Well, I admit that I’m kind of like recovering from a long hibernation and still feel everything a little fuzzy (here, the hibernation means long road trip and busy summer, as everything is confined in campus life) .

Oh no doubt, I HATE new terms. Everything became unavoidable busy! Like just now, I can see through September to December to know how miserable my life will be. Everything is scheduled, including the four midterms falling within two days!

Anyway, I decide to see the bright side of everything. There are some cool courses in this semester! Yes, I have to say some of them are very attractive . On the top of the list is the philosophy one. The teacher is such a crazy guy. Encourage, if not force, us to give up all the emotion and religions before enter his class, as HE WILL NOT CARE and he ONLY talk about ETHIC. Well, I like his opinions most of the time. What we feel right and what is ethic is quite different things; To be consistent, we have to fight with our feeling in many cases, etc. The anthropology is also a cool course. I have to say, ANTH is always my favorite! But this time, it could be tough also. Just look at the drug list we have to pick the research topic – I hardly know one third of them!

1. Acetylsalicylic acid

2. Atropine

3. Quinine

4. Heroin

5. Cocaine

6. Cannabis

7. Valium

8. Eflornithine

9. Fen-Phen

10. Ritalin

11. Aleve

12. Oxycontin

13. Thalidomide

14. Vioxx

15. Viagra

When I ride down the Lochside Trail in the last lights of sunset tonight, I feel the wind flows by my cheeks, like I’m flying. Yes, it’s so fast. Thank Colin, we got our bikes yesterday and I can enjoy the feeling of fly now! Just in one day, the Victoria seems smaller to me. Now I can get to work in only 20 or 30 minutes! Great changes!

Canada Day in Victoria is busy, crowded and carnival-like.

It's red; it's loud; it's singing and dancing as well as fireworks performance. And also it is "people mountain people sea"… So, for this extent, it is familiar, just like China’s Nation Day in a different version.

On the other hand, it's maple; it's drunk; it's bizarre dresses as well as different language and culture; it's crazy and patriotism. So it is quite Canadian style and pretty strange to me.  

Anyway, the firework is my favorite part. They are soooooo beautiful! As Chinese, we are proud it's our ancestors who invented powder and fireworks!

Thank Lord. I just have a wonderful day! With Sarah and Jav.

We went to Church in the morning, went hiking in the afternoon and watched tall ship shows at night with many other friends. It’s a little raining, but very mild and cool. I love the feeling of walking in shower in Victoria downtown. Looking people wondering and having fun is interesting. And furthermore, besides the whole panorama, it is YOU in my heart to let me feel all of the happiness!

It has been 129 days and nights without you. But you are coming now and 16 hours later I could be in your arms -- the most beautiful thing in the world I can imagine. My life would be with more sunshine and laughter because of you! Nothing can compare to You~

Since I came here, I often encounter culture shocks. For example, yesterday, a guy asked me: do you want to drink something? I replied: I have a bottle of water…

And then, certainly, I got his tease. It’s pretty embarrassed. At weekend night, nobody drink water! (as he commented)

Then, all the Friday night, all kinds of drunken people wondered along every street in downtown. They do not care money, therefore became the favorite customers of waiters and waitresses. And then, after this, they have excuse to do all kinds of foolish things. Although sometimes, those things even made themselves regretful afterward, they still like that feeling. Maybe nobody can tell which part makes them like that. Is it the illusion of happiness? Or fleeting passions? Or the headache and sickness on next morning? Or the blurriness of memory?

Anyway, the faultiest thing is that we should not go to beach after drinking beers, at least not go to a windy and chilly beach. That’s foolish. And more importantly, it made me sick

Where is my time going? I'm so confused. Although I cannot think out what particular things I did these days, my time went by so fast!~

In China, there is an idiom said that time is just like water in sponge, only if you squeeze it, you will find some. However, according to my personal experience, my time is just like sands in my hands, the more I want to grab them, the faster they flow away! What an ironic.

These two months, except two movies in Cinecenta, I did not watch any one! And also, I cannot find enough time to finish several books including the Driving License Knowledge Test  I feel I also reduce the time of exercise and shopping. Then, what did I do?! If I cannot answer the question, who can help me to answer that? It's so weird. I want more time!

Two hours ago, I had a long distant phone call with my mom. However, unfortunately, my dad is not there. And tomorrow, in China time, it will be Father's Day. I really want to say some words to my dad, although I feel a little unsure about what I should say. In fact, I really miss him these days.

No doubts, I have a very very good father (if I cannot say the best father). My mom often criticizes that he is not a good husband, but nobody deny that he is a perfect father! Thanks God, I am soooo lucky. Actually, it's even difficult for me to speak out one thing in the world which is not taught by my father to me. It is he who opened the door of the wonderful world to me, teaching me drawing, teaching me music, poems and most other arts. And I also inherit some of his good sense in mathematics and science, although in those aspects, I am far from as good as him. In my childhood, he is the tallest and also greatest man in my world. Until now, I still remember that how hard to touch his knees for the two or three years old me. He is like a big tree, the tree of our family, although today, the tree is growing old.

I miss my dad. Although I can talk with him any time by phone, the geographical distance makes me feel sad, because no words can compare to meeting him in person. Now, after leaving home half a world away, I truly feel how deep is the love between me and father.

Happy Father's Day, dad!

The world is big, however, it's also small, like a village.

This afternoon, I was online. Unexpectedly, an ID adds me to its list. It is a classmate in middle school, a so oooold friend of mine.  We have not seen each other for several years and he had been married for three years, got his MBA degree, moved to California and pursued his PhD study in Berkeley. He really experience great changes, I think, although it's only three or four years.

That makes me think of a lot of old friends. Where are they now? And how are they? Although many years ago, we DID leave our contact methods for each others, today, we still lost contacts with each other. We are just like beads scattering in the different corners of the room. But in the same time, I also wonder, even if we add every name to the MSN list, can we still keep contact? Network is weird. It's fast and even instant, but it's also fake. Just see my messenger list online, there are at least four-dozen names on that. But how may of them I often talk with? Maybe only three or four. There are all kinds of former or present coworkers, classmates, school mates, roommates and friends' name on that. However, most of them are just a name standing there, I seldom see them online or they are online but we do not say much to each other. For some extent, I think network is just an illusion. It seems that we can touch each other any time any place, however the truth is that we are more easily to loose contacts under that illusion. It's ironic.  

But anyway, I'm so happy my friend can find me through MSN and talk with me today. He mentioned many familiar but also a little bit strange names to me and give me some messenger IDs of them. I found that most of them are in different places of the world: North America, Europe, Australia, China…That makes me feel that we are seems in a huge village, and the name of the village is EARTH. 

I miss my friends. But I believe that one day in the future, we will meet each other somewhere in the village!

But what do Zongzi(sticky rice pyramid) have to do with all this? Legend has it that when Qu Yuan drowned, his body was never found. People felt very sad and worried that his body would be eaten by the creatures in the river. So they threw packets of rice into the river to feed the hungry animals and asked them to eat the rice instead of Qu Yuan's body. Those packets were Zongzi. Another legend says that the people offered Zongzi as sacrifices to the soul of Qu Yuan. To prevent the food from being eaten by animals, they wraped it with brightly colored thread, which they believed would scare away dragons and other aquatic beasts.

It's a great movie, although it's dark and bleak (as Colin and Leanne comment).

For me, it has been four months not watching any Chinese movie. So, I'm quite longing to see The World, especially this time, for me, no need to read subtitles!  The story itself is really sad, if I can say there is a story. In fact, I even wonder there is any story. The whole movie is just like a documentary of some rags and pieces of living. People live in a real world; at the same time, it's also a fake world. People have dreams, at the same time, dreams are far from them. The world is gorgeous, colorful and exciting; at the same time, it's also pale, hopeless and cold. That is a movie good at photography and music, I think. More importantly, it concerns the living of bottom people who are the victims of our development. That's the China's reality. For our country, I think, we need more movies like this.

This is a really special movie, different from most other Chinese and foreign ones. I found that to watch movie with foreign friends is very interesting. I'm so glad that they all like it. At least, we experience something different from Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon or Flying Dagger.

This is a keeper

I like today. To be a volunteer is a good way filling my days with meaningful tasks, and also, not laying around in bed feeling loneliness for myself. I knew myself. I had to get out from my apartment and do things, although, Oh, I don’t want to think of tomorrow, that would be very busy until midnight

Guess what. In my whole life, this is the first time for me to see some real Maori people and of course some real Native Americans. I even learnt several words of Navajo! And read some legends of them very cool, erh.

I like today. The weather is perfect. Sarah and I spent two hours together. I like enjoying sunshine and chatting in front of the fountain. And also, I like the scenery in the Victoria downtown. In this season, there is soooooo beautiful! I like walking with Qian to feel the beauty of Inner Harbor. Maybe next time, we should go into one small coffee shop and kill some time there with music, books and drinks

We were sitting around the table with all kinds of foods. And I think I smelt the sweet summer when we played Frisbee on grass. It was a hot afternoon ending with red sunglows. That reminds me of Haizi’s poem: I have a house facing the ocean with blossoms in warm spring….Maybe tomorrow, I should be a happy one, splitting woods, feeding horses, and traveling all around the world. Then, have a house like that, not only with blossomy flowers in warm spring but also with red sunset in summer evening. Why not? But Haizi died with his dream of a house facing the ocean.

面朝大海, 春暖花开

从明天起, 做一个幸福的人

喂马, 劈柴, 周游世界

从明天起, 关心粮食和蔬菜

我有一所房子, 面朝大海, 春暖花开

I struggled to get up before 6 o'clock. It's cold, windy and raining :(

My partly-clear head tell me where to find milk and croissant, but I don't remember how I finished my breakfast. I'm still like in a dream. As usual, I rushed out of my room with my pack, my hiking boots and tea bottle. In front of the mirror in lobby, I saw a pale face with dark eyes.

Walking in shower is cool, but waiting for bus for half an hour is really chilly. It's weird that except me, there is nobody sitting in the bus stop. Then, suddenly, two words flashed in my mind: Victoria Day. Oh, what a silly girl, forgetting today is Victoria Day-- there is no early bus!

Life itself is an adventure. To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvenment. To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. To try is to risk failure... But, Risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person, who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing. This person may avoid suffering and sorrow, but cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live... Chained by attitueds is a slave; and forfeited freedom. Only a person who risks is free.

That's maybe one of most reasons I came here. Today is the day I have been in Canada for three months. Everything is ok. I love the feeling of being somewhere else, for it's a little homesick, a little exciting, a little happy and a little scared -- the perfect portrait of my living now.