Baobao was in town last week. Although it was snowing all the time, I had a good time with him as always. We had luxury dinner on CN tower to celebrate Baobao's 23rd Birthday, visited Casa Loma and Beta Shoe Museum, watched 4 movies in a theater (;“Shooter” is a exciting movie; “Sharkwater” is beautiful and thrilling; “Namesake” is fine; “Hoax” is just so so), played big-2 with Helen and Pqoc until 2:00am, worked out in Hart House (thanks Lili, aSu, Jeremy for the Tcard), found out Jeremy working in a stand at Union Station (lol~), reviewed popular coffee stores in Toronto ( we consistently deem that Starbucks is much better than Second cup and Tim Hoitous, no matter coffee or decaf), ...

Tomorrow is our two-year anniversary. Almost everything has been great in these two years except that Baobao spoils me so much that I become more and more willful and annoying. Sigh~ Maybe I am just testing his bottom line.

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Speaking about the date, it is approaching April 15^th, and I shall make a decision whether to accept the PhD offer or not. It is hard decision to make.

Last Monday I had an onsite interview for a Beijing job. I didn’t apply that job, but my application was transferred inside the company several times and finally reached the Beijing office. (Life, you never know…) The whole day interviews were tiring but very informative. Without doubts, I am still a layman in industry and I would like to get some experience in a company full of resources and talented people.

But what astonished me most during that day was the distance I felt between me and the researchers from Beijing. I felt at ease when talking to U.S. researchers but not Chinese ones. Don’t take this wrong, they were not arrogant or aloof at all. In contrast, they were extremely friendly. I think the existence of the psychological distance was due to my adaptation to the Western culture. Because my work in this field was primarily done in Canada, it is now easier for me to expect Western people’s reactions and attitude to research questions. Any since the Western style is more objective, logical and discrete, I like it better and consequently, I change faster. So after less than two years, my transformation becomes tangible.

This makes me want to take a one-year break in China. Because I planned to come back to China later, I have to check if it is a place I will be happy living forever. And if not, what I can do to catch up. This may sound crucial because it is my homeland that I am talking about. But, it is also the reality.