Lukewarm Cocoa

Friday October 5, 2012

Not hot cocoa, but lukewarm cocoa. Why cruel world, why?! For the past week and a half, I’ve wanted to sit down and have a nice cup of hot cocoa to wind down with. I finally decided to do it this morning before school started when the cafeteria would be relatively empty. In order to do this, I had to get water from the water machine. There are three settings of temperature: hot, lukewarm and cold. I’ve only gotten cold water before because that’s all I drink. But armed with a pack of Swiss Hot Chocolate Mix (SPONSOR! …not really :P) I pressed the hot option to fulfill the true meaning of “Hot Chocolate.” And what do I find…?

IT’S LOCKED! WHAT?!! ANDREA NOT AMUSED! >:( Being afraid of screwing anything up by pressing unknown buttons, I had to settle for the lukewarm water. Then it was a long, awkward process to stir the mix with a thin straw. During this time I was trying to access a Wi-Fi network on my phone in order to send some important e-mails. This took way to long with some troubles so my relaxing cocoa time transformed into “QUICK! DRINK IT NOW AND GET TO CLASS!”

What I am happy to announce is a successful lunch ordering! Equipped with 90% of the information necessary, I marched right up to the breakfast shop and confidently ordered the same chicken and egg burger as Wednesday. TOTAL SUCCESS! They knew what food I asked for and when I wanted it. BOOMSHAKALAKA! And it was a delicious success! Mmmm, still love those onions. I made sure to take a minty Listerine strip afterwards to prevent bad breath. :P

Since I was able to access a bit of Wi-Fi this week, it allowed me to do my homework from Civics class. If you recall what I previously said, my teacher wanted me to read the global news every week and give a short presentation over some stories and my thoughts about them. Here’s the thing, Civics class is after naptime. Literally, as literally as you can get, I woke up five seconds before giving my presentation. This meant limping up to the front of the class with a leg that was asleep and an arm dangling away as it snoozed as well. Twas not the best feeling in the world I’ll say that for sure!

But the presentation went quite well…in English. I tried to speak slowly, with basic words and body language but I think the majority of the class was lost. The global news doesn’t exactly cover basic things so I definitely didn’t know the Chinese nor did the students most of my English. But that was expected and the teacher translated for the class afterwards. Interested in what I spoke about? Here’s a quick overview:

-In Libya, people were willingly turning in pistols, rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers, with reports of even keys to a tank being handed in. This was because the new prime minister Mustafa Abu Shagour called for militias to disband after a U.S. consulate compound was attacked in Benghazi. This attack killed ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and 3 other staffers (Rest in peace). So by turning in the weapons, it showed the desire of trying to stabilize the country as well as to normalize the economy. I gave a comment of admiration for acts like these towards peace instead of war.

-As a result from a picture of a partially burned Quran with a Buddhist boy being posted on Facebook, an entire revolt took place. Many angry Muslims attacked Buddhist shrines and homes in Bangladesh to protest against the offending picture. The burned 7 Buddhist temples, 5 others damaged and 50 Buddhist houses destroyed. Quite a devastating effect from a single picture. This led me to warn my classmates to be weary of what you post on Facebook because the consequences could be drastic.

-In Kenya there have been problems with lions attacking livestock. What the farmers have done is used a pesticide called Furadan which can kill an entire lion with only one tablespoon that costs less than a dollar. Since it’s such a cheap and effective way of protecting their livestock, farmers have greatly used the pesticide technique to get rid of lions. 15 years ago there were 15,000 lions but they have now diminished to a mere 2,000. Taking action, there are now programs to reward people for protecting the wildlife and keeping the land open. Also, Paula Kahumbu is trying to train wild lions with rock salt loaded in a shotgun. By using the rock salt, it will either injure or kill a lion but “make it hurt like hell.” Lions being intelligent animals, they will learn to not come near the livestock again in order to not feel such pain a second time. To the class, I showed respect for the tactics of preserving the wildlife in Kenya.

My goal was to provide a lesson or give an approval of something in each news story. This way it wouldn’t just be pointlessly telling the class of something that happened in some part of the world, which the majority of the time is violence. If you have any suggestions of things I should talk about or improve on, let me know. ;)

I think I gave a heart attack to a couple of guys today. Innocently, I went to go refill my water bottle and on the way back I saw something a little…out there. A guy had another guy pressed up against the lockers as if it was a scene from a romantic drama. Now I know they were only playing and aren’t actually gay but I’m not so sure they knew I knew. After seeing them I just shuffled away, laughing at their little joking performance. I would love to find out what went through their minds when they realized I saw them. XD

Afterschool there was some slight chaos, confusion and hectic timing. I sped off to the library’s oasis of Internet in order to take care of some important stuff between several different things. Unfortunately as always, I was rushed out and barely finished half the stuff I wanted to do. I will be beyond ecstatic when I can get a constant Internet access at a home. I miss the ability to immediately look up little questions that pop into my head or research things like Chinese phrases and places in Taiwan.

Realizing I didn’t take any pictures today yet, I snapped a shot of the dinner my host family set out before leaving the house. It’s like a soupy rice mixture with various ingredients floating inside. There were bits of shrimp, thousand-year-old-duck-egg and some other stuff that I am not sure of. I can’t say that I like or dislike it but towards the end of the meal, my stomach began rejecting it. Not a happy time.

Feeling the need of more pictures, I fooled around with both the ZS8 and ZS20 camera models. First up, the ZS20!

Yeah, I thought of trying to adapt to the ever so popular peace sign on the face in Asia. Want to know why they have so many pictures with their hands covering their face in some sort of fashion (doesn’t have to be a peace sign)? It’s because when the hands conceal a bit of their face, it makes them look skinner than if totally exposed. Makes sense but I don’t understand when sometimes they don’t smile at all. I look like a total dork beaming away in a group of non-smiling people. XD

But I do have a problem with peace signs. I never seem to do a two fingered peace sign. Instead I do this thing where it’s a peace sign with an extra thumb sticking out. In this picture I at least caught myself and didn’t do it like I normally do but it’s just a hard habit to break. Fun fact, the peace sign + thumb is how you say “three” in American Sign Language. I think that’s where I got my three fingered peace sign habit from when I was practicing sign language. Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. XD

Experimenting between the ZS8 and ZS20, I started getting bored and running out of poses. This is what resulted.

Then trying to relearn my ZS8, I suddenly sold energy and got very sleepy. All of my body except for my camera hand said “Good night!” but almost unconsciously, my hand kept snapping away shots. So thanks to my hand, here is a four-frame movie of how I felt.

In the end, I believe I prefer the ZS20 over the ZS8 in terms of picture quality. The ZS20 does better with lighting and avoiding blurriness. The 2 ‘me pics’ were from ZS20 with the other five from the ZS8. Both cameras are good but since I have the option, I’ll stick with the newer version. ;)

Lastly…WAAAAAAAAAH!  I just realized something! It’s…it’s…it’s…IT’S RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL TIME IN TEXAS!!! Nooooo! T-T That’s one of, if not, the highlight of my year. It’s so strange and sad that I will miss it! Life goes on of course but I don’t get my annual chance to be all “Fair greetings to you my Lord” or the exaggerated “Shall-eth we-eth go-eth to-eth get-eth some-eth apple-eth cider-eth?” XD And OH the apple cider! …don’t think about it Andrea, don’t think about it. XD

Before I completely switch cultures from Asian to my Renaissance side I shall bid thee ado! (whoops already started to) :P Bye bye!