Moon Festival!

Moon Festival - About.com

The Chinese Moon Festival is on the 15th of the 8th lunar month. It's also known as the Mid-autumn Festival. Chinese culture is deeply imbedded in traditional festivals. Just like Christmas and Thanksgiving in the West, the Moon Festival is one of the most important traditional events for the Chinese.


The Moon Festival is full of legendary stories. Legend says that Chang Er flew to the moon, where she has lived ever since. You might see her dancing on the moon during the Moon Festival. The Moon Festival is also an occasion for family reunions. When the full moon rises, families get together to watch the full moon, eat moon cakes, and sing moon poems. With the full moon, the legend, the family and the poems, you can't help thinking that this is really a perfect world. That is why the Chinese are so fond of the Moon Festival.

The Moon Festival is also a romantic one. A perfect night for the festival is if it is a quiet night without a silk of cloud and with a little mild breeze from the sea. Lovers spend such a romatic night together tasting the delicious moon cake with some wine while watching the full moon. Even for a couple who can't be together, they can still enjoy the night by watching the moon at the same time so it seems that they are together at that hour. A great number of poetry has been devoted to this romantic festival. The moon cake is the food for the Moon Festival. The Chinese eat the moon cake at night with the full moon in the sky. Hope the Moon Festival will bring you happiness.

I love my roommate!

SkimBoarding

So our new friend Willy invited me to go skimboarding today, and I had no clue what it was, but it sounded like an adventure and this is my year of adventures. This is Ashleigh's year of "yes" so naturally she said, "yes" when I invited her along. It turns out that it's this flat, wooden board that you run and hop on in 2 inches of water. After falling quite ridiculously a time or two, we started to get the hang of it. Ashleigh and I decided that if you had a hobby that included anything with "boarding" on the end of it, you get 10 cool points, so we are making skimboarding our new hobby. Stay tuned for pictures of us actually doing it!

New Calling!

Last semester of school I was Family Home Evening Coordinator, this summer I was Friday Night Activities Coordinator, any guesses on what I am THIS semester?! ...... Well if you guessed Relief Society Activities Coordinator - you are CORRECT!

Learning something that changes the world as you once knew it

In my freshman year of high school in my Algebra 2 class, the information that the formulas we had always known for finding the diameter and circumference of a circle (π x diameter and π x radius squared) was not in fact completely accurate and that there was actually a (x° / 360) in front of the formula brought us to shock and awe that the world as we had once known it would be changed forever. Teachers had been not giving us the whole truth since the 5th grade!! 

Yesterday, I had one such experience. Since our mail box is conveniently placed beside the sidewalk headed toward campus and since I have come to have a greater increase in mail in the last couple months, I have developed the habit of opening our #6 mailbox every time I walk by. As I was walking back to the apartment for my lunch break, I opened the mailbox and found a letter. Regardless of being completely bummed out, seeing that the receiver's name was not my own, I decide to be a good, thoughtful person and bring the mail up to the apartment. I lay it on the table and proceed to put my delicious lunch (a tuna fish sandwich and a yogurt). 

Kim, my roommate comes to the table and looks at the letter puzzled and says, "I could have sworn I put this in the mailbox this morning." I absentmindedly tell her that it was in the mailbox, and I did not mention the fact that I was so nice as to have brought it up for her. She then informs me that it was out-going mail. What?! 

Apparently, you can MAIL THINGS FROM YOUR OWN MAIL BOX! Who knew?! I do not know why I never wondered about the red flag that you put up when you have something for the postman. I do not know why I never thought that there was any way but the post office to send your mail. This little priceless gem is going to save me A LOT of walking to the drop off box in the mini post office in the Red Rock Cafe for my many future out-going letters.

Saturday Mornings

I have a new love for Saturday mornings. Not only do I love sleep in past 6:30 which is the time I get up for my Espanol class throughout the week, but I've realized how much can be accomplished when you don't spend half the day sleeping. My roommates and I were all awake by 8:30 this morning and got right down to cleaning, making our already clean apartment spotless. By noon I had done all my laundry, cleaned our bathroom, cleaned our room, had breakfast and read a chapter in Microbiology. The start of a new school year has brought back all the determination and new goals of studying harder, being more organized and getting more things accomplished (hence an updated blog). This is the first of many Saturdays I would like to hope for through the year. It's amazing how much more productive you feel when you start the day off at a decent time!

Sunday Afternoons

I have come to absolutely LOVE Sundays not only because it's my one day off in the week, but because I get to go to church (which I have grown very attached to the college ward) and in the afternoons I get to take nice, long naps, eat a marvelous home-cooked meal followed by an even better dessert, and if that's not enough I get to play my very favorite board game with my parents (Settlers of Catan) AND a game a shanghai. I'm sure going to miss these Sundays at home...