Jia You

These are my students during their basketball tournament here in GIST, Suzhou Science and Technology Town, Suzhou, China. Guys, Ja yo! go go go!

A Whole New World: Charice and Kyu Hyun

Filipino and Korean Talents: I just love them! Their voices are great...enjoy the video!



(I've changed some of the words and phrases of this song)

I'm in a whole new world.
A new fantastic place to go.
A dazzling place I never knew.
Somebody please tell me where to go.

I'm like a shooting star,
I've come so far, and I can always go back
to where I used to be.
This new world is a dream come true.

The Lion King: "Hakuna Matata"

The Lion King , a 1994 Disney animated film, is a very good movie. I first watched this movie way back in 1990s, but I haven't had the chance to appreciate some lines in the movies since I couldn't apply the story to my life. I watched this movie again today just to pass the time. When I watched it before, I just appreciated the work of animation and of course the story but it never made me cry. Today, I was so into it that I realized I was crying when Simba's father died and when he thought that his father was no longer with him. Simba was guilty about his father's death. In my case, I felt sorry that I wasn't able to help my father survived from pancreatic cancer and I felt too weak that I was there watching him took his last breath. Just like Simba, I felt that it was so unfair for him to leave me and my family without giving me the chance to pay him back what he has done to me and to my family. I only wish that he had lived longer and see the fruits of his efforts and his wish to give us all a brighter future. In this movie, Rafiki, the wise monkey said, "You can either run from your past or learn from it". In order to forget the pain in the past I tried to run, went to another city and built a new life. I met good friends and got a good job so things were good. I still remember the past and sometimes thinking about it still hurts. It's true that we can't change what happened in the past what we can do is learn from it and continue to live. This movie also emphasizes about the cycle of life, everyone is an important part of a food chain. We may be eating animals while we are still alive, but when we die our bodies will decay and parasites' turn to eat us and once grasses will grow from our grave other herbivores will be happy to feast them. Everything is so natural and everything must come to an end.
The line "Hakuna Matata" means no worries for the rest of your days. It is a Swahili language (called Kiswahili in the language itself) is the first language of the Swahili people (Waswahili), who inhabit several large stretches of the Indian Ocean coastline from Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoros Islands(wikipedia). Simba learned to live a carefree life with this Philosophy who his friends taught him. Sometimes, it's too easy to say that we should not worry and just think about the present without thinking about the past and our future. Yet, according to some research a normal person spends almost 90% of his life worrying about things that don't actually happen. We can't help but worry about our future and we worry about the things around us. For me it is a natural thing to worry, we can't just live and don't care about what will happen to us or to others because of our actions in the past. It's good to worry since it helps us prepare for things, but worrying to much is bad. We should enjoy life, worry less, plan for the best and be prepared for what will happen in the future. As the saying goes, "I'll cross the bridge when I get there." Sometimes no matter how hard we try to get something done or to make something happen, it won't just happen the way we wanted it to be. Things are in balance and everything that happens, happens for a reason. Nature has way of making things happen. I think "Hakuna Matata" is a good philosphy, but we should not forget our dreams, for what we do today will have a great impact of what we'll be in the future. Seize the day, life is too short to worry to much...

I Felt So Homesick Because...

This week is a National holiday here in China. The school is so quite that you could even hear the birds chirping. Most of the students and other teachers have gone home for the holiday. I wish them a safe trip and send my regards to their families. Everyone seemed so excited about the idea of going home and spending 9 days with their love ones. It didn't occur to me that I would feel so homesick after seeing them get on the bus. I went to my room and tried to tell myself that everything will be alright. I opened my email and glad to see an email from a very close friend with some of her recent pictures in South Korea.
















The photos are really beautiful and all are new scenes to me. After viewing all the pictures, it made me realized that I am so far away from home and so far away from her. That's how I became so homesick and one thing I realized, crying is good when we missed someone and our homes, but no matter how many buckets of tears we shed it won't change a thing.(Just a waste of water and tissue paper hehehe)I maybe homesick, but it doesn't mean that I have some regrets about my decision in coming here in China. Everything is great here and I would love to be home if given the chance but I would still be coming back because the people here are so kind, I will miss my new friends (Bianca, Belinda, Thomas, Oliver, Rock, Sammy, Lily, little Lily, and Aurora) my students are waiting for me and being here in China is a "Dream Come True".