After my August 8th Exam:

I've really been studying hard for this exam. I am currently at the point where I can't study anymore, but can't have fun yet because that might ruin my "study" mood. I am afraid that if I have too much fun before the exam, everything that I've learned will slip out of my head and I won't know anything for the exam. Impossible and absurb, I know, But that's just how I am. Besides, I can't really ENJOY my time of fun when I know that I'll be writing my exam soon.

So lately I've just been compiling a list of things to do once I am done with my exam and before I go to Vancouver.

- Greek lunch with my mother

- baking baking baking!!! (I have like 10 recipes that I want to try)

- cook!! (I have like 10 recipes that I want to try & not everything is Korea)

- Go to Koreatown for some snakes and lattes!! (I haven't played boardgames in SUCH A LONG TIME!!!)

- dinner/chillage with my lovely friends!!!!!!! (Thank you for waiting!!)

- norabang/karaoke!!

- eat buffets!!!

- find new bakeries in the GTA (I am currently in LOVE with bakeries. This item needs a separate post)

- SHOPPING!!!!! (even though homie E thinks I shop WAYY too much. But I am a girl so it is essential)

- SKYPE DATE with steph!

- food crawl....kensington market? chinatown? little italy?

- VANCOUVER + BANFF!!!

To the Brainstormery!?!?!??!?!

This was sent to me by my dear friend, Patrish.

Just reading it makes me gag.

I am really grateful that Canada has banned "KFC's Double Down".

Happy Valentine's Day

So I've noticed on facebook that some people call this 'single awareness day' or S.A.D. What's so "sad" about it? I understand where people coming from, but... what I don't understand is why people think Valentine's day mean only spending the day with your lover. Just because you are single, doesn't mean people around you don't love you. I am sure friends and family have given you cookies, candies, cards or have even done nice things to you that made you feel loved.

Even though I am single, I absolutely LOVE this day. This is the day when I get to reflect on God's love for me. I know I should be doing this daily...or constantly, but this is one extra special day that I can feel extra loved by my God. All the blessings that he had bestowed upon me and His Cross for me because I am such a bad bad person, man, noone's love will EVER be greater than His. So who cares if you are single or not single, and who cares if the world hates you, God's love for you is UNCONDITIONAL and UNFAILING. So stop with this "I hate this day because I have no one to spend it with"

Something special always happen on Valentine's day. Two years ago, it was a snow day at mac so I got the spend time with my roomie. I don't remember what happened last year, but it was something good. Now this year, it is on the same day as Chinese New Year! Lots of food, lots of parties, and lots of loveeeeee from friends and family.


I LOVE Valentine's day! <3


Peace out.

I heart Toronto!

Last Friday was my second time taking the Go Train home. What I found interesting was that my second time 'round was better than the first. This time I decided to sit at the very top level of the train since my friend said it is more comfortable. When I got there, I immediately felt like I was on the airplane; perhaps it was because of the seats? I occupied all four seats so it was very spacious! I honestly felt like I was on the airplane on my way to Korea or something. hehe. Then, when I arrived at Union Station at the concourse thing, I felt like I was at the airport waiting for someone to pick me up. Haha....which was true because I was actually waiting for someone to pick me up. I think I am itching to go to Korea.

So I got to Union and met up with my friend Eric. We walked all the way to Church St. in the super cold weather to eat dinner at this restaurant called Hot House. The place is somewhat fancy and the food is aaaa-mazing!

This sausage penne was absolutely amazing. Lots of meat and fibre!!!

He ordered this pizza that no one could pronounce. It wasn't as good as my pasta though! haha.

This restaurant is a MUST-TRY. I honestly think food in downtown Toronto is amazing!!!! I think I am gonna move there when I "grow up". hehe.
After dinner, we walked around the area to search for dessert.... which I was not up for since I was super full from dinner. But eric wanted to get dessert so we walked around for a good half hour in the super cold, checking out his work place and burning off calories at the same time.

I am really glad that we got spend some time together. Eric is one of my bestest friends and I am really grateful that we got to share about our lives that day. He always gives me soo much encouragements and advice, and he always helps me with my problems. He's almost like my personal cheerleader!
What I find interesting with this friendship is that even though we only meet once a year, we never grow awkward with other. Thank God for online communication! And thank God for a great brother!


In conclusion, food in downtown Toronto is amazing!! you should all try "Hot House"!!!!!!

Holiday is over! =(

I can't believe the holiday is over! But I have to say that I am well-rested and that I just can't wait to finish this term!

Over the holiday, I (not in any particular order):

• got to spend lots of time with family
• marked exams for 12 hours straight! plus entering marks into the system
• hung out with my TA/MA friends ( we had a Christmas party before everyone left for their respective country)
• thought about my research study (eeeek, I still gotta write that proposal that's due this Friday! yikes!)
• had many individual/one-on-one time with friends at coffee shops and random restaurants....
• hung out with my Mac friends and made new friends
• went to my highschool annual Christmas party (glad I went this year!)
• had a hotpot dinner with the 3 important highschool friends
• hung out with zoe for new years
• started watching a new taiwanese drama (I gotta admit, this is wayyyy better than the korean dramas! haha)
• learned how to bake from an amazing baker/chef (Amanda Li!)
• went to Pacific Mall on Christmas day (never again will I be doing that! the parking lot was PACKED!!!)
• went to the last of the year prayer meeting
• went downtown to meet up with a friend whom I only see ONCE A YEAR! (not joking!)
  
• went downtown and ate at Salad King! (best Thai restaurant ever!!!!)
• started reading a book

That's all I can remember for now. But praise God for all the above items! Sometimes I am amazed at how many friends I have since I am quite reserved and..... anti-social.

Look what Charis made! beautiful cupcakes! =)

Hotpot!

Chocolate fudge walnut cookies!biscottis made by A. Li and chocolate fudge cookies made my me (with help from A. Li)

A. Li also taught me how to make the easiest cookies! (white chocolate and butterscotch!)

The finished products!!! yummmmmy! =9

My amazing teacher and I. I promised to master the cookies!

Merry Christmas!

Today was a perfect day! I absolutely looooove spending time with the family! As usual, we wake up at 10am, roam around the house for an hour or two, watch a couple episodes of dramas or movies, open presents, eat lunch and then go out for a family outing! This year, we decided to go to pacific mall (cuz we're asian like that!), and just shopped. We didn't buy much, but it was okay cuz it was the time spent that counts (and being pushed around by other asians at the mall -_-). We then went to Richmond Hill to eat some awesome Chinese food. yay! I feel soooo incredibly blessed right now!

I lovelovelove spending time with my family! My parents are too hilarious. Thank you God.


Counting my blessings!


I can't wait for our Zoe Christmas party tmr! It is gonna be epic.
I can't wait for more dinner parties with friends and family!!


Yes, spending time with friends and family is great and all, but we should never forget the true reason for this season and that is the birth of Jesus --The greatest gift God has ever given to us! Thank you!

This Weekend

I am REAL excited for this weekend. I can't wait till I finish my presentation tomorrow. I hate this topic. Prayers much needed.

I think I am going to try a new Korean recipe this weekend. oooooooh, I AM SOO EXCITED!!! or maybe I should try making White food, but last time when I made it, I did a horrible job.


Anyway, I can't wait!

Housemates

God has really blessed me with awesome housemates this year. When I was freaking out last week, when I had no one to talk to and when I missed home so badly last week, these two girls were by my side encouraging me, telling me that everything's going to be okay.

I have never lived off campus before and it was quite overwhelming in the first week because I didn't know them at all. How should I act? Are they mean people? Are they super studious? After all, they are international students from Trinidad and Tobago, and they have to pay double the tuition fees. Slowly as I reveal myself to them and they to me, I realized that we all have a lot in common. One of the girls is finishing up her undergrad in linguistics, specializing in Speech Language Sciences; the other in Child and Youth studies. Both of them have helped me within these two weeks, from teaching me which bus to take to the mall to telling me what to use to clean the house. Both of them lovelovelove sushi (just like me!) and lovelovelove chinese food (just like me!). They even know how to use chopsticks! They have included me in all the activities they do.

My God is an awesome God. He is faithful and always provides the things I need. Having awesome housemates already lessens one thing that I have to worry about.

Praise the Lord!

What? Weekend is over already???

Yesterday I went to Ribfest for the first time in my life. The ribs were YUMMILICIOUS!!!
.
.
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I can't believe this weekend is over!!! It went by WAY TOO quickly.
I had a lot of fun though.... with the zoe crew!
ahhh, I can't wait for next weekend! 5 more days!!!!!


Prayers needed.

twenty-two.

I can't believe I am 22 now. I can still remember turning 21 last year, celebrating the special day with Steph; seeing my favourite HK celebrity, Ron Ng, live in person! Now that I am 22, I feel the need to grow up, act my age and stop being stupid. I am not sure why I feel this way, perhaps it is because I have graduated?? Dont know. It is time to seriously think about the future.

Anyway, my birthday this year was awesome! I got to spend it with all my loved ones in a span of one week. I had 3 all-you-can-eat meals!!

Sunday: After church, marilyn, charis, Ginny and I went over to TJ's house for karaoke. We chilled for a couple of hours and then went to korean bbq in Mississauga. The name of the restaurant is "Arirang", located in the Golden City Plaza. The kalbi, beef, pork and chicken were absolutely delicious! The meal also included seafood, but no one was interested in it except for TJ. I was quite disappointed that they didn't have any fish.
Unless you love eating seafood, the price of the all-you-can-eat meal was not worth it. Not to mention the service. The waitress don't even want to stop to take our orders. All in all, it was a wonderful dinner with my friends! The birthday cards were really touching <3



Tuesday: My family wanted to have my birthday dinner at "maison du japon" for all-you-can-eat sushi. It is my family's favourite restaurant! The sashimi wasfresh and delicious, the ramen was awesome, the rolls were sooooo crunchy! The service was really excellent. We had an awesome time! =) It was sooo worth going to Toronto just to go there.

Wednesday: was my birthday! The day started with me waking up at 11am, proceeded to help my mom vacuum the car and then went out for dimsum at "Sam Woo". I had a "surprise" dinner at Axia with Zoe. I knew about the dinner so it wasn't really a surprise. But what really surprised me was the number of people who showed up to celebrate with me. It was sooooo worth skipping to see Steven Ma in Toronto.
I was really touched to see all those who care, cuz I am not really an important person.
I was really surprised with the birthday cake (first time with sparklers) and birthday card (some people wrote really funny things like... "it is time to shed off your young ways such as korean dramas!! HAHAHAH)
After dinner, we loitered in the parking lot and I saw fireworks! Not really pretty ones but at least I saw stuff shooting up in the air. haha. Praise God for no rain!!!!! =) The night ended off with a game of Life and Bang at the Leungs. I had a great birthday! thanks zoe! love you all <3<3

Friday: I went to Toronto to have dinner with Steph, Maggie and Ivan at another all-you-can-eat sushi @ haitarou?? The sashimi was REALLY GOOD, the sushi had too much rice, but it was okay, the cooked food was okay. Overall, it wasn't as good as "maison du japon". We went to play glow-in-the-dark golf (my first time!) after the 2-hour dinner. It was realllly fun eventhough I came in last place. Then... I rushed home.

Saturday: I went to St. Catharine's to look for houses. St. Catharines IS SO MUCH PRETTIER than Hamilton. Hamilton is just ghetto. Praise God that I found a house in just a day!! It is close to campus and mall. The house is clean and tidy. My room is a bit small but it is okay. I am gonna be living with two other girls who are international students from Trinidad and Tobago. The landlord said they are white...which is really interesting. I am soooo thankful!! One headache gone! =)

MmMmmm SO GOOD!

Some kind of dumpling at Grand Chinese Cuisine

Spinach "cheurn fun" at Grand Chinese Cuisine

Bun filled with meat @ Grand Chinese Cuisine

Shrimp roll @ Grand Chinese Cuisine

Kimchi jigae made my me!

ddok bok ki made by me!

banchan @ man doo hyung

Thai Mango Chicken @ After Rain

nanu(?) udon @ After Rain

my fav green dragon roll @ After Rain

Green Dragon roll looking soooo tasty!

Assorted cupcakes @ Cupcakes at Westdale Village

New All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Buffet Restaurant

It is called 168 Japan Buffet, located at Glen Erin and Erin Mills. It is RIGHT beside Miga (the Korean restaurant).

website


How we found out:
my mom's boss told her that there is this new japanese ayce restaurant. The boss and her collegues wanted my family to try it first and get comments from us because 1) the wong's have really high expectation of japanese food because japanese food is our favourite kind of food 2) the wong's love to try new japanese restaurants 3) because we love japanese restaurants so much, we have tried practically all of mississauga's acye places and a quarter of ayce jap places in toronto, so we can make some comparisions
So one night papa wong was craving for some japanese acye. Without a doubt, we went to this new place.

The atmosphere:
- the place is really spacious. comfortable seating. I would say 2-3x bigger than maki maki. 1.5x bigger than honten... 8/10

The service:
- wayyyyy better than ALL acye places in sauga and toronto. I dont know if it is because the waitresses/waiters were new, but they were really nice to us eventhough they didn't know much english and cantonese. Who knows, they might turn mean after a couple of months cuz they get fed up with ridiculous customers. The food came out REALLY quickly and they NEVER missed a single thing unlike other jap restaurants. Perhaps it was because we went there at 8:30pm on a sunday night. I really HATE the service at Maki Maki. I have MANY stories to tell about that restaurant. Same goes with Prince Sushi, Momiji and Honten. 9/10 for 168 japan buffet.

The food:
- It says on their menu that they have over 100 items to choose from. They have many different kinds of rolls. Not gonna lie, they were REALLY fresh. We are a crazy fan of sashimi and not so much rolls though. The bad thing is that when you order rolls, they come in 6's. So it is best to go with friends so you can try everything. Also, they don't have enough different cooked dishes to choose from, but it was okay. The food overall was fresh! The tempuras were realllly good. Their fried stuff overall was pretty crunchy. I give them 8.5/10.

The Price:
They charge the same price everyday for dinner. $22.95. Which I say is normal, I guess. I forgot the price for lunch. 7/10 - well, of course, the cheaper the better. haha


Comments:
- I really like this restaurant, mostly because it is better than other japanese ayce places in sauga. My brother thinks it tastes the same as Waterloo's ye's sushi (whatever that means) Nuthing bad happened to us the first time we went so....and until something wrong happens, imma claim this as my new fav japanese restaurant in SAUGA. However, this restaurant still does not beat our all-time favourite restaurant - "japon du maison"!!!!!!!!
Overall, I give this new japanese ayce restaurant 8.5/10.


Will I visit this restaurant again? YES.

Roomies

Steph and I decided that we should have one last dinner in Hamilton before school ends. We decided to go to Bean Bar since she hasn't been there before....

This nachos platter was HUGE! we didn't even order entrees and we could hardly finish it

The entire nachos platter was for me. Joking! =PWe skipped main course and decided to go straight into dessert. How can you leave BeanBar without eating their superfattening cakes?

Roomie love <3

I think our friendship has grown a lot these past 4 years. Yesterday when we were talking about life and love, she opened up alot to me. I was actually quite shocked cuz I feel like in in the past, I am always the one talking. But I am glad that yesterday she told me alot of things that I didn't think she would tell me.
I really pray that we will still be close friends after graduation. But it will be hard cuz in all relationships, when there is a lack of communication, it will die. It will be hard to spread the Word to her too.

Valentine's day

My Valentine's day was fun. I spent the day with my loved ones.

The day started off with me going to zoe for praise and prayer where I got to pray for people and spent some musical time with God. I went home at around 3pm and spent the evening with my parents and ate a yummy dinner. And then I went out with my 2 favourite single ladies, maro and kei, to Symposium at Meadowvale Town Centre for some awesome appetizers and desserts. The atmosphere was soooooooooooo romantic! There were couples everywhere in that restaurant but that didn't bother us at all, cuz we were spending valentine's day with people that we love. The night ended with us taking many pictures on maro's mac and a game of apples to apples.

My valentine's day was awesome! I hope you all had fun.

two thousand and eight

Looking back, 2008 was a great year. It was the year where I grew the most spiritually. It was the only year where I fulfilled my resolutions - to love God more, to love His people more and to put everything in God's mighty hands. 2008 was also the year where I spent the most time with the people I love most and witnessed some spectacular things. I wouldn't trade 2008 for anything. The following is some of the highlights of the year that really made it memorable:

Snow day: my roomie, Steph and I trekked to the opposite side of campus to eat lunch. Awesome time

get together with pin1
Steph took me to see one of my fav celebrity Ron Ng on my birthday

ivan took me to the CN tower because he had a worker pass

I was able to see the rogers centre from the CN Tower

My dad's company's annual celebration was to watch the Jays vs Yankees. It was an
awesome game. Jays won. It totally changed my view on baseball.

I got to spend some quality time with my dad at the baseball gameSummerlicious @ 5th element with the mac crew
yummy food @ 5th elementchurch summer retreat

summer retreat with Eleasa

CNE with ZoeJeffChan's farewell partyTj's place on Christmas Eve
hotpot with mac friendszoe girls night out!
annual bbt with my girlies!
JayChou in Toronto!

I pray that 2009 will be even better!

I want to spend time with you.

The following video really touched me when I saw it at church last Sunday:




I want to spend time with you. Yes, YOU!

PRAISE THE LORD!

I have been PRAYING everyday since I wrote the gene expression biochem exam on Dec. 9th. I was really scared cuz the exam was worth 65%, which meant that if I failed the exam, I won't be able to graduate.

I have been checking my marks everyday since Dec. 18th and today, the biochem mark finally came out.

I PASSED!!!!!!! 25% HIGHER THAN WHAT I EXPECTED!!!!!! There is NO way I could have gotten this mark....unless I did REALLY well on my exam since I only did alright in the midterm. Honestly, I didn't think I did well at all on the exam considering I wrote whatever for one question that was worth 15 marks....

I'm just sooooooo thankful for what the Lord has done. I have been faithful throughout this journey and I really thank the Lord for giving me this mark as my reward.

On the other hand, I did worst than I thought for virology. Pretty bad actually =( But that doesn't matter anymore (even though I cried alot for it), cuz I CAN STILL GRADUATE!!!!

I pray that the overall term mark is okay. I am still waiting for two more marks to come out.


I AM GONNA EAT LIKE A PIG TONIGHT TO CELEBRATE!

Wednesday

Last wednesday was the day that steph and I planned to have dinner with kathy and soojin, but soojin had something to do so we cancelled dinner. Since last wednesday also marked the end of immunology test #2 and Religious studies of Japan for steph, I proposed the idea of celebrating... Honestly, I didn't want to just stay in my room and watch dramas when I could be spending some quality time with people. Since Steph brought her car to mac, we decided to take advantage of that and just went to dinner ourselves. We went to Korea House which is located on Victoria and Cannon! I was REALLY craving for some Korean street foods -- dok bokki =9

Dok bokki: rice cakes with fish cakes in spicy sauce. It is honestly the best thing made. <3>

banchan/side dishes: I love all of them!

beansprouts are one of my favs

dwenjang jigae: seafood w/tofu stew: It was alright. I am not a seafood fan but we've never tried this before so ya...

jap chae bap: chop suey w/ korean clear noodle over rice. The dish was kinda oily but it was really good.

I LOVE KOREAN FOOD!

What's good about korean food is that you can mix everything together and the food still taste good. I think it is because alot of the food has the same taste? I couldn't take spicy stuff before but I got used to it after eating alot of korean food. So now I can eat spicy stuff! whoohoo!

To all my devoted readers out there, we should go eat some korean food!

After dinner, we both felt really stuffed and we really wanted something hot to get all the stuff down our system. But we didn't know where to get the hot drink... second cup? tim hortons? We didn't know where we wanted to go. And since we didn't want to spend anymore money cuz the korean food was kinda expensive already due to our craziness of ordering so much, I suggested that we go for karaoke. Steph told me earlier that she was craving for some karaoke right after the immuno test so I thought we should just go karaoke to satisfy her craving. And that place served hot drinks for just $5 with everything included! I know, great deal!

We both didn't know how to get to babyface via car so we decided to call our other friends, ivan, maggie and alvin to come join us. We went back to mac to pick them up and off we go to babyface.

We arrived at the place and realized that they didn't have any hot drinks. Oh well.... karaoke wasn't so good that night. The mics were all bad and the waiter was sooo incompetent! He didn't know anything and didn't care about anything cuz he was soo into his anime and game. We sang till about 12am and left cuz ivan needed to go home to study for a test.

It was an awesome night to relax after studying so hard for the immuno test.

btw, we originally said that we needed to make it a quick dinner cuz we needed to go home to study but....I didn't do anything that night and stayed up till 3am to watch dramas. Yes, I felt very guilty while watching....

meet steph

And then the next day, steph and ivan decided to come over and go crazy with the downloads. He downloaded 5 gbs of stuff off my computer! crazy people!

here is ivan studying and downloading at the same time