Yeah, ADF!!

I can’t stop to tell myself that I am lucky. Besides I got a huge scholarship to study aboard. And the places that I stayed were very nice.

Institute of Dance Department was the first place that I felt really nice. I still remember when I got there, my first impression was like “Wow, what a nice house!” and the room in the institute was bigger than mine in Hong Kong. After that I went to New York, and I could stay at Sharon’s parent house, I lived in their basement for 6 weeks with a very cheap rent. They were very nice to me, like I was their family member, I was really thankful. Then, I went to Europe with school. We’ve been in Nancy, Paris, Vienna and Brussels. All the hotels and apartments were good and convenient. After that, Kyungha and I stayed behind to go to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Ivanhoe and Eagle were really generous to let us stayed with them. Ivanhoe shared his room to us. Eagle gave his room to us and he slept in the living room. And today, I moved from Roanoke to Durham for ADF. Lindsay found a houses to sublet. This house was near the East campus of Duke University (where ADF was) and could fit five of us, though Kyungha needed to share a room.

The house that we are staying is like “Wow, wow, wow!!” It is so big and beu-tiful, nice kitchen, nice bathroom, nice living room and nice bedroom, though Kyungha and I need to share a room, it is fine for me. Because I know many people still searching their place in ADF, besides paying the rent, I didn’t have to worry about anything about the housing stuff.

Hey Jo, what can you ask for more?

Lost

今天跟同學仔一起行山的時候跟她們失散了。雖則有點怕她們會擔心，但一個人的時候，又是難得的自在。她們走得比較快，加上偶然我會停下來拍照，所以為了趕上她們的步伐，很多時都要半跑的，沿途的風景都錯過了。雖跟她們失散，但我沒有迷路，我仍然知道終點在哪裡。可以用自己的步伐慢慢走，方能享受過程的一點一滴，雖然慢，但我滿足自在。

Backing

I practiced with Big Blue again. This was the second lesson of driving. Gina taught me how to operate the car going backward. It was usually used for in and out of the parking space. I didn't try the reverse parking yet, but the straight forward parking wasn't as simple as I imagined. I tried few times, but it was difficult to park properly in-between the the guide line. Sometimes I turned too soon, sometimes the angle of entering the parking space was not sharp enough. If the parking lot was full, I've already hit many car. However, It seemed getting better after Gina showed me how to do it.

Phoebe, Happy Birthday!!

Start driving with Big Blue

I got my Learner's Permit on Thursday, and I started to learn driving today.

Gina gave me my first lesson of driving a car. We did it in the campus of Hollins University, because there was no traffic light, and not many people. It was a good place to start with.

We started in the most remote parking lot. Gina explained to me how to start up her Big Blue. By following her instructions, I started driving. I held the brake and turned the key to wake up the car. After that, I switch the car from "Parking mode" to "Driving mode". I released the treadle bit by bit and the car started to move.

I drove in a very low speed, it was around 10 to 15MPH. After I got the sense of the speed and the brake, Gina encouraged me to make turns in the parking lot. It was quite hard to feel the distance between the wheels and the pavement at the beginning, because Big Blue is quite big. However I seemed getting better by practicing. Besides the parking lot, I drove a loop of the campus. There were many tasks that I could try in the loop. Speedup to go up to the hill, speed-down to get down to the hill, drove in curves when I was going up and down in the hill.

The first experience of driving was fun. I couldn't imagine that I could do it. And I was surprised that I felt calm when I was driving, though I was a bit nervous at the same time.
Thanks Gina.

1/4 done

離ADF不到一個月，共有四本書要在這之前完成，每本最少成吋厚，全文字，沒有圖畫。我花了個半月，似懂非懂的完成了最難的Critical Moves，哈哈哈！

不過還有三大本要在三星期內完成．．．繼續努力吧。

Got it~

哈哈哈！筆試僅僅合格，終於取得Learner's Permit，從今天起我可以開始學車了。謝謝Mama Diana的家長接送。

Sigh!

我最終都無法完成自己許下的誠諾。我沒有這份勇氣，我還是抗拒不了。

How are you?

Am I still a matter to you?

Do you remember there?

I remember everything.

Hair cut party

進入五月，所有今年夏天畢業的同學仔開始忙得很，除了忙於寫她們的論文之外，還有在ADF之前要讀完的一堆書，所以這些日子，大家都躲在自己的房裡，各忙各的。

但人總不能不玩的，所以今天晚上，我們就到了Gina家玩剪頭髮。Diana及Lindsay是模特兒，而Jennie、Gina和我負責操刀，Kyungha則全程因為眼部敏感，只好做觀眾。外國人天生鬈髮，加上輪廓分明，以我們的beauty sense，要給她們剪一個好的髮型，一點也不難。

開始之前，我們先了解模特兒的意願，再商量從何入手。Jennie、Gina和我真是一個很好的組合，其實主要剪的是她們，我偶然都會剪一下，不過大部分時時都是給art direction及document整個過程。跟Jennie和Gina一起剪頭髮真是很好玩，每剪一下我們都會互相稱讚對方的技術﹣ that's really nice．．．good job．．．that's a good idea．．．I agree with you﹣ 大家又會因為自己的技術及對美的觸覺而驕傲，很有趣，我相信被我們剪頭髮的人都一定覺得很富娛樂性。

Congee

生病時，想吃白粥；
傷心時，亦只想吃白粥。







今天晚上，我給自己煮了一碗粥。

Mother, happy Mother's Day, love you~

That's living

Waking up with no neck pain.
Having a warm milk in the breakfast.
Reading few pages of the book that I need to read.
Chatting with friends on MSN.
Checking my Facebook account.
Going back to the book.
Watching a Thai movie in my little PowerBook G4.
Making delicious cocktails.
Having barbecue at the back yard.
Talking with friends.
Playing cards.
That's living, how can I ask for more?

Happy to dance with you

My dear Lower Back,

Thank you for forgiving me, I am so happy to dance with you in the studio again! However, it is the last class of this semester today... anyway, I enjoyed to dance with you!!

Cheers,
Jo :D

Where is Jo?

Because of an email, I started to think about what existence is and where I am.

12 November 2008 was my first birthday after I left Hong Kong to America; I received an email from my ex-boyfriend, which was celebrating my birthday. I was happy, because he still remembered my birthday, there is still a “place” for me in his mind, however, after that, I felt strange because we have barely contacted each other since we split, even on our birthdays. I asked myself: “If I am still existing in his mind, why did he only celebrate my birthday after I left Hong Kong? Is now the right time for him to do that because I am in America and we do not exist in the same place?” From that moment, the curiosity of the relationship between “time”, “place” and “existence” started circling in my mind.

To exist does it mean I have to place my body in a physical place? And, how many forms of existence can I take? Once I take a form of existence, how long does it last? How can I notice my existence? How many “places” can I exist at the same time? Physically? Mentally? These questions remind me of two articles in the book Sensorium, which inspired me to make this project happen. One of the articles- Utopia Body by Michel Foucault- fascinated me by his description of how we can experience the existence of our body and soul, especially when he talks about the feeling of being touched by the one you love. We know we exist because sensing gives us the information that we have our body, which means our body exists. Therefore the simplest way for us to notice the self-existence is by touching ourselves or being touched, because we can feel it. However, what is the relationship between my body and “places” out of my body? How do I know where my body exists out of itself?

From Neuroexistentialism by Joseph Dumit I found that we notice our body existing out of itself because we gather the information from our sensing; by watching, listening, smelling, tasting and touching, we know we exist in the world, which means besides sensing our own body, we also need “something” out of our body to stimulate our sensorium to remind us for our existence, no matter if the “place” is physical or imaginative. If I didn’t receive the email from my ex-boyfriend on my birthday, I would never know my existence in his mind, therefore, I discovered that if I want to know whether I am existing in other person’s minds, I need their feedback. After leaving Hong Kong, I have been in 9 cities in 8 months- Roanoke, New York, Philadelphia, Nancy, Paris, Vienna, Belgium, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. During this period I existed in different places. I took photos of myself as documentary to prove where I physically existed, and kept posting these photos on Facebook, so my friends could see my photos from all over the world. I could prove I was existing by visually appearing in front of them through the computer. Their comments on the photos were feedback information that let me know I existed in their sensorium.

In this project, I selected 252 photos from my Facebook album when I was in different places physically. 252 is the number of days from when I left Hong Kong till 4 May 2009, which is now, today. I edited these photos with a short video that I shot one beautiful morning in America in winter. I want to see myself and show my existence in different places in the past 8 months through this piece.



Thanks Jennie for helping my English.

May

The first of May, a new month, a new start. It's time to start a new project.

May I

In the first day of May, one of my fired is wondering if she could go back to 6 years before. I hope she could find the way and let me know how. I would like to experience the days in the past one more time, I wish I was in May 2003.