"It's the beginning of the end..."

2008年10月22日星期三

Aloha!

How is everyone doing in school and at work?
As for me...i'm super hardworking during weekdays (like studying in the library every day) but super slack during weekends. So it's a balance of play and work :)
Let me introduce u all to my unnie, Her name is Lee Ji Won (Chelsea). Now she's in my room studying while I slack on my bed. Today she's sleeping over with me!! Haha it's so random cuz we just decided that she'll stay over on the spot when she came over to eat...but I'm glad that I'll have company at least for tonight.

She looks real young doesnt she? Haha!

So what have I been up to lately? Havent blogged for a week...but I've so many things to tell you all..Hmm..lets see..what should I start with?
I've been attending quite alot of events lately, i shall just blog abt two...

Americans' view towards Asia

Last friday i went with some friends to a Brazilian girl's house for some 'tea ceremony' that her boyfriend is holding. Her boyfriend is American, but has lived and studied in China and speaks amazing Chinese. What really strikes me is he knows alot about chinese tea and the process of brewing tea! He's got this tea set with cute kung fu tea cups lotsa tea to choose from. He actually worked in a tea shop in china to learn tea making. When he was cleaning the tea cups & pots with hot water, pouring tea for everyone of us in a circle around the tea set, I really felt some sense of guilt. Cuz an American probably respects and know more about the Chinese culture than me, or other Chinese in Singapore. He was also surprised when i told him that the chinese in Sg doesnt really perform such tea rituals when drinking tea, cuz he thought singporeans keep their heritage very well.

Well, my point being, there are so many Americans who are interested in Chinese culture here. There are at least ten of them who can speak fluent chinese in law school alone, and probably many more in the rest of UW [can u find ten pple who can speak fluent Chi in NUS law? :P]. They even have this 'language table' thing where everyone gets together on wednesdays during lunch time in law school and speak chinese at the table...and there's a jap guy who can speak chinese too at the table!
Some Americans have started to realise that their country is not that great, and are very receptive to global perspectives and criticisms. Lauren thinks the presidential elections and everything that's going on is 'embarrassing' because a group of idiots are going to lead her country, and what's up on the TV everyday just shows the failure of democracy. What really strikes me is that Lauren at thinks the Chinese government is politically better in terms of seriousness - at least the government are not clowns in front of the people. Andrea (another classmate) told me that Americans have to wake up soon, to realise that their actions affects many other parts of the world and they are also very dependent on them in return. So she's planning to go global too.
I had lunch with Peter on Sunday and he's wish is to go and work in Asia too - like totally get immersed in a totally Chinese speaking environment to learn Chinese legal terms. That's why Singapore is not on his list of places to consider :( . Oh he promised to help me with my CV application to law firms for pupillage, in American style, cuz he says he's super experienced in writing resumes..haha i'm so grateful!

Distributing socks on Saturday
I did something out of the blue on Saturday - I went to contact the Buddhist association in my school and volunteered to help out with their charity work. This is something which I definitely won't do when I'm in Singapore - firstly, i wont have the time; secondly i hate to socialise with strangers; and lastly i could have spent the precious time sleeping at home.
But yeah, I donno what drove me to do it, but I actually went down to Chinatown and helped them distribute socks to the homeless there. The association is actually Taiwanese, so everyone was taiwanese except me. But they're all very nice and open to having a new member. We had to line up in twos and wear uniforms and walk neatly down from their office in Chinatown to the distribution spot, which was a green grass patch where all the homeless people just lay on the grass (as their beds). When we give them socks we had to bow and say 'thank you' and 'have a nice day' - to thank them for giving us the chance to help them. Haha this is really a strict and weird gesture to me since I'm not faithful to any religion. But I do understand and appreciate their practice. In any case, it's still heartwarming to see the homeless people just taking off their shoes and wearing the socks on the spot. Here're very touching words from them-
"We really need these socks, it's cold. Thank you so much, God bless!"
" Your smile is warmth, thank you"

Before I came to America i thought it's such a first grade country with very good welfare. But it's not true! Like what Andrea said, the government 'steals' money from the people to bomb Iraq and there're so many poor people whose welfare are not taken care of. There're tons of homeless people, especially in big cities, who sleep on the grass or under the bridges everyday.

So that's something for me to ponder..
I believe you cant see the society unless you're in the society, and to be in that society you gotta do some social work. I hope there're much more to see in future. The buddhist association has trips to old folks home and orphanages etc coming up. :D

Oh yea, I tried out the swimming pool in my school and it's brilliant!! Sorry cuz i wasnt wearing my specs when i swim so I cant see any cute guys in swim suit..LOL. But the welfare of the students is just so well taken care of here. They'll give you clean towels and lockers to put ur stuff, and there's soap in the bathing area too. I've never swam in NUS but I'll definitely swim as often as I can here..the pool just looks so welcoming. But strangely every here is swimming freestyle..only me and my friends - two girls - are swimming frog style in the entire pool. So embarrassing! -_-'''
Haha I'm watching this Korean variety show now and laughing by myself and unnie complains that I'm disturbing her. =.=

I need to study hard. I will.
Jia you guys!
P.S - I really appreciate ur tags..those are the only way for me to connect with people back home. ^.^

Love,

“Jd dropped by Kynthos at 21:26”

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