Twenty years from now you will be more dissapointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

taken for a ride. literally.

So the first leg of our journey turned out to be a bit defeating. We left campus at 6 to catch our Air Asia flight to Bangkok. After arriving in Bangkok we got into taxis to go to our hostel and the following events ensued:

-The taxi driver drove us around completel unnecessary highways to make the trip longer and his pay higher, making us pay highway tolls and screaming at us the whole time. Elizabeth finally told him that she would pay him the 800 Baht just to shut up lol. She also gave him a piece of her mind screaming back at him saying "do NOT mess with me right now, I am TIRED and LOOK at my EYE, do you SEE how red it is?! Fianlly we decided to just get out and switch taxis, at which point we decided that by the time we got to the hostel we would have like one hour before having to head back to the airport. So we showed the taxi driver our flight info and told him we needed to the airport.

-25 mins later we arrive at this dinky little airport that wasn't even OPEN. Airport security told the taxi driver where we actually needed to be so we headed back to the international airport at which we had arrived 3 hours before.

-Once arriving the drier told us it was 900 baht and Anders told him noooo way and said he knew he was trying to "fool us". He accepted 600 and we got the heck out of there. When we got inside we discovered that the other norweigna guys had agreed to pay their driver 1500 baht... Talk about no barganing skills.

-Hung out in the airport for the next 4 hours eating terrible thai food, drinking starbucks, and getting extremely painful; thai foot and shoulder massages.

-The boys didn't being with them the credit cards they used to purchase their second plane tickets online so they had to get them cancelled and re-purchase with a different card.

-Got my diabetic meal on the plane, which consisted of an apple and orange... Ummmmm sugar.com. no thanks.

-Went to catch the fery at which point there was pretty much a monsoon and were drenched for the nexthour on the boat that was spent sleeping.

-Finally arrived at our resort, our bungalow is literally right on the beach and it is so beautiful. I kept commenting on how beautiful it was when we were all laying down to nap upon arival, and Elizabeth told me that if I wanted to continue commenting on it I could do so outside where not everybody was trying to sleep lol.

-Time to go eat (ps. we can charge everything to the room here... scorrrrre)

over and out. beware of thai taxi drivers.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

100% deet. uhhohhh.

Most of this week has been thailandplanning.com (we leave tomorrow nbd). I've been working out like its my job and trying to stick to this rash diet. Throwing in the odd muffin or McDonalds sundae to keep myself sane. This week proved to be a turning point as I went out to LKF both friday AND saturday night, which hasn't happened for at least 6 weeks probably. Saturday night I went out wearing a flashdance tanktop and hipping headband, and I honestly felt like I do back at home, awesommmmmme. Everyone tends to really dress up here and I think tahts why I haven't been going out as much lately. But now that I have discovered my true self once more I'm back in action full time. Elizabeth kept telling me I looked like a 7 on the retard scale but that was hoenstly fine with me. Of course the flashdance tank is going to be a staple on the trip to thailand.

Spent most of the daytime sleeping this weekend... Maybe it's because of all of the destruction taking place in the gym, or in LKF, who knows. Today was spent trying to finish this stupid judgement and decision making assignment thats due Tuesday, but we need to hand it in tomorrow. Soooooo stupid, definatley not a fan, but thats the crap that comes along with university I suppose geeeeesh.

Elizabeth and I ventured to the Ladies Market yesterday in hopes of finding backpacks for Thailand. Mission accomplished. After convincing her that getting the child-sized one because it was pink, or the slightly larger than school sized backpack was a bad idea just because it was a nice shade of blue, we settled on these "Mountain Gear" matching backpacks (mines orange and hers red). How dorky to the max are we going to look on this trip?! Hopefully the real backpackers don't make fun of us for our beginner ways =S

Ramin loaded us up witha bunch of travelling shtuff such as 100% deet (to avoid malaria in the jungle), sleeping sheets, and anti-diarrhea pills, which makes me feel a bit more prepared. He also convinced us that we should go to the school clinic before we leave and get some antibiotics to bring just in case, so we might have to do that. I have yet to pack, which is a big deal on my part since Im usually the 2 week pre-packer; obviously this place is changing me. I honestly think I'm going to come home a bit of a different girl... In a good way I hope.

Well its late late late and I'm going to call it a night, I'll update tomorrow before I leave =)

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

cracking the code.

A friend on campus that goes by the alias "hank moody" has just updated his facebook status and I decided that it was something that needed to be shared, no questions asked:

"Congratulations! My little Chinese friends- you cracked the code!!!! The lift's speed increases exponentially with every time you press the button!"

lift=elevator. If you saw the way these kids stab at those buttons you would understand. If you don't find this even the least bit hilarious then you might want to re-evaluate your life. Thanks.

Monday, March 22, 2010

zero smooching on prom night.

This past week has been a blurr, I honestly don't even know what I have done with all of my time lol. Friday consisted of shopping for a dress for prom (which I didn't find so I just wore one from home), finding a "City Super" which had a much bigger selection of sugar-free products than any store I have found so far, skipping LKF in favour of a 3 mile run on campus and a decent sleep, and dancing around my room in nothing but my undies for about an hour (don't judge until you have tried it, quite liberating).

Saturday was the day of what was dubbed "hkust prom 2010" by Ramin himself. I had a nice sleep in and then hit the track again before deciding it was finally time to get ready. I attempted to straighten my hair, but once again the weird weather here didn't really cooperate with me lol.
At exactly 7 oclock the evening began; schedule of events to follow (directly from the fb event's page):

Ramin Ghaneeian March 19 at 12:47pm Reply
Hey Everyone,

The time has finally come. Moses Jooharian has been waiting for this moment since 1989. Prom Night. The Game Plan is below.


7:00pm - Girls meet in Hall 7 for a girls pregame
Guys meet in Hall 6, 10th floor common room for a guys pregame

7:45pm - Girls come to Hall 6, 10th floor common room for THE pregame

8:30pm - We get in taxis and go to Lawry's Steak House in Causeway Bay
http://www.diningcity.com/hongkong/restaurantlawry20/index_eng.jsp

After Dinner - We go to Club Mint in Soho
http://www.m1ntglobal.com/

Allow me to elaborate...

Girls pregame: Go to hall 7 to be met by bottles of both rum and vodka, as well as coolers and redbull to get the night started. Get decently boozed up before making the trek to hall 6 to meet the guys (since they refused to be gentlemanly enough to come to our pregame location)

THE pregame: Let the boozing continue, champagne is popped and a toast to Ramin is made for planning the evening (anticipated). Before we know it we are outside getting into 7 taxis all lined up waiting for us.

Dinner: Sooooo good. Choice of either prime rib, sea bass, or pasta. Accompanied by copious amounts of wine. Personally, I chose the fish... Best (maybe only good) choice of the evening lol.

Mint: Good from what I can remember. Bottle service. House music. Manoj getting pushed into a table and breaking a $400 (US) bottle of champagne. Me "losing" my camera for it to be later recovered in tania's purse. Elizabeth searching the floor of the club (lights off) for one of her fake eyelashes lol.

Post Prom: Making the cabbie stop at sev so that I could get a snickers dark (only to prevent hypoglycemia of course =). Eating a cup of noodles from the cending machine flavored "curry seafood", almost barfing when I saw it sitting on my desk in the morning.

Sunday was spent laying in bed recovering and having the biggest cheat day of my life. It also played host to the first time McDonalds has touched my lips since I've been away from home. It had the usual effect, great at first... Not the best an hour later. My roomate returned from the city at 6 am to find me half naked sleeping on top of my sheets only to ask "you're taking a nap?", to which I of course answered yes... A 6 hour long nap bahaha.

SO I've been looking for yoga on campus ever since I got to this place, and today I see this booth set up that has a poster saying something about the Health and Fitness courses the school offers (which I know has something to do with the yoga here) so I go up to the table and ask "Hi I was just wondering if you have information about the yoga classes?", which is followed by these 3 asian students giving me the blankest stares of my life. So I stupidly do this ridiculous yoga pose with my hands above my head and say slowly and loudly... "YO-GA?". One of them then turns to me and says (in perfect english) "ummm we're from the orchestra club". Well I took no time turning and getting the hell away from there, humiliating.com. I still ask myself whyyyyy the damn orchestra club would have a poster talking about the health courses... If only everything was in english.

I also had the pleasure of having my student card run out of money in the process of doing laundry today. Perfecccccct. So I ask this asian guy in the laundry room if I can reload it on the ground floor of our building, to which he responds no and tells me I have to go to the machine at LG7. On the way down there I run into these american guys who tell me I can in fact reload the card in my building, but after making half of the trek I just continued to the more distant LG7. I have said before that I had never seen so much laundry hanging everywhere. LIE. Today is the ultimate worst with clothes strewn everywhere in an effort to be dried on the asap.

So this has been my past week in a nutshell. I'll be sure to throw up some updates if anything comes to mind =)

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

baptist hospital. once again.

So I decided to throw a couple random hk updates in the mix, things that I keep meaning to include, but always slip my mind:

-almost half of the time I go to use the washroom on our floor (all girls floor by the way), the toilet seat is UP. And it's not like they've just been cleaned... Like someone has just come out of the stall up. I have no idea wat would possess a tiny asian girl to lift the seat while going to the washroom (chances are she's going to fall in anyways), and then not even put it back DOWN when she's done. Bothering.

-they are now doing work in the 8th, 9th, and 10th floor common rooms which means that I have t go all the way down to the 7th floor for hot water (the coffee and tea addiction has taken a slight break due to this inconveniency).

-I have now had the bbq pork from LG1 for lunch about 5 days in a row. What can I say, it's something that I can count on around here lol. Annnnd it seems pretty decent for me, so thats a plus.

-My blood sugar has actually been dropping BELOW normal lately (without any increase in insulin), which means that my diet and exercise must be doing their job. There are times when eating a meal I don't have to take ANY fast acting insulin anymore, feels so good.

-The fan has been mysteriously turning off again, and due to the fact that I only have one available outlet (my fridge uses the other one) I can't always leave my fan on. Lets not start this again, seriously.

I'm headed to the doctors in about 15 minutes, at which point they will pit me against my worst enemy once again, clearly the enemy in question is the fricken scale. If it does not read lower than last time I will have no choice but to bathe myself in ben and jerry's while consuming dangerous amounts of mrs. fields cookies. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

I officially have a date for "prom", which is on Saturday. Hakon asked me today only to recieve an "Of course!" blurted out of my mouth excitedly, I was getting a little nervous there for a while. This means one thing... Shopping. Based on the fact that the dr's is near a large, large mall. I'll probably pop over to look for something afterwards. This would be before I have to return for some stupid mandatory presentation that we have to go watch tonight (a wednesday), for a tuesday/thursday class that I have. This means I will arrive late to the St Patty's day festivities... Not Impressed. On my trip to the mall I will also need to acquire some new headphones, as the once-trusty air-canada ones that were given to me on the plane over here hae failed me. They literally do not work the tiniest bit, and as working out without music, and skyping without sound really aren't my idea of a good time, I have decided to invest in some new ones. So off I go to another visit to the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital, here goes nothin.

rational mexican hookers.

I have started a surprisingly interesting new book called "The Logic of Life", written by the same guy that wrote "The Undercover Economist" (for those of you who may have read it. I figured it was time to stop polluting my brain with stories of rich New York socialites "Trading Up", and move on to something a bit more... Educational? For a more educational read, this thing is hilarious; one of the many topics discussed is how mexican hookers use rational decision making in dealing with clients, and it actually makes sense! Needless to say, it isn't quite as engrossing as my previous book, but it gets the job done for distraction from my burning legs during cardio.

Today I had both my first, and my last, midterm. Judgement and Decision Making in Organizations was my task for the day, and ended up being less tough than I figured. Of course I totally blanked when it came time to compute certainty equivalents and risk premiums but that was only worth about 3 points anyways... So I should be okay. I spent the entirety of my day in my room studying for this bad-boy, leaving only once to get food before retreating back to the books.

I'm trying this new thing where I drink coffee before bed, as one of my friends told me it's supposed to help with weight loss? If not then he's just effing with me and trying to cut my sleep time, although that hasn't been an issue just yet. There are really no other updates, as the past few days have been devoted to studying. Tomorrow is St. Patrick's day, and may end up being my first time out to Wan Chai on a wednesday... Wish me luck.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

the hunt is on.

So the latter part of my Saturday was an epic fail; consisting of me lying in bed for about 7 hours watching gossip girl and then losing the all mighty race against the clock for food on campus. Let me explain.

After a long morning/afternoon of playing soccer I decided I would shower and relax for a little bit. The got a little bit out of hand when I started watching Gossip Girl season 3. I should've known better than to even start, because I had zero willpower and continued clicking on the ensuing episodes. Next thing I knew, it was 845pm and I hadn't eaten since lunch at noon. I quickly threw on a pair of sweats and ran out the door. At this point I looked a complete disaster; ZERO makeup, air dried hair, sweats and a sweatshirt (lacking bra), and the trusty adidas flip flops. I went up to LG1, closed. I continued to the cafe, which had "chicken filet with tomato sauce" as their only option, which was not in the least bit appealing to me. I then took the elevator to LG5 (which I knew would be open) and barely got the door open before I turned away and started walking down the stairs. As some beautiful european boys were sitting in there eating, and there was NO way I was letting anyone I knew (especially these guys) see me in this state of disarray. So I went down to LG7, which was of course closed as well by this point. To my surprise, the Park n Shop (campus grocery store) is still open. I figure I'll just grab a microwave dinner or something, but apparently those don't exist in hong kong. I was just about to lose my mind in a hungry/angry/bitchy/low blood sugar way at this point when I spotted this mini-pizza in the freezer section. I scooped that thing up like it was a brick of gold and headed back to the dorm. I go into our 10th floor common room to use the microwave, which is of course missing, so I head down to the 9th floor, whos common room happens to be locked. I was about to give up on eating at all when I decided to give the 8th floor a chance. Score! I honestly felt like a caveman thousands of years ago on the hunt for food, and then having to come up with some way to cook it. I was almost in tears as while all of this was going on I was thinking about the fridge and full kitchen that my family would be enjoying at home during this whole debocle. Needless to say, I got that pizza in my mouth and down my throat in about 2 minutes. The damn thing even had olives and mushrooms on it (my 2 least favorite things of all time), but at this point it was all about survival; okay maybe not realllly all about survival, but it felt like it at the time.

Today was a bit better when it came to the food department, and ended up being quite productive. Sleep in, library, gym, grocery shopping, cleaning of my half of the postage-stamped size room, followed by of course some more gossip girl and green tea.

Ps. still don't have a date for this prom dealio. This event is stirring up more drama than anything that has happened on campus thus far. I would definately consider it the highpoint of our reality show, if we actually had one lol.

Enough stressing, time for sleep. I'm up to date on GG now, the next few nights will definately be filled with more shut-eye that the previous two.

Friday, March 12, 2010

definately not a midget.

Today might have been the first day so far where I actually jumped out of bed at the sound of my alarm. I made the ridiculously smart decision to stay in last night, and therefore wasn't the least bit groggy when it came time for the soccer tournament this morning. Gianni, on the other hand, got back from celebrating his birthday at 8am, and had a 15 minute snooze before showing up at the field. Dedication at its best lol. The games were only half field, and 25 minutes long, but there were teams here from both Singapore and Shanghai. The MBA team from HKUST was by far the best team out there, and the only ones in our pool that managed to beat us. We tied our first, won our second (thanks to a hat-trick from Jorgen), and then crumbled in the third, which knocked us out. All in all a great day though; made me realize how much I miss the game.

During the tournament I made a few comical observations. The first being that there was what seemed to be a 4 year old boy in a grey sweatsuit jogging on the track. I thought at first maybe he was running to his mom or something; not the case. People here tend to look younger than they actually are, s I thought from far away that this tiny person might have been 8 or so, but when he actually ran by me and was legitimately not past my hip, and most definatley not a midget, I decided that this way way too weird for me. On our way home from the field, I also came upon an older man (50-60) that was jogging around the track in jeans and talking on his cell phone. I started with the same mentality as when I came across the boy, maybe this guy was running to get something or see someone; again not the case. I also saw more PDA from the MBA students than I have in a long long time. White guys and asian girls canoodling all over the field and track; maybe a tinge of jealousy on my part, but still unnecessary lol.

Time for a much-needed shower. Hoping for no blood on the walls.

bun in the ov? not so much.

So after a long day of classes and exercise, we decided to head to LKF for ladies night yesterday.
What I intended on being a short evening ended up in us returning to school at 5:30am (usually the case), which was why I had no objections when the doctors office called at 8:15 to reshecule my appointment. Today consisted of not much more than sleep, a trip to the library, and a visit to hall 7 to help Gianni celebrate his 23rd birthday.

A bunch of the boys asked me to join their soccer team for an MBA students tournament tomorrow, in which I will be wearing my Mizuno runners and no shinpads (I'm sure I will look oh-so prepared). The tournament starts at 9 and goes until 5 apparently, I haven't played in a real game for a while, so lets all keep our fingers crossed that I don't end up engaging in total bodily destruction lol.

Next weekend an event being referred to as "prom" is taking place. A group of the guys got together and are planning this evening where everyone dresses up, we go out for a really nice dinner and then get bottle service at some club (nooo idea as to locations as of yet).
The catch, all of the boys have to ask a girl to come as their date. You would think that the actualy planning of this event would be the most difficult part; but if you got a glimpse of the drama regarding who is going to take which girl, people worrying about not being asked, and girls being "spoken for" before they even have any idea, you would realize otherwise. I'm not overly concerned with the date sitch for now, I'm more worried about what I'm going to WEAR. This definately calls for a legit shopping trip, which is never a bad thing. I'm not quite as excited to say that I think this also calls for a few extra hours on the exercise bike... But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

Sidenote: today hakon jokingly asked me if I had a "bun in the oven", for a moment I considered injecting him with a lethal dose of fast acting insulin as payback, but decided that manslaughter charges probably wouldn't look good on the resume. I will no longer be keeping shtuff in the front pocket of my vs sweater, preggers is nottttt really the look I'm going for now a days.

Sleep is much needed at this point. Mom would be proud of my friday night staying in abilities at this point.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

wet pants. not awesome.

I sat in my first class hating myself yesterday... Whyyy did I have to put those lululemons on, why, why, why?! I'll explain myself. As you know, I had done laundry the daybefore and washed (among other things) my lulus, and then hung them on my closet door to dry. I then hopped out of bed yesterday (cutting it close time-wise as usual), thrown them on, and ran to class. The repercussions of my actions: sitting in consumer research unable to really pay attention because the only thing I was focused on was my wet bum sitting against the cold seat of the chair. Turns out the pants were not dry after all, and now I was paying the price.

Interesting diabetes update: Yesterday I ate lunch, followed by a little snack (blood sugar before all of this was 4.4), and took zero insulin. I then chatted on skype for a bit and headed to the gym. After an hour and a half of cardio I packed 'er in and headed back to m room. At which point my sugar was now 3.9. The point: after eating more than one meal, my workout broug my BS down to a bit below normal. Hmmmm, maybe all of this insulin pumping isn't necessary afterall.

Judgement and Decision Making quiz in an hour... bound to be a snoozer.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

roach-0. me-1

After my daily gym visit and my usual seafront meal of brocolli, chicken, and yams, a bunch of us headed to Sai Kung to go to "the duke of york"; some pub-ish place. We ended up making it no further than some american-looking restaurant before the boys had to "stop and eat". We spent a couple hours there, where I rediscovered the "white russian", and then to the duke...
Where we had no choice but to take the shot the bartender put in front of us; pictured to the right. We spent some time at the bar discussing extremely pertinent issues with our friend mosi (alias mos-daddy lol), and playing ____, marry, kill (ask for details if you don't know what this is haha).

When we finally returned to campus I went into the washroom before going to my room, and I encountered nothing less than a COCKROACH. I always wondered how I would react in this situation... Many of you might have thoght that I would scream and run. Wrong again. I took a good look at the butt-ugly brown intruder, and then wound up and booted that sucker all the way across the bathroom with my right knee high boot. It hit the wall and ceased to move any more. My roomate came back from the bathroom a few minutes later to tell me that she saw my "victim" in there lol. Cockroach-0, Kendall-1. I'll keep you updated on the score.

Monday, March 8, 2010

vegetable debauchery.

So I woke up today in an undeniably good mood. I honestly have no idea exactly why... I still have no facecloth, and recently lost my full sized colgate total whitening, which is a heartbreaker; but it didn't matter. Nothing in the world could bring me down today; no diabetes, no typhoon-like winds almost blowing me away on my way to class, and not even the fact that my 9am class was cancelled and therefore I got out of bed early for nothing. Maybe the fact that I had about 2 and a half hours of cardio yesterday had something to do with it; endorphine overload perhaps? Even my judgement and decision making prof announcing to the class that my answer was "off by a factor of 10" (a LOT) made me laugh uncontrollably, I whistled while doing my laundry, and sang in the elevator... No stopping me today my friends.

While my laundry was in I had perhaps the most ghetto dorm-life experience yet. It started off with me asking a friend whether it was absolutely necessary to wash a cucumber before you eat it, to which "yes" was the reply. Hmm with no cutting board, and no legit knife it was time for improvisation... So with a clean trash bag as a cutting board and a plastic knife serving as my weapon, I went at that stupid cucumber without mercy. Needless to say, it now sits in a tupperware container in my diabetes-fridge in nicely portioned pieces begging to be consumed. While enjoying my afternoon of laundry and vegetable-debauchery I was double fisting. Yessss, it's true; with green tea in one hand and a diet coke in the other I now face the day high on caffeine- not sugar.

Sidenote: I decided to wash the grey dress I'm wearing in the pictures below,
and almost shit a brick when it came out of the washing machine with the tassles looking like they had been tied into some sort of ridiculous boy scout knot. Even this minor-disaster made me laugh today, the fact that it was soaking wet did NOT make this dreadful task any easier. So I decided to listen to some arguably badass gangster tunes and destroy that knot. Mission accomplished.

Latest news on campus: about half of the dorm rooms are now home to mould. NOT awesome. Thankfully we don't have any (yet). People have found it sprayed upon their walls, on their clothes (in their closets), on their bags and shoes, and pretty much any where you can imagine. People have even had to throw some of their stuff out because it's so bad. Needless to say, I've now become even more obsessed with the keeping the humidity level low in here.

Over and out from the laundry-hanging disaster zone known as 1012.

where's the pool?

Again, sorry to those of you who may be miffed that it has been at least 4 days since my last update, but between Singapore and catching up on sleep, I haven't had a minute to really sit down and spit it all out...

We left capus to catch our flight which was supposed to leave at 8:30, but was delayed for an hour... So of course we had no choice but to visit the local airport starbucks. The flight was about 3 hours, almost all of which I spent working on my stupid take-home test, and taking the odd 5 minute snoozer every once in a while. We flew into the budget terminal (because we're cool like that) and took cabs to our hostel, it was located in little India and was called Footprints Backpacker hostel. The first highlight of the trip came when Elizabeth asked Jordy (the front desk guy) if she was allowed to stay there even though she didn't have a backpack... I prayed to god that she was joking lol. After being told that she was allowed to stay even though her luggage of choice was a duffel bag, she inquired as to where the pool was; Jordy must have thought that he was on candid camera or that we were special needs... I never asked as to which one, I really didn't want to know.

After getting settled in our room we headed out to "spicy thai", this restaurant in the area that was open until 4am (since we had been delayed we didn't arrive until about 130am). Lets just say that many of my friends back home wouldn't haveeven sat down at one of their tables, but at this point we were starving and had zero choice. I went to use the "washroom", which wnded up being a dirty hole in the group and of course, sans toilet paper; so one of the girls gave me kleenex, and I tried my darndest not to pee all over myself. After succeeding in my attempt, I returned to the group and mowed down on some spicy minced pork with rice and an egg; delish.

I thought that I was doing Elizabeth a favor by offering to take the top bunk in the hostel room (I thought that the bottom was where it's at), but turns out that due to the 2 old men staying in our room, she managed to get barely a wink of sleep as she feared that they might attack her in the night. I, on the other hand, was much less accessible to these creepers while on the top bunk... Sorrrry liz =(.

The next day we decided to tackle the mean streets of Little India, as well as Chinatown. I took it upon myself to bu this badass fan for $2, which broke later in the day because I was being ruthlessly sexy whipping it open and fanning myself at every possible opportunity lol . I opted out of the temple with everyone, due to the fact that I didn't want to put on a shawl and long sarong, and wandered the little street markets for a while, unsuccessful in the purchase department except for the headscarf I'm wearing in tese pictures. It was mostly touristy knickknacks that I knew I didn't really need, ut who can turn down a nice scarf? Right ladies?
After all of this we proceeded to wander downtown and see the "merlion", definately not as exciting as it sounded lol, although downtown was pretty cool, and I saw my first asian Hooters restaurant.

The place where I finally broke my fan... Too much pole dancing on the subway. Mom would be so proud =)

For the rest of Friday we visited the singapore zoo, and then stuck around for the "night safari". It was during this trip to the zoo that I needed the "reserve muffin" that Justin and Tobias carry around for when I get hungry and therefore, really bitchy. So Will, Elizabeth, and I visited the local Ben and Jerrys to pick up my sugar, and save their sanity. After the night safari we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our first night on the town. We headed to clark quay (which is the singaporean version of LKF, but cleaner... much cleaner) where I met a french Hermes intern and fell a little bit in love, but just for the night. Elizabeth wingman'd me and talked to his 30 yr old boss for a decent portion of our time in the bar... After listening to myself I'm beginning to think I owe her bigtime for the weekend lol.

The next morning started with peanut butter toast and a trip to the botanical gardens, during which I stated that I would kill myself before taking pictures of any of these plants, and that I felt like I was in a zoo with no animals. For sure the most boring part of our trip and possibly my asian adventure thus far. Walking around for hours upon hours looking at plants... Not my thing, if I enjoyed this I would've studied botany, theres a reason I'm in business people, taking pictures of random ferns, trees, and flowers is notttttt it. After eating some awesome malasian and local food we headed to Sentosa island (a large theme-park type island targeted directly at tourists). I was kind of sad we only spent a half day at the beach, but it was better than nothing. I took a much-needed nap on the beach and enjoyed the 35 degree weather, sorry winnipeggers but it's true. That night we all went out for indian food, surprisingly one of my new favorites... Curry in and around, thank you. I think I have a slight Naan addiction as well, dammit. We headed back to Clark Quay for the night and had to stop at some margarita place so that Will could have his favorite marg, Elizabeth and I just sat in awe as we had never seen a male yearn for a marg the way Will was... No judging though.

Sunday morning was spent sleeping and missing breakfast, followed by getting packed up and heading downtown for lunch. After wandering around this asian foodcourt (ridiculous variety) for a while, most of us decided on something identifiable and scarfed it down before semi-rushing to the airport. I bought a new book entitled "YOU on a diet", and read it on the plane before drifting off to sleep for the rest of the flight.

One of the downfalls of the trip is that because there ended up being such a large group of us (11 most of the time), we did a lot of waiting around for everyone to get together/meet up. I would definately say that 4 ppl is a perfect number, that way you never have to take multiple taxis or really split up or anything... Ah well, at least we know for next time. The food on the trip was amazing and I'd say we experienced more ethnic food in 3 days than we hae in all of our stay in hk so far. We had local food, as well as thai, indian, malasian, and some indistinguishable dishes. I've learned that sometimes you just close your eyes, eat it, and hope for the best; it usually turns out okay.

Definately a good trip, but not a must-see if you were on a time-restricted trip to asia. Very touristy, but verrrry clean; and strangely difficult to get taxis. Happy to be back in hk =)

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

now you want to RETURN it?

So, update on the washcloth front. I just went in to use the bathroom and the cleaning was in there again, of course she was on her cell phone (no idea when she does any of the cleaning). As I passed her I looked to my left and low and behold,
hanging on the exact hook where I had left it, hung my cloth. As if she had just put it back where she had found it in hope of not being caught... Like is this some sort of sick joke? Yeah, I REALLY want to wash my face with a cloth covered in fricken glass cleaner and squeegee grime. Not awesome. Just wanted to share that tidbit, as some of my friends found it funny for some reason (jerks). Also, just used my chinese straightener for the first time, the loaf is still kind of poofy, but fairly under control, for once... We'll see how long this lasts. time to get ready for the weekend in Singapore. Adios =)

missing cloths and diabetic french toast.

This morning I awoke to what sounded like a dying animal. So I sent my roommate in to see what the heck as going on. Turns out it was the cleaning lady screaming angrily into her cell phone while mopping the floor of the bathroom, which happens to be right next to us. This went on for at least 5 minutes, no joke. Since I was now wide awake, I had no choice but to get up and get on with the day. As usual, in the washroom I hung my washcloth up on a hook on the wall, and proceeded to brush my teeth. I then walked over to the hook and didn't really know how to react when I noticed that my cloth was no longer there... It took a moment to register, as I didn't understand where it could have gone snce it was only the cleaning lady and I in there. I looked over to see her squeegee the mirror, and proceed to wipe the squeegee on my small brown cloth, I stodd there in awe, watching my only washcloth from home be abused by this dirty piece of rubber. I opened my mouth to say something and "uhhhh" came out, as I realized that even if I explained myself and got the washcloth back, I was never going to use it again; and that I really did not want to mess with this biaznatch today. After simply splashing my face with water I walked away, wondering if this was in a way the most comical thing that has happened to me so far. There have been few times when i am in fact speechless; today was most definately one of those times.

I tackled the day with one sole mission (other than not getting my cloth sniped by the angry cleaning lady)... To have my first diabetic-friendly french toast experience. So we headed up to the cafe, sugar free pb and syrup in hand. When I ordered they told me it was gong to take "a long, long time" (their way of trying to deter me from ordering it)... I told them that it was fine, and that I would wait haha suckkkkers. Apparently I was right, as it was ready in about 2 minutes, jerks. As most of you know, I normally inhale my food; but today I ate that stupid french toast as slowly as possible, hoping it was never going to end. Totally worth the 2 minute wait, and possible reaming-out from my nazi dietician.

I am now packing for Singapore (leaving in 6 hours!), and trying to finish this stupid online test (due to the fact that for a handful of us, the system lost all of our answers after submitting it during the actual test time). Mandarin is in 1 hour but I might opt out in favour of packing for the weekend of craziness haha wooooo. This is all for now, over and out.

this is me.

Not long ago, a good friend asked me to sum myself up in one string of words. It may seem strange but I really wanted to give this task some serious consideration... I thought for a couple of days as to how could I explain WHO I am in a single string of words... So tonight I sat at my computer for a couple of hours trying to properly articulate myself into one paragraph:

A life-lover, go-getter, and once in a while the life of the party; I live for adventure, enjoy success, but am not above failure. A significant part of me has quickly grown up, but a part of me dreams of forever staying a worry-free little girl. A big goofball, with an at-times-awkward sense of humor, I can truly say I have no shame. With a big smile and strong soul, I pursue my dreams one day at a time; and live for the sole purpose of having no regrets. This is not to say that at times I am not weak, and often need reassurance just as much as the next person. I have become humble, and now attest to the fact that life is not always fair, but also acknowledge that it is far too short to dwell on our inadequacies. Studious, but not too serious; and carefree, but still fairly careful, I go at life one day at a time. A hopeless romantic dreaming of the fairytale ending, I believe in soul mates, and not rushing love. Almost always in a contagiously good mood; I am at times temperamental and teary-eyed, only proving that vulnerability exists in all of us. Hardly perfect, but truly happy. This is me.

What's your story?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

the comma is back.

So I managed to drag my lazy butt out of bed for my 9am class today, and actually put some decent clothes on... I usually end up looking slightly homeless on Tuesday and Thursdays but not today people, not today. After whizzing through my first 2 classes,I returned to my room to sift through my goodies once again and call home. During the call home I decided to paint my toenails with the polishes I bought last night (3 for $10HK.. like $1.20CDN). Let me just say that I definately got what I paid for... My nails look like barney barfed all over my feet and then sprinkled on the gawdiest sparkles of alllll time. All day I've been blaming the polish, but the purple that remains on the skin of all of my toes leads me to believe that I may have been a bit at fault for the terrible application and the terrible, terrible decision to add those goddam sparkles. WHAT was I thinking, like am I going to a 5 year olds birthday party for crying out loud? Mannnn I hate tacky people like myself. Needless to say I will be visiting Elizabeth's room tomorrow to use her polish remover.

Speaking of Elizabeth and her room, I gave her about half of my sugar-free treats to keep in her room for me so that I don't immediately mow them all.. Probably the best decision I've made in a while. I was a bit resistant to let her take them away when it came down to it and I reminded her about ten times not to eat them and to tell her roomate that they are OFF LIMITS. She was laughing the whole time, probably because she's never seen anyone so attached to cookies in her whole life, but then again, has anyone?

I did my observational research today. Imagine the most boring 30 minutes of your life... I can promise you this was extremely comparable. I sat in the cafe, observing whether students appeared to include the selection of canned and bottled drinks in their consideration set for teatime beverages, and some of the characteristics of how this process took place. Needless to say, the action was next to none. I would actually get excited when I saw someone approaching the cooler, and then my heart would sink as they walked away lol. I got so involved somehow, like this was my little pet of a project. I'm over it.

After the cookie episode I went to the gym and read my book on the exercise bike for an hour and a half, much needed. My plan is to do this much cardio every single day for the next 3 weeks, because there is NOOOO way I am going to thailand a fatty. Having a good book to read honestly takes my mind entirely off of my burning bum and legs so it all works out. By the time we were done at the gym, the library was closed so we headed to the seafront restaurant to study (it's open till 2). During this study visit, I somehow manage to fling grease onto the sweats that I had decided to wear only after having them hang for FIVE days to dry. I almost snapped, nooo joke. Only after Cyril told me that everything was going to be okay, and that he would help me wash them tomorrow, did I come back down to earth and became able to study again (the weirdest things make me go crazy now-a-days).

To add to the agony of my new sweatpants being soiled with stupid chicken skin grease (that I was trying to remove), my comma key was still not working. This is when Bryan came sweeping in to save the day once again... I don't know if you remember but he's the same guy that fixed my internet the first couple days of being here when I was down-and-out, internet styles. He came down to the cafe to check out my situation, and then proceeded to go back up to his room to try and "write a program to fix it". It was at this moment that I realized I had hit the jackpot, computer problems solved for LIFE woooo. It turns out he didn't write me a program, but forwarded me some software with which you can re-map your keyboard, scorrrrrrre =) So after a somewhat traumatizing night, I am finally a happy camper, as always!

I had a completely blissful sleep last night, although dozing off was a little weird with this fan making noise on the desk right above my head; sidenote: this is in NO way a complaint. I now just need to get a power bar so I can have all of my special needs industrial appliances plugged in and somehow manage to still charge my computers and phone... Soon enough haha.

Test and paper due tomorrow, lets keep our fingers crossed =) lovvvvve from hk

Monday, March 1, 2010

christmas morning. no more fan wars.

Today is THAT day my friends. The day when I will finally blast my badass fan allllll night long; the day when my package from my mom FINALLY arrived; and the day that I may literally shit the bed based on the fact that I tried ever single aritificially sweetened product that came in that wonderfully large box from home (recall the "undercover laxative" entry). Today also marks the day that I finished my third vile of insulin EVER; insignificant to some, but a weird milestone to me.

Today I experienced perhaps my new favorite edible object known to man on this campus. May I introduce to you the Ham and Cheese croissant from the Cafe, worm-free I might add. I tell myself that besides the croissant part, this delicious creation seems fairly diabetic-friendly (on the ham and cheese front). The next wonderful part of my day came in between finishing at the library and deciding that we were going back to Mos Burger for dinner. On my wayu back to 1012, I saw Anais in the hall and she told me that my "sugar-free cookies had arrived". She probably assumed that was all that the box contained, as I had been speaking of nothing else for the past 5 days. I did one of those quick paced walks all the way to my room; the kind where you want to sprint, but you don't want other to think you are mentally challenged. I grabbed my roomate's mini elementary school-sized scissors and literally went at the box like it was my job. After struggling for far too long I ripped the damn thing open and felt like a kid on christmas morning. This heaven-sent gift contained, among other things:

-5 types of sugar free cookies (wafers, shortbread, lemon cookies, peak freans)
-sugar free syrup (so I can have french toast)
-sugar free reeses pb cups and york peppermint patties
-sugar free werthers chocolates (3 kinds)
-hair conditioner, eye cream, RSVP fine tipped pens, and shout (because vanish sucks the big one)
-laundry lines (so I don't have to be low budget and hang my clothes from the water pipe any more)

the fun just never ended while going through this package, I cannot even describe to you the relief of seeing all-english packaging, "thank fricken god" was the only thing going through me head.

We tried out "argyle mall" after eating, as we heard it was cheap, but were surprised to find out it was slightly comparable to an indoor ladies market... Made a few good purchases and ended up spending just over $20CDN, can't complain; although I think I may be a borderline addict, but we all knew that was bound to happen.

My day only improved when I took my newly-acquired fan out of its box and it was completely idiot-proof (lucky for me). No assembly, no fancy shtuff to hook up, just a plug, and an oh-so anticipated cool breeze. After setting up the fan we headed to unibar to celebrate what had turned out to be a great day. Of course, I engaged in a game of darts, and am sad to say that I am no longer undefeated. I was close, but not close enough. Even this epic, epic loss could not bring me down from the high-on-life feeling that was allll mine.

Today my shoutout goes to Elizabeth, for smuggling a chocolate sundae into the library in order to cure my borderline hypoglycemic attack. You know you're an unreal friend when...

I believe it is time for me to turn on my mitsubishi and drift off to a sleep free of behind the knee sweat and fan wars.