(no subject)
it's a little after 1 am (canadian time) and i should probably be asleep, but i'm not. it's the caffeine at work, no doubt.
i haven't had the chance to tell everybody about what it's like being here in canada, and even with this post i'm sure i'll only do a half-assed job of it. but i've seen far too many people move to foreign countries and fade away completely, and i don't want that to happen to me. not just yet, anyway.
and so what follows will be some odds and ends about my stay in the great white north so far:
*canada in general*
- october in canada means winter is fast approaching, and even now it's a lot colder out than it used to be. think baguio weather during the early morning, all day (and night). the sun isn't all that much help, and it's supposed to get colder as we go along... should be interesting. but hey, at least i'll get to see snow.
- i'll probably be cursing and complaining about snow soon enough, but give it time.
- driving here seems pretty complicated, if only because pedestrians have such a great advantage. if you see someone crossing the street you have to stop, and even when there's nobody crossing you have to stop for a bit anyway. plus there are all these rules about turning at intersections that make me glad i'm just walking. i may have to work on getting a driver's license at some point down the road, but for now, i'm just glad to be one of those pedestrians.
- once i get behind the wheel though, i'm sure i'll be back to badmouthing pedestrians, completely forgetting the time when i was one myself.
- i haven't quite made up my mind about canadians in general. half of them are nice enough, but the other half are pretty strange. you've got bums on the corner rambling in loud voices, people getting on the subway who are obviously in another world, and drivers who get into near-accidents with bikers and roll down their window to start chewing the guy out in public.
- there are subtleties to canadian accents, though. and i seem to have picked them up as well. i now end half of my questions with an "eh?".
*my life in canada so far*
- ... has been pretty okay. it's gotten to the point where i've gotten adjusted to how things work, so much so that i now have a pattern (our professors call them "scripts") for how each day should go. a great bulk of my days are spent in school, but i'll get to that in a little bit.
- when i'm not in school, i'm either at studying at home or working out in the gym. it's not as exciting as some of you would like, but it works for me.
- i've got a tv in my apartment now, and i try to watch at least 30 minutes of television each day to keep myself sane. i used to have approximately 28 channels, but something funny happened when i turned on the tv tonight and i suddenly just have 13. i think the local cable provider is on to my apartment's antenna. just when i opted to stay in and watch the elite xc event on cbs, too. good thing i had sex and the city on my pc. at least the evening wasn't a total waste.
- i'd get cable, but i probably wouldn't be able to maximize it anyway. maybe next year.
- i do still get by on torrents though, which haven't been outlawed yet (and, god-willing, never will be). the internet service providers here set a cap on your downloading though, so you can't leave the pc running overnight. the speed slows down after a certain point. tricky bastards.
- on that note, i follow the new 90210 series religiously (jessica stroup represent!). but that's just me being me.
- porn, not so much. i've only got 60 GB of allowable download space on my plan, and i'd like to keep that limit reserved for my tv shows, weekly comic book downloads and mixed martial arts / wrestling pay-per-views. besides, i've still got enough on my external drive.
- my attendance in the gym has been pretty consistent; i try to go at least six times a week. save for that one day out of the week when i absolutely have to get studying done (but more on school later). the gym's about a ten minute walk from where i live, so it's pretty convenient for me to head on over (think the distance from citi to the ineng's / pancake house / gas station. give or take).
- i've actually got two gyms that i can go to: the university of toronto athletic center (they spell it centre here) or hart house (no relation to bret), which is like a subsidiary of the university of toronto specifically catered for student functions. i mostly go to hart house because it has better cardio, and is open later on weekends.
- yes, i go to the gym on weekends. no day offs.
- contrary to popular opinion, i cook most of my food. i have stopped taking pictures for the most part, but i like what i put out, and that's what matters. i try to eat a lot cleaner over here, having pasta for lunch and just protein for dinner... usually beef or chicken. i try to eat more smaller meals throughout the day too, like fruits (okay, just bananas) or fruit bars. but besides that, it's a lot of water, no sodas (even diet), minimal sugar, minimal salt and vegetables. i'll need to work on buying myself some whey next.
- yes, i said vegetables. it's mostly lettuce, tomatoes and cesar salads at this point, but hey, at least i'm finally eating them.
- i do set aside two cheat days out of the month. it's nice proving to myself that i can still finish an entire pizza on my own.
- i do all of that just so i won't become an obese tub of lard, as many people expect me to be. it helps knowing that everybody thinks that i'll gain all this weight and let myself go while i'm here, because that just motivates me to prove everybody wrong. i'm kind of competitive that way.
- if i were to become an obese tub of lard, rest assured that a.) i would never return home, or b.) if i did, you'd never see me.
- my walking weight is anywhere between 150 to 155 (immediately after cheat days or weekends spent with relatives). right now i'm at 147, though.
- the gyms here are no joke, and neither are the people who go there. i'm damn near a midget around all of the freaks here. and by freaks i mean women and elderly folks, too.
- i try to catch a movie every now and then, purposely not converting the ticket prices to philippine pesos as not to feel guilty about watching them. but mostly, it's been all about school. which brings me to...
*my mba experience*
- i've hit the wall a few times, wondering why i opted to go back to school at least thrice a day. that probably brings my total to 213867428762762872393487 thereabouts. but it's been a pretty good experience so far. for the most part, anyway.
- my mba has turned me into a racist, because i can no longer stand indians. i've met a few who are actually nice, but i'm too lazy to pick the good from the bad and so i just lump them all together in the lemon pile.
- and no, it has nothing to do with their smell. they're just uber-competitive in class, and half the time they don't really contribute anything meaningful to our class discussions.
- the other half, you can't understand them because they're talking so damn fast.
- the canadians, by contrast, are by and large a mellow bunch. they tend to be laid-back as a whole, sometimes almost too laid-back. but they're okay. just don't call them americans by mistake.
- the few americans in my batch are good sports about that distinction, though.
- there are a few filipinos in my batch, although they're either also half-canadian or grew up here so their filipino side is negligible.
- you could, however, argue that so is mine. people still think i'm from korea.
- i hang out in the back of the classroom with the rest of the asian contingent, which means fellow chinese or korean people (who grew up here in canada). we don't hang out with the people who are directly from china, though.
- see? even though i'm a racist, i'm an equal-opportunity bigot.
- in true fred fashion, i've already pinpointed people in class that i can't stand. nobody else can stand them either; i just tend to be more vocal about it.
- i get the "i have filipino friends, but you don't sound like them" bit a lot. a lot of people think i'm a canadian citizen instead of an international student. one person thought i was from chicago.
- chicago, eh?
- the workload itself is pretty crazy. you can't go through a weekend without doing something for school. not even on fridays, which was horrifying for me at the start but has become something i've since gotten used to. but then again, it's not like i have all that much of a choice.
- we're just about to head into our midterms / deliverables week, which has me questioning my decision to stay up so late (it's already 1:40 as of this point) to blog instead of doing something for school.
- ah, screw that.
- as it stands, i've got an economics quiz on tuesday, a group presentation the following tuesday, a group paper the following thursday, and then two individual papers due the week after that. throw in statistics, economics and accounting tests as well as some corporate seminars and group meetings, and it makes for a full schedule.
- there isn't a lot of breathing room, and even with the gaps i'm not able to do everything that i probably should be doing. but i'm doing what i can and am just trying not to get overwhelmed by everything. which is definitely easier said than done.
- i'm still trying to get used to being back in an academic setting. the one paper i turned in got less than stellar results, which caught me off guard because it was for this class that espoused integrative thinking. i was under the impression that because that professor had 260 or so papers to read, he wouldn't want to read just technical papers, so i tried to make mine more creative and light. apparently this professor prefers the lab report type of paper, which makes things complicated because i don't write that way anymore. at least not since first year college, when my english teacher max pulan professed a distaste for "newspaperly writing"... whatever that means.
- why did i go back for my mba again?
... that's all i have for now. i'm sure i've missed out a detail or twelve, like the fact that flag football here is crazy and basketball is even crazier, but i'll cover those in due time (which probably means either in another three months or never). but for now, i'll leave you with everything i've put down so far.
so until the next time i write... play nice, kiddies.
i haven't had the chance to tell everybody about what it's like being here in canada, and even with this post i'm sure i'll only do a half-assed job of it. but i've seen far too many people move to foreign countries and fade away completely, and i don't want that to happen to me. not just yet, anyway.
and so what follows will be some odds and ends about my stay in the great white north so far:
*canada in general*
- october in canada means winter is fast approaching, and even now it's a lot colder out than it used to be. think baguio weather during the early morning, all day (and night). the sun isn't all that much help, and it's supposed to get colder as we go along... should be interesting. but hey, at least i'll get to see snow.
- i'll probably be cursing and complaining about snow soon enough, but give it time.
- driving here seems pretty complicated, if only because pedestrians have such a great advantage. if you see someone crossing the street you have to stop, and even when there's nobody crossing you have to stop for a bit anyway. plus there are all these rules about turning at intersections that make me glad i'm just walking. i may have to work on getting a driver's license at some point down the road, but for now, i'm just glad to be one of those pedestrians.
- once i get behind the wheel though, i'm sure i'll be back to badmouthing pedestrians, completely forgetting the time when i was one myself.
- i haven't quite made up my mind about canadians in general. half of them are nice enough, but the other half are pretty strange. you've got bums on the corner rambling in loud voices, people getting on the subway who are obviously in another world, and drivers who get into near-accidents with bikers and roll down their window to start chewing the guy out in public.
- there are subtleties to canadian accents, though. and i seem to have picked them up as well. i now end half of my questions with an "eh?".
*my life in canada so far*
- ... has been pretty okay. it's gotten to the point where i've gotten adjusted to how things work, so much so that i now have a pattern (our professors call them "scripts") for how each day should go. a great bulk of my days are spent in school, but i'll get to that in a little bit.
- when i'm not in school, i'm either at studying at home or working out in the gym. it's not as exciting as some of you would like, but it works for me.
- i've got a tv in my apartment now, and i try to watch at least 30 minutes of television each day to keep myself sane. i used to have approximately 28 channels, but something funny happened when i turned on the tv tonight and i suddenly just have 13. i think the local cable provider is on to my apartment's antenna. just when i opted to stay in and watch the elite xc event on cbs, too. good thing i had sex and the city on my pc. at least the evening wasn't a total waste.
- i'd get cable, but i probably wouldn't be able to maximize it anyway. maybe next year.
- i do still get by on torrents though, which haven't been outlawed yet (and, god-willing, never will be). the internet service providers here set a cap on your downloading though, so you can't leave the pc running overnight. the speed slows down after a certain point. tricky bastards.
- on that note, i follow the new 90210 series religiously (jessica stroup represent!). but that's just me being me.
- porn, not so much. i've only got 60 GB of allowable download space on my plan, and i'd like to keep that limit reserved for my tv shows, weekly comic book downloads and mixed martial arts / wrestling pay-per-views. besides, i've still got enough on my external drive.
- my attendance in the gym has been pretty consistent; i try to go at least six times a week. save for that one day out of the week when i absolutely have to get studying done (but more on school later). the gym's about a ten minute walk from where i live, so it's pretty convenient for me to head on over (think the distance from citi to the ineng's / pancake house / gas station. give or take).
- i've actually got two gyms that i can go to: the university of toronto athletic center (they spell it centre here) or hart house (no relation to bret), which is like a subsidiary of the university of toronto specifically catered for student functions. i mostly go to hart house because it has better cardio, and is open later on weekends.
- yes, i go to the gym on weekends. no day offs.
- contrary to popular opinion, i cook most of my food. i have stopped taking pictures for the most part, but i like what i put out, and that's what matters. i try to eat a lot cleaner over here, having pasta for lunch and just protein for dinner... usually beef or chicken. i try to eat more smaller meals throughout the day too, like fruits (okay, just bananas) or fruit bars. but besides that, it's a lot of water, no sodas (even diet), minimal sugar, minimal salt and vegetables. i'll need to work on buying myself some whey next.
- yes, i said vegetables. it's mostly lettuce, tomatoes and cesar salads at this point, but hey, at least i'm finally eating them.
- i do set aside two cheat days out of the month. it's nice proving to myself that i can still finish an entire pizza on my own.
- i do all of that just so i won't become an obese tub of lard, as many people expect me to be. it helps knowing that everybody thinks that i'll gain all this weight and let myself go while i'm here, because that just motivates me to prove everybody wrong. i'm kind of competitive that way.
- if i were to become an obese tub of lard, rest assured that a.) i would never return home, or b.) if i did, you'd never see me.
- my walking weight is anywhere between 150 to 155 (immediately after cheat days or weekends spent with relatives). right now i'm at 147, though.
- the gyms here are no joke, and neither are the people who go there. i'm damn near a midget around all of the freaks here. and by freaks i mean women and elderly folks, too.
- i try to catch a movie every now and then, purposely not converting the ticket prices to philippine pesos as not to feel guilty about watching them. but mostly, it's been all about school. which brings me to...
*my mba experience*
- i've hit the wall a few times, wondering why i opted to go back to school at least thrice a day. that probably brings my total to 213867428762762872393487 thereabouts. but it's been a pretty good experience so far. for the most part, anyway.
- my mba has turned me into a racist, because i can no longer stand indians. i've met a few who are actually nice, but i'm too lazy to pick the good from the bad and so i just lump them all together in the lemon pile.
- and no, it has nothing to do with their smell. they're just uber-competitive in class, and half the time they don't really contribute anything meaningful to our class discussions.
- the other half, you can't understand them because they're talking so damn fast.
- the canadians, by contrast, are by and large a mellow bunch. they tend to be laid-back as a whole, sometimes almost too laid-back. but they're okay. just don't call them americans by mistake.
- the few americans in my batch are good sports about that distinction, though.
- there are a few filipinos in my batch, although they're either also half-canadian or grew up here so their filipino side is negligible.
- you could, however, argue that so is mine. people still think i'm from korea.
- i hang out in the back of the classroom with the rest of the asian contingent, which means fellow chinese or korean people (who grew up here in canada). we don't hang out with the people who are directly from china, though.
- see? even though i'm a racist, i'm an equal-opportunity bigot.
- in true fred fashion, i've already pinpointed people in class that i can't stand. nobody else can stand them either; i just tend to be more vocal about it.
- i get the "i have filipino friends, but you don't sound like them" bit a lot. a lot of people think i'm a canadian citizen instead of an international student. one person thought i was from chicago.
- chicago, eh?
- the workload itself is pretty crazy. you can't go through a weekend without doing something for school. not even on fridays, which was horrifying for me at the start but has become something i've since gotten used to. but then again, it's not like i have all that much of a choice.
- we're just about to head into our midterms / deliverables week, which has me questioning my decision to stay up so late (it's already 1:40 as of this point) to blog instead of doing something for school.
- ah, screw that.
- as it stands, i've got an economics quiz on tuesday, a group presentation the following tuesday, a group paper the following thursday, and then two individual papers due the week after that. throw in statistics, economics and accounting tests as well as some corporate seminars and group meetings, and it makes for a full schedule.
- there isn't a lot of breathing room, and even with the gaps i'm not able to do everything that i probably should be doing. but i'm doing what i can and am just trying not to get overwhelmed by everything. which is definitely easier said than done.
- i'm still trying to get used to being back in an academic setting. the one paper i turned in got less than stellar results, which caught me off guard because it was for this class that espoused integrative thinking. i was under the impression that because that professor had 260 or so papers to read, he wouldn't want to read just technical papers, so i tried to make mine more creative and light. apparently this professor prefers the lab report type of paper, which makes things complicated because i don't write that way anymore. at least not since first year college, when my english teacher max pulan professed a distaste for "newspaperly writing"... whatever that means.
- why did i go back for my mba again?
... that's all i have for now. i'm sure i've missed out a detail or twelve, like the fact that flag football here is crazy and basketball is even crazier, but i'll cover those in due time (which probably means either in another three months or never). but for now, i'll leave you with everything i've put down so far.
so until the next time i write... play nice, kiddies.