Hoya hoya: Looking at life anew: October 2005

Sunny side up

The sky was so stunning today, I had to abandon my coffee to get these shots from Mt. Tolmie. Well worth a little hike on a chilly October morning! That's the thing about living on the westcoast...you take advantage of every sunny day you get!

Some unexpected motivation

As I was locking up my bike on campus today, I overheard a conversation between two students who had been out on the town last night. The girl asked her friend if he got the number of someone he was chatting up. He said, "Yeah...but then I found out she was THIRTY! You could never tell though...it was dark, and she was Asian." Undeniable proof that it's high time for me to hurry up, finish and get out of uni!

Another milestone

Gimme some of dat cake!!

Last week I turned the big three-oh. Everyone says it's just a number (everyone who is over 30 that is!), but it's a pretty big number, and I can't help but take a step back and look at how my life has been so far.

I certainly never planned to be living with my family, still finishing school! When I was younger, I always had a pretty good idea what I was going to be when I "grew up". Guess you can never really plan for the future...you never know where life will take you! I have absolutely no regrets though. Sometimes I do wish I hadn't gotten so serious so early in life...serious about school, serious about relationships. I've gone and done it all ass-backwards: grad school and living with a serious boyfriend, and then travelling the world and having fun! Which is why I'm still in school! OK, so I'm a little behind! Lots of people my age are going through the same thing though...this is what happens when the world has been opened up to you through the Internet and airplanes...too many choices.

I'm glad I've decided to come home. Living abroad is great because you can be whoever you want; there aren't any expectations of how you should behave, any memories of your past behaviour. You're almost more free to be yourself because no one knows you. You can re-invent yourself, but in doing so, it's pretty easy to forget who you were and where you came from. Granted, for some people, that's a good thing! But I think it's important to reconciliate the two. I may have picked up a lot of Japanese habits - even people in India were noticing those little quirks - but I can't forget that I'm Chinese and I'm Canadian (cue Molson beer commercial with a bunch of guys in baseball caps watching the hockey in the pub).

A happy boarder

Last Friday, I was up at 5 am to catch the ferry to Vancouver and left that afternoon. The occasion? Snowboard sale!! Woo hoo!

And if things weren't perfect enough, we were greeted by a pod of orcas on the way back. An excellent Thanksgiving!

During our trip, Aggie and I often discussed the pros and cons of arranged marriage. Just think - no awkward first kisses, no blind dates...easy, right? After all, it's no different from being set up by your friends, only it's your parents who are playing Cupid. In India, arranged marriages are still quite common. And without all the delusions of romance, parents base their decisions on income, character and of course, family. As our guide said, if you buy a cow, you've got to look at its lineage. The question is, would you trust your parents?

If it were up to my dad, I'd be married with kids by now. Everyday he drops some kind of hint - "Pretty soon your mother will be too old to hold her grandkids" or "Your eggs are going to go bad" - about as subtle as a bowling ball. There are six of us on his side of the family who are still unmarried, and my dad and my aunt are getting a bit desparate. There's a great Chinese metaphor - my neck's getting long - to show how much you're looking forward to something. Well, my dad and aunt must be giraffes by now. Sometimes I wonder if I should just let them choose a nice Chinese boy for me and get it over with. At least then I'l have some peace!