best memory: april

best memory: april


Staying up the whole night on a sleepover at Nat's, just so we can have breakfast at Chez Cora at 6am. Or maybe the other night, when we walked out for coffee at 2am, thinking about how we're gonna miss this place and all its little wonders.

keeping my sanity

keeping my sanity

Why clowns, Fellini, WHY?

(Maybe if I tried looking like one, I might know better, you think?)

This is how I keep my sanity through all-nighters. My skin has obviously been very unhappy with my late nights and lack of care in general. I left all my masks and whatnots in Singapore, and never really bothered.

The onslaught of exams sent me on a spree for facial products. Now I even have a schedule for masking and exfoliating! The skin looks visibly happier, and so am I! Yayy. :D

the perfect spring day

the perfect spring day

Yesterday, I did something that I've always, always wanted to do while studying overseas. The weather was absolutely lovely. Sunny, clear, cool. It was the perfect spring day. The skies were blue, the new leaves on the trees were that fresh shade of light green, the people on the streets were smiling. Everything was simply great.

After having not stepped out of the house for 3 days over the weekend because I was trying to finish an overdue and particularly painful essay, I had to go out! I was even happy to go to school! And here's the best part - I checked my email just before I stepped out of the house, and found out that class was cancelled!

So Susheel and I made quick decision to go have an impromptu picnic on Mont. Royal. And study, because well, we are still students afterall. I quickly threw together some food, and off we went!

Oh, it was a gorgeous, gorgeous afternoon. The park was absolutely charming. It was so quiet and tranquil. You can hear the leaves murmuring in the breeze. You can hear wisps of the other picnickers' conversations. You can hear the squirrels scurrying around. And best of all, I could hear my own thoughts, some logical, rational thoughts on the articles I was reading, and other random, raw thoughts that bypasses reason.

I was so lost in the moment, until this little creature came right under my nose (literally) to ask for food! It was so bold, and very, very adorable. I was happily minding my own business when it walked right onto my notes, looked at me, and begged with its little paws for food. When I held the biscuit tight for a little bit just that I can get a photo of it, it start pawing at me just like Bubblez used to do! Aww. A very precious moment of park-going.

And then after I got tired of studying, I rolled off the grass and went for a jog. Outdoor air is so sweet. Plus, now I can say I've gone jogging on Mont. Royal! Oh fyi, that's probably the equivalent of "I've gone jogging in Central Park!" With less than three weeks left in Montreal, I want to enjoy as many afternoons as I can this way. I am going to miss this city.

always the people

always the people

I missed home for the first time today. It was not that I didn't miss home before that; I always do, but it's that kinda dull ache that lingers somewhere just below the surface. You know it's there, but it never surfaces to engulf you.

This afternoon, out of nowhere, it did.

No wait, perhaps it's not out of nowhere. I think I know where. It's from the new places I've been to. Yet there's nothing intrinsic about the cities that I visit that made me miss home.

It's the people I meet who have that effect on me. Sheryll was the first. 11 days in NYC with her made me realize how much I miss AC. The people you meet outside are different, not in the bad way, but just different. Sometimes it's a nice, refreshing kind of different. Sometimes it's a kind of different that you can't get around. It just isn't the same.

Then on the Easter trip, I met Pengfei at West Point. He's Sherlyn's boyfriend and Glenn's army buddy. We marveled at how small the world is when we went on a double date last December. Yet now, we're all apart. Now I really miss G.

And this morning, skyping with Mommy and Daddy over breakfast really did it in.

See, it really isn't so hard to start a new life in a completely new place; I was doing so well. Then you meet someone from home, and wham, everything comes back. Because it's always the people you miss the most.

With Sheryll, at Coney Island.

With Pengfei, at West Point.

And home is truly where the heart is.

conversation killer

conversation killer

So that day I was waiting for the metro and studying the Montreal map when some guy came up to me and said something in French. With the train coming into the station, I didn't hear him very well, and said "Pardon? Je ne parle pas français."

Then he switched to English and asked me if I was from Montreal and blah blah. You know, the usual conversation starters. And he told me more about himself - "I'm from Haiti."

And all my brain could think of at the moment was "OMG. Haiti. What do I say now? Is your family okay? Is your house still standing?" "But wait, what if it's not! How do I even begin to console a stranger on such a recent disaster? I'm not ready to handle a tragedy while waiting for the train! WHAT DO I SAY?"

So, all I said was, "OH. Haiti."

And him, "Yeah Haiti"

Me, "Hmm yeah."

Then him, "Do you know Haiti? Cos you look like... you don't know Haiti."

And me, abit too quickly, "Yes of course I know Haiti! I know Haiti."

Him, "Oh yeah, everyone knows Haiti now."

Then me, "Yeah I know Haiti."

And him, "So yeah. Haiti."

Me, "Yeah Haiti."

TALK ABOUT AWKWARD! I have so so sooooo glad when he moved on and told me how long he's been staying in the USA for before coming to Montreal etc etc. And then I realized he was being awkward because he thought I was being weird and didn't wanna talk to him. He was like, "This girl obviously speaks French because here she is telling me in perfect French that she doesn't speak the langauge!"

Hahaha oh boy. Yeah talk about awkward. I suppose I'm not the best stranger one could hope to meet on the metro, am I?

Meanwhile, I'm still working on the perfect non-idiotic reply to "I'm from Haiti." Or Chile. Or anywhere with a recent tragedy. So that the conversation doesn't end up being one itself.

best memory: march

best memory: march


New York, simply New York. And New York with one of my funniest friends? That was just amazing. We were terrible tourists, waking up at 12nn everyday and starting our days at 3pm. We ate all there was to eat in NYC, googled different random things every day, stayed up talking till 5am, took long walks everywhere, got lost in the subways and laughed and laughed and laughed about everything. Oh, and we did all the touristy stuffs too. Oh yes, I < 3 NY.

on a mission

on a mission

I'm missionary.

girlfriend tights

girlfriend tights


So I wore this pair of tights with my short (and now tight, cos I got fat) shorts out one day when I was in NYC. As we walking out of the house, I thought out loud to Sheryll that I look super skanky in this combination! Just as she was done with her consolatory line, and as we stepped out onto a porch, we met an ex-hippie who's now old and perhaps slightly cranky, but very cute.

She yelled to me "Yo GIRRRRRRRRLRIEND! Living it up yo! Naice tights ya've got dere yo! Yeaaaaaah GIRRRRRRLFRIEND!"

OHMAGAWD! I mean, I love hippies and all, and the old lady was cute BUT HELLO BEING HER GIRLFRIEND WASN'T THE LOOK I WAS AIMING FOR! Hahaha. Oh wells oh wells, I should have known they were indeed skanky.

In my defense, a teenage American walked past me on the boardwalks of Coney Island and told her friend "Hey I like her tights!" And Internet, you have NO idea how close I was to hugging her and kissing the life out of her. But but, I just smiled and yelled THANKS!

Yups, that was my moment of glory in the heart of the city of fashion.