Archive for December, 2008

Date: December 12th, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Friends, School
3 msgs

This One’s For You, K

Coming back to college as a second-year, I thought there would be a period of “reacquaintance and refamiliarization” that comes with the start of school. After all, a full three months’ of time separated the end of Spring Quarter and Fall Welcome Week. Absence makes the heart grow fonder they say, but it also gives people the chance to grow apart. Moving into my new apartment and single room, I thought heavy-heartedly: This is the moment of truth.

Much to my surprise and delight, sophomore year began right where freshmen year left off. We come back and continued college as if summer vacation didn’t happen. Inside jokes persisted and personalities remained the same. Appearances evolved, but it was so comforting and relieving to know that under the new clothes were the same people also eager to remain friends.

After the reacquaintances and catching up, everything about school followed the same trend of having stayed the same. The same sheets were spread on the same uncomfortable fireproof mattress (and one new duvet); the laptop with its charger snaking down behind the same hideous wooden desk (now it sits on a laptop stand flanked by new external speakers); the same unsavory food at the dining hall (exacerbated by the elimination of plastic utensils and take-out containers); the same boring classes and vast campus (revamped with a Burger King and a King Triton statue). It seemed that my nervous expectations about change were a bit melodramatic.

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Date: December 9th, 2008
Cate: Family, HK Stories, Reminiscence
3 msgs

Home for the Holidays


As Airport Xpress and Cloud 9 shuttles pass by on the road next to my window, I am cruelly reminded how much longer I have to hold on until my trip to San Diego International this Friday night. Hours melt into minutes, and those, into fleeting seconds that sadly but surely count down the time toward my tests.

It’s hard to believe that last year, during this time, I spent the holidays halfway around the world in Hong Kong. Everything was a walk away from the hotel - shopping, eating and every kind of entertainment. Streets were always bustling: morning rush to work, afternoon scuffle for quick lunch and the evening traffic jam when everyone would return home; always crowded: street vendors hawking wares while keeping one eye out for police raids, hungry businesspeople waiting for take-out orders on the way home from work, old ladies in orange rubber gloves pushing trash carts that occupied half the sidewalk; always interesting: looking down there was a mix of expensive leather shoes of men with loud, colorful sneakers of teenage boys, looking up you’d see the many Agnes B. and Gucci monogram purses of office ladies and inhale cigarette smoke swirled with wafting aroma of the nearest fried food stand and looking behind was the sea of Hong Kong people, yakking away on their Hello Kitty-charmed cell phones or shuffling to take out Octopus cards for the last step of their commute.

It’ll be hard not to miss the effiency of the MTR while I drive the long 20 minutes to Sanata Row for a get with my cousin to watch English Premier League soccer. It’ll be hard to beat last Christmas Eve spent in Macau, casino-hopping and enjoying authentic Portugese cuisine. Watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV (even in HD) can’t really compare to the Tsim Tsa Tsui waterfont fireworks display at the stroke of midnight during New Year’s. I’ll always remember looking longingly at the partygoers in Lan Kwai Fong, contemplating deserting my family for some liquored fun but without any companion to do it with.

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Date: December 3rd, 2008
Cate: Complaints & Confessions, Random
4 msgs

Does it Really Have to be Mutual?

It never fails to amaze me how long Asian couples manage to last. Their relationships are always so committed and full of devotion, i.e. it seems like they can never get enough of each other. Even in college freshmen dorms, couples are springing up everywhere - people don’t even need to get acquainted with campus first! Maybe someone should ask them the secret to staying together, not Dr. Phil.

But I’m not writing to comment on the relationship turnover velocity of those boys and girls. Thinking about life and its trivialities (as I frequently do!), I came across a familiar question of mine:

How is it possible that two people really like each other?

I mean, simultaneously. Does it really take two to tango? Does the feeling really have to be mutual? What are the chances that someone actually feels the same way, right then and there?

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