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shannalyzethis
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Name: Shanna
Gender: Female
Interests: traveling, eating, cooking, blogging, shopping, fashion, making jewelry, karaoke, listening to music, watching Chinese soap operas
Occupation: Accounting/Finance
Industry: Technology
Message: message me
Member Since:
5/26/2006
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| Wow, I haven't had any time to myself for a long, long time. I am actually extremely, extremely stressed out right now, but I am so beyond the point of stressed that I need to first unwind before I can do anything. I have an exam on Monday morning, and I have not started studying for it at all. Work has been overwhelming, and I have been working around 14-15 hours every week day for the last 2.5 weeks. I also went to the office today, as well as last Saturday, before I flew to Hong Kong. I am physically and mentally exhausted.
Whew. ok, it feels great to let it all out. Good old blog.
I'm not going to start studying until tomorrow. I just can't do it. Good luck to me.
On a much more positive note, I committed to CYC 2009 this week. CAN'T WAIT. :)
I am still trying to stay positive, although the physical fatigue and the intensity at work is making it increasingly difficult to do so. I will continue trying, nevertheless.
Last, but not least, I want to go back to Taiwan. | | |
| Overwhelmed and exhausted by work. I'm trying to keep positive. I can do this.
Also, I will not graduate on time. The scheduling just doesn't work out with a lot of the classes I need to take being on weekday nights. I will have to take one final elective class in the fall rather than finishing with all my classes by the end of summer. I'm ok with this...it's just that I'll be alone since my classmates will have graduated. ok, I need to keep positive on this too.
Positivity, positivity, positivity. | | |
| Current location: Seoul, South Korea
I arrived here last night for a business trip this week. This is my first time back in 2+ years. All the familiarity. And all the unfamiliarity. It feels awesome to be back.  | | |
| 25 Random Things About Me
I posted this on Facebook. However, I am also posting this here because it is important to me to keep my blog as my preferred method of mass communication to the world.
1. I remember the first time that I woke up and remembered a word I had learned the day before. The word was “ma.” This was also the moment where I understood the concept of “remembering” and “yesterday,” although I did not yet know how to express these concepts in words. It was a pretty cool moment.
2. In my memory, my Po Po (maternal grandmother) played mah-jong with her neighbors every day. Thus, the first Chinese word I ever learned to recognize was 中 (zhong), one of the characters on the mah-jong cards.
3. When I took summer school in junior high, we had to take a test to see if we were left-brained or right-brained. I had the exact same score for both left-brained and right-brained, and I am extremely proud of this fact. I do think, however, that I have since evolved to be a more left-brained person. (I AM an auditor, and I AM quite analytical.)
4. I have this strange habit of not wearing newly-purchased clothes or shoes until after it sits for a while. Sometimes it will sit for a week or two, and sometimes it will sit for like a year. If you look through my clothes, you can probably find at least 5 pieces of unworn clothing, with the tags still on them. I think I have a top I purchased like 5 years ago that still has the tag on it in my closet right now. It’s a pretty top. I DO plan to wear it one day. I’m still the same size.
5. If you look at my closet, you can see that I organize my clothes in rainbow color order, with the blacks, grays, whites at the end. I don’t wear brown.
6. I have had an identity crisis problem since I was 7 years old, when I moved from Taiwan to the US. And this apparently is an evolving problem for me. The way I think about who I am changes as I go through different experiences. For example, I used to not know whether I am Chinese or American, and then I decided I was Chinese and wanted to stay in Asia, and then now I think I am Chinese American……. (For more details, please see http://shannalyzethis.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html)
7. There were two time periods in my life during which I was extremely unhappy, the first of which I would probably even call a minor case of depression. In both cases, I did not even know I was so unhappy until I became happy or at least not unhappy again. The first time was my entire first semester of senior year in college. I had just returned from an internship where I visited Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan. I came back to the US ready to share my experiences with my friends, but very, very few people were truly able to understand and identify with my experiences abroad. I remember being on the campus of The University of Texas, the most populous US university at the time, and feeling completely alone. I finally broke out of this during winter break of senior year when I accepted my full-time offer with my current company, who was sending me on assignment to Asia. And I finally realized I was in a depression state-of-mind when I went back and read my own very dark and lonely blog entries. The second time was a long period of time starting from March 2006 and not ending until some time in 2008. I do not wish to discuss the reasons for this on this forum. If you would like to know, talk to me.
8. I am now very happy. I have been this way since I returned to Asia from volunteering at Chinese Youth Camp (CYC) 2008. (For more details, please see December 31, 2008 post until most recent post http://shannalyzethis.blogspot.com/)
9. I LOVE LOVE LOVE eating. And I love good food. My favorite foods are my Po Po’s food, 小籠包 (soup dumplings), Shanghainese, Taiwanese, Sichuan, dim sum, Italian, good burgers. I also love eating almost all fried foods and almost all desserts.
10. My favorite wine is an Italian wine called Moscato D’Asti. It is a very sweet white wine. I can probably drink one whole bottle by myself in one sitting. Well, actually, I can probably drink two whole bottles by myself in one sitting.
11. Despite what many people may think, I am a huge introvert. I am pretty shy until I get to know you.
12. I invented and use frequently the words “spaceboy” and “spacegirl.” Spaceboy = boy (space) friend. Spacegirl = girl (space) friend. These words just give a lot more clarity in conversations, especially in spoken English.
13. I turn red after drinking one glass of anything alcoholic, although this by no means indicate I am drunk or even buzzed.
14. I also turn red when even just my spacegirls talk about my body parts…showing off legs, etc. They find this very funny.
15. I often miss driving in the US. Just me, the car, the road, my music, and my own thoughts.
16. I LOVE Jay Chou. He is just so talented.
17. I want to own a gift shop one day. It will have three compartments: 1) Coffee/tea/dessert shop. Of course, I would offer both Chinese and Western teas and desserts. 2) Fashion/accessories shop with merchandise from different places in the world. 3) Gift shop with cute things. The name of my shop will be 七里香 (Qi Li Xiang). The reason for this name is twofold. First, this is the name of one of Jay Chou’s songs. And second, my nickname in Chinese is 香香 (Xiang Xiang).
18. I often educate people on the streets in China. I can’t stand it when people cut in line or litter. If I see it, I would ask politely for them to queue up somewhere behind me or pick up their trash. If they don’t correct their ill-mannered behavior, I would raise my voice and…well, yell at them, which usually embarrasses them so much that they will queue or pick up their trash.
19. I want to go back to volunteer for CYC every year until I die. It is that important to me.
20. Many people think I am some kind of superwoman. While I like being SUPER, I am really no superwoman. I am just a girl. Maybe I appear to be very strong on the outside, but inside, I am really just a girl. People don’t believe me. I wish someone would.
21. I am often the first one that cries during movies or screams during action movies, let alone horror movies. In fact, sometimes, I am the ONLY one that screams in the whole entire movie theater. My friends also find this to be very funny.
22. My Po Po is one of the most important people in this world to me.
23. When I was little, I used to have these fantasies where bad guys would attack my school, and then I would beat them up and save the whole school.
24. I used to want to be a cop. I realized that I could never do it when Brandy took me to the gym one day and showed me how to lift weights. I couldn’t even lift the bar without any weights on it.
25. I like to sleep with my blanket tucked underneath me on all sides, including my feet. My college roommate said that the way I sleep is like a burrito. | | |
| Saturday. In Hong Kong. Blue skies. Sunny. I’m in a Starbucks in Causeway Bay, doing homework, listening to Mariah, sipping on a caramel macchiato, and occasionally looking out the window, people-watching. I’m happy. The last half year is probably the first time in my life that I am very consciously very happy. My perspectives on the world totally changed in 2008 (see my 2008 reflections entry from December 31, 2008), and everything lit up. I would say the MBA experience, in addition to CYC and a few other experiences, all culminated to allow me to find myself. Self-discovery. This is what many MBA students started out seeking. I don’t know how many people actually succeed, but apparently in the process of learning accounting, finance, management, etc., I found myself. Yes, I found myself. Today, I am very, very comfortable with who I am. Of course, I am, still, and will probably forever be, plagued with the whole identity crisis thing, but generally, I am very comfortable and happy with who I am. Until recently, I didn’t even know that this was not always the case before, but…it is now. More reasons for happiness: I have great friends. I’m going to Taiwan in one week to see my grandma. I’m going to celebrate Chinese New Year, one of my favorite holidays, in Taiwan. I’ll get to see some friends in Taiwan. I’m doing well at work. I’m doing well in school. Life is just great, and I’m happy! Perhaps happiness is self-fulfilling. And hopefully it’s contagious. | | |
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