incessant, self-important ramblings about my personal life
I finally got the monkey off my back that was my Freeman Asia scholarship service requirement plan. It's in the mail and, hopefully, I won't have to mess with it for a good long time. What they wanted was a comphrensive report documenting all of the things I did, upon my return, to promote thier organization and studying abroad in Asia generally. If not, they want thier money back. I wouldn't give it to them anway, so in the end it really makes no difference.
Once this semester is done, which will be tomorrow at around 7:00pm, I've got one more to go before I'm done, after which, I'll be off back to China. It seems simultaneously close and far away, and I don't mind. Next semester should be a pretty good one.
I've come to terms with living back at my folks house for the first half of '07. All kinds of "dear gods" went through my mind when I started considering it, but I'm glad to have a good period of time to sort through my shit and get ready to go.
I've been reading a book called, "Chinese Lessons" about the author's experiences in China back in '81, and again in '04. The stories about his classmates, and what they went through during the 'Cultural Revolution', are fucking amazaing. I've been through Chinese history enough times to understand most of the politics that went on during Mao (is that even possible?), but I haven't gone back to it since I've devoted myself so thoroughly to China. It brings a lot of personality to a time period that was a little bit more than 'rough on the edges'. If I ever teach anything on the subject, damnit, my students will be reading this book. But that liklihood, fortunately, is way down the road. (F-ing bourgeoisie)
Once this semester is done, which will be tomorrow at around 7:00pm, I've got one more to go before I'm done, after which, I'll be off back to China. It seems simultaneously close and far away, and I don't mind. Next semester should be a pretty good one.
I've come to terms with living back at my folks house for the first half of '07. All kinds of "dear gods" went through my mind when I started considering it, but I'm glad to have a good period of time to sort through my shit and get ready to go.
I've been reading a book called, "Chinese Lessons" about the author's experiences in China back in '81, and again in '04. The stories about his classmates, and what they went through during the 'Cultural Revolution', are fucking amazaing. I've been through Chinese history enough times to understand most of the politics that went on during Mao (is that even possible?), but I haven't gone back to it since I've devoted myself so thoroughly to China. It brings a lot of personality to a time period that was a little bit more than 'rough on the edges'. If I ever teach anything on the subject, damnit, my students will be reading this book. But that liklihood, fortunately, is way down the road. (F-ing bourgeoisie)