Goodbye's and Hello's

The end of my third year at university and final goodbyes at my place of residence for the past two years. On Wednesday, I turned in my keys and visited B's place one last time before he moved out the next day. The view from his residence is a lot nicer than my teal coloured ceiling basement suite. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

From his place, you can see the waters at UBC's infamous (nude) beach: Wreck Beach. The view is phenomenal - especially during sunset. When you exit his place (but still on the same floor), just around the corner there's a window where you can see the path leading up to Main Mall. There's construction going on to build another residence building because UBC just loves old, abandoned parking lots and grassy green fields - perfect spot for construction, which UBC is becoming infamous for.

After that, we left to watch The Age of Adaline. It was a nice, relaxing movie. Relaxing not in the way that it's mundane, but just very different from the action packed movies coming out these days (like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which I can't wait to watch!). The "science" parts (if you can even call it that) of the movie was a bit... interesting. And fictional-sounding. Very much so. So much so that it was a bit laughable. I don't know science well, and although I'm sure miracles do exist somewhere in another galaxy, the science-y parts were just... I can only offer a dry laughter: ha ha ha. But, the movie was quite nice - interesting story line, and like a few others have pointed out, similar to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (online version).

We left for dinner shortly after and decided to eat at a place we haven't gone to in a very long time - Kawawa Japanese Restaurant. I had my "coming of age" (aka. 19) birthday here back in my first year of university. Good times.

We ordered from the regular menu, and I had Cuttle Fish & Scallop Course and Ika Sugata Yaki (aka. grilled squid) while B had Box B, which included ebi & vegetable tempura, beef teriyaki, gyoza, and chicken karaage, and an agedashi tofu side dish.

Maybe it's because it was a while ago, or I just didn't ordered the "right" thing, but the portions this time were pretty big. It was difficult trying to finish up everything and, in the end, we had some food leftover.

But, of course, there's always room for dessert! I had the Fresh Fruits Parfait, which came without the spoon. It took a few minutes for me to find somebody to ask for a spoon.... Other than that, the service was pretty attentive, especially towards our drinks; They would keep refilling it even before it reached the 1/3 mark.

That day, I also said my final goodbyes to my place of residence for the past two years and finally moved back to my parents' place for the summer. Although I haven't completed unpacked yet (too... much... stuff...), I took some pictures once I got home since the sun was basically welcoming me back that day with its glorious rays. I was able to whip out the lenses that B got me for my birthday and put them to good use, capturing as much as I can with the fisheye lens and trying out the macro lens as well.

Even though it's good to be back, it's a lot harder to eat whatever I want, whenever I want. When I got back, the first thing both my parents exclaimed was "OMG, YOU GAINED SO MUCH WEIGHT!" Thanks mom and dad. I'm glad to see you again as well. Thanks for welcoming me back - I can just feel the love oozing out of your words.

I guess now's a good time as any to (finally) start - or should I say, restart my diet. I bet I'll start seeing results in less than two weeks considering the restricted diet my mom's putting me on by cooking less food. Life is tough, but then beauty is pain. I should probably start exercising... maybe then I'll be able to eat more food. Isn't there a saying that the sole purpose of exercising for some people is so that they'll be able to eat more? The lengths that people go to eat whatever they want just shows how powerful food is. And how great some people's determination are. Anyways, I'm just rambling on now. I will end this post with a picture of my forever big baby Labrador, Winston:

Isn't he just the most adorable dog ever? Still behaves like a puppy and - like his owner - knows his angles for taking the perfect picture: never a full on face-on picture, but always either a side or tilted profile of his handsome face. He knows how to work the camera.

It's GO-TIME

Classes are officially over on Friday. I have two more classes, then exams will take over.

This past week has been really busy. Over the long weekend, my group and I managed to complete one whole paper (totaling fifteen pages in the end). I don't know how we did it - but we did (of course we still have to go back and edit a few parts, but that's besides the point). We started on another paper and I managed to get my sections done in one day. And before we started this crazy long weekend of finishing papers, I completed another one a couple days ahead of time. It has been a long week.

This week, I'm just finishing up assignments and presentations, getting everything done on time, and preparing for an interview tomorrow.

Here's some pictures I took throughout the week - it's not much, but at least it's memories.

It's getting harder to find pretty flowers like this on campus....

Went for a quick walk to clear our heads (#ootd).

They're surprisingly growing up pretty well.

Good ol' chicken noodle soup to soothe a headache (just kidding, it did nothing).

More soup from a can and this morning's breakfast of no-choice: cereal.

I've also started sketching and art-ing again. I'll try to get to a scanner and scan them all in soon.

156. Dreams: Bears

It's no secret among my friends that I like cute things like stuffed animals. They're soft, plush, and come in all shapes and sizes to cater to everyone's favourite animal, which is of course, the bear (no bias here).

Last night I had a weird dream where we went out driving at night and spotted a big mama bear with her cub while taking a midnight stroll. The mama bear was trying to hold the baby bear back as we were trying to book it back to the car. However, as we were putting in our seat belts and trying to start the car, we can see the baby bear just charging at us, leaving its mama behind. As we see this scene unfold in front of us, in disbelief, we whip out our  handy dandy magical spray that repels bears. As the baby cub continues to charge at the car, and somehow managed to jump high enough to make it through the window, which was all the way down for one odd reason or the other, we kept spraying the magical bear-repellent spray at it. However, the bear did not cease its super-animal-like powers and landed in my lap. But, it turned out that he wasn't a ferocious beast at all, but had somehow turned all fluffy and soft - just like a stuffed animal! He had all the soft and cuddly features of a stuffed animal, but without the dead eyes and fake fur that usually came with it. As I was about to wake up, I remember petting this cute cub in my dreams and just staring into its big, wide, cartoon-like eyes.

It was a weird, but somewhat pleasant dream.



On another note, the weather today was foggy, then somewhat sunny, then foggy again. I hope it'll clear up tomorrow. At most, I hope it won't rain at least.

146. Terrarium Workshop

I went to a terrarium making workshop and got to assemble my own terrariums.

(Left: choosing a little home for my plants | Right: patting in the foundation)

(Left: foundation done | Right: interior designing for my terrarium)

(Both: the end result)

(Left: first terrarium | Right: second terrarium)

(Left: second terrarium | Right: test tube plant)

Hopefully these will last a while. I don't have the best green thumb in the world, but the cacti I received two years ago is still alive and well despite not being watered since I first got it, so I guess that says something about my ability to raise succulents and desert plants, right?

140. Raindrops On Roses

And whiskers on kittens,
Bright fountain waters and warm scarves-a-bundle,
White feathered seagulls fishing for breakfast,
These are a few of UBC's things.

(Both: Observing fellow students from up above)

(Left: "the hills are alive with the sound of... delicious food calling" | Right: Stairs near the Music Building)

(Left: Sky & Branches | Right: Tree stumps in front of a sustainable building)

(Left: reminded me of an Emily Carr painting | Left: Stairs = Leg Day)

(Left: a big UBC $ign | Right: crows crowded community)

(Both: Irving K. Barber Library)

(Left: abstract art at Buchanan A | Right: study space at Koerner Library)

(Left: Math building across the street | Right: Because people can walk on water)

(Both: sunset skies)

(Left: Totem pole | Right: Glass ceillings!!)

(Both: Roses are Red)