Meeting New People (part 4)

Current Songs: Jordin Sparks - One Step at a Time // Destiny's Child - Survivor

Seriously, this MNP thing is addictive.


Spring Rolls on Queen street.
I met up with Rasilla last week for lunch and shopping =D I've been following her blog for quite sometime now and we both love Annabelle Cosmetics =D


Rasilla! Well... her phone at least.
Meet Rasilla (not her real name btw) everyone =) She knows the invisible spell.

Mamma Mia.
I ordered the Mamma Mia - Strawberry and Guava Smoothie - it was really sweet, almost too sweet. So while looking through the drink menu, I told Rasilla I wanted alcohol, but then I decided not to since it was only 5pm. I actually made the right decision because I had a night class that day and received a surprise in-class group assignment and presentation o_O O-M-G. I would've been so out of it if I did have a drink lol!


Pad Thai.
Rasilla ordered House Chicken Pad Thai. Looks yummy!

Photo Credit: Spring Rolls
So I ordered the popular Thai Royal Castle . Seriously, this dish was a joke. First of all, it didn't even look like this picture from the menu!


Thai Royal Castle
This is what it actually looked like. As you can see, the first image has the rice CONTAINED in half a pineapple on a clean, white dish. Nothing is overflowing and very pleasant looking right? But what they gave me was a plate of overflowing food on a quarter of a pineapple with a random unexpected sheet of egg. Though they "tried" to make it look asthetically pleasing with the extra garnish, I still wanted something that looked exactly like the picture! I wonder what would happen if I actually made a complaint to the resturaunt. I should've been THAT bitchy customer hahaaa. Anyway, the story didn't end there. As I was eating, I realized that the more I ate, the more food I had left on my plate. How was it even possible you ask? Like I mentioned earlier, the pineapple was quarter sized so they piled the rice on top and tried to cover it with the egg. As I started working through the egg and rice, the rice started spreading to the side. Yes it might've looked like I was getting more bang for my buck but it also made me look like I didn't enjoy the food, which I did enjoy actually. I especially loved the pineapple pieces! They could work on the gigantic chicken pieces and the bland shrimp though. Rasilla and I had a good laugh out of it so it was all good.


Blushberry - Frozen Yogurt.
We went for frozen yogurt as desert afterwards which was just around the corner from Spring Rolls. My first experience with frozen yogurt! They had the tables out that day so we sat outside. It was a really nice day (with the exception that it was kinda windy).


Medium with Blackberry, and one raspberry
Rasilla's frozen yogurt. We both wanted to try the green tea flavour but they didn't have any... they pretty much didn't have anything WE wanted omg. What luck. I was very jealous of her large blackberries hahaaa they were overflowing!!! I think she originally wanted raspberries but like I said they didn't have any of the ingredients we wanted so she opted for the blackberries. And somehow she sweet talked the guy into giving her the extra raspberry =p jkjk, it was the last one left.


Small with blueberry and strawberry.
I love my berries too ^_^ Well I wanted mango and blueberry initially but they didn't have mango ARGGGGGG. Seriously! The blueberries ended up being a little sour but still yummy over all. Too bad this place is so close to my school that I may end up going there more often than I should haha.

So after we finished eating, I pulled out my laptop and we took pictures with photo booth =D The effects never get old LOL! But we'll keep the silliness private for now =p

Meeting New People (part 3)

A month ago (yes a super delayed post), I met up and had dinner with fellow blogger Kevin =D Kevin took me to Guu Izakaya!!! *squeals* And it was awesome! This is only a teaser to Kevin's post (because all photos were taken by him)!

Knowing Kevin's awesome photography skills, my lazy ass decided not to take photos with my camera - bad move - because I don't have any of my own pictures =( But it's okay because Kevin's pictures are mouthwateringly ah-mazing! Speaking of which, he should be blogging about it soon too! What's with the wait-up huh? =D

Alright, so if you know me, I hate being late so I make sure I always leave extra early. Being fashionably late has never been in my book (unless there's a legit reason like road block). But I must tell this story because it was just too funny. I was crossing the street walking toward Guu and I noticed this guy 50meters away looking at me X_X I think we exchanged stares but I didn't think too much it. Only to later find out from Kevin's tweet it was him X_X What a fail. *smacks Kevin for hiding*

Guu.
Top left: wait time wasn't too bad, I think we waited for 20 minutes? Personally I enjoyed the patio because it was a really nice day.

Top right: love how Guu looks like on the outside! I'm no architect but it looks very detailed up close. You can even see the inside from those protruding wooden squares!

Bottom left: the green one is called Bamboo (Melon Liqueur + White Wine + Lychee Juice + Soda) - a Guu original cocktail. Who doesn't want a leaf in their drink? Kevin got the Berry Sakegria (Sake, Strawberry, Blackberry, Apple, Orange, Pure Lemon Lime) - think that's what the menu says.

Bottom right: separate menu of things not listed on the main menu?

Food!
Top left: I don't know what this is called :s It's scallop dish but I can't find it on the main menu. It was really good though! Way better than my dad's cooking hahaa.

Top right: "YAKIUDON" (Pan fried udon noodle with beef and vegetables.)

Bottom left: "KINOKO CHEESE BIBIMBAP" (Rice, garlic sauteed mushrooms and cheese with seaweed sauce) If I had to name a favourite, this was probably it. Sorry we don't have a picture of it before they mixed it all up.

Bottom right: "KABOCHA KOROKKE" (Deep fried kabocha pumpkin croquette with a boiled egg inside). This was a strange dish, never seen anything like it before. Taste wise it was quite unique but nonetheless good.


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And that is all. I will link Kevin's post once his is up. Feel free to click on the pictures for a larger view (change image size on Flickr)

p.s note to self: must go agin one day, especially with future bf.

I've Been Tagged (part 1)

So Joyce tagged me a while ago for this tag (thanks for tagging me hun!). Finally got around to doing it now. I tried to answer the questions as honestly as I could so hopefully by the end of this you'll have a better depiction of who I really am O_O *evil laugh* muahhaah.


Me.
Because I refuse to have a picture-less post, feel free to interpret this picture anyway you want.

1. Which decade/age would you want to live in the most? (Ex. 80s, middle ages, Victorian era)
Zee fu-cha! (the future haha) I want to know where technology is going, what you and I will be like many years from now and whether or not Earth will eventually be destroyed by humans.

2. What makes you smile?
To be able to make others happy. Happiness is contagious did you know that?

3. What is your pet peeve?
But I have so many! At the top of my list is probably cigarette smell. arghh.

4. Live underwater or live in space?
Space, because this girl can't swim haha. Plus, we can jump so much higher and feel so much lighter when we are in outer space =D Living underwater means I'll have to share the water with fish and other creatures while in outer space it may just be aliens.

5. Describe someone you admire.
No one in particular. Take the time from admiring someone and invest it on myself to become a better person would be more ideal hm?

6. What is the word/expression you say the most and has it ever gotten on someone's nerves
I know I say "(yo) what the hell, man" sometimes lol. It probably have gotten on some people's nerves hahaa.

7. If you could be a celebrity for a day, what would you do?
I'd sleep all day because I refuse to be a celebrity any day.

8. If you could be a character in a book, which book would you belong to?
Holden Caulfiled from The Catcher in the Rye.

Keep going, keep living.

Hello everyone =) (I'm going to start referring my readers as my cupcakes okay? haha)

First completed assignment of the semester! Typography dominant wine poster (remember I had to drink wine last week? Well this is the output!)
Excuse the bottom where my watermark is covering the company information and logo, those are not interesting anyway. The rest of the poster is made up of only letters and characters. Yes even the sun (a bunch of O's) and the sun rays are made with the character above the tab button). What do you guys think? Btw, the wine wasn't that great tasting lol.

Now onto what this post is actually about: I got the job! My interview went well, they called me soon after the interview and offered me the job *dances*. Right now I'm just going through some background/reference checks so unless I have an evil twin breaking the law somewhere out there, I think I'll be working very soon! I'm thrilled to be working again (I quit my first job exactly 12 months ago)! This would be my third job (I'll be talking about the previous two jobs in this post) and I have a feeling this is going to be a good one. I am aware that it is a retail job which means I'll be dealing with all sorts of customers but nothing a smile can't fix! Actually, I purposely wanted a retail job for now so that I can gain sales experience.

My old name tag (Yes I kept it. I knew it would come in handy one day ;) If you worked long enough or get promoted to something else, they upgrade it to a "gold" one.
My first job as you can see from the picture was good old "McDonald's" had a farm.. E-I-E-I-O! Yes typical first job but you know what, I learned a lot from that job. I had to deal with every type of customer you could think of: The angry ones, the annoying ones, the picky ones, the dirty ones, the clueless ones, the non-english speaking ones, and occasionally the really nice ones. I can talk about every incident that occurred during my 16 months of employment but there wouldn't be enough hours in a day to tell you all of them -.-'' What's even worse is that I was sick of the food since I had probably tried everything on McDonald's menu! I still try to avoid the burgers now but I do enjoy the $1.39 tea and muffin value deal occasionally =D

Irrelevent to my second job but this was me studying for a Physics test in grade 12.
The second job, which I still work occasionally at as an exam invigilator for this other university. No skills required but they don't ever need me. The best way to describe this job is that I watch people write their exams and take them to the washroom whenever someone needs to go. The problem with this job is that I'm restricted to invigilating students from only one program at that university. Since I'm only needed during occasional exam periods, if I unfortunately have my own exam(s) to study for at the same time, then I obviously am not going to work. So having this job is like having no job. I think I've only worked for them three times in the past year LOL! I do have an employee number to prove my employment so it is legit!

I wore this top to my interview with black dress pants. I love this top!
Alas, job number three. This will be my most challenging job yet because I will be directly dealing with customers and not just getting them burgers. I will be working for approximately 25 hours a week on top of being a full-time student (yikes). But you know what, I need to be doing more with my life while I'm still young! Without this job, I know for a fact that those 25 hours will be wasted (I'm a procrastinator haha). But I'm super excited to be wearing business casual to work! I had previously purchased clothes from this store that I adore but had absolutely no occasion to wear them too =( Now, I can put my clothes to good use! *score!*

Rainforest from Toronto Zoo '08. Happy images = happy thoughts.
Okay, I want to share with you guys how I got this job and what I learned during the process (yes another life lesson to share). So in late August when I first started looking for a job, I applied to only three stores (and let's call them stores #1, #2 and #3). I did get an interview with store #1 (as I tweeted a couple weeks ago) but they never called me back for another interview. Remember this rejection now okay? x_x Stores #2 and #3 never called me so screw them. Then I noticed store #4 was hiring 2 weeks ago but I had doubts because I knew store #1 and #4 are sister companies! (meaning they are owned by the same company but each store targets a different age group). That was the reason to why I contemplated about applying to store #4 because I thought they'd want similar type of employees. Boy was I glad I applied. Look what happened in the end, I got the job. So the lesson I learned:

Don't ever let rejections stop you from going after what you love, but rather use them as stepping stones for something bigger and better. Don't let anyone, even yourself, tell you that you can't do it; doubt is for the weak! Live life the way you want and keep moving forward!

I thank you for reading my blog once again. Now remember to grasp every opportunity that comes your way! Take care.

Change, again.

Current Songs: Hilary Duff - So Yesterday // Matt Goss - It's The End Of The Road

First week of school went by quickly. Every class was cut short because well.. there weren't much to teach on the first days. 12 more weeks of school left for me (yes I'm counting down already). Here's a summary of what happened during the first week of school.

Tues: Some girl payed her bus fare with six handfuls of change. I think using change is great but there's certainly a limit to everything. Not only was she holding up the line but she also made everyone listen to the annoying coin processing sound for over a minute.

Requested by Joanna! This is the only clothing item I bought from CNE and I just had to wear it on the first day of school. Lately I've been loving the tucked in look!
Wed: Soon after I got on the bus, one of the back tires started smoking and started emitting a burning plastic/rubber smell. Everyone had to get off the bus and wait for the next bus. Mind you the first bus was already 10 minutes late and we waited another 20 minutes for the next bus. It was also during after school hour so the bus became jam packed by the time everyone got on. Moral of the story: public transportation is not reliable and avoid rush hours at all cost.

On a happier note, I came home to find out that my mom found a $20 bill just outside the house. So it is possible to find bills on the floor and not just coins.

Thurs: Free corn roast at school. I ate two corns because they were that good. This year they didn't ask for student i.d.'s so any stranger on the street could've gotten free corn lol. I tweeted that the yearly 6k tuition gets me two things for free from the school; corns and a planner.

Planner.
Also I finally received my first official assignment for the semester. This assignment requires me to drink wine O_O I'll be sharing it with a friend so let's see how long it'll take me to drink half a bottle! By the way, I'm an extremely light drinker...

Fri: The only day of the week I have to wake up at 5:30am to get ready for an 8:30am class. I went shopping after class since class ended at only 10am. On the way home I handed in another resume at a store that's currently hiring. I had to complete a questionaire on the spot with some quite tricky questions which I didn't expect. I stumbled on 25% of the questions wow.
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I don't usually blog about an entire week of my life in a single blog post because I find it quite boring to read. But I tried my best to highlight some of the less boring stuff that happened. There won't be too many blog posts like this in the future because it's not really my style but I hope you guys enjoyed reading this anyway.

ADDED Sept 12 1:30pm: I got an interview for that resume I handed in on Friday! I guess I didn't fail the questionaire haha! If I get this job, there will be some serious changes in my life! It's time to put myself first for once and I'm ready to take on the world!!! (a little too dramatic?) I need this break in my life and I'm sacrificing a class already to go to the interview. I hope it pays off.

CNE 2010

CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) aka The Ex, is an annual event we have in Toronto. It only goes on for 2 weeks and always end on Labour Day. There are tons to do and tons to see! My favourites are watching the Super Dog show and shopping haha. I will share my experience from this year's visit in this post =)


Inside EXpress train. (Very clever name, The EX, EXpress, get it? Haha)
I was expecting to see the air show that day but it was cancelled due to the weather condition. I don't blame them, it was so windy my hair was going ten thousand different directions. It was so cold that I probably stayed inside half of the time to keep warm. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe this is the first year they've decided to have the EXpress train. It's basically a little train that drives around the whole exhibition (6 stops in total). Let me tell you, it is NOT an "express" train. It probably takes just as long to walk on feet than to ride this thing. I think it's more suitable for elders and people who have disabilities rather than someone like me. It's free, seriously - that's what it says on the train lol. The little monitor is useless, it doesn't show anything sexy other than the CNE commercial, I think.


Calligraphy Artist Mike Wang's stand.
Right by one of the entrance doors of the Arts, Crafts & Hobbies exhibit is a stand by Calligraphy artist Mike Wang. I believe this is his wife on the left of the picture? And O-M-G he is another homie of mine (remember the Coach incident from my last post? Gosh). I was talking to my sister in my dialect  and he heard us and started talking to us back! EMBARRASSING I tell you because I was saying how the chains for the rice necklace will tarnish and that my sister should get it on the black string. At least I didn't bash his work thank goodness. I'm a fan of anything crafty and handmade actually so this building was perfect for me.


Working on a rice necklace.
In the making of my sister's rice necklace. You think it's hard to to write letters on rice? He writes Chinese characters too!!! I saw the pen he uses, the sharpest pen ever. He charges $12 for the necklaces which I think is very fair because it's something custom made and you are paying for real art!!! Ahh.. I would've gotten one if I didn't already have one hehe.


Sample necklace. He was also featured in Toronto Star!
This is a sample he had on display. Somehow we started talking about school and he asked me where I go to school. I told him and he guessed my major right O_O It's rare that people have even heard of my school *sigh* He told me that I could have a great future in what I'm studying but I could also become a starving artist. I totally agree with him because it's not the first time someone had said this to me. Well, only time will tell right?


Doggie doing a jump!
Super Dog show!!! I've been watching this show every year for the past 3-4 years! They change it up slightly every year but I can never get bored of watching it. Let me warn you though, if you want a good seat, you have to start lining up for the show half an hour early.


Big doggie pulls small doggie!

Musical Matts
At the end of the show, you get to see some of the dogs up close and pat them too =D I want a dog but my family thinks they are too dirty. Here are two clips I took of the show as requested by a follower =)

Fair Food!
On to the food portion! Most raved about food item this year is deep fried butter! So I had to have my own oder of it right? *chuckles* We also got chocolate covered bacon and deep fried Mars bar. It's $5 a plate - kinda pricey but it's fair food so the price was expected. We waited 35 minutes in line in the freezing cold just to try out these heart clogging food! See what I do for my blog and your entertainment? Just kidding =p But after we got the food, we had to go inside the building to keep warm lol.


Deep fried butter!

What it looks like on the inside.
I really enjoyed this one. I do think it was hyped up way too much but nonetheless very yummy. I wasn't expecting it to be sweet but it was! While indulging on it I felt the melted butter! So worth the $5 and will buy again next year!


Chocolate covered bacon!

It was so cold that the chocolate hardened.
I don't get this one. It's chocolate and bacon. I can distinctively taste both in my mouth so I don't know what's this "perfect blend of sweetness and saltiness" that people are talking about :s Just imagine having one bite of chocolate and one bite of bacon. There you go, not worth the $5. Also, the weather was so cold that the chocolate hardened immediately lol.


Deep fried Mars bar!

What it looks like on the inside.
This was so sweet that my teeth were about to fall off -.-'' I don't like the regular Mars bars for the same reason and this was no better. It was mushy on the inside because of the melted chocolate and caramel. If they had deep fried KitKat then I probably would've really enjoyed it =D Skip this if you don't like Mars bars.


Kobe hotdog.
Inside the Direct Energy Center was a Kobe beef stand. Apparently Kobe Bryant was named after their beef from Japan? Interesting... and it tastes just like.. regular hot dog! The beef was actually very fine tasting and you can tell the difference between this and say a hotdog from a downtown vendor. But at almost triple the price ($7), I don't know if it's worth it.  I'd skip this if you are not a crazy hot dog or beef fan.


95.3fm radio tent
Lastly, I saw this tent at CNE and what do you know? Another ad Helen had worked on in school =) My professor actually made a campaign for this radio station and our assignment was only to rearrange the elements from her ad and give it a different vibe. So the idea for this ad is not mine.


*Note the microphone is actually a hairbrush. Ahaahaaa. It's suppose to have a 60's, 70's and /or 80's vibe to it since it's retro music - vinyl get it? Okay bye.

I Ran to Target...

... I really did. This is what happened:


Crossing the boarder at Lewiston.
Sunday morning, my family and I took off to Niagara Falls (U.S) to do some outlet shopping. I suggested that we should stop by Target along the way just because I've heard great things about the store and we don't have one in Canada (yet). I guess for those of you who don't know what Target is, just think a red version of Wal-Mart but less messy. Just a side note though, the washroom in Target wasn't that clean.


Target! (First picture of U.S.A on helencakes =)
So after we parked the car, I ran to the front of the store and snapped this picture, then I ran in haha. I was that excited! I was amazed at the pricing as expected! I'll use the cosmetics department as my example. Target's price is about 10-30% cheaper than Canadian Wal-Marts, which means it's also about 30-50% cheaper than our Shoppers Drug Mart! No wonder my prof goes to Target with her girlfriends once a year to do some serious shopping!!! I picked up item #1 here.


Lip balm section at Target.
When I saw this specific Chapstick, it reminded me of the very first ad I had to make in class last year. It's been discontinued in Canada for a couple of years now so Canadians will not find this in our local drugstores. However, it brought back memories of how much I struggled in the beginning of my program trying to come up with clever ads D= Excuse the minor nail polish chipping.


Ta da! 1 of 3 for this series.
And here it is. There are two other ones in this series but you get the idea. This is suppose to be a billboard sized ad hence the short tag line and large font. Looking back now, it wasn't that great of an ad lol. But hey, it was my first one.


Ice cream sale at Target!
Haagen-Dazs makes the best ice cream, agreed? My family always stock up on this whenever it goes on sale for $3 at our local supermarkets. At regular price it costs about $7-8 here which is a little insane for such a small tub of ice cream. So fair enough that Americans can get it on sale for almost the same price at Target right? WRONG! Look under $2.79, what does it say? "Reg. 2.99" Oh-my-gosh I couldn't believe it!!!! You guys pay $3 regularly for this while us Canadians pay double to triple the price?! Why!!! I was furious I kid you not. Another reason why we need Target in Canada a.s.a.p.


Horseshoe Falls, aka the Canadian one.
I snapped this picture near sundown as you can see. I always see couples in wedding dress and tux taking pictures in front of the falls, I wonder why,


American Falls, aka the U.S one of course =)


$4 for apple on a stick coated in sugar? No thanks.
Did you know there's a candy store upstairs of the souvenir place? I bet my sister felt like she was in heaven. Me on the other hand felt like a cavity was about to happen. Candy apple is only good when you eat the candy part... the apple is usually yucky.


More Candy! Jelly Belly is da bomb!
I've always thought jelly beans are disgusting, especially licorice flavoured EWWW. A couple years ago, we discovered Jelly Bellys and let me tell you they are friggin' amazing!!! Not this location at Niagara Falls but if you go to their specialty store, you will find every flavour imaginable. My sister happens to love popcorn and bubblegum. My favourite is watermelon =D It costs $2.25 per 100g which is kinda expensive for candy :s


Purchases.
The ramble begins here okay? I already mentioned purchase #1 earlier which was from Target. I only picked up a lipgloss that's not available in Canada right now, exciting right?

Purchase #2 is a cardigan/sweater from Abercrombie (kids). I hate the ugly moose but whatever, I liked everything else about it. I thought I should also mention that I dislike being a walking ad (apparel with company name and/or large logo going across the front in size 24937439pt font). I try not to buy into popular brand names and this one was definitely an exception. Also, I don't typically shop at A&F or Hollister for these reasons:

1. don't like the darkness, feels like I can trip over anytime
2. strong perfume/cologne gives me a headache
3. lousy sales associates who don't care about shit
4. way overpriced then try to lower price to make it look like a good deal to promote sales
5. always crowded, even when no one is in the store it's still crowded because the layout of the stores iare stupid
6. loud music, i shouldn't have to scream to the person next to me at any store

I don't have anything against the clothes but I dislike the overall atmosphere these stores give me. A&F Kids was slightly better in terms of a better shopping experience. And hey, if I can fit into kids size and pay less for their stuff then why not?! *smirks*

Purchase #3 is self-explanatory. Coach duh. No woman goes outlet shopping without getting something from Coach. I did not get this from the outlet in the states though, I got it when I came back to Canada. I wanted something bigger than the regular square cross-body and this was it. Although I would've liked it more if the signature C pattern wasn't so obvious. I think Coach is bit over-rated and women go way too crazy for their bags. This lady had 10 bags in her arms at the U.S outlet as if they were that cheap... I didn't think it was that great of a deal. Then this other woman, a complete stranger, tapped me on my shoulder and asked me for my opinion on which of the two handbags she had picked out looked better. I honestly wanted to say neither because they were both ugly but I said both are "fine". She overheard me talking to my family in my dialect and I guess she thought it was okay to ask a "homie". No lady, my opinion is not important to you, it's what YOU like.


Horseshoe Fall at night!!! My new desktop picture.
I saved the best picture last! Have you ever seen pictures of the falls at night? I managed to capture this on my crappy point of shoot. Just looking at this gives me serenity.

Well until next time, stay happy everyone ^_^