Although most of my posts are on my explorations and trips around here, I’m still the very obedient and industrious class-attending girl whom you all know! Yeah!

And I shall prove it!

See the heart shape in my notebook? It’s a water stain! This proves that I’ve been hard at work! (or just didn’t know how to close my free coffee mug tight enough before placing it in my bag)

This was my make-do transparency for my presentation in class today! Can you tell that it’s actually a yellow plastic folder? I borrowed a permanent marker from my housemate to write on the file. So instead of buying a piece of transparency and printing on it which will cost me about $1, I found my way of spending $0. Afterall, aren’t transparencies environmentally unfriendly? Haha, Shaina said I’m innovative. I think there’s a thin line between this form of innovation and being cheapskate. Bah.

On another note, I joined a Writing Creative Non-Fiction workshop today! I was really lucky to get the last spot of 16 students. It’s an 8-session workshop that costs $375 (which is relatively cheap, by Canadian standards), that will hopefully hone my writing skills, which you should be happy about, because you, by extension, will be reading better stuff. Or so you and I hope.

Have I already boasted here that I joined Karate?

Well, now you know!

And I received my gi (aka karate uniform) today!

If you thought I was eccentric….think again.

Presenting to you, my comical housemates (who I rely on for insight into Canadian culture?)(my gi was borrowed for the following purpose):

“Connie has karate chopped Alison” (Facebook joke)

Hmm…

I didn’t know letting Singlish roll off my tongue after being pent up for a month could be so liberating haha.

Three weeks ago I met a Singaporean in one of my classes; a week or two after that I heard Singlish in the same class and three of us got acquainted; and then today one of us bumped into another Singaporean in the bathroom and so 4 of us attending the same class got acquainted.

SRC (Singapore Raffles Club, the Singapore student association equivalent in UBC, although anyone is welcome to join) had an ice-breaker session today, and so we went and got acquainted with even more Singaporeans. The food wasn’t too good, the games not exciting, but it was a good meet-other-Singaporeans session I suppose.

My $0.02 worth: Overseas Singaporeans (especially so) really need to work on their EQ (emotional intelligence). This I say after having met Singapore students both in Shanghai and here. (Of course, myself included)

And I finally got to take a picture with Joy, a friend from Pri/Sec school yay!

The laundry guy (I call him this because I first met him in our hostel’s laundry room one midnight), Joy, and me!

16 September 2007

I haven’t cooked in like…3 months? Today was the first time I cooked in Canada, and thankfully it was good! Haha, but I guess you can’t really go wrong with Japanese Curry. My housemates were surprised I could whip this up, since they have only seen me prepare meals like sandwiches, salads, oven-baked instant pizzas or microwaved soups.

Sorry for the rather horrible picture of “Xanne can cook”, my housemate Connie took it hmmph.

The ingredients: Garlic, onion, carrots, potatoes, chicken breast, oil.

It took me a while just to get the ingredients ready. Around half an hour to forty-five minutes. But don’t you think I sliced the ingredients rather aesthetically? No? Haaha

Stir fry the onion and garlic first, and then dump everything in haha. Stir, stir, and stir.

Then add water till it covers about 3/4 of the food, bring it to a boil, and then adjust the heat on medium, and leave it covered for half an hour.

After which, turn off the heat and add the japanese curry cube (I used glico brand), keep stirring to let it melt. Tada! Ready to eat with rice, bread, or whatever you want.

The picture above this one was my experiment-turned-success, whilst this one was the hopefully-successful-and-fortunately-was.

Guten Appetit!

*Updated*

I LOVE IT HERE!!!

I decided to save even more money by changing my mobile plan ($36/mth excluding tax) to a pay-as-you-go plan (if I don’t call much, I think I can keep it within $10/mth?). To do so requires a $25 service charge. After doing some calculations (my favourite activity these days, huh), I’ll still save quite a bit ($79) after paying the extra $25 for my impulsiveness in signing for a mobile plan that costs so much (but has perks like free incoming calls, and unlimited outgoing calls during evenings and weekends! But I realized I don’t call nor receive calls that much?). Anyway, the customer relations officer at Fido tried to persuade me to change my plan at no charge to a $15/mth plan, which is apparently only offered to me and not at retail stores because I intend to downgrade my plan? After doing the arithmetic with her offer I was adamant about changing my account to a prepaid one and she relented and proceeded with the deactivation. The thing is, she deactivated my account without letting me have any value in my phone first, so the line was disconnected and I couldn’t make any calls! I couldn’t even top-up value in my phone even though I thought I was well-prepared by having purchased a prepaid voucher the other day? I used Skype to call the customer service line again and managed to input value into my line. The girl called back later and apologized profusely and thanked me for staying with Fido. She then told me the great news — due to her oversight, the line got disconnected, so THERE WILL BE NO $25 CHARGE for my migration from my mobile plan to prepaid! Yay!

Then there are the other obvious reasons:

1) Very fresh air

2) Very enforced and successful environmentally-friendly system

3) People here are very friendly and eager to help

4) Everyone holds the door for everyone

5) My campus is surrounded by beaches

6) Wheelchair-friendly public transport and infrastructure

7) Those who manage to get a seat on the bus first sits at the window seat

Easy to navigate your way around, especially with the help of trip planning by TransLink

9) Very, very diverse community

10) You can just voice out your dissatisfaction/grievances

11) I rarely hear car horns

12) Not a single spit on the ground has been seen

13) I am experiencing the beginnings of Autumn (a season negligible in Shanghai)

14) Even when there’s noise from nearby construction work, the noise stops by 5pm or so

15) I can access any site I want on the internet

16) Professors hand out the syllabus on the very first lesson so we know what she will be talking about for every class so that we can be well-prepared

17) There is REESE chocolate

18) Ice-cream like Ben & Jerry’s is relatively cheap?

19) The view from my room is very refreshing

20) Overwhelming eye candy. There seems to be something about the weather or the whole environment to produce such aesthetically inclined people. Hmm, now I know why I could concentrate better in classes back in Fudan. Haha.

21) Homework for class is to watch a trailer from Youtube!

22) Classrooms have tables for left-handers

23) Students debate with what teachers say almost all the time

24) Cars stop for you even if you’re jaywalking

25) The fact that the list cannot stop? The fact that I can think of many things to add on this list every single day.
…

Have I told you I love it here?

I LOVE IT HERE!!!

these are your daily doses.

Yeah yeah, I’m stingy, I’m a miser, and very ungenerous when it comes to certain things.

Most of my friends know that I bitch a lot about the smallest things. Hmm. I’ve been here in Vancouver for 2 weeks now, and I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Nothing…other than my whines on the cost of textbooks. So. I decided to cut cost on textbooks, because I am a sore loser in the publisher-reader game. I don’t know why I feel so unwilling to spend so much money on textbooks here, to the extent of becoming a laughing stock among my housemates for making it to the top of their cheapskate friends’ list. Hmm.

Back in Fudan, I never photocopied a book, although that can be done so easily and inexpensively. All you have to do is pass the book to the staff at the shop and collect your book and photocopied version a couple of hours later or latest the next day, bounded with a cover page even, and pay almost peanuts. However, textbooks over there are already rather affordable (come on, S$4 for a textbook?), heavily discounted on several occasions (student perks), or the text is already a photocopied book available for collection in the teachers’ office.

Today, I stood in front of the photocopy machine for nearly an hour to photocopy 2 books — a novel and a play. They don’t have such a photocopying service here to copy a book, afterall there are copyright issues, and if I really wanna do so I have to pay 20 cents for every page, which will cost me way more than the cost of the book itself. I believe there will be more photocopying done by me over the next few days. Haha. The censored books below cost $10.50 (used book) and $13.95 each, exclusive of tax, but they were photocopied for approximately $2 each. I will be returning these books to the bookstore for my refund soon. Yippeeee!

Sorry venerable author and playwright, for depriving you, or your family if you aren’t around, for your fees, which I’m sure the publishers take a big portion of anyway.

Tomorrow, after asking my friend whether she wants to join me in hanging out at the photocopy machine to copy our TC text together (500+ pages, so I’m crossing my fingers that she’s as cheapo as me), I’ll be able to save about $60 on the TC text! There are some books I won’t be copying so I’ll be absorbing the cost, but the total savings for books I will photocopy is $100! Yay!

On UBC Library’s website (strike has been ongoing for 7 weeks):

‘Tis campus life in the beginnings of autumn

The clock tower in UBC, not used as a landmark as much as Fudan University’s statue of Chairman Mao, but a prominent feature nonetheless.

To me, the first time I arrived in the classroom building was like stepping into a scene from american high school tv.

KFC is a small fry (or chicken, if you will) here.

I bought an American Eagle Outfitters sweater and I fit a SMALL!

Look how ang moh I’m becoming! Haha…

It’s not even the complete set yet. And I’ve parted with $425.18 CAN.

S$595.25!!!

And I still have more books to buy! I’m already buying some used books! Arrgh! Sorry, I just can’t get over it. It’s wayyyyyyyy too expensive, textbooks here. Wayyyyyyyy too costly.