Returning to where I left off.... 8 years ago.

Today marks the first day of my triumphant (insert rolleyes emoticon) return back to school! I must admit that I've been having butterflies this past week leading up to today, accompanied by the occasional sleepless nights, the sudden thoughts of "omg what the hell am I getting myself into?", to the random thoughts of "maybe I wouldn't have to worry about anything if I fail my first course". Talk about lack of confidence; who on earth thinks about failing something before attempting it?

Anyhoo, I was pretty nervous all day today at work until I started driving to UBC. That was when everything suddenly seemed so familar and brought back many fond memories of my undergraduate studies there. Not much has changed, yet many things were noticeably different. Thanks to my supportive boss, I was given the go-ahead to leave work early so that I could sort myself out on campus; get my ID card, arrange for parking, orient myself (which took a mere few minutes). It was also interesting to see the changes (or lack of) in a span of 8-10 years.

Things that have changed:

• Parking passes are no longer a flimsy, plastic card (which you stored in a flimsy plastic pocket glued permanently to your windshield so you are left with a nasty residue when you try to remove it) that you insert everytime you enter/exit a parkade. It's a pass that is attached to your windshield by a suction cup. All you need to do is drive up to the gate, let your pass activate the gate through a sensor, and bam, the gate opens. It's high-tech, yo.
• People no longer use pagers, or cell phones. They use text messages, on their fancy blackberries.
• Roundabouts at W.16 and Wesbrook Mall (why would they build such a thing, when it seems like nobody understood how to use it properly?)
• A Timmy Ho's on campus!
• I'm actually one of the younger people in my class. Wow.
  
• I'm married.
• I don't have any friends or know anyone on campus! :(
  
• I can't carpool with my hubby to save money, or hang out with him at the arcade before or after class. :(
• Everyone carries a laptop.
  

Things that haven't changed:

• Houses (read: Mansions) along SW Marine are still very nice... and not very affordable.
• Parking is still expensive. $1.50 per half hour? Is this the airport or something?
• There are alot of Chinese people.
  
• Chinese people speaking (and giggle) very loudly.
• The Fraser Parkade is dark, filthy, and still plastered with moss and whatever weird looking flora that are all over the walls and stairs.
  
• Buchanan's washrooms are nasty.
• Plant Operations technicians working (or trying to look like they are working) in groups of 3 or more. Yet, nobody seems to know what they are trying to accomplish (imagine 3 or 4 guys holding shovels, gathering around a pothole, chatting over coffee).
• My stupid looking grad photo is still on the alumni wall in the Geography Building! Hahaha!
• Lack of healthy food/drink choices on campus.
  
• Bumpy highway.
• The average car found on campus costs no less than $30K. Popular brand names include BMW, Benz, Porsche - mostly driven by Asians.
  
• My last name; after many attempts in sending over proofs/documentation, the Office of the Registrar still have difficulty realizing that I've changed my last name. After talking to what seems like 10 different staffs at the office, I eventually gave up. I'm happy to announce that I'm still a Chiu! Puhaha.

One thing that was intriguing was how much information was associated with my student ID, and how far back UBC tracks my personal information. All I had to do was give my student number to UBC Parking Office, and they were able to retrieve my DL#, and all the license plates, make, model and color of the cars I use to drive to campus between 1996 to 2000. I mean, they don't even use the same parking systems anymore since I left. Freaky.

Anyways, I hope He gives me the sanity to get through this year.

mmmmmuffins.

I forgot to post a picture of the blueberry muffins I made the other day. I think I may have found the best muffins recipe (for now). The texture is very soft and not too crumbly..... even after being left overnight. The recipe also calls for a crumble top, but I didn't make it as I fear it may be too sweet. I might try it another time. I cut the sugar in the recipe by a bit more than half and it was still really good and sweet enough for me. This is good as the husband and I have been trying to eat healthily and we have cut down our daily sugar intake. I also cut the sugar amount so that my Dad can eat the muffins too (he's a diabetic). I hate that splenda crap. Splenda makes everything taste .... fake and chemically altered?!

Super Delicious Blueberry Muffins (stolen from allrecipes)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar (I cut the sugar in the recipe by a little more than half)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I only had corn oil at home and it worked well!!)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk (I used 1%)
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

(Crumble topping)

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

I doubled up the recipe and made about 17 decent sized muffins! If you have a ton of fresh blueberries at home right now (snerk!), I recommend you try this :)

Vacation rules!

Well, hello children! Are you ready for my triumphant return to the blog world? Today is my first day off from work (weekends don't count), and I shall celebrate by writing a blog entry! Afterall, it's been 2 months since I blogged. I guess I just don't have enough (interesting) things to say, and I'm really lazy. On most days after work, I am too tired to even turn on the computer at night to write.... meh.

I can't really say I've accomplished much on my vacation yet since it's only been day 1, but the husband and I did 2 loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen counters and stovetop. There are alot more things at home that need cleaning, that's for sure! The last few days, I was able to spend some time with my parents, play piano, read, and not think about work. I've only looked at my work emails on my crackberry twice today, so I'd like to think I'm doing well so far.

I hope I can really relax and take things easy during my 4 week vacation. I know the time will go by very fast, so I'm trying to make good use of my time and enjoy my vacation as much as I can before returning to work in a few weeks. Work had been crazy during the past 6 months, so I'm glad I got the chance to go away for a breather. Once September rolls in, I'm not sure if I have time to breathe as I decided to throw myself back to more schooling. I hope it wasn't a bad decision on my part - to work full time, go to school part time, and manage house chores....and let's hope I pass my first graduate course. Honestly, I'm a tad (maybe more than a tad) nervous about September. Afterall, it's been 8 long years since I graduated from UBC. I'm not really sure what to expect from there. I don't even know if I can still write an academic paper anymore?!? Yikes!!!!!

On an unrelated note, I really dislike oblivious drivers. I hate the fact that I'm driving straight on the right lane at a constant speed, and drivers peek out from the side street trying to get onto my lane. Sure, either you step on your gas and go for it, or wait after I go and you turn out. Noooooo, they have to wait until you are very close to them and then they turn out, making you slam on your brakes with steam coming out of your heads. What's worst is they drive at 40km/hr in front of you. Or, you try to back out of your parking spot and the driver (if you're in Ditchmond, they are usually female of Chinese descent in their 40's-50's) signal for your spot, but is totally blocking you. They refuse (or do not know how) to back it up abit to make room for you. Instead, they just sit there and think it's my responsibility to back out of my spot 50 times so she can run everyone else over just to get my spot. This is after I found out there were tons of spots near my spot... closer to the mall entrance.

And if you can't keep up with the flow of traffic or the indicated speed sign on the highway, DRIVE ON THE RIGHT SIDE and stay there. The left lane is for passing!!!!!!! Driving 60km/hr on the fast lane on a 90km/hr highway is very dangerous! And if you decide to pass someone, get onto the fast lane at a faster speed, not at a slower speed so that the 20 cars on the fast lane behind you can smash right into you.

Ok, I think I feel better now. I'm currently baking some blueberry muffins in the oven. I hope they turn out well since the recipe has so many high ratings. I love blueberries. I was so happy when my mom gave me a huge box of blueberries... apparently she bought them for cheap from a local blueberry farmer. My current healthy snack at the moment is fresh blueberries with fat free vanilla yogurt with granola! EEEEEE!

Ok bye! Maybe I'll post again soon (and hopefully not in 2 months time).

Oops.

I forgot to blog for over a month! O-M-G. If I remembered correctly, I was suppose to blog about our short trip to HK after our Tokyo 3-day stop. I guess I got lazy and afterall, who wants to listen to me blog about a trip from 2 months ago? Anyways, HK was fun but we wished we had more time for shopping, exploring, eating and hanging out with families and friends. Going back to HK always gives me a weird feeling. When I was young, going to HK feels like going "home". Even when I worked in HK for 4 months during my summer time off from UBC back in 1997, I thought I'd eventually return to HK to live my life there after graduation. Somehow, I managed to bump into Mr.C during my 2nd year and then my plan to live in HK got all messed up. However, in retrospect, I wouldn't have enjoyed living and working in HK. In fact, I didn't enjoy my summer job experience in HK. Politics, impersonal relationships, pollution, the general disconnect with anyone and everyone...ugh. I guess I became accustomed to the Canadian lifestyle because I left HK at a really young age.

Anyways, let's move on. Today was one of the warmer, nicer days we've had since.... last September (!!!), so Mr.C and his biking buddy went to Whistler early this morning to ride the A-line and the many trails on the slopes. I'm not sure what it is, but when Mr.C gets to ride his bike he gets giddy and really excited! You know this guy loves to ride when he gets home, has a super huge grin on his face, and tells you he just bought his Whistler Season's Pass.

It was nice to have the entire Saturday to myself. I got to do whatever I want, whenever I want, and it was so relaxing! I am also proud to say that I accomplished alot today! Here is a quick re-cap of what I did - yes, I'm sure you are all dying to know my oh-so-exciting day.

• woke up early to dim sum with my family
• hung out with my parents and watched some tv at their place.... this is what happens when you don't have cable at your own home.
• went home, bummed around on the internet for abit
• re-organized our binders - taxes, invoices, statements, yada yada.
• re-organized my recipe binder (how lame)
  
• prepped some food for tomorrow's dinner get-together with some RCAC friends whom we haven't hung out for awhile.
  
• made a quick noodle soup for myself, and a fruit salad for Mr.C because I felt like chopping up fruits out of nowhere (I'm weird, yes).
  
• speed-walked around my neighborhood for 30 mins (part of my new healthy-living regime... which I may blog about later because I don't want to run out of things to blog for my next entry, puhahah).
  
• vacuumed (I broke the rule - I was suppose to let Mr.C do that, but I couldn't stand a dusty home for another minute!)
• folded all the laundry in the dryer!

Surprisingly, I haven't been tired yet. I hope the weather continues to stay sunny and warm so I can get more exercise! I hated the dark, winter days and I'm tired of sitting around doing nothing! Blaaaarggh!

Day 4: Tokyo (Asakusa) - Hong Kong

Wow, I'm blogging two days in a row! What is going on here!?

Actually, I'm waiting for my cake to finish baking. I'm baking a strawberry cheesecake for my Mom's birthday tomorrow. I hope it turns out ok. I'll try to take some pictures with my spankin' new camera!

Anyways, here are some photos from our last day in Tokyo. :( We only had the morning to travel around as we had to be back at the hotel by noon for the airport shuttle bus which we reserved. Our flight to HK was in the late afternoon so we had to give ourselves plenty of travel time, in fear of getting stuck in weekday traffic.....

It took us about 20 mins by train to get to Asakusa, which is one of the older districts in Tokyo. The district is alot less busy than most parts of Tokyo, and it has preserved some of the older and more traditional Japanese atmosphere, cultures and architectures including old residential buildings and houses, and temples. We saw alot of people in traditional Kimonos... but, I'm not sure if that's what they commonly wear when they visit temples.

We went to one of the most visited and popular temple - Sensoji Temple! There were lots of tourists and local school groups... who interesting were all accompanied by a foreigner (Caucasian) sensei (teachers). Cultural exchange studies, perhaps?

Outside Sensoji Temple, where many people tried to get the best spot for photos!


Nakamise, a 200m street/alleyway that leads to the temple from the front gate. Most of the stores sell traditional Japanese handmade crafts, ornaments, fans, freshly made rice cracker snacks (osenbei), manju (deep fried soft cake) with many fillings including the popular red bean paste filling,




This place is packed!


We spend about 45 mins at the temple walking along Nakamise, going into the temple and watched a group of local monks chant.... and people watching! We had to go back to Ikebukuro. :(

We quickly stopped by a small shop inside Sunshine City (chuckle) in Ikebukuro for lunch. Good timing on our part... by the time we placed our order, we saw a crowd of businessmen and office ladies outside waiting in line.

Nobody spoke English at this place either! So Colin ordered "Katsu Don" and they happened to have it. ROFL. He said it was actually very good, best Katsu Don he's ever had! (It must be good, because he didn't share any with me).


I had the soba noodles with prawn tempura. Yummy!


It took us almost 2 hours to get to the airport (traffic congestion on the highway). When we got to the airport, we quickly looked for snacks!

Japanese herbed mochi with red bean paste filling. We were so addicted... they must have put crack in it.


A traditional mochi, with red bean paste filling. WHY MUST YOU BE SO TASTY!?!?!?#!*&#


Colin took a photo of this girl we saw at the boarding gate area. He thought she looked like my brother.....


Bubye, Tokyo. :(

More on Hong Kong.... later.

Day 3: Tokyo (Shibuya, Roppongi)

Ooooops, I forgot I was suppose to keep blogging about my trip. I got lazy, and I didn't really think people want to bother with reading my boring blog. So I kind of forgot about it. Anyways, we took alot of photos during the trip but I can't possibly talk about every single one of them. Maybe I'll try to find time and post some on my facebook page. I have to stop being so lazy.

Shibuya - "overwhelming" is the word I'd use to describe the place. It's packed with people, you often feel claustrophobic (sp?). But the food and shopping is great. We actually didn't buy much during our stay in Tokyo, but we really enjoyed alot of the window shopping. Shibuya is filled with brand named shops as well as many local, hidden treasures. When I did my travel research, I basically pinpoint the major areas one must visit on the area map. We'd try to hit all the major areas and then we'd be adventurous and wander off. We figured that as long as we could find our way back to the subway station, we're good. It was really fun to wander off to all these small, hidden shops and eateries!

We've arrived Shibuya! Thank you to the cute school girl who took this picture for us. She bowed 10 times after I thanked her. o_O


We didn't know there was a Bape store in Shibuya... apparently it was just opened in late Fall of 2007. The store entrance had a huge glass conveyor(?) belt that you walk on as you step into the store, and all their collector shoes on the belt would run under your feet. We also listened to alot of NERD (Yea!), Pharrell and Teriyaki Boyz in the store. It was awesome. Woo.

Mr.C likes his Bapes.


After many hours on our feet at Shibuya, we had to stop for lunch. Best sashimi I've had yet, and it wasn't expensive (that says alot, because I'm cheap haha). As a matter of fact, I don't think "crappy" sashimi... or any crappy food in general, exist in Japan. The Japanese take pride in the food they make and the service they provide.


Shibuya Station (Koen-Dori exit) - this is the busiest station in Japan! I wasn't able to capture how "busy" the station is. I think I snapped this just after the crosswalk light turned red... most people already crossed the street. Imagine 5x the crowd in the picture. Oh my goat.


Shibuya was really fun, and we didn't want to leave. But, we had to get going because there was just far too many places we had to visit during our short stay in Tokyo. We left Shibuya around 4pm and got to Roppongi.

Tokyo Midtown! Crazy architecture both inside and outside. It has business towers, shopping district, convention centres. I wish I knew how to use the camera better (it was a borrowed camera) so I could capture the architecture better. Some of the shots turned out crappy because I had the wrong setting and my hands were shaking alot due to the strong winds that day/night. Oh man, was it cold ever.




Inside Tokyo Midtown - we really loved the modern architecture and lighting in there:


We then walked for 20 mins to Roppongi Hills!

Mori Tower @ Roppongi Hills (sorry for the blur).


Highlight of the evening - We went up to Tokyo City View on the 52nd Floor of Mori Tower!
"Tokyo City View offers 250 meters above sea level, offering 360-degree vistas of the bustling metropolis."


We sat on this really neat cushioned sofa while we enjoyed the night view. When you sit on it the light in the sofa turns on and glows.


After the Tokyo City View, we were starving (it was already 9pm or something). We walked around Roppongi not knowing what and where to eat... and we decided to just pick a place and give it a try. We walked into this small little shop about a block away from Don Quixote (by the way, this was a really weird 24/7 store that sells ANYTHING you can think of). None of the staff spoke English and their menu was basically filled with handwritten Japanese. !!! I think after a few minutes, someone who looked like the owner came out and half mumbled something like "What you like eat?". We said we didn't know and asked him to suggest something. He said "I bring you us signaturk deeeshes ok". Woah. We had no idea what to expect. I was going to say Katsu Don but I felt stupid ordering that in a local shop.

The prices on the menu didn't look so bad, so we told him we're very hungry and we'll try their best food. This is what they served us.... and they definitely wow-ed us!

I couldn't make out half of what the owner told us, but from what I gathered this is a Hokkaido style udon. Those two brown things.... I thought they were meat so I gave one to Mr.C to try, he popped the whole thing into his mouth and almost spat it out. It was a sour plum. Eeeeeks.

Dang, it was good.


Mr.C had the curry udon - Kyoto style. This was apparently the shop's signature dish... because the owner kept saying "good" and "best" and I saw our neighbours all eating the same udon. The curry soup was so flavorful and the freshly made udon noodles were so good. If you eat this, beware... as you are very likely to dirty your clothes.


The staff give all customers a bib when their food arrive. It was a great idea.


We also shared some chicken karage.... it's nothing like what we have here in Vancouver.


We didn't know what to expect when we walked into this place, but we were so happy after the meal. It was a hidden treasure in Roppongi indeed! (Sorry, I don't know what this place is called... it was all written in Japanese). But, if you ask me directions on how to get there, I'd be able to tell you! :D

Hmmm, blogging is very tiring. I'll try to blog about our last day in Tokyo... soon. Hopefully not in 2 weeks' time.

Oh aaaaand, I got myself a new digital camera! We never owned one (I either borrow my parents' old camera, or my bro's gf's camera during the trip). My brother researched and found a good camera for a pretty good price (a price that I can afford). So after I read the 300-page manual, I'd get to play with it. I hope it takes better macro pictures, then I can blog about food again after all this blabberings about our trip because.... I'm starting to run out of things to talk about.

Day 2: Tokyo (Shinjuku, Harajuku)

Well hello kids, I'm back to blog about the 2nd day of our trip. At this rate, it looks like it'll take me a whole month to finish yapping about my trip. Maybe I'll try to talk less....

We spent our Day 2 in Shinjuku and Harajuku. It'd be nice if we could spend a day in each place, but we have limited days and we did what we could. Anyways, we woke up at around 7:30am each day to brush up, drink water (we were constantly dehydrated), read up where we'd be visiting, and off we go to our hotel lounge for the complimentary breakfast buffet. When I was planning our trip, I was planning to eat breakfast out but soon realized after reading a few travel blogs that finding Japanese style breakfast on a weekday at 9am is practically nonexistent (unless you opt for McD's and Wendy's.... or Starbucks). Our hotel breakfast turned out to be a great idea as it gave us enough fuel to start off our day. And oh hey, it's free so why not!

The congee and "ja choy" (picked veggies) was so yummy. I don't know why I got myself a hardboiled egg and scrambled eggs... I was probably craving eggs or something that day. And they served fries for breakfast, haha! Yes, that's kimchi on the plate... I don't know why I got that either but it was delicious. They also had a whole variety of grilled fish, pickled veggies, steamed rice - a typical Japanese breakfast. And natto. OMG it was ewwwwwww. A dude beside us was eating it with his rice and I had to try not to squint my eyes or make a disgusted face. Sorry, it smelled like pinch :(


Mr.C likes his fries!


After breakfast we walked to Ikebukuro Subway station and took the Tokyo Subway train for the first time. The underground station was so big that it was rather intimidating at first. Did you know this station is the 2nd busiest in Japan, serving over a million passengers each day? :O I was glad I took my friend Zandra's advice and figured out the route system before going to Tokyo. It turned out pretty easy to navigate around, but you could easily get confused and jumped on the wrong train or the wrong platform. I think my Chinese skills helped abit... especially when we couldn't find English in some signages.

Our first stop was Shinjuku- known as a major commercial and administrative centre housing the busiest train station in the world. Surrounding Shinjuku station are department stores, specialty electronic and camera stores, restaurants and shopping centres. We got there at around 10am and stores were just starting to open. We managed to get into a 6-storey bookstore as I wanted to find a Kotaro Oshio guitar book for my brother. Man, was I lost in there but I did eventually find it. Again, I applaud myself for my kanji/Chinese skills :P

We spend the first half our our day in Shinjuku. There were alot of department stores and smaller specialty stores that caught our attention.

We got hungry when we got to the basement of a huge department store, Isetan. My gosh, they have a huge supermarket, food market filled with freshly made goodies from appetizers, breads, main entrees, desserts, wine, cheeses, noodles, pickled goods... pretty much anything you can think of. We bought chicken skewers (Mr.C's fav) and desserts. Heh.

Ricecake with strawberry, apparently called Ichigo daifuku - Freshly made mochi with a sweetened strawberry inside. Who could resist? Oh, and a box of 12 strawberries in Japan costs about $15 Canadian, btw.


We left Shinjuku mid-afternoon and jumped on another JR train to Harajuku - home to the weirdest dressers! We saw a couple of Alices in Alice in Wonderland, amongst other things. o_O Harajuku has 2 main shopping areas; Omotesandō with expensive brand name stores such as Prada, LV, etc. (and they have a KiddyLand!), and Takeshita Street with lolita/rocker/gothic/punk/hip hop/latest Japanese street fashion...

Harajuku station. When we got out of the train, there were groups of teenage girls in their school uniforms getting excited and giddy about something. It was funny to see them in their school uniforms with crazy punk hair/jewelery/shoe accessories....


Takeshita street - it's nuts in there. It was almost like Mongkok in HK, but 10x crazier. It was funny when a group of black men (I was told they are Nigerians) were trying to lure us into a store on the 2nd floor and sell us fake jeans and runners. And, there's a Daiso on Takeshita street, which we didn't go into :P


We took this photo for Ken C.... hahaha.


Of course, we had to pull over on Takeshita street and try the famous Harajuku Crepes! We picked the busiest crepe booth and lined up for 15 mins for our choice of Harajuku Crepe to get a taste of the Japanese pop culture. If you're in Harajuku, you have to try it!

Angels Heart Crepes.... hahahah.


This is for Kelly and Hilda, who are crazy about crepes of all sorts.
My crepe - chocolate strawberry banana crepe: fresh strawberries and banana chunks, tons of chocolate drizzles, whipped cream, and puff pastry chunks. This thing must be like 30,000 calories. :(


Mr.C had the Strawberry banana chocolate cheesecake crepe - real cheesecake chunks. Yikes!


p.s. We ended up snacking our way in Harajuku, and went back to Mutekiya in Ikebukuro late at night for some quality ramen. mmmm ramen.