Another Fall

I just finished my first week of junior year, and I am already extremely pleased. I am taking the following classes:

Sports Economics
Intermediate Macroeconomics
Intro to Written Chinese
Math for Economics

My favorite class so far is Chinese; this particular course is designed for people who speak Chinese but don't have substantial reading or writing skills, i.e., people who have lived in a Chinese-speaking environment for an "extended period of time." So the class is writing and reading intensive. I was shocked (though I really shouldn't have been surprised) that the whites outnumbered the Asians 9 to 1. They probably outnumbered us even more than that, considering there are ~28 in the class and I counted about 4 Asians, including myself. (But my math skills are abhorrent, so don't quote me on that.) The majority of the whites are male also, presumably return Mormon missionaries from Chinese-speaking countries (mostly Taiwan, probably). I have to admit I was slightly saddened that there were so few Asians in the class. I guess I had imagined this would be the class where I would have the highest probability of befriending new people.

But I am no longer bothered by that considering all the people I have spoken to so far have been non-Asian (non-Asian because I haven't only spoken to whites, who are the majority ethnic group in Utah).

This fall is going to be different, for reasons more certain than others. For one, I don't have access to my friends at the push of a button anymore. Ivy has gone to Ghana, Sophia to Hong Kong, and Helen is heading to Prague soon (if she hasn't left already). I haven't seen Jihye since I transferred from NYU, because she has been on a leave of absence in her home country Korea since last spring. She is officially studying abroad in Korea this fall with special permission from NYU. (NYU doesn't have a study abroad site in Korea, so Jihye had submit a petition, and it was obviously successful.) Secondly, I embrace my current situation a lot more than I did before, though I can't say that I am 100% recovered. My outlook is more optimistic, and though I have not given up my dream of returning to New York, I understand that the remainder of my undergraduate career doesn't have to be miserable, and that I can keep my dreams and be satisfied with my current life. In other words, I can have my cake and eat it, too.

Swearing is like organized/established religion. I'll have to abstain from it until I've judged my kids are mature enough to have a say in the matter, i.e., whether they get to swear (although you never know who will expose it to your kids first). The difference between swearing and religion is that I won't be explaining swear words to my kids before they're "of age", whereas I would be more than happy to indulge their religious interests as best I can. Lord knows I'm not the most well-versed in religious studies, but I would be more than happy to brush up for the sake of appeasing my kids' intellectual appetite.

I began reading a novel entitled Loving Frank a few days ago, albeit I was slightly hesitant to begin reading it. I had been under the impression that it was a memoir written by Frank Lloyd Wright's wife/partner about their relationship, but when I finally picked up the book from the public library, realized that it is actually a work of fiction with historical bits weaved into the narrative. What the book really is about is Lloyd Wright's love affair (while married) with Mamah Cheney (also married). My hesitance drew not from the subject of cheating, but from the fact that this was a novel, and not a memoir, as I had mistakenly assumed.

Nonetheless, I began reading the book, and found myself slightly uncomfortable whilst reading the "cheating" bits. I'm less than 100 pages in and already the author has divulged much of the affair's details and encounters. They're not graphic by any means but evoke a bit of guilt in the reader. I suppose one can only assume this demonstrates literary skill on the writer's part, right?

Anyway, at this point I am not terribly interested in the subject matter and all that, but it is an easy read and not unenjoyable by any means, so I intend to finish it (hopefully before Matt returns from Maryland).

What inspires me to write is seeing how interesting and insightful other people's blogs are. I always hope to accomplish an entry worthy of reading but always feel I fall short somewhere in terms of substance or style. Nevertheless, I chug on and hope that maybe somewhere within my blog there will be something worth reading.


It is basically the eve of my junior year in college, and I am now an economics (BA) major. I will begin a Mandarin language course designed for native speakers, and which concentrates on reading and writing, this fall, in addition to my other economics requirements. I think this Chinese course will be the deciding factor into whether I will declare a second major in Chinese. I figured I may as well take the plunge, since taking this "native" class places me at an advantage in that I become exempt from the beginner Mandarin courses. What's more, the rest of the major requirements consist of electives such as literature, Chinese culture, and other non-language CHIN electives that are taught in English. So why not major in Chinese?