Love at First Web Site
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Hello
At the moment I'm at Beijing train station. I went up to where the scalpers were at the beginning of the line and asked one guy about going to Harbin, and he was just like 'dou mei you le' so yeah not even the scalpers have any...? Then I tried to go to the online train ticket black market, xiaoshitou.com, and the page doesn't come up, I'm assuming coz it's overloaded... Anyway my Beijing friend is going to get tickets to go on the ninth, but I don't want to go with her anymore and just want to go now so I think I will try to fly, then eat 30c meals for the rest of my trip. Sounds good.
Anyway I will search my lonely planet for alternatives , maybe I will go spend a week on Taishan, becoming one with the Dao, etc.
Peace out!
Lizwa
PS You can post blogs but you can't read them... nice... someone behind me just shouted out "She has a BLOG!"... China... ¶ 13:22 0 Comments
At the moment I'm at Beijing train station. I went up to where the scalpers were at the beginning of the line and asked one guy about going to Harbin, and he was just like 'dou mei you le' so yeah not even the scalpers have any...? Then I tried to go to the online train ticket black market, xiaoshitou.com, and the page doesn't come up, I'm assuming coz it's overloaded... Anyway my Beijing friend is going to get tickets to go on the ninth, but I don't want to go with her anymore and just want to go now so I think I will try to fly, then eat 30c meals for the rest of my trip. Sounds good.
Anyway I will search my lonely planet for alternatives , maybe I will go spend a week on Taishan, becoming one with the Dao, etc.
Peace out!
Lizwa
PS You can post blogs but you can't read them... nice... someone behind me just shouted out "She has a BLOG!"... China... ¶ 13:22 0 Comments
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
All of the stuff in this article is soooo true! http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html
Take this for example:
Take this for example:
I remember when I had been studying Chinese very hard for about three years, I had an interesting experience. One day I happened to find a Spanish-language newspaper sitting on a seat next to me. I picked it up out of curiosity. "Hmm," I thought to myself. "I've never studied Spanish in my life. I wonder how much of this I can understand." At random I picked a short article about an airplane crash and started to read. I found I could basically glean, with some guesswork, most of the information from the article. The crash took place near Los Angeles. 186 people were killed. There were no survivors. The plane crashed just one minute after take-off. There was nothing on the flight recorder to indicate a critical situation, and the tower was unaware of any emergency. The plane had just been serviced three days before and no mechanical problems had been found. And so on. After finishing the article I had a sudden discouraging realization: Having never studied a day of Spanish, I could read a Spanish newspaper more easily than I could a Chinese newspaper after more than three years of studying Chinese.¶ 15:37 0 Comments
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Sound
The voices from a 10-year-old blockbuster on it's 7th repeat blaring from a commercial tv station. The shaw... shaw.... shaw... of cars rolling quickly along the main road at the end of the street. The click click of the mouse as Kuba reads the Polish online tabloids.
The Taste
Pizza-garlic soaked into my upper lip and the dirty after-taste of the world's favourite habit. A sip of beer has been unremarkable.
The View
Kuba's cheek alternated with his eyes, the ceiling, or Zorro through my knees as we lay together on the loungeroom floor.
The Touch
Kuba's shoulder in my left hand with my right arm awkwardly positioned under my body. His soft and Brut-ed cheeks. Softer than mine, which are dryer.
The Mood
On the balcony I sit alone while Kuba is inside. We're not talking, but we're in each other's company. I begin to realise what his leaving will mean. I had forgotten how anxious I used to feel when alone for more than an hour, and it has occurred to me that this may come back. I go back inside and press my lips against his cheek and tell him I'm sucking as much juice out of him as possible in preparation for his departure. ¶ 22:00 0 Comments
The voices from a 10-year-old blockbuster on it's 7th repeat blaring from a commercial tv station. The shaw... shaw.... shaw... of cars rolling quickly along the main road at the end of the street. The click click of the mouse as Kuba reads the Polish online tabloids.
The Taste
Pizza-garlic soaked into my upper lip and the dirty after-taste of the world's favourite habit. A sip of beer has been unremarkable.
The View
Kuba's cheek alternated with his eyes, the ceiling, or Zorro through my knees as we lay together on the loungeroom floor.
The Touch
Kuba's shoulder in my left hand with my right arm awkwardly positioned under my body. His soft and Brut-ed cheeks. Softer than mine, which are dryer.
The Mood
On the balcony I sit alone while Kuba is inside. We're not talking, but we're in each other's company. I begin to realise what his leaving will mean. I had forgotten how anxious I used to feel when alone for more than an hour, and it has occurred to me that this may come back. I go back inside and press my lips against his cheek and tell him I'm sucking as much juice out of him as possible in preparation for his departure. ¶ 22:00 0 Comments
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Hello! I've started packing up my room and sorting through my stuff and found a CD with 'the first photos I took on my digital camera!'. And here they are:
¶ 13:09 0 Comments
Monday, January 07, 2008
In other news!
The receptionist at TIC emailed me at my hotmail address today asking what to do with a package that I sent before christmas which has been returned. How cute. I should charge them consultation fees, by the minute.
In other news, I'm leaving the country temporarily in a couple of weeks, and the Kubster is leaving the country probably for a long time, possibly also in a couple of weeks. But he wants to come back and apply for PR later. You get 50 points when a family member is already a permanent resident. High five to Marcin!
In other news, I'm all ready for my big appointment with Centrelink tomorrow. Yay! Can't wait!
Also, being unemployed is like being a kid during the school holidays again. You kind of just find stuff to do like writing belatedly to penpals and doing things you never got around to doing like contacting people you haven't spoken to in a while. Wow. It's a great feeling. As for the budget, I ingeniously spent $2.10 on breakfast this morning which consisted of a V8 poppa and a bread roll from Franklins. Noice.
In other news, I'm moving out of Newtown just before I go to China. I'm reasearching ways to stay there longer but it's not looking good. And I really should keep going with this degree.
Speaking of which, I'm doing my next 6 subjects at Sydney Uni so I don't have to live in the eastern suburbs (BOOOORING) or travel back from there at night.
Rose-cin came back from Townsville yesterday and Vanja is back tomorrow. Yay!
Yesterday I saw The Darjeeling Ltd which I quite liked. It moved India up on my destination 'priority list' whatever that means. I'm a bit stressed out about cash for my trip but mainly because I don't want to end up calling my "Money doesn't grow on trees"-espousing parents while I'm there telling them I can't afford to get back to Shanghai or something. But should be good.
Liza ¶ 14:11 0 Comments
The receptionist at TIC emailed me at my hotmail address today asking what to do with a package that I sent before christmas which has been returned. How cute. I should charge them consultation fees, by the minute.
In other news, I'm leaving the country temporarily in a couple of weeks, and the Kubster is leaving the country probably for a long time, possibly also in a couple of weeks. But he wants to come back and apply for PR later. You get 50 points when a family member is already a permanent resident. High five to Marcin!
In other news, I'm all ready for my big appointment with Centrelink tomorrow. Yay! Can't wait!
Also, being unemployed is like being a kid during the school holidays again. You kind of just find stuff to do like writing belatedly to penpals and doing things you never got around to doing like contacting people you haven't spoken to in a while. Wow. It's a great feeling. As for the budget, I ingeniously spent $2.10 on breakfast this morning which consisted of a V8 poppa and a bread roll from Franklins. Noice.
In other news, I'm moving out of Newtown just before I go to China. I'm reasearching ways to stay there longer but it's not looking good. And I really should keep going with this degree.
Speaking of which, I'm doing my next 6 subjects at Sydney Uni so I don't have to live in the eastern suburbs (BOOOORING) or travel back from there at night.
Rose-cin came back from Townsville yesterday and Vanja is back tomorrow. Yay!
Yesterday I saw The Darjeeling Ltd which I quite liked. It moved India up on my destination 'priority list' whatever that means. I'm a bit stressed out about cash for my trip but mainly because I don't want to end up calling my "Money doesn't grow on trees"-espousing parents while I'm there telling them I can't afford to get back to Shanghai or something. But should be good.
Liza ¶ 14:11 0 Comments
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
My First Foray into the World of Sales and Marketing
It was last week at TIC and I was in a newsagency browsing the mags. I decided to find our plug in Vogue Living. It was in the Japan special double spread, and the single sentence was "TIC have a special tour to Japan which goes to these places etc etc... call this number etc", with a picture of Mt Fuji in the background. That was put in for free after one of the mag's journos was delighted with the Asian food hamper I sent her. So what I have learnt is that not everything is black and white in business. It's not about prices per word or prices per centimetre. It really is about relationships - who your friends are, or better, who your "friends" are. I was also chuffed to see real evidence of my hard work. This is what I wanted out of marketing, and I got a bit of it. I always wanted to be behind the scenes, and I finally got a taste of it.
On that note, I called a temping agency today, and said I was after short-term assignments, and that I had just been working in sales and marketing. The consultant, always on the lookout for new recruitees for permanent positions, told me there were some marketing roles going. I thought to myself 'as if it would be that easy' and quickly told her I only had 6 months experience. She finally put me through to the temping department. ¶ 13:18 0 Comments
It was last week at TIC and I was in a newsagency browsing the mags. I decided to find our plug in Vogue Living. It was in the Japan special double spread, and the single sentence was "TIC have a special tour to Japan which goes to these places etc etc... call this number etc", with a picture of Mt Fuji in the background. That was put in for free after one of the mag's journos was delighted with the Asian food hamper I sent her. So what I have learnt is that not everything is black and white in business. It's not about prices per word or prices per centimetre. It really is about relationships - who your friends are, or better, who your "friends" are. I was also chuffed to see real evidence of my hard work. This is what I wanted out of marketing, and I got a bit of it. I always wanted to be behind the scenes, and I finally got a taste of it.
On that note, I called a temping agency today, and said I was after short-term assignments, and that I had just been working in sales and marketing. The consultant, always on the lookout for new recruitees for permanent positions, told me there were some marketing roles going. I thought to myself 'as if it would be that easy' and quickly told her I only had 6 months experience. She finally put me through to the temping department. ¶ 13:18 0 Comments
