Tour de Chine

I start my two week trip around China tomorrow morning. I'll be visiting Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Canton and Hong Kong. I'll also be visiting three or so villages outside the Canton region. I look forward to spending time in my great grandmother's hometown. While I have been to five of the six cities before, plenty will be unfamiliar. Everytime I visit China, I notice shifts in my world view. My first trip to China was when I was five. The great thing about traveling as a kid is that you're free to roam around and notice the slight differences in culture because you're interacting with local kids (how other people play, that kids in villages hide corn in the ground to snack on later, and that it's not ok to free the ducks into the pond).

I also look forward to seeing most tourist sights in Beijing for the first time. I missed the sight seeing portion of the CAIS summer study program at the Beijing Opera School while I was in China in 2001 because I returned to San Francisco for 48 hours in the middle of the trip to perform in a production of Sleeping Beauty (I was only part of the corps, but had committed to the production months before). Forbidden city here I come!

Visions and voices

This year kicks off USC's Visions and Voices Arts and Humanities Initiative. The year long programming schedule looks impressive. I'm glad that the initiative is in place because the humanities and arts are often overshadowed by research and science oriented departments who recieve significant funding. While there have never been a shortage of arts programs, it'll be nice having another resource and a general presence on campus. I'm interested in seeing how student attendance will fare.

hello marina

from sunday july 23, 2006

lets get down to business

I struck a deal! I spent today meeting with and touring potential sponsors for CAIS' Autumn Moon Family Festival. Ten Ren Tea decided to be a sponsor and donate 500 cups of bubble tea to the event! I got ben and jerry's for lunch.

Tomorrow is my last day of work. It's been fun catching up with old acquaintances and seeing how the school has grown. A very brief reflection on my time in the office. I've taken away:

1. that i should build on business related and more conversational terminology in mandarin. The language used at the functional level is so different from the language used in a classroom, or say to analyze literature. (On a seperate note, I hear that cais is switching from zhuyin to pinyin for the lower school because parents are better able to relate to the roman letterization and assist if there are homeowrk woes. i know my bias, but i've always felt that zhu yin produces more accurate pronounciation, and prevents english from being the dominant language when you're learning as a kid. )
2. In terms of design, i want to know a lot more about outputting. i also realize design and studio art come from different places for me, and for now, i still enjoy the latter much more.
3. Ethics and art should be discussed even in beginning/intermediate level design courses, not only in visual literacy class.
4. As a student at cais, i wasn't aware of how much the teachers and administration are invested in outreach, university panels, and diplomacy aside from teaching and running the school.
5. It's nice working surrounded by people who sing beautifully

first garage sale

i'm a sentimental person, some say i feel too much. i keep a journal, have a hatbox of cards and letters i've recieved, have had a long lived fascination with hand me down clothes, and have a tendency to be a packrack. i spent the past week cleaning out my room in preparation for my family's garage sale. it was difficult seperating the crap i want to hold on to oh-so badly for nostalgic purposes from what i really need. i ended up sticking to the rule of getting rid of whatever shoes and clothes i haven't worn for the past year, items still in their original packaging and any electrical appliance not plugged into the wall which resulted in a large pile. the family and our stuff in tow drove to sunny dublin for the sale.

we put 2 ads in the paper and 8 actual signs in the neighborhood, so there were a fair amount of people. it was hard letting some things go, but i guess you have to appraoch the situation as charging for junk. we starting giving items away after 1ish in the afternoon which is pretty much the end of the garage sale window. a man saying he was a dollar man, ended up buying my swimsuit for 2 after much bargaining (he did the walk away/drive away, come back, ok fine $2 jig), haha (it was brand new!) my favorite sale was a book on attracting birds to your garden and some of my kiddy jewlery to a 2nd grade teacher.