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The dreadful final exam season is upon us, but that also means that Christmas break is just around the corner! It can be a stressful 2 week period of studying day in and day out so I decided to put together a few things to help keep us going. By us, I mean me and an imaginary person. 1. Set study times accordingly I usually like studying from 8pm-2am, I call it my prime time. For some reason, I cannot study in the morning for the life of me! However, my exams start at 8:30am so I'm setting my...

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I know, I know. It's happened too many times in the past. It was impulsive. I can't help it...I love going to concerts. So there I was minding my own business, jamming out to No Problem and Summer Friends on the way to school. With each bus ride came new found love for one Chance the Rapper song after the other. A few weeks later, lo and behold, he happens to be playing 2 shows in Vancouver. Since both shows were sold out, I decided to just get tickets off StubHub if they were reasonably priced. People were...

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And I'll be dreamin' of the next time we can go Into another serotonin overflow Love on the weekend Love on the weekend This song came right in time. It's been quite a shitty week, so I could use some love. Hallelujah, the old John Mayer is back. His country stuff wasn't so bad, but it just doesn't compare to his pop music. Friday tomorrow. Let's end this miserable week and start fresh next week. Vancouver, I love you, I really do...but I can't wait to fly home. The countdown has officially began: 30 days till the Philippines....

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I've been so up and down and all around these past few weeks. I can tell because I've been very emotional towards little things recently and I cried more than usual during the latest Grey's Anatomy episode (a telling sign). It's a compound of stress from school, constant lack of sleep, and recently going through a break up... Trump winning for president did not help. at. all. For some reason I always think I can "Superwoman" my way through 5 upper division courses like it's no big deal. Wrong. So so very wrong. October flew right over my...

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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! This year, I'm really grateful for being able to live in this BEAUTIFUL city that is Vancouver/VanCity/YVR. #westcoastbestcoast. What other city has the beach, the mountains, and a city district within 30 minutes of each other? It's got the perfect balance of a city life with all the shopping and nightlife, but it also has the slower-paced neighbourhoods that are perfect for brunch, afternoon strolls by the beach, and food tasting in the public market. On Thanksgiving day, Patch flew back from Toronto and we decided to go for a walk along Kitsilano Beach. After...

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So... I had a pretty spontaneous Monday last week. As you can see from my previous blog post, I started listening to Surprise Yourself by Jack Garrett last week. Well, on Sunday night Patch and I were listening to his album on Spotify and coincidentally, he was playing a show in Vancouver on Monday night. We were tempted to buy tickets until reality hit us and we realized that we had papers to write and big tests to study for in the coming week. So on we went with studying and streaming... Then came Monday. I was on...

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I always end up sending and forwarding articles, videos, music, etc. that I liked (mostly to my sisters) so I figured my blog was a place I could dump all of them... cause why not? Video Here's one that we watched in my class of Social Determinants of Health. It's a TED talk called The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single...

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Coron, Palawan, Philippines As always, 4 months of summer go by so quickly. I'm so lucky I actually get that much time off school to do things other than studying. A couple of my friends do summer semesters, albeit taking a lighter course load, but that still means 10/12 months are spent in school. Safe to say I've made the most of my summer this year. It started off with quality family time here in Vancouver, where I finally got to stay around for the sunshine and warm weather!!! Hallelujah. Vancouver really is the best city on sunny...

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Who doesn't love a little road trip? This past May we planned a road trip along the Pacific North West. Our route took us from Vancouver -> Seattle -> Cannon Beach -> Portland over five days. With the Lemonade and Hamilton soundtracks plugged in, we were ready to go. Thankfully the line at the Peace Arch Border wasn't long so we got to Seattle in about 2.5 hours. Our first stop for lunch was none other than Jollibee! Yes, Filipinos at heart. It's been way too long since we've had any of that crispy fried chicken and sticky rice....

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Can't believe it's been nine months since I've been home. Time seems to fly by really quickly. There usually aren't any big changes when I go back each year so it'll be nice to pick up where I left off. Then again nine months is a long time, so some things might have changed. I guess we'll see. ...

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If you haven't heard about Hamilton, where have you been? To be fair I only found out about it when they performed on the Grammys back in February. Since then, it's blown up and it's the hottest ticket in Broadway. Just a quick description for anyone that isn't aware, it's a Broadway show performed through hip-hop/rap music reliving significant moments of the life of one of the founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton (mostly during the American Revolution and getting his financial plan through Congress). It doesn't sound very convincing BUT IT WORKS. I've literally been obsessed with the soundtrack...

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My dinners used to be filled with voices coming from my laptop. Dinner time meant time to catch up on all my YouTube videos. From watching the daily vloggers, to late night talk shows, to make-up tutorials, and whatever other viral video is going around that day, those are the one sided conversations I have at the end of the day. That's why when my family started flying in one by one, I got really excited. With every additional person, it was like an additional 30 minutes at the dinner table. Without having deadlines and assignments looming over...

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