I hate this feeling

It seems like my life is going to be of an endless travel from places to places. I became part of good friends' lives for a short time, then moved to a new place. Even though when you returned to the old place for a visit, after so much time, old friends make new friends, have new lives that are no longer associated with me. The role I once played in friends' life gets replaced by other people because I can't be there. People change, I change, and the connection in between becomes loose. When you reunite, you would wonder if the other person has changed, wonder whether it is appropriate to joke like before, to be as free as before. Then, there's the distance.

Argh, I just wish to live with my friends in the same country, grow to know each other welll and grow to share experiences together.

Well, I guess I've become weird in my own way. I get jealous too easily and people hate that.

Karaoke experience

This happened a few weeks back, but I've been very lazy with updating the blog.

After much trouble, my friend and I finally went to the Karaoke bar. Of course, there are lots of Amei, including the ones I'm sure you can guess what they are from looking at the words from the monitor.
We sang in the private room for 3 hours and it cost us about $15 dollars each including a buffet lunch. Pretty good deal.

Being brutally punished

Being in a very strict Taiwanese family, this is what you get when you make a mistake...
Just kidding. It is what my back looks like right now though...

Well, I got a serious heatstroke yesterday at noon time. I stupidly chose the wrong time to arrive in Taichung by train. When I stepped out of the train station, I could immediately felt the 34C heat surrounding me. I just felt like being trapped by the invisible still heat wave. Even on the motor scooter, the breeze was superheated... The heatstroke later on turned into a fever, which stayed with me for the entire day yesterday. My head felt really heavy and for the first time in my whole stay in Taiwan, I actually didn't feel like eating anything! This is good, after a week filled with like 10 meal plans with various relatives and friends.

I was still feeling rather ill the next day, so my mum somehow tricked me into getting my neck and back scraped using a special marble knife like thing. It's a Chinese remedy for heatstroke. The heat trapped in the body supposedly gets 'scraped out'. It hurt like hell whilst being scraped, especially by the super strong lady who did it to me. It doesn't help being ticklish because when I complained that it tickled she said she would scrape harder so I wouldn't feel the tickle...

My head felt better afterwards, but I wonder if it was the neck and back feeling too painful that overwhelmed the ache in my head...

Please excuse my fatness...

Sky Ladder

Sky Ladder is a suspension bridge with ladders that hangs across a valley in the town where my grandma lives. Originally, we were trying to go to Sky Ladder from the other end that is easier to walk as my grandma was with us. After driving for almost one hour along the mountain road where there were two places with half the road chipped away and bits of rocks on the road that fell from above, we couldn’t go any further close to that end because the road has been sealed off. We went round to the other end, from which most people start their journey but it takes much longer than from where we originally planned to start. It took us about half an hour on the car to drive up to near the top of the mountain, but we spent 40 minutes walking down hill. It was the longest and most steep descent I’ve ever taken. I could feel my knees aching and my legs were wobbling towards the end of the descent. Before we reached Sky ladder, we had to climb down this vertical spiral staircase where people going up and down had to squeeze past each other in a space that’s meant for one.
It was all worth it when I saw Sky ladder and the surrounding valley. It was completed 2 years ago. Its design is different from other suspension bridge in that it suspends from the valleys themselves rather than being hung from ropes that are attached to tall “doors” at both ends of the bridge. It is 136 metres long and has 208 steps. We went further down to an old suspension bridge of the traditional design. The gorge it is above has fast running water that creates deep but quite narrow fissures across the stones. In a distance, there is a small waterfall, which we didn’t get to go down to because we didn’t think we could make it back considering how steep the incline was going to be when we went all the way to the top. Surprisingly, the ascending return trip was much faster (about 1 hour) and easier (compared to the descent) than I expected. My dad, however, was thoroughly exhausted, and had to took a ride on a four-wheel drive at the last stage of the ascent. Yes, there were people making business of offering people rides for the journey via a different route. For the stage closer to Sky Ladder, the vehicles used are mini open jeeps. Typical Taiwanese people making money out of all sorts of ways. Along the track that we took, there were people selling drinks and sometims snacks. They carried their stuff all the way into the track! Two photos of the mountain range in Taiwan and tea field when driving down the mountain.

Oh Happy Day~

At ~1 pm on the 11th of August 2006 in my friend's house using the internet, I was bored and randomly checked the TEC website assuming that there were no news yet about TAD. Then, boom, there was the update "11.08.06 Twenty-four scholars will be undertaking vital research…". My heart jolted and I immediately thought "well, I doubt that I'll be on the list…". Then when the pdf document opened up, I saw my name near the bottom of the list! Yooo hoooo! I am a Top Achiever Doctoral Scholar now! I can’t believe I won the scholarship! It honestly relieves all the stress that I've been having over the last 6 months worrying about using up so much of my parents' money for just a degree. It also took away the anger I had that morning from arguing with my friend. Haven't smiled so much in such a long time!

Despite all the excitement, it has changed my plans dramatically because it requires me to return to NZ for the same length of period as I take the scholarship. It means that my plan of doing post-doc in Europe or American after my PhD is going to be postponed for another 3~4 years. It will possibly make it more difficult for me to go to the job market there after returning to NZ and has all the consequent effect on my career. Also, it feels awkward going to a prestigious institute, then comes back to where I started again. Not snobbing that one is more superior than the other, but I do plan to go forward, just to any new places, rather than backward to the old place. And I want somewhere prestigious as where I do my Post-doc. Before I left NZ, I was thinking that I'd reject the scholarship even if I won it. But all these thoughts dissolved. After spending 2 months in Taiwan and being influenced by my good friend, I begin to regret not enjoying my life in NZ whilst back there. There are so many places I've never been to and so many things I don't know about NZ. And I'd like to go and do all these things! The 3-4 years return to NZ is just going to be perfect for living a different life in NZ from the one I once had. Also, it'll probably be a hardout 4-year degree at Oxford for me, so it would be a nice long break to relax (hopefully) in NZ before embarking on another journey at challenging places. God, this scholarship is making sense now and is absolutely perfect!

What the heck, the money decides everything! I highly doubt that I'll be able to make a saving of the amount of money they're offering me with a career of scientist.

And one thought that came into my mind. The scholarship only said that I need to return to NZ, it didn't specify that I need to work in the same field. Hehehe, I think I might just be a waiter for 4 years, or open up a pearl tea shop in Auckland. Anyone keen to join the business?