Chilly Sunday means ice cream

After karate, I was craving some sort of sweet. It was either to try out Gong Cha (which I haven't it yet), or ice cream. My brother and I opted for ice cream.

After our treat, we went to check out a new location! I'll be talking about it more sometime next week once it opens.

Other than that, I got some marking done and proceeded to hunt for tempered elder tracks in MHW. We tried for 45 minutes to beat a tempered Deviljho, but with no luck so far. =/

Pinched Nerve and Brake Pads

It turned out that I have pretty crappy wrist mobility which has led to almost having carpal tunnel syndrome. My chiropractor showed me a few exercises to help improve my wrist mobility. I also had more IMS for my wrist, which gave me a somewhat convenient excuse to skip my workout today.

And thank goodness I skipped my workout, since we changed the tires on our cars. It took a decent amount of time, and when I thought we were nearly done, it turned out that my rear driver brake pad was a lot thinner than what I thought it would be. Fortunately, I purchased some pads last year, so I had that ready. Installation was somewhat straightforward, but tedious. The bracket on the caliper made it difficult to insert the pins near the end of the process. All in all, about 6 hours was spent changing tires and replacing my rear pads.

I didn't end up marking today, since I was "tired" and wanted to play MHW. I completed a mix set, which saw a noticeable increase in damage output. Granted, I need to do a controlled experiment in order to see if I'm actually doing more damage, but I like to believe I am!

Terry Fox Run

The Terry Fox Run at school was slightly different than previous years. Other events took place at the annual assembly, which I'm in favor for since it offers a sense of variety. The run itself was great and a lot of students were stickers on their back with the name of a person they're representing/running for. It was touching to see to people running for a particular person.

As for chest day, it was relatively short (a week of short workouts) but quick. During breaks, there was much discussion on a possibly exciting topic! Tune in a couple weeks to find out! =P

Bummer...

We had a representative from Costco come to talk to us after school today. Their main purpose was to attract new customers by giving some sort of discount and (I think and) a gift card. Unfortunately, they had no promotions for existing members.

Other than that, work was extraordinary ordinary, besides having to go through a bunch of emails that I need to get sorted. The weekend is looking to be busy with marking set aside, but I guess it'll keep me busy.

Leg Day was short since I arrived at the gym pretty late. I didn't get as much done as I should have, but it's nice to have short days every now and then.

It's like it knows...

I cannot recall if I mentioned it yesterday, but I picked up a CPU cooler (Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo) for my computer. I plan to overclock my CPU and GPU to extend it's life (since my current computer is over four years old) in terms of being suitable to game without having to upgrade parts. I haven't decided how much I want to OC it at the moment, but it seems like it knows that it's time is coming. MHW was laggy for some odd reason when we were fighting Kushala Daora. FPS dropped to around 30, when I've been enjoying mostly high 40s to low 50s.

Other than that, work went like any other day. Oddly, it doesn't feel like a Wednesday today, but rather mroe like a Monday.

Corner Runs

The one issue I have at times with Junior High periods are how short they are. When I was in Annie Gale, I believed periods were about 40 minutes in length. My school is slightly longer at 46 minutes a period. It normally takes me the entire 46 minutes for a lecture (and yes, it'll be ideal if I can cut it down and have time for kids to do work, but I like to go in depth with certain topics when I teach), but let's not get started with activities.

Working with microscopes always take more time than I expect it, no matter how much experience I accrue. I cut out my bell work this year for microscopes, and it did give us a couple more minutes of microscope time. Either way, the day went by so quickly since I was up on my feet for the entire day practically.

As for the evening, I had the opportunity to drive around for a while (before I swap back to winters). It was relatively warm, and my tires were pretty warm. As I was cruising down a two lane road (one lane per side) at speed limit, I notice a Mercedes tailgating me. Now, my car isn't at all fast, but it takes corners at a decent pace (and the tires help), along with the ability to exit corners well. A corner was coming up and the recommended entry was 20 kmh. I normally take this corner a bit higher than 20 kmh, but I today was higher than "average". With much confidence in my tires and car's capability to take corners, I left the Mercedes in the background. Perhaps not the smartest move, and stoking one's ego is never a good reason to go fast, and I doubt that the Mercedes understood my intentions, nor tailgate in the future, but it did feel pretty good. >=)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

I don't consume moon cakes on Autumn Festival for two main reasons: cost and calories. However, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to those that celebrate it with a tasty moon cake!

Work was quite pleasant today with students calming down from last week. I swear, it has to do something with short weeks! After work, I went to the elementary campus to help with supervision since buses were running late. I didn't have to wait long, which meant I was able to go home earlier than usual.

Since I had to drop my mom off in the NW, I was able to work out at Rocky Ridge. I never been to Rocky Ridge during a week night, though it's very like Saddleridge in that it was extremely busy. Since it was arms day, I didn't need much, besides some free weights. After pumping for about 45 minutes with minimal breaks, I went to go pick up my mother.

And that pretty much marks my night!

Tempered Jho

I should have spent time on Code.org, but I opted to spend nearly 4-5 hours playing on MHW. Tempered Kirin took two tries, but tempered Jho is currently undoable for me. I don't think we even came close to 30% of it's HP (due to red drops which gives you an idea of how much health they have left).

I promise not to game so much in one day again... well at least for the next month.

Should have done it sooner!

Throughout the years, I've been trying to incorporate more technology into my teaching. I started with a website in my second year, progressed to trying out Edmodo near the end of my second year, and start of third year (didn't go far), moved to a more elaborate website in my third year in which I can upload my notes, and... other things that I can't think of at the moment.

I had a Google Classroom account for a while, but I never gotten to using it with my students extensively. I had my grade 7s use it last year, but that was mostly to post documents to help them with their year long project.

As for this year, I pledged to utilize more Classrooms, and thus had them do weekly assignments (about 3-5 minute assignments) on Classrooms. So easy to read and mark without having to worry about losing their marking!

Other than marking those assignments, I spent a good part of the day getting mantles and hunting tempered monsters on MHW.

It's nice to stay inside when it's so cold and dreary looking outside.

Full Day of Testing Almost!

For the first time in all my years at the school, my Friday was chock full of students to be tested for their reading level. Normally, it would be busy on Thursday for me, with less students on Friday (or I might be mixing BRI testing with PTI...).

Another two no shows for today, bringing it to a grand total of 5 no shows. Only the one from Thursday sent me an email stating that she couldn't come, but the rest did not say anything. I guess I'll have to figure out why they never showed up on Monday.

Other than that, I got in a few more quests on MHW before chest day. Afterwards, off to dinner at Ke before coming back home to grind some more on MHW.

It's definitely getting colder, and it's probably time to slap back on the winter tires. Riding on summers, like I mentioned many times before, feels so sketchy when temperatures dip close to freezing.

Three no shows

First day of reading tests was marked by three students not showing up for the test. One emailed me later telling me that she wasn't able to make it, but the other two said nothing at all. I guess I managed to finish a book I was reading, so that's a plus, but it irks me ever so slightly that they booked an appointment time and did not show up for it.

Other than testing, I managed to do a couple more modules on code.org for website design. It's such a great website since all the lesson plans and worksheets are made for you. All I have to do is get a gist of what the material is about and let the kids explore! =)

Ever since badminton season in April, I haven't touched my racquete in a while. I got the chance to play badminton today, and it was a good opportunity to shake off some rust. Sunridge Badminton Centre is a lot busier than Clear One in the NW, though I think I prefer the hard floors rather than these badminton mats.

Short Teaching Week

Due to reading tests that are slated to take place tomorrow and Friday, we only had to teach for three days. Three weeks in and my somewhat proactive stance has helped me tremendously. I just hope it lasts till at least winter break before I recharge again for three months.

Despite being at work for nearly a month, I feel like I'm still getting used to going back to work routine.

Other than that, not much else to report besides back day once again. Pull ups felt hard today, but then again... when are they ever easy.

Binge watching

26 episodes of Kim's Convenience in the span of 10 days or so. I thoroughly enjoyed the second season and found the humor to be more sophisticated in comparison to the first season.

I should go back to reading though, and complete the ebook I'm currently reading before I have to return it. The Germ Files by Jason Tetro is a really good read -- there so much we can do with bacteria!

Other than that, school was pretty ordinary, except for the morning. Workout was so-so since squatting was painful for my palm. I thought a week of rest would do the trick, but I seem to be doing worse. Squatting 95 lbs was enough to make my palm sting. I had to go quite wide for 235 lbs, though it did make it harder for me to keep my body upright.

Lunging laps (60 lbs --> 40 lbs --> 30 lbs total) was a lot easier without wearing a hoodie. Sweat didn't accumulate as heavily... go figure.

PD week

First of two PD session for me this week. Both are one hour webinars, which makes them doable twice a week without feeling too draining. Today's session was on visible learning -- main message is to provide feedback that students find valuable in order to grow as individuals.

Other than that, a typical day at work and a typical day at the gym. I did manage to get another azure horn though! Three more to go!

Kirin Azure Horns

When it comes to gaming, I really enjoy games that require a lot of grinding (well most games that follow this formula). Ideally, I would like to overpower myself so I can later sweep through mid to late game content.

But I cannot say the same for MHW. 10 Azure Horns from Kirin is an eternity. Each HR Kirin quest takes about 15 minutes to complete and you typically get one horn. With an 80% chance, it's not always guaranteed, meaning that it may take more than 10 HR Kirin quests (around 2.5 hrs) to get the ten horns required to upgrade these dual blade Kirin weapons to max.

At least I'm getting used to his attack pattern. Hopefully the HR 49 quest to unlock tempered elder dragons won't be too bad after grinding Kirin this much!

Other than that, karate went as expected. I got home and finished up my marking and crafting a quiz for tomorrow. I'm hoping to keep up this new routine of doing most of my work on Saturday to leave my Sundays open!

End Game Monster Hunter: World

I've spent some time yesterday and today to finish finding the tracks to the last two elder dragons that I haven't fought yet: Kushala Daora and Teostra. I was expecting single digit fps for Kushala, but somehow my computer was able to handle it a lot better than I expected. (Time to overclock both the cpu and gpu)

I ended up fighting the last boss, Xeno'jiiva, alone for most of the fight, save for the last couple of minutes when a few people joined my quest. I'm definitely not that efficient, for it took nearly 25 minutes to kill Xeno'jiiva. That though, unlocked my HR and allowed me to start post-game content. Tempered monsters sure hit harder than regular monsters.

Other than that, I pledge to do more work on Saturdays so I can have more time to relax on Sunday. With that being said, I managed to mark two sets of assignments today! One more set to go and some light prep for the week.

Forgot about my keys at work >>

It certainly felt like winter is near -- fortunately my mom bought me a down liner/jacket (super thin jacket), which is extremely warm from Costco for a relatively good price. Now though, our entire family has the same jacket in the same color!

I was at work later than usual for a Friday since I've been trying to input marks right away unlike last year where I usually waited near report card time to input marks onto PowerSchool. It's more tedious, but it makes it easier to remember which students have extentions (I should stop giving them out so leisurely) or which student is excused from an assignment because of some emergency at home. As I was packing up assignments to mark over the weekend, I exited the school and realized that I left my keys in my classroom! There were the janitorial staff at work, and two other teachers, but everyone else was gone for the weekend. Panicking since I won't have access to my keys till Monday, I located the classroom of one of the teachers who was still at school.

(Side note: I find it normal to associate people with cars they drive, yet many people find that weird... It was a "skill" I developed in junior high where I would see teachers walking to their cars while I wait for a ride home after leaving school late during some days. Maybe it is a bit creepy...)

I managed to get the attention of the teacher left at school, by creeping through the window. I hurried towards my class and to retrieve my keys and proceeded my way home!

Chest day was relatively tame, as my workouts have been for this week. I'm not too confident with benching 205 by myself so I stuck to 185 for 6 reps.

And that marks my Friday essentially!

Slipping

The first snowfall for this summer took place while I was at the gym doing leg day. A very simple leg day, for all I did was just lunges around the track. I'm hoping that my palm will be back to tip top shape by next week so I can resume squatting with a burning sensation in my palm.

I think I blogged about it before, but my tires are not the best for cold weather application. Getting out of the parking lot was fun since I lost traction a couple of times. It was nothing spectacular, but I could feel my tires slipping.

The simplest solution would be to replace my tires with all-seasons. These would be good all year round until winter hits. I'm not sure, however, if I want to give up performance that my current tires give. True, I'm just your average driver, but I swear I can feel a difference riding on summer tires compared to all-seasons!

Rehabilitation Day

Normally, stretching and rolling for 20-30 minutes will get me ready at the gym. Doing lat pulls and a few sets of pull ups made me realize that my shoulders were still stiff. By chance, my workout buddy was spending his session as a time for rehabilitation.

And so I joined him with rehabilitation. After spending over an hour, my lats and delts feel loose, and I was able to rotate my left shoulder further back than what I've been able to do over the past few weeks. My hamstrings and quads felt better than normal as well, though the hip needs a bit more work.

Perhaps it's something that I need to do more often... I'll have to see the results with tomorrow's squat session. I'm not feeling too positive since my left palm is still feeling tight.

Vaal Hazak

With an injured palm still, I decided to skip the gym and start some marking instead for today. I managed to go through one class set of assignments, and I'm pleased to say that the vast majority of students finished their booklet. I think I'm only missing two, which is a first for me (without having to remind them to hand it in).

After marking the one class, I got down to play MHW. The vast majority of the night was used to grind against Vaal Hazak, a grotesque elder dragon that has a move that cuts your HP in half. I had some unfortunate run-ins where he would cut my health in half, and charge at me to knock me out. OR the other time where I was by a pool of acid, he shot his beam against me, which cut my health in half and placed me in the acid pool, which had me stand up stunned, and had the acid pool disintegrate the rest of my health.

I should have enough parts from Vaal Hazak, so I don't have to fight him for a while. The higher up you go, the funner the game becomes -- I'm ever so tempted to upgrade my computer to play the game with ultra resolution (my computer can only handle it on low) with high fps (averaging around 60, but in team fights it can go down to mid 30s)... but it wouldn't be a worthy investment at the moment.

Hectic Monday

I was planning to leave work on time to shop for my options class tomorrow, but I had some issues with the photocopier after work. Unfortunately, it wasn't fully fixed, but at least I was able to print off my notes for tomorrow. Afterwards, it was off to do some more work for tomorrow. I didn't end up leaving school till around 5, which is so far the latest for me during the current school year.

I didn't end up heading to the gym till around 6:30, so it ended up being an extensive arm day. Just doing bicep curls and tricep exercises felt weird. After coming home, I wolfed down dinner so that I can continue to grind against MHW's flagship monster: Nergigante. No gems from it yet, but I'm sure I'm almost there!

Violet Evergarden's OVA

With this possible being the last work free weekend, I made sure to not do any work. After karate and lunch, I plopped in front of my computer to complete minor quests in Monster Hunters. After collecting certain herbs and slaying small monsters, I got bored and proceeded to find something to watch. I've always had my eye on a movie on Netflix (In This Corner of the World), but didn't want to spend two hours to watch a potential tearjerker. Thinking of tearjerkers, or something moving, my mind drifted onto Violet Evergarden. I heard of the OVA coming out in July, but I didn't watch it then since there wasn't a good English subbed version out at that time (when the good version came out about a week after the "bad" version).

The OVA, from my understanding, is a anime-only story (I also don't recall reading the story in the light novel) created by Kyoto Animation or KyoAni for short. A really cliche story line, with a predictable plot, yet it was touching nevertheless. My mind started to drift halfway throughout the episode, but the ending insert song hit me hard. I have no idea what was being said if there were no translations, but the melody line and vocals (sung by Karasawa Miho, aka TRUE) had such a raw emotion that it literally shook me to the core. To not spoil it so much, both Violet and the main supporting character, or deuteragonist for this episode had a similar background in which their loved one never came back from the war. I was initially confused with the placement of this episode within the overall timeline since despite it being called episode 14 by many, it's actually in-between earlier episodes of the series (since one particular scene would exemplify Violet's "pre-transcended" character). Nevertheless, visuals and music were on point for the entire episode to my eyes and ears respectively. Just about a year or two before the movie comes out for Violet Evergarden! I'm hoping that it has an excellent ending. It's definitely one of my favorites series out there.

But I think I need some comedy or something lighthearted to clear my mind and return me back to reality. A friend mentioned to me recently that Kim's Convenience is on Netflix, and I started watching that last night. It's quite a hilarious take on Asian families, especially parents that weren't born in Canada!

Slept in...

I was slated to attend a pep rally at SAIT for the upcoming Lego Tech Challenge season (I believe that's the full name) this morning, but I managed to sleep in... but for a very good reason! Well, I guess any reason for sleeping in is never a good reason.

It started at 9, but I wasn't out of bed till around 11...

I did end up going to the gym, but unfortunately, my palm was giving me issues so I couldn't squat many sets today. I ended up deadlifting and doing Romanian deadlifts, and cutting my workout short for the day. I guess it'll be another issue to bring up with my chiropractor next time I see him, though these injuries are starting to hamper progress. Maybe it's time to get a professional to check my form... or it's time to take more breaks from the gym.

I like the second idea more.

First week done!

First week of school is over! I got the chance to meet my last class, that I haven't met all week, today: Robotics 8. Out of all my classes, these students seem to have an... interesting dynamic. We'll see how the class is after a few more sessions.

Other than that, I'll need to get started with planning for field trips and adjusting my notes for the school year. Despite not feeling well rested (I get the feeling whenever I didn't feel like I rested enough from vacation, ie: 2016 when I didn't travel at all), I'm eager for the school year to unfold.

Friendly Strangers

Day three and no one has gone crazy yet... That's always a positive sign in my books! It was my no prep day at work, but those days always go by quickly since there's no break.

I stopped by Costco after work since I ran out of protein powder. As I wanted to hit the gym as early as possible, I was rushing to pick up protein and lining up to pay. As I stood in line, a... middle-age couple was in front of me. The husband kept looking at his phone instead of putting stuff on the conveyor belt (granted that putting it on the conveyor belt at that point would not make the process go faster). I was getting impatient, and really wanted to say something. The wife came to talk to him in a language I wasn't familiar with, and then the husband turned to me and offered me to budge him since I only had the one item. I'm not sure if it was truly due to having one item, or that my impatience was showing on my face, but I was pleasantly surprised by the turn of events. I did turn them down, since they didn't have that many items themselves, but I guess I need to learn to hide my impatience more?

Other than that, leg day at the gym. My legs feel shot from Tuesday and it definitely showed today. I wasn't able to squat as much, but got some other exercises in to replace the amount of volume that I would normally do for squatting.

Almost Friday! Despite being a short week with Labour Day, it also felt relatively long (save for today).

Fall is definitely in the air

Mornings are chilly while afternoons are hot -- summer is nearing an end. It also seems like the days are noticeably shorter in comparison to the summer. (Fall equinox is in about 17 days)

I'm glad to say that day 2 of school hasn't had the students go out of control... yet. Classes have been pretty smooth and the days are whizzing by at a pretty fast rate. Things will sure pick up soon once everything settles down.

Other than that, a relatively easy day at the gym for back day. I learned the my left shoulder has external rotation issues -- which can explain the tight elbow for pull ups and searing pain in my palm during squats. I don't normally roll out my shoulders, but it'll be something that I'll need to do.

First Day with Students and Blog Post 1002

I just realized that I posted over 1000 posts. Quite an accomplishment on my part, for I never imagined that I would continue to blog about, mostly, mundane aspects of my life.

Either way, first day back with students today. It went relatively smoothly, with very little hiccups I thought. So far, my classes seem to be full of enthusiastic students, which is usually a good thing. Some students are... overly enthusiastic, while others are not as much.

We'll have to see where the school year goes!

As for working out today, it was another leg day. My legs felt pretty dead from Saturday, but I realized that I focused on keeping my weight in the centre/closer to my heel, squatting would feel much easier. A two lap lunge-fest ensured after and I was soaked with sweat. It was a disgusting feeling sitting in my car driving home. I had to lean forward, so that my back wouldn't make contact with the seat, and make me feel cold.

Labour Day 2018

Labour Day for me, is the last day of break before students resume classes. Or for the most part, since there were times (I think in my third year) where we started before Labour Day.

No matter how many years I've been a teacher now, the start of a new school year is always exciting. I've seen the class lists for all my classes, though I haven't associated names with faces as of yet. Majority of the students will be new to me, since I didn't teach grade seven options last year. Despite having a harder time learning names as I grow older, I hope to get them down pat quickly!

As for today, I spent a good majority of my waking hours (woke up at 7, streamed some media for a while and fell asleep at 8 before reawaken at 10:30) at the gym before heading back home to help my dad with flushing brake fluid from our cars. After dinner, it was already 8 PM! I did manage to squeeze in a couple of hours of MHW. It's a lot easier to go through missions with my HR Odogaron set that my brother helped me get last night. I'm not getting crushed in a couple of hits anymore!

Time to wind down and get ready for bed. I usually try and set a goal for myself at the beginning of the school year to have no screen time for at least half an hour before bedtime, but it turns out to be like every New Year's Resolution I make. =P

3 out of 4 again! Travelling to Eastern Canada

After gaming for the better portion of the day, and with no desire to do anything else before I restart work tomorrow, I thought I'll get a head start with my travel blog for this year. I was initially planning to do it next week, after uploading all relevant pictures onto Facebook, but I have a couple hours to kill before bed.

Three years ago was Japan 2015. An epic one month adventure where we traveled to many different places, both new and old. One portion had us visiting Shikoku Island, which has four prefectures (equivalent to provinces). We visited three out of the four, though in retrospect, we should have gone to all four so I don't have to go back to that island. As for Eastern Canada 2018, I got the chance to visit three out of the four original provinces that joined Confederation (it's not because I remember my junior high/high school social studies, but rather I learned this from a the parliament tour.) Whether I want to travel to Nova Scotia is something up for debate for the distant future.

I cannot recall exactly when I had plans for this trip, but I like to say it was sometime near the end of 2017. I just signed up for the American Express Gold Rewards card for the 25,000 points that I converted into Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 exchange rate once I spent the required amount for the bonus. An old elementary friend, who informed me of the card currently lives in New Brunswick, which made it a good reason to fly out there. Since I'm flying so far east, I might as well go to Toronto as well, was my initial thoughts. What started as a week trip soon expanded to a two week trip (good flexibility as a teacher in the summer) to include Ottawa and Montreal. At this point, I had to admit I felt ashamed: I've seen more of Japan than my own birth country. In fact, I haven't been to any other province, unless you count the layover in Vancouver 17 years ago as visiting another province. 

All the airline tickets were ordered essentially on the last day of work before break started. With astronomical hotel prices in Canada, I had the opportunity to experience AirBnb for the first time. Searching for places took time, but we managed to find locations in the downtown areas of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. With a car being rented as well, along with train tickets from Ottawa to Montreal, and Blue Jay tickets ordered, all we had to do was wait for August 4th to come. 

Time flies and it is suddenly the morning of Saturday, August 4th. I got up earlier than normal, thanks to not staying out late the day before, to work out before heading home for a quick lunch. We arrived at the airport hours early, which was not necessary since the line for security was remarkably short. The plane ride to Toronto was relatively smooth and I got the chance to experiment with my relatively new noise-cancelling headset (which worked remarkably well). Upon landing at Pearson, we went to look for food before our flight to Saint John (not St. John, Newfoundland). I'm not sure if it was due to a lack of eating or something I ate went bad, but I was extremely bloated. Thai Express helped the bloated feeling for a bit, but it came back during the flight to Saint John. Not only that, but the HST was a bit of a shock. I'm too used to just paying 5% taxes, in comparison to 13% in Ontario, 15% in New Brunswick or the GST + QST (5% + 9.975% respectively) in Quebec. 

The flight to Saint John was far quicker and we landed just before 2 AM. At the exit/entrance of the gate (since Saint John is so small, you walked to the gate after departing from the plane), we met up with our friend. After literally taking 30 steps, we were at his car. A thirtyish minute drive in fog and rain soon followed. At Saint John, our first meal comprised of McDonald's, and I believe it was the only McDonald's open at the time. It was odd, but pleasant to see quiet streets, with barely a sole stirring at the wee hours before daybreak. 

Our friend had beds prepared for us as we got to his place. We ate and chatted for a while before crashing at around 4:30. (Ironically, the last time I went to bed this late/early was in Tokyo in 2015.) It was a rough night of sleep, since I always have difficulties falling asleep on a new bed. We did all eventually wake up at around 10. After a quick breakfast, buffing out scratches from a car, we headed to Moncton. Our first stop was at a restaurant for lunch. Since you're in the maritimes, you got to eat seafood, right? 

 

As you can see from the pictures above, I had a seafood chowder and fish and chips. Both were quite tasty, though it was just a warm up for what was to come in the evening. We then went to magnetic hill soon after to experience an optical illusion in which you car is seemingly pulled "uphill" if you leave it in neutral. Turns out that it's due to the rolling hills beside the road that makes it appear to be going down hill when in fact it's actually an uphill at the starting point of the stunt. After almost getting hit by another patron, we traveled to Hopewell Rocks. We arrived just before low tide, so we were able to walk around the beach, take pictures and dip our feet into the Bay of Fundy (or essentially water in the Atlantic Ocean). After spending some time there, it was off for dinner. 

We traveled to Alma for lobster. I normally don't eat lobster because I'm not too fond of the taste (and too lazy to crack the shell to access the meat). I hesitantly ordered a full lobster (quite cheap at $17 before taxes and tip), but had no regrets. It was extremely fresh, and much better than the lobster claw I had in my seafood chowder hours ago. After finishing, taking pictures of the scenic views around the shop, and getting a lobster roll/sub, it was time to head back home.

The second day was dedicated to visiting the capital: Fredericton. Fredericton wasn't that interesting in my opinion. We had lunch at a pub, and explored a bridge before heading back to Saint John for the evening. Back in Saint John, we ventured out for dinner at the nearby Market Square. The Thai cuisine we had for dinner was quite good, though it wasn't the same Thai flavor (with all the coconut) I'm familiar with back home (though that's not authentic Thai flavor). 

 

 

The last day was to set to explore Saint John, before heading to the airport to our next destination. It was the first time I flew with Porter Airlines, but I had to say I was impressed with the amount of service we got for the price we paid. That also included access to their lounge at Ottawa's airport. After a quick layover, we continued with Porter to Toronto's Billy Bishop airport. Picking up the rental vehicle was a quick endeavor. We then got the opportunity to experience first hand, how driving was like in Toronto. It was hectic, with honking every minute, but we managed to find our first AirBnb. The condo we rented was right on Bay Street, and it gave us a spectacular view from up high. After settling on beds, we traveled to find a ramen place to eat. Hokkaido Ramen Santouka did not disappoint, though when were paying for our meals, it started to rain extremely hard. Perhaps we should have gotten an Uber back, but we decided to trek through torrential rain for ten minutes back to our place. Extremely soaked, we were lucky enough to have a washing machine to wash our clothes right away. After the rain died down a bit, it was off to find more food, yet many places were closed at ten near us. We found a Panago pizza, which did it's job for the night.

Come the next morning (Wednesday August 8), in which I woke up at around 5:30 to head down to the gym to workout. Adrenaline provided fuel since four hours of sleep would not be able to do so for me. It was raining slightly as we returned back to our place at around 9, but it died down as we showered and got ready for the day. Our first stop was for food at a hand-pulled noodle shop. I was feeling ravenous after my workout, so I naturally ordered the biggest bowl they had, which was very large. In retrospective, it was a foolish idea, since I was stuffed and couldn't eat for a while. The Eaton centre was next, which felt very much like shopping back in Calgary. Without finding anything of interest, it was off to see Chinatown, Kensington and the University of Toronto before heading back to our place. Late in the afternoon, we went to the Union Station to meet up with a friend. After a brief reunion, it was off to Momofuku for supper... and I'll just say I wasn't pleased with my meal. If I recall correctly, I walked around 35000 steps that day. We went back to our place to drop off some things before heading back out to see Ripley's Aquarium. At this point, my lower back was starting to hurt, but as a positive note, my feet were in great health (in comparison to wearing sandals back in Japan 2014 and 2015). The aquarium was nice to see, and it had a great variety of different tanks and sea creatures. Not wanting to walk back, we called for a Lyft (which is like Uber) back to our place. After arriving back to our place, it wasn't a far walk for food (Taiwanese Pop Chicken, H-Mart and Uncle Tetsu's famous cheesecake). 

Thursday morning arrived too soon, and I was starting to feel the wear of not getting enough sleep. The gym session was horrible for I had no energy. After arriving back to the condo, we got ready once again before taking the Jeep we rented out to Markham to visit the famed Pacific Mall. I was initially excited because I always hear positive stuff about the mall. Our first stop was for food up at the top level, and I was not disappointed by my beef bowl. What disappointed me was the variety of shops at the mall. It seemed like a vast majority of them were cell phone accessory shops. You can only visit so many before getting bored with seeing the same thing over and over. Fortunately, there was another Asian mall, Splendid China (not joking... this is the name of the place) Mall. It was, personally, more splendid that Pacific Mall, though with less shops to visit. We then headed off to the Bluff's (on the edge of Lake Ontario) to walk around the beach before heading back to our place. Dinner soon followed at another noodle restaurant, before we started walking to the Roger's Stadium to watch the Blue Jay's play the Red Soxs. I'm not a fan of baseball, nor watching baseball because I find it too slow paced. Despite all the energy around me, I was soon nodding off. (To all Blue Jay's/Red Sox/Baseball fans, please don't feel offended.) The Blue Jay's won, and we started to head out of the stadium, to only stop to wait for the rain to stop. Walking back to our place took a while, but we made pit stops for food.

Friday morning was a lot better since I was able to secure a solid, uninterrupted five hours of sleep. The gym went great and we had a road trip planned for the day. Our first destination was Hamilton since one of us did a master's at McMaster. Lunch was at the mall's farmer's market and the sushi was actually quite palatable. After a friend and I got lost trying to find our way out of the mall, we headed towards Niagara Falls after making a pit stop at McMaster's. The town of Niagara was very touristy looking, but we didn't spend time to explore because our main objective was the falls themselves. It was an extremely scenic sight and we got the chance to take a ferry to visit the falls for an in-depth look. After getting sprayed by the falls, we walked around the pathway towards the top of the Canadian falls, before heading back to Toronto. The drive was horrendous due to the traffic entering Toronto, but we made it back in one piece. We ventured to a restaurant inspired by anime: Ken-oh. It had memorabilia of the show, Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). I never seen the show so I cannot say if the food was influenced by the show, but the sukiyaki set I got was quite filling. After stopping by Pablo nearby for dessert, we headed back for the day.

Saturday morning's workout session was horrible for I was unable to squat due to tight calves. I ended my session early, and headed back to the condo early. Since it was our last day in Toronto, we kept it relatively mild. We took the subway down to Koreatown to eat and explore before heading down to the Harbor. After looking at stores nearby, it was off to a bubbletea place near our condo in which I was looking forward to after seeing a video on social media. After resting for a while, we headed to Kaka for AYCE (all you can eat) sushi, which was quite tasty, though expensive. It was an early night for the first time this trip since we all had to get up early to make our way to Ottawa.

 

If I remember correctly, Ottawa was about four hours away from Toronto. It's the longest I've ever been in terms of a road trip, but it was not too bad since I was able to view the greenery all around us. Our first stop in Ottawa was to eat pho, though I cannot say it was a great bowl of pho. We then checked in to our second AirBnb place, which was an older house; it was heated by radiators instead of forced air. After walking around town for a while, we met up with a friend's girlfriend at sharwarma before heading down to the parliament building for their light show. I fell asleep for a while on the field due to sheer exhaustion, but woke up to see the show. 

Monday August 13th had me sleeping in, instead of heading down to the gym. It felt great. We headed down to wait for tour tickets of parliament before strolling around downtown looking for a place to eat lunch before one of us had to go back home. We managed to find Sansotei, which seemed to be a franchise ramen restaurant. The ramen was top notch, compared to the pho and sharwarma I had the day before. Right after lunch, we hurried on back to our AirBnB so that we could drive to the airport. I got to drive our rental Jeep back, and it was an interesting experience. The roads were like Calgary, in that they weren't too busy, but the Jeep was not the most fun to drive. Maybe it was just our car, but the accelerator was very hard to push. Either way, we returned back to our AirBnb before heading back to Parliament for the tour. We had three places to visit: the Eastern building, the main building and the Peace Tower. The guides for the Eastern and main building were very informative and I actually learned quite a bit from each one of them. It was by far the best part about Ottawa -- since everything else seemed quite ordinary. After the tour, we headed down Rideau Street to eat Korean food at a place called Food Mood. It was a small restaurant with a couple tiny tables and one bar/ledge tables in which we ate our meal. I had kim bap and tteokbokki (Korean sushi roll and spicy rice cake respectively) which turned out to be quite good. As we ate, we saw, what I presume our homeless people across the street from us. One person in particular seemed a little bit off, for he would randomly walk onto the street, while cars are driving and stopping as they approach him, or play with the fire hydrant. After our meal, we grabbed some bubble tea and headed for more food at Chili's. We opted to bring back our meal from Chili's to our rental place, as a "small" snack. After returning back, two of us decided to head to a nearest bookstore. It was small, but filled to the brim with books. Nothing caught our eye, so we headed back to our AirBnb and relaxed for the rest of the night before bedtime. It was good to finally sleep early after sitting back and relaxing. Even on vacation, you need those days sometime!

As for our last day in Ottawa, I managed to get up relatively early to head down to the YMCA. This location was made out of multiple levels and it took me a while to find the weightlifting room. Unlike Toronto, it was relatively newer looking and had a wide variety of patrons of all ages. After getting our workout done, we headed back to our AirBnb to relax a bit before checking out. Since we had quite a bit of time before our train to Montreal (or flight back to Calgary for one of us), we stopped for lunch at a pho restaurant (good, but didn't taste like pho) and went to two malls. The first mall was an outlet mall, which reminded me heavily of the one in Vegas. The second mall was more like Market Mall. We ate at the food court there before being dropped off at the train station for the last part of the trip for me and one other. The Via Rail train we took to Montreal was relatively fast, and the scene outside was filled with greenery. After two hours or so, we finally reached our destination. Not wanting to walk, we took an Uber to our last AirBnb. The first thing I noticed about our apartment was how insanely hot it was, which I think was due to a lack of ventilation. There was no presence of air movement and the air felt a bit stale. After dropping off our luggage, we went to a nearby supermarket, labeled as Provigo. Once inside, we found out that it was owned by Loblaws, and felt very much so... to me at least. After purchasing food, we headed back to our rental apartment to eat and prepare for bed.

Sleep did not come easy since it was dreadfully hot and the pillow had no neck support. We woke up at around 6:30 to get ready for the first day of Montreal. We started with the Notre Dame, arriving earlier than the 8:00 opening time. Once we toured around Notre Dame, we headed to the old port, while making a stop through Jacques Cartier's plaza. The port was pretty, and we realized that there was a science centre nearby with a DreamWorks exhibition. Since there was still an hour to opening, we headed to a nearby McDonald's to relax and wait for the science centre to open. Once inside the centre, we started with the DreamWorks exhibition before watching an IMAX video in French. Perhaps not our smartest choice, because I had no idea what they were saying, despite all the pretty visuals. I did end up dozing for a good portion of the film though, so that kept me awake for a while! After exploring more of the science centre, we left and headed to Chinatown for food (decent Chinese restaurant) before finding a part of Underground City. After exploring the small section, it was off to the Museum of Contemporary Arts. In all honesty, I do not understand contemporary art, but the sculptures present were really creative. Finally, we walked to Schwartz Deli to try out the renowned Smoked Meat Sandwiches that everyone talks about. The line up was relatively large, and it wasn't until a chef/worker came out that I was able to ask for the take out line... which was considerably shorter. After ordering food, we traveled back to our place, which was a lot cooler than the day before, to eat and relax before bed. A long day with a lot of walking but lots of sights!

Sleep that night came easy due to not feeling steamed alive, and perhaps wearing my compression tights prevented my legs from feeling sticky from sweating all night long. We started with hiking Mount Royal, which was a very pleasant hike. It reminded me of Mount Takao the year before in Tokyo with the relatively easy elevation gain. The top was scenic for we could see the skyscrapers that made up Montreal. After walking to an artificial lake, we headed back to downtown to find a place to eat before our next stop. We found Eggspectation, which seemed like a breakfast restaurant. The dish I got was scrumptious and by far some of the best sunny side eggs I ever had. After breakfast/lunch/brunch, we headed to the Museum of Fine Arts. They had a Picasso exhibition at the moment, and it was interesting to see how Picasso was influenced by African art. They would have a piece of African art and a Picasso work that was similar right beside the former. After exploring the museum for a couple hours, it was off to McGill University. Like UofT, it was huge, though didn't seem as scenic to me as Toronto. We were trying to locate the equivalent of MacHall back at UofC, but were unable to do so with what seemed like construction being done to the building at the time. After McGill, we stopped by a Ben & Jerry's for ice cream, before heading back to the Underground Complex to walk and explore some more. We also headed down St.Catherine Street to see the various stores among this long street. The night was marked with trying out a small cafe near our place before walking down St. Catherine's at night.

Friday marked the last day in Montreal to explore. With a large portion of our list covered, we were at the point of the trip where we didn't feel like doing much, so not much was what we did! We started with finding dim sum in Chinatown before watching Incredibles 2 in theaters. After shopping for macrons, we headed back to our rental to relax before heading to another cafe (seemingly geared towards University students) that night. There was the Asian street market, but it was about a 40 minute walk from where we were, and seeing that we need to get up super early the next morning, we opted not to check it out.

Flying back to Calgary early Saturday morning was a smooth experience, though I knew we were close to Calgary due to all the smoke outside our plane. Despite all the smoke, it was good to finally be back in my own bed. Not getting a lot of sleep during vacation made it so that I slept for nearly 15 hours that night.

All in all, Eastern Canada was a success. I can finally say that I've been out of the province to see parts of the second biggest country in the world. The road trips around New Brunswick were pretty, the parts of Ontario was filled with energy and Montreal was filled with culture. Being in Canada though didn't feel like vacation. As different as out east may be to us, there was a familiarity that made it feel like everyday life. As a positive side though, it has stirred a long to go back to Japan... hopefully next year!

Yes, yes... I'm aware that other places beside Japan exists...

Miniso Saturday

Post-recovery from playing MHW for approximately five hours, I realized I forgot to write my blog post for the day, yesterday.

I was looking forward to Saturday since I would be able to sleep in, from what seemed like an eternity. I don't recall five days of waking up early to ever feel so long, but it's most likely due to me not waking up as early as I should have for the last week of break. Either way, I made it to Rockyridge in good time and got in a decent leg workout. 255 lbs for threes were difficult, and it a slightly depressive thought of how doing these for fives were a cinch a year ago crept into my mind while doing yesterday's sets. I just have to keep reminder myself that it'll come back in due time with patience and perseverance.

After working out, I headed to the Miniso in the NW to see if they had wall clocks for purchase. The one in my classroom broke, and it gave me a good excuse to check out the Calgary branch. The one in Cross Iron was nice, so I was hoping the same for the NW. I wasn't disappointed (though driving through the area was hectic with all the traffic), but no wall clocks! I did manage to find some hooks that I can use to hook my homework clipboard, so that was a positive.

And thank goodness for the long weekend! The last few days of break before work "truly" begins for another year.

It's Friday

As for the last day of August, much was done and not done at work. I think I'm pretty much ready for the start of school, but I still have to work on my course outlines. Thank goodness it's the long weekend and thank goodness I can just modify my outlines from last year. Also, thank goodness that the previous robotics teacher gave me a copy of her outline for me to use.

Chest Day was strength day, and adding five pounds to 205 (to make it 210 lbs) reduced my reps to like two. Other than chest, there were some back exercises as well to compliment the front.

For dinner, we headed to Ke's Charcoal Grill and Sushi. It was my first time there, but I was not disappointed. The yakitori set (Premium Ke if I remembered correctly) and sushi set (Chef's Choice Sushi) were both really good. The best thing about Ke's is the reasonable pricing in comparison to other places I've been to, to eat. 

Ah, perhaps one other best thing: it opens to 2 AM... perfect when dinner time doesn't start till like 9:30 for us.