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.