my roommate signed me up for a 'congressional breakfast' with California's Senator, Dianne Feinstein, and so both of us made our way down early this morning to the Senate building for free breakfast... it was more interesting than i thought. On the way to the ballroom where the breakfast was going to be held, we walked past some senator offices and chanced upon 'john kerry'... and so being very suaku started posing for pictures in front of the sign... ppl who walked past us must have been amused with us getting so excited over a tiny sign. sadly to our disappointment when we walked past the same office after breakfast we realized it was prob just an intern office, for interns interning for Kerry... haha oh well. but ya, i was pretty impressed by our short breakfast session, cos Feinstein was really friendly and approachable, introducing the ppl who worked for her, briefly touching on amendments she was working on and patiently explained how things worked... thought it was pretty cool how citizens can attend such sessions... but not all senators do this lah. and then after that i thought about it again... maybe it's like a more high-class version of like our 'meet-the-grassroot-leaders' sessions in neighborhoods?? haha which i have never ever bothered to go for... so i cannot really compare but only speculate... guess the crowd is also different? sigh nmind i am talking nonsense.

Was surfing for things related to my paper and I found the US State Dept's country report on human rights for China... and was just curious and took a peek at the one on Singapore and found this interesting bit of info:

In September, the Economist magazine announced that it had agreed to pay damages to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in connection with an article published in its August 14 issue. The article was taken to imply that nepotism had played a part in the appointment of Ho Ching, the Prime Minister's wife, to head Temasek Holdings, the country's key state investment entity. Newspaper accounts reported that the amount paid was $229,000 (S$380,000) plus legal costs.

In 2002, the Bloomberg news service publicly apologized and agreed to pay $340,000 (S$595,000) in damages to then Prime Minister Goh and Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew for an Internet-distributed Bloomberg column that accused them of nepotism in regard to the Ho Ching appointment at Temasek.

An expensive price to pay for defamation huh? no wonder ppl are so careful with their words.... ;P

i think it's so silly that straits times interactive wants to charge subscription fees... and so i wrote my first 'complaint letter' ever haha. but not that it will do anything. hopefully enough ppl complain such that they will scrap this whole thing... apparently 'overwhelming response' by readers has led to a 50% slash in subscription fees. if i have to pay, i'll prob just not read it... i want to be updated on local news... but not enough to want to pay for it. esp when most of the local news is like trivial domestic stuff... it's so bu hua suan to have to pay the few articles worth reading. many respectable online newspaper dun even charge.... and the 'extras' only have a small target audience...i found out what a bipolar disorder is today when talking to my apartment mates... felt rather ill-informed for not knowing this, but at least now i know. it's basically a disorder that causes extreme mood swings, so someone with a bipolar disorder can be extremely happy and hyper at one moment then lapse into depression, think suicidal thoughts the next min or something... scary. it was so cold today that even walking in the cold for 5 min made me sniff quite a bit after i got indoors... and i hate it when the wind is like really strong and really really chilly.... =(

received a package in the mail today, including a pink rabbit thingy which would be rather handy for me! =) i'm afraid to use it though, for fear that i'll destroy it..... also, showing childish excitement over cute meiji chocs in the mail made me realize that the kiddish side of me hasn't really left me after all haha.
spent this morning trying hard to concentrate on reading my book, but kept getting distracted, thinking about what i should do for summer... cannot make up my mind. thought about doing a japanese homestay. or going to japan again to tour.... thought about going home and mugging my jap textbook such that i can take jap 100a next sem, but i think that seems overly ambitious. dreamed about embarking on grand research project in China with a SURF grant but unlikely that will happen cos i am not sure what i want to do research on. also thought about doing the rural china thingy.... or i can just go home and slack for 2.5 months. wanna go to Europe again too.... sigh. in the end i didn't decide on anything and wasted about an hour stoning in front of the computer
=P

my adorable birthday prez.... guess what this is for?  

despite being in a new foreign place, i feel really loved.... for many reasons. everyone's sweet gestures really made my day... woke up this morning to be greeted by a whole table of tiny chocolate cupcakes with candles on them, baked by roommate and suitemate... had dinner with a visiting friend and had the best food i've ever had in the past month; fresh and aesthetically pleasing sushi at this sushi place at Dupont Circle, and yummy italian dessert at Al Tiramisu
an unexpected birthday greeting from a p sch fren, a birthday 'voucher' from sg fren, cards, icq messages and phone calls... just want to say a big 'thank you' to my dear friends, cos i really really appreciate it. =) yes, and i realized that good things come in small packages!
yes, and so i turn 22 today. it actually feels like a transition into adulthood now, more so than last year. perhaps it's cos i matured a lot over the past year? ok i guess i am still dense, still blur, still insensitive and overly emotional at times, but i think i have at least grown up quite a bit and i'm not what i used to be... of course certain traits can never be 'erased' totally. but ya, i hope i'll continue to mature into a 'good person' and make the best of my semester in dc. =)

22 cupcakes, hugs and kisses for a 22-yr-old girl  

free birthday ice cream in the cutest pan ever! 

there was an erratum in my blog entry yesterday. haha i talk as if i published a news article. anyway, the erratum was in my peasant figures; while translating today i found out the tax burden wasn't 6 times but 4, but then i also found out that that's given that an urban dweller earns on average 4 times as much as a peasant. even worse now huh. ok not that i thought anyone frequenting this blog would really care about that figure, but just wanted to correct it. i learnt today that one 'yi4' is actually 100 million. so silly; i've always heard it on tv, radio etc but i never really thought about its actual quantity. ashamed of myself. it's interesting though how the Chinese and the English have different 'conceptions' of quantity. ok i dunno how to put it. but ya.
it snowed all day today and it's still snowing. so am cooped up at home, as usual =P and at home, tensions run high... and the dense me, as usual, didn't really sense what was going on exactly and then ended up upsetting ppl a little... but nothing serious, I'll just keep these things in mind and hopefully i'll recognize and do the right things at the right times. i'm baffled though that even when ppl are assertive usually, they choose not to address issues upfront and complain to other ppl instead. seems like such things happen everywhere pretty often.....

today i was very drawn into the book i'm supposed to translate because I started reading a chapter examining why despite the central govt's 'decrees' to reduce peasants' tax burdens, numerous peasants are still overburdened... I was horrified by how corrupt the local governments can be, how heartless officials can get, the kinds of ridiculous taxes they invent to extort money from the peasants... and according to the book, the tax burden of peasants in some villages in Anhui can be as bad as six times that of an urban dweller.... as an 'outside audience', we witness numerous instances of how developed Beijing is getting, how more and more Chinese can afford luxury goods, but perhaps that's like 30% of the population... many many ppl in the rural areas are still extremely poor and i don't think there has been sufficient attention given to these problems. i feel more inspired to do research on this now. it would be cool to play a tiny role in raising awareness. or finding out how what ppl are actually doing to help. =)
trooped down to the food court today to get Chinese food and while sitting there having lunch, to my horror, i saw three persons consecutively emptying whole packets of soy sauce into their fried rice. just seems like a really weird thing to do to your fried rice. hmm i know i should not generalize, but is this the way many Americans eat their Chinese food? I've never really bothered to observe...

i think i've grown AS and have stopped trying to hav lunch in the lunchroom and instead will alwyas sit by the sofas and eat my sandwich and try to read soemthing to look occupied when in fact it's just to prevent awkwardness with ppl u kinda know but dunno what to say to. pathetic me huh. there are rare occasions when i get to talk comfortably with ppl, but I just find it a little discouraging how most ppl aren't that keen to really befriend you. guess circumstances are such that we're all just interns happening to be working on various projects in the intern room.
also tried very hard to come up wiht a research statement today, thinking hard about what i really want to write about but i have a disappointing research statement that done'st look very interesting and i wonder if it's feasible. but nmind, will try to refine it in the days to come =)
and strangely i was offered a second chance to buy my Naruto dvds and i did... =) i hope the quality is decent...

Site makeover!
i tried... but of course, the new look didnt turn out the way i wanted... the tag board has two funny black lines that i can't rid of. i dun like the font of my title but i dunno how to change it... and my lovely quote says 'About'... aargh. shall figure out slowly. one day.
went to the Pentagon City mall today; it's only about 4 metro stations away and has all the big chain stores (again!) somehow US malls are rather predictable... even on the East Coast, you see the same retail stores... well u see some new stores, but it then turns out that they are East Coast chains... why are there so few independent stores?
i finally experienced for myself the addictive power of Naruto. watched 4 episodes today and then left with one for an entire lifetime (for now) since the bidder who was supposed to sell me 117 episodes got his account suspended. =( and the jingle at the end of episode has started to ring in my head... cannot believe that i actually getting hooked to anime and crazy ninja stunts haha. instead of doing work.

i finally succumbed to my cravings and bought a pint of mango-flavored haagen daaz ice cream yesterday cos it was on sale, after abstaining from supermart ice-cream for a month... cos i knew once i had it in my fridge i would finish it... and i guess i was right. i finished 1/3 of it after dinner at one go... =( ravioli with portabello mushrooms and cheese filling was on sale at safeway yesterday too and so i bought a packet... hav been having home-made pasta at least once a week nowadays... strange how pasta is part of my staple diet these days...
am feeling a little upset now cos my roommate before going to sleep decided to ask me what the names of her sis, mum and dad were and what was her address and i coudlnt' remb what her sis's name was and neither could i remb her neighborhood even though she had told me some point in time in the past month.... and then upon hearing that i couldn't answer just went silent and went to sleep. leaving me with a feeling of unease on whether she was offended or just wanted to make me feel bad or just asked me for fun? sigh. i wonder if it reflects that i dun really care? i get the sense that she tries to impress upon me how i treat her more as a companion than as a friend and i don't think i do, but i wonder if i subconciously do. and if i do, i don't know why. and if i do, i really don't mean to...i wonder if she doesn't really like how i offer less information about myself... but it's just the way i am i suppose and i find it really difficult to be significantly more enthu towards just one person just because i feel that he/she isn't comfortable with me being the way i am... yet not doing anything about it is a sign of indifference/bo-chapness towards our friendship? sigh... this is not a very nice feeling.

it was freeeezing yesterday =( did a touristy thingy today, went to Richmond and Fredericksburg in Virginia with a tour bus... our center organizes these tours for us on Saturdays sometimes, but of course have to pay... and it was one of the worst things i have done here so far haha. cos firstly had to wake up at 7am... then had a whole morning of 'history lessons' on the Civil War, which wasn't exactly very appealing when u are sleepy and starving.. haha we only had lunch at like 3pm... i guess it was partly my fault cos was rushing a tiny paper yest night so slept at 2am, then i was dozing off when the tour guide was going on and on about diff statues along this Monument Ave and my roommate and i were just like when are we going to get lunch?! haha. though i knew it was going to be a 'historic tour' it was less interesting than i thought it would be...
felt slightly accomplished that i tried speaking up in class yesterday when we had a mini debate in class.... but then i was very nervous and was rattling off like a train i doubt anyone really heard what i said. haha a bit wasted. but then felt like it's a small step forward and i hope to try to continue, since if i cannot even contribute in a tiny class of 25, when will i get a chance to? am also excited to work with our program director, cos its about the only chance i'll get to work more closely with a professor at Berkeley, (though technically in DC).... hope i can write a decent research paper in the next 2.5 months or so!

my eyes kinda hurt sometimes from reading stuff or staring at the comp all day. on some days i feel like my life is really monotonous cos all i have to do is read stuff and try to translate them and summarize them. well, i guess my language skills are benefiting... but sometimes i do wish i had an internship with more interaction. where i can follow ppl around to see what they do. but this is good too lah, cos my flexible schedule allows me to do pretty much what i want whenever i want. as long as i get my job done. and so i have been surfing a lot on the internet too.... =P
have been looking at ppl's blogs... cos was reading this chinese political blog. and then came across this interesting one - plum blossoms i like the pic of the plum blossoms... and he had interesting comments on valentine's day haha. there are actually many many individuals out there who blog regularly, who read so much, who know so much. i'm impressed.
finished watching my first 5 episodes of naruto and i have another 5 to go. but am just debating over whether i should get the dvd for 117 episodes going on Ebay for C$12, excluding shipping, cos downloading takes so long. it's a pretty good price really. esp if the quality is good. but then am trying to save money so maybe i wun. i will be the 'brokest' this sem. am angry how it's so cold today and will likely be cold the next few days; i hav to take metro cos the cold wind just makes walking in the streets really unbearable...

just finished my response paper which was on circumstances which can serve as catalyst to electoral reform... aaargh. dunno what to write so had a whole hypothetical argument... oh well. dun care. i finally finished it and i just sent it. =P
tou lan today and went off work early and went to the Georgetown library to look for books that can potentially be useful for my own research. have to come up with some statement by next week and i have no idea what i want to work on. i have these really vague ideas and that's about it. so i borrowed this good reference book on international aid and another book on NGOs and rural poverty alleviation. well. hope they wun be just sitting on the floor collecting dust the next few weeks.... quite happy i figured out how to get to Georgetown... there's a free shuttle so quite happy. went to a dentist here for the first time on Monday cos my wisdom tooth was a little achey and it got me all paranoid. and the slow me realized that Metlife subsidizes 100% of ur normal visits (max 2) and technically we can go for 2 free check-ups per year! quite funny, after my checkup i got a 'goodie' bag with a free toothbush, tiny tube of toothpaste and like some dental floss. and i dun need to extract my teeth for the time being, unless it really bothers me... phew. was having horrifying thoughts of having to go for surgery and then starving for days after, with swollen mouth etc....
anyone wants to do com service in rural village in China with me? but then again, according to the contact person, u only get 'towel baths' and i am actually rather grossed up imagining how bad i would smell if i dun bathe for 2 weeks.... maybe i will chicken out and decide not to do it in the end....

baked cookies for Valentine's day just now to eat =P Happy Valentine's to all my dear friends, but sorry u can only imagine eating my virtual cookies. but no regrets whatsoever i'm sure, since i cheated and used instant mix =P 

My first drinking experience
it all started with one of the ppl in our program having a party for her birthday in her suite yest night. my apartment mates decided not to be rude so we went down to wish her happy birthday and ppl were drinking and all and i decided to try some funny vodka coke thingy. but left like 10 min after cos was feeling uncomfortable. my roommate happened to have ingested 2 shots and decided to go for more and since i have never drunk anything before i thought just try... but have to clarify, neither of us are into drinking. but so we headed for the bar across the street and ordered drinks. i ordered some lemon drop margarita which tasted pretty nice actually, and had a pretty sugar rim on the glass, which i thought was very cool. but after finishing it i felt somewhat normal still and so asked what effect it was supposed to have on me. i was just very curious cos i didn't feel anything significantly different other than that my heart was beating faster.... then ended up sharing a second one, some orange flavored grey goose vodka which didn't taste very nice but i think cos it was more alcoholic... and i think i was sipping very fast, experimenting on myself.. then i think i felt a little nauseous and that senses weren't very 'sharp' and ended up puking in the bathroom... and so i got an inkling of what it might be like to get drunk... at a somewhat unpleasant price. and so this concludes my first episode of drinking.... somewhat silly huh , but at least i can say i've 'been there, done that' to myself and at least i know that it's definitely not something i'll like to do... and at least now i understand why it might be dangerous to be drunk... ok. finding excuses to exonerate myself.

Arlington Cemetery... 

having gotten sick of museum-hopping and for lack of better places close enough to go to, my roommate and i went to the dc zoo today haha. which wasn't very impressive; there are very few animals and half the place looks like it's under construction.. but it's free so i guess i cannot complain. but learnt interesting facts about certain creatures. watched otters swim and do back flips in the water and that was cool. i like how gracefully they swim in the water... but somehow it also made me wonder what it's like to live like an animal, when u are mainly occupied by eating, sleeping, moving around and perhaps mating?
then went to the Arlington Cemetery, where many of the nation's war heroes are buried... John F Kennedy's grave is there too... i've never been to a cemetery with so many tombstones before... strange as it sounds, the rows and rows of tombstones are actually very pretty... and neatly arranged, following the terrain of the ground...