Fleeting Moments

It has been three weeks since I moved to Daly City, and that calls for an update!

Living here has been interesting and different. I rent a room in a house from a nice Chinese family, complete with its 3 generations: grandparents, parents, and kids. The kids will be kids. They love playing, so they try to occupy every hour of my free time with monopoly, checkers, and UNO. Their curiosity is cute: What do you do on weekends? What do you do online? Do contact lenses hurt? Why do you come back at 10 pm? Why do you type “lol” when you’re not? The grandparents are friendly and caring, and they treat me like family. Sometimes I wish for more privacy, but I feel very lucky to be living in a home where I don’t feel lonely.

I don’t know if DC is normally cold like this, or if the recent storms were just an aberration, but I’ve never experienced bone chills on a consistent basis. I had previously believed myself to be a frost-friendly person, but I’ve felt pretty miserable these past few weeks. The house is not very warm, the walk to work is excruciating, and the work place is freezing too! I’ve never had to make such an effort to stay warm. UGGS SAVE LIVES!

DC is officially known as “The Gateway to the Peninsula” and unofficially as “Filipino Town”. I haven’t really seen that many Filipinos because I live in a Chinese community bubble, with 99 Ranch Plaza at its epicenter. I never thought that there would be a 99 Ranch Supermarket in my backyard, but there is the saying that dreams do come true.

I guess that’s all for now. Please wish for warm (moderate, even) weather to come my way!

Living at home, my diet in large part is controlled by my mom. This means:

1) No snacking after hours

2) Small meal portions

3) Heavy on fruits & veggies

4) Limited access to carbs (my parents are cutting down on them)

The Mom Diet is a sharp contrast to my eating habits back in Berkeley, and I feel a bit smaller and slightly leaner from my college self. No, I haven’t loss a ton of weight, but somehow my clothes hang looser and fit better. That said, I’m relatively satisfied with my body and weight and haven’t felt motivated enough to exercise.

I have never been an avid fan of exercise when it comes to running or lifting weights. Sure, lets toss the football around or edge our way down the side of a mountain; I am so down for sports and recreation. However, a daily fitness routine hardly involves fun because it means running for the sake of running, and that is b.o.r.i.n.g. I really have no idea how I competed for my middle school cross country team for two years.

Although lacking both motivation and pure interest, I have decided that starting this week I will establish a light fitness routine and commit to it as best I can. My motivation ultimately lies in my desire to maintain good health. I suppose humans can be compared to machines that need to be consistently running (haha) otherwise they will be plagued with chronic breakdowns and mechanical problems. I accept the role that exercise must play in my life, and now I need to find some way to embrace it.

Maybe I’ll blog about reaching my fitness goals. Ha, not.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder. But this isn’t always the case.

In an effort to spend more time with my family on Christmas, I spent the day in the living room in front of the TV with my sister and dad. Before the onslaught of NBA Christmas goodies, my sister was watching a TW drama that I’ve never heard of. Curious, I watched it for a few minutes before losing interest and falling asleep.

It dawned on me that I should be a professional TW drama critic. Even though I am not Taiwanese or TW-cultured, I think I’ve seen enough TW dramas to know what is a decent production in terms of storyline, content, acting, soundtrack (believe it or not, an important factor!), and camera work (to a certain extent). It would be great if someone would pay me to watch dramas, write about them, and rate them!

Ok so I’m only half serious about becoming a “professional TW drama critic”..should that kind of work ever exist. I just thought I should write an entry about this because 2011 marks the ten-year anniversary of the TW drama pioneer Meteor Garden/流星花園. I have to say that within this decade TW dramas have really really really come a long way. Production, acting, and storyline have improved tremendously!

Dramas I’ve Seen

• MARS
• Meteor Garden
• Meteor Garden II
• Silence
• Hot Shot
• Sweet Relationship
• Black & White
• Autumn’s Concerto*
• Down With Love*
• Miss No Good
• Endless Love*
• Summer’s Desire*
• It Started with a Kiss
• That Love Comes
• Corner with Love*

*favorites

I’m kinda lame lol.

That’s what I grew up believing. My parents told me this, and my teachers further reinforced it in my heart. I remember feeling excited to “grow up” and have the power to be whatever I wanted as long as I worked hard for it.

Fast forward to present: I ask myself everyday, why have I found myself worthy of nothing? I have been actively looking for over a year for just a small step into society, only to have been met with rejection and closed doors.

I previously thought to myself, you’re just not smart enough, and just accepted it with dejection. In an effort to comfort my bruised ego, I tried believing that it was merely life’s plan for me, giving me time to find my niche. It will all work out, I told myself with a smile.

But it hasn’t, and one day I will die, not because of illness or age, but because of disappointment.

Today I learned that I received a passing score for the HSK exam that I took in October. For those unfamiliar with HSK, it is a Chinese language proficiency exam that is recognized by Mainland China for non-native Chinese speakers. If you plan on attending grad school or working in China, you’ll need to take the HSK. In other words, it’s the Chinese equivalent of TOEFL.

So what am I going to do with it now? It’s unclear. For now I know it’s one step closer to living in China…遙遠的中國在等待我.

I love traveling and going places, and today it dawned on me why.

Travel removes me from the secure, comfortable microcosm of my own life. I don’t know if I can speak for everyone, but I feel that it’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day stress, the short-term goals, or the petty complications of life.

Being outside of this world built around me puts life back into perspective for me. I realize what’s important to me and what life can offer, and that is the bigger picture that we should all not lose sight of.

People come and go in our lives, and the only person you’ll spend the rest of your life with is yourself. Sadly, life is meant to be spent in solitude.