New Video and the Peace Corps

Hello, there!

I'm back again, and I actually have a new video! Well.....it's not really a new video, it's more of a hey-what-is-this-video-file-Oh-Holy-Crap-forgot-to-upload-that-to-YouTube video.

So, yeah, this is from my visit to Beijing's Summer Palace, which was my last tourist stop before I left China.

Enjoy!



Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that. I did.  It's always nice to do vlogs while I'm out and about -- it helps me feel I'm not by myself. (I like being myself, so don't feel sorry for me or anything----do you care that much? I dunno, oh well, continue!)

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So I finally got my paperwork submitted to the Peace Corps!! It was a freaking long process due to the fact that I got really busy with work, had to wait on some people for my letters of recommendation, had to place some calls to find out exactly what stuff to put where, and that kind of thing. It didn't help that the application itself was like 93, 870 pages long. Not really....but it was long.

[For those of you who don't know, the Peace Corps is a volunteer organization that is funded by the American government. People apply for a region/country, and are selected as needed based on their qualifications. They can do anything from teaching English, helping farmers, working in the health field, doing community development, and more. It offers great benefits to volunteers and doesn't cost anything to serve. After 3 months of in-country language training and orientation, you do 2 years of work in your area!]

So, what happens now? Now, I'll be talking about the Peace Corps for the rest of the post.

I decided to apply for the Peace Corps for a number of reasons:

1. I've never really volunteered to do anything in my life that took longer than a few days, and I want to finally get off my butt and go help some people. I'm so comfortable in America, and the most I've done is give a few bucks to charities when I know for a fact that there are people who would kill to be in my shoes.

2. It's freaking China!!! Come on!!

3. Being selfish. I loved every second of my experience in China, even the super awkward and difficult times, and I want to experience it again.

4. The Peace Corps offers a chance for a true life-changing experience. I'll get to hang out with students and locals, improve my Chinese, learn more about China and its people, and come home with some really crazy stories.

5. Something about the 9-5 work day just doesn't appeal to me anymore after being in China. I don't really want to be a professor of Chinese history like I used to want to be....if I was going to be a professor, I would teach Chinese. I might even want to write some books. Actually, I was going to write a book, but it turned into a bunch of blog posts instead!
        5-a. I do enjoy my job (I do audio-visual tech work in the Dallas, TX area, but I want more.
        5-b. I'm not trying to insult anyone who has a 9-5. It's not bad or anything...it's just not me.

6. I want to experience the challenge of another culture again. I want to connect with people who are different than me and I want to get a taste of what it's like to live in China. Not just study for a semester like I did, but live and work for two years.

That would just be great.

My Favorite Pictures: Part 3

Another day of pictures, hopefully you like them! According to the views I've been getting, it seems to be a good thing :) As usual, click to enlarge and feel free to subscribe!

This is the Lanzhou University of Technology's kindergarten, where the young children of the LUT teachers go to school. This institution is talked about in my thesis, so I took a picture for posterity.

Lanzhou University of Technology during a February snow.

Lanzhou....my wonderful home for six months.

These guys are my brothers. I spent so much time with them that they became my family. This was a screen pic I took from a movie we all made together called "Struggle Story," which I am going to post a link to at some point. It is about the struggles four Chinese students face in trying to fulfill their dreams - a very relevant topic for a movie in China. The words at the bottom come from a song 我是一只小小鸟, "I am a Small, Small Bird", which is about someone who, like a small bird, wants to fly high, but cannot.  I miss these guys.

Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus lake

Lanzhou University of Technology's West Campus entrance. Although I lived on their main campus, I spent nearly every weekend of the semester at this campus because the students at this campus are freshmen and sophomores and are generally more friendly and open than those on the main campus. No offense to the main campus. 

Typical market street just off the West Campus

People just selling their stuff - shops or just putting their fruit/veggies on a blanket on the street.

Fresh, fresh, fresh. Most Americans can only dream of this kind of fresh unless they regularly go to Farmer's Markets

A ruined walkway at the Old Summer Palace. No matter how grand and elaborate a place is, the onward march of time cannot be halted.

The Summer Palace, built around Kunming Lake in Beijing, is a maze of courtyards and walkways in the area immediately adjacent the lake. It is really neat, but you get to wondering, "Where the heck is the end of this thing?"

This is 苏州街, or Suzhou (Sue-Joe) street. It is part of the Summer Palace tour and is kind of like Venice :D

The street itself is a little disappointing. Sure, it is really cool to walk along the winding and water-lined street, but all of the places on the street are shops designed to get foreigners to spend too much money. Sure, there are cool things which you can only buy in China, such as authentic traditional instruments, authentic tailored silk clothes, special kinds of tea, etc., but I don't like to fall into those tourist traps, so I was a little disappointed.

It really is a beautiful street, isn't it?

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That is the end of today's post - tomorrow I will do something different. Stick around! If you've got any comments/questions/anything, feel free to leave one at the bottom! Also, feel free to subscribe if you're interested!