University fees

As a co-op student in Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, I am obliged to pay co-op fees over eight academic terms. In any given term, the co-op fee is the same for all co-op students regardless of where they are in first year, fourth year, or anywhere in between. This term's co-op fee is listed as $609. It seemed like a large sum, and I decided to look back at my previous statements to see how much the fee used to be. Here is what I have paid:

Fall 2006: $510.00
Winter 2007: $510.00
Fall 2007: $535.00
Spring 2008: $560.00
Winter 2009: $560.00
Fall 2009: $587.00
Winter 2010: $587.00
Spring 2010: $609.00

I'd completely forgotten that the termly co-op fee was so much lower when I started university. Roughly a 20% increase in 4 years (19.41% to be more accurate), it just didn't make sense. Yes, the Illustrative Life Table that the SOA provides for its exams assumes an annual interest rate of 6%, but surely that can't even be close to reality! I decided to do a little bit of math.

I vaguely remembered hearing somewhere that the annual inflation rate can range from 2-3% per annum. Assuming the high end, 3%, the fee should have gone up by 12.55% over 4 years. In this case, the co-op fee should be $574 now.

Then I went to the inflation calculator provided by the Bank of Canada.

To my surprise, the answer turned out to be a mere $545.96. Round that up to $546, and there's a $63 difference between the expected and actual fees. Co-op fees don't seem to fall under any of "food, shelter, furniture, clothing, transportation, and recreation", but the hefty increases still go unexplained. Where is the extra money going? Updating the system at the heart of the co-op program?


While discussing these numbers with S, it hit me that I could do the same thing with tuition fees, too. I decided to look at the 1A Co-op Mathematics tuition for Canadian citizens and permanent residents, assuming a 5-course workload. The U of Waterloo registrar's office website has fee schedules dating back to Fall 2007, and anything before that I gathered from my own statements from first year, as well as a friend's statement.

A grand total of 19.30% increase over 4 years, averaging 4.5% a year. Heck, GICs only yield a fraction of that interest these days.

Even with my salary slowly increasing with each co-operative work term, it's no surprise I felt more and more strapped for cash as the years went by. At this rate, "one of these days, we'll catch up to the US tuition," to quote J. One of these days may just be when we are parents of soon-to-be university students....

What is your take on your tuition "inflation"?



Addendum: It seems that Statistics Canada agrees with my findings.

Nine Years Later

It has already been nine years since four planes were hijacked in an unimaginable terrorist act against the United States of America, two of which crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York City. While it has constantly been a sensitive issue, the added news of a mosque to be built in the vicinity of Ground Zero has called for even more uproar in the community.

On September 11, 2010, both those who support the idea of the mosque and those who object spilled out to the streets to voice their opinions.


1. Church Street, between Murray Street and Park Place

There was a pen set up for protesters, media, and anyone else who wished to ask questions or just watch. Outside the pen, police were urging people not to block the sidewalk, and either continue walking or go inside the pen.

The man with the flag believes that "it is not about religion, it is not about politics - it is about understanding." The man with the Bible disagrees; he believes that this is God telling us we need to repent.


This 17-year-old New York native is fine with political arguments any day but today. For her, today is September 11; it should be about the 3,000+ people who died in 9/11 nine years ago. She still remembers how it was that day, though she was only eight years old.

She was interrupted by someone that disagreed with her, who then accused her of not voting. She was too young to vote, and still is, for another few months from today.

"You have no rights! You're Islam."
The girl in the picture above is actually Jewish, not Islam. The man responded with a "Shalom". He is also Jewish.

"Jesus is the word. He is the answer."
This man was a Hindu, until "there was a bomb." He believes that if we do not convert, we will be killed. He also believes that we should "put a Conservative president up and get rid of all the liberals."

To this man, this is not a protest. He is appealing to people to repent and turn to God.

There was a discussion between a passer-by and an anti-abortion activist. It was the passer-by's first time in the area since 9/11, and while he respected the activist's rights, he believed that conversations involving abortion should be taken to other streets. The activist, however, held a different stance: "There are people here, there is media, therefore we speak here today."

The former Hindu man was still in the vicinity, arguing with the young NY native, when this man happened to be walking by. He had two questions: "So how many Christians were on the plane? Are you even American?"

It became the start of an argument between this man and another man that happened to be nearby, wearing a "Peace Thru Understanding" t-shirt. An excerpt from the argument:

A: I don't want to argue with you, sir. It's America. They have the right to build a mosque.
B: We should make exceptions to the Constitution.
A: So we should make exceptions to the Constitution?


2. Church Street, between Park Place and Barclay Street

One block south of the first pen, there was a similar pen set up. It was just as well occupied as the first.

This woman used the analogy of a plane destined to crash to describe why we should turn to Jesus Christ. She said that if we are on board an airplane, and the flight attendant tells us the plane will crash and that we should get out, we should get out with a parachute. She recommended that we "put on the parachute of Jesus Christ".

"I'm not trying to be religious, but if you confess, put your life in his hands... he will make a new life for you. [...] Isn't your soul more important than anything else?"

This man here, with his "Real Americans don't burn Qurans" sign, does not see a problem with this mosque. He believes that since these are not the same people behind 9/11, we should not blame them. He would also later add that there is no such thing as "the Muslims".

While the vast majority of people in the pen were either busy voicing their own opinions or jotting down what others had to say, this couple silently stood there with a little American flag.


This proud American woman was not afraid to make herself heard. She believes that "that mosque has got to go," otherwise we will always have to bow down to Muslims, and will get "killed for everything."

A man appeared, claiming to be knowledgeable about the Koran. A lengthy argument ensued, drawing in a fair amount of media attention.

Soon enough, this woman was inside the pen with everyone else. She proceeded to belt out a lengthy speech, part of which went as follows:
"Islam is not a religion. Islam is a militant supremacist movement! They want to kill everybody who's not Islam. Everybody. It's going to be worse than Hitler! It's going to make Hitler look like child's play. Open your eyes, America! [...] I'm not an Arab."

One reporter asked where she was from. She replied that she is from Brazil, but that it does not matter.

After the woman left, the argument about the nature of the Koran continued. One side believes that paranoia is what destroys people, not the Koran, and there are various interpretations of the book. According to the opposing side, Islam disguised as a religion is not religion, but rather hate, and while people have the freedom to believe in anything as long as it is peaceful, this book calls for murder. One of the pro-mosque protesters shouted out that "Context rules everything."

At that moment, a man in a red shirt happened to be nearby. He responded that "context isn't everything; grammatical structure is everything also."


This man was with a girl that may have been his daughter. He seemed like he had had many pictures taken with his placard today. He asked which newspaper I was from.


3. Pro-Mosque: Broadway, by the City Hall

These two men are on their way to the pro-mosque protest. Their banner says, "These aren't the Muslims you're looking for..."

The pro-mosque crowd covered a couple of blocks on Broadway next to the City Hall.

A mosque leader was among the speakers at this protest. He assured the attendees that they "are standing on a higher moral ground than everyone". He also added that Ground Zero belongs to all of us, and that our shared priority is to keep justice and peace.

A later speaker said that "Muslim is as diverse as any other religion; this is why [they're] here today", and emphasised the importance of religious freedom and equality.

These people were among the many protesters that were proud to share their opinions today.


4. Anti-Mosque: West Broadway

The anti-mosque protesters were waiting for their keynote speaker.

This man is being interviewed by the New York Post. He said that this is like bringing the Cordoba mosque here, and thinking about the issue this way will help clarify things.

This man is pre-mosque. When asked why he was here and not two blocks away (at the pro-mosque protest), he said he was "lost". He added that the people that are for a mosque are also from this nation, then left. The media left a large gap at the protest scene when they followed him out of the pen.

By the Amish Market, located just south of the protest site, a policewoman was heard saying, "I can't wait till all of this is over." Her colleague agreed.

I am Canadian. Get over it.

For those of you who don't know me well, I am Chinese by heritage. My parents are from mainland China, and as a random bit of trivia, my mom likes to mention that she grew up watching the Terracotta soldiers being unearthed. (Even more trivia…did you know that for the first time EVER, the Chinese government is letting some of the soldiers out of the country? They are hitting up Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary museums!)

Those of you who know me…will also know that I am “white”. In fact, I often get “whiter than most white people”, or “you are the whitest person I know”. In other words, I don’t act asian.

I do not speak Mandarin or Canto. I can’t read or write an asian language. I do not speak Engrish, or English with an accent. I do have a Chinese name, however, I can’t pronounce it, write it, or even recognize it in writing if someone showed it to me. I never had to go to Chinese school. I do not go to China once every two years. I do not know my relatives in China. In fact, I don’t even know how many relatives I have in China. The only time I went to China was when I was 5. I HATED it. I date a white guy, and no, my parents never tried to set me up with asian guys. I spent most of my life in Okotoks – for most of my life there, we were one of the only asian families in the entire community.

Is this unusual? I don’t think so…I am meeting more and more Canadian Born Chinese (CBCs) every day. I’m not alone!

Then why are there so many people who think I am some sort of alien?

Throughout my life, I’ve encountered people who express horror at my upbringing. “How can you not know how to speak mandarin?” “Where are your parents?” “Why didn’t your parents teach you?” “Why didn’t you go to Chinese school?” “You sound like a white person” “What a disgrace, dishonouring your heritage” “How can you ignore that you are Chinese?”

Why is it not obvious? My family chose to leave China – China didn’t do anything good for them. They chose to come to Canada, they chose to raise their kids as Canadian. Why is that so hard to understand? I’m not IGNORING the fact that I’m Chinese, my family has some habits and ways that can only be described as Chinese. However, my parents chose to embrace Canada and it’s ways and traditions, making our own little niche in this fantastic country.

I am Canadian. Chinese by heritage, but 100% Canadian, and it’s time people learnt to accept that.

-S

Life is knocking....shhh, ignore it.

First off, sorry for not posting sooner! It's amazing how the whole "oh I'll do it later" magically turns into 4 months later x.x

Anyways! Quick catching up. I just flew home to Alberta, before that I went camping for 4 days, then before that I just finished my last work term ever...that was basically my summer =P Now, surrounded by electronics, tea, moon cakes, and a cat who keeps pressing the 'd' and 's' keys on my laptop, I am back to blogging.

The ending of my last co-op term really got me thinking. In my case, it was the end of 31 months of work as an undergraduate student...that's 2.5 years of work experience! And here I am, one year of school left, and the full time job search stretching in front of me like a dismal fish.

I am among that percentage of students coming out of co-op who actually thought it was worth it. Yes, there were a lot of dark moments....CECS losing my papers, 5 PD courses, some .....interesting co-op terms and so forth, but in the end I got to do almost 2 whole years of work in fields that I am genuinely interested, and have met some fantastic people along the way. But now that that is over, it's time to focus on life.

It's actually kind of terrifying. Going into a co-op term, you always have that safety net - if the term is not going well, you know it's going to end in 4 or less months. Jobs in the real world? There is no end date...though I guess you could do some sort of contracting gig, and have contracts of a year or less at a time.

How do you make such a huge decision about your life? Do you follow the money, or do what you want to do? Ah hahaha, that is assuming you can even find a job in this interesting economy in the first place.

How long can you postpone the decision? Then again, if you put it off for too long...what if you miss opportunities on the way? Where do you go, how do you do it, when do you do it?

Oh life...go away. I'm on vacation until school starts.

-S

Body image, a personal account

There is the saying that goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." It is expected that standards of beauty differ among individuals and cultures, and something that is beautiful to one may not be the case for the other. Though, regardless of what it looks like, the concept of beauty is one that cannot be ignored in the life of a female. The way I see it, standards of beauty are crucial when it comes to building a woman's self esteem from her earliest years.

When I was a very young kid growing up in England, I was taller than most kids of my age. I didn't think too much of it; I just liked being at the back of the line when lined up in order of height. The only time it annoyed me was when I couldn't get into the IKEA ball pit because I was too tall, despite that I was right in the recommended age range. And of course, I didn't know of the concept of fat or thin, except when there was an unusually fat kid in the school.

This was all about to change. The year I turned 9, I moved from England to South Korea. Twice a year, children's heights and weights are measured in order to keep track of their growth. Of course, the intention is all good. The problem lies in that when one child is being measured and weighed, everyone else in line can see the figures that show up on the machine. And while they can see that some children are taller than others, when it comes to weight, all that matters is the number that appears. I clearly remember being called "fat" in semester 2 of grade 3 - I was 147cm tall and weighed 38kg. At the age of 9, Korean children are used to seeing weights in the 20s range, and even as low as 18kg for the smaller children; naturally, I was dubbed "fat" from that day on.

The word "fat" lingered in the back of my head for years to come. I was still a rather skinny child, though since I returned to Korea, I was rapidly gaining weight. By the time I had hit the age of 12, I was 167cm tall, weighing somewhere around 50kg. I was not made fun of--in fact, my female classmates did tell me I was "so skinny"--yet it was bugging me that I was gaining weight that fast. That "5" in "50" scared me. It didn't help that I was noticing classmates almost as tall as myself, but wearing jeans 1-2 sizes smaller. Unfortunately, things would not go in my favour from there.

A year later, I was at 169cm, weighing 57kg. I had jumped 2-3 sizes in just a year, and the jeans that were so big that I could fit two fists in and still have room left were now just right. And to make things worse, I was now at the very end of the Korean female clothing sizing scale. I'd see pretty clothes and ask if they had my size; it turned out that at least 80% of reputable Korean brands did not produce clothes in my size. It was demoralising. A lot of people still thought I was thin, as my wrists and ankles were still as bony as ever, but a little part of me died every time I went out shopping. So I survived a good 4 years primarily on very baggy clothing. I felt that my figure was something to be concealed until I could drop down a few sizes, almost good enough to look like a supermodel. I was just glad that baggy trousers weren't completely out of style yet, as they had been immensely popular in Korea around the turn of the century.

Soon after I turned 17, I found myself in a new land: Canada. During the first few weeks, all I did was stay at home and eat. As a result, I put on a whopping 5kg in just three weeks. Mother was not pleased. One day, she called me. "C, you're fat. Come here." There she was with a tape ruler in her hands. She proceeded to measure my waist. Then she told me to go to the gym at least 3 times a week so I could lose weight.

Luckily I did lose that excess weight fairly quickly. But that was not the only good thing to happen; I was delighted to find that in this country, I could actually go shopping without killing my self-esteem every time! Back in Korea, I could only shop at a few stores because I was too big for the rest of them, but here, I was welcome to shop anywhere I pleased. No more asking "Excuse me.... ur.... what size does this come up to?", but instead, rummaging through all the disorganised piles at Boxing Day sales to see if I could dig up something nice in my size.

Many years have passed since then. I will admit that I will never be 100% content with my figure, but I can say that I no longer feel like an inadequate excuse of a female human being, or a blob of fat made to accentuate the perceived beauty of others. It has been a long journey to reach this state of mind - I hope I will be able to maintain this for many more decades to come.

Items you should never put in your cabin baggage

With the ever-worsening baggage restrictions for flights, going through security can resemble hell rather closely at times. Drawing from my experiences, here's a list of items you should never put in your cabin baggage:

1. Items on the no-fly list

'Nuff said.

2. Dense metal plane-shaped objects

Security guards will turn on the laser beams in their eyes once their scanners show signs of suspicious metal objects. Said lasers become more intense when the metal is dense, and when the suspicious item happens to resemble a miniature plane, watch out. I knew the world was paranoid about planes smashing into skyscrapers, but I didn't know that just having a plane shaped object could buy suspicion.

And the true identity of the dense metal plane-shaped object I was caught with? A mini cross with a base to help it stay upright.

The item in question. Suspicious indeed...

3. Metal chopsticks

Born Korean, I prefer to eat with metal chopsticks rather than wooden ones. But of course, they're made of metal, and they're long and thin! A potential threat, you say? The guidebook available for security guards at Heathrow Airport doesn't list chopsticks as a potential threat. The guards' supervisor will even tell you the metal spoon that comes with the chopsticks is also good to go.

4. Invisible items

Watch out for these, especially if you're a skilled packer. Security guards will tell you that they're searching for "nothing [they] can tell you about". They will then proceed to empty out half of your well packed bag, and loosely stuff everything back in when they fail to find the suspicious object after going through all of the contents. Not surprising, considering it doesn't really exist...

Coming soon!

Hey,

So... long time no see, eh? I have been really busy with school, and sitting down to write something like a blog entry seemed like a huge commitment in terms of time and energy. So I never did... But I haven't forgotten, and I did read all of S and C's posts. And my own post will be coming soon - as soon as school is over (that's right, the American schools end later than the Canadian ones, I'm done in about 2.5 weeks now!).

Just letting you know that I'm still alive and well, and talk to you soon!

Britain Grounded

It was a sunny, albeit mildly chilly, Thursday morning, and I was sitting in the hostel lounge, trying in vain to revise for exams. A few French people, all armed with massive backpacks, had just walked into the hostel. They looked like any other group of backpackers, except they had something interesting to say: they went to the airport early in the morning, but were sent back because their flight got cancelled. And to add to that, all flights in the UK and Ireland that day had been cancelled.

What was this? And would my flight, scheduled for the following evening, be able to take off? I asked the girl at the reception, and was told that a volcano had erupted in Iceland, and that the ashes were covering the skies of Britain, posing a safety hazard. It sounded like a joke, but having seen the people that had just returned to the hostel, I decided to believe this.

It was no joke. More flights were cancelled, and there were talks about booking ferry tickets out of Ireland. To make things worse, the internet stations at the hostel were down, so I couldn't even check live updates on the spot. All I had were updates from people that were scheduled to leave Ireland that same day.

Time went by. My flight hadn't been cancelled as of lunchtime, so I went out for a tour as planned. When I got to the Temple Bar and was about to dig into my dinner, however, some people standing next to me flipped out a newspaper with the Icelandic volcano story on the first page. They noticed that I was trying to read the article, and asked if I was supposed to travel anywhere today. These gentlemen were from Birmingham, their flight had been cancelled (I forget their destination), so they had decided to take a ferry to Dublin instead. After a half hour chat with one of them, I was advised to go and book a ferry ticket.

Upon returning to the hostel, I found out that all flights leaving up until 1pm on Friday had now been cancelled. Most people were taking advantage of free rebooking services or were looking for alternate ways out. Most guests at the hostel were panicked, but in a sense, things were normal. People were still bringing cans of beer to the kitchen to drink together, complaining about how expensive everything is in Dublin.

If anything, this chaotic situation gave guests an excuse to bond with each other. All you had to do to start talking was to ask, "Are you travelling today?" We were all in it together, and strangers were helping strangers so that everyone could get out of Ireland in due time to their next destinations.

I found myself saying "Good luck! See you tonight if my flight gets cancelled." to the group I'd just met the previousn ight. Maybe I jinxed things -- at around noon today, I got the following text message from Ryanair:

URGENT-Your Ryanair flight has been cancelled - please visit www.ryanair.com for free rebooking/refund

And now I too was stranded in Dublin for a while. In an hour and a half at an internet cafe, I managed to notify my dad of the situation, cancelled a dinner appointment in London, and after multiple tries, rebooked my flight. All the weekend flights to London were fully booked, so the earliest I could get was Monday morning. That would leave me with a mere 1.5 days to explore London. So instead, I booked a flight straight to Edinburgh for Sunday evening.

News reports say Scottish and Irish skies are clearing up gradually, so hopefully I won't need to reschedule a second time. It's a pity that I've had to give up London, but I do appreciate that the industry cares about passenger safety, especially after what happened to Poland a few days ago. Plus, at least I'm stuck in a city where I am fluent in the language. Not to mention accommodation is decently cheap here... (It's one of the few cheap things in Dublin)


Update: I shouldn't have spoken too early. My rebooked flight also got cancelled, so now I have a ferry ticket and a bus ticket. All I need is a bus or train ticket from Dublin to Belfast, and I'll be on my way home, safe and sound.

Anyone have a Paypal account?

For those of you who don't know, I am moving in the next month. One of the perks of moving into a nicer, bigger place, is that we bought newer, nicer things - including a TV. So now I am in the process of selling our old TV and TV stand.

I decided to give Facebook Marketplace a shot. I lised the TV stand for $50, with a photo of it. It's in great condition - I even decided to wipe the dust off it!!!

Within a few hours, I get this:


xxxxxxx xxxxxx March 29 at 3:50am Report
I am interested in purchasing your listing as a birthday gift for my immediate sister schooling in a private university in Africa Nigeria. So i will be paying you $500 for the item and $200 for shipping to him in Africa and am paying via paypal, do get back to me with your PayPal id for the payment as i will be paying via a secured method of payment. Hoping to hear from you ASAP!.

So....anyone have a Paypal account? =P I'm so eager to ship my TV unit off to Nigeria. I'm really curious about this private university in Nigeria as well, and how the gender of her sister changed in the second sentence. Another interesting thing to note, is that the person who messaged me claims to work for Disney...does Disney have any connections with private Nigerian universities?

Miscellaneous from Edinburgh

#1

There are some things that I can make do with ASDA Smart Price or Sainsbury's Basics products. Recently I learned that jaffa cakes aren't among them. At almost a third of the price of the original McVitie's brand, they seemed quite harmless to my budget... though after a month or two of indulging in at least two or three boxes a week of the original stuff, it becomes pretty obvious that the price difference is there for a good reason. Actually, just laying one of each other would already give it away, since the ASDA Smart Price jaffa cakes are significantly flatter and poorly shaped. Even the taste isn't quite the same.

#2

It seems that my neighbourhood is a favourite for ice cream trucks, some of which could possibly be ghost trucks at the same time. Since September, I'd hear the familiar sound of an ice cream truck at odd times of the day. 3pm, 7pm, you name it.... around 10.30pm seems to be a common time too. The oddest thing was that I didn't actually see an ice cream truck with my own eyes until February.

When I was growing up, I don't think I ever saw or heard an ice cream truck after 5pm. Do kids in this area actually buy ice cream at such a late hour? Especially when the area has a reputation for being a little dodgy?

#3

Recycling seems to a relatively new thing here. Most houses don't have recycling bins. And the ones that do, there are two options: 1) cardboard, and 2) glass and tin. As an unintentionally avid user of plastic containers in various forms, my heart breaks every time I have to throw a plastic bottle into a regular rubbish bin. Given the abundance of plastic out there, it's a pity that the option to recycle domestic plastic waste doesn't exist yet. Unless, of course, I bring in a bunch of bottles to campus, where there do exist recycling bins for that very purpose.

#4

In a fair number of cities, public transportation stops running after a certain hour, somewhere around 2am in general I believe. Edinburgh has night buses that run through the night, though even with a bus pass, there is an extra charge. A flat fare of £3 for a ticket that works on all night buses on that same night, £1.50 (half price) for those that have a bus pass. With a few late nights out every week, that quickly adds up to a fair amount of money on top of what I already pay for my bus pass. And the night buses start leaving the city centre just after midnight, which is still very early for a night out. Oh well, us students (and most other bus riders) suck it up because it's still cheaper than taking a taxi.

#5

Despite the fears at the beginning of the academic year, haggis is quite tasty, and a lot of people seem to agree with me. Just avoid the canned stuff like a plague. No comments on deep fried haggis yet, that's still on my list of foods to try.

#6

To quote Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett's The Wyrd Sisters, "Things that try to look like things often look more like things than things." And sure enough, apparently Glasgow looks more like Edinburgh than Edinburgh itself. The movie Trainspotting, based on the novel of of the same name by Irvine Welsh, is set in Edinburgh, but was mostly filmed in Glasgow. Only two scenes were filmed in Edinburgh. No wonder I couldn't recognize much more than Princes Street!

#7

Scotland isn't exactly known for its ethnic diversity. And most of the Asians in this town are clustered around Edinburgh University, not near Heriot-Watt. So is it a surprise that someone like myself is a rare sight in my neighbourhood? Once in a while, little kids (maybe around 10 years old?) walk up to me and say "Hi, how are you?" or "Hi, my name is Larry." Now that's still cute. But when kids see me and start saying "Ni hao, ni hao" in a disdaining manner, I start wondering what will become of these ignorant brats.

Not all Oriental people are Chinese, and even if they were, it just doesn't sound nice when kids say that the way they do.

Curry Call!

Ah, reading week.

The one time every two years where I refuse to look at homework, midterms, or course material and spend the week either eating, shopping, or lying on a beach. Despite my hatred of all things cold, this year I opted for a Montreal/Ottawa trip. Needless to say...I ate and shopped. It was heaven.

After my week of real poutine, crepes, chocolate, and different food varieties, the one thing I didn't get was a curry. Now, I LOVE curry. But the problem I have with it - no matter how many times I try, I can't seem to make a curry that tastes as good as it does in a restaurant.

I remember the first time I did a butter chicken. It was yummy, but the amount of oil I scooped out before eating it was...yeah. Then, the first time I did a 'basic' yellow curry, I kind of burnt the curry powder (yes, lol, just the powder itself), and the place smelt like it for weeks. In fact, my boyfriend's parents came and visited us the week afterwards, and his mother asked if we made curry recently (this was a full week later =P). I've tried the store bought curry jars and stuff...but they just don't taste the same! The one time I made a decent curry, was when I found a random on sale spice pack at Winners, of all places. For $2 + cost of chicken and coconut milk, it was yuuuuummy. But I would love to be able to create that without 'cheating'. =P When I say cheating, I say I'd rather mix the spices myself, then using a spice packet with unidentifiable yellow and redish powders.

This is where you come in. Does anyone have any good curry recipes? I'd love to try them, and post the results. Since curry is a lot of work, I might eventually end up just resorting to spice packets in the end...but not before saying I can cook a decent curry from scratch!!

Either post in the comments or e-mail me at foodmathlife.s@gmail.com. I'm looking forward to it :)

-S

The perils of travelling with Ryanair

From travel books and well-travelled friends, I had heard of many European discount airline myths. Fly for a mere pound. Could this be true? Apparently it was, which was a concept hard to grasp as a person that hadn't even managed to take the Megabus for $1. At the heart of these myths was one name: Ryanair. And one year, a representative from Ryanair was on television, proudly announcing that it had made a decent annual profit. Cheap flights, but still making profits... it sounded too good to be true.

When I got to come to Europe for myself, I was finally exposed to real people that used this airline to travel. The most recent of these people was a friend of mine that I will refer to as "Neo". Neo is a seasoned traveller, having spent time in a large number of cities in three continents over the past year. However, even he was not prepared for Ryanair's little quirks when the time came to leave after visiting me for a day in Edinburgh...

1. Boarding pass

We had to fit in as much of Scotland as possible in a mere 24 hours, so naturally we forgot about printing Neo's boarding pass beforehand. Luckily, for most airlines, there's always the option of printing off the boarding pass at the airport. Ryanair is no exception... just with a catch.

"It will cost £40."

That's right, 40 pounds, spelt f-o-r-t-y, for a single sheet of paper. That's over $70, for you North Americans. The only sheet of paper I've seen that's more expensive than that is a university diploma. Being his student self, Neo wasn't just going to give into that. And the search for a printer in/near the airport began, so we could get Neo off to Frankfurt on his 11.15 flight.

Edinburgh Turnhouse airport does not have any printers available to the public, and our best bet was to go to the nearby Hilton Hotel, a 10 minute walk away. We took the courtesy shuttle, posing at first as travellers "flying in from Frankfurt", then as travellers "flying back to Frankfurt". In retrospect, it must have sounded mildly fishy, given that I wasn't even carrying any luggage on the way there. But that aside, the hotel trip did the job, and Neo walked away with a $5 boarding pass. A much more reasonable price to pay.

2. Check-in luggage

Before going off to search for printers, we had also asked about luggage policies. Neo had one backpack, a laptop bag, and a mini duffel bag of sorts, and was planning to check two items in. The initial assumption went along the lines of: 'I could probably check the first item in for free, and either pay for the second or haggle to get that in free too.' But who are we fooling. This assumption was far off what was actually demanded:

"£35 for the first checked baggage, £70 for the second."

This meant that Neo would have to pay a whopping £105 (around $180-190 CAD) with his luggage the way it was. As he aptly put it, "it would be cheaper to buy a second seat or a new ticket elsewhere". There was no way Neo was going to fit everything in his hand luggage anyways (especially not with a bottle of whiskey), so there were two options: a) buy a small suitcase that would fit the contents of two of Neo's current bags, or b) "wear, like, 8 shirts".

Upon returning from the Hilton Hotel, Neo frantically rearranged his bags for a good half an hour, and ended up wearing 5 shirts and his newly purchased Scottish hat.

3. Delay

And as we thought everything was finally fine, we learned that there were problems, and that more details would be announced at 11h. At the airport, it sounded like the problems were due to inclement weather - the people at the desk didn't really know. Yet when Neo got on the plane, apparently a different reason was provided by the pilot, which had to do with air traffic, rather than bad weather.



In the end, Neo was able to reach his destination at a reasonable time, but only after hours of unnecessary hassle right before his flight. Nothing we can do about different reasons given by different sources for the same delay, but save yourselves any additional trouble by printing your boarding pass beforehand and minimizing the number of bags you travel with!

One Month in the Life of a Jobmine Student

For those of you who don't know, Jobmine is the online horror that co-op students at the University of Waterloo have to endure in order to find jobs for upcoming co-op terms.

I am, thankfully, embarking on my last co-op term of my degree in the summer term. After the freedom of not having to use Jobmine for more than a year, my adventure back into Jobmine reminded me what a nightmare it can be. To illustrate, here's my shortened version of One Month in my life as a Jobmine student.

January 9:

Thankfully, in my rare moments of non-procrastination, my resume has already been completed. Looking ahead in the coming weeks, the weekend of the 16th is when Round One of Jobmine opens, and the week after just looks awful, I figure this is my only chance to take some time and get a new suit.

3 hours later: While my wallet is $260 lighter, I am consoled by the fact that at least I'll look damn good when interview season comes around.

January 16:

Round One of Jobmine opens. (Again, for those not from Waterloo, Round One is the first time jobs get released for applications. The majority of jobs are released now, if you don't get a job in Round One, it means many more months of painful Jobmine sessions.) We have 4 days to scan through jobs, add some to our shortlist, and then finally apply.

They always tell you to start early, in case something happens and you can't access Jobmine later on in the period. So I start on Saturday night, 9:00pm. Considering I thought that other people had lives, I didn't expect the servers to be that busy and I could go through all the jobs that night.

It was awful. Clicking on a job description - 3 minutes for it to load.

Clicking "Next" - took 1 minute to load.

How many jobs to go through? 1360.

ARGH. I went until midnight. If that's how long it takes all weekend, it doesn't matter how early you start, 4 days to apply is not enough time.

January 17:

Thankfully, today wasn't as bad. I was able to shortlist 13 jobs.

January 18:

While in my painful CS 371 class (where the professor thinks 12 is the same as 1), I managed to write up most of my cover letters and submit. Now the waiting game begins...

January 20:

As usual, I get an e-mail, Jobmine had a nervous breakdown the night before with the number of students who were trying to apply the night. As a result, deadline is extended one more day. Glad to know that I submitted early enough to avoid this rush.

January 22:

A few more jobs get posted. I find one more, and apply.

January 25:

I slowly start to develop OCD, as I check Jobmine 3 times a day to see if I got interviews for any of my jobs. Nada.

January 26:

I am slowly going crazy.....no interviews. I got my first rejection =( I ponder why I got rejected...I have more than a year's worth of good solid experience in the field I applied for. Oh well, there's always one that gets away.

January 27:

Rejection #2. This time, I don't even remember applying for this job, so I don't feel bad about it =)

January 28:

Officially, this is the first day of Interviews. I am really starting to get nervous now, with only 2 rejections. My OCD starts getting full blown - I have the urge to check Jobmine every 20 minutes or more. Basically, if I am near a computer, I will check. And check often. ARGH.

January 29:

*contemplates leaving the computer at home, so I don't check Jobmine so often. Na.* People around me getting interviews left and right - or have already done an interview. In a word....depressing.

Febuary 1:

The interview session is only 2 more weeks at UW. I get rejected from one more job. Now...I'm getting really antsy. At least more so than before. My thought process:

"Why does no one want me - especially in marketing? Come on, I helped with a freakin national commercial. That's got to count for something. "

"What if I don't get a job? What are my options? I could go home for the summer. *thoughts of boredom* Hmm. Maybe not the whole summer."

"Wait a minute, who needs jobmine? Psssh. I'll google jobs. *30 minutes later, and no good results later* Er.....crap."

"What's wrong with my resume? What about my cover letters? *I ask a friend. After finding out that I have 3 different resumes depending on what position I apply to, and write individual cover letters to all of them...he's at a loss.* Argh shit. I could go back to school in the summer...but I don't really have the money for that. Hmm."

4:00 pm, at the end of the day: Got my first interview. HUZZAH, I am NOT un-employable!!!

*sigh*

Excuse me...while I check Jobmine again.

- S

Equations in my eyes

So...I know I'm not the most normal looking person on the planet, but I never realized I looked like such a nerd. *sigh*. At the very least, my very truthful and very blunt mother should have pointed it out to me at some point.

The story?

Salsa at the Flying Dog.

For anyone in the area who is interested, every Thursday night there are free salsa lessons at the Flying Dog in Waterloo. Last night I went with a couple friends ...it was fun! I haven't been in ages, so it was good to do a little bit.

The oddest salsa stories always come from the partners you get. We rotated every few minutes, and by the end of the night I had danced

with every single guy there.

The Culprit?

50+, short stocky guy with white hair, had an accent I couldn't place. After noting that I had done salsa before, he said, "Let me guess, University of Waterloo mathematics"

I was kind of surprised, but after realizing that it's a fair assumption for any asian girl you randomly meet in Waterloo, I say "Yup."

*couple of right turns later*

He asks, "Hmmm, advanced math? Or....maybe CS."

Me - really creeped out now - "Advanced...how did you guess?"

The answer? "You have equations in your eyes."

....I had a feeling that Real Analysis was going to ruin my life. Now not only does it haunt my dreams when I can't solve questions, but random people in a club see equations around me? Man...fml.

- S

Catching up

Hello all - sorry for the lack of posts in the past two months. I was busy with math in the first month, and then busy with the general procrastination in the next. Oh, in between the two, I went to Korea. As I was only there for a week, I didn't get to do much (virtually no tourist stuff). It was nonetheless a very interesting trip to me for a few reasons: I haven't been there in about 10 years, and the only pictures of Korea I have seen came from a friend of mine, who is not Korean but traveled there last summer. I definitely saw many things he saw, but from a different perspective, I think. Here are a few things that I found cool.

1. Mobile TV's everywhere
Korean cell phones come equipped with some antennae things, and you get TV receptions everywhere. For free! So if you got on the subway, especially during the rush hours, you'd see pretty much everyone around you watching TVs on their cell phones.

2. Cheap food
Wow. If you're poor, you should move to Korea. The food prices are about half of those in Canada (and the food is really good, albeit with less ethnic diversity), with a few exceptions. I just didn't understand one thing: you can get a decent meal for less than 5000 won (about $5 CDN), but if you want desserts, or a cup of tea, those cost around 7000 - 10000 won (about the price of a really good meal). I guess only the rich people get those. No wonder everyone is so skinny!

3. Collectivism
I don't even know if this is the right word. What I noticed was that everyone dresses in the same way. Especially if you look at a group of friends, they look/dress so alike that you couldn't tell them apart. I had an amazing moment at a store, where about 10 girls were walking towards where I was standing, and all of them had the same hairstyle, same clothes, same glasses... Considering that not sticking out is a virtue in many Asian countries, this shouldn't be surprising, but it was still a cool sight to me.

4. Mountains
Korea has lots and lots of mountains. Apparently, when the Koreans built palaces and things, they liked to have it right underneath one as well. So when you look at those old buildings, you can almost always see a beautiful mountain in the background. And mountain climbing is a popular weekend pastime for many Koreans. It must be so nice to live in a city that pretty much looks like New York, and still have the nature so close. I know I'm jealous.

5. And... holy crap, nice people.
As some of you may recall, I was terrified of going to Korea. I knew very little about Korea, and spoke like a 10-year-old. But my experience with the Koreans was more positive than I could have ever imagined. My uncle took a week off work, so he could show me around. I was lost many, many times. No wonder - I didn't understand big words, and my family sucks at geography. So many times we walked around looking lost, and every time we did that, so many people offered to help, even without our asking. When I was about to take a picture by an unlit Christmas tree at dusk, the attendant turned on the light early for me because "it would look better in the picture." Those random acts of kindness definitely made my days while I was Korea, and those are the things that I remember the most.

I should have taken more pictures. Oh well. I will upload them onto Facebook. Hopefully taking less time than C.

That's about all that happened to me in the past two months. In any case, happy belated new year to you!

Random Thoughts

Every once in a while I get the urge to blog, and then something comes up. So this time, I'm going to post all my random thoughts that I wanted to blog about in the last month.

- Eaton Center christmas tree is shhhhhhhinnnnyyy. =) Though, as pretty as it is, personally my favorite tree is our old tree at home, which has endured the wrath of 9 different cats in the last couple decades

- Ummm...Dear Prime Minister of Canada. Do you ever feel like working? Argh. Proguing parliament...again? Seriously? I'm extremely annoyed that people are not more concerned about this. It feels extremely...undemocratic. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/proroguing-is-for-children-and-stephen-harper/article1420026/

- Real estate sucks.

- Umm, it's 2010. When did the decade change? So if there is one thing that I am scared of...it is growing old. It is really scary to think that I can remember the last decade and everyone is getting married around me. Lol, ok, maybe not in Waterloo, but the amount of couples that have gotten married/engaged/to be married soon is terrifying.

- Winter is COLD. I am not fond of it...I was definitely born in the wrong freakin country. Though I say that, I'll probably never leave Canada, haha.

- There's nothing like being home for the holidays. Being pounced on by huge cats and good shopping and less busy malls....aaaah Alberta. How I miss thee. (Though, other than no PST, seriously, when has shopping in Alberta ever been better than here? lol, it's nice that all my favorite stores have migrated over there =) )

- This term is going to be busy. Then again, every term is busy. I think I hate myself, constantly keeping myself busy...

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Soo...that little tidbit above was courtesy of my cat. (Though I don't like to write in CAPS LOCK all the time, she seems to think otherwise)

- So...much...chocolate...over the holidays....

- New Year's Resolutions!!!! ...more on this to come.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!

- S