greetings from hk

internet access is back...sweet. the earthquake in taiwan busted internet connection all over hong kong for most of the week. service is now coming back slowly. apparently hong kong felt some of the tremors from taiwan. i hadn't arrived in hong kong yet when the quake happened. as i watched the news, i couldn't help but remember that irenieweinie was in taiwan this week. i hope she and her family is ok.

coming back to hong kong was such a comforting feeling. it's like seeing a familiar face again after a long time apart. it was really nice to feel the sea air, the mountains, and walk amongst the busy people. the transportation is my favorite. its so efficient and fast that i can go whereever i want whenever i want. our apartment is old as ever, but carries the same sweet and musty smell.

i met with lily the afternoon that i arrived and had a snack with her. i was able to catch her during her long breaks from work. i had to buy underwear for her on friday. she was going to vietnam this weekend, but the laundromat where she left all her clothing was closed. since i didn't have anything much better to do, i bought her underwear. buying underwear at deparment stores in hong kong is terribly awkward. for some reason, they put so many more sales ladies in the underwear section so that every customer gets special, um, attention. they're so pesty! they hover over you and ask one question after another. "did you find your size? what's your size? what color do you want? do you see your style?" i think i just mumbled aggitatedly under my breath until i quickly found what lily wanted and left. after i gave lily her "present", we went to throw at the bus terminal. i don't know why i was afraid of the disk. so unfortunately, i got hit in the face, again. i had a little bit of a fat lip, but it healed pretty quickly. i practiced stepping into my catches and keeping my eye on the disk.

after that episode, i had an hour to kill. i thought i should do some shopping, since hong kong is all about shopping, but i was quickly bored. i couldn't really find anything i liked in the stores around the area. besides, the sizes were horrendously small. the largest pants size they had were about 29 cm. if i tried wearing those pants, i would have to tuck in my stomach so much i would never be able to laugh. instead, i walked around by the harbor and the ferries. the fresh air was nice.

i then went to lynda's apartment in cyberport. her place is in a brand new development and it is gorgeous. it's on a steep mountainside and looks out to the water and a mountainous island. the sun sets right behind the island. the facilities are like a ten star hotel. they have a pool, an arcade, very nice fitness equipment, and an indoor basketball court. oh yes, they had one of those climbing treadmill things! we played badminton for an hour or so, and then showered. even the shower was a stand up jacuzzi, with several jets of water shooting out from the wall. while i waited for her to finish showering, i took the ten minutes to do some lifting. i've hardly been keeping up with the ultimate workouts, so i felt at least a little better after that bit of lifting. we then went to the mall to ate some japanese noodles...mmm. it had lots of vegetables and mushrooms and two pieces of clam to top it off. afterwards, we went to the arcade and played pool.

yesterday, i saw karen! it was so exciting. she even gave me yummy cookies :):) i hadn't seen her for almost ten years...since my two weeks at delia school of canada. we decided to go to stanley for food and fun, and because the bus terminal was right there. we talked about everything, from being back in hong kong and what MIT and USC were like. i found it extremely hard to put into words how painful MIT is, but at the same time so rewarding because of the people you meet. while we were talking, she mentioned she wanted to be more active and find a sport to play in college. she thought about fencing and some other stuff, but of course i told her to play ultimate. and surely, after lunch i took her to the beach to throw. even some random chinese girls came over and asked if they could join us. so the four of us threw on the beach and i was happy to be outdoors and throwing. the wind was just right so my discs floated graciously in the air. and by the end, karen's throws were definitely looking better.



i'm tired of writing...more to come later

back at one, home

harvard sucks for making me work during my break. i have to write an essay while i'm on vacation! maybe i'll work on it tomorrow. i'm glad my sickness went away. i don't think another day of just prunes and orange juice would've been very bearable.

topsy tuuuuurrrvy

thank goodness the last day of classes is over! whew...i don't think i could've handled another day of sleep deprivation. i even missed practice on monday! i never miss practice! on tuesday, i walked into chinese class as usual, only to my surprise...we had a test! it was the first time i had ever had a test without an ounce of studying. good thing it was only chinese and not a science/engineering subject. i would guarantee a zero on a science/engineering test.

yes, last week and this week was very unhealthy and unhygienic (sorry to disturb you, but i really was). i didn't think i would ever experience so much pain as sophomore-year-end-of-term again. by the end of wednesday, i couldn't write another word.

now that i have a life again...i get to think about all the things i can do! i want to read meself some good books soon.(notice how i keep avoiding the fact that i have a final in medical imaging)

wednesday night during the sleepover, we watched the sound of music! katya and some others made some great desserts...apple cinnamon stuff, apples and walnuts, wilg goodies. the movie was so perfect, everyone was singing along to all the songs. i'm glad there were so many singers, it drowned out my horrible voice. if asgard had been playing music that night, i think we would've been some competition. then after the movie, we played 'never have i ever', and you know how that always goes...

on thursday, i went to see the Nutcracker at the Boston Opera House! 2007 class council sold tickets to a celtics game and the nutcracker for 5 bucks! so this is what i pay tuition for. i thought the ballet was awesome. it could've partly been because i haven't seen the nutcracker since i was 6 or 7. there was this one part where the nutcracker fires a shot at one of the mice, the mouse falls, and then the other mice come out with a red cross stretcher! Hahaha.

For those of you who want to know, here is my schedule for the holidays/january:
next wed-058 final
fri-nyc home
fri to mon 12/25-ski trip?
12/25 to 1/9-HK!!!
1/11-back to boston
1/18-harvard final
1/19-EUROPE!!!

wooooot. sweetness. i'm sad that i don't get to do iap though. i wanted to do winter school/snowboarding/sustainable energy at some point. i guess i'll have to wait 'til what life after MIT brings

i am sixteen going on seventeen

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down! the medicine go down! the medicine go down! in a most delightful way!

i don't know why i'm in such a singing mood, especially the sound of music and mary poppins. i think the sleep deprivation over the last week is catching up to me. aiyaiyai. i've discovered that medical imaging is a very hideously painful subject. i've been working on the lab report nonstop over the course of last week. frequencies, offset frequencies, pulses, gradients, echoes, decays, attenuation...ahhhhh...there is no hope for my understanding of such things.

i'm pretty much screwed next week. we have elections meeting tomorrow, which is going to take like 5 hours. 033 draft is due, 058 pset, chinese essay. i guess singing joyous children songs is an attempt to make the week seem less threatening. i don't know why i put myself through so much pain. i don't punt, i don't give up, i stay up and work until it gets done the way i want it to be done.

i'm glad the term is coming to an end though. i can't wait till kriti and i have a slumber party--we're going to watch the sound of music!!

Regretfully they tell us, but firmly they compel us, to say goodbye...(Cuckoo) to you!

didn't i, didn't i, didn't i see you cryin'

i can't comprehend how some people are just so awesome.

talia, dorri, dorri's friend (shirin), and i hung out friday night. we went to this delicious place in harvard square called veggie planet. the resturant is rather small, and definitely hippy. it was amazingly flavorful for the price and amount of food. i had a "thanksgiving pizza", which was cranberries, mushroom gravy, and some other random things topped on pizza crust. oh, and the waitress had an avacado tatoo on her ankle. i need to go to harvard sq more often. it seems that everytime i go, i discover some new place that sounds delicious.

after dinner, we went to a baha'i fireside. One of the GRTs at harvard hosts a fireside session every friday night (i think), to introduce and discuss the baha'i faith. basically, there is a speaker who gives a general overview of what baha'i is about, and then a discussion follows where people ask questions and we all talk nicely. the environment was friendly, welcoming, and even comforting. it's like a bunch of strangers coming together just for a nice conversation. i enjoyed the fact that baha'i seems to be rooted in civil discussion, rather than argumentative debates. the session also got me thinking about things i never thought about before...what religion is, and whether humans can globally unite and understand each other.

it was so awesome to hang out with all of them. the fireside also had amazing food. there were gingerbread and chocolate cookies. then there was cake and tea. the cake was one of those with a hole in the middle. it was soft, spongy, and filled with cranberries. last but not least was flatbread and THE hummus...the best hummus i have ever tasted in my entire life. it was a bit smoother than the hummus in the house, had more spices/flavoring and contained the magic ingredient of cayenne pepper. it was so good, after a long night of discussion about global unity, the three of us concluded that hummus was the answer to uniting mankind.

back at wilg: this week, the 3rd floor held a bop language study break. for those of you who need some therapeutic relief, try speaking in the bop language. to speak in this language, you spell out a word by saying the vowels and adding op to the end of consonants. for example: bowl-- bop-o-wop-lop; water-- wop-a-top-e-rop. isn't it great? we were laughing hysterically.

this evening, wilg had a girl's night in. we watched 10 things i hate about you while eating lots of cookies and junk food. during the middle of the movie, we realized that we got jipped by blockbuster because the dvd was scratched up and kept skipping/stopping, and that was blockbuster's only copy of the movie. it stopped working at the best part too--when heath ledger sings in the soccer stadium. in the end, we went to hollywood express and got a ghetto vhs version of the movie.

we all decided that 'cameron' should've been an mit student. he's incredibly cute and has just the right amount of awkwardness and nerdiness. i have also decided for myself that this is probably the only movie where i really like and respect heath ledger. and of course, we sang along to the songs, especially our favorites, letters to cleo: cruel to be kind and i want you to want me...

and now, back to the busy busy weekend, if i don't want to overly suffer this week and the week after.

I am a real environmentalist. Real environmentalists support nuclear energy. Are you?

done with the partying, down with the work

long weekend is pretty much over. the formal and smite party are over, which means the rest of tonight and tomorrow are down to business. gotta work on that thesis, 033 design project, 813 final project, and figure out what's going on in 058. oh, it's going to be fun.

the weekend was awesome. on thursday night, rashida, sheena, maria, kate, and i went to ihop for a late night snack (~11 pm). we got lost on the way (again). but those belgian waffles and chocolate chip pancakes were definitely worth the trouble.

the formal was great. we got pretty wine glasses. i didn't go swing dancing because i didn't have a date and didn't want to dance with random sketchy guys. instead, laura, karen, and i went to see josh perform at a local arts festival. it was more of a live band thing than a performance, but either way it was cool. of course, we went to tosci's later in the evening and had josh make a milkshake for us. coconut almond chip + cocoa pudding. really hit the spot. since we have all decided josh is so awesome...we're planning on taking him out to dinner soon. josh also joined us for the fondue part of the formal evening at wilg. we had a good time, especially in making english a tonal language like chinese. yes, it's possible. pictures are on facebook: http://mit.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017478&l=59309&id=700409

the fourth floor posse (yuki, irene, jingwen, me, and occasionally inna) planned on going out for lunch, but didn't end up going. i love our posse, we are definitely the only part of the house that starts the party every night. we procrastinate by moving from room to room and drinking tea...oh yes, and who can forget? FLOSSING! because most of us sleep rather late, we often socialize at wee hours in the morning...unless some strange noises down the hall ensue, and then we all close our doors and hide.

the smite party was fun. we ate lots of pasta and dessert (brownies, ice cream, and shortcakes), followed by a long game of apples to apples. and of course, we got awards!