sitting in art history...

Hey Guys!

Well right now I'm sitting in art history and my bum is getting to the state of numbness. lol. I probably should be paying attention, but yeeeaaaa. Thanks to Mrs. C I've done this all before and I could just check back to my HTS art history textbooks that weigh 300lbs less. Why must my art history textbook weigh so much!

My life living on my own has been interesting. I've become very lazy after a month. My dishes are slowly piling up and I'm too lazy to do them. Before I would do my dishes right away. But now, yea...I just let them sit in my sink. My mommy came last weekend and she did them for me. :) Don't you just love your parents.

Well now we're finally moving on to today's scheduled lecture. We're such a bad class, we always talk and make her fall behind. :P

Since no one has been updating, I thought I would. Hope you guys are still alive! Miss you all! Thanksgiving get together. SHOTTY NOT MY HOUSE! :)

lululemon athletica.

Friends are more important than money.

Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment.

Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.

FEAST YOUR EYES

http://www.charlatan.ca/drupal/sites/default/files/issues/pdf/39_07.pdf

Scroll to page 5. Enough said.

Oh, I would also like to point out...LOOK WHOSE ARTICLE HAS COLOUR! That's right! Bam!

I'm allowed to gloat for a week or so. I took like 10 copies of this issue to bring home. It will be awesome.

Official Newsie

Well, it appears that I have been less bloggy than usual. I've been busy but since I'm sure you've all been so eagerly awaiting my updates on my awesome life, I took some time to narrate.

WARNING: This will be lengthy, even on my standards. But I have bragging rights. You'll see.

This past Tuesday was the craziest day of my life. Tuesday is usually my quiet day. My day of rest, relaxation, sleeping in, reveling in the fact that I have no classes. But THIS Tuesday was the day that I had to hunt down my story for the Charlatan. Oh yeah! Alas, I learned the hard way that Lady Luck is a heartless b****.

My Mission: Show the world how Carleton University was celebrating Ramadan on campus.

My Deadline: Tuesday night.

My Lead: a link to the Muslim Students' Association (MSA) where the name of the executives are listed. There are no phone numbers. There are no email addresses. Rock bottom is ugly.

I ended up going on Facebook (that's right) and did some digging for an MSA group in Carleton and I found it! There was one measly email to contact for more info but whenever I tried to send them something, I got the stupid postmaster email telling me that the email was invalid. Boo, technology. Boo!

But I, Veronica Tang, am a persistent reporter! Nothing shall stand in my way of knowledge! For the quest of truth, I know no bounds! So I ran to the news editors with my desperate pleas for contact info. One told me to facebook the MSA president. I repressed a scoff of disbelief. The other one was much more promising.

Good news: She has the number for a Ryan Fournier, the Head of Islamic Programming and Prayer Services (what a mouthful).

Bad news: She failed to record the last name in her cell and she knows 2 Ryans.

Great...I get to make the awkward wrong number call. But no matter! I was in no position to turn down any leads. So I trekked home and dialed the first number. Perhaps Lady Luck would stop shunning me.

Fat chance.

It was the wrong Ryan. I call the other number, very confidently, but no one picks up and there is no voice mail. Damn you, Lady Luck, damn you. I turn my attention to the President of the MSA, a Najeeb Siddique. Remember I have no contact info. But I figure: how many Najeeb Siddiques could there be in Ottawa? It's not exactly a John Smith situation.

And so, with the help of Internet (ahh, Internet, my cup runneth over with thine undying faithfulness), I search the yellowpages and I find 3 N. Siddiques. Excellent!

5 minutes and 3 phone calls later. I am miserable. None of these N. Siddiques is the one I'm looking for. I should probably also note at this point that I have also been running around campus at regular intervals looking for Muslim students to interview. As my luck would have it, they all chose Tuesday to go into hiding. I found no one.

Short of "my life sucks," I had no profound thoughts at this point. I decide to seek the big man himself, the President of Carleton (a woman in this case). She's handed out cookies on Wednesday to "celebrate the end of Ramadan." I decided to interview her, better than nothing and I was desperate. But just before I left to find her, I acted on the best idea I had all day. I called the second Ryan again. HE PICKED UP! 15 minutes later, I had an interview. Can you say, "RIGHTEOUS!"?

It did not occur to me that the President of a university might be busy on a Tuesday morning (it was about 10:45 a.m. at this point) so when I show up, the receptionist basically laughs in my face when I said I didn't have an appointment. I felt a little stupid. But finally, I hit a stroke of luck! The Pres was in between meetings! That's right, receptionist! In yo face! How do you like them apples!? Huh? Huh? What choo know about me?

Enough trash talk.

The Pres was in between meetings and I saw her in person but she didn't want to rush the interview so she offered to answer all my questions via email ASAP. Excellent.

Things were finally looking up. I had Ryan, I had Pres. I facebooked Najeeb. I found out that one of the guys on my floor was Muslim, but he was out for the day and would be back at night. So I wrote as much as I could with my info and played the waiting game.

Something unrelated to Ramadan: I got a call from a guy saying that he had a fruit basket to deliver to me. It's not code for something. I actually have a fruit basket...well, fruit bouquet. It's one of the Edible Arrangements that Daven keeps handing out flyers for. It turns out my mom sent me one while I was miserably trying to find some way to get published. What can I say, my Mommy loves me! However, this does not negate the fact that I laughed in the guy's face initially because I thought he was kidding. More about this later.

You know that feeling when you're waiting for a call and it never comes? And then you wait and wait and you have to go to the bathroom or take a shower or something but you decide to wait so that you don't miss the call? You wait, and wait and wait some more. The call never comes. You finally give up. You go to the bathroom. You're going to take that shower! It's almost a proven law: the minute you step into the bathroom and are past the point of being able to run out at a moment's notice, the phone will ring.

I know the phone-bathroom law well, having been a victim many a time. But this was just ridiculous.

I waited all day in my room because the fruit guy said he'd be coming by in the afternoon. 3:00 went by. 4:00... no fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. 5:00...no fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. 6... no fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. I went to dinner. No fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. I went to a club meeting. Everyone contacts me.

I'm telling you. My luck is really terrible. Right when I walked into an important meeting, I got a call from the fruit guy. I couldn't answer it. Najeeb text messaged me asking to meet for an interview. I couldn't reply him. The Muslim guy, Anas, came back from class. I wasn't in res to ask him for an interview. Life sucks.

As soon as the meeting ends, I'm running out of the room (for a while I was trying to chase down these two Muslim girls who were also at the meeting but I lost them. It was a very desperate point in my life. I'd rather not dwell on the fact that I was stalking other students). I'm running back to residence to catch Anas while I'm on the phone with fruit guy and then texting Najeeb. It was the most hectic 6 minutes of my life.

The next half hour was a blur. I got my fruit, I got Najeeb, I got Anas. I finished my article by 11:30 p.m. I may have sprouted more white hairs but other than that, I am no worse for wear. I have never been so panicked, stressed, desperate, miserable, happy, exhausted, and exhilarated in my entire life.

It was awesome!

As soon as the paper comes out (it's actually out today but won't be fully circulated until tomorrow), I will be posting a link to the Charlatan online.

Western Life #4: BANG! And We're Off!

hey everyone! so i hope everyone is having an amazing time at their universities.

So in my last blog, i said that i was preparing for my marathon of course work and guess what? The gun has finally been fired and the engineering students are off and running! (well for me, i'm still sorta just jogging, but i believe i'll need to start to run soon if i wanna keep up with the pack). Starting this week, we've finally begun gettin stacks of homework in each of my 7 courses and we hav a TON of assignments and assessments every week. Let me try listing out some:

- about 3-4 hours of homework per night (suppose to get up to 4-5 hours mid-october :S)
- have a statics assignment due every other week
- have a psychology assignment due every month
- have a statics and programing quiz every other week
- have a calc test every week
- have a physics test every 2 weeks
- at least 3 labs to complete in class (programming, physics, and design studio) every week
- have a midterm exam approx. every 3 weeks (starting next week)

That's the basic gist of what i have to do for the next 11 or so weeks. YAY!!!!! [sarcasm sign]. btw watchd big bang theory and how i met your mother OMG SOOOO FUNNY!! lol. also started dexter which is also pretty good. kk well back on topic lol. Basically, my university social life has finally come to an end as i shall be spending all my time in my room, in the lab, in the studio, and in the library. woohoo no life ftw!

Before i end, i just have to rant about how my design studio group sucks! so we had to build a freestanding bridge today out of paper and tape and we had to see how much weight it culd hold. so instead of making pillars for the supports, my group decides to just crumple up paper and use that as the supports... like wtf! and wen i suggested that we shuld use pillars by rolling up the paper, they all said no. and wat happend, our bridge culdnt even support the weight of gravity! sighss we were defeated by gravity :(.

K well thats about it for now, sorry for the longish post, so i guess i shuld get back to paying attention in my calc tutorial now :P.

PS: why can't i comment anymore?

Where am I?

Since I came here, my days have been pretty slack. Most of the events are optional so besides those mandatory activities there really isnt much to do besides meeting new people and hanging out with your friends. I still feel like I am in SPOP (the UCI orientation that I went to back in July). Although I know in the back of my head that this is where I will be spending my time and living for the next year, it really hasn't hit me yet. I feel as though I will be able to go home within the next day or two and that everything is going to change. But in fact, most of the changes are already over. I am already settled in and going about my daily life as it was still summer.

That is what makes me scared. I wonder how I will react once my classes start tomorrow and the work starts to pile on. I have a ICS class tomorrow from 0930 to 1050 and then a management class from 1100 till 1220. And on friday, I have the same ICS class from 1300 to 1550 and then calc from 1500 till 1550.

PS. I was going to wait till emily finished her post, but the content of said post hasnt changed yet. Its still empty. So sorry for the double post.

Moved-In

Hello my fellow freshmen! I just finished unpacking all my stuff yesterday and I stand by what I said my previous post: moving in is hard. But anyways, I am happy that I am finally settled in. Now I am just waiting for my classes to start so that I can get into a routine rather than just sitting around all day doing either nothing at all or anything i want. Here are some pictures of my room that I said I would post: http://drop.io/ucimelvin I dont know if I mentioned this already, but my room faces a road. This road is called the Middle Earth Service Road. Emphasis on SERVICE ROAD. Every morning, there are trash trucks, dump trucks, service trucks, cleaning trucks, toy trucks, and fire trucks. Name a type of truck and it will pass through that street. And it doesnt just quietly pass through. Oh no, heaven forbid passing through a road where people are sleeping in the building beside would be a very serious sin. No, these truck go up the road. Then they back up. And when trucks back up, there is always that annoying beeping. But these trucks are special. I cannot ever see the trucks going up or down the road but I hear them. I hear the sound of the engines going up the road for 10 minutes and the beeping of them going backwards for 10 minutes. Did I mention that this happens every morning?

Anyways, so I moved in on September 19th and 20th and my family is all gone now. On the first day of Welcome Week, I had to attend the mandatory New Student Convocation which was held in the Bren Events Center. I am guessing that there were about 2500 undergrads that were in that room. We found out that this year sets a record for the most applicants to UCI and the most applicants that were rejected from UCI. The entering class' average GPA is a 4.0 and the average SAT score was 1790. And UCI is the 10th top public university in america.  So yea. The convocation felt like a backwards graduation ceremony. The deans and chancellor and everyone else was all dressed up fancy and there was fancy music and fancy everything.

After that was the Dean's Welcome. I am in The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science, and our Dean gave a very interesting welcome. Apparently it is her last year as dean here, which is too bad for me cause she is really nice and funny.

Following the welcome was the Anteater Club Fair which was held at Aldrich Park. Aldrich Park is a park if you cant tell by the name, and basically, the UCI campus surrounds that park. So I totally missed out on this event, cause I had to go to the International Center to sign in. Otherwise, I would have been kicked out of UCI. I felt like that was more important than looking at the clubs.

Oh as a side note, my friend here told me that the City of Irvine is named after the University of California, Irvine, which is in turn named after a company called The Irvine Company. So thats my fun fact of the whenever I want!

By the end of that day, I was extremely tired and had to miss out on my second event, the Late Night at the Anteater Recreation Center (ARC). I have a few pictures of the ARC but I took them at night and they turned out to be really blurry. And, you arent allowed to take photos once you are inside. But anyways, its just this gigantic building with 282 cardio and weight machines, 3 basketball courts, an elevated running track, 3 racquetball courts, a rock climbing wall, a pool, and other rooms. Oh and it also has a kitchen for kenny. and a classroom for...im not too sure why it has a classroom. So instead of visiting that place, I went to sleep.

The very next day, I was awoken by a blazingly loud fire alarm. If you thought that the HTS fire alarms were loud, well think again. The HTS alarms are like whispers compared to the ones here. I plugged my ears and still thought that I was going to go deaf. But to be fair, they did work very effectively as an alarm clock. At night, the student gov. put on Star Trek for us. I saw that already so I spent that time going to the ARC which I just mentioned. Boy is the ARC far from where I live. Walking there is an exercise routine in itself. I walked there, waited for my friend to get his rock climbing skills diagnosed, and then walked back, and went straight to bed.

Now that leads to today. Today was my sleep in day. There was nothing planned. No activities, no events, no fire alarms, no nothing. My goodness was it boring. Or at least, it was boring until I forgot that I had to take a chinese oral test. It was 1:20 at the time and today was the last day to do the test and the East Asian Center closes at 2:00. So I took a nice slow walk to the building and spoke with the teachers for my interview. Most of it consisted of them confusing each other about when I came to US. For some reason, they were surprised that I entered the US at an age of 18 and they discussed this amongst each other for quite the while. I had to interrupt them to tell them that I came from Canada and only came to the US for UCI on my move in day. They discussed this new data more and then asked me when I came to Canada. At this point, I was extremely confused. Why? Well because on my application form, it says that I was born in Torono, Ontario, Canada. I also mentioned this to them in my prior explanation. It was just a whole kajumble of confucius. That is all for now. Rachel is being too annoying on ichat. Sayonara

food advisory committee....?

I am now the food advisory representative for my floor, which means I have to go to a meeting every month to tell the people who run the caf what is good, bad, and needs improvement. Pretty slack job I guess, I just have to go around my floor and ask people what their complaints are, and TRUST ME there are many... haha Another incentive for me to volunteer for this position was that I get a free meal at the meeting! Hooray for free stuff! Speaking of free stuff, my friend and I lined up for 1 hour to get a free funnel cake.... the ice cream was amazing but the funnel cake itself was as hard as a ROCK. Not that great.

Hmm let's see what else happened.... OH well I got a second ear piercing, and ve, it's not a cartilage one LOL because I am having second thoughts about that one. It still feels kinda weird, but hopefully it heals well. They used a needle to poke a hole through my ear, not a piercing gun.

On another note (I don't think you guys want me describing the feeling of getting your ears pierced with a needle), the weather in toronto is extremely mucky. It's so humid here. I wish it would just rain buckets so that the yuckiness can go away.

Other than that, life is good :)

Oh... the Japanese has taken over my life.

A Failure to Fail is a Success

Today, Kitty and I decided to embark on a journey. We had to go to the Museum of Civilization in Quebec to see this Fur Traders exhibit for Canadian History. We set out at about 1:30 in the afternoon and we didn't arrive until 3:10. Why? Allow me to elaborate! It's long but it ends with the "hot fudge" so you know you want to stick it out and read.

Our Master Plan

1. Take the OTrain from Carleton to Bayview

We sat on the train and started getting carried away with these hilarious stories that we were telling. I was illustrating some Csinos stories from the DR and Kitty was sharing about her experience with "Friendly Manitobans." There was a lot of convulsive laughter until suddenly we realize we are moving backwards. The laughter died immediately when we saw a sign that said "Bayview" whoooshing away from us. We had reached the end of the line, didn't get off the train, and were now headed back the way we came.

"Don't worry," says Kitty. "We'll just get off at the next stop.

We tried to open the door, but it wouldn't let us. We stood there and pushed the little green button again and again and (just for kicks) again. But nothing. Before we could take our seats again, the train shot forward and we were scrambling around the train trying to regain our balance.

And so we arrived back at Carleton. 20 minutes later but no further on our journey than we were to begin with. Take 2 was more successful. We actually got off the train.

2. Take the bus to Lebreton.

We waited here for about half an hour until we thought we had missed the bus. Note to self: never ever ever take public transit on the weekends, ESPECIALLY Sunday.

3. Transfer to another bus that will take us to the museum.

This was the worst wait of all. 45 minutes in the hot sun waiting for the one and only bus that stops at that godforsaken busstop. It was terrible! I was beginning to think that they had just cancelled the bus or it had rolled into a ditch or the bus driver died of old age.

And so it was 3:10 when we arrived at the museum. We looked at the exhibit. It was pretty small so we were finished in about an hour. Since we were in a museum already, it made sense to look around a little. So we went to the Mythologial Creatures exhibit! It was awesome! Dragons, Griffins, Sphynxes, Chimeras, Kappas, Sea Monsters, Giant Squid, Giant Emu, Giant Eagle, Giant Ape, Cyclops, Unicorns, Mermaids, and all the other deformed monstrosities in between. We ended up spending about 2 hours in there. What can I say? It was a lot more interesting than beaver pelts and the Metis.

But the real journey was getting home. It turns out that all the OCTranspo buses that go directly to Carleton were done for the day so we had to take this other bus to the Rideau Centre (it's the Eaton Centre of Ottawa) and then take the OCTranspo bus from there. So off we went. There was more waiting for a the bus again but we were finally on our way.

Suddenly, I get the best phone call of my life.

Let me repeat that: OF MY LIFE!

My caller ID said "CARLETON U" so naturally I was thinking that the school was trying to expel me but it was even more epic than that. I apologize in advance. This calls for all caps.

I GOT A CALL FROM THE CHARLATAN ASKING ME TO WRITE A STORY FOR THEM!

I think the word I was searching for at this moment was "WOOHOOOOOOOOO!!" I get to cover the end of Ramadan. Never in my life have I appreciated Ramadan so much. If my life were a novel, this is definitely a highlight-post-it-fold-down-the-corner-and-write-TURNING-POINT-in-the-margin moment.

I was floating on clouds. There may or may not have been air drumming involved. Kitty and I were celebrating and discussing the kind of ice cream we should have to celebrate. At this point in time, Kitty turns her attention out the window and the smiling and laughing just dies. "Is that..." she points out the window.

The Rideau Centre passes by. We're still moving. We've missed our stop. Again. And to top it all off, an OCTranspo bus pulls up right alongside us. It's going to Carleton. Yay us.

We get out at the next stop, still on a buzz from the good news and I skip down the street, wave at the Parliament buildings and we get back to the Rideau Centre to get our Laura Secord ice cream. But, as per our luck, it is closed. We end up going to McDonalds across the street and I get my magnificent congratulations-I-just-got-hired sundae with lots of hot fudge.

Success? I think so!

move-in day.

So I moved in today into my hall, called Whispering Wood, which is in the housing community, called Middle Earth (yea this community is named after LotR people, places, etc), and in my opinion, things went pretty smoothly.

Lots of people were moving in, as was expected, but the biggest problem is that my roommate and I got the smallest room in our wing. Its not that much smaller, but in dorms, any extra space is valuable space. So we spent about 2 hours trying to rearrange my room to make it "perfect" and I think we achieved our goal. My room has a total of 8 pieces of furniture: two tables, two chairs, two dressers, and two beds. Its on the third floor of a three-story building. Thats not as high as your residences but I can imagine that I might get annoyed at having to go up 4 flights of stairs to get to my floor. That plus the fact that our residences do not have air conditioning and have lots of windows and sunroofs make the buildings extremely hot. Even with all the windows open.

Boy was unpacking all my stuff energy-draining. I spent so long at home (my home in toronto, that is) packing all my stuff nice and neatly into my suitcases while trying to make sure that my things wouldnt break from being tossed around in the plane ride, and then I arrive here and my luggages were just like an endless stream of ...well....my stuff. How did I ever manage to fit all that stuff into a few suitcases? And now I have to fit that stuff into my tiny room. Sigh. Anyways, I gave up on unpacking shortly after and went out on a shopping spree to Best Buy, Costco, and Target, went back to my room to  drop off my new purchases, had dinner, and now im here.

I decided to spend the night back in the hotel with my family, as no one else on my floor moved in yet and thus feels really empty. Ill try to post some pictures in here once I get back to my room tomorrow or the day after. As for now, I think I should head to bed. Buenas noches señoras y señores.

Western Life #3: Preparing for the Marathon

so the first week of classes are finally done and over with! Surprisingly, the engin course load has been surprisingly slack... this was clearly a huge surprise as many other faculties have just been piling on the work even though engin is suppose to have the post. As one of my wise sophs said to me, "think of engin course load/homework not as a 100m sprint, but think of it as a marathon." So i'm gonna guess that i'm just tying on my shoes and getting prepared at the start line rite now. With all this said, calc has decided to begin the marathon early as we were assigned roughly 100 problems on the second day of class and they had to be done for the next class which was 2 days away! And according to my prof (he's a douche btw) those 100 problems were nothing compared to what i was going to be assigned later on in the year :S.

The engin sophs said that i shuld be prepared for 5-7 hours of homework/reading material everyday :(. This coupled with my 8:30AM class times every day and my courses that end at 5:30PM (+ nite courses on wednesdays and thursdays), sleeping is probz gonna become a thing of the past. From now on i'm gonna be driven to work off of a hell lot of icetea and barbecue lays chips... mmmmm barbecue lays :). (Oh and probz ketchup chips too cuz theyre kinda awesome lol). Thats it for now! Wish everybody (yes i can finally include melvin in this too) the best of luck for university and everything else!

Before the Chaos.

I have not posted in a long time and thus feel as though I am not contributing my part in this blog. You guys are all hard at work (except for kenny cause he talks to me every single second on msn) while I am just sitting at home doing nothing. But the truth is, you are all just far too young (Okay maybe all of you minus Veronica). Back in July when you youngins were joyfully going about your summer lives and attending kevin's birthday party, I was at my orientation! It seems like it was a long time ago cause I am reading all of your stories and think back to mine and Im like. wow. i went through this already. So when I get the chance, I shall jot down some notes and conjure up a short entry about my orientation at UCI.

Now on to what I wanted to say. I'll try to keep this short cause I need to wake up early tomorrow to get ready for my move-in. As I was packing all my stuff the last couple of weeks, I realized how hard it really is to move your home from your home home to a new foreign residence home. I am sure most people experience the same thing but wow. I couldn't sleep at night because my mind was just filled with, "Should I bring (insert any object)? Should I not bring it? Or should I buy it when I get there? Or maybe I can live without it?" I tried to answer these questions for every object I could possibly think of. And thats the second part. Trying to think of what I need to bring so that I dont forget to bring what I really need. As I said, I'm pretty sure most of you probably experienced the same problems. BUT...I needed to fit my stuff in a reasonable amount of luggages as I need to bring back everything at the end of school. I cant just say "Hey, Ill just make a couple of trips if I cant fit everything the first time."

So yea thats pretty much my packing problems. But with those problems also came many realizations. One of which is this. College is a new thing. A new experience. A new journey. A new place. A new life. And that goes for all the entering freshman. Sure we bring lots of stuff that we are used to into our dorms so that we can get more comfortable and make them feel more like home, but there is a certain limit to all that. Its a time to see who you are. Your family wont be there. Most of your close friends probably wont be there. So for some of you and especially myself, its pretty easy to try tons of new activities. No one knows who you are. Or at least, 99% of the people at your university dont know who you are. I strongly remember Kenny's dad giving us the speech at his barbeque, saying that the years we spend in college will be unforgettable and most likely be the best years of our lives. But thats only true if you are willing to put the effort into making your time at college worthwhile. Its not easy with all the work. But its not too hard either. Thats it for now.

PS. lol My post is like all of veronica's posts. I started off by saying that its gonna be short and then...you know. It goes on. and on. and on. haha =] I understand how that happens now.

It's FRIDAY!

Hello! It has been a while (meaning 3 days). I'm not really in the mood to recap all the crazy days of my life that have been missed BUT I will, however, share my short-lived experience at The Charlatan (Carleton's school paper). It is a job-hunting pain in the ass of my own, Rach.

If you remember the newspaper at HTS, you will recall how we had next to no writers at all. Well surprise surprise, Carleton is exactly NOT like that! It seems like every single person here wants to write for the paper meaning the worst has happened.

I, VERONICA TANG, HAVE BEEN WAIT-LISTED. I have become one of many, a long never-ending list of names on a wretched sign-up sheet! Oh the humiliation! Oh the hurt, the disappointment!

That being said, I have taken a full 20 minutes to wallow and I am now ready to move from job hunting to job kidnapping. If they are not going to call Veronica Tang, then they are missing out and I am just going to have to bring the news to them. I will bombard them with so much news that they'll be handing me the whole paper before you can hit spellcheck!

Or something to that effect.

Anyway, the Charlatan also covers big news from other schools across Canada so I would be forever in your debt if any of you know about some big news going on in your school. You don't have to research or anything. Just give me gist of the story and I can fill in the blanks from there. Blog it to me, facebook me (I'll check it, I promise!), email me, call me, text me, anything! I'm not below begging, you know. I need news, people!

It's really a win-win situation. I show the Charlatan what they're missing and you get your school's news in another school's paper.

So that is my master plan. Synchronize watches! Dive! Dive! DIVE!

i found time to post

Hola chicos & chias!

i just came back from Spanish. Can you tell? lol. I've been uber busy that I've become the Veronica on facebook. I've been reading all your posts and everyone sounds like they're having a blast in university. I miss you all!!! Please come visit me (and Rach while you're at it) soon!!

Thanksgiving gathering?? :P

Well my life at Ryerson has been.......busy. lol. Who knew I would be this busy in the first week? On the first Friday, I found myself working at the studio till 12:30AM. And Saturday/Sunday/Monday I was at the studio till God knows when. Just very very very very VERY early in the morning. Then I would go home and sleep from like 7AM to 12PM. Don't ask. I have now very flexible with my sleeping habits. And that is what I've learned so far. Sleep whereever and whenever you can. I slept on the couches at the studio while we were waiting for people to finish up the stupid lettering project. I had such a failed project already. Sighs. The life of a university student. I feel like I"m gonna fail my Communications class. sighs. Well as my prof said "think hard then work hard"

kk. I gotta go on with my busy busy busy life. I have a mandatory meeting then a lunch&learn! I'll upate after!! But i have to clean! AHHH so many things to do!! I have to learn how to prioritize and work on my time management. Sighs. I'm gonna fail at life.

Well MelMel you an tag my post for me. Gotta run!!!

Byeee!

Ps. BYE MELMEL!! HAVE FUN A UCI! SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JENNIFER CHUNG FOR ME! =D ;D but don't make sound stalkerish. lol.

Job hunting is a pain in the ass.

It is one of the hardest things to do, believe it or not. Looking for a job... trying to find SOMEONE that actually wants to hire you. Today was the part-time job fair. I was in line for an interview at H&M, there were only three more people then me, but the interviewers had to leave. I was disappointed... Yesterday I had an interview at Forever 21, don't know if they'll hire me. Monday, I went to an open call at American Apparel. I'm handing out resumes regularly at the eaton centre now. That's how desperate I am.

I'm pathetic.

Tuesday: the Day of Suckiness

Hello! I officially have no classes on Tuesday! Yesterday was a nightmare though. Mondays and Wednesdays are my hell days. I have to run back and forth on campus between these two buildings with only 10 minutes in between, meaning I show up to my classes red in the face and smelling lovely. This is not to mention that everyone who has had sufficient time to stroll to their classes and smell a rose or two has taken all the seats and I'm the one bursting in at the last minute. Have you ever had 350 people all snap their heads around to stare at you as you shuffle down the aisle and squeeze into the last empty seat in the middle of a row?

I have. It is most unpleasant.

Yesterday was also when I had to switch out of my Low-Intermediate French class. I tried to pull it off. I really did! I dumbed down the language. I only said three words in the whole oral test: la programme journalisme. The teacher said I was advanced. Great. Just great. So I was off to Dunton Tower (You can't say Dunton Tower, by the way, without putting on a stupid voice. It kind of goes with the name. DUHN TUN!) where I had to wait in line for an hour and 40 minutes just to talk to a French lady who said I was on the border between Low-Intermediate and Intermediate. Whoopee. I can't even be great! I have to be great enough to be unable to qualify for dumb French but too stupid to be awesome in smart French. Ain't life grand?

10 minutes later, she sends me out the door with a "Courage!" (how encouraging) and across the hall to another lady who is basically the Ms. Howard of Carleton but competent. She handles all the course dropping and adding. I wait another 25 minutes and finally get a class. The Carleton Ms. Howard says, "There you go. Your class started...5 minutes ago. You better run!" It was like a public health commercial where the poor little boy is huffing and puffing as he runs down the street away from a horde of girls trying to kiss him and these words fade onto the screen: Stay fit 'cause you never know. To top it all off, the fake Ms. Howard started to resemble the actual one by giving me the wrong room number. I'm wheezing up three flights of stairs and knocking on a class door only to have this lady who looks alarmingly like Dogolvik (is that even how you spell her name?) and says in a very angry voice, "What?" In between gasps for air, I manage to say, "Is...this...French?"

"No." The door slams in my face. Luckily I manage to find my actual room, just in time for a dictation. Yay. Needless to say, it was not a glorious day.

CORRECTION: Kitty and I signed up for Jiu Jitsu and yesterday was the first class. She really wanted to take it and I thought I'd tag along. We were the only girls there plus this one other girl who was already pretty skilled. There was a lot of testosterone in that room. It was AWESOME! (the jiu jitsu-ing, not the testosterone) We did a lot of rolling around. I flailed quite a bit but it was a lot of fun minus the humungous bruise I got on my air because some intense freak blocked my fake punch with abnormal vigour. This bruise is now the colour of a burn and about the size of a twoonie.

Sadly, today was no better. The highlight was probably sleeping in. My day was going great...and then I got up. Someone out there decided that today would be international Screw You, Veronica Tang Day.

• The internet froze while I was trying to read the news this morning.
• I realized as I was pouring the remaining drops over my cereal that I ran out of milk.
• The printer refused to print my new schedule and when I finally fixed it, it printed out three copies that were cut off at the bottom.
• I went to try to get some money out of an ATM but my card was rejected...3 times.
• I went to a building about a 10 minutes-walk away to buy an ISIC card but forgot to bring money and had to go back.
• I had to take my ISIC card picture after running back to my room for money and then back to the building on the third floor with no elevator. It was attractive.
• I stood in line for 20 minutes at the bookstore to return a book only to find out that I didn't need to line up because there was a separate line for returns.
• I forgot to ask the Travel Cuts guy about train tickets while I was getting my ISIC card and they are running out really fast.
• I didn't have change for the train (to the nearest Loblaws) so I had to buy candy that I didn't even want in order to get some quarters. Carleton refuses to give you change unless you buy something. Thieving Capitalists.

I think this constitutes as a bad day. Now, I am supposed to be watching Boondock Saints with Kitty in our friend, Scott's room. He just bought new speakers and they're amazing. I think a movie will make it all better.

Peacing out now. I hope your days are going much better than mine.

Second week.

Sigh.

Reading reading reading. Work has finally started to pile on... so much reading to do and I'm already behind. It's all just a tad boring, especially the ones about business stats and global management SNOOZE FEST. I just completed my first assignment too, but that wasn't too bad; I just had to summarize one retail experience during the summer. Guess what I wrote about. LOL

And I've started to hand my resumes out since I want a part-time job really badly... want to earn some money on the side. I have my first interview today... wish me luck

I should be heading to class soon.

long time no see/talk

yea so... schools started for about 2 and a half weeks.

my schedule:

M- 3 classes - ECON,UWS,STATS -12:00 -3:30
T - 1 class - Asian American experience - 1:40 - 3:00
W -3 classes - ECON,UWS,STATS -12:00 -3:30
T - 1 class - ECON - 12:00 - 1:00
F - 1 class - Asian American experience - 1:40 - 3:00

Ive skipped a lot of classes already... which is really bad but seriously idunno if it was the HTS education or just me overestimating university classes. ECON is a joke, ive learnt the same thing twice before at syracuse and HTS. Stats is easier than data management and so during class there is zero motivation to learn and to listen. I've done all the econ homework without reading the book and still scored near perfect every time.... Same with stats.

I know skipping class is a bad habit.... gotta change that for when classes get hard.

University life is pretty chill here at Brandeis. Frats are banned so they're a 20 minute walk so they're basically dead. speaking of frat parties. i forgot to take pictures last time (sry kevin).

Brief explanation: walk 20 minutes east in the residential neighborhood, see a random house, walk to the backyard where everyone is taking smoke breaks. then proceed down a narrow entrance into the basement of the house which is literally 2-3 feet wide and about 6 feet tall. The basement itself is covered with ashpalt, not even tile/hardwood/cement. unfinished drinks litter the floor and water pipes populate the already low cieling. christmas lights are used to lighting and in the burning hot room, there is a makeshift dancefloor, a bar, a lounge with a tv and a beerpong table.

Thats frat night life for me -.-"

People here.... are really kind of awkward for the most part. almost everyone plays a musical instrument so free concerts every night... Kind of gets irritating especially when your roomate plays the violin 24/7 and is mad good so the notes pierce your ears. the asian population is really small. only about 5 people from hong kong and speak cantonese.. theres about a couple dozen people from china and speak mandarin so its hard to communicate with them since my mandarin is not decent enough. theres also a couple dozen koreans and its also hard to communicate with them cause they all speak korean to each other but they're really chill. CSA and KSA are really cool, very welcoming upperclassmen and they actually care about freshmen as opposed to just living in thier "upperclass" lives.

Thats about it for me....

I Hate University Work

I feel like all I have been doing all day every day is reading. I keep forgetting that we're supposed to print out course outlines before class. I'm so used to teachers just giving you all the stuff, not actually doing work before the first class even starts. It's now 10:43 and I realized I have a whole chapter to read before 8:35 tomorrow which would be fine except that I'm also trying to get through my extensive readings for my other courses.

I think I'm going to crash, burn, and die.

Oh and here's a brief summary of what I did today:

• try to get my ISIC card and buy train tickets for Thanksgiving (I say "try" because they weren't open)
• walked to Zellers with my friends just for kicks
• ran around campus trying to find my classrooms in advance
• READ!!

I've had enough of this university work. I miss summer!

It's the Weekend!

 On this marvelous Saturday, I slept in for the first time in an eternity. I really needed sleep. It was so satisfying. I slept until 9:30 when Kitty shot out of bed because she just remembered that she had left her laundry in the washer for 2 hours. She had woken up earlier at 7 to do laundry (guaranteed to be available on a Saturday). I was so productive. I read some news and some global politics before we set out to the OTrain station and went to...the South Keys mall! It would have been so successful if we had actually been aiming for that mall. We thought we were going downtown. Whoops.

 I also went to Chapters to buy a book. I got The World of Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. I'm so excited to read it! I love Wodehouse's stories, especially the ones with Jeeves! I always picture him as the Ask Jeeves logo. But the best part of that trip to Chapters (other than spending no money at all on my wonderful book, three cheers for gift cards!) was my free coffee! As always there is a Starbucks tacked onto all Chapters. Kitty wanted a drink so I tagged along even though I wasn't going to buy anything. And there, sitting on the counter, was a venti non-fat latte that had my name written all over it. And before you think I stole a drink that wasn't mine, let me explain. Kitty and I were eyeing this drink and there were about 4 people in front of us. One by one they all all claimed their drinks and left, and still the drink remained. Finally I asked the barista, "Who left a perfectly good drink lying around?" to which she replied, "Oh, that has been there for a while. It's up for grabs!" I saw an opportunity and I seized it. It was tasty tasty coffee. Free drink's good drink!

 Sadly, my good fortune ended there. I went to Staples and looked for one of those cups that you put pens and pencils and other writing materials in. It's to de-clutter your desk. But I couldn't find any good ones. They all looked okay...but not good enough to spend $5 on. So I thought, "Hey! I'll be resourceful and just rinse out my coffee cup and use that cup as my pencil holder. Excellent! So I set out to get some other much needed items, like bookends.

 It seems so trivial but you'd be surprised what bookends can do for a person. I can honestly say that I am a happier person with my new bought bookends. I am also saving about 30 seconds of my life everytime I pull out a binder or a book because I don't have to spend time righting my tumbled possessions. It's grand...UNTIL I brought my lovely purchases to the cashier. I had already been fumbling with my metal bookends. They decided to clatter to the ground, causing quite the scene right in front of the cashier and the line of people behind me. I picked them up as gracefully as possible and put my free coffee on the counter. The cashier was a good sport and said, "Oh! A coffee for me?" I laughed half-heartedly while I looked for money and said, "Oh, no. It's empty." "Oh," he says and reaches out, takes my coffee cup and throws it out. I must have had a look of horror on my face because he quickly asked, "Oh! Was there a little left in it?" I kind of mumbled an "Oh! No, no! I was just going to take the cup home with me." He gave me a weird look but fished it out of the garbage and said, "Don't worry. Our garbage is still empty. There's nothing too bad in there." So I muttered some noises of affirment and collected my change. I then proceeded to drop it all to the ground with a loud clattering. I picked it up only to drop it again while trying to hurriedly stuff it into my wallet out of sight. By this time, the cashier had already moved on the next person in line and Kitty was laughing ahead of me. At this point, I did the only thing anyone in my position could have done: I hauled all my stuff in my arms without putting anything away and ran out the door.

Now I'm really glad they probably caught that whole painful scene on the security cameras.

 On a better note, I watched 9 today. It was really good! I love the little voodoo robot people! They're so cute! It was a million times better than Whiteout. But then again, everything and anything is better than Whiteout. I think watching paint dry would be better than that terrible movie but that's just my opinion.

 It's been a most productive day. My bathroom mates invited me to go to Quebec with them. I gently turned them down for the following reason:
There is only one reason why anybody in Carleton goes to Quebec on a Saturday night. It is commonly known as "Hull". What is Hull? It's the sketchiest, most ghetto bar/night club you can go to. Even if you're a guy, you should go in a BIG group if you value your life. If you're a girl, I hope you have a blackbelt. This pleasant place of business is filled with 40 year old bikers looking for teenage girls. There's a stabbing insurance that you can purchase at the counter. I kid you not. I only speak the truth!

 So here I sit, valuing my life and spending a quiet evening in my res. I guess Saturday night visits to the hospital for stab wounds will have to wait for another day.

Hello!

Hello Everyone I finally joined this blog. I don't have much to say right now except HELLO!

Realization Sucks

I just realized that university is impossible. There is simply no way that I can know every little piece of news from the local level to the international stage. I have no idea how my journalism prof expects us to do it. I've been reading the news so much that I practically have bylines coming out my nose. It's painful to say the least. Maybe I need to just skim faster. That way, I can make it through the National Post, the cbc website, and the Globe and Mail to compare. Then I'll have time for the exotic ones like Al-Jazeera and Jerusalem Post followed by the local stuff like the Ottawa Citizen and the school news like the Charlatan student paper, magazine, and community paper. And after all that is done, I can repeat it all the next day because guess what. THE NEWS JUST KEEPS ON HAPPENING! I really wish people would stop doing so much stuff because the more they do, the more people are going to write about it, which means more for me to read. My eyeballs are tired from all this reading.

And on top of all that pleasure reading, I have to do my readings for my actual classes. Oh yes, all that news was just for knowledge! There will be weekly quizzes, much like the World Issues quizzes that Em and I failed every time. But here, in the wonderful world of higher education, it will all count for marks. Hoorah. Kill me now. I finished a 20 page article on the history of newspaper, radio, and television ownership. I also have 67 pages of global politics to read. I only have two eyeballs! It's only the second day of classes and I think I'm already beginning to sprout grey hairs (well, more than I already have).

On a lighter note, Frosh week is over. We had a concert tonight as the closing ceremony. I've never heard of any of the bands. They were mediocre. I think everyone was just tired. I hope I fall into a rhythm soon because I have work and reading coming out the wahzoo. It's NOT pleasant.

RYER- WHAT?! RYERSON!

So i'm kinda liking Ryerson. lol.

I'm gonna keep this short.

Studio Nights have begun!

I have an uncruel amount of work due Tuesday. Sighs. And each assignment takes like 5 hours to do. I only have like 24 hours a day!!! geeeez.

I'll update next week when I finally get internet.

Just wanted to let everyone know i'm not dead. :)

Lesson: Since this is supposed to be what we're learning...the lesson of this blog is...you gotta love where you are because you're stuck with it.

ryer-what? RYERSON!

FRIDAY! i should be heading off to bed since i have an 8 am class, but whatever... tonight was just too much fun. Classes are pretty good, off to a good start. My favourite is probably the retail course, RMG100. It's quite interesting and plus I'm actually excited to write my retail summer experience paper.

I must say, living in downtown Toronto is pretty damn awesome. Especially during TIFF... CELEBRITY SIGHTING TIME! WOOHOO. My RA has a whole sheet typed out on which celebrities are going to be where at what time... stalker i know, but you just can't help it. And it's awesome that Ryerson has a theatre here which means that premieres are also held there!! SO em and i decided to go to the Quad for the premiere of Jennifer's Body. Adam Brody is SUCH a cutie and sweetheart! Actually went over the rope and took pictures with us :D and then MEGAN FOX. holy mother of god is she hot. before i didn't exactly understand her hotness and appeal... now i DO. loved her dress and shoes too... awesome style, or maybe her stylist has awesome taste haha

Well i'm actually going to sleep now so TOODLES.

Classes Officially Begin

It's 1:14 a.m. Exhausted. Keeping it short. Here goes.

Late class. 11:35 a.m. Awesome. Sleep in. Sit around. Check email for the first time ever. 29 messages in inbox.

Discovery: French test on the first day to make sure we registered for the right class. I wish it was a joke.

Journalism

Lots of news related journalism clubs looking for new recruits. Lots of advertising. Course outline.

To Emily: We have weekly news quizzes that actually count for marks! Eeeep!

This was my biggest class. It has swivelly chairs. I like swivelly chairs.

French

Boooooo! Such unfairness! Our teacher is speaking in simple French. Kitty and I understand perfectly. We are happy. Oh so very happy. Teacher says this is a beginner class. We should not be able to understand everything perfectly. Kitty and I are sad. Oh so very sad. There is a self evaluation. 75 marks and under = stay in easy French class. 76+ = bump up a level. I got a 96. Suddenly I have a use for these 3 letters: FML.

Oral test also. Easy questions a.k.a. Comment t'appelles tu? Quelle programme? Pourquoi Carleton? I stumbled on purpose and used very simple words. Present tense only. Teacher says, "You are very advanced for this class!" I hate life.

Teacher sent me to Dunton Tower to find French lady who can switch my class. Kitty and I get there. She's there. She says she's not there. Up yours, French lady. Up yours. We have to come back tomorrow.

Top secret surprise for Frosh: premier to a movie. Not really a premier. It's coming out tomorrow. We get to see it tonight at 10:30 pm. Whiteout. It sucked. DON'T WATCH IT.

Exhausted. Sleepy. Going. Going. Gone.

h2olo2

Water!? Water!? Water!?
LOO! LOO! LOO!
Water?!
LOO!
Water!? Water!?
LOO! LOO!

The University of Waterloo frosh week has been a huge surprise to me. I thought it would suck a lot compared to other universities but it actually passed my expectations. From activities such as science Olympics to goggle ceremonies to "Single and Sexy", it has been a fun-filled 4 days for me. The secret science dance was fun to learn since the song this year was "Let it Rock."

UW Place is awesome. The suites are superb and its really quiet at night but there are occasionally a few parties here and there. My roommates are awesome and we bonded really well. The other residences such as V1 and REV are like hell holes to live in and I figured out that MKV (the newest and nicest rez) has a 90% asian population.

Classes start on monday and I am excited to go to calc class. yay! *sighs* O ya...i should be vlogging on my new youtube channel soon

Academic Orientation

I was bored out of my mind today at orientation. Well actually, it was yesterday since it's already midnight. I'm going to keep it short because I am exhausted and I really need sleep! The orientation was just hour after hour of old guys talking and welcoming and introducing. It was boring boring boring boring boring stuff. I was falling asleep in the most uncomfortable chair in the world. Everyone got their faculty t-shirts. There were nice blues and greens and even some nice red and yellow ones but what did Journalism get? Orange. And not just any orange. It was like a pumpkin orange. We all look like the Great Pumpkin from Charlie Brown and Snoopy or a pylon. It's actually blinding. Neon orange is never flattering...for anyone.

 There was a barbeque for lunch yet again. I have had so many barbeques these past few days. I never want to see another burger again! At least until next week. Kitty and I got lost on the way to lunch. We thought we were getting close because we could smell burgers, but we ended up being on the wrong side of the campus. Once again, my horrid sense of direction causes me great pain.

 After lunch there was a giant club convention where a bunch of little booths are set up outside and all the students can sign up. I think I signed onto about 20 different clubs. I don't even know if I can do them all but each one looks more interesting than the last. And the best part is all the free stuff. I have so many buttons and candy and keychains, I could open my own convenience store.

I took the rest of the day to finish off some errands. I bought my last book and the price ($143.89!) made me wish I never signed up for the course. But what's done is done. I'm just going to keep the shrink wrap on the books until this weekend when I will probably go off campus to a bookstore known for its cheaper prices. Until then, I am wallowing in my bankruptcy.

After spending all that money, I decided to make a trip to Zellers (about 20-30 minuteswalk away) and buy some much needed items:

1) A towel. I realized that if I was going to swim at my beloved pool, it would be kind of nice not to walk home sopping wet in the 10 degree weather. I'm not joking. It's actually 10 degrees here when the sun goes down.

2) Afterbite. Mosquitoes suck. They know I'm allergic and they suck. Enough said.

3) A card for my grandma's birthday. I kind of forgot to write something in the card my mom was going to send before I left for university. Whoops. So now I have to scrape some of my rusty Chinese together and mail my own card to her. It better get to her tomorrow because I had to use FOUR stamps just to cover the cost. It was partly my fault since my brain decided to tune out when I was asking the convenience store lady if the stamps were domestic. It costs $0.54 for domestic but $1.62 for international. It's so clever. I hate it. It's just 3 cents too little if you put 3 stamps so I HAVE to use 4. Well played, Canada Post. Well played.

Tonight's festivities consisted of a concert. An obscure Ottawa band opened the show, followed by Midway States. They are amazing live! I actually liked them better than K-Os, which was supposed to be the main attraction. The only down side to all this music was the cold. I have never been that cold in September! It is insane.

Classes start tomorrow. Luckily tutorials don't start until next week so that means I only have 2 classes. I have Journalism at 11:35 and French at 2:35. It's not too bad except for the fact that this means SCHOOL IS STARTING! I do not like returning to reality. I like summer but alas it is time to bid the blissfully hazy lazy crazy days of summer goodbye. Auf weidersei. Bonsoir to all and to all a bonsoir.

Western LIfe #2: Hip Thrusts

One! We are from Perth Hall!

Two! A little bit louder!

Three! I still can't hear you!

Four more more more!

One! We are from Perth Hall!

Two! A little bit louder!

Three! I still can't hear you!

Four more more more!
One! We are from Perth Hall!

Two! A little bit louder!

Three! I still can't hear you!

Four more more more!

ONE!

Opening Ceremonies was one of the loudest events i had even been too! The amount of cheering and screaming and horn blowing was amazing!

During the opening ceremonies, all 6150 (or something close to that) were squished onto this small hill. It was extremely uncomfortable for the time that we had to sit but it was so much fun!! OOO b4 i forget, wen Saugeen (another rez) marched down the hill, it looked as htough an army had just arrived as they occupied like 3/10 of the hill, while Perth took up like 0.3/10 of the hill. Although we r such a small rez, we were BY FAR one of the loudest and craziest! PERTH PERTH PERTH!! :). but maybe that was b/c we had horns :P.

For the opening ceremonies, we were supposed to do a cheer/dance, sooo our Sophs gathered us outside perth to practice... and wat did we learn? well THE HIP THRUST! of course wen all the freshman first saw this infamous hip thrust, we were all a lil hesitant to try it ourselves but as the night grew on us, we were all hip thrusting our way through the night!

After the opening ceremonies, a resident hypnotist came onto the stage to put on a show for us! He was abosutely amazing. some of the stuff he made these ppl do was hilarious! and also b/c there were cameras that were connected to these two big screens, the cameramen kept on gettin close-ups of ppl's faces and they were actually EPIC! and at this one point hte hypnotist was like "u r in the amazon and it is extremely hot... like sweltering hot!!" and some guy took off his shirt and all the girls were like "WOOOOO!!!!" then some girl took off her sweater and was int he process of taking off her shirt and all the guys were like "WOOOOOO!!!!" until the hynotist said "release" then the subjects snapped back to reality and the shirt-taking off stopped and every1 went "BOOOOOO!!!!" lol while the girl who was takin off her shirt was like "why the hell don't i hav my sweater on anymore?" After we had the "Lunar Solstice Dance" where we dipped our right hand in white paint in honour of Michael Jackson and we danced the night away well at least until 1am which is when they told us to head back to our dorms and sleep.

Western Life #1: Move-In and Initiation

Hey guys! i hope every1 is having an amazing time at their respective universities cuz i kno that i deffs am! (well cept for melvin cuz he's still kickin it back at home lol, but soon)

My move-in was extremely efficient. Wen the car was lining up to to drop off my stuff, a Soph by the name of "Mr. Garrison" pulled me from the car and dragged me into Perth where i got my room keys and my frosh kit (which includes an awesome horn :) thats great for situation where Perth needs to be loud). By the time i reached my room, most of my boxes and luggages were already there waiting for me. I also found out regretfully that DTrain was not my roomie as he was on the floor below :(. So all in all, i've met some amazing ppl so far on my floor

All i really have to say is Western's frosh week is AMAZING!!! so much has happened already and its only the 3rd day! the Sophs (ppl who lead us around and organize events for us) r insane! they avg. about 3 hours of sleep per night and these past 2 mornings, they hav woken us up at 8AM with their obnoxious knocking and banging and they won't stop until we actually open the door. ughh soo annoying! but i guess it adds to the expereince haha...well not really...

The first thing we learned at initiation was simply "ERTW" (ERTW was also written everywhere around campus on the sidewalks. about every 10 steps or so u can probz see another one). this basically stands for "Engineers Rule the World."

So right off the bat on the first day during move-in, my engineering soph "McHurry" (yes i kno, siik name rite?) tells me to call this number to begin my "mission" or our "eng. initiation." All the while he has this huge grin on his face like he knows that i'm about to get myself into something crazy. and u know what? it was friggin awesome!! i hav actually never felt so scared in my entire life, but every1 around me was scared too 'cept wen we found out one of the eng. guys holding a sledgehammer was known as "Sweet Cheeks." So we had to crawl through a maze in the dark while the eng. sophs were screaming and swearing at us. fun, i kno! the maze was sooo long! took us a good half hour to get through it. after, we got our eng. names, mine being "frugala" lol. apparently its some eng. inside joke but no1 will really tell me wat it means but i htink i'll find out tmw during my faculty orientation tmw. kinda excited and scared at the same time!

At the end of the initiation we had to take an oath. i'm not gonna write the entire thing down cuz i don't rmb it all lol. but this is the basic message : Screw the f***ing hell out of everything that isn't eng. related. LMAO siik msg eh? i thought so too.

Eng for life!

Hope every1 is having a blast at frosh week!

Beach Day!

I am in no shape for school at all! This whole Frosh experience is making me feel like I'm on vacation. It doesn't feel like school is ever going to start, which is going to make it that much harder for me when classes actually begin. (Thursday!)

 Today was full of cheering, yet again. There was another dirty one that I wanted to add, since Rach expressed such an interest in them (I knew I could count on you, Rach!):

We're on the hunt!

We're on the prowl!

We'll bend you over and make you howl!

 With that being said, I'll continue with today's events. There's a beach about 15-20 minutes walk away and it's actually nice. Well the sand is nice. The water smells like sewage and there is a very simple explanation for that...it is sewage. Apparently, about 3 months ago, there was a lot of rain and the sewers overflowed. 3.2 million litres of raw sewage right into the Rideau Canal. But not to worry! The government thinks that this contamination is within safe levels of pollution and the canal will continue to be open for public use! Yay! Swimming anyone?

 It was so hot today. This Ottawa weather is bizarre. It's freezing in the morning and at night so people are all bundled up in sweaters. But in the afternoon, shorts and a t-shirt still make you feel too hot to be out. I do love the sun and I don't mind the cold but it would be really great if I didn't have to change over 3 times a day.

 There was a sand castle building competition at the beach but everyone ended up building sculptures of their team mascot. My team, with their foul minds and gutter thoughts, decided to illustrate the "F*** You, Ottawa U!" song. The result? A wolf raping a GG, howling at a full moon. The poor GG says, "Pack it in for Shinerama!" (Shinerama is a fundraiser for cystic fibrosis.)

Oh! Laundry's done! One moment please.

 And we're back! Underneath the whole...scene is "WOLF PACK" in big letters but in bigger letters above the previously mentioned scene is "F*** OTTAWA U!" I was so ready for some little kid to walk over and say, "Daddy, what is the doggy doing to the horsey?" or "What does that word say?" Ahh, so young, so innocent, so ready to be scarred for life.

 I was so beachy at the beach. I'm not usually a big lover of beach games and activities. It's just not really my venue. I hate the feeling of sunscreen congealed with sweat and the hot sand that burns your feet and the rocks and sticks in the sand that poke you when you walk, and all that sand in unwanted places. It's just not ideal! But TODAY, I actually partook in beach activities and I discovered that it was a lot of fun! I can see the draw to the beach. I went kayaking in these mini, one-person kayaks, and there was a guy showing off with his kayak tricks. He did a somersault in the water! I did not know that was possible! It's not sideways either, it's FORWARDS! I was impressed. I also played beach volleyball. Me! I did it! I sucked. But I did hit a stride for a little while. I served twice perfectly and I hit the ball over the night a couple of times before resuming my usual sucking. It was awesome!

 So after all the rolling around in sand and stepping in the toxic water, I trudged on home and tried to buy my textbooks. I would like to echo what Rach said, "Textbooks = $$$$$$$$$$$" I am so bitter about their lack of used books. I had to pay full price for everything! All I can do is wave goodbye to my precious money. Goodbye, money, you've served me well.

Veronica's big surprise: I came back from the beach and it appeared that Kitty was in the room since the lights were on but I couldn't find her. She was in the washroom taking a shower (she didn't come to beach day) so I was just going to tell her that I was back when suddenly, on the wall right next to my bed, I see something that doesn't belong. Something that definitely was not there when I left. It was an...ELEPHANT POSTER! It's so cute! I love it! It's a baby elephant standing between two adult elephant legs. It's poking its little head out and his ears are spread out. It's called "Big Ears." So adorable! My room is complete.

There's a comedy show tonight. I'll see how that is. What I really want to do is eat and then sleep. I feel like I've been up for 20 years without sleep. It's fun but very hard on the muscles. I ache all over.

textbooks = $$$$$$$$

Just finished my first day of classes. Today was pretty slack and chill for me since I had a 3 hr lecture that ended 1.5 hours earlier and a 1 hr lecture with 299+ people, that was intimidating. Then I went over to the bookstore to buy textbooks... total cost: $400+! I bought four textbooks, only one was used. DAMN NEW EDITIONS. I also had to purchase a clicker for participation in the huge lecture. Now university officially starts...

My first class was business statistics (loads of fun, i know.) and it had around 75 people in there... that's our whole graduating grade right there in one room. Lots of information and introductions. We get crib sheets (aka cheat sheets!) for our quizzes/tests/exam. hooray for that!

Then it was organizational behaviour and interpersonal skills, and holy crap were there a LOT of people... THREE HUNDRED + people crammed into an auditorium. we were all waiting outside, it was ridiculous. and that class is only ONE HOUR long. this should be interesting...

Tomorrow, I have my first actual retail course... wish me luck!

CU in the Wild!

It is Day 3 of my university life. Today is the first official day of full Frosh activity. All the residences are split up into teams and I was so scared I was going to be something lame like Worms or Horse Flies (those are actual team names) but luckily, I'm on the Wolves team! If you notice, everything is animal/wild themed. It's so much fun. I've never howled so much. We all had to have "wolf names" so I'm Lil Bow and Kitty is Lil Wow. I swear it was not my idea! And after this day of cheering and playing games, including a makeshift slip n' slide (a.k.a. a tarp sprayed with soap and water), I realize that I have been living the most sheltered life. I did not know there could be so many dirty cheers. They're not even sexual innuendos. They are more like blatant descriptions. Mine eyes have been opened.

I'm so exhausted. I've been out in the sun from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and I think I'm fried. Everyone is like red and I am no exception. I have become one of the many who walk around with the telltale nose and cheeks. Sunburn is no picnic.

There was this psychic/hypnotist who came and basically made people act like idiotic fools (because what else have we been doing all day?). And then...there was Oliver's, the best bar on campus and it's also where the best dance party is at. I enjoyed it. There's a really long line to get in and once you do, it's really crowded and hot and people smell...really bad! But it's all worth it because it is so much fun!

And for further entertainment, I thought I would add some cheers that I learned here at CU. I feel smarter already.

BEWARE: The following contains abnormal amounts of dick humour and profane language like you've never seen before. Those who read past this point do so at their own discretion!

Don't say I didn't warn you!

There's time to turn back!

Fine! Here it goes.

First, let's start off with some wolf cheers:
1) We'll huff! We'll puff!
Because we are so tough!
And if you want to f*** with us,
We'll give it to you rough!

2) Once I was a lone wolf.
Now I am a grown wolf!
Big dick, real thick!
All the better to f*** you with!

There are also some accessories for our wolf cheers:
This is what we say if we lose and the other team makes fun of us:
Too soon, motherf***ers, too soon!
[Bend over with butts facing opponents] Full moon, motherf***ers, full moon!

And then this wonderful one-liner is good to end all cheers or when we can't think of a good comeback to other teams:
And we'll eat your f***ing face! (Repeat as many times as deemed necessary)

I hate to say I told you so but if that was not enough, please (I dare you), keep reading!

Here are some cheers for cheer-offs:
To woodchucks:
1) Teen wolf has big nuts
Unlike woodchucks.
We use ours to play ball.
You don't use yours at all!

2) Chuck on this wood! (This comes with a provocative gesture, I'm sure you can use your imaginations)

To skunks:
F*** you, Pepe Le Pew!
You smell like s*** and you eat it too!

To bats:
1) All that bats can do is suck!
Open for a mouth f***!

2) (Other teams like to say "All bark, no bite!" to us, wolves so this is what we said to the bats)
All suck, no f***!

And this is my personal favourite. It commemorates the longstanding rivalry between Carleton and Ottawa. It goes like this:
There's a whole in the city and its name is Ottawa U!
And if you're dull and boring, then it's the place for you.
And if you're into concrete and ugly buildings too,
Then welcome to Ottawa U!
2, 3, 4!
F*** you, Ottawa U! (Repeat 3x with middle fingers proudly raised)
En francais, c'est F***ez-vous!
So f*** you, Ottawa U!
What the f***'s a GG? (Repeat as many times as seen fit)

If you would like to know what a GG is, I would be glad to explain.

So that was my first full day of frosh! Now it is 1:13 a.m. (a big deal for me) and if I don't go to bed soon, I will pass out over my keyboards so goodnight!

Finally in Carleton!

Good morning, citizens! This is Veronica Tang reporting from Carleton, Canada's Capital University!

Well I have finally arrived in the capital of our home and native land. I got here yesterday and it was so tiring. I had to get up at 6 in the a.m. and hit the road by 7. It wasn't even fully bright yet, meaning there is absolutely no reason for any living creatures to be up and at 'em. I somehow managed to scrape myself off my bed and trudge around the house doing some last minute packing. And then, with my car trunk brimming with my numerous bags of crap, I set off into the unknown...and morning traffic.

It took 4 and a half hours to get to Carleton but 2.5 more hours to get into my room. How can this be? Well, the wonderful city of Ottawa decided that of all days, September 5th (a.k.a. move-in day) was the most fabulous fantastic ultra-super-brills day to have a triathlong. All the roads were blocked, there were a hundred detours, and when I got into campus, I thought, "Alright, at least there won't be any more delays." But I was wrong. Oh so very wrong.

The triathlon runs right through the campus so all the traffic was moving in a one-way circle so if you miss your "exit" to your residence, you have to go all the way around campus and come back to try again. My mom and I are terrible with directions and we were so frazzled from the road traffic to begin with that we missed Renfrew House (my res) not once but twice. Third time really is the charm...the hot, sweaty, crowded, noisy charm.

So why was it so difficult to find? Everyone else's residence has a big driveway for you to pull up on and what do we have? A sketchy little alleyway with a big fat dumpster on the side. We had no sign with our house on it so some guy pulled a piece of cardboard out of the dumpster and wrote "RENFREW" on it. We're so resourceful.

Then there was the long process of unpacking. Partway through, while my mom and I were bustling around, we hear a knock coming from this little wooden door in the wall. It's suspended in the air so it's more like a window. So naturally, we open it and there is a hole in the wall! It's actually a creeper peep hole into the other room and I see my washroom mates grinning at me and waving. Apparently, there used to be a phone in the window for all four people to use, back in the days of yore. Riiiiiight...phone windows (a.k.a. creepy peep holes)

After all the packing was done-

I just remembered something I wanted to mention: my floor is underwater themed. It's not Greek but it's still festive! There are fish and sea horses on all the doors. I try to get into the spirit. Glub freakin' glub.

- I had to say goodbye to my mom. I am officially independent! Relying on no one! Completely an island of my very own...until I called my mom to transfer me some money to buy textbooks. There was a long boring floor meeting where the most interesting thing was that our res fellow has a candy/condom bowl so you can reach in and grab whatever you want and she won't know what it is...I wonder who's going to be knocking on her door begging for some candy at 3 in the morning.

After the formalities, our floor went to dinner together and I went on a scavenger hunt. It was awesome except that we didn't win. We had to use those old school film instant cameras. I prefer to think of them as "vintage." I can't wait to see those get developed.

Sorry, I know it's long but bear with me. I have a lot to cram into this post.

DAY 2: I had the best sleep of my life! Mostly because I was so tired from the day before, but that is besides the point. I had a rather large victorious moment. I, Veronica Tang, fixed a printer. That's right! All by my lonesome! ME! I did it! It wasn't working and then I came along and it was just simply no match for my intellectual powers! It turns out that I had plugged the cable into the wrong socket earlier. But that's not the point! I was very proud of myself when it started printing. The paper was inching out. I rejoiced and did a happy dance around the room. I turned again to look at the evidence of my brilliance being printed when...it gets sucked back in!! Later, I would realize that it was printing double-sided (a function I had forgotten) but at the time, I was terrified that my printer was eating my paper.

After my lovely success, I traipsed around Ottawa today with Kitty and her family as per her very persistent mom's request. We were checking out the sports centre and there I found my true love:

THE 50M POOL! (complete with rope to swing on. Think Tarzan.)

There was a pep rally where everyone was painted red and they had those thunder sticks that you bang together to make a ruckus. I seized the opportunity and wore my Canada hat. If you've seen it, you'll know that it can be an excellent conversation piece. I met lots of people who love my hat. Aren't I clever? Subsequent to this pep rally, everyone migrated to the gym where we watched a basketball game. Frankly it was not the most interesting game of my life but the cheering was a lot of fun! I looked like a fool but it was awesome! After an hour of that, I am completely burned out. There's supposed to be a Much Music Video Concert tonight but Kitty and I are WAY too tired to go anywhere, not to mention that it's a frigid beast out there! It's SO COLD! How I'm going to survive winter, I do not know.

So there. That is my first weekend in a nutshell. The scary part is: frosh hasn't officially started yet. It's going to be crazy. I'll keep you posted when I come up for air!

The Ryerson Experience

Hello fellow earthlings. I am sitting in the comfiest chair in the world, chilling in Emily's humble abode. From what I have gathered, university life seems to be suiting Rach and Em. The Thai food and gay pride flags everywhere are very reassuring. Here are my current observations:

Rach's Crib: Cozy and Greek. I didn't know people could be so...fake Greek. There's a Mount Olympus and a bunch of Greek gods plastering every wall. Bring the hummus and it's a party. I would also, at this point, like to point out a major concern I have for my beloved Rachel Lam. She has found Japanese drama buddies! Now there is absolutely no--

WE INTERRUPT THIS BEAUTIFUL BLOG TO TELL YOU THAT RACHEL LAM SAYS, "HI!" WHILE SHE LIES ON THE BED AND SWINGS HER FEET AT ME.

--hope for Rachel now. She has been dragged into a horrible abyss where everyone watches those insipid dramas day in and day out. Soon they'll all have their heads conichiwa-ed right off and when that happens, don't say I didn't warn you!

Em's Crib: Big and Checkered. I'm seriously considering bringing some giant chess pieces one day and just starting a big game of chess on her floor. The only problem of course is that I cannot play chess to save my life. There was a terrible summer where my mom signed me up for chess camp (one of my darker years) and I made up my own rules and made a boy cry. But that's a story for another time. Emily has a lovely view of some nice, pretty apartments standing beside some sketchy, godforsaken apartments. All of this is capped off with a big, blatant gay pride flag. There are plenty of teddy bears sitting around, making me feel like I'm being watched, but I'm sure some would say it's cute and cuddly.

The absolute highlight of Em's room: the singing blender clock. I love it! Go Rach and her Asian gifts!
Correction: I just saw the Asian swiffer. That is just scary. There's a picture of an Amish, freakishly happy Chinese girl on the box. Cue psycho music now.

But as much fun as this has been, I think Rach is itching to get back to her room and pack so that she can return home (for some people, it's as if they never moved out). So for now, I bid you good day.

Commence Meltdown Now

I told you this day would come and it has. I am officially aware of how ill-prepared I am to move. My enormous pile of junk to which I previously alluded is growing bigger and bigger without becoming any more organized than it was to begin with. I have next to no stationery so I really have to make a trip to Staples some time soon. I do however have an unnecessarily abundant supply of post-it notes. All this time I had no idea that there was a little mountain of post-it notes just kicking around in my basement. Those lucky pads of adhesive papers will be joining me in the great exodus.

It is also beginning to dawn on me that I need a pick-up truck to carry all my stuff down because my mattress foam and printer alone (see previous post) will take up all the space in an average sized vehicle. What does this mean? It means I will have no way to get all my stuff down to Carleton in one day, meaning I will have to:

a) dehydrate everything I own so that it shrinks to the size of a large walnut, vacuum seal the walnut and throw my various hydration-deficient possessions into a large zip-lock bag to be beamed into school via some teleportation device

b) leave something behind. Oh well, I guess that means no clothes for me. I shall live solely on a mattress foam, some post-it notes, and a printer. Excellent.

c) split my stuff into two piles: my can't-live-without items, which will make trip numero one with me and my meh-I'll-live items, which can come on the second trip (courtesy of Daddykins)

Personally, I'm a fan of a) but I'm still waiting for Star Trek to relinquish their hold on the necessary technology.

But enough about the tireless stress of packing and moving. Today I am going to visit my long-lost high school friends of yore: Rachel and Emily. I love how we can say we have high school friends now. It's going to be excellent because I woke up extra early to get a surprise ready, which they shall see when I make my grand appearance.

And as for everyone else, I bid you adieu until tonight at Smelly Melly's.

Going to Miss Exquisite Food...for a while

As you may have all knew that I’ve been in New York for the past couple of days. Not because of shopping but for the passion of food. It felt like we were on the food network and every dish that came our way was scrumptious, remarkable, and indulging. Even a simple salad, flavours bursting into your taste buds. I literally ate like a “beast”, eating like 4-5 courses, maybe these couple of days were my frosh 15 days. Corn chowder, home-made pasta, pan-seared scallops, beef, snails, halibut, and raw tuna are some of the items that I ate. We felt like we were judges at “Hell’s Kitchen” or some food channel show. With such a high expectation for food, cafeteria food at university will be hell for me. I’m going to miss CIA and going to miss such delicious food, and dinners for two long hours.

Shopping was a second chore on this trip as we went to Woodbury Outlets and Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall. I was quite disappointed at the selection of the brand name stores at Poughkeepsie as the mall was deserted like there was absolutely no one in the stores I went into.

University is coming up and people have started to move in or started to pack. I have packed nothing and I only have 3 days to pack my life. University feels like a huge step into the future as you will be stepping into a whole entire atmosphere just like grade 1. Well I shall pack now and hopefully get another chance to go the Culinary Institute of America for more exquisite food.