China Post!

So, I am going to see if I can post this. Blogger is still blocked in China, but I've found a proxy that will allow me to look at and maybe post on my blog.

It has been about 2.5 weeks since I got here to China and it has been an interesting time. (I use that word alot, but it is true.) I bought a Chinese bike that broke down once and squeaks like its about to break. (Hasn't yet... Knock on wood.) I have driven in Chinese traffic, sharing the road with dirt trucks, public buses and moto-bikes alike. (Word to the wise, traffic laws in China are ONLY guidelines, you CAN go straight in a turning lane.)
I have been a head teacher for 4 days, found that extreme humidity works better than an iron to take wrinkles out of clothing and gone to a Chinese concert in the Pagoda Park.

Overall, I have learned three things: TIC - This Is China (ok, so I already knew that from last time, but it keeps getting reaffirmed.), With God, anything this possible (ditto to above), and most importantly, my strength is not my own. I have been blessed in so many ways, that things have worked out; I have been strong in so many situations that I knew I would have had a hard time by myself.

Anyway, I'm going to keep this short, but hopefully I'll be able to post again soon!

Tender Mercies

2 days of training over and 2 days to go. It isn't that I don't like training; I actually enjoy it quite a bit. But as anyone who has gone through ILP training, there is a lot to learn in 2 days. By the end, I was exhausted and well, I'll look forward to general training tomorrow morning after a good night's rest more so than I am right now.

But today, we finished early and I got to go up to Salt Lake City to have dinner with my dad and aunt and uncle at Cafe Rio (one of the best restaurants in Utah, hands down.) I love Cafe Rio, I got addicted to it while in Cedar City, nearly every time I went to St. George, I ate at Cafe Rio. Anyway, I was good seeing family, even if I almost got lost in downtown Salt Lake again. (I can hear you laughing, Heather...)

While the food was good, it was spending time with my dad at Temple Square afterwards that was nice. The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed talking to him one on one. We even went inside the Tabernacle and met a Chinese family from Taiwan and listened to an acoustical demonstration by one of the sister missionaries. Afterwards, we slipped into the North Visitors Center and sat by the Christus statue and talked. Lately, I have been feeling a bit out of sorts. Things have been wonderful, but I've been of the feeling that maybe I am not a good enough LDS person because of various little things, stuff that I know I could do better on. Probably the biggest issue I've been having is wondering if I'm too prideful, too sassy, too uppity. It seems, that while many more of my friends are getting married, and those who are not, are going on missions; now that they've graduated from college, I'm not doing either, yet. For now, I am going to China, doing what I've always done:

Something different that those around me.

Particularly when it comes to marriage, I tell people I have been with my boyfriend for 9 months but I don't plan on getting married for another few years, most of them tell me that marriage is a good thing and that I shouldn't wait if I know he is the one, etc.

So, in my convoluted mind, I have been wondering whether or not I am being prideful for not being like everyone else and honestly, as I'm writing this out, it sounds silly, but I'm sure there are many out there who can relate to having worry seem so valid until you write it out or say it out loud.

Anyway, when I spent time tonight talking to my dad, I asked him if he thought I was being to prideful. For anyone who doesn't know him, he is an honest guy. In short, I trust my dad's opinion. He told me that I wasn't prideful and certainly not for the reasons I was worried about.
Then he told me something that stuck with me. He said that I wasn't sent here to be like everyone else. Something that I'd been taught all my life, but kinda forgot along the way. I wasn't sent here to perky or preppy or whatever. I was sent here to be me.
Also, as we were talking, the message that is record for the Christus statue came on in English. (It is in dozens of various languages and so more often then not, I heard in German or Tagalog instead of English.) While it was the same message I have always heard my whole life, whenever I was in a Visitor's Center, for some reason, it touched me today and I just started crying. I started feeling much better than I had been for a while. Lighter, in fact.

Then as I was driving from Salt Lake City back to my hotel, I was turning through the radio stations and found Delilah; (Yes, she is cheesy, but some of my happier times in a car were driving home from work listening to her show.) after the letter that was sent to her, the song 'Breakaway' by Kelly Clarkson was played and it was perfect for how I was feeling. I may not be headed to college in a few weeks, but I'm definitely going into a new stage in my life. So, that song seemed perfect for what I need to hear tonight. As did the song I heard right after it on another channel. 'Kyrie' by Mr. Mister. Yeah, I had never heard it on the radio before and then tonight when I heard it, it seemed like it was another song that I needed to hear. Anyway, by the time I got back to my hotel, I still felt tired, but lighter and happier than I had in a while.

So while this may seem like a complete and utter ramble of my feelings tonight, I figured I should write a new post about my time this evening up at Temple Square and everything that happened.

Anyway, it's like 10 minutes to midnight, so I'm going to say good bye and good night, y'all.

Laura's August Countdown presents: 1.5 weeks until China

9 days until I leave for China:
4 days in Provo,
5 days at home.

That would be my traveling haiku. Needless to say, the point is made that I am counting down until I head to China. Right now, I am going to training for the program. 2 days for being a Head Teacher and 2 days of the general training. Along with that, I've been doing the usual packing, prepping and other stuff that comes with going away for four months...

That includes stalking.

Ok, so not really stalking, considering that I am talking to all of the people I am 'stalking' and not in the "I have your cat, come see me under the willow tree if you ever want to see Princess Fluffkins again, muhahaha" stalking sense, but rather just getting to know who they are; and the one thing I noticed was that they or most of them, have blogs in which to write about their experiences in China.

*Ding!*

That was the sound of a light bulb going off in my head. Last time I headed to China, I did a blog-esque thing with my notes on Facebook. That lasted all of about one week. Plus, I didn't have an actual blog. But then, fast forward two years to the present day and I'm thinking, "Hmmm, I havuh me bloog and I needuh to write aboutuh me experiences in the China."

Ok, so my mental grammar and English IS better than that. But I figured why not write here? I've been writing on and off on this thing for about a year now? I've chronicled my weight loss last summer, my senior year of college, why not chronicle my time in China? Surely, the Great Wall and Zhongshan are worthy of my blog time?

Thus, henceforth, by royal decree of me, I do dedicated this blog unto the writing and recording of my time in China.

At least until Christmas.

Time flys... when you are doing stuff.

So I kinda haven't written in 4 months... I apologize to all my avid fans out there, just dying for another episode in my life... *sound of crickets is hear in the background* Ok, to be fair, my life has been busy and I've finally gotten some time to write. To sum up, I'll do bullet points of the important things from last I wrote.

April
Finished up my internship at the Smithsonian
Went to Video Games Live at the Landmark Theater
Got an email from ILP asking if I wanted to be a Head Teacher in China...

May
Graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.83 GPA from Southern Utah University
Got an email from NARA saying I made the cut and more information was needed before I could be interviewed/ sent them the info
Applied to ILP as a Head Teacher
Celebrated 6 months together with my boyfriend :)

June
Got accepted by ILP and placed in a school in China
NARA called to interview me on the same day
Rearranged interview with NARA several days later due to various circumstances
Accepted the placement in China
Turned 22 years old!!!

July
Interviewed with NARA
Got my wisdom teeth removed (Ouch!)
Traveled to Las Vegas to prep for my friend's wedding
Began preparing for CHINA!!!
Quit my online job (hopefully)
Got a Nintendo DS and my first DS game - My Chinese Coach (What else do you think I'd get?)

So in short, thus has been the last 4 months.

As mentioned above, in the next few weeks, I'll be headed out to China as a Head Teacher. I'm super excited to go and I can't wait, because even though this is my 4th trip to China, I'll be seeing new places and meeting new people, which is always the best part!

Also, hopefully, I'll be more active on my blog while in China, but time will tell... Well, anyway tat-tat for now!

Sick Day

So I caught something nasty this week and am taking the day off to *hopefully* get better. In the meantime, I thought I'd post at least once during the month of March. Things have been pretty busy here. I'm loving my internship and I've been learning so much there, it's crazy. I'm pretty sure I've found something that I'd love to do for the rest of my life. In short, I think I would be very happy being an archivist or at least working in an archives of some sort.

In other things, earlier this month, I found out that I didn't get into either Oregon or Washington for graduate work, which in hindsight, is probably a blessing. I say this because I've been looking to some schools that have archiving programs and I found one at University of Maryland that sounds perfect. It is the History and Library Science program and if accepted, I would be able to get two Masters' degrees - one in History (and University of Maryland has Asian History!) and another in Library Sciences, allowing me to follow both of my passions. I plan on applying to this program for Fall of 2010 and in the meantime, work and prep the documents that I need to apply.

As for work, I've also been looking into getting a job at NARA (National Archives & Records Administration) while I am out here. They have this program called FCIP (Federal Career Internship Program), where I could work full time, train for a position and then after 2 years, get a more permanent position. Sadly, yesterday, the 8 positions open were "filled", so as of now, there are no more positions. However I plan on sending in the rest of my information and see if hopefully, I can eventually get a job there. In the meantime, I have other options that I can look into.

Finally, I do actually have a "job". I am an examiner for the DC edition of Examiner.com. I am the Frugal Finds Examiner and while this job isn't a full time job, its nice to be able to make some pocket change with my writing. If anyone is interested in seeing what I am writing about, here is the link to my homepage:

http://www.examiner.com/x-6092-DC-Frugal-Finds-Examiner

So far I have 2 posts, but part of the job is to write roughly 4 articles a week, so I figure there will be plenty more to come.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Hopefully, if I get better, I'll be able to write more soon. :)

February in the District

Before I say anything else, I'd like to wish everyone a belated Happy Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day is the District was fun for me. My boyfriend came up and we had a fun time ice skating and visiting Smithsonian museums. (Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I find a stable Internet server for my laptop!)

At the National Museum of American Indians, we visited the Power of Chocolate Festival. The festival was fun, we got to see different ways in which chocolate is made and I got to grind some chocolate powder. While there was no more of the hot chocolate that had been offered - three times as many people showed for the festival as expected - we ended up getting some Mexican Hot Chocolate at the cafeteria that was amazing. In fact, NMAI, as the museum is known in Smithsonian circles, is known for having some of the best food on the Mall.

Another fun thing that I found out about this month is the Museum of Crime & Punishment, recording both from the Middle Ages onward. During the month of February all employees of the Smithsonian (paid as well as interns) can go to the museum for FREE! So earlier this month, my roommate Heather and I went there to visit and had a blast.










Yes, I know that my eyes look weird... So much for museum mood lighting.










My emotions after 'being on' America's Most Wanted... The show is actually filmed inside the Museum of Crime and Punishment, but this room was for visitors to pretend like they were being taped for it and is not actually a part of it.

Also, during the month of February thus far, I have been able to visit the Freer Gallery, which has really cool Asian artwork....














...As well as the Natural History Museum with its giant fossils.







I also got the chance to visit the Saudi Arabian Embassy and eat tons of delicious food there, as well as try on cool Saudi Arabian clothing. (Hopefully I can procure photos from that soon as well!)

Anyway, so far it has been a lovely month and I am excited for what I will do during the next two weeks (as well as be able to post now that I figured out the photos!) See you all soon!

Life in Washington D.C.

(Note: I finished this on January 27th, 2009)

So I am at the beginning of my 4th week of being in Washington D.C. as an intern for the Smithsonian and one week after surviving the most historic day in United States, the inauguration of the first black president, Barack Obama. To celebrate this momentous occasion, I planned on staying out of Washington D.C. as much as possible. They were planning for 2 to 4 million people in all to attend the inauguration and below freezing temperatures.

Unfortunately, plans don't alway go according to plan. The night before Inauguration, one of my roommates and I were informed that extra tickets were available in the Silver Section. So we and another friend of ours got Silver Section tickets and agreed to wake up at 3:50am the next morning to make the 4:30am Metro into L'Enfant Plaza and walked a mile to the line for Silver Section. There we stood and froze with a couple from Southern California and a boy from UMBC, sharing stories and scones until 9am when the gates were finally opened and there was a mad rush of people inside to get spots (Silver was all standing). In the midst of it all, we lost track of the couple from Southern California and then reconnected with them on the other side of the gate. After that, they ended up becoming my group's 'parents' for the day, helping us through the crowds and sharing their snacks with us.

The Inauguration was interesting in and of itself. It was both awe inspiring, the music from the Marine Corps and from the choirs brought in was stunning, both John Williams and Yo-Yo Ma played, and it was terrifying in its sheer magnitude. 2.4 million people (equivalent to the population of Utah) squeeze into the Mall, all the way back to the Lincoln Memorial and beyond to the Potomac River. That number doubled what was the largest Inauguration crowd to date: 1.2 million people in 1965 to the Inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson. Thankfully the area where we were in was relatively uncrowded (mostly because our group was completely fine with not being as close as humanly possible to 'Brother Barack'). The other slightly disturbing thing was the ability for the government to shut off reception to everyone's cell phones, pagers, BlackBerries, etc. during the inauguration. While I understand that it was to keep thousands of cell phones from ringing during the ceremony, the fact that anyone is able to do that is somewhat unsettling.

While most of the Inauguration went off nicely, there were 3 things of note that happened I found mention worthy:
1. The booing and jeering of George W. Bush as he walked out of the Capitol.
Honestly people, there is a small thing called maturity. It would be lovely if you had some. I understand that many people didn't like Bush while he was in office, nor like him still, but during the last few minutes of his presidency, at least have the decency of not booing him or chanting, "Na na na na, hey, hey, GOOD-BYE!" If you hate his policies, if you think he destroyed America's reputation overseas, if you feel or felt that he is a war mongering imperialist, so be it! But have some decency and respect your President, whomever it may be! At the very least, you can be quiet. I disagree with a lot of Obama's political beliefs and policies, but I didn't boo him when he became President. I cheered, not because I supported him, but because he is my President now and I have enough respect to do that at the very least.

2. The trashing and destruction of the Mall.
As I and my friends trailed around D.C. trying to find a way home (we didn't even try to get on the Metro.), we ended up circling back onto the Mall on our way to the Arlington Memorial Bridge. As we walked in the cold afternoon, all three of us commented on how terrible to Mall looked. In all honestly it looked like a riot had happened, not a peaceful transfer of power. One friend mentioned that it reminded her of Kenya, while another said that it looked like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Trash laid strewn about, flying everywhere in the wind, broken and disregarded U.S. flags, tossed into garbages and left on the ground. C'mon people... Not 20 minutes before, Obama gave his Inaugural speech and spoke of being more environmentally aware and being united. Don't tell me you already forgot...

3. The state of the Metro on Inauguration Day
Don't get me wrong, I love the Metro, every day they get me to and from where I need to go almost efficiently. But while they were telling everyone about their new 8 passenger trains and their starting up at 4am in the morning... they forgot to figure out how to efficiently get people in and out of the Metro stations.

Now, I know that I sound like I am dissing on Inauguration Day. I'm not. I actually had fun that day. I got to get to know Washington D.C. on a very intimate level. I found out that I could keep a level head in a crisis situation and I found a new way to get home from D.C. I found out that the Inauguration brought out both the worst in people, (i.e. bum rushing gates and angry chants as people waited in line to get in) as well as the best (i.e. virtual strangers looking out for each other, *nod to Katherine and Jay*, politeness and helpfulness in the middle of a flood of people, tireless military folks helping people 'evacuate' Washington D.C., etc.)

Overall it was a good, but exhausting day that I will never forget and that in the end, I am actually glad I participated in.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'll try to report more about D.C. in later days. Have an awesome week, everyone and Happy Chinese New Year!