Christmas in China

Well this has been an interesting week.  In a lot of ways it didn’t feel like there was any Christmas happening here.  Christmas is about a lot of things, but only those unimportant parts happen in China.  There might be Christmas trees and gifts, but without Christ and family what is the meaning of Christmas?

 

On Sunday I decided to wait to tell Flagship about my decision to return home until Monday.  That was when I was meeting with the internship coordinator and I only felt it was fear to hear his thoughts on matters before making a decision.

Meeting with him was actually a pleasant surprise.  He thought it would actually be the best idea for me to go home this winter semester and finish up school, and then in the summer come back to China and finish up my flagship internship.  This is great, because this way I can do everything that I wanted to.

So that is what I am doing now.  I will come home on the 12th, and finish up all of my classes.  I am already in all of the classes I need except one.  Pray for me that that teacher will decide to let me join.

 

Well, later that night we had FHE.  It was a lot of fun.  We made ginger bread houses.  Probably one of the most interesting parts of the night was when one of the girls, Sharlyn, decided to brag about her Gongfu, and after I may have teased her a bit about it, decided to “put the hurt” on me.  Lets just say it didn’t go well for her.  :)  It was fun to let her try though.  It reminded me a lot of fighting with Chris when we were younger.  Both stood about zero chance, sorry Chris, but that didn’t mean they didn’t try.

 

Tuesday night Trevor, I, and our two roommates came over and we watched a movie called 《让子弹飞》.  It was a cool movie, a lot like westerns in America.  It was also fun because I was able to understand most of it, a wonderful affirmation to have when translating in Church on Sunday showed me how bad my Chinese was!

Wednesday night was another movie night, but this time it was with a bunch of Americans.  I went over to the Shurilla’s and watched a movie called RED (Retired and Extremely Dangerous).  It was so fake with how overdone it was, and it was just hilarious.  It was good to just chill with everyone as well.

 

Christmas type activities started on Friday.  In the morning Trevor and I went to a store called Metro to pickup food for the ward party on Christmas day.  At the store we had a wonderful view of what an indoor rainstorm would look like.  One of the pipes in the roof had burst and it was literally raining.  It was especially fun watching a bunch of Chinese people scurry around, trying desperately to figure out how to fix the problem.  They were all getting dressed up in their wet suits trying their best to stop the rain.  It was just the cutest.

Well after finishing shopping we decided to go to get all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ.  It was under 10 dollars USD a person.  Not bad at all.  Our table had a built in grill, and we would just go and get plates of meat to grill.  There was also a good selection of pre-made dishes.  One of my favorite was some cabbage, cooked with bacon, and sprinkled with brown sugar.  It was very tasteful.  They also had a good selection of soups, sushi, fruit, and even ice cream.  Overall a very yummy day!  I will have to go back there before too long.

At night I had a Christmas party where I played Santa at the beginning.  The party was run by the government.  My part was to dress up as Santa and greet people as they came in.  We also gave candy to the children.  It didn’t work to well, as most people couldn’t care less about Santa, or the kids were scared of us.  But let me tell you, I was at least a really good Santa.  We borrowed a killer costume from some friends in the ward.

 

Saturday was another set of parties.  The first was in the morning at the couples mansion.  Laura and Chris helped cook a breakfast, and we also had a secret Santa gift exchange.  It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed myself.  I got a cool DVD with Pixar movie shorts on it.  Fun-fun.

After that party I nearly directly went to another party, the one that the branch was putting on.  It wad some good food, and some really good desserts.  There was also a white elephant gift section where I got some play-doh.  That was a really fun party as well.

After that several of us went and sung Karaoke.  Certainly a Chinese way to celebrate a holiday :)  Once again, I pushed my voice to far.  I already had a sour throat, and I think I must have song until I couldn’t sing anymore.

As soon as Karaoke was done, we went to see a performance by Sharlyn’s Gongfu master.  He was actually really cool.  I really have got to learn a martial art some time.  After that we all went and got ice-cream at DQ.  While there I met the teacher’s friend who teaches Latin dance.  It was funny getting to talk about ballroom dance once again.  I even loosened up enough to dance some foxtrot.  Oh, how I miss dance.  Maybe I should find a way to take a dance class this winter semester…  We will just have to see.

 

Well, that was my week.  A really good week overall.  I hope all of you had even better Christmas then me.  I hope you are enjoying this wonderful and special time with family.  Trust me, cherish it, it is wonderful!

Slow Start, Great End

This week started off really slow, but it ended pretty well.  Sunday was a bit more restful then it was the week before.  We had the FHE/Home Teaching combo again this week.  More of the married couples came, and it was good to be able to see everyone.

Monday was a pretty good day.  I did wake up with a terrible earache, but by around 2pm it was no longer bothering me.  Around 10:30am there was suddenly air raid sirens blaring.  I remember looking up, thinking “oh well, this is China after all”, then putting my head back down and working again.  You just get used to weird stuff while living in China.  Later I found out the sirens were to commemorate the attack on Nanjing by the Japanese in WWII.

The day wrapped up with FHE at the Hales.  It was actually really fun.  We all just talked about various experiences we had with our life.  We also played a couple rounds of psychiatrist.  We ended FHE with sundaes from McDonalds.  A very happy FHE if you ask me!

 

On Tuesday I finally watched a Chinese movie that did not end sadly.  It is called 剑雨.  It is actually a really good movie, and I would encourage anyone to watch it.  It was a little hard to follow at first since there was so much language that was Buddhist.  Still I really enjoyed it.

Tuesday was also the day that the weather got cold.  There was actually snow mixed in with the rain.  I was not a fan.  It isn’t as cold as Utah, but when the wind blows it cuts right through all that I am wearing, and it is freezing.

 

Wednesday was more of the usual.  I accidentally slept in and got ready and to the bus stop for English in about 20 minutes.  Quite an impressive feat if you ask me.

Thursday was also pretty slow, but at night I went over to the Shurilla’s and played some games with the boys.  It was a lot of fun.

 

Friday was a really slow day.  For breakfast I had french toast, which is the first thing I have actually “cooked” in my kitchen.  It actually turned out really well.  I like the sweater Chinese breads when it comes to french toast.  I did realize they I had nothing to put on them, and no forks to eat them anyways.  So I poured Hershey's chocolate syrup on them, and ate them like normal pieces of toast.  They were actually pretty darn good.

In the afternoon I went shopping with Trevor to find Christmas gifts for some secret Santas that are happening soon.  It was fun, and we got some pretty good deals.  Trevor tried to eat everything in sight, which was something else fun to watch.  I certainly found some stuff I might by and send home.

After that I headed to the Farely’s for their Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun, and the popcorn and cookies were just heavenly.  Those cookies were some of the best I have had in years, mmmhh…. chocolate chip…

After the party on the way home two interesting things happened.  The first was after Trevor got off the train and two of the girls by us started talking about how me and Trevor were not together.  Of course they didn’t think I could understand what they were saying.  I thought for a second whether I really wanted to tease them for this, and eventually decided that I did, so I offered my seat to the one girl still standing up.  I made sure to speak just enough Chinese so that she would be sure I could speak Chinese just fine.  The two were so embarrassed when they realized I had understood them.  They huddled together and continued talking about it, and laughing.  It was funny.  I probably shouldn’t tease Chinese girls so much, but it is fun and easy.

The other cool thing was seen after I left the subway.  The tallest building in Nanjing had all the lights around it on.  They were all blue.  Around the building other spotlights were waving around it.  It looked really awesome.  I found out later it was because the building was finally starting to be used.

 

Saturday also had nothing interesting happen until late afternoon.  For dinner me and Trevor went and got some really good Malaysian curry.  It was really good.  Still not as good as Tai curry though, but later that night I did see a place that just might have Tai curry…

After dinner Trevor, his roommate, and I went and did Karaoke.  It was a lot of fun.  By the end of the two hours I couldn’t sing anymore, my voice was just thrashed.  It was awesome!

 

So that was what happened this week.  It was pretty darn good.  To answer questions from my family about Christmas gifts, I would say don’t get me anything for now, or if you do DO NOT SEND IT TO ME.  For all we know I will come home on the 15th, and even if I don’t I just don’t have the room in my suitcase to bring home anything you send to me.  I am already at weight limits when I got her, and if I bring back anything from here I will be over.  It is already something I worry about, so please don’t add anything more.

 

 

As for what I have been pondering this week, for the first time in weeks it hasn’t only been about what to do in regards to next semester :)  This week I have been thinking a lot about the value of souls, and how little we seem to understand this concept.

As all of us know we are children of God.  This alone makes our souls of more value than most people on earth give them credit for.  Even more than that we came here as obedient children of God, willing to follow the plan he gave all of us.  As such our value is higher than I think nearly anyone thinks it is.

Two situations that made me really think of this were as follows:  When talking with a friend, I said that I had a similar to experience to one he had.  Jokingly, but with some truth to it, he said “stop it, you are making me feel less special.”  How silly of us to think that an experience is somehow tied to our worth.  How could something so transitory truly effect something so permanent?

The second was reading another article about a mother who had a child born with disabilities.  She then talked about how it was a blessing that she could have a child that while mentally limited, was so easily able to show forth love and other Christ-like attributes.  I know some of you are not going to like this statement, but while her statement didn’t cross the line, it reminded me of how often in Mormon culture we are apt to put disabled into some kind of super moral category.

Nowhere in scripture, ancient or modern, can I find any support for the fact that disabled children are somehow the first class citizens in Gods kingdom, given those bodies because they were the best of gods children, and best able to handle them.  To me this is absolutely ridiculous, for this very thought put those of us born into normal circumstances as some kind of lesser being.  I refuse to think  that Joseph Smith, and other prophets were somehow what was the best spirits left over after those “too valiant” spirits were given disabled bodies.  It is just ridiculous.

Now in my dislike of this concept I actually have no disagreement with the state of those disabled children of God.  I think the core of the idea they are trying to express is correct, I just think that in their attempt to express it they add a lot that is not true.  My problem with this though is not that I think it puts disabled people too high, but rather that through this sentiment we fail to understand the value that we personally have.  There value is in no-way defined by the physical and mental limitations they have, just as ours is no way defined by the lack of those limitations.  We are equally children of god and of equal in value.  Those born without these defects are often just as caring and Christ like as those born disabled, but somehow we fail to see it.

That is what the core of my thoughts on value is, we just do not realize the value we have as souls.  We spend so much time being proud, comparing ourselves to each other precisely because we do not understand our own value.  If we did we would realize that it is completely unrelated to how we compare to others, and rather is something innate to us.  Something that has becomes a part of who we are.  Our values as souls is not transient, something to be lost over a little mistake, and not to be gained by a couple of good acts.  But rather it is the accumulation of all that we have become.  And that is precisely why it is so great.

We just like the disabled, the “noble savages”, and all of God’s children are of great value.  The problem we have in our society is not overrating any one groups values and likeness to God, but rather our inability to see this value in all of them.

I personally hope that I can become the person that sees as God does, on the heart of people.  I hope that I can stop looking at people, and seeing their physical and mental challenges and accomplishments, and using this to judge them.  I wish to be able to see as God does, and see the spirits of light that are God’s children.  When I see with God’s eyes, I see the infinite value of those around me, I only hope that some day I will stop relying so on my own eyes and my own understanding, and instead come to see as God does.

 

Wow, I am really jealous of Moroni.  He only had to feel like his writing was inadequate to express what he wanted, but I feel that both my writing and speaking are equally inadequate.  How I yearn for the day when we can have a purer form of communication.  Until then I will just have to pray that the Lord can help you feel what I am trying to say, and that you will not dwell on my inadequacy in expressing it.

 

Well, that is enough for me today.  It is time for me to write an email to Dr. Bougerie about my plans to return home, something I am not to happy to be doing =/  I hope that you are all enjoying your Christmas break.  Merry Christmas to you all!

Boring Week

Sunday was a really long day.  I spent most of the day just trying to upload pictures and videos to Facebook.  I was surprised at how much of the day it took, but luckily I got it finished, with my whopping 40KB/sec upload connection.

 

Monday was a very busy day with classes and all.  My 2PM class was canceled again, I wonder if we are still having it.  I hope they didn’t choose to change the room or something else half way through.  At night I had so more Xinjiang food.  It was really quite good.

Tuesday was a little more interesting.  In class we watched a movie called “A World Without Thieves”.  It is a really interesting movie, and I suggest that you all watch it if you have time.  It was definitely one of the better activities we have done in class.

Wednesday saw us teaching kids more english.  We sang the “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” song with all of the kids.  They enjoyed it, even when they couldn’t quite keep up with the pace that we were singing. 

 

Lately I have been watching a lot of TV and such with my tutor.  We finish our classes early, and then since we have nothing to do, we start up a TV show.  The main show we watch is called “The Battle to Protect Marriage”.  It is a really interesting show.  It is about three different families, who all have very different views on families and the roles of men and women.  I really enjoy it because it leaves a lot to think about.

On Thursday I also watched the Jackie Chan move “The Myth”.  Overall a really good movie, but I wish that it had a happy ending.  I must say that I am happy that I watch them with my roommate, or I fear that I wouldn’t understand half of what they said :)  It is amazing how many cultural references are jammed into media.

 

On Friday I tried to play a game with some friends in America, but the Chinese firewall would let me connect to the servers.  I was really sad.  Saturday saw me playing Volleyball with some friends here, so at least I got to do something with friends over the weekend.

If I had to sum up this week, I would do so as boring.  I really didn’t do anything that interesting.  Everyone else also seemed to be pretty busy, so I could just relax with them.  Sad day.

 

As for the issue of whether to go home or not, that has been about all that has been on my mind.  Luckily I was able to sit down on Thursday with Trevor and talk about it.  He helped me be able to get the whole situation in very rational terms.  Either choice I make, I will be giving up something of real value, and I need to decided which is more important.  The two things we focused on were my Chinese degree vs. my flagship certificate.  I can only do one or the other, not both.  With this though I admit that I am leaning more to coming home in January.  I don’t see a good internship very likely anymore, but I will still wait at least another week before making a decision.

 

Until then, I hope everything is going wonderful for everyone.  Happy Christmas season to all of you!

Ponderings of a Scott

So, this is the follow-up to my blog post from yesterday.  If you have not read that one yet, go back and read it as it has what actually happened this week. 

The following is my musings on what I should do in the next couple months.  Things have kinda been turned on their heads, and I don’t know what will happen anymore.  Any suggestions or ideas from anyone are more than welcome as I try to figure things out.

 

So her is the situation.  Part of the flagship program is several months of internship while in China.  I was actually pretty excited for this opportunity, as it was something I didn’t know else I could get.  Unfortunately there was a problem, the center over arranging flagships was closed.  So as of now, I don’t have an internship for next semester.  My own attempts have also failed at finding an internship.

To add to this problem, right before I came to China two things happened, first I was offered a job at Microsoft, and second I talked to a Microsoft employee and found out that they have a Marco Polo program that sends workers to China to work.  So basically I came to realize that if I wanted to go and work in China, it would be pretty easy to go with an international software company.  This took away a little of the glamour of the internship portion of Flagship, as I could do something bigger and better just as easy as as part of a full time job.

 

So where things stand is that I still don’t have an internship, and everything dealing with an internship is all maybes.  There are three possibilities, I will find a good CS internship, I can work doing research for a CS professor, or I could end up with an internship whose only value is that it takes place in China.  Obviously that last option is what I fear most, I don’t just want to be a “white monkey” for four months of internship.  As I was considering what to do I realized that I did have a fourth option.  I could return home after the semester finishes in China, around January 15th.

 

So now I have to think of the pros and cons of each option.  Staying in China all share a common con, which is that when I return home I will not have time to finish my Chinese degree before grad school starts, and also that I will not have any break time between when school ends and when I start grad school.  The common pro is that I will be able to finish flagship and get a certificate, that while means nothing, gives me a sense of completion.  Option 1, finding a good CS internship, has no additional cons, but is full of obvious benefits.  This is the optimal solution, but it is really unlikely at this point.  Option 2, working with a CS professor, would be cool because this I will never have another chance to do something like this, but it has the con of being with a professor who is doing research in an area I am not too interested in.  The third option, finding a “white monkey” internship, has no additional pros and I feel would just be a waste of my time.

What I fear most is that it is the “white monkey” internship will be what will happen.  Then I will basically just be staying in China to finish flagship.  I guess it is just my personality, I really don’t want to get stuff having a 9-5 internship where I don’t do anything of meaning.

So option 4 is to return home.  This option is hard on me for several reasons.  The first is that I am one that likes to finish what he starts, and I would like to finish flagship.  Ironically, this is also one of the pros, if I return home in January there is a possibility that I could finish my Chinese degree, which I cannot do otherwise.  Another con is that I am a little scared of returning home.  This is not something I have considered until just recently, and as such I haven’t been able to plan everything out.  I would return to a world full of responsibilities that I more or less could ignore while I was in China.  I would also start school 2 weeks late, which would turn my first bit back home in to a very hectic time.

The benefits to returning home are pretty obvious, I will get to see all of my family and friends.  It has been really hard to not see my family with all that is happening.  I just looked at pictures from my nephew’s first birthday and it broke my heart that I wasn’t there.  This is some of the last times that I am guaranteed to be with my friends and family, and this chance is going by without me taking advantage of it.  Grad school could see me living far, far away from my family.  The other benefit is that I could finish my Chinese degree, and also have a break between the two semesters.  If I came home I could also go on the site visits for grad school.

 

From reading this it is probably clear that emotionally I am leaning towards home.  The problem is that I don’t make decisions based on my emotions, but rather based on my reasoning.  In that regard I am really split.  I really don’t know what is the best option.  I wrote this for two reasons, to get my thoughts down on “paper”, and also to get suggestions from my friends and family.  So like I said, if you have any thoughts or opinions I would love to hear them.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

The worst of times came right at the start of the week.  It was Sunday morning when I opened up ESPN and saw that BYU had lost to Utah, by a point, after a blocked field goal.  I was devastated.  I am happy that I didn’t have to be around for this season.  I am happy that BYU’s end was better than its start, but still.

On Sunday I was able to finish the submission of my grad apps.  It feels really good to get that off my list of things to do.  Now we will just have to wait and see who is silly enough to accept me :)

 

Monday was a long day of classes like always.  At 4PM instead of the class we normally had there was a ceremony for the flagships students by the compassionate charity organization for Nanjing.  They gave us badges making us official members, and then we all headed to an old-folks home for a photo-op.  Even though it was just for a photo-op I was still able to talk to one of the old ladies.  She was really cute and funny.  I could only understand about half of what she said, but I was happy that I could be there for at least a little, and bring a little joy to her life that day.

 

On Tuesday I had my writing teacher say that she though I was one of the students that had progressed the most.  I was happy to hear this from her, as I felt that I have been making progress.  It is always good to get some confirmation.

At night I had the FHE/Home teaching hybrid my branch is currently doing.  It was good to get together with everybody for a little.  I had an “interesting” conversation about China at the end, but other than that it was great.

 

On Wednesday we had English again.  We did some more rapping, and then played Simon says.  These may not be the most productive activities, but at least they keep the kids attention.  I also sent in my ecclesiastical endorsement and transcript order form, which tied up the last two ends for my grad school apps.

 

Thursday and Friday I spent mostly just reading.  I finished up about three different books during this time.  I really need to watch my reading addiction.  It is still much too easy for me to indulge in.  Much more dangerous than any video game addiction.  Other than reading I didn’t do much accept eat some good Xinjiang food, and a good pizza.

 

Saturday was the best of times part of the week.  In the morning not much happened, but at night I was able to go to a production of “Jiangsu has got foreign talent”.  It was a great show.  First we had Trevor dressed to kill, with a fan club of dancers behind him, singing a traditional Chinese song.  Second some of my friends in a band called LCD played.  They performed really well, they even had there wives come on stage and dance with them.  It was awesome!

I really enjoyed it all, and it was fun to pretend to be the over hyped fan.  It was also just good to spend the night with everyone.  One of my best memories from China.

 

So overall the week was pretty simple.  Sorry that I wrote so little, but I am feeling a little extra tired today after spending quite a few hours uploading pictures and movies to Facebook and YouTube.  If you want to see a bunch of pictures from China check out the pictures I uploaded on Facebook.  You can also see all the videos that I have linked.

 

Well, that is all I am going to write tonight.  I was going to write my ponderings of the week, but that will have to wait till tomorrow.  The ponderings are called “To return home, or not to return, that is the question.”  So anyone that wants to input on that subject stay tuned for tomorrows update.