Happy Wesak Day

Another year goes by where Wesak Day is just another day. This is one of the season that makes Ping homesick. There's ahmah's birthday in April. Wesak Day and mummy's day in May. Ping's b'day and daddy's day in June. It is rare that Ping can make it home for any of these occasions, or any occasions at all. Usually gotta decide which occasian Ping wanna go home for. Yeah, cannot be tham sim but .....

It's Wesak Day today. Didn't even go to the temple this past weekend. Just the thought of driving for 1.5 hr to Detroit or 45 mins to the Thai temple is enough to not feel like going. Okay, maybe it is all about effort. If Ping really wants to go, irregardless of how long the drive is, Ping would have gone. But driving is not one of Ping's favorite thing to do.

It's been a while. Ping miss the big huha over the Wesak float, lighting the candles, the 'laujuakness', the cheerful spirit and simply doing stuff with Li Foong and Sze Huey. (By the way, Li Foong, thanks a bunch for the card and the postcard!! Keep a look out for one going your way!) But really, does it matter? What is Wesak Day anyway? Isn't it more important to be practicing the Buddha's teaching everyday?

But Ping just can't help feeling homesick. Called home last night. One of the rare times when ahdik is also home and everyone was spending time together. They were on their way to Air Itam ahmah's house. That means that everyone is going to be there. True, whenever Ping goes home, there's usually big gatherings. But for the rest of the year, Ping just can't help feeling left out.

Anyway, Happy Wesak Day to all that celebrates it. May the Triple Gem be with you always.

As for Ping, let this be a night to ponder over one of Buddha's last teaching - Nothing is permanent - Tomorrow will be a new beginning....like the trees that were bald a couple days ago and is blooming today.

end of semester

Yippee!! No more classes to take!! Yup, Ping is done with coarse work. There's good and bad. At this point, Ping is just happy to get to focus on research only. It's been quite an adventurous semester but it's the worst semester since Ping enrolled for grad school. Maybe it is "kha khi chui su" for taking so many coarse work and also teaching assignments AND be on the graduate recruiting committee. Ping learned a lot but Ping was not very good at juggling all of it because the one thing that suffers is the one thing that is most important to Ping at this point. 結果呢? Ping disappoints herself.

It feels like the door has disappeared. Feels like 钻牛角尖. Spent the weekend reading about Big Gorilla. Why does something that seems to exciting can be so discouraging when you are the one doing it? It's like the Fear Factor that we watch on tv. Wow, that must be really exciting. But when you are the participant, you just want to get out of it. Ping could go on reading and the ending is often 'wow'! It is pretty new when you think about it in the way of microbial ecology and the impact of Big Gorilla on nutrient cycling. But why when Ping think about the next Ping has to do or when Ping sits down and write about the experimental design, the only thing on the piece of paper in front of Ping is "Hypothesis: Approach: " Yup, that's it. Lots of things passes by the mind but they just don't linger long enough to be written down. It's like a ping-pong game going on in there. Maybe this....Nah...How about this...Don't think so... Aih...烦死了!

Anyway, besides that, Ping is still glad to have time to hang out with Ping's girl friends on Friday nights. We went to the mall this past weekend and saw Spartan Toyato's showcase. Saw this car and thought of ahdik. Seen this before in M'sia? Looks like the beginning of your name..don't know how they pronounce it though.
Also like the Toyota Yaris...should be more popular in M'sia now too right? Like it? Give me "Chap sar Cheng bee kok lui" then cici get you one. Hahahaha...
Also went shopping at Kohls. Ping could usually find some clothes, usually have to decide which one to buy but this trip, Ping wasn't really into shopping so didn't really look. Just wanted to spend time with friends. But in the end, Ping found a nice dress and laughed a lot. *grins*

Will write more once things get back on track. No worries...Ping will see the sun again...just don't know when. It'll be much better now. The only thing that Ping have to think about is research!!