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

The summer semester I dreaded has now come to an end. I remember when we first found out that after our 2nd year, we would have to remain in boston for an additional 6 week semester... I was less than ecstatic to say the least. And I didn't know how I could endure such a long separation from my home.

But it was probably the quintessential summer. Our schedule was actually not that jam-packed which left us with lots of time to experience the ridiculously humid summer in boston. No doubt I'll miss the afternoon sangrias on newbury street, I loved how virtually every restaurant on that street had a great patio.
I think the thing I'll miss most is lazy summer nights spent on the docks overlooking the charles river. There's nothing better than a few cold beers with good friends.

I have to say that leaving boston sunday morning, was the first time part of me was sad to leave. I know I'll have an awesome rest of the summer here at home but it'll be a slightly different kind of fun. So far, I've substituted my lovely deck for the docks by charles river... I must admit my backyard is not quite as beautiful as the charles but the beers are still delicious.


And I miss you
I’m goin back home to the west coast
I wish you woulda put yourself in my suitcase
I love you
Standin all alone in a black coat
I miss you
I'm goin back home to the west coast
- "West Coast" by Coconut Records

Hello friends, after a long hiatus away from this blog I have full intentions of starting back up. It's been hard lately to really articulate my thoughts and I'm not entirely sure why but I do catch myself staring off into space, contemplating life. So I'm hoping that as I type, more will come to me and I'll be able to share my thoughts.

I've just finished with 2nd year. It's really bizarre because it is a huge landmark to be halfway through my program, and actually 2/3 through the typical student aspect of it since the last year I will be on rotations. But at the same time, we've started up with our summer term which technically means we are 3rd years and had a whopping three day long-weekend off. For those three glorious days I felt like I was on summer vacation after a long 5 month term, but now I'm back in the groove. It's hard to realize I won't be home for another 8 weeks or so. I really think I'm gonna have a lot of fun this summer; I know had this been the situation one year ago, I would have been absolutely miserable and wishing I could go home.

Looking back on how homesick I was last year compared to this time, there is no comparison. I'm doing so much better this year. There are still moments though, when I think about how different my life would be if I was at home. When I look at the big picture, I know I'm grateful for this experience, I feel like I could have gone my entire life without ever leaving home and it would have taken me a lot longer to really mature and become independent had I chosen to go into a program that was offered at U of A. The biggest thing I miss is obviously my family, I've said it time and time again. It's not really the city you miss, it's the people. I feel like this year, I've grown further and further apart from a lot of the people I care so much about and it's hard. I feel a bit disconnected. It's difficult when everyone is busy with the trials and tribulations of life and you can never really coordinate your schedules to have the conversations you want to, or maybe need to. Your friends and family are experiencing life without you. Usually, I go home and I feel like it's exactly how I left it but there are changes, perhaps subtle changes that happened while you were off having your own adventures, while you were growing into the person you'll become.

All I know is I'll never grow out of good friends, the ones back home and the ones I've made here, and my loving family.

SIN CITY

What can I say about the entertainment capital of the world? It is definitely something that people can describe to you but you'll never truly know what it's like until you go. And I think everyone should make a trip out there while they're still young. This is just a crazy town to be in. I definitely had a blast.

The typical day was go out to drink/party it up (last call is at 4am), go get something to eat afterward. Back to the hotel by 6am. Sleep till noon. Lay out by the pool. Walk around some extravagantly decorated hotels. Dinner. Get ready to go out again. Repeat.

For being sin city, it is amazingly beautiful. My favourite part, by far, would be the bellagio fountain show. Standing in front of this huge man made lake, watching the water show accompanied usually by some awesome sinatra song.... it's just awesome.

HELLO PARTY PEOPLE! Hope everyone had an awesome christmas break. It was probably my best yet, it just seemed to fly by. I managed to get out of the house every single day of the break which is unprecedented. That's right, no entire day spent watching reruns of the Much Music Video Awards. I think that's all thanks to the snowboarding fun we had, I am so proud that we actually followed through on our plan to learn. I'm so excited to buy my own board now, it's gonna be LE-GEN-DARY! And the days I didn't go boarding were well spent hanging out with friends and family. Thanks to everyone for my early bday presents.

So now I'm back at school and I kind of got shocked back into the groove. I had clinic on monday for 8 hours straight, it was BRU-TAL! Then I had preclinic lab on tuesday after my morning classes. I think it's gonna be a long semester and I just have to make sure I don't stress myself out.
Something "interesting" happened when I opened my mail after getting back into town, my grade report was sent to me and I was accidentally assigned a D in a class that I actually got a B in (I know because our exam marks had already been posted on webCT). Gave me a bit of a scare but it's almost all worked out. I emailed my prof to alert him of this error and he had to submit a correction notice to the registrar. Now I'm just waiting for the corrected grade report to come in the mail. Good thing it came to my place in boston and not to edmonton to the folks! That would not have been good.

Anyway, it's that part of the term where we're just getting started so there's not much work to be done. It's good because I'm lazy but it's also a bit boring. But I'd rather be bored than challenged!!! So here's to hoping it lasts for a bit longer.