Farewell for now 暫別

Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Farewell for now 暫別
Farewell for now, but we will see each other again I
暫別但還是會再見の一
To all who like to read The Daily Craze

Some of you might have been wondering where the Sunflower has gone in the past months and why she isn’t writing anymore? I hope I can give you some good answers.

Busy travelling
The Sunflower’s life has been filled with lots of travelling in the past months. In December 2007 she had a marvellous trip to Lisbon where she was totally overwhelmed by the beauty of Portugal, although she got food poisoning on the last day. In March 2008 she went to the world famous romantic city – Rome, where she found the reality less romantic than the fantasy. She felt a little bit disillusioned amongst millions of tourists, rubbish and unreasonably expensive restaurants. However, it was the first time in her life she went to a vegetarian Gourmet Restaurant, where she had the most delicious and expensive deserts of her life. At the end of July she had a round trip in Ireland and went to England to visit her host family. She brought her very cool Wellington boots with Leopard pattern because she knows that the Great Empire is always wet. She didn’t want the weather to destroy her trip, and to her delight, it did not rain in the whole two weeks!! (Well, not heavy rain, it only drizzled a lot.) The landscape in Ireland is as amazing as the prices there. She drank neither Guinness nor Irish coffee but she found many other interesting things in Ireland, such as the colourful houses.

She coincidently met a Chinese restaurant owner on the Dingle Island who is a Hakka Chinese (Sunflower is also). This lady is not just a Hakka but a Hakka who comes from the same village as Sunflower’s mother! The world is so small! What a Yuan Fen!! She was so thrilled to speak Hakka again. Her Hakka fellow woman even treated her and Prince de la Bun for a genuine Chinese meal, which perhaps two westerners who meet abroad wouldn’t do. Cultural difference again, you see. In September, Sunflower will go to Turkey in order to experience the famous fasting festival in Istanbul and in the meantime she will go on some short trips in Switzerland and Germany.

At the end of this year the Sunflower’s discovery is finally stretching to Latin America. Her provisional plan includes Argentina, Columbia, Costa Rica and Mexico for about half a year including working and visiting friends. She is very excited about this trip because visiting Latin America has always been her wish since the first day she learnt Spanish.

Miss China
2 months ago there was a “China, Japan & Korea” event from the International Club of my university. My friends, who are the chairwomen of the Chinese student union, asked me if I could do a presentation about China. Later on, a German friend said, “how can Sunflower do that?” Why not? His explanation was, “she is from Hong Kong.” Well, we’ve been part of China for about 10 years already. I was quite happy to jump from “Miss Hong Kong” to “Miss China”! I even wore my beautiful Qipao (a traditional Chinese dress) which I bought 8 years ago and seldom have had chance to wear. It was the first time I spoke in front of almost 200 people, the feeling of being on the stage was interesting. I only saw black in front of my eyes due to the strong lighting. I had a Korean and Japanese crash course and introduced myself in Korean and Japanese. The audience was screaming as if it were a concert. Very amusing!

Midsummer Night’s Joy
The 3^rd July 2008 was another highlight of Sunflower’s life. A very special friend of hers from Hong Kong came to visit her. In order to give him some wonderful memories of Germany, she organised an intercultural event with over 70 people coming from all over the world. The event was called:

“Midsummer Night’s Fun: Clash of passion – Crossover of Chinese and Spanish world”

She found many generous and helpful friends and shops who sponsored and helped the organisation. There were presentations about Hong Kong and Mexico, a buffet with over 25 dishes, intercultural games, 17 prices for the lucky draw, live music, a Kung Fu show and Salsa dancing. Sunflower had so much fun running on the stage and behind it. Her dancing school prepared a salsa choreography for which they had been training for a month. During the dance, she blacked out and forgot so many steps. However, no one realised. Two of her favourite professors in Romance Studies also came to provide support. At the end, everybody had a wonderful time, I hope. And she was exhausted for days after this intensive evening.

The income of this event is donated to 2 charity organizations: Action5 (Germany) and Azahar (USA) for different worldwide projects for children so that the Midsummer Night’s Fun we had could spread around the world.

Crossover of China, Germany & Latin America, Uni Freiburg (Germany 2010)
For the time being, she is initiating an academic and cultural conference cooperating with different universities in Germany, China and Latin America. The numbers of participants is limited to about 1000 people and is open to anyone in the world who is interested in these cultures. You can also participate!

Sunflower has to leave
Now, I hope you understand why I need to say farewell to this blog because I’m also preparing for my graduation simultaneously apart from all these wonderful projects.