March 11, 2006, 5:55pm

I promised to upload the azaleas photos at UF. So, here you go. I always like the buds the best. The buds allow the imagination of how the flowers will become.

UF to me is the combination of CUHK and PolyU. Shadows of CUHK: Azaleas, pine trees etc. Shadows of PolyU: red bricks.

Now, I don't know what this kind of tree is called. I saw it in CUHK and Sha Tin too. I only recognize it because the little brown ball of fruit is a Chinese herb that I used to take: 路路通 (lulutong), literally "way way through." The scientific name is Fructus Liquidambaris.

Here's a published study of the chemicals in "way way through":
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12579820&dopt=Abstract

I'm not sure but I think it's a kind of maple. The leaves turn red in the fall.

Many times I imagine myself to study Chinese medicine after my PhD... very mad. Well, maybe my next life, I don't know.

http://www.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/Exhibition/Hushiuying/

I truly admire Prof. Hu. I love animals since very small. I loved studying biology in F. 1 and F. 2. Then, the science teacher talked about cutting up rats in her F.6 class. A student cried nonstop when she found seven "bulks" inside the rat... the fetsuses.

Before that, I thought people cut up the rats, then sew them up, and the rats would walk again... Silly, isn't it? But that's really what I thought. I couldn't imagine people killing rats just because they wanted to see what's inside.

So, I didn't study biology after F.5. I didn't have to kill anything in F.1-F.5. I didn't ever touch the pig's lung, pig's heart or the bull's eye. Other people cut them up. I only "observed."

I might have been studying something else if I had the chance to study biology without the requirement to kill rats. It would be marvellous if I had Chinese medicine classes when I was younger.

Let's see how it will turn out. Maybe I'll really study Chinese medicine later. Before my life ends, I simply don't know how things will turn out. :)