The Science Life in UBC

The title refers to two things.

1. The korean restaurant downstairs in the SUB finally opened! Apparently opened Monday morning, and all the Korean ladies were busy busy busy filling the high demand of UBC students all wanting a little taste of Korean cuisine.

I do wish they had more variety. Like seafood pancake

This is ddukbokgi and bibimbap

The taste was surprisingly good, considering it was SUB food. Though I didn’t really like the bibimbap (but then again I never really liked bibimbap anyways) so I’ll try their bulgogi next time.

One thing you should note is that it may take a while to get your food. I remember on the first day it opened I was waiting patiently but they ran out of rice and so we all had to wait while they’re cooking it. But I think they prepped more of it this time.

2. I starting to blog again. I was on a mini-hiatus because… I didn’t feel like blogging. Iunno why but I felt bad for leaving some people hanging who always expect me to post something daily (like BT and AW). I’ll try, but I think I lost all that blog-hype back last term.

My bro and a couple of friends went out to Wang’s noodle house (or something like that) on Granville St. where I had the most delicious noodles.

So ****ing good. Just seeing this post brings out the typical classical conditioning out of me

It’s the sauce that makes it amazing. It’s minced pork stir-fried with fermented soy bean. It’s slightly sweet and brings a lot of meat flavor. I would highly recommend this to anyone. It’s Za Jiang Mian in English I think… I’ve always had the Korean version, which is nice I guess but since I ate it for the last 20 years I think I appreciate the Chinese version more. One day… One day I will CREATE this dish.

Excited for BOOt camp tomorrow, meeting tons of new people while being stuck without internet or cell phone coverage somewhere in Agassiz. I JUST started packing, hopefully I’ll get it done… next morning. I’m too sleepy…

Level 94… 6 more levels to go… My only motivation is to see my friend’s face cry a river when I beat him… HAHA jokes

I’ve been learning Chopin Scherzo no.3 and god it’s a fricking hard piece. Too many octaves. Well at least it’s better his Ballade no.4. I actually gave up on that one. There’s no way I can give up this one.

Lately I’ve been doing nothing academic. No studying, but just the bare minimum, as in completing assignments. The reason is probably because of practicing music and TETRIS BATTLE. That takes a huge chunk of my time. I’ve been training since winter break because I promised I would catch up to my friend and beat his ass. He’s currently God of Tetris or something which is level 100 I think… Currently I’m level 80… What a way to go..

Meet Your Profs 2 tomorrow! Sci Team has been busy doing lots of classroom announcements, maybe you’ve heard some of them already? I wonder how different will it be when I was a co-chair for the event last year…

Went to see the SLC planning committee getting everything set together for the big day tomorrow! Boy, was it busy in the CSI.

Busy busy busy busy bees

SLC paraphernalia. Loads more at the back

Congratz on the sell-out! Amazing work done by promotions!

aha the Awesome campaign. Makes me appreciate all the stuff we have at UBC

and prompted me to buy this:

Neil's book of Awesome. He will be the closing keynote speaker and I hope to get him to sign it for a certain person who needs a little reminder of how life is not just a tough road but full of small moments of happiness...

See you guys there!

Sometime during the break I hung out with a bunch of friends and they decided to make an epic meal time. They decide to make a giant pan of chili. I’ll let the pictures say all the words.

That's only half the meat we used.

A very elaborate bacon bed. We weren't barbarians! We like presentation.

Of course, we also fried some bacon.

We decided to collect all the grease from the bacon we fried. 3 cups worth I think. We're gonna make an instant pimple-fier

2 universities working together to make a glorious dish.

bacon+pork+random vegetables+2 blocks of cheese+tater tots+a whole bottle of tabasco+a **** load of chili mix

Anyone noticed this yet?

yesssss a KOREAN restaurant is coming to the SUB! It has replaced the Greek restaurant downstairs (which I enjoyed time to time, but not so much because it was a little expensive). I’m quite excited to try staple Korean dishes like bibimbap, bulgogi, seafood pancake, or ddukbokgi (spicy rice cake, which is a fricking good dish). BUT, knowing it’s a Korean restaurant, and that it’s at the SUB, I can think of two conclusions:
1: It will be hella expensive. Seriously. Have you seen other Korean restaurants?
2: It will have crappy quality food because there’s honestly gonna be so many students ordering that quality control to each dish will be next to impossible to monitor in a level where other Korean restaurants are at.

Anyone have any good tips/methods to stay awake in class? I’ve been falling asleep a bit in class.. And the prof keeps staring… One of my friends suggested that eating some mint candy helps. I spent a good portion of my break trying to find vending machines that had it, but to no avail. Just when I had to go back to work I found the mints in the last place I expected to buy some mints: the Bookstore. So I went in, and JEZUS, the line-up was still so long with people shopping for last minute textbooks. I ended up spending 15 minutes in a line just to buy some sugar. So finally when I went up to a cashier, I bought the mints. Just when I was about to leave, the girl working at the cashier asked, “Were you a MUG Leader?”
I replied with a simple “yes I was. How did you know?”
“I think you were my MUG Leader when I was in first year. Do you remember me?” she stated.
“Uhh…. sorry, I have really bad memory,” I mumbled embarrassingly. “What’s your name?”
“It’s C. (Shortened for anonymity)” she responded.
“OH YEAAAA I remember now! Haha how could I forget? Ah geez my bad… How have you been?”
“Good! Yeah I didn’t recognize you at first, it took me a while. Did you cut your hair?”

My.. hair… I haven’t seen her since September 2010, probably good chance I cut my hair since then haha I can’t imagine all the changes and experiences she went through ever since then. It was great to hear that she’s having a good time in Biology, and working some hours in the bookstore and integrating well in the UBC community. I always liked helping new students in UBC; mentorship is both fun and rewarding at both ends. And what a coincidence, applications for MUG Leader (and other orientations positions), Peer Programs, and Jump Start are open today! If you ever want to experience a kind of mentor position and be the first connection for a first year UBC student, check here: http://www.involvement.ubc.ca/2012-student-leader-opportunities/

In the words of a good friend of mine: “A week ago I missed school. What the hell was I thinking?”

I am still currently in vacation mode. I was too exhausted during winter break; visiting friends constantly, going out with the family, some parties, but never really enjoyed a time for myself. So I am slowly going back into school mode but I’m plowing through. Although I have made some new goals and resolutions, one of which I fulfilled today: Make TN believe he contracted viral meningitis from me so that he’ll freak out. Check. Believe me, it was a very elaborate trolling.

Today had class, work, helped out with Tri-Mentoring (Junior students Meet and Greet this Thursday!). But the dinner was the highlight of my day.

Went to the AMS All President’s Dinner where presidents of all clubs were invited to have a semi-formal dinner. It was really lavish, had tons of people to meet, and even better:

An All You Can Eat basket of BLUE CHIP COOKIES OMFG

So dericious. Haha, but seriously, there were some nice messages in everyone’s speeches, like how we are the ones responsible to pass the torch and make the leaders of tomorrow. Even clubs have to be sustainable.

There was a bit of a hiccup during the dinner though… During Jeremy McElroy’s (the AMS Prez) speech, one guy stood up and may have spoken some expletives. Dunno why.

Hi. Sorry for not posting since… since finals ended. Had a whirlwind of fun events. Just came back from Whistler (which I will talk about on a separate post) yesterday so I am VERY SOAR right now. And tired.

Spent the entire Christmas day with my mum and my bro, eating and opening presents. I got a new viola!!

Thanks mom!

It’s a nice model! I admit, I haven’t completely devoted my time enough to this instrument ever since I left VYSO (any of you readers also ex-VYSO??), but now that it’s winter break, I’m gonna practice! Starting with the Handel-Halvorsen Passacaglia! My friend HL who plays the violin and I are gonna collab to perform this awesome piece, I’m certain we’ll have fun practicing.

Before Christmas, I had the fortune of staying over at a friend’s place for some pre-Christmas dinner.

DERICIOUS

Homemade dinner is simply the best! Especially when it’s honest and not for show like what restaurants work on mainly presentation on a plate instead of taste. This is Sri Lankan cuisine, which is kind of similar to Indian cuisine, except it’s much more subtle on the spices. The butter chicken was so tender, the squash was nicely spiced and each pickled vegetable was packed full of flavor! Thanks TF again! Your mom is a fricking GREAT chef!

because marks are now starting to be released.

And >:(

But I am really happy for a friend that I hung out with today… He seemed so nervous, but it was all for naught because he did really well in the end! Good job TF!

FINALLY. Wow, arts course projects really take up a lot of time… It seems like the general trend is that arts courses have giant final projects that can be worth 50% while science courses have giant final exams that can be worth 50%. Of course, that isn’t to say all of them are limited to those options, but it’s a trend I’m seeing.

What I did to celebrate (not necessarily in the order I’m listing it in):

• Ate at sushi garden near Metrotown. Wow. Big portions, good pricing, and even Korean owned. What more could I ask for?
  

  SPICY salmon sashimi (Triple S-threat) don and a yam tempura roll, the two things I test for in quality whenever I go to a new sushi restaurant

• Went to Michelle’s Bakery to buy a ton of egg tarts and sweet confections to celebrate with friends. Yes, how asian of me. And look what I saw? Another challenge…
  

  'Tis the season

• Then we went to Las Margaritas for a celebration end of term dinner with the gang. Great Mexican restaurant! We were gonna drink a Margarita to end the night off, but some of us decided to just MahJong instead LOL

All in all, a great term’s end. Note to self: never never EVER take 2 distance ed courses at once.