Storytelling in Laos and other Asian Countries

Suddenly thought of the chants in the orphanage in Laos. 2006 Spring, I wonder if anyone's got those videos.
Most of the time, I miss the children from Lipa more, but I have a sudden urge of revisitng Laos, it would be better if there is a translator, back then, each of us were sent into one family for dinner every night, just one of us, with nine kids who don't speak English (and a "mum").
Body language naturally became the main means of communication, but drawings were also very useful when interacting with young kids.

I am curious in their folktales, their story-telling culture, in a place that is so isolated culturally - with no tall glass blocks, air con or McDonald's, they must have some interesting stories - related to spirits, animals or the nature. Picture story books are many young children's first encounter with books, most of the time, they don't understand the words, they learn the story through their parents' voice and intepreting the pictures. I guess, the first book LEDC children get in contact with might be textbooks, luckily they have those stories that were passed on verbally, or chants, from thousand of years ago.
I wonder why I don't remember everything clearly, the details - I remember their rice, sticky rice in bamboo, where we had to use our hands to roll them into a ball; the really interesting latasoy, the kids picking sour fruits from the tree... oh... distant memories...
I miss the peaceful chant, such interesting moments, when all children take off their shoes, kneel on the icy marble floor and chant together... pure innocent voices...

Moleskin

Continuing my moleskin collection, from the time in Beijing. 

Moleskin sketchbook 3.5 x 5.5 inch

Boarding Life

(Message to a friend)

P.S. I was randomly talking with Holing about my boarding life back in SSC, it's so weird, it really feels so long ago, especially back when i was in martin (i.e. u in east wing) 

The life when prep time still exists, when sometimes the air con was not cold at all, and when there were prefects that stop us from talking, when we had to rush to the dining hall for dinner, and being punished to stand outside for being late even I was a prefect.

And my memories of boarding was always attached to my memories of Muso. I had little memories of pre-muso life! Form one, I think we sometimes went lie on the sand pit of big field (with Joey) and watch sunset, we also played hide and seek during exam times.
it's so mysterious......
I remember we used to hate going back to school on Sundays, and we would go out for McDonald's at Stanley seaside with Betty before dinner time. hahaha, and asked "Eggplant" to bring us mocha from Delifrance!
When we still sleep on those bunk beds in Martin Hostel, people would hang half of their uniform (with half as their pajamas) on the door of the wardrobe, so that they can get dressed up quickly before the warden-on-duty comes and inspect at 7:30a.m.

It's just so surreal, that we used to live in rooms with six people, but in reality, the corridors were very open, not very much a room. I remember that when we were in form one, they always say that room 15 has ghosts! hahaha.
Before Christmas time, we went around the campus singing carols at teachers' home, it was really fun!
I miss times of typhoon, one year, it was so windy that Mrs. yeung couldn't get off her car outside West Wing. There were so many more regulations in the girls dorm than the guys dorm, and I always feel worried during room check! We will be brought to our rooms with a prefect, which they will check all your stuff thoroughly - make sure you didn't bring things like phone or unapproved books or many more...
It's all very surreal...... The so-called good OLD days, but it's not THAT long ago is it? Why does it feels soooo long?

Flatmates

I miss my flatmate from Edinburgh last semester.

Even though we are very different in terms of personality, and I always complain her for being too hardworking and stuff, but in terms of sharing a flat, it's great. Perhaps it's because we have both been boarding since form one, and in fact, we have both been head prefects during our secondary school times.

We were very clear about our expectations before sharing a flat - we both desire privacy, dislike the typical girly-girly flats, (when one cries, the other would comfort kind of thing), no talking of "oh let's go somewhere together this weekend...." ( I LOATHE planning ahead) No annoying socialization.......

Things just happen very naturally, everything seems nice and simple, even like throwing rubbish together, carrying heavy tesco bags, cooking Indo Mie, spontaneously eating out all the time... 

I also dislike 8 gua flatmates, who would sit in my room and inspect all the new stuff I've bought, or look at my lovely books strangely. Everyone sense the difference between my room and vb's room, when she's stressing on her two computers, with cardboard all over the room, I would be illustrating my storybook, even though she's stressed, she would still spend time looking at my stuff, and give comments, probably cuz she love art? 

Oh, and as much as we loved to complain about the workload of our course, we both spent a lot of time watching "The Gem of Life", a TVB drama,  everytime we talked we would confess guiltily the number of episodes we just watched in the past afternoon! I very enjoy having dinner with her as well, but most of the time either one of us is done eating when the other just done cooking, so we never managed to eat together. We always talked about buying bailey's too, and she always say that I am an "alcohol-ghost" 

We are very very different, even though we are great flatmates, but it doesn't necessarily make us very close friends, not that we're not, but our lives seems to only intersect when we are in Edinburgh, whenever away, we don't chat much at all. 

I must still conclude that we are very different and have very different attitudes toward work and life in general, but it was fun sharing a flat with her. (And we also spend a lot of time missing Hong Kong and Japan; exploring when Edinburgh will collapse due to mice invasion; think when to have breakfast together and admiring our pretty flat) 

AND I think eventually I would enjoy living alone the most - you know how much I enjoy the art of being alone - dining alone, being in cafe alone, travelling alone............... even though some of my friends thought it's weird to dine alone ....... there's not much to argue here, probably just a personality thing!

Living. Fairytale

常常懷念去年去日本的時候，是最快樂的回憶之一，每一刻都很開心。每天吃早餐都想點什麼蛋，儲起漂亮的奶瓶子。晚上期待着酒店房裏為我們預備的生果。有一次滿懷希望的去開桌上兩個蘋果，怎料原來是兩個很甜的日本梨來的!出乎意料之外!
我喜歡輕井駅和自由x丘，夕陽的陽光下，在寧靜的街道上行走。還意外地遇到一間Studio Ghibli 店和Wachifield 店。

我喜歡在拉麵上加雙陪「青」，喜歡看魚生師傅片TORO!喜歡陪你吃蟹，那裏的大蟹標誌很大，還有人彈古箏。我們在六本木碰上大雨，我還看到黑雲湧來;在半島酒店的頂層吃晚餐，精心設計的幻燈感覺在北歐看極光。
在Yokohama吃午餐等了很久，外面太陽很猛，我們很喜歡雪糕店的人唱的歌，但我更喜歡之後吃飯時聽你說話。
我們說要再到台場玩ufo機，那裏高手比較少，你不斷的「夾」到很多東西呢，我把夾到的東西放在酒店地上拍照，Hedgy也來參與。
走過墳場與貓店後，我們也遇上大雨，躲在小路中，民居的車房下避雨，我最喜歡大雨，從屋簷像小瀑布的流到路上。
真希望可以快點見到你。

爆開的眼樹

北京的眼樹上的眼是因為樹枝生出來時，導致樹的表皮爆開，留下眼的形狀，樹枝被砍後，眼的瞳孔露出來。這是一個很local的爆裂，且是橫向的。
可是近日釣魚台國賓館外一段長達（十五分鐘車程）的路旁的眼樹卻出現直向爆裂，即由上至下的爆開，有的更整層表皮掉下來，眼的位置留出黃色及紅色的樹汁，情況嚇人，值得關注

今天記者路經此段，竟堵了三十分鐘車，兩旁不斷有警車經過，懷疑前面有乘客乍見眼樹後暈倒。

'Liberal'-Chinese-lover?

"A guy friend of mine has been in a stable relationship for a few years, but there's another girl who really liked him. People all adviced her not to do anything when he already has a stable girlfriend. But she thought if he loves her so much, than he won't be shook but her seduction. So later on, the guy did started getting really close with this girl, he decided to maintain both relationships.
A few days earlier, he posted a very long article on the internal-web of their uni (equivalent to facebook) - apologizing for what he did wrong. What made him changed all of a sudden - on her original girlfriend's fourth abortion, she realized that she couldn't get pregnant anymore. He felt sorry, and promised to marry her once they graduate"

Relationship-wise, I wonder if we are fossils.
Last night, I had another great cultural lesson on modern Chinese relationships. Many of those people involved in the stories are not fictional, not internet stories, not MK kids, but real friends of my friend, in one of the top universities in China.

"Another girl from a reowned school from Hong Kong, now studying University here, really liked a homosexual guy, she liked him so much that she made him drunk deliberately so he would have sex with her, and hoping that it could turn in a relationship. But the guy was too drunk and didn't know what happened the night before, so nothing happened following the event. Knowing that she couldn't win his heart, she thought having him physically is good enough."

Match-making is very common among my friends and C's friends here in the universities. It's alright to ditch a friend if a potential guy dates you for dinner, and it might happen like monthly or weekly.

There are internal websites, where people post their own pictures, searching for girl/boyfriends. One of C's pretty friend posted her pic, and got more than 1000 replies, INCLUDING a young professor. But that girl just got accepted by Harvard grad school, the professor suggested that he could apply to be a visiting lecturer there.

When Deborah was here, she pointed out how people are so CRAZY about getting married here in China, but it's not only in China, also in Hong Kong, people have very elaborate celebration for their weddings. Here, the biggest shops in shopping malls are those like "I DO"

PDA (Public Demonstration of Affection) is also serious, The other day i was on a bus- on the second floor, there were three couples, among them, two pairs were hugging very tightly, with the girl lying on the guys' legs throughout the bus ride, the remaining pair had the girl sitting on the guy's lap even there were SO MANY empty seats.....

According to both Miranda and my observation in our architecture firms in Shanghai and Beijing, almost all guys are married, and all young pretty girls ranging from e.g. 20 - 40 are single! How amazing. The girl next to me, looks like... 26? but she's actually 32, she's very eager to get a boyfriend, mostly cuz it's a norm, she's dating randomly, doesn't really like her boyfriend. But she felt scared cuz everyone in her University class are married - some even divorced already! hark.

Yes naturally, people all around the world seems to do things like this, we might be surprised because they are Chinese, I wonder... how are Chinese perceived, and how are they actually like?