he said, she said

survey says...

things that the opposite gender should know about male/female relationships
he said:
1. don't be too friendly
2. don't assume stuff (i.e. either nothing's going to happen or something's going to happen)
3. be conscious of physical posture

she said:
1. chivalry does not need an occasion.
2. don't dump on girls emotionally. (i.e. tell her deep emotional stuff)
3. treat girls like girls
(this part i had to pull from memory since i figured i didn't need to know it since i'm a girl, but for all the guys out there...)

how the opposite gender can be a stumbling block
she said:
1. physically (i.e. touching and gun shows)
2. too much one on one time
3. special attention (i.e. singling out in a crowd or doing something that one would not normally do for other girls)

he said:
1. immodest clothing
2. flirting
3. attention-seeking

how one can best serve the brothers/sisters in Christ

he said:
1.challenge poor communication
2. be straightfoward

she said:
....
again i didn't write this one down.
i think straightfowardness would be appreciated too.

from the survey results i was really surprised that a most of the guys knew a lot about the stuff that throws girls off.
ho-humm...

project role assignments are coming out thursday. i already know mine, but we've all been sworn to secrecy so until thursday...toodle-loo

one small piece of paper

project retreat survey.
one small piece of paper. so much to say.

1. what are three things you would tell the opposite sex about male/female interactions?
2. what do men do that causes women to stumble?
3. what do women do that causes men to stumble?
4. how should your brother/sister treat you to better serve you as a brother/sister in Christ?

finally.
a chance to vent those frustrations and share those thoughts. i bet the guys have them too.
but how do you fit hours upon hours of girl talk into one teeny tiny piece of paper?
we shall see.

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saw "Bif Naked" tonight.
"space man oh space man..."

final fantasy vii: advent children

at last...the long awaited sequel to ffvii. it just goes to show that patience does pay off. i had given up hope that they would ever actually make a sequel to ffvii, but they did! highly enjoyable movie...well at least for the ffvii buffs. (non-gamers can appreciate the graphics) so fun to dive back into the world of ffvii again. wheeeeeeeee~

but still times have changed. there was a time where i thought that i could never ever live without final fantasy role playing games (rpgs), where life was school and rpgs. here's my post secret: i use to have THE hugest crush on cloud AND sephiroth. (the main protagonist and antagonist of ffvii) video games were definitely idols back in high school. now it's like "meh". they're fun, there's no doubt about that, but i can live without them. just goes to show that whatever idol i think i can't let go of...i can in Christ's strength. same thing with anime. i'm so apathetic towards it now. there are better things to do. the whole lizard analogy from the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis comes to mind.

"summer nights"

personally i think life would be really cool if it was a musical or better yet...bollywood. that would rawk. imagine bursting into song and dance in the middle of the day or night. it would be so much fun.

the scent of dbr/summer

summer smells like sunscreen (spf 60+ are the best!), grass, lake water, and boys' deodorant. in other words, dragonboat racing.

all those smells are associated with dragonboat racing in my mind, which in turn means summer to me. when i'm racing i always smell sunscreen because it's just slathered on. the grass and lake water is self-explanatory especially when paddling in lake ontario. as for the boys' deordorant it's because the boys always put boatloads of it on after practices and races. it smells nice...to a certain degree. actually i don't know if it's deordorant or cologne. i think maybe both, but i digress.

tis sad though this is the second summer i go dbr teamless. well my team doesn't exist anymore. summer dragons is no more, and i have very little hope that it's going to be revived. such good times we had. i always had hope there will be more carefree summers like those two, but i'm starting to think that's another chapter of life that's closed. well at least i can still smell sunscreen.

tis the first summer that i've missed the toronto international dbr festival in five years. no free shampoo/tide this year. but i bet the UC waterdragons would still win the university cup. they never let me down.

why'd do i have to choose such a team-oriented sport? all the other team sports regardless of what it is you can still play by yourself or with a limited amount of players, but with dragonboat there is no way. you need that huge honking boat and the 21 other people. if 21 of my friends would invest $150 each, five hours of their lives a week, and put themselves at my mercy i could have a team going and i'd be ecstatic.

one of the girls on project told me about a corporate team her company's forming and i totally went berserk. i think i freaked her out. i actually belted out "if dragonboat was a man i'd marry it." in public. um..hahaha. but with the busyness of project, work, and school there's no way i could join. sad.

i'd move to BC just so i could dragonboat all year long except it perpetually rains there. so the point of this rambling post is that i very much miss dragonboating. very much so.

signs that i have been in guelph for far too long

~on the first day of project i kept marveling at the number of azns on project. (around 25%) this was reminiscent of frosh week. ("ohmigosh there's so many white people!") oh the irony.
~resulting in the fact that the first impression that i made on my chinese roomie from t.o. was that i was "white".
~T&T (THE chinese supermarket) was THE only place that i really wanted to visit after arriving in calgary.
~the lyrics "heaven, i'm in heaven" was on repeat in my head while i was strolling through T&T.
~i got excited over seeing chinese pastries and well...everything in T&T in general.
~after being spoiled by a car i was still willing to trek to T&T on the c-train even though it was a two hour trip round-way.
~i'm still surprised at the different accents that i hear at work.
~i didn't think that i needed to bring a rice cooker to calgary not because i thought others were going to bring it, but that i wasn't going to use it. *shock*
~i think calgary is multricultural. this coming from the girl who lived in t.o.

overall conclusion? living in guelph has whitewashed me enough so that now i'm BI-cultural. i'm not a complete banana. NEVER! i still have jay chow on itunes, but now i feel like fish in water in both cultures whereas three years ago i was so initimidated by caucasians.

on a similar note what is it with men thinking they can "impress" by saying stuff in a girl's mother tongue? ok fine...it's impressive when they can quote tang poems or something, but today this middle-aged man poked his face into mine, grilled me on my ethnic background, and proceeded to say "i love you" in mandarin. GROSS! hellooo? personal space?!?! i don't even know what he was trying to do. show off? ego-boost? no clue, but it was creepy.

i think it's totally cool when people are seriously trying to get to know the language and the culture for whatever reason (i.e. OEX/stint/ICS/general interest in certain country), and i have the utmost respect for "eggs" (white on the outside, yellow on the inside). you know caucasians who can sing jay chow, honestly at least have a basic understanding of the culture and aren't just posers. that i'm impressed by, and it's totally cool to be talesamo'ing with oexers/stinters, but despite what "yellow fever" says girls don't dig it when their mother language is butchered in a sleazy attempt to "impress" or "pick up". ugh what's with middle-age men? mid-life crisis? eww...there that's my rant of the day. i'm still shuddering.

your average run of the mill day

well project is in full swing now. i'm really blessed to have landed a sweet job with uber nice co-workers at home depot. at first i was a teeny bit disappointed that i didn't get placed at cash like i was suppose to, but paints is so much more fun. by the end of the summer i'll have enough knowledge to revamp a house and some strong arms from lifting those paints.

my co-workers are so nice and helpful. i'm always asking them questions and they are so patient with me in showing me the ropes. today i was sick, and they were always asking after how i felt. the only downside about work is the early wake-up call. i don't know if i'll ever get use to it.

but work is more than work it's a life lesson. it's different being at the receiving end of people's attitudes and selfishness. it's made me realize how much of an impact my attitudes and my selfishness have had and will have on people. i'm so used to throwing my attitude around and expecting others to just deal with it. it sucks to be on the receiving end of a bad attitude though, and i definitely don't want to be dishing it out anymore. it's good practice at work for Spirit-filled living especially when i'm half awake.

i'm usually pooped and cranky by the time i get home. but the project community cheers me up. it's awesome to be walking towards the rez from the subway station knowing that i'll be greeted by an awesome, bubbling community. i have a lot of fun with my roommmates randomly bursting into song, dance, and shakespeare. i just want to soak it all up.

two weeks

if rocky mountain project was just this past two weeks it would have been worth it. had outreach with band, the contact www.thecontact.ca tonight. amazing band.

mad props to mums everywhere and especially my mum as tomorrow's mother's day. seeing mums take care of kids makes me really appreciate all the hard work involved with being a mum. tis a full-time job and then some.

quick update

calgary is awesome. i'm having a blast here. i love the fact that i'm living in rez again. got a GREAT job @ home depot in the paints department. i feel like i'm on trading spaces. project is so cool. the community is rawking. am extremely tired and busy already! got sucked into christian chick lit. finished 3 books within the span of a weekend. 2 chick lit, 1 da vinci code. we have internet. hiked up nose hill yesterday and picked a bouquet of wild flowers. life is good.

lost by a bagel

Today was the third day (this was written two days ago) of Rocky Mountain Project Orientation. I have no internet connection so I’m typing this on my laptop in Microsoft Word. Handwriting this would be so tedious, but I do want to remember it. We had training for the first half of the day in evangelism, bible study, and conflict resolution. Such good training. I felt like my brain was a sponge trying to soak it all up. It was sorta like Winter Conference all over again. Except this will last for the next three months….If this is a sign of things to come, then… WOW.

The second half of the day we were split up into teams of six for the first annual Rocky Mountain Project Amazing Race. I was a proud member of team number four, affectionately known as the “Fantastic Fours”. We had a bit of a rocky start because I bumbled and thought we were going to the University of Calgary when we should have been headed NorthWest to Dalhousie station when the clue said “a university name”. It was fun trekking or should I say dashing across the city to all the different checkpoints.

We were in good shape at the beginning, coming in third. By the last checkpoint we were first. When we left the final checkpoint we were one subway ride ahead of everyone else, but alas there was a catch. Dinner needed to be eaten in order to win the race. Heading to the nearest Wendy’s, after we got off the C-train, we faced a lineup that seemed to last forever. We tried getting to the front of the line without any luck so we decided to boot it to the nearest Co-op to get something…anything. And the first “anything” that we grabbed was a six-pack of bagels, which we proceeded to shove into our mouths as we ran off to the finish line. We reached the finish line with the bagels still 90% undigested. The staff were adamant that we finish our “dinner” as they stood us out of the way to finish our bagels while waiting for the other teams to arrive. Some were helpful, encouraging us to chew and swallow. Others heckled good-naturely, pushing our buttons, while keeping a watchful eyes on the bagel bits that were falling on the ground….Ok so I tried to cheat. I lack good sportsmanship.

Sharing half a small nalgene bottle of water between the six of us, we chewed, gagged, and sometimes swallowed our one bagel, hoping that no one would show up, but someone did. The underdog. The last team to the first checkpoint. The second team to arrive, but the first to have had eaten their dinner. So the Fantastic Fours lost….by a bagel. I’ve hated bagels before this, and I’ve never hated them more. It’s just as bad as trying to eat saltine crackers really fast.