Soon I'll be going on a school trip to Yosemite, where we will spend our days hiking and writing in our "journals". There's a lot of things that I needed to buy for this trip, because I'm not much of an outdoorsman. In fact, I've never really been camping out in a tent, seeing as my mom prefers civilization (and I guess I would really miss indoor plumbing, myself). But it'd still be nice to just try it, you know? For the sake of having that experience. It's not good to judge something you don't understand.

There's a whole lot of things that I needed to buy for Yosemite, including...
- A sleeping bag (I almost never sleep at other people's houses)
- Hiking boots
- Waterproof pants
- Waterproof jacket
- Snow gaiters (well, I guess I don't REALLY need them, but they're useful to have. They're like half pant legs that you can put on.)

There's probably a few more things that I have forgotten to mention. But anyways, I'll probably never use most of the things I bought for Yosemite after I come back. We don't really go hiking much in the first place (probably because I didn't like to do it...Too hot outside, I usually burned up my energy in the beginning through running, etc. Not that it isn't nice once in a while. In science camp back in fifth grade, we had the chance to hike alone, and it was really relaxing).

One of the things we needed to get was a bandana. Apparently, when we're out hiking, we'll stop to eat lunch, and we'll be using the bandanas as "plates" for our food. I set to thinking about bandanas.

Bandanas seem to have many uses. They can be used as hankerchiefs if you have allergies, you can wear them to look sort of like a cowboy (and you could also wear it if you're sick or people around you are sick as a kind of mask), you could put them on your head...I'm not sure if people usually do this, but somehow or other I got the notion that people who have gone through chemotherapy and thus lost their hair tend to wear bandanas to cover their heads.

To me, this gives the bandana a lot of meaning. The bandana is a sign of struggle, showing the battle between people and cancer and their fight to survive. It is a visible symbol of pain, fear, and desperation. At the same time, bandanas also show hope - a little hope that a person will pull through, fight off the cancer, and be able to resume living their life again. Maybe things will never be the same. Perhaps the scars, physical and mental, will always be there. But it's something precious, getting to have a second chance.

Bandanas are pretty cheap to get, but they're not necessarily useless. I hope you're paying attention things and what kind of purpose they really serve. I guess that's what teachers mean when they're saying, "You should ask under the surface questions!" You should still pay attention at school, even if you find it boring, because you never know, something important might be said.

My history teacher sometimes tells us stories, such as about having to transport a cake, being a valet, gambling in Las Vegas, and so on. He says we should pay attention since there is something to be learned from his stories; they're not just for entertainment. I think I might want to be a teacher sometime.

Here are some of my possible careers:
- Writer (well, that may have to be just something I do in my free time, what with the "starving artists" thing)
- Photographer (again, only if I can make a living off of it. Nowadays lots of people have huge Nikon or Canon black cameras)
- Interior designer or travel show host (too bad those jobs aren't that common)
- Ice cream shop owner (or some other kind of shop, with yummy food XD)
- Fashion designer (it'd be fun to come up with things, and I'd like to steer people away from those really low colors and tight clothing. x_x )

Labels: bandana, camping, cancer, career, chance, chemotherapy, future, hiking, hope, learn, outdoor, science camp, shopping, sign, significance, struggle, symbol, trip, useful, yosemite

There's a book called Takeoffs and Landings by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Have you read it? ...Well, anyways, on to the actual post. (I actually wrote up a post while I was on vacation, but I saved it to my dad's computer. I might post it later if I get the chance. I'll try not to repeat myself.)

I've just returned from a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. I have been to Las Vegas so many times I don't really have anything left to see there, but as the Grand Canyon is in a rather rural area, we can't fly directly there, so the second best thing to do was to stay at Las Vegas and then drive to get into the Grand Canyon. This is my first time visiting the Grand Canyon, but my parents have been there before, a pretty long time ago.

When I went to the airport, we had our boarding passes checked and went through security. There seems to be a chamber that I didn't see before. One person walks in, puts their arms up, and something spins around them. Then the person gets out. I wonder if this is the machine I heard about that blows air on you to check for explosives. My family didn't have to go through that, though. We just walked through the metal detector.

I kept expecting to need to take out my passport, but I was never asked for it. (I didn't even need to show an ID, since I'm a minor and they don't expect me to be stealing someone's identity.) I guess I've gotten used to flying overseas. So it's a little funny for me to be having a flight that is only an hour or two. Maybe I should travel more within the USA. There are lots of places I haven't seen, like Yellowstone National Park. And I've barely been to the east coast (I've only been to the airport in New York, basically. But my mom did live in New York in the past). I'd like to go to North Carolina so I can visit a friend that lives there, but unfortunately it's inconvenient. I haven't got relatives there. Sometimes I've wished my grandparents would move from Shanghai to North Carolina. But they're old, and they'd rather stay someplace familiar where they actually know the language, so it's really not going to happen.

This time, in Las Vegas, we stayed at Bellagio. It is absolutely my favorite hotel in the world. If there weren't people smoking in the casino, I'd say it would be perfect. I'm pretty sure I've already spoken of Bellagio in the fast. But I'll rant about it again, because it is really such a charming hotel. (It's got its cons, too, but more on that later.)

The fountains are what I love the most. There are shows every thirty minutes until the evening, when the fountains go on every fifteen minutes. Music plays, and the fountains move to the beat. I've never been anywhere else with such nice fountains. Sometimes the water gets shot up really high, as high as the top of the hotel (and that's at least 30 stories!). I don't get tired of watching it. The music's been changed since the last time I went there. (You still hear repeats, though. I suppose they don't arrange that many different performances. I mean, I heard the Elvis song Viva Las Vegas twice. The fountain show's not all that interesting for that one, though.)

Other things have changed too. The free shows for the hotels Mirage, Treasure Island, and Rio are different now. Mirage has this fake volcano you can see at nighttime. It is more exciting than it used to be (though I can tell that it's just water with color shown on it, not lava). I'm not so sure I like the change in the Treasure Island show, called Sirens of TI, or Rio's Show in the Sky, though. It seems that they wear less clothes, act more suggestive, and do more singing than they used to. I would advert my eyes occasionally. I think you should not take your young children to see those shows. I liked them better years back. (Now they're trying to attract young people to Vegas - and I'm not talking about children, either) They still throw free necklaces at the Show in the Sky, though, which I was glad about. I think I got all the colors of necklaces.

The last time I visited Vegas was back in 2008, at Thanksgiving time, I believe. Las Vegas seems quite different even though it really wasn't that long ago. There are buildings I don't recognize, like Aria and Mandarin Oriental, and shops that I didn't see last time. Expensive shops were opened, which I suppose I should have expected. I wonder if they get enough business, though. The luxury items may be nice, but there are outfits that I can't imagine myself wearing or can't think of a time where I would need them. And I already have a bag which works just fine when I'm going on a trip, not to mention that I don't really like to carry bags, so I don't have any need to buy a handbag either. What is the use of these shops, then? To make people feel good? (I heard that men often solve their midlife crisis by buying a sports car...) But anyways, I guess I really can't expect things not to change, no matter how much I'd like that.

Back to the title of this post. I almost forgot to write about it, I've gone on and on too long. When I leave for vacation, I feel relaxed. I've just left behind my worries of daily life and I still have the whole trip ahead of me, plenty of opportunities to eat good food, take good photos, and try out the shampoo of the hotels I stay at. But after a while, sometimes I get to thinking, "Oh no, when I get home, I have this to do!" or "What if this happened while I was away?" and so on. And my worries of everyday life come back to me, and I lose that nice, carefree vacation feeling. I guess I really prefer taking off to landing. When I'm landing, I'm really tired from the trip and I'm very impatient to get home. I'd like to go on a vacation and not have to worry anymore about what I need to do once I return.

Labels: airport, bellagio, change, fountain, grand canyon, hotel, las vegas, mirage, new york, north carolina, passport, rio, security, shopping, show, takeoffs and landings, treasure island

Recently, my household had two visitors. One of them was a guy who lives in Shanghai who is here in California on a business trip, and he was a university classmate of my mother. And the other one was my grandma's friend's son, who is currently studying in San Francisco for his master's degree. Both of them came at the same time.

The younger guy, the one who resides in San Francisco, always insists on using an honorific to address my mother. (I guess you would call it an honorific, but I'm not sure what it should really be called) He previously used the title that means older sister, but that seems nonsensical seeing as my mom is the same age as his mom. So he changed to saying a word that means aunt after her name instead. My mom says that he can just call her by her name, forget the honorifics, but he still went with the aunt word.

I remember when I was younger, still in elementary school, my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to stay at our house during the summer. I was really annoyed by having them around at that time. For one thing, they kept calling me by my name followed by the word that means older sister. I never understood it because I'm not their sister, so I insisted they just use my name, nothing else, but it was pretty hard for them to manage that. I guess in Mandarin and the Shanghai dialect there isn't a way to address your cousin. Or maybe cousins are considered to be like siblings.

Also, there was the time that my cousin was threatening to turn off my Gamecube. I was afraid he would really do it. I sat on him so he wouldn't be able to touch the button. However, this was very traumatizing to him (maybe I was really heavy and cut off his circulation?) and he ran to his mother saying I had hit him. I denied it, but I wasn't able to explain myself since I wasn't fluent enough in Chinese (and at the time, I couldn't speak French; my aunt's family lives in Paris).

My mom said my cousins would grow more mature with time, but they haven't improved all that much. A few years ago, I went on vacation to Europe and visited my aunt's family in Paris. The cousins were irrepressible as always and insisted on sitting next to me in the car and playing my Nintendo DS. (I think they have their own DS now, though) One time my cousin sneezed on it, which was really disgusting. Anyhow, if I didn't sit next to them in the car they would throw a fit. (I didn't want to put up with their antics so I sat in the back next to my grandma and mom, meaning to take a nap, but not managing it)

My family has been considering another vacation to Europe, except we want to see different places there, like perhaps Barcelona, Spain, or Italy (though people say Barcelona is better...Hmm. If you've been there, let me know what you think). We'll probably be taking a cruise since we haven't been on one since I was still in elementary school. It'll be in the summertime, which is best for me, as I won't be stressed from school. Unfortunately, if I go to Europe I will have to visit my cousins. My mom got annoyed and said that I could just go home early and not stop by Paris, while she visited her sister, but then I can't really fall asleep if my mom isn't there. I guess I have a mother complex.

On to other matters. Today, it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so both my dad and I had the day off. (Most people are still working today, because they usually get Presidents' Day off, but my dad's company is an exception.) We went to various places, like REI, Any Mountain, Jamba Juice, Whole Foods, Petco, and Petsmart. I was looking for a hat to buy for Yosemite because apparently it's going to be cold and the one place you can lose heat the most easily is through your head. I was meaning to get one of those with earflaps because I thought it'd be better for keeping my ears warm. (They have to be fairly warm. When my ears get cold, I get headaches.) I picked one hat from REI and one from Any Mountain and decided I would let my mom make the decision since I have no idea which one I like better.

I haven't been to Petco for a long time because there used to be one in my town but it closed down years back. I noticed that there was a section with animals to be adopted. (Petsmart also has one, but they only have cats...At least usually.) There were two rabbits, some hamsters/mice (I didn't pay that much attention, I'll just call them rodents) and I think probably a cat or two. I was watching a particularly energetic rodent (I'm guessing it's a dwarf hamster?) named Boggle. He was behaving rather curiously. Sometimes he would get onto his wheel and start running, then he'd get off, and get back on and change direction, and sometimes he would run like crazy, but other times he looked kind of bored. Very interesting. I read on his description that he likes to take food, piece by piece, to his plastic castle, and stash it there for later.

Labels: adoption, behavior, boggle, chinese, cruise ship, dwarf, europe, family, friends, gamecube, hamster, hat, honorifics, interesting, martin luther king, name, petco, relatives, shopping, vacation

Well, the common phrase is "Thank God it's Friday", which even inspired the restaurant called TGI Friday. In fact, I saw a poll one time and it seems the majority of people pick Friday as their favorite day. (Personally, it's not my favorite day, because I still do my homework on Friday so I have the weekend free...) But it seems to me that Black Friday, which was just three days ago, is not necessarily the best day of the week to go shopping.

I didn't go shopping on Black Friday because of a few things... For one, my parents said there probably wouldn't be good deals at the stores, because this year, because of the suffering economy, stores didn't stock up a lot, so they aren't desperate to sell off their merchandise right now. There might be better deals around Christmas or some other later time. Also, the stores were probably going to be really crowded, and my family didn't want to have to deal with that. (Thus, we escaped to the museum, as mentioned in the post "A building full of life and death")

On Saturday, since my family was going to be visiting the house of their friends (the friends had a new house, which the previous owners had lost through foreclosure! Scary), we took a detour to Great Mall, figuring we could buy a few things. There were already warning signs when we were driving there. At the turn-off that eventually leads to a different mall, Valley Fair, a lot of cars were stuck waiting. We went to the mall, and were having trouble finding a parking space, but luckily my dad snagged one later on when someone else was leaving. I had expected that everyone had gone shopping yesterday, but it was a wrong assumption, just like when I assumed that no one would go to the California Academy of Sciences on Friday because they'd be busy shopping. D:

We only ended up buying one thing (I did see a few items of clothing I liked, but it wasn't worthwhile because either the price wasn't really, really cheap or the clothes were not unique) which was, surprisingly, some earthenware. We got it from the store called Daiso Japan. There are a lot of Daiso Japans popping up in my area. I've seen three of them. I like Daiso, but I can't really read the labels because it's in Japanese, and my ability to read it is practically zilch.

The good thing about going to the mall was that Hershey's was giving out free chocolate at several locations that day. They had several flavors of Hershey's Bliss, such as Raspberry, Milk Chocolate, and Dark Chocolate. I think all the flavors are yummy but my favorite is Milk Chocolate, as is typical for me. No one really cares if you come back later to take a second chocolate from a place you've already taken chocolate from. My parents think Hershey's must've lost a LOT of money that day, giving away chocolate.

Then, after a few hours squandered in the mall, we went to my parents' friend's house. It's not a bad house, even if it is one-story (I've always wanted to live in either a multiple-story house or an apartment...My house has two stories, but there is only one room upstairs which we use mostly for storage). I was surprised to see that the family keeps a chicken. The chicken is almost 8 years old now. They raised her basically since she was a just a chick. She actually lays eggs. I heard there used to be another chicken except it was eating by wild animals...Raccoons or something...Yikes. My parents' friends set up some Christmas lights around the chicken coop and stuff like that to scare off the animals.

It seems to me that middle-aged Asian people really like to watch soap operas and other TV shows. My parents and their friends were having an exciting discussion about places to watch dramas, like PP Live and PP Stream and things like that. (I am familiar with them since I have seen my mother using them. Even my dad watches dramas sometimes, though he's more of a movie person) In fact, when my mom and another friend (there were two other guests) recommended a website, the host dashed off to his computer to check out the site. I didn't see him for quite a while after that, except for when I passed his office when heading to the bathroom...Wow. He was watching dramas, I think.

Labels: asian, black friday, chicken, chocolate, christmas lights, daiso japan, drama, friends, hershey's, house, mall, shopping, soap opera, wild animals

I saw something on a book cover that I found very strange. The book is The Treasures of Weatherby, written by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Near the author's name there were the words, "Loathed by LEMONY SNICKET*". (Don't ask what the asterisk is for since I really have no idea. It doesn't have any small text anywhere explaining it, like on promotional offers) I wonder if anyone has an idea about how come you'd put your enemy's name on your book's cover. I mean, it's kind of like when people say, "That book is really horrible!" or "That website is really boring!" Then it makes you curious about it. Maybe in truth, Zilpha Keatley Snyder and Lemony Snicket are friends, or it's a plot to get more money for one another?

Sometimes the strangest things happen in anime. I was watching one and then a chicken started fighting a guy. The chicken flew all over the place, pecking and squawking, and then started doing things that looked like magic or something. Seriously, I've always thought of chicken as something to eat that can sometimes give you sickness from salmonella. (No offense intended if you are a vegetarian, or raise chickens yourself.)

I took a nap yesterday for the first time in a long while. Usually I can't nap at all. I must've been really exhausted or something. I'd just walked to Whole Foods since my parents wanted to buy two things. For some reason we usually only buy a few items at a time when we go to the grocery store. I figure it would save gas and all to buy a lot of things at the time (but then again, there are reasons for not buying many things at a time. For instance, food expires, and you may not be able to eat or drink it all). Anyhow, I ate a sample of some vintage cheese. It had a strong flavor. My mom wrinkled her nose and said cheese was stinky. I didn't smell anything but I suppose it's because my breathing is not too good.

Once I walked home I was feeling very sluggish, though my mom and dad always think I'm being dramatic. Well, it is true that being an actress is one of my "back-up jobs" but I really felt kind of tired. Maybe it was just lack of sleep every night building up. I slept for an hour, maybe more. I don't understand why taking naps makes you tired all over again. My dad insists that taking naps will make you refreshed and happy. It took a few hours of being awake for me to stop feeling dizzy and dehydrated. (But I suppose overall it was worthwhile.)

Speaking of back-up jobs, I haven't quite decided what my actual career goal is. I've wanted to be a fiction novelist, but ever heard of "starving artists"? I heard, for instance, J.K. Rowling was very poor before Harry Potter made a big splash. And many authors will never be so famous they can sit down to dinner with Queen Elizabeth II and the Obamas. So I keep wondering what I should do for a living. Of course there are some years to go before I even need to work but it's good to plan ahead. I want to do something I like to do (which hopefully shouldn't be hard to pull off, I have many interests) but which also has many jobs available or at least a steady income. Otherwise I will have to fall on the suggestion to marry a rich guy. That would be very shallow and also there isn't a huge supply of "rich guys".

Labels: books, career, cheese, enemy, groceries, interests, job, lemony snicket, marry, mysterious, nap, novelist, rich, shopping, sleep, the treasures of weatherby, writer, zilpha keatley snyder

Nowadays I've been dreaming a lot and mostly I forget it all in the morning but I do remember last night's dream involved me speaking Japanese to people. Sometimes it's real people, in Japan, and sometimes it's fictional characters. It's really strange. I wonder if I've been listening to people in anime speak Japanese too much if it's started to invade my mind.

At least I'm still speaking English to the people around me. That's a comfort. I would be in quite a pickle because most of the people near me don't know Japanese and go "Whaa? What in the world?" Though I would like to learn to effectively speak and read Japanese someday. (But I guess it would be more useful to learn Chinese because there are more people in the world who know Chinese, and Chinese is similar to Japanese anyhow)

I need to spend more time reading books and less time on the computer nowadays, I suppose. I mean, I have three stacks of books to read (They aren't very tall stacks but still stacks nevertheless) and maybe not much time to read them. But it's easier just watching anime because I can multitask and do stuff on the Internet at the same time.

I have piano class at 11:15 today, so I figure I should try to wrap up this post and do something else on the computer while I have the chance. Then in the afternoon I can try to relax. (Or work on my factoring project. Sigh...It's still there even if I try to pretend it's not there.)

I know my posts on the weekend are pretty drab, unless I went somewhere. Sorry about that. It's just I don't see a lot of people or do much interesting on weekends. (Except for yesterday I went to see two new Japanese places that opened. One was a store selling a variety of cheap/useful things. The other was a supermarket that was a little on the expensive side, even though it sells the same products as a different supermarket.)

Labels: anime, books, dream, english, homework, japan, language, piano, shopping

My dad dragged me awake at noon to try and make me adjust back to Pacific time. It's not really working since waking up made me have a headache. But I guess I have to start somewhere so I can't really blame my dad.

I just ate a sandwich for lunch. Yesterday my dad bought two sandwiches, one for my dinner yesterday and one for my lunch today. They're from a bakery-ish place called Panera Bread. If you live near me, you may know what that is. There are other Panera Bread stores in the USA, I think, but I've only been to the one near my house.

Afterward, we went to the grocery store because my dad needs to make some soup. Usually I have some soup with my dinner every night so it is sort of necessary. He got some tomatoes and bok choy (a vegetable. My history teacher likes it, but I don't. But now I'm kind of used to eating it, after all these years). He also got some pears and bananas as snacks. The pears all look kind of bruised and they have a weird shape. (The kind I like are greenish and they're called D'anjou pears or something like that) Still, they taste good. At least to me. (Some people like different pears. Suggest some kinds to me if you like.)

Then we went to the library. I already renewed some of my books except for the ones that I already finished and should return. We waited in line to return our books since the Santa Clara Library uses electronic returning now. The guy in front of us was kind of slow. I guess he wasn't very good at it. (He got confused and put his hand near the place you put your books to return them, so it kept saying "barcode not identified!" but finally he managed to press the right buttons and get his receipt) We were a lot faster. But I guess we're used to it.

Once we got home I was starting to get drowsy again but I had to go practice piano. So I did. Then my dad needed to leave again (he didn't bring me with him this time). He said he needed to buy bones. At first I thought he was crazy but he reminded me that the meat on the bones is for cooking the soup. So never mind, hehe.

Labels: bone, fruit, library, lunch, piano, shopping, sleep, vegetables

It is hard to believe I am at home and it is now 2009. It might take a while for me to get used to the passage of time all over again.

I feel really exhausted from riding airplanes so long. This time we rode with ANA (Air Japan) again since they have vanilla ice cream. :p It's Häagen-Dazs and it comes in a little carton. (It's really expensive if you buy it at Shanghai's Pudong Airport, though. Don't buy it there, it's a rip-off. Better deal just to buy some ice cream from Coldstone's.)

We had to go to Tokyo Narita Airport first, though, because ANA only flies to and from Japan. We waited for a few hours for the plane from Tokyo to California. Actually, I got a free upgrade to business class on the Shanghai-Tokyo flight. (That was pretty lucky since it's rare to get a free upgrade. But it turns out they must've run out of seats in the Economy class or something.)

Since we had a lot of free time at the Tokyo airport, we looked at the shops. My dad wanted to buy some mochi for his friend so we went to this place called FaSoLa. (It was all over the airport o_O) Then I bought some Pocky and caramel candy. I got upset when my dad bought the red bean flavored candies. I don't like those but my dad says he needs to give something to his friends and coworkers anyhow.

I was watching Shugo Chara Doki! moments ago since I needed to catch up on missed episodes. I realized that I'd heard the ending song (Lotta Love Lotta Love, I think it was called) multiple times while in Japan. (At least, I say Buono, the group who sang it, performing it on TV) And once I saw the end of a Shugo Chara Doki episode, but it doesn't really matter because I can't understand enough Japanese to not need subtitles yet. XD

My dad went out to buy a few things. We are very low on groceries since we were gone so long. He bought milk...and a battery. But I don't know what the battery is for. D:

It's way too quiet around here, even though there is the sound of my typing and the sound of the anime I'm watching (Asatte no Houkou). I miss seeing my mom, even though she's usually mean to me. (Though she probably has good intentions. Or not.) At the airport I kept looking for her, thinking she was just taking a bathroom break, but it's not true, after all, since she's not here.

Oh yeah, though this is not in chronological order, I fell asleep soon after I came home. I was really tired since I was watching a movie on the plane. (It's a Japanese movie called Dear My Cosmo. It's mostly about a girl and her horse, whose vision is failing.) I woke up around five...By then the sun was pretty far down. I tried to get back to sleep but I gave up and got back up again.

Labels: anime, blah, family, ice cream, movie, shopping, sleep, time, travel

I'm so glad. I think I am going to either go mentally insane or get sick from staying here. (I've starting sneezing and coughing a bit. This is bad. I could've caught a cold from one of the many people in Shanghai. If you've ever seen the railway stations during rush hour...)

Yesterday was an interesting yet boring day. I went to Wuxi, which is a city in China. It is much smaller than Shanghai but still would be a big city if it were in America. There I had to play the good girl for my relatives (I am far from delighted to see them. It means I have to crack jokes, smile, and behave well in general) since my grand-aunt and some others were present. Two of the guys were smokers, and my mom called them a Chinese term for fat.

We ate at a restaurant, I think it was called Skyline Harbor... Or something along those lines. I ordered some noodles, thinking it would be kind of like ramen, but it turned out to be much different. These were dry, big/short noodles. They were still okay but I was much disappointed.

Then we went to visit my great grandma's grave. I have never met her since she died before I was born. My mom had actually lived with her for quite a while rather than with her parents. So my mom was particularly close to my great grandma. (Mom says great grandma is much nicer than my grandma. Maybe that is true XD) We had to hike through some "wilderness" (I was surprised to see it after being in Shanghai so many times) to get to the grave which is just a rectangular stone with a name on it. Plants and dirt were collecting on it. (We just ignored the other graves and went to my great grandma's.) We put out some food and flowers and burned candles and incense. Then we burned fake money (It's a tradition. But a weird one. I couldn't stand the smoke and had to walk off a little ways.) I tried to talk to my great grandma's grave...But I don't know if she can hear me. In China, at that time, the law had been changed so you could no longer be buried, but just burned. So the grave is merely symbolic.

Today I was expecting a relaxing day since the only official plan was to eat dinner with my relatives one last time. But it turned out not to be. In the morning we went to visit my dad at his hotel. My mom and dad talked a lot about strange topics like my grandpa (Dad's dad) being stubborn and not wanting to move to a new house. (Dad and his relatives want to buy him a new place since he is getting old but he might refuse to move to it.)

My parents deciding they wanted to visit Pudong which is a section on Shanghai on the other side of the river. So first we went to look at the river. From a distance it's really shiny and pretty. My dad thinks it's really cool because there are many tall buildings around it. (He likes the city skyline.) But the water in the river is really dirty. It looks like nobody tries to clean it up much. (And the sky was blue today, surprisingly, because it didn't rain...But it was kind of a faint blue, not as blue as California.) And then there was this guy trying to sell us stuff. Even when my dad shooed him off he came back. I guess people can't stop trying if they want to make a living.

We walked for a while (Almost got lost because we're not that familiar with this part of Shanghai) and eventually reached Pudong. I wanted to go into this shopping mall place. It's called Cloud Nine Shopping Mall. (This is really odd because my mom says the Chinese characters written above it mean "Dragon Dream" or something like that, nothing like Cloud Nine.) It had a lot of different shops since it has many floors. Some of the shops are Chinese brands but a couple are ones we know, American/European brands. And there are some restaurants. My parents took a long time just to choose one. They couldn't eat all the noodles. I wasn't hungry because I'd eaten some buns earlier.

I shopped around with my mom since my dad isn't that much interested (Because we are looking for female clothing, not anything he could wear. And he wouldn't let us buy a shirt for him in the first place) and we bought a few things. My mom is kind of worried about the prices of things so I can't buy anything too expensive. Oh well.

Finally it was dinner time. My grandma (on my mom's side) invited my other grandparents to dinner. This turned out not to be a good idea. Not only was I upset at having to be a museum exhibit again but the service in the restaurant wasn't so good. The table hadn't been wiped so we had to wait for a lady to clean it. Then I ordered some sandwiches and they looked nice but they had peanut butter in them (Bummer! I thought it was just ham and egg). My parents bought me a strawberry milkshake but it was lame because it didn't look or taste that much like a strawberry milkshake. (If you want one, I suggest you go to Iceason, the gelato shop, instead.) And my parents say that even if it has nice lights on the ceiling the food wasn't particularly good. (So they don't understand why the restaurant was so crowded.)

Labels: beverages, clothes, family, food, people, restaurant, shopping, travel

Or so I hope. It was doing better yesterday after my dad figured out what we had done wrong. (It took a while seeing as my dad isn't the handiest at these sort of things. Sorry if you're reading this, dad. But the truth is the truth.) Today it seems a bit messed up. Sometimes the Internet gets stuck. This happened while I was trying to go on Nutrinopets and look for images for RPing (in other words, role-playing. If you don't know what this is feel free to ask on the Cbox.). Eventually I got sick of the Internet's failing to load so I closed it and decided to play the Sims 2. Once I get home I need to install my other expansion packs on my mom's laptop. (I'm going to play it there even though I'd rather have my desktop computer back home.)

Yesterday we did some shopping. We bought two sets of pajamas at a store. They were pretty cheap compared to the USA. (Just who knows if it's good quality or not. My mom says you can't really tell if it's in Shanghai.) We tried to get a new pencil box for me since my old "Hu Hu Cat" one, which despite it's originality, is getting ready to retire. (My grandma insulted it since it's so dirty nowadays.) But most of the stores have ridiculous prices for them. And the selection is bad. I could get a plain ugly one or a Mickey Mouse one. But I don't really want a Mickey Mouse. (They were cuter in Japan. Now my family agrees we would rather buy one there since they are higher quality anyhow.) Maybe I need to try and find one in the USA.

We browsed for clothes in the afternoon. I visited a place called Metersbonwe. (Never seen it in the USA, so I was curious.) It was mostly jackets and what my parents called "young people clothes". I didn't like anything there except for a shirt. The top of it was white and the bottom would be either grey or black. But it wasn't on sale and my mom didn't like the bottom part so we didn't buy it. I debated whether to buy some boots (are they called Ugg boots?) but my dad discouraged me from it since they would be too warm for California.

Later on I saw the same Metersbonwe shop and outside was an ambulance and a police motorcycle. On the ground was a guy who had some orange stuff on him. (I couldn't take a close look because my mom kept trying to drag me away.) I thought he had thrown up and passed out, but my mom says he was actually run over by a car...Ouch. But I guess this is Shanghai so you can't avoid it forever...

...Unless you're me! Hehehehe. In Japan there's some myths about your life. If you go to the hot springs once, you live a year longer. (Two times is ten years, three times is immortality?!) And if you eat an egg with a black eggshell, apparently you add seven years to your life. (I ate two. So I gain fourteen years.) By the way, these black eggs are sold in a shop around Mount Fuji. They're called "Kuro Tamago".

Anyhow, yesterday I visited my dad's hotel. It's called 24K International Hotel...Not that good. If it were me I'd want to stay in Four Seasons, or Marriott. But it looked okay outside. The lobby looked fair enough too. However, the inside was not so good. The hallways are a drab beige/white color and they constantly play this Christmas music in them. The room would've been better if they'd put more stuff on one of the walls, cleaned up the walls, and changed the chair.

We eventually went to a nearby restaurant to eat dinner with my dad's relatives. We ate there last time I went to China. (Actually, since my dad's dad used to do calligraphy for a living...I heard he did the calligraphy for the restaurant's name. So that's probably why he keeps visiting the restaurant.) I didn't eat much because I don't like Chinese food. Mainly I just played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team to pass the time. That reminds me, I should get one of the newer PMD games. And also there is Pokemon Platinum coming out sometime in 2009.

Of course, since my mom's dad smokes, my dad's dad joined him, and the two of them smoked. You could see the smoke rising through the room we were eating in. I was freaked out and tried to run off. Then I threatened them by saying I wouldn't be their friends or visit them if they kept smoking.

Oh, I should say who was at the dinner... My direct family meaning mom, dad, and I; My grandparents on both sides of the family; my dad's siblings which are one older sister and two older brothers; and one of the brothers' wife. My dad's sister keeps calling me an entertaining person. (I am, but it's annoying anyhow.) But she's a nice enough person, I suppose. She talks sometimes, and she said kids are scared of her because she acts stern towards them. And she says my dad is entertaining. (Probably has to do with me being like my dad.)

My relatives gave me a bag with some Adidas clothing in it. (Some relative I don't remember works at Adidas.) I pretended to be really happy but in truth I was just bored and tired. (The shirt is too short for me and the shorts are the kind that some guys at my school might wear. Those guys are talkative and sometimes play basketball. One time they were doing it with a rock and it bounced off the backboard and hit me. They just laughed.)

Ah, well, that's my dad's family for you. Or so I tell my mom, since she doesn't like 'em that much. (Haha, she doesn't like her own parents too much because they're so stubborn. But maybe that happens if you're old and live in Shanghai!)

Labels: clothes, family, gift, hotel, internet, myths, people, restaurant, shopping, video games

Today we went to the library and then to Great Mall. We had to return a lot of library books and DVDs because they'll be due during the time we're gone on vacation. D: I feel sad returning them, but at least that means I got to use the electronic machine outside the Cupertino Library. That is always lots of fun. It's more enjoyable to use the check-out machines, though. On the second floor, the check-out on the left side makes noises, like a slot machine. XD

After that we headed to my dad's office, which was a surprise since it's the weekend. Apparently my dad was supposed to bring home some headphones or something but he forgot to do it yesterday. While we were there I got some pencils from the break room. My dad said it's a good life to work at Cisco Systems because you can check stocks, look at PGA Tour's website, drink coffee, have free pencils, and eat ramen. (Which leads me to the next paragraph.)

For lunch, we ate at a ramen shop, called Maru Ichi. (According to dad, it's the favorite ramen shop in the Bay Area) I had some shoyu ramen and so did my mom. My dad had kuro ramen. (I think kuro/kuroi means black, so that's why the soup looked black.) It was really good, and I even got a bit of ice cream. What was really funny was the ice cream came in a plastic cup. On the cup it said "Warning: Contents hot". I hope ice cream will always be a cold treat.

After that we headed to Great Mall, which is apparently close to my dad and mom's workplaces. (My mom says years back, she used to go there, until she realized she wasn't going to buy any clothes anyways.) At first I didn't remember it but after I went inside I recognized it, even though I haven't been there for a few years. I mostly just go to Valley Fair or Vallco/Cupertino Square. (If you live near me, you may know what I'm talking about. These are malls, by the way.) The stores have changed, though. And it was really crowded in there. Lots of people are doing holiday shopping since they think they can get good deals at this time of year.

Even a year later, Hollister and Abercrombie still creep me out, but since my mom's friend thinks I should get a heavy jacket there, my parents dragged me in. The dim lights, pants that have holes in them, and giant black-and-white pictures are disturbing. Worse, the Hollister fitting rooms have no benches and are really small, so they look like jail cells...

I got really thirsty and my feet hurt from walking around too long. My mom wanted to use the bathroom, so we went to my dad's office a second time so she could use the restroom. XD In the meantime my dad and I went to get drinks in the break room, but the refrigerator broke on the first floor so we had to go upstairs. It's a good thing that they have elevators because I am bad at using stairs.

Labels: clothes, library, office, parents, restaurant, shopping, work

I keep wondering if I've inherited it. (Seeing as I am more like my dad than my mom...) I accidentally dropped some of the salmon from my lunch on the ground. I didn't want to eat it, so my dad suggested we feed it to the fish. That would be cannibalism, technically, and my mom looked shocked (despite not liking animals much, I don't think she'd want to have any murders happening in our house). Not only that, but my dad tends to burst into song or say a cheesy phrase a lot. Even I'm doing it now. (My dad only knows older songs - he even said "I can't hold a conversation with young people anymore!" - so I just learn old-timer songs from him. My mom says it's because he's an old man, anyhow.) And I am a pretty creepy person myself, seeing as I think babies are ugly and think criminals should all be killed.

We're going to buy giftcards for my teachers today, plus maybe a Christmas tree if we can find one we like. I won't be around for Christmas (heads-up, I may or may not put entries into this blog while I'm on vacation. I'll be gone practically from Christmas to New Years) but I still want to have a tree. Last year we had a real live tree and it didn't look dead for a long time. But I still miss seeing a tree in that spot, next to the keyboard. (We have an old keyboard, plus a baby grand piano.)

This is kind of unrelated, but this morning, I took a look at our front yawn. You see, we live basically at the very "beginning" of our street. So all cars going into or out of our street will pass by our house. This also means we have a lot of unwelcome things happening to our lawn (we don't have a fence). There are sometimes dogs pooping on the lawn, or moles/gophers/other outdoor riffraff digging up the grass... And today we even found a food wrapper on our lawn. I was pretty insulted that my house is now considered a trash dump. I suppose people are awfully lazy, even in our cool (but rather unknown, since it takes a while to find it on a California map) town. Sigh.

Labels: blah, neighborhood, shopping

I'm back from Las Vegas. It was quite a trip, and if I gave you all the itsy-bitsy details, you would probably fall asleep. So here's how it went.

It started out with me coming home from school on Tuesday. I just practiced piano and read a book while waiting for the time to go to the airport came. We drove there, I ate bread, and finally we got on the plane. Unfortunately, I started getting dizzy, and had to lay down for the flight. Luckily, it was only a short flight, and we got off the plane. Then we had to go to the rental car place to get a car, since of course we couldn't bring our car on the plane. (We didn't actually use the car much during the vacation.) It smelled sort of like candy in there. At nighttime it looked really shiny. (I wouldn't notice the flaws until daytime came again.)

We drove to our hotel, the Venetian. It's pretty cool since it looks like old-time Italy in there. There are shoppes inside and a "canal" filled with water, which gondola boats cruise up and down on. The rooms in this hotel are all suites, which is good for us, since not only is my family of three people going to Las Vegas, but also my grandma.

During the course of my vacation, I visit various places, my old haunts, in Las Vegas. My mom says that she and my dad actually visited Las Vegas twice before I was born, and then we visited it quite a few more times after I was born. So I have some memories from before of Las Vegas. A lot of the city is the same, and my favorite hotel (though I've never stayed in it), Bellagio, is still there. Bellagio is really nice since it has blown glass on one place on the ceiling, and it has a "garden" of sorts. It also has a shop that sells sweets, and fountains outdoors, which will "dance" to music in the later parts of the day.

If you want to hear more details, I'll put them in future posts, hopefully. But anyhow, when I got home, I was really unhappy. I went on to Nutrinopets this morning since I go there a lot when I'm on the Internet. Unfortunately, I found I had a warning for "reviving a dead topic". I managed to find out which topic it was, and I told myself I'd be more careful. But then it happened again and interrupted my posting in the forums. Same reason for the warning as before. The problem is, Nutrinopets wouldn't let me take the forum quiz now It must be the temporary suspension from the forums punishment. What upsets me is that I won't be able to find out what sort of topic it was that made me slip up. (Was it in the Art Trade? In Role-playing? Or in the General-ish forum? I guess it's a mystery for now)

Labels: childhood, internet, shopping, vacation

Aww, I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. Oh well. I'll just talk about yesterday right now.

It started out with me waking up, and then being taken to the farmer's market in Saratoga. Normally I like going there, but I've been really tired and having headaches recently so I wasn't too happy at being towed along on Saturday as usual. I bought some apple cider, an orchid plant (for my mom's friend), some eggs, grapes, strawberries, and another plant (my mom somehow fell like spending money, so we picked out a plant). My mother was planning to get one of those poinsettias, but some crazy lady already bought all the healthy-looking ones.

Since I always complain, and my mom thinks I'm really annoying, my family dropped me off at home so I could go do whatever it is I do. I decided to play a computer game but I spent too much time on it and pretty soon I had to go to my mom's friend's house. (This seems to happen a lot. Surprisingly, my mom has some friends.)

Over there I just read most of Eclipse (third Twilight book. I am finding it pretty boring, but I still want to find out what happens in the end), and ate up their shrimp-flavored Japanese chips. I felt really full by this time, but then it turns out we were going to a restaurant for dinner!

It was a nice-looking restaurant besides the TV having bad reception (it kept getting stuck) and there being air-conditioning on in there. My mom says that's really stupid because it makes it cold inside and we have to wear our jackets. Since she likes to have her way, we moved the table, which upset the workers, but they couldn't really kick us out since they want our business. I just ate some of the food my mom forced me to, and also all of the white buns which you're supposed to eat with cooked duck and sauce. (I prefer them "plain", or just with sauce. I don't particularly like the duck)

After I got home, since there wasn't much time left for the computer anyhow, I just worked on the 750-piece puzzle with my mom. (She and I are an excellent team. We have almost all of it done now) My dad, on the other hand, just watches TV and kicks back and relaxes, until he goes to bed early.

Labels: family, food, puzzle, shopping, time

I wonder why? It is so long after the Olympics by now. I mean, even Halloween has passed by now. My mom found a video containing something that we recorded from television. It turned out to the Olympics closing ceremony and other Olympic-related things. I saw Shawn Johnson and Michael Phelps (both from the US team) talking for a bit. Now my mom is fast-forwarding the video...She says that she wants to watch the Chinese program she recorded now. XD

It turns out that my grandma really likes candy! Particularly the chocolate kinds with peanuts in them. I gave her some Skittles to eat from my Halloween candy (I have a whole truckload of it left). She thought they were too sweet, though. My mom said there was a sale of candy at Target, so we went there after visiting the library so my grandma could have some candy. She thought it was awfully cheap here...My mother told me that American candies such as Snickers, Crunch, etc. are quite expensive in China.

My dad has left on a business trip to China. D: I feel like I'm being abandoned to the wolves, since I'm now left with my mom and my mom's mother. (They are quite similar people, because they both shook their fists at me when I annoyed them) My dad told me to behave and mind my mother, but I don't know whether that'll be easy. XD

The music on this blog is from the anime called Sola, and now I'm watching the actual anime. It's pretty interesting so far, though I think Yorito and his sister Aono's relationship seems rather awkward. o_O Aono is in the hospital, but Yorito sometimes doesn't visit her because he's taking pictures of the sky...

Labels: anime, library, music, shopping

Since today the teachers have meetings and such (Mr. Blair, my history teacher, said the meetings are so long and boring, he just pretends to be paying attention, but he is really watching Youtube videos on his laptop!), I got the day off. My mom decided that since I need a thicker jacket, we would go shopping to look for one. This is all well and good, since I like to spend money. The only problem is that it takes time, and the malls were practically ghost towns because today is a working day for most people.

First we went to Sears. There wasn't much there that interested me. However, there was a jacket with Peanuts comics on it, and my mom thought that was cool, so we ended up buying it. Then we visited Macys and JC Penney. Neither had much, and we left to go to Kohl's. There was a shirt there I like that actually looked decent but my mom said it wasn't something I could wear to school (it was black and doesn't look like what kids wear nowadays) so I ended up sulking because I couldn't have it. I actually like black...I hope no one thinks that's weird, since I'm supposed to be a kid who likes blue and pink and purple, and all.

We then went to Ross, which is my mom's "favorite store", as she declared indignantly when I insulted the said store. (I don't like it much because most of the clothes they have is stuff my mom likes, not me.) So I was quite surprised to see they have some pretty jackets there, such as a purple one with some colorful stuff on it, a creamish one with leaves, another creamish one which I said had "modern art" on it, and various other jackets. Seeing as my mom is rather stingy, I just bought the modern art cream-colored one.

Now I'm just at home, feeling kind of tired, but happy just because I managed to spend money, and not use my allowance. Last night, I lost an envelope with my Chinese yen in it. The 1000 yen is actually worth at least $100, my mom says. For some reason, she kept insisting I find it, and give it to her. I did find it, so I ended up having to fork it over. I think it's suspicious, because I know my mom probably wants to add money to her retirement funds. But oh well.

Labels: clothes, mall, money, shopping

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