Reading Week in a Nutshell

16 FEB 2008 - 19 FEB 2008
Vancouver

So, perhaps going to IRS partying and coming home at 2 am, then waking up at 4 30am to catch an 8 30am flight isn't the smartest thing to do. But I guess I must do these things while I am still young, before I have to serious and grown up and not do such reckless things. :D

I was sooo tired and I couldn't check into my hotel until 4 ish. I arrived at 12 ish. So, I decided to be a trooper and head for a walk downtown while they fixed up my room. Walked along Broadway street and saw a tonne of restaurants. Made a mental note to try this Chinese noodle place that had a big lunch crowd. Walked along Yaletown and discovered A BOOKSTORE! Spent an hour or so perusing and bought a couple books.

Went to a close by marketplace, bought some fruits and headed back to the hotel quite tired. After a nice shower, I was refreshed and checked out the noodle place. Pretty good. I had a bowl of noodles even though I wasn't really hungry.

Crashed at about 8 30pm (which in eastern time is 11 30pm). Got up showered and was out the door by 8 am to start my day of exploring!

First stop: Wendy's for some high carb breakfast.

Second stop: Marketplace to buy some apples and a sandwich to last me the day.

Third stop: Took the bus to Stanley park. It was beautiful! Walked around for a couple hours.


Fourth Stop: Took the bus up to the Capilano bridge. It's a canopy bridge - much like the one I was on in Taman Negara in Malaysia - but safer! A couple of shots from the bridge.



Fifth stop: Continued the bus northwards to the Cleveland dam. There were a lot hiking trails. Spent a few hours wandering around. Boy, was I glad I brought all 4 pairs of shoes! This is where I first saw snow in Vancouver.


Sixth stop: This was a busy day. I was pretty tired by the end of it, but I wanted to take the Seabus back to Vancouver (from north Vancouver - or, North Van, as the locals like to call it). The ride was pretty pleasant, started to talk to this Singaporean. Conversation was interesting until he brought up the topic of same sex marriages and tried to convert my views.... Below is a view of Vancouver from across the river on the side of North Vancouver.


I went out on site for most of 18th (Monday) and then took a little detour out to Gramsville Island on my last night in Vancouver. Unfortunately, I did not realize that I did not need to cross the bridge to get to Gramsville island, until I had finished crossing it. It was a long bridge!

19 FEB 2008 - 20 FEB 2008
Seattle, WA

I must say, unfortunately I did not run into McDreamy here! I mean, where was he?! And, I could not- for the life of me - locate Seattle Grace Hospital...

As you can see, I got a little less camera happy in Seattle. Though it was not as pretty as Vancouver I must say. One of the engineers told me that Seattle took a little longer to love than Vancouver.

This is a picture going through one of the turnpikes. They have many of these in Seattle.


Didn't get to spend much time in Seattle :(.... But I did get some cool shots on my way to Portland on the train! These sunset shots are amazing. I love the silhouette against the trees.

20 FEB 2008 - 23 FEB 2008
Portland, Oregon

Portland is such a beautiful city. It feels like small town, but it is so modern. I love it's transportation system. It is so well integrated, it makes me want to take it! No really! I took the light rail train or the streetcar around when I had a day off on Friday.

I got a little tired of taking pictures at this point, but here is a cool mountain shot from the timberline at Mount Hood.


This is my marguirita which I ordered with my fish taco at 10 30 am at a mexican restaurant.

The conversation went something like this:

lady: what would you like to drink, miss?
me: what do you have?
lady: we have milk, juices, coffee, tea, coke....
me: can i have a marguirita?
lady: a marguirita?
me: yes, please. strawberry, if you don't mind.
lady: can see some ID?
[ she starts to read all the fine print of my Ontario drivers license]

then, when I couldn't finish my drink, I asked if I could take it in a cup.

lady: umm.. miss, that is illegal here.

[Hmm... Yes, I forgot about that little detail. At this point, she was probably wondering - where is this girl from!? but I guess she already figured that out when she was reading my ID... lol ]

On my last night there, I met up with Melissa! We worked together in Boston at SGH, and were members of the Boston Sweethearts! :D It was so great to see her, though it was such a short time. This is a picture of her and her BF - awww, so cute. I would put a picture of me and her, except that I just got a hair cut, and it looked really bad....


LASTLY, I went shopping and bought 3 pairs of shoes!!!!



That's all for now! Ciao, bellas!

in love.

I've fallen in love with the west coast - Vancouver to be exact. Now I question how I lived my entire life in Toronto-ish area without ever knowing the beauty which exists out here. It's so beautiful and lively. People are super friendly and laid back. Everyone is out doing something active - whether it be walking their dog, their kids, running, biking, skiiing... etc. The food is super yummy with LOTS of variety - finally, some decent Mexican food in Canada! There is always something to do. The mountains and the ocean and the park area is minutes away from downtown, and it's not a dinky strip of land spanning about 1m in width (ok, perhaps I'm exaggerating a little). The transportation system can take you anywhere it seems, even to the mountains. AND snow is optional here!

So there it is. I'm in love, even though I didn't think I would feel this way, again. And it feels good.

Vancouver along the waterfront. Absolutely gorgeous.

The Capilano Suspension Bridge. I walked across here. It was pretty cool.

VD

This has been one GREAT VDay. I couldn't have asked for more on this day. VDay gifts were really sweet and made me feel warm and fuzzy inside - I love roses :) and of, course, more recipe books! yay! hehe...

So perhaps a triple chocolate cake with peanuts for dinner is better in theory than in reality. After about halfway through the cake, it seemed it was too sweet for a dinner - I didn't think that was possible! Anyhow, the marguiritas at Symposium at uptown Waterloo are to die for. Really really good. Next time I go back, I'm getting two of them!

Thanks for a great night out, ladies! We are definitely doing this more often :)

Here are some delicious pictures. I love desserts. I'm constantly adding things to my "ideal guy" list, and one of the items are definitely eating desserts.

I got these off flickr!

Procrastinating....

This term is going by so fast. My first midterm is this Wednesdsay and I have been watching youtube for waayyyy too long - especially Wong Fu productions. I did do some studying for my transit class this weekend, and perhaps that makes me think that I can slack now. I even made my version of chicken tikka masala with peppers and okra. Did I ever mention that I love PC sauce?

For some reason, I feel like there is a million things that needs to get done, and the list never seems to go away. Yea... Talked to my dad about convocation. I'm thinking of skipping it. I applied for a volunteer position in Hanoi, Vietnam which is 3 months long, so I would want to start in May. But we'll see how the interview for the job next week goes, before I can make a concrete decision.

I'm debating going back to my last coop placement. It was a nice place to work, and the people were great, and the projects were interesting. The only thing is that I'm not sure if I'd be happy in the position I start out with. I see what the young engineers do, and I can't help but feel that I want to start off with more responsibility and be more involved in the projects. I also see how some engineers have been there for a few years and I'm not sure that's where I want to be a few years from now. So let's keep our fingers crossed for the upcoming interview.

Did I ever mention I LOVEEEE musicals?! I think I was spoiled while in NYC watching Broadway. My musical craving wasn't quite satisfied with Dirty Dancing, BUT I just watched Hairspray (musical movie with John Travolta and Nikki Blonsky) and it was AMAZING! Oh... I sooo wish I could see the musical live! It did what a musical was meant to do, and made me want to get up and sing and dance along. The cast was amazing, and I loved the characters. Seriously. You have to check it out. The DVD also comes with videos which teach you the different dances! The soundtrack will definitely be on repeat for a while!

So I have to get to work soon. Soon as in now. But before I go, I'm gonna share with you the links I've been wasting time with. One is called "The Nice Guy." It's really cute, and I do hope there are more "nice guys" out there. Preferable cute nice guys. Cute nice guys who I will eventually meet. Cute nice guys who look like Philip Wang. Cute nice guys who... FOCUS, Catherine, focus! Back to work!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnK-qPARYI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvB3el3ILo

The second one is "break up back up". This one is funny. Though you would wonder why this guy is even going out with someone so mean. Guys seem to like mean girls, and they wonder why girls don't like nice guys.... Just a thought!