Toronto

Awesome time in toronto made up for the obscene price i paid to visit Canada. thanks to the lovely company that i have and sweet jewel who still played such a great host despite her sickness. though our "tai-tai" style travelling is just a tad bit pricey.

cheers to our tai tai lunch. and many many taxi rides.

So we still managed to visit the Royal Ontario museum.

The St. Lawrence Market in Old Town.

The beautiful church we passed by which happens to be the tallest in North America.

The CN tower.

And the next day was shopping in Eaton Shopping mall (biggest in toronto but hmm...) and lunch/dinner at K Town :)

the awesome team

the send off

N now my lonesome dinner at UTC. So freakin bored cos everyone else is having lesson on campus and I'm just hobo-ing and without a room to laze in. arghh.... until my sweet friend comes home and open up her room for hobo me to bunk.

Kinda getting tired of bunking... can't wait for the roadtrip to start and have proper motels to stay in...

missing "home"

It's really strange to find myself missing my "home" back in San Diego while at my lil getaway in Canada. Guess in the 3 months time, I have developed a sense of attachment and familiarity to the place. In the cold freezing environment here, I really just miss the sun, the beach, and the warmth of california. The cold that isnt really all that cold. The cold that's refreshing and not bitter or biting.

Kingston is a real small town and I guess it is a really fun experience even at getting there itself. I had to change 3 flights to get there. San Diego to Chicago then to Toronto and finally Kingston. And the last flight to Kingston was really cute. The plane was sooo tiny and I was so tickled and amused to find out that there were just 9 passengers and just 2 rows of seats in the plane. So I had both the window and the aisle seat. Awesome. And the pilot announcement wasn't made through the PA system but really just him getting out of the cockpit (which we have full view of) and physically making the announcement. So the journey there was really fun (and torturous at the same time). And I'm so thankful to have sam to drive me to the San Diego airport in the wee hours and my friend and her two sweet friends picking me up by cab from the airport in Kingston.

Anyway 2 days in Kingston was spent lazing in my friend's dorm, shopping and clubbing. It feels so good to see her again after such a long time and I'm really grateful for her hospitality. It really does feel like a second exchange minus the school work. Just the lifestyle immersion. Pretty cool experience. Strangely I also found myself in weird instances as my friend had noted such as attempting to wear spring wear in 3 degrees celsius at the jetty, and last night's running to the liquor store to catch it before it closes in our full thick and heavy winter wear in negative degrees celsius temperature.

And today was the big travel down to Toronto for the weekend. So why the word big? All thanks to the bunch of airheads at Canada Coach, we were delayed to the next coach and had to arrive Toronto much later. Such a crappy system and nonsensical staff members who refused to admit their personal mistake and company's inadequacy. Even the coach driver in the next coach who witnessed our being "bullied" pitied us. But i guess these few months have really toughened me up and I take no nonsense. So though there's still unresolved problem and displeasure, at least I can say that we had shown ourselves not to be any asian pushover.

And i guess the coldness does translate to the coldness of the people maybe. I really find californians much more warm and friendly. 2 more days in Canada, let's see if I will have a different opinion of canada.

After the exams... Start of hobo life

Hobo life started the minute exams end. Madness crazy run of events with the dinner with e 2 dearies from cell.

simple but sweet get together time at TGIF. really thank God for these peeps that i meet in UCSD n C3.

Then it was the madness packing and futile mugging for the supposed last exam paper on friday which turned out bogus when i was greeted by an empty exam hall on friday morning. madness... this is what u get when u skipped too many classes. u have no idea if the exam was cancelled or moved forth or venue changed... so u just hope for the best that it's cancelled. :S

After clearing the entire room out, finally it was time to kick start the endless travelling nomad days with snowboarding at Big Bear with my favourite people sam eun taek jae kyun n so yeon. Quite surprisingly it doesn't hurt to fall somehow (maybe i am lucky) and i managed to picked up the sport in just a few hours :D Uber fun!

Then on Saturday afternoon it was time to leave Big Bear and hit Sin City with alex and sam. And we're joined or rather we joined laura & c0 who also happened to be travelling in Vegas.

Some highlights: Caught the Lion King musical which was so spectacular, gambled roulette at the casino, and *drum rolls* visited the hottest strip club :S

N now here i am tired from the endless flight transit and waiting to board my last flight to Kingston, Canada. awww~~~ tired. didnt sleep on sunday night cos of the strip club and yesterday too cos I gotta make my way to the airport in the wee hours to catch my flight to Canada. And really thank God for sam who drove me to the airport and lost sleep as well. It would have been real freaky to go there alone. San Diego airport is such a tiny depressing desolated place!

C3 love from last sunday in C3

Last Sunday at C3 last sunday. Nostalgia is setting in already...

And now its still the exams nightmare. 2 down and 2 more to go. arghhh~~

And i really know nuts for this coming two! :S

And it's so messed up that I have to pack my entire room back into my luggage n backpack in these 2 days time while i mug away like a mad woman :S

weekend before exams :S

Last surf class today. Went for 2 classes straight one after another to make up for the classes missed. And it was so tiring but fulfilling. It was super high tide and the waves real huge and of course fun! :)

Right after was the guest lounge ministry gathering at Lily's place. Really feelin' and lovin' the C3 love. :) This is not the end. We'll see each other again for sure. Thanks for the warm welcome.

And now it's time to make up for lost time. Massive cramming session for exams ARGHHH :S

Happy Birthday to me

Celebrating my birthday away from home and friends in a foreign land for the first time. And for the first time it also coincides with the exams and a paper due the next day. Goodness.

But thanks to all my sweet fellow exchange students dearies here in UCSD, things are really much much better. thanks for the lovely surprise at 12am and aww my darling eun taek and sam really just make my exchange here so much more heart warming. n lovely so yeon who tries her best to trick me to the venue. :)

And thank you to my 2 sweet dudes for ditching the books to have awesome dinner with me tonight as well :)

and cheers to my fatigue-filled cui face after an entire night up at the library right after the celebration with jin young to rush my final research paper for gesture out. omgosh... really tasting my bad retribution of skipping gesture class for sleep. :S

exchange STUDENT

the finals is really really looming now. Just one week away and I have a final research paper due this friday for a module which i have hardly showed up in class the entire time. :S

Finally, I feel myself becoming an exchange STUDENT. this time with the emphasis on student rather than exchange. this is how bad I have been slacking:

me: haha this is the first time I'm in the library. never knew how it looked like inside...

so yeon: oh.. so where do u usually study?

me: oh? I haven't been studying...

And we really study so hard in the library...

Get Real

Really love C3 and pastor jurgen. can't agree more with the importance of being real and getting real with people. away with the super religious mask and just grab a life and get real. And looking back at this entire exchange experience, I suddenly realized that contrary to what I had been thinking, I've actually achieved quite almost all that I have set out to do. Going to college and church, meeting all kinds of people. N C3 and college has taught me so much more than I would have back in my comfort zone back home. It's so good to meet challenging people in school and church is just so much more enriching with the opportunities for applications and context for better understanding.

Im so gonna miss ucsd and c3 church. And I think indeed I've widen my horizon and I've grown.

party time and breaking of the surfing hiatus!

Went for the college semi-formal yesterday. the food was real bad. portion was wayyyyy too little. It's crazy. Like all college events. The food always runs out way too early. But the music was alright and the friends were awesome. :)

And saturday today felt so relaxing and good surprisingly after all the madness weekends of trying to explore san diego or going on roadtrips. i FINALLY went for the next surf class after lots of cancelled sessions due to bad weather and roadtrips etc. And I'm just happy to hit the water w my wetsuit n surfboard. And sweet mariko packed onigiri lunch for sam n i! :D

After surfing, the afternoon was sooo well spent just relaxing at starbucks at Pacific Beach. I felt so comfortable in this foreign land and it feels pretty like home suddenly. And yeah with this comes a tinge of sadness that this new lifestyle is soon gonna come to an end. yet at the same time, i do miss the lovely peeps back home. mixed feelings.

And to top the day off it was Alice in wonderland with sam, eun taek, sam choi and laura! :)