Heaven after Hell

Thursday, we finally finished all midterms in A term. Luckily, marketing group paper is not bad, and statistics seems ok too.
Strategy midterm is a little strange that two cohorts have tests in different time but the same questions or not.
Two weeks later, we will have three finals, one statistics group projects and one homework, and one marketing individual paper.

...
hard time.

統計期中考

2005/09/23 (Fri) 8:00-11:00 統計期中考
行事曆上這麼寫著...
一早抱著課本、計算機、筆記、和電腦...在7:45走進教室，
預期該是一片靜默吧...但，並不是!!!
在踏進教室的瞬間，赫見兩桶咖啡機和滿桌子的Muffin(馬芬蛋糕)
(像極了在台灣參加研討會的樣子...)
同學們穿梭其中，一手咖啡奶精，一手選著自己要的Muffin口味...
啊~是怎樣啊....

我們班的美國同學Lance曾經在課堂上對教授說:
"考試時間那麼長....又那麼早，應該要有些點心和咖啡比較好，
如果你帶咖啡，我就帶Muffin..."
結果...大家都實踐了諾言
教授Norm真的帶了幾大桶的咖啡來，
Lance也真的實踐諾言帶了快100個Muffin來，
只見每個同學考試的位置上，
左放課本筆記，中間是Notebook，右邊是咖啡和Muffin
真是奇怪的考試場景...哈!!!

以下就和統計期中考沒關係了...
只是我的廚房成果展...哈哈哈，
真的很怪，課業壓力越大，反而越喜歡待在廚房裡煮晚餐，
是因為這是唯一可以讓大腦脫離英文思考的時候吧!!!

絞肉烘蛋....(成功!!!)

笑話數則

學校把AB兩班有做某些程度的平衡分配
不論是年齡人數或是國籍等
可是很明顯的
A班的上課氣氛比較活潑
而B班就比較嚴肅與沉悶

有些有趣的事就從跟大陸學生的互動開始
彼此之間對於政治的事情都會有所避諱 當然有時候也會互相吃吃豆腐
有次有位大陸學姊說 怎麼台灣來的幾乎都說是從台北來
我說 台北是首都阿 其他地方說了也不見得知道
這時我們上海的Michael一個箭步過來搭住我的肩膀說了兩個字
省會!
喔!很計較耶!

「國內」是他們對大陸的稱呼 聽到他們說在國內怎樣怎樣 就是指在大陸怎樣怎樣

有位來自湖南的同學有濃重的湖南腔
每個外國學生幾乎都聽不懂他說的英文
而我們不論是台灣或大陸的同學也要很辛苦地才能了解他說的中文
有自大家閒扯聊到女生
他說湖南的女生很「破爛」!
所有的人一臉驚訝地轉頭看他 你怎麼能說女生很破爛?
原來他要說的是 潑辣!
全場的人才恍然大悟的哦

一位大陸的老大哥有天受不了他的英文說
你不要連講英文都捲舌好不好!!

果然腔調也是蠻嚴重的問題...
大陸學生之間感覺上彼此互動沒有想我們一樣密切
或許是年齡跟背景的差距

再者 不論腦袋裡有多少東西
妳說話的流利與順暢
主宰了別人對你的評價
這點對我們來說是比較吃虧的地方
儘管比下有餘
還是要日起有�
準備考試去了

Legends of Moon Festival

For whom might be interested in Chinese Moon Festival.

Regarding the origin of Moon Festival, there are at least three legends for that.
First
There were ten suns in the sky several thousand years ago, A hero shoot 9 of them and saved people from suffering of heat. He became a king, and married a beautiful wife. Several years later, one version said that the king wanted to be longlife forever, and other version said some bad guy threated his queen. Whatever, the queen, his wife, Chan-Er, took some kind of elixir then flied to the moon. The king missed his wife and found that the moon became clearer and brighter after her wife flied to the moon. Then he prepared items which his wife loved in the backyard to memorize her. You see, if King did that, everyone would follow, so every year people prepare thing to ask for peace for blessings from Chan-Er.

Besides, I am not sure if Chan-Er brought her pet, Jade rabbit, with her to the moon or that rabbit just lived on the moon for a long time.Its habbit is to pound medicines with a pestle.....

Second, origin of Moon cake
In late-Yuan dynasity, around 1365 AD. Han people (composed mostly Chinese race, and Yuan dynasity was ruled by minor race of Chinese) tried to overthrew Yuan dynasity. Rebelists input messages in moon cake to contact separate group under surveillance of Yuan soldiers. Rebelists successfully organized their force then got away Yuan people around mid September. Afterward, eating moon cake became one habit in this festival.

Third
A poor guy named Wu-Gun, keeps cutting a cinnamon tree on the moon. Why? because that tree revives the second day, he should cut down that tree then can go back to where he was.

Enjoy the childish stories.

Today's Special

Finally got some time to cook. We bought some frozen shrimp, because fresh one is too expensive and cannot find either. So here are my works today.


Shrimp dish, it's easy to describe it in Chinese.薑蔥蝦仁，網路上說要用沒去殼的蝦，手邊沒這材料，只好將就著用啦。


總匯玉米洋蔥胡蘿蔔火雞肉，湊和著吃啦。

一個學期分為A B兩個term,這星期是A term 期中考的開始，已經結束的考試有財務會計，接下來的有統計還有策略，行銷的期中報告已經在六個小時的討論中結束，儘管考試前我們有半天的溫書假，但是Career Center還舉辦了一連串的活動要我們去參加，有時候真的懷疑到底該如何做選擇? 該去埋首書本還是跟業界人士請益? 尤其語言上還有障礙，更壓縮了時間的彈性。

見招拆招了!

Moon Festival in MN

Chinese Holiday, Mid Autumn or Moon festival, is a time for family gathering. Even though I have already experienced this holiday outside Taiwan island before. First time in US and we join the party held by TSA.


The place is in North Star hall in St Paul student center, many new comers today. but some one said that there are not as many people as did last year.


Performance, topic is an old chinese legend.中文就是嫦娥奔月的故事，嗯，在台灣也很少看到這樣的表演。


Moon cake. I had red bean flavor.


All 2nd and 1st year MBA students from Taiwan.



Moon,總要應景一下照個月亮。

Preparation for Severe Winter

It is getting cooler recently, sometimes even less than 70°F (equal to 20°C) in the early morning. It's really hard to imagine how it could happen in summer, especially for us, who is used to the extremely hot summer in Taiwan.

最近天氣開始轉涼了，有時候早上出門大概只有攝氏20度左右，其實還真的有點不適應，不是才九月初嗎...現在的台灣應該還很熱吧!!!!

Considering the coming severe winter, we bought some winter clothes and snow shoes last weekend. Since it is a big clearance for last winter, how could us let such a great shopping chance go? Haha...

想想隨即而來的凜烈冬天，趁著週末到REI添購保暖衣物和鞋襪，適逢去年過季商品清倉，當然不能錯過大採購的好機會囉~(並不想等到11月底感恩節折扣才買冬衣，那樣因該會凍壞吧......p.s 據某位去年在此過冬的印度同學說，冬天的感覺，就是把你丟進冷凍冰櫃裡之後...再冷一點就是了)


My Northface Jacket: Original price $59.95, Sale for $44.93. What I am most proud of is...haha, this is Youth/Girl's size. Same style for Adult/Women's Size will cost $20 more.

我的Northface絨毛夾克: 原價$59.95, 折扣價$44.93。哈...這件其實是美國14,15歲青少年的尺寸，不過大小剛剛好，成人一樣款式的夾克就要貴$20，當然選便宜的囉~~


Kambric's Northface Jacket: Sale Price $69.93 (It's Adult/Men Size)

Kambric的Northface絨毛夾克: 折扣價$69.93



Timberland Women's Snow Shoes: Original $90 Sale for $14.91

我的Timberland雪鞋: 原價$90,折扣價$14.91


Montrail Women's Hiking Boots: Gore-Tex and Vibram, Original $119.9 Sale for $34.93

我的登山健行鞋:Gore-Tex加上黃金鞋底，原價$119.9，折扣價$34.93

After finishing our shopping trip, we invited two classmates to come our appartment for Chinese Dinner. Well, it is indeed our first time formally showing our cooking skill to other international students. Of course, the main purpose for the gathering is to discuss our Statistic Homework. We are hard-studying students!

結束大採購之旅後，當天晚上我們邀請了班上同學來聚餐--試試我們的中華口味料理，嗯...因為庫存食材有限，只能邀請兩位...當然，聚餐更重要的目的是，吃完飯後要一起討論統計作業...


The girl next to me is Varisa, who comes from Thailand; the other is Won from south Korea.

在我旁邊的是來自泰國的Varisa，另一位則是來自南韓的Won


Ha...that's it, our main dishes. We have: fried beef with chinese broccoli, grilled chincken, tea-leaf eggs, boiled lettuce with oyster sauce, and the last one, sour-spicy soup.

哈哈，這就是Kambric精心準備的晚餐真面目，嗯...有芥藍炒牛肉, 烤雞，蠔油西生菜，茶葉蛋，還有酸辣湯...嗯，食材有限，時間也有限，第一次展現廚藝的成績是很不錯的了，哈哈...至少同學是笑容滿面地吃完的~


P.S Considering more reader with different languages, I tried to finished it bilingually.

P.S 考量越來越多不同語言的讀者，我試著以雙語方式完成這篇紀錄.....不過打起來還真的很累....

Standard snacks overnight

Workload getting more and more heavy.
Coffee, baked Toritos with cheese, Salsa sauce and Harvard Business School cases become a daily ritual.
I might not be smarter, however, definitely fatter.

Labor Day Sales Shopping

Because there were nothing special happened and did not take photo, so recent blog productivity is low, and due to more and more non-Chinese readers look this blog, I will try my best to write in English.

Labor Day is the last vacation in Summer, after that, it will turn to Fall, and severe Winter almost there. Before the hardest challenge comes, we need to prepare some clothes. Thanks to Kelly senior sister and her husband, we go to REI to buy some ourdoor gears.


Take a guess how much these stuffs cost? What we paid for all these things can not buy a Gortex jacket in Traveler in Taipei.
The cost is around US$280, equal to NT$8600.

We spent a lot of money in Taiwan to climb Mt. Jade. I will buy all the gears I need in Minnesota before come back. It's very cheap and worthy...However, size may be a small problem for us, sometimes the sleeves just a little longer than needed. But consider the price, it doesn't matter.

Maybe Shiupy, TAS and Chao can consider the possibility to visit me. Ha Ha.