wanna bet?

it's been well over a month since we've moved in and we still don't have internet.
>_<
to make a really long story short, we had called & arranged for internet set-up within the first week or so of moving into our new place. at that time, we were told that it would take 10-20 business for them to process our applications & make installations as necessary.
when i heard that, i thought: "10-20 BUSINESS DAYS!?!?! you've gotta be kidding me!" but i took a deep breath, reminded myself that things down under move a little slower & accepted it.

BUT... (of course there's a BUT...)
on roughly day 12, we got a call telling us that our current phone line was incompatible with this particular internet service provider.
WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT BEFORE!?!?!?! (we told them that our current phone line provider was a company called Optus & they told us that that would be fine).
we took another DEEP breath. we went and changed the phone line & put in another request. that was last wednesday. no word from them yet. none whatsoever.

we've decided to have a little fun with this miserable situation. we've made bets as to the precise date of actual internet connection. what's up for grabs?
the winner doesn't have to chip in for the cost of internet for the first month.

so here's the spread:
laura: Tuesday, March 4th
alan: Monday, March 10th
susan: Tuesday, March 11th
matt: Monday, March 17th
me: Tuesday, March 18th - always the pessimist. or a realist???
;)

we're all secretly hoping laura will win. but deep down, we know she doesn't stand a chance.

siesta!

i've been taking afternoon naps lately. i never really enjoyed afternoon naps before, but now i do.
i think it's mostly because of my lousy schedule. on mondays, tuesdays and fridays, i have early morning clinical coaching sessions or PBL group meeting. i then have ~3 hours before my afternoon lectures. for the last couple of weeks i've started coming home after these morning classes, grabbing a bite to eat & then taking a 30-40 minute nap.
it's great. it helps me stay awake even in the most boring lectures and i feel refreshed and less cranky!

i think i'm getting addicted though. i felt the need to take a nap on saturday & sunday as well. granted i did get up around 6am on both days, but still.
oh well, my roommates have their coffee & i have my afternoon naps.

*****
it's been incredibly hot over the last few days. saturday hit 36 degrees. today was a much more bearable 29 degrees with light rain.

finally. pics of my room & a full view of the moon.

sorry for the long wait. the house is now fully furnished - has been for about a week or so now. we're still waiting on our internet to be set up though. they are really taking their sweet time.

so without further delay... i present to you,

our dining table...


our living room...


my room...




my closet...


the boys' washroom...


and my favorite part of the house. the backyard with the bbq...


now as much as i love this part of the house, i was not so pleased with it last weekend. we had fired up the bbq for some grub. i was just about to start barbecuing when i felt a little prick on my butt - it was the left butt cheek, in case you wanted the specifics. i didn't think much of it and just kind of dusted my butt off. but then i felt another prick. so i reached under my boxers to see if a little prickly leaf or something had (somehow) gotten in there. i got ahold of something and i took it out. when i opened my hand, i was surprised to see a WASP!
i went inside, washed my hands and tried looking for the stinger. i don't know if you've ever tried to check out your own butt in the mirror in DETAIL but it's not very easy to do. within minutes i had some urticaria on my butt. i eventually had to enlist the help of my roommates. and being the caring & inquisitive med students they are, they all offered to take a look. in the end, the whole house had an opportunity to examine my (minor) allergic reaction.
it wasn't too bad. i just iced it for the night and the hives went away quite quickly. we've since had someone come by to take down the 1/2 dozen or so nests around the house.

despite the title, you didn't actually think i'd put up a photo of my BUTT on the internet did you??? come on! ;p

blood type.

the undergrads are back. i won't go on my rant about how much of a nuisance they are. ;)
this week was o-week for the undergrads, and yesterday was market day. market day is kind of like the equivalent of clubs day at UofT. there is a bunch of free stuff & all the clubs come out and try to recruit new members for the year.

i didn't join much and i was at the hospital for most of the morning and early afternoon so missed out on a lot of the free stuff. but i DID join the KISS club. no, it's not a club where we practice our kissing skills. K.I.S.S. stands for korean international students society - i think.
why did i join this club? especially considering my history of anti-FOB tendencies and attitudes? well, i promise it wasn't for the karaoke and the drinking. nor was it for the desire to be called a "hyung" or a "oppa". and it definitely wasn't in an attempt to meet that special person who has my blood type! (i kid you not, on the member application form, they asked what my blood type was. haha. koreans and their obsession with blood types. Hilarious!).

i joined because i thought it would be a good way to meet some non-meddies. more importantly, i thought i'd infiltrate this exclusive society to try and find answers to some of the important questions to life. like... where's all the cheap & delicious korean food in brisbane? where can i get a decent haircut for under $15? and - the truth finally comes out - are there any single ladies with type A blood? needs to be +ve for Rhesus factor. Otherwise, I just don’t think we’d be compatible.
:p
yea. right. *eye roll*

scrubs on the beach.

friday was sports day. remember sports day?
well this year we decided that we could do without it. sure all that running, alcohol & UV rays were fun the first time around. but we're a year older now. we're more mature & more capable of having a good time without alcohol & jumping castles. more importantly, a year older means it's tougher to recover from those major hangovers! haha.

so we decided instead to take advantage of the day off and head to the beach. but there was a catch. we didn't want to forget about the spirit of sports day all together. so... we went to the beach in scrubs!

susan.


matt-always the poser.


yes. my scrub is a one piece. as a matter of fact, it's a one-piece dress! haha.
the rest of our beach crew didn't wear scrubs. hence, they were not picture worthy.
unfortunately the weather wasn't terribly cooperative and we had to pack things up a little early. i did manage to get a couple of good pictures in tough.


rescue helicopter in mid-flight.


chick surfing.

happy valentine's day.

:|

yes, we can.

opinions of a slightly disinterested, uninformed & ineligible voter.
isn't it safe to say, that through the process of some seriously simplified elimination, obama will become the next president of the united states of america?
i mean let's think about this one here. in my eyes there are 3 main candidates that actually have a running chance at this - john mccain, hillary clinton and barack obama.
some say the republicans and mccain can't simply be written off. mostly because america is not ready for a black or a female president. but let's think about this one. john mccain still thinks the war in iraq is right and just. he plans to INCREASE troops in iraq. increase!?!? are there really that many americans out there that believe american troops should continue to be in iraq?
then we have hillary. weren't 8 years of clintons enough for everyone? do we really need 4 more?
sure obama's young & inexperienced. some might even say he's naive and sheltered. but you could also say he's fresh. like a breath of fresh air.

the G&M seemed like a tabloid magazine last week. here are some amusing G&M articles i read the other day...
JFK's illegitimate love child. there is a man living in BC claiming to be a long lost son of JFK. i've yet to see pictures but apparently he bears a strikingly resemblance to JFK. he doesn't want money or fame - he's willing to sign an agreement to leave the JFK estate alone. he just wants to know who his daddy is.

sexsomnia. this is like something straight out of "HOUSE". so this guy suffers from an exotic form of sleep disorder in which he wakes in the middle of the night & while still asleep attempts to copulate the first/nearest female he finds. it's been a non-issue until now where his previous victims have been girlfriends that didn't mind the mid-night advances. however things came to issue when he crashed on the couch at a friend's place after a party. he has been acquitted of the charges. there have only been 7 cases in which a defendant has used sexsomnia as a defense since 1985. this guy is only the 2nd to use it successfully though. so ladies... more reason to be careful. guys... unfortunately it's "virtually impossible for an individual to fake the brain patterns that distinguish a parasomniac from a normal sleeper" - so don't get any ideas.

death by Q-tip. this man died from a meningitis infection that spread through his inner ear because he perforated his ear drum while carrying out his DAILY routine of swabbing his ear with a Q-tip. let this be a lesson to all of you. you don't need to use a Q-tip everyday! the article was funny because it called for "stricter product warnings". come on. what's next? "warning: this kitchen knife contains one sharp edge. insertion into self or other may lead to life threatening injuries". haha.

and in not so funny news:
Seoul's ancient city gate destroyed by fire. you gotta be kidding me. this was over 600 years old! a man has been arrested for setting the gate on fire. the kicker? he was arrested & charged in 2006 for arson! and how do you leave such a historic landmark so open to attack and so vulnerable?!?! the suspects says he chose it because it was so easily accessible! for crying out loud!

housewarming & my first canadian visitors.

now that we're all organized & nicely settled into our new place, we decided to invite some friends over, fire up the bbq, crack open some beers & have a good ol' fashioned housewarming party.

i think everyone had a good time. we kept it pretty low key. i think there were about 30 people that managed to make it out.

i was too busy having a good time to take any real pictures. my apologies. i only took my camera out when the crowd died out a little. oops.

and the few pictures that i did take didn't come out terribly well. i'll try better next time.

james, devon, angela, yi, shawn.

isuri & tess.

dave, alan, steve, mike.

ryla, mike, alicia.

susan, shawn, alan, yi.

james.

connor.

i also had some friends from toronto swing by.

that's ryla on the left & alicia in the middle. i went to high school with alicia. she was also a kumon kid. yes. one of those. ;) ryla is alicia's friend. they're in australia on a work-holiday visa.


and yes. i do wear my sunnies at night & indoors.

off the deep end.

so the other day we rented a "ute".

we needed the ute to do an ikea run and to pick up a second fridge. so why is this blog-worthy?
that's because although we reserved an automatic transmission ute, we got one with a manual transmission!
you didn't know i could drive a stick shift did you? well, neither did i really. ;)
i think the last time i sat in the driver's seat of a car with a manual transmission was at the auto show in 2004. and the last time i actually DROVE one was probably 6 or 7 years ago in the parking lot of york mills c.i. in my cousin harri's tiburon!

i managed alright. stalled a few times, spun some tires & burned some rubber. but you know what they say. they're no better way to learn to swim than to be thrown into the deep end. sink or swim baby. sink or swim.

broken umbrellas and broken tails.

do you remember my beautiful (read: hideous) green umbrella with flower patterns on it? the one that i used shamelessly? it broke yesterday. i swear i didn't break it on purpose. i didn't throw it against walls or under buses. it just broke. will need to go out and get another one soon, it's supposed to rain all week.

yesterday there was a tiny TINY little gecko that was running around the house. i let it be until it went into my room. i didn't want it to go into my pillow case or my school bag, so i caught it. i trapped it with one hand and tried to pick it up by its tail with my other hand. when i finally got my thumb & forefinger on its tail & pulled gently, the tail fell off! i guess that's one of their defense mechanisms. the coolest thing though, was that the tail, now separate from the body was still moving! it flopped around from side to side.

did you know...
by the time your pillow is 3 months old, 70% of its weight is due to dust mite feces?!? yes. it's true. you're probably sleeping on dust mite feces.

i will put more photos of the house soon.
speaking of the houses... we inspected well over 20 houses during our house-hunt. but there's this one house that i remember quite distinctly. there was just something really odd about it. i can't put my finger on it. maybe it was the colour combo of the carpets and the sun-dried look of the wallpaper. maybe it was the velour sofas upstairs. maybe it was the indoor sauna. it was just really creepy. it was like something out of a horror/thriller movie. the craziest thing was that when the 3 of us walked out of the house, we all looked at each other and almost simultaneously said "that was weird". we struck that house right off of our list. i don't really believe in haunted houses but this one had a really weird vibe.

saw JUNO on friday night. what a great movie. very indie & felt very canadian. then again ellen page & michael cera are canadian, not to mention it was shot in vancouver & the director jason reitman is also canadian. it's definitely got my stamp of approval.

what i'm listening to right now: 2nd period of the leafs vs. sens game on AM640. we've just blown one 2-man advantage & we've just been given another 2-man advantage. leafs are up 2-1.

song that's been on repeat on iTunes: "you and i both" by jason mraz.