Who is in charge of pricing things? Yesterday I bought two seperate items (aluminum foil and a tastey vanila shake from Burger King) that cost exactly $2.06. Why the six cents? Both times I had conveniently emptied my pocket of change, meaning I some how lost six dollars from my wallet and not four. In contrast to annoying prices, somethings just have high prices, which in turn is annoying. I also bought some precooked BBQ ribs yesterday for dinner and they cost me an arm and a leg. That is better, though, than what they cost the pig--which would be half a back. But they were extremely delicious. Alice and I had a picnic.... man she eats a lot--look! (just kidding!) China keeps sneaking up on me. I am currently attempting to obtain proof of insurance and schedule an exam with Language Testing International (which is intent on me leaving messages). The MEIV trip leaves soon. I am excited for you guys! ps--i would also like to note that those are bottles of rootbeer:)

Having revealed my website to the world, I suddenly feel much more pressure to write clever, precise and witty things. Things are generally a lot easier when nobody's watching, I suppose. For example, I am fluent in Chinese and have major league quality stuff (trans: pitches) as long as nobody is around :) In case you are reading this, and have a strong desire to read clever, precise and witty things, please go read Noelle Chun's blog because not only does it feature huge and flaming buildings, but also heart rending sagas. Enough said.

Working at my new "job," I am finding that when you compare most things to janitoring, it doesn't really seem like work. Data entry versus popping gum (four years in row) off desks just doesn't compare. Nor does staying up until 2am doing "rounds" compare to shoveling rocks. And when I get bored here, I can read a book. No need to wonder around aimlessly, pretending to have stuff to do. My job, for clarity's sake, is being an RA for highschoolers here at NU. They are the college prep program, they are 15-17, two are taking orgo, and they're all crazy. But, they're also friendly enough. For your viewing pleasure, I am including a video of the only job I liked when I was a janitor, and my classic task, carpet cleaning.

I saw the movie Cars last Friday night, and it was a most excellent movie. It was the first one that I have been willing to shell out the big bucks at the Evanston theater to see. Mostly about one car learning there is more to life than himself, it is also about taking life slowly enough to enjoy it. And I feel like that has been pretty relevant to me recently, constantly looking into the future, never content to just be in the present. Fortunately, I got a whole lot of practice the last few days, as I took the bus to Minnesota and back. Actually, the megabus is a pretty amazing thing. You can literally buy a round trip ticket for $2.50, and the bus is clean, fast, and friendly. And it was kind of nice to see some of the country I keep just flying over. It's just too bad that I didn't have talking cars to accompany me.

Yesterday I got "surprised" for the first time in my life. And I must admit, getting surprised has always been a secret hope of mine, because my birthday is not conducive to it. Before highschool and now NU started, my birthday now hit's that no-no zone of all highschool friends gone at not at college yet. Anyway.

I went sailing with Barney and he took me to dinner afterwards at Joyees, except Krystle, Rachel and Maggie were all there waiting for me. Perhaps the most special part was the picture they gave me. The picture has all of my best friends here at NU that will be here when I come home in the fall of 2007. It is probably the most thoughtful that has ever been done for me, and it makes me cry everytime I think about it. Thank you, guys.

MEIV is the best thing that I ever become involved with. And when I think about China,

it is not the fact that I am going across
the world to live that scares me most.

What scares me most is the fact that I am leaving my MEIV family, because that is what it has become to me.

I do not have a digital copy of the picture, so I will include one of me, Maggie and Rachel. And on of the boyband sensation, 375 Kelvin.

I just returned from Washington DC yesterday, and it was quite the experience. One cool thing was that my trip was paid for, but better than that I met all sorts of people that are like me! White people that speak multiple and less spoken languages. White people speaking Mandarin, Arabic, Korean, Thai, and a lot more. And while at first it was a little weird to be with all these white people speaking foreign languages (there was only a few Asians and black people), it was very cool. Because nobody blinked when you said what you do. Pretty awesome:) I am so used to long pauses or people thinking I am strange. I also met one girl who is going to be in Hangzhou next year, so that is nice. It's nice to know one person, other than my penpal (who I haven't heard from in a while) that will be there. She is from Mississippi. Here a some pictures of the couple places I got to visit--I only had about 2 hours of free time. So I was running around! It was cool though, to see all these places. I wanted to see the WWII memorial, but alas, did not. I'll probably have a lot of time when I have to move to DC after I graduate... but not going to worry about that right now. Final exams are soon... and things are crazy. But it'll be ok.