(This is what I left in my Xanga blog once I was reminded it was even there! [it's been four years since I even looked at it!])
Huh, so I always forget about the various blogs I have hiding around the interwebs and am shocked when I rediscover them. It's kind of funny reading old blogs and seeing how I thought back then. Our thinking does change with time, as impossible as that sounds, and I would be the first to deny it if not for these mysterious public pieces of me that keep popping up to remind me that I was indeed different once upon a time.
Nothing particularly comes to mind at the moment, just a general feeling of being in a different place now than I was when I last wrote. Of course I am literally IN a different place, living in Southern instead of Northern Illinois. It's amazing how different it can be if you drive six hours away. Visiting up North always opens my eyes to just the small nuances in a society, and how different a rural town like Carbondale is compared to a suburban town of South Holland. I'm in the SOUTH here! Life move just a little slower, we use sacks instead of bags and drink soda instead of pop. There is also the basic ill will towards Chicago. No one down here really likes, "those city folk."
Not that Carbondale is a backwater town! Far from it... well, at least next door to it. We have a very odd mix of humans down here. There is a very artistic community, mixed with local hippies, academics from the university, and then your basic hick, not to mention a very rich (in terms of characters) and varied homeless population that is always good for a short story or two. (And every knows just which homeless type you are talking about with very little description given. You just have to say, "Yeah, the guy with the towel who preaches Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at Shnucks?" and they pretty much know who you're talking about.)
I'm also looking at the final days of my life as an undergrad. I'm finally, let me say again FINALLY, graduating and I am now wondering what I'll do next. I've applied to MFA programs, but from what I've been hearing from professors the competition is pretty tough. Several of my professors have said that people who really should be getting into MFA programs are getting rejected. (I've also been told by several professors that I am someone who deserves to get in, which is nice, but doesn't mean I will.) So now I have to decide what I will do if I don't get accepted. Oddly enough I really wanted to join the Peace Corps; however, that is not really an option since my boyfriend (and not the same one I was talking about earlier in this blog! How things do change!) and I just bought a car together and the Peace Corps doesn't really want you in any sort of debt, excluding college loans which they will help you pay off.
I really really loved my experience in China, and I really DO want to go overseas again, only longer this time. Two months in China wasn't enough for me, especially since now I can actually speak and read Chinese! I want full emersion! I want to come back with the confidence that I can hold conversations in Chinese without blinking an eye. (Right now I'm not great. I can have little, simple conversations, though I should be more fluent than I am. Practice is key in these kinds of things, and I just didn't practice enough!) I have several friends teaching overseas right now I and would SO love to join them, but I don't want to do it alone. I want to drag Jason with me, and he is not really thrilled with the idea.
Speaking of Jason, he wants to get to our relaxing TV time, which I don't blame him since I want to veg myself. Anyway, these were just some random thoughts that I figured I would post since I was recently reminded about Xanga. Hi to anyone I know who still reads these! And comment, let me know I'm not alone in wanting some sort of travel adventure here!
