The Future...

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN

I have loved my time in China. I love living abroad. I love the bus. I love my students. I love the food. I love being a novelty.

But the best thing about China, for me, has been the opportunity to learn more about myself. As long as I can remember, I have been very concerned about the opinions of those around me. What does my mom think? What does my teacher think? What do my friends think? What do strangers on the street think? And here, I'm 5,000 miles away from those I relied on. Now, I have to ask myself: What do *I* think?

I feel blessed to have many talents. I enjoy learning. This give me many options, which, for me, is more a curse, than a blessing.

I'm like the Runaway Bride: one direction (say, Linguistics) looks so good to me! I commit to it, I apply to school, I get accepted. But then it becomes almost too real. And I panic. All I can think about is how making that one choice means that there are another hundred opportunities I'll miss in my life...

So after some deep soul-searching, I decided not to head to South Carolina for grad school. I now know what matters to me: -helping people, -serious intellectual pursuits, -using my gifts and talents in the best way possible... And I'm considering Law School. But I'm taking it slowly. I'm going to move back in with my parents, in Rochester, NY, and look for a job as a paralegal.

I reserve the right to change my mind again. I'm only 23! I don't feel the need to have my life completely planned out. But I do want to be going somewhere.

So keep me in your thoughts. I'm certain that the future will be what it should be. And, for the first time in a while, I'm content to not see the whole picture! :)

May Holiday

In China everyone has vacation at the same time. There was a week off in October, and another here in May. It was for the workers' day.

Most of my friends traveled for the holiday. But I had just had a bout of giardia a week or so before, and was in no fit state to travel.

So I relaxed, cleaned my apartment, did laundry, ran, did yoga... It was relaxing and wonderful.

I Made a Recording for Huangguoshu Waterfall

Here's the first of my five updates, as promised!

About a month ago, I got a call from Miss Zhang. She's a university administrator in the English Department. It turns out that the people from Huangguoshu waterfall called the university to ask if a foreigner would make some recordings in English for the waterfall. I considered it for a few minutes, and said yes.

She and I had a few phone calls to set up a time that was convenient for both me and them. We chose a Wednesday, at 6:00.

When that Wednesday rolled around the last thing I wanted to do was go back into town. But I did! I met two women at the school gate. We took the bus into town, to a recording studio.

I've only ever seen recording studios on TV and in movies. It was kind of fun. There was a room with all the controls and the computers, and a booth with headphones and a microphone. I had six typed pages of information to read for them. It read something like this (from my memory, so don't quote me on this):

Huangguoshu waterfall group, the largest waterfall group in Asia,
is located in south-west Guizhou province, 130 kilometers from the
capital city Guiyang, and 40 kilometers from Anshun...

Huangguoshu waterfall is the only waterfall in the world that can be
seen from six sides: the top, the bottom, the left, the right, the front
and the back...

It was fun and weird at the same time. If you're like me, you don't like to hear your voice recorded. I felt like I sounded childish. And, they kept asking me to be more "emotional". To me, those words don't evoke emotion... But I did my best!

They had a woman record the same text in Chinese. And if you take the free tour bus at the waterfall, you get to hear me!! Laura Leigh, one of the Peace Corps teachers, said she heard me! So I'm famous!

It was a lot of fun, and it's fun to think that I'll be leaving myself in China (hopefully) for years to come!

Firewalls & Such

So every once in a while, the blogger site gets firewalled here in China. So that's why I've been gone for a while - sorry!

Let's see, since I wrote last:
-I made a recording for Huangguoshu waterfall, the largest waterfall in Asia
-We had our mid-term holiday the first week in May
-I decided not to go to grad school next year
-I started teaching the graduating students; they have their final exam this coming week
-I bought my ticket to come home

I'll write more about each of those things in the next week. Hopefully I'll be able to access this site from here until I leave (six more weeks).

As always, I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at e.ludington@gmail.com.