沒有 Internet 的日子

Internet-less days are really slow. My 70+ year old grandma obviously doesn't have wireless so I've been living off tvb and the 10 other channels they let you see on HDtv in HK. Yup, that's right. My grandma doesn't have wireless but she has HDtv. So I've been having my share of tvb shows and, because it's Chinese New Years, TONS of lion dances. Like EVERYWHERE. At first I was intrigued by it all the festivity but now it's just annoying and noisy.

So I've been thinking of what to write for my first blog in HK but I realized that there ain't much. If you ask me what I did for the past four days, I'd say one word would sum it up: eat. I know, it's not surprising since I'm Kathy and all but seriously, even I'm getting sick of all the food. It's always yum cha, yum cha and more yum cha. I still haven't been to Cafe de Coral yet (my favourite HK eatery) so I hope I can eat that for breakfast tomorrow.

Hopefully the next time I blog I'll have more interesting things to say and photos (I'm on my kai ma's laptop right now so no photos). I miss you all immensely and hopefully the midterm crunch hasn't killed any of you yet.

oh and by the way, my god brother took me to "one of the best bubble tea spots in HK". We waited for like 15 minutes on the street for our drinks with like 20 other people around this little bubble tea corner store. All I can say is, nothing beats lazy den.

Dine Out Vancouver 2009 之第二回

Who: 鄭少，my family and I
Where: Mistral French Bistro (West Broadway)
$: $28

This is actually an early birthday dinner for my mom (since I won't be around on her actual birthday). The stuff is pretty good (Karen: "WHOA this pea soup tastes like there's MSG in it!") and the surroundings are nice. I had duck leg for my main course but to me it tasted like chicken anyways. However, maybe classic French food is really thick and rich (esp. their sauces) we were all kinda sick of our food by the last bites haha. AND they charged me $3 for my Earl Grey at the end of my meal. FYI, Gourmet only charges $1.50 for Orange Pekoe Tea.

Finally bought everything I need for my trip from Superstore today. Right now, there are small piles of things waiting for me to stuff into my suitcases tomorrow. Things like clothes, toiletry, water bottles (two of them actually), gifts for relatives, shoes, jackets, books, etc. It seems that I'll be packing my entire bathroom and 1/4 of my closet into my suitcases. I honestly hope I'm not missing anything but foreseeing 4-5 months into the future is not my forte.

Today is Chinese New Year but the only CNY-ish thing I did was get 利是 from my parents and my tutor student's mom. Hopefully I can make up for the lack of atmosphere when I'm in HK. I haven't been to a 花市 since forever.

祝大家：
心想事成！
新年進步！
(one year someone wished my dad 不勞而獲 and he thought that was a good one haha)

currently listening: 漣漪 - 陳百強 (makes me wonder why singers that sound good usually have untimely deaths)

幸運兒

不知不覺, 原來我只剩下四個晚上能夠在自己的床上睡覺. 今天下午午睡的時候, 想象如果自己已經在寧波, 躺在 dorm 裏面, 那種感覺會是怎麽呢? 結果就是覺得很不安, and a feeling of frustration knowing that everyone and everything i know will be on another continent and that even though you know where they are, there is no way for you to get to them. (會不會很誇張). Perhaps it's not that bad. I talked to my Chinese history TA from last year (who is a Caucasian female and went to China for exchange too). The advice she gave me was not to worry, relax and enjoy life. I hope I can do that. 始終是自己第一次自己一個, 不是幾天的時間, 而是幾個月的時間, 一定會有一點不安. 其實, 我早已經説服了自己要把這個 exchange 看待為一個悠長的假期. In the end, it was my own decision to go in the first place. 就當作是一個開給自己的挑戰吧. 我深信, everything happens for a reason. 都是時候 jump out of my comfort zone, 好好感受一些新的事物, 經歷一些新的事情, 更加認識自己.

因爲 exchange 以後的安排還未落定, 所以我已經把今天看作爲 Gourmet 工作的最後一天. 還記得小時候我跟媽媽說我一定不會再餐館打工, 因爲我一定不能忍受看著別人而自己不可以吃的感覺. But in the end, I must say that Gourmet was the best job that I ever had. 如果今天真的是最後一天, 我真的感到依依不捨. 很幸運能夠認識到一班非常可愛的同事們, 遇到一位那麽好的 manager/boss. 在 Gourmet 的回憶, 都是開心的. 我會非常想念芳姐的"待客之大道理", Jack 哥的笑聲, Stewart一流的茄牛麵, 呀能奇怪的廣東話, 叔記的 "北極熊 look", Kwan's great treatment to all employees, Aileen's caffeine addiction (hahaha), Elaine's 3-inch sneakers, Lawrence's insistence on hitting the bell even when I'm standing right there, etc.

謝謝鄭少今天為我炮製了牛扒午餐．辛苦你了！現在有四個多月的時間讓你好好把值70%的牛扒變成100%! And always staying up to wait for me to finish typing up my blog so that you can be the first to read them.

謝謝 Connie, Cheryl, Timothy, Bruce, Ruth, Ben, Ness, Wing Kit 今天為我弄了一個 surprise farewell semi-dinner. I was very touched by all of your presence...有住在 Burnaby　的, 又有生病，有趕著去 clubbing 的　(haha), 又有由不用上班變成了上班的．Thank you! I guarantee you all 手信．　哈哈哈．．．．

Thanks to Aileen for the BEAUTIFUL cake and treating my last day as a "special occasion". yum yum!

Special thanks to Cheryl for planning it all and the ice cream. 謝謝你對我的 care and love. Thanks for the prayer during Joshua. 你讓我覺得自己的離開不是沒人覺得不捨的．　你讓我知道我無論往哪裏去，做什麽的事，都是有人在為我禱告，支持我．　謝謝你的愛．(that's why you get not one, but TWO pictures on my blog today) haha

謝謝你們讓我不能不承認自己是一個幸運兒．

Currently listening： 魚　－陳綺貞 (from her MUCH AWAITED new album, 太陽).
陳綺貞, 你的音樂 speaks to me in ways that others can't.

papercuts

今日上班嚴重失手: 下班的時候手上竟然多了四個 papercut. 好討厭. to make things worse, i'm working at gourmet tomorrow, which means i have to be in constant contact with things like water, sweet and sour sauce, heat, pop, etc. What a great way to "marinate" my cuts. 鄭少話如果對手太 dry 的時候就會容易得到 papercut. 都是時候好好的 invest in some hand cream. Actually, I have a gazillion hand creams in the washroom storage but I'm just too lazy to ever take them out or even if they are out, I don't bother with them (actually, I think I have a hand cream in my bag...) 或者始終找不到一種牌子的 hand cream 香味我是很喜歡的. 總是覺得 crabtree and evelyn 那些 hand cream 香味太濃, 太多花花味. 不是花花味的那幾種又好像怪怪的. Or maybe I'm just too cheap to invest in anything like that. I always think that by the time I'm 30 I will be more 人老珠(豬?)黃 than the other 30 year olds because I never bothered to take good care of myself (at least in terms of appearance) when I was younger. I'm just praying that by then they have technology that can erase the results of my prolonged laziness. Either that, or plastic surgery will have to become affordable and acceptable by Chinese society.

(無葯可救).

不知道今天吹什麽風...竟然聼一首很被遺忘了很久的歌 (and it's not even a good song...都幾難聽)
currently listening: 男朋友　－古天樂

歡樂今宵

歡樂今宵
作詞：黃偉文　作曲：黃丹儀　編曲：黃丹儀

從夢裡伊甸　來到我枕邊
夢與真之間　就只差一吋
要是留著你　真實地糾纏
怕沒權利　以後留戀

情愫與相思　如最愛的書
未了那一章　沒翻開的勇氣
故事何樣美　終極是分離
不敢好奇　沾污結尾

猶如　無人敢碰
秘密　現在被揭起
明日想起　我們
其實承受不了
歡樂今宵　虛無飄渺
再沒餘地　繼續纏繞

談情一世　發現
願望極渺小
留下一點　距離
回味獨自心跳
歡樂今宵　虛無飄渺
那樣動搖　不如罷了

一首（我心目中）超經典的金曲。 也是（我個人意見)古巨基's best song to date. Nothing comes close to it. 每一次聼都是感受到一份心疼 (雖然與我無關 haha). 今日 Irene sent me a link of a JSG performance of 愛是懷疑 by Eason, which led me to a fairly recent rendition of 歡樂今宵 by 古巨基 himself and G.E.M. (some 17 year old HK singer who, surprisingly, actually can sing and, even MORE surprisingly, makes me want to listen to her music and, EXTREMELY surprisingly, I might end up buying her cd). If you even care remotely about the HK music scene, the link is here. 我已經由頭到未聼了多過八次. 真是不錯.

另外的就是,今天的計劃本來是 9-3 上班 (at the clinic) 然後去 Michael's (the craft store) to buy a dove/cross stamp for this week's fellowship event. 點知去到的時候發現原來 Michael's has an extremely limited stamp selection and they all cost upwards of $8 (inkpad not included). so i ended up going to the dollar store at coquitlam centre. not only are the stamps much cheaper (only $3, inkpad for $2) i also ended up finding the PERFECT stamp.

Hence, lesson of the day is: don't look down on your local dollar store.

currently listening: 歡樂今宵-古巨基 G.E.M.

Inauguration Day

Ｉ celebrated Inauguration Day by watching it on CBC at the clinic and stuffing myself with as much chocolate as I possibly can. The really cool thing about working at the doctor's clinic is that during Christmas, we receive TONS of chocolates from patients (I'm talking around 40 boxes of different types and brands of chocolates) and there's bound to be something for everyone.

Going against my political science major instincts, I did not wake up to watch the inaugural address live on television this morning. I joked with 鄭少 last night that the only presidential inauguration that I would wake up for is if the president in question is me or him. 對我來說， 我覺得十一月的 Election Day when Obama's victory was confirmed 的意義遠遠比今天還要重要， 因爲十一月四號就是美國人決定了讓一位美國黑人當總統。 Today is but the follow through and result of that historical decision. 不過今天在 clinic 看電視不同的畫面，看到很多的 festivities and celebrations 都感到開心。感到很 honoured to be able to witness this during my lifetime. 還記得讀 History 12 IB 的時候，Ms. Herzog (the best 歷史老師 i had, she further convinced me that I love history haha）　讓我們聼 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "I Have a Dream" 的時候，我眼睛裏都有淚水　(of course I was so scared that someone would see...its SO geeky to be teary over a historical speech). Dr. King's speech 令我覺得只要有信念，什麽都有可能的．That it is important to stand up for what is right despite the odds and the norms of the times. Today's events ratified this belief and further realized Dr. King's dreams. America has shown itself to be a nation where people are "not judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." And even though time might prove Obama to be a not so ideal president and expose his shortcomings, the very fact that a black man became president during our own lifetimes shows us the importance of activism. Even though it might be a tough uphill fight, over time, change does happen. For the African Americans, it was 144 years after the 13th Ammendment to the Constitution, and 45 years after MLK Jr's famous speech.

Now listening: Wall.E OST (超正！)

exchange不應該是一種壓力！！！！

As January 29th slowly but surely approaches, I cannot help but be overwhelmed by the seemingly unlimited amount of tasks I have to do. Photocopying documents, packing, arranging financial matters, phoning Rogers to put my cell phone number on hold, contacting the university in Ningbo, trying to "forsee" what I might possibly need for 5 months in Ningbo etc. It all seems very endless and mundane.

And to make it worse, my Ipod decided to go back to its previously wacko-ed state today. I cannot sync my new music into it and it is now frozen. Please God, don't let me go on a 13-hour plane ride without my music =(

By the way, 今天的挑戰 (i.e.公司三文治) 非常成功. 鄭少把這份分量十足的 lunch 全部吃完. Even though that doesn't say alot, at least he seemed energized, happy and full.

Gym night 有一種神奇的力量：能夠讓人還不到一點就已經想睡!