(grandpa's) 15 days in america on instax

This is such an overdue post. 

Happy October, we're welcoming it with a lot of rain since morning.

It's one of the very rare times when grandpa traveled overseas (and my first time to travel with him!). My family arrived in San Francisco in the evening of May 27th, and I was super glad to see them again after nearly six months. My sister arrived the next day, which made things even awesome.

To make this an even more romantic story, I'd say my grandpa traveled across the globe to meet someone he hadn't seen for 18 years. 

I tried my best to plan the trip so it'd be unforgettable my family and myself. The determination to visit Yellowstone during my stay in America and the will to make this trip a worthy one made me chose a tour that covered 7 states -what a long journey! I felt a little sorry for my family cos it was tiring but thank god my grandpa braved through it and got to experience the most awesome places most Instagrammers wanna go.

All photos taken with an Instax 210 (and this is not all of them).

- - - 

(not sponsored)

I really wanna thank Airbnb for existing -I really like it a lot after using this service for a few times. I was really lucky to find a spacious three room apartment near Chinatown in New York for the six of us at a very affordable price. What's better when the interior designer did a great job -that Airbnb was really a dream. It's near to my aunt's place and in a hippy area, plus it's in a traditional New York style building with no elevators! I am so blessed.

Our Airbnb in SF was a small but beautiful one; I love how I actually lived in where the San Franciscans live. The Mission is such a cool district which I regret that I didn't get to visit too many times as it's a residential area but there are many great food/coffee/bar places hidden here! Uber and Lyft is super convenient when traveling in a big group. I am so so grateful for things that made life easier.

jingtong on instax 210

回香港前把一些以前拍的即影即有scan了，为了偷懒没一张张去scan所以出来的照片不是很大张。Instax 210拍的照片虽然比较大张但是没有特别地sharp，在电脑上看颜色挺漂亮但也挺郁闷的。

要开学了好想回家。

Instax 210

Taipei, 2015.

cold

my newest addiction

Today's my last comp lab, I finished it without looking for the TAs' help, finally. How funny that the TA remembers me and the place I sit. He asked: "You always sit here, don't you?" All I could do was just laugh.

After that I went to the bank. My bank account was finally set up after 3 months. Wtf. When I returned to the library and wanted to scan the photos, I realized I forgot my pendrive at the lab. Flying up (and down) 4 floors sure is tiring. I scanned these as I thought having a softcopy would be nice, but sure the scanner isn't friendly enough.

I read a (Chinese) book this afternoon in around 20 minutes. Just speed reading + reading some parts which I find interesting. I created a post earlier about that. I missed reading.
I went to gym after that. I didn't rest enough (food in my tummy remain undigested) and didn't feel very well while running on the treadmill, so I walked more today. Of course (sadly), my weight remained the same (or perhaps a bit heavier?).
And yea, I finished my EnviroEng hw after procrastinating for two weeks.
The fat fat senpai asked me to play Chinese chess again. My rules are: If he wins, nothing; If I won, he will treat me an ice-cream (not even expensive to him haha + the chances for me to win are very very small). Unbelievably, I won! Lucky!

I ordered a plate of veggie fried rice for dinner. I don't eat green peas. Don't ask why. I just don't eat them. I sat at the borderline between my bros and the senpais, so the senpais kept staring at me filtering the peas out with my fork and spoon. I got a few comments like:
"You spend more time choosing out the peas than eating."
"Are you playing with your food?"
"Are you not going to finish this" *nods*
"What is this? 杂菜炒饭?" "Wrong by one word." "What? 杂肉炒饭?杂菜炒面? +any funny stuff"
It's 什菜炒饭. But I didn't know it was read that way. But it was really funny.
I wondered why did I order that. Such a boring dish. A huge plate of salty fried rice and veggies. Why.

The senpais are very friendly (and funny). So glad to have them as my senpais. One senpai even didn't know that Netherlands is 荷兰 in Chinese and insisted that 荷兰 is Holland. Well, Wikipedia knows the answer the best.

Thanks for making my day better. (tbh feeling a bit down now, I think it's the hormones hitting me)

Good night.

P.S. I wore long pants to bed last night.
Secret note:

不確かな感情　罪重ねた愛情
逃げた者勝ちの　駆け引きのゲーム
失うことで手に入れたものに、何の意味があるのかな？

気づかないフリ　傷つかないフリ
嘘をつくことで真実を守った
行き場を無くした自分のココロは、どこに重ねればいいの？

手探りで捜し求めた　僕らが選ぶべき未来
抜き取ったその隙間から　君の涙が見えた気がした

二人の目の前で脆く　崩れ去ってしまったんだ
虚しくて　悔しくて　まだ認めたくないけど
時間を巻き戻せるなら　出会う前の二人へ
疑いもしなかった　あの頃の僕らが　無言で散らばっている

君のココロが傷つかないように
自分のことを傷つけないように
サヨナラ告げたあの時の僕は、上手く笑えてたのかな？

きっと僕らいつでもこんな風に　誤魔化しながら過ごした
積み重なった幾つもの矛盾に　押し潰されそうになっていたのに

重ね合った限りある時間を　まるで永遠みたいに形造って
未来を、夢見ていた・・・

二人の目の前で脆く　崩れ去ってしまったんだ
虚しくて　悔しくて　まだ認めたくないけど
時間は残酷に何度でも　繰り返していくんだろう
楽しかった記憶さえ　消えてしまう前に
君と僕のピースを　もう一度　拾い集めるよ

この歌がめちゃ好き。歌詞もこころの中にちゃんとで届いました。
今日は君と会えなかった。いつもそうじゃないか？
もし君との出会いは間違いなら、会うないの方がいいよ。
自分が考えすぎじゃない？

「まだ間違えたのか…？」

oh

I was late for my first class. This is becoming a bad habit. Whatever.

After my last class I went to the gym with a senpai. I ran so much I didn't know I could do that. Now my calf muscles hurt so much I almost can't walk. *massages self*

After dinner, I was still hungry so I had another apple pie on the way back to my hall. Goodbye my running effort. Hello weight.

Tonight's wgm night again. 

Good night.

P.S. Met a guy with hair longer than mine not he way back to hall. And blonde. But my friend said my hair looks nicer. Thank you! :)

The view from the common room is so clear and calm so I had to.

This one's from 2 months ago. Time flies!

hku

I let myself sleep till half past eight this morning. I got hungry and had breakfast.

I vacuumed the room, bathed and changed into something simple. Today's Sunday, I want to feel simple. So it's just a white tee and denim shorts for the trip to HKU. Nothing improper but I could look better.

I had lunch and went out. We met up with some friends from HKU at the MTR statuon and they led us back to their uni. Our friends are really kind as they showed us around this beautiful place. I didn't bring the D90 out with me as I thought it would be pretty heavy. Instead, I brought the Diana Mini and my instax camera out. The instax didn't do the trick well as the weather was all gloomy and there's no sunlight at all. Total disappointment when I saw the flash.

(planning to give these away as I don't really like them that much)

and yeah, I looked so baka as usual

But holy moly HKU is a beautiful place. Old red brick walls on the outside and gorgeous interior on the inside. My sister will definitely love this place. The students get discount in their Starbucks! I didn't get any coffee cos it's late afternoon, and I need sleep. Tbh, I'm not satisfied yet. Need to spend more time in this beautiful campus.

We had dinner (teatime set) in HKU. The proportion was surprisingly small. We went back after that. I have no idea why I was totally exhausted on the MTR I didn't talk at all. I bought some food before going back to my room. The lemons in the supermarket was surprisingly fresh so I bought 6 of 'em, although I already bought 6 yesterday.

I bathed and made myself fruit juice while doing laundry. I fed myself junk food cos that's what I craved, forgetting about the guilt that comes almost immediately after that. I wonder why I'm watching so much of TBBT. Maybe it's too relatable to my current life.

Good night.

meeting with Vienna

Sorry for delaying this post to today. I have around half an hour to type this post. I hope I can finish this while watching/listening to The Big Bang Theory.

I think I was late for my first class yesterday. I even took the hill path to the class but still I was late. Whatever. 

I went to another two CENG classes, which I didn't pay attention on the hypnotizing class again, and played Triple Town throughout the whole class. I wonder how why I started playing this again.

I went back to my hall, left some stuff there and brought my instax out. I'll go to the library to scan the photo later. I went to the library and wanted to study a bit (obviously failed), and spent some time chatting with the guys who just got their math results. Mixed feelings will be the best phrase to describe this. Some were very happy, but some were kinda disappointed despite getting good marks. A friend got below mean but he's kinda positive with that. Hmm.

I waited for my host (sister) in front of the university bookstore as promised at 6pm. The meeting is quite ok I think. My host is someone like me I think. Both of us are more to the type of quiet people. Luckily there's another Malaysian staff who made the situation less awkward. I told her I was nervous (well I was) before meeting her and they are a little nervous about that. Tbh, I can be very talkative if you know me well enough. We went to a Malaysian restaurant in Wan Chai and we chatted a lot. Both of the otona (ok I'm the youngest there so whatever) were more to the spiritual side (sounds wrong). IMO they think very maturely. It took me some time for me to understand what are they trying to say. A little too abstract. Or it's just that I'm too simple-minded. Dinner was expensive. They didn't let me pay although I thought I should. Thanks a lot.

On the way to the MTR station we met another senior who'll be attending his congregation tomorrow (he stays in Wan Chai) and talked a bit with him. The world is that small after all. (Or HK is small after all.) 

I reached the uni at around 10pm, and checked out who's still in the library at that hour. There are people after all. I'm not diligent enough.

That's yesterday.

Thank you Aun although it's a bit out of focus :)

(messy hair is messy)

t

(inspirationless title)

Yesterday 

I went to the lab late and didn't know how to do my programming stuff. After trying very very hard, I gave up in the end and asked for the TA's help. Also I got my COMP results. It wasn't that good compared to my friends, but for me it's fine. 

I got myself another file from the science booth, it's Hulk. I didn't really like that, but I wanna collect all of them. I spent some time at the booth. It was a little waste of time, but it's fun.

I finally finished my hw after seeking for help from so many people. I can't read the financial report, that's just too many numbers for me.

Later in the afternoon, I realized that there's a session for us to check our COMP marks, and rushed to the lab. I think they miscalculated my marks.

I got bored after staring at my hw for that long, so I went to the gym to burn some calories. It was tiring, but it's healthy I guess. First time challenging myself to run for 10 minutes consistently. Need to burn more fats on my fat legs!!

Exercising made me really tired and hungry. I'm not even full after having my dinner. Wtf. This is my first time. When I got back to my room I blended some fruit juice for myself and did laundry while waiting for my friend's birthday celebration. 

The birthday celebration was... meh. The birthday guy has a rather complicated personality. It's very hard to surprise him. A friend bought a mango Halloween cake for him (pricey!), and I gave away two photos as a present (cheap present gomen m(_ _)m)

The climax should be when he's about to jump into a very dirty pool next to the seafront restaurant. We made too much noise until the security guard came. He didn't jump in the end.

There was another birthday celebration after that, but I prefer to sleep. Most of the juniors left earlier, leaving the seniors and birthday ossan for the celebration.

That's yesterday.

I did a little mistake when scanning the photos. The quality sucks.

(First photo was taken by someone else and it's pretty blur. Sorry 'bout that.)

instaxdiary

Yesterday's photodiary.

I finally scanned all most of the instant photos in the library this morning. I bet people are like wtf is this person doing when I was happily scanning these with the 3-in-1 printer/scanner/photocopy machine. But trust me, this machine is not doing a good job. The real photos look MUCH better.

The originals aren't that blue, but I was too lazy to edit them. I wonder if people photoshop their film photos?

After playing with this baby for a day, I realized there's so much more to learn. Well, trial-and-error is the only way isn't it? There's no such thing as wasting when it comes to film photography. Every mistake is beautiful and they are all precious experiences.