TIme to catch up on things.

It's been awhile since we've had a conversation, so I thought it'd be nice to catch up on things. 
Lots has changed for me this year, 
Everything from pure happiness to profound heartbreak,
Has found its way to my 2011.
And honestly I wouldn't change anything if I could.


One of the biggest changes that this year has brought was a certain experience that taught me many valuable lessons.
I learned that even when your heart is broken and you feel like you can never be happy again, you have a choice.
Sometimes life will disappoint us, 
But we can choose how we react. 
We have the capacity to evolve, 
To develop perseverance and strength, 
Because of the pain.


Heres to 2011! Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!

p.s I am thinking of finally starting my travel blog/vlog about my travels and one about my experiences in Toronto- the restaurants and events.

I`m a HTL-er and I kinda like it

Yes, I know I have failed this miserably but I have good reason, mainly that I have been so busy with college. Who would have thought that college would have so much to do. 

Already finished five weeks of classes, seemed to go by like it was just yesterday that summer was ending... And with assignment after the other, and tests piling up, and group projects once again piling up... this sure ain't a stroll in the park.

Even after just five weeks, I may have uncovered what I might want to do in the future if I were to have a hospitality/tourism focused career (which I will explain later), learned so much about dining, wines, alcoholic drinks- all of which reminds me of my one time goal of becoming a restaurateur. I've involved myself with school and I'm enjoying it, learning new things, having free food/wine samples and meeting new people too. But the food and dining required in some assignments, I have really come to like the classes (except for having to pay for our own meals of course).

So what I think would be an excellent job in the future, although it may be just now, but for my own reference sake, what if I were to be an online travel adviser/tour guide/reviewer working with destination marketers to help tourists experience their vacations as locals and to be able to blog or vlog my journeys around the world. That would be the ultimate- to travel the world as a job. I wake up everyday in a new city. One can dream.

Yep, just a quick update on this blog, no fancy pictures or anything, just me, reflecting on the past 5 weeks of classes so far at the hospitality, tourism, leisure program at George Brown College.

The power of FaceTime

So I got a nice Facetime call from Mathew yesterday after they got back to Alameda from Reno and he had his first experience in preparing for kindergarten...He says he's excited to start school, so that's always something good to hear. And also reminded me that I should write something here again. So I guess this entry will be our trip to the Ontario Science Centre.


We went after having lunch at a congee/noodle restaraunt so we wouldn't need to pay for lunch there again, but like always, had to still buy some pizza from the cafeteria. We started our journey at the Ontario Science Centre at a new show/exhibit of forensic investigation, which included a show (CSI style). And the kids got scared, from the magic show and the pyrotechnics and loud sounds...The whole show included Mathew whining he wanted to leave, but he needs to be braver so we watch the entire show.

Then to the kids zone where they got to explore and play around the different stalls, especially the supermarket for kids. And lastly, their favourite thing to do was the balls that move around a specially designed track. "We could be there all day just watching them play with the balls."

Random Field Trips...

We brought them to one of the rib-fests happening around the city, this was the one in Scarborough..We had brought them to the one at Thompson Park the previous year and they had a variety of midway rides, but this one did not. Their midway rides consisted of ONE slide. Yup. Oh yeah, it was also Canada Day.

Since the sister had work I brought them to Mcdonalds Play Place and Mini-golfing one day. It was scorching hot and again, they complained of the heat and sun. Something they clearly are still not used to coming from the cool breezy Bay area.

39 days have gone and passed.

How time really flies. Yes, I know I have not kept my blog commitment here: but 39days have passed since my little cousins were here. Their flight was yesterday morning and I received a nice phone call once they landed back in SFO. So here I am, working on this again, trying to document the adventures, struggles, and all the fun we shared together. I hope to have a new post each day this week for this.


I remember like it was last night, going to the airport to pick them up, delayed and all by Air Canada during their labour strike. From then on, we pretty much saw each other everyday, with some days in between left for me to sleep in. With the sister still having to work until the end of June, it was my will to entertain them in the meantime because after all, they came to Toronto early to attend my convocation with me.


Yeah, there aren't many pictures during June other than my convocation which I have already posted, but the first realistic field trip we took them was Whittmore Farm to play at the farm and do some strawberry picking! Enjoy.

Graduation

"As we go on, we will remember, all the times we, had together." 

So on Thursday it was finally my convocation day. The ridiculous part, it being at 9:30am, no not that, the part where we have to be there at 7:30am. I slept through my alarm, so I was already running late to get out of my house, for only both the bus to stop at a bus stop and wait for nobody, just stopped there for minutes. So much for being an express bus. And once on the subway, more delays, from Finch all the way to Davisville or Summerhill or something. Yes, the TTC always find ways to irritate me. Ok so I finally made there a bit past 8, not bad. The ceremony was also running late, we were all waiting, and lining up to go into the theatre, but we had to first walk a lap around the quad lol I kinda felt bad for the girls who all had heels. 


The ceremony was nice and as always I was at the end, thanks a lot to my surname being Yeung, I am always last nearly all the time. I felt my heart beating as it was nearing my turn, I don't know why, maybe the fear of doing something stupid while crossing the stage, or just finally realizing I really am going to be finished with my bachelor's degree. Whatever it was, it didn't affect me as I strut on through to give thanks and claim my degree!


Reception was nice and seeing my family there was special too. This was my first convocation, I didn't go to my high school one, but I did go to my sister's graduation at York. It was great to see my parents, my sister, my grandparents, and even my uncle with my little cousins there, all to give me hugs and more words of encouragement and congratulations. Then the photo frenzy occurred, though it was unfortunate I couldn't have a picture with all the friends I have made while at Ryerson, but I got it with some.


I'll end this post with some photos (which I saved from my Facebook album and its not the original files cause it would have taken a long time to upload those 8mb file each) and a thank you to Ryerson University for a decent and all the great wonderful people I had the privilege to work and meet to make my experience a surprisingly good 5 years of my young life. 

Sister and Me

Parents and Sister

Grandparents and Me

My cousins and Me 

James and Me

Karen and Me 

Steph and Me

Anna and Me 

Amy and Me 

Team Awesome, helped made summer school worthwhile

Ivan and Me

Missed K Trinh

Seoul 4.

Day four consisted a lot of things... particularly shopping. It did however include a stop at one of the old emperor's palace/temple where we took a couple of pictures. It had a similar design as those from China, but then again Korea has been influenced by China, Japan, and America.

Next was a stop at the popular spot of Myeong-dong...there were literally at least 100 make up stores in that one area. I did also find the Forever 21 in Seoul, which was pretty big like 3 floors and a larger male section. Too bad I couldn't find anything I liked...

At night, I tried going to see the fountain bridge at night, too bad the guide didn't provide much information and I couldn't see anything..I managed to take a couple of night shots though, but wasn't too happy I couldn't see the bridge. Dinner was nice, had authentic Korean barbecue...simply delicious.

Seoul 3.

On day 3, we moved from the Dart resort and drove back to Seoul. But we made a pit stop at this gorgeous herb city where there were vast flowers and beautiful scenery for all. I made a candle with colourful wax and all at their DIY place, and we had a very weird lunch, which I didn't really eat... It was literally flowers and grass plucked from the ground... so I just ate my bowl of rice and kimchi...

From there we drove for another hour to the closest South/North Korean border... it was surreal to visit a place where there was once war and is now a DMZ- demilitarized zone. To see the other side of Korea, it just felt good to be on the South side of it. There were barbed-wire throughout the whole perimeter and armed soldiers on patrol. The memorial picture depicts where South Koreans pray and pay their respects to their loved ones who died in North Korea during the war and was not brought back to South Korea for proper burial.

For dinner that night, we had a hot pot style dinner with pork and chicken with some veggies and tofu... and some more sitting on the floor. My legs were sore after...