LII : Last Semester of Undergrad - Week 7

So much to catch-up on, I basically spent all week 7 trying to catch up on classes, but I couldn't make it. Other than trying to read chapters for physio, forgetting about a pchem quiz, and scheduling time to finish everything, I did some fun stuff.

For anime class, I worked with my group on Neon Genesis Evangelion (presented today), an old anime series that came out around 1996. I never thought it would be so thought-provoking. When I got into anime around the same time as getting cable in junior high, I knew about NGE, but I never started it. And I had to made time to finish 26 episodes in order to do my presentation. Two weeks, but really 4 days, to watch 26 episodes. It was worth it, in a way. Our presentation was mostly on Judeo-Christian symbolisms in the animes, but there were definitely some psychological issues that the series dealt with, one main one being the value of self. Anyway, I'll leave it at that. It was a good anime, but a quite unexpected ending that wasn't really an ending to the storyline. But in a way, it is. haha.


Oh yeah, at the beginning of the week, we found out our checks for the February rent got lost in the mail and never reached our landlord person, Betty. But Betty didn't e-mail us or let us know that she didn't receive it at the beginning of February (we're good at sending our checks in before the new month starts), so we didn't know she didn't get it. So she called my roomie, Ari, last week and said we didn't get our checks in and she's about to take it to the legal department (what the heck?!). So we had better get our checks in TODAY (which was Mondayish). This makes one more reason for me to feel good about leaving this apartment complex this year. Also makes me feel like telling others not to rent this place because the landlord person is mean. I feel like she puts blame on us if anything goes wrong and makes sure that we understand that we are in the wrong. Things happen and we're okay with dealing with solutions, but just blaming someone for something won't get things done. In fact, it could make things worse. She's just lucky that we don't have the time to fight her, as we found out with our fire incident. Whatever. We're all leaving this apartment after this semester. One further note that annoyed me was this: my roomie wrote a check for the whole rent because Betty had insisted she needed it that day, but Ari couldn't find our on-site landlord-ish person and the building manager wasn't in until late that day, so when Ari told Betty that she would get the check the next day, Betty said "oh, that's fine" in a nicer tone. WHAT THE HECK

And I'll just put in this week so far. The residents here all got an e-mail from Betty saying how she was shocked to see the gate propped open and front doors taped shut rather than locked. As a result, people will be punished if they did not properly close the gates and doors. But the thing is, the buildings are being cleaned and painted right now (which they didn't let us know until this week in an "as you can tell, we're doing renovations" e-mail), and yesterday, the workers propped the gates open with cones. It wasn't us.

I saw this over the weekend and went "????!!! who died?" And then saw workers around. As for doors being taped, I didn't see any in my building, but who knows. I really don't think threatening someone will give the kind of results one plans/wants to get.

and whatever. I had a great weekend last week~ Linty, Ari, and Joy finally had their performance with TCDance. I loved their choreography, and I think their first attempt at Mulan was a success. Instead of just having dance after dance after dance, half the show was specifically Mulan, in dance form. Awesome. Loved it. Enjoyed it. Made me wish I still danced, kinda. I do wish I were more flexible though. Hopes on yoga.

LI : In-class Pondering

Don't know what happened, but today during my pchem discussion, I suddenly just felt like I did way back in high school during my freshman to junior year days. Back then, I had a phase when I would compose poetry for fun and just wonder about what happens in the world by jotting down random verses that I thought connected together well. Anyway, I did listen to what was going on in discussion too! Here it goes...

Having said and done
is having done what is said,
which is to be good at.

Having not said and done
is having done what is not said,
which can be proud of or punished.

So, would you rather remain neutral and be unknown
or risk judgment and obtain recognition?

The more and more I get into the world, the more I ask myself, "am I able to deal with this on my own? Or should I ask someone more knowledgeable to tell me how it's done?" I feel like I'm incapable of dealing with something that pops up and I am unprepared for it. If I saw someone else deal with it, then I would be able to, too. But that's just like copying. It's not like I came up with it on my own. Just more practice? Is that enough to be able to think in new situations?

L : Last Semester of Undergrad - Week 6

YES! Interview is over and done with! I can't say I feel spectacular about it, but I don't think I bombed it. I really need more practice with interviews though. I want to know what interviewers think when I answer their questions. Anyway, apart from thinking about the interview these past two weeks, there were some nice bits of relaxation.

The French restaurant I went to last week for my friend's 21 was called Cafe Beaujolais. Small, delicious dishes that took probably 40 minutes to come and vanished within 10 minutes.
Appetizer:

My meal (some sort of salmon):


More food: I saw these at one of the university's cafes. Doesn't look as delicious is Sus' macaroons. tehehh


And the 3-day, 3-holiday weekend I went home, I tried my purple eyeliners. Love love. But I'm still experimenting with them. I went with the light colored one today for the interview. My mom said the dark colored one fits better for night events and the light one for the day. Purple is seriously one awesome color.


Also while at home, I ate at Mad Fish for the first time. Not bad. But really not that special. I really loved their rice though. So cute and well-displayed. Very Japanese-like. Food was assembled very nicely.


More about this week. Interview questions make me feel the need to plan out my future now and play it so it happens as planned. But I'll still leave everything open. Who knows, maybe I'll end up with my PharmD and work in entertainment!

Last night, when I came off from work, there was a woman sitting next to Tommy Trojan. She attracted me with her FREE "I love your SMILE" sticker. She told me how she was raising money for children who need education, food, or whatnot in the world, and she just started today. $3 for one child, $5 can pay for 2. Who knows if she was telling the truth, but I took her word for it. I wanted to donate $5, but I only had a $20. So she said she could give me change. I ended up donating $6. Not bad though. I truthfully told her "and I love your smile~" when I left and she had given me another sticker. I probably won't ever know if my $6 will really feed someone out there, but ever since going to Spain, I've had this desire to make enough money to be the one to act rather than the one who donates. Or maybe, my work can be to provide health services for those children/people. Who knows. That's an open option too. After I walked away from that lady, I thought, does it matter the people we choose to approach or the people we smile to and greet? Does it matter whether they sit on the side of the sidewalk or walk on the streets? There may be a possibility that the person is dangerous, but don't most people welcome the warmth of acknowledgement? On Tuesday, when walking to my Japanese Anime class, I passed by these two African American old daddy-like men sitting on the street. I've passed by one of them before. I saw no harm in saying Good morning to them. And they said that to me too. Cheery men, they were. Who knows if they were homeless. But they were cheery.

Does it matter that I don't mind extending out to those others may find suspicious or annoying? Or that I don't feel the iffyness some people get from others? I let however I feel when I am with them be what I feel. Is there a reason to analyze it any further? I've learned that there are overly simplistic people who don't want to think too much about others' actions (and can be difficult to handle), but over-complicating things can just be as difficult to handle. Maybe I'm complicating things in my own way.

I'll trust first and be patient. I think it's hard to get me to lose either/both with someone. But it's possible.