Wednesday, December 28, 2005

细雨飘啊飘


总有那么特别的几天,我会坐在被雨打湿的窗前,思念着某个或某些对我来说如同生命一样重要的人。我会常常由此而静静的去享受自己感觉的灵敏与细腻,甜甜的,如同初夏清晨叶子上的露水。

今天便是如此的一天,只因为我那朝夕相处的恋人远行去探访一位朋友,留下我一个人在家里百般寂寞。在享受着一个人的自由的同时,我也体会到这个男人在我生活中的地位。虽然只是短暂的分别两天,却足够让我紧张得开始盘算他毕业以后的日子该怎么过。恋爱中的女人,大概都这么傻傻的可爱吧。

我总是喜欢称他为大尉同学,一方面我们确实在同一所大学读书,我是建筑系本科生(B.ARCH),他是工商管理研究生(MBA),将早我两年离开学校。另一方面“同学”这个称呼似乎可以帮助我和他平起平坐。他大我近八岁,为人处事十分成熟稳重。和他在一起总有一种与兄长相处的感觉,他总是能在必要的时候及时的帮助或保护我。但日时久了我便有种依赖性,好像没有他我什么事也办不好。所以我的这位同学会尽量鼓励我尝试独立完成一些大事情,或是找个机会让我也照顾他一下,小女生的自尊心便比较容易得到满足。

从某种意义上说,和大尉在一起算是我第一次真正的恋爱。由于曾经的年少轻狂,我有过那些苦涩的回忆。就像大人们常说的,偷食的禁果总是青涩的,但是我从不曾后悔有过那些经历,它们反而使我更加懂得体会与珍惜现在的感情。遇到大尉以后,我像个情窦初开的少女,深深的沉浸在爱的甜蜜里无法自拔。我们从相识到恋爱好像没有经过很长时间,也说不出是谁先追求谁,一切都是那么顺其自然。但是其中每一步小小的变化都是我们甜蜜的回忆,比如第一次在咖啡店里相遇,第一次在校园里散步,第一次亲吻,第一次说我爱你。。。看似再平常不过的事情,对我来说却那么回味无穷。

也许是对他无尽的迷恋,也许是曾经难以回首的记忆,我渐渐发觉我的爱是如此的自私,它容不得半点沙子。我现在似乎可以理解为什么中国的男人总是乐此不彼的在寻找处女,他们渴望的不仅仅是一种纯洁,更是一种忠诚,一种“非君莫数”的忠诚。我对大尉也是如此,他在我心目中就像一座希腊雕塑一样洁净,我希望,更应该说是幻想他是完美的。我总在想,大尉长我八岁,八年对一个人来说有太多的经历和记忆可以回味。我的父母在异地分居了八年,这八年带给他们变化我终身难忘!也许我的比喻不恰当,对于爱情来说,我是一个处世未深的新兵,而大尉他可以算是个久经沙场的老将。我时常会幻想他和他以前的那些女人们,然后问自己他对我说的那些甜言蜜语是不是已经在他的“经验”里成为一种习惯。我总是疑问他对我的爱是真的还是逢场作戏,玩玩而已,我再也经不起另一场游戏了(哪个风尘女子不是从对生活的绝望里逼出来的?)。于是我开始努力的搜索答案,我偷看过他的邮件,照片,翻过他的私人物品,我知道那样做会伤害到他,甚至触犯法律,但是我控制不住,我急切的想认清他究竟是怎样一个人。其实一切都是无意义的,都是我自己在给自己找麻烦。每次我与大尉对视的时候,他那蓝蓝的眼睛里流露出的总是真诚,没有半点杂念。他总是那么宽容,在我作模型的时候他陪我一起熬夜,我被学业压的喘不过气来的时候他借给我坚实的肩膀哭泣,圣诞节的时候他背着我在街上乱跑,引得路人都抛来羡慕的眼光,这样一个男人,我为什么还要怀疑他对我的真心呢?凡事都没有十全十美的,他喜欢留着那些前女友送的东西作纪念就让他留着去吧,又不是天天放在身边去怀念,可能连他自己都不记得他还留着那些东西了吧。既然大家都有过去,就应该坦诚的相对,学会宽容。

和大尉同学相识快一年了,这一年当中有那么多美好的回忆,也有很多经验教训需要吸取。希望新的一年我们会更加彼此相知相爱,珍惜现在在一起的时光。

unexpected presents


I haven’t post anything for too long (It’s weird that I feel I’m totally cut out of the world when I stopped posting). I was always waiting for some big event to happen and make it sound like a fantasy. But I realized, in fact, I let too many stories skipped away from the official “CiCi Press” while each of them is worthy to put on the front page. I actually tried to write something few days ago. But unfortunately, the poor thing had a “miscarriage” (my computer froze before I could save my writings) and therefore never met the public. Maybe it was a good thing since I was basically being depressed for no reason and making nonsense statements. I don't know why I’m always melancholy recently. Hopefully this is just an age thing and it will finally go away when I turn into an old grandma. Whatever…

So, as I said, I have many stories on the front page for you all. But because there’re too many of them, I can only write them as briefs at this point.
- After the exams, I could finally take a break and catch some breath for the holiday. My life is getting better. I have more time to do some other things besides working on projects. I start to get some more sleep, cook meals, practice piano and even go to the gym some times. I feel like a normal human being again.
- Me and my DWTX took a trip up north to Vancouver BC and Victoria. We stopped by Seattle as well because I had to get a Canadian visa there. It was a fun trip! I was back to big cities again. It felt like a little fish was back to the ocean. My blood was so happy and excited when I was back to the streets full of crowd and noise. Even though I had a little bit financial pressure when I saw the price of everything there, I saved through the entire term for the holiday trip, so who cares… I don’t need to proof to others I’m not acting like a princess or what not. I do whatever makes me happy. I feel it’s myself giving myself too much pressure because I cared too much. I should just be myself. Qu Ta Ma De!
- I went to DWTX’s grandparents house for Christmas dinner. It was an interesting experience to be in an American family during a special celebration, especially it’s my close someone’s family. Unexpectedly, I got Christmas presents too, even though no one knows I would visit (The culture is so different between Chinese and American. If I took DWTX home for Chinese New Year but I didn’t or forgot to tell my family that he’s visiting, my family would think I’m very rude to bring an ‘unexpected guest’ home and it’s very unrespectful to DWTX as well. But I guess it doesn’t matter here). The visiting made me so homesick. I was in the house, smiling and talking to DWTX’s family. But it just felt so weird, among all the white people, I was the only black hair, yellow skin creature there. It’s different from my studio. Even though I was the only foreigner in the studio as well, we were all students and it’s easier for me to get along with them. When I was with DWTX’s family, I had to socialize and try to act like normal when I was nervous. I wanted to stick with DWTX and he could make my communication with the rest of the family easier. But he’s always off somewhere, either helping his cousin to fix the computer or talking to the relatives. It was funny that I pretended I was playing with the teddy bear I got while I was actually trying to avoid being embarrassed by sitting in the middle of the living room and didn’t know what to do. I even whispered to myself that if I ever have a chance to take DWTX to Beijing for Chinese New Year, I will leave him with my grandparents and aunts and go to play with my cousin and see how he deal with the big family. Oh well, I was just being a kid for revenge. I won’t really do it.
- I got calls and e-cards from old friends in high school! Oh, my ISKLians…the good old days…ha ha ha! It was fun to talk to my friends. It brought back many memories, mostly jokes about our teachers. One of my friends was teasing me that whenever I talked about DWTX I started to giggle. He said “aaiiii… girl in love…always like to giggle. CiCi used to be so violent. How come she’s like this now?! Eehhhh…I need a g/f too!”. “Hhaa… that’s the power of love.” I answered him. “Eh, when you have wedding ceremony, don’t forget to tell me loh!” “Tao Yan!!” “hhaa, just kidding.” “Heenn!!”. (This friend of mine never get serious in anything. Maybe that’s why he never got a g/f hhaaa. But he’s really good at entertaining everyone when we’re bored)
- Again, another news about marriage. Another friend of mine in college just got engaged with some “unknown” guy. I mean, she never told anyone she got another b/f and now she’s engaged! Well, congratulations and wish she has a happy marriage (hopefully).
- I kept having weird dreams lately, such as Mom got crazy, I was kidnapped and sold to my cousin to be his wife, my DWTX ran away with his old lover… Gosh, what a mess in my dreams! I wonder if my brain has something wrong and tend to play a little drama when I go to sleep. But hello… I don’t need these ‘free entertainment’…
- DWTX sent me a link on BBC about how china is ruled. Long time ago, I heard European countries, especially Britain doesn’t like China and the communist party and their publications about China are mostly negative too. It seems BBC proves this saying to me. The entire article is just some touch-surface information and it’s only about half page long. I thought, even though PRC was only established 56 years ago, China has more than 5000 years of history. How can a half page long article explain how a nation with thousands of years of history functions? The structure of our society and relationships between people is much more complicated than what some westerners thought or described. This is my personal view though. For thousands of years, China was ruled by emperors through each dynasty. People follow the emperor’s desire with no exceptions. The Chinese citizens just want to have their life in peace. They never question the emperor’s decision (of course they’re not allowed to). So, it becomes Chinese’s ‘national personality’ that they tend to care only about their own family, and follow whatever the ruler’s policy. They think if they care too much about the country, it’ll bring them trouble. That actually gives the nation a stronger bound between its people. Westerners like to yell that China needs democracy or human right or whatever. But I question that do Chinese really know how to use democracy? If they really gain the so-called freedom, do they know how to deal with it properly? Look at the culture revolution; it’s almost a disaster of Chinese’s humanity. The trust and honesty are gone after the movement. It also took away the understanding of Confucius away from China, which guide the Chinese’s morality for long time in its history. I would say, with such a large population and the history Chinese went through, suddenly put democracy in China would just lead to corruption as easy as you snap your fingers. Well, maybe that what most of the western countries want. China is just a big obstacle for them. China has its own circumstance. It’s impossible for China to follow the ‘western way’ to develop. If we need ‘freedom’ for our people, we need the ‘freedom’ from the rest of the world to develop our country in our own way first! Don’t talk to us about democracy while you’re point your finger at our nose and tell us what to do!

Ok, I talked too much. My DWTX told me I should write about what I think in my blog and not to care about how others think about me. Well, this is the result. But I do feel better though. Good night.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

 灰色圣诞节


总是想用中文写点什么来平息我发泄的欲望,却从来没有很好的文笔够我去“挥霍”一番,所以只好写一些不成体统的东西来“糟蹋”自己的页面了。

由于受到前两个星期期末考试的折磨,我已经没力气写裹脚布一样的“自传”了。这未尝不是一件好事,况且我也总是对简短精悍的文章感兴趣,就算是文章写的像便池里那条黄黄的物体一样,也不会让读者的眼睛呕吐太长时间以至虚脱。这样连环境保护的作用都起到了,觉得自己好伟大啊~^^V.

那上两个星期到底发生了什么呢?其实我也记不大清楚了,事情做到太多的时候就会变得恍惚,而且这有可能是导致繁忙以后感到极度空虚迷茫的病原体咧~ >.<" 我记得的是从感恩节开始我的生活变得失去控制,出奇的忙!每天画图到早上4点左右勉强爬到床上开始睡觉,睡醒以后继续爬在画图板上作我的设计作品。想知道那是什么感觉吗?恩,我记得我看过一个短片,拍的一个喝醉酒的人被朋友逼着继续喝酒,结果他醉到吐在自己的杯子里又把呕吐物喝进肚子里(我写这个的时候还在觉得好恶心!)。但是我画图时真的就是那种感觉。啊,算了,不说这个了,再写我会真的吐出来的。总之,这学期我破了以前的工作纪录-三天之内只睡了7各小时,觉得自己好厉害,也不知道是怎么挺过来的,我想一定是神在帮助我!这两个星期我破了很多纪录,有一项是作模型时割破手的纪录。这个学期我的牺牲比较惨烈(用剪刀剪开的,连皮带肉都翻过来了),不仅挂了彩,整个人差点都被吓晕过去T.T~还有一项我想称它为最倒霉presentation纪录。就是为了那个模型才受伤的presentation,我的队友居然在做展示的早上睡过头,而且他的那部分作业也没有完成!看到我一个人抱着模型傻傻地站在展览板前面,我的同学都向我抛来同情的目光。当时我唯一的想法就是变成一只苍蝇偷偷飞走(为什么变成苍蝇?因为就算你不想走,别人也会把你赶出窗子的。不过好像现在苍蝇都被冻死了哦>.<)。总之就是好倒霉就是了!

昨天学校的成绩发出来了,我就知道其实3.86的GPA不是什么好事,因为你会变的上瘾,哪怕分数掉下来一点点都会浑身难受,更何况这个学期我一下子跌到3.47。虽然不算太差,担心里总是觉得不舒服,暗暗的骂我们建筑系的老师要求太过分了。都熬成那个样子,手还有受伤,最后才给个3.47。觉得我们的劳动力好廉价哦,比中国农民的还不值钱!

最近给老妈打电话,也不知道她哪根筋出问题,总是叫我不要跟男朋友耍小脾气。也许她有她的道理,也许像我这种20出头的女生都会有这样一段“野蛮时代”,但是老妈实在是不会运用语言艺术,尤其中文是这么语气敏感的一种语言。总之每次跟她讲话超不过五句话就有开始后悔给她打电话的感觉。好在她不知道我的网页地址,也不会用电脑,不然我一辈子也别想回家了。不过最近我也不知道自己怎么搞的,总是对事物过于敏感,而且莫名其妙的想发火,蛮恐怖的。其实我只是想多花一点时间和爱人在一起,和家人多沟通一下,上学的时候太忙了,都没有时间做这些事情。可是到我有空的时候才发现,原来人家都需要自己的“私人空间”,不喜欢我去打搅。我想要的只是多一些理解,而不是那些挂在房门上像飞机洗手间里有人/无人一样的信号,那岂不是有点过于讽刺了吗。。。

总之到现在还没有什么能让我兴奋的事情发生,明天要启程去加拿大了,不知道签证会不会顺利拿到。要烦的事情总是那么多,什么时候才能拥有单纯的快乐?哪怕一秒钟也好!这个寒假就这样开始了,淡淡的灰色,也不知道是不是个好兆头。

Thursday, December 08, 2005

DONE

It's done. Fuck it. Fuck it all.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

22 hours left!

It's almost 10am, Wednesday, December 7th. That means, there's 22 hours left for this term, and till then, I'll be finally done with this horrible term!
The review for the Spatial Composition final presentation is still running next door. But I didn't get any sleep last night and therefore couldn't stand up straight (I almost fell asleep and let my head fall right into my model during the review). I'm glad that the reviewers liked my model. I spent the whole night on it. It should look nice^^. So, as soon as my review's done, I came to the computer lab to sit for a while. I have pain all over my body, neck, back and hands...it feels like dying...
Anyways, I got to go. It's time to take a nap and then finish that freaking cabin model for Building Construction. 22 more hours! I'll be there!

Thursday, December 01, 2005

一片红树叶


阳光只在前天下午绽放了一瞬间,尽管只是可怜的几十分钟,足以让我振奋起精神,开始相信自然界的色彩已经慢慢回到了我的世界。可我不明白最近的天气到底得了怎样的抑郁症,刚刚咧开的一点点微笑的嘴角霎时又哭丧起了嘴脸,阴冷阴冷的。空气里夹杂着也说不上来是雾还是雨的水分,死死的粘在你脸上,让人心烦意乱。于是我那点可怜的希望像个肥皂泡一样迸裂掉了,只在空气里留下一些腥味。

星期二到星期四,短短不到两天的时间中,我从自豪骄傲的公主变成另人厌恶的癞蛤蟆。星期二我是presentation中出色的设计者,到了星期四我变成班里考试的最后一名。我想解释一下考试是在presentation之前的,不是因为我骄傲了所以才失败的(其实也没有必要解释,失败就是失败了)。可是我不明白,我真的很努力了,为什么会是这个结果?我不知道这样是不是不公平,还是由于英语不是我的母语,遇到考术语理论的考试我本就该是最差的一个。我不相信游戏规则是这样写的,但是我真的不敢说“我努力了,我不后悔”这样的狂言。

窗外树上的叶子几乎快要掉光了,还有几片可怜的红色挣扎在雨水里。我记得上个月窗前还是一片葱绿,生机勃勃的样子,怎么这么快就都衰败了?虽然都知道春天来的时候这些树还会恢复生命,但是要等多久呢?好像要很长很厂时间呢。。。

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Out of the Jail


6pm, Tuesday, November 29th, with the ending speech from my studio professor, I’m finally done with my studio this term. I heard a long sigh from someone after the professor said “Congratulations, and you may go now.” It’s finished…finally.

Ya, it’s finally the time to walk out of the studio and breath some fresh air. During the thanksgiving holiday, I seem to loose track of time completely. Last night, I suddenly had a terrible thought that yesterday was actually the presentation day and I missed it and therefore failed my studio. I crazily dig into bunch of junks on my floor to find my planner. Whew, I was glad that was only my illusion. I was following my schedule really well and even finished earlier than everyone else.

The presentation went very nice and smooth. The first reviewer is always crappy (that just seems like a rule in the architecture school… you always think the first reviewer just like to say bunch of s**t about your project). And he is my building construction professor, which is the class everybody hates. I guess that helped to strengthen my belief that he’s a really crappy reviewer. But the rest of the 4 reviewers all gave me nice comment and very useful suggestions for my future design. I was actually supposed to have only 3 reviewers today. But 2 other teachers said to my studio professor that they were interested in my presentation. So my professor introduced me to them and let them give me an extra review. That surprised me but I was very happy about it. I thought, if it were a real project, there’d be more people interested in putting money on my design develop it and build it. I know for a young designer, we have to support and work on other’s idea and style for many many years. But someday, ONEDAY, a building will have my name on the wall as the president architect. I can make it happen.

Right now, I feel like all of my bones have been taken out of my body. I have no energy to do anything for the rest of the term. But it’s not the time to relax yet. I have two big presentations and two exams next week. I’ll still be stuck in my studio for a while. After that, I’ll have a real winter break! I’m really really REALLY looking forward to the holiday and a nice road trip with my close someone. The last trip we had together was during spring break last year. The memory is still fresh in my mind…hhee… But it’s time to renew the record ^^.

And I want to give special thanks to my close someone. I couldn’t have a successful presentation without him. He helped me so much with fighting through those depressing days. He always encourages me to be confident and positive. Thank you so much for everything, hon!

Ok, I need to shut up and go to bed now. I have a Japanese exam tomorrow. Jia You!

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Happy Thanksgiving!


I just came back from a short road trip to Portland. DWTX and I went to meet his family for Thanksgiving dinner. Then, we headed to a restaurant bar to have some beer. We came back earlier than we planned because everything’s CLOSED for Thanksgiving. There’s really nothing much to do except walking in the rain. But I guess coming back early is probably better, since I have an extra half-day to work on my project (oh no…that’s not what I mean. Who wants to work during holiday?!).

I went to bed around 2:30 last night, after finishing a crappy color pencil drawing. Then, I woke up this morning with a crazy but funny dream. In my dream, DWTX and I was in a weird competition that we had to go through three rounds to be the champion. The first round was sitting on an office chair and letting a crazy little dog drag you through an enchanted forest. You have to grab on to the dog really tight and not falling off the chair because it runs super fast. The section round was going through a zoo where some poisoned snakes have been let out of their cages to hunt people. The snakes might come out anytime to bite you. And the third round was the most ridiculous one. DWTX and I had to go to several fast-food restaurants to search for the hidden treasure in their food. Anyways, we got the championship in the end. I imaged I woke up with giggling after that and almost fell off the bed (again).

The dinner today was really nice. There was nice food and nice chatting with DWTX’s family. But it makes me miss my family though. Especially during Chinese New Year, most of the family members get together and couple of days and welcome the New Year together. It was always so fun! Everyone usually gather at my grandparents’ house in the afternoon on New Year’s Eve. Then, we’ll have a biiiiiiiig dinner together. Everyone cooks their ‘master piece’ for the dinner. Usually I’ll eat till I can’t move anymore. Oh, I forgot to mention, before the New Year dinner, there’s a tradition in my family that all the direct family members have to greet our ancestors and ask them to protect everyone in the family for another new year. After the dinner, some people go to play Ma Jiang and others watch the New Year celebration show on CCTV1. When it’s almost 11:30pm, my mom and aunts will start to cook dumplings that we made during the pervious day. Then, we count down together and eat dumplings. Sometimes we put chocolate or candy in some dumplings and the person who got the ‘special’ ones will have a very good luck for the New Year. After finishing the food, my cousins and I will go out to play fireworks. We all have to stay awake till the sun comes up in the morning (That’s just a tradition for Chinese New Year, which is hard to explain).

Ok, Ok… Today’s Thankgiving… But why am I writing so much about Chinese New Year…Ehhh… Maybe I just miss it too much. In the end of this January, it’ll be the 5th Chinese New Year I miss. Home-sick-Ci…

Well, I’m staring at my drafting table and that crappy drawing on it again. Naaahh…I’m not going to touch it till tomorrow evening! I’m enjoying my holiday right now! Yeah!

Wan nan!

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Keep Going, but How Far Can I Make It?


I’m so stressed out. Thanks giving holiday is coming soon, but I’m not happy with the break at all. I’m sure the days will pass so fast and dangerously I might not be able to finish my final presentation for studio. I’ll have a big test for building construction class tomorrow. I did lots of study but I’m still so nervous about it. I’m afraid it will be like the previous test of that class. The professor will ask bunch of stupid (as I’m typing this word, I typed it wrongly as ‘studio’..ahh! what am I thinking?!) questions and screw me up. After the test, I’ll have a Japanese Oral Performance test, which I haven’t really studied yet. I tried to read the sample dialog just now, but I kept spacing out. I got mad at myself and started to slap my face really hard. It hurts so much! But I still couldn’t concentrate. I went to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. I saw a ghost-like girl with ‘handprints’ on her cheek. It’s really light marks but I still can see it. Hopefully it’ll go away when I wake up tomorrow.

The slapping reminds me my mom. I remember when I got a bad grade in school and pissed her off, she would beat me really hard on my butt or arms. Sometimes there would be red marks left on my body. But I didn’t mind it that time. I thought they were as cool as tattoos. As time went by, I started to hate those memories more and more. I felt my mother humiliated me. But I couldn’t help imitating from her. I always get mad at myself because I thought I could do things better. Then, I started to ‘punish’ myself like my mother did. It didn’t make me feel better though. I just felt I dissevered the ‘punishment’.

My mother is a very smart and curious woman. But the problem is she only believes what she thinks the truth is and she has a really good memory only on ‘bad things’. That makes her so annoying to others and looks like a stupid woman who only has one nerve in her brain. I start to be afraid that I would be just like her one day. There’re things that keep bothering me and I just can’t get them out of my brain even though I tried so hard. I can forget about them for a while, but once I see something relating to them, it comes back to my mind again. Like those screen savers on the computer in the other bedroom, I feel they can make my blood flow backwards. But why, I ask myself, why bother? Can’t I just let others have their own lives? I’ve made ‘the other’ having nightmares. Haven’t I ruined enough? I feel so disgusting about myself. Sometimes I wish I could have some medicine for brainwashing… Or maybe I should just beat myself more…

My stomach is so empty. I don’t know if I would be able to fall asleep, but whatever… let’s just make a big bloody mess.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Dark Window


Sunday morning, I woke up from the cold air sneaking into my room through the corner of my window. I turned the clock towards me…Ahhh, almost 10:45. Another cold and depressing Sunday has started.

Section, elevation, perspective drawings, model, urban context, and building construction… My little friends came to say ‘morning’ to me as soon as I open my eyes. “Hey, morning. Just give me several minutes to wake up ok? Then I’ll go to play with you guys.” I sat up and stared at my drafting table. The half-done elevation drawing is complaining to me that I haven’t given her a nice looking outfit yet. I opened my curtain for a gap to see through it. As I expected, there’s no sunshine. Everything looks dead. I’m not color blind, but things outside my window seems like a picture that has been switched to grey scale in Photoshop.

My close someone is taking a shower. That means I can still stay in my bed for another 10 minutes. I swing my head back into the pillow and pull the blanket over it. It’s Sunday anyway…

I went to a lecture given by a black bird architect last Friday. He said, the most important thing during design process is to make the project complete. Even if you don’t like your design, make it to the end and give it a complete personality. So, I’m struggling on the way of completing the project. One more week, it’ll be a new ‘independent person’.

I believe the color will be back to the dark window. Just be patient, and keep hoping.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

freezing 8am


I started this post long time ago, but didn't have time to finish it completely. So, I ended up adding little pieces to it everyday. It becomes a "report of the week"...
......................................................
Tuesday...
I just came back from a field trip for my building construction class. Better than last time, I was able to get a ride to the site this morning and joined the group on time. Thanks to David (aka the Mr.Usagi), I didn't have to ride my bike to the Duck's village and being a frozen-Ci.

I woke up early this morning, like 5am, after having a crazy dream. I dreamed I had to deliver a cheeseburger (A cheeseburger? Was I that hungry?) to a weird place, which I had no idea how to get there. The destination was so far away from the house where I picked up the cheeseburger and the client requested me to drive his car and drop it off with the burger there. Btw, I still don't know how to drive...hhee...So I started my journey with wondering around the area and tried to ask for directions. Then, I saw these tiny creatures that look like the mushroom head in Mario on the street! As I was hesitating about whether I should ask them for direction, they came to me and said "Hello, stranger, follow us". Surprisingly, these things ran super fast! I had to chase them alone the road crazily. But in the end, I managed to deliver the burger and I didn't make any damage to the car. Whew!

After I finished my classes, I went to Subway to get a big sandwich. I guess the girl working there was just too tired that she gave me back $5.99 in cash when I gave her my card to pay for the sandwich. Hum... now I'm thinking I should just take that money and run away, hhoooo...

I went back to school for a review section later in the evening for a big test in Spatial Composition on Thursday. It was INTENSIVE. We had to go over notes from 15 lectures and readings in 90 mins. I'm so nervous about this test right now. It counts as 35% of our final grade for that class. Wish me good luck!

Wednesday...
I'm in my studio right now. I don't know where the heck my teacher is. But I'd rather prefer she's not interrupting with my drawing process right now. And my building construction teammate took away my student ID for printing. I couldn't find him in the studio to get my ID back. How can I take the bus to go home tonight? Ehhhh...nnNNnn!

Later in the evening...
I had to do a sketch model for Spatial Composition class that's due tomorrow (Ya! I had to do review for the test of the same class too!). The assignment was to turn a random 2-D drawing into a building. I stared at the drawing I got for more than an hour, but I had no idea how to do it. The drawing was so blur and it didn't make any sense to me. Whatever, I just need to get this done! DWTX was so nice to me. He stay with me till 1am and read the review material for me while I was doing the model. We finally stopped doing it because I couldn't do two things at the same time. I kept making mistakes in the model. But at least the reading was helpful for me. I was able to use some of the stuff in the test. Thx hon.

Thursday...
I woke up around 9am to study for the test (btw I went to bed 3:30 last night). I had a headache and I was dizzy. But I had to force myself to concentrate on the review. That didn't feel good at all.

I was so tired the whole day. I couldn't remember what I did except the test. I did all the questions, wrote lots of stuff and drew some nice diagrams on the paper. I think I did okay. But, whatever. I'm done.

I came home as soon as I finished my classes and went directly to my bed. I took a super good nap! But the stress didn't go away at all. I had to speed up my pace on doing the final presentation for studio. I'll have another big test next Tuesday for Building Construction and an Japanese oral performance test right after it. I'm so sick of the school right now. Staring at my drawings could make me vomit. I just realized that the studio final presentation is on the Tuesday after Thanks Giving holiday. That means the holiday is a crazy-working period for me instead of a study break. TAO YAN!!

My right shoulder is killing me these days ‘cos I’m doing drawings on those super tall drafting tables all the time. There’s no other way to deal with it. I just have to bare the pain. It gave me hard time to fall asleep last night even I massaged it for a long time. Ehhh… I’m dying…

Friday...
I'm in my studio again, trying to finish this post and publish it. I'm hungry...

The goal for today:
-Finish 1/8" floor plan
-Do 1/4" sections (2)
-Do 1/8" elevations (front&back)
-Maybe I'll do a 1/32" context drawing. I hate doing urban context drawing...
-many many perspective drawings... I mean, thaaaaaaat <((>.<))>many...

wan nan~

Sunday, November 13, 2005

61 pages


It’s Saturday night, another night when I mentally refuse to close my eyes and get some rest. I guess it becomes my way to celebrate weekend now. Weekend is really nothing special for me except I don’t have to worry about getting up early in the morning and chasing the bus to go to school. I never go to parties or hang out with friends on weekends (maybe that’s a typical American college life?). Homework and projects are like huge metal chains wrapping on my neck. If I dare to move only an inch to anywhere, they’ll choke me to death.

The preparation for last Friday’s studio presentation just sucked up all my energy. I felt I was going to pass out as soon as it was finished. The professors kept us in the presentation room till 5:30 that evening to talk about our progressions. They assigned us a schedule for the remaining time till final presentation day. I took a glance at the schedule…façade design, structure layout, material usage, interior perspectives, model…blah blah blah… “Whatever, I’m done today” I whispered to myself. As soon as the “boss” (our professor) announced presentation’s over, people stormed out of Lawrence Hall like hurricane.

I wondered around the school, didn’t know where to go. DWTX went to Portland. There’s no point for me to go home and cook for myself in that freaking cold kitchen. So I called my old roommate and met with her and other two friends of hers in the Orange Café. We chatted a little bit about our lives. But soon I figured we don’t have a lot common ground to continue the conversation. So I withdrew from the talk and became a listener. I like to observe people, especially their eyes. The expression in their eyes tells me what kind of person they are. Like my old roommate and her friends, I don’t want to say who’s good or who’s bad, but I feel they’re thinking about serious life issues with a really unrealistic perspective. I guess many foreign students in the States have had similar kind of dreams (like money would drop from the sky and fall into your pocket). Once they wake up from the dream, they would be facing a great pain from expecting too much while putting in so little effort. A friend of my close someone joked that since my name means all of my dream will come true, I can make all his dreams come true as well. But actually, my name Si Cheng (think-succeed) is really emphasizing on the word “think”. It means if I don’t have any desire and refuse to put in any effort, I won’t have any success. When my grandfather gave me the name, he was expecting me to achieve my goals from considering the situation thoroughly and trying everything within my ability. I think the name fits my personality very well. Maybe that’s why I’m driving myself crazy in this ARCH program. I believe I can be a good architect. I will prove it.

Many memories came back to me today, all good ones. I took out the CD my high school music teacher made for me when my classmates and I went to Manila for a music competition. I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw my pics as a high school student with travel uniforms. It was just two and a half years ago, but it feels like a long time. I remember when I was in Manila, me and another Japanese girl (something Ko, I forgot) stayed in a student’s house. The host family’s last name is Ferrari (they are French)! And it was the first time for me to see a Japanese girl without make-up at night…gosh that was scary~. Later this evening, me and DWTX went to a small hill in Eugene where we can see the night scene of the town. It was rainy and cold there, but our hearts was warm. We recalled the time when he took me there for the first time. I’m sure I blushed when…oh well, he knows what I said… hhaaa…ennNNnn…I checked the length of my journal, 61 pages! I started it almost a year ago after I met DWTX. I wonder how many pages don't have any C-D stories. I'm not sticking to him all the time like a piece of tape...it's just that he's a very important and special part of my life. I don't know what to do if this part is taken away from me.

I realized this morning that I have no clean socks to wear anymore. Then I remembered I haven’t do laundry for two weeks (eewwww~>.<). So I did my laundry and FOLD them right away! I cleaned my room, did some readings and cooked. That was my achievement today. Good night!

Friday, November 11, 2005

Another presentation tomorrow


I finished my drawings earlier than I thought today. Actually it’s because I was really tired both mentally and physically, and I decided to give up some of the details I was going to put on my drawings and model. But the whole thing still looks good. I think what I have for now is more than enough for the presentation tomorrow. I’ve done a good amount of work during the week. Now, it’s show time!

The lobby of the ground floor of this Jazz music center still looks like a toilet bowl in the floor plan. It looks more like a double layer birthday cake in the model, which makes sense…you eat food (take a 3-D form object), digest it (analyze it with parti diagrams), and finally it goes into the toilet (there’s your floor plan~)…right…? Hheeee… I’m just BS ing. It means I’m really tired and I can’t think straight right now.

I suggested a girl in the Chinese Church I used to go to come to my Spatial Composition class since she’s really interested in architectural design theories. I can see that she’s really enjoying the class. In fact, she’s way too excited about it. She likes to sit beside me to look at how I take notes (we need to do lots of drawings in this class). I can hear her talking to herself all the time, like “oh that’s great!” “wooohhh, that’s really interesting”. I start to regret about taking her to the class. Her murmuring has become so annoying to me and other people sitting next to her. I’ve tried to ask her to stop doing it, but I guess she just got so used to it. She intentionally stops for a while and starts murmuring again. Maybe for the next class I should bring some tapes with me, so that I can stick her mouth together when she starts talking to herself.

That lady also asked me to play piano for her next Wednesday for their praying meeting. I was surprised when she asked though. Hey lady, can’t you see I’m so busy right now? I even fell asleep in the class today. You heard in the class that we’ll have a big exam next Thursday and you’re asking me to play piano for you the night before the exam…well… do you think that’s possible? Um… actually, if you can stop coming to this class and bothering me with your talking or chewing food, that’ll be G-R-E-A-T. Thank you!

I’ve stopped going to that Chinese church since I came back to school in fall. I feel that church is a very strange Chinese community. They like to help each other, but they’re touching too much of the private part of each other’s life (I’m too nice to describe them that way… they’re just so gossip). Actually, it’s not only that church the whole Chinese community in UO is kind of weird. The strong ‘Chinese-ness’ of these people makes them very hard to fit into the American society. I’ve been trying to avoid get in contact with them because I know they’re not going to welcome me anyway. I don’t have the standard ‘Chinese-ness’ they require. Imagine if I go back to China after graduating, I would soon be drove crazy living in that weird world…

K, need to go to bed now. Good night, and wish me good luck tomorrow!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Midnight Visions 2


Woohoo… It’s almost 3:30am. I mean… again! I haven’t finished my homework yet, but… who cares. I’ll get some sleep and finish the model later in the morning.

The floor plan of my design is getting more and more crazy as I keep coming up with ideas to make it “beauuuuuuutiful” (that’s the word my professor says all the time). Since I’m designing a jazz music center in Portland and I thought music is such a free form thing, my building should not be one of those “lunch boxes” I designed anymore. It should contain more curves. Yeah, curves and circles… I love them. In the end, the music center starts to look like a toilet bowl to me. Oh well, that’s great, ‘cos I feel like that dark brown thing in the toilet bowl right now. I don’t mind if I can’t have enough sleep as long as I know what’s expected from my teacher. But I hate it when the school just gives me a ‘to-do’ list that’s impossible to finish and tell me to do whatever I can. So if I have nothing for the next studio, will you fail me, professor? If I finished everything but you can’t manage to talk to me about them due to your unorganized schedule, can I go to the dean and tell her to fire you? I like playing games, but where’s the rule?

Ok… Ok… calm down CiCi… It’s almost 4… go to bed.

“You can never learn anything that’s not part of yourself”
The person who said this is one of my favorite architects, Louis Kahn.
Is the madness of architecture a part of me? I’m still trying to figure it out…

Sunday, November 06, 2005

"B+" is enough


Ehh… it’s mid-night again. I know I really shouldn’t stay up so late, but I just love the nighttime so much (as I’m writing this, my close someone comes in to tell me to go to bed). I can’t stop my mind from spinning and coming up with all kinds of crazy thoughts. Well, they’re not freaky kind of crazy idea, it’s just I don’t normally think like that during the daytime, when I consciously behave myself as a character I designed for the “me-in-public”.

So, here’s the weirdness for tonight:

It’s just an imagination, if our lives are like the exams we take in school, and then someone’s going to give grades to us. I don’t care about who’s giving the grade. I’m just wondering what score do you want to have?
“Oh, definitely an ‘A’, maybe an ‘A+’ if I’m lucky, but ‘A-’ is the minimum for sure”, the “me-in-public” says confidently.
“Well, maybe a “B+” is enough. I don’t HAVE TO be out-standing right? I think I can have a pretty happy life with a “B+”. Hahaa…” (Excuse me, that’s the “night-spirit-me”)

I guess everyone has hard times in his or her live ‘cos no one’s perfect. So, why would I let my down time bother me so much? I shouldn’t try to think about them over and over again and eventually, they’ll be forgotten one day.

Whose parents don’t fight? I know many people around me whose parents have divorced. For those who haven’t sign the paper, maybe fighting means they love each other. But anyways, I’m not part of my parents’ battle. I walk away if they turn into monsters. The formula is just that simple- they’re peaceful, I stay, they’re violent, I leave. They’ll never hurt me if I don’t care. And when I go to visit them, we’re still happy to be together as always, or at least pretend we are.

For school, I really shouldn’t complain about how much homework I get to do. I mean, I chose to be an architect. So this is the workload I should have. I’m not the only one that’s suffering. The entire school of architecture is on the same schedule. Who goes to parties on weekends… maybe we have it once or twice a year after the final presentations? And, isn’t the light in studios always on at night? People are all working hard, I’m not alone. At least half of us got into the department during our 2nd year. That means, many people are trying to finish the 5 year program in 4 years. So taking 19 or 20 credits per term is really not that special. My friends are all doing it. Don’t panic if I can’t finish those boring readings or get a bad grade on one project. It happens to everyone. Just try to do better next time.

I have a really sweet special someone. I’ve never seen any guy as gentle and thoughtful as him. Don’t be too greedy. When I think he didn’t consider me enough, I should think about if I have done enough for him in the first place. I’m a girl doesn’t mean he should bear me all the time. If I’ve done something wrong, I need to say sorry. I have a bad example in my head to remind me that I don’t want to be like her. Being understanding and honest never make you a looser.

Ok, it’s too late. I need to shut up now. Good night.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Midnight Visions


It was totally dark outside when I finally finished the report for structure class. My stomach has complained to me for a long time since I haven’t fed it the whole day. My teammates set up another meet at 7:45 tomorrow morning to revise the report. I can’t believe that these people have so much energy and enthusiasm on a stupid structure project. “Whatever…” I said to myself, “you need to go home to dig your fridge for some food right now, CiCi”. I stormed out of my studio as soon as my teammates said ‘alright, let’s meet tomorrow!” I smelled cheeseburger and French fries in the hallway.

I was several minutes late for the bus. So then, I had to walk back home. It just stopped raining. It was freezing cold outside. I noticed even though I tried to walk faster, the street in front of me didn’t seem to move closer at all. My pants felt like tapes that bind my legs together…I was too tired. More then 10 hours of studying in classes and working on projects with less than 5 hours sleep is something more than enough to turn me into a ghost. While I was on the way home, I kept imagining a car hitting me and running right over my head. My projects and tests would be gone right away! Yeah! (just joking)

After 25 minutes of walking, I could finally saw the lights in Spancer View. I managed to poke my key into the door and opened it. My special someone was preparing to leave and study in the library. “Hey, I’m home” I didn't even rise my head. I headed to my room directly.

The door to my room was closed. But… How come? Even though I didn't have much sleep, I swear I remember the door was completely open this morning when I left the apartment. With a weird feeling in my head, I opened the door… Woo… A candle was lighted up on my desk. My room was filled with aroma from the candle. Ohh.. wait wait… there’s something under the candle! I turned on the light and found a CD and a note for me!

“11/1/05 for my CiCi. P.S. your lunch is in the fridge”

“aaayyyyaaa!!” I screamed, jumping into DWTX’s room. I was so happy that I didn’t even know what to say. The surprise totally waked me up from the dizziness after a long busy day. And I don’t need to dig into my fridge anymore. The DW sandwich (yup, it’s a special taste sandwich that my honey makes every time) is right there, waiting for me to chow it down.

After he left, I took out the CD and started to listen while eating the DW sandwich. That was my best time of the day. There was even a song that I used to listen to over the radio when I was in high school in Beijing. I felt like I was on the bus 937 going back home on the Friday afternoon again. Thanks hon, the CD is really good~

Now, I have to drag my mind back from luxury to the reality. Homework, homework, homework…ehhhh… Jia You!

Saturday, October 29, 2005

阴天


渐渐进入十月底,这里又要开始阴雨连绵的日子了。。。

隐约之中我感到抑郁已经悄悄的在我身体里撒下种子,它会慢慢膨胀,然后吃掉我所有理智的细胞,再在夏天到来的瞬间中消失,留下一个空虚的表皮。我已经厌倦了那些整天蜷缩在设计室的角落里部分昼夜的工作的那种生活,但是我逃避不了,这是我为了追逐梦想而必须付出的代价。就像小美人鱼那样,为了能够拥有人的双腿,她必须放弃她美妙的声音和她在海底所拥有的一切。也许有人会认为她很傻,但我觉得她的生命因为她的“不安分”而开始散发光芒。她看到了她所向往的那个世界,她快乐过,悲伤过,爱过,恨过。从某种程度上说,她是完美的。

冷眼旁观另一个生命的起伏是如此简单,甚至可以说是一种消遣。你可以长篇大论别人的生活是如何如何的乏味,按照北京人的话这叫做“站着说话不腰疼”。但是当自己亲身经历的时候,很容易就开始叫苦连天,开始迷失方向。。。

在这个昏暗的十月,我突然觉得我的21岁的开头是那么不顺畅,来自学业的压力,与家庭的渐渐疏远,还有其他无数的不顺心的事开始让我有点窒息的感觉了。一连一个星期每天晚上我都要画图到半夜2,3点。我的制图板很高,所以为了有好的效果大部分时间我都是站着的,等到工作结束的时候,基本上上半身已经直不起来了。对我来说周末于工作日的唯一区别是我可以在周末多睡一会,工作量照常不变,从来没有派对,现在甚至连星期五晚上我与男友的“风花雪月”也被省略了。妈妈经常会打电话给我,但是我从来都是心不在焉的应付两句就挂断电话了。这个夏天她伤透了我的心,我想我无法再与她有心灵上的沟通了,原因很简单,我长大了,她老了,两个不同年龄且都有个性的女人永远无法和睦相处。

昨天晚上我和大尉去一个设计室里的朋友家里BBQ。说实话,去之前我真的很紧张,因为我知道那里只会有我一个外国人,人多的时候我一定是那个傻傻的坐在一边听大家聊天的那个人。在朋友的家里,虽然我和大尉都没有说太多的话,但我能感觉到他们都是同一个圈里的人,只有我被划在圈外,像一只被踢出群体的猴子,呆呆的望这那个既熟悉又陌生的地方,然后悄悄的一个人离去。也许我说的有点过火,但是我的感觉就是那样的。走的时候大尉一语道破了我的空虚“CiCi was just sitting there and thought 'ok, I'm with my friends' right?”,就像把一个平胸的女孩子衣服撕光,然后展示她的乳房给众人看一样。愤怒,委屈,所有的压抑集中到一起,我的眼泪想打在窗户上的雨点一样一个接一个的掉下来。我真的厌倦了把一种符号一样的语言硬塞在脑子里面然后在作出一副很自然的姿态去回应这些符号,我累了,可是又不得不继续掩饰下去,我在这个陌生的社会里,我无法按照自己自然的方式去生活。

今天早上接到教会里一个长者的电话,教育我不应该和男朋友同居,虽然我几次向他解释我们是室友,不是同居,他还是不依不饶的像念经一样的教育了我一番。讲完电话我觉得胃里像吃力屎一样恶心,我不明白中国人为什么这么喜欢打听别人的隐私,然后对此指手画脚。我知道有一本书叫“丑陋的中国人”,我没有读过,但是我想我会很认同里面的一些观点的。

今天的心情因为早上的电话被搅的一塌糊涂,总是想摔东西。已经是傍晚了,什么都没做,觉得荒废了一天的生命,觉得自己是个十足的大白痴。

做饭,给家里打电话,洗衣服,读书。。。还有那么多事要做。。。为什么我的星期六总是一团糟?

Friday, October 21, 2005

Is it Friday yet?


Everyday feels like Monday to me. I have to keep a high energy level to work on those endless architecture projects. There’s never one day I can go home right after I finish my classes. There’s always team meeting after school and it would go on and on till 6 or 7pm.

However, each day, my body is at the status of Friday after-school time. I’m always sleepy and worn out. I drag my body to school everyday with a negative energy level. I see my classmates come to studio with dark eye bags. I guess everybody is struggling. That kind of makes me feel better. At least I’m not alone on the way of being a crazy architect.

I’m so melancholy and impatient lately. I don’t think it’s because of the weather since it hasn’t really started to rain all day long yet. I’m just simply too stressed out by those projects and tests. I keep having nightmares with the bad memories of my family. Every time when I wake up in the morning, I’m always sweating. I can’t concentrate very well during classes because I’m too sleepy. Like today, my Japanese class GTF noticed that I was falling asleep and therefore kept asking me questions to keep me awake. It was so embarrassing that I couldn’t remember how to write the word “思” in front of the class because it’s actually part of my name. The GTF kind of laughed at me “don’t you remember how to write your own name?” At that moment, I really wanted to grab a chair and knock his head off.

Ok, it’s getting late again. SLEEP! But before that, here’re some things I need to take care of:
-Stop eating that pop tarts so quickly. I eat more sweet things when I’m stressed. Ehhh… If I don’t have time to work out, don’t take that much junk into my body.
-I need to be more gentle to people. I always imagine twisting people’s head off if they make me feel uncomfortable. One of my classmate in the Japanese class said I look so scary today.
-Find something fun to do this weekend (sleeping?! Ehhh???). Absolutely NO project Friday night! I should do something for myself, such as practicing piano or drawing cartoon. I hate doing things that I have to do, like finishing a task on my schedule. I want to live my life more naturally.
-I want to hang out with my DWTX more. I feel we just say ‘hello’ and ‘good night’ to each other everyday. Ya, we live really close by and see each other everyday. And it’s really just “see” each other everyday. But… whatever… I don’t really know what I want. I’m busy all the time. I’m either working or sleeping in my room. Fortunately, he has a computer game he spends most of his free time with. He seems enjoying it very much. I don’t know.... I really miss last year when we can go out to do something and just forget about the rest of stuffs that we need to do. Hum…Whatever…

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Burned


I just finished the test of the building construction class. I did a horrible job on the test. It's not because I didn't study for it, actually I reviewed everything in the textbook for many time during the past few days. Yet, I have to say, I'm definitely "burned" by this exam.

If I can give a grade to the exam paper composer, he would receive a D-. Me and my studio classmates all agree that this is the most stupid exam we've ever seen. First of all, there're tons of mistakes and typos in it. Then, most of the questions are senseless. For example, "explain the meaning of each number and alphabet in 'W30-112' steel beam. Now, would you please take out an architecture handbook (any handbook) and look closely on the up right-hand-side conner of any structural steel chart. It'll tell you what those numbers stand for. We're not contractors! Errrr! There're things in the textbook that are more important than how to read a beam size or how iron is made. Where's the steel joint type and technique? Where's the steel structure layout? How about concrete building process and formwork? Where're the 'real' construction questions?

Anyways, I absolutely hate this exam and this class. Oh, and did I tell you how I feel about the exam? I HATE it!

Sunday, October 16, 2005

21 years has gone so fast


(long and boring stories I wrote this afternoon... didn't like it...)

Let me start over again…

It’s 1am, a perfect time for me to express my weirdness.

I like mid-night, especially its darkness which makes me extremely sensitive. Light and color cheats my eyes. In the daytime, they blur my vision and distract my focus on observing the things around me. When they disappear, I start to see things clearer and have a better sense of the real “me”. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why I don't like black cats. They hide in the dark corners and look at me with their sharp and bright eyes. I always feel they can see through me.

I took a nice walk with my close someone around the area we live in the evening today. He asked me to tell him a long story about a period in my life that’s interesting. But, my life has been the same everyday since I was 6. I wake up in the morning, clean myself up and run to the school. I take endless tests and homework. I come home, crush on my bed and wait for another “yesterday”. I don’t know why I’ve always chosen the hard way to live my life. I want to step out of my hometown to explore things my friends will never see. I want to be a straight A student. I want to challenge the toughest major in my school. And now I have all these things I wanted. Am I happy with it? I don’t know…

Sometimes, I wonder… If I’ve never moved out of Beijing, who would I be right now? Probably like my other old friends there, fighting with the final year in college and trying to compete with millions of other newly graduated students to get a job. Me and my old friends would get together sometimes over the weekend and have a bowl of noodle which costs $0.25. And we would point at a foreigner on the street and say “Oh! Look at that Lao Wai”. I would still live with my parents, never know how to cook or fix the cracking tiles on the floor. It would be a much easier and simpler live. But, is that what I want? I don’t think so…

Instead, I stretched my arms to reach over other places in the world to see what else I can use to light up the candle of my life. I moved to Malaysia, then the United States.
Then I experienced…
-The first time I was horrified to notice I don’t have any friends with me anymore. I started to freak out because I don’t know how to make new friends in the international school where people look all different and speak different languages.
-The first time I had to plan for my future, thinking about what kind of class I need to take and which university’s what major do I want to apply for. My parents couldn’t help me because none of them has gone through a similar step. I was all on my own.
-The first time I understood what an 8 years of separation could do to a marriage. It means it’ll take even longer for the couple to get use to each other again. What are left are scares in each other’s heart that’ll never heal.
-The first time I got flowers from the principle on the stage after the semester-end music performance. I played piano for jazz band, choir and singers that night. I was on the stage through the entire show. I became popular in the school after the show. Music helped me to meet lots of friends too.
-The first time I had to leave my family and unfold a whole new page of my life that has all sort of unknown surprises waiting for on there. I became a college student in USA. I saw all kinds of people and things in the school, parties, drugs and alcohol… Things were overwhelming for me. Suddenly I felt so lonely. I had no friends and I needed to start from the beginning again. I’ve had this experience once, and I definitely hated to let it happen twice. But I have no choice.
-The first time I had to stay up the whole night in order to finish my architectural project. It felt like dying. The moment when I finished my presentation and got all the positive feedbacks, I almost fainted in the studio. But I felt happy.
-The first time I decided to fall in love and start a real and happy relationship. I chose the wrong person. My world fell apart and I was hurt so badly. I thought I would never be able to stand up and love again. But God always love me much more than I thought. I met my close someone last winter and slowly, he melted my frozen heart. The warm spring came back to my world again.
-The first time I moved into an empty apartment alone for a week. With all the boxes and junks pilling up in the living room, I sat on the floor and started to cry for no clear reason. 5am, I called my parents. I told them I was just having jetlag and got bored so I made the call. I wanted to tell them I was so lonely and upset. I wanted to tell them I really miss them. But I got to be strong because I didn’t want them to worry about me.

21 years has gone so fast. I’ve grown to a young woman with all kinds of weird thoughts about future from that little girl who looks like a doll. I don’t know what I’ll be when I’m 31, 41… But I know whatever step I take, I work hard for my goal and never regret.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Honey,我也害怕会失去你


给我最可爱的大尉同学:

宝贝,很抱歉昨天晚上我悄悄离开了你的房间,看你睡的那样甜,我不忍心因为我的辗转反侧而把你吵醒。但是原来你也没有睡好,不知道这算不算是我们的心有灵犀。

昨天你做了恶梦,今天早上你像一个受到惊吓的小孩子一样钻到我的怀里。当时我真想自己能变成一张大毯子,紧紧地包裹住你,保护你。你说在你梦里我们吵架了,我弃你而去。你说你很担心我会有其它爱慕我的男生,而我也会对他们有好感。请不要生我的气,但是你讲述梦境的时候真的好可爱,像一个小男孩担心丢了自己最心爱的皮球。

宝贝,我想让你知道,我真的很爱很爱你。除非有一天你不要我了,我会一直跟随你,再你身边为你加油打气。别人说我长的怎么样对我来说不重要,我只想听到你说我是你心目中最美丽,最聪明的女孩子。只有得到你的称赞我才会相信,才会开心。你让我学会了自信,学会让自己按照自己的意愿做事。我的生活因你而变得充满阳光,我真的很感谢你带给我的一切。

大尉,其实,我也好害怕会失去你。我总是认为你对于女生来说是那么有魅力。我所有见过你的朋友都说你长的好帅,而且都有人在你的blog上面说要和你交朋友。其实我也担心有一天你会不要我了,所以我才变得像个spy。我看到你还保留你以前那些女朋友的照片或她们送给你的东西,我不要求你丢掉它们,那样的话我太自私了,我明白它们是你的回忆。只是我一直都没有说,我其实很在乎你是不是还怀念过去,会不会拿我去和她们做比较,那样的话对我来说太不公平了。

不过现在我才明白,原来我们都在担心同一件事情。我想那是因为我们太在乎和珍惜彼此了吧。虽然我们来自不同的国家,你的眼睛是蓝色而我的是黑色,但是他们里面蕴涵着同样的真诚,善良和爱。我会永远张开我的双臂守护你,直到用尽最后一丝力气。你会为我做同样的事吗?

吻你,
思思

Friday, October 07, 2005

突破500点!


哈哈哈~我的blog已经有500次点击纪录了!好兴奋哦。不知道再要多久可以超过1000,然后2000。。。呵呵。。有点做白日梦的感觉,不过我真的很喜欢自己的blog,不仅仅是因为它纪录了我的人生起伏,SUN 201更代表着一种精神寄托,一种对生活的执著,我想这也是我可以一直坚持写下去的原因。201代表21岁,就像大学里的科目序号一样,随着级别的增长课程也变得越来越复杂深奥。 SUN201会慢慢变成301,401。。。未来它会纪录些什么我不敢断定,但是它一定会很精彩,像阳光那样,永远散发着迷人的能量。

其实现在是上课时间,但是studio永远都是用来做别的事情的^^。我们现在都开始学坏了,像现在几乎所有的人都在开小差,我在写blog,有人在查网上的手机拍卖,有的在画漫画,我隔壁的老兄正在发呆,好像口水都要留出来了。。。哈哈。。。

不过现在学业真的好紧张,每天都是做不完的作业,看不完的书。今天的日语课我们学“ほしい””ほしがる”。老师问我“サンさん、今何が一番ほしい?”我说”寝る。。。Zzzzzz....”全班爆笑。。。不过我真的一点都没有夸张啊,现在只要能让我一次性美美的睡上10个小时我就已经很满足了。

今天我的便当很不听话,居然在我的studio诱惑大家,结果我的三纹鱼差点都被贡献掉了。我的朋友提议我应该在设计室里外卖中餐便当给大家,哈哈。。。说不定可以很赚钱呢!说到中餐,我不明白为什么美国的中餐都有一种怪怪的味道,我的味觉都快要被摧毁了。美国人的饮食习惯和我们华人的真的好不同哦,所以体味也会不一样啊。最近我经常被大尉同学攻击说可以闻到我午餐的味道,真的好尴尬,而且很委屈,因为文化的不同而改变生活习惯真的是很难的一件事情。。。以后多用漱口水就好了。

明天又要搬家了,希望是最后一次!加油!

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Orange Cafe and apple strudel


There’s a little café near UO campus owned by a Mexican family, called Café Roma. Because the interior walls are painted with different kinds of orange color (just like in Van Gogh’s painting ‘night café’), I like to call it orange café. I love the apple strudel they make. The sweetness of the strudel always makes me happier and less stressed. It’s one of those magic foods that help CiCi to survive from the busy schoolwork.

I had an hour break after my building construction class, between 10 to 11 today. So I decided to stop by the orange café to do some reading. I haven’t been there for the entire summer. A lot of things have been changed. They hired more people, made more kinds of dessert and changed all the artwork on the wall. It made me feel like I’ve been away for a long time.

As usual, I bought an apple strudel and a latte. My favorite spot in the café was right there waiting for me. Oh… lots of memories there… chatting with my friends on Friday afternoons, doing my sketches, reading…and most sweetly, I met my close someone there for the first time (and I had an apple strudel and a cup of latte with me that time…hhaa…always the same food). Anyways, I found my spot and started to read a book called ‘Great Street’ while listening to a CD that’s specially made for me. I enjoyed ‘restarting’ my day like that. Probably it’s the reason why I’m so efficient with my homework today. Jia You!

I can be happy easily just because of small things, such as an apple strudel. Sometimes, you can see me running and jumping around, giggling. My close someone says I’m such a silly little girl. I think the “silliness” helps me to enjoy my life everyday. I know there’re lots of challenges waiting for me ahead. So… keep smiling and move on ^^.

Monday, October 03, 2005

A new beginning


My school starts again and I’m back to the nocturnal life. It’s almost 2am now. My close someone is probably in deep sleep now because I can hear his light snoring from outside the door. I’ve just finished reading my Building Construction homework about brick masonry. It’s interesting to read lots of new stuffs about construction, but I don’t know how much I can remember from a late night reading when I keep checking the time and tell myself to hurry up to finish it and go to bed.

The transition between the summer and the new term wasn’t smooth for me. I’ve already felt like dying by Wednesday. Basically I’m taking class continuously from 9-5 everyday. Maybe it’s normal for working people, but forcing my brain to switch between different subjects every one or two hours everyday is a little bit overwhelming for me. Probably after getting use to it, I’ll feel more comfortable with it. But now, I’m just like a donkey on a mill. I keep working without knowing where I’m going.

It’s been a busy and tiring weekend. My class finished around 5pm on Friday (it’ll always be that late because my last class is an 4 hour arch studio). After that, my DWTX and I went for some ice cream, OREO blizzard, yeah… my all time favorite ice cream. There was no movie or party for Friday night. I had to do my reading assignments all the time. Saturday was the big moving day. We moved all of D’s stuff to our apartment. It finally feels like ‘our’ apartment, not just me alone in here. I was awarded with a ‘big American breakfast’ that I’ve always been thinking of when I was in KL that evening…yum yum…hahah…I woke up today after 11am. I needed that long sleep so much. But I had a horrible dream. I don’t want to write about it here, but it’s something that I’m so scared to let it really happen. I ran to my close someone’s room and crawl under his blanket. I think I scared him to wake him up like that. But I felt a lot safer and calmer after that. Ehh.. I need to relax…

Alright, I have to stop here. I’m going to a field trip to Portland tomorrow early in the morning for my arch studio. Hopefully I can sleep a little bit on the bus.

Wan An!

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Mid-night Surprise


The laundry room in the new apartment I just moved in is so busy. Oh, well. It’s weekend- gotta be the laundry day^^. I’m too lazy to walk to the other laundry room to test my luck. I have plenty of time anyway. This is my last chance to enjoy the lazy weekend afternoon before school starts. Talking about school, I can make a preview of my future posts now ‘cos I know it’ll be full of complains about how crazy and inhuman my studio and other major related classes become. Maybe I should change my blog name into something like “another diatribe spot”, haha….

Early this morning, around 2 am, I got an ‘unknown’ phone call when I was preparing to go to bed. “ohhh.. it must be Mom. She always calculate the time difference wrong.” I picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hello? CiCi? Where’s my see-see?”
“… … Hey! Aahhhaa! DWTX! Woo… I’m so surprised that you call me!”
It was lucky that I didn’t say “Wei, mama?” in the beginning. But that’s not important. The point is that I was so HAPPY to hear my close someone’s voice even though we could only talk for 4 minutes. You know, it feels really good if you know someone’s missing you. You would feel that you really exist and your life is meaningful not just to you, but also to the one that’s thinking of you. Thousands of miles away, in the far east where I just came from several days ago, my close someone is there thinking of me who is right here in his origin. God really create wonderful things. After a ‘summer break’ of two and a half months, it’s time for us to get back together and start another year of adventures.

Another funny story I encountered last night:
A high school boy pop up a window on yahoo messenger and asked me out for a one-night-stand. I couldn’t stop laughing at his way of talking (he just asked me directly at the very beginning. He reminds me a sandwich Ad where people animate a baby to talk like an adult). Ehhh… what’s wrong with the high school kids now? Are they really that eager to prove that they’re mature and cool? Anyways, the ‘less than 5 sentences’ chat made me kindda uncomfortable.

Friday, September 23, 2005

$ $ $

Every beginning of a school year is like a big operation that my bank account would go through and bleed really hard. This year is not an exception. Actually, I should say, that this year it’s even facing a bigger operation.

I recently registered my arch studio and that add up to a total of 19 credits this term that I’m taking. I checked my UO account summary and the tuition fee went up more than fourteen hundred as soon as I clicked on the little button to add studio into my schedule. Whew~ the number on the UO bill is even larger than the number I planned to put on my bank account. But… I love all my classes. Three of them are required major studies and the other one is Japanese. I like to study languages. I don’t want to give it up. Well, that means I need to pay more for my curiosity. Kao!

I went to buy books today. It felt really good to go outside and have some sunshine. I guess I stayed in the house for too long. Can you imagine me skipping on the street, and singing like an elementary school kid? I can’t wait for the new term to start. I was too lazy and bored during the summer. But I’m sure I’ll complain about how busy and deadly tired I am in no more than 2 weeks. I’m still a little bit nervous to put my hands on foamcore and cutting knife again.

DWTX’s books are really hard to find, especially when I don’t know the course number of the classes he’s taking. Well… I just search for 600 classes…hee… There’s one optional book that was sold out. So I went to the info counter to see if I need to order it for him. The person who helped me is also named David. He suggested that since the book is optional, I better wait till DWTX comes back and order it by himself. He also added “Oh… you’re so nice, buying books for friend…must be a special friend hum?” Hhhee.. He made me blush I think…

I just found out that Nico Larco is going to be our ‘spatial composition’ teacher. Oh yeah! Now, all the 2nd year arch girls will be happy that they can take this Spanish magnet’s class. I know some of them would fight for an extra space in his studio. And I’m sure he’ll have lots of ‘after class questions’. Well, handsome and talented professors equal to popularities. But, James Givens is still the ‘real man’ for all of us. Everyone likes his class and gives him really high respect. Even some students from other majors come to take his intro to architecture class. And some guys even try to dress up like him during presentations. I wonder how he could be such a professor, that people admire him, crazy about his classes and a little bit scared of him. Maybe some ten years later, Nico will be the next Mr. Givens. But for now, that middle aged man with suits that doesn’t match, magnetic voice and eyes that can read your mind behind a pair of glasses with thick black frame is the one and only Givens in the school of Architecture. (I know it sounds silly, don’t laugh, thx~)

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Power of Insomnia

Here I am, back in the quiet little town (Eugene) in Oregon again. Starting from the moment I got on the airplane in KLIA, it felt like I’ve been through a century. Many things happened and my mood kept swinging between 0-360 degrees (unbelievable extreme changes). And that is definitely due to lacking of sleep recently. 4 DAYS, I could hardly fall asleep because of bad airline connection and jetlag and pressure. After I arrived at PDX, I had to figure out how to get back to Eugene, get my phone connected again, and move to a new apartment… blah blah blah. Generally speaking, I had to get my life in this weird town back together again. That’s when I truly learned the power of insomnia.

11:15pm, Sept 17th, I took the plane to Singapore from Malaysia to make a transfer there. I had to wait till 3am to get my new boarding pass and the flight to Tokyo wouldn’t take off until 6am. So, I made my previous post in the airport there. The air conditioning made SIG freezing cold. The people who can fall asleep there must be some super-heroes.

Finally, I got on the plane to Tokyo and then Portland. The service NW airline provided was really nice. They constantly served us food and water. But that just kept me awake! The flying attendance with the sharp voice saying “duty free products” was really annoying. I imagined stretching out one leg to trip her so she could shut up. Yup, I know I’m evil. I met a friend from UO on the plane. He’s from Pinang Malaysia and is doing his PHD in vocal performance in our school. I knew him because my previous roomy who’s studying piano had a pretty hard crush on him. Ohh… that was long time ago. People change fast. Anyways, back to my story line. So we chatted when we were waiting for planes. I wasn’t too bored. And his let me stand in front of him at the immigration in PDX so I didn’t wait for too long to get through the custom. It was all good.

I was so excited when I got out of the Portland airport ‘cos I thought I could meet with Dave there since he was going to Japan on the same day. But then I found out that he wouldn’t be at the airport until noon and it was not even 9am yet when I contacted him. I couldn’t wait for that long and we wouldn’t have a lot of time to hang out at the airport. I was so disappointed sitting in the departure hall in the airport. After I tried to calm down, I dragged my luggage to the train to get to the greyhound station. I had to walk several blocks from china town to the bus station with my heavy luggage. I felt the place was so foreign while walking on the street. I kind of think people look at me strangely. I’m the “lao wai” this time. I was super sleepy on the bus but the kid sitting next to me was talking (more like yelling ‘cos she’s too young to talk) all the time. I tried really hard to control my temper and not to twist her head off.

3pm, Sunday, I arrived at Eugene… finally~. My roomy took me home and I crashed really hard that evening. The next day I got up around 7am. Later I found a freaky news when I saw trying to test my phone to see if it works- Dave was still in Hillsboro. He missed his flight! Well, it’s definitely terrible for him, but to be honest I was a little bit excited. That means I can see him earlier. But then I thought probably he’s gonna find a way to go to Japan eventually since he’s always determined. I was right. He found another flight the next day and took off. My mood dropped to freezing point again. I tried to tell myself that friends support each other and we are much more than friends. I should understand him and give him the best support if we really have the connection. I don’t know if that means much to him, but that’s all I can do for him. Dave said I’m a very traditional girl. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or something…

The next day I moved to my new apartment. My friends were really helpful, especially my old roomy. I truly appreciated them. However, maybe because I had jetlag, maybe I was in a new environment and it was so messy, I couldn’t fall asleep again for 2 nights. I sat in my room and started to cry. It was the first time to see the power of lacking of sleep. It made me so emotional, weak and unorganized. I felt my world was falling apart and I was so helpless and lonely. I wrote a really depressing email to Dave, but I was wishing he wouldn’t be able to read it at any time. I called my parents for help. They asked me to go out for a walk until I feel tired. It helped! I got a really good sleep in the afternoon and another one at night. The happy and optimist CiCi is back to me now. And I’m ready to make everything comfortable at home and wait for Dave to come back. Jia you, Yay!

Saturday, September 17, 2005

On my way~

Hey, I'm in Singapore International Airport again! I'm here waiting for NW6 going back to Portland. The journey has been good so far. The sky-train in Singapore airport was working this time. I didn't have to walk a long way from one terminal to the another like I did last time. ^^V

So, here're two stories I have for now:

-I saw so many people from middle east in KLIA today. It made me wondering that if I were in Malaysia or in middle east.. hhee.. And there was a probably 10-year-old boy trying to talk to me in Arabic. I was like "eehhh..EEEHHHH?? Are you talking to me, little monster?" Then he smiled to me. He looked so happy~ Hheee.. it was funny~

-I knew I would forget something at home everytime when I have to leave. This time is not an exception. I forgot my camera's file transfer cable..T_T I need to ask my dad to mail it to me later...ehhh...

Alright.. I have to wait till 6am to get on the plain going to Tokyo. I'm getting more excited to go back and start a new, crazy, school life

To the person who left me the comment in my previous post, thank you very much and ya, let's have some coffee in Portland airport! And I'll give you a big hug and a kiss when we meet. How's that? =^.^=

Friday, September 16, 2005

无题

最后一个在吉隆坡的午夜,出奇的静,死一般的寂静。。。
我把头深深的埋在枕头里,任凭我使劲的大哭大闹都不会有人听到。我哭得越厉害,就把头埋得越深,有点要窒息的感觉。。。
冥冥中,我听到一个声音在和我聊天:

‘为什么哭?’
‘我也不大清楚。大概是为了所有不顺心的事。’
‘谁都有不顺心的时候,别这么娇气。’
‘可这些事也太不长眼睛了吧,都凑在一起来找茬!我怎么就不能哭?哦,非得要我装出一副坚强乐观的嘴脸来讨别人高兴?那我也太大无畏了吧。。。凭什么我不能发泄?我没妨碍过任何人!我也不是为任何人而活着的!’
‘可你看你今天跟你爸妈面前耍那么大脾气。明天要走了,你这不是让他们难受吗?’
‘我再跟你说一遍,我不为任何人活着!我也是个成年人了,我需要自己的空间,在我烦的时候,我不希望任何人来打搅我!我从不掩饰,为了使别人开心而强迫自己去做戏,我办不到!’
‘狂妄自大!’
‘你给我滚!滚!’

没有人能理解我,我现在真的感到无助而且异常的烦躁。我是不是快要疯了?我好像快要得自闭症了。我不甘心,我不能就这样一无所获的离开这里。可我又能做什么呢?把所有移民厅和卖手机的人都杀了吗?我不能走,我不能走,我还什么都干呢!我那些焦急不安的等待呢?那些绝望中的痛苦呢?那些受骗以后的无奈呢?谁来赔偿我?!谁?! 
都他妈的给我滚!
王八蛋!

What the HELL is going on?!

This is going to be the last night of my staying in Kuala Lumpur. Tomorrow I’ll be on my way going back to ‘my place’. Come, tomorrow! Come quicker. I can’t wait to leave all these shit.

I hate surprises ‘cos there’re always problems following them. People give others surprises only for instant happiness. They don’t think about the final result at all. What they are planning doesn’t even work sometimes. How can I call these people? “Sha Bi!” (it’s Chinese, means stupid pussy)

As I predicted, the new cell phone my parents got me can’t be used in the United States. I knew it would happen so I took the new phone out to check its frequency. Oh ya CC.. I was right. It’s a dual-band phone. There’s no 1900mhz frequency on this phone. Nice! Now I have to think about how to sell this shit to other people (of course for a lower price). I’ll lose several hundred ringet for nothing. Why do they always give me more troubles to deal with?! That’s what really pisses me off, not because of a damn new phone.

This summer holiday is SOOOOOO not like what I planed. I don’t have the mood to list all the ‘unexpected adventures’ I’ve had. I’m so MAD!!! I thought I could have a good rest during the break after a year of endless projects and sleepless studio life. But the summer has made me even more worn out. I’m tired! Somebody, please, give me some medicine to put me to sleep for ten or twenty years. After that I might wake up and figure out what the hell is going on with my life. But now, I’m just tired.

The dogs outside were barking the whole day today. And those Sha Bi living above us are still drilling their walls for some construction. When I was trying to change water for my fish this afternoon, that little monster jumped into the sink when I opened the cover of his little tank. I really wanted to throw him into the toilet and flush it. “You want freedom? I give you freedom!”

Ok, you can read my post, thinking I must be crazy or something. But DO NOT leave me any comment here. Just leave me alone. It’s good for all of us.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

A prisoner's secrete

4pm, I had my first and probably the only meal for today. I was surprised that she would get up from her bed and cook. I wasn’t hungry, so I just ate half bowl of rice with a little bit vegetable. I had this weird feeling that she must have put poison in the food. I watched her taking the first bite and swallowed it. Nothing happened. So I started to eat. My thoughts scared me. I even thought about how to save my life if there really is poison in my food. Why would I think my own mother wants to kill me? Isn’t it a tragedy that a mother abused her child mentally for so long and so hard till the kid has the fear of dying in the mother’s hands?

I spent some time reading my old journals this afternoon. I have no pleasant memory staying at home this summer, not at all. My dad is busy all the time on the working site. He stays outside more than 12 hours everyday. My mom always gets crazy. When she’s like that, I just leave her alone and lock myself in my room. Probably the only good time is when I talk to my close someone on the phone. He likes to ask me to tell him stories. But honey I have no funny story for you. Have you noticed that our conversation is always about how nasty my family gets? And did you see that when I try to think of some other things to tell you, you always sounded lost because I don’t even know how to make those stupid things sounds more interesting. Honey, please don’t say that I should go out when my mother gets crazy again. You don’t understand, if I step out the house once, probably I would never be able to come in again. I remember I had a really terrible fight with her when I was only 14. She let me stand outside the door for almost the whole night. It was a cold winter and I was only wearing my pajamas…

Mentally I live my life like a prisoner. I put myself behind the bars. Only I can free myself but I’m afraid to do so. I was well protected when I was little and I had a strong bound with my family (at least I thought so). I thought no mater what happened I could always find support from my family. I need that mental/spiritual protection. But now I’m confused. I’m not sure if my family can provide me the spiritual support anymore. I don’t know if I should stay away to have a real life of my own. I read an article saying that our fear and guilt keeps us away from letting go the problem and start over again. But I don’t know what I fear of or feel guilty about.

A prisoner finished his time stay in the jail and he was set to be free. But he begged the police to let him stay in the prison. The police asked him why he wants to stay instead of having his freedom and he answered, “I have food to eat here. I can work in the boot camp to earn some money. But once you kick me out, I have no way to live. Instead of freedom, I choose to be alive.”

This is a story my friend told me long time ago. I just simply like it, even though it has nothing to do with my situation.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

assignment completed


Yay! My new cartoon is done. This one is for my honey..hheee... He likes to talk to me on phone and listen to music at the same time. What do you think ah, DWTX?

I'm going to the US embassy to have an interview for my student visa. I'm a little bit nervous now. Wish me good luck!

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Weird Days

Too many weird things happened these days. But they’re all funny kind of weird, making my days happier and more interesting.

Now, let me list them in chronological order ^^

• Friday’s piano practice was extremely terrible. Both Gregory (my dad’s friend, he believes he’s a fine pianist) and I kept playing wrong notes. We ended up with playing the Chinese song in jazz style but couldn’t continue because everyone there in the music shop laughed so hard. But at least I had fun doing improvisation. If my piano teach was still alive and was there listening to us, she would definitely cut me into pieces. Hhee…It was, after all, just for fun~

• After the practice, my dad had to rush to the construction site to have an important meeting. So I went with him. I had a big fight with the mosquiDos there. I killed 3 of them, but got more than 5 bites. Too bad that I wasn’t wearing long pants. Those little vampires stick to my legs like tapes! So, here’s the final scene: CiCi ran in the front with a troop of mosquiDos chasing behind her >.<

• My family decided to have Korean BBQ last night. Before dinner time, we went to Carfore to buy some food. I have to mention that our car’s battery has been working weakly these days. It’s finally, completely dead yesterday after we finished shopping. Even connecting it to other cars' battery wouldn’t help to start our car. What can we do? What can we do! Ha~ my dad is awesome! He went to buy a new battery in the supermarket, put the acid into the battery to charge it and switched it with the old one. Sounds dangerous? Sounds cool? Dad used to be a mechanical engineer. He used to study engines for tanks. He always has ways to repair stuff. And I was very helpful too. I guess it’s in my blood to try to put my hands on everything and figure out how they work. Maybe I should be a boy~ ^.^V

• I had a weird dream last night. I dreamed my close someone went to Beijing with me to visit my grandparents and the rest of the family. When we got to their apartment, I saw thousands of crabs’ shell and fish’s guts walking on the ground. They kept biting my feet. But it seemed I was the only one who can see them. Other people in my dream just acted normally. So weird! I think I should search in the ‘dream interpreter’ to find out what it means. Hhee..

• Gregory told me today that because his fingers are getting too fat, he broke one of his ring 2 days ago. But… but… the ring is made of metal… It’s just hard to believe what he said…

• People on the street are crazy today in KL, no matter if they’re driving cars, riding motorcycles or walking. I saw an old guy riding a bicycle on highway and he went the opposite direction as the traffic! I saw two cars ‘racing’ on the street and they almost hit a kid trying to cross the street. What’s wrong with these people~

Ok. I’m too sleepy. Need to Zzzz…
To my hunnie: I’m sorry I can’t make the drawing today ‘cos I’m too tired. I’ll do it tomorrow~ wan an~ wen ni!

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Pinang and Bubur Chacha


The sun in KL was burning crazily today and the heat dried up my patient really fast. If I say ‘I feel itchy in my hands’ in Chinese, that means I want to beat someone or break something. By noontime, not only my hands felt itchy, my whole body just wanted to turn into a nuclear bomb and went off right there in my apartment and flatten the entire city of KL…

Well, I’m saying this because I’ve been having a bad mood these days due to some trouble with the immigration office. The bad mood has been disturbing my family for as long as half a year. I don’t want to complain anymore since it won’t make those immigration officers with no brain any batter. What I’m thinking now is that I have to get one of those passports with blue cover someday, so that I don’t need a damn visa for going to other countries, that I won’t be asked for security check at the boarding gate by some F airline people.

Alright, Alright, too much depressing stuff. So… I need a bowl of bubur chacha (a coconut ice-cream desert) to cool myself, and tell you some stories about my trip to Pinang.

We drove to up to the north of west Malaysia on Friday morning and stopped at Ipoh for lunch. The food was nice and super cheap in Ipoh. Then we headed to Pinang. The car’s air-conditioner broke in the afternoon, so we had a really nice ‘sauna’ on the road. When we got to the island, we saw bunch of cows on the side of the road, eating the grass from the edge of some residential houses’ front yard. One of them was even trying to cross the street in front of our car. S/he stopped in the middle of the road and looked at me for sever seconds and went across the road! How weird! Whoo… finally we arrived at Holiday Inn about 4pm. As soon as we checked in the hotel, I put my swimming suit on and jumped into the pool. You might wonder why I don’t swimming in the sea since the hotel is just by the beach. Umm… the sea in Pinang isn’t for swimming. I mean, it’s a bit polluted because people play jet ski and other water activities too much on the beach. Anyways, I had a nice swim and enjoyed the sunshine.

The next day I played jet ski and ride a horse. It was fun. Dad bought me a glass of cocktail while we were there enjoying the breeze by the pool. Hheeee… that was the first time Dad bought me a drink. I’m really happy to be 21, yeah~

We ate so much seafood during the trip. We made our new record- 2kg of shrimp and 2 kg of crab for a meal, nothing else, only shrimp and crab. HA! That was awesome!

My dad snores even harder then last year, like a thunder machine! We only booked one room at holiday inn, so my mom and I had to try to go to sleep with that thunder machine. My dad fall asleep super fast. I really want to plug my sandal into his throat to choke that thunder machine.

Ok, that’s my story for the trip to Pinang. I really miss the bubur chacha there. It’s the best one in Malaysia I think.

Friday, September 02, 2005

mosquiDo

One quick stories:

Before I got ready for sleep, I saw a mosquito in my room. So I killed it. But as soon as I picked him up from the floor I noticed he's actually a mosquiDo. I gave him CPR and rescue breathing and he finally woke up. "I.. I was just trying to drink some CiCi blood and suddenly I heard a "SMACK'.. she was trying to kill me...eeehh.." MosquiDo cried. So I put him into my super spaceship and launched him back to his office in Hillsboro. He fainted again on the way because the speed was too fast for a little mosquiDo. But me managed to wake up before 7am there and had his meeting before meeting before meeting.

-the end-

Thursday, September 01, 2005

黑键,白键


又到了写中文的时候了。每到这时我都特别开心,因为我可以借着这个机会一个人缩在黑暗的角落里,对着屏幕敲打一些大概只有我才会去看的字符。其实我并不在意没有人看或者没有人看得懂我blog。相反的,好像这样我觉得更安全了,就像把秘密都告诉一个最要好朋友,而他恰好又是一个哑巴那样。总之,没有人喜欢在别人面前脱光衣服的感觉。。。

好了,言归正传。今天的题目是“黑键,白键”

我一直都在疑问,为什么钢琴上只有黑键或白键,却没有一个什么“灰键”之类的夹在当中。每次练钢琴的时候,手指只能在黑键和白键当中穿梭,而不能像弦乐器那样做出滑音或颤音的效果。虽然说钢琴是所谓的乐器之王,因为它的音域最宽而且表现力最丰富。但是我觉得钢琴也是束缚力最强的一种乐器,黑白两色已经明确的向世人说明了要想成为出色的演奏者,就必须坚信只有那88个音符的存在,而没有黑白以外的什么灰色音符。

我天生好奇,所以一直都在想生活当中会不会有灰色的琴键呢?如果不是按照祖祖辈辈的方式生活的话,我的未来会是什么样子的呢?于是,在家人的支持和帮助下,我开始了寻找我的灰色音符的历程。虽然过程中遇到了很多很多的麻烦,比如说当初费了九牛二虎之力才考进建筑系,再比如说去其他国家的签证一直是个很另人恼火的问题,还有到现在也没有找到合适的公寓住,说不定以后还要搬家或者有别的什么矛盾,但这些对于我的梦想都不是什么问题。回头看看,我现在不是已经在美国读书了吗?我不是已经学会做饭了吗?我还有一个拥有一对漂亮蓝眼睛的男朋友。我在读我最喜欢的创作专业。这些我都拥有了啊~以后我还要作一名出色的建筑师,拥有自己的洋房和车子,和那个有漂亮蓝眼睛的大男孩去维也纳度蜜月(想到这里都有点脸红了呢~哈哈。。)这些我都会有的!只要我相信世上真的有灰色音符的存在,我一定会拥有我全部的期待!

好了,就胡言乱语到这里吧。为了发现灰色的音符,加油!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Merdeka Malaysia

Tomorrow is the national holiday in Malaysia. Everyone has the day off from work and school. I still don’t know where I can go tomorrow. Maybe we’ll just, as the Malaysian Chinese say, “go swimming in the car-river”, meaning going out for a drive. Every summer break I spent in Malaysia, the days after the national holiday went really quick. So I learned that I have to prepare for going back to school and get my life busy again when September starts. This time won’t be an exception. Moreover, my dwtx is waiting for me on the other side of the ocean. I’ll surely gather all my energy and enthusiasm to take the next step of my life after this nice and long holiday^^. Jia You! Yay!

I practiced Yellow River with my dad’s friend again. Eerrrr!!! He didn’t practice on his own at all. And that makes me so ANGRY-CI. I took a metronome with me to the piano shop. We played with a very sloooooooow tempo because I want to keep it steady. But that guy didn’t listen to the metronome at all and messed up everything. I really wanted to tell him not to waste my time when he’s not prepared. But he’s my dad’s friend…I can’t be too impolite to that ‘uncle’. So, my poor rental piano was qi-fued by CCTX so much after she came home this afternoon. Ehhh…

Alright, time to Zzzz.. Hopefully today I won’t dream anything like failing my exam or not finishing my model on time. I’ve been having this kind of dream almost every night. I guess it’s really the time to go back to school. Hhee…

(post update: heheheee… when I was just about to put this post on my blog, the firework show started! There were 3 different spots in KL playing fireworks at the same time! I can see all of them from my apartment ‘cos it’s on a hill. Wohooo.. nice… It reminded me the firework I watched with my ‘close someone’ in Portland. ^^ )

Sunday, August 28, 2005

New hair style


Do you like my new hair style? Hheee… I finally got my hair cut today at ‘A Cut Above’, by a senior stylist, Jojo Ong. And I high-lighted my hair with golden chocolate color too. Maybe it’s difficult to see the color in the picture, but it’s really shinny kind of brown under the sunlight. Even though I had to sit in the salon for 2 and a half hour to get my hair done, I’m really REALLY happy about the result. Hhoo…I can’t wait to go back to school and show it to DWTX!

But when I came out of the salon, I saw something really unpleasant. A family from Middle East was taking the escalator down from the upper floor. One of their sons is only about 3 years old. He’s obviously too young to take the escalator by himself. When he reached the floor level, he was trying to step forward to the ground, but he can’t move fast enough. He fell down… his dad picked him up by pulling one of his arms and… started to kick him! I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Instead of helping his kid, the father beat the boy for not learning things quick enough. I really wanted to walk to this irresponsible man and punch him right into his face! The good thing was that some Malaysian passed by stopped him and blamed him for his action. Errr… CiCi hates to see adults beating their kids!

Friday, August 26, 2005

I'm a selfish, evil, f***ing little buster


I got a new name, as it’s shown in the title! Wohoo! I like new names and this one is especially great! My mom gave it to me today. Wooo… she’s such a creative and poetic name creator. The new name she gave me vividly portraits who I am.

I think she hates me and gives me the name for several reasons. They might not be all, but surely they’re important.

a) I AM SELFISH.
As I’m growing up, I’m developing my own way of thinking. When people are young, they listen to what adults tell them. They treat the second hand information as truth. But when they grow up, they start to realize that there’re other ways to look at things. What the older people say is not all correct. Like me, I find it more and more difficult to communicate with my mom. I think she’s always the way she is, but I’ve grown and seen her mistakes. I understand that nobody is perfect. I’m trying to avoid problem by simply listening to her complain but not giving any respond (I can’t respond, because once I say something, I’m going to piss her off). But even that she’ll think I’m selfish and I’m ignoring her. I mean, come on~ I just don’t want to start a fight every other day. Why would she try to turn everyone against her?

b) I LEARN TO REBEL
Even dogs know they have to bite the people who are trying to beat them. As a human, of course I would fight back if you’re trying to harm me. And that’s not only to stop you from bother me, I’ll completely destroy you so you don’t have any ability to even think of bothering me. I think I’m really bad at hiding my emotions. Everything just shows on my face right away. Right, I think it’s my stupid face makes my mom going mad. I don’t have to say anything; just looking at my face would make her mad. I must have some super power…heheee… But really, if she would slap me (as she promised she would do it, for pissing her off next time), then I promise her I would slap her back and break her face. Don’t think I’m like a kid to say something like that. She’s really making me crazy. She’s testing my limitation to bear all these none sense craziness.

c) I AM CREATING A BAD ‘PUBLIC IMAGE’ FOR HER
I don’t know why she has this feeling that I’m telling all the bad stuffs about her to other people, especially to my ‘closed someone’. I feel it’s really ridiculous. It’s like you feed me shit and I have to thank you for offering me such nice food! I think if there’s really someone turned me against her, it’s not anyone else but herself. I mean, I tried! I really tried to be nice to her but she doesn't take it. I understand that women at this age would have difficulties to deal with their emotions. But I hate those people who tell others not to say anything bad about them after they’ve done terrible things. If you care about your image so much, why don’t you protect it instead of trying to rebuild it after it’s all destroyed?

So, for the above reasons, I got my new name. And now she’s coming back to apologize and “request” me not to tell what happened to my dad. Eehhhh… what can I say? I just watch her action like watching a clown – laugh at it and walk away.

This is my true feeling. I’m not afraid to show it to others. Even if my mom is able to understand what I wrote one day, I’ll still stand in front of her and tell her this is how I look at her, just like today she told me “who I really am”. It’s really easy to hurt your family and once you leave a scar on someone’s heart, it’ll never heal, NEVER!

Thursday, August 25, 2005

KL F1


I finally finished the drawing tonight (I was too lazy to pick up my drafting pen..hhee...) and I can publish my new story now. Thanks very much to DWTX who composed the story and wrote a preview for me. ^^

So, here's the story...

I went to Ikea yesterday

the taxi driver was like a F-1 racer. it's about 25KM from my apt to Ikea. He took only 15-16 mins to get there...

(for our american readers, thats about 60mph)

the road was busy. So he drove the car and... I don't know how to say it.. but it felt really scary..
but KL is famous for traffic jam. so 60mph is pretty scary... actually people all drive crazily today. I dont' know why.. oh... cici had her seat belt on.. she was holding the handle on the door... and she was screaming in her heart.

how do you call the thing on the front wondow of the car? the one you use to clean the rain... windshield wipers.

so cici's body was moving like windshield wipers in the car

with eyes open wide..

O_O

Finally, though, Cici arrived at Ikea, with legs shaking.. i paid and went window shopping. Did I take a taxi home? No way! my dad came to pick me up and we went to have seafood for dinner.

Monday, August 22, 2005

=X_X=


I went to swim this afternoon and here's what happened..
-click on the picture to see a larger view-

Friday, August 19, 2005

Nightfall KL


I haven’t written anything these days, because everything seems the same from Monday to Sunday. I open my eyes every morning, thinking, “Alright, it’s another ‘yesterday’ or ‘the day before yesterday’”. I repeat doing the same things everyday like a robot following its program. But, maybe I should think that my life is more organized this way.

Today before 6pm, I was in my ‘program’ as usual. I practiced piano, watched TV, went to the gym… Then I decide to break the routine. I rushed back to my room and put on my swimsuit. Even though the sunshine was still dancing crazily outside, I jumped into the swimming pool without any hesitation. “Aaahhhh…” the water was cool enough to wake me up from the heat. I did several laps and then just flow on the water to enjoy the late afternoon. The nightfall in KL is really beautiful, like a piece of artwork. It’s too bad that my camera couldn’t catch the color correctly. Everything was dyed with golden tone. I remember the sunset in Eugene is purple. Here in KL, things look more alive during nightfall.

Somehow, many memories came back to me when I was in the pool, good and bad ones. Then I felt it’s really nice to be alive. I knew this sounds weird, but really, when I thought about what I’ve experienced, I became more curious about what would happen to me in the future. I’ve always got hope, because I was all time curious-Ci. There were definitely downtimes and I’ve been really lost and frustrated. But life always goes on, no matter if I like it or not. After going through difficulties, I got more energy and confidence. Even if I failed, I knew I tried my best.

So, there’s nothing I can’t go through. It’s the matter of whether I want to try to face it. I’m not saying that I’m able to do everything. I just don’t want to regret about opportunities and possible success I missed when I have to close my eyes forever. And I know that there’re many people- my family, my close someone, my friends care about me and support me. They are my treasure for taking this life journey.

I like one sentence my high school English teacher told me, “We all started with zero. So we have nothing to loose. Whatever happens to you, you’re always gaining.”

Just some random thoughts… really random…