China 2009-2010

This summer I will be at ACC (Associated Colleges in China). This is in Beijing at the Capitol University of Economics and Business. This fall and spring I'm at IUP (Inter University Program). IUP is at Qinghua. I am extremely happy about how this has played out so far. Perhaps I would have rather gotten out of Beijing for some time, but because the best programs (I'm told) are in Beijing, I will just accept the pollution.

I am there for 12 months. That part is still holding together. I want to have a big New Year's get together in Vietnam, to which everyone is invited. I'm tentatively calling it "New Year's Fest 2010."

The year at Yale ended well, I think. Spring came and the secret society initiations started. You would see hooded people who looked like Harry Potter extras smugly traipsing around campus, asking to eat a bit of your pizza and things like that. At night incongruously tuxedoed men and ball-gowned women would walked quickly by you and laugh loudly about things. Tired girls and boys, they look like girls and boys when they are tired, would file out of the secret society door in pajamas and carrying pillows. We happened to pass it at the right time. Okay I staked it out, jealousy is powerful. Every sort of crazy behavior was tolerated, and tolerated rather kindly because these proudly humiliated people are the future leaders of the free world. I thought I could take advantage of this, and that people would assume my insane behavior was part of a secret society initiation, wrong. My escapade involved renting a big bird suit, liberally applying ketchup, and rampaging through the library proclaiming that I (big bird) had come down with one or more blood-borne diseases. I spent a great deal of fellowship money buying myself out of that one. The Yale cops are top of their game, but for a price they can be persuaded to overlook a thing or two. I made back the money, however, by telling frightened underclassmen that I was a bonesman, and to remain in consideration for membership they had to pay me moderate sum. As they say in the Lion King, Hakuna Mattata.

Last semester we played some soccer, and lost every game except for the time the opposing team failed to show up. I got better grades this semester than last semester. I think that is because this semester I took courses that involved less formulaic writing and more creative activity (coloring). Seriously, this semester was better than last semester, and last semester was great. I will miss everyone.

While in China I want to go to Tibet and/or Xinjiang. Tibet seems a bit more realistic, if more expensive and difficult to access. I want to travel from Lhasa to the Nepal border. Then I'll sit down at one of those prayer-flagged camps and come to terms with my inability to join the skull and bones.