count the stars. that's how much i miss.

WARNING: THIS WILL BE AN EXTREMELY LONG ENTRY WITH ALL THE GORY DETAILS THAT YOU PROBABLY WOULDN'T WANT TO READ AND PROBABLY WILL SLOWLY BORE YOU TO DEATH. CLICKING THE 'X' SIGN AT THE TOP RIGHT OF THE SCREEN IS MUCH ADVISED.

This winter break had been fun! Fun! Fun! I manage not to stay in Ottawa for the most part of my winter break. I do feel terrible for those who have to stay in Ottawa (seriously!) but well, Boxing Day sounds great there. So you guys are okay i guess. :)

Well, speaking of my winter break, right after my biochemistry finals (which i did quite well, more than what I expect actually. alhamdulillah) which ended at 10pm on the 17th dec, I went back home and sleep. God~~~ it feels gooood to sleep for a long time after your three back-to-back finals (physical chem., organic chem. and biochemistry three days in a row, mind you) and you do look like a zombie after that. Whatever. That's not important. On the 19th, Tiqah, Shida and I went to Montreal for two days. Part of it was to send Atiqah back to Malaysia since her flight is from Montreal. A part of it was to visit Fa since she keeps on saying the Ottawa people never come to Montreal whereas she already went to Ottawa twice; and a part of it was to visit Montreal of course. The journey there was smooth, alhamdulillah. We miss the 9.30pm bus but luckily there's a bus at 10pm that left a bit late because of a delayed bus from Toronto. There are not many people on the bus and we can each sit alone and lie down to sleep. :) Well, we arrived in Montreal around midnight and everywhere we look, there's French signboard everywhere. Fa's house is incredible! It's small but it is comfy and nice. In Montreal, we went to McGill University and met Shu Ann there, we went to the shopping mall (I bought a purple cardi there) and we just walk around downtown. Montreal is nice. It’s different from Ottawa but pretty similar to Toronto. The next day, we sent Atiqah to the airport. Lots of stuffs happen to Tiqah's flight. She missed the flight due to administration's fault. But then manage to get another flight at 3pm. Click here for the whole story. After sending Tiqah to the airport we went straight to the bus terminal to get back to Ottawa coz we don't want to bother Fa since she has an exam on the next day. Went back to Ottawa on the 21st and then rushed getting ready for the function at the Malaysian embassy that night. :D

One of McGill's building

Montreal City

That's story from Montreal. On 23rd dec, the day we're supposed to go to Toronto, we manage to squeeze in going for sushi. Clearly all of us are going because it's free since it's the end-of-year-dinner organized by Pn. Zalilah. I went to Toronto to attend this Reviving the Islamic Spirit (RIS) convention which start on Christmas day until 27th dec. The talks are mainly about our role in glorifying the name of Islam around the world. How can we change

others perspective on Muslims from someone who's been called terrorists, killer, etc2 into someone who contribute to the better world. Whether it's in science, philosophy, politics, we must at least contribute something. Most of the talks are good (some I didn't manage to listen due to extreme tired-ness, I accidentally fell asleep). But I love talks given by Dr Tariq Ramadan. He is extremely good. Mind you, he's from Switzerland and an Oxford lecturer in Islamic philosophy, etc2. I do have cd on his talk. Nak? :) Then we did went to CN tower, which is ok~ I'm expecting the glass floor to be bigger than my living-room carpet. But hey, whatever~

With Farah during the RIS convention

Nathan Phillip Square

CN tower

The glass floor

Next tick on my checklist is New York City!!! Jealous much? We went there on the 28th. It's a 12-hours ride on a bus and we arrived in New York on the next day. Take a bus to the hotel in New Jersey. We arrived at our hotel feeling cranky, tired and out of breathe coz we have to walk from the bus stop to the hotel for 15 minutes dragging our luggage behind, fighting the cold-winter wind and not having a bath for a day due to long hours in the bus. But the room... the room is amaaaazing. We went to the Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty is, went to Empire State Building to see New York from top, went to Central Park, take a walk in 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue, went to Time Square and Broadway. We didn't go to many places since we don't have enough time. Yet we did have fun.

A view of New York city from New Jersey

Times Square

Hard Rock Cafe New York

The m&m store! See the m&m's?

Central Park. :)

Madison Avenue. Not a place to shop.

Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island.

View from Empire State Building

Things happen in Montreal, Toronto and New York:

1. I did think Montreal looks like Hogwarts and Toronto blended together. I don't think others agreed with me coz they went "aa? aaaah~~~~~~" when i said this. Haha. Didn't get a McGill University sweater though since we went there on Sunday and the bookstore was closed. Well, I can always go there again. It's just a 2-hour trip by bus. :)
2. All signboards in Montreal is in French with tiny english written below it. Fa said that the English-written signs must be 50% smaller than the French.
3. Atiqah missed her flight. Further story, click on the link above.
4. We went to CN tower the 2nd time we went to Toronto. We're even thinking of not going there but since it's one of Toronto's attractions, we feel the need to go there even though it feels like going to KL tower.
5. Toronto has much preferable stores compared to Ottawa. Especially during the Boxing Day. The sale is just crazy. Unluckily, I didn't buy a thing during Boxing Day except for a chicken pita during the convention. Sad~ they have Forever 21, H&M, Zara, MNG and other wonderful stores that are sadly haven't been up yet in Ottawa. Probably never will kut.
6. People in New York cross the road whenever they want. Without even looking at the traffic light. Especially in Times Square, where lots of people cross during stop sign; even the car has to give ways to them.
7. Canada has much cleaner toilet than US.
8. Went to Sephora looking for makeups and suddenly there's a police announcement over every stores in Times Square. Apparently they're looking for a male suspect and they're closing the street. Lots of police there. Cuak juge. Went out from Sephora, find the nearest subway and went to Central Park and 5th Avenue instead. It turns out that there's a black-tinted van, no plat number left stranded in Times Square for days. Paranoid as they are, it hits every news channel we looked when we get back to the hotel. I'll be quite happy if our faces come out in the news as passers-by getting out of the way. Make an impression sket that "Hey2! We're in New York jugak ok!"
9. Went to Empire State building and Ida saw this guy proposed to this lady on top of the tower. Quite sweet actually. Later, the kissing part... Errr. Not that sweet.
10. Get lost while riding the bus back to the hotel and end up stranded in Washington Avenue. From New York to Washington eyh? :p
11. Love their m&m store. They have m&m in every colour you can think of and we went gaga over it coz every items in the store is cute.

Well, that’s it about my winter break. *Hurmm. I did wonder who manages to read this whole entry without puking or being bored to death*

New term has started and it ain’t fun this semester. I have 3 days of class that starts at 8.30 am and ends at 1pm. It’s either animal, organic chem. and microbiology or a 3-hour lecture on analytical chem. followed by genetics. I have four labs this semester (2 bio labs and 2 chem labs). And oh~~ I have this prof, his name is Jeff Smith. He looks quite young but already a PhD holder and he looks like Brad Pitt and Jesse McCartney combined. :P Whatever~ Even having a hunk as your professor can't help me survive his 3-hour lecture straight. Sorry prof. It’s not your looks. It’s just the subject.

Anyhow, I don’t think the need to torture you guys much further. Going skating with others at 8 even when it’s -18°C.