Coming home tomorrow.
Hello friends, I have a million and one stories to tell you about my adventures in Europe so far... but I can definitely say that everything has been EXHAUSTING. I only have ten minutes left until my internet session is done so I will try my best to type out as much as I can...
We landed in Dublin, Ireland and had three hours before our plane to Scotland. We weren't originally going to go because Ira didn't get her Ireland passport in time, but we asked and they let us go out of the city for a few hours without a problem. So I fulfilled my lifelong dream and toured downtown Dublin where all the shopping malls were.
We then took Ryanair to Glasgow, Scotland. This is where we met up with Jackie's childhood friend, Summer and we checked into our single dorm-style rooms. We toured the city, ate HAGGIS (SO DISGUSTING) and the national Scottish drink of IRNBRU and all I can say was that this town was very modern and reminded me of downtown Montreal.
The next day, we took an hour long train to Edinburgh where this special International Festival was happening and it was AMAZING. Basically, the festival was happening where all the historic buildings were on High Street on the hill and then we toured the Edinburgh castle before heading back to Glasgow.
We took an overnight train from Glasgow to Birmingham, England (why? I will describe later when I have more time) and then took a three hour bus to London and landed this morning at 11AM. We checked into our sketchy ass nasty hostel, which is where I am right now. We spent the whole day touring London on one of those double decker busses, and also went on a boat cruise on the Thames River. We walked around for a long time and saw some really amazing things which I will describe at another time. We're about to go to bed now.
Upcoming plan is two more days in London (tomorrow we're visiting Jackie's cousin) and then on Friday, we meet up with Lilian and Swati in Paris - YAY! See you guys soon! Miss you all!!!
On Tuesday, I finished my exam by noon (I walked in Marilyn and walked out the hunchbank of notre dame - damn you retarded 1E1 tables). I know I was going to have an adventure but I didn't really feel up for doing much of anything haha. I ran errands all day and by night, Ira went to school to study while I stayed home to pack.
Around 10:30PM, James came over and brought me an ice cap and we had a reaaaaaaaaaaaaly nice talk outside for an hour. =) When he left, I was about to take apart my desk but I realized I didn't have the "L" tool (which I now know is called an allen wrench - trying to explain what it was to 4 different people without knowing what it's called was not fun).
My plan: take apart my desk and go to sleep at 1AM. How naive I was!!!
What happened: I needed the allen tool so I went to Jackie's to pick it up and Ira told me to get her bubbletea. Jackie INSISTED on coming with me (apparently he was very bored at home LOL) and we brought Ira and Cyrus ice cream instead. They were talking about how Penny left to see the meteor showers, so the three of us went to solarium to look too. There was too much light so we walked a little further but it wasn't dark anywhere! We ended up walking and walking, all the way to Waterloo park (and getting super lost in the meantime) where everyone else was. The rest of the night we watched meteor showers and in total, I saw five! It's so fast and it rarely happens so I was SUPER EXCITED.
So yeah, I took apart my desk and went to sleep but at 5AM!!
Wednesday, I packed and cleaned everything by noon. Kevin coincidentally came up to get his things and he gave me a ride to home hardware to get some packing tape. Kevin was so nice, he helped me move some of the really heavy stuff!! My parents remembered him from the first day of school, where we were all moving in at the same time. Fast forward one year later, and we're all moving out... time goes by so quick!
I got back to Mississauga around 1:30PM and my parents took me to Tremendous where we had $11 dimsum between the three of us! (All I can think about is that $100 meal at Cameron we had between the four of us...my goodness). Now I am home, the babies are here and make me happy, my room has stretch marks now because it's jam packed with my crap, and then... off to Europe on Saturday.
What the frig am I going to do with my life??!?!
AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
**EDIT
I am fine now.
Pictures from Hendry's birthday...
Eating at my new favourite restaurant... CHINA LEGEND! Why did I have to "discover" how awesome you were a week before I leave Waterloo? Why do you tempt me oh China Legend with your deliciousness?!
Bowling FUN! What an amazing day HAHAHA. Wooooooh go Ira, "do it for the greens!!!" (P.S. she did not end up doing it for the greens at all.)
Me and my favourite person of all time, the most friendliest, happiest, most fun-loving guy ever. Ira and Jacey both said that me and James are very similar in personality and I don't really see why but I take it as a compliment for sure!!!
The birthday boy, Hendry Biantoro!!! So happy and cheerful, I'm sure he had the best birthday ever!!!
P.S. Not going to Korea in September anymore.
I wanted this weekend to be pure studying, but I had a lot of nice distractions to remind me that I only have two more days before I move away from Waterloo forever. I can't wait to be done with school, but I also can't seem to tear myself away from the place I once called a shithole.
I am going to miss it so much. I am going to miss everyone so much.
Yesterday, Jackie had an "end of the summer BBQ" but for a lot of people, it was a last goodbye before we all go our separate ways. Of all the beautiful days we had this week, it decided to rain a mother, but it was all good. I only stayed for a couple of hours because I had to go study, but it was really fun - tons of food, friends, drinks, music, WII! I am going to miss these crazy people.
Tonight, Mike and Jacey invited us over for special dinner. He cooked me all my favourite foods!!! His special croutons dressed with vinegar, french onion soup and RISOTTO!!! Me and Ira brought over ice cream cake that said "Mike and Jacey... YOU ROCK!" which was quite embarassing telling the Baskin Robbins guy to write.
Back to school studying right now. I am finished my exam at noon on Tuesday and I am just going to run around Waterloo like a crazy person taking photos, admiring everything for the last time, and saying goodbye. I am going to do everything I wanted to but never got a chance to... anyone in for a crazy adventure?
So I finished an exam last night and afterwards, the original plan was for me, Jackie and Shannon to go to Morty's to drink off the narsty after taste of Giselle's horrid exam... somehow it turned into 11 of us!
Today, me, Jacey, Mike and Ira went for all-you-can-eat buffet at Sushi Star. Mike was like, "What are we going to do now?" and I said, "Let's sleep under a tree!" So we went to Victoria Park and it was really nice. Jacey kept harassing the ducks and swans and Mike helped Ira climb an otherwise unclimbable tree while we were getting weird looks from people. I'm surprised after four years at Waterloo, I've never been to this park before because it's right beside Charles St. Terminal. It's pretty sweet.
Here are some pics of various events:
Me and birthday boy!
Group of friends at James's birthday party. How did he cramp so many people in his very narrow apartment? Look at Mike's face = priceless.
Church day! On our way to dimsum and enjoying the gorgeous day
Us outside of Cameron - the uber expensive dimsum place
My crazy friends posing outside of James's apartment
More to come.
So this is final exam times and I can say that I am definitely on schedule with my studying. I have two exams left:
- Auditing tomorrow night
- Advanced Accounting on Aug 11
Then on the morning of Aug 12th, I am moving back home for good.
On Aug 15th, we are embarking on our Europe trip and will be returning Sept 2nd.
From that point on, it's still a mystery.
Today's another day of studying. Happy Birthday Dennis Lau and Eric Ngo, enjoy yourselves whilst I suffer.
What a weekend!
**HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!**
On Friday, I finished my tax final on a mere three hours of sleep. I took an hour nap before going to James's place to celebrate his birthday. We got him transformers and we hung out, ate pizza, drank beer, sang songs and ate mango cake.
**HAPPY BIRTHDAY HENDRY!**
Saturday was Hendry's birthday and we went out for lunch at my new favourite restaurant, China Legend. Me and Ira got Hendry a 12-pack of a beer he likes called Grasshopper. At Hendry's place, me and Jacey started playing this Wii game called "House of the Dead: Overkill" and it was so fun - we were glued onto the screen like a pair of... zombies... (ha, ha.)
We then went bowling at Brunswick Bowl in Cambridge. I sucked big time at first but by the third game, I was playing really good games I must say. Better than I've ever played before. That was super fun.
We went back to Hendry's and after putting up with all the stupid annoying unskippable long ass cut scenes trying our patience, me and Jacey finished House of the Dead. Everyone else was playing alcohol poker so I had to buy in with two narsty shots of vodka only to go bankrupt literally two hands later. Yeah lol...... damn.
Church
Sunday, James invited me, Ira and Jackie to come to his church and I was more than ecstatic to. We went to Waterloo Mennonite Brethren Church. It was a beautiful church and very mellow. It was different because there was no pastor for that service, just a woman who shared her experiences and helped us reconnect with God through moments of silence - it was like our Praise Night. James told me it was not usually like that, but it was a very mellow service.
Check them out: http://www.waterloomb.org/
After, we went to eat dim sum @ Cameron in Kitchener and the bill was like 200 bucks between the FOUR of us. The weather was absolutely amazing I must say! We went home and I ended up packing my entire room so now my room is naked and I'm ready to go anytime! WOoh, out of here for good next week.
Studying
Me and Ira went to concourse to study. Swati joined us, ran into Shannon and Julian, then I asked Becky out for dinner and Charles conveniently wanted to go too so we all went to China Garden. At 8:45pm, I was desperate to get my degree and my passport (which I need to mail to the Korean embassy ASAP and I left both of them at home!!!) so I went to Mississauga to pick up my crap and drove straight back.
Overall, really good weekend. Too many summer babies haha but had a great time =)
