A letter back home

I posted my first letter home this Monday to update everyone at home about my recent condition, especially to my dad because I haven been seeing him for months and I usually talk on the phone with my mom, so I have not seen nor talked to him since he left Vancouver 2 1/2 months ago.To me, nothing beats the sincerity to post letters/cards to someone, because writing letters are time-consuming, but that's how I figure out who will spend their time for me undoubtedly and reveal their problems to me despite their buseee-sy lifestyle.

I bought a booklet of 6 stamps for further postal purpose. The stamps are stickers, which are quite common in westernised countries, perhaps they slowly eliminate and narrow down the usage of glue in their lifestyles. I still prefer adhering stamp to the envelope with glue because that enables me to separate the stamp from envelope when I want to collect that particular stamp. But sticker is annoyingly clung to the envelope and that makes it difficult to insert into the stamp album with its increased thickness.

They actually divided the stamps for international and domestic use here, and it is sold in booklet of 6 stamps. International regular mail costs $1.60.Another thing in Canada is that there are English and French on most of the products, because French is one of the main languages here, but somehow I don't hear much of the natives speak French in Vancouver. My housemate told me that French is more frequently used in some other provinces like Montreal. However, that's still an advantage for me to learn some French words without knowing the pronunciation through the foods and beverages I buy.

Take a look at the Christmas (noël in French) designed stamps!



Finals is near ! Wish me luck friends, while enjoying your holidays.=P

An eventful weekend

I'm officially done with all midterms and lab experiments+quizzes.Finals will be in 3 week's time and look what am I doing now? I'm still relaxed and overjoyed at the thought of completion of so many assignments,tests and quizzes.Of course, this won't happen for long as I need to have early preparation for finals considering the limited brain capacity I have to cramp in 3 months of lecture notes for 5 subjects, I decided to start dating with my books this weekend.

Meanwhile, last weekend was quite eventful as I finally had some time for shopping. It wasn't about the clothes that I bought but I was contented with the free time I could have after exams.I had my first ice-skating at Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre at UBC on last Sunday with some Malaysian friends of mine.It was approximately 15 minutes of walking( or 3-5 minutes of bus ride) from my dormitory.The Winter Sports Centre consists of four rinks, two for hockey and two for public skating, but I’ve only seen 2 of them during my visit.It is also used for hockey tounaments and concerts throughout the year.



Ice-skating was enjoyable, although the skate blade was smoother and slightly more slippery that the ones in Sunway Pyramid, I still enjoyed myself there and I think my skating skills have slightly improved ,hahaha! At least I need not to hold on the wall all the time. Furthermore,ice-skating in Vancouver allows me to reminiscent on those good old times I had with fellow Ausmatians last year.

Jia Huey had her second birthday celebration on 8th Nov, her papa and mama organized a birthday party for her and invited some of her classmates to attend the party. They even bought her a cute life jacket which she started posing after wearing it and reluctant to take it off.



On the other hand, I’ve recently seen some photos of my nephews, the Kenn’s brothers. Eu Kenn has his frindge cut by his mom, and Jia Kenn nowadays smiles a lot and has better response to the camera.I really miss them so badly especially seeing those recent photos of them.



They make me proud of my another identity- Sai Yiyi (direct translation-small aunt which means the youngest Aunt in the family). I don't mind to be old with their presence afterall, seeing their growth is a bliss in life.

Halloween !

Last Saturday was my first Halloween celebration in Vancouver. Despite this occasion doesn't really mean much to me, I decided to hang out and look for some interesting things to capture.Firstly, I went to the Halloween party organized by my faculty at 8 p.m. It was a small celebration with a bar corner on the left, bull ride competition and with whole chunk of people who took the effort to dress up themselves. It's one of the annual biggest things to them. I thought the bull ride was interesting.



After 30 minutes of wandering and seeing a few rounds of bull riding, I headed to the next destination ,which was Downtown. This was the time my camera kept flashing at others once in every few minutes. People were generally friendly and they were more than willing to pose in front of you, that was reason they dressed up so well right. One of them even took my camera and started taking photos with random passersby, then pulled me into his overexcited act. Luckily he wasn't some robber.




I personally find it interesting to walk in between them. I mean, how rare can I walk with a Joker on my right, seeing the Spiderman and Robin queueing up for pizza on my left ,while chuckling at the Borat in front who was desperate enough to get himself a better outfit.



Robin and Spiderman were not saving lives that day, they were looking for pizza to save them.



Of course, some people go for the cuter costumes to win people's attention, the one who really caught my eye was Mr.Pooh. I was so excited that I took a photo with him. The crowd was humongous, that I felt myself unusual mingling with them.



People actually walked up to me and wanted to take photos. I wouldn't mind if I put on some special Halloween costumes, but I find it weird to take pictures with strangers.Fortunately they spoke Korean and Japanese language, so I had a reason to pretend not understanding anything, smiled and waved back to them before I walked off. Despite this incident, it didn't haunt me and ruin my mood of that day at all. It was an unforgettable Halloween.As a matter of fact,never in my life have I done something like this. I'm looking forward for next year's Halloween.