Gong Hei Fat Choy!

That is the greeting that is heard through out the Chinese New Year festivities.  This year the first day of the Year of the Tiger falls on February 14, 2010.  It will be a quiet one for us this year, compared to last year when we were back home for the holidays.

It had been years and years (10, I think) since the last time I had celebrated CNY back home.  For some reason, my trips back never coincided with the holiday, or was I fearing the relatives' inevitable and relentless questions about my single status...

Anyway, it was just as I remembered.  The festive gathering of relatives, new clothes, lots of eating, the many rounds of loh sang*, and the angpow red packets.  Us 'kids' also had to make sure we greeted each relative nice and loud with their correct title, like tai ku ma, sei ku jeong, sam suk, yi sum, sai yi or dad's oldest sister, husband of dad's fourth sister, dad's third younger brother, wife of dad's second younger brother, mom's youngest sister.  

And the best part, getting to spend time with family, many of whom you'd only get to see once a year.

Wishing you a healthy and prosperous Year of the Tiger!



* yee sang - It is a tradition in Singapore and Malaysia to loh sang during the Chinese New Year. It is supposed to kick start an auspicious new year by collectively mixing the raw fish salad ingredients with chopsticks while saying phrases like "prosperity in the new year" "good health" "to a healthy stock market" and all that. ;-)

One More Week

It's good and bad. One more week till I can see my love... one more week left to spend with my friends here in California. I will miss everyone! I'm also scrambling to organize and pack everything up in preparation. It's hard to sort out what goes and what doesn't. Alot of these 'material' things have memories attached to them so it's hard to let go. Not to mention the fact that there is alot of stuff. It just feels so overwhelming at times.

But the impending move has forced me to look up some friends that I have lost touch with over the years. Today on my day off, I had lunch with Dave. He was probably my first friend in the MBA program. We laughed and reminisced over that first economics class, and others that we had shared. It was really good to see him, and I remembered why I enjoyed talking with him so much during the countless times we walked back to our cars after classes. He has the best sense of humor, a sarcastic sort, which always cracked me up... like it did today.

Tonight I had a great Vietnamese dinner with close friends, thanks to Long. I regret not discovering this cuisine until recently. I really like the dishes that involve your own custom blending of various fresh herbs like mint, cilantro, dill leaves. The food has a clean, fresh taste and just feels healthy. Then we adjourned to Andy's to chat and fool around with the wii, until it got late and Andy walked around sleepy-faced hinting it was bedtime.

Make A Memory

I'm back to blogging... I think. I've been lazy for too long, and lots has happened since. The days seem to fly by, but at times the minutes are barely ticking along.

Listening to Bon Jovi's latest album, Lost Highway, and it brings back memories. I was 17, and so excited to attend my first concert ever. Bon Jovi was coming to town and playing at the Shah Alam stadium in Malaysia. I could remember it like it was yesterday.

Play Time

I can't resist going to the company's annual summer picnic. Even if it is in a less than attractive parking lot. I'm there to see my colleagues' other halves, their families... it's the other side that I don't get to see enough of at work. And there's nothing wrong with indulging in a little kiddie fun!

Catching Up

Wow, lots has happened since finals ended 2 weeks ago. It's like we've been let out of jail. Hehe!

First on the agenda, Chieu Yin and Kelly's graduation. The speeches were a tad too long, but it was great to be there to celebrate our dear friends' achievement. We capped it off with a big lunch at Zafran, an Indian/ Pakistani restaurant in Santa Clara. We could barely roll ourselves out of there, and had only a few hours to recuperate before the hot pot dinner that CY so graciously prepared for us at his house. It was delicious and a great way to introduce Fabio and our new friend Giorgio to hot pot. Thanks to CY for preparing the food!

The next day, another early wake up for our hiking trip at Pinnacles National Monument. It was a good workout for our first hike of the season. The best part was when we suddenly found ourselves in the pitch black darkness of the caves. It took us a while to even find the trail that was hidden behind some rocks. It was fun climbing around in the dark there. Most of us were pretty beat after the 8.5 miles, but some of us (2 guys and 1 girl) still had enough energy to do some serious shopping at the Gilroy factory outlets!

Fast forward to the next weekend. Saturday morning, we got together to hike up Mission Peak. It was a 5.6 mile hike, with 2200 feet in elevation gain. A real butt-kicker! We'll be ready for Half Dome for sure! And of course no hike can be complete without a big yummy lunch to erase the pain of the workout from our minds. ;-) Tacqueria Las Vegas.

On Sunday, a few brave souls went out to Point Reyes to check out the coastal views. It was incredibly cold and foggy when we arrived at the lighthouse. But by noon the fog had burned off, revealing another beautiful California summer day. We stopped at the Oyster Farm and thanks to Quddus we were soon enjoying a gourmet picnic lunch complete with fresh oysters! Then we hiked Pierce Point and got to see a few herds of elk peacefully grazing in the meadow. And if all that was not enough, we stopped at Marnee Thai as we passed through San Francisco on our way back. The food was excellent. I will definitely be back.

Yes, two busy weekends and more coming up. Summer has definitely arrived!

Personal Loans to Entrepreneurs in Need

We had an interesting visitor to our BUS202 class today. Matt Flannery, one of the founders of Kiva, an organization that lets you loan money to individual small entrepreneurs in African and other third world countries.

It's a great concept... with as little as $25, you can choose an entrepreneur that you want to help fund. These are people living in real proverty, who have to choose between medication for a sick child, or feeding their family for a week. Here, that $25 will go a long ways towards helping them improve their standard of living dramatically. Every penny of your money will go towards the loan and at the end of the loan period you will get your money back and you can then choose the next entrepreneur you want to back. In between, you'll get monthly email updates on the business' progress and results.

I think it's really cool being able to help a real person help himself.

Check out the website... www.kiva.org

Friday's Feast

One day late. Questions found here...

Appetizer
List 3 things you keep putting off.

Homework, cleaning the house, bedtime.

Soup
What do you feel is your greatest responsibility?

Work (need to pay the bills) and school (cannot flunk out!)

Salad
If you could have starred in any movie, which one would you have wanted to be in and why?

Not sure... any romantic comedy? Love happy endings and all things sweet. And I like to think it could actually happen in real life. ;-)

Main Course
What is an expectation you had as a child about being an adult and, now that you are grown up, you realize you were wrong?

That I'd have it all together and figured out by now. Career, family, life. In reality things don't always fall into place that easily and some tough decisions need to be made.

Dessert
When was the last time you had your car serviced?

Oil change, 6 weeks ago I think.

Together Apart??

Well, it's interesting to know it's more common than not these days, what with email and skype and cellphones and online dating. Just look within my group of friends, and there are at least 3 of us with long-distance significant others, and one long-distance marriage. But I never knew it was common enough to warrant this...

The Center of for the Study of Long Distance Relationships - Solutions for Separated Couples

They actually do real studies and research on this stuff!

According to Chris Bell who wrote "The Long-Distance Relationship Survival Guide", one of the pitfalls of long-distance relationships is the sometimes unrealistic romantic tone that it takes.

"Couples often plan exciting weekends with each other, creating a honeymoon-like fantasy atmosphere when they get together. Unlike in a relationship with someone living nearby, the mundane little things in life that are part of most romances are rarely factored in, potentially creating a relationship not as grounded in reality."

"A long-distance relationship can also mean more alone time than desired. If you decide you're going to pursue a monogamous, long-distance relationship, then that suddenly means your Saturday nights are really boring. And you can find yourself questioning whether you made the right decision..."

True that!!! I have worried that our short time periods together do take a less realistic dream-like tone. When you only have a few short days together, the last thing you want to do is pick a fight. And the lonely times do get pretty depressing some times, but one does get used to it...

But wait... there is hope...

Survival Tip #1

First and foremost, remember that despite anything people tell you to the contrary, studies have shown that LDRs have as much chance of making it as any other relationship.

Survival Tim #28

Research has shown that whenever we are separated from someone we care about, we experience a very normal range of emotions. Anger, guilt, depression, anxiety... Realize that sometimes these emotions may be caused simply by separation rather than something more complex.

And finally, some steps I found relevant for staying emotionally healthy in a LDR:

#2 Socialize. The answer to emotional and social loneliness is to get out and spend time with your friends.

#5 Take control. Recognize you have a choice in the decision to continue with the LDR rather than give up career goals, etc.

#7 View the separation as temporary.

Ok, that's enough heavy stuff for this morning!

Rain Rant

Woke up today to more rain. Will it ever stop? It's been 6 straight weeks of rain, and I know we Californian's are getting tired. We are paying premium housing and rent prices for sunshine dammit! My sister in Chicago is enjoying weather in the 80s!

Fortunately, the forecast for next week looks somewhat promising...