Chinese 311

I added a Chinese conversation class last minute this semester.  This is one of those classes that is different every semester and could really go either way, depending on the people in the class and more than that who is teaching and how they decide to set the class up.  So yesterday was my first time attending the class, and from the looks of it I'm going to enjoy the class.  At the beginning of class, she asked me to introduce myself and as I'm introducing myself I say that I served my mission in Taiwan.  Before I continue, you must understand something about Chinese.  Well, for one, there are tons of dialects, which greatly affect your accent (for native speakers) when speaking Mandarin.  The accent that people in Taiwan have isn't exactly hard to understand, but because they don't curl their tongue when they should, it has a tendency to sound almost as if you have a lisp.  Some missionaries, in an attempt to sound more like the people they served with, over compensate for this and just sound ridiculous.  Even those who don't overcompensate have a tendency to pick up at least a little bit of the Taiwanese accent.  Ever since I started learning Chinese, I have wanted to have accurate Chinese.  Of course, there are some things that I say that are obviously the Taiwanese pronunciation and other things that show I clearly learned Chinese in Taiwan, but that isn't the accent I wanted to pick up.  So I have worked hard to have good, accurate Chinese.  Ok, back to my class.  When I said that I served in Taiwan, my teacher didn't quite believe me.  She said, "Really?  Then why don't you sound like someone from Taiwan?!"  I take that as a compliment, a big one.  Nothing against Taiwan or the Taiwanese people, but my goal is to have accurate standard Mandarin.  It really made my day.  The rest of the class went really well too.  There were multiple times when the teacher talked about some of those consistent mistakes in pronunciation people with a Taiwanese accent and how they really just bug the crap out of her, thus reinforcing how much I appreciated the compliment she gave me earlier.  There were some people who would intentionally say things the wrong way because they thought it was funny, I thought it was about as funny as my teacher did: Not at all.  It was just obnoxious.  Anyway, aside from that, the class is really going to be a lot of fun.  Our only homework is once every couple of classes we have to make a recording of ourselves talking telling a story or whatever using the vocabulary words from that day's lesson.  We will have a vocabulary quiz every once in a while as well, but basically, that's it.  Oh, and we have to do peer reviews of their recordings as well.  But I'm excited.  It's going to be a fun class.  I'm kind of going to be in Chinese mode a lot this semester, which is more than ok by me!  But I have 3 Chinese classes this semester and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Video Competition

My roommate is doing a video competition for a scholarship website and he had me and our other roommates and some friends help him.  It turned out really awesome.  He wrote the music for it and everything!  Anyway, watch it and click like.  The link is here.

Isn't She So Cute!?

I gave a talk in church yesterday, so Julie came to watch me.  I'm pretty sure I ended up putting half the congregation to sleep, but there were a few people that came up to tell me that they really appreciated my talk, so I guess it wasn't all bad.  Anyway, after church, Julie was just hanging out at my place.  We made baked potatoes and chicken for lunch with Nanc and it was good.  Mmm.... I love food.  Anyway, as we were making the food, I had to go home teaching.  When I got back and walked through the door, Julie was on my computer and she had a guilt look.  I knew she had been up to something, but it was food time.  I didn't get back on my computer for another few hours.  But when I did there were 10 notes on my screen from her, all telling me why she loves me.  Anyway, Julie is really adorable, isn't she?

The Joys of Being a Poor College Student

Well, it's a new year and we all know what that means...  Taxes!  Ok, ok, I know most people don't really worry about them for another 4 months, but I figure, I only had one job last year and it's really simple to file my taxes, so why not just do it now and get it over with and get my return ASAP?  So I go about filling out the forms online and everything and see that I paid about $100 for state taxes and $200 for federal taxes.  I expect I'll get it all back, being in college and everything, totaling just over $300.  Nice, I could use $300 about now.  I mean, when can you not use $300?  Well...  As I finish the form and am looking it over, I look at the bottom line.  My federal return is actually going to be right at about $1000!  If I thought I could use an extra $300, I sure as heck have no problem getting $800 more than I expected to get back!  Anyway, I'm just kind of excited about it right now and thought I would share the good news!

Long Awaited Update

Wow, it's been a LONG time since I've updated this.  I'm really not half as good at record keeping as I used to be.  Perhaps I'll make that one of my New Years resolutions...  Everyone's favorite, right?  Anyway, there's only a million things that I could talk about...  The semester as a whole, folk dance, tap, Thanksgiving, Sam's wedding, coming home for Christmas, plans to go to Boston for New Years, Julie...  But let's be honest here, I know you guys, and as much as you all care about whatever fun things I'm involved in and what I'm doing, the thing that everyone wants to know about is if I'm dating someone, who she is, what is she like, how much do I really like her?  Right?  Well, I'm also pretty sure that most of you who read this will at least have heard about her before, wither it be from talking to me directly, facebook or talking to someone who talked to me.  But in case you forgot, Julie's from Pennsylvania, she's an Elementary Education major at BYU and we were in the same ward last year.    She's a lot of fun, loves to laugh and has a beautiful smile.  She's one of those people that is always smiling and is just genuinely a happy person.  She prides herself on her hugs.  In fact, she's had to teach a few guys how to give proper hugs (in her opinion, side hugs are not acceptable!).  She's very sincere and you know that if she gives you a compliment, she means it.  She can also be stuborn, especially when it comes to not believing half the compliments I give her.  But don't let her fool you, she is as loving as she is beautiful.

Now, I'm sure that most of you are wondering what our back story is.  Like I said, we were in the same ward last year and she was best buds with one of my room mates (the only other mostly sane/normal one).  Towards the end of winter semester, I was getting a little tired of my friends not doing anything and started hanging around Julie more often.  It didn't take me long to realize that aside from just being a lot of fun, she was really stinking cute too and I was starting to like her.  Unfortunately, I came to this realization just before finals, which means she would be leaving for home really soon.  You all know how intelligent I am when it comes to girls, especially when I'm starting to like them.  So what do I do?  I hold her hand and kiss her just a few days before she goes home (it still makes her mad when she thinks about it because that was exactly what she told herself she wasn't going to do).  We talked and decided to try the whole long distance thing.  I went out to visit her over the 4th of July and had really fallen for her.  After I got back to Provo, I could tell something was up with her and after asking her about it she said she needed to figure some things out.  A few days later she called me and we broke up.  It took me a while to feel ok talking to her again without feeling weird or awkward about everything, but by the time I saw her again when school started, I thought I had moved on.  We hung out a few times and I didn't feel like anything was awkward (not exactly her opinion).  But when she came over to my apartment one Sunday afternoon, I realized again just how beautiful she is.  I tried to convince myself that it was over and in the past, but a few weeks went by and the more I struggled to not like her, the more inevetable it seemed.  Conference weekend was the worst.  I knew that I really liked her (not sure if it was again or still), and I was pretty sure she liked me too, but we already tried a relationship and for whatever reason, it didn't work.  Well, I had decided that I was going to ask her to reconsider a relationship.  After going back and forth, making up her mind second guessing it and dealing with utter confusion, she decided to just do what made her happy.  There's a lot more to all of that, but I'll spare you the details.  As you all know, I have a way of taking a short story and make it long.  But considering that there is a lot to this story (some of it public knowledge and some of it more personal) I don't feel like I have rambled too horribly much.

But there you have it.  That is the (relatively) basic story of how Julie and I got to where we are now.  I would put up a really cute picture of the two of us, but neither of us are wonderful at taking pictures, so we're kind of lacking in that area.  And I would post just a picture of her, but she firmly believes that almost every single picture of her is hideous.  But since this post came after much proding from her ("Your sisters update their blogs, why haven't you even touched yours?" Etc...) I will leave the responsibility of finding a suitable picture to her (reserving the right, of course, to choose a picture of my liking if she does not provide one in a timely manner).  So there you have it, that is what has been occupying my mind and my time these past few months.  I hope you all feel informed.  :-D

Duh Moment

So, this morning while thinking to myself in the shower about my homework and all that I have to do today, I realized something that is very obvious. Prayer can help here too! I've been rather caught up in and thinking a lot about other aspects of my life that require a close connection with the Lord so my prayers of recent have been mostly centered around that. It's so good to know that the Lord can and will help with any and all aspect of your life that you see fit to go to Him for help with. Anyway, as the hymn goes, "Don't forget to pray."

Patience

Everyone's least favorite piece of advice to receive. Yet, it's something that I'm sure we could all use a lot more of. Even if you think you know what the outcome is going to be, there is still no way of knowing for sure until that answer comes. In the mean time, you're so distracted that productivity is completely out. Ok, so I could possibly be more productive if I weren't at home, but that might also foster less productivity than right now, but at least the distraction would be nice! Anyway, to quote Inigo Montoya, "I hate waiting."