Porridge

 


Still sick. Went to the Doctor's today, and he told me there isn't anything he can do for me coz it's a viral infection (how come there's no cure for viral infection??) and prescribed me more rest + more water.

So, I concluded that I gota nurse myself back to health since I got no one to manja with. I've been missing several meals last few days just coz I haven't had any appetite. I've been craving for porridge though, and so, today decided to make my first ever chicken porridge! It was really yummy and successful I think, though my grandma's porridge will always be the best!

p.s. porridge here is referred to Chinese rice porridge and not White's cereal porridge.

Happy Chinese New Year!

 


That's a massive angpow, something which I would love to receive on Chinese New Year!

For those not in the know, yes, I really am a Chinese. The reason I am clarifying this is that a couple of days ago, I had a conversation with a Chinese friend of mine, and it went like this:

Chinese Friend: So, you don't really celebrate Chinese New Year right...I mean you aren't really a "Chinese."

Me: Ummm, yeah, I actually do celebrate Chinese New Year. Though I'm from Malaysia, I'm not Malay, as people often think I am. I'm a Chinese Malaysian, having my heritage roots from Chinese.

It's Chinese New Year today, and I'm just missing home terribly, and in reminiscience of how merry and big a festival this is in a Chinese family. On the eve of Chinese New Year, every Chinese family would go to their paternal extended family for a 'reunion dinner.' It is really during this time of the year when you get to see all of your family members from your father's side (umm, kinda patriarchal) and sitting together for dinner. The dinner is usually very sumptuous; a six to eight course dinner with expensive Chinese delicacies. One of the moral dilemma for me during this dinner is eating the shark fin's soup. Thinking of how cruel it is to kill the poor shark just for the tasteless fins just stirs my conscience...however, if I don't eat it, it will be an insult to the older family member who prepared it. Anyway, I always eat it.

Then on the first day of CNY, everyone would be wearing red (for good luck) and going for pai nin (house visiting) first to close family members, then to extended family members. CNY is just a lot about exchanging gifts (when you go house visiting), eating Chinese delicacies at all the houses you visit, and most importantly, getting ang pows! Ang pows are red packets given by married couple to children/single family members for good luck. It's filled with $$, just as a token and fun of it. And of course, that is why children love CNY, coz they get money to spend! CNY extends for an entire month and it is tradition to visit every single extended family member,which is a good way to connect with family. Simply said, Chinese New Year is all about family!

Well, here's wishing you Gong Xi Fa Cai, Hung Pao Na Lai!

A real sigh

Me still sick. There's been waaayyy too much cough mixture, tylenol, sleep, and kleenex for the past two days. *sniff sniff*.

I hate being sick.

Life is weird

I think life is really weird.

I had one of the worse days in my life today, externally looking that is. I woke up with a major headache, fever, cough and cold. But I had to drag myself out of bed coz I really wanted to make it to class. Lectures went in a blur, and then I had an appointment with my ex-BUEC 442 Professor and the Chair of the course. Long story, but unfortunately, I am really officially kicked out of the course, not because the Professor wouldn't give me a consent (she would, but she has no power) but because the administration didn't want to do the extra paper work. I was frustrated, because it would change my entire spring/summer plans, but surprisingly, I took it very well. I had appointments the entire afternoon, felt very ill, but after Joliane prayed for me, the fever left at 6pm, and I was able to go for Chinese New Year dinner not feeling so sick anymore. Thank God. Had a good time, but I think I drank way too much chinese tea, it's 2am right now and I can't sleep. But surprisingly, though my day looked as if it was disastrous and all, I actually don't feel all that pissed off or like tearing my hair out. I am perfectly A-okay, very calm about all these changes and it's really by God's grace. "For my grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in your weaknesses."

So, as I was saying, life is weird. I'm still not entirely sure about my spring/summer plans yet. But there is a high probability of me going back to Malaysia to attend my cousin's wedding, and that she asked me to be her bridesmaid (though I have no idea what bridesmaid actually do). That isn't weird. The weird thing is, my friend in Msia just told me on MSN that she's getting married in June. I am just feeling so weird at the thought of attending my friend's wedding, just because we're off the same age. But I am really happy for her, and would love to attend her wedding if I am back home.

I think life is just weird, things changes so fast in life. You just gota take it and move on in life.

Kicked Out

Grace got kicked out of her class. Yes, can you believe that? This is disastrous. It appears that I have a course, BUEC 442 which needs a pre-requisite of BUEC 342 (which I am taking this semester) or consent from the Professor, which I didn't know about. Okay, I admit it, it is my fault, I should have read the huge university calendar more carefully...sighsss. I found out yesterday night when I was log on to the ULearn School of Business personal page to print out notes then found out the link to the course website disappeared. I didn't exactly panick, but was worried. I proceeded to go on Bear Tracks Registration Page to see if I was still in the class, and no, I've been removed from the course. SIGHSSSS...sighss. Anyway, I talked to the Professor today, sent her my unofficial transcript, and she said I better stick with taking Buec 342 this semester. *cry*...I just replied her email to ask her to consider my past grades, and seriously, it's not like WOW this course needs the pre-requisite THAT bad. So, please please pray that she will change her mind and consent me taking this course.

Sighss...

Congratz Harper!

We have a new Prime Minister in Canada! Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party won a minority government in the Parliament. Yes, another minority government in Canada...wonder how that will turn out, now twice in one and a half years. I'm sure there will be a lot of working together between Conservatives and the NDP in the coming days. We will see where Stephen Harper will lead Canada to.

Terrorist or not?

Just got out from my BLAW 442 lecture. We were learning about international law on terrorism today, and using law definitions to prove/disprove Bush being a terrorist or not. It's soooo cool! Any guesses if he's a terrorist or not??

Trust

 


My weekend away with Navs at Nordegg was excellent. Overlooking part of the Rockies by a frozen lake, the beautiful scenery just amazes me of our Creator. The magnificent view touched me with such a deep sense of serenity and peace. The Lord spoke to me with one word over and over again: Trust, trust, trust.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

I will trust You, Lord.

Faith

 


Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it.

Meaning in Life

I walk with You
wherever You will go
Through tears and joy I’ll trust in You
And I will live In all of Your ways
And Your promises forever

Jesus, I believe in You
Jesus, I belong to You
You’re the reason that I live
The reason that I sing
With all I am

Let me never lose sight of that, Lord.

Where are we heading?

Have I ever told you that Business School is scary? Well, if I haven't, I'll tell you now: Business School is scary! It's still the first week of semester, not to mention a Friday afternoon, and here I was walking in the Winspear Library to read newspapers, and what is everyone in library doing? They are doing hard core studying with hands to their temples concentrating on reading their text, while some worked on their laptop. Scary.

The first article which caught my eye today was the Liberal commissioned study done on the possibility of decriminalizing polygamy and enshrining polygamous rights (as a marriage contract possibly) in the law. Now, call me conservative, but the whole same sex marriage law legislated by Parliament still has a bad after taste, and now another law on polygamous marriage? What is the world coming down to? I just don't know. I am no polygamous hater, after all it is practiced by many religions and some parts of the world today. Islam is one such religion who practices it, however, a man can only take another wife IF and ONLY IF he can treat the other wife in the same manner that he treats the current one. So, although the Islam law permits one to take up as many as four wives, he has to treat all four wives equally. Now, is it possible for a man to treat one woman EQUALLY as the other in all aspects? A feminist Muslim would tell you that the answer is no, and that this polygamous practice was done in a day when men went to war, and there was a huge disparity between the ratio of men and women. So ta da, it was good for women to be taken care of by men (and protected) and thus came this practice.

In today's perspective though, I just don't know how one can justify a polygamous marriage. This is the second time I've said it, but if there is anything I respect about Stephen Harper at all, it is his bold belief and political front on the traditional meaning of marriage: between a man and woman. This platform of his has caused much controversy especially when dealing with the constitutional rights of a homosexual person. However, what one thinks is the truth must be said out loud. And, that is where the Conservatives differ with all the other parties in their stance on moral values.

You, as a Canadian, will decide where this country is going in terms of moral values.

?

Life is complex.
There are just things in life that are confusing.

School isn't too bad

University of Alberta 


UofA  



To come to think of it, I think I really enjoy school. Of course, this is only the beginning of semester and I was able to catch up on sleep in the last few days, which was really good. Naturally, the first few days of a new sem entails no lectures, but it is back to the reality of an institution all about money when buying three texts costs CAD$383.00 not to mention I have two more texts which haven't arrived at the Bookstore. The lines at the Bookstore was extremely painfully long to the extent that they gave us a free Max 5 Hershey Chocolate Bar in compensation - which is good for poor students like us, of course.

I think I am really going to enjoy this semester's courses as it focusses a lot on International Business - the Economics, Finance and Legal side of it. I've also chosen African history as my option, which I think is going to be really interesting and in enhancing my understanding the political situation of the day.

So far, I have no complaints, school is as good as it gets...

International Centre Pics 


p.s. The International Centre Pics were taken in Fall for publication but I don't think it was...just models wannabes, haha.

i don't wana go back to school

i don't feel like going back to school. i'm not prepared to go back to school. why does time fly so quickly? i feel horrible today...my back hurts and my body aches after 10 hours of housework yesterday. i don't feel well. can i not go to school tomorrow?

No more child-play Grace, you gota be an adult. Okay...
Guess I gotta wake up tomorrow, try to feel fresh and start the new Winter Semester. I didn't even know what I'm taking until 10 seconds ago when I checked my schedule online. I haven't even printed out my schedule yet. What sucks is that I have a Tuesday and Thursday class at 8am. Shites. So early...but since I registered for it 6 months ago, it must be the only class available for the course.

I'm taking my usual full load of five courses this sem, but am currently registered in six; I registered in two option classes and will see which one I prefer best.

Courses I am taking this sem:

BLaw 442 - International Business Law
Buec 342 - International Business
Buec 442 - Global Business Environment
Fin 412 - Operation of Financial Institution

Options that I've chosen:

Hist 247 - Africa: Colonialism-Self Rule

or

Hist 383 - Civilization and Culture Early China

So, I'm gona try the two option classes out and see which one I like best.

i don't wana go back to school

Normality?

I woke up and glanced out my window.

It is snowing lightly.

Guess I am back to reality...

Back in E-town.

Why I don't like Greyhound

1. Bus depot in Calgary is out of nowhere - non accessible
2. A jump in the bus if it's not full ideology
3. No movies onboard, no snacks, drinks or NEWSPAPERS
4. Schedules are not fixed most of the time

Whereas, Red Arrow beats them to it by doing number one to four in a more professional manner for a little bit more of $$. Plus, their bus is nicer and have bigger and more comfortable seats. At the very beginning of the ride, they have this safety precaution video, very similar to an inflight safety video ending with, "Thank you for choosing Red Arrow. We hope to see you again." Wow...that for a bus service, ain't that cool?

So anyway, today I took the Greyhound back coz my aunt had a ticket which was going to expire soon. I'm not trying to be complaining, but the whole trip back was really quite memorable. Long ques. Switching lines coz we were sent to another bus. Going to the counter to "upgrade" your seats by paying more. Anyway, I ended up having the second last seat on the bus, with an empty seat next to mine. I didn't even mind that much, and was so tired I just went to sleep. Halfway through the journey, a 50-year old Polish man came next to my seat (while I was sleeping) and talked to me. Yeah, how rude is that? He proceeded to ask if I would like to be his girlfriend. Being half asleep, I muttered a "no thank you." Somehow, he didn't get my dazed half asleep look and continued talking to me for the whole second leg of the trip. He was going on about his whole life story in Poland then his immigration to Canada, his job, his three Mercedes (not sure if it's true or not), and blah blah blah. Of course, I was polite (but sighing inside). Finally before we reached, he asked if I have a boyfriend. Yes, I have to admit this - I sinned, I lied...I have a fictitious boyfriend. The bus arrived, we went down to get our luggage, and he completely didn't leech on me anymore. Yay, a lie works.

Anyway, I'm going to take the Red Arrow the next time.

Conservatives at the lead?

This is incredible. The Conservatives are leading at 36.2% as of the latest pollster done on January 3rd and 4th. The Liberals are lagging behind with 30.4%. Would it be possible that the Conservatives might really garner enough support for a minority government this time round? Stephen Harper have even hinted that if a Conservative minority government happens, he may be working with the NDP a little bit to keep his power.

You know...though the NDP is the third most important opposition party in Canada and may not form government in the near future, they do have a lot of power. Their power does not lie in the glamorous side of having Jack Layton as the Prime Minister or forming Cabinet; but their power lie in the fact that a minority Conservative or Liberal government need their votes in the House of Commons. So, for the reigning minority party to keep power, their bills need to be passed in Parliament and thus they turn to the NDP. This way, the NDP has a lot of bargaining power as how we last seen Martin yielded to many of Layton's utmost desires.

Politics work in such a weird way, eh. A Liberal or Conservative minority government would flirt with the NDP and yes, the NDP would take the most out of it to get the important bills they want passed in Parliament.

The Conclusion?

A minority Liberal or Conservative government will have a touch of socialism in them as when the winning party court the NDP to stay in power.

The D-word

Death. What a morbid word. With such a posting, I'm pretty sure I'm scaring away all my readers, if there are any left. The cancer is eating up my aunt, and her condition is deteriorating rather quickly. We can see the effects of her lung cancer progressing rapidly by her weasing breathing - it scares me to death.

Someone recently told me that death is a beautiful thing. I have never thought of it that way as death is usually associated with everything that is bad and dark. The person continues to say that life is celebrated at the very beginning through the birth - a miracle itself. We then celebrate the person's life year by year through a birthday celebration, then marriage, children, grandchildren and the last stage being death. It is a complete circle.

If only everyone could see death being a celebration instead of a depressing state. Could it be possible to see death that way? I am torn in between. A part of me would be depressed with the demise of my aunt, but a part of me wants her to go in peace - to no longer suffer.

Death to many is scary because of the uncertainty that it brings - what happens after death? Do we just stop functioning physically and mentally? Is there a spirit within each one of us? What if there is a hereafter? Or karma?

My newfound friend is right - death can be a beautiful thing, but to me, that is only if there is hope hereafter. And hope comes with embracing God's love for each one of us. If I have to, I will be politically incorrect to state my belief that The Bible holds the Truth and it writes:

I have come in order that you might have life - life to the fullest
John 10:10

Life to the fullest starts here and now, and for eternity.

I thank you Lord, for life and hope.

Sometimes

Sometimes I feel tired...
Sometimes I don't want to live anymore...

How does one respond to that?

2-0-0-6

It's the New Year and naturally everyone wishes you "Happy New Year!" But does the New Year always promise us a new happy chapter of our lives? What if it doesn't? What if this is the year of a dramatic occurance? Will our hopes and dreams be dashed and begone by the wind?

No, I choose to believe that the new year will be a beginning of something good though challenges will come my way. It is the bad which causes us to know and taste what is good.

Happy New Year peeps!