Fiddling with my blog

Was browsing through blogs today and i realised that my blog was lacking something. I figured i needed to infuse some entertainment element into it. Thus, i would like to present to you the imeem player for your listening pleasure (i hope) while visiting my blog. haha..
Enjoy! =D


ps: Thanks to Sujun for introducing 'Colors' to me.
pps: I really can't figure out how to lower the volume settings. Sorry if your ear drums exploded when u opened my blog. =(

Happy Birthday!!!

Dear Vincent,

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY!!!

May you have a blast this year!

*hugs n kisses*
Joyce

O Canada!

29 Aug 2008 (30th in M'sia)

After almost 19 hours of agonizing flights and transits, I finally touched down in Vancouver, Canada at roughly 12.35pm (GMT -7 = -15 hrs from Sg n M'sia). Yays!!!

As everyone on board the plane was taking their baggage down, i was feeling a little nervous about Canada. It was a kind of strange feeling not knowing what the future holds in a foreign land. Anyways, i got all my things and got off the plane.. and as i walk n walk, i kept looking behind for Joeyin.. but she wasn't there! Something told me i forgot to do something.. but i just couldn't think of at that moment. So, i waited in between the arrival gate n plane area for her. And when i saw her.. it finally struck me that i've left something important on board!! You'll never guess what i left behind.. It's kinda embarassing to say, really. But for the sake of my readers.. i shall tell u all the truth...

I forgot to smuggle the SIA blanket!!!! hahahaha... It's this very nice baby blue fleece (i think tht's wat it's called) blanket. And it's from Givenchy!! Well, that's besides point. The point is.. that blanket was suppose to be my one and only blanket! That is unless i buy a new one here.. But for the first few days, that blanket is to be my only shield at night!! So, while everyone else was departing the plane, i made the incredible journey back towards the airplane and told the air stewardess that i left my watch behind so that she would let me back in. Well, she believed me and said i could go in, but she told me to leave my big hand carry at the entrance while i squeeze my way in. OMG..plan kinda ruined, cos i only have space for the blanket in my hand carry.. But there wasn't a choice as there's really no way i could carry that bag in the opposite direction of everyone and not attract attention. I left my bag there and prayed my backpack would expand magically. I went right back to my seat.. pretend to look for my watch.. and quickly stuffed the big blanket into my already sardine-packed backpack. Surprisingly, it fit! Though you could see my bag almost exploding at the seams. haha.. Whew~! Happily i walked back out the plane beaming from ear to ear knowing i have stolen a treasure from SIA. hehehe.. I know it's a very cheapskate thing to do, but i'd like to think that desperate times calls for desperate measures.. And it was a desperate time then! lol..

To think the first thing i did in Canada was to steal from a plane! Gosh.. HAHA!

Anyways, we went on to immigrations clearance. It was a long queue... So many ppl were coming into Canada! There was even one special room just for students on study permit. And that room alone had like 4 counters in there. Well, too bad i wasn't one of them in that room. I was categorised with all the other visitors and residents of canada. It was interesting though, that almost half the long line was Asians! It's like we stepped into a mini Singapore of some sort. Odd. It wasn't exactly what i expected.. but there were many good looking ppl nonetheless! hehe.. Many of them were tourists that just came back from China. And that's very obvious, cos they were all carrying some sort of Beijing lympics souvenir. I wonder when will i have the chance to go watch an Olympics event in person..

Another weird thing is... Canadian immigration will slash your Canada visa once you enter!!! Stupid ppl.. They used a black pen to cross out my visa.. so hard.. that my visa tore! Ok, not tore into two.. but there's a small tear. But still...WTH! Sighs.. now i can't show a beautiful Canadian visa when i open my passport. Damn!

Went to collect my luggage... and what a shock and disappointment i got. My luggage was "mishandled"! What i meant was it was spoiled!! The handle where i can push and pull up to pull the trolley bag, was missing! Well, not the whole handle gone.. but the very crucial button to push it out was gone!! The whole part gone just like that. Now how am i to pull the super duper heavy bag?! *wails* Luckily i just have to push it on a trolley.. but the bag has become practically half useless now! WHY does this happen to me la?? I don't think i could make a complain to SIA, cos i couldn't find any of the office there, so i just gave up. Sighs.. Please don't tell me they would have compensated me with a new bag.. cos i don't wanna know. Sighs.. =(

Out the airport.. and onto a gloomy Vancouver day. It was raining before we got there.. and still drizzling when we came out.. What luck we had.. But the weather wasn't really that cold. It was like being in a windy aircon room.. hehe.. Not that bad.. (at first).

When we were on the plane, that Nizar guy told us that there was a shuttle bus service to Downtown where YWCA is... but when we got there, we were told that we should take a cab instead cos the price don't differ that much, plus the bus doesn't really go there. So we took a cab instead. The service was pretty efficient i'd say.. And all the cabs come equipped with a metre, a GPS monitor, AND a security camera! hahaha.. it was weird.. As though seeing ppl drive on the left side wasn't weird enough, there's even a camera watching our every move at the back! ahaha... But it's cool.

On the cab.
We're finally here!!

Our taxi number.

Mr. Lube - an interesting shop.

OK, the first thing i noticed about Vancouver besides the cool weather, was the cars! Almost everyone here drives a really good beautiful car! Mini coopers were everywhere. BMWs were abundant, like Protons in Malaysia.. Convertibles like Kancil! Gosh.. What a feast for my eyes it was on our long journey into Downtown.. Took a few pics of the cars at first.. then realised there was no need for it.. cos they're practically everywhere! Siens..

One of the many convertibles n sports cars around.

It was quite a sight all the way to our destination. And finally we arrived at YWCA! The place we were gonna stay for one night. It was prettier than what i expected. Like a 3.8 star hotel in Malaysia. haha.. Service was great. The receptionist welcomed us warmly on that rainy, day. And gave us pretty useful directions and suggestions on where to take a bus n find cheap good food. The room was well equipped too. Love it!




After freshening ourselves up, we planned to drop by UBC's International House that evening itself to report in.. So, in the rain we took a bus all the way to UBC.. it was nearly 4.30 pm and still raining when when we got there. We got off the bus and realised we were kinda lost. The campus was sooooo huge... we didn't know where to find ihouse.. After looking at the map, we considered it was too far and too short a time to risk it.. and just took the bus back to downtown. hahaha.. That was a $2.50 wasted trip. Sweats.

Back in downtown.. we sort of got lost again. haha.. Because we were told that the nearest bus stop to YWCA was Pender St. We thought we should get down where we got up the bus previously. So we took the same #4 bus... and waited for our stop.. But our stop never came. It was scary.. we thought we had missed our stop, cos in between i did dozed off a little. But i was awake when the bus passed through the other side of downtown (according to our little map) and i swear we didn't pass by Pender! So we quickly took out our map and starting looking at where the bus's going. As we turned and turned the map, this kind guy sitting next to Joeyin asked us where we're heading to. When we told him we were planning to get down at Pender.. he said, "Oh no, i think you have missed your stop.. this bus doesn't pass by Pender anymore. Right now you're like waaay over here (points to an invisible area off the map)". OMG!!! We were like, stunned on the bus.. then we asked him if the bus would turn back later.. he was like "Er.. yeah i think the bus would probably turn back a few blocks from here.".. Well, it wasn't very convincing.. but it was soothing to know, we could be turning back.. And before he got off, he wished us Good Luck! haha.. As it turns out, the bus was stopping at the last station.. we went to ask the driver and he said, "yeah this bus does go to Pender, but later." Meaning, we had to wait on the bus till the bus makes the turning back towards UBC. Sighs.. Luckily we weren't completely lost. hehe..

In the end, we managed to get our way back to the familiar Pender St. Since it was dinner time, we went to search for food.. But SIA had fed us tooo well, that we weren't really that hungry. Plus it was the first day, and everything seemed so expensive to us. haha.. So we entered the first 7-Eleven store we could find, bought water and a muffin. Canadians have a huge thing for muffins. Then we headed back to YWCA in the rain.. The rain wasn't exactly like the rain in Malaysia. It's very very tiny that u can't see it.. yet u'll definitely feel wet.. And with the wind blowing.. you'll feel more cold, than wet. haha.. It was a good thing i heeded Kimly's advice and brought my umbrella to Canada. Or else, we would have been soaking and freezing! =D


30 Aug 2008

Packed up our bags again and headed to UBC. Had to call a cab cos there was no way we were gonna carry it all by bus.. Reached our Thunderbird residence office at around 11.30am. Luckily our room was ready before the check-in time of 12pm. =) Received our big bunch of keys (5 keys in total!) and proceeded to drag (n i mean literally, since my stupid luggage had no handle trolley handle now) our luggages across one block of buildings.. When we finally reached our residence.. it was bliss! Well, apart from the house's messed up condition, our rooms were perfect. We played detective and found out our single housemate is a lady, who speaks portuguese, loves to cook and has lots of stuffs! Gosh.. you should have seen her things..

My room.

My most precious possession - the SIA blanket from Givenchy. =P

The view from my room's window.

The entrance to my room.
The room opp. is Joeyin's room.

Our house's foyer.
Only the shoes on the rack belongs to Joeyin n me.

Sancha's bike

The kitchen

Our neighbour's things between me n Joeyin.

The bathroom

We have a bathtub! =D

Anyhow, we couldn't delay longer.. so we headed to ihouse and reported ourselves in for GALA orientation. We were fortunate, cos we were just in time for the GALA BBQ lunch! hehe.. So, we headed straight to the Flag Pole PLaza and took our lunch.. and searched for out group. We saw every other groups, but ours. In the end, when we found our leader, she told us.. we were her only grp members now, cos she's lost the rest. hahaha.. Her name's Chih-Yu - a very good-boyish-looking girl who reminds me a lot of our convent junior, wat's her name i can't rmb. I think it's Allison's st.john junior, tht's very good at rapping n hip-hop, then became a model de leh... ah! my memory's failing me! hehe..

Flag Pole Plaza

Our first orientation program was "Canada Eh?". The talk was to introduce us to Canadian n UBC's culture and apparently, the term "eh" was coined by canadians! It was pretty interesting. Learnt a lot of new things from there - like how to pronounce some canadian words, how UBC has their own Royal Canadian Mounted Police, how ppl in Canada don't really wanna know how are things with you when they say "Hi, how's it going? *sweats*.. They also had sketches to show us how a student life is in UBC.



UBC Vancouver's campus is really huge.. almost double the size of USM and slightly bigger than NUS. It's a place lined up with beautiful plants, amazing architecture and has lots of squirrels! It seems that on Facebook there's a group that says, "UVic may have bunnies, but UBC has squirrels and a respectable degree!". haha.. Really funny. And it's so true!! Everyday i'd see at least 2 squirrels.. and let me tell u.. the squirrels here are very very well fed. And so are the crows and seagulls.

A UBC squirrel eating nuts.

A UBC crow.
This pic doesn't do it justice. It's really suppose to be very fat!

My student card and UPass.
The pic is so ugly cos i was having a bad hair day. lol.

The first night in UBC - view from my room.
I just love the houses opp. LOVERLY!

Our housemate didn't' show up the first night at all.. We were home-alone on our first night. haha..

31 Aug 2008

I was awoken by sounds outside my room. the next day. I opened my door and found my new housemate chatting with Joeyin! Her name's Sancha, a final year student here.. and she's a (half actually, as pointed out by Joeyin.) Portuguese living in Canada. A very friendly person.. Was getting to know her really well, but we found out she's moving out soon! (That explains the mess.) Such a pity.. She was real nice and she bakes! She offered us some of her self-made chocolate zucchini cake. Delicious!! And she learns Capoeira! How cool is that..



Last Day of Orientation:

The last day started with an early morning walk from Thunderbird to ihouse for pancake breakfast! Thoughts of pancakes was the only thing that made me woke up so early on a saturday morning. It was a bright sunny day.. and so on the way, i took many photos.. After breakfast it was exploring UBC by ourselves time.. and then the final meet up with my group at the flag pole again. We sat there, suntanning, chatted and made new friends.. =D

random shot with joeyin in it

A very european/gothic style building.

Koerner Library - one of the biggest arts library in UBC

Main Library

Main Mall's walkway to Flag Pole

A little glade behind i-house.

Maple leaf!

dandelion


i-house's pancake breakfast!

my group - Jervis

my group leader - chih yu

my group members who turned up for the last day.

It was then time for lunch! We attended the World Cafe lunch program at ihouse conducted by the International Peer Program (IPP) for us newcomers.. Another free food event not to be missed. Ever since we got to UBC.. anything FREE is a MUST GO! haha..

the queue into "World Cafe" lunch

the 'international' lunch
(subway sandwich, portuguese egg tart, sushi, cookie)

another squirrel

joeyin busy taking professional photos

At last, the orientation ended... we then headed to the bookstore to check out our textbooks but alas, the store was closed. Nevertheless, we managed to explore and did lots of stuff on our way back.

a walkway near music school

joeyin


joeyin and the "asiatic face"
(that's the name of the statue)

do we bear any resemblance? haha

an art piece named 'Vincent' hehe..

Cast of Dark Knight in UBC!
(Batman had to save 'Gotham City' from Joker and Scar Face. lol.)


Rollerblading is one of the popular ways of getting to class here.

canada's fire hydrant

lavender!
(which we took a few to put in our room. hehe.)

joeyin at work again.

My residence (right) and the neighbourhood.

Home at last.

And lastly, i shall leave you with a picture of the lavender and pine cones we picked up on the way back and is now proudly being displayed in my room. hehe.. =)

*****

*p/s: O Canada! is the national anthem of Canada. ^^