blog of a medical physics student

Bayshore and back

2009-05-19T06:57:00.000-07:00

Finally got to Bayshore and back. Started near my home, ended at a Vietnamese restaurant, where I had my dinner. Total of 4 hours, with generally warm weather. If my bike is in better shape, I could have done it in less time. For now, I'm not trying to go faster, just longer.

Bayshore and back at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

my place to Bayshore

2009-04-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

With properly inflated tires, 30 km seem not too hard. It's still a bit cold today for cycling, as the wind and very light rain makes biking less enjoyable.

trip to bayshore at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Longest ride so far, along Rideau river

2009-04-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I will start posting longer rides soon, with photos, after I buy a new Point & shoot camera and get the bike in better shape.

afternoon ride at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

WestMount walk after AQPMC

2009-04-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

Was in Quebec City for a day, (actually 20 hours, to be exact) never had a chance to explore the city, as I was stuck inside listening to talk in French. Here's a walk in my old neighbourhood the following day.

WestMount walk at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

downtown cycling, return trip

2009-04-05T15:40:00.001-07:00

Tried cycling on the bike paths this Sunday. Paved trails are bare now, but dirt trails are still covered by snow, likely due to their tree cover. A bit windy for a pleasant ride, but saw quite a few cyclists on the trail. My bike's in really bad shape, thanks to my insistance of dragging it through the snow during the past winter. I guess bike parts don't mix well with salted snow. Need to buy some bike lube soon to quiet the bike a bit.

returning from downtown at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

downtown cycling

2009-04-05T15:23:00.000-07:00

going towards downtown at EveryTrail

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GPS tracking again.

2009-03-16T14:43:00.001-07:00

Spring is almost here. Almost, I have to emphasize. The cycling trails of ottawa were still covered by snow, forcing me to go on the expressway. Not the most pleasant experience, as traffic is light but fast, and the shoulders are not as well maintained as the trails.

cycling attempt at mid march in ottawa at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

gps logger testing

2009-02-04T18:29:00.001-08:00

Winter walk to walk.

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Illution of warning up? Jan 21

2009-01-21T06:31:00.000-08:00

The days are definitely getting longer compared to New Years time, and the deep freeze is taking a break for now. I walked home yesterday, and the temperature is fairly pleasant. Too bad the battery of my GPS logger didn't seem to like it. Well, better luck next time.

Back in Ottawa

2009-01-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I really question the phrase "best place on earth" people in Vancouver keep chanting. This Christmas was a white Christmas in Vancouver, and life is pure hell. Nobody seemed to know how to shovel snow, and all minor streets stayed covered for weeks after the snow. Most sidewalks stay ice-covered a week after snow, as half-thawed snow froze overnight when temperature dipped below zero. Back to Ottawa, sidewalks and streets seem to be clear, and life just seem to go on as usual, despite however many centimeters of snow that have fallen. Oh, did I mention that the bus strike is still on? It's mightly inconvenient, as I can't bike to many places in the snow. I did bike to work today, however. Due to the lack of exercise an excessive food I ate during the holiday, I find myself out of breath after a short bike ride in fairly warm weather (by Ottawa standards).

Overall, I seem to like Ottawa more than Vancouver for now. But it could just be the rare snow, or the fact that I was staying in a moldy basement room in Vancouver, and a clean and big upstairs bedroom in Ottawa. But I'm definitely warming up to the idea of living in central Canada rather than the Wet Coast. Of course, if housing gets cheaper in Vancouver, this might change.

Resurrection of the blog

2008-12-15T14:02:00.000-08:00

Back in Vancouver for Christmas, I'm finally getting around to this blog that I started when I first enrolled in McGill. Just some update: I've done my courses, and currently doing my thesis at NRC. This post would be about computers. My parents bought a laptop in China, for slightly more than the before tax price of a similar laptop in Vancouver. It's a Asus tx 2000 14 inch laptop, designed for the Asian market. With 1G memory and T5550 CPU, it's not exactly a performance model. Bought recently for a bit more than 5000 yuan, it would be slightly more expensive than an Acer or Gateway at Futureshop. Part of this can be attributed to the included tax in the price, and another part could be the increased cost of Chinse Window Vista built into it. Overall it's what you expect from a budget notebook. The native resolution is 1280x800, which puts it in the widescreen territory. The graphics card is Geforce 9300m G, which is somewhat of an upgrade compared to standard offerings in Vancouver. My guess is that more people use their laptop for gaming in China. Otherwise, the interesting thing is how natively Chinese the Windows Vista seem. Many folder names are in Chinese, and when I log into McGill exchange email server, many buttons are in Chinese, suggesting that Microsoft has multi-lingual support built in, includin support for east asian language. It should be interesting to see how Office files turn out when I open the reports in an English-only computer.

What's with ulra-wide LCD monitors?

2008-12-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

I just got a new LCD monitor at work. For a graduate student, I don't get these toys very often. The monitor is nice and bright, but the screen resolution-2048x1152, is driving me nuts. That's almost 2:1 ratio! You know, some people actually need monitors for work, or read text, rather than watching movies. But manufacturers seem to think that the wider, the better. Since it's not rotatable, reading text or surfing net on this monitor is quite distracting. For now, I'm trying to get used to having two almost square screens, and learn to ignore one of them. At home, I have a 1680x1050 monitor, and I consider that pretty wide. The newer LCDs seem to have one use in mind- watching movies. Or, more realisticly, to allow vendors to say it's 2x inch, with x being the higher the better.

Canada day at Parliament Hill

2008-07-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

Canada with Sean, my friend, at parliament hill.

Death of my laptop

2008-02-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

My laptop of 3 and half years is now dead. Most components are working, but the keyboard apparently has one or more stuck keys that I can't fix. As usually, the cheapest component on a laptop is the first to break. First it's the connector to the charger, then it's the keyboard. So far, I haven't been able to disable it and use a USB keyboard. When I disable it in Windows, windows xp restarts, and installs the keyboard upon restart. If I can't find a work around soon, the laptop is gone.

But first thing first, I need to buy a portable harddrive, to backup my laptop while I can get to my stuff. Lesson learned? My next laptop will be a heavy one, not a flimsy light one.

Valentine's day gift, continued

2008-02-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

Here's another picture of my valentine's gift, a box of chocolate wrapped in a jean fabric package. It really reminds me of my girlfriend.

Valentine's day gift

2008-02-04T18:38:00.001-08:00

box of chocolate, packed in newspaper to preserve integrity. Then there's this gingerbread man, with a lead broken in transit. Yummy.
Just got my surprise gift from my girlfriend in Vancouver. I got a

laptop revived, temporarily

2008-01-29T16:08:00.000-08:00

A week ago, my 3 year old Averatec laptop's charger died on me. Not the note book, the charger. I thought the metal wire inside was broken, so I ordered another one. Now I find how how much of a pain it is to find accessories for small brand electronics. Futureshop, where I bought this laptop, no longer carries this brand. So I found a charger claiming to be compatible on Amazon. Opps, doesn't ship outside US. Then manufacturer's website, still no luck. I finally bought one on eBay, and it's now shipped. But the estimated shipping time was 22 days. Sigh...

They say you only realize how important something is until you loses it. It's true in the case of my laptop. Being the only one in my computer class who doesn't have a laptop is not fun. After a few uncomfortable classes, I attempted to fix it. Turns out it's the metal contact on the top of the connector that got worn out. No wires were broken. So I cut away a bit of plastic, and it's now possible to connect it as long as I apply a bit of pressure at all time. Anyways, I just made the attempt of fixing it. Will have updates and pictures soon.

Ubuntu problems

2008-01-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

After installing Ubuntu on top of existing windows harddrive and enjoying it for a few days, it looks like I have to reinstall Ubuntu again. Somehow I messed up some boot variables, causing the computer to be unable to shut down properly. It either runs through a million lines of error code, or hangs on a certain step. It could also just be my harddrive, which I shipped to Montreal in my luggage. The hard drive's sounding louder by the day, reminding me to replace it. Plus, it's an IDE harddrive with 80G capacity. Ample for my use, but a replacement of 320G is not terribly expensive.

Back to Windows, for now.

2008-01-09T17:39:00.000-08:00

After a frustrating attempt of installing Matlab on Linux, I'm back to Windows as far as lab report goes. I have to say, my undergrad education gave me a tad too much background in Windows, making a last minute shift to Linux too painful to endure.

Hopefully, I will have time to sort everything out once I finish writing this report. By then, I should have an idea of what softwares I need for lab report, and can dedicate some time to installing them on Linux.

Ahh, the joy of a desktop

2008-01-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

Having used a 12 inch laptop for 4 months, I'm beginning to appreciate the advantages of a desktop. Even for a cheap set up with a second hand 15 inch monitor, a desktop has something that a laptop can't easily offer.

The first thing is the monitor. Unless you get a high end laptop, an AC powered monitor just seem so much better than a monitor that can run on battery. The next is the keyboard. When I use a desktop, I move the keyboard all the time to sue my taste. On a laptop, I adjust my posture all the time to sue to keyboard. And the last one, noise. My 12 inch laptop produces a high pitched sound, due to its small fan spinning fast to remove the heat. My desktop has a CPU fan that runs at half of its stock speed, producing noise that can only be noticed on a quiet night.

I have to say, desktop computers will always have a place in my life. Doing all my work on a laptop just seem too strenuous for me.

Wireless and Linux -- They don't mix well.

2008-01-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

I've heard enough warnings about wireless internet under Linux, but decided to give it a try, in USB nonetheless. Well, I got a USB wireless adapter lying around, so might as well try it. The result has been OK. The Linksys USB adapter, which came with a wireless router that I bought, worked without extra driver download. The liability though, left something to be desired. Once in a while, on certain websites, the wireless will completely stop working. Restarting browser and going to other sites doesn't help. I just get no wireless signal. Simply logging out or warm restart doesn't solve problem either. I had to shut down, and manually press the power button for the system to find the USB adapter again. It's annoying, but I will live with it for now. I'm sure there are solutions for it, but the problem doesn't pop up frequent enough for me to bother with it. So far Ubuntu has been pretty good, especially when it comes to LATEX.

Rave for Q-fan

2008-01-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Even though I have built several computers in the past, I've never turned on fan speed management on a desktop before. Attempts of fan training on my laptop has not been very successful, as that thing just run hot all the time. On my new tower though, the Asus Q-Fan seem to work wonders. With Q-Fan on, PC probe II shows the fan running at 1400rpm, rather than the stock 2600 rpm. The noise reduction is orders of magnitude. Now the noise is hardly noticable on day time, but still too loud to sleep with the tower on. Now if I figure out a way to reduce that, maybe I can finally have tower on 24/7...

Finally got the desktop effect working

2008-01-04T11:51:00.000-08:00

When I first installed Ubuntu, I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't turn on the fancy desktop effects, even after installing the proprietary ATI drivers. For the record, my graphic card is an integrated AMD/ATI 690G. It's the fastest integrated video card available at time of writing, as far as I know. The chip set was designed as "Vista Certified", meaning that it could run Windows Vista with the special effects. Therefore, it is certainly capable of running enhanced desktop for Linux, what remains is the compatibility.

After installing windows and playing WoW at decent frame rates (1024x768, 30fps), I decided to give Ubuntu another try. Installing Ubuntu on exisitng windows harddrive worked pretty well, and I managed to find this instruction on enabling desktop effect for ATI graphic cards. It's somewhat complicated, for someone new to the Linux world. But at the end, it seemed to work all right. I have to say, even Ubuntu is not really idiot-proof yet.

The above image is an example of special windows effect when I drag the window slowly. From the folders listed on the window, you can see that I have EGSnrc installed. In fact, that took me a while as well, but that's another post on its own.

Another snow storm

2008-01-02T20:38:00.001-08:00

As soon as I got back from Ottawa, another snowstorm arrived. This time it's about 15cm of snow. Third snow storm in a month. I'm beginning to get used to this. Actually, snow's not too bad, as long as the wind stay relatively calm. Here's a picture of my apartment building, the day after the snowstorm.

New Computer

2008-01-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

I'm finally fed up with my ultra-portable laptop, and decided to build a new desktop tower rather than upgrading the memory of laptop further. Here are the components:

AMD dual core 4400+
Kingston DDR2 2 x 1GB 800MHz RAM
Asus M2A-VM motherboard with 690G integrated graphics
Generic black Case
LG DVD+-RW
Logitech stereo speaker (from Canadian Tire)
Second hand NEC 15 inch monitor (MultiSync 1550v)
Western Digital 80G harddrive (I brought it with me from Vancouver)

Most components are from Microbyte, a chain store in Montreal. The assembly was fairly easy. The case has a side fan on it, and it's pretty loud. I would probably turn it off once school starts. So far I don't really see the need to the extra cooling, as no discrete video card is used.

A self portrait.

2007-12-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

Just bought a cheap tripod, so it's time to take a self portrait. As you can see, my skin doesn't like the Montreal winter very much. Hopefully it will get used to it and don't get irritated as easily once I spend more time here.

The explosive growth of PET machines.

2007-12-05T12:47:00.000-08:00

In year 2001, there were only one PET scanner in greater Montreal area. Today, there are seven--five in public hospitals, and two in private clinics. Why the explosive growth? Cost, of course. As PET/CT combined scanner got introduced to the market, the scanning time required for each patient cuts in half. The availability of CT images also provided much better anatomical reference for the PET images, which provide functional information. Of course, the installation of specially designed medical cyclotron doesn't hurt either. As turn-key devices, medical cyclotrons produce FDG's needed by PET scanner.

This growth of PET scanners makes me think about the growing popularity of digital SLR cameras. Yep, not much similarity between the two devices, but similar economic principle. As price of digital SLR cameras dropped below $1000, they became popular. As popularity grows, manufacturers ramped up production, and further reduces prices. Of course, this in turn causes more people to buy something that was reserved for serious hobbyists. The end result is a huge growth in total dollar amount of dSLR's sold. Same thing in PET/CT scanners. As costs per patient drop, the increase in number of scans more than make up for it. The end result is a fast growing segment of the industry.

Unlike pure research, the cost per patient will always be a deciding factor in health care.

Some Main Stream Media (MSM) news about CT

2007-11-28T16:08:00.001-08:00

The MSNBC homepage (msn.com) today had a link about CT scans may raise cancer risk. To a Medical Physicist, this is pretty old news. Unfortunately, for the general public, this may actually be something new. Nothing in the name of CT imply the use of X-ray, even though a chest CT is easily equivalent to hundreds of chest X-rays. Most people I know seem to understand that a Chest X-ray is somewhat harmful, and should not be repeated again and again without good reason. But if you ask people the harm of CT, they would be pretty surprised to know that a CT is as bad as hundreds of chest X-rays. I think it's a good thing that the general public learn more about the harm of CT.

Just for your information, a chest CT has a dose of 8 mSv. A chest X-ray has a dose of 0.02 mSv. The background radiation received by the general public is about 4 mSv per year, and the upper limit of occupational exposure for non-nuclear energy worker is 1 mSv.

Here's the link.

Nuclear medicine making a come back?

2007-11-23T17:53:00.001-08:00

During my undergrad, when people talk about Medical Physics, they assume it's either external beam radiotherapy, or CT/MRI imaging. Sometimes Health Physics is included. Rarely was nuclear medicine mentioned. But apparently, with the introduction of PET/CT combined scanner, nuclear medicine as its own specialty is making a come back. The use of radioactive source and x-ray imaging requires a special type of Physicist, the Nuclear Medicine Physicist. Until now, the role and responsibility of Nuclear Medicine Physicist is not yet well defined, but we should see changes in this area soon. In external beam therapy, for example, various protocols have been established by either AAPM or ICRU to define the required treatment quality as it pertains to physics. We may expect to see similar things being introduced to Nuclear Medicine, specifically to PET/CT scanner.

On LSO scintilation crystal

2007-11-22T17:28:00.000-08:00

Like almost any technology, medical devices go in and out of vogue all the time. One thing I find worth noticing is the growth in Nuclear Medicine due to the introduction of PET/CT imaging. Just like IMRT spurred explosive growth in external beam radiotherapy, PET/CT scan promises to do the same to nuclear medicine imaging. One of the technologies in development is LSO scintillation crystal, used in PET detectors. Compared to older BGO crystals, it has certain merits. The raw source, Lutetium, cost about six times as much as gold. Considering that scintillation crystals are macroscopic sized, the cost of raw element would be considerable.

Lutetium is a rare earth element, commonly found with other Lutetium. As I learned in grade school, China is a major exporter of rare earth elements. (Can you tell I'm Chinese? It's one of the few things I learned in the Communist brainwashing.) Chances are, most Lutetium in the world is produced in China. Another example of the interdependence of global economy. China can't produce LSO based detectors, but it produces the raw material, and uses the devices produced.

The pesky problem called snow

2007-11-21T16:55:00.000-08:00

It's Montreal after all, so I shouldn't be surprised to see snow in November. It doesn't make me feel any better walking around in boots, though. Being the only one from West Coast in my class, it doesn't feel very good to adjust to the cold weather. Oh well, at least I live kinda close to the hospital. Let's see how I fare in the coming months.

Bizzare experience with contact lens

2007-11-21T14:25:00.000-08:00

Having paid for PGSS insurance, I decided to get something out of it. The natural first step would be contact lenses, as I don't have contacts yet. The buying was pretty smooth, even though I had to front the cash and get reimbursed. After I got home, the contacts turned out alright. I've only had hard contact lenses before, and never got used to them enough to wear them daily. The soft contact lenses are much easier on my eye, although they're quite difficult to put on for someone inexperienced like me.

Having put two on, I suddenly found that my right eye was blurry. Thinking that I lost it, I sighed for the cost, and opened another lens and put it on. Two hours later, the contacts were that comfortable, so I took them off before having dinner. Putting my glasses back on, I went on with my things. A while later, I suddenly found that my right eye couldn't see well. Somehow, there's a contact in my eye! I took that off, look at all three of them, now lying in lens boxes. The only conclusion I could make, was that I had two contact lenses in my right eye.

A brief Google search didn't return anything. That's it for now. Hope the contacts work out well for me.

The tyranny of multiple choice.

2007-10-12T18:56:00.000-07:00

Being a Physics major, the last time I took multiple choice exams were in high school. OK, the first year courses had some multiple choices, but they generally counted a small portion of the grades. Now, in my MedPhys courses, all exams have a large multiple choice component, usually north of 50 percent. Before you call this program easy, let me just assure you that multiple choice questions are probably the hardest exam you can take as a Physics major, besides an oral exam. Simply put, if you don't know, there's no way for you to pretend you know something, or how much other stuff you know. Plus, there's no way for your grader to have sympathy for you and assume that you "understand the concept". In fact, the hardest questions are generally the multiple choice questions.

Apparently, professional exams tend to have large multiple choice components as well. So I better get used to this.

Finally, a picture of me.

2007-10-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

Another update on yours truly. As you can see, I'm about the same, as always. All I have is a Canon A400 digital camera at this point, so the photo quality is not that good. This one is taken with 1/3 second exposure time on a tiny tripod. Hopefully I get a better picture of myself some time later this year.

Update between midterms

2007-10-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

Two down, three to go. Sounds not bad, right? Well, the two core courses are at the end. The two I have taken so far doesn't seem too bad. The coming electronics midterm won't be too much of a disaster, I think. The remaining two midterms, Radiation Physics and Diagnostic Imaging, however, will likely stress me out big time. It's safe to say that these two combined is a lot more work than the first three midterms combined.

First of all, these two core courses have midterms that last almost a day. They are scheduled on a Saturday, instead of the regular class hours like the first three midterms. Second of all, the amount of material covered, and level of understanding required from these two courses are much higher than other courses. So the fun have yet to start.

Anyways, here's a picture of a cheap table I got from Zellers. After squatting on the living room desk and disturbing my roommates' TV watching, I finally found a table light enough for me to drag home by myself. After my UPS experience, I don't feel like getting stuff delivered during days when I'm not home all day. Since all my roommates go to school, I will for sure miss the delivery. Unlike parcel deliveries, missing furniture delivery can be very expensive. So now I have a temporary table, until I can clear up some time to arrange for IKEA furniture delivery and assembly.

Back from hell

2007-10-01T16:49:00.000-07:00

I and my roommates just went through the hell of Bell. No seriously, no kidding. We went 2 weeks without internet, waiting for bell, and spent literally HOURS on the phone with them. But now it's resolved. I'm still too traumatized to recall the details of getting internet. All I can tell you is that it was a difficult battle that required collective effort of my roommates and me. But in the end, we have internet.

By the way, the coursework is fine. Pretty interesting class. Haven't fallen sleep yet.

IKEA bed

2007-08-31T14:55:00.001-07:00

The double bed is not as big as a queen, but still much better than a queen, or sleeping on the floor. I'm still getting used to it though, as I've been sleeping on a queen sized bed for the past 5 years. Yes, I'm spoiled. Well, I just happened to end up with a queen sized bed, and have always found a place just big enough for it. The picture shown is just the base. I found that the spring mattress at IKEA only goes to "firm", instead of "extra firm" that I've been sleeping on. So far no adverse effects. Although I've been sleeping a lot, as I generally do on my days off.

My apartment, more picture

2007-08-31T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the side of my apartment. It's four stories, and I live on the second floor. Unfortunately, my place doesn't have a balcony, which is really a pity. Well, I'll just have to go out more. The building structure looks decent, probably not a "leaky condo" that Vancouver is famous for.

Monbtreal general hospital

2007-08-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of McGill University Health Center, aka Montreal general hospital. It's on top of a hill, like many hospitals in Montreal. I live even further up the hill, but not very far. My classes are in the hospital, which is terrific for introducing students to working in a hospital environment. The hike from my apartment in the summer is quite pleasant, but we will need to wait till the winter to know how it feels like.

The quest for a bed, IKEA style

2007-08-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Since my new pad is not furnished, as first order of business, I need a bed. After browsing Craigslist for beds, the findings are slim for a double bed, and no delivery is offered. Plus the selections are either cheap student sofa beds or very expensive high end beds. Therefore, the natural conclusion is -- IKEA.

Getting the bed turned out to be a bit of a challenge. I had to drag the mattress to the cart myself, on their self-serve area. And then I had to go through check out, before I can have it deliver. Then I come home, and found out that I could have ordered that online, as I was getting a fairly expensive version. The cheaper versions weren't available for sale online. Oh well, it's an interesting experience.

The bed was delivered the next day. The promised delivery time was between 12 and 3pm, and actually delivery time was 2:35pm. So no problem here. Oh, assembly was not included, and I had to pay the delivery guy under the table to get him to assemble it. "Don't tell the company." I wonder how many times he say that every day.

Another disaster -- leaky airbed

2007-08-26T17:32:00.000-07:00

Well, so much for packing the inflatable bed and bringing it across the country. My roommate had a sweet motorized pump, and that saved major pumping time. Unfortunately, the air bed turned out to be leaky. The leak is pretty bad actually. I barely had the time to get ready for sleep, and the bed is already half deflated, and I never got much good back support from it. A few hours into the night, it completely flattened, which actually make sleeping easier, as I'm not trapped at the middle of a balloon any more. Nevertheless, the sleep was less than satisfactory, as I'm not used to sleeping on the floor.

First order of the second day -- get a camping foam pad. Actually got it from Canadian Tire. Worked OK, at least better than nothing. Tried to buy a bed from Zellers, but they don't even have a full set available. Reason? It's a sale that's been going on for a while, and apparently a popular sale. So that's all I could do for the bed fiasco in the morning. Got a grocery from a market called PA, plus some other household items I couldn't pack with me, and that's my morning.

In the afternoon, I went to IKEA to permanently fix my bed problem, with a REAL bed. This time, I'm not going to settle for imitates, not even sofa beds. I'm buying a regular, double sized bed. But this would be another post.

First post -- Arriving at Montreal

2007-08-25T18:54:00.001-07:00

Ok, before writing a long and winded introduction to this blog, myself, and my motivation for Medical Physics, I'm just going to post something about today, and fill up more information another time.

9:00 AM Pacific Time-- Board the WestJet flight. The flight was packed, so air quality is not so good. Oh well, only 4 and half hour flight.
5:00 PM Montreal Time -- Landed in Montreal. Been here once before on Campus visit, so not as much surprise now. Baggage claim took forever, as there's tons of people getting off the flight, plus another flight from Calgary landing at the same time, using the same baggage claim conveyor belt. Then there was waiting for Taxi -- another line up. $40 and one hour later, (Taxi fare is $35, but I tipped $5 because the driver helped me move the luggage to the building doorway.) Managed to get into the building front door, as it had no lock. Then there's the mail box area. The door to the hallway was supposed to be locked, but it was stuck open a bit, due to the poor mechanical condition. So I managed to drag in the two heavy luggage. Just as I proceeded to get the other luggage, the door slammed shut behind me -- the door swung shut, just as it was supposed to do. Now I'm locked outside, with my luggage inside. I franticly looked for a buzzer, as my future roommate was supposed to be home. Unfortunately, all I saw was a mail box. So I called Derek, who transferred me the apartment lease. He gave me the hint that the buzzer is ON TOP OF THE MAIL BOX. Suddenly realizing my stupidity, I hang up in embarrassment, and rang the buzzer for my unit. A few seconds later, I heard some buzzing sound from the door. Pushed it, doesn't work. So I pressed the buzz button again, and a few buzzing sounds from the doors and a few attempts later, door is open. My roommate came out, and everything was easy afterwards.

The apartment is quite clean, and my room's not small. Unfurnished, but not carpeted either, which makes up for all the shortcomings. It can use a fresh layer of paint, but I'm just a student and can't afford all the chic chic place. If I want new paint, I will just have to do it myself, which won't happen in the near future. After living in ground floor of Vancouver Special's, I'm not going to complain too much about the living condition here. Not much furniture for now, which is actually kinda refreshing, as I've been dealing with an excess of household stuff this summer. But, that's another story.

We then went out for Thai food at a local mall. OK food, ok price. Nothing to write home about. Although it's nice to walk everywhere, and do so on a student budget.