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.

2006 has been a great year, it started at a bar called the globe and it will end there. We've decided to ring in 2007 in similar fashion. Although I doubt anything will ever top that night. Other memorable moments in january included my 20th bday, the drunkest I have ever been. I got kicked out of the club at 1230 and proceeded to spend quite a while sitting up against the wall and throwing up sporadically.

In february, I got accepted into optometry and it felt as if my life was finally on track. I'd had some hard times in undergrad, but my 3rd year was great. I had never planned to get my bachelor of science and I was relieved to finally escape. At that time in my life, I was sick of Edmonton. I'd spent 20 yrs in this town, and we'd come to call it "hick capital of the world." Many days were spent plotting our escape from the only place we'd ever known.

The end of april also marked the end of my time at the Univ of Alberta. Sort of. I continued working for one of my psych profs, it was the best job I've had so far. It paid $14.15/hr and it was super easy, we ran experiments and entered data into excel. I also got a job at lids which paid much much less. But I figured it was only fitting to work retail one last time in my life. The summer passed by; I spent as much time as I could hanging out with friends.

Suddenly, I didn't want to go. My great escape was causing me more and more anxiety as my lazy summer days dwindled. I felt like I'd just figured out undergrad only to have to leave it behind. I listened to a lot of dashboard, and told myself it was a rite of passage to be away from all that was familiar to me.

My brother, Stephen, went to Malaysia to fight in an international kung fu competition. He was gone for basically all of august and I wanted to spend a few days with him before I left for boston but Barbara McGinley insisted that I be in town for saturday sept 2nd orientation even though school didn't officially start till tuesday sept 5th. I still haven't forgiven her for the days I missed. Needless to say, I was miserable. Sitting in my tiny apartment, in a new city where I didn't know anyone.

I didn't stay miserable though. Once school got underway, I had less time to be homesick. But I could still see the streets of edmonton very vividly in my mind every time I closed my eyes. I grew to love optometry and was actually kind of freaked out that I liked school/my future career so much. I lucked out, I went into it for the wrong reasons: money, status, to shut my mom up. I'm doing very well academically, I get more sleep than I ever did in undergrad and the material comes easier to me. The only thing is we're in class for more of the day. Other than that, it's basically a walk in the park.

I went back home for a week in november during american thanksgiving break and it was exactly what I needed. I returned to boston totally refreshed and much less homesick knowing that I had less than a month until christmas break. Truthfully, it was very hard to leave and the only way I could do it without breaking down into tears was looking forward to christmas. This year, I took my love of christmas to another level.

The first challenge 2007 will bring is leaving my home knowing that I won't be back for 5 months. All I can do is spend the rest of my week with the people who've made me who I am.

First off, if you're planning on seeing The Good Shepherd starring Matt Damon, DON'T DO IT! Save your money and 3 hours of your life. This is probably the first movie that I've had a very insistent voice in my head telling me to walk out. I didn't, but only because I paid $11 to see it. It is intensely boring, there is absolutely no suspense throughout the entire movie. I can't stress this enough, don't see this movie. I know it looks decent in the trailers, that fooled me too, but don't make the same mistake I did.

OK, now that that's out of the way... I had a busy day today, we went for dim sum with some aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa. Then out to dinner with a couple optometrists, one who works for my mom's optical and the other is my cousin. Sort of an office christmas/new yr dinner. Afterwards I went clubbing cause it was my friend's bday today. The club wasn't exactly packed, I've had funner nights drinking. But I've also had much worse so it wasn't bad. They should've played more sean paul.. I should've had more to drink... I'm barely buzzed, I only had like 6 drinks (hence the late night blogging), however the up side is I didn't spend a single dollar. People kept buyin me drinks since they hadn't seen me in months. The pros of being away...

As a materialistic person (and unashamed to admit it), it's now that time of year to take stock of all the things I have acquired over holiday break thus far. For christmas, I got a JL polo and an indoor grill from lana and den, slippers from bo, and a gift certificate from justine. Thanks guys!

Boxing day, I got a few shirts for myself. Although I was very disappointed I didn't get what I really want, lacoste shoes. But don't worry, I won't give up. I shall have new shoes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
well..... 364 days until my favourite day rolls around once again.

Christmas eve started out with dim sum with the parents; I picked up the lil cousins' christmas presents then went to my grandma's to put them under the tree I put up.
Today, I watched john tucker must die and thank you for smoking. And went to dinner at my cousin's place to celebrate his optometry license coming in the mail. It was a funner day than I thought it would be but still nothing terribly exciting.

Now I must rest up for the physical challenge of endurance and perseverance that is boxing day shopping madness.

After my connecting flight was delayed and I lost 3 hours of my life sitting in the chicago airport, I made it home. And it's been awesome; I've taken a totally different approach. Last time I was back it was only for a week, so I had plans for every day. But this time, I figured with 2 weeks I wouldn't make any plans and just chill. And that's what I've been doing, sitting around and watching bad tv. I love it.

Tonight I went to my grandma's house for turkey dinner and was very disappointed that the artificial tree wasn't up! Apparently my aunt had been busy with work lately, so I basically whined about it like a baby and decided to put it up myself. My uncle helped and I asked my little cousins if they wanted to help me decorate the tree. They were so excited, VERY cute!

Merry Christmas!

The countdown to christmas has begun. Thursday night, a few of us went to the christmas tree lighting. It got up to 17C that day, so not exactly your typical christmas weather but it was still awesome. Pics are on facebook if you wanna check 'em out.

Naturally, the beautiful lights inspired me to start up my annual tradition of handing out candycanes at school. I started on fri, dec 1; spreading holiday cheer one candycane at a time.

Of course, the downside to the christmas countdown is it means finals are even faster approaching. Wish me luck, I'll see you all soon in edmonton where the snow makes the weather more holiday appropriate.

I can't wait.

Well, my week home has come to an end. I feel like I never even left, everything is basically the same.
It's as if I'm living two lives, one here in edmonton and one in boston. I can't wait till christmas when I can live this life again for 2 weeks.