Taste of Home

Note:
This post I actually wrote on the night before I departed for Hong Kong...but internet was TOOOOOOO slow for me to upload on the blog, so I saved til now. hong kong journal is coming up one day at a time, so come back every day for new updates and pictures!!! It was an amzing trip

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Tonight is the last night that I am staying in Guiyang. Everything is packed and I am flying out to Shenzhen (city next to Hong Kong) tomorrow morning. There is no direct fly from Guiyang to Hong Kong, but there is trans-border metro subway connecting the two cities.
I will be staying in Hong Kong for two weeks, and my shadowing program starts on Tuesday. I got 2 days prior to tour the city (and shopping)

GuiYang is considering my half home, where my mom’s from. I was actually born in this city and raised in Beijing. I spent every break since elementary school here at grandma’s house (or apartment, to be precise). So there are lots of local street foods filled up my childhood memory. Every time I return home, aunts and uncles always buys me loads of food or take me out for meals…needless to say, I gained a lots of weight just in the past few days…but it brought back childhood memory, and was some sweet memory.

Aunt's home-made sticky rice~


Tang Ma Yuan: fried sticky rice ball, cover with sesame seeds, taste sweet, my favorite street food!




Typical Dinner table (Grandma lives with aunt, uncle, their son and daughter-in-law, plus the year old nephew, and a housemaid)...minus the gold fish bowl :p


My 20 mon old nephew


YangMei (Waxberry??)


PiPa (Loquat??)


Chinese strawberry (smaller than the American ones, but has a WHOLE lot more starberry taste than the ones in America)


More pictures posted on my google album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/HanlinYSong/GuiYang#

Let me know if you can't access the album.

Safely arrived China

Howdy~~ it's 5am local time on Tuesday May 11, and I am jet legged....
But! None the less, I have safely arrived Guiyang, China (where my grandma lives) and worked out with the Chinese firewall, so I have secret access to blogspot :D
The trip was really uneventful, a bit long. It took me about 25 hours to flight + transfer from Houston to Beijing, and then another 3 hours to get to Guiyang (not including the 4 hr waiting time prior to borading). But I am so excited to be home that it makes it all worth while. and brought Eclipse (Twilight saga) to kill time while I am waiting...
interesting discovery about this pic..I was waiting in L.A. for boarding, and I am reading an English novel, listening to Chinese songs on my MP3 player, and the PA system is annoucing boarding in Korean (flying with Asiana). Ineresting combination...


Right before boarding at L.A. at midnight...



Speaking of Asiana, if you ever considering to fly to China, or Asia in general, I would recommend Asiana! I think they are fairly new and wants to get a piece of the market so their tickets are the cheapest right now and their service are two thumbs up (I mean after all they are Koreans, known for their hardworking mentality, alone with the Japanese guys). Food are MUCH more flavorful to any other flight I have been on, I wish I took pic but I chowed down before I could think...

Snapshot of Incheon Seoul International Airport at 5:30am local time...@.@

Oh, and btw, China has limited access to certain websites because the firewall security deal, blogspot.com, facebook, youtube, etc...but not to worry, when there's a question, there's a solution, there's blocking, and there is a sneaky way to go around it.

Have you heard about Dr. Willard?

a little bit background information. Dr. Willard is consider the "king of small animal internal medicine" and all of the vet students have the privilege to take his class in the 3rd year curriculum. He is no joker...so intense that every time you mention his name to a 3rd year, they feel stomach rumbling...he is so tough but yet SOOOOO knowledgeable and good, no, awesome at teaching, that you probably will learn THE MOST in your entire life while studying your butt off in his class. one of his many famous quotes from just the syllabus is "In such a case, you will never amount to much of a veterinarian and you will waste a lot of money and probably kill a bunch of patients"... brutal! but so true.

So...for all the students who experience this love-hate relationship with Dr. Willard, the 4th year came up with this video, and post it on youtube, hoping that we will be able to continue the tradition at the end of each year...I see that being so like a good idea, and I was laughing the whole time watching it.

They dressed up like Dr. Willard (blue clinic shirt) and his signature white mustache across the face. His is so famous to be known about his efficiency, so the race is a walking race but yet, carry a lots of patient info at the same time...you will have to know Dr. Willard to get a HUGE laugh out of these videos.

But none-the-less, it's a funny video and shows that vet students do have fun!

Prelim Run, the first two that started the run (team captains) are true clinicians, one of them I recognize is Dr. Cook whom is also a very very knowledgeable internalist with a charming british accent.



THE race between Dr. Willard and Dr. Cook :D

wrap up 2VM, China! Here I come~~~

So the week of celebration of knowledge (aka finals week) has finally came to an end...I am back at home in Houston and it is 11:50p on Friday night. For the past week, I have been on a 4 hr sleeping cycle and amazing enough, not that tired. I will have to give the credit to my dad's amazing chicken broth alone with Chinese herbs (that suppose to boost your brain stimulation and balance Ying and Yang inside your body which will keep you awake - in the lamest term). It really keeps me up going this whole week with unsanely 6 finals.

Overall, I passed. I am not an over achiever, and I am fairly satisfied with what I am getting as final grades. It could be worse, and I could really failed one of the classes (Toxicology...pure brain memorization power in English...not my game...at all). I lost my A in public health, if I stick with my first instinct I might be able to keep it...but I did't...oh sad day...but Dr. Budke is truly a super nice prof, kudos for her :D

Now, I am going to put my 50% concentration power on PACKING FOR CHINA!!!~~ I think I am too tired to get excited, it was actually a little sad on the way driving back from CS to Houston, a bit lonely. I blame on the 4 hrs sleep that I got today. Planning on watch Iron Man 2 before I flight out, but it looks like it's unpractical...Everyone go watch that movie so it can stay in theater until I get back from China :D

Fly out from Houston Bush intercontinental around 4p, then leave L.A. around midnight, arrive Seoul at 5am local time(!!!!), then land on Beijing around 10am on the 10th local time (9p on Sunday night american time)...Then I am fly straight back to GuiYang where my mom and my grandma are at right now~~~ hmmm hmmm~ food! :D I will have internet access at GuiYang for sure...so leave some comment so I know that someone out there is reading, and I am not talking to myself. Thanks!

Adios, 2VM~! Here I come, CHINA!!!

Happy Birthday to me :D

It's my birthday~ yep~ celebrate 25 years of my life. Celebrated by having 1 exam (mid-term final), 1 writing essay (that I totally did not answer in full sentences...)...and 4 hours of sleep.

However, we got some family friends visit from China this week, and they took me out to Taste of Texas (#1 steakhouse in TX!) and I got to celebrate a special day with mom and dad. House complimentary birthday dessert for myself~ I am not a chocolate person...but it's their signature dessert...and their staff even had a camera to take down the special moment. I did some post photo editing...friends had pointed out it was such a good capture of my mom's smile...it's the smile from the bottom of her heart. There's a saying in Chinese "your birthday it's your mom's most painful memory"...;p because your mom gave birth on that day. So it is really the celebration for mom.

Anyway, it was a quiet and sweet birthday. I truly enjoyed it. I am heading out to Corpus Christi to visit my corps buddies~ taking K-nut with me as well! It's gonna be a great spring break.


PS: hope my birthday wishes all come true this year!~~~~

you don't have to be able to read Chinese to understand this...

I was at library studying last night...of course goofing off on the computer...came across this advertisement on someone's blog. Because I don't have the ear phone, so I was just watching the ad silently...I am not kidding you, I broke out into tears at the end of the ad. You don't have to be able to read the words on the ad (but it basically said it's from a true story)...the story in the ads:
63 year old grandma is going to visit her daughter who just recently gave birth to her grandchild in Venezuela. But she doesn't speak any Spanish, nor English...She flew from Taiwan to United States, then to Venezuela. At her destination, the security searched her purse and found out a bag of Chinese herbs (which...funny enough, sounds like pod in English...I truly doubt that she is speaking English, and they might not intend to make it sound that way. Just a side note, lol). It turns out that the herb is what she brought for her daughter, but the homeland security guys was ruthless on questioning her, and threat to imprison her because the "illegal drugs"...She is just a mom! A mom who cares for her child, who flight 20,000 miles over a period of 3 days, over 3 countries...just so she can go see her own child. What really gets me is that she totally remind me of my own mother...but it will be a long story if I keep writing.

Don't blame me if I haven't warn you...this is going to make you cry...
I would recommend to silence the video first, you will be amazed on how powerful just the images, pictures speaks thousands words.

The narrator at the end asked how did she do it, and the phrase poped out "tenacious, courage, and love"...AWWWWWWW



At another date, I want to post the true story where the idea of this ad comes from...be on the look out for that soon...

I am going to CHINA~~~!!!

So finally I have heard the "yes" from the International Center for Veterinary Service in Beijing, China...From the time I turned in my resume (that was last November)...it took them almost 3 months to finish contacting all my references, and conduct two phone interviews with me personally...finding a common time with 14 hr. difference is a challenge, but what's more challenging is to catch a Chinese boss when they really don't understand your urgency of e-mailing...that i will explain later...

But now it's confirmed that I will go to China for the month of May-early July...I need to start making my shopping list ;p Need new contacts, new glasses, cooking books, and lots of (cute) writing utensils! hmmm...and if I have the money, I am thinking about getting a new cellphone (ie: LG BL40 that just came out Dec of last year...) The more I watch the trailer, the more excited and determined to get this phone. I need one that can check e-mail and compatible with Verizon because 4th year will need that ability to check for transfer e-mails early in the morning (imagine getting up at 4a to turn on your comp, wait for it to get started, and log on the internet...a true "nightmare").

While I am in China, there's also the possibility of me getting to volunteer in a Hong Kong clinic...but right now I haven't really looked into it yet because I have been waiting on ICVS's confirmation...starting next week, I am gonna start sending mass e-mail to clinics in HongKong (they tend to have more western vets, AND EQUINE vets). My roommate from the corps is getting married at the end of May IN THAILAND (SAMUI island)...I might go stop by to witness that....beach resort! WHOOP~

Anyway, this is an super exciting news, enjoy the youtube video of LG BL40 ^^