it's all about balance

got upset by a guy,
got charmed by another.

so weekends begin on Thursday.

Thursday.

@ the Barking Frog

Friday.

spur of the moment decision to get out of the house. Liting, you should know why!

Viv: i took this picture to show you i'm wearing the scarf (:

565 Kininvie Drive.. and the snowy road ahead to the bus stop.

Saturday.

@ White Oaks Mall. shopping trip started with an energizer that came in the form of Mac. Sze Ni, please let's eat something else next time!

they've got the Canadian maple leaf on the Mac sign. an attempt at being anti-establishment?

and here's the dinner that was waiting for me at home. thanks Grace, i knew you love me (:
ahhh CHINESE FOOD!!!

and here's the loot for the day. don't you say i didn't exercise self control!

Windsor/Detroit

** Windsor **

for the first time since arriving, we ate out. lunch was Subway, and dinner was ordered in from Swiss Chalet. the process of ordering was highly agonizing. makes me appreciate Singapore so much better! we stayed at St Clair's College, whose emblem bears quite a resemblance to that of NUS. we loved our suite so much! it's so modern compared to our Victorian home. went outlet shopping.. the shops weren't fantastic, but as long as there's a shop, ain't that hard to buy something. hee =p

** Detroit **

ran into some complications at Detroit. firstly, the US customs officials weren't very nice. then, we really had a problem picking a car..

Grace and i really couldn't agree on anything.. except the Greyhound.

on a parting note, we bought our first bottle of wine from LCBO. alcohol here is seriously cheap!

so that's my weekend for you (:

James 1:17

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

before i left for Canada, i was making presents for some friends and this was the verse i wrote for them. last semester (or year) was one in which i saw God's provision in terms of friendships and also His consistency, in that all circumstances, regardless of how i'm unable to see His hand at that point in time, happen for a reason. His reason, His plan.. and not mine.

today, i was happy because i felt i got to know two people better. through a crossword puzzle, i found someone who'd like to go to church and over lunch plus some common classes, i found someone to hang out with. just a few days before, i met someone who's really nice and for whom i'm really thankful for somehow, even though we're not close.

and how timely it is, that when my homepage opened to iGoogle, James 1:17 is the verse of the day (:

Niagara Falls!

one fine day, Grace and i took a little walk around the neighbourhood. we tried to be macho and wore so little, and it was so windy we retreated back home after not too long. the next day, i thought the day was warm and tried to be macho again when i took a trip to Walmart. geez. mental note to self to never attempt such stunts again.

on Friday, we had the privilege of experiencing a (rare) blackout. the entire campus was down, as well as the most part of the town. needless to say, our residence was hit (the power trips when i switch my heater from '1' to '3' - go figure). but well, we had a bumming session with our basement mate who lives at the other end of the basement, Joetta. i was initiated into the Gossip Girl fan club, promptly watched 6 episodes. (thankfully) i couldn't find episode 7 on Grace's lappie and discontinued.

the entire entourage of exchange people went on a trip to Niagara! the misty one is the Falls on the Canadian side, while the rocky one is that of the US side. why one has mist and the other doesn't, kindly revert to my dear Pea for a professional opinion.

personally, i felt visiting the Falls was kinda anti-climatic. perhaps it was because i didn't go near and hence wasn't hit by the grandeur of it all, or, the area was a tad too commercialized for my liking. still, i've seen the much talked-about Falls, woohoo! and we made a new friend today. hi Stella! (:

here're some pictures. we went up this tower thing and got a panoramic view of the city.

and please indulge me for a bit more.. i'm sick :( thanks Gracie for the yummy hot soup! hope i'll be fine in the morning. popped a few pills, and i'm gonna be off to sleep now.

oh, and for some reason, i couldn't see my tagboard for awhile. and now though i can see it, i can't post on it! maybe my ardent fans can comment instead? ahh it's Sunday. i miss my curry chap cai peng already..

ciao!

ps. to my parents, i took 2 panadol, one orange throat table and one Sudafed okay? no worries (:

undeserving me.

today, i did a horrible thing. returned the slow cooker we already started using to Walmart, because we decided it's kinda useless.

then, while waiting for the bus, i was so very cold because of the strong wind, so i took refuge in this furniture showroom. an elderly man who works there came up to talk to me, and he was just really sweet and nice.

even though i probably won't see him ever again, and even if i were to i'm not too sure i'd recognize him, this one incident sweetened up my day and it's little things like these that time and again remind me of the goodness God intends for this world. somehow..

(:

the obligatory pictures-of-scenery post

you all know me, i take pictures of random nonsense.

so this is very good already. in fact, besides these 4 pictures, i don't have much more scenery shots

but it's also partially because it's so cold i don't wanna take off my gloves (:

that's Uncle Kam standing at the door, so you know which is Season's home ya.

and so life begins in Canada

so finally i sit myself down to post an entry. here goes!

*** Toronto ***


the night i arrived, i went to a new year countdown at Nathan Philips Square with Season and her church friends and i nearly died because it was SO cold. that night, i concussed from 3am to 8pm the next day. so much for jetlag being psychological eh, teow?


here's the ROM (no, i didn't get married. it's the Royal Ontario Museum)




look, Marche! the water fountain thing is how you get your drinking water.

advert on the subway. buddy, this is for you!

"I can imagine settling down with my one true friend. Too bad we are both looking for Mr. Right"

i went out ON MY OWN. cool eh! i was so excited (:

shopped around at Yorkdale for a (long) while before Jasper came.

that's Jayne, she's from SMU. she reminds me a lot of ebay!

*** London ***

met up with Grace at the Greyhound station and off we went to London! this was our first meal.

this picture is the 'before' of my room. we had quite a bit of a shock. not that our rooms were terrible or anything, but it was kinda dingy and a tad dodgy. for mine, the random paintings around the room got me a little claustrophobic, so i took them all down except for one and shoved them into a cupboard. as for Grace's room, there was too much furniture around for her liking, and so she shoved quite a fair bit into same said cupboard. then we went about adapting the rooms to our liking. the whole process was hilarious. and, we did things like remove ALL the sheets and dump them somewhere, vacuum and whatnot. i'm sure the landlady must have felt offended in some way, but well, whatever makes us happy (:

see that cupboard behind Grace?

this is what went in. the paintings from my room, two cupboards, one swivel chair etc...

the returns from our first trip to Walmart.

Daddy, here's where your money went!

this cupboard beside me opens to a sink, but somehow i just find it gross so i shoved some stuff into the cupboard, pushed the fridge out and henceforth, cupboard and sink shall remain shut and unutilised.

parts of my room after Operation Make-Room-Habitable.

you know you're in a girl's room when

(i) part of a bookshelf is amazingly transformed into a dresser

(ii) there's a (pink) trash bin beside the mirror.

so yes. to the left it's the pantry, and to the right it's the dresser.

this box of Oreos cost $0.43!

our first bus ride. we were going to Walmart. yes, again.

over here, they sort their trash kinda like Japan does. so Grace and i find that cumbersome and brought our trash out to dump. after throwing it into this green bin, we notice it's for cardboard only. oops.

returns from the trip out. we went into Dollarama (everything's at a dollar) and we so wanted to refund stuff at Walmart and get them at a dollar instead! but we decided we'll just take it as a lesson learnt.

our first cooked meal on Monday night. Grace can cook man. yummy (:

tonight i'll be attempting murder when i cook curry chicken.

there's one thing for which i don't know whether i wanna get annoyed at, or just settle for finding it funny. the landlady seems to think we have poor English. the day we arrived, she was telling us how there would be preparatory notes online for helping us to improve our English in preparation for school. and, when she heard Grace and i talking to each other while we were having dinner, she said 'oh it's great you're practising your English'. thanks.

since arriving, there are really so many things to be thankful for.

Aunty Ann's hospitality, having Season bring me around, being able to roam about on my own that day and meeting Jasper and Jayne, having Uncle Kam and Ryan lug my luggage for me to the Greyhound station, Marilyn picking us up from the station, Shiwei and his uncle's family coming to visit us and driving us to Walmart. if not for these people, things would really have been so much tougher. also, though i applied for SEP prepared that i'd have to be alone, i am very thankful Grace is here. i realized if otherwise, it'd possibly be depressing and it'd definitely be hard to get by. like, when the sun goes down, it's really dark and it'd be scary to go out alone.

so yup, thank God (: there's a cross on the college near our place, we're hoping there's a church there so we can go. we'll see about that soon!