Only a week away, we will be on our way to Greece.




On July 21st, I received my visa that issued by Greek Consulate in Vancouver, it is the guarantee of my trip. The consular office I had interview with was very nice, she offered me few travel publications of Greece, one of them has details of where to go and what to see in Athens, the travel guide we bought doesn’t have much information for Athens, we will definitely bring it with us.
 
We’ve already bought backpacks and a spare battery for my camera, an adapter and converter kit, we haven’t started packing yet, and certainly will do so next week. And my office space is scheduled to move on August 15th, I have to pack up my office before I go for the move, it’s going to be a very busy week for me.

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Tim & I went to an area around Chinatown at 96th street and 108th avenue on June 1st, we've driven through this area few times before, I noticed there were quite a lot of churchs gathered within 3 blocks, although I'm not a Christian or Catholic, some churchs in town are very gorgeous, they've been waving at me, wanted me to visit them.


We first stopped by at 97th street, the St. Josaphat's Cathedral, a Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral stands out so much in Chinatown.
 


Tim studied in Catholic school for 9 years, he is aware of the difference between Christian, Catholic and orthodox, or other forms of churchs, but to me, they are just beautiful bulidings.







Front shot of the cathedral, amazingly gorgeous!







Pictures I took that day are pretty nice, the nice weather helped a lot.







An official information plaque on the wall, tells the history of the church. There is a large amount of historical architectures in Edmonton, you could esaily see those plaques everywhere.







The back shot of the church, I felt like going in, but it was closed.







I like the structure of these stairs.







Went back to 96th street, but my camera's bettry was dying.







This is an Vietnamese Catholic church.







A native Christian church, the color is wonderful!







Do you see God? I mean the statue.......







A German church.



















I don't know why, but this church reminds of me Greece.







Another church on 96th street, the name is Holy Trinity, this is an Orthodox church.







First Christian Reformed Church, I really don't know the difference from other churchs.







St. Peter Lutheran Church, then again, I don't know the difference.







Met a Blue Jay on our little church journey, a beautiful creature in North America.

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All the acconnodations in Greece has confirmed, our itinerary is now for sure, I have two more domestic flight tickets need to purchase, possibly have it done this weekend, I can't wait to get everything ready!

I'm going to work on my visa application and document preparation in June, planning to send them out around middle of June, hopefully having the interview with Greek Consulate at the beginning of July, everything seems fine so far, and we're already very excited about this trip.

Itinerary in Greece:
August   4th ~ August   6th: Athens
August   6th ~ August   9th: Rhodes
August   9th ~ August 12th: Crete
August 12th ~ August 14th: Santorini
August 14th ~ August 16th: Mykonos
August 16th ~ August 18th: Athens

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It is high season when we’re traveling to Greece; that is the reason we have to book and pay our flights 5 months ahead to ensure the seats.
We’re leaving early in the morning on August 3rd from Edmonton, taking domestic flight to Toronto, flight to Frankfurt then transfer to Greece, we will arrive Athens at local time 12:55 pm on August 4th. Our last day in Greece will be August 18th; we’ll get back to Edmonton late night the same date.

The total cost of the return tickets for two of us is $4,012.60 Canadian dollars, it is the best deal with can find, but funny thing is, the flights to Europe is inexpensive, the domestic flight costs almost 1/3 of the international ticket price, and the tax is $822.60, tickets are only cost $3,190 dollars.

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Something new: Baklava



We went to Save on Foods the other day, found a small pack of traditional Greek desset "Baklava", it is very sweet, good with tea or coffee. 





A Greek sotre we go often, their Baklavas are usually made in triangle shape, I'll take a picture next time we have it!

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I don’t even remember how long I’ve been dreaming about it. A trip to Greece has never skipped out of my mind since I’ve first seen a picture of the Aegean Sea with blue top white little houses on the islands, after so many years of waiting, and Tim’s fully support, we’re going to make the dream come true this summer.
 
The coffee shop that Tim manages is located around University of Alberta, summer time is off season for the business, it’s easier for him to take his vacations, and by then, I’ll gather enough vacation days for a trip of two weeks.
 
I’ve been searching for flight tickets for quite a while, and the prices we’re paying for the on season tickets are very expensive, it’s really depressing to know how much those tickets cost; We went to a small travel agency in Westmount this afternoon and found the flight tickets are under my budget, we booked the tickets, and must pay before March 15th to confirm that we’ll have the seats.
 
On the way back, we have made the decision, we’re going for sure, and Greece is only few months away!

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It seems funny to have a part-time job for me now, but for our trip to Greece in the summer, I don't mind working a bit more, some extra bucks help anyway, and I'm gonna be very busy for few months.

Violet called me at work this afternoon, there is possibility she is backing H&R Block at Sears Kingsway for tax season this year, then so do I; I had a great time working with the colleagues there last year, I'm looking forward to seeing them again, hopefully won't need to face too many weird people, I think I'll enjoy it. Also, the staff can have their taxes done for free, why not!

Talked to Cindy about my plan to work for H&R block before leaving work (Cindy and I know each other because of H&R block, we talk about it sometimes), can't believe she is thinking about promoting me to a higher level already, I've just got the permanent position, I really can wait a year or two, she was saying that she'll talk to the director in few months, if I could get pay more, Tim and can consider buying our own home sooner; And I'm glad there is someone sees me, knowing my capability and trust me so much.

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I couldn’t have this job without so many people’s help.
 
I had the interview with Cindy and Karen who was the HR Assistant on December 18th; I don’t have much working experience in Canada, the only reference I have is Violet form H&R Block, and Karen asked me if I could offer any internal references since I’ve been working for few months; I was grateful when I asked the supervisors and managers to be my references without any rejections, and I was able to offer 4 internal references to Karen.
 
Few days later before Christmas holidays, Cindy and Rod (Associate Director of the department) decided to let me know the result earlier, then I won’t be worried through the holidays, so I got the offer, finally I’m able to say that I’m the Administrative Assistant of Financial Services at Grant MacEwan College.
 
I feel lucky, my second job in Canada (I didn’t consider working part-time at Kernels Popcorn was a job), is the one that I’ve been dreaming of, decent pay, 15 vacation days every year and great benefits; My English reading and writing abilities highly progress within few months because of I have to read and write e-mail so often, I enjoy working at the College, and having so many nice colleagues.

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About Life
 
I’ve been very busy lately, with Christmas shopping, with gift wrapping, and we’re still far away from finish, it’s even busier then working I feel.
 
I always like Christmas, not only because my birthday is on Christmas Eve, I like the bright lights at nights, red and green color on lots of things, it’s almost like joy floating in the air, you breath in, and you’re happy.
 
Since moved in Canada, Christmas became a mission of shopping; Can you imagine that Tim has 1 real mom and her boyfriend, 2 stepmothers, 4 people in his older sister’s family, 1 younger sister and 2 younger brothers, I almost forget to mention my father in law, and some of our closed friends. We pick up at lest 2 gifts for each of them usually, then Christmas shopping officially become a nightmare.
 
I have to admit that I like opening my gifts in Christmas day morning, I like having a hearty Christmas turkey dinner at father in law’s, and I LOVE Christmas with white snow, those are what I couldn’t experience in Taiwan, but we don’t do gift exchange there, Christmas is just a day for parties or having fun.
 
 
About Work
 
My position has been posted on school’s website for a week, and closed on last Thursday, I didn’t know HR would sent candidates’ resumes to Cindy (my boss) until my colleague Queenie told me that, I know Cindy will hire me, she’s the one who wants me to have this job so badly, but she has to complete few procedures before she can do so, there are 4 candidates will come in for interview next Tuesday, and I’ll need to have an interview with her too, it’s going to be a very relaxed interview I’ve never had.
 
I’m looking forward to becoming a formal employee, I’ll entitle of lots benefits, vacation and sick days with pay, and school paid professional development courses, if I choose taking them at my school, I can study anything I want!

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It was an exciting morning yesterday, I love walking in the snow, after almost two months of waiting, we finally got some snow coming down. I walked to the bus stop to catch the No. 3 bus to work. I waited in the shelter as usual, I was even happier waiting for the bus in the snow, although it was very cool.
 
I saw a girl in her early 20’s slowly walked by, she stood on the corner of the block for a while, walked into the alley and showed up again few more times, I assumed that she was waiting for someone.
 
I recognized some regular passengers from this neighborhood, one middle-age lady lives right across the street from the bus stop, when that girl wandered through the street, the lady yelled out loud suddenly “You don’t get anyone in this weather, you dumb bitch”, I laughed at first, then I realized she was a prostitute, my good mood dropped into a black hole, it was sad to witness a scene like this, it was early in the morning, it was snowing, and a young girl had to come out to get some strange men to her bed, and the money she made was probably for either drugs or alcohol, how sad it is.

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Before I posted my writing,
I would ask my husband to redact the article for me,
in case there is any wrong spelling or mistaken grammar.
I spend two days  writing usually, but he takes his time redacting,
I'm tired of waiting, why not just post it?
I'm not a native English speaker, I've never studied here,
there is nothing wrong if I do make mistakes.

(This article contained curse words, reader’s discretion is advised.)

I didn’t know any Taiwanese people during my first year in Edmonton, and the only friends I knew were my husband’s friends, all of them were nice to me, I’m glad to have known them.

The second year in Canada, I randomly knew and met some Taiwanese who live in Edmonton through a Taiwanese-built web site, named “I live in Vancouver”, or my Yahoo blog, I tried to make contact with Taiwanese people in Edmonton, and share our life experiences in another country.

There is quite a big Taiwanese community in Edmonton, but I know very few of them, especially when I profoundly hurt by a Taiwanese girl; I stop trying to make friends with Taiwanese, you never know what kind of people you’re hooking up with, and I seriously don’t want to go through that situation again.

I haven’t met this Taiwanese girl, I knew her was because she left a message on the forum of I live in Vancouver, saying that she had just moved in Edmonton, wanted to meet Taiwanese who live in here, I wrote her few friends' blogs that I knew in Edmonton, included mine. After that, we chatted on MSN messenger for few times, I got to know her by reading her blog mostly. I found that she was an odd girl; she complained about her boyfriend a lot, or used “bitch” to describe her own mother and friends, and posted sexual stories of her and her boyfriend.

I should have stayed out of this, but after reading a long article of complaining about her boyfriend, I left her a message to emphasize that she should be loving herself more than anyone, because relationship could be changing by her boyfriend, or even by herself, no one would ever know what was going to happen; what I got back from her was a massage that accused me being a person that “saying one thing, doing another”, and god knows why she assumed that I married my husband was only because I wanted to became a Canadian; finished her words, I blocked her account from my MSN, deleted her links and messages, I didn’t want to have anything to do with this cunt, she wasn’t naïve, she was just stupid after all, and I was so foolish making someone I haven’t even met to see eye to eye.

I believe that I’m going to be just fine without knowing many Taiwanese people, and I’ll cherish our friendship of Taiwanese friends I’ve already have certainly.

When people are nice to me, I won't forget, 
When people are mean to me, I won't forget either.

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