If you prefer to work in Midwest or East coast and speak Japanese (business level), I can prolly hook you up with a nice job through an agency. They have one-year job offers as well for those who get OPT. Ask me for details.

Yesterday's poli sci film "Life and Debt" was boring. It was a documentary film about economic crisis of Jamaica. I heard someone snoring during the film.

My afternoon class was cancelled! Yeay! Thanks to the cancellation, I finished writing a relatively long plan for a final paper, which I have to present tomorrow.

I received a small package from my mother today. She cooked this fish food and she was impressed at her skill this time. The food is a mass of tiny fish of which I don't know its English name, flavored by a very delicate balance of soy sauce and sugar (and maybe a couple more ingredients). Anyway, "ikanago no kugini" is a specialty in Kobe area, and it's the peak season now to catch the fish "ikanago".
White rice and "ikanago no kugini." What a great combination. I love Japan.

I have been having this dilemma of what I have done and what I want to do.
My focus has been on psycholinguistics. Since I was totally fascinated by language and cognitive processes, I didn't build enough background in biology/physiology/neuroscience in college.
Although I learned some biology/physiology while taking psych classes, now I wish to have studied more biology after discovering that I actually like studying physiological stuff. Psycholinguistics is still really interesting to me, but I feel limitation of focusing on one thing. There are in fact many many areas to investigate in psycholing, but I want to increase my research areas.
I am so confused about what I should really pursue.

A mini fun project during the break:
The religions of Japan (321K)
It all started when Alpha Alpha ladies, plus Eric were eating at Chinese restaurant in Troy, IL on the way back home during a road trip to Southern Illinois winery trip on Monday. When Julie asked me about Shinto and Buddhism, I was confused and really unable to differentiate Japan's two dominant religious, namely, Shinto and Buddhism.
Then I decided to make up a presentation on the issue partly because of peer pressure.
This presentation does not comprehensively summarize the two religions, but nicely illustrates the core of both religions.

Harvard, Caltech or Berkeley?
If you know something about those schools, please give your opinion to me. Someone is still debating where to go.

Mammoth Cave trip with Julie, Anita, Fei and Yukiko (3/19-3/21)
The cave trip was really cool overall. We first picked up Yukiko in Bloomington, IN on the way, and headed off to Cave City, KY via I-65.
We got there late at night and I was so sick from driving under a constant sunshine. While the girls were out to enjoy a walk outside, I took a nap and recovered the next morning. I didn't wake up at all even when they were arranging beds and such.
On Saturday we went to two tours, namely, travertine tour and lost river cave tour. At the travertine tour, we walked inside the cave for about an hour and saw interesting cave formations. There was a really cool kid who asked bunch of sophisticated questions. Inside the cave, it is steadily 53-57 F except for the entrance zone. Pre-historic people went in to mine some minerals, but didn't live.

In the afternoon, we went to the Lost River Cave tour in Bowling Green, KY, which was approx. 30 mins away from Cave City.
Some 20 people got on this small boat and toured in part of the cave. In 40s(?) people had a night club there and enjoyed dancing and listening to jazz music. I thought that was bizzare. There was a really low ceiling, so people ducked their heads and even pushed the ceiling forward to help the boat get out of there. hehe. That was awesome.

On Sunday we hiked some trails. It was a sorta boring trail route, but I was very purified by the peaceful forest.
After 2-hr hiking, we drove back to Chambana via Bloomington, IN. :)

Yeay! I had my tax refund filed today!!! There are volunteers at the Urban League of Champaign County right at the corner of Neil and Springfield, and they kindly offer free tax filing. :) They have all the forms ready in computers and fill them out for you!

The best kind of tortilla chips is Tostitos' Hint of Lime chips! I love this chips.
It's salty enough and has a good flavor, so you don't even need to have salsa.
There is only one more day before Spring Break. I guess people are leaving from today.
Oops, I almost forgot that I have a Chinese quiz tomorrow. *sigh*
Xiao laoshi sounded like the quiz would be really difficult, but I guess I will do just fine.

I have a lot to do during the Break; need to catch up with poli sci readings (I'm about 2 readings behind), review materials for all classes, work on my project, read articles for a paper... Can't believe my friends will graduate and leave here in ~40 days.

As usual, I watched a movie for pol sci class. The movie was about a movement against Brazilian military funta in 1969. A group called MR-8 kidnapped the American Ambasaddor to get attention of its government and international community. It was intense, yet brave and calm kidnapping without involving any homicide. In the end, the government accepted MR-8's conditions, such as freedom of speech and release of political prisoners.
I enjoyed this movie as much as other previous ones.
For those who know my habit during movies, I never fall asleep during movies for this class!!! Just because I get tested on it every Wednesday.

I had so much fun at Drag Show! Yeay! The queens were the same as last year. They performed lip-synching and dance. I'm always impressed at their beautiful legs. One bad news; beautiful Lusty Monclair is going away from Chambana... so sad... I think she(?) is the hottest.

On Sunday Julie and I went to see a play "A Raisin in the Sun" at Krannert.
It was a commemoration of Brown vs. Jubilee thing. I still don't know what happened in the case. Anyway, the play was sooooooo long. The story was good, but it could've been a lot shorter than 3.5 hrs with the story line. It was basically about a black family that struggles with their non-wealthy financial situation in a small apartment in Chicago. I got tired to see the play by the 2nd intermission.

Can't wait for Spring Break!!! Where are you all going? We Alpha Alpha Ladies will head to the Cave immediately after I'm done with my Chinese quiz at 11 on Fri. :)

I would like this new Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Yeay~ Weekend~!
This weekend is eventful! Movie night, Drag show and a play at Krannert "A raisin in the Sun" I'm just so relieved to finish all the midterms. I took a good nap this afternoon.

I mistakenly bought real sticky rice yesterday instead of "regular" sticky rice. I mean the rice I bought is suited for rice cakes! I should try to make "sekihan" sometime soon.

Interesting news:

Let's not torture flight attendants.

Does anyone want to know how to lose money?

Yeay, I'm finally done with lots of midterm exams! I'm tired, but very happy. :)
Last night, I went to the Steven Pinker talk at Krannert. It was very very very interesting, and I was impressed again at Steven Pinker's insights.

Tonight I am going to see Meredith Monk at Krannert, thanks to Julie.
Meredith Monk performance: her vocalization was fascinating! Although her talent to make so many different sounds is worth seeing and acknowledging, it got a bit boring because her "songs" were consisted of only sounds without any words. She should add more words.

I'm almost burning out!
A really hard exam is coming up in 24 hrs. I've been studying for it so hard since last Friday, but knowledge still doesn't appear to be laid out in the brain. Will update this blog later.

I got up at 4:40am this morning to give a ride to Eric. I guess I will fall asleep in the afternoon...

Yep, I took a nap to compensate for the lack of sleep this morning. Eric sounds like having a good time at Caltech in Pasadena, CA.
I am off to study more and more!

My chinese class is switching to a new textbook from Monday. It's so insane that the new textbook lists more than 60 new words per lesson! It's craziness... For me, all the words and characters are familiar, so I guess I have an advantage than many of my classmates.

A couple of unpleasant news:

1) Do you want to pay for sending emails ? We are not as rich as you, Mr. Bill Gates! I will go in debt in one day if I have to pay for emailing my friends and professors!

2) This is just so yucky !

announcement: there is a small change in the address of this blog.

Yeayyyy!!! I'm finally done with all three midterms today! Yesterday's psych exam was a hard-core writing exam like poli sci, but today's Chinese was a piece of cake as usual. :)
I still have one more hard-core psych exam on Wed, for which I have not been able to study at all... *sigh*

St. Patrick's Day: This is an Irish holiday. Students typically wear green T-shirts and start going to bars and drinking at 9 AM here. Campus bars were packed as of 9:30AM! It's is always surprising. Me? I don't like drinking from the morning, but I might join the celebration at home at night.

It's a very nice day! Indeed the best possible weather for drinking beer outside. After one week of spring, summer has come. I still want it chilly, though.

Soojin, did you get my email to illinialumini account? I just said hi. Will email you to berkeley account next time!

One exam done... That was a lot of writing for full 50 mins from 9am. I finished writing essays and answering multiple choices just on time without any time for review. phew. I was glad that the essay question was one of the issues I studied well. :) I still have Psych and Chinese midterms.

Nice weather!

I don't want to buy Dasani any more.