Category Archives: Recreation

Birthday Thanks

Posted on 22 March 2011 | Comments Off

Thanks go out to the long list of wonderful people who took time out of their busy schedules to put ‘happy’ into ‘birthday’ — you turned a lousy, insomnia-ridden start to my day into an upward trajectory that’s continuing even today.

I’ve already thanked most of you personally for showering me with love, food and candy, but some special shout-outs include:

♥ Jie, for calling me two days before my birthday to say, ‘I can’t wait until you’re as old as I am. Oh, yes, and I wanted to be the first to wish you a happy birthday’ — mission accomplished;

♥ my Twin in Hong Kong who chatted with me on the phone until two minutes after midnight, when she said, ‘Is it your birthday yet?’;

♥ the girls who hunt me down during my lunch break despite their own busyness;

♥ all my lovely ladies who joined me in my ramen-quest in the afternoon, and for gelato;

♥ my friend who serenaded me on YouTube;

♥ my friends who put together a surprise package which I almost didn’t find because I am inconsistent about checking my mailbox like that, and for making a substantial donation to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative for my sake.

Thank you to everyone who wrote me messages, emailed, texted, called and looked me up in person to let me know you care. I feel tremendously loved and can’t stop patting myself on the back for my talent of finding and befriending wonderful human beings like you.

All my love, as always.

P.S. I can’t accept any more sugar for the next four weeks. I am seriously afraid of developing Type II diabetes, no joke.

Comments off while I continue catching up.

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Posted in Recreation

Reading Week? What is this ‘reading’ you speak of?

Posted on 19 February 2011 | 2 comments

Let’s see… in all the years I’ve been at UBC, what have I done with my Reading Breaks?

2008: Participated in the UBC Learning Exchange Reading Week Project, which I highly recommend doing at least once in your time here.

2009: Jet-set across Canada to visit my UofT friends. I think we actually did study together one day of that week, so that counts as having done my reading, no?

2010, AKA the two-week Olympics break: Flew to New York for the first week to visit my friend there and came back the second week with the intention of getting all my homework done, but not doing any of it at all. I think I was watching the Olympics and just lazing about. I really should have just stayed in New York that second week as well.

2011: Went skiing for the first weekend (which doesn’t really count as Reading Week), went to work for the first half of the week, and developed mysterious food allergies in the second half of the week. My hives were horrendous, and neither the doctor nor I have any clue what could be causing them, since I haven’t done or eaten anything new. Am currently on antihistamines that are the equivalent of sleeping pills, my friends tell me. I’ve been trying valiantly to do some of my readings, but I can’t honestly tell you how effective this is.

Lesson learned (all too late)? Just take a break from school and don’t give myself the extra guilt of ‘I should be doing reading’. Old habits die hard; it’ll never happen. Clearly the hives are Nature’s way of enforcing this ban on reading upon me.

(In other news, I just started a new blog keeping track of a whole other kind of reading.)

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Posted in Academic, Involvement / Leadership, Recreation

61. Go skiing

Posted on 18 February 2011 | 1 comment

Sun Peaks

Standing on the edge of the ski slope, I wondered how on earth I’d forgotten that I have a fear of heights. Maybe because I hardly ever put myself in situations which activate that particular tremor?

Welcome to Sun Peaks, site of my first skiing experience last Saturday. Living in Vancouver is a funny thing, because we don’t get winters like the rest of Canada, and it was also the first time I’d seen so much snow. Looking back, I wish I’d made snow angels, but my mind was on something entirely different that day.

Next to me, a child slid gracefully down the kiddy slope, her arms relaxed by her sides, her hands empty of the poles I was clutching onto, as if skiing came as easily to her as breathing.

Take a deep breath, I told myself. Just go.

I went — too far left. Woah, that’s a steep drop coming right ahead of me and OH MY GOD FALL FALL FALL BEFORE YOU SHOOT OFF IT!

It’s a good thing that I am all for falling to my side in order to stop, if I can’t stop myself properly in time. Which was almost always.

Nope, I was not taking that T-bar up the actual bunny hill any time soon. I was going to stick to the kiddy slope for as long as I wanted — which was pretty much the whole day, but I got brave enough to do the whole run by the end of the day. I’m pleased about that, even if I did have to fall a couple more times on the way down.

But hey, I learned how to put my skis on and off, and how to slow down and actually stop (sometimes). It’s all about the baby steps.

And I got to tick another item off my Day Zero list as well.

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Posted in Day Zero, Recreation

A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer 2011

Posted on 9 February 2011 | Comments Off

If you’ve never heard of or watched The Vagina Monologues, you should. I’ve seen them twice in the last four years and enjoyed them each time: funny, sassy and thought-provoking, these monologues will have you cracking up in your seat and being challenged to think about issues surrounding female sexuality in ways you probably never considered before.

This year, I attended A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer instead, a new benefit production that is also being performed at UBC for the second year running. (In fact, I just came back about an hour ago, and the only reason why I didn’t blog about it earlier is because I was writing an assignment.)

To those of you who have seen and loved The Vagina Monologues, it’s worth noting that MMRP is very different in mood. The content is consistently heavier and therefore more emotionally taxing; a barrel of laughs it is not, but sobering and worth watching at least once as well, yes! I was greatly surprised to find Frederick Wood Theatre tonight more than half-empty, considering how wildly popular The Vagina Monologues are and how quickly those tickets sell out. If the other nights are like tonight, you’ll most likely be able to buy tickets at the door ($15 each), and skip out on the extra $2 fee you need to pay if you’re buying them online.

For more details on UBC V-Day and for links to buying tickets online, check out their Facebook page. The Vagina Monologues continue to play tomorrow and on Saturday, while MMRP is playing Friday and Saturday. All proceeds will go to organisations against violence against women.

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Posted in Recreation