(import - may 10) stop and smell the flowers

I’m still in the interview process and meeting potential employers, but the feeling of “urgentness” in finding a job is wearing off and I’d like to give myself a break until my ‘formal convocation’. To be honest, I haven’t stopped thinking about my future since landing here, so I’ve been putting myself through a lot of stress assessing the job market and trying to determine my short term career strategy. I suppose it was especially hard as the interviews were conducted in chinese, and also simply the fact that I’m away from everyone and everything I'm familiar with. But the jet lag has long worn off and I’m getting more comfortable with HK. I’ve decided to stop thinking that I must absolutely need to land something ASAP. Maybe the excessive newspaper reading is making me nervous....

I’m still going to spend time on job hunting, but it won't be the main focus anymore, or I’m going to miss out on life! There are so many things I want to stop and experience , but because there’s ‘stuff I need to do when I get home’ or ‘people I need to call’ at the back of my mind, I can’t fully enjoy the present.

I visited my late grandmother over the weekend at the crematory burial up a mountain. The roads were twisty, narrow and often one-laned with "pass" locations where you can evade direct oncoming traffic. I caught the phenomenon of backing as a car is moving towards you head-on, on video but deleted it accidently >___<

Bus drivers talk really loud, probably cuz they have to, above the blur of traffic. When I asked which station I should get off at, the man belted out the answer and then yelled, ‘can you hear me???’

And speaking of buses...

...examine the below picture:


So what is it that I wanted you to notice? That blur is not my bad photography skills. It is an oil spot that can sometimes be found on the windows of buses when people sleep against the glass.

But generally, cleanliness is highly encouraged:


I saw an "antibacterial carpet" today at the entrance of a mall.

This is quite impressive as well but for an entirely different reason:


Did you know Britney Spears had a line of perfume called ‘Fantasy’ that smelled like chocolate??? It actually smelled pretty good but I didn’t think it was desirable to go out smelling like chocolate… or maybe it is since that product is clearly on the market.

Met some really nice people this weekend as well. They took me to the CUTEST café residing in an obscure hole up a rickety elevator not unlike that of the ones featured in Japanese ghost movies. You open a door manually to get into the elevator. The café was cat themed, so there were a bunch of fat cats lazing around the place acting like royalty. And they were probably treated as such… no doubtedly well fed and showered with attention.



The candystore was particularly exciting. After happily pinching marshmallows and gummies into a pretty plastic bag with a set of tongs (the plastic bag also came with it’s own mini-tongs), it all came up to just $20 HK!! So much variety of candy too! What should have been disgusting was the carrot looking candy that actually tasted like carrot. However, it was good in a strange and exotic way. Then I took a bus from Causeway Bay to where my mom was, and we had dinner together for mother’s day.

This, I found to be absolutely HILARIOUS. As it is a blurry picture, I've transcribed the text. Note the number of times the word 'face' is repeated.


1. wash your FACE, and put a water skin on the FACE
2. Spread the mask evenly on your FACE and stick it fast to the FACE
3. Your FACE starts absorbing highly concentrated nutrition. Take off the mask from your FACE after 20-30 minuts
4. If contents are left on your FACE after taking off the mask, tap your FACE for being absorbed completely into your FACE
5. If you do make up base or paint your FACE after taking off the mask, you can feel fresh all day long.
When using it coolly: keep it coolly in the case status and use it
When using it warmly: Put it into 30-60 C water for 2-3 minutes in the case status and use it.

I’m like cracking up as I’m typing this…