Yep, it's that time again, let's talk up KW.

First off, yes, here I go again, talking about this place we love so dearly........ yes I know what you're thinking, maybe you can give me a chance. And just for some Jepoardy trivia: all thanks to Leo, he made me realize that my Chinese initials are, too, "KW". Crazy boy.

So yeah, I donno... I was so bitter about being here in Waterloo in second year. I don't know why-- well actually I do know why, but is beyond the scope of this entry-- but just it was just not a fun year to be in. And one of those things that got to me is this darn city we call Waterloo.

But really, come to think of it, when you snap out of it for one second, Waterloo really isn't all that bad. It seems like it's has become so natural to the mouth to say how much we hate Waterloo, but when someone asked me this question several weeks back, I really don't have much of an answer.

I understand that people hate Waterloo because they associate the City with the institution. Surely I can understand that at times... it can be very frustrating and not fun. However, I feel that we will feel a lot better when we separate Waterloo from UW. I really think that I feel a lot better after doing this. Also, I went home too often last year-- to the point that you're only here in Waterloo for school and school only. No wonder I was totally bitter about this place.

Yes back to the question, I really can't think of what's bad in Waterloo. To be honest, besides the lack of authentic Chinese food and the crappy gay nitelife, there really isn't anything that you can do in Toronto that you can't do in Waterloo. Toronto surely has more alternatives of similar things... but the things you do are similar. Bubble tea, movies, clubbing, restaurants, karaoke, and shopping.. all can be done in KW-- and you can do all that cheaper! C'mon where else can you get 1.75 beers in Toronto? And where can you actually find XS and S sizes in the clearance section? Fairview Park Mall. Who needs Vaughan outlet malls, just go to Waterloo!

I really think that KW has potential to be a great city, if there just was better accessibility to ammenities. Right now, a resident without a car, is like a man without his legs (pardon my non-PCness)-- it's so hard to get anywhere. KW has a very unique culture. It has its own arts and sophistication. If you guys remember Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class and how hey thinks that people need a creative communities to produce products of innovation. I really see KW as potential to be that city. All we need is to revitalize and raise density in Uptown, and Downtown Kitchener, put in the much anticipated LRT line, and I really see KW being a great city.

KW has potential really because it's far enough from Toronto to really establish its own cultural centre, however Markham-- despite exciting plans for a downtown-- will remain a suburb of Toronto forever. Toronto will for eternity suck up any real arts, culture and entertainment-- all the creative things-- out of the GTA nodes.

Anyways, I'm writing this entry to remind myself that Waterloo is not so bad, in the case that I become viciously bitter again. The main gist of tonight's ramble is that KW has the capability to be a vibrant, creative city.

Its weird how I always end up rambling in these entries. I apologize for my little off-topic dicussions, and commend those who've made it this far in the entry. :P

goodbye and goodnight!

It's hard to notice being on the UW Campus for the majority of our stay, but in fact, there is really a growing immigrant population choosing to settle in mid-sized cities such as Kitchener-Waterloo. I remember reading an article from Nicholas Keung, who specializes on reporting topics related to immigration in the Star. Here's the article "Why Immigrants Fare Better Outside GTA."

He says that more immigrants are choosing to settle in the mid-sized cities because it has a lower cost of living, and poses less competition in the job market. I find this article interesting because people often settled in y'know the Big-3 gateway communities (Tor, Mon, Van).

Anyways, why I'm bringing up this topic is that I'm beginning to witness this trend. I was at the Philip/Albert Dollarama with my parents when I moved my things back to Waterloo. There was a middle-aged Chinese lady and judging from fashion, looks like a newcomer. She approaches me and asks me something in Mandarin about some product she has in her hand. I, knowing absolutely no Mandarin, asked my dad to go find out what she's asking and help her out. Then staring at the two go at it. After when they finish I curiously asked what she was asking. She apparently was asking whether the product in her hand was detergent.

It was bleach.

Apparently, she was indeed a newcomer to Waterloo from Mainland China. It's weird because that feeling felt so familiar to me. In a way, I kind of identified with her, it seemed like it was my family 15 years ago when we settled here. Obviously and luckily, my parents are fairly fluent in English, but nevertheless, the feeling was familiar.

Yes, it seems Waterloo is becoming 15-years-ago-Markham, where you are just happy to see someone of the same kind. I remember in our street in Markham, there was this other Chinese family, which we became very close to, and would just converse and talk just because we were the same. We share similar values, food, and language. It brings that homely feeling.

Of course, it's not the case anymore in Markham.

I'm intrigued at the lifestyle of immigrants living in a place such as Kitchener-Waterloo. Even myself, who have settled and have adapted the culture for so long, still feel the culture clash when you leave the realm of the University. When you go to the Galaxy (or even Tuesday night Louies before the beer kicks in), I still get that feeling of being a minority. The life in UW is definitely not consistent with the life in the surrounding city. If even I feel this notion of culture clash, I can even imagine what the Chinese lady felt-- not knowing the language, not understanding the culture. And what sucks is that there really isn't that social support for these newcomers.

I really see that KW's cultural landscape will for sure change in the next decade, however, I truly commend these families who decided to live here when there's hardly a sign of anything culturally familiar.

After a long long hiatus, I'm back.

Now, I'm going to try to blog daily just so that I can make up for the lack of blogging-ness. First of all, if you guys don't know, some losers decided to comment-spam me for like the fifth time. Then stupidly on my part, fooled around with the entries database, and I totally corrupted it; there's my reason for my absenteeism. I installed Movable Type 3.14, which I have done on many attempts, but finally got to work, since this version is considerably different from previous versions, including a more chic interface. But the main reason for the upgrade is this version has its own Comments Manager, and can mass delete comments (i.e. damn annoying comment spam). So there you go.

Anyways, first of all, HAPPY 2005. It felt good to finally not having to get up at 7:00 daily to go to work. So yeah, it's a good refeshing start to the new year not having to work. So, thumbs up to Waterloo.

PIR Life Pics

Yep, it's actually been a pretty good few weeks in Waterloo. I'm overall pretty happy to be back. My place at UWP is great, compared to my shit-ass basement student ghetto home at Amos. Surely, the suite is a tad small, almost resembling Hong Kong living quarters, but the place is well kept, warm, convenient, close and relatively cheap-- so it's all good. The roommates are totally fantabulous-- knock on wood. Tommy studies CS, while Julian was a former CS student now in Math/Biz. It's great cuz chores are done without schedules and/or coercion, and the place is just clean. Good stuff.

In terms of classes, they're okay, nothing wow, but not dreading either. I have 15 hours of class and Wednesdays and Fridays off; eat your heart out boys and girls ;)

Here's some volleyball pictures, courtesy Liz.

Volleyball Pics

That's all for now. Oh wow, it's exciting to be blogging again. :P