After work today, I made a quick stop at the bookstore. I know, I know... they're the bane of my wallet -- I cannot stop inside and not end up buying at least one book. As soon as I stepped in, the warm scent of chocolate filled my nostrils.
I ended up picking up a book on Chinese poetry. The really cool thing about it is that it prints the poem in Chinese characters, then has a character by character translation of the poem, as well as a english translation. I love bilingual books. Even though my reading and writing skills in Chinese are still at a beginner's level, I hold out the hope that given enough time, and enough practice, I'll be able to read this book. Even though I only had 2 years of formal education in Japanese, I still find myself able to read hiragana and katakana. My Kanji (Chinese characters) is limited mostly to those that I learned during high school and used often -- such as iki, nan, ji, gatsu.
Recently, alot of my friends have been talking about being a quirkyalone. I remember reading about quirkyalones a few months ago and wondered whether I was one or not. They even have a quiz on their site.
Here's a short excerpt:
"For the quirkyalone, there is no patience for dating just for the sake of not being alone. We want a miracle. Out of millions, we have to find the one who will understand.
Better to be untethered and open to possibility: living for the exhilaration of meeting someone new, of not knowing what the night will bring. We quirkyalones seek momentous meetings.
By the same token, being alone is understood as a wellspring of feeling and experience. There is a bittersweet fondness for silence. All those nights alone�they bring insight.
Sometimes, though, we wonder whether we have painted ourselves into a corner. Standards that started out high only become higher once you realize the contours of this existence. When we do find a match, we verge on obsessive�or we resist."
All of the poems are written in classical Chinese, so you might have to take some classes in classical Chinese (these are usually third year Chinese classes) in order to understand it because the grammatical structure of classical Chinese is very different from modern Chinese.
I got somewhat quirkyalone. =)