cherry blossoms at the tidal basin weren't in bloom yet =(
but other flowers were... =)

i have no idea why, but this is one of my favourites! Lobster Mickey...  

crowd pleasers outside the ronald reagan building (which houses the wilson center) there are 75 different mickeys on display till mid April...

isn't it sad that ppl want to murder you just because you move around creepily and look hideous? that's what i wanted to do to this really gross bug that suddenly appeared out of nowhere in my living room... it was like half the length of a centipede, complete with many legs and all... good thing a kind-hearted and brave neighbor came in to transport the creature away....
i just finished typing a 5-pg 'research plan' and am supposed to give a mini presentation in class tmr... can just imagine ppl sleeping when i'm presenting... cos i seriously dun think anyone would care about what i want to research on... sigh. brain-dead now. shall wake up early tmr to print out my paper and think of what to say. =(

the weather was so brilliant today i could walk back from work without my coat.. and i'm starting to see more and more pretty flowers on trees =)
had lunch with a fellow intern today, after weeks of being AS...she was originally from Kuwait and according to her, there are many American schs there, and that was how she learnt English... the foodcourt was teeming with high sch kids and so it was a bad choice to go down...it's prob their spring break now? or either that school trips to DC have started, since the weather has improved substantially...
i had the privilege of reading the first part of my prof's unpublished book and it was pretty interesting to hear her narrate her experiences as a foreigner involved in the Tiananmen Incident. one thing that really struck me was how many Chinese had to lie, during the 'biaotai' after the incident... in order to 'survive'.. so much so that they sometimes couldn't distinguish what was truth and what was fabrication... similarly, during the Cultural Revolution, people sometiems had to lie blatantly.. accuse their loved ones of deeds they never committed to prevent persecution or being labeled as rebels... i can imagine how horrible it must have been to have to live amidst all these lies, to be forced to commit atrocities against innocent ppl... was also somewhat proud to see a few sentences of what i translated for her in the text, but was totally freaked out upon discovering that she used them as quotes when they weren't exactly direct translations from the original book... so i had better tell her that else i might get her into trouble!

felt somewhat harrassed all night by an abnormally bored roommate who started arranging the random things on my table, folding some leftover crumpled bits of laundry on my bed, throwing wang wang wrappers i accumulated on my table (as the night progressed) into the bin and dancing randomly in the middle of the room... good amusement if i were bored too... but i really intended to do my reading, yet could not help getting distracted... sometimes its really good to hav your own room huh.

felt somewhat harrassed all night by an abnormally bored roommate who started arranging the random things on my table, folding some leftover crumpled bits of laundry on my bed, throwing wang wang wrappers i accumulated on my table (as the night progressed) into the bin and dancing randomly in the middle of the room... good amusement if i were bored too... but i really intended to do my reading, yet could not help getting distracted... sometimes its really good to hav your own room huh.

i suddenly loaded many songs onto my mp3 player yest night and listened to them on the way to work today. and somehow i suddenly grew very aware of the lyrics of some chinese songs and all of them are so sad... ppl either lose things, or things never belonged to them... or ppl have to leave... or things were once there but no longer... i suddenly wished i had the time to look at the lyrics of all the songs i have. i feel like selected ppl who zuo4 ci2 are so zai...

yes i know it's just anime, but then there are still tiny lessons in life we can learn from the characters... =P i like hinata... perhaps it's cos i see traces of myself in her? she used to give up really easily... but then her willpower grew stronger and eventually she could finally fend for herself... i feel like i always give up too easily too and always look down on myself. if i could just hav more self confidence, be more optimistic and really strive for the things i want to achieve, i probably can accomplish a lot more. i will try harder... and unlike what neji san firmly believed in, people do change. finished all 50 episodes of naruto last night... no more for now... =(