Moving to the Navy Postgraduate School and hopefully will be able to move in my OWN place within a week. I'm tired of the nomadic life. Pretty much settled down in my new office and started practice interviewing the graduating class. It's very interesting to get to know a bit of the army students' personal lives. It's hard to contemplate what they have to go through while putting their own lives behind. Also their ability to communicate in Chinese talking about current affairs and politics after studying Chinese for a little more than a year is just awe-inspiring.

In between work, I saw a deer family wandering on campus and I wish I had my camera with me to capture the moment. The scene highly resembles this picture though.

P.S. If any of you are reading this (my blog), you know there's a comment section under each entry, don't you? You know what I mean... :)

Finally got my new ID and I don't have to walk all the way downhill (and uphill back) for internet access. My legs are still sore from this. Work kind of started and things are going pretty crazy. All the waiting, rules-abiding, waiting, background checking, and more waiting pretty much filled my schedule of the day. Yesterday I got to walk along the sidewalk by the sea with a few newly acquainted friends. It's amazing to see all those sea animals (sea lions, seals, and otters) lying around. I definitely have to come walk more often.

All is well here in Monterey, California. It's a whole new world and an adventure for me. I'm here at the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) using the internet since I don't have internet access yet and even a permanent place to live!!! The weather and the view is spectacular and it's strange to live in a place guarded and protected by the army 24-7. I've gained so much respect to the military already seeing them walk around everywhere. I guess I will even learn more when I officially start working next week.

I've been hiding my head either behind the screen or at the Church translating booth doing translation these days. I got assigned to translate a BYU Ed Week talk on the Da Vinci Code (over 30 pages and 40K words!!!) and I almost didn't sleep last night. I haven't been this stressed out since I finished my thesis. In the midst of the craze I still somehow managed to watch 2 movies (DVD) Hoodwinked and the Sentinel. They are both okay only and they are both a little forced drama. However I think Keifer Sutherland is a rather awesome actor though.

5 years passed. Things changed. Nothing stayed the same.

It's sad that this summer is pretty much over. Fall weather is here and I started Fall with a bang! No, I mean a sneeze and a cold. Well, I can't complain much that I had a great summer: finished my thesis, walked for graduation, had fun on birthday, camped in Yellowstone, moved to new apartment, traveled with family, and got a job offer! Yeah! Here it is some of the highlights from this summer (thanks to Carrie & Doris for some of the pictures)...

Finally, the call came! Ms. Rodriguez at the DLI informed me my OPI test scores are here: 4+ for Mandarin Chinese and 3 for English. She said I did exceptionally well and it was a rare combination of scores for people they hire. I was surprised that my Mandarin scored that much higher than my English and actually I was a bit disappointed with my English result that because I expected a 4+ based on previously taken OPI scores. Anyway, I can't complain now and I need to start making my final preparations for departure for my real job in Cailforn-I-A!!! :)

After my language exchange session with Cory and English tutorial with Cecilia, I officially moved out of my beloved office at the ELC. These cherished scenes will long live in my memory...

World Trade Center

Watched World Trade Center by Oliver Stone today at Provo Town Center. I'm glad it's not so much a political film rather than a humanistic storytelling. It shows what matters most to most people. Recommend it.

Helped out with ELC's new students orientation for Chinese interpretation. It's kind of weird being at the ELC these days and not being an employed teacher any more. This is a place to be missed. At the same time, fortunately finally heard from Esther about housing at Monterey. The average rental cost doubles what I'm paying in Provo!!! Ouch!!! The other saga/drama continues. Finished translating a Japanese Stake Broadcast for the Church. It's a little exhausting but nevertheless it's almost like my only source of income at this moment...

I can't believe I finally got a cold since I had one more than a year ago... no fun!

It's been almost a year since I last played golf. What great fun we had at the Reserve at East Bay in Provo today. I did better than I thought as we kept playing. I'd better get my own set of golf clubs soon.

I read from an old newsletter from the College of Humanities at BYU an article of our Dean John Rosenberg. He said

... Though archiving is central to our work in Humanities, the benefits of education are not in the storing, but in the exploring. ... Our training is not a coupon to be redeemed at the alluring shops with leases in the great and spacious building. Our covenant is to "be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle," to seek out of the best books..., to become acquainted with all good books -- that requires more than a four-year degree-- "and with languages and tongues and people." ... By seeing our Humanities education not as a product, but as a catalyst that enables future learning, we help insulate ourselves against pride. One who is truly educated is fundamentally reverent. She realizes that each page turned, each witness absorbed uncovers questions not et considered and possibilities unforseen, and that these then require the turning of countless more pages. The ever expanding mind sees the world as a great book to be explored, writing in the margin as in goes. Paracelsus described the whole earth as a book or library "in which the pages are turned with our feet ... pilgrimly." Most importantly, a disciple humanist sees his education -- past, present, and future -- as a gift generously bestowed upon him, inaccesible to the vast majority of Heavenly Father's noble children.

I love his words describing the mission of a life-long learning humanist/linguist and it applies to a fresh graduate graduate like me. I really need to read and write more to keep my language skills polished. I had an interview with Dean Rosenberg when I was hired as a part-time faculty a few months ago and he seemed to be a nice wise man. I like to listen to people like him whose words are truly inspiring but not phony and preachy.

My alarm clock kept failing on me three days in a row that my schedule is so messed up to an embarrassing level. In church pretty much everyone's first reaction when they saw me was like "You're still here! When are you leaving?" Am I not welcomed any more? I never announced my departure officially and up to this moment I still don't know when I'm leaving Provo. I am ready to go though. And I really like what I saw in Monterey, CA.

I found the BYU commercial on the net in which I did a voice over with the football legend Chad Lewis. The recording session was done a couple months ago at the LDS Motion Picture Studio. The commercial is about him using his heavily accented Chinese to promote the outstanding language programs at the Y. I only sang one line of the cougar fight song in Chinese and you have to pay real attention to notice it. I am the guy hidden in the Chinese lion for a lion dance. It was a fun experience and Chad is quite a down-to-earth guy and he said he visited Hong Kong often when he was in China promoting American football. You can watch the commercial here.

To be honest, I was bored at the FHE tonight. As I predicted, the "lecture" was a real long one aimed at YSAs. I've had enough of those, especially from the same speaker of the night. After that, Alvin, FH, and Zack came for movie at my apartment and we watched The Myth by Jackie Chan which is pretty fun but just ok in quality. For dessert, we created our own special banana splits, or banana boats in Chinese, with all the left over snacks and junk food available in my kitchen like cocoa rice crispies, oreo cereal, peanuts, hershey's syrup, and even wasabi beans on Alvin's and Zack's. They looked more like shipwrecks than boats. IT IS HILARIOUS and it cracks me up.








This is what a real banana split looks like at the HK Disney hotel (courtesy of La Belle Amy Shreeve).

I'm always one day "ahead" of my blog and probably will always be. It's because I always write after midnight. My schedule is so flexible and at the same time messed up these days. I don't have to go to work yet and I'm just taking my time arranging and packing things. Today I slept in for both my English class that I teach in church and our ward temple night. I almost missed the former and totally missed the latter. I'm such a sinner. However I enjoyed the dinner with friends at my apartment after they had come back from the temple. We watched the BYU football game on TV and they lost literally in the last second. It sucks but I've never had high hopes for them anyways. I'm loving my apartment that I'm in. It's nothing fancy but I LOVE the SPACE. Along with privacy it's the #1 criteria for my housing now. Too bad I won't be able to live in here for long. We'll soon see what lies ahead when I relocate for my next job.

Full fountain view from the Bellagio hotel room in Vegas. Incredible! A dream came true!

San Francisco has lots of fun street names... especially the way they translate/transliterate.

I've always wanted to start a blog. After my whirlwind of events last month like graduation, moving apartments, traveling with fam, getting a new job, etc, etc, I finally pushed myself into doing this. These days all of a sudden I thought about my old friends and acquaintances a lot and I want to stay in touch with them. I guess probably I'll soon be starting a new chapter in my life and I'm thankful for all the people who have helped me to be where I am at now.