December Osytering

Canada Geese

According to a friend of mine who majors in biology that those are not Canada geese, instead, they are surf scoters.

My Country and My People

I love reading this book "My Country and My People" (Lin, Yutang. 1935. My country and my people. New York : Reynal & Hitchcock).

"There is no end to the number of things it would be a pleasure to say about My Country and My People, but the only important statement first and last is that reading it has far more value than talking about it." (Charlotte Tyler)

"First giving an idea of the rhythm of Chinese history, the physical development of the Chinese, and the qualities of Chinese thought, Dr Yutang Lin then goes in more detail to the behavior of the Chinese man in society, his political system, his relation to his family and nation, his ideas about sex and the position of women, the arts of prose and verse, of writing with the brush and of painting, and the art of living itself."(Charlotte Tyler)

Like doing my own research, the more I read the more confused I feel. As a Chinese having lived in China for 22 years, I still don't know how to answer when people ask me "tell me about Chinese culture, and what Chinese people like".

听来的故事

琦在朋友的聚会上认识瑞。

一个礼拜后，琦告诉她的一个好友游她喜欢瑞。

琦的好友游也正好是瑞的好友。

游告诉瑞琦喜欢他。瑞反应像是满高兴。

第二个礼拜，他们三个一起去看了“Closer”。

两个月后经过一次旅游，游发现她也喜欢瑞。游向他表白。同时告诉他，她不想做第三者，架在其中， 因为她知道他有个女朋友在家乡。瑞说她对他的感情会在短时间内再变成友谊的。

琦很不高兴，因为那次旅游，只有游和瑞。同时，她也知道游向瑞表白。

两个月之后，琦再次与游联系，告诉游她对瑞很生气，因为她不知道瑞有女朋友。 这两个月来，她和瑞一直在约会。而且这两个月来他的女朋友从他家乡来看他。

游不知道如何安慰琦。这两个月来，琦没有联系游。游也不知道瑞和琦在约会。

游打电话给瑞，告诉他，她很不赞同他的作法。

再过了两个月，瑞打电话给游，对她说她不应介入次事。

琦是她的好友。瑞也是她的好友。感情的事情理不清。于是游表示中立，不再过问。

可是琦觉得被游出卖。在琦离开后，琦再没和游联系。

事过半年，瑞告诉游，琦开始给他发电子邮件了。可是琦始终没有联系游。

看到的故事

她很漂亮，但是有洁癖。她总是喜欢把屋子打扫得干干净净，有条不禁。
结婚后有一段时间，她很开心。
可惜她丈夫与前妻的三个孩子和她和她丈夫住在一起后，她变得很忙。忙着上班，忙着照顾她的狗，忙着照顾三个孩子，忙着整理屋子。
她的怨言不多，只是想搬到一个更大的房子，因为这样屋子里的东西就可以整理整齐。

Miscellanous

I was on the phone with my mom last weekend. She told me that she and my dad finally could log onto my blog. When I just started blogging, I told my parents and friends about it last year. However, my parents and many of my friends in China couldn’t log onto my blog.

My mom also said I only have two entries that are Chinese. I think I should write more in Chinese. I feel like my English writing is far from perfect. At the same time, I can find more and more flaws in my Chinese writing.

The other day, I talked to a friend who I haven't seen or talked for a long time. He was telling me that after staying in a city for a while, it was hard to go back to live in previous city he left. On the other hand, it was hard to stay where he lives now longer. He is a traveler and he is building his journeys. Who isn't? He thinks about cities or countries, just like other people think about progresses, promotions, achievements, etc.

Today I got an email from a friend. She told me couple months ago she was getting married. I haven't seen her wedding pictures yet. She told me this time that she was expecting a baby. Now, I can't wait to meet her little one. She's so efficient!

This is an email from another friend. She told me Vancouver, BC due to the big snow storm had black out yesterday for 16 hours. She was in cold and hungry for 16 hours.

One more thing, I just decide that I'll do “长发为君留”。.^_^.^_^.^_^.^_^.

Wet wet wet

Seattle is very very very wet this November. This is a picture from NYtimes

In the cloud

It was the morning of Thanksgiving. My radio/alarm was turn on at 7:10am. I was still half asleep and half awake. Here I heard the NPR news about how many Iraqi civilians were killed. Is US planning on withdrawing troops from Iraq?

After the democrat took over the house, it seems like there have been a lot of changes: Rumsfeld resigned, media start reporting the Iraqi civilian death toll, etc. It seems like US is working on withdrawing troops from Iraq.

I was still very sleepy. I just saw Casino Royale the night before. Maybe I was dreaming.

Women like him; men want to be him

That is what a lot of people think about James Bond. That was what was said in the trailer for Casino Royale. I saw the movie. I think the movie is very entertaining, specially the scene that a beautiful woman in bikini rides on a large white horse along a Jamaican beach.^_^.

2006 ACSP Fort Worth, TX

From Nov.8th-12th, I attended ACSP conference in Fort Worth, TX. It was my first time to go to Texas. The weather was quite nice in November. During my stay in Fort Worth, it was sunny all the time. It was even very warm the first couple days.


Downtown of Fort Worth, TX


Kimbell Art Museum


Modern Art Museum

You're beautiful

Recently I have been quite into James Blunt and his "You're beautiful". I went to his world tour concert tonight in Everett. It was very exciting.

By the way, he is very cute.^_^. It seems like I'm going to buy his second CD.

Halloween

Short Hair

After keeping the same hair style for more than 5 years, I finally decided to have a change. I have my hair cut short today. Until now, only three persons saw me after the hair cut: my friend who did my hair, and two of my housemates.

My friend said I looked like a different person.

One of my housemates said it took some guts for a person with such long hair to cut it so short.

Another of my housemate said the short hair made me look more like an Asian.

I didn't start keeping long hair until my junior year in college. The short hair reminded me about my middle school and high school.

Coins

I have been collecting coins since beginning of this year. 

I want to buy a 30G iPod with video playing function. Yet, it's not something I have to have. Therefore, I came out this plan at the beginning of this year. I will collect all the coins I can find to get the iPod. It has been more than 6 months. I finally collected $50 coins! This Thursday after my lab meeting, I brought the coins to the bank. I changed the coins to paper money. I was very excited. With the rebate from the bookstore, I had almost $100. At least, it's half way to get the iPod. However, I guess I was celebrating too early. Before I left the bank, I asked them to check my balance on my debit card. I was told I owned the bank $3.76! I had more than $37 in that account! It turned out that I forgot to cancel the online pay bill service. The bank charged fee for that service! A very good lesson.

At the end, it seemed like I collected all the coins to pay the bank service fee........

Marriage Quotes

When I was using the free dictionary today, I saw a quote on marriage.

“A man marries to have a home, but also because he doesn't want to be bothered with sex and all that sort of thing.” --W. Somerset Maugham

For my curiosity, I googled quotes on marriage. I found more. Here are a few I found interesting.

“Never trust a husband too far, nor a bachelor too near.”-- Helen Rowland

“After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the Garden with her than inside it without her.”-- Mark Twain

“My advice to you is to get married. If you find a good wife, you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.”—Socrates

5th Anniversary--Americanizing

September 21st, 2006 is my 5th anniversary coming to the US. I have been to the US for 5 years already!!! Gradually, I have been Americanized.

First year, when I was searching for housing, a landlady asked me “Are you from China?” just a couple minutes of the conservation on the phone. I was also quite often asked “Do you have culture shock?”

Second year, people could ask me “Where (here implying which country) are you from?” after a five-minute face-to-face conversation.

Third year, no one asked me “Do you have culture shock?” However, I was asked "Are you a native Amercian?" when I was visiting Boston.

Fourth year, no question on which country I was from was asked.

This year, I was asked "Are you a Mexican?" when I was in Paris.

Banff--3

Banff--2

Banff--1

Europe Trip 4--Berlin

An article on Berlin

Europe Trip 3--Rome