The Subjective Competitions

I am addicted to two competitions – the American’s Next Top Model and the Project Runway. I know they sound silly if you never watched and followed the shows (well, at least it’s better than watching nothingness of other people’s lives in the Big Brother).

Maybe I like competitions. I especially like to see how people act in the competitive environment. Are they bitchy? Do they bring their friends close but enemies even closer (quoted from The God Father)? How do they cope with stress? How do they put up with people they don’t like etc. etc. Oh, it is sooo interesting to see!

The American’s Next Top Model is a bit less sophisticated. Some girls are more primitive. When they are angry, they show it. When they are envious, they bitch it. There is so much animal instinct going on there. While for the Project Runway, it is about designing, skills and creativity. You don’t normally see the bitchiness in the process. It’s individual work. An individual competes with him/herself.

But both of them portray an element of subjectivity. How do you judge that one model is edgier than the others? How do you know this dress is in while the others are trashy? And who the hell are the judges who have the right to dictate one life is in the other is out?!

An American lecturer for my undergrad once said, “Because life is unfair.”

So to be back to the real life, my advice would go - don’t tie yourself so much to a competition (even though you say I’m not competing anyone, but myself). Competitions are not real. Today there is an award, tomorrow may be not. Cheatings, favors, bias are common. You may win today, you may lose tomorrow. But you are you, whether it’s tomorrow or today. Not a single competition can define who you are. It is only you who can judge the level of YOUR performance.

Oh by the way, I almost failed one exam.

Adventure Wrap up

I know this is going to be a very very long blog. So many things happened in 2 weeks when you are on a traveling. This isn't going to be a linear record, but only highlights. So, just so you know, I flew from Basel from 1st of July, right after my June's exam final, to Manchester, Coventry, Cardiff and London. I stayed with friends' flat in the first 3 cities and a hostel in London while a friend from uni, Clara, flew from Zurich to join me.

I am glad that I have made it, enjoyed it and I am so proud of myself so much that I have done a good job covering every journey I needed to do, met friends that I haven't met for ages and had a quality catch-up, survived and finally got myself back to Zurich.....the only bad job is that I spent too much! hahaha :-)

Weather
UK welcome me with the up and down moods. Sometimes it rained, sometimes it was shiny, sometimes it was hot, sometimes it was chilly. Luckily I bought an umbrella. But it didn't help much when the drivers in Cardiff drove like a maniac, splashed me with water, and left me with wet, dirty, unrepaired shoes (that was why I needed 3 pairs 0f shoes back home! hehe..)

People
People are so diverse. I am not surprised to see people from different parts of the world in the UK. I prepared my ear for British accents, but I didn't know that not everyone talks like Harry Potter or Bridget Jones. That was because of this accent that I needed to ask 3 times before I got it right. Apart from the accents, the nature of people from different parts is also diverse.

In Manchester, I look like every Asian in every street. Meaning I am more like a local rather than a tourist. That's why I got asked for direction for many times, especially where to get to China Town :-). In Cardiff, Welsh are so friendly. They aren't afraid talking to strangers about whatsoever. We offered one family whose daughter was having a graduation ceremony to take a picture for them. The father asked us where we were from. I said Switzerland and so on. He said he went to Geneva and about to pick up a long conversation with me. I guess if I stayed, he would have invited us to a coffee or something :-). In London, Clara and I often looked up on our map. It seems to me that those who offered us help were foreigners who live in London, rather than locals...

It is also common to see international couples - an Indian girl with a White guy, an Asian guy with a white girl, a Black with a White, etc. And young moms with a baby cart.

Museums and art galleries
I have to say these years in Europe is my 'golden age' to satisfy my own enthusiasm in arts and histories. The advantage of being here in the UK is that I understand more as everything is explained in English. It offers tons of free museums and art galleries. My favorite art galleries are Tate Modern in London and Tate Liverpool (didn't make it to Tate British), Urbis in Manchester and Manchester's Art Gallery.

I studied a bit arts during undergrad, but I remembered very briefly of different definitions (like cubism, impressionism, abstract, etc.) and saw some great pieces of work on the slides in the lecture halls. But here, I could spend as much time as I need, as close as I want, listen to the audio as many times as I could and let myself sunk to the wonder of arts and creativity. I felt so grateful that these galleries well keep the works, arrange and display the work in an interesting way.

As a literature graduate, I must pay homage to the Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon. (I know there are tons of English writers' birthplace..but with the limited time and I got B+ in this course, Shakespeare's birthplace was the way to go..hehe.) I realized that his family was quite rich. His father was a mayor and money lender. Later in his life, Shakespeare also bought lots of land in this town. And surprisingly, he got married when he was 18 with a 28-yr-old girl who already got pregnant with him....so unconventional!

In London, I went to the British Museum (as everyone says it's a must!) and it was really brilliant. However, deep down I felt sad as the Museum took away all the stuff from around the world...that's why when I was in Greece, I didn't see stuff much, but the architecture, as all the gods and goddesses were taken away and displayed in the British Museum :-(

A glimpse of a countryside
When I was in Manchester, I also arranged to meet the ex-boss of the research team of my company. She took me to Cheshire for a dinner. It was so lovely. We got to see another perspective of English countryside. Rich people live in the countryside. Those wives of footballers would probably live here too. I saw expensive cars, exclusive but homey restaurants scattered in richly green fields. People are so friendly and really welcome visitors. It was so peaceful and pretty.

Adventure in London
Alex asked me when I came back, 'Do you think you can live in London?' I took a minute to think and I know I still don't have an answer yet. 5 days in London is too short. There are heaps to explore. And I'm sure that people who just live there don't explore as much as I do in 5 days. I say I enjoy it as a visitor, but to live I don't know yet.

During the day we had a marvelous time to see elegant architectures of Parliament, Tower of London, London´s Eye, St. Peter Cathedral etc. I like the variety of food London has to offer (expecially, Asian food!). I really enjoyed shopping in the Oxford street. I loved the vibrance of Piccadilly Circus, pubs, clubs etc. Of course, I loved the art galleries and museums in London.

I encountered some unexpectations, such as the tube stopped working in the middle of the railway for 4o mins! We took the bus that said going to the street we were supposed to go, but it was a completely different road! We got out in the middle of nowhere at 5 in the morning! It could be quite horrifying if you don't have a friend with you..

Friendship
To end this looonnng record of my UK experience, I have to say thank you to all the friends who offered me the place to stay and companionship to all the interesting places. I know that I am not the type that can travel solo and endure the loneliness of not being able to immediately share experiences, or complain :-P It has been a long while in Europe that I didn't speak a word in my own language or using my country's mentality. I was glad that these friends have brought me back to the good old days and I could let myself free and genuinely laugh again :-)

Gosh, I can't wait to be back!

Vacation - My first stop

So here I am in England. I was nervous at first as I would be in the country in which English is spoken, but I was in doubt whether I could understand the accent at all. I am not so exposed to English accent (though lots of my colleagues are british, but mostly we communicate via email and my boss speaks quite slow..). I guess I understood all right, as the border police let me through :-D.

My first stop was Manchester. My best friend, Peung, happily let me stay at her flat. Here, there is one more girl staying. And comes-and-goes 3-4 boys and girls as the flat owners are super generous. We all quickly became friends. I guess because we're all down to earth, we love eating, shopping, chatting, self-photo taking, making fun of each other, etc etc. My Thai language and humor became really fluent!

I was overwhelmed with choices of Asian food, authentic Thai food (of course), and Chinese milk tea with jelly. And for the first time for the past 9 months, I enjoyed shopping! I really recommend to come to England during Summer. All shops were labelled 50%-70% discount. My feet never felt tired like this before. But I was happy and happier!

I watched Big Brother UK the other day. To my surprise, I saw one member of the house is Thai! She has this difficult Thai accent (you know, no "Sssss", slooooww pronunciation, monotone). But for some odd reason, I quite like her. She can send her message across and she doesn't care so much if people like her (which is a different personality from most Thais).

Tomorrow I am going to Coventry, Oxford, perhaps Birmingham.

Educational trip checked -> Urbis, Art Gallery, Tate Liverpool, World Museum (Liverpool).