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" >.<