Saturday, December 15, 2007

Finished~~~

Oh yeah~~~Finally, after the 2-week final exams torture, this semester has finished yesterday. Felt relieved and happy that I completed the courses as I expected. Although the final grades haven't come out yet, I have the feeling that I'm doing good with all the courses. This will benefit myself when I need to look for a job next year. Yeah~~~^___^

My flight to Germany departs in tomorrow morning. I'm very excited now. I talked with Richard this morning and he said he'll come to the airport and pick me up. It's been a long time since we parted. So good that I can see him soon in 2 days. I'm super happy right now.

Last day here today is very busy: going to the bank, doing lots of laundry, and packing. I should take a shower now and go to bed earlier!!

Friday, November 30, 2007

So Sick.....>_<

It has been almost 1 week!! I'm still coughing, having a running nose, and sore throat!!! I couldn't sleep well at night because the god damn cough always woke me up during the night. Didn't I take any medicine? Of course I did. But all of them were just useless and my cold was so strong that it doesn't seem to like going away. So, I went to our school clinic today to see the doctor. Really need some useful prescription to get me out of this shit as soon as possible. Come on~~ the finals are coming and I need to be well to finish the exam, and also be well to meet Richard and his parents.(Oh yes, my first stop in Germany is at his parents' place~~ how nice~~~ ^__^)

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Thanksgiving Holiday

Time flies so fast that you can never imagine, especially for happy hours, it flies even faster!! 6-day Thanksgiving holiday just passed by and I found that I couldn't focus on my study back to school!! I'm getting too excited about the forthcoming winter break and my trip to Germany!! God~~the finals are waiting for me on the road!!! >_<

I was partying too much for the past 1 week!! Last Saturday(11/17) I went clubbing with several friends, it was a crazy night! Dancing within the crowds and had fun with my classmates. It was my first time to a club since I arrived here! Last Monday(11/19) was the last class before the holiday. After the morning class, I went home first to have lunch and then met my friends at BestBuy to see if there were good deals for shopping. Of course, I didn't buy anything. I have no money~~T__T After BestBuy, Lin, Juan, and me went to Costco together and bought some food for Wednesday's party. It was for Juan's birthday! We finished shopping and went to Jessie's place to have dinner. Because we were all too full, we decided to take a walk back to Lin's place(5 blocks away~) Then, party again......till 2am....

Wednesday, we went to school at noon, attending a resume workshop. After the workshop, I went home to prepare for some food. Then I asked Lin to pick me up and went to his place for partying~~another night filled with alcohol and dance...(I didn't drink at all~~)

Thursday was the Thanksgiving Day, I woke up late and did some study. But most of the time I was reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." It was so good that I couldn't stop reading it~~ In the evening, I went out with my roommate, Paul, to his friend's house for the Thanksgiving dinner. I really had to say, I didn't know that the turkey stuffing was so tasty!! That is very impressive! However, the people are BORING! They are just so boring that I almost fell asleep!!! Paul was mad of them because they didn't talk to me at all!! Well, I didn't care that much, but it was really boring, the only thing was nice was the food!! We left early and back to our apartment, we would rather watch the West Wing!! It was more fun! Hahaha~~

I went to my friend, Genny's place in San Jose on Friday evening, and came back on Saturday evening. They took me to nice Chinese restaurants and her boyfriend helped me fix my laptop. Well, although there are still some problems within my laptop, but as long as I can get online and do the things I need to do, I'll be fine with it. Thank God, I don't have to buy a new one, or my parents will kill me!!!

Happy partying also brought some bad news. Since I went to bed too late these day, I got a cold....>__< Sore throat, coughing, running nose...

Got to go back to study~~>_<

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Shopping Season Begins~~

Thanksgiving is around the corner. Next week, Thursday, Turkey and Mashed Potatoes!!! Well, got to be careful not to gain weight!!!>__<

The weather is getting crazy here. Not as cold as the East Coast of course, but 2 days were relatively cold and following 2 days relatively warm for the past 2 weeks, it's very easy to get a cold!! One of my roommates, Paul, and my German tutor, Christian, were both getting quite sick since the Halloween!! I'm lucky that I didn't get a cold from any of them, maybe it's the jogging that works out!! I went to the German Consulate here in SF and applied for my German visa last week. And oh yes, I got the German visa and also received the German railroad pass this week. I bought the 6-days pass, which cost me $256 including shipping fee. God!! It' just too expensive!! Richard and I really have to figure out how to use this pass efficiently. I want to see Frankfurt (maybe also Heidelberg...), Berlin (for sure, because of the New Year Eve's concert of Berlin Philharmonic...), and maybe go to his parents' place (near Hamburg). But I think I'll spend most of the time in Munich since Richard still has to work during the weekdays. So, my trip will all depend on his working schedule. I'll be fine traveling alone in the city or some closer spots (like Neuschwanstein Castle) during he works. Hope the weather will not be too bad when I go there. Richard just told me that Munich has already been snowing this week and the weather is shitty bad....I don't want to be cold to death...>__<

School works are so far so good, still lots of assignments and quizzes to deal with. But I can handle them and I'm getting used to it. Studying has become a routine and I feel fine with doing it on a day-to-day basis. I hope I can keep my grades as good as last half quarter...

Last Saturday, I went to a movie, "American Gangster" with Ben. We were planning to see another one, "Into the Wild," but we didn't see it just because the show time was not match....The movie, ""American Gangster"(by Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe) was really good. It's not a traditional gangsters movies with so much violence, but is a movie talking about the twisted perspective of value and the decayed police system in the U.S. I like the way Denzel shows in the movie in a very low key. It's easy to being exaggerated when acting, but being in a low tone and still amazed the audience is the real actor!! It's worthy of spending 6 dollars in the movie theater!! However, it was raining when we walked out of the theater. The sky was gray and the weather was chill. Not a good day though...

I went home and took a rest, and then I watched 2 DVDs at home with my roommates, Paul and Noel, later that night. One was "The Bourne Supremacy" by Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), the other one was the "Runaway Jury" by John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz. Both of them are good. The Bourne movie was shot at Berlin. I saw the Berlin train station in the movie, it looks very nice, and the plaza in front of the station is beautiful. I said to my roommates that I'll be there in 1 month, trying to show off to them and make them jealous of me about my forthcoming exciting tour there. Hahahaha~~

2 more classes for this week and next week, then I'll have 6 day-offs for the Thanksgiving!! Yeah~~~~^___^

Monday, November 5, 2007

Super Busy v.s Super Lazy

Haven't updated my blog for a long time. Of course, I was rather busy these days. And when I had time to rest, I just want to lie down and sleep. Who wants to spend one hour just to update the blog when one only has one hour to rest.....?? Anyway, this is just an excuse. I admit that I'm lazy, especially when my school workload become heavier. Let me update some news for the past week...

Last weekend was ok. I went jogging on Saturday, later I watched the baseball game. Sunday, I studied a little bit and watched the final baseball game. Oh yes, it is the Red Sox won the World Series again, after their last championship in 2004.

Monday night, I watched a movie DVD with my roommate, Matt. "Dummy" is the name of the movie. It's really interesting. It talks about a Jewish family and the son is eager to be a ventriloquist. Then there are a tons of things happened to him, to his family. Here is the link if anyone is interested in it: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246592/

Later that night, my stomach hurt and I got diarrhea after the midnight, feeling very uncomfortable. But I was fine the other day. I studied for the whole day on Tuesday and tried hard to finish the assignment. Well, I have to admit that the courses of this half quarter are harder than the ones of last half quarter. I really have to spend more time on them.

Wednesday was the Halloween. I went shopping after class with 2 friends, and bought things for my aunts. They've sent their orders to me and ask me to get those things for them. I myself only bought a very cheap sleeveless dress....
Halloween Bags from Galleria Department Store and the Halloween coupons.

Halloween Decorations in my neighborhood

Later that night, I went to a friend's place for the Halloween party. There are so many people. Some of them have dressed up for Halloween. It was really funny!!
Happy Halloween~~~

Annie and Jason: Beauty and the Pirate(or the Beast??)


This is the very first time I had Halloween here in the U.S. Everything is new to me anyway. I left the party at 10pm with my friend, Lin, and we decided to go to Castro Street to see the crowds. Usually there is a big parade for Halloween every year, but last year there was a gun shot event so they canceled the parade this year. However, there were still quite a lot of people dressed like crazy on the streets. We only drove through the streets and then he dropped me home. (we were already too tired... :-p)

Did not sleep well for the past few days. My eyes are getting red and hurt recently. And I also had a nightmare Wednesday night: Richard sent me a text message, saying that he's getting married because a girl is pregnant and his the baby's father!!!!!!That really woke me up at 5 am and I checked my phone immediately and found no message was there....it's just a nightmare....I think I was just too stressful and nervous about the new half quarter of study. Also it may be that I miss him too much.

This weekend, I spent almost all my time with my dad. He arrived on Thursday evening and I went to the airport to pick up him and his colleagues. I called the cab and went to the hotel with them, helped them checked in, and then I went home and tried to study for the quiz and finished my homework. Friday morning, I met them at the hotel at 9am, waiting for one of their colleagues' sister who lives in San Jose to take us for a sightseeing. The weather was not too good because it was all foggy, we could not see the Golden Gate Bridge very clearly.
The Golden Gate Bridge: Only can see the top, others were in the fog.


We also went to Sausalito, a small peaceful town across the Bridge, to take a short walk.
Sausalito: by the sea


Then we came back to downtown SF, went to Union Square for lunch at The Cheese Cake Factory. Since it was the first day they've arrived, they had jet lag so they went back to the hotel for rest and I went to my class for quiz and lecture. After the lecture, I went to the hotel and took them out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Saturday, I took them to the Fisherman's Wharf in the morning and to the Golden Gate Park in the afternoon. It was a very nice day and was totally good for walking. They had dinner at my place that evening and then I walked them to the bus stop and they took the bus back to the hotel. After they left, I watched 2 movies at home with my roommates. One is very old and short, but funny, called ""The Dark Army"; the other is the famous "American Beauty." I've always wanted to see this movie but never got chance. I like this movie a lot. The pace, the story line, and the characters in it. It's really a good one.

Sunday, I met up with them at the hotel, the colleague's sister came to pick us up to Palo Alto. We had lunch at an nice Italian restaurant on the street and then went to Stanford University to take a look. Wow!!! It is huge!!!(compared to USF......) and it's beautiful~~ We went through the front gate and got into the famous church on campus.
Stanford University: Front Gate at the end of the road

Stanford University: the Church

Stanford University


After taking some pictures here, we went to a nice shopping center to do some "window shopping," then we headed to the airport. I helped them checked in and said goodbye to my dad. I went home by taking the BART, alone again...

I was so tired that I fell asleep on the BART. After I got home, I started to study and do my assignment. It cost me a few hours to figure out just one graph...Macroeconomics is confusing.....compared to Microeconomics....anyway, I can't complain about this, it's my own choice to get into this field....I'll do my best to get through this program and the CFA exam in June.

Need to rest now, I'm tired...... for more pictures, please find my album link under my favorite links. I've already uploaded all of them. Enjoy them!!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Relaxing Weekend~

This is the first "long break" we have since the semester started: the end of the first-half semester. I had lots of fun this weekend. Very relaxing, and got to know more of my classmates and became friends. They are all nice and cool people!!!

Thursday afternoon, I had my first German lesson with my tutor, Christian. He's a nice German guy and he explains grammar and pronunciations very clearly. I'm also glad that he doesn't live far away from my apartment, which means I don't have to travel for a long time and spend extra money on Bart to have 1 hour lesson. In the evening, I attend the Text Skill Workshop at school. Honestly speaking, I was a little disappointed for the content. But there were still some useful things taught in class. Fortunately, it's only an 8-hours workshop. I'll go again this week for the last 4 hours and then it's done.

Friday afternoon, I went swimming at school gym with one of my classmates, Ting. She's lovely girl from China and just as young as my brother. We swam for one hour or so (included chatting for half hour...), and after swimming I went to the supermarket to get some fruits and food for breakfast. But when I finished shopping and wanted to go home, it started to rain!!! I didn't have an umbrella and the 2 bags on my hands were so heavy that I could not use an umbrella anyway. So, I walked fast home, and felt my biceps hurt when I finally arrived in kitchen...The night I did lots of domestic things: laundry, cooking. Also watched a movie,"Shortbus" at night. Didn't really get it. A weird movie....I was tired but relaxing!!(because I don't have to think...ha~~)

Saturday, I woke up pretty late and then I tried to call my dear boyfriend,Richard. But he didn't pick up the phone for the first 2 times. Then I reached him when I called the 3rd time, he said he was having dinner at the moment and would call me back later. I then started to do other things, waiting for his call. I even fell asleep on the couch when I was reading a novel. Then the phone rang!! Because my phone was running out of money and I asked Richard to call at my home phone number. It was almost 4pm(1am his time) and we talked for maybe more than 30 minutes. He was still at friend's place, partying. He went to the kitchen and called me. His friend came in, he also put him on the phone with me for a small talk. My mood turned out to be very nice after I talked to him for such a long time. Then later that evening, I watched the baseball game. Red Sox led the game from the very beginning and they just kicked the ass of the Indians. My roommate, Paul, who stands for the Indians, he just couldn't look the game since the middle and then we started to watch the "West Wing", a TV show about politics and laws(U.S. democrats.) It was a really good series of shows. We started to watch the DVDs which were owned by Paul about 1 months ago and I watched it with Paul and another roommate, Noel, once or twice a week. It's interesting because there's no such kind of TV series in Taiwan, and this series talks about a lot of political culture and law things in the U.S., especially on the Democrats side. Of course I can't understand all of it, I think I can only get 70-80% of the content. Not only because the characters sometimes speak too fast but also there are lots of legal processes and law jargons. But since Paul and Noel are all law graduate students, I can always pause the show and ask them to clarify for me. Good for me to practice my English listening skills and learn more about this country. After watching one episode, we decided to do a movie. We chose a comedy,"Hitch",by Will Smith, rather than "The Godfather." It was so funny and I laughed a lot during the movie although I've already seen it once in Taipei. And we chatted a little bit after the movie, talking about relationships.(Both Paul and Noel have been divorced several years ago.) Anyway, it was a fun night.

Sunday, I got up very late(10:30am), made some smoothies for brunch, and then started to chat online with one of my best friends in university, Athena. She's now in New York, living with her boyfriend, searching for a job. (she has graduated from her master program this year) We chatted for a long time and then she decided to go out for a walk and I decided to go jogging in the panhandle park. I ran for a while and then came back to take a shower. I had 2 places to go that night!!! One was in downtown, I had a dinner appointment with Sean and his friend Diana(she's a Korean). We ate at a Japanese restaurant, the food was really good and not too expensive. I think I'll take my dad to that restaurant when he visits me.

Diana and Me


Then I went to my classmate's(Lin) place for a party. There are 10 more people there, all are my classmates. Well, 2 of them are not because they're girlfriends of my classmates. We had fun drinking(I didn't drink) dancing, and chatting. You can hear all kinds of languages in the room: English, Mandarin, Cantonese, even a little bit Japanese. It was so funny!!

Lin's Place Party(food prepared by Cathy and Shi Shuai)
From left:Gabriel, Jessica(Salim's girlfriend), Salim, Shi Shuai, Luke, Cathy, Ben, Lin

Ben, me, and Juan

Lin, me, Juan, and Ben

All:front:Luke, Shi Shuai, Lin, Juan, Gabriel
back: Cathy, Jessie, me, Kelly, Ben

All again:front:Luke, Shi Shuai, Lin's girlfriend, Lin,
back: Cathy,
Kelly, Jessie, me, Juan, Ben


Oh, I also watched the final game of the Red Sox and the Indians at Lin's place.(just the last parts) 11 to 2, Red Sox goes to the World series!! I got home at 11pm and wrote an email to Richard then went to bed.

It was a great weekend!! Having fun with friends, doing sports, talking with my beloved one, watching games and movies. The new round of stress began today. Just like Richard said to me: Take a deep breath and get ready for the new round!!!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Survived from the Finals~~

Dear all,

I SURVIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Three 4-hrs exams almost broke my neck and I was in a not-so-good health condition for the past week. I had sore throat for two days and then I had a running nose thereafter. Finally, I felt my head was very heavy on Tuesday and had serious headache all day long. I guess I had a light fever because I've been feeling cold for the whole day.... Anyway, although I didn't feel well during the whole exam week, I still killed the exams!! Don't know how I did on the exams, I really have no ideas about them right now. I'll soon get the results back. We'll see!!!

My mom has been sick for more than 2 weeks. She's still not well when I called her last time during the weekend. My dad was supposed to visit me today, but On Tuesday night I got his mail and he told me that he has postponed his trip to 2 weeks later(11/1). He said it was because my mom was still not recovering. She went to the emergency room last Friday and also did the CAT scan, but the doctors said that there's nothing bad in her. This Monday, she was hospitalized for 2 days for further examinations and the doctors has diagnosed her as Dysautonomia. She has left the hospital on Wednesday and went home. The doctor has prescribed some medicine for her and now she's getting better, at least not vomiting everyday. I only knew this last night because they did not tell me. I called my dad this evening and asked

for the details. My dad said that might because my mom is always too nervous and has too many things to do at the same time. She needs to adjust herself and take the medicine, then she'll be fine. I've been worrying her for more than 2 weeks but couldn't do anything. My
brother was also busying at his part-time job. I really felt bad.....

So, due to the above reasons, my dad will not come this week. My forthcoming weekend schedule is suddenly empty!! Well, I guess I just need to relax for a while doing nothing. But I know I still have things to do. I have to revise my resume and cover letter so that I
can start to search for a job and hand the companies the newly revised version of resume and cover letter. Also, our department has organized 2 English workshops for international students. One is Text skills for economics and finance, another is the Presentation skills for economics and finance. Both are an 8-hrs workshop held in two weeks, which means 4 hours a week. I've already registered for them, of course, they're free!!! I think I'll never have a really empty
schedule for this year!!

Yesterday after I finished the exam, I had lunch with several classmates at a Chinatown restaurant. I haven't eaten outside for such a long time!!!(2 months...) We had six people and we only ordered 4 dishes, however, we still didn't finish them!! Everybody was just too tired to eat....>_< One of them only slept for 1 hour last night, and 2 of them slept for 3 hours, 1 slept for 5 hours and 2 slept for 6 hours(including me). Anyway, I took the left to go with me and then I went to do a facial massage with my friend, Annie. It was very comfortable and relaxed. It lasted for 2 hours and Annie even fell asleep(she's the one who only slept 1 hour last night...). I didn't fall asleep because I need really quiet place to sleep and the radio was on. Anyway, after the facial massage, I felt my skin was so smooth and tender. It's $38 dollars per time(2 hrs) for 10 times. We only go there once a month and the results is pretty good. I think it's worth of the money.

Oh, one last thing to tell. When I came home this evening, I got something in the mail box: It's the missing PARCEL for Richard!!!! It was SENT BACK TO ME!!! OH MY GOD~~~ It's BACK~~~(I'm tearing~~ T___T ) I think I'm not going to resend it again but only take it with me when I meet him in December.

Ok, this is long enough. I have that Text skill workshop in the evening today, and also need to do some grocery shopping since I'm running out of breakfast. I've already get back to my normal weight. Hope I can keep it or lose 1 more kg till I meet Richard. ^___^

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Finals are coming~~

This Monday was the last day of class of this first half semester. We had a day off on Wednesday and then the first final comes on Friday!!! Who knows we've only started school for just 7 weeks....

Anyway, this Sunday, I had another BBQ in my back yard with my roommates and neighbors. Everyone had to prepare something for the BBQ and I was in charge of a vegetarian cold pasta and a potato tuna salad. It was really fun to meet some of our neighbors. Here is the picture of my roommates. From the left, is Paul(29), Matt(27), and Noel(39). I'll talk more about them after my god damn finals....

My roommates(from left):Paul, Matt, Noel


This little blond baby, Oscar, lives with his parents and a dog named Osi downstairs of my apartment. He is super cute!!! He's only 20 months but he smiles at me when I wanted to take a picture of him. Very sweet. (Although I can sometimes hear him crying and screaming when he was playing at home or in the yard...)

Oscar(20 months):downstairs


For the rest of the pictures, always check on my album
http://www.pixnet.net/ening13

I went to the panhandle park near my apartment(2 blocks away) yesterday afternoon. Yes, I went to the park, for jogging!!! It's cloudy yesterday and I didn't want to go to the gym at school (because I was trying to get rid of anything that can remind me with the studying...) So, I decided to jog for 20 minutes at the park. The end of panhandle park connects to the Golden Gate Park. I didn't run in there because it would be too far away from home. And I just realized that there are so many people who have lots of leisure time at the middle of a day that they can walk their lovely dogs or do some biking, jogging or walking. Or even just sit on the grass and read a book or magazine...I, in contrast, can not focus on my study so that I have to go jogging a little to make me concentrated when I come back to my desk. Well, it helped. (I guess....)

Got to go back to study and laundry....that's the real life~~XD

張愛玲的十大愛情名言

張愛玲的十大愛情名言

1 .于千萬人之中遇見你所要遇見的人,于千萬年之中,時間的無涯的荒野裏,沒有早一步,也沒有晚一步,剛巧趕上了,沒有別的話可說,惟有輕輕地問一聲:"噢,你也在這裡?

2 .遇見你我便得很低很低,一直低到塵埃裏去,但我的心是歡喜的。並且在那裏開出一朵花來。

3 .因為愛過,所以慈悲;因為懂得,所以寬容。

4 .我們再也回不去了!

5 .也許每一個男子全都有過這樣的兩個女人,少兩個。娶了紅致瑰,久而久之,紅的變了墻上的一抹蚊子血,白的還是窗前明月光;娶了白玫瑰,白的便是衣服上的一粒飯粘子,紅的卻是心口上的一顆硃砂痣。

6 .回憶永遠是惆悵的! 愉快的使人覺得,可惜已經完了;不愉快的,想起來還是傷心。

7 .生於這世上,沒有一樣感情不是千瘡百孔的。

8 .日子過得真快,尤其對於中年以後的人,十年八年都好象是指顧間的事。可是對於年輕人,三年五載就可以是一生一世。

9 .愛你值不值得,其實你應該知道,愛就是不問值得不值得。

10 .女人一旦愛上一個男人,如賜予女人的一杯毒酒,心甘情願的以一種最美的姿勢一飲而盡,一切的心都交了出去,生死度外!

轉錄自http://www.wretch.cc/blog/trackback.php?blog_id=kisswatch&article_id=10759138

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

3 parties

at Baker Beach

As title, I went to 3 parties on Saturday. The first BBQ party was at school at noon and was held by our department. I talked with one of our professors who once lived in Paris. I asked him a little bit about his feeling of working in Europe and also asked him if he has ever been to Germany. He said yes and it is a beautiful place and maybe I could consider finding a job there. (but need to learn some German in advance).

The second one was a BBQ held by some of the freshly graduated alumni of our program. It was at the beach called Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. I went there with my classmates, Lin, Ben, Annie, and Juan. We were all in Lin's car. Before going to the BBQ, we went to the other side of the bridge called Baker Beach. I've been there 2 years ago.

Baker Beach

Fort Point


It was still beautiful and there were lots of people taking sunbath on the beach.(Of course no one was in the water, it was too cold!!) The weather that day was really nice, the sky was still clear at 4pm. Usually in the evening, the bridge and the beach are covered by heavy fog....So, we're lucky!! During the BBQ, I talked with one guy who just graduated from my program and now is searching for a job. From his experience, it seems that it's not easy to get a job here in financial field. I started to wonder if I should begin to search for an internship and start to work from next semester, since working experience is more important than the academic performance in this country....But in this case, I'll not be able to take the CFA exam in June then have to postpone the exam to next December. I was confused and did not know which way is a better for me. Of course I discussed it with my classmates and still haven't get a conclusion....

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we didn't want to ruin it because of this future uncertainty. We (Ben, Juan, Lin, and me) then started to play volleyball together on the grass and Annie caught some crabs by the sea. I attached some pictures here. For more pictures, please go to my album
http://www.pixnet.net/ening13

Freshly caught crab!!


After the beach BBQ, we went to my classmate's newly moved-in place to have a small party. There I got 1/3 of glass of white wine and I passed out for a while.....I knew they went out to buy some Chinese food back for dinner, but I couldn't get up to help...but anyway, they're good guys and they wouldn't care. We only had 6 people but they got 9 dishes and one soup!! It was impossible to finish them all!! Thus each of us brought one dish home after the banquet...
haha~~ And I just finished that dish two nights before, after four more meals...

Lin's house (from left: Ben, Annie, me, Juan, Lin)

The Banquet


Fun time is over!!! My first final will be held next Friday!! Therefore, I'm busy studying these days. After the finals, my dad will arrive in SF and I'll have to be his tour guide for 4 days. Then, get to plan for my winter Germany trip and start to search for job opportunities!!!!

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Moon Festival

This Tuesday(9/25) is the "Moon Festival." It's one of the three most important traditional holidays in Chinese. This is not the first time I had Moon Festival abroad. The first time was in 2005 when I came to San Francisco. This is the second time. Strange, right? I had both of them here in SF!!!And this year, I was abroad for all three important traditional holidays: Chinese New Year(Boston), Dragon Boat Festival(Boston), and Moon Festival(SF). I've never thought about that my life would have such a big change in one year!! Life is just amazing.....

For people who don't know about this Moon Festival, I can tell that there are several versions of stories for this festival. If anyone is interested in knowing it, Wikipedia is the best tool. Here is the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

But anyway, this festival is for families to get together, having BBQ and eating some "moon cakes." I went out with a Chinese couple to Daly City(where there lives a lot of Chinese) on Saturday, celebrating this festival. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, are from China and I knew them when I went on the tour to Oregon with my families. They live not far from my place and their only son studies at UC Davis. I've never met him because he's at school, but I know he has a girlfriend already. :-p Mr. and Mrs. Lee really takes good care of me and treat me well. I do appreciate them and my mom also feels thankful for them. As I've mentioned in the previous article, I was dizzy last Monday and Tuesday. When Mrs. Lee knew that I was sick, she cook me some good soup and some sweet soup. I was so touched!!

Well, last weekend when I talked with Richard, he said he was going to the "Police" concert. I didn't realized what kind of concert that was, maybe an orchestra of police officers??? I was confused when he asked me if I knew the "Police." All of a sudden, I remembered that there's a group of singer called "Police" from the 70's and 80's. Oh My God!!! I was not even born or just born when they were super popular!!! But fortunately, I heard of them or I would be so embarrassed that I did not know the concert which he went to......

Richard always told me to go to the Golden Gate Park. He said it would be a huge pity that I live so close to the park but never go there. But I still didn't go to the park last weekend. I just don't know what I could do there. I don't have a bike so I can't biking. Walking in the park alone is lonely, and when I was alone, sometimes there are weird guys who want to approach me. It's not like Boston or Cambridge, where no one would want to approach me. Things are just different here......the streets are full of homeless people and they act strangely. I'm still not getting used to this situation and I don't want my safety to be threatened! But the most critical reason is I'm LAZY!!! I just don't want to go out during the weekend!!!

School turns out to be a very exciting place. The quizzes are just full of surprises and even though you've prepared for a long time, you still screw it up!!! What s nice place!!! There's one professor, Prof. Veitch, who is just a sly fox. The lectures and the assignments are both not positively related to the quizzes. His strategy is to make you panic and also make you think....in a 20-minutes quiz starts at 8:00am on Monday. I just got the result of the previous quiz and the average was only 6.39 out of 15!!! What kind of average was that?? (sigh...) But don't worry, I'm talking about the average situation in our class. Most of the time, I have my scores above the average. I'm trying hard not to fall behind.

Also, since the semester has been divided into 2 parts, the end of the first-half semester is coming, which means the finals are just around the corner.....I'll be in hell from now on.....

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Painful Dizziness......

It was a normal day on Monday. I got up at 6:40am and went to class. As usual, we had a 30-minutes quiz at the beginning of the class. Everything was just fine, except I felt extremely hungry this day.... I did have my breakfast, but just not that much. I ate 2 pieces of chocolate during the break and hope it would give me some energy from arising my blood sugar. Luckily, the class was dismissed 30 minutes earlier than usual and I went home immediately, eager to get some food.

When I got home, I came into my room, opened my laptop, got my cell phone and tried to send a text message to my dear Richard, all of a sudden, I felt very dizzy!!!! The things in front of my eyes started to turn around like I just finished 3 rides of Roller coaster....I almost fell down on the floor!!! That's not a good sign. I told Richard that I was not feeling well in the text, then slowly changed my clothes and lay down on my sofa. I could barely move my body because every movement made me feel nauseous. My stomach was empty by that time since I haven't got a chance to eat anything, nevertheless, the nausea even made it worse!!! 3 minutes later, Richard text me back and asked if I was ok. I replied no, and told him that I couldn't get out of my sofa to see a doctor. He asked me to drink more water and go to sleep, it should be fine.

After 20 minutes, I couldn't stand the nauseous feelings anymore so I got up and tried to reach the bathroom. I had a feeling that it was the longest way I ever had in my life......Fortunately, one of my roommates, Noel, was home, and he saw me staggering in the hallway. He came to help me get into the bathroom and set me on the toilet. I tried to vomit, wondering if it could make me feel better. The answer was: not really!!! I felt even weaker after I vomited.......Anyway, I went to the kitchen to get some water, and Noel asked if he needed to call an ambulance for me. I said it was not necessary because I had this dizziness before. The only thing I need was to lie down and get some sleep. So, he helped me get back to my sofa (I have no strength to climb onto my bed), and I asked him to climb upstairs and drag the blankets on my beds for me.

I slept for almost 3.5 hours till 4:30pm, and started to feel a bit better. I got up to the kitchen and wanted to eat something. There's a pot of soup which I cooked the other day and I reheated it up and drank some of them. Noel was home and he helped me to cook some rice. After I drank the soup, I took one tablet of stomach pill and then went back to sleep again.

8:00pm I woke up again because of hunger. At this moment, I felt better than I was in the afternoon, but still a little bit dizzy. Couldn't move my body quickly, I could only sit on the chair in the kitchen and eat the rice and soup slowly. At that time, all my roommates were back and they all asked me if I was better. Noel told them that I was in a not-so-good condition so that if any of them happens to see me staggering in the hallway, they should ask me if I need help 'cuz I was definitely not drunk.

10:30pm, I called home to tell my mom that I need some pills from the doctor for dizziness. 11:00pm I took a shower and then went upstairs to sleep.

Tuesday morning, when I woke up at 8:00am, I was just thinking about Richard, wondering if he would write me a mail or text me a message. Suddenly, my cell-phone rang due to receiving a message. It was him!!!! I was very happy, although I was still a bit dizzy by that time. I replied him as fast as I could and told him not to worry too much. Also, I decided not to go to the group meeting in the afternoon and stayed at home for more rest. I did the assignment and took a short nap. Not until the evening did I really feel totally recovered. For the past 2 days, I lost almost 1 kg.(2 pounds)

Thank God!!! I was alive again!!!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Another week passed

It's just an endless cycle of my study: assignments, quizzes, and discussions. O well, I'm getting used to it right now. Nothing really special happened this week, so I don't know what I'm going to write down on this "weekly" blog..... :-p

Tuesday, I went to the USF gym for the very first time. It's truly a beautiful stadium and the windows are all glasses from the ceiling to the wall so that the sun can shine in.(This might not be good for me, I went to the gym because I don't want to get tanned!!) I was supposed to go to the Pilates Mat class that day, but since our discussion delayed my schedule, I didn't make it to the class. Hence, I just did some other equipment for 35 minutes and then went home to finish my assignment.

Wednesday, after class, Annie and I went to Chinatown for lunch. We found a facial massage salon there and tried one of their courses. It was very good and comfortable. I felt my skin was tighter and the color of those spots on my cheeks became lighter. Here comes the big spending: we bought the 10 times courses for $380!!!!! Well, one course is about 2 hours, including cleaning, scrubbing, supersonic massage with serums, facial mask, and final moisturizing. We only need to go there once a month, which is quite a good deal. Anyway, investing money on my own beauty is better than investing in the god damn stock market, at least I'll see the good result immediately and it's worth of it, not like throwing my money into the stock market and it's never going to love me back......= _=

After the facial massage, I went to Sean's place and helped him move to his new apartment. We walked up and down, back and forth for 4 times from his new apartment to the hotel, moving all his stuff into the apartment and tried to arrange all the things in his new room. See, I'm a good friend!!! Mr. Sean, you'd better remembered this. One day you'll have to pay back to me!! :-D

Thursday, I went to the gym again. This time, I caught up with the Pilates Mat class and it's very good but tired. Pilates Mat is a little bit like Yoga, but Yoga has more stretching and Pilates Mat is more like to train your deeper muscle. I like it!!!

Friday, we had group discussion in the afternoon in the library. This time we spent almost 3 hours to discuss this forthcoming assignment. Just a little bit confusing with the histogram and the meaning of those numbers. Anyway, it was a tired Friday afternoon and I got serious headache in the late evening.

Saturday, I called Richard in the morning and he said he was at the harbor and was going to have a boat ride on his friend's boat. I was so jealous!!!! But since he was about to board, we didn't talk for long. He said he'll call me later when he got home or on Sunday. So, I went to watch the baseball game: Yankee to Red Sox. Chien-Ming Wang lost this game and missed the chance to get the 19th winning. Well, I'm not a big baseball fan but I do hope that Chien-Ming Wang win, because he himself represents Taiwan!!!

In the evening, I went to a movie with my roommates, Noel, Paul, and Matt. We watched a western movie, "3:10 to Yuma," acted by Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. The movie is pretty good and the story is nice. However, the ending is a bit sad, and the chasing & shooting scenes in the movie is a bit too much. If you do not like violence, you'd better considered not to see this movie.

Sunday morning, Richard called and we talked for about 20 minutes. I just found out that I really enjoy talking with him and he's also the same. I do miss him, hearing his voice once a week can make me feel better.

Now it's time for study. If I don't study on Sunday, I'll be painful during the weekdays.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Getting Intensive~

School has already started for 3 weeks. Things are going well but I'm also getting a little bit stressful. My weekend is not so exciting. I spent almost the whole Saturday figuring out one of the assignments and completing it. Today, I need to do some reading because I have a quiz on Monday.

Sean came to my place for dinner on Friday. We went to the Chinese supermarket together to buy some domestic things. I bought a new cooking pot and a pottery pot. We cooked onion pork and stir-fried vegetables together for dinner.


Sean will come to my place tomorrow for lunch. I cut my finger(right index) last night and I'm unable to do the cooking. So, I'll just tell him how to do the cooking and I can just sit by the table and wait for eating. Well, I should be able to help a little by tomorrow, but learning how to cook is the reason he stopped by anyway. :-p

The studying is now getting more intensive. I have 6 courses for this semester. But the program divided the semester into 2 parts. For the first half semester(8 weeks till 10/19), there are 3 courses.They are "Financial Institutions & Markets(Mon.)," "Corporate Finance(Wed.),"
and "Microeconomics for Finance(Fri.)." I have assignments for every course almost every week. And these assignments are all due in a week. There are also quizzes for the "Financial Institutions & Markets" and "Corporate Finance" every week starting from this week. O well, I
guess I can handle all of them, especially I've experienced something similar at MIT.

I'm now considering enrolling in the June 2008 CFA(Chartered Financial Analyst) exam. CFA Institute is the global, not-for-profit association of investment professionals that awards the CFA and CIPM designations. If I want to go into the financial business in the future, I'll need to pass the CFA exams and get the CFA designation. The exams have 3 levels and I have to pass level 1 to get into level 2, and so on. Level 1&2 are only hold twice a year. One is on the first Saturday of June(Sunday in Asia), another is on the first Saturday of December(Sunday in Asia). I've taken the level 1 exam twice 2 years ago but I didn't pass. The enrollment fee is really very expensive (almost the same price of my rent for one level), and studying for this exam is very stressful, so I'm really seriously considering the possibility of passing the one in June 2008. The first enrollment deadline is Sept. 26. I need to make the decision before that and enroll online.

Here is the link of this institute, if anyone wants to know a little more about it, just check it out.
http://www.cfainstitute.org/

Ok, This is boring enough of my life. Let's talk about something else. I've sent a package to Richard 1 month ago and he still hasn't received it yet. The package is important because it's the gift I wanted to give him for the Chinese Valentine's Day. There is an album frame with the pictures we took together in it. And I also wrote down some lines for him on a SF postcard and put it in the package. I hope he can find it if possible. I sent it on 8/14 and it should be arrived already. I also sent one postcard to my Brazilian friend, Renata and Herton, on the same day and they've received it 2 weeks ago. By the way, Richard likes the "Ice Cream" picture that Sean drew for me. He printed out and put it on his desk. I'm flattered to hear that.

I'll go to the gym on Monday. Just find out there are some interesting courses to go: Body Sculpting, Pilates Mat, and Power Yoga. I'm losing my weight recently and I'm delighted about this fact. Now it's time to do some exercise to keep my body fit. I'll live a healthy and happy life here and become more charming and sexier before I meet Richard at the end of this year. Hahaha~~~ ^__^

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Long Weekend

September 3rd is the Labor Day of the U.S, which is a national holiday. Since it's on Monday, people have one more day-off for the weekend, so called the "long weekend." Nothing special happened during this long weekend. I stayed at home for 3 days and didn't go outside at all.(well, maybe just went downstairs to help my roommate to cut 2 pieces of wooden board for 10 minutes) Although the weather out there seemed nice and warm, I still didn't feel like to move my body under the sunshine. One of the reason you guys might have already known, that is I don't like to be tanned. Another one would be a girl thing. I felt uncomfortable for the past 3 days.......you know......

My friend, Sean(阿屁先生), stopped by my place on Saturday. He's a new student at Academy of Art University, studying his master's degree in Graphic Design. He came to my place to learn some cooking skills from me. And in order to express his gratefulness to me(actually was under my threat...), he drew me a picture by using the computer based on one of the pictures Richard took of me. I attached both of them so that you guys can compare them to each other.




Ok, now you've seen the pictures. You might wonder why it is "ICE CREAM." Well, this is nothing particular. Just because Sean said my Chinese name, Pei-Chi Lin, pronounced like "Bing Chi Lin"(ice cream) in Chinese. From that day he knew my name back in Taiwan, he always calls me ice cream. That's it!!! A stupid story......>__<

Oh, what did I do for the past 3 days staying at home without stepping out of my house? Hummm.....I cooked almost all day on Saturday, also chatted with my roommates and Sean.(ah, and called Richard for the entire morning and finally talked to him a little bit in the afternoon) Sunday, I was lazily sitting in front of my desk searching for some Germany travel information, and then watched a bunch of Taiwanese drama downloaded from the internet. (Why Why Love-就是「換換愛」啦~~) Monday, still lazily watched a few Taiwanese drama, and then started to do my assignments and reading in the afternoon till 10:30pm. What a wonderful life..... XD

One of my parcels from Boston still hasn't arrived. Inside the parcel are all my books, notes, 3-rings binders, and the umbrella Richard sent me....I'm afraid that I couldn't find them back......However, this morning, Yunpeng told me that he found it!!!!! It was mis-sent to his office because there was an old address tag of his on the parcel and he forgot to peel it off....this is so dramatic!!!! But I'm glad that it was not gone forever and he said he'll resend it to me tomorrow!! Thank God!!!

I went to the library this morning at 10:00 and discussed the assignments with my group members for 3 hours. After out discussion, they came back to my place with me. Everyone was so hungry and I had rice and curry in the fridge. Just stirred fried some vegetable and we had a quick lunch together. Then I walked them to the bus stop and I went to the supermarket, buying some fruits. Now back and tired!!

Take a nap~~haha~

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Ridiculous

This is not a normal morning. I've been waken up by a phone call at 7:30 in the morning, asking me if I've ordered food to xxx Hurley St. in Cambridge....(It was not my former apartment number but it was the right street...) I said to the guy who's on the phone that I didn't order anything and I'm now in San Francisco!!!

The guy told me that he's calling from the police office from Boston and he's trying to find out who made this order 3 weeks ago and still not paid for the food!! He also asked me if I knew anyone would use this phone to make the order. I told him that was impossible since I left the U.S in the middle of June and back to Taiwan. I only came back to SF(not Boston) on the 1st of August. The card is always with me and nobody could ever use it!! He asked me if the number is right, I said yes and it's a prepaid card. I didn't sign any contract with the cellphone company. He said he would talk to the cellphone company and make sure that this number is not double issued. He also said if it's necessary, he might ask me to attend a hearing!!!!!

What the hell is that???This is ridiculous enough!!! >__<

Sunday, August 26, 2007

First Week of School


Well, just can't believe that I've been here only for a month!! I feel like I've been staying at this place for a long time~~~Homesick?? Not at All!!! I guess I'm really getting used to living in the U.S. and starting to feel comfortable about the environment here.

This week was a very intensive week. I had my program orientation on Monday evening and was threatened by our academic adviser that the program we attend is the most crazy one in USF. And he also talked about the working environment at financial district and how we should be prepared to get an internship right after we graduate. Ok...that was stressful enough...

Tuesday to Thursday, our program offered 3 review courses included "Quantitative Methods, Probability, Statistics," "Financial Accounting and Financial Statement Analysis," and "Financial Management." Every student in this program was required to take all of the review courses. and each one took 6 hours to complete!!! God~~~ First day, it was really a kind of torture since I haven't been to a lecture after the school finished in mid-May at MIT. It's not because of the language barrier but the feeling of going back to school. Fortunately, I felt better in the second day's class. And the third day, it became boring because I previewed the course material the night before. Humm....I'm pretty exited about what will happen after hour "Official" classes start. I'm looking forward to the "Life in Hell!!!!" :p

Last weekend, I finally got all my furniture and settled down. I have to thank dear Genny and Gene, who came all the way from San Jose to help me move all the furniture from the seller's place to my apartment. It was great to meet them again here in San Francisco. When I went to New York this January, they were also very hospitable, especially Genny kindly provided her room to Dolphin and me, which helped us save huge amount of money... Thank you both again~~^__^

For all the pictures from the very first day till now are now on my album.
http://www.pixnet.net/ening13
If any of you are interested in seeing what it looks like of my room, welcome to my album and check it out. I would say it's pretty cozy, and I really like it. I'll try my best to keep it as clean as possible. Hahaha~~

Here comes some "Gossip" part~~Richard and I are very good now. We email and text message to each other during the weekday, and we talk on the phone on weekend. Last week, we talked about visiting each other during X'mas and New Year. When I asked him if I could visit him during my winter vacation, he said he wanted me to reserve the flight ticket first and do not pay immediately. He said he would like to come to SF to visit me, but he needed to make some arrangement with his boss and other stuff. I was flattered that he has the desire to visit me in the U.S. So I waited for his news and tried to contact a travel agent to check the tickets. This week, he got the result that he will be unable to leave at that period of time. Therefore, he said he'd be glad if I could make it to visit him in Germany. Of course I will go!! I want to travel to Europe so much for such a long time!!! And now he's there, I'll definitely get the ticket and fly to him as soon as I finish my semester. Hence, if there's no accident, I'll be in Germany for X'mas and New Year. Hehehe.^__^

Alright, I got to do some reading now because my first class starts tomorrow from 8am-12pm, which means I have to get up early and catch the bus to downtown financial district. Hard life begins!!!!

Thursday, August 16, 2007

SF Adventure--New Beginning~


Dear All,

I've been in San Francisco for almost 3 weeks!!! Things here are so far so good. Some of my families came with me on Aug.1 and they've already gone back to Taipei on Sunday(Aug.12). I felt relieved when they left, but also a bit lonely, since I was always busy hanging out with them, and having no time to really settle down my own stuff. But I'm fine now. There are still a lot of things to do within this 2 weeks. I've got my desk and chair delivered the other night. Now I have to arrange another delivery for the rest of my furniture. Will post on some pictures of my room after everything is done. ^__^

I have to attend the International Student Orientation this Friday(Aug.17), and my roommates are going to held a small welcome dinner party for me on Friday night. School starts on Aug.27, so I still have some leisure time for relaxing and get accustomed to the living environment here.

Honestly, I like Boston and Cambridge better. SF is a beautiful city for sure, however, I can hear a lot of Chinese, Cantonese, and even Taiwanese here!! Also, the bus is full of Chinese(or Asians),
which makes me feel that I'm not in the U.S. but in some big Asian City....The most serious thing that I can't stand is the homeless people and very weird people on the streets. I feel nervous and scared sometimes while I'm waiting for the bus alone at late night(9-10pm). Actually, one of my roommates just got a punch on his nose by a teen-aged black boy at the bus stop near our apartment!! He didn't do anything to that boy but just answered a few questions he asked, then the insane boy punched him without any early warning!! What a Shock!! Although this is not my first time being in SF, I still can't get used to this strange situation. Fortunately, I'm not living in downtown but close to the Golden Gate Park, which is much quiet and safer(well, that punch event doesn't happen everyday...) My class will be hold in downtown every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning for this fall term. That means I can go back to school or home in the afternoon and stay away from the crazy and crowded Union Square. I think I'll only go there when I really need to do some shopping...

Anyway, besides the above complaint, things are so far so good here. My roommates are all nice people, and I have a quiet but convenient neighborhood. I'm also not far from my school, the GG Park and the Alamo Square.

Oh, another thing which is not so good is the WEATHER!!! It's too cold here!!! Come on!! It's summer time!! How come it's so chilly at this place?? Totally can't get used to it, especially I arrived from a very warm place.....I was a little bit ill at the first few days here....

I went to some other places with my families last week. Carmel, Monterey, and 17 Miles Drive. It was a one day tour and everything there is so different from SF or Boston. It's another kind of relaxing style of living. And on Wednesday(Aug.8), I was on another 3-days tour to Oregon, including 4 national parks(Red Wood and others...) The scenery there is absolutely beautiful. The weather there was also great. Although the bus ride seemed to take forever, it's still worth of going those places. Will also post on more pictures of these places later.

This is my new blog. Hopefully I'll have enough time to write down more articles about my life here after school starts. ^__^

Ciao~~

Sunday, February 11, 2007

New Bolg

hahaha
new blog
Welcome~~