Hats Off Day Parade

Have I ever said how much I love my job? Well, here it is again: I love my job!

It's still marketing month, so we had a tent over at the annual Hats Off Day Parade where we got to know the neighbourhood. The theme was Hollywood (which I also took to mean Disney). So, most of our staff dressed up and I went as Totoro! Here is my DIY outfit completed with the leaf for the head.

Although the parade was short compared to that of Canada Day, it was still pretty exciting to see the event! Maybe because it wasn't as big a celebration as Canada Day that I was able to stand at the very front and take some nice pictures without being blocked off and having to tiptoe!

Mad props to the person dressed as Chewbacca 'cause the weather was just hot hot hot today!

The 501st Legion! I also learnt today that all these amazing Stormtrooper outfits have to be handmade! It is actually a requirement to join the Legion! That's amazing! I would have never guessed! These outfits look as good as store bought! 

During a short lunch break, I went off to lunch with a fellow staff and got to know more about each other! The food was surprisingly good for a bento box! The tempura tasted like it was just fried because the crunch was very crunchy (haha) and the chicken was very tender! Everything tasted fresh!

Unfortunately I didn't take notice of the Japanese restaurant name.

Although it was a lot of fun, the heat was a bit unbearable. Good thing we had our tent and lots of water! I really need to buy a nice hat for this summer since there have been reports saying that this will be a hotter-than-hot summer!

ART-ing | 003

Some drawings... sketches... doodles (?) that I did last month. Nothing too exciting though.

I will probably draw some more as summer courses come to an end... for the first term anyways.

UBC New SUB

The new SUB finally opened at UBC! Kinda. I mean, there's stuff in there. And we can go in, which is fairly important I would say, although there are still fenced off areas. But, better than nothing right? There are a lot of stairs, and all the club rooms are going to be on the top two floors. What joy. At least there's elevators to help us lug all the club stuff up and down during events.

As for the food options... which is next to none, or as I described to B:

Of course there's sushi
But that's irrelevant for me
And then there's pizza from pie r squared
And a cafe
With coffee I don't drink and pastries I don't eat
And the "healthy" place where you pay more to eat less... Yea, no, don't sign me up for that

An anonymous person on Yik Yak at UBC also described the new SUB as "a place where you can have sushi, pizza or a new iPhone for lunch," because for whatever reason, there is a store for selling phones and phone plans from a carrier that no one really uses. Yup. That logic - I do not know where it comes from.

At least there are still food places in the process of being opened (which basically means construction is still not done for them).

And the last picture is a picture of the "Nest" (shudder to that name). It was closed off so we couldn't actually get inside to try the comfy looking beanbags and chairs, but I did manage to snap a picture (and edit and filter it too!) from the stairs.

Epik High Concert

On Sunday, May 31, 2015, I checked off two things off my bucket list: go to a concert and meet someone famous. At precisely 7:00 PM that night, these two things occurred simultaneously.

This was outside the venue, which was at Vogue Theatre located downtown Vancouver.

This is inside the theatre with the stage set up and lights ready to begin the show.

The trio was very entertaining with those jokes and dancing. Tablo "translated" for the rest of the team members because of their limited English. I can say that he did anything but. The music was amazing, the rap was amazing, and the vibe was amazing.

During the Question Period, Mithra Jin received the question of when he would shave his beard and everyone in the audience laughed with someone suggesting right now! DJ Tukutz was asked who inspires his music, and he replied back by playing Big Bang's Fantastic Baby song. Tablo replied back in disbelief that Big Bang inspired his music and that tonight would officially be Tukutz's last night as a member of Epik High. It was funny watching their banter and especially when Tukutz started dancing to Fantastic Baby! Tablo had the same question as Tukutz and he said Haru, his experiences as a child, and, of course, his fans - us!

However, the most amazing thing that happened that night was when Tablo suggested for DJ Tukutz and Mithra Jin to go up to the second level to take on big selfie, and I happen to guess that they would be leaving the stage from the left side, which was where I happen to be.

I saw the security guards coming down... then DJ Tukutz... then Mithra Jin. And they had their hands out for high fives. And I had my hand out for high fives. And then it happened. I high fived both of them! The more amazing thing was that on the way back down from the upper level, they came back the same way again, and this time I high fived them again with my other hand! It was a pretty unreal experience.

I've always seen them through YouTube and read about them on the Internet, but never would I have ever imagined that I would actually be able to see them live, in the flesh, right in front of my eyes! Things like this just does not happen everyday!

Overall, I had a great time and I guess you could say my high was epik that night!

Review Session | May 2015

Oh my, how time flies. Another month has gone by and hardly any updates. I guess my only excuse is summer school and work happened. I'm not complaining about work - I love work! It's actually what I feel is like a "day off from school" for me. It's a lot of fun working, but the work that's part of school? Not so much fun. And, really, that's what's been keeping me crazy busy this entire month. I'm not going to go into details of the havoc that taking four summer courses is making in my life right now, but just that I hope it will be all worth it in the end (meaning that I will be graduating next year! Fingers crossed!).

Anyway, this month's review!

1. Don't be like a firecracker. I have to work on this, especially in regards to calming down my impatient level and just... firecracker-ness when I'm concentrating on schoolwork at home and my parents just barge in, cutting my thought process - it gets a bit annoying to say the least.
2. Be nice. I think I've been nice this month.
3. Work hard, play harder. Yes. So much yes. Doing my readings and writing reflections and responses on these readings for most of my courses while transiting to and from school. This, my friend, is where all the magic happens - on the morning and afternoon commute.
4. Exercise and lose some weight. I've started working out again, and by working out, I mean cutting down on junk food and the 7 minute workout. Thanks mom.
5. Step out of my comfort zone. Definitely with meeting new people and working again with old staff from last year at work, as well as meeting new classmates for all my courses.
6. Forgive and forget. I'm too busy with school and work to remember petty things now.
7. Cross something off my bucket list. YES. I went to my very first concert!! More on that later!
8. Conquer one fear. Speaking up in class. I can speak up in class now!! And I'm talking a lot more too!
9. Phone is friend, not food. Working my way back to ignoring my phone in class - so far, so good!
10. Speak quieter and nicer. Probably gotta speak up louder for group presentations, answering questions, and promotion/marketing stuff for work, so not much quieter, but nicer.
11. Have patience. Working on it... especially when I'm hangry.
12. Eat Clean. With a few cheats here and there, but overall, yes - again, thanks mom.

Food Diary | 001

I took some pictures on what I've been eating since moving back home. Hopefully, using this documentary method, I will be able to know what I'm lacking and what I need to cut down on.

This bowl of noodles is one of the first meals I had when I moved back home and it has napa, which is my favourite veggie of all time.

Fried rice with mixed veggies for breakfast - can't forget about the orange juice for that sugar intake for the morning!

Brunch for before I left for the University. It's assorted veggies with chicken and shrimp, plus rice as a side dish.

This is one of my favourite dishes by Chef Mom: jellyfish with cucumbers and chicken. It may sound off putting to some people, but it's a very refreshing dish that's perfect for hot summer days! Although I don't like cucumbers so I always ask my mom to cut back on them, but they do contribute to that cool feeling for the dish overall. The sauce she uses is a mix of soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar if I remember correctly. 

This was part 1 of dinner some night ago.... It's just more cucumbers and green peas with meat and rice. Although I like the green peas, I can't say much about the rest. It's a nice dish, don't get me wrong, but I really don't have any nice sentiment towards cucumbers. And it definitely wasn't enough to fill me up....

In the end, I had to make part 2 of dinner for myself - ramyun. I commit myself to only eating my favourite Shin Ramyun once a month because it's bad for my body and health, but good for my taste buds. It's a sort of self-discipline that I've managed to keep up for around or almost two years now. Very proud of myself.

This isn't just your average bowl of ramyun where you throw the noodles in to the boiling water and use the flavour packages that they give you. No, no, no, no, no. If that's what you're doing - you need to stop and keep reading.

My recipe is quite simple really:

Step 1: Boil water in a small pot, once boiling, add only the beloved Shin ramyun noodles to it

Step 2: While the water is doing its thing to the noodles, wash and chop some napa into bite size pieces and throw them into another bigger pot of water and have them boil together.

Step 3: Wash some bean sprouts and have them on stand-by.

Step 4: Once the noodles are done, shock them under cold water and drain. Make sure they turn cold! This will make the noodles "bouncy."

Step 5: After the pot with the napa starts boiling, add in the noodles. At this point, you can add in extra ingredients if you wish (i.e. sausage, mushroom, corn, egg, etc.). Then drown it with your desired amount of vinegar (this is the secret ingredient!!).

Step 6: When the napa is almost soft (you can poke through it with chopsticks with no problem), add in the bean sprouts and take out excess water.

Step 7: When the whole thing is about 2-3 minutes away from being ready, add in the flavour packages that the ramyun came in (like the dried veggies and, most importantly, the ramyun powder).

Step 8: Mix well in the pot, and add in more vinegar if desired, and choose a nice bowl to serve it in.

Writing all that made me even hungrier and craving for next month to come already...!! Although the vinegar may take some getting used to, it's a flavour that you just can't stop craving after you tasted it.

Also keeping up with my new found taste buds for addictive Korean food, I had Korean food at a food court. I've been craving Japchae for so long, so I was glad to see that I could order it from there. My mom had the Bibimbap and she liked it, which is surprising because she's so darn difficult to please with food. Whenever I take her somewhere, there's always something that she's not satisfied about, so I've given up trying to recommend places to take her. It's just not worth the unnecessary criticism at the end. This also applies to others - if someone is taking you out to a place they recommend and that they really enjoy eating at, don't just diss the food! It's not only mean spirited and disrespectful, but it's less likely that they'll invite you again to eat elsewhere!

Another dinner was tomato and egg with seafood assortment and broccoli. I really don't like broccoli, but I think my mom really likes them 'cause she keeps making these ugly flower plants!! Did you know that broccoli is part of the cabbage family as a plant, but its "flowering head" (aka the part that looks like a miniature branches and leaves of a tree) is the vegetable part. Either way, I don't like broccoli... at least the other parts tasted good.

Then back to some noodles again. I adjusted the egg so it sort of looks like the moon (haha).

Then some soup that I haven't had for a long time! It's lotus root with beef and it tastes really, really good!

And a dish that I would say rivals Shin Ramyun (gasp! I know, right?!) would have to be wonton soup! It's made from scratch - including the wrapping, stuffing, soup base, and basically just everything by yours truly and my mom!

My mom also learnt how to make pasta. However, this isn't your regular pasta - it's an upgraded Mom version of pasta and it tastes pretty good! The first time she made it was yummy and just perfect, but then the second time she added too much white pepper... still finished the whole dish though!

I think I'll end off this Food Diary here... it's so hard to keep from drooling as I edit this.... I think I'm going to grab a snack to munch on.