Another Interview

I just had another interview for a company this past Thursday. I didn't think it went too well though just because it was kind of an awkward setting and I didn't connect well with my interviewers. 

The location was about 20 minutes away, but I planned to leave 45 minutes before the interview just to have some time in case of traffic and just getting there early would be nice. But on my way there..we got into a car accident D: So I was just panicking about being late, because it's like how convenient for there to be an issue T_T Just so you don't judge me and think I should've prioritized the accident instead, it was actually a really minor accident with very little damages and no injuries. But just for proper procedures, we had to exchange information and all that. 

The thing is so dumb overall because the other party won't let us settle this without getting insurance involved. A part of their car popped out, but he literally just popped it back in. No scratches or anything, though the emblem from our car did get imprinted on their bumper. Not even like a dent, kind of like a stamped imprint, nothing that a paint job or replacement can't fix if it really had to come down to it. 

Aside from that, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for this interview! Or else I have to start hunting more again :(

Anyways, until next time!

"You've Changed"

No, not me, I think. Or at least if it's me, I hope in a good way. Anyways, I never really understood that phrase because while I can understand the literal meaning, I've never actually seen it with someone that I was close to. 

In the recent months, I've seen it happen to someone whom I used to be close to. I've known this person for a few years, and got closer to them in the more recent ones. Overall, I've notice this person developing themselves personally, I guess in a good way to some extent, but from my perspective not really because they are trying too hard to be someone they are not. I have mixed feelings about the whole matter just because I think it is a good development, but at the same time, it's an unfitting image in my opinion. But who am I to say? You can say I'm just speaking out of bitterness, but in the end, I've decided to no longer associate myself with them. It kind of ties in with my last post about treating others how I'm treated, and I dislike the position I've been put in so I've decided to cut them out of my life. 

Anyways, until next time. 

Treat Others the Way You Are Treated

I've been updating a lot recently, huh? Even though I did just as much in the past it feels like recently I've been posting nonstop :0

Anyways, the idea of the post is kind of self explanatory. I know it's a bit backwards from the typical phrase, but I think it works both ways. Even though I aspire to be kind, in reality I'm too immature sometimes to be like that. Why? Because I believe in relatiating when I feel wronged. I do believe in karma, but sometimes I'm the one who does it back. 

One example is something that occurred last semester. I believe I was in the middle of studying or something when a friend messaged me to help her out with some of the work she missed because she was out of town. By the end of the night, I probably spent 2-3 hours helping her and grabbing dinner (even though I had already eaten, but she just got takeout anyways). 

I think about a week or so later, we had homework to submit online. I had done the homework, but I asked her to pull hers up so I can double check my answers. The way the system works is that there are unlimited tries, but you'd have to start all over again once you submit it. She had already submitted hers, so I wanted to see if my answers were correct so I didn't have to redo everything. Her response? "No, just do it on your own. I have a lot of work and studying to do."

What, seriously? It takes two minutes to pull it up and you're too busy? After I spent hours helping too. But in her defense, it's not like I was forced to help her or something, so lesson learned. 

The retaliation? It came weeks after when she asked me to send her an assignment. My response? "Just do it by yourself." And while I did feel mean because it was in my capacity to help her, I didn't think it was being fair to myself. 

Winter Break: The Last Day

Day 15: January 9, 2014

The very last day, I had a bit of trouble waking up in the morning so I rushed to get ready to check out of our inn. By the way, we stayed at Knights Inn Toronto. There are horror reviews that I read about, which I read afterwards, but it made me a bit biased/sketched out the whole stay. We didn't have any issues with the room, and didn't see bed bugs or rats or whatever. The only issue is that the shower is tiny. It was pretty cheap as well and they have free wifi. 

The plans for the day was grab breakfast and then head to Pacific Mall, which was over an hour away.. it was quite inconvenient not having a car. 

We went to Chaulau Dim Sum for breakfast. The portions were so-so and it was pricier than what I'm used to, but maybe it's average price for Toronto. The decor was really nice and clean though.

Next stop...Pacific Mall! We took the train and transferred onto a bus to get there. It was a long journey, but luckily we didn't get lost =)

Last time I came, I really enjoyed the mango slush from Real Fruit. It was still good, but it wasn't as good as I remembered it to be...

Got some wonton noodle soup. I didn't realize that there was another food court at the other end of the second floor, so I thought the choices were limited. :( 

Anyways, towards the end everyone was just super tired. I only bought food and these toothbrush holders. Our bus back home wasn't scheduled until 9:30PM, so we had to plan around that, to some extent, where we can go straight to the terminal. When we arrived, turns out our bus filled up so we had to wait for the next one..which came shortly after. The wifi was broken though, but fortunately, the border wasn't too far off. I think I slept throught most of the ride? I don't even remember anymore.

Oh yeah, crossing the border wasn't bad at all. It was just grabbing my luggage and answering some questions (where am I staying, how long will I be there, etc.) and passing through. It takes minutes and most of it is just waiting for everyone to finish. One of the officer people were actually from my city too, so it was such a coincidence. 

But note to self: next time, don't plan trips around my departure time. It was such a bitch having to lug everything around because it was inconvenient and heavy. I'm not sure how much easier a rolly bag would be, but surely it'll still be inconvenient. So next time I would rather just head straight home from wherever I'm staying. And not being able to rent a car is so inconvenient. 

This concludes all my winter break activities...over two months later. I shouldn't have anymore overdue posts. So until next time!

Winter Break: Reuniting with a High School Friend

Day 14: January 8, 2014, Toronto

The first thing we did after waking up was getting breakfast at Wanda's Belgium Waffles. I was happy because they accepted Discover. It was pretty decent, but considering we all got a crepe, eventually it was really overwhelming.

The day mostly consisted of walking along Yonge and exploring the city. It was really weird because at some point that drunk Irish man from the day before saw us on the streets and called out to us.. 

The main plan for the day was meeting up with a high school friend, who was working in Toronto for a co-op. Meeting up was a bit awful because we didn't have wifi/data nor could we call, so it was difficult meeting up. After a while, we were able to coordinate a general location to meet up (Toronto Eaton Centre), but not specifically where in there. 

So after a bit of looking around, we got dinner at a sushi buffet restaurant. I forgot the name of the place though, but it was pretty good. The hot dishes were a bit bland though. 

We went back to our inn and basically just stayed up a bit hanging out, playing games. Our friend ended up staying over as well. That Irish man came knocking on our door twice though, wtf. Of course we knew better than to open up, BUT WHY IS HE SO CREEPY?

At some point, we made a late night run for some poutine, scratch tickets, and beverages. I broke even with the scratch tickets :)

Anyways, it was a pretty enjoyable night, getting to catch up with everyone.

Winter Break Vacation: Toronto

Day 13: January 7, 2014, Toronto, ON

The way to Toronto was such a stressful experience. Not really, but it could've been better. My bus was scheduled for 1:30AM, so I left the apartment around 12:45AM or so and took the train there. It was SO, SO windy that night. The ~5 minute walk to the station was just awful and cold. But I don't think it was worth a cab since I would only have to survive the walk and after that, my stop would be where the bus terminal is. And I'm glad I didn't resort to a cab after what happened.

So I reached my stop, and it was already around 1:25AM or so, so I was sort of panicking about missing my bus. To make matters worse, I didn't know which gate my bus was in!! I tried looking at the screen that displayed all the gates, but couldn't find mine :\ So after some minutes of confusion and wasting time, I just ran down to where all the Greyhound terminals were to look for it. The workers probably saw me looking super lost and confused so they called out to me. Only then I found out that all services that went north were canceled until 5:30AM >:( No notification or anything from Greyhound, seriously? I purchased my ticket online, so the least they could do is send a notification or something. As far as I know, they didn't post anything on their website either, not that I would've checked though, just saying, since it was unexpected. I should've known better though, there was a huge storm up there..but still.

After half an hour of debating whether to just wait it out or head back to the apartment. If I chose the former, then I don't have to go out in the cold again and save a few dollars. The second option, I get to nap comfortably for three hours, but have to carry all my stuff back and forth. I opted for the latter because I wanted to be comfortable. 

When I got back to the station, I couldn't figure out how to get in because they closed the entrance from the train station!! And it was super cold, still. I had to go outside to get back in and by that time it was already 5:30, so I worried about missing the bus after having it delayed. When I got down the bus terminal there was a long line, so I was glad to see that I didn't miss the my ride. 

That was, until everyone started running up the escalator all of a sudden and it turns out the two buses were already full from all the delays and they ran to a different gate for the next bus. 

Trooped over and waited and waited until 7:30AM until the right buses came. At that point I was already regretting booking my return ticket earlier that day because if I just went home home instead that would've been a waste of $160. I was honestly debating that during the wait, and I couldn't get a refund either, but I waited it out. During the wait in the line I did meet some really cool people, but I won't be keeping contact with them. It was hard joining into their conversations so I don't think I made much of an impression. 

By 8:00AM the bus finally took off yay! The journey there wasn't too bad imo because I slept through most of it. There were empty seats in the back so I just went there and slept til I finally woke up around 4:30PM. I actually missed a rest stop :( by that time we were nearing Buffalo, NY and it was snowing quite a bit. 

There was some wait when we arrived at the station because we combining with a different bus. 

I finally arrived at Toronto around 9:00PM. It was FREEZING. It was 0 with windchill of -35 or colder. At that point I had no Canadian Dollars and the cabs didn't take Discover or Diners Club International so I had no way of getting to the hotel aside from walking. Even though it was a 15 minute walk, it was painful :( I made a couple of stops on the way, my hands were hurting like a bitch because I had no gloves and had things to carry. 

Eventually I did arrive at our inn and ended with playing some card games before calling it a night, not to mention some seemingly drunk Irish(?) guy who knocked on our door and started talking to us and even came back later on that night!! At that point it was kinda creepy so we ignored it. 

So that's it for the way there. I'll write up the rest of the journey in another post since I already wrote a lot. 

Anyways, until next time!

First interview of the year

Yesterday afternoon, I did a pre-screening for a place that I was applying to. It was probably one of the easiest screenings I'll ever get, but since it's been a while I was kinda nervous and stumbled on my words a lot. :( Womp womp. Hopefully I hear back from them. The place itself is quite far though, probably like a two hour commute or something, so I'm not sure if it's worth it. But at the same time, since I'm still in school, my options are very limited. It's still worth a shot to try for it though. Fingers crossed.