i just shamelessly tried to persuade Courtney to visit me one last time within the next couple of months, cos it recently struck me how i'm gonna be leaving here for good in about 3 months' time... =( in a way it's certainly not as bad for me as for some ppl, since i only have like 3 good American friends here i'll really miss... and i dun even get to see them all that often... and not that i don't want to go home, but i really can't imagine what it will be like. in past 4 years, i've never been home for more than 2.5 months continuously and i dunno, the uncertainty and fear that i'll never be allowed out of the country for an extended period of time again also deeply worries me...and i'm gonna start WORK! i can't be AS and whole day do my own thing anymore haha... oh well. shouldn't be doing all this premature worrying =P i've got more 'immediate' things to worry bout...

Spit not.....

In view of the 2008 Olympic games, the Beijing government has apparently declared war on spitting... so how's the government's gonna ensure that this campaign meets its goals? according to this article, Police have been ordered out on to the streets to track down offenders. Closed circuit television cameras will be used to catch them in the act. erm... that seems pretty scary to me, esp given that spitting might have 'developed' into some kinda involuntary/reflex action for some folks. In addition, Hundreds of uniformed "mucus monitors" will patrol the streets handing out free spitting bags. Now, this seems funny... I do wonder how successful this campaign will be, having witnessed this 'rampant' spitting myself =P Oh well, i shouldn't read too much into this report; maybe reporter has intentionally/unintentionally sensationalized this piece of news...

feeling poor

it's been such a long time since i last splurged on an expensive meal and so when i spent $27 for dinner on Sunday i actually felt rather xintong... was also just a teeny bit surprised that my dinner mates appear to treat $30 or so for dinner as no big deal... but oh well if i actually remember to move my car to the opposite side of the road during street sweepings, nasty fines paid to the City of Berkeley can buy me at least one or two good meals =(

and so i sleepily turned 23...

i clearly would have slept through 12am if not for the knocks on my window, from two dear girls who brought me a matcha green tea cheesecake! though according to chief baker cake isn't supposed to be as flattened nor as lemony as it turned out to be (baker too critical of product though), nothing at all mars the sweet gesture itself. =)

Treasure what we have...

thanks to Jacqui, i was sent an attachment full of thought-provoking pictures taken in China. Some touched me more than others, but nothing speaks to me more than this:

this was titled "Ku1 qi4 de4 lao3 ren2" and cos i can't type Chinese on this i'm just gonna paste the accompanying caption-
The old man sells roast yam for a living. Because he doesn’t have a license, his tools were confiscated and his tricycle was smashed, its chain cut. All the old man can do is to sit there and cry. Tomorrow…

it really hit me how poverty can make one totally helpless and hopeless... if he were a beggar, I would feel a lot less for him, but this man was trying so hard to make a living...

There were two other powerful images in the attachment, but cos one was merely titled "Mu3 Ai4" it was impossible to google for it; the other merely had a caption. The one on mother love depicts two pairs of mother and child; the poor woman had her child bundled up on her back while she polished her client's (a child) shoe. This kid (i presume) is from a relatively well-off family (as suggested by the woman in fur coat standing behind him). The photographer's clever juxtaposition of these two pairs immediately sent a clear and powerful message....

The other picture showed this couple trying to push a bicycle cart together (i think)... The lady in the picture only had one leg and she hobbled along with one hand on the cart and the other on her crutch... the guy's face can't be seen, but from his movements one can tell he is exerting a lot of strength to get the cart to move. think they are transporting something but i can't tell what. the lady, despite a 'disability' many would deem devastating, had this radiant smile on her face... i guess it's really difficult to guess what the real story is from ONE snapshot, but it appears that she's happy.... and the caption that went along with this picture was "No rose, no diamond ring, but if this is not love, what is love?"

Well it might be true that sometimes pictures are 'exploited' to draw sympathy from people, but i'm sure that there are so many sad stories out there that we haven't seen or heard. hmm what's my point of this entry. i dunno... i guess it really does remind me how fortunate i am. yet whole day complain about little things.