A Little Smile

I feel like I'm on a roll with blogging today. The lack of blogging over the past few weeks, months even, has been building up. As usual, it's my weekly dose of We Go Together. Saar's blog is so awesome it just puts a smile on my face when I read her posts. It's so inspirational and every time I read it I just want to go travelling! (In case you don't know who Saar is or haven't read her blog posts, I suggest you visit http://wego2gether.tumblr.com. I promise it's good ^^) 


From Saar's tumblr, I came across something she reblogged, (I really need to spend more time on tumblr,) and it put a smile on  my face, especially the last one. 

Five Lessons About How To Treat People
Author Unknown

1. First Important Lesson - "Know The Cleaning Lady"

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.


2. Second Important Lesson - "Pickup In The Rain"

One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.

A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.

She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home.

A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."

Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.


3. Third Important Lesson - "Remember Those Who Serve"

In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "50¢," replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.

"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "35¢!" she brusquely replied.

The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.


4. Fourth Important Lesson - "The Obstacles In Our Path"

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand - "Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition."


5. Fifth Important Lesson - "Giving When It Counts"

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Source: http://www.globalone.tv/profiles/blogs/how-to-treat-others-5-lessons 

Wego2gether

After a whole day of listening to ballads, I should rephrase that, after listening to the same few ballads, I can't help but fall into one of my emotional moods. Then when I had dinner, about an hour ago, I decided to watch One Piece (I have to watch something whilst I'm eating... I find it really weird to just concentrate on eating...) I thought I'd have at least four episodes of One Piece to watch, but during the time which feels like a long time, it had only been just over two weeks. I say that I don't like watching OP anymore because I've read the manga, but that's not true... it's actually so much more epic with background music... *sigh* Shanks... he's just too awesome! OP is really too epic for my heart! I can't believe I've watched nearly 500 episodes of OP... well I'm on 490. Episode 490 didn't air because of the earthquake in Japan. I was so shocked when I read about it on Friday. I've been meaning to blog about it but I don't know what to write except that I wish for their well being. It makes me so sad when natural disasters happen, I'm sure it makes everyone sad. When I watch video clips and images, I just want to go out their and physically help. But it's difficult when you live on the other side of the world... so all we can do is contribute to organisations who have the ability to help. 

I found out about the incident in Japan after my appointment on Friday morning. I came home and was just doing the usual stuff, checking emails, Facebook, checking uni stuff etc, until I needed to search something and went onto Google. Then there was this little news bit on the bottom of Google and that's when I read about it. The first thing I did was go onto the Guardian to confirm the news. I read about it and was just shocked; it was so sudden. The first thing that came across my mind was Saar and Noriyuki (my Japanese penpal). Saar is a lovely girl (I say 'girl', she's a few years older than me). I met her during the WYC in Turkey. We were stomach ache buddies - both of us couldn't take the food and basically were constantly ill =[ After reading on the Guardian and watching the devastating videos, the next thing I did was check where abouts was affected... and thank God, Saar was in Kyoto which is quite a bit away from the worst affected areas. Still, I posted on her wall on FB and when I came back from uni on Friday evening I saw a post with the first words being 'I am safe'. 

The main reason I'm writing this post is because of Saar. I've just read a post she blogged on her tumblr a while ago http://wego2gether.tumblr.com/post/3830405920/safety-is-no-longer-an-option. I remember a few months back, when Saar was deciding whether to go travelling and where to, etc. I really admire her for having the courage to travel round on her own (I still don't go to the doctor's on my own), especially in such an unfamiliar environment - the other side of the world. After following her blog and reading her posts, I'm really glad she has found her 'place' in a way, and most importantly, she's enjoying it. 

(I don't know who else besides Miranda, Naa and Megan reads this... but sometimes I do get a few weird statistics on this blog). But if you (anyone who's reading this) have a few spare moments, please visit's Saar's tumblr http://wego2gether.tumblr.com. 

This makes me think about what I want to do. A while ago, I've been thinking is uni really the thing for me? Am I enjoying uni? Yes and somewhat. I've been pondering whether university is really the right thing for me for a few months now, and after I got my results last Wednesday, I thought to myself: yes, uni is the right thing for me. Firstly, I didn't get super amazing marks, but I did considerably alright and at the end of the day, I'm a studying-person. I enjoy learning: I enjoy learning about economics. I wish I could say the same for management, but I am starting to like it a bit more this term (besides the coursework T_T). And most importantly, if I wasn't in uni, I can't think of something better. Work? No thanks, when I graduate I've got years and years of that to come. Travelling? Of course I'd love to, but let's be realistic, I don't have the savings to travel and what comes after travelling? So, I've deciding, I shall work really hard in uni, stop spending so much on crap (easier said than done... I made this resolution a few days ago and all I've done since then is spend money), and save up for things I truly enjoy. After last weekend in London, and seeing the wildlife photography photos, I've realised that I really do like photography. I guess it was my part time work that sparked my interest, but I feel really happy when I take photos. So here I am with an additional goal: to save up to buy an awesome camera and travel. I know I keep saying this, but this time, I am really going to save up for what I truly have passion for: camera, travelling, a new piano. 

I miss my piano so much... I keep saying that I'll buy a crappy keyboard just to practice on whilst I'm in Sheffield but I can't bring myself to do it. When I'm looking at keyboards, I always just look at the pianos too and they're just too difficult to resist. 

So, they're my goals for this year (or the next few years). For me, it's important to have plans and goals to know the direction you're going in. I'd love to be one of those people who can just go with the flow... but unfortunately (or sometimes fortunately) I need plans to keep me going forward =] 

I did try to look for a part time job. I've sent out a few CVs and lousy covering letters but no response so far. I won't give up though, I'll keep trying hard. This year, I was planning to go to Estonia, then maybe go to the nearby countries too, like Norway, Denmark, etc. But I've decided, this summer, I'm just going to get a job and work and take steps towards my goal of doing things I truly like =] 

These video's don't really fit in with the mood but I've been listening to these all day. 

This song is by a female artist called Wax. The title is translated roughly into "I want to love". I came across this song when I was listening to this song called "My Love My Fate" and I found out that Wax was the original. So here it is: 

This is the song I was originally listening to: "My Love My Fate" by Janice. She's a Chinese singer but she sings in both Chineses and English. I was actually searching for chords for one of her English versions of a song, then I ended up stumbling on YT and listening to her stuff there. Then ended up listening to this live version of "My Love My Fate" and hence ended up listening to Wax. It might sound a little weird because it's cantonese, but I think Janice is an awesome singer... and I do quite like how she changed this concert version (from her usual version) ^^ 

Easily Pleased

It's such a wonderful life when the slightest things makes you so happy - and I live one of those lives. I wouldn't say it's always 'wonderful', but it's good enough when buy buying a muffin tin lifts your mood =P 

Yesterday I went back to Specsavers for my appointment - I'm getting contact lenses. In fact, I've got some in right now: it's so bizarre because I can see without my glasses, and usually within my glasses, I need to squint to see far away; but now I can see far away, and when I squint, my vision doesn't actually change because I can see =D And this sounds rather stupid, but I decided to try my glasses on and hehehehehe I can't see with my glasses on =P (yes... I am that sad to try something like that =.=") 

So... after that, I went to Debenhams, didn't buy anything... I did see a few cool things in the home section (I love looking at home sections) but they were rather expensive =[ I saw this cup thing that was basically like one of those paper cups you get from coffee shops if you buy a tea or hot chocolate to take out, but it was reusable, it was made out of glass and the lid was like a rubbery material. But it was a bit stupid because it's heavy and it breaks easily... oh it was a flask (that was the word I've been looking for) besides it looked like a paper coffee shop cup. It was a great idea if only they had made it lighter so people can actually use it on-the-go. Anyway, they had a few other cool things but was ridiculously over priced... and rather impractical. E.g. they had this espresso cup set where you get seven cups with Monday to Sunday written on each of them. So it's like, you use a different mug each day. And there's this stand that comes with it, where you basically stack them up. It looks good, but if you had it stacked with Monday at the top and Sunday at the bottom... isn't a pain in the butt if you wanted, say, the Saturday cup? You'd have to take all of the other cups out... it looked good but was stupid. 

Anyway... then I went to Sainsbury... I love Sainsbury, but they're just too far. I ended up buying ice cream... I was craving ice cream the other day but Tesco Express didn't have any good ice cream. So there I was, walking with this tub of ice cream to the check out. Then I saw some pans and baking trays so I just glanced at it, then I saw the muffin trays! I made muffins for the UNICEF cake sale a few weeks back but I didn't have a muffin tray which screwed things over - although I did improvise pretty well... I made some make-shift muffin holders from tin foil and it worked amazing well =P So there I was, with ice cream and a muffin tray that was on offer. Muffin trays are ridiculously expensive now (I say everything is ridiculously expensive now, just because I am the one who pays for stuff now... and it's true that inflation is rather high...) I saw a muffin tray once, it was a really awesome silicon one, but I didn't buy it, then I went back and they didn't have it anymore =[ and all the other metal muffin trays are like £7... come on, it's only a muffin tin. So I bought mine for like £3.50 or something because it was half price =D As you can tell, I'm rather exciting about my muffin tin/tray... now I can bake good muffins =D 

So... I was in a really good mood, having bought contact lenses, ice cream, a muffin tin and some other random stuff... then I was humming to myself and swinging  my bag a bit until I walked past a police car with someone in it T_T That was embarrassing... I wasn't humming very loudly... but I always get super embarrassed... I never learn my lesson and keep singing/humming in public. These few days, there's been quite a lot of police around in Sheffield because of protests and stuff. Something about Nick Clegg is coming back and people are protesting against him... or something like that. 

I talk a lot... so here's just a few photos to make this post a little less wordy...

After making lunch, I ate jelly =] Raspberry flavour ^^ 

My new muffin tin =]
I am such a loser

The past week (and a bit) has been super, super busy, hence such an empty blog. There's like a ton of things on my to-do list and my laptop decided to go against my and the internet decided to pretend to be a snail =.="

I've got too much to do so I won't be ranting an essay today. Here's my week in short:

Sushi
I spent two and a half hours making sushi last, last Friday whilst waiting for my mum and sis to arrive in Sheffield

Snow from last Saturday... crazy, snowing in the middle of February T_T

Snowing-at-a-crazy-time 2

The sky was really pretty the other day. The photos don't do it justice because the camera didn't pick up the pinky colour very well

The pinky sky again, it was just so pretty. It was just pink and blue and awesome! ^^

My sister and I decided to have another sushi feast on Friday... my sister made this pretty sushi ^^

The sushi I made... 

Jess' udon... we made udon (from scratch) yesterday. I have this awesome recipe, it doesn't look that good in the photos but I swear it tastes good =D 

This is my udon... I was too lazy to cut them into thin stripes hence some of them are thick as ever... but they do taste awesome =D 

Then today, I took my sister to the train station and put her on the train... it's her first time getting the train by herself. And now I'm just trying to work hard, I was making notes on maths stuff, then I ended up doing Purple Peace stuff... so much stuff to do. And I need to book my train ticket for next week but I'm just waiting for Na... seeing the sushi and udon makes me hungry... I have the same problem every day: what shall I eat tonight? I might just have instant noodles today =] 

Just Another Long Rant

Yet again, I have no arty contribution to my blog today. I haven't even finished (or continued, shall I say) the background I was working on. It's been really busy lately, and it's only been the second week into the term. Last weekend, I went to Manchester and it was awesome. It was wonderful to meet old friends again, especially one who I haven't seen for two and a half years, since I moved down to Hertfordshire. And I think, catching up with friends, seeing what they've been doing over the past year has been good. Sometimes, you just need those moments in life. 

I also bought lots (I say lots, but it wasn't that much, I wish I had bought more). I've actually eaten most of it already, and today's only Wednesday. I actually can't wait till my next trip till Manchester, I'm going to stock up like crazy. It's not that there isn't Pocky and stuff in Sheffield, but it's more expensive. If I was unaware, I would be willing to pay a ridiculous price for Pocky and all the other Japanese sweets, but you don't fool me when I know the prices >=[ There's this new Japanese store (which I mentioned in the previous post), and they were selling Pocky for £2.10 and Pretz for a similar price, the Chinese supermarket round here only sells it for 90p or £1.20 or something like that... but in Manchester I bought Pocky for 60p! So here's my mini rant on prices xD And just think about all the extra snacks I could buy from the money I save ^^ No one is going to separate me from my Pocky and cuttlefish (there's this snack which is called 'seasoned cuttlefish' according to the packet and it's damn amazing... It's not to everyone's taste but my life would be a sadder life without it ^^) 

I've decided that this post is going to be one of those where I talk a lot of myself. Interestingly, everyone seems to be blogging more about pictures and drawings and stuff. But in my old blog, my friends there and I used to just blog a whole page of writing... maybe blogger is just a lot less wordy? 

Today was my day off! YAY FOR WEDNESDAYS! I went bowling with some friends. First we went to Pizza Hut after I said I didn't like Nandos (we had a dilemma between Pizza Hut and Nandos). As usual, Pizza Hut had incredibly bad service. I wonder are they ever going to get it right? It's been so many years... surely some dude at the head office would have received enough and complaints and decide they must do something about it. There's really something wrong with the disciplines and management of that company. Today, I had to ask three times for a straw. The first time, the waitress said she'll get me one in a couple of minutes and walked off somewhere (she wasn't even going off to do something else that was urgent, in fact, she wasn't doing anything at all). Second time, I decided to try a different waitress, she also told me to wait a few minutes. Then finally, I asked the third waitress, and I finally got a straw. She also bought out a pasta dish my friend had ordered, then, just before he was about to eat it, he realised there was chicken in it. So they had to recook his dish, without the chicken. Another friend who ordered potato wedges for starters, then a small margarita pizza... but her pizza order was never placed. Sometimes I wonder will that place ever get things right? 

Then bowling was fun, after not bowling for so long... it felt a little weird but fun. I do regret not cutting my nails before hand though... because (maybe I'm bowling wrong) but I get this pain in my right thumb and after a few goes when the pain shows up... I'm worried about my nail breaking. It happened once and it was horrible. But nonetheless, I didn't come last. I only got one strike in two games, but it's a small achievement ^^ 

After bowling, I wanted to go shopping in town and make the most of my day ticket for the tram. But I had a stomach ache (I personally suspect the pizza because I hadn't eaten anything else that day besides my tea and biscuits which I have every day). Besides that, it was also because I was just super tired and needed to go home and rest. (Yes, I needed to rest, even though I did nothing but sleep till 10am and ate and went bowling... =.=") But the night before I was doing Purple Peace stuff till rather late; and boy, does making a website make your head hurt or make your head hurt? It makes your head hurt. Another thing I did on Saturday was discuss PP plans and this week I made a deadline for 21st February. That's the last day for the website to finish, and then we have to start promotions for our new website. But there's just so much to do on my super long to-do list. And the Purple Peace comic is driving me insane. But I know it'll all be worth it some day. PP is like my child (I know it sounds weird but just bare with it xP). 

Lastly, here's a little piano piece by koreanjeenyus. I can't even remember subscribing to him but I came across this video in my subscriptions and rather liked it =] 

The life of coursework: procrastination

Quick note before I click post: this is going to be a complaining post. Well, (1) I need to get the stress of coursework out of me, (2) this is part of my procrastination plan (writing this post has managed take about 10 minutes).

The title says it all. Basically, distraction is the key to procrastination. The general story is: I have a management essay due this Thursday and an economics assignment due next Tuesday. The management essay is about half done... I just have to waffle another 400 words about managers lying for the organisation... I have a general thought on it, but I just can't seem to express in it words... well, let's wait for the inspiration to come~~ (hopefully soon).

In the mean time, I've decided that I can't write about my economics assignment without reading the textbook and making notes first, but that numbs my brain after two and a half pages or so... so now I'm finding 'interest/productive' things to do rather than making notes. Mind, I have been working diligently for the past few hours making these notes.

At this point, you'll be thinking I did great, making notes for a few hours. What you don't know about is the five or six hours before I started making notes: I was watching Korean variety shows (again) whilst attempting the management essay and the econs assignment in turn every hour or so. In two days, I actually finished U-Kiss's variety show: Vampire. I've tried to watch this a few months ago but it wasn't that interesting... but then I desperately needed some distraction (omg, for a moment there, I had this word block and couldn't spell distraction... I was like: #des'? no, 'dis'?) <-- Excuse that moment of retardedness. Now I'm watching Chef's Kiss, another U-Kiss variety show... I was enjoying it until about episode 7, this was the point where I started to make notes and could no longer concentrate on reading the subs and keeping up... (I still carried on watching it though... I'm on episode 9 now T_T)

The life of coursework. Sigh. What can I say. I hate it. And it'd be much better if I was actually writing it right now rather than complaining on this blog...

I feel like eating sushi...

I've concluded that when I'm doing coursework: I eat a lot T_T

I bought some fizzy cola laces from Tesco's yesterday... I ate two packs yesterday and ate the other one today... it was three for £1. They didn't last very long and I was rather disappointed; not because they didn't last very long, but because they didn't taste that good (certain bites tasted really bitter =S) and eating them didn't make me feel any happier. I feel this is where the economics of happiness should come in... or maybe talk about marginal utility theory (some new micro stuff I learnt a few weeks ago) but I think I'll give it a pass and I'm sure not many people are interested to know.

If only writing the management essay is like blogging. I'm sure this post exceeds the extra 400 words I need to finish it.

Back to making notes... Annyeong~

First Few Days

The first few days hasn't been particularly interesting. Besides the fact I was rushing round to view accommodation. Well the good news is: I now have a nice place to stay. It's about a 5-10 minute walk to the management and economic sections. And even the other building my lectures are in is only about a 10 minute walk - LG: life's good.

I viewed two places on Monday... The first place was close (5 minute walk) but I didn't really like it. Something about it, we just didn't click. The second place was nicer... I liked it. But I had trouble finding the place. Trams here are weird. It's like a bus, you have to press the stop button - I have never come across a tram that does that. So I was on the tram, like an idiot, I expected it to stop at my stop. Well, it didn't. So I had to walk back a stop... and there were so many roads and roundabouts - my orientation skills had a limit to them. But in the end I found the place ^^ Before I left, I asked if there was a quicker direct back to the city centre... of course there was ^^ It was this giant hill.

This place is full of hills. Good in a way... more exercise ^^ But sometimes I'd be like "Yeah... down hill baby" then on the way back I'm like "What goes down must come back up". Hopefully the next time my family/friends see me I'll be a little bit fitter and thinner =P

Then on Tuesday I looked at one other place and it was it. It was cheaper (cheapest, in fact), close (5-10 minute walk) and I liked it =] So on Wednesday, my dad came and took me shopping. This is a very important process: make dad pay for all the expensive stuff - students are allowed to be poor. So I bought stuff like washing powder and fabric conditioner (expensive); extra toothpaste (also expensive... well affordable, but might as well); water (parents have cars ^^)... I bought so much, I can't even remember what I've bought. But hopefully some time in the next week I can go to Ikea and get the rest of the stuff.

I'll upload photos of my room once it's more tidy.

This is the bread I lived off on Thursday, it was so big, I couldn't finish it... I had to throw about half of it away =[