Ba-boo?

So after coming home for a full week already, I made some discoveries:

• This going to be my last summer (offically) as a "student". From now on, it'll be work work work. I finally know what my graduated friends mean now. It's quite sad.
• From now on, real life begins. Bills to pay. Money to save up. Weddings to attend.
• Speaking of weddings, the real kicker is that Ange's wedding is coming up. So soon. In fact, her bachelorette part-ay is just around the corner. Wow. Time flies.
• Now enter in the phase of our lives: marriage/buying houses/buying cars.
• Next phase: poppin' babies.
• I need to excercise more. After my funk fusion dance class today, my legs were all sore and tired. The real kicker #2 is that the instructor made us do some yoga as a cool down. My lord..I thought I was going to die doing those stretches. I suppose the shock value for my muscles of walking the Great Wall didn't help either.
• Trying to teach my parents the routine I learned today in class wasn't that successful; butttt at least they had a good laugh.
• One week of work, and I'm sick of it. Good lord. I think I've had enough soil and water samples to last me two lifetimes (maybe even three..).
• I suck at Tower Defense in Warcraft. Doesn't matter how hard I try, or even if I have the hidden builder, I suck. I won't deny it. I will be the first one to die (and very early in the game too).
• Darren's new pillow is so soft and fluffy. I wanna take it hommeeee!
• My cousin in England is pushing for a Sept. 2007 wedding date. I'm super excited..I really want to go!
• I realized I have 700 pics from China. Good heavens..how can I upload all of it to Imagestation? So forget it...I'll post some (when I get off my lazy ass and do it), but you guys can see it off my laptop.

I think that's it.

I've been reading a new book my Marian Keyes called "Anyone Out There?", and it's about a woman named Anna with a badly scarred face (dunno how it got scarred something happened to her), that was going back to New York to look for her vanished husband, Aidan. It turns out that she was in denial all this time, and what happened was that she got into a car accident which left her with a scarred face, in which Aidan died. I have never felt more compassion and saddness for a character in a book. It was as if I felt her pain too, her denial, and her anger. So this book was sort of her journey of self healing, where there were many moments of saddness, comedy, and her desperation to get Aidan "back".

I suppose it had a "good" ending in a sense, but it got me thinking of how life is so short. We all have people we care about and love, and it's so easy to take advantage of that. Not to be pessimisitic here, but really, one day they could be gone, and I wouldn't know what to do. I might cry and cry like Anna did in the book, or I could shut myself off from the world. In any case, I really learned that I should cherish every minute I have with the family and friends that I love, and that every minute does count. That way, you could have no regrets at all..

Two cool must see videos:


This one is kinda short, 4 mins long, but totally worth it to see his impersonations of Alan Tam, Paula Tsui, Dave Wong, Andy Hui, and my favorite, Hacken Lee. Watch watch!!!


A bit longer, 6 mins long, but MUST SEE!! This guy dances so well!

Over and out,
Karen

*blink*

For god's sake..it's 5:30 in the morning and I'm wide awake. Is this jet lag?!? Couldn't be...I could have slept though a hurricane yesterday. Bah!!

More tidbits about my life for 2 weeks in China:

• Guilin is the most beautiful and perfect place in China. Mother Earth pulled a few strings when it made Guilin...I miss it already.
• Shanghai is people, people, people....and buildings. And the pollution is outrageously horrible. Me and my parents could not stop coughing and hacking away.
• If you think we are bad, we're not the only ones. Many men in Shanghai also cough away and spit out phelgm on the ground. It's sick and gross, and makes you wonder if they ever learned about cleanliness from SARS. Whenever me and my sister hear the "wind-up", we run.
• A friendly taxi driver chatting with my mom told her that working in a restaurant in China will earn about $600 Yen a month. Remember, $1 Can = $7 Yen. You can do the math. Makes me apprechiate my life in Canada a lot more.
• The stairs at the Great Wall are horrible. They are not evenly made...some steps are super short, while other steps will reach as high as your knee, so you pretty much have to climb up. Going down is a lot more dangerous, and scary. But I climbed until I can do no more and my legs were shaking when we got to ground level.
• Milk tea in China is officially DISGUSTING. Don't drink it!!!!!!
• And yes, I did see grasshoppers, beetles, and centipedes on a stick, waiting to be sold and eaten at those street vendors. And yes, it looks exactly like those pictures if you google it.
• And yes, I did see snake wine as well. But hey, it's friggin expensive man...!! It's like a national treasure or something.
• Tiananmen Square is still an extremely sensitive place, where everything is hush hush. The day that I was there, I was standing next to a military guard taking pictures when he all the sudden screamed "HEY!!!" (or least a chinese version of it). It scared me so bad, I thought I was caught for something. But it turns out, some old lady was running up a bridge the military blocked off shouting something. The miltary guards picked her up, dragged her, and threw her into a police van. We didn't know what it was, but I'm sure the old women must have had political reasonings for doing that. It was my bad luck that I happened to be right in the middle of it (next to a friggin guard, my god), but I was honestly, really, really, scared.
• The Forbidden City had so many palaces to it, that after awhile, they all start to look the same. Very beautiful though, with wide open spaces. The tour lady told us about this one palace, that had a couple of lion statues facing the entrance to the city. In between the statues and the entrance gate, there was a little river and bridges. Many years ago, an earthquake went though the Forbidden City, and cracked one of the lion statues a bit. The government wanted to fix it, so they decided to move it back to the warehouse to patch it up. Once they started to move the lion statue, the river in front started to boil (true story). Government dudes freaked out, and sought advice from a famous fung shui guy, who said that the statues cannot ever be moved; they were there to guard the evil from this palace, and would bring immense bad luck if moved. So yeap, it's still there...freaky story though.
• The Terra Cotta soliders are seriously, to be seen. No wonder it's called the eighth wonder of the world. I still cannot believe a king would go through so much just for his burial. The excavation, sadly, I think is halted; the soliders were once colored once excavated, but soon after the paint vanished, and there is no way to perserve it so far. But what they have uncovered so far, is so wickedly awesome and unbelievable.
• In the Temple of Gods, there is one temple which was surrounded by a perfect circular concrete wall. It was called the Echo Wall, since if one person stands at the left and right of the door and speak into the wall, you can hear each other. The sound waves vibrate through the wall apparently. And it does work. Me and my sister tried it, and it almost sounds like she's standing right behind me. Freeeeaaakkkyyyy...
• The way China elders do tai chi in the morning is amazing. It's not about moving hands and all. But they take a paddle with a ball balanced on it, and move gracefully with it, without ever dropping the ball. That's what so hard...it trains them physically and mentally.
• Panhandlers in China are the worst I've seen. I had a small child with no feet try to crawl to me for money. I couldn't give him any, because then all the panhandlers would come to me, and I would have to feed the entire block or two. But it totally broke my heart, and even now, I regret just not taking that plunge and giving him money.
• We actually lost a day in Guilin because of such heavy rainfall. The plane couldn't land so we detoured to Cheang Sha airport for about 8-9 hours. And then after, when we could board the plane again, it's not like in Canada: "Rows 1-20, please board now..". It was more like "Anyone heading to Guilin on China Eastern, go NOOOWWW". So, you have this mad rush of about 200, tired, hungry, pissed off, Chinese people, who want to get on that plane. Trust me. I was NOT happy.
• I have gotten really used to sleeping anytime and anywhere: various hotel rooms, tour buses, airports, airplanes, etc, etc.
• The only english channel that's on TV is CNN, and if you're lucky, HBO. The only sport they talk about is badminton and soccer. So I had no contact with the playoffs this whole 2 weeks, but hey, Barcelona won over Arsenal for the European Cup!!! Isn't that great??
• And lastly, everywhere I go in China, this song seems to be SOOO popular. I'm convinced that the Back Dormitory Boys had something to do with boosting its ratings.
  
  

Anyways, I think I should try to get some sleep now. Toodles! I'll update later when I can think of more!

Karen

你好!

Back from China! Jet-lagged and I can't sleep right now (it would be 4:00 in the afternoon in Shanghai), I think I should head off soon to try to beat it. Here's a few things I've learned on my precious trip:

• Don't bother being polite. Normal customs here such as "Oh, excuse me"; "I'm sorry"; and "Thank you" are rarely used. And if used, you would get a weird glare as a response.
• People in China are hardworking by nature. Their wages are next to nothing yet they pull in a full working week plus more. They pride themselves of their work ethic.
• No need to learn Mandrain; bargaining can be done in English
• People in China also emphasize the full spelling of their name, in relation to characters. Unlike here "My name is Bob", they would tell you which character is used and specifically what is sounds like. Picky, I know, but to me, it's seems like they are proud of their family name (so get it right, kinda deal)
• Carry toilet paper everywhere you go. Porcelain potty holes in the ground are very common. So as ladies peeing with the door open with no hesititation at all.
• Although China seems very green and clean, it really isn't; the government hires city cleaners to come out every other hour or so and clean the city. Hence you see no garbage, but it's really all there
• The men in china are brash and rude, and have no courtesy to anyone else. Treat them the same way.
• If using an umbrella, always close it before you enter a store. It's considered bringing ghosts and spirits in if you don't, and they will kick you out
• People in China also relate many things back to their anicent dynasties. They have a long and great history, and are not afraid to show it off.
• I cannot describe how crazy the drivers are in China. There are no words to emphasize how scary it is when crossing the street. People do not yield to drivers. Drivers do not yield to pedestrians. Bikes don't yield to anyone, and no one yields to them. So in the end what happens? Just close your eyes and hope that you get there in one piece. Everyone sort of does this "go one lane at a time" deal. But what is impressive, is that cutting is very normal. They will only honk if you brake (unless it's red) or to let you know that you are around them.
• In China, bargaining is a given. Always start the bargain at half price of the asking price, or less. If they refuse, walk away. They'll probably call you back and give into your deal. 98% of the time, you'll win (at least I did).
• The more south you go, the more mean and fierce the ladies get. It's very scary how they put up a arguement. You'll rather them start to pull hair (I've seen it, the arguements at least)
• Coke is life, Pepsi does not exist. Beer is also cheaper than pop, surprisingly.

And now, for my favorite picture (so far):

Can't think of anything else...getting tired now, so I'm off..!

Karen

Marian Keyes books are a must

In great news: I passed Chem 573...with a B-!!! Oh man, I just about cried when I saw my mark. Tears of joy. That class was unbelievably hard. I thought out of all my finals I could handle this one the best but my gosh..I was proven wrong. So wrong. Not even bcem could compare. But I'm sure out of a class of like, 10 people (well, at least 10 people wrote the final), I'm sure he scaled it like crazy. My 55% is worth a B-, since a 40% is already a C- for sure. But whatever, I don't really care. I passed, I passed!! No repeats!

Anyways, the last few hours till my flight back to the mainland. I'll be absent from this blog for a bit. I'm a little bit excited...although I do think I overpacked, but I suppose that's okay. Everyone keeps on telling me to "not pack" and to "buy everything there instead", but it's not like everything there is uber reliable. I mean, I thought I would go bonkers in Hong Kong, but I didn't. So really, I'm not too influenced by the shopping chances, but I really would like to experience the culture instead. I won't lie, I hope I could experience shopping maddness there, but whatever, life goes on.

So long my friends, when I come back...I'll be all fobbed out..!

Karen

PS: Janet, I hope you have a fun and safe trip too. Enjoy your vacation with your family!!!