明天我昌歌
I'm working on Chinese homework, can you tell? Right now it's kind of frustrating because I don't really like the way my book is set up. It's difficult to look up phrases. I do like that my Chinese quizzes prepare me really well for translation and that my Chinese classes help my brain think on the spot and my
pronunciation.
Tomorrow, I am part of the grand opening of the
Confucius Institute. I get to wear a "traditional Chinese dress" and I get a T-shirt. With a group of Chinese students, I have to sing Jasmine Flower in Chinese and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in Chinese and in English. I also am part of the "lion dance." There are two-what we consider to be dragons, but are actually-lions that dance on stage just like you would see on TV during Chinese festivals and such. I have to fight with the lion and find the scroll that unrolls to be a beautiful banner. Okay, it sounds silly, but I think it looks neat and genuine.
I'll post on how this all turns out. I thought I was going to be up later than this, but a headache is sending me to bed.
Goodnight all,
再见
FroYo!
The motivation behind this post is that I am now officially employed at White Velvet Frozen Yogurt! I suppose it sounds pretty lame, but I'm excited all the same. It's going to be a fun, eclectic kind of place and I'll be one of the first employees. I think I'll like starting with something and helping it grow. Overall, I'm very thankful for the job opp.
I've also registered for classes and everything is secured. I have Monday/Wednesday Spanish at 6 and Tuesday/Thursday German/Chinese/Religions of the World between 12 and 6 and no Friday classes. It's definitely the ideal college schedule especially for a first year student.
This is going to be a shorty because I'm about to head down to watch Twilight in my hall as a prelude to New Moon.
I'll be back here soon-
esch!
To Kill A Mockingbird
All the following were from my anthropology class. I had to make a PowerPoint on an aspect of the Civil Rights Movement so I did literature...To Kill A Mockingbird specifically. I edited pictures with quotes from the book to make it fun. Thought you might enjoy!
Global and International Studies: CONQUERED!
Yay! I just found out that I received 100% on my
GaIS research paper! No curve! I'm so very excited. It was much needed. I'm currently working on my part of the case study paper on chocolate. :D I just needed to share the good news!
Chinese Opera
I really wanted to edit these and have fun with them, but my friend put them on Flickr and I don't know how to steal them from there. If you have any suggestions let me know! Here's the link:
www.flickr.com/photos/djones/sets/72157622690294936
Hakuna Matata!
Whew-I haven't posted in a while. Sorry guys! Mid-terms kind of consumed my life for a few weeks as cliche as that may sound. I've also been home for two weekends in a row due to poorly scheduled events that I don't feel I can miss. I can't say that it has necessarily been busy, but definitely busier than I have been at WMU so far.
I am happy to say that by allowing my mid-terms to consume my life I have gotten 3 A's and a B (in a class that I thought I was for-sure to fail and am currently making up the lost points) and then some random grade from my Chinese teacher. He'll probably pick a number out of the air and if we can translate it into English, that's what we get!
Chinese is finally starting to come around. Today we were speaking in class and I'm finally able to piece sentences together. I'm finding that as a language major, my largest investment may be notecards. Fortunately, they are cheap and can be cut in half to save cost and come in fun colors! I recently taped several neon colored notecards filled with Chinese characters and pictures next to my bed and hope to get some on my ceiling soon. My corner is becoming quite colorful and familiar. I even have a tidy desk as I clean it off several times a day. This is mainly because it is the only surface I have for food, computer, homework, etc.
Spanish is good, International Studies is dragging by, FYE is getting old, Anthropology is still lots of fun! All-in-all classes are normal. I still haven't registered for spring classes yet. My date is the 12th of November and I eagerly await the day. I keep checking to see if my classes are still open and hoping I don't have to rearrange my schedule. It could get messy fast!
I'm not coming home again until Thanksgiving and it will be my longest break so far (I think). I have some exciting things coming up in between, though. This weekend Katie and I are going to do Disney puzzles (more on the screw-up in a bit) and probably watch movies. I have some serious homework to plow through. The following weekend Ira and his mom are headed down for a tour of WMU!! and then I am headed to Chicago on Saturday for the day with the specialty housing kids. I'm really looking forward to that. It should be lots of fun.
Okay, so Disney's big screw-up: Katie and I went shopping at Target (where else?) the other day and stumbled across some of the awesomest puzzles ever! They are panoramas of Disney characters. There was one of villians, of protaganists, main animal characters and of famous kisses. We were so excited! We stood there gazing at them for a good couple of minutes before breaking our stupor and realizing that we had to buy these and decorate our room! Katie bought the animal one for her friend and we bought the protaganist one for our room.
Anyway, this weekend, Katie put together the puzzle for her friend. It looks super cute, but she quickly realized a mistake. I walked in the door after being gone all weekend and all but stepped on the puzzle on the floor. I was very excited to see it finished, but upon a closer inspection also realized that Max, the dog from Little Mermaid, is incorrectly labeled as Nana, the St. Bernard from Peter Pan. I am apalled! How could Disney make such a fatal mistake? Katie and I are going to write them a letter including a picture of the mix-up. They can't go on printing these puzzles and depicting false images to children. Katie and I are very disappointed.
I don't have any more exciting updates, but I'll try to keep posting regularly and I'll keep you updated on the puzzle mix-up!
For now, "I laugh in the face of danger."
