Amazing Indian choreography from UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley 2010 dance competition, the Indian choreography won the first prize.

The Indian dances are amazingly awesome... I ♥ crazy Indian people....

Now that I know how to "embed" videos, here post some more Indian dancing vidoes of us... :D

This is Raj, Moritz and me in Paris, had some fun in our room :)




This is Berkeley students dancing at Holi celebration :)




And this is my favorite...A tribute to M.J. while we were in Paris with Moritz :P

The Earth Day

I wrote something in Chinese this morning, not as happy as what I always write in English.

It's just that I'm a very moody and fluctuated girl, sometimes extremely pessimistic, sometimes extremely optimistic, when I'm sad, I'm extremely sad, when I'm high, I'm extremely high, when I'm hungry, I eat extremely large amount of food. In short, all the animal emotions are having their extreme terms in me.

So guys don't worry about me, I'm a tough angry crazy Chinese young lady who has very strong arms and legs, and trying to grow a strong heart too... :) And thank you so much (Angela) for your special support !!! I love ya :)

Today is the Earth Day, Raj and I don't celebrate it, because we live in Earth Day almost everyday. We don't have a car, we use man force transportation - bicycle and feet; I scold Raj very hard for leaving lights or water not switched off immediately after usage; we don't use too much heater if it's not truly necessary (also for the bills); and we don't eat beef and pork, only chicken once a week maximum; we never take unnecessary medicine like vitamin ABCDE or fish oil. The only thing is we travel by flight quite often since right now both of us live in a foreign country.

So my friends, please don't just celebrate the Earth Day for 24 hours and forget about it for the other 364 days, the life style of Americans is not sustainable for the planet, and now the Chinese and the other developing countries' people are following up in a even worse pace. Be tough for yourselves and always be aware that maybe our mother earth is reaching her limit, if our generation don't change the trend, things could be out of control.

Ok, I am going to enjoy my orange we bought in Whole Food for $0.49/lb...I love orange so much that at least I would eat 3 oranges at the same time...

:)

Some great news and summer plan

Today's headline: Raj and Momo fall in love with getting tanned on the beach...

Well, this is not actually a news and is not so great cause a yellow and a brown who love to burn themselves on the sand shouldn't use the verb "tan", but "blacken".

OK, toady's real headline: Amanda got into one of the Ivy League institutions - Columbia University, graduate school, Latin America studies.

Amanda is the first mutual friend of Raj and me (it was also because Amanda went back home for weekend so that Raj found out an empty room... anyways...), we all spent an unbelievable summer in Berkeley I-House, year 2008. For kids like Raj and I who come from loud and crowded countries like India and China, Amanda is different from what the American girls "should be" according to American soaps and movies. What is the difference? I can't accurately describe, but I love the sincere way she treats her friends, I love her messy dorm, I love her talkative and energetic Philipiono mom and the backyard farm they have.

Somehow I envy a lot their little farm at backyard. Amanda's parents are taking care of all kinds of vegetables, they are also feeding about 15 chickens and collecting their eggs...The vegetables and eggs come from their farm are so different from the ones in supermarket, no matter labeled "organic" or not, they are fresher, greener, goldener and juicer.

Last time Mrs. Bradshaw brought us a box of fresh eggs from her farm, this made me so happy because my mom also loves to buy me "local eggs" (土鸡蛋) from farms where chickens have standing life and successful crow. Industrialization, even eggs are industrialized...Anyways, so each time when I opened the box, I touched each one of the eggs very carefully, picked up one, smelled it, since this could bring me back to my childhood memories when I was playing around with cats dogs crickets and carpenter worms at my grandma's garden.

This is beloved Amanda cuddling her beloved chicken.

Mrs. Bradshaw and I are making spring rolls - Philipiono style :)

It is indeed a fruitful season, dozens friends are admitted by more than one top universities worldwide. I-house gangsters Shailabh, Suman, Gourab, Raj's other friends from IIT and Bokaro. Although I don't really know all the details, also they still need some more time to make the final decision, I would like to say congratulations to all of them :)

Raj's friends are mostly top ranked engineers in India even the whole world, if possible, lots of them would love to get out of India for different reasons, temporarily or permanently. It is almost the same situation in China. Recent years more and more scientists and engineers went back to China since the Chinese economics's ability of absorbing talents has improved. I wish India is embracing the same progress so that these smart ass IITians could actually pay some more valuable tributes back to India other than direct foreign investments.

But somehow, I am more worried about China in the sense of absorbing talents besides scientists and engineers, for example, independent journalists, film makers, writers and artists. Ironically, it is usually this kind of "idle" people who give history a big kick once a while. Can China move in the right direction without consulting them? Can China stubbornly maintain the same attitude towards them? How long it would last? I wish within my life time, I could find out the answers.

Ohh, and our summer plan !

China and India !!

Would be my second time to visit India and Raj's first time to visit China. There are already a few Raj's friends have confirmed that they would come and join us in New Delhi and around. Yeeeeee, I am so excited to meet them and see Delhi with them !!!

For Raj, I would most probably show him Xia Men, the very fine city at the coast, take him to eat a lot the Chinese food and I won't forget to show my Chinese lady friends the rare animal - an Indian boyfriend.

Colorful life - the Holi in bay area and Santa Crutz trip :)

Besides lying on the sunny beach, dancing with crazy Indian people, surfing the internet from our cozy apartment (with a heater while it's windy outside) is also a luxury in my life, especially when my reading and editing preference is having effect on some readers.

Everything has its own price, for me, doing the things I like or being with the people I love has its highest price than other things in my life. I have seen a lot of giving-ups, it's called "being practical or realistic". I seem like driving my life train in an opposite direction, never tasted the so-called success as being in strong financial position or strong social position (like my finance department peers back in Xiamen U). But the surprising thing is, I am feeling good (if not moody). Maybe after all we are just human beings, the happiness mainly comes from the things which touch your heart, such as the things you like to do or the people you love.

I never know the taste of success after giving up the man I love, but right now I am feeling the happiness of being with the man I love, and because of the choice, now I have the chance to make my own career out of the things I truly like to do. See, I am redefining the word "success" in my own way no matter what the society told me.

Maybe sometimes most of the people are blind, but the majority keeps accusing the sober ones to make them feel that they are wrong, you never know...

The only truth is: you have to be tough and have faith in yourself !

I am grateful for the people who encouraged me, there are not many and I will remember them one by one, one sentence by one sentence. It's also kinda like building up a psychological community myself, I will tag this community as "sober", adjust the definition through experience and time, and use it as a lighthouse for my life journey in the sea.

But you know, I am also very happy to be around with different people even the ones who disagree, they are also the colors of my life :)

Talking about color, it's Holi time!!!

Spring break we went to Standford for Holi. Standford's Holi is the biggest Holi celebration also one of the biggest Indian affairs in bay area, thousands came, well organized and Indian family involved, guess there are just too many Indians living around Standford and Silicon Valley. Here are some pictures:

My first Holi !!!

seeeee... evidence !!!!!
see the horrible horrible couple...
Bros in Standford: Nishank and Madhur!!!
Me being colored !! :D
As Raj says: the two people change the world. (changed and will change hopefully:)
yoooo Standford bros :)
See the crazy Indians ....!!!
This is where we got the colors :)

The crazy Indian guys jumped into the freezing Standford fountain after dancing with colors... :) Indians are crazy, I LOVE them :)

Also we went to the Berkeley Holi yesterday. Berkeley Holi was very nice as well, more of a student's affair, less people due to the limited space but more awesome dances. As you can see, Holi everywhere !!! :) Here are some pictures:

See Raj and crazy Sravan :)

That is me riding on Raj's neck!!! :D
hehehhe
Raj --> traditional Indian dancer
That was before we were colored :)

People getting high :)

Berkeley bro Debu Da is carrying his friend... :)

And during the spring break Raj drove me to Santa Crutz !!

After 6 hour beginner's training, Raj decided to drive me to Santa Cruz beaches for a one day trip, also a part of his driving practice to get a license. I haven't checked how the road would be, when we arrived at Pacific Highway 1, I got totally scared...

see the beautiful views.....

this is when we crash into the flowers

The fact is even experienced drivers would be very careful when they drive on Pacific Highway 1, no need to mention Raj, who had never drove any car before. He did a lot of "too much right", "too middle", "too sudden stop" for the first half an hour, severe enough to make me start screaming.....and then, I suddenly found out what "the most beautiful highway" really is.....

The world's most ridiculous couple in the world's most shockingly beautiful highway....

After all, Raj is a very talented driver so that we didn't crash into the Pacific, just got horned by loads of cars. And of course after my non-stop Chinglish shouting of "slow down", "too sudden turns","more steady", Raj figured out that he should adjust his vision a little bit further...

So somehow we arrived, saw the hidden beach, got tanned and had some fun :P And on the way back home, Raj already became an experienced driver who doesn't need my shout...

So people, Enjoy Your Life !!!!! :D