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I am in Nanjing. Will post some photos when i have the chance.

我是公主

學校的舞臺劇, 我演棄婦 (皇后生不出皇子所以國王就出去搞三搞四). 今天所有演員去了婚紗店租戲服, 又被我發現原來我的肩真的是太寬, 應該穿西裝.

In my opinion, i look more like a milk maid in that stupid ugly dress.

do re mi

People always say that you don't know something until you've taught it. My recent experiences as a singing/musical theory teacher to a group of 30 has confirmed this saying. It is so difficult to explain the simplest of music concepts (i.e. what is a staff? what is a quarter note? what are notes?) I suppose that it doesn't help that I've learned these things myself more than 13 years ago. Teaching music is like trying to teach math - but in a foreign language. Music seems so logical and second-nature to me by now (at least the really straightforward, non-creative components of it), that teaching it seems almost illogical because I've come to see it as common sense (especially when you're in Canada I suppose, where 9.999 out of 10 kids are forced to play piano or some sort of musical instrument). So now, when I plan my lessons, I imagine myself teaching little kids and have created little "do-re-mi" flash cards and rhythm clapping games for my class.

I now have new found respect for Mrs. Forestor, Alyssa, and Hilda (my first piano teacher at Tom Lee, my piano teacher that got me to my grade 10 piano cert., and my theory teacher that taught me harmony before I realized what I can use it for, respectively.)

Currently listening: Toco Rosalia De Souza

Blueberry Jam Chicken

(as inspired by this recipe)

Ingredients:
chicken wings as many as you like
soy sauce a bit
cooking oil a bit
salt a bit
sugar a bit
chopped onion 1
soy sauce a bit
vinegar a bit
rosemary a bit
blueberry jam 4 tablespoons

1. Marinate chicken for 1-2 hours with soy sauce, cooking oil, salt and sugar.
2. Microwave chicken until it looks semi-cooked (i.e. no bright blood)
3. Heat up a bit of cooking oil in a wok.
4. Saute onions in wok until slightly brown.
5. Add chicken and let grill until slightly golden on both sides. Remove onions and chicken from wok.
6. Add jam, vinegar, soy sauce and rosemary into wok. Stir around for 1-2 minutes.
7. Re-add onion and chicken. Stir around.
8. EAT!

Tips:
1. CHICKENS TAKE FOREVER TO DEFROST!!!!!! make sure you account for defrosting time.
2. This is GREAT with plain rice. It's like sweet and sour sauce. But blue.

No picture. But you get the point.

肥妹日記

I've heard that one of the best ways for diet-ers to lose weight is to keep a "food diary": a diary of what they have eaten that day.

Although I don't have a scale in my dorm here at UNNC (could be a blessing or a curse), I can fairly accurately say that I've probably gained around 7-10lbs in the past 2 months. I have noticed that my arms no longer look like hot dog sausages but rather more like German sausages (the really fat plumpy kind). My "abs" no longer lead straight down to the beginning of my jeans but rather, form a little hill that then dips into the valley known as my jeans. My cheek bones have long disappeared beneath my cheeks and my face is almost a complete circle.

For the sake of myself and my clothes, I guess I best start a small food diary, if not for losing weight, then for at least watching out for what I eat and having a healthy lifestyle.

Food Diary
Breakfast: 2 small packaged chocolate-cream filled cakes
Lunch: Peanut butter and jam sandwich, apple, small wedge of cheese
Snack: 3 千層餅s
Dinner: Rice, 豆腐燒肉, 青豆玉米, 番茄湯
夜宵: 1/2 黑米飯團

Doesn't seem that bad right...?

He is risen indeed!

First time went to a local Chinese church in Ningbo today for Easter service and their praise section of the worship left me a little bit confused. Essentially, they had a "worship leader" who sang one line and then the congregation repeats that line. So, for example...

Leader: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound"
Congregation: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound"
Leader: "That saved a wretch like me"
Congregation: "That saved a wretch like me"
Leader: "I once was lost, but now I'm found"
Congregation: "I once was lost, but now I'm found"
Leader: "Was blind, but now I see"
Congregation: "Was blind, but now I see"

They didn't actually sing "Amazing Grace" but it was a very popular traditional hymn. The hymn actually had 3 verses (and the chorus) and they did that for all of the verses AND all three times of the chorus. When I thought that we could finally sing the song through without repeating, the worship leader said "我們再來一次！" We ended up singing this ONE song for close to 40 minutes.

Things I noticed:
1. 我從來不覺得原來唱歌可以令我那麽累．
2. 我從來不覺得原來唱歌可以令我那麽悶.
3. Even though we've sang the song for the Nth time already, the people were still singing loudly and quite enjoying themselves (except me and my international friends)
4. I wonder what would happen if I led worship like that at PMPGMBC.

I received a very special Easter gift from Gary, my pastor here. It was a gold medallion (imagine an Olympic gold medal) with a cross on one side and five horses on the reverse. It comes with a very special story to remind us that we are messengers of Christ and we're on this earth with a very important message: He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

紹興一日游

When you go to Shaoxing (slightly more than one hour's worth of train ride West of Ningbo), you must:


感受江南的味道 (好像回到古裝片）...


坐船 (it's like Venice but in China)


讓書法家把你的名字寫成詩，然後寫在扇子上...


吃梅乾菜燒肉　（肥多十磅也值得）．．．


去看魯迅故居．．．



喝紹興老酒 (so good!)．　

currently listening: I Need You - Alicia Keys

Enlightenment via Email

To be very honest, I hate receiving chain letters on email, especially the ones that tell you to pass them on ("Pass this on to 20 people before midnight and find out who has a crush on you!" or "If you love Jesus, pass this to 15 people." I don't need to know who has a crush on me unless I have a crush on him too and I'll love Jesus regardless of those 15 people.)

So, ever since my first email account in grade 6 (funmail_ca@yahoo.com), I've received loads of chain letters. Some of them are quite dumb, some are disturbing, some are hilarious, some try to be inspiring but I usually roll my eyes at those and occasionally I do come across the one that I find immensely inspiring. But for those of you who know me and my horrible memory, it won't come as a surprise that, yes, after a decade of receiving chain letters, I barely remember any of them.

Except this particular one that has always been stuck in my head. Of course, with the quality of my memory cells, I only remembered one line (the line about spare change) but just now I tried to find the email again on Google and have (!!!!) located it:

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

If your parents are still alive and still married...you are very rare, even in the United States.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful...you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder...you are blessed because you can offer God's healing touch.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

Alright, alright, I know it's somewhat cheesy and of course we should all doubt the reliability of the numbers that the author decided to throw into this email (where are his in-text citations?!) but this email does put some things into perspective, at least for me whenever I want to complain about the things I don't have or want desperately to have but can never seem to fully get/achieve. Who are we to complain and sulk about our lives when we (at least according to this email) are already so much better off than the vast majority of people out there?

Just something I was chewing on tonight as I was doing course readings on development.

Currently listening: 昨遲人 - 林志美 (我覺得好像比許志安好聽)

Hot Pot Friday

What you see: some workers fishing out trash from the local river near UNNC.
What you don't see: them yelling at me when they realized that I was taking pictures of them.


What you see: "Condiments Bar" with literally 30 condiments for guests to pick from for their Hot Pot, ranging from the absolute essential soy sauce to weird sauces (i.e. "Seafood sauce with meat and soy")
What you don't see: the immense amount of food my friends and I finished off, ranging from the absolute essential beefballs to the fabulous lamb. All for less than $10 CDN. =)


What you see: my friends and I after hot pot dinner.
What you don't see: We each tried to sing a song from our home country: my Chinese local friend sang a local Chinese song, and my Mexican friend sang a Spanish song from Mexico. The only Canadian song I knew was "O Canada". If you know of ANY other Canadian songs, please notify me.


What you see: The shopping mall 15 minutes bus away from campus with residential apartments behind and a river beside it.
What you don't see: During daytime, you can see that the water in this river is brown, filled with junk and smells horrid.

Currently listening: This Saturday, there were no clubs, bars, great dinners, outings, traveling, alcohol or parties. Just me, my readings, some tea and www.classicandjazz.net

還有，爲什麽隨便在大陸的超市冰櫃裏買一包 "ready made" 鮮肉粽，都好吃過漢記粽呢？

茄子與我

樣唔靚但味超正 - 怪味茄子

Here are some interesting facts that you might not have known about our dear friend, the eggplant:

• It originated from India and Sri Lanka
• Before cooking it, you must soak it in salty water for a bit to remove some of the bitterness from its seeds.
  
• Its seeds are bitter because they contain nicotinoid alkaloids
• And because it contains nicodinoid alkaloids, that makes it a close relative of tobacco
• In fact, it is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant (a whopping 0.01mg/100g)
• However, it still doesn't have enough nicotine to be considered as a form of secondhand smoking.
• 20lbs of eggplant = amount of nicotine in one cigarette (in case you ever wanted to smoke eggplants or something)

For the past few days, I've spent some time considering my options after I grad UBC/what I can do/what I should do/what my passion is. I've come up with two general conclusions (hopefully not mutually exclusive):

1. I've always had fears over things that I think I cannot achieve (not getting my IB diploma, not getting into my dream University, getting kicked outa first year BComm, not getting into IR, not getting certain jobs or positions, and now, not being able to fulfill my aspirations). However, I've realized that, most of the time, with the help of God and the support of my loved ones, I've always managed to somehow make it. And even the times that I didn't (i.e. getting into my dream University), God have always had arranged something better for me. So, why worry?
   
2. Thanks to a certain someone's new tattoo, I've been reminded that "fortune favours the brave". You don't know how lucky you can get until you try (I sound like I'm promoting a casino or something).

That's all life talk for now. This weekend is 清明節. 　如無意外，會去紹興拜訪魯迅，喝點紹酒，看看這個魚米之鄉. (the hometown of fish and rice, what a cool name).


Currently listening: 如果愛－方大同