Category Archives: Health and Food

Courtney Gets Organized!

One of the reasons I love Chinese New Year’s celebration is that it gives me about a month after the Gregorian calendar new year’s celebration to come up with a resolution that is both ambitious and feasible. For a procrastinator like me, I need all the time I can get to set a proper goal.

As I’ve mentioned, I’m on a quest to be more organized and more productive for the benefit of everyone. This is my decided resolution for the year.

To help keep it up, I’m doing this thing called Don’t Break The Chain.

Basically, I have several calendars which are each specifically meant for ticking off tasks I want myself to do. With time and each tick mark, I’ll make a chain so long that I won’t want to break. Practically Courtney-proof.

I  am using calendars designed by Karen Kavett. They come in pretty colours other than black, too!

 I’m not even gonna try forcing myself to do this thing daily. But maybe if I start out with a few times a week, I’ll create a pattern…

This last one, I think, is the most important one. It encompasses keeping up with my studying, my projects, my relationships, and my mental health. At this time of my life, writing is very, very important to me.

Come December, I’ll give you all an update on the finished product (aka calendars all marked up with highlighter).

In the meantime, how are your new year’s resolutions holding up? 

3 Ways to Take Study Breaks

Note: Thank you for your kind responses to my last post! With all that encouragement, I promise y’all that I won’t quit on you.

 

Scenario: it’s exam time right now. You’re going stir-crazy from sitting and studying alone in your room, and when you do decide to take a break you can’t really do anything because it’s dark and freezing outside. Also, all your friends have left you because they’re busy studying, too, so you haven’t had any proper human contact for a while.

So what can you do? Take a break and do one (or all) of these things, all from the warmth and comfort of your own room!

1. Phone a friend.

Even if it’s just your little brother, having a chat about anything but school is great way to get your mood up. Also, talking on the phone whilst lying across your bed is just so retro and cool and totally a 90’s kid thing to do.

2. Listen to music.

Christmas music, if it suits you. Belt those carols out. Maybe try the Jingle Bell Rock dance. Own that Christmas spirit!

Don’t celebrate Christmas? That’s alright, just stick to the seasonal-but-not-religious stuff like Mr. GrinchAnd while you’re listening to that, make sure to note your favourite insults for the next time someone breaks your heart.

3. Drink tea. Stave off that cold!

Everyone deserves tea

I just ordered a 50g pack of Spiced Fig tea from David’s Tea and I’m so excited!

Make sure you take care of yourself, both mentally and physically. Best of luck on your exams! 🙂

Restaurant Review: NOSH

 

Last night I went out for dinner with a couple of friends. We decided to try a little cafe-type restaurant called NOSH. I found out about it through Dineout Vancouver, but I never had the chance to go during the festival 🙁 It opened up just a couple months ago, but it had lots of good reviews!

The restaurant is located near the corner of Trafalgar Street and West Broadway; for UBC students, this translates into the Macdonald Street stop on the 99 B-line. Of course, you have to do a little walking. What’d you expect?

NOSH is pretty casual, but it has an intimate atmosphere—probably due to the small dining area. It’s nice and fresh-feeling, with wood floors and furniture.

I had a duck confit dish, which is served with a pot of roasted veggies and brussels sprouts. The sauce was salty and delicious, and I even ate the brussel sprouts—which is impressive, because I am not usually a sprout-eater. But omnomnom.

Also there are unidentified purple things that were sort of crunchy and very edible.

Looks pretty fancy, doesn’t it?

For dessert, I had something called a Caramel Budino. It was something like a creamy custard dessert, except 109482091238 times better because it was caramel and toffee and unidentified cake bottom. And it came in a little glass jar. So cute.

I ate a spoonful before remembering to take a picture. I’m new at this foodie thing, okay?

The best part is that for something that looked and tasted high-class, it was cheap! Tax-included, I spent barely over $20. Definitely an affordable meal for any student! So if you’re looking for somewhere new to eat, I suggest NOSH 🙂

On the first day of Reading Break…

Today I slept in until past 12, for the first time in weeks. And then I just lay in my bed, awake, for an hour. In that time I listened to some Tegan and Sara, played a few games of Tetris, and had a Skype call with my Berkeley boy. All the while snuggled under my thick duvet. It was awesome.

For lunch, I made myself a sandwich of avocados, havarti cheese, pre-sliced turkey breast, random greens, and a chipotle sauce, squished between white bread (which was actually just that special type of brown bread disguised as white bread. You know what I’m talking about). Mmmf, so good.

Here comes the part I’m not so proud of. I sat on the couch and watched PVR’d episodes of How I Met Your Mother, and then I moved to the kitchen table to watch The Powerpuff Girls Movie and Pokemon the Movie: Kyurem vs. The Sword of Justice. They were bad. So, so bad. But I watched them anyways.

It’s all the fault of gifs. the gifs prompted me to do it.

The rest of the day passed in a flurry of food (barbecued chicken for dinner!) and fangirl-ing over stuff from the Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Oh my goodness, there is nothing to dislike about the whole project!

Anyways, I’m promising myself now that the rest of my Reading Break won’t pass by in the same unproductive manner. No matter how good it feels in the present, I’m sure I’ll regret it by the time Saturday rolls around. I’ve got to make the most of it!

I know what a sinus is

In other words, I’m sick.

But I don’t think my sinuses are clogged. Rather, I’ve just been hacking my lungs out coughing a lotAll the stress of midterms and late nights and bad eating and dealing with people  somehow got snowballed itself into a destroyer of immune systems and now I’m feeling bleh.

On the bright side, I’m done two midterms, and the long weekend is coming up! If I’m correct, this is the first ever Family Day! Yaaaaaaaaaaay.