Scary... Scary... Scary...

I haven't watched a horror film this nice for a very long time. The Exorcist really deserved the praise, good ratings, and legendary fame that it had enjoyed all these years even though it was relased in 1973, a good 32 years ago. I never really liked horror films because I find them too boring. Most of the time, I take horror films as comedies, laughing at the people who get scared so easily (yes, I'm that evil), but I can't help liking The Exorcist. For those people who like to enjoy a good movie, I'll definitely recommend it. But if you get scared easily by horror films, please, please, please don't watch it. I don't want to be blamed for your sleepless nights. Note: Some scenes are really gross and violent, even by today's movies standard.

Depressed

Sigh... Less than 2 weeks of receiving my camera, my F$%$&*%# SD card is spoilt. I have no idea why. It can't even be formatted! Somehow, I got very depressed over it. Now I'll have to wait for my dear to send me the 256Mb SD card over for me before I can take more pictures, and that's going to take about 2 weeks. And I'll also have to send back this 512Mb SD card for her to take it for replacement. If the vendor somehow don't honour the warranty, I'll really F^%& him upside down.

ARGH!!! I'm just so depressed by this that I couldn't bring myself to do anything at all. And there are assignments to be done, readings to be read, but I just couldn't bring myself to do them. Why have I been so unlucky? Furthermore, this weekend, I'm planning to go to the Grouse Mountain and Stanley Park. Yet I can't take pictures. How much more frustrating can it get? ARGH!!!

Oh well... That's not to say that nothing nice happened today, of course. Went to have Vietnamese food for lunch with some people. Got to know a Hong Kong girl and a Japanese girl in the process. After that, we even went to the Museum of Anthropology. I also learnt some interesting facts. One of them being that Japanese are actually not that open-minded still. A Korean girl, Bin, said that she was shocked when she saw people kissing openly in the public in Vancouver. The Japanese girl I got to know today, Kumiko, actually said that she was shocked by that too. Apparently they don't do that in Japan. So much for thinking that Japanese are very open-minded. Lesson learnt. Don't think that anime, manga, and Japanese movies really reflect the common Japanese culture. Haha.

Crazy Canadians...

I had my first shock... There was this party going on in my residence. I didn't buy the tickets for it and wasn't planning to go for it at all. But when I was going to the toilet, the residence president gave me a free ticket (he has a lot of them) and asked me to consider going. I was thinking, since it's a C$8 ticket for free, might as well just hope down to see how a Canadian party is like. Stepping out of my block, I already saw a girl knocked out on the floor. Further down, another girl was smoking something that didn't smell like cigarette when I walked past her and a guy was like trying to stop her. On the way to the Commonsblock, more people just shouting like crazy, drunk, and even knocked out. Saw a friend who was coming out of the party, and asked her how was it. She said it was just another party with people getting drunk and doing drugs. A drunk guy actually came over and harassed her as we were talking. All I did after that was to walk her back to her block, and came right back to my own room. On the way, I heard someone asking one of the advisors about ambulance or something. They call this a party?

Just had to get this down.

I just had to get these two pictures uploaded. Took them in Metrotown today. So cute!!!

Potluck!!!

Finally got to eat some Asian food. Went to a potluck party and made more new friends, mostly Asians. Once again, I was amazed by how small this world is. This friend of mine knowing another friend etc.

Some thoughts on coming alone

I'm starting to like anthropology classes. It really gets me thinking a lot, especially in my current situation.

We were studying about fieldwork today. One of the issues we discussed about was going into fieldwork alone. Malinowski, the most famous pioneer of fieldwork methods, proposed that one should go on fieldwork alone. Only when one is alone, can he infuse into the society and participate more fully in their activities. Only when one is alone, can he be away from the comfort of the company of his companions, and be able to observe and study the subject society.

Sometimes I felt a bit lonely coming here alone, not knowing anyone, not having a group of friends to always go out with. Yet, reflecting back, it's because I came here alone, I am able to mix around with people from other nations, observe how people of other culture behave etc instead of just mixing around with my own group of friends. It's because I'm here alone, I was able to do more reflecting, take more photos, mix around with more people. So perhaps it was good that I came alone.

It is not to say that I don't feel lonely, of course. When I see the beautiful gifts of nature, interesting events, unbelievable sights, I'm always wishing my dear was beside me, sharing with me these moments. I wish to share the happiness with her. Although away from her, I get more time to do things of my own, I miss her lots and wish she was here to share with me all the experience. I guess my world really can never be my own again. She's been part of my life, is part of my life now, and will always be.

Oh well. 91 more days before I get to see her!

Fieldwork

In Anthropology, we learnt about fieldwork: going to a different society, living there physically for a certain period of time, participating fully in their activities to learn about them. This is the main work of social anthropologists. My lecturer has actually gone on fieldwork before. Reflecting on it, SEP seems like a mini fieldwork. Coming to UBC, I'm learning so much about the Canadian culture, much more than what I could have learned by reading. Even the feelings experienced are the same. Excitement, loneliness, curiousity etc. I'm so glad I came on this SEP.

A phrase I think I'll never forget:

Making the strange familiar, and the familiar strange.

really summaries what happens when people start living in another society. My anthropology lecturer used it to summarise what social anthropologists do. I wonder who came up with the phrase, but it really sums it up well.

Comm 329 Group

Today we had our 1st actual group work in Commerce Course 329, Principles of Organizational Behaviour. Last week, I was pretty afraid that with a group this big (7 of us), it would be difficult to work together. Luckily, we were really a bunch of fun loving peopl. Somehow we seemed to work quite well on the 1st small project. I hope this will continue on.

After class, we had a small discussion for our next project. We actually had the discussion on a grass patch outside the Henry Angus Building. Although it wasn't really anything much, but it's still something that most Singaporeans would have only seen in movies and shows and not tried it. In fact, here in UBC, it's quite common to see people sitting on grass patches all around to study, to relax, or for discussions. For one thing, the weather here is much cooler, allowing us to stay outside. For another, most of the grass here is carpet grass, so it's actually quite nice to sit on the grass and study.

Brrr...

Just saw the weather forecast. The temperature for the day is between 10 and 15 degrees. Even the highest temperature is lower than having airconditioning in Singapore...

Stupidity displayed in public

I can't believe how stupid some people can be. Last night, my friends and I were waiting at the bus stop for the bus to come back to school after clubbing. At that time, it was about 1am. Then we saw this guy walking up to another guy on the streets and gave him a punch in the face. This may not sound very stupid, until you realise that there were cops right in the area. There were at least 5 police cars parked just a few metres away, not surprising because that area is the place where people hang out on Saturdays. It's full of clubs and pubs. Obviously, within seconds, he was arrested, pinned down by police. Before we know it, TEN cops surrounded him. Some of them went on to pulling some people out of a black limousine. Probably he came out from the black limousine or something. Really entertaining show... Haha.

Some photos of Nitobe Garden

Here are some of the photos I took in Nitobe Memorial Garden. Of course, there are a lot more on my hard disk, but I can't possibly post them all up here...


Here's me and Myung Sun at the entrance of the Nitobe Garden.





Two views of the lake.



This model of a Japanese house is a real tea house!

Some Japanese arts on display in the Asian Centre.

A display of Chinese moral values in UBC

Mid Autumn Festival!!!

Just found out from Gladys that it's Mid-Autumn today! But it's not really celebrated here. I completely forgot about it until Gladys reminded me by eating a mooncake in front of the web cam, just to spite me...

Fun morning

I had a really fun morning this morning visiting the Japanese Nitobe Memorial Garden and the Museum of Anthropology. Me and the Korean girl (Myung Sun) who went with me took a lot of photos of all the interesting scenery and exhibitions.

The Nitobe Memorial Garden was rather small. We managed to cover it in just one hour. But they actually have a model of a Japanese traditional house in it.

The Museum of Anthropology, on the other hand, is quite big. We had a very interesting guided tour of some of the exhibitions. Now I finally know the significance of all the totem poles of the First Nation people and how to tell the difference between them. And we still couldn't cover even half of the museum! Luckily, it's free for UBC students to enter the Nitobe Garden and the museum. It costs Canadian $8 for each entry! I'm definitely going again. I finally know why the Museum of Anthropology is such a popular tourist attraction.

It seems like when people gather at a foreign place, those who already knew each other would clique together and go exploring together, while those who are alone would then get together among the few of them. That's why I've been going out with just a few people, because I happen to be one of the few alone ones. So lonely... But I guess it's OK. I'll just have to go exploring on my own sometimes.

Gloomy Day

Today was a rather gloomy day, with overcast skies all day long and very light drizzle for most part of the day. Coupled with my boring lessons, I felt too lazy to do anything at all. Almost wanted to skip a lesson (super, boring Computing lecture), but still went for it in the end. I just hope that tomorrow will be a better day. It has better be good, because I'll be going to the Nitobe Garden and the Museum of Anthropology! More photos!

The Canadian flagpole in UBC.

"Tuum Est - It Is Yours" That's the motto of UBC. This can be found in the Rose Garden.

Should have posted this earlier. This is the picture that I mentioned that Gladys printed out for me and sent it to me with the camera and all. It's now proudly sitting at my desk on a photo frame.

Rainy morning

It's started to rain. Rain here means that it'll rain for a long time. Basically, it doesn't really rain like in Singapore, but it drizzles. For a long time.

Running

Wow... Running in such cold weather is no mean feat. I grew out of breath really fast and it was tough catching my breath after running. And I only ran for 15 minutes! Maybe next time I should also wear a track suit to protect myself against the cold wind and do some jogging instead of running.

Lots of new photos!

This blog is starting to become like a photo blog. I just uploaded a number of new photos. But believe me, I took many more photos than what I uploaded. I think I'll fill up my hard disk with photos when I finally go back to Singapore. There are so many places that I haven't been to yet. I'll be going to the Japanese Garden, the Museum of Anthropology blah blah on Saturday, so I'll have more chances to take photos again. ;) Believe it or not, the few places I'm planning to go on Saturday are on the UBC campus. I wonder how am I going to finish exploring Vancouver in the four months I'm here, especially while studying.

Speaking of studying, despite having no lessons today, I actually stayed in the Koerner Library (the one that looks like an open book) for the whole afternoon doing readings. So sad right? Oh well. Anthropology has a lot of readings to do. As a matter of fact, I haven't even finished the readings. 2nd week of lessons and I'm already behind schedule for readings.

Squirrels are everywhere in UBC. They don't seem to be afraid of people. Just look how close I managed to get to take this photo!

The Main Library. They are renovating the place, so you can see that the left side is new. The right side will be renovated too, but they'll keep the centre portion.

This library is supposed to look like an open book.

Doesn't this look nice?

But someone got to teach me how to tidy up all these wires...

Doesn't my room look neat?

Yet another cold morning

I made the mistake of going out from my block in just T-shirt, berms and slippers. The morning air is chilly. Luckily, the Commonsblock (I went there to get my breakfast) is quite near my block. Hot coffee every morning is now almost a must for me.

Chilly morning

It's been a very cold morning here in Vancouver. The mornings are getting colder. But the afternoons get a bit hotter. Still no rain yet, but it's expected to rain almost all the time starting a few weeks from now. I hope I get more pictures taken before it starts raining. No pictures update today as I had lessons all day long. But tomorrow I'll be free to take more photos!

Skytrain. The Vancouver version of the subway.

In NUS, we have the Student Union Centre. In UBC, we have the Student Union BUILDING! Housing various Student Union Bodies, restaurants, lots of stuff.

First signs of autumn...

Metrotown!

Metrotown is really scary... Really, really huge. It's so huge that I really got so lost, I had to refer to the directory every time I see one. There were so many stores, and things were going rather cheaply. I don't think anyone can find Levi's jeans for just Canadian $15 (roughly S$22?) anywhere in Singapore.

In the 2 hours I spent there, I only explored a very small section of the shopping mall. There was this store called the Canadian Superstore, and it has even more things than Carrefour or Giant. I'm so overwhelmed by Metrotown, I'm still in shock.

A really silly picture of me at the Chinatown Night Market.

Obsessed with Sudoku

I'm obsessed with Sudoku. For those who don't know what that is, it's a puzzle with a 9X9 box. Each 3X3 box, each row, and each column have to contain all the numbers 1 to 9.

http://www.sudoku.com/

For those of you in UBC, grab a copy of National Post and try it! You'll get addicted too. I've been grabbing National Post just for Sudoku. I just solved a "Diabolical" level one (the hardest level in National Post). So proud of myself. Haha.

Happy Day

I'm actually quite happy today. I finally had my bed lowered to a decent height (it was almost shoulder level) and I received my package from my dear today, which contains a new camera (I lost my Z1 on the 1st day of arriving in Vancouver), a new USB LAN adapter (lost the old one too) so I can finally use the Internet in my own room, some tea packs, a nice photo of my dear and I, and a little surprise from my dear.

The week had been terrible without Internet access from my room. In order to use the Internet, I had to go over to the Commonsblock to use the wireless access, and the wireless access sucks. Sometimes couldn't detect very well, sometimes it's very, very slow.

Now that I have a new camera, I'm going to take lots and lots of pictures. So expect to see lots and lots of photos from tomorrow onwards!

My first post

I must be feeling a bit crazy. I have no idea why I suddenly decided to start a blog. Oh well. I decided that it's something to remind me of my trip to Canada in the future. Let's just hope I can keep this up, or I might just end up not updating this blog.