thought i wouldn't be able to get in today cos we were stuck in a human jam for at least an hour and a half before ppl started moving forward. there were loads of ppl today.... quite revealing how many of the ppl who attended were whites? having been here for a week... i dun think the racial makeup here in dc is that homogeneously white....
i still haven't gotten over the snow! today on the way home my roommate and i passed by a little park covered with fresh snow... and she xin xue lai chao and made a tiny snowman... and so we tried to take pictures. but i was careless and so the head dropped off. and when i picked it up it had a distorted head and somehow i coudn't shape it back... but it was fun... i want to make more snowmen =P but dun hav appropriate gear for it... i dunno why i am so drawn to snow even though i have seen snow before like at Tahoe.. maybe in the middle of a city with all the buildings and other structures, the natural beauty of snow just stands out more? and i love how snow kinda 'records' traces of everything... like i saw squirrel footprints. human footprints... fresh snow is just so pristine and beautiful.... =)

on my way to my designated standing area for inauguration.... 

SNOW!
and so it snowed today... on my way to work, when i got out of the Metro Station i saw tiny flakes and when the wind blew the snow was just like white sand.. very fine and light. and then when i came down for lunch i was pleasantly surprised cos the whole ground was covered with snow. snow on the roof. on the statues... on the benches. on the top parts of branches.... it was so beautiful. so i couldn't resist it. had to take a picture though when i went out snow was blowing in my face... i guess cos it's my first time experiencing snow.. like real snow... that time in japan was like almost no snow kindof... but when it was time to go home, the snow had stopped and the roads were covered with gross sludgy snow on the streets... good thing i wore boots else i would have gotten gross dirty snow on my pants =P then on my way home i saw snow on the trees and it was just so pretty and i couldn't resist again and took more pictures. though i must have been laughed at by passers-by for being so suaku and mad taking pictures of random things in the cold.... but i just felt for a moment that washington dc was like a giant 3d coloring book and then snow just filled up all the gaps....tiny crevices in buildings... everywhere imaginable... =)

the pretty 'aftermath' of the snow...

had an eventful but extremely cold day today. lips are cracking, ears are freezing off and vain me didn't want to put on ear muffs... but guess i will try to get a pair or something soon. else i will definitely freeze on thursday cos might have to stand for hours at the inauguration ceremony... tmr roads are goign to start getting closed off in preparation for the inauguration. i feel a little uneasy that every single day i never fail to hear police sirens when walking on the street...
went to the Woodrow Wilson Center today and it seems like a nice place to work at. but i dun get a designated workplace.. so prob will camp at lib most of time... met my prof too and she seems pretty nice and i got a few books on NGOs in Chinese! feel excited to start on them, yet totally inadequate to absorb its contents i believe. but will start slow. also visited Brookings Institution for a talk today... and felt veyr thrilled to be amongst so many intellectuals and like just soaking in the intellectual atmosphere was kinda exciting for me.. haha. i hope i will get to attend more lectures in future, cos my schedule is pretty flexible i think, so i can alwyas take time off to listen to talks at my own place as well as other places like Brookings... =)
also went to Georgetown Uni area to look... and they have so much shopping!!! they have H&M, Zara, Banana Republic, A&F, GAP, blah blah... but of course didn't stay long lah cos have to work tmr... but yay. preview. next time can go Zara and H&M... =P
also getting to know my roommate a little better and i find it amusing she has familiar traits... i guess we all know who goes to talks for free food?? well she has that kinda mentality too haha.

i finally understand how it can be totally torturous to be cold!!! it was SO cold today i think my nose practically froze... scarves are totally necessary and now i am really thankful i brought like at least 3 of them. i bet the wind was like around 0C today and it is really horrible. horrible horrible. so when we were walking from the Metro to the Capitol Building this morning and the wind just kept blewing and i felt like my lips were going to crack.. .i'm so lousy. then got laughed at by ppl who are used to East Coast weather. i thought Berkeley was cold... now i know... attending my orientation at the Woodrow Wilson center tmr morning... hope i get some really interesting stuff to do. =)

i walked past the World Bank, The White House and the Ronald Reagan Building yesterday before getting a free ride to Chinatown for dinner... all alone yet felt somewhat carefree. maybe it's cos nothing has started and i have nothing really to worry about yet. I think i will be working at the Ronald Reagan building and though it was closed yesterday, it seems like a pretty cool place. high security though.. there are security checkpoints at like every entrance... i was thinking of walking to work, to save money since every trip costs $1.35 and it isn't exactly that far... maybe 2 miles or so from my center?? but judging from how cold it is (for me!) i think i will prob freeze if i attempt to walk to work every morning. but i'll see how.
went grocery shopping with my roommate this morning and i was somehow re-acquainted with frozen foods, pasta and stuff again... ended up not buying much groceries and can't figure if i am going to cook or eat out. cos i really dun want to eat frozen food everyday. but which means i have to go and find a rice cooker. and like sauces. and all the cooking stuff... dilemma.
sat in, with shu, some mini RI re-union this afternoon, again at Chinatown. i guess it's quite impossible to not meet any Singaporean here... even though i didn't even mean to. After everyone left i managed to find a chinese supermart! haha i was secretly amazed how relieved i was to find a chinese supermarket. but unfortunately its standards are far from Ranch... they have hardly any fresh vegs or poultry and seafood and stuff... but at least they have most of the other stuff. dry stuff or whatever u call it. and when walking out of the supermart this old man suddenly came to talk to me cos i asked about an ATM machine and it so happened that he was from Malaysia.. what a small world. but somewhat interesting to have strangers wishing you well... haven't really met anyone esle on the program except my suitemates, who are pretty fine... guess i will at my residential and academic orientation later...

am sitting in the 3rd flr comp lab of the UC Washington Center, really sleepy after only 1 hr of sleep on the plane and another hour on my new bed and waiting to go out to explore a bit and look for lunch. can't use my own laptop till maybe monday till i get some network key. have no idea where everything is but i'm just going to go walk around, but i hesitate to even step out of this building cos it's just so so cold outside. when attempting to unload my luggage from the super shuttle van just now this cold gust of wind just blew straight in my face and i was like half shivering when i walked in.... but all seems to be good thus far! my apartment is really nice and clean and the kitchen, though small, is nice. i also got this tiny cool grey gadget called a sonitrol or something that gives me access into the building and the ability to use the elevators.... i had better STOP leaving my wallet, phone and keys behind everywhere cos there wun be anyone to 'pick up' after me or look out for me anymore...
am very happy though that shu and guoming decided last min to suddenly come visit me today!!! so i'll have some company for a few days... after which i'll be all on my own. but everything seems pretty exciting so far and i hope i will grow to really enjoy my stay here. =)

i find it amusing how i always end up having big 'farewell' parties. not that i don't appreciate what people are doing for me, but i just feel somewhat odd and paiseh. am finally 99% packed now; managed to squeeze everything into 2 bags but both are on the verge of exploding... in the end, i did not do any reading for my classes, nor much preparation for dc... dunno what i have been doing...sigh. the sense of directionless and leaving broken ends is coming back to me. maybe that's why i feel like i am not as keen as i should be? but it should be fun lah =)

i am finally almost done and have moved most of my stuff over to the kearney garage. i just wonder how i am going to move everything when i come back in summer... my walls are all bare now and even though i still hav a lot of luggage in the room the whole room just feels empty...
somehow over the past few days a few people have coincidentally shared with me how they have had very good memories with certain people under certain circumstances and even though they haven't exactly kept in touch with these friends, those moments of fun and joy were pure bliss... i suppose i should try to have such a mindset and then i'll be happier wherever i am and let things take their natural course?

these few days this song keeps ringing in my head....
" Cause it’s all in my head
I think about it over and over again......" well haha perhaps it sounds so me.

sometimes happy things make you sadder because they give you ephemeral moments of joy that you yearn for when u look back at some point in time in the future, when often circumstances have changed and things wun happen again.
was clearing up and i discovered my old burned cd and a nice song by Lighthouse Family titled "Run" =) esp like the intro part with the guitars and a jazzy saxophone feeling even though i dun think i know how to appreciate jazz.

have been going out so much that hardly any packing has been done! but i feel happy going out doing things here and enjoying the last few days in a place i have grown quite attached to over the past 2.5 years. and met jing and minglee at Stanford yesterday and it was nice just chatting the whole afternoon away and hanging out with 'old' frens... =) and good thing it didn't rain, which made driving a lot easier for me. i think craigs list is cool.... now my economist mags wun go to waste cos i think some ppl want them. and ppl have emailed me about my rugs! =) but then my books are unlikely to find new homes in the next few days. went to SF and got more stuff cos there were pretty good sales. I've decided that this shall be the last of my shopping here and i shall attempt to devote the next few days to really packing.... help. none of readings for next sem done at all.... i rediscovered the joy of understanding and reading Chinese today... in a way i am glad that I will be working for a prof specializing in China! i hope to immerse myself in chinese texts next sem and re-aquaint myself with his lovely language... i miss the days when i used to be able to write somewhat well in Chinese, with all those flowery cheng yus and phrases.... received a cute jigsaw puzzle note from my housemate =) it is really comforting sometimes, to know that you actually mean something to ppl around you, whether or not you are really deserving of that attention.

i have been trying to pack but not much progress thus far. i just somehow cannot organize which task to do first. what to pack into boxes. whether to throw away some things or not. whether to sell certain books or not. have to make all these many trivial decisions and it's getting me somewhat bothered. coupled with other things on my mind.... feelings that i have to sort out. pre-arrival readings to do. worrying about what to bring and what not. sometimes i really wish i weren't moving anywhere. but such inertia would get me nowhere and i think this program should do me good. sigh. why can't i be more shuang3 kuai4. forget easily and adapt easily. dun think so much about every single thing. but i just can't... in a way my room is like my life... there seems to be random things everywhere distracting me. and broken ends here and there. not much order. i dun seem to be able to really 'tie' everything together... i have goals in life, but i dun even know if i am really working towards them... like this lost girl in the middle of an ocean... trying to swim in all directions not knowing where the shore really is. and giving up quickly after each time and trying another direction. actually i will probably eventually drown cos i can't even swim half a lap in a normal swimming pool.

the cute green bear is watching silly shimin telling her not to cry cos shimin also doesn't know what she is upset over 

I received a really special gift from two dear friends- a ‘debut’ album with “ ba shou qiang li zhu da”, including solos and duets from the self-proclaimed ‘rarely sing for ppl’ laogong and the musically-inclined baking buddy. Haha. Now I have made them seem so surreal and out of this world. But ya, I am really touched. and thankful that I have such sweet friends. And I know that when I am feeling cold and lonely and upset in Washington D.C…. I can always pull out this special album and listen to the familiar voices, relive the happy moments we have shared together =) I guess I will actually miss a certain individual who intentionally keks me sometimes by making insensitive comments about my figure. And someone who almost always sides with me or pseudo-scolds me for shopping too much. Was also really touched by my aunt, who took the trouble to take bus all the way to the airport to send me off, who in her own way showed me much affection, who over the past week or two made yummy fruit cakes and Chinese new year cookies specially for me to savor… and just before I made my way towards the departure gates stuffed me two packets of preserved peach pulp for me to snack on on the airplane… though I dun exactly like preserved stuff, I’ll definitely finish both of them.. =)

i finally got down to developing some pictures taken last summer on my boston/canada trip a few days ago and realized that the lomo pics are actually pretty cool! perhaps i should go experiment with it again... =)
am going back tomorrow.... am quite pleased that i managed to meet up with almost every single person i wanted to meet up with. hope the new semester will be a good opportunity to move on, to enrich myself and grow more confident. haha but knowing me, i will probably be bothered and get stressed by new ppl, new tasks...

pic from my lomo camera!  

it was quite coincidental how while watching phantom of the opera, right after spooky things started happening in the opera house (in the show) there was suddenly a blackout in the movie theatre, leading ppl to shout "phantom" etc... and it turns out that there was a power failure. how unlucky... but the power returned after 10 min or so =) really love the songs even though i dind't enjoy the movie as much as i thought i would. i dunno. oh but i quite liked the masquerade scene where all the actors and actresses, despite being only clad in black and white, looked really spectacular together because of the qian bian wan hua designs of the costumes...the show made me really miss the phantom musical i watched in new york, though it is just but a faint memory now... but perhaps cos it was the first proper musical i caught and cos it was at Broadway... =P i hope i can go back to new york and catch more musicals during my stay at d.c. =)

was greeted by an unexpected visitor when i entered my grandma's place this afternoon.... a peach-faced lovebird named "Baby". it so turns out that someone gave my cousins this cute pet bird and they brought it to my grandma's place.... after some initial squeamishness i managed to get it to mount my jeans pocket.... after which it got kinda comfortable and started making its way up my t-shirt by clinging on to the folds of my t-shirt... and when Baby started moving up to my neck i started screaming and jumping cos it was really ticklish... (after the picture was taken) haha but felt like a kid for one whole afternoon, making cooing sounds to attract its attention. =) it was pretty tame though.

new year resolutions? dun really have anything in mind since i dun usually keep to them... but i suppose i will resolve to be less pessimistic and hu si luan xiang less, constantly remind myself to treat every single person i meet with respect, restrain myself from snacking too much, treasure every moment with my loved ones and make the best of my stay at Washington D.C..... and i hope for the many less fortunate souls in this world that no more disasters will hit them and worsen their already dismal living conditions..

Did i suddenly turn birdwoman?