Land of Kia's & Hyundai's

Time: 9:00am
Mood: Hungry.. gotta eat breakfast!
Song of the moment: Coldplay - Fix You

I finally have time to sit down and blog! Rita's @ school right now so I'm home alone *AHHHH!* haha! Korea's been fun so far but I've been spending most of my time just realxing and chilling.. havn't gone out too too much.. feel kinda like a homebody right now.. and it's a good thing Rita's like that too. I think I'm still exhausted from school and the travelling!

So I flew out of Toronto Friday night. It was hard saying bye to Jimmy.. I'm not going to see him for a month! :( I miss him so much already! I was on the plane for 21 hours... it was a flight to HK with a stop-over in Anchorage, Alaska to refuel. our stopover was only supposed to be an hour but it ended up being 2 b/c an exit sign on the plane wasn't working :S The plane ride was just brutal. But I met some pretty interesting people on the plane. The person sitting beside me was a Montrealer that owns a business manufacturing bras. He was travelling to China, and apparently he travels there quite often. Behind me was a retired Fillipino couple that, I found out, used to go to the same church as me. They were sweet :) In the row side me was a Vietnamese family with a little boy that came over at one point during the flight because he wanted to look out the window (I had a window seat). Oh he was adorable! We landed in HK around 7am (surprisingly ontime considering we were delayed in Anchorage) and the moment I got off the plane I began to sweat like you wouldn't believe.. it was just hot and humid. I guess it didn't help I had my sweatshirt on! haha! I gave my mom a call to let her know I've landed. She was supposed to come meet me at the airport and keep me company, but when I called her she told me that my Aunt Fanny was on her way to come get me.. she was gonna come take me out to HK Island to have lunch w/ my relatives.

Oh I'm so glad I left! It was definitely a good break from travelling.. and a heck of a lot more fun than sitting in or around an airport for 9 hours :S My Aunt Fanny took me back to my Pau Pau's place, where my mom was staying. So good b/c I got to relax and take a shower (which I was incredibly grateful for! I just felt nasty!). After making phonecalls to my dad and Jimmy to tell them I arrived safe and sound into HK, my mom, Pau Pau, Aunt Fanny and Uncle Daniel headed out for lunch. My Gung Gung even joined us for lunch (my Uncle had to go pick him up at the old age home he was staying at). My Aunt Fanny brought along her son (my cousin) Justin, who I havn't seen in 7 years. He's so big now! He's quite the spunky kid.. but he didn't talk to me that much cuz I think he was afraid of me (cuz i spoke english! hahaa). Anyway, the big thing was I got to see my Gung Gung... and when I saw him I felt a little sad. He looked so different.. he was in a wheelchair.. his cheeks sunken in because he can no longer wear his dentures... and he was so thin. He doesn't remember me at all. But the good thing is he's still here :) I'm glad I got to see him :) After lunch, I headed back to the airport.

My flight to Seoul was a bit delayed.. which wasn't good news for me. Originally my flight was to land at 8:50pm, and then I was supposed to catch the last bus going to Daejeon at 10:10pm. I thought it was going to be a bit tight b/c I had to go through customs, grab my luggage, exchange money, buy a bus ticket and call Rita to tell her I was ok. A lot to do, but I figured an hour and a bit would be sufficient. But my plane landed late, and we arrived at the gate at 9:20pm. The whole entire flight I was in a panic. I was absolutely exhausted from travelling (I had gotten a total of 2h of sleep over a 48h period) and I just didnt' want to deal w/ what I would have to do if I missed that bus to Daejeon. So I just kept praying for a miracle. So I got off the plane at 9:25.. sped walk past the ppl in business class that got off first, made my way to to customs. I got past customs at 9:35, sped walk to get my luggage. Unfortunately for me, because I arrived in the HK airport quite early, my luggage was probably one of the first pieces to be put in, therefore it would be one of the last to come out. I finally got my luggage at 9:45, exchanged money, then ran to the bus ticketing booth, paid for my ticket, and called Rita.. and I had 10 min to spare! WHEW! When I got on the bus I was incredibly relieved!

So far I've been enjoying Korea, and spending time with Rita. We're best friends and everything, but this is the first time we've actually kinda travelled together. It's strange. But It's been fun! I've taken a few pics.. I'll upload some once I download them from the camera. :D

In Korea

Time: 5:46pm
Mood: Happy!
Song of the moment: ...this stupid song they were playing @ E-Mart

I'm in Korea! I made it alive! I almost didn't though! But I don't have too much time to write... I have to help Rita w/ dindin :D But yeah.. getting here was VERY exhausting.. I'll blog about it soon!! :D

Btw... E-Mart is this department store in Daejeon, Korea.... they sell everything and it's open 24h a day! They were playing this song... it was of these kids singing.. so annoying! It reminded me of something out of Stepford Wives... it was eerie!

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Time: 7:09pm
Mood: Tired from packing
Song of the moment: Sloan - Try To Make It

I'm leaving in a couple of hours and to be honest I'm not quite ready to leave... mentally. I'm pretty much packed and ready to go.. but I don't know about you, I usually have to be mentally prepared as well. It just seems all so rushed.. I guess it has been rushed. I usually have a good while to get excited about my trip.. but this time I only started getting excited yesterday after I submitted my thesis to the School of Graduate Studies (yea! I'm officially done!!).

Yesterday was nuts.. I was working off of 45 min of sleep (I couldn't sleep!!) I finally sent my thesis out for binding and said goodbye to everyone. The hardest good-bye was to my officemates. I almost started to cry.. I'm really going to miss them. I had such an awesome office :D I swear, we did more chatting and beating up on each other than working! Despite getting only 45 min of sleep I manged to stay up and watch Jimmy play ball hockey, and chill w/ Flo and Kin. I got to bed around 1am.. after I killed a mosquito that was buzzing around my room. It bit me on the cheek :P S.O.B mosquito!! haha now my cheek is swollen :(

I found out yesterday that instead of a 5 hour layover in HK before I head to Seoul, I now have a 9 hour layover :S Holy shit! They changed my flight last minute! So I was contemplating what I was going to do for 9 hours.. I mean it's bad enough that it's right after a 17 hour flight :S Luckily, I got an email from my mom today and she said she was going to come to the airport and keep me company (she's arriving in HK Sat... I'm arriving Sunday). So I feel better about it :D

Alrighty.. gotta get some last minute stuff done. I can't believe I'm going soon! The hardest part is leaving Jimmy for a month.. I hate leaving him :(

I Finally Get To Relax!

Time: 9:00pm
Mood: Brain-dead.. but happy!
Song of the moment: Sloan - Try To Make It

My brain has turned to Jello... I can feel it jiggling around. After 2 crazy days of fixing up my thesis, it's finally done and ready for print & binding. I can finally start getting excited about my trip!

Well I'm stuck in Hamilton right now. I had hoped to get my thesis ready for binding today but after starting a meeting w/ my supervisor (he had to look over my corrections to make sure they were alright) I realized it just wasn't going to happen. I had minor changes still left to do AND I had to run around and get a bunch of signatures for my "department check-out" form. They just wanted to make sure I cleaned up my lab, desk and returned all equipment before I left. I still have to print out my thesis and get it bound, which I'll do tomorrow. I'm just crashing @ Kathy's tonite.. and I just realized I forgot a toothbrush.. and a pillow... aw man!

I found out today Jimmy's able to join me for HK and China! I'm super excited about that.. and I feel a bit better about travelling to China. I wasn't too keen on doing the tour on my own even though I was in a tour group.. it's just always better when you have someone with you that can look out for ya. So yeah.. really excited about him meeting my relatives in HK. They're gonna love him.. I know it! He's such a likeable guy (just the other night, when I was out w/ my Mac buddies Jen tells him that out of all the boyfriends her friends have, she liked him the best! hehe).

Oh! so last week I went downtown to pick up my package from the travel agent, then I walked over to UofT to wait for Jimmy so that we could take the subway back up together. UofT was having their frosh week, so all these froshies (first year university students) were roaming around the street cheering. So anyway, I dropped by Jimmy's office, dropped off my bag and went back out to get a hot dog. While walking towards the hot dog stand, I heard music. I knew that Sloan was going to play a concert for the froshies but I thought it was at night. But as I listened to the music, I thought to myself "Wow! that sounds an awful lot like Sloan!" So I followed the ears to the source of music and lo and behold.. SLOAN!! Of course I stayed to watch! Ohh they're so good :D They have such a Canadian sound to them.. I love that! hehe! Man did I feel lucky that day.. stumbling across a concert by one of ur fav bands.. haha :D Awesome!

Defense = DONE!

Time: 1:18am
Mood: Exhausted!
Song of the moment: Sloan - She Says What She Means

I had my defense yesterday (the 12th). I'M SO RELIEVED! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My supervisor told me after my defense that one of my committee members went a little hard on me... but that's ok.. I survived! :D

But I'm still stressed.. I have corrections to do for my thesis.. and I have to finish them by tomorrow night! Why? Because I have to have it ready for binding before I leave for my trip! I leave Friday night (my flight out is at 11:40pm)... so I have to get my corrections done by tomorrow, head to Hamilton again Wed and meet w/ my supervisor to look over my corrections.. then right after that get it printed. I don't think I'm going to get it printed before the Grad Studies office closes on Wed.. so I might be crashing overnight @ Kathy's and submitting it for binding on Thursday. :S

I'm working off of 3 hours of sleep right now.. I couldn't sleep last night b/c I was in a state of panic. And now.. I'm staying up to work on my corrections. I'm so tired but I know it has to get done :S

I hope I get it done.. *stress stress*

But most importantly.. I passed my oral defense! Hooray me! haha! "I am so smart.. s-m-r-t .. i mean s-m-a-r-t" HAHAH (it's a quote from the Simpsons hehe)