ok guys, i havent updated for who knows how long, but lordie there's a lot going on so to be quick, here's a little summary: -I graduated with a BA in Chinese with honors woot! -I got invited to join phi beta kappa, never heard of it before, but in retrospect i think its pretty cool -im training like crazy since my job ended -my job was/is an after-school program leader in the city for the 5th grade. awesome job! -i got two kitties. theyre brothers. they are named ronny james dio (dio for short) and groucho marx (groucho for short) -im an avid knitter! -i won the Chinese Bridge speech contest for california and so they are sending me to china this sunday to compete for the world championship. -i just interviewed at my grad-school-to-be (ACTCM) and i think it went fantastically and im really excited to start in the fall. more on the chinese bridge. its really crazy! i honestly did NOT want to do this thing but my teachers ganged up on me when they found out i decided not to do it. so, they took the power out of my hands and forced me to compete =/ so the competition is three parts; one part chinese speech, one part chinese cultural performance (straight sword for me), and one part chinese Q&A on anything and everything. they are paying for everything for me to go and compete! nuts! i leave sunday for beijing, hang out there a few days, then we all get split into three groups to go to other parts of china for some quick tourism. i think im going to go to hangzhou. then after that, we all meet up again in hunan for the actual competition. i could be there for anywhere between two to five weeks. it depends on how well i do in the competition since its in rounds and when you lose they send you home two days later. and if by some wild chance i am the winner, i get a free year of study in china to be spent within the next three years. whew! im still kind of in shock and cant believe im leaving so soon! so i had to write a speech and it was supposed to be related to the olympics or studying chinese, so since my "talent" was to be straight sword, i wrote about wushu. the speech has to be kinda corny and sappy to get some emotion out of the audience, so it is. i am going to post the speech....ah... um.... im nervous..... because i can always use some constructive criticisms since its a work in progress and i will continue to update and change it throughout the competition. honestly, i really feel my chinese is intermediate at best even though i majored in it, so please be kind those of you who can read it! =) 我家有四个孩子，三女，一男。我在家里年纪最小。可能因为我最年幼，而且又很娇小，我家人把我叫做他们的“小花生”。可是，正因为他们把我叫做“小花生”，我就变得非常喜欢竞争也喜欢在我哥哥面前扮演坚强。我一直想要把一件事做到最好，这样一来在四个兄弟姐妹中，我就能显眼一些了。在那个时候，大姐是时装模特儿，哥哥是我们家唯一的男孩, 他是运动员，二姐是歌手和演员，而我却只是“小花生”。因此我学会了在生活中一定要要强。 在幼儿园，忍者神龟是我最喜爱的卡通片。实际上，通过看这个卡通片，我爱上了武术。每天我跟一些朋友扮演忍者神龟和假想的敌人争斗。我一直扮作橘黄色的米开朗基罗。 过了几年我告诉我家人我想学武术，因为我这么瘦小，所以他们不认真考虑。但，十一岁的时候，我朋友在一位和蔼可亲老人的车库里学空手道。我告诉我爸爸我也想学。没想到他特别支持我，每个星期三星期五他陪我去。不久，我的师傅邀请我上他的高级班。到十三岁时我开始当上了教练助理，十六岁时当上了主教练。原来我只想学会打架，不过经过一段时间的学习，在师傅的教导下,我明白了,学习中国武术不是单纯为了打架,而是为了强身健体,锻炼意志。 我的师傅把他以前获得全国武术冠军的学生介绍给我，他叫黄飞龙，还有一位来自北京武术队的全国冠军，她叫张宏梅。他们是一队夫妻，他们也成为了我的教练。上高中的时候，我跟张老师到她的北京武术学校去接受中国最好的训练。对一个从来没有离开美国的十六岁女孩来说，这个经验是特别难得的。由于这次旅行, 我爱上了北京，从此开始学习汉语。 随着时间的推移，我多次受伤，有些伤是很难康复的。我记得2004年在加州大学伯克利分校参加了美国最大最重要的武术比赛。虽然这次是我第一次参加高级比赛，但是我觉得我有把握成功。不过作舞剑表演时，我意外地摔在地上而摔断了膝盖。全场观众安静地看医生扶我离开场地。后来我做了前交叉韧带替换手术，当时我不清楚我在武术方面还有没有发展前途。我很难想像在我的生活没有武术。 我从十一岁开始学习武术，今天我二十三岁。武术丰富了我的生活也给我许多宝贵的人生体验。首先，它让我大开眼界，而且我变得坚强和谦虚。我也增加了自律能力，因而在学校我从最后一名变成第一名。其次，武术的经验为我的思想开阔了新的视野。它使我体会到了中医的好处，因此我决定明年去研究生院学习中医。还有它给带来了参加奥运会的可能性。最后，武术教我战胜障碍。在我手术三年之后，我很高兴地说我又能舞剑了，我又成为了一名美国武术队员。 尽管学习武术会有很多困难，但我却不会改变对武术的热爱与追求。由于武术，我在世界上遇见了一些最优秀的人，而且我找到了我生命的道路。 da pan ji here i come! | 
