hope, for not all is lost.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:35 AM

granville island (saturday 21aug'09)

getting ready to head out to granville island...

zahra, raphael (my columbian brother! LOL), me

@ granville island

taking photos... again... sri (fr indonesia) is there on the right .

Liz (from portland, OR)

Sarah (fr Japan)

All of us...

check out the view

taking pictures with this view is. NICE

Danny (fr farmland. LOL. jkjk, hes fr georgia atlanta.)
he ABSOLUTELY looks like a towering giant in this pic... -.-

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 12:06 AM

hydrogen?cars?bio diesel?hybrid?electric?

yes. I'm readin up on all that at 1210am in the morning!!!!

all for a presentation that we haf to do nx mon and tues. oh dun forget, dry run on thurs -.-

hahaha, and of all things.. CARS MAN. like as if i dun suck enough. Seriously tho', i think we'll do okay.. the 3J's and a star. sweet. hope that i understand enough of how a car runs on hydrogen!

i just finished doing the "vista assignment".. no joon, i did not take TWO HOURS. i managed to do it in like 15mins. (LOL. YOU ARE JUST LOUSY LA.)

i suppose i should post some pictures rite.. I'm kinda lazy to upload tho'.

HOWEVER. this morning i woke up really early.. like 630am.. just so i could cook some lunch for myself. i made... mushroom and ham omelette! and made sushi balls. brought some seaweed. and had baby carrots on the side too... yummmmyyyyyyyyy

i wanted to post pictures.. but probably another day. EYES FEEL LIKE THEY'RE GONNA CLOSE ANY MOMENT.

good night ppl from singapore.. i miss all of you so badly!!!! :D

OH LASTLY... the church was alright.. but next week i'll prob visit another church.

Sunday, August 23, 2009 1:12 AM

busy

YES THATS THE ONLY WORD TO EXPLAIN WAD THE LAST ONE WEEK HAS BEEN.

i've been so caught up that i haven't even had time to come online, reply any emails, update my blog, chat on msn, or do anythg properly! HAHA.

seriously, ever since jumpstart started, i've been out mainly from early in the morning (waking up at 630am) till around 9 in the evening.

I'm slowly getting used to the new, busier-than-normal lifestyle. I think my time management will get better, and that i will finally be able to cook for myself... recently no time to cook much, so its been mainly either, sandwiches, cereal or oats. I've been eating loads of fruits tho.

LOL. look at this.. this post doesnt even haf pics man!!

I thought i'd just post a little sthg, just incase ppl in singapore think i died of starvation or sthg.

ps: i'm finally gg church tmr!! i'm apprehensive, coz i dunno wad kindof church it'll be. but i'm just gg in and gonna sit thru it and see how it goes.

Well, thats all i'll write for now. its past 1am, and i need to slp. hopefully the next time i post, it will be a better constructed post, with pictures!! :D

Night fellow singaporeans.

Monday, August 17, 2009 8:39 PM

nice bus drivers make ur day

HAHHAA! MERRI YOU FELL FOR IT :P

oh, kian hao fell for it too. you can blame it on janice poh. :P

janice - i absolutely love that pic! it looks like a catalogue photo! cool ar.. mayb when i get that many books, i'll do that.. wow-wee. !!! you've always wanted a billy?? ahahhaa. guess u can add that to the list of guys that u wan huh. LOL

liz - read wad wrote abt yaohan later on in my post. HAHA. but white room abit like hospital rite?? i'm glad i have some color in it.. like the pink lamp, and red carpet.. the pink bottle u gave me is actually on the cupboard too, beside the lamp, but its not in the pic. AHHA. yea.. the red ipod. OH MANs. hahahahaha:P

--------------------------------

today started out like any normal day wld.. i woke up.. and yea. the like...

after lunch tho' as i was online.. i realized.. that i could actually go down to sch today. of course it wasn't compulsory. but after some deliberation. I thought i wld go down and check out how things are, and also get acquainted with the bus system etcetc. and mayb buy sum stuff on my list.

i'm pretty proud of myself tho. I found the right bus stop.. and got on the correct bus!

however... when on the bus.. i realized.. that the money i had put aside for the bus fare was no where to be found! (must haf left it in my other bag -.-)

so anyway.. i took out a $5 note..

"Can I pay $5 to get to UBC?"

"we only accept coins"

"oh...." (takes out purse, and finds some coins)

"Is this your first time on a bus"

"err.. yes.." (wondering why it is so obvious. HAHA)

"how much do you have?"

"i have $2 here..."

"okay, that will do"

WOW. yay *smiles* thank God for a nice bus driver!! So, he's a north indian, who was initially a practising physician in india, and came here to canada 8 yrs ago! His name is Tony. HAHAHA. if youre wondering how i noe all this.. well. we talked for the whole way to UBC> haha. nice guy, gave me more info on transport and stuff.. YAY. that made my day.. - a frenly person...

This would be the bus loop in UBC. like a bus interchange

So then i was off to walter gage residence. to find the front desk or sthg. there, i just ticked my name and got a welcome package or sthg... and i pronounced my name as joy TAN, tan and not pronounced as tan. like suntan. is tan.. like orang-u TAN. hahaha. Ee.Glo told me i'd finally be like whateva and let these ppl call my surname anyway they want to. but i'm insistent that i will get people to pronounce my surname correctly! HAHAA. well, we'll see how that goes.. :P

anw, when i said i was from sg. the girl who ticked my name was like "I KNEW IT" hahah. i was quite taken aback. she said she could tell from my accent. wow. my first time hearing ppl calling singapore slang an accent. HAHAA. oh wells. finally aft 6 weeks, i got to speak with some ppl who are my age..

aft tt i rushed to the UBC bookstore to get my Upass! and... when i finally rushed there aft much walking... i realized.. i had left my student ID in my other bag.. (for the second time today!)

So i rushed for nthg.. but at least. i din haf to pay for another bus trip home, since the pass is good for 2hrs. HAHA.

so.. off back home...

oh do u noe, its so cool. u can press the bell the normal way like in sg.. or.. pull some string/wire/cord near the window.. its the yellow cord in this pic.. HAHA> so interesting..

So since i was so proud of myself.. i msged my house mate.. abt my accomplishments of the day.. however.. i spoke too soon.. coz......

i got lost.

-.-

haha! well, i tot i missed my stop, so i got off, and walked back, turns out, my stop hadn't even arrived yet! one of the shop aunties told me to take a bus.. coz its far to walk... but. i just kept walking lo... and aft an hour.. I WAS FINALLY HOME. wow.. hahahahaha.... and i realized.. theres a really nice view around my area.. you can see the mountains... :D

i walked pass a cemetery too. it was day time.. soo... it was more of pretty than scary.

This is the playground near the bus stop i shld haf stopped at.. can u see the mountain behind??

So aft an hour i'm finally home.. and this is the butter i got! partially melted if u can tell. its lost its shape.

So i was obviously famished by the time i reached home... and i took out this!

Initially i tot of just eating mee goreng and frying and egg, as well as frying mushrooms and peas!

Oh, and miso soup!

vegy and mushrooms chopped! i used two mushrooms instead on one, coz, its already so much! i dun wan to become mushroom-fied you noe!

I realized din haf garlic and onions (another thing to add to my list) so i just fried it in oil and added salt and pepper.. (ohkay.. i KNOW the peas look pathetic.. HAHAHA)

adding mushrooms..

Miso soup! i just added the paste....

so anyway, remb initially i intended on eating mee goreng.. i changed my mind.. was gonna try making omurice.. which is basically omelette with rice and stuff inside....

I only broke ONE egg.. so obviously it wasnt enough.. tho it looks like i covered the whole pan.. the pan is really small.. its like those small small pans.. so yea, wasnt all that much.....

After putting the filling in, i'm wondering if i can actually close this thing (taking note that, i'm just anyhjow making this.. i dun noe the actual correct way to make it. just figuring it out as i go.HAHA)

So yea, you guess it.. i couldn't close the thing. LOL

SO this is wad i ended up doing!

not too shabby rite!!! and yes.. i'm using my red plate, red fork, red spoon. hope i dun get melamine poisoning! and.. to the person who gave me the red plate.. YOU NOE ITS SUPER SMALL. hahahaha. i only realized when i actually put food on it.. hahahaha I KNOW YOURE SUPER HAPPY I'M USING IT :P

Seaweed and miso base were all bought from shaking sweat.. or rather.. "yao han" HAHA> btw.. both liz and peh han mentioned to me that yao han was in sg last time! wow.. i nvr knew.. but.. dun u tink this says stg abt their age? HAHAHA

TA-DAh.. my miso soup...!

I bought this from SS (shaking sweat) too! i really like these jap seasonings! gd for bland food. and adds an extra crunch. i got the bonito one..

this is how it looks like aft "applyin" flakes. heh.

MY MEAL FOR DINNER! WOOTS. and theres bottled water there. coz parveen was emphasizing to me how its not good to drink tap water in vancouver (i've been drinking tap water since fri. LOL)

hmm, i tot it turned out ok. the miso sweet.. was gd too! not oo strong of a miso taste..

pretty good for my first time of cooking dinner huh? :D

Sunday, August 16, 2009 7:40 PM

since i was so bored

i decided to do this game that janice recommended. she took 2 hours to complete it, i did it in like 15mins. see if u can beat me. I REALLY DOUBT U CAN.

dun click on it, if ure not up to it.
and mommy, if u read this. you BETTER DUN CLICK ON IT. dun say i didn't tell u not to. ahahahhahahahaha.

i'm so putting up the link to get back at janice. HMMRMMPHHHH. and i dun blame brandon. I BLAME YOU OKAY!!! YOU YOU YOU!

enjoy!

http://www.tekzoned.com/twophotos/

in vancouver

?christel - hope u do better on ur next physics test, and not ALWAYS FOOD LA. hahahaha. but, food is good wad, dun u tink?? :P

liz - no, i din even try any garlic. LOL. supposed to have some kindof elephant garlic, but i guess since we were part of the parade, we din go to the fair where all the garlic was displayed. YAY i'm glad u received the gift. glad u like it! use it and let joy's magic work on u. HO HO :D

worldglobe: wads so terrible abt eating good food. ITS A GOOD THING. haha.

janice - its a fake garlic la -.-

brandon - the garlic is on top of the truck!!! oh my tian. u and janice - perfect couple

__________________________________________
WELL. THIS IS JOY. BLOGGIN FROM A NEW PLACE.

right.. i'm now in canada - vancouver,bc.

sooo...it was (or still is for me, since its 6.42pm sunday) a long weekend..

thursday - I started packing my room, to move from my aunty's hse in portland... to my current house in vancouver.

im amazed that i managed to pack everything..... coz, i'm really lousy packer! BUT I DID IT...

Check out the next collage!

THIS ONE. REALLY AMAZING. we managed to stuff everything into the van. including cupboards, and the white side cubes, a computer chair, all my stuff, books, etcetc. i breathed a sigh of relief when we finally closed that car door. LOL

oh before that.. my last meal... actually, i think i did this wrongly.. this was not my last meal, it was thursday's dinner. BUT WOW. IT WAS GOOD. hahaha. we had ikan bilis too. that my mom made.. and nasi lemak chilli. YUM. the rice, we used the "SINGAPORE" coconut powder... see, its authentic! i underlined in in the pic. ho ho. it was really gd. except, it was weird to hav tomatoes with nasi lemak. hahaha, but... it was still good! :D

friday - okay.. so finally we were off... and after 5hours we arrived at the apartment that i will be staying, hopefully for at least 3yrs...

afterwhich, we took a trip to ikea.. and bought... a bookshelf!

it was my first time building a bookcase.. ho ho. i mean, i guess you cldnt really call it buildin, since everything is alr cut out for u, and theres clear instruction as well as all the parts included. BUT STILL. gimme credit man. i used a drill!!! LOL.

i initially intended to put the bookshelf right at the end of the room, facing the door. i envisioned myself opening the door and being greeted by a bookshelf filled with books. sounds nice... but, when it put it in. it just, didn't look good. so we switched the cupboard and the bookshelf around... and this is the end product...

Saturday - went out for lunch with U.Jo's fren - mr. Masa. a japanese guy. he has a 2year old son. WHO IS SUPER DUPER CUTE. the son's face, somehow resembles sasuki ALOT. like same eyes..... scary. mayb its just a typical japanese look? hahaha. so anw, i still needed to get some groceries, like rice, etcetc. so they brought us to this place.. called "yao han" - shaking sweat. HAHAHA

YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE THE STUFF I FOUND THERE....

WOW. hahaha. but its frozen la. anyway.. i found. ALOT OF OTHER STUFF. but i haven taken photo of them.. you'll probably see wad i got in the next few posts.... keep your eyes peeled!!

FOODCOURT! doesn't this look alot like singapore? wowee. haha

we got this taiwanese kind of ice kachang... shaved ice topped with red bean, condensed milk, pearls, and coconut jelly (its actually nata de coco..)

And we bought this for dinner!!

sweet and sour pork, and brocolli ! from a cai fan stall. amaz ing. hahaha.

the guy packed so much into one container. and when we got it out of the container, it was standing up like a tower. funny. haha

taste test - (the most impt part ) IT TASTED GREAT. authentic man. shiok.

sunday - E.Glo & U. Jo left. :'( boo hoo hoo.now i'm really all alone. my hse mate is away at a wedding and will only be back tmr... so anyway, i did unpacking today...

we put up the notice board and mirror! nice rite.

well, i'm not really done yet.. as u probably can tell from the pics... only managed to sort out my books, toiletries & accessories.

so u'll probably be seeing alot more pictures of my room and the hse etcetc.

lastly.. just some more random stuff that i did..

1. got a hp (my house has no phone)

managed to get a gd student deal. (YAY for me, since i'm a student and can use student plan. LOL) the phone bills here are outrageous la... usually around 50-100 a mth. phew. my plan is $25.but with only the basic stuffs. since i dun haf ANYONE at all to call. hahaha. well, not yet la. haven started sch and all. aft adding taxes etcetc.. its abt 30plus. nice thing abt it tho, is i get a free phone... ho ho.

TA-DAH...!

what do u think? VERY PATRIOTIC RIGHT?!? hahahaha. i didn't intentionally get it to be patriotic la. i tot its nice.. and when i got it, i realized. red & white. haha.

got to get used to the keypad tho..

2. student id

Its on the spot photo. hahaha. i tink i look funny, but, oh wells. as long as it looks like me! i haven gotten a student card since i was 12! HAHAHA. nice ar :D

3. Fruitbowl

I just had dinner (leftovers from yest)

and in my start to a healthy living.. i made myself a fruitbowl!! it looks like the apple is overpowering the cherries.. but to be exact, i only put in ONE green apple, and 10 cherries.

the apple was kinda hard to cut tho. i dunno isit that i have no skill, or mayb the knife is blunt?

I TINK NOW WOULD BE A GD TIME TO HAVE ONE OF THOSE IKEA APPLE CUTTERS THAT I FIRST USED AT JANICE POH'S HOUSE!

okie dokey. that was a very long post. and now i got an achy back and arms. hahahaha. sooo, back to my unpacking! :D

Thursday, August 13, 2009 1:31 AM

what i did on national day...

So here are the pictures from the FOUR HOUR bike pedal ride i did with U.J! :D
It was a nice ride, and indeed an interesting experience... I'm amazed that I was riding for 4hrs.. din seem that long. Well, for one thing, the weather was great, and the scenery superb.

I'm not gg to say very much, since the pictures tell them all... enjoy!

we had to stop for a train! struggled a little with the cam, so only managed to catch the end of the train!! (:

We were absolutely starving aft the ride.... ended at abt 12? And just nice, there was this Oregon food fair gg on...

later on in the day.. Dinner...

the food was good. yummy tau kwa! and the sotong, lightly seasoned with just salt and pepper tasted really good. I guess my fave was the soup. Very nice flavor. Salty, sweet and sour all at the same time. Ingredients like prawn, pineapple, etc were in it. I tink its the pineapple that gave it the very interesting flavor...

FOR the secondtime.....

yay to national day. woots (:

ps: i really love the mr bean drum thg that my family sent back to me. heehee. i heard mr bean did red pearls?!?! wow.. cool to the max!

MR BEAN (the actual soya bean) :
I'M YOUR NUMBER ONE FAN!!! woots..

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 9:20 PM

adobe photoshop and i have no fate

I'M UPSET COZ I SPENT AN HR INSTALLING ADOBE. AND NOW IT WON'T WORK FOR ME! and i edited a bunch of photos, but the all got deleted -.- GRRRRR.RRRR.RRR.RRR

sobsob.

well, i din wan to be too late in saying happy national day tho'. so... just one picture. SEE I'M SO PATRIOTIC. i have the sg flag on my face. my first time ever doign it. and i had it on all the while when i was cycling man. woots.

clapclapclap.

Monday, August 10, 2009 1:03 PM

saturday..

1. Garlic Festival Parade

that is wad i did on saturday! first time being in a parade. we were handing out drinks to ppl on the sidewalks. and the spaghetti factory car infront of us was tossign candy everywhere. If i had not been passing out drinks, i prob wld have been collecting all the candy on the floor.

interesting experience.

i've nvr been in a parade before. LOL.

2. Lunch

so back home..

we had an instant meal for lunch. just pop the ready-made croquettes into the pan filled with oil, and put the instant udon into the pot filled with water. (oh, and add tau kwa.! :P)

3. Fry's

off to fry's we went to get more electronic stuff and return sum things. and, i spotted that HUGE bubble gum machine again! (yea, u remb it dun u?!?! the picture is in previous posts...) so, this time i inserted 25cents and turned the knob and got a bubble gum ball to eat! WHAHAHA. purple color. err, doesn't taste fantastic, but i did it for the fun of it la. and yes, i'm flooding the blog with totally unglam photos of myself.

4. Dinner

i spotted this on the way to dinner...

SUPER CUTE LA! pasted bling on the car! its sthg that i can absolutely imagine myself doing. firstly, its cherries!! (I love cherries) secondly, its bling!! (i love bling) ho ho. nice ar, i shall keep my eyes peeled for cherry bling :D

well, off to dinner! at californias pizza factory. we sat at the bar, really good view of the oven.! the mushroom pizza was really good! i din use to like mushrooms all that much, but the pizza was yummy. shitake mushroom, portabello mushroom and ... er.... one more kind of mushroom. definitely v mushroomy, filled with juicy mushrooms.

AND> i absolutely loved the raspberry tea!! nice man... i shld get sum raspberry syrup and put it in my hse when i move. yum. v refreshing and nice. not too sweet!!

5. MOVIE !

i've been waiting to watch UP for the longest time!! it was already showing when i arrived in states, but we nvr had to chance to go watch. finally cld go watch it on sat! the tix are really ex tho. USD11.50! which is like... singapore 17 bucks/.... -.- CMI.

but but. the show was definitely all that i tot it wld be and more. thumbs up to PIXAR. they're doing great. i love the dog "point!" hahaha.

nicely done :D

oh, and while waiting for the movie, or rather, all the previews to start showing, this was on the screen...

"please silence your cell phones now"

HUH. u want me to kill my cell phone?!? HAHAHAHAHHA. eh, U.Josh was thinkin the same thing too okay. HAHAHAHAHA. and .. ITS FUNNY. hahahahaha.

6. Ice cream @ cold stone

more than the taste of the ice cream, they're known for their technique of mixing all the added ingredients on a cold stone. NICE. well, i love ice cream, so this was a nice treat.

its called "marble slab" in vancouver, mayb i'll drop by there sum day and check it out!

the end of a packed saturday.

Sunday, August 09, 2009 2:33 PM

8-bridge ride

I didn't noe i was this tired till i sat on this chair.

phewssss.

woke up at 6am... this morning... (no, not to say the national pledge which i noe u guys said on sunday at 822pm, which wld be sunday at 522am for me)... woke up early to participate in the bike ride... where once a yr in portland, they actually close the roads to cars so that the bikes can ride on the bridges and highway etcetc. WOW. really nice.

i cycled for 4hrs straight..........

so.. im gg to rest now.. upload the pictures in the nx update! :D

Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:48 AM

BYEBYE K.WINS!!

it seemed like my uncle just came not too long ago, but now he's alr leaving. Guess 2weeks can pass by in a flash lidat huh. I'm sure E.Glo will miss him alot, and so will U.Jo who will once again be left with 2girls. LOL.

having said all that, we accomplished. ALOT in just 2weeks.

(i will fill them in when i return from the airport!)

Tuesday, August 04, 2009 5:08 PM

every piece matters

yup! we found the two missing pieces, and now we haf a complete puzzle! so we glued it up with modge pod. and now its all stuck together. and looks really great.

just a thought...
the whole puzzle making, and finding out we lost 2pieces, and then finding the 2 pieces, and finally having a completed puzzle reminded me... of the time with gen3.2, when i made them do a 1000 piece puzzle, and shared a msg on how "everything happens for a reason".

yes, it was VERY AMBITIOUS of me to ask them to complete a 1000piece jigsaw. and yes, we din complete it.... (i tink we did abt half), and u noe wad, i dun even noe wad happened to that puzzle. I tink its still at leon and lennons hse. HAHA.

but at the end of the day, i tink i managed to brg across my point. by getting all of them to write their names on a piece of jigsaw... telling them that every piece matters all, they haf a part to play-the puzzle wldn't be completed without them, and that God has a reason for everythg-eventually all the pieces wld come together.

i'm just reminded of that day. coz it seems that now, God is truly testing me on those things that i shared. do i truly believe all that i shared that day? and if i do, will i persevere till the end? to believe that God has a reason for everythg.

i need a new mindset, as i enter into a new phase of my life. :)

Monday, August 03, 2009 4:09 PM

Friday

janice : i would have jumped if i had a parachute. -.- OKAY I WILL WEAR THE TATOOS ON MY 2CHEEKS AND FOREHEAD ON 9TH AUG. hahahha. no la. mayb just one on the space between my eyes. LOL. we wear together k! then take photo and photoshop it. HAHAHAHAH.
-.- u are so lame.

chow : is there a waterfall in mandai zoo??!! no rite... or mayb its a man-made one. fails by ALOT in comparison man. NEVERMIND. u can just appreciate my photos. hahah.

mommy : i only remb one photo of a policeman carrying me.. maybe thats the one. if you find it, you shld send it over to me!

daph : looking gd huh! HAHAHA. gd gd. sch starting soon rite!

wendy : im not too sure abt the weather... hmmm. early? as in april or so? i have summer break from end april - early sept. so i tink the weather shld be gd? coz... SUMMER. hahaha. but for vancouver, its apparently more well known for ski-ing! LOL. well, lemme noe if u do come down! :D (ps: its okay to spam my tagboard.. thats why i made is sooooo long! LOL. ) oh short hair is nice?? HAHAHA. thats good! but mayb i'll try to keep it long... SEE HOW :P

Friday...

dimsum from Portland.. not too shabby. the yam thing was really gd, very fresh! xiao long bao oso much better than the one in vancouver... but sg one still the best!

but the best part is.... they have....

most shiok rite this one. WOOTS. tau hway. it was really really gd. FANTASTIC.

we also went to Omsi.. its like a science centre...

we went for this CSI thing..where u go in and do ur own investigations and solve the mystery kindof thing.. i tink its atered more towards kids tho. so everythg was really easy.

but its cool, coz they had a video of like the producer telling and introduction of everythign and the real cast. HAHAHAH. i mean it was all on film la, the real cast was not there.. like obviously rite.... -.- i loved how everythg was set up tho', really good.