Washing my hair after my haircut is a complete pleasure. Ahhhh. So little hair. Wonderful.
Stonyfield Farms Yo Baby yogurt (yogurt for babies… hey, it’s whole milk and it was on sale ;b) has an apple flavor. It is so good! Light apple flavor with a pleasant, not cloying, cinnamony sweetness to it. If the blueberry flavor is as good (apple and blueberry come together in a six-pack), I am definitely going to be buying these more often. Delicious.
We watched a sad movie with a happy ending in Chinese class today: Gua Sha (The Treatment). The story takes place in the US, in St Louis. Datong and Jian Ning are a Chinese immigrant couple with a young son, Dennis. They both work, trying to achieve their American dream. Datong’s father, visiting from Beijing, performs a Chinese medical treatment (gua sha) on Dennis when he complains of a stomachache. The treatment is painless and apparently works, but it leaves deep bruises. When Dennis has to go to the hospital for an unrelated treatment, the doctor and nurse find his gua sha bruises. Alarmed, they notify the hospital social worker, and Datong and Jian Ning find themselves accused of child abuse while Dennis is sent to live elsewhere for the time being. To save face (and probably save his father from a great deal of trouble), Datong says he performed the treatment, and both parents keep the truth from the grandfather, who speaks no English. You can guess things only get more complicated from here. The movie explores issues of cultural misunderstanding, as well as family relations, violence in video games, and, obviously, love and devotion and what crisis will do to people. I liked the movie a lot. It had some cheesy moments (most notably, “I understand now.”), and nearly all the characters turned out to be truly good people in the end, but on the whole I thought it gave a fairly realistic portrayal of what ordinary people might do in a case of such horrible misunderstanding. I’m sure some of my classmates thought Datong was emoting, or just plain crazy, but he made sense to me; he reminded me of my dad. He works very hard to provide for his family in the best way he knows how, but being human, he is an imperfect father, husband, and son. When a world he has tried hard to fit into threatens to take away all he holds dear, the only response he is capable of giving is rage and grief. I didn’t see how this movie could possibly have a happy ending, but it did, so thank goodness for that. All the girls left the room crying. Not to be sexist, but that’s the truth.
I want more apple yogurt… maybe I’ll try a bluberry one instead.
Oh and the grandfather in Gua Sha is played by one of my favorite actors, Xu Zhu! He played the main character (also a grandfather) in Bianlian (The King of Masks), another of my favorite Chinese movies. He just has the most wonderful face. And a great accent.
*update*: the blueberry yogurt isn’t as good as the apple one, but has a rich blueberry flavor coupled with a very smooth texture that I really like.
I also just found out that Darren Hayes, who sings a song I like called “Insatiable”, used to be in Savage Garden. So that explains the odd familiarity of his very pretty high-pitched girly voice. I love his voice and the song’s music, but the lyrics always make me slightly uncomfortable. They’re probably the most frankly sexual lyrics of any song I have on my playlist. Either that or I just have a dirty mind…
[This post was imported on 4/10/14 from my old blog at satsumabug.livejournal.com.]
satsumabug.com | Lisa Hsia 
you now use less shampoo.
and i don’t remember darren hayes.
and i am eating dinner.
and i have not watched either bianlian nor this new movie.
and i enjoy eating chickens. raw. just kidding. cooked.
okay that is all.
~Shra
Re: you now use less shampoo.
I’ll send you the song sometime.
lisa!!!!!!!!!! your haircut is SO AWESOME! i love it 🙂 yay for drastic changes in hairstyles right? haha… you look absolutely beautiful.
i watched gua sha in Shanghai when i was there this summer and man i cried so much during the movie because i could understand all the … misunderstandings? you know? i was the only american chinese there and it was really hard for me to watch it and not want to feel incredibly frustrated. blahh but it was a well done movie. =)
lisa!!!!!!!!!! your haircut is SO AWESOME! i love it 🙂 yay for drastic changes in hairstyles right? haha… you look absolutely beautiful.
i watched gua sha in Shanghai when i was there this winter and man i cried so much during the movie because i could understand all the … misunderstandings? you know? i was the only american chinese in the class (well, also the only chinese in the class) and it was really hard for me to watch it and not want to feel incredibly frustrated with it. blahh but it was a well done movie. =)
Exactly! I felt like it touched so much of my own life experiences, or what I’ve experienced vicariously through those around me. I got really angry at that one awful lawyer guy and all the Chinese stereotypes he was playing on…
I’m glad you like my haircut. 😀 Now I’m thinking I might not go back to long hair for a while! This is so comfortable!
exactly what i’m thinking, plus short hair is… easy! no fuss. though it’s a little weird because now i actually have to use hair products 😛
Ha, me too! But it’s kind of fun. It’s a new experience. That, and waking up with poofy hair that I have to tame.
yay for short hair!
except i don’t have it anymore. but the early morning poofy bedhead syndrome… ah yes i know that well.
~birfday girl!
Re: yay for short hair!
Ha, yes. During the rest of the day my hair feels so nice and soft and fluffy. It’s sexy bedhead. Then I wake up in the morning and it’s very, very unsexy bedhead, and I have to tame it to make it look like cute bedhead again. How silly.
How is your birfday going? 🙂 I just went to See’s to get myself a dark chocolate and almond bar for the plane ride. You know me and chocolate on plane trips. They gave me three free samples! One dark chocolate and nougat, and two ginger Krispies.