Now that american thanksgiving is over, it's officially time to get psyched for christmas. When I sat down to make my wish list, I realized that there isn't much that I don't already have. I'm very grateful for that, but just in case you wanted to get me a gift anyway, here's a short list:
1. Moo cow slippers
I had a pair but totally wore them out, I will settle for any of the "fun feet" slippers they sell at the mall (tip: they always go on sale for boxing day)
2. black 180 ear warmers
I found a pair for 20 bucks but decided they were not worth that much, I'd pay max 15
3. black boarding gloves. I wanna learn to snowboard this winter break, hence the gloves and snowpants on the list
4. black or white snowpants
5. hockey skates. keeping with the winter activity theme, hopefully I'll make it to hawrelak park this time
6. belkin case for ipod touch
7. usb power adapter
8. the office season 3

Hope you're all looking forward to christmas as much as I am, although I seriously doubt it!!!

You may remember a post a few months ago in which I blogged about things I wanted to do before leaving boston and things that I'd already enjoyed. This is basically an update on some things I've managed to cross off the to-do list, and some new things I want to do.

Things I still look forward to doing in Boston:
1. go to a Red Sox game
2. go skating at the "frog pond" at the Boston Commons
3. see the christmas tree lighting (Nov. 29 at 6 p.m.) at the Boston Commons. I went last year and it was just beautiful, it'll have to be a yearly tradition for the few years I'm here.
4. Museum of Fine Arts
5. Celtics game

Things I've done:
1. Museum of Science
2. New England Aquarium - went with Stephen when he came to town, it was pretty cool. bit of a let-down, I thought the cylindrical tank in the middle would be more overwhelming.
3. several Bruins games - hockey hockey hockey, gotta stay true to my Canadian roots.
4. duck tour - I actually went on an abridged version of the duck tour for FREE! there are a few free events in boston now and then, y'know for us poor students.
5. Harvard campus

38 days until Christmas!!!! Yes, I have officially started my countdown to christmas. I've started with adding a "christmas tree" application onto my facebook page, now I'm writing my first christmas blog of the year. Soon, I'll get started on my wish list.

You should all be aware that I am totally and hopelessly in love with the commercialized Christmas that we experience in today's age. I know there is actually a heated religious few that are quite against what our beloved corporations have turned this sacred holiday into but I am not one of those people. Everyone just seems happier in the days leading up to Christmas, you almost forget about the major pitfalls of society.

It's been said that the hand the major corporations have in this holiday is greater than we realize, going as deep as the invention of santa claus. This beloved symbol of my favourite day in the entire year was used as a major marketing tool in a campaign ad for Coca-Cola. I was a little shocked when Bo told me that Santa had been invented by coca-cola, that his coat was red and white simply because those are the colours of coca-cola; it almost shook the very foundation of the holiday I hold closest to my heart... In a panicked frenzy, I wiki'ed the origins of santa and after a lot of skimming, eyes darting from left to right, thinking SAY IT AIN'T SOOOOOOOO! it is in fact, an urban legend. And just like that, my faith in this material-driven holiday was restored.

As it turns out, the modern day Americanized image of santa was impacted by coca-cola. Prior to the huge ad campaign, santa was portrayed as a jolly robust fellow, however his robe was often different colours (including green as one of the front-runners). A certain greeting card showing him in a red coat put red into the lead and this was further cemented by coca-cola's use of the red and white coat in their ads. So the moral of this story is that even though coca-cola helped solidify a popular colour scheme for santa, this corporation did not invent ol' Saint Nick.

I can deal with that. Christmas spirit unmarred!

Hello gentle readers, hope the day is treating you well. I have just awoken from a nap and decided to clear my head by blogging before getting into some boring reading. Since I blogged last, midterms have come to an end and I've just gotten back into town from the American Academy of Optometry's annual conference. Midterms went well enough, I have some work to do if I want to get the marks I intend to by the end of the term but it's nothing too far out of grasp.

A few days after the last exam, I was on my way to tampa FL for the AAO conference. I was reminded of how much I hate packing, especially with the new regulations on what you can bring onto planes. We arrived in tampa wednesday afternoon and were greeted at the airport by our friend, Adam's, parents who retired to a town about 45 minutes from tampa a few years back. (We stayed with them in their beautiful home, equipped with 3 guest bedrooms and a small pool). They brought Adam's car and left in their uncle's truck. Adam took us to a mall near the airport where we killed a couple hours waiting for our other friend's flight to get in. We were all pretty disappointed that rainy weather was welcoming us to tampa. That night we went to a place with a patio to watch the first game of the world series, and were all really bummed that no one else in the bar seemed to be watching the game.... of course, no florida crowd would compare to those in the bars around fenway park in boston but this was a new low.
Thursday we headed to the convention center to check things out, we spent a couple hours going from booth to booth picking up free pens, bags, post its, and other cool swag. I'd have to say the coolest thing I got was a laser pointer which I would later use when presenting our poster. Again, we spent the evening at a sports bar watching the bo sox win the 2nd game of the world series.
Friday - the day of reckoning. We were a bit nervous to present our poster alongside professionals who have been practicing for years, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and I was interviewed for the Primary Care Optometry News. I'm pretty excited to see that article, I want to get a copy for my parents to frame. We went out to a place called Ybor city which is basically this street in tampa with a bunch of bars and clubs. The hilight of the night was this dude who had to be at least 50, he was just bustin a move like no other, winning danceoffs against young G's left and right! Just ridiculous, check facebook for a pic.
This almost made up for the drama of the day which included driving around for literally 3 hours looking for a hotel room because the first room wasn't up to the standards of 2 of our most spoiled group members. But this ended up working out since we found a nice hotel with a pool and jacuzzi that I would later spend saturday morning in. We also ran into some trouble with idiotic, rude bouncers which got called on by drunk Adam with classic lines like "YOU ARE STUPID!" and "YOUR HAIR LOOKS IDIOTIC." In adam's defense, that second bouncer's hair was really really ugly, hahaha.
Saturday, 3 of us left the hotel while the other 3 planned for another night out. We went out for a nice dinner and to another sports bar to watch game 3 of the world series (are you sensing a trend here?) After this win, we were really hoping for the red sox to lose the next game so that we could be in town for the festivities.
We managed to go to the beach sunday morning while the 3 party-ers were recovering from hangovers. It was gorgeous! white sand, blue water, and palm trees (facebook for pics). We picked up the other 3 from the hotel and went to an outlet center to do some shopping. Sunday night, we realized that we would miss all the craziness and rioting as the red sox swept the colorado rockies to win the world series.
That about rounds out my fall vacay. I think it was the perfect amount of time, any longer and we all would've wanted to kill each other. There definitely were some times on that friday during the driving around and figuring out what club to hit that people were wearing on my nerves and I was surprised I was able to keep calm.
Coming back to boston's been a shock because it suddenly got cold in the 6 days we were away and also because I had gotten used to not going to class or doing any reading while on the trip.

Seeing Adam with his parents and cute puppy, Griffin, kind of added to the bit of homesickness I was feeling even before the trip. I am definitely starting to miss home, luckily time seems to be flying by. Turns out we are finishing final exams a day earlier than previously scheduled, this doesn't really help me since I had already booked my flight for the 21st (thinking we would have an exam on the 20th) this is no longer the case so I am anticipating that Dec 20th, I will be running around in boston bummed out knowing that I could've been home a day earlier. I am really hoping that I will be able to get enough of my friends interested to go to NYC for the day, see the big christmas tree and go skating at rockefeller center but that remains to be seen.

In the mean time, I am looking forward to american thanksgiving break, which I will spend in long island NY with my aunt, her husband and my lil cousin Jess. Only 2.5 weeks till another escape from boston. It feels great to get away and clear your head. I'm looking forward to being with family and being spoiled with delicious food.

Here it is: my new toy. The ipod touch. I bought it because A) I wanted something pretty and B) my nano broke. I took it as a sign. And now I have something else to distract me from studying for midterms.

Hey guys, Just takin a short break from studying... (it's midterm week). I realized I forgot to mention that I bought a new phone, here it is: the 2nd gen LG chocolate. It's so purdy, totally worth it. I bought it the second day I got back to boston.
I think it's time to buy something else purdy... my nano's screen is totally messed up, it still plays music but it's like having a 4gb shuffle. Should I take this as a sign to buy a new nano?

Wow, I realized today that I have been seriously neglecting my blog. Hopefully this blog will begin to make up for it.

As you know, I started school in boston last september. It was my first time away from home, and it was rough. I brought the word "homesick" to a whole new level. I have never felt so weak and alone in my entire life. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see visions of the streets of edmonton in my mind.

This time around was a bit different. I had my bostonian friends, they helped me get settled in my new apt. It was a lot easier to come back to a place where I actually knew ppl. Time has really been flying by, especially the weekends.. now all of a sudden I'm a week away from midterms. I am a bit stressed out but mainly looking forward to going to tampa, florida after the exams. My group has to present our public health poster at the American Academy of Optometry's annual conference. But after that lil bit of work, it's all play. I'm just excited to get a fall vacay. So at the end of october, I'l be on a beach.

But still, something's missing. Throughout the past couple years, I've come to realize that I live for family. I feel like I'm nothing without the ppl who support and love me. It's quite obvious to me that it's not the actual city of edm that I miss; it's the bi-weekly family dinners, the little ones growing up while I am gone, and all the holidays I'm missing that really hit me. (Happy canadian thanksgiving).

The other day I was putting on my jacket and I remembered this moment that happened during the summer I was at home: my brother was saying how he'd gotten so big, and that his shoulders were so much wider than before. He opened up the closet in the foyer of the house and pulled out a north face jacket and put it on. He was totally busting out of it, and he ran over with such exclamation "I'M HUGE!!!!! OMG, MY JACKET DOESN'T FIT ANYMORE!" I turned my head from the tv for a moment, looked at him in the jacket and said "that's my north face jacket, stephen."
I laughed about this all the way to library, where a piece of me died inside while I studied for immuno.

Hello beautiful people. This will, in all likelihood, be my last blog before heading back to bean town. So this was sort of my last summer EVER, I chose not to get a job and I don't really regret it. Sure, it would've been nice to have some more spending money but then I wouldn't have had as much time to sit around and watch heinous amounts of TV. And without work, there was more time to hit the gym. Other than that, I filled my days with kung fu and just plain hanging out with friends. Not exactly exciting times, but it's all I need. It's not like I ever miss edmonton the city, it's the people I miss. I guess one of the highlights of the summer was my uncle's wedding, it was like a big family reunion. My uncle flew in from vietnam, and my aunt came up from NY.

Now with a week left of my summer vacay, I have major mixed feelings about starting up with school again. But luckily I'm not dreading it like I was last year. I think with the first year of ever being away from home under my belt, this upcoming year will be a bit easier to deal with. The only thing I'm concerned about is the fact that it's gonna be 11 months of school... gotta pace myself. One step at a time, I will see you all at christmas!

Wow, over a month of my summer has already gone by. I'm thoroughly enjoying not working, this is how summers were meant to be spent. I might never have so little responsibility ever again. I spend my days primarily at the gym, kung fu takes up quite some time as well. We've already had a lion dance/demo performance at the edmonton triathlon. Lookin forward to lion dancing in the capital ex parade in a couple weeks and performing at heritage days in august.
I've been catching up with friends and watching tv to pass the time... I'm also currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, and many of you know that I don't typically read for leisure but it just seemed like one of those typical summer activities I had to partake in.

The family's getting excited for my uncle's wedding which is happening on saturday. A bunch of extended family is in town including my uncle bill from vietnam who's never been to canada. My grandparents are lovin every minute. I have my dress but I still need to pick up some shoes which I'll wait till the last minute to do, drop by the mall on friday. I already have an idea of what I want to get so no need to panic.

I thought I might be bored this summer without a job but that's not really the case. I'm just having a great time enjoying these carefree lazy summer days. Cheers.

vacay part II

just thought I'd let you all know what I did on the last days of my vacay in NY, sunday we went into the city (about an hour away from my aunt's place). Stephen embarked on a shopping adventure, I didn't find anything I felt I had to have. It started to rain so we left... nothing terribly exciting... we saw rockfeller centre, empire state building, and times square.
It would've been funner if it hadn't rained.

monday we went to some mall, nothing special. we spent the afternoon wondering what the diff between the store "abercrombie" and "abercrombie and fitch" was. after going into abercrombie, we discovered that it was basically the kids version of A&F. mystery solved!

tuesday we went back to the outlet center. stephen bought a nike winter jacket for $20 mainly because it made him laugh. it was sort of ugly.... he'll prolly give it to our dad.

that's about it.. wednesday was pretty much engulfed by the flight home, i had forgotten how much I hate flying. I will be cherishing these 3 jet lag-free months

I am FINALLY on summer vacay! After 9 dragged out months, I am amidst my last summer ever!

It started out with stephen coming to boston. He was supposed to arrive sat night but his flight got all messed up and he ended up having to spend the night in toronto airport, poor kid. He made it in sunday morning and after a nap, we embarked upon a shopping adventure. We went to newbury st and prudential center. It was a good day.

Monday we went to cambridge side galleria and didn't buy anything, it was a bit of a letdown. We went back to prudential center to buy jeans that we had been overwhelmed with on the previous day but upon closer inspection, we decided to walk away from them.... so monday was our crummy shopping day. Later that night we went to see Pirates 3, I liked it but it wasn't as funny as the first two and I still maintain the 1st = the best.

On our last full day in bean town, we went to the aquarium (check fb for pics). It was cool but not $18 cool. I'm a bit disappointed we didn't get to go to the museum of fine arts but that will definitely be done next school year.

Wednesday included packing and cleaning. Luckily stephen was there, he basically packed for me. I threw out a lot of junk... and some actually useful stuff that I kinda miss. (I'm sorrry water filter and water boiler... you did me right, always providing me with clean water... Yes, I boil AND filter my water). We left boston on a 4pm bus to NY and arrived at about 8:15pm.

NY's been really chill. Thursday we went shopping at an outlet center and thought we were all done when my aunt told us there was another side.... we basically ran out of time and we are hopefully going back there if everything goes to plan. Yest (friday) we went crabbing and to the beach. I actually got sunburnt! I would be angry but I totally don't have that in me right now. Life is beautiful.
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping. We are in the springtime of our lives.

What a day, it didn’t start out great. It had been a rough night, hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.

So for months now, we’ve been working on a public health project in groups of 4-6 people. We basically have to do it to pass one of our classes, we had to come up with an original idea that would impact public health in the field of optometry. Our group decided to look at driver’s license renewals in the elderly population, we didn’t really feel like this was a very original idea so didn’t expect to win. They would mention that the top 3 posters would get travel grants of different amounts to go to the American academy of optometry’s annual conference to present their poster project. None of us ever paid attention to these announcements. And we ended up getting 3rd place, what a shock! We were all astonished/dumbfounded. We were told that the expressions on our faces were priceless.

I definitely was not expecting this, it hasn’t even really sunken in yet. I am really excited to go to TAMPA in October. It’s going to be a blast!

Despite having a rocky start, today turned out to be a pretty fun day.

After three years at the U of A, my brain has been conditioned to equate the end of april with the beginning of summer. Alas, this is not the case… my last exam is on may 26th which pretty much seems like an eternity away at this point. Still, this hasn’t stopped me from thinking about all the things I want to do with the last summer of my life. (Next year, I only get august off and the yr after that I start rotations right away). This is a slap in the face to let me know that it’s pretty much time to grow up, no more summer vacations! Words cannot describe my anxiety, but it is a huge motivation for me to really cherish this last one. I declare the summer of ’07 to be the summer of Jo!

It will start with my brother flying in on may 26th, we’ll spend a few days in Boston mainly shopping but possibly doing some stereotypical touristy things (see previous blog). Then we’ll hop on a bus for the ridiculously low price of $15/each to NY. (Our aunt lives in long island with her husband and really really energetic/cute daughter Jessica). Hopefully, we’ll have a chance to do the touristy things like head to the statue of liberty and the empire state building. We did that all when we were younger but I think it’d be nice to see it all again. Mainly I’m excited to hang out on the beach though. I don’t know where our aunt took us last time but it was just beautiful, the sand was perfect.

We’ll be flying back to Edmonton on Wednesday JUNE 6TH! Mark it in your calendars people. Once again, the return of Jo = June 6th (06/06); shouldn’t be too hard to remember. When I return, my life will revolve around three things:
1) training kung fu
2) running
3) minimal amounts of working
I’m going to be looking for a job at an optical, I only want to work 20 hours/week to ensure that I have plenty of time to take in each lazy summer day. I’m also planning to quit in mid august to give me 2 weeks off to round out the summer of Jo, I can picture it already and it makes me sad that I still have over a month until it becomes reality. See you all soon, but not soon enough.

Bo’s blog about what there is to do in the T.O inspired me to write about bean town.

Things that I have done:
1. Shop.
Newbury street is literally 2 blocks from my apartment and has shops on it like Armani and Burberry. One block further is the prudential center which is connected to Copley place with a walkway (like how manulife and e. center are connected in edm) and together they have stores like Boss, Gucci, Neiman Marcus, and Lacoste.
2. Harvard campus.
It humbles me to know that there are people who are more intelligent than I could ever dream to be. And it’s like a totally different world from downtown boston, the buildings are all so much lower and more prestigious looking… and there’s some decent shopping too…
3. Museum of Science.
Yes, this sounds very nerdy but I went for body worlds with the intention to study for my anatomy lab final. It was AWESOME. They had plasticized cadavers arranged in really cool positions like skiing dude was split in half, soccer dude, and pregnant lady (you could see her baby in her belly); they were so well preserved and didn’t smell at all which is something I can definitely not say for the cadavers in anatomy lab.
4. Christmas tree lighting in Boston Commons.
The commons – basically a nice park in the middle of downtown boston. I only wish I had gone skating on the frog pond but this winter was pretty crummy in terms of skating weather. It was either way too cold or it was raining… who wants to go skating when it’s raining? It’s just not wintery.
5. Bruins games.
Tickets are cheap. We went to see the leafs, canucks and oilers play the bruins; each time it was less than 30 bucks.

Places I like to eat at:
1. Chilli Duck.
Awesome thai food, I love the pad thai.
2. Tantric.
Really really good Indian food, butter chicken is to die for. And it’s a unique Indian restaurant in that you don’t reek after you leave.
3. Legal Seafood.
You just can’t be on the east coast without eating lobster.

Things I want to do:
1. Duck tour.
Half tour bus, half boat. It starts out on land and eventually makes its way into the Charles River which is about 2 blocks from my apt in the opposite direction of all the shopping. It’s beautiful, I run by it these days and it puts me into a good mood. I must admit, I like it a lot better than the river valley in edm.
2. Red Sox game.
I hate baseball but I just think it’d be really fun to go with a bunch of friends on a sunny day and do the typical American thing: baseball, hot dogs and beer.
3. Museum of Fine Arts.
I'm not really the artsy type but right now there's a chinese art exhibit going on, seems kinda cool.
4. New England Aquarium/Whale Watch
I just love water creatures. They seem so at peace, swimming around/just chillin.
5. Learn how to sail.

And I want to eat at the top of the hub which is at the top of the prudential center. It's like eating at the calgary tower, you get the view and pricey food.

This is the story of how I was reminded that I hate casinos. Gambling is illegal in Massachusetts so everyone goes to Connecticut to go to the casino, a few of my friends decided we should go. The bus ride only costs $11, you get $20 to gamble and $15 to eat so it seemed like an awesome deal. But as soon as we got to the bus stop, we realized just how sketchy this trip would be. First, an argument between two women broke out to the point where they were yelling/cursing each other out and tattling on each other to the bus driver. Then a couple guys had the exact same argument only it was scarier because they actually looked like they were gonna come to blows.

I don't really regret going but I will not do it again. I actually won $25 so I got paid to go; if this wasn't the case, I guess I'd be more upset. We picked the stupidest time to go though; we left boston at 930pm and got back at 6am. It seems as if this is the time when all the freaks come out, bottom line: casinos are gross smoke filled environments.

Wow, I have not posted in a looooong time. I probably don't feel the motivation to since no one keeps up with their blogs. *cough*BO and JUSTINE*cough* Since I last blogged, I survived a hell-ish exam week. I don't know why, but this semester's midterms drained a lot out of me.

Luckily I had spring break to look forward to. Went home for a week, and I must re-iterate my feelings from november break that one week is just not enough. I feel like people this time around were much more busy during the week so there were a couple days that were practically wasted sitting at home watching tv; this was followed by a weekend that was jam packed with as much as I could fit into the days before I had to head back to boston.

I've been back for a week and although it hasn't been the worst week of my life, it definitely was rough. Every little thing that could go wrong seemed to do just that. It started out with being "randomly selected" for a full search at the airport. I can't say I appreciated being pat down, it was quite violating actually. Then on the flight from edm to minneapolis, I sat next to an obnoxious 9 yr old girl who would not stop talking; from minneapolis to boston, I sat in front of a baby who would not stop crying.

To welcome me back to school, I had an 8am integrative seminar class which is the stupidest thing I have ever been required to do to school. Not even organic chemistry could hold onto this honour in the face of Dr. Denial. She is the most ridiculous person I have ever met and I cannot fathom how it is she got to the position of power she is in, here at the school. Think of the most artsy fartsy class you ever took in which you wanted to puke every time that self-righteous poli sci major spoke as if he could fix the entire world's problems in an entry level class at the U of A and you will be imagining something that is a small fraction of how much I hate Dr. Denial.

By now you must have either stopped reading or be thinking this rant of mine has to be over soon. And it is, with the worst thing to happen all week... drumroll please... I lost my D&G sunglasses on friday. I know it's just a material possession but you should know by now that I place high regard in superficial things and if that doesn't yank any sympathy out of you, then take into consideration that my mom gave them to me as a congrats for getting into optometry present just before I left for boston.

The quarter-life crisis continues.

It all started last summer, the summer before optometry school... I was dealing with a lot of anxiety about starting a new chapter in my life in a different city (and country) away from everything I knew.

Months later, I'm doing surprisingly well in school and my career path is pretty much settled in that I know that whatever happens, I'll be an optometrist. But there are still so many options left to be decided, mainly where will I practice? A lot can happen in 3 yrs so I don't want to speculate about this too much. Ideally, I want to end up back in alberta. The bulk of my family is in edmonton but I feel like if I was in calgary, that would be close enough so that I could come up any weekend I wanted to. And optometrists are doing really well in alberta so it makes sense professionally as well. To complicate things, boston is growin on me and I suppose I'd contemplate staying for a few years if the opportunity presented itself...

Now, I hope you brought your own beer to my pity party. I feel like I'm losing more and more muscle mass and gaining more and more fat in the belly region everyday. It's a downward spiral cause then you just get depressed and try to eat your sorrows away.

I need to change my life. I didn't make new year's resolutions this year, but here they are:
(1) get back into shape. I am gonna be one of those annoying ppl who eats super healthy and makes you feel horrible about yourself. All free time will be spent at the gym, or going for runs by the charles river.
(2) speak another language fluently (or a few semi-fluently). My cantonese took a backseat to english many years ago and I'm on a quest to get it back. I learned some french in junior high and high sch but nowhere near enough to say I'm fluent... but now that I'm in the states, I wanna learn to speak some spanish. I'm gonna look into a summer course.
(3) stop swearing. Unless, I'm really truly mad, I don't want to swear anymore becuase it de-emphasizes my anger when I am actually mad. And I also feel like it makes me sound uneducated.

So that's it. I feel determined, I really want to work on bettering myself.

I'm finally legal here in the U.S. And to continue my bday tradition of gettin totally wasted, I left the bar on wednesday before midnight.

School's been very lax lately, a new semester has started and we haven't learned much yet so there isn't much to study. I've been chillin the past couple weeks. Saw a couple movies: alpha dog = pretty boring, stomp the yard = pretty good. I liked stomp the yard, it was a good fluff movie. The only thing I didn't like was the shoddy camera work in the beginning, gave me a headache.

Gonna watch the football game now, go patriots.

I can't believe it's my last day home. There is no song sad enough to convey my mood. This will be the longest I'll be away without coming back for a break. I won't be back for 5 months; I'm excited to turn 21 and party it up in boston but it's just not enough to make me want to leave.

On a lighter note, I had a great bday dinner last night. Thanks to everyone who came. Good triple A alberta beef, good company, and good presents.

See you all in June.