[FP] Pieces

Since I was a child, my parents always taught me and my sister that we are a family, and we are suppose to love each other like we love ourselves. My father would always use him and his brothers and sister as an example, that even though they live thousands of kilometers apart, they still share a very strong bond. I had always believed that I was very lucky to a part of a family that are close to each other, and would help each other at any cost. However, in reality my family (I couldn’t say much about my father as I do not know all of the details) is a bunch of money-loving, selfish people.

I’d never even thought of my family that way before we all immigrated to America-I was too young and immature to notice. When we first came here we have no house to live in nor have a car to travel around or a job, and we to depend heavily on my uncle. His wife wasn’t too happy with this; she thought we’re taking advantage of them. She brainwashed my uncle day and night on this and finally my uncle in her. My father and uncle got in a huge fight, and we moved out shortly afterwards. This was only the beginning, not after long all of my uncles, aunts and my father turned against each other, each thinking that they have been taken advantage by the other.

Remembering that my father once boasted to us about his close bonds with his siblings, we all thought that they would soon make up and everything would be back to normal; however after one day my father came home looking angry and upset. Though we lived in separate cities I remembered that my family loved gathering with one another to celebrate various holidays: Christmases, New years, birthdays and even other random holidays-Buddha’s Birthday and others; now we live two blocks apart and barely even see each other. To make the situation worse, my other uncle had to come out at this moment and pointed his finger at my father saying that we always had him to pay the bills every time we went out for dinner. Apparently my uncle has forgotten how he rushed to pay the bills before my father but anyways, their strong relationship has crumbled down, yay.

Even though my family is now tearing apart, I still think that a huge chunk of my happiness came from them; there isn’t a single day I wouldn’t think about the moments we enjoyed and celebrated with one other. Knowing that we’ll be moving into the same house soon, I really look forward to making up with my family once again; even I know that would be impossible.

[RP] Piano teachers

Baha. Even though I have already done response posts on my friend Angela aka ero jiji's already, the topic of one of her posts still caught my attention.

This quote is taken from her post “Piano”:

When I saw those people who plays perfectly in the video, god knows how much I want a piano and how much I want to play that well…I used to lose my interest on piano because the day-after-day practices frustrated me.

I agreed with her so badly. Like Angela, I have been learning to play the piano since I was a kid. In Hong Kong, the city that I grew up in; piano has been one of the most learned instruments by most children in my generation. In order to be accepted by a good school, one must actively participate in multiple extra curricular activities and is able to play at least one instrument. When I first started learning the piano, I had the worst teacher ever. She hit my fingers with a pen (yes it hurt) and yelled at me whenever I played something wrong or couldn’t follow the beat. She was the reason why I started to hate this instrument that I once loved. I was stuck with this woman for six miserable years, and I only continued playing the piano just so I can have more to put on my resume for a good school. Even if I switched to another piano teacher, she gave up on me once she heard how terrible I played.

However, the situation changed when I was twelve, when my second piano teacher had a stroke and her daughter became my new piano teacher. Her daughter was different them my previous teachers, she was young and pretty and nice and patient, she is the big sister I’d longed for. She didn’t mind listening to my crappy piano playing, and encouraged me every time I got discouraged. I felt my passion for piano rose again, my playing improved, and piano practices felt less painful. Her care for me paid off, for my level six exam of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, I received my highest score ever, with a pass of distinction.

[BC] UC prompt #1/2 take two

When I was a child, I love reading joke books. There was one section in the books I found particularly interesting; it is how movies’ names are being translated. The names are being literally translated, and the original meaning of the movie is lost. I find it sad as most the hidden theme of the movie always lies within the movie title, the badly translated movie titles has lost the movie’s meaning.

I came from a traditional Chinese family where parents would hold high expectations and enforce strict family rules. When I was growing up in Hong Kong, my parents hardly ever let me out of the house unless I have to go to school or piano classes. Even if I have a chance to go over to my friends’ houses, it is for doing school-related projects only. I had no social life at all, and maintain a weak friendship with my peers. At that time my biggest entertainment is reading or watching Saturday cartoons on the English channels; almost all of my knowledge came from books and dramas.

My family moved to America when I was thirteen years old, by then my parents had finally decided that I am old enough to hang out with others. But after years of being isolated from people my age, I found it difficult to have a normal conversation with any new people I met in middle school. To make my situation worse, they speak another language than I do. Although my English was already fluent enough to be placed in a regular English class, I knew I can never express myself fully with another language. This made me depressed for a while as I had longed to make friends with my new classmates, but language barriers and cultural differences made it difficult to meet someone who is patient enough to listen to my broken English. When I enrolled into high school, the school counselor mistakenly assigned me into a French class when I signed up for Spanish one. I didn’t know that I could switch classes then, therefore I decided to stick with French and see how the class will be. I was curious; when I was studying in Hong Kong I had never learnt a completely new language. I have learned Mandarin, but the words I read are still the same as Cantonese, only the pronunciation of the words is different. Although some French vocabularies have similarities with English words, the grammar and sentence rules are completely different. The first day in class was challenging; we started by learning the French words for stationeries and classroom supplies. I was already lost and confused when the teacher, Mr. Meyers started introducing himself in French. Luckily he then repeated his introduction in English and told us his own rocky start when he first learns French. Turned out that Mr. Meyers has discovered his passion for French after he got into college; his French only got better and more fluent because of continued practices. As I spent more time and effort studying for that class, I found that I could understand basic short French conversations.

note to self: obviously this is still far too crappy, must answer prompt questions in a less bs-ing way

[FP] Friends

Yesterday before lunch when I was walking with my friend; we began to talk about the differences between ‘good friends’ and ‘important friends.’ According to him, good friends are friends that you have a couple of common interests, that you want to be nice to and they will have your back most of the time. Occasionally, we can even trade secrets and gossip about our other friends. As for important friends, there’s already a trust built between you and them. They’re someone that you can ‘give your back to’ because you know that they will never backstab you. You still share some interests, but you won’t have to talk all the time when they’re around-being with them is already enough. Without them life will be even more miserable than it already is. He told me that both types of friends are hard to distinguish and as we were about to go more in depth of this topic, we reached his house and the conversation was dropped.

But while I walked home that evening, with headphones on and hurrying home because it already passed my curfew, my mind started wandering as usual and the conversation we had this afternoon popped up. I began to think of the friends that I have right now, and how we normally treat each other. Although we exchange ideas and have a chance to promote mutual understanding with one another, will our friendship slowly fades away after we each go our separate ways when high school ends, that’s something I would never want to find out.

[CE]Texas Inmate Ate Last Meal Before Learning He Wouldn't Die

"Convicted murderer Duane Buck had already eaten a humongous-looking last meal before learning that he was temporarily spared a lethal injection. "

It was a pretty short article; about an inmate who found out that he was temporarily spared a lethal injection after he ate his last dinner. The Supreme Court halted the execution as the 1997 trial was found to be ‘unconstitutionally tainted by improper racial testimony.’ I found the article interesting, especially the inmate’s reaction after he found out that he wouldn’t die: he praised the Lord. He showed his gratitude even it was only a temporary reprieve.
I admired his attitude after he found out after he could live longer, even just for a short while. It is scary to know when you will die while you can do nothing to stop dying.  If I was the inmate, I would probably be relieved that I could live longer yet I would definitely cursed the judge for making me live in the same fear again for who knows how long.

http://news.yahoo.com/texas-inmate-ate-last-meal-learning-wouldnt-die-125535776.html

[FP] Crappy presents

I hate buying presents for people, mainly because I can never make up my mind on what to give them. When I was young, I read from picture books that almost every child buys their dad ties and make them a card for Fathers’ Day. However my dad never wears a suit unless he has to go to a wedding. I know my dad loves Gundam Seed models, but there are too many seasons of Gundam. Almost all the models look alike, I didn’t know which model my dad likes the most and can’t even tell them apart. At that time I didn’t know that I could research the information online. So I gave up on buying him a gift and decided to try and make him a card, I never realized how crappy my drawing actually is until I really start to draw. I know that it’s the thought that counts, but I want the card to be perfect when I give it to my dad. So I redrew and redrew the card and eventually Fathers’ Day has passed before I have lost my opportunity to show my appreciation towards my father. When it comes to buying presents for my friends, I completely screwed up too. I know what they like, but I never know where to buy them. Also I always felt that I still have plenty of time left to buy the present on eBay or online shops. Then when it’s about two days before their birthdays, I would realize that there is no way the present could be shipped here on time. Then I would have to hurry to the nearest shop and buy something random, or chip in with my other friends. I often feel bad when I gave them the present because I know that I could give them a nicer present that they would actually like instead of the crappy one they received, if I wasn’t so damn lazy then.

[RP] Difficult bonding

“I mean do you really like seeing your teacher every day? Or do you like seeing the same kids in your class every day.”

I saw this on Jazmin’s blog and decided to do a response blog on this. Like most students in Alameda High, I’m glad that block schedule finally starts; having to turn in assignments the very next day is a huge amount of work, even if I’m only taking five classes. And true, not every teacher you have are the nicest ones either, seeing them everyday definitely will be a pain in the ass. However I disagreed on the ‘not wanting to see the same kids’ part. I understand that seeing the same person every day can be boring, but it also gives a chance to actually bond with the other classmates, and not just friends.

Even though I have been studying in America for four years, I’m still not used to switching classrooms every period. Sure I get to see and know more people, but I missed the way my old school has been- same people and classrooms for all periods. Spending almost eight hours a day with the same people at the same place, it’s natural that everyone will start befriending with each other.  Here in Alameda High, I found that it is almost difficult to get to really know a person. People here grew up together and have already known each other for a long time. They already have their own group of friends they preferred to hang out with. Being an outsider who transferred to Alameda High in my sophomore year, whenever it comes to group projects, where it is obivous that I will be doing my work solo again, I would very much like to shoot myself.