Can you hear the people sing...? |08.31.2001|

Jet Lag? |08.31.2001|

I'm back from a 2 week journey in Asia. I'll be writing up my journal and posting it online later so you'll hear all about it when I'm done. :) Just remind me to tell you about my paranoia about the plane crashing . . . if I don't remember to write it in my journal.

I was excited to visit my home fellowship again, after not being around for at least 8 months (or more). The first impression I got when I walked in was, "HUH?! Who are these ppl at my church?!" GQ has grown tons (thanks be to God) since I last chaired it (in 98)--and what's funnier is that some ppl know me and I don't even know their names!, and 3D has been growing too (and some regulars have disappeared as an "exchange"?!). As Mur said earlier, she doesn't even think of me as a church member anymore. I can certainly understand why. Technically (under the church by-laws, which I received in my baptismal class in 96), one isn't after 3 months of being away. So does that mean I am not a member of any church?! Wow.

Initiation of the highschool grads to 3D (young adults fellowship). One of the "activities" involved us throwing water balloons and flour at them, making them stick their faces in whipped cream (not whipping cream, my mistake :P), and crack an egg on the opponents forehead. Lastly, we made them stuff as many marshmellows in their mouths and say, "I am a Christian" w/o having to spit or chew it down. One of the girls actually won that one against the guys. She had 12 marshmellows in her mouth all at once (big ones too mind you!). Impressive.

Plans for weekend? Not much. Maybe K-OK w some Burnaby North/BAC friends on Monday and rest of the week--un and repacking and finishing up some stuff before school starts again.

Where am I? |08.16.2001|

Yawn. I woke this morning not knowing where I was . . . then I realised that I was in my sister's bed. Home sweet home. Very different than my relative's place. Kinda miss it. I wonder if I'll have homemade food anytime soon? So far, I went out to eat for dinner w my grandparents, and "yum cha" with them for lunch.

I can't believe that Fido would charge $25 for a new SIM card! As Chinese as I am, I was almost tempted to purchase one of the "free" phones from them, just so I don't have to pay the 25 dollars! The account activations guy almost convinced me that Fido would also charge me to change phone numbers if I was to move to a different area code. Thankfully, I called Customer Service to ask them today, and they said there was no charge. Don't you just love the diff depts of customer support?!

Lessee, I saw Someone Like You on the plane. I saw it w Ben A. the first time in Waterloo, and the movie really wasn't any better the 2nd time around. I finally figured out where I saw Ashley Judd's friend, she's one of the ppl that Mel Gibson sleeps w in What Women Want, I think. And Eddie plays Wolverine in X-Men.

Yummy! Marie treated me to a meal of All-You-Can-Eat Japanese meal at Metro today =)! At $10.95 per person, we were so full. Jo was there too, and Mur asked me if I wanted to invite anyone else, and for some odd reason, I didn't want any guys around this time. It was weird; felt like home again =). I had to adjust to all our usual hyperness, and watching Jo dance at the DDR, just reminded me that I was back in good ol' couver. And I'm planning to grab a handful of ppl to go karokeing later on as well--might as well take advantage of it before I leave to a place where no one I know goes or the karoke places are lacking.

The end is only the beginning. |08.13.2001|

Hmm, two drinks within 4 days. Wow, never really drank that much (excluding wine) before. Well, for dinner, we went to Milestone's. I've never been to the ones in BC, but the one here in North York was quite good (though a bit on the pricey side--but, thanks Ben for the yummy dinner =]). Ben told me that the Bellini's were famous there, so I ordered one. It actually tasted better than the Blue Lagoon; this one had white rum, champagne, peach and something else in it.

We met up w Gladys and Sponge for lunch @ Taste of Japan. Sponge hasn't changed much with the way he thinks and w his speech. Ah well. Wonder who would win if J and Sponge had a "Chinese-swearing" contest? Oh yeah, I decided that I would avoid exposing myself to anything American Pieish, so I decided to give the AP2 CD-ROM to Sponge. I think he'd enjoy it more than I would.

Met up with Ben C. and Kevin H. for bubbletea at Ten Ren's--which actually changed its name to Arrameia or something bizarre. Kiwi bubbletea tasted quite good surprisingly. But I still prefer honey in jasmine tea w tapioca b/c it's less artificial looking and tasting.

Anyhow, I'm flying soon! Guess, this will be my last entry from Ontario for awhile :).

Black and Blue. |08.12.2001|

No, I haven't been listening to BSB's CD.
What a weekend! So many interesting things happened, and reality hits: no more MK (open 7 days/wk now!), won't be seeing these guys for awhile, no more making fun of rice cars, or punching Silq/Marc--just for target practice in case I get mugged in HK or something :P (right).

My last day in Ottawa will be well remembered, considering that I have a bruise on my face (cheekbone) to carry around. :) Too bad I can't say that Marc beat me up so I can go after him w J's 4-step kick-in-the-face technique. Actually, despite the fact that I only managed to obtain 1.5 hours of sleep the night before (b/c I like to pack and clean last minute), I went rollerblading for the last time (in a long while at least). On one of the slopes, I um, held onto Marc's bag for support, but neglecting the fact that the centre of gravity would shift b/c of an imbalance. He fell, and I hit my face on his head. Ouch. Can't chew or smile properly :P. He has a hard head. There better be substance inside! Just waiting to see what it will look like tomorrow morning :þ. This time, Yvonne, Andy, and Roger joined us (and Lon sat and waited for us).

Saturday's fellowship was actually quite good. I'm glad that I managed to make it out to at least 1 Bible Study at Elijah this term. Yesterday's topic was on authenticity in relationships. Even though the material is from Willowcreek (grr), it was surprisingly good. I could think of 2 situations of the Tunnel of Chaos. One that is probably yet to come, and one that has already gone through it w/o much result (I'm thankful that I've met P as my prayer partner though b/c she can relate w me w her situation!). Edward organised a gathering for me afterwards, which was pretty neat b/c we went to the lounge/jazz bar at Chateau Laurier. Marc and Jon recommended me to try a Blue Lagoon as a starter (tropical punch w/ gin). I think I still like wine better :P (uh oh, I've b//c a Dill!). And yes, I was pretty pink, even after only 1 glass. Ah well.

While we were waiting for Lon, Andy, Yvonne, and the rest of them to show up for a group picture, a few of us decided to check out the 5th floor (as it's supposed to be "haunted"). The atmosphere looked spooky enough--locked doors, long corridors, angled mirrors, and Marc making ghost noises (although, I'm not sure how he knows what ghosts sound like). We ended up going up a spiral staircase that is supposed to have a dead end, but it turns out that the 7th floor is a doctor's office or something! Unfortunately, because the other group was still in prayer/discussion by the time we came back, I couldn't get any pics with them. Sigh. And to think that shortly after I left, they started taking pics w/o me!

Friday. Ah yeah, that's right. Josh, being the kind soul that he is, decided to help me lighten my load by cleaning one of the bathrooms in my house for me! :). Marc came over later, not to help, but to play N64 for the last time before I returned the games to Danny (Thx Danny, we ALL had a blast w them--they guys especially like WWF No Mercy!). They stayed til 130 AM, but thankfully, I was able to sleep in til 1230 PM the following day.

Thursday: met up w Phuong, May(?), Sehar (all of Marc's gfs :P) and Silq, Chau, Moeman, and Mumbles at Chu Sing for dinner.

Wednesday? I can't seem to remember that far. Oh right! I went shopping and bought myself another skirt =). That's 3 in total in my entire collection. Hehehe.

Rush Hour 2. |08.06.2001|

Heheh, a bunch of us went to see RH2 last night. 'Twas quite funny. I especially enjoyed it b/c of the Cantonese dialogue that was scattered throughout and Chris Tucker's attempt at it. There wasn't too much blood and gore, which I liked b/c martial artsy violence is something totally different all together. I guess the HK scenes were just a preview of what's to come in HK for me: the crowds, heat, pollution, noise, smells, etc. Joy.

I also watched Center Stage again the previous night. The first time was better--it wasn't as good the second time around. Would you believe that the first time around, I went with 2-3 other guys (and both of them are not girls in the least) and Mur? We ended up sneaking in early to sneak a preview at Gladiator (which I decided that I didn't want to finish watching and not to mention we were in the front of the theatre) before going into center Stage. Surprisingly, the triathalon athlete enjoyed it (as did I b/c it kinda gave me a glimpse of what my aunt would've gone through if her father allowed her to study in England on a ballet scholarship). Silq likes it too :).

One weekend left. |08.06.2001|

PTL! I love ICQ. |08.03.2001|

Wow, it's such exciting news! :) I remember it was only 1 year ago when Boy (and Michael)'s friend, Anita, was only seeking out of curiousity and would on occasion attend church with us. I also remember thinking that this might be another of Boy's friend who would attend for awhile and then stop going. I also vaguely remember Boy asking me to pray for her (or maybe I just did on my own), but shamefully, I eventually forgot about it or just wasn't faithful enough. :(. I'm thankful that God still worked in her life and through the life of others to bring her to Him.

Funny how God brings news to me. Tissue (co-op in BC last year) just mentioned that she was talking to him on ICQ--and shortly after, I obtained her ICQ, contacted her and just today, she asked me what I thought of her leading CG. Cell group?! I was like HUH? I thought maybe it was a Singapore thing (b/c she's there for exchange), but upon further investigation, she told me that it was w IVF! Wow. That was when I found out that she became a Christian last summer! It must've been near the end of it. Her testimony is simple, but really touching. Get her to share it with you one day (if you know her). :).

Welcome to the family, Anita! :)

Chillin' |08.02.2001|

I can foresee that (oh boy, I just saw something white float across my eyes--just like what happened last term in the comp lab. Think I've been staring at it for too long) in the next week and a half, my schedule will be packed. Brian was just commenting that I could identify how he felt like when he had to leave. Lesse, in the last couple of days, I've kept myself occupied once again. On Tues, I finally got to meet the famous AK and his friend Siang from good 'ol 'couver. Oddly, I seemed to have picked up on names and location of places in Ottawa that day more than any other b/c Dom was being Tour Guide. I also saw Amy (for maybe only the 4th time this term--she's on Elijah's committee as the a part of "Caring"), and Deb (also affectionly known to some as 'See Lai') and I were finally introduced to each other. Once again, Canada is small. She turns out to be Sol's (as in Gabby and Sol from Calgie [Westside Calgary CAC]) older sister! Funny how Chinese churched people seem to be connected to each other under 6 degrees. Dinner at Double Decker's was aite. The food was good, but the portions are small for the price they charge. At least this time I didn't have a fever of 102F. MMM. Gelato at Piccolo Grande! Amy kindly gave us 1/2 price on our orders and my, was it soo good. For some odd reason, some of the flavours were non-diary, which would explain why I don't normally get too uncomfie.

P and I had a good prayer meeting time. Dom then drove me to Danny's to pick up some N64 games. I tried out Perfect Dark yesterday night and Super Mario Kart the night before. I think I prefer racing/competitive games more. Karen L. and her friends wanted to come up for a day so I ended up cleaning my basement up in case they did crash at my place (and because it needed some cleaning anyhow).

I was listening to J's random nameless CDs (mp3s) today, and one of them had a DDR song on it. Kinda fun and upbeat (keeps me awake at work). Reminds me of last year, when I was more into DDR (playstation only). Seems like people here are less FOB since they don't do that nor do karoke. I can start feeling the pressure of work though because I'm leaving a lil over a week, and I still have this gimongous manual to finish. It's to the point where I have to take it home with me and spend 1-3 hours an evening working on it. Thankfully (courtesy of Clearnet), I was able to relax with the movie, 10 Things I Hate About You. Strangely though, it reminds me of She's All That, which I watched 4 or more times last term (because my housemate watched it a lot) so it was an OK movie. I noticed at the end why it was called "10 Things I Hate About You"--but it made sense why the film had that title. I have a habit of always trying to figure out why movies have their titles.

Aside: Woah, I just reread what I wrote. I'm kinda incoherent today. Ah well. Oh yeah, as a side note, esp to J: Marijuana for medical purposes is now legal in Canada. So, just become a doctor and you'll have legit access :P.

Summer Blues |07.31.2001|

Hrm. It's the time of the year again. Summer is about to disappear for another year. The sun is starting to setting behind the horizon rather quickly, and the autumn breeze is awaiting, ready to sweep the trees with the colours of--hmm, like a vampire sucking life out of a person--but instead of for blood, for chlorophyll! Well, anyhow, my train of thought just went along the lines of: end of summer. school begins. (groan).

Yesterday's highlight was dinner. Silq, Marc, and Dom came over for dinner. I ended up cooking for 4, which I'm not exactly used to. I hope none of them were poisoned. But then again, Dom had asthma problems, so mebbe . . . :P. Thankfully they came over b/c they helped me clear out most of the stuff in the fridge :). Actually, it's more fun to cook for other people. Cooking for myself isn't all that entertaining for some reason. Maybe it's the anticipation and the suspense of potentially poisioning them. Just kidding. :P.

They studied for their exams (today) and played N64 for awhile. Danny is gonna lend me some really cool games =). Can't wait! I never had the luxury of owning a game console. But it's a good thing, b/c it gets quite addictive.