233 - People who think foreign food is disgusting

As I was growing up, I was always encouraged to try new foods. With having travelled quite a bit too, at this point, I very rarely refuse to try any cuisine, even if it is a bit out of the ordinary.

Being brought up in Hong Kong in both Chinese and international contexts, I learned very early on that consuming things like duck's liver, bird's nest, shark's fin, and turtle shell jelly (pictured above), was pretty weird to some people - specifically those that weren't local Chinese. But to me, my beloved grandmother, and the rest of my Chinese-side family, it was perfectly normal. (And yes, I've tried and love all of those things.)

Recently, I've been listening to a lot of people give China crap about eating things like dog, because they're a creature that the Western world has domesticated. Or things like scorpion or tarantula, because they sting and they're poisonous and they look too different from us humans. Give China a break, man, it's a big country, with the largest population in the world. I'd be surprised if all 1.3 billion of us were only eating cow, chicken and pig, animals we're 'supposed to eat'.

What, like the French don't eat steak tartare, escargot, or frog legs? The Spanish eat bull testicles. And the Texans deep-fry rattlesnake. Australians eat kangaroo, crocodile eggs and ostrich. The Americans use cod liver oil as a vitamin A supplement. And the English feast on pig's blood every morning in the form of black pudding.

The Americans invented chewing gum - I mean, if you really think about it, that's a pretty weird idea for someone to come up with.

Foreign food should not be looked at in disgust. I respect whatever your personal preferences are, or what you feel about certain animals - I really do. I mean, some things I find weird, too. For example, I find it weird that Ukrainians eat bear, Filipinos eat chicken fetus, Alaskans eat raw fat from whales, and Icelandic people eat puffin. I'm weirded out by it, but I would never feel disgusted by any of these things because it's just what different people in different parts of the world have become adapted to eating. If you're an animal rights activist, well, good for you for trying to conserve different species. If you hate spiders, that's fine as well.

But I'm not pressuring you to like these things. Just accept that others eat these things, just respect that others may even love eating these things. Nobody's trying to force-feed any of these 'disgusting' foods down your throat, so we shouldn't have to swallow our feelings of embarassment when you say that they're disgusting.

169 - When other people want to throw my books away

Hello, bloggers. It's been a long hiatus, hasn't it, this summer?

I think I'm going to be back now, back to posting everyday about something that gets on my nerves. Not a lot has come to pass in the past three or four months... I got my exam results, and I didn't really make it into my desired university in London, but I'm going to be studying at the University of Kent instead.

It's located in the city of Canterbury, about forty minutes to the East of London, quite a short distance away from the South-Eastern coast of England. I was looking on the university website, at what people do on their weekends and holidays, and apparently, students can take just two trains, and in just three or four hours, be in Brussels or Paris, which I think is quite neat.

I say goodbye to Hong Kong on the 20th, ten days from today. It's already been emotional for me, gradually packing up everything I own into boxes and suitcases, and going out with my family and friends as often as I can. Hong Kong has been my home for such a long time, and I know every little thing about it. I hate to leave, but on the contrary, I also remember that I was dying to move out of here a few months ago.

Throughout the thoroughly depressing and already homesick three weeks prior to this day, my grandmother has told me periodically that I should throw away some of my old books, or give them away to my younger cousins, an orphanage, a charity group, or the church, because I won't read them anymore, and because it just takes up space in my room here in Hong Kong, an off-the-wall suggestion to me, with a justification that's ridiculous.

I was thinking about packing them all into boxes, and throughout the year, gradually have them shipped to the UK, where I will find the space for them all. I know I don't read the Mr.Men series, or my Goosebumps collection anymore, but why must I get rid of them?

And besides, who are you to say that my property should be dumped in the trash just because they take up space? They're my books, that rest in my room, out of your way, not a bother to you at all. I never tell you to throw away your property, like the spare light bulbs in our cupboard, that we bought years ago and don't even fit into our new lights, the herbal medicine in the fridge which we haven't used in over ten years, and the dozens of Reader's Digest that you keep on your shelf and haven't ever opened after the one time. I don't ask you to dispose of them, because you obviously cherish, and think of as worth keeping, all that stuff that's surely older than my books. Obviously, f I deemed my stuff a bunch of ancient crap, I would've thrown it away ages ago. But I treasure them, so I don't.

But these are books. Educational compilations of texts, of facts and fiction, that enlighten us. Why throw them away? My kids could read them in the future. I could read them again, you never know. And studies have shown that people who generally spend a great deal of time around books have higher Intelligence Quotients. They must continue to exist around me to make me smarter!

...throw them away? No way in Hell.

34 - People who are disorganized

I was struggling to come up with ideas today, which is a good thing as it indicates that nothing today really struck me as annoying. As I was lying here on my bed, with my pillows alongside me and physics notes and textbooks spread out all over my bed (we have a physics examination tomorrow), I wondered why my mind had gone blank. The reason is (of course) that I lack the organizational skills. All of my posts for the past thirty-three days have been conjured up on the day they were published and because of this, I am setting myself up for days like these where I can't think of anything.

What would be wiser is if I planned ahead for my posts, but this, to me, is something that's easier said than done. I don't ever prepare for many things such as exams or for emergency situations and quite frankly, I suck at managing my own time and money. I borrow money off others when my allowance runs out at the end of the week, I always end up doing last-minute revision for my exams and I stay up late at night, for many nights, doing homework that's due the next day. It's annoying for others and it annoys me too. I have a ton of things I should be doing aside from blogging here, but procrastination and failure to prioritize has led me astray from the straight path of righteousness into the dark wood of self-deprecation.



Anyway... I am organized in some ways. I've planned a few parties and outings and they always were successful and everything went according to plan. I have considerable OCD when it comes to lists that just have to be alphabetized or numbered in chronological order or in order of preference/priority. I'm a teenager and I tidy my room at least once every fortnight, all sheets of paper in my room are filed in appropriate folders and everything on my computer is categorized and there are no stray documents. The skills that I have in these sorts of areas make me loathe the ones that lack it.

I hate it when people can't remember what homework there is or when it's due. For most of my time at school, I've been able to remember what I have to do once the teacher tells us to. I respect those that take that approach of memorizing it in their imaginary calendars and I like the people who jot it down in their diaries if they know they'll forget. But for those with chronic memory loss, they don't seem to care very much. Sometimes, it takes them forever for one of my friends to find a sheet in the lost archives within their bag. They lose things or homework slips their mind and the teachers have to tolerate it and give them additional time or resources.

Being disorganized is not a good habit to develop or to have. Organization is not only vital for students to have in order to get good results, but it's also important for parents and teacher that are held responsible for children that don't know any better and for anybody in any line of work so as to get paid at the end of each month. It's also important for oneself, because everyone needs to manage their own life in order for their lives to be sustained and for them to improve. Otherwise, the world will just eat you up.

(Sorry. Couldn't think of anything else to end it with, but that is the gist of what I'm essentially trying to say.)