Tag Archives: vancouver
May 29, 2011 Summer Summer Summer!
Is it really summer? It certainly does not feel like it here in Vancouver… the temperature has hovered around 13 degrees Celsius (which is… for all you Americans… hold on while I look this up on the Internet… 55 degrees Fahrenheit!) since I’ve been back, which is pretty frigid for late May of you ask me. So that’s one reason I’m really looking forward to going to Nashville on Monday (where it will be a sunny 34 C (92 F))!
Oh wait, I never did write about what I’m actually going to be doing for the bulk of my summer, did I? Aight. So. I will be in Nashville, TN for June and July for the Dialysis Clinic, Inc. Collegiate Medical Summer Internship Program (hereafter referred to as “my internship”). I will be serving as a counselor at Camp Okawehna, a week-long summer camp for kids with renal diseases, for the first week of June, and then I will be shadowing a doctor (or doctors? I’m not sure yet) and doing clinical research at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center until the end of July. I am super excited for all this!! So happy to finally do something other than bench research over the summer! And to be able to live in a new city for the third summer in a row! But this means that I will probably never spend a summer in NYC, which is regrettable.
After my internship ends, I will be heading to San Fransisco for about 2 weeks to visit Yufei, who will be interning there at Twitter (how cool is that?! And I don’t even use Twitter… I still think it’s awesome). Really excited for that as well! Since I LOVE San Fransisco and it’ll be cool to spend this much time there, and also because for the first time EVER I will actually be able to celebrate Yufei’s birthday with him in person! (Poor guy, I was always halfway across the globe in the past… sorry).
Then I will be heading back home for the second half of August, when hopefully it will be warmer. And I will be getting my wisdom teeth extracted! Woohoo! Sooooo excited… yeah… not really.
And then I’m going to be back in NYC for… senior year. Dear god it freaks me out just to type it. I cannot believe that I only have a year left at Columbia! Where did the time go? I’m at once filled with excited and fear at that thought… but that’s for a later post (maybe).
So there you go, my summer plans! I’m sure that I will be writing lots about my experiences and have a ton of pictures, so stay tuned!
Tags: college, internship, nashville, san francisco, travel, vancouver
May 17, 2011 This Suburban Life + Random Thoughts on HIMYM & More
So I’ve been home for a few days now, and it’s been pretty good so far. For starters, I did way better in my classes this semester than I expected, especially orgo II; I’m pretty proud of my comeback after the disaster that was orgo I last semester (worst grade ever at Columbia… shame). But yay! I’m very happy about my grades. And now I’m officially a senior! Oh wait… I’m a senior now?! This idea brings complicated feelings which I am not ready to deal with at the moment, so let’s just forget about it for now.
So I got back home Thursday night, and on Friday I just chilled here in the ‘burbs, fed some fish, saw some ducks, you know. Then Saturday I went to Richmond with my parents, where we got a ton of stuff at Chinese supermarkets and had delicious dim sum at Fisherman’s Terrace. And then after lunch I made my way to Vancouver to meet up with some high school friends, chatted a bit at UBC (I’d forgotten how pretty the school is, but a very different kind of pretty than Columbia), and had a lovely night at Milestones downtown. Sunday: gym, pool, watch hockey (I can watch hockey again!). And today… stuck at home and I broke our cable, so it was rather boring. So I went and took some pictures of our flowers that my dad is so proud of, some of which I have showcased below:
Wow, exciting life I’ve got there, I know. And can I just take a minute to complain about the weather? It SUCKS. We had to turn on the fireplace and it’s May. Not cool (actually, too cool).
Aight, new topic! How I Met Your Mother season 6 finale tonight… how do I feel about this? Nervous and excited at the same time. See, this is the reason I don’t watch TV much: I get way too obsessed and I get really involved emotionally that it can’t possibly be healthy for me. But it’s too late for this show. Aiyaiyai.
So. I’m really happy about the Erikson baby! So happy that something’s finally going right for Marshall, it’s true that the guy’s has a tough year. Not much happened with Ted, though good riddance that Zoe is finally gone for good. Barney and Robin. How much do I love these two together? The scene in the cab… oh my goodness. Then that scene when they’re on the sidewalk with Ted, it was so heartbreaking. And that last look from Robin… I do desperately hope that in the end, in the very end, Barney and Robin end up together. Yes, they were a mess, as they admitted themselves, but also as they admitted, they really did (and perhaps still do) love each other. So it was a beautiful mess. Obligatory Jason Mraz song insertion:
The song is actually kind of perfect for them. Sigh… I do so much want them together. So do I think that the wedding is Barney and Robin’s? I want to believe that, but only if goes well, since there are rumours that the wedding doesn’t go great and it will be the end of someone’s love story and such. So I don’t know. I don’t want to put too much faith into anything right now because again, it would just make me sad if it doesn’t turn out the way I want. But really, after 6 years, I really can’t get too invested in a new character like Nora, and certainly not to the point where I’d see her marrying Barney. So… yeah.
While we’re on the topic of TV shows, I know I just said that I can’t watch too much TV but I came across this trailer for Fox’s new show New Girl and I’m really excited!
Because it looks hilarious, and because the amazing and lovely Zooey Deschanel stars in it. Excited!Ok it’s late now and I’m tired and I know this post was just all over the place, but whatever. Sleep time!
Tags: dim sum, food, himym, lunch, music, tv, vancouver, videos
January 21, 2011 New
First week of classes of the new semester is over now. I’m taking 5 classes for the first time in like… ever. They’re not easy classes, but still, fewer than 6 classes for once in my college life. I really need the time to do other things, because school is starting to burn me out. I considered graduating a semester early, which is entirely feasible for me since I only have 31.5 credits left to complete, not including this semester. But I ultimately decided against it, because even though I feel like I’m having a pretty rough time right now, I want to get as much of college as possible.
I’m trying to change some things this time. I’m getting up at 7:00-7:30am every weekday, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to the gym right away. On my way there yesterday I caught the most beautiful sunrise. I had never seen the sun so low in the sky before, shining directly onto College Walk, the shadows stretched on forever until they disappeared into the semi-darkness of the pavement. I think just the possibility of catching such a wondrous sight is enough motivation for getting me up so early. I will try to capture this on my camera next time.
I’m also trying to re-focus on my studies this semester. I don’t even know where last semester went, and I admit I hardly put in any effort in school at all. Most of grades somehow were okay, but it doesn’t change the fact that I just didn’t give a crap. But school is one of the few things I have control over right now, and I need to feel more in control of my life.
Alright, enough with this stuff. Here are some photos from my not very exciting but still too short winter break.
A stuffed minion from Despicable Me given to me by Yufei:
Strange ice formations from the fountain in our fish pond (I thought it was cold back home; New York is so much worse):
My dad’s homegrown organic cherry tomatoes that he was so proud of:
Pretty snowfall the day before I left:
Finally, I leave you with some tablet doodles I did over the break!
- 1 comment
- Posted under Art/Design, College, General, Musings
June 11, 2010 Manhattan with mountains
After spending 5 days in Toronto, it was time for me to be on home turf in Vancouver. (To be honest, this whole thing was beginning to feel a bit like the hometown episodes of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette).
First stop was Queen Elizabeth Park, where Yufei was fascinated by a macaw in the conservatory:
Next we went to Van Dusen Botanical Gardens several blocks down. I’d never been there before and found it to be a really nice place! We didn’t have a lot of time that day, but I would imagine that it would be a lovely place to spend a day.
The sun was starting to shine, finally! We did the hedge maze :)
Granville Island was our next stop, one of my favourite places to spend the day!
Yufei found lots of interesting statues to pose with:
UBC was next! Enjoying the sun on the Knoll:
Embrace it!
Fun at Science World!
English Bay (I think this may be my favourite picture ever):
It’s Imitate The Statue Day!
Vancouver Aquarium:
Stanley Park:
Treetop Adventures at Capilano Suspension Bridge:
We had planned to do the Grouse Grind, but no one even thought about the possibility that it wasn’t open yet, which was the case. But we talked to some hikers who were coming down and they told us that there’s a different way to get onto the path without going through the locked fence gate. So we did that! Even though we weren’t supposed to. Because we are hardcore like that.
Almost there!
We were exhausted when we got to the top (gosh I need to get in better shape), but the view was breathtaking:
The grizzly bears were being exceptionally playful that day!
The day after we took it easy and went to Metrotown, where we went to the arcade and took Japanese photobooth photos! As always, no one there knew any Japanese and a frenzy resulted from attempting to use the machine. But we got our shiny photos in the end!
I’ve never had this much fun in Vancouver in such a short time before :)
“Vancouver is Manhattan with mountains. It’s a liquid city, a tomorrow city, equal parts India, China, England, France and the Pacific Northwest. It’s the cool North American sibling.”
January 16, 2010 Goodbye Vancouver
What a gorgeous day to leave this place, especially after a week straight of clouds and rain. Golden sunshine all around for my departure! I always have a good feeling about my endeavors when the weather is fine. Hope this means that the security checks and customs will be ok!
I leave you with this beautiful sunset we had in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago:
New York City in 12 hours :)
- Leave a comment
- Posted under General, Places, Travel
July 18, 2009 Goodbye but not farewell
Today was my last day at UBC, and I have to admit that it makes me a little sad to be leaving. I’m going to miss the scenic campus (albeit rather large, but that might just be due to having stayed on Columbia’s minuscule and compact one for the last year), the laid-back west coast atmosphere, the lovely ocean breeze that carries the scent of roses and lavender and other flowers I don’t know the names of. And the houses around the area are some of the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen anywhere. You know, it wouldn’t be so bad to maybe live here one day; after all, it is the most livable city in the world. Or at least I’d want my parents to stay here so I can visit in the summer months. It does rain rather much for my taste in the winter. It’s strange that during the 7 years I’ve lived here, I’ve always taken for granted the beauty of the place. I guess you can never quite fully appreciate an experience until you look back on it through the lens of time, or, if you’re luck enough, until you re-experience it.
The Nitobe Memorial Gardens on campus. Enchanting place.
UBC Rose Garden with the Pacific and mountains in the backdrop.
My supervisor brought a cake for all the volunteer at the lab today, and it was chocolatey, moussey, toffee-y goodness. We were all talking about about med school (quite a few members of our lab is in the middle of MCATs and applications right now… dammit peer pressure) and my supervisor brought up how it’s really hard to come back to Canada to practice if you get your degree/license in another country. Apparently only 10 out of approximately 500 applicants get approved each year. Yikes. So if I want to live in Vancouver someday it’s probably not the wisest thing to go to med school in the States eh? Ah well… too far into the future. Thinking about it gives me a headache. So I’m not going to.
Had dinner at Boston Pizza tonight for Kristin and Morgan’s 19th birthday :) Saw a lot of high school friends I haven’t seen in at least half a year, so it was really nice, an excellent way to end my stay in BC this time around.
Me with the birthday girls!
So this is goodbye for now, but I’ll be back here again soon enough :) Thanks for all the loveliness.
- 5 comments
- Posted under Friends, Future, Places
