Isaac Wang

We dance.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:47:48 PST

About 2 years ago I heard a Sir Ken Robinson's talk in Talk, it was great. Particular, he mentioned a concept of two sides of head. The fact was that under current education system, for most people only one side of the head was trained, while the other ability-like dancing had been highly devaluated.
When I watched the talk, more often I was just laughing, as it was just funny. Personally it also reminded me the days when I was playing piano in my parents' small house.but till recently I watched some films on my flight back to Melbourne, I suddenly found this group of dancing people was actually so close to me.

The theme of this month's films on Air China was definitely dance. In its entertainment system, from "That's it" to "Step Up", then to "Dirty Dance", it's all about dance. And the idea shown in the films is the same as in Ken's talk: Dance is just skill you can learn, but not a job. Most dancers are living in a bad situation, so they need money badly and they have sex to different people. Most importantly, top class family will never allow their kid to be a dancer. However, all the conflits in the films I saw told me a different perspective, if they really like to dance, and that desire is so strong, they will never care about the rules in their family and finally get what they want finally.

I wish the audience of the dance films can also all watch the talk of Ken, and if they are not too late to make a choice between two half of the head for themselves or others, reconsider about it. What I totally agreed is that in both ways we can learn live happily.

England.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:48:17 PST

I am in England now. The first impression to Manchester is many "to let" signs in the street. In the beginning I thought it was toilet with a missing "i", then I realised it was too many for sings of toilets. After I checked it up, I know the meaning now - British English is lovely. A good thing in England is I can know exactly what are the names for those strange European food. There were so many food that I haven't seen before in the supermarkets in Europe, and I couldn't buy them because I didn't know what they are. But in England I can use a dictionary, so today I bought a bag of cooked beetroots. I saw this many times and I even thought it must an kind of animal, but actually it tasted good, just the colour was a bit unpleasant, and I look like a vampire after eating it-full of red in my mouth. I also had a haircut today, it's m second one in this trip. £10 was not cheape and it was in a buManchessy corner barber's shop. I heard there was a number system in England long time ago,and today I know it's true. The barber asked me which number do I need, and I said I didn't even know the meaning of the numbers. Then he recommended to have number 3 for the sides and number 4 for the top. I don't think I like my final English hairstyle-not as good as my Hungarian one, but it's really an interesting experience, as I survived the English hairecut number system. I have only one week left for my trip, I hate the end of my trip, but I also look forward to spending my Chinese New year with my parents soon. I nearly have nothing to conclude my European journey, but I really enjoyed it, and hope I will have another one in the future.

East Europe.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 09:13:56 PST

I really want to have a look at East Europe because of their history - communisism, but in reality most of those countries don't want to mention this period of history, as I saw in Estonia - the thought it's history in USSR was an occupation, same to Nazi Germany - very unexpected. On the other hand, East Europe has a big difference from other part of Europe - people are crazy and buildings are old. Some cities like Sofia look like my hometown in 1980s, but the are part of European Union. I don't know what is the standard to become a member , but for me , this union is more like a political tool to go against Russia, not to help those former communist countries. I still found something interesting in Poland, as they have the similar food like the dumplings in China, and the fillings were mushrooms. I started to miss my food now.

Are you from Australia?

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:35:21 PST

It's the third week since I started to travel, and till the day I said goodbye to Germany, I think I am going to miss this country. Compare to other European countries, German people don't care their food too much, so the food in Germanany is pretty cheap. Specifically I found chocolates are very cheap in the supermarket, a 200g chocolate bar is only 99 cents. I think German government need to tax chocolates more for the health and body shape reasons. "Are you from Australia?" I heard this question in a hostel in hamburg, a nice city. The question was from an kiwi, but I forgot to ask him why I look like Australian. I guess there must be something wrong with me. I have been to the famous red light districts in both Amsterdam and Hamburg, and I prefer the one in Amstdam, as I had so much to see I that city. The hookers in Hamburg are more aggressive, and there wanoon fun if one does not pay in Hamburg. Red light districts are such an interesting part in the city, sometimes it was hard to imagine how tolerant a government is,especially in a strict country like Germany. It was my pleasure to meet my former boss in tesa in Hamburg, actually in Germany it must be proud to a member in tesa, as this brand is everywhere either in post offices or supermarkets. I said to my self finally: it is never too late to notice I once worked for tesa. The day was getting dark very early in winter, so in a long and cold night, sex is a pretty thing to do, though I don't have the previledge to do so, and I need to keep travelling.

Finally it is Europe.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 02:51:52 PST

I cannot imagine that after a 10 hours' flight heading north, I am into a much warmer place. From the window of the plane, I could see those red roof houses, very similar to Australia. But those cars in the right lane told me it was Europe, finally I am coming.

Europe is old, those statues in the street must have hundreds of years old, those languages they spoke must be used thousands of years ago. Stepping on those stone street, looking at those castles and pigeons around, I feel like I am back to the history, and this brought me back that ancient dream when I was small.

Guess those tourists from the new world have the same curiosity as I have. I don't know what I will see in the next 2 months, but I know I am going to love it.

Sound or No Sound?

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:46:49 PDT

I read an article about the sounds in the thriller films this week, pretty interesting.

Basically there are two kinds of sound that can make people scary, one is some strange sound that people have not heard before, the other is no sound. So the typical scary picture is either in a dark night, suddenly there was a sound that should not be there, then some bad things followed; Or in a dark and hot night, outside is noisy because of those summer animals and insects, it became quite, quite, till no sound at all, then suddenly something bad happened.

I should admit those directors well studied those psychology theory, and those sound analysis at least said me right. For my hearing system, first it cannot be too quite, it is quite necessary to get some background music or something else. I have downloaded some sound apps in my phone, providing those nature sounds like raining, wave and so on. So if I sometimes bored (it always happens) , I will open those apps to enjoy the nature sounds, especially those sounds which I have to travel long to hear. Secondly, the sound should not be too strange. I once doubt the standard of the some electrical sound in the thriller films, now I can roughly guess the rationale behind it. People feel comfortable under the familiar environment. The more strange, the more uncomfortable people will feel, thus one extreme is to use the unease to create a scary feeling in the films.

Watching films is interesting, but knowing the reasons behind the films is interesting too.

Keep on Running.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:15:04 PDT

There is only one month left before Melbourne Marathon, I can still run a half marathon, and not sure I can survive 42 kilometres in October.

As for running, I started to run when I was 5, following my dad. We lived in the army's compound in those days, every day at 6:00am, the military horn reminded all the soldiers to get up, I also got up, then started to run with dad. Dad told me I should run like a soldier, but I often fell behind after a few metres, and saw dad's running at the front, without stop. We kept moving when I was young, from city to city, running place also changed. Till we moved to the residential area, there was no horn, I could finally begin to have a good sleep every day, my running also stopped.

When I was in primary school, I was good at running in short distance, like 100 metres, I was always my class' representative for the sports meeting. Gradually I preferred to play football, like everyone else. Actually to play with others was much more interesting than simply running, till today I still think so. It's so good to be young, I didn't even know what is tired in primary school, every day, 4 to 5 hours in the playground, just playing the ball, then went for a nice cold drink. I could sometimes feel the sweat was dropping, one drop after another.

I didn't run in my high school, piano was the only thing in my world. I still played football in the university, just not everyone liked football, most of my classmates liked basketball, which I didn't know how to play, so in PE class, I could either watch them playing basketball, or staying in the corner, till I picked running up. Every night, before the playground was closed, I went there and ran in circles, one after another, sometimes I could see the stars, but mostly I couldn't, that's in Beijing, in 2001.

In the following years, I have seen Blind Chance, Sliding Doors, Run, Lola, Run, seemed there are some coincidences in running. But for me, it's more like a habit, no opportunity, no coincidence, I just kept running, then eating, then sleep.

I bought a pair of Nike running shoes 4 years ago, it was my only running equipment. Someone said NB was better, but I still loved my Nike, maybe I should buy a new pair for my marathon, a lighter one. When I was running, the worst time was always the first hour, after that, with the music from the earphone, ie Ravel's Bolero, I could easily come into my own world, then kept running till finished.

Okay, nothing special, just running.

The Beauty of Angkor Wat.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:40:20 PDT

I didn't expect to see much in Cambodia, many people gave me very negative comments on this country, as they thought travelling should be in an advanced country with more comfort. Though I would like to go and have a look, it was finally proved that it was actually a beautiful country.

It was not easy decide how many days I should stay in Siem Reap, not until in Tibet, I still thought one day would be enough, at least those temples were destroyed and quite similar, some of them should be enough. I met a girl in Lhasa, she had been to Siem Reap before and she told be she stayed for a week there. I was quite surprised, as even in LP's instruction, all the temples could be seen within 2 days, what did she do there in a week. Then the girl said she didn't go to temples every day, actually most of the time she just walked around and chilled out, and she still missed her days there. She also told me she bought a book called "The Beauty of Angkor" before she went there, the beauty was quite beyond what she just saw.

I couldn't talk more about Angkor Wat in Tibet, as we soon jumped to the topic how to go to Mt Everest, but I remembered book's name, and I also made a decision to extend my stay in Siem Reap to 2 days.

My first stop in Siem Reap was Banteay Srei, it was a disaster. I rode a bike for about 3 hours and finalled saw this small and crowded temple. It was described as the finest carving in Angkor, but I had seen much better carving in other places, and I couldn't enjoy much. On the way back, I met the downpour and sheltered under a banana tree for an hour, I was quite pissed off and nearly lost the interests to the whole trip.

Soon the rain stopped, then I came to the second stop Pre Rup. It was nearly 6pm, and I waited there for the sunset. It was quite and there wasn't so many people, I climbed to the peak, which was called the heaven by a tour guide. Gradually it became dark and dark, and the sunshine scattered over those statues little by little. All of a sudden, I felt those old statues became extremely beautiful. In front of them, facing to the ruins, I started to imagine how it was like in old days.In the same location, at the same sunset time, 1000 years ago, how was the people in Khmer Empire when this temple was newly built? Were they proud of this building and even their country?

I sat on a stone in Pre Rup for about an hour, looking at a girl's drawing of a temple. Till it was completely dark, I came back to the hostel, and the pain in the morning also disappeared.

On the next day, in Bayon, I saw the book "The Beauty of Angkor" from a dark Cambodian boy. Among all the other English book, this Chinese book from Taiwan was quite special. I took it and had a look for a few minutes and gave it back to the boy. I didn't buy the book, because I though I knew the beauty already, sometimes the beauty is not obviousl that can be seen from the picture, or even read from the book. Only if you were there and saw it, you would then feel it. Although Angkor Wat was quite boring in many people's eyes, it was a perfect example of imperfect beauty.

I am glad I met the girl in Tibet, and I am also glad to make a right decision to stay 2 days in Siem Reap, though I would like to stay longer. Goodbye Angkor Wat, my beauty.

Crazy Nepal

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:22:15 PDT

If I don't go to a country, I will never know this country. If I go to this country, I know i will never know this country.

The entry to Nepal was not in my plan, I couldn't find a group to Mt Everest in Lhasa, so I decided to come to Nepal instead, and I am happy to make this choice.

I have met two Nepalese in Melbourne, one is in a restaurant, a waiter, he looks like Indian. The other is from MRGC, a nursing student. From their introduction, Nepal is beautiful and cheap, but usually people like to say positive side of the their country only. As soon as I went across the border,I knew Nepal is more than that. In order to go to Kathmandu, I need to take a car or bus. The private car driver was quite nice, but i had to share a car with others, sitting on the roof. I thought it was too dangerous so I decided to wait for the bus. When I saw the bus, I was speechless to find there were about 20 people sitting on the roof and my seat was there. My first impression to Nepal: crazy.

In Durbar square, everything was in a mess, dirty, polluted but full of attractions. Temples were everywhere but not easy to find, no signs or English name, map was quite necessary. Occasionally some kids said hello to me and asked for a photo, some beggars as well. Lots of tailors, working, inside or outside, on the special clothes in this country, it's a nice job. In Thamel, different races of people, some vendors said Nihao to get my attention, some guys held their hands and walked in the street, strange but interesting.

If I have time I would spend more time in this country, like trekking in the mountain area, i met 4 french girls, they will do that next week. For me,next time, yes next time.

Location:318 National Rd,Shigatse,China

Who are Special?

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:22:43 PDT

Yesterday I was in Urumqi, now I am in a cafe in Chengdu, travelling is such an amazing thing.

Since I moved to Melbourne I found the disabled people are respected well, all toilets have special room for them, and the bus have special seats as well. Unlike in China, I can see disabled people everyday, Australia is probably a nice place for them to live.

Alex became blind 5 years ago because of a car accident, now he is doing his PHD in Oxford, I met him in a hostel. We talked a lot, everything in the UK and China, from monarchy to Irish, from aboriginals to comedy. However maybe he doesn't know it's not that easy for disabled in China, it's quite a interesting experience for him to travel in China, but as he said he met lots of good people in Beijing and in the train, yeah this is real China with its good side, I like it. Before I knew the similar story,blind PHD, only in the film, and I guess if he was in China, he would be on TV for example, luckily i know him in an attractive city, now I have another reason to visit England.

I read a piece of news on the same day in the flight about CCTV's criticise to Lu Liping's comments on Gay marriage in New York. It's a surprise for me to hear CCTV's voice on equality. Maybe not every one likes the comparison of gay and disabled, but I think they have similarities, not the majority, and someone in this world has the same discrimination to them. It's a gradually improving process to respect everyone, to know there are some special ones different from ourselves. From curiosity to understand then to accept, it always took a long time to know everything, maybe it will take longer time for all the people, but I am sure I can expect to see moe in my life, even a little.

Hopefully I can get something new in is trip too.

Location:Middle Tongren Rd,Chengdu,China

It is Nice to be Still Young.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 01:02:51 PDT

This after-exam holiday is in Alice Springs, the outback of Australia, my first time in Northern Territory.

For me travelling is much better than taking exams: visit different places, meet different people, and learn the local culture. Kata Tjuta, Uluru, King's Canyon, in our small bus, with 17 people from different country, it's a 3 days camping. When I was taking pictures with everyone in the Rock bar last night, I suddenly found it was so nice to be young. If I were getting older, I might not like to spend 2 nights in a sleeping bag around a fire in a freezing night, I might not like to play the stupid game in the bus in front of everyone, I might not like to dance like a child in the pub. Are we dancer, are we human? Those music men knew what I was thinking.

On the first night of the camping, I saw 5 shooting stars and I made 5 wishes. Is it coming true? Goodbye Uluru, goodbye the big rock.

Location:Parsons St,Alice Springs,Australia

Exam Time.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:05:27 PDT

Gym is empty, kitchen is empty, library is full, now it's exam time.

When I say empty, it doesn't mean there are just a few people, it is really empty. This afternoon I saw only one boy playing basketball inside of the stadium, how happy he is.

If I can study every day like the revision time, I may become a PHD, like a study idiot; or I may become crazy, then I am really an idiot. So it's good to have revision time, it's good to have exam pressure, but no, three weeks is enough.

Last weekend, I finished my first half marathon, 22 km within 1 hour and 50 minutes, actually I just set the 12km/h speed and kept running. It was so nice, and there was no pain at all that night, maybe it's because of Li Na's champion in French Open. That was such a day, I told my friend Li Na won and China had one day National holiday because of it, my friend was so surprised: ah, really? Oh come on, of course not. It was a National holiday, but not because of tennis, but many years ago someone's suicide.

Melbourne's winter is cold, yesterday it's said "feels like 0.2 degree", oh dear, I need some sunshine. I am wondering if the miserable is good excuse to stay in bed, but the examiner doesn't think so, I know. Okay, then keep going, for exams.

My Race Number is 135.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Tue, 24 May 2011 09:02:27 PDT

I registered and got my confirmation mail with my race number, so Melbourne Marathon is going to be my first marathon in this October.

Still till the time I paid, I was wondering if I need to register a half marathon, but no, I chose the full one. Since I am quite confident to do a half even now, if there is still 4 months left, why not give me a target more challenging?

Melbourne Marathon is more like a festival, everyone can join, they don't even have any requirements. On the enrolling form, I was asked the estimate time, I filled 7 hours, then they gave me a warning: you should familiarise the route by yourself. Okay I will.

So the next step is to keep training, I seriously downloaded a marathon app on my iPhone. And from next semester on, I will have to go outdoors, it seems everything will be as planned.

I called my previous colleague in China after I registered, she was the first one I knew to do regular marathon, and also the one who persuaded me to start trying. She was quite numb, maybe because she can't join and lose the chance to humiliate me personally by finishing it 3 hours earlier. Her base is HK Marathon, that's the one I'm interested too, hopefully one day I can race with her.

Need a reason for marathon? Very simple: if I can do something I never ever thought of before, then I'll have the courage for everything else.

Vegetarian Life.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Tue, 24 May 2011 08:40:09 PDT

I have been vegetarian for totally 3 years, yeah.

Vegetarian for me is just for health, or sort of health, many people once asked me the reason, I couldn't give them an answer. Not sure, but one year in the regular health check-up, I was diagnosed a fatty liver, very slightly. I asked the doctor the reason, she said you ate too much oily food and drank too much. I then asked what if I never drank or never ate oily food, she said you should eat less meat. I think this check-up was the direct reason for me to be a vegetarian, but not the only one.

Whenever I tell my eating habit to my friends, it's a problem for them to have meals with me in a restaurant. The next question they will ask is usually: so you eat fish, right? I was very curious of this question, so they thought fish was just plant, like seaweed? But it's definitely a common question of vegetarian, many people has this sense: meat is just from the animal on the land. But no, fish is also animal, so I don't eat them.

I was firstly asked "do you eat chives" in HK, my first reaction was: another nut. Probably it's more popular to have vegetarian restaurant in Melbourne, sometimes I'll see the description of the food in the menu, they will note: without chives, it must make sense then, I told myself. So I googled and found this interesting word "Jain vegetarianism", a rich Indian creature, they don't eat root vegetables, it's another branch of vegetarianism.

One more strict vegetarian is called vegan, they don't even have milk or egg. Oh come on, how can I have cereal in the morning without milk? I need the protein powder after gym too, so I am not a vegan.

Vegetarian is called lacto ovo on the airways, this is the first thing I learned ever since I was vegetarian, and Air China has good lacto ovo meal.

Many people doubt if people can survive without meat, actually we can, or I can. Do not say something about equality or environment, it's too far away, maybe just for health consideration, vegetarianism is not a bad choice.

Big or Small Church?

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:26:34 PDT

I went to a sort of big church for a few weeks, it's huge and with more young people, I really enjoyed it, however I felt a bit isolated, not so good.

It's always nice to have an enjoyable church to go, especially matching my time table on every Saturday. But big church has its own disadvantage, everyone seems very busy and no one cares me. I tried to send emails to the youth group leader but never got a reply. I remembered the family church I usually went when I was in China was not big, and whenever I went, the lady would greet to me. At that time I felt like one of the family members, even when I was not able to go to church, some one would call me. In a big church, I would never expect so, and it's everywhere, like the official churches in China is the same. From 2005-2006, that's the year I went to Chaoyang Church, every Sunday's worship was more than 3000 people, I didn't even know a person during those days.

I did try to go lots of churches here, when I lived in Caulfield I even went to an Anglican church, very special I should say but I will never go there again. I liked the BSF every Monday evening in Michum, very interesting group study and discussion but that's the time I should take lectures, not in the church.

Well I'm still on my way to find a good church for me, and I hope I can get one soon.

One More Step to Half Marathon.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:07:49 PDT

I always set my treadmill to 12 km/h, and I'm nearly getting used to one hour's running every day. Last weekend, I tried 13km/h for 1.5 hours, and it's nearly 16km totally, it's the longest distance I have even run.

Melbourne Marathon will be in this October, I don't know which one should I register on, a half-marathon or a full one. 21 km should be easy for me after 5 months, but I'm not sure I can survive 42 kms. As always, it's hard to choose. I checked last year's result, the slowest time in marathon of my age group (20-39) is 7 hours, it will be my target if I will take it. And if I choose a half one, I hope I can finish it within 2 hours.

I bought a e-book last week called running Bible, yes, everything has a Bible, even in a "looks boring" exercise - running. I also decided to run outdoors when it's warmer, maybe from this spring, it's good to enjoy the TV in the sports centre, but it will be more exciting outdoors I guess. There is a dog's park near Prince Highway, it will be my best place to run, by then I will play with dogs while running every morning, like what I did when I was 8 years old.

What does Business School Teach Us?

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sun, 08 May 2011 00:22:00 PDT

It's not easy to come back to the real life, everyday I drive to the campus, catch up the course and do the endless work. It's only 3 weeks left in this semester, I can feel I nearly didn't learn much. To avoid the exam time is certainly not the right attitude, so I have to go to lab when I am free, as usual.

In business school, one important part is group assignment, on one hand, lecturers will not spend too much time to review the work from everyone; on the other hand, it cultivates the so called group work ability. However, it is not always easy to find the right group members, because everything has their worn aims. In one assignment one Indian mate sent us his responsible part on the last day, we had no time to discuss it but to submit directly and that was finally marked 60% wrong. In the other management assignment another Indian guy didn't do anything and asked us to include his name in the submission, we refused and reported to the lecturer, probably he would fail because of this.

There are various of people in this world, I don't want to comment certain race or people, but I need to learn, learn something invisible in this relationship, something like: because you can't eliminate them, then you have to learn how to live with them. To illustrate, Australia is the racist country in the world, though people can't hear anything racial in the life, even the word like "African" or "Asian", this formal respect doesn't change the dislike, and people can still feel the discrimination everywhere. This is quite paradoxical as a person to behave, but as a technique to live in the society, it is quite necessary. The relationship among university colleagues is just a reflection of the society, sometimes even more complicated than the workplace, it's an art rather than anything else, and I have to learn.

There is a huge gap between the theory and the real life, and Business School only teach people how to face to the real life. This is the reason when I read the book about logical reasoning or Philosophy, I become much more peaceful. When I prepared my LSAT, I noticed a very good podcast "LSAT Logic in everyday life", unfortunately Princeton Review didn't update it anymore. I hope, just hope, in the future I can use what I have learned to analyse current news as well in my blog, this will clearly reflect the different thinking of law student and business student.

Familiar Stranger.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 07 May 2011 08:48:27 PDT

Today, I tried a radio service called Pandora, the entry page asked to list any favourite artist, and I typed Vienna Teng, just wanted to test if the service could identify indie music as well. Surprisingly, the next recommended song was Missy Higgins' Sugarcane. Oh, I nearly cried. Sugarcane, I firstly listened to this song back in 2008, at that time I was extremely busy everyday travelling in different cities and struggling if I need quit my job to study, on Youtube I saw the video of this song, a quite girl played the piano while singing this sugarcane, it was then repeated in my iPod for months. Music is magical, when people listen to the same song, it will never feel the same. But after many years, if a familiar song came out again, is it always accompanied with so many other familiar things?

After moving to this lonely country, I became lonely as well, or even more. Sometimes I count the people I meet in one day, only three or less can I talk to, and I sort of enjoy or have to adjust to this life, even though I don't know if this is what I want. Back in my university time, there was one song called "The Most Familiar Stranger", every girl liked to sing. I don't know the lyrics, but I think the title can well describe this kind of controversy. Change can be improving, also new thing that people are afraid to accept. Unchange can be something old-fashioned, but sometimes it is sweet.

New Zealand and those People.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:04:09 PDT

7 years ago I got an invitation to go to New Zealand, I refused it and dreamed my dream to England. Like any other dreams, England was just a dream, Australia finally became true, and New Zealand, I nearly forgot this country.

Till today my 8 day's Kiwi visit is nearly finished, I don't know what I can say to this country, what if someone else can help me?

Victoria Park, Auckland. I was sitting on a chair and watched a rugby training, one girl passed me by and asked if I could look after his bag for a while and she wanted to have a running. After jogging, she told me she was also from China, has been here for 9 years, she just hoped to stay here and not go back to China. This girl should be in my age, 9 years is really not a short time.

Courtney Place, Wellington. An English guy John with his guitar, he would be here for another week for an interview, he needed to get the job for a permanent resident visa. "I can easily find a job in Auckland, but I prefer Wellington, it feels like a home city." He played guitar for 15 years and it sounded great.

Starbucks, Queenstown. I asked the way to the supermarket, facing to an lady. She gave me a lift voluntarily, on the car she said her daughter came to Queenstown 10 years ago and met her future husband, she and her husband moved here 2 years later after their wedding. When I told her I booked a bungy jump, she excitingly told me she received a bungy gift from her son-in-law on a Mother's Day, they did that together. She was in her 60s, but when smiling she looked like a girl.

Rucksacker, Christchurch. Jorge was in the same room with me, he was from Argentina. His English sounded very Spanish and he couldn't understand my Chinese English either. He was here for a working holiday, and had to work from 3 pm to midnight everyday. He said he needed money and here he was better paid than his country. "Today I only slept for 4 hours." Jeorge was very Latin and looked like some football star.

I was lucky to see so many people in this country, also the Korean boy in Auckland, the American guy in Wellington, the Guernsey girl in Queenstown, the Brazilian girl in Queenstown airport, and the Kiwi lady on the plane to Christchurch. It's freezing outside now in the post-earthquake Christchurch, but when I'm typing, I feel so warm in heart, I guess it's because of a country's attraction?

What Podcast do I Listen to?

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 08:33:09 PDT

I like podcasts because I like radio, but podcast doesn't only have radio programs. In my iphone, I have about 10 podcasts, here are they:

1, From Our Own Correspondent: My favourite news program, BBC's correspondents have their time to talk their own stories far personal than the news.

2, Desert Island Discs: My favourite music show, due to the copyright, all the music only lasts 30 seconds, but well organised conversation is just a supplement. Christy Young sounds like an Irish, and many guests are American.

3, Naked Scientists: My only Science podcast, and it's not boring at all.

4, The Archers: Soap opera, I subscribed the omnibus version.

5, Unreported World: Channel 4's documentary program, there is an "Documentaries" from BBC, not bad either.

6, 10 O'clock Live: My only Comedy show, the debate after the news is always nice. American version from NPR is called Wait wait don't tell me and BBC's is Friday Comedy, but I think Channel 4's is the best.

7, Peter Day's World of Business: His voice is amazingly attractive, the business topics are also interesting.

8, This American Life: I should admit this is the best-made podcast forever, I can't wait to hear the new stories every Monday.

9, Stuff You Should Know: Knowledge podcast with a many interesting topics.

10, ChristChurch London: My Spiritual fertiliser every week.

Definitely BBC Radio 4 is my favourite radio station, still I'm trying to choose from as many resources as possible. For the reason of above 10, partly because I am quite Pro-British, even though US has more choices, I just don't like the accent. Besides, I only subscribe the weekly update podcast, more often or less regular is not acceptable.

Older and Wiser.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 08:24:56 PDT

On one of my birthdays when I was young, I was very sick, probably because of flu. Mum took me to a hospital, on the way back home, she bought me a small watermelon, I guess it was imported from Southeast Asia, very expensive. She used the knife to have a o-shaped cut and passed me a spoon, "the watermelon is yours, for your birthday." I remembered clearly I was very very happy on that day, so many years passed, it was like yesterday.

This must be the only thing I could recall for my birthday, as I am really not a birthday fan. As for the age, I used to like the age of 28, not too old, not too young. So when I just graduated, I liked to tell others I was 28. Gradually, I was closer and closer to this age, then it was my real age. Till today it's finally gone away from me, like all the previous ages.

People say, kids like to be older, while adults like to be younger, it's always the birthday wishes. I once do so, but not any more. There are so many things that can be done in any age, spend more time to what we can, no need to regret the past. Birthday, just like any other days, has nothing special.

I don't know who was the first one to wish me wiser for birthday, I like this wish. In Chinese culture, happiness and longevity are more often mentioned on birthday, but I really prefer the wiser one. Isn't it? Even if I were 80 years old, I still have something happy, even I am old, I am wiser too.

Happy birthday to myself.

Sports Fan.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 07:51:44 PDT

Talking about Cricket, I know it's boring. The match is normally long and sometime in ages, I have no interests to have even one eye on this. However this sport is extremely popular in British colonies. This TED talk was posted last year, the gentleman explained why Indians like cricket, ridiculous? Definitely not. But if anyone thinks cricket has nothing to do with colony, I would disagree. At least in Hong Kong, I saw people playing cricket, in the play field in Hong Kong Island, crazy Hong Konger.

Anyway, as part of the history, colony passed and sport became a culture thing. I don't know how to define sports popularity in a country, certainly badminton and table tennis is popular in China for instance, because Chinese is good at them. Occasionally, this popularity will help the development of a certain sport and make it more popular, such as basketball, there is even Chinese basketball player in NBA now. But what about football? Chinese football team is like shit but still so many people like to watch, what's the reason behind it? Someone needs to study it.

Since I moved to Melbourne, Australian football became the only sport in my life. Newspaper, internet, daily talk, there is no other sports but foot. I was quite against it in the first few months, as I really didn't see any skill or aesthetic sense in this activity. But I agree people can change, and I am always a good example. For everybody is footy fan, in the common room I may sometimes watch footy game with them. Gradually I found watching people running around a oval ball for hours is kind of funny thing, maybe that's the reason people like footy? Probably no, but I know care, at least I found the footy is interesting, maybe I need to find a team to support?

Wrong Way, Go Back.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:23:50 PDT

Wrong Way, Go back is a signpost that always hides behind another one. I can see it anywhere in Melbourne, even on campus. Sometimes I think this warning is quite funny, if there are other signs to tell people what is the right way, how can people drive into the wrong way? But I saw a car, today, really came to the wrong way, then the driver saw the sign, stopped, and went back. Suddenly I kind of understood why this signpost should exist, even though it's clear what is right, often people tend to go to the wrong way for any reasons. Till they are reminded again, they won't be back to the right way.

What a simple theory, I never think about it before. However, people cannot always see this kind of reminding. In reality, facing different kinds of choices, it's difficult to make any decisions. Then if the first step were wrong, sadly there would be no such kind of signposts to expect as on the road. Undoubtedly many people just keep going and never give up, and they never know they are wrong.

Long long time ago, I discussed this question with someone, which types of questions do you prefer in the exams, multi-choice or questions? The answer was unanimous: multi-choice is the nightmare in any exam, though it will never miss any exam.

Well, luckily we can correct, like we can correct the exam answers, like the two sons story in Bible, we can always review ourselves and make a wise progress. There is nothing wrong to persist, just sometimes we need change.

BBC stopped its Mandarin Broadcasts.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 22:04:15 PDT

On 25Mar11, BBC stopped the Mandarin Broadcasts, after nearly 70 years, because of the budget cut from the British government.

It was really a sad news to me. When I was in Primary school, radio was always my best friend, not only the local FM program, but also the shortwave stations. At that time, there were many Mandarin broadcasting stations, such as BBC, VOA, and RFI. Personally I liked KBS, CBS and BBC the most. KBS, from Korea, had only one hour Chinese broadcasting a day, but very attractive, I even wrote to them to seek for pen-pals, not so many wrote to me though. CBS was from Taipei, it had its 24 hours Mandarin service. Its news in 1990s was quite interesting, Beijing was called Beiping, and Chinese Government was called Chinese Communist Party, fairly different from Chinese news, but the way they spoke Chinese were sweet. Then the following is my favourite BBC, different from the stations from small countries, BBC had lots of programs in China News, so did VOA, RFI and Radio Australia. During those days, VOA had huge reports against Chinese government, whenever I listened to it, it's like I lived in the hell. So from the first day on, I don't like VOA till it was ended in last month. Whereas BBC was quite different, it has negative and critical news on one hand, but lots of suggestive discussions as well, I should say it's quite neutral in many ways. I knew some rare news in those days because of BBC, for example the Tiananmen Massacre, Culture revolution review, Gay rights in China, which were nearly taboos in China. Undoubtfully in many ways BBC changed my ideology, into a broad and tolerante way. Also from the Radio, I knew God and Bible from the Gospel stations, and this belief never changed till now. My small radio was accompanied me till high school, after that I went to Beijing for university, where most of the short wave radio stations receptions were not good, but still full of joy whenever I had chance to listen to them back to my parents.

Until graduation and went to work, I started to listen to English programs more and more. I also changed the way from radio to Podcast via mobile phone. I admit compared with Internet and TV, radio listeners are less and less, and it might be a right choice to stop the broadcasting service, however it's like my childhood's toy was stolen, though it's old and no one cares about it but my precious memory was far far away.

Today I listened to BBC last hour's Mandarin program online, when the host said goodbye, it's a real and painful goodbye. 70 years is like a human's age, if a person is passed away, perhaps he can disappear in a same way. Take care BBC Mandarin Broadcast, I will miss you.

Cairns, North Queensland.

noreply@blogger.com (Isaac Wang) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 19:44:05 PDT

I can't say it's a good idea to have a holiday, even it's only 3 days, in the middle of the semester, as I had to catch up a lot when I was back last week, though I enjoyed Cairns a lot.

Gold Cost was once the only place I've been to in Queensland, but Cairns is definitely far more "Queensland". In the postcards I bought here, every piece was titled "North Queensland", showing its unique. It's not a big city, with few people, but very relaxed. On the second day when I was on the way to the pier, for the first time I saw so many indigenous Australians on the street. I thought they were Africans at first, then I recalled some programs on TV, usually the aboriginals would introduce themselves "I was born in Queensland", then these people must be Indigenous Australians. They looked quite similar to African Black, but the hair was not as hard as them, also with a bigger mouth. Most of them didn't work, just wandered on the streets, or stared at the visitors, occasionally someone would followed me for a minute then disappeared. Thousands of years ago, if I was not wrong, this land was once belonged to them, now they seemed quite isolated from the mainstream, what did they think of the Europeans, and the new Asian immigration? I didn't know and I didn't want to know at that time, just kept away from them.

In Green Island, the nearest island in Great barrier reef, for the first time, surprisingly again, I saw so many Japanese, sorry I've never been to Japan. All the signposts on the tropical island were written in English and Japanese, so ass-kissing. When I saw these two language at the same time, even shocked by myself, I would normally read Japanese first, seemed I didn't lose my Japanese talent totally.

After this trip, there is only one place I will need to visit before I leave this country, that is Alice Springs. I need to buy a tent and sleep bag for this place too, probably late in this year.