I Have Been To Hell And Back

Untitled (I Have Been To Hell And Back), by Louise Bourgeois

...

That sums up my Year of Snake. 

Whenever People Ask Me If I Got Homesick

I believe that a big part of our cultural identity comes from food. When you think about Sichuan, spicy hot pot would be one of the first things that come to your mind; it's like pasta and pizza for Italian, tacos for Mexicans, sushi and ramen for Japanese, cheese, wine and more cheese for French.

Dim sum for Cantonese is not only food, it is a life style. 

Eating a proper dim sum meal on a weekend morning means a great deal to Cantonese people. People finally have a chance to be as slow as they want to and to chat while having some nice tea and food. The art of eating dim sum is to share. They are designed for small portions, usually come in small bamboo steamers or plates; in this way, you can try various different food without being stuffed (although I'm usually stuffed). Dim sum is a social event, people talk while eating, from global affairs to their neighbour's love affairs. Sometimes, eating is not even that important for frequent dim-sum-goers (such as my parents), that's why they usually call it "飲茶 (drinking tea, in Cantonese: Yam Caa)". 

For me, however, since I moved away from home after 18, my spoiled stomach can hardly find good dim sum outside of Guangdong, so everytime when I have a chance, I get very serious. I dress up, I put on make up, I try to think what I want to order the night before, etc etc.

As a Southern China girl, it is not only convenient to order food in Cantonese, it is a privilege and almost a ritual for me to do so. How are you supposed to order 馬蹄糕 without actually saying "ma tai gou"? Water chestnut cake does not sound right to me. I feel extremely lucky and that good dim sum is not hard to find outside of China, and I am constantly awed by the preservation of traditional culture by oversea Chinese.

Northwest Tofu near Chinatown, Seattle

Rice noodle rolls with mushroom

I was never tempted to taste Chinese food in the UK (except for several restaurants in Chinatown London). British food is already...bleh, British Chinese food seems even more so. There is a much bigger Asian community in Seattle. My favourite place for Chinese breakfast in the town so far is Northwest Tofu (西北小食). This place, according to a Chinese friend, is running by a family from Taishan, Guangdong. The restaurant is linked with a wee tofu factory and you can buy some fresh soy milk or tofu directly from their deli. I especially like their 腸粉 (chang fen, rice noodle rolls), 奶黃包 (nai huang bao, cream custard buns) and 粥 (zhou, congee). I'd say apart from the American portion, the food at Northwest Tofu is very authentic. The old-fashioned decoration and those kind of crappy tables and chairs seem so nostalgic to me.

Whenever people ask me if I got homesick, I answer: "I miss the food the most." For the tastes always remind me that I am Cantonese wherever I go.

 

The Last Day of Summer

Ne partez pas. J'ai peur.

Summer in Sea

After a nice 35-minute ferry ride, Abby and I escaped from Seattle’s busy Friday afternoon to this beautiful island by Puget Sound. I think I've found my favourite place in the Northwest of America.

Bainbridge is a perfect mini community - one main street with arts & crafts, cafes, bookstores, antique shops...I have no idea why there are so many shops selling delicate crafts on a small town of a small island. Apparently, tranquility and good coffee are the best friends of arts. I envy Seattleites.

We had a great time there touching all the colourful fluffs in the Churchmouse Yarns shop. Although displayed a large number of finished knitting products, Churchmouse only sold the yarns, in order to inspire, but not to spoil, its customers. The shop also had teas and ceramics - what else could be more relaxing than knitting and drinking tea? Oh yes, a cat and some jazz, please. 

A perfect day for sightseeing, photo taking and window shopping.

Francophiles everywhere!

Lovely hillside houses by the water.

Seattle looks like a mini Hong Kong from my ferryride.

 

 

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

It's another good day today. Seattle has warmly welcome me with her longest summer. I am entirely spellbound everytime I see the view from Capitol Hill. In front of the deep green mountains and the glistening lakes, standing on the efforts of millions of years of terraforming, and here we are - the Space Needle and grunge.

Things are happening, within these three weeks in Seattle. Writing reviews, finding students, getting volunteer opportunities - I am completing my list, probably faster than I realise! I still have a live review on Wild Nothing and DIIV waiting to be finished; needless to say there are a great deal of museums and galleries awaiting my visit. Besides, I'm happy that before I get really busy, I've finished two books and learned how to make sushi. 

Feeling nervous yet very excited, all I need to do now is to take a deep breath and embrace my life in the Northwest while singing "Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes". And since we need not to worry about our reputation in a new place, this is EXACTLY what we are going to do: http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/

I feel like I can go out now and spend hours on an arcade dancing machine!

Mind Trick

I guess my life in the Northwest can be described as a "self searching" journey. I don't attempt to play "Eat Pray Love", Seattle would be ideal for the eating though. I am afraid it has involved too much of the eating already, which worries me a lot, especially I am in America. Initially, one of the most important missions in Seattle would be to figure out what I really want to do. However, it might take longer than I expected.
 
I am not one of those people who are extremely good at one thing. Arguably, the very thing that I can proudly put on my CV might be the fact that I am fluent in three languages, and I have teaching, writing and translation experiences with all these languages (Cantonese, Mandarin and English). I started doing translation and writing for an English magazine when I was a sophomore. Other than abusing my language skills, I have done a bunch of other things, like being a freelance music journalist (still relevant with language I'm afraid), volunteered for NGOs, even being a waitress in the world's busiest cafe - Elephant House in Edinburgh, the birth place of Harry Potter.

So I have made a list of what I like to do or like to work on, hoping that I can start from here ❤:

1. Going to music live performances and writing music reviews.
2. Watching films and writing film reviews.
3. Taking photos - especially food photos. I personally love wedding photos as well, but I've never tried to document any wedding with my camera yet.
4. Education or NGOs - I've been teaching for seveal years in all languages that I am able to speak and I am tempted to try something new. However, I did get the most satisfaction from teaching and helping people.
5. Translation - I have the worst sense of orientation, but rarely lost in translation.
6. Visiting museums and galleries - one of my favourite means of education. 
7.  Working in a bookstore/library/cafe with books - I enjoy the atmosphere of paper products.
8. Making handcrafts - e.g. painting jars, doing origami, making cards.
9. Travelling - it gives my mom some headache, but I've gained so much on the road. 
10. A successful housewife - I don't know what are the standards for a successful housewife, but it sounds really cool, reminds me of a Japanese film called Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers. 

In sum, I think I can say that I like to be involved in activies related to arts, cultures and communication - I always like people or things from different cultural backgrounds, anything exotic and novel; music, films, museums or galleries can represent these characteristics. 

I need to get myself a little bit credits here, within these few weeks in Seattle, I've published a long music review (#1), visited the biggest Chinese school in the U.S. and the headmaster said I was welcome to go visit anytime to assist in the class or even give some lessons there (#4), and I just got a volunteer opportunity from a museum in Seattle, which means I have a good chance to practice #6.  (clap clap)

I surprisingly received my classmate's comment on my recently published review on Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival - probably the first Chinese review on Bumbershoot. This girl and I used to study Chinese literature in university,  she said, "This is so inspiring Azi (my Cantonese nickname that is)! I was distracted a bit these days. Reading your review, it feels like I'm dragged back to my lovely path again, so refreshing! Thank god, now I know I shall stick to my path whatsoever." 

So I think this is what I long for: something "inspiring" and "refreshing". I have to thank her for such a big encouragement, I probably didn't realise I had been carrying on writing for so long until she commented on my review. Although I sometimes complain about having no promising skills such as software programming or dental orthopedics, when I am about to finish this blog post, I am quite pleased with my trivial achievements. I can't wait to throw myself into a new chapter of my life, search for different possibilities, figure out what I really want, then chase after it (and finally finally...achieve #10!). 

 The Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh speaks the truth of the universe.