xiaowei's Blog

An album of Montreal, 3 years’ memory of the city.

Daily Thoughts, Photography, Travel

子曰：有朋自远方来，不亦乐乎?

Confucius says: To have friends from afar is happiness, is it not?

A friend came to Montreal for a visit, which not only brought me happiness, but also gave me a chance to record Montreal:

Last but not least, I have to borrow a picture to show Monteal’s downtown, otherwise I can’t show a complete Montreal, because it is a city with old and modern.

Photography, Travel

This year’s Thanksgiving falls on a Monday, so we have an extra long weekend. My friends and I went to Mont Tremblant, the tallest of the Laurentian range of mountains and a beautiful wilderness 2 hours away from Montreal, hoping to enjoy the gorgeous fall colors.

The weather was perfect for outdoor activities because it’s not too cold, but my desire to see the red maple leaves was not satisfied because of the nice warm weather. So, I realized that like all other beautiful things, real natural beauty is not that easy to capture either.

Photography, Travel

Wasn’t able to get online regularly while traveling; couldn’t even have access to my own blog while I was in China due to some Internet problems; had to find a new apartment after I got back to Montreal and moved.  So now finally get a chance to put all the thoughts together for all that happened in the past eight weeks:

Tokyo Airport – The best Airport for Layover
June 5, 2008 at 3:30 pm

12 hours later, I was at the —– Airport in Tokyo.  I was so happy to see the standard electricity outlets everywhere with which travelers plugged in their laptops enjoying the free Wi-Fi.  In addition, there’s a free Internet café, where besides computers, you can find very cute little green plants decorated between seats, which brighten the whole space as well as your traveling mood.

What’s more, all the shops with elaborately and beautifully packaged Japanese snacks and goods make you even wish your layover at the airport were longer.

I’ve been to the JFK airport in New York, Charles de Gaulle International airport in Paris, the international airport in London, and a lot of other airports in metropolitan cities all over the world.  I have to say, by far, the — airport in Tokyo is my favorite.  And, I think we Chinese should really learn from our neighbor, see how the Japanese learn from us and other people and make the best out of what they have learned.

Hong Kong Airport – Electricity in Men’s Room
June 5, 2008, at 3:30 am

My flight back to New York was at 10:25 in the morning.  It takes 3 hours to get to Hong Kong International airport from Guangzhou, and the earliest bus leaves at 6:50 a.m.  Apparently there’s not enough time for me to get to the airport in the morning, and I didn’t want to stay at a friend’s place because it’s not convenient to carry my big heavy suitcases around, and it still takes a while to get to the airport from downtown.  So I decided to take the last airport shuttle from Guangzhou a night before which would get me there at around midnight, and with the free Wi-Fi Internet provided by the airport, I thought it shouldn’t be hard to pass a night at all (I even had a movie list in mind).

When I arrived at the airport, I was quite surprised and glad to see that a lot of people actually had the same plan as mine, so I was not alone in this huge space at all.  I quickly found a table to sit down which was right next to an electricity outlet.  I set my luggage cart on one side and took out my laptop and adapter.  When I was about to plug the adapter into the outlet, I was dumbfounded.  I couldn’t believe that was the special outlet they used only in Hong Kong.  I quickly took a look at the outlets around, and they were all the same.  I had no choice but used my laptop battery, which last less than 2 hours even with energy saving mode on, and the power went out before I could shut the computer.

So I had to pack up my laptop, pushed the luggage cart and walk around the huge airport at 2 o’clock in the morning and see if I could find a standard international electricity outlet.  I was pushing my cart for almost half an hour, no luck.  A security guard walked by and I asked him where I could find a standard outlet at the airport.  He said: there wasn’t any except for the men’s room, where they put it for the guys to use their razors.

I questioned: am I at the metropolitan Hong Kong International airport or a little town local flying ground?

So the men’s room was my only option, and I had to recharge my laptop in order to shut it down for the flight.  So that was the second time I went to a men’s room.  And the first time?  I think it was in my kindergarten.

Marriage Age
May 30, 2008

Every time I called my parents or visit relatives in China, this is a “must talk” topic.  So, according to the social standard, a girl, if she is not married or at least in a stable relationship in her late 20s, she should be worried about herself and by her families.

But what are we, the girls who are not married and don’t’ even have boyfriends, supposed to do?  As far as I know and I actually have quite a number of female friends like that around me, they are very smart, every nice, good looking, and work very hard either on their master/doctor’s degrees or in their careers.  They rarely go to bars or clubs, even occasionally do, they will never pick up guys there.  They all seem have difficulties to meet good men.

My grandpa, as he talked to me in the “must talk” topic, told me that three girls who worked in his department, one was a mechanical engineer, one was a CPA, and one had a doctor’s degree in economics, all very nice, not bad looking, all reached the age of 30, but none had a boyfriend or was married.  My grandpa said that a lot of men were probably intimidated by smart and strong women, which was unfortunate but also a fact that women nowadays had to deal with.

So should we all give up our studies and career goals and be the submissive little birds relying on men?  Or should we all try online dating or seek help from the traditional matchmakers?

Sichuang Earthquake
May 29, 2008

I was in New York when I heard the news from a friend, two days before I left for China.  I quickly went on the Internet and found out that the catastrophe happened in Sichuan province and the first reported magnitude was 7.8.

I knew this was another huge disaster, just from the magnitude.  But the enormous sadness didn’t hit me until I arrived in China.

Seeing thousands of parents lose their children; seeing thousands of children become orphans; seeing hundreds of thousands of people become homeless and lose their entire possession; seeing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, fire fighters, medical workers, journalists, volunteers carrying tons of food, water, medicine and rescue tools on their own backs walking more than 90 kilometers on very dangerous, destroyed roads in the mountains in order to get into the quake areas to rescue people, and some of them didn’t get a chance to shower for 17 days; seeing everybody in the country, including some very low income people, donating money, food, medicine and blood, I feel gloomy, I feel moved, and I am angry.

Lots of the dead in this disaster were students from the poor areas.  When the quake happened, they were studying in their school buildings, which were lousily built without quality control.  Also, some earthquake scientist had forecast this disaster two years ago, but no officials in the national earthquake bureau paid any attention.  Moreover, the villagers had felt the upcoming quake by some natural signs.  For example, a few days before the quake, 100,000 toads walked across the road in the village.  But the officials said the earthquake was a rumor and prohibited people to talk about it.

I really don’t understand, why so many good people have to suffer and sacrifice for a few bad ones, and it always happens this way?

Guangzhou – Home
May 28, 2008

Not sure whether it’s the lack of friendship in a new city, the long depressing cold winter, getting older, or maybe all of the above, that makes me homesick more often.  And as the oil price keeps going up and the price of plane tickets follows suit, going home all the sudden becomes a luxury.

Luckily and surprisingly enough, I found a last minute discounted ticket from New York to China a week ago, which enabled me to enjoy such a luxury.

The city is still as crowded as usual, where you can get stuck in traffic jam after midnight and see people eating in restaurants at 2 o’clock in the morning.  The city is still as polluted as usual, where the sky is grey and you find your clean shoes with a layer of dirt after walking on the street for half an hour.  And the city is still as chaotic and ugly as usual, where beautiful historical houses being tore down and new condominiums without characteristics being built everywhere.

However, the moment I arrived in the city, I started to wish that time could slow down even just a little bit, and a song started to sing near my ears:

“Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.”

And I think, even though “somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true”, still,

There is no place like home!

New York, New York
May 12, 2008

My second time in New York didn’t change my impression and feelings about this city from the first time I was here 6 years ago staying for almost the whole summer.

It’s an exciting place, got lots of great things and people in the world, but for me, it’s still only a place for a visit.   Too crowded, to the point of a bit suffocated; too complicated, makes you lost from time to time; too fast, fast enough to create more distance among people.

One thing that I enjoy doing in this city is people watching or fashion watching.  The streets are like the runway.  Maybe it’s even better than the runway, with real ordinary people in a live city.

New York, The United States
May 6, 2008

It’s been six years after the first time I went to New York, in May, 2002. It’s been three years after I left the US. How time flies! But now I’m back, in May, 2008.

When the immigration officer put a big stamp on my passport, when I crossed the US-Canadian border, when my friend felt so surprised and happy when he saw the prices in the McDonald’s right next to the border, I realized how excited I was to be back to this land, after going through all those visa problems and making all those sacrifices, and how much I missed this country where I spent the first four years of my 20s and where the American dream was born. I said: “that’s what I’m talking about. Higher salaries, lower prices, more opportunities and more options.”
Here I am, back, to look for opportunities for my business, and continue my American dream.

Art & Fashion, Daily Thoughts, Photography, Travel guangzhou, home, Hong Kong airport, new york, Tokyo airport

Went to Toronto for 3 days during the Easter long weekend. It’s my first time there. Didn’t really see much of the city, because it was cold and everything was closed on good Friday and Sunday. So it’s hard to say whether I like the city or not, if you’re going to ask me. But I still have some feelings about the place. It really just feels like another big city, doesn’t have many characters, lots of tall buildings, commercial, residential, shopping malls with the same stores. However, compared to Montreal, Toronto’s atmosphere is a lot closer to the States, which actually makes me comfortable, maybe because of the familiarity.
I enjoyed my time in TO very much even without many activities. Hanging out with my good friend, eating authentic Chinese food, feels good!

Travel