Wow, I have had a terrible track record with this blog in the past year. I guess my life is pretty mundane these days, I am currently amidst studying for part one of the american board exam for optometry. And we all know the ol' blog is the perfect procrastinator so I've wandered back to the blogging world.

First off, I want to wish everyone a happy year of the ox!! I'm a lil bummed that I couldn't be home to celebrate for the 3rd year in a row. Chinese new year used to be a really awesome time for me when I was still at Ging Wu Kung Fu, this is peak lion dance/demo season. Shout out to the GW peeps braving the cold edmonton weather to do the lion dance parade through chinatown. Oh so much firecracker smoke has been inhaled in the past years... good times. I guess I miss that dose of chinese culture that is now missing in my life.

OK, so now we move on to: 2008 - a year in review. If you remember to the days when I still blogged a healthy amount, you'll realize I always get quite sentimental when a new year is upon us. It makes me recap the lessons I've learned throughout the year. I want to say that '08 is a year that will stay near and dear to my heart for some time to come. The highlights include:
- learning to snowboard (this kind of started at the end of '07 but continued into '08 while I was home for christmas break), I recently went on a trip to Maine for a long weekend and rekindled this love.
- VEGAS!! friendships were made and others were tested on this trip. I knew going into it that there would be drama, how can there not be when you travel in a group of 9? but I don't regret it at all, there are still times when I think of something that happened on this trip or something that someone said and all I can do is smile to myself.
- sangrias on newbury street and beers on the docks. the quintessential summer, I was mad sleep deprived and it was too humid to think but it was all worth it. we partied like rockstars and I think it was during this time that I really fell in love with boston and the people I've met here.
- TDOT!! visiting bo in her new hood. massive hoegaarden beer that she thought I wouldn't finish... how misinformed.
And to end out the year, a return to edmonton for the last christmas break I'll have before graduation.

I've realized this year that I am a complete and utter sucker for my friends. I'll do a lot for them and I never mind but I'm currently struggling with the fact that not everyone conveys their friendship in the same way. I guess I need to remind myself of that once in a while but I find it hard sometimes when it seems like I'm putting forward so much effort to keep the friendship going and I'm too tired to keep friendships that are one way streets. I guess time will tell which friendships will stand the test of time and which will fall by the wayside.

Here's another pity there's another chance
Try to learn a lesson but you can't.
If we can burn a city in futures and in past,
without a change our lives will never last.
Cause we're going fast.

You can sit beside me when the world comes down,
if it doesn't matter then just turn around.
We don't need our bags and we can just leave town.
You can sit beside me when the world comes down.

What can we do better, when will we know how?
A man says from a sidewalk to a crowd.
If we can change the weather, if you wanted to yourself.
If you can't I guess we all need help, yeah, I need help.

You can sit beside me when the world comes down,
if it doesn't matter then just turn around.
We don't need our bags and we can just leave town.
You can sit beside me when the world comes down.

We say
We do
The lies
The truth
All I need is next to me.

Yeah, we're going fast.

You can sit beside me when the world comes down,
if it doesn't matter then just turn around.
You be the queen and i'll be your clown,
You can sit beside me when the world comes down.

"Mona Lisa" - All American Rejects