i came home from lunch to find that meifay has sent a hysterically funny mass mail about her first night clubbing in california. the thing about her emails is that she writes like she talks and you can hear the surprise and indignation in her voice in every exclamation mark she types. boy that is one funny woman. actually i hadn't even known that meifay was in the states is it not term time at leeds still or at least su-lin appears to be writing essays and going to classes. why is it people like yeen teck and meifay always have the dodgiest and wild experiences? i must make more friends like that :)

met two grad students in the dining hall who asked to sit with me. they're first year grads in the computer science department from china and we had an interesting time discussing how language changes over time/geog, for instance yu3 hang2 yuan2 and tai kong ren for astronaut, and zi xing che and jia ta che for bicycle. a bicycle, afterall, doesn't zi xing, yes? it has to be pedalled! now if cars were called zi xing che that would make sense. teehee. a pleasant experience, but i had meant to eat alone and get some thinking and reading done. in fact, i hadn't particularly wanted lunch, i went to the dining hall for the express purpose of reading, so i left feeling somewhat thwarted.

oh yeah, addy asks if anyone knows the opening song used in stanley kwan's centre stage and can let her know.

it is still snowing.

i should write my paper.

distracted.