"Vivere senza rimpianti"

Live life with no regret.

Those beautiful, meaningful words are tattooed on my best friend's chest. Yep, in Italian, and he doesn't speak the language. We both make sure there's no translation error though, the last thing you want is a Chinese character for "soup" tattooed on your body.

D lives in one of the most exciting capital city in South East Asia, and I'm ashamed that I still call him my best friend, because I haven't really talked to him for 2 years for no apparent reason. There's no falling out or anything like that, we just lost touch. D and I shared a bond. We knew each other since we were 10, but we've only been really spending time together when we were in the late 20s. I had a boyfriend then, he had a (or multiple) girlfriend. Next thing I knew, we made a pact that we would have the same tattoo and call each other best friend. We both moved away from home to different parts of the world, and I was still talking to him for the first 6 months or so. It's sad, but I think that's just how life is. You move away, find new friends, and while you still think about your other best friends living somewhere else, you move on. Which is why I'm happy, that I have those same beautiful words imprinted on my body as well. That way I know we'd always have something common and special that we share for the rest of our lives.

And then came the 2nd D in my life. D2 is a person who inspired me and taught me many things about life I never learned before I met him. He's someone I admired, looked up to, and loved with all my heart. I broke his heart, and now he despises me, and would never ever acknowledge my existence in his life. His words. However, that doesn't change the fact that he's someone who changed my life completely, from him I learned to always put my passion first above anything else. If you find that in life, everything else will fall together. Everyone comes into your life for a reason, whatever reason it may be, and I believe his reason to stumble upon mine for a short period of time was to teach me this life lesson, and I'll always be grateful. Those words imprinted on my body, was his parting gift for me, one I will treasure for the rest of my life.

There's a 3rd D, by the way. While I'm still trying to figure out the meaning of his existence in my life, I find him to be very similar to D2, in many many ways. Passion, inspiration, dream - these are the things that immediately pop up when I think of him. D3 comes with a heavy baggage of life, and that what makes him so intriguing. He's like a protagonist in a movie; the story of his life makes you root for him, and wish only the best things for him. You want him to have a happy ending, with or without you.

Welcome to Shanghai 上海

Finally settled in in Shanghai, so far everything is more pleasing than what I ever expected from a Chinese city. The 1st day we arrived here, our cab driver already left us a very good impression when he helped us with our luggages and made sure we found our way as he couldn't pass through the small street leading to our hostel. This is really something one can barely encounter in Xiamen, where the cab drivers are mostly impatient and somewhat rude.

Many local strangers we bumped into here are very helpful, sometimes when they see you foreigner can't understand something, they actually come over with their own initiative and try to help. Again, something I didn't experience back in Xiamen. First I thought maybe it's because more people in Shanghai speak English than in Xiamen, but one day I was on the bus and asked the driver how many stops to get to the metro station with a very low voice, the driver could even barely hear me. When it was time to get off, an old lady approached me and grabbed me saying this is where I get off to go to the metro, and even explained how to walk there. I was surprised and quite impressed as I didn't even think anyone else heard me, let alone an old lady who should already have hearing problem at her age. So it's not the English after all, people in this city might just be more helpful.

I moved into the beautiful apartment on the picture, in a not so busy area, chinese only community, I don't see any foreigners here except me and my roommate, both of us anyway also look very local.. It's a little bit dirty and less modern, this area, and our apartment building from the outside looks really really crappy, but the inside is one of the coziest apartment I've ever been into! The den by the window overlooking the Bund is just so awesome. Our landlord is also a super nice guy and very laid-back, while most foreigners need to pay deposit and 3 months rent in advance, we only have to pay rent monthly, plus he takes care of our bills and comes every month to settle it with us.

The university itself, Fudan University, although a little bit far, is a very professional place compared to Xiamen University, where the registration process was very smooth and they did not "forget" to tell us anything we need to know, they made it so much easier for us, not much queueing up like in Xiamen and going back and forth here and there to get some documents, all were done and given to us on the first day of registration, finished everything in about half an hour.

The classes so far are ok, I got into a quite advanced group, so I need to do extra work this semester. My classmates are mostly Japanese, because there aren't many non-asian people in advanced level, I even have a Malaysian and Singaporean in the class, both Chinese, and here we thought all chinese Sing and Malay speak enough Chinese to skip these language classes. But I really miss my friends and former classmates in Xiamen, I think I was really lucky to find so many good people in such a short period of time. I miss my better half there, Manolo, aka my neighbor in class through out the whole last semester, I think it's almost impossible to find his replacement ANYWHERE.

All in all, I like this city a lot, except for the super crappy weather so far: either freezing cold and super windy, or rain rain rain! I wish for spring to come soon...

1st wish list in year 2012

Did I ever mention that I love
multicolor stripes? This bag will match my metro card and iPhone casing!

Bye bye my beautiful umbrella

So it sounds I'm being a drama queen for making an entry about an umbrella, but I loved this thing very very very much. This is a not-so-cheap umbrella by the Finnish brand Marimekko, they are famous for the fabric and pattern design. On top of the nice cute flowers it's a very robust umbrella with automatic knob to open and close. Bought this on a stormy summer day in Helsinki. After 5-6 years of service it finally broke and I am indeed deeply saddened haha.. Oh well life goes on!

Little facts about the Mars Creatures.. (a.k.a Men)

Yesterday I learned a disturbing little fact about Guys. A friend said that he wouldn't ever talked for more than a couple sentences with an ugly girl. When I showed how disgusted I am, he said he confirmed it with at least 3 other male friends of his who have the same opinion, which is even worse. Exactly the perfect example of MALE CHAUVINISM?

I didn't start hating them or anything, I don't know if I can blame them, since he assured me that's just how men's brains are programmed (scan - ugly - run away). They won't even give her a chance, maybe she's the smartest wittiest funniest girl ever in the world, the nicest and the most adorable too! But anyway, none of those matters, because if she's ugly she's doomed.

And everyday a lot of people (a lot of MEN in this case) criticize girls who puts on a lot of make-up, or have a nose job, or eye lift, or even breast implants. But it is MEN who forces them to do that, because men don't give them chances. They have to be eye-catching first, then they're allowed to speak with them.

This is the difference I found in men and women, men look at women and only think of sex, they would never see a girl and think, hmm she's nice maybe I can be friends with her. Never. Girls do, and so when they start being friends with them, even the ugliest guy in the world could have the most charming character, and when a girl falls for a guy, she doesn't care anymore that he's not the most handsome guy in the whole universe.

A little chance is what every girl needs. And this is exactly why I fell for the art of make-up. Because a little bit of make-up here and there, could really transform a girl, and gives her much more self-confidence! So girls, don't think "au naturel" is better! NOT always!

LIFE

The good things in Xiamen

Joey and xiao didi at Taiwan street snack here in Xiamen! Shilin kind of thing :-D