Belated MerryChristmas everyone! I hope all of you had a blast being with family and friends while celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Me, I had a great, restful Christmas. Some of my favorite things I did over the break: - Google Hangout with my family, including my sister who is on a mission in AUSTRALIA(!) on Christmas Eve night. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! And I love technology that lets us video chat with each other, even though we are thousands of miles apart. - Spend Christmas Eve night with the missionaries in my ward having dinner and playing games. Special thanks to the missionary couple in my ward who hosted it :) - Attend a Venezuelan Christmas dinner hosted by my church friend's mother, and eat SUPER delicious food. It's food I dream about- it's that good. - Sleep in and laze around my apartment - Watch Catching Fire and read the Hunger Games Trilogy (another post) and dream about Finnick Odair!
And this year, I drove up to Michigan and spent a few days with family friends before Christmas Day, and got to hang out with these three little cuties:
These three children are like nephews and nieces I don't have and they are A TON of fun to be with! For example, that little girl is slightly older than two years old, and is learning to talk and converse with people, resulting in conversations like this:
Me: Hey little missy, who's adorable?
Little Missy: Me!
Me: Who's Little Missy?
Little Missy: Me!
Me: Who's adorable?
Little Missy: Me!
Me: Who's pretty?
Little Missy: Mommy!
Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha darn right! And then when I asked her to pose for my camera, she did this...
...and held this pose until I took her picture. SOOOOOOO ADORABLE!!!
The middle child, Little Mister O, is equally adorable and EXTREMELY SMART. He's only four and just started learning how to read, but he can already read scriptures (and I mean the adult version, not the simplified kids version), tell time, and does math that I know I could not do when I was his age, such as 47 - 7 = ? and 36 + 8 = ? A 4 year old who does math like a first grader (or better) *fainz*
The oldest, Little Mister J, is a TERRIFIC big brother who is very well-rounded. Not only does he excel in school, he's a very good piano player, and enjoys all kinds of sports- baseball, soccer, football, basketball, etc. I played checkers with him and we tied- can you believe it?! So embarrassing for me! And he has A BIG HEART. It comes across so obviously in the way he interacts with his siblings, like the way he allows his younger brother to score on him in soccer, or the way he gently plays with his little sister.
And just to show them off a little bit more, the two older brothers can:
- Name the fifty states of America
- Name the capitals of the fifty states of America (seriously. I can't)
- Name the states that border Texas (there's four of them).
- Beat me in soccer and baseball. We played these two sports in their basement, and even the four year old scored more goals and batted more balls than I. *Miss Keesh epic fail*
- Most importantly, they are VERY well-behaved. I was so impressed!
Doing the best I can with my camera phone. I think the older two tried to make bunny ears.
It was very lovely visiting their family, and a nice break from Columbus.
While in Michigan I also visited the Henry Ford Museum, and I highly recommend it to everyone, especially those who love American history. I'm a museum junkie, and I know a good museum when I visit one. There's lots of cool American history artifacts, such as the Rosa Parks bus, the limousine that John F. Kennedy was assassinated in, the chair that Abraham Lincoln was shot in, and of course, the Ford T Model. Plus it was interactive, clean, and very kid-friendly.
Too bad the Christmas season is over, which means my holiday is creeping to a close. *sigh* I could really use another month of break.
How was your Christmas break? Would love to hear about it!
So guess what?! I'm DONE with my semester! Unlike last year where I had to write a paper over the break. It was a terrible first year. This year I managed to get all my papers and grading done last Saturday afternoon, which meant I'm officially on break till Boxing Day (Dec 26), and able to take 3 hour long naps. *\(^o^)/* *\(^o^)/* *\(^o^)/* Anyway, I know most of my colleagues hate grading because it's time consuming. I agree. But I think I rather grade 50 papers than write one paper. Yes, that's me. I'm crazy. But hey, remember I'm not in my program for the research but for the teaching part of it. Plus sometimes, on the rare occasion, you come across an answer that makes you laugh and cry at the same time, and turns on my sarcasm like no other. (Please note that these were take-home exams, so it wasn't like they didn't have time to review their answers before submitting them in.) Like: "After the invasion of the Mongols, the Chinese
grew an affinity for all things Chinese."- really? As opposed to an affinity for all things American before that of course. Nothing like a foreign invasion to make you finally appreciate your own culture, even if you developed it. Or: [Referring to the invention of the Korean alphabet, Hangul] "Literary action boomed in the 17th and 18th centuries, with poets writing short poems (sijo), long poems (saseol sijo), and even longer poems (gasa)." First, "literary action boomed." Hmm... Second, "short poems, long poems, and even longer poems." *head palm* Shakespeare would have been so proud. To give that student credit, it sounds like there are significant differences in the three types of poetry in Hangul...maybe. S/he just didn't phrase it well.
But overall my students didn't too badly. I mean, at least they didn't write something completely inaccurate like what one of my colleague's student wrote: It was not good to be a Christian during the time of the Crusades. (*sound of head banging against the wall*)
These poor college students. I think it's because they are in college that we have high expectations of them. If they were kids, then their answers would be viewed in a whole different light. Like the kids in THIS WEBSITE. Can't stop laughing!
Anyway, I'm off to sleep. HOORAY!!!
(Link in case you can't click it http://www.viralnova.com/kid-notes/)
Remember the 25-page draft from my previous post that got torn into shreds? Well, I turned my 3rd (and sort-of final) draft in yesterday, Wednesday, 12/11/2013 at 11:59pm (on the dot!). Take that stupid 8000-level paper! I'll dig it up again some time in April for my Masters defense, but for now, I'm soooo excited that I'm don't have to touch it again for the next few months. Oh yeah!
Now all I have left is a teaching portfolio that I don't plan on spending more than a couple hours on, and grading (which I'll leave for another post), and I will be done with this semester.
But that meant that my entire yesterday was spent doing nothing but writing, writing, writing, writing... did I mention writing? By 6pm I starting getting a little cross-eyed from staring at the computer screen. By the time I hit the "send" button, my brain was completely fried. I was so ready to hit the sack and not set my alarm.
And then I realized that I needed to get up early in the morning to send my colleague to the airport, and I mean early, as in 4:40AM. Dang it! (Not to the part about sending him to the airport but about getting up early)
Anyway, I managed to drag myself out of bed, and when I reached his apartment, I texted him that I was outside. I scrolled through his previous texts to see if I had missed anything, and read, "...my plane is at 6am on Friday morning...(pick him up) 4:40 ish?" And I thought: 4:40am pick him up- check. Friday morning pick him up- check.
Wait a minute.
WAIT A FREAKING MINUTE.
It wasn't Friday morning. It was Thursdaymorning.
And so ladies and gentlemen, I got up at the unholy hour of 4:15am, changed, grabbed a bite to eat, sat in my car for 5 minutes waiting for it to warm up, drove all the way to his house (thank goodness it was only 10 minutes away), texted him, and then I realized that I HAD GOTTEN THE DAY WRONG. Somehow my brain thought that today was Friday.
I wanted to bang my head against the steering wheel, but settled for a *facepalm* instead.
And this is why I'm sitting back in my apartment at 5:54am typing this post because my body can't go back to sleep (it'll probably crash around 8am, maybe?). The next time someone asks me why I dislike grad school so much, I'll direct them to this post.
Seriously, I'm going crazy.
So here's to all of you out there who are either done with finals or taking finals- here's to wishing you a better experience than I had, and hoping that your brains are not as fried as mine.
HOW IN THE WORLD DID WE LOSE TO MICHIGAN STATE???
Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Going to curl up and cry in a corner for, well... okay, I won't, but I AM extremely disappointed.
I may not be a huge sports watcher, or the even biggest fan of the Buckeyes, and I still don't understand the game of football much, but I LOVE SCHOOL SPIRIT. Gimme some school rivalry-ing! St. Nicks v. Cedar Girls; BYU v. the-apostate-school; OSU vs. the-blue-school-that-shall-not-be-named. Yes, I have my mean moments, and school spirit is when my meanness manifests itself in it's most nasty form.
And tonight's game may not have been against *erhem* you-know-who-that-shall-remain-unnamed, but MSU is sort-of it's "little brother" so... *sigh* Not the end of the world of course, but it's still SAD!!!
How long has it been since I last updated my blog? 5 months? *gulp* Nope, I haven't abandoned it. Just haven't had the inspiration or the time to update it.
Laziness over the summer because I want to squeeze in every single second I have lounging around in my apartment procrastinating school work and doing NOTHING + School is up again and oh my word PLEASE HELP ME I'M GOING OUT OF MY MIND!!! = Blog? What blog? No time.
But guess what?! I'm backkkkkk!!! Not because I have time now, but because I just got back my first draft of a 25-page paper I wrote relating to my original research, and my teacher just completely shredded it to pieces. As in, paper shreds so tiny, you can't even see them. Like snow. Or maybe not even snow since you can see snow.
I'm supposed to be working on draft 2 this week, but since I'm about to cry at my office desk, I'm procrastinating re-writing it and so ta dah! I'm backkkkk!!!
And no, I'm not asking for your comfort, like, "Awww, that sucks, don't worry, you'll do better next time." No, no, no. I understand every person in academia has to experience being torn apart to ity-bity pieces at least once in their career. You know, the whole "you learn from your failures" platitudes and that sort-of stuff. So don't need to comfort me (although you can still leave a comment below doing that- much appreciated!). I'll pick myself up tomorrow or sometime this week.
But for today, I just can't handle the emotional disappointment and sadness.
So, what in the world have I been doing these past 5 months? Sooooo many things, but here are just a few highlights.
Went to Cedar Point for my birthday with 3 other friends who graciously agreed to spend quite a lot of money to accompany me and make my birthday special- thank you guys! You know who you are. Anyway, ah Cedar Point, how I love thee! Btw, Cedar Point is the roller coaster capital of the world. It rained quite a bit, so that delayed the 1.5 hour lines even longer, but we still managed to sit some terrific rides. I didn't take many pictures, except this one:
Hot funnel cake + ice cream + hot fudge + whipped cream = PURE HEAVEN. The 4 of us devoured it.
Drove to Kentucky for my ex-roommate's bridal shower and wedding. Loved it! Thanks Miss Shay for letting me be a part of it. You looked beautiful.
Me and the beautiful bride
Louisville, Kentucky Temple Exactly like Columbus!
Babysat once a week for two kids. I miss them, though I can't imagine doing it right now either. We got to go to COSI, the zoo, the pool, a movie (Despicable Me 2- soooo cite!), etc... thank you to their Mom for allowing me to take them :)
Started Fall semester: 3 classes + 1 TA class
CLASSES:
- Gender, Race and Empire
- A writing seminar class (paper is the one that gone torn to pieces)
- Pedagogy and Grant writing
TA: Pre-modern East Asia, which I love TA-ing for. LOVE IT! I can't wait to teach my own class, except that I have to go through all the other work to get there, which includes research and writing papers, which is so not my favorite thing. Urgh!
Guess who visited me in Columbus, even if just for a few hours as a stopover from their travels? Two of my favorite families in the whole world!!! The first family stopped over on their way back to Michigan; the latter on their way to Chicago to meet family to move to OREGON. Orgeon! So far away.... *sob!*
Finally, I actually dressed up this Halloween. @@ Yeah, so not me. But there was a dance after the ward Halloween party... Anyway, any guess what I dressed up as?
Simple, fun and cuuuuuuute!
And of course, so many other equally awesome (and not so awesome) stuff happened as well, but I'm too lazy to enumerate them. Hope you guys are surviving and doing better than I am.
Since coming back from Utah, I've realized that I've grown comfortable here in Ohio. My apartment, my roommate (Miss Cee), my friends- I missed them all and it feels really good to be back. I still struggle with school, but I can definitely handle everything else about Ohio.
Of course, this doesn't mean that I couldn't bring back some "Utah" with me. For example, we have a new addition to my living room wall:
Can you believe that I still remember where this came from? It was a gift from my freshman ward back when DT was still standing (yes I'm that old...) because they found out that I wasn't going home for Christmas and was spending it with some family friends instead. So they (the ward members) packed a huge box of goodies/ games/ Christmas decorations/ sparkling grape juice, along with this blanket, and dropped it off with my family friends, so that I could have a wonderful Christmas surprise. Only in Utah :) #freshmanwardscanbeawesomeandnotakwardsometimes (do you like how I faux-hash tagged it? I'm so cool I know)
Anyway, not to be done outdone, Miss Cee took out a University of Kansas (she did her Masters there and worked in Kansas for a couple of years) pennant and hung it on the wall. So now, our living room walls that were once bare are *ahem* bare no more:
Sadly, both Miss Cee and I haven't developed a Buckeye spirit just quite yet so we don't have OSU paraphernalia to adorn our walls. Maybe soon... Anyway, I think it's hilarious that two Asian females have such strong American college school spirit!
Speaking of "new" stuff, my blessing/ news of the month is I HAVE A "NEW" FREE BED!!!
Miss B called me up sometime last week and asked if I wanted her bed since she was moving (sob! Don't leave us!) and leaving it here, and of course, I said yes. So... ta dah! My beautiful "new" (soft) bed which I love love love:
To accommodate my huge bed-that-takes-up-half-my-room, I had to rearrange the furniture in my room. Doesn't seem like much but man! It felt like I was moving all over again. However, I'm rather pleased with the "makeover" results- it's always nice to change things up once in a while :)
Plus it's been fun to have a huge bed, because now I can sprawl out on it to watch movies and sleep study.
I'm telling you, the benefits to being a Mormon are
a) free bed! Okay, not really, BUT you have a network of friends who willingly donate their stuff to you when they move (happened at BYU too- loved it!)
and
b) a network of friends who get up early on Saturday morning to help you move. In this case, Miss Cee and one of my HTs(one of our "Batmen"- see THIS POST for details), whom I shall call Mr. Q, graciously offered to help me that early morning. I mean, look at it- that mattress weighs a ton! After a lot of maneuvering and lifting, we managed to got it down the stairs of Miss B's home, tied securely to Mr. Q's truck for it to survive the trip home, then up the stairs to my apartment, and finally squeezed into my bedroom. Thank goodness I had already taken out my old mattress and put it in the living room.
So here's a as-huge-as-my-bed shout out of thanks to Miss B, Miss Cee and Mr. Q!!!
And what of my old mattress?
Of course it got passed on to another Mormon friend, which, btw, has a funny story attached to it.
After helping me move, as Mr. Q turned to leave, he spotted my old mattress in the living room and asked if I wanted him to just take my old mattress out for me. I declined because the person "inheriting" my mattress was coming to collect it that afternoon.
Well, afternoon comes, and that person came over with a huge plastic sheet large enough to cover the mattress. I asked him why he was covering it, and he said because he was only moving sometime in July, he wouldn't need it till then. Meanwhile, he was going to store it in Mr. Q's basement for the time being.
*slap forehead* Miss Cee and laughed so hard. If only he had told me earlier, we could have saved him a trip! Plus he wouldn't have had to tied it to the roof of his car (although don't worry, because Mr. Q lives like, 2 minutes away from me).
#mormonsandmattresses (do I get extra cool points?)
I started my drive back to Columbus today with lots of mixed feelings- sad to leave Utah but happy to be going back "home" (yup, it's official- Columbus has become my home away from home). Anyway, our (as in my sister and I- thank goodness she came with me this time!) first overnight stop was at Denver, CO where a Singaporean friend and his wife lived, and they planned to take us to eat 红烧牛肉面. Because the restaurant had limited seating, we planned to get there by 5:30 pm. I decided to give us plenty of driving time, and calculated to reach there an hour early if we didn't take any breaks.
I keyed in the address into my GPS, and according to the Time of Arrival, we would get there at 4:30 pm. So we started the drive, and since I got onto the highway, I changed the "Time of Arrival" to "Distance to Destination" to countdown how many miles more we had left to drive.
But after driving about 16 miles, the GPS instructed me to take US-6 for 400+ miles, and I grew uneasy because I knew my route had to be US-6 for about 60+ miles, then on to I-70. I was like, "How come my GPS is telling me stay on US-6 all the way? What about I-70?" Alarmed, I asked my sister to check the GPS for Time of Arrival.
Her response: Time to arrive is 7:35.
WHAT??? Reach there at 7:35 pm? What the heck- did I take a wrong exit or something? How did I suddenly add 3 hours to my trip?!
So we drove back all the way to Provo, and then I calculated my GPS again. It showed me the same route, and when I zoomed out to see the entire route, I realized that we had been traveling on the right route after all.
That was when I realized that my GPS said the time TO arrival was 7:35- as in 7 hours and 35 minutes to our destination. Sadly, our time AT arrival was now 5:30 pm.
The good thing was that even after wasting one hour's worth of gas, we still reached the restaurant with plenty of time to spare, and had really delicious food. It all worked out in the end.
And I almost got into an accident today, and am so grateful to God for watching out for me.
I have to admit that when I realized that I had to return back to Utah for research, my response was a little... lackluster. Don't get me wrong- I loved my time at BYU. LOVED IT. But I miss living in a diverse metropolitan city (Salt Lake City does not count), and where I don't have to drive everywhere because I can take public transportation. Plus I'm a little more politically liberal.
So I was (and still am) very pleasantly surprised at how good it is to be back for a while! I still don't think I can stay here permanently, but I can definitely handle being here for a few weeks. It helps that the weather has been breathtakingly beautiful- cool, sunny days, springtime flowers slowly turning into summer blooms...
MYFAVORITE THINGS SO FAR
- Seeing my sisters
- Surprising friends at their doorsteps
- Hanging out with friends and just talking
- Getting my hair cut by my hairstylist- see THIS POST
- Getting excited when my research yields fruit and makes me go "Ah ha!"- I am SUCH A NERD!!!
- These:
I'm still trying to figure out a way to transport my beloved mountains back with me.
- CHEAP rent. Seriously. It's worth the long commute up to Salt Lake everyday.
- Frontrunner Train from Provo to Salt Lake. It's a little pricey (frankly my car gets slightly better gas mileage so gas would have been cheaper than the ticket), but in exchange I get a seat in a comfortable chair, air-conditioning, no stress from peak hour traffic, and no parking fees. The view is pretty nice too- I love to simply stare out of the window as it rolls through all the different towns. Also, there is free wireless (which is how I'm typing out part of this post) and I'm saving the environment.
Win. Win. Win. Win. Win.
But I think my top favorite thing about being back so far, has been the chance to return back to Temple Square. During lunch I simply cross the street from where I do research (the Church History Library) to the main Temple Square arena, find a seat somewhere outside in the sun, and just enjoy the gorgeous landscape and serenity of the area.
I love sitting near the Reflection Pool and watching the children play with the water, or admiring newly wed couples taking their pictures- a sure sign that a) wedding season has descended and b) Temple Square definitely has some calming effect on me since I don't get cynical/ bitter about seeing all these couples.
My spirit feels like it can breathe, something I didn't realize I needed till I came back.
And I saw this sign while walking this morning. Good to know the Church recycles its water! (;p)
One of the best things about bring back in Provo is that my hairstylist is here. We used to be in the same ward, and from the very first time I went to her to cut my hair, I was hooked.
As most of you know, last year when I went back to Singapore, I permed my hair and ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT. My hair is naturally straighter than a rod and thin as a, well, rod, so the perm gave my hair some volume and shape.
Then it grew and grew and grew.
Taken 2 days ago
Though most of the curls have already loosened, you can still see some waves in it. Unfortunately long hair is hard to keep healthy, plus it results in lots of tangled knots that are extremely frustrating to comb out. For the sake of my sanity (and shampoo bill), plus the fact that I was back in Provo, I therefore decided to take the plunge and...
I promise is not a creature. It is, however, what was left.
And now for the final product...
I love it! It's so cute (it looks even cuter in real life), plus I can't believe how easy it is to wash and maintain my hair now. I still want to perm my hair again when I go home, but for now, I can live with my new hair-do.
Back in Utah for a month! Who would have thought I'll be back so fast? But I drove cross-country for 3 days to surprise one sister for graduation, and then stay on for a month to do research. It was a VERY tiring and boring drive, but it has been really fun to see friends and family again.
Highlights of my trip so far?
#1 Surprising my sister for graduation- her one second 0.5 second look of surprise on her face, before she raced to me and said...
"Can you hold my jacket? I'm so hot" as she pulls off her graduation gown.
Seriously?! I grumbled, "I drove all the way here, and the first thing you say is 'Can you hold my jacket?'" To which she replied, "Actually I suspected you were coming. You kept asking me questions about my graduation, so I suspected it." I really didn't ask that many questions!
*Slap forehead*
Surprise fail. Sort-of.
Sisters Re-united!
It was still great to see friends and family. We had dinner last Sunday night with some family friends, and I sat with two of the grandchildren, who are 8 and 11 respectively. They asked me how old I was, and if I had a boyfriend, and then
"Are you going to get married?"
Point blank straight up, no holds barred. Highlight #2. I was cracking up inside. I replied, "Uh... I hope so." Next they asked me how old I was. Er... pretty old.
"How old?"
"Older than you by... a lot"
"Are you... twenty?"
"Nope, older."
On and on till they got my age (which, sorry, I'm not revealing on a blog) And then, they proceeded to talk between themselves and list all the men they could potentially set me up with, such as...
"How about (insert in some random male name)?." "He's too young." "No he isn't." "I think he's 17." "Oh, that might be too young."
I was dying inside from laughing, and I am highly flattered. At least 2 people think I'm a pretty good candidate for marriage.
Other than that, I've been running around getting my car checked (my poor car... it's such a good sport!), helping one sister pack all her stuff up before she flies back to Singapore, visiting friends, and starting some preliminary research. Oh yes, and moving into my apartment. It's been a while since I've had a room-roommate (she is super nice), and lived in student housing, but rent was cheap, flexible and furnished- what more can a poor graduate research studen ask for?! It's been fun, though I miss my apartment and friends in Ohio.
My Ohio license plates on my car. Plus I got an Ohio drivers' license.
Ironically, it's because I'm going back to Utah for about a month, and needed to get these irksome "paperwork"/ responsible citizen duties done before heading out. *sigh*
Everyone in America is talking about Gay Marriage, because the Supreme Court is debating the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) like, right now.
It's quite fascinating to read the analogies being drawn. There's the milk analogy- Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who is liberal) compared "a gay marriage endorsed by a state, but not recognized by the federal government" to "two types of marriage, 'full marriage, and then this sort of skim milk marriage.'" Oh Ginsberg... gotta love her!
There's the porcupine analogy, which was really quite funny. This one has been circulating on Facebook, so most of you have probably read it. Basically, it says will society stop shoving the gay agenda down our throat already???!!! We are not against gay marriage, but it's appearing EVERYWHERE that we are exhausted of it being thrown in our face left and right. It's like pursuing a "porcupine pet" agenda to the point that now, you can't just state that you own a dog or cat, but have to say, "I own a dog/ cat... but there's nothing wrong with owning a porcupine too."
OR right now, make sure you say "it's raining cats and dogs and porcupines."
OR you go to an art history class to learn about Da Vinci's masterful use of line and shadow in his paintings, but instead, the professor spends the whole class talking about how Da Vinci secretly kept a pet porcupine, "despite the disapproval of his backwards society, and this inner struggle was the source of his sensitivity and genius as an artist." [Believe it or not, there are articles out there that does this.]
And if you oppose any of these changes, you are a bigot and insensitive.
Really quite a clever analogy.
And then there's the straight-in-your-face "You are a bigot" analogy.
Oh wait, that's not an analogy. That's a real life experience.
Yesterday in class, we were talking about racism in Oakland, CA in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. We were having a discussion, when my classmate said, "Speaking about the 'Pro-Family' movement going on today, which, by the way, a few decades from now we will just expose them what they are- bigots (*snickers*); the 'Pro-family' movement etc etc."
FREEZE.
*Sigh* that's me. I'm not one who can respond fast enough on my feet, and I don't debate well, so I usually have a good comeback after the issue has passed, or I just let it slide (gotta pick your battles, ya' know). In this case, it was a combination of dumbfounded-ness and "roll eyes" *whatever* response.
To be fair to him, he didn't know that I am Mormon (I'm sure he would have been a little more sensitive if he knew that), and, like I said, we were talking about racism in Oakland a few decades ago. Back then, policies that we now explicitly label as "racist," were not regarded as such then. So my classmate simply took what happened then ("it was all really racist"), and applied it to the situation now (it is all really bigotry").
I'm not here though, to write a defense of my faith. THIS is a good article explaining my position on gay marriage, and so is THIS.
What I ask though, is please, let's not be disrespectful or nasty of the "other" side. Just as I don't call you mean or derogatory names for supporting gay marriage, please don't call me, my family and friends "bigot." We may have different opinions, but that does not give you the right to insult me. Even if you don't share my faith or even try to see things from my point of view, at the very least don't publicly insult others. We may never agree on this issue, but we can certainly "agree to disagree" in a more accommodating manner.
I want to tell you about some of my food adventures since I've moved here to Buckeye Nation. Which is really quite a feat considering how the food scene here is not exactly... a selling point. But food lovers like me can still hunt down good food any where, right? ;) Some food adventures have been good, and others, well... let's just say, one food adventure gone wrong gave me the shivers.
Let's talk about the good food adventures first:
- CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite food feast, but NOTHING ever beats the taste of home. This year, Miss Cee and I went all out to celebrate CNY 2013, the Year of the Snake, starting with our bat adventure, which you can read about HERE.
Just kidding. [Btw, this couple missionary serving in my church's congregation came up to me last week and said, "We heard about the bird and the bird in your apartment last week. We call it your "Batman and Robin." Bwa ha ha ha ha!]
What Miss Cee and I did do was host a Hotpot dinner for four other friends on the first night of CNY. It was fabulous!!! We had thin-sliced pork and mutton/ lamb, Chinese meatballs (my favorite!), artificial crabmeat, 2 kinds of vegetables, noodles, egg dumplings, tofu, mushroom... nom nom nom.
Eating hotpot always reminds me of the steamboat dinner that I ate growing up every year for my family's Chinese New Eve Reunion Dinner/ 除夕团圆饭. Steamboat is the Cantonese version of it, and everyone uses an individual mini-ladle to scoop food from the broth. It was absolutely delicious, and a great way to welcome the new year, especially after the annual huge cleaning spree (大扫除).
The next week, we went with 2 other friends to try out dim sum at Sunflower restaurant. We had heard good reviews for it, and what better way to celebrate CNY then to splurge a little on some comfort food?
Sadly, I wasn't impressed. Don't get me wrong- I rather eat bad dim sum than no dim sum at all, but I was disappointed with the quality. I think even Salt Lake has better dim sum than this! Oh well.
Then on Sunday we invited 2 friends from the ward to celebrate the last day of CNY by making our own Chinese dumplings/ 水饺. Follow these steps for a delicious meal.
First, we make them:
Next, we pose with our handiwork:
Then, we boil and eat them- YUMMY!!!
And to top it all off, my friend from Singapore gave me a container of Singapore pineapple tarts!!! Picture on left is the day I received it. Picture on left taken the very next day. Yes, you can tell that I loved it.
Now for the bad adventure. Thankfully, I've only had one food adventure (so far) that made me shudder in horror. Some of the food in Columbus isn't terrific, but nothing like this. A friend from small group and I went to Cup-O-Joe for hot chocolate one night, and I ordered hot chocolate, and this is what I :
I was devastated because the first time I went there, Cup-O-Joe had the MOST AMAZING cup of hot white chocolate. Yes, you read that right- hot WHITE chocolate.
This time, I tried their normal hot chocolate and it turned out pink and disgusting. *sigh* I wrote the 2 comments on the cup and left it on the table, and hope that the people working there find it. Sticking to my hot white chocolate next time!
As a Latter-day Saint/ Mormon, I have the deepest respect for my church leaders, and look forward to the semi-annual worldwide conference held in April and October. One of the most memorable quotes I have heard over the years, came from Thomas S. Monson (current prophet and president of the LDS Church), who said this in the April 2005 General Conference when he was still a first counselor:
"Avoid the philosophy and excuse thatyesterday's luxuries have become today's necessities... It is essential for us to live within our means." (Quoted from HERE)
So true!
Then, last night, I was reading Lizabeth Cohen's A Consumer's Republic (you can buy it HERE on Amazon), which is about the rise of mass consumption/ consumerism in post-World War 2 America. Basically, how did America become the #1 country of "stuff"? It's written in very readable prose, so even those who are not in the academic world won't get lost. Definitely recommended!
But that's not what got me excited. After reading for hours, as I started page 261, GUESS WHAT I FOUND?!
No, not a reference to President Monson. Too bad... Anyway, on page 261, Cohen quoted then-Macy's board chairman, Jack Isidor Straus, whosaid this in1965(Staus also oversaw the development of a large shopping mall in New Jersey, so you can imagine that he was one of those advocating "spend, spend, spend!"),
"Our economy goes on spending regardless of how many possessions he has... The luxuries of today are the necessities of tomorrow."
But this time, Straus was saying this to justify the expansion of shopping malls, credit and endless/ mindless spending.
Isn't that funny? The same quote applied to two situations arguing for the exact opposite effect. One to discourage unnecessary spending, and the other to encourage it.
Moral of the story: Always read quotes in context. And be grateful that I was still alert enough to spot this quote after 261 pages!
WARNING: this post contains lots of CAPS LETTERS (for emphasis & dramatic effect), but is based on TRUE events.
Miss Cee has been my roommate for only ONE WEEK, but I can already foresee that it is going to be quite an adventure.
Last night I came home around 10 pm and was putting away my stuff when Miss Cee rushed out exclaiming, "Miss Keesh! I've been waiting for you to come home becuaseabirdattackedmeandthereisamouseinthekitchen!"
HUH?!
She explained (slower) that she was sitting at her desk in her bedroom, happily working on her computer and was about to take a shower when A BIRD ATTACKED HER.
Remember, it's winter time, so all our windows are shut tight with blinds pulled down, and (as far as we can see) there are no holes in the roof of the apartment. So when she said A BIRD ATTACKED HER, I pictured this:
Taken from http://www.istockphoto.com
Only of course, an angrier (and browner) bird, pecking at the window, furiously trying to break the glass and blinds to get in. I was like, "Huh?! Why would a bird attack you?!"
Then she went on to say that she was so scared, she started crawling on all fours and shut both our bedroom doors and the bathroom door, to which, because I'm still thinking this:
I thought to myself, "She crawled on on fours? Erm... okay, I guess she didn't want the bird to see her through our bedroom windows... But why shut the bathroom door? There are no windows in our bathroom!"
And then she started exclaiming how the bird swooped down right in front her face multiple times, and I finally got it- she wasn't talking about a bird outside of the window. THE FREAKING BIRD WAS IN OUR APARTMENT ATTACKING HER!!!
WHAT THE HECK???!!! How in the world did the bird get into the apartment? And what do you do in such a situation?! Please remember that poor Miss Cee was all alone, crawling and gasping for anyone to hear her pleas for salvation... alright, not so dramatic, but imagine how freaked out you would be if a bird appeared OUT OF NOWHERE and swooped down TO YOUR FACE and CIRCLED ABOVE YOUR HEAD and started demanding "GET ME OUT OF HERE OR I WILL PECK YOU TO DEATH."
Seriously, it's terrifying.
Where are the men when you need them??? - one of the thoughts that went through Miss Cee's mind. The other was, "Help me! Please keep me alive!"
Thank goodness despite the "trauma" Miss Cee figured out how to get the bird out of the apartment, which involved shutting all doors (hence the bathroom), turning on the lights to the living room and opening the balcony door to let the bird escape. Thankfully, the bird took the escape route.
Poor Miss Cee. And you wonder why I hate birds...
But WAIT!!! The story does not end there. After Miss Cee got the bird out, she quickly shut the balcony doors, turned around and was about the walk back to the bedroom when she noticed this:
A mysterious "blob" perched on our kitchen cabinet doors near the ceiling. Inching closer, the blob turned out to be A MOUSE.
Round 2.
Except that this time, the animal simply perched there as if dead. Not knowing what to do and not wanting to do anything anyway, Miss Cee left the ceiling light on, hoping that the light would force it to stay in its position while she went took a shower. No point staring at a mouse that didn't seem inclined to move all night right? She took a shower, then quickly shut herself in her room.
I came home soon after, blissfully ignorant of all that had taken place just an hour prior. So when Miss Cee rushed out to tell me all that had happened, I could not quite believe my ears. A bird attacked her? And what mouse was she talking about?
I climbed onto a small chair and took a closer look, and after puzzling over why the mouse was so black and furry, it hit me (again).
This wasn't a mouse.
Oh no.
The "blob" was really
A
SMALL
CURLED UP BAT!!!
There is A BAT in my apartment.
Oh my word. What the heck.
This is not some dark, dusty, junk-filled attic that becomes a perfect nesting place for bats- THIS IS MY KITCHEN IN MY NEW APARTMENT. In case, you don't believe me, I climbed onto the chair again and took a picture as evidence:
Okay, now to figure out what to do with this bat. I didn't know if the bat was dead or not, though Miss Cee suspected that it was alive but injured (her theory is that the bird had attacked the bat and taken it into the apartment). Ewww!!! No way was I going to deal with a bat that was alive. Thus, in order to test it's alive-ness, I took the handle of a bathroom appliance, and tapped on the cabinet door and ceiling because (believe it or not) I remembered that bats had excellent hearing, and I thought tapping on it might "wake" it up or at least cause some movement. Some of you are rolling your eyes, but hey! I don't do science.
Anyway, zero movement from the bat, even after all the ruckus from the tapping. Therefore I thought, "This bat is dead." I grew bolder and inched the handle closer to the one of its claws. Closer and closer... then I touched it.
The bat finally moved its claw and curled up smaller.
I SCREAMED, and so did Miss Cee (who was, may I say, "safely" sitting on the couch in the living room, observing all that I was doing and offering suggestions, but she wasn't going near the kitchen anytime soon). THE BAT WAS ALIVE AND SLEEPING/ RESTING IN MY KITCHEN!!! No way was I going to go near that scary (a)live monster-relative-of-the-blood-sucking-vampire. It hadn't move because Miss Cee had (wisely and thank goodness!) left the light on.
We were almost resigned to having to leave the light on for the rest of the night, then Miss Cee thought of our home teachers [home teachers are men assigned to take care of a family/ single sister in their congregation] or HTs. We decided to ask one of them to come over the next morning and help us deal with it before church- it was late at night, and the bat was "sleeping" right? Anyway, here is how the text "conversation" went:
Miss Cee: Hey, can you do me a favor tomorrow morning before going to church? There is a BAT in our kitchen. Can you please come and take it out for us?[note the caps of the word "BAT"]
Miss Cee's HT: Wait, a live bat?[We can totally infer what he was thinking- "Seriously?! What type of bat? Dead or alive? Or a baseball bat?"]
Miss Cee: Yes.............
HT: We can come now [i.e., "I got to see this for myself. No way there is a LIVE bat in their apartment."]
Only we didn't see his last text, and so a few minutes after we started putting away stuff for the day, we heard a knock on our door- I tell you, there is really only so much shock one can take in a night. Thank goodness it was a pleasant shock this time because ta dah! Our HTs stood outside our apartment, ready to "take down" (no pun intended!) the bat.
Here are our heroes, armed with a broom and one of those flexible-clothed laundry baskets. I helped them a little, and when we tried coaxing the bat into the basket, it made this ear-piercingly-high, horrid "chirp, chirp, chirp" sound. Yup, definitely not dead. It even spread its wings when we finally trapped it! The HTs then grabbed it and set it free on the balcony.
HOORAY FOR OUR HEROES!
The weird things is despite all that, I hope it survived because I actually do like bats, and I sincerely hope it did NOT meet the same fate as this mouse:
Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! One of my favorite videos this year so far.
When Miss Cee's friend heard about the bat, she pointed out that it was an auspicious sign for us because in the Chinese language, the word "bat" (蝙蝠/ bian fu) sounds like the word "fortune" (福/ fu). It seemed especially appropriate considering that yesterday was Chinese New Year's Eve. I joked that we had chased our fortune out of the balcony door, to which Miss Cee quipped, "No, we are simply sharing the fortune with everyone else!"
We had a terrific looooooong laugh together. So my readers, if you notice that you are having an especially prosperous year, you know why!
So most everyone should have heard by now that I moved into a new apartment and I got a new roommate! Miss Cee is a second year graduate student in the Education department from Taiwan, and we attend the same church congregation, which is how we met and decided to room together.
It's been a while since I've had an Asian roommate (family doesn't count), and I am completely TICKLED by some of our similar habits and quirks. I know it's really 80% personality and 20% Asian-ness, rather than the other way around, but there are some similarities we share that are so "unique," it's easier (and fun-ner) to attribute it to being Asian and let everyone just shake their head, roll their eyes and mutter, "Oh you Asians..."
Example 1: We both shower at night.
It's nice to have white American roommates (who generally shower in the daytime) because then we don't fight for the bathroom (especially on Sunday mornings). But it's also nice to know that my roommate has a cultural understanding of why I shower at night. FYI, according to my undergraduate 101 anthropology class, there is an anthropological cultural explanation for why different cultures shower at different times- yes this is what we in the academic world study...
2: We sleep late and wake up late. The saying "early to bed, early to bed" is usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but even if Mr. Franklin wasn't the one who came up with this saying, I'm convinced it was NOT invented by an Asian. Alright, there are exceptions to the rule on both sides, but I do notice that most of my former Asian roommates and I have a later "daylight clock" than most of my American roommates. My theory is that we Asians grew up having to stay up late to study, and so formed the habit of sleeping late. Bad, unhealthy habit but hey! Don't look at me- blame it on the education system!
3: We drive the same car model, the Toyota Echo. I'm not kidding you. And we bought this model for practically the same reasons- cheap, low gas mileage (less than 100,000 miles when we both got them!) and runs smoothly enough to get us from point A to point B without worrying about breaking down.
Mine on the left, hers on the right
Isn't that just hilarious?! Her car is 3 years newer than mine though. Now whenever people comment on how tiny my car is, I have an excuse to say, "It's an Asian thing" (Ssh! Don't tell them it's really not). By the way, my car is really not that small. It has FOUR DOORS, is really the perfect size for Asians who tend to be smaller in built.
4: We cook dinner for lunch the next day, even if it is already 11pm.
Over the past Christmas break I visited an old roommate of mine in Kentucky, and one of the things we reminisced about was how one time she came home from work at midnight to find me in the kitchen cooking mac-and-cheese for my lunch the next that day.
Well, it's nice to know that apparently, I'm not the only crazy Asian who does this, because guess what Miss Cee and I were doing at 11pm this past Monday?
Yup.
I'm still grinning from recalling these memories. What can I say- I'm Asian and proud of it!
It's been freezing here in Columbus this past week. I feel like I'm in a freezer in a freezer- it's that cold! Every time I go out my face gets blasted with a full-on cannonball of frigid air. BAM- every single time.
This time I'm not kidding.
BUT I'm not here to complain about the cold weather. Oh no. I'm here to tell you what the cold weather can do, and why it is sooooooooo awesome, and why you should all make Mr. Cold Weather your best friend forever and ever and ever... (do you hear the sarcasm just dripping here).
So, 1) The cold weather can turn a school into an ice-skating rink!!!
How "AWESOME" is that?! I just found out that BYU-Provo, my alma mater, literally turned into an ice-skating rink today! Here's the magical formula to make your school equally oh-so-"cool":
Make someone (or whoever is in charge of doing this) forgot to salt the pathways, or think it's not important since it's only rain + Rain + Subzero temperatures = Ta dah! "Ice-skating pathways" for the 25,000+ student population to slip and slide and cling precariously to railings enjoy!
For the record, I LOVE BYU, and I hope everyone was safe (meaning no bruises or broken bones from accidentally sliding "skating" into someone), and that they "de-iced" the pathways as soon as they could.
2) The cold weather makes impossible things become possible!
Remember THIS POST where I told you about my colleague who called Provo "hell on earth?" I guess you can call this a case of HELL FREEZING OVER. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha... yes I think I'm sooooo funny.
3) The cold weather makes me turn funny. See 2).
4) The cold weather helps you burn more calories when you workout.
Alright, so I don't workout, but I moved on Monday morning, and of course, it snowed ON THE VERY DAY I HAD TO MOVE. Thanks a bunch Mr. Weather. My friends were terrific though- they nonchalantly shrugged off any additional inconvenience from moving in the cold weather, and did what they came to do. And for that, apart from my everlasting gratitude for their service, they also got the added bonus of burning some extra calories from all that huffing and puffing (or was I the only one doing this?!).
And if anything, every time you dress, you have to layer and layer and layer, then take them off once you get indoors, then put them on all over again layer after layer after layer- I'm telling you, you burn quite a lot of calories.
5) The cold weather addles my brain to the point that I commit a fashion no-no in Miss Keesh's personal book of fashion.
I went to the temple directly after school yesterday (for more information on LDS temples, please visit HERE and HERE), and grabbed a long black skirt to change into. However, I forgot to bring a change of shoes, and ended up wearing a brown-black blouse, a long black skirt and... coral-pink sneakers. I pulled my skirt as far down my hips as possible, but it still could not hide my completely mismatched, bright, attention-grabbing "LOOK AT ME!" shoes.
Of course, I played it cool when I went into the temple, and thank goodness I changed into temple shoes so my mortification did not last too long. I promise I don't judge how or what you wear to the temple, but you got to admit that even you would stare if you saw someone wearing this combination. Plus, even if no one else cared (which I'm sure no else did because everyone treated me just as nice), I did! My personal (again I'm not judging anyone else but myself) fashion book says no sneakers to the temple, and no sneakers with nice, non-denim skirts.
*Groan*
And that, my friends, is why Mr. Cold Weather is like, my best friend forever and ever and ever (urgh! My floor is disgusting from all the sarcasm).
