Some people in this world are ridiculous - September 27, 2010

(I dont look forward to math tests)

Basically, today I just posted this on my facebook status:
"How could I get only ... 33.5/35 on a test... and some dude got pity marks from the teacher... what is this..... Life sure if unfair"

Then this girl comments on my posts how I should not brag about my mark and that some people were sad about their marks which were lower than mine.

Then my friend says: "if you're chinese, its not bragging unless you get pefect in math"

She replies and says: "Are you implying that chinese people have superior knowledge in math than every other race? Or are you implying that they have no life? Or both? F**king Racist. Everyone can get 100 in math maybe you two just like to brag to the whole f**king world. Learn to be humble."

He replies: "no i was saying that chinese people place high expectations on themselves in math... and when did I say I liked to brag?"

She says: "Everyone has expectation for themselves to some degree. Shut up with your stereotyping. This Status better be deleted by tomorrow. "

Another one of my friend says: "Ben's point is perfectly valid. It is in the Chinese culture to be hard working (I did not imply that others are not, if you did, you're at fault), and to strive for the best. The chinese culture as a whole has always been unsatisfied with ...that they have. If they learned to be satisfied, they wouldn't fight all of the wars within their own borders. If Stephen truly believes that it is a bad mark, then the constitution provides him rights to sulk about it. Freedom of speech. And since he's not infringing on your rights, there's nothing you can do about it. On the other hand, your freedom of speech rights are not protected from what you said, as the freedom from harassment right is above freedom of speech, so if you were to truly pursue "right/wrong" judgement, you're in the wrong."

She replies: "Funnny. Took you long enough to write that eh? Lifeless f**ks(dont wanna include swear words in my blog). Get a f**king life. He's complaining about test which he got 96%. my friends and classmates are actually f**king upset about their results. Aside from all those fancy "legal terms" think f**king morally. If a guy who got 96% on his test fucking rubs in everyone's face how would you fucking feel?both in class and out of class? It's a f**king supermodel complaining to an obese girl how fat she is. Sure he has "freedom of rights" what's he gonna do? Sue me for violating his rights? Good luck with that. F**ktards "

This guy replies back: In everyone's face? Either you went on his page, or you've visited his page enough that he shows up on your news feed. What are you going to do when you hear someone who is worth 50 million whine that they lose half their net worth? You can always choose to ignore it. If any Hobo had your point of view, they would mug you just because you have a fucking iPod. Or when you complain that you're broke when you only have $20 left, but wear $200 on your body."

Boy there was a big and hot battle between these people about freedom of rights when I was just saying what was on my mind. I was just pizzed off that I did not really do well on my math test. It was a really easy test.

Fail Cooking - September 25, 2010

Today was still University Fair weekend. My plan for the University Fair was, I would gather general information of the universities on Friday and then do some research at home. On Saturday, I would go again to ask specific questions. While I was sleeping somehow I was thinking and I had already decided not to go today because firstly, I was so tired. Secondly, there was only 4 universities that I was interested: Queen's Commerce, York Schulich, Western Richard Ivey and Waterloo Co-op program. I don't really know why I didnt want to go to U of T Rotman or Laurier. Just no reason at all I guess.
So I woke up at around 12 to leave to a Transition to University session. It was very informative and was a definite benefit to preparing me for my 1st year of university and what I would have to look out for. However the people that talked about their own program was computer technician from Waterloo Co-op, an elementary school teacher doing a concurrent teaching program at U of T, an asian culture professor doing Phd at U of T, an engineer from somewhere and basically no one talked about business which was somewhat of a disappointment.
After that, I went to a birthday party which was all guyz. Not much fun, just video games and non-stop eating. We ate like 2 whole pizzas and emptied a bag of chips, 3 cans of pop and were searching through the b-day boy's fridge until we came upon a moon cake. We were reluctant to eat it. However we found a big box of instant noodles. Someone decided to cook 4 instant noodle packages in one bowl which was a total fail. The noodles were sticking out when it should be in water and after cooking it. The guy had poured out all the soup and the noodles were just dry and tasteless. That was so fail..... and we had to cook more instant noodles because it was so bad.
After that, some guyz decided to do something that was very inappropriate. I shouldn't talk about this here.

University Fair - September 24, 2010

Today, I was going to wake up at 8:07 but I slammed my alarm clock off. When I finally woke up, it was 8:47. I had 3 minutes to get school which was literally impossible. I had to shower, brush my teeth, eat breakfast, prepare lunch, pack my backpack and bike to school. In total, it took me only 15 minutes and I arrived to school at 9:00. Pretty good I suppose. I decided to go for only 2 classes because during lunch, I would leave for university fair. Although our guidance counsellors suggested us not to go because it was for those students that were not from the GTA. However I thought to myself, if I don't go today, its gonna be definitely busy during the weekends because all the schools will be off and everyone will be rushing to university fair. However during lunch, my surname got called up for the photos for my SAC/TTC card. Me and my friend who had almost the same last name waited in a long line-up and we were able to cut the line as we got card for our photo before the rest. It saved quite a lot of time and in like 10 minutes we were done, which would have took at least 20-30 minutes. Then I was off to University Fair. I thought I had arrived when I was at the skywalk and saw tons of universities, such as University of Alberta, Manitoba, etc. but I was wrong because many of the main universities required a little more walking to arrive.
When I arrived at the Metro Convention Centre, there was a big line-up for security check which went by pretty fast. When I was inside, there was like tons of students, you can barely walk fast before you bump into the person in front of you.

As I arrived at the big room which held all 21 universities, I was awed by the amount of people. I checked Schulich York, Richard Ivey Western, Math Waterloo, Queens Commerce and that was about it. I got bored pretty fast and my shoulders hurt from walking so much. I found out that I ain't much of a walker. Other than that I was pretty bored.

The next thing I realized, if today was this busy, no doubtedly it would be even more busy on the weekends. It was good of me to skip part of my school to go!!!

Dont feel Good - September 21, 2010

Today, received my first assignment back. I got a fail mark, 7/8 ... so fail that I was mad at the teacher for the whole day as with the rest of my class. Few had gotten perfect and unfortunately, I was not one of them. Basically for this assignment, we had to summarize an article in 3-5 sentences and comment on it in 2-3 sentences. I had summarized it in 5 sentences which he had said was the magic number for this assignment. However I did not get full marks because apparently, I didnt fulfill one of his specific requirements of having that particular detail from the article inside my summary. like what the eff yo, you cant just deduct 17% of my mark for that. Many others were mad at him for the same thing but for other reasons as well. Some of them got like 5/8 because they wrote too much and others wrote too little. This teacher is so picky, I must be more careful next time if I want to do well in this course.

Guess what, I got perfect for my math quiz. Yesterday, I was so scared that I bombed it and it turns out all my worries were for nothing. I did what I had to and got full marks for it.

Life feels so sad. - Monday, September 20, 2010

This day will remain as one of the few most important memories because things that shouldnt have happened, happened. These things were never my decision in the first place or did I desire it to end this way. It just happened and no matter what I do, it cannot reappear again as they way it used to be. I really wonder.. why must this happen to me... but I guess that's life and everything must move on. Although I am reluctant to, I will not forget about this day though. For it will remain in the deepest part of my heart and be locked away inside my brain forever.
Not only did one bad thing happened, but a second one. While, I was doing my math quiz, I felt like I bombed it because once I received the paper, my whole brain went blank. I was freaking out.

Hate this..

I hate it when you gotta work for long periods of time. Just today, I worked like a madman on math. I can't believe I will be like this for a whole year. I wanna go back to the moments where I could fool around, play video games and sleep all I want. Now, its a whole different lifestyle. Just because its the transition to university. Marks are important and so is extra-curricular activities. However if you don't get about 90% u get cut-off, so its how you balance both your academic and your activities. For me, my grades were never that good and so I must work extra hard for this 90% ...
Really really hate just working on and on and on. Every minute feels like an hour and by the time its dark, my head is so tired.

Starting to wonder why I took Af+Calc

As I continued on working ahead on my Advanced Function textbook. I found questions harder and harder with the addition of my tutor homework which was like an add-on to my school-work. The reason why I took a tutor at STS(Success Tutorial School) was because I know my math was not that good even though I have like 90+ for Gr. 11 Math. Gr 11 Math and Gr 12 Math is a different story.. completely two different levels of math. I am pretty worried how I can do well in this course now. Af+Calc is a semestered course so we have only 20 weeks to finish Advanced Function and another 20 weeks to finish Calculus. In those 20 weeks, we need to finish 8 units which means 2.5 weeks/unit. Within the units, there are 5 subsections. The course material will be taught so fast... and I am quite worried about this. What if I can't catch up? What if I fail? (me thinking too much again)

Busy

Oh boy, its been awhile since I updated my blog. I haven’t been feeling well kinda moody and sick as well. Today, school was pretty depressing with the addition of a cloudy morning and afternoon. As I started biking to school, I felt small rain drops coming down and I sped like a wild chicken (excuse my simile). Thank god, I didn’t get the big rainfall or else I would have been soaked. During my first period class, my eyes were drooping the entire time. I felt like sleeping but I stopped myself. At the end of the class, my teacher commented on one of my classmates. He said to her, you almost fell asleep twice in my class. Other than that, pretty boring afternoon.

After school, I had to rush to my tutor. And after my 2 hour long tutor, I was rewarded with some fast food!!! MAC D’s!!! I haven’t eaten it for like 4 months now and it felt so good to eat something western like hamburgers and French fries. Can’t stop lovin’ them.

It's Time....

Yes... Gr 12 surely is the time to work hard. Personally, I feel that you can fool around in Gr 9 and 10 and still do well. All you have to do is work hard in Gr 11 and 12 and "BAM" your good to go into university. I should have done that but its too late. Hmm when I got home, I slept from 5-9:30. Way longer than a power nap but oh well, I couldn't stop myself from sleeping. I just dozed off and when I wake up, its already 9:00. I stare off into space for another half an hour before I get off the bed. Then I start my homework. First it was economics, spent over 2 hours reading just chapter 1 and taking notes and doing the homework.

Boring Day - Sunday September 12, 2010

(a gloomy picture to describe how I feel atm)

It has been a boring weekend for me. Just work and work and work. Just the feeling that this kind of work schedule will go on for the rest of the year makes me frustrated. I am so bored.... why is working so boring...

Finally Weekend! - Saturday September 12, 2010

Today, I spent the whole day outside doing lotsa stuff. We went to retrieve some stuff from my 3rd Uncles, shop for clothes, buy food and shop for food. My parents had to go to someone's house to fix their scanner. While they were there, I was on their desk doing math homework. But the good thing was, I was fed. I got a McMini, a carton of chocolate soy milk, 2 big slices of bread and MAN I was full. You know how its like, when you eat bread and drink something, the food expands and you get really really full. My stomach was hurting afterwards.

School Time! - Saturday September 11, 2010

You heard me!!! Its the first week of school and its been already pretty busy. With University just up ahead, I know I must work hard.. but its so hard to bring myself back to school life. School has not actually started because many of us have not received our textbooks yet. Many of the teachers are away on some religious holiday and so, all we have had are supply teachers who have done barely nothing.

Day 12 of Toronto Exchange - Sunday September 5, 2010

Today was the last day before the Vancouver Exchange students would have to leave. It felt like they were leaving so soon. Already, I would miss them but school was starting and I wanted to concentrate on school anyways. We had our lunch at Yee Hong Centre which was basically 2 big plates of sushi for 40 people. Many of us were not full but the food was just so darn good. Then they were off to the airport. My father was one of the drivers and we made it to the airport in 45 minutes. We helped them bring their luggage to the terminal and waited for the rest of the people to come. Suddenly, one of the Vancouver kids received a text that their Vancouver kid which was on another car was pulled over for not having a seat belt. They needed the number for the flight receipt but none of us had wi-fi to view the flight receipt. However I had to leave so I could not see what happened next.

We had to go shopping for miscellaneous stuff before school started and most of the malls closed at 5:00pm. I bought a watch and a wallet and that was it.

Day 11 of Toronto Exchange - Saturday September 4, 2010

Today was City Mosaic Day. Basically, it’s a race where you complete challenges at designated checkpoints. I felt that we as planners were totally not ready because we were still working on it last night. It was so last minute and we were still not ready at the morning. I got paired up with a silver team and off we went to our first challenge. We had 4 places to visit: Yorkville, Kensington Market, Pawsway and Music Garden. We decided to visit Kensington Market and boy it was sketchy. We bought a large burrito at The Big Fat Burrito Store and I watched my team eat chocolate crickets and maggots for their challenge at the checkpoints. Then they were off to Pawsway where they ate dog food and last off Music Garden. We had to meet back at 3:00pm and the teams would be disqualified if they were 30 minutes late. We arrived at 3:22pm which meant we were safe but other teams were not so lucky. They arrived pretty late, around 4ish but they were not disqualified I believe.

To be honest, not many teams were really honest because they cheated. Some of them just searched it up on Internet while others were going to photoshop their team pictures. They thought of schemes that I would never have thought of. In Vision Youth, I have learned one and only one thing. Many of them are lazy and if you start doing the work, they will shove their share of the work to you as well. So, you would be doing the whole teams work instead of your individual part. It would be better to be lazy and not do work at all.
After that, we went to Pacific Mall for our dinner at Golden Regency Restaurant. However we were really early and so we had to waste some time before dinner was ready. Many of us didn’t have anything to do at Pmall and we just played Big 2 the whole time. Although we went into the arcade, many of us didn’t want to spend money. The dinner was awesome and it was the last dinner for the Vancouver kids because they would be leaving tomorrow. Aww, its already the end, the start of school and the end of the exchange. Time sure passes by fast when its fun.

After dinner, we went cosmic bowling. I was pretty fail at bowling but I was improving. I got a few strikes at the end and learned a big lesson. When it is times up and your game has finished, don’t go and start a new game because you will have to pay for it. I had started 2 lanes and I was on the verge of paying for it. Thank god, the worker let me off. I was glad to not lose my money.

Day 10 of Toronto Exchange - Friday September 3, 2010

Today I was totally psyched because we were going to Wonderland. Today I doubt there will any parts that will be boring or that we need to listen to some guest speaker talk. I always hated the boring parts and I had looked forward to today. We took the Viva and then transferred to another bus to arrive at Wonderland. On our way to Wonderland, I encountered a St. John’s member who was going somewhere. Our bus ride felt really long and most of us fell asleep because we were really tired.

When we arrived, a Vancouver kid found out that food was not allowed inside Wonderland. I guess we didn’t inform them about this before hand and so he had to trash his food. Another friend had remembered that he had brought a knife along and had to hide it away somewhere. I thought that we were not allowed to bring water inside and I started emptying my bottle. But I found out later on that water was allowed. It started raining a little bit and everyone started freaking out because they didn’t bring any rain gear.

As we entered, we decided to go to Bungee jumping but we decided to do it later. And so, we went on “Top Gun” known as “Flight Deck” now. I felt dizzy after the ride because there were many loops and upside-downs. Another ride we went on was the “Sledgehammer” which was pretty scary as the arms suddenly rose and suddenly fell. We were lining up to go on SkyRider before it started pouring. Then they had to shut it down for safety reasons. because of all the rain. In addition, the SkyRider’s brake system was pretty sensitive and because of the rain, it will undoubtedly be affected. We were pretty pizzed because we were about to go on the ride before they delayed it. We had to wait because there was a reported sighting of lightning 3 miles within the amusement park. We had to wait until the rain died down which took over an hour. So we hid in the shelter and the workers showed us a poster of a new ride that will be coming out next year. It’s called “Windseeker” and it would be higher than Behemoth and I was surprised at the cost which was $5,000,000. It didn’t look that appealing because it was just like a merry go round at a really high level. We waited until 12:00 and we had to leave for lunch.
We ate lunch at Mr. Sub and had to share a large sub between two people because otherwise we would surpass our spending limit. The food at Wonderland is really expensive and totally not worth it. After my lunch, I was still hungry. We went on other rides such as Behemoth, Shockwave, The Bat, Drop Zone and Behemoth again. The lines were really long and going on Behemoth was just scary. During the Behemoth ride, I chose to ride at the last row because apparently it will feel like it goes faster because it is the last cart of the roller coaster. I had a big stomachache after that. At Drop Zone, I was just terrified and a fellow friend had to pull me on the ride. I was just scared out of my mind because it was so high and basically it will fall down really fast. I hate the feeling of free-falling because it feels like you will fall down to the ground but in reality you won’t.

Last of all, some people wanted to do bungee jumping. It cost $20/person and basically they will be pulled up to a very high height and be dropped like a swing. Apparently it was really worth it but I chickened out.

Finally it was nearing the end of the day, we left to a friend’s house to eat dinner. We ate pizza with garlic sauce instead of tomato sauce. It tasted pretty weird and I kind of preferred tomato sauce more. We played a little of mahjong, halo, guitar hero and we watched a horror movie. It was really really scary especially when you watch it in the dark and in a basement. It was better though because we watched it as a large group and many of us literally screamed when something scary pops out. The movie was called The Amityville Horror, a really scary movie indeed.

Day 9 of Toronto Exchange - Thursday, September 2, 2010

Today I woke up so early to take the bus to Yee Hong Centre where we were to meet for our Niagara Falls tour. As we waited for the bus in the morning, we were at the station for 20 minutes before a bus finally came. I was so worried that we would be late and the bus would leave without us. However we arrived like 20 minutes early.

It took us over 2 hours to get to Niagara Falls which was located at the borders of United States and Canada. I fell asleep in the bus and woke up just in time to get off. First off, we went to Niagara on the Lake. I don’t really know what it meant but all I saw was a very small village that sold ice cream and lots of delicious items. I decided to go into one of the ice cream stores to buy ice cream. However I could not find my wallet and I remembered that I left it in my bag on the school bus. Oh my god, I felt so dumb and so I was starving at that moment. We walked around for a bit and then had to leave.

Then we had a tour with some dude wearing a british costume. He was posing as a british soldier and he told us a brief history of the civil war or some war that happened between United States and Britain(or Canada). This was determined whether Ontario would stay as British Territory or be taken by United States. In the end, the british soldiers claimed this land and it became what is now known Canada.

We went to the Butterfly Conservatory for lunch. Our lunch was a piece of pizza and pop. That was definitely not enough for my starving stomach and so I ordered a second slice for $2. Guess what, my slice of pizza was so miniscule and I felt like I was scammed.

After lunch, we went inside the Conservatory and went to watch a short video about the butterflies in the Butterfly Conservatory. The girls were like all screaming as they saw what they say as gross pictures of caterpillars becoming butterflies. I was like this is part of nature and you shouldn’t be scared of it. Then we went inside and “whoosh” we were swept by so many different kinds of butterflies ranging from different sizes, colours and shape. The girls were running like crazy looking for the exit because they could not bear looking at the butterflies for a moment. It cost us $30/person to go inside and they left within 5 minutes of entering the Butterfly Conservatory.
Then we finally went to Niagara Falls. Apparently Niagara Falls is made up of American Falls and Horseshoe Falls. As we parked the school bus for us to get off, I found out that it cost us $40 to unload our bus. That was such a rip-off. We went inside to the gift shop and then a candy shop. After waiting for a while, we finally got our tickets to go see Niagara Falls for ourselves. We had to wear rain ponchos because we would get wet. I was ready for like huge waves of water falling on me but I was disappointed when I came across just breezes of vapour falling on me. Nothing interested me then.

Then we went to watch Niagara Fury, The creation of the falls. It was exciting as it gave us a first person view of how the Niagara Falls emerged. Totally worth your money.
Then we had free time. Many of us ran to Clifton Hills for the arcade. The girls were going for the fudge factory. As we got to the arcade, many of us did not want to pay to play the games which was a huge disappointment. So, we ended up not playing any games. However it was nice to visit a busy street with a lot of different amusements.
We had dinner at CHAKO (Korean BBQ) and it was awesome!!! I ate so many pieces of beef and chicken!

Day 8 of Toronto Exchange - Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Today I woke up really late because my head felt so tired from all the events that has been happening for the past month. It has been non-stop action and I was sleep deprived and finally it was just small rest before school would start. Well I woke up at 11:20 but I should have been awake at 9:00 because I was supposed to join the Vancouver people at a Toronto Downtown Tour but I had to go see the dentist. So I had to skip this tour to see my dentist because it was somewhat important. Guess what I was going to see the dentist for!? You guess wrong! Apparently my wisdom teeth was taking up too much space and I must take them out.

Usually to arrive at the dentist, I would have to take the bus but today at the subway station there was a long line up. I thought I would be late because of it and I was somewhat right. I had to run to the dentist place just not to be late. When I arrived, I was dripping with sweat from my forehead down to my neck. My dentist and his assistant was terrified and told me to wipe it off. At that moment, I was so embarrassed but it was worth it because I was not late. I was totally ready for the loss of my wisdom teeth. But when I saw the hand that held the needle come nearer and nearer, I was terrified. What if my dentist failed, what would happen to my teeth? But after rethinking, this dude is experienced and must have took out people's teeth numerous times so what is there to worry about. I calmed down and felt the sharp pain as the needle went into my gums and the fluid was sent into my gums. He placed two needles on either side of my teeth to ensure that it was fully numb. After just a few minutes, the chemical kicked in and my upper right side felt so numb. I could not feel that part anymore.

After that, all I saw was a small metal stick that was put into my mouth and a few cracking noises from my teeth. Then he took out a clamp and clamped my wisdom teeth out just like that. In all it took just like 3 minutes and it was over. And now I have a hole in my mouth and blood is pouring out. He told me that I cannot eat for 45 minutes and that I must renew my clothe if it get too bloody. In 4 hours my anaesthesia will go away and the pain will come. I have lost 2 wisdom teeth in total and I will lose another 2 in a few weeks.

After that, I went shopping for school bags and other stationary. We returned with 3 school bags, ice cream, blueberry muffins and other sorts of groceries.

Day 5 of Toronto Exchange - Monday August 29, 2010.... Survival Camp Day 3

Today was the last day of our Survival Camp. We went along a long in search of blackberries. With the hands of 30 people we were able to fill up 2 nalgenes with blackberries. Many of us were just stripping and eating the blackberries. It tasted so good with its sweetness and abundancy. Some of us got bored and decided to play with the rescue dogs that were with us. They would throw the branch into somewhere and the dog would chase after it. Then we had to use a compass to navigate to our campsite through the spiky bushes of the blackberry trees. Finally it was party time, and they sent us up to their house to eat a barbecue. There were hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, pop and so much. Most of all, they had so many dogs there. After lunch, we had free time before we had to go. Some of us went to take a dive in the river nearby while me and a few others went fishing. My fishing hook got stuck several times and I had to find help to get it fixed. However I was not able to get any fish which was a big disappointment. A friend beside me had caught two sunfishes already.

Then we were off on the bus to our Residential Project at a Shrine. I had done this residential project before so it was all pretty boring for me.

Day 4 of Toronto Exchange - Sunday August 28, 2010.... Survival Camp Day 2

In the morning, many of us were desperate for water because it was depleted. Our only way of getting fresh water was through filtering water by the river nearby. However we had only 3 water filters for 30 people which took quite a long time. I laughed as one the people had slipped into the water and came back all drenched. He had slipped on the slippery rock and took a swim in the river. Today, we learned about making fires such as making an SOS Signal. It should be made before hand and should be fully on fire in 30 seconds. The fires were placed in 3 places in the shape of a triangle. So when the airplanes that flew overhead, they would see the fires in a shape of a triangle and understand that we needed help. Then we went repelling off a round cliff. I tried jumping off but instead of falling down, I went back up. I tried jumping off again for the second time but I just moved downwards a little bit. But for every step that I took, I felt like I was getting better until the end where I had to land on the ground. While I jumped off to land on the ground, I hit the wall and it hurt.

After that, it was getting dark and they made us sleep without our tents. Finally, we were put to the test and me and 2 others decided to run off into the woods to sleep. We were supposed to make a shelter but instead we decided to sleep in the open, without a tent or a sleeping bag. We were not supposed to eat as well because it would attract a bear but we decided to eat roast beef jerky. It was so good but too bad we didn’t have much. In addition, we had a big bonfire which lasted for a long time before it died out. I slept without a sleeping bag.

Day 3 of Toronto Exchange - Saturday August 27, 2010.... Survival Camp Day 1

Today was the start of Land-based Survival Camp. We took a two hour bus to the same location as the Sea-based Survival Camp but this time we have the Vancouver people with us. Usually you park a bus at a parking lot but today we parked right by the highway. That was pretty dangerous and had already violated one of the rules of the Vancouver program. But this was Toronto and they had no say in this. We began the trip with a long hike to our campsite and set up our tent and shelter. Then we went hiking to another place to make our own shelter with branches and sticks. It took a long time and it was hard to find large branches to start our shelter. When they stopped us and started analyzing how we well we made our shelters. I believe our shelter was by far the worst because it was not even half-finished. Then they had us test it by fitting ourselves inside. After fitting ourselves inside, we broke out of the shelter and broke it. We had a debrief and they suggested the idea of us living in the shelters for tonight. I was terrified with this plan because our shelter was not finished and it was broken. It was too dark to fix it and we may as well sleep in the open. However they called it off after seeing our frightened little faces. It was already pitch black by then and they made us go off into the woods in pairs. We were supposed to walk to our campsite ourselves by following the trail. It was really dark and they expected us to use night vision to see the trail and find our campsite. We had no flashlights and it seemed impossible. We had gotten lost as well but alas, we made it back safe and sound.

Day 2 of Toronto Exchange Preparation for Camp - Friday August 26, 2010

I could not believe it but I woke up at 4pm today. I slept from 12pm yesterday to 4pm which was about 16 hours of sleep. It was all because I did not have enough sleep and that I was sick. When I woke up, I had to quickly pack my pack again because of our upcoming survival camp. Today we had a meeting to check over our equipment and a small lecture which started at 7:30. However we arrived at 7:45 and we ran inside and interrupted the speaker. Oh well, he was only explaining his life and how he was a total loser in his teenage years at Hong Kong. But he was part of a leadership program like Vision Youth which led him to find a goal in life. And now he lives in a big house, has a family and receives a six digit income. That made me surprised how a loser can suddenly become rich like that. I admire him for his courage and his hardwork to get to what he has right now! His name was Edmund and he helped check over our camping gear because apparently it was very important especially for a Survival Camp.

Then one of our counselor started to state some ground rules for this exchange which had never happened before. We had never gotten any rules to oblige to before and we felt that something terrible happened. We found out that the Vancouver people literally hated us because we made their lives miserable. They had sent a hate email about our problems and hey were on considering of not having another exchange with Vision Youth ever again because of us. They had problems with our attitudes and our lack of preparation. For our camps, we were never fully prepared, either missing hiking boots, sleeping mats or something else. They were really really strict about everything and every little thing counts. Our leader was really pissed off because he was planning on attending the Survival Camp but now he needs to go to a conference tomorrow morning to talk with the Vancouver people. Apparently, a bunch of us will not pass this qualifying hike and I think I was one of them because of my lack of preparation. Oh well, I am prepared for the worst anyways.

Another counselor said, there is always two sides of the story and asked us to explain ourselves. He did not believe that we were that crazy and stupid to do all that stuff. We explained ourselves but I guess we were partly wrong. The methods of teaching in Toronto and Vancouver were really different and I guess we were not able to adapt to their traditional method of getting the job done or receive punishment. However I somewhat agree with the Vancouver people, the people from Vision Youth are too lazy and they fool around too much. Finally, we can understand that we have something wrong and that we must change ourselves because our current state has a lot of problems. Although many of the Vision Youth people complain about the disrespect of the Vancouver people, I will side with the Vancouver people because they are right. Although their way of punishment is a little too extreme, they are right though.

Day 13 of Vancouver Exchange - Monday August 23, 2010..... Expedition Day 4

Alas, today was the last day of our expedition. I was not surprised that all of us were glad that it was over. However we still had to conquer the Gargoyles before we can return home. Today's hike was pretty much downhill because we were just walking back the trail from Day 1 which was uphill. Although walking downhill seems pretty easy, it ain't. Its always so hard to try and stop yourself because of your momentum and the weight of your pack as you walk forward. In addition, you always have to consider walking on the right rocks because in any moment, the rock may suddenly slide and you would fall down and hurt yourself.

Today, there was a whole team of injured people who would walk straight to the end point instead of going to the mountain Gargoyles. They would go straight to the hospital because one person was cutting open an avocado when the blade sliced into her hands. It was a very deep wound and it had not stopped bleeding. Good thing today was the last day so she could go straight to the hospital as soon as possible. If it was on the first or second day, it would have been big trouble. Other people going along with the bleeding finger person had either hurt their ankles or could not walk properly. I was scared because they made it seem like Gargoyles was pretty hard and since these people are injured, they cannot endure more pain as they went up the mountain.
The only thing in our way before we arrive home was the Gargoyles. As we made it up the steep slope, we were only halfway to the Gargoyles. However the counselor had given us a choice to go on to the top or to chicken out and walk to the end point. Many of us decided to go on because we were halfway and it would be a waste to just walk home like that. I must say, it was a big challenge because we were hiking at 90 degrees. There were always small rocks that would fall down as you put your step. And, there was no actual foot hold to put your feet on. I was surprised that I did not slip and fall to my death. I was even more surprised that the whole team did not slip at all. As we made it to the top, there was no view to be seen because it was so foggy, either because we were in a cloud or it was just fog. Tough for us, I guess. I found it even harder to hike down the mountain because you always feel like you want to run down it because the slope is so steep. I was always sliding down the mountain and as always, rocks of different sizes would roll downwards as my feet touched it.After our hike up the Gargoyles and the most challenging thing out of the way. We did not relax because we just wanted to arrive at the end point as soon as possible. We took no breaks whatsoever and kept walking on and on. Memories of our hike on the first hill kept coming back to us as we passed by the same spot. At that moment, we knew that we were closeby and increased our pace. Finally, we arrived home but apparently we were not done yet. They had to check our emergency food before we were considered done!

After that, I was glad to have an all you can eat sushi buffet. We ate so much sushi and mango pudding as well. I felt that all the enduring and pain was totally worth it for this awesome meal.

Day 12 of Vancouver Exchange - Sunday August 22, 2010.... Expedition Day 3

I had awoken the whole night to the sound of falling rain. When I opened my eyes, I felt a water drop fall on my forehead but it was pitch black. I had to flash my flashlight at the top of the tent to find out that the water was leaking in because our fly was open. I found out that the sides of the tent were really wet as well and as I looked further, my sleeping bag was wet as well. I huddled up to stop my sleeping bag from getting more wet. Not only that, it was pretty cold. In Vancouver the weather changes drastically, from 30 something degrees during the afternoon to negative 7 degree at night. It had been raining the whole night and when it was morning, it was still raining. We had to cook in the rain, eat in the rain and walk in the rain. All of us were insanely wet throughout the whole time. For me, I always hated being wet and having to hike in wet clothing just made it worse. I felt cold because the wind was blowing on me, wet and disgusting. My pack was supposedly even heavier because the water gets absorbed in all our equipment which makes my bag even heavier with all the moisture. I was glad go hike though because it took my head out of the gloomy weather and to concentrate on my steps. Since everything was all wet, the chances of slipping were even greater. Although I was a careful hiker, I had slipped a couple of times but it was not severe enough to cause an injury. Some other people were not so lucky.

Apparently today, we had to walk back to our first campsite and hike up a really really tall mountain called "Opal Cone". We had to walk through the patch of snow covered field again. But this time, all our clothes were wet so when the chilly and icy wind blew against us, we were shivering. One of the counselors told us that if someone stopped shivering, he had pneumonia. We would have to set up a tent and have the cold person sleep inside. The rest of us would go inside and huddle against him/her to warm him/her up. Thank god this did not happen because otherwise, we would have to stay in this wretched place longer.
As we got close to Opal Cone, we decided to have a lunch break. It was a short one because its better to keep walking than to stand around. Another team which was ahead of us arrived at Opal Cone but as they were about to head up the mountain, they cheered. Our team wondered why and decided to head up there ourselves. When we got there, the counselor told us that we would not have to go up Opal Cone because it was too foggy. I was so happy because all of us were exhausted and wanted the day to end quickly.

We returned to our campsite with bright faces and slept happily ever after.

This was the first time that we had encountered rain in all of our hikes. In all of our hikes, it was just sunny and had never rained before. I felt that it was a pretty big challenge for all of us and most of all, I felt accomplished that we were able to conquer it.

Day 11 of Vancouver Exchange - Saturday, August, 21, 2010...... Expedition Day 2

Woke up early in the morning to begin Day 2 of our DEA Expedition. We had to cook our breakfast and lunch and then we left on our hike once again. My backpack felt lighter now since we ate some of the food that I was holding.

Something I was not glad was that it was uphill again and yet again we were walking on rocky paths. These were not like those pebble rock paths but actual loose rocks that have been eroded from the mountains. So while you walked on it, you might suddenly lose balance and fall. Worse off, you might get a sprained ankle which totally sucks when you got to continue hiking. My feet hurt from all the rocks because firstly I was not used to it. In Toronto, many of the paths were dirt/soil and it was soft. Secondly, we had vegetation such as grass to step on to soften our footing. I started to hate the rocks and it was like a test of endurance, perseverance and patience. Every step, I could feel my feet burning and I would continue to be tired.

We crossed a very steep slope where I could feel rocks tumbling down the cliff as I put my foot on it. Every step needed to be cautious because it was terribly easy to lose your footing and fall to your death. I was scared out of my mind because under me, I saw raging rapids and there was a very narrow path around this mountain. Before I knew it, I had crossed this mindblowing area and we had to cross the raging waters. Again I was scared because a loose footing would result you to fall into the waters and be swept away like a fish. However I crossed it with ease and helped my fellow teammates overcome their fears as well. After that we had to cross a second river which was not as scary but it was hard to find large rocks for us to put our feet on. As we walked up the river, we finally came across a set of rocks that we could cross on.

Usually we hiked in teams and we would have a walkie-talkie to communicate and radio for help if needed. Suddenly we overheard that one of the teams had become lost at a very snowy area. I was excited because during the course of my hike, all I saw was small patches of snow but not actual area where it was covered with snow. As we came upon the snow, the snow stretched on for miles and suddenly it was all white and bright. Thank god I brought my sunglasses because it sure helped a lot. We slipped and slid as we walked across this ice field. We could see neighbouring mountains covered with snow as well. We came upon a very icy blue pool of water and it looked really nice. I felt like going over and dipping my hand in the fresh, cold water. I was reluctant though because my team was really tired and had just wanted to go straight to the campsite.

As we got close to the campsite, we suddenly had to go downhill. I felt like we were walking on a landslide that had happened recently. We walked on large boulders as it covered our path and then we had to go through a foresty area before we arrived at the campsite. I was so happy to arrive because it was such a long day.

While we were picking our campsite space, most of the spots were taken up and we had to go sleep next to a swampy area.

Day 10 of Vancouver Exchange - Friday, August 20, 2010 .... Expedition Day 1

Finally the day has come for our Expedition Hike. We woke up early in the morning and had to leave right away to MacDonalds. At MacDonalds, they actually checked our hiking bags for emergency food, sunhat, sunscreen/insect repellent and hiking boots. I mean if we did not just any one of the items, we were not allowed on the hike. If I didn’t have any, I would be joining the 2 others who will not be attending our expedition. That would be such a waste because the goal of this Vancouver trip was to finish my Gold Qualifying Hike. And I would have accomplished next to nothing by not going on this trip. Also, while they were checking our hiking bags, I had a sudden nose bleed. This was like the worst time to ever have one and I had to go in MacDonalds to get tissue paper and a glass of water to soothe my nosebleed. I emptied the glass of water and during our long car ride to the Rocky Mountains, my bladder felt like it was about to explode.

As we got close to our designated spot, we had a very rocky and bumpy path. The whole car rocked as it drove past big ditches and the front windows were all scratched up from all the rocks on the path. But finally we arrived and I was glad to see a porta-potty (portable toilet) at the parking lot. However as we unloaded the vans, the counselors would not let all of us rush to the washrooms. He let us off by teams and my team was one of the last ones to go to the washrooms and so I had to hold off my almost-exploding bladder once again before I unloaded myself on the toilet.

After that, we were off on the trail to our campsite. It would take us at least 4 hours to get to the campsite if we hiked fast. I doubted that though. While we were hiking, I found a lot of mosquitoes and flies flying around my head and others that were hiking beside me. They were so annoying and I was jealous as some of my teammates had been prepared and brought out their bug hats. So when it came to lunch, I was always running around or swatting the bugs away as they flew around me. The people with their bug hats stood their happily eating their lunches. By the way, I had already put on bug repellent and it was this very strong kind that lasted for 6 hours. Usually bug repellent lasts for 2-3 hours and they were the spray kind. This kind of bug repellent was the lotion kind and it seemed pretty good at warding off bugs.

As we hiked up the mountains, the terrain changed from forest to just plain rocks. I felt pretty tired as we had to hike up an incline the whole time. It was this slow and dragging on kind of incline which never stops. Usually Toronto has really flat land but Vancouver was just different. The whole hike was either uphill or downhill, there was not flat path we could walk on. As we went up, we spotted the first snow patch pretty close to the trail. I was excited and was looking forward to seeing more snow. However as we got higher and higher, the air started getting more and more cool but I could not see any snow anymore.

Finally after 5 hours of hiking, we arrived at our campsite all tired and sweaty. Even though it was cool, we continued to sweat because hiking just produced so much heat. When we arrived at the campsite, we had to find a site to put up our tents, set up our tents, cook our food, filter water and most of all go to the washroom again. When we were setting our tents, I was surprised to see that our tent was broken. Like the string that was between each of the poles was broken but we still had to set up the tent even with this broken pole. I had also went down to a freshwater river to retrieve an almost filled up water bag. It took so much effort to bring my water bag from the river to the cooking area.

While doing this, one of the counselors came and told me that our teammate was crying. Apparently, she “believed” that she was doing all the work and that her teammates were not doing their job. I was like “what the F”… I am here, working hard and you just start bursting into tears. Although you are a girl, and maybe you are stressed. I don’t think that is enough for you to just cry. Ugh.. I hate it when that happens.

Day 7-9 of Vancouver Exchange - Tuesday, August 17, 2010

It was all a blur to me however I remember the places that we had went to. We had to go to Barkerville which was a deserted place in Vancouver and we were able to stay in a hotel at Coast Fraser Inn. Next off, we went to the UBC Museum of Anthropology and a UBC Tour on the campus. Next we signed out our equipment and had to do food shopping for our expedition. Our expedition was tomorrow and we were still buying food at 7:00pm. We had to prepare the food and some of the food had to be frozen for the hike which gave us less than 12 hours before we had to leave for the expedition.

By then, we found out that 2 Vision Youth friends would not be joining us because they had hurt their ankles. Although they were recovering, they were not allowed to go on the hike. Many of us had thought of quitting as well and to go on the gold qualifying hike at Toronto instead of Vancouver.

Day 6 of Vancouver Exchange - Monday, August 16, 2010

We had an all-day program where we learned the history, traditional fishing site, explanation of various fishing methods and around area of Xats’ull traditional crafts such as brich basket workshop. We also learned about edible and medicinal plants and traditional pit cooking. We were also able to make dream catchers. I made one myself and decided to keep it. We could not make a campfire because there was a forest fire nearby which had limited us to do only certain things. When I look up in the sky, it seems like there is a cloud but actually it was all dust and ashes from the forest fire.

Then it got to the exciting part. Before we slept yesterday, they outlined a set of rules that we were obliged to follow. One of them included that we were not allowed to cross the teepee line because they felt that the fencing that was the only thing that stopped us from falling down into a river was not safe. However after showering last night, many of us needed to hang our towels. We had decided to ask the First Nations person about where to hang our towels. He told us to hang it along the fence and so we listened to him. However apparently because of this, we had violated their rule which was not to cross the teepee line. One of our Vision Youth people decided to admit his wrong about hanging his towel on the fence while many others did not want to claim their towels and receive some sort of punishment. However this person who stood up for his towel was suddenly not allowed to go on the expedition because he did not listen to their rules. This was terribly unfair but there was more. Another one of our Vision Youth friends had to read the rules and requirements from the DEA book to a chair because he did not know about DEA well enough.

And so we decided to hold a long discussion with Mr. K to resolve the problem. However, many of us (not me) had shed tears. Actual tears with watery eyes and wailing because this person was just SO UNREASONABLE. Although we had debated for over a few hours, the result was still the same. He would not change himself and would continue giving out punishments. I felt like we had lost and with all our efforts, we were not able to win. Something shocking was, during this discussion 5 or more people had nose bleeds.

We were all really sad and slept in our teepees again.

Day 5 of Vancouver Exchange - Sunday 15, 2010

We had to leave our hostel again to Xats’ull Heritage to learn about First Nations and to complete the Residential Project. We were separated into 5 groups and put into five vans. One of the vans had Mr. K who they hated for the rest of the car ride. Usually during the car rides, people would sleep right? Not only that, we were all really sleepy because we were doing laundry until 3am. Well this was totally different for the people in Mr. K’s car because this dude gave them tasks to do for the whole ride such as counting the number of trains, making up a story and other very boring stuff. He had told the other 4 vans to do the same tasks but guess what, none of them listened. So while the people in Mr. K’s car suffered, the rest including me were able to have a long sleep.

Mr. K was very unreasonable. During one of our lunch breaks, we stopped at Dairy Queen. Many of us decided to buy ice cream but he said “NO” to us all. One of my friend had already placed an order already and was on the verge of receiving it. After hearing Mr. K’s remark he was terrified. Mr. K told him to throw out the ice cream but he was reluctant to. When Mr. K was not looking, he took his ice cream and ran out the door. In the end, we were stuck with our boxed lunches and no ice cream except for that one person. Mr K’s reason for not letting us have ice cream was having dessert before the main meal is not good for you.

During another of our lunches, we stopped at Dairy Queen as well. He gave us 15 minutes to go inside, line-up, place our orders and be outside in our vans. This was terribly unreasonable but we decided to buy ice cream still. When we finally bought the ice cream and we were out of the door, he told us all to throw the ice cream in the garbage can. Because firstly, we were not allowed food inside the vans and secondly, that we had violated his 15 minute limit. And so I had wasted my money and the ice cream ended up in the garbage can. However some of the people were able to snake their ice cream into their vans. Not only that, some of the counselors felt that it was unreasonable but they were too afraid to voice their opinions out.

It was a long and bumpy trip and it was starting to get dark before we arrived at the First Nations. So we were led to our teepees where we would sleep for the night. When we first went in it, the first thing we saw was a rat. It took all of us to scare it away. I did not sleep well that night because I was worried that the rat might come back in the middle of the night.

Day 4 of Vancouver Exchange - Saturday 14, 2010

Today, we were carpooled to a big mountain called Grouse Grind. As we were going to Grouse Grind we went along Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge. There was nothing special about it, just a normal bridge, a little more than normal but nothing very surprising. It was a long ride before we arrived at Grouse Grind. When I looked up, the mountain reached up to the skies and I was scared because we had to climb up it. Many of us had hiking boots and I was the only one wearing running shoes. So we had a fresh start going up the mountain and there were many other participants other than us that were going to climb it up in less than a few hours. We had to stretch before our hike, which had never happened in our Vision Youth gold practice hike. Although both programs were very similar, the rules, structure and culture of the Vancouver kids were so different from the Toronto’s. They were more on the strict and traditional side of ways while Toronto was more of a modern method of teaching.

During our hike up this mountain, one of our hiker’s can of coke had exploded in his backpack. The bag was drenched in coke and of course the hiker was pretty mad. He complained about how unlucky he was because a similar incident had happened before. While we were claiming our luggage, the same guy’s hiking bag had an exploded insect repellent can. This insect repellent was the really good kind and the smell had stayed in his bag for a few weeks before it had evaporated. So we decided to continue walking up the mountains before another fellow hiker had some kind of fatigue problem. We walked slowly and took quite a few breaks before we arrived at the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain, there were many stores to relieve our hungry stomachs and parched throats. However all the food and drinks was very expensive which was disappointing. This mountain is a ski slope but since it was summer, many hikers decide to hike up this treacherous and long journey. This hike was not as hard as our qualifying but it was a heads-up on how hard our expedition will be. Although we hiked up this mountain without our packs and this mountain had actual steps to place your foot on, many people found it difficult though. They kind of deserved this because before the Vancouver trip, people were told to go work out because it will be really hard. I guess they did not listen and decided to learn it the hard way.

There were some pretty nice stuff at Grouse Grind such as a big 2-person parachute experience. Guess how much it cost!? Only $100, I believe but it would have given you one hell of a bragging right, I mean who gets the chance to do these kind of things in Toronto. In addition, there was a pretty nice view as you flew down the mountain. Our method of going down Grouse Grind was by the tram which was a very slow process. However there was some sudden feeling of falling since we had to go down different slopes. Every time we fell (not actual falling), I would hear people screaming which got pretty annoying after awhile. After a long hike, we had to go to SUCCESS again for our second Training. It was long and boring.

As my expedition loomed closer and closer, it was hard to find time to buy a pair and I was forced to take my last plan, to ask for help. So finally, I got my pair of hiking boots and it was all thanks to our counselor’s parents. They had taken time off their lives to go shopping at Walmart to buy me a $30 pair of hiking boots. I was terribly in debt to them because without the hiking boots, I was not allowed on my expedition.