My life so far... and the extras

I was born on the 17th of September in Tianjin, PRC.

My mother, Xin Qiao, now known as Amanda Qiao, was a teacher of the "21st High School" in Tianjin, teaching Chinese (no, not how to count). In 2004 she was enlisted as one of the"High Class Teachers of China" at the age of 35, while most other "High Class Teachers" are somewhere between 60-70, after working their ass off for that title. Today, she works as "Miss Amanda" at Jacaranda Early Learning Centre in Sunnybank.

My birth dad, Yu Yang, worked at "Bank of China" (or something like that) when I was 9, and kept changing banks afterwards (for a reason unknown to me). Mum and Dad divorced in 2002 or 2003 (I was little, you see). Dad then married Ping Yang after a few months, then had what I've always been calling my "half-sis" after a year. I have no idea as to what he does today. The last time I saw him was 2008.

Talking 'bout my "half-sis", I LITERALLY forgot her name. I only got to see her once when i went back, and that was when her arm was broken. She's so full of energy - she started a fight with two boys in the same street, after a collision of 3 bicycles in the public park. You may have guessed, if not then here we go - that's how her arm broke.

Xin Chueng, my step-dad, is now who I'd truthfully call dad. He gave me a feeling of home; but recently his having a bad mood and have regular arguments with mum. Hing, his English name (not very English if you ask me), now works at the airport. He came to Brisbane in September last year but had a car-accident when he was 20k from the highway exit: kinda fell asleep after that 18-20 hour drive. He was a tenant of our family friend - Shen family, and first saw mum when we went over for our usual Saturday-dinner/house trashing/chicken chasing. I guess it was something like "love at first sight" or some other bullshit but that's not the main point... the main point is: how the hell do you fall in love with my mum???

Now, back to me. I came over seas to Australia in 2004, when I was 9. Grade 4? Easy. English? Not quite the same. All I knew how say back then was "hello" and "bye". But, over the years, I somehow managed to catch-up and may proudly say that my English is better then my Chinese (though mum doesn't seem that proud, being a Chinese teacher...).

Grade 5 - oddest year of my life... so far. I had a teacher call Mr. Clark who has slight disability (well, if you call a missing arm, ultra-thin legs and un-co speech a slight disability). Yea, grade 5 was fun. Nothing to talk about in particular. Same with Grade 6, when I had a HUGE teacher, Ms. Reeves.

Grade 7. Believe it or not, all I remember was pressure and a girl. Pressure - from mum, who thought the entry test for State High was impossible, and somehow convinced me to think so too. The girl is probably what your interested in the most here. Her name was Sarina. Don't know why, but she seemed prefect at that time. Everything was fine so long as she was smiling. The odd thing is, now I don't have that feeling any more; when I looked back at her pictures it didn't feel like my lover any more. Maybe I haven't seen her for too long. Or maybe it's just because I love someone even more now.

Don't know if that's enough for you, but that's definitely enough for me. 11:50pm. I think I need some sleep.