the weekends. I’m only visiting Sears from weekends from now on! Ended up buying quite a lot of things, including a winter jacket (don’t worry, i will be alternating between this one and the leather one =)), a sweater, woollen socks and a messenger bag. Still looking to add perhaps 2 long sleeve shirts, 1 short sleeve polo, plus maybe a cap to my wardrobe in the short term future. Pok kai liao!

Went back for dinner and then card games again! Then me, Dan, Clara and Nick head off to meet some of the other exchange students at York Lanes before we head off to club 244 in the entertainment district. No cover charges and the Canadian beer cost only 3.50 cad. However, the place is not exactly big, and I don’t think the club is a good place to know the other exchange students more. Still glad I went, it’s an experience after all, and at least the exchange students get to see and realise that I actually existed or something. Maybe we can visit a bigger one next time, or maybe get into Pub Night next week.

Went home at around 1.30am and surprised that the subway and buses actually continue running until 2.15 am. Great news cos we saved up on cab fees which can be exorbitant.

7th September 2008

Virgin Fest! Reached the Islands at around 4pm. Found a plot of land to chill and chew and chips, while listening to some music. Went closer to the stage when it’s Stereophonics turn to perform. Never heard of them, but I can say that they are really quite a nice band to listen to, if you are into their genre of music. Dinner and photo taking later, we squeezed back into the crowd for Oasis. The lead singer really know how to act cool lor. Although in the middle of their performance, a guy actually jumped up onto the stage and tried to attack him or something. The concert had to stop for a while and the crowd almost thought that the concert will end prematurely becos of that. Luckily, the show came back on in about 10 minutes. Not really a fan and I can only identify about 3 songs, namely Wonderwall, Supersonic and Don’t look back in Anger. Awesome performance and had great fun, only that the wet grounds and the long wait to get onto the ferries dampened the mood a little. And we didn’t manage to get the red sunglasses given out for free!

the stage

Stereophonics

more CN tower!

Oasis front man on the screen

Weather’s turning cold, glad I bought an extra sweater. Time to add more clothes to the wardrobe!

8th September 2008

Ee Shin’s finally here (Actually she’s here alr on Sunday night). Went for lunch at school in Blueberry Hills and I think the food is really nice there, and it’s not that expensive. Then we went to the dollarama store at Yonge St while Nic went to the gym. Bought a lot of daily items and misc. Really a great place to pick up cheap stuff, cos they sell almost everything you need over there. There’s always something u can buy over there at any time! Went for dinner at Springroll. This time the food’s much better! Their thai green curry is awesome! Talked a lot and it was really enjoyable. I think we clicked pretty well. Having her here makes it much easier if we have some decisions to make that concerns all three of us, like how to settle grocery charges with the smu people.

Oh yeah, before the dollarama shopping we actually went to the Toronto Reference Library so that I can photocopy the questions that need to be attempted before the next personal finance class. The library is really big, with computer terminals and storeys of book collection. Very nice place!

Very proud that I can actually answer the Arktis Tortoise? philosophical qn! haha. It’s about a tortoise and a hare having a race. If the hare can run twice as fast as the tortoise, will it be able to catch up with the tortoise? The answer is no. Cos time is continuous thus the tortoise will always be in front of the hare since the tortoise started the race first. Timing the race is a different matter. In this case, the hare would have overtaken the tortoise eventually. Example, if the tortoise ran at 10am and reached the 1km mark at 11am, and the hare starts the race at 11am. At that point of time, the tortoise is at the 1km mark and the hare still at the starting point, which means that the hare will never be able to be at the 1km mark at 11 am and thus will never be able to catch up with the tortoise. Smart right!

Also discussed the monty hall paradox. Haha! We are just such intellectual people! LOL.

(Yee, glad we are still very much in contact over msn, let’s keep it up! )

Went for Options class with Daniel. Not registered in the course, just sitting in. Found that the course looks manageable and the prof is agreeable with me joining the class. So perhaps I will join the class officially by next week. Met a Korean exchange student from before, who is taking the same class, and we agreed to get into the same group for project. Pulled in his roomie as well. He’s a cool dude, and even say that since we are an All-asian group, and how Asians are good with math and stuff, we will rock the class!

Had homecooked dinner at 425 for the first time. Tasted quite super! hope there can be more of that in the days ahead. These 2 days we have been playing a bit of card games, bridge and big 2. Very fun time together.

Today is pub night. Basically every thursday night is pub night. What makes today special is that this is the first pub night of the semester. Of course we cannot miss it! However, because it’s the first pub night, the turnout was huge! By the time we get that to meet Gun Woo anf the other exchange sudents from Netherlands and France, there is a long queue outisde Underground. Ended up walking to Winters to try to get into the other pub and that failed as well. Agreed to go back next week and to be there ealier the next time round. not a completely wasted trip, as we got invited to go to Circa on Saturday night. We’ll see how that turns out. On top of that, we actually get to interact more with the other exchange students. the French are very funny! A very fun loving group, looking forward to know them better.

Noticed a trend here, and that is people generally carry smaller notes or pay by debit. As such, 50 and 100 notes are sometimes disallowed for payment. Unfortunately, I have a few of those left in my wallet. End up it’s quite frustrating in the sense that you have the money but you cannot use it…

And the classroom dynamics here is very different. Participation is more like the norm rather than the exception and everyone is so confident at speaking! Some more, the things they talk about are all valid points and very impressive. I am impressed and humbled at the same time. Really feel a need to strengthen my language and verbal skills and to challenge myself to speak up in class. A little short of confidence at the moment.

5th September 2008

Went to school to settle admin stuff with the SMU bunch. Got my YorkU card, bought tickets for v fest on Sunday… Made a fool of myself when paying for it… I thought I changed my password for my debit. In reality, I was given a 4 digit pin the day I got my card, and I don’t even remember being shown the password. What happen after that is that I exceeded the number of times I can try. In the end, I need to get a new bank card with a new pin number in order to use my account… very ps.

Had lunch at Blueberry Hills, good food, ok price, predict that I will go back there for many meals in the future. Just that we suspect they might have drugged the food, cos the 3 of us who ate it felt really sleepy when we went to Yorksdale Mall later on. XD

Went to yorkdale mall to mainly try to look for winter clothing for me and Daniel. Ended up we are interested in the same jacket. The jacket is interesting in that you can actually detach the hood from the jacket. Might be getting the same one, although I will try to wear it only when neccessary.

Went for a movie after that with Daniel, the rest all went home. It was a fun experience anyhow. The cinema is free seating and has a cool automated system to buy tickets. The popcorn only comes in salted flavor, although I count that as a disappointment cos I like the sweet one much much more. Watched Tropic Thunder, a comedy about putting actors in a real warfare situation and how they escape in the end. Very funny, although gory and vulgar at parts. It’s really quite a guy show, so I’m glad the girls didn’t tag along. I thought Tom Cruise did a good job! Very good acting. Yearning to go for more movies now!

Then went to the bookstore and really experience the overdue trauma from seeing the book prices, so expensive la! Average price is really about 100 CAD per book! Very sick! Ended up not buying anything.

2.30 is Information Systems. Bigger class, no attendance, realised there is no exams for this course. Got to make a blog, a website and also a final project of coming up with a business plan for a virtual environment (second life). The lesson proper is also a bore, start off with introducing what kind of positions are there in a company for It professionals… then went on to discussion about an article titled ‘do google make us stupid’ or something like that. Class participation was very active, and it makes me worried if I will ever dare to speak up in class. Culture shock sia.

Went back drained and slept, haha. missed dinner and have to make that up with instant noodles and chips… Played cards over at 425, quite fun, laughter and lightheartedness needed to boost my spirits after a draining day…

Hoping that tml will be a better day.

(Yee, worried after you told me that you are struggling with your school work and the lack of interest you are feeling right now. Hope you find your way out soon. I also need to find my way out, this place feels really competitive! Hope tml will be a better day for you as well. jy!)

(Yee, we can jia you together already, my school term’s finally starting! Aza Aza Fighting!!!)

Today’s labor day, one of the national holidays. Went to Toronto Islands. Actually it’s just a offshore park where people like to go to spend some time away from the city. Nothing much over there except for some good views of the city acroos the sea.

what?

funny camel race

CN tower from Centre Island

city scape

Lake Ontario

CN Tower in the evening

Wandered around until 6pm, then head back to downtown to try to catch the fireworks… BUT alas! we got tricked yet again, there were no fireworks! Waited like fools until 9pm then walk around the area before finally heading back home to rest. No plans for tml, perhaps some shopping and dinner at Chinatown! Shiok and cheap chinese food!

(Yee, I so want to whisper sweet nothings in your ears now! =))

Sunday. Set off for Kensington Market at 11am with Daniel. Supposed to meet Nic but didn’t. Lunch at Chinatown is awesome, authentic chinese food for the first time and it’s cheap (compared to everything here). Results: full stomach and very satisfied!

Shrimp Dumpling Noodle Soup!

You Ji!

Fluorish Restaurant

Walked around Chinatown and it’s much more lively on the weekends it seems.

Kensington’s a great place for a Sunday stroll! Interesting shops selling accessories, jackets, clothes, and even more impressive street performances and artists! Saw a magic show, people giving ‘Free Hugs’, Bands playing different kinds of music, and a lot more! Aim was to find cheap winter clothing, but I think we failed miserably, Daniel got a hat though, suits him great.

3 cups and 3 balls

who says guys can

Superband

Decided to look for winter clothing in Eaton Centre instead, seems like we can get them at H&M. However, shops closes at 6 around there, so too bad, got to go back another day or something. Quite happening outside though, quite a lot of human traffic. Went to Chinatown again to ta bao dinner for Chia Ying, Daniel and myself.

A very interesting day! Talked a lot of nonsense with Daniel, covering a very diverse range of topics! A lot of the time was spent on making fun of the way the waiter at Spring Roll speak yesterday night. He speaks at a slow pace and with a hypnotic frequency. ‘Do you want some water?’ *input accent*

(Yee! Wish you could be right here with me at this moment!)

Woke up late, at around 0930. Chill till 11 before heading for lunch at school… had Taco Bell. The only edible stuff in school is seriously only fast food? Back to house, and have to change up for the party at Panorama tonight. By the time we reach Boore and Yonge, it’s already 4.30pm? Time flies! Walked around a bit down Yonge St, the longest street in the world at 1900km! Dinner at Spring Roll, this thai restaurant place and met Daniel’s buddy, Luvleen and her fren, Rosemary there. Really friendly people who are very easy to talk to! Interesting life stories and experiences. Buddy’s an Indian and fren’s Korean, both borned in Canada. Buddy just completed exchange in SMU, and she like Kopi Tiam! haha. Anyway, food is not bad, really big portion at affordable prices.

Canada no.1!

Subway!

me, nic and cy

Spring Roll fusion food

Continue the chat at Second Cup since there’s still time. Went to Manulife Centre, and found out that Panorama, the place where the party is supposed to be held in is booked for a wedding! So well! Party cancelled! What a spoiler! Decided to walk around downtown and then went home after we all got tired. Very hospitable buddy, dampened by the non-occurence of the party.

The Guys

Buddy Luvleen

(Yee, thanks for placing your trust in me and recognising me as someone important in your life. My favorite radio station!)

Orientation. Went with Nic, saw a big group gethering at an open space and thought that’s the group. Went in, tooka muffin, have a cup of drink, made ourselves cosy in one corner. Then, discovered that people seem to get into groups as if they knew each other beforehand. Doubts start to set in and we realised that was the wrong place to be! conclusion: free muffin and water. finally made our way to the right place and met the 3 SMU students for the first time! Nice people. One has a bf visiting from University of Michigan, one has church friends here who gave them lotsa free household stuff, and the only guy of the group has many contacts in the states near New York. Very prepared bunch of people. So the day starts with a short introduction of EVERYONE. took a while, then it’s down to serious stuff like accessing email, checking courses, and insturctions on how to add/drop, etc… Most important moment: free lunch, means I saved about 10 sing dollars! haha.

After the orientation, went to the SMU students’ place at Muray Ross Parkway, still a bit blur with my directions on campus and off, must have caught the same disease as Yee, haha, hopes it gets better. ANYWAY, their house is like totally awesome, it’s big, spacious, clean, queen size beds, big tables, and best of all, they get to have a nice big kitchen, with clean fridge, plus a clean washing machine all for their use! We got to share these stuff with others whom we have not met, and the washing machine room totally stink!

Anyways, after ogling at their house, we got a ride from chia ying’s frens to downsview station then took the subway to Yorksdale, and the mall there is naturally Yorksdale mall! Had dinner there at the food court.. the food in Canada is seriously not impressive, everything is at most comme si comme sa, although they cost like 8-9 sing dollars on average. After that we walked around the place, took a look at some shop before it is 9pm and all the shops start closing. H&M is the only store with decent prices though… managed to talk quite a bit, although nothing impressionable.

I can’t really crap in English! haha. Backhome and it is straight to bed. Neccessities still lacking, no blanket for the most part… I am definitely going to try to demand for a table from the landlord!

It’s only when you are in a place as big as Toronto that you actually start appreciating the convenience of Singapore. Everything is within a stone’s throw. Food, groceries, shopping centres, school… Everything is so far apart from each other, it’s hard to even get breakfast! Miss the coffeeshops!

Weather’s good now, hope it stays this way for as long as possible! Die, haven’t plan anything about buying winter clothes yet..

29th August 2008

Second day of orientation. Starts off with some lecture about culture shock, some things to expect in Schulich and stuff like that… then also things about UHIP, the mandatory insurance plan. Boring stuff… After that, the group of us went for lunch at central square, enroute to getting a prepaid card over at FIDO. Bank account set up yesterday, but account still at 0, no chance to cash in my TCs yet!

The SMU people has a bbq party at chia ying’s fren house, so it’s left with me and nic. Went to Zellers which is quite a long walk away to have dinner and buy neccessities! Blanket finally! And iron! Electric kettle! Hangers! and some food… wished I bought more food… not enough time to choose properly… damn it.

There’s a party at Panorama tml, hopes that’s fun. Still without a buddy. grah! Seems like there are many places to go to and many things to try just in Toronto. Starting to look like it’s going to be quite a happening exchange.

Oh yeah, one final point, after interacting with everyone for the past 2 days, I realised my English sucks man. Everyone is like super confident with it like they haave been speaking it since they are in their mother’s womb like that! Totally awestruck. sian.

(Yee, 129 days or so more! =))

Fly-off day! Before that though, there is still enough time to have a quick lunch with yee, then we went back to my place and got driven by Dad to the airport, the glittering terminal 3! Met jj, zx and charlene there, and received a lot of well-wishing from the rest. Thanks for everything again people! With a thousand thoughts and an unanswered (later promptly answered) wish, I stepped into the gantry and started on my solo flight to Toronto. Do you really literally coin it the other side of the world, since it is exactly 12 hours from singapore timing? hmm…

Well, everything went like clockwork until when my flight reached sf, the custom officers are friendly, however I do feel that they should move their hands and legs(?) faster? So there I was, keep asking myself if I should just ask for permission to cut the queue since I have a connecting flight that is flying off soon! On the other hand, I’m telling myself I shd be able to make it (I foolishly assumed sf and la share the same time since they are so close to each other?) so what happen is I got to the check in counter and the lady there said it’s closed! I see a lady who turned suddenly into a devil flagging her tail at me! Instead she asked the gentleman beside her to quickly take my luggage to the luggage area and upon understanding that I’m the last person the leaving flight is waiting for, she helped me clear the check in procedures (you know the search and the stuff?) all in world record timings! She also relayed info to the plane to wait for me, although I damn paiseh I made everyone wait… although if I miss this flight I dunno when the hell I will be able to get on another… With a single change in her expression, she basically morphed into an angel! An unknown angel (cos in all the hurry, I never managed to see her name and say thanks to her!) THANK YOU whoever you are for the great help rendered! I’m safe now and it’s all becos of you!

The Air Canada flight was quite a non-event, cept for 1 thing! I probably saw the best sun rise in my left, cos it spans the entire horizon? It’s this stark contrast between red and blue and how they blend at the sides, that made it really fascinating! Too bad, camera’s in stow in the compartment!

sunrise as seen from the plane

27th August 2008

From this moment on, this blog will basically shift it’s time zone to the Canadian time zone! SO I reach Toronto at like 0630…. Went to the place we rented, and bit by the bit the shocking realities sink in… this looks less and less like the perfect house we thought we found. Good location… great living condition…. cheap rent… Besically besides tearing the three qualities above apart, now the place pretty much has a freak factor of…. 6/10. It’s not close to the bus stop, although yeah, we can walk to school (even then it is not as stated in the webbie, 5 minutes from school… It’s more like 5 minutes before you can see the school from a distance) It’s not close to everything, super market… and you name it. Living condition is uh… no good! If we look at cleanliness, you have a washing machine that is free to use, however… there are apile of dunno wat on top of it and it made the washing machine looks super dirty… even if you persuade yourself to use that… there is no way you can dry your clothes except to hang them in the room… my room’s in the basment by the way. Except, yeah, pay cad 1.25 everytime you want to dry your clothes using a dryer. Conducive environment, it fails as well, my room got no table! wth? Lastly cheap rent, yeah, it’s not too bad.. however I got a room even smaller than hall room? T.T Last factor is safety! haha, the blackies in my house dun look friendly, and there is a crazy one that shout some pretty crazy stuff when I was waiting for the door to be opened.

Let’s hope the rest of the exchange can cover up for this less than satisfactory place of accomodation.

Anyway, so the exchange officially starts with me cleaning my room.. haha. Afterwards, me and nicholas, my housemate from NUS, went to check out the school! And ok, the school is super nice, haha. Somehow we managed to find the coordinator and have a good chat with her. Basically she answer to most of the queries we have is that she will elaborate during the orientation tml. she did give us a map and show us some directions. In the end, we went to have lunch at some Indian food outlet in school! The food was pretty good, although the price is quite high… total cost of lunch is like 11.50CAD.. Then we went to Chinatown (he has been there for a few days already… and has already checked out like the financial district, some of the malls, and even sign up for gym membership already! So he goes to gym nearly everyday! wow!) And what a bad start to the exchange! The Chinatown area was such a letdown, very rundown… and uninteresting, although you get like chinese food… I got a pillow from there at like 6.50 CAD though.. haha. The quilt covers are quite expensive now… decided not to buy it together for now… Oh and the bubble tea there sucks big time. Taste like those syrup you get from canned fruits.

Decided to go to Eaton Centre, this big mall downtown. that was not too bad, it’s like vivocity with a design like… bugis junction on a bigger scale. you get shops like fossil, h&m, coach, abercrombie, hollister, zara, aldo there. And a big departmental store called sears. Shopped around and found stuff like pot and pans, water heater, iron, stuff we might buy at a later time. So it’s all good! Things there are well, around the same price as in Singapore before conversion. Meaning something you can get in Sing for 49, you get it there for 49 CAD as well. Basically the whole feel of the place is very… Singapore la. haha. No photos cos camera is in room, forgot to bring it along.. we’ll go back, so wait for the pictures!

Oh, before I forget, the bus and train system here is quite different, they are very connected. Say if you pay like 2.75 for the bus, there is no need to pay for a train ride. And yeah, have to take a bus then a train to town, which is a bummer. The bus is pretty cute too, there is this line that will be tied to a bell at one end, and stretched all the way to the back of the bus. One line on each side of the bus. So if you want to ring the bell, you tug at the line/cable thing to ring the bell. Took us a while to realise, haha!

Anyway to let you have a quick gauge at prices here… I spent like 91.72 CAD on the first day… quite shag.
expenses-day-1

Then, it’s dinner, a quick stop at the supermart, and it’s back to home not sweet home. Tml’s orientation! More when that happens!

(Yee, having lunch with you is great fun too! And thanks for all the smses, pretty much cured me of homesickness! haha. Miss you lots <3)

After the sumptuous dinner, we head to mind’s cafe. It’s my first time there, and man, did I love the epxerience, especially with the crazy jj there! I don’t know if I remember all the games we played… it goes something like Snorta (animal sound game), Squint, Uno Stacko, Banana Slap… Tremendous fun! Let’s go again next time!

Played till 12, and then the group of us left proceeded to Rochor dou hua you tiao to have supper! With a satisfied stomach and more stories about shit from jj, we broke off, heading home. I really enjoyed every moment of it. We can have such outings again next time, regardless of the purpose!

Special thanks to yt who shopped for the gift together with some in the group, but then decided to eat bread at home than eat with us, and Christa who came specially after band prac to see me off, sort of.

(Yee, hope you like the shoe and the suit! Shopping with you is great fun! haha.)