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.