Thanksgiving weekend

It was on the way back from a Korean restaurant that my friend's girlfriend, who moved to the US in the middle school and became a US citizen recently, started the conversion why fewer Chinese were in the management positions in Microsoft than their Indian counterparts. Then the discussion extended to the overall social status of Chinese in the US. Chinese who have climbed up the social ladders in the states were admired and celebrated. When she further asked how to achieve fortune and fame in the states, I realized that she still thought the US was the most promising country in the future. I replied right now China is the biggest lender to the US. It might be more practical to know how to achieve fortune and fame in China.

The next day was Thanksgiving. I was invited to a friend's for dumplings. Her boyfriend who liked to create different ways of wrapping dumplings suggested that we could cook the dumplings like doing hotpot. I didn't like the idea. But my friend took her cooker for hotpot out. We cooked dumplings like hotpot.

It was black Friday. I went grocery shopping in the afternoon. My friend who drove me went shopping in the morning as well. She said the peak hour was 6-7am. She went at 8am. In the evening, we went to the Evangelical Chinese Church. It was my second time going there. After free dinner, a guest speaker did a missionary lecture. Frankly, I didn't like the speaker. He disliked everything unchristian. Even though my friend just officially claimed that she became a believer, I felt like she was ordained.

Yesterday, I had dim sum with some schoolmates in Chinatown. Before going home, we went to Uwajimaya. When I was at the book store, I browsed a very funny book titled "The Big Bento Box of Unuseless Japanese Inventions". I couldn't help laughing out loud in the store.

This afternoon, I saw "Red Cliff". The story is widely known. It was not only made into part of a popular TV series in mainland China a few years ago, but also included in my high school Chinese text book. However, the movie was OK. I didn't remember much. In addition to the bloody battle scenes, I could only recall a couple things such as making bombs and playing soccer, and a few sentences such as 以我多年种田的经验 (based on my many years experience of farming).

A fun picture I created online

Wednesday Morning

On Monday, I finally submitted a paper with my second revision. One of the reviewers seemed to find something that s/he didn't find during the first round of review. On Tuesday, I started revising another report. I still had to prepare data for my dissertation analysis. I have been in the PhD program for a while. It is time for me to graduate. I should also look for jobs. I want to stay in the academia. Universities have gone under budget cut. Job postings are fewer compared with a few years ago. At a conference in October, I saw quite a few newly graduated PhDs looking for jobs.

I decided that I should get up early to work on the report on Wednesday. After my morning routine of a glass of warm water, I started eating breakfast. I picked up, Flight, one of the books that I have piled on the table. It was the 11th chapter. Zits was in one of the Indian battles. He got into the body of an old soldier who killed Indians. I finished half of a sandwich. The avocado was so creamy. I couldn't have enough of it. The battle scene was vividly described, bloody and brutal. I was glad that I was not eating meat or anything red in the morning. Maybe it was not a good idea to read such a scene in the morning. Then I read

...Without stopping, that white soldier reaches down and picks up Bow Boy. Cradles the child in one arm. And the while soldier keeps running...That white soldier, a small saint, is trying to save Bow Boy...In the midst of all this madness and murder, one soldier has refused to participate. He has chosen the opposite of revenge...

Tears started to fill my eyes. I almost expected to see the five year old boy being brutally murdered. How courageous the soldier is! Against the order to save lives! While I was crying, I couldn't help keep reading. I didn't want to finish it so fast, but I also wanted to know how the story developed.

When I managed to finish my breakfast, the clock showed it was 9:30. I had to catch my bus.