Eurotrip 2014 - Berlin [day 13/14]

New Years Eve!

Huzzah!

Good bye 2014!

But, before that, when I woke up this morning there was still a good 19 hours before the clock would hit midnight and the fireworks would go off. If you can do your math, than you've probably figured out that meant I must've woken up at around 4:00AM. I did. My friend had a bit of an emergency that night that required waking up, cleaning bedsheets, and acquiring from medicine from my parents for stomach pains--I think you can connect the dots. I did manage to fall asleep after that event, and I believe I didn't wake up until 9AM that day, but it was another day where I felt mildly exhausted throughout. For many reasons--but this one being the first reason.

Eurotrip 2014 - Berlin [day 12/14]

The day started bright and early--much, much too early. My dad can be occasionally very frustrating to travel with. Very occasionally. He likes to relax, but he also likes to get up early and do things as soon as possible and thus, I found myself being woken up by him at 8:00AM.

Eurotrip 2014 - Berlin [day 11/14]

Day one of Berlin and boy did this day start out early (and therefore exhausting).

So, I actually have a friend in Germany at the moment living in Heidelburg, and when I told her I would be visiting Berlin for a bit we thought about meeting up--after all, what are the chances we will see each other again? She's also quite familiar with  my family, being a friend from way back in those old elementary school days, so my family offered to let her stay at the airbnb apartment we were staying at and join us for our short 3 days in Berlin.

Eurotrip 2014 - Venice/Berlin [Day 1014]

Because our tour had ended, today we slept in. Not super late, obviously, because we didn't know how long breakfast would last, but I don't think we went down until 9AM? 9:30AM?

Regardless, today we were heading to Berlin!... at 7PM at night, so truthfully we technically still had at least half a day left to wander around Venice. My sister, who would not be joining us in Berlin, was leaving by train to head to Rome again at 11:25. Due to this, and the fact that we didn't need to check out of our hotel until noon, me and my brother spent our entire time using the internet downstairs because for once, it was very fast and very reliable. My sister left, my parents went to see her off, my mom managed to buy a pair of (what looked like very warm) boots in the process, and me and my brother sat there like the young generation we are glued to our electronics. Then it was time to go. We left our suitcases at the hotel, checked-out and then went out to walk and find a place to eat lunch.

Eurotrip 2014 - Venice [Day 914]

Oh my goodness -- we actually got to have the entire DAY to ourselves for once! Unbelievable!

Our morning started at 9AM again, where we had a short excursion to an outdoor food market where we met our guide, who was this adorable little old lady who kept saying "yoohoo" to get our attention and humming and singing whenever she wasn't speaking--honestly just the cutest lady ever. I loved her. But anyway, the market. It was nice, the usual market with your fresh seafood and fresh meat and fresh fruit, but obviously we weren't about to buy anything. Then she took us on a walk across the Rialto bridge and then stopped at a courtyard outside one of the houses where Marco Polo actually lived. Again, I must admit, I don't remember what she spoke about. It was cold. I was tired. I just remembered she was adorable. It was also, overall, a very short tour anyway because it ended at around 10:30.

Eurotrip 2014 - Venice [Day 8/14]

Day two of Venice starting bright and early and today was actually quite a nice day. Yesterday was pretty chilly, but today the sun was out so it wasn't so bad walking around.

I want to mention the breakfast of this hotel because they provided a very nice breakfast. They had fresh fruit (yay--although it was mostly pineapples and kiwis and I am slightly allergic to both those things) but they also had entire pears, oranges, and bananas that were free to take--and the pears were delicious! Not only that, but they also had some pasta-salad, mushroom, a solid chunk of ricotta cheese (that my sister liked but just seeing it made me gassy). The mushrooms were delicious though. So good.

But anyway - on to our actual day.

Eurotrip 2014 - Bologna/Venice [Day 7/14]

Christmas Day in Venice! Venice! A city I had spent my childhood only imagining about. So mysterious, so fantastic, so unreal - and I was finally here!

But first with a stop at Bologna.

Also, Venice was cold.

Eurotrip 2014 - Florence/Pisa [Day 6/14]

Christmas Eve! Woo! Leaning Tower of Pisa! Woo!

...

Okay, so maybe I wasn't as excited for this day as I make it sound, but we did get to sleep in. That's always a bonus!

Eurotrip 2014 - Florence/San Gimignano [Day 5/14]

Day two of Florence, starting out bright and early at 8AM to go to the Academia to oggle at David and his glorious buttocks. No, but in all seriousness... oh wait, that is what I did this morning. Spent the morning at the academia learning more about Michelangelo and his four other incomplete statues, as well as learning more about David and the various misfortunes he fell upon while outside. I found it particularly amusing how they tried so hard, in WWII, to protect him. Way to care about your art pieces (but obviously, thank god for that because you should protect your art).

Eurotrip 2014 - Assisi/Florence [Day 4/14]

We (me and my siblings) were hoping we would be able to sleep in today because we weren't leaving for Florence until 8:30, but sadly we had to wake up early to put our luggage out in the hallway for the porters to collect and transport to the bus by 6:45AM. Needless to say, that kind of sucked - but after doing that we trooped down for an early breakfast and then me and my sister crawled by upstairs for another short nap before we had to meet up with the tour group.

Eurotrip 2014 - Pompeii/Naples/Rome [Day 3/14]

6:30AM wake up call, left at 7:30AM for the 2.5, nearly 3hr bus ride to Pompeii. On the bright side, despite having to wake up before the sun had barely risen, it was a super gorgeous day. Clear blue skies, sunshine, and very, very warm.

Eurotrip 2014 - Rome [Day 2/14]

I remember, after being woken up by the shrill tones of the phone on the table beside my bed, why I hated tour groups so much. 7:00AM. Not only that but my mouth was dry as death, and I was ravenous. I slept fine - I don't experience much jetlag, but it still is never a great experience to wake up the next day after a day of flying at ungodly hours like 7AM.

Eurotrip 2014 - Rome [Day 1/14]

December 18th, Montreal. I had just finished and handed in my last term paper two days ago on the 16th, and the  night before that I had spent in a full panic because I couldn't find my passport anywhere and thought I would have to apply for a new one. Luckily, I was able to find the passport - but that one night of panic, terror, and no sleep completely threw me off my track. Before I knew it, it was the day of my flight out to Europe.

I was excited. I was finally going to Italy! A place I had dreamed about going to since childhood.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 10/10]

Here it is, my last week in Okinawa (with a side trip in Hong Kong) and wow. It's been a crazy week, a crazy time... and I think I'll have to make an entirely separate other post later just reflecting on what an amazing experience this has been.

Before that though - at long last, my final week in Okinawa and the end to my summer dream.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 9/10

I had a slight break down this week.

This already sounds like it'll be a packed post like last week doesn't it? Probably not - my post next week will probably the longest and biggest post because it's my last one - but I do have a few things to talk about. So let's begin.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 8/10]

Well, I guess the biggest thing to mention is that after my last entry... I got paid! And I should probably mention right now that my pay is pretty shit. Hourly wage here is 664yen/hr which is about $6.50 CAD - BUT then because I'm on a working holiday visa I get taxed 20.4%. Yep, you saw that correctly, 20.4%. On top of paying for rent and food - which is a lot less than it could be but still.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 7/10]

And here we are, only three weeks left to go - WHAT?!

We'll talk about today first, and then work backwards okay? So I made plans with a coworker to eat pancakes today, which to be honest I wasn't that excited about because I was exhausted yesterday and was not in the mood to wake up "early" to eat pancakes with a person I don't have that much to talk about with. But I did, and ate pancakes, and it was... okay I guess. I was tired, not much appetite, and conversation was okay for the most part I guess. Then I sat around reading the 3rd book in Tamora Pierce's "The Circle Opens" quartet, Cold Fire.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 6/10]

So a bit more drama this week - I'm going home early! It's not because of a serious reason but I just decided this little job in Okinawa is not worth missing two weeks of school for, especially when I need my grades for grad school. That added a bit of drama to my life though because it involved money, and some time spent buying plane tickets to Hong Kong for 3 days so I can get my adult ID card.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 5/12]

The theme of this week is new-roomie drama - YAY! My favourite stuff to deal with.

So the new roomie has been around for a week and so far I've spoken to her once, which was that first conversation we had the first time I met her. Since then all I ever see is her legs when I come back home. I know that my other roomies aren't too fond her though, and because she goes to sleep and wakes up so early she tends to disrupt our daily schedule. I understand there's the whole idea of being considerate to your roomies but when all 5 of your roomies don't go to sleep until around 3 AM in the morning and you decide to sleep at midnight and wake up at 9-10AM... I dunno, I think in this case it's her turn to be a bit more understanding of our schedule.

But that's not the point.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 4/12]

So... you know how I was supposed to get moved to the Aqua Bar? Well - it didn't happen. I got switched with the new Canadian girl that I mentioned came to my restaurant last week, and I'm still working at the restaurant. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind it was, but I'm pretty bumbed out by it because I really hate cleaning tables and from what I understand, at the bar you just make drinks. Although apparently you're outside all the time (and Okinawa is freakin HOT) so that's not so great but... I might sacrifice that level of discomfort if it means my hands won't be covered in food at the end of the day.

With that being said my week hasn't been all that eventful since I had 6 days of work and then a day off two days ago. The biggest thing was that we have another roommate so now there are 6 people in our tiny little apartment! Yay!

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 3/12]

I had a line of day off's this week and am now in the middle of a 6 day stretch - so what stories do I have to tell from my third week in sunny Okinawa?

Well we got four new people who came in (as I might've mentioned from last week) and I still haven't met the guy, but I've met all the girls. One of them works with me at the restaurant - she came from Canada but she's originally Russian.The other two are German, and Chinese but from the UK (Welsh) - they're both bellhops. Not much to say about them (not the gossip-y type), but they're all nice and I get along with them. It's refreshing to have an English speaking person at the restaurant I work at - even if I won't be working there anymore starting tomorrow! There have actually been a lot of new people at the restaurant I'm working at thought - and a lot of them are students (High school part-timers and interns from technical colleges). Due to the amount of days off I had though (11th, 13, 15th) I haven't had too much time to talk to these knew people and now I'm off at another place - kind of sad but also really excited. Can't wait!

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 2/12]

A bit late on the update but another week has passed and boy, what a week.

I had another day off on the 5th of July, but it was largely uneventful - so let's talk about the big thing that did actually happen this week and that is Typhoon Neoguri.

So the news kept saying how Typhoon Neoguri (台風８号) here in Japan was going to be a "super typhoon" coming from the Philippines and would be one of the worst ones in 15 years...... and we still had to go to work. Although to be honest I wasn't complaining because our apartment actually ended up losing power - but still. So let me walk you through the experience I had with Typhoon Neoguri and how... to be honest I was expecting something a lot worse.

Summer 2014 - Okinawa, Japan [Week 1/12]

Hello! I've been in Okinawa for... a bit over a week now actually, but it's been a week since I started working and that's the day I'm counting by.

So, first I guess I should start by explaining what I'm doing in Okinawa in the first place, and the answer is work! I'll be in Okinawa until Sep 10 working as a part-timer in a restaurant at the Rizzan Sea Park Hotel/Resort. I'll be honest, it hasn't been the most fun job in the world, but already within a week I've head a handful of awesome times and have met some amazing people. I'll be updating about my time in Okinawa every week on Wednesday from now, detailing my super amazing job (not) and whatever I did on my days off/when I'm not working. Because this is the first post, it will be kind of long because I have a lot of things to talk about - but I'm pretty sure the next posts I make won't be nearly as long, but I'll try to put in as much as I can remember!

New York Trip - May 2014

May 9, 2014 (Friday)

• Bus at 11:45PM - tried to sleep but had to wake up to cross the border and then again at Albany for a rest stop so really I didn't get much sleep
• Arrived at 8:00AM so I was almost an hour late - met up with mom and ga-jie who came to pick me up and then we went back to the apartment where I slept until 10-ish
• Got bagels are Murrey's bagels
• Went to a grad art show at SVA (School of Visual Arts) in Chelsea and also walked around and visited some local galleries, a park that was above ground
• Bought some cake at some popular cake store that I don't remember and then stopped for coffee - I didn't really have much of an appetite the whole day
• Went to another art show that Yo's friends were in - they had free food so we just had dinner there and then went back to the apartment - the show was really close to the apartment and at the Society of Illustrators (or something like that)

May 10, 2014 (Saturday)

• We were meeting dads high school friend today so we went to his place in Brooklyn  - supposed to meet at 12 but we were kind of late because all woke up late and only left the place at 11:30
• Walked around and went through a food fair, bought some donuts and a taco and then sat around at his apartment for a bit before we went to eat lunch at a pizza place
• Pizza was pretty good but crust at the end was a bit too thick
• Walked across the Brooklyn bridge while Yo went skateboarding - went back to friends place and then went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant which wasn't that great (and had shitty fusion desserts)

May 11, 2014 (Sunday)

• Supposed to meet CheeHung and Daigugu but it was too complicated so we decided not to
• Went to the MET and then met up with ga-jies friend Shruti at around 1:30 before we went to eat lunch at the cafe in the MET which was super expensive (we ordered three desserts and two mains and just shared everything)
• Walked through Central Park to head towards the Museum of Natural History (which apparently isn't even that interesting so we decided not to go - went to look for food instead)
• Me and Yo bought some raw organic super expensive smoothies along the way
• Had afternoon tea - food wasn't that great honestly
• Went to watch Chicago

May 12, 2014 (Monday)

• We were supposed to wake up earlier to go to the MOMA but mom was really tired so again didn't leave until like.. 11 or 12. Walked around the MOMA until 2 and then split up (ga-jie went to meet her friend)
• Rest of us had some hot dogs and then went shopping at Uniqlo
• Headed towards Chinatown so Yo could buy some skate stuff and meet up with ga-jie to head to dinner
• Went to eat dinner at this restaurant near the water that had a nice view of Brooklyn
• Food was alright, dessert was pretty good

May 13, 2014 (Tuesday)

• Flight was at 1PM so I should've arrived at 11AM but dad confused me and said that I had to leave at 9AM (only takes an hour to get to he airport) so I ended up arriving super early - it also took me like.. 5minutes to get through the gate and everything so really I was 2hrs early for my flight
• Going through customs was also instantaneous because they have the machines now

Toronto Visit - May 2014

Friday (May 2, 2014)

• Took 9:30 AM bus which arrived at 3:15, took the subway to Union station to wait for mom and dad
• They did not show up until like.. 5 PM because they had just arrived by plane at 3:30, got their luggage at 4 and it takes like.. An hour to get to Union Station from the airport so I was super bored
• Sat on my backpack at the station eating McDonalds and started to read the first book of Game of Thrones
• Arrived at the apartment, then went out to look for food because mom and dad were starving
• Went to eat at Ki (Japanese restaurant)
• Not bad, order pork ribs, sashimi (Mackeral - ew, salmon, tuna, horsetail), side of mushrooms and asparagus
• The mushrooms/asparagus were SO FREAKIN SALTY I NEARLY HAD A HEART ATTACK
• Mackeral has a really fishy taste as sashimi
• Sake tastes better hot than cold

Saturday (May 3, 2014)

• Supposed to go to Lawrence Market for breakfast but mom and dad didn't wake up until 10:30 and we didn't end up leaving the apartment until 12:30 only because we were meeting Yo and Kat for lunch at 1 PM
• Walked over to the AGO/OCAD area and then to pho - Yo didn't come
• Went to see Yo's art show (a lot of stuff to see, only made it down 3 floors out of 6... Well 3.5)
• Went to eat dessert with Kat (Asian desserts - black glutinous rice in coconut milk with mango)
• Went to Guu (Izakaya) and had takoyaki, gyutan, salad, salmon tataki
• Kat actually had to go to Walmart to buy something for her sister and had to leave early - at around 8:30 but mom and dad were eating dinner with one of dads friends so they weren't going to be back until 9 and I had nothing to do
• Wandered around downtown for 1hr-ish (took a square up University to Queen St. And then walked over to Bay and zigzagged back down to York and where the apartment was
• Made it there by 9:45 and mom and dad still weren't there - they didn't show up until 10:45!!
• Apparently they got lost and were waiting for a train at the wrong station and then the station they were at wasn't Union so they had to walk back down and whatever but OMFG

Sunday (May 4, 2014)

• Mom and dad had really early morning dim sum at somewhere super far away (dim sum at 10:30 they had to leave at 9 AM) - so they left and I stayed and slept in, they gave me the keys this time
• Seeing Kat, Sam, Jenn, Rachel for Snakes and Ladders and dinner at Korea Town
• Played Cards Against Humanities and a game called Snakeoil (REALLY FUNNY)
• Went to eat dinner at Korean restaurant across the street

Monday (May 5, 2014)

• Had dim sum with family except we were kind of late, met with Yo at Finch st. And then took a bus to dim sum
• Headed to the zoo although it took WAY LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE (google lied!) - took a bus and then a train and then a super long bus ride - arrived at 3
• Stayed at the zoo until 6:30
• Saw pandas!! :D
• A farting rhino
• Lots of other animals (lions... Etc.)
• Had dinner at the CN Tower - 8:15 reservation but we arrived a bit late and probably didn't get seated until 8:40-ish and we were all STARVING BY THEN
• 3 course meal: cauliflower soup, smoked pork, sour apple crumble
• Dad had rabbit and concluded it tastes like super dry chicken
• Mom had a big-ass steak

Tuesday (May 6, 2014)

• Woke up at 7:50 to catch my 9:30 AM train
• Helped some lady at the station with her luggage
• Started reading Game of Thrones