I’m here with 3 other business students and our faculty coach for the John Molson Undergraduate Case Competition at Concordia University. For those of you who don’t know what a case competition is, it’s basically consulting. You get a packet of information that gives background information and problems for you to address. You come up with solutions and present them in a PowerPoint to a panel of judges. 24 universities from around the world are competing. I’ve met people from Hong Kong, Thailand, Finland, Spain, and more!  (I spoke Canto with the HK team!)

We have three 3-hour cases (where you get 3 hours to come up with your solution and make your PowerPoint) and one 24 hour case (where you get 24 hours to come up with your solution and make your PowerPoint.) We had our first 3-hour case already; we lost by one point but it was to a school with a strong reputation in competing so I say we did fairly well for being an inexperienced team. We have our second 3-hour case today so we’ll try to make up for some lost points now that we know what we’re up against.

On Sunday, before opening ceremonies, my team and I decided to go up to Mont Royal to check out the view. It took us about 45 minutes to walk up the mountain from our hotel. We passed through McGill University and random statues on the way, so that was pretty cool.  I practically died on the trip – the snow from a few days ago had melted so the path was super slippery. Also, the only way to get up to the mountain was to climb stairs. Lots of stairs. It was worse than doing stadiums. Once you get up to the top, you get a panoramic view of the entire city. You can also ski, ice skate (on the frozen lake) or go tubing (basically sledding with a tube).

I have never been sledding, so we decided to ask some random person to borrow their sled so that I could experience the thrills of sledding. It was fun until I rammed into this random statue they had in the middle of nowhere. As I was trying to get up, I slipped on the ice and cut my chin. It looked bloody but it actually wasn’t that bad. You can’t even see the cut (it’s under my chin) and the wound is healing quite nicely (I think). But yeah, moral of the story is, beware of slipping on ice.

Anyways, I have to get down to breakfast and get ready for the next round of cases. Toodles! Stay tuned for my next post!

How did I get involved with CASA?
I knew about CASA through one of my past boyfriends’ brother where he was friend with George Liu, CASA President of 2006/2007. They got me interested and I went to a few events when I got into UF. At the end of freshmen year, I applied for Special Events Coordinator because my co asked me and they needed applicants. And, that was it. I started a dedication post in my personal blog, but decided to wait until this year’s CASA Formal to actually post it.

Alan Ho, my heart breaker. 
For those who doesn’t know who Alan Ho is, he was CASA’s historians for too many years and a very loyal member. He was like a big brother to me when I was a freshman. No, we did not make each other into our big/little. I liked our relationship. Anyways, the story goes that one day I saw him in person and had to tell him something, but didn’t remember what it was. Night fell, and we were chatting on AIM. Our conversation (not verbatim):

Me: Hey.
A.Ho: I don’t care about whatever you have to say at the moment.
Me: —-freaking out because I didn’t know what went wrong between us—-
*silence for the next 5 seconds while I’m freaking out*
A.Ho: Haha just joking. What’s up Angel?
Me: …you just broke my heart and shattered it into a thousand pieces. thanks.

Spring Break Plans - Well, I like to travel when I can. My original plan was road tripping to Boston but we changed our destination to New Orleans.  I’m excited for all the delicious foods! Any suggestions of where I should visit in this city?

How I met Bac – My memory have been failing on me for the longest time so I don’t remember the exact moment I met him. I do remember when I found out he spoke Hakka and thought he was pretty cool.

Grape Soda – I prefer Welch’s Grape Juice more but thanks to the lovely Yuk Lane, she gave me a bottle from VSO Pho Fundraiser. But I gave it to someone else at the end of the night because I was mostly joking about wanting one, too many sodas in my fridge. Someone come help me drink it!

MY REAL TOPIC - My Family’s Guidelines for Sickness

This weather has been crazy and eer’one is getting sick. You know why people get sick in cold weather? You actually don’t catch a cold from the cold. It’s because you’re more likely to be in an area with a greater density of people and then germs start spreading. Read this: http://listverse.com/2008/11/05/top-10-myths-about-the-common-cold/

Well, here are some things I’ve learned over the years from my family for when I am sick.

1. Don’t eat chicken when you have a cough. I don’t know the exact reason why, but I was told to steer clear of it.

2. Don’t eat rice when you have a fever. I don’t know the reason for this one either, but congee is okay.

3. Do not drink cold liquids. This one is more of a Chinese medicine logic. Our natural body temperature is warm and it kept warm for specific functions. When we intake something cold, it’s foreign and abnormal to our bodies. Also, it’s more comforting in my experience to drink something warm/room-temperature when I’m sick.

4. Eat more ginger. Ginger keeps you warm in cold temperatures and it’s also good for stomach problems.

5. Honey fixes everything. Okay, this is more of a Andrew Deonarine’s (MSAMA member and my paramedic friend) remedy. 

Hmm, thought I had more.. guess not. Anything you would like to share from your family?