Eating peas with chopsticks

Is a very challenging task. But a thousand times more fun than using a spoon.

The day started off very warm (I removed my cardigan) but a few minutes after I'd sat down to study outside, the temperature dropped several degrees and a slight but continuous wind began blowing. It's okay, though--I was going to head inside anyway to escape from the bugs. Not fast enough! In between sentences I'm trying not to scratch the dozen or so bites on my arms and ankles. But that's okay too--Tiger Balm can solve anything.

Well, except maybe the fact that I realized I should have cooked these peas for longer. Or maybe shorter. Whichever process would have made them mushier.

Anyway, I drank the Brain Fuel today. I didn't particularly need fueling--I just couldn't contain my curiosity any longer. I couldn't describe the flavor, except for "sweet." And it's carbonated! I cut off the label to save it, but then I realized I still won't be able to tape it to my wall because it's molded in the shape of the bottle. The label. Not my wall.

Also: I can finally squeeze 餐 into one line; it no longer dominates the other characters and messes up my groove. "Cān" is the first half of "restaurant." Which for some reason our book translated as "dining room."

Anyway, adventures tomorrow! Yay!

Maybe if I include lots of pictures, people won't notice the absence of adventure

So I realized I never included a photograph of the cute little pouch that's alternatively sweet-smelling and headache-inducing.



Also: may I present the following litre carton of deliciousness?



And, this bottle of potential deliciousness, that has yet to be opened because I want to save it for a time when my brain feels de-energized.

I am cutting off this label and taping it to my wall next semester.


At this point in time, neither chocolate bar is in existence.


:)




See, I told you it matched the bulletin board! That bulletin board has been empty since August, although at first all the letters hadn't fallen off so you could read that it said, "Make a wish."
So I thought someone added the poster because it matched so perfectly and to make a wish for a cleaner teeth and fresher breath. But no. Like this morning, I was all excited to see mail in my mailbox and it turned out to be a brochure advertising Listerine. But I was still excited, because it contained illustrations of angry bacteria.

Also, I learned that dog meat might taste like mutton. NO--not from personal experience. That is one adventure I refuse to have. Plus people don't eat dog in Hong Kong. But I learned one of my Mainland friends once tried a slice of dog meat. They breed the dogs special for eating, and there's some sort of certificate or something so you know how old it is--or rather, how young it is. "Because you wouldn't want to eat a dog born in 1956."

Chocolate and chocolate and gifts, oh my!

Turns out, I don't need a secret angel to acquire surprise goodies! Tonight a group of hostel members came by and delivered two chocolate bars and a bottle of Lucozade Brain Energy! Also, a bottle of Listerine Vanilla Mint mouthwash for my roommate and I to share. There is also a poster advertising Listerine Vanilla Mint mouthwash in the fourth floor common area--I thought it was only there to add color to the bulletin board. Actually, it was a bit disappointing to think that someone actually hung that advertisement up with a greater purpose; I would have done it just for the pretty shade of green and delicate vanilla flowers.

Then, a half hour later one of the girls who lives across the hall told me to come to her room because she had a gift for me! Then I got to choose my favorite out of the cellphone charm/keychains with Olympic mascots she'd displayed across her desk! And I've only ever said hello! I picked the panda even though on the keychain its face is an odd shade of pink instead of white because it's doing archery. That's right, don't even think about bringing him to extinction. Also, I just looked up the Fuwa (that's the name for the mascots, they're also called the Friendlies) on Wikipedia and yes, the panda is so the best one. Represented ideal: Happiness. Personality: Honest, optimistic. He's a symbol of China and environmentalism and the "harmonious coexistance of humankind and nature." And his name is Jingjing (晶晶) which happens to be the best of all the names. So. Who cares about a miscolored face? Not me.

What else...oh! I saw a pack of cigarettes today and it was SCARY. Plastered across the front was a photograph of a mangled, miscolored and utterly disgusting foot with the government warning that smoking causes peripheral vascular diseases. Shudder.

Also, just now I was looking through the ingredients of my Brain Energy drink to see what makes it so special. Nothing unusual--no colorings made from fish products like yesterday's tropical fruit juice--except for "Flavorings (including Caffiene)" and "Colour (Sunset Yellow)." Caffiene has a flavor? Colors don't have to be named by some combination of letters and numbers? Why did I not notice this before? Tomorrow's mission: scour the Park N Shop for the most creative artificial colouring.

Inescapable music

Internet seems to be unhappy this evening, so I’ll write the post now and upload it later. Funny how ten minutes earlier I’d had a conversation beginning like this:

"Do you ever find in the hostels that your internet doesn’t work?"
"Mmm, hmm. One night I tried connecting to the internet at 8 and then when I went to sleep at midnight it still wasn’t working.”

"Yes, one night I waited for one hour."

"I even have the, you know, the Ethernet cable and it still won’t work."

I thought she’d begun this topic completely at random. I must learn to recognize when people are foretelling the future.

Anyway, it’s chilly again. And the air conditioning still hasn’t been turned off in that one auditorium where I have financial economics. And I forgot and wore a T-shirt.

Aside from that, it was a swell day. I woke up feeling less miserable, I bought more blackcurrant juice and definitely didn’t feel miserable, the OMIP invited me to a farewell for the exchange students on December 1, there'll be a joint Hostel E and Hostel F Thanksgiving dinner (maybe with fire-chicken?) next week, and most recently, I laughed uncontrollably in the library.

I went to the library to escape the incredibly happy, incredibly loud, but above all DISTRACTING music playing on my roommate’s computer. It was a short little tune repeating itself on an endless loop. Even if I were the sort of person who would request others to turn down their incredibly happy, incredibly loud, but above all DISTRACTING music I couldn’t have, because shortly before the music became intolerable my roommate left the room with the song still playing. So.

The peace and quiet of the library. For five minutes, until the

UPDATE: Internet's working, so I'll post this now.

music started seeping in through the windows or the walls or anyway, the concert or whatever caused the music must have been either very loud or very close or very probably both because libraries are generally guaranteed quiet zones. I wonder though, what it would be like to go a whole day and not stop hearing music. Like you wake up to the music of your alarm clock, and then you're walking down the hall and so is someone else who's humming, and elevator music is playing in the elevator, and you call the bank or something and get put on hold and listen to that music for awhile until your patience wears out and you hang up, and the ice cream truck comes by, and someone turns on the radio, and you go somewhere else and people are practicing for a musical, and somewhere else someone else is practicing opera, and somewhere else there's another radio, or maybe a grand piano.

It might be fun.

Right, anyway, back to Hong Kong. Actually, I really had nothing else to say. Oh! But that reminds me, "actually" seems to be a lot of people's favorite (I was tempted to add a "u" in there but didn't want to seem like a, whatever that word is for people who pretend they're fluent in British English when they're not. if that word I'm looking for even exists. but the "o" looks so lonely!) words. By which I mean three: my roommate (who says it a lot) and my Mandarin teacher (who says it with a particular emphasis) and that one group mate (who said, "I really like that word" after typing the word "actually"). Actually, "actually"'s kind of fun to say. Kind of like you're sneezing.

And that reminds me: there's no particular phrase to say in Hong Kong when someone sneezes. I don't mind, because I never developed the habit of saying "bless you" or "gesundheit" or anything at all, but I'd always feel awkward when someone would sneeze and everyone else in the room would say something or offer a tissue because I would do nothing except think: "right--I was supposed to respond that." And then if I sneezed I'd have to face the awkwardness of people noticing that I'd just released billions of airborne bacteria and also have to remember to thank them for noticing.

Alright, alright, goodnight.

:(

I'm very tired and it's only 6:58 pm, this afternoon I started to develop a cough, and I'm not feeling particularly upbeat, but I'll try to make this post cheerful. If I fail, at least you know why.

The hostel E people are no longer standing around in the entrance-way, so I'm guessing that their elections are over. So no more souvenirs. Darn--that's an opposite-of-cheerful thought.

Well, umm, here--I took a picture of the carton of my favorite juice:


Mandarin class is always nice (although it would have been nicer if I wouldn't rather have curled up under a blanket) today we learned about, ahh...umm..., I forget. Vocabulary from Lesson 6. A collection of seemingly unrelated words like "swim," "Beijing opera," and "weather." Actually, not seemingly unrelated. Definitely unrelated. And we listened to our professor sing the Chinese version of Jingle Bells.

For dinner I ate sweet and sour chicken that tasted like Chinese take-out from the U.S.--yum. It came with some sort of cloudy soup with a few beans floating around a chunk of potato--not yum.

Okay, apparently I fail at happiness today, so I'm going to give up now and try again tomorrow.

The amazing multi-tasker

I can write and begin to fall asleep at the same time!

Brief updates:

• Still no news of my secret angel
• I gave my master a packet of Pop Rocks and a note (this time in English so I might have given myself away)
• Our Mandarin professor might take us to a Chinese restaurant that serves better Beijing duck than Beijing
• I'll need to buy another litre of blackcurrant and aloe vera juice
• I need to remember to spell litre that way for crossword puzzle purposes
• I finished a Powerpoint
• I finished a paper (except for the conclusion)
• I finished another Powerpoint
• I ate lots of noodles
• I returned lots of library books
• I abruptly ended this post
  

Before turning to my studies

Yesterday morning I went to Central to run some errands, a.k.a. shopshopshop until I understood why rich people hire professional shoppers. But guess who's found all her Christmas gifts? Actually, probably lots of people. But me among them. So for that obvious reason, I can't describe that day's adventures with any great detail. That's okay, though--Central hadn't really changed in a week. Unless it did and I couldn't notice through my exhausted frenzy. Anyhow, I did spot a cat on a leather leash.



Then I zoomed ahead to the Museum of Art, just for the gift shop and the view from the outside sculpture garden (provided free to anyone who turns left after exiting).

I don't think I took a picture last time of the subway. So here it is, the underground tunnel of madness and chaos. The shopping store you emerge from on the other side is called SOGO. It's Japanese but it isn't terribly exciting because all the stores are filled with fancy-pants handbags and shoes.

Sigh...someone needs to stop this dilution of Christmas. Pretty soon it'll be spread out through the whole year and instead of one month of concentrated goodness we'll have twelve months of plastic garlands and mumbled carols. But a part of me really really wants a gingerbread cookie right now.