This is a tough one!!! I should have anticipated this from citrusflower. She's way out of my league. Go read her prose. It is amazing. (Yes, trying to butter someone up to cover up for the lack of erudition I will display later on. But the compliment is accurate. Honest.)

Anyway, I thought about Italy, Japan and China. My general knowledge on geography and culture is terrible so I cannot make any comparisons about those countries and me. Why those three? They, (I grudgingly admit), were the ones that popped into my head when I asked myself that question.

I can however write about the slightly off-colour joke my head sprung me: I can pick a mountainous country and write about how I resemble its many highs and lows, albeit in a physical sense. The reason for such a thought is due to the recent perusal of a forum topic on strapless bras. And then my brain went on to connect the old grouse against sales-ladies who snigger at me when I go bra-shopping, which always makes me feel uncomfortable. But I digress too much from the question.

Although I suppose I can relate my mental state to the valleys and mountains with all my tempestuous moods.

But I can also pick China. (I do know a bit of Chinese history and modern-day politics.) Because like that country, I dwell too much on the past, and past glories and neglect the present. I am stubborn, and paranoid of ill intent, but I am ambitious and proud of my worth. But I am learning to use the past and present to work for the future. I am still undergoing the process of metamorphosis, searching for a new identity that incorporates the lessons taken from past achievements and failures and merge with the present to create a better future.

Now that was verbose and rather badly embellished. But the intent is there. Shush, inner critic!

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If you were to be played by someone, who would it be?

Oh dear, another toughie, seeing that I have lost touch with Hollywood and Hong Kong TVB dramas.

All I can think of is "The delectable Kirsten Dunst!", because she is my favourite actress ever since her debut in Interview With A Vampire. Although after seeing that recent David Letterman interview with her, that cutesey, bubbly, rather bubble-headed blond certainly fits my description when I am in my hyper-states.

I did mention before that Annette Benning's role in American Beauty set off warning alarms in my head. Her film character was alarmingly, a portrayal of what I am possibly morphing into, with all my harping on neatness, cleanliness, matching things and an eye for quality. But that's the film character, not the actress.

Maybe I answered the question already. But because I am Chinese, it would make much better sense if I picked a Asian actress no? But I am seriously out of date with all the actresses in Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and other Asian actresses. So yes, I'm afraid I cannot truly answer this question.

Apologies.

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I'm skipping Josh's questions for now, because they will need really long answers, and do them another day. :]

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What's 'Dulce Amarum' mean?

Hee hee. It roughly means "sweet bitterness". I chose the title because of the literary weight behind them. The "bitter-sweet" nature of love is regarded as closely linked to death.

And Orpheus also called Love glukupikron, that is dulce amarum, because love is a voluntary death. As Death is bitter, but being voluntary, it is sweet.

One of those things you pick up in an English major to make yourself sound really articulate, educated and erudite.

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Which one poem can you recite verbatim from beginning to end? (Or several poems...)

Well, being an English major has its perks. You get to sound really cheem (see above for meaning of that little bit of slang) and you get to memorise damnable poetry cos it is natural to do so after reading the bloody things umpteen times for class! And most of the ones I do remember by heart are about 2-6 lines and they all rhyme, which makes them really easy to stick in your head.

Erhm, do nursery rhymes count?

Anyway, here's the list.

• He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven, An Irish Air-Man Forsees His Death & Leda and The Swan (W.B. Yeats)

• Fire and Ice, Nothing Gold Can Stay & Lodged (Robert Frost)

• To His Coy Mistress & The Mower to the Glo-worms (Andrew Marvell)

• Song (Go And Catch A Falling Star) (John Donne)

• Sonnets 18, 20, 76, 129 & 130 (Will Shakespeare)

• Solitary Observation Brought Back From A Sojourn In Hell, The Frightened Man, The Crossed Apple & Simple Autumnal (Louise Bogan)

• Kinderly & Love Me Broughte

However, the last two were medieval lyrical poetry and I heard them sung by the Mediaeval Baebes, years before I did an essay on them. The ones I recite the most are the one by Donne, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 130 and Yeats' He Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven.

Cheers.