Mmmmmochi!

Yesterday, I consumed mochi ice-cream for the first time. It was amazing. Kind've strange at first, but nonetheless amazing. Today a couple of friends and I went to a Japanese supermarket in search of mochi ice-cream in bulk. We ended up splitting a box (see picture) between us and saving 25 cents per mochi in the process (vis-a-vis buying individual pieces from the lady at the store yesterday). However, the bulk mochi was not that wonderful. I think it probably has to do with the temperature of the freezer at the supermarket. Anyhow, the point is: if you have never had mochi ice-cream, you don't know what you're missing!

Thanksgiving Brunch

The kind folks at Dudley House (my dining hall) set up this free Thanksgiving brunch for the poor folks who have nowhere to go (or cannot afford to go anywhere) over this break. I hope the turkey I ate will not be too sleep-inducing ... I'm supposed to achieve miracles over this break. Haha! :P

The Reform of Chinese Foreign Exchange Regime and Financial Stability in the Opening Process

I went for the above-mentioned talk yesterday, thinking that I should be a dutiful MAS employee and get informed about what's up in China. So battling through wind and rain, I got myself to William James Hall to listen to Mr. Li Dongrong, Deputy Administrator of State Administration of Foreign Exchange, PRC , speak on the topic. I guess I should hve figured out that the talk was gonna be in Chinese, but I thought "hey, i can handle this..." I guess not... I probably understood 20% of what he was saying even though he was using powerpoint slides as well. Even if I could read every word on the slide, I still couldn't figure out what was going on. That's depressing. I think I really should take up Business Chinese next year...

[in the picture, the guy on the right is Mr Li, while the guy on the left is the teaching assistant for one of my classes who so happens to live in my dorm]

I have succumbed...

Still have 15 days to regret and get my money back....

Paintball Photo

Anwar Ibrahim

Today, former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, came to Harvard to talk about modern Islam and its relation to democracy. The talk was filled with quite alot of politician-speak (well, he was a politician after all), but one interesting thing he pointed out was that the separation of religion and state in the Islamic context is often taken to be anti-Islam and hence is often met with much resistance.

Quotable quote: "In Malaysia, there is freedom of speech, but no freedom after speech."

Love Bites

Just got back from a day of paintballing and my right leg is about ready to buckle under me. The trip was organized by the Men's Group at my church (Highrock), but it was open to the whole congregation. The field here wasn't so cool as the last one in Chicago (which even had super funky amargeddon area -- think intro of Terminator), but as you can see, the competition was still pretty intense.

So it's clear I've been playing for the past 3 days now -- post-exam de-stress..haha! I shall start being productive once I'm done typing this.

Arnold Arboretum

Took a trip to this huge botanic gardens called the Arnold Arboretum to check out the fall foliage. The colors were nothing short of breathtaking... macham windows autumn leaves wallpaper. I've never seen anything quite like this in Chicago, so I guess it's cool that I got to see this in my final year here. Interesting fact: this huge property is owned by Harvard. That's just wild!

Quanhui and Diana: Double Happiness Birthday

Boston College

Today marked the end of my first exam here at Harvard. Don't think it went too well, especially since we were ridiculously pressed for time. Nonetheless, I headed down to Boston College in the afternoon to check out this supposedly gorgeous campus. Indeed the foliage was quite awesome and the campus feels more like you're in a school, as opposed to Harvard which kind of blends into Cambridge and is filled with tourists throughout the day. Incredibly, the only person we knew at BC so happened to be a tour guide for the school as well, so that was quite a coincidence :)

3.5 Hours Later...

First snow!

I was just informed, in the midst of following the adventures of Jack Bauer, that it's snowing, though it's nothing very heavy, as is apparent in the photo...

Best free makan ever!

Just returned from the most amazing reception I have attended here at Harvard. It was part of the open house for the Asia Center, which is apparently EXTREMELY well-funded. To give you an idea of how awesome the food was, there was food from all the East Asian countries -- China, Japan and Korea. There were sushi chefs on site, and for dessert, there were the ubiquitous chocolate dipped strawberries and lot's of nice cakes. AMAZING! Free flow drinks included beer and wine (too bad I didn't know how to take advantage :P)

Rain, rain, go away...

By the way, this is the corridor of my dorm

Ezra Vogel

Today I attended a talk by Ezra Vogel on the rise of China. Vogel succeeded John Fairbank (the grand-daddy of East Asian Studies) to become the second Director (1972-1977) of Harvard's East Asian Research Center. The talk was not earth-shattering, but one interesting point he brought up was how he felt a duty to write books for non-specialists that could help to educate the public. He also commented on how he thinks historians and other people who study social sciences (sans economics) make good politicians because they have a more complex understanding of the world. Alas, what has my education come to?? haha!

24

Just finished the final episode of 24: Season 1. That was quite a trip. I must say that this guy's life really sucks. It's amazing how much trouble on guy can get into in one day! The more amazing thing is that he has another 3 more action-packed days to go! It's insane! The season started promisingly enough, but it kind've got a little tiresome towards the end, especially since his family seems to keep getting kidnapped (oops...) Nonetheless, it was quite an adventure. I once had dreams of setting up a 24hr 24 marathon. I think I shall think again. On the other hand, I do have the next 2 seasons...

Mao: The Unknown Story

Today I attended a talk entitled about "Human Rights in Mao's China". At the time I saw it, all I thought was "ok so this might pertain to the regulation of religion, so I guess I should check it out". Little did I know that the speakers were the authors of the new controversial book, Mao: The Untold Story, which I had incidentally just read about via an e-mail from one of my professors. How coincidental is that? The book basically makes the claim that Mao was a power-hungry tyrant of a breed worse than Hitler and Stalin. Anyhow, there was one guy in the audience who was pretty pissed off and during the Q&A he accused the authors of being very biased and the moderator of not facilitating any level of real discourse. I do agree that the moderator was not very inspiring, but I think it is hard to dismiss the book itself so easily. Maybe when I get through all my readings/midterms/papers I will find the time to read the book myself.

The authors, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (middle and left)

Iron Chef

On Thursday I chanced upon an Iron Chef competition that was in progress on the 2nd floor kitchen. A friend of mine from the dorm was the organizer and invited me to join, and that was the beginning of 1.5 hrs of chopping, peeling and washing. The competition was organized by the Graduate Students' Christian Fellowship that meets on Thursdays. I have yet to attend their meetings and was pleasantly surprised by the competition.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, after we made a bunch of AWESOME samosas, chicken stir fry, crepes with fruit and a chicken soup with everything in it, the team I was apart of was declared victorious and we claimed the prize of a box of Hello Panda. Hurrah!

Room with a view (part 2)

And here's an update on the view...

Lunch on Friday

Every Friday I have a section meeting in the morning at Yenching which is pretty near to my dorm, and pretty far from th dining hall. So almost religiously, I pump myself with MSG laden Chinese food out of a truck that comes by everyday just outside my dorm. I anticipate this truck's popularity will increase as the weather gets colder...