生病了

生病了。自从实习结束后，我没好好休息，几乎每天都有节目，身体终于开始抗议了。但，也算值得吧，见了许多好久没见的朋友，也看了几部好戏。现在，也该好好休息了。

5月10日，知道自己被派去那间学校了。是间好学校，名誉好，学生优。若我实习前便去那间学校，我应该会很开心。但，现在，经过实习的洗礼后，一切已今非 昔比。想念我的那些坏学生，习惯上课时把目标调到最低，用最简单的语言。习惯每次派下功课，就要花2个星期追回。习惯骂学生时，他们调皮的回嘴。这些，都 不是新学校会有的。不知道，我是否能重新适应这个新的环境。好的学校，要求会更高，又是另一个新的挑战。

那天，学生打来问我被派去那间学校时，说，老师，好啦，好学校，你不用整天骂学生了，不会教到吐血。可说完，他又加上一句，可是那些好学生不会像我们这样逗你笑，你以后会教到很闷的，还是教我们比较好哦。

哈，一针见血的评语。我的学生，其实好聪明的。

a good life...

Lead quite a fulfilling life recently… watched a couple of good shows, and met up with some good friends for clean and simple fun…

Watched Happy on Saturday with some Beida friends. It was a good musical, although highly strung. Came out with an headache from the concentrated tension throughout the play, but it was worth it. DramaBox’s plays never hold back, you either love it or hate it…I really liked the way they potrayed Oscar Wilde, reciting the lines from his letters and the depiction of Salome and the Happy Prince in between..

Sunday was Mother’s Day, spent the day at home with mom and dyed her hair, a simple gift for Mother’s Day… Dad cooked lunch and Lew and I did dinner although mine turned out a disaster. Reminder: Milk is not a good substitute for light cream.

Watched Sommersturn with X on Monday. Loved it, not so much for the gay theme, but for the delicate way they treated the complex feelings of the unrequited love for one’s best friend. Wished they developed more on the feelings of Achim instead of focusing almost solely on Tobi, the fleeting scenes whetted the appetite but did not really satisfy, but it was a wonderful film overall, one of the better films on homosexuals, not to mention the multitude of eye candy available.

Tuesday was mahjong with J and E, and the much laughter aroused from 3 people that do not really know how to play… Laughter over the mistakes and unforgiving remarks… We enjoyed it so much that we played again on Wednesday! We did much better on Wed though, esp E, for one that threw “the green word” despite much warnings to allow a bankrupt win for the first day and claiming not to know the rules, he certainly won enough to warrant being pelted by tiles…

Watched Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi on Wed morn with L and her friend K. One of the sweetest films I’ve watched in a long time, a show about the love one special boy can have for all the people surrounding him, a boy blessed with the weight of the world on his shoulders. The theme is similar to Amelie, but oh so much better. The storyline is amazingly simple, yet amazingly moving. I felt the tears coming on at the end of the film, yet they came with a smile

Thursday was the visit to Nee Soon camp, a visit that turned out to be surprisingly interesting with a chance at live firing of which I actually managed to hit the target all 3 times, ha, so proud of myself. Afternoon was spent with L and Z at the KTV, celebrating Z’s birthday. We sang from 3 to 7, haven’t done KTV for awhile and forgot how much I enjoyed it. We had HK fare for lunch, and I ordered a chicken porridge that was yummilicous, very similar to the one P and I ate in New York! It was so good that I went back and ordered takeaway for dinner.

Good food, Good films, Good fun and most of all… Good friends…

点点离愁

在麦当劳给我中三的学生补习。没想到，他们上周五说要补课，竟然是认真的。而且，全班学生竟然来了三分之一，比正式补课还多。尤其，来了几个从来不认真听 课的学生，让人不知该感动还是惊讶，如浩威和伟良。浩威，因为整天被我留堂，我以为我走了，他解脱了，应该能避就避，没想到竟然还会主动出现在我面前。伟 良，因为他自己都有华文补习了，而且，他知道，他若来，就一定会被我“针对”，因为我说过他的成绩最烂。果然，他一来，就被我赶到一边读听写，没读好就不 能动。他听写第一课时，其他同学都围着看，在他竟然写得出第一个词“瑕疵”时还集体喝彩，哈。

约三个小时的补习，直到我们被麦当劳的员工赶，时间飞逝。我的这一群学生，决不肯安安静静的读书的，总是搞一些小动作让我笑，上厕所时前问我可不 可以，还跟我要pass， 埋怨我为什么改测验改得那么严，伟良还为他9分的作文成绩耿耿于怀。这些贫嘴的坏学生，临走前竟然还起立，在麦当劳中大声喊“谢谢罗老师”。平时上课时都 不见他们这么“有心”！存心让我“出名”哦。但，真的很感动。这是最后一堂课了，和这一群让我放不下的学生。

真的很舍不得，结束后，心情很郁闷。打电话给萱，要她陪我吃晚饭。碰巧，她这天心情也很差，吃了晚饭后，两个人都不想回家，便边走边聊。没想到，走着走着，竟然从West Mall 走回我家！

这一天，感触很多。离别的愁绪让人心情好蓝，但，有一个好朋友陪伴，真的很安慰….

Skylight

Watched Skylight by Escape Theatre yesterday at the ArtsHouse. One of the best plays I’ve watched this year, even better than Wi!d Rice’s Boeing Boeing (which I really liked, it was a almost perfect comedy production, the perfect medicine for the stress-filled days of practicum).

Skylight, a intricate script delving deep into the characters of the two main protagonists, which were supposed to represent two different castes I think, but I simply saw them as two individuals, in love but couldn’t accept each other’s ways of thinking. The long conversations and arguments, peppered with sarcasm and filled with emotions was amazingly good and satisfying. Loved the detailed set and the wonderful acting. The last breakfast scene was somehow just perfect, soft lighting bathing the table, answering to the name of the play, Skylight. A window showcasing human emotions…

Another reason why I liked the play so much was because of Kyra’s character as a schoolteacher teaching in one of the worse schools in London, despite that she can actually get a much easier job anywhere else with her qualifications. “As long as you have one student, one student that you focus on making a difference to, that keeps you going.” That so hit the spot…

There was a story somewhere about a taxi driver saying that David Hare’s plays remind him why we go to theatre, and that is to learn. After watching so many plays… Skylight somehow recaptures the reason behind why I go to theatre as well…

我们的新谣大家唱

今天，慧打来问我要不要去《我们的新谣大家唱》的演唱会。其实，还有作文未改完，却决定放纵自己。 好久好久没有好好出去玩了。每天的日子，都环绕在备课，上课，追作业，留学生，改作业这个圈子中。现在终于解脱了，决定在下学期正式教学前，好好的疯一下。

今晚的演唱会，真得很棒。其实，我对新谣并不十分熟悉，除了几首著名的《邂逅》，《你的倒影》和梁文福的创作外，当晚的歌，许多都是第一次听到的。更有许多是在听到熟悉的旋律后，才想起有这么一首歌。新谣，真的伴我们成长。

很喜欢新谣，喜欢那种清清淡淡的味道，书卷味的歌词。也喜欢演唱会的气氛，露天广场，凉风习习，歌手打扮轻便，只有一个劳苦功高的吉他手伴乐。整个随意中 带温馨。许多首歌，都引起三千多个观众随声附唱，那种感觉，仿佛就像回到校园时，MAF的sing-a-long。许多歌，都勾起校园的回忆，《我们这一 班》，《细水长流》…

新谣，真的是值得我们骄傲的。一个独特与隽永的，属于我们的东西，属于我们的回忆，

混世魔王

8个星期的实习教学，终于结束了。心中有不舍，有解脱。我的那一群混世魔王。就算到最后一分钟，依旧玩世如故。最后一天我的老师安排的补习课，整个中三班 只剩下约十几个学生。哈，剩下的几个在那里说，老师，就我们几个，怎么上课？不然这样啦，你星期三再安排一堂课，反正星期四考试，你今天教，我们也记不 住。你住哪里？我们配合你，去你家最近的麦当劳，你在那里给我们上课。这一群小魔王，真不知道得寸进尺怎么写哦。

我和朋友们谈起我的学生，他们都说我的学生真的很好笑。其实，虽然他们每次搞这种小动作时都弄得我又气又恨，但回想起来，我也忍不住好笑。真的很 舍不得。我三个班。中一班，很贴心的一群小可爱，在我的最后一堂课还给了我一个惊喜，送礼又送卡。还有两个女生亲自写了好窝心的信给我，说他们舍不得我。 让我真的好想哭，他们还拼命说，老师别哭，老师别哭。我中三班呀，就别想会有这么贴心的举动了。三个班中，我最担心的就是这个不爱读书的一班。他们最让我 放心不下。

这一群小魔头，一个个鬼灵精似的，只爱玩爱闹，却不爱读书。每天上课时都是一团糟。无论交作业也好，上课不睡也好，他们都说是给我面子，仿佛如此 我就不该再催作业或留堂了。尤其那几个最坏的学生，我想我会一直记得，我的第一群学生，第一群让我那么头痛的学生。可以想象，当我正式开始教书的时候，就 没那么多空闲时间一个个追着他们留堂做作业了。我呀，也只有在这一群学生身上，才会花那么多时间，所以，他们也算是我最不幸的学生吧！他们让我头疼，却也 带给我许多欢笑，回忆一大堆，五味杂陈。又气又笑地度过了8个星期…

昨天，其中一个发短讯给我，知道我因为这一班而烦心时，叫我别担心，说他认为我是个好老师。发现，当老师的，其实只要学生的肯定，就足够了。其他什么都不重要…

Practicum Days...

P reminded me that its been a long time since I updated…and indeed it is. Practicum started and its taking its toll on me (and about everyone else), despite the fact that in reality, I’m only teaching half the load of a full-time teacher. My Sec. 3 students have me at the brink of a migraine every time I think of them. They are a good lot, and I do see their merits, always willing to lend a helping hand and good-natured at times. They are never really defiant and never ever mean. Yet, yet, how on earth do I get them to listen in class and do their work?! Half of them have already given up on their Chinese and another half are angry at being put in the worst Express class and feel they can’t study in such an environment. And all of them have a very low self-esteem. What can I do? With only 6 weeks left with them… what *can* I do?

Still, it’s the holiday week, despite the heavy nie assignments resting on my shoulders. (I can’t concentrate on any other work until I finish this one awful assignment from hell. BUT I can’t concentrate on working on this assignment either!) Lazed around for the first 2 days. Wanted to start work on the 3rd, but only managed to finish a meager amount of readings before succumbing to playing cards with L (who came over to motivate me! but really enjoyed the card games and the company, thanks gal!) Am currently in nie, hoping the studious environment here will help… but still only managed to finish drafting what I’m going to write, still haven’t started writing a single word…

But, I shall remember that this is the holiday week. After two weeks of real time teaching of 7am-530pm stress-filled days with added markings at night, and 6 weeks of the same looming, I’m going to relax, relax, and relax! This is the sunny tropical island of Singapore after all!

P.S.: I’m trying to cultivate a habit of writing down a blessing everyday in an effort to remain positive. Anything will do, from a stranger’s smile to winning the week’s Toto, as long as it made you happy. In the long run, we shall have a daily record of happy memories! And today’s shall be the 1.5 hour lunch of chicken cutlet and chat with a dear friend who is looking a lot better than the last time I saw him :)

又是情人节

又是情人节了。今年，他以狗狗为主题的情人节礼物整整早到了一个星期，害我情人节正天反而跟他嚷着说怎么没收到东西。这个傻蛋。但，真的挺感动的，因为他 花费的心思和时间。如他所说，在一起这么久了，每年的生日，情人节，纪念日，圣诞等等等，都得想新的点子，年过一年，开始江郎才尽，点子越来越难想，每年 的这些特别日子，都快变差事节了。

在一起三年了，一起度过的情人节，生日，却好像只有一次。而且还是没在一起的时候。两地相隔，他说，没关系，只要两颗真心在一起，就能互相取暖。而我觉得呢？节日还好吧，反正就这么一天。难度的，是那些失意寂寞的时候。。。

他的生日要到了，还是快想想，这回又该送些什么。。。

CNY & 华裔 05

It’s Chinese New Year again, I luckily have a full week of holidays starting for Eve, to Valentine’s… This year, CNY passed by especially quickly and peacefully…only visited 3 houses on the 1st, went to the temple to appease the god of the year and came home to play mahjong, my new obsession of the year :) I seem to really inherit my Dad’s genes…

Visited the Sentosa Flowers on the 2nd to keep Mom happy, I was very unimpressed though, the exhibition displays mostly the same flowers we see around HDBs everyday, there was quantity, but not much quality. Compared to the spring blossoms in Boston and Beijing, the exhibition 真的不怎么样. There was, however, a wonderful display of orchids to hold up the nation’s pride, with a carpet of delicate lavender and pink flowers.

Went to Sim Lim to buy a new laptop on the 3rd, vomited a whole lot of cash for this machine which I’m typing on right now, way more than I wanted to pay for a new notebook. As L said, when I set a cash limit, I tend to spend twice of it. Haiz… when will I ever learn to control my spending?!?!

Had dinner with G on the 4th, and received two great x’mas pressies/trip souvenirs that I really liked, hope he liked the ones I gave as well. Nearly lost my hp, but saved by G’s long legs. L stayed over for the night and we had a fun sleepover the way only girls do, with facial masques and long chats… Love these sleepovers…

Watched 2 华裔plays, 十三角关系 and 今夜女人说相声. I did catch all the punch lines and jokes for Menage a 13, but I certainly don’t understand the riot of laughter it received! The jokes all seem pretty cliché and dead, and paired with somewhat mediocre acting, they only garnered a nod from me…Total Women, however, was a different class all by itself. Was extremely entertained and impressed, with marvelous acting and amazing talent, it was definitely worth the extremely expensive ticket price (which I didn’t pay as I got away with the student concession). The 泼妇骂街 is definitely a classic.

Sunday was spent lazing… finally managed to do a bout of work, plus the weekly gym session… life starts to return to the daily routine… with Practicum at a notorious school looming…

Still, ignore the bad HORRORscope warnings and look forward to the good year ahead!

sunset view of home

Haven't updated for ages... been back in Singapore for 3 weeks, school started, work piled up and life returns to normal... or as normal as it can get anyway :p P flew back with me and we went out for the number of times I could squeeze in between my nie schedule considering that we didn't want to go out during the weekends and he quite refused to visit me in nie after the first two times, citing that the bus ride was way too long (And he was wondering why I was complaining about the bus ride when I first entered nie!) We watched 4 movies, 1 play and went to the gym during the weekends. Else we simply stayed at home and watched 天龙八部. Haha... sounds quite decadent, P kept asking me why I wasn't doing any work? We watched Wi!d Rice's Aladdin, quite a wild interpretation of the old tale, Karen Tan was unbelievable as the bad wizard Alabanana (or sth similar). It's the play's last day and at that note, she did an hilarious pantomime of fainting from exhaustion :p The movies we caught was pretty mediocre, the Korean Love so Divine being the run-of-the-mill love story, National Treasure having the traits of Da Vinci but not as fascinating, Aviator didn't quite meet up to expectations, but was still quite a movie. The one I enjoyed most was Phantom of the Opera, the music was amazing, the way it all meshed together to form the story, but P was quite obviously bored halfway into the movie. The ones he enjoyed most was probably the vcds we watched on the last day, 突然发财 and a Chinese mahjong movie starring Andy Lau, both comedies that made him laugh. Poor P, always getting dragged to watch movies with me :p But our weekly exercise regime (gym or badminton) is a good balance, I'm going to keep it up and get the best out from my new running shoes! That silly git is currently stuck in Detroit as Logan is closed due to the snowstorm. Ha.. gave me quite a shock when he called at 2am with the news, but being groggy with sleep, I simply took down the instructions to email his prof. with the news in the morning before rolling back to bed. This morning, emailing plus the 10 extra mins I took due to a bad stomachache in the toilet cost me the first 10 mins of my presentation despite all the running between the bus stops and the last minute dash to the tutorial room. I was so embarrassed to keep my entire class waiting, and when I was frantically searching for my presentation notes during the 2 mins intro before I have to present, P called! And naturally, with all the rush, I forgot to off my handphone. Imagine, your own handphone ringing during your presentation! The horror! The embarrassment! And in the end, I naturally couldn't find my notes and simply did my presentation the way it was, thank goodness I did it once before in front of my group and it turned out ok and I didn't miss anything. Haha... welcome home... back to the same sunset view out the balcony...

Lazy Christmas...

Spent a lazy last week here...Christmas Eve and Christmas was spent mostly lounging in bed, reading, watching movies or playing computer games...we did absolutely naught and didn't venture out of our room except to cook. We did a creamy mushroom sauce with pasta for Christmas Eve and a yummy marinated chicken with noodles for Christmas...

P completed his Prince of Persia and my 仙剑奇侠传, spent many many hours on these...and we finished up our collection of dvds and borrowed two from the front desk too! Its cozy watching dvds in the dark on the bed...we watched Love, Actually on Christmas night, it wasn't really up to expectations, it had a slightly disorganized feel about it somehow... we did The Birdcage to get a different feel for La Cage, Kill Bill 2 which was the only one P really liked with all the action and blood, in fact, he complained why there isn't more blood when Bill was really killed! I finally watched Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind, which was, honestly, a very strange movie, I didn't start liking it until halfway thru...but I really liked the part when it was Joel and Clem's last time together in his mind and she asked what they were going to do, and he answered "Enjoy it"...and we did Sunrise/Sunset because I wanted to watch them with the dialogue and with P...

Naturally, the skies and deities waited until Christmas was over before they were willing to drop a flake of snow...but the snow on the 26th was lovely, fine soft flakes covering Cambridge with a beautiful white powder...I'm glad that P left the car parked outside so when it appeared that the snow wasn't going to stop anytime soon, we had to go out to park the car in the garage... loved walking in such powdery soft snow... its overnight snow, meaning that I get to sink in snow while walking before going home...and I love that..

We had two sinful dessert suppers in our last week... the first at Finale, a desserterie which served exquisitely small but rich desserts, including one called molten hot chocolate that is really pure melting chocolate... the second was at Top of the Hub with a couple of friends tonight, we ordered almost all the desserts on the menu, all on par with Finale with the added benefit of a magnificent night view of Boston's sparkling lights....

We played badminton on Tuesday for about an hour and it felt really good to get off my butt after so many days of lazing in bed! Althou my arms feel all achy now... Also did a short bout of treadmill which hopefully burnt off all the calories I put in after all the rich food I ate recently. Althou they went straight back in with the kfc after the exercise. It felt so refreshing to go out in the cold air after exercise... so very invigorating to breathe in the frosty air, much better than air-con...

Did a lot of shopping on our last day here, taking advantage of the after-X'mas winter clearance sale...poor P, dragged along behind me trying on shoes and pants and whatnot and spending mounds of money, but had a pretty good haul with 4 sets of pants that I've been looking for, and we had a minor miracle this morning, ...two soundtracks that I ordered off Amazon and gave up on arriving before we flew arrived! I was so happy and amazed! I've been checking and re-checking and the track-parcel page was never updated, and today being the last day... I really gave up all hope, only to have P drop the box in my lap after getting the mail in the morning :)

The rest of the day was spent packing... and P also made some minor adjustments to this site...

And tomorrow... its our long voyage home...

Broadway!

And now, the reviews of the four Broadway shows we caught (you'll think I went to New York for Broadway only)

All four shows were good and unique in their own way, but the first show, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change was definitely the one both P and I liked best, the fact we were seated 1st row center didn't hurt. A show about the trials and tribulations of dating, marriage and growing old together hit close to home for us, we can identify with almost the entire show! From the scene about a guy carrying Macy's bags and singing about waiting, 'We came here for shoes, like she needs more shoes' (P would change the shoes to bags, accessories and god-knows-what-else) to the couple fighting in the car and the line 'I can live with that'. We know what they are singing about, and it made the mirthful show so much more funny and real to us. There was a particular poignant scene about a husband looking at his wife of 30 years across the breakfast table and singing 'Shouldn't I love you less' which especially touched us and the line, "I love you, you're perfect, now change". We look for the person that's perfect for us. and spend the rest of our life changing them....how true... how sad...

42nd Street was tap dance heaven... a show on Broadway about Broadway, the dance steps are amazing and breathtaking.... The story was simple but it really gave us an insight about the world of Broadway......Come and meet those dancing feet... on Forty-Second Street...... This is the musical that...s simply fun, a show that you can let yourself relax and just be drawn in the beat of dancing feet...

Compared to the previous musicals, Rent was definitely not fun... it is raw and angry and pure energy...a story about life in New York City, and not the glitter but the slums...the homeless and the hungry...a tale about how New York treats their tired and poor and their huddled masses yearning to breathe free... the wretched refuse of their teeming shores... I cried when Angel died, I guess it is true; some stories never have happy endings...

La Cage aux Folles wasn't exactly what I expected, the cabaret part of it was outrageous and entertaining, but the story line I wanted to see wasn't as fulfilling as expected... it didn't touch, and seems contrived somehow. The way Albin reacted when told he wasn't to attend his son's wedding seems mechanical and the scene on the sand between two men who shared a 20 year relationship simply didn't have the heart it should... Slightly disappointed, but still, it was good fun and did its job in amusing us.

Overall, I really liked New York, the big, bad city it is, with its glam and mess and throngs of people everywhere...It's a wonderful place to visit and especially exciting and dazzling in December...and it gave us five grand days =)

New York - Last Impressions

The fifth day was quite straightforward and filled with queues... we started off by queuing for tickets to the La Cage aux Folles matinee show at the Times Square TKTS outlet that sells tickets for the day at 50% off. I really wanted to watch this show after reading about it on the Playbill. It didn't take as long as expected and we got the tickets at 1030am for the 2pm show (we started queuing at 930 and they start selling at 10).

Since we have some time to kill but not enough to go anywhere serious... we decided to go to Serendipity 3, we actually attempted this yesterday but the queue was too crazy...but since Serendipity opens at 11, we figured we could get there early and maybe miss the queue... well, we were half right and half wrong... there was a long queue already... but since most of the people left... we only ended up queuing for approx 20 minutes! Well.. Serendipity, filled with jostling people and Tiffany lampshades, was an experience in iconic dining...The food was okay, the frozen hot chocolate was yummy (althou P said it tasted like milo), the menu was interesting...and worth the queue maybe once in a lifetime. I won't go back if I have to queue again...

After the show, we went for dinner at a French restaurant that proves 3 course dining is something you should only do if you have a lot of time to kill...but the crabmeat crepe was delicious...so it was worth the rush we did for our coach back to Boston...which was the worst metro ride we had in our 5 days here... the metro line we wanted apparently didn't exist! And we got on an express line that missed our stop making us have to go back and forth like mice in a tunnel...but we managed to catch a coach just before it left (and thus didn't have to stand outside in the cold waiting), and we made good time home, reaching at the dot of midnight and caught the last T back to home sweet home...ending our eventful 5 days in New York...

The Met.

Walked through the wintry Central Park on our way to the Met on our fourth day. I really like the frosty feel of the park... light snow covering the green lawns, stark tree branches stabbing into the azure skies...lakes frozen over reminding me of Weimin...I just love winter...

The Met was enormous and packed...luckily, I didn't plan to see everything in the first place... concentrated on the American Wing first before cutting through the Asian Wing to see my favorite Monet and the other Impressionists. I liked the American wing and the way they recreated several rooms to show how the people lived in the eras before us... reminded me of the Mark Twain House and the House of Seven Gables I visited before...I liked several of the American paintings too... but I simply fell in love with the Tiffany stained glass windows...they are so stunning... There were several Tiffany vases and a fountain on display as well which are so lovely...

I didn't expect the Met to have such a good collection of Monet! Even better than the Louvre...There was several good pieces of Manet as well as the famous van Gogh Cypresses and a couple other of his works but the Monets really lighted up my day =) Esp since there were several landscapes that I fell in love with, the colors and strokes he used...

Now to the highlight of the day... we went for the $20 dollar lottery tickets for tonight's performance of Rent. They sell the first two rows by lottery about 2 hours before the show, you put your name in at 530, and they draw at 6pm. I crossed my fingers...and I won! I don't think I ever won any lottery in my life! I was sooo happy and excited =)

Since we had 2 hours before the show began, we went to Toys'R'Us flagship store.. apparently the biggest toy store in the world.. complete with a ferris wheel in the store.. haha.. felt like such a kid.. but P and I always love toy stores...

Liberty & Ellis

Day 3 was a cold cold day....so cold that my finger hurt whenever I take them out from my gloves for a few fleeting moments to take pictures. But it didn't look like such a hell-froze-over day! The skies was an unbelievable shade of blue and the sun shone brightly... shows how looks can be deceptive..

We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, a very fun excursion if you don't take the weather into account. Liberty looks beautiful up close, her green patina shining in the sun; we managed to get one of the free tickets to the observation pedestal, and took quite a number of perfect pictures, including some of the Manhattan skyline. The museum was informative and I find it interesting how the guides emphasized that the statue was a gift from the people of France to the people of America. Before the guide left, he asked us to spend a moment thinking of the people that did not have the freedom to visit the statue and to think about what Liberty really means...

Had very yummy fried chicken and hot chocolate before boarding the ferry for Ellis Island..

I heard so much about Ellis Island before that it's almost surreal to visit this immigration museum... There was a feeling of deja vu when I stepped onto the linoleum floor...you can literally feel the place with its belly full of stories and secrets...so many broken dreams and tightly held hopes... I watched the film but skipped the guide due to time constraint. Somehow, they all seem so commercialized... too entertaining for such a place that tells its own story through the silence of the walls...

Somehow, both islands matched... the sonnet of Lazarus seems to be written for Ellis as much as for Liberty... "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"..

Ground Zero was our last stop that day, a big crater with white lights shining...It looks like an ordinary construction site...We went into the World Financial Center to escape the cold, and there was an unexpected good view over the site...Looking around at the luxurious settings of the WFC, and imagining the difference in the view I was looking at a couple of years ago on the night P tutored me in Java... fate has a quirky sense of humor...

We had dinner by the setting sun on Hudson River, a collage of gold and navy amidst the lit skyline...before heading for the Broadway show...

New York - First Impressions

Our New York trip started off quite smoothly, the coach ride was uneventful and punctual, dropping us off in New York's Chinatown precisely at 12 noon. We walked through the bustling Canal Street, giving in to the alluring scent of honey roasted nuts on the way to the T. Our first impression of New York... there are soooo many people! It might have been winter, but the pure body heat emitting from the masses thronging through the weekend market street warms the entire place up...Check-in was smooth sailing too, although we actually only reserved a room for one, they managed to find a double room for us, proving that crossing fingers really works :P

We had lunch at a lovely restaurant with a ornate fireplace, the food was delicious... I had smoked salmon with caviar cream and P had blueberry pancakes... yumm.. Its so cozy to be tucked in a corner with a fireplace enjoying good warm food when its winter...

We did simple things the first day... walked down Times Square and 5th Avenue...visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, Saks and various other department stores...The highlight of the day was Rockefeller Centre with its Christmas Tree and lighted angels...It was just opposite Saks which gave a pretty show with its blue lit snowflakes too...The place was packed but beautiful...New York sparkles in Christmas... all the lights and trees and decorations wherever you go...We walked down Times Square at night to see all the neon lights and billboards coming alive...the heart of New York...

The second day was spent visiting a couple of galleries while walking through SoHo...We headed to Chinatown for lunch. One of the cheapest meal we had for really good food...we had chicken congee and soy sauce chicken, and the congee was done just the way I liked it...

We walked around Chinatown and Little Italy which was all decked up for Christmas, there was even a procession pushing a baby Jesus down to the road while playing Christmas carols! We walked from Little Italy to Greenwich Village and saw a hilarious street performer Joey doing stunts and terrorizing a Korean volunteer at Washington Square...haha.. did a lot of walking today...Night was our first Broadway performance, or actually, off-Broadway in this case. And it was snowing when we got out of the show... soft flakes falling...with neon lights and billboards and Christmas Trees and golden bulbs lighting our way home...Christmas in New York...

week of fun

P's finals end on Tuesday, thus we had a fun-filled week before heading off to New York for 5 days, in fact, he was so confident of his papers that we watched Hero on the Friday before his exams... (well, what do you expect from a guy that says "I don't need it" to "good luck" before his paper?!)...he saw the trailer when we caught the Manchurian Candidate and was amazed by the graphics. This is my second time on seeing it and I definitely enjoyed it more... the first time I went in looking for a story and was kinda disappointed by the simplistic plot. This time, I sat back and appreciated the cinematic beauty of the show itself and wow-ed along with P

Tuesday and Wednesday was devoted to Ingmar Bergman, a Swedish director that I'm starting to be converted to...The two films were similar in their theme of love, but couldn't be more different otherwise. A Lesson in Love (En lektion i karlek) was a romantic comedy about how a husband plotted to get his wife back after she decided to divorce him over his infidelity. It was humorous starting from the opening scene where the good doctor broke it off with his mistress, the train scene where he flirted with the woman we didn't know was his wife was the highlight. The film was interposed with scenes of the couple's history, how they met and fell in love, and a particularly tender scene of the couple strolling through the forest together, rays of lights shining down between the canopy of trees, she turning back to look at him... there was several good scenes of their tomboyish daughter as well... turning it all into more than a comedy...into a film that made one reflect, how does one fall in and out of love...

Monika (Sommaren med Monika) documents the trials and tribulations of young love, of a very young couple, sharing one lovely summer together, before the wanting nature of Monika and the troubles of life drove the once-so-very-in-love couple apart and destroying their dreams...I loved Harriet Anderson as Monika, but somehow, Lars Ekborg's Harry touched me more, the way he tried so hard to keep their dreams alive... the way he said "at least we had a good summer" before the couple gave up living by themselves and headed for home...the way he kissed Monika before turning away when he discovered her infidelity, the way insisted on taking care of their daughter by himself when Monika left him, the way he stood in front of the shop window after selling all his possessions and recalled the summer they once had together...

We also caught Shear Madness, a hilarious whodunit play on Friday. It was one of the funniest plays I've watched in awhile...P was amazed by the fact that the play had ran for more than 3k shows. We tried to guess the murderer, and thus felt cheated when it was revealed that the murderer of the night actually was decided by the number of votes taken before the last act. But still, it was a fun night out :)

Other notable fun events includes Legal's on Tuesday and JL fulfilling his promise to cook paper-wrapped chicken on Thursday. It took so much work! From chopping the chicken, making the marinade and wrapping the chicken... it took most of the afternoon but it tasted wonderful :) We also went to Minado's for dinner on Thursday, a scrumptious Japanese buffet with free-flowing raw oysters and sashimi and a wide array of other dishes like crabmeat peach, lobsters, crepe, crab tempera, various sushi... yumm.....the best meals I've had in awhile...

I also went for two concerts showcasing pieces P wrote for his music class, the first one was a composition to a poem that I picked and the second was a minuet. We actually had a lot of fun when P was composing the music to the poem, he asked me for a melody and I hummed one that I liked but he said it was too "happy" and "contemporary"! Outraged, I hummed another tune that was basically all flats and he actually used that ultra-boring tune!!!! Ha...

I also met Shufen for lunch at Union Square, a Korean corner she discovered once when walking in the wrong direction... We had bimbimbap for lunch and discovered quite a large Korean/Japanese supermarket! A very good find, must better than the one at Porter... Another place to look for tasty goodies!

All in all, a wonderful week before we headed for New York...

Vermont

Went for a road trip to Vermont with Shufen for the weekend of 11th and 12th... Vermont is beautiful in winter, calming wintry picturesque scenes wherever you look, freeways lined with silver-tipped frosted trees and rural villages covered in icing-white snow, warm lights shining through the windows... making the stress and excitement this trip generated worthwhile...

As natural with most of the road trips I take, we got lost on the way there, lengthening the car ride which was already too long by itself... Poor Shufen drove from 10am to 3pm! We passed by numerous towns and villages with names like Dublin and Berlin through the routes cutting through New Hampshire... The trees slowly turning silver as we ascended...

Our first stop was Weston, to visit the Vermont Country Store. The village was actually more a row of postcard-perfect houses, with shops like the Village Christmas Store and a Halloween-ny village store. The country store was homey, complete with a Santa Claus asking if you had being nice and selling stuff like quilts and home-made dips. As we skipped lunch on the way here, we helped ourselves with the free-tasting dips and sauces, and because they were so delicious, we couldn't resist buying a couple of jars! The village store sells home-made fudge, which seemed to be made of nothing but sugar!

The sky turned rapidly dark when we left Weston, and the un-lighted roads seems more and more menacing as we winded round curves in the mist... under such stressful driving conditions... we decided against our original plan of Burlington and settled for the motel in White River Junction instead. But the motel was so elusive! We got lost twice before we found it... I hopped out of the car to ask for directions whenever we got lost, and I never felt cold at all each time due to the tension running through my veins! I was never so happy to see anything as the gaudy yellow and black sign that night...we had dinner, called my dad to wish him happy birthday... and went to bed...



The next day started off quite easily, we didn't get lost at all today... but this is when the real excitement started... We decided to simply drive up to Montpelier to visit a cider mill and a maple sugar farm. The route was very straightforward... no driving around in circles like the day before... but we forgot about the icing on the road! The freeways were covered in frozen snow except for a single lane in the parts of the freeways that's used more frequently...And it was at a very straight road that the car skidded... Shufen slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel, but we still went barreling towards the road barrier, banged it and went freewheeling to the other side of the road before the car hit the hilly side and stopped. Ha... it was the most exciting event of my life, I survived a car accident! Both of us were naturally quite pale after the event, but Shufen gamely reversed the car and we went with our trip :P

The cider mill was very pretty, the red of the house setting off the snowy surroundings perfectly, there was even a red train model and swings... We missed the cider-making as it only operates on weekdays, but we saw the video and got a pretty good idea... basically, you crush the apples to make cider. Simple, ne? The minute we got out of the car at the sugar farm, we smelt the thick, sweet scent of burning sugar, although they only harvest the sugar sap in spring, the wide lands of the farm was still a wonderful landscape to take in...

Our last stop was Quechee, with its gorgeous gorge and village... The gorge was impressive but the village was fun with a small train running through the entire village. We had lunch at an authentic diner car, which was an experience. The village's main attraction was its antique mall, which halfway through we thought had too much antiques...But there was a real stone house with a working chimney, supposedly to be a blacksmith's shop but really selling stained glass items.. and there was a toy and train museum with huge train models and glass showings of toys from every era starting from the 1950s onwards...Everything was like a fairy tale... in a snowy fairy tale setting...

We finally left for our drive home at 4pm, a drive which turned out to be as eventful as our other long drives... we were stopped by a police car on I-93! As we didn't realize that the car was following us (why would a police car want to stop two frail and harmless girls?!), we didn't stop when they flashed their blue lights and sirens at us until they kept behind us for 3 miles. (in fact, we still didn't believe they wanted us to stop and took an exit out to confirm that they were really following us). The state trooper was quite mad at us and went on and on about how we should have stopped long ago...they kept us waiting for quite awhile, we had 3 police cars surrounding us at this point (3 cars for 2 girls?!)...I started recalling all the horror stories I heard about the police in the states... it turned out that we forgot to turn on our headlights.... Haiz...

We finally reached senior house at about 730pm (quite a short drive, compared to our starting drive)... Shufen was quite simply blank at this point... driving for ages through the two days, the poor girl... Luckily, there was a study break for the finals, home-cooked food...we had dinner...and slept through the night before returning the car the next morning, where we were informed about the unbelievable car insurance system that requires us to pay anything less than 1k usd for damages to the car! We were sooooo tired at this point of time, that we really didn't need anymore added stress... in the end, we put down 500 usd, which added to the 300 usd deposit we paid earlier, made 800 usd. And the guy called afterwards that since the repairs cost approx 750, that's all he'll charge us, including the 150usd for the car rental... at this point, we simply didn't want to see him again...

Overall, Vermont was a wonderful trip.... with all the frost and snow and lights and country houses...it's a perfect setting for Christmas... and we kept seeing cars on the roads with Christmas trees tied to the roof! We visited a few Christmas stores which were all bustling with people shopping for Christmas and filled with Christmas ornaments... It really feels like Christmas... although I've always celebrated Christmas when I was a kid... this was the first time I really felt it's Christmas for real... a white Christmas with magic in the air...

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Driving, despite all the problems we encountered, is a beautiful way of seeing Vermont, passing by all the charming village scenes that seemed to be straight out of the fairy tales I read as a child...even the ice-covered roads fraught with dangers had a pristine beauty all of its own...

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So, I'll do it all over again... for the experience of a lifetime, for the icy air filled with Christmas joy and the magical charm of Vermont...

Other activities...

And the other activities...

Took a walk through Commonwealth Ave, the Public Gardens and Downtown Crossing on Dec. 4th in between the fairs...found a monument dedicated to the people of Boston that died in Sept. 11th... enjoyed the quiet time to myself, it was a beautiful day...and the gardens were all yellow and blue. Fall colors...different from the time I walked through the exact same route in spring (you can scroll down to see the photo I put up in spring for the difference) ... Downtown Crossing was all decked up for Christmas with a lit Christmas tree. Filene's Christmas scenes were up and very intricately done...

Food-wise, JL organized a Thanksgiving dinner with the grad people...We started cooking from 11am and didn't stop until 5pm, after which we went over to the grad housing where the dinner was held and continued cooking until 6 plus... and there was so much food! Two turkeys! We did sweet potato casserole (which turned out to be deliciously sweet), baked yam, jiao zi, and two kinds of pasta (the creamy mushroom one was amazingly good too). And that's only half of what was served...there was about 30 plus people (and I actually met a sec. sch friend, talk about 6 degrees). Was extremely tired at the end of it all, being on your feet for the entire day cooking does that to you...

Also went to Ocean Wealth for Ruijie's birthday, and had a very scrumptious lobster dinner (I like it more than legal's!). There was about 10-12 of us, kinda of a mass dinner...

Both occasions reminded me of the times we had such mass dinners/lunches in Beijing, usually you never do know half the people...just people in foreign countries gathering together for celebrations...but they are fond memories...

In other news, I finished the scrapbook on the Europe trip (which brings a very great sense of satisfaction) and I'm not going to talk about my books, that'll take up way too much time! But I did enjoy Rule of Four and Five People you Meet in Heaven, two very different books and good in their own ways...

Plays, vcds, concerts and crafts fairs

Next up, plays, vcds, concerts and crafts fairs...

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Play count: 2

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1.Menopause Musical : A brassy and bawdy play, one that I enjoyed despite the fact that it's obviously targeted at another generation of women that I've thankfully not arrived at yet... 2.Provok'd Wife : another comedy, one talking in rhyme. Amazing set but a dialogue that I feel would be better enjoyed in print. I do wish I can get to know the Boston theatre scene better, so I'll be able to make more informed choices in plays...

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VCD count: 1

1.Beauty or Beast: I know, I know, I brought so many vcds over, and I've only managed to finish this one set. But I really like Beauty or Beast, each episode is so thought-provoking and touching in its own way...the issues dealt with hitting straight at the heart of the world of news broadcasting. Each time I wondered how I'll deal with the situation if I was the chief producer in question, and I never do know the answer... A very well created product, different from the other Jap serials, keeping the fluff but with an additional layer of thought...

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Concert count: 2

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I know I said there are two concerts, the MIT Cross Products and Chorallaries and the Harvard Lowkeys and Opportunes, but both are A Capella concerts and honestly, I can't tell the difference between the two. So I'm doing them at the same time. I did enjoy these two concerts, a capella being my one of my personal favorites. However, the fact is I don't really recognize many of the songs (I don't listen to enough English songs!)... But I did like the MIT Chorallaries Engineers' Drinking Song!

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Crafts Fair count: 3

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Went to 3 crafts fairs on 4th Dec! Must be a record somewhere...

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1.Le Marche de Noel: Situated at the French Library and Cultural Center, I went there more to explore what a Back Bay mansion is like than to look at the expensive wares of various French merchants around town... And wow, these Back Bay mansions are very impressive indeed! Much larger than they look from the outside (they actually have two staircases!), and very luxurious window seats...

2.Christmas Fair: Went to a Christmas fair at the Christ Church Cambridge next, it was a very homey affair, with most of the people knowing each other. There was a bakery section with fresh goodies and hot cider (bought a couple of cookies and brownies for P who was stuck at home with a sprained ankle), and an attic corner with all kinds of knick-knacks probably dug up from the various attics of the church members...

3. Cultural Survival Bazaar : A fair held in a huge hall with oriental rugs strewn all over the floor...filled with "indigenous art and crafts", meaning rugs and shawls and sculptures and earrings with an exotic accent...Somehow, I don't see these stuff from places like Peru, Tibet and Africa being all that indigenous, but who am I to say? Suffice to say, I didn't buy anything...