I had moving day on Monday for university, but this is moving day for this blog!

This is the new link:  http://echappee.tumblr.com

Go Go Go!

A HEADS-UP: I'm not sure why I wrote this but I just thought I should blog about it.  There isn't really a point to this, and it's not well thought-out now that I'm reading it over.

Today is Saturday, and Saturday is grocery shopping day.  Since we're Chinese, my mom and I always go to the Chinese supermarket.  We were walking past while I heard a little boy screaming and crying as if he just found out his favourite batman toy wasn't being sold anymore. (FYI, I'd only cry like that if they stopped making Brie cheese.) His grandmother was holding him and said to him (in Chinese),

"Hush, do you see any other kids crying? Stop it."

Which I found amusing because that's exactly what my mom used to say to me when I cried in public, which I didn't do very often because, again, I'd only cry like that if they stopped making Brie cheese... or if I wasn't allowed to get a Barbie that I really wanted, but I digress.

I don't know if this only happens in the Asian culture, or if it's a worldwide phenomenon, but I feel like this kind of upbringing has contributed to the way I am now.  I'm not what you'd call a rebel, and though I've become less shy since coming to Canada, I feel that my Chinese upbringing has basically told me to blend, not be noticed too much, and to not disappoint my parents. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of Asians I know who aren't going into engineering, commerce, or medicine.

What did your parents do when you cried in public as a child? Do you think this has affected your behaviour?

Behold, Western food that I made. By myself.

Mushrooms + Ragu + oregano + Philly cream cheese.  Honestly, it looked better than it tasted, probably because my Western food making abilities aren't up to par... yet.



This is special. BEHOLD THE TOMATOES THAT RULED THEM ALL.  I put them beside normal tomatoes for comparison, these things were HUGE (no, that's not what she said) and could have probably won a prize at some country fair.  Our relatives grew them in their backyard... I'm wondering what kind of fertilizer they used.

I'm filing this under Entertainment, because I found myself hilariously entertaining (because I'm awkward) while editing this.

Suggestions are always welcome!

Today, my mom came home looking extremely tired and sweaty, declaring that she needed ice cream at that instant. A freezer check reminded her that unfortunately, she had eaten up all of the Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream last night.

"Regina, we are going to get ice cream."


Okay. I'm cool with that.

So we went to the grocery store, and everything was great! We got ice cream, and went to pay for it. In front of us, was an old lady who was trying to open her grocery bag (but couldn't because it had no grip).  After about 30 seconds, I decided that maybe she needed help.

"Would you like me to help you?"



Silence.


"Ma'am, would you like me to help you?"


Then she gave me the steeliest glare with her foggy eyes and said: "Not. At. All."

So I left her alone and proceeded to bag my own groceries, saying to myself, "don't take it personally," but I kind of felt like I was slapped in the face.

However, my point is that we're sometimes too proud to let others help us. I wasn't suggesting that she was old and feeble, although she may have taken it that way; I was merely offering my assistance if she needed it. I was, to be honest, a little stunned to receive that kind of reaction, but I digress. I sometimes have this problem of not letting others help me as well, and I've started to realize over the past 6 months or so that it's okay to admit that sometimes teamwork is better than working on projects alone.

So, was I a little miffed that I was treated so rudely?

Yes.

Will I stop offering my assistance?

Not. At. All.

Have you ever had this kind of experience? How did/would you deal with it?

This is basically my August update, except I thought calling it "August Update" would be boring, hence the title. This post is about - surprisingly - my job, piano, and university. I can't believe there's only one month left of summer!  And here's what I'm doing in that one month:

Job

This August, I'm working at the place where my mom works because she really needs some help right now.  Their company, which is a cork company, had a massive fire a few weeks ago, which burnt down most of the building.  Obviously, this meant that they've had to relocate and basically start all over.  My mom is their accountant, so I've just been helping with filing, sorting, and some of the more basic tasks (though I have not had to go and get coffee for anyone...yet).

It's sometimes quite hectic, and at other times, I have absolutely nothing to do.  One can only file so many papers and lick so many envelopes!  The pay isn't bad, and I work there 3 times a week.  I suppose I could work more if I wanted to, but the next topic prevents me from doing that.

Piano aka Death

I have my piano ARCT exam coming up in 2 weeks (not going to pass regardless, but still) and I need to practice like crazy.  There is no way I'm passing, but at least I can say that I tried.

University

University stuff has been keeping me busy as well.  Lots of stuff to pay for and lots of stuff to buy (university is expensive, to state the obvious) so I'll probably need to go shopping a lot this month. Darn.

I also need to get a laptop, right now I'm thinking a Sony Vaio EB, but if anyone has any suggestions (except for Mac Books because they are bloody expensive) feel free to comment!

I will be in a suite-style dorm in a single room, so I'll get to cook!  -- that's probably what I'm most excited for.  I'm not sure if I have my priorities straight, but oh well! Eating healthily is important too, right? :P Goal : to avoid the freshman 15.

Anyways, that's my August summed up in a blog post!  How about you? What are your plans?  

I am (yes, you guessed it) back from Europe!  It was a wonderful trip and I have taken lots and lots of photos... and I even brought a journal along, mostly to practice my cursive of course.

Picture quality isn't great since I couldn't take my Alpha 200 with me.

It was a tearful goodbye (on my mom's part) at the airport. Once we checked in, it finally hit us: WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE!

We flew from Toronto to Montreal, and then Montreal to Zurich.  On the Montreal to Zurich flight, we were upgraded to business class. It was wonderful, you know, because we actually had some leg room.  What I'm reading there is my own dinner and breakfast menu; economy class was just "chicken or beef?"


Our final destination was Nice, France.  We stayed in Nick's great aunt's flat in Antibes, which is 20 minutes away from Nice. We were also only 10 minutes away from the beach!



We took a day trip to Nice, it was pretty nice! :P  We climbed the Colline du Chateau, and this is the amazing view from the top:


There was also a waterfall!  ... but no castle (it was destroyed). Uhh... don't mind the muffin top.


Back in Antibes for a rest day: we bought the coolest desserts. This is orange sorbet in a real orange peel:


We were originally planning on going to Marseilles, but... it would have cost us around 100 Euros. Impromptu trip to Monaco it is!


Hi seagull.


Then we spent a week in Italy.  Of course, this being a trip that I'm on, things couldn't just go smoothly.  Our train to Ventimiglia was delayed an hour because someone had committed suicide on the tracks. :(  We arrived in Venice (Ventimiglia -- Milan -- Venice) in the evening. It is a beautiful city.

Waiting in line to go up the bell tower in Piazza San Marco.


*Drools*


à la Audrey, except the opposite hand and with a breadstick instead...


Us with our amazing gondolier!  I imagine his name is Marco or Pietro.


The Bridge of Sighs. *sigh* Stupid advertisements... Marco/Pietro told us that they've been up for 3 years now.


I'm on a boat taking pictures of other boats.


Next stop: Rome!  First was the Spanish Steps.


Hi Trevi Fountain!


I interrupt all these beautiful things now with a pictures of Nick wearing the Casillas jersey he bought in Venice:


Playing peekaboo in the Colosseum because I can.


He found me.


We had to go back to the hostel in the afternoon because it was extremely hot.  That night, we walked to the pantheon. I think it's important to note that Nick is holding Nutella gelato:


Hint for those of you who are planning to go to the Vatican: covered shoulders and covered legs if you want to go into the museums!  We didn't know this, so we didn't bring our jeans along (it was 40 degrees outside). Oh well.  Anyway, we just took pictures of St. Peter's Basilica:


Best sign ever:


I also found out that my boyfriend is Justin Bieber...


Nutella on the go?! (If you haven't figured this out already, Nutella = Nick's heroin)


First night in Paris: Ben and Jerry's profiteroles mmmm


We then visited the Arc du Triomphe, where I was promptly photobombed:


Who visits Paris without seeing the Eiffel tower?!


Who visits Paris without walking up the Eiffel tower?!  (Lots of people, apparently)  My thighs hated me that day.


We didn't go inside, but the Louvre was beautiful from the outside as well:


*sputters* I AM WORTH SO MUCH MORE THAN 11 EUROS! HMPH


From Paris, we took a train to Mannheim to visit Nick's aunt and uncle.


They took us to Heidelberg castle, which was beautiful and full of Asian tourists.


Hehe, Nick's uncle is silly


Heidelberg + the river Neckar


This, ladies and gents, is spaghetti ice cream:


Our next destination was Prague.  We arrived at the train station at midnight but couldn't get a taxi because our VISA cards weren't working and we didn't have any Czech crowns on us.  So guess who got to spend a night at the train station?

We were kicked out from 1am to 3am because they were doing maintenance work.   It was kind of cold.  And Nick needed to shave.


It was cold.


On the Charles Bridge


Next stop, Munich!  Marienplatz.


English gardens:


There was a sign that said "do not feed the animals."


Back in Paris!  Waiting in the metro station, how attractive:


Last day in Europe! We're back in Antibes, and hitting the beach.


All in all, it was an amazing vacation that I won't ever forget. What did you do this July? 

In 16 hours, I will be on a plane flying to Nice, France, via Montreal and Zurich.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Actually, I don't think it's fully hit me yet. I would not be surprised if tomorrow on the plane, I all of a sudden yell out "AHHHHH I'M GOING TO EUROPE!"

So, yes, Nick and I will be in Europe for the next month, with little time for updates and stuff, but I swear this blog will get massively picture-spammed when I get back!

Things I'm hoping for:

• FUN FUN FUN IN THE SUN
• Not getting burnt (though, I don't get burnt that easily so that should be fine)
• Having enough cash for places that won't accept visa
• Not getting mugged/having anything stolen from me (especially the passport)
• Bringing back more than I took.
• Lots of pictures

Wish me luck!

What are your summer plans?

Although I have already caught a severe case of Senioritis, I still have the urge to work most days (okay, so I guess it's not as severe as what I've seen in most others...), which is why I haven't blogged in almost a month.

...right now I'm putting off studying for my chemistry exam. Damn you Senioritis.

In other news (what I actually wanted to write about), my dad is in Izmir, Turkey right now on a business trip, so it's just me and my mom at home everyday. We get emails from my dad everyday, and he - English not being his first language - makes a lot of typos and grammatical errors.  Here are some of my favourite "dad moments" from him, which I think pretty much sum up his entire character:

My dad understands and cares about my mother: "If it become to 28 degree in toronto, you'd better stay in air condition, take shower , not go grocery store."

He makes friends with buildings and wonders why he sucks at socializing: "I like to walk with colleges and talk to each other during dinner, learn to socialize."

He feels bad for Australia: "I am watching the game right now, Germany beats Austrialia 4-0, what an shame!"


All in all, I love my dad. He won't be with us on Father's Day, which is sad, but he'll be enjoying his time in Turkey! I mean, how can you not when you're staying at a hotel that's 20 minutes away from the waterfront, which looks like this:

So since it is way too hot for me to be energetic right now, I'm going to make a list! Lists are great when you're a lazy bum like me.

Since I last updated, I...

1. Accepted a university offer of admission! If you're interested, I accepted to The University of Western Ontario for a combined 5-year degree in Honours Biomedical Sciences and Honours Business Administration.
   
   
2. Finally got my peace and quiet after the flooring guys moved out.
   
   
3. Got to wear a dress for the first time this year! YAY SUMMER! (Although, it felt like 35 degrees today and I was not pleased by the afternoon)
   
   
4. Reconnected with an old friend from middle school!
   
   
5. Loved the last couple of weeks!

My house has become an obstacle course. When I wake up in the morning, I ninja myself out of my room by crouching and jumping over a pile of wood... only to trip on a wooden block on the way to the bathroom because I'm chuckling at how stealthy I was.

When I come home from school, I need to literally dance around all the pieces of wood that are in between the front entrance and the snack cupboard. (One day there was a huge stack of wood in front of it, and I nearly had a fit. It was the bag of chips left out on the counter that saved me.)

I should probably explain why there's so much wood in the house. My parents decided that we were going to remove all the carpet in the house and replace it with either hardwood or cork flooring. So that means.. THE ENTIRE SECOND FLOOR, THE STAIRS, AND HALF OF THE MAIN FLOOR. There have been workers here every single day for the past week, and it's still not done.

And don't even talk to me about sawdust.

Having OCD tendencies, I HATE it when things are messy... so you can only imagine what I look like everyday when I come home from school. If you can't, here's an image:

SAWDUST. EVERYWHERE. EVERYTHING SMELLING LIKE SAWDUST.  *brain explodes*

I used to LOVE the smell of sawdust, whenever I walked past the woodshop in school, I'd linger there a bit to smell the wood. But now... my relationship with sawdust is like the relationship between a sandwich and a locker.

It has become moldy.

Have home renovations ever given you this much grief?

It's been a while since I put up a new header and footer set, so ...

I decided to do that. [/anticlimax]

After bashing the way giraffes chew, I decided to make it up to them because giraffes are, you know, pretty awesome.

"Regina, your blog has had the same style for a gazillion years!"

I suck at coding in general, which is why I don't care mess with the layout of this too much. Also, Blogger scares me with their codes, because, again, I suck at coding. If there's anyone out there who absolutely can not stand the fact that I never change the coding, and would like to help, please help me :P

I also just noticed how massive the shoe in the footer is. Hehe, get it, it's a footer...? *BADUMCHHH*

Ahem.

In other news, school's the same and I still haven't heard from the program I want to go to yet. :( And just in case there are people wondering, "WHAT HAPPENED TO HER BLOG LIST IN THE SIDE BAR?" It's on a different page... which you can go to via the side bar! I love sidebars.

Anyways, let me know what you think of the giraffe! I'm in a really random mood today.

Yesterday I was at home with a stomach bug of some sort and not at school, where I should have been. I'm pretty sure it was from the Brie cheese I had the night before, which makes me very sad because I love Brie cheese... and it betrayed me. But anyways, after reading Clem's post about things that bugged her, I remembered that I have wanted to do a post like this for a long time! So since I had some free time...

Chewing in circular motion:

For some reason I absolutely cannot stand this. Most of you probably don't know what I'm talking about, so I'll provide this picture as a reference:

Yes, that is a goat giraffe. But imagine a person chewing like that... opening their mouth every few seconds, making an occasional smacking sound. AUGH. I can't understand why chewing, which involves moving your jaw up and down VERTICALLY, would result in a circular motion. (I'm weird, okay?) Keep your mouth shut, I don't want to see your food.

Condescension: 

Now, I sometimes take advice the wrong way and think that the other person is being condescending due to my sensitive nature, and that's entirely my fault. However, when someone is condescending on purpose, it's a reflection of their bad character. Aaaaand, I really don't like it (though I'm sure no one does).

Ripped leggings/tights:

I don't care what anyone says, you will never see me in ripped tights. Ever. I think it's tacky and makes you look not very put together. Maybe it's because I'm one of those people who loves order and cleanliness... I get an urge to mend holes any time I see them.

People who think they're "profound" when they're not:

Actually, you can pretty much replace "profound" with any description... funny, cute, Asian, a giraffe...  But really, when all your pictures are of you playing a guitar with your face cut out of the picture, or if you start every response while stroking the non-existent hairs on your chin, you need to have a sit down with your ego. Of course, I'm speaking from experience and I'm definitely not saying that everyone who does this is faking/delusional about their talents. Though, I think this is advice that we can all live by: before you say something, ask yourself "does what I'm about to say actually make sense?" If you don't, you might end up sounding as deep as a puddle.

Do any of these things annoy you (or am I just strange)?  Is there anything in particular that annoys you that's not on this list?

No worries, I wasn't butthurt as a result of internet dramaz. My butt was, however, quite sore from falling so much last week.

But Regina, why would you choose to fall when you can NOT fall?

Well, because I was trying to ski. And I was ultimate FAILSAUCE.

Nick's family graciously invited me to go skiing with them last weekend, and it was really fun! (Except for the falling bit, obviously). Last Saturday was also Earth Hour day, so we ended up sitting around the kitchen table playing Apples To Apples, which is a really fun game.

Here are some pictures. Fortunately, there aren't any embarrassing ones of me in skiing gear.