Happy Thanksgiving!

When Li-Fu started his car in the morning, I saw there was a thin layer of ice on the windshield. We haven't had any snow yet and the weather this week so far has been very satisfactory. So I guess the ice comes from the frozen dew. I don't remember exactly when it started snow last year but it is never too late to have snow, especially here in Iowa. Everyday would be like what I read in Andersen's Little Match Girl when I was young.

I was born and grew up in a city where snow visits only once in ten years. So obviously snow is a precious thing to see and I had always dreamed about having a white christmas and that'd be so awesome. But when I experienced the winter in Iowa, I feel that too much snow may not be that awesome; Sometimes it could even be terrible. With tons of snow pouring from sky, walking/driving becomes a painful task. I'm so not good at balancing my body and my priority when walking in the snow is not to fall in public.

Another thing I found about snow is you gotta have your sunglass with you. Strong reflection from snow will cause serious damage to your eyes. So what I usually see in every snowy winter is extremely slippery/icy road with dirty mud/salt and girls with huge sunglasses that can almost cover half of their faces, which is not that close to the white winter that I had imagined. Winter here has stronger flavor compared to the mild one back home. Sometimes I think: isn't this just like the old saying "grass is always greener on the other side"? :D

Anyway, it's Thanksgiving - the time to give thanks!!

Okay, I'd like to thank for being able to see flying snowflakes decorating the beautiful winter season. If I never came here, I would miss so much and my world wouldn't be the same. Looking back to where I was years ago, I feel that I've been truly blessed to have all these precious experience in my life. It is really a childhood dream come true. And actually, it is much more than what I asked for: I not only get to see snow;I get to see a whole different world. And I'm really thankful for that. : )

(The picture was taken last year near my apartment.)

please please please

Stock market has been in bear for a while and deteriorating conditions especially in fixed income securities area have taken down lots of financial service companies. I guess nothing is 100% safe now and the notorious aftermath of sub-prime crisis are like a domino set. I really hope the economy can walk out of its mess at the end of this year and companies can have a more decent Q4 report.

Mom

No matter what I do or what others might see/judge/think of me, Mom always stands by me and supports me. In front of me it is my life, my future with countless question marks. Mom says that you never know where life will take you and you don't have to struggle. Do your work, try your best and that's enough. Relax and let life take you to different journeys.

Mom can say something like that because she cares about me, not only the present me, but the future me, the whole me. She wants to see me happy, healthy. She wants me to live a valuable life that I won't regret tomorrow. I guess she trusts me like no other and she loves me like no other. Even though she can't really tell if I'll be better tomorrow, if I'll achieve my goals, she believes intuitively that I'll have a good life and every day in my life is improving. I guess that must have something to do with one thing, love, the most precious thing in the world.

I love you too, Mom.

Unpredictable life

I had a bad headache yesterday before watching the animation movie "5 centimeters per second". I guess I was pretty busy last week squeezing time from school to prepare for job interviews. Just like what Ava and Heather said that job hunting is an extremely exhausting and frustrating process, especially in this not-so-good job market. It can be one of the valleys in your life. But I guess everybody's been through this and I can't just give up now. = =

Other than the frustrating part, my recent life is actually okay. Schoolwork has been pretty okay and I can't complain a thing. It's not that tiring as I thought and fortunately, I have great team members in different projects, considerate and supportive professors and a not that hectic schedule. I actually started my Hatha Yoga class last week and it's great. It teaches basic movements and some meditation skills to help relax and focus. Mom is glad that I'm taking this class since it gives me some relaxing and peaceful time not to think about other frustrating things. So far I like it and if I'm still into it later, I guess I can take some class outside school then.

There's a graduation countdown application on Facebook that Heather told me the other day. She said it's kind of scary to think about we're leaving school that soon. I couldn't agree more, so I decided not even look at that application just to keep me calm down. I'll probably panic if I get to see that countdown every day.

I heard a lot of after-college stories, from friends or from people that I don't really know well, and I feel that life sometimes can be truly unpredictable. You never know where it'll take you next year, or even next month. For me, I've no idea where I'll go after college at this moment. Well, no like "totally no idea". If I don't land a job, I'll probably go visit Ava in San Diego and then fly home. I think I'm able to guess the big picture of the puzzle, but just not able to know how each piece will be put together.

But I know one thing that no matter how things work out for me in the end, I need to make decisions and they won't be easy. Actually, no decision in our life has been easy to make, has it?