This Christmas... Ornaments For My Tree!

It`s rather late into the holiday season and I`m still without a Christmas tree. I haven`t been able to go pick up a tree because of final exams, and if I had, this would have been my first year with a full sized Christmas tree. Meanwhile I still have the mini one from jerkface that I will be keeping in my room to cheer me up :) If I do get a tree though, these are the ornaments that I would like to buy to decorate my new tree:

1. Feather Snowman Ornament - Pier 1 Imports $5.95 Isn`t he the cutest little fella? My mom walked in and pointed at him saying "he`s just two pom poms stuck together with a little hat and scarf attached to it." Very very cute :')
2. Polar Bear Baby Stocking - Chapters Indigo $7.50 (original price $15) This little stocking reminds me of Snowball and is perfect for my tree. The stocking is initially meant for home decor rather than an ornament.
3. Personalized Woody Wagon Bear Family Ornament - Walmart ~$15.00 I have always loved the idea of a personalized ornament (truthfully I love personalized anything) and this one is perfect to reminisce family road trips in my family. Walmart offers other family sizes and other designs for personalized ornaments. You can change the names printed on the ornament, as well as add a sibling or two to it :)
4. Natural Hedgehog Ornament - Pier 1 Imports $5.95 He is just adorable. End of story.
5. Glitter Tree Ornament - Pier 1 Imports $3.95 I love the gradient of the green glitter on this tree, and I love glitter. It`s a tree on a tree! Get it? (Bad humour, sorry)
6. Vinylmation Jingle Smells 2 Series Goofy - Disney Store $12.95 I love Goofy ;)

Finding ornaments online is actually quite difficult to do, but these are the ones that I discovered and I like them all very much. Some for personal and sentimental reasons, and some just because they`re adorable and pretty.. Hopefully I will snag a tree before Christmas arrives!

This Christmas... My Not-So-Secret Wishlist

Here are a few materialistic things on my wishlist that are all under $50! This year I am on the look out for forms of storage and home decor, along with some beauty things. (For any of my friends, any of those categories will do if you`re here looking for ideas) I couldn`t think of more than seven, or rather the hour is late for me to think of more than seven things, so here are seven things that I want for Christmas. And maybe if you know someone remotely like me, these might make good gifts! However my greatest wish for Christmas is that everyone I know will stay in good health. Please note that all prices are in CAD.

1. Candles; Or some other kind of air freshener that I do not need to spray. I like to keep the door to my bedroom closed to keep the room warm during the winter, so I`d like to try lighting a few scented candles to keep it smelling fresh. Bath and Body Works is doing a lovely 2 for $5 on their mini candles, and while I was in the store I fell in love with the smell of their Winter candle.
2. Storage Boxes; Any of the ones like this, or other clear boxes that are sturdy, so I can begin my room re-organization project for this winter. I found these ones on the Container Store website (we don`t have the Container Store in Vancouver or Canada I believe, which is a shame) but I know they aren`t hard to find.
3. The Buddha Board; This one is just for fun and doesn`t have any practical use to it at all, but it`s a stone board that you write on with a calligraphy brush dipped in water. I saw this in a little boutique in Kitslano with C and B, but while I was Christmas shopping with N, I ran into this little board again in Chapters. Currently on their online website, it is on sale for $26.25 off the original $35!
4. Ceramic Mugs; I adore mugs that are unique and have simple and elegant designs on them, like this discontinued and out of stock Starbucks Three Regions mug. If anyone can their hands on this, I will love you forever. But I tend to dislike mugs that have tacky sayings on them, or mugs with designs that look like they`ve been compiled in the Windows Paint program. The best part is that a nice mug can come as cheap as $1.
5. Tarte Maracula Creaseless Concealer; Before UBC I did not feel like I needed concealer on my face, and truthfully am still not sure I do. But if I were ever to try a concealer, I`d like to try this Tarte concealer in the colour Light. They are easily available at Sephora for $31. Always include a gift receipt if you are getting makeup as a gift so that the recipient can exchange for the right skin tone!
6. Storage Cart; Anything like this. I also found this one on the Container Store website, but I am sure they`re easily found elsewhere. I like how I can organize different types of crafts in the little drawers. Any form of storage for me this winter really, friends :)
7. Wrap Ring; I love unique/custom wire jewelry on Etsy. I`ve had my eye on this ring for a very long time, and it comes in gold, silver, black and a copper-brown for roughly $7 before shipping. Any custom jewelry will make a girl like me very happy, especially knowing I will be one of few to have it.

So that wraps up all the things that I want this Christmas. You`ll note that they`re all relatively random things, and this is because I do not happen to have a long wishlist this year and had to scrape my mind for ideas. I consider this an accomplishment though, to be able to separate myself from my materialistic wants, but that`s it! I tried to include things that spoke about me: my love for organization, my love for unique items, and my love for beauty and makeup.

With all that said, happy Christmas shopping everybody! I`m off to finish studying for my last final of 2012 and pick up a few last gifts this week for my friends and family as well !

Pearl of China by Anchee Min

Anchee Min's Pearl of China takes place before and during Mao's takeover of China. (A side note: I really enjoy historical fiction, and this period of Chinese history--Mao's takeover, the eight years of war with Japan, followed by the four years of civil war in China, in particular strikes my interest. I am on a hunt for more Chinese historical fiction novels, so do not be surprised to see more in the near future.) We learn the story of Pearl S. Buck (a famous writer in the 1930s, who grew up in China) through her friendship with a fictional character and our protagonist, Willow. I was first captured by the writing in the first paragraph of the novel:

Before I was Willow, I was Weed. My grandmother, NaiNai, insisted that naming me Weed was better. She believed that the gods would have a hard time making my life go lower if I was already at the bottom. Papa disagreed. "Men want to marry flowers, not weeds." They argued and finally settled for Willow, which was considered "gentle enough to weep and tough enough to be made into farming tools." I always wondered what my mother would have thought if she had lived. (Min 3)

The naming of this child foreshadows the struggles she will face as a young girl raised in poverty. The rest of this novel shows that she really will live up to the name Willow. Min managed to paint a lovely picture of the legacy of Pearl Buck in China by telling the story through Willow's perspective. The test of friendship and themes of religion plays a key role in her story, as well as themes of love and inevitable loss during times of poverty and war. A touching story, that I would recommend to anyone who has a love for Chinese culture and/or Chinese history.

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor

Inspired by Stanley Park, located in my own city, Vancouver and the Babes in the Wood case, a tragic murder of two young children whose bodies were discovered in the park in 1953. This one was part of assigned reading for my English class (ENGL 227 with Duffy for UBC students).

I liked Timothy Taylor's Stanley Park, but it is definitely not a fast paced and suspenseful action or adventure filled novel. I prefer faster paced stories myself but it was a page-turner for, which is rare for assigned reading. (George Orwell's 1984 in English 12 many years ago was the last book I could not put down once I started, as part of assigned reading) Although to be fair, I was likely at that level of interest because it is a local setting. The story resides in a place that I rarely have time to go to, and rarely take the time to think about: Stanley Park and parts of the downtown area.

Our protagonist is a chef who through his cooking, is "trying to remind people of something. Of what the soil under their feet has to offer. Of a time when they would have known only the food that their own soil could offer.'" (Taylor 23) Jeremy's initial belief in the story was that "food is a language," (Taylor 60), but we see a large change in character as food becomes "a performance about memory, a tribute to the way things once were" (Taylor 353) by the end of the novel. Jeremy's character development was entwined with the repair of his relationship with his father and his understanding of place. I liked the spiderweb of characters in the novel, the Professor, Jules and Caruzo possibly being my favourites of them all. I enjoyed Jeremy's strained father and son relationship with the Professor, Jeremy's short comings with money and debt leading to his 'friendship' with Dante, and his sous chef and chef relationship that maybe went beyond friendship with Jules. I loved the closure at the end, and the novel inspired a desire to take a long walk through Stanley Park to imagine Jeremy, the Professor, Caruzo or Siwash in the woods somewhere.

I am disappointed of course, to find that the Monkey's Paw Bistro was not a real restaurant because I'd liked to have visit. Perhaps the Food Caboose is a restaurant that actually exists.

Summer Travels 2012 : Gold Coast, Australia

We flew to Gold Coast on Jetstar after spending a week in Sydney in the company of our family relatives. The weather was much warmer there and it was a lovely change staying at a hotel for a few days; hotels always give me a sense of comfort because they are so familiar. Here, we spent four carefree days having some classic family fun: Being real tourists to a city, rather than family guests from the other side of the world.

We were limited by the lack of a car rental, so we stayed at the Sea World Resort, right near everything we wanted to do. We went whale watching, explored Sea World of course, found some really good fish n' chips, and plenty of expensive sushi. While our hotel had this lovely heated outdoor pool, that proved not to be as heated as I had hoped when I hopped in one evening. The staff was really great about a leaking problem in our bathroom, we were upgraded to a room with a view of both that beautiful pool and the beach!

We went whale watching on our second morning in town. The ocean view was spectacular, but I stupidly ignored the sea-sickness warning and got.. Well, sea sick. Despite losing my breakfast, we did see many whales and even a few dolphins out there and that was amazing. The videos that they played on the boat were actually interesting, rather than the less-than-entertaining educational videos that are normally shown on screen. We found this delicious fish and chips place later that day, about at 15-20 minute walk away from our hotel, where you pick your fish raw (it was a fish market) and they cooked it for you on spot. You could also order sashimi, as well as many other seafood dishes. It deliciously made up for the food that I lost to one of those barf bags on the boat.

The dolphin show at Sea World was one of the more amazing animal shows I have ever seen. I find that dolphins always remind me of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I was puzzled by the dinosaur exhibit, because it didn't really have anything to do with the sea in my books, but it was cool anyway. Sea World also offers one of the largest and tallest outdoor jungle gyms, and an attraction called Battle Boats. Battle Boats were these boats with "canons" that shot out a stream of water as you twirled the handle. These boats traveled a course around the "ocean" (a pool, essentially), and the passengers of the boats could shoot any bystanders who were watching. The bystanders got their revenge, because they were also equipped with canon shooting stations, so we could shoot them right back. It was like a massive water fight with strangers, the whole thing was a lot of fun :)

I would love to revisit Gold Coast, make use of the BBQs that they have stationed in their parks (with electrical power too, you literally just set up at the station and push a button to start BBQing!) and hop into the waters and have a fun day at the beach.

Summer Travels 2012 : Sydney, Australia

A local park in the area near my aunt's house.

My trip to Sydney, Australia was meant for us to re-meet family members that I hadn't seen since fifteen years ago. For my parents, it was a matter of seeing how much the cities they once knew had changed in the last decade and a half.

I went there expecting to see the stereotypical Australia: desert and kangeroos, I suppose. While there are more kangaroos than people living in Australia, that does not mean that they`ve infested the cities. I do admit this was both a disappointment and a relief at the same time.

I expected cold and gloomy weather since it is winter in August. I was surprised when it only rained once in the three weeks of my trip. Winter temperatures in Sydney naturally do not hit negative anything, but I had expected more rain (unfortunately a symptom of being a Vancouverite). Instead, we got three weeks of brilliant sunshine with the occasional 40km/h wind on select days. For the most part, it was merely a much cooler version of our summer. We stayed with family rather than at your typical hotel. I learned then that most of my relatives' homes are not heated, and had instead very cold tile flooring throughout the house. Seeing as Australian temperatures remain in the hot and hotter range for about ten months of the year, I could see why.. But this left me super bundled up for bed every night to stay warm, and this meant hoodies, scarves, tights under sweats, socks, two blankets and a portable heater in the corner of the room.

Shopping is much easier without the penny, even if everything was double the price of the same things at home. What was really ridiculously priced was their transit system. We decided to take the Cityrail back to my aunt's home one day. Little did we know that a one-way ticket from the airport to my aunt's home in Canley Vale would cost each of us $16.80! I can only imagine how much it must cost to commute to and from the university everyday.....!

Me pretending to talk to a shark in Luna Park.

I loved that cars are parked on the lawn in Sydney. You know when there is a party or family dinner when there are just cars parked in the front yard. Speaking of cars, Australians drive on the other side of the road, but I did not know it was also a norm to keep left when you`re just walking on the street. You can imagine my confusion, especially on the escalators.

The University of Sydney has some magnificent architecture and I could imagine myself at Hogwarts with a quidditch match above my head as I stood in the courtya--- THEY HAVE A COURTYARD! We also hit the touristy stops: the opera house is as beautiful as it is in photographs, and Luna Park? Free entrance into the park, you just had to pay to go on rides. That should just be a thing.

For obvious reasons, I have not included my better photographs of our trip because my family members are in those photos. But I enjoyed my time in Sydney, and I definitely met all of my family members who live there (THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM). Mission accomplished?

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

Historical fiction, especially novels that take place in China and focus on the ancient lives of women, is my favorite type of reading. I cannot possibly express the brilliance of "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See without re-writing the novel in this post. But I will definitely try. Consider this a spoiler warning, but I will not reveal anything significant because I highly, highly recommend this book. (Anyone who absolutely cannot stand spoilers may want to stop reading after this sentence)

The entire novel is essentially a recap of someone's life. Lily, now eighty, begins her story with memories of when she was five, a primitive and happier time in her life. Her retelling incorporates strong themes of friendship, of female oppression and of love. Before this book, I had not considered other forms of love besides romantic love and love for your family. That Chinese tradition had the laotong form of love (which was meant only for the women of society) suggests that they recognized the necessity of comfort between women. See paints a portrait of China during a time when women not only had what are now wholly unrealistic expectations, but also demonstrates how it was a willing oppression. By this, I mean to highlight just how much women oppressed themselves by passing on these expectations from one generation to another. Among a million and one traditions, foot binding is undoubtedly one of the most gruesome traditions that women had to endure. But through that endurance, it proved the ability to withstand pain, maintain obedience and withhold tradition, which were conditions that promised a prosperous marriage and acceptance in society.

"We may love our daughters with all our hearts, but we must train them through pain. We love our sons most of all, but we can never be a part of their world, the outer realm of men. We are expected to love our husbands from the day of Contracting a Kin, though we will not see their faces for another six years. We are told to love our in-laws, but we enter those families as strangers, as the lowest person in the household, just one step on the ladder above a servant. We are ordered to love and honor our husbands' ancestors, so we perform the proper duties, even if our hearts quietly call out gratitude to our natal ancestors. We love our parents because they take care of us, but we are considered worthless branches on the family tree. We drain the family resources. We are raised by one family for another. As happy as we are in our natal families, we all know that parting is inevitable. So we love our families, but we understand that this love will end in the sadness of departure. All these types of love come out of duty, respect and gratitude. Most of them, as the women in my county know, are sources of sadness, rupture, and brutality."

-- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

What kept me reading late into the night, was a comparison I kept making between the mindset of women in China during the 1800s and myself, a woman in Canada in the 2000s. China has a rich and lengthy history and being half Chinese myself helped me make an almost personal connection with this novel. I feel this comparison shows how far, we as women have come in the last two millenniums. I could not fathom living under the expectations of my ancestors, and I wonder at the endurance of women in the past. The freedom to make decisions about marriage, my education, my career path, and even the mere freedom to do as I please with my physical body (i.e. no foot binding) are all things women did not always have. I am reminded that such freedoms are still not available to much of the female population. With all of that said, I still have yet to touch on the personal stories and plots in the book: this book has definitely become my favorite.