Saskatchewan

Ever since she was little, my sister Bree wanted to become a vet. She loved animals and when she finally got into University she started to do her pre-vet courses and worked part-time at a vet clinic. Unfortunately our University only had pre-vet courses and upon graduation she would have to travel elsewhere to complete her studies.

And that time was now as she recently got accepted into the University of Saskatchewan. She and my parents have been down there enough to find her an apartment, but as a familial gesture I thought it would be a good idea to go down there at least once to help her move in and see her off.

Who's a good big brother? I'm a good big brother.

While the apartment came partially furnished my parents were of the belief that my sister would need things like blankets, toilet paper, food, and other non-essential items to survive in her harsh new environment. We crammed the family van with as much stuff as possible and left early in the morning, it would be a long drive.

Did I mention I hate road trips? I get carsick easily, and as much as I try to sleep on these rides it's generally not very comfortable. The van was filled with boxes so I had even less leg room than normal. Also, my old nemesis of having a sore butt returned. But that's what happens when you lose 20 pounds from not working out as frequently.

Did I mention that there was nowhere in Bree's apartment complex for me to workout either? Good times.

Saskatchewan is... How do we put this... Boring. Dead. Empty. Saskatoon has less than 1/3rd the population of my hometown and I already find my city fairly devoid of life. And while I'm not satisfied with the campus of my University, a quick look at the University of Saskatchewan's campus and I felt more appreciative instantly.

At least Bree's apartment is nice enough. My parents actually straight up purchased the thing for her so that she only has to pay condo fees. Needless to say I'm a bit jealous. It has two bedrooms so she's hoping to find a roommate to rent out the spare bedroom to.

My parents have been making plenty of suggestions for me to consider working or studying at the UoS and give Bree some company. I respectfully declined.

I'm not that good of a big brother.

This also led to some interesting and uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. My parents got one bed, Bree loves sofas so she instantly opted to sleep on it, and my brother Brian and I got the other bed. Which we slept in using separate sleeping bags.

I sleep quite poorly as it is. And perhaps I've been spoiled with my King sized water bed back at home. But those few nights we slept in Bree's apartment were terrible for me. It took me hours to fall asleep, I don't think the AC was working properly, and sharing a queen sized mattress with your brother leads to space issues.

One night I actually just stood up, moved to a chair in the kitchen and slept sitting up. Another night I moved my sleeping bag and just slept on the floor. But no matter what I did I kept waking up more groggy than usual.

But we're not going to see Bree for a while and it's unlikely that she'll be in touch often due to her studies. So it was nice spending time as a family even if there wasn't much to see, do, or eat in Saskatchewan. Its become a running joke in our family to suggest that we eat Japanese food down in Saskatoon (hint, don't do it).

We'll still see her on long weekends and holidays, and she'll only be there for 4 years. Trust me, she has no intentions of staying in Saskatchewan if she can help it. If Calgary or that other school in Ontario had contacted her back, she would have went there instead. The house does feel more quiet though. Even if I spent most of my time in my room it doesn't feel right coming upstairs and not seeing my sister in the kitchen on her laptop.

And now the pressure is on me to move out too. I mean come on, I'm almost 25 and my sister left the nest before I did? Disgraceful. However, that could quickly change. I could be (temporarily) living on my own in as soon as January. But my study plans are for another blog post.

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!

We do things differently in Canada, I never understood why milk came in bags, why we're so polite or why we have Thanksgiving 1 month earlier than our American cousins. But we do, and nearly everyone got a long weekend. Didn't make a difference to me because I normally get Monday off anyways.

Having all your classes crammed on two days is pretty awesome.

Even if I am using my off-days to work at my part-time job.

Anyways, I hope everyone in Canada enjoyed their Thanksgiving dinners. And an early Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers. I'm not sure how things work in Europe, so Happy Thanksgiving to you guys too?

For all 3 days all the relatives that I had in the city came together and we had dinner at someone's house. The only problem I had was that there wasn't any pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie, I'm not even sure why I like it so much.

Maybe I'll just run out and buy one for myself to inhale.

Mmmm....

Anyways, it's a holiday so short post. See you guys on Thursday. Eat lots everyone.

Cooking for the Wei Family

There are reason why I've been making an effort to try new recipes and becoming better at cooking. And one of those main reasons is to one day cook a proper and complete meal for my family.

But, cooking for my family is not easy. I would know, I've tried unsuccessfully in the past but I'm not giving up. I'd like to say it's not because I'm a terrible cook but more because it's hard to accommodate for everyone. I have no idea how my Mother does it each night.

Sorcery and magic probably.

My Father is probably the biggest problem for me. First, he's a vegetarian, fish counts as a meat, egg doesn't. With these restrictions it generally means that I need to cook an entire separate vegetarian dish just for him. And I need to make sure I make enough to actually feed him.

Also, he hates onions and garlic, anything even related to them he also hates. So no leeks and sometimes even chives. This further reduces the number of vegetarian recipes I can use or variations of other recipes. Often if I'm modifying a recipe to cook for him I'm removing quite a lot and whatever I've made tastes really bland at the end.

I'll be honest, I think his favorite food is whatever Mom cooks for him. Which is sweet but a pain for me.

I hope you don't mind me "cooking" you this forever Dad.

My Mother and sister aren't much better. Mom prefers Chinese food (surprise surprise) and both of them hate fatty, deep fried, greasy or anything that would qualify as "rich" food. At least my sister likes soup BUT only if it's chunky. She hates blended soups.

And then we have my brother. He hates soup, he hates pasta, and he hates my cooking. He likes meat and prefers to cook his own food.

Myself? I'm not too picky as long as it's not vegetarian, Chinese and I'm not allergic to it.

Why do I even bother?

So we got quite the predicament here. What with all these restriction and my limited abilities. I'll keep trying though, I'll eventually work something out.

Feel free to suggest recipes or other things for me to try. I'm getting tired of looking through cookbooks.

Stress Source: Family

Ok, back to stressed posts. It was nice to have something more positive but if I wasn't constantly worrying and panicking there wouldn't be this blog.

Awww, isn't that sweet? Someone wrote a book about me.

 
One of the main sources of pressure comes from my family. Now my family has always been supportive and helpful throughout my entire life but there are a lot of expectations that come from them. We have always been middle to upper-middle class so fairly well off. Plus all my relatives have been successful.

Let's take a look at some people from the previous generation shall we:

• Chemist.
• Night shift ER nurse.
• Engineer who had a hand in 5-star hotels in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong airport.
• Successful Chinese Supermarket before selling it to retire early.
• Researcher before starting a family.
• Supervisor at major electrical company.

Alright, fine, those are my elders so to speak, well let's take a look at my cousins:

• Engineer.
• Engineer with a Masters in Business.
• Accountant.
• Lawyer.

 So many Engineers...

So I'm the next one to show them what I got. And to make things better, I'm the eldest sibling in my family. I need to set a good example for my younger brother and sister too. And the pressure is really on not to fuck up. I mean, it wouldn't be that hard to get a job anywhere but it needs to be on the level that everyone else has already set. That kind of prestige. I don't want to be known as the first failure or that-cousin/nephew/grandson-who-wasn't-successful or something, can't soil the Wei family name.

Ugh.

So what can I do? My marks aren't terrible but they're not amazing (I'm hovering at around a 3.0 GPA), my job experience are meh at best, and I don't have much of a direction as of where to go. There was a time at which I wanted to become a doctor, but recently I've begun to reconsider (for reasons other than my GPA being way too low) but I'll discuss that in another blog post.