Rants and Rambles

Happy last day of class! I also happened to get one year older on the same day, for which I had a free matcha-yuzu ice cream. Life is good. I'm a moody person. Always have been. At one second, my heart feels like the sun is shining brightly outside and the magnolias are starting to peek outside of their ensconced velvety buds. A mere minutes after --- an email, a Canvas notification, an impossibly long line at my favorite campus coffee place, or even nothing --- my mood matches exactly with the eternally grey Vancouver sky. On top of that, there is always something looming at the horizon, such as an upcoming midterm or a group presentation to worry about. As soon as I finish a task, three others appear on my calendar app, keeping me tossing and turning at night. Then the next morning, one of my friends from high school or UBC taking transit with me could see me half-asleep walking across the street to reach the SkyTrain station, with a tiny Hong Kong milk tea on hand that would mak...

Santa Monica Pier, December 2025. The graceful palm trees of California never cease to amaze me, a torrential rain sufferer "And that's it, you can open your eyes!" the nurse cheered.  I gingerly peeked at my left arm, where three doses of vaccinations were quickly covered with a tiny cotton bandage. After thanking the nurse, I dazzily stepped outside to the flowing stream of traffic crisscrossing one of the busiest intersections in District 3 of Saigon. The sun was ablaze, and the asphalt roads were too glaring for sleepy eyes to take in all the sights contained in one nanosecond of this city. The last few days of summer have been nothing but hectic, from a short trip to Vung Tau (where I had to climb the rocks as the waves crashed to get to my room when I forgot to bring the key) to a whirlwind of medical appointments for my immigration visa. In between trips here and there around Saigon for an unhealthy amount of iced coffee while catching up with relatives and old fri...

  What a beautiful world we live in (until that one Chem final worth 60% of your total grade) "The sun is out!" The student sitting at the table next to me exclaimed as the first rays of sunlight flooded the upper floor of the Science Student Centre, where dozens of students were toiling for their endless rounds of midterms and assignments. I looked outside the large window facing the Nest, mesmerized by the ashen clouds parting to reveal the deep blue sky. My laptop monitor was glaring, so I quickly adjusted the light setting down to continue my frenzied pace on reviewing Anki flashcards. The sun could wait later, but suddenly one sight caught my eye: a BeaverTails food truck. It must have just arrived, with the staff setting up the area and preparing the cash box. Sure enough, within two minutes, I finished wrapping up my study and belongings and dashed out to the truck before the massive crowds of students trickled out of lecture halls around noon. The tantalizing buttery ...

 Viewing the Northern lights from the southernmost tip of Richmond The last time I clicked the "Published" button on this blog, I was sitting in a scorching hot room, with the sky still crispy blue outside. Now here I am, typing these words on a dark rainy night in December, where the closest I could see outside of my bedroom window was the white Christmas lights dangling in my neighbour's garage. The past four months have been an absolute whirlwind, sweeping away nothing but every bit of my breathe. In retrospect, thinking that I would have time to ramble here in the past four months was just an item on a list of naive thoughts I had at the start of second year - and there seems to be no sign that the list will end anytime soon... September started with a whirlwind - from Imagine Day (my school's grand orientation and clubs day) to new classes, I could never survive a weekday without sipping iced coffee on the 49 every morning. I spent one of the few last days before...

Ke Ga Point, Binh Thuan Province, with the iconic 127 year-old lighthouse built by the French. As a little kid, I was too scared to even climb up its stairs to see the panoramic view of the sea. Sadly, the lighthouse was closed when I got old enough to conquer my acrophobia. As the raindrops trickling turned into a full march sweeping on my rooftop garden in Saigon, I lazily opened my eye after a heavy noon nap. The first few weeks back home felt like an eternity, with the oppressive sun rays blanketing the city from dawn till dusk, dragging the day into an endless trial of extreme heat and humidity. When not engulfed in the thundering afternoon rains that bring a brief cool wisp of air, it seemed impossible to do anything but moving from another air-conditioned room to the next. The heat came silently, marking itself on the wilting rose leaves, the lack of midday coos of the spotted doves prying chili peppers on the rooftop, and my dog Nest's water bowl finished within ten seconds...

Once upon a sleepy afternoon in Cu Chi "- 5 kg of cherries - 5 kg of oranges - 3 bags of chips..." Wearily, I jotted down the endless list of items to be packed for my trip to Saigon at the beginning of July. What was supposed to be a 1-hour trip to Walmart to buy all the items requested by my family turned out to last for 3 hours, with hopping on and off the 405 to get to the countless grocery stores and farmers' markets around the city. Sitting under the shade of a sweetgum tree, with a cup of bubble tea, I waited for the bus to get to the next farmers' market. It was a dazzlingly sunny day, with no sight of clouds in the deep blue sky overlooking the glistening skyscrapers. As I arrived at the market, the fragrant scent of the apple piles at the entrance calmed me down after hours of navigating the crazed crowds of shoppers at Walmart diving for summer discounts. Still, I was more than glad to arrive home, hands aching from carrying too many packs of strawberries. ...

  The Rose Garden in June with all of its glory, taken when the author was pretending that she had finished her 23 pages of problem sets The long-awaited ending of the 3-week break between the last day of first year and my summer classes ended, meaning that the cycle repeated: waking up 3 hours before the first lecture, consuming too much Dalgona coffee, and feeling my brain fried after finishing problem sets at the end of each day. Thankfully, I only took one summer term, so I could manage to sit for 3 hours a day in the chasm of IKB, getting lost in the Golgi apparatus with the dimming lights, the professor's soothing voice, and the blasting AC with an occasional creak of a chair nearby. After struggling to stay awake in BIOL 200, I was more than grateful to take a walk around campus, starting from the grassy hill outside the Nest. Under the balmy June air, every building was brimming with life, with the Chemistry building covered with a dazzling rainbow carpet of azalea bushes a...