Bye, Vancouver!

The exams are over, my essays are all done, I went to New York (again), and I'm back in Van. I'll be leaving tomorrow for Singapore and I can't wait to get my Queen St. Bak Chor Mee. Actually, I don't think it's on Queen St. but I can't be arsed to change it. The same thing with the pictures I took of New York and stuff; I can't be arsed to put them up online because I think I packed my USB wires and harddisks away already, oh wait. They're here actually, so I can do it most conveniently.

NYC was good as usual. It was really like a route march over five days because I think I must have walked over 200 streets in three days, and over 50 in the other two days. I woke up with blisters and my feet and muscle pains in muscles I never knew I had. Some new places I visited this time were FAO Schwartz, the Museum of the City of New York, the Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Holocaust Memorial (or something like that anyway), the Brooklyn Bridge and the top half of Central Park. I also went to Serendipity 3, and at 11.30 in the morning, the queue already stretched to the next building, but I was admitted as soon as I arrived because they didn't have tables for 3, or 4, or 5 (which groups most people were in), but they had tables for 1 or 2.

Some other places I visited for the second (or third, or fourth) time were: Battery Park, the Chrysler Building, Grand Central Terminal, the Empire State Building, the Public Library of New York and Bryant Park.

This trip felt a lot better than the last because I knew the place, and I had more time. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the Met because I was carrying my huge backpack which they didn't allow in. Whatever it is though, I will be living vicariously through Gilbert as he makes his way through the second floor of the Met and marvels at what I didn't see.

Gilbert is leaving tonight for New York, and then it'll be David and me left in the house. Then I leave tomorrow, at 12.35pm and he leaves at 4pm. It's sad because these are the people I've lived with for the 4 months I've been in Canada, and they're the ones who've helped me a lot, and who I've helped a little. I'll miss things like making pasta with Gilbert, watching Jeopardy and Full House and trying to help him wash the dishes. I'll miss helping David climb in through his window when his door gets locked on him and watching South Park and the Simpsons and drinking icewine. I'll miss Matt's huge CD collection and his easily amused personality, plus the fact that he looks like Robin Hood, and how he pronounces tuna as "tune".

Anyway, pictures. Here is a picture of trees growing out of skyscrapers.



And here is one of Gilbert and me.

And here is one of my housemate, Matt, who I couldn't get to say a proper goodbye to.


And this is of the Brooklyn Bridge which I walked across on a glorious, sunny, New York Morning at 8.00am.



And this is of David and David at Van Dusen Gardens, in Vancouver, on our second last night here.


So, I suppose that's about all. Exchange is over and all I have to do now is to pack up and try to replace that empty feeling inside me where Vancouver resided once. Then it's Singapore, school and hissoc for me. I'm at the place where history meets memory...

Snow

I don't really like the snow now, but I suppose that's because of the stomach thingy I got about the same time the snow started falling. It's been two days already and I think it's conditioning at work because now I'm afraid of snow not because snow is cold, but because every time I see snow, it gives me pain in my tum. Anyway, here's a whole entry about snow.

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

Snow

School is Closed

Closures of schools actually do happen here! I experienced one such closure because apparently there was a snowstorm somewhere and something something cars something something stranded in ditch something something. But the end result of this was that power was cut off in UBC at about 3 am. I would know. I was up, trying to retch my liver out in the dark with only the light from my handphone illuminating my very (w)retched state. Geddit, geddit? Hahaha. I'm so funny I sleigh myself. Geddit, geddit? Hahaha.

Anyway I had some stomach thing last night. My stomach was so bloated I couldn't get to sleep properly last night and I had some odd dreams while I was tossing and turning. In the end, I didn't sleep a wink at all, and it was lucky because I locked my window to prevent the warmth from escaping from my room which I wouldn't have done were I sleeping.

I woke up in the worst state this morning and I tried puking again but nothing happened. Laura came over and passed me some Metoclopramide which did something to my stomach which made me want to puke less and Gilbert gave me some charcoal tablets which made the diarrhoea go away. And David gave me bottled water. It's the little things like this that people do for me when I'm sick that really touch me, although I'd rather that be done in other circumstances.

I slept almost the whole day in powerless UBC, and when I woke up it was in time for dinner. Gilbert got himself scalded when he slipped and fell on the snow while carrying Laura's hot soup over. We are two sad sacks.

But the best thing about today is: There was NO SCHOOL! Which means, no test today and an extension on one paper. Still, my stomach hurts a bit, and I don't feel like going for school at all tomorrow. It's stopped snowing so that is a very great possibility. But, snow storms are predicted for Wednesday, so that's something else to look forward to as well!

If it were up to me, I wish school would be cancelled until Friday. That'd be nice.

Snow is so much fun

I've been seeing the worst weather for the past few days - rain and grey skies. But today and yesterday just made everything worthwhile even though I have so much work to do. For want of a better simile, the amount of work I have is like the amount of snow we have here. Yes, it is snowing now! Here! Look at it!


This is the amount of snow we had yesterday when it first started snowing - just snow on the flowerbeds, but not on the ground.


And then, it got heavier and heavier, and by the time I got out of the house to go for the Rolling Stones concert, this was how much snow there was. I was nearly late in meeting Abdul who bought the tickets for us because I was admiring the snow so much.



This is that Rolling Stones Concert. Mick Jagger ran miles around the stage like the excellent showman he was, and did all sorts of amazing things with his body you never believed a body could do. He would be a riot to impersonate if you did charades. Mick is in red, Keith is in white next to him, and the rest are all around on that platform. The platform was part of the stage, and halfway through the concert, it moved forward along a passageway, into the middle of the crowd. We all went wild.



And there were fireworks too. The concert finished about 11.30 and Abdul and I lost our way for a bit before we walked in the right direction, missed a bus or two, and finally, we got home around 1.30 in the morning. Snow was everywhere, and UBC is an amazing campus in the winter with snow all around.

Then today, I wanted to play with snow with Gilbert, but he said he already did it and proceeded to sleep, so I played with snow with Sulynn instead. We made a T-rex.



This is our completed snow T-rex. He stands slightly shorter than me, and he was an architectural feat of snow. Every part of his body was made of snow, except his eyes and nostrils because using twigs for arms is just heresy. We took 2 hours because the arms kept falling off. Then when we were done, he miraculously came alive.



Here he is chasing me.



Here I am chasing him.



And then he looked cold, so I gave him a hug. Those are Sulynn's gloves; mine are not here or at home. I don't have gloves. My hands are always cold, and so are my ears and my face feels like it's been shaved raw.



And this was how much snow there was when we came back. Lovely lovely lovely snow, I tell you. We studied for a bit, then later on, I made a snowman outside my door.



He was twee and small and very cold and thirsty, so he went over to Starbucks and ordered a Chai Latte. Now he has been snowed in and a mound of snow is building up around him. He is the pope of Starbucks.



And then much later, we went sledding down a small slope; the trip didn't last too long, but it was really fun. This picture is of Sulynn and me carrying the table to the top of the slope. We used a table from my house to sled down this slope and snow was spraying all over - this was Sulynn's idea. No one ought to doubt the experience of a person who's done this whole snow thing at least once. I forgot to mention that Gilbert joined us as well, and we shared 1 pair of gloves. My hands were burning on contact with the metal of the table.

Another thing I thought would be fun to do was to roll down the slope, which I did. I got snow in my pockets, on my hair and in my shirt. Woohoo! I hope it stays snowy tomorrow...and until I get out of Vancouver and head for New York.

Snow is so much fun.

"Snow covered, Slippery, Wet"

I have a gazillion and one essays to do, but I had to write about this. This is what I've been waiting all my life for:And it happens tomorrow!!!!! Maybe...I'll see this on my way from school, little wooden hut, little soldier and little snowman with hat, scarf, buttons and carrot nose.

Yeah. Jools is the man.

What I know

Regarding Earl Grey Tea, Dilmah tastes better than Twinings.

I am stuck in 7 degree weather trying to finish up my work after a whole day's procrastination. If there's one thing I hate more than reading Greek philosophers waxing lyrical about trying to understand the world, it's reading English scientists trying to determine the nature of air. Those English scientists, how pedantic they can get! And those oh-so-long sentences! By the time you get to the end of the sentence, you forget what it was about. But such is the life of an undergraduate. You read stuff you don't enjoy sometimes, but mostly, you read stuff you enjoy. And because you don't bitch enough about the stuff you enjoy, you forget what you were supposed to remember. But, because you bitch about the stuff you don't enjoy, and because all the bitching is about the worst part of it, you don't remember anything because you don't like the parts you bitch about, and thus you don't remember it.

Like, if you were to ask me about what Hobbes said about the nature of the air, I'd know fuckall.

But I do know that Dilmah tastes better than Twinings. And that excessive consumption of Earl Grey makes you photosensitive and prevents potassium intake because of its bergamot oil.

Also, I know about most Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola films as well as Wikipedia can enlighten a person. I have also discovered more about Central Park than I can visit. I have also been able to buy a Sufjan Stevens album online. I have watched Serendipity. I have enjoyed Serendipity. This is the John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale love story type movie which I don't usually enjoy, but which makes for good TV on a grey Vancouver day, which is everyday now.

This is what I have learnt throughout the Remembrance Day weekend.

BelugA

Apologies! The reason why I haven't been blogging so often is because the nice laptop that my parents DHLed over takes motherlong to load Blogger. I can go down at 3pm then come back up at 7pm and the )#($*#)(*@#)(**&@# page hasn't loaded.

About the only thing this laptop is good at is word processing.

Anywayyyyy, my birthday is finally over, and I'm writing about it now because now no one can coerce me into a repeat of my 21st birthday. My 21st birthday was all about getting drunk. This year's birthday, I had a nice Greek dinner at home. No one cooked; it was a delivery. We had ice wine, and it was so good. And sooooo nice and lovely, the way I always thought a birthday should be celebrated - in a place far away from home, with friends.

And then David and his friend Lawre tried to repeat the 21st birthday thing by dragging me to a party, which I grudgingly went for, found the conversation all right, the drinks not so all right, went home early and slept.

Also, I wanted so badly to go for the Remembrance Day ceremony on the 11th with my poppy and all, but I overslept. Story of my life.

An "A" starts every single paragraph in this entry, and an "A" shall end it. BelugA

Thoughts on Foucault

Greetings! I have just finished a reading on Foucault, and here are my thoughts about it.

1) "These alien discourse/practices are then explored in such a way that their negativity in relation to the present explodes the "rationality" of phenomena that are taken for granted" is not a sentence. It is an abberation.

2) "One objection often raised against Foucault's writing is that it is difficult, mannered, and finally incomprehensible." You got that right.

3) "Apodicticity" is a new word I learnt which I haven't learnt at all.

New York, New York

There is this commercial in Canada which I find really irritating. It goes like this:

"If you want to get fit, you go for a run. If you want to save on food, you go to Save On Food."

My ass lah, Save On Food. If you want to Save On Food, you withdraw all your money out of the Dining Convenience Plan and go out and buy food from Safeway or wherever, and cook it at home. And I am getting to be a pretty good cook even though my culinary repertoire now consists of rice, pasta, fried rice, chicken, dumplings erm...(the dumplings were ready-to-cook), and basically, stuff with cheese. Anyway, as a result of my "new-found fortune" once left formenting in the rubbish bin that is my Dining Convenience Plan, I have decided to go back to the U.S. of A.

And where better to go in the U.S. of A. than New York, New York? I know I should visit other places, but they don't hold the mystique that New York holds for me! I went to Seattle. I didn't like Seattle that much. I went to Portland. I didn't like Portland that much either. But I loved New York! I'm still deciding whether I want to wait for my roommate (the other David) to come along because his exams end later, or whether I should go first and meet him in NYC.

But this time, I'm prepared. The last time I was in NYC, I made a big mess of my touristing. I didn't finish the Met, I didn't finish MOMA, and I went to the Museum of Cartoons and Comics or someshit which was horrible. This time, I've got everything planned out. I'll finish the Met and MOMA, then I'll do the Museum of Skyscrapers and Museum of New York and I'll go to Central Park and pay homage to my hero. And I'll climb up the Empire State Building. Yeah, I'm prepared. And yes, I'll definitely see if I can buy that I Heart NY t-shirt.

Because, I Heart NY.