Catch 21
Another month gone by, another year gone by. On Wednesday of the past week was my 21st birthday. Unlike past years however, especially last year, this year I did not have time to think about my birthday, in fact, I don't think it has sunk in yet that my age is now 21. The past week or so I've been troubled by assignments and some other things. In fact, there was an assignment due right on my birthday and I was rushing to get it finished before that day.
I had an early class on my birthday. I got up early, just like another week, did my morning rituals then headed downstairs. It wasn't until then that I noticed that it was my birthday. I don't know what I was thinking, I don't think I was. I was there, waiting for my breakfast to heat up in the microwave, looked outside the kitchen window, saw my dog there waiting for his breakfast, and suddenly realised it was my birthday, really weird.
Not many of my friends knew it was my birthday. I'm not one of those who goes around gloating to everybody. One remembered and then some others learnt of that news. Come to think of it, that was the only "Happy Birthday" I got. That never happens around the house either, just like any other day, even though we did go out to dinner later at night. Actually, a friend rang me and I reminded her that it was my birthday, so that's two, kinda. We went to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant that we went to a month ago when my parents were gone. I really liked it last time but this time it wasn't as good, I point my finger to my parents' presence. They were so negative, so cheap. The chef there was cooking the food in front of us, and there my mum keeps on asking me how he's cooking this, how he's cooking that, and then finally saying he cooks everything the same, always asking stupid questions and saying stupid things. We never say anything when we have dinner, anywhere. There was a couple across from us, and on the way home in the car my dad said, 'That girl across from us looks familiar, I think I've seen her before.' Then came the pathetic pathetic response from my mum, 'You just saw her in the restaurant.' She's so good at doing things like that, or somebody saying something, disagree, rephrase it, and claim it as her own, I've seen it way too many times before and I'm totally sick of it.
Last night, Friday night, like usual, we have people over at our place for dinner. It's either them coming over or us going there, it happens alternately. They're my parents' friends from uni who moved to Sydney about six months before us. They're alright, I don't particularly love their company but meh, you know what I mean. We bought a cake for my birthday. Of course, I had the responsibility of cutting the cake. After I cut it, my bossy brother told me to leave the plates down so my mum can put the pieces on. I was holding them before, it didn't make a difference, but he has to have everything his way and his way is the best. WHO CARES!!! It's cake, as long as they get put onto plates and get eaten then everybody's happy! I wasn't. Earlier that evening he did a job with setting up dinner that's usually mine. He did a shitty job. Heaven knows why he went and did it, it was a shitty job. Yes, shitty, very shitty. He was pouring soup from a jug that gets rid of excess oil. Me, I like to pour them all on the bench top and then bring them over to the table, while every time I do it he'll be saying that it's easier to not pour until the bowls are at the table. Fine, he did it his way this time, and there was little room to maneuver because of other stuff already on the table, not only that, the soup was dripping everywhere and the table and bowls had to be wiped. If I had done it normally my way, there would not have been a single drop because I know the jug always will have one drip after every pour and have a cloth ready at the mouth of the jug. With those events happening at the beginning of dinner, he still persisted on bringing the jug over at the end of dinner with the leftover soup. Once again, things were in the way and he still dripped everywhere, when I poured mine and my mum's, no drops, no cloth. Me win, he loses.
I hate it when people walk around extremely slowly, and then standing there just waiting there for one person. It happened on Thursday when I stayed back to do a group assignment. We walked to Chinatown to have lunch at 4pm. I had eaten mine at a much more regular time of 11.30am. The walking pace was at least half of my normal speed. They were talking about crap, so ignorant, they know jack. Many of them have been in Australia for much longer than I have and yet they know so little of the basic Australian culture. They insist in everything Asian even though half of them can't read their respective languages, or let alone speak it properly. Don't get me started with their 'English'. While we were in one of our 'stands', someone complained about having to later waste five minutes walking back to the computer lab to do work. If we weren't walking so slowly and then standing there for no reason, we could've saved ourselves a lot more time. I had no idea why a few of them persevered into going to this certain foodcourt to eat, when there were exactly the same stuff available much closer. All that so save themselves twenty cents or so, while I got myself an icecream.
I've always found myself to be different. I'm very strong minded. If I'm not happy about something or someone it will take a lot - a lot of convincing to shift my mind just a little bit. I know I am part of a minority, actually a minority within a minority. I love the Australian way of life. On Tuesday it was the race that stops a nation - The Melbourne Cup. Every year I watch it on tv at home and cheer along. This time around I had class but I went to the bar to watch with the crowd as soon as class was done. I cheered on the majestic Makybe Diva who was going for a history making third straight Cup. The Diva pulled it off and became the only horse in the Cup's history to win three times, let alone three consecutive years. When i got upstairs where some of my 'friends' were, they were talking about the Cup, they saw the results online and it looked like that the only thing that they cared was that the horse they had betted on did not win or get a place, and had wasted $50. So greedy, so shallow. I hate this influx of ignorant people, especially in universities. I loved my highschool and New Paltz because it truly reflected multiculturalism, everybody's happy. There were people from all over the world and yet no particular race dominates. Sydney is being flooded with more and more Asians and now I see stores opened by them, and obviously for them. Why is it that they have to do things their own way? It is clear in a lot of cities in the world that people have changed the environment to suit themselves, while I believe it's much better for people to change to suit the environment. That way there would be a lot less potential conflict, stereotyping and discrimination. However, I don't think my philosophy will ever be adopted because I haven't met many who share that philosophy. Oh what a surprise, I'm in another minority!
I had an early class on my birthday. I got up early, just like another week, did my morning rituals then headed downstairs. It wasn't until then that I noticed that it was my birthday. I don't know what I was thinking, I don't think I was. I was there, waiting for my breakfast to heat up in the microwave, looked outside the kitchen window, saw my dog there waiting for his breakfast, and suddenly realised it was my birthday, really weird.
Not many of my friends knew it was my birthday. I'm not one of those who goes around gloating to everybody. One remembered and then some others learnt of that news. Come to think of it, that was the only "Happy Birthday" I got. That never happens around the house either, just like any other day, even though we did go out to dinner later at night. Actually, a friend rang me and I reminded her that it was my birthday, so that's two, kinda. We went to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant that we went to a month ago when my parents were gone. I really liked it last time but this time it wasn't as good, I point my finger to my parents' presence. They were so negative, so cheap. The chef there was cooking the food in front of us, and there my mum keeps on asking me how he's cooking this, how he's cooking that, and then finally saying he cooks everything the same, always asking stupid questions and saying stupid things. We never say anything when we have dinner, anywhere. There was a couple across from us, and on the way home in the car my dad said, 'That girl across from us looks familiar, I think I've seen her before.' Then came the pathetic pathetic response from my mum, 'You just saw her in the restaurant.' She's so good at doing things like that, or somebody saying something, disagree, rephrase it, and claim it as her own, I've seen it way too many times before and I'm totally sick of it.
Last night, Friday night, like usual, we have people over at our place for dinner. It's either them coming over or us going there, it happens alternately. They're my parents' friends from uni who moved to Sydney about six months before us. They're alright, I don't particularly love their company but meh, you know what I mean. We bought a cake for my birthday. Of course, I had the responsibility of cutting the cake. After I cut it, my bossy brother told me to leave the plates down so my mum can put the pieces on. I was holding them before, it didn't make a difference, but he has to have everything his way and his way is the best. WHO CARES!!! It's cake, as long as they get put onto plates and get eaten then everybody's happy! I wasn't. Earlier that evening he did a job with setting up dinner that's usually mine. He did a shitty job. Heaven knows why he went and did it, it was a shitty job. Yes, shitty, very shitty. He was pouring soup from a jug that gets rid of excess oil. Me, I like to pour them all on the bench top and then bring them over to the table, while every time I do it he'll be saying that it's easier to not pour until the bowls are at the table. Fine, he did it his way this time, and there was little room to maneuver because of other stuff already on the table, not only that, the soup was dripping everywhere and the table and bowls had to be wiped. If I had done it normally my way, there would not have been a single drop because I know the jug always will have one drip after every pour and have a cloth ready at the mouth of the jug. With those events happening at the beginning of dinner, he still persisted on bringing the jug over at the end of dinner with the leftover soup. Once again, things were in the way and he still dripped everywhere, when I poured mine and my mum's, no drops, no cloth. Me win, he loses.
I hate it when people walk around extremely slowly, and then standing there just waiting there for one person. It happened on Thursday when I stayed back to do a group assignment. We walked to Chinatown to have lunch at 4pm. I had eaten mine at a much more regular time of 11.30am. The walking pace was at least half of my normal speed. They were talking about crap, so ignorant, they know jack. Many of them have been in Australia for much longer than I have and yet they know so little of the basic Australian culture. They insist in everything Asian even though half of them can't read their respective languages, or let alone speak it properly. Don't get me started with their 'English'. While we were in one of our 'stands', someone complained about having to later waste five minutes walking back to the computer lab to do work. If we weren't walking so slowly and then standing there for no reason, we could've saved ourselves a lot more time. I had no idea why a few of them persevered into going to this certain foodcourt to eat, when there were exactly the same stuff available much closer. All that so save themselves twenty cents or so, while I got myself an icecream.
I've always found myself to be different. I'm very strong minded. If I'm not happy about something or someone it will take a lot - a lot of convincing to shift my mind just a little bit. I know I am part of a minority, actually a minority within a minority. I love the Australian way of life. On Tuesday it was the race that stops a nation - The Melbourne Cup. Every year I watch it on tv at home and cheer along. This time around I had class but I went to the bar to watch with the crowd as soon as class was done. I cheered on the majestic Makybe Diva who was going for a history making third straight Cup. The Diva pulled it off and became the only horse in the Cup's history to win three times, let alone three consecutive years. When i got upstairs where some of my 'friends' were, they were talking about the Cup, they saw the results online and it looked like that the only thing that they cared was that the horse they had betted on did not win or get a place, and had wasted $50. So greedy, so shallow. I hate this influx of ignorant people, especially in universities. I loved my highschool and New Paltz because it truly reflected multiculturalism, everybody's happy. There were people from all over the world and yet no particular race dominates. Sydney is being flooded with more and more Asians and now I see stores opened by them, and obviously for them. Why is it that they have to do things their own way? It is clear in a lot of cities in the world that people have changed the environment to suit themselves, while I believe it's much better for people to change to suit the environment. That way there would be a lot less potential conflict, stereotyping and discrimination. However, I don't think my philosophy will ever be adopted because I haven't met many who share that philosophy. Oh what a surprise, I'm in another minority!