winter ---> spring beauty.

the cherry blossoms are out!!!!! so spring must slowly be coming. when i was young i always thought that cherry blossom trees where amazing cos in a time when nearly all other flowers stopped, it was only in winter that the cherry blossom would come alive. i later worked out their blooming is basically in preparation for the coming of spring. i still class them as a winter flower though, 'cause they always seem to disappear again before spring actually comes...then again perhaps they're meant to bear some sort of cherry blossom fruit in the spring? oh i dont know. i just think the silly pink and white trees look pretty!

best part of winter is when i can walk around my neighbourhood and see the cherry blossoms blooming. best decision ever of the manningham council was to plant cherry blossom trees on at least ever 2nd or so nature strip. it looks pretty.

yesterday was the first day i noticed the flowers in bloom, and so today i picked my first mini twig of them. here it is, sitting on a page of my notebook.

so gorgeous! im currently pressing one of the flowers in my japanese textbook...so i will find it in a week or so when we start the next chapter - haha!


other matters. i decided to advertise for a language swap partner for chinese online, so i can regularly take advantage of someone's native chinese speaking ability and not feel guilty (as they likewise take advantage of my english, free of charge) on this australian site:

http://melbourne.gumtree.com.au/melbourne/melbourne-skills-swap_2950_1.html

it seems quite good..and i've already had 4 replies back in 24 hrs (3 were from the same girl who seems rather eager, which is both nice and a touch off putting at the same time), im considering the other girl so far, not over emailing matters but simply because the 1st girl (who sent 3 emails) said she was from Taiwan, and i think that could be a bit problematic for me. truthfully Taiwanese people strike me as very cool, (not that i've ever met many that i know of, but in their dramas they are cool haha. oh dear, i need help)

no the main problem is im not too sure of the accent differences between mainland china and taiwan, and it also struck me that i think they use the old more complex characters for writing...hence why subtitles and karaoke are often evilly written in traditional complex characters. grrr.

and the other problem is that these days i am all too indulgent of the chinese way of thinking that im worried i might accidently offend the girl at some point by saying something to do with taiwan being part of china, which of course they and more than half of the world belive is not the case,but i am forever having to verbally acknowlege/ agree to chinese people when they quiz me on taiwan being a 'province' of china. cos taiwan can never be mntioned by itself without it being re-inforced that taiwan is taiwan province. ah it's all quite silly. i generally steer clear of polital issues and just smile and nod. but yes, im concerned i could stuff up at some time and say the wrong thing and i dont want to offend anyone.

hence i've decided i will wait until the weekend and then see how many replies i have and which is the best.


but can u possibly know how guilty i feel having replies in my inbox from strangers willing to swap languages with me and i've as of yet given them no reply.... and if i dont choose them for my language partner should i just ignore them and not reply, or should i somehow reply to them... but i cant very well say 'no - i dont want to study with u' ...that's terrible!

the more i think about it i feel obliged to email the taiwanese girl and just meet with her and help her out with english anyway, cos im sure she's a lovely girl, but then meet with another girl for my purposes. but then that's silly and im letting my english-speakingness be taken advantage of. after all the aim of this exercise is to help my rapidly dwindling chinese skills. ...
oh, what do i do? why do i have to be so damn willing to help people all the time...generally as i've found over the last year or two, at my own inconvenience?? if someone asks me to do something for them, or help or assist or whatever the word 'yes' or 'sure' always pops out of my mouth as soon as i open it or even consider what im saying. and annoying are the consequences.


i shall stick to the plan and wait out the week and then see how many replies i have and if any look promising. hopefully with more replies it will be easier to not worry about them all individual, but just look at the batch and say ' i think this one will work, let's try it'.

that's the plan. and now it's bed time. oh to be able to fall asleep at will, instead of laying awake half the night stressing over a 6:30am wake up call....

but yum cha with cathy tomorrow. hurray!