i made cranberry almond biscotti! =P 

i refuse to do any work tonight after a few nights of working on my paper. prob hav to start working again this weekend/next week cos there's still so much to write. had a really bad day yest, but an unexpected and pleasant phone interview late last night with someone from HPI China somehow allowed me to do a 3-pg case study write-up just in time for submission of my draft this evening... and so after completing my draft and registering for telebears i tried really hard to do all my readings for class this evening... only to find out that our prof expected everyoen else not to do the readings due to the draft..and so she gave us next week's readings and left us in class to read on our own... everything seems to be working against me somehow. oh well, i dun regret having done the readings cos i should have done them anyway... it's just that when i really tried preparing (to make up for being quiet the past few times) i don't get a chance to redeem myself... =( shu's visitng late tmr night and early fri morning/afternoon so i'll get some extra company... and perhaps gives me an excuse to bake something...=)

very pissed with myself today cos i left my research draft at work even though i really meant to remb to bring the floppy disk home... =( and upon reaching home i realized how forgetful i was and immediately went back to the Wilson Center... got into the Ronald REagan Building via the only entrance open... got to the elevators.. pressed the button... and... the elevators didn't work! sigh guess they shut the elevators down when they closed the place. =( aargh. now feelign paranoid. hope no one takes my disk away.... else i'm dead! shall go early tmr to retrieve it...
while tryign to do soem case studies for my research, i keep coming into contact with info on how all these kids in China don't get to go to sch even though they really want to learn. which made me think about how there are also all these kids in sg who don't want to go to sch even when they have the chance to...
mum just complained about how polluted Shanghai is, how oily the food is, how 'evil' one of her travelling companions is.. haha.

i'm still not over flowers.. i apologize.. =P was walking to the metro station this morning when i realized that the tulips they planted in this tiny park have started blooming... and even though i don't like red, these tulips were really really pretty. i'll love to go to Amsterdam one day to take pictures standing in the middle of tulip fields.. it somehow made me discover that a lot of things you don't really have to own to feel happy... and perhaps sometimes it's better to leave things there...
realize i have so much to write for my research paper and draft's due wed evening!! i kind of enjoy writing, cos it makes me think... but i take such a long time to write a single paragraph... i'm a slow thinker. =( but i discovered a really good and free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia... was trying to figure out the diff admin units in China and was really confused but then stumbled upon a Wikipedia article which was so brilliant and explained everything so well... not that i havent' heard of Wikipedia before, but it only just caught my eye. cheers to open source websites and all things 'open source'!
sigh.. 3.5 more weeks to go. in the meantime it's work and more work....

the streets don't really pale in comparison... =) 

no... we are not in Japan... 

flower mania! 

to this!! 

from this.... 

and so i woke up at 740 am and doodled around and went out around 830am, suspecting that i wun be able to beat the crowds... and i was right. the Metro was so crowded even at 845am... =( but the breathtaking view at the tidal basin made up for everything! i have never ever seen so many cherry blossom trees in bloom... i just wished i werent' alone and that there weren't so many ppl... and also watched bits of the National Cherry Blossom Parade, and went for the Jap street festival, where i bought authentic jap green tea ice cream, tako balls and my childhood favorite- red bean fish! (they used to have that years ago in Yaohan at Parkway Parade...) i also saw some really huge flower posters from Hokkaido and i really really wanted to get those, but i know i'll never be able to transport them back to California safely.. and so i could only admire... and i discovered that i really do like jap stuff, jap culture, jap food quite a bit... and the weather was perfect! sunny but cool enough... alright, i dont think i can describe how beautiful the flowers were.... so... let the pictures speak for themselves =)