why do Canadians milk more money from their own people

So i am officially pissed....
went to visit Aritzia in Seattle. their prices are lower than Canadian prices!!! how can a canadian store do this to their own people? the same goes to Lululemon, their prices are also lower here in the states! holy, i am so pissed...

go check out pandaming's forgotten blog!

i think this will probably help those who have forgotten panda's blog. pandaboy has got a new entry. :)

more partying the next day~

using tea/cappuccino cups as shot glasses, we were desperate. hahaha...
crazy night.

work x'mas party

ever since the school term has ended, there has been lots of partying. to be honest, i have done lots of partying even during this past term, i guess having one course was really not that bad. next term will be crazier though...
so i went to work's x'mas party, had a lot of fun that night. can't recall the last time that i went drinking and dancing; probably never!! should do it more often while we are still young. And guess what, nurses can really drink and party!

started reorganizing my closet. orginally i was going to swapt closet with ming coz my closet is at the side that is right off an exterior wall, so when it comes to winter time, my clothes are always freezing cold and that makes morning dressing very unpleasant. ming's closet is not as functional, coz it doesn't have any shelves! so he was willing to swapt with me even though mine's a "colder" closet. anyhow, so i did a little reorganizing, so kinda lazy to swap with ming now. i really need to just throw away clothes, instead of just organizing them into "often wear," "not so often wear," or "will never ever wear again." >_< but some of the old clothes are still in good quality and are nice brands too... ahy, fashion is a money sucking business. things that i bought last year are already not as good looking as this year's. no wonder women feel like they are always short of one piece of clothing item in their closet. so after i cleared out the "never ever clothes" i created a little spot for all the "in-coming" clothes in the future. when that spot is cleared, that means it's time to go shopping. ^.~ ming is sweating now... Wahahaha....

So school has come to an end for this term. There are so many things on my mind that I want to do before I begin to get busy for work again and leave for home. For example, re-organizing my closet, clean up the house, shop for lighting, organize the bedrooms, and many more. But who knows if i will really get to do them.
Winter is here. Snow has come down really heavy in toronto. This year snow has come so early. I am so not ready for it, missing the weather back home. I want 意麵王and之多家!!! Where to find these restaurants in Toronto?!!!

Memories~

Just cleared out two full bags full of flyers, advertisements, and information i got during two of the wedding shows that i went to. One was here in Markham, and the other one in Kingston. Wow, that was a long time ago. We probably went to Kingston more than 4 times to prep for the wedding. Going through those flyers gave me the flash backs... Where ming and i were trying to figure everything out for the wedding, every single detail. Then I thought: it was fun, had a blast on that day, but never want to go through that again. Don't know how wedding planners do it. Although i think event planning is a fun job, maybe until something goes wrong and the client yell at me. :P

the confused Bachelor

So i guess none of you guys watch the show "the Bachelor"? I only started watching it this season and only the last 5 episodes. This was the most shocking season in "the Bachelor" history as the bachelor rejected both women at the end. How dramatic was that?! I think the guy had feelings for both women and felt wrong to choose either one of them if he was confused between the two.
I asked ming "what would you do, ming?" And being ming, he always gives the most politically correct answer "i would not sign up to do the show in the first place." Booo... boring. Hahaha....

Sunday night dinner

ming's newly discovered toy, a panini machine. he's used it twice already. hopefully he will keep using it and not just put it away forever.it's a sandwitch, not a steak.

Worked today and i was floated to another unit, the medicine/infectious disease unit. there was this IV nurse who came and needed to start an IV on a kid. the nurse was pregnant, and the kid had chicken pox. the nurse said "well, i had chicken pox when i was really young and i am in the 2nd trimester now, so i should be okay." i seriously don't know what would I do in that situation. i know that as long as you've had chicken pox, then you'll be okay. but it's not just chicken pox that they see, they see diff stuff everyday... ahy... nursing is a hard job...

a must watch

Just watched the movie Sicko last night. Watched all the special features on it afterwards too. I have to say that i feel fortunate being a Canadian. And good for the Brits and the French. Even Taiwanese are catching up.
The movie was on during the Toronto Film Festival, and all the health care workers were allowed in to see the movie for free. I missed that chance and have been dying to see it ever since. Gotta say that the movie had its limitations on some details, but it got its message across, that's the most important thing. As a health care worker, i can't help but to sympathize the ones who have to work in the field in the US. Again, i am lucky to be living in Canada. Save medicare!!!

Sometimes cooking makes me want to become a vegetarian...

"thank you" builds self-esteem

I am working on my seminar presentation these days. My topic is self-esteem in adolescents. I don't think the notion of self-esteem is that well established in the Taiwanese culture. You can disagree with me, but from what i remembered, students in taiwan were taught to be humble and not to show any signs of ego. Even when someone compliments you, you are supposed to say things like "no, you think too highly of me." I believe that puts negative effect on an adolescent's self-esteem. Research has shown that self-esteem is crucial to an adolescent's healthy development. However, how do you develop positive self-esteem when you are constantly telling yourself that "no, i am not that great?" Is the culture of "humble-ness" killing our adolescents' self-esteem? Maybe it is different over there now? because i see lots of kids acting very ego-centric, as if the world is all about them.
I still remember when i was 13 and just moved to Vancouver, during a one on one session with an ESL teacher, she complimented on my spelling ability. Naturally i responded by "no... i am not that good," then she said to me "Jackie, you have to learn to just say 'thank you' when someone says something good about you. Remember that. now, let's try this again..." then she said "Jackie, your spelling is very good" and i said "thank you." I will never forget the lesson that i learned that day... Even till today, when a colleague or friend thanks me for helping her out, i would always say "oh, no, it's nothing," no matter how much trouble it cost me. i need to just say "you're welcome" in the future. I believe this will enhance my self-esteem. So if you ever come across a child who does this, do her/him a favor by telling her/him to just say "thank you."

things i want but don't really need

I am looking at the abercrombie website everyday... dreaming of one day that I can go to the states to shop.... soon....

First snow

yes, it snowed in Markham this morning.

Beautiful~

Got my new driver's licence yesterday. I was truly happy with my photo on it. For the past few years, i have been living with a driver's licence with an ugly photo of me. So i am very happy that this one turned out nice and i will no longer feel embarrassed to use it the next time. However, my health card has a even more ugly photo of me, it looks like a mug shot, someone who is drunk and was driving coz my eyes were full of hatred... I was wearing a huge winter coat and a scarf!!! Who the hell would let anyone take a photo id wearing a scarf?! I use my health card more than any other id's.... But... My health card does not expire until 2010 or something, darn....

when my professor told me that my use of "syntax" is problematic, it just killed my confidence in writing. first i had to look up the word "syntax" to find out what it means, afterwards i realized she was basically saying that i don't know how to write in english. arrr.... my 16 years of education down the drain. :S

today on my way to class, a guy was walking beside me, and i had this thought "i really don't like= despise guys who walk slower than me!" and it wasn't like the guy was taking a stroll, he was walking at the same rythm as me, just that he was either short or he took small steps. yuck....

this is what happened in my dream last night:
i went to see a doctor at this clinic for the first time. i don't even recall what did i went to see her for. and guess what she told me.... "you are suffering from bulimia." i yelled "bulimia?!" and then she responded "yes, bulimia of your soul."
Hahahaha.... when i woke up, i was like "huh? what? what the hell was that all about!!!" bulimia of the soul, how creative....

I used to have classes every Tuesday morning and afternoon, so i would take the GO to go to school. For those who don't live in Toronto, GO is a train/bus transit system that serves the outer Toronto areas, such as Markham, which is where we live. It takes about 50 minutes from my stop to get to the Main station downtown, then i would transfer to the subway system to get to my class.
So every Tuesday when i am waiting for the train to arrive, standing on the track, i would see this man pushing a woman in a wheelchair to get onto the train. Then the guy would take off. I assume that this is how the women commute to work everyday and not just Tuesdays (coz i've seen them on other days as well on the odd occasions when i do go downtown other than tuesdays).
But because this semester i only have one class on Tuesday afternoons, i don't get to take the train in the mornings, instead, they run buses in the afternoon, which is what i take now. So i don't see the couple anymore.
The other day when i was shopping at our local Costco, i saw this guy who looked very familiar, shopping in the grocer section just like me. I had to think very hard and it wasn't until i was done shopping was i able to remember that it was the man who pushes his partner to the GO everyday. I was so amazed by what this man does, he has to do grocery shopping too! Does he do all the house chores at home, including cooking?! No matter he was a man or woman, being there for their partner during tough times is the most valuable gift that someone could ever give. All i could think of when i remembered the guy, was how happy they were everyday when he was pushing the woman, helping her onto the train. They were always laughing. That is a great lesson that many of us have to learn. Thriving under extreme hardship.... That is when true love shows its potential.

我愛泡菜~

so we finally went to eat Korean kimchi tofu hotpot today. it was great. i'm totally addicted to it now. ming went with me despite his sickness/cold/?fever/lethargy. and for the first time in history, he ordered his dish "mild" while i ordered it "medium" spicy!!! i am building up my spicy tolerance real good these days. i love kimchi! there must be something happening to my body lately that i've been craving for kimchi so much. my body goes through some food craving phases sometimes. i still remember there was once that i was craving for ceasar salad and i had it for like 7 days straight or something. i either bought it from Kelsie's take out, or ate it at the hospital's cafeteria, or bought some to make it at home. that was one weird food craving episode. now that i am craving for kimchi and on our way home from the restaurant, there happened to be a little korean grocery store right beside it (how convenient), we bought a container of kimchi, i'll be eating it so much from now on. let's see how long this kimchi phase lasts.

今天突然很想吃韓國泡菜豆腐鍋... 在Toronto downtown有一家很好吃的正統韓國料理, 整家餐廳只有10樣菜, 泡菜豆腐鍋就是其中一樣 (有6樣都是豆腐鍋, 只是不同口味而已). 不過每次都要開好遠去吃真煩. 而且某人又很晚回來...

I've consumed a lot of my time on facebook lately, so kinda given up on blogging already. The new feature that i added to my facebook is the fluff friend thingy. If you have time, go pet my panda. ;)

What fleece? Hahaha...

Taiwan is a 好地方2

I miss 蛋餅, 意麵王, 便當, 7-11, 蚵仔煎, 甜不辣, 餛飩湯, sashimi, 蔥油餅, 挫冰, 芭樂, 知多家, 屈成市, 康是美, 台灣麵包, 士林夜市, 高島屋, 新光三越, Sogo, MRT, all the tea shops and hello kitty stores, 台灣親切的服務... most of all, i miss my family and chloe calling me "Jackie A-yiiii~"

after a nightmare at the vancouver custom and a $1200 fine, i came home to sleep for 19 hours straight. woke up at 4am. i hope i've recovered from all this mess...
i'm ready for school and work now. wish me luck.

回台灣後根本沒時間寫blog,真不懂住在台灣的人怎麼會想或是有時間寫哩? 這裡有太多更有趣的事要做阿. 等我回去的時後可能又會回到我常常寫blog的日子了. :(

Jack's home and will be back soon!

many of you knew that my wife ran away one week after our wedding.
This is probably why she hasn't updated her blog.. =)

某天在車上突然覺得冷氣很冷, 我叫ming把它關小一點, 沒想到他竟然說 "妳忽冷忽熱, 是得瘧疾ㄛ" >.<

there's something about ming~

ming has this habit of doing things last minute.
from university papers, paintings (when he used to paint), art shows, friends' wedding slide shows, master thesis, marking papers, report cards, to now homework as a student again. no matter what deadline he has, he will use it to its fullest. but you know what, he always aces them. he always gets A's on those assignments, and he always turns in quality work. i admire him a lot that way, but not the last minute thing. another great thing about ming is that he never gets stressed out (ok, maybe that one time when he had to finish the report cards, proof read my paper, and stayed up all night), whereas i on the other hand, gets stressed out weeks before the assignment is due. also another thing about ming, when he has to start working, he will always start organizing his desk, his room, clean the kitchen, or do laundry before he starts sitting down. this has always been the case. he says by doing that it "gets him in the working mood." so his work time always gets delayed hours afterwards. for example, tonight he mowed the lawn, did some laundry, and went to the bathroom before he sat down. and it was 11pm by the time he settled down. no matter, he will still turn in some great work and get >90% on his assignment (just like his last one, which he did the a.m. morning of the due date).

Very touched~

Had my bridal shower this past Saturday. I can't believe that i actually have so many great friends who care about me and showed up at my party! It was literally EVERYONE that i know in Toronto made it to my party. What a great turn-out!!! The party was great, thanks to the organizers Helen and Jamie. Helen made sure the night went smoothly with lots of events and Jamie was a great host at preparing food and drinks to make everybody comfortable. Jamie also did a lot of organization, starting from the invitations(coz i asked for it) to making sure there is enough alcohol for all the guests and herself. LOL... The night was so much fun, i think all of us are so busy with our own lives now and the girls never get to hang out without their partners anymore; so i thought it was such memorable time. I felt like a movie star that night, although i don't normally like to be the centre of attention. I just want to say THANKS, GIRLS!!! I had a fabulous time, nothing beats the party we had. :) by the way, jamie is next~

yesterday was 30 days till our wedding. and ming knows that i've been under a lot of stress lately, so he bought me flowers. how sweet~ :)

Last night we finally gave in and turned on the AC at home. Ming and i have been trying to avoid using it because we think it is such a waste to cool a 4-bedroom with a basement house just for two people. But last night i couldn't stand it anymore. I slept so well overnight, my face wasn't like a grease pan when i woke up this morning, which was nice. Today was cool though, hope this lasts...

grapes/raisins have a lot of Iron. blood also contains lots of iron (normally). i was eating a ~1 yr old Raisin Bran cereal, and i tasted "blood"~~ ooohhh....

Today i had a realization.

The notion of men being superior than women still exsits around us. I am sure that this thinking is comman in many places of the world, but it sort of came to a surprise when i felt it so close to me.
On one occasion with lots of friends around, i probably asked ming to do something more serious instead of screwing around, a friend commented "oh, i guess i know who wears the pants in this house." On another occastion, we were playing games with friends, i was winning or ahead of ming, so i told him that he could "organize my chips for me" and that was apparantly wrong. "Wow, if she does that in front of all your friends, it must be worse at home!" HOLY!!! No matter if i was joking or not (because i was actually serious about asking him to help me), what is wrong with "a man organizing a woman's money?" Absolutely nothing!!! Why can men scold at women or nag about them in the public while the other way around makes women "revolutional or untraditional." Maybe my tone of voice is not the nicest sometimes, but i truly don't believe in trying to save the men's face in the public (i welcome objections). Long as we both respect each other and we can "stand each other" there is no need to be afraid and think that men should be treated as "the man" when there are other people around. I have to say that ming is a great guy and probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me in my life (besides my parents and sisters) but i wouldn't have stayed with him if he believes that i should treat him as "my lord" when we are in front of others. We live in a 21st century. Men do things for women just as women do things for men. I clean the house not because i am a woman, i clean because i can't stand the dirtiness (not that i have been cleaning a lot). And i do the laundry or do the dishes because i know he doesn't have time to do it and i love him so i help him out around the house. Ming brings home dinner not because he was asked to do it, he does it because he loves me and he wants me to have a good meal. There is no such thing as who wears the pants in the house or "outside the house" anymore. Women and men are equal, they are the same privately and publicly. And if the couple seem to be doing well. regardless of what people think, other people should not barge in to comment about it. 姊姊妹妹站起來!!!

So we've finally sat down and talked about our wedding budget. I think we've always knew that this wedding is going to cost a fortune, but it finally hit us today(more to ming than me, coz i did the budget sheet months ago). It is interesting when the final budget came out to be 3 times the original budget, hahaha.... Was I being unrealistic back then or are we simply spending too much money. I have to tell though, that 1/3 of the budget is accomodations for the friends and family. I've learned not to stress over money. I know that i have had a fairly decent comfortable life that i never had to worry about money; but i still try to save whenever i can. But recently i have learned that money can save me a lot of troubles. Sometimes trying to save a small amount of money may end up costing me more, in monetary terms or other ways.
Anyways, a small wedding is turning into a big one (money wise). OMG~ I'm glad that i didn't try to spend less at Aritzia since it is so minimal compare to the budget.

I think this blogging biz has slowed down a lot these days. No one is really updating their blogger. However, i still check other people's sites once in a while, only to find the same old entry from weeks ago.

The summer is here, what have we done so far? Still got a s**t load of work to do for our wedding, but we are such slackers that i know things won't get done until last minute. My gown isn't here yet, ahhhh!!!! Scary!

Had a nice relaxing Canada weekend, didn't do any work at all. Ming pulled his back again. I did do a few things tho, met up with an old time friend, went to a baby shower, went picknicking with friends, and played board game last night. It was a nice weekend.

summer days

By the end of tonight (hopefully coz i'm still working on my papers) one of my two summer courses will be finished. Time has really gone by so quickly. In less than a month our friend will be delivering, less than 2 months, I am getting married, and less than 3 months i will be in taiwan. Pffff.... Scary!!!

I saw some photos of Chloe today on my sister's blog (finally, after so many weeks of malfunctioning of the site) and Chloe has grown up so big!!! She is seriously a big girl now. Pffff.... Scary!!!

We got 13 reply cards back for our wedding, out of the 90 that we sent out, hahaha... Now there are confirmed 80 people attending the wedding. How the list grew from 60 to 80, i don't know. :) The seating plan is done. Yay. At this time I am more concerned for my school work than wedding plans. One thing at a time.

random thoughts (during my slacking off from paper)

ming is snoozing away right now on the couch. he fell asleep right after dinner tonight, coz he didn't sleep at all last night, trying to finish his report card. he also told me some stuff about education and his kids in the class and i think he is doing some crucial job in the society, but being a "trying to do it all" type of person, he is bound to be disappointed coz sometimes it is just out of a single person's hands. there are too many other factors, like the whole government/insitutional system or societal factors that affect our jobs. i think being a teacher is just as hard as being a nurse. both physically and mentally challenging. i think these two professions should get paid the most in this world! but then i think about those farmers who grow the food that we eat, those clean our water at water plants so we can drink, and those police who protect us so we feel safe, and many many more, so i guess no one should be paid more than the other. therefore, maybe communism is better~ but then again, i don't know much about communism, hahaha...

no more basketball

Well... that's it for NBA this year.
Tony and I will go our separate ways now as he goes on to marry Eva and I go on marrying ming... Just jokking, ming!!!
MVP of the playoff. Well deserved. Eva jumped onto Tony after the game finished, such a sweet moment; she cried when Tony was awarded the MVP.
They will get married on 07/07/07, the luckiest day. How I wish I was a star~
Go Raptors!!??

I love HGTV

I watch a lot of HGTV. I probably spend over 50% of my TV time on this channel. I have to say that for those who likes or interested in designing shows, you gotta watch Sarah Richardson's show. She is now my all time favorite designer!!! I watched her show when she was just a young little non-famous girl doing this show called "Room Service" where she showed a lot of crafty idea and projects. Then she started her own designing show called "the Design Inc." And now she has a new show called "Sarah's House" and it is a not only beautiful eye pleasing show, but also an entertaining one. You see all the construction/renovation challenges that even an experienced designer faces! In fact, not only one designer, but many designers, coz there are other designers on the show as well. I used to like Debbie Travis ( I still like her, just not as much), but SR is now my idol. Her house, her clients all have beautiful places! So envious.
Then my next favorite kinda show is those British real estate shows. There was one episode that they even went to Italy to find properties!
Yeah, so that's all. If you have the channel, watch it!
http://www.hgtv.ca/sarahshouse/default.aspx

no title

On my drive home from work last night, while i was passing by the airport that i always drive by on the highway, i suddenly saw this jet taking off, attached to it was a banner, a very long banner that says "___ WILL YOU MARRY ME" in red lettering. Oooohhhh, how sweet~ I wonder where the girl was at that time? And i hope she saw it, coz that banner was only flying for like 20 seconds then it fell off! LOL...

Canadian dollar hits 94 cents against US dollars today, amazing...

Lately I'm feeling very sentimental~

I heard that a few days ago ming's parents came to my house in Taipei to "lift kiss." During our conversation over what happened during that day, my dad was really proud of the work that he and my mom have put into cleaning up our house. He sent me a few (actually, many) photos of different spots in the house to show me how tidy it was. I was really proud and touched by what they have done. This is my parents you're talking about, two people who strive on clutterness. They did an awesome job, the place was spotless (well, I couldn't tell about the details, and I bet they would not be up to my standard, since my parents are old now and have bad visions), it must have taken them 'days' to do that! Seriously, coz our first floor is big and there is tons of stuff!!! They did this to protect me, to show respect to ming's family, and to honour the event. I am overwhelmed by their effort. This really makes me think even more (lately I have been thinking a lot about this) about living close to my parents so I could help them out around the house and take care of them (who knows if I'll do it once I do live close to them). Coz honestly, they are getting old and I feel like I should spend more time with them. Their house is big but they are not hiring anyone for help to save money (for what I don't know; me I guess). This summer when I go back, I will be cleaning up again. That's the least I could do, once every so many "years." Thank you mom and dad. :..)
This is only one section of the first floor. You can see the many things hiding behind the table. The last time I went back, the table was full of stuff, with tons of more stuff on the floor. I bet that those things are just stuffed in mel's room now.

it's gettingg hot out there~

The weather here has been crazy. Last friday/saturday it was freaking cold, then yesterday it was 30∘C!!! The humidity index was 34∘C! Something's wrong with this world... Global warming is a big problem. If we are experiencing such drastic changes in temperature at this time, imagine what it will be like 100 years from now. Probably 100 times crazier. Went shopping yesterday, picked up some shirts from bluenotes. They have this theme going on right now, about supporting the environment and keep it green. So i got both ming and i one shirt. Don't know if any of these shirts' profit is going anywhere tho, oh well, at least the shirts look nice.

Wedding matter

So the wedding guest list has been growing at an unexpected rate. Originally we thought it was going to be a small wedding, like 50-60 people, now the confirmed number is 70 with 20 possible/maybe coming. Holy... my friends, it will be a really "close" dinner for you. Everyone will know each other very well at the end of it. ~.^ All thanks to ming's "surprise, i have more friends that you know of!" There will be no space for dancing, which is fine (I think). So people, just eat and drink up, coz there will be nothing else to do! Wahaha...

Nash is the best.

So both of my favorite NBA teams are eliminated from the playoff.
I need to look for a new team to root for now.
Ming will probably say to me "you're so not loyal to your team!"
But i think no matter what happens to my favorite teams, the playoff has to go on and i might as well pick a side, or there is no fun watching the games.
BTW, the bruise on Nash's leg is really something. The scar on his nose is still there. He got beat up so bad in this series and got no justice served. Ahy~

My life is pathetic. It is 11:50pm and I am surving on the internet aimlessly and refuse to go to bed. There isn't even any websites that I want to visit or anyone that I can chat with. I just sit infront of the computer, feeling my aching left shoulder due to prolonged sitting at the desk and typing. How pathetic~

今天的水果

草莓+
巧克力(過期的瑞士巧克力^.~)

More like a dessert.

小時候的培根三明治

今天開始scan小時候的照片, 勾起了很多回億。 看著爸爸當時對我有多疼愛,還看到媽媽對著我笑的表情彷彿和現在mel & chloe 的interaction一模一樣。　小時候我是每天由爸爸送上學，從幼稚園到國中，因為每天都睡得很晚．還記得爸爸有用過車子，摩托車，腳踏車載我。不只有我，還有我兩個姊姊。　很多年爸爸是先載我姊去回來再載我去上課因為我們上課時間不同，也想讓我多睡一會。　載完了女兒去上課，爸爸就回去開診所。　現在想起來覺得爸爸真是個dedicated person。　當然還有辛苦的媽媽也要早起幫我們整理和做我不吃的早餐。 記得有一次我和爸爸說我想明天早上買美而美的一個叫＂培根三明治＂因為今天看到同學在吃．爸爸說好，為了讓我這個營養不良的小孩，雖然小時候家裡經濟還不是很好，通常都是家裡自備早餐。隔天爸爸騎著腳踏車帶我到路線會經過的美而美，點了那很貴的培根三明治（好像是＄３５，當時算很貴了，早餐而已）。 不知道為什麼那天等了很久，都快遲到了。 爸爸覺得很奇怪為什麼那麼久也一直著急。 等到終於好了我快快跳上車爸爸快馬加鞭的騎去學校。 我那天其實對爸爸很不好意思。 雖然那培根三明治還真的蠻好吃的，不過因為速度太慢和太貴，那也變成我唯一的一次在外面買早餐。 為了記念那經驗，我今天就做了培根三明治。 還是像那第一次的好吃。 謝謝爸爸戴我去買培根三明治，我永遠會記得那經驗的。

Went on some crazy shoe shopping spree... 我的戰力品... ^o^

2 weeks recap

so i stayed home for almost a week last week. i was home all day sunday waiting for our couch to arrive, then we went out for dinner. after dinner, i did not leave the house (except one late night drive through to MacDonald's on Wednesday, but i still didn't go outside coz i went straight from house to car then back) till Friday 6pm!!! What did i do for those 5 days? I was recuperating from the cold and finishing my final 2 papers. I finished writing by Thursday night. Then i spent the weekend playing. When ming finished proof reading my papers, it was this Monday already and i wanted to hand it in the following day when i go to class. But we had a weird weather on Monday, some extreme wind, rain, thunderstorm, and power went out in our town! I thought the power was gonna come back in an hour or so, but it was out for over 5 hours! I couldn't finish my papers until the power came back, ppfff... good thing the power came back around 11pm, and i was able to finish fixing my papers before i went to bed. The traffic that day was crazy, all the traffic lights were out, and many stores had no power. The wind was insane.
So i handed in the papers on Tuesday, and started my summer course the same day. I did not get any break at all, which sucked. So after class, i went and bought 2 pairs of shoes to relieve my frustration, and since i worked yesterday, i went to buy another pair today! Hahaha.... i have a problem. Hey, one of them was my wedding shoes, so it doesn't count. So that's my plain and "eventful" 2 weeks recap. Oh, just thought i will add this, we ate in everyday, except weekend, and the day that power went out (i was actually gonna cook that night, i washed and cut all the food already, but couldn't cook them coz we use electric stove), and yesterday coz i worked and ming bought dinner. I am finding eating in very relaxing and more healthy, but i still don't like cooking or doing all the dishes all the time.

臘腸飯

今天看到什麼小米筒的website, 看到她做的臘腸飯，覺得我的original recepie被偷了。 所以我決定來做我自己的website on 臘腸飯。
準被要做時才發現，darn, 家裡已經有作天剩下的白飯ne,而且冰箱還有不知到放了多久的稀飯（應該還不算久因為是我生病時煮的，現在還在病），所以不想再煮新的飯。 不過我不會讓這小插曲影響我要做的決心，所以我improvise, 把它變成炒飯。eh, don't worry, it is just as easy as my original 臘腸飯。把蒜頭，芹菜，青江菜，臘腸切成小小段，越小越好。熱鍋，油, 把蒜炒香，加入臘腸， (look closely, 臘腸看起來有點像小梅花)炒到臘腸半熟時把飯倒進去炒到even, 再加入兩樣青菜。(Cindy會說菜好像太多了，don't worry, it's not.
等到菜熟時就好啦！ 可以加些甜醬油 before completion to add to taste (Jamie會說no, no, no!). 在此我也要給讀者一個見意（小米筒說什麼用培根來代替臘腸，我覺得太油啦）如過沒有臘腸可用“香腸“代替。 ~.^
成果：感想：
１．煮飯就煮飯還要照相，真累。而且還要用很多unnecessary的碗，i'm all about efficiency, man.
2． 還不難吃。
３．因該不會再做下一個entry on cooking了。因為打中文太累啦。
４．小米筒真強，i give it to you.

i'm wishing for a white summer

So we finally got our new sofa! After 8 months of waiting, or quoting my good friend jamie's verse "懷胎十月也不過如此".... Yeah, it's been a tough process. Ever since the 1st store that went bankrupt, i have started to doubt any service that requires a "deposit." Unfortunately all the services that we are having for our wedding REQUIRE deposits! Like the reception place, my gown, the photographer (~50% of the total price), the cake, invitations (full amount), and flowers.

Thankfully our friends came over to help move the old couch down the basement. Even the professionals who delievered the new ones told us to just forget it, that it wouldn't get through the stairway. Those delievery men were odd. They were in suits, shiny dress shoes, and at the end when ming was nice enough to give them tips, the guy said "5 dollars only?!" Hey, $5 per person and they were here for less than 30 min, that's some easy money! Consider the fact they ripped us off from the delievery fee, giving them tips was generous.
Anyways... the sofas are just fab. Ming keeps asking me if it's okay to sit on it, or sit on it a certain way. :P To me, they are just sofa. Great looking sofa that happen to be comfortable, so i will enjoy them very much~
Now we have these fab sofas, we feel like totally fixing up the room, which means more $$$ spending. Nah... i don't think so.
Since we are still trying to pay off the sofa.

Ahhhh~~

I had a scary dream last night.
The day of my wedding, haven't bought my shoes, the flower girl's basket, ring pillow, so i was running around in a complex with some stores looking for things, coz the stores were about to close!
Then when i saw all the bridesmaids were walking down the aile, i wasn't even dressed in my gown, nor are my make-up and hair done!
When all was finished, ming asked me what i thought of the wedding, i broke down in tears and said "everything was wrong, nothing was perfect like i wanted it..."
Many more things went wrong, but i can't remember today now.
pphfff... good ting it was just a dream.

An on-going | growing list

A list of all the things I want to own right now.
mini cooper S
new kitchen
balenciaga purse
laptop
new house
that's it for now.
i'm sure the list will grow bigger as time goes.

*If only life could be this way everyday*

After a 2 weeks of stressful life, i decided to give myself a treat today (well, actually started yesterday coz i went out shopping).
Today's morning class was another $*%@)&%(+# lecture. "We do not speak the language, language speaks us." It takes a thinker to say this kinda crap. I have had to endure this kinda talk for over 3 months now. Treated myself to a nice starbucks coffee after that class (i usually go with Tim's coz it's cheap). The afternoon class was a treat too, coz it was nice and relax (coz i didn't have to present!) Then i handed in my 15 page paper, pwhff, what a relief. That's the end of this course. Doesn't matter what i get on this paper, it's too late to think about that now. So after class, i decided to visit the downtown core, an underground place that i discovered last week, which had sooo many cute little stores. Bought some stuff for friends and myself, then i treated myself (again) to a JugoJuice, a juice that was too big for me to finish (that is when i miss ming ~.^) Ahhh.... what a nice day (except it rained and i didn't have my umbrella)!!!

今天滿腦都是D.T.的歌.
i just found out this thing, wikipedia on David Tao!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tao
There's also one for Jay and Lee Hom!

D.T. was in the house!

今天去看了David Tao的演唱會. 還不賴!!! 他真得很會唱. 粉絲們也很坄入.

回家路上開車經過一個房子看到有一群不太像警察, 但全身武裝, 防彈衣, 帽子, 槍, 按住一個人, 然後闖入那房子. 朋友就快速通過. What a night!

阿拉丁的飛毛毯到了！
All the way from Turkey.
Thanks guys, i love it.
什麼時後神燈會到哩?

something i thought about when i couldn't sleep the other night....

i flipped and turned for >4 hrs in bed,
and this is what came to mind...
有時間睡是一種享受，
睡的著是一種幸福； ＃.＃
有機會學習，寫作業是一種享受，
寫的出作業是一種幸福 ＞.＜
吃是一種享受，
可以感覺到餓是一種幸福；
能說話是一種享受，
說的出有識慧得話是一種幸福；
玩是一種享受，
玩的勁性是一種幸福；
有朋友是一種享受，
有知心的朋友是一種幸福；
寫blog是一種享受，
有人care to read my blog是一種幸福；

人想要享受很簡單，想要得到幸福卻不容易。
你還能想到有什麼更多的examples ne?

無解

To my dear friend:
今天我把妳blogger所有的 posts重讀了一次，從去年二月到現在．．．想知道我到底什麼時後失去了妳。
我想念從前的妳。 什麼時後妳才會 “回到過去“ 的妳？ 也許never．．．you mentioned 周杰倫得這首歌 in one of your blogs. this is why i love you, coz you love Jay too. :)
不管我在這寫什麼糊言亂語，妳也不會知道，因為妳也不念我的blog no more.
哎, am i responsible for any of this?

Invasion~

yo yo check it out yo~ this is DJ MixMaster Ming checkin' in for YaYa da sisterhood~ No one in the house yo, but the spirit of Ya still strong. Be strong, brothers and sisters, you fav. hostess will be back and bloggin' in style in no time~

peace.

Recently I've realized that blogging is a luxury. And i do not have the luxury for that these days...
Sorry.

For ming

Since ming is so lazy at updating his blog, I will write one for him here.
He got his teacher qualification evaluation back yesterday. After I think 3 months of waiting, it finally arrived. They gave him the highest level of qualification a teacher can get. I guess those BFA and MFA paid off eh?!
Congratulations, ming!!!

00.0

So this is what's happening in Ontario.
That means no gas available.
People have a real sense of what it feels like living without gasoline. Is that how it's gonna be in a hundred years when there's no more gas left?
So I've been staying home, minimizing gas usage. I mean, people can still get gas, just at a high price of >$1/L. The other night when ming and i went to get gas (at one of the few gas stations left that still has gas) they only had regular gas left. Even though ming's gas drinking 4Runner can only take supreme gasoline, he had no choice but to fill up regular.
So i am staying home, bored out of my mind (don't want to study), but i guess this is a good time for the enviornment coz less gas, less polution.

baby talk

There was this news last night: women may increase their chance of getting pregnant if they consume lots of high fat dairy, ie. ice cream. Notice the word MAY. Even though the study was done in a scientific way, there was still many shortcomings of the research, so nothing is really proven yet. So the news went on and talked about how women may start eating ice cream now because of this finding. They even interviewed a fertility clinic. This triggered my thinking. Do people nowadays want to have kids because they still feel like they need to pass on their genes/傳宗接代, or because they simply want kids. Will men still choose a woman if she is infertile? Looking at some stories that older men choose women who are much younger (like the playboy guy who just married a 27yr old woman), isn't part of that because younger women represent youth and fertility?
I do not believe in it, because people already have a hard time finding their mate, so don't think they would give up a relationship just because the woman cannot bare his child. Saying that, there are also cases where there is pressure coming from the male side of the family wanting the women to have kids. And admit it, you and I have all heard of that story....

新年不是過了嗎?

昨天和朋友中午去吃dim sum, 吃不到一半突然餐廳出現了舞龍舞獅. 好久沒看過舞龍舞獅了. 不過從小到大都很怕也很討厭舞獅的聲音. 尤其在一個小小的餐廳裡那聲音實在是太吵哩. 連小孩都被嚇到哭摀奢耳朵. 我們也是被吵得都吃不下. 整個process至少長達40分有吧... 不過看那些人賣力的演出,覺得還蠻辛苦的. 尤其是做尾巴的那個要彎腰全程, 還要把前面那個抬起來. 他們有輪班就是了. 昨天其中有一個男得長的還蠻帥的, 我和在坐得女生朋友說, 結果ming就說"我們要不要請那位男的過來坐啊?" 哈哈哈, ming 有時還真風趣. ^.~

紅豆湯

煮了我最喜歡的紅豆湯. 我覺得煮得不錯因為紅豆顆粒都還在(用慢鍋煮的), 且味道也很不賴. 只是給小銘喝了後他竟然說他喜歡喝沙沙的... 我說那你乾脆喝"紅豆沙湯" 好了... 他說我奇怪... *.*||

almost "blind"

It is official... one of my eyes is over 1000º
I've been seeing double images lately and night vision is a problem, so i finally went to see an eye doctor. I don't know what i would have done if i don't have health insurance (i only have insurance coz i'm a student now), probably put it off even longer bah.
I think it's time to look into the option of lasix eye treatment. @.@

我不睡~~ (it's a nice song by 古巨基)

早上６點鐘，醒著。 哎一定是昨晚喝太多茶了。
既然睡不著就來寫個blog吧。為什麼不想想essay topic 呢，Ｊack？
昨晚２點多才睡，翻到３點才睡著。 ６點又省來真是命苦。

就來說說 how i spent my chinese new year bah...
i spent my chinese new year hugging my toilet bowel and slept the whole 2 1/2 day that felt like years.
i must have gotten some bugs from work, after sleeping for the whole day on Friday, i woke up saturday 5am and puked several times. i think i won't be having lasagna any time soon.
this is why you should keep your toilet as clean as possible (thanks to Lysol disinfectant wipes to make this possible) because you never know when you will be hugging it and if it is disgusting, it will only worsen your nausea.
(this message is especially directed towards my other housemate members)
so from Friday (after dropping ming off the airport and shoveling snow) till end of Sunday, i had: 1 lasagna (which i threw up), 1 bottle of water, 1 apple juice, 1 fruite cup, 1 bowel of congee (thank god for Helen and her mom), 2 Advil (for fever!), and 1 Gravol up my bum (thank god for Helen and her mom again). Helen was my life savior. If it weren't for her, i would be dead by now coz i would have threw up like crazy and got so dehydrated. i even lost weight (even though ming doesn't think so). i recall going to the bathroom less than 4 times in these 3 days. what a nightmare.

i thank helen and her mom for delievering food and medicine to me even when they are so busy and going through a rough time. i also thank my friends who called and asked how i was doing. thank you for your 關心 and 慰問. You guys know that i'm not a crying baby, so you called me to see how i was doing. I am lucky to have all of you guys as my friend.

Now the symptoms have gone away, ming has come back, and i am feeling much better now. (besides still cannot eat large amount of food at once and cannot sleep today ~.^ ) Time to start work again. I thank you God for giving me back my health.

weekly blogger?

this week's update= lots of things have happened.
there was a double murder case happened just around the corner of our place on monday. it was kinda creepy because the police blocked off the whole street onto the big road with yello tape all over, and lots of news reporters were at the scene too. choppers were circling above our neighborhood all morning. even till now there is a police car and a big truck that says "forensic crime scene ..." on the side of the truck outside of the crime scene 24/7. everyday when i come home i have to see that, kinda disturbing. turned out that it was a 四腳戀.... ok, maybe not, but a rather complicated situation. husband killed his wife and his wife's boyfriend's wife inside his house. what kinda wacko person is that......>.<

tuesday i went to school. thank god GO train is not on strike.

a snow storm has hit us on Wednesday-valentine's day. we got over 20cm of snow, where cities west of us got close to 50cm! i just spent over an hour shoveling our driveway and walk way to our door. i hate snow. i drove 2 hours and was 1 hour late for work that day. but i was just glad that i got there safely. felt so sorry to the nurse who waited for me to give me report. i heard that there was a mom on our ward whose best friend's husband drove in to deliever some food for the mom, but he got into a car accident on the highway his way back home and was killed... how sad is that....
despite that, ming and i still went out for dinner that night. it was a nice dinner at milestone. the food was excellent.

Thursday i worked, again! wow... at night, i watched grey's anatomy. for people who don't watch the show, u'r missing big. it's such a great show. last night's episode was so 震撼!!!

went to the airport with ming this morning at 4:30am. he's gone for the weekend. i will be alone for chinese new year. that's okay, it gives me time to catch up some school work.

it's been a cold winter. ever since i came back from taiwan, the weather has been pretty bad. yesterday was -20 degrees and -30 with windchill!

i pray for spring to come soon....

weekly $#$*%^@$*&

School is hard... it really makes me wonder if i can handle it. Maybe my mom was right, why get married this year? Why not after school is finished? I was probably afraid that i would never be able to finish school hence never be married. What's the rush anyways? Ming doesn't seem to be in any sort of time-contraint anyways. He is getting sick of me asking him about the invitations already (well, the truth is i have been pretty annoying about this issue). And i don't remember where i read it, but they say it's a bad year for me to get married. Why? i don't remember. But who cares about that.
I just want to be free... free of school, free of work, free of worry for no $. Life cannot be perfect eh...

楊伯伯 1928-2007

楊伯伯 is my best friend Helen's father. He passed away peacefully last Monday. He was an incredible men with little words, big smiles, and a big heart. He treated me like his own daughter. He is now at a better place with God and watching over us. Helen did an incredible job at taking care of the visitation and funeral. Many people came to show their respect and everything went beautifully and smoothly. I felt really sad to see Helen going through such pain and so much crying. Fortunately she has a bunch of great friends who helped her going through this. They were such supportive friends. I was very honoured to be part of the funeral service and stood beside Helen when she needed me. I will miss you very much, 楊伯伯, please go meet my grandfather, have some tea and some chat, you guys would make good friends.

Male blood vs. Female blood

This just in... so men's blood is better than women's blood?! After a close read of this health report, this is somewhat correct but not entirely true. The statement only applies to "plasma transfusion." So some of you may wonder what's the difference between plasma and blood? Let me give you a brief lesson here (coz i don't know a lot about it either, hence, brief): once blood is donated/collected, it is divided into red blood cells, plasma, and platelet (helps u stop bleeding, the clotting factor). Appearantly, women who have been pregnant develop this antibody to their babies' foreign father cells, and if this blood is given to some people who happen to react to this antibody, they will develop horrible reaction to it and develop serious complications to their lungs, which they may die from it.
What a ground breaking discovery!
Even though plasma is not often used in transfusions, it is still important. So men, go give blood.
This may make people think that women's blood is not wanted anymore, in fact, the opposite is true. Because plasma is seldom used in whole for transfusions, most of the supply is used to produce other important life-saving blood products, like the immunoglobulins (we give this on my ward all the time). Therefore, while men's plasma is being saved for people who needs whole plasma transfusion, more is needed from women to make up for this loss. Was this clear?
There's a new learned lesson everyday.

So i've finally uploaded the photos that i took during my taiwan trip. Go take a look at them at my other website bah~
http://jacklynsu.spaces.live.com/

Taiwan is a 好地方

我很懶... too lazy to type in Chinese, even though everything that i wanted to write in this blog was thought out in Chinese. I am just gonna do a translating job here.

Just came back from Taiwan. Very sleepy and tired. I'm old, a 24-hour flight really took a lot out of me. It's been two days and i'm still tired from it. Maybe today's school has something to do with it as well. I walked a lot today from subway to classrooms and then back and forth between the bookstore and 2 different copy centres. I don't understand why the prof would put her readings at a copy centre all the way up on Bloor street when her office and the majority of our classes are on College street?! So dumb... it was cold walking that far distance carrying over 5kg of books.

So I'm back..........................
Back to T.O., back to reality. 10 days in Taipei flew by in a blink. I'm singing the post Taiwan blues now~
I've always wondered why i get so unfamiliar with my own home back in taipei. I forgot how different bathrooms are back there, it perplexed me why the house needs sweeping every single day, i didn't know where anything was placed at, i didn't even know how to dispose garbage. Then it hit me. I've only lived in that house for 4 years! For heaven's sake i've lived in the house i'm living in for over 3 years, lived at 362A Johnson for 3 years, and the house in surrey for 5 years! Looking back, i've been all over the place in my life and the time i've spent in the taipei home was really minimal compared to the others! That really surprised me, coz i've always considered taipei my "home home," not surrey, not kingston, not toronto.
I still love taiwan very much. It took me a few days to get used to it, but i quickly blend in and lived like a local. The food and the shopping definitely helped. ;) But i loved the efficiency of taiwan, ie. #1 i was sick for over a week before i went back, and the symptoms did not seem to improve with time, but as soon as i took my dad's medicine, 3 days was all it took and everything was fine. No more coughing, no more phlegm or sniffles, amazing. ie. #2 there are lines for ppl to line up at subways, i love that, and ppl directing the crowd. there's also policemen directing traffics at major intersections. Taipei ppl know their traffic is bad therefore they have these police helping (unlike Toronto). ie. #3 there is even ppl directing customers lining up to buy 雕魚燒! Another thing i love about Taiwan is that Taiwanese ppl try to do their job very politely, even if their job demand assertiveness; unlike Canadians or Americans especially, the two concepts will never go together. You either be mean/rude to get your way, or you be soft/push over and lose your voice. This really annoys me. Like the lady who worked at the airport at the baggage conveyer belt yelled at me for standing there, wanting to see that my luggages actually get sent into the little hole.
Anyhow, taiwan is a beautiful nation, the culture is unique and the ppl are friendly. Even in a busy city like Taipei, you can still find caring and compassion, i imagine that there will be more in smaller cities throughout the country.
I can't wait to go back again, i miss it already (but i don't miss the 蹲式馬桶, it's just gross) and i miss my family a lot. You can probably guess that this is pms talking again...