I got 26 page journal this winter

Although I drink lots of tea everyday since I was a child and believe I am already used to caffeine, I found I could not fall into sleep well after drinking coffee at night since last year. Also, if I drink two or more cup of coffee one day, I will feel my heart turns to drum too fast to be considered regular. Therefore, I altered my habit recently. If I want to drink coffee, I have it before noon. For my body, coffee is much stronger than tea.

Yesterday I had lunch at 2 pm with two friends. We sometimes hand out and enjoy the varied foods in our community that both from the worldwide areas such as Vitamin, Thailand, Malaysian and the different regions of Chinese such as Sichuan, Canton, Shanghai. We all believe that it is really a great advantage to have so much delicious foods for living big cities. I think probably that is a repay for urban people who have to lose many beautiful things of nature that we should possess originally. Since the ultimate goal of us was not on food, but meeting friends and celebrating the last time of our winter break, we paid more attention on the conversation during and after the meal. The restaurant we picked was well-decorated and pretty quiet. We did not leave immediately after meal; instead, we sat here hours more to have drink and conversations. For this reason, I ordered a cup of coffee to indulge myself. I though 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon was early and security enough to have a cup of coffee. In fact, the so-call “French Coffee” was indeed both smell and taste great. Because of this a cup of coffee, I felt this afternoon and the conversation with my friends turned to be very enjoyable.

However, when I went to bed at night and suffered from sleeplessness, I discovered the decision I made in the afternoon was a totally wrong. I went bed at 1 o’clock, after a two hour struggle, I dropped into sleep at around 3. If you think that it was not too bad, I had to admit that I waked up several time after that during the night, opening my eyes and lying on the bed. I felt that I recalled all the happenings in my life but the dawn was still far away. Finally, I was so delighted to find it was 7 o’clock and I could get up. It was certainly not a good experience. I wish it will not happen again.

This morning I went the post office to ship a book that I sold from the Internet. I have continued selling two books lately. I guess that is because the new semester is coming and many students are seeking books. I don’t have to buy books from the Internet although the prices here are usually considerably cheaper than in college bookstores. As a part of the Financial Aid, a certain amount of money, usually $380, will be deposited to my account before the beginning of a new semester for purchasing textbooks only. For some students who register the courses related to science, the textbooks are often expensive. Moreover, they are often required to buy the newest edition books that means there are less used books available to them. For this reason, they feel the amount of money from the government is too small to meet they need. For instance, one of my friends was upset by a late payment from her work study money because she needed the money to buy textbooks right now and could not wait the next pay period two week later. She told me that it cost more than two hundred dollars for only one psychological course. I think I can understand her difficulty if one course cost more than two hundred dollars, how can $380 covers the book fee for five courses. In contrast, I have no such a problem at all. Although there are always some primary and outside readings for history courses, the books are often less expensive and sometimes old editions are acceptable. According to my experience, fifty dollars for each history course is an average cost.
I remember in last semester after I bought all my text books, plus a lot of additional notebooks, print papers, pens and some unnecessary stuffs such as academic planners, cards, and even a small gift for my friend, there was still around a hundred dollars remaining in my account. Thus, I went to the college bookstore again and bought two $20 Metro Cards, a rug with Queens College logo, and a dictionary. I relieved after I finally spent all the money seems as I completed a tough job. Since this semester I have one more course than last semester, I wish I will no longer worry about how to spend all my money.

I went American Folk Art Museum today. Before the visiting, I did some research from the Internet. The admission is $ 9 for adult and $7 for students and senior citizens. Based on the information, I assumed that the museum should be very large and I planed a whole day tour for it. However, I found two or three hours was enough to visit overall of this museum later. In fact, the museum is free for everybody on Friday 5:30 to 7:30. If I knew the whole visiting needed only two hours, I would choose to go at Friday night instead.

Many exhibitions here are from German communities in Pennsylvania and Jewish communities in Brooklyn. There are quilts, papercut, wood carving. Some wood horses are extremely vivid and have placed in Coney Island before.

Because of the interesting trip in the American Folk Art Museum, I decided to visit one or two more museums the next day, the last day before the beginning of spring semester of 2008.

I went the Brooklyn Museum of Art as I planed. The ticket is four dollars. When I was buying the ticket, the staff told me that the suggestion admission was four dollars. I still paid four although I wondered that I might pay less. Despite the lower price, the Brooklyn Museum is larger than Folk Art Museum. I arrived here at 10:40 and left at 5 o’clock. I enjoy reading the words of introduction and explanation. By doing that, I practice on English reading and gain various knowledge in the same time. I wondered slowly in the halls in the museum and tried to read the words on wall or in display windows but it was impossible. I like friends but sometimes enjoy doing something alone as well. For example, if there were some friends with me today, I might not have such a leisure manner to enjoy the art world to my heart’s content.

After the visiting, I went to the museum shop and bought a nice notebook for writing journals. I have been writing journals since I was fifteen. I have accumulated eight notebooks. I treasure them up despite the ordinary and simply of my life. Maybe my life has no significance for the world or somebody else, it is absolute important for me. This is the reason I think that it is worthy to pay a high price to buy a good notebook to record one of two years of my life.

This semester I am working on Saturday from 11 to 4, Wednesday night and Friday morning for totally 11.5 hours per week. I have never been worked on weekend since I work in Media Center two years ago. I will see how it is.

Because there was no job offered in Media Center in the winter, I worked in Stack department seven days. This was the first time I worked in a department other than Media Center. Despite the time was short, I got a clear idea that jobs in my department are much easies than many other jobs in the library, which I didn’t realize before. Although my coworkers and I often complain the busyness around middle and final exam seasons in Media Center, or some students who come to bother us, or the less obvious indifference of the supervisor, we have to admit the advantages here. If we only work when somebody comes; if not, we can use computers, reading our own books, or doing whatever we like. Some students even chat online by MSN. Particularly, in the beginning of every semester, it is often only a very few people come to check out laptops or borrow DVDs. For example, today, the first Saturday of this semester, there is nobody coming to check out laptops during the whole day. I did many things to spend the time, surfing the Internet, working on my blogs, talking with my coworkers, and reading a novel. In contrast, if you work in Stack department, you have to work constantly. Although there is a half hour break for every five hours in Stack but no break in Media Center, I still feel the jobs in Stack department are tougher.

My husband’s teacher is asking him through me to buy two books from the US. My husband emailed me the ISBN numbers and the titles of the two books and I quickly found them from half.com. Because they are both old editions, the prices of them are unbelievably low. The one around five hundred pages cost 2 dollars and another smaller one cost only seventy-five cents. Plus the shipping fee, the total charge is 12 dollars. This morning, before going to work, I packed and shipped them in a post office in Flushing. The package was more than five pounds. I was told that it could neither be shipped by Media Mail nor by sea. As a regular air mail, the cost is up to $ 41.6. I was worried about the transport fee might be too high. Especially compare to the price of the books. When the staff of the post office told me the shipping fee, I wondered if I should call my husband and asked his opinion first. However, after a double thinking, I believed that even though the shipping fee was indeed high, since I have already bought the books, I had no reason to deny shipping them.

Leaving the post office, I bought a cup of milk tea and a piece of cake in a Chinese bakery, and then walked back to my school. I counted the time and believed that I had enough time to get school on time without taking a bus. I even had an extra twenty minters to eat my breakfast. The worker in the Chinese bakery didn’t do a good job; she didn’t close the paper cup well. When I arrived at college and tried to eat my food, I found the cup of milk tea was leaking badly. Fortunately, there was a plastic bag outside the paper bag otherwise my bag and all the stuffs in my bag would be wetted. I gained as experience that it was necessary to double check if you ordered some food for take out.

I called my father on the way to school. Since I had called him several times on Sunday morning, he is used to the morning call recently. At every Saturday night, he does the preparation for his daughter’s call. The wireless telephone should be full charged and put near by his pillow in order to pick and answer it immediately when it rings. After hearing my mother description of my father’s funny deeds, I feel it is my duty to call him every Sunday even though sometimes I really lack of time to do that. My mother has told me, “Your father is waiting for your call excitedly on every Sunday morning. If your call doesn’t come, he will be badly disappointed and repeatedly asks why. Sometimes he sighs and says, ‘Oh, our daughter has not called us in the long time.’ but you had just called him a few days ago. I am laugh at his action; he is indeed like a kid”. Although my mother misses me and is longing for talking with me too, if my father is at home, my father will occupy the majority of time to talk and leaves little opportunity to my mother.

To my surprise, today was my mother answered my phone when I called. I suspected that my father might not at their bedroom. My mother explained what happened. Before I called, one of her friends called. After she answered it, the telephone was left on her side; thus, when my call came, she but not my father answered it.

I talked with my mother less than ten minters, and then she passed the phone to my father. Despite my mother’s kindness and understanding, the first words my father said exposed his jealous, “When you was talking with your mother, I can only stay by the side and listen to you.” I understand he is not satisfied by being an onlooker at all. He is always the center and the superstar in my home. Ha.

In fact, there is often no something significant but rather random talking between my father and me. From the weekly phone call, I am not only aware all the colleagues in my father’s office, but know the personalities of each of them too, which of course due to my father’s chatter. In addition, my father’s topics are not only limited in family and his work union, but go beyond that and related to the economy, history, and politics of China as well as the world. When I told him I visited American Folk Art Museum and was interested by the wood carving. I further told him the most wood carving were made by Russian Jewish people who immigrated to the US mainly during early 20th century and they had a long tradition of wood carving. My father is so clever and acknowledgeable. He replied instantly, “Do you know why they have such a tradition? There are two major reasons. First, there is abundant woods resource in Russia which meets the basic material demand for carving. Second, living a cold region, Russian people has to stay inside door during long winter seasons; carving is just a fit indoor practice.” I think my father’s explanation makes sense.