123. On The Third Week of Christmas

We went to VanDusen Botanical Gardens for the Festival of Lights and everything was just gorgeous.

122. On The Second Week of Christmas

I went out with friends to wine and dine. Just kidding, we're not that fancy.

It was my first time at Banana Leaf and I wanted to try almost everything on the menu, which is extremely rare for me because I'm a picky eater.

Then after dinner we went to Rajio for some drinks and desserts.

And the next day I went out again with another friend for some Christmas shopping!

I came across a store that had Doraemo stickers on their windows! I wanted to go inside and see what things they had, but my friend and I doubted that we could wear anything because it seemed like a children's clothing store. Why can't they make anything cool for adults?

After that throwback, we went to get dinner at Deer Garden.

Once our tummies were stuffed and we could eat no more, we decided to head back home as the sky was already dark by 5:30pm.

When I got home, I started decorating my newly bought Christmas tree! I haven't decorated a Christmas tree in fourteen years! It was very fulfilling and amusing, albeit lonely since I did it by myself.... Oh well, at least I finally have a Christmas tree now!

121. On The First Week of Christmas

I volunteered at an event where these yummy desserts were served alongside others.

Early Christmas present from a very good friend whom we go all the way back to elementary school! It's Ciate nail polish in candy cane and blizzard! Even the names sounds cute! I cannot wait to finish up my presentation and assignments then I will finally be able to paint my nails. It has been way too long.

I'm sorry for neglecting you, nails.

My Christmas tree! Just kidding, I wish. It's the Christmas tree at one of the libraries on campus. After I took this picture, I turned around and saw that they had another Christmas on the other side. #SharingisCaring. I mean, who needs two Christmas trees? Whatever happened to the Christmas spirit? I don't think they would mind if I just up-ed-and-away with one of their trees, don't you think?

I was walking around with my very good friend and we saw that someone had hung an ornament onto this tree branch. So, being the curious cats that we were, we went to investigate. And, upon closer inspection, realized that someone had written (probably in Sharpie), !!Bomb!! I thought it was pretty funny so I took a picture of it.

On a side note, have you noticed how the pictures are all square-sized now? You have no idea how long it took me to discover that I could finally take Instagram size pictures on my phone instead of switching between apps to scale it and have those hideous white borders. Anyways, most of these pictures are posted on my Instagram (usually as soon as they are taken and have been put through the magical filtering process and approved by yours truly), so if you want to stay updated, do follow me!

I have also been art-ing more recently, so expect a post with pictures of my sketchbook pages soon!

120. The Kitchen

In case you haven't caught on from my Instagram, I really like to go out to eat... especially Asian cuisine. Right now, I'm in the Korean food phrase and there is a really nice Korean restaurant right near the campus called The Kitchen that has some pretty yummy noms.

Pan-fried mandu (or dumplings) with a nice dipping sauce. 

Baby brother had the salmon salad as an appetizer. (His greedy chopsticks came into the picture before I could take it.)

Soft tofu hot pot (medium spice) with tons of veggies and some pork.

119. Journaling

Some doodles in a sketchbook. I should do this more often... maybe make it a weekly thing? Nah, too ambitious. Maybe monthly at most. We'll see.

More soon?

118. Let It Snow!

Overnight it snowed... a lot. At least more than usual for Vancouver... especially during this time.

117. Dates with the Cold

Trying to warm myself up with fleece-lined everything to no avail. (left)

UBC Engineering cairn remembers. (right)

UBC flag on graduation... soon. (left)

There is no light at the end of the tunnel - just a head. (right)

Leaf art on the wall/vertical planting? (left)

Raspberry crème brûlée at Sweet Revenge. (right) 

On the bridge to Granville Island. (left)

Boat playground for kids and adults alike. (right)

Just pretty. (left and right)

Yummy Korean food.

116. Autumn is Here

And it is freezing cold. Bundling up with fleece-lined tights, boots, sweater, jacket, and topped off with a big scarf is still not enough to fight the cold. The constant indoor-outdoor temperature change was enough to finally give me a headache today. I cannot wait until summer is here. At least the weather forecast predicts that the rest of this week will be sunny, albeit somewhat cold.

115. Stop Blinking

The days are getting colder and the hours are ticking by faster. It feels like just yesterday when I first moved into campus residence and meeting up with people to buy textbooks. I remember a group of us went down the hundreds of stairs to Wreck Beach and came straight back up after not even five minutes of touching the sand. I remember complaining about the stairs and heading back to residence.  I also remember playing cards late into the night with everyone and eating at the dining hall and, naive as I was, said how good it was.

Those were the days.

And then I blinked.

And two years went by.

Now I'm in third year and it still feels like just yesterday when all of that happened.