洗手做羹汤

三日入厨下，洗手做羹汤。

未谙姑食性，先遣小姑尝。

《新嫁娘》- 王建

小学从四年级开始每天早上朗诵唐诗，众多五言绝句中我特别讨厌王建的这首诗。我的女权意识觉醒得早，当时年纪虽轻，却已自以为是地感叹起此诗背后的诸多不公之处：宴尔新婚，新娘玩啥煎炸爆炒？小俩口就该赖床赖到自然醒，然后再来一个breakfast in bed （床上早餐）才对啊。男人娶妻是求伴侣又不是聘请厨娘，为什么新娘得战战兢兢地接受料理测试呢？再者，新娘好歹也是当大婶的，为什么她要准备料理给当晚辈的小姑尝？这么一来，以后同住一屋檐下，小姑还会尊敬大婶吗？烂漫的小姑搞不好把这个外姓女人当成家里新添的女佣而已！

（题外话：所以说，小孩子的心思你别猜，以前大概没谁料到一个四五年级乳臭未干的丫头已经在通过吐槽唐诗来锻炼她的毒舌功。。。。。。）

可能是受这首诗影响的关系吧，我在中学时代常常摆出一副“君子远庖厨”的姿态。刚到美国那会儿，同龄的女孩们都会煮上一两道家常菜；我虽没沦落到糖盐不分的惨象，但我煮出来的东西也就是吃得入口的水平罢了。一转眼四年过去了，这四年间除了去年下半年之外，我都是在外和同屋的女孩们轮流值班煮晚餐。我现在烧菜的技术还是一般般，我的心境却起了天翻地覆的变化。

一开始，煮饭只为了填饱肚子。接着，烧菜慢慢从责任变成兴趣。再来，烹饪变成一种奉献、一种分享。第一次为教堂小组聚会准备食物的时候，我和朋友纠结了好久：一时又担心食物的分量过多或过少、一时又担心我们挑的东西不符合大家的口味；可是当我看到大伙儿围在桌子旁边吃边笑时，满满的担心轻轻地化作脸上的一抹笑。后来，料理渐渐进化成我的爱语。为是个吃货的爱人煮一桌好吃的，为陪伴我左右的朋友们烧几道拿手的菜肴，为思乡的自己做一盘记忆中的美味。爱人爱己从解决基本生理需求开始。（咋感觉越说越像在打广告？！）

自己在外玩起煮饭仔之后，才深刻体会妈妈的伟大。出得职场，入得厨房的妈妈简直是超人的化身！每次放假腻在家，我妈总用各种美食把我给供着，让我过着饭来张口的大爷生活。妈，下次我回去，我给您烧几道家常小菜好不？（前提是你甭嫌弃我粗手粗脚刷坏你的锅，还有一不小心给你煮了碟黑心料理。这次回去，看您淡定地应对我眼瞎到把防腐药包也炒下锅的窘境，我觉得你大概再过不久就会卸下心防尝试我的料理了。哈哈哈哈哈哈哈。）

现在，我享受闲暇的时候，邀三五个知己在家吃顿住家菜，然后大伙儿浅酌深聊。我身边喝酒的朋友真的很少，所以我们吃饱后都不酌，只啄 ­­­——— 甜点。

唠唠叨叨地说了一大堆，此文的重点到底是什么呢？其实我也不知道（笑）。我应该只是睹（食）物思诗吧。（我现在坐在一个百货商场的食堂里等朋友。）补加一句，虽然我现在对煎炸爆炒不反感，可不代表我认同了《新嫁娘》这首诗。致我未来的老公及家婆：我乐意的时候，我可以天天做饭给您俩吃。如果您俩嘴刁，你们大可以自己下厨或是请女佣。放心，我保证我小女人的自尊心绝不会因此受创。可是若你俩饭来张口还要挑肥拣瘦，呵呵。

Quality time with dad

Ladies, what’s your favorite father-daughter bonding activity?

My dad and I are both ambiverts, curious learners, and adventurers. So, one of my favorite activities with my dad is no doubt, exploring new places with him.

This time, we made an impromptu trip to one of the less exploited caves in Ipoh. It is called 龙头岩, which literally translated as ‘Stone of Dragon’s Head’.

Caves in Ipoh are usually associated with Taoist temples, and this one is no exception. The connection between caves and temples can be traced way back to before Independence. 

During British ruling period, a lot of Chinese immigrants were brought into Ipoh to work in the mining business. They eventually settled down here and those that practice Taoism built a lot of temples at the caves.

Taoists build temples to worship their ancestors and Taoist idols. They picked caves because caves have good fengshui. Caves promise fresh water source and steady air flow, which are two important features in good fengshui. Besides that, temperature in caves is kept constant at around 23^oC, which is perfect to preserve the color pigments on the idols and Chinese memorial tablets.

Anyway, enough with the cave talk. Let’s look at some pictures!

The temple looks pretty nice don’t you think? :D

But no! That’s not why I am here! My dad promised me some adventures! I want something more exciting than this!

(DISCLAIMER: EVERYTHING THAT I AM ABOUT TO SHOW YOU BELOW IS OUT OF REACH FOR VISITORS AT THE MOMENT. PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VISIT WITHOUT OWNER'S PERMISSION. TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.)

Then my dad leads me upstairs to this.

Ooo……look at this entrance! 

It looks exactly like those entrances in the martial arts novels, which the grand master forbids the young innocent ones to enter!  

Now let’s peek and see what’s behind the door.

Look at the stone wall above again. 

Can you see an old man holding a cane and a peach (寿星公)?

Did you see an image that resemblances the picture below?

If your answer is still no, let me outline the image for you.

My unnecessary outlining totally ruins your imagination didn’t I? :p

Let’s move on and look at the roof top shall we?

I think the picture above looks like a scene from science fiction.

Can you guess what the function of the equipment around the rock is? 

(Hint: think of stalactites and stalagmites formation)

After strolling around for a while, we went back to the temple again.

Just when I thought our adventures ended here, my dad said he wants to show me a cave that has a square entrance.

Let’s go!

Erm……dad……where are we going exactly?

Nobody mentioned anything about cave deep in the bushes but that’s fine.

Finally, we reached the entrance! The entrance of the cave looks like this. \0.0/

My dad asked me whether my smart phone has torchlight. /o.0\ Yes it does, but it’s a little too late to confirm now don’t you think?!

Upon entering the cave, we could still get some natural light from above.

Then it’s pitch black ahead.

Honestly, the torchlight from my phone didn’t help much. -__-

Thankfully, my dad would tell me where to put my foot on: this patch of soil is too soft to step on, that rock is steady to step on, time to switch side……I made sure I followed my dad closely, right behind him, and took the paths that he has taken.

There you have it, the square entrance.

The picture above and some of the cave pictures below were taken with the camera flash function on.

Dad, you didn’t mention anything about roots either. And the constant sound of bat squeaking!

Oh, my dad did mention something about a creek! Look at the water, it looks so fresh!

Now, here is where I refused to move forward anymore.  

What you see in the picture above is a nice picture of the cave wall and its amazing rock formation (perhaps); what you do not see are fruit bats hanging over the cave top, and a huge broken ceramic vessel laying on the ground.

My dad said the British might have used this cave as a winery. I looked at the obviously man-made square entrance and creek. I am not too sure about your conjecture dad!

Now, out of the cave! Out of the cave!

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Let’s look at some beautiful creations of God to calm ourselves down shall we?

Dear readers, I hope you have a good time reading this. I personally had a lot of fun.

Was I angry at my dad for signing me up for something peculiar like this? 

No, of course not. I knew he has scouted the place prior to our visit. 

More importantly, I know he will protect me if anything arises.

This experience with my dad reminds me a lot about my relationship with God, my heavenly father. Even the road ahead is unclear for my naked eyes to see, I know He is always there, guiding me, walking before and along with me, leading me by the way I should go. 

Thank you God, for your love, your guidance, and the amazing parents that you have given me.

Ladies, when was the last time you did something enjoyable with your dad?  

Mid-Year Temperature Check: Personality Test

I am going to talk about Myers-Briggs 16 Personalities Test in this post.

If you have no idea what it is, I suggest that you try out this test first before you read any further. Link to the test: https://www.16personalities.com/ 

Recently I went on a social outing with some people that I consider as my close friends. A somewhat trivial occurrence took place and I was slightly disturbed by it. I was surprised at my own reaction because such incident usually could not take its toll on me before this. I conjectured that I had such reaction not because I had discovered new side of my friends that irritates me, nor due to my hormone fluctuation, but because I am experiencing a shift in my overall personality. So after I have calmed down, I went to do the 16 Personalities Test.

I first did this test during PSP, around mid of November last year, and I was identified as a Commander (ENTJ-T). I think the title is pretty self-explanatory. The result was within my expectation.

Fast forward two and a half months, I was asked to do the same test again by my leadership development officer around beginning of February. At that point, I have experienced some ups-and-downs in my career and social life; however, I did not expect those moments to affect my overall personality. Welp, I was wrong. I was detected to be a Protagonist (ENFJ-T) this time.

I did not save the detailed result breakdown the first time, thus I can’t show you the comparison here. But based on what I remember, nothing much has changed except a minor shift in my thinking VS. feeling ratio.

I was actually a little unhappy about the result, because that minor change shifted me from the Analysts category to the Diplomats category! I know, I know, no category is more superior to the others. Nevertheless, I preferred to stay in the Analysts category because I would love to be recognized as a logical person than a touchy-feely person. Urgh, nevermind. *in denial*

So, yesterday I did the same test once more, and this time I am a Campaigner (ENFP-T). Ha!

Based on the result, it seems like my emotion coping skill is clearing shifting more and more towards based on feeling as compared to based on thinking.  Fine. *give up arguing*

The main reason that causes the change in personality type though, is how my approach towards work, planning and decision making shifted from based on judging to prospecting. Actually a lot of signs have shown that I am changing in this area. For example, I used to be super obsessed about my working desk, and it was almost impossible for me to focus on work if a specific set of conditions were not fulfilled. Now, I am much more open to sharing working space and working with distractions like sound and pauses. I regard this changes as necessary because of my current job as a teacher.

In terms of my social life, I used to be very strict with my friends. I have a designated spot for everything; so during college years, I expected my friends to follow my rules as well before I allowed them into my close friend circle. Furthermore, I was always so focused on my work; therefore, I got irritated easily when my friends tried to attract my attention with silly act because I thought that entertaining them was not worthy of my time. Thinking back, I am incredibly thankful for my ex-housemates and ex-travel mates because they put up with my craziness.  

Now I am much more laid-back and I am slowly learning to focus more on my friends’ personality rather than on their behavior. As cliché as it sounds, I have come to the realization that winning hearts of others is equally important as winning the imaginary race in my head to be on top of tasks.

Unfortunately, Campaigner has some glaring weaknesses that I would love to shake off. One of the weaknesses is the inability to follow through an idea. Since I have moved towards becoming a natural improviser rather than a careful planner, I realize I have been doing more talking than actually taking action. I have a lot of great plans in mind that I want to implement in my classrooms to help my students improve; however, I am slow in my action, plus I give up or change my plan easily due to small setbacks or people.

I will leave my “improvement plan” for myself because I don’t want to bore you out here (I probably have done that anyway). It is interesting to see how much I have changed over these few months, and I am very excited to see how far I will go. If you are curious about your growth too, once again, feel free to try out this test. *Disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post.*