Day Thirty - On My Way To A Conscious Life

One month has passed since I started to write my conscious living journals.
I'd like to share with you what I've learnt for the past 4 weeks.

Environment:
I am attempting to become more environmentally friendly. I understand the concept of sustainability and how it applies to us.
I use reusable bags for shopping. I turn off heater as soon as I leave home and save water as much as possible.

Food:
I buy more organic food and eat more vegetables instead of meat. I know chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides will have negative effects on our health and the environments.

Health:
I keep physically active even though I don't work out regularly. I have to jobs and also keep myself moving to maintain good health.

Living:
I read more books and spend less time on Internet. I enjoy gardening. I plant, grow and take care of plants, fruits and vegetables in my backyard.

Finance:
I save more money by cooking more at home and eating less outside. I don't buy things that are redundant. I only spend money on meaningful items, such as useful books.

Critical thinking:
I've learnt to judge things from different point of views. Be critical and open minded. (Eg. the recycle bin and plastic bag, reason for cold, recycled paper, charitable organizations)

Change in Habit:
My early bird plan is a success. I used to have a lie-in in the morning and recently, after reshaping, I can wake up early everyday without the help of my alarm. I feel more efficient and more energetic during day time.

Positive Mindset:
I've learnt to unlock happiness. I don't spoil my day because of a slight unpleasantness. I've never ever transferred my unhappiness to someone else.

Be grateful:
I've learnt to be grateful to everything around you. Without their support/companionship, it's impossible to be yourself.

It's a great feeling when you are more aware of your life and you know how to wake up to the joy and positive significance of each moment.

Day Twenty Nine - Design For Conscious Living

 

                                            Echo in the garden 

              
                     

Embrace the grace of a sacred space
To live, to love, to grow
Bring to life a vision
That blossoms from your soul

Create a sanctuary
That celebrates your life
Nurtures you, supports you
And helps you harmonize

Align with health and balance
Let the joy surround you
Reflect the light within you
In everything around you

Design~ for conscious living
Inspiring greatness in others through
Design~ for conscious living
Inspiring greatness in others~

Hey guys, I've found a wonderful website about conscious living designs
http://www.designforconsciousliving.ca/index/

It's an interior decorating and landscape design firm that believes in creating sanctuaries around us that celebrate life and convey a sense of support and care.
I saw some pictures of their designed homes.
They are amazing, specially these gardens.
I also have a backyard at my place and I like gardening too.
When compared with their design, I feel my garden needs lots of improvements.

I have lily flower, sunflower, Chinese rose, and many other unnameable flower in it.
In summer time, I also have grape tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries.
It feels so great when you can pick up all the berries and put them into mouth right away.
Echo loves garden too. He likes to sleep there when summer comes or plays near the fountain.
I like to read there and watch Echo chasing after squirrels.

I believe that the environments surround us can contribute to our well-being.

My garden is my way to nurture my relationship with nature and it helps me to generate a sense of familiarity, connection, security and belonging - which helps to connect me emotionally to my home, to my community and to our planet.
I spend some time on gardening every year and it's also a way to relax when doing it.
This year I can't wait to grow green paper and basil.
They are organic and healthy.
A plus to my conscious life.

Gardens I saw in Holland.

Day Twenty Eight - Unlock Happiness

Sunday.
What a nice day, specially when I know next week is off!
The only "annoying" thing was that I had a shift in the library from 10-2.
I had a meal plan with my coworker and as soon as we finished the work, we couldn't wait to run to a nice Greek restaurant near Prince Author.
My favorite Greek Salad was waiting for me.
I'd like to order some lamp chops otherwise, since I eat more vegetable these days, I made up my mind to take salad and potato soup only.

Two ladies were sitting beside us; one was really trying to enjoy the meal while the other one talked a lot.
I didn't mean to listen what they were talking about, but since she complained so loudly, her voice came into my ears automatically.
It seemed that she wanted to order some kind of wine. ( I didn't catch the name.)
As you know almost every Greek restaurant has the rule to bring your own wine, thereby there is only some limited choice on the drink list. She ordered a glass of juice, which she promptly sent back after complaining it was terrible. She ended up drinking with water instead.
She continued to complain constantly that it took so long for her food to at least three different waiters. From what I heard, she ordered well done steak which might take longer time. In additional it was half past two at that time, and lunch time had passed. There wouldn't be too many people in the kitchen.
Finally when her food came, I was so glad that my ears wouldn't not suffer any more, but her complaint appeared again. She felt her food was cold.
At table, she kept talking all the unhappy things at work, from her boss to her coworkers, even mentioned the cleaner whom she thought was too neglectful because she didn't clear up her garbage bin under her desk....
Then she turned to her husband, son and her dog....
Blah blah blah....
Blah blah blah....

In that situation, the happiest thing was to have food when I was hungry.
After hearing so much complaint, I didn't feel as happy as the moment I came into the restaurant.
When I go out to eat, and the food isn't cooked the way my mother makes at home, or they don't have the drink I like, I just sit back and find something about the experience from which I can derive some pleasure, for instance, the feta tasted so nice!

I didn't know how she could be so unhappy.
It's understandable that something may make you feel unhappy, but don't let it spoil your all day, and more importantly, don't spoil someone else's day.

Day Twenty Seven - Early Riser

Thank god.
Reading Week!!!
I've done all my midterms and it's the time for rest.
I was worried that once holiday came I would have a lie-in in the morning again.
Strange thing is that I'm no longer struggling so hard to get up early.
It's become my habit gradually.
I don't have to drink enough water the night before nor put the alarm outside my room.
When time comes, I can wake up by nature.

Ben Franklin said: Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
Mornings, for me, are the most productive time of day now.
One months ago, I was starving every morning, grabbed a sandwich for lunch and ate rich food outside almost every night.
Now I use the morning time to prepare my meals for the whole day.
Cook fresh and eat fresh.
I check my emails and do some readings in the morning.
I feed Echo and comb his fur. BTW, he really has a nice coat, smooth and shining.
I get so much more done by starting on my work in the morning.
Then, when evening rolls around, I have less work that I need to do.

During the day time, I feel vigorous and active all the time and I can concentrate more in class.
I'm more efficient and productive when doing my assignment.
Even my skin is healthier and acne-free.

So far so good.
But I know I still need to be persistent.
This balance is easy to be broke. Eg. last week's concert.

Day Twenty Six - Happiness

Yesterday's class was about happiness.
I'm not sure if I caught it wrong.
Guest Professor Louis Chauvin said that true happiness is internal. It has nothing to do with outsiders.
He said your friends/your family could not bring you happiness. What if you are dumped by your loved one? What if your parents die? Eventually, no one can help you.

If this is truly what he meant, I don't agree.
I always believe one sentence: Don't cry because it's over, Smile because it happened.
No matter how sad you are at the end of the story, you were participating, and you enjoyed the process. That's more than enough.

Last December, I lost one of my cats - Tosca.
She was 17 years old when she passed away.
Actually, she was my landlady's cat.
She accompanied me for almost four years.
I have to admit that I didn't like cat preliminarily.
She left her fur on my sweater.
She made annoying noise when I was studying.
She bit me when I was teasing her.
She totally ignored me when I called her name.
She was so sentimental that everything depended on her mood.
.....
Anyways, I didn't like her at first sight.
After four years company, however, I just felt she was one part of my life.
I liked the way she sat, like a professional ballerina with one front leg placed in front of the other.
I liked the way she stuck her pink tongue out of her mouth.
I liked the way she brushed against my legs.
She brought me so much fun and happiness.
When the day came, I could hear my heart breaking.

I've never regretted having her.
I really enjoyed the days with her.

I even adopted Echo, another cat after having Tosca.
They taught me so many things such as friendliness, kindness, patience, tolerance, etc.

To sum up, happiness comes from everywhere.
It's not only self-generated.
Human beings are social animals and they need to be living and getting along with others.
They need to love and to be loved. The more they are getting together, the more happiness will come out.
                                

   

Tocsa's innocent eyes    Tosca with her tongue sticking out  She loved boxes

                        
               

Fatty Echo's classical sleeping poses

                                       They were sleeping on my desk.

Day Twenty Five - Sustainability of Water

      
I have a concern about the water fees in Canada.
Not like electricity bills, I’ve never received water bills.
 I once asked my landlord and she said you don’t need to pay water cost (cold water of course) because it is all included in the house taxes I am paying every year.

By my understanding, house taxes are likely to be set at a fixed amount which means no matter how much water you consume, you only pay for a fixed fee.

I found two pictures from the Internet: one is typical municipal water prices and one is average daily domestic water use.
They indicate that we pay the lowest price for water but we are the second largest consumer of it.
I know water is considered as a renewable resource, and it circulates back and forth in the hydrological cycle.
Although Canada has a significant amount of fresh water, I don’t think we can take it for granted.
Because we undervalue this precious resource, we tend to overuse it or abuse it.
The capacity of our lakes, rivers, and even of the oceans is much more limited that we once thought it was.

I remembered that once the Chinese government built some free water fountains (drinkable water) in several public places.
As you know, Chinese people pay for the amount of water they use at home and tap water is undrinkable there.
Once they heard about this news they lined up to get free water and carried it home.
Also, people took this advantage and abused water.
They used the water to wash their cars, shower their dogs, do whatever they could to satisfy their needs.
One week didn’t even pass, the government stopped providing free water and never mentioned this plan any more.

Come on people, we should advocate the sustainable use of our water.
Please value our water and save our environment.

P.S.

Recycling Day Again.

My roommate came up to me as soon I got home and told me that our recycling bin was lost.

God! This is the third time that someone takes away our bin.

OK, now I have another reason to go for plastic bags.

I will consider buying bags instead.

Day Twenty Four - Energy Saving

My energy bill has peaked.
No wonder! It's winter time.
You will be frozen if you keep your heater off in a city like Montreal in winter.
The good thing is that you don't need to pay for water usage in Canada.
The water cost is included when you buy the house.
When I heard about this at the first time, I felt weird.
This would never happen in China.
Even though this is the case, I still save water as much as I can.

I searched the internet and got a list of some biggest energy users at home.
I also made comments on my usage.

No 1: Heating
No surprise. I'm used to turning the heater off when I leave home.
During night, I only turn on the one in my room.
This is also the reason that Echo likes to sneak in.
Poor Echo. He has to stay in the living room for the rest of the winter as a sacrificer of my early bird plan. I'm kind enough to leave a blue blanket on the couch for him to sleep on.

No 2: Air Conditioning
I don't have that. Skip.

No 3: Lighting
I always remember to turn them off.
But there is another problem. I'd like to study at night with several lights on.
I need absolute brightness to write or read.
I think it would be better if I can study during day more or study at library.
UMM, I'd like to change the habit but it must take so long.
What I can do is to change my lamps to compact fluorescent ones.

No 4: Clothes washer
I don't use hot water option and I cumulate enough clothes before washing.

No 5: Clothes dryer
Seldom use.

No 6: Fridge
I can't come out with an idea regarding this.
To buy an energy saving one? No, that's not affordable for me.
How about adjusting the temperature in it? That seems make sense.

No 7: Water Heater.
I wear gloves to wash dishes so there is no need for warm water.
Shorten shower time.
Haha this reminds me of Garfield's words: Save water, so shower with your girlfriend.
Hahahaha....

I am doing whatever I can to save energy as I know saving electricity doesn't just save money, it also saves the environment.

Day Twenty Three

Midterm Tomorrow 

One Day Off

Day Twenty Two - About Charity

Professor Ralph talked about an auditing case in class today.
The case revealed the fact that weak or nonexistent internal controls have resulted in some prominent chartable organizations, as well as numerous other charities nationwide, being victimized by opportunistic employees.
It took a charity organization society in the states named United Way of America as an example to reveal a series of embarrassing and highly publicized embezzlement schemes. The federal jury found the president of Untied Way of America guilty of misusing millions of dollars of charitable funds.

In my belief, charity is an important part of conscious living experience. Understanding the disadvantages that others face in their daily lives, improve life for others, is a key of giving back. But it seems that something is wrong here. There are always some kind of people doing evil things under veil of charity. This is contrary to the original intention of
a charity.
One more thing I'm concerned about is that as the number of charitable organizations increases rapidly, the expense to run them is increasing accordingly. In my opinion, we should reduce the number of these organization to a certain amount and set strong regulatory oversight for the charitable sector. By doing that, our society could be better served.

Day Twenty one - messy

As I broke my sleeping schedule the day before, I was too sleepy yesterday afternoon and had a four hours nap.
I knew it was too long but I just could wake myself up.
Terrible thing happened at night.
I struggled so hard to fall asleep but all my efforts were in vain.
By my conservative estimate, it was near 4 A.M. when I fell asleep.
Then mess began again, I couldn’t get up this morning until 10.
My ruined life is a chain reaction taking me day by day.
I managed to regulate my lifestyle but it was so vulnerable that even a tiny negligence could break the balance.
I truly need more work.
I won't let me suffer a setback due to carelessness again.

Last time I mentioned that I eat more organic food.
The thing is that organic food is usually much more expensive.
So my personal finance meets some kind of trouble.
I changed my personal finance philosophy to save money, decrease unnecessary expense and only spend money on the things I really enjoy.
I added a saving plan on my debt card which means every time I use the checking account, one dollar will be automatically transferred from checking account to saving account. I also put limited amount money in the checking account so that I won't spend more every month.
I cook at home more and eat outside less.
For paper and notebooks I use back-to-back printing/writing method.
I don't buy any fancy but useless stuff such as window decoration and candle-stand.
I try to buy only things that I enjoy such as interesting books and informative magazines.

OK, I need to study auditing exam now.

Day Twenty - Bad Day

Another ruined day!!
I realized that my early bird plan failed this morning when I woke up seeing the clock showed 10:13!
I didn't even hear the alarm ring in the living room.
I was supposed to be working at Cybertheque at 10. And the result turned out to be one hour late.
I went to bed this morning around 2 A.M after seeing a Chinese traditional musical instruments concert, writing my journal, and taking a shower.
It's always easy to do things one day or two but it's so hard to be consistent.
I thought I've made it already but it seems there is more work needs to be done.

Frankly speaking, I've felt more energetic and efficient when doing things since I regulated my lifestyle.
And sometimes I even can wake up around that point (7:30 on weekdays and 8:00 on weekends) giving I go to bed before 12 the night before.
Anyways, I still need work and keep persistence.

These days I eat a lot of organic food, but this is not because it has more nutrition.
I still remember the World of Food class I took when I was a freshman.
My professor told us organic food contains more nutrition is true but it is only based on tiny tiny content.
For example, one would only tell you that an organic tomato contains twice as much as lycopene than a regular one. (Lycopene is one of the most powerful natural antioxidants than a regular one. In some studies lycopene, especially in cooked tomatoes, has been found to help prevent prostate cancer.) But they would never tell you that a regular tomato only contains 0.000001g lycopene. ( I make up the numbers here just for explanation.)

I eat a lot green food since I know it doesn't have chemicals such as pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides.
These chemicals were not part of our evolutionary development as a species and I'm sure there will be negative efforts from these products.

I will stop here and study my next week's auditing midterm.

Day Nineteen - Chinese Traditional Instruments Orchestra

Today I was out of schedule again, or should've said yesterday I was out of schedule again.
This journal needs to be counted as yesterday's.
Reason is that I went to see a Chinese Traditional Instruments Orchestra in Dawson College and got home at 11:50 PM.
The concert was preformed by students from Nanjing University, China.
They played Chinese music with traditional Chinese instruments, including string, wind and percussion instruments.
The Orchestra is an instrumental ensemble composed of students from an assortment of departments of the University such as Literature, Engineering and Medicine, who share a love for Chinese traditional music.
The concert was awesome and it represented another way of diversification and globalization.
I really enjoyed it. :D

Day Eighteen - Sick

The weather is fickle these days and unluckily, I get a cold.
I feel dizzy, groggy, listless, and sore all over.
I go out without warm clothes and sometimes even with wet hair.
I'm woken up by my alarm clock at 7:30 every morning and walk into living room only with my pajamas to turn the clock off.
Maybe this is the best thing I've been through with these days.
All the strategies to wake me up are working.
I mean milk at night, alarm in the living room, lavender sachet near pillow and Echo outside my room.
At least I've managed to get up every morning.
Early bird plan is on the way.

Back to my cold.
I kept blaming the bad weather until one of my friends who studies in Medicine told me it had nothing to do with the weather.
She said colds and pneumonia are caused by infection.
You do not pick up infections from cold weather, you get germs from other people. And the most common way to get a cold is from someone who has a cold, sneezes on his hands, and then shakes yours. You can also get a cold when a person blows his nose or coughs into a handkerchief and gets some of the germs on his hands, then touches a door knob, and hours later, you touch the door knob and put your fingers in your nose. So the only way that you can get a cold is for someone to give the germ to you directly or by putting the germ onto something else that you touch.

This has challenged my knowledge again!
So far, I've learnt a lot that I didn't know before.
The bin VS recycling bag, the Jewish Friday, and this time the cold.
I've realized that everything happens for a reason. But the reason may not be what it is likely to be.
It's always better to have a careful and thorough research for the question before giving out an answer.
Right now, conscious living to me means trying to see each hour in the day for what it is instead of waking up, going to school, spending 7 hours, coming home, eating dinner and going to bed.
I believe I can experience an incredible learning process if I keep doing so.

Day Seventeen - Why Friday Off For Bcom Students

I was working at the bookstore again this afternoon.
Molly is a French girl who is also my coworker.
We took charge of the text department tonight.
She was struggling with her term paper and kept complaining about the excess homework.
She has schools five days a week and works on weekends as well as school breaks.
Just like what she said: I am freaking busy.
Moi: I'm busy too but I have Friday off at least. Still, better than you. Hah
Molly: Why Friday off?
Moi: Because I am a Bcom student and Bcom students have Friday off.
Molly: why Bcom students have Friday off?
Moi: Well, the reason is..... Bcom students deserve one day off.
Molly: Why Friday?
Moi: Because Friday is close to Saturday. Because I'm not Ms. Know All.....
Molly: .....

It was the time for Wiki.
And we got the result - Shabbat!
McGill once had lots of Jewish students and according to their religion, Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after the appearance of the three stars in the sky on Saturday night.
Shabbat is considered a festive day, when a Jew is freed from the regular labors of everyday life, can contemplate the spiritual aspects of life, and can spend time with family.

McGill has recognized this Jewish high holy day and preserved this custom.
What a coincident!
This week's readings are about diversity.
I wrote "You don't need to fly to Japan for sushi, Italy for pizza, India for curry, Greece for kebab etc." as a pro for cultural diversification.
Can Friday-off be counted as another pro for McGill Bcom students?
Aah, it seems to be so.

Day Sixteen - To Be or Not To Be

I'm attempting to become more environmentally friendly, or "green", because I understand the concept of sustainability and how it applies to us.
As my reading reflection mentioned: we are currently consuming our natural resources at a growing rate; eventually, they will run out.
Personally, I consciously try to make as little impact as possible on the planet.
So far, I have tried to recycle more, buy organic food and increased the insulation in my house to cut down on the energy bills.

Today I encountered an "intractable" situation.
It happened on my way home. I went to IGA for grocery shopping.
I didn't realize that I left my shopping bag at home until I was waiting at the cash.
I'm used to putting a shopping bag in my schoolbag and this time it happened not to be there.

To be or not to be? That was a question.
I didn't want to buy a plastic bag, nor a reusable one either, because the point to get a reusable bag is to reuse it and I already have several at home.
If purchasing one more just because I don't want to use the plastic one, it makes reusable shopping bags meaningless.
Fine, eventually, I put back some large volume items and only took the ones that could be packed in my schoolbag.
Next time, I will make sure there is a shopping bag by my side all the time.

Day Fifteen - Is Recycled Paper More Expensive?

I had a shift in McGill Bookstore this afternoon.
Text department is the place where I usually work.
But this time I was scheduled in the stationary.
The bookstore isn't busy at all these days and I could take my time wandering around my station.
It seems the bookstore stocks lots of recycled stuff.
I saw so many notebooks and agendas with 100% recycled paper sign on them.
The interesting thing was that I found the recycled paper was more expensive than regular ones.
For instance, prices of non-recycled VS recycled 3*5 in, 100 pages plain index cards are $0.79 VS $1.79.
Non-recycled 300 pages lined paper notebook is $3.59 while 120 sheets recycled one is $5.79.

Is recycled paper more expensive?
This goes beyond my knowledge.
The only reason I can think of is that refining and treatment of recycled paper are more costly than traditional means of producing paper.

After a quick research, I came up with the following conclusion:
30% post-consumer waste paper is competitive with virgin paper.
When ordering in large quantities, the price can actually be less than virgin paper.
And any recycled paper higher than 30% pcw begins to increase in price.
At this point, 100% is more expensive than 30% and virgin.
However, this is the most environmentally preferable alternative - paper form paper and not from trees.

No wonder they are more expensive than virgin paper notebooks.
They are 100% recycled. They are from paper not from trees.
Then, why don't we grow more trees and use 30% post-consumer waste paper instead of 100% one?

Day Fourteen

Exam On Monday

One Day Off

Day Thirteen - Back To Garbage Day

Thanks to Professor Gladu.
She made some comments on my first week journals and suggested doing some researches on my observations before releasing any assumption.

By my guess, it is people's laziness to use those light polyethylene bags instead of bins on garbage day.
However, the result returns out to be wrong, or at least not sufficient. There are better reasons to do so.

First of all, it's cleanliness. A lot of people never got the hang of loading their bins in a manner that would keep paper and lighter objects from flying all around the streets on recycling day.

Secondly, it's related to the bins. They are too small for the purpose and a lousy design of a winter city such as Montreal. Cleaners have to beat-up bins which are often full of snow or dripping wet.

Thirdly, bags will be so much easier to use that more people will recycle and that increase will be more than the make up for the extra garbage the new bags are creating.

And it's also my first time to know that biodegradable bags are a non-starter. Because  in order to biodegrade, they need light and oxygen which they don't get at the dump, plus they produce a powerful greenhouse gas. And if they are mixed with regular plastic at recycling facilities, they corrupt and weaken the resulting plastic.

Interesting! Besides the better reasons, if I hadn't read this article, I would not know so many downsides about biodegradable products. This has changed all my positive opinions towards them. It also warns us that reducing waste/pollution is not such an easy thing. We should think carefully before doing any harm to our environment.

P.S. I struggled so hard to get up again this morning. As it's weekend, I psychologically resisted waking up. I lay in another 5 mins and made up my mind to get out of my bed at 8:05. I managed to do it one more time but no one knows how hard it was!

Day Twelve - Why Do I Get Up Early

There's plenty of time to sleep when you are dead.
                                                    -- Benjamin Franklin

Friday today. No Classes for Bcom students.
I managed to get up at 8.
I drank some milk last night, put my alarm in my living room, and got up right away.
Things are getting better.
I almost get there, as long as I can be persistent.
I found a meaningful video on Youtube named how to get up early.
It said getting up early is not only a competitive advantage, it's also a great gift to yourself because you get more life.

I thought it carefully about the reasons to get up early.
What makes me want to get out of my bed each every single day? To throw the blanket off, to turn my side, to sit up, to put my feet on the floor and stand out of the bed?
What makes me do that?

In the video, the man said: when you look at  the best of best, whether it's in business, in science, in arts, in sports, these are people who have ever trained their brains to show up a discipline. Beckham practiced to be the world class of footballer;  Hamilton Lewis practiced to be a world class of car racer; Mozart practiced to be a world class of composer.

Everyone must something eager to see each every single day.

Everyone must have something in life that is worth waking up for. 

For career? For loved one? For study? Or just want to see the next day?

At this stage, school is my reason to get up. Get up when my competitors are asleep and use the extra time to practice and prepare.

Life is too short. I should take every advantage of every single moment.
Never let the moment passes me by.
Life is like a movie, in the end, I want to make sure it is worth watching.

Day Eleven - First Day As An Early Bird

Hah, I made it.
I woke up at 7:15 A.M.today-- such an improvement!!!
I usually sleep until 10 and lie in bed for another half an hour before dressing up.
But this morning, I couldn't wait to get out of my quilt and ran into washroom.
Because I drank two glasses of milk before going to bed last night.
I know, I know, this method is wired.  Anyway, it's working.
The bad thing is the milk I drank lay heavily in my stomach all the night.

I searched some websites and found there are quite a lot people who are just like me - don't do mornings. (From a 15682 people's survey, 31% of them wake up after 9:00.)
Here is the helpful website:
http://www.howtowakeupearly.com/

I also gathered some tips that might help me to cure my laziness:
1. Avoid coffee and chocolate the night before
( Although I'm a chocoholic, I can control my mouth at night)
2. Cut out noise
( OK, Echo you are not allowed to enter my room after 10 from now on.)
* Echo is the cat I adopted two years ago. He likes to sleep in my room during night and snores loudly.
3. Get up straight away

(Make sense, next time I should get up without snoozing the alarm over and over again.)

4. Put your alarm far enough from your bed

(Great idea, if I put my alarm in my living room where the heater is usually turned off during night, I would wake up with a start. Thanks to the coldness.)

5. Go to bed and get up at the same time everyday.

( Well, this would be a little difficult for me. I will start slowly, but start now)

6. Have a good reason.

(Reason one: make full use of extra morning time

Reason two: good health

Reason three: greet the day & amazing start

To be continued...)

Day Ten - Happy Chinese New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!
Wish you, all your near and dear ones with happiness, fortune, health and prosperity all the year around.

Yeah, it's Chinese new year today. The year of rabbit.
I was invited to friends' house for dinner.
We made so many yummy cuisines and watched TV while eating.
This is the time for family reunion, I, one of these oversea Chinese, am thinking of my parents.
It's been more than 4 years, I am far away from home.
Wish my family my friends all the best!

I didn't get home until 11:30 P.M, meaning I didn't do exercise again !!!!!!
See, I got such a nice reason to avoid my plan again.
OMG, this is not gonna work.
After these days, I've realized work out is not gonna work for me.
Life is so hard, especially when you want to put it on the right track exactly.
There are things on the way, you can't always keep your agenda within a hairs' breath.
On the other hand, I don't have an extra hour everyday to do exercise, and the only reason is to make me tired so that I can sleep earlier and get up earlier.
I don't deny the benefits of exercising.
I just don't need it.
I have two jobs, McLenna library and McGill Bookstore.
I keep moving actively.
Therefore, I've come up with a better idea.
Haha, it sounds wired. But I think it's gonna work.
I will keep the secret until tomorrow.
Ciao~Sweet dreams~

Day Nine - Busy Day

I was fully scheduled today.
Accounting quiz @ 11:30
Job interview @ 1:30
Shift in Library @ 4:00
I felt stressed these two days.
I didn't work out as planned because so many things need to be done.
See, this is my another weakness.
I'd like to make blueprints for everything, but most of them die before being carried out.
I'm so good at finding excuses to withdraw plans.

I unconsciously put lots of pressure on my shoulders this time.
As a result, I was half asleep and half awake during night, and woke up much earlier than before.
Yeah, I got the result, but the way getting there was not proper.
I was obviously depressed during day time.

Pressure doesn't work for me.
I need another method to drag me out of my bed every morning.

BTW, I'm sincerely pray to God - please please give me the job offer.
I like that position.
It's export manager assistant in a small import & export company located in old port.
I love the management style as well as the work environment.

Bless me this time.
Though I've made mistakes sometimes, I’m never out of line.
I turn my heater off when I leave home everyday to save energy, huh, my utility fees as well.
I use recyclable bags instead of plastic one when going grocery shopping.
And I also adopted a street cat!!
I'm gonna write more about Echo (the cat) later on.
Long story about this lazy, fat and "annoying" cat~
Go to sleep now.
Ciao~

Day Eight

Exam tomorrow!

One Day Off!!

Day Seven - Lay In Again

I'd like mornings better if they started later.          

                                         ---  Garfield

It's no surprise that I'm not a morning person.

I have nothing against the sunrise, those early morning joggers or the silence that morning brings.

What I want to say is I I I.....got up at 11:49 again. 

Well, at least 10 minutes early than yesterday. Good thing....

I forced myself to sleep early last night.

But no matter how much sheep I counted, I just couldn't fall asleep. 

It must be something with my biological clock. Must be...

I pressed the snooze on my itouch and rolled over in bed praying that those extra 10 minutes satisfy my need to sleep. It didn't work. And it never does.

NO WAY. NO WAY.

I couldn't believe it. Another day ruined.

In order to go to sleep early last night, I didn't study the accounting sample midterms, nor the interview questions.  

I've decided to get everything done today and worked out later to make me tired.

Then, I must be sleepy.

No excuse.

Day Six-Lazy Day

Saturday today.
I should have got up early as planned last night.
I have so many things to do.
Auditing case is due on Monday.
Accounting quiz is on Tuesday.
Job interview is on Wednesday.
Social context reflection is due on Thursday.
And another midterm is approaching too.
When the alarm rang at 9:00 AM, I shut it down even with my eyes closed and fell asleep in 5 seconds again!!!
All these things were done by nature.
I kept sleeping until the hour hand pointed at 12:00 PM.
Half day was gone!
OMG, I was gonna be far behind schedule again.

I have a strong aversion to getting up early and I have been struggling with that for a long long long time.
The most stupid thing I've ever done was to take an 8:30 economic class when I was a freshman. The result was obvious, and I didn't want to mention that any more. It was a shame.
I've never taken early classes since then.

I get up late, and get to bed late. It is a vicious circle. So hard to change.
An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.
I need change. I don't want to stay up until 2 every morning, go to class like a panda, with dark pouches around my eyes, and can't concentrate when professors are giving lectures.
I need a plan.
I will put two alarms tomorrow and leave their status on snooze.
I have to study tomorrow.

Day Five - Grad Photo

I got my grad photos taken today.
How time flies. It has been four years already.
Now it's near the time to say bye-bye to my schoolyard.

Life is unfair, as we all know, and a good thing, too. 

If it had gone according to plan, I would still be studying at a college of no name in a small Chinese town, or probably working somewhere, earning slender income to make a living. 

But fortunately, some people are marked by fate (by hard work) to overcome humble beginnings and succeed in a competitive world.

Just like me, I have had the chance to study at one of the best universities in the world and enjoyed the comfortable life in Canada. 

I had never dreamt of being somewhere else other than China before I got McGill’s admission letter; 

I had never thought of being on an exchange to Italy and traveling another 17 countries by chance. 

All these things just happened.

I always believe that one should be grateful.

Be grateful to your family; they support beside you.

Be grateful to your teachers; they show you the world.

Be grateful to yourself; because you made this happen.

Day Four- Garbage Day

Thursday is garbage day for recyclable wastes.

I walked to metro station as usual.

On my way there, I noticed some of my neighbors placed transparent plastic bags in front of their doors,

while others used green garbage bins.

17 bags VS 8 bins.

I counted the numbers.

It seemed disposable garbage bags were more welcomed than those reusable bins.

The reason is not hard to guess.

Bins need to be carried out and in, while bags are disposed every time, no follow-up procedure.

Though, plastic bags are much cheaper than a bin, in long run, the bin is more worthwhile.

One more thing needs to be mentioned is that by using plastic bags, you are creating pollutions too.

Come on everyone, let's replace plastic bags with bins.Saving money and protecting the environment.

Day Three - Aldo's shoes

Life is not easy, specially for graduating students.
To make it harder, that is, for those who haven't yet found a job.
Unfortunately, I'm one of them.

It's the time to catch the tail of the year end liquidation.
I needed a pair of high-heels to assist my current job--job hunting .

Yah, job hunting itself is a job.

A pair of Aldo's shoes caught my attention.
Nice leather, good style and reasonable price.
I brought them without consideration.

The sales rep passed the shoes box to me after receiving my payment.
I wondered how come you didn't give me a paper bag? How could I carry it? Holding it under my arms? Or by two hands in -30 degrees weather?

When I turned back to ask for a bag, the sales person pointed at the string hanging on the box , telling me: We don't give bags. Here is the string. Take the string.
I was.....OK......

lol
Another way to save paper.
First time to know.
A cut tree can never hug you back.
Aldo's new idea not only protects the environment but also lowers the cost for those fancy shopping bags. Wonderful strategy!

BTW, the shoes box with a string also looks cute. :D

Day Two - Discovery

Guess what?

Big discovery today!

I’ve found the best place to study in McGill—the fourth floor in McLennan Library!

McLennan Library is my second home--I study there and also work as a student navigator there

Sitting at the information desk, discharging, sorting or shelving books

Three shifts every week, four hours every shift, and plus the study time

I stay there at least 20 hours every week.

I usually take the staff elevator which is hidden at the very end of the building to second, third, fifth or sixth floor. No fourth floor because it was empty as I knew. All the shelves were empty and few people go there.

But today, when I took my break during my shift, I climbed the stairs to get down.

I’m used to looking down at my toes when walking, but things hadn’t gone according to plan this time, as I looked up and found a brand new fourth floor!!!

It is awesome!!

They‘ve changed it into rare books collection!  Neat, quite and full of fragrance of books.

How come I didn’t notice it! Oh, my lovely second home!

Fine, fine, fine. It’s never too late to know.

Aha, now I have one more place to go when midterms come around.

Day One - Create a blog for my MGCR 360 class

This is my first day journal
No idea what "living consciously" is
Never mind
Just let's get started

Temperature dropped to -32 C
Checking weather is always the first thing I do in the morning
Got an email from McGill CSSA saying:
Hope you all survived the coldness; Montreal's 31.42% pigeons have been killed by frost

When on my way to school,
I tried hard to listen, but
Didn't hear any pigeons clucking when passing the tunnel where they used to live
Still remembered they were singing before
huh the news might be true
Poor birds

Had only one class--auditing
Mr Cecere's Italian way of teaching was fun even though the material was boring

Anything to write?
Anything to write?
Nothing more to write
Well, Stop here
Tomorrow I'm gonna examine my life more carefully.