Busyyyy!

I've been too busy lately to update.

As you all know, and earthquake hit China a little more than a week ago. Ever since that day, my friends and I have been fundraising for the Earthquake Relief effort.

We have raised more than $10,000 from the Chinese students at my school, and have raised more than $100,000 from the Chinese parents at my school. All within one week.

To my surprise and disgust, NONE of the Caucasians at my school donated to this cause; one Caucasian person even said "You Chinese people are so fucking rich you can just sell one of your three Porsches and save the whole fucking earthquake area."

I was so freaking appalled. But we Chinese people do not swing that way, and indeed we do not slander people of other races. I wanted to curse that Caucasian guy out so badly, but contained it because I'm in Canada representing my home country and I will not let my childish jingoism damage our national reputation.

However, what I'm extremely proud of is how well the Chinese community in our school and in Vancouver bonded over the course of this disaster. All Chinese students in our school meshed our differences and made this Earthquake Relief project a collaborative effort. I'm so proud of everyone and myself for organizing four events in one week and delegating 50 people while coordinating with and being interviewed by local Chinese media.

We will be delivering the money to the Chinese Consulate General of Vancouver on this Friday. I've spoken with the Accounting department at the Consulate and they've agreed to put our money towards school reconstruction projects in the Sichuan Province, the epicenter of this earthquake.

I am extremely proud of myself, my fellow Chinese students, and my country for reacting so rapidly and enthusiastically to aid our country, our home. However, there is one person I am especially proud of and much of our fundraising efforts was inspired by this person -- my friend Dan.

On May 13th, the day after the earthquake happened, Dan jumped on a train to Chengdu, the nearest major city to the epicentre of the earthquake. Upon arrival in Chengdu, Dan joined several hundred independant volunteers and went to Wenchuan, the epicentre of the earthquake. He stayed there for a week, where he dug out corpses from the debris of fallen buildings and attended to injured refugees. He stayed till the Chinese army ordered all volunteers to evacuate because the water level was rising and another major aftershock was imminent.

I didn't hear the news until a week after Dan departed Beijing for Chengdu. I desperately called his cellphone. No answer. I stayed up the whole night contacting our mutal friends in Beijing. No one has heard from him.

I was truly worried. However, over the weekend, I got a message from Dan. He was safely in Beijing, but traumatized.

I had a brief chat with him last night. Indeed, he is now much more somber and serious for he has seen too many things beyond his years. His girlfriend was outrageously worried about him, and I could see why.

Dan graduated from one of the most pretigious highschools in Beijing before his sixteenth birthday. In the two years right up till now, he has been volunteering in some of the poorest villages in China, teaching little kids Math and Chinese. He applied to many pretigious universities both in China and abroad, getting into QingHua University in Beijing, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT. He's starting at Stanford in the fall.

I have one last chance to see him in Beijing before he goes off to university in San Francisco. He already made me promise to visit him this Christmas, since I'm going to visit UC Berkeley anyway.

All of this has been such an inspiration to me to work harder in life, accompolish more both for myself and my country.

I will never forget my words when I first started school in Canada: I will make China proud. I will make Beijing proud.

I'm Alive! (for now)

Thank you to Miss Couturable for urging me to comeback. I was losing my zeal to blog under that huge pile of SAT II World History notes and various clusters of homework.

Along with my zeal to blog, I'm losing my sanity, sleep, and mind as well. Bear with me as I ramble through what has happened in the past month.

1. I turned 17!!! Yes. I'm officially ONE-SEVEN! One more year till I'm legal! I'm actually not looking forward to it. I have my driving road test sometime between June 7th and June 29th. (In Vancouver you must wait one year after your written driving test before you could take the road test. I took my written test immediately after my birthday last year). After that, I'm a legal road-killer! (Not that any of you would want that, I'm sure). Anyhow, I've inquired about the driving laws in China, in hopes of me legally being able to drive in China this summer. I actually learnt to drive on the streets of Beijing, but I don't want to break that many laws in my beloved homecity. The legal driving age in China is actually 18, but if I get a Canadian liscence, I can trade for a temporary Beijing liscence as long as I exchange it back within 60 days. I don't think I'll be doing that though, simply because there will be a subway line opening near my apartment shortly (June 28th I think) which will enable me to get to every corner of Beijing at only 2RMB a trip (Beijing subway fare is a flat rate). No traffic on the subway, and of course, no parking woes. As much as I love Beijing, I must admit the parking there is horrible. Parking in downtown is as expensive as taking a taxi, so why bother?

2. I finally found a place in Beijing. Well, it's kind of a old-new place. I was hoping to get a permanent residence in Soho, but that didn't work out, since the real estate prices have gone crazy because of the Olympics. However, my dad has found me a place in the same residential area as where I stayed in the previous summers in Beijing. It's near downtown Beijing (only about a 15-20 minute subway ride away) and I'm quite familiar with the neighbourhood. The new subway line opening beside my place will enable me to get to all my relatives, the airport, downtown, and the train station with ease. This apartment was actually one of the apartments my dad purchased for his company about four years ago to house executives from other company branches who were on long-term business trips or transfers to the Beijing branch (since this residential area is only a ten-minute walk from my dad's office). It's on the 23rd floor (I think) and it's a three-bedroom apartment facing the China Mobile building and the Airport Expressway. Since the house has been empty for quite awhile, my dad decided to let me have it at least for the summer. After the summer, I could either let my dad sell it, or keep it if I think I'll want to live there should I go back to China for university.

3. This should be included in number 2 but number 2 was getting too long. I will be living alone in Beijing this summer! Apparently my dad is now involved in some investment project in the Yunnan Province of China, which is like... REALLY far from Beijing. So for the past few months and possibly for the next few months as well, he's dividing his time between Hong Kong and Yunnan. This is excellent, because a summer without parental supervision in Beijing is ALL a 17-year-old could ask for, right? My dad promised he'll fly back to Beijing to have dinner with me at least once a week, and I'm going to Hong Kong for two weeks at the end of July (that's when all the SALES are!) and my dad has promised to hang out with me in HK during those two weeks.

4. Xiu is going to be my roommate for the summer! The original plan was for both of us to stay at her mom's new place in this really pretentious residential area that houses many celebrities and other extremely rich people. But we both felt it was too pretentious for us, and not to mention it's like in the middle of nowhere (all elite residences in Beijing seem to be at the middle of nowhere) with no public transportation! What's worst? My ex lives in the same area! So yeah, Xiu decided to move in with in at my place, since her mom doesn't want her living alone. Xiu will be alone for a month before I go back since she goes to some weird international school in L.A. that breaks for summer in the beginning of June, whereas my last exam is on June 26th.

5. My dad said he'll get the apartment repainted and will ask Karen to order furniture for me. So far I've asked for white walls and Ikea furniture, because it's easy to transport and I like Ikea's simple yet highly useable style of furniture. My dad wanted to go classical European for classical Chinese, but I was like... WTF. Plus, my dad said I can have whatever is left of the furniture budget. Ikea, I love you and your affordable chic furniture!

6. I'm so excited! My dad will have internet connection activated next month, and my aunt will reactivate my Chinese cellphone account next month as well!

7. I'm so excited for my summer in China!

8. Okay, excitement aside, I have THREE major university entrance exams ahead of me and countless school exams... let's see:

- HSK Advanced Chinese Exam on May 18th (which I'm not quite ready for, since it's the equivalent of Gr. 11 Chinese in China.)

- SAT II World History Exam on June 7th (please see aforementioned statement about how I am buried under a plethora of notes)

- SAT II Literature Exam on June 7th (thank god I don't have to study for that!)

A lot of the guys are ditching two weeks of school for the AP Exams. I've ditched AP! It's not a requirement for university application, and I'll take them if I'm sure I'm staying for university in North America.

8. Results of the May 3rd SAT Reasoning will be out next Thursday. I'm nervous since it's my last chance to do well on my SATs. But since I'll be stuck with whatever I get, I might as well be happy that it's OVER!

I will be in Calgary attending my cousin's university graduation in the middle of the June since we have a week between the end of the school year and exam week. I'll be there for three or four days, shopping of course!!! Calgary has a way lower sales tax than Vancouver, so I can go crazy. Hahaha...

I think this post is long enough... I'll write about my birthday celebration(s) on the next post. It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had!

Fashion Crime

School and life have both been so hectic lately. I'm getting on average four to five hours of sleep per day. It can't be good for my skin nor my body, but there's so much to do and so very little time.

In the morning, I can't bring myself to wake up another hour earlier to coordinate my outfit and put on my make-up. I'm so exhausted I grab what's nearest to me and dash out the door without even mascara or lipgloss. I put on my lip balm in first period and doesn't even look in the mirror until after lunch.

These are all major fashion crimes.

Therefore, I promise I'll wake up early tomorrow, choose a nice outfit, and properly put on make-up. And the day after. And the day after that.

Let's see how long I can keep going for.

Bets, anyone?

The REAL Story

I was just surfing the blogsphere and I came across an article bashing nouveaux-riches Chinese Mainlander kids. The article made me laugh, although it was slightly biased and stereotypical.

I don't deny I live in a nouveaux-riches neighbourhood here in Vancouver where it's 80% Mainlander Chinese and I go school with these people. Although being "daddy's girl" and spending money like paper seems like the norm here, I adamantly refuse to be a part of those people. Sure, I enjoy the occasional splurge on designer duds or expensive beauty items; and I go back to Beijing every single summer. However, what I encountered earlier was the description of the epitome of nouveaux-riches Mainlanders and it does not do justice for the rest of us who are not like that.

I grew up in Beijing with my grandparents because my dad was working in Hong Kong and my mom was studying/living abroad in Los Angeles. I grew up with grandparents who taught me to be grateful and cultured. I lived comfortably yet modestly and although my parents never denied me materialistic proposals, I never asked for much. I always exercised good manners and had respect for my peers and elders alike.

When I moved to Canada in the summer between third and fourth grade, my mom taught me proper etiquette. I worked hard and strived to master the English language -- and I did so within a year. In sixth grade I was writing at a high school level and by ninth grade, I passed the LPI, a standarized Canadian English exam for university entrance, similar to the TOEFL test.

I started out helping my dad around the office in the summer of eighth grade, when I started going back to China alone during the summers and started working in Vancouver at a local publishing house in tenth grade. In the summer of tenth grade I got an intership at Asatsu Dai-ichi Kikaku, the top advertising firm in Japan. I translated product analysis and helped with campaign designs in their Beijing head office last summer. Currently I work for the Foreign Language Press of China as a freelance translator, translating the works of prolific Chinese authors. I am also within the top 5% of my graduating class in terms of academics and a co-editor for my school's internationally award-winning yearbook. I strive to achieve financial independence from my parents -- which by the way I'm more than halfway there (I stopped taking "allowance" from my parents years ago).

Just like Miss Couturable, I am tired of defending myself and my other peers who are Mainlanders who grew up in wealthy families but also pursue their dreams through their hard work and not their daddys' industrial strength bank account.

Most of my friends graduate within the top 10% of our reputable high school (ranked 2nd in the province) and go on to pretigious universities in the States, Canada, or even China. I have two friends who grew up in dead-wealthy Chinese nouveaux-riches families and they've never left China at all. They both had above 2300 on their SAT Reasoning and 800s on their SAT Subjects. One of them was accepted early into Columbia (being the Chinese National Go (Wei Qi) Youth Champion helped, I assume) and the other just got his acceptance letter from Princeton, Stanford, and Penn. They both grew up in extreme luxury inconceivable to most people, yet they've worked so hard for what they achieved and so have I. I also have friends who are nationally award-winning musicians and speakers of more than five languages, and that friend is also a talented dancer with a 118 (120 being perfect) on TOEFL and a GPA of 3.6 (4 being the highest in our school system). She too grew up in a wealthy family (her dad owns a bank in China).

Growing up in an elite environment and with money does not mean we're less hardworking than others. Having parents with marital problems does not signify that we are incomplete "fucked up" human beings. We have feelings too and we too get angered by "bashing" from people who are unfamiliar with our real lives. Not all of us kids are heartless money-spending machines. Although some (more like most) of the kids in my school are like that, I've always considered them a disgrace to Chinese people.

I'm proud of my accompolishments, and I''m proud of my friends. I'm proud of the fact that I'm from Beijing and am pure Chinese but by no means am I proud of the fact there are so many ill-informed nouveaux-riches people running about in the world flaunting their wealth and denting the Chinese moral values of modesty and integrity.

iPhone, Among Other Things...

A few days ago, Karen, my dad's assistant messaged me on MSN to ask me for some third-party software sites for the iPhone, since I've told her I have some friends who use the iPhone. I was totally inept in getting the sites though, because none of my iPhone user friends were online since it was middle of the nights. As the conversation went on and she told me more and more about iPhone cracks in China, I started wanting one. So naturally, just like when I wanted anything else in China from the past, I asked Karen to hunt one down for me before I go back to Beijing in June.

And it got me thinking... she is one of those people in life that I really take for granted because she's so far and I only get to see her in the summer. It's crazy how much I relied on her (and still do) when I go back to Beijing. She first became my dad's assistant when I was in grade eight. I've heard from my family that my dad hired a new assistant who's beautiful and smart, not to mention she graduated from one of the best universities in China after completing high school in one of China's few elite single sex high schools. After I heard about it, I was anxious and furious at the same time. I've heard too many stories about men fucking their assistants not to be worried. My mom was on the verge of tears every single day, although my parents were already separated at that time.

In the summer of grade eight, I finally met Karen. She came to the airport with my dad to pick me up, and my dad introduced her to me as "Aunt Karen" (Chinese people address their parents' peers as "Aunt" or "Uncle"). She looked uncomfortable when I politely greeted her as "Aunt Karen", blushing feverently, she said "I'm not much older than you." She was in a crisp green satin blouse and a grey pencil skirt, juggling her phone and laptop case around in her hands. She was timid, and talked very little. She was indeed not much older than I was but her piercing eyes and composed demeanor suggested that she was a lot mature than she was. She was in a pair of four-inch Christian Louboutin patent pumps, and she walked faster than me (and I walk really really fast).

Karen perplexed me at first; she grew in Shanghai, and graduated from a top-notch university. She could've had any job she wanted in Shanghai. I had no idea why she came to Beijing to intern for my dad, because my dad was well-known for his quick temper and grumpiness especially to employees. However, she did not seem like the typical gold-digger either.

Over dinner that night, my dad asked Karen to "take care" of me for a few days because he was going to be in Hong Kong for a board of directors meeting and it was my first time returning to Beijing alone. After dinner, my dad drove me to my (then) new apartment (the one I talked about being sold in my last post) while Karen went back to her place to get some of her things for an extended "sleepover". On the way home, I demanded to know what the fuck was going on between my dad and Karen. What my dad told me shocked me. A lot.

It turns out that Karen actually grew up in an extremely wealthy and influential family in Shanghai. After she graduated from university, she moved to Beijing against her parents' will and landed in a small company as an intern. Being the feisty, confident girl she was (and still is) she had a heated argument with her boss over a business decision and my dad happened to walk in on this little episode because my dad happens to be friends with her ex-boss. My dad was impressed with how she phrased her arguments and her business insight so he took her in as an intern. My dad's assistant back then was my lanky godbrother (not exactly "god" brother, but that's the closest term I can think of to describe our relationship. He's the son of one of my dad's bestest friends), who was smart yet rebellious. Eventually, Karen took on the role as being my dad's assistant and my dad mentored her.

After I got the whole story, I was shocked yet amazed at how much guts this girl has. I would NEVER evoke a heated argument with my boss EVER. Karen was only less than nine years older than I, yet she has done the impossible already -- running away from home. "But how does she support herself? Surely the salary you pay her is not even sufficient to buy the pair of shoes she was wearing today!" I asked my dad in awe. It turns out that Karen has a gold Visa card co-signed by her dad, something very rare for Chinese twenty-somethings to have. "I guess he just can't watch his daughter suffer. She grew up in such luxury." My dad answered as he tried unsucessfully to park his SUV in the tight parking space in the underground parking of my apartment building (my dad is the worst driver EVER).

During the week my dad was away, Karen and I got to know eachother. Years later, she told me she was anxious to get to know me because she was afraid that I thought she was a gold-digger. I laughed it off and told her my dad told me the story after dinner that day. That week was one of the best weeks I spent in Beijing in all the summers I've spent there. That night, Karen showed up in my apartment with a Longchamp suitcase filled with her work clothes and casual wear. She has such amazing taste but when I asked her where they sold Louboutins in China, I was in shock again.

She had no idea what I was talking about. I pointed to the shoe rack with her Louboutins and she said "Oh that... Lane Crawford. What did you say it was called again?" "Louboutins." I replied in my best French accent. I've never met ANYONE who bought Louboutins without even knowing what it is. Then, I helped her hang up all her clothes in the closet when I discovered her whole wardrobe consisted of Miu Miu, Chloe (and See by Chloe), Liu Jo (amazing avant-garde designer in China) and various pieces from all the famous designers. I did not see a trace of jeans and tees anywhere. Mind you, I was the homely eighth grader back then who gushed over clothes in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. I've never met anyone remotely my age who owned so many designer pieces. I mean, I've seen my share of my mom and her friends' wardrobes, but they all consisted of generic LV bags (Monogram Speedys ONLY), fugly Celine pantsuits (personally, I don't hate Celine, but it's more of a "mature" brand), and Burberry trenchcoats. Karen's wardrobe was fresh and just... beautiful. It's still quite inconceiveable to me how she managed to buy all those clothes without knowing how big their labels are.

"We had uniforms in high school, and we were so proud of our school that we wore uniforms when we went out on weekends as well. We had like 6 sets of different uniforms, and each of us had at least 3 skirts and more than 5 blouses. Our high school life was hell, we got at best 4 hours of sleep each night since the school was so academically demanding and I spent my summers abroad participating in school programs which required us to wear our uniforms anyway. I rarely went shopping with my friends, I barely had time to MAKE any friends. I didn't really start buying my own clothes till university. When I first started university, my mom took me shopping and showed me to a couple of stores. I thought the style was pretty good and it was close to my house so I did most of my shopping there."

"You know, some girls would KILL to have your wardrobe. They're all from first-class designers! How can you do this to the world?!?!?!?!" I demanded. Then, I ran down to the 7-11 not far from my apartment and grabbed two issues each of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and RayLi (a Chinese magazine similar to Vogue). I stayed up the whole night explaining designers and labels to Karen and the 4.0GPA engineering-major prodigy was amazed by me, an eighth grader struggling to maintain an A in math.

That summer, Karen slept over a lot and we went shopping when my dad went on business trips. She went with me to get my first D&G jacket and Vivienne Westwood skull necklace, which basically started my obsession with occasionally purchasing designer duds. We explored Beijing together and she lavished me with expensive dinners courtesy of her dad's gold Visa and when I left for Vancouver again in September, she gave me an Anna Sui pendant necklace as a leaving present.

The following summer, the summer of ninth grade, she became a semi-permanent fixture in my apartment when I wasn't visiting my relatives. We spent many nights sharing secrets and talking about boys and relationships, and many days shopping and sharing our haulage over yummy Korean BBQ in the Xidan shopping district of Beijing. We went through a traffic accident and police interrogation together when she accidently slammed my dad's SUV into a taxi while exiting out of the wrong end of a gas station. She was flooded with tears as the police interrogated her harshly after seeing her Shanghainese driver's licsence (due to the ongoing historical grudge between Beijingnese and Shanghainese people) and I had to pull out my best Beijingnese accent to answer the police officer's questions. As I churned out answers, Karen was smart enough to call the "housekeeper" of my dad's company, who took care of the company's cars and supplies and such and the problem was eventually solved without us getting arrested.

As I chatted on with Karen about the iPhone a few days ago and when she sent me lists of specs, price comparisons, and other information, I suddenly realized how unthoughtful I am. Every summer or Christmas break when I'm in Beijing, Karen always made sure the fridge in my apartment always had my favourite food and drinks, and I had all the issues of my favourite magazines that I missed while I was in Canada sitting neatly on my shelf. She made sure I could book flights for my domestic travelling in China and that I have enough money in my bank account. She always bought me birthday presents and threw me leaving parties. Although my dad gives her birthday presents in my name, I just wish I could be more thoughtful. After all, Karen is younger than most of my cousins, and I've really developed a "sisterly" bond with her through the summers we spent together. She's always the first person I text when I land in Beijing. Taking care of me wasn't part of her job, but she did it in addition to knowing the stats of the company's stocks every day and knowing where every single file folder is in my dad's three offices across China.

"I lose the urge to shop when you're not in Beijing. There's no one to shop with me!!!" She wailed to me in a conversation yesterday. Indeed, she has no friends in Beijing because she's in the office all the time, in a constant competition with my dad to see who's the more addicted work-holic. The girls in the office are reluctant to make friends with her, because she's the youngest yet one of the most accompolished girls in the office. Plus, there aren't many twenty-something girls in my dad's company anyway.

"So what do you do on the weekends if you're not shopping?!" I asked.

"I don't know. Sleep or fly home to Shanghai to see my boyfriend la."

"Seriously, when are you guys getting married?" I enquired about her boyfriend of almost five years.

"Soon, I guess. I don't know actually. I don't feel like quitting my job yet."

"Yeah right. Like you totally enjoy working for my dad, who's like the male counterpart of the devil who wears Prada."

"Haha. Nooooo. Your dad is like... the satan who wears Lagerfeld jeans with a Hawaii-esque shirt."

"Ewww. And you let him go out like that?" Me, appalled at my dad's wardrobe choice.

"Haha. But yeah, your dad's so funny sometimes. I'm learning a lot from him."

"I know. But it's not like you're really gonna work in this industry."

"True. I don't know what to do with my life. I don't wanna be a freaking housewife forever. I mean I'm going to amazing places right now and meeting interesting people. I enjoy working."

"........." I was utterly speechless at someone who actually enjoys working.

I absolutely cannot wait to go shopping with Karen when I get back to Beijing. She told me a new mall just opened in our favourite shopping district and it's huge not to mention it houses some really great stores. And this year, I'll bring her back goodies.

Lesson learnt: always appreciate everyone in your life. Especially people whom you've bonded with.

---

P.S. I spent the last night of my spring break writing this post and chatting with friends. Nothing constructive AT ALL. LOL

Ice Cream & Real Estate

I'm finally back with a proper post (I hope) about the happenings of my life lately.

So on Monday, Nicole came over with ingredients to make ice cream because I told her a few days ago that I was seriously craving ice cream. I felt really touched and elated because I didn't except such a warm gesture, especially from Nicole because she's always so busy with her art and music. She brought over matcha green tea powder, cream, and ice so we could make home made ice cream. Apparently they learnt the method in Chemistry class, where you put the cream mixture in a small ziplock bag and put it in a large ziplock bag filled with ice and just shake until the cream mixture solidifies. It was definitely a laborious task, but we had so much fun doing it it compensated for the sore muscles the next day. Of course, the green tea ice cream was soooo freaking delicious! After getting burnt out with ice cream, we baked a chocolate cake and frosted it with french vanilla icing. Nicole wrote "好吃" with nutella on the cake, which means "delicious" in Chinese. My mom laughed when she saw the cake decorated with icing and nutella and sprinkled with six kinds of sprinkles along with matcha and cocao powder.

It just happens that all of my best friends are artists aiming to get into art school, and that can be fun, yet TOO fun sometimes. They are so creative it drives me nuts! They try to make art out of everything, especially my uber artistic gf who grafitti-ed my vanity mirror. Now I can't see a freaking thing! I have to resort to doing my make up in the bathroom, because the mirror on my vanity now screams avant-garde art courtesy of my artistic gf.

Anyhow, I digressed... but that's about the only eventful thing that happened over the past few days except for the fact that I know have a floor plan for my future home! Hahahaha... my gf is currently enrolled in an architecture/design spring break program at the Art Institute of Vancouver and their assignment is to design a floor plan for a dream house. So I told her what I envision in a perfect home, and combined with her ideas she designed a floor plan for it.

What she doesn't know is my dad is currently apartment hunting for me in China because I'm potentially going back to China for university and I need a nice place to live. I was hoping I could live in the apartment where I grew up, but it's not big enough to house all my stuff and the design of the building won't allow me to customize anything so my dad decided to let me start over with a brand new place. Besides, he owes me one for selling my apartment in Beijing before Christmas, since real estate prices have gone up due to the nearing of the Beijing 08 Olympics. Ever since grade 8, I lived alone in Beijing during my summer vacation so I had my own place. My maternal relatives thought my dad was staying with me but in reality he wasn't. He was too busy with his business which required him to fly back and forth between Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Nanjing every week. I interned at his Beijing office during the day and all hell broke loose at night. But back in grade 8 I wasn't interested in clubbing or anything, so I spent most of my nights watching TV and having dinner with friends and family. Of course, no one else knew of this living arrangement until last summer, and since they saw that I coped well on my own, they let it go and permitted me to live alone.

Anyhow, I digressed again! Argh! The point is I found the perfect apartment to fit the floor plan my gf designed! And it's in Soho Beijing! One of my favourite residential areas in Beijing! My aunt's company had an office in Soho and they had a couple of extra apartment that were basically unfurnished because they bought it as investment and never had a good use for it. Now, they're moving their whole company's head office to a different part of the city (because they have their own building now) they want to put the extra apartments up for sale. The one I've got my eye on is a two-level loft kind of thing, and completely unfurnished so I can basically do whatever I want with it. My dad's cool with me decorating it, since my cousin was only 17 when she got her own place, and her place is still one of the best decorated apartments I've ever seen.

But my dad wants to wait until after the Olympic games in Beijing to make an offer, because prices will drop then and no one is stupid enough to buy a place right before the Olympic games. I'm in no hurry since I'm not returning to Beijing until the autumn of 2009. In the meantime, I can check out the place in the summer and check out a few other places since another Soho is being completed this year. FYI, there are three Sohos in Beijing: Soho Xian Dai Cheng (Soho Modern City) the oldest Soho, across the street from Shin Kong Mall in Beijing. The Soho I'm talking about right now is Jian Wai Soho (the one beside the International Trade Center) and the newest one is Chao Wai Soho (nearer to the downtown core).

This ends my rambling! I picked up my new airplane tickets today. I am now leaving Vancouver on June 29th and arriving in Beijing on June 30th. I will be leaving Beijing on September 1st. I will most likely be in Hong Kong in the second or third week of July, and will be staying in Beijing all through August to catch the Olympic games!

Since my dad sold my "summer apartment" that housed me for the last three summers, I will be staying in the apartment where I grew up (YAYYYYY) and also be spending some time in Xiu's new apartment, since we both don't want to live alone anymore, haha. But of course, I think I'll be out clubbing and singing K most of the nights, or spending time with friends.

Still Alive.

Don't worry, I'm still alive.

Just extremely busy trying to sort out my life and everything. Be back with a post in a few days (or sooner).

<3