I have commitment issues with my blog, doesn’t it seem like it? Haha. It’s alright. There’s nothing like a trip to far far away to give me an urge to constantly keep in touch. For those who don’t know yet, I’m going on a trip for about 2 weeks and a half to Seoul, Korea. I’m leaving on June 30th. Only 6 days to go! I’m so excited. It’s going to be my first official trip going by myself. I take this as a mean to get away from my typical life in my hometown, but also as an opportunity of growth and self discovery. Certainly, this trip will also permit me to finally get closer to the Korean culture that I’ve been admiring from the other side of the planet since so long! Korean BBQ, bulgogi, Kpop, hanbok,  here I come! So if you want to keep up with what I’m doing during my trip, be sure to keep checking in here for updates.

So far, what have you done in your summer? How’s the completion of the to-do list coming along? Here’s an update on mine:

1. Keep blogging. – getting there.
2. Finish playing Kingdom Hearts 2 and start Final Fantasy XII. – still talking about it.
3. Print out all the pictures I’ve taken for the past 2 years. Send them to my friends. – I’ll wait til I come back from Korea.
4. Restart playing piano. – I have done a bit of it!
5. Restart singing. – Not yet.
6. Retake Japanese courses. – Change of plans. I’m crash learning Korean right now, for the convenience of my trip.
7. Learn at least 1 popular Kpop choreography. – Check! I learned Tell Me by the Wonder Girls!
8. Practice doing photography. – Check! Did a bit with Milton. Still need to continue.
9. Spend time with friends and family. – On going. So far, so good.
10. Read books. – Not yet.
11. Study in advance for future courses with Karen. :D – Will start once Karen comes back from her trip. We set August as a target starting point.
12. Clean my ROOM. *most important* – HHHHHMMMMMMM….
13. and of course…. TO SLEEP! – Big fail. Yet again!

I haven’t had a chance to get to so many things. So, what have I actually been doing? I work, dance, work out and watch TV shows. Indeed, it feels soooo good. Work and dance are pretty typical for me, but working out and watching TV?! Indeed, I have started doing a training program called P90X, done by many dancers. The people who have done it all end up being pretty strong. For the sake of dancing better and doing airsteps, heck. I’d do it!

Another of my addictions-distration is that I’ve been watching the TV Show “How I Met Your Mother”. It’s absolutely hilarious. Even sometimes, despite a less amusing day, after watching  an episode or two, it’d be likec omplete brainwash of bad things. :)

Please do share what you have been up to for the first half of summer. Any change of plans?

On Saturday night, I was invited to go to Cage aux Sports with Alain and his brother Oscar to eat supper and watch the hockey game of the Habs vs the New Jersey Devils. It’s been a good almost 10 years since I’ve watched a complete hockey game like that, and to my great surprise, I really enjoyed it!

The last time I watched hockey, I had a really bad experience which just made me leave that realm for good. I was still in elementary school back then. One night, my dad brought me to a hockey game at the Molson Center (now called the Bell Center) to watch the Habs versus the Boston team. Somehow, watching the game live seemed 10 million times longer than watching it at home on television and I soon started to be impatient. The fact that the crazy woman sitting in back of me kept stridently screaming “GO HABS GO!” non stop really annoyed me too. We lost that game 9 to 2. By the end of the game, that crazy woman was cheering for Boston instead because the Habs were just doing too bad. As for me, I had lost interest in hockey since then.

Showing off a little bit of Montrealer pride! Go Habs Go!
(Logo of the Habs taken from Habs.com)

Watching the Habs winning 2 to 1 against the Devils on Saturday night sort of reawakened my interest in hockey. The Habs’ first goal was spectacular!~ It was a great experience to watch a lot of people gather up and cheer together. It was funny to see the table sitting behind us with a huge tank of beer as well; they were already so drunk at half of their tank emptied!

Lesson of day: what you gave you gave long time ago might deserve a second chance! It’s nice to always keep your doors open for new things, but also for old things! I use to hate tomatoes when I was a kid; now, I can’t get enough of them! And didn’t we all once, as kids, feared cooties from the opposite sex, and then grow up to find them damn fine? ;)

With a title like that, you probably guessed that I hate Valentine’s day. Nothing personal really. Some hate Christmas; some hate Halloween; I hate Valentine’s day. I dislike the idea of it being some sort of pink fluffy cheap version of our commercialized Christmas. “It is a special day to let people know you love them.” Wasn’t it enough at Christmas? Now, 2 months later, we’re being convinced that we should buy expensive chocolate and flowers and diamonds…again?

I came across Child labor, war or pesticides for your Valentine?, an article by Diane Bartz. It made me think. Of course, whatever is said there applies for Christmas, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, you-name-it. It talks about the (incredible) amount of pesticides used to grow roses (sad, I love white roses…), child labor involved in 40% of the world’s cocoa and war-financing diamonds (Blood Diamond, anyone?). Author of the article, Diane Bartz, suggested “Lingerie, anyone?” A member of Soompi Forums, under the nickname of Marrymehyori, brilliantly replied “No good, it’s made in sweat shops in Southeast Asia…” =)

Venus fly traps perhaps contain less pesticides than roses? :)
(Pon and Zi by Jeff Thomas)

A quick story about Valentine’s Day. Do you know where it actually comes from? Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’ birthday. Halloween, we celebrate the dead. Mother and Father’s day, well our parents. Valentine’s day (or Saint-Valentin in French) was actually originally a day to celebrate the Saint Valentine who, according to legend, secretly married young men and women during war times. Some king forbid young men to marry, because they were needed in the army and if they weren’t married, they wouldn’t have worries about their families and be fully focused on the battlefields. Of course, like most good ol’ Christian story, Saint Valentine got locked up and executed in the end. The tradition of writing little love notes and love wishes is apparently inspired from the prayers that Saint Valentine’s followers stuck in the walls of his jail cell.

One of my favorite love quotes from the Bible (yes, I’m Christian).

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
- 1 Corinthians 13:4

If you haven’t told your loved ones that you love them, then be sure to do it today. And tomorrow. And after tomorrow. Happy Valentine’s Day! :)