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Virgin Rally

2011-05-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

The Sg Elections are 6 days away, and I went to my first ever political rally today!!

I feel like I've totally entered adulthood, and the mysterious club of the 'Politically Aware'. =). Actually, probably neither of the above is true, but I feel pretty good nonetheless.

The rally was at Pioneer stadium, held by the National Solidarity Party (NSP). We heard Steve Chia (running in Pioneer), and two other guys whose names I can't remember. The guy who spoke in Hokkien was quite humorous, and even though I didn't understand most of it, the other people around seemed to be enjoying themselves. I came to the realization that Hokkien is a great way to connect with the Heartland masses, partly because complaints just sound a lot better and funnier in Hokkien. (Am now reminded of the Hokkien Star Wars clip that was on radio a few yrs ago)

Atmosphere: we were up in the bleachers, where people were sitting down and mostly passive. But the crowd on the field were very vocal, and obligingly chanted 'NSP! NSP!' at all the right moments. I started booing and cheering, and the others became more responsive also. (I went all the way to Pioneer for this rally.. 17mins by train hor... if it's only to sit and listen I can do that on Youtube. So must create some atmosphere right?)

Speeches: not bad. a mix of Minister bashing (Mah Bow Tan is a hot favorite), number crunching (median income in 2010 was only $1400/mth!! am not sure if this refers to Singaporeans only, or all income tax payees), and specific policy points.

They raised some interesting points:
- some ministers are not just receiving their million dollar salaries, but a pension as well. According to the Prime Minister, this is part of their contracts and cannot be changed.
- the CPF contracts were changed so easily to raise the withdrawal age from 55 to 60. Yet, ministerial contracts remain unchangeable.

- The bottom 20% of households have seen their incomes fall, and costs rise. Currently, they face a deficit of $100/mth.

- Ministers' bonuses are pegged to absolute GDP growth. The easiest way to grow the size of an economy is to increase the number of workers. Thus the huge influx of foreign workers into Singapore. Their assumptions are a little shaky, but the NSP estimate that only 1 in 2 jobs in Singapore are held by Singaporeans.

- In conclusion, the PAP has lost its way. They are self deluded and no longer in touch with ordinary Singaporeans.

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I agree that the issue of ministerial salaries need to be revisited. Even if we accept the bizarre assumption that any one of our ministers can waltz into industry and become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, it is hard to accept that they should be paid according to the top 10 performing industries, when these top 10 will constantly change. So if you were a CEO of say a construction company, some years the industry might be in the top 10, some years it will not. But as a Singaporean minister, you are always guaranteed a spot in the top 10.

But never mind. Worse still is the basing of the bonus on absolute GDP growth. Incentives are very powerful. The PAP believe that GDP growth is the single most important measure of their success (also stated in MM's book. Vulnerability = need strong defense = need money = need taxes from GDP). So it doesn't matter so much if GDP per capita holds steady or falls, as long as absolute GDP increases. However, GDP per capita more accurately measures productivity and standard of living. One reflects real increases in worker quality and can form the basis of sustained growth, while the other is an indication of population happiness. In fact, I think inflation/cost of living has to be included into the equation as well.

So, a more accurate measure of the government's performance should be A) are people better off and B) do we have a more productive economy? The last point especially will totally kill their bonuses. Our productivity growth has been nearly zero since the 1980s. [In contrast, the French worker is one of the most productive in the world. Maybe we should mandate a 35hr work week? This will force all companies to become more efficient. Hmm.. not sure that this is the best strategy. but from personal experience, the more I procrastinate before a dateline, the more efficient I eventually become.]
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Post is too long already. Till the next blue moon... Adieu.

Meandering the Mekong

2011-01-03T00:48:00.000-08:00

Happy 2011!

My NYEve was spent dodging a million motorcycles, and watching grown women clutch frantically at each other while balancing on one foot on A4 paper. yups.. more on that later.

On 28th Dec 2010, 6 brave souls (+ guide & driver from vietnambiketours) left Ho Chi Minh City for Cai Lay, a little town on the Mekong delta. Armed with sunscreen and very nice mountain bikes, they pedaled wobbly-ly through narrow roads and even narrow-er bridges. Past coconut, bananas, longans, and magnificent rice paddies, they were greeted by frenetically helloo-ing children, and challenged by fiercely territorial (but not so intelligent) roosters.

It was fantastic =). When we were not fearing for our lives due to threats from bumpy roads, beeping motorcycles and crazily steep and narrow bridges, it was very peaceful. The whole village vibe, hammocks everywhere, verdant fruit trees etc. Not really unique to Vietnam, but a great way to experience SE Asian countryside. Our guide had some money to spend on us per diem, so we stopped frequently for sugar cane juice, durian, fried banana, rice crackers etc from random street vendors. Meals tasted great, partly due to all that cycling. I particularly enjoyed the tamarind-based hotpot, and a chendol-like dessert (beans, shaved ice, coconut milk). Another highlight was visiting the floating market at Can-tho, where heavily laden boats advertised their wares by hanging a sample atop a pole.

The Mekong river is HUGE! Originating from the Tibetan plateau, it flows through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and finally Vietnam, splitting into 9 distributaries in the delta (in Vietnam, it's also called the Nine Dragons River). Read more in Wikipedia. It's easy to feel a sense of awe at this mighty waterway, despite all the murkiness and water hyacinths..

After 4 days of cycling, we developed butts and nerves of steel! Sadly, we had to return to HCMC, where new year celebrations were in full swing. Although nowhere as significant as Tet (lunar new year), the occasion was still marked by lively stage performances, a food festival, and an awesome funfair-- there were the usual knocking-down of bottles, but also stuff like walking across bamboo poles while balancing bowls/baskets on your head and hands, having to strike a gong while blindfolded, and trying to catch a piglet while blindfolded. Low-budget, but tremendous fun (except for uncomfortable ethical feelings about the terrified piglet). EVERYONE was out in their motorbikes, and traffic was horrendous. Crossing the road, which is already a challenge normally, became an Olympic Event. Good thing we'd cultivated those nerves of steel. =)

All the tourist pubs and hotels had events, and our hotel's had sketchy games. One was like musical chairs, except instead of chairs it was A4 paper on the ground. 2 people were allowed per piece, and they had to stand on one foot. The other was played with couples-- one person had plastic flowers stuck randomly on his/her body, and the other person had to pick them, blindfolded. Kinda surreal to see this is Vietnam. Also saw a performance by a couple dancing the Rhumba. The girl was ok, but the guy looked really creepy, especially when he tried to smile... =(.

On our last day, we went for a body massage! I didn't notice the bars on the ceiling of the room, and thus was extremely surprised when my masseuse starting stepping on accupoints on my back. Breathing became a challenging and delicately timed operation. She also cracked a few joints, most memorably the ones in my neck, with swift twists of my head... It was the first time I thought I might die during a massage, and not from happiness... But after the hour, my muscles felt wonderfully relaxed and languorous. So maybe it wasn't so bad afterall?

All in all, a fantastic trip. Much thanks to Shuquan for organizing, and Shirlene, Eugene, Xiao Wei and Chris for a great time.

Happy Birthday to ME!

2010-11-09T07:10:00.000-08:00

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

That's what I said to my mother as I packed my backpack for a trip up Mt. Rinjani in Lombok, Indonesia. That's what I muttered to my fellow sufferers when they asked why I chose to spend my birthday with burning thighs, endless steep rock, low oxygen, and bouts of nausea.

It was 3 exhausting days, and 2 cold nights, from 1300m to 2600m to 2000m to 2600m and finally down to 500m... unfortunately my summit attempt was foiled by the betrayal of my lungs and circulation, which decided to go on strike after 29 years of faithful service.

But the scenery was amazing. I've run out of superlatives to describe the contrast of craggy mountain peaks, aquamarine crater lake, pristine white clouds, and blue blue sky. The exhilaration of getting to the top banishes all memory of the endless slog to a distant corner of the brain (usually reserved for the Krebs cycle, Green's theorem and structures of amino acids). Only my 3 blisters and inability to walk reminds me that it was actually quite hard work.

Total gain from birthday weekend:

3 blisters

3 leeches

7 new friends (special thanks to Sam and Suzie for sharing their tent.. it was pretty cozy in there. Thanks also to Mandy -and Nick- for organizing and letting me come!)

Gazillion aching muscles and pictures.

Self respect

Desire to climb more mountains... after being able to walk again.

Crater Rim on day 1

2010-11-09T06:53:00.001-08:00

Summer School in Italy

2010-05-18T07:46:00.000-07:00

Just came back from Rome, Sardinia and Milan. Main purpose of the trip was to attend Immunology Summer School in Sardinia. Supposed to be 5 days of fun in the sun (and er.. lecture theaters).

First stop: 2 days in the Eternal City. Our Roman hostel was the Alessandro Downtown, near the Termini. Decent location, ok beds, 30mins free internet, hard rolls for breakfast, RELIABLE hot water. thumbs up for 30Euros.

We must have walked for miles up and down Rome. Amazing everything. Except for the Roman forum, which had me thinking that archaeology must be more art than science, the other major sites were incredibly well preserved. No need to decipher faded stones battered by jungle vegetation (eg. Angkor Wat and all the Mayan and Incan ruins).

Highlights of my day were the Trevi Fountain (I really like all the High Renaissance stuff), and the gelato near the hostel. Josephine and Preston were also great travel companions (none of that 'punishing schedule' complaints from Peru-- in fact, Preston is even crazier than me).

The next day, we went on the hostel's 'Vatican' walking tour, which included Piazza de Navona, and St Peter's Basilica. Bernini is a genius. Don't know much about his architecture, but his sculptures are magnificent in all their sinewy glory. All the angels on the Angels bridge have different expressions, from stern to beatific serenity. That day's gelato (near the Pantheon) was not as good as the first.

My last morning in Rome, I went to the Basilica de San Clemente (church upon a church upon a church-- sounded cool on Lonely Planet, but without a guide, it was only mildly cool, and very dark), and the Church of Immaculate Conception. The crypt of the latter had 5 rooms, bizarrely decorated with the bones of departed monks and poor Christians. To me it was somewhat macabre, but according to the postcard, it was meant for reflection on the fragility of human life in comparison to eternal heaven with God (or something like that).

In Sardinia, summer school went well, except someone forgot to tell Poseidon and Zeus (I know those are their Greek names, but I'm a purist. and too lazy to check up their Roman ones) that it was summer. Brief, precious moments of sunshine were chased away by clouds, rain, and howling winds. The winds were so strong one day, they blew Preston's DOOR FRAME (and door) completely off the wall.

Got to know some interesting people and facts, including

a) Claire, who is vegetarian, but allergic to wheat, pollen and nuts (she eats rice, vegetables and eggs).

b) Pinar, Turkish but working in UK on cattle TB, generally hilarious and fabulous

c) Antonio and his Milano gang, who are really funny and made a big effort to talk to us in English.

d) Olives growing near the sea taste fruity (acc. to Antonio)

e) French and german people with home-rolled cigarettes are holding good quality tobacco, not marijuana.

f) Small Sardinian beach resorts that cater to aging German tourists, really mean it when they say 'Disco' night. 1970s music was waaaay over-represented.

g) European keyboards have their apostrophes and semi-colons etc. in all the wrong places =(.

Of course, came to know the SIgN contingent a lot better too. They are surprisingly crazy people.

Last day in Italy was spent in fabulous Milan, home to the most magnificent Gothic cathedral I've ever seen. More beautiful than Notre Dame, IMHO. Unfortunately, it was also home to thousands of Inter Milan football fans. 16th May was an epic day for Inter fans-- the team was crowned Italian champions, and people were swarming all over the city centre, waving flags, singing songs, blaring horns. For me, it was fantastic for about 30seconds, then the constant horn blaring started to feel like a very blunt chisel was being shoved repeatedly into my ears. Josephine and I then were compelled to give up sightseeing, for shopping-- er. no ulterior motives there. it was for health reasons that we HAD to shop, you see.

Conclusions: Italy is fantastic, I never want to go back to work. Now, where's my gelato?

Happy New Year!

2009-12-30T01:31:00.000-08:00

At work rebelling against all the work I have to do. Screwit. Instead I'm going to destress by watching you-tube and blogging. And the *&^(@ powers-that-be who control internet access here banned facebook, game sites, and peer-to-peer sites. So theoretically, all I can do to de-stress is youtube and blog. I am so resentful and stressed-out it is ridiculous.

My new year's resolution is to try not to lose my mind. Sometimes, it goes away for holiday and can't be found. Especially right now, I think my mind is off skiing at Kirkwood. It's definitely not here in Biopolis.

BBBBBAH. signal to go home, and try again tomorrow. =(.

Stairway to heaven

2009-11-14T09:25:00.000-08:00

Some of my loyal readers might be despairing over the dearth of updated blog posts on this website. -sighz-

Sadly, work has come between me and my mission in life: slacking.

Following my not-so-triumphant return to Singapore, I am now safely ensconced in the bosom of A-star, and er.. serving my country. I do this by

1) supporting small business (eating at the food court)

2) buying local brands (eh.. maggi mee?)

3) helping churn the great a-star research machine. one DNA gel at a time.

The new condo is very nice, but very hard to find. The road it's on doesn't exist on google maps yet, and guests arrive angry and frustrated. I should hire the Little Caesar's guy that waves the giant placard at San Antonio, to stand at a strategic corner and point the way.

I also have a new keyboard! I am very pleased with the instrument, but not so pleased with the way my piano playing and sight reading skills have regressed. Please send me sheet music for christmas!! It is my new self-improvement project. My other self improvement project is to do more sports. This involves complex multi-party negotiations with myself, and is currently in the planning stages.

Luz has invited jomo and myself to give a joint speech at her wedding. I think I should start to charge for speaking engagements... a free dinner is not too much to ask, right?

Went to Hanoi in Sept with Jomo. It was interesting, Halong Bay was fantastic, Perfume pagoda was ok, and of course I got to hang out with Jomo (highlight of the trip), and read Battle Royale (incredibly violent and bloodthirsty yet strangely absorbing). The traffic is absolutely crazy, I was very happy because the chaos reminded me of S.America. But something was 'off' about Hanoi. I dunno. People seemed too absorbed with earning money. I got a China vibe. You can feel it when they refuse to bargain, and when you're in the midst of impatient motorists.

Now I want to go to Laos.

Rambles in the cherry garden

2009-08-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Help. I'm trapped inside me.

I want to escape into a dark and quiet place with no feelings.

I wonder if there is a black hole for emotions?

Maybe it'll be like in the Golden Compass, after one has been separated from one's daemon..?

Although it's not quite the same issit? being devoid of feelings vs being without a soul.

Hm. interesting.

Bolivia 8: We become true Bolivianos

2009-07-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

I had planned for 3 full days in Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, it didn't take us long to realize that there was absolutely nothing to do there. Also, it was the Christmas period so we didn't want to risk taking a bus to the Jesuit Missions, then not having any transport back.

Instead, our time in Santa Cruz was spent slowly morphing into Bolivianos at the Central Plaza. And shopping for chocolate bon bons at the market. And eating a never-ending Christmas fruitcake. I was reading Charmaine's book ('Eat, Pray, Love')-- about one woman's quest for life, spirituality and balance. In the end, she achieves everything (including money because the book was selling quite well). I was half-expecting a how-to manual, hoping that I too would magically achieve life, spirituality and balance, but it was simply an entertaining read. It became less entertaining in the end because she started whining and pontificating, but the first 70-80 parts (it had 108) was very good. My take-home message from the book is: go to Naples to eat pizza. Her description of the pizza in Naples is so mouth-watering that if I wasn't in the middle of a Bolivian plaza becoming ONE with the park bench, I would have been on kayak.com checking air ticket prices.

It's quite interesting what can happen to 2 Chinese girls who spend many hours in Bolivian plazas. A middle-aged man sat on our bench and started telling us how much he distrusted Obama because he is black. Apparently, this guy is Mormon, and dislikes Islam.... It was a weird experience. We also had a TV camera thrust in our faces, complete with lady reporter asking us where we came from and how we celebrate the New Year. We stammered something about parties and families, and in the end wished Bolivia 新年快乐!

After that we totally regretted our lackluster interview. We should have made up some bizarre customs, like 'In Singapore, at the stroke of midnight, we light firecrackers and the king releases political prisoners'.... or something.

Brief notes on Santa Cruz:

1) It's in the lowland, surrounded by prime coca-growing plots. So it has a hot, dusty tropical feel, and it's full of drug money-- big SUVs, major American brands selling genuine merchandise etc. It's the only province of Bolivia that doesn't support President Evo Morales, who wants to empower the large indigenous population and nationalize the oil and gas industry. The city has a comfortable, rich feel. And the trendy magazines feature stories about partying in expensive clubs, and traveling in Europe. Very Very different vibe from the rest of Bolivia.

2) However, you know you're still in Bolivia because crossing the street is an Olympic sport, there are 6 lanes of cars but only 3 lanes of road markings, and the airport checkin counters only open 1.5hr before takeoff so that the queue is as horrendous and chaotic as possible.

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Conclusions on Bolivia:

It was every bit as weird and wonderful as Eujin promised. And deliriously chaotic, more than Peru and Guatemala combined. The people are super friendly, and the sights are incredible. My one regret is spending too much time in Santa Cruz. We should have gone to the Potosi mines, and Sucre, then to SC, or skip that altogether and just go back to La Paz.

I highly recommend Bolivia to open-minded, adventurous backpackers looking for a totally different experience.

Huge thanks to Charmaine, who was brave enough to take yet another S.American trip with me. Xiao mei, you're the best.

Bolivia 7: RUN Pearline, RUN

2009-06-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

Cochabamba! Bustling market town in a fertile valley, midway between the Andes to the West, and the lowland jungles/pampas in the East. We were there because I found a website that said that Cochabamba was the paragliding capital of Bolivia. $30 USD/jump. I couldn't resist.

But first-- a stop at the tourist information office. Somehow, I managed to lose my wallet (this is becoming a terrible tradition), and I was looking for a phone that would call the US, to cancel my credit cards. However, the tourist office was temporarily closed because there was a Christmas Event happening. At first we didn't know what was going on, but the massive numbers of children, the christmas tree, and all those women dressed as elves, gave the game away. The people we asked said it was not possible to answer my questions right now, but would we like some free coffee and deep-fried dough?

Anyways, they couldn't help and in the end I used my hp to call America, but the coffee and fried dough was really quite tasty. And we got to watch children receive presents from Santa.

Next day: Paragliding! We arrive early at the offices of Andes Xtremo, and were ferried to the cliffs 15mins away by our instructor Andres, and his assistant. We stop at the landing site, and Andres says that we will take turns jumping: one of us stay there, while the other will be driven to the top to jump, then we will switch.

"Who will go first?"

uneasy looks pass between Char n I. Char looks a lot more uneasy than I feel.

"Ok, I go first", I say.

I get into the car, leaving Char with a book and the camera. I feel pretty excited as we set off-- finally! paragliding! It sounds awesome!! I become less and less excited, the further up we drive. I make the mistake of looking down the edge... It's a hella loong way down. My heart immediately sinks to my stomach, and they both do a little quivering dance.

We get to the launch site, Andres and friend start rolling out the chute. I try not to think about it. Finally, they are ready. Andres ties into the parachute gig, and I'm tied in, in front of him.

"OKAY PEARLINE THIS IS HOW WE DO IT. WHEN I SAY RUN, WE RUN. DO NOT STOP RUNNING UNTIL I SAY STOP."

"Okay."

"OK now, RUN!!!!"

My legs started moving like my life dpded on it, but we didn't move! The parachute is HEAVY. I felt like a little hamster on the wheel.

"RUN PEARLINE, RUN!!!"

"I'M TRYING!!!!"

We eventually start moving, and I was too distracted with the running to pee my pants. Before I knew it, we were airborne! It was so cool! It was exactly what you'd expect a falling via parachute to feel like-- suspended and free, yet supported by a giant blanket. There was a thermal in one spot, and Andres expertly maneuvered us to ride up the rising hot air. Now I know how eagles feel, soaring in the air. =).

After some more floating, Andres offered to do stunts. So we did some swinging from left to right, but most fun was the spiral descent, when we banked downwards and rightwards, and did this whirlwind thing rapidly towards the ground. TOTALLY AWESOME.

We landed nicely at the arranged spot, and it was Char's turn to go up. I told her that it was fun, she'll be fine, and to run when he says "RUN".

Char had her jump without mishaps, and we happily returned to cbba. For breakfast, we finally had a saltena, which the guidebook claims to be a CBBA specialty. (actually, they are found all over Bolivia, but are esp famous in cbba). Saltenas are savory meat baked in a thick pastry shell (think curry puff or mini calzone). We bite into ours and it is Incredible. Steaming hot chicken, swimming in juices, complemented nicely by the crunchy, slightly sweet pastry. Heaven must be full of saltenas.

Full of warm fuzzy feelings towards CBBA and indeed Life in general, we troop off to the bus station get tickets to our final Bolivian destination, Santa Cruz.

Bolivia 6: My heart goes Shalalalala

2009-05-16T03:35:00.000-07:00

First stop in the early morning: the fumaroles (steam vents). Not much to say about them, because we were 1) super tired and 2) super cold.

Next, a dip in the hot spring before breakfast. It seemed like this item was on everyone's itinerary, because the little pool soon became filled with tourists. However, the overcrowding didn't mar the awesomeness of the hot water. Total bliss, made all the more so by the brisk morning air.

The rest of the morning was more pretty lake-pretty flamingoes. Lunch was at some random little village. We were hanging out, waiting for yet another flat tyre to be fixed, when I realized that atop a big rock around the corner, was half a propeller plane. Yes, half. The tail half, to be precise. Apparently it crashed about 50 yrs ago and no one bothered to take it down.

The morning was also made memorable by the music being played in our jeep. For the last 2 days, we had been playing music frm Char's ipod. but it was running outta juice, so that morning we turned it off. The driver then decided to play music from his mp3 player. Unfortunately, it had only two songs on it. Yes, TWO. The first one was an English version of a popular Chinese song (Wen bie), and the second one had a chorus that went 'And my heart goes Shalalalala, shalala in the mooorrnning... (etc)'. Those 2 songs were on repeat the whole morning. That's a lot of shalalalalas. No one else seemed to be in hair-tearing agony except for me and Charmaine... We tried our best to sleep, but that nefarious 'shalalalala' invaded my nightmares for days afterwards. I'm not sure if it would've been better in the second jeep. The Australian guys in that jeep openly admitted to being big fans of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys, and were conducting free-for-all karaoke sessions in their vehicle.

It was a pretty fun trip.

After lunch we had a 5hr drive back to Uyuni. We stopped briefly at San Cristobal, a (silver) mining town. We could hear festive music in the distance. Our cook pointed out the men sitting by the road drinking beer. She said that these were miners back from work. They get paid at the end of the day, then spend that $$ and the rest of the evening drinking. Apparently, they need to drink because mining is really hard work. We asked about the music, and she told us it was a mass wedding. The Christmas period is a popular time to get married, because most people are on holiday.

The rest of the day was uneventful. After getting back to Uyuni, we hopped a night bus to Oruro and onwards to Cochabamba. The bus to Oruro reminded me of the chicken buses in Guatemala. We had assigned seats, but there were amazing numbers of people standing and eventually sitting and sleeping in the aisles. They are not at all shy about sitting on your armrest, or invading your legroom. It was quite an experience.

I had a good time at the Salar! 3d 2n is a good length for this trip. The landscapes are amazing, the weather was good, and I saw loads of flamingoes (my favorite birds because they can stand on one leg), and wild vicuna and llama. The people on our tour were also really fun to hang out with. However after 3days the endless drives in the jeep became quite boring... plus the food wasn't that good. No regrets though. It's like a 3 day trip to Mars!!--- Totally radical, but you don't wanna live there. [note to self: Jason Mraz songs are a perfect soundtrack for a drive around Mars. The shalalalala song is not so good.]

Bolivia 5: Salt everywhere

2009-03-06T10:48:00.000-08:00

This next leg of our trip was THE REASON for our epic journey to Bolivia. Apparently, HS was so impressed with the bizarre but breathtaking landscapes of the Salar de Uyuni that he strongly recommended Bolivia to Eujin. Eujin then became a firm convert and passed on this info to me.

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The bus ride from La Paz to Uyuni was awful. 7pm-6am, initially with flashing lights and loud music, followed by an earnest attempt to hit every pothole along the way. 1am: toilet stop at a restaurant with modern toilet bowls, but non-functional plumbing-- 'flushing' was accomplished by scooping water from a large tub outside, and pouring it into the bowl. I guess we were lucky to have toilets at all, but I remember being extremely upset at that time.

6am at Uyuni. Cold. The guidebook claimed that hordes of tour agents throng the bus terminal hawking their tours, but we saw only one man there. Also, there was no terminal, just a street junction. HRM. We walk to the town center, feeling slightly lost. Everything was still closed. Finally, we see 2 agencies near the train station that were open. We decide on a 3day-2night tour of the Salar de Uyuni with Lipez tours, then tottered to the cafe next door for food and rejuvenation.

Sometime after 10am, 2 land cruisers pulled up outside the office, and the tour operators (2 women) returned from their marketing with bags of groceries for our trip. We were a group of 11-- 4 (crazy) Australians, 1 Swiss, 2 Argentinians, 1 Dutch, 2 S'poreans.

First stop, the Train Cemetery. Trains used to run from Bolivia to Chile, and when no longer fit for service, were retired into this spot in the desert to rust gracefully. Now, they serve as an attraction for tourists, and Uyuni youths with too much time and spray paint.

Next was the obligatory tourist souvenir stop, full of unenticing ashtrays and llama figurines carved from salt. The next souvenir stop was more interesting, because the entire hut, including furniture, was made from blocks of salt.

All this salt comes from the Uyuni salt flats-- once upon a time, this area was part of a massive inland lake. But the water has mostly dried up, leaving Uyuni with a bizarre landscape of endless salt. Water still lurks under the surface, and the Salar is dangerous during the rainy season. The endless white salt distorts depth perception, and we had fun taking cool 'optical illusion' pictures. Clear blue skies + sparkling white ground = pretty pictures.

Lunch was at the Isla de Pescado (Fish Island), so named because it's shaped like a fish. We hiked up to the summit of the little hill, enjoying the views of the landscape (dotted with little tourist-filled jeeps) and the cacti that grew on the island.

"Un momentito", one might ask. "Island? aren't you in a salt desert?"

Er. Yes. The salar is endless salt and wiry brush, punctuated with random rocky 'island' oases that harbor cacti, flowers and butterflies.
Another long jeep ride, before arriving at our abode for the night, a salt hotel. I ask the driver if he ever gets lost in this endless roadless signless desert. He says he uses the distant mountains as landmarks, but when it's cloudy during the rainy season, people have gotten lost and died in the desert. I give quick thanks to the cloudless skies.The salt hotel was really awesome. The walls and furniture are salt, and the supporting beams are dead cacti. Although it became really COLD at night, we were snugly insulated in our house of salt. After dinner, some kids from the village came in and started playing instruments, with the littlest ones singing and dancing. The little girls were SO CUTE. augmented by their out-of-tune singing and off-rhythm dancing. total tourist trap, but equipped with trusting big eyes and hesitant smiles.

After emptying our coin pouches, we braved the cold and went outside. If I were Van Gough I would have whipped out oils and canvas. However, that night we were content to simply stand and stare at the cosmos above.

The next day I wake up feeling pretty good-- it wasn't too cold at night, which is one of my very few minimum requirements for a hostel. It must have been the salt that was the insulator, because the generator shut off at 10pm.

The day was marked by multiple cycles of Jeep -> lagoon/rock formation -> Jeep. I was very excited to see many flamingoes at the lagoons. I read somewhere that they come here to breed. But superficial observation yielded only eating and flying and sleeping behavior.... *shrug* Maybe it was the wrong season. I took many flamingo pictures. But the coolest ones are those taken through Julia's binoculars. Charmaine will attest to how my pictorial record of the day can be summarized with just one representative 'Flamingoes in Lagoon' composition. The lagoons are also really interesting. Due to different mineral sediments and algae, they have different colors.

We also visited these awesome but random rock formations in the middle of the desert. I climbed a big rock with the Argentian guy, but it was v.v. windy up there, so we didn't linger.

Spent the night at random hostel near the Laguna Colorada, together with huge numbers of other tour groups. Another band of children came by to busk.

Side note: I was really quite proud of my photography skills from Uyuni. But today I found the National Geographic Antiplano feature by George Steinmetz, and realized that the landscape is so astounding any idiot with a point and shoot will go home satisfied. For truly brilliant compositions, check this out.

Bolivia 4: these Bolivianos are crazy...

2009-03-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

Our last day on the pampas started slowly-- breakfast, then making alligator teeth necklaces with our guide. One of the Israeli guys declared the activity emasculating, but our guide said that in the jungle tribes, this activity was performed by the men. I guess it's a 'I killed this alligator and now I'm going to hang a dental specimen around my neck' thing. -shrug-

Next, we set off on the canoe, with a large piece of chicken skin, to look for Pedro. Pedro is an alligator that the guides seem to know and love. Apparently Pedro likes to lurk in a particular spot in the mangrove. Unfortunately, Pedro was either not at home, or not receiving visitors, because he didn't respond to our repeated ringing of his doorbell. (ie Calling his name loudly, banging the side of the boat, waving chicken skin in the air and water)

We returned to camp, slightly dejected. And oh what a wonderful surprise, there was a large alligator lurking near the camp! The guide demonstrated how to bait the gator by holding the chicken skin near its nostrils, then pulling away as it snapped forward. It was completely insane, and would have violated about three million safety laws in America. By some miracle, everyone who tried it survived without injuries.

Nothing else that day came close to that level of excitement, not even the prospect of going back to town and doing laundry.

I have mixed feelings about the pampas tour. It was incredible to be there, motoring down river: the banks teeming with interesting flora and fauna, random fish jumping into the boat, hearing the occasional PPFFTTT from a dolphin's blowhole. I was very excited to see the animals, but I'm pretty sure that the animals were not happy to see us. And I dunno whether our guide going to great lengths to get us closer to the animals is something all the jungle people do anyways, or if it's to cater to us tourists-- in hope of a bigger tip.

------------------

The following morning, we flew back to La Paz. The flight was very smooth, and we were only delayed for 3 hours this time =). To combat the altitude, we were armed with a large bag of coca leaves. Chewing the leaves is a local remedy for the altitude.

We had an afternoon to kill in La Paz before our 7pm bus to Uyuni, so we decided to walk to the famous Voodoo market, and central plaza. On the way to the market, the main street was lined with makeshift stalls (like the pasar malams in S'pore), selling a bewildering variety of sundry goods, as well as Christmas essentials (fruitcake, flashing lights, plastic Mary/Joseph/Jesus, plastic mangers and farm animals).

The Voodoo market is famous because you can buy tribal medicine, including dried llama foetuses (bury in front of your new home to ensure good luck). There are also many stalls selling the usual tourist souvenirs.

Not much else to say about La Paz. The central plaza was a typical S.American Plaza: nice colonial buildings, fountain in the middle, many people and pigeons. La Paz traffic was pretty bad, and the streets are narrow and hilly. But it had a certain charm, a certain je ne sais quoi... maybe it's the road-crossing monitors dressed as zebras??

Bolivia 3: Great Snakes

2009-02-18T05:26:00.000-08:00

We wake up at 7am the next day, and take a (cold) shower. After breakfast (many varieties of tasty fried dough), we slather on the mosquito repellent, put on rubber boots, and set off on a Great Snake Finding Expedition in the pampas (grasslands).

The pampas is huge. Large tracts of waist-high grass, punctuated by a few mudpools/lakes, and clumps of trees. In the middle of the rainy season, the entire area is flooded, and becomes one big lake. We see loads of crab shells, and holes occupied by little toads. We also see random birds (including 2 parakeets overhead), and capybara.

B4 we entered a clump of trees, the guide warns us to reapply repellent. Muchos mosquitoes. And it's true. Everyone soon attracted their own little swarm. Thank God for repellent. Our guide was looking out for snakes on the trees, and 5mins later started acting like a commando in the movies-- crouched low, eyes fixated on the tree branch, urgent hand signals for us to stay back and keep quiet... He gingerly approached the tree, then grabbed an anaconda off the tree branch and knocked it onto the ground! After a brief tussle with the snake (enthusiastically aided by the Israelis), he had the anaconda by its head and body. Thus began the slew of trophy picture taking. I am embarrassed to admit that I was a participant in this. The poor snake must have been scared outta its mind, because it started defecating like crazy. When it was my turn to hold the snake, I was surprised by its slight sliminess (prob cos of the poo), and its weight (quite heavy, although it was only ard 2m). I was very happy to pass him over to the next guy. Anacondas are safer on land than in water, where they can move extremely rapidly. Snakes over 5m long can kill a man by asphyxiation.

After everyone who wanted to got to hold the snake, our guide released it, then taught us to use random leaves to clean our hands. Snake-poo cologne is very out of fashion.

We tramped around some more in the pampas, and visited a large lake (Lago Mina), which had many fish and alligators. We couldn't really see the alligators, but we knew they were there cos the fish were constantly jumping up from the water. The guys spotted a dead catfish that washed up on the shore, and the guide showed us an alligator bite-mark on its underbelly-- the likely cause of its death.

Walking back from the lake, our guide pointed out artifacts of interest-- molted cobra skin, a wasp nest, angsana fruit... Then, a whispered shout from one of the guys-- they had found a cobra under a tree! Our guide did his commando thing again, then lunged for the cobra's tail! He just missed, and the cobra slithered away at top speed. Undeterred, the guide dashed after the snake, and both did their best to beat the world record for the 100m sprint across rainforest undergrowth.

We also gave chase, and when we caught up to them, the guide had both hands on the cobra's tail, but the rest of the snake had burrowed under a large fallen log. The guide yelled frantically for one of the guys to poke the snake out from the other side of the log, but our groupmates were sadly lacking in snake-poking techniques. In the end, one of the guys took over tail-holding duty, while our guide demonstrated his impressive thrust, parry and counter thrust with a handy branch. The snake did a rapid about-turn, and after more tussling (including very impressive rearing of the cobra's hood), our guide emerged triumphant.

Again, I felt really guilty. Here was a cobra, innocently going about its business, not at all deserving of these indignities. But um. now that we have it immobilized, surely I should take a trophy picture?

Holding the cobra was much more pleasant than holding the anaconda. It was smooth, not scaly like the Ancda, and also did not smell like poo. The guide said that once cobras are captured, they become limp and play dead, waiting for their chance to escape.

The rest of the day was not as eventful. We returned from our hike feeling very VERY hot, sweaty, and grimy. The guys without repellent were in terrible shape. After lunch we went looking for dolphins, but only got close enough to hear and see jets of water from their blowholes. One of the guys had a desperate longing to swim with (and perhaps on) a dolphin, and promptly dived into the water whenever we saw them nearby. But no amount of agitation of the water surface (mimicking the sound of fish jumping), or plaintive calls of 'dolphin, dolphin..' could attract them. I saw an Amazon river dolphin at the aquarium in SF. They look like smaller, wrinkler versions of ocean dolphins. The amazon rivers used to run north to south, and the dolphins were from the pacific ocean. Then tectonic activity gave rise to the Andes mountains, reversing the direction of the rivers, and trapping the dolphins. Although why the dolphins didn't then swim north and escape into the Caribbean was a question not addressed in wikipedia... =X

We also tried to fish for pirahna, but were fairly unsuccessful. Our guide caught a few catfish, though.

After sunset, we went looking for alligator eyes. With the light from a reasonably strong torch, alligator eyes glow red at night. They look scary and evil. Since the river bank harbored multiple pockets of lurking gators, motoring down the river at night is a scene I expect to see in a S.American horror movie in the near future.

Our guide spotted a baby gator, motored into the marsh, and grabbed it. More trophy pictures. But it was very docile, and actually kinda cute. I dunno how our guide could tell the size of the gator just by seeing the evil red eyes. but i'm sure natural selection will only allow the smart guides to survive... This delightful specimen is about 2 yrs old. Mother gators stay with their brood for 1 year, after which the babies are left to fend for themselves.

Bolivia 2: Pampas tour, or close encounters with the buaya

2009-01-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

The next morning we turn up dutifully at 8.30am at the tour agency, for our scheduled 9am departure. *sigh*... we would soon learn that in Bolivia, Time is a flexible and moving target. At about 9am, more people show up, including this guy on an ATV, who commences a loud and vociferous argument with the nice ladies who run the agency. We don't really know what went on, but some sort of agreement was made, and the israeli guys he brought along stayed while he left on his ATV.So. Our group consisted of Char and I, 3 constantly smoking israeli guys, and 1 israeli guy with his peruvian girlfriend.

After an extremely bumpy and muddy 3hr jeep ride, including one memorable OH SHEEEET moment as the jeep lurched into a mudhole, we arrived at the Rio Yacuma. We piled happily into our motorized canoe, and set off, on our great Amazon adventure!

The river was awesome! It was fairly wide and muddy, and its banks housed a large amount of flora and fauna. The most common sights were: alligators and caymens (mostly small), capybara (largest rodent in the world), turtles (sunbathing on logs), herons, and this fat brown bird which our guide said was a bird of paradise. (Or he could have said 'bird parasite'... my spanish and his english both leave much to be desired)

There were 3 main types of fish in the river: pirahna, catfish and dogfish. The fish were constantly jumping out of the water, and sometimes into our canoe, triggering frantic attempts to throw them back into the water. The guide said that the fish weren't jumping around for fun nor fitness, but to avoid the murderous attempts of underwater alligators.

About the alligators: we saw mostly small ones, and the occasional huge one. When he saw an esp. big gator, the guide would motor our canoe right up to the monster. This caused extreme consternation to Char and I, and extreme excitement and joy to the very very insane Israeli guys. They all wanted to touch the gator and collect trophy photos and videos. This made the alligator very upset. Obviously un-interested in being a contestant in 'Israel's Most Macho Home Videos', it would trash violently in a desperate bid to escape into the river. Warning to all would-be intrepid bolivian travelers: If your tour grp consists of guys with Indiana-Jones complexes, go at your own risk.

We also saw the cutest little monkeys. A brief google for 'cute monkey amazon' revealed them to be squirrel monkeys. A whole troupe was at a low-hanging tree, and our guide immediately produced a bunch of bananas. The monkeys went um... nuts. Soon, we had the whole troupe's undivided attention. According to the guide, there are 3 main types of monkeys: squirrel monkeys (smallest), spider monkeys and howler monkeys. According to wikipedia, sq-monkeys have a brain:body mass of 1:17, the largest ratio for any primate. (humans have 1:35) When we ran out of bananas, the Israelis tried to tempt the monkeys with their cigarettes, but they wisely demurred (must be the immense brain: body ratio).

Char and I chatted with our guide. He has 8yrs of experience as a guide, and grew up in a small (jungle?) pueblo. He went to guide-school, but learnt everything as a kid by taking walks with his father. Charmaine expressed a desire to grow up in the jungle so that she too would learn stuff and become absolutely fearless around immensely large alligators. I'm not sure I share her desires. Sounds cool though.

After 2-3hr of canoeing, we arrive at the campsite/cabins, where we got settled into bunk beds in raised wooden cabins. Fairly nice campsite, equipped with mosquito netting, hammocks, toilets with plumbing, and more than a few toads.

The misadventures of Pearline's not-so-truimphant return to Singapore

2009-01-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

I sit here in the Silver Kris lounge at the Hong Kong airport. Life is good.

But life was not good a mere 1hr 15mins ago. At that time, I was running through the airport to catch my flight. Just like in the movies. By my side was an attractive SQ rep in heels, also running and occasionally gasping into her walkie talkie. I took a mental moment to appreciate how much my life was resembling the movie 'Wanted', which I had just seen on the way from San Francisco.

Unfortunately I had no glamorous/dangerous reason for being late. I had just over-read my time at the bookstore [although the book was an absorbing treatise on Genghis Khan, and I couldn't put it down until the newly minted Mongolian nation had stormed their first fortress in Xi Xia].

Also unfortunately (at that time), they had closed the gate. Longingly, I caressed the airplane parked tantalizingly at the gate with my eyes. So near yet so far away. I am SUCH AN IDIOT.

I trudge back dejectedly to the airport transfer desk with my attractive SQ rep. The silence was broken periodically by racking coughs from my parched throat. The movies never show this part... People are supposed to catch their damn airplanes if they run furiously enough, and scatter enough luggage carts...

Long story short, I get rescheduled on the next flight home, and the nice lady at the desk informs me that I actually have United Gold status, so please go to the business lounge and make sure I hear the announcement for boarding this time.

This lounge is SO COOL!! they have FREE ginseng soup, congee, and HAAGEN DAZS ice cream. Even though I feel a teensy bit out of place in my pajama pants and fleece in the midst of sharply dressed businessmen, I don't give a hoot. Clearly, I have arrived. Only 56mins left to enjoy this, so I'm not gonna waste my time blogging.

See you guys in Singapore!!!

Bolivia 1: We're back!

2008-12-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

Man at visa counter: $110 USD for the visa, payable in Bolivianos.

Char and I: can we pay in USD?

Man: No, only Bolivianos.

Us: We don't have any Bs. We can pay $220 USD.

Man: It is *takes out calculator* 1540Bs.

- after security-escorted trip to money changer on the other side of Bolivian customs -

Us: here is 1540 Bs

Man: You can also pay in USD.

--- a little part of us dies ----

****************

The (brief) backstory of why we were in La Paz, Bolivia:

Me: I have one last trip to S. America, where should I go?

Eujin: Bolivia. It is weird and wonderful.

Unsuspecting Me: Ok!

****************

After the visa debacle, we attempt to check in for our flight to Rurrenabaque (gateway to Amazon rainforest). But no one was at the Amaszonas counter. We were starting to feel light-headed and nauseous from the altitude (LPB airport is at 13, 313 ft), so we went to a cafe for breakfast. It was 7AM. Our flight was scheduled for 11AM.

A guy finally appeared at the counter, and said that it had rained the night before, so it was uncertain if it was safe to land on the dirt strip (aka runway) at Rurre.

The rest of the day passed in a drowsy blur, going something like this:

1. Feel dizzy. Sit down and fall asleep.

2. Wake up. Feel really good! Go to Amaszonas counter to talk to guy.

3. Guy says we have to wait. But maybe we will fly today.

4. Head starts to spin. Standing up is a bad idea. Grope my way back to seats.

5. Repeat from step 1.

2PM, the sun had apparently dried the runway enough that we would fly.

4PM, we got on the 19-seater twin propeller plane.

5PM, we landed in Rurre! Rurre reminds us of Malaysia/Indonesia/Guatemala. Dusty streets, chickens and motorcycles. But it's definitely a tourist town. There are many tour agencies, provision stores, and pizza bars.

6PM, we've booked a 3-day pampas tour with Fletcha tour agency

7PM, we've bought sunscreen, mosquito repellent, toilet paper, and water

8PM, we've had dinner, and think about going to bed. Picture below shows Charmaine in the fetal position, as she contemplates 2 more weeks in South America....

Leonard visits during Thanksgiving wkend

2008-11-30T12:44:00.000-08:00

Leonard came by frm Thurs-Mon, so I brought him to places that I wanted to go to before I left the bay area...
On saturday, we went kayaking at Elkhorn Slough. It was awesome. Sometime between 2004 and now, the resident population of harbor seals and sea otters had been busy pro-creating, because it was even better than I remembered. Sea otters are really cute, especially when they're floating on their backs, munching on crabs and other delicacies from the river bed. Unfortunately, they tend to get scared and dive down when they see leonard enthusiastically paddling towards them on his kayak.

On the way back we stopped by the Gilroy factory outlets, to do our part for the US economy. They were having thksgiving sales, so stuff was cheaper but harder to find than usual.

The next day, we met Lennon and April in SF. We strolled down Haight st, walked into funky stores selling rubber chickens and staggeringly overpriced Japanese dolls, and had brunch at the Pork Store Cafe. The Cafe reminds me of Pete's Grill in Baltimore-- seating at the counter, staring in fascination while the cooks juggled hashbrowns, eggs, burgers, grits and pancakes on huge grills. We walked out replete, filled with food and kindness towards mankind. We also smelled like grease, but that's ok.
Next, we headed for the Sutro baths and the Land's End trail. It was a fabulous day-- great weather, amazing views of windswept cypress trees, ragged rocks, and SCARY waves. The trail was quite a trot. The first part was paved and full of families. The second part was less wheelchair-accessible, and definitely more quiet. 2 miles later we emerged at Eagles Point, next to beautiful and opulent houses. We walked back through city streets, with Leonard n Lennon discussing property prices and the impossibility of buying an apartment in SF.

Leonard's last day, we went to the San Jose Tech Museum. It was underwhelming. Too many kids, and not fun if you're over 12 yrs old. The 2 cool exhibits were 1) the robot that can draw you after taking a webcam pic; 2) the computer where you can design a rollercoaster ride, then 'ride' it in a stimulator. The best part of the trip was going back to Mt View and having ramen at Maru Ichi.

Beloved Ramen!
Thy scrumptious broth seeps inside
Bringing blissful thoughts

Stuff to do

2008-11-15T01:29:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to keep busy. trying to sort stuff out.

My to do list:
1) decide on the plan for bolivia.
2) work on hfb website
3) enjoy the bay area
4) work on publishing those papers
5) check out possible labs in singapore
6) make my keystone poster
7) finish reading my books on the portrayal of women in the media in the 1960s, and green economics
8) get over my current QE obsession

so far, I have
1) made a list of possible labs
2) watched many drama serials
3) looked at random bolivian websites

conclusion-- supremely unproductive. I think i will make a good vegetable. no wonder i find myself gravitating towards those 10 pound bags of potatoes at the supermarket. clearly, i recognize them as kindred souls.

The darkness beckons.
Land of opportunity
or enticing trap?

Scattered Pieces

2008-11-01T02:17:00.000-07:00

刚刚看完2008金钟奖，很失望陈乔恩没得奖。

As an example of the extent to which I am currently obsessed with Taiwanese drama serials, I actually tried to leave a message on her blog. But I don't think it went through and reading all the chinese in that error message gave me a headache. I'm writing my msg here so I can cut and paste it later, if the urge to post comes again. Her blog is actually really hard to read because

1) the words are very small
2) cyan words on a white background kills my eyes
3) 繁体字 is the ultimate test of my already weak chinese skills

Anyways, I wanted to write:
------------------------------------
Que sera sera.

保持开朗，继续加油！

下次拍哭戏就可以用今天的feeling来培养感情咯...
------------------------------------

I promise to do work later. Right now I have to vent. Argh I can't believe Chen Qiao En didn't win!! Although it's hard to make a definite statement comparing the acting skills of QE vs Ariel Lin, her role in Fated to Love You was more multi-faceted and showcased her talent more fully than Ariel Lin's role in TKA. Comparing the two dramas side by side, I felt that QE was more deserving.

Ah well.

I've only recently begun to understand why the subtitle of the crunchyroll website, where I find these dramas, is FEED YOUR NEED.

I am amused yet dismayed that I'm once again addicted to dramas. This time is worse cos I don't really have much work to do. Trying to edit a paper takes more willpower than going to lab for experiments. But I am not alone. there are forums and blogs and official websites devoted to discussing the latest entertainment news, and hoards of fans fervently defending actress A vs actress B, and why actress C should be a real couple with actor Z... it's all super 无聊, but I'm drinking it in. shock and horror.

After the roller coaster ride of emotions that was evoked by Fated to Love You, I need some time to rest and recover. Maybe I shd film a social commentary about the Asian drama serial phenomenon. Opiate of the masses. I shall call it: Love, Laughter and Longing-- the enticement of TV drama serials.

Pearline is...

2008-09-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

- watching the seconds tick away.
- listening to Bruises (by Chairlift) on repeat on youtube
- wondering whether I can just disappear
- very impressed by Tina Fey's impression of Sarah Palin
- in search of something that will silence the little voice inside my head
- lacking the motivation to do work
- wasting her time procrastinating while she could be somewhere over the rainbow
- clearly in need of drugs
- pink and black and blue

Everclear - Santa Monica

2008-07-13T00:17:00.001-07:00

I usually don't post lyrics, but this song struck a chord.

----------------------------

I am still living with your ghost
Lonely and dreaming of the west coast
I don't want to be your downtime
I don't want to be your stupid game

With my big black boots and an old suitcase
I do believe Ill find myself a new place
I don't want to be the bad guy
I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just want to see some palm trees
Go and try and shake away this disease

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die

I am still dreaming of your face
Hungry and hollow for all the things you took away

I don't want to be your good time
I don't want to be your fall-back crutch anymore

I'll walk right out into a brand new day
Insane and rising in my own weird way
I don't want to be the bad guy

I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just want to feel some sunshine
I just want to find some place to be alone

We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die

------------------------------

Why I like being home

2008-07-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

- Being home = holiday = no work
- Being taken care of (and shamelessly taking advantage of it)
- Food, endless food

Leaving home for America always surprises me by the pang of.. um... homesickness? regret? despair?... that it evokes. Je ne sais quoi. But once I get back it disappears and I slip right back into the usual home-lab-home routine. So I know this reluctance is very temporary.

Luz is talking about marriage and looking at condos. I saw Gerry's kid at the class reunion. He is very cute. He runs around. And um.. Yirong's bf looks disturbingly like Tiannuo.

These past few weeks I feel like I've been living in a bubble-- I see and hear stuff going on outside, but I have this buffer zone. I observe but nothing seems quite real to me. Or it's like I'm at the zoo. I dunno.

I need to string together coherent sentences and thoughts, but am kinda mixed up now. Life will be better after Sept 2nd. It's a spectre that invades my consciousness and sub-consciousness and unconsciousness. I'm glad I'm going back to Stanford. I need to focus on work. Too many distractions.

I want to go home

2008-05-05T12:27:00.000-07:00

cheesy but true. I always start to miss home about a year after my last trip. But this time there's a greater fatigue, I think. Maybe I just lack stamina... but the whole PhD thing has been an awfully long process... Ok. whatever. Will stop complaining.

Yesterday I volunteered to been an extra in the inde-documentary, the 'Qiu Jin Project'. It's about the life and deeds of Qiu Jin, 'China's first feminist' according to the website. So apparently she went around inspiring women to become independent, educated, and demand equality in the household. She also trains a 'woman army', which is where we came in. Filming was yesterday at Berkerley, and they sent emails to all the Bay Area wushu lists to ask for Asian women who know wushu to be part of this 'army'.

There were roughly 30 of us: young and not-so-young, beginners to advanced, at Tilden Park. The person who played Qiu Jin is Li Jing, formerly of the Beijing Wushu Team. She taught us a basic routine, which we then did for like, 20 takes. Then we did a sequence of 10 punches for roughly 15 takes. Then we sat around looking inspired and awed while she demo-ed a routine. (10 takes) Then we sat around looking thoughtful, confused and maybe slightly inspired and awed while she made a speech about how women should be independent (10 takes each for 2 speeches). The whole thing lasted frm about 9am - 2pm.

I've decided that being a movie star is not for me. And probably being a director/camera man/producer etc is also not for me.

Check out the movie trailer, and a Lijing demo reel:

Explosion

2008-03-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

It's spring again. I know because my nose is blocked and my eyes are dry and itchy, I sneeze ALL THE TIME, and I generally feel like crap. The weather is gorgeous, the flowers are producing pollen like there's no tomorrow, and here I am, wanting to rip my eyes out to wash in a bowl of cool saline. And people wonder why I'm bitter and cynical.

xiao mei is off for break. clearly, the only bright spark in my life now is the roll of dark chocolate digestive biscuits sitting on my desk.

Just watched "Lust, Caution", the film directed by Ang Lee about the head of the Taiwanese secret service (Tony Leung) during the Japanese occupation, and a young student (Tang Wei) roped in by the resistance movement to become his mistress in order to spy on him and eventually help kill him. There's all this outrage about the film because it has some very graphic sex scenes. But after watching the show, I think that those scenes are actually necessary for plot development. Perhaps not quite as many? But at least some of them are needed. Because they demonstrate Tony Leung's dominating character, so that when Tang Wei tells her spy master to hurry up and kill Tony Leung because he is burrowing into her heart and soul, you see the empty look in her eyes, and you remember all the sex scenes, you just FEEL for this poor woman. And when the spy master simply leaves the room without ONE WORD of consolation or apology, both char and I were like "WTF!! What is WRONG with these men?"

*sigh*

Joanna was saying that women find it hard to divorce physical intimacy with emotional intimacy. Actually, I think it's probably true for most men too. Raul was telling me about his friend who was with this girl, but told Raul that it was 'just for the sex'--- but after 3 months he became all lovey-dovey and emotionally needy.

Haven't read much in a while. Am trying to take time off to write my thesis. So far, progress has been excruciatingly slow. No motivation. But today I met Nancy who defended in Dec and just turned in her thesis. And Serena has set her defense date for May.

WTF am I doing? I feel like I'm losing focus. It's hard to maintain focus because it's such a long process. I think: Ok, I need to do expt A, B and C. But expt A takes 1 month to set up (waiting for mice to breed), and 1 month to see results, and it's similar for expt B and C. so meanwhile I try to write, but I get distracted and depressed because it's taking so damn long.

I thought that maybe taiji will teach me to be calm. But I've done taiji for 3-4 yrs now and I don't think I'm any calmer than before.

Maybe Lena is right. We need to set up a thesis support group. I need someone to hold me accountable for my work. Define clear goals. 10 achievable steps to success.

1. Write chapter outlines. Decide roughly what figures and tables are needed where.

2. Plan out what other expts need to be done to fill in the blanks

3. Do the expts

4. Write chapter 2.

5. Write chapter 3.

6. Write chapter 4.

7. Write chapter 1 (intro)

8. Write last chapter.

9. Write abstract.

10. Proof read.

There! with these '10 Steps to Success', I CANNOT FAIL!!!

*mwuahahahahah*

Final day in Lima, and final thoughts about Peru

2008-02-14T00:37:00.000-08:00

Our final full day in Peru! We're not sure what to do, and don't wanna spend any $$. From our hostel in Miraflores, we decide to walk 2km to see this adobe pyramid that the LP guidebook says is free. They LIED. It costs 7 soles. and looked really pathetic from the outside, so we didn't go in.

Instead, that afternoon we catch a bus to Lima Centrale. That was definately an experience. The main plaza was filled (as usual) with lovely colonial buildings. We were intrigued by the presence of a police armored vehicle with a water cannon mounted on its roof:

We also went to Chinatown. It was the most chaotic Chinatown I've ever seen. In my entire life. There were people EVERYWHERE. and half of them were trying to sell you underwear, skipping ropes, brooms... it was incredible. Also of note were the men with the big boobs and cute behinds:

*grin*

We had a good time exploring Chinatown. Not much else to say about Lima, apart from the fact that Chris, whom we first met on day 1 without his camera, is STILL at the Samay Wasi, waiting for his mother to send him a new one.

In summary, Peru was awesome. The food was generally good, the sights were spectacular, the people were friendly, and the entire south american vibe was weird and wonderful. Much thanks to JM, Jon, Bert and Char for coming along, and being great travel companions. (One observation about traveling with guys-- they are ALWAYS hungry. ALWAYS.)

I also got a deep dark tan, and nice rosy cheeks that last to this day.

My next trip: Bolivia! Details to follow next year. =).

Machu Picchu At Last!

2008-02-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

The next morning, we woke up bright and early to buy our MP tix (a hefty 60 soles pax for students), and caught the first bus (5.30am) up to the site (round trip tix costs 36 soles -- this is turning out to be an expensive trip).

Upon entering the site, we dutifully take the first left turn as instructed by the guidebook, and emerge upon a terrace with the classic postcard view of Machu Picchu:

There! Isn't it pretty??? Note how the mountains behind kinda looks like the face of an Inca -- on the right is the forehead, the big one (Wayna Picchu) is the nose, followed by the lips and the chin. Cool, right?? At the time the picture was taken, the sun was still taking it's time to emerge from behind the surrounding mountains, so only Wayna Picchu is nicely illuminated. But when the sun came completely out, the view was even more spectacular.

We spent the next couple hours just exploring the site,

glorifying at the incredible stonework,

watching the free-roaming llamas that were grazing on the grass,

and climbing Wayna Picchu.

It was great. I was almost afraid of going because with such anticipation, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. But MP did not disappoint. It was every bit as beautiful and spectacular and wonderful as all the guidebooks and blogs and websites say it is. I mean, it's a charming stone-city set atop a hill, surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains. Just the sun reflecting off the buildings is cool. Add the lush surroundings and you've got a sure-winner. It's amazing to imagine the Incans living here, terracing the slopes, running off on the trail to other cities... btw, the rows upon rows of agricultural terraces make me dizzy. If you're an Incan suffering from vertigo, you're in big big trouble.

Then we took the bus back and looked for lunch. To our amazement and delight, all the restuarants at Aguas Calientes had cuy! Finally! They roast it in a stone oven, and it tastes pretty good. A little stringy (think tough village chicken) but I like the slight chewyness. Charmaine couldn't eat very much because she kept thinking of how cute they look when they were alive-- ironic because she was such a proponent of eating cuy in the first place.

Not much else to say about MP. The next morning we returned to Cusco, and the morning after flew back to Lima. One quick observation about the Cusco airport: it kinda worked like a bus terminal: We check in, and give them our bags. They staple number tags on your bag, put them on a cart, and bring it to the back of the office, which leads to.... the runway. It was a bit of a surprise. but we ended up safely in Lima, so all is well.

Cusco and the Sacred Valley

2008-02-02T01:38:00.000-08:00

It was with great excitement that we set off for the last leg of our journey-- Cusco and Machu Picchu! MP, the legendary 'Lost City of the Incas', was my primary motivation for coming to Peru in the first place.

After an epic 9hr bus ride from Puno to Cusco (involving a bus driver who would stop for inordinately long and unexplainable lengths of time; loud latin music, all of which seem to be lamenting this woman named 'Mariesol'; lights that would flash on and off; a little girl that started playing footsie with me...), we finally arrive with our nerves shaken, but intact. We drop our bags off at the Pirwa Hotel at the Plaza de San Francisco (nice place, free internet, but barely any hot water in the evenings), and head to the Plaza des Armes for some chow.

Cusco is wonderfully quaint. Cobblestone streets, narrow roadways, beautiful plazas. Unfortunately, the Plaza is a huge tourist trap. We were immediately accosted by one heckler after another, promoting this bar, or that restaurant, promising free Pisco Sours, etc. Didn't help that it was 10pm, and there were hardly any tourists around except us. Still. We wanted to have guinea pig (cuy), but it takes 2 hrs to prepare, so we settled for a place that had alpaca meat. Alpaca is a llama relative. 100% alpaca wool feels like merino, but smoother, and is well worth the hefty price tag. Alpaca meat is very tender-- slightly more succulent than beef. But it has a slight gamy-ness, though not as strong as lamb. It reminds me of venison. I really liked it. *salivating at the memory*

The next day was Christmas eve! The entire stretch of Plaza de SF - Plaza des Armes became a huge fair/market. Vendors had little stalls as far as the eye could see, selling typical Christmas wares-- fireworks, fruit cake, brandy, and cute little animal figurines for DIY nativity scenes!!! There was also the usual tourist stuff. It was fun. We were very tempted to buy a fruitcake. None of us liked fruitcake... but we somehow felt this incredible peer pressure (?) to get one, since they were everywhere, and everyone seemed to be buying them. I am happy to report our success at resisting temptation. Instead, we bought our train tix to MP and took a collectivo taxi to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. (On the way, our driver made a stop at his home in Urubamba, so he could drop off some tires with his parents. We were told to hang out at the Plaza to take pictures...)

The next day, we decided to explore the ruins at Pisac. It's an Incan fortress perched on the hillside, and the entire site is way larger than MP. It was surprisingly fun to explore. The guys especially were scrambling up the omg-are-these-steps-or-crumbling-slides, going through the tunnels, climbing to the top of little outposts etc with evident enjoyment. Charmaine and I were pretending to be Incan guards on patrol, scanning the hills opposite and valley floor below for signs of invaders. It was great!!! We also met a German couple who had lived in Singapore for some years, and were delighted to once again meet *german accent*: "SING-GA-PORE GIRLS".

We search in vain for cuy (guinea pig) for lunch. After lunch, I finally ask a nice man if he's heard of these 'castles of cuy'. We follow his directions, and end up... HERE:

Oh Joy! They are so cute! And they make cute gobbledy noises! We're really upset that we didn't find this place before lunch, although how would we be able to eat roast cuy while sitting next to their adorable and alive brethren???

Ah well. We catch a bus back to Olly, passing towns that had multiple processions of maidens in white dresses and weird face masks, in celebration of Christmas (Navidad). ???

That evening we take the train to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to MP.

Lake Titicaca and the Uros

2008-01-18T23:37:00.000-08:00

Lake Titicaca is a huge freshwater lake, in the highlands (12,500ft!) between Peru and Bolivia. It is also home to the Uros people, who live on the lake, on floating islands made of totora reeds. While trawling the LP forum, I read a post by some guy who actually arranged to spend a night on one of the islands. After reading his enthusiastic review, we decided to contact Victor and Cristina, who run the setup. This led us to the most unique experience of our 2 weeks in Peru.

From Arequipa, we call Cristina to arrange pick up from the Puno bus terminal. We were met by Mariebelle, Cristina's daughter. In the taxi to the lake, I try to make conversation, but my spanish is woefully inadequate. Char was in the 2nd taxi so i was missing my translator.. We end up smiling a lot at each other. Mariebelle seems like a very happy person.

At the lake we were met by Victor, and his reed boat! He rows us to the island-- Isla Qhantati. Words fail to adequately express our wonder and joy at this moment. The reed boat is so cool! The sun was marvelous! Victor was wearing this cute woolen cap! And telling us about the lake and the ducks and the totora... He tells us that each boat takes 1 month to make, and uses many bundles of totora, and 200 plastic bottles (a modern innovation). They slowly soak up water, becoming harder and harder to row, and are retired after 18-24mths. We make a mental note to give them our water bottles before we leave the island.

After navigating through a maze of reeds, we arrive at the Uros village (?), and Isla Qhantati. The island is not very big-- maybe about 10 huts, housing 5 families. (when an island gets too small for the families, they simply make a new island) It's next to many other islands, all of them anchored to poles driven into the mud. The 'floor' is made of layers of totora, which is invitingly fresh, and springy to walk on. All the Uros walk around in bare feet, but Victor advises us to wear shoes, because some of the reeds can be sharp.

Victor tells us about the history of the Uros, about how they were fishermen, who traded with the other Andean tribes. However, when the Spanish came, half the tribe fled to Bolivia, and the other half decided to escape by living on the floating reed beds in the shallow part of the lake. They still make a living by fishing, and trade fish for other necessities at the market. However, they are now also doing the tourism thing to make money to send their kids to university. Victor proudly shows us the modern improvements they have made to Qhantati-- they have solar panels, a porta-potty (for the tourists), and a little garden made from composted reeds.

In the evening, after a delicious meal, we meet the extended family, who express their delight at meeting us. They sing us a traditional song in Aymara, about the sun, the lake, and the waters of their fathers, and also a song in Quechua about being happy that the sun is shining. They then launch into an impressive repetoire of songs that other guests have taught them, in spanish, english, french and german-- one of which is 'My Bonnie lies over the ocean'. It was quite surreal. We feel obliged to also share a song. In the end, we teach them a song in mandarin about 3 little mice, and a song in english about catching fish alive..... not quite a fair cultural exchange, I felt. Here we were learning about their amazing traditions, and the bond they have with the reeds and the lake, and the only thing we can offer them about our culture is a song about 3 mice.

*sigh*

The next day was equally fabulous and enchanting. Early in the morning we went out to harvest the fishing nets that were placed the afternoon before. Victor kindly let us 'help' untangle the fish from the net. He told us that the yellow-bellied ones were female, with more fat, which is good for the brain. Apparently the Uros children are fed a lot of this brain-food, so they become very smart. =)

When we got back Victor teaches us how to weave thread around small strips of totora to make a sun-pattern. The sun is one of the most important elements, and features heavily in their crafts and embroidery. We are extremely slow learners, but Victor is a patient man.

Lunch is truncha from their fish pond! Cristina removes the spine, and stuffs it with tomato, garlic and cilantro. It is then wrapped in aluminium foil, and baked in the sun. It is AMAZING.

Unfortunately, we had to leave for Cusco that afternoon, and could not enjoy more of Victor's and Cristina's hospitality. It was the most meaningful experience I had in Peru, and I would do it a hundred times over. Highly highly recommended. However, they don't speak much english. So if you have zero spanish ability, please go take a class or two before going, or beg a spanish speaking friend (thank you Charmaine) to come along.

Arequipa, and the Life-changing Colca Canyon

2008-01-16T12:40:00.001-08:00

The bumpy bus ride from Nasca to Arequipa was not as wonderful as advertised. Bleary-eyed, we arrived sometime ard 7 or 8am, and checked into our hostel, the aptly named "Home Sweet Home". Indeed, this was the best hostel of the entire trip. For 20soles pax, we had: a private room for 5, free breakfast, free internet, and UNLIMITED HOT WATER. Oh the Joy!!! Never underestimate the moral-shattering ability of cold water.

We take a short nap, then go out to explore. The main plaza (Plaza des Armes) is extremely nice. There's a big cathedral on one side, and low colonial buildings on the other 3 sides. The square in the middle had a lovely fountain, nice trees and flowers, park benches, multitudes of pigeons... Charmaine was delighted to see that there was a protest going on. Many people were holding up banners... Didn't bring the dictionary, so don't know what the banners were saying... something about the judiciary(?) The protesters were also delighted to see us. When C went forward to take a picture of them, they shouted 'Chino!', and waved.

After lunch, we went 'shopping' for a Colca Canyon tour. The Colca canyon, which reaches depths of 3400 ft, is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon (1600ft)! We choose a 2D/1N trek from a cute tour operator named Lady. She assured us that it would be an easy-moderate hike: the guide will pick us up at 1am, we'll take a 6hr bus ride to Cabanaconde (town on canyon rim), get breakfast. Hike down to the canyon floor takes 3hrs. After lunch, we'll meander ard the canyon floor, passing several villages. 3hrs later, we shd arrive at our final village, where we relax, have dinner, then sleep. Next morning we'll wake up at 3am, hike up the canyon (3-4hr) back to Cabanaconde.

At 1am, we wait expectantly for the guide.
At 2am, we give up waiting and go back to sleep
At 2.10am, we hear a knock on the door. It's Lady, our travel agent! Apparently the guide could not find the hostel, gave up, and left for Colca without us. Lady hustles us into a taxi, and gets us tickets for the next bus to Colca.

10am, we arrive at Cabanaconde. The guide (Anhil) is there with the rest of our group-- 2 Israeli girls (Maya and her sister A--). We start hiking down the Canyon. 2hrs later, we're still hiking down. Man... this canyon goes on Forever! We can see the bottom, but it's taking a heck of a long time to get there. Also, the path is often sandy and gravelly. And Bert and Char have bad knees. This is harder than we'd thought... Conversation became as thin as the air.

1pm, we reach the bottom! Yay. Now for a short but extremely steep section up to the lunch spot. But finally! Lunch! We are so tired. Lunch was a great onion-quinoa soup, followed by tofu with rice (apparently one of the Israelis is vegetarian and had requested a veg-menu). Quinoa is an important Andean grain, regarded as the "Mother of all grains" by the Incas. An extremely interesting page about quinoa can be found on wikipedia.

After lunch, we start hiking again. The canyon is pretty green and lush this time of year, and we see random vegetation, as well as fruit trees and maize. The trail gets pretty interesting-- we were hopping over streams, and walking through a field... Oops. In front of us was a massive gully. Er. The guide mutters something, then instructs us to wait in the field. Apparently we had missed a right turn, followed a cow-route, and were now in prime grazing property.

*sigh*

we retrace our steps, and were once again on the right path. we hit the gully again, but this time there was a steep trail leading down, and a dauntingly long n steep trail leading back up. wow. this trek is turning out to be a journey of epic proportions.

suffice to say we finally make it up, and walk for roughly another hour (downhill again!?! why can't these !$^#&* people make trails on level ground?) to the final village of the day. To top things off, it was rapidly getting dark, there were storm clouds above, and it started raining towards the end.

At the village we gratefully sank onto the beds provided, in little huts with dirt floors. Although the showers were COLD, I was just so grateful to be 1) clean and 2) not walking.

The next morning, we wake up at 2am to begin our ascent back into civilization. It is a steep trail with never ending switchbacks. Charmaine was really suffering through this. Her knees had taken a beating throughout the 3 hr descent the day before, she had flat feet so her arches were just dying with every step, she was tired, and we forgot to bring food for the way up (our luggage was being carried up by a mule that would start the ascent an hour later). Our superhuman guide must have been part mountain-goat, because he showed zero signs of fatigue.

When the mules started to overtake us, one of the guys offered us a ride up for 25 soles. Char gratefully accepted, and trouped off ahead. The rest of us trudged determinedly onwards. I'm not sure how all of us survived and made it up, but finally, one of the summits ahead was indeed the true summit (and not yet another evil imposter). As I emerged onto the plain above, the sun lighting the mountains in the distance with its magical alpen glow, the town where breakfast would be served clearly in sight... emotion welled in my chest.

Unfortunately, our guide managed to get us lost again on the way to breakfast. It was another 20mins to the Most Amazing hot tea, eggs, bread and jam that I have ever had the privilege of consuming.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. We went to the Cruz del Condor, but couldn't see any condors because of the heavy mist, then returned to Arequipa via the town of Chivay (pronounced 'chee-vai'-- this has disturbing similarities to a swear word in hokkien). But that day was also the day of our most amazing Peruvian shower, and our most delicious dinner (3kg of fried pork: chicharrón de chancho with our tour operator Lady).

We left Arequipa the next morning for the town of Puno, at Lake Titicaca.

Onward: To Nazca, and Beyond!

2008-01-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

We did not linger long in Lima, but caught a morning bus to Nazca, 7.5hr away by bus. It was slightly startling to discover that our taxi to the bus terminal harbored a stowaway in the hatchback....

The bus ride was supremely boring, and was not at all assuaged by their choice of in-flight movies: Broken Arrow, Cheaper by the Dozen, Sorority Boys and Jewel of the Nile, all dubbed in spanish, with No Subtitles. As we rolled by sand dune after sand dune, I definitely had a mild 'why am I here' existential moment... But I must say that compared to the sardine-like chicken buses in Guatemala, Peruvian buses were a lot more comfortable-- with assigned seating (only 1 person per seat!) and even movies.

That night, we celebrated JM's birthday with Pisco sours (pisco is a peruvian grape brandy) and our first taste of Lomo Saltado (a 'tipycal' dish: strips of beef fried with onions and french fries-- tasted pretty good, and actually a little asian...). Back in the hotel, we went to bed early, in preparation for our early morning tour of the Nazca Lines.

Unfortunately, sometime ard 4am, we were vaguely awakened by mosquitoes, roosters, noises from a fiesta, and by people stomping around outside our room. Bert told us the next morning that he was convinced that the people outside were preparing to storm our room to kidnap us and our valuables... Um. Perhaps those nefarious characters were aware that we had 2 highly trained military personnel in the room (B & JM); Suffice to say that the noises eventually died down (hopefully someone managed to strangle the rooster) and we drifted back to sleep.

Anyways. The highlight of our Nasca adventure was the famous Nazca Lines! These are massive geoglyphs (drawings on the ground) found in the gravel-desert near the town of Nasca. While it is now widely accepted that the lines were created by the Nasca culture sometime ard 200BC and AD700, there was a theory that the lines were made by aliens!?! You can read about one attempt to disprove the alien theory-- by recreating one of the Nasca figures in a field in Kentucky-- here. I also like the Nasca info pages by BBC and the Discovery Channel.

The best way to see the lines is by plane. For US$40pax, you can hire a teeny weeny (non-polka dotted) plane to fly u over the lines. These planes seat 4-6 people total, and the pilots are extremely anxious that u get a good view of the lines-- ours obligingly tilted the plane nearly 90degrees to the right and left, to ensure that we don't miss out on the marvels of the whale, dog, monkey etc etc... My stomach was definately regretting the one cookie I had for breakfast.

After the over-flight, we arranged for a tour of the Chauchilla cemetery. The Nascans mummified their dead, and buried them in small underground tombs with objects that they'll need in the afterlife-- gold, pottery, some textiles, tools.... The chauchilla cemetery is estimated to contain about 5000 tombs!! The mummies are quite, quite macabre. There were even babies and children...

The gut-churning flight, in addition to the mummies, left us in no mood for lunch. We basically spent the rest of the day hanging out in the hotel lobby, playing cards, then caught a night bus to Arequipa.

Peru 1: Hola Lima

2008-01-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

Happy new year!! Sorry for the spoiler, but I'm back frm Perú! Safe and in one piece.

To start at the beginning.....

Last yr's trip to Guatemala was but a detour from our ultimate destination: Perú! I was convinced that I needed to see Machu Picchu before I die. This year, our merry band consisted of Bert, Jon, Jianmin, Charmaine, n myself.

We were much better prepared this time! Both Char n I had taken a quarter of Spanish, and C summered for a month in Argentina. Also, I had spent a lot more time bonding with my Peru guidebook, and drew up a rough plan on my post-it pad. Best of all, we had pre-booked our 1st night in Lima, and someone would get us frm the airport.

The adventure started at SFO: arriving in plenty of time to check in, we were horrified to find a sea of people and luggage at the TACA counter. After 1.5hrs of standing in line, and listening to the guy behind us (Mike) talk about himself and all the Silicon Valley bigwigs he knows and whom invite him to their houses in Carmel, we finally make it onto our flight and arrived in Lima without further mishap.

Our Lima hostel was in the tourist district of Miraflores, a lovely beachside district. Monica at the hostel recommended that we go to the LarcoMar mall-- a frou-frou hangout for trendy Limeños and tourists. Our first Peruvian dinner consisted of risotto, seafood paella, seabass, and ceviche. Ceviche is raw seafood marinated in lime juice, and the citric acid denatures the proteins, so it tastes cooked. Read about it on wikipedia here.

The next day, we wake up to find that Jianmin had arrived safely from Cornell. His flight was actually due 2 hours before ours, and throughout the night we had been envisioning all the possible gruesome kidnapping scenarios that might have befallen him. It wasn't helpful that some guy at the hostel (Chris) had just returned that evening from central Lima, after having 2 guys attack his Adam's apple and running off with his bag and camera. Chris was now spending the night commiserating with a Korean girl who had had her bag stolen in a bar at Cusco.

Turns out, JM had not been kidnapped. His flight was delayed due to bad weather, and he also spent some time in an interrogation room in Columbia during his stopover in Bogota. (I'm not too clear about the details here. gotta ask him yourself)

notes

2007-12-08T02:37:00.001-08:00

Apparently Bert feels that Peru is so dangerous, he's written a note for his parents in case he dies. Wah. I don't think Peru is gonna be that dangerous... but I started thinking about what I would write in my death note. Then I decided that the stuff I would write should not have to wait till when I die. Because when you die it doesn't really matter anymore, does it?

So here is an abbreviated version of my death/life notes:

To my family:
Thank you for everything. And don't worry-- my/our superior genes will be passed on through you. It's been fantastic to know that I can always depend on your support, and I constantly draw strength from that.

To Ouyang, Luz, Len, Mark n Lucas:
This sounds super cheesy, but I'm actually convinced that we'll be friends forever. And if there's an afterlife, I won't be surprised if we were friends there too-- and maybe by that time, the guys will have learnt to walk slowly enough that they don't lose us all the time--- but maybe not.

To Lisa:
Sometimes I feel like you know me better than I know myself. I don't think I need to say anything here-- you can probably write this for me. Thank you for being you.

To taiji people:
Hold the ball. And if other groups try to steal our space again, chase them away with your sword. Contrary to what ZLS believes, controlled rage does not conflict with the principles of taiji.

To 小妹:
Well, if I die in Peru I'm not sure how alive you'll be.. But it's been a whale of a ride, and I know we'll have more fun times. Keep your knees (and all other body parts) functional, k?

To everyone else:
Too many people to list. If you're reading this, pls know that I'm thinking of you right now but am too lazy to type your name here because if so I'll be writing until I die and that defeats the whole purpose of this note. At 3am, I can sincerely say that I feel nothing but love for the world, and that YOU have touched my life and it will never be the same again. This leads to very interesting thoughts about parallel universes... but that discussion will have to wait for another time.

Ok. yay. now that I'm done with my notes, if I were given only X amt of time to live I won't have to spend all of it writing this note because it's already written. Instead I would be able to do other things, like um.... eat magic mushrooms, or er... fulfill other deep dangerous desires.

bowling for soup

2007-10-27T02:35:00.000-07:00

Am in the middle of 'We need to talk about Kevin', by Lionel Shriver. Highly highly recommend the book. it's taking me a surprisingly large amount of time to get through it, though. Not only because I come home too tired to read, but also because I can only read a little before I have to stop and digest.

It's written as a series of letters from a woman to her husband, talking about their son, who had locked 11 people up in his high sch gym, and shot them.

The book is making me confront several personal issues, including

1) My long-held belief that I never will have children, and that I Should Not have children.
2) What can happen if one becomes disaffected/depressed/desperate
3) finding purpose

It also made me think about general stuff like

4) Teenagers
5) Education
6) Expectations

So.. it's quite heavy reading, and taxing both cerebrally and emotionally. It's nice that it's in a book-- seems like the kind of novel just screaming out to be made into a movie. but during a 2hr movie everything moves so fast, and you can't stop to chew on it for a day or two, and pick it up again later.

--------------------

Was talking to Joanna about the state of the economy/world/social order etc. It's very comforting to know people who are optimistic and hopeful about human nature, and who are taking steps to rectify injustices and help others.

I guess it's so easy to feel like nothing you can do will actually make a difference, so why bother. Better to run around making money so at least you have the option to make a larger contribution in future. And it's even easier once you've taken that step, to sink into the never-ending vicious cycle of Not-yet-I-don't-have-enough.

But when I wake up everyday I don't instinctively think about the millions of dispossessed poor. Should I be?? Why and/or why not??

Joanna says that in history, whenever there's been income disparity and corruption of this magnitude, the civilization will collapse. I dunno about collapse.. and she also admits that she doesn't believe that what happened to the Romans will happen now, partly because this whole thing is happening on a global scale. You can't have other civilizations rising to take the place of the old one because right now the entire world is so connected and the US has such a hegemony that if it completely collapses it'll take everyone down with it. It's like Peiyee mentioned about small banks in Germany going bust because of this subprime issue in America.

I think that the crash is inevitable. The only thing that governments, financial instituitions etc can do is plan how best to minimise impact, pick up the pieces, and try to stop such events from happening again. I'm not sure if delaying the crash will increase or decrease its effect. But I'm not an economist. I don't understand a lot of this. And I don't know whether to be happy or sad about this heightened awareness I'm cultivating about the economy n etc.

-------------------
I really really have to sleep.

A Spot Of Bother

2007-10-03T22:11:00.000-07:00

just read the book by Mark Haddon. It's good. =)

He also wrote "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" about a boy with autism.

A spot of bother is about a recent retiree who discovers eczema on his hip and becomes convinced that it is cancer and that he is going to die. However, he's an old dignified Englishman, who doesn't want to trouble anyone, least of all his wife, who he one day discovers is having an affair.

If I were a book reviewer I would call it "darkly funny" and "honest". [Although Lisa and I have learnt not to trust any film that is "darkly funny" because that is film critic code for "Not humorous at all. Just extremely weird and almost painful to watch."]

Anyways, the book made me think about

1) Retirement
This is jumping the gun a little-- even worse than Leonard's thinking about divorce.... But my goal has always been to retire early. Make $5 million dollars, then get out. Live off the interest. Yet... today at the supermarket I realised that inflation has reared it's ugly head... milk in safeway is $2.50/half gallon, $4.69/gallon. Insane. Used to be $2/half gallon. That's a 25% increase. Well... good thing my stipend has gone up to $2100/mth from $2000/mth. Truly, A*STAR makes me feel so loved.

Anyways. Moral of the story... I should raise my estimate to $10 million.

But I asked BS today what was his ideal retirement, and he said that ideally he would never retire-- that he'd be able to work a little forever and ever, and get paid for it too.

Yeah... I'm glad the world has people like BS. So the rest of us can slack.

2) Dying
In line with my early retirement plan is my early death plan. I've been thinking about Robert McGough's poem:

Let me die a young man's death
not a clean and inbetween
the sheets holywater death
not a famous-last-words
peaceful out of breath death

When I'm 73
and in constant good tumour
may I be mown down at dawn
by a bright red sports car
on my way home
from an allnight party

Or when I'm 91
with silver hair
and sitting in a barber's chair
may rival gangsters
with hamfisted tommyguns
burst in and give me a short back and insides

Or when I'm 104
and banned from the Cavern
may my mistress
catching me in bed with her daughter
and fearing for her son
cut me up into little pieces
and throw away every piece but one

Let me die a young man's death
not a free from sin tiptoe in
candle wax and waning death
not a curtains drawn by angels borne
'what a nice way to go' death

I totally disagree man. Especially about the living-till-104 part. Perhaps in 2080 living till 200yrs old will be commonplace. But perhaps not. Homo sapiens are not designed to live so long.

I wonder if there will be other species in the genus Homo after Homo sapiens.... But perhaps there will be another Ice Age soon, and we'll be wiped out all together? I've been watching the NBC drama "Heroes". It's very gripping. I don't agree with any of the science, but it makes for a great story--- people with super powers who want to do good, a pervading sense of destiny, a race to stop a foretold tragedy, powerful mysterious people who may be good or bad, husbands and wives and brothers and sisters and friends --- very addictive.

----------------

Back to 'a spot of bother': Like the protagonist in the book, I want to die a sudden death. None of this suffer-for-a-long-time stuff. Ever since I watched the movie 'Final Destination' (the first one, not the sequels), I've fantasized about getting hit by a bus.

我的青春小鸟一样不回来

2007-09-17T23:58:00.000-07:00

我的心情
是沉默。
这颗心
好重。
你是属于他的。
我的等待
一场空。

yay

2007-09-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

很幸运认识了两位中国朋友，给我介绍了google pinyin! now I can type in Chinese! Truly revolutionary. 可是我中文实在太栏了。真的哑口无言，没话可说。

I've been keeping busy by watching Taiwanese dramas online. Was hooked on 'Devil Beside Me' (恶魔在身边) starring Mike He and Rainie Yang. This drama is apparently classified as an 'idol film' (偶像片) becos the actors/actresses are super hunky/chio. Mike He is definately drool-worthy; Rainie Yang is uber-cute, AND she sings well.. *sigh*... life is not fair. =X

I have mixed feelings about Rainie Yang's cuteness. The I-love-small-children part of me wants to rush up to hug her and protect her from the world, and the small-children-are-super-manipulative-they-should-all-
be-kept-in-a-box-until-they-grow-up part of me is cringing and disgusted that she uses these act-cute tactics. Found a video on youtube where she's actually discussing with the talk show host about how to act cute and the appropriate time and place etc.

Despite my disgust at Rainie's 下贱 technique, I must admit that most girls have finely honed strategies of 'persuasion' that work on the opposite sex, whether it's the 'wide-eyed cute look', or the 'petulent pout', or the 'silent anger treatment' etc. Of course, as Rainie mentions in the video, you can't use it too often, or it loses it's effectiveness.

I've been trying to work on a technique that will work on girls, but so far have not had any success. On the contrary: upon being treated to my multiple strategies, instead of giving in to my requests, my female friends convulse in laughter. This is quite disturbing. Guys: any advice??

warning: the video is kinda long, the how-to-be-cute part comes in the 2nd half

I, Robot

2007-09-07T23:33:00.000-07:00

01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000
01001101 01000101
01010000 01001100 01010011

Lost, I Stand Alone.

2007-09-03T23:22:00.000-07:00

I just saw the documentary "Jesus Camp".

It kinda freaked me out. It's about this group of Evangelicals who run a summer camp for kids, in the name of bringing them closer to God. However, it's actually an insidious campaign to inculcate their political beliefs into 5-12 yr olds. The movie focuses on the abortion issue but I'm sure creationism, global warming, homosexuality etc etc are also mentioned in these camps.

The kids in the film are really into Jesus/God/Holy Spirit, which is not necessarily a bad thing. And while it's true that moral values should be taught when young, i think that representing global warming as 'nothing to worry about', and teaching that the earth was created 6000 yrs ago is just WRONG... I think that if people don't believe in overwhelming scientific evidence, then they shouldn't believe in television, or satellites, or DNA testing, or any of the rest of it..... If these people are truly in touch with the Holy Spirit, and if God is a Good God.... how can it be telling them to keep driving their SUVs and to teach their kids all this???

I'm more convinced than ever that the way to take over the world is with a cult of brilliant, fervent kids, who believe everything you tell them because that's all they hear. Look at the young suicide bombers in the Middle East, the children in Nazi Germany.... it's so important to catch them when they're young... and idealize 'death for the cause', because once they grow up they might start to think for themselves. I think 12 yrs old is the maximum age. Puberty is the enemy.

Pearline is..... .... sad that she missed the lunar eclipse

2007-08-29T23:35:00.000-07:00

it's ok. I'm definately gonna catch the next one on Feb 20th 2008. check out it's NASA page here.

The problem of pain

2007-08-18T00:22:00.000-07:00

I was IM-ing Leonard, who had just read my depressed post of June 30th. He told me not to be depressed because he's sure that things will work out in the end. Since Leonard is such a gd friend, I decided that it was safe to completely lose my cool and yell at him for making empty statements of assurances because

1) he can never be absolutely sure that things will work out in the end, for
2) he has no power at all over my experiments, and therefore

3) his statement only gives me false hope, and depresses me even more because it's said with such easy confidence. Everyone seems to have such expectations that I'll do fine, but they are not the ones doing failed experiment after failed experiment and rapidly running out of ideas to try and getting increasingly frantic..... *AARRRRRRGGGRGRHHHHH*

*deep breath*

SO. I've decided to make this 101th post a little tutorial about how to react to your grad student (GS) friends when they get depressed over work.

Strategy 1 -- distraction with comfort food
GS: I want to die.
Savvy Sympathizer: You poor thing. Let me buy you bubble tea/icecream/chocolate/egg tarts.

Strategy 2 -- distraction with other activities
GS: My experiments never work.
SS: I'm going to do [insert something wonderful and exciting which doesn't involve a pipette]. Wanna come?

Strategy 3 -- wise counsel
GS: My mice are (not) dying!! WHY?????
SS: Have you tried feeding them sunflower seeds? Apparently that improves their telepathy skills, and makes them tell you exactly what you're doing wrong.

Strategy 4 -- blessed relief
GS: My life is hell.
SS: *Whacks GS on the head with a heavy blunt instrument*

Negative demonstration (On NO ACCOUNT should this be tried at home)
GS: I'm never going to graduate!!
Sympathizer: Don't worry, I'm SURE things will work out in the end.
GS: *Whacks S on the head with heavy blunt instrument, and throws him out thru the window*

------------------------------

Oh.. and despite all evidence to the contrary, I'm actually doing ok. I've been practicing detachment, and it's working really well!! My suicidal tendencies are kept (mostly) in check, and surface only when people ask me, "So when are you graduating?"

I'll try to blog about happier things next time. Was at the bookstore and there was a book called "No one cares what you had for lunch -- 100 ideas for your blog." In it, the author wrote that even though it is tempting to use one's blog as a stage to gripe and whine, sometimes writing about happy things makes for a much more entertaining read.

I'm still mulling over that thought. And I tend to disagree. I think I am at my most entertaining when I'm ranting. Which brings me to a disturbing question: what if I'm at my happiest when I'm unhappy??

100th post!!

2007-08-07T12:49:00.000-07:00

Wah. For my centennial post, i HAVE to say something insightful and meaningful and and um.. worthy of my first 3-digit post!!! I have a couple of possibilities:

1) find pi to 100 significant figures
2) state 100 reasons for blogging
3) find 100 solutions to Global Warming
4) write a 100 word poem
5) embed a video of 100 attempts to stand on my head

*sigh*. I am wholly disappointed with my inability to bestow this post with the pomp and circumstance that it deserves.

random question: who is The Man? I was watching Sch of Rock (entertaining movie. classic teacher-inspiration plot with a slight unorthodox angle-- kinda like Dead Poet's Society but not as good). Anyways, apparently in Rock music, the aim is to "stick it to The Man"....

Dewey Finn: You want me to teach you something? What? You want to learn something? Alright, here's a useful lesson: Give up! Just quit! Because in this life you can't win. Yeah, you can try, but in the end your just gonna lose, BIG TIME! Because the world is run by the man!
Frankie (Angelo Massagli): Who?
Dewey: The man. Oh, you don't know the man? The man's everywhere: in the White House, down the hall, Miss Mullins; she's the man! And the man ruined the ozone, and he's burning down the Amazon and he kidnapped Shamu and put her in a chlorine tank! Okay! And there used to be a way to stick it to the man, it was called rock 'n roll. But guess what? Oh no! The man had to ruin that too with a little thing called MTV! So don't waste your time trying to make anything cool or pure or awesome 'cause the man's just gonna call you a fat washed up loser and crush your soul. So do yourself a favor and just give up!

---------
when I was trying to find the above quote on google i also saw this website about 'rethinking education'. 2 choice paras:

But throughout the movie, the students' attitudes about their education are clearly shifting-in a positive direction. In the climactic scene where the band performs, the students sing to an awestruck crowd that includes their parents: "Maybe we were making straight 'A's, / But we were stuck in a dumb daze. / Don't take much to memorize your lies, / Or feel like I've been hypnoticized./ . . . You know I was on a honor roll./ Got good grades and got no soul./ Raise my hand before I can speak my mind./ I been biting my tongue too many times."

The final lesson comes after they lose the Battle of the Bands. Finn is crushed, and a student reminds him, "Rock isn't about getting an 'A'. The Sex Pistols never got an 'A'." Ultimately this is what School of Rock is about: creating an education that is less alienating and embraces your soul instead of a system of education that dehumanizes.

---------------

yes..... but what about an education system in which you learn your ABCs and 123s?? hm but maybe that's not as impt as having a positive self image? but you can't live off self image... but maybe i think that because I've been conditioned to think that... sigh. I think Capitalism is The Man. the Establishment is The Man..... ah... all these wonderfully nebulous concepts.

How I love those JC-GP essay days when you just take 1 stand, psycho urself to fervently believe in it, then craft a paper in which you pretend to take a balanced view but actually insidiously slant your argument so that every paragraph makes a point in your favor.

OMG! Now I understand how the PAP works! THIS is how they control Singapore!

wow. I'm stunned.

Loading...

2007-06-30T01:44:00.000-07:00

Life
Is a constant fight
Against the tide
Of submission.

was just thinking about the Buddhist philosophy that life is a constant wheel of suffering, and that one has to do good deeds to gain enlightenment and freedom from the cycle of birth and rebirth. I was also thinking about how, for any society to progress economically, the upper class has to screw the lower class-- someone has to provide cheap labor, and the faster you want to progress, the harder you have to push your masses. But the problem with this is that the masses don't like to suffer. Fortunately, you have religion to keep them content. Buddhism is a brilliant, brilliant philosophy-- Of course you have to suffer now, my dearest laborers-- this is because of bad deeds you've done in your past life. Thank heavens you're still a man, and not reborn as an ant. But don't worry, be content and do good deeds now, so that you have a hope for a better next-life. Meanwhile, try to detach yourself from all emotion, and btw, eat only vegetables.

brilliant.

no wonder it spread so readily to China-- they also have millions of Oppressed that need to be kept docile.

Life SUX. I hope I get reborn as something that dies really quickly. wait... I dunno... maybe not. ARGH. Bloody hell. I have no control over anything anyways. Who in f*ck cares what I want, or hope for, or aspire for with every fibre of my being...

There exists
Two worlds
One that's there, and
One that's not.

Da Scoop

2007-05-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

This may be disappointing , though not at all unexpected.

1) Luz new bf has so far only been sighted by Mark. According to Mark, he is very shy. But at least we have one confirmed, reliable source. So we have evidence that he is real. I can't remember his name.... Samuel? Need to get his last name too so that we may google, facebook and friendster him. This will surely allow us to learn everything worth knowing, and make accurate value judgements on his personality, character, and suitability for our good friend Lucinda.

2) According to Mark, he has no love life.

3) According to Leonard, he also has no love life.

-----------

Just watched Shawshank Redemption again. Lisa is surprised that men get raped by other men in prison. I've somehow known this for a while, not just thru this movie. It is not at all surprising to me. Long/life sentences in prison is quite a while to have enforced celibacy. It's even worse than being on a boat for months and months, and look what a reputation Fleet Week has all over America. I was telling Lisa that the body has needs. And she corrected me that this is a want, not a need. I guess that's true. You don't need it to survive. But look at what happens when you deprive catholic priests.....

sigh. Humans are so flawed. but... what is perfection? Why is that perfect?

-----------------
I need to get out of my room, and out of the house. Apparently, the sun is shining outside.

Bleh.

2007-04-03T16:27:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here in lab, thinking about LIFE. Babysitting machines that take Forever to run and are liable to overpressurize and explode, tends to invoke thoughts about LIFE.

I've been instructed to blog, but so far have not accomplished any of my pre-blogging objectives-- i.e. getting the scoop on

1) Luz's new bf
2) Mark's love life (or lack of)
3) Leonard's love life (or lack of)

Realised sometime this afternoon that the reason everyone's so concerned about filing taxes is because tax returns are due in 12 days. That's bad. I need to stop blogging and start filing. This post will have to wait for another day.

GT: Final thoughts

2007-01-31T17:31:00.000-08:00

What? More thoughts on GT? I've written pages and pages already, and there's yet more to be said?????

well... I guess whatever didn't seem to belong in the other posts will go here.

1) I can't recommend our Cancun hostel highly enough. Oscar was a fantastic host, and would bend over backwards for any one of his guests. Our first day there someone complained about the mosquitoes (there were MANY), and he returned promptly with mosquito repellent, foc. He can also arrange tours to wherever you might want to go, for the lowest prices in Cancun. Plus he makes good papaya with honey. The place is called Hotel Meson de Tulum, and it's on Ave Tulum, near the bus terminal.

2) Despite some warnings about armed robberies and such in the guidebook and also the travel forum, we did not encouter any life-threatening situations. Everyone we met was friendly, whether or not they were trying to charge us exorbitant tourist prices. However, I did feel that as 2 wide-eyed innocent girls travelling alone, we got charged higher prices than normal. We definately got fleeced a couple times that I'm still kicking myself for.

3) The guards in GT carry scary-looking rifles. They were not M16s... maybe they were Uzis. These guards were mostly standing in front of ATMs, though what for when all of them were out of money?? The police also carried rifles.... It's interesting that the GT coat of arms has 2 crossed rifles.

11: Cancun, Isla Mujeres

2007-01-30T23:17:00.000-08:00

The next day, we woke up automatically at 6.30am. This was highly annoying. Throughout the entire trip we'd been waking up early to catch early morning buses. But that day was Jan 1st. According to the guy at the tourist booth, no one wakes up till noon because they've all been drinking and partying all night.

By seven we had given up trying to sleep. In the kitchen, we find Oscar busily preparing breakfast. He makes us a bowl of papaya, granola and honey. He's really enthusiastic about the papaya, and is a strong advocate of its great intestinal medicinal effects. I'm not sure about its health benefits, but papaya with honey is a great combination. On par with bananas with
honey. Hm. I'm beginning to see a trend here. Maybe it's not the fruit at all. Maybe it's just the honey.......

Our plan for the day was to go to Isla Mujeres, 20mins ferry ride from Cancun. On normal days, Oscar can sell us an all-inclusive package for USD28 that includes swimming with sharks, watching turtles, lunch, bike rentals and open bar. However on Jan 1st no tours are running, so we had to take the do-it-yourself option.

We take a ferry over. Once we step off the dock there are people trying to sell us snorkel trips, golf cart rentals, etc. We decided that we didn't wanna do the typical tourist stuff, we just wanted to explore the island. So we turn right and walked resolutely southwards.

1hr later, we realise that we've made a bad decision. There was no one else walking, we were in the middle of a residential district, the sun was really hot, and we really had no idea why we were on this island. Part of this was my fault, because I somehow managed to lose the guidebook in Flores. We watch other tourists zip by on their golf carts, enroute to places unknown, which apparently are extremely far away by foot.

We see some sort of beach resort, so we go in. hm. nothing much. a short stretch of beach. We didn't bring beach stuff. We had come expecting to explore caves, because the Slovenian girl we met in Tulum mentioned that there were caves. So we had brought a flashlight and water, but no beach stuff. We finally give up and flag down a taxi. "Where do you wanna go?" asks the taxi driver. We shrug helplessly. "We don't know. Where do people go? Are there caves?"

It takes us 5 mins in the taxi to reach the southernmost tip of the island. We get off. It was extremely anticlimatic. We'd been walking for 90mins on this never-ending island and once we get in a taxi it's barely 5mins before we completely run out of island. wtf.

We hang out on the tip of the island. The sea is very pretty. It's the most amazing shade of blue. Postcard perfect. We sit under this thatched roof shelter and drink from a fresh coconut. We watch other tourists come and go. They arrive by bicycle or golf cart. No one is walking.

We walk along the coast. We see many iguanas sunning themselves. [there were iguanas at the Tulum ruins too!] We also see nice houses.

We get back to the road and wonder how we're gonna get back to the dock. I tell Charmaine that we shd hitchhike. we flag down the next golf cart we see. There are 2 mexican boys in it. "Where are you going?" they ask.

"The dock? ferry terminal?"

They make welcoming gestures and indicated that they could give us a ride.

yay! We clamber to the back of their golf cart. They offered us some coconut. We demurred.

They try to make conversation. I answer the best I can in Spanish. They are really friendly, and I wish I understood more. too bad. They drop us off at the terminal. It took us less than 15mins to get back. I now know for certain that walking is a terrible and time consuming mode of transportation. Golf carts are far superior.

On the ferry back we overhear conversations between an American family. They discussed their day swimming with the dolphins, and the trophy pictures they had to show for it. I thought about all the walking we did, our coconut, and our gallant golfcart knights-in-hawaiian-shirts.

From the port we had to walk back to the hotel (1hr) because the buses weren't running, and the minivans were full. Somehow this doesn't seem like an auspicious start to the New Year. But on our way back we buy a pineapple popsicle. We decide that both Guatemala and Mexico have good frozen popsicles.

Back in the hostel, people ask us how our day went. We mumble something evasive about how blue the sea was. and how much we like coconuts.

The next day we wake up, had our breakfast papaya, checked email, took a bus to the airport. We had a lot of fun, but I was happy to be going home. I really needed bubble tea and instant noodles.

Diez: Tulum

2007-01-28T12:12:00.000-08:00

At 5am we were very happy to board our Mexico-bound bus, and fell immediately into grateful slumber throughout the 11hr journey to Chetumal. From Chetumal we took an evening bus to Tulum, 2hrs south of Cancun.

At Tulum, we were lucky to get beds at the Weary Traveller Hostel with two Slovenians from the bus, Goran and Mirjana. It was Dec 30th and all the hotels were full, even the super-expensive ones by the beach. We only got our beds because of a tip from a taxi driver, and 4 dutch people who did not show up to claim their reservations. The weary traveller was a nice place: 100 pesos pp gets you a bed, shared internet, and free breakfast!

Breakfast was do-it-urself toast and eggs. We tried to make sunny-side ups on the large grill, but these eggs had super-large and fragile yolks, which broke upon impact. We ended up with scrambled eggs, despite Charmaine's self-declared mastery of the art of egg-cooking. =(.

There was also a free bus to the beach, where the tulum Mayan ruins were. For NY eve, admission was free for students! We spent a happy hr or 2 exploring the ruins (quite small, not very impressive) and admiring the blue blue Caribbean sea.

Walking back to the beach, we saw a small group of people pointing at a tree. Typical S'poreans that we were, we decided to take a look.

On a branch was a tiny bright green vine snake, but protruding from its mouth was the struggling body of a bird! The snake had it's mouth over the head and a little bit of the shoulders of the bird, but it still had most of its wings and body free. Over the next 15mins, we watched in sick fascination as milimeter by milimeter, the bird disappeared. Finally, it was simply a massive lump in the body of the snake.

cor.

crazy.

I tried very hard, but couldn't find any pictures on the internet of small green snakes swallowing medium-sized black birds. So no pics, sorry.

----------------
After the beach we went back to the hostel to check email (They hung Saddam!!), pack, and catch a bus to Cancun. We had reservations at the Hotel Meson de Tulum (in cancun, not in tulum), in downtown cancun. It's an extremely friendly place. The guy running the joint is a German-Mexican named Oscar, called 'blondie' by the locals even though he is now quite bald. Although Oscar was born and lived in Mexico for many years, he has a tall hulking German frame, and perspires profusely in the sweltering Cancun heat.

Anyways, Oscar had a little BBQ for the hotel staff at about 10pm that night, and invited everyone to join them for sausages, bbq and pico de gallo. There was a group of mexican boys on staff who had guitars, an amplifier, and great singing voices. There was also a group of Korean girls there who clapped enthusiastically at the end of every song, and took many pictures. At midnight there were some fireworks to commemorate the New Year. Oscar broke out the champagne.

Feliz Ano!

GT 9: flores again, enroute to cancun

2007-01-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

It was Dec 29th. Our flight leaves Cancun on Jan 2nd. We have cancun reservations for Dec 31st and Jan 1st. It was time to head back to Mexico. We consider our options:

1) Take a ferry to Belize, bus up the Carribbean coast. That was the original plan. but the guidebook had no info about buses in Belize and we were once again low on $$. And everyone says that Belize is expensive. So instead we decided on

2) Bus back to Flores and retrace our steps to Chetumal and Cancun.

We catch an afternoon bus to Flores, and buy tickets for the morning bus to Chetumal. We now have about Q120. Hm. The cheapest room would be a dorm at the Los Amigos hostel, Q25pp. The time was about 7pm, our bus leaves at 5am. Getting a bed would be such a waste of $$.

We decide that we were not going to get any accomodations. Instead, Parque Centrale would be our home for the night.

The park is simply a small plaza in the middle of the island of Flores. There's a taco stand, a restuarant, an icecream stall, and a basketball/soccer court. Since it was Christmas, there was also a huge lighted Christmas tree perched atop a big red Gallo box. Gallo (rooster) is the local beer. We'd seen the tree the last time we were at Flores, but now we had the time (8 hours) to really appreciate it. We realised that Gallo really went out of their way to decorate this tree. There were big lighted Gallo icon ornaments, and even a huge rotating Gallo sign at the top.

It was Friday night, and many people were out at the park. There was some sort of street soccer tournament going on, and also a mirimba band.

at 10 plus-11, the soccer was over. the band stopped playing. We think there was some party somewhere else cos we heard music... we hang out on our park bench, trying to pass time. We tell each other our life stories.

Our lives are either very short or very boring, because we were done and it was only 12.30 or 1am. We bring out the cards to play dai-di (big 2). We see some drunk singing guys walking past.

This one guy comes up to us. He looks very happy and interested in our cards. He makes little exclamations of joy, and watches us play. then, 2 drunk guys appeared and asked for money. "One quetzale!" the guy pleads. we pretend not to understand. wtf... we were not going without a bed that night just to give all our money to this guy to buy beer....

The happy card guy argues with the drunk guys. He tells them we have no money. We are very confused. who is this guy? is this some sort of ploy so that we give the happy guy our money instead? We decide to continue playing daidi while the animated verbal battle rages around us.

The 2 drunk guys leave. the happy guy stays. we remain confused.

The happy guy asks, "No dormir?"

"No", we tell him.

"PORQUE?" (why) he asks with a dramatic flourish.

we try to tell him about our lack of $$. he doesn't seem to understand. "mi casa" he says, pointing to the house next to the park. "PORQUE?" he wails, intermittenly.

He gestures to our cards. "Chung king?" he asks.

"No.... um.... big two?"

hm. he takes our cards, shuffles them. "ok. Chung king". He launches into a stream of spanish. We shrug helplessly. After some time I think he realised that we are very confused and have no idea what's going on. He places several cards face up. "Yes, yes, yes", he says to each card. He takes out other cards: "NO! NO! NO!" He doesn't seem to like those cards (8, 9, 10). In fact, he ferrets out all the 8s, 9s and 10s, and puts them in a pile under my bag. He shuffles the rest, and starts giving out cards. "nueve (9)" he says at the end. The rest is in a pile at the center. He looks at his cards. "YES! YES! YES!" he exclaims, clutching them to his chest. "Very good!" He beams. He opens the top card on the pile. "You!" he points expectantly at Charmaine.

She is Very Confused. I am Very Confused. You could practically see the question marks coming outta our ears.

he sighs. He takes out several cards. there were three 7s, i think. "yes" he says, pointing to them. He also groups together a 7, J, Q, and a J, Q, K. "Yes." He points at those too.

After a few false starts, we were surprised to find that we were understanding how to play this game. It's actually some version of Gin Rummy. But the best part was this happy guy. He was hilarious. Incredibly dramatic, he would either be estatic over his cards, or abjectly despondant.

"NOOOOOO!!!!" he would practically sob. "Nada!!" he would wail, looking mournfully at his cards.

Charmaine was a little slower at getting the game (probably cos I had 3 chpts of spanish on her), so sometimes he would help her play and be deliriously happy when she won.

"Champion!" he pumped his fists in the air.

He talked to us a little. He said he was 23. He didn't believe Charmaine was only 19, and firmly told her that she was at least 21.

He played cards with us from 2-4am, then went home, but not without another "No Dormir??? POR-QUE?"

GT 8: Rio Dulce

2007-01-28T00:52:00.000-08:00

Sad as we were to leave Antigua, I was nevertheless pretty psyched about our next destination: Rio Dulce (gentle river). For one thing, it is back in the jungle/tropical part of GT, while Antigua is in the highlands, where it gets COLD at night. Our hostel had no heating, and windows that do not shut; after barely sleeping the 1st night, I wore every single piece of clothing I had to bed the 2nd night, and finally managed to get some shuteye.

The Austrian guy (Thilo) in Antigua recommended staying at Casa Perico. It's 10mins by boat from the town of Rio Dulce/Fronteras, in a little waterway branching off from the main river. Tucked in the jungle/mangrove, the hostel has nice little cabanas on stilts, hammocks (Hammocks!), a bar, and little dugout canoes. We took a canoe out to explore the river, and learnt that

1) dugout canoes are extremely wobbly
2) zigzagging wildly from left to right to left riverbank is not the most efficient way to travel

(picture credit: Eve Andersson's Rio Dulce page)

The next day we took a bus to Finca Paraiso, home of the agua caliente (hot water) waterfall. The bus drops us at the little open hut/shelter. There's a guy inside with a metal box collecting the entrance fee. Then this other guy wearing a yellow t-shirt that says 'SECURITY' starts walking into the jungle and gestures us to follow. He talks to me in Spanish. I think he's saying good things about the waterfall, because he mentions 'agua caliente' and there's a huge smile on his face. I try to talk back. We lapse into silence.

10mins later we descend to the river bank and Oh! there's the waterfall! It's tucked in a little corner of the lush forest-- a side tributary (hot water) falling into the meander of the main brook (cold water), with water so clear you can see the pebbly bottom.

We get into the water. hm. it's a weird mix of hot and cold. We swim to the falls and clamber up to the rocks at the base. We manage to find several good spots where, positioning ourselves just so, we could sit or stand against the rocks, and have the hot falling water massage our shoulders and back.

BLISS.

I felt like I could stay there forever. When we felt too hot we simply stuck our feet down to the cold stream, or take another swim before climbing back up for more hot massages... it was better than any spa I've been to!

[um... actually that's not saying very much because I haven't been to ANY spas... but trust me, it was good.]

-------

We reluctantly tear ourselves away from this little spot of paradise, mostly because 2 large guatemalan families, each with about 15 assorted children, parents and grandparents, had arrived. We wait along the road for 1.5hrs for the bus while baking slowly in the sun. We think about buying an orange from the little girl selling oranges at the hut. we also think about walking back to Rio Dulce, probably a 2hr walk if we didn't get lost. [ok, actually I was thinking of walking, but was easily disuaded from the idea by Charmaine]

A quick aside here about oranges in GT: they get peeled using this interesting orange peeler contraption. you stick the orange between the clamps and just turn the handle. viola! perfectly peeled citrus. every fruit and drink cart seems to have one, and hawkers clamber up to your bus bearing baskets of peeled oranges for your Vit C-consuming pleasure.

Guatemala siete -- Volcan Pacaya

2007-01-27T23:16:00.000-08:00

On our second day in Antigua, we joined a group hike up Volcan Pacaya. Wikipedia's entry on Pacaya can be found here, and the entry on types of volcanic eruptions can be found here.

There are 4 volcanoes near Antigua:
1) Fuego: the most active one. there's always a little fume cloud visible above it's crater, and views are supposed to be spectacular at night.
2) Acatenango: the tallest one. but less accessible, the hike is 14hrs roundtrip.
3) Agua: don't know much about it.
4) Pacaya: the most accessible, and the easiest to climb. The hike is only about 2 hrs roundtrip. It's an active volcano, the last eruption was 2005.

Our grp was fairly large, about 15-20 people. The hike was easy and uneventful, till we got to the lava fields. The view was great! Very rewarding for an hour-hike. It was a clear day, we could see verdant hills to the left and right. We also saw Agua in the foreground, and Fuego and Acatenango slightly further away.

The lava was also quite impressive. There weren't any active flows that day, but there were vents here and there, from which fumes were emerging. The air near the ground was wavy from the heat. And if you looked into a vent you get a blast of hot air, and can see red hot lava inside. It was VERY COOL. um. in a very hot kind of way.

A Swiss guy in our group had bought a branch/walking stick at the trailhead and was sharpening it with a fanatic grin throughout the hike. At the lava field, our fears of being attacked by this potential escaped serial killer were thankfully put to rest, when he produced from his backpack: a pack of hotdogs! He stuck one onto his stick, and happily roasted it at the mouth of a vent. Soon, delicious hotdog smells were produced and everyone suddenly developed strong hotdog cravings.

The next time I climb a volcano, I have to remember my hotdogs. and maybe marshmellows.

Other thoughts on Pacaya:
1) It didn't smell bad! Frm previous trips to Lassen Volcanic Park in CA, I'd expected Pacaya to smell like the sulphur pits there, one of which is aptly named "Bumpass Hell". However, the Austrian guy who attempted the Pacaya summit said that the fumes from the crater were really thick and sulphurous.

2) solid lava feels hollow. Sounds hollow too, when you walk on it. It's also kinda crusty and sharp. On the weakest parts, felt like if you stamped hard on it your foot would go right through.

---------

Other thoughts on Antigua:
1) We had the most wonderful lunch after our Pacaya hike. Q15 yielded really good chicken with rice, some sort of juice, and bananas with honey for dessert. I've decided that bananas with honey is a truly exceptional combination.

2) We finally tried a frutas helados (fruit icecream), and it was fantastic! Throughout our trip and especially at the Chichi market we've been seeing the locals eat frozen popsicles that they pull out of a plastic cupcake thinggy. It's basically little chunks of fruit frozen with fruit juice or cream/yogurt. We bought the 'mixed fruit' flavor and there were mangoes, bananas, pineapples etc in mango (or mebbe peach) juice. It made us very happy. Antigua is a lovely place.

GT SIX: San Marcos de Laguna, some Antigua

2007-01-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

Panajachel is but one of many villages around Lago Atitlan. There were many others, which the book urged us to check out. So we took a launcha (motorboat) to the village of San Marcos, touted as having a "Zen-like atmosphere".

It was not very Zen. It just looked like a slightly nicer village. The dogs were slightly less dusty, and the chickens tended to stay in their yards. I guess compared to the rest of GT, it's about as Zen as it gets. They had some really nice hotels, though. We had dinner at Hotel La Paz, which had mystical Zen music wafting from the kitchen, organic gardens, and a Mayan sauna (basically a small square oven). But we had a very nice meal there, and talked to other travellers-- one of whom was Paul Miller, D.O., who provided an extremely thorough history of osteopathic medicine while trying to feed his 9 yr old son.

Anyways. Not impressed with San Marcos. We liked the lake, though. On a fog-less day, the water is very blue (Charmaine is very impressed by blue water), and the volcanoes made a nice backdrop to the whole tranquil scene.

We leave for Antigua. We really liked Antigua. It's a small colonial town, with cobblestoned streets (pretty, but try driving on them and your butt will hate you), and half-ruined churches. Apparently, the churches were once lavish baroque affairs with ornately painted walls and ceilings. But the spanish had to build them in Antigua, which is smack in the middle of 3 very active volcanoes, and a hotbed of seismic activity. 2 or 3 large devastating earthquakes later, they gave up rebuilding the churches to their former glory, and were content to just rebuild the large hall and alter part. The rest of the ruins are not wasted, though. They just fence it off and charge tourists admission fees to see them.

We went to see the ruins of the Inglesia de San Francisco, which were surprisingly fun to explore. The church was huge! We could clamber up to the second floor of a somewhat intact part of the structure, and see how the rest of the thing had fallen apart. We also went to the museum, which turned out to be a tribute to the priest who founded the church, Hermano Pedro (Brother Pedro). The museum was full of plaques and cards addressed to Hermano Pedro, with much effusive thanks. There was also his robes and stuff in glass displays. One of them was a pair of shorts made of some coarse hemp-like cloth, and I didn't understand much of the accompanying sign, but I made out the words 'Ropa Interiors'.

So. We think they were his underpants.

We've decided that the hallmark of acheivement-in-life is to have people love and honor you so much that when you die, they set up a museum for you and display your underpants.

GT 5: Lago Atitlan

2007-01-08T17:15:00.000-08:00

Lake Atitlan is reputably one of the most beautiful places in Guatemala. It's a caldera in the Guatemalan highlands, nestled between mountains and volcanoes. Maybe it was the slight fog/smog clouding my view, but on first glance, I felt that the Palisades near Bishop in California has far more astounding bodies of water, and that Lake Tahoe also gives Lago Atitlan a fair fight.

Anyways. We arrived at Panajachel on the chicken bus, and found a place to stay. Pana is clearly a tourist town. Stalls selling everything from wooden flutes to cloth bags and hippie necklaces. Many Mayan women from surrounding villages come to sell brightly colored clothes that they weave themselves. We saw one of them actually weaving on her wooden loom by the lake. There were also many hammocks. I really wanted a hammock....

We get back to the hotel. I wanted to take my camera out to photograph the lake.

But it wasn't in my bag.

I check again.

hm. my anti-diarrhea pills and pen were also gone.

It took a while to sink in.

I think that while we were on the van to Guate from Coban, the family in the backseat with our bags must have opened the front pockets and taken it.

ARRGH. I am stupid stupid stupid. Firstly, I should have had my camera with me at all times. Not in my bag. Secondly, if my bag was in the back seat, what the @#$! was I doing in front?

*sigh*

It's ok. Expensive lesson learnt. I'm just not fated to own a working camera.

.
.
I hope they get constipation
.
.

The next morning we took a day trip to Chichicastenango. Yeah, i know. All their names are like that, especially in the highlands. Chichi is famous for its huge markets on thursdays and sundays, when tourists flock there to purchase brightly colored, intricately embroided cloth, bags, hammocks [HAMMOCKS!!], oven mitts (!!??! there were some in the shape of a chicken!), masks.... the list goes on.

but the best part about chichi is that it's not just a tourist thing. For decades it's also been where the surrounding villagers would come to obtain fruits, veg, beans, cloth, thread, kitchenware (we saw some HUGE machetes), flowers, meat (which surprisingly did not smell bad, unlike the wet markets in Singapore)......

Our first order of business was to procure breakfast. The guidebook said to ignore the fried chicken foodcarts, and head for the food stalls right in the middle of the market, where the locals go for cheap meals. So we walk reluctantly pass the delicious smells of fried chicken, and head towards our best guess as to where the centre was. Somehow we manage to stumble on a row of food stalls. Most of them were selling cornflakes with milk, and something that looked like gruel, or oatmeal. Hm. We gave up fried chicken for cornflakes?? We walk on.

Then I saw a stall with people eating stuff wrapped in some sort of leaf, or corn husk.... erm.. it was green, and looks like it came from a plant. So we take a seat. We point to the plate of our neighbor to the left, and ask the lady manning the place: "Que es?"

"tamale"

"Ah! Ok. Uno tamale, por favor."

We share the tamale, which is glutinous rice that tastes a little salty. There were some random chicken parts (including a toe) in it. It actually tasted pretty good (though I didn't try the toe).

Hm. still hungry. We point to the plate of our neighbor to the right, "Que es?"

"Choquito"

AH. The lonely planet guidebook tries to approximate cost of living in each country by listing common items and their prices. Under guatemala they had: bottled water $0.50, beer $1.50, choquito $0.50. Apparently, a choquito is cornmeal baked in a cornhusk, often filled with some sort of meat. Since the book uses choquitos as one of their cost-of-living measures, we had expected to find Guatemala crawling with people eating and selling choquitos. However, we had been in GT nearly a week but all we'd seen were tacos and hotdogs. So. We were very excited when she said, "choquito". However, when we ate our choquito we found that we didn't really like it. The cornmeal was firm and dry-- the tamale tasted much better.

The rest of the day was not very eventful. We didn't wanna buy anything at chichi because the prices were kinda inflated, and the sellers didn't seem willing to bargain very much. The stores at the outskirts had less traffic and the prices were better there, but by that time we were so tired we could barely muster the energy to ask "cuanto cuesta? (how much)", much less get down to bargaining.

That day was Dec 24th, Christmas eve. Random stores, and even the chicken buses, had their radios tuned to upbeat Christmas music. There was the ever-popular 'Feliz Navidad', and we were surprised to also hear 'Santa Claus is coming to town' in spanish.

Guatemaltecos celebrate Navidad with fireworks and firecrackers. Lots and Lots of them. In fact, for the past 3 nights we've had some difficulty sleeping because of all the explosions outside. On 24th Dec, it's a full day thing. Children will light a firecracker, throw it out into the street, then run back to hide behind their doorways and watch it explode. So. When you're walking along the street, you have to be on constant lookout for giggling groups of children. When you see one dash out, then disappear, it is wise to also take cover in the nearest doorway.

We had a very low key Christmas eve. We went to a bar for happy hour Pina Coladas, then went back to watch TV till the explosions started in earnest (about 11.45pm). On our way back to the hotel we saw a 'parade' of people dressed up as random characters (I think there was a Little Mermaid and maybe also Tigger), followed by a whole group of children led by a teacher (?). We're not too sure what that was about, but were happy that with all the children out of the way, we could get back relatively unscathed.

Standing on the balcony of our hotel, we could see fireworks from at least 3 directions. It was actually pretty impressive. They didn't have the fancy ones that explode into different shapes, but they had the nice big ones, and also the sparkly ones. There was also one that was just one bright, loud spark on estacy. It shot up with a 'WHEE' sound, then proceeded to make spiralling loops, change directions abruptly, go up and down, until finally, exhausted, fell gracefully in a shower of sparks. That was really cool. We were hoping for more of those, but I guess they ran out of estacy.

GT - numero quatro - Coban-Guate-Pana

2007-01-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

The next morning we caught the 5.30am minivan to Guatemala City. All buses and minivans in GT work like this: there's the driver, who just drives. Then there's his helper/conductor, who's in charge of collecting fares, squeezing everyone into the bus/van, negotiating with the police roadblocks, calling out the stops, and loudly advertising their final destination. So I heard the minivan before we actually saw it, because cries of GUA-TAY! Guatay-guatay-guatay! were piercing the night air. [guatemala city is abbreviated to 'guate']

The conductor gestures for our backpacks, and puts them in the backseat. We take a seat in front. It's a 3.5hr ride to guate. We doze. People come and go on the minivan, including a family of 5 with a chicken in a cardboard box, all of whom squeeze into the backseat.

Guatemala City! It's huge! Traffic is insane: buses, cars, taxis fighting for space. No skyscrapers, just 2-storey buildings, foodcarts and women selling vegetables and clothes displayed in mesh baskets, or simply blankets on the ground. We stop in the midst of all this bustle and everyone gets off the bus. We get a taxi to the Panajachel bus terminal.

The terminal was more like a garage with 3 buses in it. There was the driver, the conductor, and 2 other guys. As the bus driver started the engine, one of the guys said to us, "ten minutes, sleep! zona eight, normal!"

huh?

He repeated the cryptic message, then tried to explain in a whole stream of spanish that included the word 'policia'. He pantomimed lying across the bus seats and sleeping, indicating that we should do the same. The other guatemalan guy was already stretched out across his seat.

Feeling extremely confused, Charmaine and I decided to follow suit. The bus pulled out of the terminal.... Lying there, staring at the ceiling, a myriad of tumultuous thoughts.... It was a very existential 10mins.

Then, the bus stopped. Several normal people boarded, and appeared mildly surprised to see us stretched out on the seats, our feet sticking into the aisle. We hastily assumed normal sitting postures. Up till today I have no idea what happened that morning.

So we took that Guatemalan 'chicken bus' to the town of Panajachel, on the shores of Lake Atitlan. This is how the locals travelled and there was much discussion about these buses on the travel forum. The most succinct description I could find was "Chicken bus? Whoo hoo!"

These buses are old US school buses, given fresh paint in various bright colors. each one is slightly different. The one we were on was green and red, with a little santa hanging from the rear view mirror. I've seen bright red ones with yellow flames on the sides and hood, and also one painted like an italian flag. Bulky luggage was thrown on the roof, and the conductor could sometimes be found riding on top, ready to throw off bags at the next stop.

Char n I were sitting 2 to a seat on the bench seat. But each stop more and more people boarded the bus. people started sitting 3 to a seat. I had this random guy jammed against me, n I in turn was shoulder to shoulder with charmaine, who was getting intimately acquainted with the window. Soon, people were standing in the aisles, but they just kept packing them in. Then, the bus slowed down and the conductor yelled something in spanish. In unison, every single person standing crouched down. The bus slowed to a crawl. I saw policemen by the side of the road. The conductor jumped off.

2mins later he jumped back on, the bus sped up.

All the crouching people stood up again.

wtf?

It was definately an experience. I spent 4 hours on that bus, feeling like a sardine. By the end of it, I realised that my right butt and leg had cramped up because I was so squashed, all my weight was only on my right butt cheek.

At random stops, and especially at popular bus-terminal villages, there would be boys, men and women, hawking fried chicken, cold drinks, tamales, ice cream... the list goes on. There were even travelling salesmen that would board and ride with us for a couple stops, while earnestly trying to sell magazines, notebooks and miracle medicines. There were always at least a couple of people in that captive audience of 150 passengers who wanted to buy a trick bandage you can wear over your finger, that makes it appear like you've been pierced by a nail, for only Q10.

Them guys can shout really loudly and quickly. Those tougue twisters in grade sch would have been such a piece of cake for these professionals. That night lying in bed in Pana, the cries of "Pollo-pollo-pollo-pollo-POLLO!!!" and "Helados-helados-helados-helados-helados!" were still resounding in my head.

GT III- Coban

2007-01-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

Next stop: Coban. An often-missed destination right in the middle of GT. However, the travel forum folks waxed poetic about the turquoise pools of Semuc Champey, and the guidebook listed it as one of 5 highlights, so straight after Tikal we packed our bags and left Flores in a minivan.

From Coban it's a 2hr mountain road to Lanquin, then a 20min narrow bumpy dirt path downhill to Semuc.

From About.com:
Semuc Champey, which means "Sacred Water" in the Mayan Kekchi language, is a natural limestone land bridge studded with a series of freshwater pools, suspended over the Cahabon River. The pools range in color from emerald to near-violet, and the water is deliciously cool. Lush, forested hills cradle the river, which surges below the bridge in a ferocious undertow.

Before swimming, we took a side trail that said: El Mirador. Difficulty: Difficult. 1.5 hr. There was an explanation of what we could expect from El Mirador at the entrance to the park. But once again my woefully inadequete language skills failed me. So, heeding our masochistic instincts, we started gleefully up the path.

There was a lot of climbing up steps cut from the mountain side. There was a lot of mud on these steps. If my name were Wilbur and I go oink, I'd have been really happy. Unfortunately, our sad lack of schizophrenia made us increasingly upset over the state of our shoes. I also had visions of slipping and sliding down the mountain. I stole glances away from the ground and towards the trees, hoping to find a nice banana leaf to slide down on. But no such luck.

All of a sudden, we were at the top. We had been climbing steadily up, and now found ourselves on a wooden platform, drinking in the view of a deep river valley flanked by forested hills. The pools were far below us, promising delicious respite after that treacherous climb. yay.

We slipped and slid back down, then tiptoed gingerly into a pool. Cold!! But the sun was out and it was a fantastic day. We lounged around, swam a bit. There were little fishes that came to nibble our toes. They were swarming about Charmaine and I was starting to get jealous-- why don't they like MY toes?!?!? Then they came to mine too, and we were both sitting in this pool, giggling like schoolgirls because it really tickled. (yes yes, we ARE schoolgirls, but that's not the point) Attempts to grab a fish failed miserably, till I devised the brilliant strategy of cupping them from both sides.

By late morning there were 4-5 guatemalan families also seeking a nice swim, so we decided to head back to lanquin to check out the caves. We waited at the entrance for the hourly bus that would arrive in 20mins.

1.5hrs later, we decided that the bus was never going to come. I tried asking Carlos, a really friendly boy that was selling cold drinks from his cooler, about the bus. I couldn't really understand his spanish, but I heard 'eleven', 'twelve', 'one'. He shrugged. With my brilliant powers of deduction, I think he meant that the bus might come at eleven, or twelve, or one... who knows? We settled down for a long wait.

A guatemalan family who was hanging out at the visitor's center starting piling into their minivan to get up to lanquin. Initially, I considered asking them for a ride, but as more and more of them appeared and went into the van, I realised that there probably wasn't room for 2 more. I think they had 15 people, plus 2 babies, in that van. I debated the merits of climbing on the roof of the van and hanging on. Charmaine did her eye rolling thing at me again. I don't understand why her optic muscles need so much exercise.

Then, a pickup arrived, bearing gallons of water. Boys swarmed out, unloading it. The pickup turned around. I called to Carlos, "?para Lanquin?" I gestured frantically at Charmaine and myself and pantomimed riding on a pickup. Carlos' eyes light up. !Si! He talked rapidly in spanish to the boys driving the pickup.

whoop! We piled into the back. Charmaine, myself, 2 other girls who were waiting for the bus, and this guatemalan guy.

10 minutes later, clinging on for dear life, trying not to slide off the pickup as we disregarded all the potholes on the steeply inclining slope, I wondered if I would still have any teeth left by the time we get to lanquin. I was convinced that they were gradually being shaken loose from my jaw. The guatemalan guy was still sitting nonchalently at his corner-- I think he was enjoying the breeze.

Because of all our productive waiting at Semuc, we decided that it was too late to visit the caves. The bus to Coban should arrive shortly.

Much to my surprise, the bus came on time! But it was a minivan, packed to the gills. The bench seats were packed 5 to a seat, and wooden boxes served as extra seats. I sat on a wooden box in front, facing backwards, my back pressed against the backseat of the guy riding shotgun. I couldn't lean forward because there was a guy stooping right in my face-- he was standing on the little step that minivans have between the door and the seats. I wish I had a good picture. I'm sure there were at least 25 people in that van.

Back in Coban, we decided to go to Vivero Verapaz, an orchid farm 3km outta town. The owner Juan was really friendly and showed us around personally. The 25 yr old farm is his backyard, where he has over 600 species of orchids!! Most orchids only bloom 2 months in the year, so not everyone had flowers, but those that did were SO PRETTY. Exclamations of "!Muy Bonito!" escaped from our lips at every step. I'm not a flower person, but I was very impressed. The coolest ones are the mini orchids, which can be so small you can fit 4 of them on the back of your pinky fingernail. With a digital camera, with miminal zoom, macro settings and the maximum light sensitivity, all attempts at capturing them on film failed miserably. Our hands were shaking like crazy, though we hadn't had any coffee.. The pictures below are the Monja Blanca (white nun -GT nat'l flower), and the only good mini orchid pic I could find online. We didn't see this species at Coban, but it's such a nice pic I've put it here anyways. The only problem I had at the farm were the hordes of mosquitoes. We were fresh from a bath at Semuc and didn't reapply repellent-- deep regrets.

Guatemala II- Tikal

2007-01-07T01:42:00.000-08:00

From Chetumal we had a 10hr bus ride to Flores, in Guatemala. Our actual displacement was not that great, but there was no straight road b/w Chetumal and Flores. We had to go SE to Belize City, then SW to Flores, paying all these border fees at every stop. Pisses me off. Only the Belize exit fee is legitimate, and that's US$15/person, when we're simply passing thru their #$%! country. The Mexican & Guate fee I'm sure went straight into their 'border officials beer fund'.

Ok. Nevermind. We get to Sta Elena and transfer to a minivan at a gas station. I think this was also a bit of a setup. The minivan guys were affiliated with some travel agency, and tried to bring us all to this one hotel, and kept asking us to take their Tikal tour. Tikal was a great Mayan city, and the restored ruins is THE place to go near Flores. Eujin highly recommended the Tikal sunrise tour, so we signed up for that. But first we needed to get $$ frm the ATM.

The long line outside the ATM shd have alerted us that something was wrong. In fact, the entire Guatemala was facing a huge problem: it was near Christmas and the high tourist season, and Everybody needed cash. There was a nationwide ATM crash crisis where most ATMs were out of cash, or not working, or working erratically. We tried 5-6 different ATMs (there were only 6 atms in the entire town), and no money. We were so screwed.

We had maybe 100 Quetzales total. The hotel cost Q80. That means Q20 for dinner till the banks open in the morning. A meal at any restaurant costs at least Q35. We were so screwed. We wandered around Flores, which is a tiny island walkable in 15mins, looking for food. We finally found Parque Central, which had a taco stand selling Q5 tacos. Excellent. One taco per person, giving us a healthy Q10 buffer for the rest of the night. (Q7.5 = USD1)

We wander around Flores some more. On maybe our sixth lap of the island, a minivan honks at us. It's the guys from that afternoon, and they tell us that there's a working ATM (cajero)! Get into the van! We'll bring you there! We climb into the van, but my muscles are tense, ready to fight back in case this was some kind of trap and they were actually going to kidnap us or sell us into slavery or something. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. We arrived at an ATM and got cash! And were returned safely to the hotel.

The next morning we awake at 3am for the sunrise tour. Get to Tikal @ 4.30am, start trekking through the jungle. Pitch black, puddles on the trail, thank goodness for the flashlight. At one point, the guide says, "Stop here. Look to the right."

Wow. The massive bulk of a Mayan pyramid loomed to the right, and the night sky was full of stars. My astronomy is limited to recognising Orion, and I could see it clearly. The rest, just looked like stars. But it was so cool.

We continue........ then stop at the base of Templo IV. A wooden ladder/staircase, really steep. We start climbing, it's still dark. We climb. and climb. and climb.

All of a sudden, we're at the top. We look down at the jungle canopy, shrouded in night and fog, unbroken except for the tops of more pyramids in the distance. There's a faint glow on the horizon. Everyone in the group (maybe 20 people) settle on the steps. The guide says to please keep silent. More groups arrive, and more groups still. In the end, I think there were at least 125 people crammed on the steps at the top.

The sky grows gradually brighter. We can make out the lake that Flores is on, Lago Peten Itza, 50km away. We see the fog starting to clear-- a bit more of the forest is visible. The occassional bird squawk, and gentle whirs and shutters of digital cameras. Good times.

The sky is black, then blue, then blue-purple-green-yellow, the mystical mixed rainbow bands that herald the sun's arrival. Everything gradually brightens.... I get a little bored. Kinda tired... was up at 3am, afterall....

Suddenly, there was the sun! A brilliant orange ball glaring balefully from the top of Templo III in the distance. We try to take pictures but there were just bright streaks of white on the LCD screen. After taking such a long time to appear, the sun was in somewhat of a hurry. At first it was just a round crest, but it quickly became a semi circle, then more, till finally it burst out from the top of Templo III, Apollo in all his glory. That day was Dec 21, winter solstice. The mayans had built their temples so that on this day every year, sunrise frm Templo IV was exactly at the summit of Templo III. A day before or after, and the alighment would be destroyed. More info on Tikal's pyramids and it's winter solstice sunrises can be found here, an exceedingly informative and interesting website by Vincent Malmstrom at Dartmouth.

There's so much more to say about Tikal, but the sunrise was clearly the most spectacular event that day. In the interests of time I'm going to be brief. Basically, 2 main thoughts:

1) there are so many birds. With the naked eye, and better with our guide's Leico binocs, we saw: red falcons, weaver birds, toucans (brilliant colors), and the rare red toucans. We also saw a spider monkey and many coatis. Click here for a guide to Tikal's fauna, with pictures. The tour guide also talked a lot about the flora: spanish moss (used a lot in navidad), allspice (cooking, treat stomach problems), chiclet tree (sticky sap used to bind the limestone of the buildings, now for chewing gum).

2) Standing in the middle of the main plaza, flanked by Temples I and II, with the Grand Acropolis ahead.... It just feels so surreal. These things were built TWO MILLENIAS AGO. By people who had planned this so carefully with the sun and the stars and the planets, people who thought that cone-shaped heads and cross-eyes were beautiful. It was simply mind boggling.

Guatemala trip report part 1: Cancun n Chetumal

2007-01-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

One day Charmaine emails me to ask what I'm doing for winter break. I told her probably nothing-- last year I stayed in Stanford, did jigsaw puzzles, and felt sorry for myself (refer to Dec 2005 posts). So she insisted that we go on holiday. Peru was too expensive, we settled on Guatemala, after consultation with Eujin and Serene, 2 very well-travelled S'poreans at Stanford. Check out Eujin's website here.

As with all my trips, we didn't book any package tour, didn't get advanced accomodations. My preparation consisted of

1) buying and reading the lonely planet guide to 'Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala'
2) borrowing and commiting to memory the first 3 chapters of Lisa's spanish book [introductions and finding lost luggage; parts of a hotel room and how to ask for one; getting directions]
3) spending time on the lonely planet online travel forum

We had a 6.30 am flight to Cancun frm San Jose Airport (SJC). We were late, and both check in and security lines were long. I was consciously trying to keep my heartrate down... We rushed to the gate-- only to find that everyone was still waiting. Apparently, it had been a cold night. There was ice on the wings, and the only de-icer had broken down. The entire airport was waiting for the sun to come up, to melt the ice. Fantastic. I nearly gave up right then. Won't it be so nice to just stay at Stanford for Christmas? Lisa's fiancee Daniel was going to visit, they were planning a ski trip..... Charmaine of course found the whole thing hilariously funny. She's such a bundle of efferverscent joy.

We finally get to Cancun at 9pm, after delays and re-routes. And early next morning hopped a 6hr bus south to Chetumal, on the border of Mexico/Belize/Guatemala. It was a very nice ADO bus. Air-con, comfortable reclining seats, movies in Spanish (Narnia, Wedding Crashers)... ah. this trip wasn't too bad.

We get to Chetumal, and open our guidebook. Good, the bus terminal is near everything-- the mayan museum, the hotels.... We walk confidently out of the terminal and try to orientate ourselves based on our map. Unfortunately, there are no street signs. Chpt 3 of the book didn't cover how to ask for street signs. No one speaks English. We wander around with our backpacks. There's a budding high school band practising 'Oh When the Saints Go Marching In' in the park. They really need the practice. Finally, we just chose a hotel from the guidebook, and asked someone where it was. Bingo. They gestured in one direction. They seemed to think that it was really far away. They suggested we take a taxi. According to the guidebook, this hotel was 2 blocks frm the terminal. We decided to walk.

1 km later and no hotel, we realised that something was wrong. Closer scrutiny of the map and the text revealed that there were in fact TWO bus terminals. The main one (that we were at) was 2 km north of the center. AH.ahem... at least we were getting a lot of exercise. A lot of very hot exercise.

Suffice to say, we eventually got to the centro, and found the hotel in the guidebook. We wanted the cheapest possible room-- no TV, no aircon. The woman insisted that all was full, only the most expensive rooms available. This apparently, is a common ploy. We had no idea how to respond to that. Not covered in either chpts 1, 2 nor 3. So in the end we paid more for the better room. Later that night, watching spanish dubbed cartoons of 'chocolate boy and marshmellow girl', and 'sponge bob', we wondered if we'd made the right choice.

The Museo de Cultura Maya in Chetumal was the main reason for our stop. It had replicas of many pyramids from various sites, and interesting exhibits on their social hierarchy, astronomy/religion, thoughts about the afterlife etc.

I really liked their Ceiba Tree exhibit: For the Maya, the Tree of Life, called Yaxche, is traditionally a Ceiba tree. This is a tall tree with large buttressed roots, a remarkably straight trunk, and a high horizontal crown. The roots are said to shelter bats, symbolic of the underworld. The trunk teems with insect life, and attracts the animals and birds that feed on them. The crown spreads wide over the jungle canopy, often with four branches that would suggest the four cardinal directions that are so significant to the Maya. The eagles that roost there represent the celestial realm.

The Museum had a replica of Yaxche that stretched through all 3 levels of the building. The top was the heavens, the middle the world of men, and the bottom level had an underworld exhibit.

2007 en Cancun. Feliz Año!

2007-01-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

Life is good. Am currently in the air-conditioned reception area of a hostel in Cancun, checking internet. Have not been in lab for 2 weeks, and I don´t care. I´ll care when I get home tomorrow.

Guatemala trip report to follow sometime this year.

crap I forgot to pay my vehicle registration again. so much for new year resolutions. This year, I resolve not to make any more resolutions.

I need to learn more Spanish. Meanwhile, never underestimate the power of the ´smile and nod´strategy.

Feliz Año to all.

paradigm shift

2006-11-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

I've always thought that polygamy is the most evolutionarily advantageous strategy an organism can pursue. Isn't the meaning of life to produce as many offspring as possible? However, I was reading 'Monkeyluv' by Robert Sapolsky, and he mentioned an experiment done with fruitflies: It showed that flies that were forced to be monogamous outbred the polygamous flies. This is because polygamous flies had to evolve strategies like toxic semen (males) and toxin neutralizers (females) in order to pass on their genes. [Male flies had toxic semen to kill off other sperm, females had to neutralize the semen so they don't die from the toxins] Hence monogamous flies, who didn't have to waste time playing these stupid games, could spend more time making babies.

Reading this made me slightly confused. Afterall, isn't evolution all about Genetic diversity; Competition between genes; Survival of the fittest etc? If you're monogamous, how do you know that your chosen mate is the best fit for your genes? I guess living longer and producing more offspring compensates somewhat for this. Better quality of life for you and your kids, maybe? Screw the species and the diversity of the gene pool.

Sapolsky also suggests a reason for the evolution of all this toxic strategies in polygamous species: It just takes one dude to evolve toxic sperm to give him an advantage over the others, and soon everyone else is also making toxins, and the females are like, 'Crap, now we have to neutralise the damn things.' I guess in this case, making love is analogous to making war.

interesting idea

2006-10-24T23:40:00.000-07:00

Xiao mei sez that there's this S'porean girl who blogged about some guy. This guy was complaining about S'poreans over 40 being marginalised by the society and the govt. Apparently she ended the post with "Please, get out of my elite uncaring face."

So S'pore, being a small place where everyone reads everyones' blog, is in a furor about this post: It reflects how our youth are so disdainful and privileged etc. And it's even juicier because she's the daughter of an MP.. *gasp*-- the offspring of our ministers don't care about the populace!!

Because I'm a scheming capitalist, I immediately thought about implications and ways to make $$ off this. After her post, her blog must receive hundreds of hit a day! Imagine the advertising $$!!! I too should post terrible incendiary remarks on my blog!!! But what can I say? The whole "I'm so smart and elitist" angle has already been taken, I don't want to be a copycat.

Xiao mei suggests saying something racist. In Singapore, that is death. It's worse than joining an opposition party. You'll probably find yourself on the next ship to Malaysia. Or Timbaktu. So.. I should say something racist, preferably including crude sexual references. That should be sufficient to exile my entire family from S'pore for at least 18 generations. Maybe more.

Things that make me panic

2006-10-10T23:07:00.000-07:00

1. going to Guatemala with only my xiao mei, and with neither of us knowing spanish
2. other people graduating
3. me not graduating

ok.. I guess #1 is not a huge source of panic. I just need to learn some Spanish. Will go to the I-center. they have conversation classes on Tuesday nights. And it's free! =)

Meanwhile, am reading up on travelling in Central America. Sounds like fun. Chicken buses and Mayan ruins. comments/suggestions/travel tips will be greatly appreciated.

An important question arose when I was talking to my roommates tonight: Do Giraffes have vocal cords? I searched around a bit online and the consensus is that they CAN make noises. but do so rarely. However, the issue of the absence/presence of vocal cords was not convincingly addressed. Wikipedia also says that male giraffes engage in homosexual behavior:

"In one area 94% of mounting incidents were of a homosexual nature. The proportion of same sex courtships varies between 30 and 75%, and at any given time one in twenty males will be engaged in affectionate necking behavior with another male. Females, on the other hand, only appear to have same sex relations in 1% of mounting incidents."

I need to drink more water. I think I'm chronically dehydrated.

I want to sleep for a long long time

2006-10-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

hm. interesting idea of Fen's-- to fill my site with porn. It'll be the world's first porn site without annoying pop ups. People will flock to it, and traffic will increase, and bam! Money.

There is only one small, almost insignificant problem-- I don't have any porn.

But I'm sure that you, my lovely readers, are more than willing to send me your stuff. Only tasteful ones, please. preferably NOT involving barnyard animals. other types of animals...? I'll think about it.

I will, of course, set it up as a separate site, so that readers with more ah.. delicate sensibilities will not be offended.

I'm thinking of going to London over Christmas to visit Kenneth n Peiyee. does anyone wanna come? free housing... am flexible with dates... A spring trip is also possible. Mebbe I'll hop over to Ireland while I'm there. Ever since I've heard about it I've always wanted to go to the top of the Guinness factory, to drink Guinness and look out over Dublin. And I wonder if they speak in Limericks in Limerick? That's Got to be pretty mind-wrecking.

I've decided to stop drinking alcohol for a while. Maybe a month... yups... today is a good day to start. Oct 1st - Nov 1st. this is because I've noticed that I've built up a greater tolerance for EtOH. Had 4-5 mixed drinks last night and hardly felt anything. Back in the day that'll either have me flat out on the floor, or at least jumping around with the immense urge to start singing. So. Maybe if I stop all EtOH intake for a while my tolerance will go back down. Plus I'm sure my liver will be happy. It's good to keep my liver happy.... Happy Liver. Lucky the happy liver. What a great idea for a children's TV show.

Right. Clearly, it's time for bed.

Gawp

2006-09-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

So. I was thinking about selling advertising on my blog, just as an exercise to figure out first hand how all this web-advertising stuff works. I went to this targeted-ad website called text-link ads, and submitted my blog for consideration. And they rejected it. wah. I'm so crushed. They said my blog did not have high enough traffic. Which I'm sure is true. The person who reads this blog the MOST must be me. And even then I read it only about once or twice a week, for entertainment. (It must be the height of narcissism--- for me to derive this much satisfaction from reading my own thoughts)

Anyways. I looked that some of the highest earners on that text link system, and they were all very focused blogs, dealing specifically with issues like technology, entrepreneurship... or Maine football scores. [further blow to my ego- that a website about football scores earns all that $$$]

I was trying very hard to think about how I can make my blog more focused in order to increase traffic, and also mebbe giving myself something concrete to write about, rather then just random reviews about books, movies and hiking, and whatever rant I happen to obsess about. But I dunno what I should write about that people will want to read!!!

Possibilities:

1) Immunology -- but who wants to read about immunology? Even I can't stand it sometimes.
2) How I manage to screw up in lab -- eg. yesterday I forgot to add antibiotic to my bacterial plates, so I got like 5 billion colonies in every plate, including my negative control
3) Stanford
4) Hopkins
5) Singapore
6) How to get free food--- hhmm... maybe revive the Stanford free food mailing list
7) Random startup ideas
8) how to earn $$ as a student in Stanford-- including all the psych experiments I take part in.
9) Things to do in the Bay Area when not in lab
10) How to take over the world

Ok, I'm gonna take a poll. Please vote for your favorite topic via the comments section. or suggest your own. As long as it's something I can write about (eg. How to play tennis well -- is NOT a good topic; How to avoid getting killed while riding your bike around Stanford-- is a better one)....

2006-09-12T22:17:00.000-07:00

Garrapata State Park

I can see!!!

2006-08-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

well.... not 20/20 yet. It's supposed to take a while. but I see well enough to drive! and read! and write emails! and blog! **happy dance**

am happy enough to take back all the stuff I said about Joe. I'm sure he's.. um... doing the best he can.

Last night was pretty bad. I woke up after a nap and it felt like multiple sharp objects were lodged in my eyes. Was tearing like crazy, couldn't open eyes, couldn't look into the light... *panic* Am really thankful that Lisa n Shaowei were there for me.

But when I woke up in the morning it felt great!

1) the multiple sharp objects had disappeared
2) I could SEE!!
3) I could SEE!!

Things still look a little fuzzy, bright lights hurt, and when I try to roll my eyes to the extreme left or right there's a little twinge of discomfort. The sunglasses/goggles they gave me to protect my eyes frm dust are Massive. They take up half my face. I look like those Jap anime characters. Went to Safeway to get milk just now and kept my sunglasses on the whole time because the lights there were incredibly bright. Felt like a failed movie star wannabe. Am convinced that the cashier was trying not to laugh.

Yesterday I was in the lunch rm, reading the Arthitis medical report. It's something doctors give to patients.. There was this article in there that touched on Assisted Pain Alteration. or something like that. Basically the idea is this: patients listened to a tape of someone asking them to visualise their pain, and to describe it: what does it look like? what color is it? Then patients were told to imagine their pain changing, becoming less... um.. evil/painful.

Amazingly, the grp of patients that listened to the tape described their pain as less severe afterwards, and by the end of the study (a couple weeks) described their pain as manageable. The control grp of patients were given the same medications etc without the assisted pain visualization thing and just told to record their medications. Their pain remained the same.

So last night after I took some medications/eye drops etc and was trying to sleep, I tried to visualise my pain. Immediately I thought of it as a black devil-like creature with a very sharp staff/triton thing which it was poking into my eyes. So I thought of it putting down the stupid triton, and sitting down to meditate. Like the chinese saying: Fang(4) xia(4) tu(2) dao(1), li(4) di(4) cheng(2) fuo(2) [loosely translated as: put down your sabre and become a buddha]. It was actually quite an amusing exercise and I think helped me to some extent. Highly recommended for people trying to deal with pain.

In-sight.

2006-08-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm going for LASIK tomorrow!!

still don't quite believe it. I've gone for the consultations, had machines measure stuff, talked to the doctor, talked to friends (ie Lisa n Qingyuan).... Today I went for the final measurements, and paid my $$. but it hasn't really hit me yet. I'll probably get nervous on the ride to the surgery, and the feeling will slowly escalate right up to the time the Valium takes effect... It's been like that for all my major exams, i think. Am superbly calm until 30mins before it starts, when all the nervousness I've saved up for that special moment hits me with full force.

On my way home frm lab today I was just thinking about how much I've grown to dislike Joe. In the beginning I'll always defend him when people tell me how much they hate him. I'll point to his scientific expertise, and how he sometimes has good reason to act superior and feel that everyone else is a moron, or a slacker, or a slob. But gradually I've come to realise that he doesn't have a right to belittle everybody because he's not that fantastic himself.

Recently he's been giving me crap about how late I come into lab. I admit that I come in late. usually ard 10.30, 11am. but it's not like I have anything to DO in lab right now. I'm waiting on the !#$%! cells and the antibodies that Joe has taken upon himself to produce.

So I said, "I'm sorry I came in late, Joe. Was there anything that you wanted me to help you with?"

"No."

"Oh."

WTF!?! Why is he begrudging me an extra hour of sleep just for me to show up early in lab and yawn in front of my computer? He could at least give me something to do. Actually. I take that back. He wants me to inject mice iv or ip with antibody and bleed them every 6hrs to work out the pharmacokinetics. nice to know, not need to know. Painful for the mice, and for me. But of course, I'm the grad-student-slave. Completely expendable and infinitely obedient.

[mouse-bleeding, btw, involves sticking a small glass tube into the eye socket, in order to pierce the capillary bed behind the eye. I'm terrible at it and both the mouse and me become extremely traumatised. Now think a grp of 5 mice that I have to bleed every fucking 6 hrs. no sooner do they heal that I have to poke them again.]

I wish I was like Ailin. She hates her boss and has no qualms about telling him so. My first instinct was to apologise, when actually I'll be quite happy to hit Joe forcefully in the head with a baseball bat, and then throw myself off a cliff. I think I need to start doing wushu. Taiji is not violent enough to dissipate my destructive energies.

crap. now I need lots of bubble tea to feel normal again.

Others

2006-08-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

went hiking today! It is An Event cos I haven't been hiking in a while. =)

went to Henry Coe State Park with the Outing club. Actually, I would highly discourage people frm going there. It was quite a boring hike and the best views could already be had in the parking lot. And there were a lot of steep ups and downs. Tiring on the ups, dangerous on the downs.

The trip leader was this guy called 'V' (nope did not wear a mask), but he walked in the back to make sure no one got lost. So this girl Jane set the pace for most of the hike. Jane is a small little Asian girl. Even smaller than me. But Boy Can She Walk. Off we went, like a rocket. Speeding up the hills like a hot knife thru butter, we conquered the first hill, then the next, and the next... fwah. I never realised how out of shape I've become. I was gasping like a fish outta water (or a mouse under euthanasia) after the first 5 mins, but Jane and Aileen were chatting away as though they were merely strolling in the park.

*still in state of shock*

anyways. am taking inventory of all my stuff cos need to move to new apt. starting reading this book by Marian Keyes. Irish chick writer. Quite funny. was struck by how she keeps referring to her husband as "Himself". thought this was odd. but then remembered that Luz also referred to Nanguang as 'Him'. Like.. I'll mention a new movie, and Luz will say, "Yeah, I saw it with Him." At first I had to clarify: "Um... by Him u mean Nanguang?"... but after a while I cld safely assume that 'He', 'Him', and 'We' all refer to the same person.

What's the reason for this phenomenon? How come I dun hear guys refering to their partners as 'Her'?

Some possible reasons y some gals do this:
1) They feel some need to deitify their significant other?
2) They forgot his name?

hhmmm..... points to ponder...... =X

actually.. now that they've broken up Luz still avoids all use of His name. Now she calls him 'My Ex'.

Back in Stanford

2006-07-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

am staying awake till 11pm so that I (hopefully) sleep all night and don't wake up at 5am. My strategy for combating jet lag. *grin*

It's super hot here in Stanford. Feels hotter than in S'pore! and the air-con in lab is not working too well... heard that in the hospital they couldn't operate becos no AC in the operating theatres!

watched 'I Not Stupid II' on the plane. Lisa recommended it. Said it was good, and made her cry n cry. Immediately I felt that I shdn't watch it. Such a below-the-belt tactic of selling movies-- making people cry n cry. But against my better judgement I did watch it and indeed was induced to cry n cry. Basket. good thing the seat next to me was unoccupied, else so embarassing. Trying to hide my puffy-eyes-runny-nose condition frm the air stewardesses is hard enough. I think I used like, 5 tissues... *sigh*. The movie was ok. I hate having my emotions manipulated so I refuse to say that it's a gd movie. HRMPH. So There.

tried cable skiing on Monday. Quite fun =). but I spent a lot of time swimming and walking (after falling into the water), and I think I got stung by a jellyfish. didn't feel that tired after but my muscles are def sore today.. Will be a lot more fun when/if I get better at it. However, I think downhill skiing/snow boarding is more exciting, becos
1) You can go faster
2) You have more control.

But I guess cable skiing is less scary. You can't accidentally end up at the top of some super steep slope, rigidly staring at the !#$%! mountain of moguls below, trying to summon the courage to take the first plunge....

*grin*. yay skiing.

thots

2006-07-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

thinking about how more n more ppl r getting married n having babies n stuff. Gerry was saying how she felt like everyone's doing stuff with their lives and accomplishing things. But I think she's accomplished the most and has come the furthest in our entire HJC class-- she's married n expecting a kid in Feb. !!?!! She also seems secure career-wise.. so really, no reason to feel left behind. I guess the grass is always greener on the other side??

Leonard asked me if I felt worried/left behind. I think he asked me this becos HE's feeling worried. *grin* [Len claims that he is NOT at all worried, and is in fact extremely satisfied with his life]

Shameless plug for leonard: He's a nice, eligible bachelor who will make a considerate husband and doting father. Sweet and pretty girls who live near Dallas, TX (or don't mind relocating to Dallas), pls apply within.

My brother is 21 and sez that he feels old. I guess it's a common emotion for post-army guys-- they come out and feel like in those 2 years the whole world's passed them by?? but he's amazingly still together with Sharon, so I dun think he shd have much to complain about..

me mum is sad becos it seems like Sharon is his 1st priority-- and also becos it seems like Sharon acts as though she SHD be his 1st priority... But then again even when my brother is at home all he does is play computer games, and watch anime. And my parents don't seem to have much to say to him except stuff like "Cut your hair", "When is your uni orientation? Remember to go." and "Eat this."...... actually.... that's pretty much what they say to me too.... I guess they just like having us around. But I'm not exactly sure what we do in our 'family time'. In fact, I'm not exactly sure what the ideal 'family time' should be like. Yet, this doesn't mean that we don't have family ties. Quite the opposite, I'm sure. *sigh*. This whole thing has the potential to become really mushy so I'm going stop now.

Somehow my parents brought home a breadmaking machine. My dad is v. enthusiastic about it and went out to buy yeast. they put in all the ingredients and started the thinggy 3 hrs ago. Unfortunately they didn't read the part of the instructions tt say how u can set the delay-timer to get the bread just-baked at 7am.... so now it's gonna get done at midnight. need to check the machine now to take out the bread... Moral of the story: read the entire manual before starting the !#$$R! machine!!

*update on the bread: didn't put enuff yeast, or water, or both. It turned out to be this hard disc of dough. for our 2nd try dad bought a ready-mixed packet-- just add water. this time it looks, smells, feels and tastes like bread. =)*

Last night we went to the Geylang claypot rice place. It's pretty good, but a little overhyped-- yes yes it's nice, but pocket feel pain lah. dunno if that huge pot of rice is truly worth $23. The chili steamed fish was really fresh, and I like the chili. The softshell-crab was too fried?? too much batter? Hm. not sure how to explain this. It seemed like each piece was just v. crispy batter. ok lah, but can't really taste the crab. Most jap places at Stanford have better crabs in their spider rolls. But I really liked their yam paste (dessert). V. smooth and creamy, and not too sweet.

Louis MacNeice - Prayer before Birth

2006-07-17T01:26:00.000-07:00

I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
    club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
    with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
       on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
    to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
       in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
    when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
       my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
          my life when they murder by means of my
             hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
    old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
       frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
           waves call me to folly and the desert calls
             me to doom and the beggar refuses
                my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
    come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
    humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
       would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
          one face, a thing, and against all those
             who would dissipate my entirety, would
                blow me like thistledown hither and
                   thither or hither and thither
                      like water held in the
                         hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.

HOME 2006

2006-07-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

since coming home is always such an occasion, feel like have to blog 'bout it. so um... here goes...

First Impression:
Airport looks the same as always. Parents late as usual.

Coming Home:
family moved to new house in the last year. It's located in the maze-like Opera Estate at junction of Bedok/Siglap/Chai Chee. Am not sure how I'll manage to find my way home alone.
Possible ideas:
1) leave a trail of breadcrumbs
2) mount a lighthouse beacon on the roof
3) install a remote-controlled electromagnet at home, and carry around a large chunk of iron.

The house is pretty nice, though. I have my own room, and there's a lot of space. Enough for taiji, i think, but not enough for wushu.

They gave away the dog! to the SPCA. =(. actually, it took me the whole day b4 I noticed that the dog wasn't ard. sad. it was a good dog. amusing. Hairy and sheds all over clothes n furniture, but kinda cute so it was always forgiven...

Maid has left, so we have to do chores now. my mum has some sort of tendonitis in her right wrist, so I'm trying to help with stuff that requires extertion of right-hand. like chopping all the vegetables. and carrying water. and sweeping floor. But mostly during the day I just hide in the air-conditioned study room and play with the computer.... too hot to contemplate going out.

Local Food:
Fabulous. The only reason why I drag myself outta the house. 1st day I had hokkien mee at MP central, next day I had Prawn mee at Joo Chiat. Today I had char kuay teow for lunch n went to some hainanese zi-char place for dinner... have many many other things to eat b4 I can go back.

Family:
the same. everyone seems fairly busy.

Other thoughts:
um. dunno. so far have been slightly successful at avoiding mosquitoes. only get about 5 bites a day, instead of my usual 10-15... I hate mosquitoes. but the ones here are very sneaky. Commando mosquitoes. unseen and unheard.

Have to email more people. Need to see them b4 I go back.

Now that I don't have to work, I'm actually reading more Immunology! strange. last week I couldn't even bring myself to look at science.

Lost and Delirious

2006-06-24T12:49:00.000-07:00

these days I feel increasingly lost n delirious. So. decided to rewatch the movie in hope of.. um. not sure what I was hoping for. but it's a good movie. with all these Shakespearean references. I read an interview with the director (Lea Pool), who was asked why is it that all her films show love-gone-awry. And she said,"I’m not interested in fairytales and I don’t see myself in the moral duty of creating positive paradigms... Loving excessively, loving badly, is a universal, touching theme."

--------------------

twelfth night
Act 1.Scene 5

Viola:
Make me a willow cabin at your gate,
And call upon my soul within the house;
Write loyal cantons of contemned love
And sing them loud even in the dead of night;
Halloo your name to the reverberate hills
And make the babbling gossip of the air Cry out 'Olivia!'

-----------
'Pauline Oster' in Lost n Delirious

Liar! Liar! Liar! Liar! You
hold your heads up in your
assholes because LOVE IS!
It just IS!!! And nothing you
can say can make it go away!.
Because it is the point of why
we are here. It is the highest
point and once you are up
there, looking down at everyone
else, you're there forever...
If you move, right? You fall...you fall...

-----------------
Macbeth
Act , scene 5

Lady McBeth:

Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it!
Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature's mischief!
Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry 'Hold, hold!'

-----------------
Antony and Cleopatra
Act 4, Scene 13

Cleopatra
O sun, Burn the great sphere thou movest in! darkling stand the varying shore o' the world.
O Antony, Antony, Antony!
shall I abide in this dull world, which in thy absence is no better than a sty?
Then is it sin
To rush into the secret house of death,
Ere death dare come to us?

Interesting and Instructive

2006-06-21T02:36:00.000-07:00

How to be come out to.

lost

2006-06-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Feel a little lost.
1) Lisa is on her way to Honduras for 2 wks
2) It's Sunday night, don't wanna work
3) Don't have any emails to read, dun wanna read or surf the net.
4) No current DVDs to watch
5) feel like blogging but not sure what to say.

went for the med sch commencement ceremony yesterday. Felt suddenly extremely emotional because I didn't know when, if ever, it would be ME up on that stage, receiving my diploma.

I didn't feel that way for my undergrad commencement. sure it was a lot of hard work. but i KNEW that in X-years, after X-number of credits, I would graduate. I can't even remember where my Hopkins diploma is.

but wow, if I ever get my PhD...

I think this blog is becoming very BORING. that's because all I think about is my failed experiments. dat's enough to turn anyone from intelligent-sentinent-being,-interested-in-the-world to progressively-desperate-whiny-pile-of-sh**.

I've just been on this website www.savekaryn.com. This lady racked up $20K in credit card debt and was asking for donations to pay it off. and it worked! apparently she is now debt free, and has written 2 books. the book reviews look good. I think i'll look them up in the library. But that's kinda cool. that people would do this. However, from her website, she does seem like a funny and interesting person who's seriously trying to save money. So maybe that's why people would donate. I wonder if I put up a website asking for $0.5 million dollars, if people would donate. well, worth a shot: anyone who wants to get me out of A* can paypal me at [dapearl at gmail dot com]!!

but what would I do if I'm not working for them? I dunno. hopefully something else equally productive. like dreaming of ways to revamp the US healthcare system. or thinking of issues like 'where is capitalism leading us' and 'if one can recreate, to every last neural connection, a person's brain, would that brain have the same memories and personality as the original person?'. I guess that last question can be rephrased as 'is there such thing as a soul?'

see? all these interesting questions. but as yet no answers, because I'm wasting my time bemoaning my sad fate. fortunately, YOU can help. with every donation to [dapearl at gmail dot com] via paypal, you bring me closer to what-could-have-been.

of course, you may ask: why don't you think about these issues in your copious free time? for example, as you sit here and type, you could have already found answers to any number of important and interesting questions.

That is a good question. It deserves a good answer.

** word of the day: ONIOMANIA -- a passion or insane desire to buy things **

Burnt

2006-06-11T22:42:00.000-07:00

feel very burnt. was out in the sun both yesterday and today. but today i used sunblock!! borrowed this sunspray thing: so you can spray the sunblock on yourself-- no worries about uneven application. *beam*.. (of sunlight)..

anyways.

Read 'The Golden Compass' by Philip Pullman. It's good! Don't really read fantasy but Peiyee recommended this trilogy by Pullman because apparently it's really subversive and in the 3rd bk there are these gay angels. =). So in the book-world, all humans have these companions called 'daemons', which they acquire at birth. Daemons are... um... not sure what they are. But they take on animal forms. When you're young your daemon can change forms at will but during puberty the daemon 'settles' permanently into one. You have a spiritual bond with your daemon-- you feel everything he/she feels and vice versa. And this bond is also somehow physical because if you're too far apart, it really really hurts. So in the book the bad guys severe this bond by somehow cutting it so daemon and human are no longer connected. And a person without a daemon is seen as horribly deformed, like someone without a head. The heroine sees a child without his daemon, and he was a wreak, eventually wasting away and dying.

that's kinda cool huh? to have a lifetime companion who is always there for you. Someone who shares your thoughts and feelings and comforts you when you're down etc. I'm really surprised that a guy wrote this book. Seems like such a girl thing to want. perhaps down inside, guys want that too?

I was at the SJ Pride Festival today and rode a mechanical bull! 'cept it wasn't really mechanical: a guy had to stand at the back and push up and down to make it go. but regardless, still very fun. dun think i can handle a real mechanical one, and definately not a real real bull!! There was a spot painted in the middle of the bull's 'neck' and the guy said to look at it during the ride to help keep balanced. but after some really vigorous bucking my vision just blurred, I got really dizzy, and I couldn't focus on anything at all. it was crazy!! have new respect for those rodeo cowboys. am trying to decide if it's better than roller coasters. not sure. on par i think.

whoop!

Bay to Breakers

2006-05-23T16:06:00.000-07:00

yoicks.
Ran Bay to Breakers on Sunday!! [B2B is a 'race' across San Francisco, frm the Bay to the Ocean. Total length = 12km= 7.48 mi] Man, I've never run so much continuously in my life =). It wasn't too hard to keep my mind off boredom/pain/blisters/road, because running/walking around me were 60 000 other people dressed in Elvis costumes, grapes, santa hats, SpongeBob, and even one guy going as a portable earthquake shelter. !!?!! I only counted 15 naked people, but apparently there were a lot more of them walking at the back.

It was a stupendous event. People lined the streets to play music, watch and cheer, and I saw one guy on his balcony, in nothing but an Elvis wig and a very tight thong. *grin*

Mebbe next year I'll forget about the whole running thing. Just bring alcohol and walk/stagger the 12K.

Checked out the results online. Fastest guy time= 34.20min. Fastest gal = 39.09. SF Mayor Gavin Newsom=59.04. My time= 1h 25 min.

Didn't take any pictures because I was running, but check out the official online photo gallery: http://www.ingbaytobreakers.com/race_information/gallery.html

Oh, and as always, there were people dressed as salmon running 'upstream' against the flow of traffic. =). Didn't see the sushi chef that's supposed to be running after them, though.

Good times.

PISSED OFF

2006-04-29T00:17:00.000-07:00

Current mood: Pissed Off.

It's bloody midnight on a Friday night and I'm here in lab isolating stupid cells from stupid blood. Me and my psychological mind games that I'm playing with Joe to encourage him to take more vacations. Have to be ultra productive while he's home in Texas so that he'll go home more often.

Am super busy all weekend, and have to go to SF tmr to do some stupid taiji demonstration. Drive bloody 1hr, get to SF, get stuck in traffic and find parking for 20mins, get to Union Sq, do a FIVE MINUTE demo, drive all the way back. What a bloody Waste Of My Time. Pull any kid off the street and teach him taiji and make him do the demo instead. That means I can't do tuition tmr and have to push it to sunday when I already have other plans.

**FUME**

things I'd rather have happen instead of having to do all this crap:
1) get knocked down by a bus. Hopefully die.
2) second coming of Christ, go to Hell for eternal damnation.
3) aliens invade. zap Earth off the Universe. quick death.

was wondering if I was irritable because I'm hungry. Read a news story about a teacher solving her grade sch kids behavioral and scholastic problems just by feeding them. So I fed myself a bagel. Nope. Still Pissed Off.

Basket.

Morality, Monogamy n Marriage

2006-04-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

Dunno why, was thinking about monogamy. Again. Feels like I've blogged about this b4.

Thought #1
Started thinking about it a few mths ago, when SP told me that the guy she was kinda seeing confessed to being Married. Wah. Apparently he often goes out with other girls, and says that it's not really his fault, the girls were throwing themselves at him. !! Hm. Although. He IS a pretty good looking chap, and it was SP who first asked him out.. but still. I was there when she asked him out, and she wasn't exactly launching herself into his arms.. And on their 'date' they apparently talked about relationships and he mentioned having an ex-girlfriend but said nothing about being married. I guess he conveniently left out the fact that his "ex-gf" is now his current-WIFE.

Thought #2
Kenny C at Hopkins talks enviously about Mormons n how they condone polygamy; Suicide bombers look forward to their 42 virgins when they reach heaven; but Lisa rejects the idea of 42 virgins being heavenly because how can you make each one feel special and loved??.. [i guess it's heaven for the jihadists, but not for the virgins?]

Thought #3
Reading "Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation": polygamy is the norm in the animal kingdom. Makes sense for males because they want to spread their seed. Makes sense for the females because the fittest sperm probably leads to the fittest offspring, + y put all ur eggs into one basket? Makes sense for the species as a whole because more matings lead to more diverse offspring, lead to increased chance of survival in times of crisis.

Back in the day, Kings would keep harems of mistresses. Under Islamic law, it's still legal to have more than 1 wife. [Although I think this is more because of the male-dominance of the society than enlightened views of evolution, since females can't have more than 1 husband.]

But now in 'modern', westernised society, it's not only immoral to be polygamous, it's illegal to have more than one spouse at any one time. Since there is a clear genetic argument to be made for sexual promiscuity, IS OUR MORALITY HOLDING BACK OUR EVOLUTION?

[An interesting thought that just came to me: suppose the Church is so anti-evolution because this would undermine all their moral teachings as well?]

Thought #4
Ah hah! Now I remember why this topic seems familiar-- I wrote something about the movie 'Kinsey', where this guy, his wife, and his students started engaging in all sorts of sex in all sort of combinations. In the movie the whole thing breaks down because of jealousies and the question of love.

Recently saw the movie 'The Barbarian Invasions'. It's excellent. so I watched the 'making-of' clip in the DVD. One of the actresses was reminiscing about the 60s/70s, the whole peace, love, flower-power era. So apparently, back then it was all about You shd love n sleep with whoever and however many you want. Her bf then really embraced this philosophy, but she never felt comfortable with it. But she also felt that it was morally wrong to object to his infidelities because of peace, love etc. So then she also slept with someone else, and once she did that, she found that she didn't love her bf anymore. Mebbe she's just not the alpha male/female type?

Conclusion:
Seems like polygamy makes biological sense, but it doesn't really work in human society, even when it's universally accepted [eg. during the peace, love, flower-power era]? Like all logical, utopian ideals (eg. Communism), human nature/society tends to throw curveballs?

Random, off topic thought:
MM Lee said that if the opposition wants to become a real challenge to the PAP, it should challenge them on concrete issues, like housing, the economy, health care, education etc, instead of just whining about how the PAP treats them unfairly and doesn't provide a level playing field. Hm. I guess that makes sense. but I think challenging the PAP's stand on 'free speech' is pretty relevant to society as a whole. [Probably the reason y no one talks about housing and health care is becos the PAP is doing a good job in those areas. How to challenge 90% home ownership?] But they are really trying to revamp the education system, say what 'teach less to learn more'. So Rubbish. I think the best part of the education system is that they teach more. Coming to the US, we really have an edge over the Americans. How else to get 3.8GPA and do triple majors in 3 yrs? The lack of creativity is not because of our overwhelming education system. It's because we can't even debate race and politics without fear of getting sued left, right and center. MM Lee says he doesn't believe that S'poreans are scared to talk to the ST about politics. Hm. Are we talking about the same S'pore? S'pore in 2000? He's still thinking about the 1950s, mebbe.

Ok. so mebbe it's an irrational fear. I'm pretty sure that if I insinuate bad things about the PAP here, I'll still be ok, and if I have children in future they will be able to get into Primary sch, and I won't get knocks on my door at night frm people about to take me away for questioning... But I'm still scared.

Stupid Expts...

2006-03-30T17:03:00.000-08:00

ARGH! nothing works! I'll be stuck here forever!!! Stupid cells don't wanna degranulate.... I'm DOOMED..... time is ticking inexorably away, and I have accomplished Nothing =XXXXXX.....

*panic attack*

sigh. all I want is my PhD. is that too much to ask?

---------------------------

Never have I felt such torture.
All I think of is her.
Needing the opiate of her favor, I am
Consumed by the Unattainable;
Yeasting with sound and fury, and accomplishing nothing.

---------------------------

rain

2006-02-28T14:10:00.000-08:00

I remember the only Chinese essay I ever received a good grade for: It was an essay about 'Rain'. It was pouring outside and I thought that really sucked. So as a mental exercise I decided to write an essay about how great the rain was and how I really liked it to rain. Made up some story about how rain washed away the dirt and the evil, how it was a rebirth, etc. Almost convinced myself, until class ended and I had to go home in the bl**dy rain. Moral of the story: chinese teachers like precipitation.

was making the short 20 second hike frm car to class last night and it was a crazy battle between my umbrella and the howling wind/rain. I was wondering why Mother Nature was punishing my poor little umbrella.:

MN: Howling Wind/Rain.

ME: Yes I know you're damn powerful. Now stop it already and let me pass!

MN: Howling Wind/Rain.

ME: Why do you feel the need to show off, huh? My umbrella has suffered enough! It doesn't have to take this kind of sh!t frm you.

MN: Howling Wind/Rain.

ME: dammit.

Saving Face

2006-01-30T18:30:00.000-08:00

watched the movie yesterday, after eating way too much for steamboat (aka 'hotpot). There's something about steamboat that makes me overeat. I think the problem is that you get something cooked, you eat it. You cook something else, you eat that too. So it's almost impossible to keep track of how much you eat until suddenly you're beset by this feeling of unparalleled expansion + tightness and you realise that oops you've done it again. And it's definately exacerbated by helpful friends putting food in your bowl.

But I digress. I think the movie is excellent. rumor has it that it's directed by an ex-Stanford student. It's about a young chinese-american girl (Wil) who's doing her surgical residency in NYC. Her single mother lives with her grandparents in Flushing, Queens. One day her mum shows up at her door, pregnant and chased out by her really strict and traditional father (Wil's grandfather). Almost at the same time, Wil falls in love with and starts dating Vivian, another ABC with parental connections in Flushing. (Apparently, there's this whole community of immigrant Chinese in Flushing that are really close knit, everyone knows everyone else and tries to matchmake each other's offspring etc)

So. it gets kinda complicated. the basic issues (for Wil) are

1) Pregnant mother in house
2) In love with another woman. How to tell pregnant mother n grandparents?
3) Pregnant mother is redecorating house (pink curtains, bedsheets etc)
4) Who is the father?????

It's a really hilarious look into the immigrant Chinese community and the second generation woes. But Wil's and Vivian's chinese is absolutely atrocious. Probably my only gripe about the movie. But according to the director's notes, the movie is ultimately about LLUUURRVE.

Told Lisa that I thought that Wil is chio but Lisa says that Vivian was definately a lot chio-er. And the guys thought so too. But it's all in the make up and clothes, man. I looked her up on the internet and with makeup and in a dress she looked more.. um.. alluring.

'allo 'allo

2006-01-10T12:03:00.000-08:00

Nighthawk, come in Nighthawk.

'allo 'allo. this is nighthawk. receiving you loud and clear.

Nighthawk, this is your message: Aunt Tilda is arriving Thursday. She hasn't got any matches.

um. but Aunt Mary is still here. where am I going to put all these relatives?

That's your problem, Nighthawk. Over and out.

- iambored

2006!

2006-01-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

saw pics of people in Times Square with those cheesy glasses that say '2006' where the "00" are the lenses for your eyes... I was just thinking that we only have 3 more years to wear these kinda glasses... when it's 2010 it's not gonna work anymore!! I'll definately have to get me a pair in 2009.

these couple days i've been doing this 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. it's 'bout 2/3 done, i think. but i'm a little sick of it. and it's taking up all the space on my dining table so i've had to eat my dinner in front of the TV. =X. it's a picture of this log cabin above a river, and there's a nice cliff/rock face behind it. when i first started the jigsaw I thought: oh! wouldn't it be nice to live in this cabin? all these nice trees, and you can climb the mountain/canyon thinggy whenever you want instead of driving 3 hrs to Yosemite!

but now after 3 days of jigsawing, I'm thinking: OMG let me never see the real cabin man, i swear I'll burn it to the ground, and all the !@#$%! trees with it.

ok i take that back. i love trees. i'll just burn the cabin.

hm. the sleeve label on my quiksilver tshirt says on the back: "Our Roots Run Deeper". huh? roots? deeper? than what? what roots? I'm not a plant. i refuse to be even metaphorically associated with one.

was really bored and tried to go to pinkshoefetish.blogspot.com, but it wasn't there anymore! apparently i'm Really behind the times, and daphne teo is no longer blogging after being hounded by hecklers criticizing her blog, her brain, her way of life etc. Eh. wah cor man. what's this? wtf did she ever do to those people for them to call her all those horrible names and denouncing her for living her shopaholic, 'decadent' lifestyle? See lah, now she shut down her blog, what am i gonna read for fun? where else can i find pics of expensive shoes, handbags and cosmetics and wonder in amazement and plot about how I could spend all that $$$?

This further confirms my belief that SINGAPORE IS TOO DAMN SMALL. people are so wu-liao they have nothing better to do than be mean to other people and pass all kinds of judgements. *sigh*. but obviously I also have nothing better to do. sitting here on my ass whining and complaining.

am cranky becos Aileen n her friend said yesterday that they might make Tiramisu but they never called me for the hand mixer and they're going away tmr to some church in Redding so I MIGHT NEVER GET MY TIRAMISU!! AARGH!!! calamity!

*deep breathing exercises*

i'm pondering a name-change to Dong(1) Fang(1) Bu(4) Bai(4) [ie. the Invincible East]. it has a nice ring to it, yeah? and i just saw the movie and she was cool! [although in the story she's actually a He who castrated himself to obtain superpowers--- how come in chinese kungfu movies the bad guy always has to castrate himself to obtain superpowers? does that mean that women are inherently more powerful already? or does it mean that women are evil? but cannot be becos the bad guy was already evil and male b4 he castrates himself. i think it's just a stupid chauvinistic concept that the evil guy is SO EVIL that he would even sacriface his most precious asset, ie. his manhood. anyways. in his case i think becoming a woman is the best thing that happened to him. geez. to become so pretty and have Jet Li fall in love with you? wah. I also want to castrate myself and learn superpowers............... ]

anyways. I digress. read 'Wicked' by Gregory Macguire. It's good! everyone shd read it. need to find something new to read. 'Guns Germs and Steel' isn't really doing it for me. have been trying to read it for the past 4 mths and it's going really slowly. any recommendations?

Walt Whitman

2005-12-24T11:06:00.000-08:00

Was watching this DVD the other day: L.I.E. (long island expressway)

about this 15 yr old boy whose mum died and dad is getting arrested by the F.B.I. and he's getting gay vibes from his best friend and is robbing houses with him but one of the owners catches him n who turns out to be this extremely cultured ex-spy who is also gay and likes to have young boys. (!!!)

all in all, kinda screwed up. And I'm not sure if the title L.I.E. is trying to say anything but I don't think any of it is a lie. In fact, it's a pretty honest film. I guess the expressway just played a major role in the movie.

but there's some nice poetry in there, cos this 15 yr old likes poetry and writes some too. Once, in the car with the ex-spy, he quotes this excerpt frm Walt Whitman:

Demon or bird! (said the boy's soul,)
Is it indeed toward your mate you sing? or is it really to me?
For I, that was a child, my tongue's use sleeping, now I have heard you,
Now in a moment I know what I am for, I awake,
And already a thousand singers, a thousand songs, clearer, louder and more sorrowful than yours,
A thousand warbling echoes have started to life within me, never to die.

O you singer solitary, singing by yourself, projecting me,
O solitary me listening, never more shall I cease perpetuating you,
Never more shall I escape, never more the reverberations,
Never more the cries of unsatisfied love be absent from me,
Never again leave me to be the peaceful child I was before what there in the night,
By the sea under the yellow and sagging moon,
The messenger there arous'd, the fire, the sweet hell within,
The unknown want, the destiny of me.

Walt Whitman wrote this about a pivotal experience in his life, that of watching a mockingbird singing futilely for its mate (who had disappeared, probably died). And this episode apparently further pushed him along the path to becoming a poet.

I checked out other stuff by Whitman, but they're all 'oh glory to america' kinda things. all about how wonderful the US states/ farmers toiling/ wheat/ liberty etc are. *grin*. it's interesting. He even writes this:

Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you,
that you be my poem,
I whisper with my lips close to your ear,

I have loved many women and men, but I love
none better than you.

O I have been dilatory and dumb,

I should have made my way straight to you long
ago,

I should have blabbed nothing but you, I should
have chanted nothing but you.

I will leave all, and come and make the hymns
of you;

None have understood you, but I understand you,

None have done justice to you, you have not done
justice to yourself,

None but have found you imperfect, I only find no
imperfection in you,

None but would subordinate you, I only am he
who will never consent to subordinate you,

I only am he who places over you no master,
owner, better, god, beyond what waits intrin-
sically in yourself.

*grin*.... first time I've seen a love poem to a poem....

2005-12-23T17:09:00.000-08:00

The bell tolls.
It's five p.m.
On Christmas Eve's eve.

I'm heading home
Alone
Always, alone
As will forever be.

I think of her, her smile
A vision of beauty.
Her heart of yearning
Her soul, a spark
to kindle what could have been.

But I am
Alone.
Still, alone
And will forever be.

Joy to the World

2005-12-20T10:27:00.000-08:00

Dear Ms. Teo:

Thank you for your email. I am sorry you found the handling of your claim unacceptable and appreciate the opportunity to review your claim.

After going over all the information submitted with your claim, we have decided to reverse our previous decision and issue payment for your claim. Our check will arrive shortly.

We also appreciate this opportunity to make amends and thank you for choosing United for your travels.

Sincerely,
Becky Baran
Baggage Claim Representative
United Airlines

________________________________

From:
Sent: Tue 12/13/2005 11:48 PM
To: Baran, Rebecca [HDQLZ]
Subject: lost baggage, ticket number 1601138055258

Dear Ms Baran,

I have just received your nice letter, denying liability for my lost
baggage. The reason stated in your letter is that I did not report my loss
within 24 hours of my claim. Let me explain to you the exact circumstances:
I DID report my loss, immediately when I arrived at SFO on Aug 8. After 2
weeks of not hearing from United, I finally managed to get through to your
1800 baggage claim number (after being on hold for 1 hour). The nice lady on
the line told me that my claim was never filed. I then drove 30mins to SFO
to figure this out.

When I got to SFO with my claim ticket, the guy at the desk told me that
even though I had the ticket paperwork, somehow I wasn't in the computer
system. He hypothesized that this was because the claims clerk probably
forgot to press "ENTER", thus never filing my claim. He assured me that this
time, he will press 'ENTER' and my bag will be found.

After 3 days, I managed once again to get through to your 1800 number. The
nice lady on the line very nicely told me that they again have no record of
my file. Seems like the nice man at SFO forgot to press 'ENTER', despite his
assurance to me. She then placed a priority trace on my bag. When I called
again later that evening, I was very relieved to hear that you guys FINALLY
have me on file. Unfortunately, my bag was still missing.

It took United another MONTH to contact me regarding my claim, and another
TWO MONTHS to mail me my claims form. And this was only after many phone
calls and multiple, multiple emails, all expressing my UTMOST DISAPPOINTMENT
with United.

And now, I've received your letter to say that I was LATE to file my claim
and that due to MY negligence, you are denying liability for my claim.

I humbly beg you to reconsider. The inefficiencies of your staff has caused
me much emotional distress, not to mention the financial losses I have
suffered due to my need to buy new clothes, books, luggage etc to replace
the missing ones. Please help me restore some measure of faith in United
Airlines.

I look forward to your favorable reply soon. If you are unable to help me,
please let me know how I can contact someone (your manager? vice president?
MD? CEO?) who can.

Thank you.

It rains again!!

2005-12-07T11:02:00.000-08:00

Oh Joy. It's gonna snow in Tahoe tmr! I'm going skiing again!

so boring in lab. got work but too xian to do. *moan* *groan*. Guess who I picked for the lab's secret santa gift exchange: the undergrad who's been stealing and contaminating all my tubes!! ARRGH! moral dilemma. Lisa thinks I shd get him a nice clean box of tubes. I think that's kinda mean..... I'm not that evil n vindictive, right? hm. I think i shd get him a dirty box of tubes instead. oh, oh. mebbe i shd get him a box of gloves, so that when he next steals my tubes, he won't contaminate the whole box.....

sigh. dun wanna go for lecture. but I shd, yar? will drag myself there now. *deep sigh*.... oh, the dreariness of my life..... =X

Altoids

2005-11-12T23:31:00.000-08:00

I like the Altoids Tangerine Sours. they really taste like tangerines! not to be confused with tamarinds, which in my opinion is far less desireable.

Am TAing this quarter. my duties include

1) conducting section once a week (to go thru the lecture material n problem set)
2) grading problem sets, midterms n finals
3) making up 2 problem sets + answers
4) conducting a 'cellular n molecular techniques in immunology' seminar
5) office hours 1 hr/week

so far it's been ok. sometimes hectic. like now. just finished grading 120 copies of question 5 of the midterm, and setting this week's problem set. Am now trying to come up with the problem set answers. I realised that it's such a bitch of a problem set! Damn annoying questions, requires checking the notes n the textbook n some critical thinking. It seemed more fun when I was making up the questions..... =I..... got so bored I decided to blog again.

Oh, Lisa printed this black pepper crab recipe off some visit s'pore website! so we tried cooking today! **grin**.... first step: deep fry crabs in hot oil. sounds simple. heat up oil till hot. add crab pieces. big mistake man. the crab was fresh frm washing (ie. it still had water droplets on it), so the hot oil just started ERUPTING like crazy. Both of us jumped back like 12 feet. I was seriously worried that the oil will set something on fire and the whole kitchen will burn down (like Jason's kitchen last year).... fortunately it finally subsided to a quiet splutter, and our kitchen was safe again. Wah cor. stupid recipe. trying to kill us, man. never warn people... wait kena sued.... =X.... basket.

so that was drama #1. drama #2 was also during deep frying. after the first volcanic piece, all other pieces we first dried on paper towels. The next one was quieter. However, the crab legs Spasmed while frying! it's true! it was jerking about, all over the place, like it was still a live crab! we got kinda freaked out. **shudder** wonder why it did that?? expansion of the meat inside the legs?

but the rest of the cooking went well. And the crab turned out really authentic! (though slightly undercooked) we were very impressed. we should have filmed a home-video of the whole event. Such a monumental occasion. Our first black pepper crabs! of course, the real test is to wait till tmr, and see if everyone's stomach is still ok.

we're gonna try chilli crab next week. but this time got prima packet. no need to pound black peppercorns. and no more deep frying.

Do woop, do woop

2005-09-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

am TA-ing this quarter! for the undergrad Immunology class...... need to think about how to keep people awake in class... also need to think about how to keep ME awake in class...... I'm thinking of buying a big bag of candy, and doing like a mini pop-quiz every section. people who answer get candy. but that's gonna be expensive..... hm. wonder if I can get the prof to sponsor....

it's a 2.15pm section some more.... sure fall asleep.... =(..........

am taking cantonese! yay! have already learnt useful stuff, like how to scold people, and to ask whether the girl u just met is pretty or not. hope to progress to how to order food (esp dim sum), and being able to understand the cantonese parts of Kung Fu Hustle.

i wanna stand with you on the mountain,
I wanna swim with you in the sea.
I wanna lay like this forever, until the sky falls down on me..........

**sigh**. dunno why, the song started playing in my head. like during that one Math lecture where Luz made me listen to it at least 9 times... I like the song, though. seems so carefree and school-less.... If only I could go now to the top of some mountain (a real one hor, not Bt Timah Hill), drink in the view, feel the sun and the wind, and just be Away From It All.

too bad. back to my messy little room.

eh, my 'voices of scholars' thinggy is up online! googled myself today and it was the first hit! *beam*.... they didn't edit it at all! though somehow my email address didn't come out. small disclaimer though, it's not entirely true, not all the time...... it's like, super positive and pro-research. I had to eat a lot of chocolate b4 I could write it..... =X..... see lah, Astar is making me fat.

TIRED

2005-09-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

Jomo: 'cos I'm very tired.... =(..... hard to do anything when one is all wrapped up in tires.

bright point in life: Discovered how to put air into my car tires and read the tire pressure! *heh* how loser am I????????? there's this gauge that pops out of the air pump thinggy in the gas station! like one of those arcade games where u get this huge hammer to bash the little guy that pops out.

am finally starting to sell my warehouse stuff:

whiteboard $8
microwave $15
bike $50

space to walk around in my living room: Priceless.

watched the movie 'Kinsey' last night. on dvd. Liam Neeson plays Al Kinsey, US scientist in the 50s who went ard interviewing people about their sex lives. It's pretty warped. so Kinsey was brought up in this super conservative household/society. America apparently was in some kind of sexual black hole. eg. people thought that masturbation was not only sinful, but deadly. Kinsey, a zoologist, feels that sex is normal and biological. starts to interview people about their sex lives, realises that married, heterosexual sex is not the only 'normal' kind of sex. Premarital, extramarital, homosexual, animal etc sex is also prevalent. And hence also 'normal'. nothing wrong with them. just biology. That's fine, i guess. but he then goes on to have an affair with his male student. then he tells his wife. Wife is upset. He explains that it's natural. It's just sex. he continues the affair.etc.

dun wanna spoil everything for ppl who want to watch the movie, but let's just say that he and his students and spouses begin to engage in ALL SORTS of sex. in the end however, the orgy kinda breaks down. (surprise!) he realises that the relationship b/w Love and Sex is more complicated than he had thought.

no obvious definite conclusion in the end, except he seems to have reconciled his conflict with Love, Sex and his wife. how exactly, not sure.

I thought it was a very interesting movie. Not the usual hollywood love fest. thought-provoking, especially since I'm sort of a biologist(?). yes we are but animals etc. but then what of love? but there are examples of couples and affection in other animal species as well. and then how about morality? masturbation is normal, so prohibiting it is ridiculous? Extramarital sex is also prevalent but it's considered bad? double standards?

but i guess the difference there is that masturbation is a personal thing whereas when you have an affair you hurt the other person in the relationship? so when u hurt other people's feelings it's bad? so if your spouse doesn't care then it's ok?

hhhm. I dunno man. read a report that 25% of men unknowingly raise children that are not biologically theirs. wow. that's a lot. I guess that's American men, not worldwide men, though. wonder if it's the same figure worldwide? probably it's lower in those african societies where the men sew their wives' vaginas up....? but hey, if you tear it you can always just sew it up again, right?

*ouch*

The Soldier -- Rupert Brooke

2005-09-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

I like poems about death..... =P.... somehow Life never seems so sweet and precious until you're about to lose it.

I need to write a bio for A*Star, to put on their 'Voices of Scholars' webpage. HOW??? I don't wanna to write a gushing I-Love-Research-Thank-You-Astar report! But what can I write instead? I was thinking of a what-I-have-learnt kinda thing but that seems so arrogant and pompous. how? I dun think my usual self-deprecating humor will look good on the webpage.... they probably want some sort of confirmation that the S'porean tax money is grooming brilliant scientific minds.... but I'm not sure I have a brilliant scientific mind, nor am I quite sure how to give an impression that I possess such an asset. writing a 50 page report on the life habits of apple snails would have been so much easier. =X

crap.

Depressed.

2005-08-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

sigh... so. update on my luggage fiasco:

personally drove up to SFO last night to try and resolve this issue. there they checked and looked at my lost luggage form etc. then the guy said, "Where did you file this claim?"

"Right here. at this very desk."

"Oh... because you're not the system at all. the claim was never filed. I'll have to file the claim for you now."

"Erm. Huh? What happened?"

"Well...." *shrug* "These things happen. Maybe the other person forgot to press 'Enter', so your info never got into our system. I'll file the claim now. Call us in 2-3 days."

"Call this 1800 number? It's really hard to get through. Last time it took me 1hr on hold."

"Yeah. we're really short-handed. Nothing we can do. Try calling very late at night."

WHAT THE F!@K!!!!!

I still have no contact lenses, and I WANT MY MAGGI INSTANT PORRIDGE.

*deep breathing exercises*

oh, the glorious experience of air travel.

Roald Dahl

2005-08-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

From the New Yorker (July 11 & 18, 2005):

There is evidence that (Dahl) thought about childhood in a way that placed struggle and conflict at the center of things, much as psychoanalysis does. "I have very strong and almost profound views on how a child has to fight its way through life and grow up to the age of, let's say, twelve," Dahl told a BBC interviewer in 1988. "All their lives they're being disciplined. When you're born... you're an uncivilised creature. And... if you are going to become civilized and become a member of the community, you're going to have to be disciplined. Severly... And who does the disciplining? It is two people. It's the parents.... Although the child loves her mother and father, they are subconsciously the enemy. There's a fine line, I think, between loving your parents deeply and resenting them."

(Dahl's stories) inspire in children a sense that life "is not only a pleasure but an eccentric privilege." Dahl's critics fail to recognize that his stories don't merely indulge a child's fantasies-- they replenish them.

[the italics are my own]
------------------------------

*grin*.... it's always enlightening to have someone tell you why you like something.

Who is John Galt?

2005-08-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

The hero of Ayn Rand's bk Atlas Shrugged. That book has cost me at least 6 hrs of time that could have been sleep. =X

I like it, but it's a bit too preachy. It's a philosophical treatise cleverly disguised as a work of fiction. Her characters go on and on in long tirades that span pages and pages. after a couple paragraphs into their speeches the characters (in my head) morph into Ayn Rand standing at a podium of some philosophical conference. I mean, Come ON. I get the point after a while. No need to take me for an idiot, and repeat urself another 25 times.

I dun wanna talk about the anti-communism theme of the book, 'cos after pages and pages of it, I've gotten pretty bored. but there were other issues that were interesting.

Frm the bk:

"Do you still need proof that I'm always waiting for you?" she asked, ... ...
"Why is it that most women would never admit that, but you do?"
"Because they're never sure that they ought to be wanted. I am."

"Are you saying," he asked slowly, "that I rose in your estimation when you found that I wanted you?"
"Of course."
"That's not the reaction of most people to being wanted."
"It isn't."
"Most people feel that they rise in their own eyes, if others want them."
"I feel that others live up to me, if they want me."

"Money is only a tool... It will give you the means for the satisfaction of your desires, but it will not provide you with desires... Money will not purchase happiness for the man who has no concept of what he wants: money will not give him a code of values, if he's evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek."

[hhm. so true. like vacuum cleaners are just tools. You think that once you get one, life will be perfect. You dun realise that YOU have got to drive the damn thing around in order to get a nice clean carpet.]

tick tock

2005-08-02T08:08:00.000-07:00

it's august! i feel my last days at home marching inexorably away. was at MP library Monday, and stumbled upon 'Fascist Rock' by Claire Tham in the S'pore section. had wandered over to that part of the library, not really expecting much, and was pleasantly surprised after reading the first page. Apparently, she was only 23 when 'Fascist Rock' was published. I was amazed at how everything her protagonists said found a resonanting chord within me. It's mostly about young Singaporeans contrained by the small-ness of everything on this island. you wanna blast urself into outer space but you force urself to conform to the ideal of good grades and (fairly) good behavior because it's the only way u're gonna get out.

sometimes i think that nothing i do will matter. no matter how well i do at stanford, i'm gonna end up in Biopolis, a dutiful and well-oiled cog in the singapore machinery. a statistic to be wielded by politicians in their never-ending need for self assurance.

but i really like being home! mebbe it's cos i'm on holiday?

am reading 'DUNE'. it's good! a classic.

there's a line in it that sez something like "you can only miss people, you can't miss a place." i dunno. I do sorta miss places, i think. i guess u can argue that places can trigger memories of people whom you miss... but not always, yar? like i've heard people dream wistfully of their bed at home, so comfortable n big n pillow-ed. surely there're no people associated with that? whatever lah. too technical.

random fact. reader's digest say that everyone dreams in colour. it's just that sometimes you dun remember the colour. or dun register it. my question is: how do they know that?????!?? can they look into ur mind when u dream??? how many subjects did they test to get this result?? it kinda scary that they can just state this morsel of knowledge with such confidence.

Home!?!

2005-08-01T04:25:00.000-07:00

Am once again back in our sunny island, set in the sea. I've always wondered about that phrase in the song. obviously if you're an island, you'll be set in the sea, right? well... i guess there are islands in lakes too.

saw the national day parade rehersal yesterday. got corner grandstand seats, 3rd row. I actually didn't want to go. not because I'm an unpatriotic, anti-govt, cynical person (i'm fairly patriotic, i think). but because i think it's just some meaningless, garish affair to give the retired people in the CCs something to do and spend a lot of taxpayers' $$ in the meantime. less parade, more fireworks, i say. but hey, if it makes people happy... however, it was really cool yesterday when the mobile column of tanks, artilery, combat engineer vehicles etc. trundled by the grandstand. on board were soldiers in camo U, wearing camo face paint, pointing M16s at the crowd. very impressive when the barrel of this huge tank is bearing down on you. At the risk of sounding like some gushing, o-biang civilian: WAH! SO COOL! hey, if this is what they were willing to parade in public, think of all the other top-secret stuff they're NOT showing us! (i hope.) so. now I do see some point in going for NDP (ie. to gawk at the tanks), but i still dun understand why people would queue ovenight to get tickets.

The Chinese in America

2005-06-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

Finally finished reading the Iris Chang book. hm. her overarching message is "We are Americans too".

I remember my freshman year at Hopkins. When I got back home ppl asked me whether it was hard to adapt to America. I told them it wasn't the Caucasians that I was surprised by. I've seen too many Hollywood movies not to be prepared for White America and its college life. The thing that shocked me most was that the ABCs were American, not Chinese. I guess I had expected that everyone who looked like me would think like me and talk like me, but I realised that it wasn't true at all.

but then again, i guess people in China might be surprised that I look Chinese but don't think nor talk like them either. And when I watch the Olympics or whatever, it never strikes me to support China more than I would any other team (apart frm S'pore). And I would definately root for S'pore over China. even though they clearly trash us in everything.

so yar. pretty ironic that ABCs and other Asian Americans have to fight to be recognised as American. up to now I still have trouble thinking of my chinese friends as American, or Canadian, or German, etc. In contrast, one never suspects that the African Americans harbor secret loyalties and will steal nuclear secrets for Africa.

I think the way to change this perception is definately via the mass media. ABCs are supremely underrepresented in Hollywood, broadway, TV, etc. they are really not being portrayed as normal Americans. if there's an Asian in the movie, it's almost always a role written specifically for an Asian. Like Harold in Harold and Kumar. or Jackie Chan. or Jet Li. and somehow the Asian characters are always superbly irritating. U usually end up hoping that in the next scene the Asian is gonna get hit by a bus, and the movie can move on. Why can't the normal, non-irritating guy/gal-next-door just happen to be Asian?

Goodbyes

2005-06-29T17:53:00.000-07:00

tis the season for goodbyes, it seems. so many friends graduated this year, just sent wushu frens off to the airport (but will see them in 12 days!!), Kenneth n Peiyee are moving to NYC, will only see Cheryl for 3 days in S'pore.... sigh. I think Kenneth n Peiyee's move was the biggest surprise. Thought that they would be working in SF for the foreseeable future. i guess not, huh? n with Howesiang going home too.... no more mountains for me?

i think i'm getting old, man. making new frens every year is tiring. cannot seem to muster enthusiasm for next year.

on the bright side, Peiyee introduced me to the wild and wonderful world of food blogs. Apparently, there are all these online foodies that write about their restuarant, cooking, random eating, cookbook etc experiences, frm all over the world. quite cool. I very very briefly entertained the thought of blogging about food too (since I'm actually somewhat obsessed with it), but trashed the idea immediately. No one will want to read about my leftovers-freefood-failed instant noodles-mango gummy-cereal diet. it'll get boring Really Quickly. But I just want to make a quick tribute to the inventors of cereal and chocolate. You guys (or gals) ROCK. without these innovations, I would waste away into nothingness.

just read 'Ender's Game'. It's really cool!! Not that plausible though. but hey, that's why it's Science Fiction, yar? makes u think. can we really manipulate children like that? hhhmmmm.... *evil grin*...... now I know what kind of cult I need to form..... need to target genuis kids. then can rule the world.

my poor butt

2005-06-11T02:54:00.000-07:00

Pulled some kind of butt muscle last friday. A fren was helping me with a side stretch, when I heard this 'RIP', felt something tearing, and then it became Much easier to stretch. OH HOLY SHIT. I have been hobbling ard for the past week, the first 2 days couldn't sleep, and I still can't really do much wushu. =(. on a brighter note, injuring my right leg is strengthening my left leg! so mebbe i'll have balanced legs after this.

Tonight I discovered injured butt-bliss. sitting on a tennis ball placed at a strategic position is better than 2 million OSIM massage chairs. better than chocolate. even better than durian gelato.

Am reading 'The Chinese in America' by Iris Chang (who wrote the Rape of Nanking, and killed herself after writing the Chinese in America). It's a pretty interesting read, about (DUH) the Chinese in America-- how they first came, their place in American society, later waves of immigration etc. So, interesting tidbit: when the Chinese first started marketing Chinatowns as tourist attractions, they played upon the then-sterotypical view of Chinatown as a hovel of Chinese gangsters, opium dens, secret underground societies etc. In reality, much of this was already cleaned up. So the tour guides hired people to enact gang fights, act as opium addicts etc, and also decorated basements to look like secret temples and opium dens. Just for the tourists.

hhm. so. potential tourism idea? we could have a "S'pore Heritage Museum". Like Tang Dynasty, but smaller. Hire actors to be coolies and samsui women, recreate an opium den (and charge the tourists to smoke) etc.

For free, tourists get to
1) carry loads balanced on bamboo poles
2) build an attap hut
3) learn how to play chatek
4) pound their own belachan
5) use an abacus
6) do the bamboo dance

For an extra fee, they can
1) smoke something from an opium pipe (give them some laughing gas? for yet more money, they can keep the pipe)
2) get their 8 characters read by a fortune teller
3) get a rickshaw (not trishaw) ride around the museum

The museum cafe will be like a pasar malaam. There shd also be wax figures of Raffles and Farquhar.

JOMO: YES!! I want to play warcraft!!! do u have it installed? and the frozen throne expansion pack? and patched to the latest version? then drop me an msn msg with ur (n Tommy's?) IP address and I'll see if I can hook us up.

Busy busy busy

2005-06-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

AARGH! so busy in lab. am running 2 expts at once, and the lab is moving, and I had a coffee n doughnut this morning so my nerves are shot AND I'm having a sugar high.

am now trying to lower my breathing and heart rate so that I won't screw up my expts and lose my work. mebbe I should count sheep.

in 3 mins I have to load my gel, in 20mins I have to wash my cells and run them on the cytometer, in 80mins I have to blot the gel, and somehow in the meantime I have to find some lunch and eat it.

ok gotta go.