In this page, you will get to explore the mind, events and feelings of a Chun Jui... ok, fine, judging from the past 22 years, my life is far from what you call "eventful" (in fact, "dull" might the be more appropriate adjective) but I'll try to keep my entries interesting!
Wednesday, October 23, 2002
Happy Birthday, Berlyn! I'm sorry I couldn't join you and your friends tonight for dinner at Marche's nor clubbing on Friday night. I hope you that you have a great time though, and at least we got to catch up today after JMC (even if it was just for an hour and you guys just basically watched me eat. =P). I hope you like the bag-- I was to tempted to keep it for myself! =)
Anybody ever watch the Cantonese TV series, "A Taste for Love"? I've watched it before but when I watched it again when it was showing on TV, it seemed a lot better than what I remembered it to be. Maybe it's because it gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling when they kept on showing scenes of Lamma Island-- we went there when I went to Hong Kong in 2001! It brought back so many memories everytime they showed the pier, the ocean, the seafood restaurants, etc... =) I think it's also because I'm such a sucker for happy endings, no matter how cheesy. =P Maybe it's because I can sort of relate to the female main character's experience....
I'm so nervous about my seminar tomorrow!! What if they ask questions I don't know how to answer?? What if I run out of time (I have so much information!)?? It's gonna be a busy day tomorrow: work in the morning, then off to the office to pick up the homework for this Saturday's class, then a quick lunch at home, then off to school, my seminar presentation, then the Grad Studies/OISE open house, and trying to squeeze in some time to meet up with Moaz. *phew*
Message to friends: Who wants to hang out this weekend? I haven't seen so many of you in a really, really long time! I miss all of you guys! =P
I miss that feeling. When will I get to experience that feeling again?
Tuesday, October 22, 2002
Boy, am I ever gonna study my bum off from now on for tests and exams!! I mean, I studied pretty much the whole weekend for my midterm tonight but I didn't count on my memory failing me!! =( Plus, I'm probably guilty of being too confident about this test because the material was seemingly so easy to understand. And it is, it's just remembering which author said what argument that got to me tonight when I was writing the test... I understand the arguments, I went to class and paid attention, did the readings and took notes while studying but I still couldn't remember some stuff. And maybe the four months of summer vacation has made my test-writing skills a little rusty because another big problem I encountered tonight was my timing. Why, oh, did I spend an HOUR writing the answer to a ten mark question when I had THREE more to do in the remaining hour?!?! Sheesh.. you would think after three years of this, I would finally get the hang of it... =( Oh well, I'll remember that for the next test.
Pet Peeve of the Day: cyclists who cycle on the street yet seem to think they're entitled to enjoy the privileges of a pedestrian. I'm sorry but if you choose to use a mode of transportation that occupies the street, then you should be treated as a motorist and you should behave like a motorist!! That means, you STOP at a red light and go when it's a green light!! Sheesh. Now, this frustration with these cyclists has been brewing inside of me for a long time everytime I see one committing one of those "sins" I just listed but today, after my sad midterm, the last thing I needed was for a cyclist to run into me! Dude, it's a red light for you, green light for me, the pedestrian!!! I had just stepped off the curb onto the street and stopped a split second right before a stupid cyclist nearly rammed into me, going against a red light! And the nerve of that guy who simply smirked and called out, "Sorry!" over his shoulder as he continued on his run against the red, as I steadied myself over a near heart attack of being run over by a damn bike!! arghhh.... =/ But they put up this fuss when they complain about being run off the street by car drivers. Yes, car drivers shouldn't run you, the cyclist, over but you also have to behave a like a responsible motorist too, if you want the respect of car drivers and pedestrians.
Ok, enough venting. =) In other news, I have just joined the Undergraduate Sociology Student Union (USSU) execuive, holding the Publicity position. I hope that I can give enough of my time to the union to make some sort of contribution but it's gonna be a struggle between my two jobs and classes. I hope I can at least make it to some meetings... sorry, Gol, if I can't give as much time as you would like me to...but thanks for letting me join the union! =)
Monday, October 21, 2002
I'm taking a break from studying non-stop since the weekend (well, except for eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom and going to work)... ugh. I'm so sick of studying! But, my midterm is tomorrow evening and I just started studying for it Saturday night at 11 pm! Not to mention my seminar is on Thursday... so nervous about that!! =/
Last night, though, I gave myself a huge break to watch the Korean TV series, "All About Eve", after studying for nine hours straight. It was the final episode and I was so sad to see it end. =P I don't even know why I liked the show so much-- it was kinda dumb in some parts but somehow, I got addicted to it. And I apparently have pretty good taste because I found out that this show was voted the Best TV Drama series in Korea in 2000. =) I guess I just liked it because of the sweet love story between two of the main characters. heehee... It doesn't hurt either that the main male character is so good-looking either! His name is Jang Dong Gun, by the way... =) Apparently, he's one of the most popular actors in South Korea. Chae Rim, the actress who plays his love interest in the show, is really popular too. I like her-- she's so cute! Anyway, I'm still looking for the theme songs in that show that I can download... so far, no luck. Maybe it's because I don't know what the names of the songs are... =P
Ok, enough of that. I just put up a new song in the main page of this website and although it takes a while to load (sorry! I couldn't shrink it any smaller!), please be patient and wait for the song to come on. It's by Faye Wong, one of my most favourite Chinese singers,and it's absolutely beautiful. I don't mean to sound corny but it really is because of the lyrics. I wish I could write Chinese text so I could type in the lyrics... translating it into English won't do it any justice at all either. Anyway, just listen to it and if you understand Mandarin, then you'll know what I mean! By the way, that song is dedicated to everyone I care about, I hope you all know who you are! =) Awww....
Viv sent me a really cute e-Greeting and some of you may have gotten it from me too. It's a Sanrio card, and it's titled "The Scare Which Project". Click here to see it! So cute! (Remember to turn up the volume so you can hear it too.)
One last thing, Congrats, Golnaz for receiving (or about to) the sociology award! All your hard work and perservence paid off--- I'm proud of you!
Oh, and Happy Belated Birthday, Jane! Hope you had a good one but hopefully, when we're not so busy, we can all get together for a post-bday celebration, ok? =)
Monday, October 14, 2002
Happy Thanksgiving! I can't believe it's Thanksgiving already!! Soon, it will be winter and I will be typing "Merry Christmas" in here... Anyway, we had our big dinner last night and ate leftovers tonight. And, ahem, guess WHO cooked Thanksgiving dinner?? C'est moi!! =P No, as far as I'm concerned, nobody got food poisoning, maybe a little indigestion but we're all still breathing, hehe. I made "Ham with baked pineapple and mustard au jus"-- impressive, eh? I made the same thing for Easter this year, and that tasted good last time, so I thought I would try it again for Thanksgiving (and Christmas, and Chinese New Year, and Easter again...=P) It was actually quite a classic "Chun Jui Moment" because yesterday morning, I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had put the recipe for the ham, so it took a lot of ransacking before I could finally locate it. Luckily though, I wasn't cooking for that many people (just the four of us), so the ham wasn't big at all and didn't require that much cooking time. Dinner turned out really good, with my dad's famous potato salad, Mom's famous barbequed ribs (she marinated them, I cooked them), and my Pillsbury croissants (I had no time for baking them from scratch!)-- no, my brother didn't contribute anything to the dinner except for consuming a huge amount of it! Anyway, I really enjoyed last night because my family was all together for the holiday. =)
Because today is the actual holiday, I thought it would be nice if there was an aroma of pies/cakes/cookies baking in the oven. I had originally planned to bake the apple tart that I made a couple of times before but since we didn't end up going apple-picking this year, I didn't have the apples to make it. So, I thought I would bake a lemon meringue pie instead. Have I ever tried it before? Nope but it looked easy enough (well, Martha made it look easy on TV... JUST JOKING, guys!! Stop sending me Martha Stewart- related emails to me, people!!! =P )... I was also excited to use the four-in-one machine that my dad had lugged home from work a while ago. I was actually looking forward to using the food processor, how lame is that?? Anyhow, the food processor did NOT work (the metal blade for some reason would not rotate) and ended up taking up a lot of my time trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with it. A couple of hours later (I'm serious, it really took me a couple of hours to make this darned pie!!), when I was FINALLY at the last step, making the meringue, the darned meringue wouldn't stiffen even with the help of the electric mixer and the whisk. I still don't know where I went wrong but all I know is that it took me soooo long and--- it was worth it! It didn't look like the lemon meringue in the picture but it still tasted pretty good, surprisingly. My whole family finished the whole pie after dinner, and Dad, stop pretending it tasted bad-- you had a lot of it!! =P
I went to watch "Sweet Home Alabama" last night. Yes, a chick flick with a predictable ending but hey, it's a feel good movie with no brains required, so why not? Other movies I wanna watch are "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Spirited Away", a Japanese anime that was featured at the Toronto Film Festival. I doubt I would actually find the time to actually go see them, though... Oh well, school comes first. =(
Sabrina, sorry for waking you up this morning when I called you! But I'm glad we talked-- thanks so much for everything you said. It really means a lot!
Saturday, October 12, 2002
I just came home from a twenty-gazillion course Chinese banquet dinner of a "relative" (a very complex relation to our family). I am stuffed and ready to crash any second but I thought I would wait a little longer for the food to digest a bit more, so I here I am, writing this entry. This little event was slightly exciting because it was an opportunity for me to get dressed up a bit-- haven't done that in a long, long time! It was kinda fun getting dressed up, although this is definitely something I would only do maybe once, or at the most, twice a year. Too much hassle and too much "What shoes am I going to wear??" (and also, "What should I do with my hair??"). Nonetheless, this gave me an excuse to go shopping for a dressy top yesterday, so it turned out ok. =) It was also quite interesting too when I unearthed some long forgotten treasures in my drawer,some really pretty accessories that I had bought ages ago but had never had the opportunity to wear them. =P As for the banquet itself, the food was decent, though I've tasted better. The people at our table, my family, my uncle's family and the host and his family are all comfortable with each other, so we weren't stuck with annoying people. The table next to ours, however, had a really annoying woman who kept on shouting out comments to the emcee when he was talking, and apparently, she thought she was being humourous. =P The only embarrassing thing out of the whole evening was when the emcee introduced each of us at the two "head" tables. We were seated on the stage, so everyone could watch us eat... When the emcee introduced each of us, we had to kind of stand up and acknowledge our "audience". Before the emcee got to me, I was wondering how he would introduce me since he doesn't know me from before. But, he just read from a cue card, so I kind stood up and gave a tiny wave. How embarrassing. =P And I felt sooo old when I saw my cousin's kids! The last time I saw them was five years ago when I visited them in San Francisco and man, what a difference! I didn't even recognize them! The older kid is now fifteen years old-- I remember being fifteen! Not only did I feel old but also SHORT. When I was eleven (the second kid is that age), I was probably barely 5 feet tall. This kid though, is probably only an inch (if that much) shorter than me.. =( Anyway, I will post some pictures later!
Today was a fun day also because I went to karaoke in the afternoon with my brother again, who came back for the long weekend. We went to MHQ (the only place that's open so early!! hahaha...), and we sang our little hearts out. So much fun! However, our two hour session today seemed like nothing compared to when we went to karaoke last time for FOUR hours straight!! hahaha....THAT was great! Parking at Pacific Mall on a Saturday afternoon wasn't so fun though!! argghh... why is all of Toronto's Chinese population at Pacific Mall on the weekends?? Nobody even really goes into the stores (I had observed that before when I was writing my Sociology paper on the Toronto Chinese population) anyway!
=( Our unofficial 2nd annual apple-picking outing isn't going to happen after all. All of us wanted to go and take a break from midterms, papers and stuff but unfortunately, we just couldn't afford to. Last year was so much fun and so relaxing... oh well, I guess I'll just have to see my friends later when all of us aren't so busy.
One last thing before signing off: Happy Belated Birthday, Kendrick! Hope you celebrated it, although I know you're busy with papers and your Wushu stuff. May you always be happy! =)
Thursday, October 10, 2002
Isn't it amazing how it takes just one person to change your life for the better? And lucky for me, I've been blessed with the presence of more than one of these amazing people in my life. Things aren't always easy (it's never easy for anyone) and periodically, you wonder why that particular person is in your life when he/she (unintentionally) does things that disappoint you. But, in hindsight and with maturity, I've been able to assess and take stock of my life and all the people who have touched it. When I think about the person I was before, I'm immediately amazed at how much I've changed after certain people have entered my life. Thank goodnesss all of them have been positive, good people, too. =) It's amazing how simple words of encouragement sound much better and so much more believeable coming from these kinds of people. I am so glad that even after some of the downs I've experienced in the past year, everything has still turned out pretty good. Not what I had expected or hoped for initially but what I have now isn't that bad either. I'm sorry if today's entry sounds a little cryptic but these are truly my feelings and thoughts for today. And one last thing, thank you to everyone who has been a positive influence on me! =P
Monday, October 7, 2002
Nothing much has happened since the last entry but I'll try to think of something to say. =) Well, let's see... my workload and schedule has started to pick up and my migraines have come back to haunt me. Preschool began the fall session last week and as usual, almost every single new kid cried hysterically and by the end of the week, the preschool REEKED of vomit from kids who got a little too worked up. *gag* Sorry. =P In terms of my other job, teaching grade two English on Saturdays, is going ok-- except for the fact that I hate the principal!! She treats all of her staff like crap, with zero respect and trust for us. Ugh....but I'm gonna grit my teeth and tough it out until the end of my contract, and I'm outta there. I know I can do my job well and don't deserve to be treated like I'm an incompetent idiot.
Here's some food for thought: Is timing more important in love relationships or is the existence of mutual feelings for one another more important? Of course, the best is if every relationship had both elements but the truth of the matter is, that's not always the case in the real world. You have to be really lucky to find yourself in a relationship that occurs at the right time with the person you have feelings for. So, then, is it correct to think of love as being analogous to the art of gambling? How do you know that the one you're with or the one you have your eye on is not going to break your heart? It's a gamble, isn't it? Which is exactly why I am not in a relationship now or am I actively looking for "him". I have never ever been lucky in any any form of gambling. That is why I rarely gamble even when I'm in a casino. I mean, when you gamble your money, you're just risking something external to you but when you gamble your heart... well, you know what I'm getting at. But I'm optimistic. Even if I don't win anything now, I know that I will be lucky some day. =P
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