New Friends

I always knew that I suck at making new friends. I cannot small talk, am paranoid about saying/asking the wrong things and, sometimes, am simply not that interested in meeting new people. I much rather hang out with old friends: people that I knew like the back of my hand, people that I knew for sure what they thought about me, what they responded to and what they could and could not talk about. With new people, it's all just too up in the air. For the past two weeks I've been constantly reminded of this weakness of mine. I meet new people in the halls, around campus and near my dorm but I tend to keep it to "hello! You're done class?" or "Hey! How's it going" and then hurry to my next destination without really paying attention to their response.

After almost a week of online tv in my room day in and day out, I was ready to come out of my shell today.

Armed with fresh knowledge from How to Small Talk from eHow.com, I decided to step out of my room and joined the very noisy and crowded potluck that was going on in the kitchen, two rooms down. Of course the first attempt wasn't that successful. My unfortunate chatting partner (the first somewhat familiar face that I saw) and I quickly ran out of conversation topics and I was left pretty much alone. I tried again. Luckily for me, the second girl was MUCH more talkative and all I really had to do was ask her questions and say "uh huh" or "right, of course". Soon, there was a little group of us all standing and laughing and having a great time (me included). And I got myself an invitation to view the season premiere of "America's Next Top Model" with some of the girls next week.

There. My first, whole-hearted small-talking-making-new-friends experience.
Must be the bravest thing I've done yet here in Ningbo.

Currently listening: 小步舞曲 - 陳綺貞

Americanism

I never thought that the words "splurge" and "MacDonald's" could possibly appear in the same sentence but this is exactly what happened today. I splurged on MacDonald's. My double-cheeseburger meal (with medium fries and medium pop) costed a total of 16.5RMB. Of course, this is absolutely nothing when converted to Canadian (comes to under $3 CDN) but when you consider that...

• 豬肉包 at the canteen during breakfast = 0.7RMB
• 珍珠奶茶 at the tea shop on campus = 2.5RMB
• 紅燒牛肉面 = 12RMB
• 8 packs of 康師傅即食面 = 10RMB
• a loaf of white bread = 5.5RMB
• 街邊小販炒麵　for 2 = 4RMB
• 寧波特色湯圓 = 5RMB
• average lunch at canteen = 6RMB
  

...then the cheeseburger, medium fries and medium Fanta was very expensive.

Eh. What could I do? I was having an intense craving for greasy, disgusting, American food even though I'm in the midst of this wonderful, fresh, delicious Chinese food.

Must've been my North American side revolting against all this Chinese-ness after 2 weeks. Thank God for globalization.

Currently listening: Paranoid Android (Live) - Brad Mehldau

還以爲離開了溫哥華，我的二月可以好過一點．．．

寧波諾汀漢大學校園　(the fake manmade river)

溫哥華的二月永遠都是最難挨的．endless rain and cold and nothing to look forward to. 原來寧波跟溫哥華都差不多. It has rarely been over 10C (not to mention that I did not bring a warm jacket of any kind and my umbrella is broken) and I haven't seen the sun in almost a week. Certainly this crappy weather is affecting my mood. I can't bring myself to eat (or maybe this is the consequence of eating too much few days ago...) or study or socialize with my dormies. All i want to do is nap but can never truly sleep at night.

二月，我求求你快點離開．

currently listening: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Feat. Joss Stone) - Al Green

February blehs

Spent a day in the emotional dumps today, living off oreos, chili-flavoured bugles, IPE readings, and this song.

Porcelain - At17

I am very very much in like with you
I hope that it's enough 'cause it's all I can do
'Cause you treat my skin like porcelain,
Rare and special porcelain
Even though you know I know you know
That this is not the real thing...

Oh, isn't it enough what I'm giving to you, baby?
Oh, isn't it enough that your kisses drive me crazy?
Oh, isn't it enough, isn't it enough?

I read a book like you, it says for what it's worth
People only really get what they deserve
And I hear a voice cry out within
Relax, enjoy the porcelain
Treatment feels like liquid gold
A treasured hand for me to hold

Oh, isn't it enough what I'm giving to you, baby?
Oh, isn't it enough that your kisses drive me crazy?
Oh, isn't it enough, isn't it enough?

Porcelain, porcelain
You treat my skin like porcelain...

In the big, big scheme of things
Beyond the rare and special porcelain
Beyond the joy, joy and the dis-at-ease
Well there's a place for me...

Porcelain, porcelain....

Sometimes I think I should say I love you too
If words are free, why can't I spare the best for you?
'Cause you treat my skin like porcelain
Rare and special porcelain
Even though you know I know you know
I'm cracked from all of this living

Oh, isn't it enough what I'm giving to you, baby?
Oh, isn't it enough that your kisses drive me crazy?
Oh, isn't it enough that I'm checking for you, baby?
Oh, isn't it enough that your kisses drive me crazy?
Oh, isn't it enough, isn't it enough?

Isn't it enough?
Isn't it enough?

哇...怎麽我今天去了那麽多地方....

"千古功臣" 張學良第一幽禁地




"四名第一山" 雪竇寺 (there was a 50+ metres tall buddha but we didn't go in because it'd cost another 60 RMB)



蔣介石故居 - 妙高臺 (the rock that I'm sitting on was, according to the guide, Chiang Kai Shek's favourite rock)




千仗巗: really tall waterfall with it's name written on the rocks besides it in red (if you look carefully, you can see it in this picture) +　王安石紀念碑



蔣介石母親的墳墓 (聽説這個位置的風水是超好的)




同學家經營的農莊: people rent this place to take vacations or even get married (hence the "wedding carriage" that I'm sitting in in the picture). At the ranch, there was a man-made river that you can canoe in, tons of chickens and ducks (even peacocks and turkeys), vegetable farms and greenhouse strawberries to be picked (the strawberry grower commanded us that we must eat the strawberries without washing them - they were REALLY sweet.)



We ended the day by having TWO dinners - an outdoor barbecue followed by a traditional Chinese farmer's feast. Don't let the word "farmer" mislead you because it was NOT meager or just simply veggies. There were at least 20 dishes (I kid you not) ranging from pig's trottle, turtles, seaweed, more 湯圓 and grass. All cooked by one woman. For more than 20 people. Pretty crazy stuff I say.


Happy Birthday, Jasper!
祝你每一天都是健康，快樂，笑著過.
Thank you for planning this wonderful trip for us today.

currently listening: 太美麗 - 陶喆

my t-shirt

Nothing interesting happened today except I came back to my dorm from the library to find a very familiar looking t-shirt lying amongst the bushes besides the dorm building.

Apparently my newly laundry-machine-cleaned t-shirt decided to take a jump from my 4th floor dorm balcony (where it was supposed to be happily blowing in the wind and drying itself off) and landed amongst the bushes. Hanger and all.

Thank you Jeanri (my new South African friend from the UK who has a very beautiful sounding French name) for going into the bushes for me and saving my ungrateful shirt.

Currently listening: Reign of Love - Coldplay

寧波....好好吃!

A local friend finally took me to try some authentic Ningbo local food today. Tried a number of things including an, apparently, very famous local ingredient known as 小黃魚 (literal translation: little yellow fish). It was in soup and the soup tasted very delicious. The only bad thing was that the 小黃魚 had little tiny bones in it that kept getting stuck in my teeth. On top of that we had other dishes like eel slices (pictured below) which, as gross as it sounds, had a very good texture and was great with plain rice. Not pictured are the funny-looking clams (cooked with onion and ginger), 糖醋排骨 (really good tasting sweet and sour pork), and this really stinky dish called 臭冬瓜 (there were also 豆干 in it too). Trust me, it seriously stank so badly that I could not eat it.


Afterwards, we went to, as my friend explained it, the 旺角 of 寧波, 鼓樓. Basically, the "shopping district" is a few alley ways behind a gate. It was a funny looking gatebecause, as you can see in the photo, it is a Chinese-styled building (taken straight out of a 古裝劇) but on top is a Western-style clocktower. Inside the architecture is still very Chinese-y. Unfortunately, it was really cold and wet today, hence most of the merchants were closed.


Lastly, 去寧波, 怎麽可以不吃湯圓呢? Surprisingly, it took quite a bit of work before we found "real" 湯圓. My friend tells me that lots of restaurants tend to buy frozen ones and just simply reheat them for their customers. In the end, we found a 大排擋 place with real handmade 湯圓. There were 3 types to choose from (my friend made sure I tried all three). Two were 酒釀小丸子 (one with eggs and the other with black bean) and one 豬油湯圓 with 黑芝麻 filling and 桂花 on top which made the whole thing very very fragrant (unfortunately, I did not realize there was 豬油 inside until I finished the 3rd one). 這些湯圓跟超級市場買的當然有很大的分別. The filling is very smooth (I think it's the 豬油 that makes it that smooth) and the rice flour around it is very sticky and soft. Even though I'm not a big 湯圓 fan, I still ate more than what I would usually eat. The 湯圓 was very big but, according to my friend, they used to be even bigger and a bowl could only hold 3 湯圓 at one time because they were that big!


And just to round it off, I thought I'd share the most Chinese-y McDonald's I've seen in my life:


currently listening: 林民龍 (At17 Mix) - 麥浚龍

我的生活範圍

For those of you who haven't seen my room here at UNNC, this is how it looks:


The teaching and administrative buildings look like this:


我親手下廚的晚餐:

蒜茸炒白菜 + 煎貢丸蝦丸 + 白飯 (白飯是買的)

yummy!

currently listening: 架勢堂

不公平

帶不走的 丟不掉的 讓大雨侵蝕吧
讓他推向我在邊界奮不顧身掙扎


一直都不太明白, 爲什麽這世界上有些人可以有那麽多才華, 那麽多 creativity, 可以用音樂, 歌詞去表達一些説話難以形容的感覺, 感受, 感動 (i.e. 陳綺貞)?


爲什麽又有一些人, 很會寫 essay and reports, etc., but when it comes to using words to express feelings and creativity, is an absolute retard (i.e. me)?

太不公平了!!!

(對陳綺貞已經變成了又愛又恨)

currently listen: 魚 - 陳綺貞

btw, 今天我由三文治 chef 進化成餃子 chef (i mean i bought frozen 餃子s and threw them into boiling water). Don't worry. No one died.

my perfect Sunday brunch

Street vendor selling sweet potatoes at a street corner. My breakfast for the morning. Only 4 RMB for a few mouthfuls of absolute yummy-ess, sweetness, warmth and carbs. 這個熱的烤番薯 absolutely warmed me up on this freezing February Ningbo day.

Another reason to hate Translink - even Ningbo buses have LIVE tv. AND it only costs 1 RMB (less than 20cents) to ride on the bus.

有些本地的同學帶我去吃東北菜．我覺得好像韓國菜 (they have kimchi too and little tin bowls for their rice). In the picture, I'm eating this huge piece of pig bone with chunks of meat and fat stuck on it (and yes, you're suppose to attack it with your hands but they give you disposable gloves too). The coolest part is, they give you little straws to literally suck out the bone marrow (yum yum!). I told my mom afterwards who told me that marrow is extremely fattening and that I shouldn't be surprised if I have diarrhea tonight. Hasn't happened yet. muahahahaha

Tomorrow is officially the first day of classes. Hopefully I'll be able to successfully find my classes =\

Currently listening： 好天氣 - at17 (any 少爺占廣播劇 fans out there???)

my life at unnc (so far)

I've just been so busy trying to get used to life here in UNNC that i haven't been very diligent at updating my blog as frequently as I really should be. A lot as happened over the past few days (I've already been here for almost four days).

其中，本來看起來很便宜的一個 exchange term (after all, I'm in China where the living costs are wayyy lower), 來到的時候，發現有很多的 "hidden costs". Everything here costs money. Hot water, cold water, electricity, internet, drinking water 等等....。 So I've suddenly become really environmentally friendly: I adhere strictly to a 5-10 minute shower rule, I no longer blow dry my hair (well, also because my Canadian blow dryer doesn't seem to fit into my converter properly), I boil my own drinking water to drink (Chinese tap water comes out yellow and stays yellow after it's boiled, but leave it overnight and the yellowness settles to the bottom and you have clear drinking water. So far I haven't gotten sick yet), I turn off all the lights I don't need to use, and try not to turn up the heater too much.

Speaking of the heater, Ningbo weather is really weird. Yesterday I did not even have to turn on the heater because it was sunny and warm with pleasant breezes and reminded me of San Diego. Today it is just like Vancouver: rainy, freezing, grey and depressing (my fellow exchange students from the UK said it is just like London so I guess London is like Vancouver).

My biggest everyday worry is food. The canteen food is alright but not something that I would want to eat on a daily basis. So my new UK friend (yes, she has a British accent) and I gone out to get groceries the other day (bananas, bread, peanut butter, cheese, orange juice, instant noodles, etc) to help with eating as much as possible. We cook at least one meal a day (and by "cooking" i mean we made sandwiches and cooked instant noodles). The student cookbook that Karen gave me for my birthday is proving to be very helpful. I'm studying it right now so that hopefully sooner or later I can graduate from instant noodles and spam to more sophisticated cooking ingredients like potatos and vegetables.

My other worries include administrative things that I have to get done and some paper work. I have yet to register at the police station (all international students have to do that), open a bank account and find out how to read my class schedule. Luckily, I have made friends with local students that are extremely helpful and nice about it. 難得他們不覺得我麻煩. But of course, these administrative problems are all minor compared to my food concerns.

在寧波不夠一星期，已經讓我認識到一些跟我志同道合的 Cheer fans.

陳綺貞: 三月二十一號，上海見！！！

currently listening: 不如不見 - 陳奕迅

remember everyone: 其實愛對了人，情人節每天都過。 祝大家有一個甜甜蜜蜜的情人節，with or without a lover. =)

Thank You

Thank You. Even on the airplane, You reminded me that there are friendly people everywhere, including in the seat beside me.
Thank You. You know all my worries, and arranged for helpful local students to help me take care of all my concerns.
Thank You. The first thing that went right was my cell phone's SIM card so that I can speak with the ones I love.
Thank You. You provided a new friend to help me when I thought it would be difficult for me to fit in.
Thank You. You haven't just provided any friend, but one that shares my faith in You.
Thank You. With Your Words You comfort me when nothing else can.
Thank You. Morning by morning, new mercies I do see.
Thank You. I know that no matter where I am, I can always rely on You.

生病了

去看醫生, 他說我感冒, 要吃葯，多休息，少出外吃飯，等等....

i hope i get well before i head to Ningbo.

老陳一日遊

中環 + 山頂纜車 + 天星小輪

一個街市 = 整個高貴林

(This is 牛池灣街市)

At least in terms of 人數. 今日有機會陪嫲嫲爺爺去街市飲茶買餸．The yum cha place (yes, again) is outdoors and it seemed quite unclean. Most of the customers were 老人家s and we had to share tables with other people. The style of eating was self-help (i.e. get your own tea, utensils, bowls, food). 食得很不舒服 because of the unclean surroundings but if my grandparents could do this everyday (yes, literally) and are now already over 80, then it couldn't be that dirty/bad. So far 我都無肚疼．　But if within the next few days 我只有半條人命，大家都知道發生了什麽事，

下午同謝好天先生去了觀塘的aPm．用了大概一小時的時間，終于找到了KFC, 吃了一個四人套餐 (we each had 2 glasses of pop, 5 pieces of fried chicken and a bit of the small eats that came with it i.e. rice, corn, fries, etc). We were like refugees from Darfur that haven't seen food since last year. 之後花了$45 (學生價）to see a HK movie called 家有囍事 2009. As expected, it was stupid but pretty funny. 最後本來打算去捐血 at Red Cross (we saw an ad for it at aPm) but, after filling out an immensely long form, we were both rejected because we were both in North American less than 28 days ago. They wanted to ensure that all donors don't have West Nile before they donate blood. I pointed out to the lady that Vancouver was almost at sub zero temperatures the month before I left and was cover with snow and that no mosquito could ever survive any of that. Nonetheless, she insisted that it was policy and told us to come back later. 成日叫人捐血, but 有血上門都唔要. 無辦法.

currently listening: 嫲嫲煮飯聲

先人在天國

第一天回到香港, 就是買了這些....雪糕米糍 because 平時 in Vancouver it's too expensive, the 溢力多 because that will help me digest all the food i eat and the chips because 在 Wellcome 買夠$50就可以換一個印花...不知道有幾多個印花就可以換一個行李 and i was off 50$ by a bit.


前一天跟婆婆一起去了一個叫"西方峙" 和 "圓 yuan 學院" 的地方 (on top of a hill in tseun wan)，去看我已經死了六年的公公和二姑婆的靈位。這些美麗的花就是買給他們的 (they didn't have real purple so I settled with pink). 在這些佛教的廟宇裏面，有很多的觀音菩薩 (why am i stating the obvious) and other types of Buddhas that i don't even know who's who. Because it is Chinese New Years, there were lots of people crowding around statues of worship and visiting these "scribes" that could write some slips of paper to help them if they are 犯太歲 (who is 太歲 anyways?)

因爲靈位衆多，找自己親人的靈位也不是一件容易的事. The whole place is like a maze with different rooms. Inside each room are thousands of plaques with a photo of someone (sometimes more than one person i.e. husband and wife), their name, their dates of birth and death, their 鄉下 and sometimes, the family that they have left behind. Occasionally, you will find one plaque with a photo and right beside it there's another spot for someone but instead of a photo, there's a red slip of paper with some chinese characters on it. My grandma said that spot is reserved for the spouse of the dead fellow if he/she was still alive.

其實去看他們的靈位也不知道該做什麽。　It doesn't seem appropriate to bow or to talk to them since, obviously they can't hear me anyways. At the same time, standing in front of the plaque and not doing anything seemed disrespectful and against the more Chinese-y sense of the thing. Sometimes the women who work there would ask if we need to buy some incense or what not and my 婆婆 would answer them “耶穌　耶穌" and the women would understand and back off. 其實我兩位長輩都是臨死之前接受了基督, 所以我知道 even though their "earthly remains" are trapped inside this Buddhist temple surrounded by idols and incense burning, to them, it wouldn't matter 因爲他們已經有了永生的鑰匙. As for me, I'll see them both in heaven.

Currently listening (a number of things): 1. some next door neighbour kid playing a scale on his/her clarinet 2. mahjong coming from downstairs and 3. distant buzz of cars