Review for 2021

When you close your eyes, what do you see for 2021? What I am seeing: bleach smelling in the lab, first date with my girlfriend, three-month lockdown and the recent Xmas trip.

Career

Memory tricks people. I just realized I spent first four months in Christchurh but I cannot remember much. Now I am listening my 2021 music-memory playlist in which a lot of songs I was listening on my way to the uni. I was doing a summer project after graduation. The final results were not satisfying as low OTUs produced after DNA extraction or PCR purification. Still, I learnt using Qiime and R to intepret Nanopore sequencing.

From April, I moved to Auckland for my first job in NZ. The team was about to isolate new endophytical fungi and screen crop-protective candidates. I am qutie enjoying doing experiments with my manager together even though it was mostly silent between us. It is interesting that when I was in China, I always felt I was an outsider. For instance, 外地人 in Shanghai, a left-behind kid in my hometown. However, in NZ I never worry about my ethnic or nationality. Maybe it is because in company most staff come from other countries. Make rice ball soup for my colleagues

Life in Auckland

I do not want to complain too much about this metropolitan city since everyone is complaining its transportation, infrastracture and urban design. Climate here is very lovely. Even though it is rainny season from April to June, I could go hiking on weekend when the sky usually had one-day sunny break. I played winter season tennis interclub this year (2 win - 3 loss). I tried my first snowboarding in Whakapapa. I am in a relationship since July. Everyone is mocking me that I am super efficient to find a girlfriend in a new environment. From August, Auckland was in three-month lockdown due to Covid. I was working from home but working six hours per day. After the lockdown, restrictions slowly loosed from November. The case number never returns to zero but we are used to life with masking.

Personally I do not feel much about this lockdown, but it does make my Christmas trip much more exciting. I spent eight days in South island. It was a fruitful trip. I met with my old tennis pals in Christchurch, caught two Salmon at Tekapo canals, picked up three kilo cherries and got three bottles of nice wine from Judge Rock and Cloudy Bay.

The first salmon I caught at Tekapo Canal

Movies and Books

In 2021, I watched 56 movies and read nine books. The most impressive book is Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. Being a politician is much harder than I expected, especially when you want to transform a big country from poverty to prosperousness. I was imaging what I would do if I was on Deng’s position. No single clue! However, Deng had the plan and blueprint of China when he was in France in 1920s. Later, even if he was kicked out of top tier three times, he never gave up but only waiting at home, sezied any opportunity to implement his lifelong idea - making a richer China. Also, this book told me that it is more effective to show real intentions rather than grandiloquent language.

This year I finished all the documentry of Hao Zhou. Zhou has a magic to hide himself into scenes where characters always ignore his existance while being filmed. Therefore, you can see a real reaction, emotion and their true feelings. At the same time, Zhou is good at showing a story from dialectical perspectives. In the first scene of Emergency Room, the person twitching on the ground was a poor patient. The next scene he was a lier to cheat doctors for tranquilizer. Friends were crying and regreting for alcholizing their friends. At the same time, doctors were trying their best to do AED but said calmly “I have known he is died once I came in the room. Look at his eyes, pupils dilated.” On the way back to hospital, the nurse looked through the window of ambulance, “Such a beautiful night.", suprised by LED lights of tall buildings in Guangzhou CBD. These scences reflect the silent corners and different faces of our society.

Besides of movies and books, I listened a lot of podcasts which kept me updating the affairs around the world, especially in politics and economics. My favorite one is RandomWalk Theory. I learnt basic investing ideas from the first episode, which helped me to get 10% return this half year on ETF. Another podcast, “东亚观察局"(Eastern Asian Observing), is high-quality as well. This podcast mainly focuses on the political issues about South Korea and Japan. Meanwhile, you can also learn something interesting about society and culture. For instance, alone-eating and night meals, job competition for government positions or coffee/wine/barbecue culture etc.

2021 and 2022

Time flies fast in 2021 to my perspective. Maybe I have a regular life routine and always keep busy in the lab. I reckon this is a good sign as it means that I was not struggling to live. On the other hand, it is inevitable to stop a second to look around and taste your life. When I was in camping grounds, those aged campers were just sitting and relaxing with a coffee/book in the early morning. With the company of river sound and bird singing, this likely makes the time slow down and brings inner calm. In turn, it brings me wisdom and new thoughts about life and nature.

It is interesting that the life in the first half year seems very far away from me but later months are so vivid. I know I am improving myself, soaking knowledge and being more mature to understand this world. 2022, I hope the pandemic will be over and I can meet my parents.

Good luck everyone!