Friday, August 22, 2008

Personal Asian American Experience?

Just started working on a short 400 word personal article on my "Asian American experience," my first article of this kind. I'm kind of stumped right now. Just wandering around my favorite city hoping for inspiration to hit me. Ideas?

On another note it's good to be home.

Monday, August 11, 2008

7 Days

I can't believe that I only have seven days left before I head home from Beijing. I'm already in the mindset that my wonderful trip here is over, which I have to will myself to get out of this mindset.

The weather has improved a lot these past two days. It's actually comfortably hot instead of just hot and humid. Things are relatively calm in the areas I've been in, no massive crowds compiled on the streets doing anything crazy (which might be exactly what organizers have in mind)- as there would be in my home city.

(With help from friends, namely with their information and guidance) I found a location to buy Olympic tickets and am on track to see China v. Spain tomorrow! So maybe I will get to be a part of this Olympics after all. Well, I suppose if you're here, and hotel rooms are going for a thousand American dollars a day and above, and the most exciting Olympics in recent memory were taking place, you'd have to be a fool to pass up the opportunity to attend.

The only thing that I regret from this trip, which isn't much (so it speaks to what a good time I've been having here) is that I dropped my new US cellphone and my diary somewhere in Beijing. Yea, unlikely to get those back. But oh well!! Hopefully by blogging I'll be able to replace everything that was lost in my diary, and I could always buy a new phone when I return to the States.

Friday, August 08, 2008

One World, One Dream

Kudos to whoever came up with the Olympic motto for 2008, it's a really great one.

CCTV, the government run Chinese media conglomerate, has of course been running Olympic coverage all day. Today while eating lunch, I got to see on television a bunch of Presidents and foreign leaders and their spouses shake hands with President Hu Jintao of China, pause for pictures, and watch the scene repeat itself as hundreds of countries were represented. President Bush gets the award for seeming the most friendly, while President Putin seemed to be a bit tardy (he came in last, and I don't think he was supposed to do that). While these influential leaders walked across the floor, and while we saw some visuals afterwards of their huge lunch reception afterward, I couldn't help but think that although the Olympics are an athletic, nonpolitical event, if these people wanted to, they could really address some serious issues right now, besides determining whether or not to try to use the chopsticks and risk embarrassment, or cut your losses by using a fork and knife from the beginning.



Politics aside, I can't help but be really excited for tonight! It'll just be awesome because the Chinese people and Chinese government have done so much psychologically, physically, financially, politically, etc. etc. to prepare for today. One of my friends has so kindly allowed me the use of a coveted hotel room to host a gathering for me and my friends! Allright China, the world is watching! 中国加油!

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

I'm Back! (to blogging)

Dear all, thank you for bearing with me while I struggled through this summer in Beijing! I've been so busy with school, with work, with exploring, and with trying to eke out some sleep that I have much to catch up on, now that school and work are largely done.

Beijing has simply been amazing, and I've learned so much just by being here. It's pretty weird to be typing so many words in English now that I've lived my past few months almost exclusively in Mandarin 汉语.

I'm really, really, tremendously excited to finally have time to blog. I feel that I have learned so many new things this summer, and I have been exposed to so many new questions, that I'd be so grateful to have the opportunity to share them and organize my thoughts. I plan on starting right away. Well, time permitting. Now that school and work are over, now's the time to see all the sights and do all the things that need to be done before one leaves Beijing. Beijing is a big modern city after all!

And to all of my dear friends who I haven't seen in so long, I miss you all very, very much from the bottom of my heart. Let's try to meet as soon as possible! I'm back in the Bay Area from August 20th to September 10th, and I'm back in Boston on September 11th.

I hope all of your summers have been all that you expected them to be and more! If not, there's still one month left!

And in other exciting news!! http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523946 Stem Cell Breakthrough!