instead of counting down and feeling =( about the work i have, i've decided that i should make the best of the 12 days or so i have left in DC... and try some of the restaurants i have been wanting to try all semester! while walking down the streets of DC every morning has become a daily ritual that i no longer appreciate that much now and going to the wilson center is no longer something i really look forward to, i'm sure i'll look back at this semester some time in the future with fond memories... it's funny how every morning i walk past these really cute flowers outside this hotel and go, "aargh! i forgot to bring my camera out again".. i finally stopped and observed the traffic policewoman directing traffic at this busy junction this morning... actually she seems to serve no purpose.. like the traffic lights are all working perfectly... and who actually follows her signals? and her whistling seems to be somewhat erratic and serve no purpose... baffled. we're going to take a group picture outside the Capitol building tmr morning... dress code: Business attire... i feel quite phoney haha. i have never ever dressed so formally for work, then for this, i'm going to look/supposed to look all professional.... =P

my eyes are on my book but my mind is somewhere else... i dunno. getting somewhat distracted at work recently for no good reason. maybe that's what happens when there's little interaction with ppl. think my productivity is going down and i'm glad i'm going to end my internship next thursday, else i shall feel quite guilty. getting stressed about my research paper now too, cos i got comments for it from my GSI this afternoon and apparently it's somewhat disorganized. i thought so too actually. which means i hav to work hard to improve it next week, cos there will be a presentation next friday. aargh. so many thigns to worry about now. then i hav another 5-7 page paper for my politics and ethics class to write... hmm well i guess i did learn some interesting stuff from this class but i have concluded that it's not my cup of tea. stressed! cos if my research paper turns out bad, i'll get 10.5 units of bad grade... ok should stop complaining cos it's not going to help =P

attended two talks today at the Wilson Center. the first was the book launch of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat and another was a panel session on reform to the UN Security Council with Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, and two other distinguished individuals.. haha whose names i've never heard of. but anyway, i enjoyed Friedman's short lecture/intro/summary of his book more.. it was a pretty entertaining and informative talk and i now feel compelled to buy his new book.. =P once again, open source software was given honorable mention... including Firefox and Wikipedia! well Linux too, and apparently the Brazilian government has or is going to switch to the Linux operation system.. and he foresees China doing so, since she wouldn't want to be made vulnerable to possible sanctions by Microsoft if the Taiwan issue heats up... also learnt that UPS doesnt just do shipping.. apparently it has this whole logistics business.. what he terms "INSOURCING"...the eg. given being that if ur Toshiba laptop screws up, you get UPS to pick it up and u think they send it to Toshiba ppl to fix it for you, but in reality they send it to some place in Kentucky (if i didn't remb wrongly) where UPS technicians fix it for you and then send it back to the customers... and many of these brand names have become nothing more than marketing shells.... hmm i was just pretty fascinated by the number ongoing innovations... that change the way everything is run...that we (or maybe it's just me) don't even know about!
also got an email today from a paranoid dad telling me that i should postpone my plans to visit China and Japan till things cool down... which actually reminded me about some silly things i've come across in the midst of this newly-triggered China-Japan animosity... i feel it's so easy for us to associate things or think they are the same just because of one obvious thing in common... perhaps i'm guilty of such a tendency at times jsut that i might not be aware of it... i think i came across an article headline in Zaobao few days ago on how Cecilia Cheung has boycotted eating ramen or something (i guess because of this incident?) and how many Chinese are boycotting Jap goods... i cannot help but feel unlucky for these Jap shops/companies cos why on earth should they be blamed for the Japanese govt's decision to publish misleading history texbooks... yet for many Chinese right now there seems to be this blanket hatred of all things Japanese...

i was so lazy this weekend and i really hardly did anything. did some constructive stuff that was unrelated to what i was supposed to do for work here though. read another 100 pages of The Kite Runner.. it's a pretty decent book really! and considering how part of the setting is in the Bay Area, i felt that i could relate to what the author was saying.... and the last bit i read... it touched on the oppression under the Taleban regime... and so i got slightly 'on' and exchanged my last '3 for 2' Borders book for this book titled "Booksellers of Kabul"... wonder when i'll finally get to read it though.
I am kinda sick of browsing through Craigslist almost every other day without spotting any really good housing deals out there... 2.5 weeks more and i'll be done with this program. it's also time to start working on finishing up my existing stock of food...i feel like i'm counting down to going back, not that i have any really spectacular thing to look forward to... but i dunno. i just feel like going back...

i slacked yest and today and will finally be going up to the washington monument later in the afternoon after waking up early in the morning to queue for tickets.. hopefully the good view up there will make up for the slight lack of sleep... will prob slack tmr too cos i'm going to meet some person coming to dc and try to show her round a bit/ give some help... which means i myself will have good food again. after teaism yest evening and a yummy cosi omelette sandwich for breakfast today i feel slightly guilty for having spent so much money on food.. oh well. i'll only be here for a few more weeks so i should just treat myself.. and i also chong3ed myself yesterday and bought quite a few things yesterday while shopping at Georgetown.. didn't intend to but the tops were really so cute. Urban Outfitters can have such cool stuff but it's way too ex for a poor undergrad like me so i cannot afford anything when there aren't tremendous mark downs...
rented Hotel Rwanda from blockbuster... really good show. but depressing... and something really stuck in my mind, how the whites were evacuated while the Tutsis were left to die.. cos they were "not even blacks".. they were "Africans"... "like dirt".... so sad.