Oscar is this Sunday but they already gave out their first award, best foreign actor...

It is a real oscar statuette in my hand and it's HEAVY! Too bad the pic didn't turn out that well and I looked like I was stealing the thing. My friend's pic looks much better. Anyways, this past Chinese New Year weekend which happened to be US President's Day we took the trip to So Cal and it was great fun. The weather there was sooooooo beautiful!!! In addition to the great food (real Italian in Beverly Hills, Thai in Thai Town, and nice crepe inside Kodak Theatre), the highlight of the trip was going to a live nationwide TV show for the first time in america.


The show is GREASE - You Are the One That I Want! and here are some of my thoughts and happenings at the show:

~ We were worried about traffic and parking but we were there ahead of time that we were able to park inside the studio lot and got in after a rather lengthy 2 hour wait to be placed (not seated because of standing room only for most audience) inside the studio.

~ The show pretty much looked the same live as on TV but of course with better atmosphere and live band sound. All the performers, panel, and the hosts looked great but it's interesting to see the crew keep powdering the guys more often than the girls. And the hosts are preped by the teleprompter before and during the show. It reminds me of General Conference... :)

~ Since I am a BYU and Young Ambassador alumnus, I should be rooting for Jason but honestly his elimination did not surprise me, probably his family as well. We were wondering if there were any fans of Jason and the only ones we saw were his family. It's kind of funny out of all the audience I happened to be standing right next to Jason's family and I got to meet and talk to some of them very briefly -- Adam and Ken and sent condolence (is that a proper word?) to one of them when Jason was eliminated. Adam said he would have given me an extra fan shirt had he known I was there. That would be kinda embarrasing though I would admit. :p

~ About the performance, I didn't see much of the action because the place was quite packed but we were much luckier than the loud Chad fans who were stuck at a lower podium behind us. So much for the noise they made, ha! Anyways, I think the main reasons Jason lost were lack of votes and his too pop style. He's a good performer but for some reason he's a little tense and not as loosened up as many of the other contestants (maybe because it's Sunday?) He's facing fierce competition and he had gone a very long way to be this far in the competition anyways. Now I'm rooting for Chad (Austin is great but I don't think he's suitable for the role) and Ashley (she's gorgeous!!!) to win the competition.


Have a wonderful year of the pig! :)

Quote: "I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing."
-- Rabbi Hillel

It's been a good day until I accidentally found out about the shooting at Trolley Square in Salt Lake. It's disturbing, sad, and shocking. Six people were killed so far. This used to be a place I hanged out quite often when I first came to the US more than 10 years ago as an exchange student at the U. I had classmates who worked in one of those shops in there. It's just unbelievable.

Pic of the day: A&F in China!!!


Quote of the day: "When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself." --Peter O'Toole.

Not so funny quote of the day: "quwatu l- 'insani fi 'aqlihi wa lisanihi. (The strength of a person is in his intelligence and his tongue.)" -- Arabic proverb

Things got really interesting at work these days. I went back to the classroom after finishing teacher training but the first couple classes didn't go as well as I thought. It's like I was cursed with dullness once I switched back to full teacher mode and you could tell from students' yawning. The surprise came in the afternoon when the MLI (Military Language Instructor) came to me and said the students had been petitioning to get me back to the team because they didn't want to lose me to other teams. One student even went so far as telling her I was the best teacher in the team. I was really flattered. Talking about the MLI, depsite our misunderstanding a while ago we turned out to be very good friends now through the ICC experience. She pretty much told me all the insider's news of what's going on now. Then the student with family ties to Hong Kong got a 3 in his Cantonese OPI (Oral Proficiency Interview) which is equivalent to native like and good enough to teach in that language. Our whole team was thrilled and I was glad to be able to help him prepare a little bit before the test. And today I substituted for the other team teaching some rather new students and the 2nd class of students I taught didn't leave a good impression on me before at the study hall but turned out to be great participants in class today. Even the team leader came and commended to me how lively the class was today. At the end of the day today I was once again touched by that particular student who is among the more matured telling me that all the students already missed me even though I haven't officially left them yet. Well it really surprised me now how much I enjoy teaching these guys now.

The final interesting but strange thing happened yesterday was Michael Bolton showed up in our school!!! He was scheduled to sing but it turned out he was more than half an hour late and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do without a band so he ended up telling (sometimes dirty) jokes! The only joke he told I can remember goes:

A wife asked the husband to take the trash out. The husband said, "YOU take the trash out. You cooked it."

Yeah, I know it's silly but somehow it sounded funny at the time. Anyways, MB seems to be one of the more genuine artists and rather approachable.


Thanks to Katherine for the picture as I didn't bring my cell phone along and I didn't wanna look like one of those stalker fans... ;p

It's been four months since I first came work at the DLI. For the past month it's the so called Instructor Certification Course but it's more like a review of all the things I've learned at the Y. It's a little strange going back to student mode after being a teacher for a while. As I'm in the middle of teacher training and rereading my MA thesis these days when I look at this top-10 list from a T-shirt I got right after my graduation I can't help but laugh to myself as it reminds me of how it was like being a student doing all the hard work day in and day out.

"You might be a grad student if..."

1. You find yourself explaining to children that you are in "20th grade."
2. You have accepted guilt as an inherent feature of relaxation.
3. You start referring to stories like "Snow White et al."
4. Everything reminds you of something in your discipline.
5. You look forward to summers because you're more productive without the distraction of classes.
6. You regard ibuprofen as a vitamin.
7. You appreciate the fact that you get to choose which twenty hours out of each day you have to work.
8. You are startled to meet people who neither need nor want to read.
9. You look forward to taking some time off to do laundry.
10. You wonder if APA style allows you to cite talking to yourself as "personal communication."

I miss my students already and I think they me too. Once in a while I go back to do demo teaching and we are all so excited. Then the news came I'm being moved to a new group with a brand new group of students with a new office. It's hard to believe I'm already quite attached to my current group and it will be a little hard to leave them. Anyways it has been a nice learning and growing experience for me along with these fun military students. One of the highlights of my teaching this group is when I showed them some bilingual signs found in China and they found them amazing, entertaining, and shocking at times. One student even pulled out his camera phone to capture the images!!! And I swear I have seen a couple of these in China!!!