dansk

Jeg kan 5 forskellige sprog: engelsk, dansk, fransk, tysk, og nu lærer jeg kinesisk.  Men jeg er desværre ikke rigtig flydende med enhver af dem (nå ja, engelsk kan jeg godt).  Sååååå tænker jeg på hvordan jeg kan øve mig og blive bedre til dem alle (eller i det mindste til et eller to af dem).  Jeg har valgt dansk, fordi jeg kender allerede en masse ord og kan følge med meget mere end de andre.

I weekenden kommer Andrews mor og hendes kæreste.  Dem har jeg aldrig mødt før, så det glæder jeg mig til.  Jeg synes det er vigtigt at få Andrew bedre til at kende og begynde at være mere og mere tæt på ham.  Vi er kommet sammen et par måneder siden nu, og jeg har stadig noget i mit hjerne som stopper mig fra at elske fuldstændigt.  Jeg tror nok, jeg beskytter mig, især efter mit sidste forholdt (som endnu ikke var så længe siden).

Jamen, jeg skal forsætte at opdatere på dansk en gang imellem, bare at holde sproget frisk i hjernen og prøve at lære nye ord og regler.  Den bedste måde at gøre dét er, at se film og høre musik på sproget man vil lære.  Jeg har også nogle danske bøger, så de kunne også være nyttigt.

ich werde nie krank!

I am now a proud owner of an up-to-date U.S. passport! The new design is really neat, although I'm sad to no longer have my Danish student visa stamped in it.  Ich bin ein Mann der Welt! This will be a big stepping stone for my study abroad applications for both China and Taiwan.
Everyone here in Pullman is really sick right now... Everyone but me. *Knocks on wood*
I don't understand what is wrong with everyone.  The flu has hit probably half of my staff at the pool.  Everyone in my classes are hacking and sniffling.  Yet here I stand, healthy as a lamb.  I don't feel that I do anything in particular to have accrued this high tolerance to illnesses around me other than drinking tea, exercising, and the occasional shot of vitamin C.  Sådan er det bare, nogle folk er bedre end andre : /

The weather outside has been just lovely, lately.  My favorite is when it is cool enough to comfortably wear jeans, yet warm enough to still just wear a t-shirt.  Soon it will be October! I'm devising a few costume ideas for the Halloween season coming up.  At work, we have a special event every year called Spooky Splash, where all of the staff are dressed up, and we put on Halloween-oriented games and activities for kids to come participate in.  Some of us had talked about dressing up with the theme Washington Zombie University (WZU), so wearing WSU gear, dressed as athletes or cheerleaders, etc, but all zombied up.  My other idea is to go as Dr. Frankenfurter, because that was a ton of fun when I dressed up for Rocky Horror last November.

There are just a lot of cool fall events in the area.  Haunted Palouse is my favorite : ) Off to class.

Ferie

I could definitely use a ferie as soon as possible! Work is giving me such a headache.  I wish I could take a week off and just get caught up on all of my school stuff instead.  Pulling over 30 hrs managing the pool this week on top of a full class schedule, homework, and two exams this Friday.  I'm not trying to whine, I'm just putting everything into perspective so it's easier to look at.

As if I had any free time, I have also been delving into the Lord of the Rings books.  Andrew and I found a copy of all three books in one for $8.00 at a used books store downtown called Brused Books.  $8.00 for all three books! I'm exclusively shopping at used book stores from now on.  Anyway, The Lord of the Rings is proving quite addictive, so pursue them at your own risk.  By the way, thank you Jon Hamm for recommending the other LOTR (did I really just type that?) soundtracks.  I ended up downloading the Two Towers, and I'm really fond of it now.

I'm not sure whether I've mentioned this, but I'm teaching swim lessons at work now.  I really can't be certain as to whether or not I'm doing a good job of it, but somehow it all works out in the end.  It's not rocket science.  Although, if it were rocket science, that would be really awesome.  In any case, I feel very fortunate to have relatively good children in all of my lessons, and they're pretty cute.  The moms seem to have really taken to me, as well.  This morning, one of them was sharing her secrets to finding the best knitting wool (okay??) and another asked why I wasn't wearing my earrings today, haha!

Another stroke of good luck: I met a Danish girl here at WSU via my roommate, Jake.  She said there are 3 Danes here, which is exciting, and we're all going to meet up for a kop kaffe next week.  Det bliver sikkert godt for mig at tale dansk igen.

On a closing note, I think I may be finally leaving The Facebook behind for good this time.  It's been consuming more and more of my time lately, which is completely nonsensical, and it is the epitome of counter-productivity.  On top of that, all most people post is either boring, crude, or absurd.  Furthermore, they established a new layout, which reformatted the entire site to the point that I cannot even begin to parse what's happening or how to view things normally.  Is it worth taking the time to figure it out? Not likely.  I think that was just the push I needed.

Regnvejr

I never posted anything about 中秋節, nor did I really do anything to celebrate it.  The moon looked pretty awesome for it though.  I figure I'll have a handful of really great ones to tell about in the future when I'm actually in Asia.

Life is so very, very strange and loaded with irony.  Today is the first day of nearly the entire summer where it's been rainy weather.  The irony comes into play because we are all delighted that the sun has taken a break and the cooler weather has come.  I've been trying to appreciate the sweltering heat while it lasted (it may come back later, too, so I won't speak too soon), but I tend to get really geared up for autumn by this time.  I have my pumpkin spice candles, hot tea, ice skates, jeans & longsleeves all busting to get out and watch the world change to hues of orange, yellow, and brown.  Warm, sunny weather is terrific if you're an outdoor athlete (particularly rowing, where the quality of your row frequently depends on how calm the river is that day), but for me, it's been too hot to run during the day, yet it's getting darker sooner so I can't go at night either.  Altogether, I'm enjoying this deliciously cooler day and the delectable smell of rain wafting about outside.

Nerd story:
Going through my things, which I retrieved from my parents' storage units upon my most recent encounter with them (when they helped me move back to Pullman), I rediscovered a lot of my old CD's from high school.  Among them is the "Fellowship of the Ring" soundtrack.  At first I didn't think much of it, but I put it onto my iTunes.  It could be said that I have scarcely listened to anything else since.  I'm finding it so enchanting to the point of being addicted.  The images and feelings it conjures are fantastic; I can't stop.  It reminds me of high school when Timothy would rock out to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack everyday at school.

好的週末

I regret not updating more this week, as there are a lot of things I have wanted to write about, however my schedule has simply not been very permitting.
I ended up not going to 中秋節 simply because I didn't have anyone available to go with me, it was $10, and it would've set us back even further in time to leave for the rodeo.  That's okay though - the actual "Mid-Autumn Festival" is this Monday, because that is when the moon is full.  I promise I will actually update on it tomorrow.
Instead of 中秋, I went to the Palouse Empire Fair Rodeo with my friends.  For those of you who do not know, I have, in recent months, developed an affinity for indulging my inner hick.  I love country music, and I bought a sweet felt cowboy hat last week (at last!) at a feed store in Moscow, Idaho.  You can see some pictures of us at the rodeo and me with my new hat here:

Me with my darling roommate (2nd consecutive year now) and best friend, Ann

Andrew, myself, and Mary (my fellow manager at the city pool)

And here is one of us with some rower friends in my gorgeous kitchen.  I wore the hat out that night and actually got tons of compliments! It's shocking enough to warrant a drunken remark, yet it looks so good that you can't really insult it - ergo several compliments.

Anyway, the rodeo was a great time.  Definitely a small-time fair, but it was only $5 and a great way to spend time with friends.  It's located out among the rolling wheat fields, so all very picturesque.  There was bronco and bull-riding, a horse trick show, and calf roping.  I'd totally go again.

The Palouse, on our way to the fairgrounds

In other news, a plan I have devised for the future is to go into the Peace Corps after I graduate.  This is not the first time I've toyed with the idea of the Peace Corps, but I do think it's my most serious and focused attempt at it.  The idea is that, after having studied Chinese here, spent a year of intensive Mandarin courses in either China or Taiwan next year, and then spending the next two years in the Peace Corps, living in China and teaching English to university students, I should be pretty dang fluent in the language.  

On top of my degree of fluency in Mandarin, the Peace Corps totally hooks its returned volunteers up with federal government jobs.  Essentially, you are a shoe-in, and a lot of people end up with jobs in the Foreign Service.  If you have known me for a long time, you will know that working as a Foreign Service Officer has been a huge dream of mine since I was about 17.  I met a few officers while I was in Denmark, as they were with the American ambassador to Denmark when he came to visit my school (so I also met him, of course).  Even disregarding the Foreign Service, the Peace Corps opens so many doors as it is so competitive and prestigious with invaluable experience.

Anyway, it's going to be a long and arduous road, but it is just one more example of how fluency in Chinese will really take me places.

Religious & Historical Misconceptions

I have been learning a lot lately about how misguided our "common knowledge" of the world is.  I will try to restrict this remark to Americans of the United States, as this is the society for which I can most accurately attest.  I think I shall make multiple and sporadic segments of postings on this subject.  Our so-called familiarity with matters of both historical and religious significance are so ubiquitous, we have a difficult time viewing them objectively.  For example, I can readily cite several instances throughout the Bible where Moses incites mass genocide, condoned by God.

"Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control (Ky's note: does this mean that they were all drunk?) - for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies - then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!" And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.  He said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.'" So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.  Then Moses said, "Dedicate yourselves today to the LORD - for every man has been against his son and against his brother - in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today." (Exodus 32:25-29)

Another, much more brutal example is the slaughter of the Midianites in Numbers 31.  I won't type out the whole story (you can easily look it up for yourself; the Bible is by far the world's most sold book), but will provide an excerpt where Moses is pissed that his soldiers left the women and children alive:

"'Have you allowed all the women to live?" he asked them.  "They were the ones who followed Balaam's advice and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the LORD in what happened at Peor, so that a plague struck the LORD's people.  Now kill all the boys.  And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." (Numbers 31:15-18)

As an objective reader, one would see that this is horrific and clearly religious genocide and ethnic cleansing at its worst, written into a book from which we are culturally meant to derive our sense of morality.  Yet, knowing it is Moses and from the Bible, we tend to be wary of condemning scripture and assure ourselves there must be some other way to interpret the text or that it is simply taken out of context for the sake of propaganda.

Here we not only have Moses advocating that his soldiers slay the innocent and rape the virgins, but also one of the earliest examples of religious (Biblical) zealots attributing a plague to the fact that some people (in this case, a whole nation of temptresses) did something displeasing in the eyes of God.  Today we have a lot of contemporary incidents of people blaming Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Irene (Michelle Bachmann), the tsunami in Southeast Asia, the earthquake in Haïti, etc, (the commonality of all of these being that they are apparently regularly occurring natural disasters) on the fact that the LORD is taking out His holy vengeance upon the sinners.  If you think I'm blaspheming here, you are not thinking objectively.  Simply read the scripture and tell me what it says to you.

It is then funny to me that Americans frequently perceive of Islam and Muslims as violent, warped religious extremists.  Have you read the Old Testament??! I find it deplorable that the Taliban in Afghanistan blew up the 150-foot tall Bamiyan Buddhas in their country.  They must be destructive, intolerant people.  Yet, the Christian God says Himself:

"Watch yourself that you make no convenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst.  But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim - for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Exodus 34:12-14)

If you were to actually follow this Good Book and adhere to the Word of God, you would be compelled to do the same as the Taliban.  The most common argument I would probably hear upon highlighting these passages (which are far from being isolated incidents in the Bible) is, "Well, not everything in the Bible is meant to be taken literally."
My response:
1) What is the figurative meaning behind the alleged slaughter of thousands of people in the name of religion?
2) Well then someone needs to go through the Bible with me and help decide which parts we're going to take literally and which parts are metaphoric.  It's religion a la carte.


Don't get me wrong; I like reading the Bible, as it is a major icon within the West's Judeo-Christian culture.  However, I do so as objectively as possible.  I get very confused by comparing what I know of the Christian religion (having grown up with it and through media) and the content of the book upon which the Christian faith is based.  They don't particularly match up.  In fact, I find much of the Bible quite disturbing.  I am wont to share with my friends the passages of the Bible I've found depicting zombie invasions.  Does no one else see this stuff? Am I the only one actually reading the book? Frickin' zombies everywhere!

In any case, my ultimate frustration is with people who think they are good, devout Christians (meaning, they know a lot about their religion, have a relationship with Jesus, have intimate knowledge of the Bible, etc), and they are denouncing Muslims as violent, misguided barbarians.  From my experience with the two, compared to the Qur'an, the Bible is much more gruesome and rampant with divine retribution carried out through its followers.  Do some reading and see for yourselves.

Also, God is always telling people about His loving-kindness, but simply as an objective reader of a book, I find Him extremely vindictive and temperamental.

Summer's over, sports begin

Sooo I'm a fool and got the dates wrong.  Yesterday I brought my Taiwanese friend, Tony, to Ensminger Pavillion for the Taiwanese student dinner, and it's actually next Friday.  Kind of embarrassing, and really just an overall letdown.  I had been looking forward to it all day.  Oh well, next week! And next weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節).  I'll do a separate update next week explaining that celebration.


Today is the first Cougar football game of the year, so everyone is getting crazy, the streets are filling up, and there is a lot of excitement over that.  I'm not trying to seem like a downer, but personally it's way too crowded, too long, and I'm not a big football fan in general.  Not to mention, I didn't buy a sports pass (partially so that I don't feel obligated to go and get my money's worth).  I don't know what to say - it's not that I don't love WSU, I just don't see why football has to be the defining factor.  What if you like other sports? I go to a handful of Cougar basketball, volleyball, and tennis games every year.  Most people don't even know when the latter two teams are playing.  Who's got school spirit now?


Watching hockey trumps all of these sports anyway.  Who's idea was it to make football the USA's main national sport? I may have to move to Canada, where hockey is fully appreciated.  Or Minnesota.  Same concept.  I don't have TV this year, though, so I'm going to have to find an NHL-friendly sports bar... or make friends with someone who likes the same teams? I'm not picky.


New word I'm trying to incorporate into my vocabulary - ubiquitous.  It's such a useful word.  It's an adjective meaning that something appears or is found everywhere.  For example, in Pullman, Cougar fans are ubiquitous.  In both Canada and Minnesota, hockey memorabilia is ubiquitous.

台灣學生

My parents have been having the time of their lives over in Minnesota, living life to the fullest on the lakeshore and, today, relishing the Minnesota State Fair, arguably one of the biggest (except for maybe Texas) and greatest state fairs in the entire country.  I hope those guys enjoyed their Leinenkugel, mosquitos, and fried food on a stick while it lasted.  I might be just kind of jealous, an avid Midwestern boy myself.

Things are lovely here in Pullman too though, most certainly.  The weather cooled off a lot the past couple of days.  You might even say it's been rather chilly, though after complaining about the heat, I refuse to complain about the cold as well.  I figure the sooner autumn comes, the sooner I can put my ice skates back on & hockey season starts up.

Still juggling life from managing the pool (particularly busy now that it's September because everyone is buying memberships at discounted rates, and now swim lessons are starting up again), getting all of my homework done AND staying on top of my Chinese vocabulary, as well as getting things in order for studying abroad next year.  I have to go and renew my passport at the post office (hopefully tomorrow, if they stay open past 3).

In an attempt at being proactive toward boosting my resumé, meeting new people, learning about Taiwan, practicing Mandarin, and taking that extra step, I have officially become a member of Washington State University's Taiwanese Student Association.

My membership card, totally sweet!

When I went up to their booth telling them I wanted to join the Taiwanese Student club, I think they might've thought I was making fun of them.  I wonder if other white people are involved with it at all.  Might as well get used to being one of the only 外國人 in the crowd : P  There is a huge welcome dinner party tomorrow night for the students, so I'm really looking forward to it.  I recruited a friend to come with, whom I know from high school, who had just immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan while we were in high school together, so at least I'll have a familiar face with me.