Sooooo…after a long journey I am back home. Well, technically, 3 hours on the plane wasn’t that long, but I have been dreaming this moment for a whole year. So it’s been a long time since I saw everything in the city last time. The schedule is tight as before, and there are so many things I need to do with family and friends. There is always a balance in between, and yet this time definitely family comes first. I am not paying loads of money back here without spending time with my family. Chengdu is still the same after lots of things happened in 2008. People are still the same here-safe and sound. It’s lovely. I’d love to take more pictures this time when I am here. I would love to go to see Dujiangyan, the city which was damaged by the quake. I might go to Leshan to see the old villages as well.

Geer is stubborn like the typical Taurus. I know many Taurus people in my life, and I pretty much know them well, to be honest. I was asked to watch a Taiwanese movie and to write something about it. So I might need to think what I should write here. Although I write bullshit here for most of the time, what I wrote are something I thought before I wrote, of course…haha

Well, now I am stuck at Pudong Airport again, not like last year when I had to stand for about 8 hours, this time I have the access to the internet while sitting in the new built terminal 2. There is a KFC in terminal 2 too, so I bought some chicken legs for the first meal of the day. Although I had to drink all the milk at the security check, the new terminal definitely gives me a good first impression. I like new built stuff. Glamorous.

Mom was right: don’t text me until your plane takes off, because your flight might be delayed. But the thing is I don’t really know when the plane can come and get me.

I am happy, because at least I will get home today, well, hopefully. >_<…

I will be home 6 hours later. I am packing now, and I will be sitting on the sofa home chatting with mom and dad soon. I am not used to this space change, but it's good to get back after lots of things happened in 2008.

Let's embrace the Ox Year!

Well, I don’t know how to invest-at least now there are a lot I need to learn. I overpaid the tax for the airplane tickets for my Beijing trip, because I booked the tickets one day before the oil tax was decreased. That was a shame, but whatever, since the tickets were not expensive anyway. Yet, this time, when I was buying the tickets back home, I needed to find the best price, as the tickets can cost me a fortune. I thought the earlier I bought the tickets, the better deal I could get. I was wrong! A week after I bought my round trip tickets, the airplane ticket tax was decreased again, and to top it off, there are lots of discount tickets available now. I OVERPAID AGAIN. I am not rich yet, and when buying things like the pane tickets, I have to think about it first. Though every time I thought I could get the best deal when I was buying something, the next thing I knew was I always overpaid what is supposed to be cheaper. I am speechless.

So, my answer for myself to this is: going home is a once-a-year thing, especially it’s the time for family re-union, which is priceless and precious. As we all grow older, time left for that is less. Basically, I am always talking myself into this philosophy: we overpaid the things that, we think, are not worth the price, and yet we just ignored the fact that we bought time then, which cannot be measured. So I am happy that I got my tickets eventually, which is utterly most important.

Everything seemed to be fine, and it felt great, even though I was kind of concerned that it might go wrong one day. I am playing a game, and I will quit when I feel like it’s the time. After this game, I will definitely need some time to have a break. What else cooled down includes the gloomy economy. Due to the crisis, business trips are cut down dramatically-taxi trips are changed to train trips; plane trips are mostly turned down. I was waiting in the queue to buy train tickets to Kunshan for a business trip, and I heard people saying how difficult it was to buy one ticket back home this year: he waited outside the ticket booth from 5pm to 7am the next day, and he was the second to buy the ticket. Yet he was told the tickets were sold out already. Unbelievable. When I was walking out the booth with tickets in my hands, I could feel the jealousy conveyed from their eyes. Yeah, I was lucky that I did not have to wait for a whole night to buy tickets, only to get disappointment in the end the next day. But I paid my price as well-the tickets back home are the most expensive tickets I have ever paid, since train tickets back home have already become my dreams that I could possibly have. China, the imbalanced country in fast development, will pay for the consequences that it has been ignoring for a long time. I, definitely, don’t want to see that day, but somehow I feel uneasy sometimes.

I did not sleep quite well last night, as I was on the phone till about 4am in the morning. It was cold and wet this morning, and I just could not sleep, because I know there are many things I need to do. I thought I was all alone there fighting, but then I realized I can still have friends who can help me through bad things I have suffered. Call it naive or whatever, I guess I can only grow up after being frustrated in my life. Well, technically, that’s the only thing I can convince myself not to be sad right now. I am still in Shanghai, and yet it seems the memories here are always dark and grey, like today’s weather. It would be nice to walk in the countryside when it’s wet and cold in winter, I suppose, because that makes people appreciate warm home more. The real world is way much darker than it was said, and I don’t think I am ready for that. For sure, I always had choice, but I was not stubborn enough to be myself. I am ok now, and I will be better after getting back from home I think.

The weather man said that it was snowing in some southern provinces again yesterday, and Shanghai was affected by this too. That’s why it’s cold and wet. 2009 is supposed to be a good year, not like 2008 or 2007. It’s only the beginning right now, let’s dump the dirt and make a good 2009.

The New Year Eve party was kind of late, and I woke up late on the first day of 2009. I forgot to write my 2008 summary, which I think is fine, since 2008 generally sucked except the fact that I found a good job. Ashley cooked lesangia, and it was fabulous. Everybody loved it during the New Year Eve dinner, although Ash said it was too juicy...The first day of 2009 was meant to be a lazy day, so all I did was walking in French Concession after brunch at Bamboo Village. I took some pics too, and also I took some pics in Shanghai Urban Planning Museum. It seems to me that I just cannot get enough of holidays. I am going back to work tomorrow, and things will get back to normal for a while...

French Concession Old Houses 1	French Concession Old Houses 2

Shanghai 2020
Shanghai 2020
Xuhui Stadium
Zhongshan Park
Shanghai Expo 2010