mei-drops

Clumsy

2012-02-10T04:13:00.000-05:00

When I was younger, my mom always called me lun tsun. I knew this meant "clumsy," but all my life I thought it was a Tagalog phrase. Turns out it's actually a Cantonese phrase (wait, I knew Cantonese words when I was a kid?!), and after recent events, it turns out I am actually still quite lun tsun. You see, recently, I've been accidentally scratching my hands on random objects, and a significant amount of blood always comes out, regardless of the strength of the impact. For instance, today while I was washing dishes, I accidentally cut myself with a broken glass cup (that I didn't know was broken -__-), and a surprising amount of blood gushed out of two seemingly-tiny cuts on my hand.

Strange!

Guess this adds to my ever-growing list of weird hand wounds:

1. Attacked by the microwave at UWP
2. Giant papercut from my OS notes
3. Cut by the washroom faucet at home
4. Wounded by shampoo bottle when I tried to close it with the back of my hand
5. ~~Adventurous~~ Clumsy dishwashing

Is there a cure to the lun tsun syndrome??

Mall hours

2012-02-07T04:37:00.000-05:00

Fact: stores and malls in BC close early (around 6 pm) everyday except for Thursdays and Fridays.

Kinda inconvenient sometimes.. guess I got used to life in Asia, where malls close at around 9:30-10 pm everyday xD In any case, less shopping time => more home time => more time spent with my "family" here => awesomeness ensues.

A quarter of the way in

2012-02-03T04:09:00.000-05:00

Happy February! :)

Man, can't believe this term is already 1/4 done o__O I said I would try to blog more (than last co-op term), but I guess I've been too busy lately.. (with what though, I'm not sure. too busy having fun? :P haha!)

Some more stuff I've learned about daily life in Vancouver:

* Vancouverites are nice. Like, Waterloo-vs.-Toronto kind of nice. They always say "thank-you" to the bus driver even when they're exiting from the back door. Sometimes they'll strike up a chat with you on the bus or at the food court (like yesterday, when someone asked me if I've ever tried the butter chicken poutine I was ordering at NYF, because she had wanted to try it too). Another thing that happened yesterday was that a person in the cashier line-up let me pay ahead of him since I had only one item to pay for. So kind!!

* UBC students seem a lot more laid-back than UW students. Maybe it's the fact that they don't have a math faculty to compare to. Or maybe I just live with slackers. Haha!

* Despite the general niceness of Vancouver, in many places (even on the UBC campus), you can smell pot. Perhaps the laid-back culture has something to do with that :P

* There are also almost more urban poor around Vancouver than in Toronto. This sometimes makes for sketchy bus-waiting times. Actually, I'll probably write more about this in another post, because the topic of outreach to the homeless has been in my heart recently.

* Tax is "only" 12% here :P Yay?

***

And more updates through pictures:

The back of yo' school is ridiculous. Sydney (our housemate) took us all "sightseeing" a couple of weeks ago to see the view behind his HS. Man, I wish my HS had a view like this :) You could see the coast, the city skyline, and the mountains behind it. Gorgeous. Also, for some strange reason, that park behind his school had a heck of a lot of wild rabbits in it :O So random, but so cool! xD

Traipsing 'round the university. UBC campus > UW campus, and not just because there are no geese here :)

An evening with Kōko-san. The other day my housemates and I got to hear a Hiroshima bomb survivor, Kōko Tanimoto Kondo, speak about her experience growing up in Japan post-bombing. I'd read about the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombing in school textbooks, but this personal encounter made the event real to me for the first time. What was interesting was that aside from describing the horror of it, she also talked about how she was eventually able to reconcile with and forgive those who had caused the bombing.

What a privilege it is to meet such people!

Ahh, it's getting very late now. More later!

What I learned from Mt Baker

2012-01-18T04:12:00.001-05:00

When skiing or boarding:

Place your valuables inside a ziploc bag before putting them inside your jacket pocket. Helps protect from condensation!
Get good goggles—really useful for blustery conditions
If you don't have a neck wrap, wrap your scarf around your face and head in such a way that your helmet locks around it
Unless you're skiing on a bunny hill, make sure your bindings aren't too loose
If you have long hair, braid it
The zippers on your jacket that let out perspiration are there for a reason
Make sure to leave your actual shoes/boots in the locker room where you put on your ski boots

Crossed the border to Mt Baker w/ some of the Manstad guys (Derek, Jon, Johnny) + friends to go skiing this past weekend, and let's just say that by the end of the day I had to learn all of the above :P Haha.. due to my unpreparedness, it turned out to be a messy day full of snow, wipeouts and crashes. Still, it was quite fun to chill with these awesome people and see the marvels of God's creation! :)

(wish I took pictures from the ski lifts—you could see some reeeally beautiful scenes from up there! and we even spotted the occasional ice climbers.. haha. but I was too scared to take out my phone for pics, since the chairs didn't have rails D: )

At the end of the day, we were going to have dinner at the Olive Garden (unlimited soup/salad!), but the wait was way too long.. so we ended up at Montana's. Chipotle firecracker burger = deeelicious! :)

I ended up crashing again that night at the Manstad (since it was still snowing and was getting late and I was tired). The next day (Sunday), attended a local church and, since I didn't know what to do with myself, helped set up tables and such. The sermon that day was actually quite relevant—"Ministry at Work." I'll have to review the notes and passages again and try to apply these to my current co-op.

After the service, I met some very legendary people, some of whom were UWCCF alumni! :D (one of them was my frosh cell leader [FCL]'s FCL's FCL's FCL xD SO COOL) Over lunch (cheap sushi!) I learned from them things like how CCF used to be, or how UW used to be, or how life in Vancouver is like compared to TO. Quite interesting comparisons. Also learned some funny stories and pranks from the old days, hehe :D And even though there was an age difference, I really enjoyed talking to them! :)

So that was most of my weekend. More things actually happened on Sunday afternoon/evening, but I'll blog about that later. I think I'll try to post more often this co-op term (at least, more than when I was in SG!) so that there'll be something to look back at in the future :)

Oh, before I forget.. obligatory food pic!!! :D

Spicy sushi combo for $9.95+tax. Turned out to be quite filling!

Work term trends

2012-01-10T02:04:00.000-05:00

Co-op #1
Office: 54th floor
Average commute time (one way): 1 hr 20 mins

Co-op #2 and 3
Office: 24th floor
Average commute time: 1 hr 15 mins

Co-op #4
Office: 7th floor
Average commute time: 45 mins

Co-op #5
Office: 2nd floor
Average commute time: 25 mins

If this trend keeps going... hahaha

Five things to thank God for about Vancouver

2012-01-06T04:02:00.002-05:00

1. You can see the mountains from the bus or Skytrain.
And they are GORGEOUS.. especially at night, with all the city and harbour lights! The pic above was shot from the Skytrain.. probably on the way downtown. More photos coming up soon. :P

2. I live in a household that glorifies God.
Now I know what it's like to live in houses like McDougall and Westcourt.. combined. Haha. I'm really blessed to be living (again) with brothers and sisters in Christ this term. (Another blessing is that I have quite a few things in common with most of them.. like 'Sauga, guitar, CS nerdiness, anime LOL.) Looking forward to learning and growing with them all! :)

3. My language skills are getting a good workout.
The other day, a woman asked me for directions in Mandarin. I had to use my broken Chinese to act as translator between her and the bus driver. It was terribly good practice for me, but I don't know if I translated some stuff correctly >< I think I need to learn how to say "I'm not from around these parts" in Mandarin.. haha!

Next language challenge: Order in Japanese at the Japadog place xDDD

4. The weather is friendly.
At least, compared to Ontario. Above-zero temperatures :D but very, very wet and overcast. I think I'll need rainboots eventually.

5. Sushi.
Yep.

The I-can't-believe-I'm-already-here phase

2012-01-03T04:58:00.001-05:00

Co-op #5 starts tomorrow!

... i.e. today!

Ahhh!!!

On letting go

2011-12-29T03:11:00.000-05:00

There is a scene in the anime Rurouni Kenshin where, right before the protagonist Kenshin goes off to fight the deadly opponent Saitou, the main female character Kaoru grabs hold of Kenshin and tells him not to go. She is afraid that Kenshin—who has vowed never to kill again with the sword—will revert into Battousai (the manslayer), and do something terrifying and regrettable. Or, worse, she is afraid that he will get killed. But Kenshin knows that he has to fight Saitou to the death in order to save everyone, so he silently walks away from Kaoru's grasp, leaving her no choice but to helplessly watch on.

Letting go of something or someone is difficult, to say the least. Since we don't know what's going to happen to whatever we released, we humans have a tendency to take as much control of our lives as possible. This is something I really struggled with during this past 3B term. Whether it was deciding which jobs to apply to, or trying to keep up my average, the idea of having things not go my way was just.. foreign. I remember that before each assignment and midterm, I would even tell myself that since I was capable of getting high marks in other courses, it was unacceptable that I should get anything lower in this one. And with that in mind, I proceeded to stress out whenever I couldn't solve a problem or answer a question.

I went through the entire term thinking that I had a good idea of how things around me should be. As a result, I found it very difficult to come to terms with things that were different from my expectations (e.g. whenever someone on committee suggested something that I thought was not such a great idea). It wasn't until the second to the last day of school (when I was striving over my last OS assignment) that Jen told me the following words:

"Leave the rest to God and move on!"

Dang.

When I think about it now, it makes so much sense. Since God created everyone (and everything), then He knows what's best for everyone. Including me. Luke 12:7 says that "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered"—meaning that He knows me better than I even know myself! How could I fight against a God whose plans for me are probably a gajillion* times better than anything I could ever imagine?

* not a real mathematical term. You may substitute 'googolplex' instead xD

So that is a summary of one of the most important things I learned this term. Even now, I am still learning to let go of certain aspects of my life, and learning to accept that though the future may be unclear (especially when you're leaving for an unfamiliar place in Western Canada in less than six hours), God is in control. Now that's a comforting thought. :)

Trust and obey
For there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus
Than to trust and obey

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding."
Proverbs 3:5

*

Note: The Japanese phrase「だめ」or dame literally means "no good" or "not allowed." In context, it means "You shouldn't go." However, Kenshin does go and face Saitou.. they end up fighting an intense and bloody battle, and both of them nearly die until someone else steps in and orders both of them to stop. The end. :P

Move-in stories, and other things

2011-09-12T15:44:00.000-04:00

SMS conversation with my mom (who was at home) on the day I moved in to 'loo:

Me: "I think I forgot my duvet cover at home."
Mama: "Oops! Where is it?"
Me: "Can you please check the basement? If not there, my room."
Mama: "Not in your room nor basement. Check again your stuff."

(3 minutes later)

Me: "Ohhhh it was inside the microwave!!"

HAHAHA.

Fail stories* aside, I'll be taking a break from blogging (writing posts and following others' blogs) this study term in order to spend more time on more important things. Will probably also give a number of other activities a break as well.

See you in January! :)

* Before we left home, my dad had put my duvet cover inside the microwave in order to protect the glass plate in it. Is this how engineers think? :P

New old things

2011-09-07T18:19:00.001-04:00

Not used to seeing such wide, open spaces anymore; not used to paying with tickets on the bus; not used to paying tax on top of the stated price; not used to looking left-right-left at intersections..

.. not even used to speaking with a Canadian accent when ordering meals anymore.

So many things I didn't know I was used to before, but it's still good to be home! :)

Bisperas

2011-08-28T14:42:00.000-04:00

(Eve)

Last night in Singapore. I'm about 85% done packing, but that's not the reason why I'm up. The real reason.. is that Nat, Gibby and I were waiting. Waiting for this to arrive. :P

Haha.. just indulging in some craziness before I leave :P This past week has been so busy that I haven't had a chance to let myself realize that I'm leaving the country tomorrow/today. Two projects, one work report, and random last-minute get-togethers with friends from various places (school, work and church, each from different countries!) have taken up most of the past few days. It was really really fun, and really really tiring. My last day at work was especially crazy: After breakfast w/ Nat at Mac's at Clementi, rushed to work, and for the rest of the day rushed back and forth between two buildings to try to finish things for both of my supervisors. Ended up staying til 7:30 pm.. with many things still left undone. But it was already way too late, so I decided to go home then. Arrived home around 8:30 pm.

... And then went to Malaysia the next day at 7:00 am.

Did I mention this week was terribly busy? xD

I'll update more on that later (maybe when I get to HKIA.. lol) but for now, I'm going to give myself a break and get some shut-eye. Rising early again tomorrow to run errands, and to meet up with an old friend whom I haven't seen for almost ten years :)

And here are pictures to sum up this post:

Empty cubicle :(

Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia

Panic

2011-08-24T13:14:00.001-04:00

is the name of the sensation that is slowly spreading across every part of my brain these days. They say that the truth hurts, that the truth will set you free... this time, it is both. The truth is this: in fewer than five days I will have to leave behind a way of life that I have temporarily come to accept as the only one there is. In that period of time, all loose ends will have to be tied, all belongings packed, all projects wrapped up for the next intern, all purchases made, all good-byes said and all rooms cleared.

Need God's grace now more than ever.

2011-08-22T08:50:00.000-04:00

最後的一週，最後的報告，而沒有意志。

At JE Regional Library as usual.. trying to finish my fourth and final WTR. Currently at 2200/2000 words, and still not done, haha. Why is it that the last stages of a paper are always harder to write than the middle stages? :O

More language woes

2011-08-17T08:49:00.001-04:00

(a.k.a. "More funny experiences with Singaporean aunties")

Today I went to Magic Beanstalk to buy a "Magic Chicken Bun" (that name in itself is worthy of a LOL). But the auntie at the shop told me that they didn't have it at the moment (if I understood her Mandarin correctly, they only make it after 2 pm). So she asked me if I wanted a "HOLOK" bun instead.

Obviously I was very confused, because not only was she speaking in Mandarin, I also had no idea what a "HOLOK" was. So I asked her, "什麼是 HOLOK?" ('what is HOLOK?'), thinking it was some Chinese food thing. She proceeded to explain that HOLOK was something long that you put on a bread bun. I still didn't get it, but I told her that OK, I would have that instead.

It was at that moment—when the auntie had turned around—that I saw it on a poster on the wall: beside "Magic chicken bun"...

"MAGIC HOTDOG BUN."

LOL.

I've come to that point in my four-month stay where I can truthfully say that

2011-08-10T12:54:00.001-04:00

I miss my brethren.

:'(

On haggling

2011-08-08T14:52:00.000-04:00

Ever tried haggling?

The process begins the moment you express the slightest bit of interest in any article in the stall. As you examine the item—a bag, a shirt, a magnet—the vendor will casually sidle up beside you and encourage you to further peruse it, usually with a "Yes, ma'am, just take your pick." If you are interested in the article, this is where you will ask for the first time how much it costs. The vendor will hesitate momentarily, and depending where you are from, will state her (I'll stick with "her" for now) first price. If it's not obvious that you're a tourist, they may or may not ask you your country of origin first. But when they've decided, they'll either pick up a calculator and enter the amount on it, or put their hands behind their back and name their price in a challenging yet non-final way.

In all cases, the vendor will put before you a price that is considered outrageously high. It is customary for you, the buyer, to express some shock at this. After all, there is no way an imitation can cost that much. The vendor already knows that you want to bargain, so either she will ask you what price you want to buy it at, or you name your own price yourself (with something like "Isn't it $__ instead?") Different hagglers will have different techniques—the usual way is to start at a price that you believe is too low or just right, and work your way upwards. You can also ask for a "discount" if you're buying more than one item, or if you find a defect in the object. The vendor will always try to suggest a higher price, with reasons such as "But this is really good quality, ma'am" or "We haven't had much business today."

Often, if you are stubborn enough, the vendor will complain that you are running them out of business. You are supposed to keep pressing your price at this point; if you have a lot of patience and display the right mix of interest and nonchalance, she will give you the article you want at the price you want. Of course, there is also the last resort: you can tell them that you're "coming back" to check out other stalls, and almost without fail, the vendor will run after you with the price you were suggesting. This should be used carefully, though: if you do leave the stall, the article or bargain you were looking for might be "gone" by the time you come back.

Pretty good deal, right?

So why do I feel like I just ripped off the vendor whenever I manage to buy something for much less than the vendor's starting price, like I just did last weekend at Phuket? Is it because of that plaintive tone of voice they always use whenever they grudgingly agree to my final price? Should I be helping them gain more profit, since they are obviously leading a harder way of life than I am? But if they get their goods for really really cheap, then I shouldn't be feeling guilty at all, should I? How much do they get all this cheap stuff for, anyway? Heck, is it even legal to be selling all these big-brand knock-offs for insanely low prices?

So many questions, not enough answers.

A piece of home

2011-07-31T12:58:00.001-04:00

Went on a four-day trip to Cebu, Philippines last weekend, and coming back to Singapore from there was almost culturally shocking. You see, if there's one thing I learned from that trip, it's this:

Filipino hospitality >>>>>>>>> [Chinese] Singaporean hospitality

Haha! :P Just kidding.. well, OK, maybe not.

It was indeed a nice break from the routine of work life. Actually, if you think about it, it was more like a break from a break from life (life being Canada, lol). No, I didn't go to the beach; I didn't do much shopping; I didn't go to any major sights.. I've already done all those; I grew up in this country. What I did do was hang out and catch up with family. Got to spend time with my cousins—something I've come to cherish a lot ever since immigrating—and my aunt and uncles, and of course, our dear Lola Soling:

Lola loves a glass of beer twice a week ;)

Aside from becoming more and more forgetful (apparently the first thing she said when she saw me was, "Who's that girl?" - LOL), Lola (my paternal grandmother) has also almost fully gone back to speaking exclusively in Bisaya. This was actually quite scary at first, because sometimes she would ask me something I didn't understand. (And sometimes familiar-sounding words that meant something in Tagalog meant something else in Bisaya.) I resolved to learn as much Bisaya as I could that weekend, but of course a weekend is not enough to make you conversant in a dialect. In hindsight, though, that language barrier had served a purpose: it taught me to be more loving in my actions, and not just my words.

The language barrier was actually almost palpable wherever I went that weekend. It was strange, because I'd never felt it in my previous visits to the Visayas. (Then again, my dad had always been around to deal with the locals. :P) In any case, it wasn't so bad because I realized I could easily switch conversations to Tagalog :D Hehehe.

Aside from watching a lot of TV with family (including a soccer match between Kuwait and the only football team I might actually cheer for*), I also got to explore around the neighbourhood where my relatives live. Like Manila, it was smoky and polluted, but unlike Manila, I didn't see any street kids selling wares or services to passing drivers. But maybe that was because cars hardly stopped in those roads.

Jeepneys

Roadside stalls selling fresh fruit (mangoes!! o__o) and fried banana skewers

And of course, what's a visit to the Philippines without the usual nostalgic sights?

The cousins stumble upon a familiar friend... JOLLIBEE!!!

Wish I could've stayed longer—to converse with Lola more, to get to know my cousins better, to immerse myself in the culture—but alas; work beckons. Four days seemed so short, but it was enough to make me feel a pang of homesickness the moment my plane touched Singaporean ground again. I didn't know I'd missed the Philippines so much. I guess after all this time, it really is still home.

* I know what you're thinking: Filipinos don't play soccer! Well, not unless they're imported from other countries...

Language woes

2011-07-18T14:12:00.000-04:00

Today, as I was paying for my dinner (kushiyaki set), the shopkeeper asked me, in Mandarin, if I had five "mao". Being a huge novice at Chinese slang, I had no idea what a "mao" was (my first thought was actually: "Mao Ze Dong?!"). So I thought she meant "man" ("dollar"), and asked her if she wanted five "man". But then she pointed at the coins I was holding in my hand, and told me, in English, "No, fifty cents!" Ohhh, I get it know, I said to myself, and paid her the S$6.50 to get a clean S$1 in change.

.. And then, as I walked away to the nearby table, I realized....

"Man" is a Cantonese term, not a Mandarin one.

DIALECT FAIL!

Rest

2011-07-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

Currently in a house of sick people :P I came down with a sore throat and fever yesterday, and Nat and Gibby developed a fever too this morning. (LOL what is this, some epidemic?!) So today, because I felt that any further physical exertion would cause my fever to return, I took a leave off work. In a busy, fast-paced place like Singapore, it's tempting to think that days off are only for the weak (like me). But we need to constantly remind ourselves... rest is good for you!! :)

PS: That's not me, that's Amanda.. wayyy back in '09 at Urbana. hehehe

Roar?

2011-07-09T09:30:00.000-04:00

The most common word that's going through my head these days is "rawr." As in, "So many things to take care of, but not enough time after work! RAAAAAWWWWRRRRR!!!"

I feel like I'm under pressure to enjoy every single bit of Singapore and make the most out of my short 4-month stay :| I actually haven't visited many places or done a lot of the "recommended" activities yet (such as visiting the Bird Park, going cycling at East Coast, crossing the border to Malaysia, eating fresh durian, etc.). To the people and friends who are shocked whenever I tell them the above: please be patient with me, yeah? I'll get around to doing these things eventually :P For now, here's some of the things I've been up to:

Singapore Science Centre. Gotta love Science Centres :D especially when they have a whole section dedicated to my faculty ;)

Visiting with JCA friends. Sometimes life brings old friends together in the most unexpected places. Sometimes, life does it twice in a year.

Malaysia from afar. This is the closest I've been to the country, haha. Went to the northern part of S'pore to gaze across the waters at Johor Bahru :P

Food. Very, very delicious food.

Need to make a list of all the things I still need to do!

Sunrise, sunset

2011-06-29T12:26:00.000-04:00

It feels like the sun is always setting and the days are always ending. Oh work, why must your hours be so long? If I'm already feeling this dread right now, how will I ever be able to stand full-time work?

Action

2011-06-25T13:04:00.000-04:00

I should stop drawing things that I know I'll never finish :(

*

In other news.. there is not much news to report! :P This morning I went with Ate Karissa to get some stuff straightened out at the bank. When we got there, this took place:

AK: (explains her needs to the staff)
Staff: "Just go upstairs and they'll take care of it for you."
AK: "Okay. Oh, also, my friend here needs her card replaced."
Staff: (to me) "Do you have your passport and employment permit?"

.. HOW DID SHE KNOW I WAS A FOREIGNER JUST FROM THAT?! o__O haha!

Anyway! After that we went back through the market and browsed through all sorts of bao (buns). I really enjoy the wide variety they have here—red bean, pineapple, kaya, lotus seed, coffee, custard, coffee with custard, chicken floss, sausage, sausage wrapped in a bun wrapped in nori, even this one shrimp pastry that had the whole shrimp IN THE SHELL on it O__O hahaha. We bought a few and went back home, and then AK headed off again to pick up her grad toga and stuff :D So happy for all these graduates, both here and back home in Canada! :)

'Kay, time for bed, more stories later. Wish weekends would last longer :(

Fun times with colleagues

2011-06-23T11:56:00.000-04:00

I think there's something to be said when the first thing you and your friends point out while watching X-men: First Class is..

"Hey look! X-ray diffraction!!"

Full of mirth

2011-06-20T07:31:00.001-04:00

I've finally found it: a picture I can look at whenever I'm feeling down in the future:

BAHAHAHAHA!!!

From left to right, we have Russ, Papa, me, Ray. I think we were visiting Po-po's grave (Loyola Cemetery), so I have no idea why we looked so happy. But I absolutely love my older brother's expression and glasses here X) Actually, he was the one who sent this picture (among others) so that we could fashion a "present" for our dad. :D

Happy Father's Day, Pa! Hope you enjoyed the pics as much as we did! :) Love, the three RCs :D

Observation #472 (or some other large number)

2011-06-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

Your personal walk with God does not depend on UWCCF.

2011-06-15T13:54:00.001-04:00

Almost blacked out again today on the MRT home, due to excruciating pain :(

I'm feeling better now, of course. THANK YOU, LORD, for keeping me safe the whole time, and for blessing me with a caring family in a place where my real family is so far away!! *tears of joy*

40 jours sans riz

2011-06-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

(40 days without rice. I know it's not Easter season anymore, but I had to get this out sometime :P)

Now that I'm in Asia I've been eating rice for about one or two meals each day. This, I realize, is in stark contrast to the few weeks right before I left - when I decided to give up rice for Lent.

When friends found out I was giving up rice, their first reaction was "WHAT?! HOW??!" They told me I was taking on an "intense" challenge; they'd heard of people giving up Facebook, or candy, or TV, but never rice. After all, not only am I Chinese, I am also Filipino, and thus am used to eating rice three times a day. Rice is an Asian staple, said friends, and it is unthinkable not to eat it. Besides, rice is so good, so why would you resist it?

And it was difficult at times—like when I would sit beside people having rice as part of their meal, or when I would run out of ideas of what to cook at UWP because most of the recipes I knew required rice as a side. Living with two other Asians and regularly smelling the wonderful aroma of the cooking grains did not help either. There were times when I was asked if this was just some diet thing (that was pretty embarrassing). Once, I was even invited by classmates to go out for Ye's as an EOT/farewell dinner (we were all doing co-op in diff. places), and I had to explain to them why I would go with them but wouldn't eat any of the sushi rolls. (They thought I was crazy.) It is only by God's grace that I was able to resist the temptation to just give up, and conform to those around me (i.e. be a "normal" human being and eat something that is so "natural" for me to eat).

The most challenging part of the fast, though, was trying to respond to everyone's second reaction: "Why?"

Over and over again, people would ask me: Why rice? Why give up something that actually sustains me? Well... My initial reason for giving up rice was that I was eating too much of it (it's true), and wanted to see if I could actually live for more than a month without it. Over time, though, I was able to find a better explanation/reason. Sadly, I didn't think of this soon enough to explain it to my non-believer friends.

You see, fasting isn't about giving up something that you think you don't need (only to take it back afterward). It's about giving up something you're dependent on for a certain period of time. That is why when people go on prayer fasts, they refrain from eating anything at all. I don't think Lent is any different. We give up Twitter and junk food and secular media for Lent because we are dependent on them, in addition to the fact that they're "unnecessary" items. I gave up rice because I was so dependent on it that not eating it would be so different, it would cause me to pause each time and bring my thoughts back to God. Jesus said that "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). Just replace "bread" with "rice", and there's my reason for this year's Lent.

However (dun dun dun..), although my motive was strong, I did not do a good job of "following-through" with my fast. That is, after a while I stopped treating it as a spiritual reminder to depend on God (and to remember all the people around the world who did not go with enough rice each day). I began seeing it as some sort of chore, forgetting to reflect upon my actions and filling the hole that rice left with other equally (if not more) unhealthy foods. Actually, I noticed that this is quite common among friends who observe Lent.. we start off clean, then try to replace the missing thing with something else (e.g. giving up one social media, only to become more active in another). But doesn't this just defeat the purpose of lent-ing something to begin with?

In addition to this, I observed other things about myself and my fellow Lent-ers. One is that after starting, we usually couldn't wait til Lent was over (so that we could enjoy Thing A or Food B again - in my case, I wanted to be able to eat sushi again). The other is that we would express our sadness over the fact that we couldn't touch this or eat that, unlike those around us. Both attitudes, I now see, were not right. In particular, there's a passage in the Bible that speaks about the second observation: "But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matt. 6:17-18) We observe Lent as an act of humility towards God, not to show others what kind of difficulties we're putting ourselves through. Besides, it was our decision to give something up, so why be sad about it when we knew what was coming?

So those were some of the things I learned from this year's Lent. I'm definitely still stumbling and learning and picking up many new things, and next time I want to actually put more thought and prayer into what I'm giving up and why. That said, no matter what the item—MSN, secular media, junk food—I think the practice of Lent itself is a beautiful way to prepare for the message of Easter, if approached with a humble heart.

But yeah—40 days without rice really does make you appreciate it more :P For now, I'm just grateful for the opportunity to eat it again on a daily basis. Thank You, Lord :)

PS: The photo above (obviously from another website) is of chicken rice, which is one of my favourite Singaporean dishes :D

Enrollment

2011-06-06T13:15:00.000-04:00

starts tomorrow! For the past three work terms I've had to enroll at work, but this time, I finally have a timeslot that begins in the evening..

.. in Eastern Standard Time.

LOL. I guess it can't be helped (or, as they say in Japanese, shikata ga nai).

And speaking of which, I wonder if I should even be reunited with my favourite course next term. It's so tempting to just max out your schedule and be as "productive" as possible. But then again, if I don't take this opportunity, I will never again be able to grab it.

どちらがいい？！

Quick updates

2011-06-04T08:33:00.000-04:00

(a.k.a. what Rosanne's REALLY been up to)

* Just saw off my aunt and two cousins at the airport this afternoon. They were visiting S'pore for a week, so I went to have lunch & catch up w/ them today :)

* Getting more stuff to do at work! FINALLY, A POTENTIALLY BUSY WORK TERM!!!

* Also meeting more interns at work! So far there's been at least one new person per week. Last week there were five xD Lunchtimes are now big events.

* Still haven't hooked up with a fellowship yet, but I may go with my coworker to hers this coming week!

* Currently recuperating from a fever. I'm trying to think physiologically how these symptoms came about (difficulty breathing, elevated body temperature, shots of pain and weariness), but am baffled so far. Flu? An infection?? O__o Hope not!!!

No pictures today. Time to rest up!

2011-05-27T13:54:00.000-04:00

A child plays with bubbles near the sea

It's getting quite tiring to even think about blogging. (Or maybe I'm just drained from long work hours.) Need to disconnect myself from the virtual world.. and connect myself to the real things (and Real One) of life.

When two shows collide

2011-05-22T10:22:00.000-04:00

"Who the heck do you think I am?!? I shall punish you, in the name of the moon!!!"

*

Explanation: I really liked the art style used for the commercial break cut-scenes from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (天元突破グレンラガン).. but I didn't want to draw the usual characters. So, Sailormoon it was. :D

Odds and ends

2011-05-20T14:55:00.000-04:00

1.) I made a fool out of myself last week by innocently asking a fellow intern (who was Dutch), "Is Amsterdam a country?"

LOL EUROPEAN GEOGRAPHY FAIL.

2.) On my first day at work, I was told to wait in a room named "Histidine." I was like, "Why'd they name a meeting room after a molecule that closes up your bronchial tubes?!" It's only today that I realize I was thinking of the wrong compound (histamine) -__-

(All the conference rooms in our department are named after amino acids.)

3.) In Cantonese, the standard exclamation for surprise/anger/frustration is "Aiya."

.. In Mandarin, it's "AIYOOOOOUUUUU!!!"

4.) Fact: When you hear fellow co-ops/interns typing fast on their keyboards, it usually means one thing: they're talking to someone on GTalk xD

4.5.) When you hear lots of clicking, it means they're playing Minesweeper.

5.) I still sometimes half-expect the Hokkien speakers here to know Tagalog too. Haha :P (For a long time, I thought Hokkien speakers were only found in the Philippines :P In a way this is true, because the variety spoken in the Phils—which we call 閩南話 or ban nam ue—is unique to that location.)

The shark-jumper's sister

2011-05-16T11:18:00.000-04:00

i.e. "Rosanne needs to draw other people."

Little things

2011-05-06T23:31:00.000-04:00

Some of the interesting "daily life in Singapore" tidbits I've been learning:

It's very safe here. You can leave your purse on a chair to save a seat, and people wouldn't take it.
On that note, you can even leave envelopes and tissue packs to save seats! :P
They use lots of small plastic bags in which the contents just fit perfectly; these bags are very cute. x)
You need to flag buses down at the bus stop, or else they might not stop for you.
Mailing addresses include the floor and room number, even for companies (e.g. 555 Orchard Road, #23-01, Singapore).
"Queue" means "line-up"; "alight" means "get off"; "top up" means "reload"; "handphone" means "cellphone"
Not a lot of people wear sleeveless shirts (or maybe I was just feeling conscious since I was wearing one, haha).
People don't usually complain (at least, not verbally) when others squish in beyond the capacity in the LRT/MRT. But you might see it in their faces :P

In response to James' question about the NUS campus: It's reeeeally nice :) It has tons of greenery, very clean facilities and really cool architecture. It's up there on my "list of remarkably gorgeous university campuses" (along with UofT St George and SFU, hahaha). BTW, this is not where I work, but you probably already knew that!

Stay calm

2011-05-02T11:36:00.001-04:00

Saw this while walking around NUS (National University of Singapore) :P NUS students are finishing up their exams right now, just like Canadian university students. At first I laughed at the sign's ridiculousness; I knew that students here worried a lot about getting good marks in school.. but not this much. (also, apparently they don't usually put up posters like these on campus)

Now that I'm looking at it again, though, I'm starting to realize how scary the schooling atmosphere here can be, and how worried the students must feel as they prepare for their final tests. I'm actually getting pretty worried myself—internship starts tomorrow, and I have no idea what the work environment here is like. But how can a simple statement like "Everything is all right" calm anyone down?

What—or rather, who—we really need is the Lord.

In the S'pore

2011-04-30T11:23:00.000-04:00

Arrived here safely, PTL :)

It's not my first time in Singapore, but I'm still really fascinated by everything in it—from how cheap everything is (compared to Canada), and how orderly the streets are, to the wide array of Asian snacks (kaya jam!! :O) and the efficient MRT system. Every time I see something awesome or different, I want to pause and marvel at it, but I probably shouldn't because I'll look like such a tourist xD

Yesterday I got my first tour around the neighbourhood—T. Chet and Ate Karissa showed me how to use the LRT as we went to the local mall. The card they use for public transit uses RFID technology, like HK's Octopus card, so you just tap it on the reader (I love how you can leave it inside your wallet!) as you enter and exit the station :D One other interesting thing about their LRT/MRT cars is that the windows turn opaque whenever the cars pass by apartment buildings. SICK!

We did other [semi-productive] things too, including unsuccessful attempts to open a bank account (turns out I need my actual work permit first) and to get my phone unlocked (most storepeople didn't know what "unlock" meant :/). We also passed by the grocery store, which smelled strongly of durians (LOL) and had all sorts of really interesting food, like mutton cubes xD It was like having the awesome food selection of T&T at very low prices :P

Oh, and yes, we watched the Royal Wedding live on TV :D Laughed at all the ridiculous hats, tried to guess whether Kate's dress would have sleeves or not, and commented at all the random awkward moments, hehe :P

And today.. was spent mostly chillaxing :)

So many things to be learned and experienced and be thankful for!! Praise God :D There are many more details from my trip, but I think I'll save those for my own journal (or for people who ask :P). For now, I'll end off this post with the first pic I took here:

You know you're in SG when.. :P

The numbers

2011-04-26T21:17:00.000-04:00

263 : minutes til my flight

17 : weeks of actual co-op internship

9 : hours of layover at HK

2 : bags to check in

139 : episodes of anime to keep me entertained (while waiting in HK? haha)

2.00 : amount of SG$ I have with me

First time flying by myself, hahaha. So excited!! :D Singapore and co-op, here I come!!! :D

The simple joys in life

2011-04-25T09:53:00.001-04:00

Bits and pieces of awesomeness from the past few days :)

Palm Sunday + baking + laughter (04/17). Celebrated Palm Sunday at Elevation with the annual palm branches :) One of the songs we sang during the service was (interestingly) Reign in Us by Starfield, and it caught me by surprise because I had never sung it in church before, but knew it from listening to it by "accident" in 2A term. It captured my heart's current yearning for revival.

Headed back to UWP afterwards to cook/have lunch with Sean, Jen and Mike :D Then started the baking session: first some puto from a mix at home, then bacon chocolate chip cookies and Nutella-almond-butter-coconut cookies at Westcourt with Calvin. Fun stuff yo!

Poor lighting at Westcourt => blurry picture :P

Headed over to Yee Hong afterwards to deliver the goods and return the toaster they lent us :P and to have dinner! Thank you! :) The rest of the night, we had conversations about really, really random (but hilarious and awkward) things (as usual :P) like kissing scenes, Armageddon, "jumping the shark" and crazy anime shows. Hahaha.. can't think of a better way to spend my last night in 'loo :)

... and yes, I was studying for my Japanese exam the whole time.

Snow, and friends (04/18). It was snowing by the time I finished my last exam (JAPAN 301R). Walking home felt magical.

Also saw different friends throughout the day—first Julie on the way to Renison (made me so much calmer for the exam!), then the usual CPH-goers, then people who went out of their way to have lunch at Mikey's (:D), then Dtrueee who came over to visit, and then finally random friends I saw at William's right before I left 'loo. Seeing these people made my heart swell to bursting :)

Old friends in new places (04/20). Finally met up with Cyn and Nikky after soooo long! :) Helped Cyn buy a piñata (haha!) for her sister, then proceeded to Bubble Republic for dinner (since the two claimed that they hadn't had BBT in a while). During the meal, Cyn and I were explaining to Nikky the basic plot of Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn.. and Nikky kept saying, "You're lying to me, right???" LOL. Gotta love these two friends :)

Biking (04/23). Since the weather was unbelievably nice, went biking around the neighbourhood with otouto-chan :D After a while we got thirsty, and since I had one free BBT from my takeout card at BR, we decided to go there and get something neither of us had gotten before: a Mango milk tea. (Yes, this was our first time trying this flavour. Yes, of course we're still Asian.)

Baby! (04/24). Resurrection Sunday! :) After the service, we visited Kuya JP and Ate Iris and the newest addition to their family:

Baby Lexie! :)

I think the best word to describe her is "precious." A precious gift from God ♥

* * *

Those were some of the small but amazing memories that were made over the past week or so. Thank You Lord! :)

On the concept of "shame"

2011-04-22T01:37:00.000-04:00

(I've been meaning to blog about this for a long time now :P This may explain a lot about my behaviour around other people...)

I was grocery-shopping with some CCFers one day a couple weeks ago, and since I wasn't planning on buying much I offered to share my cart with a brother. He placed his backpack on the cart, and, as he started to push the cart, suggested that I put my backpack down on the cart as well. For some reason, though, I felt a deep sense of hesitance and embarrassment as I didn't want him to be pushing such a heavy cart with my backpack on it, and I also didn't want my bag to take up so much space. So I told him not to worry about it. When he asked why, the only explanation that came to mind... was not in English. It was a Tagalog word for "shame," called hiya.

There are a lot of words in Tagalog that are hard to translate to English, and hiya (pronounced 'hee-YA') is one of them. The best English translations I can think of are "shame" or "timidity" or "consideration"... or a combination of all three :P It's a state or emotion of reluctance that one is supposed to display when bothering others (e.g. to ask for a favour).

Here are a couple of ways the word hiya is used in everyday conversation:

"Nahihiya akong humingi ng tulong, kasi tinulungan niya rin ako sa isang project ko eh."

"I'm embarrassed to ask for help, because s/he also helped me on my other project."

"Ano, humingi ka ng pera kahit na alam mo na nanghihirap sila? Walang hiya ka talaga!!"

"What, you asked them for money even though you know they're struggling financially? You're really shameless!!"

(Side note: in modern usage, walang hiya ("shameless") is sometimes abbreviated to 'lang 'ya. So if you're feeling particularly angry at someone shameless, you can yell at them "LANGYA!!!" :P)

Many Filipinos (and Asians in general) show hiya (i.e. reluctance or humility) when they're about to do something bothersome (e.g. asking for money). Some even take it to the next level and not ask for anything at all when they feel like they'll just trouble the other person. The basic idea is that you need to be considerate of others' needs; you need to place others' feelings and circumstances above yours. If you owe someone something, then you have no right to be imposing on them further. You are, after all, only the recipient of that someone's goodness.

When I think about it, either I'm just shy to begin with, or this concept of shame—this hiya—is the real reason behind a lot of my (in)actions. I don't usually ask people for a bite of their food, because it wasn't me who paid for it. If I ask someone a question and they hesitate, I immediately feel ashamed for asking. And I hate asking people to go out of their way to do something for me, because that will just trouble them.

Sometimes I wonder if this behaviour is appropriate in the Canadian context. The North American culture promotes individuality and outspokenness, and tells us that it's OK to put your interests in front of others'. (And if people don't like you asking them favours, saying how dare you bother them at such an inopportune time, you just shoot back, "Who the heck do you think I am?!" ... haha just kidding.) I feel like I'm being overly polite/timid when I display this kind of behaviour. Since I've already been in Canada for so long, why haven't I adopted some of these Canadian values?

Is hiya even a Biblical concept? We're told, "Honor one another above yourselves" (Romans 12:10) and "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others" (Philippians 2:3-4). So yes, we're supposed to be considerate of others... but I guess not to the point of ridiculousness. Then the other party will be the one feeling ashamed... haha.

So yeah. That is my little explanation of the concept of "shame" and how it plays into my everyday life. I think showing mindfulness or hiya is a good habit to have in essence, but I will probably need to think very carefully before I go into my default shy-mode next time :P

... And to end off this rather long and inconclusive post, here's an awesome animated GIF of one of my favourite plants, the Makahiya or "quite shy" plant:

When you touch it, its leaves fold up and "hide"... like a shy person! :O SICK!

Do not believe in the me who believes in you

2011-04-18T23:31:00.001-04:00

Do not believe in the you who believes in me.

Believe in the One who is able to keep you from falling.
- Jude 1:24

[x] BIOL 265 (Diversity of Life, 04/08)
[x] CS 240 (Data Structures and Data Management, 04/12)
[x] BIOL 373 (Human Physiology II, 04/14)
[x] BIOL 365 (Resources in Bioinformatics, 04/15)
[x] CS 246 (Object-Oriented Software Development, 04/16)
[x] JAPAN 301R (Third-Year Japanese, 04/18)

Taking six full courses was pretty interesting! God is faithful indeed. 3A, this is where we part ways.

Back in 'sauga now. Hello, brothers! Hello Mom and Dad. Hello home :)

What? Since when was it Saturday?!

2011-04-16T15:44:00.000-04:00

Had my CS exam this morning, so I kept forgetting it was already the weekend. I've officially lost track of the days of the week. m.w. was right—everyday's either just a study day, or an exam day.

[x] BIOL 265 (Diversity of Life, 04/08)

[x] CS 240 (Data Structures and Data Management, 04/12)

[x] BIOL 373 (Human Physiology II, 04/14)

[x] BIOL 365 (Resources in Bioinformatics, 04/15)

[x] CS 246 (Object-Oriented Software Development, 04/16)

[ ] JAPAN 301R (Third-Year Japanese, 04/18)

One more to go, and I'll be done and moving out o__o Winter term, where have you gone? I still want to do so many things: finish drawings, see friends, bake desserts, visit places, tie up loose ends. But of course there are only precious few days and hours left, and before I know it I will be out of this bubble and into the world.

Yet this I call to mind

2011-04-14T13:28:00.000-04:00

   and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
   for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
   great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion;
   therefore I will wait for him.'
   - Lamentations 3:21-24

I was reading this passage right before my Physio exam this morning, and aside from being encouraged immensely (His mercies are new every morning!), I noticed two things. The first was that this passage, which is probably what the hymn 'Great is Thy Faithfulness' is based on, always reminds me of death and dying. I first heard that hymn being sung during my grandfather's wake, and then after that we would sing it for other memorial services as well—Tita Evelyn's, Tita Greva's. As I grow older, I understand with more and more clarity the reason why we sing it and claim these verses at funerals. It's because God is so indescribably faithful, even to death.

And if God is so faithful, then how can we doubt Him and His power during times of trials like exams?

The second thing I noticed was that it contained the theme of "waiting." I feel like verses about this theme have been coming up everywhere I turn: I see it in my Bible readings, friends are quoting it, people are sending emails about it. My first instinct was to wonder, "What does this mean?!" Obviously, God's trying to send me a message here. Waiting (for many things) has always been difficult for me, but seeing these verses so many times from so many different places feels like a reminder to keep persevering, and to keep trusting, because it will be worth it in the end.

*

[x] BIOL 265 (Diversity of Life, 04/08)
[x] CS 240 (Data Structures and Data Management, 04/12)
[x] BIOL 373 (Human Physiology II, 04/14)
[ ] BIOL 365 (Resources in Bioinformatics, 04/15)
[ ] CS 246 (Object-Oriented Software Development, 04/16)
[ ] JAPAN 301R (Third-Year Japanese, 04/18)

Half done! The three-day marathon has begun!!

The calm before the storm "strikes" again!

2011-04-11T15:03:00.001-04:00

It's happening again—I'm feeling extra-relaxed in between exams. I have no idea where this calm is coming from.. but let's hope it is Philippians 4:7 once again :)

So because I'm feeling like there's a lot of time on my hands (such a lie!! wherever did I get this idea from?!), I've been going on a major cooking spree. Spent yesterday afternoon baking cookies for exam-frazzled friends, and now just spent the whole morning/early afternoon cooking:

- hotdogs
- 番茄炒蛋 (tomato fried eggs)
- hash brown and bacon frittata
- bacon/hotdog/mushroom/broccoli in alfredo sauce (for pasta)

I realize that the things I cook are very similar >__> Like, I'll start by sauteing garlic and onions, then throw in a lot of ingredients, saute them together, and add some kind of seasoning or sauce. Very predictable. Haha.. need to expand my cooking repertoire :P

... but now that I've used up my groceries and cooked enough food to last me the whole week, it's time to study for exams.

oil++

Another extremely dangerous prayer

2011-04-09T23:56:00.000-04:00

O Master,
grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love with all my soul.
St. Francis of Assisi

May this be the cry of our hearts each day!

*

[x] BIOL 265 (Diversity of Life, 04/08)
[ ] CS 240 (Data Structures and Data Management, 04/12)
[ ] BIOL 373 (Human Physiology II, 04/14)
[ ] BIOL 365 (Resources in Bioinformatics, 04/15)
[ ] CS 246 (Object-Oriented Software Development, 04/16)
[ ] JAPAN 301R (Third-Year Japanese, 04/18)

It's showtime

2011-04-07T02:10:00.001-04:00

"Time passes by more quickly the older we get." - Lorraine F.

And indeed it does, because before I knew it, lectures had ended and it was my favourite time of the term again:

EXAM TIME! :O

Continuing the tradition:

[ ] BIOL 265 (Diversity of Life, 04/08)
[ ] CS 240 (Data Structures and Data Management, 04/12)
[ ] BIOL 373 (Human Physiology II, 04/14)
[ ] BIOL 365 (Resources in Bioinformatics, 04/15)
[ ] CS 246 (Object-Oriented Software Development, 04/16)
[ ] JAPAN 301R (Third-Year Japanese, 04/18)

May my exams bring glory to no one but the Lord!

*

In other news, something rather funny happened today. I went to MC to pick up some of my CS assignments, and when I approached the CS tutor with questions about one of them, he took one look at my username (on my assignment), and said..

"Oh, so YOU'RE rc2borja!"

LOL.

... Apparently it was because of a good thing I'd done on Assignment 4. Wow. Praise God :)

Why am I still awake

2011-04-04T02:15:00.000-04:00

Reason #1: Our don brought us lots of food for our floor meeting, and I am waiting for it to digest.

Reason #2: 3A assignments are DONE LIKE DINNER!!! Thank You, Lord, for always reminding me that You are bigger and greater than schoolwork.

Reason #3: This.

Feels good to be reunited with my dear friend Art :)

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

2011-03-31T01:42:00.000-04:00

Diana's B-boy pose xDDD

It started off in first year—three guys and three girls, just like the TV show. We missed Amanda during second year, and now missed Matt in third year. But even when we're not all in the same place, we are still bound by friendships founded on the one true Rock.

Three years (and counting!) of God-given grace :)

Fob-reversion

2011-03-28T13:50:00.001-04:00

Wow. I just wrote this on my CS assignment:

"P_x = list op points"

My accent is definitely coming back xDDD

Why I cannot become a doctor

2011-03-26T00:34:00.000-04:00

As part of my medical check-up, I got some bloodwork done today. So the nurse started by taking blood out of my right arm.

... and then it turns out she'd missed the vein, so she took blood out of my left arm. By this time I was ready to cry, because I suddenly remembered the last time this happened to me (in 2002)—that time, I also had to get a third needle in my arm for my TB test.

So of course, today, I realized after my second blood test that I needed a different test for my work permit. So the nurse took blood from me a third time.

:'(

Each time, I had to completely look away from my arm (and the nurse) because I still can't stand the sight of a needle going into my arm, or of blood rushing from my arm into a vial. And each time, I had to convince myself that I was not going to feel weak from loss of blood.

I feel really lame whenever this happens, but this is one of the reasons why I can never go into medicine or patient healthcare (the other major reason being my extreme clumsiness—my parents like to joke that if I were a surgeon, I would probably accidentally cut my patient wide open in the wrong spot.. or leave the scalpel inside their body even after I sewed them back up).

(.. of course, I have other, more valid reasons why I'm not going into medicine :P)

So, to all the to-be doctors and nurses out there... you are doing something I will never be able to do, so I have great respect for you! :D I will be cheering from the sidelines as I do research that will hopefully further your work and benefit the lives of many others as well :)

Some updates

2011-03-20T23:05:00.000-04:00

My cough has now officially progressed into a full-blown cold/runny nose, and in my sneezy delirium (lol) I thought, "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if someone in Caring Ministry made some congee for me?" But then I realized that that's not going to happen anytime soon, because:
a.) I'm co-leading Caring Ministry, and I haven't encouraged the members to do anything yet
b.) Nobody in Caring Ministry knows I'm sick
c.) I gave up rice for Lent.

Oh, the irony!

So now I am making myself some soup with dumplings, seaweed and veggies. Call this practice for when someone else gets sick :)

*

In other news, my volleyball team this term ("X is for Dash") just lost its first playoff game this afternoon, and so we're officially out of the running. We had a pretty good season though, including a double-header last Sunday where we lost to a CCF team (the Dream Crushers) but owned another (the Awkward Jellyfish). So proud of my team! :D

More on being young

2011-03-17T20:22:00.001-04:00

Sometimes when I think I'm "old" enough to "know" how to act independently (and to tell younger ones how to act), I am gently reminded that I am still young myself, and that I have much, much more to learn. Sometimes I might resent this, but when I think about it, what would I do without this guidance and wisdom from my older brother and sisters?

So thank you, my achis and ahiyas/kuyas and ates/ko-kos and che-ches/niisan-tachi and neesan-tachi :) It is a complete joy to learn from you!

*

Current FFX position: that part right after you beat the Sinspawn with Seymour Guado and Sin comes and destroys everything.

(whoa, so depressing :|)

While I am unaware

2011-03-13T19:25:00.000-04:00

After all the excitement on Friday, I suddenly felt very weary and very downcast the day after (Saturday). For some reason I'm reminded of how Elijah felt after he called down fire from Heaven and then ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel (1 Kings 19:4).

For the rest of the day I couldn't concentrate—let alone study—and by the time night fell, I just couldn't take it anymore. There was something weighing my heart down, but I couldn't quite tell what it was. So I did the only things I could do to escape: sing, pray and draw.

One of the songs Jen and I encountered while leafing through her binder was "Amazed," and its lyrics finally were enough to calm me down.

You dance over me

While I am unaware

You sing all around

While I never hear a sound

Lord, I'm amazed by You

How You love me

Crazy things are happening

2011-03-12T16:37:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was very long, and very eventful. I woke up to much snow piling on the ground, and to the news that a magnitude 8.9 earthquake had just hit Japan, with tsunamis traveling as far as the west coast of North America. I can't remember if my aunt's family is still in Japan. I hope they're safe >__<

For the rest of the day, I did crazy things I had never done before:

I booked a return trip (two-way flight) by myself for the first time.

I led worship for the first time.

And I ran for committee for the first time.

The Rosanne in second year would not have had the guts to do any of these.

God is working; I can feel it.

*

In other news, here are photos of more crazy people:

(i.e. belated pictures from Reading Week)

What can I say; it runs in the family.

Typical student life

2011-03-09T00:18:00.000-05:00

Currently here:

Drinking this:

Writing a one-page composition about this:

It's actually quite enjoyable. I think I'll miss this when I'm not a student anymore.

Thoughts of a Scatterbrain

2011-03-06T01:21:00.000-05:00

I can't do homework at all.

Too many things going on. Incapable of writing in complete, coherent paragraphs or multi-clause sentences.

Attended memorial service this afternoon. The weather was gloomy and dark, but the people inside were smiling... This is the testimony of our Living God and Saviour!

The thing about Filipino funerals/memorial services is that there is always food at the end.

... Yes, there was even lechon.

Obviously you can't do schoolwork when you've just come back from the memorial service of a dear family friend.

This is a short story our pastor told us in his message at the service today:

There was once a man who was dying from cancer, and was at the hospital to be treated for his disease. A friend came to visit him. The friend asked, "Aren't you afraid of crossing the river to the other side?"

But the man said:

"Why should I be afraid, when I know the One who owns both sides of the river?"

Amen.

Not by might nor by power

2011-02-28T09:12:00.000-05:00

but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty. (Zechariah 4:6)

Pull yourself together, Rosanne!! Midterms and schoolwork ain't got nothin' on our Heavenly Father.

Phobia

2011-02-25T23:18:00.000-05:00

I was all alone in the hotel's swimming pool this morning, and it suddenly dawned upon me that I had always had an intense, irrational fear of deep water. I'm not exactly sure how it started. Maybe it came from the time I almost drowned in the middle of a crowded pool as a kid, hanging onto my older brother who kept pushing me off into the water since he couldn't even keep himself afloat.

Or maybe it came from the time I was watching him look for Emerald Weapon in FF7. Hahaha

Here today

2011-02-23T22:10:00.000-05:00

and gone tomorrow.

It really is hard to grasp the fact that someone you just talked to several weeks ago will no longer be there. What I will never forget is her gentle manner, and how calm she looked even when we knew she was under a lot of pain. Mostly, she just had so much faith in God that it was contagious.

No more early-morning drives to the hospital, no more intense rounds of chemo, no more false hopes of treatment. Only overflowing, everlasting peace in the presence of our Father. Thank God.

Rest well, Tita Greva. You're home now.

♥

Brevity

2011-02-21T01:36:00.000-05:00

Life is so short.

But I don't think we fully understand that.

Tomorrow's gonna be long

2011-02-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

Currently at DP, mugging for a midterm at 2:30 (BIOL 365).

And tomorrow:
- BIOL 373 midterm
- JAPAN 301R Kanji quiz
- JAPAN 301R composition #1 due
- CS 240 midterm

It's a good thing JobMine is not on that list.

Why am I stressing about doing well in school when marks will be so trivial in the coming years? Should I be more accepting of a lower mark, or should I keep aiming for the best I can get with what God's given me (i.e. a high mark), even though it causes me so much worry and grief?

Sometimes I wish I didn't expect so much of myself.

The shark-jumper

2011-02-08T01:16:00.000-05:00

Guess who.

Evening

2011-02-06T23:55:00.000-05:00

Clear skies
fading from deep blue,
fading royal,
fading to cornflower light
bathe a stretch of concrete earth
and buoy a million hidden stars
and a sliver of a slice
of smiling moon
in the cold air
of evening.

Kanji

2011-02-02T02:18:00.000-05:00

After studying for the Kanji Quiz #2 for my Japanese class, I've never been more thankful for elementary and high school Chinese lessons :D

家

2011-01-30T20:06:00.000-05:00

この週末は　家に帰りました。

お母さんの誕生日だからです。

家族と一緒にタイレストランに出かけて、たくさんおいしいものを食べました :D

皆が再会したら、とてもうれしくなって、気持ちいいです。:)

Went home on Friday for Mom's birthday, and went out for some yummy and filling Thai food to celebrate! There's always much joy whenever our whole family is together, so this weekend was a real blessing :)

Long days are love

2011-01-28T13:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Thursday, meaning it was my long day (7.5 straight hours of lectures). I usually dislike these days, but yesterday was especially good:

AM (Jan. 27)
8:30 - Wake up... and fall back asleep.
9:45 - Meet up with m.w. and y.s. to walk to class - our daily activity! :)
9:58 - Realize, as I step into RCH, that I forgot my glasses at home. DANG.
11:25 - Head over to MC, where second lecture begins. Stare blindly at blackboard.

PM
12:50 - Retrieve glasses from y.s. (yayyyy thank you so much for picking them up! :D) and realize just how helpless I am without corrective lenses of any sort. Go off to third lecture of the day.
1:45 - Start getting irritated when prof starts teaching material all over the place, using totally different slides and not our course notes -__- the heck...
2:18 - Head over to fourth lecture (Japanese~!)
2:27 - Begin Japanese quiz.
2:28 - Get intimidated by Japanese quiz.
3:05 - Finish quiz on time with answers I am satisfied with, praise God :)
5:25 - End classes for the day (FINALLY!), and head over to SLC to look at gloves on sale.
5:30 - No gloves in sight D: Visit ~~keeners~~ at SLC3F.
5:45 - Head over to Yee Hong accompanied by k.w. (and as always, a funny conversation ensues! haha)
6:00 - Begin new game of FINAL FANTASY X! LOOOOOOL
6:00 - 11:00 - Play through the first part of this awesomely nostalgic game while enjoying my packed dinner + j.w.'s cooking + PIE! + random hilarious convos w/ Yee Hong residents who came home one by one :)
11:00 - 1:20 (a.m., Jan. 28) - Spend the rest of the night chilling, laughing, and learning LSD Radix Sort (with help from j.q.) to answer the CS 240 PLQ.. haha o__o Thanks again to the grad guys for generously opening up their place :D

So that was that. Such a packed but fun-filled day. Actually, I think this whole week has been terribly nice. Thank you Lord!! :)

Oh, and...

Current FFX position (haha, I haven't done this since 2004!): ship on board to Luca. So far the game is much easier than I thought. FFX's Sphere Grid system is actually quite addictive :O hahaha

Today, I learned that

2011-01-27T02:07:00.000-05:00

Vegetables + Chinese Cooking Wine + Alfredo Sauce = No.

Hahaha... cooking is always interesting :)

*

あああああ　まだ　明日の日本語試験の為に勉強していません O____O;
I haven't finished studying for my Japanese quiz tomorrow yet... agggghhh... I'm still not used to this thing they call schoolwork.

Motivation = 5%.

Scandalous Chinese

2011-01-19T23:00:00.000-05:00

Today I received a reply from the P.I. of a research group I applied to.. but the thing was, his email was all in small-caps and short-cut language o__O And just when I thought it couldn't get any weirder, the very bottom part read "從我的愛風傳送". I saw the "愛" part and immediately freaked out, thinking it meant "sent with love" or something scandalous like that.

A little later, I pulled up the email again to show j.c., and read the Chinese phrase aloud to myself to make sure. And that's when I realized...

"從我的愛風傳送" means "Sent from my iPhone."

-________-

The 'loo days

2011-01-19T00:19:00.000-05:00

It's been two weeks since school started. I realize that I blog very rarely about what life's like when I'm on a study term in Waterloo, so here's one such post (more for my future reference than for anyone else's, really.. haha) :)

Weather

Waterloo is naturally frigid. Yes. :( It went all the way to -15 C yesterday morning (according to The Weather Network) so my ears started hurting by the time I got home. But maybe that was because I was wearing a metal headband..

In any case, it's positive 1° C now o__O

School and courses
So, because I'm a sucker for ~~pain~~ challenges, I enrolled in six (6) courses this term—4 mandatory and 2 elective classes. The mandatory ones (two CS's, Diversity, and our first Bioinfo course) are actually not too bad, except most of the material is review from previous years and hence quite tedious to go through. The first elective, Physio II, seems "meh" at the moment (cuz the prof isn't as lively as Dr. Dayeh, haha), but the second, Japanese III, is FUNNNNNN TIMES. Jap is the class I pay the most attention to, since I have to be able to understand what the teacher is saying, but it is sooo worth it :) There are only ~18 people in that class, and they're ALL keeners xD but that competition and liveliness are what make it such a fun course! Plus being able to respond in Japanese is so satisfying :)

The place we call "home"
I LOVE WHERE I LIVE THIS TERM :D yay! Thank You, Lord, for awesome housing that's clean (haha, my number one priority), furnished and convenient. A lot of my fellow third-years live really close by too :) I wasn't able to fellowship with them as often during second year because of how far I lived then, so I'm really excited and grateful for the proximity this term :)

And I just remembered something Russell asked me the other day:
Russ: "Yo Chech, do you guys have LAN parties at your place?"

LOL.

Food
So far I've only been able to cook a few times, but the end products have all been surprisingly good (chicken + mushrooms + alfredo sauce + rice = WIN). I did try baking homemade fries again, and when I pulled the baking sheet out of the oven, the smoke detector went off -__- haha

Now all I need are a wok, and more spoons and forks since j.c and I brought mostly chopsticks when we moved in LOLOL.

Other Little Things

Third-year beginning-of-term dinner at Burger King, haha! It was sooo good to see everyone again though! :)
Watched Pirates of the Carribean 1 (again) with s.d. and did some CS while waiting for our laundry to finish :P
Walking to class with y.s. and m.w.! :D These friends add sunshine to the start of my day :)

More updates later!

Moving on

2011-01-10T14:04:00.000-05:00

Here's a new work-in-progress.. from something I doodled quickly in class this morning. Interpret it however you want :P

There are so many people, themes, places, Bible verses and song lyrics that I want to draw badly! I wonder if I'll get around to finishing them all?

In any case, time to go to Biol 365.

On being young

2011-01-09T01:20:00.001-05:00

Cooked some 番茄炒蛋 (tomato fried eggs) for an unofficial frosh dinner last Wednesday :)

I realized that I haven't been this.. satisfied.. to serve younger-years. Ever. Since I became an upper-year I think I developed some kind of inferiority complex regarding the young'ns, haha. I didn't want to "lose" to them, and in turn felt that giving them too much attention would just make their heads grow big. So I strived to differentiate myself (no, not THAT way! haha) from them and act "older" and "wiser." I would retaliate whenever someone still called me "frosh" even though I was in third year, and try hard to relate to upper-years (and hate it when I couldn't because of my relative youth and inexperience). And then I just started disliking being young in general.

I think all of this kind of destroyed my happy-go-lucky personality :P

I don't know what's become of me—of the cheerful and optimistic Rosanne who, in first year, vowed to "pay forward" all the good things my upper-years did for us as frosh. I mean, there WAS a reason why I stepped up to become a frosh leader in second year, right?

Thank God for speaking to me through j.c that day.. she told me I was being too cynical, haha. There's nothing wrong with being young, and there's nothing wrong with serving people who are younger than you (and may not ever repay you back). So I don't know what's gotten me all worked up about not wanting to spoil frosh and having authority and all.

I'm glad now that I decided to cook for that dinner after all. I've completely forgotten how much joy there is in serving others. Good times were had that night, and we were able to get to know the frosh a bit more :) May God continue to change my attitude towards younger-years (for the better!).. and remind me that I'm at my age and level for a reason! :)

Le retour

2011-01-03T02:46:00.000-05:00

So many things to say, so many things to wrap up and summarize and reflect upon, but as usual, it will have to wait til tomorrow.

But you know what tomorrow is? Tomorrow is the day I've been waiting for all Fall term.

The day we move back in :)

These things are honestly

2010-12-30T02:48:00.000-05:00

not supposed to keep anyone awake at this ungodly hour.

This is Night Number Two of staying-up-late-to-finish-applications-that-were-supposed-to-be-done-eons-ago.

Procrastination, you are very costly indeed.

It is never wise to put things off

2010-12-29T02:51:00.000-05:00

especially when you should've done it two months ago.

Procrastination, thou art a false friend.

The hopes and fears of all the years

2010-12-25T15:19:00.000-05:00

So, if I'm getting this straight, some two thousand years ago, God sent His only Son to this poor earth to save us from our sins?!

Merry Christmas, indeed!!!

:)

For to us a child is born,
   to us a son is given,
   and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:6

Co-op is done!!

2010-12-23T23:15:00.000-05:00

And I am halfway done through university o___O This is quite scary.

*

I'm so overwhelmed by all the things I need to do before the New Year >__< Most especially applying to jobs abroad. I hate this whole need to "convince" the organization why they should hire me, even if I'm "just" applying to research labs. And this "explain why you are interested in what we do" thing.. I wish I could just tell them that it's because their research sounded really cool.. because in truth, it is.

But obviously that's not enough :(

Need to remember:

I cast all my cares upon You
I lay all of my burdens down at Your feet
And anytime I don't know what to do
I will cast all my cares upon You

And:

"Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart." - Psalm 37:4.

*

Updated To-Do List:

[x] Finish work term report (DONE DONE DONE PTL)
[ ] Apply to BII (S'pore) (agghhh cover letters :( )
[ ] Apply to EBI/EMBL (UK)
[x] Finish studying at least 4 units of Japanese
[x] Watch HP7 with HS friends (watched it last night!! :) SO GOOD YO)
[x] Family newsletter
[x] And other stuff to send out (apparently some people already received theirs! :O yay!)
[ ] Insight for Fall 2010 (around 35% done)
~~[ ] Try out the rest of the restaurants on my list of "Places to Eat" downtown~~ (I didn't finish :( )
[ ] Plan out Reading Week activities
[ ] Learn 'Pasko Na, Sinta Ko' on guitar
[ ] Finish round 4 ("Ecstasy") of draw-off with Jacky

Home stretch prayer

2010-12-20T02:07:00.000-05:00

Please, Lord, please don't let me have another hypoglycemic attack this week.

*

Updated To-Do List: (removed the tasks I don't think I will finish by Dec. 25 :( oh well!)

[ ] Finish work term report (one more section to go!!! can't wait til this is done!!!!)
[ ] Apply to BII (S'pore) and EBI/Sanger Institute (UK) (need to be bold and actually ASK for a reference letter -__-)
[x] Finish studying at least 4 units of Japanese
[ ] Watch HP7 with HS friends
[x] Family newsletter
[ ] And other stuff to send out (95% done! mailing out tmr morning!)
[ ] Insight for Fall 2010
[ ] Try out the rest of the restaurants on my list of "Places to Eat" downtown (Went to Japango with Anna on Friday :) I think all that's left is to try the Chinese food trucks at UofT! LOL)
[ ] Plan out Reading Week activities
[ ] Learn 'Pasko Na, Sinta Ko' on guitar

Christmas? Wait, actually?

2010-12-17T23:49:00.001-05:00

This week—nay, this term—felt like it didn't happen at all. Where did all the days go? What became of all those plans to meet up, catch up, visit this person and see that place? Now there are only three days of co-op left, and it's too late to make up for lost time.

And look: it seems that Christmas is coming soon. As usual, it doesn't feel like it, despite the decorations downtown and the carols I've been listening to each morning.

There's always only one place I want to be in at this time of the year, but it is miles away; distant and out of reach.

30 days of no MSN

2010-12-16T01:42:00.000-05:00

(Or Adium, since I use a Mac.)

It's been an interesting thirty days. Learned a lot of things about myself, my parents and brothers, my friends, and a bit of what it takes to be a follower of Christ. I realized that it takes a lot. When they say it takes your whole life, they ain't kidding. (see Luke 9:57-62)

One thing that I noticed during the fast was that I felt rather "disconnected" from the world, even though I was still on other social media. I talked about it today with Jenelle (DG-mate! ♥), who has not had access to her laptop for several months now. She felt disconnected too, especially from CCF (most of the members of which are on Gtalk). But after a while she got used to the lack of internet access, and we both agreed that now, we don't even feel like going on MSN so much anymore.

Success? Maybe. I only survived the temptations through God's grace. There are some things I want to do the next time I go on an IM fast:

Keep a journal to record what I learn everyday/prayer items
Try lent-ing online social media altogether (Facebook, Twitter, limited e-mail, maybe even blogging?)
Plan out devotional times better
Use the phone more.. and actually keep in touch w/ HS friends :P

If I'm brave (sic) enough, I think I may try the fast again during the Winter term.

I'll talk more about the experience some other time.. when my brain's not so dead. For now.. there are so many things to do that I don't think I'm gonna open up Adium again until we get back from Ohio near the end of December xD

Updated To-Do List: (slowly but surely plowing through! current status in red)

[ ] Finish work term report () (done intro and about 1/4 of analysis)
[ ] Apply to BII (S'pore) and EBI/Sanger Institute (UK) (need cover letters, revised CVs, reference letters)
[x] Finish studying at least 4 units of Japanese (YES!!)
[ ] Watch HP7 with HS friends
[ ] Finish round 4 ("Ecstasy") of draw-off with Jacky
[ ] Family newsletter
[ ] And other stuff to send out (about 75% done; aiming to send out by Friday a.m.)
[ ] Insight for Fall 2010 (newly added task. Why do I do this to myselffffff)
[ ] Try out the rest of the restaurants on my list of "Places to Eat" downtown :D
[ ] Plan out Reading Week activities (for when our cousin Josh comes over! yay!)
[ ] Learn 'Pasko Na, Sinta Ko' on guitar (just the ending left)
[ ] Finish watching Sakura Wars (サクラ大戦) (LOL maybe not)

Service

2010-12-13T01:51:00.000-05:00

September 8, 1994: Kong-kong's 75th birthday. Note the innocent, youthful smiles on our faces... :)

I recently found out that my late Kong-kong (公公 or maternal grandfather) and his brothers used to work at a family-operated restaurant :O So cool!! (I was still young when my grandfather passed away, so learning new things about him and his life is awesome) Apparently the brothers had different roles: one of them, our Great-Uncle Ken (Keing-sok), would cook, and was really good at it. Kong-kong, on the other hand, was one of the waiters. Mom said that he was very skilled at holding multiple dishes across his arms at once.. and that he was "really good at serving."

Like I said.. SO COOL!! Obviously "serving" in this context means "serving food," but wouldn't it be something if I could live up to my grandfather's legacy and become "really good at serving" too—just towards God, friends, family and CCF instead?

Been thinking about different serving capacities in CCF next term.. so many possibilities, but (as usual) not enough time! Decision-making is always difficult :( I keep asking myself if I feel a calling towards one position, or if I can handle the workload/responsibility that another position entails. But in the end I guess the correct question is.. which one will glorify God the most?

(.. because for all you know, God could just want me to take a break from CCF altogether.)

*

On a completely unrelated note: It is now 1:49 a.m.; I was planning on getting one cover letter done for a research group (at EMBL) today, but instead I ended up writing one for EA Games. Whaaaaaaaaaat

Before this term ends

2010-12-08T00:20:00.001-05:00

a.k.a. Things to do before Christmas arrives:

[ ] Finish work term report (I have a topic and outline, but no actual words written -__-)
[ ] Apply to BII (S'pore) and EBI/Sanger Institute (UK)
[ ] Finish studying at least 4 units of Japanese
[ ] Watch HP7 with HS friends
[ ] Finish round 4 ("Ecstasy") of draw-off with Jacky
[ ] Family newsletter
[ ] And other stuff to send out
[ ] Try out the rest of the restaurants on my list of "Places to Eat" downtown :D
[ ] Plan out Reading Week activities (for when our cousin Josh comes over! yay!)
[ ] Learn 'Pasko Na, Sinta Ko' on guitar
[ ] Finish watching Sakura Wars (サクラ大戦) (LOL maybe not)

Gotta get down to business *__* (.. and defeat... the Huns!)

Gotta draw strength from Him who is able.

*

And now for your random enjoyment:

(Disclaimer: In my entire life, I have watched a maximum of about 3/4 of an episode of Sailor Moon. Really. I'll explain when I finish the drawing.)

How foolish of me

2010-12-06T00:57:00.000-05:00

to have placed my hopes in anything or anyone other than God. Every single time I do, He causes something to jolt me back to reality—to the fact that only He can fill the God-shaped vacuum in every man's heart (Blaise Pascal).

"It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to trust in princes."
   - Psalms 118:8

The most ironic part is that I almost saw this "jolt" coming, because I've been praying for it to happen. Dang, son. Matthew 7:7 is coming alive right before my eyes.

A choice I cannot seem to make

2010-12-02T07:52:00.000-05:00

今、決められなくて、困ったんだ。ここに滞在するか、あのところにいくか。。。どうすればいいのかなあ。

神様に頼まなくちゃね。。。

Entitlement

2010-11-25T00:28:00.000-05:00

Had another hypoglycemic attack today, at work :| Making the arduous journey to my mom's workplace (to get a ride home), I realized just how disgustingly strong my sense of entitlement has become. Maybe it's not just me, but our whole society: we believe that we MUST have access to instant relief to all kinds of pain; if not, then it's unfair and we're being cheated out of something we deserve.

Obviously we don't deserve such instant gratification.

The pain I experienced today was nothing compared to what many people around the world are going through. Which reminds me.. I wonder how Tita Greva is doing :/ Gonna keep praying for her.

Recurring theme

2010-11-21T01:24:00.000-05:00

It happened again last night: another dream about my old elementary school. Like all the dreams I've had about JCA and my former classmates, it felt very real and believable. The funny thing was, the people in it looked more like their 2002-selves than their present selves, even though I had seen these people in person this year (2002 was the year we moved to Canada). But despite this, I "shrugged" it off and kept dreaming.

Also, like all the JCA-related dreams I've had, I eventually woke up with a strong feeling of regret and sadness.

This recurring dream became less and less frequent after I came to Waterloo, so I'm surprised it still shows up now. I don't miss my elementary school and my friends there (anymore), since it's been so long and I've made other good friends in Canada. They're also all on FB, so communication is not a problem. Maybe what I'm missing is not people, but a past way of life?

I don't understand this.

Updates on life

2010-11-17T23:32:00.001-05:00

1. Trip to East Lansing

Anna and I visited Natalie and Lauren at MSU this weekend :) It was lots of fun catching up with the girls and just frolicking (i.e. shopping + eating out) around the campus and town. MSU, by the way, is HUMONGOUS!!!

Other noteworthy notes include delivering a box of Timbits all the way across the border to the girls, the different-coloured squirrels (they're orange-bellied!! O__O), the super-sketchy Detroit bus terminal, watching Morning Glory + Love Actually + Magic Schoolbus, yummy Triscuits, and the random driver who stopped in the middle of the road 'cuz he was texting. -__-

2. Work

What can I say? Work is work. Actually, work is mostly non-existent as I have to wait for the next part of my project to be clarified.. I also need to find a work report topic. AHHHHHH

The good thing about working at our lab is that I can come in whenever I want. But this usually means that I get in at 10 am, and have to leave at 6 pm, which means I get home at 7:30 and have little time to do much else D:

3. Art

Thank God for art. It helps keeps me sane. :D

Edward Elric from FMA (Gotta love this show. Koks is finishing up the series right now, haha)

Very belated birthday present for Victoria :) featuring some of my OC's who never saw the light of day

4. MSN Fast

I've decided to give up all forms of instant messaging (MSN, GTalk, YM, Skype, etc) for the next month (til Dec. 15). I'd originally planned on doing this for the Lent season next year, but hey, why not try it now, right? My goal is to spend less time on the computer, and more time doing more important things: devos, catching up with family/friends, cleaning up the house and reviewing Jap. So far, I've still been spending lots of time on my Mac, checking FB and stuff >__> but hopefully that'll change soon!

Alright, bedtime. My sleep debt is accruing D:

Whoo-hoo!

2010-11-08T23:43:00.000-05:00

The best e-mail so far this week:

Dear Rosanne,
You have now been enrolled into JAPAN 301R. Please check Quest.

Finally, after many, many e-mails and many, many months of waiting. :) God is good.. and perhaps He will use this to teach me important lessons on humility, diligence and patience.

No turning back now. これからがんばります！！！ (From here on out, I will do my best!)

Visiting the 'loo

2010-11-06T21:00:00.001-04:00

Just got back from a short but pretty epic stay at good ol' WATAHLOOOO =)

The reason why I took the day off and came to visit was because I had a 3 pm interview for JAPAN 301R. The teacher said that my vocab and grammar were still lacking, and that I'd probably have a hard time keeping up in the course.. but because I like ~~inflicting pain on myself~~* challenging myself, I told her I'd still like to try. So she gave me permission to take it without prereqs. Thank God! Now, though, I have to wait to hear back from the registrar's assistant to actually get enrolled -__- 好麻煩..

Sometimes I wonder why I'm going to such great lengths to take a Japanese course. And after that interview, I realized that I'm not really that good/fluent in the language yet, so what makes me think I can get into 3rd year so easily? Am I even doing the right thing..?

I guess I'll just have to find out.

* "Do you like inflicting pain on yourself?" - Jon Lin, when my brother asked if he should go into Electrical Engineering

--

Anyway, I stayed over at Amanda's place for the night, and we had a REALLY intense, thought-provoking talk/catching-up :P I ended up crying, haha.. It was like the Holy Spirit was slapping me across the face, so that finally, I was able to wake up from this spiritual rut I've been in the whole co-op term. Praise God, because He continues to humble me when I become full of myself; He never fails to bring me back down to earth when my head gets in the clouds, and He always, always does what is right for us. I came to Waterloo this weekend expecting to "enjoy and have a good time," but the Lord knew that what I really needed was a wake-up call, so that I may have real joy. What an awesome God :)

--

Other fun/noteworthy things that happened:

Ran into Arin (another Cabot friend who's in UW) on the GO bus!
Lunch w/ Greg and Clare at Da Won. These two.. are SOOO hilarious xDDD Thanks for a memorable time :)
"Visited" Cassie, after not seeing her for so long! :)
Nice Bible study on 2 Samuel 11 and 12. Our group had some good laughs and thoughts.
While Sean was dropping some of us home after CCF, he almost drove into a pole O__O just for kicks. So, really, he's a good driver.. when he wants to be -__-
Cooked a yummy breakfast and hung out w/ Amanda, Diana and Dave! :D So blessed to have such caring friends :)
Russ, Mama and Papa came up today for the open house, so I went with them to act as "tour guide," hehe :) Went to the Eng academic session + multiple rez tours.. I'm getting excited for my brother :D

So tired now, physically and emotionally >__< Need to rest. Good thing DST ~~starts~~ ends tomorrow! :D

Plans

2010-11-04T23:59:00.000-04:00

"Many are the plans in a man's heart,
but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails."
Proverbs 19:21

Been trying to plan so many things these days.

Recently my coworker/classmate Anna and I have been attempting to draw out plans for a study exchange in Europe for Fall 2011, but our course requirements are being big hindrances. It's been frustrating, to say the least. My parents are encouraging me to go for it—opportunities only come once—but how can I, when I can't even find a school that offers more than just one course that we need that term?

And tomorrow. Meeting up with a prof... I don't know how it's gonna go. I'm already starting to stress about it. My heart desires one thing, but God may intend the contrary.

No matter what I plan, and how well I plan it, it is God's will that will prevail. Need to remind myself this..

とにかく、今　日本語を練習しなきゃならないね　:P　もう明日だから！

No one mourns the wicked

2010-10-31T22:47:00.000-04:00

Mom and I went to watch Wicked at the Canon Theatre last week, and it was EXCELLENT :D (So excellent that it was a full house! So many people!!!) The singing was outstanding, the humour was really good, and the plot.. was what I enjoyed the most. It just tied in with everything from The Wizard of Oz, explaining parts of Oz you would never have given a second thought to, like the witch that Dorothy's flying house lands on and stuff. So clever. Plus it had a well-done romantic twist :) which is always a bonus for me, hahaha! The story had a good balance of sad and joyful scenes, making it very memorable (though there were times when someone in the audience would laugh during a sad scene o__O).

I just wished we didn't have to sit so far back; because tickets were so pricey, we decided to get the second-cheapest tickets, which ended up being at the very, very back of the theatre (the only things behind us were the stools! lol!!). We could hardly see any of the players' faces :( Maybe next time!

In any case, because watching good shows always inspires me to draw, here's some art from Wicked :) (The title, btw, is from the musical's opening song. All the rest of the songs were just as good. Especially Defying Gravity!) It's in time for Halloween too! :D

.. Speaking of which, it looks like the trick-or-treating has finally stopped at our place. Seems like the number of kids that come each year is getting fewer :( Maybe they're growing up! Oh well.. MORE CANDY FOR US >:D

Alright, shower + bedtime. Waking up early tomorrow for the annual Scientific Retreat! :D

On speech problems

2010-10-30T13:37:00.002-04:00

I don't know when it started—because when I was in elementary and high school I had no problems with talking—but when university came by, I started slurring my words together. A lot. If you listen to me talk now, you'll find that many of the words I say are actually two words, fused together strangely so that it sounds like I meant to say one or the other, but both come out. It definitely sounds weird.

That's just in English. When I talk in Tagalog now, it's the opposite: I stammer, and repeat the syllables way too often (Tagalog already has a heck of a lot of repeated syllables, but I just keep adding more -__-).

(No comment on my Chinese proficiency; it's decreasing as I blog.)

My speech is bothering me. :(

Most likely causes:

1. I'm not getting enough sleep.

2. The Internet culture is making me lazy.

3. I'm beginning to confuse my languages.

Number one makes a lot of sense.. the amount of sleep I get each night has dropped sharply ever since first year started. Lack of sleep -> can't think straight -> more garbled words coming out of my mouth. (sometimes I feel like my mouth can't catch up with my brain since my brain is always wandering, haha..)

Number two—now that I'm back on a work term, I've been talking more to people online. On MSN and GTalk, you can edit the things you say with the "backspace" button. In real life, you can't. I think I've been trying to emulate the "backspace" in real life.. LOL.

Number three—I've been finding it hard to explain some things in just one language to people who speak the same two/three languages as me (churchmates, family, mom's old friends, mom—who just randomly says things in Cantonese to my brothers and me, expecting us to understand what she's saying -__- LOL). So I'll start off saying something in English, then switch to Tagalog, then add in some bits of Hokkien and go back to English. The thing is, though I know a bit of each language, I'm not fluent in all of them. Heck, I'm even starting to lose my Tagalog—saddest thing ever, I know. So my sentences turn out all muddled and nonsensical; trying to speak all those things is messing up both my pronunciation and my accent -__- I don't even know what my accent is anymore these days >__>

(I love languages though :( I don't want to stick to just one.)

I guess the most obvious solution would be to get more sleep.. and talk more slowly. And talk in one language at a time. Hmmm...

I wonder if anyone else suffers from these kinds of speech problems.

More odd dreams

2010-10-25T22:08:00.000-04:00

I had more strange dreams last night.

In the first one, I dreamt I was answering technical questions in a very informal interview -___- Whoever was interviewing me was asking me how to make dialogue boxes with a bunch of squares in it using Java.. and even though I was sure I gave the right answer, the guy kept correcting me. LOL. Ridiculous, I know, but wait—it gets stranger.

Right after the interview, something happened (can't remember), and all of a sudden, I was being chased... by our old househelper. With a gun. O____O (I don't know why this happened, because I love our househelper in real life T__T) Anyways, I somehow managed to detain her and force her to use up all the bullets in her gun til there were none left, and then I proceeded to knock her out so that I could escape. I completely missed. (Of course.) So I was about to get owned and everything was starting to go black when I realized—oh yes, I'm dreaming. And then, because I was probably dreaming in a dream (INCEPTION LOL), in the calmest fashion ever, I woke up.

I fell back asleep, and the second dream started. I dreamt I was high up on a building in the midst of a snowstorm (.. this is getting to be more and more like Inception, alright). Above and in front of me stretched out a ledge which had a metal grid full of bombs running all across its underside, and for some reason, I had to "cross" the ledge to the other side and back. If you've ever played Crash Bandicoot or Prince of Persia, you'll know what I'm talking about: to get to the other side, you'd have to grab onto the metal grid and "climb" as you would monkey bars; if you fell, you fell to your doom (in this case, a snowy, bottomless ravine). But before I had a chance to move, someone else went ahead of me. It was Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. O__o He got into a few close calls with the bombs, and just when he was about to reach the other side, I woke up.

.
.
.
... HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

Wow. My dreams are always so ridiculous(ly senseless) -__- This is probably what I get for watching Scrapped Princess right before going to bed.

If a dream reveals what's going on in your subconscious, then what do these say about mine..?

Sometimes it feels like

2010-10-20T01:35:00.000-04:00

any day now, I'm going to wake up, and find that all my university experiences and friends were all just a dream. Sometimes it feels like my wishful imagination is just making them up whenever I'm away from Waterloo, because in my whole life I've never encountered such amazing people, and truthfully, I don't deserve such friends and blessings.

Maybe this is a glimpse into what God's grace means.

*

Praise items from this weekend:

FRIDAY

Super-short work day, thanks to my (fail) sleeping in and (even more fail) missing the bus. Arrived at work at 10 pm lolol
Answered prayer: After months of struggle with CS advisors, my coworker Anna was finally able to enroll in all our mandatory courses for Winter, plus the elective she wanted (seriously, Bioinformatics gives us such a hard time during enrollment because of the Science and CS conflicts -__-)
Was able to chat with our primary investigator (the head of our lab) before I left :D She asked me how my work was going, and gave me suggestions on what to do and encouraged me to keep at it. Feels so good to know the work you're doing is not going to waste :)
Fun drive up to Waterloo with Tyler and Sean! For various reasons though (convo with boss + traffic + last-minute packing + helping Mom w/ groceries LOL) we left 30 minutes behind schedule. Apparently I owe a certain someone a steak dinner -__-
Bible study and CCF goodness! (too bad we didn't catch the first part, though)

SATURDAY

Lunch and catching up with Cyn :) Missed this girl so much! She never fails to make me laugh :D
Got PD6 Test 1 done!! BOOYAKACHA! ~~Yes, I went to Waterloo to do work~~
Was able to invite Maica to CCF's Frosh Dinner :) Soooo thankful that the dinner went well, and that she was able to have a good time despite not knowing anyone :)
Good food. Always a blessing, yo
Seeing that the frosh were enjoying themselves at Westcourt :D There are SO MANY OF THEM O__O
HILARIOUS girl talk with Jen, Clare and Portia!!! Laughed so hard my chest started hurting. Baaaahahahaha I love you girls so much :) Wish we can have this more often!

SUNDAY

Thought-provoking sermon at Elevation—on "Wrestling with God"
Filling lunch at Sushi 99 (which someone treated me to! Thanks S.D :) )
Amanda!! And Esther!! 'Nough said :)
Meeting new friends
And chilling with old ones
A very short volleyball rally (man, I miss this sport)
~~Scary~~ fun drive back home with T.L, S.D and J.C. Thanks T.L for always giving us rides :) I'll try not to be late next time. But no, just because I'm calling doesn't mean I'm gonna ask you for a ride, gosh...
Chill times with Jen at home, and being able to drive her to the station (and back) safely at night :P

SO MANY THINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR!!! THANK YOU LORD!!!!!!! :D

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good

2010-10-12T00:13:00.000-04:00

His love endures forever. - Psalm 136:1

*

.. dahil kahit papaano, marami pa rin tayong pagpapasalamatan sa Diyos (Because despite everything, we still have lots to thank God for).

Happy Thanksgiving :)

What I've been up to lately

2010-10-07T00:27:00.000-04:00

... not much really :P Since I get home around 7 pm everyday, there's just enough time to eat dinner, doodle, play guitar, chat with family, and learn this on the piano. Each day is monotonous (as expected of co-op life)... so I gotta pick it up and make the most of all this time I've been given. (see Jo and Jo's posts)

For now I've been drawing—just random figures that I've been wanting to draw for a while. Here's one of those characters: Edward Elric from FMA. I wonder what (or who) he's grinning at?? :D

When life gives you theme songs - updated

2010-10-02T02:21:00.001-04:00

So in the summer of last year, back when I still kept both this and my Xanga, I wrote up a post about friends' theme songs. I decided to update it a bit :)

*

A lot of times I'll listen to some music, and it'll immediately bring back really strong memories of someone. Is that common? Songs are how I remember people, time periods, places, Sunday School lessons (lol!) or all of the above :P. I don't know when this associating started.. it's an on-going thing, hehe :)

Here's my own list (so far!) of friends' theme songs.. there's an explanation or a particular memory behind each one (just ask if you're curious!). It's a pretty random collection :P

CCF:
Brian - I'm on a Boat [The Lonely Island]
Dan - Empire State of Mind [Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys]
Dave Yew - How He Loves [John Mark McMillan]
Greg - Time's Scar [Yasunori Mitsuda/Chrono Cross OST]
Heng - With Everything [Hillsong]
Jacky - Collide [Howie Day]
Jacob - Lucky [Jason Mraz ft. Colbie Caillat]
James - Desert Song [Hillsong]
Jello - Superstar [Lupe Fiasco]
Jon Ting - Never Change [J. Han ft. Sam Ock]
Jo Wu - Knock You Down [Keri Hilson ft. Ne-Yo & Kanye West]
Mark - You Belong with Me [Taylor Swift]
Noni/Nic - Doushite [DBSK]
Raymond (Pikachu) - Kiss the Rain [Yiruma]
Sally - The Scientist [Coldplay]
Sean - Gitara [Parokya ni Edgar]
Tyler - Need You Now [Lady Antebellum]

South 6:
Cynthia - Teardrops on My Guitar [Taylor Swift]
Serena - Nobody [Wonder Girls]
Suneethi - Private Dancer [Danny Fernandes]

Cabot:
Bernadka - Wonderwall [Oasis]
Jaimee - Harry Potter theme
Nerissa - Crank That (Soulja Boy) [Soulja Boy Tell 'Em]
Rishan - I Kissed a Girl [Katy Perry]
Yoo Jung - Arigatou [BON'Z]

MFBC:
Janine - One Night with Chocolate [Bonnie Pink]

Valleys:
Jungho - Konayuki [Remioromen]

JCA:
Bernice - Tell Me Where It Hurts [MYMP]
Kenn - Rebound [Silent Sanctuary]
Miko - Village of Dali [Nobuo Uematsu/FFIX OST]

There's more, but either I can't remember or the connection between person and song still isn't strong enough.

And as for me.. I think my theme song would be Life by YUI. Hahaha.. iunno :)

For a future post: "when life gives you an original soundtrack."

Day off

2010-09-30T10:26:00.000-04:00

The joys of taking the day off work due to sickness:

Save $9.50 on transportation costs (bus + TTC)
Save ~2.5 hours on travel time
Get to sleep in
Get to recuperate
No temptations to spend money on snacks
No need to waste time doing unproductive things when bored at work
Won't spread the sickness to coworkers
No need to breathe in polluted downtown air
More time for quiet/devo/doodle time :D
Get to use own Mac instead of Windows 7 (ha!)
+ many more

:) I'm just thankful this cold/cough hit now, and not during our Asia trip or the Fall retreat. God has some pretty awesome timing.

And now that I have some free time, I've been looking through pictures from this summer.. they sure look inviting.

The view from our relatives' place in Panglao island, Bohol

That place we call Home

2010-09-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

My brother has summed up our trip so powerfully, I couldn't have said it better myself: http://www.facebook.com/notes/raymond-borja/thoughts-of-home/10150089556584115

Yes, Ma'am

2010-09-16T22:03:00.000-04:00

We're back in Canada, and I don't know how to feel. I already miss my cousins and friends and all the nostalgic things and tasty food there, but at the same time I'm relieved to be home. (I missed my Canadian friends too :) )

I was about to blog about how weird (and awkward) it feels to be treated royally back in the Philippines, but then I realized I've kinda been expecting the same treatment here, ever since we came back :/ Jet lag has been making me sleepy at all the wrong times, so when I get home from work I don't have the motivation to unpack our suitcases and cook dinner and stuff. So I let my mom do all the work -__- Argh.. this has GOT to change!!

But yes, life is indeed very, very different in the Philippines. Because of the huge disparity between the rich and poor, if you've got money, you're served very well, and if you don't, well, you're the one who does the serving. My relatives there are blessed to be able to afford a comfortable lifestyle, and so living with them was like living the high life. Like many families there, my relatives have househelpers (katulong) to cook meals, clean up the house, open the driveway gate.. but even though I grew up with househelpers, I don't think I can get used to them anymore. Iunno.. it just pains me to see someone my age or a little older serving me breakfast. Of course, when I was younger the househelpers were a lot older, so it didn't feel out of place for them to help me do things, but now.. :/ Some families do treat their househelpers very well, but unfortunately, others don't, and that's what grieves me the most.

And speaking of the high life, the malls—! The malls there are so amazing, you'll forget you're living in a country where over 75% of the population lives under the poverty line. As my older brother put it, "Third-world country outside, First-world lifestyle inside." Some malls, like SM Mall of Asia (MOA) or SM North EDSA are bigger than Yorkdale and Square One combined.. twice. It's ridiculous, like the back o' yo' head.

I think what struck me the most about the malls there was how all the stores were overstaffed, so there were always salesladies/men calling out to us whenever we passed by, saying things like "Yes ma'am... Just take your pick, ma'am... What kind would Ma'am like?" It was even more pronounced in the flea markets - in EVERY corner, you could hear a "Yes ma'am!" :P (.. yes, they say it in English) And the salespeople are actually REALLY helpful—like, they actually make suggestions!

(Then again, since there are so many of them, of course they'd want to be outstanding.)

I guess the question that's been on my mind is.. is it wrong to receive this kind of service? Is there something I can do about it?

More stories and pics later!

Humour runs in the family

2010-09-08T05:01:00.001-04:00

Just got back from Cebu, and now currently in our cousins' place in Manila :) There is WAY too much stuff to blog about (and definitely not enough time right now), so I'll start with this little post - awesome quotes from our (paternal) grandmother, Lola Soling (some translated from Bisaya and/or Tagalog):

Auntie: So Rosanne will sleep on the [mattress on the] floor, and I'll sleep beside you on the bed.
Lola: No, YOU'RE sleeping on the floor.

*

Dad: (recording with videocam) Hello Lola! How are you feeling now that your grandchildren are here?
Lola: Happy!
Dad: Are you happy because your grandchildren are here, or because we're about to buy you some beer?
Lola: Well, the beer too..

*

(leaving for the airport - this was just this morning)
Us: Bye Lola!
Lola: Bye! Don't get married yet!!

*

I love my lola :D

2B, rewound: What I learned from Cardill

2010-08-21T14:55:00.000-04:00

Part 2: Housing.

Over the past two study terms, living at Cardill has taught me that:

Having to call 911 is a very possible event.
I don't think I ever blogged about it, but a drunk guy tried to break into our basement once, thinking he was in his own house o__O. While my housemates and I huddled in my room, I called 911 to ask for help. The police came VERY quickly, and escorted the drunk guy out in a matter of minutes. It was impressive.

Bugs are not to be feared.
Since we lived in a basement—and an old, dank basement at that—we had a lot of little "visitors." And because some of my housemates didn't take too well to bugs, Amanda and I had to do most of the killing. Nowadays when I see insects, I just end their misery quickly before I get grossed out xD I think over time, even Diana got over her fear a bit, hehe.

Even onions can go bad
when you put them in a dark, damp drawer.

Those voices you hear outside your window can only be one of three things: rain, stray cats, or your elderly next-door neighbour calling for the stray cats. In a European accent.
"Kitty! Here kitty kitty! Come on, kitty!"

You can never take A/C for granted.
SO THANKFUL for air conditioning during the summer months!!! To fellow Waterloo students: if you're looking for summer housing, make sure you get housing with A/C. It's definitely worth it, especially at night.

Living with sisters in Christ is priceless.
'Nough said. :)

Even though I definitely wouldn't live here again, I no longer regret living at Cardill (like I did when we first moved in). And I can't believe I'm saying this, but despite the distance, the inconvenience, the age and the uncleanliness of the whole place, I'm actually thankful that we ended up here.

My lovely housemates ♥ Thanks girls for making second year so memorable!!