In Class, being entertained by what should not be very entertaining

I'm in class, perfecting the art of tuning things out.

I'm so entertained by the occasional word I catch from the student presenters.

microbes --> mico bobs
fluctuations --> fuk u asians
vegetarian --> veget alien
formaldehyde makes you disease? dizzy? --> formel deehai makes you dieselless

So I acknowledge the fact that I'm being mean, laughing condescendingly down at the poor HKers who are already trying their hardest to learn the language, but it goes to show exactly how bored I am in class, being so readily entertained by the smallest of things.

There's one white guy in the class; everyone expects him to be the most fluent. Actually, he came from Canada. From Quebec. "Bonjour? Ca va bien? Merci? J'adore la mal anglais? " were the meagre French I still remember and once threw at him. "Why are you here?" I asked him (nicely), to which he confidently answered "Why not?" Well, good for him. It's not easy not knowing chinese and being a big white guy sticking out like a sore thumb in HK. I, on the other hand, look so local I often get asked for directions. And I do mean often, like over what is statistically reasonable. We all know I'm probably the worse person to ask. (recalls the many hours of getting lost on the world map in FF)

People are staring and wondering what is up with that girl with the laptop typing fast and loud and laughing to herself, clearly not paying attention....

My group is up.

We're presenting phytoremediation (an interesting topic actually) about using plants to suck up contaminants from the soil so they don't end up in our water, and subsequently, our babies, who will grow up with genetic disorders.

The class looked at me glassy-eyed. It was like talking to a bunch of dolls. The prof seemed fascinated by our powerpoint slides, so fixated on them that he did not once look at me speaking, and trying damned hard to make eye contact, as all good presenters do (theoretically).

No matter, not important.

What's important is this cute seal, called "ODaisy", painstakenly named by me and my bf. (yeah I'm aware that it's not grammatically correct but I think it sounds better that way)



OH, this is me but it looks NOTHING like me. It's the sunglasses.


O--O

"Stealing" in Macau

I lugged my 3 hole puncher all the way across the ocean, and find out that the new standard is 2 holes. I was dismayed. I've been using 3 holes all my life! It doesn't even make sense! 2 holes!! What about the edges that flap around, untethered? What about 'aiming' for the middle when punching? What about 'aiming' when you want to quickly snap the pages in place? But anyway, I eventually stopped grumbling and organized my notes into a binder.

About a week ago (at least I think it was a week ago....bad sense of time), I went to macau for a day.

Pork buns... serradura...portuguese dinner...biscuits and beef jerky to bring back to loved ones as souvenir...actually, I didn't experience any of the above macau trademarks. When pork buns showed up at a random street stand, my stomach was full of apple green tea. When serradura showed up, my friends were 10 meters ahead of me gawking at some building. When portuguese dinner should theoretically have been the next item on the to-do list, there was cirque du soleil, which was at the other end of Macau. When biscuits and beef jerky, nicely wrapped and fragrant reached my nose, I ran out of money.

But. Cirque du Soleil was crazy awesome. I was so impressed by the beautiful vocals, shimmery colours, and crazy acrobatic feats that I bought the CD (which was very very expensive, even by Canadian standards), AND unwittingly 'stole' another CD. My friend thought I'd forgotten to pick it up from the cash register, so I headed back, grabbed whatever was lying on the table with conviction and marched out of there.

Ooops....

I've been craving pork buns since then.

School started. For the first two weeks, I diligently 'sat' through all the courses in my program so I could pick what interested me the most, and also for learning's sake. 3 hours at night 4/5 days/week + 2 hours travel time was actually quite tiring, so I stopped.

My University's entrance.


Random shipping dock in HK


Macau casino - lots of tacky gold paint






Anyone up for "bungy" jumping?


the venetian...

Some free show.

Quit

I've submitted my resignation letter and successfully disengaged myself from an unexciting and passionless job. Am I free from the cage of employment or trapped in unemployment? I think I'm free, because not only have I crossed off something on my mental to-do list, I'm free to look for something better. It's out there and I'm sure of it.

I want to take some time to gather myself and properly conduct a job hunt, no... career hunt. Call me idealistic, but I want a job that fits into the long term career path that I've set out for myself. Yes I sound like such a loser for stating that... I mean, who at this age doesn't?

But you know what? By stating it out loud, it helps me remind myself that I do in fact have a dream and that I have a direction. Thus, I can keep moving and we all know that I'm a sucker for concepts like "progress".

Maybe I'm inadequate at the moment for this 'future', or maybe what I have in mind regarding 'it' isn't exactly what it is! It doesn't matter... those kinks will work itself out. What is important is hope in human beings. Without hope, there is no image of the future, and thus nothing to propel us forward. There would be no motivation to work hard, to invest in oneself, and to contribute to society.

And she's late for orientation

IT'S SEPTEMBER

I arrived at University Orientation late yesterday, tumbling into the room out of breath from climbing the wrong flight of stairs, running back down, and going up the correct one.

And you know what? Other than missing the first 15 minutes of the program intro, I don't particularly give too much of a crap that I bungled in, disturbing people, not having access to a computer cuz they're all taken, and looking like a befangled mess...

And you know what? After sitting in a classroom for a few hours, I think I can actually do this... the whole part time school + part time job hunt + part time work + part time chinese thing (plus my social life).

In all honesty... I just want my ideal career to just drop out of the sky without going through all of the above. And of course, that is impossible. I have to be interviewed even for my ideal job. *big sigh*

OH yeah. After orientation, I got lost because everything looks different in the dark. I wandered onto a sketchy street full of hotels. Like, one hotel after another. And dark alleys.

Thank God for GPS.

I look up.

Hello Kitty stares back at me.

The little girl who used to occupy this room must have loved Hello Kitty. The mouthless cat is seen in random places in the form of stickers, and now, a light.

NO MORE.

This is my new light and it's pretty damn cool. Isobutane on my ceiling is better than being in the ozone layer.


My manager treats the team to a meal, which includes a salad of mountainous proportions obtained from the salad bar. (Yes, this would be MY work of art!)
And on the subway, I spotted something RARE. A CASSETTE PLAYER. No, I'm not mistaken, I saw the cassette wheels spin.

I'm not sure how a cooler gel pack is used for fishing, on the beach, or for driving. "Eatable" is actually a word though...Remember the phone that could only do 'manho' and not 'mango'? Maybe this is why... it's apparently someone's name.


Time really flies! It's already the end of August, and for some reason I think there's one more month before September, but there isn't. And for some reason, right after September, I usually freak out cuz I know my birthday is hanging around the corner and getting older (and thus theoretically more mature) can be disconcerting.

But I'm happy time passed because it means I got into some sort of rhythm, and came out of the move alive and well. And I'm excited about school. School has become some sort of comfort zone for me, and even having a bit of it, is reassuring.

I went to the beach ('cheung chau') last weekend. The scenery, sand and water was quite awesome, as this is the actual sea, and not some disappointing murky pond with smoke stacks sticking out in the distance. Water was hella salty though. Seafood was great. The beach experience was enhanced by 'drama'. Which always makes life interesting.

Me in the middle with the UV umbrella.



To my dearest friends... thank you for your kind words. I'm happy, but I do get those 'moments' where I'm stressed out and in those moments, your messages really help lift my spirits and give me motivation to keep working at it.

And thank you especially to God who's always there, and blessing me with so much I don't deserve.

Waking up at ungodly hours with too much on the brain

Where is this post going today? I have no idea. I don’t know how many times it’s been since I’ve sat in front of my computer (which by the way, is connected to an extremely crappy ISP) wondering what to say. I’m feeling out of sorts as of late and having great difficulty identifying the reason. Or reasons.

Normally, I’d make a list of potential stressors in my life, but I’m not feeling too normal. But I’m going to do it anyway because as Issue Number Two will reveal, I'm at odds with myself.

One. I don’t follow a to-do list anymore. Yes, out of all the changes that’s been happening in my life, somehow this particular one is really freaking me out. I’m a list-person. I cannot operate or be an effective human being without one. Ah but cherry, what happened to ‘living in the moment’ you touted as THE way of life one post ago? I think I gave up on that. ‘Live in the moment’ for far too long, and you start accumulating a boatload of stuff on your to-do list (which I apparently threw away). No, that’s a lie. It’s still there, rotting somewhere like a half eaten sandwich in some dark closet at the back of my mind.

Two. Identity crisis of some sort? It’s retarded, but when new people in my life starts commenting on my personality, I’m surprised at what I hear. There is a word in Chinese expressing “at odds with oneself.” I feel like that nowadays. I'm apparently “ambitious”. I know I’m all about power and world domination, but I have no desire to be a “lui keung yun” (a Chinese term describing a woman who’s super independent, driven, career savvy who’s typically in business). Yay, I’m a bunch of contradictions.

Three. I feel inadequate. I lack a lot of knowledge. There’s so much I don’t know, especially about HK, and I know I want to work for the HK government. Oh and my Chinese needs a lot of work.

Four. Career. Direction… You know… the shizazz. (I’m not forming complete sentences anymore). But in terms of my current job, it’s like akin to a bad relationship. I want to leave but can’t because every time I feel down, my manager pulls me into a room and tells me I don’t have to actually do anything; just be my smart self, provide ideas and take care of her new recruits (message filtered through cherry's interpretation). And she just gave me a raise. I’m still not being paid all that much, but hey, this is progress and I’m a sucker for things like Progress.
PROGRESSSS. I love the sound of that.

Five. I have no more excuse. If it's reading I have to do, guitar I need to practice, watercolours I need to pick up again, everything's across the ocean.

Six. Men. But that is a distant six. For now, they are entertainment. Or so I hope.

Hey... I feel so much better now. And I’m still thinking in English. : )

Living in the moment

I am obsessed with to-do lists. It's like my comfort, an assurance that I'm being a productive and effective person.

But some time after landing in this hot and smoggy place, I stopped living out of an agenda. I just stopped caring whether or not I'm hitting my personal benchmarks. I got sick of planning. And my scribbles were illegible anyway. So screw that.

So what if I wasn't reading as much as I should be? Or eating out too much? Or not paying attention to the job market? Or being more serious at work? Or reviewing biochemistry because I'm feeling the stuff leak out already?

Meh.

Anyway, I finally have a home and it would be my last move. And I have my piano back. I don't realize how much I need the piano until it was gone. It's true. You don't realize what you have until you lose it.

I'm just living each day as it comes; it moves way too fast for me to reflect on it.

Views from windows:







It'll take awhile to excavate everything...

HK style barbeque. It looks fun, but it's not. It's hot as hell cuz you're right over the smoke and rising heat, and I gave up early in the process.

Pass the memu!

Random cosplayer on the subway, the day before a WEEK LONG anime convention. Anime cons are HUGE events in HK.

The most complicated instructions I have ever seen in the washroom: