[from top: Upon crossing the Canadian border; the Place d'Armes; Basilique Notre Dame; Place Jacques-Cartier and Hôtel de Ville (City Hall); Rue Saint-Denis]




...and it was an awesome trip!! I'm not planning on posting a long blog entry about it, but I posted a few pics of the trip. A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Crossing the Canadian border was a breeze to me who is used to dealing with the US immigration and customs a number of times upon entering the country (they don't cut anyone any slack), but my American travel companion thought "it was like getting ready for the Spanish invasion". LOL.

I have to say though, it was all one big adventure. Most people in Montreal speak English well enough, but French is still very much the main language. Street signs, store hours, parking instructions, various forms and even menus are in French. The first night we were there, we walked along Rue Saint-Denis where there were hundreds of restaurants and looked at 10 different menus posted outside the restaurants before we found one that had English translations on it. For fun, I went into a Subway restaurant to read their menu board, and sure enough, it was in French too. Over time, we picked up enough French words to read some of the ingredients listed under each of the menu items (they love their Italian there - 9 out of 10 restaurants are Italian). We stopped at a gas station in a small town outside of Montreal before crossing over into the US again, and no one there spoke English. Thank God we didn't get lost even once, it would have been hell trying to ask directions.

Montreal was beautiful, especially Old Montreal where the French influence was prevalent. The buildings were old and quaint, and I felt as if I was walking in Europe. The first time we were walking around Old Montreal, I felt a sense of deja vu. It wasn't until later that I realized it felt a lot like being at the French Quarter in New Orleans, which makes sense because of the French influence on the buildings design there too. It was very cold and sometimes cloudy in Montreal, which strangely added to the charm of the city although it prevented photos from turning out very well. It was so cold, I had to have 3 layers of jackets and coats on - sometimes 4 at night.

I'm gonna get off of here now. I'm still feeling the effects of very little sleep, not to mention I'm in a little bit of a turkey coma right now. That's right, I flew home yesterday, and still managed to fix a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potato, and veggies. I'm Superwoman, alright.

Dot @ 11/23/2007 01:32:00 PM

Well, it's official, folks. I'm leaving in exactly 2 months. Talked to the travel agent yesterday and booked my flight home for January 10th. Although for one scary moment it looked like all flights to Malaysia have been fully booked until the week after that. I was freaking out because I can't overstay my student visa upon graduation; I'll never get back into the US if I do. But luckily, I'm all set now.

I akin my feelings right now to those of an ill person who's been told she only has a couple months left to live. I've given it some thought and decided that I'm going to make the most of these 2 months I have; I'm going to spend as much time as I can with the people who means so much to me, try to visit with as many friends as possible, travel to at least one new place, and most importantly, I'm going to have fun, fun, fun! I already have it all planned out - places to go, people to see, things to do these next couple of months. When I leave, I'm going home with the satisfaction of knowing I've made my time here count.

Dot @ 11/10/2007 10:19:00 AM

Ugh I hate packing!! The last few days have been a nightmare involving last minute shopping (mostly for my mom who would suddenly think of more stuff that she wants me to get for her (stuff that either can't be found or are much more expensive in Malaysia), although I am buying work clothes for myself too since I will start work almost immediately upon arriving home), finding boxes, wrapping, packing, calling up various truck rental places, worrying about the expenses involved, etc. Argh!! The count so far is 19 boxes, totalling approximately 80 cubic feet. I HATE to think about the fact that I'll be doing all this again a few years down the road when I move back to the US, but I take comfort in the knowledge that 1/3 of these stuff are my mom's, and a few are souvenirs for various family and friends. After calling and negotiating with at least 5 rental companies, I finally found a cargo van for rent that will fit all of my stuff and at the same time won't break my bank. So this Friday, at around 3 am or so, John (bless his heart) and I will make the drive up to Chicago to drop my boxes off at the warehouse from which they will be shipped home. It'll be such a load off my shoulders once that is done.

I am so, so pressed for time. There are a million things to take care of before I go home (*sobs*). For example, I have to finish up my Incompletes from last semester. I've already taken care of one of them over the summer, but I left the hard one for later and it's time to take care of that too to make sure that I'll graduate in December. I went to see the Professor for that class yesterday, and he was sympathetic because it is a hard class to begin with but now I will have to do the final project without having learned the stuff that was taught during the final fourth of the semester. But he's willing to work with me on this, and told me to contact him anytime I need help with the project, and gave me until the rest of the semester to complete it. Furthermore (and I didn't realize this because I was so, so lost in that class, or so it felt like), I was doing really well in that class, and if I had been able to finish the course with the rest of those in my class, I would have been in the top 5 of the class (there were about 40 of us). So that is one major comfort, because now I'm not so freaked out by this project thinking that I have to do exceptionally well at it because he won't grade it in comparison to other people's projects. If I can get a reasonably decent grade for this project (which counts for 25% of the course grade), I stand a great chance of getting an A- for the course, or a B+ at the very least, and that will be another load off my shoulders because this is the very last business management class I have to complete before I get my degree.

Another thing that's putting pressure on me is finding a place by the end of this month. John and I will have to move out of our current apartment immediately after I graduate in December, and we'll need the whole month of November to move our stuff and clean up the apartment. So it is VERY important that we find somewhere to move into by the end of October, which doesn't leave us with much time. With John's job, and my million things to do, neither one of us have much time to go apartment hunting. He's requested some time off middle of this month, and will have to use those days off on top of what other days off he gets (he works weekends too) to look at apartments. I'd like to go with him while he's doing that, so we'll have to mesh our schedules one way or another. I'm going back early January, but even though I know I will have a roof over my head post-graduation, obviously it worries me sick to think of John being homeless. My poor baby!

This Saturday will be Eid. I've been planning and discussing with a friend over the possibility of having an open house/party like we do every year, and we had already decided on a date. But then the shipping company got in touch with me and said that they will be sending out a shipment to Malaysia next week, and it's been a whirlwind of trying to get all the packing finalized to meet that deadline (the next shipment will be in December/January, too late for my liking), and we'll be taking the stuff up to Chicago this weekend, so the initial date is out. We decided on the weekend after that, but turns out that's no good either. At this point I was wondering if it's just not meant to be, plus it will be a strain on me financially after spending over $1000 to ship my stuff home, so I came up with an alternative - instead of having the big party that we normally do with all the planning, cooking, time and expenses that it entails, we'll probably have a private lunch/dinner and invite a few select people over. We'll see.

For now, I have to go and get my reading done for this afternoon's class. Hopefully the next time I update this blog I won't be as overwhelmed.

Dot @ 10/09/2007 10:03:00 AM

So much has happened in the last few weeks. My world went from being upside down to a complete turnaround. I've made a couple of attempts at sitting down to write a blog entry, but ended up ditching it because simply too much has happened and it got exhausting trying to write about everything. So I decided to keep this one relatively short.

On Friday April the 13th, about 3 weeks shy of graduation and my 23rd birthday, I found out I had uterine cancer. This diagnosis was made after a week of being in and out of the hospital, and having a series of tests, ultrasounds and even a D&C performed on me. I was away then, in New England visiting my friend Cindy over Easter weekend. Having almost no working knowledge about this type of cancer, and knowing that the first signs of trouble started 6 months ago but I had chosen to ignore them, I was scared to death. For the first time in my life, I was truly aware of my mortality, especially when the obgyn confirmed that one can die of uterine cancer if waited too long, and she couldn't give me a definite answer when I asked her if 6 months were too long. I became hysterical when they told me it could be life-threatening for me to fly home to Indiana for treatment, and that I will have to undergo treatment right there in Connecticut. My boyfriend is in IN, my friends are in IN, my whole support system is in IN, I told them. Finally, I calmed down and realized that it is best that I stayed where I was, because I simply could not wait any longer, and because they have one of the best gynecologic oncologist in the country there at Yale-New Haven Hospital. I calmed down even more after I had talked to the oncologist; he answered all my questions about uterine cancer and assured me that there was plenty of hope, that I had youth on my side, and that the odds were for me. I also felt better and more ready to battle uterine cancer when, at my insistence, they provided me with a book on it and I read everything from cover to cover to learn as much as possible about the illness. Because of my age, they made me a priority case, and they tried to come up with an alternative to hysterectomy so that my fertility could be preserved. When it became clear that hysterectomy was inevitable, they informed me of it gently and with much sympathy and understanding, but I was OK with it, because I had already known since I was 7 years old that I didn't want children anyway. My lack of grief for my impending loss of fertility baffled the doctors and many other people including my friends, but my mom and my closest friends who truly know me understood and was supportive. They scheduled me for a hysterectomy right away, and I was discharged from the hospital exactly a week after I found out I had cancer. I am now almost fully recovered from the surgery, and reveling in the thought of never having to deal with menstrual cramps or blood ever again in my life. I am now also cancer free.

There are 2 people that I could not have gotten through this all as well as I did had they not been there. My friend Cindy is one of them. She was the calming presence at a time when I felt a wreck; she stayed by my side during the visits to the doctor and when they were doing all sorts of tests on me. She knew all the right questions to ask, she was the voice of reason and optimism, and she opened her home to my boyfriend John and I after I was discharged from the hospital following the hysterectomy.

And John. What can I say about him that hadn't already been said. Where can I find the words to express my love and gratitude to him (or my family's), and how can I say those words without breaking down and crying. He was my rock throughout the entire time. He was scared too, but he remained strong for my mom and I because we needed him to. He drove halfway across the country to be with me during the most difficult time of my life. He was there before I went into surgery, and he sent me off with a kiss and told me it was all going to be OK, and he was there waiting when I was taken to my room after the surgery. I stayed in the hospital for 3 days to recover, and he was by my side day and night. He was the one communicating with my family who was halfway across the world, and he kept them updated with what was going on, and he was very patient and understanding when dealing with my mom's hysterical calls. He brought me home when I was ready for the drive back to Indiana (the doctor still wouldn't allow me to fly). After the worst was over, he continues to be the one I turn to for love, strength, and comfort. I am so grateful to him, and I love him so, so, so much.

John and I are engaged now.

I used to say that marriage is not for me. I am not a typical girl who gets excited about jewelry; I do not need diamonds as a symbol of a person's commitment to me, and I most definitely do not need a marriage certificate to authenticate my relationship with someone. But I had known for a while, even before all this started happening, that I want to spend my life with John. And now after all that had happened, I realize even more how much of a treasure I have here. With my circumstances, being married is the best way to ensure that he and I will get to live together and spend our lives together, and I will most definitely not allow my jaded views of marriage to stop us from being together. At this point in our relationship, I truly believe that John and I are perfect for each other. It hasn't always been a smooth and straight road; there were curves and bumps along the way, but with love and communication, we triumph over them each time. Relationships are hard work and always will be, but we are both willing to work hard to keep ours going strong. I love you, honey.

I ended up not completing the spring semester because of my illness, so I will come back in the fall to finish school, but the university allowed me to graduate with my class nonetheless. It was a beautiful ceremony, and what made it such a wonderful and memorable one was the fact that both my parents were there. The two people who helped me become the person I am now and whose love and guidance got me to where I am now were there to share one of my proudest moments with me, the day I graduated college.

If I ever have to define happiness, I would pinpoint to my life right now.

Dot @ 5/15/2007 09:42:00 AM

John and I had a very nice, quiet Christmas.


p/s: Happy Birthday, Dash.

Dot @ 12/27/2006 09:21:00 AM