My flight to Denver is tomorrow! I'm pretty pumped. Rachel and I are going to a Rockie's game Friday night, and then we'll be at the music festival for most of Saturday and Sunday. I checked the schedule of bands and I've got each day all planned out....live music from 1:30 p.m. until 11 p.m. is going to be fantastic!!!!!! It sounds like there's going to be some great food there too, and Denver has one of the biggest downtowns in the country. So much to look forward to!!!!
Another bright note - the AL won the All-Star Game! I didn't stay up for the whole game (15 innings...wow), but was so into it. I'm a huge Yankee's fan, and this being the last season for Yankee Stadium makes the whole thing a little sentimental. Oh and I'm not sure if you heard, but Josh Hamilton and I will be marrying soon. He's my hero. 28 homeruns in the first round of the derby? Really now? Hello Mr. Clutch.
This is really just an awesome week for me - I bought the new OAR cd on Tuesday and it is all I listen to!!!! I have a minor obsession with npr, and I used to listen to that every morning, but it's been replaced with OAR, and I now know nothing about what's going on in the world. Ha!
Things at the BBA have been going really well. I've really enjoyed this last project that I've been working on, and I've gotten close with my mentor which has been great. It's starting to dawn on me that I have two more weeks left in Indianapolis before I move on to my big girl job. Crazy. It's been a great summer, and there are only more exciting things to come, but wow that came fast!! I'm definitely ready...it's going to be great.
I'll fill you in on Denver when I get back next week!
...are really flipping wet. (Funny, I have an umbrella in there right now) I spilled half of a thermos of tea in the purse, and everything was laid out over my desk yesterday airing out.
Fortunately, that is not the most exciting news that I have to offer you! The wedding was beautiful, and everything went really well. I had a great time, and it was so nice to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while. The day-of was a long one. We arrived at the hair salon at 8:30, then moved on to make-up around 11:30. We got to the hotel at about 2, and then to the church at 2:30, only to discover the steamer definitely was not doing its job. We ended up ironing a few dresses before we all got dressed and took pictures. It seemed like it would be forever until 4:30 rolled around, but before I knew it I was smiling until my face hurt and walking down the aisle. No one fell, and no one said anything at that awkward "Is there anyone here who sees any reason why these two should not be joined in marriage" part, so we were good to go.
We took some pictures inside and outside, and then the marriage party hopped on a trolley and rode to the reception. Dinner was good, and the reception was a ton of fun.
Annnnnd drum roll please: MY NEW COUSIN WAS BORN!!!!! My aunt had a little girl, and they named her Lainey. She's perfect. She was 8 pounds and we have been enjoying her at home. Easy for me to say though, I'm not getting up with her in the middle of the night 
I went to the John Mayer concert this past weekend and had a blast. It was a last minute thing, so I didn't really have any expectations, but it was a great show. Colbie Caillat opened for him, and she wasn't bad either. I kept seeing a bunch of people that I knew - sitting on the lawn at Verizon is the greatest.
Work is busy, but going well. I helped write a mission statement a few days ago, a vision statement yesterday, and sat in on my first focus group, so I'm continuing to get a ton of experience, and really enjoying it. No big plans for this weekend, just dinner and some babysitting. I leave a week from tomorrow for Denver!!!
Just a little quote from one of the best movies of all time (Wedding Crashers, of course). Jena's bachelorette party was this past Saturday night, and it was a TON of fun. We had a massive room in the Hilton downtown (it had two bathrooms...no joke), and we ate and played games and opened presents before we went to a dualing piano bar - Howl at the Moon. I don't know two of the bridesmaids very well, so it was nice to get to know them a little bit better.
The wedding is on Saturday, and the rehearsal is on Friday night. I'll be in Ft. Wayne Friday night, then in Bluffton all day primping (hair, make-up, the works...) before we start Saturday night. The reception is at a hotel, so we're just staying the night there. It will be a lot of fun - I'm really looking forward to it!
I can't believe that it's already the end of June...my friend Taylor is having a Fourth of July party, and before I know I'll be off to Denver and then Chicago! The fact that I'll be seeing OAR twice in one week is pretty awesome.
My aunt still hasn't had her baby - she's officially due on the 29th, but I'm hoping it comes before Friday or after Sunday, so that I can be here for it. Speaking of babies, I watched Juno for the first time over the weekend and it was pretty good! It was a little more serious than what I was expecting. No pun intended.
I'll tell you all about the wedding when I get back on Monday or Tuesday!!!
1. O.A.R.
2. Dave Matthews Band
3. Lupe Fiasco
4. John Mayer
5. OneRepublic
6. Tom Petty
...Just six of the many many bands that will be playing at the Mile High Music Festival in Denver at the end of July!!! I am seriously contemplating going on an extended weekend trip for the music festival, and to visit my roommate from sophomore year, who is living and working in Denver. In all reality, she is #1, and the others can be moved down a notch
In other news, we're still waiting for my aunt to have her baby. She's not officially due until June 29th, but she spent a night in the hospital last week. Turned out to be a false alarm. Work at the BBA is going well - I've been on a project with a publishing company for the past few weeks, so that's been interesting. One of the great things about consulting work is that you get to interact with such a diverse group of people and companies and talents. It's a lot of fun.
This weekend is Jena's bachelorette party downtown - I can't believe the wedding is only a week away! She texted me the other day and tasked me with figuring out a good song for the wedding party's introduction at the reception. Rough job, I know!
My art class is going reeeeally well - it's one of my favorite times of the week. I've officially finished one project, and have three that are still in process. I'm definitely glad that I made the decision to sign up for the class. The group of "students" are all female, but of all different ages and talents, and it's really great to see what everyone comes up with.
Such a good song! I just spent a nice weekend at home...hung out with the fam, went to this drive-in restaurant that has fantastic coney dogs, and ate lettuce from my mom's garden. Last night Michelle and I got take-out sushi; I swear, the people at Nake Tchopstix are going to know us by name by the end of the summer. We're in there at least once a week! My favorites are Shrimp Tempura and Corona Roll. Yumm.
There's a Jazz Festival downtown this weekend, so I might head down to that. John Legend is headlining, and I love his music. Speaking of good music, apparently there's a big music festival in Denver in July, and me and my friend Allison are seriously considering flying out for it. It's two days, and concerts include OAR, John Mayer, Dave Matthews Band, Tom Petty, and Lupe Fiasco, among others...pretty awesome. I'll keep you posted on that. I'm already going to see OAR in Chicago at the end of July, but I would DEFINITELY see them twice!!!!
Ok, so this summer is turning into a great transition period before I officially enter the Real World. My first art class is this Tuesday, and I can't wait! My friend Lauren just got back from France last week (she was there all semester), and I saw her for the first time yesterday. It was great to spend some time with her! It's amazing how much you learn about yourself and about the world when you spend a few months abroad. I'm going out for sushi tonight with my good friend Michelle, which I am PUMPED about...we're going to Naked Tchopstix in Broad Ripple. Tomorrow night I'm going with a big group of girls to see the Sex and the City movie, and I can't even tell you how exciting this is! Check out the trailer... http://youtube.com/watch?v=y6U8o9Ed0VI
Saturday I'm going to an exhibit downtown on Mass Ave. It's shoes, handbags, and boots, all made out of flowers! The website shows some of the exhibit, and it looks awesome- http://www.shoefleur.com/. Between all of that and after going to the Indianapolis 500 this past Sunday and boating on the lake on Monday, I have a feeling it's going to be a fantastic summer. I think I'm finally realizing how important it is to do the things that make you happiest. I'm getting pretty good at it!!
This is the text of a 2005 Commencement speech by Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios), given at Stanford. It's pretty fantastic. I high lighted my favorite parts!
"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.
The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?
It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.
And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
My second story is about love and loss.
I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.
During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
My third story is about death.
When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:
No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.
Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Thank you all very much."
Ha! You thought you were rid of me for good! Wellll turns out you're stuck with me until the end of the summer. Look for posts about the second part of my internship with the BBA, the art class I signed up for at the Indianapolis Art Center, the wedding I'm in in June, and a trip or two to Chicago!!!
As always, let me know if you have any questions, especially those of you who are coming to this fantabulous place in the fall!!!
I wanted to give an official farewell to all of you. Graduation was this past Saturday, and it was a great day. It was beautiful outside, the ceremony was long but was highlighted by several great speakers, and I had a fantastic time with the fam. I'm not sure I'm old enough or smart enough to give you any words of wisdom, but if I had to say anything, it would be this:
Do what you love, and even do what you don't love. Stretch yourself, try new things as much as possible, and always, always talk to strangers. You never know where it could lead. Be an over-achiever. Those who make fun of you now will be wishing they had your foresight and dedication later on down the road. Make it a point to have good relationships with all of your professors, get an internship as soon as possible, smile, A LOT, and enjoy the little things. Finally, make friends with Neil the pasta guy at ResCo, and go fountain jumping on campus.
Best of luck where ever you end up, but remember, Butler is a FANTASTIC place.
1. I FINALLY know what I'm doing with myself afterward!!!!! After a lot of thinking, pondering, analyzing, worrying (because that's what I do), I've accepted a position with the investment banking firm that I interned with last summer. They've created a middle management position for me, Business Development Coordinator, and I will be traveling a lot with the owner and the COO to really learn the business and maintain relationships with clients. I will also be in charge of their events, which is a lot of what I did over the summer -- they have 1-2 conferences annually, and monthly webinars. They plan to open an office in New York within the next couple of years, so I will help with that, and hopefully end up there. They have an office in Shanghai already, so that would be the long-term goal. I decided it's a smarter move career-wise to spend more time learning Chinese (I want to enroll in a class in January, probably at George Mason or another university in the area), and then go there eventually with the backing of a known and respected company. WHEW. I'll be in Indy for the summer though, with the Accelerator, before moving to Virginia in August.
2. No more tests. I love school, don't get me wrong, and I have great relationships with my professors, but it is going to be such a relief to not have to study for tests anymore!!!
3. All of my family is coming into town (ok, well, 10 of them, because I only get 10 tickets to graduation) for the weekend.
4. We're having a celebratory lunch at Benihana after the ceremony! Benihana is a Japanese steakhouse in Indianapolis...one where they cook all of your food right in front of you and toss shrimp in the air and all of that fun stuff. It's reeeeally good. Plus, we did a case study on the restaurant in my Operations Management class, so I know all about how they operate.
5. I, along with all of the other seniors, get to stay in my sorority house until Sunday, while the underclassmen all get kicked out on Tuesday!
6. Free food. They have a few "Senior Week" activities planned for us, which undoubtedly include free food.
7. Alumni chapters. There are Butler Alum Chapters all over the country, and there are Alpha Chi alum chapters all over the place as well, so there are two resources that I'm looking forward to taking advantage of. They're great for networking, or just being social.
8. I can start focusing a little bit more on learning Chinese. I hope to enroll in a class in January...until then, I'm planning on getting a membership at the new library downtown and learning as much as I can about the culture.
9. My own bathroom! I have absolutely LOVED living in my sorority house for the past three years, but sharing a bathroom with 7+ other girls can get tiring...that's a lot of hair products.
10. Everything is coming full circle. It has only been this year that I've fully started to realize the impact that Butler and all that comes with it has had on me. There are truly endless possibilities, and I am so excited to start this next chapter of my life.
All of that being said, I have definitely been taking advantage of the last couple of weeks of my life as a college student...see pictures below of the Kentucky Derby this past weekend! I'm off to New York on Wednesday, for the conference that Belmont is hosting, and I'll be back Friday afternoon, just in time for graduation on Saturday. Wish me luck!!!
We fiiinnnally made it!
The infamous steeples. This was the 134th Derby.
There were some crazy people on the infield. This guy was all decked out, so I of course had to make friends with him!
Filed under: Virginia, graduation, Chinese, Alpha Chi, accelerator, Senior Week, New York, intern, Butler Alum Chapter, Benihana, Kentucky Derby
Alpha Chi Omega and Sigma Nu: Spring Sing 2008 Champions! All of the hard work and long hours of practice paid off as we danced and sung our way through the 1800's, 1920's, 1940's, 1960's, 1980's, and Today. We won Judges' Favorite as well!!
I was in the 60's era... can you find me!?!
More good stuff: Alpha Chi formal was this past weekend. We had it at the Junior Achievement Center, and it was pretty cool. Definitely weird to think that it was my last one; along with most of the other seniors, I didn't bring a date. We all just hung out together and had a good time. The theme was Masquerade Ball! Check out the sweet mask I made...
I promised a certain someone a shout-out.....
So yes, lots of excitement the past couple of weeks. Other randoms... the Top 100 banquet was last weekend, I got my bridesmaid dress for a wedding I'm in this summer, and Senior Week finished off with a bang. We all had such a great time, and it was really nice to spend some time together.
Up next: apply to SJT University in Shanghai; continue job search in Shanghai (currently looking into a few different teaching programs, to teach English); finish off final projects and papers. Wish me luck!
I just wanted to thank everyone who has sent me messages of encouragement about going to China. I seriously wasn't expecting to get the amount of feedback that I've gotten, and I have to say it's been incredible. It's been a rough few weeks for me, and so your messages and comments really mean a lot to me! Thank you for being such fantastic readers. Keep it up =)
Here's another one from Shanghai, taken from a rooftop cafe. I drank the best chocolate milkshake of my life at this cafe!!!
A poem by Dr. Seuss, titled “Oh, the Places You’ll Go…”
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
You’ll look up and down streets. Look ‘em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.
And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.
It’s opener there
in the wide open air.
Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.
And when things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.
OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!
You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.
You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.
Ha, I never thought I could be so inspired by a Dr. Suess poem. That guy knew what he was talking about. If you're not familiar with the book, he goes on to describe that there will be hard times as well, but that you will escape it eventually and get to a brighter place. As you might have guessed, I'm struggling a little bit with this whole 'becoming a grown-up' thing. I had a job interview for a financing company here in Indianapolis last week, and it went really well. It's kind of a customer relations or communications position; the company has a very wide client base and not enough people to maintain relationships with them, so it's not sales, no cold-calling, and it's not really marketing either. I would be in training for an account manager position. I was there for two and a half hours, had a great time, and everyone in the office seems very nice and down to earth. Plus, the pay is substantially more than most entry-level marketing positions. So, that's a lot to think about. I'll keep you updated...
This week is Senior Week at Alpha Chi, so it's going to be a great time. Tonight we have Senior Wills, Tuesday is Fireside, Wednesday is a Formal Dinner, and Thursday is Senior Roasts. Roasts is hilarious, each Senior takes her turn standing on a chair in front of the entire chapter while all of the funny stories of her past 4 years at Butler are told. It's always a good time!
Meghan and I were on exec for Spring Sports, and as we were trying to fill up these buckets with water for a sponge race, she turned the hose on too high and sprayed water EVERYWHERE. It was hilarious.
At the early hours of the morning, Spring Sports exec decided we should have a costume party while we waited to get all of the results in for the events. Not all of us had sunglasses, so there was some improvisation...
This is the back of the "Rita" shirt. I was called "Rita" for the rest of the morning.
Every year, we have a tradition at Alpha Chi that the seniors cause a little bit of mischief during the first chapter meeting that we are not required to attend. So, this is what we did while the rest of the house was in the meeting...
We tied all of the door knobs together in one hallway. It looked like a spider web and was pretty great.
We took all of the food from the pantry and spelled out our letters in the living room. Ha.
So, my SB trip to Shanghai was FANTASTIC. Here are my quick thoughts:
1. China is really flipping random. You can basically do anything there (dance down the sidewalk, randomly yell out jibberish, etc.) and no one really notices.
2. I have never seen so many sky scrapers in my entire life. Most cities have a skyline, right? Shanghai has like 10.
3. EVERYTHING is under construction. Seriously. It's insane.
4. There's a mall about every 5-6 blocks, and all of the stores are always full. The Chinese love to shop.
5. There is a Haagen Dazs on every corner.
6. The pollution is bad, but not as bad as everyone says, at least not in Shanghai. I actually went to a few really nice gardens and parks.
7. The Chinese love it when foreigners try to speak Chinese. They are very proud, and would get so excited even when I used the few phrases that I know.
8. A lot of things are really inexpensive there. A half-hour cab ride in the States can be up to $40. In Shanghai, it was $5.
9. As far as food goes, I was in heaven. We ate at really authentic Chinese restaurants and little stands or cafeterias (INCREDIBLE...nothing like American Chinese food); an Indian restaurant; a Moroccan restaurant; a Japanese restaurant; and had drinks one night at a Thai place. I also went to my first jazz bar, which was awesome.
So, it was a fantastic trip. Really relaxing, and a lot of walking, sight-seeing, eating, and cultural things. I took a boat cruise on the river, walked on the Bund, and walked on the infamous Nanjing Road, which is a huge pedestrian-only road with tons of shops and restaurants. I also went to a market-type place, where there were a bunch of little stands set up with crafts and handmade things, and lots and lots of food. I braved some of it, but steered clear of the chicken feet and chicken neck.
After six or seven break-downs, some soul-searching, and talking A LOT with my mentors and other more experienced people, I've decided to move to Shanghai in August to begin Chinese classes. I hope to be fluent eventually, and I'm thinking it will take about two years. Since I'll only be taking Chinese classes, I'll also be able to work part-time. I'm looking into three different universities right now, and the Accelerator is letting me stay on through the summer, so I'll still have my job.
It's a huge decision, and definitely a path that I never saw myself going down, but each day I become more and more comfortable and confident with it. Everyone that I talk to tells me the same thing: if I have that I am fluent in Mandarin on my resume, I will never have trouble finding a job for the rest of my life. The more I read, and after actually being there, I definitely believe that. It's hard to start thinking so long-term though. I like to see results, and career-wise, I won't really see results for at least three years. I'm so used to thinking like a student, only a semester in advance, that this is difficult for me. But I'm beginning to see the light, and I'm starting to get pretty excited for this next chapter.
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Ok, on to more exciting things! Chelsea Clinton and Sean Astin (think Rudy, Lord of the Rings, 50 First Dates, The Goonies) were on campus today campaigning for Hillary, and I went to a pre- meet and greet, so I was able to briefly meet both of them and have my picture taken with them!!!!! This was pretty exciting. Other than my brief encounters with Chappelle and Kiefer Sutherland last semester, I've never met anyone well-known.
Looking forward to: Spring Sports Spectacular is this weekend!!! SSS is an annual event at Butler that benefits the Special Olympics, and the event begins at 7 p.m. on Saturday and doesn't end until 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. It's a competition between all of the housing units, and we have every sport under the sun, plus other random things like Twister, Trivial Pursuit, an Oreo Stacking Contest, Guitar Hero, karaoke, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and other non-sporty events. It's a total blast, and we have free food delivered every hour (pizza, Qdoba, McDonald's, bagels, Dunkin Donuts, Fazoli's, and more!!) I'm going to be especially exhausted since I'm on exec and will therefore be staying up the entire time, but it's going to be worth it. The theme is Nickolodean-ish: Guts: Do you have it?
It's been a busy busy week, and INCREDIBLY hard to believe that I'll only have about four more of them after this. Wow. Innnnsane. I apologize to get all nostalgic on you, but to all of you high school students or underclassmen at Butler, seriously, don't take anything for granted. Stay true to yourself, do what makes you happy, and find joy in every single day. Because before you know it, college is going to be over and you're going to have to start thinking about things like jobs, health insurance, paying off loans, and inventive ways to act like you're still in college when you're really not.
Enjoy your day... seriously!! Do ittttttt.
Filed under: Spring Sports Spectacular, mentor, Shanghai, Sean Astin, Rudy, the Bund, Haagen Dazs, Nanjing Road, skyline, Mandarin, Chelsea Clinton
....I promise. Exhausted, but alive. Get excited for everything China in my next post, which will be VERY soon!!! zai jian!
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