*peeks out from behind curtain*

Um, hi.

I, er, don't really have a sufficient excuse for not posting for two years. So I'm very sorry. Please forgive me. And I wonder if this bunch of hologram roses and box of cyber chocolates is enough to placate you.

So I'm in a totally different place, geographically and otherwise, from the last time I posted.

1. I graduated. God knows how I managed to do that.
2. I moved to London.
3. I am finishing grad school.
4. I am writing this to procrastinate from writing the thing that would finish grad school.
5. And soon, I will cease to be a student and begin to be classified on the census as "unemployed."
6. I continued playing rugby, and learned how to say "I'm a hooker" with a straight face.
7. I also began training as a First Aider, which involves a lot of paperwork. And vomit bags. And cautionary tales.
8. I gave online dating a go, and I'm still alive. As a plus, he's a musician who makes beer. As a minus, I am constantly competing with Professor Brian Cox for his affections.
9. I am now a slave to BBC iPlayer.
10. I miss USC and the people there, but I intend on making London my new base for the near future.

This post does not really signal a return to Blogspot just yet, because I do want to give Wordpress a go. Partly out of curiosity, and also partly because a lot of jobs I've been looking at would like candidates to have some working knowledge of Wordpress for communication purposes. As you all know, I'm rubbish at keeping up with posts, and when I look back on the stuff I used to write (especially my Afghanistan blog) I sometimes wish that I could write with that same flair born of idealism one possesses in their undergrad years.

So we'll see.

Hiatus

I rarely update this blog anyway, but I'm just announcing that I'm going to be ignoring it completely at least for this semester.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for my WRIT 340 blog, and I may be setting up another one tracking news events of a particular country to help my journal for an IR class.

Far from the madding crowd

Haven't had a proper relaxing summer for years now. The last one was probably my graduation trip to Phuket, where it was basically 5 days of sunbathing, drinking happy hour cocktails, and eating potato salad every day. And treating sunburns the size of the Sahara with copious amounts of blessed aloe vera.

This summer has probably the closest I've come to it, with about a month's worth of chilling in Hong Kong, punctuated with the bouts of community service and followed by xuexi hanyu. And now it's gone. And what looms ahead is a semester of what may be many sleepless nights. Noses against the grindstone now!

A one man Babel

So, um, yeah. It's been a while hasn't it?

For those who don't know, I've spent the last few weeks in Zhuhai trying to improve my Mandarin. It definitely helped my speaking skills, but the whole thing was more of an interesting sociological and cultural study. It was like Real World-Survivor-Big Brother-Discovery Channel: Zhuhai.

On the subject of language, I seem to be incapable of holding on to a language once I stop using it regularly. As my Mandarin improved, my English became increasingly grammatically incorrect, and Cantonese kind of...stopped happening since I was mixing up the tones. And I did speak some French, but it was mainly limited to curses.

So who knows, maybe one day everyone will be talking like the characters in Firefly.

On that note, I should stop looking at pictures of shuai guys and go shuijiao, because I have to meet my friend at 11 tomorrow for wufan.

Rattling away on the keys

Some of you out there will know that I have a habit of humming incessantly, a habit that flourished particularly in high school during rather boring classes. Not enough for the teacher to notice, but definitely enough to annoy some of my friends. That has since extrapolated into playing random tunes on whatever instrument is available (yes, even Bonnie Blue Flag on the horn). Now it's playing on invisible pianos whenever I get the chance.

I really miss my piano now. I learned the piano all the way up to and barely passing Grade 8, but I definitely hated it more as the years went by. I was reluctant to go to lessons, and never practiced anything beyond the actual songs, and I told my mum that I would stop learning once I'd passed, because the drive wasn't there. It was way worse than practicing violin and clarinet; although I never actually practiced my clarinet, I could still master it fairly well during lessons and I was totally okay with the exercises, I was just kind of lazy about it.

The good thing was that passing Grade 8 coincided with my last year of school in Hong Kong, so it wasn't particularly difficult to go down the road and tell my teacher that I would no longer be studying with her after 10 years of doing so.

It is so much more fun now just sitting there and playing whatever I have on hand. Even the mushiest pop tunes were fun; my old music book contains stuff from Faith Hill to Il Divo to achy-breaky Cantopop. (I will still take an AK-47 to anyone who makes me play Miley Cyrus however.) I can forgo the TV if I could purchase a nice well-equipped keyboard. Alas for living in a studio where most of my wall space is already taken up.

For the second night in a row, I'm spending the evening in my room after hanging out briefly with the flatmates in the living room. Alone again. They did invite me out, but I am genuinely tired and would probably pass out after the first couple of drinks.

I can't remember who it was whom said there was a difference between being alone and feeling alone. (Or something like that.) Being an anti-social (and very shy) only kid, I didn't mind being alone most of the time, with a good book or an iPod to keep me company. But now that I'm in an environment where I really should enjoy the benefits of socialising and company, I often become the wallflower. Not even that. The flower painted on the wall. At the same time, I get antsy about turning up to events alone and usually try and find someone to go with me.

Which leads to an additional question: Have I spent so much time (we're talking from the age I learned to talk to about mid-puberty when I started going out without the parents) learning how to interact with those older than I am (we're talking about 10+ years) that I never fully worked out how to interact with those of my own age?

I'll work that out later. In the meantime, I'll continue to sit here and be serenaded by the dulcet tones of Brian Stokes Mitchell.

Curse you, Cassandra

I most likely have bastardised Greek mythology with the title, but I was looking back at blog posts I'd made over the summer. In particular, my last post of the summer referred to the last week of the internship and how crazy it was because of all the stuff that was going on. I finished with a wishful statement that band would be more drama-free.

Yeah fucking right.

Hello 2010, hello land of the sheep

First post of 2010, woo!

I will be taking off for Scotland later this week, and personally, I cannot wait. Bar the freezing cold. I've somehow managed to pack winter clothes along with a suit (other work clothes to follow by mail) and other necessities to prevent me from freezing/starving/dying from lack of hygiene in a total of 1 suitcase and a carry-on. One bloody suitcase. With a weight limit. But hey, whatever. At least even by April it'll still be too cold to switch over to warm-weather clothing.

At the same time, I'm a little sad I'll miss out on the spring games/gigs and seeing the class of '10 people before they graduate.

If the Trojans in Edinburgh blog gets set up and begins to function, this one might not be updated as regularly.

Words, words, words

I have utterly failed in my attempts to keep a regular record of my thoughts. Despite setting up this blog, buying Moleskine notebooks at sale price, and even getting my hands on this really pretty daily planner with a cover design by SCAD, they all contain tragically blank spaces between the start of this semester and now.

Here's my New Year's resolution: Keep a daily record while in Scotland. Maybe a change of scenery will induce me to start writing again.

Hello autumn

Cool air, warm sun, wearing trainers regularly instead of flip flops, turning off the air conditioner, frequent searches for hot drinks.

Hello October.

Duality and anarchy

While this internship was definitely, chaotic, it sure as hell wasn't boring. Administration is probably wishing for boredom right now though.

I happened to choose the summer when they were moving the entire Ships History department from one building to another, so the place is pretty much chaos because the movers have to be supervised for security reasons and there's a lot of paperwork involved. Add personnel issues and a weekend flooding and the place gets a little stressed, to put it mildly.

This last week, however, you could definitely smell it in the air. It began with the whispered conversations, then a sudden axing that apparently should have happened a lot earlier and was met with a fair amount of happy dancing.
I really don't know how much I should say about this, but now the issue seems to be the muddling of military and admin hierarchies; slightly reminiscent of band at times?

I love the people, I really do. I'm going to miss them loads. But when you can feel annoyance radiating like a furnace off the person sitting across from you at the staff meeting and the rest emitting varying degrees of tiredness/frustration/exasperation, it's like some weird tension soup is being diffused into the atmosphere.

I just really hope, most likely with a great deal of naivety, that band season doesn't end up like this.

Coast hopping

So I'm in the 2nd to last week of this internship and while I can't wait to get back to LA, move in, see everyone again, get all my stuff unpacked and get ready for band camp (woo?/!), I'm gonna miss the time in DC. It wasn't one of those self-discovery journeys that inspire Oscar-winning films, but it gave me the chance to do things I wouldn't normally do elsewhere. Like get up at the crack of dawn to go to Gettysburg. Or camp out at 5pm to watch 9pm fireworks while being serenaded by the US Army band. Other things:

I still can't answer where exactly I come from (up to 3 different answers now), my hair is now a strange shade of brown/burgundy/orange, and I think my accent has taken on tones of the Mason-Dixon states as well as picking up certain military/nautical terms. I survived 2 months without murdering (or getting murdered by) the Notre Dame tuba or the UCLA alum officer. (Should I have? Most likely yes. But I'd rather not get in trouble with the US Navy, thank you very much.) I avoided getting questioned by the NCIS over classification issues. On a whim, I took the 6 hour Amtrak up to Providence, bruised my arse and killed my lower back on an hour of polo, watched a polo game, stayed up till 5 to go and have breakfast at a diner, and loved every moment because I did it with a friend. LA transportation seems even crappier than before after the lovely DC metro (minus the Red line crash). Shellbacking makes frat initiations seem like a welcome tea party. It's way easier to travel on the East coast than I realised. Thanks to the good ol' grid layout of DC, I visited most of the Smithsonian museums in a week by walking. There are people whom I would never have hung out with had we not ended up in the same internship, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss them. And while the reference letter is nice, I'm just glad I got to work with the people in the archives and hope I will see at least some of them again after all this.

Not a bad summer, by all accounts.

Capitol, capitol

I just realised I've spent 3 weeks here. That actually flew by pretty quickly.

Things were a LOT more lively once the (only) other intern arrived at the Operational Archives. Now I have someone else to chat to; not that the regular staff aren't talkative and friendly, but it's really nice to have someone else of similar age. (I'd love to have a beer with anyone from the archives, to be honest. Yes, even the commander who's a fucla alum.) We have met up with a lot of the other Navy Yard interns though, thanks to the field trips, and they're all a really cool lot. Some of them are living as far out as Baltimore, which makes me feel a lot better about my 1 hour commute from start to finish. I think the others have been pushing for more trips since we don't see each other during work, being closeted in our various buildings (most work in the museum, I work in a small part of another building that's often freezing to keep the documents intact).

Went to Mount Vernon today, courtesy of Tourmobile. The estate was very pretty and had some interesting stuff, but it was a bit of a downer because we only had 4 hours to see the estate, and 1 hour was spent waiting to get inside the mansion itself. I also nearly didn't make it back to DC because I did not see where the Tourmobile stop was. Oops.

So all in all, I really enjoy working here. I also really like living here so far. The one downside is that there aren't any good supermarkets or shops near where I live. They do have some interesting boutiques, but I'm cheap and need to find something like an Old Navy nearby. The nearest one is in Pentagon City across the river.

Plan for next weekend is Gettysburg. Assuming the weather isn't too bad, it should be a great trip.

Hello from DC part 1

I meant to blog a little earlier but I've only just got over the jet lag.

So DC is absolutely amazing. Easy to walk around, less humid than Hong Kong, good metro, and I still haven't begun to explore the surrounding areas with the cheap but diverse restaurants/entertainment. Went to the American History museum today and spent nearly 3 hours there, especially in the sections on communities and war. Must go back to the gift shop at some point too.

The Navy Yard is also really cool, although the constant escorts and security checks are a bit of hassle. And I get to handle the actual documents instead of going through books like I've been doing all YEAR. I saw McCain Jr.'s box while in the archives; pity I didn't get to open it. And yes, most of the time I'm scanning stuff and helping to "stabilise" the papers (putting them into acid-free folders and reorganising them into new boxes) but it's still pretty cool.

My dorm does kinda suck on the other hand. I'm pretty sure it's one of the older more run-down buildings compared to other places on GWU, but the paint is a little shabby and for some reason I don't have blinds.

Also, it's suddenly started raining and we have a thunderstorm too. Meant to go to the Lincoln Memorial tonight but that is so not going to happen.

Not entirely sure what to do this weekend, but will most likely be in Virginia, either Arlington or Alexandria.

And the twain shall never meet

Tuesday's phone call with Mum revealed fundamental differences in priorities that I found hilarious.

She wants me to seriously reconsider playing rugby because she's worried I may get permanently injured.

I, on the other hand, was more upset about failing my driving test than splitting my head open.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Ahh, the joy of generation gaps.

Yay blood!

I just discovered today how bipolar I can be when it comes to injuries and pain.

According to the others, I tried to tackle someone and she swung around. All I remember was a collision with a hard object and flying back a few feet with this massive pain in my left temple. I decided to lie there for a bit since I couldn't get up without my head spinning. Then I decided to remove my hand a bit to see what was going on. Biiig mistake.

Seeing my entire hand covered in blood (and realising that it was streaming into my eyes) sent me into this massive panic attack. I mean, I've seen what cleats can do (see Zidane) but it's kiiiinda different when it happens to you.

Hearing that it was only a small cut sent me into hysterical laughter followed by frustration that I couldn't go back and play again.

Now I just want to sleep.

And on the sixth day

I caved in and drank a Coke. I'd hoped I could make it to Sunday (at least I surpassed Wednesday), but the number of naps I was taking in the afternoon/early evening was detrimental to basic functioning. Feeling drowsy and falling asleep at 9:30pm should not happen.

Thus, the seventh day shall be the day of rest. (read: COFFEE TIME)

Day 2

Yay for Jamba Juice.

PE also has its upsides, especially if your teacher breaks his nose the lesson before and the TAs take over instead.

Going cold turkey

So I'm going to try and spend a week with no caffeine. No coffee, tea, or coke.

Let's see if I'll make it by Wednesday.

Spring Break

I feel sooo fat. Fat as that last Peking Duck we had.

And tired.

And happy.

That pretty much sums up Spring Break back in Hong Kong.

Though I do wish my friends had been back as well, but nooooo UK doesn't start break till this week.

That said, I'm definitely missing the food and shopping already. And legal boozing, hah.

And I don't want to do any work.

Time to finish unpacking.