Farewell My Friend

Yesterday was the last day Luis staying in Ames. We have dinner together in Applebees right before they close. We then chat until we were the last group in the restaurant. It was fun and also, kinda sad. I know Luis for only, emm..around a month? Well, anyway, he is a nice guy to hang around with. He is an intern from Georgia Tech and he originally come from Puerto Rico. I know him through KS because he works in KS's lab. We went out a couple of time and he is fun to hang around with.
Luis, we are going to miss you, especially Mike. Farewell, my dear friend. Hope you can find a lady who could share the other half of your pendant soon. :-)

Homeless

Now, I am really homeless. I am currently staying in CL's house. Well, it was the best sleep I have so far because I was sleeping on sleeping bag before I moved into her apartment. Now, I am sleeping on KY's bed. Oh god! What a miserable time I have when sleeping on the sleeping bag. I woke up every middle of the night and staring at the ceiling. Well, the bed is too hard for me to sleep. I am not used to that and my back hurt really badly.
We have been cleaning the apartment every night these few days. We cleaned until 3am last night and vacuum it again today. Now, we are waiting for the management to check out our apartment.
The thing that pissed me off is the electricity. I called them and they couldn't stop my electricity by today. They said they do not work during weekend. Thus, I still have to pay for the electricity until August 2nd! But anyway, I am glad that this is over. Now I am trying to figure out how to get online in CL's house cause her computer is really slow and got virus. Hope I could hook up my computer with the internet in her house soon.
KY is coming back August 2nd. So, hopefully I can sleep on CL's bed this time. HAHAHA..
Well, I am now in Durham computer lab and I just saw that gayish guy from my ENGL 105 class walking in. I just met him today when we were eating in Thai Kitchen. Well, it is a small world afterall. I thought he is graduated. hmm...
Actually I have a lot to write these few days but without the computer and internet, guess, I can only think about it in my mind.

Salary Raised!

Well, just found out that they raised my salary by, emm, can't recall. But I know that after tax and everything, I have 23 bucks more to spend every month. Not very much, but yet, I am happy! Hahaha..

Moving..

Tonight, is time to move out from the apartment. We have the carpet cleaning scheduled tomorrow. So, we have to clear up the apartment by tonight. My homeless life will start tonight. From today onwards, I have to be nice to CL, so that she wouldn't kick me out from her apartment. Then, after August 16, hehehe... Hopefully she won't see this. ;p

Friendship forever..

Well, we went to Hickory Park today for Marco's birthday celebration. It is his first time having dinner over there. It is pretty nice. Catch up with some old friends, talking crap and laughing at each other. It has been quite a while never having dinner with them. Well, we have dinner once in a while but sometimes Mei doesn't make it. So, is basically only four of us. Miss the old time. Laughing and joking with each other. I know people move on. Sometimes, people grow apart. But I know that no matter how much we have changed, or how long we haven't been talking to each other, they are always there or I will always be here if they need me.

Happy Birthday..

Just realized that today is also Natalia's birthday. Sorry, I realized it too late and I can only go out for dinner with one of you guys. Happy Birthday to you, Natalia..All the best wishes in your future.. :)

I watched Jennifer Garner's movie today, "13 Going On 30" in a dollar movie theater. It was a nice movie. This movie actually makes me think what I really want in my life. In the movie, Jenna found out that she became someone else she doesn't even know when she turned 30, which is quite sad. Well, I guess, when money, success, social status had blinded your eyes and heart, your life must be really sucks! It is good if you realize it earlier, but if you realized it before you die....too bad..

Got part of the kitchen cleaned up. Still very lazy to work on these stuff. I was sleeping the whole day. The weather is really nice, not too cold nor hot. Iowa!

Tomorrow is Marco's birthday and also our lab semesterly lunch with my professor and lab mates. Well, after this semester, I guess I am the only graduate student left for Fall semester's lunch. Hope my professor will get a new graduate student soon. I don't like to be the only focus, I am not attention getter type of person in front of people I am not so close to. Indeed, it always make me feel uncomfortable when I am one. But, also hope that she wont get someone like the fat ass. This will shorten my life.

Looking forward to Fall semester, hopefully CL will get an assisstantship and stay in Ames, and also hopefully KS and Mei will get a job soon. We all need to start to save money for our future. Well, that's one thing you need to do when you are getting older and don't have a millionaire or billionaire parents. :) Should go and buy some powerball tomorrow. I might become a millionaire someday. :P Keep my finger cross.

Yesterday, I was supposed to clean up the apartment. Well, I woke up at 1.30pm and ended up hanging out with friends again. We had a steamboat last night. It was pretty fun. Steamboat is not that popular in American. We have to explain to one of the American and Puerto Rican friends what steamboat means. They also never have shrimp/prawn with shell before. They were learning how to peel the shell last night when we were having the steamboat. Sometimes, it is sad to know that American only eat shrimp in several ways and most of the time, the way they cook it causes the shrimp to lose its taste. What they can taste is only the butter or the salt that added into the shrimp. It is sad to know that (I am a shrimp lover).
We went to bowling last night. This is the first time I play bowling in US. I never played bowling here before. I also realized that the lightest bowling ball they have is 8lb., which is still too heavy for me. Those 8lbs. balls also specially made for kids with smaller finger holes to grip the ball, luckily I manage to fit my finger into one of the 8lbs. balls. Anyway, I manage to play the first game with that superheavy ball with no strikes and several 0 scores. After we got out from the bowling center, my hair stink with the cigar smell in the bowling center again.

Moving Moving Moving..Dancing Dancing Dancing..

Yesterday was a long day. We rented a small U-Haul or mid-size U-Haul, I am not sure about the size because I am not the one who rented it, and moved our stuff into the storage area. I just realized that I have a lot of stuff! KS and my stuff can hardly fit into the U-Haul. Bun's stuff are not as much as ours. Luckily we have some good friends helping us out. They helped us to move our stuff from the third floor into the U-Haul then into the storage area which is far away from where I am going to move. Well, most of the storage area in Ames are full. So, we have to move to some place farther. I know it sounds kind of stupid, but, what can I do about it? My new apartment's contract start in the mid of August and there are no place that could possibly fit all of our stuff.
Now, my room is empty except this computer and a luggage filled with my clothes. It is kind of nice though. Is clearer and looks more comfortable. Maybe I should just move into a empty house and dump away all my furniture. :)
After the moving, we bring our friends to Pizza Pit for dinner. Then we went to Coconut Joes in Des moines. It is nice over there but is too crowded. You could hardly dance or walk in the dance floor. Well, we have to go at Thursday night because one of our friend is underage. Coconut Joes have a special at Thursday night which 18 and above can go in to have party but they cannot buy drinks. There are a lot of hot chicks in there but they come in pack. Thus, I guess is hard for those guys to approach them. One of the rules of getting approach is that you cannot stay in the group. ;)
The club have a bikini contest last night. One of the contestant actually flash her breast by pulling off her top and of course, she was the winner last night. When you show your breast, I guess you will win. The winner of the week will get 250 bucks and the winner of the month will get a thousand bucks!
We reach home at around 2.30am last night. I was exhausted after the whole moving and dancing. It was fun though.
Thanks to Jeff, Mike, Luis, Bun and his gf for their help during the whole moving process. I guess, without them, it might take us 6 hours to move those stuff.
Thinking of moving again at August 16, I feel really depressed now. But, thinking of going to live in a one bedroom apartment by myself, I guess it is worth the whole moving process.

Listening to Jay Chow's <晴天> while packing my stuff. Still remember last summer when I went back home, my little brother was playing this song over and over again. He really loves Jay Chow.
Almost done with packing, now only need to take this table apart. I really hate moving especially when you know you will be homeless for 15 days and there is nothing you can do within this period of time. I guess, I will have a chance to learn how those homeless people feel..Insecure? Uncomfortable? We'll see..Well, I am not exactly homeless afterall, I am staying in my friend's house.
I am also somewhat overwhelmed with the idea that I am going to have a new apartment by myself! I have been dreaming about this for years. I enjoy living by myself but myself in one big apartment?! Hmm..just so you know, I am afraid of ghost and all those little insects. Still remember when I was living by myself when I was in Subang, I was terrified when I saw a cockroach in the bathroom. Lastly, I called my friend (another female friend who also somewhat afraid of cockroach) and that cockroach was cover up with a lot of insect spray.
Anyhow, Iowa is quite a nice place to live cause they don't have much cockroach, lizards or ants. Hopefully, I don't have to worry about that problem.

珍惜

這幾天都在為搬家而忙著收拾，也同時找到和發現佷多我從來都沒甚麼注意到的小玩意兒。其中一樣是我過世的弟弟在我生日時送給我的一枚戒指。

弟弟過世快三年了。猶記得在他未過世前，我很少撥電話回家和家人聊天。那時，我才到美國幾個星期吧！終是以為不牽掛家人是一種長大和瀟灑的行為。每次撥電話回家，即使是弟弟接電話，我也沒和他聊天。直到弟弟過世了，才開始後悔當時為何要佯裝瀟灑而忽略了自己對家人的牽掛和愛。

自弟弟上了中學以後，每一年我的生日，他都不會忘了買一份禮物給我。還記得在他中一那年，他爬上了椰樹，採了一粒小椰子，然後刻上了生日快樂和我的名字送給我當生日禮物。那時，我非常地感動。但，我家的清潔工人卻把它當垃圾丟掉了。之後他送我的禮物，我都沒好好地珍惜或保護它們。直到他過世了，我才在回家的那一年夏天把它們從我的儲物櫃里找了出來。當我把那些禮物擺在桌上之後，才發現其中一份禮物是需要關燈然後細心研究才能發現它的意義和特別之處。

有些時候，在還沒失去以前，我們永遠不會明白一件東西或一個人對我們的重要性，那是因為我們不懂得珍惜。在失去了以後才後悔，都已經太遲了。 我學會了這個道理，但，那代價。。

有些時候，很希望時光可以倒流，讓我重新再來一次，讓我告訴他我愛他，讓我好好地珍惜和他在一起的時刻。雖然，到了最後還是得失去，還是得重新嘗遍那種痛，但，至少我不會有遺憾。