...

Thu

Regular gathering. 去左食日本野！！Sashimi boat都係30 pounds，分分鐘仲（'fan1 fan1 zong1 zong6' interesting string of sounds）平過香港。

Fri

成日用黎煲P+P... Hee!

Sat

去super買pasta, 一包1.09 pounds, 兩包1.50 pounds. 自助購物，發現無discount，同assistant講，keoi3話'You know what, I'll cancel one of them.' 結果buy one get one free!

Sun

好即興跟左Mandy同her fds去China Town飲茶。

Sigh! I really needa work harder!

Tudou is really amazing. You can get full films, even very old films. orz...

====

The air fare is obscenely high!!! But anyway...

26/12/10 - 7/1/11 Germany!!!

Dad asked, '你黎係去旅行定去讀書ga？'

我一直都話work hard, play harder ga wor!

Talk

I love talking about life. Very enjoyable time with Mandy tod

ay. We sat on the steps on Main Quad and talked for 2 hours about basically everything, i

mportant things, serious things.

今日Ya-fang話keoi5中學個老師上堂播左BBC ge Pride and Prejudice畀keoi5地睇!!! 0係我地E個prog都齊集UK+中港台ge CF fans. 好啦！下次一於搞個group去睇The King's Speech, BAFTAs, anything with Colin... 真係lum2起就興奮！

My fav Darcy portrait. Yes, not the wet-shirt one.

Bookstore

I love the little book store on Judd St. They open it to welcome ppl, not just for business. I go there just for the feeling of it. Absolutely lovely.

Didn't sit in Phonetic Theory today coz I got up late.

School Day

Early morning lecture with Richard. Could never tell he is Australian! Never!

Logic back-up. Frankly, more explanation complicates things.

Then i had a picnic lunch in the park in Russell Sq and went to the British Museum again just to walk. Gorgeous. You never get that elsewhere. In HKU we have Happy Park which doesn't look green at all. And being surrounded by thousand years old artifact is an amazing feeling.

And dinner at Mandy's place at night again. Yeah! Would love to go for a drink with other classmates but I needed dinner very bad. Too damn hungry after reading Syntax on my own for 2 hours and attended the back-up for another 2 hours.

Btw, Pret's latter taste better than Starbucks's one.

The King's Speech @ London Film Festival

Very即興！

Knew from last night that there'd be stand-by tickets on the day of screenings. Today I woke up a bit late and was quite tired because I couldn't sleep until 3am this morning. So, I decided to try my luck today. I mean, COLIN SHOOK MY HAND YESTERDAY!

Arrived at Leicester Sq at 11:15am, 75mins before the screening started. And lucky me, I got a ticket!!! Of course I'd very much love to see The King's Speech before the general release next Jan. It's also quite a meaningful thing to participate in the London Film Festival, my first cultural event in London. This time next year I'll probably not be in London. So that was the only chance that I'd see how it's like here. And it's big! I've been to HK International Film Festival and it wasn't bad at all. But here, London Film Festival, a real international massive event! You have all those big movies coming here and some have galas. I remember when Matrix 2 or 3 premiered in HK I really wanna go to see what it'd be like. It's so different. That's one reason why I wanna come to London. HK is great, but not like this. But London, everything comes here.

Back to the movie. Like ppl said online, Colin Firth's gonna 'Helen Mirren' his way to the Oscars. I haven't seen other films like 127 Hours or True Grit, but his performance is so sublime. I also love Geoffrey Rush in this and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins his 2nd Oscars.

After the ending credits, there was a Q&A section with director Tom Hooper. See, that's why I want to go to film festivals like this. You never get the chance in HK! And ppl ask insightful questions, not 行貨.

I can't wait for the award season next year.

OMG!!! COLIN FIRTH SHOOK MY HAND!!!

I’m delirious right now! I don’t think I’ll ever get over the handshake with him!! So, here it goes.

The King’s Speech premiered in Leicester Square tonight at the London Film Festival. The movie opened at 7pm but I couldn’t get a ticket. I saw ppl on forum saying that they’d arrive by 4pm. Well, as for last night, I was still supposed to attend a back-up class from 5:30-6:30pm. Today they changed the allocation and I needed not stay until 6:30pm. I thought about leaving school and going to Leicester Square right away. But (the big ‘but’), Prof John Harris is amazing!!! I couldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t sit in his lecture from 4-5pm. Given that the back-up class had been reschduled, I could have stayed for the back-up for John’s class until 6pm. But, today I just couldn’t stay. I was tired and the content was so difficult that I couldn’t focus. I went to Leicester Square after the lecture ended at 5pm.

So much gibberish and here is the bit. There weren’t many ppl when I arrived at 5:30pm. I got a place right behind the fence. Next to me was a lady who was originally from AUS and she happened to live around Colin Firth’s neighbourhood some time ago. Cool! She happened to be around Leicester Square tonight and stopped by for the premiere. She said she’d been to movies premiere a few times and she told me how the limos were gonna come in.

The first one who arrived was Geoffrey Rush! Then there came Tom Hooper (director), Helena Bonham-Carter and Ben Kingsley. And of course, at last, Colin Firth!!! Frankly, I didn’t expect I could actually see him in real a few hours ago. Then, he was just 30 feet away. I was more than happy to just catch a glimpse of him. So we waited.

And he came back! After some 20 mins. But come on, it was worth the wait. He came to our side. I held my hand out. His publicist was standing behind him tell him to go away and HE SHOOK MY HAND!!! It was so warm. I mean literally warm. I really needa give him some credits for giving my freezing hand quite a strong grip. And afterwards I screamed to ppl 'HE SHOOK MY HAND!' I'm sure they wanted to kill me.

Well, I'm not his biggest fan for sure. I don't drool over Mr. Darcy in a wet-shirt like most women do in the UK. But I've seen 17 of his movies, got 11 on DVD/VCDs, and watched P+P 5 times. But c'mon! He shook my hand!

Lucky me! I never had chances to go to such events in HK. This is my very first ‘Colin Firth event’ and HE SHOOK MY HAND!!!HE SHOOK MY HAND!!!

Now I’ve got my own calendar, photos and a handshake. I’m gonna go to the BAFTAs and probably any premiere of his movies.

I love London!

Half-day Off

Wednesday

Half day off. Went to China Town to buy fishballs. Yummy.

Do-support and Wh-movement. I wonder how my fellow classmates manage. Coz if I was introduced such a difficult concept in my 3rd ever Syntax lecture, I'd definitely wanna kill myself.

I spent the whole afternoon playing Sims. Sigh. So hard-working.

DING2!!!! I couldn't buy tickets for arsenal vs Tottenham Hot Spur lor!!!!!! I bought my mbp back to school and spent the break trying to buy tickets!!!!

======

HKU Ling Dept new welcome page!

http://www.hku.hk/linguist

and...

我与HKU的一段情暨港大文学院语言学系面

http://bbs.gter.net/bbs/thread-1082666-1-1.html

My Life So Far

19/10/10

就這樣過了一個月， 衣食住行通通自己搞定，連病也病過。Anyway, so far so good.

我以為我會很想家。

我以為我會不習慣。

我以為我會有靈感。

我以為我會很輕鬆。

我以為我會很徬徨。

我以為我會有很多時間chillex.

原來... there's sth I can live without. 當初稍稍猶豫時朋友說過人的適應力很強，所言甚是。

這裡太像香港，比較落後的香港。交通燈是舊式香港交通燈，沒有人守交通規則，司機永遠不讓路，吃快餐店不用自己清理桌面，Starbucks差不多價錢，地鐵有免費metro， 市中心一樣多人，一樣有H&M Zara Uniqlo McDonald’s KFC Burger King Subway 3......

不同的是說普通話的機會比廣東話和英文要多，Starbucks比較難喝，沒八達通只有適用於交通工具的Oyster card, 天氣冷一點，課堂進度快十倍，hall沒有電視，超市膠袋免費......

生活還是這樣過。當然，London還有很多地方等待我探索。開始覺得一年過得有點太快，有點不夠。

So far so good. 遲一點才談談新學校。

The Start of the 3rd week of school

Damn! I got a migraine ytd!!!!!!!! Right after I finished talking to mom and dad. I took a paracetamol and went to sleep for 4 hours. Felt better but still week. And i haven't prepared for today's classes!!! And i dont hv the energy to go shopping for grocery. Just felt lethargic.

Today was ok. I love Richard! he couldn't stop talking about his son!

Went to have lunch with Vincent in Oxford Circus. Had a lot of time to kill anyway.

So far so good.

又上Mandy hall食飯！我都0吾洗點煮飯。

Lovely Day in Greenwich

Fri
Went back to Chandler House to print notes and borrow books. Then spent the afternoon hea-ing and did a bit reading.

Sat

Lovely! Went to Greenwich. PLanned to go there last week but went to Westminster instead.

Took an hour to be there. First time to take DLR. The stations were so close to each other.

First stop-Old Navy College. Visited the Painted Hall, where Admiral Nelson's body lay there for a few days after the Battle of Trafalgar before his funeral. Then went to the Chapel.

Next stop is the National Maritime Museum. Free! A lot to see! And I love how they allow children to play around.

Spent a few moments in Greenwich Park to have my little picnic. So soothing!! And ppl ran around on the grass! A bit cold though.

ROYAL OBSERVATORY. There was a very animated guide. Took pics with the meridian line! A shame that couldnt watch the Planetarium show. But I'll definitely go there again!

Thurs

I know I havnet been writing for a long time. Just busy playing Sims3. ;)

Long day. I love it and I hate it. Coz Thurs I have 3 hrs of Phonetics and Phonology, but also 2 hrs of Logic and Meaning.

My classmates were talking about John Harris vs Andrew Nevins. I have to quote them. They said John was more laid-back and treated students as students while Andrew looked like he was a performer and the students were his audience. So right! And I have to say I start to like John's lectures more. But Optimality theory le1...

Fire drill!!! So cold outside lor...

Logic and meaning. So great that I've studied Semantics at HKU. At least I'm not confused about entailms

Oh, btw, Celine is really Andrew's wife!

=====

廣東話同學會聚餐！！！

...

Ytd.

9-11am Foundations of Ling and then 5-7pm Syntax back-up. That 6 hrs... I guess I studied for 3 hrs at most. Too tired. Starbucks is a good place to hang out but the coffee le... Not so good lor. At least the one in Russell Sq was quite disappointing in that regard.

Thanks Mandy for inviting me to dinner! My 4th free dinner so far! I’m totally blessed! And we talked about meeting up again with our Cantonese-speaking group! Cool!

Today

People ask ‘how are you’ every time we meet. And everyone gives the same answer: tired. I’m damn tired and almost dozed off in Pragmatics. Not because I studied too hard, but because I played Sims 3 til 1:30am this morning. =.=”

Grice’s theory in one lecture. 0_0 Kate seems a very nice lecturer.

他鄉遇故知，人都開心d！

Finally, Johnny and I meet up! Yay!

Duped by that Indian restaurant tim...

............

阿Sa同William, 鄭中基同有線主播...... O 0西！！！

城市中望河與漢堡王

Fri

Watched ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno’. You can imagine it’s not the most innocent film out there but the love story is between Zack and Miri is really quite heart-warming and it says something. Btw, they say ‘fuck’ 229 times in it. Quite some record. And Elizabeth Banks is sensational in this! Amazing chemistry with Seth Rogen.

Was planning to go to Westminster Abbey in the afternoon. I went to Westminster, and ended up not going to the Abbey because I just walked around the area and couldn’t find it. Instead I went to the open areas of the Cavalry Museum and then started wandering around.

那趟Grad Trip，我發現自己相信地圖多過信自己。來到倫敦，除了找hall和學校外，一張地圖也沒有拿在手。下了車，就這樣的四處逛，想停便停，走便走，很隨心的走，用心的感受這個城市的一切。偶然看見一群海鷗聚集在河邊便停下來看看，走進了Film Museum，發現Jubilee Garden是一個很有趣的地方，又進了National Theatre，見識到當地人對藝術的態度要比香港認真很多......

旅遊可以‘逃離小世界，擁抱大世界’，模式不打緊，自己喜歡就好了。當然，不同的模式就有不同的體會。我看很多人還是喜歡走馬看花。

去左城市中望河同埋食漢堡王!!!

值回票價

Thu

這天很累很累，但很精彩。精彩在我覺得$14000學費值回票價。

上了共三小時的phonetics, phonology，徹底證明我要離開HKU. 0甘講啦，個lecturer比你ge答案係‘You are not supposed to know’ ge時候，而你lum住focus係keoi3 0個範，你走ng走ar？

The morning started off with John Harris’s Phonetics lecture. I didn’t know where he was from and his accent was quite funny. I found out later and immediately thought Mr. Rocky Fok would love the accent. Well, if he hasn’t changed his taste.

Andrew Nevins was very impressive. I felt like I have never really studied Phonology before. He’s funny, nice and enthusiastic about not just his research but also teaching. Everyone I have talked to loved his lecture. The TA Shanti was very much like him. Absolutely amazing! Btw, they introduced underlying representation in the first back-up. I remember we didnt go there until half-way through the course back in HKU. Here they really push you.

I sat in John Harris’s Advanced Phonological Theories A with 3 other classmates. Amazing! He talked very fast. I haven’t learnt 99% of the contents he covered back in HKU. Wow! I felt like I’ve learnt so much in one lecture! And he’s nice! We couldn’t join the back-up and he said he’d talk to our lecturer for Logic and Meaning A. Yay!

Logic and Meaning A is the only course that I don’t like. We were late for lecture in the Main Campus coz it started right after the back-up class ended in Chandler House. We were locked outside because of the stupid door!!! I took us 15 mins to get into the lecture room and we could only sit on the steps. All I could see were heads! We’ve heard the Faculty of Language and Universal Grammar this week so many times and really needed not a repeat.

We walked back to Chandler House afterwards and saw Andrew carrying a baby! That was like breaking news coz I can see him being one of the red-hot lecturer in Chandler House soon.

‘He’s AMAZING!’

‘and HOT!’

‘Well, he’s married.’

Hahaha!

======

Btw, 我真係無份去prize－ceremony. 所以真係想問...... 其實邊位0甘好幫我爭個1st hon返黎？

倒霉的一天

Such a bad day.

完全0吾明點解hall ge staff可以0係無我permission ge情況下擅自開我房門check我要換邊款light bulb！

英國係咪無privacy ge concept！？

同各位朋友傾完之後發現全部hall都係0甘。Ding!

到宜家HKU arts fac d staff d態度都係勁差！！！

話說我搬左屋收ng到任何信，打去問，Arts fac 0個條（i hv to use this word）友話無ceremony，congregat

ion 0個邊又話arts fac有ceremony。算！最ng順氣係我問kui

可0吾可以幫我check下我有無份去award ceremony，kui仲寸我話：無award ceremony ga wor！得prize ceremony. 無信彈返黎我地ng會幫你check ga wor！

congregation 0個邊都即刻問我U no.幫我check，真係想XX arts fac條粉人！

A Lot to Read

I feel incredibly poor-read. When i borrowed Pinker's The Language Instinct today, I thought,'Shouldn't I have read it in year 1?'

I did half a ling degree, but I still feel like I know sooooooo little! In these few days I've probably read more articles and books than what I read for half a term in HKU. I have a strong thirst for knowledge right now. I wanna go to every class, read everything, think... And I still wanna go out and have fun.

I hate philosophy. I'm not sure how I can get thro' logic and meaning. But I'm looking forward to the phonetics and phonology class very much! I should probably get back to the readings now.

1st School Day

I knew today there was no tube service. Ai, they went on a strike again. ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Left hall with flatmate Crystal at 8am. Got on no.91 at 8:10am. Normally it takes at most 25mins to go to Tavistock place. Today, 25 mins passed, and we were still on Holloway Road! When the bus arrived at King's Cross, it was already 8:55am. According to what the email, lectures start on the 5th min of the hour. When I entered the classroom at 9:15am, Richard aka Dr. Breheny was already lecturing. Damn! I was late on the first school day!

Foundation of Linguistics. Obviously harder than Intro to Ling. This term we're taking double workload of a undergrad. Quite challenging. I do look forward to the challenge though.

The tutorial. Ha! Richard said my name is fantastic! Haha! Remind me of the very first tutorial that I had in HKU with Dr. Matthews. He was taking the roll-call and when I told him my name, the first thing he said was, 'Oh! A famous actress'. All credits to my dad who named me Vivien.

Spent some time in the lib afterwards. I was *cough* randomly picking up books to read. I picked up a journal collection of Lang Acq and I found this!

Yay! Then I found this!

I tried to get hold of this book in my final yr at HKU but didn't succeed as I heard some yr 1 students in John's office saying sth like, 'We recalled the books together so that we can share the book among ourselves for a long time.' =.= I grabbed the book before someone else borrow it.

Bumped into Mandy and she said Topshop had student discount today. So we went to Oxford St. later in the afternoon only to find that it should be tmr 6pm-10pm... But still I went crazy in Unliqo... I'm just giving myself excuses to spend $. Seriously, I'm much less frugal now. But I really need sth warm to wear in winter. Yeah, I can go on all those 'buts' for a long time.

Great! My Dennis Bergkamp DVD and Colin Firth calendar came today! Yay!

清潔日 X 輸波日

Did the laundry and cleaned the bathrooms. I found that I don't hate them at all. Not that I like doing them of cox. It's so different. In HK, I hate doing the laundry, let alone cleaning the toilet. I've never done that before. Shame on me. But it's a different life here.

0係倫敦第一次落pub睇波阿仙奴就輸......

I've got nothing to say.

Just found that the terrorism threat level has risen to 'highly likely'. I guess we dont needa worry too much. Just rmb what the prof said in the Criminology lecture: penal populism.

2 weeks.

Sherlock Holmes and Madame Tussauds

221B Baker Street

One of the places that I've dreamed of going for a long time!!!!

Damn! I started to read the Chinese version of Sherlock Holme in P.6. At that time I was really into detective stories. A little more than a year ago I finished the whole volume of the original. I've read Agatha Christie and some other detective novels, but none can compare to Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is amazing! I always wonder how he could manage to pay attention to those little details. He IS Sherlock Holmes. Truly amazing!

Btw, the museum was great fun to visit. It was decorated according to the novel. You actually visit Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson's house. The actor was sitting on the chair when I got it. I thought he was a wax figure... Freaked me out. But I felt like Sherlock Holmes is alive.

=======

Madame Tussauds Museum

Expensive!!!!!! Cost around 28 pounds lor!!! But definitely worth a visit. The wax figures are so alive! And there are a lot of figures!! And even a haunted house! But the ghosts didnt scare me lor. And there's a 'train' ride. Definitely a lot bigger than that in HK.

I can't understand why people go crazy over about a wax figure of celebrities. Btw, they have Robert Pattison. Doh!