Advice 2 Love

It saddened me as I watched the late night news about our environment. As we advance in technology, our mother earth is dying. We kill her off with our factory pollution, our need for paper-goods, our disposal water-sewage and countless other things. As our world population continues to grow and our needs for certain things continue to expand, our earth can not sustain us. In fact, the roll is now reversed. We must do something to help her.

Recycle or re-using a product is the key to saving our environment for our future generations. Governments around the world are beginning to see the light. Closer to home our schools are encouraging environmentally-friendly ways of thinking. We even receive a reward for recycling these days. Isn’t that cool?

Are you doing your part to help the environment? Care to share?

Never in my widest dream did I ever think I would end up as a house-wife. I always envisioned myself as a career-woman climbing the corporate ladder, but as the US economy took a nose-dive so did my career. My days are now fill with doing house chores like washing the dishes, buying groceries, doing the laundry, and ironing clothes. However, what I dread the most is cooking. It is a challenge to think of new meals to cook everyday with my limited cooking ability. Instead of taking home economics and cooking classes while I was in high school, I took business law, computer, and languages classes. Boy am I screwed! 

It is difficult for me to follow complex receipts because it requires loads of ingredients which I probably will use once and the rest will go to waste. I just end up heating up frozen pizza or making things like spaghetti. Luckily, the other day, my husband spotted something on sale and wanted to try it out. We brought it and and since tonight, I needed to get a few things done, we tried it out. The receipt was simple and the meal turned out GREAT!!! The box included the necessary ingredients which was quite convenient. It was called “Hamburger Helper.” Yes! You did most of the work. Thank you, my little helper. You made this house-wife’s job a little less stressful.

In life, we are all faced with challenge whether they give us a sense of accomplishment or make our lives a bit more miserable. We chat with neighbors, lean on a family member for support or even cry on a friend’s shoulder, but it is during our most difficult times that an unselfish act could actually touch our heart and make it melt. 

After graduating from college, I was not ready to enter the corporate world so I decided to venture out to see the world. I ended up taking a job teaching English to kids in Japan. It was one of the best experiences I ever had. 

At the school I taught at, the classes were dividend into levels from 1 to 10. I was responsible for level 7, 8, and 9 due to my limit speaking ability of Japanese and most of the students in my class could converse in English pretty well. There was one student though who was an exception, he was a 7 year old kid named Jun. I called him Jun-chan. Both of his parents worked and his older sibling was in my advance class, therefore Jun-chan had to tag along. 

We spent most of the class time learning a letter from the alphabet or singing along to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or Itsy, Bitsy Spider. It was a fun class and time went by really fast. I remember one day, Jun-chan came running into my class during lunch. He fell and scraped his knee.  Naturally he was crying in pain. I sat him up on my lap and put a band-aid on his knee. I tried teaching him the word band-aid, not knowing if he understood it or not. 

As the school year was coming to an end, my heart ached as I was about to leave this town. In my classroom all alone, I secretly wept. I sat there wiping the tears away, not noticing that Jun-chan was standing there. I picked him up and put him on my lap. Out of the corner of my eye, he took something colorful out of his pocket, opened it up and placed it on the collar of my business suit. I sat there very confused. He told me, “Sensei, heart was in pain. With Hello Kitty, there is no pain.” 

Ah! He was trying to stop the pain in my heart with a band aid similar to how I once cleared up the blood on his knee. In his mind, “band aid” was the cure to all pain and not knowing the position of one’s heart, he placed it on my collar. I sat there half smiling as he patted my head and said, “Sensei, it be okay.” I taught the rest of my day and went out with my students for a farewell dinner proudly displaying one of the best presents I ever received — a Hello Kitty band aid.

Damn it! I waited over ½ an hour for my ice tea. What kind of customer service is this and should I tip or not?

In Asia countries like Japan or Hong Kong, we are not required to tip at all. It is part of their service or is already included inside the bill, but living in the United States, it is frowned upon if you do not tip. People have been so accustom to receiving tips that their service might not be up to par. You tip at the salon, hotel, restaurants, grocery store, and the list goes on. How much do you generally tip?

I’m sure everyone reading this blog has had their share of bad service. Did you end up tipping that person or what did you do? My youngest brother, once had a really bad experience at a restaurant and thought that they did not deserve a tip, but wanted to make a joke out of it so he ended up putting a penny in the tray. Yup! One shining Lincoln went in.

 I’ve mentioned this in my previous post that math is not my best subject. In fact, I still have a hard time adding/subtracting in my head so a good friend suggested that simplicity double the tax to get the tip amount.

Example —Spaghetti with Ice tea @ $15.99

                      Tax @ 5%                                 0.80

The tip would be $1.60. If they gave really good service, you can give them $2.00 or even 3. I have even seen people give more then the meal itself. It is strictly up to you.

As far as the bad service goes, I still tip, but maybe not that much. I’m too chicken to just leave a penny.

Your thoughts?

After a hard day’s work of hair pulling, frustration and added wrinkles, I retreat back to the comfort of my little condo that I shared with my husband. It is what I called my “Happy Place.” An area where I am allow to do all sort of things and simplicity be me. Without the responsibility of the world on my shoulder and the endless tasks of assignments, I can take off my mask of makeup and reveal the imperfection on my face. Life is not easy, but there are things that make it so worthwhile. Perhaps, some encouragements from a parent or a smile on a child’s face. These are the moments that we all cherish. I, for one, seeks comfort in food. It is not only easy to prepare, but also a good source of crab which is essential for someone’s with a active lifestyle.

I don’t know what it is with me and my love affairs with pasta. There are people that love ramen noodles, other adore chocolate while some can not do without seafood. It is the connection we have with the food that provide some sort of fulfillment that we seek. Perhaps, a childhood memory of the desire food or a happy moments with friends that we share those comfort food. It is a wonderful feeling of satification that it give me and yes, I would classified it as my comfort food.

 Time for dinner!

 What your comfort food?

My head screamed as I try to comprehend what was going on during those 5 hours. I sat there hopeless as I try to reach for answers to help myself and those around me. It reminded me back to the time I was in Japan when most people there did not speak any English. I could feel the pain of early immigrant struggle, but come-on we are in the 21^st century and this is America. English is define as the universal language yet, where ever I traveled in the United States, there always is a Chinatown of some sort. Is it handicapping us in a way that we do not branch out of our own comfort zone and seek new challenges? You will often hear Chinese spoken everywhere from restaurants to shops and even at the bank too. I personally know of a immigrant that move to New York and lived in Chinatown. Her whole time in the Big Apple, she never learned nor used any English at all. I wonder, why come to America when you could be happy living in China or any Chinese speaking countries. 

I am extremely proud to be a ABC (American born Chinese) and have tried to find a medium to understand both cultures by learning a few Chinese dialects and incorporating the American dream. Growing up, I used to watched Sesame Street and the Disney Channel, but would also accompany my parents on their annual trip to Asia. It was an opportunity for me to understand my roots, it’s people and the cultures. It was a difficult task as China is so vast and rich in cultures that it is hard to even gasp the whole understanding of all dialects. For example, a Cantonese from Hong Kong would have a hard time understanding a person from Beijing speaking Mandarin. The only form of communication for each of them to understand each other is the written form as it is the same everywhere Chinese is used. It frustrated me to not understanding what some of the signs meant, but I never kept trying. Perhaps it is me. What I don’t understand is why people don’t even try before they give up. I mean, there are thousands of support services and outreach programs throughout the US that one can always get help.  How is it a land of opportunity when you don’t take advantage of it?

Your thoughts? Comments?

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted to own a white BMW. Why this particular brand and not something like Lexus, Mercedes or even Porsche? Allow me to explain.

Growing up in the United States, I was highly influence by the works of Walt Disney. You have those stories of Cinderella, Snow Whites and Sleeping Beauty. Each stories had a happy ever after ending because their charming prince would come riding in a white horse to rescue them. I would even day-dream about this in math class (my worst subject) and wonder when my prince would arrive. As each year past and with the advancement of technology that white horse became a white BMW. We no longer talk about horse & carriage, but about horse power. The speed of one’s vehicles and the BMW became that vehicle for me. Not only was it the “dream machine” to drive, but the perfect tool to propose with. I picture my future husband driving along the highway to propose to me in the white BMW. And of course, BMW means Be My Wife. Isn’t life perfect?

By now, you’re probably wondering did my husband propose with a BMW? The answer is no. He does not own one nor at that times, drove a car that is white, but the proposal was something really special to the both of us. I wouldn’t even change a thing.

I still haven’t given up on the BMW dream yet. If there is a day that I have a million dollar laying in the bank, I would without a doubt purchase my own white BMW, but seeing that I have nothing close to those digits, I’ll purchase what I can afford. A BMW’s keychain.

Boss, I need a raise!!

It is interesting to know how our mind works. There are things that we can recall even in the most detail forms, but there are among other things that is completely lost in our database. One event that happen to me which I still remember is what my cross-country coach told me. Prior to that, I have never dream of being part of a team nor being able to run for 3-5 miles everyday after school.

“Who me?”

“Yeah, you!”

“Nah! I can’t do that.”

“Well, you never know unless you try.”

And with those words, I took on a new sport. I didn’t become the track star of my school nor did I win any medals, but I had fun doing it. And through my journey, where ever it took me, those words of inspiration lead me on to travel the world, taste exotic dishes, try new adventures, and give me a boost of confidence.

“You never know unless you try.” Yes! I agree.

What is the best advice ever told to you? Who was it from and how did it influence how you are today?

2010’s new year eve started off with a huge BANG as we lighted up the dark sky with rainbow of sparkling fireworks. The sound of laughter could be heard from miles away. I sat back, slipping my ice tea and reflecting on this past year. A lot has happens to me as I reach one of life’s most important milestone. Yes! I got married to the love of my life. It wasn’t at a 5 star hotel or even on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii, but it was at a magically place that both of our wallets was comfortable with. A wedding is not a cheap affair, but with the help and love of family/ friends, it definitely was something out of a Disney’s fairytale. On this journey into marriage hood, I am extremely fortunate to have a loving family, supportive in-laws, and wonderful friends. 

Friends who would do anything to see you smile, who would cry with you over a sad movie or would give you their honest feedback even if did not want to hear it. Lucky? Absolutely! And to the many friends near and far that touched my heart, my sincere thanks for friendship, love, laughter and good times. You fill my life with wonderful memories and never a dull moment. And as the year of the tiger approaches, I wish to cultivate more friendships through this blog and hope that it provide as much entertainment to you as it did for me. 

“I’m the QUEEN of the world!!!”