Back in Beijing...

When I saw this picture today, it brought a big smile to my face. The picture was taken this past summer, at Andrew Brock's apartment. It was Andy's first week in Beijing and the LC responsible for him was throwing him a welcome party.

Seeing this picture definately made my day.

About to Explode

During the 5pm local news today, I saw a report on how during Thanksgiving dinner, some people can eat enough calories from that one meal to last them seven days. I felt like I have contributed my fair share to that statistic today.

I've always been an eater. If my metabolism would cooperate better, my reputation would probably be more notorious. During special eating occassions like Thanksgiving, all guilt goes out the window when it comes to calorie watching and portion control.

So after a huge meal of hot pot (much thanks to my Mongolian ancestors who created this great culinary tradition), I was filled with prime beef, tofu, mushrooms, wintermelon, and spinach, I felt like I was about to explode. A pear and a few hours later, lovely Jane, knowing how I always want to have turkey on Thanksgiving, came over bearing gifts of leftover turkey, sweet potatoe dressing, salad, and sweet potatoe pie. Of course, I could not resist. A second meal later, I finally polished off my day of binge eating with some persimon, grapes, and tea.

Just for kicks, I went ahead and weighed myself at the end of the day, after I have cut off eating for the night. Apparently, I have gained 5 pounds from just one day of eating (ok, maybe 1.5 days - I went out to Houston's with some friends last night and had a fabulous steak au jous sandwich). Fantastic.

The best comment of the day was when my dear Mother said how she noticed that my cheeks seemed to have gotten chubbier within the past 24 hours.

I'll start trying to watch my food intake again when I go back to B-ton.

The sweet potatoe pie, by the way, was delicious.

The Mysterious Someone

It's not uncommon for me to have dreams where a lead character in my dreams is someone whom I have never met in my life before. To my knowledge, I have never met any of them while I am awake and conscious. It's kind of interesting dreaming about someone who might not even be a real person. The weird part is if I had a close relationship with those unidentified someones in my dreams - whether they are close friends, significant others, or just someone else who was really important to me. When I wake up, what makes a lasting impression are those feelings I had in my dreams with those people. It's uncanny how real it feels sometimes. I always wonder if likewise, someone somewhere have these dreams about me - where I would just be that perfect stranger whom they've never met before and don't even know whether I exist or not, but having an extremely important relationship with one another. It's interesting to think how two people who have never met will always be connected by one dream, in one higher dimension. I wonder if I ever ran into someone I dreamed about, whether I will even recognize them or not.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

Taking a Breather

It seems like for the past few weeks, life has been flying by. The 15 credits I'm taking this semester feels more like 18 - every week, it's either been tests, or papers, or both. Finally now, I have a little bit of time to relax and wind down before attacking my mountain of work that I have planned for Thanksgiving break.

Despite all the craziness, one of my classs did do a really cool thing this past week. On Tuesday night, my international news gathering class had a live video conference with some working journalists in Beijing, China. The whole thing was held through a contact my professor has at the American embassy in Beijing. For an hour and a half, we shot questions and answers back and forth with Starbucks drinking Chinese journalists - some of whom worked for People Daily, the government paper. It was $485 of the J-school well spent.

After the conference, a few of my classmates and I went for a well deserved drink and some grub. It was a small group and fairly early on, we realized that everyone there at restuarant-bar were those who asked questions in class. So really, it's the nerds coming out in full force.

It was a very nice time though. Had some funny conversations and talked to some people whom I usually don't talk to in class. Our topics of discussion included:

- How Raymer (our professor) wore his pink Burberry tie for the occasion.
- How the ridiculously attractive guy in our class becomes extremely unattractive every time he opened his mouth (he was our class's vocal conservative).
- How bad a driver the two token rich Jewish girls from Long Island are. Two of my classmates at the table were almost ran over by them. One of them also happens to drive a black BMW convertable. Figures.
- And me explaining that in China, people don't bind girl's feet anymore.

A few beers and a grilled cheese sandwhich later, we all came to a collective agreement that it was a very lovely night spent with classmates. And as Paul, one of my classmates put it:

"I feel like I made it!"

On Life and Death

It's funny how life works sometimes.

I just found out through the Indiana Daily Student today that the daughter of a professor I had Junior year just passed away yesterday. She was killed in a head on collision while driving to her work in Indianapolis. The accident was not her fault. She was only 24.

I also interviewed an 86 year old who has been a leader in Bloomington and campaigned for homelessness. She's an extremely interesting woman to talk to. A relgious woman who raised seven kids mostly on her own, she has also held down two jobs during most of this time. She considers herself having had a good life and very blessed. At 86, she's still going strong physically and emotionally (as far as I can tell). Her father lived to be 94.

I guess the two ends of the spectrums that I experienced today just goes to show again that you really never know which day will be your last. It's not fair to go so early and it really is a blessing to be able to lead a long life. From Martha, I learned that one of the most important key to appreciate life is to be able to gain the wisdom in knowing how to live and the grace to do it well.

With Princess

With Princess
Originally uploaded by sheilaz413.

Testing this picture posting thing out... Fingers crossed this works.

By the way, this is a recent-ish picture I took with Princess.

Ethnic Clash

Since I'm studying the disimination of world news this semester, I thought it would be interesting to point this out:

I first heard about the ethnic clash in China last week from the BBC (between the Hui people - Muslim descendents of the Han Chinese and Turkish Silk Road traders - and the majority Han Chinese). But just today, it made headline news on Yahoo.

It amazes me at the slowness that the news system has sometimes. Of course, some people might think, "why should I ever care about ethnic clashes in China?" Maybe it matters more for most people to know how important a role Asia will play in the coming decades and how much it will effect the lives of your average day American.

Hopefully, some people will also learn that China is not just a homogenous group of people with slanty eyes. There's officially 55 ethnic minorities recognized by the government, most with their own unique culture, language, etc.

It's a complicated country with complicated cultures. It offers more diversity then an average person would have ever imagined.

Open Your Heart, And Your Home, Marry An American

Hahaha...

http://www.marryanamerican.ca

And:

US Vote Boosts Interest in Canada - Canadian Immigration Officials said the number ofUS Citizens visiting their website went up six-fold the day after the US election...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3987697.stm

Horrible Realization

I just had a horrible realization of what can make this bull shit Bush re-election worse:

If Jeb Bush runs in 2008 for presidency...and wins!!!

I don't think I can stand a third Bush president...

Politics and Apathy

After years of campaigning and months of anticipation, election day is finally here. Being how this is my first eligable election, I was very excited about casting my vote to the candidate of my choice (a hint on who it is: the smart one...even if he does look like a horse!).

As election day draws closer, I have overheard a few conversations all with the same disturbing trend - that of the strong feeling of apathy most people have towards the election. I know that this is not a very original point or feeling, but I honestly believe that if anything has the capacity to destroy this nation, apathy will.

To me, I am continuously flabbergasted everytime I hear people who just does not care about voting or the election. I understand and agree that politics are often times shady and in many ways, can be less than attractive or interesting. However, I also understand that nothing can have more impact in your life like politics or the presidential elections. By not caring, someone is giving up their opinion on issues like the war, abortion, gay marriages, the economy, stem cell research...the list goes on. To me, it is most disturbing when feelings like this comes out of the mouths of students around campus - students who arguably, is the one group who have the most influence and are the future of this country.

It's true that changes can be made to better the voting process. It might also be true that because of the emphasis on the individual (one of the trademarks of this country), some people do not vote because they think that things will not affect them directly. But by not voting, a citizen of the United States is also giving up their constitutional right - the right to choose their leaders and set the future course of this country.

There are countries where its people treasure their rights to vote so much that most are willing to wait all day just to caste their vote. Compare that with Indiana where about 7,000 students in the state are registered to vote and out of that, about 4,000 are IU students. The student population of IU Bloomington is around 40,000 people.

Too many people in this country take for granted their right to vote.

In my opinion, even Bush voters are better than those who don't vote at all.

(Might I add what also pisses me off: that most of the world wishes they can vote in our election, and there's not enough citizens in this country that cares enough about the election to freakin vote!! And on a side note, just found out from a classmate of mine who heard from the BBC this morning that Bush and Kerry are related by something like 9 generations removed.)