the sweet and the sour

sleddin' down Crouse

2010-02-27T10:21:00.008-05:00

A snowstorm brings marshmallowy soft, powdery snow. The perfect snow for sledding! And you're not truly bleeding Orange until you've sledded down Crouse on a dining hall tray, which we are borrowing and will duly return after the snow melts. Jane Choi (click link for her blog) and I grabbed a dining hall tray each, climbed up to the Crouse hill and sled down, and you could hear us scream halfway across campus.

SU's message on Haiti

2010-01-21T06:07:00.006-05:00

Haiti - the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere. I only learned about the plight of Haiti from SU's required freshman reading Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer, an accomplished doctor working in Haiti, working to improve the public health sector there while bringing very basic medical care and supplies to the region.

Having read the book, it put faces on the escalating death toll emerging from the rubble. SU's Chancellor Cantor always sends out a message to all students and staff every time there is a global tragedy. After the earthquake in Haiti, she sent out a message offering help to those either in Haiti, or have family or friends in Haiti. This is all well and good. She then added an extra paragraph that I found extremely redundant. She asked two professors to give some background history on Haiti's connection with the US, basically, justifying how the little island of Haiti is important to Americans. I don't know if Chancellor Cantor realizes how snobby this is. Here's the history lesson:

"Finally, Professors Carty and Johnson also have provided some historical context regarding the United States and Haiti: “The U.S. shares a long history with Haiti via New Orleans. The Haitian revolution, which began in 1791, was instrumental in inspiring the largest U.S. slave revolt in New Orleans. There were huge numbers of Haitians who moved to New Orleans in the early 1800s after the success of the Haitian revolution. This doubled the size of the “free colored” population in the area at the time. It was the success of the Haitian revolution in 1804 that led to the sale of Louisiana to the U.S. by Napoleon.”

Is it not enough that there are Haitian students at SU, enough for there to be a Haitian American Students Association. Or is it not enough that Haiti is a neighbor? Honestly, does it really matter that Haiti is connected to the Louisiana Purchase? Not all Americans are snobby, so Chancellor Cantor, spare us the history lesson, don't underestimate our compassion.

Click here to read the full text.

law school or j-school?

2010-01-13T13:14:00.016-05:00

In Hong Kong, the UK and Australia, you don't have to wait until grad school to do Law or Medicine. You start preparing for it in high school by taking the right courses and then dive straight into it at undergraduate level.

So I have a bit of ranting to do. It bugs me so much when I hear someone say they chose to major in journalism because they couldn't get into law. Or, they think they won't be successful in law so they succumbed to second best - journalism. What these people actually need is counseling for low self-esteem. I hear this all too often in Hong Kong. I don't want to make assumptions about law, it is a great career choice and one that will make your mummy and daddy wear a smile on their face for years to come, but please, if you KNOW I'm studying journalism, why on earth would you tell me "I'm doing journalism because I'm not good enough for law." How are law and journalism remotely related? Aside from the clever wordplay perhaps.

I think I got a slight nod of approval when I showed my auntie that I earned 2 bucks per word for a 1000-word concert review I wrote, she told me she didn't even know one could make money like this. I'm convinced journalism will pay my bills and put food in my stomach, and I am convinced journalism is not a second-rate career choice to law, it is a respectable profession and necessary to society.

By way of example, click here to read about how the journalism students at Northwestern found evidence that proved the innocence of a man who was falsely convicted of murder.

lock and throw the key away

2010-01-09T13:34:00.005-05:00

How romantic is this. You engrave you and your other half's initials or names onto a padlock and secure it to the railing along with other couples as a promise of everlasting devotion. My friends and I oohed and aahed in envy, and it became concrete in my mind that Europe goes one step further in matters concerning romance. Here's a bridge in Wroclaw, Poland.

I thought it was so special until I saw it again on a bridge in Paris over the river Seine. And then I googled this phenomenon and learned that this all goes back to an Italian movie where the young couple in it put a padlock on a bridge in Milan. At this particular bridge, people capitalize on this by selling padlocks to lovebirds. Click here to see how many cities in the world have these love padlock bridges.

In another article, it said that the love padlocks originated from Hungary where lovers put padlocks onto a fence, which became so full that people started putting it on nearby lamp posts. I hate to be a cynic, but I do wonder how many of these couples, perpetuated on a padlock, are still together.

berlin's wall of shame

2010-01-09T11:42:00.010-05:00

Le mur de la honte, the Wall of Shame. I don't know how commonly this name for the Berlin Wall is used, but it was my first time hearing it. There was a controversy over whether or not the entire stretch of wall should be torn down, after all, Germany is one country now. But the side that won was obviously the one rooting for the wall to be kept there. In many places, there were even two walls running parallel to each other with a no man's land in between dotted with watchtowers, many East Germans were shot trying to make it through no man's land into the Capitalist west. There is such a strong sentiment in keeping the history alive that they are currently reconstructing the guard tower. One cannot ignore the fact that keeping the Berlin Wall there generates huge tourism revenue for Germany.

A huge tourist attraction is Checkpoint Charlie. This is the former border control station between East and West Berlin. The portrait of the guard you see in the photo is not "Charlie", but just an anonymous American soldier. It's just a visual symbol to others that behind this portrait is American territory. If you look over to the other side of the portrait, there is an image of a Soviet soldier. The name Charlie was simply chosen as a name for C, the other patrol stations are Alpha and Bravo. Today, people dressed up as American and Soviet soldiers stand at the checkpoint to take pictures with tourists. They're quite a hit. There are now fake sandbags at the checkpoint to stop people from stealing them. Our tour guide, Edo, told us a famous escape story from East Berlin. A man fell in love with a girl from East Berlin and so he plotted a way to escape. He realized that there was an unusually large gap between the gate and the ground. So he bought a car that fit right under the gap, and put his girlfriend and her mother into the car and drove right under the gate. Although he didn't quite drive into freedom because he brought his mother-in-law along.

Some parts of the Berlin Wall along a river are now being used as a surface for murals with an optimistic message. Large parts of the wall are already covered by graffiti, but some are by professional artists commissioned to produce a work of art on it.

The program also visited a former Stasi prison, where we went on a tour with an old man who was a political prisoner for 9 years. He said that although there was no physical violence, he suffered from psychological torture. Not in the way that you'd expect. He had absolutely no interaction with a human being for 9 years, only when he was being interrogated occasionally.

He showed us that when the prisoners are brought into the prison, they are put in a van where they are isolated. They are blindfolded so they do not see other people. A red light is on each time they progress into another room, the red light ensures that the room is empty. It was essential for the guards to make sure the prisoner does not see other prisoners. This was to instill a sense of deep isolation. The prisoners are fed regularly with bread and never go hungry. The old man told us that he even put on some weight. The guards were forbidden to talk to the prisoners, and quite soon, the prisoners are begging to talk to the guards. They lose count of the days gone by. They have no idea if there are others in the same situation. They start to go crazy and even yearn for the day when they can be interrogated just for some human interaction. Our tour guide said that when he was imprisoned, he stopped himself from going insane by reciting poetry that he knew by heart. He then went on to movingly recite a Shakespearean sonnet. When we went inside his cell, some of us walked on top of his bed to let the whole group in. He joked that he never would have guessed he'd one day get so many ladies in his bed. He shared with us that he also figured out complex math problems to keep himself occupied, and said it's one of his proudest achievements. He told us that once a week, the prisoners are allowed a time to walk around "outdoors."

All they can see is the sky, and they can only walk around in this little space as exercise. The prisoners have no idea where they are and how many prisoners there are. Here's a picture of the interrogation room.

One of our assignments before the semester started was to watch a German movie called The Lives of Others (2006) on East Berlin. It's about a man who used to be a high-ranking Stasi officer and trains students to become interrogators, and works as an eavesdropper on a playwright suspected of anti-government activities. The playwright's apartment is tapped but he has no idea and goes on is usual activities. One day after his friend dies, he plays a song on the piano which he says is such a sad song, that anyone who hears it and is touched can't possibly be a bad person. The Stasi officer listening is in tears. He becomes sympathetic of the playwright and his girlfriend, a singer, who sells herself to the Cultural Minister in order to get work. The Stasi officer himseld leads a lonely existence, his only interaction with women is with a prostitute.

{Spoiler Alert} The playwright works with other artists to try and publish an article in a West German magazine criticizing East Germany, and the Stasi officer turns a blind eye to all this plotting. The government finds out about the Stasi officer and demotes him to working as a mail steamer, which opens envelopes for inspection without ripping it. His act of kindness is eventually rewarded after the fall of the Berlin wall, when the playwright finds out that his apartment was tapped all along, and the Stasi had known that he was the one who wrote the article. He went through the old archives and found the Stasi officer's initials. When he published a book a few years later, he dedicated the book to the former officer, who has now become a postman. One day he sees the book in a shop window. He walks in and opens the cover to see his initials, and he smiles, as if everything that he did and suffered thereafter was worth it. When he brought it to the counter and the woman asks him, "is this for you or a present?", he contentedly answers, "it's for me."

Another movie to watch about East Berlin is of course, Goodbye Lenin! (2003). It's about a boy who tries to recreate East Berlin for his mother after the collapse of the wall. As he recreates this past for his mother, he becomes reminiscent of the more humble days and becomes increasingly repulsed by the superficial and rapid influx of capitalism. His older sister even starts working at Burger King. East Germany hasn't completely lost out to the West, the current Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany, and she's popular for her no frills, no drama character in politics.

a bit about poland

2010-01-08T09:14:00.010-05:00

Wroclaw, Poland. A name so difficult to say that most people in the program still couldn't master the correct pronunciation at the end of the semester. Wroclaw is pronounced "rotswaav". It's the fourth largest city in Poland and used to be part of the Prussian empire (today's Germany), at that time the city bore a German name - Breslau.

Centennial Hall (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
There was a conflict over the name of an important convention centre, built in the simplistic, German Bauhaus style. It was built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Germans defeating the French army led by Napoleon in the battle of Leipzig. Because it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it's against the law to make changes to the building that would compromise its historic value. When Wroclaw became part of Poland again after WWII, Centennial Hall was renamed People's Hall to reflect a new era. However in this decade, it was renamed Centennial Hall once again. And this caused great controversy because it suggested sympathetic attitudes toward Germany.

And what exactly is Polish cuisine? First of all, you must have Polish dumplings - pierogis. They have a tough, thick skin with minced meat inside. The dumplings are fried and completely soaked in oil. Dumplings are also a staple in Czech cuisine. There is also the bread we bought in the market, which is tough peasant bread with pickles and lard. Lard is absolutely disgusting, it tastes like a terrible sauce because it's not even as solid as butter. And finally, there's the meat cooked in cabbage leaves that I enjoyed the most, it's called stuffed cabbage. My host mum cooks stuffed cabbages in Strasbourg too, maybe it's a dish of German influence.

how berlin remembers

2010-01-07T14:31:00.009-05:00

Before the semester in Strasbourg began, our program of 33 students, led by 2 professors and 1 diligent driver on a 10 day travel seminar, visiting Berlin, Wroclaw (pronounced rotswaav) in Poland, Prague and Nuremberg. The juniors visiting these cities this year are a special bunch. Most of us 20-year-olds were born in 1989, the year of that fateful day. Little did I know, it was the year of two fateful days. Only a month before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November, communism was just defeated by the Solidarity movement in Poland. We learned about borders dissolving in the EU, and learned snippets of different periods in a country's history. I took particular interest in the WWII memorials in Berlin. How does Germany, taking the brunt of the blame for starting WWII in Europe, remember and respect its past?

Berlin Holocaust Memorial
Not only Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, but also blacks, Asians, left-wingers, the handicapped, gypsies, homosexuals and dissidents who refused to abide by the Nazis. This one gets an award for doing the impossible - being sensitive and obnoxious at the same time. It's smack-bang in the centre of Berlin, and this mass of concrete blocks of alternating heights are around the size of two Olympic-sized pools. Traffic borders the memorial. The blocks are gray with smooth surfaces and edges. There is no writing or plaques inside the blocks. It's a complex looking network of paths, but in fact, the distance between the blocks always remains the same, so you can walk in a straight line vertically or horizontally from anywhere. What does change are the heights of the blocks, and the ground which has ripples and goes the deepest in the centre. The ripples on the ground are parallel to the line of the blocks. Say the ripple is going from North to South, if you are walking from East to West, you will not even realize there is a ripple on the group, descending subtly into the deep centre.

Our professor asked us to explore the labyrinthe alone. As I walked deeper into the centre, I could no longer see where everyone else was. All of a sudden, I'd see someone walk past but disappear real quick. Occasionally someone would walk towards me, and we'd meet at a point and exchange a few words of bewilderment, perhaps to show the rarity of two people crossing paths. In all four directions, one can always see the way out, and the way out is always straight. It's a memorial for people to experience, but this non-traditional approach has also made it controversial.

The concrete blocks on the edges are lower and often used as benches for nearby office workers to meet up and eat their sandwiches. I saw a girl lying on one sunbathing in the August sun, and an adorable little boy merrily skipping from one block to the other. Just as the history of the Holocaust is still intertwined with German families, the memory of it is now totally at one with the daily livelihood of Germans. This is acceptance of what was done, remembering and respecting the countless murdered. I was incredibly impressed by how mature and graceful this memorial was. I can hardly imagine a memorial like this in Japan, commemorating the countless murders committed by the Japanese army in WWII in China, Korea and the Asia Pacific.

Memorial for homosexual victims of the Holocaust
Berlin is so creative with their memorials, here's another impressive one, it's right next to the massive Holocaust memorial. This one is inconspicuously hidden behind trees in a park. You find a plaque first that recalls a time when "a kiss was dangerous" because it could convict you of being a homosexual. The plaque also said that the German government pledges to always protect the rights of homosexuals, especially because of its history. After the plaque, you approach a grey, ominous block of concrete with a small opening where you are supposed to look in, but it feels more like you are taking a peek.

These are my two buddies, Tess and Rebecca taking their peek. Inside, a video plays on loop of two young men standing, and slowly embracing and kissing each other on the mouth. The kiss does not look like a happy reunion, but more like a farewell. The video is uncomfortably long (perhaps that was the point) and I didn't know whether to stop watching. I realized that the video was only 10 seconds long. As I walked away, it left me feeling heavy in the heart. The two memorials are so different in style, but both are just as sensitive.

Neue Wache Memorial - Mother and her dead Son
Neue Wache is German for new guard house, which is where this touching statue is held. The memorial is to remember "all victims of war and tyranny." The most striking thing about this memorial is the hole in the roof. The statue directly beneath it of a mother cradling her dead son is weathered mercilessly by whatever the sky brings down. When there is rain or snow, only the circle directly under the hole will be weathered.

my 4 month vaca-mester

2010-01-07T13:08:00.020-05:00

Life post-abroad.

"Okay, tell me EVERYTHING about Europe!"

Where to begin - my darling host mum? The food? The adventures? The clubbing? The art? When I'm asked how my 4-month vaca-mester (where all nighters are pulled to part-ay) it's like my mind going blank in an Econ final, you sure as heck know there's enough material to fill the Pacific Ocean but nothing's floatin' up. I usually give the standard answer - "Err my gosh the art and old buildings in France are soooo romantic, I wanna live there forever." A C-grade answer. Monsieur Marxer, my French professeur said knowledge is like new luggage to bring home, sadly I brought home more souvenir mugs than knowledge, but it's time to unpack and reorganize.

And here's my biggest reason - in fear of boring my listeners. Who wants to listen to my love affair with clementines, the most popular Christmas fruit, or to my dorky interest in everything EU-related. Everyone wants to hear a European love story, the most popular question posed to me has been "Met any hot French boys?" To answer this question once and for all, yes French boys are steamé and dreamé, but yours truly has sadly fallen in love with food, oh GLORIOUS FOOD, preferring it any day over yummy French boys. Give me a willing listener who's default actions are nodding and frequently saying "Oh really? Wow!!!" and I'll gladly talk until the end of time on this fab vaca-mester.
And this perfect, willing listener turns out to be my blog. (Facebook reassures me I have more friends than days in a year! Hmph!) Here I will talk about any topic that's struck my fancy, big or small, they'll be snapshots of my favourite memories in Europe. A snapshot of the Strasbourg Christmas markets, a snapshot of my participation in a pseudo-Eurotrash boyband photoshoot on a Heidelberg bridge, or a snapshot of my beloved pain au chocolat. In this space, I talk. You listen.

Girl talk in the Jardin Tuileries in Paris, complete with sandwiches, macarons, gelato, hot chocolate and fine weather. This is the dolce vita.

25 things I've learned while abroad

2010-01-02T11:03:00.035-05:00

Let's hope this expensive semester in Strasbourg taught me more than 25 things, but here's a smattering of the essential for survival:

1. Order coffee in France and you will get a tiny cup of the strongest, most bitter, black espresso, which is what the French drink to get their caffeine fix. If you want a typical American coffee with milk, you have to say café au lait or café americano, but you won't be as bad-ass.

2. The actual Dutch way of pronouncing van Gogh is van "Haw".

3. Contrary to popular belief, absinthe is no longer banned in Europe and is readily available in souvenir shops. You won't be seeing any green fairies because the substance in it that makes you hallucinate is now banned.

4. Never, ever, ever ask a French person what their religion or salary is.

5. The fabric denim came from a town called Nîmes in southern France, the word "denim" is literally "de Nîmes" in French, or "of Nîmes."

6. Everyone drives a stick in Europe, even my 70-year-old host mum.

7. If you're eating a home cooked meal, don't drown your food with salt and hot sauce, that's a slap in the face for the cook.

8. If you're hungry on a Sunday morning or late at night, the only places you'll find open are the kebab joints.

9. Fries are not French, they came from Belgium. You eat them with a toothpick-like fork and dip them in mayonnaise.

10. No wonder they call it French kissing, don't stare when you see a girl straddling a guy, making out on a bench.

11. French people cherish every bit of sun they get. If you're being a bum in your room on a sunny day, you'll be called a poor, sad soul.

12. Gals - don't wear shorts or cleavage-bearing tops in the summer, 'less you want to be told to put a plastic bag over yourself before you visit a church. And cover those thighs, hot pants are another n0-no.

13. French people take showers sitting down in the bath tub sans shower curtains.

14. If you are looking for coffee in Amsterdam, you need to go to a café and not a coffee shop, where you will instead be handed a menu for cannabis.

15. In a French meal, you can eat a savory crepe as the main dish, and in the same meal eat a sweet crepe again as dessert. And you have to eat it while drinking cider wine, which is so acidic it'll leave your stomach in a riot.

16. When strolling through the red light district, do not snap pictures of the prostitutes in the windows.

17. It's easier to find a Vietnamese restaurant in France than a Chinese one. And a self-proclaimed "Chinese" restaurant in France is probably still Vietnamese.

18. When a European stops and says hello to you in Chinese, Korean and Japanese, all 3 in a row - nihao, an nyoung ha se yo he, konnichiwa, he or she is just trying to be hospitable.

19. If you're not white and you tell Europeans you're from the United States, expect a follow-up question, "but I mean, originally?" Political correctness is out the window in Europe.

20. The French are very fond of Mao Zedong, and don't overreact, like I did, when someone says to you, "Mao is a pretty alright fella."

21. Your French teacher is expressing his appreciation for your country's history when he is shaking the red, mini verb conjugation book and says, "look, it's like Mao's little red book!"

22. Quick, name a French stereotype. Did you think of a baguette? French people eat baguette for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast, you eat with jam. Lunch, you eat as a sandwich with cheese and ham, which is a sandwich romantically called le Parisien. And for dinner, you eat with your cheese at the end of a meal right before dessert.

23. Don't leave food on your plate in France 'less you want a slap on the wrist. Use a piece of bread to wipe up the leftover sauce or soup, leaving the bowl looking like you just licked it clean like a starving Oliver Twist.

24. If there is leftover food, it will return in another meal taking on another form, for example, carrots in a casserole will come back tomorrow as carrots in a quiche. French people don't like repeating dishes in such a short time.

25. Alcohol takes on a Christmas form come the season of festivities. Christmas beer is absolutely delicious with cinnamon and orange flavors, and glühwein (hot mulled wine) is so wonderful to sip and hold (thaws your numb fingers) when you're strolling through the Christmas markets.

I just got back to Hong Kong this morning and I've been itching to jot all this down before my bad memory kicks in. Time to go back to real life now, I'm gonna miss Fall 2009 sorely.

G-times with my homies in Santorini, Greece.

with love, from strasbourg

2009-10-22T18:47:00.008-04:00

Coucou!
(French for a very familiar hello, the other person usually responds with coucou as well)

It's Week 7 of my semester abroad, we've just hit the hump and now there are 7 weeks left. Feels strange to be in the middle of something that you know is going to end too soon. Just like college, this semester of junior year is right in the middle of the 4 years of what is supposed to be the "best 4 years of your life." There's always truth to a cliche. It's time to put all the experiences I've collected down on paper, electronically.

In most recent news, I got an internship at SOS Femmes Solidarite, where women who have suffered under physical, verbal, sexual and economic abuse go for counseling and advice. They also go to schools to hold workshops, and their current project is selling hot wine (vin chaud) and cake at the downtown Christmas market in late November, with of course, brochures and pamphlets on gender violence as an accompaniment to all the merriment. I met the other intern, Marie, who is also 20 and is a nursing student. She spoke French slowly, and we talked about our upcoming fall break. She's about to take an airplane for first time and she told me how nervous she was. I remember dad always saying that he never took an airplane until he was 18, when he was moving to Sydney for high school. Anyway, she corrected my French composition, in which I used a very slangy word for always getting "drunk" which must have been the equivalent of getting "smashed" or something, she had a good laugh.

When I was 5, the year mum was carrying Chris in her belly, we traveled with a Hong Kong tour group to Europe. We visited Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. Scraps of memories remain, but what mum and dad always tell me is that I fell asleep at the Louvre and I was such deadweight! It means a lot that this semester, I get the chance to return to these three places again. Even though I don't remember much, it's nice to know that I was here 15 years ago with my parents, and how far life has taken me since. My brother is now 15 years old. I sound like an old fart right now. Seeing the Mannequin Pis, which is the peeing boy fountain in Brussels was especially delightful because it's the one thing I remember being very amused by it when I was 5. This time round, reaching the fountain was very anti-climatic. Mannequin Pis is actually very small, and even the streets surrounding it are narrow. It was totally different from what I remembered. Mum said it must be because I was such a small girl when I was there that everything seemed bigger. She loves that I'm revisiting all these places 15 years later. Right by the statue, I chuckled when a bus rumbled by with "Weiner" as the destination. How fitting.

I've experienced so much in the past 7 weeks that I'm scared I'll forget something. I never sat down to write anything down in the beginning because I felt that I shouldn't be spending any free time writing on my computer. Any free time should be spent with new friends visiting new places. In the first two weeks, I also didn't have internet at my host mum, Rosette's house. When I first moved in, there were two other girls living in the house, Lili from Guangzhou and Soniya from Puhn, India. At first, I was a bit disappointed that there was another Chinese girl there, I was here after all to learn French and meet French people. Instead, I can't seem to get out of this Asian web. Do Asians make up such a big percentage of the world population that I can't even get away from them in Strasbourg, France? But they turned out to be the sweetest girls. It was their last week in Strasbourg before they left for Metz, where they'll be getting a 2-year engineering degree in French. They didn't know any French before this trip and became proficient enough to have a natural conversation with our host mum after 7 weeks. Lili's French even became better than her English. Soniya is already fluent in English, but Lili actually found it easier to communicate to Soniya in French. When the three of us hung out, it was a bit complicated because there would be 3 languages going on at once: Me + Lili = Chinese, Lili + Soniya = French, Soniya + Me = English. Although my buddy Marina soon pointed out that, really, we should just be speaking French for our own good.

I also enjoyed the privilege of celebrating my 20th birthday in France! Michelle was such a darling that she prepared a gift for me in the summer and gave it to me to be opened on my birthday in France. It was a box full of pictures of our experiences together at Syracuse, HK summers and Summerbridge, and to top it off, a notebook with the Eiffel Tower on the cover. I shall make great use of this notebook as I embark on journalistic adventures in France, merci Michelle darling! Another absolute darling is my birthday twin Tegan, who mailed a wonderful package to me that arrived one day before my birthday. It was Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales which I brought along on the school trip to Burgundy. The stories are all based on women and are very, very kinky, it's like a good-girls-gone-bad version of fairy tales. My host mum also hosted a little birthday dinner for me and invited Sarah and Liz. We drank the famous Alsace white wine Riesling, and ate a divine chocolate cake. And if one cake wasn't enough, my buddies got me another cake in Dijon, this time made with the famous cassis (blackcurrant) that is so famous in the region. Blackcurrants are made into an aperitif which is a wine that should be sipped, it's called kir, but it tastes so sweet that it's more like a syrup.

This post has probably committed all the blogging faux-pas with too much text and no pictures, but what the heck.

a whirlwind trip of insatiable gluttony in Taipei

2009-10-11T13:31:00.005-04:00

Picasa's the best, look at this collage I made of all the food I tried in Taipei, when I visited this summer. The city is known for its emblematic food markets, a delight for foodies with a soft spot for cheap eats. I'm currently studying abroad in France, and the price of a small pastry is like a bullet hole in your wallet, the little purchases such as ice cream, Orangina, hot chocolate (my loves) drain your wallet like no other. And before you know it, your bank account is like a deflated balloon, and you're forced to embark on a frugal lifestyle! I miss buying cheap street food that cost a few breadcrumbs, but no matter, I'm learning the beauty of self-restraint!

what it means if you like rereading books

2009-09-20T17:14:00.015-04:00

I read in a magazine that if a person likes to reread books, then he or she will most likely have a successful, happy marriage. Those who will never pick up the book again once it's finished, will most likely end in divorce. Before you start frantically analyzing your reading habits, keep in mind this was not a scientific study, but I can see the logic. Those who are always on the lookout to read new books are curious readers, and will probably have dipped their toes in all genres. Those who reread books will get to know each page intimately until the pages are yellow with dog-eared corners. These readers might even be able to recite their favourite lines, but their range of literature will be narrow. Perhaps the article was trying to warn those who get bored easily, that they should be wary of getting themselves entangled in a marriage trap. But anyway, the following is a careful selection of books you'll catch me rereading over and over again and still find infinitely intriguing.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

may all your words be golden apples

2009-08-11T08:26:00.010-04:00

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." Proverbs 25:11 (King James Bible)

Are you careful with what comes out of your mouth? Someone once said that the tongue is the smallest muscle in the human body, but it also commits the most sin. I always catch myself saying the wrong thing, be it offending, embarrassing, provoking, upsetting, exaggerating, lying, I've said it all. You can never take back what you say. It's not like chopping your hair off and it grows back, you may be forgiven for what you said, but it's never forgotten!

In the Bible, it says in Proverbs 25:11 (above) that words aptly spoken are like golden apples. If you say something fitting for the circumstances, it may be just the words that the other person needs to hear to bounce back from whatever he or she is going through. Here's a wise Chinese poem that I heard from church on how to use words with discretion, translated into English by yours truly.

說話的技巧 - 鄭丹瑞
急事，慢慢的說；
大事，清楚的說；
小事，幽默的說；
沒把握的事，謹慎的說；
沒發生的事，不要胡說；
做不到的事，別亂說；
傷害人的事，不能說；
討厭的事，對事不對人的說；
開心的事，看埸合說；
傷心的事，不要見人就說；
別人的事，小心的說；
自己的事，聽聽自己的心怎麼說；
現在的事，做了再說；
將來的事，計劃再說；
過去的事，不要再說；
不會發生的事，更不可再說；
如果對我有不滿意的地方，請一定要對我說。

"Techniques in Speaking" By Cheng, Dan-Shui
In emergencies, speak slowly.
On important matters, speak clearly.
On petty matters, speak humorously.
On uncertain matters, speak cautiously.
On matters that did not happen, don't fabricate.
On something you can't do, don't say it.
On matters that can hurt others, don't say it.
On troublesome matters, don't target the person but the matter at hand.
On joyous matters, say it only at the appropriate occasion.
On sorrowful matters, don't tell everyone you see.
On matters concerning others, speak cautiously.
On personal matters, listen to your heart first and then speak.
On matters right now, complete it first and then speak.
On future matters, plan it first and then speak.
On past matters, don't bring it up anymore.
On matters that will never happen again, all the more you shouldn't bring it up.
If there's something you find unsatisfactory about me, then please tell me.

the story behind a string of beads

2009-08-10T09:06:00.017-04:00

There's an area in Hong Kong known for selling beads - Sham Shui Po (深水埗). It's also known as the most seedy, crime-ridden district in Hong Kong. But day and night brings out different crowds on to the streets. In the daytime, Sham Shui Po is full of little old ladies buying beads to make prayer bracelets. I was charged with a mission from church - to buy green, black, red, white and yellow beads for our youth retreat, in order to make this:Each colour and its order has a meaning, and a lot of Christians in Hong Kong use this method (五色珠) to explain what it means to accept Christ and be reborn.

Green - Birth
Black - Death
Red - Jesus' Blood
White - Rebirth
Yellow - Celebration of New Life

We string them into beads so the kids can wear it on their wrist. If friends ask, they can explain what each colour means and it becomes a fun, pleasant way to share the gospel. My college friend Vanessa showed me her bracelet 2 years ago before I accepted Christ, and it left a deep impression. When I saw the beads again this summer, I could still remember each colour's meaning.

There's one particular store in Sham Shui Po that I particularly like because their specialty is in colour beads (pictured below), whereas other stores sell wooden or metal beads, but I personally find those hella tacky. When I asked the shop owner to show me beads of those 5 colours, she immediately knew I was from a church. "You here for those Christian bracelets, right? I know, I know!" she assured me and proceeded to show me what others have bought.

The shop owner lays out her boxes of beads in the alley next to the shop, where she can't even see what customers are doing most of the time. At first, I wondered why she'd be so relaxed and lenient, and I discovered why at the cashier.

It's because these plastic beads, made in China of course, are as cheap as rice. Side note: don't these plastic "pearls" (above) look like rice with that spoon! Anyway, I bought 50 of each colour, and 250 beads cost around HKD$60 dollars, that's only around USD$8.

The worth of one measly bead is so un-precious that I found beads of all styles and colours scattered all over the cracks between the sidewalk, quite literally the tutti frutti colours spilled onto the street. My favorite are the see-through jewel beads, the ones below even look a bit like gummy bears!

It was a summery day too, and since the shop owner had the boxes of beads strewn out in the sunlight, the beads were all glistening. It was surreal, you might say the colours are tacky, but I've always liked wearing any colour but black, so I thoroughly enjoyed this warm splash of colour galore in one of the darkest districts in Hong Kong.

Victoria's Secret designs Syracuse University gear

2009-08-02T11:39:00.012-04:00

Of course, you can trust Victoria's Secret to milk every drop of their popularity with college girls. Just look politely southward and you'll find PINK branded on a great many tushes across the US. In 2008, Victoria's Secret launched a contest where the top 10 schools with the most votes would get a VS Pink collection designed with their school's logo. Word got around on Facebook and you could vote as many times as you want, the idea is to vote continuously. My friend was such a trooper that she kept voting on her laptop in class, I voted my fair share too! Syracuse University managed to stay in the top 10 for a day before big public school bullies picked us up by the ears and threw us to the bottom of the heap. Tears were shed, we thought the day would never come that we'd see Otto the Orange printed on panties and boxer shorts.

But VS knows where the money's at, you don't turn your tushy on big bucks that can be made off college girls. We're such a profitable demographic. VS even has campus reps to figure us out. This year, they selected several more schools to create a "Class of 2009" collection and Syracuse was picked! We didn't get to have the panties, boxers and flip flops that the top 10 schools got, we just got these ordinary looking sweaters, t-shirts and sweatpants that look the same as the ones you can already buy at school. Click here for more of the Vict oria's Secret Syracuse Gear Collection.

Meh, nothing special right? But what gives it the brand image are the four letters PINK that are always in non-pink colours. Nonetheless, the designs are (yaaawn) ...unspectacular.

I'm more happy about the fact that we were even selected! Honestly, I'm beaming with pride, like a mother proud of her child, that SU is one of the 50 schools with a VS Pink collection, because it means we're a lively, fun campus, not to mention, we're a college of pretty girls! I also like to think that the 139439 times I voted when I should have been writing papers made a bit of difference. SU has now carved its place in collegiate lingerie history, if they decide to print Otto the Orange on panties I'll be first in line with 20 in hand for friends, there's nothing I want more than a tutti frutti tushy for me and my girls. For a complete list of the colleges, click here. And yes, they did get permission from the colleges to print their logo.

noah's ark on firm ground

2009-07-24T22:38:00.012-04:00

Dozens of Hong Kong Christian organizations and churches got together and built Noah's Ark using the God-commanded measurements in the Bible. I visited with the Vacation Bible School kids at my home church, and the kids absolutely loved the park. It's a museum inside the ark with movie showings and exhibitions, even a hotel. The park is Christian, but you wouldn't really be able to tell. The Christian themes were so subtly sneaked in that non-Christian visitors wouldn't feel that it's preachy and might not even have noticed it.

My non-Christian friends asked me if they made everyone watch brainwashing videos that would convert them, that is certainly not true. The whole ark is actually based around a discovery up on Mount Arafat of fossilized wood remains of Noah's Ark. When the flood waters were retreating, Noah's Ark had to 'park' on the highest point because that's the tip that would show through the water, so it ended up on Mount Arafat in Eastern Turkey. These explorers from Hong Kong that were part of a Christian media organization set out to find the remains of Noah's Ark to prove God's miracle, and they did. The theme of the park is: if you need to see it to believe it, then here it is. And that's how they sneaked in the Christian theme, subtly and tastefully done.

The Bible School was 5 days long with kids from kindergarten to Primary 6. I helped out in the Primary 1 age group, so they're around 5 to 7 years old. One of the girls, Wing Yan pictured on the far left, has a younger brother who's only 2 years old. When the teachers tried to take the younger brother to the kindergarten class, he started sobbing so they let the sister and brother stay in the same class. The older sister's only 5, but she took out a tissue from her little purse and started wiping his tears! And then she put her little hand on his back and started rubbing it and told him not to cry. I told her, "Wing Yan, you're a very good older sister. I'm an older sister too, my 15-year-old brother's over there and he's still very naughty and I have to take care of him still." She told me she finds her younger brother very annoying, he only knows how to cry and sometimes she just wants to throw him into the trash can. I asked her if she would enjoy the Bible class more if her brother didn't follow her around, she said absolutely. And then her brother started crying because he understood everything that was said, he's only 2! Don't underestimate kids, I learned. And when the little girl on the far right in the red shirt told the younger brother to be quiet once, Wing Yan told her, "Don't talk to him like that!" I was touched by how protective she was of him, I guess when you have to take care of someone at such a young age, it really makes you mature beyond your years. I remembered taking care of my own brother, sometimes I feel like the third parent because I always have to tell him off when my parents don't, but we're close. In fact, we're going squid fishing tonight! Here's a picture of us in our volunteer shirts with our dad.

spend an afternoon at a bookstore

2009-07-15T06:39:00.012-04:00

Bookstores are all over Hong Kong, but it's always the same old chain stores. Bookstores in Hong Kong are like a supermarket, stocking up on only the bestsellers. But each massive chain store has their style of books.

Page One: A mega bookstore selling primarily English books, mostly design and other tip top bestsellers. It's the most mainstream English bookstore in Hong Kong. They also have a smattering of Chinese books, and again, only the most popular. They recently jacked up the prices of all of their fiction books, so I find my former favourite bookstore less and less appealing.

Hong Kong Book Centre (Swindon): where my high school buddies and I bought our textbooks, they also sell other intellectual non-airhead English books.

Dymocks - known for their overpriced English books, a favourite haunt for foreigners. I find the place kind of pretentious, but it's probably the closest thing to a corner bookshop since it's always quite small.

Cosmos Books (Wanchai) - My favorite bookstore, it stocks mostly Chinese books and their publishing house, one of the most prestigious in Hong Kong, releases some of the best Chinese books on the market. I love their English section on the second floor because they sell books that you can't find anywhere else in Hong Kong. They have their fair share of trashy paperbacks, but they also sell a lot of literature that don't necessarily appeal to the general public. Their stationery section is also very extensive, and I stock up on all my college stationery there. It's also the only shop with a little stool, which is essential for reading expensive books that you'll never buy!

Commercial Press and Joint Publishing Press - They're two different stores with their own publishing firms, but they're really quite similar. Both sell primarily Chinese books, and I love spending time there. Their English section is minimal but the prices are always a little lower. They don't have the fancy schmancy furnishing like the stores geared for foreigners, but it's still so comfortable. Their primary target is local Hong Kongers.

And Hong Kong is dominated by these major bookstore chains. The idea of a 'corner bookstore' was completely foreign to me until I visited one in Greenwich Village. The guy at the counter owned the store, and he probably picked out each and every one of the books there. There was a row of books laid out on the sidewalk that were on sale, some of the pages were brown and the spines were dusty from the traffic. But I loved it, every book was precious.

I learned last summer from working at Muse magazine that Hong Kong also has its share of independently-owned corner bookstores, but to save costs, they usually take up a floor in an old decrepit building, most often in Mongkok where the crowds are large and rent is cheap. This week, I took my cousin Justin and his girlfriend Annie from Toronto bookstore hopping. Our first stop was HK Reader, a store I'd heard about at Muse. And it was such a cutesy, quaint shop with a plush couch and drinks for order. There is never seating in HK bookstores, unlike the abundant seating in American bookstores.

They sold a lot of indie artsy magazines like Muse in Hong Kong, which is usually not seen in major chain stores because not a lot of people buy them, even though they're at the forefront of any artistic thinking in the city. The government gives them funding and all, but you never know where to actually buy the magazine! I saw a lot of books there that I've never seen anywhere else. Their English section was minimal but all the books are intellectual, good stuff to bring over to the plush orange couch, order a latte and spend a whole afternoon losing yourself in the words. And you'd probably feel guilty about thumbing through the book and curling the covers that you'd willingly take out your wallet and fork out the cash for the book. At which point you will be asked to be a member of HK Reader, drawing you to return as a regular in the future. There's a sign in Chinese that says "Please don't steal, we are a small independently owned business." Meaning I guess, if you don't feel bad stealing from the major chain stores then have mercy on us because we can barely make ends meet.

Last summer, Muse did a feature on these 'upstairs bookstores' and showed how much the owners struggle for their businesses to survive. They're driven by what they believe in, which is the need of a place for intellectual discussions, and not by money. Their reward is not getting rich, but seeing people take advantage of the environment and their books.

These 'upstairs bookstores' are more common in Taipei, and Hong Kong probably got the idea from them. I'm going to make it a goal to visit more of these 'upstairs bookstores' in Hong Kong this summer.

Annie and I being narcissistic!

when one door closes, another opens

2009-07-12T22:53:00.007-04:00

Turns out my parents were more thankful than I that I wasn't crushed by the 4-storey tree, and said that a friend from church told them, if God does not will it, not even a single strand of hair will fall from your head. This saying is very similar to another Chinese saying so I never thought it was biblical. This morning, I did the online daily devotion that Minhee introduced, and it said

“Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” Matthew 10:29-31

The Chinese saying is that a father protects his daughter so much that if a boy takes his daughter out, and the father finds out that she had a single hair missing then the father will hunt the boy down. And here the scripture was placed right before me, two days after the near-death experience. God knows us so well that knows the number of hairs on our head, He'll never let us get hurt unless He wills it.

And here's another testimony. Coming back to Hong Kong, I'd spent about 2 weeks mulling about, basking in all the internship rejections from magazines and newspaper. My self-esteem took a nosedive and considered and re-considered if I was really cut out to be a journalist. I thought, if I can't even get an unpaid internship, then what makes me think I can get a paid full-time job. But my friend Michelle told me that when God closes a door, he opens another.

"When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
Alexander Graham Bell

And God waited awhile until He opened many doors for me, and I haven't looked back since. I realized I was too arrogant before, being over-confident that particular newspapers and magazines would definitely want to hire me. And all of a sudden, I realized I had no summer plans, a little strange for me because I've always enjoyed being busy and having plenty to do. I decided to try finding waitressing jobs, got an offer or two but turned them down in the end because it seemed so meaningless for so little money. I'm not against people doing part-time jobs, but only if it pays well right? I volunteered at an organization for domestic helpers and at this Christian media organization, but both didn't feel right. I became even more upset when alternative summer plans didn't work out, and felt like a downright loser.

I'd meet up with friends who are working, and they'd ask me how my summer was going bumming around. But just because I wasn't employed, doesn't mean my summer is going to be full of empty, listless hours! I prayed that I could do something for God this summer. Last summer, all I wanted to do was go on a mission trip to evangelize, but God closed that door. But eventually He let me work at an arts and culture magazine with almost all Christian employees, and I was beyond grateful. And I knew that if I prayed hard enough and truly believed, God will do the same this summer. I registered for a watercolour class at the Wanchai Art School, something I'd been wanting to learn since high school, and now I can't wait to start painting outdoors in Europe, or as the French would say, peintres du plein air! This was when I finally discovered the joys of FUNemployment (click to earlier post)

I was also intent on studying Chinese writing, but all of the university courses were starting too late in the year. And then one day, I was on a double decker bus on the top deck, and saw a street sign eye-level to me saying "Hong Kong Chinese Writing Centre". I was so impulsive that I pressed Stop and immediately got off the bus. I'd never done anything so impulsive, even the guy who owns the place couldn't believe that was how I found out about the centre and thought I just saw an ad or something. And so I signed up for two courses, one on essay writing and another on Chinese language. The thing is, everyone in that class is below 14 years old. But I don't see it as a drawback, it's truly humbling to meet so many smart kids. And it's really pushed me to realize, if a kid can figure this out, then by golly, you better know too. The class also teaches how to write creatively, which I can use for English writing anyway. Another fulfilling thing is helping out at the youth summer camp at my home church. It's good to feel useful again.

Here are some pictures from the 10km race I ran with my family in Tsuen Wan. The race started at 5pm to avoid the heat, but it was still incredibly hot. Each kilometer was hard but we all pulled through and passed the finish line drenched in sweat.

the tree that almost crushed me

2009-07-10T20:26:00.007-04:00

The sun was shining, I had my shades on. There was a scattered shower an hour earlier, but the day was looking good. I was already a little late to the U.S. college forum where I had to introduce Syracuse to high schoolers. But drats! I realized I'd left my wallet in the other bag, I always do that. So I sprinted back and there are two paths back to the bus stop, separated by a line of trees.

Suddenly, I heard a thunderous, abnormally loud WHAM! A tree toppled over about 5 car spaces behind me. The 30-year-old tree is about 4 floors tall. At first I thought the collapse was man-made, because some men have been cutting trees to make it shorter so a branch won't fall off and kill someone. but I saw the messy exposed roots and knew it wasn't a clean cut. And I was later told by the security guard that when you actually chop a tree, you do it in bits and pieces to be safe, never from the bottom of the trunk.

There was a strange stench coming from the tree. I found out it's from the rotting wood. It's hard to imagine that tiny white ants can collapse a tree. Just like dripping water can create stalactites in caves.

I was so relieved that I wasn't crushed and thanked God that it wasn't my time to go. I quickly texted some good friends about the experience, although if I could twit through my phone then Twitter would have served this purpose more conveniently.

In the picture below, you can see in the right bottom corner where the insides of the trunk seem a bit gray and mushy, that's from the termites chewing through. The security guard said there was no way anyone could known the insides were disintegrating, it looked perfectly healthy outside. It seemed so healthy that it was even oozing a healthy amount of tree oil that people use for wood lacquer. Trees collapse in Hong Kong all the time, especially in monsoon season. The Hong Kong government recently decided to start examining trees that pose a danger to people if it collapses. It's impossible to check with the naked eye, only through science.

And as a writer, it's so fascinating to think of all the life metaphors that a 4-storey tall tree with a disintegrating core that looks healthy on the outside can be.

Are you on the brink of collapsing but no one can tell?

floating book fair

2009-07-05T12:32:00.012-04:00

The Doulos ship sails around the world and sells cheap but new books donated by booksellers. It's a Christian ministry dedicated to providing affordable and top notch reading material to coastal cities around the world. The Doulos had sailed from Taiwan and anchored off at Tsim Sha Tsui for 4 weeks this summer, we Hongkies got to peruse books that have sailed around the world. And I'm a huge bookworm so the idea of a floating book fair drew me like hanging a bone in a dog's face, and I immediately dragged any friend who was remotely nerdish to join me. So Gloria it was, target locked.

And boy, was it hot. I liked it so much I ended up going twice. I remember going the first time at dusk with Gloria, and we were both slightly dehydrated because we were too cheap to buy a drink on the ship. I got a bit dizzy from trying to read while the ship was swaying on the choppy waves. Our initial mission of buying cheap books quickly became operation GTFO (get the frick out). We rushed to Pacific Coffee at the port like it was an oasis. But again, we were too cheap to splurge on a HKD$30 fruit juice, something we would never buy if it didn't feel like we just came back from sailing through a typhoon and drank a tank of seawater.

The second time was much better because it was in the evening, and there was a slight breeze, which really helps on a ship with no AC. Initially, I found it a bit surprising to see so many Christian books, and immediately thought it was because Christian booksellers are probably more keen on charity.

I began to wonder if they realize stocking up on so many Christian books would turn off a lot of people. But I soon noticed they were blasting Hillsong on the speakers. I hadn't heard Hillsong since returning home from college, and it felt like reuniting with an old BFF that you feel so guilty for forgetting about. Now, I'm the type of person who picks up an interest as quickly as I ditch one. Sometimes I ditch my faith as easily as I ditch a burned out hobby. So dear God, thanks for surprising me in the least likely of places, I needed the reminder.

The ship sells books in the local currency, to save the trouble of changing the price tags, all the books are priced in units (pictured above). So all they need to do is replace the scale of the units according to the currency of the city they're at.

The volunteers who work on the ship are from all over. They were all wearing a tag with the flag of the country they're from. I peeked over the ledge of the ship and saw these two European volunteers taking a break on the port. The guy was teaching the girl how to dance salsa I think, and he was swinging her around, I was gushing at how cute they were. But anyway, these volunteers are basically missionaries who are serving God through the ship, and every time they arrive at a new city, they do a lot of community service and mingle with locals. God's a funny guy, He has so many cool ways of letting us serve.

Below, in the picture where I'm trying to snub out the tallest building in the skyline is the IFC, the tallest building in Hong Kong. I always thought it looked a bit like it's giving someone the finger, just because it really really sticks out, doesn't it?? So look at me snubbing out this rude gesture, and I don't know why Michelle is snubbing out me, maybe she doesn't like my new short hairdo. So many people don't, I don't know why!

As I'm writing this, the Doulos is on its way to Cambodia, bon voyage! Hope the thunderstorms in the region (in all its meanings, but there literally is a thunderstorm right now) will be kind to the ship and open up a safe passage.

joys of FUNemployment

2009-06-24T14:54:00.006-04:00

Time's lexicon of the week is Funemployed n. - People who have found they enjoy being out of work.

Usage: "The funemployed write blogs, issue regular updates on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter and devote entire websites to helpful advice and enouragement on how to make the most of the U.S. government's $475 weekly dole check." - Times of London, June 14 2009.

Urban Dictionary defines it as someone who is enjoying the freetime of unemployment beause they can finally do what they want, and these people are usually not in a hurry to find a job. Funemployed- that's me! I'm jobless but I get buckets of free time now to explore and pursue everything that I'd brushed off before because I was too busy. I'm learning watercolour painting right now which I've always wanted to learn since high school. Funemployment is the only time to do something out of the ordinary because you have no one to answer to!

in tune with france

2009-06-23T13:22:00.029-04:00

I love listening to spoken French, especially when French is sung. Some of the most famous jazz songs were written in Paris back in the day, like Edith Piath's La Vie En Rose, which became so popular that Louis Armstrong sang a cover too. But the French didn't like jazz initially because it was seen as an American influene. New Orleans, heavy with French influence, claims to be the birthplace of jazz, maybe that's why Americans took an instant to the songs from Paris, and who isn't a Parisphile? Everything from that city is treated with extra oohs and aahs. So I've compiled a list of some famous French jazz songs sung in my favourite version. And plus a smattering of non-Eurotrash contemporary French songs. This will be the summer playlist as I prepare for a whirlwind semester abroad à la France!

1. Ailleurs - Keren Ann
2. C'est Si Bon - Eartha Kitt
3. J'attendrai - Rina Ketty
4. J'ai Deux Amours - Madeleine Peyroux
5. Ma Jeunesse - Carla Bruni
6. Sympathique - Pink Martini
7. I Love Paris - Frank Sinatra
8. Moi Je Joue - Brigitte Bardot (from Dior's Miss Cherie ad)
9. Ne Me Quitte Pas - Nina Simone
12. La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf

Image from Paris Je T'aime (I Love Paris), collection of 18 short films that use 18 arrondisements or districts in Paris as the setting.

a jiggly mountain of rice

2009-06-18T20:57:00.010-04:00

I was inspired by Boston.com's The Big Picture, a visual blog where an abnormally large and top-notch quality photograph is posted to tell a story. The captions are minimal, the point is for the photo to tell the story. The image is enlarged to be big enough so you can view it fully on an 800x600 screen without having to scroll. PC magazine named it one of the "Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites."

So I'm going to try my hand at visual blogging! My two friends from University of Buffalo have a photography project called "360" where they take a picture of themselves everyday for a whole year and post it on Flickr, and they try to incorporate something they were doing that day into the picture, it's very artsy! The one who thought of the idea is already steadily on track, with 135 out of 365.

So yesterday, I met up with two old Summerbridge friends to have dinner at an Indonesian restaurant that gets excellent reviews on Openrice.com. I'm not a foodie at all so I trust restaurant reviews with my life. And this one turned out to be a disappointment. We asked for three bowls of rice and they came back with three interesting mounds of rice on one plate. They did that by scooping the rice into a banana leaf folded into a cone.

It was fine and dandy, quite amusing too when you wobble the plate to make the rice mounds jiggle! But when you have to shift the mountain of rice with a fork and spoon, it gets so clumsy and messy, and you realize that ultimately one would prefer food to be delicious, not amusing. And this restaurant served us heaps and heaps of the latter.

Afterwards, we headed off to Toast Box, the famous Singaporean chainstore selling kaya toast, a coconut jam that looks like peanut butter. We also had a tall glass of barley water, my favourite in the sweltering heat of Singapore. My parents adore Toast Box whenever they're in Singapore and would really appreciate it if I stop mentioning them in every blog post. (By the way, please click on the links, I used LMGTFY to google it for you already!)

Anyway, they wouldn't allow pictures in Toast Box and I really want to show you guys the artery-clogging mound of butter, which they slice a thick piece off to put in the toast. So I found this picture on the Kuala Lumpur Daily Photo Blog (thanks! you possess the only picture of it on the internet) coincidentally another daily photo blog and which I have become a big fan of. And as a self-titled trendspotter, I see a notable trend in hearty carbs in tall shapes!

an abnormally big picture

smitten by france

2009-06-17T09:53:00.024-04:00

paris je t'aime

The French embassy in Hong Kong sponsors a month-long of French performances and exhibitions in a series called Le French May. The whole of May is dedicated to the dazzling splendors of France, Paris in particular, which has everyone who loves romance enraptured. June is dedicated to Italian culture, but it's nowhere near as popular as Le French May.

I went to The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947 -57 exhibition (pictured above)at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, showcasing elegant and simple dresses and suits shipped here from the Albert and Victoria Museum in London. Back in the day, couture used to make up a whopping 5% of the GDP of France. It coincides perfectly with the showing of Coco Avant Chanel in theatres, with their own display of Chanel 3-piece suits.

Hong Kong is in a luxury frenzy right now. This couture exhibition is sponsored by Christian Dior. In Tsim Sha Tsui at the HK Art Museum, there is a French modern/futuristic/psychedelic art exhibition sponsored by Louis Vuittion. And the current blockbuster is Coco Avant Chanel. Every female is swept with images of elegant French ladies in embroidered gowns, with their long white necks wearing hats wider and more outrageous than a UFO. Oh the French and their impeccable style, we Hongkies love French luxury goods. If you walk around Causeway Bay, you'll see a lot of young girls slinging LV, Gucci or Dior handbags, paid for obviously by their sugar daddy (read: father or boyfriend). Chanel is more popular with the mature crowd.

My friend Kevin pointed out that Le French May is not even grammatically or linguistically correct, it should actually be: Le mai français. But no need to be realistic, after all, Hongkies' infatuation with France is mostly based on quirky art films like Amélie and young women's romantic ideals. And today's couture exhibition cemented all associations I have of France with all things girly and pretty.

Paris is the embodiment of cheesy romance: wine, champagne, candle-lit dinner, roses, chocolates, luxury, all that jazz that I've never been a fan of, because it's so unoriginal if a guy does it. But of course, how can any place beat Paris as the most ideal place for a honeymoon, the best place to pop the question or do all things that make your heart swoon. Honestly how can one possibly beat a city nicknamed City of Love, le cité d'amour! <3 style="font-style: italic;">Amélie. Kevin, who also took French, said he's into French culture because of its quirkiness. The psychedelic French modern art exhibition sponsored by Louis Vuitton certainly proves that French art is quirky, bordering on insane, there were several times where I felt nauseous. But I'm infatuated with France simply for its prettiness. It all began with Disney's Beauty and the Beast that was obviously set in France, it never outrightly says so but you can't deny it when the opening number is called Bonjour and the characters are called Belle and Gaston. Belle has always been my favorite Disney character because she loves to read and isn't shallow! And in high school, I loved the yellow gas lamps in Van Gogh's paintings in Arles.

And then I fell in love with movies like Amélie, Paris Je T'aime, Love Me if You Dare, Les Triplettes des Belleville, Before Sunset, Perfume... Everything about France is just... pretty! I imagine peonies, cupcakes, macarons, frilly dresses... I also love everything that has a French colonial influence, such as the French Quarter in New Orleans, or the French buildings in Vietnam. I guess it runs in the family too because my mum loves French culture too, and took French lessons when she was young. She was disappointed that I dropped French in middle school so she made my brother, 11 at the time, take French classes which he never forgave my mum for. I picked up French again in college to fulfill a langauge requirement and ended up falling in love with it, although I still find the lessons excruciating. My mum is just as excited as me about studying abroad in Strasbourg, so she along with my dad and brother will be joining joining me in France this Christmas!

The light and airy Christian Dior perfume Miss Cherie commercial sums up my infatuation with France pretty well. It was directed by Sofia Coppola who also directed Marie Antoinette:

Scene from The Red Balloon (1956) that inspired the Dior ad.

Continuing my new obsession with colourful helium balloons lifting off. Audrey Hepburn at the Champs Elysee in Funny Face. This year's Pixar movie Up (2009).

travelling with a companion

2009-06-13T20:35:00.022-04:00

if i can make it there,
i can make it anywhere.
it's up to you -
New York New York.

When my dad was 20 (my age!) doing his degree in Australia, he saved up enough money to travel alone in North America for 2 months. It was after his second year in university, just like me! As a college gift, he gave me a Lonely Planet Guide to USA book to do the same, and after two years, the now frayed-edge book has accompanied me all over the US. My dad bought a Greyhound package for USD99 that allowed him to take the bus for an unlimited number of times to anywhere for a month. He also had a 1-month Continental Airline package for USD500 that also allowed him to travel anywhere. He roamed the U.S. and Canada from the East to the West, making stops in Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Diego, New Orleans, even Honolulu, dropping by to visit all of his relatives. He even crossed the border briefly while he was in El Paso, Texas to check Mexico off the list. I was always inspired to attempt a travelling stint alone someday too with my own hard-earned money, but that won't be possible for another couple of years. Travelling alone seems so enjoyable, no one to cater to, no one to argue with on where to stay, where to eat, where to go next. No one who will get mad at you for reading the map wrong and getting lost. No one who will complain when you're doing something only you want to do.

This summer, I ventured into New York City alone. I hopped off the bus from New Jersey and couldn't wait to start exploring the places that none of my friends ever wanted to see or are too busy to take the time to see it. All I get from friends saying I want to visit the Museum of Sex is chuckles, never "well what're we waiting for?!" I've also always wanted to go the Turkish bathhouse in the Meatpacking District given top marks by Lonely Planet. Although the Museum of Sex and Turkish bathhouse is probably more fun enjoyed with a significant other, I'll wait till my honeymoon. Actually no, I'll want to go travelling with the guy I plan to marry because travelling with them will show whether or not you two are truly compatible, it's true, I know from experience, well not with a guy but with a friend. Mark Twain would agree! He said, "I have found out there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them."

Anyway, the NYC day trip soon got a bit lonely. I was at Grand Central Terminal admiring the glorious columns and arches, and really wanted to talk about it with someone. Alas, there was no one there so I moved on to the next destination.

But no matter, I shrugged off the loneliness very quickly. There were multiple times where I had to backtrack and retrace my route because I'd taken the wrong turn somewhere, and there was no one who got mad at me about it. I buried my nose in the Lonely Planet Guide to USA, trying to figure out the perpendicular lines on the map. There were multiple eureka moments: 1)Figuring out the very simple structure of streets and avenues. 2) What it means to go uptown and downtown on the subway. After that, I had NYC figured out. Riding the subway alone and arriving at the destination gave me an incomparable sense of accomplishment.

Columbia was once my dream school and I used to spend endless hours scrolling through the photos on their website in between doing SAT practice tests. To fulfill a childhood dream, I made it a point to visit and I knew this was something no that many people were interested in doing. What's the point after all of visiting a school that rejected you. When I got rejected, my dad used to cheer me up and say I should visit the campus someday, walk into a building and lay a huge, toxic silent-killer fart. I ended up riding the subway uptown to the wrong side of Manhattan and winded up in Spanish Harlem instead of Morningside Heights. It was an unexpected detour that allowed me to see a side of Manhattan that the double-decker tour buses won't show you. The Latino music pouring out from shops put a bounce in my step! And meh, Columbia wasn't that great, totally over it. I'd take the secluded campus life of Syracuse over a city school any day. Next stop, Port Authority to meet Jin for dinner at K-town!

After a lovely Korean meal of my favourite kimchi jigae (kimchi soup) Jin who took me to the top of the Empire State Building. After spending a whole day roaming alone, it was refreshing to have someone to speak to. And the Empire State Building is a cliche tourist stop for a reason, don't avoid it, pay the USD20, and go at night! It's worth it!

I asked my dad if he ever got bored eating by himself when he was travelling, he admitted, yes. On my second day trip to the city, I made sure I had a travelling companion. Ann, (pictured up top) an art history buff, accompanied me to the Met and the Guggenheim Museum (pictured above). We even went to the top floor of the Met which overlooked Central Park. I'd already visited the very edgy MOMA twice on previous trips. I'm friends with a lot of New Yorkers and none of them wanted to visit the Met or Guggenheim with me except Ann. Again, I took the subway to the wrong side of Manhattan and had to run through Central Park to get to the right side. Seeing paintings at the Met that I'd studied before at West Island felt incredible. Guggenheim was a bit of a letdown because it was mainly Frank Gehry's architectural sketches, and I was more into pretty paintings. But the Guggenheim reminded my homesick self of the Bauhaus-style Wan Chai Market that's being torn down right now. First they tore down Star Ferry, now this. You tell me if the Wan Chai Market is worth preserving.

Comparing the Bauhaus design of the Guggenheim (top) and Wanchai Market.

a new hairdo

2009-06-13T04:24:00.027-04:00

let down your hurr!
Picture from the new Chanel No. 5 ad released at the same time as the movie Coco Avant Chanel. Filmed on the Orient Express with beautiful scenes in Paris and the train's final stop, Istanbul! Watch the ad here:

"A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life."
said Coco Chanel's beau Etienne Balsan in Coco Avant Chanel.

Coco Chanel said she cut her hair because it got in the way. I got a pixie cut this morning, my hair is so short that the hairdresser even buzzed the bottom! It feels so light and fresh, I can feel the breeze on the nape of my neck! Although when the hairdresser said, "OK don't be scared now," it caught me off-guard. The next thing I knew he was buzzing my neck! My dad and I got our haircut together and I joked that we were getting the same hairstyle. My 15-year-old brother absolutely hates it and covered his eyes in disgust when he saw my new hairdo. Girls should have long hair, not hair like mine, he told me firmly with his face wincing in disapproval.

The last time I cut my hair this short was also when I was 15, and I looked middle age with my mumsy-looking hairdo. It was the first time people started saying I look like my mum, although I kept thinking they were saying I look like a mum. But I was in a fit of teenage angst when I decided to take the plunge and chop off all that hair, I was sick of getting mixed up with all the other girls at school! Someone had called me by another name, another Chinese girl with long hair, and I was finding it annoying that no teachers ever seemed to learn my name. Was I that forgettable?! I don't have striking features, there's nothing spectacular about my face. My fashion sense is also very mediocre. I'd had enough of getting mixed up with other people! I was also struggling with a bit of low self-esteem and believed I was boring and will never do anything outstanding. So I perused through all my precious Seventeens and CosmoGIRL!s (R.I.P.) and found pictures of actresses with cute pixie cuts, and found one of Brittany Murphy that I adored. I clutched the picture and went to the barbershop, shaking with nerves. I remember being so nervous going to school the next day, that I wore a hairband and so many clips that from faraway it looked like I'd just tied my hair up.

It's just hair after all. At coffee yesterday evening, Michelle told me her boyfriend would get so mad if she cut her hair short. She said guys like running their fingers through a girl's long hair. I agree, why would a guy want to date a girl who has the same haircut as them. But I could never bring myself to decide on a haircut based on how many guys I can make weak at the knees. I'm not a peacock, there's more to life than finding a lifelong mate. There is one guy out there and he will not give a rat's ass that my hair is short like his, or maybe his hair will be longer than mine! I believe every girl should get a very short haircut at least once in their lifetime, people might make a few comments but it's only because they're jealous that you had the guts to take the plunge and they didn't. And I assure you, you will not look like a boy. I wear plenty of colourful hair accessories and big earrings that you will know I'm a girl from miles away!

driving lessons

2009-06-12T06:02:00.011-04:00

the rules of the road

"Just because we give you a driving permit, doesn't mean you know how to drive, it just means you know how to operate an automobile," said one of my driving instructors. He said it's all experience, you have to have close-calls, almost-accidents, anything that will test your alertness.

I've been taking driving lessons at the nearby motoring academy and we drive around in an industrial area with very little traffic, which means being the king of these streets does not give you bragging rights on the mean streets outside. Hong Kong is known for its narrow hilly roads, so narrow that two cars have to squeeze past each other without falling off the cliff. The driving instructor said, you don't even know how to parallel-park on a hill yet! Now that's true mastery of the art of driving!

Maserati and Ferrari have their showrooms there too so a lot of buyers have their test runs on these sleepy roads that the police rarely visit. And alas, the last thing they want to see is a learner's car crawling along unaware that a traffic jam is building behind it. So on open roads, I'd find sleek, sexy, fancy-schmancy sports cars driving around me furiously, spitting black exhaust fume in my modest Toyota Corolla's face, flipping me off in a way only a car could do. I didn't know I was on a real life set of The Fast and the Furious. The instructor would proceed to yell, "You're too slow! No one drives on first gear, it's just for starting the car!"

I'm learning how to drive manual right now, and it's really not for lazy people, or for the mechanically retarded such as myself. The automatic car learners have it so much easier. I still remember when I was 15 years old in Sydney sitting next to my cousin Ken in his Skyline sports car. Just for kicks, he told me to shift gears for him. He explained how simple it was, push up for 1! Push down for 2! Push up and slide sidewards and up for 3! I told him, it really doesn't seem that simple to me as it does to you, so please don't make me shift gears for you!!! But he made me try it anyway, which resulted in him yelling "3! 3! 3!" and me shifting the stick to the wrong gear and his precious Skyline had to crawl up a steep hill screaming and lurching, the engine was in so much agony!

Driving has also been the biggest test of my courage and judgment. The first time I shifted gears to 3 was absolutely thrilling. Turning into a busy lane and watching for traffic, waiting for the golden opportunity to arise and then turning quickly into the lane. I've been told many times that I drive too slow. My grandpa got a ticket for driving too slow, how awful. So most times, I have to tell myself to just GO! Don't be afraid, just go! Before that Ferrari knocks you out of the way and charges ahead!

empty, listless summer days

2009-04-27T21:03:00.029-04:00

a summer without a plan

For the first time in a long time, I found myself without a plan. How was I going to spend the next two and a half months? It's summertime! The season of tan lines, excrutiating sunburns and new freckles. The ripe time for new and renewed friendships and blooming summer flings! And alas, also the time of summer jobs and internships. Last summer was the first time I understood the monotonous boredom of a 9-to-5 job. I had told myself last summer that I absolutely refuse to sit in a cubicle licking stamps during the best season of the year while the first digit of my age is still 1. This was confirmed when my meticulous colleague glared at me disapprovingly for actually putting my tongue on such a filthy substance and proceeded to get water from the cooler to use instead of his saliva. F my life, the day I start caring about how I make a stamp sticky is the day I have lost any remnants of youth.

So why did it tick me off so much when I didn't hear back from at least 60 places. Yes I most certainly applied to intern/or work part-time at 60 places. I wanted to fulfill my teenage dream of working at a glamorous magazine in New York City, a Manhattanite journalist, a whippersnapper strolling in Greenwich Village! How yuppie! I decided to go to the frozen tundra of Syracuse to be as close to New York City as possible! And the summer before my junior year was supposed to be the summer my dream came true! Plans, expectations, it's what I've always based my life around. Alas, I only heard back from a baby magazine, and that one did not even offer me an interview.

So back to Hong Kong it was, and I was fine with that since my homesickness was at a severe stage where I was amusing myself with looking at the Hong Kong study abroad catalogue. There was only one remedy that could save my sanity: to go home. So I applied to my favorite newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong, confident that I'd snag something - SOMETHING! I also applied to work at Disneyland, local restaurants, shops. Again, nothing.

Now what? I was offered a waitressing job at a beachfront restaurant, but it was going to be 6 nights a week paying only 7 HK dollars per hour! Is that even legal? I thought minimum wages was 16/hr, I should sue! And that means I'll never see my parents at home. I don't want the second last summer holiday of my life to just slip away, my life has always been very industrial. I enjoy making plans, having a week's schedule packed. I hate the prospect of an empty day. I feel absolutely disgusting when I've spent a whole day at home napping and accomplishing nothing, like last Tuesday.

So to pass the time, I've been busy taking driving lessons which I'm enjoying every minute of. I love being in control of an automobile, shifting the gear stick and stepping on the gas is so thrilling! And I've been busy renewing my passport and trying to get a French visa, in preparation for my whirlwind study abroad semester in France! It's going to be tres magnifique, and my heart makes little somersaults every time I flip open the Dorling Kindersley Guide to Europe book that I borrowed from the public library. Every page is adorned with photos covering countries from Scandinavia to the former Soviet Bloc to the sunny Mediterranean coasts.

But for now, I have the next two months to make use of. This summer will not go to waste. I'm 19, at the prime of my life. I need to get my fat-Sophomore-15 ass out there (first, lose that sophomore-15 ass) and stop waiting around for opportunities to come to me, and make it happen for myself. I can pep-talk myself here all day but the sticky heat just makes you so darn lazy...

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my whippersnapper journalist/Eurotrip buddy who's livin' it up at Conde Nast: SARAH LEE! Here's to the next 2 decades of your fab life!

At the French Quarter in New Orleans in May '09!

a nice big WHOPPER UPDATE!

2009-04-10T02:42:00.006-04:00

in need of an
ice cold refreshment

It's the final lap of sophomore year, and everyone's been saying to 'finish strong'. I'm looking forward to collapsing after the final stretch, and kickin back with an ice cold refreshment.

My laptop got a virus recently from downloading music (yes it's karma) so I've had to go to the library or to Kimmel computer cluster to work every night. So I've been pulling all nighters almost every night, usually taking short naps and then head straight to class. Going to class without having brushed your teeth or a change of clothes makes you feel filthy, smelly and ugly, your self-confidence drops to sub-zero, and you find yourself avoiding people you know on campus, the only thing on your mind is get back to the dorm and take a long hot shower, and PASS. OUT. All nighters messes you up in ways you cannot imagine, your body starts confusing night with day, and day with night. Today, I slept at 5pm after pulling an all nighter. A friend dropped by to see Daisy at around 10pm and woke me up, I was about to get angry and ask why he was so rude to knock so loudly on the door in the middle of the night! Until I realized oops, it's your mind F-ing with you, it's only 10pm, fool!

Yesterday night at my geograhy exam review session, my professor called me out on sleeping. "JENNY!" he yelled, and the whole class turned around to find me jumping up, saying "sorry sorry!" and the whole class cracked up, sigh... I just laughed it with them, it's better not to take yourself seriously when life's gone up the wall, off the charts.

Craving order to my life, this semester I decided to invest in a planner. When someone says, "lunch on Friday!" I immediately take out my planner, jot it down and fit them into my schedule, then slam the planner shut and slip it back into my backpack, and feel an instant sensation of what it feels to be organized! My next purchase: a crackberry!

Ahh not a hair out of place, all my buttons are aligned, my socks are the same color, check, check, check! No nose hair sticking out, shaved my legs, no body odor from sleeping in the library, CHECK, CHECK, CHECK! Sigh, if only I could be so organized.

Just to show you how much of a mess I was, I want to share with you this wonderful little testimony from a week ago, please read it, it was a big encouragement to me.

So I was in the library about to start writing my profile on Mustafa, the Iraqi Fulbright scholar. I realized that the hour long interview I taped was not recorded because I forgot to turn on the microphone! I prayed to God and told Him how tired I was. One of my favorite verses came to mind:

"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

I was so upset because it had been days and days of work, and I didn't know how to backtrack and do it all again. On top of that, I was so sleep-deprived and hadn't slept in my bed for days. I was being emotional and felt like I was about to collapse with all the demands of college. So I prayed, sat down, and thought to myself, I'll get to work on something else and worry about it tomorrow. I'll think of something, I always do. So I get to work on my New Orleans Missions trip support letter.

Next to me was a tall guy working on a project. He asks me how to make a graph on Microsoft Word. I tell him, you actually make it on Microsoft Excel. He looks back at me blankly and asks me if I can show him how to do it. I got a little frustrated because I was in a terrible mood and didn't feel like talking to anyone, but I showed him anyway. The computer froze halfway and I had to show him how to control-alt-delete which frustrated me even more, I began to think this guy must've been born in the Stone Age.

He annoys me even further by making conversation with me, and asks me what I'm working on. I tell him I'm writing a profile on an Iraqi student, but I lost the whole interview because my recorder didn't pick it up. He asks me what his name is.

Not like you'd know anyway, I thought in my head, "Mustafa."

"Let me show you something," he says, and pulls up a Daily Orange profile on Mustafa.

"Yeah, what about it? I've read it before," I tell him.

"Well, I wrote the article, and I can tell you anything you need about him."

God was looking after me that night, and he heard my prayer! And my journalism professor gave me an A for the article, an encouragement I really needed because I was beginning to doubt whether I was good at something I was about to devote my whole life to. Anyway, God gave me the rest that I sorely needed, when you call, He will answer!

'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you." Jeremiah 29:12

Mum, Dad, here are some photos of what I've been up to this semester!

This is Philadelphia during spring break. Mum - I kept thinking of Philadelphia the movie, you know the scene where he walks out onto the street after finding out he has AIDs!
That is the cracked Independence Bell.

In Rittenhouse Square, the hipster park in Philly. Snowboarding at Toggenburg, about half an hour away from Syracuse. Mum, I'm wearing the wool hat you bought from Niseko!

At Chinese New Year, with the girls from Hong Kong. We performed a Chinese fan dance! Mum do you recognize your red jacket? OCMD Spring Break 09 Girls Gone Wiiiiiilllddddd!!!!!! (And Williams too!)

Ocean City, Maryland. It was way too cold to swim but my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean!

Travel Magazine

2008-11-18T21:48:00.003-05:00

Hey mum and dad,

this is a Graphics class project that I was working on. We had to design a few pages in a magazine, and this is my article on durians, I didn't write it, it was taken from Vogue magazine. But I designed the layout! Do you think it looks like a real magazine?

19th birthday

2008-10-11T11:44:00.002-04:00

Conveyor Belt Sushi restaurant downtown in Armory Square. Mum and Dad, you didn't visit downtown Syracuse when you dropped me off in college. When you come for my graduation in May 2011, I will take you downtown for a visit. It looks like a bit like New York City, just look below:

There are so many boutiques and fancy restaurants.

My old floormates from Boland Hall, they were my neighbors. The one on the left is Jenae and she's from the Virgin Islands. The one on my right is Jo from Shanghai.

My room in its messy state.

Sissy and Neilsen, Hong Kong buddies, baked apple crumble for my birthday!
Singing K with all the Hong Kong people.
My surprise birthday party on Oct 2nd! I came home and opened the door, and they were all in my room! It was a very good day.

A birthday cake I got from owner of Bleu Monkey. The owner is a man from Hong Kong, in fact he lives in Shau Kei Wan. They have two restaurants now, sushi and a new tse-tsai-meen one. Michelle works in Bleu Monkey, and so does my roommate Daisy. Michelle works in the tse-tsai-meen restaurant, and Daisy works in the sushi restaurant. That's Michelle and Ricky, two of my good friends in college.

I also went on a field trip on my birthday. This is my HUM100 Faith Communities in Syracuse class. It's only 1 credit and we meet once a week only. We went on a field trip to St. George Macedonian Eastern Orthodox Church, and it was gorgeous.

My birthday cake from church friends. The girl on my right in the fleece is my small group leader.
This is Stacy, she's also in my cell group. We realized our colors really matched, and they reminded us of the Chinese flag.
Birthday cupcakes <3

birthday wishes from Chris

2008-10-01T14:22:00.000-04:00

The best birthday gift ever

an update on what I've been doing

2008-09-28T21:19:00.001-04:00

Roommate Daisy's 19th birthday picnic in the Rose GardenPreparing for the picnic in my room. These are the girls who live on my floor in Watson Hall.
The welcoming poster I helped make for church, it's called The Grove Church. I drew the letters on the branches, Love Body Mind Soul.

Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration Night! I was the one of the MCs because they needed one person from Hong Kong to do it. Below is Amy, she's a Chinese American from NYC.

I was MC of the night with another person called Jonathan. He's from another organization called ASIA (Asian Students in America). He's also my good friend, and he comes from San Francisco.

The Hong Kong students performed 月亮代表我的心.

Campus Crusade Fall Retreat
There were a lot of colleges from all over New York State so we got to meet a lot of people. It was also a nice break from studying, and I really wanted to escape from Syracuse for the weekend.

The theme of the retreat was 'Light of the World' (Acts 17:11)
At the lake after I went swimming in the cold water. There was a lot of long seaweed in the water, it was kind of scary to swim through it.

This is where we had sermon and praise. There were a lot of deaf students who came to the retreat from Rochester Institute of Technology, so when the deaf students were performing, instead of clapping our hands because they can't hear anyway, we would raise our hands and shake them in the air in order to show our encouragement.

This is Sulisa and Peter from University of Buffalo. Vanessa and I met them during the Campus Crusade trip to Florida, so we were really happy to see them again.

This is Don who goes to Cornell. Vanessa and I had a lot of fun chatting with him because he's a Korean student, but just started to learn Mandarin, so we were trying to chat with him in Chinese. The girl next to Vanessa is Grace who goes to Syracuse with us.

My Room

2008-09-11T00:08:00.004-04:00

To Mum, Dad, Chris and Florence
My Gigantic Room in Watson Hall

My dorm is right on campus, on University Place, so it's right in the centre of campus, next to the Main Library and Student Center. It only takes me 5 minutes to get to class, so I can sleep till really late! My first class from Monday to Friday is at 10:30am, so life is quite nice!

That's Daisy's television on top of my fridge, I like to watch the news and Daisy likes to watch America's Next Top Model. The room is very sunny and spacious, but it's right next to the construction site of the new dorm, and the noise always wakes me up promptly at 7:30am every morning.

I'll be leading a small group with another girl from church called Gina, she is a Year 3 Illustration student, and she is very Christian. I will be her assistant and she will train me in how to be a small group leader. We will do it in my room because there is so much room, and it will be convenient for everyone, so I'm very excited that God can make such good use for my room.

Every room has a couch but it is very uncomfortable, I prefer to sit on the floor. Sometimes when I have too much work, Nergish taught me to take a nap on the floor, you will surely wake up in less than 20 minutes because it's so uncomfortable. You get back up and start working.

Mum, you see the picture of Christian Bale on my closet door? He is very good looking in his Armani suit. It's a Giorgio Armani ad in a magazine.

My roommate now, Daisy, is the girl wearing glasses wearing a gray top. Katie Mae is the one right next to me. She lives on South Campus in a campus apartment. That's where Sissy and Vanessa live too, they have their own kitchen and bathroom, but they have to
take the bus to class, and I'm too lazy to do that.

The Hong Kong Girls
Me, Vanessa, Michelle, Aimee, Sissy and Elyssa (the one who slept over). We were in Skaneateles, a lakeside town 45 minutes away from Syracuse. Our grad school friend Ronald drove us there as a treat, Kevin was there too but he wasn't included in this ladies photo.