when the job gets the most of you...

"... this is one of the things that distinguishes us from animals and permits us to do great things, that we are not just pre-occupied with staying alive.
-- Robert Walker's answer to Why is the Dalai Lama seen as evil in China? --

I dreamt I was in an unknown place with some people I didn't know. There was a commotion on the far end, coming to my direction.

"Hurry gave it to her!" 'There she is!' "Bring it, bring it!"

Someone tried to shove a mobile phone into my hand. "This mobile phone is possessed by an evil spirit!"


"Excuse me?"

I refused to receive it. Instead I asked her: "Have you tried turning it off and on again?

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things i totally forgot on my second trip to china

... And I'm still kicking myself for those.

Number one is, flush before you use any toilets in China. This is the norm, unfortunately I only got it after the n-th times using their toilets. I was taking a dump when someone enters the toilet stall beside me. Right after I heard the door closed followed by the sound of toilet flushing, I heard her (or him, I don't judge) pee.

I was estatic about that, like having a revelation. That was a short visit about four years ago, and by the second year spent at my own country, I've already forgotten about it.

Again, on my second visit to China this month, I was using their toilet for the n-th times, wondering why it smelled awful, when a mother and her small kid entered the stall beside me. I overheard the mother telling her daughter something like "don't use the toilet yet, flush it first" kind of thing.

-_- I was not a smart person. And no, they generally don't flush after using the toilets. I'm sure there are Chinese people who flush after using the toilets, I just haven't encountered any.

The second thing is handbag choice. If you travel by MTR, you'd want one small compartment, secured by a zipper, accessible from the outside of the bag, not the inside.

As a visitor, you carry significantly more things around while riding a MTR. Your passport for example. And maps. And qingwen flashcards.

What? No, the compartment on the bag is not meant to store passports nor maps nor qingwen cards. You store them in your bag. In the main section of your bag where they belong. The small compartment is meant to store MTR tokens or cards. If earlier this month you saw an overweight foreigner stumbling with her bag in nearly every stations trying to find the tokens between all those documents and maps, you probably saw me.

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huo pangzi for the first time

I really really like this restaurant 火胖子肥肠煲 (Huǒ pàngzi féicháng bāo). It sells Sichuanese cuisine. I've actually eaten there twice during my stay in China earlier this month.

The first time I went there I ordered beef gan guo. There's a story behind this selection, but that's a story for another time, another place. I also ordered mapo tofu and stir-fried cabbages.

The next day I wasn't particularly hungry, so I only ordered seafood gan guo. Turned out to be one of the best things I've ever eaten! I ate the pot clean, even the onions, except for the chili-things.

They also have the best barley tea! It was free, and you first use it to sanitize your bowls and chopsticks. Although it is called tea, actually it is not made of tea leaves, but sesame-like grains. When I pay, I asked the cashier lady if I could buy the tea grains, I wanted to bring it back to Indonesia.


It'll lost its color a bit after you simmer it in hot water.

When I studied my receipt later, I found out that she put it as 一桶饭 (yī tǒng fàn), one container of rice.

The service was wonderful for China restaurants standard. The waiters and waitresses were helpful and very patient to me who can barely speak Chinese. Hey, I can write Chinese, but I can't do it orally okay? And no, no Google for you in mainland China. Good luck with that.

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so the day came... -- part two

My friends from uni days and I have been planning to meet but didn't got the drive to do so for a long time. Until today.

We chatted about this and that, and suddenly one of them pointed out that the other had been skipping meals. She'd been having only one meal a day, usually it was dinner. I immediately expressed my concern.

"I am fine," she said: "I don't feel hunger anymore, just a little dizzy."

I closed my mouth though I didn't actually share her view. We then talked about other things.

Going home I was very disturbed. Adult life has messed with us more than we care to admit.

(And yes, there's a post that look like this.)

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pakistani guys, wtf?

Your sisters have curfews to protect them from people like you... doesn't that make you feel bad?
--Wishal Raheel--

People ask me why I'm not too keen having anything to do with Pakistani guys. So one day I thought that it's wrong to judge people from what others say about them and decided to give the next guy a chance.

Worst. Decision. Ever. See for yourself what happened.

him 8:48:32 AM
hello <my nickname>
me 8:58:59 AM
hello <his nickname>
him 8:59:27 AM
finally, you replied me

Excuse me, finally? How many times have you said hello to me before? Just once, right? Or maybe it's a language barrier you're having... Okay, okay, moving on...

him 8:59:31 AM
lol busy?
me 8:59:43 AM
no
him 8:59:55 AM
at home or work?
me 9:01:22 AM
home
him 9:01:33 AM
add me?

Sorry, who are you again?

me 9:02:01 AM
introduce yourself
him 9:02:22 AM
i am from pakistan, but live in Canada now
him 9:02:30 AM
recently moved in Canada
me 9:05:24 AM
are you <input the name of a group here>?
him 9:05:33 AM
you are too busy
him 9:05:44 AM
what is <input the name of a group here>?
me 9:05:58 AM
sorry, i mean are you <input the name of a group here>?
me 9:06:03 AM
or <input the name of a group here>?
him 9:06:10 AM
<input the name of a group here>
him 9:06:14 AM
why you reply so late?
me 9:06:27 AM
i have other people chatting with me too
him 9:06:53 AM
ohh wow you are very famous?

What's with that "I'm VVIP" attitude man? You think I am your maid? I'm not in any way obligated to put down other people, just so I can reply to your messages right after you type them!

But, ahem. Another chance, another chance, remember? So be patient.

me 9:07:22 AM
just a little
me 9:07:33 AM
so what are you studying?
him 9:07:46 AM
about accounting
him 9:07:51 AM
so you do not want to add me?
me 9:08:48 AM
the tone of that question is rude
me 9:08:57 AM
i don't like it
me 9:09:27 AM
you won't do well in canada if you don't change your way of phrasing a question
him 9:09:50 AM
lol
him 9:10:03 AM
thanks for your advice
me 9:10:11 AM
it's OK
me 9:10:17 AM
tell me more about yourself
me 9:10:21 AM
how old are you?
him 9:10:41 AM
you did not told me anything about yourself
me 9:10:43 AM
what university do you go to?
me 9:11:24 AM
what do you want to know?
him 9:11:34 AM
everything
him 9:13:27 AM
ok..i think u do not want to tell anything
me 9:14:33 AM
now you're jumping into conclusions
me 9:14:38 AM
so how old are you?
him 9:15:17 AM
<input a certain age here> and u?
him 9:18:37 AM
same
him 9:19:25 AM
you are so rude
him 9:19:27 AM
neverming
him 9:19:29 AM
mind
him 9:19:31 AM
goodbye
me 9:22:17 AM
and what is so rude about having the same age as you do?

And he didn't reply back! Actually I look a lot younger than the age I told him, so maybe that's the reason why he wrote to me the first place.

My patience to keep replying to such a self-entitled person even when I had to keep myself from clicking the 'block user' button has been fruitful. Now I'll just refer any Pakistani guy who bothers me in the future to this post.

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to-do-list

I don't know what to write. I guess I'm having writer's block. So I'll write things that need to be done to my house here instead:
。Empty the septic tank.
。Fix electric fan that is used to dry hanged laundry.
。Raise the floor. Currently front door and bathrooms are cemented to prevent flood from destroying the furnitures.
。Fix lighting on the storage room.
。Create a bigger vent for the kitchen so the smell of cooked meals don't go all over the house.

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loneliness, britney, and ants

If a man does not make new acquaintances, as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.
-- Samuel Johnson --

What can I do? This loneliness is killing me, Britney Spears once said. Now I say amen to that.

I drown myself in work. That didn't work (pun intended).

I try love. Exercise. Movies. Hobbies. Reading. Writing. Food. Reading. Learning languages. Nothing worked.

Well, at least I laid some posts. A couple were golden. The rest were rubbish. It's OK.

I also went nature-watching a lot. Actually I did watched fire ants today and found them marching back and forth. It's actually impossible to know whether one ant in particular's heading home or work, except if there's food involved.

(Okay I actually know what to do. It's just making new friends is not that easy.)

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so the day came...

My ex-housemate and I have been planning to meet but didn't got the chance to do so for a long time. Until today.

We chatted about this and that, and suddenly she said she hadn't seen some of our mutual friends for years. I was surprised, those were her good friends.

"Everytime they ask me to go out with them, I refuse. They have now become very rich," she said: "I feel intimidated."

I nodded though I didn't actually share her view. We then talked about other things.

Going home I was very sad. Adult life has messed with us ore than we care to admit.

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malamute

If I have a house with large lawns someday, I surely will get a malamute.

At first I couldn't differentiate between huskies and malamutes. The first time I saw a malamute was when I queued at my dentist's. His neighbour came driving and went into his own house while two big dogs looking at me through the rear car window. I was thinking, was a husky supposed to be that big? About the other dog, it was a pitbull or a boxer, his body was hidden behind his adoptive brother's, so I didn't get a clear look.

But then this breed came out under the spotlight, and then all of a sudden Youtube was full of their videos. Some were showing malamutes and huskies playing side-by-side. And the differences becae apparent.

Huskies are generally smaller than malamutes. Malamutes' fluffy tails strangely remided me of those of pomeranians', but enlarged with 5x zoom. Unlike malamutes (and pomeranians), huskies' tails do not arch above their bodies.


Like this.

While huskies have the infamous look of a dissatisfied, sour, middle-aged college teacher teaching Algebra, the expression on malamutes' faces are a lot warmer. Maybe it's due to their size. I am a sucker for large dogs. Looking at a malamute is almost like looking at a German shepherd cosplaying a husky. A fully grown up husky is about three-fourth of a malamute.

Or maybe it's due to Malamutes' faces are generally rounder than the huskies' ones.

One may also want to pay attention to the color of the eyes. If the dog's eyes are blue, it is a pure-breed husky. Malamutes' eyes are brown.


I still can't differentiate between husky and malamute puppies, though.

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when you don't dot your i's and cross your t's

Your pen-friend suffers. Especially if he or she's not at the same language character system with you (e.g. you're Chinese-based while your friend is alphabet-based).


... and had to ask a forum full of your kind.

You wouldn't fare too well if you must read some text in Hanacaraka if the writer forgets some talingtarungs and pepets, would you?

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do you still think about the dreams you had as a kid?

I dreamed of a pair after a pair after a pair of groom and bride walked past me, and then someone told me "Everyone has their own caret."

What the **** is a caret? It has no meaning in my mother tongue (the language that guy spoke in).

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all toothache and no play makes jack a dull boy

A worker at my office had a toothache. Although his salary is not much (he cleans the toilets), the company actually pays for our healthcare, so he could actually go to the dentist. However, seeing the awfully long queue, he gave up, went home, and took things in his own hand, quite literally.

Now you should stop reading here if you are squeamish...


You've been warned.

According to his story (and I'm still cringing everytime I remember it), he laid down, lifted a wrench at arm's length, aimed, and dropped the wrench to the tooth that'd been bothering him.

He was successful, the pain disappeared with the tooth, and there was blood everywhere.

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what if i wanted to grow my own chicken

So in the name of science, I researched Chinese recipes. Not necessarily the recipes to Chinese food, but more about the way they write those recipes in China.

So the first recipe I found called for half a chicken, ginger, salt, vinegar, and other ingredients in their respective size to make a chicken soup, Chinese style.


Chinese chicken soup, a.k.a qīngdùn jītāng (清炖鸡汤)

The first step was to buy a chicken. Chinese people with their Confusian teaching! I didn't expect a recipe to tell me not to steal the chicken, not to rob a butcher for white meat. It could be that the broth won't turn out good if the chicken was acquired by illegal means.


My face exactly.

Come to think of it, looking for a job should be the first step. You cannot buy chicken without money. And unless you're underage or some rich guy's mistress, you work for money. You use that salary of your job to buy chicken. Period.

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you know you've progressed far in your language learning when...

You know how to say a word in that language, but not in English. When usually you know a word in English but not in your own mother language.

By the way, what is English for '农民'ish behaviour?

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chuka

I found the Japanese equivalent of jellyfish salad that is usually served in dim sum restaurant! The name's chuka kurage.

Apparently Japanese people are known to make chuka out of other ingredients too. Chuka made from baby octopuses and seaweed are equally popular, they are called chuka idako and chuka wakame, respectively.

Chuka kanimayo, as you might have guessed, is crab + mayonaisse. I don't remember the name for chuka made from salmon skin, though.

The sauce they are mixed with are made from sesame oil, vinegar, sugar, chili oil, chili sauce, mirin and sesame seeds. One variation adds mayonnaise to the mixture. Another chopped chili. Another soy sauce. Another chopped shallot. :E Yes. I dislike the one with the shallot.

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boss, i ate your admin

There's this training for administrators of a particular website, held by the web's developers.

"The picture dimension for your products is X pixels high and Y pixels wide," the developer said: "Landscape." X and Y were numbers, of which exact value I didn't remember.

One of the loudest guy from the admin group exclaimed, "But I don't wanna resize the pictures! I want to upload a picture of whatever dimension I want, and it shouldn't be distorted!"

"You can't do that," the developer said, obviously boiling but trying to keep it cool. This admin had been irritating from the start. B­­ut the admin still hasn't finished yet: "I want to upload them three times the size you mentioned and I want to upload 'em portraits!"

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bad company corrupts good character

I was surprised to learn that a colleague turned into someone he would've been despise a few months ago. So we were on a ride and another colleague pointed to an overweight girl and badmouthed her. She didn't know the girl, she just loved to badmouth people.

To my surprise my first colleague joined her. They were badmouthing a stranger that didn't do a single bad thing to them!

The sad thing is, I had been used to hear him saying good things about others and life in general, how you should treat others the way you want to be treated, etc. He changed after spending just a few months in close proximity with my other colleague, the one who badmouthed the overweight girl at the beginning of this story. Seeing this, I, being a paranoid girl that I am, became even more paranoid of whom I spend my time with. Must avoid by her and the like in order not be contaminated!

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