The final meeting

Well, this was Tiffany and I's final meeting, and it was weird to see that we wouldn't be meeting at the BLUU, Thursday at 4 anymore, which has seemed to be some commonplace. We did skip a few weeks when we both had commitments, but every Thursday at 4 was still the time we met.

This week, I got a surprise. Leo, who I hadn't seen since the second week we met, came for our conversation today. For me, this was a huge relief as he is extremely inquisitive and always asking me questions about education, campus life, etc., and today was no different than the others.
 The first thing asked me was about getting credit so he could hopefully graduate in three years. He knew about summer school and regular semesters, but wanted more. I had to point out that there really isn't much time in the year besides that, so I don't see how he could get credits, and I'm not sure if community college is an option for him. Another thing he wanted to talk about were final exams. They took their finals last week, and now will take half IEP, half regular classes next semester. I look forward to checking up on them and seeing how they are adjusting to their new classes. I feel like their advisors don't tell them everything they want to know, or at least not for Leo, so I'm curious to see how he will adapt to this change.

For Christmas break, Leo is going back to China, and Tiffany to Peru. Her Aunt lives there, and I'm not sure if she has seen her in 5-10 years, so that will be nice for her to do. I'm fairly sure that Tiffany will go back to China this summer but I still can't imagine not seeing my family for a year or so. She also had to get her Visa for Peru, which I can see how it would be a nightmare since she is from China. It's already hard enough to go to the consulate or places like DMV as citizen, so going to one of those places as a Chinese person would be such a mess.

Another thing Leo was interested in today was languages. He was intrigued about me studying abroad, and was amazed that I speak Spanish. I think because Spanish and English are both European languages, I can see the ease of Spanish, but for him it is just as hard as learning English all over again. He noted how he read a study about how all of the European languages are on the same wavelength, and that is why we can understand how they speak. Also, Chinese relies more on the inflection, tone, and pitch, whereas in much of the European languages they rely on emphasis. Leo also noted that ancient Chinese is related to Russian and uses the throat a lot more, whereas modern Chinese does less and is considered easier.

These conversations have been a really interesting time for me. I have learned so much about a culture that I have only heard about, and often through an indoctrination so common in American culture today. China is seen as this communist state, and it may well have certain aspects of this, but Tiffany and Leo have let me see that they just do things differently, whether we consider that wrong or what. The last thing I asked them was how I say "Hi, my name is nathan" in Chinese. So, Ni hao, wo jiao Lat'han.

Week 7 With Tiffany

Tiffany and I didn't talk about too much this week. She is going to get her visa next week to go to China, and is very excited about that. She also had a great Thanksgiving in Houston, which she said wasn't too awkward or anything. I think she talked with the friend she brought more than anyone, which was understandable.


Something I asked her about was the education in China, and how it compares to the United States. She considered collegiate education to be proficient in China, and the only problem she said was that there was overcrowding in the dorms. She also said that TCU would be a nice university in China, but it is nice here, so I'm not sure what else she could compare it to. I asked if she have been to any other universities, and she said Pepperdine, which is also one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. I guess I am surprised that Chinese universities are of high quality, and that makes me happy that they do have good education. I have heard about how there are more honors students in China than there are students in the United States, but I don't think that should scare us. If anything, it should make us realize that we can't just sit back and let our system play out the way it has. We need to help change it and better it for our future.

A reason she said that she came to TCU was to get a new perspective on things, instead of just staying in China. I don't think she was the top of her class in China (not like that is a bad thing), but what I mean to say is that she didn't come here just as a way to get a much better education. She came here to see other perspectives in the world, to gain new experiences, and to open herself up to new ideas.

That made me think a lot about education. I am going to study abroad in 2014, and I guess this is the exact same reason I want to study abroad. I imagine that the university in Seville is not nicer than TCU, but it is more about the experience than the education. I have never thought that maybe foreign exchange students that come here are coming for the experience and not education. It is widely reported that we have the best education system in the world, and maybe we do, but that doesn't mean that everyone that studies here is doing it just for that.

Bartender, mark twain, please sir.

I have read some of Mark Twain's work, studied him a little bit, and through reading this book I have come to realize how dynamic he really is. He seems to have something witty or appropriate for every situation, which is astounding.

Some of the stories are pure adage, such as "Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." That one resonated with me, and even though it seems cliche, I pondered upon it for a while. Imagine the undertaker, the mortician, who sees bodies come by every day. Young or old, he doesn't have much emotion for them anymore. However, there is one body that he takes pity in. One person that did so much in their life, lived life to its fullest, that the undertaker stops and is taken aback by the corpse. I don't know about you, but that is how I want to live my life. There is no time to waste life by getting caught up in strife or inhibiting yourself, that is what I truly believe. This quote is "live your life to its fullest" but with an almost macabre look to it. I didn't take it that way, because it really puts things into perspective. We are all going to die one day, and why not live a life that would make the undertaker pause for a moment.

Tales of Juhahaha

Upon judging the book by its cover, I honestly had no expectations. In turn, this led me to become pessimistic with my expectations. However, I found the book to overall be the best one we have read so far. It was consistently filled with witty, humorous, and even thought provoking satirical and general wisdom that was very engaging.

Every story had a different punchline, a different message, rather than repeating the same themes over and over again. After a while of reading, and just going through the motions of reading them, some stuck out a lot more than others. Some of the stories used cognitive shift to completely catch me off guard and those were the best ones in my opinion.

I also loved the ones that were both witty and profound at the same time. An example was the "eat, oh sleeve" joke, which was witty in the sense that he is poking fun at the people for only paying attention to him because his clothing, but it also was more than that, making a note of how people treat those considered less fortunate as invisible almost. Even though the culture in Juha is so different than ours, this same exact thing would happen here and the same applies for many of these stories.

Week 6 with Tiffany

This week, Tiffany and I did not have too much to talk about. One thing we did connect over was Thanksgiving. She found it strange that we have a holiday solely where we just eat turkey and go spend time with family.

 In China, they have similar feasts, but they are not the same thing. They rely more on the rituals and celebrations than the feast itself. Another thing we talked about were her actual plans. She is going to Houston with a few of her friends to stay with family friends whom she had never met. It is so strange to think about living in a country where you know no one else and the closest tie you do have is an old family friend, who your family has not even seen in 20 years. I'm sure it is not that uncommon, I just don't see that happening in our culture. We seem to be close minded about things such as that, and not really receptive to people or as nonchalant as she seemed. I'm sure it wouldn't be the worst experience, but in our culture it would be looked at as almost weird and putting someone out to accommodate for you.

Another thing we talked about was the schooling in China. She said that all they do in China is go to school, more or less. They even visit their teacher's home on the weekends to go over assignments and things. I think that she mentioned that they optional, but that most students attended all of them. That is both impressive and astounding that they meet with their teachers on the weekends, as not only would that face legal issues in the United States, it is just such a strange concept to even think about.
Tiffany and I are starting to connect more, and she is opening up more to me, but we still have a barrier that hasn't been broken. I'm not sure what it is, and maybe I'm not facilitating the meetings correctly, but she just doesn't have much to talk about, nor ask me about.

Week 5 Conversation Meeting

This week, Tiffany and I spoke a lot about the culture of China, and some things about the history.
We started talking about the elections, and I noticed that she wasn't too crazy to talk about them. I'm not implying she was trying to avoid the conversation, just simply that she wasn't interested in them at all, which is understandable.

However, somehow I accidentally got into the culture of their government, and may have overstepped my boundaries but it was very interesting to see what she had to say. I'm not going to get into too much detail, but some of the things I have heard about the way their government operates is definitely true, while some of it seems a little exaggerated. They do not take kindly to opposition or speaking out about them, and the things they teach in school is selected (or maybe altered)
history, which also confirmed things I've heard about it.

Today, I got more introspective than usual rather than branching out, because I thought about what she said and how crazy it was. I, and we as Americans, take for granted what exactly we have. We spend so much time fighting over policy with our polarized parties that don't accept compromise that we forget how blessed we are to have a system that supports the individual voice. Talking with Tiffany has not made me feel bad or look down upon the Chinese society, because it is simply a different culture and system, but it has definitely made me appreciate more what we have in the United States.

Hokum

Hokum has been an interesting read so far. The stories in Hokum that take place before WWII are much more entertaining than ones chronologically similar in Borrowitz's anthology, in my opinion. The stories rely less on allusions and customs and instead play off of irony and other rhetorical tools that aren't too specific to a certain time.

 The dialect often used also adds to the writing, because it causes me to use more effort when reading, and in turn become more engaged in the story. The writing styles differ within the stories but they all share some common elements such as the dialect and general sense of satire.

There was not a single a story within Hokum that I really gravitated towards, but there was neither one that disinterested me. Growing up in the Deep South (Arkansas and Tennessee), I've always heard and been taught the stories and hardships of African-American life and Hokum helped me gain a deeper understanding of these things. It is enlightening to view things from their perspective, and see their pain, confusion, bitterness, and other feelings that are expressed in Hokum.