Another Asian Driver

'Cause the world really needed another, you know?
Today, my dad drove me to get my G1 license from the Downsview DMV. It took us a half hour to find it. Google maps was not helpful. Though, it probably didn't help that I forgot to print off said map... Regardless, once we got there, we realized that Friday afternoons at the DMV are busy.

For those who never took their Ontario G1 test, and want a little run down as to what happens, here you go:
When I got it, I went to the front desk, by the door. After showing my forms of IDs, I filled out one form (basically put on 3 check marks and signed my name) and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited a little bit more. Another half hour later, my number was finally called and I went up.

After being momentarily confused as to what my address was (I cannot have things spelt out to me, it just doesn't work), I paid and got my photo taken. Once that was complete, I took the vision test. This is a simple test. You will have to look into this set of binocular things. There will be a lit up circle that contains 6 numbers (ex. 567384). You will be asked to recite said number. Once you have completed one circle, another will light up with a different set of number, this happens three or four times (I have a bad memory...). The size of the numbers will progressively get smaller. Next, they test your peripheral vision. A light will flash on one side and you have to tell them if it's the left or right side. It's fairly simple and straight forward.

Once that's done, you'll go into the writing exam room and write your exam. It's a set of 40 multiple choice questions: 20 rules, 20 signs. In order to pass, you must get 16 on each one right (i.e. you can only get four questions wrong for the rules, and four for the signs, for a total of eight errors). These don't balance, unfortunately. So if you get perfect on the signs, and five wrong on the rules, you do not pass.

After your exam, you hand it in and resume waiting. I waited twenty minutes for the results of my exam. By then, the room was packed with people waiting to either take their exam or get their results. Once your results process, they'll call you up and tell you whether you passed or not. I heard 5 people not pass, so don't take the test too lightly.

All in all, it was a new experience. And now I'm licensed to drive (with an adult who has been fully licensed for four years or more and at any time except between midnight and 5AM)!

In all honestly, I didn't get my license so I could learn to drive and become an epically awesome drift racer like Jay Chou in Initial D. No, my real motivation was food. I don't have a passport because the last time I left the country, passports weren't yet required for five year old children. This proved to be a large inconvenience because if I wanted to get my WATcard in September (which is kind of a necessity at UofW), I needed a government issued ID. Based on price, as well as convenience, I chose to get my G1. Once my license card is mailed, I'll be able to go to Waterloo and get my lovely WATcard, which has all my food money on it. I think the first thing I'll purchase is an Ice Cap (:

Next piece of news: I got my residence placement! I'm right across from eggtart ~ I'm room with my friend GL and another girl. She seems alright (if you can base anything off a few emails). I'm quite excited!

So yesterday, I had a bout of nostalgia and decided to check out one of my old favourite shows: Digimon.

So that's Digimon Adventure's (i.e. Season One) characters. Those are the characters I remember. I loved those characters and everything, but I couldn't remember anything from that season except for the characters.

On the other hand, that's Digimon Adventure 2's (i.e. Season Two) characters. I don't remember any of them, except Ken (Mr. Purple Hair). Ken was my favourite character in all of Digimon (yeah, I loved the bad guy turned good, I can't help it. He was awesome.). I did, however, remember what happened throughout the season. So I don't know why my memory blended both seasons, but every time I pictured Digimon, I saw Ken against season one's characters... I don't know. Still, I love both seasons, and I still love Ken (: I watched an episode of each season and my first thought, when I saw the episode from season two, was: Davis? I vaguely remembered every character except Davis from S2. And he's like the main character... My memory's so selective... I'm a little worried.

On another note, I've made a slight dent in my reading. I've finished:

The Immortal Rules [#1 Blood of Eden] by Julie Kagawa [5/5] 

A book about vampires (though they're the evil ones (for the most part) in this series). Kagawa really brought the vampire concept back to life and made it different from the other crazy ones (i.e. Twilight, House of Night). It's basically like the Dust Land Series (by Moira Young), meets The Host (by Stephenie Meyer), meets Dracula (by Bram Stoker), meets Julie Kagawa's imagination. It's really awesome and brings together dystopian fantasy, paranormal fiction, and horror, to make one awesome book.

The Thing About the Truth by Lauren Barnholdt [3.5/5] 

A love story, where the truth ruins everything. This kind of left me with an ending that was not really resolved. It bugged me. However, the novel wasn't bad. It was taken from the two main characters' point of views before and after the 'incident'. There is a fair amount of humour and I like the real life references, as well as the characters, so that made up for the end. Yet it didn't, you know? Eh, just thinking about it... it's still bugging me...

Next, I'll probably finish Keep Holding On by Susane Colasanti (which I've started but haven't finished yet...), then Divergent by Veronica Roth, which my sister has been raving about (unconsciously raising my expectations).

Anyway, I think I've babbled enough for today ~ Good night to those in the EST time zone. Good morning eggtart!

- fishandchips

Course Selection

Today was the first official day to enroll yourself in classes for Waterloo. I tried to get into Chemistry... and Biology... and Physics... but all of them were basically filled to the rim, to my dismay. C'est la vie. Maybe I'll take 'em in the summer (if those buildings have air conditioning...).

"F" takes up so much of my time, while "M"'s just chilling there like "I'm a 3 hour class @ 7pm"

My schedule's pretty full on Wednesdays, I was honestly surprised that that "F" class will require so much time. Hm. That night class worries me a little, even though my UofW tour guide reassured us that "the lights around campus were just changed and are very bright". Although it's good to know that the lights are very bright and numerous around campus, I'm still a little wary of the whole thing. I know I'll get used to it after I settle in, but until then I'll sit here and pray it's not like York's lovely campus on which crime just happens to be sky rocketing.

Oh, I forgot to mention: eggtart is currently gallivanting across the eastern side of Asia, so you won't here from her for a little bit. I finally got eggtart's birthday present, too! Hope she likes it, haha.

I finally finished Season 2 of Game of Thrones! Minus the nudity, the show is awesome. Lot's of violence and backstabbing. And somewhere between cutting off a dude's head to being a faceless man, there's romance.

And speaking of that series, I currently have the first four books waiting to be read.

On top of those, there's:

Sisterhood Everlasting: 10 years after the Sisterhood of Travelling Pants

The Enchantress: the final book to its series

Keep Holding On: I got it for my birthday from my Uncle (:

Bitterblue: the third book to the Seven Realms Series

Divergent: the first in the series  (I also have the second)

Also, I need to read:

I require a driver's license before university starts...

Add in grade 9 French, grade 12 Calculus and Vectors, Student 101 in August at Waterloo, some intensive piano practice, as well as a piano exam, and I'd say I have a lot to do in the next seven weeks. Should probably start working on all that. Well, what'd you know, even in the summer I can procrastinate.

- fishandchips

Exams, Birthday, and Graduation!

Since my post about UWaterloo, quite a bit has happened. Right after that day, there was a lot of culminating assignments to be done and exams came the week after that.

For some reason, I found myself slacking a lot during the days I was given to study for exams. I ended up with extremely poor exam result marks; a 76% on my Economics exam, a 92% on my International Business exam (this was ok), and a 66% on my Law exam. Luckily for me, my marks during the semester were decent enough to cushion the fall that the exam caused.

My final marks were:
Economics: 87% (from a 94% at mid-terms)
International Business: 92% (from a 95% at mid-terms)
Law: 83% (from a 87% at mid-terms)

I got this with my report card!
Wild Water Kingdom this summer, anyone? :)

Oh well, the final grades are still tolerable, I guess. What's done is done!

After the exams, it was time for my birthday! My birthday itself was alright? Not exactly what most teens would say was the best 18th birthday celebration ever. The day itself, June 24th, I went out for a sushi dinner with my parents.

Honey roll? + Sweet Potatoes on top!
Tasted amazing!!

Black Dragon roll (left)
Sunshine roll (right)

Unagi Sushi Pizza

The day after, June 25th, I went with my friends to Pacific Mall. We didn't really do much other than walk around and chill. But I still had fun!

One of my friends, got me this:

So basically my friend - as you can see - got me mix-style headphones. I know, I know, their sound quality isn't the best out there. But it's pretty and it's good enough for me. Quite frankly, I've never been the person to care too much about the quality and clarity of the music. If I hear the music and it's relatively clear, I'm good. As of the moment though, I'm sticking with my Apple earphones! These headphones will be for my trip to Hong Kong/China! :)

My other friend got me this:

It's a turtle plushie! As cute as it is and as much as I appreciate the gift, I just don't really like it that much. If this had been given to me two or three years ago, I'd probably be ecstatic. But I'm a big girl now! But I just don't have much of a use for it now. What I really want now is probably too expensive for most of my friends to buy! Nonetheless, he's still really nice for actually getting me a birthday gift! A big thank you to P.Pham! :) 

After my birthday, it was basically time for grad! On June 28th, it was our high school graduation! Basically, all the students had to arrive at 2:30 to pick up our black gowns/robes. The parents were to arrive at 4:00, which was when grad would be starting!

I sound kind of spoiled for saying this, but I was kind of upset that day. All the girls wore nice dresses and all the guys wore nice shirts, pants, and ties. See, my parents wouldn't buy me a new dress since I don't own any semi-formal dresses, and they wouldn't let me wear shorts because they felt that shorts were too informal. But come on, it was 33 degrees + over 600 people in a relatively small auditorium! I ended up going in a dress shirt and capris... I felt stupid as hell. Luckily, we were wearing the robe most of the time!

Anyways, the ceremony itself was complete bullshit. 75% of the time was used on award-winners. If you didn't win an award, you basically spent an hour and a half listening to teachers praise your fellow classmates while you sat and waited. There was a grand total of approx. 20 awards? Each award-winner was presented with a gift (ex: $75 dollar gift-card to Best Buy) and a 2-3 minute speech dedicated to them. They went up one by one ...

Everyone else? If you didn't win an award, you were called up 8 people at a time and then rushed off stage. They managed to burn through almost 200 people in 15 minutes of the 2-hour ceremony. Bullshit, right?

As happy as I am for fishandchips and her English award; sorry buddy, y'all award winners pissed me off.

Robe/gown return line

Graduating class composite!

I ended up taking a fair amount of pictures with my friends, classmates, and my favourite teachers! Grad was better than prom! Hehe.

Anyways, I'm going to make another post soon about my meet and greet experience for Raymond Wong! I'm currently waiting for my friend to send me her half of the photos she took! :)

Bye bye for now!

- eggtart

P.S - HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA! :)