"Romeo and Juliet" response

Although this text is a bit difficult for me, I still enjoyed reading it. Old-fashioned words and grammar make the play more beautiful. For example, Romeo says that "He jests at scars that never felt a wound." (Act2, Scene 2) In modern English, it is "people who haven't been hurt joke about injuries."

I like the part when Romeo tries to swear by moon, and then Juliet says that the moon changes every month and she does not want Romeo to swear. Instead, she says "Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract tonight, It is too rash, toounadvised, too sudden, Too like lightening, which doth cease to be Ere one can say it lightens. Sweet, good night!" ( Line 117-121) Juliet is afraid that it is too rash; also, she does not want Romeo to think that she is too easy. I agree. I think love needs time. We can "fall in love at the first sight"; however, truly knowing someone takes time and as the time goes by, real love becomes deeper.

personal response to TED talk "Memory and Experience"

I enjoyed the talk very much and I liked the idea of "remembering self" and "experiecing self". In my own experience, I think sometimes I can not have a good balance of those two selves. In other words, sometimes I don't feel happy in the present, but my remembering self will turn to be a happy one and keep the beautiful memory. When I am suffering, I think of those happy times and will have hope as I know I have had some happy memory.

I am especially impressed by the colonoscope experiment in the talk. For me, it is the same too. I sometimes have a very good time in the present and suddenly have an extremely bad moment right after; in that case, although I have had some pleasant time, I still think I had a terrible time because of the "pain" in the end.

Thinking and experiencing happiness is difficult and painful; however, if we follow the rythm of life, hopefully we will eventually become able to feel some happiness and joy in life.

Personal Reaction on "Beowulf"

The old English poem is very difficult for me. However, silimilar to many other modern poems, we can see some figurative language used in this poem as well. For example, there is the same vowel sound in "dole" and " abode", and it's assonance. We can find alliteration as well in "dole" and "dark", which is also similar to modern poems that we read nowadays. There is also repetition of the word "too" in "too cruel", "too long" and "too loathsome".

Although I didn't see clear rhyming scheme in this poem, I enjoyed the rythm of it very much.

Personal Reaction to "2001 a Space Odyssey"

 I like this movie as there is little conversation in it. First, I enjoyed the background music at the beginning and the end of the movie; it is very peaceful to me although some people think that it is scary and makes people nervous. The movie is devided to several different parts--from chimpanzees to modern technology. Throughout all the different parts in the movie, there is always something that makes people think of a monolith.

In the beginning of the movie, there is a bone of a dead animal, which symbolizes the early progress made by chimpanzees of using tools. The tool is the bone of a dead animal, and chimpanzees get the bone due to the sacifice of the animal. However it means the significant progress during human evolution. Also, when I noticed that in the seond part, the flying pen in the spaceship was leaking red ink, I thought of the bone in the first part and imagined blood from killing. In order to achieve more, human use modern technology; I though it is also a kind of cruel "killing" when I saw Frank being killed by HAL9000.

In my opinion, the bone, the pen that is leaking red ink and the death of Frank all indicate that in order to survive, there must be killing and cruel competetions.

Time goes by so quickly. I feel everything valuable is like sand; the more I grab it, the more it drops from my hand. I like my life in Canada as I have much more time here to do things that I want to. Today, when I was walking to the school, I saw "UBC bookstore". It was written in English, and I suddenly realised that I am in Canada. I felt a bit happy as I am not in the city where I didn't feel comfortable. The next moment, I felt anxious and weak. I looked at the time, and it said "8:29"; I was going to be late, but I couldn't walk fast. I was happy about going to my reading class, but I knew it would have an end, and it wouldn't be so far. I tried my best to reach the class--to something that I truly enjoy. I like that class as I can be myself; or, for most of the time, I can see who I used to be a few years ago.

I didn't expect that I woud like here this much. I didn't even check where Vancouver is on the map until I was on the plane a few hours before it landed in this city. I was confident that I wouldn't get lost as I knew the plane could take me there if I was on the right flight to Vancouver. No expectation, no hope, no emotions  when the planed landed at YVR airport.

I have done everything that a student must do here. I also send a piece of paper to my university every month to tell them what I did in the previous month. I briefly summerize my life only in a few words, but I always think that there are much more meanings in my life here that can't be expressed only by words; it scares me.

I am going back in a few weeks, and I just hope that I can remember that my life wasn't all about ordeals; there was something valuable that I can treasure.

Fear Of a New Morning.

Everything seems unfinished. I craved more time, but I had to accept the cruel reality. I always do.  I am used to fight against my bad luck, but now I believe in destiny, and everything is getting much easier than before.
I like this time of the day. It is quiet, and I don't feel anyone else's presence. It's so late that morning is going to come again. I am enjoying the peaceful time, but also so afraid of a new day's coming. In one or two hours, I have to go to sleep as I don't want to be awake when I have to accept the fact that a new day has come. I feel so giddy but so happy. I am happy that I am totally lost. Lost in a corner of the world.

Why I am in North America-- why I am in Canada? Why I have to go back? Did I ever think about these questions? I am not escaping--I hope not as I have enough courage to go back, but I am so scared that the moment the plane lands, all the beautiful memory that I had might vanish. I keep telling myself that all the beautiful things have an end--they always do. We come into this world alone and leave exactly the same way. I am going to treasure those warm and foggy days here. I enjoyed visiting Queen Elizabeth Park; I liked the restaurants here; I had a good time in the Chinese garden; I also liked the busy seabus.

I like the darkness and peace in the middle of the night, but even the night that I like is going to have an end--I don't want the morning to come yet.

The Mirror At Midnight.

I couldn't fall asleep, and as I couldn't fall asleep at an early time, I am not going to worry about how many hours I can sleep today. I was tired the whole day, but when I got  into the bed, tucked myself in and closed my eyes, a lot of pictures came into my mind, which bothered me so much that I had to get up and look for my vodka drink.

I turned the kichen light on--so quiet, everything was so quite as if there was only me in this world. I sat at the counter and felt a bit cold, but not that scared anymore. I know that everything that I want is like sand. I try to grab it tightly in my hand; it falls down. I'm used to it. Time goes by so quickly, and yesterday( technically the day before yesterday as it's passed 12am already) the alarm clock went out of battery...I didn't buy a new one to fix it as I wanted it to stop like that--it looks peaceful to me. I've only used the clock for a few months, but why the battery went out so quickly...

I felt that when the liquid when down my throat, it set a fire there. I am not drunk though, I am just getting a bit relaxed, and I wanted to keep a dairy--today I didn't write it on my qzone but this blog as I am using this one more often now.

That was absolutely not enough to make me drunk. I looked in the mirror, and I saw what I hated as it was not a smiling face, and I know it is not going to be one. If it was paper, I would tear it into pieces right away.