Your Dawn, My Dusk

Long overdue updates...

2008-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

GREETINGS FROM MAVIS!!!

IT'S FREEZING IN TORONTO!!!

Here's how I look like when it gets too cold here in Toronto...It's only when you're faced with the howling winds that you fully appreciate the utility of the almighty shawl.

Since I'm waiting for dinnertime, I thought I should really update my forsaken blog on my recent escapades :) Here goes..

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HALLOWEEN

Halloween went past rather quickly...
I was actually pretty excited at my first halloween celebration, so I took the bus down to Orfus Road that morning in search of my outfit for the night! I would have loved to dress up as a medieval princess/ firefighter/ policewoman..... but the costumes cost so much and I was on a tight budget! SO, I got myself a wig, and another for Geraldine too! The whole store was packed! They had really really nice acessories, everything from fake blood, face paint, retro specs, handcuffs, glow in the dark crayons, blink blink fake eyelashes...... I almost wanted to dress up as a bottle of salt but it was so bulky! haha!

Say hello to Mavis the Afro! A lot of you guys know that I've always wanted to try this look. I realised that it didn't work for me very well cos the wig was so heavy and it made my face look rounder! So, I'm contented with the few hours of being an afro, and no thanks, I'm never going to try this style again!

I look better in the purple wig hor!

The group of us had fun dancing around, and teaching our new friends Mandarin the whole night. So they spent the night saying "ni hao" and 'xie xie ni" to everyone they met! haha! They had this costume competition and everyone rushed to participate. Some costumes were really cool!!!

Loved the raisins!

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CN TOWER

If you had only time for one attractions in Toronto, you should really visit the CN Tower (short for Canadian National Tower)... [This sounds suspiciously like a cheesy advertisement]. It's like the city's icon.

Me and Geraldine went on a weekday afternoon, and we were lucky to find that there was no queue! They had this weird security screening machine that involved having you to walk into this compartment, having the front and back gates close on you, then having air shoot out from both sides of the wall onto your body 3 times, which was more ticklish than anything else..

Taking the great glass elevators up 553 metres to see the city from the Observational Deck was astounding and breathtaking, though it was also a little scary. haha!

Vain self-shots...

They also had this glass floor thing that was quite scary, considering I'm always paranoid that structures aren't very safe... But after psycho-ing myself that I won't fall through the glass down 553m, I wobbled onto the glass floor and took A TRUCKLOAD of photos to make my "dangerous stunt" worthwhile.

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Introducing the mock medieval Casa Loma!

It's this 98-room mansion built for Sir Henry Pellat, a castle in the midst of the city buildings...

This happens to be the first stop of our City Pass - a $64 pass that covers admission charges to 6 major attractions in Toronto for a period of 9 days..

We had this audio guide that introduces us to the various rooms in the mansion... Instead of faithfully listening to the descriptions of the historical significance of each room the whole time, I contented myself with loads of phototaking instead. Oops.

Because Halloween was just around the corner, they had decorated the place with jack-o-lanterns, spiders, skeletons....And they had pumpkins in every room and corner too! The corpse bride, frankenstein, pirates and staff in costumes were roaming the castle too :P Even the people who came to visit were dressed up in costumes too!

On another random note, I've been to an American Football game (the Argonauts footall game) in town, at the Rogers Centre. It was really fun seeing huge men pile on/knock down/ attack each other.... But i particularly enjoyed the whole atmosphere, screaming the cheers and singing the team song whenever our team scored. They also had quirky half-time activities like the "Kiss Cam", whereby the cameras will zoom in on random couples in the crowd. So you'll see couples, initially surprised to see themselves on the huge video wall, then realising they had to kiss! haha :)

As free as can be

2008-11-15T12:40:00.001-08:00

It seems so surreal that instead of busy preparing for impending examinations, I'm sitting here, watching the rainfall, enjoying my days in school as the strike intensifies..

The latest headline of the school paper screams "No Immediate End In Sight", with no plans to resume talks and negotiations, and student told to be prepared for the strike to last for a long while... Coming Monday, there's going to be a rally against the strike- the "anti-strike strike". Goodness, what an exchange experience.

I thought a strike would involve angry students holding banners and huge signs hurling verbal abuses or chanting slogans.... It was hence a surprise to note that the strike in school only involved students walking around in a circle with signs or trying to persuade students and vehicles to not enter the school in support of the union.

Not handing in assignments will not be penalised and classes are suspended till further notice. Which effectively means I'm free as can be. And my days can get as meaningless as " wake up- think of what to have for lunch- eat lunch- sleep- think of what to have for dinner- eat dinner- sleep"... I'm finalising a few travel plans though. Most of the professors are already touring South America to escape the cold winter in Toronto...

I'm feeling pretty blissful here actually.... with all the exchange students wishing the strike will prolong (which means no final exams...).. But then there's still the nagging problem of whether we can map our modules back to those in NUS.. Oh well, the international student office did say they'll ensure the successful completion of our exchange experience... So, meanwhile, I'll still be enjoying the cool weather, falling maple leaves, sipping hot chocolate, and reading story books in the comfort of my room. I should start selling textbooks and packing my lugguages lor. Haha!

the mid-autumn snow

2008-10-24T11:57:00.001-07:00

It was raining heavily that day...

And I was sitting at my desk, doing work...

As I turned to look out of the window, I thought I saw small white specks flying past..

I stood up and wondered which inconsiderate neighbour was tearing up paper and throwing the scraps down.

Then I stared...

And I stared

for like 15 minutes, I stood in front of my window and stared...

"is that SNOW i see?"

I talked to myself.. rationalised that it's too early to have snowfall anyway...

Maybe I was imagining things... or maybe it's just the rain...

In the midst of my looking out of the window, Diviya called me and screamed loudly into the phone that she saw SNOW!!!

It was so exhilarating!!!

I went downstairs to look for Geraldine and we both stood out in the chilly cold to experience our first snowfall!

It was so beautiful :)

Temperature's falling to almost 0 degrees now.. It's scary to think of how winter will strike soon...

SPEAKING OF STRIKE...

i know it's very dramatic

But there is like a very very very high chance that a strike that will take place in York University.

The headlines of today's newspaper screams "York Teaching Assistant Strike grow more likely"....

And the conflict between the teaching assistants is escalating....

The thing is, apparently, the university will force a lockout if the agreement between them isn't reached by Nov 2...

And the school administrationa actually announced that they are not likely to backdown whilst the teaching assistants said they're prepared to strike (with 85% of them actually casting a b ballot in support of the strike mandate)...

Classes will be suspended if that strike occurs...

And I really don't want to think of what is going to happen to us exchange students when that happens... But Nov 2 is nearing soon...

*shudders*

New York City- Day 1

2008-10-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

I should have done this post on New York City early, but I've been struggling/ still struggling with my heavily-weighted midterms right after I came back and really could find no time to pen this entry... It's still kinda surreal because the trip went past so quickly, yet, because of the packed itinerary, it really did seem that I went for a bit of everything..5.30am.

The 4 of us were at the Student Service Centre, waiting for our cab to arrive. We began to panic when the cab didn't come on time, so we made another call to the cab agency and asked for another one to pick us up. But all is well, and we made it to the Bloor-Yonge Subway station in time to catch our coach.

We met up with the rest of the group, and together, the 9 of us boarded the coach and began our journey to New York City!

We da-bao-ed breakfast to munch on the bus and pretty much slept throughout the journey there. Geraldine and I were up the whole night mugging, because we had SO MUCH to finish before we could leave. In an attempt to feel less guilty, we also brought some notes over to study, DUH, the notes remained untouched. But we were so tired...

We got to see the US side of the Niagara Falls when we were nearing US customs. Our tourguide, Noam, kept reminded us not to talk during the customs, only to answer the officer's questions and say nothing else, not to look at the security camera .... His tone and repeated advice made passing the customs seem so scary, but it was really not that terrifying an experience really! And the queue wasn't even long in the first place!

There were loads of Mexicans going with us on the trip, and they were pretty rowdy, to say the least... Like the girls were taking off the guys' clothes, doing wild dancing and singing loudly on the bus... The Singaporeans were simply sitting at the back of the bus doing what we enjoy best, EATING (and sleeping)~! Everyone brought different snacks so we were busy passing all our junk food around the group most of the time...The tourguide commented that we were very communal, and that he has never seen a group that took care of each other so much! heh!

There were a few stops along the way. Food was pretty expensive, so we spent most of the time out in the sun, taking photos and talking with each other...Got to know Meryl, Sam and Alex from the University of Toronto, which effectively broadens my circle of Singaporean pals in Toronto, to a grand total of 11 people!

See! The trees are really pretty now, because some are green, others turned yellow and some are red already!

The traffic was pretty bad, and we were an hour late in reaching our hotel.. We stayed in the Marriot Inn hotel that was in New Jersey, slightly off New York. We had to leave right after dumping our bags in the hotel that night though, because we had to rush off to Times Square for the night! 10 hours plus bus ride okay! It reminds me of the horribly long plane ride I have to endure when I go back to Singapore in December... but I shall not think of that first..

But I really liked the hotel. It was comfortable, bathroom's big, with 3 huge mirrors, and the best thing about the room, seriously had to be the heater. haha!

Oh, here's a group photo of the Singaporeans that went, in front of the halloween display at the entrance of our hotel!

Times Square was amazing! It's one of those places that make New York City a city that doesn't sleep. Think: Bright lights, huge billboards, huge neon advertisement screens covering all buildings around you, crowds of people, bustling street. I really loved the vibrancy, all the flashing lights and the general vibe of the place. It stands in stark contrast with the city life in Toronto though. This place is so much more like a city than Toronto, where the shops close by 6pm during weekends!

I had expected myself to go crazy shopping in Times Square, but surprisingly, this place was not at all THE place to rave over when it comes to shopping. Mostly high-end shops (with no sale), and tourist shops...

So, the group of us was attracted by this huge M&M flashing advertisement board, and we went off to visit the M&M speciality shop, and it was SO COOL! It was 3 storeys of M&M products, they had chocolate everything! No wonder the shop was so crowded.

This was super tempting!

We didn't have time for dinner, so we just grabbed $1 ice cream sundae from Mac before heading back to the hotel to retire for the night :) It comes with free peanut toppings here!!!!!!

New York City- Day 2

2008-10-20T22:54:00.000-07:00

The day started with a really nice breakfast buffet at the hotel. The guys woke up earlier to prepare the stuff for us, grab pastries and juice. Nothing fancy, but it's seriously one of the best breakfast spreads I've seen since my time here.

And of course, we grabbed breakfast cereals up the bus to munch on for the rest of the journey today... It's embarrassing how much we secretly stuffed in our bags, but we really did finish all of them by the end of the day! We were laughing at each other when we saw each other's secret stashes in our bag lor! So Singaporean huh!

The first stop of the day was my favourite for the day- the Top of the Rock Observatory Deck :)70 storeys up! The view was breathtaking! And I really liked the weather at New York. It's really getting too cold in Toronto! (the temp is going down to -2 from Tuesday! :S)

I hopped up the wall to take this photo at the moment the security guard looked away. Isn't it gorgeous! I think if you look hard enough, you'll find the empire state building...
Then the group of us went to walk around the vicinity before we hopped on the bus... And we chanced upon this iceskating rink... And look what else I found! THE SINGAPORE FLAG! I miss home!!

We then went off for a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to Pier 17...

We were rushing through the bridge cos we were behind schedule, but we still took loads of photographs.

And were given an hour to grab lunch! We queued for Broadway tickets, but found the tickets there to be more overpriced than those in Times Square, so we decided to get the tickets that night instead....

The tourguide then took us on a long walk around the city....

See Andrew stuffed between this bull's ass? Apparently, touching the bull's ass is supposed to bring you wealth or something. haha!

And we also walked along Wall Street!!! I've been studying about the Great Depression since secondary school, and it really felt quite surreal to be walking along Wall Street.... Finally I get to come here.

We also had a chance to see Ground Zero and the ongoing recovery efforts since the World Trade Centre disaster, and witness the construction of the Freedom Towers.

Another landmark was Trinity Church...

Sam and Meryl went off to the toilet, and the whole tourgroup kinda walked off without them, so we improvised this technique whereby we would "stretch the line" and have each of us walk in a singular path a distance away from each other, so we would catch up with the tourgroup. It was hilarous but the technique worked!!!

Then we rushed off to catch the Twilight Ferry at 3pm! It was SO SO SO SO AMAZING to be seeing New York by sea... and I really appreciated the 90 minutes relaxing out at sea.

AND THE MOST EXCITING PART HAD TO BE THIS!!!

I finally get to meet the Statue of Liberty. FINALLY! Happiness!

We went off to Times Square for the night, and Noam invited those above 21 to a private party at some nightclub in New York, so a few of us went off to check out the night scene there. And boy, did we party! Andrew partied till he lost his voice, and my muscles were aching from all the dancing that night... But I had so much fun! :)

New York City- Day 3

2008-10-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

After the group of us partied the night away, we caught a few hours of sleep before we headed off for another long day..

1st stop was the infamous Central Park!

I was thinking all about the Central Park murder case that I studied just a few days ago before the trip, hehe. But the park was really really beautiful!

They had an indoor zoo!! But I only caught a glimpse of the seals...

The park was crowded- packed with tourists and joggers. The moms here jog while pushing their babies along in their prams! Isn't that cool!

We were given a few hours of free time to explore the park and the surrounding shopping areas like 5th avenue..

We were kinda lost and the guys really wanted to visit the Apple shop to check out the iPhone, so me and Yuankai went to ask this police officer on duty. And the conversation kinda went like this..

Me: " Hi, do you happen to know where the Apple store is ?"

Officer: *gave an extremely puzzled look* Erm... I don't think there is an apple store around here"

Yuankai: " The store selling MacBooks...?"

Officer: " Oh, you're looking for the book store?"...

Me: " - _- ||| " Noo no no. It's the shop that sells MacBooks, iPods...."

After a long silence...

Officer: " OH. THAT Apple Shore...." (burst out laughing..)

The officer really thought we were really looking for apples amongst the high-end shops of 5th avenue leh!

Oh well, but we found the Apple store in the end! And I'm still tempted to get my hand on the iPod nano chromatic...

Then we went to this HUGE toy shop nearby :) Most shops allow people to take photographs of their stuff, so we did!

I LOVE UGLY DOLL!!! I even bought the card game, so let's have a game when I get back people!

The highlight of the shop was this huge human keyboard that everyone was queueing to use..
This is seriously a bit freaky...
After that, we went shopping, but we didn't have much time to accomplish anything because our schedule was really tight. Plus the streets were packed because there was this international parade in progression..

The bus drove us to explore Chinatown too....
While the others decided to do some shopping...

Me Geraldine and the 2 guys decided to indulge in some good Chinese food instead.

Why didn't I go shopping? Because most of the stuff on sale were fakes.. And I really didn't want to spend my money on those...

It was pretty dramatic when people got lost in Chinatown and didn't meet back at the subway station at the agreed time. To our u

tmost horror, we found that the only 3 people who were there, were precisely the only people with handphones that were charged. Some of them didn't bring their phones, others' phones had flat batteries! So we had to wait and wait and wait... Truddy and Andrew went off in search of a toilet, but they were lost too.....

(you get the drama)

But in the end, all ended well, and we found each other... And headed back to Times Square for the night.

Then, it was back to Times Square.

A lot of drama happened again when we couldn't get our Broadway tickets, and Geraldine was visibly upset because she really wanted to catch the show "Chicago"...

The group of us split up and we both went off to check out the huge Toys R' Us store they had here. We spent like 3 hours there because there was just so much to see.

Check out this candy! It's like dog food lor!

The group of us met again at 1030, and headed back to the hotel for a popcorn party! Ended up playing ugly doll and bridge for hours!
After that, we plonked back to sleep, because we were so so exhausted.

Headed back to Toronto, bright and early the next morning. But not before stopping by a factory outlet store!!! Because we were rushing for time, we were only given 2 hours!

I guess that helped curb our spending as well lah. But everyone went pretty crazy and I was like running from store to store.

Geraldine bought like 4 Coach Bags! And the coach was instantly filled with huge shopping bags!

Oh well... :)

That pretty much sums up my trip to New York.

It was amazing to have been there, but part of me misses Toronto for its serenity...

Looking forward to more trips to come!

Happenings..

2008-10-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

It's been so cold in Toronto lately, I'm beginning to pack my shorts and short sleeve tops back into my lugguage. The cold is terrifying! You look out of the window, looks bright and sunny, and you think happily to yourself, " Wah! It's not going to be cold today"- fixated in a stage of denial. So you step out in like 1 layer, or 2... It's kinda cold, but you think to yourself, " okay lah, I must psycho my brain into believing it's not that cold..".. So you huddle along on your way to class..

THEN THE WIND BLOWS... you freeze in your tracks, seriously curse yourself for not bringing an extra jacket... Then you walk a few more steps.. And run back to take a jacket. haha!

That's what happened in the first few days.. Now, I realised, there's no such thing as wearing too much! Always have a spare jacket in your bag just in case..

Sometimes, the weather decides to spring surprises on us earthlings in Toronto, and we get an occasionally "warmer" day.

Like last thursday...

So the 3 of us decided to go venture into the school's pub "Underground" since it was Pub Night!

There was a long queue, and entry involved a tight security check for drugs..

I was secretly happy the bouncer thought I was below 18 though. heh! :P

It was quite an experience though. People here can really dance...

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Another thing that has been making me all excited here is the Fall Sale!!!!

So the 4 shopaholics united and embarked on a trip to Missasaga, far out in the edges of Toronto, just to check out Dixie Mall- a well known factory outlet store.

It involved a bus ride to the subway station, subway to Union station, a GO Transit train to Missasaga then another bus to the mall!

We met Misako on the way, and she had nothing to do, so we asked her to come along with us :)

FINALLY FINALLY FINALLY we arrive.

The journey can be pretty tiring.
Okay, I think I only took 2 photos of the mall..

So... erm. you can kinda infer that I spent loads of time walking around and grabbing stuff!

I even skipped lunch to continue my mission of buying cheap and nice stuff. haha!

:) :):) :) :)
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Another random day out alone. Everyone had stuff to do, and I decided to head out to reward myself for studying hard this week.

This pizza place was selling pizza slices for $1 each so I got one! and it was good!

I was trying to wait for the train to clear to take this photo, so I ate really really slowly. But more people got on instead, so I just took this photo with everyone staring at me. I think no one really takes photo of themselves here!!!

I headed to the harbourfront because I wanted to see the beautiful quay...

It was kinda cloudy, but the view was stunning!

I tried to use the self-timer to take this photo, but I ran too slowly, so I decided to just turn around and pose anyway, so here's half my body. haha!

See the red leaves ! so pretty!

Then it started to drizzle and turn really cold, so I grabbed some ice capp. at Tim Hortons and mugged a bit (so I wouldn't feel so guilty for heading out when the rest are studying in school. haha)
Then I walked and walked and walked... to find myself at the front door of Forever 21, so I got in to grab myself some new shoes to replace my badly tattered white ones that Marco got for me! I tried savaging the white ones using double sided tape... but they didn't work. So it's time for new ones! These black ones are really simple, nothing fancy, but they're just 10 dollars from Forever 21!! let's hope these ones would last longer :)
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Random photo! SO PRETTY RIGHT!!!

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Another day of outlet shopping at Orfus road!

It really sounded like "offers" road to me, given all the good deals.

It would be so perfect if the day wasn't so cold.

Everyone was piling on the jackets that they bought there!

After dinner, we found this shop called "Dollarama" and everything is $1!!!! Unbelievably cheap!!! So we grabbed like Lays's potato chips and shampoo and stuff and trudged back with our heavy heavy bags.

:) Shopping here is really a different experience. Stuff here gets really cheap sometimes, and you just feel so overwhelmed and you really don't know where to begin. The stores are huge, people are everywhere, and you feel like grabbing everything because they were such unbelievably great deals.

It's no wonder the group of us were SO EXHAUSTED at the end of the day..shopping is TIRING!

I better prepare myself for more shopping at New York!

This friday!!! can't wait :)

Mavis's Nightmare is...

2008-09-26T16:53:00.000-07:00

Mavis's Nightmare is ...

being given a harmless looking piece of paper during my Psychology class...

To find that there are more NUMBERS and FORMULAS than words :(

*Grrr* I'm forever tormented by Maths...

ITS EVERYWHERE!

Now I really got to take time to figure out how the numbers add up... *shudders*

Cheeky lend me your brains please..

just for this module...

I like..

2008-09-25T09:17:00.000-07:00

I like...

.....watching chipmunks run all around the school nibbling at everything they find, laughing at them if they do silly things like this..

I like how the leaves of the trees turn brown at the arrival of fall... I'm waiting for the days I can throw a bunch of them brown leaves up in the sky and ask someone to take a nice posey photo of me.

I like being surprised by unexpected events in school :)

Look at this "Smash Poverty" Campaign. They found this old car, painted the word "poverty" on its body and we could all stand in line to smash the car.. It's kinda lame.. I would rather scrap or sell the car and give money to the poor people... but oh well, it attracted a lot of attention...

I like free rock concerts in school!!! Blaring music, rock bands and free posters too! I tried to squeeze to the front and jump for the free tee-shirts and cds ! It was a bit unglam.. but no one knows me here and it's so dark, so I should just do all the unglam stuff here anyway.

I like how random performances by the school's dance team. It's seriously a bit substandard... but they had so many costume changes... it was worth a look. heh!

I like discovering and taking photos of novel stuff that we don't have in Singapore... Like huge remote controls!

I like bitching in the girls' room and laughing at my friends for always being so colour coordinated... Then walk around at say hello to neighbours..

I like eating pasta for lunch and people watching.. For that half an hour, if you're attentive enough, you'll probably catch stories of who got into what accident, who broke up, who went where and did what yesterday, which lecture sucked....

I like... occasional indulgences! The low fat vanila mango yogurt in school is super delicious! And so are the fries..the macaroni and cheese..the chocolate brownie...the strawberry cheese cake, the....... (you get the point)

I like "bazaars" in school! It's not a bazaar per se, but something like it. I'm missing the NUS bazaars and the milo truck :( Anyway, this bazaar sells really nice posters of like famous paintings, movie stars, old school marilyn monroe posters, football posters......I wanted to get one, but the queue is constantly LONG! maybe i'll try my luck tomorrow :)

I like some silly signs in school..

They have this protest thingy about rising school fees...

And I might join them during one of their protests simply cos I'm so deprived of that kind of excitement in Singapore.

Erm. i think its a peaceful protest lah :)

And i love the gorgeous sunsets....

Everytime I look at them, I lament at the sunsets we have in Singapore..

I like jogging in the evening and feeling the cold wind brush against my skin. And I like still smelling so good after my jog :P But the path is often obstructed with geese, geese droppings, sea gulls, seagull droppings, so you literally have to hop to avoid them sometimes..

I think I'm stressing Geraldine out with my keep fit campaign... I downloaded some free exercise videos.. so i'm like kickboxing, doing crunches and like punching in my room when I'm bored.. And I convinced her we'll get fat at the rate we eat the huge portions and oily stuff... So she went jogging with me one day. haha!

Truddy bought a weighing scale in her room already lor..

I like finding food in school that are "closer to home". Indian food is not bad lah.. but i miss prata... AND TEH.
And I like bumming around with the girls after dinner for a cup of steaming white hot chocolate at this cafe called "The Second Cup"... And looking at mugging people, while leisurely enjoying our exchange experience. :P

I love how occassionally, the staff is nice enough to give me a monstrous amount of whipped cream :) awwwwwwww

:) Oh well.. I SHOULD REALLY MUG FOR MY TEST NOW..... Gosh, it's so hard to concentrate and like really study hard here (when you know you just need to pass...). Still...wish me luck- my first test in Canada- TOMORROW!!! Can you believe the teacher said everyone HAD to bring tissue paper (they call it Kleenex here) because sniffling (due to running nose or something) is distracting to others!

I WENT TO NIAGARA FALLS!!!

2008-09-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

I just came back from the Niagara Falls trip with the rest of the international students....

So please pardon my gushing over the beauty of the falls, and all the fun I had with this bunch of friends. I'm amazed at how beautiful the pictures turned out today!

We hopped on this boat which took us really close to the waterfall called the Maid of the Mist :) But even along the way, you could hear loads of " Soooo pretty!!" and cameras clicking away because the view was simply breathtaking!

Sooo pretty right!
Yup, so that's the boat we took. And everyone had to put on this (ugly) blue poncho because we were told that it would be a wet ride! And they were not kidding, IT WAS REALLY REALLY WET. I'm still amazed at how everyone's cameras can still continue functioning despite them being exposed to showers of water! Initially I was a bit irritated that my beautiful pictures of Niagara Falls had to include photos where I was wearing a blue poncho, but I'm glad I chose to keep it on, because it prevented me from getting a lot more wet than I already got.

Ooh! look at my new friend Yesha from Kenya! She's really pretty :) And she's only 18! She really really takes photographs of every detail! haha.

More photos and even more photos! I helped Truddy take a lot of photos today because she gong3-gong3" left her camera charger in Singapore!!

Then we settled for some cheap thrills in the shops nearby! We didn't buy anything, cos verything inside was so expensive lah! But we went around snapping pictures with most of the stuff anyway, then scurried out before we were scolded or something...

Oooh. that girl beside me and geraldine is a new friend from Germany. She told me that when she was in high school or something, they were forced to attend mandarin classes once a week. But she said they just had to repeat a few phrases to get their certificate, and up til now, she has no idea what was it that she recited then..!!!But she's really nice!

Outside, up Clifton Hill, it was a whole street of museums (wax museums..believe it or not museums, lego museums...), haunted houses, amusement rides, candy shops ...

The whole group of us certainly had fun walking around! There were so many things to look at!

The bus left at about 3 that day, so we didn't really get time to visit the museums and walk far, but Truddy's cousin will be driving us here again soon, so hopefully we really get to enjoy everything they have there.

Heh! Anyway, did i mention how remarkably clean/dry/mud-free/green the grass fields here are? That's why people here sit on the grass to read/ eat lunch all the time!

So the girls decided we HAD TO take some shots of us on the grass, since we are not going to do this in Singapore anyway.

Oh ya, a lot of people were MUGGING ON THE BUS JOURNEY THERE!!! Gosh...

But i had so much fun today!!!!

And now I have to face reality and complete the 3 assignments due this week and my psych and law test on friday!!

OH YA!!! I'M GOING TO NEW YORK IN 2 WEEKS!!!!!! I'm REALLY EXCITED!!!

A series of outings

2008-09-16T19:24:00.000-07:00

Is there something wrong with blogger these days? I've been trying to add photos in my entry for days, but the error page kept coming up!! So I'm taking this time to blog although I REALLY should be doing my 3 assignments due next week! And I'm getting nervous about my Psychology and Law test next week...

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About School:

School has been great. I'm gradually getting used to the lecture styles, the accents of the lecturers, the (too long) 3 hr lectures, and of course, to interacting with my new classmates. It feels weird to be on exchange- because you feel like a tourist, yet you are still burdened with the responsibilities of a student.And it's really this week that I've begun to do my readings, and starting to feel the assignments pile up.. Erm... this is what I do during my 7-10pm lectures when i get too bored. Take photos! haha!

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The New Friend:

Oh, I must introduce to you my "new best friend" here! It's this cafe called "Tim Hortons" that is as plentiful as Macdonalds in Singapore. It offers muffins, donuts, hot and cold beverages, and best of all, its MUCH CHEAPER THAN ANYWHERE ELSE! I normally wake up a little earlier, stand through the long queue (which moves pretty fast really), to get a cup of hot english breakfast tea and brave the strong winds to get to my lecture hall. It really helps to keep me warm!

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I've been really visiting neighbourhoods and non-tourist-y locations whenever I'm free, just to ge a sense of local culture. But I still get lost practically all the time! This is despite the fact that I'm armed with local maps (sigh, it's either my poor map navigational skills or that the maps are misleading!) Sometimes, the rest would feel like they wanna stay in on weekends, but me, being me, being the hyperactive me, would go out myself for a day of adventure.

These are some photos of days out! they all involve REALLY LONG WALKS!!! Imagine like 7 MRT stops for each trip!! I find it so fascinating that no matter which direction you walk, there would be something enticing, like an artist creating art on the streets, guitar players, festival, events, protests even!

Hohoho! I studied so much about this guy during history classes and finally I get to "meet him". Everyone, meet Winston Churchill! I still remember studying his "iron curtain" speeches!

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Koreantown:

One fine day,the Singaporean girls went off to Little Korea in search for as-authentic-as-it-can-get-in-Canada Korean cruisine... And we were treated to a long street of eat-all-you-can sushi and korean restaurants that were having promotions and dinners at a pretty reasonable price if you consider the overall standard of living here. IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!! It's so satisfying to be able to eat something else other than pasta and sandwiches! We made our way to this place called "Honest Eds" which was nearby. And it was a huge shop that sold a lot a lot of things- from groceries to household appliances- to clothes and slippers... And they were all really cheap compared to the prices you find anywhere else. In fact, the fact that the shop sells so many cheap items, kinda made it a tourist attraction on many travel guides!

Anyways, on a random note, have you guys heard the saying, that it takes a Singaporean to recognise a fellow Singaporean? The group of us were happily chatting and walking down the street, when this guy approached us and asked if we were from Singapore! Amazing!

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Mid- Autumn Celebrations:

I organised a trip to Chinatown to celebrate the festival and to my dismay, Geraldine and Diviya said they wanted to stay in to mug that day! So i called a few of my new international friends and they happily agreed! So I asked them to bring along their friends too~

And LOOK AT THE TURNOUT!!! We had an entourage of 12 people lah! (1's missing in the picture cos she was in the toilet though. haha)
That's me with May(Malaysian) + Mandy & Michelle (Vietnamese) and a whole gang of people from different parts of China! Apparently Kelsey called 1 of her friend, who brought along another, who brought along another....

I really enjoyed the trip ! It was seriously a wonderful session of cultural exchange. We learnt so many new things, and cleared up so many misunderstandings and stereotypes we had of each other :) I miss speaking Mandarin and mixing my Mandarin with my English + my lehs and lors! (Which was why I really appreciated the Mandarin conversations I shared with my friends from China :) )

We spent the day roaming Chinatown, having a very satisfying (and cheap) lunch there, walking to Kensington Market to check out the Green Festival there.. then headed to Eaton Square (it was a long walk!)

I know this sounds crazy, but I actually brought a lantern and candles from Singapore to celebrate the festival here!!! Too bad it was raining heavily at the end of the day!
But i'm happy with my mooncake and my new walking shoes!
The shoes I brought from Singapore are torn from all the walking I've done here lah!

Note to cheeky and kokky:
- eh people, you know my new friends from China were talking to me about Singapore. And the guys started asking me if I've heard the "LOVE BRIDGE" connecting Chinese High and Nanyang Girls!!! Okok, don't get agitated. I already told them how the term is a serious misnomer!
And kokky, they said erm, Chinese High's uniform is erm, unfashionable. haha!

The Differences

2008-09-07T18:44:00.000-07:00

Living in Toronto actually takes some getting used to...
Sometimes, I wish I couAd stay here forever...Yet, on some occasions, I seriously can't wait to fly back to Singapore.

- The Weather
When I first got to Toronto I LOVED the weather. The sun was out, yet the wind was so cooling and refreshing against my skin. I totally enjoyed the fact that I wasn't back in Singapore, sweating out in the hot sun, and I thought to myself, maybe I could really get used to the weather here afterall and there was nothing to worry about.
I was decked out in tees, shorts, slippers, and for one moment, I was actually wondering why I bothered to bring my pretty coats and heavy sweaters..

BUT, it started raining one day.. and my nightmare began! It became freezing in the room. I had to layer clothes even indoors, I shiver when I step out of the shower (which brings me to my point that I almost dread showering now), and I sleep every night hoping it wouldn't rain the next day. But it got colder and colder and colder and now, it's almost certain that summer would end really soon and fall would come.
And even though I'm really excited about the fact that I can finally wear my coats, simply cos I would look so weird wearing them in Singapore. And even thoughI can't wait for the maple leaves to turn red during fall.. I'm actually kinda worried about the cold! Guess I'll have to wrap myself up, and layer myself like crazy when the cold hits...
I really don't want to think about winter now..

- The People
The students here, I would say, are really vocal. And if you think you've seen vocal people in NUS classes, no no, people here are REALLY VOCAL. They ask questions and comment on everything! At one point of time, the teacher had to go to 20 people to hear from them one by one after posting a question. The teacher doesn't pick someone with his/her hand raised, the teacher goes to everyone with their hands raised...No wonder lectures are 3 hours..
In Singapore, during 10 minute breaks, students leave for the toilet, go to the canteen for food or tea, but here, students line up in front of the lecturers to ask questions! And they've all done their readings beforehand (some, have read the whole book even), and the library was filled with mugging people on the 1st week of class. I can't even call myself a "mugger" here, I'm not even CLOSE!
But I'm kinda happy that people actually bother to dress up for classes here, cos I would look silly wearing caps or scarfs or dresses to class in Singapore, but not here!
And because Canada is kinda liberal about sexuality, you'll kinda just see 2 men or 2 women stop and share a passionate kiss as you walk down walkways.
Of course, this is not to mention, that school newletters and newspapers here dedicate the last few "Classified" pages to advertisement for sex workers- which kinda means pages and pages of porn in newspapers! Gosh!
And I picked up a paper that day, and brought it to my room to read while having lunch, without realising that it's a gay's biweekly! No wonder there was so many adverts/ pictures with men hugging men, and even full nudity. Culture shock!

-Lifestyle
You suddenly realise that you appreciate a lot of things in Singapore when you're overseas for such a long time. I'm really craving for some chicken rice, some wanton noodles, some teh from the coffee shop. I'm so not going to be eating sandwiches/ fried chicken/ pasta for a long while when I'm back. I eat them EVERYWHERE!

I also realised that we Singaporeans are really "well-trained" in standing to our left on escalators to let people pass from the right. This realisation stems from the fact that we're having so much difficulty switching to standing on the right instead! You'll seriously see the gang of us stand on the left, then move to the right on escalators.

We clear our own food trays here, whether we're at food courts or fast food centres. It's probably a good habit we should all cultivate, but I keep forgetting to clear trays here all the time!

And I appreciate 3-ply tissue paper + toilet paper in Singapore! The toilet paper is sooo thin we have to use a lot of them!

Speaking of toilets, the toilets here have really huge gaps along both edges of the door, which means we can actually see the faces of people waiting outside for our cubicle, which also means they can see us!!! So awkward!

What else takes some getting used to?...
Maybe that seagulls and geese are more plentiful than ants/bugs/houseflies/cockroaches here? haha! But I really like how people here read books on buses and subways instead of listening to their mp3, I like how they sit on patches of grass or fields to catch up with their friends, and how they just smile and strike up a conversation with you so easily..

Ahh.. But I still miss Singapore. And i can't wait to be back!!!

1 Sept 2008- Canadian National Exhibition

2008-09-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

We visited the annual Canadian National Exhibition today, as recommended by Grace :) I would think the name is a misnomer really, because the whole place was simply a huge bazaar + amusement park + shopping paradise, and nothing like an exhibition.

So, we set off bright and early that morning, in order to avoid the crowds, to Union subway station, took the street car.. My school's so "rural" that it kinda took 1 hour plus to reach there.

I read from my lonely planet guide book that there were going to be more than 7000 stalls and I was kinda excited about the amusement park rides. And true enough, even the most kiddy, most no-kick ride here, beats the best at Escape Theme Park hands down! Everything's kinda expensive here I guess, but i think the whole experience was pretty value for money.

Having been deprived of good rides for 2 decades, the 3 singaporeans decided to buy the $31 day pass and ride everything we see. we even stepped "haunted mansions", mirror mazes, went down slides, sat on vikings and gosh, IT WAS SUPER FUN!
Anyways, we got kinda giddy after the spinning rides, and so i suggested taking the "mega drop", which was the highlight (which means the scariest) out of the other rides. Diviya and Geraldine wouldn't take it with me after much persuasion, so the gung-ho Mavis decided to do the plunge alone!

SCARED!ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! It was super scary, but at the same time, the fear was over in a matter of seconds. Fav. ride here!
Okay, then we decided to head for the ferris wheel, something light to calm my nerves. Unlike the slow-moving ferris wheel in Singapore, the ferris wheel here actually spins MUCH more quickly.
What most people don't know, is that, I can take super mega drops, can take the scariest roller coasters that throw me upside down, go backwards , or leave me hanging in the air ...

BUT I HAVE A HIDDEN FEAR OF THE FERRIS WHEEL!

So, i was hanging on to the pole in the centre of my carriage for dear life, worrying that I might drop down, or the whole carriage might dislocate. Ya, I can't comprehend this fear! haha.

But then, I decided to smile and take 1 nice nice tourist-y photograph, before returning my hands to their "rightful place" on the pole.

There were a lot of great (and FREE) performances such as the rodeo show...and this one we caught was the illusionist show. Pretty good, but standing under the blazing sun was no joke!

And so we made our way indoor, past some international exhibition and to my surprise, i saw this!!!

WAREHOUSE SALE!!!

So, i walked in, and to my huge huge surprise, saw a whole hall of jeans at $1, cosmetics for $1, swimming suits, tops, shorts at $2.50, and dresses at $5!!! And the stuff are pretty fashionable!

I kinda threw myself into the "war" with other ladies to get clothes my size. And that means walking round and round for the next 2 hours!

( Anyway, I'm super happy, cos I wear a Size S or XS here !!!! )

And then joined the long queue to pay because I decided the stuff I got was pretty worth the wait. Ah, so fulfulling!

Yup, so that's the end of my day, of busking under the blazing sun. We were all kinda badly sunburnt and I still shock myself when I look at my reflection in the mirror- so tanned!!

Just look at my feet and you'll see my tan lines! haha!

Oh well, that kinda marks our last day down to town before school starts on 3 Sept!

31 August 2008- High Park

2008-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone was pretty tired after yesterday's trip and all the travelling we've been doing ever since we got here, so today was kinda a free day for us to do whatever we wanted.
I slept in later today and decided that I should really go what the Canadians do on weekends. A senior from the school recommended High Park as a good place to go on a quiet after stroll, so, I checked up maps, googled, and was on my way!

Walking alone down the streets in a foreign land's a little scary, but it gives a great sense of independence and excitement just to be exploring the world alone. You can do whatever you want, stop for photos wherever you want, read and eat when you want. And it is really refreshing to be away from city life in Singapore, away from the hustle and bustle, to enjy a quiet day of greenery, soaking in nature, and spending time with yourself. On times like this, I wish I didn't have to go back to Singapore..

Heh. Do pardon the self-shots huh :P

The park was seriously HUGE! I was so tired after walking for hours I sat down to eat my late lunch. To my horror, there was only 1 food place in sight and they only had deep fried food :( so i ate chicken nuggets and to my horror again, i received a HUGEHUGE packet of frieds and nuggets! I ate the nuggets and left the oily fries untouched :S

The fields were kinda filled, so I sat on a bench, under a tree and started reading my magazine.

Went back to catch dinner with the gang! I'm super tired now!! But I had fun today, will explore another part of town the next time. Tata!

Anyways, on a side note, the "field of geese" are scaring me now! I have to wait for the whole "fleet" of them to cross before I dare to go pass. This is traumatising!

Centre Island

2008-08-31T14:45:00.000-07:00

30 September 2008

You can't really blame us city dwellers for getting all excited and crazily snapping photographs of Mother Nature on Centre Island. The fascinating flora and fauna, blue skies, blue sea was simply captivating and new!

It was a lovely day to be out on an excursion with other international students and I really fell in love with the place. It's like every corner you turn, every other second, there's a postcard-ish, photo worthy moment!

The following are just the highlights, carefully handpicked from the 375 photos I took just that day. I have to add that the photographs really do no justice to the beauty of the island.

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The day started bright and early.. and us Singaporeans were kinda excited because we are finally going to be taking one of those yellow school buses that we always see on TV!

I made loads of new friends, from all over the world, but I didn't get a chance to take photos with all of them!

Anyways, here's Misako from Japan( she's studying liberal studies! cool!) , and Grace from Australia at the ferry terminal. And gosh, it was crowded!! There were a lot of people giving freebies there! Just in 10 minutes you could get shampoo,

I think we probably got exited over everything there! Diviya for one, was excited that the lake was sparkling, while I was excited that the water was actually a pretty sky blue.. If only East Coast Beach had clear blue water!

We had some ice-breakers at the island and played some random games before we were left on our own to explore what the island had to offer :)

Oh, and this is May! She's on a Malaysian govt scholarship to study Music composing! Isn't that cool! We were saying maybe she'll compose a new Malaysian national anthem! Heh!

After walking for about 2 hours, we decided to rent one of these cool quadri-cycles to explore the island. It takes a lot of leg muscle from all of us to actually move this thing and by the end, we were moving at snail pace cos we were all exhausted!

Anyways, here's presenting the beautiful pictures I took of the gorgeous and charming island!
Aren't the pictures pretty? People here picnic a , sun-tan on fields, read under trees a, go out as a family a lot. Ithink i'll go back to centre island soon, just to read a book under a tree :) don't really get to do that in Singapore.. I think I'll be infested with crawling red ants in Singapore.. -_- And people would think I'm weird..

Then the gang of us went to walk around the harbourfront before heading back to nurse our aching feet! Been walking so much here from place to place everyday.. Kinda eases the guilt from eating fried stuff (just cos the stores only sell fried stuff!)... And did I mention the portions here are monstrous? I think I could eat breakfast and da-bao the rest for breakfast and dinner! I felt so guilty for eating fried stuff I put on my running shoes and had an evening jog that night! It was freezing!!!

Let me end with the picture of the day.. We see a lot of these things scrurrying around our roads and paths here in Toronto. Initially, all of us Singaporeans were screaming "squirrel squirrel!"... Then a local came to tell us that it was a chipmunk! haha! :P But look at this highly athletic chipmunk! :) It froze in this position for a while, while so many of us whipped out our cameras!

Alrights, I'll go for an evening walk now.. just to digest the dinner! I wrote this entry while watching the sunset. I get to watch the beautiful sunset from my room, and planes fly past every few minutes cos my uni's kinda near the airport. I feel like screaming "EVERYTHING HERE'S SO COOL" now!!! :)

Day 3

2008-08-29T05:04:00.000-07:00

26th August 2008
Here's a picture of my apartment in School- 90 Atkinson Road..

I'm sharing a unit with a fellow Singaporean, Geraldine, but she's only getting here tomorrow. We have our separate bedrooms though :)
My photo wall's up! Finally!

And yes, I brought the clique photo over, even though my bag was overweight! haha!

My accessories table. Really mimimal, but enough to get me through 4 months! I bought the small mirror for like 4 bucks at Wal-Mart! I still don't have a bigger one in my apartment, which makes coordinating outfits difficult, but I'll manage!

Initially, i was really irritated at this white box at the corner in my room! I mean, it's not visually pretty. Then I realised.. it's an air-con!!

Initially, I was excited! I mean, who knew that box was the air-con. Then I turned it on! It barely took 1 minute before I realised I'll never ever switch that thing on during my stay here.

IT'S FREEZING! I have no use for the air-con. Give me a heater, anytime.

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Me and Diviya settled some admin matters today, opened our bank account .... and finally, we have some time to really explore Toronto!

Had lunch at York Lanes, which is the nearest eatery to my aparment (15 minutes away maybe?)
And along the way you'll pass by a field of geese (haha!). How often can you say " a field of geese" ! Super cool. And like they always show on TV, people really do sit under trees with a book and read, amongst the geese!
The maps here are really confusing.. so THANKS DADDY! for printing out the campus map for me! I use it everytime I go out!

So blur us took the TTC bus to Downsview Subway station, which cost us CAN$ 2.75 each. But the good thing was that, we don't have to pay for the subway! Being law-abiding citizens of Singapore, we went around checking, asking if we still need tickets, but people looked at us with a weird look and said we don't. haha!

TADAH! just like on TV! Subway's pretty nice! It's never really crowded even during peak hours. And buses here come every 5 minutes, so there's a really high probability your ride would be nice and comfortable.

Our stop today was YorkDale, which was the nearest shopping centre to our university. And it was HUGE! Like 4 times the size of Vivocity. So you can't really blame us for getting tired after like 2, 3 hours of walking around! Had a bunch of high-end stores like ZARA, Mango... (sale stuff are cheap!) Couldn't really find any food or drinks along the way though.

And not forgetting the legendary H & M!

Don't worry daddy mummy, I didn't spend all my money here! merely bought some socks ;)

Went back to school to have dinner at York Lanes. We eat a lot here because we have this student card with value inside, so we don't pay cash here when we eat.

Did I mention that the servings here are huge? I need more fruits!

I ordered this chicken because it comes with RICE.

the rice tastes really funny though. like someone poured salt water all over it.

And i found bubble tea! it tastes weird though. haha! And pearls here is called "tapioca!"

We always end up in our rooms exhausted at the end of the day. Must be the immense amount of walking we do everyday. Diviya's phone actually has a step counter to track how many calories we've burnt for the day!

Shall end this entry with a picture of the sunset as seen from my room. Got to run for lunch now!

Day 2- Orientation

2008-08-28T18:46:00.000-07:00

25 August 2008

Woke up bright and early for orientation today! Had some difficulty getting to Accolade West even though it was near my apartment. I have to clarify though, that when people say its near here, it's usually not near, usually quite a walk before we get there! Suddenly appreciate the NUS shuttle buses- I think I walk everyday (like a walk from Arts Fac to Science Fac) to at least get a glimpse of food.

Saw a lot of international/ exchange students there from so many nationalities! On a sidenote, I thought I would be like the rare Asians here amongst a sea of blondes when I walk the streets, but no! It's super multi-national here, some people even mistakenly think I'm local, and ask me for directions even!

Made friends from like Kenya (how super exotic! ;P), Iran, S.Korea, Netherlands.....

Orientation was fine.. teaching us how to adapt here, how's the transport system like, how to navigate ourselves. But oh gosh, was the food fine! The organisers themselves even brought huge tupperwares to takeaway food!

It kinda scared me that breakfast and lunch were all bread/ sandwiches/pastries and salad cos I was missing wanton mee by today.

I'm going on an excursion to Centre Island this saturday- there's a huge amusement park there! and Niagara Falls in September! I'm super excited :)

Anyways, after dinner, Diviya and I skipped a comedy performance to go visit the legendary Wal-Mart! After googling and looking at maps at no avail, we resorted to asking passerbys and just hopped on the VIVA bus anyways. Transport here is really confusing, i'll dedicate an entry to that.
Buying tickets... - $3 canadian dollars each.

Heh! finally we meet the legendary Walmart! It's going to be our good friend for the 4 months to come! We both were practically screaming when we saw IT! *crazy*. Finally we get to meet.

After looking through the huge huge shelves of stuff, we gathered our stuff and went back for the night. Note, I got my camera!!!!!!!!!!! *celebrates*, so look forward to more photos to come !
Meanwhile, I'll just end with a view of my room every morning..
Nights, people!

Day 1

2008-08-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

24th August 2008

My luggages were all packed by now, and I really had nothing to do today. Got pretty restless trying to wait for the clock to hit 11pm, so that I can head for the airport. Finally, the day has arrived..

I looked out of my window, and went on a long walk around the neighbourhood- an attempt at “capturing” all the sights and sounds of Singapore into my head, just so I wouldn’t forget…

It rained for an hour or so that day. I went down for another walk. The sun was blazing, and it was horridly humid – yet instead of grumbling that I have to take another shower, I actually think I would miss all the heat and humidity in Singapore when I’m there.

I went to the airport with Marco, carrying my super heavy bag pack. Dreadful thoughts about how I would manage the weight of my bag and the 2 huge luggages I would be carrying, through the customs alone filled my mind. Cheeky came to send me off and we all had this long talk/ discussion and we played german bridge all through the night..

I made people take frowny photos with me before I left because I wanted it to seem as though they're really sad that I'm leaving... Haha! See..

I did the same for my family.. and look what happened! Mama and papa don't really know how to react so they smiled!
I think only YOUNG PEOPLE (me, cheeks, marco and my brother) would have experience in taking non-smiling pictures. Adults don't really see the point of not smiling in photos right? Now we take "themed" photos- act cute/ act cool/ retarded/ constipated photos are the trend! :P

And so, Mavis, her heavy bagpack, and her 26kg, 20kg luggages embarked on their long (seriously long) journey to faraway Canada.

The flights were horrendously long. My companion, Diviya had no difficulty sleeping through all 3 flights while I was left tossing around, in between x-number of short/ non-existent naps.
I loved the food served on the plane though- so that was some comfort.
I went to the back of the plane to stretch so many times..
And even though I hated using the toilets on the plane (because the loud flush scares me), I had no choice this time.
So, I slept a while, tried to read for a while, listened to my mp3 for a while, strutted down the airplane aisles pretending to be a supermodel for a while, peeked at people sleeping for a while, looked out of the plane for a while.. and prayed for a LONG WHILE that I would reach Canada soon.

Long queues at the transit at Tokyo

US customs at Detriot was really horrible though. I had trouble trying to heave my luggages off the conveyor belt and pulling the both of them down queues, past immigration officers…. The staff there put a label on my lugguage that said " Heavy! Get Help to Lift!" , that really tickled me.
Had to do the same thing for Canada customs and by the time I really got out of the airport, I was exhausted, and so was Diviya.
But I was still HIGH that I’m LIKE FINALLY HERE. So I whipped out my camera and began snapping pictures of the blue skies, of nature and of the beautiful architecture.

The taxi driver (sigh, i can't call them taxi UNCLES here) drove me to collect my keys, and I expended a lot of effort trying to get my luggage up to the 8th floor. It was really quiet as it was still the school holidays and so my hopes of finding a kind soul to help me was dashed! Whine.

It was kinda errie actually, as I took the lift alone and walked down to the end of the long corridor.
It must be the load of horror and thriller movies I normally watch- my mind started to fill with images of horrific psychopaths lurking behind, hiding behind the door as I walk into my room, or hiding in some corner waiting to assault me as I walked alone down to my room.

Then came the process of unpacking everything into my room. I really appreciate the wide windows, that gave me a really stunning view of the sunet in Toronto.

Really really tired once I got to the room. And my camera had to die on me at this point! GAN JIONG! Did a bit of unpacking and plonked onto the bed to turn in for the night. I'm kinda dreading the long journey back already!!