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!!!

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. ^___^

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

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!!!!