traveling through others' eyes

a picture is worth a thousand words

visiting my friend's page is a way for me to travel from my desk :)

man on fire

man on fire had made my night.

i had a great time at capoeira today. i wish i could go to this class 3 times a week if not everyday. yes, it was that much fun.

just when my soul was starting to feel a bit solitary; man on fire had filled it. the allergy pill is doing its side-job; i'd better hit the sack before the euphoria subsides...

bon nuit

surprise

wow...tonite i had a surprise belated b-day celebration with mag and cay. it was a total surprise--a sweet one. i wasn't feeling all that great physically so i wasn't up for any elaborate parties but the dinner and movie tonite was wonderful.

clam linguini, tiramisu and paparazzi...it was fun. oh i got a little pot of hedera ivy, so beautiful. i will keep it alive!

thanks mag and cay!

frustrated...#@*&

my pants won't fit!!! as simple as that, what's up with this winter's weight gain? i expected it but not to this extent. well, this winter has to end early for me.

antisocial

for some reasons, i am feeling extremely antisocial lately. i am okay with people who i already know, especially the ones who i am close to, but i feel like i can't even squeeze out a wee-bit of sociabilty for "strangers" or new faces. something's wrong, but i don't know what it is. i think it's the weather. that must be it. hope the sun comes out soon. .....amen

french and capoeira

french and capoeira are the two experimental college classes that i am signed up for this quarter. they are sooooo much fun. it was fun maybe because they weren't real intense. the capoeira teacher is really something to be dealing with almost 60 students with multi levels and of very different sizes and age groups. but it was fun for all, whether you can or cannot stand on your head or balance so that you are holding your own body weight by your arms. sai was my capoeira buddy and she joked that after this class we could go do break dancing. she's funny!

25 years

jan 21, today was my 25th birthday. it's quite special indeed. it's special in a way that it was kinda quiet, no party or anything. but multitudes of greetings were received from my dear friends and family from near and afar. it is enough just to hear message after message that i unintentionally missed on my cell phone voice mail. i ask for nothing more.

it is a very special day because it was also my dad's lunar year birthday. i wonder how often it happens. and it's my high school friend's wedding day...how special. and it's also another friends' birthday but it is so every year. still that is special.

Mm...25 years old. i don't know what to expect but i was cautioned by at least two older girl friends to take really good care of my skin because 25 was the point where they felt a great difference in their skin condition. sounds like 25 is the age where you just go downhill. i don't quite expect that. i am still living carefreely as far as my sign of youth is concerned. i believe what's inside will shine through. if that means sophistication or aged-related experience and wisdom, let it be. maybe i will regret saying this later but for now, 25, i have no time to worry about aging quite yet.

birthday wishes? Mm...there are quite a few, some were from before and some are new ones. hope they will come true =) it was a happy day, a special day, a happy and special bithdays! thank you for all who remembers :D

Godfather

tonight was the third night that i consecutively watched the Godfather. yup the famous italian-american mafia sequel--Godfather. i remember watching it when i was a teenager but i didn't remember a tiny bit of the story besides the image of a bunch of men talking in the dark and lots of gunfire.

though i am still no big fan of gangster movies, i really like this one. it's fiction but yet every bit could be real. it's the very deep qualities of humanity that were being portraited on screen. money, power, love, betrayal, forgiveness, family, heroism, sacrifice etc. what's new? that's all part of human beings.

i loaned the whole set of dvd from my co-workers. there are some bonus material and i am looking forward to checking it out. though i am still not 100% clear on who's who sometimes and why some of them had to die. it's a really wonderful production in the film history. if you haven't been able to appreaciate it for any reason, watch it again when you have a long holiday, especially when the weather is gloomy like the past week, you may grow to like it.

unexpectedly worse

i did the GRE biology subject test the second time last december 2004, hoping to pass with flying colors to strengthen my application. today i received the result and totally out of my expectation, i did a lot worse than the first time.

maybe the others did better, but i also didn't do well on my part. well, i expected since it was my second time, i would by all means do better. i was definitely relaxed and felt okay-prepared. i expected not being able to finish the entire exam and i was more certain on the questions i answered. however the report came back saying the opposite. how can one trust their instinct in tests? my golden rule has been that the worse i thought of it, the better it would come out. in a way, it's sad because i am so "out of control". but afterall, it's what's on the paper that's important...even sadder?

anyhow, it's not a big deal. i don't really need it for most schools anyways, but i hope that the second set of score would not hurt me too much. i can again apply my golden rule,"think about the worst scenerio and i will be fine". wish me luck~

start all over

this is my first post in 2005 and i want to start fresh so i deleted everything i wrote before. well, i feel like writing again because i am feeling lost. this is the first time in a long while. remember i felt lost when i just graduated two years ago. though i had great dreams and plans, none worked out. or i should say, it was taking a while to get there. maybe i was just impatient. but it was a really heartfelt deep feeling of sadness. it lasted for one and a half month and i called that depression myself. it was in my own term and under my own diagnostic definition. luckily i got out of it as i met a friend who was going through similar things. we supported each other.

now i am not as sad. but i am once again feeling lost. but i have made plans...plans that would take care of me for the next five years, it's called graduate school. i start to realize how much i like to be institutionalized. but maybe i am just full of contraditions. when i am in a program, i can't wait to get out and have the freedom and time to do whatever i want. though i am not in school, i am working and it's work that i need to put in effort so i am not really free to do whatever i want. but yeah, i still like to be in a program and keep busy all the time. that makes me feel more productive. i like that. i like the feeling of having accomplished a lot. i like to feel tired after a full day of work or play. that's a very good feeling.

my good friend is still on vacation in HK. i really miss her. but the thought of her potential moving back strikes me uncertain. where should i be then? do i belong here? where do i belong? as a foreign worker in the U.S. i feel i have a lot taken away from me. maybe this is not where i should consider home? home is where my heart is...and now i am still up for some exploration and great traveling. my heart is everywhere. my soul is relentless. i guess, it's a good thing because i am still young and i should be exploring all the possibilities in life. maybe i am just experiencing some down time after a period of stressful exam and application preparation. now i have got some time in hand, i should do more fun stuff.

it was such a wonderful year last year, with great travel and a lot of rare visits with distant friends. i hope this year will be another wonderful year. i hope good surprises never stop coming.

best wishes to all for 2005 and best wishes to the Tsunami survivors.