Life Goes On

I guess you could call my hiatus from posting melodramatic. While initially that was the case, it wasn't meant to last for a month and a half. I simply didn't feel like sitting down and writing about my daily happenings. But now, as I procrastinate doing my Mandarin homework (Yes I'll get to that later) I feel it appropriate to write a bit.

I went home for Thanksgiving, and I spent that with friends as none of my family went home then. We had Thanksgiving dinner with two other long time family friends from Fremont. Ultimately it was a good week, but going back was so hard-knowing I'd only have to be there for 3 weeks made those 3 weeks seem to last forever. My roommates and I all agreed: We hated life that Sunday we all got back. Thankfully though, time cooperated and managed to go by in a... timely manner. I finished up the semester with a 3.5 GPA, thus matching the highest GPA I've ever gotten. My parents didn't believe me. You may think this rude of my parents not having faith in their son, but to be honest I never really gave them reason to possess said faith all through High School. I screwed up with parental support, why strive when I had no curfew or parental advisory? Nevertheless, I pulled it off much to my parents' delight.

I had roughly two and half weeks at home. The best part being I was going to see my entire family for the first time since over a year ago. It was very joyous as conversations commenced with the topic matter being of such sophisticated affairs as defecation and who is 'gayer' and why. Yes, having my family home is awesome, and no I'm not being sarcastic. I'm strange in that sense as today's culture seems to hate their siblings, parents, cousins etc. I can honestly say I love spending time with my family.

For Christmas I got pretty much everything I wanted and more. All I really asked for though was warm clothes. A pea coat, a down jacket, a scarf, two pairs of gloves, and two sets of thermals and wool socks: I was ready for whatever this Rexburg winter could dish out. Again I spent my time with family and friends. It was most enjoyable and very difficult to go back to school.

And yet here I am- in school again. The average temperature from day to day can be counted on just your hands, and sometimes you only need one. Especially since the other may be stuffed so far into your pocket for warmth you couldn't use it to count anyway. I'm taking a relaxing 14 credits which will make me a sophomore at the end of the semester. Those credits consist of a humanities class, a science class, a religion class, a geography class, and last but certainly not least: my Mandarin 101 class. Yes, I am taking Mandarin and I LOVE it. The way the language is set up and how the characters have come to be is fascinating. Speaking and reading the language is coming along as normally as Spanish did, but the character writing is giving me a bit more trouble, but I am learning.

I sit behind a guy from Mexico in that class so whenever we don't know what's going on, we'll talk in Spanish to make ourselves feel better about our lack of Mandarin skills. Also, I sit next to a girl from China in my religion class and she has offered to help me whenever I need it, so I share what few phrases I know to her. She'll laugh and correct whatever pronunciation errors I have made. In turn I've offered to help her with American History. I know my sister's are laughing now since I'm not the tutoring type. Yes I realize it's not exactly a fair trade-off. But if you think of it this way: She knows as much American History as you know of Chinese History. I'm better than nothing and it's the least I can do to make it a symbiotic relationship.

Wo shi hao xuesheng he wo shuo yidiar zhong wen. Duile ta jiao Yu he ta shi hen bucuo!

Anyway, I created my schedule much better than last semester and the earliest class I have is at 9 on T/TH and 10:45 on M/W and a whopping 12:45 on Fridays. Much much better than last semester.

This semester is shaping up to be just as good as the last and maybe even better. I'll try to keep up on my posts as I'm sure you're hanging on to every word. But for now I leave you as I must practice my characters!

Zai Jian!