Scattered confetti


The sheer delight of waking up to snow and the parallel terror of realizing you haven't turned your heat on before going to bed

Having been snowed (ha!) under so many assignments and applications, I haven't published on this blog for quite a while. Thankfully, the last of the two weeks of winter break gave me a long-yearned rest from all the work piling up. And here I am, sitting in an overly-heated room with the rhythmic tapping of the rain ahead lulling me into sleep, furiously typing the last blog of 2022. 

The last day of school in the year signed off with one of the most memorable school days I've had: Breakfast with Santa, a school-wide breakfast that has been an integral tradition of my school. We gathered around tables stretching the vast expanse of the main hallway festooned with decorations, from Santa inflatables to reindeer string lights illuminating the school beyond the lead-cast dawn. Surrounded by the festive tunes of the school jazz band, I ducked into a full breakfast of pancakes dripped with saccharine maple syrup, sizzling sausage, and luscious tater-tots, ending with semi-watered down hot chocolate and mandarin oranges. I was seated among my classmates, who spirited the air with surprise Christmas presents and myriad headgear looking like being shipped straight off from West Virginia. The icing on the cake was the teachers' carols - it was not very often that I could see my teachers singing Mariah Carey at the top of their lungs. The day passed with the chatters of winter break plans chiming across classes, where everyone was too excited to get anything done. And excited we were - this year marked the return of a full in-person holiday season, where we all can find joy in the comfort of hugs from relatives coming from far away and restaurants jam-packed with agog diners gluing eyes on World Cup matches.
Enjoying the breakfast 'tis an insider source said that these pancakes were packaged :)

Apart from my festive school day, winter break was marked with rainy nights working on Common App and festering teachers with recommendation letter follow-ups and post-follow-ups. The weight of countless hours before a glaring screen somewhat dulled my winter break, but the entire process was quite intriguing. Never had I ever dug into the deepest corners of my soul than when brainstorming answers to certain supplemental questions, from writing a letter to your future roommate or coming up with the name of a course you can teach. While it can be nerve-wracking at times, I would love to see those prompts included in the traditional school curriculum, just to see the boundless capacity for creativity that students have to offer. Though the college application process was one of the most complex things that I've done so far, from digging back to the ancient records of grade 8 to filming countless introduction videos, I put it as seeing myself from a fresh perspective. I could reflect on my past 12 years with intrigue while wondering how I'd come so far since elementary school, a chapter of fondness mixed with predicament - to say the least.

When not racking up my to-do list with assignments and applications, I would brave the freezing chills from the window to tiptoe down the kitchen for some hot chocolate. Nothing surpasses sitting by the fireplace with a steaming cup of hot chocolate while watching the fluffy snow slowly falling on the neighbourhood in all its pristine glory. The snow would lightly ripple the puddle of water on the roof, then with the wind chill, blanketing the entire roofs of the houses ahead and the fragile tree branches. Let it snow for a few more hours, and the round succulent bush in the front yard would be topped with a snow coating like dessert frosting (is that why frostings get their name?), then the figurines outside my garden became dusted with snowflakes, highlighting the blush on their rosy cheeks and tinted lips. After a few days of bone-chilling wind and sloppy rain, the plants outside my door would be entirely engulfed in ice, resembling jellyfish floating in a sea of green. When the grandfather clock chimed once, signalling the end of my midday break, I would return back to my desk and continue navigating the maze of Chrome tabs and Word documents. 

The boundary between fall and winter

Christmas injected a note of levity into my otherwise tranquil days. The week before Christmas, my family decided to celebrate my first college acceptance (woohoo!) by dining out at Cactus Club downtown. After 30 minutes of fumbling under the frigid night air, we found a parkade with unfortunately not-so-reasonable prices near Canada Place. We then walked for a few more minutes to the restaurant, where the entrance was full of coat-clad people packed like anchovies. Following another 40 minutes of waiting by the very cutting-edge roaring fireplaces, I could finally delish the signature fish tacos and flaming Buffalo wings while marvelling at the city glimmering with thousands of string lights at night. The enchanting scent of warm coffee drifting from the shining windows filled my dreams that night. 
A brilliant Christmas tree in the Financial District downtown

My second time having tacos since 2014 was marked by these unforgettably tangy fish tacos

This Christmas saw the arrival of my first-ever Christmas tree, as we don't typically decorate our house apart from porch string lights. The frustration of threading the ornaments was rewarded with the Christmas tree aglow with the shimmering hues of burgundy, dark green, and gold from the lights. On Christmas Day, we embarked on a 40-minute drive to Coquitlam to join a housewarming party of our family friends. The snow from the torrential cold snaps had melted, yet the railroad in New Westminster was still clearly imprinted and mist would come out of nowhere from the undulating stretches of pines ahead. The house we arrived at was on the top of a hill, with surrounding houses adorned with vibrant lights. Waiting for me was a full Christmas dinner carrying the notes of Vietnamese cuisine. Instead of roasted turkey, there were platters of gỏi gà (chicken salad with salt, pepper, and laksa leaves), and sesame-coated balls of bánh cam (fried glutinous balls stuffed with red bean paste) were the staple desserts. While the adults peppered the conversations with the latest news, the children just zoned in to the humongous projector screen to track every season of Wednesday, passing another quiet Christmas away from our bustling homes in Vietnam.

You know it's a Vietnamese house when the Christmas tree is right next to the altar - but joy is universal, isn't it?

As 2023 is on the doorstep, carrying an abundance of dreams along with anxieties (guess who's turning 18 in April!), I'm bidding adieu to 2022 with a smile. This year has been a rollercoaster, with moving schools mid-year, long-awaited reunions under the fickle monsoons, and a blast of the first semester with wonderful friends, delectable double chocolate cookies from the cafeteria, and blue fingers from chem labs. Surely, 2022 has been far away from peaceful, but fingers crossed, let's make 2023 a year to be remembered fondly. 


What's better than freshly made french fries in Physics?


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