valerie
February 2, 2022 - recently finished this book. Found it to be a quick read with some useful reframes of perspective and creative/self-reflection exercises.
(also thank you @jasraj, I remember joining a silent writing session during INF Club times where we concluded with the three questions exercise. It was powerful then, and I really want to keep asking myself those questions more consistently)
January 30, 2022 - ramen to-go. It was good but not amazing. Maybe that’s what I get from ordering ramen at a poke restaurant? 😅 either way, my tummy and taste buds were still content. (yes there was broth, it’s just not pictured 🙂)
January 29, 2022 - close-up of a hat I received for Christmas (not handmade, at least by the gifter, but the thought was still very much appreciated as I posted during Fall 2021 about shopping for winter hats)
January 26, 2022 - concluding the ‘Half Price Books series’ with something I actually bought. This is a Chinese book called 酥油 (Ghee) by 江觉迟. I was drawn to the book by the cover art and also the fact that there’s another language on it below the title (based on context I assume it’s Tibetan, but I haven’t verified that). The introduction was interesting. The author originally intended to write a memoir/autobiographical account of her experience living in Tibet, but felt that she could only convey what she wanted through a fictional story. What I gathered from the one random page of the story that I read is that a character (the main character?) wants to leave Tibet for better paying work opportunities, but doesn’t know any Mandarin Chinese. Not exactly sure when I will focus on reading this book, but I am excited for it
January 25, 2022 - continuing the series of ‘things I found at Half Price’, here is a Japanese book of English expressions and idioms. Don’t know if I’m too young or if the authors went all-out to find all the (strangest) phrases possible. Anyway, I hope everyone goes whole hog on all their future endeavors
January 24, 2022 - Today I learned that Chinese has a 4th tā! tā is a pronoun which means “he, she, it”. The interesting thing about tā is that it is written using three separate characters depending on which a person is referring to; there’s a separate character for “he” (他), “she” (她) and “it” (它). However, they are all pronounced the same way (yes, even the same tone). So in speaking, the exact tā one is using can be ambiguous unless there’s extra context. The tā (祂) pictured that I found refers to a ‘divine being’ or ‘deity’. I imagine this tā isn’t used very often as this is my first time seeing it, but I’m not a native speaker nor do I use Mandarin on a daily basis. I also don’t use Mandarin in religious contexts. Also, I’m not surprised that I never saw it in Mainland China, where the government is very suspicious of religion as a whole…anyways, I learned about this tā because I saw it on a book at a Half Price Books
January 23, 2022 - I always imagine that if I created a place where viewers could “buy me a coffee”, I would replace the word “coffee” with “milk tea”, whether that be a Thai tea (pictured) or, my favorite, 珍珠奶茶 (bubble tea). Definitely my current vice
January 19, 2022 - finished And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, so next I read this book: When the Moon is Low, by Nadia Hashimi. This was a sad story, especially knowing that the characters in the book were in a comparatively fortunate position and situation most of the time
January 14, 2022 - obviously I know you’re supposed to mix the noodles into the broth…I just thought the noodles looked funny like this 😅 from Pho in the Box in Keller, Texas. The only thing better than a good pho place is a good pho place with a drive-thru!
January 13, 2022 - reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. I really enjoyed The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, so looking forward to see how this story progresses
