absolutum dominium

hey guys. some people wondered if i died after the last post. unfortunately, no. a few things happened since then; 1 major explosion, my 1-week internet subscription expired, and we visited a few markets. but well. here's just a run down for you.

first and foremost, thanks for the emails! i really appreciate them. i shall reply either today or on monday, when i move into my hall proper. yes, i did shift all my stuff into my hall today, but it was more like a 'dump everything and leave' type arrangement coz my parents wanted to visit the granville island market today. so yeah. on mon when my parents leave, i'll get back to hall for good, clean up my room and unpack all my stuff. and then connect to the net and email (and blog) again.

anyway just a recap. internet connection went 'boom' the day after my last entry. so there.

besides tt, the whole thing with my parents exploded. hello inter-generation scream fest. they threatened to legally disown me. yeah, so tt's how bad it got. and for what? i still have no fucking idea.

but the day after tt they started feeling really bad and started treating me better.

went for the international students orientation in ubc on thurs. apparently there are 35 to 40 singaporean students on exchange here. i met approx 10 from nus. well. i'm really not lonely. wahaha. most of them are staying in totem park. with me. but most of them want to change to walter gage.

let me explain. totem park is like temasek hall. walter gage is like pgp. totem park has meal plans. walter gage has no meal plans and a kitchen. totem park is at one end of ubc. walter gage is at the other end. totem park is also a 20 minute walk to law school for me, whereas walter gage is a 2 minute walk.

oh. and ubc, which has a campus tt is two times tt of nus and a student population of 42, 000, has no shuttle buses. either i have to learn how to cycle and buy a second hand bike, or i have to get used to walking 20 min to law school and 20 min back every single fucking day.

oh. but i was checking out my classes. my timetable in term 1 is damn slack. i end by 3pm everyday!!! i have enough time to do anything i want thereafter. fantastic. and i really need to run. all this time in the cold without running are making my hamstring muscles ache. it's not like a muscular ache, it's more like a "use me goddamn you or i will rebel" kind of ache. if i don't run soon, i swear they're going to collapse and not get me anywhere.

i'm actually excited tt fall is almost here. one thing i always wanted to experience is fall. i always thought tt fall was a romantic and fashionable season. tt's when the leaves fall and it gets cold, and i don't know. i always have this image in my mind of walking down some long straight empty road (there are a lot of them in the suburbs) as the winds blows the maple leaves onto the road, holding on to the arm of someone i would love to be with. and i love autumn fashions. the gorgeous dark reds, browns, dark greens. the fashionable jackets. this is the only time where i can wear really nice jackets tt can also hide my ugly arms (i know. i'm a bimbo at heart), without it getting so cold tt you wear stuff to keep warm rather than look good! ooh *exciting*. heh.

anyway on fri the parents and i took the sea bus to lonsdale quay market. the sea bus is a ferry... tt acts like a bus. or a train. it's damn cool. it acts like part of the transportation system and happily ships you over from the waterfront station to lonsdale in 15 min.

in lonsdale my dad got enraptured by the live seafood. you can get a manhatten clam chowder and a boston clam chowder for cheap, with live clams. oh yeah, everything's live. the clams, oysters, salmon, lobsters, and dungeness crabs. they steam the live food for you if you want to eat it there. but oysters you can eat them au naturale, or baked with cheese (kilpatrick).

my dad ordered a 3 pound dungeness crab. it cost him CAN $22 for CAN $7 per pound. and a pound of live clams. they had a lot of stuff at the market. they had all sorts of meats, deli meats and italian pastas, cheeses and other foodstuff, fresh fruits, including all sorts of apples, peaches, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, cherries and strawberries, all sorts of homemade fudges and chocolates, normal or belgian, truffle or cashew; you name it they had it.

i have a weakness for doughnuts, when they're good. trust me the ones here were good. they have a whole variety of doughnuts, not unlike dunkin donuts (i'm still looking for krispy kreme, but i assume tt's american and i'll only be able to find them when i travel to the us during the hols. but hey! vancouver's 3 hours from seattle. why the hell not? ;) ). and they had a whole variety of giant cookies - oatmeal raisin, chocolate chunk, peanut butter, macadamia choc chip, ginger snap, rainbow sprinkles; and muffins, blueberry, banana walnut, choc chip; and pies like lemon merangue, bacon and spinach quiche, blueberry, strawberry, smoked salmon...

you get the idea. yesterday i bought 4 cookies, 6 doughnuts, 2 cinnamon rolls... oh, and the ice-cream. i haven't even got to the ice-cream.

a single scoop of ice-cream here is between 2 to 3 giant scoops of ice-cream. i kid you not. if you only want 1 scoop, you ask for "half a scoop". and yes, they still sell double scoops of ice-cream. and it only costs as low as $2.35. and the flavours are always a horror to choose from coz they have so many varieties and they are all just too good. yesterday i had a chocolate flavoured ice-cream tt was filled with tiny reese peanut buttercups, chocolate chunks and expresso coffee chocolate flakes.

tt's it. i am putting on weight very fast.

for dinner we went to an italian restaurant on robson street. it's call cincin traditional woodfired cuisina. and it's literally italian fine dining. had a pasta with italian sausage, and this rich dark chocolate tart with panna cotta and caramel gelato for dessert.

this morning, after helping me drag my stuff down to totem park (by the way, my mailing address is now on the side bar, if you ever want to mail me. just put my name over my mailbox number at the top), the parents and i went down to granville island market. it's like lonsdale, only on a bigger scale. i actually took a few pictures so you'd get an idea of all the drool-worthy sights tt i have been exposed to in the past few days, but i very intelligently moved my camera firewire into my hall... and kept the camera with me. so there. wait till mon to be bowled over.

for lunch we ordered a seafood sampler platter from this fish and chips stall (along with clam chowder and 2 doughnuts for me). it includes battered pacific halibut, oyster, shrimp and calamari on a bed of onion rings and french fries. and do you know? french fries actually originated from belgium?

ok ok enough rambling. see ya monday. ;)