studying in WMC

Yesterday was spent rushing our immigration paper in WMC with Diana, which turned out to be most enjoyable. I’ve missed studying together with friends.

In JC I had Sunita, in university there was Sharon, Pek, Aud, Vera, and, before she graduated, fi fi fo fum. Studying alone is boring. I have no motivation to even sit at my desk.

We were chased out of one of the rooms in WMC, leaving us refugees. How apt. Our immigration paper touched on that.

Having no where to go, we were forced to set up a table outside the guy’s toilet and sell tissue paper to earn a living. Okay okay, minus the selling tissue paper part. Actually, we worked as receptionists. As people entered the building, we greeted them. The same treatment goes for guys entering the toilet. They were warmly greeted with, “hi! welcome to WMC toilet!” Some of them smiled shyly as they walked past. After some time, we got promoted to researchers. Our research topics ranged from “how long does the average guy spend in the toilet?” to “do people walk faster if we play fast music?”

OK. Obviously, my imagination is running wild.

Anyway, what makes studying with Diana a unique experience is that she feeds you food. My, the girl even brought a picnic bag and a water boiler. As we settled down to study after being chased out, she brought out the appetiser– raisins and nuts. Then comes the main course– biscuits. And finally, she hands me a packet of rolled oats with brown sugar. :) Ah, dessert. The water boiler she decided against using after considering that the steam may trigger the fire alarm and cause the whole building to evacuate. People will not be happy because they would be studying for exams or rushing essays. Running would take on a whole new meaning then.

essays and princes

My 2 20 page essays are making me highly depressed when I stop to think how highly impossible it is for me to complete them. The deadlines are tomorrow and while I have been flexible in meeting previous deadlines, believing firmly that I will not lose sleep just to meet arbitrary deadlines, I’m sure I will fail if I hand in sub-standard work and a week late too. These essays are 45% and 50% respectively, and so for the first (or second) time in my SEP life, I am feeling stressed. Obviously not stressed enough to not blog, but think of it as warming up to the writing process. I know I will only complete them through the grace of God.  Still, in the meanwhile it is just :(((

It was yesterday that in my misery I opened the fridge (a stress-relieving mechanism) and saw a little box of jello hiding in the corner. Luckily it was only the day before that a friend had enlightened me on the ease of preparing the jello dessert. If I had known or bothered to know how to prepare it earlier, there would be no more jello in the fridge. It wouldn’t even have the chance to hide :) Which lead me to think… there IS a time for everything, a time to not know how to make jello, and a time to learn how to so as to ameliorate the misery of completing essays. In my delight, I typed ‘but jello will save the day’ as my msn nick.

It happened that it was not only Jello which saved the day (though not the essays). On MSN, malala talked to me, interested in my nick: ‘but jello will save the day’. So I told her how I was fainting from the essays and requested that she kindly provide a poisonous apple so I can faint. Since there was no such possibility, being miles away, she drew me one. Of course, being in a perpetual (though virtual) state of being unconsciousness is not the solution. Even snow white seems to know that, that’s why she may have subconsciously charmed a prince to kiss her after she took the poisonous apple. Now what I needed was a prince charming.

Since there are no prince charmings in Canada (though many think they are), I had to depend on the artistic talent of Malala to draw me one! And she did! I am carried off my feet, he is so handsome!! :) Now, if only he was clever enough to save me from my essays :D

 

caresse sur l’ocean (les choristes)

:) my current craze

Although it’s in french, I looked up the english translations. They’re so bad i won’t put the translation here. But I like the imagery–bird caressed by the ocean, spanish castles, rainbows, spring :)

@sharon: maybe this is more catchy?

divided

When I first came here, one of the things which struck me were the mountains, visible from almost any part of this city.

But what also struck me was the contrast between the mountains and the city. The former stood assured in its beauty, the latter was bustling in empty aimless restlessness.

As I shuttle to and from vancouver campus at night, I come across the people whom I suspect the authorities intend to hide away in chinatown when the olympics arrive. They sit beside me, across me, and stand in front of me. The one long-haired middle-aged man sitting beside me reeks of marijuana. His ringtone is some kind of rock music, and he answers his phone calls in a drawl. Every time the bus jerks, the small gap one would usually keep with strangers closes and I wince as I find myself unwillingly leaning onto him. The smell of marijuana makes me nauseaus and I want no physical contact with one with that smell. I feel bad for bearing such negative feelings towards him. Jesus would have loved him, smell or no smell.

The man across me spends the whole bus ride talking into his handphone. His handphone moves from in front of his mouth when he talks into it, to beside his ear when he is supposed to hear something. The movement is constant, but the time spent hearing anything at all is suspiciously short. He talks about his day, what happened, how other people reacted. I don’t hear everything, but it sounds like it’s all exciting. Sometimes he laughs. The conversation is too frequently interjected with ‘you know what I mean?’s. I suspect no one ever did know.

In the time spent in silence as I commute to and fro, I wonder how these men came to be the persons they are. I wonder how a city which people have told me attracts wealth from all over could harbour such poverty. I wonder how there could be a culture of indifference.

In class, my atheist professor talks of love, or the lack of it. It is as if believing in its existence is almost laughable.

blessings amidst gloominess

I have been feeling gloomy lately. Part of the gloominess arises from doing essays when I have other things I want to do. The other part of the gloominess arises from the fact that I feel that the people with me here have drifted so far apart and I am helpless in the face of it. I would much prefer to withdraw from all these and stay in my room myself, which though sometimes uneventful, beats all of that. I don’t really care if I miss out going to a place or not.

Yet there is comfort amidst this gloominess. There is Nancy, a woman I met from LISS whose house I go to for home-cooked meals every Monday before bible study. She is one whom I really admire– from her humility to her love for her children to her thoughtful actions. She is a Godsent.

Then there is Courtney, my faith study leader who arranges personal make-up sessions should I miss a session. Her presence is a ray of sunshine in itself.

Strangers too, have been most generous with their help. I refer to the two ladies who ferry me to the skytrain station after LISS and bible study.

There is something about these relationships I take comfort in. That something is its God-centredness. It’s reassuring to know that amidst a world where people seem to brandish knives and forks, there’re people who act with love as their guiding force, who give without expecting a return, who take time to build you up, who treat you as if you’re part of the family.

So yes, I’m tired. But no, I’m not hopeless. And it’s only because God sends such angels along the way.

Whistler

Shannon Falls

great site ;D

www.salvationhistory.com

www.salvationhistory.com  

Offers bible studies by Scott Hahn as well as a wealth of useful links :D Sooo happy when I discovered this site!

tired

Spent 2 hours trying to get home today. Yuck. I hate the cold weather and the unsheltered-ness of the transport system here. :( Haa grumpy!!

under the umbrella

While walking along the pavement after mass today, I spotted the bus and dashed towards it. I didn’t catch it. The man who had just gotten off smiled sympathetically and I managed a laugh.

It seemed unfortunate at first. Not catching the bus meant that I had to stand under the rain to wait for the next bus. After a while, a few more people walked out from church. One guy was holding an umbrella. He looked at me. I looked away. I could tell that he was thinking of sharing his umbrella. After standing there for a few tentative minutes, the umbrella was over my head. :D

It turned out to be a good opportunity for conversation. First was trying to guess each other’s accent. I guessed Sri Lanka. He’s from India. He guessed Malaysia. I’m from Singapore. Then was finding out what each other were doing here…and finally it ended with an invitation to coffee, and maybe with the priest too!! Apparently they’re familiar with each other :D

Thank God I missed the bus :)

 

 

 

mountains seen from SFU